Koudelka Premiere 

General wartime violence/subject matter, loss of bodily autonomy, overarching Sibyl-esque despair.

Singing Warriors… people who possess the ability to transform sounds and songs into physical and spiritual power.

The Holy Kingdom of Farnelia…
A powerful nation that claims dominance over the continent, formed when the northern nations of the Luvelia Continent were annexed under the rule of Emperor Farnelia II.
However, due to its origins steeped in war, the Holy Kingdom was constantly embroiled in conflict with its neighbors and ruled through military force using thirteen knight orders led by powerful Singing Warriors.
The Premiere family was a noble house destined to serve the royal family for generations as a clan of Singing Warriors, leading their own direct knight order.

Born as the eldest daughter of this family, Koudelka was raised under the royal family’s patronage to become a Holy Knight, a Singing Warrior whose commanding voice could inspire the people through songs.

However, she had a kind heart and was averse to conflict. For that reason, she did not want to be involved in wars where so much blood was shed and so many lives were lost, regardless of whether it was friend or foe.

Yet now, as a knight, Koudelka belonged to the “White Holy Knights,” the royal family’s direct knight order, and she continued to travel the battlefields, fighting ceaselessly.

“Why do we have to fight…? Why am I fighting…?”

Every time she steps onto the battlefield, she wonders why she must throw herself into a war she never wanted…

It was due to the country she served, the duty passed down through her clan, and the state of the war.

The Premiere family was a distinguished house that had consistently produced Singing Warriors commanders. They had inspired soldiers on the battlefield and led them.
Male heirs who inherited the exceptional abilities of a Singing Warrior were destined, generation after generation, to become Holy Knights and eventually lead the order.
However, since Koudelka’s birth, only girls had been born, and with no heir in sight, the nation ignited a new war.

Amid the spreading conflict, Alphonse Premiere was killed in action. He was the head of the family, leader of the White Holy Knights, and Koudelka’s father,
Theodore Premiere, his father and the family’s previous head, temporarily assumed the role, but due to his advanced age, he was unable to command troops on the battlefield.

Thus, only the four sisters, Koudelka, Alumina, Cecilia, and Charlotte, remained in the Premiere family.
Koudelka, the eldest daughter who had strongly inherited the talent of a Singing Warrior, was told it was for the sake of the country and to protect her family. So, accompanied by her commanding singing voice, she threw herself into a battle she did not want to fight.

“I don’t want to fight… anymore…”

At an age when an ordinary girl would be enjoying her youth, Koudelka led the army and stood on the battlefield for the first time as a Singing Warrior.

However, her first battle was a complete disaster.
And it wasn’t surprising. Even though she had been raised to be a Singing Warrior, she was still a gentle, fragile maiden who had never even fought before. She could never possibly command troops on the battlefield.

What Koudelka witnessed on the battlefield were scenes of human lives being snuffed out all too easily and the gruesome scars left by the ravages of war.

Faced with that harrowing and unbearable reality, she couldn’t even stop her legs from trembling with fear or her tears from flowing.

“Why is this happening…? I… I…”

When Koudelka returned, having been unable to do anything, her adjutant and grandfather encouraged her, saying things like, “It can’t be helped at first.”

Although she put on a calm front at the time and offered her apologies and expressions of remorse, the moment she was alone in her room, she burst into tears as if a dam had burst.
Her heart was overwhelmed by grief at the horrors of the battlefield and frustration at her own helplessness as she watched her country’s soldiers fall before her eyes. They were emotions she could no longer bear, and they poured out as tears.

After crying her heart out, Koudelka regained some composure. She suppressed her urge to run away and chose to keep fighting. To protect her young sisters and her family, she forced herself to harden her heart.

Little did she know that this would lead to a later tragedy…

I hate war…
I don’t want to take anyone’s life…
But I also understand that in this world, we cannot survive without fighting.
In that case, the only option is to keep the fighting to a minimum and keep winning, so that innocent lives are not lost.
That was the conclusion I reached.

The campaign she fought through, later known as the Hian Campaign, began when a rebellion broke out in the city-state of Hian, which had been annexed by the Holy Kingdom of Farnelia, led by a liberation army seeking to win independence.
The kingdom dispatched several knight orders in an attempt to quell the situation.
However, the fighting between the people of Farnelia and the liberation army, composed primarily of the people of Hian, was brutal, and it would later be recorded in history books as one of history’s darkest chapters.

Amidst such a brutal battlefield, Koudelka continued to fight, growing as she achieved great feats of valor.
Her adjutant and her grandfather held her in high regard. But none of it resonated with Koudelka herself.

“Praise earned by taking so many lives… I don’t want that. I don’t want to fight… I don’t want to see the blood of conflict…”

Every time a battle ended, Koudelka would quietly shed tears as she gazed at the night sky visible from her bedroom window.

Koudelka fervently wished not to see blood, whether it was her own or her enemies’. As the battles continued, she gradually began urging the liberation army to surrender.

Some within the knight order criticized her approach as too soft, but in light of Koudelka’s proven track record, those voices never gained much traction.

“If we continue our advance while urging them to surrender, the war will surely end without bloodshed. A peaceful, tranquil life will follow…”

Koudelka marched forward, believing this to be true.

“Someone! Help us! The prisoners have revolted!”

A soldier shouted at the top of his lungs.
Hearing the shout, a large number of soldiers rushed to the scene, where they found many prisoners who had broken out of their cells attacking the soldiers all at once.

“Why is there… a rebellion… They had already surrendered…”

The report reached Koudelka on the front lines some time after the mutiny had broken out.
She showed both surprise and sadness at the sudden turn of events.

Although they were a rear guard unit, the White Holy Knights, led by Koudelka and fully equipped, managed to suppress the rebellion. Even so, their fellow soldiers suffered heavy casualties.

Due to this rebellion, which could be seen as a failure on Koudelka’s part, the voices of resentment that had once subsided began to resurface.

“If we’d known it would come to this, we should have killed them instead of taking them prisoner!”

“I’ve always thought that you were too soft. Just as I expected.”

Faced with these voices from soldiers who were supposed to be her allies, Koudelka could do nothing but cover her ears.
Furthermore, as if to add insult to injury, a cruel order arrived from her homeland. It read as follows:

“From this point forward, we will not accept any prisoners of war.”

Though concise, it was a cruel message that rejected everything she had done up to that point and effectively forced her to promise to unleash a rain of blood from now on.

Due to this decision from her homeland, she could no longer spare the lives of the unarmed prisoners of war who remained.
Even though they were not the ones who had rebelled…

“How… how can such a thing be allowed…? I… I can’t do it…”
“Are you… are you telling me to stain my hands with blood…?”

Koudelka collapsed to her knees, clutching the letter tightly as she wept uncontrollably over her predicament and the merciless decision that would soon be upon her.

I never wanted a day like this to come.
I am standing with my adjutant before the prisoners, who have been rounded up in the square and are unable to move.
I don’t want to see the prisoners’ faces. I simply cannot bring myself to look at them…

“Lady Koudelka, are you ready?”

The adjutant spoke to Koudelka out of concern, but she gave no reply and kept her head bowed.

Then one of the prisoners shouted at her.

“Hey! Weren’t you supposed to save us!?”

Lifting her face at those words, Koudelka blurted out something that sounded like an excuse.

“I-it’s because… your comrades… staged a rebellion…”

The prisoner immediately countered Koudelka’s words.

“That’s got nothing to do with us!”

That rebuttal sparked a chorus of voices from the prisoners.

“Please! Help us!”
“We didn’t do anything, did we?”
“You said you wouldn’t kill us if we surrendered, right? Was that a lie!?”
“You acted all saintly to lull us into a false sense of security. You wanted to kill us as an example from the beginning, didn’t you!?”

Unable to bear the barrage of words from the prisoners, Koudelka felt her breath catch and stumbled involuntarily, but her adjutant caught her.

However, he was clutching a sword.

“Lady Koudelka…”

Without saying another word, the adjutant placed the sword in her hand.

“No… s-stop… I… I don’t want to…”

Tearful and terrified, Koudelka shook the sword she was holding.

It was at that moment.

A voice echoed in Koudelka’s head, and she lost consciousness.

“In that case, I will do it for you.”
“No one, no one can blame me… right?”

“That was magnificent, Lady Koudelka.”

At the adjutant’s words, Koudelka’s vision cleared, and she snapped back to consciousness.
She had no idea what was happening.

But when she looked ahead, she saw the executed prisoners lying exposed under the blue sky, as if on display.
The parched air enveloped Koudelka, and her vision wavered as she stared at the corpses.

“Wha… h-how could…”

Still in a daze, Koudelka suddenly realized that her hand felt heavy and warm with moisture, and she instinctively looked down.
Her hand, clenched tightly to keep a firm grip on her sword, was stained a dark red, likely the fresh blood of the corpses before her.

“…Huh?”

Stunned, Koudelka let out a small gasp. Seeing her reaction, her adjutant spoke calmly.

“What’s the matter? Lady Koudelka, you led the way and demonstrated justice yourself. This will surely boost the morale of our White Holy Knights… Lady Koudelka?”

In an instant, she fully grasped what had happened and what she had done.
Her face went pale, and her body began to shake uncontrollably. She dropped her sword to the ground, tormented by the guilt and terror of having killed defenseless humans with her own hands.

“…!! Ugh…!”

Unable to bear it any longer, Koudelka crouched down where she stood and vomited, unable to hold back her tears.

And once again, a voice echoed in her head.

“It’s over.”
“Why don’t you just give up? Things never go the way you want them to, after all.”

Ever since I took the prisoners’ lives with my own hands, my memory has occasionally gone blank on the battlefield.
But I never collapsed or lost consciousness; even during those memory lapses, I continued to fight and win.

That’s when I realized it. There is another me inside me, one that only I am unaware of…

“You fought magnificently in this battle as well, Lady Koudelka.”

Her adjutant spoke proudly, but Koudelka had no memory of the battle itself and felt not a shred of satisfaction at her victory.
All she knew was that she had another self existing within her, and that this other self was a demonic presence that feared neither battle nor slaughter, but rather relished them.

However, the other Koudelka who emerged in battle was an exceptional being, possessing not only the abilities of a Singing Warrior but also a rare talent as a commander.
At times, she was hailed as a goddess who wielded a sword and fought herself, and people even looked up to her with admiration.

Without even realizing it, she has been deceived by this other “self” that had been born from her attempts to deceive herself in the face of reality, so she could not even seek help from anyone and could only bear her sorrow.

“That isn’t the real me… I created her… myself…”

Koudelka realized that this other version of herself was nothing more than a refuge created by her own weak heart.

As she continued to fight, her memories of her true self grew hazy, and the feeling of an unknown version of herself gradually obscuring her true self only continued to intensify.
It was as if an angel with beautiful white wings were gradually falling into darkness, transforming into a demonic, black fallen angel.

Koudelka’s heart was gripped and slowly squeezed by the never-ending war and her other self.
Unable to bear the terror of that formless demon any longer, she steeled her resolve and confessed everything to her adjutant.

Koudelka confessed everything to him while weeping, pouring out her soul in repentance.
Seeing her like this, her adjutant reflected on his own past actions.

“Please wipe away your tears, Lady Koudelka. …I had misunderstood. I thought that through your many battles, you had grown into a fine knight who would bring honor to your family’s name… But I was wrong, wasn’t I?”

Despite the story being almost impossible to believe at first, the adjutant’s kindness, his sympathy for Koudelka’s plight and his concern for her well-being were something she had nearly forgotten.

But this was a battlefield.

There was no way for Koudelka and her companions to turn back; they had no choice but to press forward.

And ever since that incident, her adjutant had done everything in his power to spare Koudelka from having to make painful decisions and to shield her from the horrors of battle as much as possible.

Thanks to those efforts, the instances of her becoming her other self had decreased, but she could not hold back the deep, black darkness that was slowly eating away at her heart…
It slipped through her fingers like something she could never fully grasp. With that darkness weighing on her heart, she had no choice but to press on.

Amid the intensifying battle, the knight order led by Koudelka finally reached Heinval, the capital and stronghold of the liberation army.
Koudelka demanded the liberation army’s unconditional surrender, but they refused to listen, declaring their intent to fight to the bitter end.
The course of action they took was a reckless move, one that could hardly be called a strategy, forcing even civilians, including women and children, to fight on the front lines without regard for the consequences.

“Stop! Stop it! You don’t have to fight! Drop your weapons and surrender! Please… I beg you…”

Koudelka’s pleading voice, lost amid the chaos of battle, reached no one.

All around her, the Knights were casually slaughtering not only liberation army soldiers but even ordinary civilians.
This was not Koudelka’s intention. Were they driven by ambition and the desire for military glory? Lying there like pigs were the powerless.
Faced with such a hellish reality, Koudelka’s heart reached its breaking point.

“Ah… ah… don’t come near me… please, stop.”

A deep, black darkness enveloped Koudelka’s mind. She could do nothing but watch as the scenery warped and slowly turned dark.

“Lady Koudelka! LADY KOUDELKA!!”

Her adjutant, noticing something was wrong with Koudelka, shouted, but she gave no reply. The faint outline of Koudelka’s face bore an icy smile, her gaze cold as she looked at her adjutant.
Her beautiful face, the face of that gentle, white bird who loathed battle, was now unrecognizable.

“…Wipe them out. Set them ablaze and slaughter them all.”

As she muttered those words, Koudelka, now bearing black wings, burned everything in her path to ashes, bringing death to the terrified people, and raced across the battlefield…

Her figure, burning everything to black and heralding the end… was the very embodiment of a black bird that brings death.

I don’t know what happened after that. But when I came to, gruesome corpses were scattered all around me.
“I see… so my other me… is the one who did this…”

The people of Hian who had rushed onto the battlefield were all desperately trying to protect their families.

But my other self, like a black bird heralding death, forcibly rallied the soldiers with a song of command and committed every conceivable atrocity. And she herself gleefully oppressed defenseless people, exposing herself to the soldiers as a figure truly worthy of being called a mass murderer.

As a result, although fighting was still ongoing in various places, the White Holy Knights’ victory had become unshakable.

Coming to her senses, Koudelka was stunned, yet she was certain the battle was drawing to a close, and deep down, she felt a sense of relief.
But just then, a child’s scream could be heard from somewhere.

“Waaaaaah!”

At the same moment as that cry, a shower of feeble stones rained down on Koudelka.

When she looked over, she saw a small child standing there. And beside the child lay a woman, presumably his mother. She had collapsed on the ground, bleeding profusely.

It was unmistakably the sight of a family member killed by the other Koudelka, and a child harboring hatred toward her, avenging his parent’s death.

“Ah, so you hate the other me… No, that’s wrong. Since the other me is also me, you must resent me after all…”

Koudelka, bathed in a relentless hail of stones, stood motionless and with no expression.
The soldiers surrounding her also couldn’t hide their momentary hesitation in the presence of the young child.

Just then, the adjutant caught sight of a child rushing toward Koudelka’s side, thrusting a sword he had picked up.

“…!! No, Lady Koudelka!!”

The adjutant instinctively shielded Koudelka and fell, struck by the blade.

Witnessing the adjutant collapse before the deadly blade, the soldiers launched a counterattack, their fighting spirit reignited by a sense of righteous cause.
They regarded all the young children around them as threats and mercilessly aimed their swords at them.

As Koudelka stood there in a daze, her eyes took in the sight of her adjutant falling beside her and the young children slowly, cruelly losing their lives.

“…What is this? Why am I here…? Ah… AAAAAAAH!”

There had to have been another way, a future where we joined hands and avoided this battle. Where did it all go wrong?
But now, it’s all too late…

Koudelka heard the sound of something shattering inside her. It was the sound of whatever had been holding her heart together crumbling into pieces.

Thus, thanks to the heroic efforts of the White Holy Knights led by Koudelka, the Holy Kingdom of Farnelia served by the Premiere family emerged victorious.
Hian, which had risen up in the name of independence, was effectively wiped out in both name and reality, after losing its capital, Heinval…

Later records describe the Battle of Heinval as a rare, historically unprecedented, gruesome, and tragic conflict. One in which only a few hundred survived, while the number of those killed in action exceeded ten thousand.

After the war ended, the survivors were forced to work as slaves of the lowest social class, and the territories formerly owned by Hian became direct territories of the Holy Kingdom of Farnelia.

Although not recorded in official history, it was widely whispered that there was a beautiful maiden who showed no mercy even to women and children during that war, committing acts of the utmost cruelty and brutality.

Some said that this beautiful maiden commanded the slaughter with a smile on her face, while others claimed she ran across the battlefield shedding tears.
Furthermore, some claimed she had beautiful white wings, while others said she had jet-black wings; however, these stories spread as inconsistent rumors.

Before long, these rumors had transformed into illustrated tales passed down by a select few.

What, if anything, was actually true…? There is no way to know now.

Several years had passed since the end of that war, and many had regained their peaceful daily lives.
The Premiere family continues to serve the Farnelia royal family, but since there is still no heir, the grandfather Theodore remains the head of the household, assisted by his second and third daughters.

And then…

“Sister. Look, seabirds are flying by.”

I said that to my sister. However, she replied in a flat tone.

“…Oh, where are those birds going?”

I didn’t know where they were going. So I simply voiced what was on my mind.

“Who knows. It must be a fun place.”

My sister said nothing, simply staring at the seabirds with an expressionless face.

My name is Charlotte, Charlotte Premiere.
I am the youngest daughter of the Premiere family, and I currently live with my older sister in this convent overlooking the sea.
The flames of war changed her. In the name of the adults’ grand causes and ideals, my once beautiful and intelligent sister became a figure like a demon from a fairy tale…

And when she returned to us, the sister we once knew was no longer there…
But I… We know. We know the warmth of that kind-hearted girl.

So I said to God.

“Why… why must only my sister suffer this fate!?”

I asked it over and over again. And I prayed.

“God… I beg you. Someday, please bring our sister back to us…”

The seabirds simply kept flying on, beyond the sea of calm where Charlotte’s sorrow seemed to slowly sink, and beyond the sky that was an almost unbearable shade of blue.

Koudelka uses the pronoun 私 (watashi in kanji) through the majority of the original Japanese text, but her other self uses ワタシ (watashi in katakana). Supplice from Digital Metaverse is another character who does the same thing (no, I’m not hinting at connections or what).