“Hyah!”
“Gah!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Lloyd’s fist connected with the back of Eve’s head.
Still smiling broadly, she flew across the room and smashed into the wall.
“Huh?!”
Eve’s voice emerged from a cartoon dent in the wall; she was so deep in there that the sound was rather muffled.
Oblivious to her confusion, Lloyd spat the hannyatou out.
“Wh-what was that spray for?! Ugh! It’s got grit in it!”
The spray that weakened any Kunlun villager had been super effective against Shouma and Alka.
But Lloyd was just taking it like any bitter fluid. Eve couldn’t work it out.
“……Huh?” she said, pulling herself out of the wall, still confused, glaring at Lloyd. “Huh?”
That was all she could say.
“Don’t give me that!” Lloyd snapped. “This is a serious battle! It’s no time for pranks!”
Her ultimate weapon was apparently a prank.
Eve staggered. “Th-this can’t be happening! You must feel different! Let’s try again!”
She ran in, spraying hannyatou.
Lloyd screwed up his eyes and complained (“Eww!”) but nothing worse. She might as well have been shooting him with a squirt gun in the bath.
“Seriously, cut that out!!”
His clothes were getting wet; the water was dripping from his hair. Like someone had dumped a beer on him.
Eve was lost. How had he taken that much with no effect?
“You’re kidding?! You’ve gotta be! What’s going on?!”
“That’s so nasty! Argh!” Lloyd finally hit back.
The hannyatou…had not diminished his strength, and his fist smashed into her spray hand.
Crack!
Her fingers bent in the wrong direction, her arm followed them, and she was dragged back into the wall.
“Aughhh!”
Embedded again, she looked utterly lost.
“M-my fingers? The hannyatou isn’t working at all?!”
“What is that?!” Anzu asked.
Eve started explaining the effects, like she was making excuses.
“Dr. Eug made it for me! It’s a poison that only works on Kunlun villagers! It’s made of runes in ancient documents and ruins, herbs, silver powder, all mixed up!”
“But he says it just tastes bad.”
“Sure, to a normal human! But it messed Shouma and Alka up bad! Nerfed them instantly!”
“So that’s how you took her out? But—”
“I know! It looks like I’m just messing with him, but this is finely honed! It’s a perfect weapon against anyone from Kunlun!”
She spilled all the beans. After reviewing the effects, the power, and the toxicity, she unleashed her fury on Lloyd himself.
“You—! A Kunlun villager should be struggling to breathe! You should be lying in a heap, writhing in agony!”
Why wasn’t it working on someone from Kunlun?
Lloyd wiped his face with his handkerchief.
“Um, I’m a bit confused…” His head tilted slightly, and he admitted, “But I’m not actually from Kunlun.”
“………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Uh?”
A very long pause, before a very stupid noise.
Satan and Anzu looked equally surprised.
“Um, I’m what you call a foundling? I mean, I’m a Kunlun villager in my heart!”
A foundling—that was the last word anyone had expected to hear.
“Pyrid and the other villagers are all descended from really amazing people, but not me. Kanzou and his grandpa Kanichi and the lady who controls plants and Shouma all have that blood in their veins. They just found me somewhere, so we’re not related.”
At last, Eve remembered what Shouma had said.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Lloyd’s amazing. And he will beat you.”