Now that Elise’s enhancement magic was no longer supporting Derek, Master Unicorn mercilessly gave chase. Her swings were faster than the eye could see, but he managed to block her with his sword amid grunts of exertion.
“You have surprisingly good intuition,” Master Unicorn said.
“Stop underestimating me. I have plenty of actual combat experience,” Derek snapped.
Derek primarily fought away from the first line of combat, but as someone who’d both fought in and survived the Titanomachy, he was still one tough nut to crack. His combat ability was leagues above the average soldier of this peaceful era. Unfortunately for him, his opponent was a beast in a dimension all her own.
“Your specs are lacking.” Master Unicorn sent Derek flying despite his best efforts at defense.
Ugh! Her attack is as heavy as Dora’s was the time we sparred. How can she do this with such frail arms?! Derek thought.
Now that she’d knocked Derek off-balance, Master Unicorn pressed forward even more intensely. She assaulted him with a relentless barrage of slashes that would deliver a shock to his organs through his own sword when he blocked, just like the one she’d compared to poison earlier in the fight.
I’ll be in deep shit if I block all these, but what else can I do?!
Derek knew how her attacks worked, but he wasn’t at a level where he could dodge like her; blocking with his sword was his only option. As his body was rattled by the destructive “poison” impacts again and again, he coughed up what felt like a river of blood, so much that the loss started to make him dizzy.
Crap! I can’t...move anymore, Derek thought. His opponent was vastly superior. Now that they were actually fighting one-on-one, it was plain for every witness. The fight would be decided in the blink of an eye.
Right, I’m all alone, he thought as intense pain ran through him. He’d lived his entire life alone, always feared for his brainwashing ability. He had no one to reach out to, and had crushed anyone who opposed him, in both body and mind, to make them obey. That’s why he was alone, now and always. Even when he ruled over people through brainwashing and fear, at the end of the day, no one was his true ally.
To hell with this shit. To hell with them. Everyone and everything can just go straight to hell!
“You fight in a rather unusual way, so I was hoping you’d have that something,” Master Unicorn said with a touch of disappointment. “This is the end.”
She aimed her sword at Derek’s heart, who was too exhausted to even try to dodge. The first defeat of the Seven Heroes, who’d miraculously won every fight so far, was set in stone.
“Your Majesty!”
In an unexpected turn of events, Elise—who should no longer have been brainwashed—jumped in from the side and pushed Derek behind her. She took his place as Master Unicorn’s sword pierced straight through her heart.
✦ ✦ ✦
Even Master Unicorn was so surprised she froze in place.
“E-Elise? But...why?” Derek asked.
“Now, Your Majesty!” Elise shouted as blood dripped from her mouth. Derek was able to react in time and ran his own sword through her body, directly striking the defenseless Master Unicorn.
Fresh blood splattered across the air. Some of it belonged to Master Unicorn, who’d just been hit by Derek’s sword. She staggered back and tumbled to the ground, pulling her sword free from Elise’s chest. Yet more blood sprayed out like a fountain from the queen’s gaping wound.
“Elise!” Derek immediately held the collapsed Elise in his arms.
“I’m...so glad...to see you safe,” she whispered.
Her wound is too deep. She’s beyond saving! Derek had acquired medical knowledge through his research on his field of expertise surrounding brainwashing and poisons. His experience told him that the chance of Elise surviving this was zero. Master Unicorn’s attack hadn’t been an ordinary thrust, but the same kind that assaulted the organs directly; Elise’s vital organs had been torn to shreds. Her dress was quickly stained red as blood poured out of her chest.
“Why?! You’re no longer brainwashed! Why did you save me?!” Derek shouted. He’d been treating her as his puppet for twenty-five whole years. Before that, she had betrayed and tried to kill him. It was unthinkable for her to possess any kind of affection toward him.
“Why...?” Elise said. “Shouldn’t that...be obvious? Because you loved me.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Elise Henderson had been a tool from the moment she’d been born.
Her mother was only a low-ranking noble, but she was exceptionally beautiful, so she used her looks to curry favor with the king in search of power and riches; that was how Elise had been born. Her mother was only interested in her as a ticket to the authority and lavish lifestyle that came with joining the royal family. When Elise suffered from sickness during an epidemic, her mother wasn’t worried about Elise’s health but only of being forced out of the royal palace and losing her luxurious life if her daughter passed away.
Since Elise grew up watching a twisted mother like her, treating others like tools was second nature to her. She squeezed every drop out of the people useful to her and discarded the useless ones. All until the day when Derek, a tool she’d disposed of after it’d served its purpose, returned.
Suddenly, she found herself on the receiving end of her own behavior. She would be treated as nothing but an object and thrown into the trash when she no longer had anything to offer. That was the fate she believed Derek had in store for her, but he proved her wrong.
“You have some guts damaging my tool, you bastard!”
When she was injured during combat, he raged on her behalf.
“Tools need maintenance. Stay still.”
When she felt unwell, he nursed her back to health and stayed by her side until she healed.
“Ha ha ha, good job! You’re the best tool in the world!”
When she gave birth, he showed her a pure smile like the one he’d had during their first meeting.
He never once treated her as an actual tool.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I could tell because...we were always together. You became a villain when everyone treated you that way...but you’re a kind person deep down,” Elise told Derek as she held his hand.
“No! You’re wrong! I’m just a fiend who treated you like his possession!”
Elise shook her head. “No matter what you say, you still loved me. Thank you...for treating me with such care,” she said with a smile. It wasn’t the artificial smile she’d tricked him with during their first meeting, nor a forced one from brainwashing. It was a genuine smile with all her heart behind it.
“I also...love you.” With those final words, Elise closed her eyes. She stopped breathing and her body started to grow cold in his arms.
“Elise!” Tears streamed endlessly from Derek’s—from the Exiled Dark Priest’s—eyes. Elise’s words always had struck a chord with him.
“You make me sick to my stomach. Who would ever love a guy like you?”
He’d finally found someone who could. He now realized that the thing he’d gone his whole life without had been right under his nose, only to lose it.
“Why? Why are you only telling me now? Why couldn’t you tell me twenty-five years ago? If you had, I, I...!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Master Unicorn grunted in pain as she staggered to her feet with her hand on the wound Derek’s strike had carved across her chest. Just like Elise, she’d been fatally injured. The wound itself wasn’t deep, but Derek’s poison was already circulating in her blood. Despite her endless stamina, her body was only as durable as a human teenage girl’s. It didn’t take much thought to realize what would happen to an ordinary girl if she was exposed to such potent poison.
As her consciousness faded, she looked at the people who’d defeated her. The woman who’d given her life to protect her husband even after she’d come to her senses, and the man who sobbed as he embraced her lifeless body. From her perspective, they were both too weak to pose any threat. There was such a gap in their strengths that she could confidently declare she’d win ten thousand fights out of ten thousand. Regardless, it was a fact that they’d taken her down.
Oh, I get it now. I think humans call that “love.”
Her teacher’s words surfaced in her mind.
“If someone who can defeat you does exist, it won’t be because of pure strength, but because they possess...something.”
So, that was the “something” that defeated me. It was something that demons, creatures with infinite lives who valued strength above all else, didn’t—couldn’t—possess. It’s just as you said, Beelzebub. Humans are really fascinating creatures.
As Master Unicorn finally understood that, she vanished with a small smile of joy across her face.