A Shock to the Cat (4)
It was dawn, and pale moonlight filtered down in scattered threads through the dense canopy of the forest.
The soft rustle of leaves stirring in the breeze only deepened the tension hanging over the scene.
- Shaak
Facing a tin can clad head to toe in armor that looked fairly sturdy, drawing my spear out of habit was never the right choice.
What I needed was something bigger and heavier — a weapon capable of delivering a simple, efficient beating to a can whose armor was essentially its whole body.
That weapon was a hammer.
It was the perfect conversation partner: satisfying enough to vent the fury currently churning inside me, while landing damage that was every bit as certain.
- THUD!
The moment the hammer's heavy weight settled into my fingertips, I kicked off the ground and closed the distance, aiming straight for the gaps in the tin can's guard.
Startled by my sudden burst of movement, the can flinched and stumbled back a step, but quickly raised both arms in front of its face and settled into a rather sloppy defensive stance.
- CRANG—!!
My massive hammer came down hard on its crossed arms, shattering what balance its makeshift guard had managed to preserve in an instant.
"Gh—ghk...!!"
The tin can had no weapon left to fight me with.
His one and only greatsword had been melted down by something, leaving it damaged beyond any real use.
- BANG! BANG! BANG!
Even so, I swung the hammer at him mercilessly.
His defense had already collapsed, and his body buckled and dented with every blow it absorbed. Each time the hammer bit into his armor, his condition grew more and more wretched.
He struggled to raise his arms and block somehow, but fending off my full assault barehanded, with no proper weapon to speak of, was all but impossible.
- creeeak...
And so, after a little while had passed.
The surroundings had been reduced to utter ruin, as though a bombing run had swept through, and a bleak wind had begun to blow mournfully through the wreckage.
Trees snapped and splintered down to bare stumps, craters gouged into the earth here and there, and chaos of cracks spiderwebbing across it all.
The weeds and brush had been smashed beyond any hope of recognizing their original shape.
True, I may have had few skills to show for my high level — but my raw physical abilities were unquestionably exceptional.
Even amid all this, I showed not a trace of fatigue, swinging the great heavy hammer over and over until I had the tin can completely overwhelmed.
"......"
At last, the can sank to both knees on the devastated ground and began emitting a distinctly unpleasant screech of metal.
He seemed to lack even the strength to lift his arms anymore; the creaking from his two limp, dangling limbs rang out louder than ever.
"Every hit makes your head ring like an earthquake just went off in there."
"How can you hear ringing when you don't even have a head to ring, Sister?"
"...You've turned everything around us into a wasteland, and you still have room left for jokes?"
"I wouldn't call anything I've said a joke."
Unlike what the tin can might have assumed, I wasn't feeling relaxed in the slightest.
Daylight was going to break before long, and I was deeply worried about the children back at the church.
All I wanted was to wrap this situation up as quickly as possible and get back there — even an hour sooner mattered.
But the can's toughness, far harder than I'd anticipated, along with his stubborn spirit, had caught me more off guard than I cared to admit.
His body, judged from the outside, was wrecked past all saving, one breath away from crumbling apart entirely.
And yet he kept his head raised to the very end, refusing to give up.
"The way you keep guarding your left chest so desperately — I take it that weakness you mentioned back then wasn't a lie after all?"
"Ha, of course not... everything I told you back then was the truth."
"...?"
As I took a step forward to start bringing this to a close, the can suddenly spoke some strange words and began to cloud the atmosphere.
"Are you worried about the children still back at the church?"
"That goes without saying."
"Which means that joke of yours earlier wasn't born of genuine composure after all."
It sounded like nothing more than a final will and testament, yet somehow an odd feeling kept seeping up out of his words.
Too distinct to brush off as mere instinct, this strange sensation.
Why did his stance — one that seemed to have abandoned all will to fight ages ago — leave me feeling so uneasy?
"Don't worry. The children are safe."
The moment I shoved the nagging unease aside, gripped my hammer properly once more, and moved to finish the job —
from deep within his crushed helm drifted a single quiet remark that made my ears doubt themselves.
"Are you begging for your life now?"
"Not that. I made my peace with it long ago."
"Then is it some ploy to catch me off guard?"
"That's not it either. I was simply stating what's true."
I couldn't get a read on him at all.
And no wonder — an air of a man who had given up on living still hung unmistakably over the can's slumped body.
It didn't seem like any scheme to lower my guard.
After all, for someone who'd been blocking barehanded with no proper weapon to speak of, trying to bait my carelessness now would have been utterly pointless.
"Nothing has happened that you would need to worry about."
"What on earth have you been talking about this whole time?"
Rather than offering anything resembling an answer, the can slowly lifted his face toward the sky with an air of contentment.
"You can see it for yourself. I never had any intention of beating you. My own weapon, Severance, is destroyed beyond repair. My defeat was as plain as day from the start."
"You held out quite well for someone who 'never intended to win.'"
"Well, lying down and surrendering outright would have been far too pathetic, wouldn't it?"
In short, most of what the can was saying now seemed to be idle rambling that didn't really deserve my attention.
He could feel his end closing in right in front of him, and he was spitting out whatever thoughts came to mind, if only to hold on a little longer.
- Shff
Feeling like listening had been a waste of my time, I squared my stance once more and was just about to swing the hammer straight down on him —
when, out of nowhere, the faint sound of someone's presence reached me from behind.
"Levi—!!!!"
A familiar voice, ringing out powerfully from beyond the thinning brush that still stood around the devastated forest.
The instant I heard that voice, I made the hammer vanish from my hand without a moment's hesitation.
"You damn demons—!! I will protect Levi, no matter what!!"
Eisen stepped boldly into view before me, the small iron sword in his hand leveled sharply at the tin can.
Caught off guard by how abruptly the situation had turned, I could do nothing but blink my eyes in open bewilderment.
"E-Eisen...?"
"Don't worry, Levi! I'll be the one to crush that guy, I swear it!"
Ellie and Iris slipped in beside Eisen right after, warily thrusting their own weapons out toward the tin can.
"W-we have... the blessing of Lady Paelia on our side...!"
"W-w-we... we can... we can win..."
The situation had spiraled into chaos in the blink of an eye.
No matter how I turned it over in my head, I could not understand why the children who were supposed to be hiding at the church had shown up here of all places.
"S-Sister...!!"
And to make matters more confusing still, Priscilla arrived on the children's heels as well.
"Hah... hah... th-thank goodness... you're still safe..."
"Priscilla...?"
"You wouldn't come no matter how long I waited... and the children were so worried... hahk..."
Priscilla looked ready to collapse from lack of air at any moment.
Apparently she'd run all the way here without a single break.
"......"
"I-I'm sorry... I should have held them back somehow..."
"How did you even know to come here...? Wait, more importantly — were there no other demons?"
"Ah, yes. You mean that weirdly round-glasses demon, right?"
Setting everything else aside, the fact that Priscilla and the children had escaped that demon and made it here unharmed was, the more I thought about it, next to impossible.
Fleeing from him surely hadn't been easy either—
"He was lying in the nearby forest, half-dead, gasping for breath — so I finished him off and came!"
"...I'm sorry, what?"
"For some reason, there was a perfectly round hole punched through the very center of his chest."
The moment I heard Priscilla's answer, my expression grew even more bewildered.
But Priscilla paid me no mind at all. Instead, she suddenly crept up close to my side and whispered something quietly into my ear.
"That was you, wasn't it, Sister...? I still don't really understand what's going on... but I do know one thing for certain — you're not our enemy..."
I had never inflicted such a horrific wound on that demon, which only deepened my confusion.
No matter how hard I tried to make sense of the situation, the unresolving questions and this atmosphere flowing along as smoothly as if it had all been scripted refused to come into focus for me.
"Hahaha!! Who do you think you're protecting with that snot-sized little sword, Eisen!"
Meanwhile, the tin can's booming voice rang out suddenly from a distance.
"Wh-what...?! How do you know my name..."
"Still, the way you throw yourself forward without hesitation to protect someone is more than worthy of praise!"
"Who even are you?! How do you know my name?!"
Paying no heed whatsoever to Eisen's flustered questions, the can simply kept laughing heartily, stubbornly carrying on with what he wanted to say.
"Small things pile up, and in the end they carry a great cause. The way you stand right now is truly admirable, Eisen."
"Wh-when did you even see me?! Why are you acting all familiar?!"
"Ellie, Iris — the same goes for you two. You may be nothing much to look at now, but one day you'll have grown into something so tremendous the present you won't even compare."
"H-he even knows our names..."
With those words, the can slowly pushed his crushed body upright from the ground.
"Levinia. I know perfectly well I'm in no position to ask this — but there's one last favor I'd like you to grant me."
"...Which is?"
"I want to fight these children."
At the can's outrageous request, my brows furrowed at once.
"You're calling that a favor..."
"Levi! I want you to sit this one out!"
Before I could even finish my sentence, Eisen suddenly cut in and shouted with all his might.
For a moment, my mouth hung open.
"This time, we're going to defeat a demon with our own strength. We can't keep leaning on your help forever!"
"Th-that's right...! We're pretty strong too...!!"
"S-s-su... surrender... surrender now...!"
What on earth had happened at the church, that the children came back all of a sudden looking this dependable?
The sight of them striving toward something with their own wills was so endearing that I nearly burst into tears without meaning to.
"If you grant my request, I'll give you one piece of very useful information in return."
Saying that, the can — still standing a distance away — slowly picked up a fallen tree branch from the ground.
"And my weapon will be this branch."
"Hah?! Aren't you underestimating us a little too much?!"
"Sh-she's right...! We're pretty strong, you know...?!"
"D-d-don't... don't underestimate... us...!"
Under normal circumstances, this was a request I would never have entertained.
The children were far too young and far too green to be going up against a demon.
But the can's resolve, as he asked on bended ruin of a body to fight them, seemed utterly genuine —
and there was something oddly reassuring about the way he'd swapped in a mere branch for a weapon, subtly telling me he meant no real harm.
"...If you try anything funny, I won't let it slide."
"Of course not."
In the end, I decided to grant the can's outrageous request.
Considering that he was a demon, and everything he'd done to me up until now, calling my trust in him close to zero would hardly be an exaggeration.
But I would be watching from right nearby anyway, so if things took even the slightest strange turn, I could simply step in and cut him down.
Besides, this moment — with the children burning with such determination — might well become excellent groundwork for their future.
I knew all too well that sheltering the children behind my back forever was not the answer, not if I truly wanted what was best for them.
"Eisen. As of today, you are the leader of this party."
Come to think of it, perhaps that was exactly what the can had been hoping for all along.
Though I had no way of knowing why he would so earnestly wish for the children to grow stronger.
"Please — fight with everything you have."
The thought of the children facing a demon already left me uneasy and anxious in equal measure.
But in life, there are things that simply cannot be helped, no matter how you feel about them.
Merely standing back and watching over them was never, ever the right thing to do for the children—