In the Forest Where an Impossible Season Has Fallen (2)
I stared down at Pirel where she sat slumped among the fallen leaves. Whether from the lingering shock of memories steeped in pitch-black corruption or from the forest’s biting autumn wind, the goosebumps on the girl’s slender arms stood out with painful clarity.
“I’m sorry, Pirel. I preserved those memories without even asking what you wanted… And thank you for saving me.”
I had to apologize to the one who had been forced to carry such a heavy burden.
“It’s okay. Because you did that, I was able to… save Kaira. I’m… I-I’m fine……”
Even as she spoke, Pirel’s small frame continued to tremble.
The memory of corruption—when her will was no longer her own and her reason had been erased. The nightmare of it. And though the opponent had been little more than a headless corpse, the memory of her first kill.
Today’s events would surely haunt Pirel’s dreams for years to come.
…She really is the one who gave birth to me. To endure memories like that without her heart shattering… just that fact alone commands respect.
Rin’s voice bubbled up inside my head. For someone who claimed not to understand human hearts, she had plenty to say. I gave my daughter a quiet command.
Rin. Do what must be done.
Yes…? What… must be done…?
She was sitting inside my mind and still hadn’t caught on.
Or perhaps she simply didn’t want to.
Devour the brains inside those three severed heads.
Ugh……
The slime in my head let out a disgusted groan. Still, she knew it had to be done. We needed to learn who these people were and what they had hoped to achieve by doing this.
What’s wrong? For a cold-blooded slime, you’re awfully squeamish. You’re supposed to be worse than me, Rin.
That’s not it. Mom… the decision you made earlier to keep Lady Pirel’s memories, it’s strange. It scares me… You’re not the mother I used to know.
Is that so.
I lifted my hand and examined the back of it. The corrupted flesh—black veins crawling across skin so white it looked like a grotesque mosaic—remained unchanged.
…Is this the reason?
Though I had kept my will and reason intact, the corruption scattered throughout my body could not have left my mind untouched. The fact that I could so casually order her to eat a brain—was that truly because of this?
It doesn’t matter. I can simply rewind it.
"Rewind."
⟨ Time Rewinding ⟩
A chill settled over me.
It seemed that a body steeped in demonic energy had even lost its ordinary senses. The late-autumn wind lashed at my bare, unclothed skin. Only then did I realize how freezing it was—cold enough to raise goosebumps.
“Haa… Now that I’ve returned my body to normal, I finally feel the cold. A body dulled by corruption might actually be rather convenient……”
Pirel scolded me in a voice that sounded exactly like a worried mother: asking what on earth I was thinking, telling me never to willingly accept demonic energy again, and ordering me to put clothes on right this instant. Seeing her like that brought a small smile to my lips. A soft rustling reached my ears—Rin’s split bodies, transformed into squirrels, scurrying over to gnaw at the insides of the five severed heads.
“Then it’s this man’s turn.”
We left the five corpses behind—the two shot dead and the three decapitated, along with their hollowed-out skulls—and returned to the man in black whose coat had been bristling with flintlock pistols.
“What should we do, Pirel? Shall I bring him back, or have Rin eat his brain?”
You want me to do that horrible thing again…?
Rin protested inside my head, and Pirel wrinkled her nose in clear disgust at the mention of eating brains.
“…I suppose I should revive him. It’s been far too long since I used this power for anything good.”
“But Kaira, this man is an imperial inquisitor. I trust you understand what that means……”
I could understand Pirel’s worry.
He was likely one of the people who knew my identity better than anyone. He would recognize my face immediately.
It was only natural to hesitate. No—ignoring him would have been the smart choice.
If we simply walked away, these six corpses would become food for birds and beasts, nutrients for grass and trees, and every story they carried would vanish along with their bones beneath the fallen leaves.
But……
“It feels too pitiful.”
Only minutes ago I had ordered brains to be devoured, yet now I was showing useless sympathy. Perhaps this was the backlash from the demonic energy disappearing.
“Chasing the empire’s enemies until he dies is his job. It may be tragic, but he probably considered it an honor. So let’s just leave him, Kaira.”
I agree with Lady Pirel. This is dangerous.
“I……”
I knelt before the man in the black coat.
“…am going to save him. If you don’t like it, try taking my power away or stopping me.”
I threw a childish tantrum at the two of them.
Pirel looked anxious, but she neither struck my arm nor tried to block me.
…I really don’t understand you, Mom. Are you too compassionate or too cold-hearted?
Both are strange in their own way. I… broke a long time ago, didn’t I?
I answered Rin’s voice inside my head with quiet melancholy, then placed my hand on the dead inquisitor.
“Haa……”
His past unfolded before me as if I were reading a book.
I let out a single breath and wished with all my heart—for the moment when he had swiftly drawn a loaded pistol and rained bullets on the cultists, yet was still outnumbered, the instant just before the enemy blade would pierce his body.
"Rewind."
⟨ Time Rewinding ⟩
The black coat twitched and writhed in the agony of a dying scream.
The man who had been lying on the ground rolled swiftly, sprang off his core muscles, and flipped through the air. He landed without staggering, two flintlock pistols already in his hands—the very ones that had been hanging inside his coat.
Just how many pistols does he carry?
All four barrels of the two freshly cocked pistols were aimed at us—Pirel and me.
“You think I’d die from a little swordplay? This time…? Wait, no?”
The inquisitor stared with a dumbfounded expression at the small girl watching him with worry, and at the slightly taller girl—me—who was looking at him with faint exasperation.
You did die from that swordplay, you know……
After a long moment he lowered his guns.
“You young ladies are…?”
“We heard loud noises and came running. We saw you lying here… Are you all right?”
I told the lie with perfect composure. The time we had fought the cultists had been brief, but there was nothing good about telling an imperial hound the truth.
“I see. So they… ran away.”
The imperial investigator sank down where he stood. Even as he collapsed, he gathered up the pistol and hat he had dropped.
“My throat is terribly dry… Forgive me, but do you happen to have any water?”
“Here.”
I took the canteen from my belt and handed it to the man in the black coat.
The inquisitor, who wore a thin mustache that barely covered his upper lip, gulped the water down. After being ambushed and leaping around in combat, it was no wonder his throat was parched.
After a few swallows he returned the canteen. Our eyes met as I took it back.
He offered his thanks with crisp politeness.
“Thank you, young mage. I am Kennetig of Zutfelt. You probably already know my duty… but I am traveling on a mission personally assigned by His Majesty from the imperial court.”
He has a territory name. A noble, then. Given the dangerous work he does, he can’t be of particularly high rank or in line for succession.
“Yes… My name is Karin.”
He was a tall man with a pale face and lean build. Slender though he was, I found myself wondering how someone of his stature and conspicuous attire could possibly track or interrogate cultists in the first place.
“Forgive me for questioning you from the start, but have you seen approximately five men? One dressed like a priest, one in armor, and the rest in light traveling clothes.”
I hesitated only a moment before telling the truth.
“Behind that large rock… the people you described are… lying there dead.”
The bodies could be found after only a few steps. There was no point in lying and arousing suspicion. At the very least, I needed to avoid suspicion until we could ride the Gray Headwind again.
“Dead? That’s strange……”
The fact that he found it strange meant he had been traveling alone. It meant he believed no one else would have been there to finish off the cultists for him.
…Then should I kill him again? If he’s alone, no one would ever find out.
The thought startled even me. How could I entertain something so inhuman? Rin was equally shocked for the same reason.
Mom, stop.
Ah, I know… You’re right, Rin. I think something’s wrong with me……
“Could you show me where their bodies are?”
Pirel and I nodded and led Kennetig—who was busily tucking the many pistols back inside his coat—to the site.
The scenery had not changed. The two men shot to death still lay in the shadow of the rock.
Beyond them, like something from a fairy tale, a dream, an illusion, a small spring meadow had bloomed in the heart of autumn. The idyllic green landscape was marred by the bloody corpses of three decapitated men.
“What in the world is……”
Even an imperial inquisitor could not help but be stunned by such an unreal sight.
“Who, why… and above all, with what power could anyone have done this? I see it with my own eyes and still cannot believe it.”
Kennetig turned slightly toward me, his expression grave, and asked for my opinion.
“Do you think magic is involved, Miss Kaira?”
“You handle deviant mages, Sir Kennetig, so you would know better than I, but I have never learned any spell that could create something this bizarre. Even if a mad wizard devised it… this landscape that defies the season is simply……”
I had to stop speaking there.
It was cold.
Not the air—the physical chill of a gun barrel pressed against my temple. The icy touch cleared my head and let me realize exactly where I had gone wrong.
I had never once told him my name was Kaira.
“How very coincidental. To meet in a forest like this, under such strange circumstances. Witch Kaira.”
“…Since when did you know?”
“From the moment I opened my eyes.”
Of course he had.
I had been the empire’s top priority for an entire year—the one they hunted with burning eyes. They might not have realized I had been hiding in the brothel, but they certainly knew my face.
“What were you planning to accomplish by training in magic that could create an anomalous garden like this in a forest of fallen leaves? You were the one who dealt with those cultists as well, I presume?”
I said nothing.
“I also know you worked as a healing mage in a hospital, performing miracles. Was it you who healed my wounds?”
This time I answered softly.
“……Yes.”
“I see. Thanks to that, the witch now has her life in my hands… How fortunate this is, both for me and for the empire.”
“Don’t… shoot……”
Pirel cut in, her voice trembling with tears. When I glanced sideways, I saw she was clutching desperately at the hem of the man’s coat.
“Don’t kill Kaira! Kaira is… Kaira is…!! Hic……”
A gun barrel was pressed mercilessly against Pirel’s head as well. With both our lives hanging on the man’s two trigger fingers, I quietly closed my eyes.
To tear this man’s body in half.
“Haa……”
The man let out a deep breath. The pistols in both hands were already cocked. Could I move faster than his trigger finger—
Just as I was thinking that, the man slipped his finger into the trigger guard and spun the pistol once.
The butt of the gun, not the barrel, was now pointed at me—and at Pirel. As if inviting us to take the weapons.
“However, my only mission is to track down the activities of cultists who worship gods similar to the Demon King’s. An imperial inquisitor must prioritize his assigned duty above all else. I have no time to spare hunting down the witch Kaira and eliminating her.”
“What……”
“Any fool could tell that you, Miss Kaira, saved me after I sustained fatal wounds at the hands of those cultists. No matter how many people you’ve killed as a witch, no matter if you are a deviant mage who defies imperial law, to me personally you are simply my benefactor.”
I had not expected a cold-hearted inquisitor to be moved by such sentiment. These were people who valued the empire itself over the lives of a few citizens—people who would raze an entire village if it meant catching a witch.
“Here, each of you take one pistol, young ladies. A gift for my saviors. Even a young girl could fell a bandit leader with a single shot. The bullets are blessed. They have been consecrated by priests of the God of Rest.”
The God of Rest… otherwise known as the God of Death. Unlike the eerie “gods from beyond” that the cultists worshipped, this deity governed the peaceful afterlife enjoyed by the dead.
So that was how he had been able to instantly purify the priest who reached out with tentacles as he died.
If I visited that god’s temple, perhaps I could find some clue about the link to my previous life……
Yet I still did not trust Kennetig. I sneered and pressed him.
“…What is your real intention? Doesn’t your heart pound with the urge to kill me right now?”
“I have no hidden motive. Perhaps in an hour I will change my mind and regret not killing you. However……”
Kennetig hesitated, then added one more thing.
“The moment I saw your face, the scent of the bread pudding my late mother used to make came back to me… and my heart softened. In addition to repaying you for saving my life, consider this a token of gratitude for reminding me of my mother. I will let you live, Witch.”
“……”
That damned bread smell again.