“Who are you?” Analissia said coldly, keeping the emotions raging in her chest tightly controlled as she shifted her weight back, ready to run at any time.
“Oh, are you running away?” the thing in front of her with a woman’s form asked, seeing effortlessly through Analissia’s intentions. “In that case, go right ahead. My orders don’t say anything about hunting you down.” In other words, this thing had no interest in Analissia whatsoever. If the words were meant to get under her skin, they worked like a charm. She found the whole situation very vexing indeed.
Analissia glared at the detestable woman. She looked young, but Analissia had the feeling that she was at least thousands of years old. She reminded Analissia somehow of another ageless being she knew with the body of a young girl. Perhaps it was because Analissia knew her that she hadn’t taken leave of her senses entirely upon encountering this thing. She had some experience, after all, facing a being of overwhelming power, above and apart from mere mortals.
“Very well,” Analissia said. “I will take you at your word. I don’t want to be your enemy. If I can help it, I would like us to stay out of each other’s business entirely. You may tell your mistress that if this child is so important to her, I will refrain from laying a hand on her again.”
Analissia was convinced of at least one thing—that all of her recent problems must have had something to do with this mysterious woman. Sleeping Beauty going missing, Reanna’s report of an attack by an unidentified assailant, the failure to secure Tina after her escape, Izuna’s half-elf friend, and now, her failure to finish that friend off. Something was setting her plan off course.
What was it that thing said earlier? Analissia thought. Her mistress would have her head? That freak monster’s head?! The more she thought about it, the worse it seemed. The woman hadn’t seemed like she was joking. Whoever that monster called “mistress” must have had some reason behind her actions. As much as she hated it, her best option really seemed to be to run away for the time being. She had no means of fighting against such power. Even if she used Izuna, her chance of victory would be slight. Her enemy seemed at least on par with the annoying little girl who gave her orders.
Analissia withdrew, trusting that something would come of all this.
~ ‡ ~
“Whaaat?!” Aisha exclaimed, dumbfounded by everything that had occurred. “Um...what just happened?” All she knew was that this strange woman had appeared suddenly and saved her life. She decided she should at least thank her rescuer. “Excuse me! You, um, saved me, didn’t you? Th-Thank—” But the woman was gone, vanished into the mist. She reappeared right in front of Aisha, where she leaned in close. Her beautiful features drew nearer and nearer to Aisha’s face until...
“Smooch!” She planted a soft kiss right on Aisha’s cheek, cutting off her train of thought. The touch felt ominous, like those lips could swallow her whole.
“What...?” she said, uncomprehending. A moment passed, and it dawned on her what had just happened. Her face turned bright red. “Whaaaaat?!?!?! Wh-What did you do that for?!” she blurted, absolutely flustered.
“Hm?” the woman said. “Just a bit of revenge on Mistress, I suppose.”
“What are you talking about?!” Aisha shouted. “Why would that make you give me a k-k-kiss?!”
“So tense!” the woman said. “It was just a little peck on the cheek. But if you really don’t like it... Well, come to think of it, I suppose a bit of punishment is in order for you after all, isn’t it, Aisha?”
Aisha had no idea what was going on. Who was this woman who seemed to know her name and spoke to her so familiarly? “I-I don’t understand!” she protested. “Who are you, anyway?” The woman was an adult, so Aisha needed to crane her neck up to look her in the face. Her eyes were deep crimson and ringed with black dots. Aisha found them to look very sinister. Izuna’s eyes had been beautiful and captivating, but this woman’s eyes only instilled fear into her heart.
“You may call me Levi,” the woman said. “I’m an avatar of one of the seven deadly sins—kind of a big shot among devils. Mistress ordered me to protect you, so you’d better be grateful, understand?”
There was a lot about that introduction that didn’t make much sense to Aisha, but there was only one question on her mind. “By ‘Mistress,’ do you mean...?”
“Yup, it’s the one you’re thinking of.”
Aisha clutched her chest. “Mistress Nacht...” she whispered. A flood of emotions accompanied that name, and a warmth filled her chest, threatening to spill out of her eyes as tears.
“I’m the one who saved you, though...” Levi muttered darkly.
“O-Oh! Of course! I’m sorry!” Aisha said, giving Levi a quick bow. “Thank you, Miss Levi! You saved my life! I’m very grateful!” Aisha didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if Levi hadn’t been there. It was true that she was grateful to her. What really touched her, though, was knowing that even after how she and Nacht had parted ways, her mistress was still watching over her.
“Who cares?” Levi said, sulking like a child. “What matters is that you’re safe.” She took a step back from Aisha with a showy spin and bopped the girl lightly on her bowed head. “But you need to be a bit more aware of your own value!”
“Huh? M-My value?”
“Not to brag, but I’m pretty damn incredible for a devil,” Levi said. “Even in the world I come from, there aren’t many who are stronger than me. But there are things on that side that even I can’t hope to face. Monsters that it would take ten or twenty people like our mistress to even hope to fight.”
Levi spoke like a teacher delivering an important lesson. Aisha instinctively stood up straight to listen, but the scale of what Levi was saying was so great that she could hardly wrap her head around it. She couldn’t possibly imagine someone stronger than her mistress, let alone something that could possibly pose a challenge to multiple beings on such a high level.
“That means, of course,” Levi went on, “that when fighting in that world, the more allies you can bring, the better. But you know something, Aisha?” Levi’s eyes turned serious. Something about her tone of voice made Aisha’s heart skip a beat. “Our mistress never shared her power with anyone. Even on the charnel fields of battle, she never deigned to create a soulbound servant. But she chose you. She chose only you. Think for a moment about what that means—about how valuable that makes you. You are the one whom our mistress saw fit to give her power. You need to value yourself more and give proper thanks for that body of yours. Or at least, that’s my opinion.” Such was Levi’s unsolicited advice.
Aisha tried to take Levi’s words to heart, but she couldn’t quite manage it. She had always been a shy and reserved girl, after all, not to mention the type to think negatively about herself. Even if someone else saw her as amazing, she simply couldn’t see herself that way. That wasn’t about to change just because someone told her she needed to value herself more highly. Mistress is the amazing one, she thought. Not me...
“Although I suppose I can’t blame you for not listening to advice from a devil,” Levi said. “No worries. I just wish you’d take a bit more care.”
“What do you mean?” Aisha asked.