The White Wind Sings (5)
The White Wind Sings (5)
#68
The world flipped over.
No—it felt more like everything was being churned together all at once.
As if the Rosenheim family dinner I'd just eaten was being blended into one indistinguishable sludge inside me.
The meat, the bread, the soup, the vegetable dishes that Lily had fed me—all of it—turned into a single mess and churned together,
and I could feel it about to come surging back up my throat—
Worse still, my heart wasn't beating, yet all the red blood in my body began to churn as if thrown into a blender,
and an illusion of every bone in my body being finely ground and sucked into a vacuum cleaner came crashing into my brain.
"Gwu—eeeeeeeek.........!!!!!"
Did I make that sound?
A revolting cry—the likes of which I'd never let out in my life—climbed up my throat,
and then it was as if I'd gone completely deaf, hearing nothing at all, until someone's scream erupted from somewhere terrifyingly close.
It wasn't just a scream.
SCREEEEEECH————
The sound of metal scraping.
Fwoosh———
The sound of flames blazing up.
The crumbling stone walls of an old castle.
The voluptuous chest of a coquettish female——
The voice of a young Lily.
The furious curses of Rubel.
A golden woman's moans—sounds I'd never heard before, yet they were strangely familiar.
The bewitching laughter of a silver demon that drove me mad——
Tens of thousands of illusions gouged through my head all at once.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
A violet sky, burning away.
The sky was burning. So the sky burns too. Fuck, why hadn't anyone told me. The sky wasn't blue; it was something that burned away. Violet, dark-red, twisting like the pupils of someone being strangled to death—
Every matter demands a price in return.
Who said that? Right, I'd heard it. They'd said it so plausibly.
As if the world were a place of fairness.
Bullshit—
The price always came late, filthy, wearing a human face, smiling, weeping, carrying a heavy sword.
A half-collapsed tower.
A tower is most beautiful just before it falls.
When proud things tilt, when noble things scream, when great things are thrown into the mud with their wombs turned inside out.
Ah, yes—
Down the steps of the great house, its master's blood flowed—
Because the steps were made of stone. Because they had to remember for a long time.
The blood flowed, wetting the tips of toes, someone slipped, someone tumbled down, someone never managed to get back up.
The sole remaining daughter of the duke stood there clutching my severed cock— no, clutching my heart— no, clutching an enormous sword.
Was it a sword? No, that too was a mouth. A mouth that chewed people.
A mouth that swallowed lives with a smiling face. Why were beautiful things always the best at killing people? Why were the most brilliant things always the most cruel?
A child's voice was heard.
Do-yun.
Do-yun, you have to go now.
If you don't go now, you'll be late.
What happens if we're late?
Who dies?
Me? You? All of us? Or is everyone already dead and I'm the only one who doesn't know?
Tell me.
No, don't tell me.
If you say it, it becomes real.
It felt as if opening my chest would reveal a clock.
The hour hand was broken, the minute hand was lodged in a throat, and the second hand was madly scratching at my eyes.
Tick.
Tick.
Tickticktickticktick——
Shut up.
I said shut up.
Time, don't talk to me.
Time, don't call my name.
Time, don't mock my future.
Do-yun.
You have to go now.
If you don't go now, you'll be late.
Don't trust anyone.
Trust no one.
Not even me?
Not even your future self?
Not even the one who survived?
Not even the one who smiles to the very end?
Not even the one with the face that acts like nothing happened, drenched in blood?
I knew.
I didn't know.
There was a time I thought I knew.
No—it was all wrong.
I knew nothing.
I still don't know.
I only see.
I end up seeing.
By force.
Why are cruel things always so vivid?
Why do beautiful things always linger so long?
Why was the scenery just before destruction so—why was it so——
Beautiful.
Fuck.
That's what drives me even crazier.
All of it, churned together, tore my consciousness to shreds.
"Ah, aaagh—!"
***
***
***
That was the moment.
The fall stopped.
It wasn't so much that it stopped
as that someone—something—had seized my soul and slammed it back into my body, and my physical form jolted violently with the shock.
Thud.
My heart.
My heart really did.
It beat once, dully.
And I opened my eyes.
"Hk—!"
The moment I inhaled roughly, my lungs hurt as if they were being torn apart.
A cough erupted.
"Cough! Ghk, cough—!"
The inside of my throat stung as if I'd chewed on iron filings.
My vision was blurry, and my limbs felt as heavy as if they belonged to someone else.
Even moving a single finger brought with it a dull resistance, like forcing a rusted machine to turn.
What was this.
I barely managed to roll my gaze to the side—
A low ceiling.
Stone walls thick with green moss, and intricate blue patterns etched along the walls and floor.
A few small mana-stone lanterns hung below the ceiling.
Lastly, a bitter medicinal smell and the scent of old dust filled the room.
A bed?
No, this wasn't a bed; it was a Magic Circle.
What lay beneath my body wasn't a soft mattress but a massive stone slab that emanated a faint flow of mana.
Beside both wrists, thin silver chains—seemingly already broken—hung limp.
Clack.
The sound of someone opening an old door reached me.
I looked in that direction and saw a woman entering.
I reflexively tried to rise, and immediately my head spun violently.
"Ugh—"
In the moment I was about to topple forward,
a warm hand supported my shoulder and steadied me.
"... It's still too early for you to push yourself."
It was a low and quiet voice.
A voice that was unmistakably familiar, yet should have been unfamiliar.
I gasped for breath and raised my head,
and I was left utterly speechless.
Snow-white hair
and moonlight-pale skin.
Clear, vivid blue eyes that one could never forget once seen.
It was Lily.
It was unmistakably Lily.
But—
She wasn't the spoiled ten-year-old child I had seen last time.
She was a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties.
A face that hadn't aged, as if time had stopped, but her expression was entirely different.
Ah.
This was undeniably the face of someone who had endured for far too long.
A serene expression that could only be made by someone who had suffered countless sleepless nights, witnessed countless bloodbaths, and tried to give up countless times——
What kind of journey had she been through?
I numbly parted my lips.
"......Miss Lily?"
Her pupils wavered, just for a fraction of a second.
Just for a fraction.
And it was only for a moment.
Lily's face returned to calm immediately, and she lightly pressed my wrist.
As if taking my pulse.
"You're perfectly fine. That's a relief."
"What, how—"
"Do-yun, I'll keep the explanation short."
She spoke very calmly.
"...... Right now, it is exactly thirty years after the moment your soul was sent to the future."
My mind stopped.
"...What?"
"Don't you remember? We decided that day to send you to the future. Under the pretense of healing your soul."
Ah.
Right.
That had happened.
That was it.
But hadn't we agreed to send me twenty years into the future?
"A problem came up. It's a long story, but anyway, you've been asleep here for a few years."
So then, by age alone, Lily was forty by then?
As if brushing aside a pointless worry, Lily continued speaking.
"Those who have escaped fate have started being used as war machines by the Hunter. Outside, it's a state of World Collapse right now. Everyone is in a frenzy to hunt people like you who have escaped fate."
I just stared at her, my lips twitching slightly.
That made no sense. It couldn't. Until moments ago, I had been in the banquet hall, with Rubel, Sione, and the young Lily right before me—
That doesn't make sense.
It makes no sense.
Just moments ago, I was in the banquet hall, with Rubel in front of me, Sione there, and young Lily—
Thud.
A heavy impact resonated from somewhere above.
The ceiling shook minutely.
Stone dust rained down, and both Lily's and my gazes shot upward immediately.
The faint trembling I'd noticed only now began to fade.
In an instant, her eyes went cold as a blade.
"They came sooner than I expected."
"Who did?"
"Our guests. Who else would it be."
No sooner had she spoken than the sound of stone walls exploding echoed from the distance.
BOOM!
Following that, someone's high-pitched chanting voice rang out.
The roaring sound of mana coiling violently.
It was getting closer.
Very quickly.
Lily turned her gaze to me.
"Do-yun, can you walk?"
"I'm not sure. My mind is hazy right now—"
"Then walk even if you have to force yourself."
A voice completely devoid of any playfulness.
"From this moment on, don't leave my side for a single step."
She drew the sword she had been carrying at her waist.
—Shing
A clear and chilling metallic ring.
At that moment, a chill ran down my spine.
It was strange.
She was just Lily.
Where had the innocent child I'd seen only moments ago gone?
An overwhelming pressure, as if I were facing a creature from another dimension, came crashing over me.
What Lily had drawn was an ordinary rapier.
A very thin rapier, almost completely devoid of ornamentation.
Aside from the extraordinary length of its blade, it would have looked like an entirely unremarkable sword.
But the moment Lily took hold of it, the very air in the room seemed to change.
Blue magical power seeped into the blade in an exceedingly thin layer.
The blade was chillingly still.
"Wait a moment, Lady Lily."
"Mm."
"I don't understand any of what's happening—"
"You don't have to. If we die here, everything ends anyway."
She spoke as she walked toward the door.
"Just stay beside me and focus on surviving."
Boom!!
At that exact moment, an explosion erupted on the other side of the door.
With the blast, the thick door split inward.
#69
Every intruder was a woman.
Of course, I wished they had been ordinary women. Then I could have fucked them like dogs.
Those bitches were probably all mages.
Were they Hunters?
Someone else's blood and dust had dried across their half-torn robes, and the Imprints on their deliberately bared stomachs gave off a murky glow.
One had lost an ear. Another bore a deep sword scar from her jaw down to her throat.
They carried the revolting stench peculiar to people who had spent far too long rolling through battlefields.
The mage at the front looked our way and slowly began to laugh.
"Ahahahahahahaha! You really were here."
Her gaze crawled over my skin.
"The First Deviant."
As though cutting apart the enemy's words, Lily stepped forward.
"Shut your mouth."
The mage on the right snapped her fingers.
『—Vascular Tuning—』
A moment later, the inside of my right arm felt as though it were boiling.
My blood vessels writhed and simmered beneath the skin.
It felt as if someone were scraping through each one with an impossibly fine needle.
"Gaaaaaah—!"
I instinctively clutched my arm.
The mage on the left immediately followed with another technique.
『—Bone Compression—』
The air reverberated—
and this time, my ribs felt as though they were being crushed inward.
Crrrunch.
Fuck—
My lungs felt ready to collapse.
Just as my knees began to give out, Lily stepped in front of me.
Slice.
The long, slender rapier swept once through the air,
and the pain burrowing into my body abruptly stopped.
The magical power kneading my blood vessels and the pressure squeezing my bones
vanished in an instant, as though every trace of force had been severed wholesale.
The mage on the right widened her eyes.
"What the—"
She never finished.
Lily was already directly in front of her.
A blue afterimage flashed.
The rapier pierced diagonally through the woman's mouth,
thunk.
With the sound of tearing flesh, it punched through the inside of her cheek—
and the tip burst out through her face as two teeth flew free in a spray of blood.
"Kgh, kuhek—!"
Lily twisted the rapier.
Crack.
The roof of the woman's mouth and her tongue twisted together, ripping the lower half of her face open in red ruin.
Not merely blood but clotted chunks of flesh spilled from her mouth.
When Lily pulled the blade free, the woman dropped her head without even managing a scream. Only a wet, bubbling sound of boiling blood escaped from deep in her throat.
The lead mage immediately retreated and spread both hands.
『Insect Art—Shadow-Eating Swarm』
A mass resembling black insects poured from her shadow.
They barely possessed shapes at all—just clusters of teeth formed from magical power.
The insects crawled madly across the floor, gnawing through everything in the stone wherever they touched.
At the same time, another incantation rang out.
Was that Dual Incantation?
『Insect Art—Bloom of Decay』
The air filled with the stench of rot and seething maggots—
The moss on the walls and floor blackened and dissolved. Brown stains bloomed, and the stone began to soften like a sponge.
"Lily!!!!"
One touch from that would end everything.
My skin would probably melt first.
Without even looking back at me, Lily said,
"Stay still."
She advanced.
It was neither running nor walking.
She simply moved forward.
Slowly—as though wading through pools of blood on a battlefield.
The moment the black swarm rose to her ankles—
her rapier surged upward in one long stroke.
Slaaash!
A blue line flashed, splitting the swarm in half.
Black blood sprayed in every direction.
The remnants clinging to the floor and walls hissed as they melted away.
Lily immediately pressed one step deeper.
The enemy hurriedly retreated again and thrust out her hand.
『Insect Art———』
The next incantation never became complete words.
Lily's rapier had shot forward like lightning.
Thrust.
The tip pierced just beneath the lead woman's collarbone.
"Kuhk—!"
Lily did not hesitate.
She twisted the long, narrow blade and tore it upward.
Craack!!
The collarbone split. The flesh above the woman's chest tore deeply, and blood erupted like a fountain. White bone and severed muscle fibers glistened between the edges of the wound.
Lumps of breast fat slid from the torn flesh with the blood.
The woman screamed.
"Gyaaaaaaaah—!!"
But only briefly.
Shhk—
The blade must have punctured her lung. Red foam bubbled from between her screams.
Shlick—
When Lily pulled the blade free, hot blood pattered across her face and the floor.
She did not so much as blink despite being drenched in it.
The last remaining mage urgently clenched her teeth and slammed down her palm.
『—Full-Body Skeletal Compression—!』
This technique was aimed solely at Lily rather than me.
With the sound of the air being crushed, the space around Lily warped inward as though collapsing.
Magic that pulverized a person together with their bones.
A direct hit would fold a human body like paper.
Yet Lily charged straight into it.
Her rapier stabbed into empty air.
One—two—three—
Two—
Three—
The thrusts were too fast to see.
In the next instant, both of the mage's hands dropped away at the wrists.
"...Huh?"
The victim herself murmured in a daze.
Only then did the blood burst out.
"Ah, aaaaaah!! My hands! My hands—!!"
Lily stepped farther into the middle of that scream.
The rapier swept diagonally upward—
slice.
Her stomach opened.
It truly opened.
Her abdomen split without mercy, spilling intestines and blood all at once.
Hot entrails slapped wetly onto the floor,
and the woman collapsed backward while clutching her own belly.
No hands—her stomach opened—her intestines spilled out—
Her stomach opened—
Her intestines spilled out—
She would probably remain alive like that for a while.
I suspected this was Lily's punishment—
Every time the woman opened her mouth to breathe, blood surged up from her throat.
Lily did not even spare her a glance.
Then the white-haired girl looked back. The first mage she had attacked was still alive.
She leaned against the wall, gasping while holding the shredded lower half of her face.
Her breathing was thick and wet, as though half her mind had already gone.
"Kh, huuh... huuh..."
With blood-soaked hands, she tried to form another spell.
To the very end.
Until the moment before death.
Her tenacity was disgusting.
Lily walked toward her.
I couldn't see clearly from where I stood,
but terror must have been filling the dying woman's eyes.
"Don't come—"
Thrust.
The rapier entered her right eye socket.
"—————!!!!!!"
The woman's scream—or rather, her final struggle—never became sound.
The blade burst her eye and drove through the back of her skull. Something red and whitish splattered from the rear of her head.
Lily twisted her wrist.
Crnch.
Grrrk.
The inside of the skull scraped against the blade.
The woman's body convulsed violently.
Her limbs kicked upward, and her heels pounded the floor.
Only after a long while did Lily pull the sword out.
The rapier came free with a wet pop, and a mixture of tears, blood, and brain fluid dripped from its tip.
Thud.
I looked around—
The room was filled with severed hands, spilled entrails, broken teeth, a ruptured eyeball, and cooling corpses.
Lily stood quietly without much reaction.
As though she had merely completed a necessary task rather than torn three people apart.
My throat went dry.
Splatter.
Lily flicked her rapier once.
The blood coating the blade sprayed away in a long arc.
"Let's hurry."
I tried not to step in the pools of blood and entrails, but one foot eventually sank into them.
They were slippery, hot, and sticky.
Disgusting.
My stomach churned—
Without looking back, Lily walked out through the door and said,
"Do-yun, this is where it begins."