Heresy (Finale)
...Spouting shit out of your mouth, you crazy bitch.
Ser's face went blank for a moment at Cartia's scathing curse, then crumpled into a pout.
"Saying I spit dung from my mouth... your words are far too harsh. Even a genius like me gets hurt hearing something like that."
Why the hell does it even connect like that??
Ser had been drooping her lips and pretending to wipe away tears, but she lifted her head as if nothing had happened.
"Back when Noah-nim didn't wake for a whole week."
Uh.
"When I approached Noah-nim, Carpeng's blood aura bit me. Do you remember?"
Ah... right. That happened.
"N-neh...? R-really...?"
"Yes. The skin on my arm was completely torn off."
Ser rubbed her right arm and pulled another tearful face.
"It hurt so much I even shed tears, drip drip. Sob sob."
"U-uhh... a-are you okay now...?"
"It still stings. If Noah-nim would kindly spread ointment into every little corner with those soft, dainty, fluffy little hands of yours—"
"It's all lies, Noah. She didn't cry at all. She just grinned like a pervert."
Rubia cut her off, face twisted in disgust.
"A pervert, you say. But the skin really was torn off. Rubia-nim treated me, so you know how bad it was. Nerves shredded, muscles shredded to ribbons... sob sob."
"That... is true."
"Hmm. We'll save the ointment for when it's just the two of us next time. After getting bitten like that, I realized something."
Rubia's expression, which had briefly smoothed out, twisted again at the words "just the two of us."
Ser ignored her completely and, with a shameless look, summoned a tiny spirit onto her palm.
"I hate saying it myself, but first of all, I am a spirit mage."
She rolled the spirit back and forth across her hand.
"Therefore, I can feel a spirit's energy and emotions."
With a sharp hwaak—! she reverse-summoned the spirit and looked straight at me.
"And I felt those same things in the fangs of Carpeng that tore my flesh."
...What?
"A longing directed toward Cartia-nim, and another emotion I couldn't understand. There are almost no emotions a genius like me fails to grasp, but a few still elude me."
So that means...
"The most representative of those is love."
Oh, for fuck's sake.
"Longing and love, no less. Don't they go rather well together?"
Bullshit.
"That's why I grew curious about the relationship between Carpeng and Cartia-nim."
Fuck off.
"Unfortunately I do not possess a cock. So, what exactly is the relationship between you two? It seems like a bond stretching back to the Age of Chaos, yet I simply cannot comprehend it."
Haa... the Age of Chaos, huh...
The irritation on Cartia's face mixed with other emotions—question, longing, anger, unease.
I don't remember the details. But... one thing's for sure. That Carpeng is a female. A beastman who looked human.
"...Wow."
Ser stared at Cartia with genuine surprise.
"Then with the tail, perhaps?"
Quit spouting dogshit and explain properly. So what, you're saying Carpeng is a spirit?
"Mm, not quite. To begin with, these things called spirits are... mm... aha."
Ser tilted her head, patted herself down, then nodded as if a brilliant idea had struck her and continued.
"I'm not sure how best to explain this, but the power of spirits has a different grain from the mana humans use. Something closer to the source... that sort of feeling. And as for where it originates..."
She broke off. An unfamiliar aura began to pour from her body.
Thin threads of energy tangled together, thickening into stems until—
"It originates from the World Tree, Yggdrasil."
—they formed the shape of a small tree.
...Hey. This...
"Yes. By now Cartia-nim must have felt it too. The energy you and Carpeng carry is of a similar grain to the energy Yggdrasil possesses."
Ser raised her arm, plucked a leaf from the Yggdrasil with a soft tok—, and held it out to Cartia.
"Isn't that so?"
The leaf fluttered through the air with a rustle and drifted into Cartia's hand, then—
Yeah, it's similar, all right.
—slipped into her body with a quiet sseureuk—.
I had been listening with bated breath. Finally I edged closer to Rubia and asked carefully.
"Uh... Rubia. Then... is Cartia-nim not a ghost but a spirit...?"
"No. It's not like that. They say she's something similar to a spirit, but... well..."
Rubia crossed her arms, tapping her lips, then swallowed and looked at Ser.
"Ah, Ser-nim. Don't tell me..."
"Fufu, so you remembered everything I told you before? What a good student you are."
Ser waved her arm, dispersing the Yggdrasil form, and smiled at Rubia.
"I expect she will fulfill a role similar to Yggdrasil's."
"Uung...? Rubia, what does that mean?"
"Ah, well... how do I even explain this..."
Rubia chewed her words, unable to choose them, and finally shot Ser a helpless look.
Cartia and I turned our faces toward Ser as well.
Fucking hell, why can't anyone just explain anything? Just spit out the facts. What the hell is that tree's role?
Under those stares, Ser said,
"...I refuse."
What?
"Eh..."
"I do not wish to speak of it."
Her expression twisted in a rare show of genuine discomfort.
Are the two of you messing with me right now?
"No."
Then shit, what is it? Why won't you talk?
"If I bring that story up, it hurts me too much."
You like pain.
"I do not. Cartia-nim, what exactly do you take me for?"
A crazy bitch.
"Sob sob. Ser is hurt."
...No.
"Please apologize at once. It feels as though my chest is being torn open. Sob sob."
Ser hung her head and trembled her shoulders... and it really did look like she was wounded.
...S-sorry.
"Yes. That was an apology that felt sincere. Thank you. At any rate, I cannot speak of it. Rubia-nim, please lend some weight to my words. Two against one is far too disadvantageous."
And just like that, as if nothing had happened,
Ser calmly lifted her head again and looked at Rubia.
"Uh... how should I explain this to them?"
"Just tell them exactly what you saw back then. That will be enough."
"Mm..."
Rubia glanced at me for a moment, then carefully opened her mouth.
"Blood poured from every hole in her body. Her skin flipped inside out while every muscle and blood vessel twisted and knotted."
"U-ugh..."
"Her bones warped until they could no longer hold a human shape, and her organs all melted away... until she no longer looked like anything you could call human."
"U-uuhh... r-really?"
"...Yes."
Then how the fuck is she still alive...?
"Fufu, because I am a genius. In any case, that is how it was. With an important subjugation ahead, having my body ruined like that would be troublesome. Half a month has passed since then, yet the aftereffects have not completely vanished. I ask for your understanding."
Haa... this is pissing me off.
Cartia chewed over Ser's words, then rose from her seat.
Anyway, you felt emotions from Carpeng, right?
"Yes. I am certain."
Fine. That's enough.
Then, with a complicated expression swirling with all sorts of feelings, she looked at me—
and vanished.
"...Uh."
"It seems she has a great deal to think about."
"Uumm..."
Cartia, who always wore easy-to-read expressions and was so straightforward and sly, suddenly acting like that...
Something about it felt strange.
"Come here, Noah."
"Neeh..."
Rubia gave me a bitter smile and lifted me onto her lap.
"Noah-nim. Do you sense anything particular from the Tyrant's Fragment?"
"Neeh. Ah, I haven't used it even once yet, so I don't know..."
I raised a hand and stroked the choker where the fragment was set.
A cold chill I hadn't noticed before seeped from it.
"Hmm, understood. Should anything strange ever make itself known, please consult me at any time. And while you're at it, you can apply the ointment as well."
"I'll kindly apply the ointment myself. Packed full of divine power."
"Mm, excellent. I shall enjoy Rubia-nim's suggestive touch."
Ser chuckled, rose, and headed for the door.
"I shall take my leave. Please enjoy your intimate time together."
Click—
Once she was certain Ser had gone far enough, Rubia let out a long sigh and began stroking my thigh.
"Huu... these days, shocking stories just keep pouring out."
"My head... feels like it's going to explode..."
"Fufufu... I'll explain it all again later. So for today, don't think about anything complicated. Just rest well."
Rubia's breath tickled the nape of my neck.
"Neeh..."
Leaning my whole self into the warmth of Rubia's embrace, I thought back.
To the priestess's sacrifice scene I had watched over and over in the game.
Beneath the Black Sun.
The priestess with eight pairs of wings spread wide, blackened hair streaming.
And behind her, stretching exactly like the one Ser had shown—
the enormous tree, Yggdrasil.
Cartia and Carpeng, who carried the same energy as Yggdrasil.
And me, connected to them.
Perhaps.
When the final moment arrived.
I would—
Drip—
Suddenly a thick stream of liquid ran from my nose.
"Oh my, Noah, your nose is bleeding..."
"Uung...? W-well, yeah..."
As if confirming my guess—
or telling me to stop thinking—
I felt the blood pouring freely and smiled.
"What on earth were you imagining to make you smile while bleeding from the nose?"
"Hehe... thinking about Rubia..."
"...Let's go to the room."
"Neeh...?"
"We still have unfinished business from earlier. It's urgent. Hurry."
"Hiek..."
And so time passed.
Two days before the subjugation.
Cartia, who had vanished after the conversation with Ser, still had not shown herself.
Sirin had not returned either.
Leaving all of that behind,
we stepped out of the cave and headed for Cartia.
And there we met her.
"Waaah! It's been so long."
Severely wounded,
"Noah-yang, and Rubia-nim."
pouring blood yet smiling all the same—
Hermila.