“…”
Schwarte stared at me longingly, so I asked how she had defeated her foe. With a calm yet somewhat proud demeanor, she explained that her attacker had been a master swordsman. He seemed to treasure his sword greatly, so she had cut it apart. Following that, she decapitated the man, who had been left in a state of shock.
“Well done, Schwarte. You’ve worked hard.”
“I would do anything for Master,” Schwarte said, accepting my head pat with a serene expression. I appreciated the sentiment, though I was starting to find the frequent display of corpses somewhat troubling. Speaking of which, where was Krankheit…?
“I was also attacked by some Scrap Metal,” Krankheit said, snapping her fingers.
At that signal, a young man emerged from the bushes with a rustling noise. He looked like any other young man, except for the fact that his eyes were void of light and his steps were unsteady.
“Ild! You… Why are you following someone from Yerkchira the Messianic Legion? Have you betrayed us…?” Luscelt growled softly at the sight of him.
Despite his words, the man—apparently named Ild—did not respond.
“It’s useless. He’s under my magic,” Krankheit declared.
“Wh-What…?” Luscelt seemed unable to grasp Krankheit’s words.
But knowing her power, I understood. Krankheit was skilled in illusion magic, one of her specialties. It appeared Ild was caught in her spell.
“So, there’s another user of illusion magic besides Ild…” Luscelt’s words revealed that Ild was also an illusion magic user. It was rare to have two such users in the same place, given the scarcity of this particular magic.
“One of my guild’s officers…” Luscelt said.
“So, according to Luscelt’s words, it seems the assassins he sent were these three. All of them were taken down by our guild members.”
I wasn’t worried, though. I believed in them.
“Well then, it looks like the only one left is the Scrap Metal guildmaster, Luscelt.”
Soulgros said, crouching in front of him. With only his upper body remaining, Luscelt couldn’t escape, no matter how scared he was.
“Luscelt-dono, as a master of a fairly powerful dark guild, you must have a wealth of valuable information, right? I’ll be taking that information now.”
“Ugh, you’re as revolting as ever.”
Soulgros began to twist her hand into a grotesque shape in front of Luscelt, clearly intending to show off. Vampille visibly grimaced at the sight.
While it’s good that she’s honest, Vampille might need to learn a bit about diplomacy.
“I’m going to insert this hand into your ear, Luscelt-dono. From there, I’ll reach your brain and mix things up a bit. It might hurt a little, but bear with it.”
“That’s a lie. People who’ve had that done to them looked like they were in immense pain.”
Schwarte denied Soulgros’s words.
Just hearing about it makes it sound excruciating. Stirring the brain…
“We!” Suddenly, Luscelt raised his voice. “We will become the strongest dark guild! We won’t lose to anyone! We’ll be feared by everyone! The strongest dark guild! You guys in Yerkchira the Messianic Legion are in our way! That’s why we will kill you! We’ll slaughter all of you and become the strongest! Ahahahahahaha!”
“Whoa. What’s with him all of a sudden?”
Vampille’s face turned pale at Luscelt’s sudden outburst. I kept smiling, but I was quite scared myself.
“Maybe he broke down?” Krankheit suggested. “For him, defeating us, Yerkchira the Messianic Legion and the Scrap Metal were crucial parts of his identity. With both of those shattered, his mind probably couldn’t take it.”
“What a pathetic end,” Schwarte added, following Krankheit’s explanation.
“I see… Well, they were the ones who attacked us first, so I can’t really sympathize with him,” I said.
“Just because his mind has broken doesn’t mean I won’t extract the information,” Soulgros said, moving her writhing hand closer to the still-laughing Luscelt’s ear.
“All right, time to mix things up,” she said.