Maid Meets Girl – 5
A considerable stretch of time had already slipped past.
Dante, locked in a clash of sword techniques with Lucius, felt the end of the Absolute Void drawing near. The all-powerful force that had surged through his blade was ebbing away, and the dragons that had danced along the edge of his katana were growing faint and insubstantial.
Unlike Dante’s dwindling dragons, the azure flames of the lion wreathing Lucius still burned fiercely blue.
By every measure the fight had been Dante’s. Against the swarm of dragons that danced at his side, Lucius’s best effort had been simply to endure. Yet if the battle dragged on any longer, Dante was certain he would be the one left standing at last.
Around the old lion who refused to break, countless beasts were gathering. The moment Dante showed the slightest opening they would bare their fangs and charge.
This is as far as it goes.
He could not afford to stall any longer. He had already bought more than enough time. No one had emerged from within; internal strife had almost certainly broken out, but that was no longer Dante’s concern.
“A pity, but let’s settle this another day!”
Leaving the old lion without a decisive finish rankled, yet retreat was the only choice left. Decision made, Dante yanked a smoke bomb from his robes and smashed it against the ground.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
A choking fog flooded the arena, but Lucius’s azure flames punched through the haze and chased after Dante. The knights, guided by the light of those flames, loosed arrows and spells; Dante’s blade cut every last one of them from the air without exception.
Having parried the barrage, Dante landed cleanly among the spectator seats. Gripping his katana in both hands, he exhaled one final dragon toward the arena.
—Kuooh!
The dragon’s target was not Lucius, but the throat of a distant knight. The man raised his shield against the azure dragon, yet so small a buckler could never stop it.
Clang—!
Before the dragon’s jaws could tear the knight apart, a blue lion belching mighty flame slammed into the beast and ripped its maw wide open. The azure dragon, cleaved by Lucius’s blade, burned away into nothing.
Lucius stared past the vanishing dragon toward the place where Dante had stood.
He never meant to kill the knight. He attacked him only to pin me in place.
Even knowing that, Lucius had moved to save the man.
“Damn it.”
Just as Dante had planned, the old lion’s feet were rooted, and the swordsman slipped away.
A little lion trailing white flame raced forward. Leaving footprints of dense fire, she carved through and incinerated every obstacle in her path, swinging the greatsword that served as her razor-sharp claws.
V was growing more and more agitated by the sight of Noir—so different from only moments before. She had been nothing more than a rat trembling in a hole; now she wore the shape of a lion and charged straight at him.
Even if a sudden leap in strength had improved her skill by leaps and bounds, Noir was still far beneath V. At best she could barely snag his ankle. Yet the presence of the shadow that followed her transformed Noir into a genuine threat.
Shit! I have to finish this before the knights arrive…!
An assassin’s effectiveness hinges heavily on environment. To V she might still be a mere kitten, but the simple fact that a front line now stood boldly in the open created hundreds of new constraints on every move he made.
When he launched rock spines at the little rat, M’s shadows swatted them all aside and opened a path. When he tried to expose the shadow’s position, the rat’s white flame scoured the entire space clean. The floor, already wrecked by prolonged fighting, threw up countless shadows beneath the golden waves of white flame and Dandelion; from those shadows M’s daggers came flying. Block a dagger and a massive greatsword split the air; dodge the greatsword and the shadow pierced the space again.
“Shit, shit, shit, shit!”
From the instant V had driven a blade through B’s heart he had been certain of victory. An assassin could not hide inside the golden waves Dandelion created, and even an assassin as skilled as M would never lose to a restricted opponent—or so he had believed.
And V had held the upper hand. Keep his distance, seal the blind spots with walls of rock, and victory would have been assured.
—Boom!
A reverse-grip swing of the greatsword detonated in a thunderous blast. V heaved the floor upward to block the explosion, only for a dagger to streak from the new shadow behind the rock wall, aimed straight at his heart.
“Kh!”
The moment the little rat joined the fight the entire shape of the battle had shifted. Her movements were simple, yet her coordination with M was lethal. As though she already knew every action the girl would take, M answered with the perfect complementary strike.
Where had it all gone wrong?
No matter how hard he thought, V could not understand how things had twisted this far. He had considered only the best path to becoming one of the Nine and chosen accordingly. The result of those choices was this nightmare.
Should he have killed M first instead of B?
No. M had shown no sign of knowing B’s ability, but V already knew. Body-hardening magic that sheathed the flesh in steel—the absolute worst matchup for a rock mage. Had he killed M first, B would have crushed him utterly.
Then should he have told B of M’s betrayal and joined forces?
That would not have worked either. With B’s help he could have finished M and the rat quickly, yet a betrayed B would never have trusted him. In the end, killing B first had been the correct choice for anyone who wanted to become one of the Nine.
Which left only one answer.
From the very beginning V had never been fated to become one of the Nine.
“That’s impossible. Impossible!”
The mere word “fate” twisted his mouth and sent bile rising in his throat. Fate—the thing that ignored every effort, every choice, every thought and delivered only a predetermined ending—was the word V hated most in the world.
Yet the very fate he so desperately rejected now closed around his throat in the form of a lion and a shadow.
It was a strange new sensation.
Swordsmanship that had once been dragged along by the blade, magic that had still been clumsy—both now flowed as naturally as she willed them. The small yet immeasurable change in her heart had accelerated the growth that had stalled since her father’s death.
And thanks to the girl who answered every tiny movement with perfect harmony, Noir was able to drive a mage several steps above her into a genuine corner.
A formidable enemy who demanded total resolve, and an ally who understood her motions better than anyone else. She had never experienced anything like it, yet the feeling was not at all unpleasant. The terror on Noir’s face slowly faded, replaced by the beginnings of a smile.
Regrettably, I had once been fond of the character Noir.
I had taken her into dungeons that did not suit her at all, and in PvP she had always held a permanent slot in my party. The problem was that the little shit had repaid all that affection with pure garbage.
The reason I had rage-quit Destiny after sinking so much money into it was Noir. How dare she insult maids like that? After everything I had done for her?!
Yet despite my screams, Destiny eventually released Maid Bikini Noir, and I had deleted my account with tears in my eyes.
So when I ran into Noir yesterday my feelings had been thoroughly mixed. Murderous intent had risen in one corner of my heart, while the sight of her still-young face had softened me in another.
How exactly was I supposed to regard this Noir?
As a filthy criminal who had defiled the sacred image of the maid? Or as someone entirely separate from that sinner?
I had spent the entire night turning the question over and over. The endless loop of fretting had seemed as though it would never end—until I watched Dante chattering nonstop beside me and finally reached a conclusion.
That bastard was already a completely different person from the original Dante. There was no reason to treat only Noir as a game character. If the world I now lived in was another reality, then equating its inhabitants with their game counterparts was simply wrong.
I decided to regard this world’s Noir as a separate individual from the original.
Even by my own standards it was adult-level tolerance and magnanimity. And yet, now that I was actually fighting alongside her, the residual discomfort refused to vanish.
Huu…
Endure it. I had already chosen to accept her as someone else; I could not dump the rage still smoldering deep inside onto her now. I would simply have to bear it. Only by enduring this grudge, this fury, this humiliation and shame could I become a mature maid…!
Surely the Maid Goddess above desired that I welcome Noir with this overflowing spirit of acceptance!
—Fwoosh!
While I was lost in deep contemplation, the white flame Noir swung finally punched through V’s rock.
It was not that Noir had grown strong enough to overwhelm V’s magic; prolonged combat had simply worn the mage’s power down.
“Grrraaagh!”
Severely wounded by the pure white blaze that tore through his stone wall, V hastily retaliated with magic. Hundreds of rock spines streaked toward Noir’s throat, yet before a single one could reach her, Bokja and I shot every last spine out of the air.
Noir might have been growing at a breakneck pace throughout the fight, but I could feel my own skill rising as well. Proof enough: before Noir’s awakening I had been able to deflect only half of those spines; now I could swat them all cleanly away.
“Hah…! Hah…!”
Mana exhaustion was setting in; the giant arms V had been swinging had long since vanished. I was only a breath away from total depletion myself. At most I had two more shadow techniques left in me.
That would be enough.
The rock walls that had protected V no longer functioned as a shield. Two shadow techniques were more than sufficient to finish a thoroughly spent mage.
“Now!”
While I blocked the spines, Noir tore up a section of floor and hurled the shattered slab at V. A long shadow stretched beneath the massive chunk of stone floating high overhead. I instantly slipped into that shadow and sprinted forward.
That’s one.
V tried to fire magic so he would not lose me, but this time the pure white flames Noir unleashed shielded me. While V was busy blocking the white blaze, the slab Noir had thrown struck the ground and burst into countless fragments; from the shadows of those scattering shards I lunged in behind him.
“Shit!!!”
In an instant I was at V’s back and drove Bokja into his shadow. Merging with V’s own shadow, Bokja transformed into a massive blade and struck from behind.
But watching one’s rear in combat is elementary. V scraped together what little mana remained and raised a wall of rock that stopped Bokja’s edge cold.
That’s two.
Every last drop of my mana was gone. My vision blurred; consciousness began to flicker out. Through the fading haze I saw V thrusting a spear of rock toward me.
Idiot. Not this side—the other one.
The mana-exhausted girl collapsed. The assailant drove his spear toward her falling form. In the same breath Noir was already charging the man.
—Thud.
Before the spear could pierce the girl’s heart, the greatsword Noir thrust forward punched straight through the assailant’s own.
With a dry crackling the rock spear disintegrated. The heart at the tip of the greatsword stopped beating. The white mask that had covered the man’s face slipped free, struck the floor, and shattered.
Victory.
Against an enemy she had thought unbeatable, she had finally won.
“Please, please, please!”
Yet even with the enemy’s heart stilled, Noir could feel none of the intoxication or relief of triumph. She flung the greatsword aside and raced to the girl lying on the ground.
Thump— thump— thump—
Pressing her ear to the fallen girl’s chest, she confirmed the heart was still beating strongly. Only after hearing the soft, steady breathing as well did Noir finally sink to the floor in relief.
“Thank goodness…”
There was so much she wanted to ask this girl. So much she wanted to say. She wanted to know her better.
So she needed this girl.
“My lady!”
Knights’ voices rose from the far side of the collapsed entrance. Everything was already over—what were they doing showing up now? Noir found the latecomers thoroughly irritating.
“Haha…”
She sprawled out flat beside the unconscious girl and gazed at her face. Even marred by battle wounds and dust it remained beautiful.
When she opens her eyes, I hope she’ll tell me her name.
With that quiet thought, Noir gently closed her own eyes.