Ever since I made my contract with the Kaiser, it's just been one surprise after another. As Kaito pondered his unexpected good fortune, another emotion welled up within him as well. And I never thought I'd be able to be of so much help to someone. Kaito Sena had once been cast aside like garbage atop a tatami floor. His life had been worth less than a worm's. In fact, his life had had no meaning to it whatsoever. But now, things were different. Even though he'd become the enemy of mankind, he'd been able to help someone, and he'd been able to forge a path for himself without going against any of his beliefs. It was the first thing he could feel truly proud of since he'd come to this world. Kaito returned the soldiers' gazes proudly. A grizzly-bearman spoke. "From here on out, we ask that you continue lending us your aid." "Yeah, of course. I'm not gonna let this killer off the hook. Please, let me do whatever I can to help." Kaito responded, and the beastfolk nodded. They then stood up in perfect unison and resheathed their swords. Kaito turned to Lute, who gave him a strong nod. It was unclear who went first, but the two of them extended their hands toward each other. The beast and human hands overlapped as the demon's contractor and beastman swore to fight as one. Then Lute collapsed. Blood spurted up into the air, and the Kaiser laughed. "...Huh?" Kaito's eyes went wide. He hadn't done anything. What was going on? Even with his abilities as a demon's contractor, he found himself wholly unable to comprehend the situation. To make matters worse, the tragedy didn't end there. Blood sprayed across the round table like flower petals dancing in the air. One after another, the strong soldiers toppled to the ground, unable to so much as react. "M-Master Kaito!" This time, Hina pulled her halberd out in earnest. Then she assumed a position in front of Kaito. As she did, Kaito caught a faint glance of steel flashing toward the edge of his vision. Their enemy wasn't in front of them. Shocked as he was, an instinctual hunch drove him to turn around. One thought passed through Kaito's mind. â€”A flower had just arrived. Before Kaito stood a young girl, alone. Not hesitating in the slightest, she strode brazenly in through the open door. The room's calm, disciplined atmosphere had been shattered, and it had now descended into chaos. Seeing the girl's figure standing among it, Kaito found himself taken aback. After all, her appearance was hardly befitting the culprit who'd brought about this mayhem. She looked to be in her early teens, but her attire hardly fit her age, given how provocative it was. It was probably intended as a pure-white bondage dress, but its cloth barely covered any skin at all. The leather belts she wore strapped in a cross shape across her pale, naked chest only barely covered the risquÃ© bits, to the point where it called into question whether or not they could even be called clothes. But she made up for it in accoutrements. In particular, the metal bits adorning her waist and wrists caused her to give off a somewhat mechanical impression. At the same time, though, her honey-colored hair and rosy eyes provided her figure with brilliant, showy garnishes. She looked like a flower, or a queen, or some kind of adorable doll. And by her feet, she was accompanied by a number of metal monsters. One of them was a beast made of nothing but fangs. Another was an automaton, shaped like a human except for its fatally warped frame. One of the other monsters was a lizard with limbs made from pipes and wings of glass. And the final one was a bipedal suit of armor with no visible seams anywhere on its body. They were the ones responsible for slicing up and striking down the beastfolk. Each one looked different from the last, yet when taken together, they had a strange sense of uniformity to them. Instinctively, Kaito let out a pained murmur. "...Deus Ex Machina." These things were of the same class as that machine. And there could be no doubt that the golden girl was their master. The way she carried herself made it seem almost like she was their queen. That, or perhaps their ringmaster or puppeteer. Speaking of puppets, though, the girl looked practically like a doll herself. She presented a showy and sweet exterior. Her expression, though, was as cold and frigid as ice. In a way, she seemed to lack humanity. Suddenly, her crystal-like, rose eyes flashed to the side. At long last, Kaito recalled the tragedy that had just occurred. Blood had sprayed all around the room, and the sound of moaning was echoed harshly. Hearing the moans, Kaito felt a vague sense of relief. They're still alive. He couldn't let any more attacks befall them. With that thought in mind, tension raced across Kaito's whole body. But the girl didn't spare so much as another glance at the suffering beastfolk. After looking at Hina for a brief moment, she turned her gaze on Kaito. When she finally opened her mouth to speak, her movements were so stiff that she herself seemed like an automaton. "O Sinless Soul, who bears the name of Kaiser. From this day forth, act as my loyal servant." Kaito felt as though someone had struck him in the side of the head. The girl's words were practically the same as hers. At the same time, he finally realized something. The girl resembled the Torture Princess. The unique, unparalleled sinner. Then, after making it seem as though everything leading up to that moment had been a mere farce, after having made all their efforts for naught, after throwing everything into chaos in an instant, the girl gave her name. "I am the Torture Princess Jeanne de Rais. I am the oppressor of slaves, the savior of this world, the saint, and the whore." 5 Doubting the World The entire region was surrounded by a towering wall. Not a single soul dwelled within. After a banquet of torture that had lasted three days and three nights, they'd all died. A decade or two before that fate had befallen the town, its lord's sole daughter had been born. Her name had been Elisabeth. She was a beautiful, lovely girl, born to the blessings of God and man alike. But tragically, her body had been frail, and the hope of a long life was denied to her at birth. Even so, not once did she ever begrudge or resent others for living their lives to the fullest. She merely endured her constant pain, all by herself. After living a life of suffering and scrabbling to stay alive, she should have died, and the many who held her dear were supposed to have wept for her. However, that simple, tragic destiny of hers was perverted. One day, Elisabeth underwent a change. She tortured her populace, descending on the castle town like a ravenous wolf. Maiming and slaughtering her people, Elisabeth swallowed up their pain like a hideous sow. Thus, the townâ€”serving as a plate for the gruesome feastâ€”was picked clean. The Church feared that the massive number of corpses would bring about a plague, with small animals as its carriers. Ultimately, they decided to seal the gates and set the town ablaze. Ever since, the town and the huge wall surrounding it had served as a graveyard. A town had died, and the Torture Princess had been born. It was like a cruel, twisted fairy tale. And yet at the same time, it was the bitter truth. As proof of that, Elisabeth was currently visiting that place. "I brought this about, and I've long since grown accustomed to such sights. Still, though, 'tis dreadful." The scene spread out before her was a hellscape, the likes of which were generally seen only in religious artwork. The town was black and charred, with a number of torture devices strewn about it. Human skeletons decorated the town as well, most of them impaled, strung up, or bound. Ash and mud were piled up high along its roads. Setting her feet upon them, Elisabeth strode forward. At the end of her path lay a chalky-white castle towering above the town. It was almost eerie how its splendor had been preserved amid the ruins. The sky was gloomy and overcast, and the air should have been chilly. However, it carried an unpleasant warmth instead. The rancid wind brushed at Elisabeth's black hair as it carried screams to her ears. Loathsome Elisabeth, repulsive Elisabeth, cruel, hideous Elisabeth! A curse upon you, a curse upon you, a curse, a curse, an eternal curse upon you, Elisabeth! The silent screams echoed throughout the town, but Elisabeth's expression showed no signs of changing as she advanced forward. As she walked, she passed by the skeleton of a baby who'd had all its limbs shattered and a woman's skull that had comically tumbled to the side. Eventually, her heels clicked as she came to a stop. "Here it is, I believe." In front of her was the main thoroughfare leading up to the castle. Compared with the rest of the ruins, it had more or less retained its original form. The road was designed to be wide enough for carriage traffic and had been crafted out of carefully laid bricks. Half-melted metal billboards decorated its sides, along with the still-intact frames of houses and shops. But due to the fight between Elisabeth and a certain necromancer, the entire area had been reduced to the remains of a battlefield. Bones were scattered all over the ground, and many of the buildings had been brutally knocked down. The brick road was stripped bare as well, and gruesome scars littered the earth. In the midst of all that, there was an area where the soil was piled unnaturally high. A wooden plank stood up from within the mound of dirt. It was a grave. On top of the plank sat a soiled hat. Elisabeth was surprised; she'd half expected it to have been blown away by the wind already. The white lilies that had once decorated its wide brim were, of course, no more. Faintly narrowing her eyes, Elisabeth murmured. "...Marianne." That name was dear to Elisabeth, but disagreeable as well. Marianne had been Elisabeth's tutor when she was young. Due to her guilt over Elisabeth's murderous deeds, Marianne had gone mad, eventually falling into Vlad's hands and becoming a necromancer. The grave had not been Elisabeth's doing. That had been the handiwork of the man who'd finished Marianne off after she'd become a demon's pawn: Kaito Sena. After burying his fatherâ€”or rather, the doll that his father's soul had inhabitedâ€”in the rear garden, Kaito had mentioned he wanted to give Marianne a burial as well. At first, Elisabeth had flatly rejected the notion. But Kaito had been obstinate, and Elisabeth had finally acquiesced to giving him transportation, and nothing more. Bringing back Marianne's body would have been in defiance of both her wishes and Elisabeth's, so Kaito built the grave on-site. However, the entire town was fraught with death. Countless corpses littered its streets, not a single one of which had received anything resembling a funeral. Choosing to bury just one of them was a comical act of self-satisfaction. Elisabeth had shown no mercy in pointing that fact out to Kaito. However, he nodded, already well aware of that fact. "I'm the one who killed her. This is my problem, not anyone else's," he'd said. In a sense, the grave served as a monument to Kaito's stubbornness as much as anything else. Up until then, Elisabeth had never once felt the urge to visit it. She didn't make it a habit to think back on the people she'd killed. Nor did she pay heed to