Episode 18

Daiwen’s tired expression grew tinged with annoyance.

How dragon bones had ended up with Count Sirius was something even I, who knew nothing, was curious about.

But instead of explaining, Daiwen glanced at me and folded his arms.

“I’ll tell you when we’re alone.”

“……Very well.”

“Oh, if you can’t talk because of me, should I go somewhere else?”

Since the mission had somehow succeeded, I no longer had any reason to remain at the banquet, so I said that to Reuden. But instead, Daiwen stared at me.

Finding his gaze strange, I narrowed my eyes and all but glared at him. Daiwen smiled and said something meaningful.

“More importantly, you were impressive yesterday.”

“Hm?”

“You must have hit him quite hard. His cheek was still swollen.”

“Uh……?”

“I’m not criticizing you. I’m just a little grateful. It was a very satisfying sight. I happen to despise that fellow.”

As I turned his words over in my mind, I asked as if bewitched.

“You saw who I hit?”

“Hm? Yes. Why? Are you surprised you got caught beating someone up in secret?”

“No, that’s not it…….”

Then that meant he knew whom I had hit.

I was about to ask him to tell me who it was, but Daiwen spoke first.

“What a shame. I happened to be across the corridor, so I saw everything. Well, anyway.”

Daiwen took one step closer, bent at the waist, and whispered.

“You asked earlier why I took that hit for you, didn’t you? That was the decisive reason. Thank you for landing one on Sion yesterday, Rene.”

“…….”

“To think I’d live to see the day I thanked you.”

His eyes, speaking as though he found it amusing, gleamed fiercely. Realizing that purple could be such a chilling color, I muttered a small fact under my breath.

This man hates me.

Of course, who wouldn’t hate Rene Blair? But this man, Daiwen Fergus, seemed to hate me in a different sense.

‘I see.’

Yesterday, I had been lucky enough not to die by this man’s hand, but…… as long as he hated me, if he had a reason, he would kill me at any time.

My intuition blared that red alert at me.

“Step away.”

At that moment, Reuden’s hand, colder than usual, wrapped around my shoulder. At the same time, Daiwen straightened from where he had bent and smiled slyly.

“Then I’ll see you later, Marquis Blair.”

“Yes, let’s. But when that time comes, I would prefer you not try such tricks.”

“Hm? I wasn’t trying anything.”

Even though Reuden had given him a warning that was not quite a warning, Daiwen merely smiled and walked away.

Glaring at Daiwen as he receded into the distance, I became certain of one thing.

That no matter what, if I got entangled with that bastard, my life wouldn’t survive it.

* * *

After informing Reuden that I was going home and leaving the banquet hall, I became absorbed in one thought.

It was about none other than the person named “Sion,” whom Daiwen had mentioned in passing.

“Sion……. Sion…….”

Going over Daiwen’s words, the person whose cheek I slapped yesterday was clearly someone named Sion.

And even if he wasn’t a leading character in the original story, he was probably at least a supporting one. Daiwen, a candidate for the male lead, had seemed to dislike him.

‘But why don’t I remember him?’

The moment I heard the name Daiwen Fergus, I remembered him, but even after hearing the name Sion, nothing came to mind. As if he hadn’t appeared in the original story at all.

‘More importantly, he said Daiwen was across the corridor yesterday.’

When Daiwen mentioned the corridor, I remembered bumping into someone there and hitting that person. That must have been Sion, right?

‘Which means, if I hadn’t bumped into that person called Sion, the person I would have met was…….’

It would have been Daiwen. In that case, I knew exactly how Rene Blair had ended up being killed by Daiwen in the original story. And also what would have happened yesterday if I hadn’t bumped into that person called Sion.

Then was meeting Sion yesterday simply luck? Or was it a butterfly effect caused by my trying to change fate? Was that why I met someone who didn’t appear in the original story?

Not remembering things about the original story was nothing new, yet for some reason, it bothered me.

Around the time I thought I should set aside a day to properly review the original story, I saw the Blair family carriage and shook off my useless thoughts.

‘Hm? Come to think of it…….’

Something was strange. Normally, Catherine would be waiting inside the carriage and would have come out early to greet me, but I couldn’t see her.

Had she perhaps fallen asleep in the carriage?

“Aaaagh!”

That was when it happened. From not far away came a scream so loud it made me jump, and my steps naturally halted. It was as though that scream had warned me not to move.

Cold sweat quickly broke out over me, and my heart pounded.

Because I had left while the banquet was in full swing, there happened to be no one around. I looked around with only my eyes, then flinched at the pained voice that came again.

“S-stop! Agh! P-please, spare me!”

A cry more subdued than before, but desperate. I didn’t know where it was coming from, but this was no ordinary matter.

‘I need to call someone…….’

As I unconsciously stepped backward, a light breeze suddenly blew.

At the same time, a fishy stench pierced my nose.

All my senses were shouting at me. This was the smell of blood. And it was coming from near the Blair family carriage.

The voice that had screamed for help was deep, so it wasn’t Catherine. But what if……. what if it was the coachman who had worked so hard for me yesterday and today?

One thought led to another and another. This must be what it meant to be unable to stop thoughts once they began to flow.

And this must also be what it meant for the body to move on its own.

Before I knew it, I was approaching the carriage.

‘I don’t want the people around me to get hurt or die anymore.’

To a bewildering degree, that was the only thought in my head.

A span of time like an eternity—no, an instant like a dream.

When I barely managed to move my heavy feet and draw close to the carriage, something thrust out before my eyes.

It gleamed sharply beneath the sunlight.

A sword had pierced through the carriage and stopped just barely in front of my eyes. If it had protruded even a little farther, or if I had come a little closer, I would have been blinded.

When that fact sank in, goosebumps crawled up from my neck, and I stood there unable to move an inch.

‘I-I’m insane. Why did I stupidly walk closer? This is a situation where even bringing the guards right away wouldn’t be enough…….’

I was just about to lift my foot to go fetch someone even now.

“There is another human.”

A voice came from beyond the carriage.

No, could I even call that a voice?

As if two voices had been mixed together, closer instead to a mechanical sound…….

As a creeping fear crawled up me and I stepped back again, the sword was yanked back with a sharp thud.

Thanks to that, a small hole appeared in the carriage, and standing right in front of it, I had no choice but to see what lay beyond the hole.

A very bizarre eye, staring straight at me.

It was not a human eye. The whites that should have been pale were stained black, and the pupil was drawn out vertically.

‘I have to run.’

Faced with something utterly grotesque, the option of fleeing immediately came to mind. But what about Catherine? What about the person who had just cried out to be saved?

Whatever the case, one thing was certain: the shoes I was wearing would be of no help at all.

I barely managed to move my body and irritably kicked off my shoes. And as I was thinking about what to do, whatever it was—human or otherwise—raised its sword high.

There wasn't even time to wonder what it was trying to do. It struck the black carriage stretching straight upward. Wind rushed through.

Boom.

"Holy shit."

The carriage that had been perfectly fine moments ago split in two and collapsed.

"Please tell me it wasn't cut by a sword."

The moment I raised my eyes from the carriage, I clamped my mouth shut. What lay beyond, hidden behind the carriage, was more brutal than I had imagined.

Pools of blood congealed on the ground. The stench of blood, thicker than before. And people collapsed atop those pools of blood.

The moment I saw that scene, I bit my lip. My heart pounded heavily. There, atop that pool of blood, Catherine lay collapsed.

Is she dead? No, right? She can't be. She mustn't be.

After looking at the three collapsed people, including Catherine, I sharply shifted my gaze.

Only then did I see the person holding a sword. Shaggy, rag-like hair hanging down to the shoulders, vertical pupils like a snake's eyes, and black sclera instead of white.

I couldn't tell who it was just by the face, but seeing the clothes, I could guess who it was.

That person was Count Sirius, who had been dragged away by a Hugo Knight just moments ago!

I didn't know why he had ended up in such a form, but the fact that he was dangerous remained unchanged. I quietly bent my legs and grasped the shoes I had taken off in my hand.

Then, several voices flowed out from the Count.

"It's that wench! That wench? That wench insulted me. She smells strange. Kill her quickly, tear her limbs apart! Ah, that human must be the one. Fine, just kill her!"

The Count muttered in two different voices and swung his sword through the air.

By then, the man's appearance felt even more grotesque.

'If I'm not mistaken, he's acting as if there are two people in one body.......'

"Kill! Kill, kill. I'm telling you to kill! So that damned wench will never flap her lips again, kill her!"

Screaming as if possessed, he fell quiet like a lie. Head deeply bowed, he stood there looking as if he had fainted.

Of course, he hadn't fainted. Count Sirius's killing intent, heavy enough to make breathing difficult, was directed at me.

Then, a voice flowed from the Count. It no longer sounded mechanical; it was clear.

"My, how annoyingly chatty. To think the body I entered had to be that of such a trashy human."

Saying things I couldn't understand, 'that thing' raised its head. Before, only its eyes had felt inhuman. Now, that was no longer the case.

Snake-like eyes, and those scale-like things covering its body in patches, which I had thought were a delusion at the banquet hall.

My intuition told me.

That was no longer human.

'That thing' adjusted its grip on the sword. The sharp blade turned toward me again, and unbelievably, starting from the black hilt that had exposed a silver blade, black energy surged and flowed, dyeing it black.

"Too bad for you, human. This guy is begging me to kill you?"

"......I don't really know what's going on, but even if he hadn't asked you to kill me, you were going to try to kill me anyway, weren't you? What an excuse."

"You can tremble and talk all you want, but it doesn't provoke me in the slightest. Still, don't worry—I won't kill you. I'll just play with you. Though it'll be agonizing enough that you'll wish you were dead instead."

A smirk. 'That thing' smiled. Its lips rose grotesquely, as if torn. The teeth revealed were jagged and sharp, like a shark's.

What should I do? Think, think, Rene!

Whatever else, the great Hugo Knights are in the banquet hall. If it's them, surely they could easily handle this one person....... No, this 'one creature,' right?

But if I went to the banquet hall to fetch the Hugo Knights, 'that thing' would definitely chase after me.

'No, it's dangerous. There are so many civilians in the banquet hall.......'

As I bit my lip in a situation where I could do neither this nor that, a familiar sound reached my ears.

Ding.

Huh?

Before the question of why I was hearing this sound now could even rise, windows filled my vision.

Emergency Mission

'Met a strange creature! Since I can't die, I might as well run to the banquet hall and get others killed!'

Accept / Decline