Tatakau Shisho

Volume 9, Fragment: The Demon Lord and the Final?Visitor

The last day of Bantorra Library was the second end of the world. Ruruta alone sat on the edge of the theater’s stage inside his Imaginary Entrails.

All the people of the world already collapsed by the Power of Tearless Ending.

Hamyuts died. The Armed Librarians were also defeated.

There no longer remained any one to resist him inside the Imaginary Entrails as well.

All that remained was destroying the world. He would release all Beasts of the Final Chapter, let them eat all people, and then Ruruta would die as well. And that would be the end of everything.

The end of this world, the world that was not a paradise, that Ruruta had protected.

In the back of the stage was a single statue. It was the Colorless-Haired Statue that took the shape of his beloved Nieniu.

It was left there for 2000 years, not changing in the slightest.

Ruruta was waiting for something in front of the statue. He suddenly raised his downcast face. He could hear footsteps coming from the sand. The footsteps of a normal person who used no bodily reinforcement Magic.

“…So you’ve finally come.”

Ruruta muttered. He waited for him to come all along. He even killed Kachua so that he would not disturb him.

He stepped into the theatre. Ruruta spoke to him.

“So you’re the final visitor. There’s no longer anyone left in the world but you. Neither in the outside world nor inside the Imaginary Entrails.”

“…Is that so.”

The one to come was the boy Winkeny had met earlier. He was the one who had dug out Charlot from the sand and told them the whereabouts of Ruruta.

He didn’t accompany Winkeny so he arrived there in a delay.

“You probably came here to stop me.”

“…Well, something like that.”

The boy walked around the stage and stood in front of the sitting Ruruta. And, looking at the Colorless-Haired Statue, he thought of something.

“I’ve seen your life. The memory crystal you’ve spread earlier reached me as well. I’m sorry for looking at that without permission.”

Ruruta smiled faintly. It was quite carefree of him to say such a thing so late into the game.

“Do not worry. I also know you’ve read it. How about sitting down?”

“No… talking while standing is enough.”

The boy climbed atop the stage and stood next to Ruruta. He spoke quietly while looking down at him.

“Do I need to introduce myself? You probably don’t know me.”

“No way. I remember you well. When I had Eaten your Book it was burned in my heart.”

The boy opened his eyes wide in amazement.

“…I can’t believe it. Why?”

Ruruta smiled faintly.

“It’s because I wanted to be like you. I wanted to love someone deep in my heart, fight for their sake, win and connect our hearts. Because you have managed to do what I couldn’t.”

“…”

“I admired you from the bottom of my heart. I also writhed in jealousy at the same time. Why were you able to do it and I not? Why could you do what I couldn’t? I thought desperately about what I lacked that you possessed.

In the end I couldn’t figure it out though.”

“…It’s an honor, but it’s also pretty strange to be told that.”

He scratched his nose, apparently confused.

“I never thought that anyone would admire me.”

“There is no need to be humble. You were splendid. Much different from me.”

Ruruta spoke to the boy standing next to him. The boy was short and had a greatly hunched back. He only wore shabby khaki-colored jacket and pants. From his waist hung a completely ordinary knife.

He seemed gloomy, but his ruffled hair concealed eyes in which a strong and certain determination dwelt.

“You had no powers other than a single knife. Both your memories and your past were taken away from you. But even so you have challenged a mighty enemy alone, and won. You have saved the heart of the girl you loved as well as the people of the town.

If you weren’t splendid, was anyone ever was?”

“…It wasn’t my power. It was Shiron’s.”

The boy said. It couldn’t be seen with his clothes on, but a crude bomb was embedded within his chest. It was the bomb planted into him by the Indulging God Cult when he was alive. It was planted there so that he would kill Hamyuts Meseta.

“It is the same. Loving Shiron, believing in her and bringing out your courage were your powers. Protecting the town and making Shiron happy were undoubtedly accomplished with your powers.

That is what I think, Colio. The Loving Bomb of Toatt Town, Colio Tonies.”

Ruruta spoke with a self-deprecating smile.

“So, what will you do, Colio? Can you stop me… stop the destruction of the world?”

The boy – the loving bomb Colio Tonies, didn’t answer. He couldn’t tell from his expression whether he was looking for an answer or willfully staying silent.

Colio kept quietly standing next to Ruruta.

At the same time, a woman was laughing. Although there shouldn’t have been any person in the world besides Ruruta and Colio, a woman was laughing.

Hamyuts Meseta was laughing.

Her heart had already stopped beating, and the blood flow to her brain had ceased. She had been stabbed by Ruruta’s needle and unmistakably died.

However, although she became a mere soul, Hamyuts kept laughing.

The time has come. At last it’s the time to activate my ability.

Both the sling and the Sensory Threads aren’t my true powers. My real Magic Right will be activated right now. The power planted in me by my detestable father Makia Dexiart.

Its trigger is my death.

I was reluctant to be killed by you, but the condition has been fulfilled.

“Ruruta. Sorry to have kept you waiting.”

Hamyuts, a mere soul, said. Hamyuts, a mere soul, laughed.

Please look forward to it, Ruruta. I will grant you defeat, death, and true failure. I will rob you of all the power you’ve gained during these 2000 years. I will destroy all the Books you’ve Eaten. I will throw into the mud and crush underfoot both past and future. I will let you crawl on the ground, shriek in agony and beg for your life. But I won’t lend you an ear and torment you to death.

Rejoice, Ruruta. Raise your hands in celebration.

You will be released. Released from the position of God, from the days of waiting, from the regret of killing Nieniu, from your love for her, from anything and everything.

Death will solve everything. The sweet death I bring about will, at last, save you.

Now, let’s go, Ruruta. I will not be as gentle as Chacoly.

The incarnation of sweet death – Hamyuts Meseta – will now devour you whole.