Volume 2 – The World Sneered
The outskirts of the royal capital was crowded because of the evacuees.
There, Edward was doing his best to guide the citizens.
“Please stop pushing! Calm down, walk slowly! It’s alright, the army, and I, Edward, are here for you all!”
It was hard to clearly say that he was being helpful, but the citizens felt more at peace just by the prince’s presence there.
The kingdom’s future was in peril due to the king’s madness.
The fact that his heir was here, even if he was Edward, had to be conveyed to as many people as possible.
As the royal capital’s residents flowed towards the evacuation spot like a river, Edward’s gaze suddenly stopped on someone among them.
She was hard to distinguish because of the hood she wore, but-
“Mother……?”
For a family member more used to seeing her than anyone else, it was very clear.
“Mother! Please wait! Mother!”
Edward pushed his way through the crowd and grabbed her hand.
The people stirred.
The prince called someone his mother – this meant that Queen Catherine was here.
Then, perhaps thinking this was dangerous, the soldiers nearby kept the people around Edward away from him.
And as the confusion spread, they lead Edward and Catherine to a spot some distance away.
It was an area with short grass separate from the highway.
Perhaps because it was right by a forest, there were a few stumps nearby.
Edward sat her mother down, put his hand on her shoulder and asked her what was going on.
The soldiers were also confused as they did not expect Queen Catherine to show up here.
“What are you doing here, mother!? I thought you would remain in the royal castle with father…… No, all that matters is that you’re safe. I’m so, so relieved……”
Tears emerged from Edward’s eyes.
The battle that took place in the royal capital was far more gruesome than he had imagined.
Countless citizens had fallen victim.
Smoke rose from the royal castle, and many explosions were heard coming from within.
If Catherine had stayed there, Edward was even ready to accept that his mother was dead.
“Edward…… Thank you for worrying about me.”
Catherine seemed older than before.
Edward figured that it was because she had to flee while being chased after.
“I think it’ll take some time until things settle down in the royal capital. I’ll contact the lieutenant general and have him secure a resting spot. Please wait a little.”
Saying that, he took out the comms device given to him by the army and put it next to his ear.
He heard the shrill noise of an engine after the ringtone.
As the noise drew nearer to Edward, he spotted a rugged white bike among the grass, and Mary jumped out of it.
He opened his eyes wide in shock.
Meanwhile, Mary, without even looking at his brother, quickly dismantled her bike.
She grabbed her scythe.
Then she used her momentum to slash at Catherine at high speed.
Sensing the danger, Edward instantly guarded his mother.
He moved fast for someone like him, and Mary reacted by clicking her tongue.
“Brother, please get away from mother!”
“Put that weapon down, Mary! Why did you just try to kill mother!?”
“She’s the one who was controlling father! The arcana of World dwells within mother!”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Mother isn’t even a sorcerer! How could she do something like that!?”
“You don’t have to be a sorcerer to possess an arcana. Besides, mother is completely under the arcana’s control by now if World dwells inside her!”
“Mother…… under control? That’s not possible. I’ve always been by her side!”
Edward did not listen.
Mary gave up on trying to convince him, and decided to pull him away by force.
Perhaps sensing this, Catherine pulled a knife out of her pocket and put it over Edward’s neck.
“Mother!? W-Why are you doing this!?”
“Mitis…… How many lives do you have to ruin until it’s enough for you!?”
“Hehehe…… Ahahahahaha!”
Catherine’s laugh sounded like the perfect image of a villain.
“I am arcana. Lives are nothing but a fluctuation in digits. Most of all, my mission is to destroy this world. Naturally, I will keep going until the digit is zero.”
“Don’t be absurd!”
“I’m not. I’m being very serious.”
She spoke in a tone of voice completely different from the normal Catherine’s; there was clearly someone else mixed in with her, and even Edward had to admit that she was different.
“But, you know, everything you do is in vain, Mary. You’re trying to kill and eat your mother right after you killed your father.”
“I can finally end this foolish fight when I seal you with Death God!”
“Can you? The arcana of World is much more powerful than the others. Do you think that Death God, which has already taken in so many arcanas, still has the space left for it?”
Mary’s heart started beating louder and louder.
She had not thought about this before.
“It is not as if Death God can just endlessly absorb other arcanas. Why do you think I have been sending all those arcana users your way all this time?”
Mary had thought about that before.
Why was World sending Mary arcanas, knowing that this only granted Death God more power?
In the end, Mary remembered that the conclusion she reached was that ‘sending more wouldn’t necessarily mean they could win more easily’ – but it made more sense to think that this was done to fill up the space in Death God.
“Wait…… Are you saying you did that on purpose?”
“Hehehehe!”
Catherine simply laughed.
She did not deny or admit it, and just made fun of the flustered Mary.
“Put your weapon down, Mary. I will kill Edward if you make any moves.”
She gripped her knife tight.
The blade dug into Edward’s neck, and blood slightly floated up under his skin.
His body shook, and he loudly clenched his teeth.
Mary was close enough to grab the knife without hurting Edward.
But her foe was the arcana user of World, so she did not believe things would end so simply.
And she had other doubts as well.
(If she really is the arcana user of World, she wouldn’t have to use such a stale trick.)
In appearance, Catherine’s Sorcery Rating was not even 200.
She could have disguised her numbers, but if that was the case, why was she using a ‘knife’?
Not even sorcery.
Mary did not see any glimpses of arcana.
“M-Mother…… Please stop. You can’t kill your own son! I’m finally going to become a king! Isn’t that what you always dreamed of!?”
“Yes. So it will be trouble for everyone if I kill you and die here. Especially for Mary.”
“Motheeeeer!?”
Edward shouted in a miserable voice.
Catherine gripped her knife even tighter.
There was not much time now.
“No…… I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna diiie……!”
“What do I have to do to make you release my brother?”
“Kill yourself, Mary.”
“And what’s the proof that you will release him then?”
“Can you not trust my words?”
“Not at all.”
“Of course. Hehehehe!”
Indeed, it was hard to believe that a negotiation would succeed.
In other words, Mary had only one choice.
She had to save Edward now.
She did not like that.
Having no choices meant that the scenario was playing out in the way it was written by the enemy.
Mitis’s motives were consistent.
To make Mary suffer.
That was all she wanted.
In which case, she had to have some plan to ‘make Mary suffer’ if she tried to save Edward.
“You are indecisive, Mary. If you will not kill yourself like mama is telling you to, then-”
“Uh, eek!……”
“I will just kill Edward.”
Mary closed her eyes and took a breath, almost as if giving up.
Edward wet himself in his despair, and his facial expression stiffened.
Then, Catherine pushed on her knife – but a bullet passed through her shoulder and completely gouged her flesh and bones.
Her arm got disconnected from her torso and fell onto the grass.
“Oh, my arm.”
Catherine reacted like it was a scratch.
Mary immediately reached out with her bone arm and snatched Edward away.
“Hiiiiih!”
“Oh, you took Edward away from me. I had no idea your friend was aiming at me.”
“The tables have turned, huh?”
“It seems that way. Well, it doesn’t matter anyhow.”
Mary clenched her teeth in response to Catherine’s placidity.
It was always this way; whether she won or lost, Mitis, who had already lost everything, did not feel any regret.
“I mean, I succeeded in taking your family away from you, Mary. Of course, I wanted to kill you as well, and destroy the kingdom, but…… Dugan is dead, and so is Henry. There is no saving Catherine either. This is a good result for this battle.”
She was completely right.
The only thing she failed to accomplish was to kill Mary.
However, if Death God really could not consume World now, there was no way for Mary to seal Mitis here.
“When that hurt is healed, and there are new people who are as precious to you as your family was, I will come and destroy everything again. Look forward to it.”
She swore on a reunion.
The suffering was to continue.
Mary started breathing heavily as she gripped her scythe, and cold sweat dripped from her forehead.
“Well, let’s end this by killing your mother, then.”
Catherine spread her arms wide and waited for death.
Was this victory?
No.
Certainly not.
From the beginning, since she lost Francis, Mary had continued to lose.
The hatred of a several hundred million years swirling around inside Mitis.
The plan from 16 years ago.
This numerical formula was created to thoroughly make Mary and the others suffer, and it could not be overcome by a hastily prepared arcana.
But, the next time would be different.
Mary now knew of World’s existence.
She also possessed many arcanas herself.
“Mitis…… I will never forgive you. I will chase you until the end of the world and find you, and devour you with my Death God!”
“If you will come to your death on your own, then I shall gladly welcome you.”
This was only a prelude to their fight. That was how Mary felt.
This was where the cannon’s lid would be opened.
(We’ll see about that.)
Mary held the scythe of the Death God, and thought to herself.
(She killed my father and my mother. The fight is about to end for now. Really? Will it really end? I don’t know. If World controls everything, there’s no guarantee that these are the real bodies of my father and mother.)
Mary slayed her laughing mother.
(What if this is not the end? What if this is just the beginning? What if I-)
Edward shrieked and rushed over to the corpse.
(Maybe she should have died earlier.)
She watched the end of the tragedy between mother and son with empty eyes.
Suddenly, she remembered how Francis had killed Blair.
Did she feel this guilt as well?
Mary felt happy about sharing a feeling with her beloved sister.
That was the only joy she could pick out from this conclusion.
♢♢♢
The words ‘too late’.
Mary thought they were perfect for this hopeless world.
She desperately tried her best.
She suffered and struggled, and continued fighting to clear away Francis’s chagrin and her own hatred.
However, she thought about something else when she noticed a possibility.
Perhaps this world, from the very start, was always in a checkmate.
It was all useless.
Struggling only made the wounds bigger.
The more she fought, the more tragedy she exposed.
More deaths in vain.
It was not as if Mary caused all this.
It was happening from the start.
Yes, all she did was to open the bellies of the dead with the scythe of the Death God.
The tragedy that was already playing out simply came out into the open.
In which case, when Mary cuts through the ‘black curtain’ of this fight, just what was going to come out from behind it?
5 days until Edward’s coronation ceremony.