Ex2-1. Where Paradise Lies

Author: Kiki
Raw: https://novel18.syosetu.com/n2498fn/55/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

It was the last paradise left on the world

After every nation had fallen to the vampires, the few humans who had barely survived wandered in search of some place where they might still live as people.
Those who escaped intact arrived, by chance, at the same destination.

North on the continent, beyond a cave, lay a flatland ringed by mountains.
A settlement had once been there; several dozen people had lived quietly.
The young had gone to the cities. Those who remained had died out. Only rotting wooden ruins were left.
Some came looking for a hiding place, some as if fleeing the rain, some in search of a place to die. All of them arrived.

Rumors of the settlement reached the ears of the surviving humans, and people began to gather there in a body.
Fortunately the land itself was fairly wide, so even with nearly two hundred assembled, they did not quarrel over space.
So long as they sealed the cave, they need not fear discovery by vampires. The people who lived there came, in time, to call that safe place paradise—“Eden.”

Eden was at peace.
Humans whose lives have been threatened respect their own lives, and other people’s, more than those who have never been so exposed.
Everyone showed consideration. Everyone gave kindness.
A true utopia.
Even humans, it seemed, could discard their folly. They would not spend forever at one another’s throats.
There was hope.
Which is to say: there was light.
Where light is born, shadow arises.
The peace did not last long.

The seed of strife was food.
Spring water covered their need to drink, but mountain herbs and the wild animals they could hunt would not feed two hundred.
Hunger roughened their hearts and pared the kindness away.
In the end, humans had never been capable of making a paradise.
At first it was only friends sharing food.
Then the sharing hardened into factions, into a gap between rich and poor; jealousy coiled; the factions began to fight.
Even if the world shrank to a settlement of two hundred, the scale changed and the conduct did not.
The blood-for-blood fighting lasted several days. Eden’s population fell to about a hundred and fifty.

—Then, one day, a single human appeared in the settlement.

He descended as if from the heavens, like a god: Alexander Omicron.
In the age when humans had still been masters of the world, he had made his name as “the greatest magician alive”—a first-rate magical scholar in the true sense.
Having watched the world perish under the vampires, he had come to Eden in search of a place to retire.

“If he is a famous magician, he may know a way to save us.”

The people, weary of fighting, clung to Alexander.
He considered a little, observed his surroundings, and said:

“The ones who joined the fighting were adult men, which means the dead were as well. If the remaining survivors are fifty men, then there are a hundred women. Don’t you think that is too many?”

Among the men, some had apparently resented being the only ones who had to fight.
Many agreed with Alexander.

“We should restore the balance. There is also a way to solve the food problem at the same time. Do as I say.”

Alexander was indeed an excellent magician. Few people knew that, shortly before the human world fell, in the midst of the chaos, his own country had banished him.
Officially, his specialty was the treatment of wounds and disease. That was not true.
—Human experimentation.
In particular, a series of atrocious trials upon young women, which also served to satisfy his own appetites.
That was the field in which Alexander excelled.

He made this proposal:

“We will use fifty of the women as food, and turn the remaining fifty into plants for producing meat efficiently. A few women able to bear proper children will be enough.”

At first everyone opposed it.
But people cannot resist hunger.
Before long, fifty women were chosen from among the survivors and consumed as food.
The remaining fifty were bound; Alexander’s procedures remade their wombs so that, once pregnant, they could immediately deliver enormous lumps of flesh.
Needless to say, the men’s sexual use of those women was included in the production.
Once the men had eaten human flesh, they could no longer see the women as the same kind of creature.
Obedient slaves. Convenient tools. Palatable food.
Appetite, lust, and sleep all satisfied, the men sat at table with Alexander and said, from the bottoms of their hearts,
“So this really was paradise after all.”

◆◆◆

 

“Welcome home, Lady Chigusa.”

For some reason, Lina was waiting when I returned through the gate.
I had not sent word of when I would be back. Had she been standing here the entire time?

“Lina … um. I’m home. Is something the matter, that you would go to the trouble of meeting me?”
“Yeah. Probably.”

A rather indefinite answer.

“I’m standing in for Leia, so I don’t really know the details.”
“And where is she herself?”
“Ashera caught her. They’re talking.”
“Ah …”

Most likely Ashera had thought of some new game.
Those three were certainly vigorous. Endearing, if one chose to look at it that way.

“So until Leia gets back, will you talk with me?”
“I don’t mind. By the way, how is Mary?”

Mary was the daughter Lina had borne.
She was six months old now.
Purple hair; her features resembled Leia’s more than Lina’s.
She had only recently begun to walk, and would dash off the moment anyone looked away, so I often saw Lina at a loss.
Leia’s daughter, incidentally, was named Foss; her hair and face resembled Lina’s.
Both of them doted on their girls enough to make an onlooker smile, and Lina and Leia, and the two children, were every bit as close.
The castle felt brighter than before. I did not think that was only my imagination.

“Mary’s with Lalilalai.”
“She is quite fond of her, isn’t she.”
“She always did seem to like children, so I guess the Madonna’s name isn’t just for show.”

I believed she had once been called a Madonna in a rather different sense, but lately she had become almost respectable.
Well—when she was with Ashera or Kishiri, bestial sounds still carried from the room.

“She is pregnant herself, as I recall?”
“Yeah. Ashera’s child. And Ashera is carrying Miyako’s, and Kishiri is carrying Lalilalai’s, I think.”
“They were all at about the same time. It will get noisy again.”
“Before you know it the place might be nothing but children. We may have to turn the audience hall into a nursery or we won’t have enough rooms …”

Lina said it like a joke.
It might not have been entirely a joke.
Imagining the royal castle as a nursery in the near future, I found myself wondering whether I ought to buy childcare goods from the other world.

 

◇◇◇

 

I went into the room where Lina and Leia ordinarily lived and sat on the sofa.
Lina sat beside me and leaned her weight against me.

“Spending time alone with you like this feels unusual.”
“Well, I’m always with Leia. But this isn’t bad now and then. When I can touch you like this, Lady Chigusa, I settle down.”

Lina seemed rather fond of me.
When we met, or when we talked of nothing in particular, she would often sidle close and put her hands on me.

“You might think I’ve forgotten, Lady Chigusa. But I remember. Properly.”
“Remember what?”
“That when my body still hadn’t come back—when I was only meat, only a hole—you loved me anyway.”

Ah—I see.
Lina, who had been unable to speak properly, unable even to look, used as a tool.
It was true that I had held her even then, and loved her. What she said was correct.
I had not imagined she remembered those days, or that her present affection sprang from that memory.

“Ah, that face. You had forgotten. That’s fine, though. I’m the one who decided I owe you, and I’m the one who wants to pay it back.”

So saying, Lina pressed closer still and brought her face near.
Having been invited that far, I could hardly fail to answer.

“I’m glad. So you are in the mood … nnh.”

I set a hand to her chin, tipped it up, and set my mouth to hers.
I let the soft pink touch and slowly drew away. Lina turned wet eyes toward me.

“Hey, Lady Chigusa. I … I want your child next.”

As she spoke, she took my hand and brought it near her navel.
When I put strength into my fingertips and let them sink into a belly that was taut and yet soft, she answered with a faint sound.

“… No?”
“If Lina—”

—is willing.
I was about to continue, and stopped.
That would not do.
What she wanted was a word that sought her, actively.
Passive as that, I could not make her happy.

“… I want to get you with child as well. I want you to bear mine.”
“—S-so that’s it, heh … You want to put a child in me. Then, right now …”

Lina’s cheeks loosened as if melting. I was about to kiss her more deeply—and just before I did, there was a click.
We stopped closing the distance and looked toward the door at the same time.

“I’m home, Lina. Lady Chigusa is back, and—”

Then our eyes met Leia’s, coming into the room, perfectly.
What was this? This guilt, as if an affair had been discovered.

“Was I … in the way?”
“No, not at all! Come here too, Leia. You said there was something you wanted Lady Chigusa to do, didn’t you?”
“Is that so?”
“Ah, um … yes. Well. There is, but.”

Lina beckoned, and Leia came toward us shyly, fidgeting.
If Lina knew what Leia wanted, that meant they spoke of me even when they were alone.
It was a little embarrassing, to think of oneself being discussed out of earshot.
Itchy, or perhaps pleasing.

“Excuse me.”

Leia sat beside me and, like Lina, sidled close.

“Leia’s grateful to you too, Lady Chigusa. That we could meet again, that we got free—it’s all thanks to you. Right, Leia?”
“…”

Leia said nothing. She flushed and gave a small, firm nod.

“But. Before that, Lina and Lady Chigusa have something to do, don’t we.”
“She will be jealous, you know.”
“It’s fine. We’ll have her do it for Leia right after.”

I had been booked before I knew it.
Well—I had intended as much from the start.

Then Lina and I brought our mouths together and kissed slowly, in front of Leia, who was her mate joined in soul.
The situation itself seemed to heighten Lina’s pleasure; even a light caress of the underside of her tongue, where she was weakest, drew a small sound from her.
For several minutes we remained like that. When I drew away, we looked at one another for a while.
A kind of pillow talk.
In a voice only she could hear, stroking her thigh, her back, her head, her ear, I whispered that I loved her, that she was dear, that I wanted more.

When that had settled, I drew Leia in and set my mouth to hers a little more forcefully.
Leia’s resistance to doing this in front of her mate seemed stronger; at first her whole body was rigid.
I was careful, easing her until the tension loosened bit by bit.
The taste of Lina still in her mouth may have reassured her. Before long she was absorbed in it, trembling each time she swallowed what I gave her.

Lina watched from close by, looking hungry.
Her eyes were like a wild animal waiting for prey. The instant I let go, she meant to take Leia, I suspected.
The suspicion proved exact—before the thread of saliva between Leia and me had even broken, Lina began to claim Leia’s mouth.
Now it was my turn to be left behind.
Very well. I would begin, a little early, what Leia had probably wanted.

I crooked a finger. Black tentacles of shadow crawled from the room’s dark.
I wound them first about Leia’s legs.
She noticed, even with her mouth still occupied, and tried to look down; Lina’s fierce claiming would not allow it.
Jealous, perhaps, of the shift in attention, Lina took Leia’s cheeks in both hands and kissed her more deeply still.

While that went on, the shadows closed over Leia’s lower body.
I let them climb, inch by inch—navel, chest, underarm, arms, throat—until nearly all of her was sheathed in black.
The shadows dissolved her clothes and clung to her skin.

“It’s—this is—nnh, this—!”

Wrapped entirely, she seemed to remember fighting me. Her expression went slack.
Lina drew her mouth away and looked at me.

“Hey, Lady Chigusa. I want this too.”
“Of course. I intended to from the start.”

I sent shadows over Lina as well. From the toes up, her legs were swallowed into black.

“Ah … this—nhaaa!”

I have not experienced it myself, so I cannot speak in detail.
The sensation is apparently unlike fingers or a tongue, and once tasted, difficult to leave.
By the time the shadows reached Lina’s throat she was already breathless, no longer able to form proper words.
And that was still only the outside.
The climbing dark reached her mouth and slipped inward, filling palate and gums and the underside of the tongue—
Leia, who already knew that pleasure, let her voice shake with anticipation.
The shadows went further, expanding from within without tearing the lining of throat and gullet.
They covered the faces as well, invading through nose, ear, and eye.
Once both of them were sealed to the head, they could no longer make a sound. They only trembled under what was given.
I ran a hand up Leia’s thigh, sheathed in enamel-like shadow, and her body arched.
I put my tongue into Lina’s mouth, slick and black, and she answered with her whole body.
For some time I left them on the floor and watched, still seated on the sofa, two black masses writhing.
Helpless, taken from one side, and accepting all of it: they were truly dear.
When I touched a foot, a hand, a tongue, they reacted in excess, and that too was dear.
I never tired of it. Flushed, I sat and observed the two of them.

 

◇◇◇

 

By the time I thought of it, it was already too late.
Leia had said she had business with me, but she was already unconscious, breathing the adorable sleep of someone on a bed.
There was nothing for it. I waited three hours, watching both sleeping faces—Lina had fainted as well—until Leia at last opened her eyes.
In place of a good morning, I kissed her forehead. Still half asleep, she clung to me like a child and buried her face in my chest.
… I later learned she always did that with Lina.
How close they were. I envied them. Perhaps I would not be punished for taking a leftover like today’s.

“So, Leia—what was it you needed of me?”

I asked while holding her head against me.
She seemed to recover her reason all at once. She jerked away and spoke in a fluster.

“Th-that’s right! Um—there are still surviving humans. And … some people went to try to make the women there into companions.”
“And that failed, for some reason?”
“Yes. Beyond a cave there’s a settlement, apparently. In front of the cave there were women—several of them. But those people … none of them can be charmed.”
“Do they have a resistance to magic, like Kishiri?”
“The one who fought them said … it didn’t seem like human movement. And when they hit them, it felt oddly hard …”

Charm would not take.
Movement unlike a human’s.
A hard feeling when struck.
The word that rose at once was android.
But this world had no technology for making artificial humans that could be mistaken for women.

“Are there wounded?”
“Serious injuries, even. That’s part of why they’re asking you for help, Lady Chigusa.”
“It was certainly no time to be sleeping.”
“It isn’t as if I slept because I wanted to.”

Leia gave me a flat look.
Well—she had been caught up in Lina and me.
My phrasing had been a little unkind.

“I may need to borrow your knowledge, Leia. When Lina wakes, shall the three of us go?”
“Mm. All right.”

And so I decided to head, with Lina and Leia, for the last paradise of humankind.
… Which meant I would have to ask Ellis and Mya-nee to watch the house.
I had only just returned, and I was going out again without a proper conversation. I hoped those two would not sulk.