The place hadn’t changed, but it did feel different since that man appeared.
The room wasn’t all that large. The door was pasted with white papers of unknown construction. The room was empty other than that.
He hadn’t really been in the state to observe the room before, but now that he was, it really was empty. The only things here were the door and the black floor and walls. He couldn’t tell what they were made of right now.
“……”
He forced a little energy into his body after examining his surroundings, tensing himself for whatever would happen next.
Then he looked up at the man, who might have been around his own father’s age - it was difficult to tell. He looked young because of the obnoxiously superficial expression on his face, but he was probably just over thirty years old. He didn’t know who he was or what he had come here to do. But even if he didn’t know that…
“……”
Relux did understand that this man was stronger than he was.
Even Relux hadn’t known about this room until now. That meant that his father was hiding it. Keeping it secret. An outsider shouldn’t have been able to come in here so easily. The Eris property as a whole wasn’t somewhere that outsiders could just waltz into. So Relux was sure to ready himself for a fight as he watched the man.
The man smiled. It was a kind smile. “You don’t need to be so guarded, Relux.”
“Why do you know my name?”
“Because I looked it up.”
“There shouldn’t be any information about me outside of the Eris household.”
“So?” The man asked and smiled.
So?
Relux instantly felt stupid about making that comment. This man even knew about the monster on the other side of this door. Why wouldn’t he know about Relux?
The man continued with kindness that Relux had never seen until now.
“I suppose you don’t have any reason to answer if I ask who you are, so I won’t,” Relux said.
The man raised his eyebrows. “Because you’ve realized that I’m stronger than you?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re a clever kid. You’re twelve, right? Twelve year olds don’t need to be that clever.”
Relux’s expression didn’t change despite his comment. “Fools would not survive here.”
The man nodded. “Yeah, seems so.”
“Yes.”
“Then let me ask you this - did you know that cleverness alone won’t change this world?”
“……”
“Your dad didn’t teach you that part?”
“……”
“Well, I suppose your dad is only one of the gears that move this world. He wants the cleverness that he expects and the strength that he expects. But you’re different. You’re far more foolish than your father.”
Relux nodded. “I can’t win against him because I’m stupid.”
The man laughed and shook his head. “No, that’s not it. It’s because of that foolishness of yours that you’re capable of saving your sister. It’s what makes you capable of raising her up out of this despair. You can do things that your dad couldn’t because of it. I came here to help you with that.”
Relux’s eyes narrowed. Apparently this man already knew everything.
What exactly was the darkness that the Eris family was so full of?
This man seemed to know what Relux’s parents and even Relux himself were thinking on a deeper level than they themselves did.
The man continued, regarding Relux calmly and kindly as he did. “I think that you want to break free of this darkness. But not for your own sake. For your sister’s.”
Relux didn’t answer.
The man continued, unconcerned. “You were thinking that you’d kill your parents for her sake. You were thinking that the darkness of the Eris family would be a thing of the past then.”
“……”
“But did you really think that’d go well? Did you really think that this darkness would disappear just like that?”
“……”
“So what should you do then? Say you kill your mother and your father. Your cursed blood will still run through your veins. The blood that runs through your little sisters Ferris and Iris will still be cursed, too. So everyone will still go mad in the end. Your demon blood will get thicker and you’ll go mad. You’ll sleep with your sister, hoping for heirs. Because you’re all just puppets, in the end. You’re the demon’s puppets. But you’re saying that you hate the idea of that. So what will you do? What should you do?”
Relux looked up at the man. “Are you saying that you came here to save me from that? That you know a way out of it?”
“That’s right.”
“And what will you gain from it?” Relux asked. “There’s no way you would come here to save us with no benefit to yourself, is there?”
The man smiled. “You really are a clever child.”
“You yourself are the one who called me a fool earlier, though,” Relux said, his expression remaining unchanged.
“Hahaha. Did I?”
“Yes.”
“Then I guess you’re both, aren’t you? You’re too much of a fool to accept the truth, and just clever enough to be able to escape it. You can be saved. I’ll save you. But you’re clever, so you know that I wouldn’t do that without getting anything in return. And you’re correct. I will be compensated greatly for saving you. Do you want to know how?”
“If you want to tell me, then please do so. I don’t really have a choice in the matter either way. You are stronger than I am. You know more about this place than I do. And I can’t save my sisters how I am now. So…”
“So you can’t refuse my proposal?”
“That’s correct.”
“Then you’re accepting?”
“I am.”
“Even though you don’t know what exactly I’m proposing?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a really awful proposal, by the way. You’ll never be happy for all eternity. You’ll sink to the depths of dark despair, where you’ll wander forever. Will you still accept?”
“What would happen if I didn’t?”
The man shrugged. “You’re clever so you might have already realized this, but the truth is that there’s no refusing. I’ll do what I want to do, regardless of how it might make you feel. You’re just another sacrifice as far as my plan goes.”
Relux couldn’t help but smile. “You’re coming off as much more wicked of a demon than that monster from before.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I did scare the demon off. I might be the worst person of all,” he said, raising his hand up as he spoke.
He grasped Relux’s head with that hand.
“…So why are you doing this?” Relux asked as he looked up at the arm holding him down.
The man smiled. “I don’t have to answer—”
“Earlier you said that you offered your wife and the world itself up to save your child. In other words, you’re doing this for your own child’s sake, aren’t you?”
“……”
“Is that how you’ll benefit from this?”
The man stared into him. “You listened well despite the situation… You’re right. I do everything I do for my son’s sake.”
“And you used me for that sake, too?”
“I did.”
“And you sacrificed your wife as well as the whole world for that sake?”
“That’s right.”
“And there was worth in that?” Relux asked. “I don’t know what it means. But it had some worth to you, didn’t it?”
The man smiled like he was remembering something pleasant. “Of course it did. Because I love my son.”
“You ‘love’ him?” Relux asked.
“I do.”
“I don’t understand what that word means—”
“But you do,” he interrupted. “You want to save your sister. That must be love.”
“Love?”
“Yes. And you’re already mad from that love. You’ll kill your parents for love.”
“……”
“You’ll kill the demon.”
“……”
“And then you’ll kill the world. But you won’t care. You won’t care at all about who cries or who dies. You only care about protecting your sister. Am I wrong?”
All Relux could do was agree.
So the man smiled. “Then we’re partners. We’ll destroy the world together. It’s fitting for the maddened to become friends, isn’t it?”
The man’s fingers dug into Relux’s head, like he was feeling around, or trying to enter him. “What are you doing?”
“Something bad.”
His fingers entered his head. They danced and twirled inside him, but it didn’t hurt or feel uncomfortable at all. It was actually terribly pleasant. To the point where he would be fine surrendering to the feeling and losing consciousness. But he didn’t close his eyes. He just looked up at the man. “So who are you?” Relux asked. Though he hadn’t answered before, Relux figured he might as well try one more time.
The man looked down at him and answered. “Lieral. But you’ll soon forget that I told you. Because I’m going to erase your memory of us meeting.”
“You’re erasing my memory?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Why?”
Lieral smiled. Kindly, and yet somehow like a devil would. “I’m fiddling with things until everything about the world is just how I want it,” he said, then extracted his fingers from Relux. “All done~!”
He said that, but Relux still didn’t know what had just ended or what had just begun. “Earlier you said that my father is just one of the gears that moves this world.”
“Yep.”
“Did you make me another one of those gears?”
Lieral laughed happily. “I made you my ally.”
“Your ally?”
“Yes. My ally who will destroy the world with me - well, I don’t think I really need to explain that, though.”
“Because you’re erasing my memories?”
“Yeah.”
“Even with my memories erased, will I still be able to…”
“Protect your sister?”
“……”
Lieral smiled, his face full of pity despite its kindness. “I feel a little ashamed of myself here, messing up a kid as good as you are.”
“Then—”
“Don’t worry. You’ll be able to protect her,” Lieral interrupted. “Well, you’ll be destroyed over the next few years though. Anyway, let’s get started. The truth is that you don’t have much time. Countless spells inside of you now make up the God Devourer Lucile. Over the next few years you’ll slowly, but steadily eat the demon Eris. And then you…”
Lieral lifted his hand over to Relux again. He moved his fingers before his eyes, spinning them around an invisible ring.
“And then you’ll be expelled from this world and go mad. You’ll rise as something incompatible with humanity and incompatible with divinity - you’ll be the God Devourer Lucile. So goodbye, Relux. Your complete humanity will end once and for all—”
He didn’t catch the rest of that. Because Lieral raised his hand up, twirled it around, and a sound like a bell rang through his mind - no, a sound like a door had opened. The inside of his head suddenly heated up. His whole body heated up. He felt like his body would burst, like he’d stop existing here and now. He began to panic, trying to shake the pain off.
But he couldn’t.
He couldn’t shake the pain off, or his fear, or his anger, or his sadness.
Emotions he’d never felt until now were all pushed into him at once.
“Uuh…”
His whole body was made to shiver.
“Uugh, aaahh, aaauauuugh!”
It was to the point where had to scream.
And then…
“Lucile.”
He didn’t understand that for a moment. But he was soon able to comprehend it.
Someone was calling him. Calling his name.
He covered the emotions leaking out of his mouth with a hand.
Then he turned around. When he did, his father was standing there. He was the head of the Eris family, the ruler of this darkness. “Are you already at your limit?” He asked.
And the God Devourer - and Lucile looked at his father, then around the place he was standing at. It was a little room with a gray door. There was nothing else. There was no one else. He couldn’t recall why he was here, either. Though he did recall his father bringing him and the monster on the other side of the door.
“…I seem to have lost consciousness for a bit,” Lucile said.
His father nodded. “It’s been seven days. You did very well for your first time.”
“Is that so.”
“Yes. Though you didn’t do quite as well as I did. I wonder how long you’ll end up able to stay here. Did you speak with him?”
“With the demon Eris?”
“Yes.”
“We get along well.”
“You get along?”
“Yes. He taught me why the Eris family exists.”
“I see. Then…”
His father disappeared. No, he just seemed to disappear from in front of him. But he was able to react. His father’s breath was rotting with Eris’ scent, to the point where there was hardly a point in making a distinction between the two now - they were both empty. They were both inside the emptiness. And that was precisely why he couldn’t see him. Because he escaped reality and fled into the nothing.
But right now, he…
“……”
Lucile raised his right arm in a fist to react to his father, who had disappeared. But his father’s punch was faster. He slammed it into Lucile’s face, causing him to lose balance and slam against the floor.
His father looked down to him as he lay on the ground. “I see. You’ve taken Eris in without going mad.”
Lucile looked up at him. “And yet I still cannot even follow your movements.”
“I suppose not. You might not be as much of a genius as I am.”
Might not be as much of a genius.
He probably meant ‘genius’ as in the ability to take Eris in. The potential for being manipulated by Eris. He was a genius in that he was created by Eris and danced on Eris’ command.
Genius.
Genius. Genius. Genius.
He always said that those with no potential - those who weren’t geniuses - wouldn’t survive here. That meant that the only thing that mattered when it came to who lived and who died here was the ability to take Eris in.
That was why they called Ferris a failure. That was why they abandoned Iris. That was why Lucile was praised, told that he was outstanding, and led to this crazy place.
They all just existed to follow the stupid rules that Eris layed out for them.
“……”
Lucile smiled.
“What are you smiling about?” His father asked.
“…Am I?” Lucile asked, the smile remaining on his face.
His father nodded. “That’s what it looks like to me.”
“I see. I had no intention of doing that, though…”
“I suppose you’ve been in here a bit too long. You need to rest. You must come here daily from now on. Get used to Eris’ power, and come here until you can take it all in,” his father said. Then he turned and left.
Lucile looked around the room once more. Eris’ power permeated the whole room. Even now he could feel it reaching into him, trying to violate him. But he could also feel something inside of him pushing back at it. He didn’t know why he was able to do that, though.
“…Apparently I’m quite the failure myself,” Lucile whispered to himself with a smile.
Somehow, he was able to oppose Eris’ power.
When he smelled Eris’ scent, his insides reacted with something like hunger.
“……”
A greedy feeling was racing through him, telling him to open that door and drag the demon out to eat its guts out.
He had no idea why he was thinking about this, or why he wanted to do it. All he knew was that it felt very right. Killing and eating Eris, that is. Because if all of Eris were inside of him, it couldn’t curse the rest of the family anymore. He’d free his sisters of the curse that was tormenting them.
“……”
But he didn’t have the power to do that right now. So what could he do to get the power to eat that monster?
The answer appeared from inside him, all of its own accord.
“…Just eat other monsters… continue to eat them, and eventually you’ll have the power to devour this demon…”
His words trailed off. Because his mouth, which had begun to move all on its own, stopped.
He didn’t know what happened. His mouth just talked on its own, like something else was controlling it entirely.
“……”
But he smiled.
Because him talking like that just now was probably outside the realm of his father’s expectations.
He’d kill and eat the demon. He’d kill and eat the demon. He’d kill and eat the demon. He’d kill and eat that beast that lived within the Eris family. Then the curse would fade. His sisters would be freed from the curse. He didn’t care what happened to himself. He’d devour any amount of poison, of darkness, of despair.
“Ahh,” Lucile groaned. “I’m so hungry. I feel like I’ll just die of starvation…”
He smiled coldly despite the hunger tormenting him, bringing him to the brink of madness.
The place hadn’t changed, but it did feel different since that man appeared.
The room wasn’t all that large. The door was pasted with white papers of unknown construction. The room was empty other than that.
He hadn’t really been in the state to observe the room before, but now that he was, it really was empty. The only things here were the door and the black floor and walls. He couldn’t tell what they were made of right now.
“……”
He forced a little energy into his body after examining his surroundings, tensing himself for whatever would happen next.
Then he looked up at the man, who might have been around his own father’s age - it was difficult to tell. He looked young because of the obnoxiously superficial expression on his face, but he was probably just over thirty years old. He didn’t know who he was or what he had come here to do. But even if he didn’t know that…
“……”
Relux did understand that this man was stronger than he was.
Even Relux hadn’t known about this room until now. That meant that his father was hiding it. Keeping it secret. An outsider shouldn’t have been able to come in here so easily. The Eris property as a whole wasn’t somewhere that outsiders could just waltz into. So Relux was sure to ready himself for a fight as he watched the man.
The man smiled. It was a kind smile. “You don’t need to be so guarded, Relux.”
“Why do you know my name?”
“Because I looked it up.”
“There shouldn’t be any information about me outside of the Eris household.”
“So?” The man asked and smiled.
So?
Relux instantly felt stupid about making that comment. This man even knew about the monster on the other side of this door. Why wouldn’t he know about Relux?
The man continued with kindness that Relux had never seen until now.
“I suppose you don’t have any reason to answer if I ask who you are, so I won’t,” Relux said.
The man raised his eyebrows. “Because you’ve realized that I’m stronger than you?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re a clever kid. You’re twelve, right? Twelve year olds don’t need to be that clever.”
Relux’s expression didn’t change despite his comment. “Fools would not survive here.”
The man nodded. “Yeah, seems so.”
“Yes.”
“Then let me ask you this - did you know that cleverness alone won’t change this world?”
“……”
“Your dad didn’t teach you that part?”
“……”
“Well, I suppose your dad is only one of the gears that move this world. He wants the cleverness that he expects and the strength that he expects. But you’re different. You’re far more foolish than your father.”
Relux nodded. “I can’t win against him because I’m stupid.”
The man laughed and shook his head. “No, that’s not it. It’s because of that foolishness of yours that you’re capable of saving your sister. It’s what makes you capable of raising her up out of this despair. You can do things that your dad couldn’t because of it. I came here to help you with that.”
Relux’s eyes narrowed. Apparently this man already knew everything.
What exactly was the darkness that the Eris family was so full of?
This man seemed to know what Relux’s parents and even Relux himself were thinking on a deeper level than they themselves did.
The man continued, regarding Relux calmly and kindly as he did. “I think that you want to break free of this darkness. But not for your own sake. For your sister’s.”
Relux didn’t answer.
The man continued, unconcerned. “You were thinking that you’d kill your parents for her sake. You were thinking that the darkness of the Eris family would be a thing of the past then.”
“……”
“But did you really think that’d go well? Did you really think that this darkness would disappear just like that?”
“……”
“So what should you do then? Say you kill your mother and your father. Your cursed blood will still run through your veins. The blood that runs through your little sisters Ferris and Iris will still be cursed, too. So everyone will still go mad in the end. Your demon blood will get thicker and you’ll go mad. You’ll sleep with your sister, hoping for heirs. Because you’re all just puppets, in the end. You’re the demon’s puppets. But you’re saying that you hate the idea of that. So what will you do? What should you do?”
Relux looked up at the man. “Are you saying that you came here to save me from that? That you know a way out of it?”
“That’s right.”
“And what will you gain from it?” Relux asked. “There’s no way you would come here to save us with no benefit to yourself, is there?”
The man smiled. “You really are a clever child.”
“You yourself are the one who called me a fool earlier, though,” Relux said, his expression remaining unchanged.
“Hahaha. Did I?”
“Yes.”
“Then I guess you’re both, aren’t you? You’re too much of a fool to accept the truth, and just clever enough to be able to escape it. You can be saved. I’ll save you. But you’re clever, so you know that I wouldn’t do that without getting anything in return. And you’re correct. I will be compensated greatly for saving you. Do you want to know how?”
“If you want to tell me, then please do so. I don’t really have a choice in the matter either way. You are stronger than I am. You know more about this place than I do. And I can’t save my sisters how I am now. So…”
“So you can’t refuse my proposal?”
“That’s correct.”
“Then you’re accepting?”
“I am.”
“Even though you don’t know what exactly I’m proposing?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a really awful proposal, by the way. You’ll never be happy for all eternity. You’ll sink to the depths of dark despair, where you’ll wander forever. Will you still accept?”
“What would happen if I didn’t?”
The man shrugged. “You’re clever so you might have already realized this, but the truth is that there’s no refusing. I’ll do what I want to do, regardless of how it might make you feel. You’re just another sacrifice as far as my plan goes.”
Relux couldn’t help but smile. “You’re coming off as much more wicked of a demon than that monster from before.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I did scare the demon off. I might be the worst person of all,” he said, raising his hand up as he spoke.
He grasped Relux’s head with that hand.
“…So why are you doing this?” Relux asked as he looked up at the arm holding him down.
The man smiled. “I don’t have to answer—”
“Earlier you said that you offered your wife and the world itself up to save your child. In other words, you’re doing this for your own child’s sake, aren’t you?”
“……”
“Is that how you’ll benefit from this?”
The man stared into him. “You listened well despite the situation… You’re right. I do everything I do for my son’s sake.”
“And you used me for that sake, too?”
“I did.”
“And you sacrificed your wife as well as the whole world for that sake?”
“That’s right.”
“And there was worth in that?” Relux asked. “I don’t know what it means. But it had some worth to you, didn’t it?”
The man smiled like he was remembering something pleasant. “Of course it did. Because I love my son.”
“You ‘love’ him?” Relux asked.
“I do.”
“I don’t understand what that word means—”
“But you do,” he interrupted. “You want to save your sister. That must be love.”
“Love?”
“Yes. And you’re already mad from that love. You’ll kill your parents for love.”
“……”
“You’ll kill the demon.”
“……”
“And then you’ll kill the world. But you won’t care. You won’t care at all about who cries or who dies. You only care about protecting your sister. Am I wrong?”
All Relux could do was agree.
So the man smiled. “Then we’re partners. We’ll destroy the world together. It’s fitting for the maddened to become friends, isn’t it?”
The man’s fingers dug into Relux’s head, like he was feeling around, or trying to enter him. “What are you doing?”
“Something bad.”
His fingers entered his head. They danced and twirled inside him, but it didn’t hurt or feel uncomfortable at all. It was actually terribly pleasant. To the point where he would be fine surrendering to the feeling and losing consciousness. But he didn’t close his eyes. He just looked up at the man. “So who are you?” Relux asked. Though he hadn’t answered before, Relux figured he might as well try one more time.
The man looked down at him and answered. “Lieral. But you’ll soon forget that I told you. Because I’m going to erase your memory of us meeting.”
“You’re erasing my memory?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Why?”
Lieral smiled. Kindly, and yet somehow like a devil would. “I’m fiddling with things until everything about the world is just how I want it,” he said, then extracted his fingers from Relux. “All done~!”
He said that, but Relux still didn’t know what had just ended or what had just begun. “Earlier you said that my father is just one of the gears that moves this world.”
“Yep.”
“Did you make me another one of those gears?”
Lieral laughed happily. “I made you my ally.”
“Your ally?”
“Yes. My ally who will destroy the world with me - well, I don’t think I really need to explain that, though.”
“Because you’re erasing my memories?”
“Yeah.”
“Even with my memories erased, will I still be able to…”
“Protect your sister?”
“……”
Lieral smiled, his face full of pity despite its kindness. “I feel a little ashamed of myself here, messing up a kid as good as you are.”
“Then—”
“Don’t worry. You’ll be able to protect her,” Lieral interrupted. “Well, you’ll be destroyed over the next few years though. Anyway, let’s get started. The truth is that you don’t have much time. Countless spells inside of you now make up the God Devourer Lucile. Over the next few years you’ll slowly, but steadily eat the demon Eris. And then you…”
Lieral lifted his hand over to Relux again. He moved his fingers before his eyes, spinning them around an invisible ring.
“And then you’ll be expelled from this world and go mad. You’ll rise as something incompatible with humanity and incompatible with divinity - you’ll be the God Devourer Lucile. So goodbye, Relux. Your complete humanity will end once and for all—”
He didn’t catch the rest of that. Because Lieral raised his hand up, twirled it around, and a sound like a bell rang through his mind - no, a sound like a door had opened. The inside of his head suddenly heated up. His whole body heated up. He felt like his body would burst, like he’d stop existing here and now. He began to panic, trying to shake the pain off.
But he couldn’t.
He couldn’t shake the pain off, or his fear, or his anger, or his sadness.
Emotions he’d never felt until now were all pushed into him at once.
“Uuh…”
His whole body was made to shiver.
“Uugh, aaahh, aaauauuugh!”
It was to the point where had to scream.
And then…
“Lucile.”
He didn’t understand that for a moment. But he was soon able to comprehend it.
Someone was calling him. Calling his name.
He covered the emotions leaking out of his mouth with a hand.
Then he turned around. When he did, his father was standing there. He was the head of the Eris family, the ruler of this darkness. “Are you already at your limit?” He asked.
And the God Devourer - and Lucile looked at his father, then around the place he was standing at. It was a little room with a gray door. There was nothing else. There was no one else. He couldn’t recall why he was here, either. Though he did recall his father bringing him and the monster on the other side of the door.
“…I seem to have lost consciousness for a bit,” Lucile said.
His father nodded. “It’s been seven days. You did very well for your first time.”
“Is that so.”
“Yes. Though you didn’t do quite as well as I did. I wonder how long you’ll end up able to stay here. Did you speak with him?”
“With the demon Eris?”
“Yes.”
“We get along well.”
“You get along?”
“Yes. He taught me why the Eris family exists.”
“I see. Then…”
His father disappeared. No, he just seemed to disappear from in front of him. But he was able to react. His father’s breath was rotting with Eris’ scent, to the point where there was hardly a point in making a distinction between the two now - they were both empty. They were both inside the emptiness. And that was precisely why he couldn’t see him. Because he escaped reality and fled into the nothing.
But right now, he…
“……”
Lucile raised his right arm in a fist to react to his father, who had disappeared. But his father’s punch was faster. He slammed it into Lucile’s face, causing him to lose balance and slam against the floor.
His father looked down to him as he lay on the ground. “I see. You’ve taken Eris in without going mad.”
Lucile looked up at him. “And yet I still cannot even follow your movements.”
“I suppose not. You might not be as much of a genius as I am.”
Might not be as much of a genius.
He probably meant ‘genius’ as in the ability to take Eris in. The potential for being manipulated by Eris. He was a genius in that he was created by Eris and danced on Eris’ command.
Genius.
Genius. Genius. Genius.
He always said that those with no potential - those who weren’t geniuses - wouldn’t survive here. That meant that the only thing that mattered when it came to who lived and who died here was the ability to take Eris in.
That was why they called Ferris a failure. That was why they abandoned Iris. That was why Lucile was praised, told that he was outstanding, and led to this crazy place.
They all just existed to follow the stupid rules that Eris layed out for them.
“……”
Lucile smiled.
“What are you smiling about?” His father asked.
“…Am I?” Lucile asked, the smile remaining on his face.
His father nodded. “That’s what it looks like to me.”
“I see. I had no intention of doing that, though…”
“I suppose you’ve been in here a bit too long. You need to rest. You must come here daily from now on. Get used to Eris’ power, and come here until you can take it all in,” his father said. Then he turned and left.
Lucile looked around the room once more. Eris’ power permeated the whole room. Even now he could feel it reaching into him, trying to violate him. But he could also feel something inside of him pushing back at it. He didn’t know why he was able to do that, though.
“…Apparently I’m quite the failure myself,” Lucile whispered to himself with a smile.
Somehow, he was able to oppose Eris’ power.
When he smelled Eris’ scent, his insides reacted with something like hunger.
“……”
A greedy feeling was racing through him, telling him to open that door and drag the demon out to eat its guts out.
He had no idea why he was thinking about this, or why he wanted to do it. All he knew was that it felt very right. Killing and eating Eris, that is. Because if all of Eris were inside of him, it couldn’t curse the rest of the family anymore. He’d free his sisters of the curse that was tormenting them.
“……”
But he didn’t have the power to do that right now. So what could he do to get the power to eat that monster?
The answer appeared from inside him, all of its own accord.
“…Just eat other monsters… continue to eat them, and eventually you’ll have the power to devour this demon…”
His words trailed off. Because his mouth, which had begun to move all on its own, stopped.
He didn’t know what happened. His mouth just talked on its own, like something else was controlling it entirely.
“……”
But he smiled.
Because him talking like that just now was probably outside the realm of his father’s expectations.
He’d kill and eat the demon. He’d kill and eat the demon. He’d kill and eat the demon. He’d kill and eat that beast that lived within the Eris family. Then the curse would fade. His sisters would be freed from the curse. He didn’t care what happened to himself. He’d devour any amount of poison, of darkness, of despair.
“Ahh,” Lucile groaned. “I’m so hungry. I feel like I’ll just die of starvation…”
He smiled coldly despite the hunger tormenting him, bringing him to the brink of madness.
