[Episode 27] – Pandora’s Box (4)
After finishing my conversation with the princess, I returned to my room and looked at Ainsel’s main body hanging on the wall. I was worried about Ainsel, who still had not reacted at all since we had left the room.
‘...She definitely said she would be fine with only a clone.’
I let out a quiet sigh and looked at the mirror that had originally been in my room—the mirror that had been Ainsel’s clone. Just like the earring, the fragments that had once made up the mirror were scattered messily across the floor.
...Come to think of it, what exactly had been reflected in the mirror when the king touched Ainsel? As though showing a person’s past or a moment of happiness, Ainsel had reflected such a scene for the king.
Just as the king had touched Ainsel, I spread out my palm and ran it across Ainsel’s main body. But the mirror showed no reaction whatsoever. It merely reflected me standing before it, like an ordinary mirror.
“Haa... What should I do?”
I had no idea what to do with Ainsel, and I felt utterly helpless. As I continued sighing, Silphy, who had been fluttering through the air, climbed onto my shoulder, crossed her legs, and propped her chin on one hand.
I stroked the head of the Silphy sitting on my shoulder with one finger and asked her. I thought that perhaps, as another fairy, Silphy might know why Ainsel had ended up like this.
“Silphy, do you happen to know why Ainsel is like this?”
—Of course. I know.
“Then—”
When I turned my head to look at Silphy, she gazed back at me with eyes that seemed to be asking for something. Ah, that was right. I had heard that fairies would not help witches without receiving payment.
Just as I had learned from Ainsel, I gathered my magic power and shaped it into a round, hard-candy-like sphere. When I handed it to Silphy, she held the candy, which was nearly as large as her upper body, and beamed.
—Heehee, yes, this is it. When asking a fairy for something, always prepare payment first. It can be magic power like this, or something else that fairies enjoy.
Silphy licked the large candy made of magic power. Her face took on an ecstatic expression, as though it were delicious, and she cupped one cheek with her hand. Then she rose slightly into the air and approached Ainsel.
—The reason Ainsel ended up like this is because of the contract’s ‘rebound.’ It is like a punishment imposed upon fairies or witches who fail to fulfill a contract.
“So it really was because of the contract...”
—For example, it would be the same even now. If I did not tell you anything after receiving candy from you, I would receive the same ‘rebound’ as Ainsel. The details would probably be a little different, though.
Silphy explained while busily licking the large candy. Then she flew over to me and looked up at me. She let out a tiny sigh before climbing back onto my shoulder.
—In cases like this, one would normally regain consciousness on their own after some time. But I do not know when that will be. The passage of time as experienced by fairies differs from that of humans, so it is possible that Ainsel may open her eyes only after you have died.
For a moment, it felt as though my heart had dropped.
I thought I understood why Ainsel had tried so desperately not to speak about the First Queen. If she lost consciousness because of the ‘rebound,’ she would not know when she would awaken. Ainsel must have known that as well.
Suddenly, I remembered what Ainsel had said before we entered the room.
“...Are you really all right?”
—...Yes, I’m fine. And I have you, don’t I?
...I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing.
I had to find some way to make Ainsel regain consciousness. Ainsel had trusted me and taken responsibility for me. Therefore, just as much as Ainsel had trusted me, I had to do something for her as well.
Once again, I created a large candy made of magic power and handed it to Silphy. As though knowing what I was going to ask, Silphy nodded vigorously, then flew up with the candy in her hands and looked at me.
—There are two ways to fix Ainsel.
Silphy turned her head slightly to glance at Ainsel, then let out a small sigh. She looked back at me and continued.
—The first is the other party’s ‘death.’ If the rag doll who formed a contract with Ainsel dies, Ainsel will probably slowly open her eyes, though it may take some time.
The words ‘though it may take some time’ lodged in my throat like a fishbone, leaving me deeply uneasy. I had been told that fairies and humans experienced time differently, so no one knew how long that period might be.
And what did she mean by a rag doll? Come to think of it, in that room, Silphy had called Aurora ‘a rag doll wearing Lyanansi’s corpse.’
“A rag doll?”
—You know, that woman who strangled you. What else would you call something that was forcibly stitched together from Lyanansi’s corpse and its own soul? It is a rag doll, is it not? In any case, it will rot away and die on its own before long, so the first method may work well enough.
“W-wait a moment. What did you say? It will die on its own? Its soul was forcibly stitched together?”
As I kept asking questions, Silphy pulled a disgruntled face, as though I were being troublesome. I might have let it pass at the time because I had been too frantic to think, but that was no longer the case. I needed her to explain exactly what she meant.
This time, I made two magic candies and held them out to Silphy. She glared at me with an even more sullen expression.
“...One more?”
—...Two more.
It was the first time I had used this much magic power, and I felt dizzy, but I gathered as much magic power as I could from within my body and created two more candies in the shape of large, round spheres.
Silphy looked at the four candies in my palm, let out a delighted giggle, spun once in the air, and slipped between the candies resting on my palm before sitting down.
—First, regarding the rag doll: that woman was never a fairy to begin with. She is something like an ‘artificial fairy,’ created by someone with a vile hobby. I called her a rag doll because she is an existence made by stitching together Lyanansi’s corpse and a human soul.
...At the time, Aurora had mentioned a third party, saying that she had done it ‘as someone had told her.’ Was there someone who had taught Aurora about fairies? And was that someone the one who had turned Aurora into a rag doll?
As I sank into thought, Silphy, perched on my palm, tightly grasped one of my fingers. The instant I felt the touch, warmth, scent, and various other sensations of her little body, Silphy continued speaking.
—Back then, you could not touch that woman, could you? That is the difference between a fairy and a ghost. A witch can touch a fairy, but she cannot touch a ghost, which is a spiritual being.
So that was why I had been unable to grab Aurora’s arm no matter how desperately I had waved my hands. Now that I finally understood what had happened, my head nodded automatically.
—And such ‘ambiguous existences’ cannot live for long anyway. She probably survived by using Lyanansi’s ‘method of feeding’ to sustain herself on blood and vital essence, but that will soon come to an end as well.
Silphy clicked her tongue, licked the large candy, and sighed.
—The very phrase ‘become one’ was probably a lie told to her by someone malicious. Blood and vital essence gathered in one place will make the two of them become one? What a ridiculous thing to say.
“......You mean there was never any way for them to become one in the first place?”
At my question, Silphy let out a hollow laugh.
—Lyanansi’s method of feeding is nothing more than ‘eating.’ Just as you eat when you are hungry, Lyanansi simply swallows the blood and vital essence of the prey that has been given to her when she is hungry. It is merely a simple act of ‘eating,’ with neither more nor less meaning than that.
“Then what happens to the soul within a corpse after Lyanansi has finished feeding...?”
Silphy brushed herself off and rose into the air again, beginning to circle around me. She even made a retching motion with an exaggerated “Ugh,” as though she had said something too unpleasant to put into words.
—The grim reaper will drag it to the underworld. It will certainly never join the rag doll.
I frowned at that. Then, just as Aurora had said, it meant that they would never be able to become ‘together.’ She had merely been deceived by someone’s sweet lies and toyed with in the end.
When I made an irritated face, Silphy touched my furrowed brow, as though telling me not to look like that. She gently smoothed away my frown and smiled brightly.
—Now then, the second way to fix Ainsel.
Silphy flew lightly over to my vanity and yanked open a drawer. She crawled inside, pulled a single letter from the very back, and held it out to me.
The ‘Coven invitation’ that the white owl had given me.
—From what I have heard, there is a ‘doctor’ in the Coven who treats fairies. I have never met her, but other fairies have boasted to me that they went there and had their injuries treated.
“A witch... who works as a doctor treating fairies?”
Until now, my image of witches had been fixed as the image of evil witches like Vivian. But there was a witch who worked as a ‘doctor’ treating fairies?
Could there really be such a thing as a genuinely kind witch?
—The name of that witch is...
I pricked up my ears and focused on Silphy’s words.
If a truly kind witch existed, I wanted to meet her at least once. But when I heard the witch’s name, I could do nothing but open my eyes wide and round.
—They say her name is ‘Frankenstein.’
“......What?”
The ‘Frankenstein’ I knew?
*
Inside the room where the king had shut himself away, Aurora was preparing his final meal.
Claiming that the time for the final meal had finally arrived, Aurora hummed to herself as she stroked the nape of the king, who was possessed by her corpse. If she sank her fangs into him one last time and drank his blood...
—Haa... At last, we can become one, Your Majesty.
Aurora did not delay any longer.
She opened her enormous mouth, bared her fangs, and sank her teeth into the neck of the king possessed by her corpse. His skin did not break, yet for some reason, blood rose up along her teeth and was drawn into her mouth.
The blood was cold and tasteless, and the vital essence held no warmth or passion. It was a vile, flavorless meal, but Aurora sucked even harder, unwilling to leave behind a single drop.
Her body trembled each time she swallowed blood. The corpse, which had grown even colder—so cold that it could grow no colder—lifted its shaking hand and reached out to stroke Aurora’s face.
Ah, at last.
At last, His Majesty was looking at her.
Overcome with emotion, Aurora swallowed the blood. Now, just one mouthful. If she swallowed the last mouthful, it would be no different from draining every drop of blood and vital essence from the corpse.
The moment she filled her mouth with blood and vital essence, she pleaded in a cracked voice. At the final moment, she whispered as though leaving a last will, like someone who knew she was about to die.
“I can’t... see... Aurora...”
Gulp.
Aurora swallowed the last of the vital essence in her mouth and looked down at the corpse that had closed its eyes helplessly. Now, as she rejoiced at the moment she would become one with His Majesty, just as ‘that person’ had promised, tears spilled from her eyes.
But then.
—Your Majesty...?
Even as time passed, no voice answered her. His Majesty’s warmth, gaze, and voice could no longer be felt or heard. Aurora looked down at her own corpse sprawled across the floor.
She even felt her own body beginning to melt away. The arm that had been stroking the corpse rotted and crumbled before suddenly dropping to the floor with a thud.
—Huh...? Why...?
The rotting portions of her body continued to spread as time passed. After her arm fell away, the tips of her feet crumbled and dropped next, as though collapsing. Realizing that something had gone wrong, Aurora cried out for His Majesty.
—Your Majesty...! Your Majesty...! Where are you? Your Majesty...!
According to ‘that person,’ His Majesty should have been by her side. ‘That person’ had definitely told her so. If she drank all of His Majesty’s blood, she and His Majesty would be able to live happily forever in the ‘Fairy Realm.’
—Why? No! This isn’t right! This isn’t it! Your Majesty!! Your Majesty!!!
Both hands had already fallen off, and her legs had crumbled away, leaving only her left foot. Cracks began to spread across her body. No longer able to fly through the air, she had no choice but to crawl along the ground.
—Ah, no...! This isn’t what I wanted...! You said so yourself! You said we would truly become one...! You were the one who said you supported our love!
Aurora crawled across the floor like a caterpillar until she reached her corpse, then wailed. This was not right. It was a lie. She sobbed and rolled across the floor.
—You were the one who helped me all this time... So why... Why are you doing this to me...? I, I... I only... only wanted to be alone with His Majesty...
Aurora raised her head and howled as she crawled across the ground like a caterpillar. Feeling her body rotting away, she curled up atop her own corpse.
—Your Majesty, Your Majesty... P-please, open your eyes. Please, Your—
With a sudden crack, her jaw fell away in the middle of her words. Unable to call out to the person she loved any longer, Aurora could do nothing but shed tears. Her jaw had fallen off, and the root of her tongue had been torn free.
Crumbing, crumbling away.
As Aurora turned into particles, the final person to appear in her mind was neither the person she loved nor the person she hated, but ‘that person’—the one who had helped and deceived her.
A woman with black hair as dark as the night sky, like her own.
A woman with eyes as deep and dark as an abyss, red as blood.
What on earth had she done wrong to deserve such a fate?
Aurora could not understand it at all, and could only shed tears.
Thus, with her entire body rotted away, Aurora died while crying out for His Majesty, whom she loved, and protesting her injustice until the very end, her consciousness fading.
There was no one living left in the room.
Only two corpses remained.