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Chapter 211. Convenient Illusion

An endless staircase that seems to lead to the depths of the earth—

Every time I try to count the steps, I quickly get fed up and stop halfway through. After being led by Claire, I finally reached the bottom of the long staircase, passed through a door guarded by heavily armored skeletons, and stepped into the Undead King’s palace.

“—Zilbagias-sama!”

On the other side of the door, Enma, who had been waiting, turned dramatically around.

Today, her accessories are modest. Familiar rings and necklaces. She’s dressed in cool colors and looks rather plain.

“I’m truly sorry for the terrible disrespect last time!”

Enma, exaggerating, pretended to be emotional—

And a single tear rolled down her cheek.

Oh… as expected, she added a crying function!

“……..”

Without saying a word, I stepped closer, placed my hand on Enma’s cheek, and gently wiped away her tear with my finger.

“Eh, Zil-kun?”

While Enma looked bewildered, I rubbed the clear liquid that looked like tears between my fingers. It’s quite slick. Is this just water? It tastes salty, but I definitely lacked the courage to lick it. It seems like it would be bad for my health…

Even so, she really nailed the execution, flowing tears so naturally. I wonder how that works?

I silently examined Enma’s eyes up close.

“Zil-kun!?”

Enma squeaked, trying to pull away, so I wrapped my arm around her waist to hold her still.

“Stay still. I can’t see your face well.”

“Y-yes…”

Taking advantage of her embarrassment, I whispered in a stronger tone, and she became surprisingly obedient. Now I can observe her slowly!

Since I’m preparing to create a body for Barbara, I’m seeing things a bit differently now—it’s refreshing. Enma’s body is top-notch as a model.

As I observe her closely, I’m impressed by how well her facial features, eyelids, and eye movements are replicated. There’s no body temperature, but the moist texture of her cheeks is disturbingly lifelike.

“She’s beautiful.”

In an ergonomic sense.

“Feh.”

Enma, frozen with a blank expression, was rolling her eyes like a beast on the verge of death.

…I feel a slight discomfort with her glassy eyes, but otherwise, at first glance, it was so well done that you couldn’t tell she wasn’t a living person.

Yet, she has both power and speed. As expected of a level of infamous criminal who left their mark on human history, the technology is impressive…!

“……..”

Before I knew it, Enma had tightly closed her eyes and was pouting her lips. What is she doing?

“Ahem.”

Claire deliberately cleared her throat, prompting me to quickly distance myself from Enma. I went too far out of scientific curiosity. This felt like I was a perverted demon prince fascinated by corpses…!!

“I suppose that’s somewhat true…”

I’m interested in how it’s made, but I don’t care about Enma’s body itself!

“Ahh…”

Enma released a somewhat distressed sound while adjusting her disheveled bangs, looking disappointed. Feeling awkward and a bit embarrassed, I smiled at Claire in an attempt to distract from the situation.

However, Claire just stared back with a completely vacant expression and rolled her eyes.

Damn it, she thinks I’m a perverted demon prince fascinated by corpses…!?

“…I’m sorry, Enma. I was just captivated.”

“I-it’s fine, really, but… that…”

Enma fidgeted, twisting her fingers.

“Was I that beautiful? Just looking at me…”

“Yeah. You were incredibly beautiful.”

Her way of crying was.

“Even now, you’re shining so brightly that I can’t take my eyes off you…”

Upon reflection, her body is the pinnacle of the craftsmanship of that ‘doll maker’. In that sense, it’s a treasure trove. So, it appears to sparkle. Necromantically and ergonomically, I can’t look away…!

“Feh, eh, heh heh…”

Enma didn’t have an appropriate expression to respond with “I’m honored!” and began to squirm with a blank face. Her movements looked exactly like a worm pulled from the ground, but the smoothness of her motions is definitely noteworthy…

So, with all misunderstandings cleared up (or rather, I was just pretending to be mad), the necromancy lecture began as usual.

The theme, of course, is the applied techniques for creating Undead.

Unlike the necromancy I’ve practiced so far, which ends with just putting a soul into a corpse, we’ll cover efficiently managing magic power, converting magic power into physical movement in muscle tissue, various preservation treatments and related chemicals, and the techniques for enhancing skeletal structure and joints, among many other diverse techniques for “creating Undead.”

Some techniques involve processing using fresh bodies too, so the content is pretty gruesome… but this is for Barbara. Besides, it’s too late for me to stop.

“…By the way,”

During a break in the lecture, I casually shifted the conversation to Enma.

“Actually, I used a bit of necromancy on the battlefield.”

“Wow! Did it help you at all? As your ‘teacher,’ nothing could make me happier than that!”

“Yeah, it was super useful. It was necessary for cleaning up after the battlefield.”

I said nonchalantly.

“Though, everyone was completely wiped out by the Hero…”

—I wasn’t lying. With terrifying accuracy.

I popped a sweet treat that had been laid out for me on the table into my mouth. Sweet. It actually tastes good. So, I’m fine.

“Ahh, that’s unfortunate. That damn Holy Church…”

“In the process, I heard something rather interesting.”

As Enma frowned, I asked with pure curiosity.

“Someone said they met their family who died over ten years ago ‘on the other side’.”

Right after hearing Barbara’s story, I tried summoning her father and brother.

But there was no response whatsoever—

“Wasn’t there a talk about how ‘the afterlife does not exist’?”

“—Ah, is that all?”

Enma smiled brightly. Whoa there. Her tone sounded completely dismissive, totally mismatched with her expression.

“I’ve summoned countless souls and heard similarly tedious stories over and over again. But you see, that’s merely an illusion. Souls drawn into the spirit realm have their reason stripped away first, entering a state of half-dreaming. They might dream up a convenient world for themselves…”

Then, shrugging, she continued.

“I didn’t get to meet my mom or dad, who died with me.”

She whispered that she was still suffering even in death.

“If the afterlife exists, then why did my soul have to be tormented by pain and hatred even after I died? Not just me, but Claire and the others too.”

…Claire, who had been reading a book in the corner of the lab, paused turning the pages.

“If an afterlife exists, shouldn’t we be led there swiftly and peacefully?”

“Well, that’s true.”

Why was Barbara able to reunite with her deceased father and brother?

And why couldn’t Enma and the others?

When considering the differences with Barbara… would it be related to attachment to life? Or whether they were rational at the time of death? I’m really not sure. There’s too little information…

…Well, to put it that way, I also haven’t reunited with my parents.

“You are special. You didn’t even go through the spirit realm in the process of reincarnation.”

Antedeixis chimed in from the side.

—Not passing through the spirit realm? What does that mean?

“It’s simple. Your soul was consumed by the ability of the Cannibal. In other words, you were in its stomach. Still, it’s astounding that your soul was so strong that it could come out without being completely digested.”

You resisted even against a god, Antedeixis added.

So, my desire for revenge, the core of my soul, was strong, huh…? Ever since my village was destroyed, all I could think about was killing demons as the only support for living.

Literally, my desire for revenge had become the core of my existence…

“Well, the thing is, there was nothing at the bottom of the spirit realm I saw.”

While I was lost in thought, Enma continued to speak in a gloomy tone.

“I’d like to show you the despair from that time. If the afterlife truly existed, if there was a paradise for the dead, how much better would that have been…!!”

Since I went to check, there was no such paradise for the dead.

So, I decided to create it in the real world with my own hands—

However, this is just Enma’s claim, so I can’t trust it entirely. Even if I wanted to see it for myself, I still couldn’t perform astral projection.

“Moreover, it was unexpected that even I couldn’t enter the spirit realm.”

That’s true.

—Due to Barbara’s testimony, doubts emerged like, “Is there really an afterlife?”

Could a demon, structured from magic power, explore the spirit realm?

I didn’t feel good about it, and Antedeixis was reluctant, but I tried to persuade him to go into the spirit realm for just a bit.

But Antedeixis was repelled by the door.

He couldn’t even get a hand into the spirit realm. The laws of the world firmly rejected Antedeixis’s existence.

“I’m an anomaly, that’s why I can’t enter this world.”

Hmm, Antedeixis groaned.

“The spirit realm is likely a space for the existence of this world. Hence, anomalies are rejected. That’s how it’s built.”

Antedeixis’s fantasy appeared before my eyes, on the table.

Lying back lazily, resting his chin on his hand, he looked at Enma with an exasperated expression.

“This girl… Does she think she can fully understand the mystery separating life and death simply by seeing a bit?”

He let out a derisive chuckle.

“Even we demon gods can die. Life and death are powerful concepts that even transcend different worlds and gods. To think that a mere human would understand that… how presumptuous can one be?”

Antedeixis’s pitying gaze—

Enma does not seem to notice.

“Well, no matter how much I say it, I can’t present any solid evidence. The best thing would be for you, Zil-kun, to see for yourself.”

Opening a [Gate to the Spirit Realm] without incantation, Enma continued.

“The living are too strongly tied to their bodies and souls. Are you training for astral projection?”

“I meditate before bed, but I feel like I can’t do it and it troubles me.”

“Well, they say it takes decades… but for demons, it could be in no time!”

Ahaha, Enma laughed brightly.

Kukuku, Antedeixis chuckled.

“Don’t you find it strange, this girl? That someone like her, a mere human, can easily open this so-called [Gate] without reciting proper spells—”

He pointed at the swirling magic.

“Doesn’t it frighten you that the barrier separating life and death is just this thin? If it were my creator, they would secure it much more tightly. To ensure the afterlife doesn’t overflow into the real world. To prevent the world from being ruined—”

Rolling over to face me, Antedeixis shrugged.

“Well, that said, I can’t definitively assert that the afterlife exists. Just as I can’t claim that the afterlife does not exist. In the end—”

I can only understand that I don’t know.

“—Speaking of which,”

Enma looked at me as if just recalling something.

“Changing the subject, Zil-kun, you’ve been appointed as the governor, right? Congratulations again.”

Then—“I heard a little bird say,” Enma continued.

“I heard that in the Autonomous District, there’s a policy to protect humans? And that the one spearheading that initiative would be you, Zil-kun?”

Enma maintained her smile.

Bright and beautiful,

Like a doll,

—It was a manufactured smile.

“I wonder if that’s really true?”

Her glassy, doll-like eyes

Were fixed on me.

 

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