novelraw Chapter 71 : Chapter 71
Chapter 71 : Chapter 71
Chapter 71: A Hymn for the Avenger (3)
Here, a woman hangs in the sky.
She was too low to be a star. She was just grotesque to be a flower.
It didn't matter either way, young Fleur thought. As she stared at her mother’s corpse hanging from the ceiling, she deemed the body, swollen with the stench of a corpse and filth, beautiful.
Wrong. She surmised that it absolutely had to be beautiful. If her mother's fleeting life could not have been beautiful, she believed that her eternal death had to be beautiful.
“Mrs. Saint-Pierre.”
And so, Fleur opened her mouth.
Standing politely, with a drawn-on smile.
She once again offered the praise she had always given.
“You are truly beautiful today as well…”
Why was it? Her words trailed off.
Fleur’s head drooped. Her wavering light blue eyes gradually narrowed. But she did not lose her smile. Of course. I have to smile. Because my mother is by my side. Thinking so, Fleur looked around.
A messy chamber.
A draft seeping in from outside.
On the table, a flower that had withered in its pot.
[──The shadow of the Pantheon will clothe you.]
And countless eyes.
Fleur took a step back. She held her breath and clasped her hands. On the surface of the window, in the middle of the wall, in the center of the ceiling, eyelids sprouted. And so, the moment the eyes that surrounded Fleur all flashed at once,
[There is no need to fear, mortal.]
A lantern illuminating Fleur’s side.
[I have only come upon hearing your voice.]
The man holding the lantern looked down at Fleur.
He was a man as if made of black and white. Skin paler than a dead person’s. Darkly settled hair, and a jet-black cloak that enveloped the man’s body. The only shining part of the colorless man’s appearance was his eyes. Overflowing light blue eyes. The man had a gaze similar to Fleur’s.
“You are…”
Fleur opened her mouth, stuttering.
She knew. She knew the name of the man, of that being.
“...God of the Underworld, Lord ‘Aries’.”
[That is correct.]
The man, the God of the Underworld, held a faint smile.
[Mortal, what is your name?]
“Fleur de Saint-Pierre…”
Why is he asking for my name?
No, why has the God of the Underworld manifested?
Fleur wondered, her lips twitching. It was a matter that was difficult for a young heart to understand. She had heard that the Main Gods perceived all things and thus intervened…
[I will remember your name, Fleur.]
The God of the Underworld nodded once.
He then asked. In an indifferent tone.
[Why are you wailing?]
…Wailing?
Fleur tilted her head.
“O God of the Underworld, I am not crying. Look. I am smiling like this.”
[Is that so.]
The God of the Underworld’s eyes narrowed.
Fleur’s beautifully curved lips. The God of the Underworld, who had been looking at them, turned his body. He turned his back on Fleur and faced straight ahead. The radiance seeping from the lantern stained the corpse. Fleur’s mother, Pertillier de Saint-Pierre. The God of the Underworld stood facing her corpse.
[It is not important.]
The God of the Underworld suddenly whispered.
“...Pardon?”
[I said it is not important, Fleur.]
So do not mind it.
Because in the realm of the Main Gods, time is colorless.
To live and to die. For the scenery to change and for eras to be replaced. To speak of time, it is nothing more than a principle that constitutes the world. Nothing changes just because you are smiling right now. It means that the cry of yours that I have noticed does not become useless.
I may have heard your past cry.
Or I may have heard your future cry.
And so, I have arrived from beyond time.
Answer me, Fleur de Saint-Pierre.
[Why are you crying?]
“I…”
Fleur just stared straight ahead.
After seeing the back of the God of the Underworld, she gently lifted her head.
It was impossible. The eyes that had been looking up at her mother’s corpse lost their light. Fleur bowed her head and created a shadow. Hiding in her shadowed expression, she barely opened her mouth.
“I must not cry, O God of the Underworld.”
[For what reason?]
Fleur spread her palms.
The lines engraved on her small palms. Come to think of it, in some era, they told fortunes with palm lines. Did they say that life is determined by the boundaries engraved on the palm? To Fleur, it seemed like a foolish belief. The curves engraved on these two hands were a mere net, and she had never once used them to catch her mother.
“...Because I don’t have the right.”
[What determines the right to cry?]
That was why it got wet.
The beady moisture spreading on Fleur’s palms.
A small teardrop touched the palm lines and spread as if opening its mouth. It rippled in a circle, and for what purpose on earth did the cry well up?
“My mother…”
To achieve what,
did the I of my youth cry when I was born?
“...Because my mother ended up like this because of me.”
Fleur buried her face in her palms.
She put strength into her trembling arms. She covered her wetting eyes with her palm lines. She wanted to scratch them out. She wanted to tear her whole face off like this. She wanted to dig into her skin with her nails and crush her eyeballs. It would have been better if I hadn't been born. Why on earth did this young body, which did not resemble her mother at all, which was so healthily woven, have to exist?
Why.
Why.
For what reason.
──Ah, so that’s what it was.
Fleur held a smile.
Her crying neckline hardened.
She then lifted her head and stared at the God of the Underworld. An expression with a jumble of laughter and tears. The moment the God of the Underworld was about to turn and look at Fleur’s face,
“Revenge──.”
Fleur opened her mouth.
“I must take revenge.”
Fleur realized as she smiled.
Fleur realized as she cried.
So my life existed for revenge.
Let’s kill all those who made me. Let’s kill all those who made my mother like this. Fleur vowed with a laugh and a cry that sounded like a beast’s wail. That she would shed blood and tear flesh, and that she would curse them while chewing on their bones. That she would slaughter all the members of this holy family who praised the Main Gods.
Until my life ends.
Because it doesn't matter what happens to my life.
[I understand now.]
The God of the Underworld took a step.
Illuminating Fleur with the lantern in his right hand, he picked up the hem of his jet-black cloak with his left hand.
[I, the God of the Underworld ‘Aries’, am the Main God who presides over death, the heart, and reincarnation. This is not because I know death, know the heart, and know reincarnation that I have jurisdiction.]
──Swoosh!
The hem of the God of the Underworld’s cloak, spreading like wings.
[It is because I was the most ignorant.]
Because I do not understand death,
because I do not have a heart,
and because I do not know the meaning of reincarnation.
[And so I became the God of the Underworld.]
Questioning death,
wondering about the heart,
the God of the Underworld because I wanted to know reincarnation.
[Fleur, only now do I realize──.]
The God of the Underworld embraced Fleur.
The body of the god with no body heat took charge of Fleur.
[──that it was I who made you wail.]
A blooming laugh.
A soaring cry.
Fleur’s wail echoed blankly.
* * *
Naflansee District 2 of the capital, the top floor corridor of the Imperial Citizen Hospital.
Iris, who was sitting in a chair, bit her cigarette. After brushing the end of the cigarette with a match, she deeply inhaled the acrid breath.
Konstanze was sitting opposite Iris.
A crystal ball was floating above Konstanze’s palm. Fleur’s voice was seeping from it. It was thanks to recovering the recording spell installed in the Arcturus family’s villa. Raphael had concealed various spells in preparation for an emergency, and the recording spell was one of them.
Fleur’s voice began to tremble.
Iris didn’t mind. She listened without being moved.
<...Raphael. Help me, Raphael.>
Iris’s head tilted.
She looked at the starkly closed door of the private infirmary. Fleur was in there. Raphael’s corpse was undergoing an autopsy with the approval of the Saint-Pierre family, and Fleur, who was still breathing, underwent treatment.
Her life was not in danger. It would be fine for her to be discharged tomorrow. The diagnosis was as such.
Although it was only in name.
<...Ahaha.>
The area around the hospital room was strictly controlled.
The knights of the Orléans family were blockading the stairs, and various spells were planted to prevent sound from leaking out.
“That’s enough.”
At Iris’s words, Konstanze waved her magic wand.
The rotating crystal ball stopped. It gradually shrank and seeped into the magic wand.
[A letter came from the Marquis of Saint-Pierre.]
Konstanze said in a small voice.
She then narrowed her eyes. Iris’s expression could not be guessed. Beyond the blackly lowered mesh veil, only her light pink eyes were shining calmly.
[He’s sending a carriage tomorrow morning. He wants to take care of Miss Saint-Pierre himself. The documents needed for the recuperation process have been processed, and Miss Saint-Pierre will be on a leave of absence for a month starting tomorrow.]
“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”
[Iris…]
Konstanze’s words trailed off.
What on earth was happening? Such a question brushed through her mind. Iris’s attire was too simple for a duke’s. Simple and at the same time, strange. A pitch-black attire as if she were in mourning. Raphael de Arcturus had died a violent death, and Fleur de Saint-Pierre had been pierced by a sword.
No, that’s not it. Konstanze shook her head. It’s not something I should question. It doesn’t matter what happens outside of CIAR. I must be absolutely optimistic. Such a conclusion was reached. Without any context, as if someone had engraved it in her mind.
[Iris, I have something I want to ask.]
And so, she asked a different question.
[...Am I human?]
“Why do you question such a thing?”
Iris asked back in a blunt tone.
“Tell me, Stanzi. Did you send a double to me?”
[That’s right. The me in front of you now is a double. My main body is attending an academic conference held in commemoration of the Moonlight Day. I’m babbling about boring magical theories.]
But Iris.
Is that really my main body?
Konstanze whispered so.
“How absurd.”
Iris shrugged her shoulders.
“Why are you asking me something only you can know? The body, the mana, the memories… to choose the real one among a hundred Konstanze von Theresias, all of whom have been copied. Are we playing a game of spot the difference?”
[I’m not playing a game.]
“Neither am I. I have no time to play with you.”
Go back, Stanzi.
Iris said, chewing on her cigarette.
“The damn Dawn Leaf Theater in the capital has been destroyed. It’s already difficult enough to cover this up. So please understand. What is happening now is a top secret of the imperial family. It is not a matter for the Vice President of CIAR to be involved in. It is enough that you approved Fleur de Saint-Pierre’s leave of absence. There is nothing more for you to do.”
[I…]
“──Go back, please.”
Konstanze’s shoulders flinched.
A moment of silence. Konstanze soon rose to her feet. After glaring at the silent Iris, she walked towards the end of the corridor.
That’s right. It’s not her business to interfere.
Iris thought, crushing her cigarette in the ashtray. It would have been the same even if Konstanze’s main body, which was living in the Orléans family’s villa, was moving healthily. She didn't want to let her get involved in something like this. No, it wasn't that she had shown affection to the double.
Hateful. Pitiful. Hateful. Pitiful…
‘How foolish. This isn’t why I saved Stanzi.’
Iris scoffed, waving her hand.
The faint cigarette smoke scattered with the gesture, and
“...I have come as summoned.”
a small girl’s voice was heard.
Iris’s eyes tilted slightly.
“Your Highness Orléans, I am Monika Lohengrin…”
“I know. We met at the Arcturus family’s villa, didn’t we?”
Come and sit here, she said.
Iris whispered, gesturing with her chin at the chair.
“...Excuse me.”
Monika sat opposite Iris.
She placed her hands on her knees and looked around.
In fact, she was conscious of Iris. Soon after Abel left, Iris arrived. A black evening dress, a black mesh veil. She had seen a woman dressed like that before. It must have been on her way to see Abel after the dormitory assignment ceremony.
The comrade of Teacher Abel who spoke in a gentle tone. Monika remembered her that way.
“You’re right.”
Iris said with a hint of a smile.
“The woman who passed by after the dormitory assignment was completed… was none other than me.”
“...I see.”
Monika pretended to understand, for the sake of it.
There were many questionable points, but she was not in a position to express them.
“An adult has many faces. Sometimes they become gentle and sometimes they become cruel. So don’t worry too much about it. A day will come when we can talk leisurely.”
For now, it’s Fleur de Saint-Pierre.
Let’s talk about that child.
Iris muttered so.
“Monika Lohengrin, are you a friend of Fleur de Saint-Pierre?”
“I…”
Monika’s amber eyes wavered.
She had never once considered Fleur a friend. If she had to say, she was a child she hated. Because she was the only daughter of the Saint-Pierre family that had destroyed Sarrifis. Because she had always hovered around, pitying her as if giving alms. How should I answer if I were to discuss this with the duke? After a brief moment of deliberation, Monika said.
“...A stranger.”
“I see.”
Iris nodded.
She had already heard Monika’s inner thoughts. She could easily guess her feelings towards Fleur. That was why Iris continued in a calm tone.
“As a stranger, it must have been quite troublesome. To have found Fleur de Saint-Pierre, who had been stabbed by a sword. But it is usually like that.”
You can’t hate them to your heart’s content,
and you can’t feel pity for them either.
“Listen carefully from now on, Monika.”
Iris gestured with her chin at the hospital room door.
“You should know the truth as well.”
…Truth?
Monika wondered with a blank expression.
She then rolled her eyes. The tightly closed door of the hospital room. The nameplate attached to it stood out.
Fleur de Saint-Pierre.
She glanced at the name of that hateful child.
.
.
.
Fleur opened her eyes.
A strange ceiling was visible. It must be a hospital room. The sheets of the bed were unusually stiff.
She sat up and checked outside the window. The noisy first day of the Moonlight Day had ended, and a faint light was adorning the night view of the capital. So quiet it was creepy.
But that’s wrong.
The creepy one is me.
The corners of Fleur’s mouth rose slightly. When she caressed her chest, which was wrapped in a patient’s gown, it was as she expected. She couldn’t feel anything. The wound from being pierced by a blade had disappeared. It wasn't the result of being sutured by a procedure or a spell. To be so seamlessly restored, it was definitely…
“You swallowed a monster’s core.”
Suddenly, a voice reached Fleur’s ear.
It was Abel. Abel was standing with his back to the hospital room door.
With a blood-stained flower crown in one hand, and a file envelope in the other.
“Three days at most.”
Abel moved his feet.
“Soon, you will be neither human nor monster. You will degenerate into a Demon Human, a being that the Papacy must eliminate as a top priority.”
Fleur tilted her head.
In the midst of that, Fleur’s white foot, stepping on the flooring.
She crushed a shadow with the tip of her toe. At the same time, she pronounced someone’s name.
“You dispatched an assassin to kill the members of the family one by one…”
As Abel spoke,
Whoosh. A blade was roughly aimed.
A dead man in heavy armor stood facing Abel, but
“You tightened the net and provoked the marquis. To make him issue a summons. Do you intend to gather the members of the family in one place and kill them?”
──Thud!
Abel pushed him away indifferently.
The dead man, who had lost his center of balance, collapsed.
But that was just one. Soon, two dead men blocked Abel’s way, and
“A sound plan. He started moving as soon as he heard the news about you. The members of the family are heading to the Saint-Pierre estate. Under the pretext of holding the regular banquet early.”
one dead man was slammed into the flooring, and
the other dead man was pushed towards the wall.
Abel advanced like that.
“You get stabbed yourself and become a victim…. Through this, you are excluded from the list of suspects. The possibility that the marquis would suspect you is blocked. The knowledge related to the monster’s core, the artifacts that your confidant, Osmond Epanoui, used. All of those were supplies supported by the Parousia Denomination.”
While cutting through the dead summoned from Fleur’s shadow,
he tilted his head to dodge a blade, and struck a blade with his elbow, and pushed one dead man and toppled another, and
──Thump, thump, thump!
at the end of subduing the dead one by one,
“And by making Monika witness the scene──.”
Abel finally stopped.
Breathing shallowly, facing Fleur.
“──you must have intended for me to reach the truth.”
Thump.
The file envelope, thrown next to Fleur.
Papers poured from it. Information about Fleur’s mother was recorded.
“That’s correct, Professor Argento.”
Fleur said in a gentle tone.
Although her speech was soft, Fleur’s expression as she looked up at Abel was resolute.
“It was all my plan.”
The moonlight shining in through the window.
The right eye of the World God looked down on the heavens and earth.
And so, it looked slightly red. The eyes of Fleur, who had swallowed a monster’s core.