Chapter 41

Al Terua approached the students clustered together, suppressing the smile that kept threatening to surface.

Children staring up at the split sky with dazed eyes.

He waved his hand in front of the students’ faces, but not a single one reacted.

Their gazes—no, their souls—were captured by the sky.

Not just the humans, but the goblins residing in the special livestock pen also stopped and looked up.

The world seemed frozen.

Al Terua was the only one moving.

“Puhuhaha.”

Laughter slipped through his lips.

He didn’t know why he felt so delighted.

“Yes, show me.”

Al Terua patted the head of a frozen child, then turned his body.

Toward the eastern general livestock pen where she would be waiting.

*

I’m sorry.

It felt like his body was shooting up toward the sky, then being hurled down to the ground.

Quilbion lowered his head. He saw weeds swaying in the wind.

I’m sorry.

The ‘I’m sorry’ his father had spoken taught him how bitter it was to live.

I’m sorry.

The ‘I’m sorry’ the employer’s daughter uttered made him realize how damn twisted relationships could be.

I’m sorry.

The ‘I’m sorry’ Drich spat out carved into his head once again that people were all the same.

He’d thought he’d grown numb.

He’d believed that even hearing those words would just leave him empty for a moment, that he could curse them out and shake it off.

He’d been wrong.

I was arrogant.

Because he’d prided himself on being practically an adult despite being young, having tasted all of life’s bitterness, believing words couldn’t hurt him anymore.

“Don’t say you’re sorry.”

Quilbion forced the words out with difficulty.

It felt like an immovable stone had lodged itself deep in his throat. Just uttering a single sentence drained all the strength from his body.

“You came to save me, didn’t you? Right? So you don’t need to be sorry. We’re both…”

“Quil.”

It was a voice with nothing in it.

No joy, no sadness within.

What came through Twella’s mouth was clearly human speech, yet to Quilbion’s ears it sounded like straw being rubbed together.

You should look into someone’s eyes when you talk.

When facing the employer, he’d had to look at his feet, but when talking with peers, he’d always looked at their eyes.

Because Quilbion knew that eyes spoke more than words.

Even so, he didn’t raise his head.

No, he couldn’t.

A vague intuition that he mustn’t look struck his head hard.

“Quil.”

“Twella, let’s talk more. Hm? Not about apologies, but happy things.”

“I told you, I already heard everything.”

“I want to tell you directly!”

In the end, he raised his head and shouted.

Ah, that girl’s gone now.

He met empty—no, all-containing light green eyes.

The vague phrase ‘a different being’ was understood in an instant. What stood before him now was a different person wearing Twella’s form.

The girl who’d trembled saying she didn’t want to die, who’d rejoiced while eating apples, who’d tensed up seeing the Ascetic—she’d completely vanished.

“You should’ve said goodbye. You should’ve told me ‘farewell.'”

Twella didn’t answer and looked up at the sky.

“Quil, you were really meaningful to me.”

“Don’t say things like that.”

“I definitely won’t forget you.”

“Twella!”

“But there’s no choice. This was our destiny.”

I’m sorry, and there’s no choice.

Terrible words that made his skin crawl came one after another.

And then.

“She’s coming.”

The split sky erupted with light.

It was an intense light incomparable to the ‘Sun.’

The moment he faced the light, Quilbion found himself kneeling without realizing it. That wasn’t enough—he stretched both hands forward and prostrated himself on the ground.

He didn’t understand why he had to take this action, but his body instructed him that he must.

Not his head, but his body.

His windpipe constricted. The light pressed down on his entire body as if it had weight.

Would he die like this, crushed like a frog under a wheel?

The light that had covered the entire world disappeared.

Though Quilbion was only looking at the ground, he could tell. That ‘something’ was descending from the sky above.

The nark contained in his body began pounding wildly. It seemed to be reacting to the being descending from above.

What in the world could it be?

In an instant, the pressure that had been crushing his body vanished.

Quilbion unconsciously raised his head.

And then he saw.

“Ah.”

It was a woman whose hair fell to her ankles. She was completely naked, yet there was no sense of obscenity at all.

The woman who’d descended from the sky looked around expressionlessly, then pointed at Twella.

“I’ve been waiting.”

Twella answered with a bright smile.

The woman who’d come down to the ground turned around before Twella. Twella, as if she’d been waiting, took off her coat and carefully draped it over the woman’s body.

Who is that woman?

Quilbion stared at the woman with trembling eyes.

The woman turned her head. Their eyes met.

“Aaaaah!”

Quilbion screamed and squeezed his eyes shut. Incomprehensible voices echoed from all directions.

Thud, thud, thud!

He slammed his head against the ground. He had to shake off the voices somehow.

His flesh was crushed and bone showed through, but he absolutely couldn’t stop. If he could erase the voices with physical pain, he’d give up his arms, his legs—no, even his neck.

It was when the thought that he should die filled his mind.

“We’ve arrived.”

Twella said.

Simultaneously, the voices muttering in Quilbion’s ears disappeared.

All the strength drained from his body. He sprawled on the ground with his limbs stretched out.

As he panted heavily, he suddenly gasped and clamped his mouth shut.

He felt a gaze.

That woman’s gaze.

Quilbion perfectly understood his situation.

An insect at her feet. A pitiful existence that would disappear if the woman so much as twitched her foot.

He curled up his body and raised both hands above his head.

No one had told him, but his body moved on its own.

Bow down.

Praise her.

And then.

“I will offer.”

Twella said.

Quilbion felt his head growing foggy as he slightly lifted his head.

Students were approaching.

Every single one had glazed-over eyes. Behind the students, he could see goblins too—they were swaying sluggishly as they gathered before the woman.

He stopped thinking.

He simply watched.

Five students joined hands and stood before the woman.

Twella spoke again.

“I will offer.”

Squelch!

Light poured from the sky and crushed the five students standing in a row.

Crown met sole.

Crushed meat and fat mixed together spreading into pink-tinted blood.

The students standing behind cleared away the flesh and took that position.

Twella said quietly.

“I will offer.”

Crack!

They vanished helplessly.

Ten lives were erased.

It was a horrific scene, yet Quilbion couldn’t feel anything.

He wasn’t permitted to think, to hold emotions.

“Are you satisfied?”

Twella asked.

The woman turned her body.

Quilbion could confirm the expressionless woman’s face.

“Not yet.”

Twella raised her hand.

Wind strong enough to make the trees sway violently struck. Even in the fierce gale, the woman’s hair didn’t move at all.

Students who’d been walking slowly in the distance were carried on the wind and gathered before the woman in an instant.

About twenty students stood on the pool of blood.

“I will offer.”

Fresh blood splattered up.

The pooled blood slowly flowed toward the woman. Blood touched her hair.

A tiny mouth formed at the tip of her hair. Smaller than a sparrow’s eyeball.

The single mouth became two, then three, soon multiplying to match the number of strands of hair.

The tiny mouths began sucking up the blood.

Each strand of hair moved like a living creature with its own will.

The blood pool vanished in an instant.

The tiny mouths swarmed over the crushed corpses and tore at them.

It was then that fire returned to his dazed mind. The nark that had been constantly writhing inside his body struck his head.

The fear he’d forgotten came rushing in. Revulsion surged and malice rose.

Quilbion looked at the woman with fear and awe. No, he glared at her.

Then.

The woman looked at Quilbion and smiled brightly as if delighted.

The moment the woman recognized him, Quilbion’s mind entered hibernation again. His consciousness was present but unable to perceive.

But his rebellious nark revived his cognitive ability.

The clearer Quilbion’s eyes became, the deeper the woman’s smile grew.

Offer what’s mine—no, rebel.

Serve the noble one—no, kill that thing.

I must bow—no, rush at her and bite.

His self split in two and chattered.

The one shouting that he must give everything to the woman and devote himself. And the one saying forget that shit and just heap curses on her instead.

The self that said he must be obedient grew increasingly bloated.

Quilbion lowered his gaze and raised both hands as he spoke.

“I will offer.”

Finish this quickly—no, I want to be eaten by her quickly.

Such thoughts swelled up.

The woman’s pure white foot entered his vision.

Ah, she’s come.

He was about to kiss her foot while letting out an exclamation of joyful admiration.

I’m sorry.

Why did that phrase, which made him shudder every time he heard it, come to mind?

His father’s face, the employer daughter’s face, Drich’s face passed before his eyes one after another.

When Twella’s smiling face was drawn last, Quilbion grasped the stone lying in front of him.

Crack.

He smashed the pure white foot with the stone.

The instep was crushed and red blood flowed out.

Quilbion grinned as he raised his head.

“…Does it hurt?”

The woman looked down with a blank face, then bent down. When she swept her hand once over the injured foot, the wound disappeared like a lie.

The woman’s face settled at a distance where it would touch if he lowered his head slightly.

The woman examined Quilbion’s face this way and that as if intrigued.

Her smile deepened even further.

The woman’s hand wrapped around his face.

His body trembled. He wanted to shake it off but his muscles wouldn’t obey.

[Pain, you see.]

The woman’s mouth opened. It was a voice conveyed not through ears but through something else.

The moment he heard the voice, Quilbion detected something wrong with his eyes.

[It’s not like that.]

Color disappeared.

The entire world was dyed in black and white.

That wasn’t the end.

In the world split into black and white, the black color vanished, then the white color vanished too.

He couldn’t see anything.

His eyes were open but nothing was visible.

“Twella, Twella!”

Quilbion flailed his hands.

The darkness that struck in an instant was a terror beyond imagination.

Something soft caught on his reaching fingertips.

“Quil.”

It was Twella’s voice.

“I couldn’t resist the grand flow. Destiny is like a shadow. You can never escape it or tear it away.”

“There’s no such thing as destiny.”

“That’s not true. Because I’ve been seeing this scene for a long time. I tried refusing it, but I absolutely couldn’t.”

“So now…”

“Quilbion, remember? I told you. That I was afraid of dying. I’m really scared of dying. I hate it so much.”

“You said you hated being left alone.”

“I did. But I realized that if I can survive even alone, that’s better. That’s all there is to it.”

“That’s all? So you’re saying that even I…”

Snap.

The sound of fingers snapping.

[It’s done.]

The woman said.

“Then.”

Twella grabbed both of Quilbion’s hands. Quilbion tried to resist, but he couldn’t stop his captured hands from turning toward the sky.

“Twella!”

Crushing Quilbion’s cry stained with sadness and hatred.

“I will offer.”

Twella said.