Chapter 83

&R;ｅ​&a;d​ ​&o;n Ka​tR​eａd‌ｉｎĝCａ​ｆe​

Her head felt foggy.

Thoughts wouldn’t connect, and a ringing buzzed incessantly in her ears.

Her mind felt as if it were drifting in a dreamlike haze, but her body’s sensations were vivid.

A sharp, electric current climbed up her spine and struck her brain.

The intense mixture of searing pain and an almost euphoric pleasure flooded her entire body.

Her skin felt sticky. Sweat and spilled blood mingled, emitting a metallic scent.

Her body was being dragged.

Her head knocked against a jagged stone, jerking her neck painfully. The dull ache in her head, however, was insignificant compared to the fiery agony coursing through her body.

‘…Where am I?’
‘What was I doing? Who’s dragging me around like this?’

Blinking her blurry eyes, she groped for answers buried in her hazy memories.

Her mind was clouded, like groping in the dark for an object she couldn’t quite grasp.

Right… She had brought Eugene and Alice to the cherry blossom festival.

It was to nudge the two together. They were practically destined for each other; even without her intervention, they would have eventually realized it. She simply wanted to speed things up—for Eugene’s sake, for Alice’s sake, and, selfishly, for her own sake.

Once Eugene and Alice were together, Eugene would grow emotionally, Alice would have someone she could trust and rely on, and Frey… Frey would finally have some personal time again.

She had meticulously planned it all. Proudly, she had brought the two to the park.

…Then, she met Murmur.

‘Yes. That’s right.’
‘I crossed paths with Murmur.’

That realization sharpened her mind a little. It wasn’t that her head was damaged—her temporary lapse in rationality came from the cycle of destruction and regeneration that she had endured. Now, with her thoughts collected, the dreamlike fog began to lift.

She had stood in Murmur’s way. She couldn’t just let things proceed.

She knew what Murmur was, what she was capable of, and the power she wielded.

So, naturally… she had been thoroughly shattered.

There was no way she could have stood a chance.

She had known that from the start, yet like a moth to a flame, she had flown straight into destruction.

Murmur wasn’t human.

She couldn’t comprehend human emotions or perspectives.

That made her all the more merciless.

Murmur had crushed her head, severed her limbs, and forced her to swallow her own dismembered body parts. She had shattered Lucia’s ribs, opened her chest, and pulled out her still-beating heart.

Even Frey didn’t go that far.

The sheer detachment Murmur displayed while carrying out such acts was chilling.

She was methodical, determined to break her entirely.

When Lucia kept resisting, Murmur seemed to get annoyed and escalated her efforts.

At one point, she plunged her fist into Lucia’s abdomen.

A brutal blow. It left her womb irreparably damaged, robbing her of the ability to have children.

Not satisfied, Murmur tore her in two, splitting her upper and lower halves apart.

Lucia, who had inflicted self-harm countless times before, had never done something so extreme.

To experience such an execution-like punishment… it was horrifying and grotesque.

Didn’t she say she wouldn’t kill me? Wasn’t she just trying to end me all along?

If it weren’t for her unique regenerative abilities, she would have died long ago.

As Murmur’s elegant, pale fingers pierced her body, Lucia felt a strange, inexplicable thrill.

It was exhilarating.

Perhaps her past of self-harm had its limits. Lucia had always been a bit of a masochist, finding twisted pleasure in the suffering inflicted by others.

Now, as Lucia, she felt it even more intensely.

In fact, it might have been worse.

‘How do I even put this? It’s crude, but… I got aroused.’

‘I know! I don’t even have that anymore! I couldn’t even if I wanted to!’

Her groin was smooth now, but there was no other way to describe the overwhelming, tingling sensation.

Lucia—the shameless pervert—had been aroused in a life-or-death situation.

‘But I couldn’t help it!’

Murmur was merciless, breaking her apart and destroying her over and over again.

Without a shred of pity or compassion, she pummeled her like livestock being slaughtered.

It hurts. It hurts so much.

Despite her small stature, Murmur’s strength was overwhelming. Every hit broke my bones and shredded my flesh. If not for my super regeneration, I would have been reduced to a bloody pulp in moments.

At first, I had tried to resist.

But soon, all I could do was endure.

‘Ah, honestly… it was amazing.’

‘Truly amazing!’

Was this some kind of reward for all her pent-up desires?

If so, she was deeply satisfied.

If Murmur had continued, Lucia might have licked her shoes in gratitude.

If it had been Eugene inflicting such violence, she probably would have.

But a sliver of pride and reason held her back.

She couldn’t submit to a devil.

Lucia was a heroine.

She had to support Eugene.

She couldn’t let herself fall to an enemy.

‘I held on! Good job, Lucia!’

‘You’re welcome! Thanks for the praise, me!’

“…so I… her half-dead…”

“…What… No matter…”

“…yelling at me? I… to stop…”

Her body was lifted briefly before tumbling to the ground again.

Words. Someone was speaking.

But her ears rang so loudly she couldn’t tell if the voices were real or not.

Her semi-conscious state blurred the line between dreams and reality.

She tried to focus, but the overwhelming pain and lingering euphoria threatened to pull her under once more.

Her mind was barely hanging on, teetering between lucidity and oblivion.

“…How dare you… bastard…!”

“…Oh?… just an act?”

Her senses were all tangled up.

She could hear the voices clearly, but she couldn’t process their meaning.

One thing was certain: I could still endure more.

My super regeneration had reserves left. Though I was in a half-dazed state, it wasn’t because I couldn’t use my abilities. It was because I was drowning in a pleasure as intoxicating as a drug.

At this moment, Lucia was like pickled cabbage—fermented by the aphrodisiac coursing through her brain.

Gasping for breath, I fought to regain my focus. The stabbing pain was a hindrance, but I clung to my purpose, standing firm. I could take more hits! Wait, no! I had to stop Murmur!

Though I wasn’t sure of Murmur’s ultimate goal, it wasn’t hard to guess.

She would likely tear open a rift, throwing everyone into chaos.

I may not have been a girl overflowing with righteousness, but I couldn’t just turn a blind eye to people’s suffering.

Murmur! I won’t let you have your way!

No matter how much you beat me, knock me down, or crush my insides, I won’t give up!

But if you keep hitting me like this, I might end up calling you ‘master’, so you better keep that in mind!

“D-don’t…”

I clawed at the ground, grabbing the ankle of the child in the white-cloud mask.

I tried to stand, but I had no legs.

Why was Murmur holding my lower body in her hands?

Oh, right. She had torn me in half earlier.

It was dangerous to lose focus, even for a moment.

Was it the blood loss? Even though super regeneration replenished it instantly, it kept gushing out from the severed ends like a broken dam.

If I pushed my regeneration to its limits, I could regenerate my lower half anew.

But that would consume too much stamina. It was simpler to retrieve my lower body from Murmur.

“Can’t… let… you… pass…”

“…”

“No… matter… what…”

Muttering incoherently, I tried to think through my options. But let’s be real: there was no way that plan would work.

The haze of reality and dream blurred my judgment.

Was I even grabbing Murmur? For all I knew, I might have just snagged the hem of some random passerby’s trousers.

It had to be Murmur… right?

What if I was holding on to some innocent bystander instead? That would be embarrassing.

A legless girl, bleeding and crawling on the ground—what a horrifying sight that must be.

I couldn’t let this continue. I needed to regain clarity before I did anything else.

Even Lucia had her limits.

Being torn in half was a major blow—on par with being decapitated.

But this was worse than when Astaroth had cleanly severed my head.

Back then, it was just a simple beheading. Now, I’d been beaten senseless, my mind left reeling.

In this condition, it was hard to think straight. My body was broken, my intelligence dropping with every second.

It was like being drunk out of my mind. Yes, that was it—Lucia was completely wasted. My thoughts kept spiraling aimlessly.

‘Oh no, officer, please don’t arrest me for underaged drinking, hehe!’

“The mission’s… heading back.”

“Oh? And… aftermath?”

“You….”

“Eh…?”

“That’s your role… assigned it to you…”

“… here to watch today… Hmm, well. Okay.”

The voices of the conversation grew clearer. Sensations returned to my lower body as well.

Someone was touching me. Who was it? I squinted through my blurred vision.

A boy with hair dark as obsidian, contrasting against eyes the color of a clear blue sky, was reattaching my lower half.

…Eugene?

Why was he here?

I had led Murmur in the opposite direction, hadn’t I?

Wait—gasp! Don’t touch Lucia’s insides!

No one was allowed to defile this precious body… hic. Lucia had been tainted.

Eugene would have to take responsibility now. He had no choice but to raise Lucia.

‘…No, that wasn’t it!’

Eugene was helping to put me back together, even pushing my organs into place to aid my regeneration. I needed to focus on reattaching my lower body.

Any missing parts were reconstructed using super regeneration. I blocked external sensations, concentrating on internal alignment.

Impurities were expelled as my organs, muscles, blood vessels, tendons, bones, and nerves all returned to their proper places.

As my body stabilized, my hazy consciousness sharpened rapidly.

“…Eugene?”

I called out to the boy who had helped me regenerate.

But Eugene didn’t answer. Or rather, he couldn’t.

He was locked in a confrontation with the girl in the red fox mask.

Astaroth? What was she doing here? Where was Murmur? Wait—Murmur is gone?

“I only came to watch Murmur work, but now she’s handed me the baton.” Astaroth explained. “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?”

Ah…

So Murmur had been swapped out?

Had I delayed her long enough for her ‘activity time’ to run out?

If so, then my efforts weren’t entirely meaningless.

“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.”

Alice’s tone took an uncharacteristic turn, spitting harsh profanities. Probably Frey. My Alice wouldn’t act like that.

Oh hey, Frey is back!

I looked up at the sky. The distorted space rippling across the blue expanse—it was a sight I recognized.

The Rift of Time and Space. A gate connecting to another dimension. It was also known by other names, such as the Temporal Gate or simply, the Gate.

‘So, it opened in the end…’

I had failed to stop Murmur.

The gate had opened.

Even the air felt different now.

A creeping, oppressive energy oozed into the atmosphere, sending chills up my spine.

“Just to make it clear, I have no intention of interfering with you, my brother and the coquettish young lady. Remember what I promised earlier? I won’t do anything, I won’t kill anyone, and I won’t harm either of you. That still stands.”

Astaroth folded the parasol slung over her shoulder, using it as a makeshift cane as she leaned on it. Resting her chin on her hands, which were propped on the parasol, she hummed a cheerful tune.

“My promise is still valid. Today, I haven’t done a thing. Murmur was the one who acted, not me. I haven’t killed anyone either. And any deaths that follow aren’t on me. I’m not harming either of you, and for what it’s worth, I’ll let Lucia off the hook too. She looks like she’s already been through enough.”

Well, that was a small mercy.

Given what happened during the field exercise, it was clear Eugene had managed to earn Astaroth’s favor. However, for Frey and me, it had been a truly precarious situation.

If Astaroth had been serious about killing us, without her playful antics in the mix, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Alternatively, we might have ended up as her slaves, wearing those sinister red fox masks.

“So, big brother, fighting~!”

Boom. Thud. 

The ground trembled beneath us.

Animalistic howls mixed with the ground-shaking noise, swallowing up the panicked screams of people.

“Save them like the hero you are.”

Astaroth’s voice was lilting, almost as if she was thoroughly enjoying herself.

Or was it just my imagination? Somehow, even the red fox mask seemed to be laughing at us.

 

Author Note

A/N (Author’s note):
Lucia said she had so much fun after a long time.

She said it was even better because she was so frustrated.

Translator Note

T/N (Translator’s note):
Ah, wait a minute… I just realized… Oh dear, that’s massively on me.

I wonder if you all noticed it way earlier, heh.