EP.104 JUST DANCE
What tool has historically killed the most beasts?
A sword? A spear? Or perhaps a stone axe?
None of the above.
Since ancient times, the tool that has killed the most beasts—the most brutally, the most simply—is none other than the rope.
A weapon of humans, and humans alone—who possess blunt nails, delicate manual dexterity, high intellect, and the innate cruelty that follows.
"Kghuuurgh! Cough! Kgh!"
"Welcome~ to the land of~ fantasies~."
The Colonel's boiling-like sounds and my humming formed a harmony. I pushed his back with my foot and pulled the rope even tighter.
When suddenly strangled, one inevitably falls into a panic. The Colonel made meaningless efforts, instinctively trying to tear away the rope constricting his neck.
'What's happening?! My neck, being strangled. Who on earth!'
Survival instinct awakened everything in the Colonel. He, who had faithfully followed the Major General's orders and let his thoughts solidify, began thinking for himself for the first time after coming down here.
He drew up his qi circulation and wrapped it around his neck. Protecting his neck with Half-Rebound Qi Art and Hard Qi Art while securing minimal blood flow, he glared and thought.
'Laborer! How dare, a mere prisoner, ambush an officer!'
His thoughts connected in fits and starts. Holding his breath and briefly assessing the situation, he became extremely enraged.
'Just from strangling my neck! Does he think he can defeat an officer!'
Even in a state of being strangled from behind, hostility surged.
Anger apparently isn't a combustion reaction. Seeing as it burns even when oxygen is blocked.
'I'll show you the difference in our strength!'
The one fortunate thing is that the back of the body is generally a hard place to reach.
Attacking from behind requires planning.
And if there's a plan, I can read it.
Now, let us dance.
The Colonel's elbow flew toward my shoulder. A fierce backward strike.
I slide my right foot half a step back and lightly lean my waist. Due to the limit of his range of motion, his elbow stopped just before reaching me. A precarious movement, so much so that it seemed we had practiced the coordination in advance.
With a gentle smile, I briefly loosened the rope strangling his neck, then wrapped it around his right arm.
The Colonel's right arm was tied to his neck.
'My right arm! This bastard…! Then how about this!'
Next came his leg. Up close with his vision obscured, he intended to shake me off with a back kick. Had I not read his thoughts, I would have been kicked.
That is, if I hadn't read his thoughts.
As he extended his leg, I also took a step back. As if performing a couple's dance, the Colonel and I moved step by step while maintaining close contact.
A couple's dance?
It just occurred to me, but that's not a bad metaphor.
Except for the fact that the partner is a bear-like man.
This is it for today. I whispered into the Colonel's ear.
"I'm not letting you go anywhere, partner."
'Bull, shit…!'
Reading the opponent's mind, reacting to it, and flowing along with it.
I, who can naturally match rhythms even with someone I've never met before, must surely be the Empire's greatest dance partner.
'N-no. Breath…'
Attempts to escape fail one after another.
If he tries to turn his body, I pull the rope taut and turn simultaneously.
If he flails his arms and legs, I move my body just enough to accommodate his reckless movements.
The Colonel deploying Half-Rebound Qi Art to push me away. However, pushing and pulling is my domain. I just need to let go slightly and grab again.
No matter how wildly he struggles, the distance between the Colonel and me always maintains half a pace.
Through the rope, his faint pulse is transmitted to me. The climax has already ended, and what remains is a gradually fading finale.
Until the song of life ends, this dance shall not end.
'I'm, going to… die?'
A little, no, quite late, but the thought of death crossed the Colonel's mind. Desperation came to him along with fear.
Finally becoming honest, I see.
"Grunt McKinsey. You probably think you survived because you were outstanding. After enduring all kinds of hardships, you became the Major General's trusted aide, brimming with confidence that you were doing something that could turn the world upside down."
You can't leave small talk out of a couple's dance. Pulling the rope taut, I whispered into his ear.
"You were just a slightly stupider, slightly luckier Lieutenant Callis, that's all."
'Me… being… compared to that… Ritmus…?'
"Just because you're in a position to use other people's lives doesn't mean you possess two lives yourself. Sometimes people get confused about that."
A breathy exhale. As if proudly displaying the sigh he can no longer let out.
"Now it's your turn to be tested. Have you prepared to put a period at the end of your life, Grunt McKinsey?"
'N-no…'
He had no intention of dying. No, in the first place, he didn't have many deep thoughts. He simply fell along with the Major General's orders.
The only emotion he possessed himself was the petty sense of superiority he felt when abandoning Lieutenant Callis. Putting the chain on Callis instead of around his own neck, the Colonel felt relief along with superiority.
The reason the Major General kept him alive wasn't because he was more outstanding, but because he was stupid.
The hand of a living tool reached out in vain. His desperate gaze landed on Nabi.
'Nabi…! Help me! You beast who only sucks drugs! I'll give you drugs, so help me!'
If Nabi had been just slightly less addicted to drugs, he might have reacted differently to this crisis.
Nabi was fumbling on top of the magic grass without even looking this way. In the Colonel's abandoning eyes, Callis came into view.
'Callis…! Save me…! Don't just stand there blankly…!'
If he hadn't wrapped the chain around his own neck, Callis might have hesitated for a moment. But now, Callis had lost even the will to resist and was only staring blankly in this direction.
But the karma the Colonel had built up until now had already been done. No one can change the past…..
Except for one person, that is.
'No….'
At the very, very end. The Colonel miserably tried to shake me off even by rolling on the ground. It was the moment he squeezed out all his strength to try to bend his waist forward.
Just before that strength could be exerted, I lightly tripped his leg.
The Colonel's heavy body fell forward ungracefully. I, who was strangling his neck, was dragged along as well.
However, without letting go of the rope even amid that, I rolled once. With the Colonel fallen on the ground, I pulled the rope up to my chest while lying on my back against him. He reached out with his left arm, but with one arm, he couldn't escape from this state.
The thoughts of the one pinned underneath gradually grew darker.
"Goodbye, Grunt McKinsey. You were once a brilliant protagonist of the world… but survived thanks to discarding your own thoughts and becoming a tool. It's always a shame when I see a book that has become a copy of something, but from another perspective, an abridged version must have its own value too."
Like that, the gradually fading music completed its finale, and reached the final note on the score.
Snap, it broke.
A period was marked on a single book.
I let go of the rope from my hands. The marks pressed into my palms rose red. Sighing from the sense of exhaustion, I took out the skewer hidden in my shoe and clumsily got up.
The first thing that caught my eye after getting up was none other than Tir. Tir was watching me along with the Blood Demon. If I had faltered while dancing, the Blood Demon would have quickly rushed over and flattened the Colonel like a pancake.
It was a good thing that didn't happen. I wanted to avoid shedding blood if possible. I raised my hand toward Tir.
"I missed you quite a bit, Tir."
At my greeting, Tir approached me with teary eyes.
"Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"My heart a little?"
"What, what did those disrespectful bastards do to make your heart hurt!"
"The black knights who I believed would protect me got smashed to pieces, so my heart got torn to shreds along with them…."
Flinch.
Tir, who had been preparing for a moving reunion, suddenly stopped at my abrupt scolding. Her blood-red eyes trembled with a different meaning than before.
"T-that, I'm sorry."
"No. That can happen. It was a well-known fact that the black knights were virtually useless…. But by the way, wasn't that an Authority that once destroyed a city? Sorry, but was that city made of sand back then?"
"T-that is… in the past it was stronger than this…. And…."
Avoiding my gaze as if having committed a crime, Tir trailed off.
After hemming and hawing like that for a while, Tir fidgeted with her fingers and added in a small voice.
"There is something I did not tell you. My Blood Control Art is not complete."
Huh? What does this mean?
At the sudden confession, I widened my eyes and shouted.
"What? What do you mean by that?"
"If darkness is the vessel, blood is the power. Originally, I should have filled the black knights with blood energy and moved them with a portion of my power contained within…. But for some unknown reason, I cannot freely control blood energy now."
Come to think of it, when the Lieutenant Commander was stabbed by the suicide packet and bled, somehow that blood didn't move. I should have been suspicious, but it was such a common sight that I let it pass.
More importantly! What on earth is going on! Why did I risk my life to give back the heart! The Blood Control Art has weakened?
Having fallen victim to the greatest investment scam in history, I cried out in injustice.
"What? You become my ally and get weaker? What kind of situation is this?"
"T-that… I'm sorry."
"No, this is all my fault! Azi is my ally but doesn't help at all, and Tir becomes my ally and suddenly gets weaker! At this point, I'm the problem, I'm the problem!"
Deliberately turning away from the embarrassed Tir, I beat my chest and lamented.
"People of the world! There's a walking suppressor right here! If you want to get weaker, come here and become my ally! You can learn what weakness is!"
"N-no. None of this is your fault. It's all my negligence… I should have stayed by your side…."
"How unfair, so unfair! Then give me back my heart! Give me back exactly what I gave you!"
Tir widened her eyes and swallowed her breath. Looking down at the ground with a sad and resentful face, Tir eventually made up her mind, squeezed her eyes shut, and pointed her finger at her own chest.
"…I understand. Since it is yours, I shall return it…."
"No, why would you actually give it back? Let's take jokes as jokes, okay?"
If she took out the heart and returned to being a ruthless vampire, I don't know what she would do to me. Even if she's weakened, it's better to have her as my ally. At least it's not a minus, right?
Thanks to my desperate dissuasion, Tir's heart was saved. However, Tir, whose confidence had dropped immensely, muttered gloomily.
"…I didn't know individual soldiers would be this strong. Even though he's lower than the commander as a Major General, to be that strong…. It seems the world has clearly changed. It's overwhelming to keep up."
"No, of course they're strong. A Commander isn't someone's pet dog's name."
"Much lower than that… Colonel, was it? I never imagined even a single soldier could easily subdue a black knight."
"No, he's not a soldier. He's an officer."
"…? Don't the two mean the same thing?"
It seems this person thinks that miscellaneous titles like mercenary captain or guard captain are synonymous with Commander. And the Colonel below that is just grunt number 1.
If the Colonel, who barely got promoted while rolling like a dog under the Major General, had heard this, he would have exploded and died from the outrage.
What a waste. Instead of someone insignificant like me rambling, I should have let the 'real' Tir's words be heard by the Colonel.
I told you, a civilian who's a layman at killing military personnel.
Anyway, it's a bit much to explain the Empire's military organization to a girl from before the 12th century. I just nodded vaguely and changed the subject.
"Alright. Before Miss Shei leisurely finishes off what's merely a Major General—who's neither a Commander nor anything else—what should we do about that drug-addicted cat?"
At my suggestion, Tir asked back with a noticeably less confident attitude.
"Should we attack…? Sigh, you probably know this too, but the King of Beasts lets out a vicious roar at the threshold of death. A King of Beasts letting out a vicious roar is a very troublesome opponent. Even Shei only dragged out the fight against the King of Cats."
Huh? When did I ever say we should fight? I lightly rebuked her.
"Why are you so intent on fighting when you're not even that strong?"
"Urgh…."
This reaction, that's a bit fun. Smiling at the shrinking Tir, I shrugged my shoulders.
"We need to coax her well. There's that magic grass right there too. I'll try to calm her down a bit with the drug."
It was then.
A stream of blood flowed from the dead Colonel's mouth. A fishy scent of blood wafted up. Since Tir couldn't control blood, the blood scent gradually spread.
Huh. Why is blood coming out when he died from strangulation?
The smell of blood can excite beasts, so I tried to keep it from coming out as much as possible.
A little bit of blood should be fine… right?
Complacently, that was what I thought at that moment.