Chapter 169
Chapter 169
Simulacrum (3)
The Head of the Ulbushis Family took Canis down into the basement. It was a place even Canis herself had never been allowed to enter.
“I~ finally get to see this place~”
“There were many attempts, and many failures.”
“Though no one ever managed to break through~”
Canis deliberately put on a cheerful air as she sharply surveyed her surroundings. Her eyes had turned cold.
She tried to keep track of how long they had been descending, but her sense of time refused to work properly. It felt like five minutes, yet it also felt like an hour.
Tense from that bizarre sensation, Canis finally sighed when a cavern appeared before them.
“It’s a wolf.”
“Indeed. The symbol of our family.”
The interior was dimly illuminated by magic lamps. At its center stood a wolf statue made of crystal.
It was more beautiful and far denser than any crystal she had ever seen. Canis was amazed that such crystal even existed in this world.
“Why did you bring me here?”
“My child. I have a rough idea of what you wish to ask. And it cannot be explained anywhere but here.”
This was no ordinary place. Canis questioned the intentions of the Head of the Ulbushis Family who had brought her here.
At his words, Canis closed her mouth. What she wanted to ask was an extremely well-hidden secret, something no one other than Davide had noticed.
“Ask. I shall answer.”
“I want to know exactly what Anger is.”
Anger was a monster of emotion. A monster born by cleanly severing human emotion, giving it form, and creating consciousness within it.
But Canis had instinctively realized that something was hidden within Anger. Giving physical form to something abstract was difficult, but it was possible.
The world of dreams was proof of that.
“As far as I know~ gaining an ego is extremely difficult. Especially granting an ego to something inanimate or abstract. No, it’s impossible.”
“…….”
At Canis’s words, the Head of the Ulbushis Family merely lowered his gaze. Seeing that his lips refused to open easily, Canis bit her lip.
“For some reason, I feel comfortable around Anger. I don’t know why, but it also feels like myself. Maybe this is what it feels like to look at your twin.”
That was precisely why Canis wanted to free herself from Anger. Despite having neither reason nor basis for it, Canis loved Anger and felt as though it were her own flesh and blood.
That strange emotion frightened her, making her want to escape from it. That desire had led her to question Anger’s very existence.
“I need to know. I’m a magician. Father made me that way. And I’m going to free myself from Anger.”
“I know that well.”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family quietly closed his eyes. A magician was someone capable of sacrificing anything for what they pursued.
Canis would sacrifice even her life for the sake of satisfying her curiosity.
“Traditionally, the heir of the Ulbushis Family inherits the family before marriage. It is an ancient tradition. I inherited the family in the same manner. The current Head passes the secrets of Ulbushis down to the next Head.”
As the Head of the Ulbushis Family spoke, he slowly approached the wolf statue.
Canis stared intently at her father and listened. Her determination not to miss a single thing was evident.
“The magic that created Anger. ‘Emotion Build’. It is not merely Ancient Magic that tears away emotions and turns them into monsters.”
“……Then?”
“That Ancient Magic is a type of curse. A curse borne by the ancestors of our family.”
At the word curse, Canis’s demeanor grew even colder. Curses were exceedingly dangerous regardless of time or place.
Even the weakest curse could kill someone with ridiculous ease, and it was terrifying magic that could even put the caster’s everyday life at stake.
“It is a curse our ancestors passed down through the generations. When someone of the Ulbushis Family experiences overwhelming emotion, they become a monster like Anger.”
“A monster?”
“Yes. They lose their true selves and become monsters that do nothing but destroy everything around them. That ultimately means death.”
Canis’s fingertips began trembling. The Head of the Ulbushis Family observed his daughter’s condition.
“To prevent that, we created a magic called Emotion Build, separating those emotions from ourselves so we would not run rampant even when our emotions became overwhelming.”
“Then…….”
“Yes. Anger is a creature that parasitizes emotion, and it was not created by Emotion Build. It originally existed within our bloodline.”
Only then did Canis understand what Davide had meant. What Davide meant by treatment. It wasn't simply a matter of separating Anger from her, but killing Anger.
“Therefore, Anger and you are inseparable. It would not be wrong to call it your Companion.”
“……No. No.”
Canis denied the words that followed from the Head of the Ulbushis Family. Anger could not be explained by something so simple.
“A disease. It’s a disease.”
“……A disease?”
Hearing Canis muttering, the Head of the Ulbushis Family frowned. Canis rambled incoherently, visibly uneasy.
“My child. Calm yourself. I understand that this is shocking, but…….”
“No. No, Father.”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family gently wrapped an arm around his daughter’s shoulders, only to feel Canis’s icy gaze upon him.
Her stare had become so keenly sharpened that it set his senses on edge, startling him.
“You’re hiding something else.”
“…….”
“Father, Father. You said we die if we run rampant?”
Canis’s mind was filled with questions. Explosive emotions caused one to run rampant. At first glance, it sounded plausible, but something about it was suspicious.
“But Father didn’t react at all when Mother died?”
“…….”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family was famously devoted to his wife. He had loved his wife as much as he loved Canis, perhaps even more.
That was not merely something assumed because they were husband and wife. There was clear evidence and ample circumstances to prove it.
A photograph of his wife stood in one corner of the Head of the Ulbushis Family’s room, and the anniversary of her death had become an occasion observed throughout Ulbushis Territory.
“Father?”
Canis recalled when her mother had died. A pitiful woman who had suffered from a chronic illness before finally passing away. A woman who had loved not only Canis, but her father as well.
Back then, the Head of the Ulbushis Family had cried until he lost consciousness, but there had been nothing that could be called going on a rampage.
“When Mother died. All Father did was cry. That wasn’t going on a rampage. That was ‘Sorrow’.”
“…….”
Canis glared fiercely at the Head of the Ulbushis Family, who frustratingly kept his mouth shut. She had trusted him. He was the only person in the world she had trusted.
Yet that very person was lying to her.
“Father’s ‘Sorrow’ is different from Anger. Right? Anger has a physical form. I can touch it. But Father’s ‘Sorrow’ doesn’t.”
Canis recalled the Emotion Build her father used. Unlike Anger, it only possessed a ghostlike form and could not even be touched.
“Only mine. Only mine is different.”
“My child. Calm down.”
Canis’s brilliant mind detected the inconsistency. And it automatically began moving at incredible speed to find the answer.
Canis’s trembling body suddenly stopped as though it had frozen solid.
“Ah. Aah.”
Canis collapsed to the floor, startling the Head of the Ulbushis Family. He hurriedly rushed forward and caught her as she fell.
Canis’s eyes were unfocused, her expression vacant.
“My child! My child! Come to your senses! I! I shall explain everything! My child!”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family desperately called out to Canis. She struggled to cling to her steadily fading consciousness.
Even without receiving an answer, her brilliant mind had quickly found the answer on its own. And the truth came crashing down upon her with crushing weight.
“It wasn’t…… because I ran rampant that I died.”
“My child!”
“I ran rampant because I died. Canis was already dead. I wasn’t Canis.”
At Canis’s murmuring, the Head of the Ulbushis Family squeezed his eyes shut.
Anger possessed a complete physical form. This was the defining characteristic of what happened when someone from the Ulbushis Family died and ran rampant.
“Six years old. That was when it happened.”
Canis felt her consciousness gradually sinking. Why had she never realized it? Why had she thought Anger, who was so clearly different from her, was the same as her?
Why could she see no scenery whatsoever in her memories from before the age of six? Why could she only remember voices and sensations of touch?
‘Da……vide.’
As her consciousness gradually scattered, Canis called Davide’s name.
What was happening to her right now? Would he know?
***
“…….”
The staff I had grabbed in the chapel. It had swallowed me. Then it spat me back out. After rolling around pathetically for a moment, I sprang to my feet.
I had worked myself up, determined to snap that damn staff in half, but it didn't seem like this was the time for that.
I felt an enormous presence behind me. It was almost as immense as Anash. I slowly turned my head.
“Huh. In the end.”
It ran rampant.
A black creature towered high into the sky after bursting through the Ulbushis mansion. Anger, having run rampant, was frozen in place with its maw gaping toward the heavens.
I shifted my gaze and surveyed my surroundings. Someone I was seeing for the first time in this world, yet who did not feel unfamiliar, entered my sight.
“Greetings.”
“You are…… Davide…… Duhein.”
I saw the Head of the Ulbushis Family impaled on the wreckage of the building. He had one hand extended in front of him, where ‘Sorrow’ lingered.
“So that’s the ‘Sorrow’ I’ve only heard about. It certainly does feel somewhat different from Anger.”
“…….”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family panted, unable to answer. Instead, he merely stared sharply at me.
Anger was probably doing nothing but staring at the sky like that because of the Head of the Ulbushis Family’s ‘Sorrow’.
“You should’ve explained it better. You made her run rampant for nothing.”
“……Do not speak so carelessly. That child was simply too brilliant, and found the answer on her own.”
I clicked my tongue at the Head of the Ulbushis Family’s words. It wasn't as though I couldn't understand.
Canis had originally been born without sight. She could remember voices, but there had only ever been darkness.
The problem was that when she was six years old, someone who held a grudge against the Ulbushis Family sent an assassin, and Canis died.
“……Dam. ned. Du. hein.”
That was why the Head of the Ulbushis Family asked Duhein for help. The answer was a homunculus.
But in Canis’s case, she was called a ‘Simulacrum’. A replica without an original. She had been created as a replica, but when the original disappeared, the replica became the original.
“What a cruel fate.”
“A ho. munculus dares!”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family glared at me. I let out a hollow laugh. Back then, Duhein had been creating homunculi.
If you really broke it down, they could be considered Chimeras. The Head of the Ulbushis Family realized that and asked Duhein for help.
Thus, Duhein and the Head of the Ulbushis Family succeeded in creating a homunculus together. In return, Duhein created Canis’s body for him.
“Stop. Right there! Kyaaagh!”
I slowly approached where Anger stood. The Head of the Ulbushis Family screamed at me desperately.
“Mister. Just stay still. I need to go save your daughter.”
“……What?”
“It’d be great if I can save her. But even if I can’t, you can’t let your daughter die by her father’s hand.”
The original Canis, who had died, became Anger. Anger’s memories were transplanted into the newly created Canis.
And so, the two became beings who shared a single set of memories. That was Canis’s story.
I slowly headed toward Anger’s body. Nothing stood in my way. My entire body was already covered in blood.
‘If there’s a chance.’
Might as well try to save her. I even gave her the hint about treatment, yet she still ended up running rampant like this. What a troublesome girl.