Chapter 15: Corpse Destruction and Evidence Elimination
Are you not going to let me go?
Even so, I can’t just sit here and wait for my fate!
I shook my arms vigorously, struggling with all my might while calling out her name.
“Kaoru Tsukiyose! Let me go!”
“I don’t want to~”
“Kaoru Tsukiyose! Kaoru! Tsukiyose! Let me go!”
It wasn’t a plea for her to release me, nor was it a frantic shout made due to losing my composure.
I kept trying to call her name in the hope that, just like last time at the cemetery when I commanded that zombie named ‘Gou Xiawen,’ she would also fall under my control simply by me calling her name.
However, it didn’t go as smoothly this time.
After I shouted her name, she didn’t let me go as I commanded; instead, she paused for just a moment, her gaze unfocused for less than half a second before returning with a look of even more curiosity.
“Huh? Your voice can actually have this level of effect on me! How is your spiritual power so strong?”
Damn it, all it did was make her more interested in me!
This ghoul is not simple! Is there really no way out of this?
Hoo, calm down… Since she is showing such intense interest, I’ll use this to engage her in conversation.
“My spiritual power is strong? Why don’t I feel a thing…”
“Hehe, this trait doesn’t help you much; at most, it allows you to tolerate pain better than an ordinary person, not easily feel fatigue, keep your attention highly focused, maintain self-awareness better, and recover consciousness faster.”
I see, that’s quite ordinary. Recently, I haven’t had dreams and have been sleeping soundly at night, and I haven’t felt drowsy in class. It’s because Lily halved her spiritual power and shared it with me.
“Also, it makes your ‘words’ carry more weight, just like this.”
Kaoru Tsukiyose released her tight grip around my waist, took my hand, and tilted her head as she spoke to me.
“Shall we sit on that bench over there? Standing while talking is tiring; I have to look up at you!”
“…Okay, let’s go… Ugh!”
After I unconsciously agreed to her, I realized what I had just said. What was that just now? Upon hearing her words, I couldn’t help but agree… Could this be what they call the weight of words?
I see, she demonstrated through action that someone with strong spiritual power has a persuasive force when they speak.
She held my large hand with her delicate little hand and led me toward the bench. She didn’t pull too hard, but I didn’t dare shake her hand off to run away.
Forget the fact that a mere squeeze could easily crush my hand. Even if I miraculously managed to shake her off, considering how she had crossed over twenty meters in just two seconds to catch me earlier, I wouldn’t stand a chance of escaping.
In any case… I would take it step by step…
As we approached the bench, Kaoru Tsukiyose let go of my hand, leaped onto the bench, patted the empty space beside her, and gestured for me to sit as well.
I hesitated for a moment, but still walked over… those ‘remnants’ were nearby.
The smell of blood hit me like a wave, reminiscent of rusted iron pipes from dampness, making it physically hard to bear. My abdomen felt weak, and I couldn’t describe the awful feeling; my stomach was churning, and I barely managed to suppress the urge to vomit.
That puddle of blood and the leftover entrails and chunks of flesh were still by the vending machine, looking utterly disgusting.
I staggered over to Kaoru Tsukiyose’s side, stepping into a puddle of blood, feeling an unpleasant soft sense beneath my feet.
I quickly lifted my foot to rub it on the clean ground… which only made me feel even more nauseous.
“Ah, I’m sorry! After all, you’re human, right? It must be disgusting for you to see the parts I didn’t clean up! But since you didn’t puke on the spot, it shows your spiritual power is stronger than an ordinary person’s.”
“Is that so…”
With a complicated mood, I sat down on the bench. Kaoru Tsukiyose immediately leaned closer and laid her head on my thigh, swinging her legs up and down, looking very happy.
“Generally speaking, only monks who have trained for dozens of years or extremely devout priests, as well as natural leaders, possess this degree of spiritual power… How did a mere mortal like you end up with such strong spiritual power? It seems you’ve had an extraordinary experience, hehe~”
“Since my spiritual power is so strong, why don’t you obey me… Kaoru Tsukiyose, isn’t that your real name?”
How could it be? A name under a title must be that person’s true name; there’s no way it’s wrong.
Upon hearing my question, Kaoru Tsukiyose turned slightly, resting her head on my thigh, gazing at my face as she spoke.
“Oh? You know about ‘true names’… Ah, I see. Were you trying to control me through my ‘true name’ just now?”
She took my right hand, playing with it just in front of her delicate chest, a mischievous smile appearing on her face as she looked at my palm.
“What a pity! I’m a ghoul; I don’t have a true name, you know? Just think about it, even if I really had a true name, how could it possibly be used as a daily nickname? Even if you shout ‘Kaoru Tsukiyose!’ with all your might, I wouldn’t be governed by you~”
She doesn’t know I have the ability to see through ‘true names’; I only called her that because I saw her name above her head was 【香月熏】… Unfortunately, it seems she truly doesn’t have another true name, and calling her by her name doesn’t work on her.
Kaoru Tsukiyose kept playing with my hand, leaving no corner untouched from the fingertips to the gaps between my fingers. Suddenly, she extended her tongue and licked my wrist.
Not just a quick lick and pull away; her tongue seemed to stick like a gecko to my wrist, tracing along my palm and swallowing my middle finger.
Suddenly, she frowned deeply.
“Mmm… There’s someone else’s taste… Did someone else taste it before me…? I thought I was the first…”
After mumbling, she wrinkled her nose a few times and reluctantly switched to my index finger, placing it in her mouth.
Cold sweat began to bead on my back…
She’s… tasting my finger before eating it?
Moreover, she could still distinguish that my middle finger had been eaten by someone else… That was two days ago, not yesterday; I had washed my hands eight or nine times since then. How could she tell someone else’s taste? What extraordinary senses…
I didn’t expect to have my fingers tasted by a beautiful girl for two consecutive days. I wonder if in a few days all of my fingers will go through this?
While the sensation from my finger was undeniably pleasant, the fear inside me hadn’t diminished at all.
The one devouring my finger is a 【ghoul】; her suddenly biting off my finger wouldn’t be surprising.
Please, can you pick a different finger… I’m right-handed; losing my right index finger would be very inconvenient…
And I don’t even know if a single finger would satisfy her… Hmm… Toes aren’t that important. Should I just give them to her and plead her to spare the others?
Wait, feeding a beautiful girl my toes seems a bit extreme… Even if she is a ghoul…
Fortunately, after a little ‘tasting,’ Kaoru Tsukiyose reluctantly released my finger.
Wiping her mouth, she continued, “In the four major types of ‘monsters,’ only the first two have true names, and only the ‘great monsters’ or ‘great demons’ would have such names. A true name is a symbol of identity, you know? Ordinary little monsters or low-ranking demons don’t have such things.”
Monsters… do all of them really exist?
“And we ghouls are creatures of the underworld; we aren’t even noted in the death register; we are ‘the forgotten ones,’ so of course, we don’t have ‘true names.’ To put it simply, it doesn’t matter what I’m called. I’m named Kaoru Tsukiyose because I first came to the human world in Japan, and my first friend gave me that name.”
“…”
So there really is an underworld? It appears that the Ox-Head and Horse-Face, Black and White Impermanence, and the Ten Kings of Hell all genuinely exist, huh?
No, I can’t be certain yet… The true underworld might not be as it’s depicted in stories.
At the very least, this ghoul in front of me looks nothing like the ones described in legends.
“However, with your strong spiritual power, you can indeed command some weaker ghosts by simply calling their names. But I’m different; even among ghouls, I’m quite an experienced one.”
…In fact, she looks like a human, and quite beautifully exquisite at that.
Under the moonlight, her long black hair was draped behind her, her fair skin smooth like mutton fat, and her pair of crimson eyes glistened like rubies. Her slender waist presented a beautiful curve, and those legs would surely look great in thigh-high socks.
Uh… speaking of which, she’s still in a state of undress…
“Um… could you please put on some clothes?”
“Oh, don’t look at me like that~ I’ll get shy~”
If you’re shy, then why are you undressing in front of me!
I scratched my cheek for a moment, but then I decided to take off my outer coat and drape it over her.
Kaoru Tsukiyose looked at me in surprise, then happily slipped on my coat.
“Hehe~ How sweet of you! I’ll borrow it for a while! The ‘staff’ will come to clean up the scene shortly and will bring me clothes as well; I’ll return your coat then, okay?”
“Staff?”
“Yep! This is just part of the routine, you see… I’m helping to destroy and eliminate evidence, you should understand. After all, being swallowed into my belly is the most secure method.”
“…”
Destroying evidence, huh…
Indeed, this method of eliminating evidence is the best.
Even if not everything is eaten, leaving behind some internal organs wouldn’t be an issue, because it’s impossible to confirm a deceased’s identity with just intestines.
In the end, it would just be swept under the rug, allowing the killer to evade suspicion.
Wait, so this means…
“So you didn’t kill this person? You didn’t want to eat them, so you consumed them instead?”
Kaoru Tsukiyose pouted, showing a hint of discontent.
“Of course! This person isn’t tasty at all! If it weren’t for the work fee, I wouldn’t touch such a difficult meal! Someone who has been possessed like this is terribly hard to eat!”
…She didn’t kill them! What does being possessed mean?
There might be a massive secret hidden here!
And there’s a specialized team for cleaning up the scene? It seems to be quite a powerful organization…
“And I’ve never liked eating humans anyway. Humans aren’t that tasty; they aren’t even as delicious as Michelin desserts… While my kind usually enjoys eating humans to boost their strength, I’ve had enough.”
Kaoru Tsukiyose closed her eyes as if recalling something, and when she opened them again, they had dimmed slightly.
“Really, I’ve had enough…”
The more people a ghoul eats, the stronger they supposedly become… I never expected that it could be true.
Then how many people has she eaten?
As if to shake off bad memories, Kaoru Tsukiyose shook her head and reverted to her former cheerful demeanor.
“Hehe, you should be glad I’m the ghoul you encountered! Otherwise, you’d have been eaten long ago~”
The implication behind this statement is…
“You’re not going to eat me, right?!”
“Of course not! I had no intention of eating you from the start; after all, we are classmates. How could I possibly eat you?”
“Then why were you just now…”
“Hehe~ I was just teasing you; it was an April Fools’ joke. You actually took it seriously! Your reaction was super amusing~”
“…”
Hah… I’m so frustrated…
April Fools’ is already over!
Can you all stop making such terrifying jokes? It’s not funny at all!
It’s really not funny at all!
