The Bee Swarm
There were three of them in total, and every single one of them was glaring at me with twisted, hostile eyes.
One was a gray-haired man with narrow, slitted eyes. Another was a black-haired man who somehow gave off an unpleasant vibe. And the last was a blue-haired woman carrying a bow—she looked like an archer and seemed the youngest of the three.
“You’ve got quite the arrogant look. Must be a noble.”
“Wrong! I’m just arrogant by nature!”
Rai was pinned beneath the black-haired man’s foot, thrashing helplessly. Without my permission, he couldn’t use his power, so right now he was nothing more than an ordinary, solid snake.
“I was wondering why a snake was slithering around the city. Turns out it’s just some noble girl’s hobby.”
“Keeping a snake? That’s a nasty hobby.”
What, you’ve got a problem because I’m a noble? I scowled, ready to snap back, but Hansen and Philo suddenly stepped in front of me—more like they were shielding me.
Hey, I can’t see anything now. Why are you two acting like this all of a sudden?
“I’ll warn you once. You’d better drop that disrespectful attitude.”
“We don’t care who you are. Hand over the young lady’s pet snake.”
“Yeah! Give it back!”
I had no choice but to cling to Hansen’s legs because he kept blocking me from moving forward. This felt a little overprotective…
“Look at that. She’s even got knights escorting her.”
“If it’s the young lady’s order, things are different.”
“Tch.”
It happened so suddenly that I barely had time to process it. The black-haired man spat on Rai right in front of me, then drew his sword while staring straight at me.
The tip of the gleaming white blade caught my eye. For a moment, I couldn’t look away—there was something about that sharp edge that demanded attention.
Then something incomprehensible happened. The man drove the tip of his sword straight into Rai’s body, which he’d already been crushing under his foot.
Clang.
“Huh? Pretty tough for a snake.”
If Rai had been an ordinary snake, he would’ve been cut clean in half.
What kind of crazy people are these?!
“I was going to be nice and split him in two before giving him back.”
“That snake’s a little weird. Try again.”
“Maybe he’ll like it better if we peel off his skin.”
The way they glared at me was vicious and sharp. The hostility was so intense I couldn’t even understand why it was directed at me. When had these three even met me to hate me this much?
Why were they looking at me like I was the murderer of their parents?
“Step back, young lady!”
“These people don’t look right.”
“……Maybe.”
No way. It couldn’t be. My luck couldn’t possibly be that bad……
“They might be the Bee Swarm.”
Damn it, my luck really was rotten. Running into the Bee Swarm in the middle of the market on one of the rare days I actually went out.
Having infamous scum threaten me wasn’t exactly pleasant.
Let go, you bastards!
And holding my pet snake hostage made it even worse.
“Final warning. Put your weapons away.”
“And if we don’t?”
I was finally grasping how serious the situation was and started backing away quickly.
Rai, get out of there.
My mana……
Just use it!
If he wanted to escape the foot pinning him down, all he had to do was become heavier than the force pressing on him.
Rai’s shape didn’t change, but he drew on mana and slipped out from under the man’s foot with a heavy, sluggish motion. I could feel how much heavier he’d become.
Soon he was shaking his head and crawling toward me, his body growing light again. When he was this close, I could roughly sense what he was doing.
Rai had lightened himself to return quickly, but he didn’t get more than a few steps away before an arrow slammed into the ground right in front of him at terrifying speed.
Before I could even process what was happening, Hansen drew his sword.
A sense of dread swelled uncontrollably.
“Young lady!”
I realized the same archer who’d shot at Rai had now aimed at me only when the arrow grazed my ear—far too late.
That was their answer to the warning to lower their weapons.
“……”
So arrows really were that fast. And they really did make that sound—like the air itself was being torn apart.
I found myself sitting on the ground, dazed, before I even realized it.
My ear burned beneath my jaw.
“Puhaha, look at that pathetic sight. In the end, we’re all the same humans, aren’t we?”
“I’ve always hated nobles. It’d be great if they all disappeared.”
“The target was too small. We won’t miss this time.”
Right. So these three were the Bee Swarm. That group whose life goal was killing nobles. And I was a noble—and they’d just shot an arrow at me.
The question of why an arrow had come flying toward me began to twist into something else.
Rage surged up.
My hands trembled—not from fear, but from fury.
“You bastards!”
Both sides drew their weapons.
“Are you all right, young lady?”
Master!
I slowly pushed myself up from the ground and watched as Hansen clashed swords with the gray-haired man. Hansen must still have been injured—he couldn’t push the man back easily.
“Tell us the girl’s name. Before we kill her. We should at least know who we’re killing if we’re going to brag about it.”
“How dare you!”
When blade met blade, the screech of metal rang so loudly it felt like it would tear my eardrums.
“Looks like the knight’s a commoner too! What’s the point of protecting trash like that? Huh? Killing her would be more meaningful!”
“Shut up, you lunatics!”
“Think about it! What have those nobles ever done for us? They treat us like animals, work us like animals, and kill us like animals! Don’t tell me you’ve never experienced it?”
The situation was clearly urgent, but all I could hear was the sound of that arrow slicing past my ear—shhhk.
Everything else felt like it was moving in slow motion.
Philo charged at the blue-haired woman who was nocking another arrow at me, but she was fast—true to her role as an archer—and he couldn’t catch her easily.
“Killing a noble with two knights escorting her will skyrocket our reputation.”
“Exactly! That’s where our pride lies.”
Hansen and Philo tried to stop the attackers, but it was three against two, and while the enemies only had to attack, we also had to protect a child. Even I could tell this was a bad situation.
I was dead weight. I was prey.
And that made me furious.
In a dizzy, hazy state, I looked at Rai, still trapped in the black-haired man’s grip.
Rai was struggling against the hand, but he couldn’t break free on his own.
Please give me permission again, Master!
I stared without blinking as Rai coiled his long body tightly around the man’s thick hand.
Suddenly, a very good idea came to me.
“Rai.”
Master.
When I called his name softly, he answered. The feeling that I could do anything made me smile a little.
“What can you do for me?”
Anything. Whatever you permit.
“Then take revenge for your master.”
The thought that I could have died to that arrow made something thick and murderous rise from deep inside me.
My heart began to pound faster.
It felt like the terror from that day was reviving as rage.
I won’t die so meaninglessly again. No one is allowed to try to kill me.
Understood.
There were times when Rai could read my thoughts without me saying them aloud.
When I wanted something intensely and desperately. Just like now.
Crack.
Crunch.
“U-uaaagh! M-my hand! Aaaagh!”
So a human hand could be crushed that easily.
The moment Rai answered, he poured strength into his entire body. The man’s hand twisted grotesquely, like dough being kneaded.
The sound of bones being crushed rang out with horrifying clarity.
The man’s hand was bent into an unnatural shape. It was a shape I’d never seen before.
It was no longer a hand—just a lump of flesh mixed with broken bone…… For a moment, my mind snapped back to clarity.
“Stop!”
Without its support, Rai dropped to the ground with a dull thud.
The sight of him crawling toward me was utterly grotesque. His body, glistening with blood, left a vivid red trail across the ground.
When I followed the bloody path he’d made and looked at the man’s hand, my vision seemed to turn red.
The crimson afterimage burned into my eyes and wouldn’t fade no matter how many times I blinked.
“Graaagh!”
The black-haired man kept screaming. The sound of his agony was so unbearable that my breathing grew ragged.
Master! I did well, right?
“……This is……”
It felt awful. It made my skin crawl.
The fact that I’d wanted to kill that man, even for a second…… terrified me.
My heartbeat was so loud that all other noise had faded away. All I could see clearly was the gray-haired man’s face as he charged at me with his weapon raised, his expression twisted in rage.
That screaming face.
That demonic expression.
The fury I had created, directed at me.
At some point, that face separated from its body and flew into the air—and even if I squeezed my eyes shut, I knew I would never forget it for the rest of my life.
Thud.
The severed head hit the ground with a wet sound and rolled toward me, splattering blood. Only then did I notice the man’s eyes were a deep brown. Those eyes stared at me.
When I looked around, the market people were staring at me like I was a monster.
“What…… did I do?”
When I turned back, I saw the woman with Hansen’s sword buried in her right chest, spitting blood from her mouth.
Everything had happened so fast. None of it felt real.
Instant death.
“Urgh……”
Killing them in one strike is a good thing. It’s less painful for everyone.
“Stop!”
I had to hold my breath against the nausea rising in my throat.
Why? You didn’t bat an eye when those orcs that attacked the camp died. What’s the difference?
“……These were people.”
To me, orcs and humans are the same.
“They’re different.”
How? I don’t understand. Humans think too complicatedly. Dead is dead, and alive is alive. That’s all.
Listening to Rai’s indifferent voice, I watched Hansen and Philo calmly flick the blood off their swords.
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t erase the thought that kept repeating in my head.
People had died because of me.
I quickly covered my mouth again, but I couldn’t stop my stomach from turning inside out.
I vomited up the tasteless fruit I’d eaten earlier in a mess.
“Urgh.”