The Daughter of Evil - Volume 3 - Chapter 4.3

Chapter 4-Time and a Forest and a Song; Scene 3
Praeludium of Red, page 216-241

♣ Yukina ~In the country of Elphegort, “Millenium Tree Forest/Tree of Held"~

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No matter where you went in the forest, very little of it looked that much different than the rest. This was especially true for an outsider like me, and I often thought about how Gumillia never get lost. If I were to stray from her, it would probably be extremely difficult for me to get out of the forest again.

Moving forward had become far less difficult in itself. The trail had gradually widened out. There were traces that people had passed through scattered on the ground. Perhaps this road was used by the locals for picking fruits and plants and such.

After going on a ways, we came out to a space that was more open than anything previous. At the heart of this place that was a little bit like a plaza, there was an enormous tree.

This plaza wasn’t man-made. It felt almost as though the vegetation had avoided growing in the vicinity, as though in paying respect to that enormous tree.

“Is this big tree the lord of the forest?” I said without thinking.

Germaine made a bemused expression, but Gumillia answered with a straight face.

“Well, that’s the gist of it.” After setting the bag she’d been carrying on her back to the ground, she murmured towards the tree, “I’m home, Lord Held.”

I see, so this was the fabled “Tree of Held”. As I recall, I had once read in a book somewhere that this was a sacred place for the Held sect of the Levin religion.

Gumillia bent down by the Tree of Held’s side, and appeared to be saying something quietly.

When I looked closer I saw the subject of her gaze–a tiny sapling growing right next to the Tree of Held. It was so small I’d overlooked it before.

Germaine sat on the bare ground and started resting. Unlike Gumillia and I, she was wearing armor–not heavy, albeit, but still. The journey up until this point had probably been wearing her down.

After a minute, Gumillia stood.

“As expected, this is the place.”

“You mean Kyle’s been staying here?” Germaine asked her, still sitting.

“Mhm. But he’s out right now.”

“He’s sure to come back eventually.”

“Yes. This is ideal, let us prepare right now.”

Gumillia opened the bag that she had set down and laid out its contents.

Candles, drinking cups, cards, disks with a coat of arms painted on it…It was a display of things I barely recognized. If my collector of a father saw it he’d probably be ecstatic.

Before I knew it, the sky was dyed in orange. The sun was setting.

“Truthfully, I would have liked to, settle things before the day was out,” Gumillia said, arranging her tools around the vicinity.

Normally, the spells that Gumillia and Elluka used were able to display their full potential on nights where the moon was full. So, whenever she was going to cause something, if possible she’d pick a day when the moon was full.

The time we visited the palace was no exception. Gumillia had acted on a full moon that day as well.

“Will we be alright when it becomes nighttime?” I asked, driven to anxiety as I remembered what had happened at the palace.

The night of a full moon–we’d sure kicked up a hornet’s nest then. A full moon could make magical spells stronger…but at the same time it also heightened the magical power of a demon as well.

In addition to King Kyle becoming emotionally unstable, in the end it resulted in the demon inside of him growing out of control.

Gumillia replied, after looking up at the sky once, “No problem. Tonight should be a crescent moon.”

“Is a demon’s magic weaker during a crescent moon than a full moon?”

“Honestly, the time of a new moon is most ideal. However at that time, I would also be unable to use, most of my magic.”

“So I guess then that a crescent moon is the best, if you’re thinking about balance.”

“Ah, yes. The time to win against a demon is the night of a crescent moon. Elluka taught me that, but I’d completely forgotten.”

I figured that in a way it was understandable. Like Germaine and I, she had never actually confronted a demon up until now.

“Frankly, Elluka’s absence has been trying,” Germaine touched on the topic of the sorceress who was Gumillia’s mentor, taking her rapier into her hands. “If she were here, she’d be able to lend us her power in some way.”

The missing sorceress, Elluka. What was she doing right now?

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It was three hours later.

The sun had gone down, and the only light source left was the fire from the candles that Gumillia was preparing. Outside of the clearing it was pitch-black.

“Take care that the fire doesn’t spread to the trees around us,” Germaine pointed out. “It’d be no laughing matter if you started a forest fire.”

A forest fire…I remembered the color of the sky that I had seen from my mansion in Elphegort five years ago, stained red.

“There was a forest fire here five years ago, too.”

“Indeed. Though to be specific, it wasn’t the Millenium Tree Forest that it happened in, but rather the ‘Forest of Bewilderment’ on Lucifenia’s side. I worked pretty hard at trying to put it out back then.” Germaine nodded several times, as though remembering something. “Come to think of it, that’s when I first met you, isn’t it Master Gumillia?”

Gumillia gazed up at the night sky without responding to Germaine’s question.

“Master Gumillia~ Don’t ignore me.”

“…He’s here.”

The subject of Gumillia’s stare was black wings flying in the air.

Naturally, it wasn’t a bird.

The black-winged animal closed the distance in the blink of an eye, and finally descended down to the clearing where we were…or so it seemed, but then it quickly changed course and charged straight for Germaine.

“…–!”

Before I could cry out, the winged demon’s sharp claws drew close to Germaine’s throat.

In that moment.

A metallic clank echoed through the area.

“…Ouch.”

Germaine had fallen on her back, holding her rapier in her right hand.

A dark figure stood in her way, holding her left hand still with its right hand.

“You repelled me with your sword pretty quickly, huh? You’re much more skilled than you were five years ago, aren’t you?”

Germaine quickly stood, and readied her rapier.

“I’ve come to be good friends with a certain master swordsman on my journey, so they’ve given me a bit of training… Man, you really do look like a demon, don’t you?” There was a red glint in his eye. His fangs and claws were sharp. Germaine spoke her mind before the demon, having seen it up close for the first time. “Do you still have some human consciousness left?”

“Consciousness…? I have always been me. No more, no less,” the winged-demon-turned Marlon King–Kyle–said with a loud laugh.

“That’s not very persuasive, with you looking like that. What do you think, Master Gumillia?”

“I can’t say. He might have the consciousness of the king, it might be that of the demon, or it could be that both of them have 'blended together'…”

Gumillia was on guard, keeping her distance from Kyle.

When I rushed over to her side, I stood at the ready towards him just like she was.

It might not look it, but I had learned at least a modest degree of self-protection.

This might be Mister Kyle, but if push comes to shove I’ll try to floor him with a kick!

Kyle glanced at me and Gumillia, and then curled his lips into a grin. “You don’t need to be so afraid. I wouldn’t lay a hand on you, Yukina.”

His voice was gentle, unlike how he’d spoken before. Conversely, it sent a chill down my spine.

“I’m the one you want to kill, right?” Germaine pressed, and Kyle cracked his knuckles as though to display his power.

“And the sorceress, eventually. But first you, Germaine.”

“That’s how it seems to me, so you two back off. I’ll carve out the will of this king so determined for revenge that he turned into this monster.”

“Don’t make me laugh. With this form I’ll win easily against the likes of you!”

Kyle spoke with such a bloodthirsty tone that I could tell that wasn’t an exaggeration.

Gumillia spoke up a little. “Germaine. There’s no need to hesitate. He might be a demon, but when it’s not a full moon he shouldn’t have, any significant strength to him.”

“How much power does he have, specifically?”

“Hmm, around as much as a slightly ferocious bear, or lion, or such.”

“…Those are pretty dangerous on their own as it is.”

I caught a glimpse of cold sweat run down Germaine’s left cheek.

Gazing at Germaine as she prepared herself in front of him, Kyle made a slightly peculiar expression.

“Going to face me one on one…? You must think me an easy mark. Very well, in that case–” Kyle drew a broadsword from the scabbard affixed to his hip. “I shall beat you fair and square as a Marlon gentleman.”

Germaine looked a bit surprised at seeing Kyle readying a sword. “Wow, that’s unexpected…”

“I told you, didn’t I? I have always been me.”

“Thanks for that, then. …Gh!”

Before she was done talking, Germaine thrusted the rapier in her hand towards Kyle’s throat.

Another metallic clang.

The blow of Germaine’s rapier was caught by the blade of Kyle’s broadsword.

Kyle let out, without even a twitch of a change in his expression, “…That was sudden.”

“Payback for earlier.” Kyle pushed back on the rapier, and Germaine drew back. “Well then, shall we begin our duel, King Marlon?”

“Duel, huh? …Alright. Well then, how about we let Yukina be an observer of this duel?” Kyle smiled at me. There was no sense of the tragedy of a man hijacked by something evil in his expression. “A destined showdown between the king of Marlon and the hero of the revolution…Good material for a novel, yes?”

Germaine watched Kyle’s profile intently with a chilly stare.

“You’re always willfully deciding everything by yourself. Nothing less than I’d expect from a king, to be so extremely self-centered.”

At her words, Kyle’s expression suddenly grew stern.

“Willfully?” His body was trembling slightly. It seemed it wasn’t from cold, or fear, but rather from an anger that was welling up inside him. “That applies to you. Coming into the forest on your own like this…”

I could tell the faint humanity that I could sense from him up until now was withering.

“You–the likes of you–shouldn’t go near Michaela!”

Kyle’s howl resounded through the forest. It was clearly not human, and if pushed I’d have to say it was closer to that of a beast.

As he screamed, Kyle lowered his sword and charged at Germaine at full speed.

“Arrrrrrgh!”

What terrifying drive. But Germaine quietly lifted her sword and prepared a defensive position, not the least bit overwhelmed.

Kyle brought up his blade, not dropping his running speed, and then he brought it down towards Germaine’s brow.

There was a third metallic clang. Germaine blocked his broadsword without fail.

This time neither of them moved away immediately. They locked swords with each other.

“Kyle, is continuing to be imprisoned by your hatred this way how you’re going to live your life?”

It was a test of their respective strength. In addition to the innate difference in physique between them as man and woman, Kyle was wielding the power of a demon. Germaine’s disadvantage was plain.

“You hated other countries, you hated me, and now you’ve become this. Are you satisfied with that?”

Kyle merely pushed the guard of his sword towards her with a smile on his lips, not responding to Germaine’s question.

“Answer me! Kyle Marlon!”

“Hatred…there is no hatred in me. This is my mission. As the king–as the ruler of a country!”

Kyle shook off her sword with all his might. If that kept up, he would have been able to send flying the rapier that Germaine was holding. But just before he did she avoided that by propelling herself backwards with a backstep.

Germaine alighted back on the ground magnificently, but Kyle didn’t overlook the drop in her posture then. He savagely slashed at her.

Even as her sword was cast downward, Gemaine dodged to the right. If her response had been just a second too late, she’d probably have been sliced in half

“Everyone wants a strong country. Without the Daughter of Evil around, life has finally become peaceful. In order to maintain that peace, this country must be secure, with nothing to fear from the threat of foreign nations.”

Kyle slashed at Germaine several times. Germaine blocked and dodged all of it, while taking several steps back.

“Revolutionary people who upset the established order touting their ideals are a nuisance to this country now. There’s no need for heroes like you. Why don’t you get that? Why do you keep butting in at this stage of the game!?”

The force behind Kyle’s sword didn’t let up. But the blade never cut Germaine’s body. He may have had strength, but Germaine could not be outdone when it came to speed.

Just now Kyle had told her that there was no need for heroes like her. Those words reminded me of a certain conversation that my mother and father had exchanged.

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“Things are pretty tough for Kyle right now.”

“…? What do you mean, dear?”

“It seems things aren’t going so well as the sovereign of Lucifenia. Though, being a foreign country I think that was bound to be the case from the outset.”

“King Kyle’s having a rough time of it, hm?”

“He’s been lamenting that it’s because he doesn’t have any charisma.”

“That’s what he always says whenever he’s feeling fainthearted.”

“He’s had a complex since he was young. He doesn’t have a unifying force inside himself. Perhaps the reason he fell for Michaela was from that, unexpectedly.”

“You mean he admired Michaela because she could charm people with her singing?”

“Admiration can change to love. Just like how I was with you.”

“Oh stop it, dear.”

“However, I’m afraid there are times when his admiration can change to an envious hatred.”

“I don’t think we have anything to worry about in His Majesty’s case.”

“I hope so. Well, it’ll be suppertime soon. Hey, Bruno, what’s on the menu for today–?”

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Admiration and hatred for people with charisma.

Assuming that Kyle did harbor a complex towards Germaine, who was beloved by the people.

Assuming he eventually came to despise her, from his envy of her.

With the way his personality was, he would probably be ashamed of himself for that. And so he would never let that show on the surface.      

Assuming that, unable to reach a compromise between his real feelings and his public face, he were to have heard a false rumor that demeaned Germaine’s character when he was at his most unstable.

If, in order to justify his own meanness, he were to have become convinced that he was taking revenge on Germaine for Michaela’s sake–

…That was all just my own theory. But it was hard to imagine that Kyle was completely unable to see that something was wrong with his stance on Germaine being the culprit when even an outsider like me could tell something was off.

–Germaine and Kyle’s offense and defense continued. The intensity of it was clear to me even in the dead of night.

“Kyle, how can you not see that the values of your position are bringing disaster to those around you? Because of you even Michaela–”

“Don’t you talk about Michaelaaa!”

Kyle made a blow with more strength than he had before. Germaine blocked it with her rapier like she had been up until this point.

But her rapier went flying. It hadn’t separated from Germaine’s hand. The body of the blade had merely snapped off. Unlike the will of its owner, the sword had been unable to withstand the demon’s superhuman might.

“Guh!”

Despite falling to her knees, Germaine wielded the broken rapier. But immediately afterwards, Kyle made another strike.

Unable to bear the blow with a broken rapier, this time the sword separated from Germaine’s hand. The rapier fell to the ground.

“It’s over, Germaine.”

Kyle thrust the point of his sword in front of Germaine’s eyes.

“If you have any last requests, I’ll hear it now.”

He looked calm and composed, convinced of his victory.

“Yes, I have one question. Do you have any idea as to how you turned into this demonic form?”

“Probably…that hand mirror of mine. For a while now I’ve been hearing a strange voice coming from it.”

“Who gave you that mirror?”

“It was from my mother–Hh!?”

The composure left Kyle’s face.

“You’re being used by your mother. To the end you’re nothing but her puppet.”

Germaine’s merciless pronouncement.

“Shut up! My life is…My life is my own!”

Kyle swung back his sword to cut off Germaine’s head.

 .

In that moment, something strange happened.

I looked at my pocket watch. It was currently 9:50.  The middle of the night. Actually, with the flame of the candles put out some time ago, it was pitch-black out.

But suddenly, the surroundings brightened in the span of a second. It wasn’t the sort of thing that was caused by an intense flash or anything.

When I looked up, I saw that the sky was blue.

–The night had been blown away, and suddenly day had come.

“…What is this?”

Kyle noticed the abnormality, looking stunned while still holding up his sword.

When I glanced at my pocket watch again, I saw that the clock hand had stopped.

Was it broken? That’s what I thought at first, but I was wrong.

In the next moment, the hand began to run backwards at an alarming speed.

What’s going on!?

“Looks like I was just in time.”

I had lost sight of Gumillia soon after the duel had started, but now she appeared from deep in the forest.

“You were really cutting it close. Good grief, I hate having to work as a diversion,” Germaine grumbled. “Though, honestly I’m pretty surprised by all this too–what’s going on, Master Gumillia?”

“This is–”

Before Gumillia could explain, a figure charged towards her.

It was Kyle. He’d abandoned his sword, trying to bite out Gumillia’s carotid artery with his fangs.

“Ggh!”

Kyle stopped moving completely, his mouth still open.

Bizarrely, he remained still, as though he had turned into an ornament.

“A spell that warps time, and space. The 'Clockwork Secret Art’.”

Gumillia leisurely moved away from Kyle, and once more began to explain. “Truthfully this is not a spell to do on your own. I was worried, but it seems to have gone alright for now.”

“You’re amazing, Miss Gumillia, to be able to do such an impressive spell like this!”

“This is my birthplace–if we were not in the Millenium Tree Forest, I might not have been able to.”

Germaine stood, and joined together the broken body of the rapier with its handle. “Well then, what do we do now? Kyle’s frozen up like stone.”

“At present, there is no method for completely destroying a 'Demon of Deadly Sin’. So, we need to blast the demon inside him, into some other dimension.”

“Can you do such a thing?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll try. If I fail, King Marlon might be blown away. Well, pardon me if that happens.”

“What!? H–hold on Miss Gumillia, please wait!”

Gumillia began to launch into the spell aria without heeding my protests.

“The Twin Gods Levia Behemo, the Great Land God Held, with the divine protection of you who are above me, I–”

Kyle didn’t move, still in his demon form.

I and Germaine watched over Gumillia’s recitation, at wit’s end.

The way things are now, we have no choice but to pray for the spell’s success!

Finally–Gumillia uttered the final words of the incantation.

“Krowkolc fo stelses eought!”

Immediately afterwards.

“GCK–GAAAAAAAH!”

A sudden scream resounded from Kyle’s mouth. While he was still frozen in place. Only his voice welled up from his lips.

At first the cry sounded like a man’s voice, but then after a while it became a high-pitched woman’s voice–next it was an elderly sounding wail, and even further after that it transformed to the roar of a beast.

Something unbelievable was happening in Kyle’s body–that was obvious.

“I-is he alright?”

There was no one present who would answer my question. Gumillia and Germaine were both watching what happened, holding their breath.

The screaming went on for close to a minute, perhaps. Eventually his voice grew quieter, until I could no longer hear it.

Having been in the same position the entire time, finally Kyle moved. Or rather, he collapsed on the spot as though he was crumbling.

There was no change in his appearance. He still had the claws and fangs and black wings.

“Let’s keep an eye, on things,” Gumillia said, sitting down on the spot. Even just that one spell seemed to have used up a considerable amount of her strength and willpower. If it failed, then we’d be at the end of our rope.

At some point, the sky had returned to night as it had been before.

It didn’t take much time at all for Kyle to start waking up.

After glancing around him, Kyle fixed a stare at my face.

“Mister Kyle. Do you know who I am?”

Kyle grinned wide. It was a little frightening, with those fangs of his.

He leisurely made his way towards me.

And then opened his arms wide–

“Graaaah!”

He brought his sharpened claws down towards my eyes.

“Gah!”

“Yukina!”

On the spur the moment, Germaine grabbed me and rolled in a somersault.

The claws slashed at empty air.

“Grrrrrr…”

Kyle growled like a wild dog.

“D-doesn’t he seem like he’s gotten a bit worse than before?”

The Marlon king arched his back, drool dripping from his mouth.

Looking up at him from my position sprawled out on the ground, there didn’t seem to be a trace of lucidity left in him.

Gumillia closed her eyes and turned her face to the heavens. “It’s no use. I failed.”

“It can’t be!”

Kyle gradually made his way towards us, as though he was stalking prey. Gumillia who had used all her strength, Germaine who had broken her sword, and me–paralyzed with terror and unable to stand.

It seemed there was nothing we could do now.

..

<Oh my, I thought her so reliable and yet that was so unexpectedly careless of Gumillia.>

<But still, it’s pretty amazing for her to attempt such a powerful spell all on her own.>

<Would that be impossible for you?>

<Well I don’t have any–that is, I didn’t have any magical ability.>

<Ho ho. Everyone has their own strengths. There are things only you can do, too.>

<You think so?>

<Such as, look over there.>    

<Is the air warping…?>

<The small magnetic field sprung forth by the secret art Gumillia used earlier yet remains. But at this rate it will soon vanish completely.>

<…>

<Michaela, you must sing.>

<Huh!?>

<If you sing, perhaps you will be able to widen that magnetic field again, and allow it to swallow down the demon. You are my successor–the successor of the great land god Held. I’m sure your song can do it.>

<But I don’t have a human body anymore, I’m just a sapling. How could I…>

<You don’t need a voice to sing. You don’t need a human body. All you need is the desire to convey a song inside your own heart.>  

<My heart…>

<If there are people here who need your song, then surely it will reach them.>

<But interference in the human world is–>

<Don’t be a square. You yourself got involved when you were a human. In the end, settle this dispute yourself.>

<…Okay.>

<Come, sing. Your last song on this land.>

.

…

…?

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What are these voices now?

The voice of an old man that I don’t know, and the voice of someone I’ve heard before.

I could hear their conversation coming from somewhere.

A conversation that seemed to echo directly in my mind.

.

Eventually—

I came to hear a singing voice.

A familiar, beautiful voice I had heard when I was a child.

It seemed I was not the only one who could hear it.

Germaine made a confused expression. This was the first time I had ever seen Gumillia look so surprised.

And, even Kyle, closed his eyes and listened in.

Shockingly–

Soon a trickle of tears ran down his cheek.

As it did, a dazzling light enveloped his body.

.

“AA…AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH”

 .

I didn’t know whether that voice belonged to Kyle, or the demon.

But unlike his anguish-filled scream from before, it seemed to me from the tone of his voice like he was healing…like he exuded some sort of euphoria.

I could tell from a glance at Gumillia that it wasn’t her spell. But then, if that was the case what was going on right now?

I soon got the gist of the answer.

The “Clockwork Secret Art” had showed me a shocking spectacle, but what was happening right now was perhaps an even greater miracle.

The singing voice continued.

Ah, it made me so nostalgic.

The sky had become brighter. It was still too early for dawn. I knew that again this was generated from the distortion in this place’s time and space.

The light covered Kyle. It was emanating from his chest.

Is that–a seashell pendant!?

.

The light became all the brighter. To the point where I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

 .

I was inside an indescribable pleasantness, the singing voice and the strong light interweaving.

At some point, I blacked out.