Hwashin Wedding (4)
"Ah…."
The woman began to fidget, clutching the hem of her clothes tight. It had been a long time since she had felt this — the dread of turning a page. She closed her eyes for a moment and drew a deep breath.
Albedo….
The character she had always loved most was surely Rubedo, the one who had dreamed and laughed so freely. And yet now it was not Rubedo she was living through, but Albedo — every flicker of her expression flooding the woman with a fierce, raw grief and a sense of betrayal. The gods they had fought beside all this time had been, in truth, creatures this cruel. The knowledge tore her chest open.
The fate awaiting Rubedo and every member of Magnum Academy was this: to be swallowed by pleasure until their souls were stripped away, until nothing remained but empty husks of flesh that could do nothing but feel eternal climax as they died. Every future they had dreamed of, every beautiful shape their lives might have taken, was going to be smashed to pieces that way. She could not accept it. And she burned with fury at the gods who had made it so.
Those girls had done nothing wrong. They had only fought to protect this world. Why should the price of that fight fall not on the world itself, but on the children who had given everything for it?
"…Using pleasure to let them meet death as happily as possible is supposed to be consideration?"
In that moment she understood why she had never been able to grasp the gods' behavior in the story. From a god's point of view, humans were never equals to begin with. And yet, simply because a human had caught their fancy, they had lent their own power in exchange for a soul? To their kind, that already counted as a "sacrifice." They were the sort who believed a human was happy so long as you poured "pleasure" into them — who never even considered the possibility of an equal personhood. To them, humans were nothing more than pets.
Albedo, crushed by that truth, wanted to rise against them. But to stop the far greater evil of Erosion, she still needed the gods' power. And she realized, with a sudden clarity, that even if they had known everything from the start, they would still have offered up everything in the bargain and borrowed the gods' strength.
"It's lonely…."
Even with the other girls in the next room crying out in pleasure as they did lewd things, Albedo felt a piercing loneliness settle over her. The children who had already pawned their souls to the limit, who were finding it harder and harder even to fight — to Albedo's eyes, they no longer looked anything like the friends she had known.
"I guess there's no other way. In the end we get used up like consumables and thrown away. Then the next Incarnates will be chosen, and they'll save the world."
If a handful of people kept sacrificing themselves like that, this world could remain at peace forever. No one would know them. No one would remember them. And yet without them, this beautiful world would fall. It was the only choice left.
Albedo steeled herself that way — but the woman reading the manga could not accept it. There had to be another way. No matter how she looked at it, this ending was far too cruel.
"Ah…."
And then, when the final battle came and every last Erosion poured in at once, Albedo told herself they were the last sacrifice, that it was a mercy — and still the memories of everyone who had filled her emptiness rose up inside her. A desperate longing not to give those things up flared to life, and at last Albedo, driven past the edge, cried out.
"…Last time, you all said I was a little special. That everyone wanted me."
"Then tell me — if I offer myself completely, will you free those girls from this terrible binding?"
She chose to abandon herself. If all five of them were going to be sacrificed anyway, and if she alone held the choice that could stop it — then using that choice was the better ending, wasn't it?
From the gods' perspective, Albedo was the one they had wanted most. Sharing Albedo seemed better than claiming any of the others — and so everyone except the White Flame, who already held her, agreed to the terms.
"N-no. If you do that…."
The magnificent Albedo from the cover — the one who had fought alone wielding every flame — now looked only sad and heartbreaking. And still, to the very end, she rejoiced that the other girls had been freed from the curse. She fought the final battle alone, and she won.
"Everyone… thank you. Well. You're asleep, so you probably can't hear me."
She offered her last farewell to the girls who had collapsed the moment the curse left them. Then, alone and desolate, she offered herself as tribute and held her wedding with the gods.
"Ah…."
When the remaining girls came to their senses, they transferred into an ordinary academy and began to live peaceful lives. But all of them were only forcing the appearance of happiness. They felt Albedo's absence in their bones.
In the end Rubedo could not bear it. She raged at the gods and begged them to take her too — but the gods answered that the contract they had made with Albedo made it impossible.
"As I thought… everything began with my greed. I'm sorry, child."
As Rubedo sank into despair, the White Flame God spoke to her — and a crack opened in a situation that had seemed utterly hopeless. The White Flame God confessed that it regretted laying down power in the form of "conception" and binding their souls with that curse. It had never wanted to watch Albedo be toyed with by the gods in such agony. And it told Rubedo the only way left to undo what had been done.
"There's a way…!"
Bound by the contract, the White Flame God still could not intervene directly. But it knew a loophole — how the contract could be broken, how Albedo could be saved — and it shared that loophole with Rubedo.
"…This may sound absurd. You might think I'm talking nonsense."
And so Rubedo set out to make it real. She persuaded the other girls as well, and together they began a new kind of fight. They would make the name of Albedo — who had sacrificed herself to save this world — known in a peaceful world that knew nothing of her. They would spread the record of her holy, desperate, painful, terrible struggle, and work until the whole world was ready to help them.
"We only need to take on a little of this curse ourselves. Even if we take it on by making something like stickers — it won't be the real thing, so the effect will be tiny…. But if it piles up and piles up, a day will come when it exceeds the amount Albedo is bearing."
In the end, the contract Albedo had made was this: she would offer herself in exchange for taking on the entire curse of the conception tattoos. So what would happen if the curse itself no longer needed to be borne by Albedo at all? In that instant every contract would dissolve, and Albedo could return to this world.
"Huh?"
At first, people refused to believe that any Incarnates had ever saved the world. But the girls kept insisting, kept producing evidence, kept persuading — and people began to believe. And when they learned that freeing that small girl required nothing grand, only that they take on a little of the curse themselves, they hesitated and considered.
"I've adjusted it so it won't harm your body. Just stick this over where your womb is."
When Rubedo pulled out an object that looked strangely familiar, the woman jolted and began reading the manga with even sharper focus. Why was that showing up here?
"Wh-what?"
What Rubedo had taken out was the womb tattoo sticker that had gone on sale alongside the release of Hwashin Conception. And the people of the manga's world began sticking them on one after another, praying for Albedo's return.
But even after as many people as possible had shared the curse that way, Albedo still did not come back.
"It's not enough…. If just a few more people take on the curse, we could definitely save Albedo."
Then, whenever someone walked past, Rubedo and the others would explain the situation and start persuading them all over again. And on the final page — as if the girls were speaking directly to her — they asked her to share the curse. A chill ran down her spine.
"If I stick on the sticker… I can save Albedo…?"
She knew it made no sense. And still, without meaning to, she found herself touching her bare stomach, where nothing was stuck at all. Should she put a sticker on right now and take on part of the curse? For Albedo's sake — wasn't that the least she ought to do?
"Th-then what did I buy this time?"
The tattoo stickers needed to save Albedo were ones everyone already owned. So what had been inside that enormous box? She could not contain her curiosity. She tore open the packaging — and when she saw the box within, she let out a soft sound of wonder.
"…Ah. It's a storage case for the whole Hwashin series so far."
With the release of Hwashin Wedding, the art on every spine had come together to form the exact same image as the cover of Volume 1 — and they had sold a dedicated box designed to fit that completed picture perfectly. She had no regrets about buying it. But it didn't seem particularly connected to this volume, and she was still turning that over in her mind when —
"Ah…."
A faint light seeped into the inside of the box, and Albedo appeared within it as if she had been imprisoned there. Her limbs were bound by flames of every color, her body forced into climax — a pitiful, helpless sight. A fierce desire surged up in the woman: she wanted, somehow, to save the fragile girl trapped inside.
In a rush she pulled out one of the tattoo stickers she already owned and pressed it on. Even though it should have been impossible, the tattooed area burned hot in a way it never had before, and she trembled faintly. It felt as if she were truly taking the curse into herself.
But it was not an unpleasant sensation. Not because the curse was the kind that induced pleasure — but because the fulfillment of knowing that taking this curse could save Albedo was far stronger than any revulsion the curse itself might have caused.