Autopsy 1:
Dreamers
THE DAY OF THE PARTY hosted by Leitch, Maria was inside a room in the church in the Central District. After returning to the royal capital, she had settled down in the place where she had been born and raised. Maria, looking like a girl her age, tilted her head as she looked at herself in the mirror in her room.
“Perhaps this is too flashy after all…” Clad in a white dress, she murmured those words anxiously. Then Elune knocked at the door to her room and called her.
“Maria, we need to be leaving soon, otherwise we’ll be late.” When Elune warned her in a tone that sounded exactly like a mother…
“I know. Please just wait a little longer!” Maria replied like a daughter would. Elune, who was outside the room, chuckled fondly and nostalgically at this exchange. Then she opened the door to Maira’s room without permission.
“I knew it. You’re agonizing over that dress, aren’t you?”
“Elune, please don’t come in without asking!”
“If no one came and gave you a push, you would probably keep on hesitating forever.”
“But this dress, it’s… Mr. Leitch said that he would prefer that we come in our everyday attire, and I’m sure if that I try too hard, I’ll end up putting Linus off.”
“If you say ‘I wore this for you,’ he’ll be happy.”
“It’s not that simple, though.” The scars from the battle with the Children still remained in the royal capital and the people were working hard to rebuild. In addition, the effects of the rise of Tokyo had been significant, with some farming villages in the north having been literally wiped off the map, and several villages unable to sustain life due to the rivers drying up. The return of the heroes had eased the people’s discontent somewhat, but in a situation like this, throwing a flashy party could end up causing people to resent them. Leitch had specified that they should wear casual attire for that very reason, in light of those circumstances. However, Maria didn’t have many casual outfits to wear outside.
So Maria talked with Leitch, and he took her to the warehouse for the boutique that he owned and generously offered to let her take any clothes she liked home with her. Though Maria felt guilty and apologetic, Leitch had really wanted to make amends…so she took him up on his offer and brought home several articles of clothing. And one of those articles was the white dress that she was wearing now. The reason why she had it was because Sara, who had accompanied her to the warehouse, had said, “This one suits you best of all, Big Sis!”
Two days had passed since then. During that time, Linus seemed to be busy with guild work, so Maria hadn’t been able to see him. Meaning it had been a while…Though technically, while you could say it was a long time, it had only been two days since they last saw each other. Linus and Maria still hadn’t clearly become lovers yet, but the party was the perfect situation, which meant anything could happen. Should she go with the casual look to align with Leitch’s intentions, or should she cash in all her chips and go all out with a dress?
“Hmm, I think that these clothes might be better after all…”
“Oh, for goodness’s sake, you’re still agonizing over it… Look, a man would be happy no matter which one you pick. When it starts to look like we’re really going to be late, then I’m taking you there, even if I have to drag you. Understood, Maria?”
“Yes, I understand, Elune!”
Elune left the room with a wry grin on her face. Maria, now alone, took another outfit off the hanger and tried it on to see if it fit.
“I’m going to see the person I like for the first time in a while. I want him to think that I look cute…”
Maybe this one? Maybe that one? After repeated trial and error, Maria noticed something when she went to reach for the brooch on the table.
“It can’t be…” A black crystal that hadn’t been in the room before lay there. “An Origin core?”
Even though Origin was supposed to have been resealed, a spiral swirled within the crystal.
“How…? This shouldn’t be possible. I’m supposed to be away from Origin now…”
“I’m afraid it’s not that easy.”
“Who’s there?!”
Maria turned around and saw Werner, looking bored and fiddling with his bangs. There was no doubt that he hadn’t been there just moments ago.
“You’re Werner, lieutenant general of the Royal Army… Why are you here? How did you get in?!”
“Maria Afenjuns. How naïve. Your thinking is far too naïve.”
“Did you bring this core here?!”
“That’s right. I brought it. You might not know this, because you don’t get along with Echidna, but I’ve been working with her for quite some time now. I helped her out in exchange for her eventually giving me the power of Origin.”
“So even in Tokyo, when you were protecting Echidna…You’ve been acting under her orders?”
“No. Right now, I’m acting under orders directly from Lord Origin.”
Maria’s eyes went wide with fright.
“You understand what I’m getting at, don’t you? Lord Origin’s hand wasn’t limited to the church. There are several pieces on the board that he controlled directly, and one of them is you, Maria. The pope and the king thought they were using you like a puppet, but in reality, you served a different purpose.”
“That doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Because you fell in love with that feeble, effeminate man?”
Maria replied to Werner’s provocation with a resolute look on her face. “That’s right. I’ve decided to spend the rest of my life with that person. To be married, until death do we part!”
“The rest of your life? Until death do you part? Ah ha, ah ha, ah ha ha ha ha ha!”
“I’m serious!”
“That’s why I’m laughing. What a foolish woman you are!”
“Werner!” Maria seethed with anger. A sword of light appeared behind her. Werner brushed off her show of hostility with a jocular look and continued to play the fool.
“Don’t bother attacking. You won’t hit me. Besides, I can kill the people here anytime.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“I’ll teach you. I’ll show you, little rosy-eyed dreamer of a princess, what reality is.” He laughed smugly, proceeding to crush Maria’s dreams one by one. “You think you’ve gotten away from Lord Origin because you love Linus? Do you really think you could do something like that?”
Suddenly, she heard a familiar sound. Squelch. Squelch. Werner’s body, standing before her, seemed normal for now. Then what was the sound she heard coming from nearby?
“Look at your dress.”
Don’t look. Don’t look. Don’t look. Maria’s instincts were warning her. But that would just be trying to deny reality. No matter how much her eyes tried to reject it, she couldn’t escape from the sound of squelching, the raw sensation, and the smell of iron.
Maria slowly lowered her gaze. There, she saw her dress, wet and stained red with blood.
“Eeeek! Wh-why? How did it suddenly get all soiled?! N-nooo!”
She tried to wipe away the blood with her bare hands, but that only spread it even further, even staining her hands. Werner watched her with a smirk on his face.
“Origin was supposed to be sealed again. This was never supposed to happen again!”
“Lord Origin wasn’t sealed again.”
“What do you mean…?”
“This world already came to an end a long time ago.” Werner approached the staggering Maria and placed his hands on her shoulders. Then he spun her around and made her look at the full-length mirror. “Now see your true self.”
Before she knew it, even the red dress had disappeared. But what she saw was not her naked body. Reflected in the mirror were her exposed insides, with her skin peeled off and even her bones scraped clean.
“Ah…ahhh…aaaahhhh…”
Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Her heart beat wildly as it swirled. With every breath she took, her lungs contracted and swirled. Her stomach, which was supposed to be digesting the cake that she had been looking forward to, was swirling too. Her womb, which was supposed to carry Linus’s child in the near future, was swirling. Swirling, swirling, swirling.
Maria’s body was already…no longer that of a human.
“With a body like that, who in the world could possibly love you?” Although Werner only whispered those words, despair slowly spread through Maria’s heart.
“No… Noo… Linus and I, we…”
Origin’s messenger mocked her as she teared up.
“What, did you think you’d get married, have children, and be happy? That’s impossible. With a body like that, there’s no way you could give birth to a human child!”
Voices that Maria had grown tired of hearing spoke up too, mocking her, as if in agreement with Werner.
“You can’t do it.” “It’s impossible.” “Give up.” “Don’t misunderstand.” “Obey.” “Don’t dream.”
Maria covered her eyes and crouched down.
“Help me, Linus… Someone, help me…”
But no one came. Perhaps Werner had done something so that the sound wouldn’t exit the room, because not even Elune could hear Maria’s voice.
“After being exposed to Lord Origin’s will for years on end, you even used a core. There was no way you could return to being a normal human.”
Werner’s ill-natured, wicked words unfortunately weren’t just baseless lies meant to rattle her. She knew it. Somewhere in her heart, she had noticed. It was undeniable.
“Destiny converges. Once you are entwined and caught, the only one you can connect with is Lord Origin.”
Even so. Even so, Maria didn’t want to accept it. She wanted to fall in love with Linus normally, be joined with him, live her life like a normal girl… The life she had dreamed of for over ten years was finally within her grasp.
“Let’s connect.” “We want to join.” “Let’s become one.” “Share.” “We will be one.”
However, faced with the voices pouring in, all she could do was sob weakly. Furthermore, Maria’s abdomen gradually began to swell.
“H-hic… Eeeeek! N-no…!”
Eventually, it swelled to the size of a pregnant woman in her final month. And then…
“Maria.” “Saint.” “Maria.” “Maria.” “Maria.” Squelch.
Her abdomen burst. Blood flew everywhere, but strangely, it didn’t hurt. And from the wreckage crawled a child with a swirling face. Its umbilical cord was connected to Maria. It was truly Maria’s child.
“Mama.”
“No, this can’t… No, no, noooo!” The child used its small hands to crawl up Maria’s body, gradually drawing closer to her face. Then it touched Maria’s cheek with its blood-covered fingers.
“Mama.”
“Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”