A Glass of Water
My thoughts were the same.
I had been called the family's wastrel, yet even when I talked back I had never once hurled curses at my mother or father.
If I had, I would have been disowned long ago, wouldn't I?
But still…
Ravenna had pulled off the kind of rebellion I never managed. She had even thrown a poison-smeared dagger while she was at it.
She was, without question, an absolute monster of a child.
"Ravenna, have you finally gone mad?"
When Orphen, who had come to his senses, asked that, Ravenna forced the words out as if wringing them from her throat.
"You're the one who's mad! How can you sacrifice innocent people like that?!"
"They're useless even if they live. Better they help me by dying."
"That way of thinking is what's insane!"
Orphen narrowed his eyes as he watched Ravenna huff and seethe.
"Now I understand. I wondered how the Inquisitor knew about the Human Poison—so you snitched."
"What are you…"
"No outsider has ever come to investigate our territory. The residents never cared about the disappearances either. So it could only have been you."
"You… you're trampling even the last shred of dignity of the child you sired."
"You're the one insulting me right now."
Orphen's eyes sharpened like a honed blade.
I asked Ravenna, whose eyes were already welling with tears.
"Is there any other way to shut that bastard's mouth, you think?"
Ravenna looked at her father, then scrubbed her tears away with her arm.
"…I don't think so."
"Same here."
I pointed back the way we had come.
"Deacon Bella. Take this filial daughter and deal with the rabble."
Figures in black were charging from that direction. The underlings who always trailed Orphen had finally arrived.
"Yes!"
Bella seized Ravenna and ran toward them. Bella unleashed magic while Ravenna, composing herself, drew a dagger and met them head-on.
Alturo asked,
"Lord of the Viper family. Before we fight, could I get a glass of water?"
Orphen answered in a flat, indifferent tone.
"I have no water to give you. Poison, maybe."
"Figured as much."
"But who are you? Looking at you, you don't seem to be from the Holy See."
Orphen did not remember Alturo, the man who had once begged for a single glass of water in the slums.
It had been ten years, and more importantly, this was almost certainly the first time he had ever truly looked at Alturo's face.
Alturo twisted his lips and gripped his dagger.
"If you don't know, that's fine."
"Is that so."
Orphen settled into a stance. Purple mana bloomed along his crescent-shaped longsword.
By ingesting poison himself, he could pour that same poison into his mana.
Guys like him are more dangerous than most Evil Book Society executives or demons.
A man who had polished only one field to the absolute extreme.
You always had to stay wary, because there was no telling what unheard-of methods he might pull out.
Of course that warning hardly applied to someone like me, who had already seen more than enough of such bastards.
Taat!
Orphen moved first.
He vanished in an instant and was already lunging for Alturo's throat.
Kaaang!
Alturo offset the blow with his dagger. But the gap in physical ability was clear; he looked ready to be driven back any second.
Swaeek!
Before that could happen I brought my sword down, forcing Orphen to retreat.
"Don't force it—watch for openings. He's too much for you to handle alone."
"…Understood."
Alturo had grown rapidly after the atrocities in the Viper Territory, yet even now he was far from weak.
It was simply that Orphen was a powerhouse.
In pure physical ability he already surpassed my stage of Joy. With poison he became far more dangerous still.
Hwaruruk—
But I, who had already reached the stage of Wrath, kindled flames along my blade and embroidered strikes across him.
Kaaang! Kaaang!
Every time the swords clashed, purple light and fire sprayed outward.
Ordinarily the poison-laced purple mana would have been a concern, yet every scrap of toxin that scattered into the air was swallowed by the flames.
Still, direct wounds remained a real threat, so I kept that firmly in mind as I swung.
"…No hesitation in your attacks. Aren't you afraid of my poison?"
I answered while slipping past his longsword.
"As long as I don't get cut, it's fine."
That was when Alturo seized an opening, appeared, and thrust his dagger.
Orphen twisted his body with lightning speed, yet a long red line still carved across his shoulder before he put distance between them.
"……"
Purple liquid stood out vividly on Orphen's wound. Normally a reaction to the poison should have set in, but he stood there completely fine.
Instead he wiped the toxin from the cut with his fingers and brought it to his mouth, savoring it.
"Quite an excellent poison."
Alturo clicked his tongue.
"Tch. So even this poison is meaningless, is it."
I found myself curious about the sheer power of the poison bomb Alturo had used in the previous life to kill Orphen, a toxin that had pierced even this kind of resistance.
But since I would almost certainly get caught up in it too, I shelved the curiosity for now.
"Dragging this out won't do us any good."
Orphen's purple mana was steadily fading. The poison he had ingested was wearing off.
"Rat poison suits rats best."
Orphen pulled a pill from his robes. It looked like a lump of mud, and the mere sight of it made my skin crawl.
Human Poison, refined from human flesh.
Gulp—
He swallowed it himself rather than using it on us.
An ordinary person would have melted from the esophagus down through every organ.
But seeing how utterly unharmed he remained, he clearly possessed resistance even to the Human Poison he himself created.
Just how much of that stuff has he eaten?
The instant I furrowed my brows—
Ssssss!
From Orphen's sword a denser, more sinister purple light than before billowed outward.
"I'll kill every last one of you."
He swung the screaming blade through empty air.
Puhwaaaaak!
Purple fog burst from the sword's path and flooded the entire wing of the mansion.
It came rushing in at terrifying speed, a mist that called to mind the depths of hell itself.
"That bastard! Is he planning to kill even his own subordinates?!"
I glanced at the aghast Alturo and said,
"Get behind me. Looks like we'll have to demolish a bit of the mansion."
I gripped my sword in both hands and dropped into a low stance.
Since Ravenna would be the one restoring the place rather than me, I felt not the slightest hesitation.
Hwarururuk—
The flames along the blade burned thick and heavy. They flickered wildly for a moment, then fused with wind that sprang from nowhere.
The harmony of Joy and Wrath.
Handling two attributes at once normally demanded meticulous mana control and deep understanding of the stages, but for me it was no obstacle at all.
I swung my sword toward the poisonous fog that crashed over us like a giant wave.
Flames rode the fierce wind and spread with explosive speed. The fire born from the blade slammed into the poisonous fog and seared it to nothing.
Hwarururururuk!
The Flame Wind burned through every scrap of the poisonous fog as it advanced, sweeping even the mansion's ceiling away.
Yet the flames refused to die and charged straight at Orphen, who stood beyond the mist.
"……!"
Startled, Orphen hastily swung his sword. Because the Flame Wind had already spent much of its force colliding with the fog, that single stroke was enough to disperse it.
But I had anticipated exactly that and was already charging in the Flame Wind's wake.
Kaaaaang!
The moment I reached him I brought my sword down; he urgently blocked the path of the blade.
His strength has definitely dropped.
He had just unleashed a major technique, after all.
I had also expended a considerable amount of holy power to counter it, yet I still had far more room to spare than he did.
Looking at his contorting face across the locked swords, I asked,
"Any last words?"
The inside of his cheek twitched, just barely. Then he opened his mouth and spat a waste-like liquid straight at my face.
Having roughly expected it, I twisted my head aside; the poison melted the floorboards as it faded.
"Wha…!"
I sneered at the bastard who had exhausted every last means available to him.
"Pretty filthy for a last will."
I knocked his sword aside, fully exposing his upper body, then drew a diagonal line and carved deeply into his chest.
Blood sprayed from his mouth as his muscular frame toppled backward.
I had cut him deep enough to show bone; he could no longer move.
"……"
Alturo approached the fallen man.
"Do you need help?"
Orphen rolled only his eyes toward Alturo. He stretched out an arm, then let it fall limply as the strength left him.
Alturo stepped closer and took a glass vial from his robes, holding it out. Inside was an unidentified, thick liquid.
"Drink."
"……"
"This is the charity I am bestowing upon you."
Only then did Orphen part his tightly sealed lips, just a fraction. Alturo uncapped the vial and poured the contents in himself.
Until Alturo rose to his feet again, Orphen showed no reaction whatsoever.
"……!"
But at some point the veins in Orphen's neck bulged starkly, and he retched up a mouthful of black blood.
Finally the man who had never once screamed let out a sharp, ragged cry.
Alturo looked down at his end with complete indifference.
In that moment I glimpsed, just for an instant, the Alturo who had once been Avarice of the Seven Deadly Sins.
There's no way that man would ever offer real charity to an enemy.
The surrounding cleanup had already finished as well.
Ravenna, however, was trembling violently in Bella's arms, feeling the pain of her entire world collapsing.
I pulled my gaze from them and turned to Alturo.
"Want me to hug you too?"
"…I'll pass."
"Fair enough."
When the screams that had been circling the mansion finally died away, I spoke to Bella.
"Deacon Bella. That's enough—go soothe their souls or something."
"Ah, yes."
Gently peeling Ravenna away, Bella cleared her throat with a couple of coughs.
Ravenna, sniffling, wore an oddly expectant expression for no reason at all, while Alturo stared at Orphen with an unreadable light in his eyes.
In that brief gap I quietly covered both ears and shielded my eardrums with holy power.
Bella had expended a fair amount of mana in the fighting, yet I still expected her song to have an effect.
And my prediction proved correct.
"……"
Alturo and Ravenna twisting their bodies this way and that while clamping their hands over their ears.
I burst out laughing in the cozy, absolute peace that followed.
There was no requiem worth playing for those headed straight to hell.
Cleanup of the mansion was left entirely to Ravenna. I had intended at least to move Orphen's corpse, but she insisted it was her responsibility.
So we returned to the Lunatic shop to gather Alturo's belongings before leaving.
Alturo emerged from behind the counter with his things packed and said,
"By the way, I never imagined the head of the Viper family was making Human Poison."
"He was that careful. The day you saw him he was probably heading to wherever he kept the materials for it."
"Ah… that could be. A man going out to kill people wouldn't be doing work that saves them."
"Right. If you had simply walked past that girl of similar age back then, she would have become material for that Human Poison before long."
Baron Viper usually used those who were already dying as ingredients for Human Poison. That way everything stayed clean and free of complications.
But what about a child from the slums who could not even walk? She would have vanished soon enough without a doubt.
"Thanks to your charity, she got to stay by your side even a little longer."
Ripples spread through Alturo's pupils. He stood there blankly for a long moment before speaking in a small voice.
"Thank you."
I snorted and answered,
"If you're grateful, give me a glass of water. Before we leave this place."
The shop called Lunatic had been named after a girl of Alturo's age.
How did I know? Because in my previous life, before I killed him, I had heard all sorts of stories from him.
And I had once asked the dying man this question.
"Any last words you'd like to leave?"
At that question Alturo, sprawled on the ground, had looked up at the moon—a fragile crescent that seemed ready to vanish at any moment.
"Just…"
And he had answered in a voice heavy with regret.
"Just… I'd like to offer someone a glass of water."
Those were the final words left behind by the man known as Avarice of the Seven Deadly Sins.
At the time his wish could never be fulfilled, but it might be different now.
"Sure."
Alturo went inside and soon set a cup of water on the counter.
I watched it while swirling the liquid, then downed it in a single gulp. It raced down my throat and spread through my insides in an instant.
I waited quietly, yet not even the slightest reaction occurred.
The man who had once been called Avarice of the Seven Deadly Sins had offered ordinary water to another person.
I smirked and set the cup down.
"That hit the spot."
Now it was time to solve the plague spreading through the fields of the Luminara Territory.