***
The year his son turned eight, he went to a stream with his peers and fell into a deep spot. It was a point where two streams coming from upstream met, making the water deep and the flow fast.
A herbalist nearby pulled him out, but his breath had already stopped.
At that time, Rasid was riding his horse. He had gone out quite far to refresh the mood of the horses that had been tied up in the stable for days on end. Returning home as the sunset began to fall, he saw his son lying pale in front of the mansion.
“The young master met with an accident at the stream.”
Even after receiving the facts, he could not realize the truth. Because his son’s appearance just looked like he was sleeping. He stared vacantly down from his saddle at his wife, who was hugging the body.
And suddenly, he remembered.
‘The glass bottle.’
The one he had snatched from the alchemist.
He jumped off the saddle and ran into the house. He took out the glass bottle he had kept in a wooden box with straw. Even though nearly ten years had passed, the purple liquid sloshed while emitting a brilliant light.
Originally, Rasid did not consider it special. What eternal life? He had thought it was just something helpful for health. Even that had changed as time passed, thinking it was nothing special, and he had forgotten its very existence.
However, upon witnessing his son’s death, a certainty he hadn't felt until then arose. That perhaps it was an elixir that could wake even a dead person. He opened the stopper and poured it into his dead son’s mouth without leaving a single drop.
“……”
He closed his son’s mouth and watched for a reaction. There was no movement. He waited again, but there was no change. His son was still pale, cold, and his breath was stopped.
He threw the glass bottle. Sadness rushed in along with disappointment, and he realized the fact that his son had crossed a river he could not return from. Rasid entrusted the funeral to the priest and then carried his son in a coffin and buried him in the ground.
A few days passed.
Rasid and his wife tried to forget their sadness. However, not even ten days after his son died, a strange rumor arose. That sounds were being heard from the cemetery.
It was a rumor that voices like a person’s crying or screaming were being heard, rather than common animal cries. Because it was passed down among the residents, Rasid, who had stayed indoors during that time, did not know, but he learned of the rumor when the priest visited.
“We must dig up your son’s grave.”
At the priest’s request, Rasid immediately shouted.
“What kind of talk is that?”
As he shouted not to talk nonsense, the priest calmed him down and answered. That screams were heard from underground, and they seemed to be leaking from his son’s grave.
“It seems your son is alive.”
Rasid gasped in surprise. Just as his wife, who was walking behind him, stumbled, he hurriedly hugged her. She grabbed her husband’s arm while trembling like an aspen leaf.
“Is, is it certain?”
His wife asked.
“It is certain.”
The priest asserted.
Strength went tightly into their hands.
The couple looked at each other in silence for a long time and then nodded. Since it was a silent agreement, the priest immediately gathered people and headed for the cemetery.
“I hear it. It is down here.”
“My goodness, O Hestio......”
Screams were truly being heard from the grave. The sound was heard louder as they got closer to his son’s grave, and when they began to dig the ground, the sound became even louder.
His wife sobbed and covered her face with both hands. Rasid could do nothing but hug her. He watched with wide eyes as they dug up his son’s grave.
Eventually, the coffin was revealed.
The voice cut off abruptly, but the workers could not bring themselves to touch the coffin and looked at Rasid. Rasid pushed them aside, went down, and grabbed the coffin lid. Very faintly, so faintly it wouldn't be heard unless one listened closely, a crying sound was heard. He immediately opened the lid as if tearing it off.
Inside was his crying son.
#
“—Like that, I returned home with my revived son.”
The recollection was cut off as old Rasid coughed.
Even after letting out dry coughs several times, his throat did not clear, so he pounded his chest with his fist, and only after being handed a glass of water by Ulrih and moistening his throat did he breathe evenly.
“Did you not think something was wrong?”
“I did not. How could I? When the child I thought was dead opened both eyes perfectly and called us, what kind of suspicion would I harbor as a parent?”
After a moment of silence, he asked again.
“Others must have been suspicious? The priest presided over the funeral, and he must have been trapped in the coffin for days. Not a single person felt it was strange?”
“People did not see me feeding my son the medicine. So they believed there was some big mistake. Like we had buried a fainted child by mistake. Because there was no other way to explain it. The priest was the same.”
“The priest too?”
Ulrih frowned slightly and stroked his chin with his index and middle fingers. His mouth moved as if he were muttering something, but it did not reach Priest Roberta’s ears.
“My son lost most of his memories. He remembered nothing other than that we were his parents. His speech became slurred like a baby just learning, and his behavior was the same.”
“……”
“We thought it was because of the shock. Hadn't he been trapped in that narrow, dark coffin for days? How could he maintain his sanity? We believed the young thing had received too big a shock, and that it would gradually get better.”
However, Rasid, who added that, bit his lip.
“His body did not grow either. He did not grow even a little from his appearance on the day he died. Also, his mind did not regain memories or learn new things... it changed strangely.”
“Like an animal.”
At the word animal, Roberta looked at the boy.
The boy, who had his face buried in the fruit bowl, had now thrown the bowl aside and was picking up the dried fruit pieces that had fallen on the floor with his mouth. Even though his limbs were perfectly fine, he acted like a four-legged dog.
Rasid said he had made countless attempts to correct such behavior, but all had failed, and it only got worse as time passed. He said he had no sleep at night and wandered around even at dawn, attacking neighbors and livestock, acting like a crazy person and gnawing away at the couple’s hearts.
“Still, you endured for a long time.”
“I merely endured. Nothing got better.”
“Usually, even enduring is difficult, even for family.”
Ulrih nodded and asked.
“So? What is the reason you came to me? Why did you come all the way here instead of just looking after that thing until the end of your life? With what whim?”
“At first, I intended to do that. But suddenly, before my wife died, she said. That our son didn't seem to be our son. And then she said she was asking me a favor.”
That became the catalyst for him to take his son and leave.
To fix his son, he met all sorts of people, and among them were several dwarves and elves. However, among them, there were few who noticed the problem. Even if they noticed, there was not a single person who offered a solution.
“The process of finding the Lord is exactly as I said before. It was a coincidence. When I reached Osnober, I heard it by chance. That the Lord had lived for a very long time and was even young. So I sought you out just in case.”
“I see.”
Ulrih shook his head.
“Your expectations must be high, but fixing it is impossible.”
Rasid answered, “Is that so?” and lowered his head.
“Since he isn't even alive in the first place.”
“What do you mean by that? Isn't he alive right here?”
“Isn't it not him?”
The two looked at the boy.
“What your wife said is right. That is not your son.”
“......If it is not my son, then what is it?”
“It must be something that was contained in the glass bottle.”
The boy picked up every single crumb on the floor and ate them all. When no more food was visible, he sat down and sucked his fingers, and then, since even that was boring, he bit his fingernails.
When Rasid reached out his hand to stop this, he instead bit his father’s hand firmly. He struck his forehead with his other hand to separate them, but his teeth had dug into the flesh, so blood flowed.
“There is no way to fix it. From now on, it will only get worse, it won't get better. Once you die, there will be no one to control him, so he will go wild. Just like all magical beasts do.”
“My son is not a magical beast.”
“Rasid, how long are you going to deceive yourself?”
Ulrih took out a handkerchief and wrapped it around the wound. Rasid’s wrinkled face crumpled as if he were about to cry. It wouldn't be because of the pain from the wound, Roberta thought as she looked at the old man’s slumped shoulders.
“You said a few people noticed before me. What they said, and how you would have reacted—do you think I wouldn't know?”
“Wh-What do you mean?”
He asked back as if he didn't know, but his expression froze and his voice trembled.
Ulrih did not interrogate him further. He looked at Rasid without a word, and at that gaze, the old man’s face turned white as he poured out words.
“Then what should I have done, no, what should I do? If you know my sin... you must also know why I did it. Would you have had any other way?”
At the sight of him raising his voice while expressing his sense of injustice, Ulrih turned his gaze toward the side of the desk instead of answering. There was a sword sheathed in a faded scabbard without a single decoration.
Rasid trembled.
“N-No.”
“Sin is something that can never escape punishment forever.”
He blocked Ulrih’s front and glared.
“There must be another way......”
“There is no other way.”
“How can you be so certain?”
Rasid distorted his expression severely and trembled.
“Step aside.”
He shook his head with difficulty. Ulrih let out a small sigh and grabbed Rasid’s shoulder, pushing him aside. The old man staggered and slumped powerlessly on the floor, and Ulrih leaned his upper body and reached for the scabbard.
At that moment, Roberta saw the process of emotions disappearing from the old man’s face. The face that had accumulated wrinkles through a lifetime of hardship changed like a judge delivering a stern sentence as he shouted, and almost at the same time, the boy sprang forward.
The son, who had been quietly watching the situation since the two were confronting each other, bared his teeth and struck Ulrih’s back as soon as his father fell and called his name for the first time in this place.
“Lord!”
Roberta shouted.
There was no time to stop him. In the blink of an eye, the boy clung to Ulrih’s back as if hugging him and bit his neck. His hand stabbed Ulrih’s side with a dagger and twisted it.
Ulrih collapsed without even a terminal scream.
“What are you doing!”
Belatedly, Roberta entered and interrogated him.
“I, I had no choice.”
Rasid stood vacantly and then flinched at the roar, stepping back. He seemed surprised by the sudden intruder, yet also surprised by the fact that she was wearing a priest’s robe.
He repeated several times that he had no choice while turning his gaze to avoid the fierce eyes directed at the old man.
“No choice? This kind of act?”
“There is no other way, is there!”
Just as she was about to ask why there was no way, Rasid drew his sword with a shout and stretched one foot long forward. The experience of an old man over sixty produced a flawless blow.
However, in Roberta’s eyes, it was too slow. She took a step forward crudely, twisted her body slightly to the side, and grabbed the hand holding the sword, breaking it. The broken hand dropped the sword, and she caught it in the air and swung it diagonally.
Blood splattered.
“Do you think the same trick will work again!”
Roberta glared at him and shouted loudly, then quickly turned her body. The boy was lunging at her just as he had done to Ulrih.
She easily avoided this too and swung the sword. This time, the boy twisted his body, but his right shoulder, which had been holding the dagger, was cut, revealing the inside that had been hidden by the skin.
She clicked her tongue upon seeing the cross-section.
The outward appearance was that of a human, but the inside was not. The cross-section of the shoulder was shaped like a tree rooted in the ground. Red stems wriggled, filling the inside. She had never seen or heard of such a monstrosity.
The monster wearing the mask of a boy glared at her while letting out a shriek.
She also crumpled her expression and faced him the same way.
“How dare a mere magical beast.”
The monster before her eyes did not have the energy that a creation of an evil god would usually emit. It meant it was not a life that had been touched by an evil god. If it had been, she would have noticed even without eavesdropping on the conversation between Ulrih and Rasid.
However, the Pantheon did not only treat creations of evil gods as magical beasts. It was a derogatory term for all lives that were not in the scriptures or that committed evil acts.
She scanned the monster’s condition.
Even after losing its shoulder, there was no imbalance in its physical body. Neither pain nor fatigue from the wound was visible. Even though blood was gushing out fiercely, it was indifferent.
Was the boy’s body merely a shell?
Red stems wriggled and popped out from the cross-section like fluttering threads.
“O Ganimea, punish the sins of ignorance and savagery.”
Roberta moved the mana within her body while reciting a prayer. The blade began to emit a faint light. Since it was a phenomenon where mana transferred from the body to the blade, creating an edge sharper than a steel blade, the monster took a step back upon seeing this.
She gripped the sword handle tightly. She also leaned her upper body forward, preparing to kick off the ground and stab. A magical beast was not even worth capturing. She intended to see the end in one blow, and the creature also bared its teeth while being wary.
And just then, Ulrih rose right behind the creature.
“······?”
The creature felt the presence and tried to turn its body, but it was too late. Ulrih pressed down on its shoulder with one hand and grabbed its head with the other, pulling it right out. A tearing sound followed as the monster’s head was pulled out by the roots and burst from the grip strength.
“Lord? How…?”
Roberta stepped back from her stance.
“Well, this is the reason I can live this long.”
Part of the blood spilled on the office floor began to flow.
The flow was toward Ulrih. The blood pool at his feet climbed up and eventually flowed into the wounds on his chest and neck. It was clear that the blood he had shed was returning to its owner.
The wounds also healed. The wounds that had swallowed all the blood were healing as quickly as if they were closing their mouths. Ulrih approached Roberta, took her hand, and had her fingers feel the wounds on his neck and side, then said.
“I am not a magical beast, so do not worry, Roberta.”