Exposure (1)

Cuckoo, a glorious title that only the chosen ones can receive.

A proper name given to maggots who grew up without names.

Giving numbers to bottom-feeding maggots who were addressed not by names but by pronouns, and selecting those who are qualified to receive “names” by assigning quality and scores to each number.

But to receive a name, one must traverse through hell.

Only those who survive hell are qualified to receive a name.

No. 45 was the same.

To avoid being disposed of, to receive a name as a human, to serve the Goddess.

She climbed up by trampling and pushing away numerous other “numbers” in the same situation as her.

And that’s how she obtained it. The name of a Cuckoo.

Blue Cuckoo.

That was the new name given to No. 45—the nameless white woman.

-Crack!!

With a crunching sound, the Cuckoo’s nasal bone collapsed.

“Tsk.”

Despite clicking his tongue at the unpleasant sensation of bone collapsing under his fist, Oscar pushed his fist forward.

-Crash…!

The Cuckoo, whose nose burst with blood, fell and rolled among the debris of the collapsed bookshelf.

“…Hush.”

The magical particles in his body that had been trembling irregularly found their places again. Oscar quickly regulated his breathing by inhaling.

“Cough, cough. Kuhuk.”

The Cuckoo’s condition, as she roughly coughed up blood, didn’t look good at a glance.

“How about we stop?”

Oscar said quietly to her.

“You seem to be at your limit.”

“…Limit, you say?”

The Cuckoo asked back. Giggling and shaking her head, the Cuckoo suddenly stopped laughing and muttered,

“No, no. The one who decides the end is not you but me.”

The Cuckoo put her hand inside her bosom and took out a small wooden box.

The box, barely the size of a finger, split in half and opened on her hand.

A small glass vial filled with blue liquid revealed itself inside.

“…An injection?”

Oscar muttered.

“Hey, what are you trying to…”

-Thud.

Before he could finish speaking, the Cuckoo unhesitatingly thrust the needle into her forearm.

With a face full of dark regret and bloodshot eyes, the Cuckoo muttered,

“…Long live the Demon King’s Army.”

-Gurgle…!!!

The Cuckoo’s huddled body suddenly swelled greatly.

The white clothes covering her entire body distorted and swelled, and bird feathers emerged protruding from between them.

“…”

Toward the grotesquely and brightly red swollen flesh that looked like it would burst at any moment, Oscar silently took a step forward.

“Let me tell you one last thing. I’m going to self-destruct now. If you don’t want to die exploding with me, you’d better run away as fast as…”

The Cuckoo’s words, which were like a last struggle, didn’t continue beyond that.

-Thud!!

A hand surrounded by blue magical power pushed its way into the mass of flesh.

Bright red blood poured out like a waterfall through the gap.

Oscar, with a hardened expression, firmly grasped something inside the mass of flesh.

-Squelch, gurgle…

Through the swollen mass of flesh, streams of blood burst out, and the swelling gradually subsided.

Soon, the Cuckoo, who had returned to her original form, slowly opened her eyes with an even more haggard complexion.

“……Huh?”

“The Demon King’s Army, you say.”

Toward the Cuckoo, who was muttering with a bewildered voice and trembling, Oscar spoke quietly.

“Interesting story.”

“…What, how on earth.”

The Cuckoo shook her head and muttered incoherently. It was as if she was trying to deny reality.

“I, I should have self-destructed. With this serum, turning into a Magical Beast…”

“A Magical Beast transformation serum, huh.”

Oscar retorted while pulling out the thin glass vial that was embedded in the Cuckoo’s forearm.

“Very interesting. Is this what you call your second plan?”

Oscar asked, shaking the empty glass vial.

Looking at the Cuckoo, who didn’t answer with a dazed face, Oscar threw away the glass vial and muttered,

“…Well, fine.”

-Crash.

The small, thin glass vial that was thrown to the floor shattered into pieces.

“Are you curious why you couldn’t self-destruct?”

“…”

“You don’t possibly think that even after securing Cornelio’s corpse remains, we would just sit around sucking our thumbs without conducting any investigation, do you?”

The pupils of the Cuckoo, who had seemed dazed, trembled.

“I don’t know the identity of your ‘backer,’ but you underestimated us too much.”

“…”

“One week. Enough time to discover that the heart of a human transformed into a Magical Beast is the source of the explosion. I can’t be certain yet whether the heart itself is the trigger, but I at least know that by suppressing the violent magical power reaction in the heart, I can prevent self-destruction.”

“…No way, that can’t be.”

The Cuckoo shook her head and muttered. Looking at the Cuckoo, who had opened her mouth, Oscar smiled a smile that wasn’t really a smile and asked,

“Have you given up on exercising your right to remain silent?”

“…”

“Well, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have the freedom to exercise your right to remain silent anyway.”

Oscar said while slowly pulling his hand out of the Cuckoo’s heart. Though black blood oozed through the gaping hole, the Cuckoo didn’t die.

More precisely, she couldn’t die.

“Don’t worry. It’s just the stagnant blood flowing out. Your heart has been punctured, but you won’t die. I’ve made it that way.”

The Cuckoo bowed her head without answering. While seemingly resigned at a glance, she instinctively quickly checked her heart area.

“I’ve cast various formulas. Magic operation blockage, forced magic reaction blockage, life maintenance, and various others.”

“…”

“To summarize it simply… you can’t take your own life, you can’t use the circulation breathing technique, you can’t self-destruct like Cornelio, and you can’t even keep your mouth shut.”

Oscar delivered the death sentence in a dry voice.

After glancing down at the Cuckoo, who was hanging her head, Oscar dusted off his blood-stained hands and said,

“‘Long live the Demon King’s Army’… that’s what you said, right?”

“…That’s right.”

“Oh ho, you answer this?”

Oscar retorted with a sardonic smile.

“I’m starting to wonder more and more. I want to know whether your backer is really the Demon King’s Army, or someone else.”

“…”

The Cuckoo closed her mouth and raised her head.

The whites of her eyes, stained red from the blood flowing down from her forehead, silently stared at Oscar.

“…”

Oscar, who had been staring intensely at those bright red eyes, opened his mouth.

“You’re there, aren’t you?”

“…What, are you saying.”

“I’m not talking to you.”

Oscar growled in a low voice. As if looking into a mirror, he stared intensely at her pupils and continued.

“I’m talking to you, the one beyond these pupils. You’re watching from there, aren’t you? Everything.”

“…”

“Did you really think I wouldn’t know? Did you think I couldn’t even notice this much? You seem to view those from the Magic Tower as pricks.”

Forcibly lifting the head of the Cuckoo, who kept trying to bow her head, Oscar asked her—no, the “someone” who might be beyond her eyes.

“Is it fun? Manipulating a person’s brain as you please, using eyeballs as camera lenses. How does it feel? Like watching a movie?”

“…You dare, how dare you.”

“I’ll find out. Even if I have to pull out every fingernail of the pawns you sent and grind them to powder. No matter how long it takes, definitely.”

Ignoring the Cuckoo’s surprised voice, Oscar said quietly.

“I swear on the name of Oscar von Valentine. I will make you pay the price for daring to touch my fiancée, and no one else.”

“…How dare you.”

[When that time comes, I’ll make you regret not having turned yourself in. Though you probably won’t turn yourself in anyway.]

-Crash!!

“Oscarrrr!!!”

Corphe Lilac shouted, violently pushing away the table, and breathed heavily.

“That damn interfering bastard… unnecessary meddling…!!”

After sitting down and panting for quite a while, Corphe eventually slowly shook her head and muttered,

“…No, it’s okay, there’s still plenty of leeway.”

The training of a ‘Cuckoo’ is thorough.

It’s clear that under no circumstances will she reveal her identity first.

If she can endure for just one year, it will be after I’ve graduated from the academy and returned to the Holy Nation.

“Yes. As long as that woman doesn’t unnecessarily open her mouth… there’s still effectively no physical evidence.”

And if necessary, there’s also the method of countering by claiming that a false confession was extracted through torture.

Without obtaining separate physical evidence, they can’t immediately suspect us based on a mere confession.

However, all these methods are predicated on the confidence that the Senate will protect her.

‘…No. The Holy Nation is a country maintained by the existence of the Saint chosen by God.’

No matter what those Senate guys are, if they know where their power comes from, they won’t cross the line.

Yes. Unless they’re insane, it’s clear they won’t try to use the Saint as a disposable card.

…That had to be the case.

Several weeks had passed since the first tea party.

It was around when half a semester had passed, and Delphina was busy studying for the theology department exams.

During that time, I tried my best not to pay attention to the Cornelio incident.

Just as that series of events was about to be naturally forgotten from my mind, one day.

“Princess!!!”

Screaming as if in terror, Delphina ran out of the room.

“Radio, radio!!”

Repeating the word “radio” like a madwoman, Delphina roughly pressed on the radio that was placed on a table in the corner of the living room.

[…Therefore, our Holy Nation’s Senate hereby declares. Everything was the 13th Saint’s unilateral action, and the Senate deeply condemns her reckless behavior that exploited the divine glory…]

The poor-quality speech flowing from the radio.

The moment I heard it, I felt as if my heart had dropped with a thud.