Chapter 172
Chapter 172
If Canis Was Alive (3)
I thought about it. I wondered how I should tell her so that the shock would be less severe. With my usual personality, I would have simply told her the whole truth.
“Hmm.”
I looked at the Dream Bird, wondering if it might be of some help. The Dream Bird seemed to be seeing something like a young Canis for the first time, tilting its head repeatedly as it observed her.
“Ah.”
Then an interesting hypothesis occurred to me. I slowly approached Canis. On my way, I stroked the head of the Dream Bird that had come all the way here for me.
“Hey. Are you okay?”
“Yes? Ah. Yes. I’m okay. I can barely feel the pain either.”
That probably wasn’t something to call okay. I tidied up the face of the young Canis, who was covered in cold sweat.
“You’re kind.”
The young Canis spoke with a faint smile. It was a word I had never heard used about me in my life, so a chuckle escaped me.
If I was kind, then all the people out there would be saints and Saintesses.
“I don’t know. I don’t think that’s true.”
“What?”
“I came to force a cruel choice on you.”
The face of Canis, who had looked puzzled by my words, stiffened completely. It was far too cruel a choice for a mere six-year-old to make.
I gently stroked her hair.
“No matter which one you choose, living a normal life will be impossible.”
“……Either one?”
“Yeah. One is death, and the other is repeating the exact same life forever.”
It was something that even the brilliant Canis couldn’t understand immediately.
“Ask if there’s anything you’re curious about.”
I whispered to her. Canis’s lips twitched several times. I slowly waited for her answer.
“……Why do I have to choose something like that?”
“I don’t know. What can you do when fate is like that? Still, if I were to explain it in my own way, if you don’t make this choice now, death will be your only option.”
“I’m going to die? If I don’t choose?”
“Yeah.”
It wasn’t as though I was bad with words. I had enough skill to dress things up and offer comfort if I wanted to.
But I also knew that doing so wouldn’t mean much. At my merciless answer, Canis gritted her teeth.
An ominous aura was pouring out of the furious young Canis’s body. I realized that it was Anger.
“Are you angry?”
“……You! How can you even say…….”
Canis, who had been about to unleash her fury, quieted down again. Along with that, the black aura that had slowly been pouring out of her also disappeared.
“……That isn’t a choice.”
“I don’t know.”
As if she had resigned herself, the young Canis went limp.
“Are you afraid of death?”
“……Yes.”
“Even of a life that repeats forever?”
“……Yes.”
The young Canis was different from other children. She didn’t have the behavior typical of young children, crying and throwing tantrums.
That was probably thanks to how intelligent she was compared to others. I stroked her hair again. The young Canis now seemed accustomed to my touch.
“Mister, why are you telling me something like that?”
“Because killing you would leave a bad taste in my mouth.”
“……I see.”
I answered honestly. At my unvarnished answer, the young Canis nodded. Her expression was resolute.
“I. Want to live.”
“Even if it means a life that repeats forever?”
“Yes. I’m smart. I can escape from it. But if I die, I won’t even be able to do that.”
After hearing that much, I stood up. She asked me to do it, so I had no choice but to oblige. I called over the Dream Bird, which had been blankly watching the young Canis.
―Mwi?
“Take this one to the Palace of Dreams.”
―Mwimwi?
“I don’t know what you’re saying. Anyway, take her there and look after her properly.”
The Dream Bird tilted its head as if it didn’t understand my intentions. At my urging, the Dream Bird let out a small sigh and spread its wings.
The space around one of its wings began to ripple. The Dream Bird put Canis straight into that space.
“Huh? Uwaaaah!”
Canis disappeared with a bizarre scream.
―Mwimwi.
“Hmm. The space is starting to break apart.”
Once the young Canis, the medium, disappeared, this space also began gradually collapsing. The Dream Bird cried out in a voice full of worry.
“Go ahead. I’ll call you again later.”
―Mwi.
The Dream Bird looked at me with lingering reluctance, but turned away at my firm attitude. Once even the Dream Bird disappeared, the surroundings filled with silence.
‘I can’t even hear anything.’
I clicked my tongue as I watched the space fall apart like shattered tiles. There wasn’t a single sound. At a glance, it was an oddly empty sight.
“…….”
When the space completely collapsed, what was revealed was the inside of Anger’s body. One of the six memories had disappeared.
I glanced to the side. I could see the members of the Ulbushis Family around the Head of the Ulbushis Family. I headed toward them.
As always, sharp crystals tore at me, but I merely protected my face and continued forward without hesitation.
“Hah.”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family gave a hollow laugh as he watched me simply walk through the crystal storm.
“How is your body?”
“……Thanks to your concern.”
The wound where the debris of the building had pierced through him was completely healed. The Head of the Ulbushis Family looked at me and rose from his seat.
After raising a hand toward the family members making a fuss over him, the Head of the Ulbushis Family approached me.
“What happened inside?”
“I saw Canis’s memories.”
“……Canis’s memories?”
“To be exact, the dead Canis. In other words, Anger.”
“…….”
At my words, the Head of the Ulbushis Family let out a low groan. He looked troubled, but I decided to ask what I was curious about.
“Come to think of it, does this happen to you too when your power runs rampant, Head of the Ulbushis Family?”
“……Probably. I wouldn’t know since I’ve never died.”
“Technically, the current Canis isn’t dead either, is she?”
“She was merely given a vessel called a Homunculus. In practical terms, you should consider her to have remained in a state of rampage this entire time. But you certainly know quite a lot, don’t you?”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family’s eyes sharpened. I chuckled as I looked at him.
At my rude reaction, the family members’ eyes twitched. If not for the Head’s orders, they looked ready to have charged at me long ago.
“Was there any progress?”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family asked something else. He knew that fighting over something like that right now would accomplish nothing.
I shrugged.
“I met Canis when she was six years old.”
“……Six years old?”
“Yes. Assassins showed up. So I just killed them.”
“Canis?”
“No, the assassins.”
When he asked whether I had killed Canis, I answered with a small sigh. I could roughly tell what sort of image this man had of me.
“……And what happened after that?”
“The place I entered seemed to be a space where memories were stored. If things had followed the original history, Canis’s memory would have ended with her death. Even after I killed the assassins, there was no progress. It was as though the world had stopped, and I couldn’t even leave that place.”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family sank to the ground. The family members made a fuss as they tended to him.
I looked at the Head of the Ulbushis Family with dry eyes.
“For now, I plan to deal with the memories one by one.”
“…….”
“If there still isn’t any progress after that, I’ll destroy Anger’s core.”
“……Such a…….”
“Or would you like to do it yourself? I don’t mind.”
The Head of the Ulbushis Family, who had been about to say something, closed his mouth. I snorted at that reaction.
“How did you get here?”
“I’m not entirely sure myself. I was at the Academy. As for why I came here, a black staff with an eye suddenly rose up in front of me. When I grabbed it, I ended up here.”
How I had gotten here was something I was curious about as well. Just in case, I answered him straightforwardly.
Since he possessed extensive magical knowledge and had ties to Canis, I hoped he might give me an answer. Sure enough, the expression of the Head of the Ulbushis Family changed as though he knew about it.
“It was the ‘Cupido’ spell.”
“Cupido? Uh. Hmm.”
Cupido? It sounded like a name I had heard somewhere before. I frowned as I thought about it. I hadn’t heard it in the game, so I must have heard it somewhere here.
“It’s a spell Canis created. A spell that utilizes shadows.”
“Shadows?”
Hearing that it was shadow magic created by Canis made something click in my mind.
“Yes. You place a mark on the shadow of the target you want. When that target calls your name, the staff appears, and if you grab it, the spell transports you to where the target is.”
What a prickly little thing. So the reason it had popped out the instant I called Canis’s name was because of this spell.
“Is marking someone easy?”
“No. The other person has to know you well.”
“What does knowing you well mean?”
“I don’t know the exact criterion, but according to Canis, the target has to know more than half of the memories you possess.”
I clicked my tongue. Simply put, what I knew about Canis from the game had fulfilled the condition.
That was why Canis could come when I called her, but I couldn’t go when Canis called me. Clicking my tongue, I pointed at one of the family members.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes. Yes?”
“Please show me to a bathroom and a room.”
“Ah…….”
The family member I pointed to glanced at the Head of the Ulbushis Family. The Head slowly nodded.
“Th-this way.”
“Let’s talk after I wash up and eat something.”
“……Let’s do that.”
I heard an answer filled with displeasure. I had acted somewhat arbitrarily, but there was no helping it.
I was the only person who could resolve the current situation. There were people other than the Head who could enter, but getting through that crystal storm was another problem.
Furthermore, at least within this mansion, I was the only person who wouldn’t harbor emotions toward the Canis I would meet inside.
“This is the room.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
I entered the room I had been shown. The room was clean and pleasant. The blue that the Ulbushis Family favored was tastefully incorporated here and there.
The reason what should have been Canis’s personal quest had become a Main Quest. I had roughly figured it out when the Duhein Family’s Extermination Unit appeared, but I should make certain of it.
“If you need anything, please call at any time.”
First, I needed to wash up.
***
“Gasp!”
She felt as though her body were being sucked into a tiny hole. The young Canis hurriedly felt around her surroundings. She could feel the hard, cold marble floor.
The young Canis couldn’t understand the sudden situation. With hearing, smell, and touch alone, she couldn’t fully grasp what was happening.
―Mwimwi.
The young Canis, who had been feeling around her surroundings so desperately that it was pitiful, turned her head at the familiar yet unfamiliar sound coming from behind her.
That peculiar cry was unmistakably the sound of the beast the mister had summoned. The last thing she had felt had been feathers, so it was probably some kind of bird.
“Haa. Haa.”
Only then did the young Canis breathe out as her tension eased. Once she thought it was connected to the mister, she finally felt relieved.
At first, she had wondered whether this was death. Although she was only six years old, it was an experience unlike anything she had ever felt in her life.
“W-who are you?”
―Mwimwi.
The young Canis flinched in surprise when something lifted her up. Its touch was rough, but perhaps because the feathers themselves were fluffy, it was far more comfortable than when the mister had held her.
The Dream Bird gave a vague answer to the startled young Canis’s question.
“……A b-bed.”
The young Canis focused on the soft sensation behind her back and the warm sensation covering her body.
A bed and a blanket. They were far more comfortable than the ones in the Ulbushis mansion.
“Excuse me.”
―Mwi?
The young Canis called out to the Dream Bird without hesitation. Once she felt that it was taking care of her, her wariness quickly disappeared.
“Where is the mister?”
―Mwimwi.
She received an answer, but interpreting it was impossible. The young Canis was bewildered. Thinking about it, that was only natural.
―Mwi. Mwiimwi.
The Dream Bird moved away while making strange sounds.
The young Canis hurriedly tried to grab it, but when she realized that the Dream Bird had stopped somewhere nearby, she closed her mouth.
“Uh…… What’s this?”
The Dream Bird approached again and handed something to the young Canis. It was a glossy orb as large as the young Canis’s face.
The young Canis had no idea how she was supposed to react.
“Th-thank you.”
―Mwi~
All she could do was express her gratitude. The young Canis realized that she couldn’t get anything more from the Dream Bird.
Just then, the Dream Bird used its large wing to stroke the young Canis’s head.
“Uh……. Thank you.”
The young Canis left it at that. Once her tension eased, exhaustion washed over her like a tide. For some reason, even her dislocated shoulder didn’t hurt.
The young Canis slowly began to fall asleep. At the same time, the orb the young Canis was holding began to glow.