Chapter 3

“Impressions…? It’s revolting.” “A fitting appraisal, truly. What’s more, it lacks the requisite vocabulary and wit to entertain its master. What a boring creature.” The girl shrugged. The dying beast was a horrifying patchwork of human corpses. It was a bizarre creature, its skin a collage of human faces with their cheeks and scalps melted together and stretched to the absolute limit. Each face joined its voice in a chorus of agony. A row of human arms along its back served as a mane, and a large number of breasts hung from its fat belly. The girl laughed at the blasphemous abomination, her voice full of scorn. “The time has come, Kaito. The Knight has issued a declaration of war. Or would it be more fitting to consider this mere harassment?” She seemed quite pleased. Watching her lick her garnet lips, Kaito thought she looked less like a panther or a wolf and more like a ferocious, hungry lion. Suppressing his urge to vomit, he looked away from the beast’s corpse and gave his announcement through a sigh. “Not that I really care, but food’ll be ready in an hour. Save your fighting or torturing or whatever for later.” This was the absurd arrangement Kaito Sena had been forced into after he was killed. “As you have yet to reply, I shall say it another way. Devote yourself to me.” “Hard pass.” When he registered the blunt demand of the girl who called herself Elisabeth, Kaito immediately refused. Naturally, he was confused at being ordered to do some strange girl’s bidding immediately after he’d been killed. But he was sure of his answer after seeing that disturbing pile of corpses. Then there were the bloodthirsty chants that had been directed at her, plus Elisabeth’s sadistic smile, but most of all, it was that she addressed herself as the “Torture Princess.” He was afraid he’d made her angry, but for some reason, she nodded as if impressed. “A prompt decision, I see. Did you perchance stumble across a stray memory or two of mine when you were summoned? Even so, I did not expect such a swift reply.” “Okay, forget the whole ‘serving you’ thing for a sec. When you say ‘summoned’… Hey wait, where are we? What am I doing here? Didn’t I…die?” “Yes, without a doubt! You are well and truly dead. Your murder was as meaningless as a worm getting stepped on—a death most pitiful, unseemly, cruel, and gruesome! Yet, I summoned your soul here into a puppet body and granted you new life. A rare blessing, is it not? Go on, then: Rejoice to your heart’s content.” “…A puppet?” As he listened to Elisabeth’s bizarre explanation, Kaito patted himself all over. For a puppet, his skin felt surprisingly human. He didn’t have a mirror, so he couldn’t inspect his face, but noting the lack of discrepancies in his field of view, he suspected that his height was more or less the same as it had always been. He plucked out one of his hairs, which he normally kept tied behind his head, but it was the same old pale brown. As Kaito inspected his body with a dubious expression, Elisabeth spoke again, exasperated. “Now listen here, you. The body housing your soul is a golem of my own creation. It isn’t one of those lumps of dirt that will die simply from having part of the word on its forehead erased. It is a superlative piece of work, for I am both a master sorcerer and a skilled artisan. It’s thanks to my handiwork that you’re hearing me in the language of your land, too. And the frame is unquestionably robust. It has organs and blood, true, but so long as it remains at least fifty percent intact, you can consider it immortal. Ah well, the blood coursing through your veins has been mixed with my own, so I suppose that if the body bleeds out, your soul will dissipate.” “But my build, my hair color, all of it’s the same.” “It seems your idiocy is beyond help. I already spoke of my skill, did I not? Do not lump my masterpiece in with bargain-shop refuse. If you put a soul in a container that differs too greatly from the form of its previous life, the dissonance can cause madness. The body is designed to transform according to the inhabiting soul. It automatically eliminates wounds and disease, but the appearance and build are the same as yours, from the face that reflects your impoverished nature to your gaunt, brittle frame. Feel free to weep at my compassion.” It was then that Kaito noticed the major change in his body. Looking at his arm, he realized that the scarring and lacerations that had once been etched into it were now gone without a trace. The pain, previously his lifelong companion, had completely vanished. Huh… That’s a surprise. This really isn’t my body after all. Kaito finally accepted it. There was no way this agony-free body could be his. Not being in pain for the first time in a while was certainly pleasant, but at the same time, it made him feel uneasy, like he was a plastic doll or something. As Kaito cradled his arm in amazement, Elisabeth carried on. “I summoned a Sinless Soul to use as a servant. The Church would punish me if they found out I invoked anything evil, even if only to use it as a maid, you see. You fit the criteria, as your death was far crueler than your sins in life would warrant, but… Heh, there was some odd resistance during the summoning, but to think that you would hail from another world… I wonder whether pulling you in from a parallel dimension is the height of fortune or misfortune? Ah, I suppose it matters little who you once were. From here on, you need only serve me with wholehearted devotion.” “Hard pass.” “Oh-ho.” Elisabeth narrowed her crimson eyes, apparently pleased by his response. Her long, slender finger resembled a blade as she raised Kaito’s chin. Licking her lips, she whispered in a voice that was sweet nectar. “You were killed. Your murder was as meaningless as a worm getting stepped on—a death most pitiful, unseemly, cruel, and gruesome. Even your hollow little brain understands that much, yes? Your death was far crueler than your sins in life would warrant, fulfilling the requirement to become a Sinless Soul, yet you wear the face of a man about to descend into Hell. Even so, you would give up this second life? You would choose to die, crushed like a worm?” “Oh yeah, for sure. I’ve had enough abuse for one lifetime. I endured and persisted, sure, but surviving isn’t really the same as living. I’m done.” Kaito gave his response. Without even needing to think about it, he could say that it had been a terrible life. He’d attended school for a couple of years. Afterward, he’d been forced to move from place to place and help his father with his illegal work. When that had taken a turn south and his manpower was no longer needed, his father began beating him to let off steam. All in all, it was a sickening way to live. Kaito didn’t even remember what his mother looked like. But he suspected that her brain had been addled by pain and malnutrition, robbing her of the willpower to flee, and eventually she’d been killed much like himself. He was thankful for his new pain-free body, but he’d be damned if he let himself be used by anyone else again. If his shitty life was prolonged, all that meant was that he would have to endure even more shit. “I’ve had enough. I’m throwing in the towel. Go find someone else to be your servant.” “I see. Well, like it or not, I’ll make a butler out of you yet.” Once again, Kaito’s reply was completely ignored. His frown deepened as Elisabeth shrugged. “Summoning more servants would result in the Church casting their bothersome gaze my way. And crafting another puppet would take time. What sense is there in creating more chores for the sake of a servant, whose role it is to do my chores for me? I cannot think of a greater waste of time. At any rate, of—” Suddenly, there was a roar as the door behind Elisabeth burst off its hinges. The way in which the thick, heavy door spun through the air before finally crashing beside her was almost comical. A splinter grazed her cheek, yet she didn’t even turn to look. Kaito’s eyes widened in fear as he gawked at the entrance. There in the doorway—minus one door—stood a colossal horse and its rider. For reins, the rider held a sinister thorned chain, and the saddle it was mounted on was made of bone. But strangest of all were the bodies. Neither the horse nor the rider had any skin. They looked like anatomical models, their muscles bare and their bodies lined with blood vessels. With their flesh pink and glistening, they were hideous enough that the mind refused to parse them out of self-preservation. Finally turning toward the entrance, Elisabeth began speaking with an air of leisure. “At any rate, of the fourteen ranked demons—the Knight, the Governor, the Grand Governor, the Earl, the Grand Earl, the Duke, the Grand Duke, the Marquis, the Grand Marquis, the Monarch, the Grand Monarch, the King, the Grand King, and the Kaiser—leaving out the Kaiser, who’s already been captured, I have thirteen demons and their contractors I need to slaughter.” The horse let out a whinny, and the rider roared again. Their mouths were simply hollow gaps in their flesh, and from them came the grating noise of a storm passing through a broken wind instrument. As the shriek of hatred rang in his eardrums, Kaito suddenly understood something and was certain of it. Demon was the only fitting word to describe this horrifying creature. “Hey, what’s up with that guy? Is he the ‘Knight’ you just mentioned?” “For an imbecile who died a worm’s death, you seem surprisingly calm.” “As long as my brain isn’t atrophied, I can at least make sound decisions.” “Well, you were close. That there is a servant of the Knight. He didn’t form a contract with a demon himself but became the underling of one who did. By choice. A weakling, in other words. Both he and the Knight used to be human, though.” Listening to Elisabeth’s explanation, Kaito felt his gaze wander over to the horse and rider again. He couldn’t believe that the rider used to be human, nor did he want to. Only a lunatic would willingly become something like that. Guessing Kaito’s thought process from the look on his face, Elisabeth snickered. “Your reaction is understandable. Quite unsavory, no? Selling one’s soul to a demon and abandoning one’s form, all in the pursuit of inhuman power, is rather pitiful, is it not? You may laugh. I shall allow it. ’Tis his wish, no doubt—after all, buffoonery is buffoonery precisely because it inspires laughter, wouldn’t you agree?” Even as provocation, her words were raw. The rider let out another, more piercing roar. The rage in his voice was so high-pitched that Kaito had to cover his ears for fear of his eardrums rupturing. The rider yanked the reins and kicked the horse’s flank. The horse accelerated to its top speed in an instant, cracking the stone floor as it charged toward Elisabeth in an attempt to trample her. “Lowborn dirt. My blade is too good for the likes of you—Iron Maiden.” Elisabeth mouthed something and extended her hand. Darkness and bloodred flower petals flowed from her fingertips and swirled through the air. There was a loud gong and then a life-size puppet sprang up from the ground and cut through the darkness. The puppet, which Elisabeth had called Iron Maiden, looked far kinder than the name would suggest. Golden thread that served as hair hung down its back, and the jewels that adorned its face in place of eyes glittered blue. Its lips curled into a warm, loving smile. As it opened its arms in welcome, the rider bore down upon it, consumed by fury. It was right when Kaito thought the horse would trample over the Maiden’s kind embrace that it happened. In concert with the clicking sound of shifting gears, the puppet opened its eyes wide. The blue jewels flipped over, now burning scarlet. Its affection forgotten, its expression turned to hatred, and its stomach opened with a click. A pair of iron arms shot out from the inside, each equipped with long, vicious claws. Scrabbling forth, they swooped down on the horse and its rider, smashing arms and legs with a cold malevolence and mechanical efficiency. The desperate cries of the horse and rider fell on deaf ears as the arms mashed their victims’ extremities into caterpillar-like lumps of flesh. The horse and rider were unable to put up any sort of resistance, and after being sculpted into a grotesque form resembling a meatball with a head, they were carried into the Maiden’s stomach. As if to symbolize its chastity, its womb was lined with countless needles. “GYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” Ignoring the screams of pain, the Maiden’s chest clicked closed.