Chapter 83

It descended ‘immediately’ and Quilbion died.

She didn’t know why, but the future had changed.

Twella leaned against the rooftop railing.

Two days had passed since she’d decided to die.

The flow of time in reality was only two days, but during those two days, Twella had looked into the future thousands of times.

Thousands of Quilbions who’d died before her eyes.

Deaths that made her feel nothing.

In a soul rotted and fallen apart, there was no place for grief to parasitize.

A phenomenon that merely repeated.

Her mind certainly recognized it that way.

She knew, thought it couldn’t influence her decision at all, but strangely, whenever she extended her body beyond the railing, that voice would be heard.

Live.

Run.

“How am I supposed to live, how am I supposed to run?”

Twella looked down at the path where children came and went. If she just threw herself beyond the railing, eternal peace would come—why couldn’t she do that?

While leaning on the railing, the future approached again.

It was the path to the cafeteria. Quilbion was right beside her.

Twella stopped walking and said.

“Quil, you’re going to die.”

“What are you suddenly saying?”

“At first I wanted to kill that goblin. But I couldn’t. I changed methods and tried acting to save the kids. That failed too. So I tried to make at least the two of us—you and me—survive, but even that didn’t go as planned.”

“Are you talking about fate or something? Did you see the future?”

“Even here and now is some point in the future.”

“No it’s not.”

“It is for you. I’ve seen this kind of thing sickeningly often.”

Quilbion, who’d been making a blank expression, turned his body. Toward the warehouse, not the cafeteria.

Twella looked up at the sky.

She could feel it.

It would arrive soon.

“It’s coming.”

“What is?”

“A deity. A calamity we can’t do anything about.”

“……Have you tried running?”

“Countless times. The methods were various, but the end was always the same. I’ll be caught by it. It will look at me with a beautiful smile and devour me. It’s always the same.”

Twella slowly lowered her gaze that had been fixed on the sky. Quilbion was holding her hand.

“The same.”

As always, Quilbion would say things like run, you have to live.

Meaningless words.

The child before her eyes opened his mouth and spoke.

“I’ll, I’ll sell myself.”

“What are you talking about?”

Quilbion turned around. Then he walked toward it descending from the sky.

He knelt, bent his body, then raised only both hands toward the sky.

Twella stood beside Quilbion with a sullen expression.

“What are you doing?”

“If I abandon you, you can live. I know that.”

Quilbion continued speaking with his head buried in the ground.

“That bastard, I mean my father did the same. That to make the family survive, there’s no choice. That he had no choice but to sell me.”

“Quil, this isn’t that kind of problem. It’s not something you can negotiate. I’ve already tried everything. I’ve begged to be saved over a hundred times. But it doesn’t work. Begging to be saved is useless. The calamity descending from above doesn’t want anything.”

Destruction.

Devastation taking form and descending.

Though earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunamis were called the deity’s wrath, Twella now knew.

Calamity has no emotion.

It’s merely a phenomenon. No matter if you bow to the splitting earth, pray to the pouring rain, or lower your head to the incoming waves, disaster only covers the surroundings.

No need to feel wronged, no need to feel sad.

It was just bad luck.

Let’s accept it. Accept it and become comfortable.

Before long, it descended.

A pure white face and long hair. After facing the pinnacle of beauty, Twella closed her eyes.

Soon she’d be killed, escape this detestable future, and settle into reality.

When she returned, let’s die. Let’s throw herself beyond the railing.

“P-please take me and let her go.”

Quilbion said. It didn’t even respond and walked toward Twella.

A natural thing.

One couldn’t mix words with calamity. Calamity scattered destruction and humans just had to accept it.

It was when she thought that.

Splat!

‘It’ stopped. The pure white face lowered diagonally. Twella’s gaze moved along with it.

Blood was flowing from the foot that looked transparent more than white. Quilbion holding a stone struck its foot again.

Crunch!

Its foot was completely crushed.

Twella was shocked.

She’d thought it a perfect existence. Yet it could be wounded.

Of course, the crushed foot regenerated quickly. To a smooth state without a single scar.

It looked at Quilbion.

And.

During a long time that could be called history, its mouth that had never opened even once opened.

“You’ll give yourself?”

“Yes! Take me! Take me and……”

It bent down. It extended two white hands and cupped Quilbion’s head.

“I don’t need you. What I want is the child behind you.”

Black energy flowed from its hands. The energy moving like a snake stuck to Quilbion’s eyes.

“T-Twella? Where are you? I suddenly can’t see! Twella? Twella!”

Quilbion, who’d been struggling while clutching his eyes, went limp.

It turned around. With a face that said it was dying from amusement, it stood before Twella.

“Do you also have something to say?”

“……What do I have to do for you to spare us?”

It shook its head with an innocently pure smile.

“Nothing. I need you. I need the Designer’s twisted love dwelling within you. You look so delicious I can’t resist.”

“Then please eat me and spare that child behind me.”

“That one?”

“Yes.”

It looked back and clapped lightly.

A strong wind blew from somewhere. The wind swept up the fainted Quilbion.

The small body was finely shredded inside the raging gale. Sliced and sliced to be made into countless bits of flesh, it dropped to the floor with thuds.

“Why should I?”

“As expected.”

Twella stroked her own neck.

“I’ll just die. I’ll die before all this happens.”

It narrowed its eyes.

“Ah, this place is outside causality. You’re seeing the Designer’s error. I exist in your dream.”

“This isn’t a dream. It’s one of the things that will happen someday.”

“I expressed it wrong. As you say, this must be a fragment of the future that will come someday. Yes, you’re seeing more than I thought.”

It approached closely.

“I’ve changed my mind. I won’t eat you. I’ll keep you with me. Of course I’ll eat you eventually, but it’ll be after I’ve confirmed everything about you.”

“That’s why I’ll die. That would be better.”

“No. You can’t die.”

It approached and grasped Twella’s hand. She flinched and tried to pull away, but couldn’t escape.

“I’ll have you.”

“The more you say that, the firmer my resolve becomes. I’m tired now. Of struggling and begging.”

“I’ll spare him.”

At the words “spare him,” her eyes lifted slightly.

“This hasn’t happened yet, right? So that child you asked me to save—I’ll spare him. How about it?”

“You’ll spare Quil?”

“Yes. I keep promises well. I’m good.”

It was a different future.

It had made a proposal.

It was when she thought something had changed greatly.

“Sorry, but while I understand eating Twella, taking her isn’t acceptable. That’s greed.”

Crack.

She opened her eyes with a terrible sound.

Twella released the railing she’d been holding and stepped back.

She hadn’t died to it.

Al Terua had broken her neck.

She sat on the floor, thought briefly, then smiled broadly.

Though dead, laughter came out.

It had changed. The future that had only repeated the same ending each time had changed greatly.

Twella recalled its crushed foot. Recalled Quilbion glaring at it while holding a stone.

“Who’s going to save whom? It’s absurd.”

Quilbion’s words lingered. I’ll give myself, so please spare her.

She came down to her room and lay on the bed.

Without fail, the future came rushing in.

Twella modified her actions bit by bit. Since it was something she’d done sickeningly often, it wasn’t even difficult.

Experiencing a hundred futures, she died to it ninety times. The remaining ten times, she died to Al Terua.

After Al Terua’s intervention, the frequency of seeing the future increased dramatically.

It descending from the sky.

Al Terua killing her saying it was troublesome to be handed over to it.

Quilbion always shouting that he’d save her.

Terrible years piled up again.

And.

Twella arrived.

“……So it’s here.”

A world of nothing but gray.

A place with neither life nor death, where records didn’t exist.

Twella sat down and grabbed a handful of gray sand.

She would pay the price for giving up death here. She would live alone eternally in this space of nothing where beginning and end were joined.

Her whole body trembled.

This was a place worse than hell.

To remain here alone?

To save that child?

Why on earth?

Twella looked down at her own hands.

Warmth remained. The small hands that had held these hands sickeningly, tirelessly, every time overlapped in her vision.

An unrequited love that wouldn’t return.

No, Quilbion would live his whole life cursing the name Twella.

She could vaguely see the future Quilbion would experience too.

Terrible days. A continuous suffering that an ordinary person could never endure.

Even so.

“……You tried to survive.”

Quilbion would never learn the truth. He would live pouring curses on the traitor called Twella for his whole life.

Yes, that child will live.

Twella brushed off her hands.

The moment the gray sand washed away from her hands, she opened her eyes.

She was on the bed.

After returning from the future, she’d suffered from headaches and her mind would be hazy, but today was different.

She was clear. Energized too.

Twella sensed intuitively that everything was over.

Time flowed.

In both reality and the future, Twella was peaceful.

Before long, the time arrived.

“At first I just wanted to help. I thought two would be better than worrying alone. But it gradually changed. Not that I wanted to help, but that I wanted to protect. I honestly didn’t really know what the difference was!”

Quilbion said.

Words she’d heard often.

She wanted to answer. You’ll suffer, but you’ll be okay. You’ll survive while hating me and someday return to ordinary daily life.

But she saved her words.

For an unwavering future.

The sky opened, it descended, and living things turned into handfuls of blood.

Twella thought of the gray sand she would soon see, the eternal prison, and said.

“I will offer.”

Goodbye, Quilbion.

This is my arrogant choice.

*

Today too, the house had disappeared.

Twella smiled slightly and gathered the gray sand again.

Don’t think about anything.

Digging into the past or dreaming of the future were things that shouldn’t be done.

In this place, she had to become a machine. Make flowers, build a house, sit on the bench, and when everything disappeared beneath the sand, make flowers again……

No one would come looking for this place anymore.

Even the two visits had ended.

Even the confirmed future had been consumed.

The last Quilbion she’d seen still held life in his eyes.

That child would live well and die comfortably.

Someday he’d forget even the name Twella.

For that day to come quickly, Twella prayed desperately.

“Mm?”

It was a strange thing.

Twella bent down. Though about half had disappeared worn away by wind, she could see sand maintaining the form of a flower.

“A tulip?”

Twella carefully dug up the flower planted in the ground. While holding the flower on her palm, she looked around.

Naturally, there was nothing.

Twella who returned to the house site planted the flower in the ground.

A product of coincidence that would soon disappear.

Twella sat on the bench, kicked her legs, and looked at the crude tulip.