Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 7 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Subterranean Hausen

ERIS ARROGANTLY PUFFED up her chest. “Oh, by the way, Memil wanted to come along too, but I told her to look after the castle. It was the right move, was it not?”

“I think that’s for the best,” I said.

Memil had the skills of a holy knight. However, the kingdom strictly forbade her from using those skills. In the past, she had broken that rule to aid me in my fight against the goblin shaman. It had been a dire emergency, but the consequences had been significant. In the end, Eris had to exercise her queenly prerogative to pardon Memil, but it was unlikely that Memil would get off so easily a second time. I hoped that she would never have to wield a holy sword again.

“That’s why I asked her to assist Set.”

“You made the right choice, Eris.”

Eris giggled. “A compliment from you means I just scored some major points, huh?”

It was amazing that she could be so carefree while we delved into the depths of a mysterious subterranean realm in search of Snow.

“Come on, Eris…” I muttered. “How can you be so nonchalant at a time like this?”

I cast Fireball to give us some light. Though I was fine in the darkness because I had the Night Vision skill, I had no inkling whether Eris and Roxy had similar skills. With the area bathed in light, Eris ran over to me for a hug.

“Just what we needed! I hate the way the world looks through Night Vision!”

“Yes, I know exactly what you mean,” said Roxy. “Much better with a real source of light.”

I stared at them wide-eyed. Their reactions suggested that they would have had no problems moving around in total darkness. When she saw my expression, Roxy chuckled, then took a small magical token off her chest piece and showed it to me. It was no larger than the palm of her hand, and it had some sort of arcane sigil inscribed into it.

“This gives me a skill equivalent to Night Vision. It’s quite rare.”

According to Roxy, such accessories were sometimes discovered in the Galian region.

“Eris, you carry one of those as well?” I asked.

“No, I rely on the various arcane eyes implanted in me. Night Vision is one benefit.”

“Arcane eyes?”

“I should state up front that it’s not a Lust-related skill. In the distant past, the world was filled with monsters carrying arcane eyes. The genes of those eyes were implanted in me.”

I was just about to ask by whom, but an image of the likely culprit rose in my mind. He and Eris shared a deep connection, and he’d shown up here just recently. 

“Was it Libra?” I asked.

“It was indeed. I wanted to tell you in Tetra… I was like a pet to him.”

“A pet…?”

Eris laughed bitterly. “Don’t look at me like that. As far as he’s concerned, humans are as inconsequential as pebbles on the side of the road.”

“Yeah, but…”

“I… The white knights and I, we are the same. We’re the only survivors. We look just like any other humans, but that resemblance is only skin deep. To put it mildly, Libra has a great interest in the skills of Mortal Sin.”

I could only guess at the experiments that Libra had performed on Eris. They sounded extensive. Some of them had apparently included splicing her genes with those of monsters.

“It wasn’t all negative, though,” Eris continued. “Arcane eyes are quite something. Lots you can do with them.”

“But why didn’t you tell me? Why did you wait until now?”

“It’s simple, really. I don’t want to use the arcane eyes… I shouldn’t.”

Her explanation confused me. “Huh? But aren’t you using the Night Vision skill?”

“I am. But this is very simple.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s not unlike your Gluttony skill.”

I considered her explanation. It could only mean one thing. “So using them comes with a risk?”

“Correct! The eyes don’t belong to me. So, the more powerful the ability, the more strain it puts on me.”

“What’s the worst-case scenario?” 

“I go blind,” Eris said with a grin. “And if I continue to use them past that point, I’d probably die.”

I couldn’t tell how serious she was being. “Please don’t overdo it, Eris.”

“You’re the last person I want to hear that from. Right, Roxy?”

“I hate to admit it, but yes. It’s like every time I take my eyes off him, he gets up to something dangerous!”

“Yeah, but…” I stammered. Unable to find the right words to defend myself, I changed the subject. “So, Eris…Libra caught you, and then he ran experiments on you.”

“To be more precise, he was running those experiments before I was even born.”

“Huh? What?”

“You remember what Envy was trying to do back in Galia, right?” As Eris spoke, she looked over at Roxy apologetically.

“You mean, when Envy wanted to kill me?” Roxy asked.

“Yes. I’m still sorry about that,” said Eris, tapping the gunblade by her side. “And Envy is too.”

I wondered if Envy truly was sorry. I was suspicious. Since the battle at Galia, I’d never once heard Envy’s voice. Any message from the sword was relayed through Eris. 

Eris had to have seen the look on my face, because she started laughing. “Envy’s full of pride. The sword was aiming for the stars, and you knocked it right back down to earth. It’s hard enough for the gunblade to even be here in your presence.”

“Hmph. I still haven’t forgiven it for what it did back then either.”

“Anyway,” said Roxy, “I’m still here and alive. The ones who truly paid the price were those caught up and lost in the rampage of the Divine Dragon.”

Even though Roxy spoke calmly, her own father, Mason, had been lost to that same beast. He was back because the Door to Distant Lands had opened, but…when I’d asked him about it, his answer had been the same as Roxy’s. What happened had happened, and all they could do was make the best of it.

“But what connection is there between your past and what happened with Roxy?” I asked.

“Wow, Fate, I can practically feel the murder dripping from you. You get really serious when it comes to Roxy, huh?”

“Tell me!”

Eris sighed and went on. “So impatient. Envy allowed the tyranny of the holy knights to go unpunished, and so the animosity of the citizens grew. Envy pretended not to see it, and do you know why?”

“Because Envy wanted to create a human in the same way that a crowned beast is made.” 

“You remember! You’re such a good boy!” Eris tousled my hair.

I brushed her hand away. She looked put out for a moment, but her expression grew serious once more when she cast her gaze toward Roxy.

“When Mason died, the citizens only had one holy knight who they could still admire: Roxy. When she was sent to Galia, which was as good as a death sentence, their hate reached its tipping point.”

“If I had died then, as I was supposed to, what kind of a human would have been born?” asked Roxy.

Eris took a deep breath. “A human like us,” she said slowly.

“No…”

“Yes. A bearer of a skill of Mortal Sin. We are born of human hatred.”

I couldn’t hide my shock. To be born of hatred…it was unbelievable, and yet on some level, it made perfect sense. Eris looked at me as concern creased her brow.

“I expected a bigger reaction.”

“Looking back, the signs were all there,” I said. “It’s exactly as you said. Envy did this because it wanted a wielder who could replace you.”

“Ah, yes. I did say that, didn’t I?”

“But I’m glad you told me. Thank you.”

Eris’s eyes grew wide. “I never expected to be thanked. Especially not after telling you that your birth was the result of something like that…”

“I think the old me would’ve reacted negatively. But the person I am now, well… I’m not alone anymore.”

I placed my hand on the hilt of my black sword, looked at Roxy, and thought back on all the people I’d met along my travels. “Thanks to Roxy, I no longer want to live in the past.”

I couldn’t change the circumstances of my birth. The same was true of the past more generally. I could wish that I had made different choices all I wanted, but it wouldn’t change anything. There was no turning back the clock. Roxy had taught me that after the battle with Rafale. It was more important to live in the present than to dwell on my history. For as long as I lived, I would never forget the warmth in that moment.

“I want Myne to understand that too,” I said. “I want to make her realize that, although I doubt I can do half as good a job as you did, Roxy.”

“Fay…”

“Well, I hope you can find a way,” said Eris. “But you know it’s not going to be easy. Myne is powerful—far more than you might think. Can you stop her?”

“Well, if I want her to listen to me, then I’ll have to find some way to do it.”

We continued along through the darkness until we reached a cavernous space. It was not a natural cave. The construction reminded me of the Military District in the kingdom.