episode_0033

*

After breakfast, we left the fortress and continued our search smoothly.

Lucia seemed a bit dispirited because of what happened last night, and Kunat also seemed to be watching his step, being much quieter than yesterday.

Thanks to that, we had a pretty decent haul today.

From an overturned carriage, we were able to get lamp oil and ink, and from an empty cabin in the forest, we found simple farming tools and a few sacks of harvested grain.

Discovering a herd of deer while moving and hunting a large doe was also a great harvest.

As we packed away various other miscellaneous items, the weight of the sacks gradually became almost too much to bear.

Even though it seemed like we only picked up trivial junk, they were things that could no longer be obtained now that the world was ruined, so we couldn’t easily give them up.

“…The sun’s already setting.”

While searching a shabby cabin roughly built on the riverbank in the middle of the forest, I noticed that darkness was falling in the sky.

I said to Lucia, who was rummaging through a dusty sack placed in the corner of the cabin.

“Lucia, let’s rest here today and go back to the island tomorrow.”

“Ah… Yes, I understand.”

Lucia nodded and continued rummaging through the sack.

Every time she lifted the opening of the sack, powdery dust filled the room like fog.

Lucia covered her face with her sleeve and kept sneezing, but she didn’t let go of the sack until the end.

“Is there anything there?”

“No, there’s almost nothing. There are some potatoes… but they’re all sprouted or rotten.”

“Okay. Stop rummaging. It’s probably no use even if you search more.”

“…Oh, why do you think so? There might be something… useful…”

Lucia retorted to me, but she secretly let go of the sack she was holding.

Unlike her words, she didn’t really want to flutter the dusty sack.

I looked around the inside of the cabin and said.

“This cabin doesn’t even have a door, and there’s no furniture inside except for a wooden table and wooden chairs.”

“Oh… that’s right.”

I slowly sat down on the wooden chair and continued.

As soon as my butt touched it, the chair creaked ominously.

“It’s not a house where people lived.”

“Oh… then, who lived in it?”

“…Not who lived in it, but it’s probably just a shelter. Looking at it being built next to the river, I guess it’s a space that fishermen or something used to rest.”

“Ah… I see.”

“Even if you keep rummaging through the sack, you’ll probably just find some fish bait that’s all gone bad. Let’s just rest.”

“Yes… I will.”

Lucia slowly approached the table and carefully sat down on the chair opposite me.

Whether the nails embedded in the chair had rotted, Lucia’s chair wobbled severely.

Lucia was startled and grabbed the table.

It was somehow funny and very cute to see her, who rushes at monsters with her bare body, being so frightened of falling over and shrinking back.

“Are you okay? You must have been surprised.”

“Phew… Hehe, I was a little surprised.”

Lucia scratched her head with an embarrassed smile, as if she felt a little awkward herself.

I looked at her face. I slowly lowered my gaze towards her neck.

The handprint I left on her snow-white nape had already disappeared.

I had been checking Lucia’s neck slightly whenever I had a chance throughout the day, and even when we were hunting, the red handprint was still slightly there.

After confirming Lucia’s snow-white neckline, I sighed in relief and swept my face with my elbows on the table.

Lucia looked at me and asked in a cautious tone.

“Father, are you tired?”

“Yeah, I’m tired…”

“Still, shouldn’t you eat something?”

“Ah, that’s right…”

It took two days to get here, but that was only because we spent time hunting and searching.

If we are lucky enough not to meet any monsters, we will be able to return to the island tomorrow.

Of course, to do that, we have to walk diligently, and to walk diligently, we have to eat something.

But I didn’t feel like eating anything.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t hungry, but I was too tired and wanted to sleep right away.

In fact, it was an inevitable situation.

First of all, my body was tired from walking around for two days, and I was emotionally exhausted because of the monsters.

Besides, I haven’t slept properly for two days now, having dealt with Anna the day before yesterday and Lucia and Kunat last night.

I felt dizzy, as if something was wrong with the sour wine I drank yesterday.

“Lucia… are you hungry?”

“…Hun…”

Lucia stopped talking for a moment and closed her mouth, and then started talking in a quiet voice.

“Father… you seem very… tired.”

“…Yeah. Honestly, I want to sleep right away.”

“Perhaps… you couldn’t sleep properly last night because of me?”

I slowly shook my head.

Ugh,

I must be tired.

I only rotated my face a little, but I felt like a heavy iron ball was moving back and forth inside my head.

I lowered my head and supported my forehead with both hands, muttering softly.

“No… it’s not like that.”

“…Father.”

Lucia slowly got up from her chair and said.

“Don’t worry about me and feel free to go to sleep first if you’re tired. I’ll take care of myself.”

“…Lucia.”

“Now…”

Lucia continued in a soft, gentle voice.

It was a warm and calm voice, as if mothers were singing lullabies to put their children to sleep.

“Anyway, you have to butcher the deer to take it.”

“Butchering is never easy. I’ll do it.”

“No, I learned from Anna too… Although I rarely helped because my body was weak… I can still do it clumsily.”

“…”

Lucia, who I glimpsed in my blurry vision, was wearing a soft smile.

“You can’t even open your eyes properly…”

“Ah…”

That was true.

As soon as I sat down, my eyelids felt as heavy as the sack I was carrying around.

From the moment I confirmed that the handprint on Lucia’s neck had disappeared and felt relieved, fatigue seemed to rush in more fiercely.

No matter how hard I tried to open my eyes, the eyelids would only slowly sink down.

Lucia smiled softly at me and gently grabbed both of my wrists.

Then, she slowly pulled my arms down and placed them on the table, overlapping them as if they were stacked.

As if a string was attached, my forehead naturally and slowly fell onto that hand.

As soon as I fell on the table, consciousness faded away with terrifying force.

In my fading consciousness, I felt Lucia patting my head.

“You worked hard today. Father.”

“Lu…cia…”

“I’ll take some of the deer while I butcher it. So, don’t worry and sleep.”

“…Okay.”

With those words as the last, I fell asleep right away.

As if sinking deep into a dark sleep.

*

After finishing butchering the deer, Lucia slowly raised her head and wiped the sweat that had formed on her forehead with her sleeve.

The moon was already rising in the sky.

“Hoo… it’s messier than I thought.”

Lucia murmured quietly.

Like she said, the butchered deer wasn’t in very good condition.

A lot of flesh was attached to the skin and bones and wasted, and the deer’s blood splattered all over her body because she put the knife in wrong while cutting the belly.

But, one way or another, the disassembly was successfully completed.

Her body, which was so weak that it was difficult to do housework, is now healthy, so if she keeps working, her clumsy hand movements will gradually improve.

Lucia decided to be satisfied with that point.

Lucia gathered the finely torn flesh, skewered them with twigs, lit a small fire outside the cabin, and stuck the deer skewers next to the fire.

While waiting for the meat to cook for a while, as she was sitting by the fire, a black cat slowly approached her side.

“…Oh, Mister Kunat.”

“Looks delicious. Lucia.”

“Would you like some meat?”

Lucia cut a thin slice from a piece of deer meat she had butchered and handed it to Kunat.

“Hey… wouldn’t you cook some for me too?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I just saw you in cat form, so…”

Lucia hurriedly skewered the sliced meat on a twig and stuck it next to the fire.

While waiting for the meat to cook, the two people… no, the two devils stared at the bonfire in silence.

In the silence that lasted for a while, it was Lucia who spoke first.

“It feels like it’s been a while since I talked to Mister Kunat.”

“It’s the first time since the night you came to become a devil.”

“That’s… right.”

“Since you became a devil, you must have had a lot of questions, but I was wondering why you didn’t talk to me.”

“Father… wouldn’t like me talking to Mister Kunat.”

“That’s right.”

Kunat nodded and chuckled, then slowly looked up at Lucia and continued.

“Well, since… Father Theodore is also asleep, is there anything you want to ask? I’ll answer what I know.”

“Something I want to ask… Hmm,”

“Is there nothing? You seem to be adapting better than I thought even after accepting a devil into your body.”

“Well… because it turned out as I wanted.”

“,,,”

“Now I can run around like Solana… and do a lot of housework that helps the monastery… like Anna. Besides, killing monsters is… something only I can do, which those two can’t.”

“That’s right.”

“That’s what happens when you make a wish to a devil. It’s exciting and fun… everything seems perfect.”

“…”

Statements that would have startled the Father if he had heard them were flowing smoothly from Lucia’s mouth.

Kunat was listening to Lucia’s words with interest.

Lucia suddenly wore a self-deprecating smile, then quietly muttered in a sad voice.

“Until the price… comes… I’ll be happy, right?”

“Hmm, aren’t you afraid?”

“…The price… that will come to me? Going to Hell.”

“Yes.”

Lucia quietly shook her head.

“I’m not afraid at all.”

“…Hoo.”

“It’s a contract I made because I wanted to. There are things I gained, and there is a price I have to pay.”

Lucia lowered her head.

Under her lowered head, there was a pitch-black darkness that neither moonlight nor firelight reached.

In that darkness, a pair of red lights flickered.

“I had already… had my life… unilaterally… taken away by a devil… a long time ago.”

“…”

“Compared to that… isn’t this a very… reasonable deal…?”

Lucia’s voice was clearly filled with resentment and hatred.

It might be natural.

The Father sometimes looked pained, as if he was blaming himself, whenever he saw Lucia’s broken body,

Lucia’s body was broken because of the Ebony Wolf, not Father Theodore.

Her mother and neighbors died, and she was trapped on the island, because of a devil, not a priest.

No matter how good she is, she can’t be without resentment.

Kunat felt an ironic emotion as he looked at such Lucia.

A girl whose life was taken away by a devil is trying to get her life back using a devil.

Even in this ruined world.

It was a futile and funny story to Kunat.

A minor side story attached to the story of a great hero named Father Theodore.

It was a sad tragedy and a miserable absurdity.

“Ah,”

Lucia suddenly raised her head and soon clapped her hands together and said.

“I just thought of something to ask.”

“What is it?”

Kunat looked at Lucia and asked.

As a tribute to this pitiful girl’s tragic life and the soul that will eventually suffer, the devil was willing to answer whatever she was curious about faithfully.

Lucia slowly opened her mouth.

“How can I make the Father like me?”

“…What?”

Kunat wondered for a long time if his ears were wrong.

However, Lucia’s cheerful voice that continued to come in was desperately blocking Kunat’s escape from reality.

“I thought the Father would touch me… but he just knocked me out.”

“…”

Lucia slowly stroked her neck with her thin, long fingers, gradually grabbing her own neck as if she was holding it.

“Like this… grab it…”

“…”

“Press… make it so I can’t breathe… so…”

“…Lucia?”

“That was… a little good… too…”

Lucia slowly brought her other hand between her legs.

“With that rough… hand… with that thick finger… if you touch me here… it would be so good…”

“…”

“How can I… make the Father touch me?”

“…”

“Kunat… Mister?”

“Uh… um… I don’t know.”

Kunat was genuinely flustered.

He knew that Lucia had belatedly awakened to her sexuality with Anna’s help.

Just as a thief who learns late is more terrifying, he also knew that Lucia was being stained at a tremendous speed.

But, he never thought she would do this in front of him.

The belatedly awakened consciousness and the lack of common sense combined to create a figure that even the devil Kunat was embarrassed by.

“You’d better… figure it out quickly…”

Lucia squinted her eyes and looked down at Kunat.

Kunat was dumbfounded by Lucia’s appearance and made a hollow laugh.

“You have to help me, Mister Kunat… because I have no idea what kind of woman the Father likes… what kind of appearance he is drawn to…”

“What if I don’t help?”

“I’ll tell the Father and make him torment you.”

Kunat burst out laughing at Lucia’s audacious words.

“As expected of a nun, you’re acting just like the Father. Are you trying to threaten a devil?”

“That’s right.”

“…What?”

“That’s right. I’m threatening you.”

Lucia looked down at Kunat with a face without a single smile.

A red gaze shining in the darkness was pouring down on Kunat unilaterally.

“There’s no need to make up words. Even if I just run to the Father and say, ‘Sniff, Kunat…’ the Father will cut Kunat into twelve pieces.”

“…Ha,”

Kunat was genuinely curious.

Is there something on that island that makes people go crazy?

Or have all the people left in this world gone crazy?

Kunat quietly recalled how Father Theodore treated Lucia.

No matter how you look at it, he was treating her like a young girl.

‘Billy… you seem to have not learned how to see people because you only play with devils. There is no innocent girl here that you think of.’

All Kunat could see was a devil who had just awakened to beast-like instincts.