Episode 70 – A Welcome Reunion (1
by Afuhfuihgs
Episode 70 – A Welcome Reunion (1)
*
Jennifer stared at the man standing before her with a blank expression.
Jennifer was shocked that the monster that had torn its way in through the bars was none other than Baron Salvier, and she couldn’t make sense of the situation.
Did the guard slip some kind of hallucinogenic drug into my dinner tonight?
Baron Salvier slowly opened his mouth towards the confused Jennifer.
“You seem quite surprised.”
“… You… How on earth…”
“Kukuku”
Baron Salvier chuckled.
“How did I get in? You saw it yourself.”
“… I did see it… I definitely saw it,”
Jennifer looked around with trembling pupils.
The bloodstains and mangled pieces of flesh that had been scattered all over the prison just moments ago had already disappeared.
Jennifer’s bewildered face didn’t even seem sure that she wasn’t dreaming.
For Jennifer, the only indication that all of this was real was the sharp pain from the cold blade tightly constricting her wrist.
Jennifer, her head in a whirl, blurted out something absurd.
“… Did you come to save me?”
“What? Pwahahaha! Are you out of your mind?”
Baron Salvier’s laughter, as if he found it truly ridiculous, echoed through the prison.
He was laughing so hard he was clutching his stomach, loud enough that the guard outside would surely have heard, so it seemed the guard was away, and the Baron knew it.
Jennifer looked straight at Baron Salvier and asked.
“… Then why are you here?”
“Hahaha, ah-what other reason would I have for coming to a prison? To pay for my sins, of course.”
“…?”
“Though not for my own sins, of course.”
Amber eyes gleamed between the eyeholes of the mask.
Those two eyes, shining in the darkness, were curved in a crescent shape.
Most of the Baron’s face was hidden by the mask, but Jennifer could tell just by looking at those eyes.
How much the Baron was enjoying himself right now,
And that behind that gleeful gaze was a murderous intent directed at her.
Jennifer trembled with fear, recalling the Baron’s entrance.
The only things Jennifer knew for sure right now were three things.
1. The guard isn’t coming,
2. The Baron isn’t human, and
3. I can’t escape.
Jennifer asked in a trembling voice.
“… What… What are you?”
The Baron tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling.
As if sensing something.
After stiffening his entire body as if reaching climax after enjoying some amazing sex, the Baron relaxed and let out a huge sigh as if squeezing it out.
“Huu-My identity?”
“…”
“You already know. I am Baron Salvier. Can’t you tell by looking?”
“…Baron Salvier… Ha, who the hell is Baron Salvier anyway…? I should have suspected it from the start, with you being some unknown foreigner. No one in this empire knows who you are.”
“Hehe,”
“…But, I realized it just now after seeing that. You’re not human. Probably some kind of monster or demon. I should have suspected it from the beginning. Who you are, why you have so much money, why you’re always getting involved with our family… Could it be… Daniel too?”
“Oh, yes, that’s right. That fool who dared to board my ship and covet my wealth. You should have seen his face as he slowly drowned.”
“… You bastard! You did it! Why? What grudge do you have!”
“A grudge, that’s a good answer. A grudge. Think about it carefully.”
“A grudge…? A demon held a grudge? Against me? Or against Robin?”
“Oh, you’re almost there, Jennifer. You can do it, think a little harder.”
“… Don’t be ridiculous, I’ve never harbored such a great grudge that my son had to die, especially not against dirty monsters like you!”
“Too bad… Wrong answer, Jennifer.”
“What?”
“I’m neither a monster nor a demon, you see.”
“… Go fuck yourself, you bastard. No human would do such a thing…”
“Shut up.”
Baron Salvier raised his right arm high and pulled his own hair upwards.
Soon, with a cracking sound, Jennifer fell silent at the Baron’s grotesque appearance as his head was torn off.
Satisfied with Jennifer’s silence, the Baron placed his face back on his neck, emitted a golden mist, and returned to his normal appearance before opening his mouth.
“I am a minor consequence created by a great mistake you left behind in the past, Jennifer.”
*
The terrified Jennifer looked slightly puzzled after hearing my words.
I used abstract expressions, but she still doesn’t get it; how great must her sins be that she can’t even guess?
I smiled and continued.
“People call me Baron Salvier.”
Jennifer was looking at me with an expression that asked who the hell the Baron really was.
I was overwhelmed with elation and choked up.
Finally, this day has come.
The day I reveal my identity to my comrade.
The day I ask the one who killed me if they know me.
The time has finally come to pluck the first fruit of revenge, ripe and luscious, and indulge in its flesh to my heart’s content.
I slowly opened my mouth, hoping she would feel the nightmares of the past crawling up her ankles and tightening around her neck.
“Those who don’t know me well call me a hero.”
“…”
“Those who know me a little call me a thief.”
“…Huh…?”
I took off my mask.
Even after seeing my face, Jennifer seemed to have trouble remembering who I was for a moment.
Well, it’s been 20 years.
I wasn’t even at the hero’s send-off ceremony, and there wasn’t even a portrait of me left, so it’s understandable that she can’t remember.
Still, I’m a little disappointed,
You used to call me this.
“My friends called me Edward,”
“Ah…! Ah… Aaaah,”
“The woman I loved called me Ed.”
“No, this can’t be happening…”
Jennifer’s face turned pale blue with shock, and she repeatedly opened and closed her mouth as if suffocating.
I said with a dazzling, bright smile in contrast.
“Long time no see, Jennifer.”
Jennifer reflexively tried to pull her hands forward, forgetting that she was tied up, but swallowed a groan as the metal bit into her wrists.
I don’t know what she was trying to do, but Jennifer realized anew that she couldn’t do anything and babbled incoherently.
“No, it’s a lie. This… This evil monster is trying to deceive me. You, you’re dead. I clearly!”
“That’s right, I died. By Robin’s hand, that is. Remember?”
“…Heuk,”
Jennifer closed her mouth at my question.
As far as she knew, there were only three people on Earth who knew that Robin killed Ed.
Robin, Villard, and Jennifer herself.
The fact that I knew that fact, which even Mela didn’t know, forced Jennifer to admit that the man standing before her was indeed Ed.
I was honestly curious about how they would react when they heard my identity.
Jennifer barely moved her trembling lips and said.
“…Ed. It’s a misunderstanding.”
Disappointing.
“I, I can explain everything. I know how it might have looked to you, but everything I,”
“That’s it?”
“…”
“That’s all? That’s the only excuse you can muster.”
“…”
Jennifer pitifully shut her mouth.
No, to be precise, it was closer to not being able to accept the reality before her.
Yes, I’ve returned.
The past sin that you had forgotten.
The consequence created by the sin you left behind.
Edward has returned.
Jennifer tightly closed her eyes.
She pressed down on her eyelids with all her might, as if hoping that this nightmarish lie before her would disappear when she woke up from her dream.
But I had no intention of pulling Jennifer out of this nightmare.
I slowly approached Jennifer and whispered in her ear.
“Disappointing, I’ll give you one more chance, Jennifer.”
“…Ah, aaaah…”
“Huu-“
A gust of wind in her ear caused goosebumps to rise all over Jennifer’s body.
Jennifer swallowed hard and slowly opened her eyes to look at me.
Seeing me so close, our faces almost touching like lovers, Jennifer finally gave up on escaping reality.
She stammered.
“I, it was all Robin, no, Villard who ordered it. I never wanted to hurt you!”
“Oh-“
“It’s true, Ed, please just believe me once, what grudge would I have against you? Right? Think back to the adventures we had together. Then you’ll know my true feelings.”
“It was fun, I mean it.”
“R, right? What I want to say is,”
“That’s the last thing you said to me.”
“…”
I took out a dagger from the leather pouch behind my back, held it in my hand, and presented it to Jennifer’s eyes.
Jennifer’s pupils shook violently as the blade approached.
It was the dagger I had received from my teacher, and which she had taken and displayed in her laboratory.
“Do you remember stepping on my wrist and snatching this dagger from my hand?”
“No, that’s…”
“You don’t remember? It’s been twenty years. But, for me, it was just a few months ago. I remember it very clearly.”
I gently scratched Jennifer’s nasolabial folds with the dagger, not enough to cut her.
Jennifer was terrified and couldn’t say anything, just kept her mouth shut and trembled.
“Ugh, look at these wrinkles. You’ve aged terribly! Jennifer.”
“…Eut,”
“To have my entire life stolen and this is all I get, isn’t that too much?”
“…I, I’m sorry.”
“For what? Killing me? Or for aging so pathetically?”
That proud Jennifer couldn’t even express any dissatisfaction at my mockery of her appearance.
I smiled and took the dagger away from her face.
As the blade moved away, Jennifer struggled to catch her ragged breath.
At that moment, I stomped hard on her wrist, which was fixed to the wall.
“Kyaaaaaak!”
The restraints dug into Jennifer’s already tattered wrist.
Jennifer screamed sharply and thrashed.
As I pressed down on her wrist, she twisted her head wildly and begged me.
“Ed! Please, please! Save me. I was wrong. Please stop!”
“You looked happy, Jennifer. Was the scenery beautiful as you stood on my corpse?”
“Ah, ack, keuek,”
Kkuk
“How did it feel? Watching Mela weep as she buried my empty coffin?”
“I was wrong… I was wroooong! Kyaaaaak!”
Kwajik
“How did it feel to watch Mela open her heart to Robin, the one who killed Ed?”
“Ed! Please! My hand is going to be cut off! Please, a mage’s hands are really important…!”
Kwak
“How did it feel every time you saw that shitty statue?”
“Kyaaaaak! Ed! Stooop!”
“Answer me.”
I raised my foot once more and slammed it down on Jennifer’s wrist.
With a cracking sound, the restraints dug into the wall.
Jennifer’s crushed wrist filled the gap, which had shrunk to a size where not even a finger could fit.
Jennifer writhed in agony, but the more she struggled, the more her other wrist was cut by the restraints.
“Ugh, Ed, please…”
“Please what,”
“I was wrong. I committed a sin against you that I can never be forgiven for. But just once, just once, save me. I’m begging you like this. Please, stop now…”
“No.”
“Kyaaaaak!”
My relentless kicking, aimed solely at her wrist, continued for quite some time.
I didn’t want Jennifer to get used to the pain, so I pressed down hard on her wrist, tapped it with my toes, and shook her loose palm violently.
Thankfully, Jennifer screamed horribly at every single action.
All the bones in her wrist must have been crushed, as the part of her wrist attached to the restraints was flowing down with blood like muddy clay, and her hand was dangling as if barely attached.
“This is enough.”
“…Huh…? What are you…?”
“This is enough to cool me down to some extent.”
“…R… Really?”
Jennifer asked me, showing a smile as if she was forcibly pulling up both corners of her mouth.
A difficult and painful trembling filled her facial muscles, making it clear that she was struggling to make that smile.
“Yeah, I think the grudge for stepping on my hand is gone now.”
“…Huh?”
“Now, it’s time to pay the price for taking my life.”
Jennifer’s face crumbled in a spectacular fashion.
Edward, standing before her.
She finally realized that the ghost of the past had no intention of letting her live.
No, she probably knew it, but she was only now facing it directly.
I sneered and said to Jennifer.
“No, think about it, Jennifer. You were a smart woman.”
“…What…?”
“Would I, who killed even your son who wasn’t a criminal, have any reason to keep you alive?”
“Uaaaaah…!”
“Yes, I killed Daniel.”
“Edward…!”
Upon hearing Daniel’s name, Jennifer shouted my name and let out an animalistic cry.
I smiled, closed my eyes, and savored the sound.
I cleared my throat like a singer performing an opera and spoke as if singing.
“Yes, I lured Daniel onto the ship. I stabbed, cut, and sliced him with a dagger there.”
“You!”
“Me! I threw him into the water. I pulled Daniel’s legs under the sea.”
“Uaaaaaaaaah!”
“The last thing Daniel saw before he died was my smile, Jennifer.”
“Why! Why!”
“Why what?”
“What sin did that child commit, what right did you have to kill Daniel like that!”
“Then what sin did I commit to deserve to die?”
“……”
Jennifer closed her mouth.
Well, what could she say?
I was the one who had the most to say right now.
Because there were still many taunts I had prepared.
“Still, I haven’t forgotten the grace you bestowed upon me.”
“…What…?”
“To build statues for Mela who would miss me, to let me see myself again even like that, I was touched. Of course, it doesn’t look anything like me.”
“…”
“So I let you see Daniel again too, Jennifer. Don’t you remember?”
“…!”
“Robin didn’t seem to like it.”
“Edward…! Ed! Edeuuu! Uwaaaah! “
Jennifer called out my name repeatedly, then cried and sobbed like an animal.
It’s because of Rose, it’s because of Baron Salvier.
No,
Daniel died because of Jennifer herself.
Jennifer’s past killed Daniel’s future.
I squatted down and looked at Jennifer’s face.
Jennifer’s expression had a strange light that was hard to describe.
Sadness, pain, regret, anger, resignation
It was a blank face with all of those mixed together.
But I didn’t want to give her any time to indulge in sentimentality.
“So, let’s start again. Shall we go for the other wrist this time?”
“…It’s your fault.”
“What?”
I looked down at her as Jennifer muttered softly.
Jennifer’s eyes had returned to the arrogant and annoyed gaze full of pride from her days in the hero party.
“It’s your fault, Ed. “
“Oh really.”
“If you hadn’t suddenly interfered, there wouldn’t have been any need to kill you, it was your fault for interfering without knowing your place, kyaaaaaaaak!!!!!”
I grabbed her tattered hand and pulled it off.
Her wrist, which was already only connected by skin without bones, stretched and snapped off with a thud.
Her arm slipped out of the restraints and fell limply downwards.
A rough, gasping sound that couldn’t even be called a scream echoed through the prison.
“Good, that’s the spirit. It’s more fun to torment you when you resist, I’m too soft-hearted to torment someone who’s just whimpering, unlike you.”
“Keuaeuk! Heuek!”
“So, where should we go next? Eyes? Teeth? Fingernails? Feet? Or…”
I took her terribly torn wrist, brought it to her arm, and used divine power.
In the golden mist, Jennifer’s wrist slowly began to reattach and heal.
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