“Splendid!” the Immortal Butterfly praised her.
“Why, thank you!”
Lykos kicked the ground and leaped to where the Immortal Butterfly still floated in the air, whirling around and swinging her leg like a guillotine. Lykos slammed the Immortal Butterfly into the ground, but she didn’t stop there, kicking the air to propel herself downward. Caim produced mana footholds to move in the sky, but what Lykos did was different—she simply kicked the air so fast that the wind pressure launched her forward.
“Dieeeeee!”
“Ooooh?!”
Lykos struck the Immortal Butterfly repeatedly, punching her so many times it formed a crater in the earth. It was as though Lykos was trying to pay her back for everything she’d done by making mincemeat out of her.
“Fine, fine... I give up,” the Immortal Butterfly suddenly said, and black butterflies swallowed her up.
Lykos paid them no mind and continued to punch, but it did nothing—the Immortal Butterfly was no longer in the crater at all.
“That’s enough... I understand. You can do as you like.” Lykos could hear the voice but couldn’t find its source. The only thing she could see was black butterflies, so it felt as though they were the ones speaking to her. “If you really are that strong, then you should not be one-sidedly used and abandoned. You can live as you wish.”
“Are you sure you want to let me go?” Lykos asked with a snarl. “Bringing me to the hidden lycanthrope village was not just for my sake, was it? You fear what will happen if people realize what I am.”
If Lykos continued to wander the outside world, one day people would learn of her power. While some would want to exploit it, others would fear it and try to kill her.
“My existence might bring harm to all the other lycanthropes,” Lykos continued. “People may even seek to destroy the hidden village, after all.”
“...You understand everything, and yet you still refuse to follow me. What a cruel child,” the Immortal Butterfly said in a low tone.
“There is no need to worry. What you fear shall not come to pass,” Lykos declared. “After all, my master gathers far more attention than myself. He vanquished my mother and shall one day carve his name in history as a true conqueror. A wolf cub like me is nothing but a mere ornament by his side.”
“Do you mean that purple-haired boy...? For you to praise him like that, he must be quite the man.” The black butterflies distanced themselves from Lykos and spiraled inward in the sky, vanishing gradually. “We do not have the same lifespan as humans, so I shall extend my invitation again in another hundred years. Also, you no longer need to worry about any assassins. I have a great deal of influence in the upper echelons of the underworld, so I shall soon cancel the job of killing two members of the imperial family.”
Lykos listened silently.
“Well then, stay in good health, my adorable child.”
Then the last butterfly disappeared and the space around Lykos burst open, revealing the scenery of Mount Garank.
“Ah...”
“Huh...?”
Below Lykos were her master and her companions.
Still practically naked, she dove toward them.
“Damn it! It’s too tough. Is there no way to break it from the outside?” Caim clicked his tongue as he observed the black sphere in front of him. It had been created with butterflies by the assassin called the Immortal Butterfly. Lykos was currently being held inside, so he had been trying to rescue her, but no matter how much he punched or kicked the black insects, the sphere didn’t break. Perhaps he would be able to destroy it if he got serious, but he didn’t want to harm Lykos. “What does she want with Lykos anyway?”
“I cannot understand it either...” Millicia replied, her face pale from worry. “She did not pay me any heed, so I think Lykos must have been her objective from the beginning.”
“Master Caim!” Tea exclaimed, pointing at the black sphere.
Caim looked up and saw that a crack was running along the sphere. Finally, it burst open—but what emerged from inside was a beautiful woman with green hair.
“Huh...?” Caim blurted out, dumbfounded. His eyes went wide as saucers at the sight of the unfamiliar woman. He could swear he didn’t know her, but the color of her hair and a certain something in her facial features did seem familiar. “Wait... Is that Lykos?!”
“Mmmh!” The green-haired woman kicked the air and propelled herself toward Caim, who was still in shock. As she neared him, her body slowly shrank, and by the time she landed in his arms, she was back in the form of a young girl. “Mmmh! Mmmmh!” She rubbed her cheeks against Caim’s chest affectionately.
“What the hell was that...?” he muttered. Had he just seen an illusion of an adult Lykos?
“For a moment, I thought I saw Lykos looking...sexy.”
“That was not our imagination... Was it?”
Tea and Millicia said, bewildered, while Lenka and Rozbeth tilted their heads in confusion behind them.
“Yeah... It doesn’t make sense...” Caim replied.
“For now, we should give her some clothes... This is all I have.” Millicia laid her coat over Lykos, who snuggled inside.
“Oh well, more importantly—everything should be over now, right?” Tea asked, watching around at the corpses of the assassins on the ground. It appeared that no one else had made it to the summit, nor did it look like there would be new arrivals.
“I think so... And it seems the Immortal Butterfly has gone as well.” Rozbeth sheathed her knives after checking her surroundings. “We’ve dealt with the Bone-Eating General, the Company, Deed the Gravedigger, and even the Immortal Butterfly, so I don’t think there will be any more coming after us. After all, if the assassin community suffered any further losses, it would collapse.”
The assassin community had an order to maintain and could not afford to let it crumble just to kill Millicia. Even killers had to calculate profit and loss very strictly.
“Of course, I can’t guarantee we’ll be completely safe, but I’d say we should be fine for now. We’ve won,” she added.
“I see... Thank goodness. This means the princess’s life won’t be in danger anymore.” Lenka exhaled in relief as she looked at the western sky. The sun had just started to set, painting the horizon in a vibrant orange.
The others did the same as Lenka and stopped to watch the sunset.
“It has been a long day...” Millicia muttered solemnly, and everyone nodded as they soaked in the afterglow of their victory against the assassins.