30. Painting Over Inhumanity—in Other Words, Soup

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/32/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

At a loss for how to spend his time, Saiji left the room at the far end of that floor and walked toward the barracks, intending to go to the dining hall.
Even outside mealtimes, one could at least get juice.
He could have ordered someone to bring the finest drinks to his room, but just then he wanted to be alone and take things slowly.

“Fuaaah…”

Saiji stretched his arms as far as they would go and yawned with his mouth wide open.
Perhaps because about two hours had passed since lunch, a pleasant drowsiness wrapped around him.
He might as well take a nap in the dining hall.
That plush bed in his own room somehow put him on edge, and the pillow was a little too high besides; it made it hard to breathe.
They were supposedly using the finest goods this world had to offer—and that, no doubt, was exactly why a commoner found them suffocating.

“‘Dilson’s Stew,’ huh… Come to think of it, the counter said something about that yesterday. What’s a Dilson, anyway? The name sounds kinda like a cow.”

The signboard in front of the dining hall listed another unfamiliar ingredient again today.
Yesterday’s meat had been good, so today’s would probably taste decent enough too.
Still, two days in a row at the dining hall was starting to feel stale; he might as well head over to the castle and get himself a lavish meal instead—he was thinking as much when he stepped inside and heard two familiar male voices.
He looked toward the speakers and found Taka and Oya there.
Saiji poured a yellow citrus juice from the neighboring pitcher into a waiting cup and carried it over to them.

“Yo. You guys bored too?”
“Oh, Saiji.”
“Nothing else to do… We were just killing time.”
“Then I’ll join you.”

So saying, Saiji sat down beside Taka.
As Oya had said, the conversation was idle—the sort of pointless talk typical of high-school boys, if one were being honest.
But even that kind of time now felt as distant as something he longed for.
No matter how much they could obtain, no matter that they had acquired so-called magic, they would never see their families again, and they would never follow the paths they had hoped for.
Whenever his thoughts turned negative, the fact would suddenly return to him, and a nameless sadness would well up.

“Hey… Think we’re ever gonna get to go home?”

Taka, who was usually so cheerful, spoke with a rare cloud over his face.

“… They’re not planning to send us back. At the very least, this country’s king is counting us as military assets.”
“They were gonna invade other countries or something, right?”

Taka frowned at Oya’s words.
Saiji thought:
Do whatever you want.
From the standpoint of someone who had been dragged into this and stripped of his future, it was utterly unreasonable.

“I just can’t picture it, y’know? Sure, they give us magic lessons now and then, but are we actually that strong?”
“If the king’s relying on us, then me, Taka, and Oya must all be outrageously powerful by this world’s standards.”
“… Talent worth dragging all the way from another world, huh.”

They simply did not yet know how to use it; they harbored a considerable amount of magical power.
In fact Chigusa, having become a half-vampire and absorbed that knowledge, had learned how to wield shadow magic and was already approaching a strength beyond that of any mage in the world.
Miyako and Leia, who had likewise ceased to be human, possessed power on a level with hers.
Of course, there was no way these three would know any of that—

“Well, whatever the circumstances, we’ll do what we want. We don’t owe anyone obedience.”
“Yeah. No matter where Saiji goes, all he does is chase women.”
“Even that’s gotten old. Ahh, isn’t there a decent woman lying around somewhere?”
“… So that’s where it ends up.”
“You never know. Someone out of the ordinary might suit you better. What about Chigusa?”
“She’s dead.”

Saiji tossed the words out and drained his juice.

“With her, living or dead wouldn’t have made much difference. She was unresponsive anyway.”
“Haha, true enough. Even so, a corpse is where I draw the line.”

He rattled the empty cup, ice alone remaining, then stood and went to pour a second.
As he did, he happened to glance into the dining hall’s counter area.
Several women from the kitchen staff were bustling about in the kitchen beyond; perhaps they had begun preparing dinner.

“Tough work.”

He said it as he turned around—

“GYAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

A man’s scream rang through the dining hall.
Saiji’s body jerked; he nearly dropped his cup.

“Wh-what the…?”

The voice had probably come from the kitchen.
Had someone dropped a knife? He looked back, but from here he could not see what was happening inside.

“Gi—giah, agaaaaaaah! Hi—higyuh, fuguuuh!”

The screams continued in fits and starts after that.
When he strained his ears, mixed with the voice came a wet, squelching sound, as though blood and flesh were being scattered.

“Hagyah, hi, hi, hiuh… a, ogoaaaaaaaaah!”

Saiji stood rooted, his facial muscles twitching, staring blankly.
Then someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

“Hih!?”

His body jumped, and a pathetic sound slipped out.

“What’re you so jumpy for? What’s wrong—did you see something?”

It was Taka’s voice.
Or rather, if one thought about it calmly, it could hardly have been anyone else. Oya was not the type to touch him so casually.

“No, not saw, exactly—that voice just now… you heard it, right?”
“Voice?”

Taka tilted his head.
As if he had not heard a thing.

“Gi, gi, ga, go… ooooh, habyuh, gia, nngoooooh!?”

And yet the voice was still going on in the present tense.
It was even echoing. There was no way this was a hallucination.

“See? You can hear it, can’t you? That’s a guy screaming!”
“Nah… I don’t hear anything. You sure you’re not imagining it?”
“Don’t be stupid. It’s this clear—no way it’s my imagination!”

The man’s voice was growing gradually fainter.
There was no mistake: someone was being killed in the kitchen, and at this very moment his life was about to end.
And yet Taka, Oya—even the handful of soldiers relaxing in the dining hall—none of them seemed to hear the man at all.
Looking around, Saiji felt as though he alone had been sealed off into another world.
His face went paler by the second.

“No way… You’re telling me you can’t hear that, that’s…”
“What’s going on, Taka, Saiji? Did something happen?”

Oya, worried by the look of the two of them, came closer and called out.
Taka looked at him, raised both hands in a helpless gesture, and shook his head.

“Saiji here just suddenly started going on about some guy screaming.”
“… Getting tired of women is one thing, but auditory hallucinations of men is a bit much.”
“That’s not it! It’s real, it’s really—”
“You’re just tired, Saiji. Maybe you oughta rest in your room.”

No matter what he said, the two of them would not believe him.
When it was this thorough, he could only begin to think that he was the one in the wrong.
He had never before been driven to the point of hearing things that were not there.
Which meant he could not declare with certainty that the voice just now had not been a hallucination.
It had been so realistic that he had insisted otherwise, but if that was simply how hallucinations were—then perhaps Taka was right, and he ought to rest in his room.

“Damn it… Fine. I’m going back.”

Leaving those words behind, Saiji left the dining hall.
The man’s voice and the sound of flying flesh continued until he had walked some way down the corridor, but he desperately told himself it was his imagination.

 

◇◇◇

 

Back in his room, Saiji drove the women out and collapsed face-down on the bed.
He must have fallen asleep at some point; when he woke, it was fully dark outside.

Knock, knock.

The sound of someone knocking at the door reached Saiji as he lay sunk in the bed, still not sitting up.
He answered sluggishly.

“Who is it?”
“It’s me, Sakuna. I wanted to talk for a bit. Can I come in?”

This was the first time Sakuna had ever visited Saiji’s room like this.
Muttering, “Well, that’s a first,” Saiji got out of bed and opened the door.
Sakuna standing on the other side looked unusually anxious.

“What’s up, Sakuna? Don’t tell me you came here to sleep with me.”
“I wouldn’t mind, actually…”

Saiji had meant to provoke her—or rather, to cheer her up—but her unexpected acceptance left him at a loss.
Given her current state, if he actually pushed, she would likely submit.
He was not in the mood.
Taking advantage of a girl in that condition would be no different from Chigusa, who had always been unresponsive.

“Hah. Just come in for now.”

Sighing as he spoke, Saiji showed Sakuna into the room.
A glance at the clock told him it was dinnertime.
That she had come here without even going to the dining hall meant she had surely brought some kind of trouble with her.
Saiji could hardly be blamed for feeling fed up.
And yet he had still invited her in—perhaps for old times’ sake, as former lovers.
He sat the lifeless Sakuna in a chair, poured tea from the pot provided in the room, and set it in front of her.
Then he sat in the chair opposite.

“So, what happened? For you to be this down, it’s gotta be pretty serious.”
“… It’s Toka.”
“Yeah, you said something yesterday. About her staring being clingy.”
“Yeah… There’s more. She was the same today. She came on to me… and she kissed me.”

Saiji could not help letting out a “Ugh.”
Immediately afterward he thought, that was a mistake, and tried to cover, but Sakuna did not seem to mind.

“I get that reaction. I felt the same way.”
“I meant it as a joke yesterday, but it was for real…? So you got sick of being around Toka and came to my room.”
“…”

He had been certain she would nod “yeah” at once, but Sakuna’s expression grew even more grave at his words.

“That’s not it?”
“… Well, actually, at first I didn’t mind.”
“Huh?”
“If anything, I was kind of happy. I even kissed her back once.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa—so you’re saying you were into that all along!?”
“That’s not it! Afterward, when I thought about it calmly, I wondered why I’d been glad at the time. It was like I wasn’t myself, and it scared me! That’s why I wanted to talk to you, Saiji…”

Ordinarily he would have laughed off an excuse like that.
But not now.
Saiji himself had a strange phenomenon he could not dismiss.
He still had far too little to connect the two events, and yet he could not believe they were unrelated.

“Is Toka still acting weird?”
“… You believe me.”
“That’s why you came to me, isn’t it?”
“I was grasping at straws.”
“No faith in me, huh… Well, fair enough. So what’s Toka like?”
“Yeah, it’s a weird feeling. It seems like she’s going to Ms. Mikage’s place again today, too.”

Miyako’s name had come up again.
If the trigger for Toka’s odd behavior had been going to Miyako’s room, then.
If he went there, he might find a piece that would lead him to the truth.

“I’ll go check out that room tonight.”
“I…”
“It’s fine. You don’t have to come. I’ll handle it myself. You rest in your room.”
“You’re being nice, Saiji… That’s creepy…”

Even as she said it, Sakuna’s expression softened.
It was true; Saiji himself felt it was unlike him.
Even so, she had been so thoroughly sunk that a man’s sense of obligation had risen in him: he had to encourage her.
After that, the two of them talked for a while.
The conversation continued until Sakuna finished her second cup of tea, and when Saiji left the room intending to walk her back—he noticed the change.
Saiji’s room was at the far end; that meant the left side after leaving it ought to have been a wall.
And yet—

“What the hell is this. Why is there another room…!?”

A room that should not have existed was there.
Naturally, as if it had been there from the beginning.
Saiji shuddered, but Sakuna, paying him no mind, remained perfectly calm.
Looking at her, he thought:
So she’s one of them too, in the end.

“What’s wrong, Saiji? I don’t think any rooms have been added.”

Realizing that anything he said would be useless, he swallowed his questions for now and turned his back on the newly appeared room.
He could open it later. First he had to see Sakuna safely to her room.
Then, when he looked back, a girl carrying a wooden box appeared in his line of sight.
A girl approaching with shoulder-length black hair swaying—Toka.
Even though they lived in the same castle, it had been several days since Saiji had last seen her.
She lifted her gaze and smiled at Sakuna.
She showed no interest in Saiji whatsoever; she did not look his way at all.

“So you were in Saiji’s room, Sakuna.”
“Y-yeah…”
“Perfect timing. I was going to put this down and then head back to the room.”

Toka approached Sakuna.
The distance between them kept shrinking, until they were close enough that their lips might have touched—

“Want to come back with me, Sakuna?”

she said.
Sakuna could have refused if she did not want to, but for some reason she did not.
Having seen Toka as she was now, Saiji understood perfectly.
Her appearance had not changed, but the atmosphere around her was clearly different.
As she was now—she was clearly abnormal.
It was a demonic allure, something like a magical power that drew anyone in, regardless of gender.
Or perhaps, in a world where magic existed, it really was—

“Wait here a second, then.”

Toka apparently meant to carry the wooden box in her hands to the room at the far end.
Saiji called out to her.

“Hey, Toka, that box—no, what the hell is that room!?”

At Saiji’s raised voice, Toka turned as if noticing his existence for the first time.

“It’s an ihai.”
“… An ihai?”
“Yes, an ihai. Once you’ve said ‘itadakimasu,’ you have to say ‘gochisousama’ and perform a proper memorial. Didn’t you learn that from the teacher?”
“What the hell… is that.”

Without giving a clear answer, Toka disappeared into the room at the far end.
Saiji bit his lower lip, beat down the fear rising in him, and followed her into the room.
It was—a dim, stone-built, empty space.
Toka set the “ihai” at the edge of the room and immediately came toward Saiji as if to leave.
A box was already sitting there.
Which meant—the one Toka had brought was the second.
She slipped past Saiji, left the room, ran up to Sakuna, and took her hand.
Sakuna’s expression as their skin touched was complicated, but if anything, joy seemed to be winning out.

“See you, Saiji.”

If Toka was with her, there was no room for Saiji to walk beside her.
Sakuna said something apologetic toward him, and the two of them headed back to their room with their fingers laced together.
Between the dining hall and now, Saiji was thoroughly confused.
What was right, and what was wrong.
If the voice he had heard in the dining hall had been a hallucination, then had he merely been mistaken in thinking this room did not exist.
Or—was everything other than himself what was wrong.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it… I don’t get it…!”

Saiji dropped to his knees and clawed at his head as he glared at the ihai sitting in the depths of the dark room.

 

◇◇◇

 

Before she knew it, Sakuna had been shown not into her own room, but into Toka’s.
The night before, when she had been kissed, it had been in Sakuna’s room; today she would be sought in Toka’s territory.
It was obvious that more than a kiss would be demanded.
But as she was now, she had no reason to refuse.
While they had been walking hand in hand, even the matter she had discussed with Saiji had flown from her mind.
As she was now, she was a girl who gladly accepted Toka’s kisses.

“Here, sit down.”

Sakuna sat in the chair as Toka told her.
Toka brought a glass bottle from the back of the room and poured it into the two soup plates arranged on the table.
Red—a liquid as red as blood—filled them.
Seeing it, Sakuna finally remembered.
That was right: before the kiss yesterday, Toka had forced this into her mouth.
She had struggled, but she had not been able to shake her off.
Toka had pinned her with a strength that hardly seemed human.
And as she swallowed the iron-smelling liquid, the taste had gradually begun to seem sweet, and she had begun to open her heart to Toka.
And then they had kissed.

“Do you remember this?”
“Yeah…”
“This is what bound us together.”
“Yeah… it is.”
“If you drink this much, plenty of magical power should enter your body too, Sakuna. The Mark will probably appear.”
“The… Mark?”
“Yes. Proof of eternal love. Mine, and yours, Sakuna—and Lady Chigusa’s.”

Why, at that moment, would the name of the classmate they had bullied come up.
Besides, she ought to have died when they came to this world.
She ought to have burst apart wretchedly before their eyes.
And yet—the blood Sakuna had drunk the night before still remained inside her.
Its presence made her feel as though it were connecting her to Chigusa, who was somewhere both distant and near.
In other words, Chigusa was alive.

“Well then, let’s drink.”

When Toka smiled at her, Sakuna suddenly became unable to resist.
No—rather, she found herself wanting to obey.
That, for her, was the highest happiness.
Sakuna scooped the viscous blood soup with a silver spoon and carried it to her mouth at the same time as Toka.
The taste of that beloved person’s blood twining around her tongue.
Sweet, and hot.
The more she absorbed, the more she felt as though she were ceasing to be herself.
That was growth.
Or awakening.
Sakuna gave thanks from the bottom of her heart that a paltry human like herself was being allowed to taste it.
Then she carried a second spoonful to her mouth in succession.
Watching Sakuna savor Chigusa’s blood with an enraptured expression, Toka’s eyes shone with hungry devotion—and she too took her beloved mistress’s blood and magical power into her own body.