thinkoutsidethebox | Memory 15 (significant neutral)

Lambda and Bern's hells. [EP6] Form of a silver charm bracelet with charms in the shape of microphones, music notes, and tiny ballerinas. 5/6 uses remaining.

In the witches' cathedral, ......no, considering everything that's gone in here, maybe it should be called a demon's abode... Erika, who wanted to savor the memory of her perfect victory, ......stood there with the whole vast cathedral to herself as the flush slowly left her cheeks.
Then, ......on the balcony that she had thought empty...a shadow came into view.
It was......Lambdadelta...

ERIKA: ......Oh, it's you, Lady Lambdadelta. It's not often one finds you alone in a place like this.
LAMBDADELTA: .........Oh, you. ......Congratulations on your big victory. .........Heheh, that's strange. I think I remember saying the same thing to you right here at the end of last game.

She was probably trying to be sarcastic. ......However, Erika was in such a good mood that even those words had sounded like a compliment.

ERIKA: I.....happened to hear what you said a short while back.
LAMBDADELTA: ......What?
ERIKA: I heard that you have also.........had the experience of being toyed with as a piece on some great witch's game board, then sealed away in some awful hell...

Erika had an unpleasant, triumphant look on her face, as though she had managed to pry into some embarrassing memory of the other's past.
However, Lambdadelta didn't look in the least bit flustered, ......and instead looked down from the balcony in silence.

LAMBDADELTA: ......I have. ......I wonder how many years I was shut up in there. ......Maybe I should've been like Bern and counted them... .........No, it's probably best that I didn't. Counting the years......is what made Bern break.
ERIKA: Are you saying......that my master also fell into the hell of a logic error at some point...?
LAMBDADELTA: She did. Though she wasn't the one responsible for that logic error.
ERIKA: ......Because she wasn't the Game Master...?
LAMBDADELTA: That's right. ......At that time, she was still a small piece that wasn't even self-aware yet. It was her master, the Game Master, who committed the logic error.
ERIKA: ......My master was also......a witch's piece?
LAMBDADELTA: Yes. .........That kid's master......was another bad one. ......Though she created the game herself, partway through, she lost sight of what her goal was. ......She ended up creating something like a broken game of backgammon, where the start and goal were connected like a donut.
ERIKA: What do you mean, she lost her goal......?
LAMBDADELTA: I'm talking about a logic error. ......In her backgammon game, she was unable to draw up a line of logic describing how to reach the goal she desired. So, the game remained broken, with no goal at all. ......In that case, she should have quieted down and thought of an answer herself. ......Instead, she despicably left even the thinking entirely to her piece, Bern. .........Have you heard of the infinite monkey theorem?
ERIKA: ......It's a theory...no, an absurdity...arguing that, if a monkey hits random letters on a typewriter for an infinite amount of time, ......he will probably end up with the exact same set of letters as Hamlet by coincidence, sooner or later.
LAMBDADELTA: .........Wouldn't that be a horrible hell? .........Bern was forced to type randomly on a typewriter for an eternal period of time, without even knowing the meaning of what she was doing. .........The Game Master was trying to get Bern to create a goal that the same Game Master hadn't even thought of.

......Could Erika even imagine......how horrible a hell that had been?
A job you have to do a hundred times...and a job that you have to keep repeating until it succeeds with a 1/100 probability......may look very similar probabilistically, ......but the difference in cruelty between them is great.
When you have to do a job a hundred times, you steadily approach the end, get more efficient as you become more used to it, and it eventually does end.
However, a job that succeeds with a 1/100 probability......doesn't reflect the hard work of the individual in the slightest.

Everything is left to luck.

......In the worst case scenario, even the task of flipping a coin until you get heads......can last more than a hundred years......

LAMBDADELTA: How many keys are there on a typewriter? About a hundred, maybe. ......What do you think the odds are of hitting those at random and getting Hamlet...?
ERIKA: .........I can't......even imagine. ......They must be......unbelievably small.
LAMBDADELTA: That's right. ......It's not really any different from an endless span of time. .........For that dizzying sort of time, ......that child kept pounding on that typewriter until she typed out a 'miracle'.
ERIKA: And that's why......she's the Witch of Miracles...?
LAMBDADELTA: If she wasn't a witch...no, if she hadn't been able to become a witch, ......she would probably still be a black cat strapped to that typewriter for eternity. ......That child was blessed by a miracle, ......succeeded in typing out a 'miracle', ...became a witch, and returned from that hell alive. That hell was so long and harsh......that her mind was completely broken. That's why she became such a mean and heartless witch. .........Even you would dislike your master if given the choice, right?
ERIKA: Th, that's not true...! I am honored to be my master's piece. My master is strong and a persecutor. Trampling over the weak is her natural right.
LAMBDADELTA: ......Because she's a human on the bully's side of life...? Heheh. ......Do you know how to create a great bully?
ERIKA: ......? No.
LAMBDADELTA: It's easy. For just a short time, bully them horribly. Then suddenly stop, and give them power. ......If you do that, then no matter who it is, they will be reborn as a great bully. And surprisingly, though the person only has to be bullied for about three days, you'll get them to believe, for a hundred million times longer than that, that they are still being bullied, and you'll have yourself a great bully.
ERIKA: ............What does that have to do with my master?
LAMBDADELTA: ......You don't understand anything about Bern. .........No matter what kind of ruthless, cruel, horrible scum Bern may be, ......I want to be the one person who knows what she's truly like. .........And it's the same for me. ...I think that kid, as a fellow survivor from hell, is the only one who can understand what I'm truly like. .........It sounds like you're jealous of the relationship we have, but give it up. The hell you think you've trudged through is nothing more than a blink compared to the one we crawled out of.
ERIKA: ............

This time, ......Erika was probably the one being made fun of.
The discouraged expression on her face clearly showed that she couldn't accept Lambdadelta's words.

ERIKA: .........If you'll pardon me for saying, ......I think it's the depth of the hell that's important, not the length of time spent there.
LAMBDADELTA: Oho......? ......You think so, ......Witch of Truth, Erika?
ERIKA: I don't know what kind of hell you were in, Lady Lambdadelta. ......And I'm sure the time I spent in hell was nothing more than a flash compared to yours. ......However, I don't think the depths of my hell were any shallower than yours.
LAMBDADELTA: .........I'll listen to all you have to say, including your victory celebration, without arguing back.
ERIKA: From my point of view, ......both the hell my master fell into, which could only be escaped by a miracle, ......and the hell you fell into, which I don't know about but could be escaped from with certain willpower......were 'hells made to be escapable'.
LAMBDADELTA: Aha............So you say.
ERIKA: I am the Witch of Truth. ......My hell was nothing more or less than the truth. .........When faced with the harsh reality of truth, no sort of willpower or miracle matters. I reached this place by overcoming that truth. ......I don't believe my power of withstanding the truth is in any way inferior to yours or my master's.
LAMBDADELTA: And what is this 'power to withstand the truth'?
ERIKA: ......Those who don't know cannot understand. Perhaps you two couldn't become Witches of Truth because you couldn't bear to look at it directly...
LAMBDADELTA: ..................Heh......heheheheheheheheheh. ......I'll forgive you for those impudent words. Letting them pass with a slight nod is my present to you for your recent victory.
ERIKA: *giggle* ......Thank you very much, great Lady Lambdadelta☆
BERNKASTEL: Oh, that's unusual. ......It's rare to spot you two getting along.

At some point, Bernkastel had appeared on the opposite balcony of the cathedral.

Erika, noticing her, cried 'my master' happily and dashed over.

ERIKA: Lady Lambdadelta was telling me old stories about you. ......A tale of miracles fitting for my master, the Witch of Miracles...!
BERNKASTEL: .........I'll forgive you just this once.
ERIKA: Huh?
BERNKASTEL: Never speak of my past again.

A grimace rose to her face and blasted Erika's good mood away.
Then, she understood. ......Bernkastel was also a witch running from boredom. If it caught up with her, ......she would remember. ......Those never-ending days of hell......
This is proof...that even my master still hasn't gotten over the pain and fear of hell.

It means...that she lacks the power to withstand the truth.
.........For the first time, ......Erika felt just a little disdain for her master.

Notes:
- She totally won the sixth game!! Yup
- By implication she can assume that this is after Battler got caught in a logic error
- More feeling of her respect/affection for Bern and jealousy of Lambda because of that although it's tempered a bit here
- This is slightly more context on what it means to be a witch and what is means for her specifically
- Also why she's such a bully
- She's mostly ignoring that implication though