Chapter 18 : Chapter 18
Chapter 18: Love’s Remnants
Clack-rumble-rumble-rumble—
A heavy, muffled roar continuously rang out from the gear-shaped base at the center of the courtroom. The platform with the sharpened stake that had originally stood there slowly sank, and a new platform rose up before everyone’s eyes.
“A-a target...?”
At the sight before her, Sakuraba Emma’s body gave a violent shudder.
It was a massive target, ringed on the outside by angel statues and purple roses. At first glance, it looked incomparably holy. But even so, that did not change the essential fact that it was an execution platform.
“Do not make such a stiff face, little brother Chang. I liked that adorably overmature look you put on during the trial much more~❤”
Even as she was escorted to the execution platform by the jailers, Houshou Margo still wore that same smile as she spoke to Chang Rong in a half-joking tone.
“Marg...”
Nikaido Hiro gritted her teeth and stared fixedly at the girl who was about to be executed. She was furious beyond measure, and yet she did not know exactly who that anger ought to be directed at.
Unlike the girls, whose expressions all differed, the aberrant monsters called the jailers merely carried out their duty in silence, binding Houshou Margo’s four limbs to the four diagonal points of the target, forcing her into a spread-eagle position in front of it.
“What is this, some damned circus knife-throwing act...?”
“Mmm~~ But it is different from a circus, is it not? After all, in a circus, they have to avoid hitting the living person. But now—”
“...Ugh! Stop talking, you gorilla woman!”
Everyone could already foresee what was about to happen next. Some of them had already turned their heads away, unwilling to witness Houshou Margo’s end.
“My, how exhilarating. Such vulgar taste, such a crude method~❤”
Even now, fixed to the target, Margo still wore that dazzling smile, still teased in that frivolous tone, until—
Thud!!!
A dull, heavy impact rang out as the wooden target was struck through. A heavy crossbow bolt had shot out from somewhere unknown, grazing Houshou Margo’s cheek before burying itself deep into the target.
If Houshou Margo had turned her head even slightly just now, her skull would already have been pierced through.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!!!
“—Ugh!”
One bolt after another fired out in rapid succession, but every single one merely pierced her kimono and scraped past her skin.
More terrifying than death was the process of waiting for death. Like the sword of Damocles, that looming threat steadily gnawed away at Houshou Margo, and at some point, the smile on her face vanished without anyone noticing.
“Meruru... she really was a good girl.”
As the arrows split skin and buried themselves into the target, Houshou Margo began to mutter to herself.
“She took such careful care of me, cried and begged me not to die, happily grabbed my hand to congratulate me on recovering from my injuries... ah, if only I could have made her mine, bound every part of her tightly to my side. I loved her so much, and so in the end I killed her, turned her into something that belonged to me, let her understand my love—”
“Liar...!”
Nikaido Hiro cut Houshou Margo off.
“A liar? Sadly, this is my true love—”
“That is right, a liar!!”
Hiro interrupted her again, shouting even louder.
“This is what you call 【Love】? Do not make me laugh!”
—No.
“You do not ‘love’ Meruru at all!!”
—The love she spoke of...
“The love in your mouth is nothing but a 【Lie】. Just like you, it is an incorrect imitation made entirely out of falsehood!!”
—The ‘truth’ she hid beneath her lies...
“You have never known what so-called 【Love】 is!!!”
—The wish she truly wanted to beg for...
“No! That is not it, that is not it! I understand, I understand! This is my love!!” Faced with Hiro’s loud rebuttal, Houshou Margo finally shed every last layer of disguise and shouted back in panic.
“Well now~ Though I do not really understand what love is either, even I would not kill someone just because I fell in love with them, you know~? What you did, Marg, was just wanting Meruru to disappear, was it not?” Tachibana Sherry said, resting a finger against her chin and tilting her head.
“N-no, that is not it! I—”
“Exactly, exactly. Would it not just be easier on everyone if you honestly admitted that you simply could not stand Meruru acting all saintly like that, and then accidentally killed her?” Sawatari Coco stuck out her tongue.
—No one would take another person’s life just because they “could not stand them.”
“N-no, that is not it! That is not right! Do not deny my love! Do not... 【love me】—!”
After that scream, so shrill it was almost a shriek, Houshou Margo’s eyes went wide with panic and confusion, her face twisting into an expression even she herself did not seem aware of.
“I... what did I just say...?”
As that murmur left her lips, a visible transformation overtook Houshou Margo’s body.
Her cheeks cracked and peeled away, her hands twisted, her fingernails visibly lengthened, and black, writhing corruption spread wildly across the girl’s pale skin, devouring the existence once known as Houshou Margo in great gulps.
The taboo she had absentmindedly let slip became the key that completely opened the gate to witchification.
—And even less should someone become a monster because of old wounds.
“Uh... uaaahhh—!?”
The girls screamed at the sight unfolding before them. All of their naive fantasies—that a “Witch Candidate” could not possibly become a true “witch”—were mercilessly torn apart upon the execution platform before their eyes.
Houshou Margo, who had still been their companion only a few days ago, was now becoming a witch in front of every last one of them.
—A witch, a witch... I hate this. I hate it every time. I have always hated it. So...
【Rong, this is my ‘original sin.’ Even after witnessing all this, do you still want to continue?】
—So I will continue.
There was no empty space left on the target anymore. The next bolt would without question pierce the witch before their eyes.
But before the next bolt could fire, Chang Rong acted first.
“You liar!”
Like a rabbit, the white-haired boy leaped down from the judge’s stand and charged straight toward the witch with a shout.
“Chang Rong—hey, what are you doing!?”
Nikaido Hiro was startled by the sudden turn of events. She shouted and tried to stop him, but there was no time to react.
“...Little brother?”
The witch frowned slightly, unable to comprehend this unexpected farce.
“Are you not the one who called yourself a trickster!? Did you not think you could toy with everyone in the palm of your hand!? Then what the hell is this supposed to be—ugh!”
The jailers rushed in front of Chang Rong with alarming speed and pinned him to the ground effortlessly.
“You idiotic rabbit...!!!” Hiro could no longer sit still. She swept her eyes rapidly across the surroundings and immediately locked onto Hasumi Reiya—more precisely, the sword hanging at Reiya’s waist.
As luck would have it, Hasumi Reiya had almost simultaneously drawn that sword herself, swallowed hard, and prepared to charge at the jailers.
The girls had seen the jailers’ strength before. They were not beings that “Witch Candidates” could fight against. It was like a babbling toddler facing a grown adult. There was no such thing as “equality” between them.
“W-wait, Hiro-chan, Reiya-chan! That jailer is not hurting Chang Rong-kun...!”
Sakuraba Emma frantically grabbed Hiro. Only then did everyone finally notice that the jailer, who should have slaughtered people like them—these 【Witch Candidates】—without mercy, was now merely restraining Chang Rong.
Was it because killing him did not satisfy some condition of the execution? Or because of something else...?
At the back of the crowd, Kurobe Nayuka, who had been gritting her teeth and raising her spear, froze on the spot at what she saw, her face filled with disbelief.
But none of that commotion affected Chang Rong in the slightest. He simply kept shouting at the witch.
“If you are a liar, then have the resolve of a liar! Lie to everyone all the way to the very end! Wailing and screaming about nonsense like 【do not love me】—what kind of self-proclaimed trickster Houshou Margo does that make you? Or have you already been corroded by something and broken long ago??”
“I...”
That is right. Why am I screaming like this? It is not beautiful at all.
Why would I expose my own “taboo” like this? This is not something that can be spoken so lightly.
“Whatever it is that is affecting you, you just accepted it that casually? Becoming a witch? Do not joke around. I refuse to accept that!”
My, my... it seemed my curtain call had turned out so ugly that even little brother Chang could not bear to watch.
But he was right. Even if I became a witch, I was still myself. I was not some puppet that something else could easily control and manipulate.
Even if I could never understand what “love” truly was, I would still love (deceive) this world in my own way.
That was what it meant to be Houshou Margo.
And precisely because of that—
“Say, little brother Chang... I love you.”
Thud!
The sound of the crossbow bolt rang out once more. This time, what it pierced was no longer the wooden target, but the witch’s heart.
Seeing the look of shock on the boy’s face before her, Houshou Margo finally smiled once more.
Hehe. That stunned expression people made after being deceived really was something she could never grow tired of, no matter how many times she saw it.
Well then, as the final lie in a liar’s curtain call... were you satisfied?
......
...
“Oh my, oh my. I did not expect the witchification process to actually be interrupted. That is quite a rare situation. Still, the execution was carried out normally in the end, so at least I do not have to work overtime. Please refrain from doing something like this again in the future. Writing reports is troublesome. Now then, please leave the tribunal hall in an orderly manner.”
After confirming that everything was over, the Warden flapped off the execution platform through the ventilation shaft, while the huge target turned over with its base and sank back underground.
As though nothing had ever happened, only scattered crimson butterflies were left dancing through the center of the courtroom, bearing witness to the end of a certain girl.