Even a Scoundrel Gets Tired

139 – A First Meeting

≪You have encountered a being that is not easily approached.≫

≪Connection to the Status Window…is…unsta─≫

As the turbid, golden hue of the

circle oriented itself towards me,

a red sphere rotated this way and that.

*Kki-reuk, kki-reuk.*

Accompanying it was a bone-chilling mechanical sound.

[#@!Long..time..no..see?]

A voice spoke as if

it had known me from before,

and the sound echoed

throughout the entire space.

At the same instant,

beneath me,

the quietly flowing,

black sewage water began to swirl.

*Puaaak─*

The creation of the black vortex was instantaneous,

and it was no difficult thing for that inky water spray to touch my body.

[Why aren’t you #@$ dea#& yet?]

“…?”

[@#Give..up..hope..and regrets?]

*Shuaaak─*

As that chilling

voice broke the silence once more,

The spray that had lingered near me

only moments ago,

began to deepen once more, staining crimson.

[Shed joy, anger, sorrow, pleasure, and you shall realize the true nature of ■■.]

The voice was clearer now,

distinctly so compared to before,

yet a single word remained lost to me,

and the crimson spray, circling me ceaselessly

since a moment ago,

bloomed.

What do I mean?

Just as it sounds, a flower blossomed.

From that gruesome, viscous

mass of scarlet filth,

a mortally

beautiful crimson bud

bloomed towards me.

[A red evening primrose is truly beautiful, is it not?]

“….”

[At least, more so than humans.]

*Crack-*

The bud unfurled, baring its maw.

Bristling thorns, like

teeth erupted forth.

[Don’t you resent humans?]

“….”

[Each time, they tormented you, killed you, made you suffer so.]

A voice as if it saw

directly through my soul.

That chilling voice echoed without cease within my head.

As though you have no choice but

to listen to my words.

[Of course, not all of them were like that to you.]

Yes, undoubtedly.

Even in my first life after reincarnation,

I trusted someone

and died more painfully than anyone,

and in my second life, too,

I was alone, isolated,

The feeling grew colder, ever colder.

And this would repeat, ceaselessly.

Unless this reincarnation

should somehow cease.

But, even amidst all of it,

there were definitely a few good souls.

Like that nameless urchin

who, seeing me idly

observing the street, plucked a flower

for no reason and

offered it to me.

And also Aria and Sariel,

my family now,

people far too good for me—

[But how many

were there like that in your life?]

“….”

[And how much hope

did you place in them?]

It was then.

One more time, that b*stard’s

voice echoed.

As if they’d conspired together,

it was such

perfect timing, and

that confirmed it.

“This b*stard” was reading my thoughts.

[Doesn’t it weary you? Doesn’t it pain you?]

“….”

[Haven’t you ever wished to just give up?]

What was this fellow saying?

Give up?

What was it referring to?

My life, perhaps?

If that were the case,

I had the confidence to

smash that sphere myself, right then.

Because I had longed, so desperately, for surrender.

What kind of depraved being

would want to endlessly

endure the agony of approaching death?

Of course, I could concede that such a person

might exist, but

at least I

was not that person.

The instinct to survive, it wasn’t something you could discard so easily.

When night falls, a human

naturally feels their eyes closing,

and as time passes, they grow hungry, their throat parched.

Even if I desperately desired

an eternal end,

my body screamed, begging to live.

So, suicide, too,

must require great courage.

Me? Well, even if I had possessed such courage, it wouldn’t have ended.

[And the more it happened, didn’t it make you angry?]

I was angry.

What did I do wrong

to deserve such treatment,

why did it have to be me, of all people?

It would be a lie to say

that rage and hatred didn’t well up inside.

[I’ll do it for you, revenge.]

Crimson petals softly brushed past my cheek,

and I felt

as if someone were stroking my cheek,

a touch so warm and generous.

Unlike that chilling gaze

that had been staring at me,

unwaveringly, all this time.

[A place as bright as the sun

will never welcome you.]

“….”

[The place that will embrace you is bathed in moonlight.]

*Shoo-roo-rook*─

Once again, a spray of water swirls.

Not the same

foul, reddish wastewater from before,

but a spray of water clearly made from pure, pristine water.

“…Son?”

And soon, it

He greeted me with a new face.

A longed-for face,

the kind I truly wanted to see, changed into that very thing.

*

“…Son, my real son?”

“….”

The black-haired boy

said nothing.

Or, more precisely, it would

be more accurate to say he couldn’t.

Just a little, but his

pupils kept

trembling.

The very boy who, until just now, hadn’t given my words even a moment’s ear.

[…Hee hee hee hee.]

His eyes laughed.

They chuckled, oh, so heartily.

Because things were unfolding too easily,

[You too, in the end, couldn’t, abandon, longing.]

Humans are feeble.

They cannot endure without affection,

and they cannot endure without someone by their side.

Because of loneliness and longing,

those two pathetic emotions.

[Still, you endured…longer, than, I expected.]

Honestly, at first, I was flustered.

Because, undoubtedly, according to my

plan, you

should have fallen long ago.

Surrendering your body to me,

and brandishing a knife at everyone in this world,

becoming that kind of madman.

“Son… come here, let your mother embrace you.”

“….”

[Well… it doesn’t matter, since you’ve fallen now.]

It didn’t matter anyway.

After all, the situation was flowing as desired,

and now that child would be,

as he wished,

as I continued

Gonna be devoured, I am, by a glob of stagnant water

shaped just like the mother I craved.

Isn’t it a rather lavish death?

The person I so

yearned for, desired.

At least I get to die in their embrace.

[Normally, never would I have, gone this far, but…]

Normally, I’d have simply wrested

the consciousness from this body by force.

After all this time, this chance finally arrives.

Absolutely can’t afford to let it go,

nor did I ever want to.

Yet still, the pupils yield on their own.

A final reward for the boy

who struggled to survive, just to become

a vessel to contain me.

This much indulgence,

surely, it’ll be alright, I thought.

[Heh heh, I really am, too good, for my own goo–hm?]

“….”

“S-son? Where are you going?”

But alas, life,

never flows quite as you wish it to.

Splish, splash.

The boy’s feet move frantically,

and the place they’re heading, isn’t his mother, but…himself?

“Crazy b*tch.”

[Eeeeeek?!!]

The boy’s fist strikes true,

smashing right into the very center of the eye.

And with such precise,

uncluttered movements, no less.

The effect was tremendous.

Filthier water than any we’d seen,

far beyond anything the stagnant water produced until now,

squirted out, and within

that crimson sphere, a brilliant

The gleaming, golden circle had

already completely crumpled at its edges.

[Kyah-haak… haah!!]

“Yeah, just like you said,

I was pissed as hell and all that.”

[Kyah-heuup… this… this crazy b*stard..!!]

“I felt like I was wronged so bad… I wanted revenge, too.”

[But, why?!! Why are you doing this?!]

“…Still can’t understand, huh?”

Splurch, splurch.

Dirty fluids, like

a faucet being turned on,

began to spurt out, pshh-pshh,

and simultaneously, the screaming

from the pupils intensified.

It was because of the sensation of pain, something truly felt after so long.

[Kyaaahhh!! Stooop!!]

“And you crossed the line.”

[St… Stooop!!]

“Nothing else to show,

so you shoved Sariel in my face?”

What followed was a merciless beating.

Even as the pupils distorted,

the eyes, right now,

couldn’t comprehend the situation.

Hadn’t he just

said it himself a moment ago?

That he wanted revenge,

that it hurt and he felt wronged so badly.

Then, why, wasn’t he listening to him?

If only he’d listened

to what he’d said just a moment ago.

Those b*stards who ignored him,

tormented him, and hurt him.

He could have killed

every last one of them!!

[Ah, you, perhaps?]

“…?”

[All this time, the pain was… bearable?]

Crk-krk-k─

Now, his pupils are squeezed shut completely.

By the scarred,

small hand of the boy.

[Kyaaak!!!]

“It probably hurt even more than this.”

[Th..then why, wh-why?!]

The boy’s grip tightens, tearing

even more fiercely at the eye that

still doesn’t seem to understand.

A gesture that seemed to hold all the

resentment he’d harbored until now.

“That’s not it.”

[Kyaak..kheuheueuk..]

“Why should I vent my anger on others?”

[…?]

“Why do I have to release

my emotions on other people?”

[..What’s that supposed to mean?]

“I know who I need

to get revenge on.”

[So, that’s, a human..!!]

“What are you babbling about, you crazy b*tch.”

Without hesitation, the boy raises his hand.

The same hand he had

just jammed into the eyeball.

The boy and the pupil of the eye lock gaze.

No, in truth, it’s

a one-sided stare.

The boy, at the golden circle hidden within those red eyelids.

“The one I need to avenge myself on is you.”

[….]

“The one who summoned me here, the one who keeps reincarnating me.”

[….]

“The one who keeps making me suffer..!!”

[….]

“It’s all you, so why should I take revenge on someone else?”

[….]

“Ah, and… long time no see?”

[….]

“I’m seeing you for the first time, yo─”

“b*tch.”

A cry that sounded like

a raging beast.

That cry had, from a little

while ago, been fixed on one place alone.

[Heh heh, si, nce when, did you, see through, me?]

Revealing a voice that had

completely changed,

towards the golden moon in the crimson sky.