Here there be spoilers! For Ep. 3, to be specific.

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Clap. Clap. Clap.

Beatrice looked over to Battler, eyebrows raised, when she heard him clapping. His gaze was fixed on the scene of the welcoming ceremony for the new Endless Witch, who bore the form of Ushiromiya Eva as a young girl, and he was indeed clapping, without bitterness or begrudging the young Beatrice any of her joy. The sound rang out clearly in the parlor, echoing off of the high, vaulted ceiling.

Well, this is surprising. After all of your bleating about illusions and shams and closed door tricks, to see you clapping at the birth of a new Witch…

"Hmph." Beatrice laid her pipe down on the table to clap as well, perhaps a little less heartily than him; whatever Ronove said about her manners, Beatrice at least knew that it was uncouth for a lady to clap too loudly.

The moment her claps rang out alongside Battler's, he looked at her and said defensively, "Hey, I'm not applauding for any witch. I'm just applauding to congratulate Aunt Eva on how all of her hard work's paid off."

"I am as well. I honestly applaud Eva for her spectacular work in solving the epitaph." Beatrice smiled, an oddly gentle smile, as she looked at her successor. Well, congratulations, young one.

A faint blush darkened Battler's cheeks. "Hmm… I don't like applauding with you." He let out a rueful laugh. "Ahh… Oh well. I won't worry about it. God's not going to send some lightning bolt down from the sky to shock me just for clapping with you once in a while."

Beatrice laughed loudly at the image that put in her mind. A charred, smoking Battler, like you see on those cartoons Maria loves so much. How fun! "It isn't bad once in a while," she remarked lightly. "Just applauding someone can be quite fun. Even if it was Eva who succeeded and not me—" Her who divined the secret of the epitaph and not you "—I'm starting to feel happy too."

Battler's clapping redoubled. "That's because blessing someone means the same thing as sympathizing and sharing with them!"

The former Endless Witch made some needling remark about sharing irrational feelings with her opponent, but inside, she was still smiling that gentle smile. It wasn't a smile that really fit on her face, it was true. It wasn't really a smile fit for a Witch who had lived a thousand years and entertained herself in such… inventive ways, even if she had now passed her title down to a worthy successor, but it was still what she drew up in this time.

No, that wasn't quite on the mark. Beatrice would say that understanding someone meant the same thing as sympathizing with them, not blessing them. Even now, Battler didn't quite get it. But he was closer to the core of it than he had ever been, really. When they were playing out the last game, Beatrice never would have imagined him being willing to clap at the sight of something he so vehemently believed could not exist. In the last game, no, even earlier in this game, Battler would have likely tried to find a way to disprove this scene or simply blindly deny it altogether, and stomped all over Eva and the new Witch's happiness in the process.

But now, he was clapping instead. And he had said it. He didn't really care if what was happening in front of him was real or not. Battler was willing to see to the core of it, and be happy for his aunt even if he didn't really believe what he was seeing.

Maybe there's hope for us after all.

That gentle smile of hers definitely wasn't leaving Beatrice's face. She had not forgotten her objective. She'd not forgotten her ultimate goal. But for now, Beatrice let herself get caught up in clapping, louder and louder in competition with Battler, and she was probably the happiest she'd been in nearly a thousand years.