Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 9 - Chapter 1.10

Sixteen years ago, Scarlet

Humans eat meat.

To those at the top of the food chain, it is an entirely natural act.

However, they sometimes eat oxen, or pigs, or fowl, or deer, or boars to slake a desire for something akin to pleasure, rather than for simple nourishment.

I believe it to be a sign of their complacency. The absolute confidence that they will never drop out of the struggle to survive here, on Earth. That is why they distinguish between the flesh of oxen, pigs, fowl, deer, and boars, and savor it. They do the same with fish.

Meat and fish—humans tend to treat them as separate categories, but if one thinks of them merely as sources of food, fish must also be considered meat. Once dead, creatures don’t become bones in a body, but bones and meat. Mere hunks of flesh. Therefore:

“To me, humans are also meat.”

Beside the crumbling outer wall, I finished my meal, wiped the blood from my lips, and gazed up at the cloudy sky.

The rainy season had begun, meaning there were fewer days when the sun truly shone—convenient for both myself and the tribe that inhabited this town. Sunlight did not instantly incinerate us, unlike the vampires of legend, but long-term observation had shown that it definitely shortened our lives.

“Even so, a mere thirty years…”

Didn’t that mean we could live under the sun as we pleased without significantly changing the end result? The odds that we would survive the full thirty years weren’t good in any case. Especially in light of the fact that my tribe had a mortal enemy who tried to steal even those short lives from us.

“You snuck out of town again.”

I heard footsteps on gravel, and a voice spoke behind me.

She was reproaching me for having broken the rules, but I sensed resignation in her tone as well. In truth, I hardly ever did as she asked of me.

“Jeanne?”

The girl sat down on a nearby cement-block wall in her linen dress. She stared at me from beneath her broad-brimmed hat, a strained smile on her face. “Where did you steal the food you just ate?”

“From the usual town, across the river. It was on display in a stall.”

Had it been ox? Maybe pig or fowl? It almost certainly hadn’t been human…

“If you so brazenly ignore the rules, the messiah will yell at you again.”

The “messiah” she spoke of was the leader of the town in which we lived—an elder who had already lived nearly seventy years. He single-handedly determined the laws for the town, and as a rule, those who lived here were not allowed to leave.

“Just being old doesn’t make him important. I can’t imagine all the rules he lays down are right.”

“But when you consider how long we live on average, he must be someone special.”

He had styled himself our leader for that very reason, but who knew what the truth really was. I’d never sensed any impressive abilities or attributes in that aged body.

“And he even looks after us, since our parents died. You mustn’t forget your debt to him, Judas.”

That was what the old one had named me. He said that everyone who lived in this town was family, so he’d given me a name. He called himself the messiah, and he brought in food from outside the town at regular intervals and doled it out to us. Not that there was ever truly enough.

“You’re very sensitive, aren’t you, Jeanne?” I gave her a sarcastic smile. I was really asking if she was the messiah’s puppet.

“What, are you telling me I’m boring?” She looked visibly annoyed. “I’m only pretending to be earnest.” She pointed to some nearby rubble. A large barrel was hidden in the shadows there.

“Ha! The messiah’s wine? For shame; you always warn me not to steal it.”

“No; I said if you were going to steal it, you should be clever about it. You always get caught, you know,” she said. I hadn’t expected her to use logic like that to scold me. “Deceit is the trick to living well.”

“I bet that will rattle the messiah. You’re his favorite.”

“Yes. He says we’re all family, but he put his hand on my behind again the other day.”

“I’m impressed you managed to endure that in silence.”

“I snuck in and broke his little toe while he slept.”

“Is that why the old one was walking with a cane for a while?”

There was no telling what sort of trick he’d used to live so long, but his powers of regeneration were no match for mine. The poor messiah. He never would have dreamed the culprit was the girl he favored.

“Should I call you resilient, or stubborn? You’ve changed, Jeanne.”

“But that’s the only way we can live, don’t you think?” Humming, Jeanne leaped nimbly onto the crumbling wall. “We were born as vampires. That means we have no choice but to live in a way befitting of demons, not humans.”

A way of life befitting of demons… Just what exactly did that mean? Living quietly in the shadows? Clinging to life while deceiving others?

We only had half our lives left. How would we live from this point on, and how would we die?

“Either way, this world doesn’t value vampires.”

The fact that our mortal enemy existed was proof enough of that. They had been given the mission of exterminating all the vampires in the world, and apparently even had a special title, but I didn’t know much more than that. The only thing I’d heard was that the person tasked with carrying out that mission was known as an ally of justice. A hero.

In other words, the vampires judged by that justice were evil. As far as the world was concerned, we’d been its enemies since the moment we were born.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean that everyone on the planet is our enemy, though.” Jeanne jumped down from the wall and landed neatly. “You don’t think they are, either, Judas. That’s why you’re here again, isn’t it?”

She was gazing at a mural painted on the wall. It was what one might have called street art; an anonymous artist had traveled around the world, leaving these pictures in towns and villages. This one showed a young girl praying for peace.

“No,” I spat out. “The one who drew this is a hypocrite.”

You couldn’t stop war with art or literature or music. If things like that could get rid of poverty, erase discrimination, and stop creatures from fighting each other, we would have had world peace for a thousand years already.

“That’s why I came to sneer at it.”

At the artist and their self-satisfaction. A poseur who’d managed to feel they’d prayed for world peace by painting this.

“You’re twisted, Judas.”

“What demon isn’t?”

We exchanged looks, then broke into smiles.

“You don’t think this picture is a lie, Jeanne?”

“It’s not a matter of whether it’s true or false. That picture is a wish.” I frowned, and she went on. “Art, literature, music—they’re all wishes. Wishes become intentions, and intentions gather, changing into group action. Before long, the things groups do shape the world. That means wishes aren’t pointless.”

“That’s just an empty theory.”

“Reality always begins with castles in the air, you know.”

We were only a year apart. Even so, she smiled at me as if she were my teacher. “You mustn’t be so twisted once you’re grown, Judas.”

“By that age, my life will be pretty close to over, Jeanne.”

At that, a hint of loneliness crept into her smile.

“That’s true. I guess I am just a little jealous of humans.”

I tried to come up with a response to that, but I couldn’t find anything decent to say.

I didn’t think I’d ever managed to say anything that truly made her feel more at peace with that. The literature I read to kill time was of no use whatsoever.

“You’re kind, Judas.” Jeanne was watching me and smiling. “You were trying to think of something that would make me feel better.”

“Don’t just say random things.”

“I can tell by looking at your face. Honestly, how many years do you think we’ve spent together?” Jeanne laughed.

If that was the case, how well did I understand her? Did I really know her? What was it that made me want to?

I wasn’t human, so I’d never know.