190. The monster's wife (?)
190. The monster's wife (?)
[Kyaaaaaak!!!]
[Why am I in a place like this...?]
[I'm calling the police... I'll report this! I'll sue!]
As Cyclops's brainwashing was released, the women gradually opened their eyes.
At the same time, one by one they began to stir from their spots as the realization of what they had been doing slowly dawned on them.
A woman called the police.
A woman fled with her clothes half torn off.
As for the woman who crushed a man's manhood and then took off with his wallet, I had no idea what kind of nerve she had.
"How dizzying."
Chaos and pandemonium filled this place.
But why was it? The atmosphere now pleased her far more than the air she felt when she first entered here.
If it's hard, say it's hard.
If you don't want to do it, run away.
You all, at least those of you who were 'dragged here against your will,' fully deserved that right.
"......Hmmmm."
Even in this mess, there were women who received customers because a customer was a customer.
But those were an exception. Those women had come here to sell themselves of their own volition.
So Rhea was not foolish enough to deny that and go on a rampage claiming they must be freed.
'But who was that 'she'—stop.'
Don't think.
At least, it was not something to think about right now.
Rhea once again sensed 'time' and wandered, searching for the place where Cyclops's divine presence was felt.
"Is it here."
The single last place where Cyclops's divine presence could be felt.
The woman sitting beyond the glass window looked at Rhea, grinned brightly, and waved her hand.
A clamorous outside.
Amidst countless people screaming and shrieking, a woman smiled as if nothing had happened.
Strange. Bizarre. And above all──it felt foul.
'Behaving like that... she's not a human, she's a 'tool'.'
A tool manipulated by someone, having completely lost her self-awareness. A doll, so to speak.
Rhea approached the glass window, opened the door, and went inside.
"Mm... little kid? It's dangerous to come to a place like this alone, you know?"
A tone as if she was trying to gently admonish her.
Rhea paid it no mind. After all, no matter how you looked at her, her current appearance was that of a girl.
".....Huh?"
"Stay still."
She placed her hand on top of the woman's head.
She felt Cyclops's divine presence. But compared to the other women, it was denser, stronger, and more dizzyingly tangled.
'He put a fair amount of effort into this.'
Moreover, while the brainwashing was indeed applied, the side effects on the soul were infinitely close to zero.
A realm that could truly be called divine. Although it was only natural since it was actually made by a god, the fact that such excellent craftsmanship could only be put to use for something like this was absolutely appalling, Cyclops.
"That's why you're just being used as others see fit."
A dim-witted and foolish artisan whose only good point was his skill, was he.
Who wouldn't use such a splendid 'slave'?
Though at this point, it seemed he was trying to show something by creating his own apostle...
"Too soft. Cyclops."
Did he think he could reach the 'heavens' with only that much?
No. Probably not. He was likely just doing this to relieve a momentary desire and irritation.
Thinking that way, Cyclops's actions were not entirely incomprehensible.
'But is the absence of side effects in this mess some kind of craftsman's pride?'
Such a bizarre fellow.
Rhea once again used 'time' to erase the 'tentacles' bound to the woman before her.
Strands tangled from deep inside the soul. Tied with 'time' so she could never escape, they began to collapse, unable to offer any meaningful resistance as she melted them away with 'time'.
"Ggh—?! Hic, ugh....hiiii....???"
Even if, during the process, incidents occurred like the tentacles piercing the soul,
or pruning away the 'branches' that tried to extend into her own 'existence',
or even the final event where the power compressed and clung on, refusing to ever die--
"Hur...hurt....a...aaah.....!!!"
--Ultimately, it was all a 'conclusion' where erasure was a foregone outcome.
And thus, it was nothing more than 'meaningless resistance'.
'...Ultimately, I used up almost all of my 'time'.'
But it was regrettable... no,
there was no way it wasn't regrettable...
"..........ugh."
A little, just a very tiny bit of anxiety crept up.
A feeling so faint it could be ignored at any moment.
Insignificant to herself, like a breeze over a plain, so to speak.
A deeply rooted tree does not bend its waist to a wind of that degree.
Therefore, to Rhea, this level of 'emotion' was──
"───Uu... uuuuuu....!"
--not something she could simply endure.
No matter how gentle the breeze over a plain, a tiny blade of grass will be shaken without fail.
'If it were 'she', I don't know.'
But as 'me', it was impossible.
As 'me', I couldn't withstand it.
Fear. Dread. A sense of powerlessness and the despair that followed behind it.
Overwhelmed by fathomless emotions, Rhea pressed down on her chest and staggered backward,
"Eon...ni...."
a single word escaped her lips without her realizing it.
As if answering, Mai embraced Rhea from behind.
"Rhea. That martial art was worthy of the sole inheritor of the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique."
"Huuuup....ugh......haaaaaa....."
Someone was protecting her.
Someone was watching her back.
Someone was with her.
Her breathing gradually subsided and steadied.
Ignoring the cold sweat trickling down her forehead, Rhea gripped Mai's hand tightly and spoke to the woman in front of her.
"Go back home."
"..........Ah..."
This one sentence would likely be enough.
Holding Mai's hand, Rhea turned her body around.
"Excuse me.......!"
"........."
A single word calling out to her.
Rhea did not look back.
"Spare me your thanks."
"No, it's not that, I have no money for the ride...."
"..........?"
This time, she looked back.
"My phone has no battery.... and right now I don't have my wallet....."
".....Heoh!"
In truth, she was flat broke.
Rhea stared blankly at the woman, and the '10,000 won' in her pocket came to mind.
'That should be enough.'
Rhea took out the crumpled 10,000 won note from her pocket and handed it to the woman.
"Use it."
"....Thank you.."
The woman, perhaps unable to lift her head, bowed deeply and accepted it with both hands.
Before long, as if it were her last shred of conscience, she handed Rhea a single chocolate bar from her bosom and a paper slip with a phone number written on it.
"Please, be sure to contact me later."
"I have no need for the help of humans, but...."
Still, you never know what might happen in this world.
Rhea put the slip into her pocket and glanced up at Mai.
"Are we going back home?"
"............"
Rhea nodded her head wordlessly.
Soon, she closed both eyes and felt the 'connection' that linked her.
The line of master and Servant Demon. Following the line of the contract, she scattered her body─
─Thump!
".......Mm."
Rhea arrived at Chrono's house.
As she slowly looked around, Chrono was lying on his bed, asleep.
".............."
Well, it was late at night, after all.
An ordinary human inevitably needed to sleep.
'What a truly troublesome existence.'
To need something like sleep.
To eat away at an already short lifespan with the false death called 'sleep'.
And yet humans, so absurdly, fear death and struggle desperately to live.
The more you looked, the more they were a contradictory existence.
But since her current self was that creature's Servant Demon....
".......Mmm."
Rhea closed her eyes once more.
Up until now, she had been ignoring it continuously, but now it was a situation where she didn't have to ignore it.
'Who am I, and who is 'she'?'
A person who suddenly surfaced in her empty mind.
Someone who kept appearing in her head and felt just like 'me'.
Rhea used 'time', the tiny bit she had left, the last remaining handful of 'time', to contemplate her own state.
'My soul. My existence.'
It wasn't difficult.
Only pathetic humans would find difficulty in the act of looking back at themselves.
Rhea slowly dug deep inside herself, confirming her soul, her 'existence'.
And then,
'This is......'
Chains.
Countless chains layered upon each other.
And an ashen soul locked away within them.
Probably mine, probably the existence of 'she'.
'...It's definite.'
She was sealed.
And sealed by beings thought to be 'gods' at that.
And to undo it, the power of 'time' was inevitably necessary.
'The easiest way would be for the ones responsible to release it, but...'
Would the ones who placed such a dense, layered seal be crazy enough to let it go?
Thinking that her existence was that immense and extraordinary gave her some confidence, but the reality that she could do nothing right now left a bitter taste in her mouth.
'Still, I can't just completely let go.'
As a final act, Rhea gathered the 'time' remaining inside her and breathed it into the chains sealing her soul.
A sliver of hope that they might crumble away like sand, just like those humans from last time.
[I'm... sorry.]
".....Hm?"
And like that,
[I apologize... please, enough! ENOUUUUGH!!!]
[I was wrong! It was me! It was all my fault!]
[Ah... aak....! Stop it... I told you to stop, you damned beast!]
".....This is"
A tiny gap that had formed.
And from within it, seeping out,
[No more.... not any more.....!]
".................."
a woman shrieking.
A beautiful but devastated woman with black hair.
And the man right in front of her said,
[It's all your fault, Rhea.]
That it was all her own fault.
That it was Rhea's fault.
Soon after, he put the child in his hand into his mouth...
[───Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!]
"───Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!"
"H-hheoheok?! Eh, eo-eo? Eo-eo!"
He swallowed it.
"Ah......ugh....ah-oo-oo-oo....!"
"Rhea...? All of a sudden?"
A man who grabbed and swallowed a child.
A woman weeping tears of blood as she watched that sight.
The words the man spoke while pointing at that woman.
"....Rhea, are you okay?"
"────"
Rhea.
My name.
She could finally realize the meaning of it.
As an aside.
"....Rhea?"
Mai lingered alone beneath the red glass lamp street.
Rhea... where are you now...?