Ch. 27 Knowledge Is Love, Light And Insight (1)
by AfuhfuihgsChapter 27 – Knowledge Is Love, Light And Insight (1)
Clearing away the corpses is solely the task of the butterflies.
“The butterflies······.”
Shuji spoke quietly.
The butterflies she pointed to began their work, flying quietly and gracefully.
They tore at the flesh, gently gnawed at the bones, and meticulously used their delicate wings to wipe away the red traces, leaving behind only the faintest scent of blood.
As if nothing had ever been there in the first place.
They were never in a hurry, never rushing to devour.
As if they had all the time in the world, as if they could repeat this task forever, they worked with elegance and grace.
And I watched them, quietly inhaling and exhaling.
I sometimes wonder.
Who is their master?
The library? The witch?
Or… me?
Perhaps. Truly, perhaps.
If I am their master, if they move according to my will, then what is my will?
Even if it’s the library’s will, it’s strange.
The library never explicitly told me to clear away the corpses.
The butterflies simply acted on instinct.
But does that matter?
No.
This isn’t an important question.
In a place as extreme, cruel, and yet beautiful as this, there’s no point in debating who the master is.
It’s not about ownership or commands. It’s about fulfilling a given task—an instinct.
The butterflies clear away the corpses, I watch the process, and sometimes I tidy up the little that remains.
If that’s my role, then I simply fulfill it.
The library embraces me, and I lean on the library to live.
After all, it even gave me the opportunity to see the butterflies.
“U-um, is it okay to touch that?”
Shuji seemed flustered.
It must have looked a little strange to her, seeing me hold a piece of Tia’s brain in my hand and hand it over to the butterflies.
“This is just… cleaning up.”
“Cl-cleaning up?”
“Exactly. If the butterflies absorb this, it will inform those connected to the dead, directly or indirectly, of what happened. That’s how it’s improved.”
In real-time, I concluded this like a perfect right-brained human.
All in the brief moment the battle had taken place.
“I judged that informing the entire world would be too indiscriminate and pointless for the majority.
So, by absorbing the brain, reading the memories, and inserting a ‘slight’ memory into the brains of those connected to the memory’s owner, the library’s butterflies ‘settle’ into human brains.”
It’s similar to what Shuji did to find John Menard.
The difference is that she tried to do it herself, and thanks to the library’s power, she could do so without dying.
What people see is forced upon them, but it’s edited to only include the important parts, so there’s no burden on their bodies.
In other words, those connected to Tia will see me as the ‘villain.’
“Um, Miss Witch. If that’s the case, then you’ll… become the bad person.”
Shuji looked at me with concern.
I smiled, closed my eyes, and crouched down to place a butterfly, its wings soaked in blood and unable to fly, onto my finger.
“You’re worried about me? I suppose I should be a little grateful. But······.”
I stood up, wiping the butterfly dry with my sleeve, and said,
“The library desires ■■■.”
“······What?”
“■■■. Oh, dear. You can’t hear it, can you? You’ll find out eventually.”
“Uh······.”
I opened my eyes and smiled brightly.
■■■ required the butterflies.
So, no matter where the butterflies were, I could feel what they felt.
Their gaze, their touch, their senses.
Do they have emotions?
—If asked, I’d simply say, “I don’t know.” But at the very least, I know how warm the torn flesh is, how strong the scent of blood is as it spreads, and how quickly the air purifies when it’s gone.
Perhaps humans were always destined to disappear like this.
To become food for the butterflies, to be cleaned up neatly.
If that’s the case, then I’m simply not interfering with that natural order.
I’m just helping it flow naturally.
That’s all.
An ordinary human would have felt disgust.
They would have vomited at the sight of corpses, trembled, or felt chills run down their spine. But I,
‘I don’t feel like vomiting.’
I was calm.
No, more than that—I was indifferent.
I wasn’t shaken at all, and there was no fear.
If anything, I found the sight of them being cleaned up pitiful, trivial, and insignificant.
The texture on my hands was sticky, and the remnants of blood and flesh still clung to the butterflies’ wings.
As I watched the butterfly I had dried flutter around me in a figure-eight pattern before flying away, I slowly brushed off what remained.
Then the butterflies stopped fluttering for a moment and approached my dirtied fingers, settling on them and squirming.
As if they were willingly accepting my touch.
“Miss Witch······.”
Shuji approached, hesitating as she spoke.
She looked at me, then at the traces of corpses scattered on the floor, her expression twisting.
Her face was a mix of confusion and horror.
It seemed she couldn’t understand the situation.
No, perhaps she didn’t want to understand.
I wiped my blood-stained hands and answered slowly.
“What is it?”
“Well, it’s just… what should I even call this······?”
“It’s just people dying.”
I spoke in a voice devoid of emotion.
“Yes. They’re called guests, troublemakers, and those who proved why you shouldn’t touch me.”
What’s so great about this?
The dead were always destined to die.
It just happened a little sooner.
Those who coveted, invaded, or tried to defile the library eventually disappeared like this.
What’s so strange about that?
“······.”
Shuji’s expression remained stiff even after hearing my words.
Her hands were trembling unconsciously.
‘Hmm?’
I looked at her and thought.
‘······Is she still not used to it? She’ll get used to it eventually······.’
Just by being here, just by setting foot in the library, she would one day come to accept all of this as natural.
“······Doesn’t this bother you at all?”
Finally, she spoke with difficulty.
I tilted my head.
“Huh?”
“······Doesn’t this bother you? This situation······?”
I smiled quietly.
“Ah, I see.”
Then I took a step toward her.
Shuji flinched and stepped back.
But her retreat eventually brought her back against the library wall, and her back touched the wall.
Despite her height, which was taller than mine, she was overwhelmed by this small, witch-like girl.
“Haha.”
I looked at her face and laughed, then whispered softly.
“Shuji.”
“······Y-yes?”
“You’ll get used to it soon.”
I whispered as if making a promise.
“Uh······.”
Shuji stared into my eyes, then quickly averted her gaze.
But I could see her expression slowly crumbling.
“The butterflies are eating the corpses again today.”
Yu Hae muttered quietly.
He looked at the butterflies, then at the scattered entrails at his feet, and muttered.
“······Do what you must, follow orders if given, live like that, and then die.”
He flinched for a moment, then let out a sigh.
His hands were still stained with blood, but he made no move to wipe them.
Instead, he held his hands up to the sky, allowing the butterflies to feed.
‘Those butterflies, without my command or request······.’
They wouldn’t approach him to clean him up.
I silently commanded the butterflies, as if giving an order or making a request, to clean the blood from his hands.
Flutter, flutter~!
The butterflies flew over and cleaned his hands for him.
Thump—!
And then, I felt a throbbing in my chest, as if my heart were pounding.
‘Something… is showing.’
Something appeared before my eyes.
《Wolf》
——————
[Incident: Knowledge Equality Liberation Front—15 cases]
[Incident: Imperial Socialist Riots and Strikes—3 cases!]
Reports and incident documents piled up like a mountain.
“No! That’s not it! The vigilantes aren’t just for revenge, you know!?”
I yelled at someone who came seeking revenge and chased them out.
“Just wait!!! You’ll regret not knowing who I am! Pathos! Remember that name!”
“Hey! Someone get that lunatic out of here!”
After chasing out that madman, the office finally quieted down.
Those who couldn’t accept that crime was almost a daily occurrence in the outskirts inevitably ended up joining the vigilantes.
The vigilantes were vastly outnumbered by criminals, so their capabilities were extremely limited.
“Sigh······.”
I sighed and rubbed my forehead.
“What a headache. Damn it······.”
In the central district, there’s a bizarre series of book-murders targeting corporate suits.
Meanwhile, the outskirts are suffering from some Imperial Socialist movement, and crime rates are hitting record highs every quarter.
The United States was undergoing extreme changes.
As if to reject the refusal of knowledge, strange incidents were rampant—people being killed with books, their mouths stuffed with paper, and books shoved into their bodies.
Who would dare go to the central district out of fear?
Eventually, those who flowed into the outskirts began falling into strange ideologies.
It was a bizarre ideology that had seeped in from the Hanseatic Empire.
“Sigh… By the way, where the hell did that bitch Tia go?”
I never got back the toy I lent her.
And it was such a good one too.
Thump—!
But then, a shiver ran through my body, gripping my heart.
“Ugh!?”
I collapsed on the spot.
Memories, no—
Sensations, borrowing the name of memories, overwhelmed me.
The experiences of someone who had suffered seeped into my mind, my skin, even my bones.
Shattered bones, crushed flesh, and screams that split the air.
The blood-soaked floor and crushed fingers.
Skin bruised blue and trembling lips forming their last words.
I thought I couldn’t take it anymore.
But the memories didn’t leave me alone.
They scratched at my nerves, squeezed my heart, turned my insides upside down, and etched the sensation of crushed flesh onto my fingertips.
“······Ah.”
And then, silence.
There was no need to call out a name.
“Wh-what is this?”
Just by closing my eyes, the memories flowed in like waves.
Endlessly, pouring down like rain.
The first thing I saw was a girl’s eyes.
Eyes filled with fear, broken, wanting to escape.
It was Tia.
“What is this, you damn······.”
Unaware that my nails were digging into my palms, drawing blood, I clenched my fists.
And the memories kept flowing.
It wasn’t just visual—it was a vivid experience accompanied by sensations.
The vast library where Tia was trapped.
The witch who mocked her as she killed her.
The countless attacks that crushed her every time she tried to escape.
And······.
“Stop it.”
I whispered to the hallucination brushing against my ear.
No.
It felt like the memories were speaking to me.
When I came to my senses, the memories were still pressing down on me.
A fear and helplessness that pierced to the bone, unlike anything I’d ever felt.
Pain as if my entire body would shatter.
The cold touch of chains and a collar digging into my flesh.
“Stop it, you damn…!!”
Crash—!
My fist flew into the wall.
And then, the cheap cement wall crumbled under my punch.
“Damn it.”
I didn’t cry.
Instead, I let out a burning rage that scorched my throat.
Standing there dazed, I licked my lips.
I must have bitten them in anger without realizing it, as they were bleeding.
And I laughed.
A faint, maddened laugh.
“Alright.”
I muttered in a hoarse voice and stood up.
“This is good.”
Then I lightly brushed off my hands.
As if it were nothing.
“The library, you said?”
It looks interesting.
Very interesting.
Especially that witch girl—she looks quite delicious.
AlucardLovesFish
0 Comments