The Paramere Search Operation (21)
The Paramere Search Operation (21)
There was a monster.
A monster who had loved a human.
And there was a human who had not loved the monster, but had pretended to love him because she needed him.
A story from before Paramer flourished. A story from when it was still nothing more than a small village, with hardly any development at all.
The story of when a single clock tower had been all they possessed flowed from Fer Bach's lips.
"...Aris is my ancestor. She is a different person from the Clock Tower Slave Aris. A person from hundreds of years ago... that is, the wife of Bach. When Paramer was still a village, she was the one rumored to be the prettiest. If she had a flaw, it was only that her body was terribly frail."
Fer Bach pointed downward.
"Back then, Paramer had a legend. That sometimes a frightening sound came from the underdeveloped underground mining tunnels. That a strange sound, like the cry of a monster, could be heard."
Flora cut into the conversation.
"...So he was the cause of Paramer?"
"Correct. And Aris was a frail but brave girl. Her ambition was great as well. She wanted to move her ailing body more freely and develop all of Paramer."
"...Don't tell me, with that monster..."
"What you are thinking is right. Aris went everywhere with the attendant Bach. Bach loved her, and Aris felt the same. Then a monster came between them. The monster of the underground tunnels. A monster who had lived for who knows how long in the fathomless depths beneath the clock tower."
Fer Bach let out a sigh.
"Aris encountered that monster. It was thoroughly intentional. She had wanted to meet that monster from the very beginning. She longed for him to become her strength. Aris was a very cunning woman. She whispered love to the monster so as not to be eaten, and visited the underground tunnels every day to ease his loneliness. My ancestor Bach was always at her side as well. It is a story that can also be found in his diary."
"...Ugh. All I can see here are passages full of jealousy. There's even a ton of profanity..."
"As I said before, the two were lovers. They simply kept that fact from the monster. Would you not be angry watching the woman you love seduce something that is not even human? But Aris and Bach both endured it. They saw a future in the monster."
A page turned. Flora frowned.
"...What is this?"
"The truth."
"But this is..."
A list.
Every name written on it had a line struck through it.
"A kill list... is the truth?"
"It was the monster's power. The monster was involved in everything that benefited Paramer. His help was a major reason a mere village grew into a great city. He eliminated competitors and helped turn Paramer into a metropolis. Aris, who even received a noble title in recognition of that achievement, seemed to have fulfilled her ambition. But..."
"...W-wait a moment."
Flora hastily flipped the page back.
"H-here, so... did Bach write this too? All of these curse-like words?"
"Bach was Aris's lover. As I said before, he must have felt as though his spouse had been taken from him. Even if it was all an act."
"B-but this is..."
Dry saliva slid down her throat.
"C-can a person... write such words tearing someone down and hating them? Even though he was a monster who helped them?"
"To them, the monster was nothing more than a 'monster' with a human heart. They did not treat him as a person. He was an errand boy who would step forward for necessary tasks, nothing more and nothing less. If the monster's usefulness ever ended, they were ready to seal him at any time."
"B-but still, this is too cruel..."
I looked over Flora's shoulder. Red writing. Curse words, each letter as if murderous intent had been pressed firmly into it.
My head throbbed. Just looking at the letters was enough to feel the hostility.
A diary written by a woman who had lain with a monster she loathed for the sake of her own ambition, and by the man who could only watch her.
Fer Bach spoke calmly. His eyes were deeply somber.
"Paramer became a great city. Aris's household was overflowing with money and power. She could command private soldiers with a flick of one hand, so she no longer needed the monster."
"S-so they used him for everything and then sealed him back away?! That's absurd...!"
"She was that kind of person. And surprisingly, the monster also cooperated. As Aris gained more enemies and they realized he was behind her successes, the church, practically a core power of the Empire at the time, moved. If the connection between the monster and Paramer came to light, the woman he loved would clearly be dragged into it too, so the monster chose to go to sleep himself. One side's love was a lie, but the other's was a love worth giving his life for."
"...I-it's too... cruel a story..."
"When the monster disappeared, Aris married Bach. Bach had been a mere attendant, but he raised his family name all the way to the lordship of Paramer. Aris lived happily, and Bach did not suffer so much as a minor illness until he died of old age. The diary records a few small troubles... but nothing serious. They both found a happy ending."
For pieces of trash, it was a happy ending.
"...And then."
Fer Bach let out a sigh.
"Several hundred years passed after Paramer became a great city. We continued to dig down into the earth. Underground resources overflowed there, and they were practically the driving force that allowed Paramer to maintain its wealth. Digging... and digging... continuing to dig down like that..."
"...The sleeping monster woke up?"
"That is correct. The sound of the excavators reached the fathomlessly deep underground pit where the monster had walked down alone."
The story after that, well, it can be found in the letters too. He wandered here and there, dug up traces of his old lover, and in doing so came to realize the truth.
A love built on false affection. Yet memories of the past he still could not forget.
In the end, there is only one conclusion.
In the buried time capsule, the monster saw records he should never have seen.
The monster, who had abandoned his humanity, stopped choosing for himself. He approached the Clock Tower Slave who resembled Aris and desperately begged her to use him as a tool, just like before.
The Clock Tower Slave, the girl who received the name 'Aris,' granted his request. It was also a request from a friend she had kept secret from the others, and when the 'freedom' she had so longed for came from his lips, she could not bring herself to refuse.
The story of the two began that way and was soon extinguished. Aris did not obtain the freedom she wanted and was imprisoned in the clock tower, and the monster, as a result of clashing with Paramer's last forces, was separated from her and sealed at the top of the clock tower.
But...
Here, the ones called Fallen intervened. Those who should have met their ends separately ended up meeting.
I stood up. Perhaps because I already knew the whole story, it felt like having my homework checked.
"Fer Bach. The story is over, right?"
"...Yes. It is over."
"Then you should be leaving?"
"......"
Fer Bach looked up at the shaking Paramer. The trembling that had not stopped since earlier.
"...Aris is preparing to go outside. The Clock Tower Slaves wanted freedom. She, too, probably... wanted freedom."
"Don't pretend to be sentimental. You don't have the right."
"I know. Priest. But... Aris will not stop until she finds true freedom. To her, freedom is a world without the adults who oppress her. That is, she will try to exterminate most of humanity."
Fer Bach whispered.
"Priest."
"......"
"Would you please stop Aris?"
"For words spoken to atone, isn't that a bit too shameless? You're trying to push even the final responsibility onto me."
"I know. But..."
Fer Bach closed his eyes.
"Since I have finally seen things properly, albeit belatedly, I will take responsibility. I will teach you how to control the city defense system hidden beneath the city of Paramer. If it is that magical machine sleeping deep within the treasure vault... it will be able to stop Aris."
What?
That’s new to me. I didn’t even know about that setting in the game.
"...There's something like that? Why didn't you use it sooner?"
"I did not know the situation would spread this far. And that is a siege weapon. It was too ambiguous to use on that night, which was like a plague. If fired internally, it was clear that the citizens of Paramer would be caught up in it, so even if I wanted to use it, I could not. I will give you the key to the treasure vault as well. If you need anything, you may use it there immediately."
Flora bit her lip.
"Why now, after all this... if you were going to regret it, you should have done something about that clock tower long ago...!"
"As you said, Priest, it is already too late for regret. No matter what is said to the past me who thought of the slaves as mere numbers, reality will not change."
Fer Bach raised his head.
"Priest. Would you pray for me?"
"Tch."
I clicked my tongue. Still, he was handing over everything he had, so one prayer was the least I could do.
"I won't lie. Fer Bach. You will suffer even in death."
"That is a dreadful thing to hear."
Fer Bach smiled.
"Still, I’m glad my end won’t be an ugly one."
. . .
The Clock Tower Slave Aris opened her eyes.
「One isn't enough! There have to be a whole lot of us to get out of here!」
Someone had said that. She slowly traced back through her memories.
...Ah.
Pelsis had said that. Short hair. A lively personality. The child who had been in charge of the lower part of the gears.
She had been a friend. Aris hugged her knees.
...Had she been a friend?
Honestly, she did not know. Now, even if she wanted to ask, she could not.
She hoped... that she had been a friend...
"......."
The monster, Pierre, whispered. Aris nodded.
Pierre granted what she wanted. When she wanted help, he guided her to the right path.
But unlike before, they could not have a proper conversation. When he had first come to the clock tower, he had definitely seemed human. But now it was different.
Now they could no longer converse. From the moment he had told her to use him, the monster had become a monster that was no longer human.
All she could do was ask, and all he could do was answer.
Aris stared blankly ahead from within the rotten throne.
"...I want to go out."
What form would the freedom she had dreamed of all along inside the clock tower take?
Aris was curious. The Paramer she had looked down upon from the clock tower had been very beautiful. The world sinking into the calm sunset had made her eyes sparkle.
If the city was like that, what would the outside be like?
Would endless water stretch out as Pelsis had said? She had heard that somewhere there was nothing but ice; was that true too?
...She was curious.
Aris stroked the risen shadow. The countless eyes in the darkness quietly closed.
As if dreaming, Aris also closed her eyes.
Inside the clock tower, and here too, it was the same.
When she closed her eyes, as always... she could hear the sound of a carriage.
. . .
The beginning had been unfamiliar. The carriage stopped, and the world spread out before her was too much for a child to bear.
"Get down."
The girl was among the many children. She had to limp because of the shackles around her ankles.
Adults.
There were many adults there. But not a single one met her eyes.
"Wouldn't it be fine to skim off one or two?"
"What would you use these little brats for?"
"Sell them back to Paramer."
"Stop it. If we get caught, our heads will fly."
The same.
They all looked at her the same way she looked at objects.
The girl's life began anew there. She maintained the clock tower's parts, slept in the clock tower's basement, lived inside the clock tower, and once a day, she could look down upon Paramer from the top of the clock tower.
Ten minutes a day.
That was the only time of freedom given to her.
"You see it?"
The clock tower's manager grinned as he showed her Paramer at sunset.
"Paramer is a beautiful city. Don't forget that the harder you work, the more beautifully that city shines."
It was a sight so beautiful it was mesmerizing. Shining roofs. Countless people dyed in brilliant light. Delicious smells. White mist rising from chimneys.
Someone muttered.
"...I want to go out."
The answer came back as a beating.
"You only think about repairing the clock tower! Stop talking nonsense!"
The girl swallowed the words, "It's pretty." She felt she would be beaten the moment she said even that aloud.
Life repeated like a wheel turning. The girl worked silently. If a part she was responsible for broke, she had to go hungry for that entire day.
Tasteless bread. A cup of water.
Even that meager meal, barely enough to keep her body moving, would be taken away.
"Don't eat a lot! If you eat, your body grows! You have to eat as little as possible! Remember that if you eat a lot and your body swells, you become useless!"
The manager always carried a whip. When a problem occurred in the clock tower, he called that child over and struck their back painfully.
The girl had been beaten several times too. It was a pain she never wanted to experience again. Her body was already frail from not getting enough to eat; it was more than she could bear.
"Don't make mistakes! You must not make mistakes!"
Mistakes.
The girl learned what that "mistake" meant three days after she arrived.
A child got caught in the gears. The girl, whose eyes met theirs, reached out her hand.
But before that, blood sprayed first.
The mouth that had been secretly talking was crushed. The red hair, dirty because it had not been washed but pretty, tangled deep into the gears.
Crunch.
The sound was horrifying.
"...Ah."
The girl stared at the stopped clock tower. What had been a child was now a lump of meat slowly swaying in the gears.
It no longer moved. It just dangled left and right.
"You stupid bastards! How many times have I told you not to make mistakes!"
That night, everyone was beaten. The girl, because she had been in the seat next to the corpse, slowly cleaned the soiled parts. She peeled off the skin and placed the crushed lips into a puddle.
That was when she first thought it.
That she wanted to escape this place.
"Let's run away together."
Everyone listened to the words whispered before sleep by the child named Pelsis. He was lively and sparkled with dreams. He was also a child the girl had often glanced at.
"To escape from here, one or two of us aren't enough. We need a lot of people. Everyone will help me, and together we'll overpower the manager."
"C-can we do it by ourselves...?"
"We can! Once we get out of here, we're free. You're all sick of the clock tower now, right? Right?"
Pelsis smiled brightly.
"Let's get away from the adults who locked us up and make our own village! We'll eat as much as we want and sleep as much as we want!"
He glanced at the girl. It was the first moment their eyes met.
"You'll come too, right?"
The girl nodded. She clasped his hand.
Tomorrow, I can finally be free.
Barely containing the excitement swelling in her chest, the girl rose the next day. And then she saw it.
Pelsis was hanging by the neck in the basement.
"Your home is here. Know that if you plot strange schemes, this is what happens."
A corpse with its tongue sticking out. The face that had been smiling brightly was strangely rigid. The girl stared blankly at him.
The manager muttered.
"Now I have to buy another slave. There's always one of them, I swear. These stupid bastards."
The girl wanted to speak.
That he was not stupid at all.
That he was, rather, a truly wonderful person.
"......"
But no voice came out. She did not want to become like him.
She did not want to die. The girl wanted to obtain freedom.
Freedom that was not death.
Time passed. The girl's body slowly grew, but eventually her growth stopped while she was still small. Malnourished, her body remained childlike, and even as she aged, her height barely changed.
The girl became the longest-serving Clock Tower Slave. But even so, she still longed for freedom.
Ten minutes a day.
That time when she looked out at Paramer.
Even on the day when everyone was so sick of it that they chose to rest instead, the girl was looking down at the outside. And she met him.
"...Aris?"
The moment she first received the name 'Aris.'
That day, the girl's stopped time began to move as well.
In the time when the clock tower's minute hand rang, she reached out her hand.
"...Yeah."
The voice she had not used in a long time was unfamiliar.
But she did not dislike it.
. . .
Aris opened her eyes. The surroundings were quiet. The rotten flesh writhed silently, creating an endless army.
Pierre said that this was how she could obtain 'freedom.' Aris nodded.
Let's make an army, finish preparing, and then go outside Paramer.
Kill all the adults who get in my way, then go see the things I wanted to see.
That is true freedom.
"...Aris is."
Muttering the name given to her, the girl hugged her knees.
"Aris... will be free."
That is how it will be.
...That is how it must be.
Because it is what she had dreamed of all along.