CH 15

Wisteria proceeded down the dark path, step by step. What lay ahead was a completely different world.

The unpleasant clicking sound was probably the sound of her own teeth chattering.

It took a lot of effort just to take a step forward, even though all her senses should have been numb. She felt heavy. It was as if she was being strongly pulled backward.

The underworld. Purgatory. The land where demons dwelled. This place, which was subjected to all kinds of ominous expressions, was called the <Grey Lands>.

Wisteria walked without an escort, her whole body trembling. She was dressed in familiar, comfortable riding clothes. And yet, her exhales were like those of a feeble old person.

(…This is fine.)

She told herself that in her heart.

Now she could repay her adoptive parents, to whom she owed so much. She would be able to save their precious Rosalie, her sister, whom she also loved very much.

She told herself those things over and over again, dragging herself forward.

It no longer mattered what they said to her in her former world after she was gone.

Wisteria’s throat quivered and her vision distorted. She didn’t know it was in regards to, or if it was in regards to everything.

She clung to the weight held by both of her hands.

It was this weight that kept her from turning around and running back.

“How pitiful you are, woman.”

Wisteria’s body shook as a voice suddenly rang out.

It was a clear man’s voice. It sounded both sarcastic and compassionate. It sounded like the voice of an old man or an arrogant young man. She instinctually looked around, but there was no one there but her.

Slowly, she looked down at the sword in her arms. The voice came from there.

The sword with a will of its own spoke in a voice with more emotion than any human.

“How pitiful, foolish–and lonely.”

So, the sword in her arms continued, even sighing.

“At least, travel with me. Until I find my true master.”

Wisteria let out a shaky breath. She should have thanked her unexpected companion, but she didn’t say it aloud.

They continued on, through the darkness. There, the days she spent with her kind adoptive parents and her sister, the slightly strange and fulfilling time she spent at the laboratory–and the young man she hoped would become her companion came back to her over and over again.

“Ah, it seems that a moon goddess has descended upon me.”

Even the memory of that glittering night where she was about to fly into raptures.

Eventually, they rose up like little bubbles and disappeared into the darkness.

(At least, may I be able to pass away peacefully.)

And so Wisteria took another step closer to the land of death.