Hyde Exorcises a Ghost from a Woman's Body! #2
When I was little, I once heard a story that left me shaken to my core.
It was about the strawberry milk I loved so much—how it supposedly had bugs in it!
I thought it was a lie.
But it was true.
Strawberry milk really did use a dye made from insects!
Is it still like that even now?
Anyway.
That was how I first learned about these little creatures called cochineal.
I also learned that long ago, after painstaking processing, they had been used as a luxurious dye.
Bobbing gently—
Insects just like those were floating on the well water, dyed a deep blood-red. They were mixed into the water, yet when I touched them they felt completely dry.
Not simply dried, either. They had clearly been processed through some complex method in a high-temperature, arid environment.
"Pretty skilled work."
Whoever did this knew their insects.
And they were clever enough to know a dye recipe that dated all the way back to the ancient Incas.
Plus, they had to be someone who could get near the well.
"Didn't Miss Lucy disappear saying she had to draw water from the well?"
I looked around.
Lucy Emma was nowhere to be seen.
"It's a curse!"
"A-a witch's curse! It has to be a terrifying curse!"
"This nunnery really is cursed! We all have to leave this place!"
"The well's contaminated! What are we supposed to drink now?!"
The nuns' panic swelled.
Everyone was in an uproar, insisting they had to abandon the nunnery and flee.
Aha—
I felt like I had just grasped a clue.
But first I needed to calm the nuns down.
"Everyone, please calm yourselves! This isn't real blood—it's just water dyed red! There's no need to be so frightened!"
It's basically like strawberry milk.
The taste would be different, sure, but drinking it won't kill you.
Of course, just to be safe, we should leave the well alone until it's purified.
"Shut up!"
"What do you know?! Do you know more about blood than us women?! That's blood! Hiiiii!"
Fuck.
Women in a panic really did become this much of a pain.
Extremely annoying.
I wanted to pull out the mask and make them all quiet down nicely.
But I couldn't.
On this cramped little island, where I was the only man, turning into Rust would be the same as openly advertising my true identity.
Of course I had several ways to keep from being found out even then, but I preferred not to transform in front of Psyche if I could help it.
"What? It's not real blood?"
Swish—
Just then Milione bravely stepped forward and touched the well water she had scooped into a ladle.
Having gotten blood on her hands plenty of times before, Milione seemed to realize at once that this wasn't the real thing.
Was she actually reliable at times like this?
"Tch. Would've been better if it was real blood."
Crazy bitch, as expected.
Soon Psyche also slurped some of the water.
"There doesn't seem to be any poison or anything. It's just red water. Who on earth would do something like this? Looking at it, these insect-like things seem to be the problem—"
As always, Psyche was quick on the uptake.
Having already seen through both the culprit and their intent, I spoke without hesitation.
"Psyche, please call Miss Lucy Emma."
This morning, only a few people approached the well.
And I think I have a pretty good idea what Lucy Emma was after.
Lucy Emma.
She wasn't possessed by a ghost.
And if my guess was right, it wasn't tics or Tourette's either.
She was just a liar.
I had sincerely believed in Lucy Emma.
And she had used that trust of mine to pull a prank like this.
Unforgivable.
Guilty!
"Heehee."
Lucy Emma was in a good mood.
She had managed to get back at that wicked woman Anemone.
Anemone was a bad woman.
Every night she would sneak down to the shore and recite blasphemous prayers.
Anemone was definitely a witch! But no one ever believed me!
People called Lucy a liar.
No one believed a word she said.
Back in her childhood—
Wanting attention, Lucy had told all sorts of lies, and that was why people had come to hate her.
Now Anemone, who had been suspected by Lucy, tormented and scolded her relentlessly. Lucy had to handle all the chores every day, recite boring prayers, get berated, and take the whip.
But Hyde believed me! He scolded Anemone! And he said he'd get me off this island! He's the first person who ever believed me!
Lucy had never once left this island or the nunnery since the day she was born. Nuns came to the island or left it freely, yet only Lucy was never allowed to leave.
She would probably be trapped on this island until the day she died.
I want to go to the mainland too. At the very least I want to visit another nunnery! Why do I have to stay only in this one? Even Abbess Midnar won't let me leave!
Lucy studied the outside world solely through books.
The great cathedral.
Tall mountains.
Beautiful meadows and fields—to Lucy they were nothing but words on a page, never experiences or scenery.
I want to see them for myself! Not as letters, but as the real things!
So Lucy had made a plan.
A plan to get out of this nunnery.
She wanted to go to the mainland, tour the great cathedral, and eat something called ice cream.
She wanted to see puppies and flocks of sheep.
What had especially set her heart ablaze was a book she had happened to pick up not long ago: Gwichukdo.
The stories of the people written in it were so embarrassing they made her face burn, yet they made her feel that everyone was living their lives with all their might.
Everyone really was living hard.
Lucy felt that only her own life had stopped, and the sadness was more than she could bear.
I'm going to leave this island too! And by now everyone must be completely flipped out in shock, right? They'll think it's a curse. Rust's curse! That's what they'll think!
From a foreign book she had read long ago, she had learned a method of using insects to make water as red as blood, and she had thought it wonderfully mysterious.
Using that, she had dressed up the well to look as if it had received a "curse of blood."
To anyone who didn't know, it would look exactly like a real curse.
Then the nuns would abandon the monastery and leave, and Lucy too would finally be able to escape this nunnery and the detestable rock island.
They say Rust is an all-powerful man. Cursing a well on this island would be nothing to him. I'm just borrowing his name for a little while!
"Pffft."
She was laughing to herself over that thought when someone knocked on the door of her room.
"Who is it?"
"Miss Lucy, it's me, Psyche!"
Psyche.
One of the people Lucy liked. Psyche was kind and pure, and one of the few friends who always listened carefully to what Lucy said.
"Psyche! What brings you here? I was just about to ask if you wanted to go eat breakfast together—perfect timing!"
"Miss Lucy, I didn't come because of breakfast. Miss Lucy… have you been lying to me?"
"Lying? No!"
Lucy's conscience twinged, but she shook her head.
Psyche looked at her with narrowed eyes.
It was the same look the people who used to doubt Lucy had always given her.
"I'd like to believe that too. Lucy, from now on it's better if you're honest. There are people in this world who can help you. You shouldn't lie even to those people. It might not be my place to say this, but…"
With that, Psyche led Lucy somewhere.
The stone chapel.
Every nun was seated there in solemn silence, and the terrifying Abbess Midnar of the Grande Nunnery was holding a whip in her hand as well.
Hic!
Lucy was a little startled inside.
The atmosphere was far too strict and frightening.
Did they find out I contaminated the well water?
Cold sweat seemed to trickle down her back.
But she wasn't worried.
Lucy still had her secret weapon.
I'll just pretend to be mentally ill!
A book.
According to what she had read in a book Abbess Midnar had brought when she took office, there was research on a mental illness that made people spout nonsense.
Abbess Midnar was someone who viewed "the possessed" as "mentally ill," and Lucy had used that to feign mental illness, garnering sympathy and attention.
Hyde pitied me too!
When Abbess Midnar had been about to whip Lucy, Hyde had stepped forward and protected her.
It was the first time anything like that had ever happened, so Lucy had been deeply moved.
"Miss Lucy."
That same Hyde now called to her from in front of a chair placed at the very center of the chapel's platform.
"Why did you lie to me?"
"Me? I didn't lie!"
"Miss Lucy, I believe you're the only one who would know about cochineal insects. And last night, the one who wrote those letters in blood was also you, wasn't it?"
Lucy was stunned.
That the man from the mainland, Hyde, had seen through her crime in an instant!
From the look in his eyes, he clearly thought she was a liar.
In that case I have to use my secret weapon right away!
Lucy squeezed her eyes shut.
Then she trembled all over and began acting like a sick person.
"Sex! Cock! Pussy! Aaaargh-oh-roar-gh, cock!"
They were terribly embarrassing words.
Was there anyone who could say such things in their right mind?
Lucy was mortified, but she shouted them wildly, determined to play a real madwoman.
"I-I don't want to say these things! Sometimes another me I don't even know—another me just bursts out! I have another personality! It's called dual personality!"
"Dual personality?"
Hyde seemed interested.
Lucy realized that Hyde was kind enough to listen carefully to her story.
Just as Psyche had said, Hyde really was a good person!
"Dual personality! Inside me there's, um, another personality! So it makes me say and do things I don't want to! I, Lucy, haven't done anything wrong! The bad one is Emma!"
"I see. Then I shall drive out Miss Lucy's other personality for you. I know more about dissociative identity disorder than anyone else in this world."
Dissociative—what?
Lucy didn't understand Hyde's words.
Soon people began tying Lucy's hands and feet to the chair, and she was bound tight, unable to move.
Swish—
Hyde held out a coin dangling from a string in front of Lucy.
"Do you know what hypnotherapy is? Miss Lucy, you will now go inward and face your other personality."
Tics and Tourette's were incurable even in the twenty-first century.
Meaning even I couldn't fix them.
But fortunately—or unfortunately—Lucy was a "liar."
There was no illness to begin with.
So there was something I could do.
"Now then, you will fall into a hypnotic state. Please watch this coin carefully as it swings."
Hypnotherapy.
It was a treatment method that had begun to be properly established by an Austrian physician in the eighteenth century. In this barbaric world, hypnosis was the latest cutting-edge therapy—that was the idea.
Of course I had no idea how to actually perform hypnotherapy.
Just pretending roughly would be enough.
What better way to treat a fake illness than with a fake treatment?
Under the pretext of hypnotizing this wicked girl who had used lies to mess with people, I planned to give her a few good knuckle-raps and pinch her cheeks.
You need a good scolding!
"Now, Miss Lucy, when I snap my fingers you will sink into the deep world of your inner self until I snap them again. Three, two, one—"
Snap—
I flicked my fingers.
At once Lucy Emma's gaze went slack.
I asked that Lucy,
"All right, Lucy. Let's talk about when your other personality first appeared. Miss Lucy, how old were you, and where were you? What do you see?"
"Hyde."
"You see me? Who are you? Are you Miss Lucy's other personality?"
"I am Emma. Emma, who was burned to death by the nuns of this monastery! I told you I would return! I've come back to kill every last one of you!"
Emma.
Lucy Emma.
So the setting was that two people shared one name.
While I was thinking that, the nuns cried out in shock.
"E-Emma?"
"This has to be some kind of joke."
"Is it… really Emma?"
"I am Emma! The Emma you hung from a tree and burned to death!"
"Don't lie!"
"Why would we hang you and burn you?!"
"You crazy bitch!"
The nuns shouted furiously at Emma bound to the chair. Watching them, Milione even reacted with, "Everyone's getting so angry."
Of course the angriest of all was Lucy tied to the chair—or rather, the woman claiming to be Emma.
"The pain from back then! It's still so vivid! Until my body melted and my bones turned to ash I cried out, but not a single one of you saved me!!! I'll burn every last one of you to death the exact same way!!!"
Whoosh—
The candles and lamps burning in the dim chapel suddenly flared high. It was an astonishing sight, and the raging flames soon spread to the chapel itself.
Whoosh, whoooosh—!
Fire breaking out all of a sudden.
And this time it wasn't even a fire I had started?
As I felt bewilderment at the situation, Midnar clutched her own face.
"Is it the real Emma? She's exactly like Emma. Even the talent for mana—"
Mana.
At that word my eyes went wide.
I knew that "witches" and "mages" existed in this world, but most of them were fakes.
Divine power, aura, mana.
Among those three miracles, mana was said to be an extremely rare talent that only a handful were born with.
"S-save me! Emma! I was asleep back then! I didn't even know you were dying!"
"It was Anemone! Anemone was the one who said to burn you! I was against it!"
"Hiiiii! It's the real vengeful spirit of a witch! The witch has possessed her daughter and come to kill us!"
"Save me! Save me! I only threw one little piece of firewood! I never thought you'd die from that! It's true!"
The nuns went berserk.
They tried to escape the chapel, but the flames were too strong; they could neither advance nor retreat.
Watching the scene, Milione chuckled, "Heh heh."
"The chapel's on fire? Nice. I don't know what this is, but burn more! If the Grande Nunnery disappears I won't have to stay here for a whole year!"
She's lost it.
The only one I can trust is still Psyche.
"Psyche!"
"I know! If we stay like this we'll all burn to death! Hyde, from here on I'll handle it, so don't worry! Lucy! Stop!"
Flash—
Psyche threw herself at Lucy.
And she seized the thrashing Lucy.
"Lucy! Snap out of it!"
"We are Emma!"
Whooooosh—!
Flames bloomed across Lucy Emma's body. It was spontaneous combustion, and the heat was so intense it began to melt even Psyche's clothes—
I felt a premonition that this might actually be real.
It might be a real demon or ghost.
Then power surged through my body.
This was the moment I had to step in!
"Emma! So you were the ghost devouring Miss Lucy! In the name of the Lord I command you, Emma! Return to the place where you belong!!!!"
I shouted with all my strength.
Emma slowly turned her head toward me.
"Really? Hyde, have you ever heard the voice of God? Have you ever seen His form? Do you sincerely believe in a being you've never even seen? It's a lie, isn't it? Ha. Ha. Ha! The only things that exist in this world are demons!"
My exorcism—more devout and efficacious than anyone's—had no effect?
Strange.
If there were demons or ghosts, there was no way a priest as faithful as I couldn't drive them out.
So it's not a demon—
While I was thinking that, Psyche cried out in pain.
"Hyde! Don't listen to this woman's words! Just like that Rust, demons have tongues that beguile humans! Ugh! H-hot!"
"Honestly, really. Psyche, Hyde, what the hell are you two even doing."
Flash—
Milione moved and smashed Emma across the face.
It was a powerful blow, and Emma went flying into the wall.
Yet Emma rose to her feet as if nothing had happened.
"Hyde, don't you want to hear the secrets of the world? Whether that god you believe in so much even exists! We know everything. Ask us anything. We'll give you the answer."
They would tell me anything?
It was a tempting offer.
There were more things I wanted to ask than anyone else, after all.
Hoo— I steadied my breath amid the scorching heat.
"All right, Emma. So you're a being who knows every secret of the world? Then what's my name?"
"Hyde."
"Is that all?"
"……."
Lucy Emma could not answer my question. She seemed unable to understand the question itself, and she didn't seem to grasp its intent either.
Relief washed over me at that fact, while at the same time a wave of disappointment quietly soaked my heart.
As expected, she wasn't a demon.
"In the end you were a fake too. You're nothing like a demon. Dissociative identity disorder is a defense mechanism that arises from extreme trauma suffered in early childhood."
"What? We are demons! A legion of spirits!"
"No. You're nothing more than trauma, the memory of a woman burned to death pressed into you like soot. So—"
Lucy.
She was simply a person in pain.
There was no demon named Emma anywhere.
"Begone. Forever."
Snap—
I flicked my fingers once more.