Chapter 41: Anything For Him

“Hah, hah, hah!”

Perspiration was cascading down my body like a waterfall as I weaved my way through the woods on the outskirts of the city to Matthias’ house.

From the church to here, which was located roughly at the opposite end of the city, a normal walk would have stretched for two hours. With my body augmented by sorcery, I took a shortcut by crossing the roof of the house. The time consumed was drastically reduced thanks to this, but my body was already complaining of fatigue.

“…Phew.”

Resting here was not an option, though, as the situation was becoming more and more pressing. What transpired earlier when I was detaining Fina―the barrier at Matthias’ house that I had erected for Eto in case of an emergency was destroyed by someone a while ago.

And Envy, who had been brought into the fray as Karen’s escort, had also just been eliminated by Xenia. I knew she was an unpredictable woman, but it was out of my heart to suspect that not only she would bare her fangs at me, but at Matthias as well. Originally, even if Xenia took on Matthias in a head-to-head match, the latter would certainly not be outdone, yet the gravity of the circumstance was against him. It was my intention to inform Matthias of this at once, but with his inability to wield magic, sending him information by Message was out of the question. This was where I realized how grateful I was for the convenience of a cell phone in my former world.

Ensuring Eto’s safety was nevertheless my first priority. Fifteen minutes have already gone by since the breach of the barrier. Eto was likely to have already been in jeopardy when the intruder opted to target her. I nonetheless pushed open the samurai mansion’s antiquated front door with a glimmer of optimism.

“―”

The smell of blood pervaded the air from the moment on entering the house. Fortunately, no abnormalities could be found in my vision, while the stench of blood was drifting in from the living room. I went up to the house with my shoes on and traced the source of the smell soundlessly.

“…”

Truth be told, the feeling of utter unrest had never been so profound since my arrival on this side of the world. Such a sensation of impending doom had never boiled over within me, not even during my one-on-one confrontation with Rain, which was the direst situation I had ever encountered. When I gave it some thought, I realized that second only to Matthias, Eto was the person from this world I have known the longest. After all this time, the existence of the girl named Eto has taken up so much weight in my mind, and at the same time, I have finally grasped the identity and purpose of the assailant.

The scent of blood has already begun to mingle with other smells. It was difficult to describe what it was, but it was a familiar smell to me.

I opened the sliding door to the living room.

“Oh, Teacher Kanaki. What took you so long!”

“―”

Blood was splattered all over the walls of the living room. And on the floor, a bath of blood was stained. No, there was more than just spots of blood. Along with the blood, the floor was littered with squishy, peach-colored entrails and shredded small intestines.

“You are so late, Teacher, we have already started to eat first! Oh, and don’t worry, there is a portion for you as well!”

“Why…”

“Huh? The reason for this?”

While saying this, the girl in front of me―Arti―tilted her head in wonder. On the spoon in her hand was an eyeball dyed crimson.

“Here you go, Eto. Say, ‘aah’.”

“Aguuu, nnguuu!?”

Contrary to her amiable tone of voice, Arti compulsively made her ingest a spoonful of the substance and chew on it while moaning and groaning. In the midst of witnessing her transformation, I suddenly had the sensation that the scenery in my field of vision was fading away.

A squishing sound was produced at the base of Eto’s neck. The thing she had swallowed plummeted straight onto the table. It was as if it escaped Eto’s hearing, but Arti was quick to catch on and lifted her head up.

“Aah, Eto, you spilled it again. Seriously, you’re an adult now, Eto, don’t drop things… Who would have thought that the day would come when I would be able to lecture you, Eto! Human beings, if they live long enough, good experiences would spring up for them, right!”

“―Stop it.”

I interrupted Arti’s habitual demeanor with an ice-cold tone of voice that was astounding even to me.

Turning to me, Arti blinked a few times in amazement.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Teacher? You’re mad about something?”

“…Eto, can you hear my voice?”

“…Teacher Kanaki?”

Eto, whose eyelids were closed, called out my name in a gibberish manner. Then her face trembled a few times.

“T-Teacher…! I, I…!”

“…I am truly sorry, Eto. You have every right to curse me.”

“Oh, don’t start a dialogue with just the two of you alone!”

“Shut up.”

When Arti stirred the pot, my voice rose in an unintentional outcry. That alone was enough to provoke a shiver from Arti, and her face grew tense as she looked at me.

Come to think of it, never once have I been furious with Arti. With such an insignificant thought in my mind, I shot a frosty glance at Arti.

“T-Teacher? I, did I do something wrong…?”

“Arti. Hand that over to me, Eto.”

“Y-Yes.”

Arti walked to me with small steps, her shoulders stiffening, and handed me “that”.

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Lifting it carefully with both hands, I tenderly cuddled it into my chest. With that, a reassuring breath of air was expelled from Eto.

“So warm… It’s you right, Teacher Kanaki?”

“Yeah, it’s me. I really could not help it, I was delayed in coming.”

“…No. At the end of the day, just being able to meet Teacher in this way is like a miracle. And to be able to be hugged like this by you is like a dream.”

“…I wish this could have been a dream, too.”

The body of Eto, whom I embraced, no longer contained the slightest warmth of human skin. Even so, I felt that some valued part of my heart was slowly being satiated.

I had never thought that I, too, would still retain such human-like feelings.

It was absurd for me to be so sentimental about it. Considering what I have done up until now, even though I could not kill Eto by myself, there was no reason for me to experience such a feeling of vanity.

And yet, I can’t come to terms with this feeling of a void in my chest right away.

“Teacher… I really didn’t want to follow in my father’s footsteps. You probably noticed that, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But the only reason I insisted on taking over my father’s business was because I believed that if I did, I could stay with him even after graduating from school. I am the worst, aren’t I? To think that I would choose to pursue a job like that just because of that reason… I knew that people who get killed suffer so much pain and fear, but I made a pretense of not seeing it… Even if I die here, it is my deserved punishment.”

“That’s not true. You, you ‘guys’ did nothing wrong. It’s all my responsibility… You can get some rest now.”

“…Teacher, I have… always!”

No further words were forthcoming from her.

Somewhere out there, watching this, she must have turned off “Perfect Undead” on purpose at this point in time.

Looking into Eto’s face, which was buried in my chest, I could see that there was something she desperately wanted to tell me.

“U-Um, Teacher…”

“Arti… I think you are going to catch sight of hell from now on.”

I delicately placed the thing I was holding in my chest―Eto’s head―on the chair. All over the table, the things that had constituted Eto’s body were scattered in a jumbled heap.

I peered into the depths of Arti’s eyes. It was as anticipated. If so, she will probably suffer equal or even more torment than me from this point on.

“―Arti. Please keep this in mind. You did nothing wrong and I will be on your side no matter what. So don’t ever lose sight of that.”

“…Teacher? Since earlier, what exactly are you―”

The faint haze behind Arti’s eyes vanished. Her magic―the suggestion magic she had cast on Arti―was lifted.

This was how Xenia’s character was. There was no way that she would have erased Arti’s own memories of the time she had been under the suggestion magic.

Arti took a second to scan her surroundings before clamping her mouth shut when the suggestion magic was abruptly dispelled and her sanity was recovered.

“T-Teacher!? Ugh, what in the world is this―”

That were all the words that flowed out of Arti. Her pupils progressively dilated as the hand that had been pressing over her lips slumped down, and a tremor started to sweep throughout her body.

That was the moment when a girl named Arti collapsed. I wrapped my arms around Arti as a consolation, but it was hopeless to stop her from collapsing.

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“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! I… the saw, the knife, the scissors, the pliers, the frying pan, the spoon… at E-Eto… Uuuuuuuaaaaaaoogggeeeeeeeee!!”

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At last, Arti vomited on the floor. Even I felt pained by her screams, and I wondered how she was feeling in her living room.

“―Isn’t that enough? Please share your feelings with me for the sake of future reference. Ms. Xenia, no―Ms. Alice Raison de Trile.”

“―Ahaha. What a fantastic sensation I am experiencing, Kanaki.”

Her appearance eventually greeted us, and she―Alice Raison de Trile―looked down at us with that bewitching smile that was shared by Xenia.

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