novelraw Chapter 76 : Chapter 76
Chapter 76 : Chapter 76
Chapter 76: A Flowering Bone (4)
“Why!”
Monika shouted.
“Why can’t we land? The Saint-Pierre estate is right below us!”
Grrrrrr──!
Amidst the roaring propellers of the regular airship,
- How should I know! I was suddenly given instructions, so what am I supposed to do!
- I apologize, milady. Could you please return to your seat? Passengers are not allowed in the cockpit. Here, I’ll give you some candy.
- Anyway, all those with disabilities are the same…….
- Captain! What did His Holiness the Pope say? The disabled are…….
- Those who sinned in their past lives!
- That was what His Holiness the Pope from five centuries ago said!
Thud.
The sound of the cockpit’s steel door closing.
Monika stood with her back to the steel door. Holding the hard candy she was given.
All transport heading to the Saint-Pierre estate was paralyzed. The dimensional doors were disconnected due to operational malfunctions, the railways began emergency construction, and the regular airships no longer passed through the Saint-Pierre estate.
‘Dammit.’
Monika crunched on the hard candy.
She crushed the lump of sugar into pieces and clenched her fist.
What on earth was happening? Judging by the contents of Abel’s communication, it would not be an ordinary matter. He must have acted with some degree of anticipation. Even so, this was a difficult development for Monika to handle. A national-level response was being implemented.
‘If it’s come to this…….’
Monika ran.
She passed the passenger cabins and headed for the airship’s tail.
The moment she threw open the door leading to the railing,
──Whoosh!
A raging snowstorm.
Monika’s vision turned white. A strong wind blew, shaking her view. Beyond the airship, which was flying slowly at a low altitude, the full view of the snow-stained Saint-Pierre estate was revealed.
It was not a land suitable for human life. Holding onto the railing, Monika thought. Not to mention resources, it was difficult to find even an inch of farmland. Every building erected on the arid land was shabby, and,
‘……That’s the place.’
Only one.
Only the castle decorated with mirrors was brilliant.
‘Right, so that’s how it is.’
Fleur, you must have been born there.
Looking down at Saint-Pierre Castle, Monika thought.
It was different from Sarrifis in every way. A village overgrown with bushes, and a desolate, decaying estate. A humble private house that was cozy even if unremarkable, and a castle that was elaborately fortified all by itself. A father who mourned even as he repeated his hunts, and a father who felt no remorse even after taking countless lives. A mother who had shouted that she must survive, and a mother who had ended up taking her own life.
‘But they’re the same.’
Even if everything was opposite,
there was one point where they met.
‘We are survivors.’
Monika stood straight on the railing.
She focused her Aura at her feet, shaping it into the form of a plant stalk. She stretched it out and tied it down firmly. With the surrounding fixtures, so as not to slip.
‘You might think differently, but…….’
Amidst the snowstorm, Monika thought.
‘……You are a survivor, too.’
Those who survived should only have life left for them,
but they can’t perceive it. They don’t want to admit it. They insist that only death is left.
Monika knew. That on the day Sarrifis disappeared, she had died once. That was why she could tell. That on the day Fleur’s mother hanged herself, Fleur, too, had died once.
A state of being alive and dead at the same time.
A survivor’s life continues that way. Some blindly cling to life, and some blindly resolve for death.
‘We are alike, Fleur.’
We were alike all along.
Therefore, the reason I am trying to save you,
is unrelated to romantic reasons like good and evil, the value of life, or love, consideration, friendship…….
Like you, who as a survivor resolved for death, I, as a survivor, come to desire survival. Just as I did with Senior Dante, I pick out people who must survive and come to value their lives as well. I keep projecting a life that has become too large onto someone else.
‘I see.’
Perhaps I genuinely want to become a knight.
Even though I know it’s a hollow value, the reason I so stubbornly insist on a position to save someone is…….
‘It was because I had already been doing so.’
My hometown that didn’t have a single resident knight,
even when the people disappeared, the land disappeared, and the records disappeared,
just as I tried to protect it with my clumsy handwriting,
‘I’ll have no choice but to continue doing so.’
With my hometown swollen deep in my heart,
by protecting people, protecting the land, and protecting records,
it seems I plan to insist that those places are my hometown, too.
<──Sarrifis.>
Monika stretched out her prosthetic arm.
The pocket plain opened, and the greatsword named after her lost homeland was bestowed upon her. Monika supported it. She endured the absurdly massive weapon with her conviction. A green branch coiled around the body of the sword, and leaves unfamiliar in the north sharpened its edge, while,
‘Let’s go.’
Tap.
Monika lightly pushed off.
She was waiting for the right moment. The moment the airship would pass over Saint-Pierre Castle.
‘No, but this is a bit…….’
And so, she fell.
In the middle of the raging wind, the view of Saint-Pierre Castle approached in an instant.
I’ll pierce through the ceiling like this. With her eyes wide open, Monika steeled her resolve. She would be safe if she emitted her Aura Blade to break the ceiling material and wrapped her body in Aura to minimize the impact. She had definitely planned it that way, but……,
‘……It’s too much like Teacher Abel.’
Monika’s expression flickered for a moment.
He had jumped from a floating island, hadn’t he? To fight against the warships that attacked CIAR.
Did he have a plan of his own?
That question ended up taking root in her mind.
* * *
“Fleur.”
Deserick opened his mouth.
“This father is sad.”
Clang, clang, clang──!
Amidst the clashing of steel from all sides,
“I am so sad I cannot bear it.”
Deserick sat with his chin propped in his hand.
It was a melee. A close-quarters battle between the dead and the dead continued. The slaughtered family members were like piles of rubble. Amidst the blood that pooled like puddles, the corpses were scattered across the banquet hall in red clumps.
Were the knights and employees bought by Fleur?
To think that not a single person would appear despite the commotion.
Deserick thought it didn’t matter either way. This, too, must be the fate decided by the Main Gods. He himself might die. Or perhaps, he alone might survive. The end would be set. It was enough to try until he reached it.
“This father is…….”
But it was questionable.
There was only one thing that was questionable.
“It’s hard to accept. Why did you make such a choice? Your life was guaranteed. You would have soon inherited the family as an Evangelist…….”
“──Shut up!”
Fleur shouted.
Swish. As she brandished her blood-soaked blade.
“I never once wanted your family name.”
One of the dead fell beside Fleur.
Liquid flowed from the decapitated undead. Not blood, but liquefied mana soaked the ground at Fleur’s feet.
“I have endured to annihilate this family. Your disgusting existence, and the faith of those arrogant and nauseating fanatics……. I have tolerated it all.”
“That hurts my feelings.”
Deserick shrugged his shoulders.
Shing. As he glanced at the blade assailing him.
“This father loved Fleur more than anything.”
One of the dead reached Deserick’s side.
But it was useless. The undead that swung its sword was sent flying far away. A sturdy shield was enveloping Deserick.
“I just can’t understand it. To think you’d avenge your mother. Did she ever cherish you? Impossible. She likely never even considered you her daughter. I prevented you from meeting alone, lest you get your feelings hurt, so why…….”
“I didn’t care about any of that!”
She was sincere.
It was an issue she couldn't care less about.
It would have been fine if she was never recognized for a lifetime.
It was enough to recognize everything about her mother for herself.
She was happy.
She liked it when Pertillier smiled. She liked the smile that bloomed on her withered face. She liked her mother, who, even after screaming in a fit of madness, would fall asleep exhausted and breathe like the sound of a brush.
She was unhappy.
She hated it when Pertillier cried. She hated it when she screamed to be killed in a hoarse voice. Her mother who, even after mistaking something like a flower for her daughter and smiling, would eventually mess up her bed and let out monstrous shrieks……,
‘……was more wonderful than anything.’
You were my first happiness.
You were my first misfortune.
And so, it was good. To the point where discussing the value of happiness or the degree of misfortune became meaningless. Wealth, power, and talent were all unimportant. One only considered by whom they could be made happy, and by whom it was acceptable to be made unhappy.
‘There’s not much time.’
Fleur took a step forward.
‘Is this the sensation of a monster?’
Her body and mind were collapsing.
Her body was being replaced with that of a monster. Eyesight, speed, strength. All had improved dramatically, but the backlash was also considerable. While her body grew hot, her skeleton and organs seemed to be rearranging themselves. And so, extreme pain surged through her.
Her mind was not at ease either. Her clustered memories were breaking into small pieces. The records that made up her mind were blurring, and a motiveless desire to kill slowly began to spread.
Alberge asked, but Fleur couldn’t hear him.
She just moved forward. With the hilt of her sword gripped in her right hand, which had completed its monstrous transformation.
“Lady Fleur, get a grip.”
Osmond whispered, but Fleur couldn’t hear him.
She just moved forward. While concentrating divine power in her left hand, which maintained its human form.
“Everyone…….”
Fleur extended her left hand.
She kept Deserick in the center of her vision. The man looking down on her from his throne. She had to kill that man. Whatever the cost.
“Protect me.”
A halo of light began to graze Fleur’s left hand.
The moment the remaining divine power in her body surged into her palm,
<……I.>
Fleur chanted the incantation.
In a small voice.
The eighth chapter of the Underworld Theory, ‘The Tense of Sunset’.
It was not a spell that Fleur could handle alone. It should have been assisted by one cleric who had mastered the eighth chapter of the Underworld Theory, and at least a dozen clerics who had deciphered up to the fifth chapter. ‘The Tense of Sunset’ was a spell that released the air of the Underworld.
All troops, defend Lady Fleur──!
The dead moved along with Alberge’s shout.
Fleur’s forces charged all at once. They formed a circular wall of flesh to protect Fleur. Deserick’s forces struggled to break through the gaps, but it was of no use. The knights that made up Fleur’s forces were aware. That Deserick’s forces were, for the most part, their own bodies from when they were alive.
That they were nothing but shells devoid of souls.
Lady Fleur is…… dying.
Cutting down Deserick’s undead, Osmond thought.
She was substituting her body for the lack of divine power. Fleur was burning her blood, killing her cells, and contacting the Pantheon. A prayer through self-harm. She had requested the Pantheon in the most primitive way. To notice her existence. To lend her their power.
Beautiful. Truly beautiful.
With his eyes wide open, Deserick thought.
Fleur was a treasure. How could she not be brilliant? To think she had mastered it before even coming of age. To think she had reached the eighth chapter of the Underworld Theory.
Behold. Behold that child.
Deserick watched with a smile.
From Fleur’s palm, a magic circle spread out gigantically. Inside the magic circle, solidified into a circle, the design dotted with countless eyes was an entrance to the Underworld. The air there belonged to the dead. To the living, it would be a deadly poison. As the mass of Underworld air was honed into a blackish ray of light,
‘Is this the fate decided for me by the Main Gods.’
Deserick wondered for a moment, and,
‘I wonder,’
clasped his hands and prayed, and,
<──shall sink into the fading sky and wither!>
as the incantation concluded,
Fleur’s forces retreated all at once.
──!
All sound ceased.
The vibration that should have been completed as a sound wave had vanished.
In an instant, everything withered. It was because an incomplete Underworld had been constructed. Everything dissolved into pitch-black darkness, and the five senses seemed to have become useless before death.
Time was no exception. The Underworld air fired by Fleur accelerated spacetime. By the time the blackened scenery was restored, half of the banquet hall had transformed into ruins.
As if hundreds of years had passed.
“No way…….”
Fleur lamented.
Stained glass covered in mold, a wall covered in cracks, a shattered throne. ‘The Tense of Sunset’ was a spell that made the target experience the Underworld. A moment was enough. The moment a mortal is exposed to the Underworld, they die. Even if they don’t die, they age. ‘The Tense of Sunset’ had undoubtedly hit Deserick, but……,
[Oh dear, what a shame.]
Deserick was unscathed.
His skin had peeled off, his body hair dissolved, and his internal organs decayed, but,
[It seems it is not my fate to die today.]
he was still alive.
No, was he truly alive?
Gasping for breath, Fleur wondered. Most of Deserick’s outer shell had been lost. Because it was lost, his insides were revealed. The only lively part was perhaps his brain. Replacement organs applying iron, magic stones, and a golem’s mana reactor. Deserick’s insides were filled with artificial objects. He had been freed from death.
[Fleur, this father is sad.]
Deserick took a step.
He gradually approached Fleur.
[To think you would plot a rebellion against me. I still can’t believe it.]
Hck.
Fleur let out a dry cough.
Blood trickled down the side of her mouth.
[But it’s alright. I will surely understand.]
Deserick spread his arms and smiled.
His facial features were gone. Deserick’s head was nothing but a lump of iron. He was merely creating the vibrations of his voice with a sound device and seeing through processed magic stones.
[Because this father loves Fleur.]
You just have to repent. You just have to pray.
Do you understand, Fleur? Let’s find a way together with this father.
I don’t know what happened to your body, but if you rely on faith and repeat your research, you will be able to restore it.
Look. Look at this father.
Am I not so alive? Let’s forget the family members. You must not look back at your sins. Take this father’s hand. I cannot let my beloved daughter die.
[Do you understand, Fleur? Even if you die…….]
Deserick’s shadow loomed over Fleur.
And so, a bleak palm was extended.
[Wouldn’t it be fine if I just brought you back to life?]
Fleur’s forces moved.
Alberge rushed towards Deserick, and,
the moment Osmond stepped forward to protect Fleur,
“Deserick──!”
as Fleur shouted,
“──de Saint-Pierre!”
Monika’s shout poured down from above.
‘Monika?’
Fleur’s eyes widened.
Craaash! A green Aura Blade split the space between Deserick and Fleur. From the collapsed ceiling, thick dust poured down, and a blurry figure was revealed beside Fleur, and,
“Why?”
Fleur asked.
Squeezing out her tear-soaked voice.
“──Why did you come here!”
Monika did not answer.
She dispelled the Aura wrapped around her body and looked back at Fleur.
It was difficult to guess the situation. She just swallowed hard. Is that a Demon Human? Narrowing her eyes, Monika surmised. Most of Fleur’s body had been altered to that of a monster. Unlike Dante, who was exposed to a cursed artifact, the mutation seemed to have started from deep within her body.
“Are you ready, Fleur Epanoui.”
Monika simply asked.
She extended her prosthetic arm toward Fleur.
She opened the prosthetic arm made from a monster’s corpse and snatched the right hand of Fleur, which had transformed into that of a monster.
“From now on, let’s save you.”
And so, she returned them.
The words she heard from her teacher as a survivor, she returned them as a survivor to another survivor.