Volume 1 – Following the Maze Drawn With Lines of Blood
Noted finally finished talking, then Mary and her group left the president’s room.
Cutie seemed completely exhausted, and Mary tapped her on the back to thank her for her efforts.
Next, they headed for the floor downstairs where the analysis room was located.
They left the elevator, and walked through a simple corridor reminiscent of a factory, unlike the highest floor.
Then, Cutie received a message on her communication device.
She spoke to Calaria after a short conversation.
“Calaria, looks like the weapons you lost were found. They’ll be brought here immediately.”
“Really!? That’s great to hear!”
“But, I’ll look into them before handing them over. They might be manufactured by Pupa.”
“I don’t mind. In that case, do some maintenance on them too.”
“How impudent. But it’s a give-and-take I suppose, so okay.”
They entered the room after finishing their conversation.
A man wearing a white robe who was waiting there took blood and hair samples from Mary and Calaria.
This suddenly reminded Mary of something.
“Come to think of it, I can take out Magrat’s corpse too, if it’s of any use to you?”
“Ah, with Death God’s power…… I want that as well, yes. But in that case, maybe we should have made Mary eat Hemlock too, since it would be easier to carry her that way.”
“There’s no telling what the results will be like after she takes a corpse out with her powers, so……”
“Indeed, it would be troubling if it gets judged as a part of Mary.”
“Yeah, that might happen as well.”
Mary held her hand up and started vomiting the corpse out.
Indeed, it was not the corpse itself, but a close recreation made using mana.
The man in the white robe seemed surprised by this as well and was taken aback.
But he quickly regained his composure and collected the samples.
Calaria asked Cutie a question while watching.
“How long until the results are out?”
“A residual mana wave scan takes around 2 hours. If you’re curious about the results, I’ll tell you right away. You two can get some rest after we’re done taking the blood samples.”
Cutie waved her hand.
It seemed that she still had things to do for her job as the executive director.
When everything was finished, Mary and Calaria were led away by employees and went to the resting room.
◇◇◇
The resting room was on a different floor.
There were a few beds lined up, where the researchers normally slept.
There were also vending machines lined up by a corner of the room.
Calaria put her hand on the head of the young girl sitting next to her and worriedly said:
“You look tired.”
“I guess.”
“I know you have a lot of resolve, but you used to be an ordinary person until just a few days ago. You can’t keep pushing yourself.”
“……I’m weak, aren’t I? I couldn’t have won against Wheel of Fortune without you and Miss. Cutie either.”
“Our foes know about our powers and use that to their advantage. We don’t even know what our enemy looks like, so it’s only natural that we’re at a disadvantage in this fight.”
“But!”
“Besides, if you’re calling yourself weak, then what about me, who lost to you?”
“Oh, err, that’s not what I meant.”
“Hahaha, I’m joking.”
“That’s mean, Miss. Calaria!”
“Heh, sorry. Couldn’t help myself.”
“As punishment…… Lap pillow, please.”
“Me? My legs are really stiff, though.”
“I don’t mind!”
Mary laid her body down, thump, and put her head on Calaria’s thighs.
“……You’re seriously doing it?”
Calaria seemed a little embarrassed.
“I can see how red your face is when I look up from here, Miss. Calaria…… it’s a nice view.”
“Don’t make fun of me, you’re being mean.”
“Ehehe, I must have gotten that from you.”
Calaria couldn’t help but smile at Mary’s bashful attitude.
But, the smile didn’t continue for long.
As Calaria pointed out, Mary was very tired.
“Phew…… This feels different from doing it with my sister, after all.”
“Did you do this often with your sister?”
“Yes, every time I asked for it.”
Mary squinted her eyes and thought back to when she was happy.
She wasn’t treated very well in the Pulsherima family, but the time she spent with Francis was definitely time well spent.
“If it wasn’t for my marriage with Romeo, I would have wanted to be with my sister forever. That’s all I wanted.”
“Yeah…… Me too. I don’t care about knowing the truth, I just wish Yueri was here.”
“People I don’t know knew about me and were somehow connected without me knowing about it. That feels really creepy.”
“We don’t know anything, but I feel like we’re getting closer to the truth……. It makes me feel uneasy. My chest constantly feels tight.”
“I’m still very glad that we ended up meeting each other, Miss. Calaria.”
“But we were trying to kill each other?”
“Still, we ended up getting along in the end……”
After that, Mary looked anxious as she looked at Calaria with upturned eyes, and said:
“We do get along, don’t we?”
“Don’t worry. I think we’ve gotten pretty close during the time we’ve spent together.”
They had only just met a short while ago.
Despite that, they were really close with each other.
That wasn’t unpleasant of course, but this vulnerability made them both feel a little uneasy.
Calaria reflexively caressed Mary’s head.
Then, Mary’s cheeks went loose and she sweetly yawned.
“Phew…… I’m so comfortable that I’m getting sleepy.”
“I’m a little sleepy too.”
“You can lay down, but I’ll still borrow your legs.”
“That would make it hard to sleep for me, maybe you can use my arm as a pillow.”
“Pheeeew.”
Mary was already half asleep and had almost closed her eyes.
She wobbled and stood up, and laid on a bed before Calaria.
Then, she tapped the bed as if inviting Calaria.
(Is she really going to use my arm as a pillow…..?)
Calaria had meant it as a joke, but Mary was too sleepy to understand that.
Calaria laid down next to Mary and the two embraced each other to sleep.
◇◇◇
Mary was dreaming.
A familiar woman was sleeping on a big bed.
(Mother…..?)
It was the mother of Mary and Francis, and Henry’s ex-wife, Blair.
She had died before Mary could remember anything, so she didn’t have any memories of her.
“Why did you come?”
Blair spoke in a cold tone of voice.
Then, Mary replied with a childlike voice.
“I want you to get better fast, mother.”
But Mary wasn’t old enough to talk back then.
(……My sister’s memory?)
Indeed, this voice belonged to Francis.
Her mother spoke in a loud voice in reply to the worried Francis:
“Sympathy, from you!? Geh, agh…..!”
“Mother!”
“Don’t touch me!”
“Ah!”
Blair shook off Francis’s arm and Francis fell over.
But her mother did not care, and got up to look down on her with cold eyes before showering her in a barrage of merciless words.
“I told you not to get close to me. Filthy, aah, filthy. You’re not my child – no, you are my child, and that’s why you’re filthy! Why didn’t Henry choose me? Why did he choose you!? Why did I give birth to a repulsive thing like Mary!? No, no, I hate all of it!!!!”
Blair shouted while stirring up her hair.
“Mother……”
Francis spoke with tears in her eyes and a shaking voice.
But her mother did not calm down or go back to how she used to be.
On the contrary, Blair took a fruit knife from the shelf and crawled out of her bed.
“It’s your fault. It’s because of you that Henry…… Give Henry back to me…… Don’t steal Henry from meeeee!”
“No, no! Mother, stoooop!”
Francis desperately resisted when the knife was turned on her.
But she could not stop her mother with the strength of a child.
The knife was just about to stab her throat, but then-
“Ah……”
A water blade pierced Blair’s chest.
It had grown out of Francis’s hand.
“Yes, you’re…… taking my life…… away from me……”
Blood seeped out of her mother’s mouth as her body lost strength, and she collapsed on top of Francis.
“Mother? Hey, mother!? Motheeeer!”
The painful screams of a young Francis echoed through the room.
There was a figure watching this from the corner.
The figure had four limbs just like any human, but the size of their physique, the color of their skin, and the armor they were wearing clearly did not belong to a human.
It was very strange
They simply stood still and silently watched the tragedy unfold.
◇◇◇
Mary violently woke up with a painful expression on her face.
Calaria also woke up after hearing her, and worriedly shook Mary.
“Mary, you okay? Hey, Mary!”
“Uh…… Uh, ah, Miss. Calaria…..?”
Mary faintly opened her eyes and smiled with relief when she saw Calaria.
“You were having a horrible nightmare.”
“It was a…… strange dream. But……”
“I’m sorry if your pillow was uncomfortable.”
“Ahah, the pillow was amazing. But, well, I feel strange.”
“Why? Right, let’s call Cutie and have you examined in the doctor’s office.”
“No, it’s not like that.”
Mary hung her head down and bit her lips.
Then, after some silence, she clung to Calaria and spoke.
“I feel like my sister is inside me.”
Calaria was naturally perplexed after hearing that.
But, she did have a guess about it.
(She told me before that she could see her sister. I thought they were visual and auditory hallucinations, but, arcana of Death God…… maybe it’s more than just a power that lets one eat corpses?)
Mary was acting strange back when she and Calaria were fighting.
If that was also the influence of the corpse of her sister that she devoured, then……
“Miss. Calaria, back when we first fought, and during my fight with Wheel of Fortune, and this dream that I’ve never seen the likes of before……”
“Do these things hurt you?”
“No. My sister is guiding me towards the right path. But, this dream just now…… I can’t believe my sister killed our mother…..!”
Mary held her shoulders and trembled.
Calaria hugged her with both arms, and buried Mary’s head in her bosom.
“Ah……”
“Well, if this doesn’t hurt you, you can rely on me for now.”
“Okay……”
“Sorry. To be honest, I don’t understand Death God either. That’s all I can say.”
“……That’s plenty enough. Being treated like this lightens the burden on my heart.”
“You saved my life, I’ll do whatever you want for you.”
“I’m going to get really spoiled if you say that, you know? That’s the kind of person I used to be, so.”
Mary’s voice calmed down again.
The shadows in her smiling face faded away as well, and she went back to normal.
Of course, she did not solve the mystery of that dream, but……
(I don’t remember much about our mother since she died when I was 1 year old. The only mother I remember is the one my father married after that, Catherine. I know nothing. Nothing at all.)
Mary wanted to deny this, but she could not.
That dream, it could be something that actually happened.
Because the Pulsherima family was not a normal family.
Mary thought about that, and hugged Calaria to seek comfort.
Then, the room’s door suddenly opened.
“Good, you’re awake…… Hey, what are you two doing?”
Cutie was astonished.
“Lots of things happened.”
“Many things.”
“That’s too many things in such a short time. Well, whatever.”
But Cutie’s expression turned serious again right away.
She was holding a piece of paper in her hands.
“I came to tell you about the results of the waveform scan.”
“From the blood samples you took, right? What are the results?”
“Magrat and Hemlock were blood-related siblings, just as they said. And……”
Cutie looked at Calaria and hesitated for a moment.
“What’s with that expression? You’re worrying me.”
“I’m not sure if I should really say this. I feel like I’ve been too rough on you.”
“If it’s the truth, I can take it. Just say it.”
“……Are you really sure?”
“Don’t underestimate me.”
Cutie fixed her gaze on Calaria and spoke.
“Calaria. You’re also a blood relative of Magrat and Hemlock.”
She was ready.
But she still couldn’t help but feel shocked.
Calaria bit her lips in the face of these inconvenient truths and firmly clenched her sweaty right hand.