Episode 159
Due to the sun having grown even darker than when Frey and Ruby fought, it was difficult to distinguish clearly, but the day had begun to grow dark.
"......Oppa."
Thanks to that, in the garden of the Imperial Palace where darkness had settled thickly, Abraham was smoking strong tobacco, and Aria was sitting on the ground, having lost her wits.
"........"
And watching that sight was Perloche, the only person who had remained in place until then, staring blankly.
"Mmm..."
Why was Perloche the last person to remain in that place?
The reason was simple.
When no one could bring themselves to speak of Frey's whereabouts, Abraham, thinking there was still some misunderstanding, revealed the entire truth to the people in the garden with a bright smile.
And as if to prove Abraham's words, various reports and dispatches began arriving one after another to the former hero party.
Finally, there was what Perloche said in a trembling voice—part of what she had seen and heard while offering prayers—and the sun growing increasingly dark as if to corroborate it.
All the people who saw and heard those stories and information scattered away, each with different thoughts.
"I, I cannot accept this. Ruby is the hero. There's no way Frey could be the hero."
"I will investigate. If what we've heard is true... there will surely be evidence left behind."
Most of the sub-heroines.
They scattered without being able to accept the facts they had heard as they were.
"Ah..."
""".........."""
For some reason, Isollet and the main heroines, wearing pale expressions, headed to the nearby operations tent with faces as if possessed by ghosts.
"Mmm..."
Thus people scattered for various reasons, but Perloche remained in the garden until the day grew dark.
Because.
Upon hearing the fact that Perloche had torn Frey to pieces, everyone was driven out of the garden before anyone could offer apologies or words of atonement, and then.
"My son..."
"Mmm, mm..."
She couldn't bring herself to leave Abraham and Aria, who remained in the garden with dazed expressions, behind.
"E, excuse me..."
Feeling a sense of guilt that made her want to strangle her own neck right then, Perloche, who had been slowly approaching Aria who was sitting on the ground.
"...Ah."
Soon stopped her movement and took in the reason why she had been kneeling.
"Oppaaaa..."
Frey's sister, who had once thought only of killing Frey, was stroking the soil mixed with shimmering energy—the only trace Frey had left in the world as he was torn to pieces—while murmuring.
- Approach them closer.
".....!"
To them, Perloche, who had been trembling without being able to bring herself to speak.
- I'm watching through you as a medium, but I can't hear well.
When the arrogant voice of the Demon God, who had been encouraging her with a warm voice until now, echoed in her head.
"Mmm..."
With eyes full of tears squeezed shut,
Recalling the Sun God's words asking her to buy time by following the Demon God's words for now, she took one step forward.
"A, Aria-ssi."
Then, into her view came Aria's knee wound, which had become a mess.
It was the wound she got from falling while running out of the house in tears after remembering her sealed memories and hearing the truth from her father.
"F, first the wound..."
Perloche, looking at such a wound, tried to reach out her hand to use holy power as she had always done when there were sick or injured people.
"...Huh?"
But for some reason, holy power did not come from her hand.
"W, why is this...?"
Thanks to that, Perloche, not knowing what to do with the knee bleeding profusely before her.
"...Saintess."
When Aria opened her mouth with a voice from which her soul had fled, she swallowed hard.
"Is what you said earlier really true...?"
"W, well..."
"You're asking if Oppa really... chose rest instead of resurrection, right?"
"...Yes."
When Perloche answered, feeling harsh pangs of conscience at Aria's question that followed.
"Then... I can't meet Oppa anymore..."
Aria, who had been stroking the shimmering soil with dead eyes.
"...I can't even talk to him anymore."
She murmured in a fading voice.
""......."
And silence flowed for a while.
.
"I hated Oppa. No, it wasn't just dislike, I hated him to the point of getting chills."
Aria, who had been sitting blankly for a while, broke the silence by starting to speak in a low voice.
"I thought the being who took away my two parents whom I loved so dearly was Oppa."
Soon she began the story of her childhood.
"When I was young, I was very sick once. At that time, I was in so much pain and suffering, and thanks to that, as I always did, I looked for Oppa."
As she said, when they were young, whenever she got even slightly hurt, Frey would breathe on it to disinfect the wound.
That's why Aria thought that time too, that her Oppa would soon come running, breathe his magical breath, and give her a pure smile.
"But, Oppa didn't appear for some reason for days. And Mother too."
Having endured the illness alone, feeling lonely without receiving care, when she finally overcame the illness, she soon heard shocking news.
The news that her beloved mother had passed away.
"I heard that my mother went to play hide-and-seek in the forest with Oppa and died due to Oppa's mistake. At that time, it felt like the sky was falling."
As she said, Aria lived immersed in tremendous sadness for a while.
After her mother died, when Frey started going astray, it was even more so.
And.
When a few years later even her father fell into a coma while cleaning up after what Oppa had done.
Beyond sadness, she began to hate Oppa.
"Saintess, do you know the real truth I discovered after regaining my memories?"
Thanks to that, Aria, who had been twisting the knife into Frey from the closest place to him.
She, who had thought of Frey as a monster who took away her parents whenever she saw him and spat out all kinds of curses.
The trace of the most chilling person in the world, whom she had tried to rehabilitate until the very last moment but ultimately made her set aside her worries.
She is trying to somehow grasp it.
- Rustle...
By clutching the soil mixed with Frey's bright energy in her hand.
Of course, the shimmering soil just endlessly slipped through her hand.
".....Please look at this."
Aria, who had been stroking the soil for a while, took out an old diary from her bosom and handed it to Perloche.
[Frey's Diary]
On the cover of that diary.
Was written Frey's signature, in slightly crooked handwriting.
"It's the diary my father gave me."
"Yes, yess..."
Looking at Aria who was looking down blankly at that plain diary, Perloche said.
"Please read the part I marked."
"....Ah, I understand."
At Aria's request, with various expressions crossing her face, Perloche began to read the diary with trembling eyes.
[Year XX, Month XX, Day XX]
[My lovely younger sister has fallen ill. So I am very, very sad. I wish I had caught it instead.]
"Th, this..."
The diary that started with worrying about Aria continued for quite a while.
[Oh right, by the way... Mother just went to the forest.
I don't know well, but she said she's going to find a clue to cure Aria's illness.]
After the writing worrying about Aria continued for a while, there was that message.
[So, I will secretly follow her! I promised to play hide-and-seek with Aria, but I haven't been able to for days. If I lend a hand too, Mother will surely be happy, right?]
Perloche, who read all the contents of the diary and the 'P.S.' part.
Ps. But, earlier on the first floor, Mother was talking with someone. Curse? Negotiation? Deal? Those words were being exchanged... What on earth could it be?
"...What is this?"
She began to look at Aria with trembling eyes.
"I wasn't sick, I was cursed."
"Yes?"
"The two black magicians, the true masterminds who killed Mother and turned her into a monster, cursed me and threatened Mother."
Perloche froze at those words.
"Saying if they didn't want to see me die... to quietly become an experimental subject."
Looking at such Perloche, Aria, who began to shed tears from her eyes.
"Oppa... Oppa worried about someone like me and followed them, only to experience the terrible ordeal of killing Mother who had become a monster, but I cursed him as a monster."
She began to pour out her story, sobbing heavily.
"Moreover, when Oppa was confined in the mansion... I was the one who helped assassins infiltrate the mansion! For months, the one who made Oppa unable to sleep peacefully in the mansion... was me!!"
"...Ah."
"That's not all. I made so many mistakes. I've done things that can't be undone...!"
Aria, who was speaking without knowing what to do.
"I need to apologize. I can't send Oppa off like this."
She grabbed Perloche's leg and began to plead.
"I know it's very sorry to Oppa who chose rest... but please convey my words to him. I beg you."
"I, I can't..."
"You can communicate with the one in heaven, right? So, just one word. Just one word please..."
"...Aria-ssi."
To her, Perloche.
"I can't do it."
She answered with a miserable expression.
"Frey-ssi chose 'extinction'."
".....What?"
Aria's eyes went round at those words.
"Didn't you... hear it earlier. After I said Frey-ssi chose rest, what I added."
"Ah, ah..."
And Aria, who heard Perloche's continued words.
".........."
Just like that, she froze, having lost her words.
"Hic, hicc..."
Aria, who cried in that state for a while.
"Oppaaaaaa..."
Threw herself onto the shimmering soil Frey left behind and began to wail.
"........."
Perloche, who had been sitting blankly in front of such Aria.
"E, excuse me... Abraham-nim."
She began to speak cautiously to Abraham who was far away.
"Abraham-nim. Please... me... huh?"
Soon, she stopped speaking and stood up from her seat.
"......."
Abraham, who could not bear the sadness at all, was already smoking a powerful drug and had fallen asleep.
"Ah....."
And that too, a drug that would take weeks to recover from once smelled.
"Ahh..."
Perloche, looking at him with a dazed expression.
Soon lost consciousness and collapsed right there.
- By the time you wake up again, everyone will have realized the truth.
The last thing she heard was the words left by the Demon God with an arrogant tone.
- Show me that hell.
.
Meanwhile, at that time.
The operations tent near the Imperial Palace.
"The entire Demon Lord's army has collapsed incapacitated!"
"Chief of Staff Lemereno's head was gone. And..."
"Breaking news, information containing the Empire's corruption and malpractice has been simultaneously sent to all newspaper companies in the Empire...!"
There, messengers arrived one after another and began to deliver good news from various parts of the Empire where the fighting had ended.
"".......?""
But soon, the messengers had no choice but to be flustered.
"Um, everyone?"
Because most of the people in the tent were maintaining silence with faces as if possessed by ghosts.
"...My memories."
Among those people, Isollet, who was stroking.
The beloved sword Frey had given her, hanging at her waist.
"My memories... have returned."
She murmured like that with a voice from which her soul had fled.
It was the moment when the memories of people that Frey had manipulated in their childhood returned all at once.