novelraw Chapter 151 : Chapter 151
Chapter 151 : Chapter 151
Chapter 151: Blossoms, Bouquets, and a Storm of Flowers (3)
“So that is what happened.”
Louise murmured.
A lukewarm breath brushed against Monika’s cheek. A stove fed with coal briquettes was running, yet the air felt strangely chilly. It was probably because they were underground. Monika had just arrived at Louise’s quarters. The repair workers’ lodgings were prepared in a basement not far from the worksite.
“I went to a certain fishing village, and it turned out to be a place where human sacrifices were being carried out……”
SWISH.
A comb passed through Monika’s hair.
After polishing it to a sheen with a brush made of boar bristles, Louise began neatly tying Monika’s hair back.
“So you are saying that Divine Punishment was imposed because of that?”
“That is right.”
Monika nodded.
Still, this feels uncomfortable. Being spoken to so politely.
Thinking that, Monika was about to turn around—
“Please stay still. Your hair will be ruined.”
“Ah, okay. Sorry……”
Monika pursed her lips.
Lowering her head, she glanced around. Monika sat at the center of the room while Louise stood behind her, tending to her hair.
This is a mess. A complete mess.
Scratching her cheek, Monika thought as much. Louise’s quarters looked like a storage crate that had been abandoned for ages. Objects of unknown purpose were piled everywhere. It was hard to find a place to step.
‘That aside……’
Meanwhile, sweet music filled the room.
A wooden box. At least, that was what it looked like. Music was flowing out of the wooden box.
‘What is that? Magic?’
Tilting her head in puzzlement, Monika did just that, and—
“It is science.”
Louise whispered into Monika’s ear.
“They call it a radio. It is a device that can receive specific wavelengths. I hear it is in fashion among the upper classes of the Melvaz Federation across the sea. I have seen merchants selling them.”
And so, I tried making one myself.
That is to say.
“So, Lady Monika, the music you are hearing right now is, in effect, coming from a very distant place.”
“I do not really understand. Is it something like a communication spell?”
“It is different.”
Louise shook her head.
She continued in a flat tone.
“It is a tool that produces an effect like magic without using magic. There are few Mages in the Melvaz Federation. Clerics are also rare, and their reserves of magic stones are practically nonexistent. That is why they had no choice but to develop technology in other directions. They call that science.”
“I cannot believe it.”
Without magic, a tool that produces an effect like magic.
Monika murmured as much, and—
“I feel the same way.”
I cannot believe it.
Your story, that is.
Louise whispered.
“……You said that you met Miss Fleur’s soul, did you not?”
THUD.
Louise took a step.
Crossing her arms, she stood facing Monika. Meeting a soul. Holding back a sigh, Louise thought. It is absurd. I cannot believe it. To Louise, Monika’s story was simply unacceptable. It was not a matter of trust, but a problem born from exceeding the very level of comprehension.
“I cannot believe it.”
Louise bent her knees and sat down.
Then she rummaged through a makeup basket, preparing to adorn Monika’s freshly washed face.
“The Mother God’s domain, and Miss Fleur’s soul, both sound rather fanciful to me. A created being cannot reach the domain of the Main Gods, and one cannot meet again with a soul that has departed for the Underworld. That is all I know.”
People as lowly as myself, simply do not know much, you see.
Louise said this as she traced Monika’s face.
“That is why I will not believe it. The process of learning what one does not know is tedious. Even if I were to believe you, the fact that Miss Fleur is dead would not change.”
“You do not have to believe me.”
That is not important.
Monika murmured.
“I think…… I understand now.”
Because I went to the Mother God’s domain.
Because I met Fleur’s soul, I think I understand.
It was not something that required reaching the domain of the Main Gods, or listening to the voice of a soul. Going to the grave is enough. You can meet her there too, and you can find her.
She will be watching.
“I have never gone to the grave even once. I thought I would feel the emptiness, so I could not bring myself to go……”
That was wrong.
Now, I should feel it through the emptiness.
I should remember the place where someone once was, through the space where they are no longer.
“That will be how I can meet her.”
“That may be so.”
“So come with me.”
Monika smiled awkwardly.
Louise did not mind. She applied pigment to Monika’s crooked lips, layering rouge until they were painted red.
“Everyone decided to go together. Trisha, Melisha, Sasha. The cleaning crew girls…… and Demian, Ernst, Roberta. People from the same class…….”
And if you come along too……
I think she would like that.
As Monika murmured this—
“Lady Monika Lohengrin. I…….”
Louise straightened up.
She placed her hands on her hips and looked down at Monika.
“……for now, respect your thoughts.”
So go on, now.
I have dressed you up nicely.
“Hurry. The dress will soak up moisture.”
“You are really not coming with us?”
Louise did not answer.
She merely rummaged through her work clothes and pulled out a crumpled cigarette case. She put a cigarette in her mouth and tilted her head slightly.
“……See you again, Louise.”
Monika picked up the bouquet she had set down in one corner of the room.
She looks like a little duck. Watching Monika’s retreating figure, Louise thought as much. The way she pushed through the hem of her dress with each step looked unsteady. That was only natural. That girl had never had any connection to dresses.
‘But still, “see you again.”’
HISS.
The sound of a match touching the cigarette.
Louise took a deep drag.
‘Is she planning to build some kind of rapport?’
Impossible.
After all, I……
‘……rather dislike you.’
You look pathetic, and you feel unpleasant.
As Louise exhaled cigarette smoke with that thought—
[Red, have you made a friend?]
Suddenly, a voice broadcast from the radio.
A young man’s voice came through along with static.
“No.”
Louise answered curtly.
She bowed her head slightly toward the radio.
“I showed something embarrassing. Please do not concern yourself. I will have nothing further to do with that child.”
[Oh dear.]
The man laughed.
[I do not think that will be possible. From now on, you will have to keep an eye on that child. Regrettably.]
“What do you mean by that?”
[It is a matter of fate. The Main Gods sometimes enjoy games of dice. Even the great work of creation is such a game. The act of creating all things means that the Main Gods could not endure silence and thus gambled.]
“I am not interested in wordplay.”
[My apologies.]
Listen carefully.
This is the mission assigned to you.
[Observe that child, and her Teacher as well. That is why you were dispatched to CIAR in the first place.]
Abel Argento.
I have deep ties with that man.
The man whispered thus, and—
“Deep ties?”
Are you friends, then?
Louise shrugged as she murmured.
It was a question tinged with mild spite.
[We are not the sort who would become friends.]
Perhaps rivals. Or perhaps colleagues.
Either way is fine. It is not information you need to know.
So answer me.
[Will you accept the order?]
“I doubt I have the right to refuse.”
Louise let out a sigh.
She stubbed out the burned-down cigarette in an ashtray, then—
“We shall renew.”
She recited the creed.
In a small voice.
So that no one else could hear.
“──Until the colors of all things freeze.”
***
At the same time, the Black Swan Building of Cia-Harphe Academy.
The moment the door opened, a stench assaulted him. Lizer halted mid-step. The odor of rotting flesh, the fishy smell rising from dried blood. He drew it into his nostrils, then let it out again. As though savoring the scent of his hometown, he closed his eyes gently.
Kill me, it said.
A voice suddenly coming from somewhere.
Lizer did not respond. He opened his eyes slightly and surveyed the interior of the dormitory. Various grimoires were piled haphazardly, and magic circles were engraved across the walls. Spells had been etched so that voices would not leak out, and so that the stench would not escape.
Kill me, kill me, kill me.
Once again, the voice came from somewhere.
Lizer stepped forward. Picking his way through what little space there was to step, he headed toward the bedroom. Piles of grimoires collapsed as he passed, but he did not care. The smile he always wore had long since vanished. The expression glimpsed through the gaps of his robe was cold and indifferent.
“Kill me.”
CREAK.
The moment Lizer opened the bedroom door—
“Kill me.”
A single figure, tilting its head along with a rocking chair.
At first glance, it looked like a ghost. Draped in a white blanket, it resembled the sort of ghost one might see in a fairy-tale illustration.
But it had feet. Beneath the fluttering blanket, dark red, decayed legs were faintly visible.
“Kill me, kill me, kill me…….”
“──Shh.”
Lizer stood beside the figure.
He looked down at the figure seated in the rocking chair.
“Sorry I am late, Dietrich.”
Lizer removed his robe.
Then he pulled away the blanket covering the figure.
Beyond the blanket was a boy. A boy’s body, already decayed as if long dead. And yet, he resembled Lizer. Lizer called the boy Dietrich. Dietrich Leinhart. A twin younger brother who looked like him, yet was never truly his equal.
“There were a few things I had to take care of. It seems Father did not stop by. I asked him to look after you.”
“Brother, brother, brother…….”
Moisture gathered at the corners of Dietrich’s eyes.
He reached out his arm. Dietrich extended his rotting hand toward Lizer. A hand with exposed bones and vivid muscle, reeking with a foul stench. But it did not reach him. Dietrich hesitated with his hand outstretched, and Lizer sighed as he looked at it.
“It hurts a lot, does it not? You have endured well.”
“Brother, I…… I…….”
“You do not have to say more. You will be fine for a while now.”
“I missed you…….”
“Yes. Yes. I feel the same.”
But—
Lizer whispered as he grasped Dietrich’s hand.
“Soon, the year will turn…….”
It was at that moment.
Lizer’s body began to break apart.
The body that had held a human shape scattered into particles of light. Lizer’s clothes fell in a heap onto the floor, while his body, decomposed into light, began to seep into Dietrich’s body. To reconstruct flesh, and to allow blood to circulate once more.
Just as Spirits form nature.
“……There is not much time left.”
Only his voice could be heard.
Lizer’s voice, having lost its form, echoed.
From the very center of empty space, toward Dietrich’s ear.
“When you die—”
The moment when I become complete.