A Fatal Matchup
When Frey said she would tag along, I accepted without much of an objection. I had a feeling she would. After all, a crisis for the protagonist is the perfect opportunity for the main heroine to shine. If it weren't for the gravity of the situation, I might have let Aris—well, Frey—go alone. But no, that's out of the question. It's far too dangerous. As Aris's guardian (not really), I can't let her walk into danger. I'd rather be torn limb from limb myself. I swear, there are absolutely no selfish motives involved.
A Rift in Space is a crack in the dimensions. Cracks form in the empty air like a windowpane before it finally shatters with a loud crash. At first, the crack is narrow, so only weak monsters can cross over, but the spatial rift gradually expands over time. Once it finishes expanding to a certain point, powerful monsters begin to pour through. That was the stage we were at now. Normally, this process would take quite a while, but due to Astaroth's interference (presumably), the spatial rift had expanded at an alarming rate.
"■■■■■■■■■■■────!!!"
A monster standing nearly four meters tall, its savage nature laid bare across its face, let out a deafening roar. Tough hide. Yellowish skin. A ferocity that allowed it to rip trees out by their roots and swing them like clubs. An ugly giant clad in tattered rags around its lower half. A mid-tier monster. A savage. Otherwise known as an Ogre.
It was a monster incomparably stronger than the green dwarfs we had defeated earlier. Unlike low-tier monsters, which even average students could handle without being part of the Golden Generation, mid-tier monsters were too much for students to bear. From this point on, it was the domain of active-duty heroes. Moreover, if there was one thing an Ogre possessed, it was monstrous strength; approaching one carelessly was a surefire way to end up as a bloody pulp.
"Ugh, what a pain."
Of course, that didn't matter to Frey. Having vaporized the Ogre with a single heat ray, leaving nothing but its ankles, Frey clicked her tongue and quickened her pace.
I glanced at Frey's profile with a sense of quiet admiration. I knew it already, but Frey really is strong. Incredibly so. To think she could slaughter a mid-tier monster in an instant. Lucia can do that too, you know! Though it would have taken some time. People might misunderstand because I get beaten up every day, but Lucia is part of the Golden Generation too! She's strong! She can handle mid-tier monsters! It's just that it would have taken a lot of time. Super Regeneration is specialized for battles of attrition, after all.
I'm glad Frey came along. Otherwise, I would have wasted time in the wrong places. Just like Yujin, Frey's growth rate was extraordinary. We're still only first-years. And it's only been a little over a month since the semester started. At this point in the story, Frey should normally struggle a bit against a mid-tier monster... But instead of going all out, she incinerated it like she was shooing away a bug. At this rate of growth, isn't she on par with Yujin? Ooh, Lucia needs to work hard so she doesn't get left behind!
Come to think of it, I've been spending so much time with Aris lately that I haven't been able to train (self-harm). I've been holding back to keep Aris from finding out. Since I can't let her smell blood, the most I can do is crack my fingers. Sneaking into the bathroom to dislocate my shoulder is my absolute limit. There's no way I can train my ability properly like that.
Waiting for Yujin and Aris to get closer is far too optimistic. How long do I have to wait? A day? A week? A month? ...This won't do. I need to think of a way. Holding back this much has only caused my desires to pile up. There's a limit to how much Aris's cuteness can soothe me. I'm practically itching all over; it's getting hard to bear.
I'm not joking, it's really tough. Suddenly, heat would well up in my chest, turning my body into a furnace. Lucia's sensitive skin became even more delicate, twitching at the slightest touch, and even washing with cold water to cool down did little to soothe the fever. My head felt fuzzy, and the throbbing ache only grew worse. Whenever I fell asleep early, I would inevitably wake up in the middle of the night. Looking at Aris sleeping peacefully with her eyes closed always brought a flurry of thoughts to my mind. Once, I even took Aris's tiny, adorable wrist and pressed it against my own neck.
Lucia isn't stupid. There's no way I wouldn't know when my body is in this state. Frustration. Yes, sexual frustration. To put it crudely, I'm in heat. I'm just a vulgar pervert... N-No, Lucia isn't the bad one here. It's all Aris's fault! Ah, no... Aris is good... she's a good girl... Ugh... M-Maybe the bad one is Lucia's needlessly lewd body? A constitution that easily accumulates desire, a body that goes into heat if it isn't released periodically. That's right. Lucia did nothing wrong. What can I do if my body is just built this way?
Therefore, I have to satisfy my desires regularly. I used to satisfy my lust through self-harm, but since I couldn't do that, the urge had been building up layer by layer. It was so bad that it felt as agonizing as when I was addicted to Regina's drugs. Do you get what I'm saying? Not being able to self-harm makes me want to masturbate. I feel like I'm about to lose to this physical arousal, panting like a female in heat and crawling on the floor. Fortunately, I got to enjoy myself plenty thanks to Murmur, so I thought I'd be fine for a while, but... yeah, let's think of a way. If all else fails, I'll just sneak out in the middle of the night while Aris is asleep. It's a temporary fix, but it's better than nothing.
Shaking my head to clear away these unnecessary thoughts, I focused my mind on what was immediately necessary. Finding Yujin's location wasn't difficult. The heat that had briefly subsided flared up again. The sound of explosions and the sharp clashing of cold steel. Yujin was definitely over there. Although a few monsters blocked our path along the way, they were all reduced to ash by Frey's heat rays. Thanks to that, we didn't waste any time in combat and arrived at our destination in no time.
"Huh?"
As I rushed forward upon spotting Yujin's back, a peculiar sight caught my eye. Mutilated corpses. Frey frowned at the unpleasant scene. Fortunately, they weren't human. Humans don't have scales, nor is their skin green. Several lizard-headed monsters lay dead, hacked to pieces. The cuts were clean, but there were no signs of burns. In that case, Yujin hadn't killed them. Arin could make clean cuts like this, but she was likely in the opposite direction from here. Seeing how there weren't even any signs of resistance, whoever did this must be incredibly skilled...
I rummaged through the Lizardman corpses and picked up a spear that looked quite sturdy. Lizardmen generally belonged to the low-tier category, but exceptionally strong individuals could display power on par with mid-tier monsters. The Lizardman whose head had been split vertically seemed to be one of those special cases. While the other Lizardmen wore filthy rags, this one wore a crude set of armor. Perhaps because of that, the blood-stained spear it held was a decent weapon. The grip wasn't bad. Many humanoid monsters used weapons, but their gear was usually so unusable that I had just stuck to using my knife. But with this spear, as long as it wasn't a high-tier monster, I could land a solid blow.
"Lucia?!"
As I was shaking off the blood from picking up the spear, Yujin called out my name. Thank goodness, Yujin was perfectly fine. He looked energetic, without any major injuries. Whew, I'm so glad he's safe. As the anxiety lingering in a corner of my heart washed away, a bright smile spread across my face.
"Yujin!"
I raised the spear I had just scavenged high in the air and shouted proudly, "I'm here to help!" Though I had no idea how much help I would actually be. With that thought, I turned my gaze toward the monster Yujin was facing. The moment I saw it, I realized who had sliced the Lizardmen to pieces just moments ago.
A helmet resembling ram horns. Blood-red eyes glowing in the dark. Light armor that looked as if it had stolen the night sky. A right arm wrapped in heavy chains. Above all, the sheer aura it radiated. A murderous intent so sharp it felt like a dagger pressing against the nape of my neck. There was no doubt about it—this was a high-tier monster. Of course, if Yujin was struggling, it had to be a high-tier monster. But this knight clad in darkness was no ordinary high-tier monster.
It's the Black Knight.
A named monster. An entity known as the Black Knight, or a Death Knight. It was a monster that had made quite an impression in the original novel.
...This is bad. Talk about terrible luck. If it were any other monster, I would have just rolled with it. But of all the monsters, it had to be the Black Knight. Its compatibility with Lucia is fatally bad. A knight of death. It was terrifying enough as it was, but this was actually its weakest state. That pitch-black armor wasn't meant to protect its body from external attacks. Quite the opposite—it was a sealing device to suppress its power. Once it sustained a certain amount of damage, the armor would shatter, unleashing the Black Knight's true potential.
But the truly terrifying thing about the Black Knight wasn't its sealed power; it was its sword. A longsword shrouded in deathly energy that suppressed healing and worsened wounds. In short, it was a curse. A demonic sword imbued with an incurable curse. In other words, it was Lucia's natural enemy. It wasn't that she couldn't heal at all, but even a minor scratch required immense effort and stamina to regenerate. That was why, in the novel, when Lucia's limbs were severed, she couldn't regenerate them, leaving only her head and torso to roll around on the ground like fallen leaves. Flailing her stumped limbs pathetically, she had tried to stand up somehow, but of course, it was impossible. In the end, she could only stare blankly in despair as the Black Knight walked toward her with heavy steps to decapitate her. Lucia's head was cleanly severed, rolling away like trash. Roll, roll.
...He-he. I suppressed the giggle that threatened to escape my lips. The sentences I had read in the novel became a vivid image, flickering before my eyes. My chest throbbed with excitement, and a shiver ran down my spine. It's just because I'm scared. I'm absolutely not looking forward to it, okay? ...Well, maybe I am. Just a little. A tiny, tiny bit. Seriously. Lucia is a girl who gets things done when she needs to. There's no way I'd satisfy my selfish desires at a crucial moment like this, right?