Fremd Torturchen - Volume 7 - Chapter 9

9

The Choices They Made

The mean old lizard said to a Queen of Hearts,

That he met in the castle,

“Let us both go to law:

I will prosecute you.

—Come, I’ll take no denial;

We must have a trial:

For really this morning I’ve too much to do.”

Said the Queen of Hearts to the mean old lizard,

“Such a trial, dear sir,

With no jury or judge,

Would be wasting our breath.”

“I’ll be judge, I’ll be jury,”

Said the mean old lizard:

“I’ll try the whole cause,

and condemn you to death.”

Oh my, Father, it’s not like you to look so sullen. What’s wrong? “What’s with that weird song,” you ask? It’s not weird. That’s rude, Father! …Hmm-hmm, well, if you say so. Oh, you want to know if I came up with it? Well, sort of, but also, not at all. The thing is, I based it off the Mouse’s poem from Alice in Wonderland. So you see, I came up with it, but also, I didn’t.

Is it an ironic song, you ask? Oh, sure, maybe.

Is it a happy song, you ask? I don’t think so, no.

Um, well, I just swapped words in and out as I pleased to help kill time while we waited, so I can’t say for certain myself, but…

…maybe it isn’t a sad song, so much as it is a lonesome one?

Trial, judge, jury… There were a lot of hard words I didn’t understand, but back when I first read it, I made sure to look aaaall of them up. Impressive, right?! Hee-hee…and, um, I found out that one person can’t do all those things alone.

That means the lizard’s a liar.

And lying is such a lonesome thing to do.

Death is oblivion.

But it isn’t the end.

Even if someone died, as long as the world was still there, a part of them lived on.

Kaito Sena is dead. Yet even so—

He’d left traces of his life etched vividly in the world.

And it would seem that the painful way he’d lived his life had influenced some most unexpected individuals.

The first was Maclaeus Filliana. In a surprising turn of events, the real king had ended up coming to admire the false one. Learning the specifics of Kaito Sena’s heroic life had helped him find the resolve to change his passive, unmotivated lifestyle.

And the second was the demi-human high official Aguina Elephabred.

The words the Mad King had left him with had driven him to come save Elisabeth and La Christoph. As someone who’d inherited the Sand Queen’s blood, it was his duty as a blood purist to value his own safety over that of members of other races. For him to risk his life over a non-demi-human was beyond unthinkable. His actions were an exception among exceptions, to the point where they bordered on sacrilege.

Yet in spite of that, he seemed sure of them.

Aguina’s robe fluttered as he took the lead and strode off down the hallway. Although he left Lute to man the rear, he didn’t look particularly worried about running into new foes from the front.

He shouted back to the others.

“Make haste, everyone! Sir Lute, that goes double for you—you may be heading up the rear guard, but shouldn’t a military man entrusted with defending his nation like you are be able to pick up the pace a little more than that? Is that long tail of yours getting in the way, perhaps?”

“Sir Aguina, I say! You would go so far as to besmirch my fine tail? We wolffolk take great pride in our… Hmm? Ah, now that you mention it, they’re starting to nibble on it, aren’t they? Hey, unhand me at once! Off! Off, I say!”

“…That is why I mentioned it, yes.”

“Elisabeth, I’m concerned that you’ve forgotten, so allow me to remind you once more that I’m perfectly capable of walking on my own. I would greatly appreciate it if you were to stop dragging me. I’m starting to worry about my scalp being torn off.”

“You can walk, but you can’t run to save your life! And besides, you were long overdue for a haircut anyway!”

Elisabeth’s group had quickly become quite lively.

Aguina was leading up the vanguard and guiding them back the way they’d came. As they whizzed past the lizard carvings on the walls, wet, sloppy noises echoed out from behind them.

The babies had made their way out of the banquet hall.

They crawled across the floor on their ashen limbs, the ones with umbilical cords still attached to their “mothers” ripping and tearing the cords as they went. The babies’ movements were surprisingly clumsy, but terrifyingly fast all the same.

It was like they defied every law reality attempted to enforce.

One of them reached out and tried to grab Lute’s tail again. All the fur on his body bristled up, and he quickly accelerated. The babies apparently found that amusing, and they cackled behind him.

Elisabeth clicked her tongue.

“Tch, ’tis naught but a hassle that we were unable to finish them off quickly! Why, I’ve half a mind to crush the lot of them like bugs!”

“I empathize wholeheartedly, but I do ask that you restrain yourself. I would rather that we not get buried alive along with them. Plus, think of how expensive the villa would be to rebuild.”

“That last part is the least of our concerns at the moment, is it not?”

“I’m told that you humans are in dire financial straits, and our belts are just as tight.”

Aguina readjusted his spectacles as he gave his detached response.

Elisabeth clicked her tongue again. Her original plan had been to kill all the babies inside the hall. But as Aguina had pointed out, their only option at the moment was to flee.

Perfected demon grandchildren—vessels with power that bordered that of the ranked demons—would have been one thing, but there was next to no chance the Torture Princess and the saints’ representative could lose to incomplete, part-human vessels designed for breeding instead of fighting.

However, even Elisabeth had been forced to admit that continuing to fight wasn’t an option.

The reason was simple.

At that rate, the building was liable to collapse.

They’d reached that verdict shortly after Aguina showed up.

The babies had just started to regroup. The way they were reaching out their fleshy gray arms seemed almost innocent.

La Christoph narrowed his eyes. The skylarks, following his lead, began flapping their wings in unison. He began chanting his prayer once more. Before he could get far, though, Aguina hastily rushed to stop him.

“Not so fast! Please look over there!”

“Don’t just come butting in. What in the world are you…? Ah, I see. Well, that’s not good.”

After looking at what he was pointing at, Elisabeth quietly nodded. Part of the wall had been completely obliterated, and large cracks were running up the support pillars around it. As they looked at the alarming spectacle, Aguina went on.

“The eastern villa isn’t nearly as fortified as the temple, and the banquet hall in particular wasn’t designed to endure violent combat. Continued bombardment will likely push it past its limit. And with the stargazing tower situated atop the hall…depending on how it fell, it could very well destroy the entire villa.”

“Allowing the damage to spread that far would be a problem indeed… Besides, using a saint’s power indoors was nigh suicidal to begin with. ’Twas an oversight on my part. Now, I would offer to use my torture devices, but then their individual resilience becomes an obstacle.”

Elisabeth cast a fleeting glance at the ground. Aguina gave a small nod of agreement.

The entire stone floor was covered in cracks and fissures. It looked like an egg that was about to split open.

The blame there lay squarely with Elisabeth for having dropped her Holy Water Sprinklers and caused them to bounce and roll around.

Any sort of large-scale attack ran the risk of destroying the villa, but anything less than that was liable to be ineffective. That being the case, though, what was the best way to take them all down without damaging their surroundings?

Whatever their plan was, its first step would almost certainly involve gathering all the babies in one place.

“Hmm… I’ve a number of ideas, but there are simply too many foes here for any of them to work. What to do, what to do?”

“Hraaaaaaagh!”

Elisabeth began thinking of ways to go about attacking them.

Meanwhile, Lute continued his desperate struggle. It looked like the babies were grouping up again. Lute was doing his best to keep them at bay with his sword, but he wasn’t having much luck. In fact, the babies seemed to merely view him as an exciting new toy. Aguina, paying no heed to Lute’s continued plight, raised his hand.

“I have a clever idea, actually. What do you say?”

“You? A government pencil pusher who knows next to naught of battle?”

“None other. These are our lands, Madam Elisabeth, and as such, we hold the advantage.”

Aguina proudly adjusted his spectacles. Elisabeth harrumphed, then went silent.

However, she quickly gave her answer by grabbing La Christoph by the collar. Lute, sensing her intentions, drove the nearby babies back with a tornado-like slash. And as for Aguina, he’d already set off without waiting for their responses.

Elisabeth turned around, then called back to Lute as she followed behind Aguina.

“Make haste, Lute!”

“As you wish!”

“Ah, so it’s back to this again.”

La Christoph obediently let Elisabeth drag him off.

His expression was the very image of resignation.

That was how they began their dramatic escape.

Now, though, the situation had changed.

Elisabeth and the others ran into the entrance hall. She raised her head and looked around.

The first thing she spotted was the large staircase leading to the chamber the king stayed in when he visited. The passageway to the concubines’ and children’s living quarters was tucked quietly behind it. And if you went to the left, you could reach the dining hall.

All they had to do was open the main entrance, and they’d be outside. They could probably also find the servants’ passageway if they looked for it. Whichever they picked, though, the babies would invariably follow them. Elisabeth narrowed her gaze.

A teleportation circle would allow us to flee immediately…but even here, we’re still too close to those creatures. ’Twould be an unmitigated disaster if Alice were to take notice and interfere with the circle. And besides, we chose to investigate the babies of our own volition. ’Tis our duty to thin the enemy’s ranks while we can, but…

…If the demi-humans ended up demanding compensation for the damage Elisabeth and the others caused, that would be a problem in its own right. After all, they were a famously stubborn people. As Elisabeth pondered, La Christoph raised his hand. Still slanted upward, he offered Aguina a proposal.

“If I bombard them after we make it outside, the villa will remain unharmed. Most of the front garden will get blown away, but…given the circumstances, a sacrifice such as that seems trivial. That’s my recommendation. How does that sound?”

“I most certainly object, and that should go without saying! Please don’t ask for my approval if you know I’m not going to give it.”

Aguina immediately let out a roar of protest. La Christoph tilted his chin down toward his neck and went quiet. It was difficult to tell given the way his body was slanted, but perhaps he was trying to hang his head.

That was when the babies stormed into the entrance hall. Elisabeth clicked her tongue.

“Tch, always so fussy over every little thing. Why not offer a plan of your own, then?”

“With pleasure! Feel free to use that as you please.”

Aguina responded to Elisabeth’s complaint by pointing overhead. His long claws glinted.

Elisabeth looked up, then nodded. Aguina was right—it was perfect.

“Ah, I see—then use it, I shall.”

She raised her right arm straight up and sliced her fingers to the side through the empty air. A biting gust of wind mimicked her motion and cut through the air overhead.

Crimson flower petals burst in its wake, like blood gushing from a wound.

The demi-human concubines were forbidden from going outside as they pleased. As a substitute, though, the villa was adorned with all manner of ornamentations for them to feast their eyes on. And the entrance hall was no exception. Unlike the temple’s exceedingly practical lighting system, the hall’s high ceiling was lit by an elaborate chandelier. However, the chandelier’s design was somewhat peculiar.

Its form was broad and elaborate, calling to mind the image of a vast piece of driftwood mounted in the air.

Either that, or the inside of a snake nest.

Its designer had used soft metal to depict a mass of various types of snakes all coiled around one another. From a human perspective, it was enough to evoke a sense of physiological revulsion, but the demi-humans probably saw it differently.

Each of the myriad snakes held a magical light-emitting jewel in its mouth, and the cluster extended all the way across the wide ceiling, hung delicately balanced with a series of thin, firm chains.

With one fell blow, Elisabeth sliced those chains clean through.

After the initial loud snap, the chandelier made its descent astonishingly quietly.

As it did, Elisabeth and the others all quickly leaped away. Elisabeth also gave La Christoph a forceful hurl. His expression was as calm as ever as he glided in a smooth arc across the floor.

Then an earsplitting KSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH filled the air.

The chandelier had come crashing down onto the babies. However, they didn’t seem particularly affected.

The most that happened was their springy flesh became a bit depressed. But for a moment, they stopped, as though a giant hand had pressed down on them from above. The ones near the outer perimeter had gotten caught up in the mess of snakes.

That opening was plenty.

“—’Tis done.”

Elisabeth tapped her shoe against the ground.

The moment she did, the ceiling and floor slammed together, crushing the babies and the chandelier alike.

Or to be more precise, a pair of large, flat stone slabs crushed them. The two round slabs were adorned with a single golden rod that looked like a barrel organ’s handle.

Elisabeth loudly raised her voice.

“It has been some time since I deployed this one! The Wheel of Death! Let the grinding commence!”

With that, the rod began spinning of its own accord. A horrible noise rang out as the two slabs started spinning in opposite directions. First, a screaming sound resonated from the chandelier as it creaked and shattered. Then the babies started getting whittled down as well. When their skin split, though, it came apart more like stone being shaved down than like meat being ground up.

None of them screamed. They merely let out fretful little whines.

Countless tiny hands scrabbled between the two slabs. The way the babies’ gray arms were writhing, they looked like caterpillars about to be smushed. One of their heads popped off. It rolled between the slabs, only coming to a stop when it bumped into another head. A disturbingly viscous mixture of flesh and blood oozed onto the ground.

Slowly but surely, the babies’ heads were being flattened. Their eyeballs made popping sounds as they flew out of their sockets.

If it wasn’t so grisly, it would’ve almost been funny. But then all of a sudden, the scene reached its end.

When the pressure surpassed the babies’ ability to endure it, they exploded into darkness and azure flower petals. The two stone slabs thumped as they finished grinding together. Only silence remained.

“Hmm, as abrupt as it was dull. ’Twould seem their mental faculties were low indeed.”

Elisabeth nodded, then snapped her fingers.

When she did, the Wheel of Death transformed back into flower petals. Crimson, azure, and black all scattered around the room. The brilliant bouquet of colors then whirled up and vanished, leaving a flattened hunk of metal lying on the floor as the only proof the grim scene had even taken place.

Upon further inspection, it was the remains of the chandelier. It was an odd sight, yet a perfectly normal one.

And with that, the babies were no more.

“Good heavens… I’m glad to see you took them all out. I was on the verge of losing my tail there.”

Lute breathed a sigh of relief and perked his drooping ears up. However, they slumped right back down once he saw how mangled his tail had gotten.

“Oof. I don’t exactly know what those things were, but they resembled demon underlings, and I could tell they were no proper bunch. Now we can finally focus on escaping.”

“Precisely. We need to make haste, as though we were pursuing a white rabbit… Oh? La Christoph, I must say. Saint or not, your hair is in quite a sorry state. It’s hardly befitting a man of your stature. Why, what kind of example do you think you’re setting for your people in that state? With your permission, allow me to straighten it out for you.”

By then, La Christoph was back on his own two feet. Thanks to his rough treatment at the Torture Princess’s hands, though, his hair was thoroughly disheveled. Aguina smiled in exasperation and circled behind him.

Using his long claws in place of a comb, he began working the knots out. Apparently, he had an unexpectedly doting side to him. Lute looked warmly at them as he sheathed his long sword.

Elisabeth’s expression reflexively softened.

But the moment it did, she was struck by a tremendous feeling of discomfort.

Why was I about to smile?

Elisabeth was perplexed. It was odd for the Torture Princess to be smiling in the first place. But there was also a bigger, more pressing problem. Alarm bells were going off in her mind that this was no situation to be smiling in. Elisabeth closed her eyes to try and get her thoughts in order.

Suddenly, she imagined someone wrapping her in an embrace. A man’s white-gloved fingers were creeping over her skin as though caressing her. Then her beautiful foster father brought his lips to her ear.

“Whenever did you go so soft?”

“—!”

The voice was dripping with scorn. Vlad wasn’t actually there, of course. He was still confined in the royal tomb’s basement. In short, the voice was Elisabeth’s own, mocking herself for her idiocy.

She quickly flipped through her memories to try and track down the source of her unease. Eventually, an image of Alice drifted up through the darkness. The white ribbons on her hat swayed from side to side as she spoke her incomprehensible gibberish.

“And then down, down, down. Alice fell down a very deep hole. Even though I wasn’t chasing a White Rabbit. But at its end, I found Wonderland. See, it’s simple, right?”

“Alice, I’ve told you time and again. People from this world aren’t familiar with your Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass stories.”

Afterward, Lewis had scolded her. And remembering that reminded Elisabeth of something.

The reincarnated girl’s stories, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, were completely foreign to people from their world. And yet a certain someone had just said something that sounded awfully like a quote from one of them.

“…‘We need to make haste, as though we were pursuing a white rabbit.’”

As Elisabeth murmured the words back to herself, she pictured the vast desert.

The demi-human lands were home to golden sand, harsh winds, burning liquids, myriad minerals mass-produced in the Dragons’ Graveyard—and towering stone walls.

But they certainly aren’t home to any white rabbits.

So then why was that the first analogy that had sprung to Aguina’s mind?

And now that she thought about it, that wasn’t the only strange thing that had happened.

Given the man’s standard routine, it was perfectly plausible for him to have escaped the tragedy due to being abroad.

But then…what of his claim, when he said, “As I hear it, the people in the temple have already been saved”?

Maybe Jeanne and Izabella had made their way back to the World Tree, but given the time frame, there was no way Aguina could have possibly made it to the villa if he’d gone to their arrival site, confirmed that all the demi-humans—including all the ones from the second sector—were all right, and only then recruited Lute on his mission. And besides, Jeanne had known she wouldn’t have finished in time to help Elisabeth—that’s why she’d told her she was on her own.

How had Aguina known that the rescue mission in the temple was complete? How had he known that Elisabeth would be in the villa, rather than the main palace? Whom had he heard the phrase white rabbit from?

But because of the dramatic entrance he’d made, nobody had thought to ask those questions.

“Aguina… Aguina Elephabred!”

Elisabeth called out his name, omitting the specifics of her concerns. The demi-human high official slowly raised his head.

In that moment, Elisabeth realized a number of things.

Or rather, she couldn’t help but realize them.

Aguina’s thin-pupiled eyes had lost their usual sarcastic gleam. Instead, his golden gaze was as still as a lake shore. The look in his eyes was serious and tinged with a hint of sadness. Yet even so, it was curiously sharp.

It was the gaze of a man pitying the world from on high.

And it was the gaze of a man who knew he had sinned.

Something black softly grazed Aguina’s cheek. Long hair rustled by him as the man before him collapsed. Elisabeth’s eyes went wide. However, she wasn’t particularly surprised, nor was she particularly angry.

For all the scene’s cruelty, it made a certain kind of sense.

For that was simply how he was.

And thus, this was the natural result.

As La Christoph crumpled to the floor—

—the gleaming, scale-handled dagger buried in his back came into view.

“Huh?”

At first, Lute merely let out a dumbfounded cry. Elisabeth and Aguina faced each other in silence.

La Christoph lay facedown on the ground, unmoving. His partially open lips were faintly visible through his mane of black hair. He silently coughed up blood again and again, the thick red droplets falling feebly to the ground.

Elisabeth took another look at the dagger in his back. The entire length of its blade was covered in purple liquid. She flipped through her memories of Ragnarok, then identified it.

’Twas when the three races faced off against the underlings surrounding the Diablo pillar—they started the battle with a volley of poison arrows.

And they hadn’t just been any old poison arrows, either. The poison had come from the underlings themselves. The healers of the three races had analyzed the underling corpses, reproduced their poison, and passed it along to Kaito Sena to have him strengthen it further by imbuing it with mana. Not even a saint stood a chance of neutralizing it.

After the battle, the beastfolk had taken the leftover poison for safekeeping. There was no restriction on demi-humans visiting the section of the World Tree that it was kept in, but getting their hands on it couldn’t have been easy. Instead of asking about any of the specifics, Elisabeth merely murmured:

“How very thorough.”

“At this stage of the game, failure would have stung the keenest, you see,”

Aguina replied nonchalantly. Lute gaped as he looked between Aguina and La Christoph. Eventually, though, his gaze settled on the dagger.

It would seem he’d finally realized what was going on. Lute ground his fangs.

“Why?”

“Why what? Which part of it, might I ask?”

“Why…did you fall?”

The exchange was exasperatingly vague. Lute’s question, in particular, was far more ambiguous than befitted a man of action like him. Yet at the same time, it got at the heart of the matter with the precision of a needle.

Every relevant question had been boiled down into those four words. However, Aguina didn’t answer.

In the blink of an eye, Lute drew his long sword from its sheath. His red fur bristled up like a raging fire, and his eyes were brimming with hatred, anger, and remorse.

Elisabeth thought back. Back when everyone else was celebrating the end of days having successfully been prevented, Lute alone had continued agonizing. His own weakness and lapse in memory filled him with a deep shame. In that moment, he’d probably sworn to himself never to lose anyone again. Yet now even though the danger was supposed to have passed, someone he was in charge of protecting had died yet again.

He was literally watching it happen before his eyes.

La Christoph wasn’t breathing. One of mankind’s vital cornerstones had been felled.

Lute’s roar split the air like thunder.

“You would sink that low? YOU WOULD SINK THAT LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW?!”

“Do you have any children?”

“What?”

Lute was on the verge of charging Aguina, but he couldn’t help but stop in his tracks. However, Aguina didn’t try to take advantage of the opening his non sequitur of a question had given him. He merely continued, as though simply making small talk.

“Well, everyone knows how devoted of a husband you are, so I assumed that surely you must have a lively little ankle biter or two running around.”

“N-no, we’ve been trying, but…”

“Ah, now I remember. Your wife is a goatwoman, isn’t she? As I understand it, fertility rates between different subraces are low… Do forgive my discourtesy. I’ll be praying for you two to be blessed with a healthy child.”

“What kind of sick joke are you—?”

“We demi-humans are the same, you know. We, too, suffer from low fertility rates.”

Aguina raised his voice to cut off Lute’s angry cry.

Lute ground his teeth. Once more, he’d missed an opportunity to charge. Aguina spoke matter-of-factly.

“Unlike your Three Kings of the Forest, our Sand Queen is but one person. As such, we demi-humans don’t have subraces the way you beastfolk do… My goodness, when did it get like this? You know, when the end of days was looming, I told the Mad King the same thing.”

Aguina gazed off into the distance. From his expression, it seemed as though he was waxing nostalgic for events a century past.

Elisabeth found that fact rather strange. The end of days was long over. A foolish boy had sacrificed himself to stop it. By all rights, everyone should be celebrating their newfound peace.

So why was it, then, that everyone she met seemed to yearn for those bygone days so fondly?

Why did their faces look like that—

—when they remembered that hellish nightmare?

Once again, Elisabeth thought back on the same question.

What exactly would proper salvation have looked like?

“‘Unlike the Three Kings of the Forest, our Queen has long since entered her eternal slumber. Understanding the anguish of our constant decline is beyond other races’—that is what I’m talking about.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is what I said.”

“You mean, that’s it?”

“What more could there be?”

Lute asked. Aguina answered. Their gazes met. Then Aguina slowly spread his arms wide and elaborated. He was so composed that it seemed hard to imagine he’d just committed an act of murder.

“Your late first imperial princess, Madam Valisisa Ula Forstlast, saw it as well. ‘Even now, the beastfolk and demi-humans combined can’t compare with humanity’s numbers. If we assume the underlings will attack all three races in kind, then after Diablo’s threat has passed, when we take the respective damages into account, the gap in power between humanity and the rest of ours will likely only grow.’ And she was right—the chance to overcome that gap has passed us by. And to make matters worse, we demi-humans suffered an additional blow she didn’t factor into her prediction.”

“…The slaughter in the third sector, and the attacks on the first and second, I take it?”

“Exactly. Thanks to the Mad King, we avoided suffering crippling fatalities, but the women and children who perished that day were a heavy loss. If we were to suffer another calamity on that scale, we’d be unable to support pure bloodlines for more than a few more generations at most.”

“What, and you think this is that calamity? You yourself were the one who said your people in the temple were saved. Does that not mark the calamity’s end, as far as you’re concerned?”

As she asked the question, though, Elisabeth got a vague inkling.

There was something she’d overlooked; she was sure of it. Something that nobody but the demi-humans themselves could possibly know.

“It was pointed out to us many times that the pureblood sector’s defenses were lacking. As Madam Valisisa so frequently reminded us, ‘the pureblood sector’s defenses are designed to protect against overland invaders and mixed-blood uprisings. They didn’t even consider that attacks might come from above.’ However, tearing down the sector boundaries to mend that oversight was deemed infeasible. That’s why long, long before the end of days, we made a backup.”

“…A backup?”

Elisabeth raised an eyebrow, and Lute looked just as confused.

Elisabeth thought for a moment. Mankind’s Church had grown twisted in a similar way. When people grew blindly fixated on an ideal, it could lead them to conclusions that others wouldn’t even dare imagine.

That blind fixation had led the Church to sound the bugle on the end of days. What had it driven the demi-humans to do?

“We gathered up a group of people devoted to the cause of preserving our blood purity and founded a settlement in the Dragons’ Graveyard. That way, we wouldn’t have all our proverbial eggs in one basket if anything were to happen to the pureblood sector—but the settlement fell into the rebels’ clutches.”

“Wh…why, I’ve never even heard of such a settlement!”

“I should think not. We’ve been friends with you beastfolk for many years, but we made sure never to breathe a word of it to you.”

Aguina gave Lute’s shock a matter-of-fact response. Given that this was the case, it went without saying that they hadn’t told the humans, either.

After all, their view of humanity was that they were exclusionary elitists, not even aware of how human-centric their worldviews were.

“How did the mixed-race folk come to learn of it, then? ’Tis nigh absurd, no, losing this backup of yours in such a manner?”

“The settlement is hidden away well between the dragons’ bones, so considering that and the fact that the underlings focused on attacking more populous areas, things didn’t get dire during the end of days. However, those mixed-race bastards were able to locate it by spending decades tracking our supply lines. For that is how deep their fixation and hatred run.”

Elisabeth nodded. The demi-humans were obsessed with blood purity, so it stood to reason that the mixed-race folk would hold them in deep loathing. Plus, those of mixed race were observant and dedicated. The moment they noticed an irregularity in the demi-humans’ distribution network, like a caravan traveling along a route it wasn’t scheduled to, it would simply be a matter of time before they got to the bottom of it.

And thus, the settlement had fallen into unexpected hands—those of the worst enemy imaginable.

“If they kill off the settlement, preserving our bloodlines will be extremely difficult. No…with the world as dangerous as it’s become in the end of days’ wake, it may well prove impossible. So when they offered to leave the settlement be in exchange for my betrayal, I complied immediately. If that was all it took, I considered it a trivial price to pay.”

Aguina didn’t care whom he had to kill or what he had to destroy.

As Lute held his sword, his hand twitched.

“You craven little… Not only did you turn on us for selfish reasons, you dare boast about the act? You take pride in what you’ve done?!”

“Of course. No amount of grieving, boasting, laughing, or crying will change who I am or what I need to do. Why not be brazen about it, then? And also, Sir Lute, back to my original topic…”

“What, you think you and I still have anything to talk about?!”

Aguina’s words were similar to ones the Torture Princess herself had once uttered. To the dead victims, it was all the same. However, being confronted with that cruel fact would drive most people to anger. But when Lute readied his sword, Aguina merely pressed on.

“My son and his family live in that settlement.”

Lute was visibly shaken upon hearing that. Familial love was an emotion he could easily sympathize with.

Because of that, a question had no doubt sprung to his mind. What if it were his beloved wife who had been taken hostage? If that were the case, and if making that choice would simultaneously advance his people’s interests, how could he possibly say no?

From the demi-humans’ perspective, Aguina’s decision was no doubt right and proper.

Yet even so, Elisabeth spoke.

“I’ve two questions to pose to you. Why are you people so obsessed with blood purity? And also…do you truly intend to continue supporting the mixed-race fold as they move to seize control of the world?”

The demi-humans had said over and over that other races could never understand the plight of their decline. But Aguina’s beliefs, if nothing else, were founded on something firmer than that. His actions seemed to have concrete reasons behind them. And the second question was only natural to want to pose to someone who was in the process of betraying the world. The mixed-race folk were aiming to completely revolutionize the world.

Were the demi-humans merely hoping to earn enough goodwill to be spared?

Aguina let out a small sigh. He raised two gleaming claws.

“Sadly, both your questions have but a single, simple answer.”

“Out with it, then.”

“The Mixed-Race Massacre.”

“ ”

He was right—it was simple. They’d reached their conclusion long ago. Everything, from the very beginning to the very end, tied back to that one foolish act. Mankind had allowed that tragedy to play out, and at that rate, the power disparity between them and the rest of the world was only going to grow. The question then became, which would be better—being ruled by the mixed-race folk or being ruled by the humans?

After all, those were the only two choices.

And by that point, humanity had proven they couldn’t be trusted. Both the other two races saw that fact as plain as day.

Apparently, the humans were the only ones who’d failed to realize the implications of living in a world that had survived the end of days.

“There’s little love lost between us and the mixed-race people. But even so, we’re more sympathetic toward them than you are—and also more pessimistic. If nothing else, mankind’s population is huge. As our people’s blood grows more and more diluted, your people will end up assimilating us. And I have little hope for the future that awaits our children once we lose even our nation. Our culture will be exterminated, our riches will be plundered, and the new mixed-race folk will be driven into poverty. For that is the way such things inevitably play out. Protecting our blood purity is important to preserve our people’s dignity—in fact, it’s absolutely essential. As I see it, we have no other choice.”

Aguina calmly laid out the reason for his obsession with blood purity. Lute found himself at a loss for words, overwhelmed by Aguina’s flowing argument. Eventually, though, the simple beastman spoke up.

“B-but once the races become that intermingled, surely the laws will change to reflect that fact. At that point, there’ll simply be no distinction between humans, beastfolk, and demi-humans. They’ll only live together in—”

“And just how long do you think it will take to reach that idyllic state of peace and equality? Sir Lute, this is no time to be discussing pipe dreams and fantasies. I believe I’ve made my answer perfectly clear.”

And so he had. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be changing his mind anytime soon. Humanity had both heralded the end of days and committed the Mixed-Race Massacre, and the rebellion taking place was the direct result of their crimes. Aguina went on.

“As Madam Elisabeth’s subordinate, you were never informed, but not even Madam Vyade, the Wise Wolf and the second imperial princess, trusted the humans. Given the ongoing rebuilding efforts, the tiniest spark could have burned everything down, so we all held our tongues. But she spent just as long as we have trying to figure out an appropriate way to demand reparations from the humans for the losses we suffered during the end of days.”

“…What?!”

Lute’s eyes went wide in shock. He staggered. However, Elisabeth didn’t find that fact particularly surprising. And at the same time, she knew.

The only reason things had been so peaceful those last three years was because there was another reason the demi-humans and beastfolk couldn’t come down too hard on the humans.

Lute, practically shouting, spoke that reason aloud.

“But the world wouldn’t have even been saved if not for Sir Kaito Sena!”

“Aye—because the rest of you sat back and did nothing.”

Elisabeth’s voice was low. Lute’s whole body shook, and Aguina narrowed his gaze at her. His eyes twitched, and he tilted his head at the scornful words being directed at the races that had lost so much.

“I beg your pardon? Would you mind running that by me one more time?”

“Until the end of days came about, until the Mad King made his move—what can you claim to have done?”

The seeds of destruction had been sown all throughout their world, yet everyone had overlooked them and assumed they weren’t their responsibility. They’d taken a horrible sinner and forced all their problems onto her. And this was where it had gotten them.

The Mad King hadn’t been able to prevent all the tragedies, no. But he had prevented the end of the world.

And the fact that he was from another world notwithstanding—

—he was nothing more than a tiny, insignificant human.

“I’ve little interest in assigning blame. Decide that on your own as you please. And I’m well aware of how far faith in mankind has fallen. But allow me to say this: What of your tragedies? What of your discrimination? What of your massacres?! As far as I’m concerned, none of that matters in the slightest!”

“E-excuse me? Madam Elisabeth?”

Lute’s eyes went wide in a way that they never had before. After all, his direct superior had just taken a nuanced, intricately tangled series of causes and effects and hurled them all out the window. Surely, they mattered, didn’t they? However, Elisabeth had no intentions of recanting her statement.

If saving the world and destroying it are both but mere matters of personal selfishness…

…Then the decision to trust, doubt, hate, or love someone was also just a matter of personal sentimentality.

Based on how those emotions piled up, they could very well bring about the end of days.

The problem was, who would bear the burden of what would come after?

And what would those who bore nothing say?

“Aye, there was plenty of tragedy and despair to go around. I shan’t ask that you join hands like brothers. I shan’t ask that you try to see eye to eye. I shan’t even ask you to forgive them. There can be no atonement for deeds such as those. But you would fear a blade that hasn’t even been unsheathed yet, to the point of creating tragedies anew? You would abandon mankind, betray the world, and get in bed with rebels merely to survive? And moreover, you would ask me to pardon such acts? Not likely, I say—for in the end, you and mankind are no different. You cling too cravenly to life.”

Elisabeth bared her teeth. Once, a small portion of mankind had committed horrible acts in fear of death. And this was the exact same. The demi-humans were using the Mixed-Race Massacre to justify their own actions and claim the moral high ground.

It was all the same. Justice had vanished long, long ago.

“After being protected by one who believed in everyone, saved by one who believed in everyone, and allowed to live freely in a world where he now is forced to slumber…you would spout such careless drivel? I find it baffling! Utterly baffling!”

Elisabeth laughed. Humans and demi-humans were both baffling. The boy had known just how horrible people were. He knew that fact remained true, even across worlds. Yet even so, he saw the world as beautiful. Because that was where the people he cared about lived. “So I’ll protect it,” he’d boasted.

He’d smiled to the very end. And now they were trying to rob that smile of its meaning.

Even though they were the ones he’d protected.

“Everyone is the same. Indeed, even I. We’re all but swine, hideous beyond compare. Humanity, demi-humans, beastfolk, mixed-race folk—when you view us not as individuals, but as groups, none of us are deserving of belief in the slightest. Yet even so—”

Even so?

Elisabeth abruptly trailed off. Even so, what? What could she say?

Why, she didn’t even know what proper salvation looked like. But then suddenly, someone picked up where she left off.

“Yet even so—I believe. Even to this day, I believe. I believe that God’s in his heaven, and that all’s right with the world.”

“Huh?”

“What?”

“Hmm?”

Elisabeth, Lute, and Aguina all let out dumbfounded cries.

In unison, the three of them turned.

And when they did, they saw the corpse, knife still embedded in its back, slowly rise.