The Storm Rages
As the storm raged on, a single doubt gnawed at me: could Paula know everything already, and simply be toying with me?
“Antares? Is there no milk today?”
“Ah, we ran out this morning. I'll get more next time.”
“That's a shame.”
If it wasn't that, then how else could she probe so cunningly at my deepest secret?
Whether she knew what was in my heart or not, Paula flashed a cute little smile and walked on ahead of me, then said, “It felt gross at first, but at some point I just started craving it.”
She turned lightly to look back at me. “And when I drink it, it feels like I'm being held in your arms, Antares. So I liked it.”
Do you actually know what that 'milk' really is?
No. The important thing here is to keep my composure. I can't afford to stumble into some clumsy trap.
“You don't need the milk, you know. I can hold you right now if you like.”
“Oh, true. Hehe.”
As if the strange tension from moments ago had been nothing but a mirage, Paula came bounding over and buried herself in my arms.
“Antares. I don't smell of sweat or anything weird, right?”
“Hm, now that you mention it, you really don't smell like anything. Did you use your divine power?”
“Y-yes. I can use it much more naturally now.”
So while my back was turned, this girl had been walking her own path. In what felt like a fleeting stretch of time, she had grown up beautifully.
“My swordsmanship keeps improving too. At this rate, you'll have a hard time beating me, Antares.”
“Even if I meant to actually kill you?”
“Wha—you'd really do that?”
I swallowed my words for a moment.
For this child to leave this place, the barrier maintained by the cult's Guardian Stars would have to come down. And if the plan went wrong, I would be the one who had to die.
“Not today.”
“Oh, come on. You make it sound like you're going to fight me someday, for sure.”
“Don't worry. If it's you, you won't die facing me. Worst case, you could bawl your eyes out and run away.”
“Hah? Do you think of me as a baby or something, Antares? I'm only short because I never ate properly. I'm an adult, you know.”
“Compared to my age, you're a child.”
Paula tilted her head, then let her eyes drift slowly as she took her time studying my face. “Just how old are you, exactly?”
“What do you think?”
“Well, older than me, I suppose….”
Her hand came to rest on my cheek, brushing over it as lightly as a passing breeze.
“Your skin is flawless.”
“A blessing the gods bestowed on me without asking.”
Then Paula's gaze slid down toward my chest. With nothing on but a loose nightgown, my cleavage was on full display, and a flicker of embarrassment crept over me.
When her eyes lingered in one place and I raised a hand to cover myself, Paula caught my arm.
“Don't cover up.”
“Paula. This part is embarrassing for me too….”
Whatever this body was now, I had lived far longer as a man. No matter what anyone said, having a woman's eyes roam over me was mortifying.
All the more when it was a body part my original one had never possessed.
“Doesn't it get in the way when you fight?”
“…I manage. So drop it.”
“Tch, fine. Wow, it's smooth here too. Looking at just this, you could pass for an older sister of two or three….”
“As if that were possible. I've been here over ten years. When I was your age… I….”
Back when I was around the same age as Paula, I had raised children the cult had kidnapped and brought to me.
It was the new task assigned to me for refusing to cooperate in their hunts of humankind—and for someone who felt nothing but revulsion at the cult's slaughter, it was a welcome one.
So I poured every ounce of genuine affection I had into those children. But—
“Antares? What's wrong?”
“Nothing. What are you talking about?”
“You're crying.”
I reached my fingers up to my eye and found tears there, already traced down onto my cheek.
“Wh-why does this happen. It's nothing, really. I was just….”
The tears wouldn't stop. What name was I supposed to give this feeling?
“Can I call you Mom?”
“…No. I haven't even married yet. Call me Auntie instead.”
“No! I'm calling you Mom!”
Just as Paula was growing, children grow. And at some point, they surpass me.
Learning so many things, thinking for themselves, walking forward into their own lives.
And those children had withered before they could ever bloom. Because of me.
“I was just… thinking of the old days. That's all.”
“It's okay. It's over now.”
Held against my chest, Paula slowly lifted her head. Clear, blue eyes. A single, matching pair of them.
The ones I had lost so long ago kept surfacing in my mind, one after another.
“You tried to take responsibility for those children, Antares. You loved them—that's why it hurt you.”
“All I ever did was love them. I couldn't protect them.”
“A love that was never repaid isn't meaningless because of it. And you don't have to carry everything on your own.”
“…”
Her name is Paula. Nothing else, no one else.
And yet, looking at that girl's expression—knowing full well I shouldn't—
“Mother, please don't try to shoulder it all by yourself.”
“Yeah! Mom, you work yourself too hard!”
“Don't be like that. Think of how much Mother does for our sake. She'll tell us when the time comes.”
Spica. Regulus. Eleven children. Children I had been forced to leave behind in the past, forever.
“It's okay.”
The girl, a head shorter than I was, raised her arms high and earnestly patted my head for me.
“No matter what happened back then, I know you genuinely love me. So surely you gave those children that same heartfelt love, too.”
At those words, I finally let the memories I had kept sealed tight come undone.
“I sealed those children away with my own hands. Trapped them somewhere they can never come out again….”
“Where are they?”
“Inside the weapons I wield. The Cult Leader said the children were sinners too—that they had to atone. He turned them into monsters that kill people, or forged them into weapons, and then ordered me to kill people in their place.”
“…I'll tear that bastard apart.”
“Yes. He deceived me thoroughly. He promised the seals would break once my task was complete. And that task was… the Colossus's resurrection. If what the children would see when they opened their eyes was the end of the world, then I would rather….”
That was why I buried those children away.
My irreversible mistake will remain forever. This guilt, too, will become an eternal shackle that follows me to my grave.
“What frightens me most is that you might face the same tragedy. It chills me to the bone, Paula. To the bone.”
The cult never lets slip what it wants. Like a thick web woven from dozens upon dozens of spiders.
No matter how grand and beautiful the butterfly, it will tear its wings apart and send it plummeting into the abyss.
“This time, you'll succeed.”
“…Do you truly believe that?”
“Of course. You trust me, don't you? Look how quickly I've grown. Give me half a year. You'll see just how powerful a Saintess's strength really is.”
“I see.”
But, Paula. The Cult Leader is far more cunning than you imagine.
He may already know. He could descend on us as soon as tomorrow.
“…Yes. We must succeed. This time, for certain.”
Before we are ready, our parting will come to find us.
“How curious.”
A room where even the smallest candle was unwelcome, draped in darkness alone.
The Cult Leader of the Red Cult was staring intently at a mosquito that had settled on the back of his hand. In that darkened chamber, only the mosquito gave off a faint, eerie glow.
“Guardian Stars of the south, the west, and the east. Do any of you understand?”
“We beg your forgiveness. We cannot fathom the depths of your thoughts, Cult Leader.”
The Cult Leader swept his gaze across the three Guardian Stars, his eyes brimming with the same venom as always.
“You cannot see it? What this Saintess's blood, delivered by my familiar, contains?”
He crushed the mosquito against the back of his hand with a finger of his other hand, then licked up the blood that welled out.
“The Saintess has ripened. A truly curious thing. Even accounting for her talent, I had estimated it would take two years.”
“It seems Antares raised her properly. Is that not cause for celebration?”
“It is. But it seems she was not raised for the sake of the cult.”
“What do you mean…?”
The Cult Leader rose from his seat. In his hand, he clutched the very dagger that had once gouged out Antares's eye.
“The day Antares committed her betrayal, she paid the price with her own eye, and sealed away the souls of the children she had been raising.”
“Yes. And since then, she has devoted herself to the Red Colossus and the cult without fail.”
“Indeed. And yet this time, it seems she has turned traitor once more. She is hiding the Saintess's awakening.”
“And we failed to notice…. Forgive us. Though as a fellow Guardian Star, it is inconceivable that she did not notice.”
“No doubt she is preparing a thorough plan of rebellion. That one may lack strength, but her eye for reading the currents surpasses anyone's. Grow careless, and it will be us who crumble.”
At the Cult Leader's words, the air in the room grew heavy. Perhaps anticipating what would come next, the Guardian Stars stiffened into perfect formal stances.
“Hear me, Guardian Stars.”
Thud—!
At his word, the three Guardian Stars slammed the staves they carried down against the floor.
“We prepare the final ritual. Hide the catalyst for the rite near Antares's dwelling. The ritual will be held one week from now. Until the day of the final battle arrives, each Guardian Star shall stand at full readiness.”
““We shall obey your command, Cult Leader!””
“Return to your posts.”
The moment the Guardian Stars withdrew, the Cult Leader spun the dagger in his hand deftly over his fingers, several times over.
“Did you truly believe you could escape this place? Antares. Foolish. Utterly foolish.”
Sinister laughter spread beneath the silent room.
“Did you think I could not foresee this move of yours? The Colossus, too, has already made His preparations.”
The Cult Leader sliced the tip of his index finger with the dagger and let a single drop of blood fall onto the small candle set upon the table. In that instant, the droplet surged upward like a flame and formed itself into a colossal eye.
“O Great Colossus. I shall soon offer up the final sacrifice. Grant me, then, Your last divine power.”
[Speak your desire.]
“I desire a power that can unravel the minds of men.”
The great eye blinked once, then turned its gaze upon the Cult Leader's left arm.
[It shall be granted.]
In that instant, fire erupted from the Cult Leader's left arm, and in the span of a breath, flesh and bone crumbled to ash.
“Gghk…. Kkh…. Graaaaaagh!”
Even as he screamed in agony, a new arm bloomed from the ruin, radiating a sinister crimson light and filling the hollowed socket of his shoulder.
The pain-wracked screams lasted only moments. Gazing upon the sight, the Cult Leader let loose a laugh brimming with ecstasy.
“Kwahahahaha! Antares, my foolish little masterpiece. Allow me to bestow upon you, personally, one final lesson. You shall watch, once more, as everything you hold dear comes crumbling down—all because of you.”