Chapter 96. Villain (3)
Chapter 96. Villain (3)
7
Three days since falling into the Apocalypse.
Lady Silver Lily was absent from the academy.
"They say she took to her bed, unwell."
"Is that so......."
"Yes. She was always prone to minor illnesses, apparently. And after interrogating her servants all night, how could she not be!"
The Heretic Questioner demurely sipped his black tea (high in sodium, good for the health).
"Physical strength is national strength! No matter how great a cause one carries in one's heart, it is difficult to achieve if the body is unwell. Hmm, what a pity. Lady Silver Lily is a talent who could set her sights on the empire......."
"I happened to hear that the Crown Prince has also stopped attending."
"Ahaha. Yes, it is all thanks to the butler. Wouldn't the shock be considerable? He may even apply for a leave of absence at this rate."
One corner of the garden. We were having tea in a garden riotous with magnolias. Other students passing through the garden spotted us and were startled.
"It's the mad master and servant!"
"It's the delinquent young lady!"
"We mustn't go near them!"
The young ladies lifted their dress hems, while the young lords rolled up their trouser legs and fled in a flurry.
Thanks to that, we had the spacious garden all to ourselves. Sweet.
"Heretic Questioner. You just called me [butler], not [Death King]. Do be careful."
"Oh! My apologies. It was my mistake. Once my immersion rate exceeds 20%, I cannot control myself. Ah, this salted black tea is unexpectedly charming! Another cup, if you please, butler."
"You called me butler again......."
I sighed, but still poured tea into the young lady's cup.
Drip, drip.
"Hmm."
I hummed a tune. It was something I had realized after taking on the role of butler—the way of tea was truly profound. Even the sight of tea falling from the pot and pooling in the cup, each drop spreading into ripples, was beautiful. Truly, it was a culture befitting a young lady.......
[Your immersion in the character deepens.]
[Your current immersion rate is 10%.]
"Kyaaah!"
The Heretic Questioner leapt up.
"Butler, why do you suddenly dump tea water on me! It is hot! You have dealt a serious blow to my delicate hair!"
"[Kyaaah]?! You never screamed like that before! Have you truly become the Lady Golden Thread Plum in body and mind? Say it once. When spring comes—!"
"The magnolias fall, and the butler's hair falls too."
"Aaaaah!"
For a while, I experienced the terror of hair loss.
We calmed down and stopped fighting. As an attendant, I combed the Heretic Questioner's hair.
Over the past few days, the hair at the back of the Heretic Questioner's head had grown a little. Was it the effect of Divine Art, Divine Transformation (變神)? Or was he gradually coming to resemble Lady Golden Thread Plum more and more?
"Your emotional expressions have become far more varied than before, Heretic Questioner."
My fingers glided through the golden locks. I had never combed another person's hair, nor had anyone ever combed mine, but my hands moved on their own.
"Before, you always smiled, but thinking of it the other way, it was exactly the same as never smiling at all. It felt less like you smiled because you were happy and more like smiling was simply your default expression."
"Ah. And is it different now?"
"Yes, there's more emotion in it now. More vivid, I suppose? Now when you smile, I think I can tell why. Whether this person is smiling because they're truly happy, or sneering."
"I see. I am aware of it myself. Do you consider this a good trend, Death King?"
I quietly looked down at the back of the Heretic Questioner's head. A small head. A small body. Small shoulders. Small arms. I thought about how many people this small frame had killed.
The Heretic Questioner.
From Bulgaria in Europe, a first-generation hunter.
Age unknown.
Kill count unknown.
"...Yes, I think it's a good trend."
I spoke.
"Honestly, I didn't know what to do with you."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"Because you're a psychopath and a mad mass murderer."
I slowly tied back the Heretic Questioner's hair. Memories of looking after the younger children at the orphanage came to mind.
"But I couldn't just kill you out of hand. Even the Black Dragon Master, who would hate someone like you the most, and even the Sword Saint, kept you alive. That means there's a reason you shouldn't be killed."
The Heretic Questioner smiled. Even hearing that I had agonized over whether to kill him, he was not surprised. Rather, he was amused.
"An accurate insight!"
"Why do you kill people?"
At last, I asked the question I had so wanted to ask.
"You're a psychopath, but you're a psychopath who understands what people say. You know how to understand others in your own way. So why do you kill?"
"Hmm."
The Heretic Questioner rested his chin on his hand. He seemed lost in thought. From beyond the garden's flower bushes, the faint sound of students laughing drifted over.
The Heretic Questioner turned his head. And then, in a whisper meant only for me, he began to murmur.
"First, I should tell you that I am competent."
The Heretic Questioner formed a hand seal.
"Divine Art, Concealment (隱神)!"
One of the Heretic Questioner's gloves vanished.
"It is one of the techniques I can use through Divine Art. I can make any object disappear from the world. Naturally, I can also dispose of evidence from a murder and the corpse."
His bare fingers rowed through the air.
"When the powerful do not kill people readily, it is not because the powerful are good! Death King, it is simply because concealing corpses is a bother, and because they fear being discovered later. I have no need to worry about inconvenience or fear!"
"......."
"In the first-generation era, the Tower was truly chaotic."
The Heretic Questioner's face was radiant.
"The revival of slavery, racial discrimination and ethnic sentiment, terrorism, puppet factions, mass slaughter, incitement and fabrication, ideological conflict. It was as if the history of humanity had been compressed and melted in one's mouth, shall we say? The sense of crisis—[if things went on like this, we would all perish]—spread among the mid- and small-scale warlords, the current five major guilds."
The Black Dragon. The Merchant Alliance. The Pantheon. The Heavenly Martial Sect. The Vigilante Corps.
"Five people gathered."
The Heretic Questioner spoke as if reciting a heroic epic.
"The Black Dragon Master spoke first!"
[I'll skip the useless talk. Let's make a permanent non-aggression pact.]
"The Count set a condition."
[Guarantee the Merchant Alliance a monopoly on goods from the outside world.]
"I added to it!"
[It would be good if every guild had its own exclusive domain! That is my condition for cooperating in covering up incidents!]
"Viper grumbled."
[Of all people, the craziest bastards are the most reliable humans. Tsk, tsk. It's the end times, the end times. ...But what's with this coffee, why's it so bitter? Who gave me coffee I didn't ask for? Hey. Look here? Hey?]
"The Sword Saint wrapped it up!"
[I will not say 'we do what must be done.' I will say 'we do what we want to do.' Tonight, we kill people by our own convictions, our own judgment, our own methods.]
"That night, 4,653 people died."
The Heretic Questioner's smile was still radiant.
"The next night, 10,171 people died. The night after that, 8,275 people died. The night after that, 7,412 people died, and the night after that, 23,781 people died."
Died.
Died.
Died. The Heretic Questioner, who had been reciting it that way, at some point said brightly:
"And then."
That day had come suddenly, the Heretic Questioner said.
"That night, no one died."
A period had been placed at the end of the long cleanup.
The Heretic Questioner said that the Black Dragon Master had wept aloud that night.
And the Sword Saint—
[I will take responsibility and step down.]
The Heretic Questioner said that the Sword Saint had been the Vigilante Corps Captain at the time.
[And I will never speak of this matter again. I affirmed the massacre. I took part in it. I committed it knowing it should not be done. I will hate you forever. And I will loathe myself a little more than that.]
Parting.
From that day on, the position of Vigilante Corps Captain remained permanently vacant.
"After that, the Paladin took charge of the Vigilante Corps."
The Paladin.
Vice-captain of the Vigilante Corps. A person who always introduced herself as the vice-captain, and had always been called that.
"The Paladin regretted it."
I suddenly recalled the night the Paladin had stood against the Sword Saint alongside the Pharmacist. Was that why there had been that subtle war of nerves between the Paladin and the Sword Saint then?
"I did not regret it! Because it was a necessary sacrifice!"
The Heretic Questioner grinned.
"But perhaps it is the influence of being immersed in Lady Golden Thread Plum? Right now, I sometimes have rather odd thoughts."
"What is it?"
"Death King, I think that if you had been there in those days, things might have been different."
"......."
"How strange. I have never once been lost in a feeling like this."
The Heretic Questioner raised his head. The whisper was over. Magnolias bloomed against the sky he gazed up at.
"Do you people always live in feelings like this? Drifting in thoughts of if only I had done that then, if only I had done this now, wandering, and yet living on all the same?"
"......."
"How remarkable."
The Heretic Questioner let out a mournful sigh.
"That is why."
The rank-5 hunter spoke as if lamenting.
"You people are so beautiful, and so very lovely."
"Heretic Questioner......."
"If I too, like you......."
The Heretic Questioner's words paused for a moment.
"Hm."
Then continued.
"Hmm."
And then.
"This is troublesome, butler. More and more, I find myself wanting to remain in this world."
The moment the Heretic Questioner smiled, a voice was heard.
[Your immersion in the character deepens.]
[Your current immersion rate is 11%.]
I realized.
That I probably would not be able to kill this person.
I cannot kill a person who knows regret.
"My lady."
"Yes."
"When spring comes."
The Heretic Questioner waved his hand. The vanished glove had returned before I knew it, covering his bare hand. A white glove with a flower-petal pattern. The Heretic Questioner smiled gently.
"Spring is lovely. Shall we go for a walk, butler?"
It felt as if time had stopped.
I could not tell what expression I wore. The Heretic Questioner gazed quietly at my face, then went "Pfft!" and laughed. Then he clutched his stomach and burst into laughter.
"Ahahaha! Ha! What a face, Death King! You went pale in an instant! I thought you were a corpse!"
"You really... even for a joke, this is......."
"My apologies. Having gained emotions, I have become something of a prankster! Oh, I see. Now I have a sense of what I have always felt toward Death King! It feels just like looking at a dependable big brother!"
"Older brother....... You're a first-generation hunter. Aren't you actually older than me?"
"No comment!"
But, the Heretic Questioner said.
"The one clear fact is that I am rapidly becoming immersed in Lady Golden Thread Plum! Even while we have been talking, it rose by 1%. My current immersion rate is 32%. Tomorrow, it may exceed 50%! To that extent, I am becoming addicted to feeling [emotions]."
The Heretic Questioner ran a hand over the hair I had tied back for him.
"I am the protagonist of this Apocalypse's story. But the protagonist of the ending is you. Death King, before I am swept away by emotion and drown in Lady Golden Thread Plum, please save the ending."
"Yes."
I nodded.
"I promise."
The Heretic Questioner smiled.
"I trust you, my butler."
That night, the Heretic Questioner's immersion rate exceeded 50%.
8
'In the end, the one who destroys this world is Lady Silver Lily.'
I headed for Lady Silver Lily's lodgings under the pretext of visiting her while she was ill.
'She is the key. I have to understand her. Lady Silver Lily's love, jealousy, tolerance, pride, possessiveness....... Only by understanding all of it can I bring this Apocalypse to an end. That's how it will be.'
Unlike yesterday, the ducal lady's lodgings were bustling with servants.
"Excuse me."
I spoke politely.
"May I see the ducal lady?"
"Who are you?"
"Lady Golden Thread Plum has sent me to inquire after her health."
The servants' faces stiffened. That their mistress and Lady Golden Thread Plum were on bad terms was common knowledge. "Please wait a moment!" one attendant shouted, and hurried off into the lodgings.
A short while later, the attendant returned with a sour face.
"...Come this way. The young lady has permitted your greeting."
"Thank you."
I followed the attendant's guidance. The place I arrived at was not Lady Silver Lily's bedroom or reception room. It was her study. Countless servants came and went through the door, making reports.
"A letter from the province of Lepanor, my lady."
"Put it on the left side of the desk."
"My lady, Lady Cheongsolmae, the viscount's daughter, has sent a letter on behalf of the family head. Given the season, it seems to be a request concerning the grain loans......."
"Send it to the finance office for review and bring it back."
"My lady."
"Mm."
Lady Silver Lily, who had been examining documents at the desk in the center of the study, raised her head. Her red eyes swept over my body in an instant. She spoke indifferently.
"A guest has come. Everyone, leave us."
Lady Silver Lily picked up the hourglass on her desk and flipped it over with a clack.
"I will grant you a fifteen-minute break."
The servants filed out.
In the spacious study, only Lady Silver Lily and I remained.
"So."
Lady Silver Lily set down her quill.
"Lady Golden Thread Plum, the baron's daughter, sent someone to inquire after my health? How admirable. Only a few days ago, she was a child who ground her teeth the moment she saw me. She has changed in that short time."
"...I heard you collapsed from illness. Yet you are well. I am surprised."
"I am still a student, as you see. To skip class and handle my affairs, I need a suitable excuse. Though saying I am well is an overstatement."
Lady Silver Lily gave a small cough.
"I have had my eye on your activities. You cleverly noticed in a short time that spies had infiltrated my ranks. The talk of a changed person applies not only to Lady Golden Thread Plum but to you as well. This time, at least, a quick-witted [actor] was chosen. It is a blessing for the empire."
"......."
"Had you not been that clever, I would not have accepted your visit."
For a moment, I did not understand.
"...Pardon?"
"Mm."
Lady Silver Lily narrowed her eyes.
"I thought you clever, but you have a surprisingly dull side."
"What... do you mean......?"
"I am on my fourteenth cycle."
A calm voice flowed out.
"Though I am nothing more than a regressor repeating the last ten days of my life. This is the thirteenth time I have received an [actor] like you."
Then a voice was heard.
Hearing that voice, I was struck speechless.
[The Silver-Plated Heart gazes at you.]
Lady Silver Lily.
"What cycle are you on?"
She was this world's regressor.