Chapter 82

R̈êãd́ ̈ôn̂ ̃K̀ä​t̀​R̃êä​d́ìǹ​g̀Ĉâf̃ê

A splitting headache tore through him.

Or perhaps, quite literally, his skull had cracked open, with the soft neural tissue inside crushed into pulp.

His heart thumped wildly, as though a malfunctioning pump had gone berserk.

His blood burned, veins scorched, and his entire body felt ablaze. It was as if his entire being was consumed in flames, like a log in a roaring fire.

“…Hoo.”

In the midst of this searing fury, Eugene’s first act was to bite down hard on his lip.

The sharp pain of tearing flesh jolted him. Insignificant as it was, the pain managed to pour a bucket of cold water over his overheated mind.

Stay calm.

Feel the anger, but do not be consumed by it.

Overloading one’s supernatural abilities due to emotional turmoil often led to far more harm than good.

If he truly cared for Lucia…

He needed to remain composed. Now more than ever.

Calm down.

Thankfully, Eugene had experienced something similar in the past.

When he faced off against Astaroth to save Angelica and Lucia, he had channeled his turbulent emotions into a razor-sharp edge.

“…I just have one question.”

Suppressing the flames that seemed to rise like heat waves around him, Eugene spoke.

His gaze alternated between the child in the white cloud mask and Lucia, who lay crumpled on the ground.

She was alive. Somehow, still alive.

Thanks to her super regeneration, her upper and lower body had been severed, yet she clung to life.

The child in the white mask had dragged both halves with them—her severed legs still dangled in Murmur’s grasp.

Eugene’s eyes fixated on them.

If he could retrieve those and reattach them, she might recover.

This hope fueled his resolve to stay rational.

“What… What is the reason for doing something this heinous?”

“Hm?”

Murmur tilted their head, as if finally acknowledging Eugene’s existence.

She hadn’t noticed him before, dismissing him as mere background noise.

The searing heat emanating from him now marked him as a capable supernatural, though by a devil’s standards, he was barely worth mentioning—a small fry at best.

Their mission was already complete.

Having successfully opened the rift, Murmur’s orders from Agares were fulfilled.

She planned to watch the ensuing chaos briefly before cleaning up and leaving.

Answering Eugene’s question seemed unnecessary.

But perhaps sensing Astaroth’s curiosity—or simply indulging a whim—Murmur replied nonchalantly.

“I already said it. She kept getting in my way, so I only left her half-dead.”

“What was she interfering with?! No matter the reason, nothing could possibly justify doing something so monstrous!”

“…What? Why are you yelling at me?” Murmur’s tone carried genuine confusion. “I warned her. I told her I’d spare her if she ran. But she didn’t. She kept trying to stop me.”

The childlike voice was chilling in its innocence, like a serpent calmly explaining why it bit.

“I tore her limbs, smashed her face, and ripped out her heart, but she wouldn’t back down. So I had no choice but to cut her in half. That finally shut her up. She was really annoying. Oh, Astaroth! I brought this for you. You like this sort of thing, don’t you?”

The detached, innocent tone was suffocating.

Eugene felt like the ground beneath him had crumbled away.

What had he been doing all this time?

He hadn’t worried when Lucia failed to return, thinking there was no danger in such a public place. Even after Astaroth appeared, he had believed it a stroke of luck that she wasn’t nearby.

And yet…

She had been fighting. Desperately.

While he was blissfully unaware, she had been fighting until she was torn apart like this.

Eugene clenched his fists.

“You… you insane—!”

A sudden, guttural scream erupted.

Alice, who rarely showed such raw emotion, had twisted her face in fury, her crimson eyes burning even brighter.

She refrained from firing her heat rays only because doing so might harm Lucia in the process.

Her teeth ground audibly as she glared at Murmur with unbridled hatred.

“How dare you spout such utter garbage, you filthy bastard—!”

“Alice?”

Eugene was startled, momentarily thrown off balance by her unexpected outburst.

Gone was the usually reserved Alice.

The change was so stark that it left Eugene feeling disoriented. Her fury was palpable, a stark contrast to her usual demeanor.

“Oh? Was all that meekness just an act?”

Astaroth’s reaction, however, was lighthearted. She seemed amused, her red fox mask tilting slightly in interest.

Murmur regarded Alice with an indifferent glance.

Unlike Eugene, who suppressed his rage internally, Alice was raw and unfiltered, letting it burst forth like a tidal wave.

The sheer hostility radiating from her was vivid.

Murmur touched the edge of her white cloud mask with a finger.

Murmur was different from Astaroth.

While Astaroth killed for fleeting enjoyment, Murmur killed for necessity.

To Murmur, killing was not an end but a means to accomplish something.

Even today’s events were purely functional. Opening the rift required killing.

The lives lost were merely collateral.

It mattered little to Murmur if humans perished.

Stepping on an insect while walking didn’t evoke guilt, and this was no different.

In the end, Murmur and Astaroth weren’t so different.

Both treated killing as an all-too-easy solution.

If obtaining cotton candy required killing the vendor, so be it.

She wouldn’t consider other methods, even if they existed.

Killing was simpler, faster. Why bother with anything else?

No matter their human guise or speech, their essence was fundamentally inhuman.

They were devils.

“…?”

Murmur couldn’t quite grasp why Eugene and Frey were so furious.

Nor did she particularly care to find out. She was mildly curious but not enough to bother making an effort to understand.

Instead, Murmur pondered over a more convenient solution.

“Should I just kill them?”

Whether it was Frey alone or both Eugene and Frey together, neither posed a threat to her. Not even remotely. They were young supernaturals, far from a match for a captain, let alone a deputy-captain. If they attacked, it would be nothing more than a fleeting annoyance.

There was no need to kill them. But there wasn’t any reason to let them live either.

They seemed like they were going to attack anyway… Should she just end it before they could?

Murmur’s fingers twitched slightly.

First, her thumb curled inward, followed by her index finger, then her middle finger.

Just as she was about to curl her ring and pinky fingers—

“D-don’t…”

A weak hand brushed against her ankle.

No, it barely touched her.

There was so little strength in the hand that just reaching out had drained it completely.

“Can’t… let… you… pass…”

“…”

“No… matter… what…”

It was Lucia. Despite her missing lower body, she had crawled across the ground with her arms to grab Murmur’s ankle.

The ones who were most visibly shocked by the sight wasn’t Murmur, but Eugene and Frey.

Even in that state, Lucia’s will remained unbroken.

Dragging herself across the ground, trailing her innards, she strained every fiber of her being to stop Murmur.

“Haa…”

For a brief moment, Murmur considered crushing Lucia’s skull underfoot.

Then, she shook her head.

Raising both hands in surrender, she sighed.

“Fine, I give up.”

Even when half-dead, Lucia was this stubborn. She likely wouldn’t stop until she was truly dead.

Normally, Murmur wouldn’t have hesitated to kill. But since she had already declared that she wouldn’t, she was bound by her word.

In the end, Murmur gave up on trying to make Lucia give up.

Her objective had already been achieved. In some sense, she’d won. Lost, but won nonetheless.

Everything suddenly felt tedious.

Murmur dropped Lucia’s severed lower body to the ground.

Turning to Astaroth, she spoke.

“The mission’s complete. I’m heading back.”

“Oh? And the aftermath?”

“You handle it.”

“Eh…?”

“That’s your role anyway. Agares assigned it to you.”

“Well, that’s true, but… I was just here to watch today. Hmm, well. Okay.”

Originally, she had intended to do nothing more than spectate.

But now there was something in front of her.

Eugene. Frey. Lucia.

The three students from Class A, the ones who had been calling each other earlier.

…Interesting.

Truly fascinating.

Astaroth smiled beneath her mask.

“Alright, I’ll take care of it.”

“Okay, it’s all yours.”

Without hesitation, Murmur turned away.

Walking with deliberate, unguarded steps, she began to fade from sight, as if she were nothing more than a mirage.

A gust of wind seemed to blow her away like mist, and the child with the white-cloud mask vanished like smoke dispersing.

“This…”

Frey, who was about to shout angrily, clamped her mouth shut at the sight.

…What? Was it a supernatural ability? Did she vanish? Where? How? Was it an illusion? Or was it a space-shifting ability?

Her presence disappeared in an instant.

Which meant either she teleported—or moved so fast it was beyond comprehension.

“Now then, the situation’s changed.”

Waving cheerfully to bid Murmur farewell, Astaroth slung her parasol over her shoulder and spoke.

“I only came to watch Murmur work, but now she’s handed me the baton. An unscheduled workload! My day off just turned into a weekday. Respect labor laws! I really want to complain about this. And it’s not like I’ll get any extra pay… Total black company vibes, don’t you think? What’s your take on it, big brother?”

Lucia’s super regeneration managed to reattach her severed body.

Stuffing her spilled intestines back into place, Eugene helped reconnect her body as he rummaged through his pocket with bloodied hands.

A dagger slid smoothly from its sheath.

Eugene answered her question with action.

The blade pointed at her, but Astaroth only tilted her head with amusement.

“No, no, your focus is wrong. This isn’t the time to be worrying about me, is it?”

“What are you—”

“Dammit… These masked bastards are pissing me off.”

Frey pulled Lucia into her arms and moved further away from Astaroth while directing her gaze upwards.

The dimensional rift was complete.

It had grown large enough to be visible to ordinary people.

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■─────!!!!

A chilling roar echoed through the heavens and earth, loud enough to make the ground tremble.

The invasion of the otherworld had begun.

 

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
Frey is so foul-mouthed!

She usually uses the right words when Alice is around, but she doesn’t have the luxury of doing so right now!

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
If you want to try and visualize Astaroth a bit better, perhaps try thinking of a certain masked fool in a turn-based rpg space train game, heh.