“However, I didn’t make it in time. Right before I found him, he encountered other visitors. By the time I ran to his side, they’d already tormented him thoroughly.”
In the corner of my vision, I saw Lily turning to me. She had terrific ears, so she’d likely overheard us. She looked extremely surprised. The same went for me.
Hurt and damaged, begging for salvation—and someone answered.
My first meeting with Lily very closely resembled Berta’s beginnings with Kudou. However, only the results differed—to a cruel degree. Lily had saved me, but Berta hadn’t been able to save Kudou.
“I bared my fangs to try and protect him, but it wasn’t to be. I was quickly struck down in a single blow.”
She’d faced a warrior. Judging by the fact that she hadn’t been given a name, Berta had been nowhere near her current strength, likely not all that different from the average monster. There was no way she could’ve won.
“I was weak, so I couldn’t save him... I turned him into the Demon King.”
A remorse she could never rid herself of—this was a wound Berta had carried from the very beginning. If only those two had met before encountering those visitors, the situation would likely be different. Had she foreseen their approach with her sharp sense of smell, it would’ve been possible to get away before being discovered. By doing so, by avoiding that one encounter, perhaps a better future would have been possible for them.
Thinking of it that way, maybe it was natural that Berta was the only one among Kudou’s servants whose sensibilities resembled ours. After all, before becoming the Demon King, Kudou hadn’t wished for a pawn with which to destroy the world. He’d wished for someone to help him change and walk by his side toward the future. However, that future wasn’t to be. It’d been crushed to pieces and hopelessly twisted.
That was why this bothered Berta so much. She hadn’t been able to become Anton. In other words, if she’d had the strength to be given the name Anton at the time, she could’ve protected what was dear to her. During our journey together, she’d gone out night after night hunting monsters to get stronger. The reason she coveted such strength was likely because of these remorseful memories of being unable to protect Kudou before he became the Demon King.
“Does Kudou know about this?” I asked.
“He didn’t notice. By the time I was able to move again and serve my king for the first time, everything was already over. He was already unconscious from the pain when I ran over to help, after all. He didn’t see me lose, and because Todoroki Miya appeared immediately afterward, creating a Beast of Darkness to fight in battle. Even if he did hear anything, he likely assumed my earlier intrusion to be no more than a part of that.”
“You never told him yourself?”
“What would I get by doing so?” Berta asked self-derisively. “By the time I finally gained power, a proper ego, and a name, he was already walking down the path of the Demon King. It was far too late by then.”
Kudou didn’t require anyone to lean against on his path forward as the Demon King. What could’ve been priceless to him before was now no more than a failure of a pawn. Nevertheless, she’d cared for him, the regret at being unable to do anything and that precious feeling she’d had upon discovering him in her heart all the while.
“That’s how I met my king,” Berta said, returning to her usual tone as if to mark the end of the discussion. “I told you this much, so I might as well add one more thing. At the time, I ate Todoroki Miya’s remains. That was what she wished for on the verge of death.”
“Todoroki did? Why?”
“I wonder. She said she didn’t want to sadden her best friend, so she wanted to hide her death. Maybe she simply didn’t want to leave a corpse behind... But I do wonder. Honestly, I don’t really understand. Why did she save my king? Why did she even want to save him?”
There was no way of finding out now. Todoroki Miya was dead. It was impossible to find out anything more about the girl who’d cursed the world with her dying breaths. This did clarify one thing, though.
“Is that why you look like Todoroki Miya in your true form?” I asked.
“Probably. Not that I ever expected such an outcome myself.”
Her form as a scylla looked so much like Todoroki Miya because she’d been there to witness the girl’s death. That said, much like Berta mentioned, she didn’t have Lily’s ability for mimicry or anything, so such an outcome had to have been unexpected. Perhaps the kudoku poison jar trials had had an influence on the changes happening to her body.
“Thanks for telling me,” I said.
Now that I knew everything, Berta’s circumstances seemed so unfortunate. She’d met misfortune beyond her control and had been set up in a way that she would never be rewarded for it. It was far too cruel. If not for the coincidence of going on a journey with us, who shared her sense of values, that misfortune might have gone unnoticed forever.
“Wait... Hang on,” I muttered, suddenly caught on a certain detail.
Berta had been set up in a way to never be rewarded. However, now she was traveling with us, a party embodying that lost camaraderie and connection. This was a coincidence due to circumstances beyond our control. That was what I believed.
But was that really true? Berta was here by Kudou’s command. She was one of the strongest elements of Kudou’s forces, so if only considering her usefulness in battle, it would’ve been the correct decision to keep her close by. Kudou hadn’t done so because he’d called Berta a failure. But was that really true? Now that I’d heard Berta’s story, I was starting to doubt it.
Todoroki Miya’s death had been a big-enough event to make him the Demon King he was today. It was something he never wanted others to touch upon. And yet, he didn’t keep Berta, who’d inherited her form, close to him. There was far too much risk in that. In truth, Berta had exposed her true form to us. It was precisely because Kudou knew that her sensibilities were close to ours that he’d dispatched her as a guard, knowing we wouldn’t feel antipathy toward her. He should’ve been able to predict that she would become attached over time and eventually reveal her secret. He couldn’t have been that careless. It was enough for me to question whether there had been some kind of hidden intention behind it.
“Majima Takahiro? What’s wrong?”
I looked down at Berta from her back as a certain thought crossed my mind. Maybe—just maybe—had Kudou already realized her circumstances? Naturally, just as Berta said, he likely hadn’t realized on the spot. At the very least, during the attack on Fort Tilia, Kudou had truly been under the impression that his power was meant for no more than being the Demon King.
But Kudou knew about me now. During the attack on Fort Tilia, he must’ve realized that Berta was too honest to participate in any scheming and was therefore different from his other pawns. By combining that knowledge with the fact that she was his first servant, it was entirely possible that he’d reached the truth.
If he knew about the truth behind Berta...then the meaning behind her existence must’ve changed greatly to him. After all, the reason Kudou had tried to change himself before things had reached a decisive point had been none other than Todoroki Miya’s influence.
As a result of trying to change himself thanks to Todoroki Miya, Kudou had gained the power to make allies of monsters before becoming the Demon King. Berta was the one and only servant he’d recruited during that period. Berta’s existence would have been impossible without Todoroki Miya. In a sense, she was a memento of Todoroki Miya.
What did Kudou think about her, then? Would he treat her as a precious companion like she was meant to be in the first place? That was unlikely. What Berta had said earlier could be applied to Kudou too. It was already too late. Kudou had already started down the path of the Demon King. Even if he noticed, he wouldn’t go back to a path that’d been lost to him. He was sure to continue running full speed toward his own end, one filled with despair and agony.
In that case, what was Kudou thinking? What had gone through his mind and what decision had he made to place Berta here? Right as I was about to reach the answer, the exploration team cheered. We’d arrived at the door to the third world.