Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6192846-20130913170916/@comment-6192846-20141101042815

Last scene of Hors D'oeuvre chapter.


 * Muzuri's fears were becoming reality. The crops were wiped out by the cold weather and the livestock were sick/dead from pestilence. It is the arrival of a/the great famine.


 * Of the ten years prophesized by the mage, two months were left and they didn't have enough food secured to make it in time.


 * Muzuri asked for assistance from the imperial capital and the lords of the other territories but they're dealing with their own starvation problems already and couldn't really provide.


 * ???: "What..........What to eat......"


 * The residencts in the mansion began to ask for food like crazy. If they didn't satiate their stomachs, the baemu's curse would likely kill them.


 * ???: "To have survived thus far...... I won't succumb to death at the last minute.....!"


 * Everyone was desparate. Or rather, The only human beings to cling so much to their lives, there were so few remaining.


 * They had been taking food from the people to keep those in the mansion alright. But, having been squeezd dry by the heavy taxes, the great famine struck.


 * There weren't supposed to be any who stored away enough food to satisfy their appetite. Anyhow, there's nothing left that they could eat.


 * It was hard to smell anything, but they would start putting anything in their mouths even when there was nothing; those who ate the meat of the Tasan pig without hestation even began eating frogs and insects they found in the fields around the mansion, taking anything they could find no matter how odd.


 * Still, there wasn't enough food. For many years, their stomachs had eaten large quantities of food compared to that of ordinary humans and it was only gettin gbigger. Soon, the "Gula disease" became the expression of the mansion's servants.


 * Each day, someone died died as a result (there's mention of eating stone and iron but I think it may be an expression); there was no longer any way to stop it. By the time there was only half a month before the prophecy's time limit, fat corpses of the servants lying around here and there had become a plight.


 * Muzuri: (もはや...... これまでかもしれんな) I assume this has to do with the ordeal.


 * Muzuri looked upon the devastation within his mansion, sitting alone in his chair. There was a restriction that only one person per day would die.


 * While there's about 10 days to go before the deadline, the only fourteen humans left in the mansion. Not counting Banica, it was thirteen. So hopefully three would survive, by his calculations.


 * But, assuming the Gula disease will subside exactly on the deadline, he and his wife can survive. For Muzuri himself, he had almost nothing put in his mouth for the past few days.


 * Meguru: "Stomach's...... so empty, Banica." (Banica-chan)


 * Meguru entered the room, accompanied by Banica. Either out of hunger or a disturbed  mind/spirit (精神), she had wandered into the room, staggering.


 * Poor Banica, she also came to understand that the people of the mansion are being aflicted by a strange disease. And therefore, if she was around even a little bit of food to the parents and servants, she almost never took the meal for herself (I think?).

^ This entire paragraph is extremely confusing so I am going to stop it there and move on. I will try to decipher it later. It may be about how Banica was force fed though.


 * Since Banica was born, no, since she had dwelled in his wife's belly, Muzuri prayed for his childs happiness,


 * Meguru: "I'll die if I don't eat....... I wonder if there is nothing left to eat?" she muttered to herself, still walking around the room.


 * Before she became such a thing, she was an intelligent women. He had fallen in love with the daughter of Elphegort's prime minister at first sight. He was anxious to marry her.


 * There were basically no diplomatic relations between the Beelzenian Empire and Elphegort. While there was many failures to secure a marriage, he eventually tied the knot. His love for her hasn't changed since then.


 * Therefore, he didn't want to see this her; this Meguru was caused by none other than Muzuri himself.


 * When banica was born, Meguru was the one opposed to aeting the baemu and Muzuri forced her to eat it.


 * Meguru: "Oh my........?"


 * Meguru abruptly stopped, her eyes dropped to one of the servants' corpses lying before her. Like that, she continued staring at the corpse with an engrossed expression.


 * Looking into her eyes, Muzuri was suddenly attacked by an indescribable chill. Meguru was looking upon a plump and rich corpse. It was like.


 * Muzuri: "What the...... Aren't you still unceratin what to eat?"


 * Meguru just kept staring at the servants' corpse, her eyes looking upon it as if it was a roasted pig.


 * Muzuri: (But......It's pointless. Meguru wouldn't do anything like that at all) ((だが......それはだめだ. それだけはしてはいけないんだよ、メグル)) This line is a bit tough on me and probably inaccurate


 * Like eat a human being-. That would no longer be a beast but a demon's doing.


 * Meguru: "Head cook! Don't we have a head cook!?" Meguru called loudly to outside the room but there was no reply.


 * Meguru: "Good grief...... It can't be helped. I'll just have to do it myself."


 * While she was still dizzy, she walked up to Muzuri and casually extended her hand.


 * Meguru: "You. Give me your sword. No cutlery required."


 * Muzuri couldn't afford to not respond to the offer.


 * Muzuri: "......It's pointless. I won't."


 * Meguru: "It'll be good, lend it."


 * Muzuri: "Meguru, even though your belly is empty, what you're going to do with it is---"


 * Meguru: "L    E   N    D   I     T    !!" (don't ask me what effect that is supposed to have) Meguru attacked Muzuri to take it. In their struggle, she tried to take the sword from its sheath.


 * Muzuri: "Stop it! Stop doing that!!" Muzuri was desperately resisting; perhaps because he had barely had a meal, he had no strength. Meguru was supposed to be the same as him, but she had always been physically stronger than him.


 * While looking at her parents' scuffle, Banica just quietly trembled in the corner of the room.

Space given. If like Gift, it's meant to be a first person narration for Muzuri.


 * Oh Meguru.


 * You are another who has gone completely mad.


 * No, not just you.


 * All generations on that day.


 * We who ate the "demon familiar" on that day.


 * As if we had been possessed.


 * It was not madness.


 * We.......


 * Did it in an attempt to survive until it became ugly.

Another space so the narration from Muzuri's perspective is over.


 * The sword was unsheathed. But it wasn't Meguru who held the handle. It was Muzuri. As he looked into his beloved wife's eyes, he swung down the blade.

End scene. Next portion is the waiter's one page commentary about the family and what happened after before the chapter ends.