novelraw Chapter 95 : Chapter 95
Chapter 95 : Chapter 95
Chapter 95: The Doll's House (2)
There is a golem that makes graves.
Such a rumor began to spread in CIAR. It was a spooky rumor that had been circulating since the ghost story related to the boy possessed by an evil spirit, Emilio Mackenzie.
The content was nothing special. A certain golem was making graves all over CIAR. The problem was the golem's intention. It was said to be making graves based on its own desires, not on someone's orders, nor on a calculated judgment.
Wait, then is that really a golem? One student wondered. Golems did not have a self. They only pretended to have one. Even questioning the master's opinion at times, and agreeing fiercely, was the result of calculations. They only acted as if they were thinking, but they could not continue the thought itself.
‘That's why…….’
Right.
That's absolutely right.
The Vice President of CIAR, Konstanze von Theresia, agreed.
Golems lacked a self, and they could not act based on their own desires.
‘That thing is…….’
Therefore, she wondered.
‘……is it really a golem?’
Watching Fabien,
she wondered if he was really a golem.
[Oh, Vice President? Nice to meet you.]
Fabien smiled, looking back at Konstanze.
With a shovel in one hand, and a small box in the other.
[You're working hard from early in the morning.]
[Of course, of course. Even a hundred bodies wouldn't be enough…….]
No, this isn't the time for such talk.
Konstanze shook her head. After forcing strength into her neck, she took a step towards Fabien.
[You, what on earth are you doing right now?]
The place was full of holes.
While there were piles of dirt around Fabien, holes suitable for burying boxes were lined up at regular intervals. A dozen holes had been prepared, and at the same time, a dozen boxes were piled up at his feet.
[Who gave you such an order? This is the property of Cia-Harphe Academy. I cannot tolerate you digging up the ground as you please. Did Professor Argento tell you to do this?]
Fabien was in the middle of digging up the soil.
He had not committed a serious offense. Although she had poured out sharp questions, the land that Fabien had dug up was in a corner of CIAR. It was just a vacant lot overgrown with weeds, not a place where students would come and go.
[Speak, golem. Who told you it was okay to do this?]
[No one did.]
To Konstanze's question, Fabien answered.
[I judged for myself. This is a secluded land, and it didn't seem to be in use. I'm sorry. It seems I was mistaken.]
[I can't understand.]
Konstanze narrowed her eyes.
You thought? You made a mistake in your thinking?
What a joke. The golem standing before her could not think. It was not supposed to. It was just completed in the form of a handsome young man, but the blond hair and golden eyes glittered without shedding their artificial beauty, and the mana reactor attached to his chest was too hard to be a heart.
[……You are wrong. You shouldn't be like this.]
Fabien tilted his head.
He shouldn't be? He shouldn't be like this because he was wrong?
He couldn't help but think so. Fabien looked down at Konstanze's face. Her crimson hair was elaborately braided, and she wore large, round glasses like the bottom of a milk bottle, but even so, she was just a sophisticated doll. Fabien was seeing through Konstanze's nature.
A golem that had no self but had pretended to have one.
If that was Fabien himself,
a doll that was mistaken into thinking it had a self.
That must be Konstanze.
[Vice President.]
Fabien looked around.
The holes. The holes he had dug all night were full.
Without a doubt, they were graves. Fabien had many things to dig up and bury.
[I said something like that before. That you are my kin, and that you must realize that fact.]
[That's…….]
Konstanze's head was lowered.
She remembered. The words she had heard from Fabien during the exorcism.
For some reason, it was bothering her. She could have just judged it as a malfunction of a mere golem, but Konstanze had kept Fabien's words in her mind all along.
[I am truly sorry about that time.]
Fabien predicted Konstanze's inner thoughts.
And so, he decided to lie.
[Upon further inspection, I found that there was a problem with my mana reactor. Please forgive me.]
[……What?]
[A golem cannot be a species, and it is impossible for you, Vice President, to be an object like me. The exorcism must have affected me.]
Now……, he said.
Fabien continued, staring at the box in his hand.
[I was carrying out a mission on Professor Argento's orders. He told me to bury this.]
Fabien opened the box.
The remains of a combat golem. Konstanze could recognize the identity of the contents of the box.
They were the parts of a combat golem that had malfunctioned before. They should have all been dismantled and thrown into the incinerator, but some of them were in Fabien's box.
[I can't understand it. Why he ordered me to do such a thing. But he told me that it was a necessary task for me.]
[……Is that so.]
What a strange man.
Why would Abel Argento give such an order?
Konstanze thought, pursing her lips. Does a golem need to mourn? Or can it mourn?
[──Will you join me?]
Fabien suggested.
To the repeatedly questioning Konstanze.
Konstanze's eyes widened. A sense of bewilderment brushed past her widely revealed eyes. A golem, a strange golem, was holding out a shovel to Konstanze. With a faint smile.
It didn't matter what that was. It must just be a part of etiquette. Suggesting that she join him in his actions, except for the fact that he was building a grave, was good information to be engraved on a mana reactor. What was surprising was something else.
[……Alright.]
Konstanze extended her hand.
She grabbed the handle of the shovel that Fabien held out and drove it into the ground with all her might.
[I also…….]
Thud.
The sound of soil being dug up.
[……have someone I want to mourn.]
* * *
At the same time, at the campus of Cia-Harphe Academy.
While Abel and Iris were walking side by side,
- Look over there. It's Her Highness the Duke of Orléans.
- We're doomed……. She must have come because the exams are just around the corner. She'll be looking at the list of students she's sponsoring. And then…….
- It's obvious. She'll pick out the ones who are likely to get bad scores and gather them. It was the same last year. I'm going to pretend to be sick.
- Wait! It won't work even if you do!
The students on their way to school glanced at Iris.
For the students, especially for the students who were sponsored by the Orléans family, Iris was an object of fear. Because she was pressuring them to produce results on a regular basis.
The four families that made up CIAR. Zylon, Sharma, Mystriel, and Orléans each valued different virtues. If Zylon valued military power, Sharma valued wisdom, and Mystriel valued the unknown, then the virtue that Orléans valued was none other than results.
Military power, wisdom, and the unknown are all useless.
They are just means to reach a result. Therefore, the result itself must be truly right.
Iris used to argue so.
“Why?”
And so, Abel asked.
In a small voice.
“The students are afraid of you. It seems you're being too harsh on them.”
“It just turned out that way.”
Iris shrugged her shoulders.
Then she opened her mouth slightly and continued.
So that no one would hear.
“It seems the ancestors of the Orléans family taught their students in that way. I have just inherited their will. Even if I didn't want to myself.”
“You seem to be enjoying it, for someone who says that.”
Abel looked at Iris's expression.
She seemed happy. Because of the fact that the students were afraid.
“Do I look that way? It's all an act. The life of a duke can be looked down upon if I let my guard down even a little.”
Anyway……, she said.
Iris said quietly.
“The decoding of the code that Fleur de Saint-Pierre gave me is almost finished. She was a truly thorough child. It's hard to believe she wasn't even of age.”
The information related to the Parousia Denomination that Fleur had left behind.
Iris had been engrossed in decoding it. She had mobilized decoders who could keep a secret, but it was not easy. Fleur de Saint-Pierre must have been preparing for it from the beginning. Based on the information about the Parousia Denomination, she must have set up a plan to request support from the Papacy.
Abel's impression of it was concise.
“It's not Fleur de Saint-Pierre. It's Fleur Epanoui.”
“Right, that's right.”
Iris nodded her head.
She glanced at Abel's expression; he looked tired.
“Anyway, what's your business with the vice president?”
Abel's and Iris's gazes met.
The two of them were walking to find Konstanze. Even though she was the vice president, she was just a doll. Iris was specifying Konstanze's location through a spell.
“She wants to meet.”
Iris's expression sank.
“The real Stanzi.”
That child……,
is going to die soon.
“There's a limit to how long I can keep her alive. Most of the internal organs in her body have lost their function, and the rampaging mana is tearing her skin from time to time. I wonder if there's about a month left.”
Iris couldn't understand.
Why she wanted to see her own doll.
Even if the real Konstanze died, the fake Konstanze would function naturally. It had been that way until now, and it would be so in the future. Because the fake Konstanze had taken most of it. The real Konstanze's body, her mana, and even her life.
“Isn't it funny?”
Iris asked, with a cigarette in her mouth.
“Even if the real Stanzi dies, the fake Stanzi will be healthy. She will age as if she were real, she will have a family, and she will have children. My friend created a truly amazing doll.”
“An amazing doll……”
Abel waved the back of his hand.
He chased away the cigarette smoke that had risen around Iris.
“I don't know about that. If it's okay to consider the vice president a doll. Isn't she also your friend?”
“She's a doll.”
Thump.
Iris stopped.
“She's just a doll.”
Abel narrowed his eyes.
Iris's expression had hardened coldly.
He's gotten too attached. Abel thought, sweeping back his hair. ‘The Mother God’s Left Hand’ was an outsider to the very end. They were beings who would leave after helping ‘The Mother God’s Right Hand’. They should not get too emotionally involved in the lives of each world. Because it would be more harmful to those who would be left behind.
“……I'll respect that.”
It wasn't wrong.
It wasn't something he couldn't understand either.
The stories of ‘The Mother God’s Left Hand’ were similar.
They must have saved the world but lost something. And so, they ended up turning their backs on their own world. It was common for them to be engrossed in satisfying what they had lost in another world because what they had lost was more precious than the world. Abel didn't know exactly what Iris had lost, but he could empathize with the feeling of clinging to what was lost.
“There she is.”
On the other hand, Iris just took a step.
A corner of CIAR. She followed Konstanze's back, which was faintly visible.
“Stanzi.”
And so, she approached with quick steps, and,
“What are you doing here?”
she asked in a bored tone, and,
[Iris…….]
Konstanze, the fake,
the doll,
[I was making a grave.]
she answered, looking back at Iris.
[……I have to mourn a student.]
while being sad with a face that was so real.