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Before she knew it, Lykos found herself somewhere unfamiliar. Everything was dark, so she understood it was night, but there weren’t any clouds, stars, or even the moon in the sky—just darkness on all sides. There was a path under her feet that stretched out in front and behind her, and on each side was tall grass that towered like a wall blocking the way.
“Mmmh?”
“’Tis a strange, surprising sight, isn’t it?”
Hearing the unfamiliar voice, Lykos immediately jumped back and prepared herself for a fight.
“You do not need to be so cautious. I won’t eat you.” A girl wearing a Gothic Lolita dress appeared before Lykos, her lips curved into a half smile. Despite looking barely older than Lykos, her voice had depth to it, and she gave the impression of someone much older. “This is the entrance to the realm of the dead. I brought you here because I wished to speak with you.”
“Mmmh!”
“Ah, yes, I should introduce myself. My name is Ageha. Most people call me the Immortal Butterfly, but I have never named myself thus. I make my living as an assassin,” she said, her tone friendly. Not an ounce of hostility could be felt from her. She was very gentle and soothing, as though talking with the child of a relative. “And these are a kind of monster called jigokuchou—or in the uncouth tongue of this country, hell butterflies. They serve as guides for a person’s journey to the other side. They are my friends, my servants, my siblings, and my parents,” she explained as a black butterfly with a red pattern alighted on the tip of her finger. The butterflies fluttered around in the darkness in an uncanny manner that tended to unsettle people. “Well then, let us get to the main topic. The reason I want to talk to you is related to your birth.”
“Mmmh?”
“You were raised by monsters, no? Just as I was.” The Immortal Butterfly smiled and spread out her arms. Countless black butterflies flew in all directions before slowly circling around her. “Rarely, a monster will decide to raise a human, giving that human their milk and blood. No... Actually, it is misleading to call them ‘human’ at all.”
Lykos listened silently.
“From the moment they are born, such individuals drink monster milk and eat what monsters eat—which in most cases means the meat of other monsters. Can we really call children raised that way humans? Nay, we cannot,” the Immortal Butterfly said, sounding very much like a certain mad scientist.
People’s bodies were made of countless individual bits called cells. They constantly split and died, eternally renewing themselves. And for young children with a good metabolism, it happened all the faster. In that case, just how “human” was a child nurtured with monster milk and meat? Wouldn’t the child’s cells be entirely replaced with those of monsters?
“While we look like humans, our bodies are different. We are monsters in human form. I call us lycanthropes.”
They weren’t like Caim, who had obtained overwhelming power while staying human and had called himself a daemon. Nor were they like Tea, who was a beastfolk mixing human and animal features. They weren’t monsterlike humans, but humanlike monsters—lycanthropes.
“Just like you, I was raised by monsters—by the jigokuchou.” The Immortal Butterfly smiled fondly at the butterflies flitting around her. “As I was starving and simply awaiting death after my parents abandoned me in a forest, the queen of the jigokuchou swept me up and brought me here, to their nest at the entrance to the underworld. That was more than five hundred years ago.”
Lykos kept quiet.
“I do not understand why they did so—usually they devour people. It is the same for you, is it not?”
“...Mmmh,” Lykos answered with a brief whine. While her grasp of language was still far from perfect, Lykos still understood what the strange woman before her was trying to say. Perhaps there was a sort of sympathetic link that surpassed language and species between the two of them, who had both been raised by monsters.
“I came to you because I wished to welcome you as one of my brethren.”
Still, Lykos did not reply.
“Somewhere far away, where humans cannot reach, is a hidden village for lycanthropes. Would you come live there with me?” The Immortal Butterfly held her hand out with an honest, kind smile. “Human society is suffocating, no? Come with me, child.”
Lykos looked at the hand before her, then before long, she extended her own and...
“Mmmh!” She slapped the Immortal Butterfly’s hand away, causing the assassin to blink in surprise.
“Hmm... Is my proposal unsatisfying?”
“You’re not. My pack!” Lykos snarled. If Caim and his companions had been present, they would have been very shocked—after all, Lykos, who usually only whined or barked, had just spoken words, though her speech was a little broken. “They are! Not you!”
“I see... So that is how you think.” A troubled smile crossed the Immortal Butterfly’s face as she looked at Lykos like an unreasonable child. “You like your companions and want to stay with them.”
“Mmmh!”
“I see. Yes, indeed... I was once the same. However, this way will be as painful as going into the abyss,” the Immortal Butterfly admonished her. Her tone wasn’t one of denial, but understanding. It was clear that she empathized with Lykos’s claim. “We can live with people. However...we cannot die with them,” she said, her voice heavy with emotion. Sorrow, anger, despair, and many other feelings were intertwined in a complex knot, each one asserting their presence clearly. “While we resemble humans, we are truly monsters. We have different lifespans. The ones you call your pack will age and die long before you. Unless you commit suicide, you will not be able to die together.”
Lykos fell silent again, listening.
“I have seen many of my friends off to the realm of the dead, but I could not go past the entrance...”
“Mmmh!” Lykos then mercilessly punched at the Immortal Butterfly’s shapely face with the speed of a beast.
“Hmm?” The Gothic Lolita girl easily dodged, though, as if she were dancing.
“You. Are annoying.”
“Well, I am old. I apologize for nagging you,” the Immortal Butterfly replied, her voice still kind even after Lykos had tried to hit her. She was full of love, as though facing a child throwing a tantrum.
“Shut. Up. I’m. Fine.”
“You mean to say that you are fine with how things currently are? As expected, the young truly cannot understand the wisdom of the old,” the Immortal Butterfly muttered with a sigh, then raised her right hand. “Still, I cannot allow a young child like you to act so willfully. After all, it would be negligent of me to do nothing when I know that you are heading down a hellish path. Even if you will hate me for this, I must bring you with me.” Countless butterflies swarmed around the assassin’s arm, forming a small tornado. The impossible sight of a storm created by the fluttering of butterfly wings was equally beautiful and bizarre. “If you wish to have it your way, child, then you will need to defeat this old woman. Jigokuchou no Mai.”
The butterflies flapped their wings even more vigorously, creating sharp blades of wind that mowed down the tall grass around them.