Berserk of Gluttony (LN) - Volume 3 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

The Guardian of Lust 

THE SALOON WAS JUST SHY of opening its doors for business, and there wasn’t a customer in sight—only me and Eris. She took a seat at one of about twenty chairs surrounding a large, round table. She turned her sweet purple eyes to me with a smile. 

“Are you…the owner of the place?” I asked. 

“Oh, no. I just work here part-time in return for board. The owner is away purchasing supplies. By the way, he says he’s forty and still hasn’t been lucky in love, poor thing. He’s all in on looking for a wife, however.” 

“I don’t need the details. Why were you waiting for me?” 

I didn’t care about this absent barkeep’s life story. I’d come to get an answer to my question. I needed to know how she’d come to bear her Skill of Mortal Sin. However, Eris only tucked her long blue hair behind her ear and stood. 

“There’s no need to rush,” she said, walking over to the bar. “We’ve only just met. Let’s toast to the occasion.” 

She took two glasses from the shelf and filled them with wine. Judging by the label on the bottle, this wasn’t the cheap swill I was used to, but an extravagant, top-shelf vintage. Eris returned to the table with the two glasses in hand. 

“Here,” she said. “I saved the bottle for this very day. Saved it a long time, just for you. I hope you’ll forgive me if the wine’s too old for your taste.” 

“Thanks…” 

“Take off your mask and drink.” 

I did so; if she already knew about me, there wasn’t much point in pretending to be the adventurer Corpse. 

There was something heavy and tragic in the expression on Eris’s face as she gazed at me, as if the wine were full of old memories. However, here she was, serving it to me on the day of our first meeting. What did this gesture mean? Confusion smothered me. Again, there was too much I just didn’t know. 

Still, I drank the offered glass in two gulps. The wine was indeed old; there was a sour tinge to the flavor that once, a long time ago, must have been exquisite. 

Eris watched me, satisfied. “A man who can hold his drink. Very impressive. Would you like some more?” 

I shook my head. I wasn’t here to indulge. 

“Impatient, aren’t you?” said Eris. “Well, no matter. I wanted to make contact with you in Seifort just after your Gluttony awakened, but a good opportunity never showed itself. And then, while I was waiting for my chance, you rushed off after Roxy Hart and left the kingdom behind.” 

“So, you watched me back at the capital, too?” 

“Of course! Oh, something I forgot to mention—I’m the bearer of Lust, a Skill of Mortal Sin. I’m also a guardian of the Kingdom of Seifort. I know all about you, Fate. I know all about your blade Greed too. I considered taking him from the flea market into my custody, but I knew that eventually he’d find his way to you. So I simply let things unfold.” 

I heard Greed grumbling disapproval through my Telepathy. He didn’t like hearing that Eris had played him like a hapless pawn. 

“You and Greed are acquaintances, then?” I asked. 

“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, no. I’m second generation. I haven’t acquainted myself with many of the first. Speaking of, that girl you came to Babylon with, the Wrathful one. She’s first generation. We don’t really get along.” Eris smiled, leaning forward. “It seems she’s not fond of the difference between our bust sizes.” 

That didn’t seem right. I suspected Eris’s personality was the issue. Myne hated people who were overly friendly, pushy, or too forward. However, the subject that most piqued my curiosity was this talk of first and second generations. 

Eris approached me as I puzzled over what she meant, stepping so close that her chest almost touched me. With that small gesture, without even the slightest effort, she disrupted my thoughts, dizzying them with sensual impressions and feelings. They didn’t feel like my thoughts, though. It was as if her proximity acted as a kind of charm in itself. I clenched my jaw and fought to concentrate. 

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Eris. “That feeling’s an effect of Lust. The power to charm simply seeps out of me. I can’t always control it. Men and women, old and young—it doesn’t matter. When my charm gets you, you can’t help but love me. It’s similar to the way your Gluttony leaves you eternally hungry.” 

Eris smiled. She didn’t seem particularly bothered by the effect she had on me. Gluttony, for all its strengths, threatened to consume my very sense of self unless I kept it fed with the souls of my enemies. Yet Eris stood here and spoke so casually about her Lust. Her skill didn’t seem to carry the same risk as mine. Or so she wished to have me think. 

I glowered as she stood there, vibrant and beaming. I didn’t like feeling manipulated, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t being entirely honest with me. 

“Now, now, there’s no need to look like that. This isn’t particularly easy for me, either. Ah, where were we? Oh, yes, speaking of Myne, that reminds me. The two of you defeated the chimera Haniel yesterday, right? Thank you. Of the seven chimera varieties, Haniel’s one of the most annoying. You did me a real favor.” 

“Seven types of chimera?” I repeated. One had been bad enough. 

“Yes. They’re biological weapons, mechangels originally built to protect ancient Galia. There are seven types in total. Haniel was a barrier chimera. They’re not easy to get close to once they reach their evolved state. Not even a holy knight would be able to take care of one very easily, not these days. They just aren’t strong enough.” 

“I don’t really want to know,” I said cautiously, still trying to catch up with her barrage of information, “but are you saying there are at least six other chimeras still alive in Galia? Each with their own name and set of abilities?” 

That would mean six more people had been fused into those immortal monsters as well. I wanted to believe I was just hearing things, but Eris chuckled wryly and poured more wine into my empty glass with a little nod. 

“Yes. Nothing for you to get too excited about, though. Most of the chimeras remain quietly shut down in the Galian capital. What’s intriguing about Haniel is the simple fact that, well, someone had to move it out of the capital, you know?” 

Myne and I had found Haniel’s cocoon in an old graveyard at the center of a long-abandoned village. I’d thought that cemetery was the chimera’s resting place, but now Eris claimed somebody had intentionally placed it there. This admittedly intrigued me. Still, I didn’t want to get too distracted by someone else’s problems. I couldn’t lose sight of why I was in Babylon—for Lady Roxy. I took the glass and poured the wine down my parched throat. 

“In any case,” said Eris, “let’s leave that story where it is for now, shall we? I don’t really want to stick my neck into the affairs of the first generation, so let’s get to the heart of the matter.” 

“What do you mean by that?” 

I’d thought this whole conversation was going to be about the chimeras. What problem could Eris possibly have that exceeded the threat of an enemy as terrifying as Haniel? 

“It’s about Roxy, now that she’s here in the Galian region,” Eris said. My spine stiffened at the mention of Lady Roxy’s name, but Eris continued casually. “You see, Roxy Hart must die.” 

“What?!” I snarled with a sudden rush of anger. The glass in my hand shattered, the last few red drops spattering against the floor. 

Eris went on, cool and composed even under my enraged glare. “This is a matter of great importance. Not just for the kingdom, but for its very future. Roxy’s death is sure to lead in a most prosperous direction.” 

“That’s ridiculous! What are you talking about?! What does her death have to do with the kingdom’s ‘direction’?! She’s the only holy knight with the people’s best interests at heart! She’s why—that’s why I…” 

I grabbed hold of Eris’s sleeve. Even then, she didn’t show a hint of anger, instead going on calmly as though she had not just proposed the importance of an assassination. 

“The phenomenon of monstrous ‘hate,’” Eris continued. “You know of it, yes?” 

“Of course I do. We rouse monstrous aggression with our own. It dissipates on a daily basis. What does that have to do with Lady Roxy?!” 

“Mm…half your statement’s correct, but the other half isn’t. Hate doesn’t completely dissipate; it accumulates over many long years. During that time, very particular monsters with unique names are born of it. You know these monsters as crowned beasts. That kobold you fought at the Hart Estate? A prime example.” 

This was true. Hadn’t Greed confirmed the origin of that monster himself? The crowned kobold had been a result of hate built up over generations of the Hart family defending themselves from waves of invading kobolds. It haunted me somewhat to realize Eris knew I’d killed the beast. She had followed me much more closely than I imagined. Was she watching me at all times? And if so, how? I hadn’t noticed at all. Hers was a power I could not yet fathom. 

I released my hold on Eris’s sleeve. Her expression did not falter. 

“I’m glad you’ve decided to calm down a little,” she said. “That expression isn’t as cute on you. Now, where was I? Oh, yes. The phenomenon of hate is also present in humans. For example, hate grows from the oppressed, who suffer poverty, discrimination, and tyranny under the rule of the holy knights. To that boiling brew, imagine adding the death of Roxy Hart, the last descendant of the only holy knight family the public truly adores. Say her death came in a particularly gruesome fashion—for example, at the hands of those other, despised, underhanded holy knights. Well, then the hate of the oppressed would find a pure direction in which to flow.” 

“What are you saying?” My mind reeled. 

“Think of Roxy’s death as a catalyst. The explosion of hate from her demise would result in the birth of humans with an extraordinary new power, one created directly from all who hate. These humans would be special. Their skills would surpass those of the holy knights, and so they would grow up to become the new bastion of the kingdom. Marvelous, don’t you think?” 

I could barely speak through my gritted teeth. “I’d hardly call Lady Roxy dying marvelous !” 

I couldn’t even begin to believe the scope of Eris’s plan, her cruelty. The very idea of using Lady Roxy to artificially force the creation of such power, as though humans were monsters to manipulate—it was like human lives, especially Lady Roxy’s, meant nothing at all to her. 

Still, Eris was unmoved. 

“I suppose, in a way, you’re right,” she said. “If you only look at the immediate results, losing Roxy Hart is indeed a slight setback. But try to take a longer point of view, Fate. Everything changes when you look five hundred or five thousand years into the future. Consider our situation as bearers of Skills of Mortal Sin. I realize your power only just awakened, and I’m sorry if my words seem harsh. I just want to avoid you losing yourself to your youthful emotions and fighting the Divine Dragon.” 

Abruptly, I stood from my chair. I was no longer interested in whatever else Eris had to say. As I put my hand on the door of the saloon to leave, I heard her call out behind me. 

“I’ve said my piece, Fate. I only wanted you to know what’s been set in motion. Now, the rest is up to you. I promise you this: I will not get in your way. I don’t intend to be any more than a bystander. So don’t hold your new knowledge against me, all right? I hope you’ll visit the saloon again, as a customer. I assure you, you’ll get more than your money’s worth.” 

Despite the callous disregard for Lady Roxy’s life with which Eris had just spoken, my heart twinged to hear the loneliness lingering in her voice. I suspected then that, like Myne, Eris’s life was tethered to a force I neither knew nor understood. 

Perhaps I was the only one of us who could be called truly free.