I Refuse
No way.
“What the fuck are you staring at, you shitty clown bastard? First time seeing a protagonist awaken in the middle of a crisis?” I hurled the taunt at the Clown, who was too flustered to even process the situation.
I had no idea what kind of attacks he used. He might rely on those long arms for reach-based probing strikes, or maybe he’d pull some tricky bullshit that actually fit the name Clown. There was even a chance he could use some kind of mental attack that would fulfill certain conditions and turn me into a puppet like Cheska. The only thing I knew for sure was that he was radiating an energy that stank to high heaven. The feeling that I wouldn’t lose hadn’t changed. Still, letting my guard down would be stupid. The absurd conditions were the same for both of us. He didn’t know how I fought either. So I decided to cut off every visible avenue of attack I could.
I spread my feet shoulder-width apart, left foot forward, right foot back. I raised both hands to eye level in a guard stance, then lowered my hips—
Bang!
I shot forward. Probing fights only work when you know yourself and not the enemy. I had no clue where my limits were now. I’d only just awakened this power, after all. That’s why I took the initiative. I gave myself over to instinct. I wasn’t about to give the enemy time to figure me out. Speed and decisiveness. The Clown’s body drew closer.
The Clown, as if trying to prove he wasn’t some slack-jawed idiot, quickly swallowed his emotional turmoil and thrust his right arm forward like a spear to intercept me. Too slow. Without slowing my charge, I took a light step to dodge and closed the distance even deeper. A straight punch—
The Clown’s remaining left arm came down to block it. Idiot. That was a feint. I pretended to throw the punch, then slid straight between his legs, slipping behind him.
I’ve said it multiple times already—I currently have the body of a five-year-old child. The Clown looked to be about three times my height. To land a solid hit on someone that size, I’d have to jump pretty high. But that would obviously leave me wide open. With my ridiculous new speed and strength, maybe I could even pull off something like a double jump… but I wasn’t going to gamble. Entrusting myself to instinct didn’t mean I should fight without thinking.
So the answer was simple: drag him down to my level.
I slammed my elbow into the back of his calf, right where the knee bends.
“This is divine… ugh!”
The impact must have been huge. His leg folded with a groan. Whoosh! The Clown spun and counterattacked. His arm came slicing up from below in a diagonal arc like a whip. I dipped my head in a smooth circle, rising again to slip past the attack, then stepped in and put my full weight behind a real straight punch—this time with no tricks—into his other leg that still hadn’t buckled.
The Clown’s stance collapsed, but that damn long arm of his was already trying to regain balance. Not on my watch. I kicked the arm that was reaching for stability, knocking it away. Then the other arm came swinging. This time I didn’t dodge. I caught it. Using it like a pillar, I spun my body upward, launched off his arm as a springboard, and drove my knee straight into his face.
Crunch!
“Kwaaaak!!”
It was an attack only possible because of how small I was.
“You fucking brat!”
The stench grew thicker. The Clown unleashed his power. The shockwave was so strong it sent my tiny body flying backward.
“Awakening? Awaaaakening? Did you just say awakening? How amusing, little brat. Holy power isn’t something you ‘awaken.’”
The power and stench pouring out of the Clown grew stronger and stronger. Rumble… Rumble…Kieeeeeeek! The sound of space itself trembling mixed with a beast-like scream of agony. The monster that formed this dungeon couldn’t withstand the Clown’s energy and was dying.
“There are many questions—how you became able to speak, how you suddenly gained the ability to use holy power—but…”
It wasn’t exactly an appropriate emotion for the situation, but I was genuinely impressed. The space and scenery that had been there just moments ago vanished like a mirage. The place I now stood wasn’t inside a monster’s maw. It was the mountain where Cheska had taken me. The only difference was that the sun was setting, painting the sky in sunset hues.
“I have no particular desire to resolve those questions. It’s too much hassle.”
“Sorry not sorry, but even if I wanted to answer, I don’t know how.”
“It doesn’t matter. The outcome will not change. The brat dies. I complete my mission.”
“You know what? Your breath smells so bad it makes me want to vomit. So please stop running your mouth and just come at me already.”
“Insolent little brat. Merely strengthening your body with holy power is not enough to—”
The Clown thrust his right arm forward, this time visibly pouring power into it. Same motion as before. But the force was completely different.
…Crack!Thud!
I felt the tree behind me snap and warm liquid trickle down my cheek.
“It seems I missed because of that small body of yours.”
Liar. He’d missed on purpose. To show off his strength. To make me feel despair. It was true that the Clown looked stronger now that he was releasing his power. But if this was all he had… I still didn’t feel like I would lose.
I took a deep breath. I reached out to the power inside me and communed with it. This power moved according to my will. That power—called holy power—whispered to me. You haven’t drawn me out properly yet. This is not your limit.
I poured strength into both hands and raised my guard again. The golden light that had only lingered around my hands grew larger and more brilliant. It soon spread to my arms, my shoulders, and then across my entire body.
The moment I stepped forward, the Clown was right in front of me. My speed was even faster than before. He hadn’t even registered it yet. I drove my fist into his solar plexus. The impact bent him at the waist. I leaped up, grabbed his lowered head, and slammed it straight into the ground.
“Keuk…! What is this…”
“Hey.” I kept pressing down on the Clown’s head so it couldn’t rise again and spoke. “I told you to shut up. Your breath stinks, remember?”
I drove my fist down. Bang!
“Want me to tell you something?” Another punch. Bang! Cracks began to spread across the Clown’s mask.
“If another bastard ever tries to kill me again—” I stomped down on the Clown’s head with my foot. Bang!
“Kwaaaak! You fucking kid!”
His left arm twisted grotesquely as it flew toward me. I kept my foot planted on his head, grabbed the arm, and—
“Aaaaaagh!”
—ripped it clean off.
“I made a resolution. Any bastard who tries to kill me, I’ll beat them to within an inch of their life myself. Or I’ll kill them myself. Got it?”
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
“No matter where that guy is, I’ll find him. Every single time.”
“S-Stop…”
“Bullshit. A guy who calls himself the Clown sure sucks at acting. I could put on a better performance than that.”
“What… are you…”
“You. Your real body is somewhere else, isn’t it?”
“…”
“Looks like I hit the mark.”
“Kikiki…”
Even with his head pinned under my foot, the Clown laughed.
“Since when did you know?”
“The moment I slammed my fist into your solar plexus.”
Holy power didn’t just strengthen speed and power. It sharpened my senses too. The instant my fist touched his flesh, I knew. This ‘corpse’ with no heartbeat was also a puppet.
“Are you going to destroy this ‘toy’?”
“Yeah.”
“What a shame. I’ve played with this toy for quite a long time. Kikik… Kkikikikikik.”
After laughing for a while, the Clown continued as casually as if suggesting they play again next time.
“Levia Leviathan, you really are different from the other Saintess candidates. It was fun. I’m already looking forward to our next meeting!”
“Yeah. Next time, make sure you come with your real body. I’ll mess you up properly.”
“Excellent! Very excellent! For ruin is the guide to rest!”
I poured holy power into the foot pressing down on the Clown’s head.
“Meet the void within chaos!”
“We are all puppets and sacrifices!”
“Only ruin…!”
Kwaaaaaaaaang!!!!!!!
I lifted my foot from what had been the Clown—or rather, the Clown’s puppet. Where his head had been, only fragments of the mask and red glowing stones lay scattered.
It was over. I’d survived. I had made it out alive. This time, I didn’t die.
And then the curses came pouring out.
Fuck. Why the hell did I have to be born as a Saintess candidate of all things…!
When I asked the Clown why I had to die, he’d answered, “Because you’re a Saintess candidate.” Which meant there was a high chance something like today would keep happening in the future.
I was a Saintess candidate, and there were other Saintess candidates too. It meant I would have to survive assassination attempts while competing with them for the position of actual Saintess.
Even though it was only a candidacy, it was apparently treated as an incredibly high status. The fact that they’d even planned an assassination all the way out in a remote backwater like this told me that the position of Saintess in this world was far more important than I’d imagined.
The words the bastard who reincarnated me had spat out—“for the sake of the world”—as his reason for killing me. Maybe he hadn’t been talking about my previous world. Maybe he’d meant this one. The world I’d reincarnated into.
Haha… I’m so screwed.
Saintess, Saintess candidate, to hell with all of it. I’m not doing it. I’m not gonna do it. No way in hell.