Fremd Torturchen - Volume 7 - Chapter 11

11

Her Quiet Murmur

“…Father? Hey, Father?”

“Alice, don’t force yourself to talk. You may be accustomed to pain, but I’m sure this is harsh, even for you.”

“Oh, no, I’m fine… If I’m not talking, I won’t be able to keep calm. That was awful. Truly, truly awful. Dark magic doesn’t work right against sacred beasts. Even though I used Humpty Dumpty, my legs and arms are lying all about, like in Mother Goose’s ‘The Untidy Man.’ Why, it’s a wonder I even survived. But I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt, Father. You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

“No. Thanks to you, I’m fine. I’m sure everyone will sing your praises, saying I don’t deserve to have a daughter half as wonderful as you.”

“Tee-hee. Well, that’s good, then. I got a compliment from you, Father, and that’s plenty enough for me. It was awful, though, the way the lizard man survived by sneaking into our egg.”

“He is working with us, you know. Please find it in yourself to forgive him.”

“Oh, all right… By the way, Father, were you looking for a friend?”

“…What makes you think that?”

“Well, it looked like you were trying to get along with that bird guy… So I was wondering if you’d wanted to be friends with him.”

“I suppose I did. But I misjudged him. He, too, was one who was taken from, but he and I weren’t able to understand each other.

“The two of us could never have become friends. The cloths we were cut from were simply too different.”

“Oh, I see… Well, that’s sad.”

“And I’m sure you’re disappointed, too, no? You’d been looking forward to it so much, but you weren’t able to make the friend you’d hoped.”

“Ah, that’s right! That’s right; Elisabeth was horrid! She would get mad out of nowhere and go on and on about the most confusing, incomprehensible things! I was so sure she’d be able to understand my pain. So why, I wonder?”

“That should go without saying, I think. Your very existence lay outside her ability to comprehend, young lady.”

“Shut up, lizard man. Next time you talk out of turn, it’s off with your head! But that’s right… Maybe she just got the wrong idea about me.”

“…The wrong idea, hmm?”

“She’s too far away to talk to now…but you got the wrong idea about me, Elisabeth. We’re the same, he and I. Kaito Sena’s position and mine are opposites, that’s all. And good and evil can change ever so easily.

“I’m sure you know that, too.

“So I’m confident that it won’t be long.”

The image of burning gold was covered up by a crimson wall.

The bloody hue filled Elisabeth’s vision. Soon, small fissures began spidering their way across the wall. Then with a sharp crack, it shattered, exposing a sight that Elisabeth was quite familiar with.

It was a well-sanitized room that had been built in a massive recess inside a tree. Cots were lined up at regular intervals atop its smooth, level floor, and flower-laden vines hung from the ceiling as makeshift curtains.

They were in the area that had once been set up as the World Tree’s interim infirmary.

Even after the end of days was averted, they’d decided to have it continue operating as is as a countermeasure against exceptional disasters.

At the moment, the room was filled with the smell of disinfectant—but that wasn’t all.

There was also the rusty reek of blood.

Elisabeth quickly glanced around the room. There were drops of blood on the floor between the cots, and the infirmary’s patients were all huddled in a corner. Due to Elisabeth and Lute’s abrupt arrival, they were looking at them with shock on their faces.

What exactly happened here?

What had happened, and how had it ended?

A few healers were about, cleaning the soiled ground with hygienic masks covering their mouths. One of them looked up. After giving instructions to the other confused healers, the goat-headed woman walked over to Elisabeth and Lute and removed her mask.

“I can’t say that’s the way I expected you to come back, Lute. In theory, only those who’ve received permission from the World Tree itself can teleport in or out of it. It came as quite a surprise, seeing you appear like that.”

“Ain? You’re back from your dispatch already?! And that blood… What in the world happened?!”

It was Lute’s wife, Ain. Upon hearing her words, Elisabeth frowned. It was true; the Three Kings of the Forest’s home, the World Tree, was no easy place to invade. Yet she and Lute had been sent there directly, and by a mysterious individual who’d been dressed the same as the Butcher, no less.

In short…whoever they were, they had the World Tree’s blessing?

“The group of demi-humans who took refuge in the World Tree was suffering from acute fatigue, so I was asked to return at once. Also, I heard that our people had been attacked, so I knew we would need skilled healers. I came back as quickly as I could, but…as you can see, the situation turned ugly.”

“What happened? You’re not hurt, are you, dear?”

“If I were wounded, do you think I would be so negligent in treating it?”

“No, I suppose not… Then who—?”

“Some of the demi-humans turned on you, then?”

Elisabeth cut Lute’s question off with one of her own. Lute’s shoulders jolted.

It was an obvious conclusion to draw. After all, there was no way that Aguina Elephabred was the sole demi-human who’d turned against the three races. Plus, the World Tree was hard to attack and easy to defend.

However, nobody would have expected an attack from within, and the demi-humans from the first sector, the royalty, and the high officials had already been invited to evacuate here. For the traitors, it was the best opportunity imaginable. It still wouldn’t be easy, but if they could cause a panic and kidnap the Three Kings of the Forest during the mayhem, victory would be theirs. However…

“Given that you’re spending your time cleaning, though, I take it you avoided the worst-case scenario.”

“I see it won’t be difficult filling you in. After they arrived, and while they were being led to the area with the guest quarters, the demi-humans turned on us. The human king came running, but they captured him, then began making their way to the lower levels. Some of them even tried to use themselves as suicide bombers to stop our forces from pursuing them—but before they could, their explosives were all disabled. We had Madam Izabella Vicker and Madam Jeanne de Rais to thank for that.”

Elisabeth nodded. That made sense. Jeanne turned into an idiot when it came to matters involving Izabella, but for everything else, she was quick on the uptake and calm and decisive when she acted. Throwing her for a loop was no easy task.

If the hostages she’d been charged with protecting turned on her, she wouldn’t hesitate to demolish them.

“The human king is safe now. Most of the fighting happened around the guest quarters, but a group of demi-humans who’d been brought to the infirmary tried to take the other patients hostage by force, so we had to deal with them.”

“Hmm? You mean to say the carnage here was your doing?”

“Not to worry. Most of this is from little more than nosebleeds. We may have caused hemorrhaging in a few lungs, but nothing serious enough to do permanent damage.”

Ain was forthright with her answer. Beastfolk healers couldn’t use magic, but their skill with herbs was unparalleled, and they had extensive knowledge of the three races’ physiologies. Plus, although Elisabeth hadn’t known about it, it would appear they also went through regular military training, perhaps so as to be able to function better when they had to serve as battlefield medics. A pained look crossed Lute’s face. It looked like the two of them might have quarreled about the subject in the past, but now it had come as the situation’s silver lining.

However, Ain’s gaze darkened.

“That said, the situation quickly got messy. The thing is, not all the demi-humans were working with the traitors.”

“…They weren’t?”

“Many of them—women, children, the king’s relatives, and the like—hadn’t been apprised of the coming rebellion. Is that about the shape of it?”

“That’s right. They were shocked, and some of them even tried to protect us. At first, we couldn’t make sense of any of it. At the moment, most of the insurgents are imprisoned in the cells…but the ones who hadn’t known about their plans are being held together in the central plaza, and the Three Kings of the Forest are currently debating their fates.”

Lute reacted to Ain’s initial statement with bewilderment, but Elisabeth immediately sussed out the reason behind the internal division. Yet again, it all came back to the demi-humans’ obsession with blood purity. Aguina and the other traitors had wanted to make sure the citizens with the highest and second-highest grade of blood purity didn’t get completely wiped out, so they probably concealed the information about the hostages and the traitorous demands being made of them from some of their comrades. They knew that if they kept them from being complicit in the betrayal, the beastfolk would spare them.

That way, even if the mixed-race folk lost, the demi-humans’ roots would survive.

Elisabeth thought back on Aguina’s words.

“Protecting our blood purity is important to preserve our people’s dignity—in fact, it’s absolutely essential. As I see it, we have no other choice.”

Aguina was willing to prioritize his people’s dignity over his own happiness to the bitter end. His family had been taken hostage, and on top of all that, the betrayal he was being asked to make served to advance his people’s interests.

At that point, how could anyone possibly say no?

From the demi-humans’ perspective, Aguina’s decision was no doubt right and proper. ’Tis a hideous choice, one devoid of reason—yet even so, I’ve little doubt that man intends to see it through.

As Elisabeth thought, a conflicted expression crossed Lute’s face.

“Madam Elisabeth, I’m heading to the cells to confirm the situation. Then I have to go to the imperial family and the Three Kings of the Forest and tell them what we know about the demi-humans’ betrayal.”

“Aye, good. ’Tis important that a report be given, and they’d never grant me an audience with the Three Kings. Be off.”

“Pardon me, then. And, Ain, I’m glad you aren’t hurt. We’ll talk more later.”

After calling over to his beloved wife, Lute left the room. As Elisabeth watched him go, she suddenly realized something. Why had Aguina asked Lute to come with him? Part of it was probably to use her subordinate to get her and La Christoph to lower their guards. On that front, the gambit had been a complete success.

However, there was another important reason as well. Instead of having to relay the information through Elisabeth, Aguina wanted Lute, as a beastman, to see the situation and the choice Aguina had made firsthand. That way, it would serve as a question.

The mixed-race folk are starting an uprising. The humans have been betrayed. The demi-humans did the betraying. Now—what will the beastfolk do?

Two of their imperial princesses had been murdered. Even though there was no way they’d work with the mixed-race folk, there was still the possibility of them joining forces with the demi-humans in the coming war. Unlike the demi-humans with their captured settlement, the beastfolk had no clear reason to fight. But that was why Aguina had gone out of his way to share his fears about the future with Lute.

Mankind had caused a tragedy. Yet even now, the power gap between them and the other two races continued to grow. At some point in the future, the minorities were going to find themselves absorbed. So would they rather be ruled by the mixed-race folk, or the humans?

That was the choice they had to make.

Humans weren’t even aware of how exclusivist they were. And both the other races knew it.

In the end, what will the beastfolk do?

Elisabeth gazed at Lute’s back as he receded down the hallway. She wordlessly clenched her fists.

It’s time for a story.

A beautiful, poignant fairy tale.

Three years ago, the world very nearly met a tragic end. However, that seemingly immutable fate was altered by a single person. And the one who accomplished that miraculous feat wasn’t a grand hero of any sort.

He was a boy who had reincarnated from another world following a life of abuse and a meaningless death.

He got a second chance at life, then had a number of experiences, some horrifying and some irreplaceable. Then after a long series of battles, he obtained a colossal amount of mana and used it to save someone precious to him.

And while he was at it, he saved the world.

By sacrificing himself.

After burdening himself with God and Diablo, the boy fell into a deep slumber at the World’s End. Thanks to his deeds, the people of the world managed to avoid the apocalypse. The greatest good for the greatest number was, surely, the greatest outcome.

It was a tale of admiration, foolishness, and love. But whenever someone’s story ends, there are some things that yet remain. With its lease on life renewed, the world continued on. But the bells would eventually toll on a new curtain’s rise.

For that is the way bells and curtains are.

However, every single thing about the new story—

—is hideous and vile.

A gust of wind struck Elisabeth on the cheek. She was standing out on a balcony.

It had been built atop one of vast branches that jutted out from the World Tree. She stood there and silently looked down. There was a long scar on the ground that cut through the forest surrounding the World Tree—Vlad’s handiwork from the end of days. Modest had never exactly been part of the man’s vocabulary.

Things inside were tumultuous, but out there, it was quiet and still. A flock of birds flapped their way across the pale-blue sky.

By then, day had already broken. Elisabeth opened her mouth and broke the silence.

“So why follow me here?”

“Why, indeed…? I’m not sure even I can fully explain it.”

Ain had come to stand beside her at some point. Ever since Elisabeth had left the infirmary, Ain had been walking alongside her. Ain took off her face mask and gazed up at the sky with her inhuman eyes.

For a little while, the only sound was that of the birds. Eventually, though, Ain quietly spoke.

“There was a day, once, when I asked a young man who seemed like himself, yet at the same time, like someone else, if he was well. He smiled and said he was fine. ‘I’m still me, after all…’ Even to this day, I’m not sure if it was my duty as a healer to stop him or not.”

“…Hmm. I don’t know who it is you’re speaking of, but he sounds like a most foolish man indeed.”

“Mm, and I suspect that this might be why I followed you.”

“Hmm? I don’t follow.”

“You remind me of him quite a lot. You were both harshly wounded, you were both filled with resignation, and you both refused to lose what was important to you. He may have been a sinless soul, and you may be a peerless sinner, but the two of you have the same eyes. And one other thing.”

“That being?”

“I only just found out, but I’m pregnant.”

“WHAAAAT?!”

Elisabeth couldn’t help but let out a hysterical yelp. The birds resting on the World Tree all hurriedly took off. Ain was the very image of composure, but in contrast, Elisabeth’s mouth hung wide open.

“No, wait, surely Lute, not I, should be the first to hear—”

“Now, I can’t claim to know all the specifics of what’s going on.”

Ain cut Elisabeth off and continued. She gently stroked her belly.

Elisabeth narrowed her eyes. The imperial beastfolk princesses had been murdered, and the demi-humans had betrayed them. Those were the only two things Ain knew. However, that was more than enough to realize that peacetime was over. Ain’s next words sounded almost like a prayer.

“All I wish for is a world where our child can live with a smile on their face.”

“Are you truly prepared to accept the gravity of destroying the potential for children to look up at the sky and dream?”

The reason Ain had said that probably had to do with how similar the Torture Princess was to the Mad King.

He had once saved the world, and Ain’s subconscious had driven her to make the same wish to the person who most resembled him.

And at the same time, Elisabeth heard La Christoph’s words overlaid with Ain’s.

For a short moment, Elisabeth had her breath taken away. The situation was utter chaos. It was unclear which path the beastfolk would take, the humans were idiots, and the Torture Princess had no idea what the best option would ultimately be. And yet…

In a world forcibly made even through revenge, some things will invariably be lost.

“Excuse me, I need to go speak with Lute.”

There were some things that simply couldn’t grow in the soil left in hatred’s wake. Instinctively realizing that, Elisabeth turned to leave. The moment she did, Ain looked up in shock. With an ominous feeling in her gut, Elisabeth stopped in her tracks.

The heavy flapping sound of wings had filled the air. The next moment, countless figures filled the sky.

Thousands upon thousands of birds had all taken flight at once. It was like a storm, or like a black cloud blotting out the sky. It was a bizarre sight, and certainly not one that had come about naturally. The birds were utterly terrified.

Then from amid the countless figures—

—an imposing voice boomed through the sky.

“Hear ye, ladies and gentlemen!

“Let my words be heard as a record of our subservience. Let them be heard as a lamentation of the humiliating lives you’ve forced us into. Let them be heard as a cry of rage at the cruelty of the fates you’ve subjected us to. And let them be heard as a hymn of joy. We have wept, and we have wept, and we have wept, and we have no tears left to shed. What choice do we have, then, but to rejoice in your tyranny? We have surpassed resignation, we have transcended despair, and at long last, we have found our answer. But you people can’t even begin to imagine the cruelties we had to suffer to reach it.

“You only see what you want to see, only hear what you want to hear.

“It is in weakness that people have room to grow. Yet you persisted in your ignorance. So, so many of you insisted on continuing your insane foolishness. Who allowed you to be so stupid, so cruel?

“Why should we have to forgive you?

“For make no mistake—we have been called on to forgive you time and again.

“A thought crossed my mind once—if the end of days truly had been upon us, maybe it would have all been fine. All your atrocities could be forgiven, written off as isolated incidents of fear-induced derangement.

“But God and Diablo failed to bring down the hammer—so I must do it in their stead.

“I’ll take this world, I’ll make it my own, and I’ll kill every last fool who walks upon it. I don’t need a reason. After all, justice died long ago. At this point, what use does anyone have for something so decent and proper? And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether I do anything; it won’t affect our ultimate fate. Salvation isn’t coming, ladies and gentlemen. Not for you, not for anyone. And certainly not for me.

“It’s clear now that God has no mercy.

“It’s clear now there is no other way.

“The sun has gone dark—now, let the killing commence.

“We, the mixed-race folk, hereby declare our rebellion against you.”

“—Longinus.”

Elisabeth snapped her fingers.

When she did, a spear shot through the flock faster than a bolt of lightning, like an act of divine retribution. Elisabeth’s attack struck true, piercing through the communication device hidden among the birds. It tumbled to the ground with an earsplitting screech.

The announcement was over. However, every single person gathered in the World Tree had undoubtedly heard Lewis’s words.

Elisabeth clenched her fists tight. Then and there, the proclamation had been made.

The opening act was over, and the war had begun in earnest. They’d escaped the end of days and been saved, but now the curtain had well and truly risen on a new stage. The avengers were revolutionizing the world.

At long last, punishment had caught up with sin.

’Tis only natural those killed should bear grudges.

The day of forgiveness would never come. And the victims had every right to curse, resent, and detest the world. However, Elisabeth thought as she dug her nails into her palms. Before she could finish the thought, though, she heard a familiar voice call out from behind her.

“Ah, Madam Elisabeth, there you are! I imagine you heard that just now. They’re moving faster than we expected!”

“That was a rather bold declaration of war they just made. I had thought they would lie low for a little longer. In any case, though, the humans and beastfolk intend to hold a conference, and… Lady? Whassup? That face you’re makin’ ain’t like ya.”

Izabella and Jeanne came running toward her. It would appear that when they heard the decree, they’d immediately come looking for her. However, Elisabeth remained silent. She gazed out over the now-quiet forest. Then after narrowing her eyes as though trying to see to the world’s end, she finally spoke.

“Aye, I suppose that’s necessary… However, I hope you’ll excuse me if I slip away for a bit. It shall take some time to get things set up, I imagine? I’ve every intention of returning before I’m needed… Or rather, should I—?”

Elisabeth glanced over at Ain. There was something she needed to tell Lute. However, Ain returned Elisabeth’s crimson gaze and shook her head. She stroked her still-thin belly.

“It would seem you and I were thinking much the same thing. If you have somewhere you wish to be, then by all means, go. I’ll speak to him. Besides, if he heard about the pregnancy from anyone but me, he might well faint.”

“Aye, true. Lute has many traits, and getting overly shocked by things is certainly one of them. I leave him to you, then.”

Elisabeth gave her a small nod and walked off. Izabella watched her, puzzled. That said, she didn’t move to stop her. She bit her lip in thought. Her face, which was still beautiful despite the drastic change it had undergone, contorted in sorrow. Jeanne remained expressionless, but her voice took on a concerned tone.

“My lady…is something the matter?”

“Forgive me. I just remembered some business I need to attend to. There’s somewhere I have to go before the meeting. You should stay with His Majesty.”

“No, I’m coming with you. I’m yours, in body and soul.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I ask that you let me go alone. Please don’t follow me.”

After making her wishes exceedingly clear, Izabella strode off as well. She passed Elisabeth and left the area.

Elisabeth glanced back over her shoulder. The golden Torture Princess was standing in abject shock. Then all of a sudden, she collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Jeanne accompanied her over-the-top reaction with a small whisper.

“Have I already been rejected, by any chance? Maaaaan…are you for real?”

“I can’t say I know the particulars of your situation, but are you sure you aren’t just jumping to conclusions?”

Ain immediately began consoling her. As she listened to them, Elisabeth started walking again. She withdrew her jewel, then flipped it into the air. A teleportation circle traced itself atop the ground.

Crimson flower petals and black darkness whirled through the air, and a cylindrical wall the color of blood rose up around her.

When it shattered, the Torture Princess was gone.

Once again, Elisabeth had vanished from the beastfolk lands.

She materialized in a place with no night or day.

It was a pure place, one crafted from snow and water, wind and mana.

Above her head, a rainbow curtain fluttered in a milky-white sky with no sun or moon. Her surroundings were beautiful, but it was a hollow beauty. Dainty crystals fell from the sky and crunched underfoot as she walked.

Eventually, she reached a sight she’d seen time and again.

There were two pillars of ivy toppled over, like corpses of giants.

The two of them were lying on top of each other and propping each other up. A shrine-like cave sat at their center.

Elisabeth sat down in it, surrounded by ivy decorated with azure and crimson roses.

Suddenly, she let her body go limp. A small thump echoed as her back impacted the crystal.

She quietly closed her eyes, as she had once before.

Two people were sleeping inside the crystal at her back.

They were as silent as ever, and unchanging smiles adorned their faces.

The crystal was cold and hard. The distance its clear walls separated was slim, yet it was farther than the World’s End.

Kaito Sena wasn’t the Torture Princess. He wasn’t a saint. He wasn’t even the Mad King. He was just a boy. Yet now he was slumbering with his bride, bearing the burden of a world that by all rights he should have had nothing to do with.

Elisabeth thought. The boy had known just how horrible people were. He knew that fact remained true, even across worlds. Yet even so, he saw the world as beautiful. Because that was where the people he cared about lived. “So I’ll protect it,” he’d boasted. He’d smiled to the very end.

And now people were trying to rob that smile of its meaning.

Everyone is the same. Indeed, even I.

They were all but swine, hideous beyond compare.

Humanity had made a mistake, countless people had stood by and watched, the mixed-race folk had turned to vengeance, the imperial princesses had died nobly, the demi-human man had betrayed the world for those he cared about, and the saints’ representative had died with a heart full of belief in both God and creation.

Now the survivors were jumping at shadows and starting a new battle.

And the world would keep turning, just as properly as ever.

Humanity, demi-humans, beastfolk, and mixed-race folk were all the same. When they were viewed not as individuals, but as groups, none of them were deserving of belief in the slightest. Yet even so—

…Even so?

“Say, Kaito…”

Still facing forward, Elisabeth let out a whisper. The Torture Princess refused to turn around.

Yet even so, she let out a quiet murmur, like a single drop of blood shed straight from the heart.

“…would it not be better for a world such as this simply to end?”

She received no answer.

Inside the crystal, the world’s two saviors simply kept on smiling.