The Princess Who Smiled at Slaughter
Lilith Valcart, the kingdom's most precious jewel, turned her back and ran. For the first time in her life, her heart felt ready to burst, yet she sprinted like a woman possessed. "Hahk! Hahk!!"
—Your Highness! Leave this to me and flee with the guards!
—We will protect you with our lives!
—I will show you the final pride of a knight. Go, quickly!
—Your Highness. Forgive this disloyalty. I cannot serve you to the end. Allow me to repay it with this worthless life.
The blood-red barrier that had activated right after she sent Jena away was burned into Lilith's Clairvoyance. Even as Jena slaughtered enemies and sensed something wrong, desperately trying to return, she had been unable to enter the suddenly deployed barrier. What followed was a flood of slaughter that made the word "hell" feel inadequate. The forest chosen for the academy's external training exercise, which had contained only a few monsters, transformed into a human slaughterhouse in mere minutes.
"Hahk! Hahk!!"
Even the last knight guarding her vanished while trying to hold off the pursuers. Lilith realized this was exactly the situation Carix had feared, but she also knew there was nothing she could do about it with her own hands.
I'm sorry! I'm sorry…! I'm so sorry!! Everyone, because of me…!!!
If only Jena had been with her. No—if she had simply listened to Carix and never come to the training exercise in the first place, the knights would still be alive. She wouldn't be fleeing like this, exposed to merciless violence. All of it, every single death, was her fault.
"Ugh!!"
A princess who had never trained, whose mana and stamina were both ordinary, who was nothing more than a 6th-class mage, could not possibly break through the forest while mentally unraveling. Lilith soon tripped over her own legs. Even so, she kept her eyes fixed on the being chasing her through the unbroken vision of her left eye.
"Oh dear. You fell. Looks like running's over."
"Hah… hah… W-why… why are you doing this…"
"I explained at the beginning. This is a diversion. Our real target is elsewhere. You lot are just bait to draw attention. Well, a rather large piece of bait called a princess happened to wander into the fishing spot."
A massive man with an axe larger than Lilith's entire body, stained sticky with blood, approached with a leisurely chuckle. The fallen princess dragged herself backward on her rear, covering her mouth, but she only managed a single meter before her head struck a tree and stopped her.
"By the way, I've been wondering something since earlier."
"?"
The man, who had been hunting humans with a relaxed smile until now—a demon, judging by what she'd heard only appeared on the Monster Front—wore an expression of genuine curiosity for the first time as he asked Lilith:
"Why the hell do you keep smiling?"
"……"
That was right. The reason she had covered her mouth was because she didn't want anyone to see her face right now. Because even as she cried, she was smiling.
"If it was fear that broke you, I'd understand. Plenty of humans were like that. But you—you smiled the moment you saw the first knight get split in half fighting me. Right?"
"I-I never…"
"No, no. You're still crying and smiling right now. What the hell is wrong with you? If you'd lost your mind from fear because you're some sheltered princess, I'd get it. But you look like…"
This situation. This nauseating violence from someone overwhelmingly strong. Lilith found it exhilarating.
"J-just kill me… I have nothing to explain to scum like you."
"Wow… I've never seen a face this mismatched before. Honestly, when guys in front of me act tough like you, I usually tear off their limbs until they beg for death. But this… what am I supposed to do? You're actually enjoying the fact that you're about to die, aren't you?"
"……"
"Did you hate humans that much? Was it fun watching your knights die? Is that it?"
—Boom!
"……Guess not? Then what the hell is it?"
A mere 6th-class mage whose awakened magic was specialized only in observation and reconnaissance. The offensive spell she fired was weaker than what a freshly promoted 7th-class mage could manage. It struck the demon's face but left not even a scorch mark.
"Hmm. Just asking to be sure, but you don't happen to like strong people, or enjoy watching intense deaths, do you?"
"!!"
"Whoa. Seriously?"
The demon had guessed correctly. The idea that a princess raised in luxury would find the sight of her knights dying exhilarating, that she would feel the enemy's strength and thrill at a situation beyond the control of her royal authority and power, was something that should never exist. Yet it was happening right in front of him.
"This girl's actually insane. Hey. Want to become a Main?"
"F… off."
"No, no, I'm serious. Your personality fits us perfectly. You won't get stronger as a Main, but there'll be plenty of beings stronger than me for you to watch and enjoy to your heart's content."
"And if you keep feeding us information about human society using your status as princess, that'd be pretty damn useful too. How about it? Win-win, right?"
Lilith raised her middle finger while crying—the universal gesture known across all nations and worlds. She truly was insane. To feel pleasure and dopamine in this absurd situation, while students were being butchered like animals and the knights who had tried to protect her were dying one after another. That was why she despised herself for smiling, even as she wept.
"Ah. What a shame."
The demon had genuinely wanted the princess to join them. Most people who became Mains fell into two categories: disposable tools broken by force and fed monster meat, or those who had passively gone mad after growing disillusioned with human civilization. A naturally insane woman who had reached such a high position among humans was rare. He had truly wanted her as an ally.
"Still, can't be helped."
The demon raised his axe. By now, human reinforcements would be arriving, and among them would surely be experts capable of slaughtering every Main except himself. There was no time to waste like this.
"Farewell."
With a voice full of genuine regret, the demon swung his axe down without hesitation.
Really, truly… I'm truly sorry to everyone.
The revolving lantern. A privilege granted only to those whose deaths were certain. Lilith realized she was experiencing it now, apologizing to everyone until the very end.
Because I was stupid. Because I'm insane… I desecrated everyone's deaths.
They had thrown away their lives to uphold their knightly honor, to protect the royal family with pride. Yet she had treated their deaths as nothing more than a source of excitement. Even while knowing they had sacrificed themselves because of her foolish choice, instead of sincerely apologizing or mourning, she had sullied their pride and honor by reveling in the sight of them dying, being defeated, being crushed by overwhelming power.
I'm sorry that someone like me is a princess.
Even so, even then, she found herself entranced by the axe falling toward her head. Indiscriminate violence. Oppression so terrible it was sickening. Absurdity that words like "cruel" could not capture. That disgustingly powerful force was now violating her, who had enjoyed everything as a princess without fulfilling any responsibility. Yet why, even in this situation, did her heart rejoice in the absurdity, cheering madly?
Ah…… So that's why.
She had never understood her own insane tendencies with reason. But now she understood why she had watched that young duke Carix every day, cheering and trembling with fear yet still approaching him. The reason she had been obsessed with him until now. Because the incomprehensible power, terror, and dread he constantly displayed always made her heart pound violently.
……I want to see it one more time.
The overwhelming death she had been entranced by just moments ago, the axe larger than her body—compared to him, it felt pathetic. Her wildly beating heart instantly grew cold. The demon's violence was certainly frightening, terrifying, cruel, and alluring, but compared to Carix, it was far too… primitive.
Even in death, I hope I can see your power.
Not the heaven or hell the church spoke of, but wandering this world, atoning for the deaths she had desecrated, while enjoying the young duke's unique strength a little longer. With that wish, the princess accepted the approaching death and closed her eyes.
"You make that face in this situation?"
Instead of the sound of flesh being split by an axe, a man's voice that shouldn't have been here pulled her from the revolving lantern back to reality.
"Huh…?"
"Eh…?"
Carix, who had grabbed her and rolled across the ground at full speed to dodge the falling axe—without even executing a proper breakfall, now covered in blood—looked at Lilith and let out a voice filled with genuine irritation.
"I'm insane too, but honestly, Your Highness is a lunatic who doesn't lose to me either."
The monster who possessed the most incomprehensible and thrilling strength in the world she knew was now smiling calmly before a true monster.
*****
1.4 seconds. If she had found the princess just 1.4 seconds later, she wouldn't be in his arms crying and smiling in confusion right now—she would have been neatly split into left and right halves like a piece of meat.
This dopamine-addicted lunatic. Don't tell me she was actually enjoying the overwhelming violence that was trying to kill her.
Carix felt a slight chill. He had known she was this kind of woman, but this was still too much. The original Carix duke had been a lunatic, and he himself wasn't much different, but the princess was clearly an even greater lunatic. There simply hadn't been a chance for such a scene in the game. If this woman had experienced a situation like this in the game… ugh. It gave him goosebumps.
Memories of my past life weren't just necessary for me.
Maybe someone should give this idiot some past-life memories too. At least he could imitate being human by understanding morality as knowledge, but this girl was addicted to strength to the point of crying and smiling even at the moment of her own death. He truly didn't want to understand, and he wanted to erase all the information and memories he had understood.
"Hey. What the hell are you? Just now, how…?!!"
He kicked the surprised demon in the face as the creature tried to raise his axe. But the demon, who had been different from the others and had shown off that he was the raid boss of this episode by blocking with the iron shaft of his axe, was only pushed back about a meter.
"Huh… What the hell is this? I thought your leg barely moved, but I couldn't even see the follow-up kick coming?"
"Young Duke! That man is a demon!! Run, you have to run…!!"
"Without mana, both weight and power are lacking. What a mess."
All three people present were saying only what they wanted to say.
""……?""
Both pairs of eyes focused on him.
"I really can't feel any mana from you?"
"Y-Young Duke!! Where did your mana go! Don't tell me you're still hiding it even in this situation…!!"
Apparently, one human and one demon had decided to accept his words.
"Your Highness. Reinforcements are on the way. If we hold out until then, we win."
But he had no obligation to answer their questions. He only conveyed the necessary information.
"Reinforcements? Is it Jena…!!"
"Unfortunately, it's Leng."
"Damn it. You've been ignoring me this whole time. Hey. Aren't you going to answer? What the hell are you?!"
Annoyed at being ignored, the demon kicked off the ground and charged at tremendous speed. Distance: five meters. An axe as tall as Carix. And acceleration beyond common sense.
—Boom!!
"Kyaaak!!"
"!?"
But no matter how tremendous the acceleration, it was still a speed that could be seen. Strength entered his legs. His waist twisted. The axe followed. If he read the preparatory movement, he could dodge the subsequent trajectory with his eyes closed.
"Your Highness. I'll borrow your weight."
He embraced the princess and used the momentum from dodging the diagonally swung axe. Rotation. Body weight. Centrifugal force. Acceleration. Adding weight, moving faster. He unleashed a kick.
—Clang!
"Kuh!?"
Once again, the demon barely managed to block by raising the shaft.
"Your Highness. You should gain some weight. You're too light."
"What the— what is that!?"
Weak. Even with the weight of two people including rotation, the princess was too light.
"H-how dare you talk about a lady's weight! Have you lost your mind, Young Duke!?"
"Don't struggle. Here it comes."
"Kyaaak!?"
Enraged by his counterattack, the demon's axe strikes poured down like a downpour. The terrain changed, and he dodged. There was no room for counterattacks. The demon began striking shorter, as if he had no intention of giving ground. The princess simply swung in his arms like a counterweight.
"Huh! What the hell are you? You're out of mana, right?"
The correct answer came.
"You're carrying someone in that state and still dodging my attacks like this?"
Destroying the barrier. Melting the Mains while gathering information. Finally, just before the princess's head was split, he had consumed all his remaining mana to reinforce his entire body. As a result, he was completely depleted. Truly empty.
"Damn it. You've been ignoring me this whole time?"
He didn't answer. There was no need.
"Isn't it too arrogant to act like this just because you can fight a bit, human?"
His breathing grew ragged. He didn't even have the strength left to open his mouth. No—he had to conserve what little strength he had to speak. Hold on. The princess's now-cooled body temperature awakened his brain. His awakened brain pressed down on his collapsing body. If this balance broke, he would fail the tightrope walk between life and revenge. Only that kept him moving now.
"……Fine. So you have nothing to say to a demon."
The demon laughed.
"Yeah, I've met plenty of arrogant bastards like you on the battlefield."
As if preparing his final attack, the demon released dark-purple mana from his entire body, dropped his axe, and reached out to the side, tearing space. He remembered this. It was originally a greatsword pattern that appeared in phase two after the player landed hits. In reality, he could use it whenever he got pissed off, apparently.
"I'll split you both neatly in half together."
The moment he kicked off the ground, the demon's speed increased beyond before. This was the demon's true serious mode. But it was still within the visible world. A horizontal slash from left to right. He could dodge by rotating in the same direction. He had enough momentum and weight. If he could just use this to create distance…
—Slip.
"Ah."
He had calculated perfectly. But he hadn't accounted for the "unknown accumulation of fatigue" caused by mana depletion. As if this was truly his limit, his leg axis trembled. If things continued like this, all that would be completed was a sandwich of the princess's and young duke's upper bodies.
—Thud.
"!?"
But even in that broken posture, Carix's brain found the optimal answer in 0.03 seconds. Pushing the princess in his arms to use her as propulsion to roll his body backward. That would at least allow him to dodge the attack by sacrificing one corpse. It should have been so. Yet—
"Run."
Ignoring the calculation his reason had perfectly made, his instinct arbitrarily pushed the princess in the opposite direction. The worst choice. Even if he saved the princess here and died, exactly 0.7 seconds later the princess would follow him to the afterlife. Yet neither his reason nor his instinct called this the worst choice or said it was wrong. Yes. The probability was low, but there was still a way.
"!"
Though it came from his broken posture, pushing the princess had created propulsion. Now he could throw his body at the demon. Which meant a counterattack was possible. He squeezed every muscle in his body and rotated…!!
—Clang!!!
"Get away from the young master and Her Highness!!"
"!?"
He had tried to drive his knee into the demon's face, but Leng, who had caught up at some point, pushed the demon away.
"……"
"……"
The fallen princess and he ended up facing each other. Hmm. Awkward.
*****
"Huuuuaaah…"
"Young master!?"
"Focus on the demon, Leng!!"
He scolded Leng while exhaling roughly. Leng, who had been worried about him, no longer looked his way. The time he had clashed with the demon was at most three minutes. But it was also the first time since being born into this world that he had been forced beyond his limits by external pressure.
Damn it. Normally I could hold my breath for three minutes easily.
Damn fantasy world. Mana wasn't even a component of the body, yet when depleted it wrecked his entire physical condition. "Huuu…"
Eventually, his body, pushed to its limit by mana depletion, lost control and collapsed forward. However, the pain that should have come from hitting the ground never arrived.
—Poof.
"Y-Your Highness?"
"Are you an idiot? Why did you jump into danger like a fool without listening, when someone like me isn't even worth saving?"
The princess, holding his head against her body, was sobbing.
"You almost died just now. Run? Run where? Leave you behind and run alone? And then…"
"You would have smiled like a madwoman again. At the new strength you witnessed for the first time. While imagining my figure fighting a demon without being able to use mana. And even imagining that you were part of that battle. Getting excited, feeling joy, then despairing and crying at the gap with your own self."
"……"
He wished she wouldn't talk because it was exhausting. But he had to say what needed to be said.
"That's why I came. If you were a refined, obedient, and kind lady, I would probably be sitting in my lodging drinking coffee right now."
"……Because I'm insane, you came?"
"Because I'm insane too… it seems only madwomen barge in uninvited."
You were the one who barged into my world first. So I had no choice but to come. Because I didn't want to regret not acting again. The feeling I had with my brother—I refuse that now.
"What… what is that, really."
"You don't need to know. ……I'll rest for just one minute, so don't talk to me…… okay."
With his face buried in the princess's embrace, Carix consciously released control of his entire body and entered forced rest.
"Stupid man."
Unlike usual, Lilith wasn't watching the battle between Leng and the demon unfolding before her eyes. She was only looking at Carix's face, now devoid of consciousness.
"Ah…?"
And even though she was only looking at his face, she noticed her heart was pounding, and felt her face growing hot.
*****
Between a single clash, countless slashes crossed.
This monster…!!
Even blinking felt arrogant and careless in the face of the continuing clash.
The young master fought for several minutes without using mana while protecting Her Highness?!
4th-class knight Leng. Even with the advantage of a surprise attack, he couldn't gain any upper hand against the demon who swung his greatsword one-handed like a toy.
"What are you again. I can feel 4th-class mana, so how are you holding out so well?"
"……"
"Why do all these bastards stop talking when they get in front of me? Is it some kind of disease?"
A relaxed, leisurely voice. Incompatible with it, vicious sword strikes. Each blow was a slash comparable to Leng's full power. It wasn't that he wasn't answering. He was desperately clinging on, trying to somehow land even one counterattack in the fleeting openings.
—Boom!
"Kuh!!"
The demon exclaimed "Oh" and laughed. When Leng's posture broke from a terrain-changing strike and he aimed a kick at the opening, the demon sacrificed one arm to defend.
"If all 4th-class knights were this level, today's ambush wouldn't have succeeded in the first place."
"You bastard. Because of you……"
"Finally opening your mouth?"
While the pushed-back Leng fixed his posture, the demon charged again without giving him a moment's rest. The skill gap was clear. Scars gradually increased on Leng's body, while only Leng's blood splattered and stuck to the demon's body.
"You seem talented. If you had 3rd-class skill, you might have left a scratch on my body."
"Kuh!!?"
A heavy strike carrying unavoidable speed. With no room left to deflect, he took it head-on, and his knees buckled. A sword lock followed. But the outcome was already decided. Leng had known he absolutely shouldn't engage in a contest of strength against this opponent. That was why he had been deflecting and dodging as much as possible, searching for an opening to counterattack. But losing one arm had been too great a loss.
—Creak!!
"Will your mana run out first, or will your sword break first?"
"Krrgh!!"
The pressure crushed him, making it impossible to push back and escape or deflect and counterattack. Yet Leng did not give up. Because he believed.
"Hah!!"
—Clang!!
"This bastard?!"
He unleashed all his remaining mana in a single explosive strike. The young master had shouted one minute. So he just needed to hold out for one minute. He had never lied except to the one he sought revenge against.
"Puhak━!!?"
"Idiot. Do you think I've only fought one or two knights who go berserk before dying?"
But even with the resolve to die through berserking, his limit was holding out for ten more seconds. Because with one arm broken, he had no way to block the remaining hand's fist. Eventually, with the sound of his skull cracking, Leng's body flew through the air and crashed into the ground.
"That makes one."
"You're next."
"What!?"
But those ten seconds had exactly filled one minute and three seconds. Carix's palm flickered before the demon's eyes.
*****
Vibration. The marquis had said it was a rather useless attribute except for helping with crafting in this world, but the moment he awakened it, countless applications had come to mind and he had been slightly excited.
━"This, if I mix it with light magic, would be completely broken, right?"
━"What? What would you use shaking light for?"
If he burst intense light while simultaneously shaking the transmission methods of air, mana, and light at ultra-high speed to cause abnormal flickering, in theory he could destroy the opponent's visual processing and sense of balance while overloading their brain. He had tested this attack on the marquis.
━"Uweeek!!"
━"Sorry. Are you okay?"
━"T-this… this is really minimum output? M-my head feels like it's going to explode…"
━"Want to try maximum output?"
━"Y-you said you'd let me live!"
It had demonstrated power that made the marquis mistake it for an attempt to kill him. And that was with minimum mana that the marquis himself wouldn't even perceive as a threat. If he gathered mana and unleashed maximum output for just one minute…
"Kuaaak?!"
"Feeling disoriented? The sensation of your brain melting alive should be quite novel."
Losing his vision permanently was obvious, and even after the afterimages disappeared, the demon's brain and optic nerves would suffer eternally from nonexistent light and afterimages. Not to mention the demon's brain, which would have to infinitely regenerate them due to the vibration he had poured in.
"Kill meee!! I'd rather dieee!!!!"
"Don't beg. Even if the sky splits, you're not going back alive."
Mixed with the screams came vomit—whether it was the demon's blood, organs, or the flesh of people he had eaten, he couldn't tell. It continued without end. The effect was certainly good, but too good. Ordinary people would die from shock without even having time to enjoy the pain like this bastard.
—Thud.
"Kuaaaak━!!!!"
"Your sense of pain should be amplified too from the overload on your optic nerves and brain. Thrilling, isn't it?"
When he embedded the greatsword the demon had been swinging into his shoulder, it felt really good. The demon's screams begging to be killed were so intense they made him not want to kill him.
"One question before you die. Who was the demon that killed Walter?"
"Linnet!! It was Linnet!!"
"Question two. Who was the demon that killed or ordered the death of Deolis Valentia?"
"I don't know!! I don't know!! P-please!! Just kill me!!"
"Question three. Why did that demon called Linnet come to the capital?"
"My master!! My master ordered me to come down!! I-I already told you everything!! Please kill meee!!"
Tsk. The answers he wanted weren't short responses. The demon apparently still had some life left, so he poured mana into the embedded greatsword, confirmed the vibrational pattern of the body's composition, and added vibration to the sword to make the body flow down like the previous ones.
"Bueeeek━!!"
"How does it feel to have your body melting in real time and vomiting it out while feeling it with amplified senses? Plus, the mana I gathered for one minute ends here. Thanks to how sturdy you are, you'll be able to melt for a very long time while feeling that sensation."
"A-ah, bueak! N-no!! Don't wanna!!"
Finally understanding his intention, the demon vomited up even information he hadn't been asked, mixing it with vomit and screams. The name of the high-ranking demon who had ordered this incident was Orden and Chopper. They and Linnet were in the northern black market. There were also several humans cooperating with the demons in Group 1. Linnet's master had long been using Linnet to place various humans as collaborators in the kingdom's capital. And he spilled everything about their abilities as well.
"They're also targeting the Mains of the Baker ducal family!! Please, please!! Really! I told you everything… gueeeek…!!"
"Good. Last question. Do you know of any blue-eyed demon?"
"B-blue…? I don't know!! Guek!! N-no, really! I really don't know…!!"
"Oh well. That's the information I wanted most, and you don't know it."
—Crunch!
"Kuuuueek?!!"
"Dying slowly while melting suits you perfectly."
The demon's relatively thin limbs had already melted and lost function. After driving the greatsword through the now-softened body deep enough to pierce into the ground, he turned his back. The pleas and screams begging to be killed immediately continued to be heard, but honestly… he was tired.
"Damn fantasy world…"
Mana depletion had been giving him tremendous weakness and physical pain from the very beginning. No—when he usually kept his mana consciously empty, there had been no problem at all. So why was it so painful when it was consumed and emptied? It was truly an incomprehensible mechanism.
"Damn it."
His legs gave out. The sensation of his body, which he had been holding together with brain labor, grew hazy. The number of Mains he had killed on the way here was twenty-two. The demon had said he brought thirty. There could still be eight hiding somewhere, but… no. He should ask the princess if her escort knights had taken down eight… Ah… he also hoped there were no surviving students who had seen him…… Leng… he had heard the sound of a head cracking…… he wasn't dead, right?
—Thud.
"Y-Your Highness?"
"You can rest now."
He realized he hadn't been walking but collapsing when his head struck the princess's shoulder first. More than that… the softness that touched him before her voice made him recognize it was the princess—didn't that make him a bit of a scoundrel?
"Still… enemies…"
"It's okay. Thank you. Truly."
At the princess's gentle hand stroking his blood-matted hair, his brain and body finally completely cut off.