I would have thought that the heavily equipped halfling would have been around with those two, but it seemed like Binibelle was nowhere to be seen. Did she go get some reinforcements? Is she hiding and waiting for a good occasion to land a sneak attack on me? Who knows? And more importantly, who cares? I have a bitch to slice down into pieces.

  I walked the empty streets unopposed, quickly finding my way to the home where my brother used to live with an unfaithful, immoral creature. Not only had she caused Leton’s death, but she had had the gall to drag me into meaningless, unending legal troubles over things she did not deserve. How could such a person even call herself human? She had less value than the flies laying eggs on corpses. Nothing but a waste of space, who dared to breathe the same air as others.

  The wooden door didn’t fly off its hinges. It just turned into a cloud of splinters under the force of my kick. I was met by a lightless, silent home–On the surface, it seemed like it had been deserted, however…

  For several minutes, I walked around as if searching, but it was just an act… When I exited the bedroom, I suddenly turned back and flipped the bed over, sending it crashing into the wall and window, shattering the glass, finding Eleanori hiding under it like a rat.

  “I could smell your rancid odour from a kilometer away”

  She stood up with a stumble, trying to stab me with a kitchen knife that she had been holding close to her chest. To me, it was like she was moving while underwater. I easily caught her wrist and, with a squeeze, forced her to drop the knife before grabbing her by the throat, pinning Eleanori against the wall.

  “Interesting strategy to hide under the bed instead of taking off running. Didn’t you see the item your man was holding be destroyed? You had plenty of time to escape, Eleanori. Why stay?”

  I didn’t press hard on her throat, so she could still speak, but the first thing she did was spit in my face.

  “Fuck you, Mara! Where is my daughter?!”

  “...You aren’t cute enough to be getting away with things like this…”

  “Answer me, you bitch!”

  “No need to be so vulgar, Eleanori. Have you never thought about asking things politely? With you, it’s either insults or lawsuits, huh? If your personality wasn’t a corrosive swamp, I might have considered you a good candidate alongside Mari…”

  “...Anyway, which daughter are you talking about?”

  “Saltina, obviously! I know you’re the one who took her! Just admit it and tell me where she is! If you’re going to kill me, then at least tell me!”

  “Mmh… How tough you are when it comes to this. Where was this energy when Jeanni was crushed under a lowlife’s wheels? One daughter makes you cheat on your loving husband, and the other makes you a mother seeking answers without rest? Disgraceful”

  I tightened my grip. Her delicate neck threatened to snap if I went any harder.

  “Listen closely, Eleanori. I don’t think you are a good mother. I don’t think you are a good person at all, in fact. You never deserved to be close to such well-mannered, cute girls…”

  “Where… Is… My… Daughter…?”

  Her back dragged against the wall as I lifted her, both of Eleanori’s feet leaving the ground. Only the top of her toes could barely brush up against the floor. Her frail, soft hands were clenched around my wrist, their presence as noticeable as a faint gust of wind.

  “You know the guy who was driving that carriage? Everyone thought that he managed to escape and leave the city, right? Well… He did leave the city, but he did not escape. I caught him. I dispensed justice–True justice. He was in agony for weeks on end. I just couldn’t let him die easily”

  “The thing that took him ended up being starvation and dehydration. I guess I messed him up too much, and he couldn’t digest anything anymore, heh… Jeanni was… She was such a great girl. Why did you have to be so uncaring about my niece’s death, Eleanori? I’ve hated you since that day, and since then, you’ve done everything in your power to make me despise you more and more… More and more… More and more…!”

  “...S…Saltina…”

  “I am getting to it. Listen, Eleanori. You don’t deserve good things. Therefore, you don’t deserve to have any well-mannered, cute girl… They are mine, and if they can’t be mine… Then they must be taken away somehow”

  “Y… You…”

  I dropped Eleanori, the woman fell to the ground, struggling to breathe, as I looked down at her, unsheathing my bloodied sword. I glanced to the side, spotting the figure of the dark spectre looking at me from a distance through the broken window. I ignored him and swung down.

  “I don’t even have the heart to keep you alive. Farewell, Eleanori… It was a displeasure knowing you”

  For a moment, I thought something moved in the far corner of my vision, something behind me–But there was nothing when I looked, and as I looked back at the dark spectre, he dissipated. Somehow, it felt like he wasn’t going to appear ever again… I felt… Strong terror coming from him all of a sudden.

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  Well, guess it’s time to go home now…

  Of course, things couldn’t be that easy, as soon as I stepped outside, I was met by a whole congregation of people, including knights, mages, and a whole bunch of guards, both from the city and from the lord’s residence.

  With my sword still dripping with fresh blood, and my face covered in crimson drops from my earlier massacre, it wasn’t exactly possible to pretend like I was just passing by…

  “Miss Mara Maeve Maya Nebulo–Surrender now, or face the consequences!”

  “Ah, there you are. I was wondering where you were, Miss Plump Halfling”

  “Now is not the time to be messing around. If you don’t surrender, you will be killed!”

  This time around, the threat was actually backed up by something. As good a knight as I was, the odds weren’t exactly in my favour with several other knights around with the support of mages, archers, and whatever else.

  However, as I had stated previously, being killed on the spot here, and being killed in an execution ended in the same result, so why shouldn’t I have fun and actually fight like a knight? I spent most of my life being a merchant and business owner, despite having the ability to fight. It was a waste, in my opinion.

  I made the first move, making use of the lone ability I had learned from my time at a knight establishment. The reason I had struggled so dearly to learn it was probably that–Despite not technically having anything to do with magic–It did use mana to function, and I knew well how awful I was with energy manipulation and anything magic in general…

  Nonetheless, I swung my sword and launched a flying slash of mana straight into the crowd, splitting several measly guards in half before the blade of mana was countered by one of the knights.

  It’s weird now that I think about it… Since when was this something taught at the establishment I went to…? Where the hell did I learn this? Things aren’t lining up…

  A knight approached me as mana bullets whistled past my ears. He thrusted a spear my way, which I dodged and knocked out of the way before rushing him down. He punched me in the face, but it didn’t faze me. I just went ahead with my plan and bearhugged him, picking the fully armoured man off the ground before throwing him at another knight.

  I forced myself amidst the mass of guards, using them as meat shields against the mages, and as obstacles that the knights had to cross to get to me–Even the guards working directly under the city lord weren’t a match for me. I tore right through the crowd with only a few minor cuts and bumps along the way, going directly for the little cowardly mages hiding behind the lines.

  This caused the entire formation to fall apart, which was completely to my advantage, as chaos was now reigning over this battlefield. The ranged attackers couldn’t do much at all without risking hitting an ally. Which allowed me to fight the knight with what was essentially no projectiles being fired at me. I just had to worry about getting poked in the back and in my sides, but dealing with crowds was not something I found especially difficult, especially when most of the people making up said crowd were far weaker than I was.

  …I managed to force open a knight’s visor and stab him right in the face, and just as I wondered how many knights were left alive, something whistled right past me–I looked down to find that my right hand was no longer attached to my arm.

  Blood poured out in ludicrous quantities as I glanced up at Binibelle. The halfling was standing on a roof, and she had just cast the fastest spell I had ever seen in my entire life. I didn’t even know what it had been exactly, but it had absolutely blasted my hand into pieces and sent my sword flying somewhere I couldn’t see it.

  …Why is this agony… So sweet? I don’t remember myself enjoying pain, or do I?

  A halberd fell on my shoulder, cleaving through the bone before it was twisted and ripped out, making me spin as my head felt light from the sudden loss of blood. I barely realised it as several spells and arrows came crashing upon me, riddling my body with holes, before a knight hit me in the face with a mace, sending flesh and teeth flying as I collapsed to the ground like a bag of bricks.

  A pool of warm blood formed beneath me as my surrounding adversaries marked a pause, unsure what to do.

  The knight with the halberd took a step forward, raising his weapon aloft to deliver the finishing blow…

  “Back off from her!”

  The rather panicked voice of Binibelle rang out as time seemed to slow down to a crawl for me–It was odd, but as I was falling to the ground, I couldn’t help but notice that something was missing. Had it been gone for just a few seconds? A few minutes? For much longer without me realising it? I had no clue, but I had no shadow. It simply was no longer there.

  I saw something both familiar and unfamiliar appear within my vision, a floating, flat panel with words written upon it… I blacked out before I could read them. However, I soon awoke–I guessed I wasn’t out for a long time since it was still night.

  More importantly, however… Everything around me had been painted red, and disembodied limbs decorated the surroundings. All was completely quiet, as though really all people present had been killed by… Something.

  Was it me?

  I looked down. A fallen lantern was still casting light, allowing me to see that my shadow was back, but as normal as it might look, I could tell that it was alive… No, it was not quite accurate to say so. My shadow wasn’t alive. It had been replaced by something that was pretending to be my shadow.

  I was still out of it, considering that I was bleeding to death, but my curiosity was strong enough to instantly expend all the lives of a cat.

  “Show yourself”

  Listening to me without question, the shadow peeled off the ground, revealing itself into a three-dimensional form as some sort of dark, skeletal monstrosity with flames purple like my eyes within its sockets.

  It did not say anything. It only shrieked as it had crawled out of Hell.

  “Huh… What in damnation are you, Buddy…?”

  My vision was blurry, and the skeletal being returned to being my shadow as I began to hallucinate–Or so I believed as I saw a doorway open before me, the double doors giving sight into what seemed to be a blinding sea of light.

  …What I was seeking was beyond those doors. I could feel it.

  Yes, that’s where I need to go. What was I even doing here in the first place? I had unfinished business elsewhere. I had cute little darlings to go back to.

  I stepped into the light, and the doors came shut behind me.

  Here I am.

  ___

  End Of Volume ???: Brighter Yesterday

  Start Of Volume 2: Mechanical Madness