“Did you notice?”
“Yeah…”
Eventually, the two of them perceived a change. The pulsating sound that quivered through the entire mass was gradually getting louder. Thump, thump, thump, thump. The rhythm of some malevolent being’s exertions of breath rocked their bodies.
We’re probably getting close to the center.
They ran down a passage that had started to call to mind thick blood vessels. A wide, open space lay at its end.
The scent of blood and flesh grew stronger. As he stopped to look around, Kaito found himself assailed with nausea.
“This is…”
“How very strange and how utterly twisted.”
The fleshy walls surrounding them were hollowed out in a circle. They were propped up by crowded ribs and looked to be on the verge of collapse. Alongside them, two people’s worth of massive organs were lined up. However, the way the organs were arranged was haphazard.
The two hearts pulsed side by side as blood vessels wound their way around them. Their fused lungs lay scattered on the ground, and half-dissolved heaps of brain lay piled up around them.
The spectacle surpassed grotesqueness and ventured into the realm of being downright bizarre. In fact, it was almost humorous.
It was as if human organs had been enlarged and then put on display.
After glancing over them all, Kaito’s gaze returned to the hearts. Upon closer inspection, one right atrium and one left atrium each had a single person-shaped figure squirming within them. It was probably the King and Grand Monarch’s true bodies, submerged in blood.
Elisabeth wordlessly raised her right arm to call forth a torture device. But in a rare display, the Kaiser growled with his fur bristling.
“Look at that, boy.”
“Huh? …Wait, what is that?”
Prompted by the Kaiser, Kaito looked toward the wall of flesh to his left.
Two types of organs had sunken into it. However, Kaito couldn’t make out what they were from their roundish shapes. But the moment he thought back to the three underlings, he instinctively guessed their identities.
Between the King’s, Grand Monarch’s, and Monarch’s replicants, two had been male, and one had been female.
The Monarch and the King were men. That meant that the Grand Monarch had to be a woman.
The organs were a uterus and a pair of testicles. But what the Kaiser was pointing at was something else entirely.
“I know not. It is something that not even I know the identity of. And for me to not know of it, it must be abnormal in the extreme.”
The female organ was fused to the male organ.
And at the point where they met sat a strange, fleshy, tumorlike cocoon.
It was wrapped in soft, hypha-like fibers and filled with fluid. A small figure, one that belonged to neither the King nor the Grand Monarch, wriggled energetically within it.
There was something living there that did not belong.
Faced with that reality, Kaito froze, and Elisabeth scowled.
“That thing…could it be…?”
After thinking for a moment, she breathed in a small breath. With widened eyes, she gave voice to her terrifying hypothesis.
“Are the demons trying to birth a child?”
“…! Is that even possible?”
“Mm, two contractors can theoretically bear a child. Of course, it would give rise to naught but a normal human… But two contractors merging with their demons, going beyond ordinary transformations and warping into a mass of flesh, and then having a child is unheard of.”
“Indeed, the girl speaks truth. Demons exist solely to destroy—this is blasphemy! Blasphemy against our very existence!”
“In my opinion, such a creature would be fascinating… It would go against not just the laws of our world but the very providence of God and Diablo. And it offends the Kaiser, as well. It would certainly be safer to return it to nothingness before it is born.”
The Kaiser howled, and Vlad spoke in an unusually serious tone.
Kaito felt a cold sweat bead up on his forehead.
Looks like we were right to rush over here.
There was no way anyone could have known that such a thing was being cultivated here. The fact that Elisabeth had marched here concerned that the demon would grow in power had ended up being important in an unexpected way.
Kaito and Elisabeth nodded at each other. Then they changed their target.
Aiming at the fetus, the two of them launched their attacks.
When they did, the entire room squirmed, and the walls pulsed. Elisabeth and Kaito braced themselves for whatever was about to appear. But their vigilance ended up backfiring.
The next moment, countless King faces appeared from all directions.
“—!”
The only things sharp about the sunken, squalid, muscled faces were the eyes. Countless eyeballs bore down on the two of them. Then strands of drool dripped from countless pairs of flaccid lips as they opened.
All at once, they released multihued roars.
Because they hadn’t dashed away before the faces had finished appearing, there was no way for them to avoid the attack.
“Elisabeth!”
Kaito’s scream was blotted out.
He and Elisabeth were swallowed up by the vortex of gray noise.
The ceiling crumbled; the floor crumbled; someone cried; someone laughed
And then Kaito’s vision went dark.
6
Her Feelings
Pain.
Pain was all that existed.
Most of Kaito’s memories from his previous life started and ended with pain.
Assailed all over by that nostalgic agony, Kaito opened his eyes.
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 window was covered in packing tape, and his ripped-out teeth rolled about beneath the tea table.
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 slathered in dark-red stains.
His ankle was twisted at an odd angle, and his stomach was assailed by a heavy pain, as though one of his organs had ruptured.
Kaito took a good, long look at the situation he was in. He was lying on his side in the room where he’d been killed in his previous life. It was almost as though everything that had happened after his resurrection had been nothing more than something he’d dreamed while on the verge of death.
Faced with that desperate situation, a single thought crossed his mind.
What, this again?
Kaito remembered this.
During his ceremonial trial with the Kaiser, he’d gone through the exact same experience.
At the same time, he now understood why La Mules had died, as well as the nature of the King’s mental attack.
While their ranks were below his, first-class mythical beasts and spirits were similar in nature to God, and summoning them required dragging them down from a higher plane of existence. To do that, one needed to have a strong connection to God, but aside from the Suffering Saint, nobody could hold that power within themselves for long and still retain their sanity.
That was what Elisabeth had said.
Before she lost her senses, La Mules must have had her memories and will returned to her.
Then, in her confusion, she’d ended up going insane and killing herself.
Man, this is cruel, all right… It probably didn’t do much to most of the paladins. But it’d be brutal on anyone with a traumatic past. If this had been my first time, I’d have been in trouble, too.
Just like the last time, Kaito forcibly moved his body as he mused. His body was little more than skin and bones; even the act of b
reathing caused him to spasm with convulsions. But he staggered across the room anyhow, regurgitating gastric juices as he walked.
I wonder how I’m supposed to wake up from this dream… Given what happened to La Mules, if I kill myself in the dream, I feel like my real body will probably die, too.
As he thought through his problem in an almost insanely calm manner, he limped forward on his mangled ankle.
As he did, he heard the sound of the front door opening and then the noise of stomping coming from the front hallway. His father was probably home. Looking up as though he’d been slapped, Kaito paused in his tracks.
The screen door to the room slid open. Kaito’s father was angrily shouting something.
“Kaito, ya little shi— Bluh?”
As he did, Kaito matched the timing as his father stormed into the room and used it to bury his fist in his father’s face. Kaito’s own bones snapped, but the blow was clean.
Blood gushed from his father’s face. His nose had been crushed. Perhaps he’d even suffered a concussion as he toppled over onto the floor. Covered in blood from his own nose, his eyes rolled back in his head as he pathetically slipped into unconsciousness.
“Outta my way.”
Kaito’s voice was cold as he spoke over his shoulder. He then completely ignored the man who’d abused him for countless years and eventually even murdered him. Not sparing so much as a passing glance in his father’s direction, Kaito exited through the screen door.
Dragging his mangled body, he made his way down the damp hallway and opened the front door.
On the other side of it, there was nothing but darkness.
“…Huh, so that’s how it is.”
Faced with a darkness that would have caused any human to instinctively succumb to terror, Kaito muttered those few words.
Once, he’d spent hundreds of subjective years in a similar space. At this point, it would take more than that to scare him. Without an ounce of fear, Kaito strode into the darkness.
He knew full well there was nothing he could gain if he didn’t walk forward.
This place really is like where the Kaiser tested me, Kaito thought.
He’d gradually come to realize that, just where he’d been tested, his bodily sensations were fading away. He had become a being of consciousness alone. There was nobody there to observe him, to interact with him, or to define him. And he had no methods at his disposal to confirm his own sensations.
It was hard to prove the existence of the self with nothing but consciousness in this space devoid of touch, sight, hearing, and meaning. But even in this cruel world, Kaito didn’t hesitate.
He just kept walking in search of an exit without a word.
He went farther and farther and deeper and deeper into the darkness.
Then Kaito stopped in his tracks.
He could hear a voice singing a beautiful song.
The voice responsible for the gentle tune was one he knew well.
That song…
In truth, Kaito had never heard one of those before. After all, his mother had passed before he was old enough to remember her. But he knew that gentle melody couldn’t have been anything else.
That’s…
It was a lullaby. He was sure of it.
Kaito followed the source of the song. As he drew closer to the soft voice, the space around him shifted and changed. White light began mingling with the black of the darkness, and the space’s empty gloom began taking on definite forms.
Eventually, his field of vision had cleared up completely.
Before he’d noticed, he’d arrived in a child’s bedroom.
…I recognize this room.
That was the first thought that crossed his mind as he looked around the room.
The rectangular walls were covered with wallpaper adorned with a dull yellow floral design, and beside the window were cute confectionary-like plaster sculptures. The furniture was all white, and atop a beautiful chest of drawers with metal handles sat a group of dolls and stuffed animals. There was a four-poster bed, too, with pearl-gray sheets and a heavy mattress no doubt stuffed with down.
And sitting on the bed was a young girl atop a pile of blankets.
She was beautiful, but her complexion was marred by the effects of an aggressive illness.
The way her long black hair was knotted and robbed of its luster was painful to look at. Her features were so fine they looked almost inhuman, but her skin was pale and her lips were cracked and caked with blood. In spite of all that, though, her expression was strangely calm.
Although it was tinged with death’s black shadow, she wore a lonely yet serene smile on her face.
Her chest damp and reddened with blood, she wove her song.
“…Elisabeth.”
“Marianne taught me this song, see?”
A young voice rang out.
Kaito, not having expected a response, swallowed sharply.
At some point, she’d turned to look at him. He could make out his reflection in her large eyes. He was about to call out to her, to the young Elisabeth, but he stopped himself.
When she said Marianne’s name, there was genuine affection in her voice.
Marianne had gone mad because of Elisabeth, and Kaito himself had killed her. If it had been the normal Elisabeth saying her name, her voice would have been filled with nostalgia as well as deep regret and a tinge of disgust.
The Elisabeth in front of him probably didn’t know anything about what had happened.
Having realized that, Kaito decided to give a gentle, quiet nod.
“Yeah, it’s a nice song and a gentle one… A lullaby.”
“Isn’t it? You know, Marianne will sing it for me whenever I ask!”
The young Elisabeth puffed up her chest with pride. But the next moment, she violently balled herself up like she’d been struck by an arrow.
Clutching her chest with her small hands, Elisabeth began coughing with such intensity it seemed she would vomit up her intestines.
“Hic… Hic… Cough, cough… Hack, hack, hack—”
“Elisabeth, are you okay?!”
Panicking, Kaito rushed over to her side. As she trembled in pain, he gently stroked her frail back. The anguish she was in was heart-wrenching. Kaito bitterly lamented that he couldn’t do more for her.
Eventually, Elisabeth settled down. She wiped the blood off her lips, then peered up. With tears welling in her innocent eyes, she looked at Kaito.
“Thank you, I’m okay now… But, huh? Who are you, mister?”
“I’m…”
“I should be the only one in this room… Where in the world did you come from?”
Kaito was at a loss for how to respond. He had no idea what kind of answer he should give.
As the servant of the Torture Princess, he could give no true answer that wouldn’t hurt her. No matter what he told her, it would indubitably cause her pain.
I don’t know if her young heart can handle how cruel the truth is.
The explanation Kaito eventually settled on was vague but true nonetheless.
“I’m on your side.”
“My side?”
“Yeah. No matter what happens, I’ll always be on your side.”
Kaito made his firm declaration. The young Elisabeth blinked repeatedly and tilted her head to the side in confusion. But it looked like he’d been able to convey his friendliness, if nothing else.
After a moment, Elisabeth gave him a meek smile.
“Oh. I guess you are.”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Say, mister. Do you want to hear me sing some more?”
“…Yeah, that’d be nice.”
“Then how about I sing for you!”
Her voice full of vitality, Elisabeth resumed her song. Kaito listened silently to the gentle melody.
The time passed by calmly. It was like they were playing house. But suddenly, the low roar of a beast rang out and shattered that peace. Kaito looked up with a start.
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Somewhere far beyond the window, a hound was baying, as though it were calling for someone.
Upon hearing the rumbling voice, Elisabeth trembled. Terrified, she clung tightly to Kaito.
“Make it stop… I’m scared…”
“Elisabeth.”
“Everything out there is so scary. No, no more… I’m not going out there anymore.”
Her words had a sincere ring to them.
The moment he heard them, Kaito realized something.
Elisabeth was sick when she was young, so she shouldn’t have had many opportunities to leave the castle.
If that was the case, then which Elisabeth did those words belong to?
There was a certain fact that Kaito had long since been aware of.
Elisabeth had been swallowed up by the mental attack at the same time Kaito had been. This was her world. After walking through the space that the demon had created, he’d arrived at a place formed from her childhood memories. The words coming out of her mouth belonged not just to the young Elisabeth but her present-day self, as well.
The young Elisabeth shook her head over and over, and tears welled up in her large eyes as she spoke.
“I’m done with it… Everything out there is painful and scary… And nobody out there likes me. They all hate me so, so much.”
“…Do they?”
“They do! Everyone would have been better off… Marianne would have been better off…if I’d just stayed in here and died. If I’d just done that, then the Torture Princess would never have been born.”
As she went on, the tone of her voice lost its youthfulness.
When she murmured next, her tone was steeped in despair.
“None of those innocent people would have died.”
The present-day Elisabeth was stubborn. She would probably never have given voice to those words.
The young Elisabeth reached out a trembling hand. With it, she grabbed tight onto the hem of Kaito’s shirt.
“Mister, you’re on my side, right?”
Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 3 Page 16