79 – Number 8

“Is that all you lot are capable of?!”

“”No, Sir!!””

The damn b*stards were raising hell in tandem.

The guys barking out nonsense,

and the ones accepting that nonsense.

“You lot, chosen by the Empire’s Moon!!

Is this, all, you’re capable of?!”

“aaagh!!”

“W..wait, don’t push me..!”

Behind the dull thudding sounds,

the sound of bones breaking echoed in rapid succession.

The instructor, face permanently etched with a grin,

claims it’s endurance training against torture,

all while beating the children senseless.

Of course, there are grievances aplenty.

Barring some peculiar taste,

no child enjoys being struck.

Yet, they dare not rebel.

To rashly challenge him

would only draw the other instructors in,

and the fiend doesn’t just beat indiscriminately.

Doing so would certainly earn a reprimand from superiors.

He cloaks his violence as discipline, reserved for

those who fail to follow their teachings correctly.

“Hehe, good day to you, Senior!”

“..Beaten again, I see.”

“Today they didn’t hit me so much, I’m telling you!”

So saying, another boy approached me,

as I silently cursed a storm of obscenities in my heart,

quietly huddled in a corner.

His fluttering orange hair

was a rather striking feature.

I didn’t know his name.

They were children the instructors had freely taken,

so there was no chance for us to learn each other’s names.

The devils called us by numbers,

assigned in order of height.

“..Why do you call me ‘Senior’?

Why not just call me Number Six, like the others?”

“Ehhh, if your number’s earlier, you’re the senior!”

“..It’s merely a matter of height.”

The name they gave me was Number Six,

and this orange-haired boy,

“And your skills are actually

better than mine, aren’t they? So you’re my senior!”

“..Do as you please.”

His skill was nothing remarkable,

but he certainly possessed a silver tongue.

“Se..Senior! This is tasty, I swear!

It’s really tasty!!”

“…Just eat quietly, please.”

Even though it was a skewer, the kind you find on every street corner,

that boy devoured it as if it were the most delicious thing in the world.

“Senior! I lived, I tell you!

Now I can work with you, Senior!”

“…I was sure you were dead.”

“What’s with that reaction?!

Aren’t you happy I survived?”

“Ah…no, I am happy, but.”

Even on the day our “graduation” took place,

somehow surviving, that seemingly clueless boy

wore a bright smile,

“Haha, I’m sorry, Senior!

I really didn’t want this to happen either!”

“Son of a…b*tch…”

“I really do think it’s a shame too,

you were a good person, Senior…

But what choice did I have?”

Then, on the last day of my second life,

even as he plunged a knife into my back,

the name of that boy who didn’t lose his smile was…

“Mother told me to do it, hee hee.”

“You…you little piece of…”

“See you again sometime, Senior?”

Number 8, he was Number 8.

The eighth child, always wearing a smile.

*

Silence, as if a lie, now swirled in the

battlefield where fierce shouts had reigned moments before.

The elf, wailing over the loss of her family,

the knight, enraged at the loss of his comrades,

even the princess, who had witnessed it all,

not one of them could easily open their mouths.

Right before them stood the monstrous

boy-figure they had been confronting just moments ago,

and beside them was a boy,

striding purposefully towards that monster.

The knights tried to stop him.

How could he throw away his life so carelessly,

when he was still such a young man with so much ahead of him?

But he remained uncaptured.

So close it seemed, yet unreachable.

No matter the inexplicable reason,

not a single one could grasp even his sleeve.

Thus, he drifted serenely past the knights’ reaching hands,

pausing only before the boy.

Only when a space scarcely fit for a hand

remained, did his advance cease.

Despite the revolting, writhing

masses of flesh so near,

his expression remained utterly unmoved.

He merely continued to gaze upon the boy.

“No inclination to explain?”

“Senior, it’s been far too long, it has!

You remember me saying we’d meet again, yes?”

“Why you betrayed me then,

why you still live in this place,

why you have become as you are.”

“As expected, Senior is still unblemished even after suffering such indignities, eh!”

“No thought, then, to explain?”

To Jennison’s words, the boy only

tittered, a stifled laugh escaping him.

As though the situation was truly so amusing

he could scarcely contain himself.

“Heehee, Senior… your acting still seems

dreadfully lacking, it does.”

“….”

“You’ve already anticipated it all, no?

What Senior surmises is most likely correct, I believe!”

“….”

“Ah, thinking of it, I don’t believe I

ever told Senior my name, did I?”

With that, the boy retreated a step,

raising a hand to the right before lowering it.

A magician’s gesture, as if taking leave

at the end of a performance.

The fleshy tentacles mirroring

the movement of his raised right hand,

creating a truly bizarre spectacle.

And then, that smile of the boy,

so utterly mismatched with his bizarre appearance,

bursts forth in rapid succession.

“Moon’s Order, one of the Seven Deadly Sins!

Jeal, occupying the seat of Envy, that’s me!”

And again,

another self-introduction, as unsettling

as the smile is incongruous.

*

“Say, senpai,

you’re definitely something else, it seems!”

“….”

“They said that most humans from that dimension

are so steeped in peace, they should have

broken down already!”

“….”

“But, how have you endured?

You’ve held on better than expected!”

I stare at the face of the thing before me, chirping

with what seems like delight.

Un-human, black pupils greet my gaze,

and within them, the gleam of red eye-light.

“That’s why *we* stepped in!

Even begged another god besides Mother!”

“….”

“Still, the outcome’s been favorable, so it’s fine.

Senpai has continued to be unhappy, after all.”

“….”

“But!! Why still!!

Not, broken, down, yet?!!”

The thing’s red eye-light approaches me, bit by bit,

and his steps betray no hesitation.

He still wears that simpering face,

tilting his head and offering a greasy smile.

“If senpai looked like he was settling into

even the slightest stability, we’d interfere no matter what, see?”

“….”

“Not just me, but all of us

interfered with you, senpai, you know?”

“….”

“How is it that you haven’t gone mad yet,

managed to endure this long?”

Something taps me on the shoulder.

Tok, tok.

I lift my head slightly, and a mangled eye comes into view.

An eye that hasn’t been completely plucked out, hanging limply.

A groan echoes.

A final plea, begging for salvation.

All of these things are clustered in one place,

molded together into a single tentacle,

and, that thing,

is now resting on my shoulder.

“Humans are supposed to be weak, no?

So fragile they’d be driven mad by death?”

“….”

“Why is it that only you are different, senior?

Why do *you* not succumb to madness?”

The glint in the boy’s eyes intensifies.

His crimson pupils begin to cloud over.

“Ah, I’m envious,

you are strong no matter where you are..

Even that, I envy it.”

“..Is that all.”

“Eh, what do you mean?”

The madness, so thick it could be cut with a knife and clearly inhuman,

had barely settled in the air, when,

in that instant, everyone there

widened their eyes in disbelief.

It was a sight that forced such a reaction.

“Hyaa…It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen *that*, has it not?”

“..Number 8.”

The tentacle that had sprouted from the boy’s shoulder,

the mere sight of which brought nausea,

had been bisected and now dangled in the air.

Moonlit Nine Swords Style, Third Form:

Crescent Moon Slash.

A beautiful, upturned crescent moon hung

suspended in the sky,

and, in its wake, clots of blood gushed

from the boy’s tentacle like a fountain.

“Still the same as ever, Senior!

This isn’t something just anyone can cut off—”

“Did I ask how I endured it?”

“Huh? What’s that all of a sudden—”

Something zipped past the boy’s ear.

Very small and thin, but

clearly, something of perceivable size.

“Ah, I think I’ve seen this somewhere—”

“At first, I endured it out of unfairness.

I meticulously considered what wrong I had done, that

something like this was happening to me.”

“Hang on, just a sec,

it feels like there are more and more?”

The something didn’t stop at simply brushing the boy’s ear.

It kept flying.

Without pausing midway.

“After a while, even that

eventually morphed into anticipation.

“Whoa, there are more than I thought…da!”

“Wondering when this endless cycle of reincarnation

would finally come to an end, you see.”

The continuous barrage of somethings

rushed toward the boy’s body, and

even after quite some time, the speed wasn’t

slowing down; if anything, it was accelerating.

It was a sight that was enough to shock

those observing everything.

But, it still wasn’t enough.

The boy, receiving all of it,

still wore a faint smile.

As if, no one could touch

the boy’s smile.

“Senior, I admit that you’re an amazing person!

Anyone would admit it!”

“….”

“But, that’s only at the *human* level!!

A human weak in both body and spirit!”

“….”

“How much magic power do you even have left?

“Seems like you’re too weary to even forge blades anymore!”

Jeal’s composure had reason behind it.

The Seven Deadly Sins, that is, the higher-ups of the Order,

knew everything about him –

his abilities, his limits, his mana reserves, everything.

Perhaps it was only natural.

The most crucial individual for their purpose

was none other than Jennison.

Investigating a target

was something one ought to do thoroughly.

And finally, the information he possessed indicated

that Jennison’s mana was starting to run dry.

Just a moment ago, the indiscriminate attacks had been flying,

but now they ceased as if nothing had happened.

“Haha, what are you going to do n─”

“Hear me out until the end.”

“Huh?”

Something was off, though.

Normally, he should be

gasping for air by now.

Having depleted all his mana

and utterly exhausted.

“And now, it’s vengeance.”

“….”

“Probably, definitely, vengeance.

A very deep one at that.”

Yet, he was fine.

No, he seemed even more invigorated.

As if he hadn’t expended

a single ounce of mana.

His completely unexpected state caused

the boy’s body to momentarily freeze,

and Jennison’s hand moved once more.

His right hand, to be exact.

“Haha…Isn’t that a technique I know too?

I feel like I’ve seen it bef─”

“If you had learned properly back then, you could have blocked or avoided it.”

*If* you still remember the teachings

of the humans you looked down on as inferior and weak.

Immediately after those words, the fight commenced.

A darkness deeper than moments before,

and the moon, not brilliant but softly luminous, in contest.