Fremd Torturchen - Volume 1 - Chapter 5

5

The Birthplace of the Torture Princess

Elisabeth sat in her usual room, one leg over the other.

Atop the ball-and-claw throne, she stared into the gloomy, overcast sky. An orb of pale-blue light hovered in front of her. Kaito hadn’t been told the specifics, but as the orb slowly rotated, it projected the image of someone who seemed rather important. However, despite appearing on the front of the orb no matter which way you looked at it, his face was so blurry, it looked like it was encased in a cloud of fog. It was difficult to pick out a single distinct feature.

The mysterious figure spoke in a low voice, cold as ice.

“We had been discussing transferring the Kaiser to the capital, so his seal was incomplete. Furthermore, Clueless had a talent for currying favor, and as such was able to glean the strictly confidential location where the Kaiser was imprisoned, as well as the method to free him, from the officer in charge of the Kaiser’s detainment. Furthermore, much of the Church’s leadership, myself included, were heading for the capital to prepare for the festival, leaving the Church’s defenses lacking… This incident was brought about by various deficiencies and misfortunes on our part.”

“Just come out and say it was preventable, you fool. Enough with the public relations—get on with the more pertinent matters.”

“The Church formally demands that you, Elisabeth Le Fanu, kill or apprehend the Kaiser.”

Elisabeth sighed a silent victory at the orb’s declaration. She recrossed her legs and grinned.

“So it falls to me to clean up your mess yet again. And so it has been, time and time again. Once more does your God sit idle, leaving you to fend for yourselves. All you have to protect you is the authority you wield. You leash dogs in the name of your god, then sit back and crack your whips at them.”

“We lack the power to contest with those monsters. That is why we are forced to rely on you. But that is in no way contradictory to the fact that God is constantly by our side. He tests us, true, but His blessings are with us as they are for all His children.”

“Ha! Such fine platitudes you regurgitate, swindler! According to your doctrine, are those men, reduced to grotesque forms by their demonic contracts, not also His creations? Am I, Torture Princess that I am, not a creature of your God? Where are His blessings for us, may I ask? Your words are rife with hypocrisy!”

“His blessings have always been with you. God is eternally merciful. If only you would realize that, even now, He is surely shedding tears of blood even as He punishes you, hoping that you may atone for your sins. I have known you since you were a child, Elisabeth, daughter of my dear friend…and you have every reason to hate demons.”

Elisabeth’s eyebrow twitched. Her expression darkened, and she drew her lips together. From her side, Kaito viewed her expression with caution. But as she turned to glare at him, he quickly straightened his posture.

Paying no heed to Elisabeth’s silence, the voice continued.

“Take care not to forget the words we inscribed on your sword. ‘You are free to act as you will. But pray that God shall be your salvation. For the beginning, the middle, and the end all lie in the palm of His hand.’ The Church placed a number of restraints on the Kaiser, as well. We put them all in motion earlier today. They will last seven days, so that is how long you have to hand down his punishment.”

His tone didn’t change as he notified her of her time limit. It carried none of the weight of a threat. That fact was precisely what drove fear deep into Kaito’s heart. Standing beside Elisabeth, his mind spun.

Seven days, huh? Will she even be able to do anything about the Kaiser in that little time? And what’ll happen if she can’t?

What kinds of calamities would befall the world in that event?

With nothing left to say, the voice concluded with a final, chilling order.

“Before the day of your death, try to do some good at least.”

The light in the orb faded, and it fell to the ground with a delicate plop. Kaito reached down and picked it up. The orb had been made of thin paper. He had no idea where the light had been coming from.

Still confused, he looked up at Elisabeth and asked:

“So what was that about?”

“Communications from Godot Deus, the head of the Church. Ever the gaudy antique, that one is.”

She shook her head, not saying any more. As she stared off into space, Kaito decided to start by asking her the question that weighed heaviest on his mind.

“So do you have any idea where the Kaiser went?”

“Indeed.”

Her answer was immediate. At once, Kaito was filled with relief. The difficulty of their task varied immensely depending on whether or not they could pinpoint the Kaiser’s location.

Elisabeth squinted as she gazed through a hole in the collapsed wall, as if she was looking at something far off in the distance. Before her extended a seemingly infinite expanse of dark trees and faintly glimmering gray clouds.

“The Kaiser has returned home. To my castle, the place of my birth.”

Why had the Kaiser returned to Elisabeth’s birthplace?

Why had the Kaiser called out her name so affectionately?

Kaito waited for her to elaborate. But Elisabeth said nothing more, and Kaito didn’t ask. They simply stood, gazing through the hole in the wall.

Their silence persisted. Wind blew in from outside, carrying with it the scent of rain. Elisabeth finally breathed in deeply and then exhaled. She clicked her tongue, then stood with enough force to knock over her chair.

“…Let’s go.”

“…Mm-hmm.”

Her voice bristled with ire, and Kaito nodded.

The next moment, he felt a sharp kick to his leg. Apparently, his response had been unbecoming of a servant.

Elisabeth’s hometown lay beyond a high wall.

Out of all the territory the noble Le Fanu house had once possessed, this castle town was special. This was where the Torture Princess’s bloodstained legend had begun.

The town was arranged like a fan, with the splendid white-walled Le Fanu castle at its center and a steep mountain range forming its backdrop. And it made good use of its unique topography. The wall surrounding it formed a summoning platform for mythical beasts and provided a layer of defense for emergencies. But now, that wall served a different purpose.

With its gate shut firmly, the wall sealed off the city. If one was to take even a single step beyond that threshold, they would find themselves surrounded by death.

That towering barrier now served as a massive gravestone for the town.

According to rumor, the Torture Princess herself, Elisabeth Le Fanu, had once sealed that gate, summoned torture devices all around the town, and set them on every last resident. The banquet of slaughter lasted three days and nights, and during that period, ceaseless screams of anguish filled the air like a grand symphony.

She’d used the slaughter in this town as an opportunity to surpass the Plain of Skewers and the Dance Macabre in the Village by the Mountains to birth more corpses than ever before.

…The more I learn, the worse it gets.

All of this was information Kaito had learned from Elisabeth herself.

When he’d asked her about the place they were heading, Elisabeth had tossed him a document the Church had assembled, titled Records of the Torture Princess. Seeing his appalled face after reading the opening anecdote, she gave a “Humph.”

“Just who exactly did you think I was? I am Elisabeth Le Fanu, the Torture Princess.

“I may be hunting demons, but I am still the grandest criminal this world possesses, one who not even death can redeem.”

The land where Elisabeth, Kaito, and Hina currently stood was the place from which all those morbid tales originated.

A charred ruin extended before them.

After the slaughter, those in charge of disposing of the massive quantity of corpses had been at a loss as to what to do, and they eventually settled on simply lighting everything past the walls ablaze. The fire had been left to burn for seven days and seven nights. After the inferno was extinguished, however, no attempt was made to retrieve the bodies. The town was simply marked as “cursed” and blockaded.

Kaito, upon seeing the mounds of human bones peeking out among the cracks of the carbonized rubble, murmured softly.

“Well, that’s not a pretty sight.”

“Nay, not in the slightest. The Church wrote it off as having been ‘abandoned by God.’”

Elisabeth spoke as if it had nothing to do with her, and Kaito gave a curt nod.

There was no exaggeration to that wording. The rotting houses, the torture devices, and the innumerable skeletons strewn about the rubble invoked images of religious paintings of Hell. The brick foundations of houses with their roofs burned off formed the background, and the countless skeletons skewered on iron stakes practically looked like offerings to Diablo.

In contrast with the morbid scene, the white castle stood tall and radiant. It alone was unmarred by soot or degradation.

It looked almost like a toy, placed atop a pile of mud and ash.

Elisabeth, the person responsible for the horrid state of this bizarre landscape, briefly clicked her tongue.

“Tch. I’m hardly in a position to complain, but the air here is unpleasant. Take care not to let your guard down. The Kaiser has already settled in. Even I haven’t the faintest idea of what awaits us, but whatever it may be, you can be sure that it won’t be pleasant.”

“Yes, ma’am. I will stay battle-ready. Master Kaito, I beseech you to stay behind me so that you may avoid harm.”

“Ah, right. Thanks.”

Kaito nodded, then obediently moved to Hina’s rear. Hina grinned as she gave a bow.

“Be at ease. No matter the cost, I shall protect you, Master.”

Her words dripped with their usual admiration, but in her arms, she brandished a massive halberd.

The weapon cast a fiendish silhouette, and it was much taller than she was. Its lance head was disturbingly thick, and a fat, curved sword was attached to the ax head. It must have been tremendously heavy, but Hina carried it with the same grace and dignity she would carry a teapot to a tea party.

Kaito couldn’t tell if the scene before him was a joke or a nightmare. He felt light-headed from the vertigo the spectacle inspired within him.

Elisabeth had been right—the air here was unpleasant. The atmosphere, too, carried an uncomfortable heat. It almost felt as though that fire was still smoldering somewhere deep in the earth. All the bodies should have rotted away or turned to ash by now, but Kaito occasionally caught a strong whiff of something rotting. He couldn’t help but feel that the sentiments and regrets of those who had died here were decomposing like their flesh, accumulating into a thick muck.

And the hatred and malice that muck was spewing forth were directed at a single woman.

Loathsome Elisabeth, repulsive Elisabeth, cruel, hideous Elisabeth!

A curse upon you, a curse upon you, a curse, a curse, an eternal curse upon you, Elisabeth!

The entire town joined together in a voiceless roar. It was no mere trick of the ear.

After all, this was a place of death. It was Elisabeth’s hometown, the place where the Torture Princess was born. But the woman in question ignored the pressure bearing down on her from all sides. Elisabeth walked on with a ruler’s composure.

What’s going through your head right now?

Kaito couldn’t begin to imagine how she felt. But he had no idea of what to ask or how to ask her. He wasn’t even sure if there was any reason to ask in the first place. Besides, figuring out how to deal with the Kaiser took top priority.

He simply followed after Elisabeth, walking across roads of hardened muck and ash.

The town was littered with mementos of the atrocities that took place there. Half-buried skulls were lined up in rows like a vegetable plot. A large tree had survived the fire, and dangling from its branches were three human skeletons and one dog skeleton bound by wire. No doubt it had been set up so that when the canine struggled to get free, its claws would dig into the survivors.

Kaito knit his brows at the appalling scene. Suddenly, one skull slowly looked up from its pile.

“…Huh?”

“Hmm? What is it, Kaito?”

“Look over there.”

A skeleton was leisurely tilting its neck, its hollow eye sockets trained directly on Elisabeth. Kaito rubbed his eyes. But no matter how many times he checked, the pile of bones that should have been lying prone was staring straight at them. That was when it happened.

Click, click, clack.

A band of skeletons appeared from behind a dilapidated house, making miserable, dry clacking noises as they leaped onto the main road. Spears had been thrust all the way up their rear ends and protruded from their mouths, and their spines were riddled with splinters. Their arms and legs were trimmed off. With their tragic bodies, they danced in the street, spinning with what appeared to be joy.

Seeing how the heinous torture had warped their bones, Kaito gasped. Noticing his pause, one of the skeletons drew near him. As if entreating him, it extended what remained of its hand, and Kaito grabbed it without thinking. When he did, it yanked its inverted wrist hard. But then, with a clattering sound, it shattered.

“Don’t you dare lay a hand on Master Kaito, you lackey!”

“Ah, whoops.”

Kaito hurriedly hid behind Hina again. The skeletons rushed at them, one after another. But their main target, Elisabeth, didn’t even spare them a glance.

“Heavens, how noisy they are.”

She yawned, then clicked her heels as she continued walking. Each time she did, iron stakes burst forth from the ground in a shower of darkness and crimson petals. But even when they were sown to the ground, the skeletons merely collapsed into piles of bones, then re-formed out of the undamaged ones to resume their chase. Even with Hina swinging her halberd and Elisabeth driving them away, the corpses seemed unkillable.

Kaito could feel his chest freeze as he realized that these were all people Elisabeth had killed.

As if joining a parade, a fresh batch of skeletons rushed them. Finally, Elisabeth clicked her tongue.

“Just how long do you intend to keep up these petty, petty, petty little attacks? Come now. Surely you’ve realized that even if a century passed, these skeletons would never be able to so much as scratch me, haven’t you? Why not just show yourself? You don’t mean to tell me you have no more cards to play, do you? How pathetic that would be.”

The three of them traveled east, repelling skeletons all the while. They arrived at the main road leading to the castle.

The road was wide and neatly paved with brick, as if in consideration of carriage traffic. It was lined with melted metal signs, frames of once-splendid houses, and ash-covered shops with their shingled roofs intact. Even in its current state of disrepair, the main road still contained traces of the town’s lost prosperity. But at the moment, standing in the doorway to this place’s tragic past was an ominous figure.

There was a tall woman, wearing a mourning dress as if she was grieving for the countless dead.

Her face was hidden behind black lace, and her lustrous black hair cascaded down her back as she hung her head. Everything she was wearing, from her silk gloves and her long skirt to the standing collar covering her neck, was black. She was oddly thin, and her conservative dress left much to the imagination. The only place she wasn’t small was her chest, which was oddly alluring. Her wide-brimmed hat was decorated with a fragrant collection of white lilies.

The flowers were somber, like the kind one would leave at a grave, and their elegant glimmer was the only deviance from her otherwise all-black outfit.

Elisabeth stopped, then posed an irritated question to the woman.

“Suspicious woman in black, are you the necromancer responsible for these bothersome attacks?”

“…So you do not hesitate, even when faced with the victims you tormented, those you defiled, and those you killed without mercy?”

Her voice was deep for a woman’s, yet it reverberated somewhat softly in the ear. Elisabeth furrowed her brow. She narrowed her crimson eyes, as if searching her memory for something.

Kaito, standing behind her, tilted his head as well. He wasn’t used to her showing her enemies an emotion other than anger or frustration. The woman continued in a voice like clear water.

“Are you perhaps saying that after you’ve finished your meat, you care not what happens to the bones?”

“Indeed, that is what I was about to say… Wait… That voice, that manner of speaking… You can’t be…?”

The woman offered no response to Elisabeth’s mutterings. She instead picked up the hem of her long skirt from the piles of ash on the ground, then lifted it high enough that her thighs were visible. It didn’t look like she was wearing panties, which made the amount of skin she was revealing even more precarious. Bones tumbled out of her skirt, grazing her skin as they fell.

The bones rattled as they resumed their original forms. The woman stroked the skull of one of the newly formed skeletons as if it were a cat. Looking at the fully formed skeletons, Kaito found himself at a loss for words.

Their hands and feet were twisted, and their backs were stretched out into a bridge formation. They scuttled about on all fours. When they were alive, their bodies had likely been fixed in place so long that they could no longer walk normally.

And the tiny skeletons had all belonged to children.

The skeletons clattered as they scuttled along the ground toward Elisabeth. They let out noises from the gaps between their teeth, almost like they were trying to scream. But without a shred of hesitation or mercy, Elisabeth swung her leg sideways.

“Enough!”

She crushed the children’s skulls under the heel of her foot. Their bones scattered. Her kick sent a gust of wind at the woman, and her hat blew clean off and fell to the ground. The woman’s face, no longer concealed by black lace, came into view.

She smiled. She was beautiful, but her plush lips, almond-shaped eyes, and the mole on her cheek gave her a plain impression.

“You haven’t kept in touch, Madam Elisabeth.”

Her ashen-blue eyes welled up with tears as she bowed deeply. After picking up her hat and brushing off the dirt, she raised her head and replaced the hat diagonally such that it no longer covered her face. As she spoke, she narrowed her eyes in nostalgia.

“I see you haven’t changed a bit, young miss. Even though I suggested time and time again that it might be for the best if you did something about that temper of yours.”

“So… You are Marianne, then?”

For the first time, Elisabeth’s voice shook. The woman nodded happily. After seeing Elisabeth’s rare reaction, Kaito instinctively asked:

“Marianne?”

“She was once my tutor. Now, what are you doing here? As I recall, you were an ordinary woman, one with a decent education and passable looks, but one who was irritatingly fastidious and who missed her chance to marry. So why are you here, and why are you a necromancer?”

“Is that a serious question, young miss? Do you seriously believe that I could have kept on being an ordinary woman after seeing that brutal spectacle?”

The woman, Marianne, answered in a singsong voice. Her thin hands, clad in black silk gloves, began to move.

Each time she brought her hands up and down, the skeletons scattered about the street hopped in sync with them as though threads were manipulating them. Marianne continued talking as she directed their silly little dance.

“Oh, by all rights, I should have simply fled after being overlooked by the infamous Torture Princess. I should have fled the town, moved to the countryside, and lived out the rest of my days in silence. But I couldn’t. Not after seeing my own pupil, adorably willful yet fundamentally meek as she was, gleefully summoning torture devices and slaughtering the innocent. After seeing the hell you created, young miss, I thought to myself…”

Marianne peered up. The look she directed at Elisabeth was one of remorse and pity.

“…This ordeal was my fault, born from my own shortcomings. Had I only been a better tutor… Had I only been able to guide you down a proper path, then even when your parents died, you would not have strayed so far. The responsibility fell on my shoulders. I failed to save you, young miss.”

“You speak drivel. What part of this was your fault? You think too highly of yourself, Marianne. Cruelty has been my nature since childhood, and your teachings did naught to sway that for better or worse. Anything you could have done would have been akin to dust in the wind. It would have held no meaning and left no traces.”

Elisabeth raised one black fingernail. Kaito, anticipating a torture device to appear, gulped. But Elisabeth didn’t summon anything. She simply pointed off in the distance.

“Leave. I know not why you appeared before me after all this time, but I don’t care to see your face again. You did much for me in my childhood, in the days I could not venture outside. I shall overlook our meeting today. But I shan’t grant you a third chance. Vanish from my sight. Leave now, and you may yet die a peaceful death.”

After being attacked, Elisabeth is going to let this woman go?

Kaito’s jaw was on the ground. He thought back to the image of Elisabeth’s youth he’d seen. He tried imagining this fussy yet kind woman by that frail girl’s side.

He could envision that scene, of a tutor and her willful pupil side by side, surprisingly easily.

The fact that such a scene had once played out in reality was likely the source of Elisabeth’s mercy. But Marianne didn’t seem likely to take Elisabeth up on her offer.

Marianne clutched at her sides, hugging herself so tightly, you could make out the bones in her fingers.

“It’s my fault… It’s my fault you turned out so twisted… I have to—”

“Get ahold of yourself, Marianne! Listen when other people are—”

“Oh, young miss!”

The bones in Marianne’s fingers began to creak. The skeletons at her feet began hopping up and down as if in response to her violent passion. They then collapsed, abandoning their human forms, and all combined together into a massive tower. The tower collapsed onto Elisabeth, creaking as it fell.

Elisabeth shrugged. But the next moment, an explosion rocked the bones and they were sent flying from within.

A pale horse leaped free from the tower.

“Wh—?!”

Elisabeth’s eyes widened. Kaito, too, was at a loss for words. The Knight was supposed to be dead, yet there sat a Knight astride the photoluminescent horse with great pomp and circumstance. Then again, this wasn’t truly the Knight.

The Knight standing before them was made of rotting flesh. His horse’s chest was dissolved to expose ribs. As for the Knight, maggots and manure seeped from the gaps in his helmet. Even for someone who’d been resurrected, his body was in poor shape. But just like the original, the horse’s hoof steps were accompanied by bolts of lightning.

As he spurred his steed forward, the rider pulled his lance of lightning from thin air.

“Bone Mill!”

Elisabeth swung a flat, spiked hammer. It smashed into the Knight’s rotting flesh, crushed his bones, and scattered his body to the wind. But right before his destruction, the Knight smashed his lance against the ground. His decaying body had been weak, but the power of his attacks was nothing to laugh at.

Marianne, who had been casting her gaze downward, looked up with a smile of utter devotion.

“It’s things like that that make me love you so, young miss!”

She shouted in ecstasy, her cheeks reddening. Her breath was heavy, as though she was trying to contain her excitement, and she squeezed on her supple breasts as she hugged herself.

Elisabeth took a step back, her face visibly stiffening. Kaito, equally uncomfortable, felt a bead of cold sweat drip down his back. Marianne stood in front of them, her eyes burning.

She was clearly not in her right mind.

Marianne muttered gleefully, clutching her chest even tighter.

“The sins you bear are beyond your ability to atone for, young miss. You will die unappreciated, unloved, cursed, and despised. I am the only one who can save you. I am the only one who would dare to try. But that is my duty, the one assigned to me the moment I failed to stop you. My mind is made up, young miss.”

Marianne licked her thick lips. Drool dribbled all the way down to her chin.

“I will kill you with my own two hands!”

“The Knight, eh…? You’ve picked up a rather strange talent. While I fail to understand his intention, that man doubtlessly instigated this. Just how much power did the Kaiser confer upon you?”

Elisabeth had ignored her passionate confession, and Marianne simply smiled in response to the question Elisabeth posed.

With a sound like a percussion instrument, the bones assembled themselves into a tower once more. A bonfire-like blue flame swirled up inside it. The scene resembled a bizarre ritual, and a new, grotesque Knight fell from the flames. The tower rose again and again, each time producing a copy of the Knight.

In front of them, the tower created a row of smaller boxes. Out of each box leaped a meat-frog. Their countless soggy hands and feet slapped against the brick road, filling the area with venom and manure.

At the forefront of this strange army stood Marianne, her arms spread wide as if in an embrace.

“All for the sake of loooooooooooooooooooooooove!”

“You… You’ve gone mad.”

Marianne’s shout dripped with affection, and as it echoed, Elisabeth spoke in a whisper, her voice strained as though she was enduring a headache. For whatever reason, Marianne’s cheeks flushed even redder in embarrassment as she nodded.

Hina held her halberd at the ready, her eyes trained on her foe. She didn’t drop her guard as she spoke.

“…I am deeply repulsed by her, and yet, I feel we share a certain affinity. I wonder why that is.”

“I’m begging you, Hina—don’t follow in her footsteps.”

“Oh my, no! That’s not what I meant at all, Master Kaito! While I can sympathize with the pain of seeing one’s master go astray, and while I understand the strength of the emotions that cause her such madness, I would never dream of being so insolent as to kill my own master. Under such circumstances, it is all the more important for a servant to serve their master with unfettered devotion, to serve their master with every fiber of their being, and to serve their master even at the cost of their own life. For to love is to renounce one’s self, and were it for Master Kaito’s sake, I would gladly embrace death.”

“Hina, in front of you!”

The army of meat-frogs all leaped at once. They paid no heed to the fact that they were crushing one another’s tender decaying flesh as they charged for Kaito and Hina. Suddenly, Hina swayed and vanished. She appeared in front of the meat-frogs, waving her halberd.

“How dare you…”

The front-most meat-frog’s chest burst with a splorch. Offal and venom rained down upon the meat-frogs behind it. Hina shot forward, almost dancing across the corpse as she did a half spin and swung her halberd. She eradicated every frog around her.

She swung her halberd again to dash the venom from its blade, then brought it to a halt.

“…lumps of flesh interfere…”

Hina lowered her center of gravity, then broke into a fierce run. As she passed a Knight’s horse, she drove her halberd into it, slashing it in two. Momentum sent the bottom half sailing into the distance, but it eventually toppled to the road. The top portion collapsed where it stood, and the Knight atop it glanced around anxiously.

“…with my lovey-dovey conversation with Master Kaito!”

Hina sent the horse’s head flying. When the Knight fell over and landed with his head at her feet, she kicked it off into the distance.

Hina’s elegant steps resembled a dance as she returned to Kaito. She then twirled her halberd, sending chunks of flesh flying into the air. She retightened her grasp on the handle and smiled at Kaito.

Her smile was angelic.

“My apologies. To continue our conversation, were it for Master Kaito’s sake, I would gladly embrace death. Rest assured: I won’t let them lay a single finger on your precious body.”

“Th-thanks. That’s a huge relief. N-now that I think about it, what’s Elisabeth—?”

Stuttering at Hina’s intensity, Kaito surveyed the area.

The mass-produced demons were charging at Elisabeth like ominous waves. However, she showed no signs of concern. To the contrary, she swung a spiked iron ball around freely, smashing the demons to bits.

“What exactly are these, Marianne?”

“One of the thirteen demons, one you already defeated. Alternatively, his underlings. Back when they were alive, I took a sample of their blood. Using that as an intermediary, I can summon a portion of their soul and duplicate it. This is the result of placing their twisted souls in temporary shells of meat.”

“This is no act of an amateur necromancer. Vlad is surely behind it.”

“Indeed. He has been a tremendous aid to me. I had to sacrifice many people to get this far. But it was all for you, young miss. What choice did I have? Those sacrifices were all necessary in order for a weak, ordinary woman like myself to go up against the Torture Princess.”

As Marianne spoke, Kaito saw the group of demons re-forming. Their base material was probably human flesh. While this town was full of bones, not a single scrap of flesh remained on any of the corpses. From where was Marianne getting all that meat? His stomach churned just thinking about the quantity of materials her technique must require.

Marianne clasped her silk-gloved hands together, as if in prayer.

“Ah, indeed. I had no choice; I had no choice; I had no choice no choice no choice! I was left with no other choice! In order to become like you, I had no choice but to bear the same sins!”

Blue flames raced alongside her as though in concert with her rising voice. The flames billowed up, as if re-creating the fire that once filled the town, and from them poured an army of Knights.

The Knights charged at Elisabeth. A crowd of new meat-frogs advanced on Kaito and Hina.

“How dare you all show your ugly faces before Master Kaito!”

Hina swung her halberd, taking into account the path the venom would spray before she struck. But when she did, the bones that had been lying around now rose up as a shield to block her attack. The bones scattered, but the meat-frog she’d been aiming at narrowly escaped harm.

“Hina, are you oka—?”

“…Such insolence!”

Hina roared, then drove the sole of her foot into the frog’s snout. She pulverized its head, and its body scattered against the ground. The hem of Hina’s maid outfit fluttered as she made her graceful landing.

“I thank you for your concern, Master Kaito. What a kind man you are… But that was a trivial matter.”

When Kaito looked back at Elisabeth, her circumstances seemed much the same as before.

A number of skeletons were clinging to her iron ball. Even as their bodies shattered, they clutched the spikes and dug their feet into the ground to impede the ball’s momentum. Kaito finally realized it. Marianne was planning on using the countless corpses Elisabeth had left to turn this into a battle of resources.

“Ah, can you feel it, young miss? The regrets running across your skin, the anguish boiling in your chest? You are on the verge of being killed by the very innocents you killed long ago. Can you feel it? Can you feel it pounding away at you, young miss, pounding away at your flesh and blood? Can you feel the rage, the hatred, and the sorrow of those you murdered?”

Marianne clutched her abdomen as she cried out with the intensity of an opera singer.

Lances were being pointed at Elisabeth from every direction. She snapped her fingers in irritation.

“Do you understand, young miss? Do you understand that those you killed lived normal lives, lives they wanted to protect? You didn’t have the right to kill a single one of them, young miss, not a single one!”

She was clearly unstable. The ecstatic flush vanished from her cheeks. She gripped her chest even tighter, breathing hard, as if to demonstrate her pain as she shed sloppy tears.

“Why, young miss? Why? Why did you do such a terrible thing? Why couldn’t you understand how wrong it was?! Young miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiss?!”

“…Did her heart split in two or something?”

Kaito couldn’t help but mumble to himself. Everything Marianne was doing and saying was contradictory. She was gleefully trying to kill Elisabeth out of love yet at the same time tearfully trying to compel her to regret her actions and repent.

“Young miss, why is it, why is it that you can’t understand…? I will I will stop you. Doing such a thing will, all the people will cry, I have to kill, young miss, I have to stop her, I have to…”

Kaito finally realized: Marianne’s spirit was unraveling. She was being crushed both by the horrible spectacle Elisabeth had forced her to witness long ago and by her own guilt for not having been able to stop it.

“…I, my, I, my young miss, my fault, so…”

What stood before Kaito, Elisabeth, and Hina was nothing more than the shell of a broken woman.

Marianne let out a high-pitched laugh and covered her face. It almost sounded like a scream. The lilies gently swayed atop her hat. Although Elisabeth clicked her tongue, she also whispered softly.

“…What a miserable state you’re in, Marianne. I suppose I’m to blame for that.”

Suddenly, she stopped walking. Kaito watched her.

Then a skeletal arm reached out and grabbed her. At once, it pulled her into the throng of the dead. The Torture Princess was buried in the bloodlust and the hate of those she had brutally killed.

Loathsome Elisabeth, repulsive Elisabeth, cruel, hideous Elisabeth!

A curse upon you, a curse upon you, a curse, a curse, an eternal curse upon you, Elisabeth!

Kaito felt almost as though he, too, could hear the scathing cries of the dead. He shouted, refusing to lose to them.

“Elisabeth! Quit screwing around and get your ass outta there!”

“Lady Elisabeth, I’m coming!”

Hina shouted, too, then broke into a run. But before she could reach it, the pile of bones began writhing and clattering, driving into Elisabeth’s body the same pain they once suffered. Marianne raised her voice once more.

“Do you understand? Have you come to understand, young miss? Young miss, my dear young miss!”

“I’ve understood that…since the very…”

A small voice leaked out of the pile. Hina, flustered, stopped in her tracks. As she did, the voice exploded out.

“BEGINNINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!”

In concert with the enraged voice, chains exploded forth.

The chains clattered as they snaked from Elisabeth. They coiled and spun like a tornado, mowing down the dead with reckless abandon. Bones fractured, snapped, and crumbled.

The maelstrom of chains then spread, blooming like an iron rose. They scraped the ground, struck debris, and smashed the bones to splinters. They thoroughly pulverized all the people she’d once tortured, the people she’d once killed. Upon seeing the chains rage like a many-headed snake, Hina praised her master’s master.

“Well done, Lady Elisabeth! I should have expected nothing less. However, this is… Look out! Pardon me, Master Kaito!”

“Hwah!”

Hina returned to him at top speed, then scooped him up in her arms before taking off again. Not a second later, the place where they’d been standing was assaulted by chains. A half-destroyed house appeared in their path, and the chains brought it crumbling down. Ash and charred splinters went flying.

Once the impressive cloud of dust settled, Elisabeth stood alone.

She breathed heavily, like a cat with its hair standing on end.

The Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal burned in her hand.

Marianne took a step back. The few remaining Knights lined up in front of her. Before they could charge, though, Elisabeth thrust the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal into the ground.

“Hellhole!”

As she spoke, the earth rumbled. A large cone-shaped cavity yawned in the middle of the road, and the Knights all fell in.

At the bottom of the giant hole, an endless sea of insects wriggled and squirmed. They had lustrous, metallic black shells, and they looked otherworldly. The bugs swarmed the Knights, and their tiny teeth made sickening noises as they chewed on the Knights’ rotting flesh. They seemed overjoyed at the generous offering of prey.

“……!”

Marianne slowly backpedaled. But all around her, chains shot out of the ground like serpents. They bound her from head to toe, slim frame, supple breasts, and all.

She hung in the air much like Elisabeth once had. She stared straight at her, as if waiting for an answer to her earlier cries.

Elisabeth stood before her, both hands placed on the hilt of her sword. She bore a serious expression.

“My apologies, Marianne. I’ve understood that for a long, long time.”

Marianne’s eyes widened slightly. Elisabeth returned her ashen-blue gaze.

“I had no right to take the light of a single person in this world. Every person I killed led a vigorous life, a life they had every right to carry out as they pleased. They were innocent, and I murdered them. I killed them cruelly, gruesomely, mercilessly, and unreasonably. ’Tis as you say, Marianne. Not even my death will be punishment enough.”

Elisabeth’s voice was sincere as she tendered her confession. Yet, as she gave it, she spat on the ground. Confessing and acknowledging her sins yet not regretting them in the slightest, Elisabeth stood firm as she made her declaration.

“I became the Torture Princess with full knowledge of what that entailed.”

Elisabeth offered no further reasoning.

Her black hair wafted on the hollow wind, a wind that seemed to carry heat from the fire of old, a wind that moaned like the wailing of the vengeful dead.

Loathsome Elisabeth, repulsive Elisabeth, cruel, hideous Elisabeth!

A curse upon you, a curse upon you, a curse, a curse, an eternal curse upon you, Elisabeth!

Taking in all the hatred and the malice of the dead, Elisabeth carried on.

“I shan’t ask for forgiveness, nor shall I ask for sympathy. For it is true that I delighted in their screams and bathed in their despair. You should hold me in contempt as you die. Disparage me and curse my name… My apologies, Marianne.”

“…Young miss…”

“I intend to follow you shortly. Quite shortly indeed.”

Elisabeth’s lips betrayed a quiver. For a fleeting second, she wore the face of a defenseless little girl.

She gathered strength in the hand that bore the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal. Marianne, watching her, shook her head. She pressed her eyes shut, reopened them, then spoke with the gentle demeanor of a tutor.

“Young miss, I know the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal is a powerful catalyst, capable of summoning chains and torture devices. But I also know that the sword itself was made to allow executioners to behead criminals painlessly before they were put to the stake. A weapon crafted out of kindness. Is that what you intend to kill me with?”

“Indeed, Marianne. With this blade, I shall take the head of a mad, unremarkable woman.”

“That won’t do, young miss. It’s unlike you. You mustn’t show even a single person kindness. If you intend to walk down your warped path to the end, you must torture me to death.”

Elisabeth’s face stiffened a little. As she rebuked Elisabeth, Marianne looked at her with eyes burning with determination.

“If you reject me through pain, kill me through pain, and then the world will finally be free of any who could damage your resolve. If you wish to retain your tyrannical nature now that you’ve been captured and made the Church’s hound, then that is what you must do.”

Marianne closed her eyes, then opened them gently. The expression she showed Elisabeth was stern, the childhood teacher within awake at last.

“If you turn a blind eye to even one person, it will weaken your resolve. That’s just the way things are.”

Elisabeth didn’t respond. But Marianne’s expression changed once more, from that of a stern instructor to that of an adult speaking to a willful child. Her eyes were full of kindness.

“I loved you from the bottom of my heart, young miss. Even now, I adore you just as much as I did when you were a child.”

She smiled gently. Her next words were steeped in sorrow.

“Once you’ve killed me, I imagine there will be no one left in this world who truly loves you.”

“Yes… I will have no one. Not a single person for the rest of eternity.”

Elisabeth quietly affirmed Marianne’s declaration. Marianne nodded, then inclined her head as if awaiting judgment. Elisabeth let go of the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal.

Her long, sleek black hair fluttered as Elisabeth looked up at the sky. Her expression was calm. A heavy silence bore down on them. Neither woman, not the one judging nor the one awaiting judgment, moved a hair.

Just then, the space around Kaito froze over.

“…What…the hell?”

The sound of shattering glass faded, and after a few seconds, Kaito realized how odd his surroundings were.

Everything, as far as the eye could see, was frozen over in a light shade of blue. Not just Elisabeth and Hina but the fragments of bone blowing in the wind and the clouds of dust were still as well. He reached his hand out timidly, but there was some sort of transparent film keeping him from touching any of the frozen objects.

“What’s going on? Hey, Elisabeth! Hina!”

He called out to them, but it seemed that his voice couldn’t reach them, as they didn’t respond. In his confusion, he suddenly sensed someone behind him. He spun around in a panic.

“A pleasure to meet you, Sinless Soul.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Pure Soul.”

Two girls bowed before him, holding the hems of their dresses in polite curtsies. The maid outfits they wore were even more old-fashioned than Hina’s. One carried a box tied with a ribbon in an arm, and the other held a clock with a stopped needle. They both had long, draping hair made of tangled gold thread, and for eyes they each bore scuffed-up purple gems. Looking at their artificial parts, Kaito could tell: They weren’t human.

The two girls were dolls. They remained expressionless as they spoke, only their lips moving.

“Do you think Elisabeth will kill her?”

“Do you think the Torture Princess can kill her?”

“What? What the hell are you two talking about?”

“What a painful thing it is, to kill a loved one.”

“What a sad thing it is, to kill one you adore.”

“I mean, you’re right. But it’s not like I can stop her.”

Kaito clenched his fists hard. He didn’t know anything about Marianne and Elisabeth’s relationship or their bonds. He had no way of knowing what memories they shared or what was currently going through their minds.

The decision rested on Elisabeth’s shoulders. And Kaito certainly wouldn’t be permitted to weigh in on it, especially not with his limited understanding of the situation. But the maids shook their heads in unison.

“No one said to stop her.”

“We said nothing of the sort.”

““The question we wish to pose is not about Elisabeth but about you.””

“…What?”

Kaito had no idea what the two were talking about. Who were they anyway?

The maid carrying the box gave a mechanical “Ahem,” then slowly stepped forward. Kaito, on his guard, stepped back. But the maid simply unfastened the ribbon, then opened the box and displayed its contents to him with a flourish.

Kaito covered his mouth, assailed by a strong urge to vomit.

“…Rgh—”

Inside the box squirmed a pile of spiders with crow feathers growing all over their bodies. They crawled over one another as they paced about on their eight feathered legs. And there, buried beneath the pile of diminutive horrors, was a baby. Just as he was about to reach his hands into the box of spiders to save it, Kaito gasped.

“It can’t be.”

“Oh my, did he notice?”

“Indeed, did he understand?”

At a second glance, Kaito noticed the spider legs growing out from the plump baby’s waist. The baby had already teethed, and its toothy grin seemed oddly cruel.

A shock ran through Kaito’s brain as he comprehended what he saw.

“Is… Is that thing the Earl?”

Now that he thought about it, the Earl had been absent from the group of revived demons who had attacked them a moment ago.

Reeling with disgust, he took a step back. As he did, the maids spoke.

“Marianne possessed the soul of the Earl, as well.”

“We placed it in the body of this child.”

““As things are, it will grow up to be just like that grotesque man.””

The baby stroked the spiders with its fat hand as one would stroke a pet. A cunning intellect lurked in its eyes, and it grinned contentedly as it looked down upon the spiders.

Kaito raised a fist. But he couldn’t convince himself to bring it down. If he’d been facing the original Earl, he would have killed him in a heartbeat. He would no doubt have torn him limb from limb. But even if the creature before him possessed the same nature as the Earl, it was just a baby.

Hitting it wouldn’t be enough to kill it. And strangling a baby would make him no better than his father. He forced himself to unclench his fist, then gently rubbed his own pale face.

The maids, having watched him, looked at each other once before nodding.

“Ah, it was too hard a choice to make in the spur of the moment.”

“Well, we can wait for him to live up to our expectations.”

““This will do for now.””

Suddenly, the maid raised the box in the air. Then, without a shred of hesitation, she threw it hard against the ground.

Panicking, the spiders fled from the cracks in the box. The baby crawled out, crushing the spiders as it went. The maid who previously held the box knocked the baby down with her foot, then stomped on it with all her might.

“Wh—!”

Her strength was inhuman, and the baby’s stomach warped before bursting open. Its entrails, structurally different from a human’s, came spilling out. The baby convulsed in the pool of its own blue blood for a while before growing still. Kaito found himself at a loss for words, and the maids shrugged.

“Now it’s been crushed. Do you feel better?”

“Now it’s been dealt with. Do you feel relieved?”

“Why would I—? Well, that’s not true. I do feel relieved, dammit. God! You guys made that thing in the first place, didn’t you? Why would you do something like—?”

“Precisely. We made it. And even though we crushed it, we can still make more.”

“As long as Marianne, the necromancer who holds his soul in her womb, lives, we can make as many as we wish.”

Upon hearing that, Kaito felt the blood drain from his face. He looked at the baby’s mangled corpse. Their being able to produce more of those was a fact he couldn’t take lightly.

“Now, here is your question. Will Elisabeth kill her? Or will she not?”

“If she cannot kill her, we intend to snatch Marianne up and produce an army of Earls.”

Kaito glanced at Marianne’s chain-bound pale face. On it was etched her resolution toward death and her exhaustion toward life. She wasn’t the kind of person who should have had to become a necromancer.

“…You mean you’re going to exploit her even more? Hasn’t she had enough?”

“Until her fragile heart breaks, we intend to mass-produce Earls and release them into the wild.”

“Ah, and that scene will play out once more. Countless delightful Grand Guignols will take place.”

The maids giggled in unison. Kaito’s vision went red with fury.

At the same time, hallucinations of spiders crawled about in his brain. One after another, children screaming their throats raw ran through his mind. Neue cursing his fate, then smiling tearfully. The boy’s body being pulled backward and disappearing.

He thought he heard a ghastly scream and the boy’s bones snapping. The first person who had ever wished him happiness being brutally killed.

Kaito’s mind was painted over with heartache and vengeance. Somewhere in his mind, an odd slamming noise resounded. He looked up slowly. His eyes were opened wide in a manic death glare, and he posed a question to the two maids in a cold voice.

“…You think I’ll let you?”

“Your valor is impulsive but splendid nonetheless.”

“But we are not the ones you need to face.”

The maids clasped the hems of their dresses once more, bending their knees as they curtsied gracefully. The maid who’d been holding the box pointed at Marianne, bound in chains. The other raised her clock.

“Now then, shall we resume?”

“You have only a few seconds to make your choice. Act quickly, if you please.”

““Do as you will, but ensure that you have no regrets.””

Then the two disappeared. Color returned to the world. The cold wind blew, and the cloud of dust danced through the air. Elisabeth bit her lip, then raised her hand high.

As she did, Kaito took off at a run.

The maids had told him he had only a few seconds to decide. He didn’t have time to wait and see if she would snap her fingers or not. If she didn’t, there wouldn’t be time to keep the situation from getting ugly.

Kaito had immediately understood what the two had insinuated. His mind was clear, he understood what he needed to do, and he did it without hesitation.

He pulled the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal out of the ground where it was buried. The blade was remarkably light, possibly due to the magical assistance it offered. Elisabeth turned around. Her crimson gaze clearly meant to question what he was doing, but he ignored it as his body was practically thrown forward. He already knew how unreasonable his actions were.

No matter what I do, Marianne’s going to end up dead, either from Elisabeth’s torture or from being used up and crippled. Those are the only paths left for her.

Either way, she’d find herself facing Hell. Recognizing that, the reality of her situation helped assuage his guilt as he seized the third unspoken option.

“…Sorry.”

Kaito ran Marianne through with the sword.

The magical blade encountered little resistance as it pierced her chest.

“…Wh—?”

Marianne coughed up blood, her eyes wide in surprise. Kaito felt himself perk up as it showered him. Warm blood ran down his cheek. For a second, he didn’t realize what he’d just done. Then he choked down the bile welling up in his stomach as he peeled his hands from the sword. His gaze met Marianne’s. Kaito looked straight at the woman he’d just killed.

Her face was full of bewilderment. Over and over, Kaito mouthed that he was sorry. For some reason, when she saw that, she smiled tenderly.

“A-ah… My…thanks…Truly…this was…the way…”

Her words were cut short. Still bearing a tranquil expression, her head slumped forward. In astonishment, Kaito turned over her dying words in his head. When he did, a possible end to her final sentence came to mind.

“Wait, did you…?”

Maybe Marianne hadn’t wanted to add any further sins to the burden Elisabeth bore. But before he could give the matter much thought, Kaito was sent flying.

“Urgh!”

He’d been kicked hard, and he slid down the road. He tumbled over the gravel and ash before finally crashing into a pile of rubble. The pain that ran across his body was so intense, he was afraid one of his organs had ruptured. Coughing up blood, he looked up.

Elisabeth was standing at the same spot he’d been a moment ago. She gazed at Marianne’s corpse, her face devoid of expression. A long moment passed. Then suddenly, Elisabeth grabbed the hilt of the sword piercing Marianne and gave it a yank. Blood gushed from the wound, staining the ground dark.

Elisabeth’s black hair fluttered as she turned toward Kaito. Her eyes were narrowed and filled with a dry rage.

“Why act on your own, cur? Based on your answer, you can imagine the punishment that awaits you.”

Her heels clicked as she approached. She stopped directly in front of Kaito.

Kaito stared stupidly at the pale hand approaching him. But just before her fingers could reach him, his vision blurred horizontally. Hina had scooped him up, then leaped to the side. She scraped the ground as she landed, carrying him in her right arm and holding the halberd in her left hand at the ready. Elisabeth clicked her tongue.

“Drop it, doll.”

“I refuse. You are not my master.”

The two glared daggers at each other. Determining that this was not a foe she could contest one-handed, Hina gently set Kaito down and stood in front of him as a shield. Elisabeth pursed her lips coldly.

Trying to prevent a fight, Kaito opened his mouth. But his breathing was so ragged, he couldn’t speak well. He tried his best to gather strength in his wounded chest.

“H-hey, you two, cut it—”

But the moment he’d finally gathered the strength to speak, he realized that the space around him had frozen once again.

Even with his vision blurred from the pain in his abdomen, he could make out the two maids standing in front of him. One of them was wearing shoes stained with the blood of a baby, and the other held her clock. They turned their scuffed purple eyes toward Kaito without a word. The next moment, their fair faces clicked and contorted into expressions that were anything but natural.

The maids wore broken, hideous smiles. They gracefully bowed once again.

“You passed, Sinless Soul.”

“Our master calls for you.”

Humming contentedly, the maids grabbed Kaito’s limp shoulders. He was helpless to resist as they pulled him away. As they dragged him along, he weakly turned to look over his shoulder. After the three of them had traveled a fixed distance, the frozen-blue world suddenly sprang back to life.

“Hmm? …Kaito?”

“Mas— Master Kaito? This can’t be! Master Kaito, where are you?!”

Elisabeth and Hina noticed Kaito’s disappearance and surveyed their surroundings. He wasn’t that far away from them. He stared at them, begging them to notice him. Hina turned in his direction. But then a sound rang out.

Grrrrrrrrr, grrrrrrrrrrrr, grrrrrrrrrrr.

As if to block their view, a deep-black darkness coalesced and swallowed the light. As it growled, the darkness formed fine, rippling muscles and sleek black fur.

Before long, it had taken the form of a first-class hound. Crimson hellfire burned in its eyes.

The Kaiser had arrived, and the air itself froze in awe.

“Gah-ha-ha-ha, heh-heh-ha-ha, gah-ha-ha-ha.”

He laughed at the two of them in a voice that sounded almost human.

That hopeless scene was the last thing Kaito saw before his consciousness faded.