Chapter 12: The Truth
Erie
A little earlier than when Cliff and Lovel fought Berserker Gandolf on top of Neck Bridge, Erie and Heath were racing down the roads of Chest Island shadowed in the darkness of night.
They were headed for Getz’s clinic. Erie glanced at the leg Heaven’s Gunner had shot. She originally thought the bullet had severely injured her, but it stopped bleeding a while ago. Or rather, wiping away the crusted blood revealed no puncture wound beneath it. Had the bullet only grazed her skin? Had a knick caused that much blood to pour from her leg?
Erie decided to think so. She had a strong feeling nothing good would come of thinking about her injury further.
Heath mattered more at the moment anyway. His body had been filled with bullet holes during the fight with Heaven’s Gunner. Though his body wouldn’t shed blood, she couldn’t bear to leave him looking like a pincushion.
I just know Professor Getz can do something about Heathy’s wounds! Erie hurried to his house.
But her hopes were dashed when she arrived at the clinic and breathed in with a start. The windows were shattered and the front door was busted. Something bad had clearly happened. Imagining the worst, she rushed into the clinic, panicking for Getz’s safety.
She saw no one inside. However, she could hear voices conversing in the kitchen, farther inside.
“…You surprise and disappoint me, Professor Getz. Never did I think you would sneak out with that file.”
“I knew you had it. I merely handed it over to the right person.”
The second voice belonged to Getz, and Erie could recognize the first as well. She tiptoed to the kitchen and discovered a staircase leading to a basement below. A cabinet had been moved aside, revealing the hidden entrance.
Erie felt her heart leap to her throat, and she swallowed before descending the stairs with Heath. She heard them talking downstairs while she quietly made her descent.
“Why have you done such a thing, after we have come so far? I feel like I’ve been betrayed.”
“You’re the one who betrayed me first…! I heard nothing of you using it on Erie!”
“I had no other choice. It was the best course of action a year ago.”
The voices grew clearer the farther down she went. She was very familiar with the second voice. Why could she hear it coming from the basement? What was it doing here? After a long descent, Erie stepped off the last stair. She raked her gaze over the dark cellar and saw four figures.
“…Why?”
Getz stood by the window, facing Jair and Eben. And then, the fourth form, standing beside Jair, belonged to someone unbelievable.
“Why…why are you here…?!”
“Oh, why, if it isn’t Miss Erie. You’ve arrived at just the right time.”
The gentle, caring eyes that had watched over Erie for the duration of the school year turned on her. The first voice belonged to the Dormitory Custodian, Benny Navarov. He smiled at her arrival.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Mister Navarov! Why are you together with Jair?!” Erie yelled.
Navarov answered her question with nonchalance. “Because I’m the one giving him orders.”
“…You are?!” Erie brought a hand over her mouth in shock, her stomach roiling.
“Allow me to pay you my deepest respects by explaining how things came to this. Otherwise, I’m sure you would find it simply unbearable to die and leave things without putting up a fight.” Erie sucked in a shaky breath, and Navarov flashed her a sorry smile as he launched into an explanation. “I doubt you remember, but you met me about ten years ago. And I taught your younger self how to make Golems. I showed you how to use Remote Engrave Incantations then, as well.”
“That can’t be true…! I thought you couldn’t use Remote Engrave Incantations…”
“I have my reasons for hiding the ability. In any case, my little display led to you harboring the dream of becoming a Golem Tamer.”
Navarov’s story coincided with what Heath had told her of the past. But Erie didn’t have any memory of the incident. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t remember what had happened.
Navarov continued over her confusion, “It seems like you didn’t abandon that dream, even after returning to the mainland. And so, you came back to this archipelago last spring. Many years had passed since then, and I should have changed quite a bit, and yet, you remembered me.”
“Wh-What are you talking about? Didn’t we meet for the first time at the dormitory, a year ago?”
“I made you think we did. I made you forget what happened between us.”
“You made me forget it…?”
“I had no alternative. My plans were still a work in progress. It was dangerous to have someone who knew me around. But I didn’t want to attract the attention of the Church, so it wasn’t as if I could just get rid of you. So I—”
“Eh?”
Erie lost the ability to process the rest of what Navarov was saying. She saw his lips moving, but only heard ringing in her ears. When she tried to ask him to repeat himself, Navarov finished his statement with, “But it’s time to put an end to that. There is no need to keep you alive any longer.”
Those words spurred Jair and Eben into action—they surged toward Erie. Getz stepped between them. “Stop it! Don’t lay your hands on this child!”
Jair hesitated momentarily before him. Navarov thought it over for a second, then said, “Move him out of the way.”
Eben promptly swept out his arm, knocking Getz through the air. He crashed against a wall in a corner of the room. “AGH!”
“No…why…why would you…” Erie sputtered, her voice lifeless and dazed.
Navarov had been such a kind and friendly custodian. And yet, here he was, hurting Getz and trying to kill her.
Jair and Eben closed in on her. Erie panicked, and the confusion rooted her to the floor, robbing her of the ability to run away. In the drawn-out seconds before her fate was sealed, something glowed, bright and vicious, from within the inner depths of the dark cellar.
Everyone turned toward the light. At the glowing corner of the cellar was a large tank with a girl inside. The girl wore a hospital gown, and the Engrave Incantations covering her entire body floated at the surface of her skin.
Getz lifted his face from the floor and moaned, “Roberta…”
“I had forgotten your daughter is still active,” Navarov spat, revulsion coating his words.
Erie thought back to the story Getz had told her. Daughter? This is the daughter Professor Getz turned into a Fresh Golem?! No sooner did the thought flash through Erie’s mind than the girl balled her fists and slammed them against the inside of the tank.
Cracks spread through the tank until the material could no longer withstand the pressure and shattered. The encased embalming fluids spilled onto the cellar floor, filling the room with a pungent, bizarre smell.
Alarm and wariness came over Jair’s features, and he stood protectively in front of Navarov. The girl hopped onto the floor from her confines and let out an enraged shriek.
“Roberta… You don’t have to do a thing. Just behave…!” Getz begged her, but the Fresh Golem Roberta fixed furious eyes on Navarov and howled.
“Eben, defeat this woman first!” Jair ordered, and Eben lunged at Roberta. But she was gone. She had jumped into the air a second faster, evading Eben’s powerful jab.
Jair’s eyes widened. Roberta sank her nails into the cellar ceiling, then, hanging from them, she kicked out with both legs and knocked Eben back.
“Tch!” Navarov clicked his tongue and took a few steps back. Roberta flipped smoothly onto the floor and stalked closer to him. Erie watched on, motionless, as if she were stuck in a nightmare.
Erie didn’t know who the real enemy was, and she didn’t know what was true. But she did know what she had to do.
“Heathy, let’s grab Professor Getz and run!”
At her command, Heath picked up Getz and bolted up the stairs with Erie. She heard fierce, savage bangs and crashes behind her, and the intense bloodlust numbed her limbs and sent tremors down her back. She made it to the top of the staircase and rushed right out of the clinic without looking back.
“Professor, let’s escape somewhere safe!” Erie exclaimed. Getz shook his head and pulled himself off of Heath’s shoulder. “Professor!”
“I won’t run… I can’t flee when I’m the one who caused all of this.”
“Caused what? Are you talking about the events leading up to this?”
Getz didn’t answer. Erie grabbed his arm as he tried to walk back into the clinic. “Can you tell me the whole story…?” she pleaded. “Don’t you know the truth behind everything that has happened, Professor?!”