Passage 02
Translator: Blushy
Editor: SenjiQ
The stone prison was hot, and I don’t know how many times I almost dried up and died during the summer.
I had fainted from exhaustion, rather than slept, while drenched with warm water and I jumped to my feet, wondering what was going on even though it had been silent lately.
“… Huh!?”
The moment I jumped up, something slammed into me from above and I fell back down to the floor.
“――― Hey, morning sleepyhead. Hey, it’s been a while since you’ve seen the lady. Get up.”
The woman who mercilessly kicked me is an evil woman.
She wore really revealing clothes like a prostitute, had short hair, dark skin and white tattoos on her arms instead of sleeves.
“De-iferais… Wilhelmina.”
Behind her was a girl in white robes who I hadn’t seen in a while.
She’s back? It was at least peaceful for the past few days when this girl wasn’t here.
Wilhelmina smiled when she met my eyes. Her smile looked innocent, just like a real nun’s, but it made me feel sick since her smile concealed something sinister.
Unlike me, the women seemed to be in a very good mood.
“Kamille. How are you?”
“…”
“Are you going to keep silent like you always do? Well, whatever. You should be happy. I’m going to send you on a little errand.”
An errand? ――― Am I killing someone again?
Assassination. That’s the only thing I’m good for. I’m barely kept alive so that I can dispose of people like these women tell me to.
That’s how I’ve been living for the past few years.
Stained in blood, stained in blood, stained in blood. ――― I know that I shouldn’t stand out or leave any traces behind, since I was assassinating people, but I couldn’t stop myself from doing so. I continued to kill people over and over again in a way that didn’t fit their precise instructions.
To see that red. ――― I really wanted to see it. I really wanted to see that hazy memory that flickered through my mind.
“Kamille, do you know a girl named Eliza Kaldia?”
…?
Who’s that?
I frowned slightly at Deiferais’s question. There’s no way I would know her. I don’t even know who I am.
I’m not sure if Wilhelmina understood what I was thinking, but she laughed in amusement as her white veil shook.
“Yeah. It’s fine if you don’t know who she is. It’s okay. But it’s important for your errant. ――― The good thing? You’ll be going out to kill Eliza Kaldia.”
Wilhelmina’s voice sounded so cheery that it was rather cold. It sounded as if she was singing instead of talking.
“Afterwards, yes. I’ll set you free. But you can’t run away. There’s no point in running away. You know what will happen to you ――― if we catch you and bring you back, right?”
I let out a muffled scream as my first memory burst forward.
Feelings of fear never showed on my face even when she kicked or beat me, but that memory brought them out, and I became like a toy to entertain that girl at once.
“Yes. I’m going to cut you up, burn you, whip you, stab you, drown you and play with you until you’re a mangled mess like a bug, and then Guarire will fix you up.”
“――― St-op.”
I felt dizzy. I felt a burning sensation inside my skull, raging around inside my head.
“How small can people get before they die? Let’s start with your fingertips and toes… and see how much weight I can put on them before they’re crushed.”
“Uo… oh… a… no…”
Wilhelmina’s delightful voice made me recall all the torture I had to endure here, and I vomited up some water and gastric juices.
My body trembled with fear. Even my brain seemed to be shrinking.
“Oh, how dirty. You don’t have to be so frightened. All you have to do is not run away… And besides, Kamille. There’s nowhere else for you to go anyway. There’s no place for a disgusting vampire who likes to bathe in the blood of others.”
I couldn’t even think about disobeying her.
◊♦◊♦◊♦◊
――― I think the wind is blowing. Is that the only place that’s storming?
But in the blink of an eye, it turned into a gust of red.
Screams and shrieks. Sounds of swords clanging together and people and horses falling to the ground. In the midst of all this, a young person’s voice echoed.
I was ordered to kill a person named Eliza Kaldia and thrown into the vast plains. I blended into the ranks of the soldiers on the side called Rindarl with the hood of my robes completely pulled over my head.
In front of them…
“Ah… Hah…”
I stood there like an idiot the moment I saw her even though this is the battlefield. My weapon slipped out of my hand, but I didn’t think to pick it up.
The girl, drenched in red, passed right in front of me in the crowd. As the soldiers around me tried to move back to escape from her hands, I was pushed in the opposite direction as I reached for her.
“――― Move! Get out of the way!!!”
I reached for her back as she moved further away from me even as I was being crushed by the soldiers. Before I knew it, I was yelling at the people around me.
Her black hair, sticky and wet with blood, was getting further and further away.
――― Ah, her precious hair is dirty.
Something flashed through my mind and the fingertips of my outstretched hand trembled… I’m sure I wanted those eyes, which looked like bloody jewels, to turn back at me.
But I didn’t have any words to yell out.
“Uo, uo, ah.”
Something came out from my throat. My head hurt so much it felt like it was going to crack. The soldier in front of me fell after being pushed, and he nearly dragged me along with him.
But still, my hands were still reaching out for the blood-soaked girl as if I was clinging to her. It was like ――― it was like that winter day a few years ago when I couldn’t move. That memory surfaced in my mind. The scene that I could never forget; the red colour that peeked out from between her black thread-like hair.
What was it? What was it? What was it?
I don’t even know what I want to remember, but empty thoughts spun around in my head.
I can’t remember. I don’t know. A few years ago ――― yes, I saw those eyes when I was taken out of the house once. Even though it was a vague and blurry memory now.
I wonder if that girl holds the clue to who I am.
Does that girl know about my past?
But I know that red. That’s all that remained in my mind.
――― I have to find out no matter what. I have to find out no matter what it takes. I don’t care what happens to me until I catch her and find out.
I’ll do anything in order to remember that promise.