Bonus Story:
The Second Coming of Lovis, the Black Reaper
-1-
IT HAPPENED TEN YEARS AGO in the lawless city of Delmond, a paradise for criminals and an extensive slum abandoned by the kingdom.
It was a damned place, filled with people with shady pasts, people who were so poor they had no other place to go, or people who looked to make a profit by preying on others. Murder was the norm—let alone burglary—and it was rare that one of the citizens of this city would stop just for a dead body.
The center of Delmond in particular was plagued by a bloody turf war between three well-armed criminal organizations. Your average resident didn’t dare go near.
One of those organizations was Chimera’s Venom. While they had the smallest fighting force of the three groups, they consistently maneuvered themselves to be on top, so that there were more cons than pros in attacking them. This allowed them to solidify their status.
Chimera’s Venom had their base in a tower; their leader, a large man named Bargo, was on the top floor and facing off against a black-haired boy. Blood and corpses littered the floor around them, a tragedy reaped by the lone boy who broke into their tower.
The boy slowly lowered the scythe held tight in his hand and calmly stepped closer to Bargo.
“That strong, at your age… And a scythe… I-I know who you are now! You…you’re the murderer who got the capital up in a ruckus! Lovis the Reaper! Why’s someone like you targeting Chimera’s Venom?!” shouted Bargo.
Lovis let out a snort of laughter.
This lawless city of Delmond was where people gathered when they had no other choices. The foot soldiers and leaders of the criminal organizations here were at most on par with a B-Rank adventurer.
Lovis was sixteen years old and already powerful enough to be equal to an A-Rank adventurer, who were usually so rare you usually only needed one hand to count how many were in a large city. This simply shouldn’t have been the kind of place he would bother to attack.
“You know…this lawless city is my hometown,” said Lovis. “I heard there were some people using paltry tricks, gathering forces to upset the power dynamic, and terrorizing the people desperately struggling to live another day in this filthy city. I came to see it for myself.”
“Th-the Reaper is from here…? It’s normal for people to terrorize the weak! We’re just trying to survive in this place! Is this your damn idea of justice?!”
Lovis shrugged in response. “Now, now, don’t jump to conclusions. I just heard there was someone gathering power in my hometown and got curious. I thought there might be someone who trained themselves up a little bit. And that turned out to be you.”
“What?! Y-you saying you wiped us out for fun?!”
“It’s normal for people to terrorize the weak…wasn’t that your logic?” Lovis smiled and raised his scythe.
Bargo felt something cold run down his back. It was clear to him that Lovis wasn’t done with his vicious work yet. Lovis planned to kill Bargo as well.
“You’ve taken your little prank too far, dear.” Just then, a voice came from the darkness. At some point when Bargo didn’t notice, a long-eared woman had come to sit cross-legged in the opulent chair meant for Bargo.
“…An elf? No, a high elf. A mercenary Bargo hired? You must be fairly skilled to move without me noticing,” said Lovis.
“It wouldn’t be good for me if Bargo died here,” said the high elf, her tone bored. “You know, it’s really quite frustrating to have the pieces I so carefully set up get knocked down by someone. And not even a traveler…just your normal everyday member of the faceless mob. My dear, you’re nothing but a side act.”
“A pretentious woman. I like that. I’ll kill you before I finish off Bargo.”
“Summoning Magic Level 12: Goldburn.” The high-elven woman formed a magic circle.
In response to her call, a golden dragon appeared. Its entire body was covered in glittering gold scales, and its eyes were large gemstones. It almost looked like a statue of pure gold, but it was moving, glaring at Lovis in a way that made aware of the life in it.
“This can’t be the powerful spirit who holds domain over human greed, can it?!” said Lovis. While he’d been cocky a moment before, his expression tensed now. He quickly readied his scythe and lowered himself into a fighting stance. If he made a poor attempt at an attack, he would be killed on the spot. He chose to strengthen his defenses first.
Goldburn was the great spirit who ruled over greed. This was the kind of monster that only appeared in fairy tales. Unlike Bargo’s soldiers, Lovis decided this wasn’t something he could win against easily.
“Who said there was only one?” said the woman, and another magic circle appeared, then another. There were two, three, four, even more Goldburns.
“Th-that’s insane, this can’t be…” said Lovis.
This high-elven woman who appeared out of nowhere was unlike anyone Lovis had ever encountered.
The fight was over in a moment. Actually, it wasn’t even a fight. Lovis was toyed with. It only took a few minutes for him to become covered in blood and collapse to the ground. Even the scythe he held had been shattered by the Goldburns’ claws.
“Huff, huff, huff… No way…this is impossible! My black dragon metal scythe, broken this easily!” he cried.
“Of course it was. It’s not like you ever had chance against the one who manipulates Locklore,” said the woman as she picked up a shard of the metal and easily crushed it between her fingers. Lovis could do nothing but stare in amazement.
“Impossible…that’s impossible…”
“An easy trick for anyone over level 500,” she said, and that’s when Lovis understood. Some people in this world existed on an entirely different plane.
That high elf, Sopia, the World’s Recordkeeper, decided on a whim to let Lovis live, but the terror he felt that day never truly healed.