Snap.
The scene after the switch was a physical hell. The dim stone room was filled with a foul smell. In the center was a luxurious bed, and on the table next to it were countless severed heads of children. On the ground were countless carcasses that originally belonged to them. Although half of them were fresh, the other half had begun to rot. But they were all the same, bleeding and dying with a desperate expression.
Joan of Arc clenched her fists. She didn't know about this kind of hell. But she had some impression of it. It was something she couldn't avoid when she talked about herself.
"... This is the city of Tivoli, right?"
"That's right. It's the residence of Gilles de Rais, the Baron of Hell."
Gilles de Rais. He was a follower of Joan of Arc who stood up to save his country and was one of the contributors to the liberation of Orleans. He made many contributions in the Hundred Years' War and became a great hero who eventually became a field marshal. Then.
At the same time, he was also a serial killer who indulged in shounenai and black magic in his own territory, and tortured and killed more than hundreds of teenagers.
Joan of Arc didn't know. She knew nothing except Gilles, who fought alongside her on the battlefield as her protector. Of course, she was a servant after all, so she knew something about Gilles de Rais's cruel and tyrannical behavior.
but-
"Knowledge and reality are two different things, right?"
Jeanne stared at the pile of corpses of the boys with a stiff expression. It was a truly horrifying sight. It was quite common to see corpses left exposed in the wilderness on a battlefield. But the entities in front of Jeanne were all short, with arms and legs as thin as dead branches - corpses rarely seen on a battlefield where adults were killing each other.
Although it was a dizzying and blasphemous scene, it only slightly shook Jeanne's heart. The past was the past after all, and it was a fact that could never be overturned.
Their deaths, even if they are the setting of a stage play, must be remembered.
But at the same time, she denied that her life would be regretful based on this alone.
Joan of Arc's will was firm and her incorruptible heart would never waver.
"Even so, I will not waver."
"Probably. Even if you saw the bodies of boys you didn't know, you would only feel sympathy at best. There's no weakness in you that would make your heart yield."
With a creaking sound, the wooden door opened. Jeanne turned back reflexively and was immediately shocked. Her thin face and eyes flashing with madness, her former bravery was gone, replaced by a look full of despair and hatred.
That was not the Gilles de Rais that Joan knew—
Instead, it is a legendary monster known as "Bluebeard" that people fear.
"Oh, isn't this Joan of Arc? What's wrong? Why did you come to a place like this?"
Gil greeted Jeanne in a relaxed manner, holding something wrapped in a cloth stained with discolored blood in his hands.
Calm down, this is just an illusion—Jeanne convinced herself in her heart. The unpleasant feeling that was like biting through rusty iron, the chill that was like cold mist wrapped around the whole body, that thing wrapped in cloth—no, I absolutely couldn't imagine what it was. It must be the most deadly thing for Joan of Arc.
"... That's enough. End this now. It's a shame that he started to behave badly because of my death. But, I—"
"Let me tell you something good. This Gil is not a puppet like those troupe members who can only speak the lines I specify. Gil de Rais is a hero who can think with his own will and erode this world with his will. He is a Servant summoned by me, the Crimson Caster."
Ruler said with a stunned look on his face:
"Servants... This is ridiculous! You are a Servant yourself, how can you summon a Servant?"
"As long as he is the owner of this garden, there will be no problem. However, he is not a person with a class. Since you are the Ruler, you should understand that. He is just the soul of Gilles de Rais. The shell is just that of a fragile old man."
Joan of Arc stared at Shakespeare fiercely. Such a call was an insult to Gilles de Rais, the hero.
"Red Caster, what on earth is your purpose in doing this?!"
"You can just ask him. Baron, you must have something to say, right?"
After hearing what Shakespeare said, Gill smiled wildly:
"Yes. Jeanne, I have something I want to show you. I have decapitated countless children so far, and each time I feel extremely excited..."
The cloth was slowly peeled off. Was the slow flow of time due to the terror? Jeanne opened her mouth and whispered in a hoarse voice:
"... Stop it, Jill!"
Gil did not stop. Jeanne knew that Gil always cut off the head of the boy he loved and loved it very much. Stop it, Gil. He killed the boy and cut open his flesh, then dug out his intestines to enjoy the divine touch -
"Look, Jeanne! The head."
The cloth was peeled off. A head, a head could be seen. This head was a young man with a familiar face named Matou Shinji.
"And this, and these are all—"
The head kept switching, sometimes changing into the appearance of Altria, sometimes into little Jack, and sometimes into Rokudo Reika, each of them was someone Jeanne felt close to.
"You also know my nickname! The infamous 'Bluebeard'. In order to blaspheme and betray the god of the saint, I almost did all kinds of evil deeds of various gods! Do you want to hear it? The cries of those children! The desperate complaints of the gods!"
"... No... That's not possible...!"
The saint finally uttered a cry of grief. She didn't want to see this tragic scene, nor did she want to see the fall of her once most trusted comrade and partner.
She instinctively wanted to cover her eyes, but another force stopped her hand. It was the other half of the words that the owner of the first head had said before the battle.
- If you don't kill him in time and he activates his treasure, you will face a torture, a torture of your life. It will materialize the weakest parts of your subconscious mind, both those that have happened in your life and those that have not happened, and then tear them apart.
There is only one way to fight it - believe that you are right, believe in us, your partners, and don't waver no matter what you see. Because of your belief, your partners will never let you down.
Having said that, if it were me, I probably wouldn't be able to make it. But I believe you can, no matter how much suffering you endure, you can still persevere, because you are just that kind of person, not a saint, but just the nature of a girl named Jeanne d'Arc.
How unfair is fate, letting you bear such a heavy burden and experience so much pain. What's even more tragic is that you don't complain or sigh. But because of this, you are so beautiful and admired by so many people, even though you never think of yourself as a saint.
Face everything bravely and speak out your true thoughts. Even if you see hell, as long as your faith remains unchanged, it will become heaven.
His face was pale, the holy flag fell on the "stage", his hands were shaking...
In this closed world, you are surrounded by the most feared scenes.
I see. At first I didn’t understand what he was talking about, but after seeing it with my own eyes I realized it was an unimaginable hell.
The cruelest blow was inflicted on the weakest point of human nature. If I were alone, I might really be defeated.
But, Redcaster, you are wrong about one thing, I am not alone.
My partners are here, always here, they are supporting me, they are waiting for me, and the same goes for "him" in front of me.
So, so—
His hands were still shaking and his face was still ugly, but his shaken eyes had regained clarity.
"Stop it, Jill."
It was not a cry, not a plea, not an escape, but an unquestionable voice, just like when she commanded the entire French army and issued orders. Although she never acted in a condescending manner, she had a spirit that could not be disobeyed.
"Joan of Arc...?" Gilles de Rais shuddered and lowered his head subconsciously.
"I feel sad about your fall. It is undeniable that I am responsible for it. But Jill, I want to tell you that I have wanted to tell you since I knew you became Bluebeard - you are wrong. It has nothing to do with the gods, the saints, or anything else. I just want to tell you as your friend and as a human being that you are wrong and have made an irreparable mistake. If I were still there, I would have stopped you, but -"
"But you are gone. The country you saved, the people you saved, that damned king. Even the god you believed in - he led you down this path, but gave you this ending. God is not merciful at all, he is just playing with your life, he is just playing with humanity."
Gilles de Rais's eyes seemed to be burning, but his face was expressionless, completely different from the excitement he had shown before.
"Look around you, look at these corpses, look at these heads. I have done the most vicious and serious blasphemy that can be done in this world. But no matter how I killed or how I blasphemed, I did not receive any punishment from God. By the time I noticed it, I had been pursuing evil for eight years. The wailing and screaming of thousands of children all disappeared in the darkness of nothingness! In the end, it was not God who destroyed me, but humans who had endless desires like me. The church and the king found me guilty, arrested me and executed me, but they were just eyeing my wealth and territory and wanted to take them for themselves. Their actions were not so much to punish my evil as to be naked plunder! At this moment, I realized how evil God is. He will not punish humans, but only to play with them."
Joan of Arc slowly shook her head: "No, you are wrong, Jill, God is not what you think?"
"Then how do you explain what happened to you? You were accused of heresy, a witch, and burned at the stake? Face the reality, Jeanne."
"It's you who should face the reality, Jill! I have never been a saint. I am a sinner, a sinner who has plundered countless lives, a sinner like you!"
From the first time she went to the battlefield and the first time she killed someone, Joan of Arc knew that she was a sinner, so she never lamented her fate.
"That's my sin, and it's mine alone. It's the same with you, Jill. Your sin is yours alone. Even if you can't atone for it, this despair is still yours alone."
Jeanne grabbed his chest and leaned her face forward. Gilles froze.
Too beautiful, he thought. The girl who looked at him with anger was so beautiful that it made his spine shiver.
At the same time, he also realized his mistake.
For this saint who doesn't consider herself a saint, whether she is in purgatory, hell, or even in heaven, she probably won't change anything. As if she has no extra time to worry, she is always running around, devoting her life to something -
"It's wrong to blame God or to blame others. You and I are both sinners, and there is no way to atone for our sins to the victims! Face up to your own sins, Jill. We can only hold on to this distress and despair forever, and there is no way to start over. The only thing we can do is to lend our shoulders to the living. That is the meaning of our existence as heroic spirits."
Gilles shed tears and fell to his knees. He held Joan's hand tightly and begged:
"—I, will we never be forgiven?"
"God will surely forgive everything, but the children you killed and the soldiers I killed will certainly not forgive us. This sin, this guilt, is a punishment that must be borne forever... It doesn't matter, I will lend you my shoulder."
Sin will never be erased.
Although they hate themselves as sinners, they still save the world as heroic spirits - that is the punishment given to them, but also their salvation.
"I understand, Jeanne. Even though it's only for a short period of time, I am extremely happy to be able to talk to you again."
Evil deeds will not be forgiven.
The atonement will never end.
Even though all of this was announced by the Saint herself, Jill's voice seemed quite calm.
In fact, this is a very simple fact.
He loved this girl deeply. She was neither a saint nor a savior, but he loved Jeanne d'Arc as a person. His love for this girl who was like warm sunshine was so deep that he went crazy immediately if she was killed.