Chapter 599: Jealousy is My Power (99)
Chapter 599: Jealousy is My Power (99)
The threads, which had been pulled taut as if ready to ensnare the woman at any moment, suddenly lost their tension.
Just as the woman inwardly questioned the change with a startled 'Huh?'—
The threads began to swirl and entwine in sync with her own rotation. Like a silkworm weaving a cocoon, thousands of shimmering strands tangled together in an instant.
Before anyone realized it, the Princess’s light gray pupils had narrowed into vertical slits.
“Have you ever heard the rumor that dragons can read the future?”
“What is this…!”
The woman struggled belatedly, trying to halt her rotation, but it was already too late.
The restraint of the threads, drawn in like a whirlpool, left no openings. Trapped and unable to budge an inch, the only option left for the woman was to let out a scream filled with bewilderment.
The girl’s panting voice followed.
“It’s because you were too excited. You should have questioned why we kept circling the same spot, and why none of the scattered threads around us were disappearing despite there being so many.”
“What on earth did you do?!”
Despite the Princess’s calm explanation, the woman could not hide her agitation. She let out a spiteful shriek.
“No matter how good your reflexes are, you couldn't possibly react the moment I showed the slightest sign of rotating! Not unless you were reading my movements in advance...!”
An answer was unnecessary.
The woman’s words trailed off as her stunned gaze met the Princess’s eyes.
Light gray pupils, slit vertically.
Looking back, this girl had been dodging the woman’s ambushes with uncanny precision.
Even though there was no way her physical abilities could be that superior.
“...Don’t tell me, you can see it?”
“I see it. Not exactly the future, but your emotions.”
To the ‘Dragon’s Eye,’ emotions appeared as hues.
And if one knows the direction in which emotions flow, one can discern the opponent’s intent. Furthermore, the woman was a Fiend who wouldn't be out of place if called the incarnation of desire itself.
There was no way the Princess would fail to read her. Since the day she was born, she had both cursed and relied upon these eyes.
Ending her dry explanation there, the Princess fumbled with her remaining hand to pull a potion from her robe. As soon as she poured it over her piercing wound, a hiss of white steam began to rise.
As expected of Imperial supplies.
Flesh and muscle began to knit back together in real-time. Though it came with a stinging throb, it was bearable compared to the agony of having her limbs impaled.
It was then.
“Pfft, aha… Ahahahaha!”
The woman suddenly burst into laughter.
The Princess turned her sunken gaze toward her in silence. Even though she looked like prey caught in a spider’s web, the woman’s face remained arrogant.
“But, but what are you going to do? With your frail magic, you can barely even scratch my skin.”
Gulp, gulp.
The Princess remained silent, draining the potion in one go. Only then did her mangled insides feel somewhat settled.
Good. I should get a few more bottles to give to Sir Ian as a gift.
She was occupied with such thoughts.
“Don’t tell me you’re planning to wait until everything is over? It’s useless! I am the last remaining core of the barrier. In other words, unless you kill me… your comrades won't be safe from my sister’s hands either...!”
“You were doing something quite interesting.”
The Princess spoke with a faint smile.
The atmosphere was strange. For the first time, the woman fell silent, overwhelmed not by curiosity, but by that very smile.
A chill ran down her spine. It was a sensation she had never felt in her life.
“Adding rotation in mid-air to increase piercing power… It’s a simple idea. I wonder why I never thought of it until now?”
“That’s because even if you have the idea, it’s hard to apply! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to twist a spell formula even slightly...!”
But the woman’s mockery failed to reach the Princess’s ears.
Before she could finish, the Princess slowly raised her hand and aimed it at the woman’s head.
All while wearing a bright, innocent smile.
“...Thousand Li Step.”
Crrreeeeeak!
The blue bird spread its wings, then immediately began to rotate its body, fiercely boring into the woman’s forehead. A groan escaped the woman’s lips at the sensation of her skin being torn.
“Ggggh…! What, what are you trying to do...!”
“Do you know the proverb about raindrops piercing a rock? I’m planning to do something similar… Thousand Li Step.”
Crrreeeeeak!
As the magic was fired again, faint droplets of blood began to form on the woman’s forehead. Since she was piercing the exact same spot repeatedly, it was a natural result.
It was just that the concept was excessively cruel.
Cien, the 5th Princess of the Empire, hummed to herself without losing her smile.
“I wonder how many times you can hold out? Twenty? Thirty? Or maybe… over a hundred?”
She looked like a child plucking the wings off a dragonfly.
The woman writhed her entire body in a terror she had never experienced before. But no matter how much she wanted to escape, the restraints holding her showed no sign of loosening.
In the end, the woman could only scream.
“Guh, ugh… Aaaaaagh! Are you really going to do this?! My daughter… my daughter will never forget this grudge...!”
“Thousand Li Step.”
“AAAAAAAAAGH!”
Every time the Princess recited the trigger word, the woman’s shrill screams grew longer.
Now, the azure-white bird was scraping the woman’s skull with its beak. The pain and fear of one’s bone being slowly hollowed out was something no one could understand without experiencing it.
A state of panic.
Logic and reason collapsed. An animal facing death becomes that much more desperate. The Bat Fiend, born with bestial traits, was no different.
The woman began to shriek whatever came to mind.
“...That man!”
For the first time.
The lips of the girl, who had been incessantly chanting the trigger word, stopped. A cold light flickered in her light gray eyes.
Seeing this, a twisted arc formed on the woman’s lips.
So this is your weakness.
“That man, do you think he’ll like this? A woman who killed the mother of his precious junior… won't it be repulsive? I’m a noble too, so I know. A jealous woman is never a suitable match...!”
“Lady Aira Yurdina.”
In a truly elegant tone and voice, the Princess cut the woman off.
“On the honor of the Great Imperial Family, there is something I must correct. I do not feel anything like ‘jealousy.’”
The woman’s brow furrowed slightly at those words.
What nonsense was she trying to spout now?
However, the Princess’s face as she placed a hand over her heart looked incredibly serious. Her lovely lips parted, and a soft, quiet manner of speech followed.
“Because ‘jealousy’ is the lot of the weak, isn't it? Therefore… I do not feel ‘jealousy.’ Never.”
And once again, with a bang, the bird’s wings burst forth.
“Ugh, ah, ugh… AAAAAAAAAAGH!”
The woman’s screams echoed. Using them as an accompaniment, the Princess gritted her teeth and shouted with bloodshot eyes.
“Because such a thing does not suit a ‘Dragon’!”
Bang, bang, bang!
The frequency of the mana bird leaping from the girl’s hand grew shorter and shorter.
Once, twice, and then countless strikes.
The sound of stone being ground down echoed, and bone dust mixed with blood stuck to the ground in a slushy mess.
Finally, the performance reached its climax.
“Aaah, aaaaah, AAAAAAAAAAAGH!”
It was when her voice had risen to its absolute limit.
Pop.
Like a firework, the woman’s skull burst open, scattering its contents. Blood, brain matter, and bits of flesh that once formed a human body.
A rain began to fall. A rain that smelled horribly of iron.
Only then did the girl catch her ragged breath and take a few steps back. As if she couldn't believe what she had done, the arm that had repeatedly spat out the azure-white bird was trembling violently.
The Princess gripped that arm with her remaining hand.
Then, biting her lip, she forced a fierce expression.
“...It’s not ‘jealousy.’ Absolutely not.”
It was, so to speak, the girl’s first recognized murder.
And the birth of a dragon.
Starlight and blood-clouds mingle.
The sky splits into thousands of pieces, and from between them, a spray of blood rushes in with a grotesque shriek. The enemy the man faced as he drifted through the air had long since lost even its biological form.
It would be easier if it were a natural disaster.
The man, facing a cataclysm with a single sword, looked like the stranger element. What waited at the end of this endless battle?
Just when not a single breakthrough could be seen—
[...!]
The blood-red mist that was about to pounce on the man suddenly wavered, showing signs of abnormality.
And then, the barrier shook.
Thump, thump, thump!
The sound of the earth being struck repeatedly echoed, and the blood-red clouds began to sway violently from side to side. After a while—
[Don't tell me...!]
With a pop, the mist scattered, and a beautiful woman plummeted to the ground.
Her eyes were filled with utter disbelief.
Only then did the man murmur in an emotionless voice.
“Is it finally beginning...?”
With a twitch.
The fingers of the fallen girl trembled.
It was the moment all the puzzle pieces clicked into place.