“But she’s... Alicia’s not...”
“She’s not like them? How can you be so certain? She claims to be a bride of the Gods, and yet she’s skilled not only in martial arts, but in spells of all kinds as well! And what’s more, she wields some mysterious power to change herself into a bestial form like our own! How could you possibly trust a girl such as that?!”
He loudly proclaimed everything that was strange about Alicia—all the ways she was just too talented that I’d pretended not to notice all this time.
“If every mere bride of the Gods held such power, then our people would be long since extinct, would we not?”
I let out a hiss. Of course I knew. There was no way a regular nun would have combat skills like hers. Even thinking back to last night, no normal bride should’ve been able to heal that many people all at once. It just wasn’t possible.
“She is an assassin with your life in her sights. The moment you’ve outlasted your usefulness, she’ll slice off your head and stab a knife through your heart, just as the Gods command her.”
Shut up...
“Shut up!!!”
I didn’t want to let him talk any more. I didn’t want to hear any more. I charged in at him and—
“Ah—”
—I screwed up. Right as I stepped in, an axe and a spear came at me from either side.
“Ngh! Ah!”
I dodged one and awkwardly parried the other—but I couldn’t do anything about the attack that followed. The burned man punched me right where my guard was down, and I went flying and rolled through the dirt again.
The world was swaying left and right. My vision was cloudy. When I pressed my hands to the ground to get myself back up, my fingers were shaking. My breathing was quick and shallow, and my eyes just wouldn’t focus...
“Such faith you hold in her. What do you suppose she did to you to instill it?”
You’re wrong...
I tried to deny it, but I couldn’t even speak anymore.
“Behold! This is the true form of the divinely protected Hero! The Gods the humans speak of are naught but lies! Do not be fooled by their trickery!”
I could feel the demons’ morale getting stronger as the man riled them up. With beast-like battle cries, the monsters charged at me.
Panting and heaving with breath, I frantically tried to cut down their numbers as much as I could. Blood was blocking half my vision. I had too many blind spots. My footing was getting messier and messier. I was dodging fewer of their strikes and parrying more...
“I, right hand of our murdered Lord! I, Raven, the Black Bird of Revelation, command you! The time of our vengeance is nigh! Go forth, brave soldiers of the First, and deliver justice!”
The guy with the burned face was shouting about something or other. It was taking everything I had just to defend myself, and they were obviously backing me further and further into a corner, and my head wasn’t working right, and...
“I bet Master’s gonna be mad at me...”
You’ve gotta know when to retreat. Always remember, they’re stronger than us. There’s no point in throwing your life...away...
Now I finally understood why Master had wanted to keep me away from the battlefield. These monsters he’d spent his life fighting were just too powerful to face head-on. It was too reckless, too stupid...
“Good thing I didn’t bring Alicia, huh...?” I mumbled to myself.
I was moving pretty much mindlessly, parrying claws and slashing back at them. When a huge tree trunk came ramming at me, I couldn’t dodge it.
My mind went blank.
I slammed into a cliff face and fell to the ground. My head was hazy, but somehow I still had a grip on my sword—even I was surprised. My body knew what to do, and it kept on moving for me. But when I looked up at the solid wall of monstrous shadows in front of me, my thoughts went dull and slowed to a stop.
I didn’t feel any fear. Whatever attachment to life I’d had, I’d probably left it behind the day my village got attacked by demons—the day everyone had died except for me.
The burned man was shouting something again. A bull-headed monster with a huge axe slowly walked over to me. Everything around me was covered in shadows. The moon was hidden behind the clouds, and the outlines of the world felt hazy.
I sighed. It just felt pointless and unsatisfying—life, death, all of it.
I’d been playing hide-and-seek when they attacked the village. They hadn’t spotted me, but they’d chased around my aunt and uncle, my grandma and grandpa, like they were having fun hunting them. They’d killed them, they’d played with them... So I’d just kept the hide-and-seek going. I’d snuck up on the demons without them noticing, and I’d killed, and killed, and killed...
Before I knew it, I’d ended up all alone.
Master had picked up the smell of death and come out to the village. When he’d gotten there, he’d found me on my own, and he’d helped cremate everyone. He’d asked me, “If you don’t feel like living anymore, how about I kill you?” or something like that—some question you’re definitely not supposed to ask a kid who’s just been through something horrible.
“Back then, if I’d said to kill me... Would you really have done it, Master...?”
My vision was blurry, and the huge shadow that appeared in front of me lined up with the one in my memory. The moonlight came back out, and the world got sharper. A giant warwolf covered in pitch-black fur was looking down at me.
“Oh...”
The huge sword slung across his back was the same as my memories...too...
“Master...?”
“If you wanna die that bad, how about I kill you?”
His voice wasn’t familiar at all. It sounded like the low growl of a beast. But the way he talked was nothing but familiar. I wasn’t sure why, but tears started...blurring...my vision...
“Is that you... Master...?”
The warwolf just stared down at me and didn’t answer my question. But...
“Seriously, how damn long am I gonna need to keep wiping your ass for you?”
“Wha—?”
He gave the sword a huge swing while he bad-mouthed me.
“Well, I guess I can help a brat look after another brat.”
I watched blood spray out above me and shower onto him as the bull-headed demon’s huge body fell to the ground.
“Masterrrr!”
“Quit fucking crying, dammit.”
He wasn’t looking at me—he was focused on somewhere else, and my gaze naturally followed his...
“Huh...?”
There, past the wall of demons around the cliff face—there was a scuffle breaking out, and a white-haired girl in a nun’s outfit was rampaging at the center of it.
“Ali...cia...?”
She was punching demons away and shouting something while she tried to make her way over here. Obviously, the demons were starting to fight back to try and pin her down, and she moved like she was running on pure frustration. She looked exhausted...
“Oh...”
I was the one who’d left her unable to move.
“She’s gonna die at this rate.”
I let out a grunt of frustration.
You don’t need to tell me. I get it. I know what I need to do.
“If you were alive, you should’ve told me!” I shouted.
I gritted my teeth and forced myself back up with all the strength I had left, and I charged forward without waiting for an answer.
It’s your own damn fault for assuming I died.
I felt like I heard a mocking voice from behind me.
Everything after that just didn’t feel real at all.
The next thing I knew, Alicia was hugging me tight. Demon corpses were piled all around us—too many to count. Master stood with his back to us, looking up at the morning sun.