“You think this is funny? I don’t see any other girls around here.”
“Oh, can’t you tell the difference between men and women? Even I know how to do that,” she said, and pointed towards a female soldier back at the watch station.
“Wha...? Me?” said the woman, alarmed as her gaze flitted from Cliff to the girl and back.
Maybe he thought she was making fun of him. As Samuel watched, Cliff’s face turned bright red, and he seized the girl by the collar.
“That’s the attitude you take with an imperial soldier, you little brat? Got a death wish, do you? These lands all belong to the empire now. There aren’t any pathetic royal soldiers coming to your rescue.”
“Ohhh, so you’re imperial soldiers. Everyone in armor looks the same—I can’t tell any of you apart. I wish I’d had a book on how to recognize armor,” said the girl, totally straight-faced as she peered closely at Cliff’s armor. Her unwavering, ebony eyes showed no trace of fear.
Samuel chuckled to himself. “Oh, this is good. She’s a feisty one,” he said, and casually raised a hand to call off Cliff who was about to draw his sword. But Cliff’s temper was running hot, and though he stopped, he didn’t take his hand away from the hilt. He was brimming with raw bloodlust.
“Ser, why must I stand down? That was a brazen insult. I request that you order her immediate execution!”
“Now, now, don’t be hasty. I don’t—can’t kill civilian girls. And especially not such a fine specimen as this. Anyway, that’s the rule for this unit. My one point of pride. Don’t you forget it, Cliff.”
I’ve lost track of how many I’ve despoiled, though.
As Samuel remembered the women from the villages they’d taken, the girl gave a huge, bored yawn.
“Sorry to waylay you like this,” Samuel said to the girl. “I just have to wonder, what’s a girl like you hurrying off to do in the capital with that fine scabbard? These are dangerous parts, you know. There are starving beasts roaming about. Why don’t you let me protect you?”
The other soldiers all started laughing crudely. One held his hands up as claws and roared in an imitation of a beast, making the others laugh harder still. They failed to pick up on the cold looks the female soldiers sent their way.
“Oh, is that what this is about?” replied the girl. “I don’t really need protection. I’m on my way to the capital to enlist in the royal army, so would you mind letting me go?”
For a moment, none of them could process what they’d heard. Cliff stared in blank shock, and the other soldiers gaped. Samuel assumed he looked like just as much of an idiot.
“It’s been a long day,” said the girl, and started off again in the direction of the capital.
“Traitooor!!!” bellowed Cliff, coming back to his senses and drawing his sword.
His right arm still gripped the hilt as, in the same moment, it was sent flying through the air.
It was Tempus Fugit 998.
An endless blue sky and a spray of blood spread out across the Canalia Highway.
“Wha...???” several of the soldiers shouted stupidly. Then slowly, like rusted gears, their heads all turned to look at Cliff. He lay on the ground, staring at his right arm like it was some kind of anomaly. Then, his face twisted and he screamed.
“G-Gaaah!!!” The sound rang out down the highway as blood spurted from his severed right arm. Samuel turned to look at the girl, who at some point had drawn a glittering, ebony sword. Bright red blood dripped from the edge of the blade. It was clear who was behind this bizarre turn of events.
“It hurts! It huuurts!!!” Tears and snot streaked down Cliff’s face. Attempting to stem the fountain of blood with his remaining arm, he tried to scramble away from the girl, but—
“Right-o,” the girl hummed, twirling her sword about to bring it level. Then she threw it, casual and carefree, though the blade soared as though it had been shot from a great bow. It mercilessly pierced through Cliff’s armor, the point of the black blade jutting out from the back of his chest as a black mist began to emanate from it. Cliff gasped, twitched a few times, then collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut. The girl’s cheerful voice carried through the silence that covered the Canalia Highway.
“I did ask you to let me go. Humans really do love violence, don’t they? Or did you not understand me properly? Human language is pretty complicated.”
The girl continued rambling nonsense as she went over to Cliff’s silent corpse, stood on his head, and pulled her sword out. She carefully wiped away the blood from the blade before looking over at a nearby soldier, who brandished a spear.
“Yaaahhh!” shrieked the soldier and thrust the spear at her.
Some of the other soldiers had started swinging around swords and spears like a bunch of lunatics too.
Keeping her movement to an absolute minimum, the girl calmly dodged each attack with the elegance of a dancer, the skirt of her tunic billowing gently with every movement.
Privately, Samuel was astonished. He doubted even an experienced warrior could move with such polish and perfect efficiency. The chance his soldiers had of landing a blow on this girl was so low it might as well have been zero. Samuel was now on high alert. Who this girl was, he had no idea, but he no longer entertained any notion of her being a simple villager.
“Hmm... I suppose it must be my turn soon,” he said.
Once the soldiers grew slow and clumsy with exhaustion, the girl moved in to return their attacks in kind. She sent heads flying, smashed faces, sliced off limbs, and stabbed straight through hearts. Each time her blade met its mark, it was followed by a piercing scream and a spray of blood and gore. It was a one-sided slaughter, the kind only the strongest of warriors were capable of, and soon the area around them was transformed into a sea of blood, strewn with piles of mangled corpses. The cloying stench of blood, carried to him on the wind, filled Samuel’s nose.