TL/ED – Miso

Unfortunately, Mallo did not remember every story from the past.

It was a tool created from the very beginning. A contingency plan prepared for unforeseen circumstances… that was all it ever was, essentially nothing more than a wind-up doll in the shape of a robe.

Even so, it possessed a clear intelligence.

[I awaken from dormancy upon contact with the blood of a Fallen. That is how I was designed.]

“Why that method of all things? Couldn’t you have just been awake from the start?”

Going out of its way to feed on a Fallen’s blood to grow was an extremely, extremely flawed method. It wasn’t as if Fallen blood was lying around everywhere. Even I had just mistaken it for a regular robe and put it on.

Mallo let out what sounded like a resigned sigh before answering.

[Because I was created as a living being. All living things consume something, spend their lifespan, and slowly die. No matter how long-lived a race may be, escaping this chain is impossible. Even worlds themselves are no exception.]

“Even so, there was no need to make you consume something like the blood of a Fallen, was there? I’d think water would be more than enough.”

[In a situation where one cannot know when the Crimson Circle will arrive, merely existing serves no purpose other than wasting one’s lifespan. My Creator foresaw that the world would be engulfed in slaughter with the rise of the Crimson Circle, and designed me to awaken the moment a mage wearing a Holy Relic defeated a Fallen.]

“Ah, I see.”

So since the Crimson Circle was entirely composed of Fallen, after all.

A True Blood Bearer would naturally don a Holy Relic, emerge victorious in battle against the Crimson Circle, and stain it with their blood, triggering the awakening and producing a hero… that seemed to be the intended design.

“Then all of you must take forms useful to mages, right? Otherwise, there’d be no reason for you to be used in a mage’s battles.”

[Correct. I am a robe. And the corpse of a companion I had no choice but to consume in order to regain enough function to act again… that was a staff.]

“That tree root was a staff?”

[It had been using Mimicry to disguise itself as a forest. A noble sacrifice, hiding from the Crimson Circle until the very end and entrusting even its death to us. Thanks to it, I recovered enough strength to speak to you, so it was certainly helpful.]

“It’d be nice if it were still alive.”

[They’re all dead. At the very least, they’re no better off than I am. Since we were born as the same kind of life, I can tell that much. However…]

Having drunk much blood, Mallo could now convey its words far more fluently than when it had been given only a small amount.

[…Are you sure it’s appropriate to be chatting with me in this situation?]

“Hmm.”

So much for escapism.

Dangling from a rope, I turned my gaze to the scene in front of me that I had been doing my best to ignore.

“Stop it! I hate this! You’re totally, totally a witch! Not an elf!”

“The longer you refuse, the more terrible the pain Jern will endure. All you can do is open your eyes wide and watch this atrocity.”

“Kyaaah! No! Stop it right now!”

The reason Mallo had awakened was because it drank blood.

And the blood used as the catalyst was not the blood of another Fallen, but my own.

The reason was simple enough…

Dersia was torturing me while hanging me upside down.

…In front of Elysia.

“Master. Is this really the right approach? I truly don’t understand.”

“Jern. What you need to be doing right now is letting out agonized screams filled with pain.”

“…Ah, aaargh. It hurts. It’s unbearable.”

“He said it hurts!!”

Watching Elysia bawl her eyes out with tears and snot streaming down her face, I sighed and used Current to carefully write letters behind Dersia’s back.

[I’ll read your lips, so just speak. Is this process truly helpful for Elysia?]

[Yes. Most likely.]

[In what way?]

[This is my theory, but if I were to describe this child’s ability in a single word… Severance. That is what I would call it.]

Dersia deftly caught Elysia by the scruff of the neck as the girl charged at me with watery eyes, then spoke coldly.

[It is an exceptionally pure yet brutal ability. She severs what she despises. Believing magic was involved in her mother’s death, she severed that. Seeing other Fallen suffering in their worlds and deciding she despised those worlds, she severs them, if only briefly.]

[At this rate, won’t Elysia use Severance on you, Master?]

[I have not lived so light a life as to be severed by a child like this. This process is to determine whether my theory is correct or not. Besides, you were the one who drew the blood, weren’t you?]

[I got bored just hanging there doing nothing.]

Dersia had only intended to pretend to torture me, but I found just being tied up so tedious that I drew my own blood and summoned Mallo.

Thanks to that, Elysia had an even worse meltdown. As I hung there sighing at the disaster before me, my head suddenly began to slowly drop downward.

“…This is…”

“Waaahh!”

Thud!

The moment my head touched the floor, Elysia came running toward me and… collapsed.

“…!”

“…Zzz…”

Worried something had gone wrong, I hastily cut the rope and barely caught her head before it hit the ground.

Dersia approached with an intrigued expression and flicked her hand once, causing all the marks left on my body to vanish. She looked at the end of the rope and nodded as if she had expected as much.

“What was that?”

“This rope was not tied to the ceiling. It was suspended using fourth-tier magic. This child severed it.”

“Hmm, so then…”

“Yes. And so my hypothesis is proven once again. This child does indeed possess the ability to sever what she abhors.”

“…That’s impressive.”

Elysia had wanted me to fall from the rope because she hated seeing me suffer.

As a result, she had severed the magic placed on the rope binding me. She had used so much energy to do it that she passed out.

When I lifted Elysia in a princess carry, Dersia gazed at her with a deep smile, wearing the expression of someone who had just spotted a treasure goblin.

“A mechanism different from magic… truly, an ability inscribed in blood. An ability passed down from bloodline to bloodline. It would be more accurate to consider them an entirely different species from humans.”

“If not human, then what?”

“If a name were to be given to that species… mages. There is no other word for it. Perhaps all of us who call ourselves mages are the fakes…”

Dersia murmured while rubbing her chin, seemingly lost in deep thought.

“Jern. I believe we need to make this young mage hate the Deep Sea.”

“…Hate, you say?”

“Yes. Hate. If we can instill an intense enough hatred, then as you described, she should be able to break free of the Deep Sea, even if only for a brief moment. The possibilities would be limitless.”

Dersia had arrived at the same assessment of Elysia’s ability as I had.

But I trailed off with a sour expression.

“Hmm…”

“Is there a problem?”

“I understand what you’re saying. If Elysia truly harbors an intense hatred toward the Deep Sea, she could sever it. But I don’t believe that’s possible.”

I sighed, looking at the sleeping Elysia.

“If she watched me get crushed to death by the Deep Sea right before her eyes, she might feel a powerful hatred in that moment. But getting crushed in order to escape the Deep Sea defeats the entire purpose, and even if we stage something like we did today, it won’t work more than once or twice. Most importantly, this child simply isn’t that kind of person.”

Elysia was someone who couldn’t even be harsh to children who hated her.

She was just kind and gentle by nature. Even if the target were an inanimate object, she wouldn’t easily bring herself to hate it.

“A reasonable opinion.”

Dersia seemed to consider this for a moment, knowing full well what kind of person Elysia was, and then…

She answered as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

“Then we simply need to give her a reason.”

“…A reason?”

“Yes. Did you not say she developed a trauma toward magic due to her mother’s death? That it caused her to unconsciously create a field that weakly severed the magic around her for years?”

With a loving, gentle hand, she stroked Elysia’s hair and murmured softly.

“If we create a situation that, while not identical, is similar to that… a single performance could make her hate the Deep Sea for years, no, for the rest of her life. What we could accomplish with that would be boundless.”

As I stood there unable to find any words, Mallo, still awake, quietly rustled its collar to form words too soft for Dersia to hear.

[…The reason I hate elves is because the Creator made me that way.]

“…”

[Can you guess why now?]

…This time, I honestly found it hard to offer a clean rebuttal.

***

“Absolutely not. If you want to do anything, get my permission first. I mean it.”

Inside the carriage.

I had made Dersia promise several times over that she would formulate a proper plan and discuss it with me before taking any action, then rushed to leave Elysia in Alletus’s care at his estate so Dersia couldn’t lay a hand on her. Now I was on the way back.

Between her heroic deeds and the way her attitude toward me had softened, I had forgotten, but Dersia was a rather unhinged elf.

Seeing how easily she agreed, though, it seemed like it had just been an offhand remark.

[That’s simply what elves are. You’d do well not to trust them if you can help it.]

“She’s not always like that… though it does happen a lot.”

After answering with a sigh, I rode the carriage back toward the library.

Noticing that Mallo had stayed awake far longer than expected, I asked with a hint of suspicion.

“By the way, how are you still awake? Shouldn’t you be reverting back to a robe by now?”

[…?]

Mallo shook its collar as if it had only just realized this itself.

[That’s… a good point. Why have I been awake this long…? Ah!]

Mid-sentence, it suddenly let out a startled cry.

“What happened?”

[Th-this… was it right under my nose this whole time…?]

“??”

As I tilted my head in confusion, Mallo answered in disbelief.

[You, do you have anything urgent to do right now?]

“I was going to look for fairy tales at the library…”

The fairy tales of Iabon had contained hints related to Mallo, meaning the Holy Relics.

That meant other fairy tales might contain similar stories. I hadn’t planned to go searching right away, but I had intended to at least check.

Mallo shook its head vigorously in denial.

[Unless it’s something truly urgent, listen to me. The greatest driving force that powers me is not the blood of a Fallen, but the blood of the Creator. The blood of a Fallen can move me only because it is an imperfect form of the Creator’s blood.]

“So what, you’re saying my blood is the Creator’s blood?”

[No, no… it’s the Holy Relics. Holy Relics like me are composed of the Creator’s blood. The blood of the companion you consumed, that was His blood.]

“Ah, I see. And? You’re saying the same thing.”

[…Have you not devoured members of the Upper Tier before?]

“I have.”

Puppet, Decay. Both were sleeping within my Deep Sea.

Come to think of it, I still needed to find Decay. As I was thinking that, Mallo continued in a grave tone.

[Your blood has a trace amount of Holy Relic blood mixed in. That is why I have remained active for so long after drinking your blood.]

“…No, you can’t mean…”

When I furrowed my brow, having pieced something together from what was said earlier, Mallo nodded as if confirming it.

[It seems the Upper Tier member you devoured was carrying a Holy Relic inside their body.]

“Hmm, is that so? Is that a good thing?”

[It is not good. Not good at all. No, could even this have been part of their plan? Perhaps it was…]

Mallo vehemently denied it.

[You cannot withstand His blood. If you don’t find it soon, you’ll end up the same as me.]

“The same as what?”

[It means you’ll become a Holy Relic.]

“…?”

[Jern.]

Mallo rubbed its collar against me more seriously than ever before.

[I was once human, too.]