Chapter 426: Crime and Punishment, and Gratitude.
If possible, I wanted to leave this alone, but alas.
I'm currently descending the stairs leading to the basement in our knight order's barracks. This basement didn't exist at first, and was something added later on. Once I finished descending the spiral staircase, I came out on a passageway with a thick door straight ahead, and two knights on guard duty in a small room to the side of that door.
One of them was writing something on the desk, while the other was behind him doing push- ups.
I thought they looked familiar, and it turned out they were 2 of the 4 demi-humans I spotted last time during the survival test for the knight order entrance exams.
The one writing on some documents is a wardog youth, and the one doing push-ups is a woman from the lion tribe. I think their names were Dingo and Ashley.
"… Wh-, Your Majesty!?"
"Eh, His Majesty's here!?"
"Ah, it's fine it's fine. No need for that."
The young man with a dog's head stood up abruptly, and the woman with lion ears on top of her head fell onto the ground in shock.
I stopped them from trying to salute me, and pointed to the door leading to the dungeon besides us.
"I want to enter; is that okay?"
"Hah! Here is the key!"
Dingo took the large key hanging on the wall and handed it over to me. After thanking the two, I used the key to open the thick iron doors.
The area beyond the door is a dungeon. Arch-shaped passages can be seen to the sides, and at the end of those, sturdy-looking iron grids were fitted into the walls. The iron grids were engraved with magic patterns, and a barrier close in strength to my [Prison] is deployed here.
"She" was lying down in one of those dungeon cells.
Inside the cell, there's a bed made from stone and topped with a sheet of tatami, and the beddings are placed on top of that. Beside the bed, a shabby shelf was placed, on top of which a light magic stone placed inside a cup served as lighting in place of candles; it shone from inside the cup full of water. Next to that was a pair of glasses.
Further in, there's a shower room and toilet blocked from view by a curtain. It's quite a luxurious cell, if I do say so. Well, it's also quite hard to escape from here though. Magical barriers are placed all over the place, so even if you sawed open the iron bars, or dug your way through the walls, you won't be able to get out.
Also, in a corner of the room, a purple golem encased in an ice pillar was placed. My [Eternal Coffin] won't melt as long as I don't give the magical signal on my end.
"Oi, you sleeping?"
"Nn~… Not really… Wait, that voice! To-yan!?"
Throwing off the blanket on top of her, Luna raised her upper body. Her hair looks messy, but her complexion is otherwise pretty good.
"You look pretty well for someone in prison for several days already."
"Buu. Throwing me into a place like this; To-yan is a bully!"
"You say that, but where else are you gonna find a prison that provides good meals 3 times a day and has a proper shower and toilet included in the cell?"
You'd hate it if they give you a pot for toilet, right. Compared to something like that, the imprisoned life you're having now is the height of luxury, you know. Well, it's still imprisonment in the end though.
Well, that aside. I should get on with the main topic.
"Now then. Against you, there's the charges of invading the royal castle and attempting to assassinate royalty…"
"I did invade the castle, but royalty… Ah, do you mean I tried to kill To-yan?"
While having a blank face, Luna picked up the pair of glasses on the shelf and put it on.
"Not just me, but Moroha nee-san and Karina nee-san as well. They're my relatives, you see, which makes—"
"Wait, that! You mean those suuuper strong onee-samas were To-yan's sisters!?"
I unintentionally took a step backwards due to Luna suddenly jumping up out of bed and charging all the way to right in front of me, grabbing the iron bars with a loud noise.
"O, only one of them. The other one was my cousin."
"They were amazing! I couldn't hit them at all, and Viola was also taken out in an instant! If it's those onee-samas, they should be able to kill me really easily!"
With sparkles in her eyes, Luna wiggled her body with her fingers crossed in front of her chest. She's panting too. Is she a pervert? Wait, no, I already knew that.
"… I've been meaning to ask since a while ago, but do you want to die or something?"
"I guess~. If I can die, then I would want to, or something like that. I don't really know myself. It's weird, isn't it, since I didn't want to die at all a long time ago. You know, I was told by Nia- chin once before, that the more I use Viola's power, the more I would be broken. Then at the end, Viola would kill me."
This girl… Does she actually understand the fact that her mind is being corrupted?
While knowing that, she did all those ridiculous things, and even as her mind is being corrupted by using Viola's power, she wants to be killed by Viola one day… Something like that?
"It's all your fault anyway, To-yan. I thought To-yan would be able to kill me, but you turned out to be such a wimp. This damn beta protag."
"Why am I getting shot from unrelated stuff all of a sudden…?"
"Look, it's really scary when you die, right? I've had that several times already. Every time it happens, a lot of things get pulled out of my head, and before long, I felt more pleasure than pain when I'm dying. Slashing and being slashed, piercing through someone and that someone piercing through me as well. The pain feels so good to me. It makes me feel alive."
She can only feel alive through the act of receiving pain. What's more, every time she receives pain, her mind becomes more broken, and she takes another step towards death. She's beyond saving.
Chrome Lanches, who created the [Crown]s, gave them power overwhelmingly higher than any other golems through extracting "compensation" from their masters.
In a sense, it's like a devil's pact. In order to obtain power, something precious to you is first taken away. In Luna's case, it can be said that the compensation taken from her is her life; a living body with a mind that has already perished is the same as being dead.
Furthermore, that ability is automatic. Even if Luna stopped wishing to use the [Crown]'s power one day, if she gets injured, Viola will automatically regenerate her body with its power, and take compensation from her mercilessly in the process. There is no freedom granted to its master. This is more like a scam than a proper pact.
"So that's why, I thought I'd be glad if To-yan was the one who killed me. Ah, but can I also fight with those onee-samas again? Un, this is troubling…"
"I'll excuse myself from that. I don't have any intentions of killing you at the moment."
According to Bastet and the others, she did protect the Sacred Tree, after all. Well, just that won't cancel out her crimes. I'll still have her receive some punishment.
"Eeh-? After coming this far? Sigh, this is why virg—"
"You shut up for a sec."
God damn, this girl has zero delicacy!
To be honest, regarding her "compensation"… Rather, regarding the [Crown]s' compensation- taking system, I've heard from Dr. Elka about a few methods that might be able to do something about it.
Normally, you just destroy the golem, but Viola's ability is [Super Regeneration]. Destroying it would be tough. If I use my divinity, then it's not impossible, but…
"If I say I want to completely destroy Viola, what would you do? If I did that, your mind wouldn't become weirder, you know?"
"Destory Viola? Hmm… I think I'd mind it, a little. Viola's not a bad kid, you know. It's nice to me too. When I'm hungry it would bring me food from somewhere, and when I'm sleepy it would carry me on its back. I don't think Viola wanted to be born that way too. The one in the wrong is the guy who made Viola to be like this, you know."
Don't worry about that. If it's the creator you're talking about, he lost all of his memories 5000 years ago when the white [Crown], Albus went into a rampage. It's pretty late to think about that, but I guess you can say he got what he deserved.
If she doesn't want Viola destroyed, then I suppose I'll do something else.
With a divinity-enhanced [Teleport], I transferred myself into the prison. The barrier around the cell would normally repel teleportation magic as well, but not my version. I sure have become out-of-the-norm, if I do say so myself. Well, it's not like it's a recent thing.
"Ueh!?"
Ignoring Luna who's shocked to see me suddenly appearing inside her cell, I approached the ice pillar placed in the corner with Viola frozen inside it.
When I half-released the [Eternal Coffin], the ice began melting, and before long Viola, thawed only down to its shoulders, appeared from within the ice.
"Gi."
Viola tried to free itself from the ice, but with its arms and legs still encased, I doubt it can do anything.
"Viola. I'll take your [Crown] status from you now. Don't think badly of me, okay? Your power will only create misfortune, after all."
I grabbed Viola's head and casted [Analyze]. I don't understand the detailed construction, but simple stuff like the flow of its energy is a different matter. As well as the magical path that connects Viola to Luna. This power can be said to be Viola itself, so I can't very well erase it completely. In which case…
"[Cracking]."
Null-attribute modifying magic [Cracking]. Originally, it's a magic that changed an artifact's effect.
Having said that, it can't do something like making a magic staff that shot out fireballs shoot lightning instead. However, it can make the fireball smaller, or make it not appear at all.
I used it to interfere with Viola's [Crown] ability, making it inoperable, and made a new system based on its properties.
"With this, Viola is no longer a [Crown]. It's just a really powerful golem."
"Really…"
"Zip it. If you don't believe me, try stabbing yourself with this."
I took out a needle from [Storage] and passed it to Luna. She held the needle with a shaky hand, slowly took off her pair of glasses, and thrusted the needle towards her eyeball—
"AAAAHH! Dangerous! What the hell do you think you're doing, you idiot!?"
"Eh? Stabbing my eye?"
"Do it on your fingers, dumbass!"
This girl scary. Since I don't know what she's gonna do again, I took the needle back and lightly stabbed her white fingertip myself. Very soon, a red droplet of blood appeared on Luna's fingertip. Even after wiping the blood away, if you apply pressure to that finger, blood will begin to seep out again. The wound isn't going to close by itself.
"It's not healing… Really?"
"Try asking Viola to heal you. Then it'd heal."
"Eh? Etto, Viola, can you fix this?"
"Gi."
From Viola, magic power flowed into Luna through the pathway connecting the two. While I made its Crown skill, [Super Regeneration] unusable, I created a new golem skill on the level of something held by a normal Legacy golem. Basically, it's a ranked-down, normal regeneration.
Something like a needle prick on her fingertip can be healed in an instant.
"What does this mean…?"
"Viola is now a normal golem with the ability to heal your injuries, is what this means. Well, as expected, it can't heal fatal injuries anymore, though."
It would fix simple wounds easily, but instant death-level injuries are probably beyond it. The next time Luna had a hole opened in her stomach, she would die for real.
"And, here's the punishment for you as well. [O Darkness bind, give punishment to the sins of man, Guilty Curse]."
There's no way I can let Luna go free and ignore her crimes just like this. The "curse" I thought up in order to punish her had just been casted.
"With this, you can no longer feel any pleasure from receiving pain."
"Eh!?"
"Instead of that… 'Luna, thank you for protecting the Sacred Tree'."
"! Fuwah!? What!? What was that!? It sent shivers down my spine!"
Luna's body trembled as her face flushed, and she hugged her own body. Uun… This is also pretty disgusting…
"Now, you gain pleasure from receiving thanks and other similar feelings from others. That's the content of your punishment."
You can say I returned her to normal, and you can also say I made her weirder. Well, people can obtain pleasure from a lot of different things, and among them are really strange ones that others can never understand, too.
While people generally can feel happy about various different things, this "curse" forcibly changes that to "being thanked by someone".
Normally, people would be glad to receive gratitude from someone else. By satisfying their need for approval, they would feel needed by others, and their own existences are acknowledged.
Luna is now capable of feeling that joy in the form of direct pleasure.
"H-, hey, To-yan! One more! Say 'thank you' one more time!"
"Sure. 'Thank you'."
"... Areh?"
"A simple word of thanks without feeling put into it won't trigger the curse, just so you know."
"Ehh…"
Leaving the scowling Luna aside, I released the ice imprisoning Viola.
"But I don't know what I should do to be thanked by others, you know. Who should I kill?"
"Why would something like that come out of your head!? Just go and normally help people who needs help!"
This won't do. It'd be bad if she went down some strange path again even after this. I can totally see her becoming an assassin and killing tons of people just for her employer to say thanks to her.
I'll add a restraint to the curse that prevents her from killing anyone, I guess. Except in cases of self-defense, of course.
Since this girl's probably almost never thanked by others in her life, she can't think of anything at all concerning gratitude. There's a need to teach her about that as soon as possible.
Together with Luna and Viola, I transferred to the school set up in Brunhild with a [Gate].
The kids in the school courtyard noticed us.
"Ah, it's His Majesty!"
"Oh, it really is His Majesty!"
Everyone charged towards here while cheering. They're all greatly curious about the purple golem which they've never seen before.
"Wai, To-yan!? Where is this place!?"
"It's a school, recently set up in our country. I'm pretty sure today they're trying to make a flower bed."
From the school building further in, Sakura's mother as well as this school's principal, Fiana- san, walked out together with her guard, the Cait Sith Nyantaro.
"Nyanya? It's King-sama-nya."
"Ara, Your Majesty? Is something the matter?"
The two of them quickly approached us. They are holding cotton gloves and small shovels in their hands. Seems like they were going to start on the flower bed soon.
"I've brought a helper. She's got a golem with her as well."
"Ara ara, how diligent. Thank you very much."
"Hauu!?"
Luna's body shivered when she was hit with Fiana-san's words of gratitude, and she clung to me.
"Is anything wrong?"
"Ah, no. This girl's called Luna. She's rather shy, so. Please don't mind her."
"Is that so. Please take care of us today, Luna-san."
"Y-y-yes, I understand."
Luna answered with rough breaths. Is she alright? Since her body's still not used to it, she's reacting sensitively to every instance, I suppose.
"Onee-chan, the shovels are this way. Let's do it together~."
"Together~."
"Eh? No, wai—!"
Luna was dragged away by a bunch of girls who held onto her hands.
Viola chased after them while looking somewhat panicked.
Something like a flower bed can be made in seconds with earth-attribute magic, but in the words of Fiana-san, "working hard to make something together" is a important part of education as well, so I'll hold back on doing anything tactless here.
Now then, I should help out as well.
Several hours after that, a flower bed surrounded by a brick wall was finished in a corner of the school grounds. Since it's made by a group of children, the roughness in it can't be denied, but it's still a pretty good work even considering that.
"Finally finished."
"Gi."
Luna and Viola, who were just moving following what they were told at first due to being confused, had become passionate about making the flower bed before long together with the children. She's smiling without herself realizing it too.
A girl with her face smeared in dirt approached Luna.
"Onee-chan, thank you!"
"Fuwoh!?"
Luna reacted with a twitch to the girl who said the exact same words I wanted her to say.
"C, can you say that one more time?"
"Onee-chan, thank you!"
"Hyauu…!"
"Onee-chan, are you okay?"
The girl tilted her head as she stared at Luna, who was hugging her own body and writhing.
"Viola-chan too, thank you."
"Gi."
Turning her back towards the girl who also said thanks to Viola, Luna walked towards me while rubbing her knees together and clung onto me.
"To-yan, this is buad (she slurred here) … It feels super good. It makes my heart go all fluttery. It feels better than gouging out the eyes of an old man or getting my chest pierced by a spear. It's amazing, I feel like I might leak right now."
"Can you feel that 'you're alive' right now?"
"A lot. Something like this is a first. It'll become an addiction at this rate. How cruel. You're cruel, To-yan."
Well, it is a "curse" meant to be your punishment, you know. And besides, you're saying it's cruel but aren't you smiling? Although, she's panting, her eyes are rolling up a bit behind her glasses, and there's even drool coming out of her mouth; it's a smile that makes me wanna back off.
I guess the pleasure was a bit too strong for her. As I thought that, Fiana-san brought the children along behind her and came this way.
"Alright, everyone. Let's give our thanks to His Majesty and Luna-san who helped us out today."
"Ah, no, Fiana-san, right now is—!"
"""Your Majesty, Luna onee-chan, thank you very much for today!"""
The children spoke words of thanks towards us in unison. They were words that contained nothing but pure gratitude from their hearts, probably due to them being children… And a whole bunch of them, too.
"-Tsu, Fuuhiii, c-c-c-coming…! Uhhiiii…!"
Raising a voice that didn't sound like anything, Luna collapsed on the spot.
When I rushed over to her, she grabbed my arm, and looked up with a face that's half smiling and half crying, an expression that's filled with euphoria.
"To-yan… I, can'tt. Leeaking. I'm leaking. There's no wuay, I can stand this. My head is, going blank… Uhii…!"
While her body was convulsing, Luna spoke in a whispering voice. This is bad. Her eyes are already blank. She's pretty close to her edge. The other party was too pure this time; I should've chosen a place where she would get thanked more casually instead of the school.
"Ano, is she alright?"
"She's fine. Just a bit tired. We, we'll call it a day here for now! Everyone else too, see you!"
While replying to Fiana-san and waving to the kids, I brought Luna and Viola back to the dungeon cell she was in before with a [Teleport].
"Viola, I leave the rest to you!"
"Gi!?"
Leaving the aftermath to the purple golem, I rushed out of the dungeon. I seem to have heard the sound of water gushing out or something like that behind me, but I must be mishearing. I must be, right?
In any case, since I'm done with administering the punishment to Luna, I guess I can let her go now.
...It's fine if I let her go, right?