Torture Princess: Fremd Torturchen, Vol. 1 Page 13

  “Rrrgh… Aaaaaargh! Ah, ah!”

  “Elisabeth, don’t be stupid!”

  Hurriedly, Kaito rushed to support Elisabeth. As he propped her up, he endured the pain in his stomach and walked forward. The meat-frog, somehow still alive, reached the end of the passageway. It clung to the wall and pleaded, shedding a flood of tears all the while.

  “Oh my Lord. I was mistaken. Hungry for power, I left you sealed away. Had I but believed in you, I never would have done such a thing. But now I offer you my everything. I will free you as a sign of my devotion. So please, save me from that demonic woman.”

  The meat-frog vomited something out. From within the mass of phlegm, it retrieved a golden key.

  After intricately tracing the Words of God and offering up words of prayer, it inserted the key into what appeared to be a featureless wall. A clicking noise rang out, and the wall flashed violently before vanishing.

  Deep darkness and a sharp chill flowed out from inside. In the center of the persistent darkness sat an Iron Chair.

  Upon it sat a black-haired man.

  The man slowly looked up. His dark, tangled hair rustled, and his crimson eyes glittered. From what Kaito could see of his facial features behind the hair, he possessed a certain androgynous beauty. But the instant he looked at the man, his throat swelled up, intimidated, and he understood something.

  That man was terrifying. Even though he possessed a beautiful human form, he was no human. He was something repulsive.

  Yet, despite all that, his face looked somehow familiar.

  Without a sound, the belts holding the man’s arms and legs burned to ash. He slowly stood, as though he was rising from a throne. Clad in prison garb, he plucked a needle free from his back, and blood gushed out. Yet, his expression did not change in the slightest.

  His eyes were vacant, as if he were in a waking dream.

  Clueless, the meat-frog, crawled toward the man and knelt awkwardly before him with eyes that screamed for mercy. Without even looking at the meat-frog, the man raised a foot.

  He then brought his bare foot down on its head. The frog’s massive eyes popped right out at the impact.

  “Ble—”

  Dark-red blood began spilling forth. The meat-frog’s head had been abruptly crushed, and its gray brain tissue oozed out. But even surrounded by blood, the man was still emotionless. He looked back up, as if he’d simply stepped on an ordinary frog that had jumped in his path.

  It was then that he saw Elisabeth, standing in the entrance, for the first time.

  His absentminded expression vanished, replaced by an impossibly charming smile.

  “Elisabeth.”

  His voice, filled with fervent adoration, was the same as the one Kaito had heard in the castle’s Treasury.

  “VLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!”

  Elisabeth howled, shoving Kaito away. He flew into the wall and crumpled without a word.

  She rushed into the room, waving the Executioner’s Sword of Frankenthal. She slashed at the empty air, and hundreds of chains bore down on the man like a torrent. But the scripture still burned in her flesh, and her chains lacked their usual strength. Even so, they would have been sufficient to shred the Knight they had fought before to pieces, but a canine black tail whipped through the air and blocked every last one.

  Grrrrrrrrr, grrrrrrrrrrrr, grrrrrrrrrrr.

  Out of nowhere, an enormous black dog squatted by the man’s side. It was a first-class hound, with lustrous fur and rippling muscles.

  The black dog had the stench of a beast, and its mouth and eyes burned with hellfire. While it didn’t look hideous in the slightest, every instinct Kaito had screamed out to him that it was more dangerous than any demon they had faced yet. But for whatever reason, he didn’t feel an ounce of fear. His mind was unusually numb.

  Face-to-face with the embodiment of death, his sense of fear had been completely paralyzed.

  This thing was in an overwhelmingly different realm than the ugly, twisted demons.

  The black dog stuck out its head. With movement so efficient you could almost call it beautiful, it leaped toward Elisabeth with its sharp fangs. But right before it could clamp down on her slender frame, the man shook his head. The dog stopped, and with a dreamlike gaze, the man vanished.

  When he did, so did the suffocating pressure that had filled the room. Kaito had seen everything from the passageway. After finally reaching the room, he looked around in a stupor.

  “Wait… Where did he go? Or rather, more importantly, who was that?”

  “The Kaiser.”

  “What?”

  Elisabeth answered his question in a stiff voice. He tilted his head to the side.

  Seeing Kaito’s poor grasp of the situation, she repeated herself.

  “The Kaiser has returned to his homeland.”

  5

  The Birthplace of the Torture Princess

  Elisabeth sat in her usual room, one leg over the other.

  Atop the ball-and-claw throne, she stared into the gloomy, overcast sky. An orb of pale-blue light hovered in front of her. Kaito hadn’t been told the specifics, but as the orb slowly rotated, it projected the image of someone who seemed rather important. However, despite appearing on the front of the orb no matter which way you looked at it, his face was so blurry, it looked like it was encased in a cloud of fog. It was difficult to pick out a single distinct feature.

  The mysterious figure spoke in a low voice, cold as ice.

  “We had been discussing transferring the Kaiser to the capital, so his seal was incomplete. Furthermore, Clueless had a talent for currying favor, and as such was able to glean the strictly confidential location where the Kaiser was imprisoned, as well as the method to free him, from the officer in charge of the Kaiser’s detainment. Furthermore, much of the Church’s leadership, myself included, were heading for the capital to prepare for the festival, leaving the Church’s defenses lacking… This incident was brought about by various deficiencies and misfortunes on our part.”

  “Just come out and say it was preventable, you fool. Enough with the public relations—get on with the more pertinent matters.”

  “The Church formally demands that you, Elisabeth Le Fanu, kill or apprehend the Kaiser.”

  Elisabeth sighed a silent victory at the orb’s declaration. She recrossed her legs and grinned.

  “So it falls to me to clean up your mess yet again. And so it has been, time and time again. Once more does your God sit idle, leaving you to fend for yourselves. All you have to protect you is the authority you wield. You leash dogs in the name of your god, then sit back and crack your whips at them.”

  “We lack the power to contest with those monsters. That is why we are forced to rely on you. But that is in no way contradictory to the fact that God is constantly by our side. He tests us, true, but His blessings are with us as they are for all His children.”

  “Ha! Such fine platitudes you regurgitate, swindler! According to your doctrine, are those men, reduced to grotesque forms by their demonic contracts, not also His creations? Am I, Torture Princess that I am, not a creature of your God? Where are His blessings for us, may I ask? Your words are rife with hypocrisy!”

  “His blessings have always been with you. God is eternally merciful. If only you would realize that, even now, He is surely shedding tears of blood even as He punishes you, hoping that you may atone for your sins. I have known you since you were a child, Elisabeth, daughter of my dear friend…and you have every reason to hate demons.”

  Elisabeth’s eyebrow twitched. Her expression darkened, and she drew her lips together. From her side, Kaito viewed her expression with caution. But as she turned to glare at him, he quickly straightened his posture.

  Paying no heed to Elisabeth’s silence, the voice continued.

  “Take care not to forget the words we inscribed on your sword. ‘You are free to act as you will. But pray that God shall be your salvation. For the beginning, the middle, and the end all lie in
the palm of His hand.’ The Church placed a number of restraints on the Kaiser, as well. We put them all in motion earlier today. They will last seven days, so that is how long you have to hand down his punishment.”

  His tone didn’t change as he notified her of her time limit. It carried none of the weight of a threat. That fact was precisely what drove fear deep into Kaito’s heart. Standing beside Elisabeth, his mind spun.

  Seven days, huh? Will she even be able to do anything about the Kaiser in that little time? And what’ll happen if she can’t?

  What kinds of calamities would befall the world in that event?

  With nothing left to say, the voice concluded with a final, chilling order.

  “Before the day of your death, try to do some good at least.”

  The light in the orb faded, and it fell to the ground with a delicate plop. Kaito reached down and picked it up. The orb had been made of thin paper. He had no idea where the light had been coming from.

  Still confused, he looked up at Elisabeth and asked:

  “So what was that about?”

  “Communications from Godot Deus, the head of the Church. Ever the gaudy antique, that one is.”

  She shook her head, not saying any more. As she stared off into space, Kaito decided to start by asking her the question that weighed heaviest on his mind.

  “So do you have any idea where the Kaiser went?”

  “Indeed.”

  Her answer was immediate. At once, Kaito was filled with relief. The difficulty of their task varied immensely depending on whether or not they could pinpoint the Kaiser’s location.

  Elisabeth squinted as she gazed through a hole in the collapsed wall, as if she was looking at something far off in the distance. Before her extended a seemingly infinite expanse of dark trees and faintly glimmering gray clouds.

  “The Kaiser has returned home. To my castle, the place of my birth.”

  Why had the Kaiser returned to Elisabeth’s birthplace?

  Why had the Kaiser called out her name so affectionately?

  Kaito waited for her to elaborate. But Elisabeth said nothing more, and Kaito didn’t ask. They simply stood, gazing through the hole in the wall.

  Their silence persisted. Wind blew in from outside, carrying with it the scent of rain. Elisabeth finally breathed in deeply and then exhaled. She clicked her tongue, then stood with enough force to knock over her chair.

  “…Let’s go.”

  “…Mm-hmm.”

  Her voice bristled with ire, and Kaito nodded.

  The next moment, he felt a sharp kick to his leg. Apparently, his response had been unbecoming of a servant.

  Elisabeth’s hometown lay beyond a high wall.

  Out of all the territory the noble Le Fanu house had once possessed, this castle town was special. This was where the Torture Princess’s bloodstained legend had begun.

  The town was arranged like a fan, with the splendid white-walled Le Fanu castle at its center and a steep mountain range forming its backdrop. And it made good use of its unique topography. The wall surrounding it formed a summoning platform for mythical beasts and provided a layer of defense for emergencies. But now, that wall served a different purpose.

  With its gate shut firmly, the wall sealed off the city. If one was to take even a single step beyond that threshold, they would find themselves surrounded by death.

  That towering barrier now served as a massive gravestone for the town.

  According to rumor, the Torture Princess herself, Elisabeth Le Fanu, had once sealed that gate, summoned torture devices all around the town, and set them on every last resident. The banquet of slaughter lasted three days and nights, and during that period, ceaseless screams of anguish filled the air like a grand symphony.

  She’d used the slaughter in this town as an opportunity to surpass the Plain of Skewers and the Dance Macabre in the Village by the Mountains to birth more corpses than ever before.

  …The more I learn, the worse it gets.

  All of this was information Kaito had learned from Elisabeth herself.

  When he’d asked her about the place they were heading, Elisabeth had tossed him a document the Church had assembled, titled Records of the Torture Princess. Seeing his appalled face after reading the opening anecdote, she gave a “Humph.”

  “Just who exactly did you think I was? I am Elisabeth Le Fanu, the Torture Princess.

  “I may be hunting demons, but I am still the grandest criminal this world possesses, one who not even death can redeem.”

  The land where Elisabeth, Kaito, and Hina currently stood was the place from which all those morbid tales originated.

  A charred ruin extended before them.

  After the slaughter, those in charge of disposing of the massive quantity of corpses had been at a loss as to what to do, and they eventually settled on simply lighting everything past the walls ablaze. The fire had been left to burn for seven days and seven nights. After the inferno was extinguished, however, no attempt was made to retrieve the bodies. The town was simply marked as “cursed” and blockaded.

  Kaito, upon seeing the mounds of human bones peeking out among the cracks of the carbonized rubble, murmured softly.

  “Well, that’s not a pretty sight.”

  “Nay, not in the slightest. The Church wrote it off as having been ‘abandoned by God.’”

  Elisabeth spoke as if it had nothing to do with her, and Kaito gave a curt nod.

  There was no exaggeration to that wording. The rotting houses, the torture devices, and the innumerable skeletons strewn about the rubble invoked images of religious paintings of Hell. The brick foundations of houses with their roofs burned off formed the background, and the countless skeletons skewered on iron stakes practically looked like offerings to Diablo.

  In contrast with the morbid scene, the white castle stood tall and radiant. It alone was unmarred by soot or degradation.

  It looked almost like a toy, placed atop a pile of mud and ash.

  Elisabeth, the person responsible for the horrid state of this bizarre landscape, briefly clicked her tongue.

  “Tch. I’m hardly in a position to complain, but the air here is unpleasant. Take care not to let your guard down. The Kaiser has already settled in. Even I haven’t the faintest idea of what awaits us, but whatever it may be, you can be sure that it won’t be pleasant.”

  “Yes, ma’am. I will stay battle-ready. Master Kaito, I beseech you to stay behind me so that you may avoid harm.”

  “Ah, right. Thanks.”

  Kaito nodded, then obediently moved to Hina’s rear. Hina grinned as she gave a bow.

  “Be at ease. No matter the cost, I shall protect you, Master.”

  Her words dripped with their usual admiration, but in her arms, she brandished a massive halberd.

  The weapon cast a fiendish silhouette, and it was much taller than she was. Its lance head was disturbingly thick, and a fat, curved sword was attached to the ax head. It must have been tremendously heavy, but Hina carried it with the same grace and dignity she would carry a teapot to a tea party.

  Kaito couldn’t tell if the scene before him was a joke or a nightmare. He felt light-headed from the vertigo the spectacle inspired within him.

  Elisabeth had been right—the air here was unpleasant. The atmosphere, too, carried an uncomfortable heat. It almost felt as though that fire was still smoldering somewhere deep in the earth. All the bodies should have rotted away or turned to ash by now, but Kaito occasionally caught a strong whiff of something rotting. He couldn’t help but feel that the sentiments and regrets of those who had died here were decomposing like their flesh, accumulating into a thick muck.

  And the hatred and malice that muck was spewing forth were directed at a single woman.

  Loathsome Elisabeth, repulsive Elisabeth, cruel, hideous Elisabeth!

  A curse upon you, a curse upon you, a curse, a curse, an eternal curse upon you, Elisabeth!

  The entire town joined together in a voicel
ess roar. It was no mere trick of the ear.

  After all, this was a place of death. It was Elisabeth’s hometown, the place where the Torture Princess was born. But the woman in question ignored the pressure bearing down on her from all sides. Elisabeth walked on with a ruler’s composure.

  What’s going through your head right now?

  Kaito couldn’t begin to imagine how she felt. But he had no idea of what to ask or how to ask her. He wasn’t even sure if there was any reason to ask in the first place. Besides, figuring out how to deal with the Kaiser took top priority.

  He simply followed after Elisabeth, walking across roads of hardened muck and ash.

  The town was littered with mementos of the atrocities that took place there. Half-buried skulls were lined up in rows like a vegetable plot. A large tree had survived the fire, and dangling from its branches were three human skeletons and one dog skeleton bound by wire. No doubt it had been set up so that when the canine struggled to get free, its claws would dig into the survivors.

  Kaito knit his brows at the appalling scene. Suddenly, one skull slowly looked up from its pile.

  “…Huh?”

  “Hmm? What is it, Kaito?”

  “Look over there.”

  A skeleton was leisurely tilting its neck, its hollow eye sockets trained directly on Elisabeth. Kaito rubbed his eyes. But no matter how many times he checked, the pile of bones that should have been lying prone was staring straight at them. That was when it happened.

  Click, click, clack.

  A band of skeletons appeared from behind a dilapidated house, making miserable, dry clacking noises as they leaped onto the main road. Spears had been thrust all the way up their rear ends and protruded from their mouths, and their spines were riddled with splinters. Their arms and legs were trimmed off. With their tragic bodies, they danced in the street, spinning with what appeared to be joy.