The victims were all alone.
The victims were all killed at night.
Aside from the deceased, almost no one had ever sensed that person's presence.
It was said that the lord had dispatched people specifically to keep watch and patrol after four o'clock. But it had been of no use.
Those who were meant to die still died.
Ade had probably already headed out by now, hadn't he?
Esper decided to go to a tavern first to book a room; she and Eladia needed a place to rest.
The tavern keeper in town was a scrawny, middle-aged man. His gaze lingered on the Holy Sword floating behind Esper for two seconds, his lip twitching, but he asked nothing.
“One room is enough.”
Esper raised a finger.
The frequency of the death marcher's appearances was unknown. Although they basically only targeted individuals related to knights, they had also killed two adventurers.
Furthermore, no definitive conclusion had been reached regarding how he chose his targets. If this fellow didn't specifically kill knights, but rather individuals who possessed a certain trait shared by all knights, then Eladia might very well fall within that scope.
Esper could do without sleep; it would be enough to let Eladia sleep on the bed.
Therefore, to be safe, sharing a single room was the most reliable option.
...And it saved money.
But others didn't necessarily think that way.
The tavern keeper's single eye darted back and forth between her and Eladia, the twitch at the corner of his mouth turning into an ambiguous smile.
“...Suit yourself. Five copper coins a night.”
The two of them went upstairs, and Esper stepped into the room.
Though cheap and simple, it had a bed, a small table, and a small chair. It was enough.
“You sleep on the bed.”
Esper dragged the only chair over and sat down.
The moment she sat on it, the chair wobbled.
“...This is a bit too run-down.”
Standing at the doorway, Eladia's sky-blue eyes stared at the narrow single bed in the dim light of the corridor's oil lamp, and then at Esper sitting before the low table.
“...Are you still not going to sleep?”
“No need.”
Esper shrugged.
“I'm used to staying up late. You go ahead and sleep.”
Eladia stared at her for two seconds. Then she walked to the bedside and sat down. She hesitated slightly when taking off her shoes, looking somewhat reluctant.
With the Holy Light automatically cleansing her, she didn't even need to bathe.
After removing her shoes, she pulled the blanket over herself, her eyes fixed on the back of the figure illuminated by the oil lamp at the low table. She stared for a long time before finally closing them.
Her breathing became slow and even.
She fell asleep.
Night deepened.
It was truly bright.
Once she fell asleep, the Holy Light she had been deliberately suppressing was fully released. Even from several feet away, Esper still felt uncomfortable.
The oil lamp on the low table was still lit, but in the face of Eladia's Holy Light, it made practically no difference.
Then, Esper heard the sound of a crystal shattering.
She stood up from her chair.
The chair fell backward, hitting the floor with a dull thud. She walked to the window, her fingers gripping the edge of the shutter, and pushed it open.
The town in the night was nothing but an endless black, but in Esper's eyes, it was still clear as day.
To the southeast.
Shreds of a teal cloak fluttered in the air.
The Holy Sword floated up next to her shoulder, the specks of light on the blade gathering in that direction in an orderly fashion.
She turned her head and looked at Eladia on the bed.
There was danger; she had to wake her up first.
“Eladia.”
No response.
“Eladia!”
She was fast asleep.
“Holy Sword, go poke her awake.”
The Holy Sword paused in midair.
“Go, quickly!”
Esper growled in a low voice.
The Holy Sword flipped a hundred and eighty degrees, aiming its hilt at Eladia's shoulder and jabbing down hard.
“Mmh...”
Eladia woke up, first meeting the hilt of the Holy Sword floating in front of her, and then Esper standing by the window.
“Esper...?”
“Eladia, I have to go. You stay here, don't move around.”
Esper instructed in a low voice, then leapt out of the window, dashing straight toward the southeast.
...
Ade walked along the familiar streets, sensing the slight disturbances in the darkness.
He was a man without talent; he had firmly believed this until the first time he killed someone.
Later, he understood that he was a fellow who needed to build his own life upon the sacrifices of others.
Thus, he had made up his mind long ago: no matter what happened, he only needed to preserve himself.
But after Nar's death, when he walked into the guild to hand in a quest, Nar's mother was inside, searching everywhere for adventurers, practically begging as she posted a commission.
The commission was simple: kill that death marcher.
He decided to ignore it. He had even prepared how he would answer to reject her when she approached him.
But she only said this to him:
“Why are you still alive?”
Then she just walked away.
And so, Ade stood here.
Whether out of shame for his past principles, pride as a Named Knight, or being moved by the Hero.
He stood here now.
Listening to the whisper of the wind.
What met his eyes was a spiral composed of countless tentacles dripping with black grease.
Sidestepping, he crushed the crystal and watched the spiral brush past his helmet, piercing through his cloak and sending shreds of teal fabric fluttering into the air.
He drew his long blade.
Upon the snow-bright surface of the blade, cloud-like runes flashed with light.
Avalon and the Mage Tower shared a cooperative relationship, making them the most harmonious pair among the four major human factions.
The Mage Tower manufactured equipment capable of using magic for Avalon's knights, while Avalon's knights undertook extra commissions for the Mage Tower's members.
Ade, dubbed the Skull Hunter, had earned his name due to his ability to precisely slice off others' heads.
The rune engraved upon this long blade, named 『Cloud Slicer』, was 『Wind』.
The wind rose.
The air currents grew restless, enveloping the long blade and slashing down toward the source of the spiral at a speed nearly imperceptible to the naked eye.
Squelch. The spiral was severed. The front end, composed of tentacles, fell to the ground along with a large amount of bursting black grease, only to dissolve into nothingness the moment it touched the floor.
The knight retreated, turned around, and cast his gaze forward.
Gurgle...
A tall figure clad in a massive black robe and a top hat swayed as it straightened its body, staring back at Ade.
Beneath the top hat, there was nothing.
It merely floated in the air like a magic trick.
A foul stench filled the air.
It wasn't the stench of excrement or rot, but another kind of smell.
A smell that made one's very soul shudder and nauseated.
The scent emitted by the thing people called the 『Black Tide』, and by anything tainted by its odor.
“...Is it you?”
Ade straightened his fingers, and the hand crossbow atop his arm guard clicked, transforming the wind into an arrow and loading it.
『Moon Shooter』. The hand crossbow paired with Cloud Slicer. The rune engraved upon it was 『Force』.
Cloud Slicer could manipulate the surrounding wind, while Moon Shooter could continuously strengthen it.
The black robe tilted its head, and then several tentacles emerged from its belly, each holding a rusty weapon and waving them in front of Ade.
“...Ha.”
The wind on the hand crossbow gathered in a swirl, and he aimed the crossbow straight ahead.
Then, the arrow of wind shot forth. Ade's figure spun, enveloped in the protection of the gale, and flashed to the side of the black robe. The blade in his hand flashed with a cold light, slashing fiercely at the opponent.
But behind him, within a shadow cast by the eaves, a spiral composed of tentacles had already pierced outward.
Thrusting straight toward his back.
Just as Ade realized something was stabbing from behind and was about to dodge, another, even faster object sliced right through that spiral.
Then, a figure far faster than Ade dropped down, grasping that object tightly.
Ade's blade had struck the black robe, but after cutting through the outermost fabric and severing several tentacles, Cloud Slicer could not penetrate even a fraction of an inch further.
The black robe quickly retreated, and from the surrounding shadows, several more spirals thrust outward—
—the Holy Sword flew past Ade like a missile, crashing directly into the severed wound on the black robe.
The surrounding spirals froze in place, then fell to the ground and vanished just as before.
And before Ade could react, Esper had already grabbed the Holy Sword she had thrown out once more.
Among Named Knights of the same rank, Ade's strongest competitive asset was the extreme speed he could unleash when boosted by the wind.
But Esper was faster than him.
Reasonably speaking, this was abnormal.
But for Esper, it was perfectly normal.
In a place Ade could not see, the blood inside her was boiling, racing, and accelerating within her body.
—Crimson Scale Surge.
One of the most useful of the countless neat little tricks the Demon King had taught her.
Due to her identity, she couldn't directly use moves that were too obvious, like Crimson Pierce or Supernova, in front of Ade.
But Crimson Scale Surge was different.
Ade didn't have X-ray vision; who knew what she was doing.
He only knew that the girl before him was now terrifyingly strong.
Rip!
She swung the Holy Sword fiercely, slicing the black robe open from deep within, nearly cutting it in half.
Tentacles sprouted and filled the wounds on the black robe, rapidly repairing its injuries, but Esper had already retreated.
“Miss Hero...!”
Ade called out to Esper in a low voice, and Esper nodded in response, then snapped her fingers.
Rip, rip, rip, rip, rip...
In the next instant, the explosive sounds of countless pieces of flesh being torn and pierced echoed.
It was blood. Taking advantage of the fact that she was in Ade's blind spot, Esper had used the Holy Sword to carry a massive amount of blood compressed by Hundredfold Compression.
When it pierced into the black robe's body, her blood transformed into a Supernova.
If she couldn't use it openly, she would use it secretly.
Then, the regeneration began.
The Supernova injected into the black robe's body erupted at this moment.
Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop...
Ade watched in daze as the massive black-robed figure convulsed on the spot like it was having a seizure, then glanced at Esper, who had relaxed slightly.
Miss, are you really this strong?
“Don't let your guard down; it's not dead yet.”
Esper exhaled, warning him.
The impact of the Supernova explosion had passed, and the blood threads rushing and crashing wildly inside the black robe gradually lost their cohesion.
Before the black robe could regain its mobility, Esper dashed forward once more.
Coming to his senses, Ade also gripped Cloud Slicer tightly, charging forward alongside Esper from both sides to attack the black robe.
The black robe's original speed was already inferior to Ade's. Under the pincer attack of the two, even if it occasionally wanted to summon spirals to counterattack, Esper would sever them with the Holy Sword before it could do so.
Shallow and deep wounds were carved into its body strike after strike. Its originally visible regeneration speed slowed down, until finally, only a few tentacles could be seen wriggling like maggots.
Then, a flash of sword light.
Esper swung her blade one last time, cutting the black robe in half.
The top hat fell, sliced in two by Esper in midair, vanishing after hitting the ground.
Cut into two halves, the black robe still wriggled, crawling at a not-so-slow speed, seemingly wanting to escape from the two.
But before that, Ade and Esper divided the work, each taking one half, and began the clean-up on these two pieces.
Whenever they saw a tentacle that was still moving, they severed it. If it stopped moving after being severed, they kept cutting.
Ade did an even more thorough job, simply mincing his half of the black robe into fine pieces.
The tentacles that had lost their vitality completely dissolved into nothingness, just like before.
By the time the two were completely finished, only shreds of black cloth scattered across the ground proved that anything had just transpired here.
“...”
Ade came to his senses, staring blankly at the shreds of cloth on the ground for a moment.
“...I... did it?”
“Yes, you did it.”
Looking at Ade's bewildered expression, Esper couldn't help but smile.
“...”
Staring at the girl's smile, his nose prickled, and the grown man in his thirties almost burst into tears right then and there.
“Thanks... Miss Hero...”
“No need to thank me. Just call me Esper.”
“Mhm... Esper.”
He muttered the name, nodded, and extended his hand toward Esper.
“Thank you for your cooperation.”
“Mhm.”
She grasped his hard, gauntleted hand and shook it firmly.
After the death marcher died, the power of the Black Tide harbored within its body flowed into Esper's.
It wasn't much, but it was certainly there.
However... to think that a creature of this level actually possessed the power to instantly kill Rank Five combatants?
Esper felt a brief moment of confusion, but she quickly brushed it aside.
A shadow-related ability was, by all accounts, likely specialized for sneak attacks.
It had already used the trick of summoning spirals through shadows to pull off a sneak attack. So there were probably other sneak-attack-related moves, but because their fight had gone too smoothly, they hadn't had the chance to see them.
None of those rusty weapons had been used either. Perhaps they were hidden in the shadows? Somewhat like a certain Grade 2 sorcerer hiding his dogs?
And then it died without ever using them.
It was like melting a boss's health bar so quickly in a game that you felt cheated out of half the experience.
“With this... I've finally...”
Ade, however, clearly hadn't thought that far ahead. He simply released her hand and bowed solemnly to Esper.
“Then, I shall head over to the manager to turn in the quest, Miss Esper.”
“Mhm, see you tomorrow then.”
Ade nodded, manipulating the wind to sweep up the scattered pieces of cloth on the ground, gathering the vast majority of them and blowing them into Esper's hands, while the rest blew into his own.
“I wish you a smooth journey on your quest to subjugate the Demon King.”
“...”
Esper's smile froze on her face.
You really know just what to say, don't you...
Ade didn't notice Esper's expression; he simply turned around and vanished into the night.
She sighed, retracing her steps back to the room.
There, she bumped right into Eladia, who had been waiting by the window.
“...Why are you here? Didn't I tell you not to move around? What if you were targeted by bad guys?”
Esper was startled and asked, a bit annoyed.
“I was worried about you...”
Eladia said calmly.
“Ahem... even so, you shouldn't have taken the risk to stick your head out!”
“But I was still worried about you...”
“Anyway, you just shouldn't have!”
“...Alright.”
Eladia nodded, but a trace of undeniable disappointment was hidden in her eyes.
“...At least make sure you're safe.”
“Mhm...”
“Alright, alright, go back to sleep.”
Esper sighed, watching Eladia sit back on the bed and pull up the blanket.
“Goodnight, Ela.”
“Goodnight, Esper...”
...
【Ade Sla, Rank A adventurer, Named Knight, Rank Six, male. After handing in the commission for hunting magical beasts outside the town in the afternoon, he went missing at night. When found the next day, he had been decapitated, his internal organs completely scooped out. A rusty long blade was driven from the center of his neck down to his abdomen. The body was abandoned in front of the tavern, with multiple obvious external injuries visible on the body. Written in blood at the place of death were the words: Repayment is Due.】
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