Fremd Torturchen - Volume 5 - Chapter 9

9

In the Midst of Demise

His voice solemn, Vlad began speaking.

It was no fairy tale. The entire situation had been a farce.

“It all began when the Butcher sold me the demon meat entrusted to him by the Saint.”

With that, the man responsible for part of the world’s reconstruction had set the ball in motion.

By eating the demon meat and collecting the pain of others, Vlad had been able to summon the Kaiser. Then he’d gathered up other people who wanted to summon demons and guided them on their ways. And the demon army fourteen strong had arisen.

At that point, the Butcher’s goal had simply been to have the mighty band of demons overrun the world, then to wake up the Saint once the world was in a state where she could wield the power of restructuring. The reason he’d picked Vlad was likely because Vlad had both the power and the inclination to unify the demons. But then someone had appeared, someone who opposed his dreadful plot.

The woman who’d eaten demon meat, tortured her people, and obtained the power to fight back.

The Torture Princess, peerless sinner that she was—Elisabeth Le Fanu.

Under the orders of the Church, she had begun hunting the fourteen demons.

After hearing that Vlad had been captured, the Butcher had made his way to Elisabeth’s side, then taken stock of the situation.

At around that time, another faction had made their play as well: the alchemist clan that had hidden themselves away long ago. Knowing that the first demon would appear, they devoted many generations to working toward preventing the world from being reconstructed.

Upon seeing the fourteen demons run rampant, they realized that the time was upon them and used the ebony Torture Princess as a reference to create the golden one. However, the fact that their pride and obstinacy led them to entrust matters to their own masterpiece instead of giving the raven-haired Torture Princess their support proved to be a fatal blunder.

Once the Butcher learned of the two Torture Princesses, he changed his plan in order to take advantage of the alchemists’ goal and use it against them. After inviting the Torture Princesses to the World’s End, he sacrificed himself to bring them face-to-face with the Saint. The Grave Keeper, having sensed the Apostle’s plan, got to work as well, and the two Torture Princesses were left with no way to avoid being captured.

And then, finally, the Saint used them as exceptional vessels, transferring the contracts with God and Diablo she bored into their bodies.

“What, then, was the Saint’s true wish?”

The Butcher had originally been following the Saint’s orders and trying to bring about the world’s restructuring. At the last minute, though, his objective changed into transferring the contracts binding the Saint over to them. But those contracts were too much for the Torture Princesses to withstand. Within the next ten days or so, the world wouldn’t even be reconstructed; it would simply meet its demise.

“Given all that, we can deduce that the Saint’s objective wasn’t the restructuring itself. In all likelihood, she merely needed the world to sustain fatal damage from the demons before she could wield God’s power. Only at the time of restructuring could she awaken with the ability to use both God’s and Diablo’s powers as she pleased. And that would also be the only time she could abandon their strength.”

If she abandoned her contracts during the restructuring, when the world was still a blank canvas, everything would undoubtedly perish. But in exchange, she would attain a brief moment of freedom. But by transferring her contracts to the Torture Princesses, she would stretch that moment out into nearly two weeks.

In short, that was all there was to it.

“She cared little for her own survival, nor for the fate of the world. She merely wanted to set down her burden, even if but for a moment. There was nothing more to it, I’d wager.”

She intended to cast aside all the blame and responsibility she’d once shouldered. Back when she’d been carrying out the original restructuring atop the blank canvas of the world, loathing toward all of creation and fear of her own deathlessness must have swelled inside her and eventually turned into madness. That was why she’d set up a time bomb in the new world she’d created.

“The Butcher worked ceaselessly toward bringing about that promised day, deftly manipulating us all the while.”

While Vlad laid out his theory, Kaito didn’t offer a single interjection.

His head was nestled in Hina’s lap, and the rest of his body was lying atop the solemn stone floor.

They had already left the World’s End. Now they were back at Elisabeth’s castle.

Hina, Lute, and Izabella were resting in the castle’s owner’s empty bedroom. Lute, still cradling Izabella in his arms, didn’t stir. He seemed absentminded. The Kaiser had yet to show his form.

Vlad was floating in front of the three of them. His legs were crossed gracefully, and he was silent, his lecture now complete. Kaito remained on his side, not saying anything. Beads of cold sweat were welling up on his forehead. His teeth were clenched tight as he tried to endure the waves of pain coursing through his body. Every few minutes, he lapsed into violent coughs and spat up blood.

As Hina wiped the blood away so it wouldn’t flow back into his trachea, she stroked his brow.

“Please, Master Kaito, get ahold of yourself. Oh, whatever am I to do…?”

“Are you quite all right, my dear successor? Or did perhaps my explanation go to waste?”

“…Don’t worry…about that… I heard…it all—Gah!”

Kaito let out another pained cry. Hina helplessly mopped the sweat off his forehead.

Kaito tried to suppress the pain gushing from within him so he could think Vlad’s explanation over. As he did, another thought faintly drifted to the forefront of his mind. It was what he’d been thinking about as Jeanne wavered over her choice.

Elisabeth, the black Torture Princess, showed no signs of bearing regrets, nor did she ever try to cast aside her sins. But what about Jeanne?

If she did bear regrets, what would she be left with after the world was saved?

If she won’t have anything left, then…

…then at that point, what had she really even saved?

This was no doubt an example of someone who’d erred in their choice, just like he’d said.

The Saint had carried out restructuring while unable to cast aside her regrets. And because of that, she’d dragged the whole world in and crumbled it. No person could become the Suffering Saint out of a sense of duty and obligation alone. But…

She doesn’t deserve my sympathy. Screw sympathy, and screw her, goddammit!

Spitting up another mouthful of blood, Kaito scratched at the stone floor. His fingernails split as he roared within his head.

GIVE ME MY ELISABETH BACK.

There was, of course, no way that his scathing, soundless scream could reach her. The World’s End was distant. However, a different voice rose up as though in reply.

The cliff-top castle was surrounded by trees and far from any human settlements. Yet, in spite of that, screams and laughter filled the air around it.

However, it wasn’t humans that the voices were coming from.

The world outside had become a living hell.

Demonic underlings laughed as they soared past the window. One monkey-like underling peeked inside.

Kaito’s eyes were still closed as he snapped his fingers. His blade swung precisely, cleaving off the underling’s wings. It let out a loud scream as it began tumbling down. In the space of an instant, Kaito forgot all about it.

Elisabeth…

As he continued coughing up blood, his thoughts turned to the events that had just occurred.

The gut-wrenching spectacle played out once more before his eyes.

First, the petals engulfing Elisabeth and Jeanne all vanished. The two of them suddenly found themselves free. And at a glance, their bodies seemed the same as ever. Their faces contorted in confusion.

Then, though, without warning, the horrible transformation began.

“…Rgh!”

“What’s the matter, miss? I—Ow!”

A single strand of dark-red blood had begun running down Elisabeth’s shoulder, and the same had happened to Jeanne’s arm. It was like they’d each been stabbed with a sharp needle. But no one had attacked them. Their skin had been impaled by something hard and pointy yet, at the same time, also soft from within.

A black feather peeked out from Elisabeth’s skin, and a white feather did the same from Jeanne’s.

It was immediately clear that something was wrong. After all, feathers had just sprouted from human flesh.

“This is…”

“…Impossible.”

The two of them exchanged a glance. But they didn’t have time to leisurely discuss the phenomenon assailing them.

Accompanied by a loud popping noise, another feather protruded out from each of them.

It was as though the two of them were down pillows, and their stuffing was bursting through their cloth. Feathers began tearing out from within them, one after another. Streaks of red blood once more made their way across the Torture Princesses’ bodies.

Kaito was struck with an ominous premonition. A moment later, that premonition came to pass.

Pop! Pop! Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop!

Pop!

Just hearing it was enough to evoke the image of goose bumps rising up in succession. The patterns of erosion resembled vegetation budding. Feathers began sprouting from all over their bodies, like carelessly strewn seeds indiscriminately tearing apart the earth. They flew out from their cheeks, their backs, their eyes, their lips, and even their gums.

Elisabeth’s and Jeanne’s bodies wordlessly writhed. They were clearly in incredible pain. In the blink of an eye, the two Torture Princesses had come to resemble newborn chicks.

Elisabeth and Jeanne were being forcibly turned into something foreign.

The moment that fact hit him, Kaito recovered from his state of shock. The same seemed to be true of Hina.

Letting out loud cries, the two of them dashed forward.

“Elisabeth!”

“Lady Elisabeth!”

“Stay awaaaaaaaaaaaay!”

When they did, they were met with a bestial roar.

As she rebuked them, Elisabeth coughed up blood.

Kaito and Hina reflexively froze in place. The next moment, the countless feathers sprouting from the Torture Princesses extended with explosive force, each one of the black and white quills growing to massive proportions. Then the two sets merged together, and they formed a pair of contrasting wings. However, the wings slumped to the ground, unable to support their own weight. They writhed there grotesquely.

Eventually, they gave up on trying to fly. Instead, the two damp wings pushed off against the ground like a set of arms. At their center, Elisabeth and Jeanne rose into the air.

Then, supported by the inverted wings, they hung there, suspended.

As they did, crimson and gold flower petals began gently descending. They spread out through the air, as though they had come to replace the no-longer-falling snow. As he gazed upon the cruelly beautiful spectacle, Kaito’s eyes widened.

The petals were pouring out from within the Torture Princesses’ lips.

Several of the thin red and gold sheets wound together, taking on the shape of full flowers and decorating Elisabeth and Jeanne. Then thorny briars wound around their bodies like snakes, binding their masters’ bodies and refusing to let them go.

Finally, the thorns wrapped around their heads like crowns.

The two of them hung in the air, crucified. They looked almost noble.

And at the same time, they looked like sinners, kings who lorded over all of creation.

The Saint still hadn’t stopped laughing. With her maddened fit as a backdrop, Kaito was reminded of what the Grave Keeper had said.

“Hallelujah.”

So this transformation’s what she was alluding to?

As he watched the changes the two Torture Princesses were going through, Kaito came to understand just how outstanding of a vessel the Saint had been. The fact that she’d been able to put Diablo to sleep, shelter God within her body, and still maintain her human form was nothing short of a miracle. In truth, her ability to keep the two of them from running amok was a feat so impressive, no words could do it justice. But now, she’d given up on doing so, and the result was the scene before them.

Whether he wanted to or not, Kaito immediately understood. What he was looking at was calamity incarnate.

Those two pillars of black and crimson, white and gold, would bring about an end to everything.

There’s no way… The world can’t just be ending before my eyes…can it?

For the first time in over a decade, Kaito was struck by an urge to scream and cry at his own powerlessness. The despair of it all made him want to just topple to his knees, tremble, and start wailing. Terror that no living creature could overcome seized him and refused to let go. But Kaito gritted his teeth and forced down all those emotions. He took a step forward. When he did, Hina called out in a panic.

“Master Kaito, you mustn’t! It’s dangerous!”

“I know that. But I can’t just watch this happen.”

Wallowing in terror and despair would accomplish nothing. Even in the face of his all-encompassing demise, he refused to stand by powerlessly and grieve. After all…

…Just who is it in the middle of all that?

Kaito looked up high in the sky. A single woman was hanging there, her eyes closed.

The person who’d saved him, the girl who had laughed so innocently, was being crucified.

She wasn’t the Saint. In the beginning, she hadn’t even been the Torture Princess.

She was Elisabeth Le Fanu.

The woman Kaito Sena admired most.

“Elisabeth!”

Kaito screamed her name. Then, after shaking off the trepidation running through his body, he dashed toward the pillar.

Because Kaito knew something. Screw terror. Despair? And the end of the world? So what?

The thought of losing you is way scarier than any of that.

Kaito Sena had sworn that, until the day he died, he would stay by Elisabeth Le Fanu’s side.

And he had no intention of breaking that promise.

Kaito finally arrived at the base of Elisabeth’s pillar. He reached out to grab one of the briars winding around her wing. His skin tore, and pain shot through his body. It felt like he was clutching at barbed wire. But he didn’t let go. Lifting his feet up onto the briar, he began trying to climb the wing.

His beastly hand and his human both ran red as he tried to get closer to the captured woman.

“Elisabeth! …Rgh!”

Suddenly, the feathers and thorns proliferated, nearly swallowing Kaito up. At the last moment, though, someone yanked him backward by the nape of his neck and saved him. Kaito was about to call out Hina’s name. But he was mistaken.

When he turned around, he found someone wholly unexpected there.

“…Kaiser?”

“Your foe may be the eminent Diablo, but so long as you are my contractor, I forbid you from allowing yourself to be unceremoniously consumed, O unworthy master of mine! To think, though, that it would come to this… I’d stayed on the sidelines, thinking the situation trifling, but this, truly, is proof that I was a fool! Ah, how vexing!”

As he bayed, the Kaiser flung Kaito into the air. Then the supreme hound vanished. Hina, who’d rushed up close, barely managed to catch Kaito. Large tears were welling up in her emerald eyes.

Because she’d understood how he felt, she’d been too slow to stop him.

She squeezed him tight with all her might.

“Master Kaito, I know how you feel! I…I, too, desperately don’t want to let Elisabeth go! But please, you have to endure it. You’re so wounded…”

“Hina… I’m sorry. I just…”

As he rubbed Hina’s back, Kaito took another look at their surroundings. At some point, Vlad had moved over to where the two pillars stood. His arms were spread wide, and his eyes were glittering as he gazed at the Torture Princesses’ transformations.

“It’s magnificent… It’s the peak of beauty, the apex of ugliness… Truly, ‘magnificent’ is the only way to describe it.”

His face was as innocent as a child watching a meteor shower. However, his expression suddenly took a more serious turn.

As he began rapidly coming back to his senses, Vlad started thinking.

“…Still, though… Hmm…”

While he did, the Torture Princesses continued transforming. Their engorged wings and briars slipped down under the icy ground, eroding it away. The milky-white sky quickly grew muddied as well. The rainbow film froze over into a leaden gray.

The God and Diablo pillars spread out their arms, ever wider, ever farther.

“Is this…the end?”

Hearing a trembling voice, Kaito looked down. Lute was cowering on the ground, his tail completely curled up. However, he was holding Izabella firmly.

Humans’ sensory perception was weak, so the visceral despair Lute felt was probably many times greater than theirs.

Words tumbled weakly from Lute’s mouth as he stared at the growing horrors before them.

“At this rate… At this rate, everything will come to an end. How can we stand up to such a thing?”

Lute’s right.

Kaito agreed with him. God and Diablo were both taboo entities, beings that mankind wasn’t meant to come in contact with.

Both of them transformed the land into a place wholly uninhabitable by living creatures, as though it were only natural for them to do so. Eventually, the very world would crumble, unable to bear the strain.

The two pillars grew at a steady pace. However, they suddenly quavered, and the transformation came to a temporary halt.

The briars writhed, and a trembling arm thrust its way out from each pillar. The Torture Princesses had forced their bodies to move. Their eyes still closed, they tore at what bound them, their own skin and all.

Then they raised their arms high, and their soundless voices rang out.

Begone from this place. Make haste.

Please run, Fools.

At the same time, they also snapped their fingers. Black darkness and white light flashed, and crimson and gold flower petals started raining down.

They then formed a cylindrical wall with Kaito and the others at its center. A teleportation circle was being etched in the ice.

“…!”

On impulse, Kaito tried to dive out of it. He needed to remain by Elisabeth’s side. However, he found himself unable to move. One of Lute’s arms and both of Hina’s were holding him back.

Normally, when Kaito’s violent emotions reached a certain threshold, he would return to a sound state of mind. However, the situation was so abnormal that that function of his was broken. He raged like a wounded beast and screamed.

“Let go of me! Elisabeth is—I can’t just leave her alone like that!”

“I understand your loyalty and affection for your master, I truly do! But even if you hate me for it, I won’t let you go! What do you hope to accomplish by staying here? Think of your wife!”

“But—!”

“…Master Kaito, please listen to me.”

Suddenly, Hina whispered, her voice gentle and calm. She wasn’t crying anymore.

Her beautiful, clear emerald eyes were fixed on Kaito alone.

“If that is your answer, Master Kaito, if you say that that is your sole wish, then I will release you.”

“Ms. Hina?”

“But if you do, then I will remain here as well.”

Hina made her declaration calmly. Then she gently unbound her arms to tell Kaito that the choice was his.

Kaito gulped. Hina took a step back, then smiled at him.

“It would be my pleasure to remain with my dear Lady Elisabeth and die alongside you, my beloved.”

There was no reproach in her eyes and no anger. Only pure, unadulterated love.

If Kaito wanted to stay behind, then she would no doubt die at his side without a single word of regret.

And because of that, Kaito stopped. Because of that, he was able to stop.

Then he deliberately took a long, deep breath. The strained energy that had built up in his body dissipated. He went limp, then collapsed backward. When he did, Hina made sure to catch him.

As he lay in her arms, he let out a weak murmur.

“…I’m sorry. I’m good now. God, I’m supposed to be your husband, but I—”

“It’s no matter. Anything you hold precious is just as precious to me.”

Hina gently stroked Kaito’s head. As he clung to her warmth to maintain his sanity, Kaito’s thoughts turned.

Right now, there’s nothing we can do here. We need to get a fresh start.

At this rate, the world really would end. The leisurely time for the various races to stay on guard of one another and probe for advantages was over. Right now, they needed every person possible to pool their power together so they could come up with a countermeasure.

And that was why Kaito and the others needed to leave. The world needed people who had witnessed the horrible truth. Right now, information was of the essence. As those thoughts swirled around in his head, Kaito looked up through the interweaving light and petals.

At the far end of his vision sat Elisabeth’s tragic figure, her eyes closed.

“Wh…?”

Even so, part of him still wanted to run to her.

Hina seemed to have sensed something as she released him from her arms. Kaito tottered a few steps forward. Then he extended his bloodstained hand to the edge of the teleportation circle and let out a fitful shout.

“Don’t go… Don’t go, Elisabeth!”

The hell do I mean, “Don’t go”?! We’re the ones leaving!

As he shouted to Elisabeth, he shouted at himself internally. He was the one fleeing, not her. Even knowing that, though, he couldn’t stop the nonsensical words from pouring out of his throat.

“You’re the one who called me, Elisabeth! You’re the one who called me to this world! You ordered me to become your servant, didn’t you? And you’re gonna go anyway? You’re gonna go off all on your own anyway?!”

Blood dripped down his fist. Tears dripped down his cheek.

Weeping with all his might, he screamed again.

“Please, Elisabeth, don’t leave me! I don’t want you to go!”

Kaito reached out his hand as he pleaded with the person he could no longer reach.

“Please don’t leave me,” he implored her like a child. “Not now that I’ve finally met you,” he cried.

“I’d rather watch the world get destroyed than lose you!”

Then, at the far end of his vision, Elisabeth opened her eyes.

“…Huh?”

For a second, Kaito doubted his sight, thinking it nothing more than a fanciful delusion. But it was true. Her crimson eyes were assuredly focused on him. Her lips silently moved. What poured out from them was blood. In what no doubt caused her a great deal of pain, she contorted her lips into a smile.

And when she did, she whispered.

“…………You utter fool.”

It was a heartrending, nostalgic voice.

Elisabeth then reached out her trembling arm, as though trying to grasp Kaito’s palm in reply.

Briars wound around it, trying to stop her. But Elisabeth resisted them. She extended her hand straight forward. But Kaito’s palm was too distant. After displaying another abrupt smile, Elisabeth lowered her arm.

Instead, she now snapped her fingers once more. Her fingers broke. Their skin tore, and their bones fractured.

Yet, even so, her whispers had a strange warmth to them.

“You don’t want this; you don’t want that, eh? Well, if you despise being alone so badly, then I shall grant it to you.

’Tis my loss, O peerless fool. I give unto you my everything. Do with it as you please.”

Crimson petals flitted through the air, then coalesced into a sphere. It soared away from Diablo’s pillar and floated gently through the sky. Then, all at once, the petals rushed between Kaito’s lips. His mouth filled with the sharp stink of rust and the taste of flesh.

Understanding intuitively what it was, Kaito widened his eyes. He looked up at Elisabeth.

Her voice unimaginably kind, she went on.

“Drink them down or spit them all up, the choice is yours to make. But do try to live on, Kaito.

And when you do, save the world. Your strength is equal to the task, as is your needless determination.

You are the greatest fool this world has to offer—and you are my dim-witted servant, my pride and joy.”

Her voice sounded almost like someone trying to cheer up a dejected child.

Kaito stared straight at Elisabeth. Then, with a gulp, he swallowed the petals down.

The moment he did, he clutched at his chest, and his knees crumpled. He began violently heaving up blood.

“Master Kaito!”

“S-Sir Kaito!”

“Geh… Urgh, ugh, gah, geh, blegh!”

As he heard Hina and Lute cry out, Kaito collapsed in pain. Despite that, though, he looked up. He was weeping and coughing up blood, but he looked straight at Elisabeth. He lifted his trembling arm.

Then he stuck his thumb up to say, Don’t worry. I received it.

Both of their faces were haggard, but they exchanged a smile.

Elisabeth, having used all her strength, closed her eyes back up.

In truth, she’d probably hit her limit long ago. She quickly lost consciousness. Jeanne’s eyes were still closed as well. However, the teleportation circle activated automatically. Kaito and the others had their vision covered by compound walls of crimson and gold, darkness and light. In the final moment before the world faded away, though, Kaito witnessed something.

The pillars had begun undergoing even more radical change. A flock of black birds took off from Diablo’s.

To be more specific, they weren’t birds at all. They had a variety of shapes and forms, but every one of them was an underling.

Amid the growing tempest of pain raging within his body, a thought crossed Kaito’s mind.

Oh man… The world’s gonna become hell, isn’t it?

And the way things were going, everything was going to end.

“We need to inform Lady Vyade Ula Forstlast of what we’ve learned.”

Back in Elisabeth’s castle, Lute gave a quiet murmur. Odds were good that his subordinates had made it back safely and given their report on the chaotic situation, but Lute was the only one of them who’d seen the pillars up close.

He needed to go give an accurate report. It was now clear that he hadn’t just been in a daze—he, too, had been thinking hard.

“If things continue on like this, the world really will cease to exist. I can’t simply sit quietly and wait for it to meet its end. We’ll need to get in contact with the demi-humans…the humans, even, too, and come up with a plan together.”

Lute squeezed Izabella tight. She was still asleep, blissfully unaware of what was going on. He gazed at her mechanically supplemented face, then whispered so as not to wake her.

“And as for Ms. Izabella Vicker, I was thinking of leaving her in my wife’s care. The two of them are on good terms, and as her body is right now, Ms. Izabella might be in need of my wife’s skills as a healer. I can promise you that no harm will come to her under my wife’s watch. Does that sound reasonable?”

“Yeah, that sounds good. It would probably give Jeanne some peace of—Geh!”

While he was replying, Kaito heaved up even more blood.

Lute’s eyes went wide with alarm. The amount of red liquid spilled out atop the stone floor was far from normal.

Can humans really survive after losing that much blood?

Lute found himself bewildered. He’d been told that Kaito had a homunculus body, but even so, he still needed blood to maintain his existence. Now, though, Kaito was down on his hands and knees, and Hina was rubbing his back. Lute called out worriedly to the back of Kaito’s head.

“Sir Kaito, what’s the matter? Ever since we returned from the World’s End, you’ve been coughing up blood incessantly. Are you certain you’re all right?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine… I’m fine. I’m getting used to it. I’ll get better at it soon.”

“Better at what?” wondered Lute. But before he could ask, strange noises drowned him out.

Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!

One of the noises was high-pitched, and the rest were monstrous. Upon inspection, it was a group of underlings chasing around one of the Church’s communication devices. All of them, the white orb and the winged, boar-headed underlings alike, were charging toward the castle.

Lute frantically leaped away from the window. As he did, their assailants all flew into the bedroom.

After carefully setting Izabella down on the floor, Lute drew his sword. Kaito was in no state to fight, and Hina no doubt wanted to stay by her master’s side. Lute steeled himself to face the group of foes on his own.

The time has come for me to repay the debts I’ve incurred!

As that thought raced through his mind, Kaito, who was still down on the floor, weakly raised his arm. Then he snapped his wounded fingers.

“La (become).”

And with that, ten blades appeared in midair.

Dozens of silver flashes filled the air. Each of the blades had silently traveled across the room several times.

The underlings were sliced to ribbons. Their diced-up flesh toppled to the ground, and their organs all spilled out.

Faced with that overwhelming display of power, Lute found himself at a loss for words. Still holding his sword at the ready, he stared at Kaito in astonishment. Kaito himself hadn’t even watched his foes die. He was down on his hands and knees, coughing up blood once more.

Lute was overcome with shock. Hina was at a loss for words, too. Only Vlad laughed.

That was just how abnormal Kaito’s deed had been. As he was normally, it would have been wholly beyond him.

Without power on par with the Torture Princess’s, carrying out that kind of unilateral slaughter would be impossible.

“Sir Kaito, what in the world—?”

“Over here… C’mon, over here. Good boy.”

Kaito raised his bloodstained, beastly arm, and the rescued communication device obeyed his summons and landed on his palm. Its feathers then tumbled off, revealing its glossy surface and the unencrypted runes thereon. Historically, Kaito hadn’t been able to read them. Now, though, he nodded casually and rose to his feet.

“Perfect. It was a message from the Church… Looks like Vyade Ula Forstlast is already putting stuff into motion off the reports your men gave her. And the demi-humans who were at the World’s End went home and started mobilizing, too. Underlings are sprouting up all over. And because of the initial info the returnees brought back, the Church is getting bombarded with reproach and mistrust. The message was about a summit the three races are planning on holding together. Looks like things are moving fast, which is good. Sounds like at least someone over there knows what they’re doing.”

Kaito laughed. When he did, though, blood came gushing from his mouth. His black uniform was stained a wet crimson.

As blood dripped all over his body, he righted his posture. Then he chucked the communication device to the side. The violence of that action seemed strangely reminiscent of Elisabeth.

“The funny thing is, the sender was La Christoph. Which is weird, ’cause there’s no way the Church hasn’t written off Elisabeth as a traitor. For him to send her a message, man, he must have had some pretty strong thoughts about Izabella getting locked up. Hell, he even sent us coordinates. And hey, if we’ve got an invitation, it’d be rude not to go, right?”

“Go? Where to?”

“The summit, where else? Time to crash a party. I’ll handle the teleportation circle.”

That was just one more thing he casually mentioned that he wasn’t supposed to be able to do. The soles of his shoes loudly clapped as he began walking. The long hem of his uniform flowed out behind him. At some point, its inside had been dyed scarlet.

Then, his voice the very picture of composure, Kaito made his bold statement.

“We’re going to a conference about how to keep everyone alive. Let’s walk in with our heads held high, ’kay?”