Chapter 438
Chapter 438
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 438
>Chapter Title: Ah, Now I Feel Like I Can Live a Bit
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Shine stood stock-still, taking in the sight before her. An unidentified young man emerging from a tear in space.
Or was he really a young man?
It was bizarre.
He had an innocent face and clear eyes. Yet, there was a strange sense of incongruity.
But in truth, such a feeling of otherworldliness wasn't all that important.
A torn space.
Yes, that description fit perfectly.
"It seems like that's the case..."
The young man who stepped out from the ripped space looked around with the fresh curiosity of someone visiting the city for the first time. Behind him, the tear in space was knitting itself closed.
That's when a voice rang out.
"Ah, aah. Aaaah...! Th-Three Fingers, please, spare this wretched soul—"
"5th Elder?"
"Yes, 5th—kgh, kghaaaaah!"
The 5th Elder screamed in agony, as if his soul were being ripped apart. In fact, his soul was being torn by the familiars.
The young man watched the scene with clear eyes, then tilted his head.
"So, this is Sanctuary?"
"Pl-Please...!"
"Hm?"
"Three Fingers, have mercy!"
"You're not answering... why..."
The young man looked at the 5th Elder and let out a deep sigh. He seemed to remember the man listening well in the old days. Had he grown dim-witted? His underlings weren't obeying anymore.
Instead, the young man turned to the woman standing before him and posed his question.
"Hello?"
A polite greeting. But Shine didn't respond. The young man tilted his head again.
"Kaharuvrak?"
"..."
"Ktukarhana?"
"..."
"Not that either? Then... Harakona? Saraman? Juberonu?"
What spilled from his lips were archaic greetings that replaced "hello." Ones no longer in use.
Of course, even the young man himself wasn't sure if they were accurate. After all, he was in quite a muddled state right now.
Anyway.
"Uh... what do I do? I can't remember anything else."
The young man scratched his head, clearly at a loss. It wasn't long before Shine finally spoke.
"What are you?"
"Me?"
"Yes, you."
Shine fixed the young man with a chilling gaze. As she observed him quietly, she began to understand. What she saw wasn't everything.
He was far older than he appeared. And perhaps... not even human.
It was reasoning no ordinary person could make. Only Shine, a vampire herself, could deduce it...
"My name? Smith."
"...Smith?"
"Oh, no. I ate everyone who called me Smith, so I can't use that name. Let's see, then..."
The young man folded his fingers one by one as he listed off names. Kenyan, Mark, Colon... common names to less common ones. As he folded each finger, he let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
"This is the problem with getting dumb. I remember all the useless stuff perfectly, but the important things? Total blanks."
He remembered old aliases just fine, but not how to make contact.
And that wasn't all.
He'd vaguely recalled a way to reach out, but forgot he was about to do it and came in person instead.
In other words, he'd forgotten his purpose too...
"5th Elder, you're being loud. Could you quiet down a bit?"
"Aaah, pleeeeease—!"
"Sigh, I should've known."
The young man shook his head at the 5th Elder, with whom conversation was impossible. After a moment, his gaze fell on the familiars.
"And what's that? Who mashed together that horrific... Hooee. One guy, two, three, tanuki... what the heck. Seventy-nine? Seventy-nine? Seventy-nine of them mashed together?"
The young man grimaced as if he'd seen something he shouldn't have. He quickly shifted his gaze to Shine.
"You? Did you do that?"
"You're insane."
"I'm just a little dumb. My attention span's shot, and I'm sensitive to outside stimuli. But it's not all bad. Time flies by."
With that, the young man was already distracted elsewhere. He gaped at the encroaching night settling around them, murmuring in awe.
"What's this? Magic? Some new spell? No, it's not mana... Ah, right."
The young man clapped his hands right then.
He glanced at the familiars, then at Shine, and asked.
"That one? You?"
"I don't know what you're asking."
"That... you know. The 'poof!' thing. 'Poof!'"
At this point, Shine fell into serious contemplation. She hadn't learned his identity, but he was clearly no ordinary being.
And...
- Three Fingers. Please, spare this wretched soul...!
'Three Fingers?'
She didn't know what it meant, but it was unmistakably Salvatium.
He wasn't showing hostility, but that made him no less a potential threat.
'Then...'
...it was right to cut him down.
With her resolve firm, strength naturally flowed into her grip. The encroaching night sensed her intent and brimmed with killing intent. It didn't take long for the entire space to turn hostile toward the young man—
"Hm? Huh? Eh?"
The young man's finger pointed at Shine.
"It was you."
Just one phrase.
And then...
"Haha, hahaha! It was you! Yeah, it was you, huh? Ahahaha! Non-human? You're a non-human? Ahaha, so that's it!"
The young man clapped and laughed brightly. It was a pure, unfeigned laugh, like someone who'd just watched the funniest comedy.
But that lasted only a moment.
"Ah, but what is it?"
The young man tilted his head.
"I'm sure I killed them all..."
He tilted his head side to side as he stared at Shine. His eyes fixed, a smile on his lips.
And he asked.
"How are you still alive?"
What dwelled in those eyes was unmistakable killing intent.
The moment she met that gaze.
Shine knew instinctively.
'This guy's...'
...a monster.
* * *
Fear.
When was the last time she'd felt it? Or had she ever?
Lemangga family.
Born into a renowned swordsmanship house, gifted with talent unmatched in centuries, Shine had never once felt "fear."
Anyone hearing that might question if such a being existed, but it was the truth.
If anything, her feeling fear would be the strange thing.
Her talent reached the heavens.
Her effort carved into her very bones.
Thus, her martial prowess had long touched the skies.
Only her sword and herself.
With those, what was there to fear?
Death was merely an outcome, not something to dread. Defeat was just defeat, not to be avoided.
Yet in this moment.
Shine was feeling fear.
It was... instinct.
A primal yearning for survival surging from the depths.
"Dwarf? Nah. I ate all those dwarves. Not an elf either. Burned them with the World Tree. Ah, could you be hiding in the Hamern Great Forest...? Nah, no way, right? Yeah, no."
She couldn't understand the young man's ramblings, but Shine took a moment to breathe deeply. She loosened her grip on the demon sword Protius. Then she assessed her own state.
'Fear, huh...'
Her heart pounded. How to describe it? Incredibly alien. Her body didn't feel like her own, and her mind shook for reasons she couldn't grasp.
But what exactly was she afraid of?
It was none other than...
"So, who else was there? Let's see..."
That young man—no, that entity—babbling nonsense. That was the source of the fear. The instant she faced it, her instincts screamed.
Danger.
Run.
...But.
Instead of fleeing, Shine gripped her sword tighter. She drew a deep breath in, then exhaled once.
Just once.
It was her first time experiencing fear, but she grasped its essence.
'Anxiety stemming from uncontrollable situations or the unknown.'
It wasn't perfect, but that was Shine's insight into fear's nature. Others might differ, but for her, at least.
...Now that she understood.
The fear was gone.
To be precise, she'd accepted the fear. Then separated emotion from reason.
Reason spoke.
'Cut him down...'
A suggestion with no reason for refusal.
Her body responded.
"Hup...!"
Breath drawn in, step forward taken. Will ignited. She entered transcendence, focusing her entire mind. Superconcentration took hold, and soon the sword thrust out.
Tzzzzziiing...!
She hadn't used her full power, but it was a strike infused with her whole heart. And that heart meant...
Kill.
...Slay.
The vicious malice dwelled in the sword, slicing through fragmented instants of time as it advanced. The encroaching night dominating the space rippled as if parting a path for the blade.
The 5th Elder groaning in pain, familiars tearing at his soul. Widening her view revealed undead being devoured by the encroaching night. Narrowing it again—
The young man.
An incomprehensible existence.
He hadn't sensed the killing intent yet, lingering in ordinary time rather than the finely split instants.
Thus.
'Cut.'
...Certainty became reality. At least for Shine.
In truth, the sword that cleaved through fleeting time bisected the young man's body. From lower left to upper right.
And so...
The sword, purpose fulfilled, traced a gentle arc back. Shine emerged from transcendence around then.
She breathed deeply, eyes on her foe.
Drip, drip.
Blood fell from the tip of her sword, held loosely at her side. Shine curled her lips upward, then burst into laughter.
"Hah!"
Truly...
"...you're a monster!"
Why else would she laugh like this?
It was the scene before her.
Incredibly, the young man was alive. No, more than alive—he was unscathed.
If not for his tattered clothes, she might think the cut had been an illusion.
Amid it all.
The young man kept tilting his head.
"Did you cut me? It hurts? What? How'd you cut me?"
Shine was just as baffled as he tilted his head in confusion.
It wasn't regeneration.
Just...
'...Nullified.'
The very fact of being cut reverted to nothing, his body restored as if it never happened. That was Shine's sense—
'Let's try again.'
Her competitive spirit boiled over.
Shine assumed her stance. This time, she planned to activate the demon sword and unleash its authority.
That's when it happened.
"Ah... I need to talk."
The young man sighed deeply.
"One bite should be fine, right?"
With that, he turned his gaze to the 5th Elder.
And then—
Crunch!
A bursting sound echoed.
"...?"
Shine tilted her head. Something—from the torn space, while the young man stood still—a massive maw emerged. And then—
'Eaten?'
It chewed and swallowed the 5th Elder, vanishing.
That was all Shine saw, but from somewhere came the sounds of 'crunch, crackle.'
For a while...
Gulp!
A massive gulping sound rang out.
"Ah, now I feel like I can live a bit."
The young man's voice echoed in her ears.