33
Chapter 33
Calm down.
It was important to calm my mind first and assess the situation.
Right in front of me was Lucida, the Empire's worst psychopath.
That was an undeniable fact.
From the blue ponytail to the Imperial Seal engraved on her sword, everything perfectly matched the descriptions I had read in the spoiler post.
'This wasn't what I meant when I said I wanted to meet the main characters of the original story.'
How unlucky did I have to be to run into a Villain so suddenly in a place like this?
But... there was no need to be nervous.
'I hold the upper hand here.'
Ciel and Rien were nearby.
The amulet was still hanging safely around my neck.
Even if Lucy was a named Villain, it meant I had reliable allies on my side.
Besides, I had grown stronger myself.
Even if it was broken in half, a Holy Sword was still a Holy Sword.
If she used powers related to a Demon, I actually stood a chance of winning.
However, that didn't mean I could let my guard down.
Even if there was a chance of victory, I couldn't afford to relax.
Unlike Asel, she was a complete unknown variable, excluding the information from the spoiler post.
So, what I needed to do right now was simple.
Stall for time.
If I could just stall until those two arrived, victory was guaranteed.
'It's crucial not to be intimidated by her presence.'
That was obvious.
She was a lunatic who derived pleasure from tormenting others.
If I showed any weakness, I'd instantly become her prey.
In this situation.
There was only one attitude I could take.
'Let's pretend I'm the Leader of Black Fang.'
An authoritative tone.
A relaxed demeanor that would never be overwhelmed by the opponent.
I needed to project enough presence to keep this girl from dominating me.
All the incidents caused here were already being framed as Black Fang's crimes anyway.
Like it or not, I had no choice but to play the role of the Black Fang's Leader right now.
I was standing here under the fake identity of the Black Fang's Leader, after all.
"Who are you?"
I lowered my voice and asked the girl.
The incredibly brazen girl feigned terror, trembling dramatically as she opened her mouth to speak.
"T-That's my line! What the hell are you? What kind of messed-up monster are you?"
Hearing that, my expression almost cracked for a moment.
That's enough of the nonsense.
A monster?
Me?
I've only killed one person since coming here—a Black Mage who sacrificed thousands of innocent lives—and you're calling me a monster?
There's a limit to how dumbfounded I can be.
Until now, I've only saved people; I've never committed a single atrocity.
Yet right now, the Empire's worst murderer was criticizing me.
"How unpleasant. You have no right to call me a monster."
"...What the hell are you talking about?"
"Did you really think I wouldn't know about all the things you people have done?"
I said that while glaring at the girl.
Even putting aside the fact that she was a psychopathic killer, she was still a Knight of the Empire.
A Knight of the Empire who wouldn't hesitate to carry out all sorts of atrocious massacres, just like this recent terrorist attack on the Black Market.
Just looking at this terrorist attack alone made their viciousness perfectly clear.
"I know the ugly truth beneath your masks."
This wasn't a lie.
I probably knew the Empire better than anyone else in this world.
I still couldn't forget the ending of the Empire Revolution route.
The betrayal of trusted comrades.
A revolution that ultimately ended in failure.
No matter what kind of dirty tricks were pulled, the Imperial Family always managed to cling tenaciously to their lifeline.
If it was for the sake of their own security, they wouldn't hesitate to do absolutely anything.
And Knights were, ultimately, the Empire's dogs.
Dogs that had no choice but to obey the Empire.
Acting as the limbs of the Imperial Family and carrying out all sorts of ugly and dirty deeds in their stead—that was what it meant to be a Knight.
Even with a leash called the Self-Destruct Brand, there was no room to justify their actions.
Unless they were a complete fool ignorant of how the world worked, there was no way they wouldn't know the true nature of the Imperial Knight Order.
They all knew, and they still chose that path.
They willingly chose to submit to the Empire, which didn't treat people like humans, and to those trash who treated human lives as disposable.
This girl was probably no different.
But.......
"W-What are you talking about?"
The blue-haired girl asked me that.
For some reason.
Those words should obviously be nothing more than an act. Yet, strangely, her expression didn't feel like a lie.
A bizarre intuition.
Considering the state of my intuition lately... I should definitely ignore it.
I knew ignoring it was the right choice, but...
Something was still bothering me.
'......What if that wasn't an act?'
Such a thought crossed my mind. After all, I hadn't felt a single trace of Bloodlust or any ominous aura from that girl.
I subtly tested her with a potential weakness, but there was no sign she picked up on it. For a murderer, she was far too clumsy.
Not to mention her reaction.
No matter how I looked at it, it sounded exactly like the reaction of a truly innocent person.
So, what if... just as a purely hypothetical scenario, it wasn't an act?
'The possibility definitely exists.'
She still looked quite young.
If she was an Apprentice Knight who had only recently joined the Knight Order, she might still be unaware of their ugly true nature.
It was a rare case, but...
There were instances where a young Noble who had lost their parents would join the Imperial Knight Order, completely ignorant of how the world worked. One of the previous protagonist's companions was exactly that kind of case.
It was possible that this had become a tradition of the series, leading them to introduce a similar character this time around.
'Besides, considering that she's a Villain, it makes even more sense.'
The most pure and kindest companion in the previous game, who was incredibly popular.
If they introduced a character explicitly based on that child, the players would naturally let their guard down.
Thinking that this was someone they could safely rely on.
But what if that character went through some traumatic event, fell from grace, and completely turned to the side of the Villains?
What if they even turned hostile towards the protagonist and tried to kill them?
Smacking the players in the back of the head like that was exactly the kind of thing the developers of Bone and Blood loved to do.
Moreover, even in the previous game, the Villains all tended to have tragic backstories.
Cases where they experienced something unfortunate and inevitably fell into darkness accounted for about thirty percent of them.
There was more than enough possibility that this girl was a Villain who hadn't yet fallen from grace.
'......Of course, I couldn't ignore the possibility of the opposite being true.'
This was, ultimately, nothing more than an optimistic guess on my part. A theory based purely on intuition.
Perhaps this girl was a psychopathic murderer with incredible acting skills.
Or maybe she actually had a split personality, and while her current persona was innocent and kind, her alter ego could be purely evil.
Wasn't a split personality a common trope for murderer characters anyway?
......In the end, this was a problem that wouldn't reach a conclusion no matter how much I thought about it.
"Do you really not know?"
I asked the blue-haired girl.
But no answer came back. She was just standing there, flustered with a puzzled expression.
I couldn't get a read on what my next move should be.
Just encountering a Villain so suddenly was already overwhelming enough; figuring out her background circumstances and determining the right course of action on the fly was impossible.
That was especially true in this current situation.
Whether Lucy was a true villain or if there was still a chance for her salvation... I knew absolutely nothing about her.
"I see....... In that case......."
Ultimately, there was only one course of action I could take in this situation.
Postpone it.
The possibility of her rehabilitation and how to deal with her were issues I needed to take my time and think about carefully later.
For now, in this situation, my top priority should be retreating and regrouping.
I quickly sent a message to Ciel using Communication Magic.
Telling her to wrap me in shadows and cast Invisibility Magic.
I couldn't use Teleportation Magic, but faking it was a simple task.
Blocking her vision with shadows and then running away on foot while the invisibility spell was active was all I needed to do.
After all, anyone would assume someone had teleported if they were swallowed by a dark shadow and vanished from sight.
I erased my presence, constructed a Spell Formula, and planted a Tracking Magic on her back.
With this, I could make contact with the girl at any time.
Whether to rehabilitate her or dispose of her.
Such a major decision was best made after thorough consideration and investigation.
With that settled, there was only one thing left for me to do.
I slipped back into my act.
Well, it wasn't a difficult task.
I just had to spout some plausible-sounding nonsense like the real Leader of Black Fang, and that would be the end of it.
*****
"I have nothing more to say to you."
In front of Lucy, an unidentified man wearing a black hood spoke those words.
Lucy simply couldn't comprehend the situation.
Why such a massive monster was here, what it was trying to do, and what it was thinking.
For a moment, her eyes met the man's through his mask.
A pair of blue eyes.
Within them, Lucy sensed something untouchable.
She felt the presence of something far greater than this world.
Her body trembled involuntarily.
She didn't even have the energy to ask any more questions.
Just breathing was a struggle.
"Whether you truly know nothing or are just putting on an act. That has nothing to do with us."
With those words, two figures wearing black hoods emerged from somewhere.
......They radiated an incredibly ominous and terrifying aura, looking far from human.
If what she felt from that man was something divine yet ominous.
Then those things were walking disasters.
Beings that existed solely to plague the world with calamity.
Because of that, Lucy found the situation even harder to understand.
What kind of existence could possibly command such beings as their subordinates?
"We are simply fulfilling our mission."
With those words, a pitch-black darkness swallowed them.
As if they had never existed, they vanished without a trace in an instant.
However, even after that, Lucy couldn't bring herself to stand up for a long time.
She sat slumped on the floor, lost in thought for a long while.
What was the meaning of the words that man had spoken.
What about her had he found so repulsive.
No matter how much she pondered it, she couldn't figure it out.
'Just who are those people.......'
Something was about to happen.
That much, she knew for certain.