I hurriedly flew my broom in that direction, and when I got there, I found that the Crescent Moon Company building had been partially destroyed.
Although only the fourth floor was damaged, as if it had been specifically targeted.
“I did what I always do,” Clarice told me. “I sliced it up into a bunch of little pieces and disposed of it like I always do. But even so, this wandering dead was more stubborn than they usually are.”
Hanging her head, she told me more.
According to Clarice, as if it had some sort of clear intention in mind, no matter how many times its body was cut apart, the wandering dead kept reforming and propelling itself forward, until it reached the Crescent Moon Company’s building.
Clarice had used her sickle to protect her mother.
However, despite her efforts, there had still been fragments of the ghoul that she couldn’t carve away.
Apparently, her mother had been touched by the wandering dead.
“……”
The fourth floor of the building had been partially destroyed. When we went in through the window, we saw the dining room was somewhat bigger than before.
We walked in farther, avoiding the red brick debris that was scattered here and there, and discovered her mother, curled up in a corner.
She was already gone.
We could tell without even checking her pulse.
Because her body had been evenly bisected through the torso.
Just as Clarice had done to the wandering dead.
“I thought this time for sure I could protect her—”
She sank to the floor on the spot as she muttered those hollow words.
She had her sickle in her hand.
“……”
The sickle had blood on it.
Even though there shouldn’t have been even a single drop of blood from the dead, her sickle was wet with blood.
“…Why?”
Why did you kill her?
Why, when you said you wanted to be loved as a daughter?
I was about to open my mouth to ask, but I closed it again.
Instead, I chose a different question.
“Clarice, are you sure there’s not something you’re hiding from me?”
“…Hiding from you? What would I be hiding?”
Reaching out to touch the hand of Clarice’s mother, which was already growing cold, I said, “Earlier, when I was burning the wandering dead, I saw something strange.”
“Something strange?”
I nodded.
“The dead have been appearing here for the past three hundred years. If I’m not mistaken, you said they were born out of scraps of consciousness joined with magical energy, right?”
“That’s right.”
“Well then, why aren’t there any dog or cat ghouls? Why aren’t any of them dead babies who had just been born?”
“……” Clarice let out a little sigh, then said, “You can ask, but I don’t know the answer to that question.”
Oh really?
“Well then, let me ask a different question.”
Ever since I had heard the story about Clarice repeatedly reincarnating, there had been something that stuck in my mind and bothered me just a little bit.
Clarice reincarnated by implanting a part of her consciousness into a child that was already in someone’s belly.
In other words, Clarice’s mind caught a ride on a life that already existed.
In which case—
“Where did the children who were originally supposed to have been born go?”
When I blasted the wandering dead with magic, I saw that writhing and suffering inside the creature were the dead of all shapes and forms. It was, so to speak, an aggregation of the dead.
Part of it would sometimes take human form or take the form of a dog or a cat. It also took the form of newborn babies or even unborn children whose bodies had yet to fully form.
That meant all the mothers who had raised Clarice as their daughter, as well as the woman who was lying dead in front of me, must have never been meant to give birth to Clarice in the first place.
Perhaps, the moment Clarice’s consciousness had entered their bellies, someone else had been driven out.
“……”
Behind my back, I heard the clank of Clarice taking her sickle firmly in hand.
I, too, quietly took out my wand as I released the corpse’s hand. As I did so, I made my mind concentrate on my ears and heard Clarice mumble, “You really tried your best tonight, so—I’ll pretend I didn’t hear what you just said.”
Presumably, she was standing behind me, smiling as she always did.
It was hard to imagine that the hero responsible for saving the city had been killing someone every time she reincarnated.
There was no way she could let anyone know that. Especially the women who gave birth to her. It was hard to even imagine what exactly would happen if they found out.
“Has it been like this the whole time?”
Normally, Clarice took on the wandering dead on her own. Everyone at the Crescent Moon Company followed her order so that she alone dealt with them, and anyone who broke that rule was expelled from the organization. That was how strict the punishment was.
“The wandering dead are a little bit different, you see. They have a very strong habit of trying to return to their own homes.”
“Their own homes?”
“That, or to the place where they were born, yeah.”
At her words, I turned around.
With her back to the crescent moon, which hung in the air above the demolished building, Clarice stared at me. “The wandering dead was also probably trying to get back to her, so yeah, that’s probably what that was.”
“……”
And her mother must have seen something she wasn’t supposed to see and gotten herself killed for it.
“It’s too bad. I really thought we could be a normal family this time. Now I’ve got to start all over again.”
“……”
I stayed silent.
I was silent for a long, long time.
Then, after several deep breaths, the words that finally came out of me formed just one single question.
✦ ✦ ✦
