Would You Tell Me Your Name? (2)
"Hey, you. Wandering around a place this dark without even lighting a magic stone lamp — what do you think you're doing?"
A ruffian of a man curled his lip and eyed me with a greasy stare.
"My, my. I simply have rather good eyesight, that's all."
Jake raised the magic stone lamp high and shone it on me.
As the white light spilled out with an eerie cast, Black quietly crept from my elongated shadow.
"Master. That bitch registered with the Pathfinder Guild just yesterday. She's a total nutcase."
"Huh? What, so she was a newbie?"
"N-no, sir! There's something suspicious about her!"
Jake prattled on at the ruffian.
Had he gotten that broken arm healed by a priest yesterday?
I tilted my head as I watched them, and the man standing beside the ruffian stepped forward, subtly shielding him.
"Eh, whatever. We'll just play with her a bit and kill her. Jake, put one in her leg."
The moment the ruffian spoke, Jake's mouth twisted into a smirk and he trained the crossbow in his hands on me.
Heh. Wonder if his crossbow skills are any good?
Twang!
The heavy snap of the string releasing rolled out, and a black-painted bolt came flying.
That meticulous black coating — you could practically smell Jake's shady personality in it.
Why'd you paint it black, I wonder? Heehee.
"Daughter?!"
Leaving Auntie's startled cry behind me, I stood still and swallowed the bolt.
Somewhere in that pitch-black sea, the black bolt lost its force and dropped — and Black scooped it up.
In my previous life, even the high-tier ability users' warheads were black, so for a while it was convenient.
Black clothes forever!
"Uh…?"
Jake's face looked especially stupid.
With that green hair of his, he'd always given off a weedy, grassy sort of impression.
Then, as realization hit him, his face went sallow in an instant.
Ah. Now he looked more like a bean sprout.
"Jake! You useless bastard! Can't you even land a single shot? Ugh, this is why Pathfinders are worthless."
The clueless ruffian blamed Jake, but the man beside him had also sensed something — he positioned himself to block in front of the ruffian.
"Young Master. Something's off."
"Huh? What is it, Branco?"
Heh. He's got a bit of a nose for trouble. Branco.
"Are you attacking me right now?"
I tilted my head demurely, drew the crossbow Black had loaded for me from within, and fired it at the head of the priest who was still staring blankly.
I immediately stashed the crossbow back into Black, dropped low, and sprang forward.
"Huh?"
The instant Branco drew his sword and threw himself in front of the ruffian, a black bolt sprouted between the priest's brows. His eyes rolled back and his body crumpled.
Jake's dumbfounded voice and Branco's rang out in succession.
"Young Master!"
Branco coated his blade in a blue radiance and charged at me, but I slipped past him like flowing darkness and dove straight into Jake's arms.
Jake still had his gaze fixed far away, not even registering me.
I drew my short sword, severed the arm holding the magic stone lamp, and struck his head in the same motion.
Slash!
The soft sensation of slicing through flesh soaked crimson into my fingertips.
My lower belly clenched and throbbed as ecstasy washed over me.
The corners of my mouth lifted on their own. Heeheehee.
I lightly kicked the falling magic stone lamp; it flew into the wall and shattered with a crunch.
Darkness flooded down in its wake, and Black settled over everything.
Thud.
A thick, bright-red liquid gurgled up from Jake's throat and soaked the floor.
Black poured out freely and began to chew and devour it.
Crunch, crunch.
"Young Master! Stay behind me!"
The mass of Aura flowing from Branco's sword coalesced and shone blue.
Hmm.
Compared to my previous life, even the guys who used Aura were pathetic.
Was it because they didn't have superpowers?
It was a cheap parlor trick I could manage myself, but I watched with my head tilted — lightsaber play I hadn't tried yet in this life.
"Stop hiding in the dark like a coward and come out! You thief!!"
Branco swung his lightsaber around, seemingly searching for my presence.
Finding me in the dark was impossible from the start.
Unless you had a superpower, that is.
That faint light wasn't nearly enough.
He was swinging his sword with a sharp edge to it, but I wasn't even there to begin with.
I rested a hand against my cheek and lazily watched his glowing twirl-twirl sword dance.
"B-Branco!"
"It's all right. Young Master, don't fall behind."
To the anxious ruffian's voice, Branco answered sturdily.
Heh. Should I mess with him a little?
I had Black mimic my voice and spoke from behind the Young Master.
"Young Master, what is your name?"
"There you are!"
Ah. So that's what my voice sounds like in this life.
People's voices usually sound different from how they hear themselves.
It's more of a young, girlish voice than I expected.
"That's right, my daughter. Your voice is a sound like a blessing upon this earth."
I-I don't think it's quite that much…
Branco's empty slash cut through the darkness, scattering blue light.
Hmm. I've seen enough of the dance. Shall we get started?
Black.
Crunch.
"Aaaagh!!!"
Black chewed off Branco's leg.
He screamed, his face contorted with agony.
Heh. Not bad.
Even with one leg gone, Branco didn't fall — he stood on the remaining leg and kept his balance.
And through it all, he never extinguished the blue light.
"Y-Young Master! Run—!"
Oh, come on. Saying something that boring?
From the pitch-black darkness of the ceiling, Black oozed down and engulfed Branco.
Crushed under Black, Branco's blue light went out.
The shredded lightsaber clown dropped into the deep, deep black, simmering into a thick, squelching broth as the freezing sea swallowed him whole.
Without even leaving a death cry, he was gone.
Hmm. Kind of anticlimactic.
Maybe I should've at least clashed swords with him once, for politeness' sake?
Black still seemed hungry for more prey, prowling around the Young Master and begging my permission.
"Hic! B-Branco? Branco!!"
The Young Master, starting to tremble, let out a pitiful sound.
Even that sound was being swallowed by Black, so it broke off in flat, muffled chunks — like being in an anechoic chamber — creating an uncanny silence.
"Hic! Wh-what! What! What!"
Like a broken record, the Young Master repeated the same line as he rolled around on the floor alone.
I covered my mouth and laughed at the physical comedy.
Heeheehee.
Tiptoeing along with Black through the quiet, I approached him.
"Young Master, would you tell me your name?"
"Eeek! S-save me!"
His luxurious boots shoved through the red muck on the floor as the Young Master started to flee.
He rolled and tumbled quite well, even as his ornate armor scraped the ground over and over.
All the while he was a pitiful mess, scattering tears and snot.
Oh. His running skills are top-notch, at least.
Is that a Young Master thing?
I swam forward through the darkness with Black.
In the darkness, a squelching sound rang out, and Branco's blue light was swallowed in an instant.
Watching an Expert's radiance vanish so pointlessly, Tenes felt as though his breath had stopped.
The man who had always been at his side — a good friend and a mentor.
That man gave no answer at all from within the silence.
Tenes felt a chill run through him at the gentle, affectionate voice that echoed through the quiet.
A crawling, tickling sensation seemed to worm its way between his veins.
And so he who was, in name at least, the second son of Lucration, the Golden Lion, became nothing more than a golden pig, scrambling away on all fours in desperate flight.
He was screaming something, though he himself couldn't tell what.
His knees cracked open, and mud with a sharp, stinging smell splattered across his face.
Even the lightweight metal armor packed with magical engineering felt impossibly heavy now.
Splat, squelch. Crunch.
Strange sounds came from behind.
Something breaking.
No — bursting and chewing.
Tenes thought, A d-demon! The demon the White Brightness Society talks about!!
Barely peeling his hands off the floor, Tenes ran with every last breath, leaving the fading chewing sounds behind.
In the thick-laid darkness he had no idea where he was going, but it was only the first floor.
If he just went a little farther, a magic stone lamp would surely appear.
Flailing his arms, enduring the pain of occasionally slamming into walls, he pressed on.
Even after running for a long while, all he heard mixed with his noisy footsteps were his own ragged breathing and the hammering of a heart about to burst.
It was far too quiet.
No one was chasing him.
Clutching a faint hope to his chest, Tenes thought again.
The moment I get out, I'll put a massive bounty on that demon bitch.
With his head going blank from the panting breaths, that was what he thought.
That was when it happened.
In the pitch-black darkness, the faintly flickering white light of a magic stone lamp came into view.
Tenes felt relief.
At last.
Finally.
If he just went a little farther, there would be a patrol.
There had to be.
Cradling that hope, Tenes plunged into the light.
"Hah. Hah. Haaah!!"
Planting his hands on his knees, Tenes spent a long while catching his breath beneath the light.
"My, is the game of hide-and-seek over now?"
An elegant, soft voice reached Tenes's ears.
Tenes stiffly turned his frozen head and looked into the darkness.
Right behind him.
A girl with black hair freed from her hood, her face pure white, stood with her hands demurely folded, smiling sweetly at him.
Tenes forgot the situation entirely and lost himself staring at that face.
His already soiled, squelching pants grew wet all over again.
He opened his mouth, trying to say something.
But his trembling lips simply would not part.
In that instant, from behind the girl, from out of the darkness, pitch-blackness extended in a hundred million tendrils and dragged him into the dark in a blink.
Crunch! Squelch!
Burst!
His death cry crumbled small and was swallowed by Black.
And once more, silence settled over the darkness.
"Hmm-hmm-hmm~."
In the muffled quiet, a refined little hum of a song softly rang out.