The Daughter of Evil - Volume 4 - Chapter 4.21

chapter 4, section 2-with that person; scene 1
Praefacio of Blue, page 250-262

♣ Yukina ~In the Former Lucifenia Territory, “The Anonymous Coast"~

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The coast was quiet at night.

The only sound that reached my ears was the faint crash of waves.

.

I had come here at a time like this to make sure of something Rin had told me at dusk.

She had said, “I saw Madam Freezis out here on the coast”. She told me that she had tried to talk to her, but when she ran up to my mother, who had hidden herself under cover, she was already gone. If that was true, then there was a strong possibility that, for the week after my mother had come to visit the monastery at the very least, she had been loitering around here.

Compared to the area around the Lucifenian palace, this place was mostly countryside, so it didn’t have a lot of things to look at in particular. Frankly I didn’t know what she was after.

Though it may be true that she was here at dusk, I had no guarantee that she hadn’t moved somewhere else at this hour, so it was natural to think that about now she’d have taken lodging in the port town somewhere and was getting some rest.

But I had gone through and searched the inns around this town for two days. No matter where I looked I had found no trace of anyone who might have been my mother staying at them.

My mother had not gone to an inn. So in that case no matter how slim the odds were, I thought it was wisest to search for some trace of her at the coast. Even if I didn’t run into her, I might find some clue…That was my thought process, walking around covered in sand.

Even so, this coast was much larger than I had thought. Even worse, I couldn’t locate anything relevant to my search in this darkness. The fickle light of the lantern that I’d borrowed from the monastery was bound to fail me in my efforts, after all.

Being in the dark is sufficient circumstances to break a girl’s conviction…

Continuing my investigation even so, suddenly the fuel in my lantern ran out, and my surroundings were enveloped in darkness. When that happened I had to admit it was time to give up.

I can’t keep this up! I guess I’ll go back for now…

I began to walk towards the lights of the town shining inland. That’s when it happened.

Huh? Is that…

In the darkness to my left hand side, I could see something moving. It was unmistakably a human figure. Perhaps it was Mama. With that hope in my chest, I changed course towards where I could see them walking.

That figure was armed with a sword. When I got a bit closer, I was able to determine this with a serious look, though it was dim.

Miss Germaine…!?

Was she practicing with her sword at this time of night?

After thinking it over a little, I drew up to Germaine further. I figured I’d try talking to her.

The moment before I called out to her, I shut myself up. There was another person in front of Germaine, facing her.

That mask. It was a woman wearing the Almoga Mobarez mask. She didn’t look to be carrying a weapon. I couldn’t see her face, so I didn’t know her expression.

But I knew who that was. She had on a frilly dress, and had a decorative flower on her left breast. It was Mama. Those clothes were that of my mother, Mikina Freezis.

I told myself not to get too excited. I would put the situation in order first. My mother was here, and Germaine was aiming her sword at her. Why? I didn’t know. Perhaps Germaine had witnessed her in that flash from back then as well.

Even so, I didn’t want her to cut her down without even listening to an appeal. My mother must have had some reason for doing that. There was no need for her to steal the vessels of deadly sin nor kill Ney, to say nothing of doing what she did to my father, who loved me, her daughter, to the point of embarrassing me–so I couldn’t imagine that she didn’t have some extenuating circumstances for it.

At any rate, I would stop Germaine–as I took a step towards them with that decision in mind, Germaine opened her mouth.

“I’ve finally found you, Abyss I.R.”

–Abyss I.R.!?

I could hear a thick, laughing voice from beneath the mask.

“Ha ha–Oh, so you’ve figured it out, huh? Impressive…I would say that, but this is a suggestion you got from someone else isn’t it?”

That voice was undoubtedly my mother’s.

Germaine didn’t react. She stared at my mother, without lowering her sword.

My mother turned towards the ocean, not looking particularly phased by that. And then she began to leisurely walk towards it.

“Are Elluka and Gumillia searching in Marlon? That must mean you came here to Lucifenia as insurance.”

After two, three steps, she stopped and once more turned to Germaine.

“A safe guess. If I was going to cross the sea from Marlon, then it would be extremely likely I’d come here, to the closest port town. There are no vessels going to Elphegort due to the trade embargo, and Levianta is too far–That’s your reasoning, isn’t it?”

Germaine brushed through her hair with her left hand.

“Not quite. Master Gumillia went to Levianta.”

“I see…That’s actually decent preparation, considering it’s Elluka.”

“I told her. I said she couldn’t afford to just go around doing whatever she wanted every time.”

The intruder back in Lioness. It seems I wasn’t the only one who had recognized who she really was. I regretted just a little in not asking for help from these three.

Thanks to the darkness, the two of them hadn’t yet realized I was there.

Their conversation continued, and Germaine asked my mother, “Why have you not left this region after all this time?”

“…I’m searching for something. And I haven’t quite found it yet.”

“A ‘Vessel of Deadly Sin’? Is your goal to collect them?”

“Well, I suppose it’s turned into that…”

I steadied my resolve, and walked up to them.

Germaine noticed me first.

“Yukina…!?”

A look of surprise taking over her face at seeing me, Germaine eventually looked again towards my mother, taken aback.

During that time, Mom did nothing. She didn’t launch a surprise attack on Germaine, nor did she run away. She just gazed at me through the mask. After a short while, she put her hands on it and slowly lifted it up.

Underneath was indeed my mother’s face.

She was smiling.

“Yukina, what’s wrong? What are you doing at a place like this, at this time of night…?”

She wasn’t smiling out of enjoyment. It was an expression made to calm the other person. That was the kind of smile it was.

And then, she pleaded in a frightened voice, “Please, Yukina, could you help me? Germaine is attacking your Mama, I think she’s misunderstood something. I’m very afraid.”

Despite her tone of voice she was still smiling. And she gradually started walking towards me.

Germaine stood in front of her, blocking her path.

With her back to me, she said, “Don’t be deceived. That is your mom, but it’s also not her.”

I could tell that for myself. But what I wanted to know was why.

“…Has Mama been taken over by Abyss?”

“Basically, yeah.”

“But how!? Abyss’ spirit was blown away back then, I thought…”

I was sure that was what Elluka said.

“That isn’t what happened. Abyss’ soul never entered Elluka’s body to begin with.”

My mother immediately ceased in her approach.

“Ho…So you’ve figured that out too…”

Germaine began her explanation so that the both of us could hear. “Elluka had a nagging doubt this entire time. The 'Swap Technique’ is an extra-high grade spell…She wondered if there really was another person who was capable of performing it outside of herself. At that point, after what happened in Lioness she arrived at a conclusion.”

Germaine lifted her arms and pointed the sword straight at my mother.

“Where has the red cat gone, the one that’s always with you?”

In reply to those words, my mother clicked her tongue, and then murmured in a low voice, “…So it seems I was correct after all to hide my true body for safekeeping.”

“That’s too bad for you. I’ll find it immediately.”

Germaine hoisted up her sword, and a sigil inscribed on the hilt began to glow.

The light soon turned into a single beam, and it pointed to a shack in the corner of the beach.

“…There. It’s unexpectedly close by. If you go too far away you lose your ability to manipulate bodies, is that it?”

“That inscription…is that Gumillia’s work!? How annoying!”

My mother and Germaine both ran for the shack at the same time.

Germaine was quicker of foot. She reached the shack a step earlier and kicked in the wooden door.

“Oop–”

She dodged back in response to something. Immediately after, a small figure darted out from inside, and jumped onto my mother’s shoulder, who’d arrived later.

I ran up to the shack as well, further behind the two of them. It was hard to run with sand in my shoes.

Riding on my mother’s shoulders was none other than that red cat. The cat that Abyss had been walking with, that my mother had taken in.

“…So you’re saying that red cat is Abyss’ true body?”

That seemed to be the gist of it.

Abyss’ spirit hadn’t entered my mother. Her body was just being controlled like one would a puppet. By that red cat–Abyss I.R.!

“You let my mother go, Abyss!” I screamed at her, letting my anger take me.

My mother, being controlled by Abyss, didn’t look the slightest bit intimidated at my fury.

“How brave, little Yukina. Despite not being able to do anything on your own. Ha ha–”

Her laughter was cut off by Germaine sticking out her rapier right at the red cat.

“Sounds like bravado to me, Abyss. The person you’re manipulating right now isn’t a sorceress or a soldier–just a normal person.”

“…Yes, there was nothing to really do about it since it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, but I suppose Mikina’s body is a little inconvenient as feeble as she is. …However.” She pulled something out of her bag. “I do have this.”

It was too small for me to see it clearly, but from afar it looked like a spoon. The fact that it was faintly glowing blue in the darkness was fairly ominous.

Germaine immediately took several steps back.

“A Vessel of Deadly Sin…!?”

“Exactly. Your perception is quite sharp, swordswoman. Despite not being a sorceress yourself. …And then there’s the speed of your recovery from your injuries…There doesn’t seem to be any after-effects from the acceleration inscription in the forest… Hahaha, how interesting.

Certainly Germaine had fought in quick succession, from Column forest to Castle Hedgehog. It was a little strange that despite the fact that she must have been injured each time, she was promptly up and around like this. I had thought so when I was working as medic on her wounds in Beelzenia–she healed much faster than the other soldiers.

"My injuries heal up quick after I eat a bunch,” Germaine shot back, likely thinking she was being made fun of.

“After eating, huh… I see–I had thought you looked like her before. It seems there’s a chance you’re a blood relative of her after all–Conchita.”

Conchita…Did she mean Banica Conchita? Germaine was–a blood relative of Conchita!? What did she mean by that? A descendant? Or else…

Mother walked a little closer to Germaine. But I could tell she was careful so as to not get within range of her sword.

“Not bad…I want that body,” I heard her murmur quietly.

I picked up some rocks at my feet and threw them at the red cat. But they didn’t connect, falling to the sandy beach. Neither the cat nor my mother had tried to avoid them. They just didn’t reach. My lack of upper body strength was really irritating.

“Give up on such futile struggles, you villain!” I screamed once more. I heard the cat meow, as though mocking me.

“A villain, hm?… Do you mean me, Abyss? Or the person in this body–Mikina?” She continued before I could reply that I obviously meant Abyss. “How much do you know about your mother? Do you really think…that she is an innocent person through and through?”

What…what was she saying!?

“Have you never carried doubts about her? Never noticed something mysterious in her actio–”

There her voice suddenly cut off, and she crouched on the spot.

The groan and the words that came from her mouth. They were of my mother’s voice, like before, but her tone was clearly different.

“Ugh…Please…stop…I don’t want…Yukina…to…know…”

And then, with the sound of an electric shock, a lightning-like flash engulfed her body.

“Agh!”

Mom suddenly fell, but then quickly stood up again. Her attitude returned to being wicked like before.

“Guess my control was too weak. How impertinent…”

She looked openly displeased for a moment, but then her lips spread into a twisted smile, as though having thought of something. And then she began to talk to not Germaine, nor me, but herself.

“Hahaha, Mikina. In that case I will give a little bit of your body back to you. And then you will admit to everything from your own lips, in front of your daughter.”

And once more, her behavior changed. She knelt on the spot, and clasped her hands as though praying. Gripped in her hands was the spoon from before.

“…Y–Yukina…Your Mama has…deceived…many people…until now…”

They were my mother’s words. But she was not speaking of her own will.

The red cat’s eyes were open wide.

Is Mama being forced to speak by Abyss…!?

“You don’t need to listen to this, Yukina!”

Germaine ran before my mother, swinging her sword down on the red cat.

In that moment the blue light of the spoon turned to an intense flash–it was the same kind as I’d seen in the town of Lioness–and Germaine’s body was sent flying.

The cat took up a menacing posture with its hair standing on end, as though to tell her not to interfere. Germaine didn’t seem to have lost consciousness, but she did look as though she was having trouble standing upright, tottering a little.

“Yukina…Yukina…Mama has…I…Oh, God…I…confess—”