The whole floor was engulfed in a red light as the sound of an explosion and a wave of heat reached all the way to where Gawain was. He averted his eyes at the massive shockwave, and it wasn’t long before the floor was overtaken... by silence. Once Gawain looked back, what he saw was... the black-haired girl, standing still and silent. And around said girl, pieces of floor that she should never be able to destroy were upturned and strewn about—all the way to the corners of room.
As for the dragon? It was nowhere to be seen.
Hold on, what in the everloving hell?! She obliterated a dragon in one shot?! No way, no how, that’s crazy talk! A monster that would only be taken down by several hundred attacks from a dozen veteran adventurers getting taken down in one shot by some dainty little girl is about as unbelievable as it gets! Give me a break over here!
It didn’t make sense.
It didn’t make a lick of sense, actually.
Obliterating a dragon in one shot was impossible to begin with, much less it being from the attack of a dainty girl doing an adorable little “hee-yah.” Sure, there were heroes from stories who would belt out a cry before launching their spirited attacks, but this was just some angelic girl waving around a darling little rapier going “hee-yah.” That was it. Despite that, the floor was in shambles, and not a trace of the dragon remained.
“...What the hell? Am I dreamin’ or somethin’?” The situation he was faced with was so utterly unbelievable that Gawain felt himself instilled with an indescribable sense of fear.
──2──
The aftermath of Ristia obliterating the dragon in one shot caused a mighty gale to blow throughout the area. Right in the middle of the floor, Ristia was letting the hem of her skirt dashingly flutter in the wind as she smugly gloated on the inside.
“...Eheh, ehehe.”
Perfect! I was simply perfect! I am confident that this was enough of a display to make Nanami call me ‘Big Sis’! Ristia thought to herself as she turned herself around to see Nanami standing before her, wide-eyed and positively beaming—actually, more like wide-eyed and positively horrified.
...Wh-What? Why is she looking at me like that? Maybe that was all a little overkill, so she thinks that I’m some sort of freak? Perhaps I should have been more precise and killed it with as little power as possible instead? Human girls weren’t capable of one-shotting a dragon in the first place, but that was something that Ristia, now flustered, did not realize. As such, the adventurer man timidly opened his mouth to speak to the bewildered Ristia.
“H-Hey, what was all that just now?”
“What was all... what?” Not really catching on to the situation, Ristia cocked her head in confusion. She looked incredibly cute, but her actions just a moment ago made her seem more creepy overall instead. The male adventurer’s fear reached its limits.
“D-Don’t play dumb! I’m obviously talking about that attack that slaughtered the dragon in one hit! I’m asking how in the hell you managed to launch a monstrous attack like that!”
“M-Mr. Gawain!” Nanami desperately tried to stop the bent-out-of-shape adventurer—his name apparently being Gawain. And it wasn’t out of concern for Ristia; it was because she didn’t want to rile Ristia, the very same girl who one-shotted a dragon. Ristia herself, on the other hand, couldn’t have cared less about the reasons. There were more pressing matters, after all. Ristia was starting to panic now that she had picked up on the fact that what she’d done was overkill and had scared the other two. That much was obvious from that little back-and-forth they’d had.
A-Ah, right. Considering that baby dragon was enough to scare them, they are bound to find someone who takes it down in one shot scary. Must have come as a shock. Sh-Shoot, I should have put up more of a struggle~! Ristia panicked and tried to think of a good follow up...
“O-Oh, that? That was... um... Y-Yes, it was thanks to this rapier!” She ended up insisting that it was all the rapier’s power.
“It was... the rapier?”
“Y-Yes, that’s right! This rapier has effects that elevate physical abilities, as well as increase the force of attacks, which is why it’s this rapier that’s the incredible one; I’m just a normal girl!”
“That weapon has that sort of ability...?” Gawain’s eyes became pinned to the rapier. Ristia, upon seeing that, thought to herself in hope, Could it be that he’s buying my story?
“S-Sorry, but are you really a normal... girl?” Nanami asked timidly in place of the now-silent Gawain.
Ristia grabbed Nanami’s hand and brought the girl’s fingers to her cheek.
“Wh-What are you doing?!”
“I figured that you could tell I’m a normal girl if you gave me a touch. See how soft I am? If I weren’t being powered up by something else, then I would bruise immediately, just like anyone else. I’m telling the truth.” She was trying with every fiber of her being to make the case that she was just a normal girl. If Ristia’s family were here, they would take one look at Ristia’s desperate pleading and faint from cuteness overload. However, there wasn’t much difference between the physical abilities of humans from the past and present. The only noticeable difference, in fact, was that their magic and various technologies had been far more advanced than it was now. The pair, who both would have never even dreamed of the possibility that Ristia could be a True Blood princess, bought her story that it was all the weapon’s doing and not hers. And so, that misconception was a crossroad of destiny for the man—for Gawain.
“Don’t tell me that weapon is... an Artifact.”
“Huh? It’s nothing that extravagant. It boosts physical attributes and has increased cutting abilities. Oh, it also has self-restorative properties, and upon swinging it, it unleashes flames which roast through enemies, but that’s really all there is to it.”
“That’s a goddamn Artifact if I’ve ever of heard one!”
“Huh...?” Ristia was confused. The image of an Artifact that came to Ristia’s mind was a genuine sacred treasure, the sort of item that, in one shot, could carve out a canyon so large that it would need to be plotted on maps. There was no way this weapon that she herself created during her enchantment practice could pass as an Artifact. But to the humans of this era, Ristia’s description of the rapier’s abilities classified it as a genuine Artifact, if not almost beyond that category—which sounded like a pipe dream. Therefore...
“Will you let me see that rapier?”
“Huh? Well... sure? I don’t mind.” Ristia readily passed the weapon over to Gawain.
“H-Hey, are you sure about that?” A tug on her sleeve prompted her to turn around to see a bewildered Nanami staring deep into her eyes.
“Oh, um... is something the matter?”
“No, ‘Is something the matter?’ isn’t quite the right response to this... Are you sure you should have just given it to him, no questions asked?”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“...She means this!!”
Shunk! A blunt sound echoed as Ristia was stabbed from behind. At the same time, a slight pain coursed through her chest area. Ristia wondered what was going on as she turned her attention downward to see a rapier sprouting from her upper torso.
“A-Aah...”
Upon seeing the reality of the situation, she let out a bitter moan.
“Mr. Gawain, how could you?!”
“Keh, keh hah hah hah! Now the Artifact is all mine!” Gawain yanked the rapier out, instantly causing a gush of bright red blood to burst from Ristia’s chest. Then...
“Y-You put a hole in my favorite dreeeesss—?!”
Ristia screamed with intensity from the depths of her heart.
“P-Please, just hang in there! I’ll use some healing magic on you right away!” Nanami was about to cast a spell in a massive panic... but she realized the oddity in Ristia’s shriek halfway through and stopped herself before she did. “......The hole in your dress?”
“That’s right~! Jeez, this dress was one of my favorites~”
Watching Ristia pout and sulk, the two were both shocked and baffled. “W-Wait, wait a second, hold on, back up a second. You shouldn’t be throwing a tantrum about your dress, you just got stabbed through the chest.”
“...Oh, yes. And?”
“And... I mean, you got stabbed. Through the chest. He stabbed you... right?”
“Gah, he sure did~! And thanks to that, I’ve got a fresh hole in my dress, like I said.”
“No, what I mean is...”
“And you normally die when you get a fresh hole through the chest!” was the common sense-driven comment that Nanami wanted to utter, but she couldn’t find it in her to actually voice it. Mostly because she realized that the initial gush of blood was starting to stop all on its own.
It was worth mentioning that Ristia, being a True Blood, was practically immortal. Without any of the weaknesses that normal vampires possessed, even if you were to blow away her heart, it wouldn’t amount to much, if anything at all. Be that as it may, blood flow and other normal results still came as a result of getting stabbed, so she would still get hurt just as a normal girl would if she weren’t already powered-up. That was a fact... Well, “fact” was subjective, so it was safer to say that it wasn’t necessarily a lie. It was just a matter of the unbelievable speed at which she regenerated after getting hurt like a normal girl could. Those were all thoughts running through Ristia’s mind, but they were simply that—Ristia’s thoughts. Nanami and Gawain, both simply normal people, started to suspect that Ristia was far from normal. And it was Gawain who was the one most shocked by that fact. His whole plan was to kill Ristia, a regular girl, and steal the Artifact for himself. In spite of that plan, Ristia remained fine even after being stabbed with her own rapier.
“What the hell?! What in the hell are you?!”
“Huh? I told you, I’m just a normal girl, silly~”
“Like hell you are!!” Gripped with fear, Gawain lost his cool.
“Please, calm yourself, Mr. Gawain.”
“Shut your trap! I’m telling you to stay out of this, you good-for-nothing!” With his temper spurred, Gawain lightly swung the rapier. That simple swing was enough to not only cut through the staff Nanami held, but gash up her body, as well.
“Oww!!” Nanami collapsed as blood flew everywhere. Ristia witnessed this and was surprised, kneeling by Nanami’s side.
“Nanami, are you okay? Can you... regenerate?”
“...A little, if I use magic. But, aah, my staff is broken.” Nanami replied, her voice weak as tiny red flowers started to bloom across the floor of the labyrinth. It was a wound that Ristia could mend instantaneously if it had happened to her. However, the same probably couldn’t be said for Nanami. Realizing that possibility, Ristia found herself getting uneasy.