Ghoul

 

If you're a bad child who won't go to sleep,

the ghouls will come eat your insides and turn you into one too!

—A threat for putting children to bed, passed down in the Scarlet Clan

 

"I'm here too!"

Red hair streamed behind that spirited voice, and an obsidian-inlaid stone sword swung through the air.

Just like that, the pain in my throat vanished as if by magic.

How she'd managed it with the broad blade of a stone sword that didn't even have a point, I had no idea. Yet Yuuka had removed the winged serpent's head whole from where it had burrowed into my throat.

"Ew, what is this thing?"

Yuuka grimaced at the winged serpent, which was still gnashing its fangs even after being flung from her sword.

Behind her, an armored bear tore through Nina's conjured vines and lashed out with its claws.

"Yuuka, behind—! Y…"

Ara tried to shout a warning, but it trailed off into stunned silence. Without so much as turning around, Yuuka swung her stone sword, and the armored bear's entire body was torn to shreds.

"Hmm, even this much won't kill it, huh."

Snapping off the fangs of the armored bear's severed head as it flew at her, Yuuka pressed forward. Perhaps because Nina had begun treating Tia, the corpses broke free of their vine restraints one after another, hurling themselves at Yuuka.

"Mentor."

Ara approached me and spoke up.

"I have no idea what's going on."

"Rest assured."

I answered with all the confidence befitting a teacher.

"I have absolutely no idea either."

Yuuka's stride was so casual that to an untrained eye, she would have looked full of openings. The way she glanced around at the corpses, tilting her head in thought, was like someone window-shopping.

And yet, not a single claw or fang from the countless beasts lunging at her could so much as graze her. Each time they crossed paths, the beasts simply fell apart.

If she'd been moving faster than the eye could follow, it would have at least made sense. But Yuuka's movements were almost entirely visible. With such deceptive ease that I could almost fool myself into thinking I could do the same, she dodged their attacks, held her sword as though simply placing it in their path, and cut the beasts down.

Even though these beasts, corpses half-rotted as they were, still had tendons and bones.

"Hey, big bro, what should I even do about this?"

But even she furrowed her brows and looked to me, perplexed.

The beasts she'd sliced apart simply stuck their limbs back together like modeling clay and threw themselves at her again.

"Hmm. Heave-ho."

A flash of intensity crossed Yuuka's eyes, and in the next instant the armored bear had been reduced to countless chunks of meat, as if it had been minced.

"Ugh, that just made it even more gross!"

But it was no use. Even ground that fine, the pieces clung together and reformed. Though "reformed" wasn't quite the right word. The chunks gathered like raw hamburger mix, taking on only the vaguest shape of a beast. By now it was just a massive lump of meat, impossible to tell what animal it had originally been.

"… This is bad, Mentor."

Innis drifted her sofa over to me and whispered.

"If even Yuuka can't beat them, isn't it just… impossible?"

So far, there was nothing unsteady about Yuuka's movements. No matter how many came at her, she deflected and cut them down without breaking a sweat. But against enemies that refused to stay down no matter how many times she cut them, eventually even she would tire. I needed to think of something before that happened.

"… Something's nagging at me."

I narrowed my eyes.

"Something… something really simple that I'm overlooking."

Fire probably wouldn't work. If they kept moving even after being pulverized that finely, reducing them to ash would yield the same result. And if they could move as ash, that would truly be beyond dealing with. At least while they had a solid form, Yuuka could hold them back and dodge them.

These were enemies that even Yuuka couldn't put down, enemies that had left Tia badly injured.

Cut them, stab them, crush them, they reformed instantly. Burning or freezing would be just as futile…

"… Wait."

It hit me, and I turned to Nina.

"Nina. How is Tia doing?"

"… She'll be fine. The wounds aren't as bad as they look. My only worry is whether she might catch something from being gnawed on by those filthy beasts… but fairies are abnormally resistant to illness, so she should be alright."

Wiping her sweat, Nina deftly wrapped bandages around Tia's body. Swaddled in human-sized bandages, Tia quickly came to resemble a tiny mummy.

"Tia, sorry to bother you while you're hurt, but can I ask you one thing?"

"Go ahead."

Perhaps she didn't have the energy for her usual snark, because Tia answered meekly, lying limp in Lufelle's palm.

"How did you end up getting hurt like that?"

"… I let my guard down."

She scrunched up her face at my question.

"I never imagined my concealment would be completely ineffective."

Just as I thought!

"Thank you! We might just be able to pull through!"

"Huh? How does airing my embarrassment make anything work out?"

I couldn't help but smile at Tia puffing her cheeks out indignantly. She was getting her spirit back.

"Yuuka! I think I figured out how to beat them!"

"That's my big bro! So, what do I do?"

There are three things that can see through Tia's concealment.

The first is light. Her concealment eliminates all sound and scent, but under strong light, her shadow still appears.

The second is Yuuka. For whatever reason, she has always been able to see right through Tia's concealment since childhood.

And the third is spirits. Concealment simply doesn't work on spirits, beings that are magic itself.

"Cut open the beasts' bellies!"

But the carcasses before us clearly had physical bodies. Spirits don't bleed when cut, and the rancid stench was unmistakably rotting flesh. A smell like that can only come from a body of flesh.

"Done!"

The moment Yuuka shouted, the bellies of the corpses — or what passed for their bellies — split open all at once.

"You who dwell in ruined flesh, you dark things that move the dead! Begone from those defiled vessels!"

I knew of such beings.

"Your name is Ghoul!"

The moment I called that name, something like black mist erupted from the corpses' bellies.

It coalesced, gradually taking shape, forming humanoid figures.

About a meter tall, perhaps.

Like black shadows with indistinct outlines, they were humanoid spirits resembling ogres.

"Yuuka! Take their heads off!"

"On it!"

A gust of red wind swept through, and in the next instant, every last ghoul had been beheaded and dissolved like smoke.

Ghoul. In my previous life, the name had been established as a type of corpse-eating monster from RPGs, but originally, ghouls were a type of spirit from Arabian folklore.

The demon spirits called djinn, best known for the genie of the lamp… the lowest-ranked among them are said to possess corpses and cause mischief. Those are ghouls.

Ghouls possess extreme immortality and can't be killed no matter how much you cut them, but their bellies alone cannot regenerate. However, cut a ghoul's belly a second time and it heals right back. That's why I told Yuuka to go for the neck instead.

Of course, there was no guarantee they shared the same weaknesses and abilities as the ghouls in my knowledge. But the moment I named them "Ghoul," they should have taken on those properties.

Once the ghouls dissolved and vanished, the corpses crumbled and went still.

"Managed it, somehow…"

I returned to my human form, sank to the ground, and let out a deep breath.

The moment I relaxed, the throat wound I'd forgotten about throbbed sharply.

"Come on, let me see yours too."

Nina, having already finished treating Lufelle, pulled my chin toward her and fixed me with a serious gaze.

… Studying her face like this, she really was a beauty. With nothing to do while she treated my wound, I found myself gazing at her, thinking exactly that.

I'd grown so used to seeing her every day that I'd gone completely numb to it, but with fresh eyes, Nina was stunningly gorgeous. The innocence of her youth had mostly faded, replaced by a mature loveliness. She'd become truly beautiful.

Well, some parts of her body hadn't really grown at all, though.

"All done!"

"Ugh…"

As if she'd read my mind, Nina gave me a rough smack the instant she finished. The impact shot straight through my wound and I let out a groan.

"Nina…"

"What?"

When I shot her a reproachful look, Nina stared back with displeased eyes. Ah, those were her genuinely angry eyes. Her expression had barely shifted, but I could tell. Somehow, she really had read my thoughts.

"Nothing, thank you."

"Whatever."

She huffed at my thanks and turned away, looking bored.

"More importantly… those monsters just now. Did they come from that forest?"

"Yeah. We were thinking of cutting timber in this forest, so Tia and I came to scout it out today. Then all of a sudden, these ghosts just came pouring out of the woods and…"

Nina's expression hardened at Lufelle's words. I understood why.

"Lufelle. I'm sorry to ask, but would you and Ara take care of giving these animals a proper send-off?"

"Okay. I understand."

I gestured toward the animal carcasses scattered around us, and Lufelle nodded obediently, though she looked slightly puzzled.

"Alright, let's go."

When I looked back, Nina and Yuuka nodded with grim expressions.

They'd both probably guessed, at least vaguely, what had happened.

The three of us pushed into the forest and followed a beaten path.

"Ah…"

The sight before me drew an involuntary sound from my throat.

A few minutes into the forest stood a cluster of huts.

— And several men and women, lying in pools of blood.

They must have been attacked by the ghouls before Lufelle and the others arrived.

There was no need to check for a pulse. They were dead.

That was what I thought, but Nina knelt in the pooling blood and began checking each person for signs of life, one by one.

"Nina…?"

"I'm looking for survivors."

She said it with a resolute expression.

I couldn't imagine anyone surviving this carnage.

"Understood."

But I answered with that and exchanged a nod with Yuuka.

Unlike Nina, I had no medical training whatsoever. But even I could tell the living from the dead. One by one, I checked for the faintest sign of breath.

I had known that people lived in this forest. But I didn't know their names.

A mere hundred years ago, that wouldn't have been the case. I had known the face and name of every person born and buried in Scarlet, and I'd watched over each of their lives and deaths.

Perhaps it started around the time spirits began to spread. Life grew far more stable than before. The influx of other races swelled, and the village expanded.

Nina's apprentices matured into doctors in their own right, one after another, and the days when she delivered every child were long gone.

It was a little lonely, but I'd accepted it as inevitable.

— But.

I gently closed the red eyes of a corpse, frozen wide with terror.

Red hair and red eyes were the hallmarks of the Swordsaints. These people, too, may well have been Yuuka's distant relatives.

I could no longer even tell.

The fact that I could no longer know them felt unbearably sad, painfully so.

"Found one…!"

That was when I heard Nina's cry.

"This one's alive! This child is alive!"

Cradled in her arms was a baby so small its head couldn't even support itself yet.

So tiny, so fragile and fleeting. It probably couldn't even see clearly yet.

And yet… that baby, breathing softly in its sleep, was without question alive.