Chapter 7: Lies, Lies, and Yet More Lies

Chapter 7:
Lies, Lies, and Yet More Lies

 

“GAAH, I’M SO BORED…” Y’lla, the receptionist for the West District guild, leaned forward with her chin propped up on her hand, twirling a pen to alleviate some of her boredom. Dein always kept the bar lively. Since he’d stopped turning up, the rest of the men drank in silence. It felt like the first time it’d been this quiet since she started working at the guild.

Not that she wanted Dein back, of course. She wasn’t particularly loyal to him; she just helped out from time to time. In fact, her job was immensely easier with him and all the fraud and grift he brought with him gone.

“I…umm…have…have some tea.”

Y’lla turned to find a mug being offered out to her. “Oh, thanks, Slowe.”

“J-just doing my job.”

The shy, blond haired man was named Slowe Uradnehs. He was eighteen years old and recently joined the guild as a staff member. He mostly worked in the back office and had little exposure to Dein in the first place. In fact, he’d never even seen Flum before.

“Hey, uh, can I ask you something?”

“What?”

“I’m…I’m not gonna get f-fired, am I?”

Y’lla laughed in spite of herself at the spooked look on her coworker’s face. “What, you worried the guild’s gonna go out of business without Dein? Don’t worry, the government pays our bills. Whether we’re super busy or dead quiet doesn’t matter.”

“Well…that’s good to hear.” A look of relief washed over Slowe’s face before he turned and disappeared into the back office.

Truth be told, Y’lla was so bored that she’d hoped Slowe would stick around for a while longer and chat. He wasn’t exactly a people person, so it was probably a lost cause to begin with.

She rested her elbows on the counter again and sipped at her tea as she stared at the wall. “Whoa, that’s bitter…” Slowe still had a lot of learning to do.

Y’lla continued to drink the tea, all the same. Suddenly the door opened, and in walked Flum.

“Well, it’s pretty quiet ’round these parts.” She glanced around, looking pretty pleased with herself at the results.

“And that’s all your doing.”

“Hey, he brought it on himself. After all, Dein started it, no?” Flum grabbed a stool and set it in front of the counter before sitting to face Y’lla.

“What, you just showed up to hang out?”

“I didn’t want to just stand around if this conversation drags on.”

“There’s no conversation I want to have with you that’d take that long.”

“All right, let me ask this then: do you know where Dein is?”

“I don’t know…isn’t exactly truthful now, is it? I do, in fact.”

This took Flum by surprise. Even if Y’lla did know, she’d hardly expected her to come out and admit it. “Wait, can you tell me where he is, then?”

“Sure. He’s a scumbag, but offering his soul up to the church is a bit much, even for him.”

“The church? Like, is he just playing them? Or is this place so empty because he and his crew are busy offering up prayers?”

“Wow, you’re good at this,” Y’lla said. Flum had meant it as a joke, but she hit the nail right on the head. “Why, just this morning he came by with one of his long-time companions to say hi and tell me they’d become disciples of Origin.”

“He’s gotta be planning something.”

“How would I know? But hey, it’s kept him out of the military’s hands, at least. They don’t get heavy with members of the church if they can help it.”

“Huh. Sounds like he just joined them for the perks.” Flum glanced around the bar and scowled. This meant the people still hanging around here were those Dein had left behind.

“He was real excited about eventually taking control of the church,” Y’lla said. “But he wasn’t going to do it with those backstabbers along for the ride.”

The picture was starting to clear up for Flum. “And yet you didn’t go with him?”

“Ha! Me? Why would I offer myself up to the church? The only gods I believe in are money and power.” It really fit her, though it hardly seemed like something to brag about. “Besides, can you imagine trying to worship with Dein and those lowlifes running around like they own the place?”

“Yeah. I’d probably want to keep my distance, too.” For once, they were in agreement.

One thing struck Flum as odd about all this—was it really necessary for Dein to take all of his men with him? She could only hope they weren’t going to get Sara involved in whatever they were planning.

“I know I asked you about this before,” she said, “but have there been any new jobs about a missing kid?”

“Big nope.”

“Could you at least pretend to do your job and look at the books for me?”

“Not up to it, sorry.”

“Whoa, hey… I’m pretty sure the guild wouldn’t like that.”

“The guild master is the one who keeps an eye on stuff, and he’s gone, so I can do whatever I want.”

“There’s no guild master?”

“There’s one on paper, sure, but I’ve never even met the guy. Who would want to be the guild master overseeing the West District? What a drag. They just gave the position to some high-ranking adventurer and let it be.”

That explained how Y’lla and Dein got away with so much. Flum figured the main branch in the Central District was probably in charge of assigning guild masters, but even then, the whole process seemed rather haphazard. Was the West District guild not really considered up to snuff with the rest?

“Listen, all I’m saying is that if you don’t do your job, it puts us adventurers in a pretty tough spot.”

“Hey, you’ve been earning plenty lately, girl. You can afford to take time off. If you really need some quick cash, make like a slave and sell yourself for a night.”

“That joke wasn’t even funny the first time.”

“Oh? Well I intend to keep making it. Streetwalking fits you much better than the life of an adventurer.”

“Strong words from a woman with her tits hanging out like that.”

“Whoa, you trying to say I look like a hooker??”

“I mean, it’s true, isn’t it?” said Flum. “I bet you spread ’em wide open and let Dein and his guys have their fill…”

Y’lla launched to her feet and slapped Flum right across the cheek.

“He said that as long as I was quiet and listened up, I could do whatever I wanted, okay!” she shouted. Y’lla and Dein had overcome a lot of obstacles in their time together. The sheer power in her gaze was impressive, though nothing compared to the hell Flum had endured. Flum just smirked in return.

“Heh, I see you smirking. That’s because you know my body’s worth some good money.”

“Oh? And here I thought you were already in the clearance bin, half off.”

“What? I’m top tier, and I always make sure to take care of myself, too!”

Flum chuckled.

“Don’t you laugh at me like that! Anyway, it seems like you’ve misunderstood me, so let me make one thing abundantly clear: I’ve never slept with a man I wasn’t in love with, okay?!”

“Which says a lot about Dein, then, huh? Either you really don’t know how to pick ’em, or you like the type of guy that needs a lot of work.”

“It wasn’t Dein!!!”

“…Really?”

“That’s right! He had all the leverage, so I kinda let him do his own thing, but I never actually slept with him!”

Flum calmed down immediately. She’d always figured that the woman behind the counter spent every night with Dein and his men, but now that she really stopped to think about it, she never actually saw any of them come on to Y’lla.

“Why’re you looking at me like that?” Y’lla demanded.

“Nothing, really. Something sad just came to mind.”

“I don’t need that from you!” Y’lla’s cheeks flushed red. Maybe Flum was right. “I’m tellin’ you, the whole world’s gone mad now that those guys are gone. I’ve got a list of jobs for all the guilds in the city for you if you’ll stop.”

“You’ll let me see it?”

“Even if I don’t have a manager here to yell at me, there’s a certain adventurer who likes to complain about how slow I am at doing my job.”

“You could’ve just given it to me in the first place, you know.”

“Oh, shush. Just look at it and be quiet for once.”

Flum had a feeling Y’lla just wanted to keep her around to stave off the crushing boredom. Still, she sighed and looked over the paper, seeking for anything related to Ink. Y’lla just stared on, looking deeply inconvenienced.

While she was scanning the list, Flum heard someone rush into the guild and up to the counter. His breathing was ragged.

“H-hey, Y’lla, where’s Dein? Where’d they go??” The man’s face was incredibly pale.

“They went to the church and haven’t been back. Why?”

“That…that thing is back!”

“And what is this thing, exactly?”

“It looks kinda like Phile! This morning, I saw this bloated creature that looked like Phile moving around.”

“Listen, I’ve never heard anything about that before, okay?”

“Anyway, I also saw more of those creatures off in the slums!”

The word “creature” instantly brought the church to mind. Flum jerked her head up to look at the other man. She didn’t know him but figured he was one of Dein’s. She didn’t exactly want to ask him for a favor, but she needed more information, so she steeled herself and spoke up.

“Hey, do you mind telling me a bit more about that?”

He glared daggers at Flum. Y’lla intervened. “What could it hurt? Weren’t you already upset Dein ditched you, anyway?”

The two held each other’s eyes for a moment before Y’lla snorted and looked the other way. She wasn’t exactly stepping up for Flum’s benefit—just striking back at Dein any way she could.

“I guess you have a point.” The man looked thoughtfully between the two women’s faces. Finally, he clicked his tongue loud enough for Flum to hear, even at her distance, and continued with his story. “Dein ordered Phile to go strong-arm a church official.”

“Hmm. So that’s how he was planning to get in there.”

“Obviously! There’s no stronger ally the church could have!”

Flum sighed inwardly. It took a particularly dull-witted person to boast about his group’s strength right before the very person they’d tried and failed to kill.

“Anyway, that didn’t work out, and now Dein’s a member of the church. Pretty lame, if you ask me.” Y’lla sounded quite annoyed at the whole ordeal.

“I know how you feel, Y’lla, but no one expected it to turn out like this.”

“Hey, could you tell me about that creature you were talking about?” Flum asked.

“Ah, right. Y’know, I never saw it myself exactly, but I hear that it’s all arms, legs, and heads mushed together in a pile. Its whole body is distended, ’cause of all the eyes crammed inside.”

“A bunch of eyes? Growing new limbs?”

This was a different creature from the one that she dealt with back at the laboratory. It was still entirely plausible that whoever they threatened at the church had something to do with the natural extension of that research.

“When I first heard about it, I kinda just figured Dein had gone mad. But then I saw bodies off in the slums that fit that description and…and…well, I just couldn’t doubt it anymore.”

“So there is a lab somewhere here in the capital…” Flum muttered.

“Enough with the creepy talking to yourself. Or are you trying to say that you know something about this?” Y’lla demanded.

“Hmm, if you’re really interested, then I guess I could tell you.”

“No thanks. I don’t want to get involved.”

That was a wise call. Flum didn’t want to have to spend more time with Y’lla, either.

“Back to this Phile guy. You said you saw him this morning. Wouldn’t it have caused a ruckus if other people saw him, too?”

“I guess the church got rid of ’im.”

“Then there should’ve been an even bigger stir with all the bodies you saw back in the slums! There had to be tons of witnesses.”

The man let out a sigh and shook his head. “Beats me. There were tons of victims everywhere, and a lot of people millin’ about, so maybe they just couldn’t hide them all?”

“In that case, why attack there in the first place? It just seems odd. Listen, would you be willing to take me there?”

It was a brazen request, given what she knew about the church, but she couldn’t really say anything more without seeing it for herself. The man didn’t look too keen on this idea, but there was still something left that he wanted to check out himself, so he finally agreed. Y’lla volunteered to join them, too.

“Are you sure you can leave the guild unstaffed?”

“I’m not the only staff you know. Slooooooooowe!” A young man Flum had never met before lumbered out of a back room. “That’s Slowe, one of our admin guys.”

“N-n-nice to meet you. I’m Slowe Uradnehs.” He offered a low, curt bow in their direction.

“Oh, umm, hi. You’re certainly not the usual type that lives out here.”

“That’s probably true. Anyway, I’m gonna head on out for a bit, Slowe. Can I leave you in charge of reception?”

“Huh? Uh, me? I mean, I’ve never even…”

“You’ll figure it out. See ya!”

Y’lla waved her hand excitedly over her shoulder and made for the door. Slowe hesitated for a moment, but it was clear he wasn’t the type to argue back. It felt cruel to leave him alone behind the counter like that, but without Dein and his gang around, Flum figured he’d be fine.

With that settled, Flum, Y’lla, and the other man left the guild.

 

***

 

Soon after, they found themselves in the middle of the slums, surrounded by a mob vying for good angles on the grisly scene. The stench of death assaulted their noses as the three drew closer.

Y’lla held her hand over her mouth and scowled. “Yuuuuck. I knew the slums smelled bad, but this is way out there.”

The smell nearly overpowered them by the time they made it to the front of the crowd. The sight waiting for them only made it all the harder to bear.

Y’lla gagged. “Nngaaa…what is that??”

“Y’know, I think it used to be a person.”

“That’s what you said, but it’s hard to believe…”

Flum and the man were also clearly repulsed by the sight.

Arms, legs, and heads stuck out of the mass of flesh at odd angles; it looked like an art piece gone wrong. The road was littered with several of these creatures. Making matters worse, they writhed about like they were still alive.

The guards who had been summoned to the scene stood by, flummoxed. What could they do, anyway? As the three stared on in shock, a soldier finally showed up with a large cloth and draped it gently over the mass of flesh and muscle.

“Hya… hyaaa…” Y’lla threw her hand over her mouth again as she started to gag.

“Don’t throw up here.”

“How’re you so cool, anyway?!”

“I’m an adventurer.” Right as those words left Flum’s mouth, the man who brought them here—also an adventurer—began to gag, too. “Well, I guess that doesn’t entirely explain it.”

She was hardly an ordinary adventurer, after all. This was nothing compared to the ogre she’d faced off against before.

It looked like Y’lla was hitting her limit, so the three of them made their way back through the crowd and away from the scene. They all wore dark expressions, though for separate reasons. The overcast sky only strengthened the scene’s foul tenor.

“Man, I just dunno. Phile got turned into a freak o’ nature like that, and Dein just runs off to the church. Is it really such a good idea to follow him?”

Dein had done everything in his power to increase his reach and power over the entire West District. Adventurers, guilds, merchants, soldiers—he’d managed to gain influence over them all. Though many called him a coward or scoundrel behind his back, there was something about his audacious personality that drew people in. The downside of this was that the moment he was gone, his empire began to crumble like a castle made of sand.

“If you’re still not sure which side you fall on, it’s best you stay out of the West District for a while,” Flum said. “You never know when or where those eyeballs might show back up.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I should wait until things cool down a bit.”

“I’d hate to get caught up in this bullshit and wind up like one of those freaks.” Y’lla shuddered.

They were quick to write Dein off after what they’d just seen. No matter how much she still disliked them, Flum wasn’t heartless enough to harm anyone willing to break off their ties with Dein.

She watched them make their way back to the guild, and turned towards home.

 

***

 

“I’m hooooome!”

Flum threw open the door and heard three separate greetings echo back. It sounded like Milkit and Ink were in the living room, while Eterna was still upstairs in her bedroom. She was initially a bit saddened that Milkit didn’t come running to the door to greet her as she usually did but got over it once she set foot in the living room and spied Ink sitting in Milkit’s lap.

“Welcome home, Master. I’m sorry I couldn’t greet you at the door.”

“No worries. What’re you two doing, anyway?” Flum motioned toward the wooden frame with several interlocked pieces lying in disarray atop the table.

Ink shouted out excitedly. “We’re doin’ a puzzle!!”

That made sense. Since each piece was shaped differently, Ink could complete the puzzle by touch. However, something was oddly familiar about the pieces.

“Eterna made it for us using some things around the house, so Ink would have something to play with,” Milkit explained.

Flum sat down on a nearby seat to watch. “Wow. She did a great job.”

She knew that the previous owner left behind some tools in a closet upstairs, but they were all old and covered in dust, so she didn’t look much further. Apparently Eterna had taken the lay of the land when she was squatting.

“And what’s that?” Flum motioned toward a metal toy sitting off to the side.

“A ring puzzle. We played with it for a while but grew bored of it eventually.”

“Milkit was great at it! I totally couldn’t do it at all, but she managed to just take the rings right apart!”

“You’ve always been pretty good with your hands.”

“No, hardly… I’ve played with one before, and it’s…it’s just a matter of learning the secret to how it works.”

Though she wouldn’t admit it, Milkit was quite dexterous. Her knife skills in the kitchen were impressive, and she could cook as well as any professional chef. In the short time Flum had spent with her, she picked up reading and writing quickly.

In Flum’s eyes, she was perfect, both inside and out—and talented to boot. It pained Flum to imagine the horrors she must’ve endured, but it did no one any good to dwell on that anger, especially since there was no one around to be angry at. It would just leave her feeling drained.

After taking a deep breath and clearing her thoughts, Flum slowly glanced around the room. “Now that I think about it, Sara’s still not here yet.”

“She might be planning on coming just before dinner.” They hadn’t exactly made any solid plans, but it’d become almost like a tradition for Sara to come over for dinner recently.

“Isn’t it tough to keep cooking for so many people, Milkit?”

“I suppose it might be tough on your wallet, Master, spending all of the money that you work so hard for on food, but I… Actually, I quite like it.”

“Huh? I guess it’s fine, then.”

“I love seeing people enjoy the food that I’ve made. The more people who come to eat my food, the happier I feel.”

The answer was practically ripped from the pages of a good housekeeping manual. Flum caught the slightest hint of a smile underneath the layers of bandages. It reminded her of just how glad she was to have taken Milkit’s hand and brought her along for this journey.

“Hey, Milkit, d’ya like it when I eat, too?” Ink demanded.

Milkit responded cheerfully, “Of course I do.”

Ink smiled brightly, relieved to hear it. Judging by the look on her face, it was clear she hoped to stay here and make this her new home.

“Hey, uh, Ink…” There were still things Flum needed to know. It was going to be difficult for them to keep living together as long as Ink kept secrets from them. “Don’t you think that Mother, Papa, and the other kids you were living with must miss you?”

“I wonder… I couldn’t really talk to Papa, and the other kids always made fun of me, saying I was useless. Mother was nice, of course, but she seemed to think I wasn’t of any use, too.”

Flum furrowed her brow at this. Useless… Just how were they determining the use of these children? “Ya know, people told me I was useless all the time, too. I understand how you must’ve felt about wanting to run away.”

“You too, Flum?”

Flum laughed bitterly. “But in my case, I was kicked out before I had a chance to run away.” She gently traced her finger over the mark of a slave burnt into her cheek.

“Master…”

“Don’t look so worried. After all, it’s thanks to a certain someone who reminded me we have matching marks that I realized it wasn’t as bad as I thought.”

It was true—if she’d never received this mark, she and Milkit would never have met. Flum would never have realized her true potential, and Milkit… Well, Milkit would have been eaten alive in a cage by those ghouls. They may have had to travel to the depths of hell to make it happen, but their chance encounter was ultimately what gave them the happiness they had today, even if Flum still wasn’t about to forgive Jean for what he did.

“Aww, must be nice to have someone like Milkit…”

“Yup. Honestly, I don’t know if I could’ve gotten myself out of that place if it weren’t for her.”

Ink looked down, dejected. “I wonder if I could ever live with all of you…”

Flum understood how she felt so well that it hurt. There was a pretty big difference in their situations, though. Flum had been rejected, while Ink chose to run away of her own will.

“If that’s what you really want, I’m fine with it,” Flum said.

Ink practically pulled herself across the table to face Flum, a broad grin plastered across her face. “Really??”

“But you’ll have to start telling us the truth. I know you’re still hiding things, aren’t you?”

“Well, I, umm…”

“Eterna’s worried, too, you know. She’d be pretty broken up if something were to happen to you.”

Ink had also grown quite close to Eterna in their time together. Flum didn’t enjoy having to use their relationship like that, but it had to be done.

“Well…I used to take some medicine every day, always at the same time.”

“Are you sick?”

Ink shook her head. “Mother said I wasn’t sick but that I needed to take it.”

“Why did you keep that to yourself? It’s pretty important.”

“I figured Eterna knows a lot about medicine, and she’d make me keep taking it if I told her about it.”

“But if something were to happen to you, it’d be too late to help you by the time we figured it out. Anyway, if it wasn’t for your health, then why did you take the medicine?”

“Dunno. The second-generation kids didn’t have to take it, but I had to because I was from the first generation.”

“Generation…?”

“I don’t really know, to be honest, other than that I was one of the first generation. Maybe ’cause I’m ten?”

Flum was certain of it now. Ink had to have escaped from a church laboratory.

“I think there’s something different about me that kept my friends and family from really accepting me,” Ink continued. “That’s why I felt like something was off.”

“Different?”

“I can talk and play like anyone else, but… I don’t know. I just felt like I was different, somehow. Like, not even the same kind of animal as everyone else. That’s the best I can explain it.”

Ink was probably closer to the truth than she even knew. If the church had performed the same experiments on people that they had on those ogres, these children likely were no longer human. And the second generation, likely an improvement over the first, would be far less human than Ink.

If the stories about a wave of eyeballs sweeping over the capital and killing people was the work of this second generation, then whoever was behind it must be looking for Ink. There was something crude, almost childish about the way that the eyeballs murdered without cause or care. Some might argue that Ink may have had something to do with it—she was, after all, missing her own eyes—but she hadn’t left the house once since they’d brought her home. What’s more, Flum couldn’t imagine Ink murdering all those people in the slums.

There was one thing that Flum just couldn’t explain: if the people at the laboratory deemed Ink useless, why was she still alive? At least thus far, she hadn’t exhibited any of the spiral-based powers that the ogre had. Flum didn’t know if Ink had any powers at all.

As far as she could tell, they’d never bothered to keep their failures back in the underground lab. The researchers had discarded every unsuccessful subject like so much trash. Did that mean that Ink was a success on some level? And they let her escape from right under their noses?

“Flum?” Ink’s voice brought Flum back from her thoughts.

“Huh? Uh, sorry, what was that?”

“Are you suspicious of me?”

Flum couldn’t in good faith say no, though she still didn’t know what she suspected. “I guess…I guess I am. Or at least I don’t trust you completely, even though I want to.”

“You know, I never left that place, not once in my life. I was stuck in there for ten years. This is the first time in my life I’ve gotten to enjoy fresh air, taste delicious food, sit on someone’s lap, or even talk to new people!”

Ink threw out her arms to express her excitement. Regret stung Flum’s heart.

“I’m not blaming you, Flum,” Ink said. “I’m saying I get why you’d be suspicious of me.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Everything I thought was normal was upside down. Every new thing I experience now, from the moment I wake up to when I go to bed—it makes me realize how strange my life was. Anyway, I’m not hiding anything else, I promise. So…so…please, just trust me, I’ll tell you anything you ask, Flum. Just tell me what you want to know.”

“I’m sorry, Ink.” All Flum could do was apologize.

“Oh, no, no, no. You don’t need to apologize, Flum! I mean, you have every right to be mad, even. I mean, from your point of view, I should’ve told you all this sooner. Maybe it seems ridiculous why I don’t know all this obvious stuff.”

“Well, Master has a kind heart,” Milkit said.

“And that’s why I won’t hide anything from you. Please, just ask anything you like! I’ll answer the best I can!”

 

***

 

True to her word, Ink told them everything they asked. They started with the details of how she left the facility in the first place.

“Well, I opened the door, walked down some stairs, and stepped outside. Then I ran for a really long time, and I don’t remember much after that. I remember thinking that a building near my home seemed really clean; it smelled nice compared to everywhere else.”

That sounded a lot like the area around the church.

Next, they asked about life in the facility.

“Like I said, everyone treated me different. I wasn’t allowed outside. I was alone a lot, and it was super boring. I used to spend time exploring the place and making up my own rules while I ran around. Hmm, oh, and the food was pretty bland compared to what you eat here. And there was the medicine I mentioned.”

Then, Mother.

“All I can say about Mother is that she was…well, Mother. I don’t even know her real name. I think she was just a little taller than me, ’cause my face rested against her chest when she hugged me. Judging by her voice, I’d guess she was in her thirties or so. She was kind but always a little cold to me. Now that I think about it, though, I don’t think she was actually all that nice.”

“Why do you say that?”

“You guys are a lot nicer to me. I dunno, it’s embarrassing to put it into words.” Ink’s cheeks flushed.

Flum blushed at this in kind, and Milkit smiled at the young girl on her lap.

They moved on to the so-called “second-generation” children Ink had been living with.

“Lessee, Nekt was pretty wild and rebellious, Mute never really talked much and was kinda hard for me to read, Luke was a little scary but always loyal, and Fwiss was Mother’s favorite. I always felt like I shoulda been like a big sister to the rest, but it never really worked out that way.”

“How were you different from the second-generation kids?”

“I mentioned this to Eterna already, but I think the biggest difference was Papa.”

“You say you never met him before, right? I guess you don’t know his name, either.”

“I never really heard his name mentioned specifically, and they didn’t really tell any of us kids, but I remember overhearing Nekt once. Everyone was real mad when they found out.”

Ink smiled proudly.

“They called Papa ‘Origin.’”

Flum and Milkit froze.

This was it—as good proof as any that the church of Origin was behind this. Flum had always considered the Pope to be the leader of the church. She’d never really believed in an actual god. Even if one did exist, it was hard to believe that such a god would be directly involved in the intricate details of their daily lives.

Ink, though… The other children Ink had lived with spoke of Origin like family.

“Uh, hey, Ink, I just want to make sure. Did you say Origin?”

“That’s right. Do you know anything about them?”

“Not really, no…” Flum’s reply came out much louder than she’d intended it to. It was entirely possible that Ink didn’t know what churches were, or anything about the religion that operated them. “All I can say is that Origin is, well, Origin.”

I wonder if the people who chose me also heard the voice of Origin…

She’d always figured that the Pope and Cardinals had been the ones choosing the members of the party sent out to slay the Demon Lord. But as she thought back on her encounters—monsters with spiral faces, animated eyeballs, creatures covered in grotesque limbs—Flum couldn’t help but feel that they didn’t quite seem like the products of a human mind. From the bizarre, spiral-filled notebook she found back in the laboratory to the ogre with her name listed in its stats, she was starting to doubt the church could create all of these things through research alone.

If there was some sort of supernatural entity known as Origin out there…well, it would explain a lot. The only question was why was it looking for her?

“Flum?”

“You’re looking rather pale, Master.”

“I’m fine…really. Probably.”

And yet, Flum felt an ominous weight in her chest as her pulse quickened.