Did Aliza... did Aliza kill her own mother, Lizaria?
The Lizaria I knew came to the Duke's house with Aliza when I was thirteen. She was a woman with blue hair similar to Aliza's and light blue eyes.
I never tried to approach her, and Lizaria treated me as if I didn't exist, so we hardly exchanged any words, but she didn't seem dead at all. She always wore neat dresses and applied makeup properly. I never saw her getting along with my father, who was originally a man of few words, but I think she managed the house in his place and behaved as a proper duchess in his absence.
I didn't like being scolded every time I met my father, so I tried not to leave my room too often.
I had to face him during meals and such.
But if I just smiled and let Aliza talk alone, without saying anything unnecessary, the unpleasant time would pass, and soon I would enter the school dormitory, so in the end, I honestly didn't know much about her.
I kept running away like that, and... maybe doing nothing was the right thing to do.
Aliza smiled innocently like a young child.
"She lied about me not being Seigrit Duke's child, so I killed my mother. Just as the angel said. With a knife, I stabbed her. My mother was crying, but she quickly came back to life and became a good mother who would do anything I said. The power of the angel is wonderful."
"Aliza-chan, that's..."
Aliza's shadow stretched up to the ceiling.
I felt nauseous, like when I was surrounded by miasma. Much more disgusting than when I encountered a demon with strong evil magic.
I bit my lip because it wasn't the time to collapse from dizziness and nausea.
"Aliza-chan, that's not an angel."
I shook my head.
What emerges from the gates of the Underworld are the accumulated grudges, malice, and obsessions of the dead who have fallen into that realm.
And angels... angels are said to be messengers of God who resided in the heavens. Seraphim, the highest-ranking angels with supreme power among many other angels, are said to be a collective term for angels who offered prayers along with exorcism magic. I've never been to the otherworld, so I didn't really know if angels truly existed, but there was no way a messenger of God, an angel, would command someone to kill their own mother.
That's not an angel...
"Sister, you envy me, don't you? I obtained everything with the power of the angel. You have nothing! The angel told me that your mother, the bothersome Celestia, died, so I went to the Duke's house as instructed by the angel. Then Father accepted me as his daughter and welcomed me. My father disliked you and treated me well... So, I asked my father to give you dresses and shoes because I felt sorry for you. Isn't that kind?"
"Aliza-chan... But why did you...?"
"Because he's a liar... My father, he was just a liar. Pretending to care about me... He was looking for a way to seal the angel through connections with the Sacred Nation of Rashid, even though he called me his precious daughter instead of you, who failed! I'll tell you Seigrit Duke's last words, sister, 'Don't lay a hand on Chloe!' That's what he said!"
"My father..."
It felt like a block of ice was forced down my throat.
I didn't understand my father at all. I feared and despised him as a betrayer, even though my mother believed in him and loved him. Even when I learned that he was executed in the central square of the capital city, right in front of my shop, I didn't even consider mourning for him.
I was truly the worst.
"Your angel, or whatever it is, can control the dead, right? Why did you have Duke Seigrit executed? Wouldn't it have been easier to just kill him?" In my inability to speak, Cyril confronted Aliza with questions.
Aliza sighed with boredom and shrugged her shoulders.
"But, you see, the angel said it couldn't touch Duke Seigrit or my sister. So, instead, when Cyril-sama kindly invited me to the castle, I killed the King and Queen. I didn't particularly held a grudge against them, but I had to have my father executed, as instructed by the angel. ...So they were not longer needed. My mother, the King, and the Queen, all said their goodbyes. It's fine, isn't it? Because they're long gone already."
Lizaria died when the Seigrit family was attacked and burned.
The King and Queen, it was said, were attacked by monsters while on a journey abroad.
All of that, too, Aliza... no, Aliza seems to acknowledge in a tone that her angel or whatever it is did.
"Aliza, you...!"
Cyril raised his sword to strike at Aliza.
I instinctively grabbed Cyril's hand and pulled with all my might. We mustn't engage.
What Aliza harbors is very frightening. Something very, very frightening.
If Cyril had attacked, he would have been crushed by the needle-like objects protruding from above and below the floorboards he was about to step on. Just the thought of it is too macabre, sending shivers down my spine.
"Cyril-sama, why didn't you execute me? ...Why, even now?"
Even after my father was killed, I wanted to know why I had been kept alive for three years. Aliza was being manipulated by something she encountered in her childhood.
Somewhere, I wanted to believe that there was just Aliza --- the Aliza who once wished for happiness.
Because Aliza must have liked Cyril.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have desired marriage.
She wouldn't marry a man she didn't love just because she disliked me, or because she wanted to take him away from me. At least, I definitely wouldn't.
"Oh, but simply killing you would be too dull. I wanted you to see me become queen and feel regret. I wanted you to experience the suffering I endured in the slums. After all, you're my blood-related sister, right? I wanted you to suffer as I did. ...But you kept interfering with my angel."
"When did I ever interfere with your angel, Aliza-chan? We're not even acquaintances."
I had no weapons or alchemical items now. So even if Cyril faced Aliza's angel alone while carrying burdens like me, he couldn't compete with Aliza's angel.
I didn't understand a lot of things.
I had a premonition that what Aliza carried was something even more terrifying than the gatekeeper of the Underworld that Julius defeated earlier.
It feels like someone was saying, "Don't get any closer now, run away."
I wanted to buy time.
I wanted to continue the conversation as long as possible and think about what to do.
Aliza intended to kill Cyril. For some reason unknown to me, Aliza apparently couldn't directly harm me. So she intended to kill Cyril and then manipulate him... and then, to execute me.
If Cyril hadn't realized anything and continued to love Aliza blindly, I would have been executed for attacking Eliza as ordered by her. Even though I had told myself it wouldn't come to that, I was just as foolish as Julius said.
At this rate, I really won't be forgiven, will I?
"But the angel opened many gates to the Underworld. Julius closed the gate of the largest northern demon mountain. The three-headed Cerberus. It was a child my angel cherished, but you had to kill it. How pitiful. The angel told me to hurry up and kill you, sister. And also Julius. If you had just behaved yourself, you could have lived a little longer, you foolish sister."
"Aliza-chan, that's not an angel after all. Monsters pour out from the gates of the Underworld and attack people, you know? The mercenaries and knights are fighting hard to close the gates and protect the kingdom's people from the monsters, you know? Aliza-chan, do you understand what you're saying?"
"I understand. ...Hey, sister. I've seen many terrible sights in the slums, and I've suffered a lot, you know? Others don't matter. As long as I'm happy, it's fine. My happiness is given to me by the angel. So, if the angel says you're getting in the way, then you have to disappear too!"
"Would an angel tell you to kill your own mother? That's not something an angel would say!"
The shadow extending from Aliza's body wrapped around her, intertwining with her form.
Aliza smiled blissfully and elegantly reached out her hand towards us, gently pointing her finger.
"Chloe!"
The cobblestones at my feet surged, and suddenly, something resembling a giant snake's head emerged.
A jet-black snake with a head as large as my body, its red mouth filled with sharp fangs, opened wide and lunged towards Cyril.