# 045 For the Bait
# 045 For the Bait
A woman's scream rang out.
If it was a beauty's scream, I naturally moved at once; and even if she wasn't a beauty, Sharia was with me, so I dashed outside.
Even aside from that, if the one who had screamed was the Heavenly Demon Saintess Leticia whom I had seen at the opening bout, running over was the most natural thing in the world!
Clatter!
I scooped up Sharia and sprinted straight for the alley where Leticia's scream had come from.
Startled, Sharia nonetheless gripped her sword and drew up her mana, and we soon arrived at our destination.
"...Huh?"
A cluster of women.
Each of them held a blade and was threatening Leticia.
And Leticia—the one they were threatening—was pressing a dagger to the throat of a blonde woman who looked exactly like her while keeping a vigilant eye on her surroundings.
"M-...Master, is this...?"
"A doppelganger."
"A doppelganger?"
"Yes. A magic beast that copies appearances outright. Looks like it stole Leticia's form, but it seems Leticia caught it."
The scream had not come from Leticia but from the doppelganger.
It was a little disappointing, but it didn't seem odd either.
The Leticia I'd observed from a distance in the spectator seats had looked like a remarkably cool beauty; she didn't strike me as someone who would scream easily just from being threatened.
'The question is why that doppelganger and its attackers targeted the Heavenly Demon Saintess.'
It was an attack I couldn't make sense of.
The Heavenly Demon Saintess Leticia hadn't entered the eastern continent—the territory of the Church of the Twin Moon Goddesses—and this was Shotarape City.
So why were demonkin attacking Leticia?
"Sharia, quiet."
The enemies hadn't yet noticed our movements.
I had kicked through the inn window and rushed out, but I had cloaked even Sharia in an invisibility spell to conceal our identities, so neither Leticia nor the attackers had spotted us.
"I'll observe the situation."
"A-Are you sure we won't be discovered?"
"Don't worry. Even if you and I had sex right here, they wouldn't notice."
"......."
Sharia nodded heavily, and we listened to the standoff.
"You lot...."
Leticia, who was threatening the doppelganger, began to show her irritation.
"You're from the Illusion Demon Saintess, aren't you? Even if you hide your faces with those masks, I know perfectly well."
"Nope. The Mad Demon Saintess sent us, actually."
"A lie that wouldn't fool a soul...."
Leticia pressed the blade closer to the doppelganger and issued a threat.
"Back off. If you back off now, I'll let you go quietly. You don't want to lose your Replication Mage either, do you?"
'Replication Mage?'
So it wasn't a doppelganger? Or did they call doppelgangers Replication Mages these days?
Either way, it was true that the attackers couldn't move recklessly for fear the captured Replication Mage might die.
If I wanted to watch their standoff and gather a little more information—
"H-Heavenly Demon Saintess! Why are you interfering! We agreed to use your lewd body to seduce the Rape Dragon!!"
Oh-ho.
"You're a virgin, so you go around trailing the scent of a virgin and lure in the Rape Dragon—then we attack that bastard and bring him down! Once all the saintesses gathered together and reached an agreement, you're supposed to help!"
Oho.
"Shut up. Even if that were the case...."
Leticia yanked the Replication Mage's hair and gently drove the dagger a little further into its neck.
"You think you get to copy my body in my place and lure the Rape Dragon? Don't give me that crap. You think I don't know the Illusion Demon Saintess schemed to do something vile with my flesh?"
"Ghk...!"
A clear picture was forming.
From their exchange alone, I felt like I grasped the situation.
"The Illusion Demon Saintess's underlings copied the Heavenly Demon Saintess's body."
"In words, it's to draw the Rape Dragon's attention, but in reality, it's to violate the copied Heavenly Demon Saintess."
"There would be meaning in violating the Heavenly Demon Saintess's very image. If they recorded it on projection stones and spread it around, something truly horrific would happen."
As expected, the quick-witted Sharia had also figured out the situation in no time.
I considered how I could rescue Leticia, then tapped Sharia on the shoulder.
"You go, Sharia."
"Me?"
"Yes. Go teach them a lesson."
"...Me?"
Sharia blinked, her face betraying her puzzlement.
"You're strong, aren't you? Charge in."
"It won't be... dangerous, but is it really all right to fight?"
"Yes. If a dangerous moment comes, I'll help with magic, so give it your all in a fight for once."
A perfect moment had arrived to teach Sharia real combat.
"...Then, I'll be off."
Rustle.
Sharia's expression transformed in an instant.
Just moments ago she had been uneasy, but now she stepped forward exuding a sharp aura, like a well-honed blade.
'Ah.'
At this very moment, was Sharia wearing nothing but underwear underneath that robe...?
'Eh, who cares.'
I was right behind her.
* * *
"What do you think you're doing right now?"
Step. Step.
The attackers' eyes all fixed on the woman in the white robe who appeared out of the darkness.
"Who...?"
"That woman is...?"
"My master is trying to rest, and he says it's so noisy he can't possibly get any sleep. So what are you doing right now?"
"......For a reason as trivial as that."
The attackers quickly exchanged glances and nodded to one another.
Then, with no warning at all, one of them lunged at Ria.
Clang!
Ria deflected the attacker's blade with almost absurd ease.
She then twisted her sword lightly to the side and struck the attacker across the mask with the flat of the blade.
Smack!
If her aim had been even slightly off, the edge would have sliced his face off like a pudding being cut.
But the attacker only took the flat of the sword to the face and crumpled straight to the ground.
"!!"
"Be careful. That's not the same woman from the preliminaries...!"
"What crap."
Ria thrust her sword behind her.
Gripped in a reverse hold, the blade stabbed through the space under her armpit and pierced accurately into the shoulder of the masked figure who had been trying to drive a dagger into her from behind in the darkness.
Thunk—!
Wham—!!
Still facing away from her sword, Ria twisted her body backward and slammed her elbow into the masked figure.
A heavy impact echoed, and Ria paused for a moment.
"......."
The masked figure collapsed.
The face revealed by the blow was a woman's, and Ria breathed a relieved sigh as she kicked the unconscious, face-down attacker's weapon aside with her foot.
"Next."
"...St-Stop right there! If you move one more step, I'll kill this woman!!"
"Kill the Heavenly Demon Saintess in Shotarape City? That's absurd."
"Eeek...!!"
The attackers couldn't bring themselves to attack Ria carelessly.
Part of it was that Ria had already deftly handled two attacks, but the very fact that someone else had come while they were ambushing the Heavenly Demon Saintess Leticia made it impossible for them to move recklessly.
She'd come down for her 'master.'
In other words, the possibility that an unidentified vampire might appear—
"Well, well. This is quite an entertaining spectacle."
"You...!!"
The black-haired vampire who emerged from the darkness stepped up beside Ria and placed a hand on her waist.
"I was hoping to spend tonight deeply, but I've ended up seeing an entertaining sight."
"Oned Bourbon Jirfangfar III!!"
"That's right, it's me."
The vampire pointed ahead with an unruffled face.
"Demonkin threatening the Heavenly Demon Saintess... you lot must want to die at the Heavenly Demon God's hands. But there's no need for the Heavenly Demon God to step forward—before that, I'll take care of you bastards mysel—"
"Run away!!"
The attackers scattered in an instant.
The vampire merely stood still and watched them flee, while only Ria stepped forward and swung her sword with all her might.
Clang!
The sword Ria swung precisely deflected a needle aimed at the vampire.
Even in their flight, they had fired a needle to keep the vampire in check, but the needle only lodged uselessly into the wall.
"Heavenly Demon Saintess is...."
"......."
The Heavenly Demon Saintess, Leticia, indicated the woman held in her arms.
There, the Replication Mage, who had driven her own throat onto Leticia's blade, was bleeding and dying.
"She died...."
"She killed herself. It's suicide."
The vampire extended a hand toward the dead Replication Mage's corpse and scattered mana over it.
At that, the blood stopped flowing from the Replication Mage's body, and she rose unsteadily to her feet as if she had become undead.
"I would like to have a brief conversation, Heavenly Demon Saintess."
"...This location is a little problematic, so I would like to talk at your lodgings. Would that be acceptable?"
"That is—"
"Of course, Heavenly Demon Saintess."
The corner of the vampire's mouth stretched up to his ear.
* * *
A short while later.
"Damn it, damn it!!"
The attackers who had gathered in someone's room were slapped across the face one after another.
"You idiots! The Replication Mage gets captured there, and the rest of you get attacked by an intruder?! Are you people even in your right minds right now?!"
"W-We're terribly sorry. We never imagined the Heavenly Demon Saintess would attack us...."
"Damn it, that insolent woman... she said she didn't want to sacrifice herself, so I offered her another way, and then she...!"
The Illusion Demon Saintess openly scowled.
"If she's the Heavenly Demon Saintess herself, then for the sake of the Church of the Heavenly Demon God, she should be able to sacrifice something as trivial as her virginity for the greater good!"
"Don't work yourself up so much, Illusion Demon Saintess."
"Sword Demon Saintess, you...!"
"You're a woman who has never lost her virginity, aren't you? Moreover, your actions were far too extreme. Replicating her body with a doppelganger and tossing it in front of the Rape Dragon."
The Sword Demon Saintess shook her head with a resolute expression.
"The Rape Dragon would have noticed a doppelganger instantly."
"That's exactly why I deliberately brought a doppelganger that was also a virgin, I'm telling you!"
"Er, um...."
"Damn it! Do you have any idea how difficult it is to produce a virgin doppelganger?!"
The Sword Demon Saintess briefly turned her gaze toward the night sky.
"...To think we have to produce even a virgin doppelganger and hunt for the Rape Dragon. Hah."
"Heh heh heh, fine. Since things have come to this, there's no helping it."
The Illusion Demon Saintess smiled a fishy smile and summoned her mana.
"Let's gather the saintesses again and build public opinion so that, as a reward at this Sword Demon God's Festival, we create an opportunity to challenge the Heavenly Demon Saintess Leticia. That's right, fufu...."
"...You don't mean...?"
"Challenge the Heavenly Demon Saintess. Which means, if it's in a fair match, we can do as we please."
Rip.
The Illusion Demon Saintess poked a hole with her finger in the paper she was holding.
"If we spread the word far and wide that a pretty virgin like the Heavenly Demon Saintess could end up raped by another man's hands, the Rape Dragon will most certainly come here."