Prologue- A Cry Rings Out Because You Died
Arcana user… The moment the man called himself as such, the ‘assumption of hope’ that resided in Mary’s heart crumbled away.
For better or worse however, she had no time to think about that now.
Mary promptly backed off and took some distance from the man.
Then, something invisible scraped her shoulders and cut her dress stained by sand, along with a thin cut on her skin.
“Agh…..! Aah…… Ah, aah…… I don’t want to die…… I don’t want to die!”
Mary turned her back against the man and started running.
He looked on and smiled.
“Wanna play tag? I really like that. Y’know, I used to play it a lot with my friends back in the day! I was always the demon, of course! Every time! Because I’m a demon! Ahahahahahaha!”
Mary didn’t turn around as she heard laughter coming from behind her, and just kept running forward.
There was no shelter to hide herself among all the withered trees here.
So she had to run, and go far enough that the darkness of the night would hide her.
But, in the end, Mary was only a young, 16 years old girl who could not even use sorcery.
Even running at full speed, she couldn’t get away from the man who was barely trying to catch up to her.
“Ah!….. Ah!….. Ah!….. I don’t wanna die…… I don’t wanna die…… I don’t wanna die…..!”
She still kept running as she continued telling herself this.
“Little laaaady, wait for me! Ahahaha! Where are you running so frantically? It’s nothing but a dump full of corpses where you’re headed! Or are you trying to kill yourself without letting me touch you!?”
As if instigating her, rather, enjoying the chase, the man continued chasing Mary.
Mary had made sure not to turn around and look so far, but she couldn’t help but wonder how far she had gotten.
She turned her head without stopping her feet.
“You finally looked!”
The man was creepily laughing as wrinkles showed on his cheeks.
She looked ahead, and continued running.
She ran for a while, and looked back again.
“Are you really that curious about me?”
It was bizarre how the distance between them had not even changed.
No matter how many times she turned around to look, no matter how much faster she ran, and no matter how much she got tired and slowed down, the distance between them remained the same.
“Hey! Wait for me! Ahahahaha! This is sooo fun! I love playing tag!”
(I’m being played with……)
Understanding this and accepting the reality that it would be difficult to survive through this, Mary still struggled.
Then, she looked behind one more time, and…
“Wait, where is he?”
She looked ahead again.
“Hey, nice to see you again ♥.”
The man was smiling right in front of her.
“Eeek!?”
Her lungs tightened and Mary screamed while exhaling.
She immediately tried to run away, but…
(Is something grabbing my arm….!?)
Something invisible had restrained her right arm, and she could not escape it.
And the next moment, this ‘something’ got slightly stronger, and broke Mary’s arm along with a cracking sound.
“Aaaa, aaaaaah! Agh, aaaaaaaaaaagh!”
Mary screamed loud in a shrill voice under this sudden, intense pain.
Cold sweat started gushing out from all over her body, and she lost control of her body as she writhed in pain while her lungs trembled- ‘Agh, agh, agh, agh!’
“My aaaaarm! My, my arm, it’s, agh, aaaaarrgh!”
“I like that face, I’m glad we played this game. Now, let’s begin round two. Run fast! Or I’ll break your leg next time ♪. Well, it’s not like some young girl with a sorcery rating of 0 can run away from me! Ahahahahahaha!”
“N-Nooo! Nooooooo!”
Mary tried to get away from the man while crawling using her left arm.
He let her go for a while as he observed and exploded into laughter.
Mary finally stood up using her one arm, and started staggering and running.
She went past some withered trees, towards the Death God’s Valley.
Mary stopped when he reached the cliff before the wide and deep valley.
“……Ah.”
She was not stalling, but had rather found something there.
The body of a woman laid down before the cliff.
“I don’t believe it……”
She had lost an arm, her abdomen was distorted, and blood was spilling out of her mouth and nose; it was the corpse of someone Mary loved.
“You promised, didn’t you? Hey, sisteeeeeer!”
Tears spilled out of Mary’s eyes, and the putrid smell of her sister’s corpse clung onto her body.
Her skin was already cold to the touch, and she would never gently pat Mary on the head again.
“Hmm….. How moving…… I can’t help but tear up at the sight of this reunion of two sisters who love each other! Wonderful! A supremely dramatic performance, if I do say so myself!”
The man looked on with great joy.
He tousled his hair and madly laughed while twisting his body.
Mary had no means to counterattack this man right in front of her.
(I am completely empty, after all. My beloved sister is dead, and I still can’t do anything. This wretch, my enemy is right in front of me, but I can’t do anything…..! All I can do is to cling onto this corpse…..!)
She clenched her teeth, but there was no power to awaken within her.
The reality was coldhearted, and Mary fully understood how powerless she was.
“But, I want to aim higher. To make this beautiful world glitter even further! Higher! To the climax! Lead me to a higher stage, little lady, with an even higher quality of enteeeeeeertainment!”
The man pointed at Mary and her sister.
Then, Francis abruptly stood up and gazed at Mary with blank eyes.
“Sister…..!”
Just for a moment, Mary felt hope.
But she quickly understood.
That this was only a corpse.
As if to prove this truth, Francis clung onto Mary with the one arm she had left and restrained her.
Mary tried to free herself and get away, but her lungs almost collapsed under the corpse’s strength.
“Ugh, guh, sis…… ter…… S-Stop…… plea…… se…..!”
Naturally, her words did not reach the dead.
The corpse of Francis stood on the rim of the cliff as she held Mary tight, and…
“This show has been sponsored by the owner of the Hermit arcana, Magrat. Farewell, see you in the next world.”
Along with the man’s, Magrat’s words, she jumped off.
Mary was in freefall, voiceless, as she felt a floating sensation throughout her body.
(Yeah…… After all that, I’m going to die.)
A freefall of a few dozen meters.
High probability of instant death.
Even if she survived, the possibility of her escaping was zero.
She had no choice but to give up.
So Mary, wanting to at least control how she looked when she died, softly hugged the corpse of her sister back.
“Sister…… I love you.”
Splatter.
The sisters smashed against the decaying pile of corpses.
Mary lost consciousness after a shock that shook her entire being.