“That’s your philosophy, right? You brought it on yourself. Still, it’s a real shame. I would’ve enjoyed dragging your death out…”
He was her father in blood alone, but now he lay still. No Death’s gaze moved to the elf corpses strewn around.
Perhaps there hadn’t been any need to do that to them. She had a lot of pent-up rage when it came to her mother, and she’d taken it out on them. But more than that, she hadn’t wanted the country she loved doing the same things as this man. A man whose very existence made her want to vomit. They were better off dead, she’d thought—and thus, they’d been turned into a sea of blood.
Optimists held that where there was life, there was hope. They would never have understood what drove her to do this. But No Death could not understand how anyone could think positively about life.
Her eyes snapped to the door.
There was a dark elf…girl standing in the open entrance.
Clearly one of the children pursuing the elf king.
Her eyes were different colors—proof of royalty. No Death let out a soft sigh.
They’d never met before, but the king had assumed she was their mother. That meant this girl must be his granddaughter, No Death’s niece.
Surprised to find a part of herself against the idea of killing this girl, No Death kicked the dead king and his caved-in chest as hard as she could, right at the little girl.
It flew at speeds no ordinary mortal—or even an extraordinary one—could possibly dodge, but the girl managed it easily.
The body hit the wall beyond the door with a splat, transforming into a red bloom.
If she can dodge that, she’s physically impressive. His injuries look like they were inflicted with blades, but…
Her niece was carrying a black staff—crushing damage. Clearly, the king’s injuries had been inflicted by someone else. He had mentioned there were multiple, so there must be at least one more. But there were spells that cast magic blades and magic items that could change shape.
It was always possible this girl had done the deed.
Or did the other hit the chest and she hit the legs? With that staff or a spell?
Why had this dark elf attacked the king at all?
There was no shortage of reasons to loathe the bastard. The most likely explanation was the same thing that had brought No Death here—a grudge passed down from mother to child. But this girl looked too young for that grudge to have settled in, to be motivated to mess him up that badly.
There was a slight chance she didn’t know her own strength, had been play fighting and accidentally mangled him…but the circumstantial evidence suggested otherwise. Dead or not, she hadn’t tried to catch the king—just dodged.
“Er, um…r-right. Who might you be?”
She was acting all timid. Like some man’s fantasy of cute. Clearly, she’d lived in a world No Death had no part of.
Yet, there was a clear disconnect between her outward appearance and whatever was going on inside. She never even glanced at the king’s corpse behind her, showed no signs of alarm at the gory spectacle in the room around them—even though it was clearly No Death’s handiwork.
She dodged my attack and still behaves like this? Wooow. Odds are this timid thing is an act. I’d better be real careful here. How do I play this?
How should she answer the girl’s question? She’d prefer to avoid combat, supply false information, and slowly pry info out of the kid.
But that wasn’t happening.
From what the elf king said, the kid had backup. If this kid had been the one who beat him up, why was there no blood on her? Even if she healed her wounds, the stains should’ve remained. That suggested she was way stronger than he’d been.
Even if this girl hadn’t been the one fighting, she was the one who’d wound up chasing after him—so clearly she and her companions were all major threats. She couldn’t begin to tell just how bad, but if they regrouped, the risk to No Death would be far too great.
Right now, there was no sign of anyone else—this was her chance to strike. She should probably forget about learning anything, strike first, and try and take this girl out quick.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend—that’s pure wishful thinking. I’m better off assuming she’s trouble.
Quickly going over this in her mind, she smiled—hoping to lower the girl’s guard. And finally answered the question.
“Hey there. I’m…from the Nation of Darkness. What about you? You all alone?”
That made the girl twitch. She still seemed to have no confidence at all but frowned like she was thinking.
Can’t get a read. Did I blow it? Should have picked an answer that narrowed down her responses. Right now, I can’t tell if she’s never heard of the Nation, is from there herself, or…considers them her enemy. She didn’t immediately attack, so that last one is a lesser possibility, but she might just be doing what I am and trying to glean some intel first. Maybe I should have said the Council State. That might have worked better.
She’d gone with the Nation of Darkness because she knew their king had a dark elf girl among his retainers.
That information hadn’t come from a spy infiltrating the Nation’s government.
Star Reader–Second Sight had confirmed her presence at the King of Darkness’s side on the Katze Plains during the war with the Re-Estize Kingdom.
She’d re-created what she saw in an illusion, a detailed depiction of the King of Darkness and his forces. That included his sole retainer—a dark elf. But her appearance was on the blurry side, and they hadn’t quite been able to make out her face.
That was expected. Star Reader–Second Sight had been asked to monitor the entire battlefield and lacked the memory capacity to devote space to any individual’s features—plus, what happened after that had left far too strong an impression and quite a lot of other information had been lost in its wake.
But from that vague impression, this girl didn’t seem much like the one who’d accompanied the King of Darkness that day. Both had carried a black staff, but the armor this girl wore was totally different. Still…the illusion’s quality had been so poor, they’d had only a vague idea what that retainer wore.
If this girl was from the Nation of Darkness, what would she wear here? Her optimal gear, just as No Death was. This was a battlefield. There was no telling what could happen; nobody would show up dressed in street clothes. Even Kaire and Star Reader–Second Sight ignored appearances, wearing armor based purely on function.
But that was true for the Katze Plain as well. The truly strong never had multiple sets of “best equipment.” Reaching those heights required superlative gear, and it was natural to hone your combat techniques to match that gear. She knew someone who’d been a master of the club but, after joining the Black Scripture, had been given an ax and forced to dedicate years of his life to mastering it.
By that logic, the Nation’s dark elf and this girl had to be different people, but they had too much in common to entirely rule it out.
That’s why No Death tried to bait a response only to come up empty.
It was so much simpler to just hook someone with a scythe, she thought, tightening her grip on it.
And there was the problem of facial recognition with other races.
Most humanoid races did all right identifying one another, but it was hardly perfect. Unless it was your own race, there were markers you could miss on top of a pervading sense they all looked the same.
“Um, er, y-yes, it’s just me here.”
“Okay. Well, I bet everyone’s worried about you.”
Fah. Acting all cutesy, lying with a straight face. Definitely can’t trust appearances here. That means anything I do learn talking may be bullshit. I knew from the get-go that she’s got backup coming, so no point wasting time chatting. Gotta overpower her and get to safety. Then pry the truth out of her using magic…or just old-fashioned pain.
Acting all anxious, the girl moved her free hand to the necklace round her neck.
A natural gesture. Like a nervous tick, her hand moving unconsciously. It fit in perfectly with the whole timid-kid vibe—but No Death knew damn well that was an act and figured this had to be significant.
“Tch!”
Before the sound of her tongue click even faded, she closed the gap. Slamming her helmet on, her weapon—Charon’s Guidance—skimmed across the floor, sweeping directly at the girl’s legs.
If it cut them off, great.
No Death held nothing back, going all out. Even the strongest man among her colleagues would have struggled to avoid this attack.
And—
The girl deflected it purely by placing her staff in its path.
A weapon that could shred steel bounced off—and she was not surprised. She’d been well aware this could happen. What got her—the hand holding the staff hadn’t even budged. Against her full strength.
So she is a warrior class.
This was a clear indicator of the dark elf girl’s build.
……Or wait…a warrior in light armor? Does that mean…? But we were sure the elf king was his only kid. But look at her…!
Dark elves and elves had similar life spans and aged at equal speeds.
“Th-that was sudd”
Could be another branch of the bloodline. Or am I overthinking it?
The dark elf girl was muttering something, but even as her brain raced, No Death’s hands kept moving. They were enemies. The only value talking had was if you were buying time or had already won.
The girl jumped back, and she followed her into the hall.
She got a good swing with plenty of momentum behind it and slammed her scythe into the girl’s wrist.
Given the sheer size of the weapon, she couldn’t avoid hitting the walls and floor—but that posed no obstacle. This was a weapon once wielded by Sulshana, the god who’d saved the Theocracy—no, all humanity. It could easily cut through wood and stone. It might catch a bit, but it barely slowed the speed of her swings.
Yet, the blow bounced off.
So did the next.
And the next.
Three strikes in a row, each like a lightning bolt and every one deflected by the girl’s staff. Not the most spectacular staff technique, but the reaction speed was tremendous. Those moves made it clear she was every bit as powerful as No Death.
Pretty good. A warrior on my level? That’s bad news. If I’m forced on the defensive, I’ll be in trouble.
Even this brief exchange told her that much.
The elf king had said she had allies. If they were as good as this girl, No Death would be forced to run. But she couldn’t assume they’d let her, just because the elf king had managed it. Him getting away made it more likely they’d have a scheme to stop her from doing the same. Assuming they weren’t idiots.