novelraw Chapter 78 : Chapter 78
Chapter 78 : Chapter 78
Chapter 78: Bone Between Flowers (1)
A girl, like a flower bud, spoke.
“You’re going to die soon.”
Ahat. Young Osmond laughed.
It was a declaration that was not surprising. On the contrary, he had been waiting for it.
There had been five children here, and only Osmond was left. Then where was this place? It was like a box containing all the malice of this world. That’s how Osmond thought of it.
He thought he might have been curious. About what had happened to him. He had wailed because he didn't know. He had cried endlessly for about three days. In the end, only laughter spread. As if treating everything that happened to him as a joke.
As if he had become a relentlessly cheerful fairy.
“Do you remember who you are?”
“……I don’t know.”
Come to think of it, they were similar.
Tied to the operating table, Osmond thought.
“Do you not even remember your name?”
“Osmond……”
The girl looking down at him.
That girl resembled the man who would occasionally come to see him.
“What about your surname?”
“Ahaha, I don't remember.”
Her blue hair was as if the sky had been melted.
Her two eyes were as fresh as a flowing stream.
The only difference, perhaps, was her expression. Unlike the man who always had a smile on his face, the girl looked so gloomy she might burst into tears at any moment.
“You were probably abandoned.”
The girl extended her arm.
A cold touch brushed Osmond’s body. A body with one arm missing and one leg missing. He wasn’t born like this. The house he was in had collapsed in an avalanche, and he had been buried without a chance to escape. And so, he was abandoned. By whom was he abandoned? His family? Did he have a family? Osmond thought he didn’t really know.
“Your head must be fuzzy.”
“Ahat……”
“Too many drugs were administered. It will take time to calm down.”
“……Ahahat!”
“But it’s okay. Because you won’t die.”
“Ahahahahat──!”
Laughter burst out.
Osmond’s body, tied in chains, shook. He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t hold back his laughter. Four children had been dragged here in the same situation and died. All of them died laughing. One child couldn’t see, and another seemed to have regressed mentally. All the children had disabilities. That was why they were abandoned. That was why they died.
The deaths of children with disabilities,
they died laughing as if it were just a joke.
To say he wouldn’t die. To say he would survive.
It was ridiculous. This, too, was nothing but a cruel joke.
What would he do if he survived? What was he supposed to survive for?
“……Be quiet.”
But, the girl breathed gently.
A smile appeared on the girl’s lips as she put a finger to them.
“I think you’re very lucky. I’m sure those words don’t resonate with you. But please listen. The possibility of me reaching this place didn’t exist. It’s rare for my father to be away right before a banquet. Above all, I can help you not to die, and in addition……”
I can give them back.
The limbs you lost.
The girl whispered so.
“Losing an arm and a leg means that a part of your soul has died. So your limbs are in the Underworld. From now on, I will revive your dead soul.”
Ahat, ahat.
Osmond laughed as if having a seizure.
It was difficult to guess the meaning of the girl’s words.
The girl didn't mind. After carving a magic circle around Osmond, she clasped her hands and began to pray. The girl’s whisper spread from the center of the crimson magic circle. Osmond just listened with a dazed expression.
The girl’s left sleeve was rolled up.
Her arm was covered in knife marks.
Osmond frowned.
The girl fumbled around the operating table.
She picked up a dagger and aimed it at her left arm, and then,
“Please listen, Osmond.”
she whispered to Osmond.
“I can’t bring back your flesh. But I will give you bones. Bones that will grow with you as you age, bones that you can move freely……”
Will you make a contract with me?
To the girl’s question, Osmond,
“I don’t care what happens.”
answered, exhaling a faint breath.
Bones grew from his roughly severed arms and legs, a tingling laughter was engraved in his subdued mind, and that was all.
“To you, who doesn’t remember your surname, I will give you my mother’s surname. Because everyone needs roots.”
He inherited the surname that the girl’s mother had,
“Lady Fleur, can I help you?”
he tried to protect the girl by her side, he joined a revenge that he hadn’t desired, and that was all.
“I want you to leave my side.”
“Why?”
“Because you are alive. The knights who follow me are all undead, but you are not. Even if the resuscitation is dispelled, the bones will remain in your body. Because you were still alive, with only half your body dead.”
“You are alive too, milady.”
“Is that so?”
If it is a slender root that supports a flower, then it is none other than the bones that support a person. Through the bones, the body stands upright. Breathing becomes possible. It becomes possible to consume food, and it becomes possible to protect the absurdly fragile organs.
“Osmond Epanoui.”
The girl, Fleur Epanoui, probably had no bones.
Bones are the support that lurks inside the body. It is different from the root of a flower. A person’s bone fragments could only support their own weight.
“Can you kill me?”
Fleur was different.
Fleur had only roots, not bones. Spreading out underground, they covet nutrients, and become firm by intertwining with other roots scattered nearby. And so, what Fleur absorbed was resentment, and what made Fleur firm was a chain of grudges. That was all.
“Ahaha……”
That was really all.
Extending his gauntly left bones, he wanted to touch the roots that made up Fleur.
“……If you wish, by all means.”
That was the answer Osmond gave.
* * *
“……No.”
Osmond watched silently.
Monika weeping beside Fleur.
It was something he had been prepared for. After finishing the revenge, he would execute himself for becoming a Demon Human. That was Fleur’s instruction. It was better to die than to be drunk on slaughter while having lost one’s self. That was how Fleur had judged from the beginning.
“Why……, why…….”
Well, why?
Listening to Monika’s voice, Osmond thought.
Why did it have to come to this end? It was an absurd joke. But then again, why? Osmond looked down at his own hands. A hand made of bone and a hand made of flesh. Fleur’s blood was rampant on the surface of the metal gauntlet. He took off his iron mask and caressed his lips; it was quiet. The laughter that had been convulsing all along no longer welled up.
Really, why?
Suddenly, Alberge’s voice reached Osmond.
Alberge’s eye light was fading.
That wasn’t all. The knights who had been revived through resuscitation began to fall one by one. The crimson eye light disappeared, and they were scattered as mere bone fragments.
That was right.
Fleur’s plan was not over.
After finishing the revenge, they would confront the Parousia Denomination that would reach the Saint-Pierre estate. For that, she had recruited the Sword Saint and left Osmond behind.
“……I know.”
Osmond put on his iron mask again.
He looked beyond the wall that had collapsed due to the Aura Blade. After facing the desolate scenery of the Saint-Pierre estate soaked in the night,
“I’m really sorry, Monika.”
he muttered softly and leaped.
That was all. While the dead fell one by one with a rustle,
Alberge whispered to Monika.
Monika didn’t seem to hear. She just shed tears with her unfocused eyes wide open. Ah, right. Such young girls have been swept up in the slaughter. Squeezing out his fading consciousness, Alberge thought.
All the dead must have been the same.
Drunk on their thirst for revenge against the marquis, they had accepted Fleur’s request.
As adults, they should have refused. Even though they knew they were wrong, they chose to become vengeful ghosts. They were revived not as humans but as demons and honed their grudges. And so they had killed Deserick, but Alberge had no feelings to confess, and,
<……I, Alberge Hildeberg, apologize with what little heart I have left.>
he muttered softly and collapsed.
That was all. Only Fleur’s cold corpse and Monika were left.
‘Why…….’
Biting her lower lip, Monika thought.
She knew in her head. The fact that the possibility of Fleur surviving was slim. Even that was too optimistic. She knew that there probably was no such possibility. She had stubbornly ignored the story about Demon Humans that Abel had told her, and had come here insisting that just as she had survived, Fleur could too.
‘……Why did she have to die like this?’
It was a foolish question.
Monika had understood long ago. The fact that it was pointless to discuss justification in death. The people of Sarrifis had disappeared without a trace, and Fleur’s body was cold and stained with a frosty light.
‘I don’t want this.’
“Monika.”
She stroked Fleur’s cheek.
It was chilly. There was no focus in her slightly open eyes, and her lips, which held a faint smile, were dry.
‘I don’t want this.’
“Monika Lohengrin.”
She just didn’t want it.
Fleur must have planned it from the beginning. After preparing for Osmond to kill her, she must have steeled herself. Monika was the only variable for Fleur. That was why she hated it even more. Because she couldn’t fix anything.
“Monika, look at me.”
Suddenly, a voice reached Monika’s ear.
Monika raised her head. Wiping her eyes, blurred with anger, she looked straight ahead. Armor cast in platinum. A knight in huge armor was kneeling on one knee.
Could that be called armor? With her eyes wide open, Monika wondered. It felt more like a magitek weapon than armor. Since it was the size of two adult men combined.
“……I have failed.”
The voice coming from inside the armor was strange.
It was too mechanical to be a human’s voice. It seemed he had concealed his identity through a spell.
However, Monika could tell.
“Abel……, Teacher……”
“Yes, it’s me.”
Abel nodded.
He had just arrived at the Saint-Pierre estate with full preparations.
The ceremonial armor bestowed upon the Sword Saint. The heavy plate armor was enveloping Abel.
“I……, I was wrong, Teacher.”
It wasn't difficult to grasp the context. The ceremonial armor bestowed upon the Sword Saint had a large number of spells engraved on it, and based on this, he could analyze the surrounding environment.
Abel calmly interpreted it. Seeing the traces of spells being used, it seemed a fierce battle had taken place. Deserick de Saint-Pierre was dead, and the family members had also passed away. The undead revived through resuscitation had departed for the Underworld, and Fleur seemed to have chosen to die of her own will.
“I wanted to save Fleur……, but I couldn’t.”
I failed. I failed.
I couldn’t do anything, I…….
Monika muttered so.
“No, that’s not true.”
Abel stood up.
A towering shadow covered Monika.
“The one who failed is me. You are not too late.”
Abel took a step forward.
The floor rumbled. Thud, thud.
Monika’s gaze tilted blankly. She stared in the direction Abel was heading. Beyond the crumbled wall of the banquet hall, the full view of the Saint-Pierre estate was revealed. The night sky was already filled with a deafening roar. Countless warships were floating, imitating the stars. Then what was that? The giant fireball faintly visible beyond Abel, who had finished preparing to leap.
“It will be impossible to resurrect Fleur.”
Looking back at Monika, Abel said.
“Turning back time will also be impossible.”
However, he said.
Abel continued.
“Depending on what we do, we might be able to buy enough time to say goodbye.”
“What does that…….”
“Pray, Monika.”
My prayers are now useless, but for you, it is not yet too late. So pray.
With his back to Monika, Abel whispered, and,
──Thud!
A towering leap.
Abel’s figure grew distant.
“Pray……”
Monika muttered blankly.
What was the point of praying? In the first place, Monika’s prayers had never once been answered. Even though she had prayed several times during her supplementary lessons with Raphael, only a faint divine power, as if spread in water, had been manifested.
Even if she succeeded, nothing would change. Fleur’s heart had already stopped. Even if she applied healing magic, Fleur would not be able to breathe. It was too late, she had failed. Looking down at Fleur’s corpse, Monika thought.
That was all.
There was nothing she could do.
Do people pray only when there is no other way?
Slowly raising her arms, clasping her hands, Monika thought. If she prayed to the distant Main Gods to bring Fleur back to life, would anything change?
[──No, it won’t.]
At that very moment,
the sound of clockwork gears meshing could be heard.
[There’s no need to look up so far.]
A figure approached Monika, stepping on the air.
[All things repeat circulation, and the beginning and the end cannot be discussed in order. The same goes for the farthest place and the closest place.]
It was a broken boy.
Monika thought without realizing it. That boy was broken. Cracks made up most of his body, and cogwheels were visible in every area where the cracks spread. His right eye was red and his left eye was silver. The boy faced Monika with a body that did not seem of this world.
[So prayer is not through the Pantheon in the farthest place…….]
The boy extended his index finger and pointed at Monika, and,
[it is enough to go through your heart, the closest place.]
“You are……”
[Me?]
He then pointed to himself.
[Well.]
After pondering for a while, the boy smiled.
[Shall we say, a mere outer god?]
The god of gods. A dead god, and a living world.
And also an outer god. That was the answer of the World God ‘Epezeria.’