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Fremd Torturchen - Volume 2 - Chapter 5




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5

A Desperate Decision

Kaito and Vlad exchanged silent gazes. Vlad’s expression was filled with unmitigated glee. He slowly narrowed his crimson eyes and then gave a faint nod and stood up.

He snapped his fingers, and the chair made of beast bones disappeared. The stone room was empty once more.

He then looked at Kaito, checking him over from head to toe.

Suddenly, his beautiful expression crumpled and was replaced by a wicked smile.

“I see, how splendid. Then I take this to mean that you’ve finally worked up the resolve to join the side that takes from others?”

“Nope, nuh-uh. Not even a little bit,” Kaito responded indifferently. Vlad’s eyebrows twitched.

A few seconds of silence passed.

Vlad’s expression screamed that this development was far outside his expectations. However, Kaito received his gaze coolly. Vlad crossed his arms and then began speaking in a displeased voice.

“You’ve already passed the first ordeal. Congratulations, you’ve graduated from being offal. The Kaiser has acknowledged you as a candidate for forming a contract. I call it a trial, but back then, there was a considerable chance that you would simply be devoured. After all, he is a beast who could test a thousand men and then devour all of them. Delightfully, you managed to meet my expectations and catch his eye. And yet…”

“Yeah, I more or less figured. It would have honestly been more of a surprise for you to put a safe contract in front of me.”

“And yet while you wish to form a contract, you say you have no intention of coming to our side and taking from others. What exactly are you thinking? If your desire is shallow, it will eventually swallow you whole. If you don’t possess the capability to wear the tyrant’s mantle as though you were born to do so, the odds you’d even be able to make a contract are low.”

“Yeah, I don’t doubt it. But even after I make a contract with a demon, I don’t plan on tyrannizing people. That’s one thing I’m not going to budge on.”

Kaito obstinately shook his head. Doing that would make him sink to the level of his father, who had abused him throughout his life. And he had no intentions of joining ranks with the spider who ate Neue. There had been a time where he’d wanted to carry out his revenge, even if it meant joining the side that tormented others. But now that the spell his father had put him under had been broken, that choice was no longer available to him. Kaito had no plans to forgive those who tyrannized others, even if that person was himself.

Vlad frowned upon hearing his words.

“Demons seek the pain of men and turn it into power. How do you intend to fight the Grand King without the will to take from others? If all you do is form the contract, you will remain baggage. Do you mean to say that it’s possible to face off against demons, hurling stones at them without getting your hands dirty?”

“Damn right. I had this idea, see— Will you hear me out?”

Then Kaito began telling Vlad about the method he’d thought up.

Vlad silently listened to Kaito’s explanation and then eventually twisted his lips in amusement and exasperatedly looked up at the ceiling. A mixed light burned in his eyes, one that suggested that he was both displeased and highly intrigued.

Once he was finished explaining, Kaito asked Vlad about his plan’s viability.

“…And that was pretty much what I was thinking. Would that work?”

“It is possible, but it’s a plan utterly devoid of sanity from the moment of conception. I never expected you to be such an out-of-the-box, forward-thinking fool. What a foolish, foolish man you are. Hats off to you.”

Vlad rubbed his chin as he surveyed Kaito with his crimson eyes.

Kaito returned Vlad’s gaze. Seeing the resolve—and thus, in a sense, the madness—in Kaito’s determination, Vlad spoke.

“A question, though, if I may?”

“Shoot.”

“Why go to such lengths?”

It was a clear, straightforward question. Kaito tilted his head to the side a hair.

Vlad raised his index finger and elaborated on his natural doubts.

“If you wished to flee, you could do so, carrying vast riches along with you. And with a doll to serve as your bodyguard and companion, no less. A man’s life is short. It would last you long enough for a rather enjoyable life on the run. In a sense, Elisabeth brought this on herself. After becoming the Torture Princess and battling demons, being captured by mankind seems an obvious fate for her. And as you hail from another world, the demons’ savage acts should have little to do with you. Why, then, would you go to such lengths?”

“Because she’s my hero.”

Kaito spoke frankly, responding with the answer he himself had reached before. Vlad probably didn’t understand the implications of the word hero. However, he didn’t seek any further explanation.

After all, Kaito’s face was filled with undisguised admiration.

At the same time, there was a fact that Kaito came to understand. After all, Elisabeth had saved him out of nothing more than a whim; egoism. At one point, having sensed how irrational that was, there was even a time when Kaito had wished to die again. As a result, he’d told her that if he felt like he was in danger, he’d just go running to the Church and that he had no intention of accompanying her down the road to Hell.

However, even so.

To such an extent that it had made him believe heroes could exist in a world devoid of them…

To such an extent that it had made him feel like God could exist in a world devoid of gods…

Elisabeth had brought about an absurd, lovely miracle.

“For her sake, I’d be willing to meet a fate worse than death. That’s all there is to it.”

That was how much he valued her for granting him, who had known nothing but fear and pain, a new life. In order to save the person who’d given him that, there was something Kaito needed to do.

“For my sake, Elisabeth Le Fanu has to exist. That was what I decided.”

Throughout Elisabeth Le Fanu’s bloody life, she was accompanied by a single foolish servant.

Kaito had promised to live a life that would result in the story going that way. And he couldn’t go back on his word.

“I won’t regret this—no matter how much I may want to, I won’t accept any regrets.”

“To destroy oneself out of admiration, to press deep into the darkness out of hope, and to choose pain in order to fight, hmm. How naive.”

Vlad let out a deep sigh. He shook his head, as if lamenting, and covered his face. His eyes gleamed through the gaps between his fingers and spreading across his face was a smile so unseemly it seemed that his lips would tear.

“Truly, my favorite kind of arrogance.”

Vlad loudly clapped his hands together.

Wind reeking of beasts blew fiercely around them. Thousands of feral howls rang out. They echoed high and low and began forming an orchestral tune.

Azure flower petals and darkness burst forth from between Vlad’s hands. His palms began tearing open, spilling massive amounts of blood onto the floor. Kaito squinted to discern the ichor’s true nature. It wasn’t real blood. This was Vlad’s mana, seeping out from the stone and crawling around by his feet like a living creature as it began tracing an intricate summoning circle. As the wounds on his palms grew so deep that the bones became visible, Vlad’s laughter boomed.

“Very well, my dear successor! That tragic resolve of yours! That foolish determination! That mad judgment! Show me just how far they can take you! My body is already dead! Let us bet on whether you will be able to abide by your ideals or whether you will fall and become my true successor! My goodness, this shall be most entertaining, no matter how the die lands!”

His crimson blood changed colors in a flash and went up in an azure blaze. The glyphs on the summoning circle melted together, and the long and short hands of a clock sprang forth from the circle’s center and became etched into the floor. However, the two were yet to overlap.

Vlad extended a blood-soaked hand to Kaito. He spoke in a lilting tone, as if inviting Kaito to dance with him.

“Now then, dark magic is accompanied by pain, and the power of demons demands it! Show me the depths of your resolve!”

Kaito gently lifted up his own bloody hand.

The moment he did, the scene from just before flashed back through his mind.

Hina had smiled as she cried and wrapped his wounded hand up in hers.

Kaito clenched his hand shut, reopened it, and murmured.

“Sorry, Hina.”

He then placed his palm atop Vlad’s hand.

His left hand was then cleanly chopped off at the wrist.

Huge amounts of blood spurted from the cut. Vlad laughed happily, and Kaito stifled a scream.

The blood, which had poured down on the summoning circle, breathed fresh energy into its magical glyphs. The two clock hands loudly snapped together. The beasts’ howls grew louder.

The sound of a door opening rang out from somewhere.

The cell door of something that ought not arrive in the world of man had temporarily been thrown open. An incomparable hound, spurred on by the praises of all the beasts of the world, raced down the path it had once before.

The sound of its indomitable footsteps echoed in Kaito’s ears, and its damp breath brushed against his nose.

Vlad released Kaito’s hand, and it vanished into the maw of the beast that had appeared from the summoning circle. The first-class hound’s sleek black hair glistened as it elegantly forced its body through the air.

A roar that sounded like human laughter rang out.

Geh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh, fu-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh, geh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.

A human voice could be heard overlaid in it.

“VLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!”

The Kaiser’s wrathful howl filled the room.

Without a shred of hesitation, the hound opened its jaws toward Vlad Le Fanu, its eyes and mouth burning with hellfire. Its fangs mercilessly skewered his body. But Vlad simply stood there, calmly shrugging his shoulders.

“So sorry, but I no longer have a physical form. Dear Kaiser, surely you knew that this body was nothing more than a phantom, no? Heh—when I think about it like that, perhaps being dead isn’t so bad after all.”

“Quit flapping your lips, you lowly scrap of meat who went off and died beyond my reach. Your ungainly death has sullied the name of the Kaiser and sullied my pride as a hound. Do you think you are forgiven, Vlad? Do you think that is something I shall forgive, Vlad, O He Who Rears Hell Within His Mind? I listened to the speech you gave when you refused to merge with me, and I approved it. I did not want to sully myself with a lowly human form. However, O Arrogant Mage, know shame for showing me an end such as that!”

“What’s done is done, my friend. Would you be so gracious as to give this lecture to the ‘me’ from before? While I could certainly muster up an apology even now, I’ll be damned if I let you hold me accountable.”

“Hey, uh…Vlad…?”

“What is it, my dear successor?”

“…So…the Kaiser can talk?”

Kaito posed the question despite his shock. In the past, Kaito had only ever been able to hear his voice in the roar that sounded like laughter. He’d had no idea that demons could talk like people. However, when he listened closer, those words weren’t truly reaching his ears.

The Kaiser’s words were simply resonating in Kaito’s mind.

“Ah, that he can. Although to be more precise, I should say that he can send words directly into his contractor’s mind. Aside from him, the Grand King, the King, the Grand Monarch, and the Monarch can all use human speech as well. Although the Monarch is a bit suspect in that regards.”

“That’s a surprise… Do demons and humans have similar thought patterns?”

“That isn’t it—before they’re summoned, they exist in a higher dimension. They don’t possess human thoughts, they cannot use speech, and they aren’t equipped with senses. When the higher-ranked demons materialize, they reflect their summoner and lower themselves to a point where they can understand each other as simple, evil souls. If they didn’t, we humans wouldn’t even be able to comprehend their existences.”

“…So they use their summoners as reference points to restructure themselves?”

“Indeed. Hence, as I was the one to call forth the Kaiser, I influenced him a great deal. Well, that would explain his pride. However, some of the other unsummoned demons—ones with the power to rival God—could no doubt force all the creatures of our world to understand them without needing to lower themselves and would come already furnished with overbearing intellect and vocabulary… But it will take another two thousand years before any who could summon them will— Oh, careful there.”

As Vlad spoke, the Kaiser’s jaws made another attempt to gouge his body. His phantom form wavered for a moment but quickly returned to normal. Vlad shrugged. Even so, the hound’s attacks didn’t subside.

It appeared that the Kaiser was in a violent tempest of rage.

“Would you be so kind as to give that a rest? Even if my death did cast doubts on your strength, that has little to do with me now… Oh, well, I suppose saying that was just fuel on the fire, wasn’t it?”

The Kaiser’s fangs dug into Vlad again and again. Kaito thought back to how Vlad and the Kaiser had been defeated.

The Kaiser had been powerful enough to completely overwhelm Elisabeth and Hina. But due to the death of his contractor, Vlad, the Kaiser lost his anchor to this world and subsequently vanished. “He has his pride as a first-rate hound to consider,” Vlad had once said. Vlad’s death had no doubt made a mockery of the Kaiser.

“Unforgivable, unforgivable, unforgivable! What an unforgivable, puny creature you are! I shan’t forgive you for this, Vlad!”

The Kaiser was mad with rage. But after learning that his command of the human language was solid, some of Kaito’s tension had faded away. Even if the Kaiser was a demon, at least he could communicate his intentions.

As if having read his mind, the Kaiser lifted his head and looked at Kaito. His gaze—that of a creature on a whole different level than the rest of the hideous, unseemly demons—pierced through him.

Assailed by a strong aura of “death,” Kaito’s stomach dropped.

The Kaiser narrowed his eyes and then spoke in a low voice.

“Ah, the one I let grab my tail. You possess a false body. So your blood is that of a witch, and your heart is that of a man? Your soul is worthless—and yet intriguing. Very intriguing. Its form is warped. Very well, you will do. Yes, you will do nicely.”

“Won’t he, Kaiser? I thought he might catch your eye, given your repulsive taste.”

Vlad spoke jubilantly, practically singing. He walked along the black dog’s flank and then placed a phantasmal hand atop Kaito’s shoulder. Gracefully presenting Kaito, he urged the Kaiser on.

“Now then, shall we get on with the ceremonial trial?”

The black dog offered no reply, simply expelling air through his nose.

In the next moment, the Kaiser bore down on Kaito, his movements possessing an efficiency that bordered on beauty. Although it was filled with azure flames, his gaping maw smelled surprisingly like that of an ordinary dog.

…Huh?

Then the black dog’s jaws crunched mercilessly down on Kaito.

It hurts.

It hurts so much.

The pain was the only thing occupying Kaito’s thoughts. The black dog’s jaws had bitten off the bottom half of his body.

Vlad was standing overhead and saying something in a bewildered tone.

“Well now, this is unfortunate. Did he fail to meet your interest? Even so, doing that out of the blue was a bit ruthless… My, my, I didn’t expect him to die in such a manner before even getting started. How disappointing.”

Kaito was twitching and convulsing at Vlad’s feet. Each time he did, filth and blood spilled out of his torn entrails and onto the floor. Normally, losing that much blood would be enough to make his soul fade away. However, possibly because he was in the middle of summoning the Kaiser, his soul, which was being used as an intermediary, got caught in the black dog’s fur and stopped there.

Terrified due to being trapped halfway between life and death, Kaito tried to scream. However, all the air was leaking out of his abdomen, and he couldn’t gather his voice.

“Ah—… Ah—… Ah—…”

“Well, I suppose it can’t be helped. This, too, is a valid way for the curtain to fall. Bets can be won, but tragically, they can be lost as well. He was lacking in both fortune and ability. That was all there was to it.”

With affected movements, Vlad shrugged his shoulders. His body was beginning to transform into black feathers and azure flower petals from the toes up. It seemed that he was quickly giving up on the plan of using Kaito’s mana to remain in the world. His judgment was as gracious as always. Then Vlad vanished, leaving Kaito without even enough time to beg him to stay.

The black dog, too, turned tail and began making his way back down the path he had come from. The wicked energy that had kept Kaito’s soul in place left as the fur it had been wound through faded away.

Kaito’s soul began leaving his body along with his blood.

The next moment, instead of a light at the end of a tunnel, Kaito was assailed by an intense vision of the future.

Hina’s probably going to find my corpse after this.

Given Elisabeth’s current status, it would be impossible for her to summon Kaito’s soul again. Hina would apologize to Kaito for making him wait a little bit, assist Elisabeth in fighting the Marquis and the Grand Marquis, and get destroyed. And the Torture Princess, too, would have all the pain the world had to offer bestowed upon her by the Grand King before being brutally killed.

She would die a lonely, solitary death.

The only thing that would go on would be the world of man. All would be well in the name of their God.

That’s no good. I can’t let that happen. I—!

Kaito didn’t want to die helpless like that, not being able to give anything back to the other two.

Awash in despair and his own lamentations, Kaito fainted in agony.

The moment he did, the blood in his body began releasing a strange warmth. His entire body began heating up, as though it were transforming into flame. It was like some sort of magic had gone and activated on its own.

As he was being toyed with by that sensation, Kaito’s field of vision went dark.

In the deep darkness, all he had left was the unpleasant pain of the heat within his body.

When he came to his senses, he found himself lying atop a damp tatami mat.

…H-huh?

Flies buzzed noisily over his eyes.

He surveyed his surroundings. A dirty fluorescent bulb was swaying from the ceiling. The cracked window was covered in packing tape, and his ripped-out teeth rolled about beneath the tea table. The bits of his gums stuck to them were raw.

Then Kaito looked at his body. The shirt stuck to his scrawny torso was hardened from all the sweat and vomit staining it. His right arm was covered in shallow lacerations, and his left arm hung unmoving and was covered in dark-red stains. His ankle was twisted at an odd angle and had stuck that way. And it was possible that the pain in his stomach was due to a ruptured organ.

This is…the room I was in when I died back in Japan… Wait, did I do something?


Kaito tilted his head to the side. When he’d been assailed by despair and regret, his blood had released so much heat he’d felt as though it were burning up. He could only conclude that he’d subconsciously activated some sort of magic.

Don’t tell me I went back in time?

That was the conjecture Kaito arrived at based on the scene around him and the familiar pain racking his body. Maybe souls had no conception of time. Only bodies, living in reality, were bound by that concept. Maybe his soul, on the verge of fading from the golem body Elisabeth had made, had burned up the remaining mana in its blood and gone backward in time.

Although his brain was addled by pain and malnutrition, that was the conclusion Kaito arrived at.

“In that case…no time to waste, huh?”

He murmured quietly and then forced his body to move. There wasn’t so much as an uninjured hair on him. His body was practically skin and bones. Simply breathing sent waves of pain washing over his body. He also couldn’t stop convulsing, possibly as a result of dehydration. But none of that mattered to him. He wriggled, his body having become little more than a ball of pain.

He had to hurry up and get back to the other world.

I’m going to save them. This time, I’ll make sure I do whatever I can.

Limping on his broken leg, he struggled forward. He made for the ashtray covered in cigarette butts, the same one that had been used to smash his cheek a few days back.

He then threw it at the window so hard he almost dislocated his shoulder.

The conveniently cracked glass made a loud noise as it shattered.

“Urgh, ack, blurgh.”

The shock had sent his body reeling, and he retched where he stood. However, the contents of his gut were minimal. Tears welled up in his eyes at the unpleasant convulsions that struck his empty stomach. In spite of that, he crawled forward, propelled by willpower alone.

His father would be coming home soon. And when night fell, he would strangle Kaito to death. However, Kaito didn’t have time to wait for that. He had to get this over with as quickly as possible.

“I gotta hurry, I gotta hurry, I gotta hurry up and get going… I gotta hurry.”

With shaking fingers, Kaito grabbed a large shard of glass. It sliced his palm, but he barely felt any pain.

The thought of Elisabeth and Hina getting brutally murdered was far more terrifying. More than anything, he wanted to spend as little time as possible in this place far away from them.

Even if I end up not being able to do anything, I still want to be by their sides.

Elisabeth was the person he admired. Hina was the woman he loved.

And he had met both of them for the first time after he died.

This world didn’t have a single person in it who would call out his name with affection.

Then he heard the front door open. That man had returned earlier than usual, possibly related to the fact that Kaito had smashed the glass. His father was running violently down the hallway. He opened the sliding door and was about to shout out something in anger, when, due to how unexpected the scene before him was, he displayed an unusually flabbergasted expression.

“Kaito, you little shit, what’re you doin’?”

“Escaping to another world.”

After answering frankly, Kaito pressed the shard of glass against the nape of his neck.

In the space of a breath, he severed his carotid artery. Blood gushed out, and the ceiling was dyed bright red.

As the heat gradually left his body and a chill ran through him—a decidedly different sensation compared to the warmth of blood loss he’d felt earlier, and one that filled him with a vivid sense of loss—Kaito finally realized a certain possibility.

Huh? Wait, all that stuff that happened up till now…that wasn’t just a dream, was it?

At that point, his thoughts came to an abrupt halt.

Kaito Sena’s one and only life had ended.

Normally, someone who was killed as meaninglessly as a worm in a death most pitiful, unseemly, cruel, and gruesome wouldn’t get a second shot at life. It would be ridiculous for anyone to expect to be able to go to the world of their choice after they died.

In short, the conclusion was simple. There was no such thing as miracles.

That was all there was to it.

When he came to his senses, Kaito found himself floating in the darkness.

He had no body. All that existed was his consciousness. In fact, he couldn’t even say for sure whether or not even that existed.

They say “I think, therefore I am,” but in a meaningless space with no sense of touch, sight, or hearing, it was difficult to say that the presence of self-consciousness alone was enough to prove one’s existence. There was nobody there to observe him. No one was there to touch him or define him. There was nothing there that he could use to confirm his own sensations.

That fact was an extremely cruel one.

Just how long am I going to be here?

Kaito thought this to himself. Even the passage of time here was ambiguous. He was unable to suppress the sense of curiosity as to how his consciousness hadn’t vanished despite his brain being gone. All he was doing was idly existing.

I guess this is probably the afterlife.

Kaito was familiar with the concepts of Heaven and Hell. He’d concluded that he and Elisabeth were both probably headed for the latter. However, he hadn’t suspected that its true nature would turn out to be like this.

The fact that humanity had yet to obtain information about the afterlife was, in a word, obvious.

And the harshest part about being in that darkness was the fact that he had no definite memories that he could cling to.

In a place like that, where everything was vague, the only thing that could be relied upon was one’s own consciousness and memories. However, Kaito didn’t even have faith in those.

Are the memories I have of the time I spent with Elisabeth and the rest in that world even real?

Or were they nothing more than a fabrication Kaito had conjured up to escape the pain?

At this point, there was nothing he could use to verify them. They might have been nothing more than an incredibly realistic daydream. Given the way Kaito was now trapped in the afterlife, that possibility seemed the most likely.

Kaito had wallowed in his fabrications and then had eventually lost sight of the line separating them from reality and killed himself.

If that were the case, then Kaito Sena’s life would truly have been beyond salvation.

There could probably be no greater sadness.

Eventually, even the time he spent despairing passed.

Surrounded by darkness that continued on forever, Kaito sank deeper and deeper within himself. Searching for salvation, he rummaged through his memories, checked them, and then, on the verge of descending into madness, he arrived at a certain state of mind.

He was incredibly pissed off.

Hold up a minute. I mean, hypothetically, even if that world was false…

Did that really mean that it had no meaning?

Throughout all seventeen years of Kaito Sena’s life, his memories of that world were the only ones with vivid colors.

In that place, even if it had been a figment of his imagination, the experiences he’d accumulated had brought about undeniable change within him.

Enough of a change that he could muster up rage, even when in the midst of such irrationality.

Am I really fine with just staying here, wallowing in regret? Was my whole life really worthless to the very end? And before that, did all of it really just revert to zero?

Amid the darkness, Kaito violently forced the cogwheels of his nonexistent brain into motion. His recollections of that world stirred. Terrible, horrible memories that contained within them a single spoonful of radiant brilliance. They jump-started Kaito’s spirit. There was no way that he could think of those memories as meaningless, after all.

Wasn’t this situation trying too hard to get me to think that all was a dream, a fabrication that never really happened?

That was right—for what it was, it had all lined up too well. Kaito began noticing the incongruities in the recent developments, all of which had practically whispered in his ear that his memories were false and that he should fall into despair.

That’s right. I’ve got a hunch that someone’s trying to get me to feel regret.

They had tried to get him to spend all his time crying. To spend the rest of his days in endless despair. But Kaito wasn’t about to have that.

At first, he had definitely despaired.

Kaito had spent a few hours, a few years—at worst, perhaps even a century—within his mind on the verge of madness. However, little by little, he had regained his composure.

Even if that world had been a lie…

“No matter what kind of person you become, you will always be my dearest, my darling, my destined one, my master, my one true love, and my eternal companion. And I shall always be yours.”

“You fool… You utter imbecile… You had the fortune of obtaining a second life… Just stop already. It’s…fine. You’ve done enough.”

…the memories he’d made there had still been beautiful, and the things he’d experienced there had been real.

Even if it had been fake, the fact that there had been someone who cared for Kaito was real.

And the fact that, in a world devoid of heroes and gods, there had been a woman he had been able to believe in was true as well.

If that’s the case, then there’s no need for me to grieve, right? Depending on the situation, if someone really set this up, then I don’t have to waste time feeling sorry for myself.

From within the darkness, Kaito picked up on incongruities over and over again.

That place was unnecessarily dreadful. It was like the personification of the situation Kaito feared the most—that he’d never actually gone to that other world and just cruelly died at the end of his abuse. The darkness had silently imposed anguish upon him and tried to render his precious memories meaningless again and again.

Something about it was strange. As such, he had to confirm it.

Even though he lacked feet to walk with, a body, a soul.

Even if this isn’t something that someone set up.

As long as he didn’t give up, he might eventually be able to discern the truth.

Kaito was there, after all.

That entire line of thinking had been absurd. It had no logical basis to it. But despite knowing that, it was the conclusion Kaito had arrived at. As he did, he slowly began speaking.

“I don’t care if it’s a fabrication. That’s the conclusion I reached. I’m gonna keep trying to pin down the source of these incongruities. As long as I have my memories, I’m never giving up, and I’m never gonna lose myself.”

His mouth shouldn’t have existed, yet his voice came out all the same. Furthermore, he now clearly sensed another entity. As though a fog had lifted, Kaito’s perception grew rapidly.

There was something standing before him.

Kaito faced it and then spoke his thoughts freely.

“Hey, could you cut it out already? Even if you keep this up, nothing’s gonna change. No matter how much time passes, I’ll always know I’m being tested.”

Suddenly, Kaito felt a sharp pain run across his body. The nostalgic sensation traced the contour of his body, formed it, and bound him.

When he came to his senses, he found himself impaled by a number of dog fang–like wedges. Chains extended from them, fixing his body in place. He was dangling in the air, held up by a thousand chains.

If he took so much as a step, he didn’t doubt that his body would be torn open and his blood would run freely.

A boy stood before him.

The red-haired boy gazed directly at Kaito. His gaze seemed to ask if Kaito was really okay with this, as well as reproach him, as the boy knew he was in the wrong.

For a second, Kaito was assailed by a sensation resembling vertigo.

Had that boy really existed? Had he really wished for Kaito’s happiness?

Even now, he wasn’t certain. Still, though, he faced the boy and smiled.

“It’s okay, Neue. I’m just protecting the things that I want to protect.”

Kaito shifted his body. The chains rattled, and blood trickled down. The wedges dug into him, tearing his flesh. His arms ripped apart as he extended a hand forward, and his legs were severed as he began to walk.

As he did—insane as his actions were—he made his promise in a bright, cheery voice.

“I’ll make sure to protect the promise I made with you, as well.”

As his body tore, Kaito extended his hand toward hope.

Then, in the deep darkness, he grabbed on to a black dog’s tail.

Geh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh, fu-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh, geh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh.

“Very well, very well, very well, very well! Very well! I have taken a liking to you! Your blind devotion to hope, your madness! Your unnatural familiarity with pain! O glass marble, hurled about and horribly twisted, yet remaining clear all the while! Very well! You possess the capacity to entertain me, to entertain the Kaiser!”

An azure flame roared to life. The black dog kicked at the stone floor with his graceful paws. Each time he leaped, the smell of wild beasts filled the area, and the whole room shook. Vlad’s eyes were twinkling, and he laughed as his coat and hair were blown about by the wind.

Before he’d realized it, Kaito was standing back in the room at the end of the underground corridor. His left hand was still gone, and he was covered in blood. Even so, he cast his fierce, antagonistic gaze at the Kaiser.

The summoning circle shined blue atop the floor. Azure flower petals and black feathers danced vigorously through the air, as though giving their blessings. Amid the hymnal-like roar of countless beasts, the Kaiser made his declaration.

“Henceforth, you shall be my master! Kaito Sena! O Accumulation of Seventeen Years’ Pain!”

Then everything went quiet.

With a whiff, everything vanished from the room. The Kaiser, Vlad, and the madly dancing feathers and petals all disappeared.

All that was left was Kaito.

Nothing about the room was different from when he’d entered it. He surveyed its rocky walls in amazement.

It was like it had all been just a bad dream.

That was no dream, though.

Kaito gingerly lifted his left arm. There, at the severed end, sat the massive, pitch-black forepaw of a beast.

He turned his lips up into a faint smile. Then he closed his eyes and inspected the amount of mana within his body.

The power of a demon dwelled deep within his heart. However, it didn’t seem like he’d be able to freely use it just yet. The aggregate sum of all the pain he’d experienced to date was far from sufficient.

What to do next?

Kaito began analyzing the initial plan he’d put forth to Vlad.

It was right when he’d just finished putting that thought in order.

The door shook. Someone was shouting from outside it.

Suddenly, the blade end of a halberd split through its heavy planks. The door shattered, and splinters of wood went flying.

Hina stood on the other side. She’d probably heard something, whether it was Kaito’s screams or the Kaiser’s roars. She shouted out in a tense voice.

“Master Kaito, are you al—?”

“Hina.”

As she heard him say her name, Hina’s eyes went wide and she lost her voice. She stared at him. After checking his left wrist, she grimaced faintly as though she’d understood something.

Kaito smiled back at her.

…There’s the face I missed.

He had missed her so much and loved her so dearly. With all the trust and affection that he could muster, Kaito stared at Hina as if trying to sear her image into his mind. Then he deliberately opened his mouth.

“If even then you still love me, then please fight by my side.

“You said that no matter what happened, you would stand in the way of all my enemies. And you told me that if I thought anything of you, that I should tell you either to protect me or to fight together by my side… If you don’t mind me taking you up on that, if you don’t mind me believing in you, then I’ll do everything in my power to live up to those feelings of yours…and if you don’t think that I’m worthy of your love anymore after I’ve changed, then so be it. But even if that happens, there’s one thing I want you to remember.

“I love you, Hina… Ah, I see. So this is what love is like.”

Then he met her emerald gaze and asked a question of the woman he’d once professed his love for, the person he’d asked to fight alongside him—his eternal companion, who had then nodded in agreement.

“Hina, could you die for me?”

Hina stared back at him. Her face slackened.

A warm smile spread across her face. It was filled with true delight and possessed not a shred of lies or falsehood.

“Yes, gladly.”

Hina answered and then knelt before him.

Kaito simply nodded in response.



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