audience, I am the scriptwriter, and I am the actor. I have no intention of letting you enjoy yourself in the slightest. I shall make you squeal like a pig and writhe like a caterpillar." After making her grandiose declaration, she swung her sword. Chains appeared out of thin air and traveled to savage the place the Earl had been a moment prior. But the Earl's eight spider legs allowed him to dodge them easily. He leaped back, felling chandeliers in his wake. He exerted his pale, naked body, and crow feathers began shooting forth from it. At the same time, he shot spider thread out of his mouth. Countless attacks rained down on Elisabeth. "Ha! Too weak; too slow!" Elisabeth ran about, nimbly avoiding the projectiles. The ceiling and floor became riddled with holes, but Elisabeth didn't have so much as a scratch on her. Even so, she didn't seem to have any openings to launch a counterattack. No new chains were summoned. Noticing this, the Earl laughed with a sneer, and his attacks surged like a wave. He had yet to notice the darkness and crimson flower petals coalescing at his feet and above his head. Suddenly, the floor and ceiling made loud gong noises and began squeezing him. Or, to be more specific, the gargantuan, flat stones that burst out from them did. The Earl was pressed between two large stone slabs. A golden rod that looked like a barrel organ's handle protruded from their center. Kaito noticed Elisabeth sitting down by the pole's grip. She turned to the blinking Earl, who had yet to comprehend the situation he was in, and beamed at him. "The Wheel of Death. I squished your familiar, you knowâ€”but you, perhaps, I'll take my time shaving down." Grr, grr, grr. The round stones made an ominous noise as they began rotating. As she spun the handle, the slabs turned like wheels. One turned to the left, and the other turned right. The Earl's body was being audibly scraped away. Feathers tore off in time with the rotating, and his pale, flabby flesh began to chafe. Blood, fat, and flesh began dripping onto the floor. The Earl let out a bloodcurdling scream. His beak went flying across the room, and the human mouth it had been covering quivered in pain and fear. His earlobes tore, and his temporal muscles began being flattened. He cried out in desperation. *** "What is it, O Earl? Ah, your voice is as unpleasant as a pig's squeal. Can you not retain a little of your dignity and have the decency to caw like a crow?" "Iâ€”I can make you a deal! I can make you a deeeeeeal!" "Hâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹mâ€‹?â€‹" The wheels clicked as they came to a stop. Kaito's eyes burned fiercely, and his voice was low. "...We're not going to take any deal you have to offer." "Iâ€”I heard that when you finish hunting the thirteen demonsh, y-you'll be burned at the shtake. I-if you leave m-me alive, you, you won't have to die, either. Am I wrong? Our goalsh are in alignment. P-pleash don't kill me." His face was caught by the sides, and the Earl's vertical mouth drooled spit and blood as he made his plea. Elisabeth muttered "I see" to herself, then she hopped down from the handle. She smiled sweetly to the unseemly creature between the wheels. Shivering in fear, the Earl pitifully returned her smile. "You imbecile!" Grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind, grind. With a sharp roar, the wheels began turning again. Waving his limbs frantically, the Earl let out an incomprehensible scream. But those arms were plucked from his sides, and his shoulders were shaved flat. He was crushed like a nut. The blood pooling on the ground grew more and more viscous. Her eyes glowed with absolute coldness, and Elisabeth looked down at the man. "Despots are killed, tyrants are hung, and slaughterers are slaughtered. Such is the way of the world. The demise of torturers should be garnished with their own screams as they sink to Hell with no chance for salvation. Only at such a time is a torturer's life truly complete. Yet, you tortured, not understanding that in the slightest? You embarrass yourself, Earl." Elisabeth's voice was thick with hate and indignation. Kaito had never seen her display such bald-faced rage. With a loud gong, the two wheels finally lay on top of each other. Blood oozed from the crack between them. They'd finished crushing the Earl, and Elisabeth placed a foot on them as she murmured. "You and Iâ€”we are fated to die, forsaken by all of creation." She softly lifted her foot. As she did, the pool of blood transformed into black feathers. They whirled into the air, stopped for a moment, then drifted to the floor. They fell silently and beautifully, like so many black snowflakes, and Kaito clenched his fists as he watched them. "...Hey, what about the kids up on the spikes in the rafters? Weren't some of them still alive?" "If they were, the Earl was merely keeping them alive with magic. They would have died along with him." "...I see..." "What's the matter? 'Tis much more preferable than an eternity of suffering." Elisabeth sighed, seeming bored. Kaito looked at her in a daze. Once, Elisabeth had carried out the same atrocities the demons were conducting now. Yet, somehow, she seemed fundamentally different from them. At the very least, Kaito saw a large gulf between the two. He stood up, ignoring the pain, and called out to her. "Thanks for that, Elisabeth." "Why thank me? I merely did with him as I pleased. To thank me for such an act surpasses buffoonery and strays into the realm of misunderstanding, does it not?" "You're going to die after you kill the thirteen demons, right? But you killed him anyway." "I care little about that. And I certainly didn't do it for you. After I've tormented the thirteen demons, or, in short, the last thirteen victims the Church has officially permitted me to torture, I shall think little of death. The people suffered many casualties to capture me, so if they desire my death, then burning alive is my duty." She clicked her heels, then began walking. Her black dress fluttered as she spoke. "Having lived the cruel and haughty life of a wolf, I shall die like a lowly sow." Elisabeth grew distant. She muttered in a low voice. "...For that is the choice I made." Kaito, left alone, stared off into space. The black feathers caressed his face, as if grieving. He thought of Neue and of the other dead children. He'd been the only one to survive. The end of their prison break was so tragic, it was almost laughable. But no matter how much he lamented it, reality cruelly refused to change. Because he'd survived, he supposed there was something he needed to do. Recalling Neue's last words, he spoke quietly to himself. "Don't know how much luck I'm gonna have finding happiness in this world, though." But he would do everything he could. Clutching the stump of his wrist, he strode forth. As he did, one of the falling feathers burst into blue flame. One by one, the rest of the feathers followed suit. Eventually, the blue flames took to the castle as well. That place had been home to countless deaths. As the flames lapped at the stone walls, it almost seemed as though they were in mourning. 3 Treasury Hunt The wild deer liver sautÃ© with raisin marinade went flying across the room. Kaito held up a silver tray to protect himself from the rain of food. He then skillfully blocked the knife that followed after it. It made a clang as it bounced off the tray. "I. Keep. Telling you. Stop throwing the food!" This manner of exchange had been going on for about two weeks now. He was more than used to it. It alarmed him how acclimated he was. At any rate, he finished blocking the attacks and fastened his gaze on the culprit. Elisabeth. She had planted one foot on the table, and she was pressing down on her trembling brow with her index finger. The wineglass beside her that he'd so faithfully prepared was on its side. Magnificent tears welled up in her eyes as she shouted. "It's vile! The sweetness and sourness of the raisin marinade... The liver that manages to fill the mouth with the taste of blood despite being dry as a bone... Both flavors combine so poorly, I'm convinced you have a gift for vile cuisine!" "It is with great honor that I accept your compliment." "That was no compliment!" She threw her fork at him. In an impressive show of aim, the fork flew just a few inches above the tray and buried itself in Kaito's forehead. He yanked it out. Blood spurted from the wound. "Miss Elisabeth, O Miss Elisabeth. I appear to be bleeding." "Why should I care?! A servant of mine should be able to plug a hole of that severity with willpower alone." "Not sure how far willpower's gonna get me." Kaito pressed down on his wound and sighed. In truth, wounds of this caliber no longer fazed him. He'd been used to pain from the get-go, after all, and after having his lost hand replaced and reattached, he didn't sweat the little things anymore. People really could get used to anything. Yet even so, his cooking refused to improve. When it came to food, Kaito's specialties were borderline nonexistent. Because of this, he simply couldn't come to terms with Elisabeth's incessant anger in the slightest. At this point, he had more or less given up on trying to improve. Yet for some reason, Elisabeth still had expectations of him, and her disappointment seemed to grow by the day. "I no longer harbor hope for your cooking. As such, you need not make dinner tonight." It was after she'd sampled his second attempt at a salted, grilled heart that she'd moved to the throne room and finally given up on him. The clear blue sky peered through the crudely fashioned hole behind her. The Knight's beast had smashed one of the walls, and she'd seen fit to simply leave it that way. Yet, she seemed to favor the room nonetheless, continuing to use it despite the damage. She had repositioned the throne, though, and she rested her cheeks in her hands as she sat upon it. Her expression looked like she was harboring a headache as she turned to the waiting Kaito. She pointed to a door he was unfamiliar with. "In exchange, I order you to spend today hunting through the Treasury." "The Treasury?" As Kaito parroted her words, Elisabeth stomped on the stone floor. In the middle of the room, a spiral of darkness and crimson flower petals flared up like a bonfire. It converged on a single point, engraving a blazing rectangle in the stone as it disappeared. It left behind a black door. The door swung open from inside like clockwork. Beyond the door lay a spiral staircase. Considering the layout of the castle, it seemed odd for a spiral staircase to be below the throne room, but given that he'd just seen a door appear out of thin air, he realized that voicing that particular thought would be rather foolish. He decided to be impressed. "Huh, I didn't know the castle had a place like this." "Indeed it does. A thought crossed my mind after the affair with the Earl the other day. Your cooking is worse than pig feed, but your purin is rather tasty, and your ability to stay rational under pressure and the fearlessness you regard me with are not without value. And when you air the sheets, your face flushes with amusing displeasure. In following, I have decided to grant you a weapon to use in