The Guardian of the Elves, High Elf Diana (3)
"Haa!"
Clack!
"You won't be able to block this one."
"Didn't you say that earlier?"
Whack!
The Hero and Frederique continued their sparring, their wooden swords clashing repeatedly. It had been their morning ritual every day since they were deployed to the battlefield together.
'It feels good.'
Every time their swords collided, a tingling sensation ran through her hands. Sparring with someone stronger than herself definitely made her heart race.
Thump-thump.
"This is the stuff!"
Whoosh!
Frederique parried the Hero's sword and attempted a counterattack. The Hero's eyes gleamed as she dodged the strike. It was the exact same stance as the Death Knight Vergio. As expected of a master and her disciple.
'Then, here's the next one.'
Frederique anticipated the next move and swung her sword.
Thwack!
"Ouch!"
She struck Sage squarely on the thigh.
"Looks like I won."
"Ugh, I lost again."
"That's the difference in experience."
"I'll have to practice a bit more to beat you, sister."
In terms of raw power, Sage the Hero was far stronger. Especially when she wielded the Holy Sword, her power was enough to completely overwhelm Frederique. But when they were holding wooden swords, it was a different story. It was a gap that could be bridged with experience, and to date, Frederique boasted an overwhelming win rate of 102 wins out of 102 matches. However, as time passed, Sage's swordsmanship was becoming increasingly slippery, making her quite a headache to fight.
'She'll surpass me soon.'
And then, the challenger would be her.
"Fighting really is fun, isn't it?"
"You think so too, sister? I'm so excited right now, my heart is fluttering. Hehe."
She had wanted to spar like this with Rebecca, who had been deployed to the same battlefield previously. She was quite a powerhouse herself.
'My sword only shines for the Demon King's enemies. I decline your sparring request.'
The stiff Holy Witch had rejected her proposal. What a boring woman. A woman who staked her life on serving the Demon King. She was closer to a knight than a warrior, and closer to a cleric than a knight. She had tried to seduce her into a spar every which way, but she had refused, insisting it was absolutely out of the question. Yet, she never stopped training on her own. Compared to that selfish Holy Witch...
"Our Hero is an angel."
"An angel? But aren't angels bad?"
"It means you're good to me."
"Aha."
Sage, the Hero who had slumped to the ground, asked Frederique as she wiped away her sweat.
"By the way, Dragon sister, are you friends with that Elf sister over there?"
"Friends?"
"Yeah, you two seemed to know each other."
"Something like that. Still, we were friends who got along reasonably well."
"I knew it. So, what was your relationship?"
"..."
What was their relationship, indeed.
"A comrade I can't fully trust, but who is reliable to have by my side."
That was exactly the feeling.
"Can you be reliable if you don't trust them?"
"Sometimes such beings exist. The world doesn't always work as simply as two sides of a coin."
"That's difficult."
Diana. An elf who always put on a kind face to put others at ease, but would do anything to achieve her goals. It was impossible to know what she was thinking. She never told anyone anything, always acting as if she were the only one who knew everything—a demeanor that didn't sit well with her. She didn't particularly like her ability to touch souls, either. But as an ally, she was reliable. Most of the plans she laid out succeeded. It was she who gathered the non-human races to form the alliance, and her power was also instrumental in balancing each race. What if Diana weren't there? Well, the alliance would surely have fractured before long. It wasn't all good, though. A significant number of people had died to achieve her goals. She mourned the dead, but what meaning did that have?
'In the end, they died for the grand cause she spoke of.'
If one is going to bear the burden of risk, one should bear it alone. Shouldn't the person in charge take responsibility for everything? Frederique believed that the act of leading others to their deaths in the name of a "grand cause" could never be justified. That was why she couldn't understand Diana.
Boom!
Just then, a commotion broke out where the Elf prisoners were kept.
"I'll go check what's happening, so rest up."
"Okay."
The Elves were tied up, yet they were causing an uproar. The soldiers were struggling to subdue the prisoners without causing them injury.
"What the hell are you doing!"
Frederique shouted at the prisoners and soldiers.
"F-Frederique-nim. Krrk!"
"You've arrived?"
The Orc squad leader looked at her with a flustered expression. The squad leader of the human soldiers was the same.
"The prisoners are rampaging, so why can't you subdue them?"
"Each one of them is strong, so it's quite difficult to subdue them without causing injury."
The strength of a single Elf was indeed considerable. Most of them were knight-class warriors. Still, for the elite of the Demon King's army to be struggling because of prisoners...
"Even if an arm or two gets severed, as long as they don't die, it's fine, so subdue them now!"
"Understood!"
"If you return to the unit, I'll triple your training volume, so be prepared."
Everyone's complexion turned pale. And just as much, they began to vent their anger on the prisoners. Frederique took the lead and subdued the prisoners herself. And then, in her eyes...
"Huh?"
She saw Diana's empty carriage. Damn it.
"You crazy bitch! I told you not to do anything useless."
***
Diana approached the Hero, who was alone. Now that Frederique was gone, it was her last chance. Since she had caused a commotion, surveillance would only get tighter from here on out.
'I'm sorry.'
I won't forget your sacrifices. I had to succeed, if only for their sake. Even if I didn't know her name, at the very least, I wanted to confirm it. Whether I could change her or not.
"Sister, why are you here?"
"Hic!"
The voice of the Hero, who had suddenly vanished, came from behind her. She hadn't felt her presence. Startled, she turned around to see the Hero. Innocent eyes, pure curiosity. They were eyes that shone like a child's, but that was exactly why it gave her goosebumps. Because she could feel a murderous intent devoid of malice.
"Sister, you shouldn't come out of the carriage. The Demon King told me to keep you safe, so I left you alone, but if you come out like this, I don't think I can just let you go."
"There's something I want to ask."
"I can't tell you my name. You know that, right?"
"I won't ask."
She knew she wouldn't answer. She didn't have the time to persuade her, either. Instead, she handed her a small water bottle, no larger than a thumb, containing the Spring of Life.
"What's this?"
"It's a gift. Meeting like this is fate, so I wanted us to be together."
"Is it something weird?"
"No. Would I give you a gift with bad intentions?"
"That's true, too."
The Hero's gaze was fixed on the bottle containing the spring water. Every time she shook the bottle, her head tilted along with it. Was she interested in shiny things? If not, was the last instinct of her Hero self still remaining, holding onto that gaze? If it were the latter...
'There's a possibility.'
The possibility that the Hero could return to her original self even if she didn't plant the seed herself.
"It's pretty. I keep looking at it."
"Do you want to have it?"
"Yeah."
"If you want it, I'll give it to you. But make me one promise."
"What is it?"
Diana, who had placed her index finger to her lips, smiled brightly.
"That the fact I gave this bottle to you, Hero-nim, is a secret between the two of us."
"A secret... Why should it be?"
"Because that will bring you a little more joy, Hero-nim."
"Hmm..."
The Hero, who had been deep in thought, nodded.
"Fine. Let's do that. But sister, you make me one promise, too."
"What is it?"
"That you will never come out of the carriage again."
"Understood."
If she only handed this over, there would be no need to come out.
"But pretty sister, is it okay to drink this?"
"It doesn't matter if I eat it, but I don't know about you, Hero-nim, who has received the Demon King's power."
"Then I shouldn't eat it."
Diana, having confirmed that the Hero had tucked the bottle into her bosom, walked toward the direction of the carriage on her own. Just then.
"Diana!"
"Ah, Frederique."
"What the hell are you doing."
Frederique appeared, glaring at her with her pupils slit vertically.
"It's nothing. I was just taking a walk."
"Cutie, did this woman do anything to you? Like asking you to call her name, or touching you on purpose, things like that."
"She didn't!"
At the Hero's answer, Frederique tilted her head as if she couldn't believe it.
"Really?"
"Yeah. She didn't really do anything. Really!"
Sage kept her mouth shut tight.
"This bitch wouldn't just leave without doing something."
"Frederique, I didn't do anything. The carriage door was open, so I was just walking around."
However, Frederique didn't listen to her.
"Don't give me that bullshit."
She shackled Diana's wrists with mana-blocking cuffs and loaded her onto a cart, not the carriage.
"From now on, I'm strengthening the perimeter. Don't even think about getting back in the carriage, and don't make the Elves do anything stupid. If you do, all of them will die a gruesome death."
"There must have been some problem."
She's a shameless bitch. A very shameless bitch. Frederique ground her teeth and glared at Diana. Diana, who was loading her body onto the cart while receiving her gaze, was holding back her laughter. She mustn't get caught. She mustn't get caught by Frederique.
'She said she wanted to drink it.'
The Spring of Life was water that had the power to become an elixir to the Hero and a poison to the Demon King. The fact that she felt an attraction to want to drink such water meant...
It meant that the Hero's will still remained, at least a little bit. She dared to speculate that.
'There's a way. Even without planting the seed.'
A faint hope sprouted in Diana's heart.
***
"I beg for your forgiveness."
"Forgiveness for what."
"D-doubting my sincere faith in you, Demon King-nim."
"Why did you doubt me."
"B-because you no longer s-seek out this maiden, ugh!!"
"Speak. Why did you doubt me."
"Because you no longer seek out this maiden, I thought I had been a-abandoned."
Amy, who was kneeling before me with her arms folded in prayer, trembled. I stripped off her priestess robes, teased her breasts, and tickled her lower abdomen, where the seal of the vagina was engraved. Caressing her body here and there, I awakened the demonic energy contained within Amy's body.