Baccano! - Volume 5 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

JOY ANGER SORROW FUN

Nile

After that came a series of uneventful days.

Absolutely nothing happened.

Master Maiza and the others didn’t question Master Elmer any further. Instead, they spent their time observing the ecology of the surrounding woods, exploring the castle, and throwing themselves into preparations for the daily “festivals.”

Since coming to this forest, Master Elmer has taught me about all sorts of different festivals. He told me about a variety of events throughout the year, and we actually held pretend versions in the castle.

Apparently, “outside” is divided into lots of big communities called “countries,” and each country and region has a wide range of unique festivals.

Even in this season, when the snow is beginning to drift high, Master Elmer buzzes around as if he is having gobs of fun.

He dressed up as an ogre called Krampus and frightened the villagers, and the winter after that, he dressed up as another ogre called a namahage and did the same thing. In autumn, he said we were having a festival called Halloween, and he had me dress up in strange clothes, too. For some reason, Master Elmer gave me candy just for wandering around in those outfits. I thought it was a mystifying event. Master Elmer also dressed in an odd costume and went to the village and had fun scaring the people there again. This sort of thing kept happening, and the villagers grew even more frightened of him.

When a day called “summer solstice” drew near, he took tree branches with the leaves still on them and used them to make a large structure. He said this was a custom from the country just outside this forest, and that it was a festival held in hopes that the sun would shine forever. However…I wonder if Master Elmer knows that when the villagers saw that object, which we set up on the day when the sun climbed the highest, they clamored that it was a demonic ritual.

After we ate chicken eggs laid by the castle garden’s inhabitants, he carefully kept the shells, then painted them bright colors and used them to decorate in spring. Apparently this was a festival to glorify someone’s resurrection, and to be accurate, we should have stopped eating meat dishes about a week before and painted the eggs red. However, after Master Elmer explained those customs, he said, “Well, we aren’t believers, so there’s no need to be straitlaced about it. Let’s just do as the Japanese do: enjoy the bare outlines of other countries’ festivals,” and kept on smiling. Then he busily decorated the castle with colorful eggs and ornaments…but apparently the villagers spotted the egg objects from a distance and imagined that it was another eerie ritual. Even I heard voices shouting that we were sacrificing chicks and laying some sort of curse on them. However, I didn’t have the courage to deny it. All I could do was look down.

The one we celebrate every year, without fail, is Christmas. I was told that, really, a person named Santa Claus was supposed to come in a bid to deliver happiness to everyone in the world. When I asked if that meant everyone in the world was happy, Master Elmer laughed and said, “You know he couldn’t hand all that out in a single night.” That seemed logical to me. However, after that, Master Elmer said, “…So I’ll do it instead.” Every year, he said things like that and gave me some sort of present.

There were all sorts of things: ornaments made of paper, or food Master Elmer had made himself, or handcrafted toys fashioned out of wood he’d worked. When I accepted them, instead of happiness, I was filled with feelings of guilt. Why did Master Elmer do all this for me? When I asked him, his answer was quite simple:

“That’s easy. Because, in this village, you’re the one who smiles the least.”

Hearing that made me feel even worse. Even though I knew that was no good, I couldn’t smile from the bottom of my heart. When I tried to force at least an imitation of a smile, Master Elmer shook his head and told me, “It’s not good to force it. If you keep faking smiles, when you really want to smile, your smile will come out warped.”

In the midst of all this, Christmas is here again this year, and Master Elmer seems even busier than usual. While he hides from the other people, he laughs and runs this way and that, putting up decorations all over the castle and snapping party crackers at dinner.

I don’t know what I should do. As if he’s hit on an idea, Master Elmer chuckles and speaks to me.

“Those four are your present this year.”

I’m perplexed. I don’t know what he means. Master Elmer stops laughing, then smiles kindly and says…

“Make friends with them, all right? They may be able to make you really smile.”

And so the days pass without incident. I’m as incapable of smiling as ever. Still, there is something different about me now. Even I can feel it. Once, when those four had arrived, I’d almost been trapped by hatred, but that gradually faded, too. I’ve begun to see hope.

This season is “New Year’s,” apparently, and I was told that everyone celebrates the beginning of a new cycle together. Last year, saying that it was a custom in some eastern country, Master Elmer purchased a great quantity of something called “firecrackers” from the trader and sent roars echoing through the woods. Naturally, it deepened the rift between him and the villagers. Master Elmer seemed to understand this well, but he beamed the way he always did, and he actually looked as if he was enjoying the situation.

Today, he says, we’re having a festival where we stew seven types of herbs and then eat them: another Asian custom. In preparation for it, Master Elmer and Mistress Sylvie are boiling water in the castle. Master Nile does nothing but sleep. When he does wake up every so often, he goes to the castle stable and plays around with the three horses, while Master Czes spends his days constantly reading the books that were left in the library. Master Maiza often comes to me and asks me about various things, but sadly, I don’t know much about myself. All I can do is tell him about the things that remain at the root of my memories, in bits and pieces, but he listens to each word intently. He always thanks me for my awkward stories.

I want to be more useful to them, but I can remember hardly anything about my past. All I remember are my days of abuse at the hands of the villagers. Those are the only sort of memories I have, and even they are being blotted out by the present.

My memories of each day since Master Elmer came, and since Master Maiza and the others came, are overwriting them.

Ah, that’s right. This must be what having fun feels like.

I try to smile, but the atmosphere in the village troubles me.

At this time of year, the villagers have very few opportunities to go outside.

I don’t know what they’re thinking after Master Feldt’s visit to the castle. They’d never tell me, and even if they are plotting something, there isn’t much they can do in all this snow.

February.

When February comes.

When the season Master Elmer called “February” comes…

…a trader from outside the forest will visit.

When the snowy season’s trader has gone again, they’ll offer up a sacrifice.

It will be me again this year. When that happens, for the first time in five years, I will be all in one place.

Abruptly, I think of something.

Of course: I’ll smile then. Brightly, like Master Elmer and Mistress Sylvie. If I smile suddenly, surely Master Elmer will be surprised. After that, he’s bound to smile at me.

What should I do? I’ll have to start practicing my smile now.

Stealthily, secretly, so that Master Elmer doesn’t see.

And so time passes again…

February The old castle

The month changed, and one day, after a stretch of fair weather, the trader came.

The thing that appeared in this village, which was greatly divorced from the outside world’s level of civilization, was enough to remind them that this was the twenty-first century, not the past.

“That’s…”

When the sun had almost reached its zenith, a roar suddenly echoed through the area, startling Maiza and the others and sending them scrambling for the castle’s main gate.

There, they saw an enormous motorized snow sledge that was roughly shaped like a truck.

“What’s going on?”

The huge truck had stopped in front of the castle, and the first thing Czes and Sylvie did was try to get a look at the driver’s seat. However, the window glass had been specially treated, and, like the cars politicians rode in, the side windows were black and merely reflected the light.

When they circled around to the front, they were able to dimly make out the truck’s interior… But when they saw the person inside, Czes and the others were struck by a terribly eerie feeling.

Whatever was in there did seem to be human, but a black mask covered its whole face, and what looked to be a military helmet covered that. It had something like goggles over its eyes, so it wasn’t possible to see what they were like—but its face was turned their way, and it seemed to be watching them.

“Heh! Did that startle you? Or are you homesick for the outside world now?”

As Maiza and the others were examining the truck, they heard the same old teasing voice behind them.

“He’s the trader… Though, that said, he never gets out of the truck.”

Ignoring Maiza and the others, who weren’t sure what to ask first, Elmer called out loudly to the man in the driver’s seat. Spreading his hands and indicating his companions behind him, he said:

“You understand the situation, right? Take us back with you.”

“Huh…?”

Before Czes could ask what he meant, the engine roared, drowning out his voice. Rear wheels kicking up a ferocious spray of snow, the truck sped away down the snow-covered mountain road. The road through the forest was only slightly wider than the truck itself, and if another vehicle came from the opposite direction, there wouldn’t be room for them to pass each other. That said, in all likelihood, the driver was doing this because he was absolutely certain that there would be no oncoming vehicles.

“All right, he should be back in an hour or so.”

With that, Elmer went back into the castle, leaving his four dumbfounded companions behind. After that, all that remained were Maiza and the others with question marks floating over their heads—and, as proof that this had not been a dream, deep tracks in the snow.

The trader has come to the village.

The villagers all gather around the cart, exchanging crops harvested in the village and handiwork they’ve made during the winter for oil, cloth, and various other materials. However, no one gets out of the driver’s seat, and everyone performs the trades themselves, based on the rates posted in the back of the cart.

There might have been some people who took articles for free and ran off with them, but the trader always stays in the cab of the iron cart.

Mistress Sylvie told me that technically, it’s called an “automobile,” not a “cart.” Apparently, it works just like the vehicle Master Maiza and the others arrived in, but this one is much weightier and bursting with strength.

In any case, I don’t dislike watching the bartering. Since I’m observing from a distance, no one sends me contemptuous looks, and all their faces are filled with energy.

That said, until now, I really only “didn’t dislike” it. At this point, I think I can actually say that I like it.

Of course, deep down, the villagers seem unsettled by the trader. The trader comes from “outside,” too, and he is unmistakably evidence of the existence of something they want to deny. However, unlike outsiders, the trader doesn’t interfere with the village. He’s been around since the villagers were born, and the adults stick to a policy of ignoring him, so the children naturally imitate them.

The same thing probably should have happened to me. However, ever since Master Dez became headman, that custom has collapsed. For some reason, Master Dez can’t stand the sight of me and makes no attempt to hide that fact, and, as if to follow his lead, the villagers also—

I should stop. Because that period has gone on for so long, my memories have been buried in chaos. It feels as though if I recall those days too vividly, the shining light ahead of me will sink into deep darkness.

It’s gradual, but little by little, I can tell that that light is growing brighter.

Maybe it’s because of Master Elmer, Mistress Sylvie and the others, and Master Feldt. They may be why I managed to see light again from the depths of the darkness.

I once thought that although Master Feldt didn’t despise me, he didn’t help me either, but let me correct that. Master Feldt saved me. He spoke to me without contempt. He treated me as me. That was already salvation enough, wasn’t it? Strictly speaking, I might be wrong, but at the very least, that’s what I’ve decided to believe.

Maybe it’s because the hope that lies ahead of me is drawing nearer.

It might be my imagination, but the sky seems higher and bluer than usual.

As I watch the villagers, someone calls to me from behind. The voice belongs to Master Elmer.

While I keep my eyes on the trading, I look at Master Elmer’s face. He’s wearing his usual smile.

“Fil. When the trader goes home today, Maiza and I are going to have him give us a ride outside…to the place where you were born, actually.”

“Huh?”

“If you feel like it…I’d like to tell you the truth about yourself. It may be a shock, or it may clear up your doubts and make you feel better. For that reason, it’s completely your call.”

I have no reason to refuse.

To be honest, I do feel a little uneasy. I think that in learning everything about myself, I might destroy the life I’ve led up till now. I think this forest, my flask, might break.

But now…now, I feel as though I could accept it all.

Besides, if I’m going to really smile from the bottom of my heart… Surely this is a trial I have to get through first. Somehow, I know I have to do this.

“I’ll go.”

I respond in the clearest voice I’ve ever used.

“I would also like to know…what I am.”

Just as the me in the castle says this, the me in the village spots Master Dez.

He’s beside the truck, standing in the midst of the commotion, and he’s staring at me.

Have I done something without realizing it again?

Remembering the pain of being hit, I shrink back involuntarily, but…

Without saying a word, Master Dez walks away.

It stirs up a strange uneasiness inside me.

Master Dez’s behavior stays with me as an intense concern, but I want to focus on what Master Elmer is saying right now, so I push it down into the depths of my heart.

If my memories are correct, for the first time since he became headman, Master Dez looked at me…and smiled.

However, the smile was nothing like Master Elmer’s. It had seemed completely empty.

A smile whose temperature was incredibly low. A smile cold enough to freeze someone.

Afternoon The forest road

“It’s been quite some time since I was jostled in the back of a truck.”

“Makes you feel like a calf on its way to the market, doesn’t it?”

Riding in the rear of the truck-shaped snow sledge—in other words, with the cargo—Maiza, Elmer, and Fil (just one of them) bounced and jounced along. The sledge plowed powerfully through the snow, and every vibration resonated inside them like a deep bass sound.

Up until a moment ago, Fil’s eyes had been wide open with something akin to excitement, but she must have gotten tired. She’d fallen asleep, using as a pillow one of the sacks of wheat the villagers had given the trader.

“By the way, Maiza.”

“What is it?”

Elmer had spoken abruptly, and he sounded rather formal, so, although Maiza had been stretched hugely and been on the verge of falling asleep, he woke himself up again.

“Why is Nile wearing a mask?”

“……You’re asking that now?”

“No, well, I mean…! Things were all muddled the first day, and then I just never got the chance to ask! Asking after the fact felt, y’know…wrong. Besides, he didn’t explain it himself, so he might have been hiding it from himself, too. If me getting a reputation for insensitivity is all that would happen, fine, but Nile seems like he’d actually get mad.”

“True. Once Nile gets angry, he’s completely unmanageable.”

Remembering the masked man’s intensity, Maiza agreed, smiling wryly. “His mask is—well, he says it’s insurance.”

“Insurance?”

“He says that if we put our right hands on his head, and he’s wearing something on it, he might be all right. In other words, if there’s some sort of obstacle between palm and head, he may be able to keep from being devoured.”

“Oh, I see… Hunh. He’s quite a worrywart, too, then.”

How about that. That’s not what Czes said.

As Elmer was thinking this, Maiza smiled a little and added:

“No, it isn’t that Nile doesn’t trust us. According to him—”

“Say you and I were camping. Half-awake, in the middle of a dream, you grab a tasty-looking melon. Then, in your dream, you think, I want to eat this! Now, what if your ‘melon’ was my head? I would be sent to the next world in my sleep. Let me just say this: I do not think getting eaten by one of you is the worst thing that could happen to me, but I will not tolerate dying over something like that. That is all.”

“Ha-ha, there, see? He is a worrywart!”

Elmer cackled. Still smiling quietly, Maiza murmured:

“Well, that’s what he says, but…I think it may actually be something else.”

“Yeah?”

“Nile says he’s spent the past three hundred years on battlefields all over the world. The whole time, he stuck to areas where the fighting was considered particularly fierce, and he kept himself on the front lines.”

“……”

“I don’t know what he was trying to learn by going exclusively to places like that, or what he saw there, but… It’s possible he wears that mask because he has something else on his mind…although that’s just a guess.”

As he spoke about his old friend, Maiza looked as if he’d become aware of something. Elmer watched his face for a while. Then, suddenly, he smiled with relief.

“Maiza. You must’ve met some real good people.”

“That was abrupt. Why?”

“No, it’s just…your smile. It’s more cheerful than it was three hundred years back.”

Elmer had brought up something odd out of the blue, and as Maiza responded, he smiled wryly.

“Does it look that way?”

“Yeah. If Czes learns to open up a bit more, I bet he’ll be able to smile like that, too,” Elmer said, remembering the boy’s sad expression during their conversation on the castle roof.

“Hmm? What about Czes?”

“Nothing. Just talking to myself.”

At that point, the conversation nearly trailed off, but Elmer had one more thing to say.

“By the way, how’s the demon doing? He’s one of your pals, right?”

“ ”

The words left Maiza speechless for a moment. He stared at Elmer, who was grinning like a mischievous little kid.

“Surprised?”

“How did you know…?”

“Some stuff happened between him and me, way back when.”

He must have been pleased that he’d managed to startle the coolheaded Maiza. Elmer’s laugh echoed in the back of the truck, and he sounded truly cheerful.

Mystified, Maiza tilted his head to the side, but, deciding that Elmer probably wouldn’t tell him even if he asked, he didn’t pursue the issue further.

“So, that reminded me. Are any of you still practicing alchemy?”

“—Czes was until a little while ago, but I’ve given it up. Sylvie and Nile have as well. We’ve already achieved immortality, one of the ultimate goals, and so now, unless we’re doing it because it interests us, research itself is probably impossible… Let’s see. If there’s one who might be, it would be…Huey, I’d think.”

At the name of his old companion, Elmer gazed up into space, looking faintly nostalgic. “Ah, I see, yeah. Even if it isn’t alchemy, I bet he’s running some kind of experiment.”

“He’s the type who attempts to see whether the power of immortality could be used to overthrow the government, after all,” Maiza offered.

“Ah, I miss him. I haven’t seen him in forever. Denkurou, too, and Begg, and Victor.”

Seeing Elmer’s vaguely sad smile, Maiza also recalled his old companions’ faces.

“You could simply go see them, you know. Leave this village.”

“Yeah, I’ll go. In order to do it, though, I’ll need your help, Maiza.”

“Ah? What do you—? Oh.”

Before Maiza could ask, the truck abruptly began to decelerate.

Some sort of metallic creaking came to them from the front of the slow-moving vehicle. From the back of the truck, they couldn’t tell what was happening, but it seemed likely that some sort of gate was opening.

A few seconds later, the truck gradually began to pick up speed, and their surroundings were abruptly enveloped in darkness.

“…Is it a tunnel?”

“We’re almost there.”

The tunnel ended almost immediately, and light poured down around the bed of the truck. However, Maiza had been paying attention to the things he could see from the back, and the scenery was far more desolate than he’d anticipated.

Before he had time to observe anything in detail, the truck suddenly slowed again, then came to a stop.

“Did you think we’d be in the city all of a sudden? In that case, you win the booby prize.”

They’d arrived at what appeared to be a laboratory of some sort.

Ignoring Elmer, who was cackling, Maiza poked his head out of the bed of the truck and looked around. They were in a large warehouse, and it appeared as if the structure had been built over the tunnel to hide it. It seemed like the sort of dock used to build warships, only scaled down and hauled up onto dry land. Several figures were visible inside the building; they were dressed like security personnel, with guns in the holsters at their hips, and they were obviously the polar opposite of the people they’d seen in the forest.

When Maiza saw the concrete floor and the security guards, his senses were immediately yanked into another dimension. Up until ten minutes ago, his brain had been calibrated to the feeling of wandering a fantasy world in the forest, and now it found itself abruptly confronted with the reality of twenty-first-century Earth. Realizing he was feeling mild culture shock over civilization that he should have been used to, Maiza smiled to himself a bit awkwardly.

One of the guards seemed to have noticed Maiza. He started toward them, one hand on his holster. From the fact that he hadn’t signaled to any of his companions, he didn’t seem to be specially trained military personnel.

“Well, now. What’s going to become of us?”

Maiza asked the question calmly, as if he was more than used to this sort of situation.

“It’s fine, no worries. He won’t shoot us on sight.”

Elmer was still sitting down in the bed of the truck, stroking the sleeping Fil’s head and smiling.

“…So keep your knife where it is for now.”

“Understood.”

Maiza’s hand left his hip, and he waited for the security guard to make his move. However, a few seconds later, they heard a door open at the front of the vehicle. The guard’s eyes cut to the door momentarily—and then, as if nothing had happened, he turned his back on them.

As if it had taken the place of the retreating security guard, they heard a dark, solemn voice that seemed filled with condensed fatigue.

“So you’re Elmer’s companion, then?”

When Maiza glanced in the direction of the voice, an old man with a large build was standing there. He held a pair of goggles and a mask, which he had likely just removed, and it was clear that this was the individual who’d been driving.

The old man looked into the bed of the truck and saw Elmer—who’d raised a hand and was smiling—and the girl who slept beside him. At the sight of Fil’s face, relaxed in sleep, the old man exhaled heavily. He wore a complicated expression.

Then he turned to Maiza and introduced himself, but…

When Maiza heard the old man’s name, the temperature of his expression cooled rapidly.

“I am Bilt Quates. I’m responsible for this forest. That said, I go by a different name in the official family register.”

Sensing the increasing noise around me, the me who’d accompanied Master Elmer wakes up.

It wasn’t the time when I usually slept, but, either because I’d worn myself out with excitement or because the swaying bed of the truck had rocked me, I’d been fast asleep.

I’m still in the bed of the truck, and the view out the back is familiar.

I have clear memories here. This is where I always came to die.

Master Quates is standing in front of Master Maiza. How many years has it been since I last saw him? The person who kills me, then brings me back to life. He never told me anything more, and for my part, I never felt like asking him. However, with the mood I’m in now, I might be able to talk to him about all sorts of things.

I’m feeling very good today, and most important of all, Master Elmer and Master Maiza are with me.

Still…

Why does Master Maiza look so stern?

I’ve never seen him that way before.

At the idea that something bad might be about to happen, a slight unease begins churning in my heart.

Now I think I understand why Master Elmer is so particular about smiles.

When Master Maiza looks like that, it makes me nervous, too.

Please smile, Master Maiza. Please smile…

“So yeah, to put it bluntly, that man is a descendant of old Szilard… Although I hear he never met him.”

As they walked through the storehouse, Elmer delivered a matter-of-fact explanation.

“Their faces look similar, don’t they? I tell ya, the first time I snuck into the truck and came here, it made me jump. Well, I was plenty startled when the guards surrounded me and beat me up, too, but anyways.”

“……”

Ordinarily, Maiza would have met Elmer’s banter with a forced smile, but now he didn’t even seem to hear it. He just gravely followed the old man.

However, Elmer wasn’t the least bit deterred, and he kept blabbing away with a tongue that was even more loquacious than it had been a moment ago.

“C’mon, Maiza, don’t look so scary. This old guy…well, ‘old guy,’ sure, but we’re older than he is. Anyway, he’s got nothing to do with Szilard anymore. He’s a commendable fellow who’s devoted his life to carrying out his parents’ wishes, even though it’s not work he personally wanted to do.”

“Work?”

Maiza’s voice surged with a severity he would normally never have shown.

“…You mean isolating people who know nothing in the middle of the woods?”

“Calm down. You’re scaring Fil.”

When Maiza came back to himself with a jolt and widened his field of vision, he saw Fil, following them as if she were hiding behind Elmer, wearing a vaguely frightened expression.

“…I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. If you’re going to say you’re sorry, just smile for her the way you always do. That’ll make Fil feel better, too.”

Elmer grinned and thumped the girl on the back, and the sight seemed to help Maiza regain his composure. He gave a somewhat awkward, slightly troubled smile.

As if responding to it, the old man who’d introduced himself as Bilt began to speak.

“Where should I start…?”

Bilt Quates. He was a descendant of Szilard Quates, the man who’d once gained immortality along with Maiza and eaten many of their companions onboard the ship.

Bilt’s grandfather had been one of Szilard’s descendants and his capable assistant.

Not content with an immortal body, Szilard had begun working to create a homunculus in order to fulfill his own thirst for knowledge.

It was said that perfect homunculi were miniature people raised in flasks, and that in exchange for having all the knowledge in the universe, they were unable to live outside these flasks.

Realizing that some of the knowledge he’d eaten contained information regarding homunculi, Szilard had intensified his research, seeking perfect knowledge.

However, even if he did have eternity, it would have been too inefficient for him to continue his research alone. To that end, he’d had his own descendant and other competent assistants pursue a variety of research.

That said, he never let another alchemist research his own immortality. He’d used chemists with no knowledge of alchemy to compound his liquor as well, not even allowing his own scion to take part in the work.

Bilt’s grandfather had worked under this untrusting man, and one day, based on a theory Szilard had given him, he had succeeded in creating a type of homunculus. He had used Szilard’s immortal cells as a catalyst, and the homunculus was immortal as well…but it had sorely lacked the all-important “perfect knowledge.”

“After that, they made and got rid of several similar specimens, and apparently, in the end, old Szilard made a female homunculus called Ennis or Eris or something. I say ‘in the end’ because…shortly after that, he dropped out of touch completely.

“My grandfather had originally conducted his research in America, but he took that opportunity to return to this country, where the Quates family resided. Then, using Szilard’s connections and the property the Quates family still had—well, that would be this land. At any rate, my grandfather made use of those, moved to this region, and continued his research independently.

“Then, for the sake of a certain plan, he threw away all his assets and started development work in the forest. That plan was an experiment regarding homunculi.”

Their research had been conducted in order to discover two things: a perfect homunculus and immortality.

To that end, they’d created two varieties of homunculus. Both had been created using a solution known as “the failure” as a base.

It had been a flawed immortality elixir: It granted an imperfect immortality, one that could not stop aging.

This had held a hint regarding the homunculi they made. The elixir brought about immortality by fusing the cells with something in another dimension: To borrow the vocabulary of magic, the immortality resulted from being “possessed” by some sort of colony that regenerated infinitely. Szilard had understood this and had directed his research accordingly. Another world—there was no telling whether it was a multiverse or some completely different element. Because a being known as a “demon” was apparently involved, someone had floated the wild theory that it was a demon realm.

However…simply understanding this hadn’t helped them make any progress in the homunculus research, and once Szilard was gone, their work had reached a total impasse. Even so, as they continued the research on their own, they’d come to a realization. That “someplace else” that acted as the foundation for immortal bodies… Would it be possible to make the minds of sentient beings in that place possess multiple bodies on this side?

They’d pursued that line of research, and as a result, they had created two types of imperfect homunculi.

One type was male, and it grew just as humans did. The other was female and did not grow, but it had a short life span. At the end of their research, they’d managed to keep it from getting older than a certain age, but only in terms of appearance. In exchange, its life was drastically shortened…and in order to compensate for that flaw, they constantly kept five bodies “live.”

“In other words, that’s Fil.”

In very sophisticated tones, Elmer stated that fact as if he were giving the answer to a quiz question.

Arriving at a certain door, Bilt began to punch a code number into the electronic keypad beside it. As they waited, Elmer continued his explanation, calmly adding his own theories as he went.

“When one body ‘aged’—or, well, there was no change in its appearance, but anyway—when its health failed and it seemed close to death, Fil was supposed to return to this laboratory. They’d estimated the rough times for that on this end of things as well.”

As if to confirm this, Maiza looked at Fil, but she only gave a small nod. She didn’t seem to feel any particular emotion about it.

Patting her head lightly, Elmer went on.

“Have you ever played video games? If you compare it to that, it’s like working two controllers by yourself, playing two roles on your own. Then, if one character dies, you keep playing with the other character, and while you’re doing that, you hit Continue. For example: You know how subway entrances are scattered all over the place aboveground, but underground, they’re all connected? In this case, the aboveground entrances are these kids’ bodies, and underground—in other words, in that other world—their minds are all connected.”

Just as Elmer finished speaking, the door in front of the four of them opened with a motorized whirr.

What they saw inside was…

“…I thought things like this only existed in movies or comic books.”

Maiza was looking at a row of enormous tanks, each of which could easily hold a human being. Most were empty, but several were filled with an aqueous solution, and he realized that each of these had a mass of some sort floating inside it.

“This is…”

They were shaped like human children. Their bodies were curled up, and they looked like fetuses in the womb. The fleshy tube that stretched from each one’s bellybutton ran down to the bottom of the tank, where it disappeared into something that resembled reddish-brown mud.

Maiza examined the body carefully—and although he’d half expected it, his face clouded slightly.

The face of the girl floating in the tank bore a strong resemblance to Fil’s.

“They aren’t clones, see, so they don’t have the same faces. Even so, due to the environment and the human cells used as a catalyst, they end up looking as similar as sisters. Anyway, when a body dies, it’s put through a special treatment process inside this tank and turns into a clump of flesh like the one at the bottom. I’d really rather not use the word with regard to people, but it’s what you’d call recycling.”

When Elmer had explained that much, Bilt produced a small glass bottle.

“This is the ‘water’ that serves as a catalyst to link their wills.”

The bottle held a clear liquid. As far as appearances went, it was almost impossible to tell it apart from tap water.

“…It looks like plain water to me.”

“The stuff that made our bodies like this looked like plain liquor, didn’t it? Even if it was the failed version, it was the basis for creating this, so it’s only natural, no?”

“You do have a point.”

After Elmer and Maiza’s exchange had ended, Bilt went on with his tale.

“When ‘empty’ bodies absorb this water, they are possessed… Even if we only give them a single drop. In other words, the girls’ memories and experiences accumulate in this. In that sense, it might be safe to say that this water is their true form.”

“True form? Then you mean this water has a will, too?”

In response to Maiza’s question, Elmer spoke up from the side. He seemed to be itching to say something; his eyes were even livelier than usual:

“No, the water doesn’t have a will. It doesn’t have a brain to think with, or nerves to feel with, or flesh or lips or ears or eyes. To use another game analogy, the water’s more like save data. Once it pours information into the bodies—the ‘characters’—they start to move. It makes them able to feel things, and to think. If it has a human brain, it gains the same capacity for thought as humans have.”

As he thought about what that meant, Maiza fell silent. When Elmer saw this, he regarded the older man, seeing right through him.

“From our perspective, it’s probably a really smart being. After all, it can use five human brains at once, or maybe even more. I wonder what would happen if it was released from our restrictions and showed up as whatever it actually looks like over there. Would it think in a completely different way from what we’re used to? …Or maybe it’s not actually sentient at all, and it’s just operating on some survival program like your average insect. Maybe it learns human words and speaks simply in order to survive. That was a possibility, too, but…”

When he’d said as much, Elmer patted Fil—who’d been listening silently behind him—on the shoulder. She didn’t appear to have followed the conversation completely and seemed perplexed about a few things. She’d probably had trouble understanding once he’d started in with the game analogies. Of course, since she had absolutely no knowledge of video games, expecting her to understand from what she’d heard would have been unreasonable.

Elmer smiled warmly at her, then turned back to Maiza and continued, “But I don’t think it’s like that—or, honestly, I don’t think it matters either way. No matter what sort of being she was over there, she’s herself. She’s a little clumsy about life, but at heart, she’s kind, and she’s always thinking about other people. Right, Maiza?”

In response to that question, Maiza also looked into Fil’s eyes and smiled.

“Agreed.”

For a little while, Maiza examined the tanks. Then he spoke to Bilt, his expression intent.

“All right… Why did you show this to me? What do you want me to do?”

It was Elmer who answered the question.

“It’s simple: Mr. Bilt doesn’t have a whole lot longer to live. Well, I mean, from our perspective. Anyway, once he dies, this experiment will be over. There’s nobody to pass it on to, and he wants to end it, anyway. In that case, although there’ll be lots of confusion, he can just let the villagers go and that’ll be that, but… Before he does it, at the very least, he says he wants to save Fil.”

Picking up where Elmer had left off, Bilt began to tell his side of the story, a bit guiltily.

“I was always uneasy about the fact that my father and grandfather had thrown themselves into this terrible research with no hesitation whatsoever… No, I’m not saying Fil is terrible. I hear they made two groups of homunculi in the pursuit of ‘perfect knowledge.’ If they had them live forever, changing bodies as they went, they thought they’d accumulate experience and knowledge, and that in the end, they might be very close to homunculi in the true sense of the word. Based on that idea, they attempted to create a real homunculus. And so, to that end, my grandfather and father began a terrible experiment, backed by their abundant property and the connections our ancestor—Szilard—had made within the government.”

Almost as if he was frightened of his own sins, Bilt began trembling violently.

“In exchange for sizable debts and similar things, they ‘bought’ a large number of people. Many of them had children who had just been born! Then they forced them to become ‘residents’ of this isolated space. In some cases, they seem to have used other methods, more direct than money… However, I wasn’t there. When this village was created, I was still a very young child.”

Maiza simply accepted the old man’s long confession in silence. However, when he saw that the man had stopped talking for a moment, he asked a question in a grave, quiet voice.

“…Why did they go to the trouble of establishing that village?”

“It’s a simulation.”

Elmer fielded that question frankly, although Maiza’s face was dark.

“They probably didn’t want to toss the homunculi they’d created out into the world just like that. First, I bet they wanted to let them acquire a certain amount of knowledge in a ‘miniature garden’ that they had complete control over, and to study their growth processes when they interacted with people.”

“Just for that? They wouldn’t have needed to make an entire village… Couldn’t they have managed without resorting to human trafficking?”

“They were probably nervous. They wanted to keep it all to themselves. Yeah, if the ‘liquor of immortality’ hadn’t been involved, I bet things would have turned out differently, but, well, apparently everyone who gets involved with immortality goes a little crazy. Long story short: Mr. Bilt’s dad and granddad didn’t want any information about the liquor of immortality to get out. In other words, they weren’t planning to let a single person who was involved in this research leave.”

Ignoring Elmer’s masochistic smile, Bilt resumed his monologue, looking even more downcast.

“I always thought I needed to put an end to this, but…I was afraid; I couldn’t do it! When I think that I’ll have to atone for this horrible sin by myself, now that both my father and grandfather are dead… But until five years ago, when Elmer stowed away in my truck and came here—until he told me what the village was like—I never dreamed Fil was being treated that way! When she came here at the end of her lives, I didn’t notice any sign of that sort of thing… If I’d asked, she might have told me, but I didn’t even do that. Out of guilt over what I was doing, I intentionally avoided the child. It may do no good for me to say something like this at this late date, but at least, at the very least, I want this girl to be happy… If nothing else, I wanted to atone for that.”

Originally, they’d used a laboratory designed to look like a castle as their base. However, when they’d decided to build the village and observe Fil’s growth, they’d cut this area off from its surroundings. They’d injected the trees around it with the failed immortality liquor, creating a forest that would wither only from old age, never from any other cause.

After the village had been established, the alchemists observed the villagers as “traders.” From time to time, unexpected outsiders wandered into the forest, but the villagers seemed to be getting rid of them on their own.

Every once in a while, young people had stowed away in the truck, but they’d all been startled and awed by the outside world, and they hadn’t tried to return to the village. They’d been the sort who’d yearned for an “outside,” even though they hadn’t known whether it really existed. For them and the others who’d made it through the forest on foot and reached the world beyond, its fascination had probably been greater than their attachment to their families and birthplace.

That said, even if someone occasionally did try to return, the researchers had never let them back into the forest.

After listening to the old man’s confession, Maiza spoke quietly. His face was expressionless.

“If you mean to make amends, I think you should extend the sentiment to the villagers, too.”

“I’m well aware of that. However… Once freed, the villagers will have places to go and the family bonds they’ve created. Fil has nowhere except this village. Particularly since her life is so short.”

“But I went and promised, see. I told Fil I’d show her the whole wide world. I said I’d strike off her shackles and set her free.”

Picking up where Bilt had left off, Elmer spoke to Maiza, averting his eyes. He was speaking in a roundabout way, but Maiza immediately understood what he was after and asked him a question in return:

“In other words…you want me to extend Fil’s lives?”

“You’re so quick on the uptake, Maiza! That’s a huge help.”

“…Just for the record, I’m not making the elixir of immortality.”

“I know that, too. Even so, your knowledge could help the research along, right? Besides…we’ve got five alchemists here who’ve lived more than three hundred years each. I mean, I can’t force you, but if we all work on this together, I think we’ll probably find a way.”

Beside Maiza, who’d fallen silent, Fil went over to Bilt and began talking to him.

“Um…I don’t understand why you feel you’ve sinned, Master Bilt. I don’t know about the villagers, but I’m fine. Don’t look so sad. Please smile…”

Seeing her concern for Bilt, Maiza brooded for a while, a complicated expression on his face. Then, finally, he heaved a ponderous sigh and nodded.

“Show me your research materials, if you would.”

Several hours after Maiza had begun perusing the research materials, Elmer muttered:

“I came here because…well, I knew the people who ran this place had ties to Szilard. I’d heard a rumor that there was an alchemical facility in an old castle in the woods. I thought Szilard might come back here, y’know? If he had, I might have been able to talk the old guy around.”

“Elmer… You’re still saying that?”

“Well, if he’s dead, there’s no help for it.”

As he watched Elmer chuckle, Maiza was struck by a thought.

“Elmer. The information that you were here… You leaked it yourself, didn’t you?”

“Oh, you figured it out? Yeah, well, I thought I’d get ahold of Victor from here and see if he could put me in touch with you. He said he’d talk to the information broker about it, so I just took him up on it. Since it was you, I assumed you’d show up by yourself, but then there were four of you…”

“You were genuinely startled, weren’t you?”

“When Fil told me a ‘family of four’ had come to the village, I had no idea it was you. Thanks to that, I wasn’t able to give you a decent welcome, and I looked like a total idiot.”

Remembering when Maiza’s group had arrived at the castle, Elmer snickered to himself.

For his part, Maiza had put together a certain hypothesis from the facts he’d just learned, and he asked Elmer about it.

“…Were you trying to use my knowledge to complete this research?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

Elmer admitted the fact easily, without a shred of apparent guilt.

“If it came down to it, I thought I’d have you summon the demon again or something.”

“You say that like it’s easy…”

Maiza covered his face as if he was appalled, but even then, he was smiling. It looked like he’d resigned himself, somehow.

“Have you given up alchemy, then?”

The casual question made Elmer go quiet for a little while. He gazed into space for a few moments, then spoke with some nostalgia.

“I got into alchemy for the gold. I just wanted money.”

“That’s unexpected.”

“I figured I’d become an alchemist and make mountains of gold, then give it all away to the poor. Of course I was going to keep some back for myself, too. I thought if I did that, I’d be able to make everybody happy.”

Elmer looked a bit self-conscious, even embarrassed.

“Dumb, right? It was a fundamentally bad move, in terms of both economics and sociology, and I didn’t give the slightest consideration to the fact that the value of gold would drop or production would stop. Well, I’ve lived a long time; somewhere in there, I learned about those things, and I realized human happiness wasn’t that simple… So now I don’t have any particular attachment to alchemy.”

When he’d gotten that far, Fil and Bilt came into the room. Seeing them, Elmer raised his voice, changing the subject.

“By the way, Bilt, I’ve been wondering for a while now. What’s the male homunculus up to? I asked Fil, but she said she’s never met him.”

For a brief moment, the old man seemed startled by the question. Then, as if something made sense to him now, he nodded.

“I see… He’s completely blended in with the village, so you’ve probably met him and didn’t realize it.”

His expression growing complicated, Bilt remembered a certain man—or rather, a certain homunculus.

“He probably realized he was being used as a guinea pig, and it upset him. He gave up the experiment of his own accord, before I came to my own resolution. I think it was about fifteen years ago…He infiltrated this place, destroyed the cultivation fluid his body was in, and left. He took the ‘water,’ his catalyst, with him, and he hasn’t been back since. That said, even if he had come, without the water, we couldn’t have done anything.”

Almost as if he was reminiscing about his son, the old man took a single photograph from his coat.

“If I recall, he’s on his second body now, and he should be around fifty years old… I expect he intends to live out his natural life as a villager.”

With the expression of a man hoping for the happiness of his own child, Bilt showed the photograph to Maiza.

“See? This is him. If you happen to see him, please greet him for me.”

The photograph Bilt held out to him was of a lean young man, with sharp, distinctive eyes.

“Let’s see. It does feel as if I’ve seen him somewhere before…”

As if his curiosity had been piqued, Maiza scrutinized the man in the photo.

“Huh…? If you do this—”

As if he’d realized something, Elmer rubbed a nearby eraser lightly on the desktop, then put the eraser shavings over the mouth of the man in the picture.

Fil peeked in at it from behind them, then shrieked a name in spite of herself.

“—Master Dez!”

It can’t be.

It’s not possible… But there’s no mistake.

The old photograph Master Bilt showed us.

Its subject is, without a doubt, Master Dez.

If Master Dez is a created human, like me—did he know about me? If he knows we were born in the same place, why does he hate me so much?

Or… Does he hate me because we’re the same?

While I stand there, frozen, staring at the photograph, I’ve also begun to run for the village headman’s house.

The night is growing late. The snow in the village is still deep, and there aren’t many people out and about.

When they see me running, everyone I pass looks suspicious. They might use this as an excuse to hit me later. Even so, I have to make sure.

If, unlike me, there is only one of him and he’s continued to grow…then it wouldn’t have been at all odd for him to marry, or have a child, or become the village headman.

“Nn? …What’s wrong? You look tense.”

In the castle stable, Master Nile speaks to me for once.

“Are you all right? You look pale… Go ahead and rest; I’ll finish up here.”

In the castle kitchen, Mistress Sylvie smiles at me kindly.

“Maiza and the others sure are late. What do things look like over there?”

Master Czes is standing outside the castle, waiting for Master Maiza to return.

However, I don’t have the wherewithal to answer any of them properly.

For now, I want to keep all my attention focused on the self that is running through the village.

The snow trips me up in places, but I keep making for the village headman’s house.

The moment I reach the house, I begin pounding on the door. I don’t think I’ve ever done anything with this much force before. Fierce pain runs through my fists, but now isn’t the time to worry about it.

It feels like an eternity before the door opens.

Then, when it does open—

“Huh? Fil… What is it? Why are you so upset?”

The person who appears from beyond the door is not Master Dez, but Master Feldt.

“U-um! Master Dez! Where is Master Dez?!”

“Father went to draw water from the well—”

“Thank you!”

Master Feldt looks perplexed, but I don’t have the time to explain.

The cold smile Master Dez showed me that afternoon… That unease has become an enormous anxiety raging in me.

Run, run, run—I’m not sure if I’m running from the anxiety rampaging inside me, or if I’m chasing down the cause behind it…

“Hey, Fil. Don’t even think about grilling the village chief over this.”

I hear Master Elmer’s voice. The me that’s with him murmurs, “No, sir” in a small voice… But as far as the me in the village is concerned, it’s too late.

There was a small well on the edge of the village. It had been dug deep, and it almost never froze over completely; the ice on its surface could be broken easily by dropping the bucket onto it. The village was far from the river, and so the well was an important reservoir, something at the very center of the villagers’ lives.

A lone man was standing in front of it. The man with an arrogant-looking mustache stood before the well, quietly gazing down at the water.

He didn’t move a single step. It was as if he was waiting for someone.

And then… The “someone” he was waiting for appeared.

“Master Dez.”

At the sound of a girl’s voice, the village headman turned. The girl stood there, out of breath.

“I was waiting for you. You took longer than I thought you would.”

The headman gazed at Fil’s face as if he’d grown restless with impatience. Then he muttered:

“So you know, huh? Finally. Or should I say you remembered?”

He grinned. In his right hand, he held a small bottle.

“You went to the outside with the trader, didn’t you? To that place: our cradle, and our grave.”

“…That bottle…”

“Right. It’s the glass bottle where you and I got our start. The only difference between us is which of those two bottles we were born from. That’s all it is.”

Speaking with some self-contempt, Dez held the bottle up for Fil to see.

“In other words, this is ‘me.’ Didn’t you hear from old man Bilt? It’s my true form, the catalyst to make more of me. My soul.”

Fil had absolutely no idea what Dez was trying to do. As if he’d realized this, Dez slowly began to twist the bottle’s cap. He was wearing that cold smile.

“For example.”

As if explaining a science experiment, he lectured Fil in a decidedly exaggerated way.

“When this water, my ‘will,’ is injected into an empty body, ‘I’ am the result… Now, what do you think will happen if I pour this water into the well and make villagers that are already living drink it?”

“…!”

Up until now, only empty bodies created in the cultivation liquid had been given the will-infused water. If ordinary humans drank it… What would happen to them?

“I tested it once before, on my father-in-law—in other words, the previous village headman—when he was dying of old age. The answer is ‘a struggle.’ Both wills fight for control of the body. Interesting, isn’t it? In other words, a brain that exists in this world as solid matter fights head-on with our minds, which are from another dimension. That isn’t alchemy anymore; it’s the realm of mediums and magic. Don’t you think so? A mind that has taken control is able to take all the other’s knowledge and experience for itself. Doesn’t that sound a lot like the system the immortals up at the castle have, the system of devouring each other?”

Why did Dez know that? It struck Fil as odd, but after a little thought, she realized that Sylvie had told Feldt all about it. It wouldn’t have been at all strange for Dez, his father, to have heard.

“And, I hate to break it to you, but I can’t imagine I’ll lose to the lot in this village, the sort of people who just get swept along by the world around them… Although I suppose it is a gamble.”

When she heard that, Fil finally realized what the man was about to do.

“No…”

“I’m sick of being shut up in this wretched little village. It might have been better if I’d just kept living the way I was, knowing nothing, but those outsider demons gave me a glimmer of hope. There’s a great big world outside this forest! It’s definitely there!”

With crazed, bloodshot eyes, the village chief—or the man who had been the village chief—went on quietly, intensely.

“I was thinking. Going out into the world with only my own life would feel really unsafe. However, if all seventy-six people who live in this village became ‘me’—that would make for enough power to handle the outside world, too, wouldn’t you say?”

The girl looked shocked, but before long, she got a firm grip on her heart again and spoke, slowly but firmly.

“—I won’t let you do it.”

“Oh? And what exactly is scum like you going to keep me from doing?”

Dez sounded entertained, but the girl told him in no uncertain terms what she meant.

“Steal the villagers’ minds… I’ll never let you do that.”

Half-afraid, but with a strong resolve in her eyes, Fil took a step forward.

“I see. That’s great.”

With absolutely no hesitation or worry, Dez began opening the bottle.

“Stopppp!”

With a cry that was almost a scream, Fil rushed at Dez. In an attempt to snatch the bottle from his right hand, she jumped as hard as she could.

In response, as if he’d been waiting for this very thing, Dez put his left hand into his jacket, pulled out a gleaming silver knife, and slashed diagonally at Fil’s arm.

A flash. Fil’s face twisted with a hot sensation of wrongness, and a moment later, her expression shifted into a grimace of pain.

“Good-for-nothing.”

As Dez glared at her, his eyes full of hatred, several drops of red mist struck his face.

“Waaaaaaaaaaah—!”

…But Fil didn’t stop. Without checking her momentum, she rammed into Dez with her whole body.

“Hunh?!”

The girl didn’t weigh much, and the body blow should have done almost nothing, but the ground around the well was frozen, and Dez’s feet slipped.

They fell together, beside the well, and began struggling fiercely.

Without the composure to act rationally, the girl howled like a wild animal—

…Several minutes later.

When the villagers who’d heard the uproar came to look, they saw…

…the figure of the “witch” they’d scorned, believing she was their inferior.

Her body was dappled with something red…and she was straddling another, fallen figure: the corpse of Dez Nibiru, the village headman. There was a silver knife stuck in his neck.

I wasn’t trying to save the villagers.

On the contrary. I hate them.

But, more than that…I couldn’t stand the idea of losing this world.

And so… And so I killed the headman. I killed Master Dez—no, I killed Dez!

I don’t regret it. I’ll never regret it, ever.

I finally remembered an emotion.

The emotion called “anger.” The emotion called “fear,” too.

I acted in obedience to those emotions.

I won’t let him break this world. Not my world.

This village, this forest, is the only place for me.

I know. I understand. I did it all of my own free will.

“Ee… Yeeee!”

And so, I have no regrets.

“Th-the headman!”

“Dez!”

“This is awful!”

I’ll never regret it, ever.

“Fil— Fil—! The cursed brat killed the headman!”

I knew; I understand everything.

“Dammit, I knew it! These things were the demon’s tools from the start!”

“So you acted meek and submissive to trick us?!”

I knew this would happen.

“Murderer!”

I knew they’d call me that.

“Demon!”

And that.

“Witch…!”

And that.

“Forget all we’ve done for you, will you…?!”

I knew.

“So you’ve finally shown your true colors!”

I know.

“That’s the last straw!”

—I know, I know, I know, I know! So enough, enough! I know, all right? I know already, so don’t say anything else!

Don’t say anything don’t say anything don’t say anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything anything any any any any any any any any any any any any any any a-a-a-ny-ny-ny-ny-ny a-a-a-ny-ny-ny-thi-thing 

Just when I’ve almost lost the ability to express my emotions in words—someone holds me close.

“It’s all right. It’s okay.”

It’s Master Czes. Oh, this isn’t the self surrounded by the villagers. It’s the self in front of the castle in the forest, waiting for Master Maiza to return.

“Why…?”

Why is Master Czes worried about me? He can’t know about what’s happening to the other me.

“Oh…I’m sorry. You looked like you were really scared of something, and when I called to you, you didn’t respond—and then you suddenly started crying.”

“Huh…?”

Once he mentions it, I realize that tears are streaming from my eyes.

“Um…this is—”

Just as I try to pull my circumstances into some sort of coherent story and explain them to him…

…a big villager looms behind Master Czes and swings a huge club down on him with all his might.

“Gahk…”

Master Czes loses consciousness before I can make a sound—and then a fierce impact runs through the back of my own head, and my mind goes dark.

At the same time, the me who is surrounded by the villagers hears a familiar voice.

“Father…Fil…”

Oh…

“He’s…dead? —–Why?”

No, no, you’ve got it wrong.

“Why did you—? Father—”

At first, Master Feldt looks stunned, but his face gradually begins to suffuse with emotion.

“Give him back.”

Is it anger, or sadness?

“Give him back!”

Master Feldt’s face warps with something like laughter, and he takes a step toward me.

“Give me back my father!”

Taking another step closer, Master Feldt screams at me.

“I trusted you! Why?!”

The instant I hear that scream, I feel something inside me break.

I knew it. It really wasn’t okay for me to dream, was it? I shouldn’t have hoped, should I? If I’d never had any of that, I wouldn’t have to feel this sad now.

I try to say something to Master Feldt—but a villager throws a rock that strikes me square in the side of the head, and the mind of the self in the village goes black.

“I’m sorry.”

At the same time, someone speaks to me.

It’s Master Elmer’s voice, and I realize someone has put me into the cab of the iron cart. Master Elmer is on my right, stroking my head, and on my left, Master Maiza is gripping a wheel.

Rough vibrations rock me. A snowy road lies between the trees ahead, through the large pane of glass in front of us. The sun set long ago, but the area right in front of the cart is lit as brightly as if it were the middle of the day.

Just then, some sort of liquid begins to drip onto my hands in my lap.

Then I notice that tears are running down my cheeks. It happened that way earlier, too, with Master Czes. Apparently, I’m not managing my individual bodies’ emotions well.

“Really, I’m sorry. After I’d made up my mind that the first tears I made you cry would be happy ones, or because you’d been laughing too hard…”

The moment I look at Master Elmer’s face, instead of words, tears stream out endlessly.

I want to keep crying like that forever, but I can’t. Right now, there’s something I have to tell them, no matter what.

“…Ah…ster…is…”

“It’s all right, calm down.”

Master Elmer smiles at me kindly. It only makes me feel worse.

I feel as if I’m suffocating. Every time I try to exhale, I sob. Even so, I have to tell them. Even if my breath stops—even if my heart stops, I have to tell them…

“Ah—…Master, Czes was…ugkh…Master Czes! The villagers…took…”

I’m only able to tell them in fragments, but they seem to understand.

Master Maiza’s lips tense, and the speed of the cart nearly doubles. As my back presses into the seat, I try to feel relieved that I managed to communicate what I’d most wanted to tell them. However, I realize that isn’t allowed yet and stop myself. I try desperately to rein in my heart and its flood of tears.

Telling myself that both crying and smiling would have to wait until after we’d rescued Master Czes…

…I dry my face, and for the moment, I simply gaze straight ahead.

Hearing a crackling, popping sound, Czes slowly woke up.

His hands were bound tightly behind him; he couldn’t move his arms at all. He was lying on the floor, and he could feel some sort of warmth on his back.

Around him, he could hear several people muttering. Thinking that it wouldn’t be a good idea to open his eyes right away, Czes opened them a mere crack and scoped out the situation around him.

From what he could see, he seemed to be in a spacious room in somebody’s house. The wooden walls were lit by a fierce, flickering red glow, in addition to lamplight. Apparently the crackling he’d been hearing was the sound of wood burning in a fireplace behind him.

Two other figures lay on the floor in front of Czes.

They were two of the five Fils. One was the Fil who’d been with Czes. The other was probably the village’s lone remaining Fil.

What on earth happened? As far as I know, we didn’t have any particular quarrel with the village over the past month… I wonder what Feldt’s doing.

“Hey. I think he’s awake.”

One of the villagers had noticed Czes’s slightly open eyes. He strode over to him, then slammed a kick into his side with his toes. The stabbing impact knocked the wind out of Czes for a moment.

“Gahk…”

“How’re you feeling, demon spawn?”

As Czes coughed violently, a burly man looked down on him, spitting the words out.

“Frankly, when we grabbed you, we still didn’t quite believe it, but when we got back to the village, we were sure. To think you’d try to poison the well…!”

What is he talking about? Czes was confused, but it seemed foolish to argue back and get himself kicked again, so for the moment, he decided to stay quiet and listen to what the villager said.

“Not only that, but when the headman tried to stop you, you stabbed him. This trash forgot the debt they owe the village for having put up with them all this time.”

As he spoke, the man kicked Fil in the stomach. She seemed to be completely unconscious, and her little body only rose slightly.

“Stop it.”

Czes spoke in spite of himself and immediately regretted it. Oh, that was stupid.

“Shaddup!”

Another kick flew at Czes’s torso. He’d known it was coming this time, so it didn’t pack as much damage as the previous one.

Another ten or so villagers were standing behind the man, but they just watched Czes with revulsion, and no one tried to put a stop to the man’s violence.

He didn’t think the two Fils were awake yet; they just lay limply where they were. From the way their shoulders rose and fell slightly, they didn’t seem to be dead. For the moment, he could feel relieved about that, at least.

However, they couldn’t stay like this. In an attempt to get a grip on the situation, Czes spoke to the villagers.

“…Why did you kidnap me? You only found out about the poison after you brought me here, right?”

His voice was as childlike as his appearance, and several of the villagers exchanged bewildered looks. However, the man who’d launched that first kick spoke to Czes with a smirk.

“Quit pretending you’re a kid. We know you’re actually a three-hundred-year-old geezer and that, other than not dying, you’re only as strong as a real kid.”

At those words, Czes sighed. Feldt’s face came into his mind.

Did he tell them all that…? Honest little fool. There’s no help for that guy.

“…I see. All right, then. From now on, I’ll talk normally.”

Czes’s voice and expression had suddenly turned mature, and when they saw this, a stir ran through the villagers.

“Keh! So that’s what you really are, huh?”

He was talking tough, but the guy who’d landed the kick on him did seem creeped out. With one eye on him, Czes asked only what he wanted to know, sounding indifferent.

“This is just a request, but… Who was it that came up with the plan to kidnap me, and why?”

The kicker turned to the other villagers, but no one tried to stop him.

“Right, well, you looked like the weakest one. We figured we’d wait for you to get careless, then nab you, use you as a hostage, and round up the other monsters.”

“…A hostage, when you knew I wouldn’t die? Why?”

The question was only natural. However, the man who’d kicked him answered with no confusion whatsoever.

“There’s all sorts of ways to do it. We could take you to the village forge, say, and mix you up with molten iron, then sink you to the bottom of the well.”

Imagining this, Czes felt a little dismal. It would be one thing if they put him on the bottom of the ocean; Maiza and the others would probably still save him. However, if they fused him with molten iron, would it even be possible for him to return to normal completely? That was the one thing that worried him.

Indifferent to Czes’s private thoughts, the man tried to threaten him as menacingly as he could. His build was clearly different from those of the villagers behind him. He was probably the one outlaw who always seemed to turn up in any group.

“Besides—maybe you can’t die, but you can feel pain, yeah?”

With those words, the man took something that looked like pliers out of his jacket.

“Ghk…”

Torture. As that word crossed his mind, terror blazed up in Czes’s heart.

He had a vivid recollection of the hell he’d been subjected to on that train seventy years ago.

Noticing that Czes’s expression had clouded over, the man gave a satisfied smirk and clicked the pliers together.

Seeing this, Czes spoke frantically. His palms were growing sweaty.

“Wait, please. Before that, I want to know… Who was it that put this plan together?”

Czes was positive that the answer to his question would be “Dez,” and he’d only asked it to distract himself from his fear, but—

The resulting answer dashed cold water over his heart.

The name belonged to a person he’d never have suspected.

“Feldt.”

Involuntarily, Czes raised his head, scanning the villagers who stood farther back.

However, from the way they looked, the man wasn’t lying.

“He’s been setting up this plan for several days now, for the sake of the village. I knew Feldt had it in ’im! He managed to throw you lot completely off guard. Ol’ Dez was useless, but if this guy’s gonna be the next headman, we’ve got nothing to worry about.”

Good God.

Czes was completely disgusted by his own foolishness. Logically, the idea was entirely possible. As a matter of fact, considered calmly, he might have been a more likely possibility than Dez. Even so, until this very moment, Czes had believed in him completely…even though he’d only talked to him for a day.

“Well, that takes the cake.”

Feeling as though he’d gone hopelessly soft, Czes sighed self-consciously.

“And here I thought I was used to being sold out. I’ve been through several things in the past that were much, much worse than this, and yet…”

Shaking his head in disappointment, he realized his heart had actually calmed down. His tone had naturally reverted to a child’s unique cadences, and the sights and sounds around him seemed vivid and clear.

“It hasn’t happened in a while, and this reminded me. I forgot it hurt so much.”

“Wh-what?”

Although Czes’s attitude bewildered him, the man prepared to strip off one of his fingernails with the pliers, but…

Czes looked at his face. Then he looked at the faces of the villagers behind him. He’d seen those expressions somewhere before. The emotion in the depths of their faces was…fear. Their eyes were those of people about to inflict violence on him in order to cover up their own fear.

This is different. They’re nothing like that monster.

Recalling the menace from seventy years ago, Czes compared it to the people in front of him. He couldn’t feel any terror for these people. On the contrary… He realized that they looked just like the immortal who’d once tried to kill him because he was afraid.

“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

The instant Czes understood that, a great laugh burst from his lips.

It made the villagers freeze, but his voice seemed to have roused the two Fils. They gave little groans, and their bodies rocked and shifted.

“Oh, I see… I see. In the end, you’re just the same. Yes, you’re all the same, Fermet and the people of this village. You’re exactly the same. Of course you are. That’s normal, isn’t it? That’s right.”

Beaming in a way that was entirely at odds with the situation, Czes got to his feet, dexterously, using only his knees. He wasn’t laughing at the situation, but rather his past self.

Violent confusion ran through the villagers at this sudden turn of events, but still, his hands were tied, and the idea that he couldn’t do anything against numbers like these let them stand their ground.

However…in the next instant, Czes did something none of them had predicted.

“I see. Then it’s just like Elmer said. I’ve been living in the midst of miraculously good luck! To think I never noticed how lucky I was… It’s hilarious. It’s as if I took my own happiness and threw it into the ditch with my own two hands!”

As he finished shouting that long speech…

Czes leaped back—right into the blazing fireplace.

At that, all the villagers shuddered, shrinking back in spite of themselves. Even as they watched, Czes’s upper body was enveloped in flames…and the rope that had bound his arms burned away, freeing his hands.

When he was sure of this, Czes stood. His upper half was still shrouded in flames. The fire hadn’t spread to the rest of him, but the clothes on his upper body, still alight, had mostly charred away.

Half his face was hideously burned, but as the villagers watched, the flesh immediately began to heal.

Even if he was immortal, he must have been feeling ferocious pain far beyond heat. However, even under those circumstances, Czes was smiling brightly.

“Move.”

Murmuring just one word, he walked right past the man who’d kicked him. The man gave a pitiful shriek, retreating into the midst of the other villagers in the blink of an eye.

The bandage that had been wound around Czes’s right arm burned off, revealing a long, gleaming silver scalpel. Slipping it into his hand, the boy cut the ropes of the two girls who lay in front of him.

Ignoring the fact that his upper body was still on fire in places, Czes smiled and spoke to the villagers.

“I told you to move. I need to go find Elmer.”

Tearing off his flaming jacket, he advanced, step by step.

“I have to go smile for him. I’ll smile enough to make up for all the smiling I haven’t done. I’m going to do that right in front of him… So move.”

At that, Czes threw his blazing jacket at the other side of the room, at the spot where the group of villagers was thickest. With that as the trigger, fierce screams went up from the crowd.

Without even bothering to watch them, Czes turned to the girls, who’d managed to get to their feet on their own.

“All right. Let’s go.”

“Ah… O-okay!”

Striding through the villagers, who were running every which way in their attempts to escape, Czes took the two Fils and headed outside.

However…when he reached the entrance of the home, he stopped.

The house was on the village’s main street, and a crowd of villagers who’d heard the uproar had gathered in front of it. Several of them had guns pointed their way. The villagers’ eyes held more fear than hostility, and feeling a little dazed, Czes thought, That headman really wasn’t popular, was he…?

Had Fil actually killed the village chief? He wanted to ask, but it looked as if they’d have more than enough trouble just getting out of this situation.

He was one thing, but if the Fils got shot, that would be it. That said, even if both these girls stopped moving, Fil wouldn’t die. She only needed one body to survive.

“What should we do…?”

Hiding in the shadows by the door, Czes thought hard, twirling the scalpel in his fingers.

All the other villagers had fled outside. Should they search the house for a back door, or wait until someone came in and use the scalpel to take them hostage…?

As he was standing there thinking, he heard a horse whinny.

“Oh…”

One of the Fils made a noise, as if she’d remembered something. She had: After she’d sobbed out the news about Czes to Maiza and Elmer, the two bodies that were still at the castle had involuntarily done the same thing.

Her mind had been thrown into confusion, and she didn’t have a clear memory of what had happened after that, but apparently one of her selves had come here on horseback from the castle.

“Czeeeeeees!”

The villagers held up pine torches and lanterns, and, running through the midst of an uproar that had begun to include gunshots…

…a masked man gave a bellowing roar that seemed to boom through the whole village.

“It’s them! One of his friends is here!”

“Dammit! It’s too soon!”

“Shoot him! Shoot him!”

“I-it’s no good. Let’s just run—”

“No running! There’s no going back now!”

Plowing his way through the villagers’ angry shouts, Nile came galloping down the village’s main road on horseback. Skillfully guiding his horse over the snow, he spotted the house at the center of the crowd and made straight for its entrance.

Several gunshots rang out, but they didn’t even graze the mounted Nile. They probably would have done better to aim at the horse, but in all the confusion, no one tried it. They might have been hunters, but they had no experience with shooting at people on horseback, and it didn’t seem to be working for them. In the first place, in a village this small, there was no telling what kind of game the hunters normally pursued.

Nile’s insolent mask shone as if it was mocking the people who were running around in an attempt to flee, and he leaped down from his horse with a flourish right in front of the door where Czes and the others were hiding.

“Nile!”

Without thinking, Czes gave a cry of delight, but Nile’s response was displeasure incarnate.

“Let me just say this: Right now, I could not be angrier.”

“Huh?”

Czes thought he might have done something, and question marks surfaced in his mind, but…

“Whatever their reasons, the unmitigated gall of setting fire to my comrade—! It’s settled. I’ll massacre the lot of them.”

Apparently, having seen Czes’s appearance as he hid in the shadow of the door, he’d gotten the impression that the villagers had tried to burn him alive.

“No, I did this myse—”

Before Czes could explain the circumstances, Nile had already leaped into the midst of the villagers. Since he’d landed right where the crowd was thickest, the ones who had guns couldn’t fire.

“Ah, waaaaaugh!”

“Get him! Look, he’s unarmed!”

As fear and hostility surged, one aggressive villager plunged a farming hoe into Nile’s body.

“Gnrgh…”

“Diiiie!”

He tried to shove the tool in even further, but, abruptly, it refused to budge.

“Huh?”

Nile’s hand had clamped around the hoe’s handle, and, with its tip still stuck in his stomach, he twisted his body dramatically.

“Aaaaaaah!”

The force was so great that the villager involuntarily let go of the tool, and Nile yanked it from his stomach. That series of actions had to have been excruciatingly painful, but no one heard a single groan from behind his mask.

Claiming the implement as his own, Nile confronted them with an astounding display of hoe-fighting that could have been taken straight from classical Chinese opera. The large tool spun ferociously. It was obvious to everyone that no one could touch it and remain unscathed. For the moment, Nile set his sights on the hoe’s previous wielder and raised the weapon high in the air.

It was an absolutely pointless move, but he was probably planning to kill the first one in grand style and quash the enemy’s collective will to fight.

“Let me just say this: I am not like Elmer. I do not know how to seal my own wrath, and you—and this village—have angered me… So die. Be shamed by your ignorance, rue your actions, lament your sin—and sink into an ever-widening sea of blood.”

Even though he knew they couldn’t understand what he was saying, Nile quietly put his own rage into words. Then he began to flex his arms, preparing to bring the hoe down.

“Wait! Nile!”

Thinking that killing someone would be a bad move, Czes hastily tried to stop him, but—

Even before Czes’s voice reached him, Nile’s hoe stopped dead.

From the other end of the village’s main road, he’d heard the vehement honking of a car horn.

“Hmm. They’re back, are they?”

Regaining a little of his composure, Nile turned his gaze toward the road’s beginning.

The villagers also looked in the direction of the clamor—and then began to run around as fast as they could, trying to escape.

What had come into view at the end of the road was an enormous truck barreling along at the insane speed of fifty miles an hour.

It was the trader’s vehicle, the one the villagers were used to seeing, but as it raced toward them through the night, lights blazing, it was no less than the embodiment of terror.

The villagers fled, screaming, and the truck devoured the road with such force it nearly crushed them. Only Nile stayed right where he was, without moving a step; he raised a hand to the truck’s occupants, most likely Maiza and the others.

Whump.

…Then it knocked him into the air.

The truck had started to slow down, but apparently the driver had hit the brakes too late. It hadn’t been able to fully stop before it reached Nile and plowed into him.

“Nile! Are you all right?!”

Maiza leaped out of the driver’s seat and ran up to the man, who’d landed beside Czes and the others.

As the blood streaming from his entire body retreated inside him again, Nile jumped straight to his feet and hauled Maiza up by his collar.

“If you have an excuse, Maiza, then speak.”

“I’m sorry! I thought you’d dodge! You didn’t move at all, so I slammed on the brakes, but…”

“I will hear no excuses.”

Just as Nile prepared to pay out a wrath-fueled teraton punch, Elmer yelled from the front passenger seat:

“Forget that; just get in!”

He looked sorry, as if he really would have liked to see the rest of the exchange, but for now, he’d prioritized the rest of their situation.

“Rrgh, our talk will wait. First, let us escape. We’ll massacre the villagers after that.”

Immediately regaining his composure, Nile climbed into the back of the truck, saying something incredibly dangerous as he did so.

Several gunshots peppered the stopped truck, but it was a modified military vehicle, and old-fashioned bullets did nothing to it.

“I’m flooring it!”

As Maiza yelled, the engine roared, and they shot away down the dark road like a cannonball.

Ten minutes later.

Four immortals and four homunculi walked along the dark mountain road.

Without his coat, Czes had passed out from the cold, and Nile was carrying him on his back.

As if to break the silence, which had dragged on for a while, Elmer began to speak in his usual joking way.

“Out of gas… I think that’s a funny punch line. Whaddaya say? We could all laugh about it.”

“Let me just say this: Shut your mouth before I strike you, Elmer.”

Partway down the road that led back to the castle, the engine had suddenly stopped, and Elmer had realized that the “low fuel” light was on. Maiza had apparently been aware of it, but he’d decided that saving Czes and the others was top priority and pretended not to see it.

That said, even if Elmer had noticed it, he probably would have prioritized rescuing Czes, too.

“In any case, let’s return to the castle quickly and pick up Sylvie and Fil.”

“Mm. Can we fit everyone in the four-wheel drive, though?”

“If necessary, I think we could fit twenty people. I heard about an incident in a country somewhere in which several dozen refugees were packed into a station wagon. Besides, we could also transfer the gasoline into the truck before the villagers catch up to us.”

After Maiza gave a brief explanation of the situation, they conversed for some time like this. However, when they’d very nearly reached the castle, the Fils abruptly stopped in their tracks.

“What’s the matter?”

The four Fils were silent for a little while. Then, as if they’d made up their minds, they murmured:

“…I’m going back to the village.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

Elmer looked completely mystified. The four girls lowered their eyes and went on.

“No matter what my reasons were, I am the one who killed the headman. I must atone for it.”

“No need.”

The immediate declaration had come from the masked man.

“Even if you go, they will not listen to a word you say. They will torment you to death as the miscreant who attempted to poison the village.”

“…I’m prepared for that. I don’t mind. Even if they have the wrong idea about me, if it will make the villagers—and Master Feldt, whose father was killed—feel a little better, then…”

Before she could finish her sentence, Nile hauled one of the Fils up by the scruff of her neck. On the snowy road, lit only by moonlight, Nile’s mask glared into the girl’s face with a mute expression.

“Let me just say this: I am angry. I am filled with ire. One might even call it wrath. You said you did not mind your own death. However, I will say this. Allow me to say this! It does not matter whether you can accept it! They persecuted you for unjust reasons, and on top of it, they intend to kill you without knowing the truth of the matter! I tell you this—let me say this! I know that the suspicion cast on you is false. Do you imagine, even so, that we would let you be sacrificed and allow the villagers to live on without a care in the world, simply to reconcile the situation? Even if you would permit it, I myself will not.”

As Nile spoke in quiet anger, Fil listened, looking as if she might cry.

“Let me be clear. If even one of you sheds a single drop of blood at their hands…”

Slowly lowering the girl to the ground, Nile finished his speech, softly.

“Then let me just say this. I will slaughter the lot of them. With your strength, you could never stop me.”

With that, Nile moved to walk back toward the castle, but…

…a voice without the slightest hint of tension in it spoke behind him.

“That’s no good. That’s completely out of the question.”

At the sound of that voice, Nile stopped in his tracks again and looked at the man who’d spoken so lightly.

However, Elmer’s expression was unexpectedly serious. As he spoke, he looked back and forth between Nile and the girls.

“If you do that, the villagers won’t ever be happy. You can’t kill them. Oh, of course, it’d be even worse if you went back, Fil. No points for that one. That’s absolutely positively no good.”

“What is this naïve nonsense? Even if Fil does not return, I could cheerfully raze this village with a napalm bomb. How could I possibly consider their happiness? Even with Szilard, you—”

Interrupting Nile, who was launching into a lengthy sermon, Elmer spoke firmly, “It’s not just the villagers. We won’t be happy, either. Not you, or me, or these kids.”

At those words, the mask grew as taciturn as its expression. However, Nile wasn’t ignoring him. He seemed to be silently telling him to continue.

As if prompted by that gesture, Elmer quietly began to speak.

“Say you did kill all the villagers, Nile. They’re selfish, and I bet they’d think, ‘Oh, we’ve been killed by a demon. We lived right, we never did anything wrong, so why did this happen to us? That’s it, we knew it: Those girls sold their souls to the devil.’—Right? Could you stand that? Could you allow it? You couldn’t, could you? We want to show those villagers. Dez aside, we want to take the ones who joined him in his violence, inflicting abuse for absolutely no reason, and make them regret what they did. Am I right?”

On hearing Elmer, who’d spoken nearly as long as he himself had, Nile was silent for a while. Then, abruptly, he spun to face forward and spoke as he made for the castle:

“If possible, I would like to show them as well. However, I doubt it is possible.”

As if agreeing with him, Maiza added sadly, “I know how you feel, but… Now that things have grown this complicated, I imagine it would be nearly impossible to correct the villagers’ misunderstanding.”

After they’d walked a little ways, Nile spat out a continuation. “Thunderation, this tale has no archfiend. The man at the heart of all the evil was eaten and killed more than seventy years ago! No matter how things end, it can only leave a bad aftertaste!”

His words seemed half-resigned, but Elmer objected quietly, “That’s not true. I know the world’s not that obliging. Obviously it isn’t. Still, as long as there’s a chance, I’m not giving up.”

He muttered the rest as if he were speaking to himself. “Smiles don’t betray me. And so—I can’t betray them, either.”

“That is the conclusion you reached, after living three hundred years?! Shallow. Utterly ridiculous.”

“It wasn’t three hundred years. I came to that conclusion long before I became immortal. It’s just that revising all the little details would have been a pain, so I haven’t.”

Elmer’s answer held no hesitation, and Nile shook his head as if he’d given up.

“As I traveled around battlefields, I saw the deaths of countless men with such naïve thoughts.”

“Well, yeah. Of course you did. On battlefields, you survive by sinking everything you’ve got into killing the other guy in order to protect something. People who are considerate to the enemy can’t survive there. That’s why I’m here. Precisely because I can’t die, I’ll force this idea through with everything I’ve got. Actually, I think I have to. Though it is an awfully arrogant, cowardly idea. But even so.”

“Clumsy oaf.”

“Yeah, I’m clumsy. That’s why it’s tough for me to settle on another way to live at this point. Right… For the sake of a happy ending, I’d sell everyone in the world to the devil without a second thought.”

“…That’s a contradiction.”

Maiza pointed this out for form’s sake, but inwardly, he somehow understood that this was Elmer’s true nature.

Elmer C. Albatross would do absolutely anything for a happy ending.

“I really do wish you had the talent for comedy.”

“Huh? I…don’t? No good? I’ll never be Andy Kaufman or Jim Carrey?”

“Actions aside, your jokes only irritate those around you… Well, I suppose if you took away Andy’s talent, the result might be you.”

“It feels like you just said something horrible to me, but I’m sure it was my imagination. I believe in you, Maiza.”

“If you believe in me, then take my words at face value, if you would.”

“You’re not Maiza, are you?! Argh, who are you?! State your name!”

Elmer attempted to return to their meaningless conversation, but he abruptly turned around and spoke to the Fils.

“Well, in any case, let’s go to the castle. We’ll talk things over once we get there.”

Elmer gave her a carefree smile, but for some reason, she didn’t move.

“Hmm?”

Thinking that this was odd, Maiza and Elmer walked up to her—and found all four Fils shivering hard.

Then, looking up at Elmer with terrified faces, they murmured:

“De…mon… A demon—a monster just— Mistress Sylvie! From the library… There’s a staircase in the library… It took her down there, underground!”

“Gah!”

At her cry, Nile tossed Czes’s body to Maiza.

“Take care of him, Maiza.”

“I’m going, too,” Elmer said.

Leaving Maiza there, Elmer and Nile broke into a run, headed into the castle. As they dashed forward, Nile called to Elmer in search of confirmation:

“Let me just ask this: Do you have any idea what the castle’s monster might be?”

“None! That’s why I’m running!”