Number eleven was grinding its teeth beside Tgurneu. When would Adlet reveal the Braves’ plan? How many minutes had they wasted on this? Number eleven didn’t have absolute confidence in its ability. Ultimately, it was just a supplementary skill, and there were any number of ways the Braves could break through. They might well go through with their plan and find Tgurneu, or Chamo could end up discovering this place. There was still some cause for anxiety.
But if they got that information from Adlet promptly and left, the chances that Tgurneu would be discovered would vanish entirely.
Number eleven recalled the final request of the three-winged fiend. If Tgurneu ever lost its calm powers of judgment, number eleven would have to speak frankly to the commander.
There was nothing Tgurneu hated more than foolish opinions, and nothing frightened number eleven more than its wrath. But it screwed up its courage and spoke to Tgurneu in code. “<Cómmander Tgurneu…I bélieve this is enough entertainmënt. Let us extract the ínformation from Adlet and go. It would be bëst to leave the élimination of the Braves of the Six Flowers to number thïrteen.>”
Tgurneu looked number eleven in the face. In code, it ordered quietly, “<After the Braves have been killed, kill yourself. Your ability is useful, but your existence is a pestilence.>”
Number eleven couldn’t even reply. It didn’t understand what was mistaken about its honest advice. But Tgurneu’s orders were absolute.
“<You will not be permitted to resurrect. Make sure to destroy your core. Understand how deeply you have angered me.>”
Number eleven wondered if it had erred in its choice of who to serve. No , it told itself. Tgurneu had, in fact, driven the Braves to the wall. So it should kill itself as ordered.
✦ ✦ ✦
Tgurneu instantly forgot its conversation with number eleven. Its mind was filled with only one thing: to keep watching Adlet’s face. Nothing else.
Tgurneu was struck with wonder at Adlet’s perseverance. He was struggling against the love Tgurneu had implanted in him, unable to make the decision to destroy the world. But one more push, and his heart would break. Tgurneu was waiting for that moment. He would sacrifice the whole world on the altar of his love, and now was the only moment Tgurneu could ever bear witness to such a decision.
✦ ✦ ✦
Rolonia quietly ran her hand across Fremy’s exposed chest, then poked her with a needle and licked the blood that oozed out. Evaluating its taste, she studied the red mark afflicting her comrade.
Meanwhile, Fremy was thinking back on the past, wondering when Tgurneu had given her this red mark. She quickly realized, though, that wondering about it was pointless. If Tgurneu had wished to, it would have had any number of chances to do it.
“Did you figure anything out?” Fremy asked.
“…No more than what I discovered before. It’s not a hieroform but a fiend’s power. And I think…it’s not like a parasite. If I have to say, it’s more like a disease…but I can’t pin down where its focus is.” Scowling, Rolonia continued the examination.
Fremy searched her memory. Couldn’t she remember anything? Didn’t she know anything that could be of help to Rolonia? She recalled the family she’d spent so long with: her mother, White Lizard, Red Ant, Piercing Bird. Had they known about this red mark ailment? Of course they had. And they would obviously have been secretly snickering at her ignorance.
Had they never let slip any sort of information? Fremy recalled the days she’d spent with them.
Rolonia put her hand over Fremy’s heart, near the center of her chest. The sensation summoned memories from the depths of her soul.
When Fremy had been small, her mother’s hand always stroked her chest with the soft part of her antenna—the area over her heart. Peevish young Fremy had been averse to it, but her mother had always ignored her reaction and persisted with her caresses. Fremy had eventually come to accept the treatment.
“…My heart,” Fremy said. “Rolonia, examine my heart carefully.”
Rolonia nodded. Cautiously, she inserted her needle near Fremy’s heart. She licked the blood from the needle before stabbing again, then licked and stabbed over and over. Fremy stopped breathing, waiting for Rolonia to finish examining her.
“Oh…,” Rolonia said. “It’s there. There’s something like a tumor in your heart. It’s small, so you’d probably never even notice it normally, and it would be harmless to you. But a tentacle’s coming out of it that’s hurting your heart and lungs. And…it’s also excreting a poison to destroy your core.”
“So if you remove that…”
“Then you’d be all right. I can’t find anything else unusual in your body. So if we can just remove this tumor, you won’t need to worry about a thing.”
Fremy asked the important question: “Can you take it out right here, right now?”
Rolonia fell silent.
Fremy said, “No, that was a stupid thing to ask. Just try it.”
Rolonia nodded and focused her will, and her hand on Fremy’s chest glowed. Instantly, blood began gushing from Fremy’s mouth.
“A-ah! Ahhh!” Rolonia panicked and frantically held a hand over Fremy’s mouth as she lay on the ground, using a different technique on her chest.
Spewing blood, Fremy stood up. This won’t work after all , she thought. She had to figure out some other method. She had to find something, or they couldn’t save Adlet.
✦ ✦ ✦
Adlet wasn’t even sure when he had fallen to his knees before Tgurneu.
He couldn’t overcome his desire to make Fremy happy. He couldn’t hate her. A moment’s lapse of concentration, and the words would spill from his lips. A fire. The leopard-fiend. The plan.
“I’m…the…strongest man in the world,” Adlet said. This mantra was the last thing he could rely on. The strongest man in the world would not lose. The strongest man in the world could withstand any trial.
No matter how painful it would be to lose Fremy, the strongest man in the world was sure to endure it. He would be able to destroy the fake love that had been implanted within him.
Believe it. I’m the strongest man in the world. I’m not Tgurneu’s puppet. I’m not Tgurneu’s toy.
✦ ✦ ✦
Fremy coughed. She felt like she would pass out from the pain and feeling of suffocation, but she fought it back and asked Rolonia to use her skills one more time.
Then Nashetania burst into the ruined building. “…Let’s go. The fiends have discovered us.” Fremy ran out of the ruin with Rolonia supporting her. Nashetania seemed to infer the results from their expressions.
As they shook off the sparse few fiends that pursued them, Nashetania suggested, “It may be best to consider running away. Quite some time has passed since Adlet was first captured. While I don’t want to think about it, it’s been long enough for Tgurneu to have tortured him and gotten him to spill everything. Our plan has most likely already been discovered.”
As Fremy spat out the blood that had pooled in her mouth, she replied, “No, it hasn’t.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Tgurneu will have figured out that we’re cooking up something, but it doesn’t know what yet.”
“Why not?”
“If Tgurneu knew what we’d concocted, it would take advantage of that to come up with a scheme to kill us. It would actually be more convenient for Tgurneu if we pulled the trigger. But Tgurneu is trying to slow us down. It’s afraid we’ll do it.”
Nashetania nodded.
“This may be hopeful speculation, but we should still have an opportunity to kill Tgurneu.”
“I think Addy’s fighting to keep its a secret,” said Rolonia.
“But we can’t figure out the most important thing, which is how to cure you, Fremy,” said Nashetania. “Worst-case scenario, we’ll be forced to make a decision. You and Adlet might not survive.”
Rolonia was shaken, but from Nashetania’s perspective, this conclusion was obvious.
“It would be a troubling decision for us, too. But if Tgurneu kills us, we’ll lose everything.”
Rolonia seemed like she wanted to argue, but Fremy restrained her with a hand. “Rolonia, if you remove the tumor in my heart, the problem goes away, right?”
“Yes, I’m certain of that much. But…I can’t do it. I think it’s eating into your heart. If I take it out, your heart will stop. No matter how strong you are…it’s no use. You’d never survive that way. Well, if Torleau were here, then maybe…” Rolonia held her head, moaning.
Then an idea hit Fremy. “Nashetania, stick with us just a bit longer. If this fails, then I’ll give up.”
“…All right.”
“This is going to be a gamble.”