Ochiden V3 - Prologue: Roland’s Darkness
May. 26th, 2019 06:59 pmOchiden Volume 3
Prologue: Roland’s Darkness
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People who made a contract with a demon couldn’t go back to the way they were before.
It showed up in fairy tales all the time. A demon appeared before a child and said, “Make a contract with me and I’ll make your dream come true.”
That’s what they’d say, but kids all knew to never give into that temptation. They knew that no matter how sweet a demon made their conditions sound, they shouldn’t listen to any of it.
Say they did listen to it. Say they did lose to the temptation. They knew they’d lose everything.
So Sion Astal had resolved to never listen to the demon as a child.
“……”
But that was only his childlike stubbornness.
Sion smiled bitterly when he remembered that decision from his youth. His mother had kindly read him a picture book and there had been a really scary demon in it. He recalled that he’d made a stupid resolution to never listen to a demon, even if it should appear right before his eyes.
And he unintentionally recalled the conversation with his mother that’d followed.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hmm?”
“If, okay, if a demon appears in our house, I’ll protect you!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! I’ll definitely protect you, Mom!”
He’d certainly said that. But in the end, his mom died easily. A fairy tale demon never even appeared, but she still died so easily. She’d died a horrible death worse than what anything from a fairy tale could give her.
Not just his mother, either.
Allies, friends, lovers - everyone he found precious died so easily. Sion couldn’t protect a single one of them.
“I’ll protect you guys!”
“Hah.” That brief laugh was all Sion had for those words now.
He recalled his allies’ heads flying before his very eyes.
He recalled his friends screaming and crying.
He recalled the gloomy red that corrupted it all.
And then he finally realized.
The monsters in fairy tales were child’s play. They didn’t really exist.
Everyone realized that as they became an adult in this rotten country.
In this crazy world, there was no such thing as something uglier than humans.
So then when he actually came face-to-face with a demon…
“……”
When he really, actually came face-to-face with a demon from a fairy tale… he ended up listening to what it had to say. He broke the vow he’d made as a child.
And so the demon said: “I have a number of questions for you. They are questions to judge if you’re suitable or not.”
No… he was an existence of a far, far worse nature than a demon. He was something that settled at the depths of darkness. He shined a brighter white than light itself. He flitted to and from existence; he was an unstable, strange, and horribly, horribly beautiful man.
And so the man said: “My questions have a condition.”
“…A condition?”
“Mm. I will ask you a question. Then, if your answer isn’t to my liking, I will kill you,” the demon said. “Relax, it won’t hurt. I’ll separate your head from your body. You won’t even feel it. You’ll just die,” he said.
That was a tradeoff so bad that not even a fairy tale demon would offer it. He could lose his life just to be questioned. He didn’t say something like ‘I will grant your wish if you make a contract with me.’ No. It was just ‘I will judge if you are suitable, and if I don’t like the answer, I’ll kill you.’
Obviously Sion would have declined his offer as a child. When he was a child scared of demons, he would have found it absurd and declined at once.
“…….”
But he wasn’t a child anymore.
He wasn’t a child who could happily read innocent fairy tales anymore. His mother was dead and he’d lost all his friends on the battlefield.
This shitty world killed people day after day after day. It killed allies. It killed friends. It killed family. It didn’t save anyone even if they cried and screamed.
Kiefer cried, Ryner lost his will to live, and Fahle, Tyle, and Tony died.
Even so, their screams never stopped ringing in his ears.
Even so, their screams just wouldn’t stop ringing in his ears!
So… so what was he supposed to do then?
How could he stop hearing their screams? How could he stop their tears?
How could powerless foolish trash that couldn’t protect anyone supposed to become able to protect what was important?
How was he supposed to obtain the power to protect everyone?
Sion asked himself that every single day. He asked himself and he thought.
What would he do if a demon appeared before him now? If the demon said it’d grant any wish of his?
Even if it wanted compensation, he thought… that he’d definitely accept.
And so… he did. He looked at the demon before his eyes.
“Sure,” Sion said. “I’ll hear it. Tell me and see… Lucile Eris.”
And the demon—
Lucile Eris sneered. “Haha. I thought you’d say that,” he said and turned on his heel. “Follow me.”
Lucile was a man on a far different level than that of a mere demon who shouldered a deep darkness.
Sion was currently at the Eris family - the swordsman clan who guarded the crown over the generations - mansion’s dojo. It was a place that noble boys and girls went to train, and there was nothing unusual about it down to the ordinary wooden floor.
The reason he’d been invited was “to reward Sion for returning uninjured from that battlefield,” or so Lucile said.
Kiefer had betrayed them on that battlefield, causing all their allies to die… but thanks to Ryner going berserk and murdering all of Estabul’s Magical Knights, Sion survived.
And then Rahel Miller appeared. He saw the true man who licked nobles’ shoes, acted wholly obediently, and prostrated himself before them. He learned that Miller was starting a revolution, one he’d planned entirely in the shadows.
Miller was using Sion for that purpose, too. He created a tale of the hero Sion Astal, who single-handedly defeated Estabul’s Magical Knights and forced Estabul to surrender, using him as a banner for Roland’s revolution. So Sion was allowed to live… but only as Miller’s puppet, a marionette whose strings were all in Miller’s hands, a piece on the chessboard to be used and tossed aside.
And so the revolution began.
Miller got rid of those who got in his way one after another. Nobles and other people in power who he thought may eventually get in his way were assassinated one after another. He did so skillfully, so that no one in the upper crusts of the military or any nobles realized the enemy who was killing them. Perhaps they hadn’t even realized yet that there was an enemy.
Of course there were those who were hostile towards Sion Astal, the patriotic hero with vulgar and common blood, but nobody realized that the one pulling his strings was Rahel Miller.
And so Miller’s plan advanced unbeknownst to the royalty and nobility alike. Miller’s trick advanced. Miller’s fraudulent scheme advanced. It all advanced efficiently.
He did what needed to be done. He killed whoever needed to be killed. He toted Sion Astal’s name as the hero who stopped a war and saved the people. Then he’d spread word that Sion Astal murdered the entire royal family and encourage the long suffering people to rise up, and he’d hide behind a just cause, behind a duty to the people and—
“……”
That was most likely Miller’s plan.
Sion wasn’t all that dissatisfied with it. It could really change Roland, after all. If it could fix this rotten country even a little, he was more than willing to give up his powerless existence that couldn’t save anybody.
However.
“……”
However, he didn’t think anything would change for the best with just that. Most people would be unable to adapt to the perfect and efficient world Miller would create. So he thought it was best that Miller’s revolution didn’t end as he wanted it. That was his first reason.
“…It’s here.”
Sion looked at the back of the beautiful man who had just spoken and who had led him to the depths of the dojo. He looked at the back of the present head of the Eris household that’d played the role of protecting the king for generations - Lucile Eris. He had glossy golden blond hair and a face so eerily handsome that one couldn’t think of it as human. But his problem wasn’t something visible to the naked eye. It was his existence. It was what was inside his human shell.
Sion had not once thought of Lucile as human since the first time they met.
Lucile harbored an enormous murderous intent capable of wiping everything out, but he had such a lack of presence that a breeze might be able to scatter him; he almost seemed to sway across the plain of existence.
All it took was a single word from him; no matter what he said, an undeniable uneasiness was born within Sion, causing him to tense up. When he moved even a little, he made the whole world uneasy and tense.
Of course all the monsters who played a role in the dark side of Roland had a certain intimidating air about them. For example, if you put the average person in front of Claugh Klom or Rahel Miller, they’d be frozen in place.
Even Ryner had a certain air about him. As an Alpha Stigma bearer who’d gone berserk and scattered killings like thunder during a storm, he had a solemn atmosphere.
But compared to that.
“……”
Even a rampaging Alpha Stigma bearer or Claugh Klom, a ‘demon of the battlefield,’ couldn’t compare to how intimidating Lucile was. He was in a whole different dimension. His atmosphere was something else entirely. It was… something…
“……”
There was clearly something inhuman inside of him.
It wasn’t human, but it wasn’t a demon or a monster either - it was far worse.
And so that was the biggest reason why Sion couldn’t endorse Miller’s plan. Because this inhuman something was protecting Roland’s king. Something that transcended common sense entirely was protecting Roland’s king.
For some reason, Sion felt that Miller’s way of doing things wouldn’t mesh with this monster. He felt that no matter how much of a genius Miller was, no matter how perfect and efficient he could move, his plan was limited by common sense; Sion felt that just wouldn’t mesh with Lucile Eris.
Even if Miller’s plan was a success, even if he successfully led a people’s revolution, and even if Miller, Claugh, and the others descended on the castle… as long as Lucile was there, the revolution itself would not be successful.
This country wasn’t one that people made normally and according to common sense from the very beginning, now was it?
That’s the feeling Sion had. Maybe it was because the blood of the mad king flowed in his veins, or maybe it was another reason entirely. But he felt it clearly when he stood before Lucile. He felt it clearly with this man before his eyes.
If they didn’t somehow appeal to this man, then it didn’t matter how much power Miller or Claugh had. It didn’t matter how much the people screamed. Nothing would reach the king.
“……”
That was how important he was.
This man, Lucile Eris, possessed something inhuman. Even Sion, who was really only human, could feel it.
Don’t speak with demons.
Don’t mingle with monsters.
Don’t touch what isn’t human.
Everyone knew those things. They were carved into everyone’s minds. Instinctual.
So our minds screamed when monsters and demons appeared before our very eyes. It screamed “run, run, run, run.”
“……”
Sion smothered the fear in his chest and advanced. He followed that inhuman something’s back and advanced.
Then the girl at his side spoke. She was about fourteen or fifteen years old and really resembled Lucile - she was his little sister, Ferris Eris. She had long golden blond hair, an expressionless face, and of course was so horribly beautiful that it was inhuman. But she was human. One wouldn’t think so by the way she swung her sword, but she wasn’t like Lucile. She was a genuine human.
Sion didn’t understand how siblings could be so categorically different, but Ferris remained human.
“Worthless,” Ferris said. “Even though you went out of your way to throw your life away on the battlefield, this is where it fell.”
Sion turned to look at her. She was as expressionless as ever. He made to say something, but… he didn’t. He ignored her. He wouldn’t hesitate. He’d already decided his path back on the battlefield.
He lost everything once. He lost all his friends. He lost everything important to him. There was hardly anything left for him to do now. Not him, as incompetent as he was.
So he stepped forward. He knew that everything would be ruined if he made a contract with a demon, but he stepped forward anyway.
“Don’t go, idiot,” Ferris said.
But Sion didn’t stop.
“Don’t follow my brother… don’t follow him.”
But Sion didn’t stop.
Lucile turned around. He turned his beautiful face around and laughed. “Haha, Ferris, you sure are nice. But it’s no use. He’s already made up his mind. He’s decided to go as far as it takes.”
“Sion isn’t like you. He doesn’t want your abnormal power.”
“Really? I wonder.”
“Really.”
“But even if he doesn’t want that power, even you can hear him screaming, can’t you? He’s screaming that he can’t bear being so weak. That he can’t bear being the waste of the earth anymore. He’s screaming that he’s tired of living in a world as horrible as this.”
“…I don’t hear anything like that—”
“If you can’t hear it, then be quiet. You have nothing to do with this.”
“But—”
“I told you to be quiet. And get out of my sight for awhile,” Lucile said. As he did, he lifted a hand lightly… and it really happened. Ferris disappeared.
Sion didn’t understand how it happened, but Ferris truly disappeared. Sion looked at Lucile.
“…Haha, what’s up with this?” Sion asked. “You don’t want your precious sister to get involved?”
Lucile met his eyes. “…Yeah. Because she’s clean. It’s better if we’re the only ones dirtied by darkness… don’t you think?”
“……”
Sion smiled. He felt that he’d caught sight of the first human piece within Lucile “Haha. So Roland’s biggest monster is a doting brother.”
Lucile smiled, too. “It’s because she’s special.”
“How so?”
Lucile didn’t answer. He just continued to advance into the depths of the dojo. His footsteps made no sound. Neither of theirs did. It was so abnormally silent that Sion felt a spell to cut them off from sound entirely had been cast within the depths of the dojo.
Lucile opened a door and continued through it. The darkness inside was deeper; more concentrated. It was horribly uncomfortable. Sion felt as though it was a place that his plain, human self shouldn’t enter. The darkness and silence was overwhelming. It gave him a horrible, crushing sense of emptiness.
“Is this difficult for you?” Lucile asked.
Sion looked at him, then shook his head “No.”
“Hmm. So you are an extraordinary person. This is a place where Ferris and Iris… no, a place where any normal person is unable to enter… so it’s just like I thought. You do share Aslude’s blood.”
Sion wasn’t clear on what he was trying to say.
Lucile opened another door and the wooden floor stretched on. But it had stopped looking like a regular wooden floor. It was… distorted. The whole world flickered and swayed like it did the moment before he fainted from anemia.
Lucile entered the wavering world and spoke. “Now then, it’s about time for the first question.” His voice echoed terribly far. The world wavered, sound twisted, and it even felt as though time itself was swaying.
Lucile raised a hand towards Sion. “Would you look at my fingers?”
That was the question?
Sion looked to Lucile, then to the hand he was holding out. Of course he looked at his fingers. He was holding out his index finger, his middle finger, and his ring finger and pointing them towards Sion.
“How many fingers am I pointing at you with? That’s my first question.”
The answer was three. Lucile was definitely holding three fingers up, and Sion couldn’t think of any other answer. But he didn’t answer immediately. He shouldn’t be answering immediately. He was betting his life on these questions, after all. Lucile had said that if he didn’t like his answers, he’d kill Sion at once. There was no way he could just answer.
So Sion looked back at Lucile, who was staring at him like he was enjoying himself.
“…Is there some hidden meaning to this question?” Sion asked. “Is it really okay for me to just answer how many fingers you’re holding up, or is there some hidden question I have to answer?”
Lucile smiled. “No, just tell me how many fingers. But there’s no need for you to tell me anymore. I can already tell that you can count them clearly. That’s why you’re doubting the question. So let’s keep going. Let’s go somewhere where you can comprehend where you’re going,” Lucile said and walked farther still.
Sion watched his back. “What are you doing?”
Lucile ignored him. He reached another door and opened it.
He reached another door and opened it.
Another.
Another.
Sion’s head began to hurt as they passed through the doors. His ears began to ring. He became nauseous. This should have been the dojo, but now… he didn’t know.
Everything drifted to and fro, and his body was tormented a sensation of darkness akin to the deepest depths of the night sea.
What… what was this?
Lucile turned just as Sion was about to mumble that. Then he did the same thing as before: held his hand out. “I’ll ask you one more time. I wonder if you can see my fingers now?”
And then Sion understood. He understood what Lucile was doing. What he was trying to do. Because Lucile’s fingers were wavering now. They were much harder to make out than before.
Somehow or other, this world itself was wavering. Light wavered and time wavered and Lucile’s fingers… no, Lucile himself had become quite hard to see. If he lost his focus for even a moment, Lucile’s question would be impossible to answer.
“…I see. So that’s the kind of exam this is.”
“Yes. So how many fingers do you see?”
“Two.”
Lucile smiled. “Correct. By the way, all of your siblings failed in the room just before this one. You really are extraordinary.”
Sion stared. “Siblings? You mean the king’s children? You took them here too?”
“Yeah. You probably weren’t told since you’re illegitimate and the son of a commoner, but… all fifteen of you who share the blood of this country’s founder, Aslude Roland, were to take this exam. It is the king’s exam - only whoever makes it the farthest is qualified to be king. And it seems that the most conscious at the deepest, deepest depth of our magic polluted basement is the common son of the woman called a lowborn mutt.”
The common son of the woman called a lowborn mutt.
The nobility and Sion’s siblings alike all called him that. They made a fool out of him, tormented him, and just loved that phrase. They even went out of their way to politely send him a dead dog when his mother passed away.
“…Then, then I too have the qualification to be king?” Sion asked. “I’m qualified to dig my teeth into the structure of this country?”
“Yeah… but enough of these worthless questions. Let’s go,” Lucile said and faced forward. He continued farther in.
He opened another door and advanced.
Another.
Another.
Sion followed. He was full of questions on what Lucile had just told him. He was full of things he wanted to know. There were all sorts of conversations he wanted to start that he’d never been able to have.
“……”
But he didn’t ask anything. More precisely, he couldn’t ask anything. It would be too hard.
The world changed when he took a step forward.
The flow of time changed when he took a step forward.
His head hurt so badly that he thought he was going mad. He felt like his whole body would explode, like he’d disappear to somewhere else. He was unable to think. He had his hands full just trying to stay conscious. He really couldn’t think.
He felt like he’d die. Like he’d disappear into nothing…
“Now then, this is the place where the current king - your father - lost. He ended up trying too hard and was never the same again though. Apparently he also said that he wanted to make the world a better place before coming here, but it ended up being fruitless nonsense. He went hopelessly mad… You can’t listen to me anymore by now, can you? Anyway, let’s get to the question. Can you see? Can you see this? Can you see how many fingers I’m holding up now?”
Sion could hear a voice from somewhere, and something was held out towards him. But he couldn’t quite tell what it was.
But he felt that he had to. He felt that it would all be for nothing if he couldn’t see it. If he couldn’t see it, then he wouldn’t be able to get back at the guy who killed his mother… he wouldn’t be able to surpass his father the king, who dragged the country down into despair…
“……”
Sion scowled. He swallowed the urge to vomit and narrowed his eyes. He glared into the shape in the darkness, desperately trying to make it out. His eyes hurt so bad that it felt like they’d rupture. His head hurt so bad that he was sure it’d collapse.
Even so, he opened his eyes wide. “O-one finger.”
“Could you really see it?”
“Yeah.”
“Then shall we go farther?”
“Yeah.”
“You may go mad—”
“Be quiet. It’s fine… it’s fine so hurry up.”
“Heheheh. I see. Then let’s take two more steps… Take just two more steps.”
Sion did as he was told. Two more steps was all it took for the world to completely change again. The pressure rapidly thickened. He felt like he’d throw his organs up, like he’d be turned inside out. He felt as though he was already drifting somewhere after death. But he overcame it all. He faced the depths of darkness and spoke to something he couldn’t see. “So?”
The nothingness answered. “Now you’ve gone the farthest. You have obtained the right to be king. Only you are now qualified to kill the king.”
“Really.”
“But I personally feel that there isn’t any meaning in all this. I don’t think there’s any meaning in the power struggles of worthless brats. So now I’ll ask you my real question.”
“R-really.”
“If I don’t like your answer, I will kill you.”
“Yeah.”
“I will kill you, who has the right to be king,” the nothingness said.
“Y-you don’t need to repeat yourself. Just… get on with it.”
Sion felt the nothingness smile. “So you can still talk despite the shooting pain. You’re still conscious even this far into the darkness and despair. Ha, haha, amazing. You might even be able to grant my wish. You might be able to undo this curse.”
Sion heard that voice from the darkness. But he couldn’t answer.
Because he’d go mad if he lost his concentration. Because he’d die if he lost his concentration.
“Now then, I’ll ask you.”
“……”
“I am asking you a question.”
“……”
“Answer my question.”
“……”
“I want you to tell me something. If the bitter pain you’re feeling now continued on forever, then would you still want just enough power to save someone, just enough power to change the world?” The darkness - the nothingness - asked.
Awhile passed before Sion understood those words.
His mind was hazy. He felt like he was going mad. If his head got any fuzzier, he’d end up dead.
Even so, he put all of his strength into thinking. He thought about the meaning behind what the nothingness had said: would his still want power if it meant this bitter pain and despair would continue for all of eternity?
He considered it.
He felt that he’d break.
He couldn’t think of any other answer. He’d break.
This pain would continue forever?
This maddening pain would continue for all eternity?
Did anyone really exist who would go through that for power?
Was there really anyone out there who wanted to protect someone else that badly?
If they existed, they were surely already mad. Because wanting to protect someone that badly was horribly, horribly sad. It must have driven them mad.
So Sion gazed into the darkness, facing that stupid question, and answered. “Yeah. I still want power. I want the power to let the people before me… allies, friends, family, everyone… to not have to cry anymore, and instead be able to just smile like idiots,” Sion said through the horrible pain that made him want to scream, the horrible pain that dimmed his breath each passing moment.
And then the nothingness… the darkness faced him and spoke. “You will not be able to grasp happiness for yourself in that future because of this pain.”
“Yeah.”
“You yourself will be unable to have anything because of this despair.”
“Yeah.”
“Your pain will just stretch on and on. You will not be rewarded. You will not get any pleasure from it. Even so, even so… do you still want power?”
“Yeah,” Sion answered.
“You’re mad,” the nothingness said.
But Sion smiled. It was a very painful smile. “Not as mad as you.”
“Haha.”
“Hahahahaha.”
Sion laughed. The nothingness laughed too. Laughed with voices that sounded ready to cry. Their laughs wavered, distorted, and came from somewhere far away.
“Then let’s go,” the nothingness said. “We have seven more seals before the end. Nobody has ever made it that far before. It is where Aslude Roland’s body lay. Of course you might go mad and die if we go any farther. Your existence itself might be erased. But if you survive… if you win this bet, then our - your and my mad tale will begin.”
“…Haha, that’s, pretty, exciting, huh?” Sion replied with effort.
“Right?”
“But I can’t… move…”
“It’s okay,” the nothingness said. “I’ll help you, see?”
Sion felt something grip his hair tightly and pull him towards the depths. It drug him into the darkness.
He heard a door open and they advanced deeper, deeper into the depths of despair. He felt as though he was sinking, like he had to scream. But he couldn’t. Not through this difficulty, this pain, this despair. He couldn’t manage a scream through it all.
He could hardly tell what his own body was trying to say anymore. Even if he wanted to scream, he had no voice. Something was changing inside him. His blood was changing, become worse. Becoming evil. He could feel it turning into something very bad.
Even so, he just didn’t care anymore.
He’d die.
He’d go mad.
Anything and everything would end.
And then, suddenly… the scenery was opened. The burning pain disappeared entirely and Sion opened his eyes.
He was in a small, grey, and cramped prison-like room. Chains hung from the ceiling, and something he didn’t really understand hung from the chains. It was a humanoid shape wrapped in a black robe, and it emitted a pale light. Its face was fitted with a mask - the right side was smiling and the left side was crying.
A sword was stuck in the dead center of its face. Its deep crimson blade pierced all the way through to the wall behind it as if to hold it in place.
Sion had a full view of it. He had a full view of this thing.
If, by chance, this were a person… if it were a person, then this was clearly a dead body. Nothing could live through a sword piercing entirely through their face. Sion couldn’t feel any traces of life coming from it, either. It was just there. It was just hanging there. It was nothing. Nothing was there. But he did understand one thing: that the sense of discomfort and that horrible sense of emptiness he’d been feeling since entering the Eris dojo had come from this thing.
“Now take the sword,” a voice called from by the body.
Corpses shouldn’t be able to speak, and yet…
“……”
The voice had come from the corpse’s pieced face. And yet… it was exactly like Lucile Eris’ voice. It spoke again. “Remove the sword and take the power you desire… Release it from Aslude Roland’s body.”
Sion looked at the crimson sword. He looked down at it, an ill-omened crimson. “Is this… is this sword your true form? Lucile.”
“You’re half right. I was fed half of it - the Omega. I was fed the curse of a staved goddess separated from Alpha, who’d fallen into despair. Though I’ve been eroding that sword’s consciousness…”
Sion didn’t really understand. But it sounded like this sword was a separate being from Lucile, and Lucile had been fed half of it, and was eroding the rest of it now. Sion had no idea why he was doing that, though. He didn’t understand why he would come to this deep, dark place all alone to do that.
But Sion did understand that this place was crazy. He’d immediately understood that this was a crazy place where people shouldn’t come. He understood why Lucile didn’t want to get Ferris or Iris involved in it.
Just by being here, just by standing here one felt that their insides were all ugly, dirty, defiled. It felt like it was rotting him internally. Just by standing here he could feel himself going bad. So he spoke to speed things up so he could get away sooner. “So? Why did you bring me here?”
“I told you, so you’d remove the sword,” the sword answered.
Sion looked down at the sword and the face it was piercing. “What body is this?”
“A god’s.”
“What?”
“It’s where the sad hero called the “Fallen Mad Hero” ended up. But who cares about that now. You need it, so take it. Then you’ll be able to change this mad country and this mad world. You wanted just enough power for that, didn’t you?” The sword said.
Sion nodded. He had a terrible feeling about the way things were going, but still. “One needs a mad power to change a mad country, right?” Sion asked, managing a lopsided self-deprecating smile.
The sword smiled too. “Yeah. You’re right. Are you scared?”
“It’s scary,” Sion said and looked around. He’d obviously be a liar if he said he wasn’t scared after getting a taste of that pain before.
“Do you want to run away?”
“Yeah,” Sion said easily and nodded.
The sword smiled again. It was a hollow smile. “You sure are honest.”
“My true nature is a pure one,” Sion said.
“Hahaha. You’re making me laugh.”
“But I was telling the truth?”
“Haha, ha. Then. Then should we cut it out now? Shall we leave here and stop corrupting your purity?” The sword asked. He kept making it sound like Sion could still turn back. Like he could just go back to before whenever he wanted.
Sion snorted. If he’d been able to turn back whenever, then he never would’ve let Lucile take him here in the first place. He never would have come here if he hadn’t lost his friends on the battlefield. If he’d had the power to protect anyone in the first place, he’d never have come to make a contract with this absurd demon.
So Sion reached for the sword. “Stop? Never.”
“If you pull it out,” the sword said. Lucile said. The demon said. “If you pull it out, you’ll always be walking deeper into hell.”
“I… already knew that. I have since I was a child,” Sion said. He pulled the sword out without hesitation. He pulled the sword sewing the world’s despair inside out.
He felt something move. He felt it come from a time warped with relics. He felt his hand, his body, his everything deviate from what it should be.
The sword disappeared. It disappeared into his body. And then the sword’s memories flowed just a little into his. Lucile Eris’ memories flowed just a little into his. They were sad memories. It was a story where he screamed that he wanted to protect the things important to him and lamented at his own powerlessness.
It wasn’t the story of a creepy demon. It was the story of a small, lone boy grieving and grieving and grieving, who at the end of all his grieving, chose to walk alone through the deepest depths of hell.
“…I have no sympathy for you,” Sion said.
“Of course not. Because you’re already… in the same situation as me.”
And then Lucile appeared. He appeared from within Sion, like he was there to protect him, and whispered in Sion’s ear. “You are now my master. I am your sword, your shield, the Lonely Demon Ryner Eris Lied who lends the Fallen Black Hero his hand… now accept your despair.”
When Lucile spoke, the masked something disappeared. It had been released from its chains, from its jail, from everything binding it.
Sion felt like his body was being turned inside out. Like his blood was being boiled.
And then that feeling came back. The one from when he followed Lucile through doors. It was a head-splitting pain that made him feel like he’d vomit, a despair like his whole body was being burnt alive.
“Does it hurt?” Lucile asked.
“Yeah.”
“So much that you can’t bear it?”
“Yeah… it feels like… like I’m going to throw my organs up,” Sion said, pressing a hand to his chest.
Lucile smiled. “That’s pretty rough. Get used to it. Because it’s going to continue for all eternity.”
“That’s harsh.”
“Haha, that’s why I said you’re going to regret it. But you can’t go back anymore. The Fallen Black Hero Aslude Roland has left his prison and begun to invade your and your family’s bloodline. If you win, you will obtain his power.”
“…And if I lose?”
Lucile smiled again. “If you lose, you won’t be human anymore.”
Lucile left Sion to touch the chains dangling from the ceiling, still smiling. Then he touched the place where the lingering traces of the hero were, where the hero himself should have been.
“It’s easy to stop being human. Throw away your reasoning. Stop putting up a fight. As soon as you do, you’ll feel immense pleasure. Then you’ll be able to devour people. Devour your family, your friends, your allies, your countrymen, all the people who are important to you. God will turn into an ugly goddess that threw away her reasoning and become able to eat everything in this world. But if you win… if you win, you’ll become powerful enough to kill the goddess.
Goddess. Goddess. G o d d e s s.
That was a word that only appeared inside of fairy tales. And inside those fairy tales, goddesses were exactly what they sounded like: beautiful female gods. But the goddess that Lucile spoke of sounded like an ominous, hideous and dark thing.
Sion overcame the crushing pain to ask. “Sounds like this goddess is your enemy?”
Lucile shook his head. “No, that’s not it.”
“Then what?”
“My enemy is…” Lucile started, then paused for a moment. “My enemy is the same as what you want to crush.” Then he disappeared, completely gone as if Lucile Eris had never been here in the first place. But Sion didn’t mind. He didn’t have the ability to mind, not through this awful searing pain. His whole body hurt. He felt like he’d go mad from the pain coursing through his body.
He thought of Lucile’s words inside of that horrible, bitter pain.
“My enemy is the same as what you want to crush.”
Sion turned those words around in his mind. “What I want to crush,” he whispered. He tried to come up with an answer within his heart.
What he wanted to crush. They were talking about him. He was weak. He was weak and he couldn’t protect anyone. And he thought of destiny, toying with people as it did.
He had no idea who’d done it, but someone wrote this crazy world as one that spun tragedies for everyone.
He wanted to change that. He wanted to change everything.
He didn’t know if the one who made this shitty world was a god, a hero, or a goddess, but he wanted to kill them and release this world of its curse!
In the instant he thought that, the pain rushing through his veins became a little softer. He felt the thing trying to invade his body become weaker.
“…Yeah,” Lucile sighed against his ear. “Yeah… I’m glad I chose you. I’m glad I advised your father to not kill you. You’re different from the others. Even though everyone calls you the son of a lowborn mutt, you’re different. Different from your mad father, different from your arrogant siblings… See, you can feel it too, can’t you? They’ve started to stop being human one by one, one by one. They easily lose to the temptation of the hero that you’re overcoming and begin to cease being human. Now let’s go kill them. You’re going to start a revolution, aren’t you? So let’s go kill them.”
Sion turned around. He could feel the presence of his siblings that Lucile said stopped being human. He could feel the presence of countless inhuman things wriggling around in their country. He could feel the creepy, disgusting monsters writhing.
But even so. Even if he could sense all the creepy and gross inhuman things, he felt that his siblings becoming inhuman alone would not change Roland. There was also the mad king and the arrogant nobility. Everyone had been monsters swollen with greed for some time now. They were monsters who didn’t think of other people as people. They were unspeakable monsters who killed people for their own pleasure.
So did anything really change by turning them into real monsters?
“……”
Sion smiled cynically and turned to Lucile. “Hey, Lucile.”
“Hm?”
“Are these siblings of mine who’ve ceased being human strong?”
“At the very least, humans can’t touch them,” Lucile answered.
“Hah? Isn’t that unnecessarily problematic?”
“Hahaha.”
Sion thought this really wasn’t a laughing matter, but he shrugged, and once again turned his sharp gold eyes to where he sensed his inhuman siblings. “I’ll kill my siblings. I’ll kill the king. Then what’ll happen?”
“Well,” Lucile said.
But Sion ignored him and continued. “I really don’t think anything will change.”
“Really?”
“Really. Even if I kill the king, even if I kill the royal family, there are countless influential nobles out there, all fat and mad with greed. This country won’t change as long as they’re there.”
“Hm. Then how about you kill all of the nobles?”
Sion shook his head. “Even if I killed them all, the next ones would just appear.”
“It’s okay if you kill them too.”
“More will just appear.”
Lucile looked awfully fed up with him. “I don’t suppose you just want to play a stupid word game with me?”
Sion smiled. “I’m saying that the structure isn’t what has to change - the framework that gives people power itself isn’t what has to change. What has to change is the people who’ve always been oppressed and grown servile. Their hearts took too much of this rotten structure. They need a ray of hope. Even if it’s a lie, they need to believe that there’s a ray of hope.”
“…In other words, you want to be their ray of hope?”
Sion smiled. “I already am. Thanks to Miller’s scheme, I’ve become the revered hero of Roland. But I don’t think Miller’s commands are going to change this country. He thinks that a revolution will occur as long as he kills the royalty and nobility. I don’t think so.”
“Because the people won’t change?”
“Yeah.”
“You sure are kind. I really don’t care about other people’s hearts,” Lucile said.
“That’s right. You don’t. But that’s because you’re strong. And Miller doesn’t care because he’s strong. You guys are too strong. You can’t see peoples’ weakness anymore. You can’t see my weakness.”
“You’re plenty strong.”
Sion snorted. If he were really strong…
He recalled the faces of his friends who’d died because of his weakness. He recalled his mother’s face. He recalled Kiefer’s tears.
And then he recalled Ryner’s face. He’d gone to jail to save Kiefer. His face was one that knew his own weakness well and wondered about the value in the life of a murderous monster, wondered about the value in his shitty self.
He remembered the face of that idiot who only thought about those things. Thinking of the face of his dear friend, he spoke. “I am weak. No, everyone’s weak. That’s why I want to acknowledge their weakness and move forward with it. Do you think that’s naive?”
Lucile shrugged. “Do what you want… No matter what path you take, it’ll end in hell.”
Sion smiled. “Really.”
“Yeah, really.”
“Then let’s get going. Let’s start a revolution. Let’s write outside the script that that worthless hero created, that that disgusting goddess created, that that annoying Rahel Miller created… and start a script of my own,” Sion said. He turned on his heel.
Just then… the world’s scenery changed again. A completely ordinary dojo spread out in front of him.
Ferris stood right at his side, her normally expressionless face a little surprised. “Wh-what’s with you? Where did you come from?”
Sion looked around. He wasn’t in the underground jail surrounded by darkness anymore. He was in the Eris dojo. It was like everything up until now had just been a daydream. He couldn’t help but feel a little perplexed. He really ended up wondering if it wasn’t all just some daydream.
But the pain erased that train of thought. The crushing pain ran through his whole body, destroying his worthless self’s imagination. He was struck with the sensation that he’d throw his organs up from inside. His head hurt like it was going to explode. His blood vessels felt like they were circulating poison thorns as well as blood, and he was tormented by a horrible uncomfortableness.
“……”
There was clearly something abnormal inside of him. It tempted him over and over, trying to control him, kill him, chew him up. He could feel it.
So he knew that everything had to have been real.
He knew that he’d really made a contract with a demon.
“Hey, Sion. Where did you come from? I’m listening,” Ferris said.
Sion overcame the pain to look at her. He overcame the intense pain to smile at her. “I took a little trip to hell.”
“Hell?”
“Yeah.”
“What are you talking about?”
Sion just smiled. “It’s nothing. More importantly…”
Sion looked around one more time.
Then he whispered as quiet as could be. “Hey, Lucile. Are you still by my side?”
“……”
No answer.
But Sion didn’t let it bother him. He continued. “I have to go make the people who are an integral part of the revolution surrender. I have to go secure the people who can make Miller’s plan collapse. Will you help me out?”
“……”
Lucile didn’t answer him. Sion shrugged. “I see. So you won’t lend me your hand unless it’s to exterminate monsters with.”
“……”
“Whatever, that’s fine. I’m borrowing your sister then.”
“……”
“I’ll take your silence as an ‘okay.’”
“……”
As expected, Lucile didn’t answer.
Sion grimaced. “I hate the silent type.”
He suddenly heard a voice in his ear. “I hate the talkative type.”
What a thing to finally respond to. Sion muffled a laugh.
He looked back to Ferris, who was eying him suspiciously. “What are you mumbling to yourself about?” Ferris asked. “It’s creepy.”
Sion smiled. “Ah, I’ve been talking to myself a lot lately. Maybe it’s my age?”
“Like I care.”
“Didn’t think so. More importantly, Ferris, will you come with me for a bit? I want you to help me out.”
“Hm. I’ll strike a deal if you give me one thousand dango sets.”
“That’s too many!! How about five?”
“Nine thousand.”
“That’s even more than before… Umm, how about twelve?”
“Eight thousand five hundred.”
“Twenty.”
“…T-twenty!? Twenty is a lot… Okay, fine.”
“You went down pretty easy,” Sion said with a smile.
“So where are we going?”
Sion turned around. He could feel them out there. He could feel the presence of inhuman things in Roland. According to Lucile, they were his siblings who’d become monsters under the name of the goddess or something. But Sion ignored their presence. It wasn’t time to kill them yet. He didn’t have the power to kill them yet.
So he was going to go get that power now.
He was going to get the power to become this country’s hero in the real sense of the word.
The sun was already setting outside of the dojo, dying the Eris garden red. A smiled rose to Sion’s face as he gazed at it.
“…I’m off to tempt that redheaded lion now.”