episode_0120

A Life-Staking Bet

“Heheheh~ Zeke-nim is sleeping soundly~ So no one should disturb such precious sleep, should they? Of course~ I’m an exception~ Hmph~”

Regardless of the commotion outside, Aria, who had been gazing at Zeke sleeping deeply on the bed with a slightly sly look, giggled and lightly waved her staff. A transparent orb began to envelop Zeke, and once it fully encompassed both Zeke and the bed he lay on, Aria spun around once as if dancing, then walked deliberately towards the door.

“Hmm~ When Zeke-nim wakes up~ he’ll praise me, right~? Hehehe… Zeke-nim’s praise never gets old no matter how many times I hear it~ Oh, that’s right!”

The moment she opened the door to step outside, Aria clapped her hands, as if remembering something she’d forgotten, and suddenly began rummaging through her bag. She then pulled out the coat she had bought for Zeke, the one he had worn before, and with a bright smile, buried her face in it, murmuring,

“Ah~ This coat that smells of Zeke-nim~ I guess smelling Zeke-nim like this before tackling a big task is the only way I can feel at ease? Hehehe… Oh, that’s right! Hehehe… If not now, then when will I get another chance to do this?”

As if a good idea had struck her, Aria began to swell with anticipation to an ominous degree. She then put on Zeke’s coat, looked at herself in the cracked mirror on the wall, embraced herself with both arms, and said,

“Ah~ Yes… this ecstasy…!! Zeke-nim might be a little embarrassed if he saw me… But when else would I get to do this, with him sleeping soundly and strange people outside~ Hehehe… Good, my energy is surging~ Now… I should get to work~ Heheh…”

Aria, who had been spinning around a few times in Zeke’s coat, looking utterly satisfied, now decided it was time to work and picked up her staff, heading back to the door. As Aria opened the door with a hole in the middle and stepped out, numerous people lay sprawled in the hallway, having been struck somewhere. Aria grabbed one of the fallen people by the head and looked at their expressionless face. Meanwhile, a girl who had been watching everything from inside a building was trembling and muttering.

“Wh-What on earth… How did she break through that door…? I-I clearly reinforced it so that even most swords wouldn’t penetrate it… A-And just now… th-that woman… Sh-She fought while smiling…”

The girl, who had watched Aria fighting in the darkness, swaying back and forth as if dancing, striking people with her fists or swinging her staff, recalled that scene and began to feel terror towards Aria. Then, at that moment…

“Wooden dolls… I already knew this village was dead, but to turn all the villagers into dolls… No… To be precise… you turned corpses into dolls, didn’t you? I know you’re listening, Puppet Master-nim?”

“….!!!”

Aria’s voice, which shouldn’t have been there, startled the girl. No… she wasn’t startled because Aria’s voice, which wasn’t there, reached her ears; she was startled because Aria knew that the people were wooden dolls she had made from corpses.

“You… What are you, really?! H-How did you know?!”

As if a doll… no, the mouth of a person who had already become a doll moved, echoing the words of the Puppet Master somewhere, asking Aria how she knew. Aria smiled faintly and said,

“I may look like this, but I’m a Saintess, you know? I can sense if there’s life or not with divine power. The moment I entered here, I realized there was no life felt in this village at all.”

“Then why did you come in knowing? You said you knew this village was dead a long time ago…”

“Because Zeke-nim was tired~ What the very tired Zeke-nim needed was a bed, so I just entered without a word~ And as I expected, you attacked me like this… Still, thank you for providing a bed for Zeke-nim to sleep comfortably in?”

As Aria chuckled and thanked the Puppet Master who was far away, the girl, seeing Aria’s brightly shining red eyes in the darkness beyond the doll’s eyes and Aria’s chilling smile that matched them, began to tremble in fear.

“A-Aaaahhh… Sh-She’s crazy…!! She’s crazier than me…!!”

“Hmm… I was crazy once, wasn’t I? I’m still crazy about Zeke-nim, but… Oh… Speaking of that, it reminded me of something. Zeke-nim said before that I was getting a little better, didn’t he?”

“Wh-What…?”

As Aria suddenly started talking about something incomprehensible, the terrified girl was dumbfounded. Then Aria put down the doll she was controlling and spun around again as if dancing, saying,

“I admit it too. Recently, I’ve felt myself changing little by little. But… when I realized the true nature of that feeling, I couldn’t help but feel even more ecstatic! Because… the part of me that changed was realizing that I trusted Zeke-nim even more and became more humble towards him~ That means it’s proof that my love for Zeke-nim has grown even greater…!! How could there be such beautiful love~?”

‘C-Crazy! Sh-She’s a completely crazy woman…!!’

The girl, observing Aria’s claims, her tone of voice, and her dancing through the doll’s eyes, became even more gripped by fear. Then, at that moment, when the doll she was controlling suddenly lost its vision, the girl instinctively knew what had happened. It was that Aria had struck the doll’s head with her staff, just as she had fought the other dolls in the hallway earlier. Aria, who had struck and shattered the doll’s head with her staff, looked at the broken pieces and grinned widely, saying,

“But my feelings for others remain unchanged. Of course… I have a little feeling for those who have helped Zeke-nim or are related by blood. However… I have absolutely no interest in other living beings, so I feel no emotion towards them. To the point where I can crush those who were once human like this… Heheh… Well… there are exceptions, but… this isn’t a person anymore, it’s a doll, isn’t it?”

“You… You’re a Saintess!! Can a Saintess do that?! A Saintess who can revive others… can she do that?!”

As Aria said she had no interest in other living beings and could crush them, the girl, through the mouth of another doll sprawled on the floor, shouted at Aria if a Saintess could do such a thing. Aria slowly turned her head to the doll moving beside her and, with another chilling smile, said,

“Ah… You’re saying that because you don’t know about me, are you? And resurrection… Unfortunately, I recently learned something myself…!!”

“….!!”

The moment Aria was about to explain something, the girl’s senses from the doll she was controlling vanished again, and she realized that Aria had once again struck and shattered her doll’s head with her staff. When she tried to control another doll, she saw Aria had already turned her head towards the doll she was about to control, displaying a chilling smile.

‘….!! H-How did she know that I was controlling this doll…?!’

“Someone from outside this dimension said that… revival is forbidden, they said? And besides, forbidden or not, I don’t have the ability to revive anyone~”

“….! Agh!”

Aria explained that revival was forbidden from the start and that she didn’t possess such an ability, then swung her staff and struck the doll’s face that the girl was controlling, shattering the doll’s face. The girl, who had watched the staff flying towards her face until the very end, gasped in surprise and closed her eyes without realizing it.

“Gasp… Gasp… The dolls are reinforced and never break… H-How on earth… how does she smash them…!! Ugh…!!”

“Oh, and one last piece of advice…”

“Aaaahhhk!!!”

The moment the girl, gasping for breath, opened her eyes and tried to control another doll, Aria, as if she had already figured out which doll the girl was trying to control, was already crouching down, staring intently at the sprawled doll. Then, in the first sight through that doll, the girl saw Aria’s face thrust forward, staring at her with glittering red eyes and a chilling smile, causing her to fall backward with her chair in utter shock. But whether the girl’s scream was heard from the doll’s mouth or not, Aria merely smiled and advised the girl,

“No matter where you are, no matter what you’re doing, you who are controlling these dolls… I will definitely find you. So… if you want to live, run away~!”

“Ha… Haa… Do you… Do you think I’ll keep getting pushed around…? Among my dolls, there are some who were adventurers…!! You will never…”

“Then how about a bet? Whose life will end first… mine or yours? I wonder… whose life will end first? Well then… Let the bet begin!!”

As the girl showed off her own strength, Aria suggested a bet on whose life would end first, and with a cry of “begin,” she uppercutted the doll’s face with her fist. She then spun around and swung her staff, shattering another doll. The girl clutched her chest in shock and stood up.

“Gasp… Gasp… What kind of woman is she… But if I turn her into a doll, she might be quite useful… Hehehe… Good… Even if all my dolls are destroyed… I will definitely capture that woman…!!”

The girl, who had been feeling fear towards Aria’s strength, slowly began to see that fear turn into admiration, and she became filled with the desire to possess Aria. She then slowly reached out her hand to a ball of countless intertwined threads on the desk beside her and muttered, her eyes glowing red.

“Alright, Saintess… I’ll take that bet…!! If I win, I’ll turn you into a doll… And if I lose… then I’ll give this village to you… Let’s see you try…!!! Hehehehehe…!!!”

“Heheh… That’s more like it. Then… I’ll start by destroying all the dolls here first~!”

Aria spun her staff around as the dolls around her began to rise again by the girl’s will. Aria immediately swung her staff and shattered one of the slowly rising dolls. At that moment, a doll that had taken a stance reached out to her.

“Whoops!”

Aria lightly caught the extended hand of the doll with her left hand, twisted the doll’s hand, pulled it towards herself, and then struck its face with her right hand. The doll’s face was dented, and Aria delivered another punch in that state, completely shattering the doll’s face. The girl then began to cackle as the senses from her dolls kept disappearing.

“Hehehe… As expected, she’s strong…!! I guess I’ll have to be prepared to use up all my dolls…”

“There’s no need to prepare? They’re all going to be destroyed anyway, so what preparations are you talking about~?”

As the girl said she had to be prepared to lose all her dolls, Aria smirked, grabbed a doll’s head, and repeatedly slammed it against the wall. The doll’s head was utterly destroyed, and when the doll she held stopped moving, Aria threw it at another doll and grinned widely, saying,

“You can never defeat me as I am now? Because I am stronger now than ever before.”

“…..?”

As Aria straightened her shoulders and declared herself stronger than ever, the girl controlling the dolls looked at Aria through the doll’s eyes, appearing dumbfounded, as if bewildered by her words. When the girl said nothing in response, Aria’s cheeks suddenly flushed, and she hugged herself with both arms, saying,

“Because… I’m wearing Zeke-nim’s coat right now…!! I feel like I’m fighting alongside Zeke-nim, so… Hehehehe… I’m filled with confidence that I’ll never lose~ Hehehe… It feels good to smell Zeke-nim’s scent on me every time I fight…”

‘She’s strong, but she’s definitely crazier than me…’

As Aria once again performed and said things that were utterly incomprehensible, the girl realized that Aria was indeed crazier than herself. But the girl didn’t know. To others, both the girl who turned corpses into wooden dolls and Aria, who was crazy about Zeke, looked equally insane. Meanwhile, Zeke…

“Ugh… My head… Is it still night…? Yaaawn…”

He had woken up but, realizing it was still dark outside, fell back asleep. During that time, Aria, wearing Zeke’s coat, was utterly destroying the girl’s dolls. Shattering a doll’s leg with her staff, stomping on its head to break it, or mercilessly striking it with her staff until nothing of its original form remained, the dolls destroyed by Aria’s hands were tragically ruined, scattering fragments everywhere.

“Now… this seems to be the last doll, doesn’t it?”

While brutally destroying the dolls, Aria realized that the doll she was trampling was the last one that had entered the building. She glanced at the room where Zeke was sleeping soundly and murmured with a satisfied smile,

“Good night, Zeke-nim. Those rude ones who disturb your sweet dreams… Heheheh~”

Watching Zeke sleep soundly, Aria hummed a tune and descended the stairs. She then emerged from the ruined inn and began walking lightly along the streets of the dead village, bathed in the moonlight visible through the fog. Then, at that moment, as people turned into dolls began to emerge from various buildings, Aria spread her arms wide in the moonlight, tilted her head back, and said,

“Alright~ Then where shall we begin~? Aria’s bet with Zeke-nim!! If the Puppet Master defeats me, I will become the Puppet Master’s doll, and if I defeat the Puppet Master… then… Hehehe… Shall I do to them what I did to Melian before…?”

Aria thought it wouldn’t be bad to inflict the same torment she had previously inflicted on Melian upon the Puppet Master she had made a bet with, and she began to cackle. She then spun her staff in her hand and turned her head to the dolls rushing towards her, giving them a chilling smile. Meanwhile…

“…Why aren’t they coming? Did I miscalculate? I expected them to arrive in this forest by now…”

Dio V Runner, who had been waiting in advance in the forest beyond Dorga, had no idea that Zeke and Aria were stranded in Dorga. As they failed to appear no matter how long he waited, he decided he had made a calculation error and simply fell asleep on a tree.