"Once you're discharged and back home, and your wound has healed, we'll find a time to sit down and have a proper talk. I'll tell you everything you want to know."
"All right, Grandpa."
Kallen did not refuse. At this point, there was no longer any reason to refuse or be afraid.
If he had never seen "Mr. Mossan" dance,
if he had never seen Mrs. Hughes possessed by an otherworldly demon,
if he had never seen Alfred and Miss Molly standing before him,
if his grandfather had never personally stabbed him,
then everything could have continued under their unspoken understanding, allowing the gears of life to turn smoothly onward.
But now that things had come this far, continuing to deceive himself was clearly no longer appropriate;
covering his ears,
shielding his eyes,
pretending everything was still peaceful and lovely,
would be as stupid as Chief Duke calling to say he had discovered the real killer, refusing to say who over the phone, and instead asking Kallen to meet him somewhere-only for Kallen to arrive and discover that the killer had already murdered Chief Duke.
That would simply be... an insult to his intelligence.
"Rest and recover. Don't worry about things at home," Dis said.
"All right, Grandpa."
Dis turned and left the ward;
Puer intended to follow him out, but just as she was about to slip through the gap in the doorway, a heel kicked her back inside.
Thump!
Puer tumbled over, and the ward door closed.
Then,
Puer raised her head and looked at Kallen lying in the hospital bed.
Kallen could not be bothered with her. He picked up the copy of "I Bound Your Heart" the nurse had lent him and continued reading.
The story followed a heroine born into a commoner family who won the love of a prince of the Vien Royal Family. They overcame society's barriers and married, after which came a series of stories about her dealings with royalty and high society.
Kallen found the plot somewhat clichéd, but it offered plenty of insight into Vien's social classes.
To some extent, Ruilan resembled a dependency of Vien, or a "protectorate." Not only were their economies inseparable, but its culture was also almost entirely inherited from Vien;
in the eyes of Ruilan's elite, Vien was the grand stage they truly longed for.
Puer jumped onto the attendant's armchair and curled up, apparently asleep.
When drowsiness came over him, Kallen put down the book and turned off the light.
Time to sleep.
In the latter half of the night;
at another hospital;
in a ward;
Mr. Hoffen, who had been sleeping, slowly opened his eyes. A familiar figure had appeared beside his bed.
The caregiver in the neighboring bed was still sleeping soundly, unaware of the visitor.
"I stabbed him," Dis said.
Mr. Hoffen smiled,
and said:
"He must still be alive."
"Yes."
"If you'd killed him, knowing you, you would only say he was dead. You wouldn't tell me what you used or what you did."
"I couldn't bring myself to do it," Dis said.
"Dis, I helped you prepare the Divine Descent Ritual. We both know just how exalted a ritual it was.
We failed,
because what we summoned back wasn't the real Kallen's soul.
He isn't Kallen.
I was certain of that from the first time I saw him!"
"I know."
"He isn't your grandson anymore, Dis. You need to come to your senses. I have cancer, and I didn't have much time left anyway. That's why I was willing to help you, old friend. I know how much your family means to you.
But with a Divine Descent Ritual of such an exalted order,
if what we summoned back wasn't Kallen's soul,
then he
could very well be an evil god!
Perhaps he's still weak now because he has only just descended and needs time to recover.
But you should understand
what terrifying upheaval an evil god will cause once he recovers!
You should kill him, Dis."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because he... calls me Grandpa."
"Dis, do you know how many people out there will suffer disaster in the future because of your mercy?"
Dis fell silent,
then,
Dis smiled,
and said:
"The people out there don't call me Grandpa."
When he woke up, it was already light.
Kallen pressed the call button. Before long, the young nurse, Mina, came in and asked with a smile, "Kallen, is that book good?"
"It's a very interesting story."
"I thought only us girls liked stories like that."
"Boys like them too. They help us understand girls better."
"You're so funny."
Mina helped Kallen sit up and draped his clothes over him. With her support, he made his way to the private bathroom in his ward. After he washed up, she helped him eat breakfast.
Breakfast consisted of corn porridge and several kinds of fruit.
Kallen did not particularly like combining fruit with a main meal, even if it might be healthy and nutritious.
"Shall I help you take a little walk?"
"Can I?" Kallen asked.
He was not asking whether that fell within Mina's duties, but whether his injury allowed it.
"Yes. The doctor said the main reason you lost consciousness was excessive blood loss..."
Mina reached out and felt his chest,
well,
even though the wound was on the other side,
"A little activity will help you recover faster."
"Thank you."
With Mina supporting him, Kallen left the ward. Conveniently, it was on the ground floor.
Outside, breathing fresh air and basking in sunlight, one probably only realized the importance of good health at moments like this. Of course, before long, one would return to the cycle of ruining it again.
"How old are you?" Kallen asked Tina.
"Seventeen. I just graduated from nursing school. I know you're fifteen. I'm older than you."
In Ruilan, fifteen was the "threshold of adulthood." Generally, anyone who turned fifteen and did not continue studying could start working. Children from poorer families started even earlier.
Although Ruilan had laws strictly prohibiting child labor-meaning children under fifteen-factory owners were not hiring child workers, but expendable machine parts.
In short, from what Kallen had learned since waking up, this was a society with an enormous wealth gap.
That gap was not merely reflected in the difference between the Immerlis Family and the Adams family. It was also evident in how those truly at the bottom could toil every day and still struggle to feed and clothe their families.
Kallen had previously used an ordinary worker's monthly wage of 2,000 Lu Coins as a benchmark for income, but that figure came from workers at large factories. In reality, many workers in small workshops earned less than 40 Lu Coins a day, and migrant workers employed off the books earned even less.
This class actually accounted for a great many people, but Kallen had no contact with them. The Immerlis Family's clients were at least middle-class, and even those covered by the Welfare Forms Aunt Mary constantly complained about first had to have clear, verifiable local household registration.
"I know your family," Mina said.
"Oh?"
"Immoreles. When my aunt passed away, your family handled her funeral, but I didn't see you that day."
"That's unfortunate. We missed each other."
"You're so funny. I don't have a boyfriend yet."
Kallen blinked, realizing Mina had misunderstood him.
After walking for a while, Kallen felt sweat forming on his forehead. Mina helped him sit on a bench, took out a handkerchief, and carefully wiped it away.
Every smile and expression she directed at him carried a certain deliberate effort.
That was not meant negatively. Whether man or woman, when people met someone of the opposite sex whom they liked, they would deliberately show their better side.
"What do you usually like doing?" Mina asked.
"I like helping my family with their work, such as helping my aunt wipe down corpses."
"..." Mina.
Just then, Kallen spotted three familiar figures ahead.
Uncle Mason, Paul, and Ron.
Uncle Mason walked in front with his hands in his pockets;
Paul and Ron each handled a stretcher trolley.
"Uncle!"
Kallen called out.
"Oh, Kallen." Uncle Mason walked over with a smile. "I was planning to visit you in your ward."
"Young Master Kallen."
"You look like you're recovering well, young master."
"Uncle, what brings you here?"
"Oh, when I came to see you the day before yesterday, you were unconscious, so I had afternoon tea with the director of this hospital's inpatient department. And that's why I'm here today."
Uncle Mason gave Kallen a knowing look.
Kallen smiled and nodded.
"I'll get going. I'll come see you again this afternoon."
"All right, Uncle."
Business naturally came first. This hospital was in Murdoch District, quite far from Mink Street, and had previously been outside the Immerlis Family's "business territory." Taking advantage of this opportunity meant expanding the family business's reach.
Still, they would have to "bring" this client home quickly, or a local funeral home might come and poach the "customer."
"Is he your uncle?" Mina asked.
"Yes."
"Everyone in your family is very handsome."
"Thank you."
Mina was not merely flattering him. Although his uncle was older now and certainly could not compete with young men in terms of physique, even now, "refined" suited his appearance, as did the word "handsome" for a man his age.
Despite falling from a comfortable middle-class life to applying makeup to corpses, Aunt Mary had stayed faithfully by his uncle's side. That was surely because of love, but love needed something tangible to sustain it;
If life's miserable, there has to be something about you worth sticking around for. If you're ugly too, what the hell am I getting out of this?
"Of course, you're very handsome too," Mina said.
"Thank you."
Kallen had become somewhat immune to this sort of "compliment." It was practically equivalent to saying the weather was lovely today.
"Can I ask you a personal question?" Mina asked.
"Mm, of course."
"How much do you spend each month?"
"Enough to get by, but I don't know the exact amount." Kallen remembered that he had officially become an employee of the family and was entitled to a share of the profits, so he did not know roughly how much his monthly income was now.
"I only make twelve hundred Lu Coins a month," Mina said. "It's just barely enough to spend. There's hardly anything left over."
"That little?"
"The benefits are better, and the salary increases with years of service," Mina explained. "But I don't really like being a nurse. I'm happy taking care of you, but sometimes I have to look after bad-tempered old ladies, or old men who like to get handsy."
"Customers who breathe are always troublesome."
"Yes." Mina's eyes widened. "Uh..."
The girl was actually quite interesting, and Kallen did not dislike her. She was frank and sincere.
Even leaving his appearance aside, the Immerlis Family's background was enough to give him considerable confidence in the matchmaking market. Any negative associations with funeral homes were insignificant in the face of Lu Coins.
It was just that Kallen had no plans to marry and have children here yet. For one thing, he felt he was still young. For another, he had bigger problems he had yet to resolve.
"Let's go back. I'd like to lie down for a while."
"All right. Let me help you up."
With Mina's support, Kallen returned to the inpatient building. As they reached the door to his ward, the head nurse called over to them:
"Mina, come here. Get this plasma to the operating room right away. They're short-staffed over there."
"Go ahead. I can get back to bed myself," Kallen said.
"All right."
Kallen stood at the ward door and took a breath;
For some reason, he always felt that the disinfectant smelled much stronger inside the ward than outside.
However,
Just as Kallen stepped one foot into the ward,
He suddenly heard a rustling sound beside his ear:
"My money... my money... my money... my money..."
Kallen froze.
The sensation immediately reminded him of hearing Mr. Mossan sobbing in the basement back home.
"My money... my money... my money..."
The voice continued.
Kallen ignored it, entered the ward, lay back down on his bed, and picked up his novel to keep reading.
"Meow..."
Puer jumped onto the edge of the bed and looked at him.
"My money... my money... my money..."
For some inexplicable reason, the damned voice grew louder, as though an old woman were lying beneath his bed, endlessly muttering at him.
Kallen put down the book and covered his ears with both hands.
The voice remained;
This voice wasn't something he was "hearing."
"Meow..."
Puer meowed again.
Kallen reached out, grabbed Puer, and held her in front of him with her belly facing him.
Puer, who had been so aloof just moments earlier, immediately grew uncomfortable in that position, even a little bashful.
"Is this your doing?"
Puer shook her head, covering her belly with her tail.
"This has to be your doing."
"Meow!"
Puer shook her head again in denial.
"Then what's going on with the voice in my ears?"
"Meow, meow meow, meow meow meow, meow."
Kallen nodded thoughtfully and replied:
"Meow meow meow, meow."
"..." Puer looked utterly baffled.
"You really can't talk?" Kallen asked.
"Meow."
"Even Miss Molly can talk, and you can't?"
"Meow."
Kallen didn't believe her. He could actually understand Mrs. Hughes's transformation; it fell within what he could accept. But Miss Molly had shocked him so profoundly that, by comparison, Puer-with her perpetually humanlike expressions-being unable to speak seemed downright unreasonable.
"If you can't even talk, I'll find a tomcat to mate with you once I'm discharged."
"Meow..."
"I swear in the name of the God of Order."
Kallen was putting his newly acquired knowledge of the God of Order to use; he had learned about him from Piaget. Still, Kallen remembered that Alfred had referred to Dis this way that night:
"Is this Inquisitor of the Order God Church your retainer?"
So that was Dis's position.
Sure enough,
When she heard Kallen actually swear in the name of the "God of Order," Puer completely panicked.
At heart, Kallen was a staunch materialist. Materialists didn't reject or deny the existence of the supernatural. If something supernatural appeared before them, they would reassess, study, and define it, bringing it back within the realm of objective material reality.
To put it simply, Kallen didn't cling to outdated beliefs, much less superstition.
But Puer knew that if Dis learned his grandson had sworn in the name of the "God of Order," he might actually find her a tomcat to help his grandson fulfill that oath.
"It wasn't me."
A clear female voice;
With a hint of mature, commanding charm;
Well,
It sounded quite pleasant.
Kallen stared at Puer,
And Puer looked back at Kallen.
Kallen released her, and Puer settled belly-down on the blanket.
"So you really can talk."
"You are truly shameless-the most shameless, despicable human I have ever met. I've never heard of a human threatening a cat's chastity!"
"And I've never heard of a cat caring about her chastity."
"We do care. Humans just don't care about cats' feelings!"
"All right, all right."
Kallen closed his eyes and took a moment to digest this. Then he opened them again, looked at Puer, and asked:
"So what exactly is going on with the voice in my ears?"
"That's something I'm very curious about, too. You clearly haven't undergone purification, so why can you hear that voice?"
"Purification?" Kallen seized on the word. "Like receiving a baptism?"
"That's a sham. Psychological reassurance."
"Oh?"
"True purification means being cleansed through the aura of a sacred artifact, giving you heightened perception so that you can see things ordinary people can't.
"Of course, purification goes by many names, and sacred artifacts aren't the only means of achieving it. Using a church's sacred artifact is simply the safest and most reliable method.
"If an ordinary person encounters an Otherworldly Demon and survives, there's also a chance they'll undergo purification. At the same time, there's a chance they'll become mentally ill."
"What I'm hearing now is 'my money, my money.'"
"I hear it, too."
"Who's calling?"
"The morgue is on the first basement level of this building. Your ward is right above it, with only a concrete slab between them. Some corpses with powerful obsessions can issue calls like that."
"An Otherworldly Demon?"
"It has nothing to do with Otherworldly Demons. That term refers to supernatural beings possessing at least basic intelligence. Miss Molly, whom you just mentioned, is one. As for Alfred, who stood beside you that night, he qualifies as a fairly powerful Otherworldly Demon-the sort strong enough to negotiate with a regional Inquisitor or the head of another church's local organization for peaceful coexistence."
"You still haven't answered my earlier question. Why can I hear it?"
"I don't know!"
"Could it have something to do with the original Kallen?"
"You finally admitted it! You're not the real Kallen!"
Puer raised her tail, wearing an expression that said, You finally let it slip.
"That's right, I'm not Kallen. Go tell Dis on me."
At that, Puer helplessly lay down again and grumbled, "Dis cares far too much about family. It's an Immerlis Family tradition. Their ancestral motto is: family above all else."
"Sounds like you've already told on me plenty." Kallen continued, "I'm asking whether it has anything to do with the original Kallen."
"The original Kallen?" Puer flexed a paw and said indifferently, "The original Kallen was just a withdrawn idiot."
"I'm sure you've never said that to Dis."
"That's right." Puer smiled. "After all, even an idiot is still his family."
Puer stood, stretched her front paws forward and her hind paws back, and gave an enormous stretch before saying:
"Ever since 'Kallen's' parents died, Dis had no intention of letting anyone in the family undergo purification and continue down the old path. So the original 'Kallen' was just an ordinary person. He never showed any unusual reactions, either.
"All the abnormalities began after you woke up.
"But really, you don't need to be puzzled. Although you haven't undergone purification, your very existence... makes you an Otherworldly Demon in my eyes.
"I still think your goodness is an act, but Dis falls for it.
"Deep in your soul, there must be brutality and cruelty lurking. Am I right?"
"Meow!"
Kallen grabbed Puer's tail and turned her around;
"What I want to ask now is how I can turn off this damned voice, or... block it out."
"Just shut off that part of your perception. It's very simple."
"How, exactly?"
"Close your eyes. First, focus on that voice and let it become clearer and clearer in your mind. Then follow it downward, sensing and feeling your way along..."
"I've decided that on the day I'm discharged, I'll have Lunt go to the pet market and buy the three most vicious tomcats he can find. Then I'll lock all four of you in the bathroom."
"Oh, you really are a beast."
"Tell me how."
"There is no way. You haven't undergone purification, so everything you 'hear' and 'see' comes from instinct. You have no idea how to manage or use your perception.
"It's like you've never even seen a car, yet you're asking me to teach you to drive. Is that possible?
"But generally speaking, if you endure it for a while, she'll probably stop calling. She doesn't have the strength to keep it up for long."
"Like a cat in heat?"
"Oh, that damned, vicious, speciesist comparison."
Kallen put Puer down,
Then lay back and tried to calm his mind.
"My money... my money... my money..."
With his eyes closed, Kallen said, "She's still calling."
Lying on Kallen's stomach, Puer said indifferently, "She's merely calling a little longer than an ordinary corpse with an obsession. She should be running out of strength soon."
"My money... my money..."
Kallen could only keep enduring it.
Then,
"Creak..."
"I think I heard another sound," Kallen said.
"Perfectly normal." Puer waved a paw. "When is lunch coming? You can order food, you know. Just order me some little fried fish in advance."
"Shuffle... shuffle... shuffle..."
"I think I heard shoes dragging across the floor."
"That's the nurses and patients walking outside," Puer said. "Also, order me a pudding."
"Click..."
"A door opening..."
"The room next door just opened its door."
Sounds continued to reach Kallen's ears:
"Huh? Ma'am, what are you doing here?"
"My money... I dropped my money..."
"If you've lost something, you should report it at the front desk. This is the morgue. How could you have dropped anything here?"
"My money... my money..."
"Ma'am, which ward are you in? I'll take you back."
"My money... my money..."
"All right, all right. Fine, I took your money. Once we're back in your ward, I'll give it to you. You're a psychiatric patient, right? The psychiatric ward should be..."
"You took my money!!!"
"Aaaaaah!!!!!"
Kallen's eyes flew open, and he sat bolt upright.
"I'd also like some goat's milk... ow, meow!"
Puer was flung off the bed. She looked up from the floor and glared furiously at Kallen.
Kallen turned his head,
Looked at Puer beneath the bed,
Swallowed,
And said:
"She... killed someone."
Before you continue