“I thank you for your concern, Master Kaito. What a kind man you are… But that was a trivial matter.”
When Kaito looked back at Elisabeth, her circumstances seemed much the same as before.
A number of skeletons were clinging to her iron ball. Even as their bodies shattered, they clutched the spikes and dug their feet into the ground to impede the ball’s momentum. Kaito finally realized it. Marianne was planning on using the countless corpses Elisabeth had left to turn this into a battle of resources.
“Ah, can you feel it, young miss? The regrets running across your skin, the anguish boiling in your chest? You are on the verge of being killed by the very innocents you killed long ago. Can you feel it? Can you feel it pounding away at you, young miss, pounding away at your flesh and blood? Can you feel the rage, the hatred, and the sorrow of those you murdered?”
Marianne clutched her abdomen as she cried out with the intensity of an opera singer.
Lances were being pointed at Elisabeth from every direction. She snapped her fingers in irritation.
“Do you understand, young miss? Do you understand that those you killed lived normal lives, lives they wanted to protect? You didn’t have the right to kill a single one of them, young miss, not a single one!”
She was clearly unstable. The ecstatic flush vanished from her cheeks. She gripped her chest even tighter, breathing hard, as if to demonstrate her pain as she shed sloppy tears.
“Why, young miss? Why? Why did you do such a terrible thing? Why couldn’t you understand how wrong it was?! Young miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiss?!”
“…Did her heart split in two or something?”
Kaito couldn’t help but mumble to himself. Everything Marianne was doing and saying was contradictory. She was gleefully trying to kill Elisabeth out of love yet at the same time tearfully trying to compel her to regret her actions and repent.
“Young miss, why is it, why is it that you can’t understand…? I will I will stop you. Doing such a thing will, all the people will cry, I have to kill, young miss, I have to stop her, I have to…”
Kaito finally realized: Marianne’s spirit was unraveling. She was being crushed both by the horrible spectacle Elisabeth had forced her to witness long ago and by her own guilt for not having been able to stop it.
“…I, my, I, my young miss, my fault, so…”
What stood before Kaito, Elisabeth, and Hina was nothing more than the shell of a broken woman.
Marianne let out a high-pitched laugh and covered her face. It almost sounded like a scream. The lilies gently swayed atop her hat. Although Elisabeth clicked her tongue, she also whispered softly.
“…What a miserable state you’re in, Marianne. I suppose I’m to blame for that.”
Suddenly, she stopped walking. Kaito watched her.
Then a skeletal arm reached out and grabbed her. At once, it pulled her into the throng of the dead. The Torture Princess was buried in the bloodlust and the hate of those she had brutally killed.
Loathsome Elisabeth, repulsive Elisabeth, cruel, hideous Elisabeth!
A curse upon you, a curse upon you, a curse, a curse, an eternal curse upon you, Elisabeth!
Kaito felt almost as though he, too, could hear the scathing cries of the dead. He shouted, refusing to lose to them.
“Elisabeth! Quit screwing around and get your ass outta there!”
“Lady Elisabeth, I’m coming!”
Hina shouted, too, then broke into a run. But before she could reach it, the pile of bones began writhing and clattering, driving into Elisabeth’s body the same pain they once suffered. Marianne raised her voice once more.
“Do you understand? Have you come to understand, young miss? Young miss, my dear young miss!”
“I’ve understood that…since the very…”
A small voice leaked out of the pile. Hina, flustered, stopped in her tracks. As she did, the voice exploded out.
“BEGINNINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!”
In concert with the enraged voice, chains exploded forth.
The chains clattered as they snaked from Elisabeth. They coiled and spun like a tornado, mowing down the dead with reckless abandon. Bones fractured, snapped, and crumbled.
The maelstrom of chains then spread, blooming like an iron rose. They scraped the ground, struck debris, and smashed the bones to splinters. They thoroughly pulverized all the people she’d once tortured, the people she’d once killed. Upon seeing the chains rage like a many-headed snake, Hina praised her master’s master.
“Well done, Lady Elisabeth! I should have expected nothing less. However, this is… Look out! Pardon me, Master Kaito!”
“Hwah!”
Hina returned to him at top speed, then scooped him up in her arms before taking off again. Not a second later, the place where they’d been standing was assaulted by chains. A half-destroyed house appeared in their path, and the chains brought it crumbling down. Ash and charred splinters went flying.
Once the impressive cloud of dust settled, Elisabeth stood alone.
She breathed heavily, like a cat with its hair standing on end.
The Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal burned in her hand.
Marianne took a step back. The few remaining Knights lined up in front of her. Before they could charge, though, Elisabeth thrust the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal into the ground.
“Hellhole!”
As she spoke, the earth rumbled. A large cone-shaped cavity yawned in the middle of the road, and the Knights all fell in.
At the bottom of the giant hole, an endless sea of insects wriggled and squirmed. They had lustrous, metallic black shells, and they looked otherworldly. The bugs swarmed the Knights, and their tiny teeth made sickening noises as they chewed on the Knights’ rotting flesh. They seemed overjoyed at the generous offering of prey.
“……!”
Marianne slowly backpedaled. But all around her, chains shot out of the ground like serpents. They bound her from head to toe, slim frame, supple breasts, and all.
She hung in the air much like Elisabeth once had. She stared straight at her, as if waiting for an answer to her earlier cries.
Elisabeth stood before her, both hands placed on the hilt of her sword. She bore a serious expression.
“My apologies, Marianne. I’ve understood that for a long, long time.”
Marianne’s eyes widened slightly. Elisabeth returned her ashen-blue gaze.
“I had no right to take the light of a single person in this world. Every person I killed led a vigorous life, a life they had every right to carry out as they pleased. They were innocent, and I murdered them. I killed them cruelly, gruesomely, mercilessly, and unreasonably. ’Tis as you say, Marianne. Not even my death will be punishment enough.”
Elisabeth’s voice was sincere as she tendered her confession. Yet, as she gave it, she spat on the ground. Confessing and acknowledging her sins yet not regretting them in the slightest, Elisabeth stood firm as she made her declaration.
“I became the Torture Princess with full knowledge of what that entailed.”
Elisabeth offered no further reasoning.
Her black hair wafted on the hollow wind, a wind that seemed to carry heat from the fire of old, a wind that moaned like the wailing of the vengeful dead.
Loathsome Elisabeth, repulsive Elisabeth, cruel, hideous Elisabeth!
A curse upon you, a curse upon you, a curse, a curse, an eternal curse upon you, Elisabeth!
Taking in all the hatred and the malice of the dead, Elisabeth carried on.
“I shan’t ask for forgiveness, nor shall I ask for sympathy. For it is true that I delighted in their screams and bathed in their despair. You should hold me in contempt as you die. Disparage me and curse my name… My apologies, Marianne.”
“…Young miss…”
“I intend to follow you shortly. Quite shortly indeed.”
Elisabeth’s lips betrayed a quiver. For a fleeting second, sh
e wore the face of a defenseless little girl.
She gathered strength in the hand that bore the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal. Marianne, watching her, shook her head. She pressed her eyes shut, reopened them, then spoke with the gentle demeanor of a tutor.
“Young miss, I know the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal is a powerful catalyst, capable of summoning chains and torture devices. But I also know that the sword itself was made to allow executioners to behead criminals painlessly before they were put to the stake. A weapon crafted out of kindness. Is that what you intend to kill me with?”
“Indeed, Marianne. With this blade, I shall take the head of a mad, unremarkable woman.”
“That won’t do, young miss. It’s unlike you. You mustn’t show even a single person kindness. If you intend to walk down your warped path to the end, you must torture me to death.”
Elisabeth’s face stiffened a little. As she rebuked Elisabeth, Marianne looked at her with eyes burning with determination.
“If you reject me through pain, kill me through pain, and then the world will finally be free of any who could damage your resolve. If you wish to retain your tyrannical nature now that you’ve been captured and made the Church’s hound, then that is what you must do.”
Marianne closed her eyes, then opened them gently. The expression she showed Elisabeth was stern, the childhood teacher within awake at last.
“If you turn a blind eye to even one person, it will weaken your resolve. That’s just the way things are.”
Elisabeth didn’t respond. But Marianne’s expression changed once more, from that of a stern instructor to that of an adult speaking to a willful child. Her eyes were full of kindness.
“I loved you from the bottom of my heart, young miss. Even now, I adore you just as much as I did when you were a child.”
She smiled gently. Her next words were steeped in sorrow.
“Once you’ve killed me, I imagine there will be no one left in this world who truly loves you.”
“Yes… I will have no one. Not a single person for the rest of eternity.”
Elisabeth quietly affirmed Marianne’s declaration. Marianne nodded, then inclined her head as if awaiting judgment. Elisabeth let go of the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal.
Her long, sleek black hair fluttered as Elisabeth looked up at the sky. Her expression was calm. A heavy silence bore down on them. Neither woman, not the one judging nor the one awaiting judgment, moved a hair.
Just then, the space around Kaito froze over.
“…What…the hell?”
The sound of shattering glass faded, and after a few seconds, Kaito realized how odd his surroundings were.
Everything, as far as the eye could see, was frozen over in a light shade of blue. Not just Elisabeth and Hina but the fragments of bone blowing in the wind and the clouds of dust were still as well. He reached his hand out timidly, but there was some sort of transparent film keeping him from touching any of the frozen objects.
“What’s going on? Hey, Elisabeth! Hina!”
He called out to them, but it seemed that his voice couldn’t reach them, as they didn’t respond. In his confusion, he suddenly sensed someone behind him. He spun around in a panic.
“A pleasure to meet you, Sinless Soul.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Pure Soul.”
Two girls bowed before him, holding the hems of their dresses in polite curtsies. The maid outfits they wore were even more old-fashioned than Hina’s. One carried a box tied with a ribbon in an arm, and the other held a clock with a stopped needle. They both had long, draping hair made of tangled gold thread, and for eyes they each bore scuffed-up purple gems. Looking at their artificial parts, Kaito could tell: They weren’t human.
The two girls were dolls. They remained expressionless as they spoke, only their lips moving.
“Do you think Elisabeth will kill her?”
“Do you think the Torture Princess can kill her?”
“What? What the hell are you two talking about?”
“What a painful thing it is, to kill a loved one.”
“What a sad thing it is, to kill one you adore.”
“I mean, you’re right. But it’s not like I can stop her.”
Kaito clenched his fists hard. He didn’t know anything about Marianne and Elisabeth’s relationship or their bonds. He had no way of knowing what memories they shared or what was currently going through their minds.
The decision rested on Elisabeth’s shoulders. And Kaito certainly wouldn’t be permitted to weigh in on it, especially not with his limited understanding of the situation. But the maids shook their heads in unison.
“No one said to stop her.”
“We said nothing of the sort.”
““The question we wish to pose is not about Elisabeth but about you.””
“…What?”
Kaito had no idea what the two were talking about. Who were they anyway?
The maid carrying the box gave a mechanical “Ahem,” then slowly stepped forward. Kaito, on his guard, stepped back. But the maid simply unfastened the ribbon, then opened the box and displayed its contents to him with a flourish.
Kaito covered his mouth, assailed by a strong urge to vomit.
“…Rgh—”
Inside the box squirmed a pile of spiders with crow feathers growing all over their bodies. They crawled over one another as they paced about on their eight feathered legs. And there, buried beneath the pile of diminutive horrors, was a baby. Just as he was about to reach his hands into the box of spiders to save it, Kaito gasped.
“It can’t be.”
“Oh my, did he notice?”
“Indeed, did he understand?”
At a second glance, Kaito noticed the spider legs growing out from the plump baby’s waist. The baby had already teethed, and its toothy grin seemed oddly cruel.
A shock ran through Kaito’s brain as he comprehended what he saw.
“Is… Is that thing the Earl?”
Now that he thought about it, the Earl had been absent from the group of revived demons who had attacked them a moment ago.
Reeling with disgust, he took a step back. As he did, the maids spoke.
“Marianne possessed the soul of the Earl, as well.”
“We placed it in the body of this child.”
““As things are, it will grow up to be just like that grotesque man.””
The baby stroked the spiders with its fat hand as one would stroke a pet. A cunning intellect lurked in its eyes, and it grinned contentedly as it looked down upon the spiders.
Kaito raised a fist. But he couldn’t convince himself to bring it down. If he’d been facing the original Earl, he would have killed him in a heartbeat. He would no doubt have torn him limb from limb. But even if the creature before him possessed the same nature as the Earl, it was just a baby.
Hitting it wouldn’t be enough to kill it. And strangling a baby would make him no better than his father. He forced himself to unclench his fist, then gently rubbed his own pale face.
The maids, having watched him, looked at each other once before nodding.
“Ah, it was too hard a choice to make in the spur of the moment.”
“Well, we can wait for him to live up to our expectations.”
““This will do for now.””
Suddenly, the maid raised the box in the air. Then, without a shred of hesitation, she threw it hard against the ground.
Panicking, the spiders fled from the cracks in the box. The baby crawled out, crushing the spiders as it went. The maid who previously held the box knocked the baby down with her foot, then stomped on it with all her might.
“Wh—!”
Her strength was inhuman, and the baby’s stomach warped before bursting open. Its entrails, structurally different from a human’s, came spilling out. The baby convulsed in the pool of its own blue blood for a while before growing still. Kaito found himself at a loss for words, and the maids shrugg
ed.
“Now it’s been crushed. Do you feel better?”
“Now it’s been dealt with. Do you feel relieved?”
“Why would I—? Well, that’s not true. I do feel relieved, dammit. God! You guys made that thing in the first place, didn’t you? Why would you do something like—?”
“Precisely. We made it. And even though we crushed it, we can still make more.”
“As long as Marianne, the necromancer who holds his soul in her womb, lives, we can make as many as we wish.”
Upon hearing that, Kaito felt the blood drain from his face. He looked at the baby’s mangled corpse. Their being able to produce more of those was a fact he couldn’t take lightly.
“Now, here is your question. Will Elisabeth kill her? Or will she not?”
“If she cannot kill her, we intend to snatch Marianne up and produce an army of Earls.”
Kaito glanced at Marianne’s chain-bound pale face. On it was etched her resolution toward death and her exhaustion toward life. She wasn’t the kind of person who should have had to become a necromancer.
“…You mean you’re going to exploit her even more? Hasn’t she had enough?”
“Until her fragile heart breaks, we intend to mass-produce Earls and release them into the wild.”
“Ah, and that scene will play out once more. Countless delightful Grand Guignols will take place.”
The maids giggled in unison. Kaito’s vision went red with fury.
At the same time, hallucinations of spiders crawled about in his brain. One after another, children screaming their throats raw ran through his mind. Neue cursing his fate, then smiling tearfully. The boy’s body being pulled backward and disappearing.
He thought he heard a ghastly scream and the boy’s bones snapping. The first person who had ever wished him happiness being brutally killed.
Kaito’s mind was painted over with heartache and vengeance. Somewhere in his mind, an odd slamming noise resounded. He looked up slowly. His eyes were opened wide in a manic death glare, and he posed a question to the two maids in a cold voice.
“…You think I’ll let you?”
Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 1 Page 15