No Big Problem
There was no big problem.
Gras’s eyes turned cold as he spat the words.
“You’re really rushing to meet your maker.”
“What, already forgotten what it cost you the last time you ran that mouth?”
I glanced at his severed wrist.
“Come here if you want a reminder.”
He ground his teeth, but instead of stepping forward he slipped behind his men and barked the order.
“Kill them. Don’t leave a scrap of flesh.”
“Yes, sir!”
They hurled glass vials at us all at once. The bottles burst in midair with sharp pops, and purple smoke billowed out.
Alturo clamped an arm over his nose and mouth and shouted.
“Lung-binding poison! Don’t breathe it in!”
Easier said than done. The toxic clouds thrown from every direction were already closing in, packing us tight.
But we weren’t without options.
Whoosh—!
I swept my sword in a crescent of flame that roared out and incinerated every tendril of poison that came near. On the far side, Bella’s magic snuffed the rest.
Whiiiip!
They’d expected that much. Through the dispersing smoke and fire, daggers came flying.
I knocked them aside with my blade; Bella threw up a barrier; Alturo twisted his body clear.
When a brief lull settled, Alturo pressed small pills into our hands.
“Take these. Most of the poisons those bastards use won’t work for a while.”
He’d clearly studied the Viper family’s toxins with the intent of wiping them out. Swallowing the pills would give us an edge.
Then again, only moments earlier this same Alturo had tried to dose me with a sleeping draught the first time we met.
“If it bothers you, throw them away.”
He must have read my hesitation, because he added the line almost as an afterthought.
I thought briefly of Alturo’s life in both timelines. If the glimpses he’d shown me weren’t lies…
Gulp—
I swallowed the pill.
Bella, watching me, took hers as well. Alturo’s eyes widened for a heartbeat.
So it really isn’t poison.
It wasn’t a decision driven by sentiment. If Bella and I dropped dead, Alturo would die with us. He wasn’t stupid enough for that.
I looked at the men still watching us.
“By the authority of an Inquisitor, I will now interrogate House Viper. Anyone object?”
“…….”
“No? Fine. Interrogation’s over. Time for the appropriate punishment.”
Their faces went blank with confusion. Bella asked,
“Inquisitor, shall I sing a hymn?”
“That’s terrifying…”
“Pardon?”
“Never mind. Make it a requiem.”
“Yes, sir!”
At the same moment I kicked off the floor and charged them.
I carved a path through the ones who swarmed me like bats, then tore straight for Gras at the rear.
Blood misted the air as I closed the distance and brought my sword down in a heavy arc.
Whooom!
Gras leapt back to avoid it; I gave him no breathing room and pressed hard.
He could only desperately parry with the dagger held in his remaining hand.
He held up surprisingly well with one arm, but wounds multiplied across his body and he never managed a real counterstroke.
A viper’s true terror had never been its fangs—it was the venom that came with them.
Whiiish!
He suddenly drove the dagger deep toward me, gambling everything on one desperate thrust.
Shhk! Spat!
The reckless attack let me take the arm clean off, but the tip still grazed my shoulder.
I kicked him hard in the gut; he went tumbling like a centipede that had lost its legs.
“Hahahaha!”
The dying man burst into wild laughter.
“You should have dodged! One cut and it’s over!”
He stared at my shoulder.
“It’ll rot from the shoulder down! That poison will reach your heart!”
A thin purple film clung to the shallow cut. I was just about to deal with it when—
Huh?
Nothing was happening.
It stung a little, that was all. None of the dramatic effects he’d promised.
“H-how…?”
His pupils dilated in disbelief.
Alturo’s pill was doing its job. No wonder he’d wiped out the Vipers alone in the previous life. Poison bombs alone wouldn’t have been enough to finish them all.
Well, as long as I don’t swallow the stuff, I can handle this much myself.
I sparked a tiny flame against the wound and burned the toxin away.
I hadn’t walked into a nest of vipers and centipedes without a plan.
I stepped over to Gras and held out my hand.
“Choose. Take my hand and make peace, or keep fighting.”
He didn’t take it. More precisely, he had no hand left to take it with.
“Tsk. Harsh. A man offers his hand first…”
Gras stayed frozen for a moment, face flushing red and purple, then heaved his torso up and roared.
“You son of a—!”
Thuck!
I drove my sword through his chest and pinned him to the floor again.
“Unfilial brats get to go first. I’ll send your father along shortly.”
“…Khuhk.”
He tried to speak, coughed up a mouthful of blood, then his eyes went vacant and his head lolled to the side.
I looked around. The rest of the trash had already been cleaned up. Blood dripped steadily from the dagger in Alturo’s hand.
“Just you left.”
I lowered my sword and walked toward Ravenna, the last remaining child of House Viper.
Fear and panic filled her eyes as she scrambled backward, trying to put distance between us.
“Wait.”
Alturo spoke.
“Hold on a moment.”
I have never been good at listening to other people. I closed my hand around Ravenna’s throat and lifted her clean off the ground, then glanced at him.
“What.”
“Could we spare her?”
“Why. Fall for her at first sight?”
Alturo looked half-dead, but he was still only in his late twenties. A girl who seemed roughly his age could easily catch his eye.
“Looks like a fleeting crush outweighs your hatred for the Vipers.”
“…It’s not that.”
“Then what.”
He hesitated, then explained.
“When she came to my shop once, she shared some herbs with me.”
“So you fell for her at first sight. Already forgotten the woman who was with you earlier?”
“That’s not—”
“Damn spineless bastard. Head turns with every little breeze. The kind of idiot who swallows poison herbs without knowing what they are.”
Alturo let out a long sigh under the barrage and tried again.
“After I left the slums, that was the first kindness anyone ever showed me. In this entire territory she was the only person who looked at a stranger as if he existed.”
“Yet you still planned to kill her.”
“Under the original plan, yes. Your arrival simply gave me another option. Though the choice isn’t mine to make.”
In the previous life Ravenna had probably died in the poison blast as well. After that day I never heard the name Viper again.
The fact that the man who once killed her now wanted her spared carried weight.
“Khh—khh…”
Ravenna clung to my arm with everything she had, fighting for air.
Come to think of it, she had stayed out of the fight entirely, hanging back and wrestling with herself.
Perhaps the reason she tried to speak to us before we entered the manor had been a warning—run while you can.
I loosened my grip. She collapsed to the floor, gasping.
“Do you want to live?”
She looked up at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Yes…”
“Why.”
“Because it’s unfair.”
“Unfair how? The ones turned into ingredients for Human Poison are the ones who get to feel wronged.”
“I…!”
She caught herself, lowered her voice, and continued.
“I never took part in those experiments.”
“But you stood by and watched.”
“Yes. And that’s what feels unfair. If I’d known it would end like this, I would have defied my brother and father more.”
If she had, the Baron of Viper would never have left her alive—but I let that thought pass.
I considered for a moment, then spoke.
“I’ll spare you for now. In return, you will become the head of House Viper and rule this territory.”
“Me?”
“Yes. Turn it into a place where people can live like human beings.”
The land wasn’t far from Luminara Territory. Sparing her would give me a useful neighbor in many ways.
“But if word of this gets out, won’t I lose the title?”
I smiled and glanced at Bella.
“Sub-deacon Bella, what happened here today?”
“Hm? I have no idea…”
I really had chosen well. Faithless sub-deacons were rare.
“Right. Just a little succession dispute. Nothing major.”
“…What.”
Ravenna’s mouth fell open at the brazen cover-up unfolding right in front of her.
I told her,
“Making sure no one else becomes a victim of Human Poison is your job now. If nothing changes, I’ll come back for you.”
“…….”
“Can you do it?”
She met my eyes with grim resolve and nodded.
“Yes.”
“Good. Next I’m going to kill your father. That all right with you?”
Even as I said it I wondered what kind of question that was. I sounded like a villain.
Ah. Right. I already am one.
I dismissed the thought at once.
“That’s…”
Ravenna bit her lip hard and clenched both fists. Her nails dug into her palms until blood welled up.
No matter how monstrous the Baron of Viper was, he was still the man who had given her life.
Children love their parents even when those parents hurt them or others. To a parent a child may not be the whole world, but to a child the parents are the world from the moment of birth.
Killing that parent was the same as shattering her entire world.
“…Yes.”
Yet Ravenna accepted the collapse of that world.
“If that’s the only way to stop him.”
Whether she did it for others or for herself, it was never easy.
Of course I would have done as I pleased even without her permission…
“I see.”
I nodded.
“Then let’s go find the bastard—”
That was when it happened.
“So the rats finally showed up.”
A chill voice cut the air; a presence flared and vanished in the same breath.
It reappeared in front of Bella, a crescent-curved longsword already swinging.
I lunged, catching the blow on my own blade.
Kraaaang!
Sparks and a harsh metallic scream. The man refused to give ground until Bella began gathering magic behind him; then he clicked his tongue and sprang back.
“Sub-deacon Bella, are you all right?”
“Yes. Thanks to you, Inquisitor.”
She swallowed hard, still rattled by how fast it had happened.
Only then did I get a proper look at him.
Massive, heavily muscled, long purple hair growing wild.
To close that distance with a body that size before I even sensed him… He’s a natural assassin, all right.
This was Orfen Viper, Baron of Viper.
A former mercenary who had clawed his way to a barony on pure martial strength alone.
For the Alturo of this timeline, poison bombs really were the only realistic way to kill him.
I spoke first.
“Took you long enough. Your son had to play host all by himself.”
Orfen flicked a glance at Gras’s corpse on the floor. His eyes stayed completely empty even though his son was dead.
He looked back at me.
“An Inquisitor, are you?”
“What the hell else do I look like, you moron?”
“A mayfly that doesn’t value its life.”
I snorted.
“Life is always precious. The people you used in your experiments felt the same. Don’t you think?”
“…….”
Orfen’s eyes narrowed. From behind him Ravenna cried out.
“Father! Stop this! How long are you going to keep getting stronger by taking people’s lives?”
His gaze shifted to her.
“Ravenna. You’re still alive.”
“…….”
“I’ll pin him down. While I do, put a dagger in his back. He’s no ordinary opponent.”
When words failed her, Ravenna tried again, voice tight with frustration.
“Fa—”
“Ravenna!!!”
Orfen’s roar shook the room. She flinched hard.
“Since when do you talk back to me? Draw your dagger. Now.”
She hesitated. He pressed harder.
“Now.”
Ravenna swallowed dryly, then finally pulled the dagger from her belt. Both hands holding it trembled violently.
The blade seemed heavier than it had ever been in her life.
“…….”
Her eyes met mine. I simply watched.
If she still planned to live as a puppet inside Orfen’s world, I would cut her throat without a second thought.
Ssshhh—
At last Ravenna raised the dagger and settled into a stance. My grip tightened on my sword.
“Good. Finally—”
The moment Orfen began to speak—
Whiiiish!
The dagger she threw cut through the air. It wasn’t aimed at me.
It shot past my side and streaked straight for Orfen.
Startled, he twisted only his head. The blade nicked a few strands of purple hair before burying itself in the wall.
Orfen’s voice came out stupid with shock.
“What… is this?”
Ravenna’s shoulders and eyes shook as if she couldn’t believe what she had just done.
Then she clenched her fists, squeezed her eyes shut, and screamed at the man who had once been her entire world.
“Fuck off! You rotten bastard!!!”
Standing face-to-face with such spectacular filial piety, I couldn’t help a small murmur of pure admiration.
“Whoa…”