episode_0192

The maid, whose head had exploded, trembled and fell down on the blood she had spilled.

With a splattering sound, blood splattered down the white marble wall, and the hallway was dyed red, only red.

A fishy smell of blood and an unpleasant heat that did not fit the name of a banquet at all filled the hallway.

“Wow… … !!”

Ceria, who was meditating after seeing the maid with her head gone, began to gag violently, and as soon as I took a couple of steps back, she vomited all over the floor.

Wow!!

A sour smell rose along with the sound of water being poured, but even that quickly disappeared as it was covered in the smell of blood.

“Ha… … . ha… … . Oooh!”

“Oh my, I can’t have a conversation like this.”

As I watched Ceria stumbling and gagging several times, I used water magic to collect the blood and vomit that had spilled on the walls and floor, and then used fire magic to evaporate them and blow them all away.

Along with the body of the maid who had fallen on the floor.

Even though she was surrounded by water magic, the burning heat felt like she was burning the maid and reduced her to ashes in an instant, and soon after all the water evaporated, she was blown away by the wind and disappeared.

“Now, wouldn’t it be easier to talk this way?”

“Charles――Lot… … !”

“Not enough yet?”

After saying that, he snapped his fingers and created a breeze, breathing out the remaining heat and fishy smell of blood in the hallway. I took a slow, deep breath and noticed that the hallway was filled with fresh air. I looked at Seria once again and tried to ask her if it was enough.

The moment I was about to open my mouth, Seria’s hand roughly grabbed my collar and pushed me against the wall.

thud–

A tingling pain came from my back where I hit the wall, but I smiled and didn’t care.

“Oh my, are you very angry?”

“Why did you do that!!”

Ceria said that and opened her eyes. Judging from his trembling eyes, it seemed like he was still trying to figure out the situation.

“It looks like you’ve been working out hard at the Knight Academy, but you really can’t move?”

I smiled mischievously and swiped Seria’s arm, which was holding my collar, with my fingers. Seria gritted her teeth and pushed me harder, shouting.

“Answer me!!”

“Hehehe, you can hear everything even if you don’t shout like that?”

“I told you to answer!”

thud–

Seria angrily pushed me against the wall once again, and I lightly raised both hands to show my understanding and took a surrender stance.

“It’s really scary. I didn’t expect it to come out this rough.”

“… … .”

I don’t know if Seria was internally angry, or if her emotions crossed a certain line and she calmed down, but she didn’t show any reaction to my words.

Looking at Seria, I kept my mouth shut for a moment and then smiled.

“Are you curious why I killed that kid? Why do you feel responsible for seeing that child die?”

“It’s not like responsibility. Anyone would be angry if they saw someone being killed.”

“Well… … . You’re still caught up in such a dream-like illusion. You don’t even know reality.”

I chuckled and looked down at Ceria.

“This is not the game world you think of. I’m not the villain in the game you think. I’ve told you this many times since last time. This is a stark reality.”

“So you’re saying that you killed that child even though you knew this was reality and that the child was alive!?”

Seeing Seria speaking with an expression of complete disbelief, I erased the expression from my face, tilted my head to one side, and spoke.

“Okay then. I found out and killed him. I wonder if they killed him without knowing?”

After hearing what I said, Seria was beyond angry and was shocked. I don’t know if it was anger or fear, but the hand holding my collar was trembling.

Even so, the reason he still won’t let go of my collar is because he hasn’t given up on me yet. Or is it an expression of his will to prevent me from committing any more evil deeds?

Well, honestly, it was good. Either way, that’s what I was aiming for.

“Why… … . Why did it become like this… … ? What was the problem… … ? What on earth happened to change like this… … !!”

When I looked at Seria with a face like I had no idea what she was talking about, she gritted her teeth and looked at me with watery eyes.

“I know you’ve had a lot of difficult times. When something like that happens to a family member, of course the bad path comes into view. But it’s not too late. Pay for your sins even now――”

“Ahaha… … .”

I burst out laughing, interrupting Ceria.

“Ahahaha!! Kuhuhuhu… … . Aha, ahahaha!!”

Seria blinked as she looked at me, who suddenly burst out laughing.

I laughed so hard that my stomach hurt, and then I sighed and let my arms go limp.

“Okay… … . Struggle. Because it’s hard work… … . okay. It was definitely a lot of hard work.”

“Then as expected――”

“Pretending to be friends with a disgusting bitch like you, and listening to her talk about love and all.”

I slowly lowered my head, looked at Seria with a drowsy face, and said.

“Smiling like a good child, being kind to everyone like a good person, and helping you while enduring frustration… … . It was all hard work.”

“That… … !!”

“Why are you looking so shocked? That was what you expected. Isn’t that right?”

As I said that, I grabbed Ceria’s wrist and laughed at her as I felt the deep agitation in her slender wrist.

Ceria, who was looking at me while swallowing dry saliva, soon let out a short breath, looked straight at me and said.

“Then what about Hermel?”

“… … .”

“Are you saying that the laughing next to Hermel was all an act? Were all those feelings fake?”

I couldn’t say anything to Seria’s words.

All other feelings were lies, so it didn’t matter if I faked them. It was okay for the country to deny everything that humans have.

However, I didn’t want to lie about my feelings and memories of Hermel because they were false.

“I don’t know what you’re seeing and thinking like that.”

“The smile you showed when the banquet started and the smile Hermel showed when he arrived at the banquet, do you think there would be anyone who wouldn’t recognize that? You can fool others, but you can’t fool me.”

“Ahaha, really… … . I wonder where on earth that unfounded confidence comes from.”

Seria heard me and let go of my collar.

“Don’t try to fool yourself.”

“I knew from the moment I first saw you that you were ruthless, but now you’re trying to read my emotions too? If you want to go that far and mistake me for being a good person… … . I should tell you the truth.”

“Truth… … ?”

I said that and opened my palm. There was nothing there, but something was there.

No, it was there, but it was invisible.

“Now, open your eyes and look closely.”

At the same time as I said that, a black snake-like thing began to crawl up onto my palm.

It began to bubble and spit out air bubbles, like when boiling a sticky liquid, and soon it turned into an irregular bubble and began to boil rapidly. When I saw it, I turned my palm over.

The bubbles that fell to the floor with a sticky sound continued to change shape and appearance, and soon turned into the face of the maid seen earlier.

-Ah ah ah ah ah!!!! Hot!! Hot hot hot!! Ah, ah!! Ahhh!!

Ceria trembled at the terrible scream and took a step back, and I smiled at her.

“Do you think this is the end?”

I turned my palm over and took out bits and pieces of what I had stored in my body.

Thump, thump, thud, the black things that fell on the floor again boiled like those of the maid who had fallen first, and eventually turned into the faces of Mother, Sarah, and Father.

―Why, why did you do that!! AA AA AA!! No, no, no!! This can’t be happening!!!

-miss… … . Why did you abandon me… … !! What did I do so wrong… … !! What should I have done!!

―Uuuu!!! Ahhh!! Ahhh!!!

My mother, who found out the whole truth, cursed me and screamed, and Sarah, who had been abandoned by me, looked at me and screamed evil.

And the head of the family, who was soaked in drugs, had completely lost her senses and was howling like an animal.

Since only the fragments of the soul were taken out, it was only able to embody a face, and it continued to let out loud wails as it was pressed to the ground.

“This is my mother, this is my father. Oh, this is a sphere, right?”

After introducing them one by one, I smiled and stomped on Sarah’s face, crushing it and absorbing it back into my body.

Ceria gasped and trembled, then looked at me and shouted.

“No… … . Oh my, this… … . It’s not like this!! You’re not the Charlotte I know!?”

“Well… … . Didn’t I make it clear? I’m not the Charlotte La Rochelle you think of as the villainess in the game. I was me from the beginning.”

A really bad person who became a villain in a game.

After saying that, I smiled brightly at Seria, and Seria, who was looking at me with trembling eyes, immediately turned her back and ran away.

“… … .”

I looked at Seria’s back, closed my eyes, and ordered the knight near the banquet hall using the familiars I had scattered throughout the mansion to take Seria out of the mansion.

Shortly thereafter, after seeing that Ceria was captured by the knight and driven out of the mansion, I quietly took out the souls of her mother, the head of the house, and the maid and consecrated them to Buddhahood.

“This is it.”

Okay, this is it.

I muttered that and slowly walked towards the banquet hall.

The fishy taste of blood lingered in my mouth.