episode_0049

*

Anna woke to a sharp scream.

Of course, she had only opened her eyes; she wasn’t quite conscious yet.

As soon as awareness returned to her unconscious body, an indescribable pain hammered at her brain.

The bite marks on her forearm and buttock were gouged out as if with a large spoon, and dark blood continued to flow between the herbs that had been shoved into the carved-out hollows.

“F… Father.”

Anna instinctively murmured his name.

Was it because he was the first person she thought of amidst the terrible pain?

Or was it because she instinctively knew that something had happened to him while she was unconscious?

Anna’s whisper, devoid of any strength, was filled with urgency and desperation.

“Father… Nii…”

“No… no! Father!”

But Anna’s whisper was soon drowned out by a shout.

It was the owner of the sharp scream that had awakened Anna.

A cry several times more desperate than Anna’s tore through the air.

Anna gritted her teeth and slowly raised herself.

“Kkh, ugh,”

Anna then realized that she was lying in the middle of the monastery’s courtyard.

Besides her, Sola, Lucia, and the Father were all in the yard.

But no one was helping Anna, who was groaning as she tried to get up.

Anna felt a strange sense of unease at this fact.

“Is everyone… safe…”

Anna stopped speaking.

She needed to interpret the scene before her.

Lucia, soaked to the bone, was kneeling on the ground.

Lucia hugged the Father’s head, which was resting on her lap, with a stiff expression, showing no movement.

The Father, whose head was resting on Lucia’s lap, also showed no movement.

Like Lucia, the Father was soaked like a drowned rat.

However, judging by the Father’s azure Priest Robe having turned black, the liquid that soaked him was not just plain water.

A sharp, bloody scent that shattered all of Anna’s hope pricked the tip of her nose.

Unlike the foul smell of her blood mixed with herbs, it was the distinct, fishy smell unique to blood.

Anna realized why everyone was ignoring her.

Anna was badly injured, but it was clear that the Father was hurt even worse.

“Ah, aaaa! What do I do! Father… ahh, Father!”

Unlike the two people frozen like statues, Sola was acting frantically and making a fuss.

She stomped her feet and screamed, tried to stop the blood flowing from the Father’s body, and even fell backward in tears.

Anna said with trembling lips.

“Sola… wha, what are you doing… hurry and apply herbs, bandage… you have to bandage him.”

But, contrary to her intention, her scolding was just a small echo.

Oh dear God.

The Father is clearly seriously injured; I need to calmly resolve the situation!

Anna gritted her teeth and pulled her upper body up to admonish Sola.

However, at that moment.

Anna’s eyes saw a huge hole.

The hole was positioned exactly in the Father’s abdomen, and it had gaping maw.

“… Ah?”

Anna dragged her broken body and crawled towards the Father.

She didn’t seem to feel any pain at that moment.

As she got closer, she felt Lucia’s resentful gaze, growing clearer, shining towards her from between her burnt black hair.

To Anna, that gaze was more painful than the wound left by the monster.

Lucia stared at Anna, crawling towards them, with eyes like red flames.

But even she soon averted her blazing gaze.

*

After frantically dispatching the endlessly surging corpses and the monsters pouring out of them,

Lucia rushed to the monastery and saw Anna, who was unconscious with severe injuries, and Sola, who was speechless with shock and slumped down, seemingly lost.

Lucia realized that Sola’s gaze was directed towards the cliff beyond the monastery.

Lucia gently tapped Sola’s cheek, told her to treat Anna, and hurriedly headed to the cliff.

The closer she got to the cliff, the more an indescribable ominous feeling engulfed her, but Lucia didn’t stop.

Finally, standing at the edge of the cliff and looking down, she saw the Father.

He was floating on the surface of the water, where waves crashed below the cliff, entangled with dead monsters.

The violent waves relentlessly threw his body against the cliff, and each time, a bright red mark was left on the spot where he hit.

The waves quickly washed away the red color, but Lucia had clearly seen it.

Lucia didn’t hesitate and jumped off the cliff, and pulled out the Father’s body, which had become even colder in the icy water.

Sola, seeing the Father in Lucia’s arms, was horrified and screamed.

Lucia, too, was able to grasp the entire situation even though Sola hadn’t explained anything.

There was no need to explain.

Anna and Sola were in danger, and the Father had sacrificed himself to save them.

Lucia carefully laid down the Father’s bloodless body and placed his head on her lap.

Only then could she feel the weight of responsibility that had been placed on the Father’s shoulders.

Even though he had willingly thrown his body away and been freed from life, his body was very heavy.

Lucia silently hugged the Father’s head.

The Father’s breathing had already stopped, but she could hear a faint heartbeat when she held him close.

However, it was so faint that it could stop at any moment, so it was closer to a lingering attachment than hope.

The day his thick, rough fingertips carefully touched her skin, it felt as hot as if it had been burned, but today, even when she held his manly face tightly to her chest, it was only cold.

As she hugged him even tighter, the tip of the Father’s nose pricked Lucia’s chest.

She felt pain as if a giant icicle had been stabbed into her heart, and Lucia shed tears.

“Sola… wha, what are you doing… hurry and apply herbs, bandage… you have to bandage him.”

At that moment, Anna, who had been unconscious behind Sola, slowly raised herself.

Thank goodness.

She’s safely… come to her senses.

‘Why, you.’

‘Not the Father, you.’

Lucia felt both relief that Anna was safe and anger that seemed to make her stomach churn at the same time.

It was as if the last string, which had been trembling uneasily inside her chest, had snapped with an unpleasant noise.

Of course, she understood it in her head.

That it was by no means their fault that the Father had ended up like this.

That Anna and Sola were just ordinary women with no means to fight against monsters, so there was nothing they could do in that situation.

But, wasn’t this too unfair?

Anna had received the Father’s favor,

Even kissed the Father,

While I, who was content to just wag my tail like a dog by his side, fought like a demon against monsters for the Father,

Why, Anna, who was filled with the Father’s affection, didn’t do anything, yet she was so brazen…

‘… Why only me,’

Why did the Father let me fight, and so easily throw away his precious life for them?

Why, you who didn’t do anything.

‘Am I… because I’m a Devil?’

Lucia quietly lifted only her eyes and stared at Anna.

A misplaced resentment slowly began to burn Lucia’s insides.

Anna disgustingly began to crawl closer and closer.

If she dared to come any closer, I swear I would crush her face with these hands that tore apart monsters.

After all, I’m a Devil.

After all, I’m going to Hell anyway.

Would anything change if I killed one more person?

Lucia thought so.

“… Ah?”

But, at the sight of Anna, who lost her spirit upon seeing the Father’s state, Lucia could only quietly lower her gaze.

This tragedy was not the Father’s fault, nor Anna’s fault, nor Sola’s fault.

If there was any fault, it was with Lucia, who hadn’t defeated the monsters faster.

Lucia thought so.

Unlike them, who had no power, Lucia had power.

The flames of resentment that had been burning inside her finally spread to herself.

It’s all my fault.

That the Father sacrificed his precious life,

That I became a Devil,

Even that day ten years ago, when my mother was eaten,

It’s all my fault.

From her usual gray hair, which resembled ashes, to the Devil’s hair, which was as black as a cold charcoal.

Lucia, covered in a color that seemed to symbolize the dregs left after everything had burned, finally slowly melted into the jar of regret and despair.

“Lucia.”

At that moment, someone tapped Lucia’s shoulder and spoke.

“Sola…”

“… It’s not Lucia’s fault.”

“… What?”

“It seems like you think it’s all your fault… but no, it’s not Lucia’s fault.”

Sola looked at Lucia with tearful eyes.

But Lucia only looked down at the Father in her arms and answered.

“Then… whose fault is it? Who… who on earth… made it… like this?”

“It’s no one’s fault.”

“… Then, why… did the Father have to… die? No one… no one is guilty… so why?”

“…”

Lucia murmured in a scorched voice.

“Did I become a Devil… so, the Father received… punishment instead… perhaps?”

“No…”

Sola quietly hugged Lucia’s head.

Lucia burst into tears that she had been holding back.

The childlike weeping slowly soaked the grime that had become encrusted in her heart.

Of course, Lucia was also innocent.

Lucia had certainly done her best.

It was virtually impossible to stop so many monsters alone.

But Lucia had really fought like a beast, trampled corpses like a monster, and killed monsters like a skilled murderer.

To protect the island, them, and the Father, she fought as if she were bearing all the violence and evil of the world.

But even Lucia was just a girl of about nineteen years old.

In the end, this was no one’s fault.

Just a tragedy that happened,

Lucia, who was an immature girl, swallowed that fact, which was difficult to accept, with tears.

Then, she dropped hot tears onto the face of the Father she had been holding in her arms.

“I love you… Father.”

It was then.

“That’s right. Absolutely.”

“!”

“Becoming a Devil is definitely not wrong.”

A black cat slowly walked into the middle of the three girls.

No, as if it had been there from the beginning, it stood naturally among them.

Sola, who was standing and hugging Lucia.

Lucia, who was sitting and hugging the Father.

And Anna, who was crawling on the ground, approaching the Father.

In the middle of the three girls, the cat grinned and continued to speak.

“That was a fair deal.”

“… Kunat.”

“Anna, and Sola.”

The Devil opened its mouth.

“Who will make a deal with me?”

“What…?”

“Before the Father’s life is completely cut off.”

Like an evil dragon appearing in an old story, no further persuasion was needed for the Devil who had brought out an offer that could never be refused.