"Where are you hiding..."
The fake capital. The Deep Layer.
Linmel stepped forward cautiously, prepared to shatter anything that dared to block her path.
"Miss, the fish is fresh today. The mackerel is absolutely incredible..."
"Hmph!"
*Slash!*
It was no different even if it took the form of a human. The merchant, who had been trying to solicit business, was sliced in half and collapsed to the ground.
No blood flowed. The severed area was filled with something like white clouds, and the merchant continued to wander about, not even realizing that he was dead.
"..."
"Oh, really? Then let me take a look~"
Watching other citizens casually chatting with the severed mist, Linmel sighed and rolled her eyes.
'Ugh, this is disgusting. This is why I hated this.'
The Witch of The Void was the enemy Linmel loathed the most.
In terms of raw lethality, she wasn't even worth an ant. She couldn't kill a single person.
But in terms of malice, she was more horrific than any other enemy.
It wasn't for nothing that she was called a witch.
Everyone who encountered the Witch of The Void lost their memories, regardless of whether they were a knight, a mage, or anything else.
If it was something trivial, they might forget about an individual; if it was severe, they might even forget how to walk.
To Linmel, who lived by those very memories, she was an utterly repulsive opponent.
"I didn't like you back then, either."
The library.
Arriving in front of the main entrance, Linmel steadied her breathing and gripped her sword.
There was nothing that couldn't be cut, provided it existed as a solid wall. Linmel’s sword fell slowly from above.
"Right now—I just wish you were dead."
*Hum...*
A light vibration covered the capital.
And the sword did not pierce the door.
"?"
To be precise, it remained stuck between the doors, unable to move. There was no way she couldn't cut through something as simple as a wooden door. She had even put quite a bit of sincerity into the strike; even if it had been made of double-hardened steel, it should have been sliced like tofu.
Something beyond the door was gripping her sword.
*Thud!* As soon as Linmel realized this, she immediately put her full strength into driving the sword further in.
"Ah."
It was a misjudgment.
As if it had been waiting for her, the door greedily swallowed the sword. Since it seemed ready to swallow her hand along with it, she had no choice but to let go, forced to listen to the sound of steel being scraped and bent from the other side of the door.
*Ptooey.* Before long, the completely mangled sword was spat back out.
Linmel looked at her beloved sword for a moment and chuckled.
"Oh, really?"
With a wound like this, she could just straighten it out and use it again. She had the strength for that much.
But her pride wouldn't allow it. Linmel clenched her fist and slammed it directly into the door.
*Bang, bang!! Crash!!*
With every punch, sawdust and dust scattered. As expected, if it had been an ordinary door, it would have been smashed to pieces long ago, but it held up surprisingly well. It even felt as if it were repairing itself.
Of course, Linmel wasn't just pounding away without a plan.
'If I keep pounding until night, they'll come out because it's noisy, right?'
She had her own logic.
Perhaps that intention worked, as a response finally came from beyond the door after she had been pestering it for a while.
[Stop it.]
It was an icy voice.
[Leave when I allow you to.]
"I don't want to?"
[I don't want to kill you. You were a knight Zern cherished.]
"...I hate you even more now."
*Crack!*
A punch with even greater intensity than before struck the door once more.
Linmel, gripping her fist which had begun to bleed, glared at the other side of the door and issued a threat.
"Open this door. If you don't, I'll split this entire capital in two."
[...]
"Do you think I can't do it?"
[Haa...]
*Click.*
She heard the sound of the door handle turning.
"Should've done that from the start."
Linmel grumbled and opened the door.
Inside the library—there was only thick fog. A space like the inside of a cloud, with no archives, no books, no floor, and nothing else.
Thinking that it felt like the inside of the citizen's body she had seen earlier, she walked into the hard, rather than soft, interior. As she did, someone walked out from the other side with a truly horrific expression.
It was Elicia. Unlike herself, she hadn't grown even a bit.
"...Why are you so young?"
"You didn't come here to talk about things like that."
Elicia opened her mouth while sitting perched somewhere with a weary expression.
"Did Father send you?"
"No. Well, I think I might have heard him mention it briefly."
She had heard that Aletus was doing everything in his power to get his daughter back.
She thought he had asked her to do him a favor as well, but she couldn't quite remember.
Elicia turned her head as if she had expected as much and continued slowly.
"I can't go back. I've gathered all the necessary memories, so I won't be attacking people anymore. I'll just stay here and do nothing, so just go back."
"I don't feel particularly sorry, but—no."
Linmel replied, extending her hand with a disgusted expression, as if she were reaching into a trash can.
"Come out. Zern is waiting outside."
"Zern..."
At those words, Elicia looked behind her for a moment and gave a self-deprecating smile.
"I don't know what you were deceived by, but Zern is gone."
"What?"
"That's a fact I found out after entering the Red Lotus. Zern is—officially dead."
Elicia slowly lowered her head.
Linmel blinked her eyes for a moment, then showed the reaction that was only appropriate.
'Sigh, you crazy girl...'
Was this really worth taking back?
Wouldn't it be the right thing to do for both Zern and herself to just deal with her here and make the excuse that she had become too malicious to be saved?
As she weighed that possibility and thought about the reaction Zern would have after she delivered the news, she clicked her tongue.
In the end, she had to take this deranged woman with her somehow. It would be dangerous if Zern came in here.
"I saw it with my own two eyes. If you don't believe me, follow me out and see for yourself."
"I also confirmed it with my own two eyes—no, with something else. Zern was swallowed by the Deep Sea. Into the Deep Sea, from which he can never return."
"No, that's why I'm telling you to see for yourself."
"Cheonhwa deceived Zern."
Elicia trembled, continuing with hollow eyes.
"You wouldn't know what kind of place the Deep Sea is. Have you even dipped a toe in it?"
"No. But I do know you aren't listening to a word I'm saying."
"I have dipped into it. That's why I know—Zern cannot return."
Elicia snapped at Linmel and hugged her knees.
She looked more like a child of her age than a witch who had stolen the memories of countless knights.
"Why didn't he tell me? I could have fought in his place. Instead of going into that kind of hell, he should have used me..."
Again, and again, and again.
Elicia had struggled to find something that would prove her thoughts wrong.
But she couldn't find Zern anywhere in the world. And if a being that didn't exist in this world had fallen into another place...
The only place Zern could be was the Deep Sea.
It was the moment Elicia lost her reason to fight.
"What are you fighting for?"
"...Me?"
Linmel, who had been listening with her arms crossed to see how far she would go, tilted her head at the sudden change in topic.
"You saw in the capital that you can't defeat The Great Void in the end, didn't you?"
Elicia held the dagger that would kill The Great Void.
But holding a dagger and being able to plunge it into a heart were worlds apart.
If Zern returned with it, she could risk her life. She would use her body, which had become unable to die, to struggle against the impossible as much as she wanted.
But right now, she couldn't find a single reason to do so.
"Why fight a losing battle?"
"Because I believe Zern will return."
"...I see."
A hope that could only be held because of ignorance.
Elicia thought she was slightly envious of her.
But Linmel's words didn't end there.
"And even if he doesn't return, I won't give up."
"What...?"
"Even if he doesn't return for my whole life and I never see him again, it doesn't matter."
"Why, why?"
"Because I think Zern would be sad if I were blubbering like you."
Her words were sharp, but she answered with a slightly softened attitude.
It was only a little, but she could understand why she had fallen into despair.
"Look at yourself. Stuck in this capital, stealing people's memories in this empty fog, and being called a witch. What do you think Zern would say if he saw you?"
"...Zern is gone."
"You can keep thinking that, but for now, get out of here. If you don't want to, at least go outside the city walls once. No, but in the first place, what is this creepy place?"
Linmel wandered around the fog-like library, feeling puzzled.
Come to think of it, something was strange. If she had given up on the fight in despair, thinking Zern was dead, she should have just stayed holed up in some cave somewhere; why on earth did she come to the capital?
And why, of all things, did she steal people's memories? What was she using them for?
"You said you gave up on everything, so what were you doing here?"
"L-leave. Let's talk outside."
As Linmel began to wander around the library, Elicia seemed anxious and tried to stop her.
Linmel felt suspicious.
'She’s definitely been up to something.'
Come to think of it, would a Fallen One have just stolen memories?
It was obvious she had used those memories to create something. Perhaps she was using that ability to kidnap other humans and suck out their marrow to maintain her youth.
Linmel glared at the mist for a moment, then her eyes lit up.
"Aha, I knew it."
Looking somewhere into the mist, she lunged forward and grabbed a stone.
*Click.* As soon as the stone was shifted from its place, the mist vanished in an instant.
The space she had thought was inside the clouds was, in fact, just the capital’s library. This stone had been emitting the mist, tricking them into thinking the library was some separate, isolated space.
As Elicia’s expression gradually stiffened, Linmel’s suspicions turned into certainty.
"I knew you were doing something filthy. Zern might forgive you for it, but I won't."
At the very least, she couldn't let this be hidden.
Thinking that the price for evil deeds must be paid, Linmel ignited her aura and raised her Sense—
Something walked out from the back of the library.
"Big sister, are you done? It’s a bit uncomfortable in that corner."
"...?"
"What? Who is this person?"
Linmel, who had been bracing herself to smash whatever homunculus the witch had created, widened her eyes.
Zern was there.
In his childhood form.
"Uh..."
Elicia patted that Zern’s head a few times, then shrugged as if it were no big deal.
"Now, go read your book for a moment. I have something to discuss with my friend..."
"Okay, I understand."
As Zern disappeared toward the back of the library with his signature indifferent expression, a heavy silence fell between the two.
"What is that?"
"W-well, I made it by blending memories... Since I govern The Void, I can create the same things using materials that share the same form within that realm, so using other people's memories..."
As Elicia stammered out her excuse, Linmel asked coldly.
"That’s not what I asked."
"...I was lonely."
Elicia lowered her head, blushing as if even she felt embarrassed by what she had created.
"What about the things outside?"
"Prototypes..."
"So, you attacked people and extracted their memories just to create a fake Zern who calls you 'big sister'?"
"I-I actually wanted to destroy the Empire. I’m a witch, after all."
"..."
"...I’m different from mortals like you. My world is The Void, so I’ve come to live a semi-infinite life. You’re telling me I can’t even do this during that lifespan? That’s too much!"
Watching Elicia, who seemed to have decided to stand her ground, Linmel fell into deep thought.
After a short deliberation, Linmel clenched her fist.
"Ah, sorry about this. You really are beyond saving."
Before taking her to Zern, it seemed she would have to settle the grudges of the poor knights whose memories had been stolen without cause.
The End
ⓒ Rotten Gimbap#1i525
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