Chapter 73 - Liar
Elenoa had made her decision.
When she was troubled, believing that Louis had been stained because of her, the appearance of the Hero—the enemy of her kin—felt like the will of a God she did not even believe in.
—That's right.
—If he fell by my hand, then I should fall too. And then we can be together.
—I'll decide after that.
—Because, after all, this person's life can be reset.
The pure fairy whom Louis loved died within Elenoa the moment she learned the Hero was of her own kin.
Ever since she was forced to witness Louis's fall into becoming the Demon Lord, her heart had been creaking under the strain. She realized she no longer needed to be the gentle fairy he desired. If anything, she would fall to the same depth as him, and if she could not bear that position, then at that time—
To her, that was salvation. It was a beautiful answer, filled with a strange confidence.
Exhausted by her worries, she cast aside all ideologies beginning with ethics.
And so, she accomplished it.
"Hey, Louis."
Elenoa smiled.
Louis rushed to her side and placed both hands on her thin shoulders. His eyes wavered with sorrow and confusion.
—Why.
—What had she been worrying about, to end up like this?
Louis's thoughts echoed in Elenoa's mind. In the past, she would have covered her ears to that voice, but only this time did she listen calmly.
"Do you understand what you have done? Killing your own kin..."
"That applies to you too, Louis. It's fine if you do it, but it's not allowed if I do?"
Louis distorted his face at her, standing in a pool of blood and smiling.
She looked like she was smiling, but she was not. Poor at feigning smiles, she feared the sin she had committed more than anyone else. Although her hands would not stop trembling, she could not loosen her grip on the dagger no matter what.
The blood she had bathed in for the first time was abhorrent, and the lukewarm sensation made her nauseous. The sound of tearing through her compatriots' muscles and breaking the organs within had been transmitted to her hands.
—Disgusting. Scary. Terrifying. Why did I do such a thing? I'm sorry. Disgusting. Disgusting—.
Now that she knew this sensation and acknowledged this nausea, she could no longer forgive herself. For many years, she had hated herself for imposing this atrocity upon him.
Elenoa, who had taken the lives of her kin just as he had, wanted to die, wanted to die, wanted to die, and could not bear the desire to disappear.
With a hard clatter, the dagger fell.
"I'm sorry. I was unfit as a guardian, wasn't I? I'm sorry."
"I did not want you to be a guardian! I was the one who was supposed to do these things, so why did you...!"
Louis looked like a child whose precious possession had been broken. Pressing his forehead against Elenoa's shoulder, he asked "why" and "how" over and over again.
His grief was so profound that Elenoa felt like laughing, and she wanted to say, "You're exaggerating."
—Exaggerating. Is it really, though?
Although the force on her shoulders grew stronger, Elenoa said nothing and simply gazed at him.
"...Please cleanse yourself quickly. I will handle the cleanup."
"There is no need."
The comfortably painful world, where she was drowned in lukewarm water while trapped in a birdcage, was already—
"Let's end it."
Elenoa had made her decision.
In truth, it was a death sentence for the Louis standing there.
"...What are you saying?"
"I looked back on my old dreams and felt envious. I thought I wanted to go there. I also thought I never wanted to see them again. Probably, depending on the current situation of being alive, happy dreams become nightmares. So I will end it."
A brilliant past. A shady future.
The long, long dream seen on Louis's knees—the dream from the time she was captured by the angel until now—had been painful.
If she could not return, she did not want to remember.
But Elenoa knew a way to return to those days.
Elenoa took out the clock she had been keeping inside her clothes. When she gripped it tightly, a reset screen appeared.
『Turn the clock to reset? (Records will be erased)』
Simply turning the hourglass, whose sand had completely fallen, upside down would erase everything up to this point.
Touched by Elenoa's right hand, the hourglass had become stained dark red. It felt lonely, as if it represented her own heart.
If she was going to think like this, she should just reset it quickly.
Even knowing that, Elenoa could not easily turn her hand over.
Her heart had grown cold like a separate living creature, moving awkwardly. She did not know if she was sad or scared. Abandoning even the joy of being loved by the one she loved might be more painful than dying. They had embraced so much. She was trying to make even that warmth count for nothing. She herself, of all people.
In the throne room, filled with silent stillness, the two faced each other.
Chuckle.
Louis laughed. With his usual gentle voice.
"Please."
And then, speaking as if he knew, he said, "You can reset, can't you?"
Running his fingers through Elenoa's hair, he untangled the silver strands hardened by splattered blood.
"I, too, have a strange sense of déjà vu. Moreover, the letter from my past self wrote that you had died many times. I do not know the details, but if we think in terms of the game system... that must be what it means."
"Louis."
"It is simply that the current me could not make you happy."
Louis touched Elenoa's cheeks, cupping them with both hands. Until today, he had never grown tired of touching her, no matter how many times he did.
She, too, did not know how many times he had touched her. The fairy was always on her owner's [Louis] head, shoulders, or knees. It was natural for her to be in a position where she could be touched.
She did not remember exactly how many years they had lived together, but for a very, very long time, Elenoa's body had not changed. She had remained by Louis's side, unchanged. Within her heart, however, sorrow had increased, and something had changed.
Louis smiled.
"Do not worry about anything. The current me was very happy to be with you, who 'lived' until the end. Even if it was self-righteous, I have no regrets about this life..."
He had wanted the parting to be smooth. This was Louis's way of showing his final kindness to her. He had tried to be gentle until the very end.
But she rejected that consideration.
"Liar."
Glaring with all her might through tear-filled eyes, she somehow kept her weak self standing.
Placing her right hand over Louis's left, she gripped it tightly.
"There is no way I could be happy with an ending like this."
Regret? There was none. Not a single bit.
—Their days together could not have been warm enough for her to speak of such an understanding end.
"...Elie...?"
His eyes widened. And then, the ice slowly began to melt. Did Louis realize that his eyes had wavered?
She would not cry. She did not regret it. It felt somewhat like relief, as if a burden had been slightly lifted.
With the expression of the boy from that house in the distant past, he gave a wry smile and said, "...You are truly a hopeless person," before exhaling with a sigh.
"...By standing as the Demon Lord, many humans must have died."
"Yes."
"More than the humans who killed Lumina and tried to take you away from me. Even so, I still feel nothing but hatred for the human race."
"Yes."
Elenoa listened to Louis's words, acting protective. She could not embrace him as she had once done when Louis was young. It was because, unlike that time, she was soaked in blood.
"You might be subjected to such things by humans again. Even if we had a child, that child might be taken by humans as well. ...I could not cut those ties."
"Yes. ...Louis."
"Yes."
"Boy."
"Yes."
"Next time, I will give it to you. The Fairy's Moon Clock, I will surely give it to you. Because I want Louis's hourglass too."
The blood-soaked fairy moved away from Louis.
Wanting to close that distance, yet knowing she would not be happy if he did, Louis simply watched her.
So that he would not miss a single thing, not even the sight of those white hands turning the hourglass upside down.
"I want you to catch me again."
Elenoa disappeared. As if there had been nothing there from the beginning.
Louis remembered the past. When he was still a young court mage, he had favored an armchair meant for adults. A small fairy would sit in the empty space, reading a book in front of the fireplace. It was dim, soft, gentle, and warm. How precious that silence had been. He had wished for only that since long ago.
A throne was unfit for him. He had done something unsuitable. Therefore.
The world was breaking apart.
On the horizon collapsing from the edges, a gentle sunset sank.
Illuminated by crimson light, the earth cracked.
In the house of their memories, the pillars fell and crushed the bed.
The tombstones by the calm lakeside cracked and fell into the fissures in the ground with a sharp sound.
The scarred Cat Boy was curled up on a chair in Louis's bedroom. Rubbing his cheek against the velvet backrest, he meowed once with satisfaction.
And then the floor cracked and gave way. The Cat Boy was thrown from the chair. Unaware of his own fall, he closed his eyes.
The Demon Lord's Castle, having lost its stairs, ramparts, and walls, dissolved from the underground with a grand noise.
"But, Elenoa. Being with you was, indeed, happiness."
The Demon Lord was there.
In the throne room at the very top of the castle, he knelt on one knee on the remaining stone floor, simply waiting for that moment.
—'There is no way I could be happy with an ending like this.'
He ruminated on her voice in his heart.
From beginning to end, she was a person who could never become strong. When embraced, she was fluffy and soft; though weak, she was a woman who wished to protect Louis.
At Louis's feet, blue sand and glass fragments were scattered.
They were the remnants of his feelings, which had fulfilled their role and shattered with a sound.
Reaching out his hand, he touched the sand with his fingertips.
—'Liar.'
Although the words themselves should have been sharp, she had looked as if she were about to cry. It felt somewhat funny, and a slight laugh leaked out, "hehe," but there was no one left to hear it.
"You finally said it to me. ...That I am a liar."
The floor fell away. He wondered where he would fall, but strangely, he was not afraid.
Leaving his body to the air, his hands clawed at the wind, chasing the sand that scattered and sparkled.
"Because you are kind, I wanted you to scold me like that, just once."
The final destination of a life spent continually betraying someone.
The Demon Lord smiled softly and disappeared into the red light.