Baccano! - Volume 5 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

JOY ANGER SORROW FUN

Sylvie Lumiere

The next day Christmas Eve

There was a long table in the old castle’s great dining hall. The five immortals had assembled in this room, the most spacious one in the castle. There was no food on the table, only five cups filled with water. Although there was nothing to eat, the surroundings were studded with Christmas decorations, and flames flickered beautifully over the candlesticks on the table.

“Meeeeerry Chrissssstmas!”

Possibly because he was feeling hyper, he yelled the greeting with an odd accent.

The individual who’d spoken was bound hand and foot and tied to a chair at the head of the table, in the “birthday seat.” Maiza and the other three sat around him.

The master of the castle, who’d been captured during the night, had ended up spending the whole night tied up. Even then, no sooner had he opened his eyes than he issued detailed instructions to Maiza’s group to change the decorations inside the castle to their Christmas versions.

They really weren’t sure why they should have to do something like that, but the girls were already working silently. In the end, perhaps motivated by guilt, the visitors all worked hard to decorate the castle.

“Don’t you ‘Merry Christmas’ us. Honestly,” Sylvie muttered, giving a tired half smile. “The moment Czes found you, you panicked and jumped off the roof…? Granted, you won’t die, but even recklessness has limits, you know.”

“There are no limits to recklessness! Everything that goes beyond its own limits is reckless, and—”

“Let me just say this: I don’t intend to listen.”

“That’s mean!!”

Behind Elmer and the others, whose conversation sounded like a comedy routine, Czes silently stood off by himself. Elmer hadn’t mentioned his conversation with Czes to the group; he’d based his story on the premise that he’d fallen off the roof on his own. To Czes, it felt as if someone was covering up his crime for him. It made him desperately uncomfortable, and he’d hesitated, wondering if he should tell Nile and the others the truth. However, in the end, he’d let it go, and the situation had turned into what it was now.

“The truth about why you fell should stay between you and Czes.”

Maiza seemed to have guessed that something had happened between the two of them, but he hadn’t tried to pry. Come to think of it, neither Sylvie nor Nile had asked him about it, either.

Was it possible that they all knew everything and were protecting him?

If so, they should really mind their own business.

However, Czes didn’t feel like checking and simply stayed quiet. In the midst of his silence, he thought back over what had happened the previous night. The only thing that came into his mind was the image of his right hand, set on Elmer’s head.

Could I trust anyone that much?

The question had surfaced abruptly, and in response, Czes immediately shook his head. If it was Maiza, or his new friends in New York—Isaac and Miria, or even Ennis, who’d lived with him as an older sister—he wouldn’t mind having one of their right hands on his head. However, he probably wouldn’t be able to be so innocent about it, let alone actively make them put their hands there.

Besides, how was it possible to do something like that with a person you’d just met again for the first time in almost three centuries? Czes had worried about that all night long. You could say it was because Elmer was an idiot and leave it at that, but his bearing wasn’t like other people’s. For example, Isaac and Miria, the nutty couple in New York: They could probably trust Czes without even thinking about it, smile at him as he put his right hand upon their crowns.

However, this Elmer guy was calculating to the last. He wasn’t spontaneous. He tried to make people smile with shrewdness and a resolute goal. Although his calculations were mostly wrong, on the whole, he was completely mystifying to Czes.

What had made Elmer go so far? At the time, he hadn’t given even a little thought to the idea of eating him.

As these doubts coiled and circled, Elmer abruptly called out to him.

“Don’t look so glum, Czes, my boy. Smiles rule the world right now, you know? Specifically, well, guys who don’t smile die. Just look at the world-subjugating archfiends in cartoons and things. They’re smiling like they’re enjoying life, right? See, they’re not smiling because they conquered the world: They conquered the world because they were smiling. So let’s smile before the demons do and send food to aid starving people around the world so that they can smile—”

It might be better not to understand after all.

As disgust welled up in Czes, Nile leaned back self-importantly and urged him on to the topic at hand.

“This is no time to be receiving signals from somewhere weird, Elmer. You yourself are the archfiend of this village, are you not? Let me just say this: I will have you keep your promise. Go on. Speak.”

“He’s right, Elmer. We talked to the girls in the castle yesterday, and they said you’d kidnapped them from the village as ‘sacrifices.’ They wouldn’t tell us any more than that, but…what’s going on, exactly? You don’t seem to have committed any violence, but…depending on the circumstances, I may treat you rather sternly.”

Maiza’s usual smile had vanished from his face, but Elmer deflected the man’s intense gaze with a smile of his own.

“‘Kidnapped’ is rude. When I demanded sacrifices from the village, they offered those girls to me.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“No, see, it really isn’t…”

With a knowing look, Elmer shook his head, then drew a deep breath and launched into his story.

The story of the time the village had acquired a demon.

“All right, where should I begin…? I know. It started when I got killed here.”

Three years ago December

When Elmer had come to the village, the lone girl had been the only person who met him.

The girl’s attitude had been weirdly subservient, and he’d wondered about her, but he’d had her show him around the village for the moment.

The villagers made no attempt to show themselves to him. The doors to every house were shut tight, and they stayed that way. However, their gazes followed him from the shadows, clinging to him like a fog.

“Whoa, not good. Oh crap, oh crap, this is seriously not good. Wild animals gunning for me are glaring at my back. Man oh man, is this what they mean when they say popular guys have it rough? Or are aliens maybe plotting to abduct me…? Can I assume that being popular with aliens is the ultimate global standard, in a way?”

As he was saying things like that, the girl led him to a shed in a corner of the village.

“Whoa, this is all there is? Seriously?”

No one could have called a good environment, not by any means. The shed was so decrepit that it seemed as if just a little more snow on top would send it tumbling down. One of the doors had been taken off, the windows were broken, and it was doubtful whether it would provide any shelter from the cold.

“…Well, it doesn’t look as though anyone in the village is using it. Erm, I’m sorry for being so picky, after you went out of your way to show me. Besides, I’m the one who said anything that kept off the wind and rain was fine… Okay, then I’ll take you up on your kind offer and stay here. Thank you. To show my gratitude, I’ll teach you about Christmas properly tomorrow, so look forward to that.”

On that note, he tried to take his leave of the girl, but for some reason, she followed him in.

“Huh? Oh, it’s fine. Don’t worry—I’ll figure things out on my own.”

Elmer smiled at her, but the girl murmured, sounding troubled:

“This is my house…”

“Huh?”

His smile froze, and he scanned the dark interior.

Then, gradually, Elmer’s expression shifted into something serious.

Inside this shack, which didn’t even have a foundation and didn’t seem like a house at all…several girls were gazing at him.

All were grimy, and each of them wore the same blank expression. Their faces looked vaguely similar, like siblings or something of the sort.

As Elmer stood still, unable to process the situation, one of the girls—the one who’d first led him there—spoke apologetically.

“I think we can fit…one more person. If it’s too cramped, I’ll sleep outside…”

The present

“I tell you what: That was a shock. If they’d been more my type—y’know, glamorous bombshells with hourglass figures—it would’ve been a legit harem. I would have been over the moon. These kids were only about fifteen, though, so it’s not like I could do anything, right? I mean, apparently that’s a pretty popular situation in Japanese manga these days, but you wouldn’t want that in real life.”

Still tied to the chair, Elmer chattered away about his past. The tale really didn’t sound plausible, but Maiza and the others had seen these similar-looking girls, so they accepted that part and kept listening to the story.

“And then what happened?”

“Well, I thought they were probably sisters who’d lost their folks and were being ostracized or something, and it seemed like it wouldn’t be nice to ask about it, so I kept quiet. Then, the next day, I tried going around the village. In the end, though, none of the villagers showed themselves. I could tell they were watching me from a distance, but when I called to them, they’d run off somewhere. So I figured I wouldn’t stress about it, and I started looking for a place where those kids could live without having to worry so much. And then I heard about this abandoned castle. Apparently the villagers thought it was haunted by a monster, and they steered clear of it, but I didn’t see anything… So I cleaned the place up and made it so we could all live here.”

“I can accept that much. However, why have you become the monster?”

In response to Maiza’s question, Elmer’s lips warped cheerfully.

“I just thought, since we were spending Christmas in a snow-covered castle, we needed to spruce it up a bit. I had the girls help me, and we worked hard and put up all kinds of decorations in one night. We didn’t have a single sheet of origami paper to work with, so we just used rocks and twigs from the nearby trees… However, the next day, on Christmas proper, the lot from the village came up to the castle. I thought, Finally, I made contact, now I can have a Christmas party and get acquainted with the villagers at the same time, woohoo!, but they were all carrying weapons and told me to get out of the village! I kept the girls behind me and tried to protect them, but against several dozen hoes and sickles, I was at a serious disadvantage. I was in deep trouble, and they had me cornered! …Well? Are you on the edge of your seats yet?”

“…You’d better not be making this up.”

“Don’t look at me like I’m a resident of Liar Town. No, I’m really not lying… Well, to put it bluntly, they killed me.”

At those words, Sylvie stared back at him blankly.

“Huh…? Why?”

“I complained a bit, and the guy in charge of the village, Dez, just hauled off and decked me. If that had been all, it would have been okay, but—”

As if finishing the sentence for him, Maiza murmured:

“—They saw you regenerate, didn’t they?”

He seemed to have been right on the money. Elmer averted his eyes awkwardly and continued.

“When I came to, they’d driven a stake through my heart. It hurt like hell. I was thinking, Geez, vampires really have it rough.”

“I know. Wounds to your heart are no joke.”

Czes muttered as if remembering something and shivered like he was cold.

“Well, once I managed to get the stake out, I regenerated right away, but…I figured I’d just say it was a good thing I was alive and headed to the village to clear up the misunderstanding.”

“Huh?”

“They were incredibly freaked out. It was hilarious. This lady who had a fruit stand on that central road just fainted dead away… Then they surrounded me again, and that time, they tried burning me to death. I was already on fire when I desperately made a break for it. I rolled down this snowy slope, over and over, and finally put the flames out, but then I couldn’t stop rolling, and I ended up buried in snow. In the end, the snow hid me, but still.”

“……”

“The sun came up again, and bright sunlight shone down on me. When the snow thawed, I woke up, then discovered that my lower body was frozen! It took me a whole day to get back to the castle, but I figured I’d just say it was a good thing I was alive, and the next day, I went back to the village to clear up the misunderstanding.”

“What?”

At that development in Elmer’s story, Sylvie dubiously interjected. However, Elmer let it slide and kept talking.

“The villagers looked even more freaked out. Talk about a laugh riot. The girl who’d been setting out fruit screamed and ran away… Then the villagers surrounded me again, and that time they bound me hand and foot and threw me into the river. Well, I got washed ashore downriver, and I walked back through the woods to the village. I figured I’d just say it was a good thing I was alive, and in an attempt to clear up the misunderstanding—”

At that point, Elmer seemed to notice the mood of the others around him. He coughed, then changed the course of his story.

“At any rate, that sort of thing went on for days.”

“Let me just say this: You idiot.”

“Don’t say it straight out like that, Nile. See, I just thought, if I greeted them with a smile no matter how many times they killed me, eventually they’d understand that I didn’t mean them any harm.”

“If it had been me, I would have simply left the village.”

Nile’s comment seemed perfectly natural, but Elmer gently shook his head.

“I hadn’t achieved my goal yet… Well, I’ll tell you about that in more detail later. At any rate, I’d planned to stick with this approach for the long haul, but then I noticed that the girl who’d first shown me around had a serious wound on her face. When I asked her, she said the village headman had done it. That burned me up… So I threatened the villagers a little. All I did was show ’em a few of the magic tricks I’d used to swindle people when I was an alchemist, but their attitudes changed drastically after that, and they started treating me like an archfiend.”

Sylvie had stayed quiet up until that point, but when she heard that, she spoke softly.

“Yes…there’s something odd about the villagers, too. Being that persistent, when you hadn’t done them any harm…”

“Nah, I think it’s pretty normal. They say Europe during the witch hunts was a whole lot worse. Inquisitors who were after money, inquisitors who framed people as witches to gratify their own sadistic desires—there were lots of those guys around, but people caught up in a mob mentality are scary, too.”

Cackling away, Elmer spoke about something that wasn’t remotely close to funny.

“You guys don’t know the terror of ordinary folks. You’re way too unfamiliar with the fear of ‘Nameless Villager A.’”

Remembering the treatment he’d received, he continued speaking, still smiling ironically.

“People turn to violence when their desires spur them to it. However, most people can control themselves. Those are, well, ‘ordinary folks.’ In that case, when is it that ordinary folks are driven more by violent impulses than by desires? What causes it? Terror, that’s what.”

“Hmm. I can understand that, albeit not completely.”

Seeing the masked man nod, Elmer nodded back quietly.

“People use terror as an excuse to exercise their strength, in order to protect themselves. If it happens in the middle of a group that’s experiencing the same terror, it’s an action everyone condones… Although it’s still intolerable for the guy who gets assaulted when he didn’t do anything. Ha-ha-ha.”

He paused to draw a deep breath, then, changing his tone and bearing, continued his story.

“All right, getting back to the story. I told the villagers, just as a joke, ‘Give me a sacrifice once a year.’ Those guys, though… They took it seriously, and a girl actually showed up. So, since there was no help for it, I asked for enough food for the girl. Allow me that much, please: The villagers had worked her like a cart horse. I just thought she had the right to it, see.”

“…Food aside, there’s still a problem here. Let’s say your prank doesn’t matter. We do want to know what those girls are—”

When Maiza attempted to ask a more pertinent question, Elmer’s body abruptly began to emit a series of unpleasant creaks and pops.

Their eyes went wide at the sudden noise, and then, out of the blue—

“I did this sort of trick for them, too. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.”

Along with that laugh, a smoke screen erupted from him.

Elmer toppled over backward with a clatter, plunging himself into the smoke and disappearing. Nile hastily checked the chair, but all he found were untied ropes and a fallen chair rigged up with smoke bombs.

“That sound… Was that—?”

“Yes. Apparently he dislocated his joints. Hunh…formidable fellow.”

As if mocking the four of them, Elmer’s voice echoed from somewhere near the ceiling.

“Hey, relax. Even if you don’t catch me—February! When February comes, you’ll understand everything, I promise…”

December 26, 2001 Morning The old castle

The sky was endlessly clear, and the cold air stung every inch of skin.

The castle hadn’t seemed that large from the outside, but when it came to decorating the inside, they felt keenly aware that it boasted quite a lot of space. Picking up a New Year’s decoration, Sylvie heaved a sigh over the expanse around her.

“So what on earth is happening in February?”

She’d grown completely accustomed to modern conveniences, and the idea of spending the remaining thirty-five days or so in this castle was very painful to her. Just how many years had it been since she’d been somewhere with no showers, TV, or magazines?

In the first place, this forest had been positively littered with odd things ever since they’d driven into it. The isolated village. The girls who’d appeared on horseback. The castle, with its odd design. Their onetime companion, who reigned there as a demon… And the villagers terrified of Elmer.

Even though they’d celebrated the arrival of the twenty-first century only a year ago, this village was just like a fantasy world from a book or movie.

“Really… It feels as if this village is stranded a hundred years in the past, or even further back,” Sylvie murmured to no one in particular, as she gazed at the decoration in her hand.

The ornaments Elmer had prepared had been made quite cleverly; he’d brilliantly re-created decorations that were used in New Year’s events in countries around the world. They were putting these up according to instructions from the castle’s girls, but the girls seemed to be getting directions from Elmer somehow, so their words were practically his.

However, the girls didn’t talk much about themselves. On their first night at the castle, Maiza had told them, “If you’d like, you can return to the village. I’ll talk to Elmer for you,” but they’d only shaken their heads slightly.

They still didn’t even know the girls’ names.

Sylvie had thought that if they were going to be living together for more than a month, that wasn’t right, and she’d been considering how to get to know them better. She’d meant to establish some sort of connection that day and make friends with them, but the chance just wasn’t presenting itself.

An odd sense of loss enveloped her. However, when it was close to noon, her chance abruptly arrived.

“Um…Master Elmer says that if boiled river water will do, we can prepare a bath…”

As Sylvie was gazing at the kadomatsu, odd objects like miniature trees decorating the entrance, a voice abruptly addressed her from behind. When she turned around, one of the sacrificed girls was standing in the light that streamed through the window, looking nervous.

“Tell him to tell me things like that in person.”

“Y-yes, I’m very sorry…”

“It’s nothing you should apologize for. Also, there’s no need to stick on Master for somebody like Elmer. Or for the rest of us, of course.”

Smiling gently, Sylvie went over to the girl and bent down a little to her eye level. Then, tilting her head slightly, she asked the girl a question.

“My name is Sylvie. Sylvie Lumiere. If you wouldn’t mind, could you tell me your name?”

The words seemed to vaguely bewilder the girl, but possibly because Sylvie’s smile had set her at ease, she timidly began to speak.

“Um…I’m called…Fil…ma’am.”

“I see. Thank you, Fil! You don’t need to be so polite, though. You can just call me Sylvie, too.”

At that point, Sylvie noticed something. She really should have picked up on it at the very beginning, but the odd atmosphere that hung around the entire village had captured her attention.

“Fil… You can speak English?”

“Y-yes. Master Elmer said I might need it later…”

True, when she listened carefully, her pronunciation was often a bit awkward, but it caused no obvious problems in conversation. When she considered it from that angle, it meant that Elmer was teaching her words with a clear goal in mind.

“Don’t tell me he’s planning to spirit you away from this village…?”

However, if the story Elmer had told before had been true, it was very likely that the girls were being subjected to some sort of discrimination here. In that case, taking them away from the village might not necessarily be the wrong decision.

“Well, you’re the ones who should have the final say there.”

“Pardon?”

“Oh, no, I’m just talking to myself. Don’t mind me.”

Sylvie shook her head, then looked at Fil quietly.

When the girl found herself the target of someone else’s gaze, her eyes swam for a short while, as if she was troubled. After a moment’s pause, she said “Excuse me,” and made to leave. However, Sylvie began to walk slowly after her, matching her pace to the girl’s.

“Um…did you need…?”

“Listen, since we’ve got the chance, I thought I’d like to hear more about you. Would you come walk in the courtyard with me?”

At that question, the girl stopped walking and fell silent for a short while. The silence lasted a bit too long for simple hesitation, but after a short while, she slowly raised her head and answered Sylvie, her face expressionless.

“All right. I’ve just received permission from Master Elmer.”

Just?

Bewildered, Sylvie didn’t know what the girl meant. However, at the time, she thought she’d probably made some grammatical error since her English wasn’t perfect yet. Sylvie brushed it aside.

She didn’t have the slightest suspicion that those strange words had revealed the girl’s true nature…

A few moments earlier The village Headman’s residence

“All right then, Father. I’m going.”

About the time the sun had begun to shine on the south side of the village, Feldt, the headman’s son, spoke solemnly.

“Do whatever the hell you want.”

Dez, the village chief, gave him a surly response. All that sat in front of him were dishes that had been there since breakfast, and a cup filled to the brim with water.

There were several people in the house besides the father and son: the influential villagers who’d assembled for the meeting the other day. In a village of this size, influential didn’t mean they played any particular roles. They simply had more of a say than the other residents did.

In contrast to the headman, the villagers turned worried eyes on Feldt as he headed for the entrance. As the boy set his hand on the doorknob, the man who seemed to be the oldest in the room spoke to him.

“Are you really planning to go?”

“If a large group of us went, we’d just put them on their guard. Besides, if we’re only going to reconnoiter, it’s more efficient to send small numbers.”

“That’s still no reason for you to go, young Feldt. You’re the headman’s son…”

“There’s no help for it. No one else wants to do this… In any case, if they spot me, I might be able to negotiate with them.”

“…True, you seem braver than we would be if we went, but—”

The villagers still seemed uneasy, and Dez spoke to them crossly from his seat at the table farther back in the room.

“Leave him.”

“Headman, you don’t have to say it like that!”

“Your son is taking your place because you’re spineless—”

All the villagers in the room denounced their leader, but Dez was completely unapproachable.

“Then why don’t you go?” he spat.

“Gkh…”

“Stop it, Father.”

On that note, Feldt nodded to the villagers, then wordlessly set off under the wintry sky.

As if to follow him, the villagers made for the exit. All of them were muttering—“His son’s a good kid, but…,” “Ever since his wife died, he couldn’t be lazier,” “This when he can’t so much as wash the dishes if his son’s not around,” “It’s too hard on Feldt, poor boy”—and they glared at the master of the house as they went.

“Hunh.”

As if to say he didn’t care, the headman knocked back his glass of water—and, after making sure everyone had left the room, he smiled quietly. He just gazed into space and smiled.

Although he wore a smile, his expression didn’t betray a hint of emotion. If there had been anyone to see, the terror of it would have either frozen or repulsed them.

All except for one person: the smile junkie they called a monster.

Morning.

Today will be hard all day.

I already know that.

We have to put away the Christmas decorations, and we also have to start getting ready for the festival to celebrate the new year.

However, this year isn’t like the previous years. There are more people.

The people who came from outside this forest. I’ve learned they were Master Elmer’s old friends.

They’re kind to me. At first, this hurt so much I couldn’t stand it.

Things are a little different now, though. That’s because I’ve decided to think that maybe, just maybe, they’ll stay with me forever.

That feeling will probably come to nothing. Still, at the very least, I can dream until then.

I’m already more than used to painful things. Even if they were to leave this forest, everything would just go back to the way it was. Those first days, changeless days. No dreams or hope, only repeated oblivion, and gradually, I’d stop thinking entirely—

I’m starting to feel bad, so I won’t let myself think on it any further.

I simply make preparations for the “New Year,” or whatever it is, in silence.

We used these kadomatsu decorations last year, too. Apparently they’re actually supposed to be made of “bamboo” and “pine trees.” Master Elmer once said, “Someday I’ll show you the real thing,” but…I really don’t think he’ll be able to.

My oldest memory rises in my mind.

Somewhere that isn’t here—probably near the place where I’m always reborn.

In that white room, surrounded by walls and a floor made of a substance that isn’t stone or wood, that person speaks, stroking my hair:

“That forest is your glass bottle; it is your flask. You girls can’t leave it and live. That is what you are…”

I understand the meaning of those words all too well now.

No matter how we dream, no matter how we hope, in the end, we’re all—

“Hello there.”

Someone speaks to me, and I turn around.

Outside the shack on the outskirts of the village, Master Feldt is standing in front of me.

“Oh…,” I say.

“I’m on my way to the castle.”

As he speaks, Master Feldt gazes into my eyes. His face is expressionless.

“What do you think?” he continues. “You and the others. What do that demon’s companions—?”

He breaks off in midsentence, looking down. “I’m sorry. It’s nothing.”

Maybe he sees my confusion. Master Feldt covers his face with his hands, looking troubled. Averting his eyes, he eventually speaks to me again.

“It’s all right. I know what I said the day before yesterday, but—I’ll make it so you won’t have to be sacrificed.”

“What…?”

I’m even more perplexed. What on earth is he saying?

“Up until now, we’ve just been under that demon’s thumb, but… Before February, when you’ll be sacrificed, I’ll run the castle’s demons out of this forest, I swear it. And then…I’ve always been too afraid of my father to do anything, but if I chase the demons out, I think I’ll be able to be braver, too. So I’ll do as much as I can to make sure the villagers don’t bully you anymore.”

Master Feldt nods vigorously. At that point, I really have no idea what I should do.

By “demons,” of course he means Master Elmer and the others. If he chases them out…it would immediately shatter the wish I’d had a moment ago. However, what Master Feldt just described would be enough to take its place.

“Later, then.”

With that, Master Feldt leaves.

…What should I do? Is it all right to let the surrounding situation sweep me along, to simply wait for the results? Or should I act, somehow? If I do act, what should I attempt to do?

The bewilderment makes me raise my head. If only, if only—if only Master Feldt had smiled at me even a little just now. If he’d smiled with no guilt, the way Master Elmer did, I might be able to see some sort of hope in this village, and yet…

With my petty excuse, in the end, once again, I choose to let the current carry me along.

The truth is, even I want to smile.

However, right now, I can’t smile from the bottom of my heart. Faking a smile would be like blasphemy toward Master Elmer, and even though I would like to pretend, I can’t.

Once again, I stop thinking—and concentrate on straightening the kadomatsu in the castle entryway.

Noon The old castle The garden

Sylvie and one of the girls—Fil—were enjoying a walk in the garden under a blue sky. Despite the strong sunlight, the cold was intense, and white breath misted through the air in time with their steps.

Elmer seemed to have cleaned the garden up. It wasn’t at all overgrown, and it was arranged fairly neatly around the path that led from the main gate to the castle’s interior.

As they walked through the garden, Sylvie spoke to Fil about various things. She was trying to learn anything she could about the girl, and about Elmer’s objective, but none of her attempts bore much fruit. Fil didn’t seem to want to say much about herself. No matter what she was asked, the girl looked down with mild distress and said, “I’m sorry, I don’t really know, either.” It seemed more as if she really didn’t know what she was, rather than that she didn’t want to answer.

Just unilaterally asking questions seemed mean, so she tried to guide the conversation to the girl’s interests as well, but Fil never spoke to her proactively in the first place.

However, at the end, just once…the girl said something that caught her attention.

It happened when Sylvie mentioned the other girls in the castle.

“Come to think of it, you and the other girls all look a bit alike. Are you sisters?”

At that casual question, Fil’s expression grew more unsettled than it had been at any point so far. Then, after brooding for a little while as if choosing her words, she tilted her head and spoke quietly.

“Um…I don’t understand it very well myself, but…I’m the only one in this castle.”

“Huh?”

What could she mean? It seemed odd, and Sylvie was about to ask—but was forced to suspend her question because, out of the corner of her eye, she had spotted a small figure crawling in a corner of the garden.

However, she didn’t turn that way immediately. Directing an unchanged smile at the girl, she murmured, “Listen, Fil. The wind’s picked up. Shall we go in?”

“Yes.”

The girl didn’t seem to have noticed the newcomer, and she agreed to Sylvie’s suggestion without question.

Then, without a look back at the garden, the two of them disappeared into the castle.

Only the figure remained, alone in the cold wind.

“Hmm. To think this place would house the entrance to a subterranean tunnel.”

“It seems to be a secret passage. I didn’t think the castle would have something like this.”

Nile and Maiza had been thoroughly exploring the castle and discovered a stairway leading down from the castle’s apparent library. Although they’d called it a library, it was only a cramped room lined with bookshelves. Nearly all the volumes had crumbled to dust. For that reason, it had been easy for them to discover the mechanism that moved the bookshelf.

“Want to go down?”

“Wait a minute. Before that, let’s check through the books in here.”

Restraining the impatient Nile, Maiza picked up the few references that remained. Those books had been badly weathered, too, but after they scanned the places where they could make out the letters—Maiza and Nile looked at each other.

“…I recognize these documents.”

“Let me just say this: Me too.”

The book they’d picked up was, by coincidence…well, apparently it hadn’t been a coincidence at all. Going from the titles on the covers of the other books that were lying around, Maiza made a confident declaration.

“Most of these books…have to do with alchemy, don’t they? And particularly with—”

Behind his mask, Nile’s eyes narrowed at the conclusion Maiza had drawn.

Did they notice me?

Palms sweaty, Feldt hid in the shadow of a shrub, holding his breath.

The gate had been carelessly left open, and he’d managed to sneak into the garden without being spotted. However, immediately afterward, one of the girls who’d been offered as a sacrifice and a woman—one of the outsiders who’d arrived in the village the other day—had come out into the garden together.

For a little while, he’d watched them from behind a tree beside one of the gateposts, but they were discussing something, and they were getting closer to him as they talked. Deciding that they’d see him if he stayed there, when the pair looked the other way, Feldt took the opportunity to move to the shadows of the trees in the corner of the garden.

However, when he checked on them again, the pair was standing right where they’d been before. They spoke to each other briefly, then turned and went back into the castle.

Had they seen him there and gone to call their companions?

Nervously, Feldt stopped moving, determining to keep an eye on things from here for a while.

“Still…this place is even gaudier than it was last year…,” he murmured, observing the castle’s exterior from the shadows of the trees.

Curious ornaments were displayed in every window, and the overall design scheme was based on the contrast between red and white. The colors clashed badly with the stone castle, and the incongruity made the building seem especially absurd. However, the ludicrous sight would probably sink deep into the villagers’ minds as something horrible.

At the entrance were two strange objects fashioned from trees that grew in the woods. Sticks that had been trimmed to have angled tips stood perpendicular to the ground, with bundled pine needles tied around their bases. Depending on how one looked at them, they could be weapons or traps, or some sort of sorcerous idols, and a peculiar unease hung over Feldt’s heart.

Just as Feldt gulped, and the tension inside him reached its limit—

“Excuse me.”

A voice spoke behind him, and cold electricity ran down the boy’s back.

The sweat on his palms dried up in an instant. Not only was he incapable of turning around, he was struck by the sense that even his breathing had jumped free of the current of time. His consciousness reeled so violently it felt about to explode, but his body wouldn’t follow it. His heart had been disturbed too abruptly, and its connection to his physical nerves seemed to have been broken.

Behind the completely immobile Feldt, someone addressed him kindly, as if to release him from his paralysis. The clear voice belonged to a woman, and it warmly embraced his back.

“It’s cold there, isn’t it? Why don’t you come in and have some tea with me?”

At the sound, Feldt finally regained his composure. Slowly, starting with his head, he turned around.

He was met by the sight of an inhumanly beautiful woman—the one who’d just left the garden and gone inside a moment before—and her soft, untroubled smile.

In the castle’s drawing room.

Bright flames glowed in the fireplace, dimly illuminating Feldt’s bewildered face.

Sylvie and Czes sat across from his chair, on the opposite side of the table. They’d wanted to call Nile and Maiza, too, but they hadn’t been able to find them anywhere. They’d considered looking a bit longer, but in the end, thinking that being surrounded by the four of them would only scare the kid, Sylvie and Czes had decided to talk to him by themselves.

“Let’s see, where should I start? I’m Sylvie, and this boy is Czes. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Uh, um…I’m Feldt Nibiru.”

Even though he was flustered by this completely unexpected development, Feldt gave his name honestly. In the worst case, he’d thought the negotiations might not go well and he’d be taken prisoner. He’d never imagined he’d be welcomed so cordially and asked into the drawing room.

“Did you come to watch us?”

The boy beside Sylvie turned an ironic smile on Feldt. He’d nailed it. With no way to argue, Feldt looked down and said nothing.

“Czes, hey. Don’t say it like that! After he took us up on our invitation and everything…”

“But—”

“Honestly. Don’t glower at me. You’ll ruin your sweet little face.”

“……!”

Sylvie laughed merrily. Czes blushed scarlet and fell silent. That said, since they’d been speaking English, Feldt had no idea what was going on.

“I’m sorry. Don’t worry about it, all right? Oh, and the only one of us who doesn’t understand your language is Nile—the one in the mask—so it’s okay to relax and just talk.”

That was what Sylvie said, but Feldt didn’t know where to begin. He couldn’t abruptly say, “Get out of the village,” and the atmosphere wasn’t the sort that would let him begin negotiating about the sacrifices, either. In any case, if Elmer—the most important demon—wasn’t here, it wouldn’t do any good.

After he’d thought as much, something abruptly occurred to Feldt. Were these two also monsters, like Elmer?

That doubt gradually deepened, and he took the initiative in the conversation for the first time.

“Um…the man named Elmer… How are the two of you related to him?”

It was a rather roundabout question, but Sylvie immediately understood what Feldt was driving at. Smiling a bit mischievously, she began, quite matter-of-factly, to tell him the truth.

“This little guy and I, and the other two, are basically the same as Elmer. Immortal bodies that will heal up right away, no matter how badly they’re hurt—do you know what I’m talking about?”

She’d struck the heart of the matter so easily that Feldt couldn’t decide how to react right away. It was the conclusion he’d feared most, and yet the woman had spoken so serenely that he couldn’t think of it as a serious problem.

“Immortal… You really are…demons…then?”

Holding back the excitement that was gradually building inside him, Feldt timidly asked the rest of the question. In response, Sylvie answered him as readily as before.

“We’re not demons, and we aren’t devils either. We’re proper humans…although we did have help from someone we call a demon. Let’s see… Since we’ve made friends with you, maybe I’ll tell you about it.”

“Wait, is it okay to tell him that?”

Startled, Czes tried to stop her, but Sylvie nodded, smiling.

“Sure, it’s fine. Telling him won’t do any harm, and whether he believes it is up to him. Oh, but if you believe in demons, this story will be easy to believe, too.”

On hearing that, Feldt spoke as if something had just occurred to him.

“That’s right… The demon in this castle—the one that was here before Elmer came. What happened to it?”

Wide-eyed, he’d asked the question quite clearly. Sylvie and Czes exchanged a mystified glance.

“What demon?”

“Huh? Um…don’t you know? It’s been living in this castle for over ten years now.”

“Elmer didn’t say anything about a demon… I haven’t seen anything that looks like one, either.”

“……”

For a little while, Feldt gazed into Sylvie’s eyes, but before long, he drew a breath, seeming somehow relieved.

“Is that right…? Then I guess it really was just a rumor…”

Murmuring the second half of the sentence as if to himself, Feldt looked down, apparently relieved.

“That must have sounded strange. I’m sorry. Um…could I ask you a question, too? What are you…?”

As he changed the subject, Feldt’s voice was clear. From his tone, it was obvious that the fear and unease he’d felt mere moments ago had faded significantly. This seemed to relieve Sylvie slightly, too. Smiling gently, she began to speak to the young villager.

“Let’s see, where should I start? It’s already been more than three hundred years since it happened, you see…”

As Sylvie related the events of the past, images rose in the minds of the two boys in the room. Feldt, who’d never seen the outside world, wasn’t able to see those sights clearly, but nostalgic pictures, complete with sound, played back in Czes’s mind.

The scene was very beautiful, and sad, and it spread out forever and ever…

“Let me just say this: I can’t see a thing.”

“You don’t need permission to say that. I’m turning on a light now…”

Having gone down the library staircase, Nile and Maiza were underground, and naturally there was no light there. Holding a flashlight he’d brought in from the car to help them explore the castle, Maiza gradually illuminated the depths of the passage.

The narrow corridor ran in a straight line from the entrance. About ten yards in, the stone walls cut out, and the passage became even narrower, with walls made of something like packed earth.

Exchanging nods, the two men slowly set off into the depths of the tunnel.

As they walked through cold, cloying air, the pair organized what they knew about the village.

“Good lord, what is this forest, anyway? An isolated village, a strange castle, sacrificial girls, and those books… You are certain this is private land?”

“Yes. Officially, it’s owned by one of this country’s wealthy citizens, but…as I mentioned to Czes and Sylvie earlier, he doesn’t seem to be conducting any particular business.”

“A rich, spoiled young pup burning through his inheritance, hmm? With all this property, I expect they will be able to live stably for three generations yet… Although no doubt that fourth generation will be miserable.”

While Nile matter-of-factly predicted strangers’ lives, Maiza was reviewing what he’d seen of the village and puzzling it over in earnest.

“Still… This is true of Elmer’s ornaments as well, but there were some things in the village that clearly couldn’t have been made here.”

“Hmm. What do you mean?”

“Besides… The village headman told me I ‘wasn’t one of the traders’ companions.’ If you think about it, it’s possible that they get minimal oil and everyday commodities from these traders… But assuming the traders really exist, where on earth do they come from?”

“I see… That certainly is odd.”

Maiza’s concern hadn’t been limited to that point, and he kept sending more questions Nile’s way.

“In the first place, it’s strange, isn’t it? Both this castle and that village… Given the scale of the village, crude observations aside, it should be possible for satellites that perform detailed analyses to capture it clearly…and besides, they take all sorts of aerial photos these days. Some public agency somewhere must know exactly how this private land is being used.”

“Hmm. Is that how it goes?”

“Yes, particularly since it’s strange for an individual to own territory this vast in the first place. I’d think the public eye would be quite strict.”

They’d reached the beginning of the dirt walls, and the two tall men stooped slightly and went on. It seemed to be wet red clay, and the humidity it gave off was so great that moisture could have started dripping from the ceiling at any moment. However, the two of them weren’t worried about getting their clothes dirty, and they were absorbed in their conversation.

“In other words, someone’s exerting pressure from that angle?”

“I can imagine someone would want to. This is the twenty-first century, and that village is cut off from the outside world. No matter what the circumstances are, attacks from human rights groups and the media would probably have terrifying effort behind them.”

“Three hundred years ago, this sort of thing was fairly common, but…”

“That hasn’t changed. The conditions are different, that’s all. Strange stories are always generated and suppressed to suit their eras.”

“I see. True. By the way, Maiza, can you use the Internet?”

“I don’t use it much. Or rather, for the past thirty years, I’ve never stayed in one place for long. Besides—this is rather embarrassing, but I’m a bit intimidated by an environment in which the information and experience we spent three centuries accumulating can travel around the world in a single day… Although, when I called them a little while ago, I learned that several of the men in my syndicate are quite addicted to it.”

“Of our group, Huey is sure to have mastered it.”

“When we leave this village, I expect Elmer will be overjoyed to buy a computer as well.”

While they talked about pointless things, the pair reached the end of the passage.

At some point, the walls had changed from earth to stone again, and in the wall on the left at the very back, several stones protruded like a ladder. When they turned the light on the ceiling, they saw a square hole with a cover made of some sort of rock.

“Apparently we’re supposed to climb up.”

“Allow me to venture a wager: It will be a graveyard. Everyone knows these things usually lead to graveyards.”

“In that case, I say it’s beside the well that was around the back of the castle.”

After cheerfully announcing their predictions, Nile went up the vertical rock ladder and carefully lifted the stone cover. Dust showered down like rain, and Maiza involuntarily put up both hands to shield himself below.

At the same time, the stone cover began to open, and dim light filtered between his fingers.

Nile stuck the top half of his head up to peer through the crack under the stone, examining his surroundings for a short while…but before long, he pushed the stone up all the way and spoke, satisfied, in the sunlight.

“Let me just say this: I win.”

It was in fact a graveyard, surrounded by thick woods. In the distance, through the gaps in the dense trees, they could see the back of the castle. It hadn’t felt as if they’d walked a significant distance, but they’d come farther from the castle than they’d anticipated.

“I guess I lose.”

Murmuring regretfully, Maiza took a look around at the scenery he’d emerged into.

It was a small graveyard, and he didn’t see any road that led to it or any fence around its perimeter. Five or six gravestones were hidden among the trees, and if they’d been walking through the area in the ordinary way, they would probably never have seen them.

Most of the tombstones had no inscriptions; however, the one right in front of the stone Nile had pushed up had been engraved with an odd passage. It was written in an antiquated version of the country’s language, as though the villagers’ speech had been converted into text.

Below sleeps one who could not become fully human.

Compared to the condition of the gravestone, the inscribed epitaph didn’t seem to have eroded all that badly. It had probably been engraved at some point in the last few decades, at the very earliest.

Maiza was curious about the meaning of that inscription, but Nile—who couldn’t read it—seemed to have been bothered by something else for a while now. Neatly settling the stone lid he’d lifted back into place, he checked on something with Maiza.

“Let me ask you, Maiza: Did you notice it, too?”

For a moment, the question bewildered the man, but Maiza soon grasped its meaning and nodded.

“Then…that really wasn’t my imagination?”

“Mm…”

The whole time they were walking through the underground passage, they’d felt uneasy.

The passage had been completely straight and empty. Aside from stone and earth, there had been nothing there, but—

They’d felt the presence of something besides themselves.

Not a mole or bat or anything like that, but not quite human, either. They had no idea what it might look like physically, but from the feel of the air around them, they’d instinctively sensed that something was there.

It had felt as if a ponderous gaze was pressing down on them from all sides. Precisely because they’d sensed it, the two of them had taken care not to let their conversation trail off until they’d passed through the corridor.

“Let me just say this: Back then, I am positive that there was something near us.”

“…The demon, you mean?”

“Not possible.”

“Well, it was probably our imagination.”

“Hmm. Let us say that it was.”

For a short while, the two of them looked at each other. Before long, though, they smiled as if to laugh at themselves, then began to push their way through the trees back toward the castle.

…Sensing some unsettling presence under the closed stone cover all the while.

“Then…you became an alchemist just for that, Miss Sylvie?”

“No, that wasn’t it.”

In the drawing room at the old castle, Sylvie and the others were still chatting. At first, Feldt had listened attentively but timidly. However, as the conversation progressed, he’d gradually grown absorbed in the “past” she spoke of… Or, more accurately, in the entire outside world she told him about. Words he didn’t understand popped up here and there, and when he realized they were all things that were “outside,” an intense curiosity welled up from deep inside himself.

It wasn’t clear whether Sylvie had registered what the boy was feeling. She just kept smiling at him with the same alluring eyes.

“I grew interested in the fairy tale of eternal beauty through a children’s story I read as a little girl. As a rule, the people who try for that sort of thing are witches or wicked queens. But, you see, I had a thought: Wouldn’t it be all right if at least one person in the whole world made a fairy tale like that come true?”

When she’d spoken that far, the emotions in Sylvie’s eyes changed slightly. The only one who noticed the trace of sadness in them was Czes, who knew her past.

“When I told the boy I loved about this, he said, ‘People are more than just looks.’ He also told me I was cute enough just as I was, and that once we were both immortal, he wanted to get married and stay together forever and ever. But, you know, for that very reason…I wanted to become the most beautiful girl in the world, and then marry him. I wanted him to be able to boast that his family was the most beautiful anywhere. It’s silly, isn’t it? And so—back then, I didn’t drink the liquor of immortality.”

At that point, Sylvie looked up into space, as though recalling a fond memory.

Feldt seemed to sense something in her behavior. He murmured a question, as if it was hard for him to ask.

“Um…that person… Where is…?”

“You saw the man with glasses, didn’t you? His name is Maiza.”

On hearing that, the boy was relieved: Her wish had come true, and they were living together even now, safe and sound. However—she hadn’t finished speaking.

“It was his little brother. I told you about that Szilard person earlier, remember? They say he was the one that man ate first.”

“Oh……”

Sylvie’s smile was faintly melancholy, and Feldt couldn’t think of anything to say to her.

Maybe Sylvie noticed this. She immediately recovered her captivating smile and spoke to Feldt, fluttering her hands.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Don’t worry about it. Yes, let’s talk about something else.”

At Sylvie’s words, Feldt hesitated for a little while, then slowly responded.

“It may be strange to ask about something like this, but…”

Averting his eyes as if he was a little embarrassed, Feldt put his wish into words. His tone held none of his earlier fear of Sylvie and the others. It simply brimmed over with curiosity.

“Please tell me—about the outside. What sort of place is it? I want to know…so much more.”

From the shadow of the door, I listen to Mistress Sylvie and Master Feldt’s conversation.

I know it’s wrong, but I’m terribly curious.

And once again, I think, Just maybe…

At first, Master Feldt seemed wary of Mistress Sylvie and the others, but now he looks as if he is truly enjoying himself. Master Feldt has always hated Master Elmer and me less than the other villagers did, but from the way his voice sounds now, he seems to have no loathing at all for Mistress Sylvie and the rest.

I imagine a certain outcome. How many decades has it been since I did something so pointless? I’ve visualized futures I hoped for before now, only to be betrayed, over and over.

Still, this time… This time, I feel as if it will come true.

Until yesterday, every time I tried to imagine a future, the pain had gotten in the way.

Master Dez’s violence had made me remember direct pain.

However, things are different now. I don’t know why, but… Even though he is Master Dez’s son, when I think of Master Feldt’s face, I can get by without remembering the pain from his father.

If Master Feldt persuaded the villagers, and the villagers stopped being afraid of Master Elmer, and no one had to be hurt anymore, and—

And if the village were linked to the outside world—

How wonderful that would be.

I can’t leave this village. Still, if more people like Master Elmer come in from the outside, and the village develops further and further, that would be enough for me.

I was born in a glass bottle, and I can only live within the flask of this forest.

Even so, I wish. I wish that happiness—even just a little—would visit me and the village.

Because the village is the only place where I can live…

I am still able to wish for happiness.

I remember. I just remembered, quite clearly. This feeling is joy.

Is there anything I can do to keep this emotion from disappearing?

Because I am certain. I know that if this happiness becomes a reality…

…then I will be able to smile like Master Elmer.

At the same time Village headman’s residence

The five girls with very similar faces lived in the village.

What were they, and where on earth had they sprung from? There wasn’t a single villager who really knew.

They had existed for as long as the current villagers could remember, blending into the village as if their presence were perfectly natural. The village’s older members had seemed to know something, but they’d all passed away without saying anything about it.

The number of girls was always the same, and there were no indications that they aged. Once every few years, one of the girls would begin to grow noticeably weaker, and several days later, she would be replaced by a new one.

They were like something out of an occult movie, but they didn’t frighten the villagers much.

The girls were clearly beings unlike themselves, but the villagers had grown up around them and were used to them. They told themselves that the girls were what they were and gave it no more thought.

In other words, the mysterious children were treated the same way as the outside world.

It wasn’t as though the villagers would get clear answers if they asked the girls. In the past, several people had attempted to see the moment the girls were switched out, but, like those who’d tried to go “outside,” they’d never returned.

This sort of thing happened again and again, and gradually the villagers began to shun the girls.

The current village headman, Dez Nibiru, had accelerated this.

Dez thoroughly exploited them, swore at them, and was sometimes violent toward them. However, they didn’t put up the least resistance, and as long as they were given the bare minimum of food, they’d do even the worst jobs without a word of complaint.

Little by little, the villagers’ attitudes toward them had been influenced by Dez, and now almost no one gave any thought to their personalities or wills.

Not even to the fact that all the girls used the same name…

Dez Nibiru: the man behind the abuse of the girls at the villagers’ hands.

While his son was hearing tales of the outside world from Sylvie, the man was in his own house, slumped back in a wooden chair.

This was the biggest house in the village, and it was a little too large for a man whose wife had passed away.

“Hunh.”

The whiskered man was just staring into space. There was no one else in the room.

Then, in that empty room, he muttered at the ceiling:

“—It’s time to say good-bye, then. To this village…to me…”

Plastering on a smile devoid of emotion, Dez fell silent.

When he looked out the window, clouds had begun to appear here and there in the formerly blue sky.

“And to them…”

Snow would begin falling soon. Certain of it, Dez just kept smiling quietly.

That blank smile had appeared with the silence—and then gradually vanished into it.

Evening Outside the castle gate

“Um, thank you…very much for today.”

When Feldt thanked her, flustered, Sylvie smiled back at him softly.

“My pleasure. If you get the chance, you’re welcome to come again.”

“Yes, ma’am! Only, the snow always gets bad around this time of year, so…I don’t know when I’ll be able to.”

Feldt still seemed reluctant to go, but he probably couldn’t just stay at the castle. He thanked Sylvie over and over, and at the end, as he prepared to leave, he added:

“I’ll tell the villagers about you. I don’t understand why this Elmer fellow asked for sacrifices, but I know you and the others are very good people!”

“I don’t think you should tell them that in so many words.”

Czes, who’d been looking on quietly up until then, stopped Feldt as he was about to turn away from the castle.

“The villagers were abnormally suspicious. If you defend us too easily, they may think you’ve been possessed by a demon. Just tell them, ‘They may be plotting something, but at any rate, they didn’t harm me.’”

At those words, Feldt looked blank, but after giving it a little thought, he nodded vigorously.

“You’re right. Still, I’ll do the best I can to tell them the truth… Okay, then. Really, thank you so much!”

Feldt said his good-byes once again, and this time he did leave, heading toward his village.

“My, my. It’s unusual for you to say things like that, Czes.”

“Shut up. It doesn’t matter.”

If this turns into a witch hunt because of us, it’ll leave a bad aftertaste.

That was all Czes had thought, but it was also true that his impression of Feldt hadn’t been a bad one. Thinking that he really did have a soft spot for children, he remembered that something similar had happened in the past.

As he thought of the little girl he’d met on a certain train seventy years ago, his memories of the incident that had occurred on that train vividly returned. The terrors that had been branded into his eyes in that sealed space made Czes shiver involuntarily. This village was a closed-off space as well. An indescribable unease welled up inside the immortal who looked like a boy, but, thinking he was worrying too much, he decided to just let it go.

That’s right. This village doesn’t have a monster like the Rail Tracer.

Privately scolding himself for his cowardice, Czes silently went back into the castle.

“Dum-dum-dum-da-da, doo-doo-da-da-doo-doo-dum… There!”

Humming an odd little tune to himself, a man was decorating the castle roof.

He abruptly stopped humming, glanced at the hand-wound watch he wore on his wrist, and called out.

“Say, what’s everybody else doing?”

As he asked the question, Elmer was merrily unrolling a hand-dyed, red-and-white-striped curtain. The girl beside him answered indifferently.

“Yes, Master Elmer… They’re all in the drawing room, talking about searching for you.”

“Ah-ha-ha! I see, is that right? Then I guess it’s okay to stay here a while longer.”

With that, Elmer began working and humming again.

Several minutes later, having finished hanging the curtain, Elmer spoke to the girl beside him again.

“Are they still in the drawing room?”

“……Yes.”

Even though the location was distant and the girl hadn’t moved a step for a while, she gave a clear report of the situation.

“I see. In that case, I guess I’ll take the opportunity to move. I’ll watch for chances on the night of the thirty-first and hang the red-and-white curtains then.”

In high spirits, Elmer stretched, then headed for the stairs to the lower floors.

The moment he walked into the tower with the staircase—

“Dum-dum-daaah-dum-da, dum-da-da-da-dum…da, da, da-daaah?”

His cheerful melody abruptly shifted into astonishment.

The instant he’d stepped through the doorless entry into the interior, Maiza and Nile had leaped from the shadows, trapping both his arms before he knew what was happening.

“H-huh? You’re kidding! You’re supposed to be in the drawing room…” From his expression, Elmer didn’t seem to comprehend the situation, but before long, he yelped in surprise, “D-don’t tell me one of you guys has the ability to stop time?!”

“What sort of nonsense is that?”

“Then how…? Wait, no…”

Gasping in realization, Elmer twisted to look behind him, even though both his arms were pinned.

“Fil.”

The girl who’d been with Elmer for a while now closely resembled Fil and even shared her name. The moment her eyes met Elmer’s, she flinched.

“I-I’m terribly sorry, Master Elmer!”

“Heavens, you’ve done nothing to apologize for.”

On the heels of that transparent voice, Sylvie and Czes appeared from downstairs.

“Sylvie…I can’t believe you! Teaching people to lie…!”

“Don’t say things that could be misconstrued. I merely taught her there are some lies that it’s okay to tell, and some that aren’t… And then I had her practice on you.”

Another Fil was watching Elmer apologetically from behind Sylvie. On seeing her, Elmer sighed, sounding resigned.

“I see. So you caught on. I didn’t think the truth would come out this quickly.”

Then, smiling rather sadly, he briefly stated the bottom line:

“The fact that all the Fils are the same person.”

“She’s a homunculus. That’s it, isn’t it?”

Having relocated to the castle’s dining hall, Maiza and the others sat Elmer down in a chair again. He’d promised he wouldn’t run anymore, so they hadn’t bound him with ropes this time.

“Bingo.” Elmer answered Maiza with startling ease. “What tipped you off?”

“There were all sorts of factors. However, we gathered a short while ago and compared notes, and that was the conclusion we came to.”

At that, Maiza looked at the opposite side of the dining hall. The four girls who lived in the castle were all there. All four wore the same worried expression, and they were watching the other group quietly.

“Sylvie noticed that they share the same mind. She asked the village children about them, then noticed some of the girls’ inconsistencies. In addition, Czes says he watched them for a little while, and…although they were always giving us messages from you, they didn’t seem to be contacting you at all. Not only that, but instead of hiding in any one place, you were constantly doing work around the castle. How did you manage to stay hidden from us without the benefit of security cameras? You were using the girls instead.”

“Wow, that’s incredible. You sound just like a great detective.”

“Stop joking around, please.”

With a solemn countenance, Maiza admonished Elmer, then began to speak about what he himself had seen.

“In the castle’s library, we found alchemical research texts. Not only that, but they were a ramshackle mixture of works ranging from orthodox to heretical, and all of them dealt with the creation of homunculi. However, I couldn’t imagine you were the one who’d collected them. After all, if we believe what you’ve said, they were already here when you arrived in this village.”

“……”

“This time, we insist that you tell us. Not only about the true identity of the girls, but about the village’s secret.”

In response to Maiza’s earnest speech, Elmer replied, finally looking serious.

“I’ll tell you about that in February.”

“Elmer.”

“No, I mean…in February, somebody’s coming who can tell you a lot more about the heart of the matter than I could.”

“Who?”

Sylvie prompted him, curious about who would come to this isolated area.

“The trader.”

At that word, Maiza’s group exchanged glances. Their expressions were odd: half-surprised and half as if they’d expected this. The sight seemed to satisfy Elmer. He grinned and asked Maiza about something that had been bothering him.

“I’m impressed you kept your cool like that, Maiza. True, they’re not like the authentic sort, but genetic engineering is popular now, and you still thought ‘created homunculi’ first.”

In response, Maiza smiled like a mischievous child.

“Yes, I have a very similar friend in New York.”

At Maiza’s words, Czes gave a small, wry smile, and Elmer fell silent, as if he’d just realized something. Nile and Sylvie had no idea what this was about, so they just watched Maiza, mystified.

Outside the window, small snowflakes had begun falling thickly.

The white flakes drifted down in silence, as though putting a lid on this forest-encircled land.