Raymond brought Verdic here undoubtedly as an attempt to deal with him.
So, shouldn’t she help with the rest?
The effect of the sleeping pills was substantial.
Verdic’s servants all drank the tea Carynne offered without a second thought. Afterward, they began to complain about various things.
How Verdic had gone insane after Isella’s disappearance, how he had been raving for months until he finally calmed down after the arrival of a strand of hair, and so on. They said they tried to dissuade him from coming here, but Verdic made persistent orders that they shouldn’t miss a single detail, going on an endless rant.
But those things didn’t matter.
What mattered was that Verdic was Carynne’s enemy, and they were Verdic’s subordinates.
She pushed the empty teapot aside. Then she stood up.
Creak.
She scoured the kitchen. What would be the best way?
The first thing that caught her eye in the kitchen was a kitchen knife.
Carynne thought back to her own experiences of death. Could that be used to slit their throats? Where should she stab them? The neck, perhaps. But it seemed like it would be too difficult to finish everything in one go. Killing in one stroke was impossible.
These people would stay in deep slumber for several hours more, so why not take them one by one? They seemed a bit heavy, but if she exerted all her strength, it might not be impossible.
Let’s put the meat in the warehouse in the kitchen. Tie them up first and then kill them one by one. Stabbing the throat should be fine.
However, could she properly slash their throats with the kitchen knife?
Carynne looked at the knife in her hand. It wasn’t a bad item, but it didn’t seem reliable.
Creak.
She opened the door to the warehouse. Drying meat was in view. These were the ones with all their skin removed.
Thunk.
As a test, she tried to stab a dead deer in the throat. Even after its outer skin was already removed, she couldn’t manage to drive the blade in properly. It was a matter of lacking strength.
If she were to stab someone at this rate, she would surely just wake them up in the middle, making it more difficult.
Perhaps it could work if those people were properly hooked like this deer here, but she wasn’t confident. She was clearly lacking. She needed something that she could properly wield with the strength she had now.
“…As expected.”
Carynne now understood Verdic. Among items other than a gun, that particular one was his favorite.
With an axe, there would be enough force.
To properly sever a person’s throat while they were lying down, an axe was the perfect tool for the job.
Kitchen knife, saw, axe… where’s the axe?
There. She found it.
A kitchen knife wasn’t a good tool at all. If she stabbed a thigh with a kitchen knife, the person would undoubtedly wake up and scream. She had definitely fed them enough drugs that would keep them sleeping, but not to the point that they wouldn’t feel a knife being driven into their body.
Carynne agonized over this decision.
Kitchen knife or axe?
But in the end, she decided that using the axe to cut people’s throats was definitely the better choice.
Above all, if she herself had first-hand experience with the axe. Several times before, an axe had been used to hack away at her throat, to sever her head from her body.
Wasn’t it poetic justice for her to use an axe on Verdic and his subordinates?
Raymond would undoubtedly kill Verdic. It was necessary. It couldn’t be anyone else, it had to be him.
Carynne returned to the kitchen where Verdic’s subordinates were sleeping.
Screech, screeeech.
No one woke up even while they were being dragged across the floor. The effects of the sleeping pills were better than expected.
She hoisted one of the relatively lighter subordinates and carried him. He was heavy. The man’s legs dragged on the floor, but he didn’t wake up. Then, she brought him into the adjacent warehouse, placed him on the ground, and held up the axe.
“……”
What was this man’s name?
Carynne suddenly had that thought. He was one of Verdic’s men. He was the most fragile-looking one among them.
She didn’t know his name. He was a thin-faced man who somehow reminded her of Dullan, but that was it. He wasn’t an important person, and she had never encountered him properly all of her lives, all 100 years of them.
Why was she having such thoughts?
She shook her head. There were many people to kill. She should do what she could do.
If Raymond had forsaken morality for her, she should do the same. What did it matter if Verdic was in agony over losing his daughter? What did it matter who the man under this axe was, regardless of what kind of person he might be?
It had finally become a world where not just one human being existed, but two.
There’s nothing else that mattered other than that.
As companions, they should be for and only for each other.
Carynne raised the axe high up.
Then, she swung it down.
It was an attempt to strike the man’s head.
However, the attempt failed.
The axe got caught on something. No matter how much force she exerted, it wouldn’t come down. Someone was holding it. A quiet voice reached Carynne’s ears.
“I asked you to fetch some tea, but I wonder why you went here instead.”
Of course, it was Raymond.
But she couldn’t understand his actions. Why was he holding the axe now?
Carynne looked at Raymond, and Raymond looked down at Carynne. Their eyes met. His green, affectionate eyes smiled warmly, like they were saying he could die for her. He kissed her forehead and whispered. He smelled like the forest.
“Let go of the axe, Carynne.”
Why? She truly couldn’t understand. Why was he telling her not to do it? Was it because he didn’t want her to get her hands dirty? She gripped the axe. I could do it too. This was something they should share. She didn’t want to leave it all to Raymond. Just as he did things for her, she wanted to understand him too.
“Please.”
“……”
She let go.
If he wanted to kill the man in her place, he was more suitable for it. She thought he might be dealing with Verdic right about now, but Raymond was instead here.
Had he already killed Verdic? Was that why he came down to handle the others?
“It’s not a good place for this. The smell is disgusting. We should go outside.”
Raymond picked up the man. Ah, so was he thinking that it was better to do this elsewhere? Had she chosen the wrong location?
She stared at him. He was now carrying the man back to the kitchen and laid him down on the sofa where the others were sleeping.
“Hmm, I don’t like the look of this man. I don’t appreciate this type of face.”
“……”
“Surely, Carrie, this isn’t your type of guy, is it?”
“Raymond, that’s not funny.”
“It was a serious question. I can’t change my face, you know.”
“……”
Raymond’s nonchalant banter didn’t seem to indicate that he had even a single ounce of intention to kill these people.
She asked him in a hushed tone.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Why, I’m releasing these people.”
“…Aren’t you going to kill them?”
Shouldn’t we kill them?
“Why are you saying such gruesome things?”
“Raymond!”
“Hush, Carrie.”
Raymond replied playfully and pressed his finger to her lips. Astonished, Carynne glared at his shameless face and bit his finger.
“Ouch.”
“I asked what you’re doing right now.”
While holding Raymond’s hand, she asked again. Raymond, in one fluid motion, took Carynne’s hand with his other hand, removing her grip from the weapon.
“Since Verdic is still waiting, I’ll take the tea to him upstairs. Just wait quietly for now and wake up these people in about thirty minutes. That’s when I plan to let Verdic go.”
“…What?”
“I’ll explain later.”
Carynne stared blankly at Raymond’s back as he went to deliver the steaming tea himself.
She could not understand Raymond.
Raymond brought Verdic here undoubtedly as an attempt to deal with him.
So, shouldn’t she help with the rest?
The effect of the sleeping pills was substantial.
Verdic’s servants all drank the tea Carynne offered without a second thought. Afterward, they began to complain about various things.
How Verdic had gone insane after Isella’s disappearance, how he had been raving for months until he finally calmed down after the arrival of a strand of hair, and so on. They said they tried to dissuade him from coming here, but Verdic made persistent orders that they shouldn’t miss a single detail, going on an endless rant.
But those things didn’t matter.
What mattered was that Verdic was Carynne’s enemy, and they were Verdic’s subordinates.
She pushed the empty teapot aside. Then she stood up.
Creak.
She scoured the kitchen. What would be the best way?
The first thing that caught her eye in the kitchen was a kitchen knife.
Carynne thought back to her own experiences of death. Could that be used to slit their throats? Where should she stab them? The neck, perhaps. But it seemed like it would be too difficult to finish everything in one go. Killing in one stroke was impossible.
These people would stay in deep slumber for several hours more, so why not take them one by one? They seemed a bit heavy, but if she exerted all her strength, it might not be impossible.
Let’s put the meat in the warehouse in the kitchen. Tie them up first and then kill them one by one. Stabbing the throat should be fine.
However, could she properly slash their throats with the kitchen knife?
Carynne looked at the knife in her hand. It wasn’t a bad item, but it didn’t seem reliable.
Creak.
She opened the door to the warehouse. Drying meat was in view. These were the ones with all their skin removed.
Thunk.
As a test, she tried to stab a dead deer in the throat. Even after its outer skin was already removed, she couldn’t manage to drive the blade in properly. It was a matter of lacking strength.
If she were to stab someone at this rate, she would surely just wake them up in the middle, making it more difficult.
Perhaps it could work if those people were properly hooked like this deer here, but she wasn’t confident. She was clearly lacking. She needed something that she could properly wield with the strength she had now.
“…As expected.”
Carynne now understood Verdic. Among items other than a gun, that particular one was his favorite.
With an axe, there would be enough force.
To properly sever a person’s throat while they were lying down, an axe was the perfect tool for the job.
Kitchen knife, saw, axe… where’s the axe?
There. She found it.
A kitchen knife wasn’t a good tool at all. If she stabbed a thigh with a kitchen knife, the person would undoubtedly wake up and scream. She had definitely fed them enough drugs that would keep them sleeping, but not to the point that they wouldn’t feel a knife being driven into their body.
Carynne agonized over this decision.
Kitchen knife or axe?
But in the end, she decided that using the axe to cut people’s throats was definitely the better choice.
Above all, if she herself had first-hand experience with the axe. Several times before, an axe had been used to hack away at her throat, to sever her head from her body.
Wasn’t it poetic justice for her to use an axe on Verdic and his subordinates?
Raymond would undoubtedly kill Verdic. It was necessary. It couldn’t be anyone else, it had to be him.
Carynne returned to the kitchen where Verdic’s subordinates were sleeping.
Screech, screeeech.
No one woke up even while they were being dragged across the floor. The effects of the sleeping pills were better than expected.
She hoisted one of the relatively lighter subordinates and carried him. He was heavy. The man’s legs dragged on the floor, but he didn’t wake up. Then, she brought him into the adjacent warehouse, placed him on the ground, and held up the axe.
“……”
What was this man’s name?
Carynne suddenly had that thought. He was one of Verdic’s men. He was the most fragile-looking one among them.
She didn’t know his name. He was a thin-faced man who somehow reminded her of Dullan, but that was it. He wasn’t an important person, and she had never encountered him properly all of her lives, all 100 years of them.
Why was she having such thoughts?
She shook her head. There were many people to kill. She should do what she could do.
If Raymond had forsaken morality for her, she should do the same. What did it matter if Verdic was in agony over losing his daughter? What did it matter who the man under this axe was, regardless of what kind of person he might be?
It had finally become a world where not just one human being existed, but two.
There’s nothing else that mattered other than that.
As companions, they should be for and only for each other.
Carynne raised the axe high up.
Then, she swung it down.
It was an attempt to strike the man’s head.
However, the attempt failed.
The axe got caught on something. No matter how much force she exerted, it wouldn’t come down. Someone was holding it. A quiet voice reached Carynne’s ears.
“I asked you to fetch some tea, but I wonder why you went here instead.”
Of course, it was Raymond.
But she couldn’t understand his actions. Why was he holding the axe now?
Carynne looked at Raymond, and Raymond looked down at Carynne. Their eyes met. His green, affectionate eyes smiled warmly, like they were saying he could die for her. He kissed her forehead and whispered. He smelled like the forest.
“Let go of the axe, Carynne.”
Why? She truly couldn’t understand. Why was he telling her not to do it? Was it because he didn’t want her to get her hands dirty? She gripped the axe. I could do it too. This was something they should share. She didn’t want to leave it all to Raymond. Just as he did things for her, she wanted to understand him too.
“Please.”
“……”
She let go.
If he wanted to kill the man in her place, he was more suitable for it. She thought he might be dealing with Verdic right about now, but Raymond was instead here.
Had he already killed Verdic? Was that why he came down to handle the others?
“It’s not a good place for this. The smell is disgusting. We should go outside.”
Raymond picked up the man. Ah, so was he thinking that it was better to do this elsewhere? Had she chosen the wrong location?
She stared at him. He was now carrying the man back to the kitchen and laid him down on the sofa where the others were sleeping.
“Hmm, I don’t like the look of this man. I don’t appreciate this type of face.”
“……”
“Surely, Carrie, this isn’t your type of guy, is it?”
“Raymond, that’s not funny.”
“It was a serious question. I can’t change my face, you know.”
“……”
Raymond’s nonchalant banter didn’t seem to indicate that he had even a single ounce of intention to kill these people.
She asked him in a hushed tone.
“What are you doing right now?”
“Why, I’m releasing these people.”
“…Aren’t you going to kill them?”
Shouldn’t we kill them?
“Why are you saying such gruesome things?”
“Raymond!”
“Hush, Carrie.”
Raymond replied playfully and pressed his finger to her lips. Astonished, Carynne glared at his shameless face and bit his finger.
“Ouch.”
“I asked what you’re doing right now.”
While holding Raymond’s hand, she asked again. Raymond, in one fluid motion, took Carynne’s hand with his other hand, removing her grip from the weapon.
“Since Verdic is still waiting, I’ll take the tea to him upstairs. Just wait quietly for now and wake up these people in about thirty minutes. That’s when I plan to let Verdic go.”
“…What?”
“I’ll explain later.”
Carynne stared blankly at Raymond’s back as he went to deliver the steaming tea himself.
She could not understand Raymond.
