Blood on the Tongue
I tasted blood in my friend's mouth. A bit must have splattered during the fight. Unfortunately, there was no mirror around to check my reflection. The taste seemed to stir the vampire blood flowing through me, and that bastard I'd been suppressing began to wake up.
"Y-you... you really don't know who I am? If you kill me, you won't get away with it...?"
"Hah. Why do they all say the exact same thing right before they die? 'You can't kill me,' 'Do you know who I am'... You think I'm some amateur? A pro's first rule is to check whether it's safe to kill the target and who they actually are."
The man backed away, trembling as he pointed his knife at me. The stench of urine told me he'd pissed himself. I'd have to start his toilet training all over again. What a pathetic bastard.
"I'm Werner, an imperial mage. I came to investigate the anomalies happening in this territory."
"Why would the imperial family...?"
"Because you lot have been shitting out such foul-smelling dung that the stench reached the imperial palace. Piss and shit everywhere... you poorly trained mutts."
"What did we even do wrong?! We were just trying to protect the rights of the miners being overworked on site!"
They had apparently started as that kind of group. But after Count Holstead, that good-natured man, raised their wages and improved various working conditions, they began to run wild. The trash who got drunk, picked fights, killed people, raped women, and then tried to cover it up with money or connections.
"So you're saying that knife's going to stab me? Interesting. Go ahead and try. Of course, if you do, you'll die. Even if you don't, you'll still die."
If he thought he could take me down with a single stab, he was sorely mistaken. The most times I'd been stabbed in one day was seventeen. That day I couldn't even spin the roulette event because of anemia... but that anger only made me stronger.
"Y-you... if you kill me, all your precious people will die! They'll all die, I swear!"
"That's a shame."
Werner's precious people weren't the sort a miners' union could ever lay a hand on...
"The person most precious to me was already murdered. Well... because I killed her."
I knocked him down and crushed his skull beneath my foot. Warm blood splattered across my face in a sickening way. The sight made laughter bubble up on its own. No... this wouldn't do. I couldn't let this idiotic bastard stay awake for long.
I began reciting everything about "me."
"Successor of Confucianism... the fourteenth disciple of Jesus... bearer of the blow that slays God... fang of Metzdorf... successor of Darwin... reincarnation of the Ten Warriors... reincarnation of King Richard the Lionheart... disciple of Elvis Presley... model of nobility... successor of the martial god Bruce Lee..."
I repeated it over and over, right there on the spot. So that I could remain "me" and keep suppressing "that other me."
"I really am a fucking idiot."
Anyone watching would think I was insane.
***
"So you were here, Lorsha."
After wandering the streets for two hours and asking nearby merchants, I finally learned she'd headed toward a nearby valley. Thanks to that, my entire body was drenched in sweat and my clothes were soaked, leaving me in a foul mood.
And there she was, sitting on a rock and watching the flowing valley water. The water reflecting the evening sunset was beautiful, and Lorsha, with that water in her eyes, was even more so.
"...It's getting dark soon. Let's head back before it gets too late. The security around here isn't exactly great."
Just as I'd seen earlier, the place was crawling with trash who picked fights for the stupidest reasons. In this idiotic fantasy world, if Lorsha so much as brushed shoulders with one of them, those lust-crazed bastards would demand her body on the spot.
"You think I'd be scared of some street-thug brats? How much lower are you going to think of me?"
No, it wasn't that. I was worried because she was the type who'd wipe out their entire families. I was someone who opposed guilt by association, after all.
"No... I just thought you might not be able to find your way once it gets dark..."
"I've run through the night streets crying before. You should know exactly who made that happen without me having to say it."
Shit. She was seriously pissed off.
"Lorsha... I'm really sorry. I was... just so exhausted."
"The fact that you didn't even contact me... means I was one of the people exhausting you too, right?"
No matter how much I tried to relieve the pressure, she kept pressing me with defense worthy of a Dyck-level goalkeeper. Honestly, I had nothing to say in response. Unlike my other colleagues or acquaintances, Lorsha was someone who'd only ever been hurt by Werner.
There was nothing I could shamelessly argue with, like "You were wrong too, you crazy bastard!" At the very least, if he'd been late to a childhood promise, that might've been something, but Lorsha had been someone who'd looked only at Werner since they were children. If he said to meet at 3 PM, she'd show up at 1 PM and wait.
Werner had wanted to keep hiding it until the end, but to resolve this situation, he had no choice but to speak his true feelings.
"I didn't want you to get involved. Once I took care of one of them, they'd definitely target the people around me. And I felt so powerless, unable to protect my brothers and sisters and instead having to rely on something like marriage for protection. That wasn't the only reason I ran away... but you were one of the reasons too, Lorsha."
In reality, Werner had been fighting pursuers from the Black Round Table disguised as a criminal organization. By killing those pursuers, he'd barely managed to prevent their executives from coming after him. The criminal organization that had once run rampant in Bechem had also been a lower-level group under the Black Round Table's management.
"So what! Even if you say that now, nothing changes! What good would those words do now?!"
"Yeah, nothing changes. But even so... I still want to restore our relationship. Even if it's selfish of me."
I approached her. Through Lorsha's beautiful eyes, I could see my own reflection. As expected, my face was covered in blood.
"Werner, you... where did that blood come from..."
"Don't worry, it's not mine... I got into a bit of a fight on the way here."
"You're such a mess..."
Lorsha pulled out a handkerchief from her bosom and wiped my face. Her gentle touch caressed my cheek pleasantly.
"Ever since we were kids, you'd get food all over your face while eating... couldn't even clean properly... If you'd been born in a world without magic, you would've starved to death."
"Well... maybe I would've made a living as an assassin?"
"You, an assassin? If you became an assassin, I'd go become a castle."
Shit, was that a proposal? Because I really had made a living that way.
"There, all clean. Anyway, what would you do without me?"
She said this while tossing the blood-soaked handkerchief to the ground. It was clearly a high-quality item made of expensive silk, but she didn't care. After all, as the heir to a family that had produced Tower Masters, she could treat such fine handkerchiefs like tissues.
She discarded anything that got dirty or used. Someone who lived with that mindset had still liked Werner. Even after he lost his Grand Magic from his injuries, she hadn't discarded him—she'd wanted to keep him by her side. She loved Werner more than anyone else in this world.
But love was like the water she wielded—easily changeable. Water could turn into hot steam or cold ice. Werner's cold words and the long years had been enough to freeze Lorsha's heart, which had once flowed like elegant water.
"Yeah, without you, I might really starve to death."
At that, her face turned red as she realized what she'd said.
"Even if you starve, it's none of my business anymore, you know?"
"Haha... don't be like that. Help me not starve."
"Wh-wh-wh-what?"
Lorsha's face was now completely red. If you only looked at the color, you'd believe she was a fire mage instead of a water mage.
"You used to say that to me before, didn't you? That the person who'd become my wife would have a hard time taking care of me. So you should take care of me instead."
"Sh-shut up! Besides, you already have a fiancée! What kind of scheme is this?!"
I'd only meant that we should reconcile and go back to being close like before, but it seemed she'd misunderstood it as a proposal. Seeing her face looking like she was about to die of embarrassment made me want to tease her even more.
"Wouldn't it be fine? The empire allows polygamy anyway. I don't see it being a problem."
"When you were young, you rejected every girl who confessed to you... so why did you grow up to be a playboy who schemes against women now...?"
"Well, the world made me this way."
"No, even back then, the things you said and did around me showed you had the potential. You were a latent playboy all along."
Even as she scolded me like that, she was still wearing the cheap necklace Werner had given her.