Chapter 129
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 129
Chapter Title: The Empress and the Clown
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What in the world are these people doing? Why are humans hunting down members of the Blood Demon Tribe... No.
'That's how it always was. Right.'
That's right. Now that she thought about it properly, humans had always been like this. A race that harbored endless hatred toward the demon race and had ultimately struck first against them, providing the spark that ignited the war known as the God-Demon Great War.
Such humans had trespassed into the castle filled with memories of her and her master, slaughtering her kin without permission. So, wasn't what she had to do obvious?
-Shriirik!!
"Wha...? Everyone, sto...!!"
-Pfoobubuk!!!
"Kuhk....!"
"H-How...? There's still one with strength left...!!"
-Pak!
Blood flowing from the coldly slain corpses of the Blood Demon Tribe transformed into sharp blades, piercing through the intruders. The humans who had laughed while killing the Blood Demon Tribe met their end right there, slain by the very blood of the kin they had murdered.
But even after slaughtering all the humans, Batori didn't spare them a glance. She stared blankly at the Blood Demon Tribe members who had died.
"What... happened....."
Humans were always like that, so it wasn't unusual for them to show hostility and attack. The only strange thing was that the Blood Demon Tribe— a race that wouldn't fall to mere humans like these, no matter how weak or young the individual— hadn't put up any proper resistance. Not one of those just killed by the humans had even shown signs of regeneration.
With a confused expression, Batori tossed the human corpses out for the beasts to devour, but she buried her kin's bodies in the castle garden. To her, nothing was more precious than her master, but her master had always cherished affection for their kin above all else, despite finding everything bothersome.
After burying all her kin, Batori grew faintly curious about the state of affairs outside the castle. Not knowing when Erzsebet might return, she had been guarding the castle faithfully, but she slipped out just for a moment to survey the world.
"What in the world... is this...?"
And the world she faced after so long had turned into hell itself.
No matter how devotedly Batori had lived solely for serving Erzsebet in the castle, leaving her ignorant of the outside situation, the world she remembered hadn't looked like this.
Around the time her master, Erzsebet, had vanished saying she was going to sleep, news struck the continent like lightning: the demon race's god, the Demon God, had been defeated by the humans' god.
As if to prove it, every demon living on the continent had uniformly weakened, while even the frailest humans mercilessly massacred them.
"Over there! Another demon!"
"Ha! Pretty decent-looking one? This might be fun..."
-Shukagak!!
"Uh...?"
"Wha...? W-What's...!!!"
But even amid such commotions, Batori's power remained intact. Amid the ridiculously weakened demons, she alone retained the full strength Erzsebet had bestowed upon her, butchering every human who tried to block her path.
And through their dying words, she grasped what was happening on the continent.
"No way... my kin...!!"
In that process, she learned one shocking fact. Her own race— and her master's race as well— the Blood Demon Tribe. The few remaining on the continent had been designated as the humans' top priority for extermination, effectively wiping them all out.
"Th-The races corresponding to those 'Seven Deadly Sins' were ordered for priority elimination...! A-And among them, the Blood Demon Tribe, kin of that 'Sloth,' were already few in number and mostly gathered around Sloth's castle... Eek!!"
-Slice!!
"........."
With a dazed expression, Batori decapitated the human confessing the fate of the continent's Blood Demon Tribe and returned to the castle.
Back to the castle where all her remaining kin had finally been slaughtered, where her master still hadn't returned, and only cold silence lingered.
"...Aaaah.....!!!"
The moment she reached the castle, Batori collapsed there, sobbing uncontrollably.
Out of attachment to her kin? Rage at demons being hunted like prey? Fear that humans might come for her life at any moment?
None of that.
"Lady Erzsebet...!!!"
She simply wept over the fact that her master's cherished kin had been annihilated. Despair that if her master learned of this, she might be greatly disappointed... And the realization that the extinction of those kin Erzsebet treasured so dearly confirmed, beyond doubt, that Erzsebet no longer existed on the continent.
That day, Batori wept endlessly. She abandoned her daily castle maintenance— done in faith that her master would return any day— and buried herself in the bedroom at the castle's highest level, where their memories lingered, weeping.
Why had she been left behind? What had happened to make her master stay hidden even as all the Blood Demon Tribe faced extinction?
After weeping in the bedroom for so long, one day she suddenly emerged.
She wandered the empty castle with blank eyes, etching every sight into her memory.
"...I'll wait."
Unlike the weakening demons outside, she strangely hadn't lost her power. No— precisely, her power as a Blood Demon Tribe member had declined, but...
'Lady Erzsebet's blood.'
The blood of Erzsebet still flowing through her body remained potent. As if signaling that Erzsebet lived somewhere on the continent.
"I'll wait."
So, she would wait.
So that when Erzsebet awoke from her slumber and returned, she could greet her again. To prove that not all her kin had died while she slept.
She would wait.
Here, where traces of her remained. Even if a hundred years, hundreds of years passed, she would wait in the same spot.
The moment Batori vowed to wait eternally in one place for Erzsebet—
-Plip... plip...
"......Huh?"
A dark crimson blob like a mass of flesh appeared before her.
.
.
.
.
.
'Damn.'
She had dreamed that familiar dream again.
Batori realized she had awakened not in the castle bedroom where she slept, but in a familiar eastern region overgrown with vegetation, and tried to survey her surroundings.
Ever since recently sensing her 'master's' presence from the south, whenever she fell asleep or lost consciousness, her body naturally pulled her out of the castle toward the south.
Honestly, she wanted to abandon the castle and head south right now...
"Hahaha! Empress! It's the Empress! What a noble guest graces today's audience!"
"........."
A frivolous voice shattered the silence of the east, where humans and demons alike always held their tongues out of fear of the Empress.
The moment she heard that noisy voice, Batori furrowed her brow deeply and turned to face the bizarrely dressed man who had appeared behind her at some point. Wait, was it a man?
His face was obscured by a strange mask, and his garish clown outfit hid any clues to his build or gender.
"Clown."
"Hahaha! Unbelievable! To think Her Highness the noble Empress remembers a mere clown like me...!!!"
She hadn't even called him by name, just the title fitting his appearance, yet the clown before her drew her attention with exaggerated gestures.
His outfit and behavior clashed horribly with the east's grim environment, frequented only by vicious demons or heavily armed humans. The clown's utter incongruity with his surroundings evoked a subtle disgust in any observer.
But knowing more attention would only delight him further, Batori ignored the clown and turned south, where the pull still tugged at her.
"Oh dear! Are you refusing to watch the show I've prepared?"
"......"
-Step. Step.
As she turned away, the clown-clad figure redoubled his comical antics to catch her eye, but Batori marched southward without a glance.
Pausing his actions, the clown stroked his chin.
"Hmm... What a pity. Refusing my prepared performance..."
As if truly regretful, stroking his chin repeatedly, the clown suddenly snapped his fingers as if struck by a brilliant idea.
".....!!"
And in an instant, Batori's position— clearly past the clown, heading south— had reversed.
She had turned her back and marched forward, yet somehow she stood back at her original spot, facing the clown.
"As expected! You couldn't just pass by, could you? Turning back of your own accord to watch my show...!!"
"....Tch!!"
Facing the clown clapping gleefully as if sincerely thrilled, Batori ground her teeth, drew her blood into a massive scythe, and swung it— mimicking the combat style her master often used in her memories.
"Kyak?!"
In an instant, the clown before her split in half. His clothes shredded, blood sprayed like a fountain, and from the severed cross-section... his face emerged instead of entrails.
"Wahaha! Surprise!"
Casually emerging from his split body, the clown pulled a white cloth from somewhere and covered his fresh, steaming corpse. Lifting the cloth, the body vanished, replaced by a garish cane perfect for performances.
While the clown performed his corpse-to-cane magic trick, Batori urgently kicked off the ground and flew south to avoid his pace.
"Where are you going? The show's already started!"
-Whoosh!!
".....Grit!!"
But her movement came to naught.
Breaking the sound barrier with a sonic boom at tremendous speed, her vision flipped once more. Somehow, she stood before the clown again, witnessing his absurd performance.
"....Annoying... bastard!!"
"Hohoho! What a compliment. The highest praise for this clown!!"
Her attempt to head south despite— 'today's' too— the clown's interference had failed, so Batori vented her utmost frustration, splattering blood everywhere.
She usually avoided using blood against random heroes or demons to hide her race, but this irritating clown required full commitment.
He was one of the strongest humans, a 5-star hero, after all.
"Come now... Don't stare so intensely. It's scary."
Having swapped his laughing mask for an angry one, the clown smiled slyly, shuffling a deck of cards in one hand while holding his newly made cane in the other.
A 5-star hero among heroes, the supreme trickster.
The Hero of Deception, Pierre. Nicknamed the Clown.
Dodging the lethally flying blood scythes, he scattered his cards.
"Ahaha! Let's enjoy ourselves! O Empress! Isn't your stage here, not the south?"
"Shut up... you!!"
The Empress, most silent among all Demon Realm masters over long ages, with the least activity. News of her recently breaking silence and acting unpredictably had prompted the clown's dispatch to restrain her— and he was performing his role flawlessly.
"Hahaha! Where are you rushing off to? What urgent business makes you reject even my show?"
Amid a massive blood flood evoking an ocean, the clown produced a white dove, launched it skyward, and glared at the Empress with cold eyes hidden behind his mask. Why had the once-silent Empress stirred lately? Why did her movements beyond the castle point south?
"You insolent clown...!!"
The Empress— Batori— ignored his questions, endlessly splattering blood. She dyed the world and the area in crimson, forming a colossal blood dome that physically pulverized everything nearby.
"Oh my! So violent. I hate violence, you know!"
Needling her to the end, the clown countered by fanning out his shuffled deck.
He wedged a single Joker card between his fingers and stepped onto the blood-soaked stage.