The year his son turned eight, he went to the stream with his peers and fell into a deep spot. It was a point where two streams of water flowing from upstream met, making the water deeper and the current faster.
A nearby herbalist pulled him out, but he had already stopped breathing.
At that time, Rashid was riding his horse. He had gone quite far to relieve the mood of the horses that had been tied up in the stable for days. As the sunset began to set, he returned home and saw his son lying pale in front of the mansion.
"The young master had an accident at the stream."
Even after receiving the news, he couldn't grasp the reality. His son looked as if he was merely sleeping. He stared down from his saddle at his wife, who was embracing the corpse.
And suddenly, he remembered.
'The glass bottle.'
The one he had taken from the alchemist.
He jumped off the saddle and rushed into the house. He took out the glass bottle that had been kept in a wooden box with straw. Even though nearly ten years had passed, the purple liquid shimmered with a brilliant light.
Originally, Rashid didn't consider it special. He thought, 'Immortality? At best, it's something that helps with health.' Even that thought faded over time, and he forgot about its existence altogether.
But upon witnessing his son's death, a conviction that hadn't occurred to him until then arose. Perhaps it was an elixir that could even awaken the dead. He opened the stopper and poured it all into his dead son's mouth, without leaving a single drop.
"······."
He closed his son's mouth and watched for a reaction. There was no movement. He waited again, but there was no change. His son was still pale, cold, and breathless.
He threw the glass bottle away. Disappointment and sorrow washed over him, and he realized that his son had crossed the irreversible river. Rashid entrusted the funeral to a priest and buried his son in the ground in a coffin.
Several days passed.
Rashid and his wife tried to forget their sorrow. However, less than ten days after their son's death, a strange rumor arose. It was said that sounds were heard from the cemetery.
It wasn't the sound of common animals, but rumors of human cries or screams. It was passed down among the residents, so Rashid, who had been reclusive, didn't know about it until the priest came to visit.
"We must dig up your son's grave."
At the priest's request, Rashid immediately shouted.
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
The priest calmed him down, who was yelling not to talk nonsense, and replied that screams were heard from underground, and it seemed to be coming from his son's grave.
"It seems your son is alive."
Rashid was surprised and gasped. His wife, who was walking behind him, staggered, and he urgently held her. She trembled like an aspen and grabbed her husband's arm.
"A-Are you sure?"
His wife asked.
"I am certain."
The priest asserted.
Her hand gripped tightly.
The couple looked at each other in silence for a long time before nodding. It was a silent agreement, so the priest immediately gathered people and headed to the cemetery.
"I hear it. It's down here."
"Good heavens, Hestio!"
Screams were indeed coming from the grave. The sound grew louder as they got closer to his son's grave, and the sound grew even louder as they began to dig.
His wife sobbed and covered her face with both hands. Rashid could only hug her. He glared and watched as they dug up his son's grave.
Eventually, the coffin was revealed.
The voice stopped abruptly, but the workers couldn't bring themselves to touch the coffin and looked at Rashid. Rashid dismissed them and went down to grab the coffin lid. Very faintly, so faintly that it couldn't be heard unless one listened closely, he heard a crying sound. He immediately tore open the lid as if ripping it off.
Inside was his son, crying.
#
"—That's how I brought my revived son back."
The reminiscence was interrupted by old Rashid coughing.
He coughed dryly several times, and his throat didn't clear, so he pounded his chest with his fist. After receiving a glass of water from Ulrich and wetting his throat, he finally took a steady breath.
"Didn't you think something was wrong?"
"I didn't. How could I? The child we thought was dead opened his eyes and called us. What kind of suspicion would we, as parents, harbor?"
He paused for a moment before asking again.
"Wouldn't others have suspected? The priest officiated the funeral, and he was trapped in the coffin for several days. Didn't anyone feel anything strange?"
"People didn't see me giving my son the medicine. So they believed there was some big misunderstanding. Like they buried a fainted child by mistake. There was no other way to explain it. The priest felt the same."
"The priest too?"
"Yes."
Ulrich frowned slightly and stroked his chin with his index and middle fingers. His lips moved as if muttering something, but it didn't reach Roberta the priest's ears.
"My son lost most of his memories. He didn't remember anything except that we were his parents. His speech became slurred like a baby just learning to talk, and his actions were the same."
"······."
"We thought it was because of the shock. He was trapped in that narrow, dark coffin for days. How could he keep his sanity? We believed that the young one had suffered too much shock and would gradually get better."
But, Rashid added, biting his lip.
"His body didn't grow. He didn't grow at all from the day he died. And his mind didn't regain its memories or learn anything new... It changed strangely."
"Like an animal."
At the word 'animal,' Roberta looked at the boy.
The boy, who had been burying his face in the fruit bowl, now threw the bowl away and was picking up pieces of dried fruit that had fallen on the floor and eating them. He was acting like a four-legged dog, even though his limbs were intact.
Rashid said that he had tried countless times to correct this behavior, but all failed, and it only got worse over time. He stayed up all night, wandered around even at dawn, and acted like a madman, attacking neighbors and livestock, gnawing at the couple's hearts.
"Still, you endured for a long time."
"I just endured. Nothing got better."
"Usually, even enduring is difficult, even for family."
Ulrich nodded and asked.
"So? What is the reason you came to me? Instead of just taking care of that thing and ending your life, why did you bother to come all the way to this remote place? What whim made you do it?"
"I was going to do that at first. But suddenly, my wife said before she died. She said that my son, my son didn't seem like himself. And she asked me to do something."
That was the trigger that made him leave with his son.
He met all sorts of people to fix his son, including several dwarves and fairies. But few of them noticed the problem. And no one who noticed offered a solution.
"The process of finding you, Lord, is the same as I said before. It was a coincidence. When I arrived in Osnober, I overheard it by chance. That you have lived a very long time and are even young. So I was hoping and looking for you."
"I see."
Ulrich shook his head.
"Your expectations may be high, but it is impossible to fix it."
Rashid replied, "Is that so," and lowered his head.
"Because it's not alive in the first place."
"What do you mean? Isn't he alive here like this?"
"Isn't it not himself?"
The two looked at the boy.
"What your wife said is right. That is not your son."
"······If he's not my son, then what is he?"
"It must be something that was in the glass bottle."
The boy picked up every last crumb on the floor. When he couldn't see anything else to eat, he sat down and sucked his fingers, and when he got tired of that, he bit his nails.
When Rashid reached out to stop him, he bit his father's hand instead. He knocked his forehead with his other hand to get him off, but his teeth had dug into his flesh and blood was flowing.
"There is no way to fix it. It will only get worse, not better. When you die, there will be no one to control it, so it will go crazy. Like all monsters."
"My son is not a monster."
"Rashid, how long are you going to deceive yourself?"
Ulrich took out a handkerchief and wrapped it around the wound. Roberta thought, looking at the old man's drooping shoulders, that it probably wasn't because of the pain from the wound.
"You said that several people noticed before me. Do you think I don't know what they said and how you reacted?"
"Wh-What are you talking about?"
He asked back, pretending not to know, but his expression hardened and his voice trembled.
Ulrich didn't press him further. He looked at Rashid silently, and at that gaze, the old man's face turned white and he blurted out.
"Then what should I have done, or what should I do? If you know my sin... you know why I did it. Would you have had another way?"
At the sight of him raising his voice, complaining of injustice, Ulrich turned his gaze to the side of the desk instead of answering. There was a sword in a faded scabbard with no decorations.
Rashid trembled.
"N-No."
"Sin cannot escape punishment forever."
Roberta blocked Ulrich and glared at him.
"There's another way..."
"There is no other way."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because there are plenty of precedents, and the results are obvious."
Rashid contorted his face severely and trembled.
"Get out of the way."
He shook his head with difficulty. Ulrich sighed softly and grabbed Rashid's shoulder and pushed him aside. The old man staggered and sat weakly on the floor, and Ulrich leaned over and reached for the scabbard.
At that moment, Roberta saw the emotion disappear from the old man's face. The face that had accumulated wrinkles in a lifetime of hardship changed like a judge delivering a stern sentence and shouted, and almost at the same time, the boy jumped forward.
The son, who had been quietly watching the situation since the two were confronting each other, bared his teeth and struck Ulrich from behind when his father fell and called his name for the first time in this place.
"Lord!"
Roberta shouted.
There was no time to stop him. In the blink of an eye, the boy clung to Ulrich's back as if hugging him and bit his neck. He twisted the dagger he took out of his pocket, stabbing his side.
Ulrich collapsed without even a dying scream.
"What are you doing!"
Roberta belatedly came inside and questioned him.
"I-I couldn't help it."
Rashid stood blankly, then flinched at the shout and stepped back. He seemed surprised by the sudden intruder, but also surprised by the fact that she was wearing a priest's robe.
He averted his fierce gaze towards the old man and repeated several times that he couldn't help it.
"You couldn't help it? This kind of thing?"
"There's no other way, is there!"
She was about to ask why there was no way. Rashid shouted and drew his sword, extending one foot forward. The experience of a man in his sixties produced an unadorned blow.
But to Roberta, it was too slow. She took a rough step forward, slightly turned her body to the side, and grabbed the hand holding the sword and broke it. The broken hand dropped the sword, and she caught it in the air and swung it diagonally.
Blood splattered.
"Do you think the same trick will work again!"
Roberta glared at him and shouted, then quickly turned her body. The boy was attacking her just like he had done to Ulrich.
She easily avoided this as well and swung her sword. This time, the boy twisted his body, but the shoulder of his right arm, which was holding the dagger, was cut, revealing the inside that had been covered by the skin.
She clicked her tongue at the cross-section.
The appearance was human, but the inside was not human. The cross-section of the shoulder looked as if a tree had taken root in the ground. Red stems filled the inside and wriggled. She had never seen or heard of such a strange thing.
The monster in the guise of a boy screamed and glared at her.
She frowned and looked back at him in the same way.
"How dare a monster."
The monster in front of her did not have the energy that creatures of evil gods usually exude. It meant that it was not a life touched by an evil god. If it had been, she would have noticed without eavesdropping on Ulrich and Rashid's conversation.
However, the Pantheon does not only treat creatures of evil gods as monsters. It is a derogatory term for all life that is not in the scriptures or commits evil acts.
She scanned the monster's condition.
Even after losing his shoulder, there was no imbalance in his body. There was no pain or fatigue from the wound. He was indifferent even though blood was gushing out violently.
Was the boy's body just a shell?
Red stems protruded from the cut surface like fluttering threads and wriggled.
"Ganymea, punish the sins of ignorance and barbarism."
Roberta recited the prayer and moved the mana in her body. The blade began to glow faintly. It was a phenomenon in which mana transferred from the body to the blade, creating a blade bluer than steel, and the monster, seeing this, took a step back.
She gripped the sword handle tightly. She also leaned her upper body forward, kicked off the ground, and prepared to stab. She intended to end it with one blow, not even worth capturing a monster, and the monster also knocked its teeth together and was wary.
And then, Ulrich got up from right behind him.
"······?"
The monster, sensing the presence, tried to turn around, but it was too late. Ulrich pressed down on his shoulder with one hand and grabbed his head with the other and pulled it straight out. A sound followed, and the monster's head was pulled out by the roots and burst with brute force.
"Lord? How...?"
Roberta stepped back from the foot she had just taken.
"Well, this is why I have lived so long."
Some of the blood spilled on the floor of the office began to flow.
The flow was directed towards Ulrich. Blood pooled under his feet and rose up, eventually flowing into the wounds on his chest and neck. It was clear that the blood he had shed was returning to its owner.
The wounds were also healing. The wounds that had swallowed all the blood were healing quickly as if closing their mouths. Ulrich approached Roberta and grabbed her hand, telling her to touch the wounds on his neck and side with her fingers, and then said.
"Don't worry, Roberta, I am not a monster."