179 Revenge, Estrangement, Collapse
'Nursery Rhyme' is a collective term for all picture books and fairy tales, not a character who actually existed, but a Heroic Spirit formed by absorbing all the dreams of children, serving as a companion for them. She should have been the most suitable existence to become Alice in the story.
However, the builder of this dream world is her. The characteristic of Nursery Rhyme is that her personality changes depending on the summoner, and this time, the medium that summoned Nursery Rhyme was the twisted black mud, resulting in an even more twisted monster.
Thus, she appears as the Countess, a close confidante of the Queen, who frequently visits the palace. But these roles are not important to her; everything is merely a byproduct of achieving her goal.
Her purpose is to absorb the various emotions within the dream and continuously expand the scale of the dream.
While positive emotions like joy and happiness are also good, all sentient beings—humans and Servants alike—are always more sensitive to sadness and depression than to joy. The joy of finding a hundred dollars and the depression of losing a hundred dollars do not cancel each other out.
Receiving praise or commendation might bring an hour of happiness, but an argument or a scolding could lead to several days of depression.
That is why limitless emotions such as hatred, desire, and resentment are so valuable.
The Black Queen Marie could sense the gradually swelling change within this monster, which would soon break through the shell of this adorable little girl, revealing a terrifying, distorted creature.
"But, you still wish for me to destroy France, don't you?" the black mud monster asked with a smile, though there was absolutely no warmth in its eyes.
"Yes, I cannot give up on this one thing, otherwise the anger and sorrow in my heart will never be appeased. Just thinking of those ugly faces makes me nauseous. If I don't destroy this country, I will never return to normal!" Marie said, and a thick, wraith-like resentment uncontrollably surged from her entire body.
Marie detested the girl before her, or rather, she detested everything she saw apart from her husband and friends, and she also detested her current self.
For her husband, after being summoned into this world, she continuously tried to revert to that innocent, likable queen, so she still hosted parties, played croquet with the nobles of this world, and held tea parties with her friends, hoping to at least reassure the important people in her life.
But the endless hatred she harbored could ultimately not be hidden, the anger threatening to overflow could not be suppressed, making her want to destroy everything, even if it meant destroying herself.
It was an era where the nation's power was held by the noble council, and the royal authority was greatly limited. The gap between the rich and the poor in France was evident, and conflicts intensified between the rising bourgeoisie and the nobility of the old guard. However, rich merchants bought titles, and nobles also began to engage in business, twisting the two forces into a chaotic mess.
The national treasury was depleted, necessitating heavy taxation. In fact, in many cases, if the noble officials were uncooperative with policy decisions, the Emperor was helpless, so Emperor Louis simply let go of the little power he had left to pursue his favorite locksmith work.
But when the revolution erupted, the people only saw the extravagance and incompetence of the royal family. Instigated by the revolutionaries, all blame was heaped upon the Emperor. Her honest and kind husband was executed, and the royal palace was looted.
The people had long forgotten who had sold royal treasures and cut expenses to provide disaster relief during times of famine, yet she was still accused of being excessively luxurious. She was slandered with lewdness, accused of adultery, and also of profiting from the Necklace Affair.
She was taken to court on charges of incest, accused of forcing relations with her own son and subjecting him to violent abuse. What kind of person would threaten a boy to testify in court and falsely accuse his mother of such things?
Stripping her of her dignity as a Queen wasn't enough? Did they have to strip her of her qualification as a mother, too?
If all this were to end with her death, then she would die with regret, but it was far from over.
Her underage son was immediately treated as the next Emperor, confined in the tower, beaten and abused every day, given only one meal a day—a mix of pig swill and excrement—and tormented to death.
Her daughter was raped by the rioters who occupied the palace, abused and disfigured.
These monster, operating under the banner of improving France, seemed to take pride in beating the high-and-mighty Prince and violating the royal Princess.
They were just children, what wrong had they done? Why were they treated so cruelly?
"Off with their heads! Off with their heads! Off with their heads! Destroy France, kill those betrayers, the descendants of those rioters... Ahh, the irony, the sorrow, my noble Queen of the White Lily, reduced to making a deal with a demon........." Black Queen Marie was enveloped in black aura, shedding tears of blood.
"Ah, I'm looking forward to it. But will your Servants truly be loyal to you?" the eerie black mud Servant asked, with a false smile. It was not actually smiling, but feeling satisfied; the twisted resentment was fueling its energy, but it wasn't enough. It needed more despair and anger.
"What?!" Black Queen Marie lifted her head, her eyes, filled with blood-tears, wide open.
"Don't you know? I have never received the resentment of the criminals you've ordered to be beheaded so far," the black mud Servant reminded her.
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At the lake, shielded from the palace's view by a rock, a pile of firewood had been set up. Shirou was using Projection Magic to create the necessary cooking utensils, while Jeanne was helping to chop wood and start a fire.
After some investigation, they found that the Countess had already entered the palace to find the Queen. After discussion, Astolfo also seemed to have no intention of letting Shirou and the others leave, feeling bored with only himself and the Hippogriff (playing the Gryphon) there.
In fact, Shirou and the others had no better plan for now. The Black gang in the palace was very troublesome, and they couldn't risk severely injuring them. Furthermore, forcing their way in past d'Eon and the other two would be extremely difficult.
So, they simply stayed there, found a secluded spot, and started preparing dinner.
Astolfo, carrying the black hat like a turtle shell and playing the Mock Turtle, was competing with Tamamo Cat by the lake to catch fish. Astolfo was wearing a swimsuit, with his butt sticking out, leaning forward, transforming into 'Astolfo-bear,' clapping his hands on the water, struggling to slap the fish in the water onto the shore. Unfortunately, due to his poor skill, his harvest was meager.
Tamamo Cat, on the other hand, held a long-handled net, jumping onto the rocks near the shore and scooping up the small fish and shrimp floating nearby, putting them into her fish basket. When she saw a big catch, she naturally didn't let it go. She did not disgrace the name of a cat; she had a huge harvest of both big fish and shrimp.
Suddenly, Tamamo Cat seemed to spot a large creature. She leaped more than two meters and plunged into the water, then emerged holding a large trout that was vigorously flapping its tail. She gave it a solid slap, and the fish passed out, becoming motionless.
"Meow haha! Master, Master, look at the fish I caught!" Tamamo Cat ran happily to the young man, holding the fish and seeking praise.
Shirou saw the plump trout Tamamo Cat carried with one hand. The large trout contrasted sharply with the petite cat girl. Good heavens, it was over sixty centimeters long, weighing at least five kilograms.
Trout is delicious and tender, rich in protein. It can be grilled, steamed, or used for sashimi, and trout sushi is also a delicacy.
"Oh, what a big one! Good job, Tamamo Cat!" Shirou praised, stroking the cat girl's head.
"Meow hee hee, stroke a little more! Master, remember to give me a reward later, Woof~!" Tamamo Cat comfortably narrowed her eyes, enjoying the young man's caress.
"Using tools and getting into the water—that's too cunning! Fine! I'll join in too." Astolfo seemed to have his competitive spirit roused, and he immediately summoned a horn, putting it to his lips.
"Wait! What are you trying to do!" Jeanne shouted.
Alas, it was already too late.
Astolfo activated his Noble Phantasm. The small horn instantly transformed into a giant horn encircling him. Taking a breath, he blew hard, "—The Magic Flute That Induces Panic (La Black Luna)!"
WHOOM!!! The huge mouth of the horn faced the lake, emitting a reverberating, demonic sound, like the roar of a magic dragon or a phantasmal beast. The lake surface instantly erupted in waves seven or eight meters high.
The fish and shrimp that had been stunned were blasted into the air, falling onto the shore.
Following them was a deluge of water droplets, like a torrential downpour. Shirou quickly covered the boiling pot, but the dry firewood they had collected on the shore, along with the lit fire, were all extinguished.
Astolfo, who was completely submerged and now soaked with water dripping from his face, saw the people on the shore looking at him, lightly tapped his own head with a small fist, and stuck out his tongue.
"A-ha~!"
After that, everyone worked together to clean up the mess. They threw the excess fish and shrimp back into the lake. Fortunately, the fish floating on the surface seemed only stunned by the Noble Phantasm's power and would recover once returned to the water, otherwise, the area would have been covered in the stench of dead fish within hours.
Jeanne released flames to re-dry the soaked wood, removing the moisture and restarting the fire.
Tamamo Cat pulled out oil, salt, and seasonings from her incredible apron pocket.
And so, Shirou began to clean the fish and prepare dinner.
It was a delicious all-fish feast: fried small fish, fried shrimp, and the large five-kilogram trout, which was de-fished with ginger and chili peppers and boiled into a milky white fish soup; another part was steamed, sprinkled with spring onions, and drizzled with sizzling hot oil with golden ginger shreds. He prepared the fish in multiple ways. Fortunately, the Servants around him had good appetites, and all the fish dishes were eaten.
The girls sat satisfied on the green grass, gazing at the stars. Perhaps because they were in a fairy tale dream world, even the night sky possessed a dreamy beauty. The crescent moon reflected on the azure lake surface, instantly creating two moons in the world. A gentle breeze swept across the lake, causing ripples to spread across the pale golden moon.
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As night fell, most of the lights in the palace were extinguished, and the surroundings darkened. It was time for Emperor Louis and the Queen to rest.
And so, the executioner Sanson, having put down his axe work, left the palace, walked through the gloomy woods, and arrived at the prison where the criminals ordered by the Queen to be beheaded were kept, to complete his work.
What the Dragon Witch had shouted at him earlier still echoed in his mind, unforgettable.
"If you know she's doing wrong but do nothing to change it, in the end, the one who suffers will be her!"
Sanson came from a noble family that served the White Lily Royal House of the Bourbon dynasty, holding the hereditary profession of executioner. He was the fourth generation. He did not agree with the royal family's methods but did not excessively intervene in the revolution, maintaining neutrality.
In the face of the nation and the people, he resolutely abandoned his affection for the royal family. He personally executed the Emperor he had deeply respected, allowing the triangular blade to sever the neck of Emperor Louis XVI.
He also participated in the Queen's execution at the guillotine. However, after the Emperor's execution, he executed wave after wave of revolutionaries. When there were no more, the public's enemies began to shift, polarizing into mutual hostility among the revolutionaries themselves.
The revolutionaries, composed of the bourgeoisie, were more concerned with the distribution of profits than with how to revive the country. The Girondins executed the Emperor for treason; the Jacobins overthrew the Girondins and suppressed the Enragés and the Hébertists; then
the Jacobins split in internal strife, and the Thermidorians staged a coup, establishing the Directory.
And then, France's most brilliant imperial star, Europe's most formidable military strategist, ascended the stage. The great Napoleon Bonaparte became the party leader and then established the Empire. After Napoleon's Waterloo, Louis XVIII returned to Paris, later passing the throne to Charles X...
In the end, the period during which he killed the most people did not make France better; it merely led to a constant change in France's rulers.
And the reason he was remembered by the world and became a Servant was not because of his medical research, nor because he invented the guillotine to reduce the suffering of criminals, but because he was the one who executed the only Emperor in French history to be put to death.
So, at this moment, Sanson swung the black blade in his hand towards the people huddled in the cells.
The iron locks confining the prisoners instantly broke, falling to the floor with a clatter of chains.
Sanson did not look at the stunned people inside, stating coldly, "Leave. Escape through the back door. I will report that you have been executed. Never appear near here again."
"Ah... yes." When the first person mustered the courage to push open the iron cell door and step out, the people behind him rushed out like water from a turned-on faucet.
"We're saved, run!" A soldier holding his helmet took off running.
"Ah ah, thank you for your mercy," a maid said, wiping away tears.
"Thank you, Captain of the Guards. My family will not forget your kindness," said a minister dressed like a noble.
"Yes, your grace, we will never forget your kindness," many others voiced their gratitude.
"Leave quickly before you are discovered. I am not letting you go to receive a reward," Sanson said flatly.
Some of them were soldiers who had been exhausted from playing human croquet and had fallen down, leading to their detention.
Some were maids who had been detained for accidentally making a mistake during work.
Others were noble ministers who had angered the Queen with a moment of loose talk.
Regardless of the severity of the mistake, there was only one punishment: Off with their heads! Off with their heads! Off with their heads!
The hysterical Queen was doing the very thing she hated and despised the most in others.
How could the three of them allow such a thing to happen? So, every time the Queen's anger subsided, they would secretly release these prisoners.
The surrounding officials and servants, even if they knew, would not mention it, fearing that the same fate might befall them.
"How long do we have to keep doing this? What can we possibly do to make the Queen let go of those things?" d'Eon, watching the prisoners leave from a distance, asked sorrowfully.
"How would I know? But whether Marie praises or scolds me, it's the ultimate reward for me," Mozart said with a careless smile.
"I forgot you're a pervert. Stay away from me." d'Eon coldly distanced himself from the musician. Even though he had heard of the child prodigy's fame during his lifetime and, as a Servant, understood his standing in music history, he should have shown respect, but after interacting with the man himself, he couldn't muster any respect at all.
"Ah, this is also a reward," Mozart said, not at all angry, but rather pleased.
At that moment, a sorrowful, heavy, yet indifferent voice, full of despair and bottomless anger, came from behind them.
"You three... so you've been hiding this from me all along... I thought you were the ones who understood me, the ones who would never betray me............"
As a Rider, like Ramesses II, she didn't possess the wondrous pyramid of the Egyptian Sun King, but she did possess this Palace of Versailles, built by the French King Louis XIV, who called himself the Sun King, and ranked as one of the world's five great palaces alongside China's Forbidden City and Britain's Buckingham Palace.
With her husband, Emperor Louis XVI, not being a Servant and yet being the main master of this place, she, as a co-master, effectively possessed a top-tier Noble Phantasm here, symbolizing the nation and the culmination of hundreds of years of French history.
Because of the various privileges granted by this palace, the Servants hadn't noticed the Black Queen Marie's appearance.
"Your Majesty!"
"Marie!" They were completely surprised that Black Queen Marie, who never bothered with trivial matters like beheadings, would appear here at this moment. She was enveloped in a black aura of resentment, almost obscuring her figure.
"So, you are traitors too... Yes, even though you spoke of serving the royal family, didn't you all ultimately hide away? The Royalists only needed an heir to the throne, which is why you let my son be confined and tormented to death."
"This was entirely my own decision. Please punish me," Sanson stepped in front of the Queen, knelt down, and lowered his head.
"Punishment!? Do you think a punishment can be borne by one person? It's impossible! That's why I beheaded everyone equally," Black Queen Marie laughed out of sheer fury.
"Your Majesty, please let us explain!" d'Eon stepped forward and said.
"That's right, Marie, calm down, or your adorable face will be hidden," Mozart advised with a smile.
The Black Queen's face darkened, and she said coldly, "Enough is enough... Charles-Henri Sanson, Chevalier d'Eon, and... Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, I no longer need any of you. From this moment on, you are demoted to gardeners outside the palace! Do not approach the palace again until the flower beds outside are full of lilies!"
"Your Majesty! We will never betray you." d'Eon shouted, trying to follow her to explain.
A wall of magical flames erupted the moment he entered the palace grounds, blocking d'Eon's path and igniting the glove on his outstretched hand.
D'Eon drew back his burned hand, lowering it in despair. Although flames of this level were insufficient to harm him as a Saber, it clearly demonstrated the Queen's will. To proceed further would be an act of defiance, something he, as a Royal Knight of France, could not do.
Marie walked towards her bedroom with her head lowered, water droplets dripping and wetting the floor.
"Ah, for the sake of revenge, I've now lost even the friends I could relax and have tea parties with... There's no turning back now..."
"That's right, Marie, your resentment has reached its peak. You can be consumed now," the little girl suddenly said with a smile.
"What!?" Marie didn't have time to turn around before her body shuddered.
A black pair of scissors closed together, piercing the Black Queen from behind and emerging from her abdomen.
The little girl, who released the black scissors from the black book, stood behind Marie, maintaining the same smile as before.
"Waaaaah!!! You monster! How dare you violate our agreement!" The Black Queen looked at the scissors protruding from her abdomen, turned her head, and roared.
"That's not right, dear Marie. Isn't merging with me the best way to achieve your revenge? I wonder what kind of nightmare your resentment will give birth to?" the black mud Servant said with a smile.
Cursing, hatred, resentment, jealousy, deception, betrayal......... FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE! FREE!....
"Wuwuwu ahhh!!!" The Black Queen let out a cry of agony. The black scissors protruding from her abdomen instantly transformed into a gaping maw, turning into black sludge. It began to cover her from the outside, starting from her abdomen, while on the inside, it burrowed into her blood vessels and filled her internal organs, continuously blending with the Black Queen.
At this point, the blood she spat from her mouth had also turned into black mud. When the human form was entirely enveloped by the black sludge.
The ominous black book opened, revealing a black void that swallowed her whole. Then, the pages continuously flipped, tearing apart one by one, and a colossal black shadow broke out of the shell: an unprecedentedly twisted monster.
"Bastard! Let go of the Boss!"
"Charge!"
The Black men, armed with machine guns and axes, rushed towards the black monster, shouting.
The black monster instantly swallowed all twenty-plus Black men into its body, which continuously swelled and expanded.
The upper body, a collection of disgust, hatred, and negative emotions, was ironically filled with objects that brought joy to children: game consoles, chess boards, picture books, and dolls.
But from its lower body, sticky pus dripped, and maggots crawled out, falling onto the ground. Tumors grew on its back and belly. Inside its black, transparent belly were frozen, black-purple abandoned fetuses and pink placentas expelled into the toilet after taking abortifacients...
Then, tentacles sprouted, entwined with sharp black scissors and dripping syringes filled with liquid ready for injection...
Beautiful things and ugly things were all sickeningly intertwined, writhing together.
Yet, from the tail, grew white flowers: lilies, symbolizing purity, holiness, and nobility.
The sight of such a monster alone was enough to cause dizziness and endless vomiting. Looking a second time would cause spasms all over the body. By the third look, there would be no reaction, because the person would have completely gone mad.
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Shirou stared directly at the monster, his face pale, cold sweat beading on his forehead. The nauseating feeling, the sensation of his brain being torn apart, the feeling that his heart had
been emptied—the scene of a vast, fiery inferno reappeared in his mind. His lips were cracked, his throat felt like it was on fire, the smell of burnt flesh, the cries and pleas of people, and then... numbness.
Shirou pressed one hand to his abdomen, feeling a tremor there. His entire body's muscles were twitching uncontrollably, shivering.
It had to be destroyed. A monster like this could never be allowed to exist in this world.
As Shirou looked at the monster, the monster was also looking at Shirou.
The monster let out a sorrowful shriek, like a baby crying, and crawled toward the young man. The buildings blocking its path were instantly consumed and warped by the monster's body, becoming a part of its interior. Black, viscous liquid dripped from the ruins that were not swallowed.
The monster reached a spot five or six meters directly in front of the young man, raising a black, murky tentacle high and whipping it toward the young man's head like a lash.
At that very moment, a rift was torn open in the world of the dream. Simultaneously, a path of blooming purple and white flowers extended from the gap, reaching right up to the young man.
"Shirou! If not now, when do you plan to leave!" Merlin's voice called out from within the rift.
"But..."
Before Shirou could finish his sentence, he felt a powerful push from two hands, sending him flying towards the rift. He turned his head and saw Jeanne and Tamamo Cat smiling at him.
"I'm leaving, what about you?........." Shirou couldn't finish the sentence before he fell into the rift, and his vision plunged into complete darkness.
"Ah!—Phantasmal Horse That Does Not Exist in This World (Hippogriff)!" A flash of light surpassing the speed of sound pulled Jeanne and Tamamo Cat away, narrowly escaping before the monster's tentacle could strike.