The Punishment Hall (12)
The Punishment Hall (12)
Click.
The muzzle came off. Eve raised her eyes, freed from the suffocating pressure.
There was someone in front of her. A guard. He was tall, but there was something unfinished about him. He looked complete on the outside, but his physical age was clearly young.
She had seen many people. That was why she could tell by instinct. The man before her probably had not even reached adulthood. His body had simply grown too fast, and his mind clearly had not caught up.
Pitifully, he still had many days left to live. He would spend that time stained with pain.
I have to help him.
"What I have to say..."
"Just a moment. Why won't this work?"
He scrubbed the shower ball vigorously, as if it would not lather. Eve waited quietly.
Now that she could speak, waiting a little was no problem.
Because once the conversation began, that would be the end of it.
"Oh. There we go. I'm Zahard. You can just call me Zahard, no honorifics needed."
The shower ball lathered. The man in front of her casually handed it over.
"How about we talk while you wash up a bit? That okay?"
"...Yes."
She slowly rubbed it over her skin.
"...Nn."
Eve let out a faint moan without realizing it. A strange feeling.
The long-accumulated grime came away. The soft shower ball glided over her roughened skin.
It felt like her rotting body was waking up. Eve slowly rubbed herself down.
The world grows peaceful through death, but it was still too early to die. She had to slowly scrub the rot from her body.
To save even one more person from the pain called life.
To save pitiful humanity, which dreamed of meaningless miracles.
Endure the pain. Because foolish humanity needed a wise teacher.
"Feels refreshing?"
"...Yes."
Eve, who had answered without thinking, came back to her senses. Her hand stopped scrubbing.
She asked before the conversation began. She was curious.
Why would he do something like this? He was a guard, and they were prisoners.
"Why did you clean the room?"
"Because it was dirty."
"...Why are you washing prisoners?"
"Since I'm going to be seeing them anyway, wouldn't it be nicer if they were clean?"
"......"
What was this? This answer that defied common sense.
Eve let her shoulders slump. For some reason, she felt like a fool for having been tense.
But it did not matter. She only needed to have a conversation.
She began. She whispered to him.
"Zahard. Have you ever felt that life has no meaning at all?"
"I have, actually?"
".......?"
"Well, everything disappears when you die anyway, right? Isn't that so?"
"No... um..."
Eve blinked.
"That is true, but..."
"I think you need to scrub that inner part a bit more."
"Ah. Yes."
Eve, who had been scrubbing hard, raised her head again. Come to think of it, she should not have answered with "Ah. Yes."
She asked again. This time she put a little more force into her voice.
"If you think that way... why did you choose the side of the living? I don't understand why you would put effort into something meaningless."
"To enjoy it."
"Enjoy...?"
"They're moments that are going to disappear anyway. So I'm alive to enjoy them a little more. They're experiences you can't feel once you're dead. If everyone dies anyway, I want to experience at least a little more of what others couldn't."
".......?"
No, it did make sense, but...
"...The pleasure of being alive is far less than the amount of pain you feel while living."
The pattern engraved on her tongue glowed. The serpent's tongue she had been born with.
But Zahard casually flicked away the power laced in her voice as if it were nothing.
"There's plenty of pleasure too, though?"
"Huh?"
Something white popped into the air and rolled across the floor. Eve stared at it blankly.
What was that?
What was with this man? How could he keep his reason after hearing my words? No, wait, was that something that could be flicked away in the first place?
"I'm getting sleepy just standing around while working. Want me to help scrub your back at least?"
"Um... I mean..."
"Good grief. Give it here. Why are your hands so slow?"
The shower ball was taken from her. Eve, flustered, turned around and let him scrub her back.
Scrub, scrub, scrub.
As the caked-on grime peeled away, Eve lost her words. What was this? Why had things suddenly turned out like this?
This was the first time I'd met someone my power didn't work on. Hadn't even the countless inquisitors of the Sun God Church been beguiled by my words and killed themselves with their own swords?
If I hadn't been captured by those who burst their eardrums before approaching, I wouldn't even be here. I'd thought that if conversation worked, victory was certain.
The one scrubbing my back right now... what kind of monster beyond common sense was he...?
"You... are not an ordinary person."
"Where in the world is there an ordinary person? Everyone's special."
"......?"
"You're unusual too. Have you had that power from the start?"
Ordinary conversation. Things she had not had in a very long time.
Eve nodded without thinking. She quietly opened her mouth and answered.
"I... suppose so...?"
"Did you go around persuading people with that power from the beginning?"
"...No. I didn't. If anything, I was reluctant to open my mouth."
Conversing with people had been uncomfortable.
Being able to control people at will was not as pleasant as one might think. If she mixed desire into her words, the person before her would turn into a doll.
She could obtain what she wanted, but it did not bring her anything special. If anything, it was uncomfortable.
Because her own parents had treated what she possessed as taboo, as something filthy.
They had called her... a demon's child, was it?
That was around the time.
When books that did not answer even when asked became more comfortable.
"I liked books... a little more than people."
Knowledge was something that became more enjoyable the more it accumulated. Even if it was knowledge that did not directly involve magic or power, simply learning was enjoyable.
"What kind of book did you like the most?"
"...'Ariadna's Hundred Recipes'..."
"Hundred Recipes? Are you good at cooking?"
"No. But I found it fascinating that small differences always produced different results..."
Water was poured over her once. The filth washed away.
"When did you lose interest in books?"
"......"
Eve hesitated to answer.
It was a story she would never tell under normal circumstances. But long solitude had softened the boundaries of her heart.
Water at just the right temperature, warm steam rising. Even the moist shower ball scratching at every itchy spot.
"...Probably."
Eve spoke without realizing it.
"It was when I... taught children."
"Children?"
"I took on a few disciples once. There were children in a village who wanted to learn letters... I only meant to teach them a few words, but..."
Eve let out a small laugh without realizing it. Whenever she thought of those children, she would forget even her mission and sink into laughter.
They had been adorable children. Though she would never see them again.
"What happened to them?"
"They all died."
"......."
Silence followed. Eve was very familiar with that silence.
If she closed her eyes, she remembered. The song the children had sung as they surrounded her.
But she could no longer hear it. War had swept those children away, buried them in mounds of earth... and made it so they would never open their mouths again.
How fleeting human life was.
Knowledge that had seemed eternal returned to nothing when a person collapsed. She would never hear the sound of their chattering songs again.
They were children worn down by poverty. They laughed sometimes, but if one mouth was fed, another had to go hungry.
Everyone was like that. And then they died.
"...I am a teacher."
Teaching children had been enjoyable. Guiding them onto the right path had been good.
That was why she had to teach the people of the world. That life was pain, and how fleeting the hope dreamed by those who always struggled in poverty truly was.
How utterly meaningless it was to cling to hope that could not even be held, to suffer endlessly, and only then find rest too late.
"Guiding people onto the right path is my mission. It is something only I can do. Something only I must do."
"I see."
"...You don't argue with me."
"There's nothing in particular to deny. Although, hmm... there is something I'd like to teach you."
"Teach... me? No matter how much you whisper your thoughts to me, I will not change."
Yes. I will not change.
I will still go around teaching people. I will go outside and lead more lives to salvation.
If life is hell, then what lies beyond death is heaven. Because people are pitiful, and always in need of someone's help.
Zahard shrugged.
"It's not something I can do through conversation, so it'll take a little time."
"I don't know what you mean."
"People often delude themselves into thinking they know everything. And the thing that shatters that is always among the things they carelessly overlooked."
He casually handed her the soap.
"Scrub your hands clean too."
"......"
"We'll have plenty of time to talk from now on, so don't worry."
Warm water was poured over her head once more. Eve nodded.
Yes. If she met him with sincerity, he would understand too. She did not even need the serpent's tongue.
She just had to teach him.
How fleeting life was.
. . .
I stretched long and hard. I stared blankly at Amar as she swam around in the jar with splashes.
Her white hair spread across the water. Our gazes met after she'd been enjoying the bath with her eyes closed.
Then she immediately rolled over. I sighed at the vicious weapon floating up above the water.
"Want to hold me?"
"I'm fine."
Almost no filth came off her. She was clean. The only thing on her in the first place was old dust.
She did not excrete even after eating. Nor did sweat run from her body.
She was clean by nature. Then what was the filth in her room? Simple.
It was leftover food scraps. What she ate was immediately converted into magical power. It could be called an inherent ability of the Demon Species.
Simply increasing power by eating.
I poured water over Amar's head. She turned her head like a puppy and glanced at me.
"I don't really need to wash."
"I know. But sometimes it's not bad to relax your body, right?"
She was different from the others. I had to approach slowly. The more I tried to rush it, the more things would get tangled.
Leisurely. That was the mindset for dealing with Amar.
"...Aren't you turned on by me?"
"I am."
"Then why don't you do it?"
"If I did whatever I wanted just because I was turned on, I'd be no different from a beast."
"Don't you love me?"
"That's still pending."
Amar frowned as if she could not understand. I poked her nose.
"Relax your body. I won't do anything, so enjoy your bath."
"I'd rather you pounce on me."
"It's bad for my body."
I left her alone until the bath was over. Unless she spoke first, I did not speak either.
Just casually offering kindness as if it were the most natural thing, and that was it.
I dried her off and dressed her. Amar tilted her head at the loose prisoner uniform as if it felt strange.
"What about the restraints?"
"They're uncomfortable."
"I'm dangerous, you know?"
"So am I."
That was that.
All five had been washed.
I took a deep breath. A full day had passed. I paid the contractors who had finished the work and rolled my arms in circles.
My shoulders had stiffened from the repetitive work all day. Valkan especially had resisted fiercely at first, so washing him had been exhausting.
Never in my life did I think the day would come when I would personally wash a grown man's body.
Let's rest for today. I turned off the lights in the cellblock.
I carried Maya out of the cellblock and locked the door. Let's see. I should wash up too...
"Have you gotten used to Cellblock 10?"
I ran into someone. A face I had never seen before. I sighed; the way he spoke so casually to me right off the bat rubbed me the wrong way.
He was obviously here to cause trouble. You could tell just from his face. An expression desperate to pick a fight.
A bastard whose territory had been invaded. And from the look of him, he was not just a guard but seemed to be a warden.
Let's see. If he was a warden who would go out of his way to talk to me... the one originally in charge of Cellblock 10...
Was he an extra?
"...Are you Warden Rupes?"
"Drop the title. Just call me Rupes. No need to be formal."
He smiled slickly. Unlike Veronica, an unpleasant smell of alcohol mixed with stench wafted from him.
"We're both not ordinary people, right?"
"...Excuse me?"
"I know your secret. Hm? So let's talk openly. Inquisitor Zahard."
A title I had never mentioned came out of his mouth.
Rupes leaned against the wall.
"Why did Divine Judge Dimona send you here?"
"...What?"
"Ah, it's fine. You can tell me."
He grinned.
"Because I'm also someone the Judge planted in the Punishment Office."
...Ah.
At those words, my mind spun rapidly.
The conclusion came quickly.
So it was this bastard.
The one who intercepted Dimona's letter!