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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 4
Chapter Title: Chapter 1 Grim Reaper, Kai
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Seeing the elaborate doll that looked exactly like her mother, dressed in the very clothes she had been wearing just before leaving the house, Jushia's eyes began to tremble uncontrollably.
“Arm…”
And lying next to Kai was a rotten, arm-shaped piece of wood.
“……”
Jushia, checking each item one by one as if in a daze, felt her heart begin to pound so loudly she could hear it in her ears.
“Heh… heheh.”
“……”
But contrary to her trembling eyes, Jushia wore her usual bright smile.
“If Brother Kai knew what strange thoughts I'm having right now, he'd probably laugh.”
“……”
“By the way, do you know where my mom went? She's not around.”
“Jushia.”
“My mom's not here. Was she gone even when you arrived, Brother Kai?”
Jushia deliberately avoided looking at the doll lying on the bed and spoke to Kai with a smile, as if she hadn't seen anything. Her eyes were still trembling intensely.
“……”
Kai silently watched Jushia for a moment, then lightly flicked his hand towards the doll on the bed, just as he had before.
Flash!
“……”
A faint light began to envelop the doll, and as the light faded, Jushia's mother, who always wore a warm smile, lay there.
“Uh… hmm? Oh, did I just fall asleep for a bit?”
Jushia's mother, opening her eyes, spoke to Kai as if nothing had happened, then turned her gaze to Jushia, who was staring at her with a blank expression.
“Jushia, you came back quickly.”
“……”
Jushia's expression turned blank once more. The truth she had desperately tried to deny, thinking, 'Surely not,' had appeared before her eyes as reality.
Her mother was a doll!
“It can't be…”
Jushia simply couldn't accept that fact.
“Jushia?”
“……”
At the sight of her mother looking at her with a puzzled gaze, Jushia finally couldn't bear it and ran out.
“……”
Kai, letting out a short sigh, also quickly began to chase after Jushia.
“Jushia.”
But even at Kai's call, Jushia, whether she hadn't heard or was pretending not to hear, didn't stop running.
Whoosh!
“……”
“Can't you hear me calling?”
In the end, it was only after Kai grabbed her arm that Jushia stopped running.
“……”
Kai, holding onto her, frowned slightly at the sight of Jushia silently weeping.
“Crying won't solve anything.”
“…I need an explanation.”
“……”
“I need an explanation of what happened!”
Jushia began to shout at Kai. He was the only one who could explain what was happening to her.
“That doll was my mom? Since when? Since when has a doll been my mom?! That rotten piece of wood! Was that why Mom's arm had been hurting since yesterday? So every time Mom said she was sick, Brother Kai wasn't healing her, but replacing those rotten pieces of wood…!”
Jushia, who had been speaking without pause, trying to sort out her chaotic thoughts, suddenly stopped mid-sentence. She had found something strange while speaking.
“He healed not only Mom but all the villagers…”
Because Kai had healed not only her mother but everyone in the village whenever they were sick.
“No… way…”
That fact forced Jushia to a single conclusion: that others might also be dolls, just like her mother.
“N-no, right?”
“……”
“Tell me it's not true!”
Kai looked at Jushia, who was waiting for his answer with desperate eyes, and instead of answering with words, he lightly flicked his finger towards the villagers visible around them.
Flash!
“……”
All the villagers nearby, just like Jushia's mother moments ago, fell to the floor like dolls with severed strings.
Thud!
“Ah… ah…”
At that sight, Jushia also collapsed to the floor. She had desperately wished and prayed it wasn't true, but her prediction had come true after all.
“Ah…”
She couldn't say anything. She wanted to scream something, but the reality unfolding before her was too much to bear, and she couldn't utter a sound.
“As you've seen, those you knew as your parents and all the villagers are dolls I created.”
“……”
Towards the stunned Jushia, Kai began to speak in a calm voice.
Jushia, with a blank expression, raised her head and looked at Kai.
“Brother Kai… who are you, really?”
Until now, Jushia had been confident that she knew Kai better than anyone.
Though he always spoke bluntly and never showed any emotion, Jushia knew well that he was the one who, subtly, took good care of her and cherished her.
But now, the Kai standing before her was a complete stranger.
“The one who made a deal with your mother.”
“…What?”
“Just before your mother died, she made a deal with me, staking her soul.”
“…Soul?”
“Yes, a soul.”
“What kind of deal did you make?”
“……”
“What kind of deal did you make?!”
Jushia forced herself to suppress her trembling voice and shouted, urging him to speak quickly. She wanted to know what kind of deal her birth mother had made with him.
She wanted to know what kind of deal had been made to put her in such an absurd situation.
“She asked to live without being hurt by humans.”
“What?”
“She asked that you live a life loved by everyone, not a life scorned and hurt like hers.”
“……”
This was the wish Jushia's birth mother, who had made a deal with Kai long ago, had expressed.
Having suffered too many wounds from humans as a slave, she, upon dying, wished for her daughter alone not to live a life hurt by humans like herself, but to always live a life loved and free from pain.
“That's why I created a village just for you.”
“……”
“A village where you wouldn't be hurt.”
“……”
At Kai's words, Jushia's expression turned blank once more.
The parents who had loved her so dearly. The villagers who had always been kind to her.
Recalling her life until now, lived without knowing any pain or sorrow, Jushia's face began to turn pale.
“A-all of it… Brother Kai made it?”
“Yes.”
“My parents too, and all the villagers?”
“……”
“Then what about me?”
“……”
“Was I created too?”
“Jushia.”
“Am I a created doll too?!”
“Would you believe me if I said no?”
“Tell me!”
“No.”
“……”
“I told you, the reason I made this village was for you.”
Jushia remained silent for a moment at Kai's answer. She merely continued to stare at him with trembling eyes.
“It's just as you say, Brother Kai.”
“……”
“Even if you say no, I can't believe it.”
“Jushia.”
“Right now, I can't believe anything you say, Brother Kai.”
“……”
Jushia slowly rose from where she had collapsed, let out a scoffing laugh, spoke those words, and then headed towards the nearest house from where she stood.
The village woman who had been watering the flowers on the windowsill just moments ago lay collapsed by the window as a wooden doll. Jushia stared at her for a moment, then slowly entered the house.
“What are you trying to do now?”
Kai, who had followed her into the house, saw Jushia go into the kitchen and pick up a knife used for cooking, and he frowned slightly.
He wondered if she hated him enough to attack him with it.
He let out a short sigh and quietly watched her actions.
“I need proof.”
“……”
“…Proof that I'm not a doll.”
“……”
But the next moment, Kai's expression hardened. Jushia had plunged the knife not into him, but into her own chest.
Thud!
“Blood… it's blood…”
“……”
Seeing the red blood flowing from her chest, Jushia showed a faint smile.
As if she were genuinely happy to have found proof that she wasn't a doll.
“I don't understand.”
Kai approached Jushia, who had fallen to the floor, his face hardened, and spoke quietly. He simply couldn't comprehend her actions.
Even though she had discovered that those she had been with until now were dolls, Kai couldn't understand how that could be so agonizing as to choose death.
“Was your life until now unhappy?”
“…No.”
It was happy. An immeasurably happy life.
At Kai's question, Jushia once again showed a faint smile on her lips and continued to speak.
“But… everything was a lie.”
“……”
Jushia couldn't bear the thought that everything she had lived until now was a lie, that the life she had perceived as happy was a life manipulated by someone.
“A deal…”
“……”
“Make a deal with me.”
“…What?”
“I… I want to make a deal too…”
Jushia, now barely able to articulate words, spoke to Kai in a trembling voice, wanting to make a deal with him, just as her mother had.
Staking her own soul.
“……”
At Jushia's words, Kai remained silent for a long time. He merely continued to gaze back at Jushia, who was looking at him with a faint smile, his own face still hardened.
“…The price of the deal is your soul. Do you still wish to proceed with the deal?”
Then, a moment later, Kai's demeanor as he spoke to her was different from how he had comfortably addressed Jushia just moments ago.
His polite tone and movements showed not an ounce of discomposure. He had returned to being Kai, the Grim Reaper.
“Yes…”
Because of Kai's change, Jushia nodded with a slightly sorrowful gaze.
“State your wish.”
Kai took a step closer to Jushia and bowed his head slightly.
“…Grant this.”
“……”
“Remember me…”
“……”
“Remember me… forever…”
Kai's expression hardened once more at Jushia's wish. The wish she had made, staking her soul, was merely for him to remember her.
