Seventh – Part 05
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Translator: Kell
The mansion was surrounded by high walls, probably to keep wild animals away. I considered strolling through the forest, but the gate was tightly closed, so I decided to check out the backyard instead.
Sept said it was Torres’ hunting mansion. There were indeed crests in the shape of a ship everywhere.
There were stables and a chicken coop, but there was no sign of any animals, probably because the owner was away.
It was normal to employ servants to manage a mansion, but Torres probably dismissed them to give refuge to Thirteenth and Sept.
I found a quiet bench in a corner of the backyard. I set Lily down on it, and I sat down next to her.
“So why were you eavesdropping in my room?”
The light from the setting sun filtered through the trees, dying Lily’s white fur red.
“Father said I could ask him anything,” she replied. “So I did.”
“So you’ve made up your mind. What did you ask for?”
“I asked to see his face. I saw it once before, but it was covered in blood and I didn’t get a good look at it.”
Speaking of which, the first and last time Lily saw the priest’s face was when the other adjudicator, a woman called Corruption, caught him, tied him to a chair, and tortured him.
“What a waste. You should’ve asked for something more amazing. Like not just his face. Tell him you want to see him naked.”
“I-I don’t want to see that! Dummy!”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it, Miss Innocent.”
Lily clenched her fists and punched me, but it didn’t hurt at all. If I was staring blankly into the distance, I probably wouldn’t even notice she was hitting me.
“Y-You can’t even say that yourself.”
“Why would I want to see the priest naked?”
“Not him. Big sister.”
“Wh-Why would I want to see her naked?!”
“You don’t want to?” she asked in a serious tone.
“No,” I answered seriously. “Well, I mean, I’ve seen it a few times.”
“What?!”
“Only seen though. Why are you looking at me like I’m some kind of a maniac? And why are you moving away from me?”
I flicked her forehead with my claw. Lily let out a squeak, glaring at me as she held her forehead.
“So what happened?” I asked.
“He didn’t show me.”
“What?”
“He said it doesn’t count as compensation. If I want to see his face, I can just ask.”
“Makes sense.”
The priest might have been trying to be nice, but Lily was not happy.
“Why do you even want to see his face?”
“Father asked the same thing.”
“I’m pretty sure anyone would ask the same question.”
“He’s beautiful for a man, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, he’s got a nice face.”
So did Thirteenth and Sept, the former with his extraordinary features, of course. Lily shouldn’t know that Sept was a man since she was fast asleep back then.
“I like beautiful things. I feel happy when I see sparkly stuff. I want to look at them forever.”
She was excited about the attire for the ball.
Given the miserable environment she grew up in, I understood her feelings of admiring beautiful things. For a poor Beastfallen—basically synonymous with misery—beautiful things seemed incredibly out of reach, farther than most people would think.
“I said it must be nice to be him. I said that I wanted to be like him. Then I could look in the mirror and be happy all the time. But then he said, why don’t you become human? I could be one, like the snake back in the castle.”
I stared at Lily for a while. “Oh, right. You don’t know about it, huh? Of course you don’t.”
Before I met Zero, I too thought that Beastfallen were born as a result of having a demon in your body due to the evil you did in your previous life. I didn’t think I could become human, and I didn’t have any intention of becoming one.
My dream was to open a tavern somewhere and live peacefully as a Beastfallen. I also hoped I would find a woman who would love me for who I was.
“Do you want to become human?” I asked.
Lily shot me an uneasy look. I thought she would immediately nod, but her gaze fell down. “If I was human, would Father like me?”
“What?”
Wait, what were we talking about again? And what’s this about the priest?
“Wait a minute… You like the priest?”
Lily covered her face with her small hands. Her ears flopped and her tail stiffened. So it’s a yes.
“You just like him for his pretty face!”
“N-No! Father’s nice!”
“Nice how?! He treats you like trash!”
“It doesn’t hurt when he hits me. I don’t get injured. He responds to me when I talk to him, and he even wants to thank me for saving his life.”
Her standards were too low. Then again, she was a rat Beastfallen. Unlike a Beastfallen like me who was an object of terror, she was subjected to a completely different kind of persecution.
“M-Maybe I won’t be pretty if I become human. Even if I was, would that be the real me? And if I become human, I’ll lose my friends.”
By friends, she probably meant the rats. She must have been talking to rats since she was born.
Rats were everywhere. She probably did everything with them. She couldn’t imagine a life without hearing their voices.
Would she be willing to throw away everything? Take a gamble without knowing what she would even look like, and cast away the body she’d become familiar with just to become human?
“Well, if you think about it,” I said, “even romance between normal humans don’t go well sometimes. What I’m saying is, if we become human, it doesn’t automatically mean that things will work out great.”
“True…”
“But hey, even if it doesn’t work out with the priest, some other guys might approach you.”
“But I want Father.”
“That’s a tough one.”
Lily let out a groan.
I had absolutely no idea what to do.
If Theo was here, he might have some better advice, but unfortunately I didn’t have the power to hear the voices of the dead.
There was one thing I knew, however. The priest despised Beastfallen. As long as Lily remained as one, her feelings for him would never be reciprocated.
“Maybe I can be one for a moment,” Lily said.
“What?”
“I will become human for a moment, and if Father says no, I can go back to normal.”
“You saw what happened at the castle, right? Your heart gets stabbed.”
“It looked painful.” Lily turned pale with fear as she recalled the shrieks the snake made.
Thirteenth gave me a Magic potion before that could apparently make me human, but seeing as it wasn’t widely used, it probably wasn’t easy to concoct. Either that, or Thirteenth was just keeping the manufacturing process to himself, and he parted ways with Albus before he could teach it.
“Wait, I think I got,” I said. “I believe priests can’t get married. And adjudicators from Dea Ignis are basically people on death row. I don’t think people like that can get married.”
“I-I don’t care about marriage…” Lily squeezed her necklace.
Down in the south where Lily grew up, there was a custom of giving a necklace to your partner.
“Anyway, I don’t know anything about romance, but it’s probably best to give up on the priest. Maybe your parents will be happy if you come home as a human.”
Lily shook her head with conviction. “I’m a rat, so rats don’t munch on anything in the house. Our clothes and food last a little longer. And a rat like me doesn’t have to eat much. So I can’t be a normal human. The governor also asked me to come with him. I said I want mom and dad to come with me, and he said it’s fine. When I told him that mom was a very good cook, he said he’d pick us up on a ship. But he only said all that because I’m a Beastfallen.”
“That guy’s a weirdo, yes.”
“But I was glad. My being a Beastfallen made him happy. Only big sis and the governor like me as I am.
Huh. So I don’t count. Probably ’cause we’re both Beastfallen, I guess.
After saying everything she wanted to say, Lily breathed a deep sigh, then glanced at me. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“Do you want to become human?”
I frowned. It was the exact same question I’d been asking myself, and in the end, hadn’t found an answer for.
When I didn’t answer, Lily’s ears perked up as if she had an idea.
“I get it,” she said. “You’re fine the way you are.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Because you have big sis. That’s why you can stay the same.” She smiled and looked at me enviously.
I wanted to become human so I wouldn’t get persecuted anymore. I could live a normal life. But if I could get that opportunity even as a Beastfallen, perhaps I didn’t have to be so fixated on becoming human. I think.
I hated this body so much before that I even tried to peel my skin off, but now I found it useful in its own way. I also quite liked it when Zero treated me like a bed or when she complimented my fur.
I scratched the back of my neck. Darn it. Zero this, Zero that. When did my every thought start revolving around her? This is so not me.
I stood up, and so did Lily. Suddenly she froze and strained her ears.
She had better hearing than I did. I pressed my ear to the ground to check, and I heard the drumming of hooves approaching the mansion.
“What the… Why are horses coming here?”
I picked Lily up and rushed towards the main gate, where I found Zero, Thirteenth, and Sept all standing there together.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s an urgent message,” Thirteenth replied. “One of the witch’s paths has been opened.” He had already noticed that someone was coming before Lily and I sensed it.
Sept opened the main gate a little and waited. Then a rider came galloping into the mansion with the setting sun behind him. On his cloak was the image of a ship, the crest of Ideaverna’s governor, Torres.
“I have a message from Lord Torres!” As soon as the messenger dismounted, he presented a letter. “Here.”
Thirteenth took the letter silently. As he briefly examined the contents, his expression changed.
It was rare to see such a look on the face of a man who barely changed his expression. I watched cautiously, wondering what the letter said, but it was much more startling than I imagined.
“This is outrageous!” Thirteenth exclaimed. “The Mooncaller has issued a decree that all Church officials will be expelled from the kingdom and anyone who resists will be burned at the stake! First those who attacked the tunnel will be executed!”
My jaw dropped. No fuckin’ way. It only meant one thing.
“She declared war against the Church.” The priest said, appearing at the perfect timing. “The Knights Templar will not stand by and do nothing. A war will break out, a war between the Kingdom of Wenias and the Church—no, a large-scale war between witches and the Church that will involve the surrounding nations.”
Zero turned around, her cloak flaring, and headed back to the mansion.
“Thirteenth! Send us back to Latette. I will return to the castle and give that fool another slap on her face.”
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