Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 13
Chapter Title: No, My Heretic Playdough!
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Next to me was Lancelot, his eyes sparkling with the thrill of battle that hadn't faded yet.
This was his first time killing someone, but he didn't seem mentally shaken at all.
So I asked him,
"Isn't this your first murder?"
"Hm? Oh! They're criminals, right? So it's not murder—it's righteous punishment! Hehe."
Bisil's body shuddered violently as he overheard that from up front. We kept walking anyway.
"...Do whatever you want."
"Damn it! Liam! I like you!"
'This crazy bastard...'
This guy wasn't right in the head either.
Nobles apparently didn't see people who crossed certain lines as human.
I left the personality education of this budding serial killer to Maxim and just kept walking. Sorry, Maxim...
"W-We... we've arrived."
The place Bisil guided us to was a single-story house in relatively better condition than the surrounding buildings.
Once he'd finished guiding us, Bisil dropped to his knees and begged.
"Please spare my life! I swear I won't commit any more crimes!"
"Oh? You're pretty quick on the uptake."
"Please, just my life!"
I knocked him out since I was tired of listening, broke his limbs, and tossed him into a back alley.
This was plenty for a guide.
"Alright, shall we head in?"
"Wanna put some muscle into it?"
I stopped Lancelot from smashing the door with his sword and just twisted the doorknob a few times to break it before opening the door.
Even though we entered quietly, two men in white priest robes holding candles stood before us.
"Wh-Who are you?"
Since we'd been spotted anyway, I lit up the house with light magic. The two priests shielded their eyes from the sudden brightness.
Looking around, the wooden crates were filled with nothing but bread, and there was nothing else noteworthy.
"Urk! Who are you people?! We're priests dispatched from the Church of Luminosity!"
The men in front of me shouted, but mana doesn't lie.
"Priests from the Church of Luminosity living in the slums without guards and handing out food? I've never seen or heard of an operation like that."
I heightened my mana sight and focused my senses.
Sure enough, the mana color from the floor behind the priests was distinctly different.
"That's the floor right there! Lancelot, let's rip it up."
"Where? There?"
I pointed with my finger, and Lancelot walked over slowly, hand on his sword hilt. The priests' eyes changed.
"Foul ones who block the steps of the Great One! I shall appease His wrath with your blood!"
"Knew it."
Black energy erupted from the two priests, and black thorns shot up from under Lancelot's feet.
Lancelot leaped away nimbly, while black tentacles crawled toward me from in front.
"Hm... This might get annoying..."
After some thought, I clapped twice.
-Clap clap!
Four black shadows burst in from outside the door and severed both priests' arms in the blink of an eye.
"Aaaagh!"
Their movements were graceful.
The two who'd cut off the arms forced the priests to their knees in an instant, while the others shoved hands into their open mouths to yank out their poison capsules, then struck the napes of their necks to knock them out.
I blankly clapped at the beautiful division of labor.
"Huh? What the?"
"Alright, Lancelot, playtime's over. His Majesty assigned these guys, so hand the priests over to them."
"Eh? What... This got boring all of a sudden."
'Crazy bastard...'
Two shadows hoisted a priest each over their shoulders, while the other two knelt on one knee before me.
"Send those two to the underground prison in the capital, leave just enough outside to guard, and have everyone else come in. We're ripping up that floor and going down."
The shadows nodded and headed out, returning seconds later with two more shadows.
"Open the floor. Everyone, get ready."
"Bigger evil spawn... evil spawn..."
Ignoring the dopamine-high mutterings, we tore up the floor to reveal a large magic circle.
"Huh?"
"No passage?"
As I sensed something off and spun up a circle to analyze the magic circle, one shadow brought over a severed arm and dragged it vertically across.
Blood poured out, filling the magic circle's runes.
It glowed, the floor split, and a dark passage appeared. Lancelot and I just blankly clapped.
"This is the imperial family? Impressive."
"Ahh, our proud organization. I'll be sure to remember this."
The shadows awkwardly bowed their heads one by one before descending.
"Hm... Wanna go in?"
It was embarrassing to even say, but Lancelot was already excitedly chasing after the shadows.
'Crazy bastard...'
Muttering the phrase for the umpteenth time today, I followed. All that was visible was a pitch-black passage.
"Tch tch, slimy bastards. How do they even live in a place like this?"
The shadows flinched at the crude words in my mutter, but I lit up the way with light magic and proceeded.
At the door ahead stood a line of dazed vagrants.
"Knock them all out quietly and haul them outside."
The shadows sprang into action at my command.
'This... is power?'
One click, and everything got done smoothly. While I was lost in thought over the premium outsourcing, the job was already finished. The shadows stood dumbly, awaiting orders.
"Send them in first, then leave one behind—you can kill the rest."
Opening the iron door revealed heretics sitting in a circle around a massive magic circle, rummaging through their own chests to spill blood onto it.
The blood flowed toward a black insect egg in the center.
Hearts were piled behind the heretics, the corpses of adults and children alike, all smiling.
The heretics' eyes focused on the open door.
From behind the black egg emerged a squinty-eyed man in white priest robes that didn't suit the place.
"My, my~ Who might these uninvited guests be, tracking mud into the ritual for the Great One?"
Of course the squinty villain would talk like a total dog.
Daring to pull this crap in the capital? My head heated up, my circles spun fiercely. I'd kill that bastard myself.
"Shut up—show's over? Quit spacing out and slaughter every last heretic bastard!"
"Oh dear, it seems some education is in order."
'Oh dear, my ass.'
The shadows charged at my command, but the surrounding heretics stopped what they were doing to protect the squinter.
The heretics and shadows faced off, naturally leaving me, Lancelot, and the squinter staring each other down.
The squinter grinned and summoned a magic circle. No way I'd let him.
I blasted it with light magic, but a massive, grotesque hand emerged from it to take the hit instead.
"You must give us time to introduce our children, yes?"
Out came a bizarre spider, a withered body with enormous wings like a bird, a giant wielding a butcher knife sewn with human skin, a two-headed snake—horrific summons.
"Lancelot, can you handle the knife guy?"
"Yeah, I'll give it a shot."
Lancelot nodded seriously, his grin gone—quite the contrast to his big-evil-spawn hunt.
He drew his sword and charged. The giant raised its cleaver high and swung down, but Lancelot deflected the force with his blade flat, spun, and sliced into its thigh.
Judging it wouldn't die from that, I glared at the squinter.
The squinter, smirking as he watched, spoke.
"As expected, you're no ordinary folk! Ahh, this is the Great One's reprimand! He craves even finer blood!"
Repulsed by his mad gleam, I glared harder.
The spider shot webs at me, the freak bird fired feathers from its wings.
I snatched the web midair and dodged the feathers by leaping back, then flung the web at the bird to tangle its wings and send it crashing. I walled off the spider with earth magic and barraged it with fire on top.
Sensing the snake slithering up my right ankle, I levitated its two heads with both hands and tore it in half.
I lasered the thrashing bird's neck, separating head from body.
Stepping past the mangled, burning corpses, I looked ahead...
"Haha, sorry for the spectacle. Looks like I underestimated you."
...I'd expected a phase two, but he'd finished transforming while I fought.
Spider legs now sprouted from his back, his grotesquely split belly lined with chomping fangs.
Fair play, smart bastard. I'd planned to crush him post-transformation...
"Well then, shall we start over?"
Thorns rained from the spider legs.
I blocked with telekinesis, but the speed was no joke.
Struggling to defend, I spun my circles harder. My mind raced, gathering mana on target.
I barely aimed an explosion spell at his head, but my focus slipped—the blast hit a spider leg joint instead.
As the legs exploded, his smirk turned serious.
"An explosion in midair? Haha~ How did you manage that?!"
"The Great One told me while licking my shoes."
At my taunt, true malice finally gleamed in the squinter's eyes.
"...Insolent fool."
"Audacious prick."
We gathered mana, glaring, then thrust our hands out together. Tendrils twisted like vines from his hand toward me.
I infused my light magic with physical force to block and advanced.
Energy Wave would leave me wrecked for a while, but... I had to crush this guy personally.
Light flooded the room as I burned through the tendrils, step by step.
I wanted to shout some cool battle cry, but I felt drained.
Closing in, the fangs on his belly gaped to devour me. I cut the light and cast on my right hand.
Mana spun rapidly, forming a storm that coalesced into a sphere.
"Die, you bastard! Reincarnation Boon!"
x-Change confirmed...
...Right? Dropped into a fantasy world, don't you wanna ape your fave subculture moves at least once?
Tweaking mana control with concepts got me something close enough.
I shoved it into the grotesque maw swallowing my arm and detonated.
My hand shredded too, but his gut was blasted wide open. Felt like mine was too.
"Kuaaaagh!"
The squinter spewed blood and collapsed, hole in his belly.
The mad bastard was still writhing—alive.
'You're for torture, punk.'
Save him for texture play later.
Glancing aside, the heretics were mostly done. Lancelot's sword shimmered with aura as he cleaved the giant's neck—and cleaver—in one go.
'Ooh, growth event.'
All that remained was this suspicious black egg.
The altar connected to the magic circle via pulsing black veins.
Anyone could tell it was ominous. I lasered it, and it burst surprisingly easily.
"Stuff like this? Taking it for research would just spell trouble... Huh?"
As the egg crumbled, a yellow-haired fairy covered in sticky tar leaped out.
Glittering wings, white clothes—mystical vibe.
First fairy I'd seen. Rescue her first?
I blasted light to see better; the goo melted away.
Cranking the output cleared it fully, and the fairy's eyelids fluttered as she awoke.
"Uh... hello?"
She stared blankly at me, looked around, then zipped to the squinter upon spotting him.
"Whoa! That's my chew toy! Nooo!"
I yelled in panic, fearing splash damage, but with fury on her face, she thrust her hand—and a massive light beam reduced his head to ash.
"Uh... my heretic playdough..."
My toy's head powdered before my eyes, but she looked so wronged I let it slide.
She fluttered back to me puffed up.
"Feeling better now?"
Tensing for a sudden attack, mana at the ready, she dabbed blood from my arm and chewed it.
Maybe she couldn't talk since I hadn't answered?
"Can you even speak?"
As I spaced out at the absurdity, her throat bobbed with a gulp.
A golden thread linked us, flashed, and vanished.
She fluttered back, perched on my shoulder, nuzzled my neck a few times, and closed her eyes.
[Raise me.]
"...Pardon?"
[I said raise me.]
The Empire's Crown Prince was forcibly selected as the fairy's butler.