Chapter 31
The liberation of one city was complete.
The group continued its journey to the next city.
During the journey, Jane could not stop thinking about the old butler, Dominic.
When she had first encountered that killing intent at the mansion, it had sounded like a warning that she was nearing the level of an ordinary superhuman.
But when she returned to the lodging and thought about it carefully, Dominic’s words had been far removed from anything like that.
Considering the substance of his warning and the look of recollection in his eyes immediately after he withdrew his killing intent, she realized that he had genuinely been worried about Jane.
‘What on earth happened in his past?’
She looked at the old man’s back as he rode alongside her.
‘He might not be a simple escort.’
For a brief moment, she had been curious about the old man’s past, but she suppressed her curiosity.
That was not what mattered right now.
‘We’re going to part ways when all this is over anyway, so what’s the point of finding out now?’
She turned her attention away from the old man and looked ahead.
The gatehouse of a new city began to come into view.
*
The liberation of the second city was not much different from the first.
While Dominic broke through the gate,
and the narrow-eyed tax official dealt with the grunts using magic,
Jane fought the mafia family’s boss in single combat.
The second boss was a minotaur wielding a hammer.
His spiked hammer was famous for turning people into minced meat along with their shields.
‘A tonkatsu hammer.’
He vaguely remembered that the minotaur had some epithet beginning with ‘don,’ but Dominic did not want to waste brain space on every minor character.
Dominic gave the boss a name and watched his battle with Jane.
Jane attacked while narrowly evading the tonkatsu hammer.
Her boldness in continuing to attack without allowing even a single clean hit was praiseworthy.
But...
‘She’s too aggressive.’
The distance by which she dodged was far too close.
The number of times she could dodge and counter that hammer was limited, so deliberately walking such a tightrope was inefficient.
‘She’s getting impatient.’
Dominic could read the impatience in her.
Her desperation to see her revenge through, even if it meant burning herself up, was visible in her fighting as well.
‘At this rate...’
Thwack!
‘As expected.’
In the end, as a result of that tightrope act, she took a direct hit.
She barely blocked it with her sword, but the blade broke, and her left arm bent in an unnatural direction.
Dominic’s finger twitched.
But remembering his promise to her, he quietly maintained his position as a bystander.
“I found an opening!”
Slash!
He cut the mafia member who had attacked through the opening into four pieces, then looked back toward her.
“Boe!”
As though responding to her cry, a green aura flowed down her spine.
Her speed increased, and the green energy left a trail like a cape in her wake.
“Parkel!”
When she cried out once more, red energy gathered in her eyes.
“Guld!”
At the third incantation, a golden helmet appeared on her head.
After casting three buffs on herself, Jane forcibly set her twisted left arm back into place and picked up the broken sword.
Once transformed, she was incomparably faster and more powerful than before.
But the old butler and the narrow-eyed tax official watched her with worried expressions.
“Spirit possession.”
“What a reckless thing to do...”
The technique she had used was an ancient elven sorcery, similar to the beastmen’s ‘divine possession.’
It was a technique that allowed spirits bound by contract to inhabit the body and grant specific powers.
Whereas the beastmen’s divine possession burned through stamina to greatly increase strength and speed,
the elves’ spirit possession provided a smaller boost in exchange for awakening special abilities.
However, Jane’s method was far more reckless and dangerous than that.
“She possessed three spirits at once.”
The narrow-eyed tax official pushed the corpses into a corner with magic as he spoke to Dominic.
If quality was lacking, then use quantity.
She had offset the low degree of enhancement by possessing multiple spirits.
“Of course, there is a way to do that, but if something goes wrong, it could cause her mind to collapse.”
Just as beastmen had to resist being consumed by their bestial nature while using divine possession, elves had to resist letting the spirits erode their humanity.
And if she possessed three spirits like that, the degree of erosion could not help but be severe.
An elf who abused possession like that and was completely consumed would gain a spirit’s senses rather than human ones.
- “Huh? Humans can just be born again anyway, can’t they?”
- “They become fertilizer when they die anyway, so isn’t it good if that keeps the ecosystem going?”
They became the sort of elves who said this kind of pointy-eared nonsense.
Since his true form was a dark elf, the narrow-eyed tax official Hailudin knew many such pointy-eared people.
That was why he was worried that Jane might become one of them...
“Come to think of it, we’ve already seen plenty of moments when she seemed like one of those pointy-eared folk. If she gets any worse, traveling with her might become exhausting...”
...At least, he was worried.
Dominic ignored the narrow-eyed tax official’s muttering and watched Jane’s battle.
A moth to a flame.
That was the word her current appearance brought to mind.
Before long, the battle reached its conclusion.
The boss with the tonkatsu hammer also used divine possession and engaged her in a fierce exchange of blows, but Jane ultimately won by using the spirit’s special ability.
“Aaaagh!”
“Cough...”
Screaming until her throat went raw, she brought her golden helmet down on the boss’s head.
In the end, she defeated the alliance’s second executive.
“Good work.”
As before, Dominic handed her a towel.
But her eyes remained fixed on empty space, and she seemed not to notice the towel the old butler was offering her.
“She’s fainted.”
The old butler sighed and lifted her blood-soaked body into his arms.
He did not even care that her blood stained his clothes.
Several hours later.
When Jane opened her eyes again, she found herself in a hospital room in the liberated city.
When she sat up in bed, the towel resting on her head slid off.
Plop.
Without even sparing a glance at the towel that fell onto her thigh, she looked around.
Night had already fallen outside the window, and no voices could be heard from the streets.
With her head throbbing, she retraced her last memories.
‘The boss...’
She had definitely finished him off by bringing the helmet down on him.
She had ultimately succeeded in killing that loathsome minotaur.
The sensation of its skull breaking, transmitted through the helmet, was still vivid.
But for some reason, she did not feel particularly good.
‘Tsk.’
Clicking her tongue, she tried to swing her legs over the side of the bed.
At that moment, Dominic’s voice came from the shadowed corner of the hospital room.
“A week has passed.”
“Eek! You startled me! I nearly had a heart attack!”
“Judging by your voice, it seems you’ve recovered your strength.”
“You could’ve at least made some sign you were there... Wait. A week? Was I unconscious for that long?”
“Oh, thankfully, you’re lucid enough to have a sense of time. I was joking. It’s been seven hours, not seven days.”
“You old geezer, seriously...”
“You appear to have recovered completely. Congratulations. I was worried because you crossed the threshold of death about ten times during those seven hours.”
“...”
Only then did she notice the objects placed beside the old butler.
Blood-stiffened red towels and clean towels soaking in clear water.
The butler noticed her gaze and smiled brightly.
“The spirit possession caused you to suffer a severe fever. Your revenge nearly ended right here.”
“...Thank you.”
“Think nothing of it. Get plenty of rest.”
Dominic bowed to her with the perfect posture befitting a model butler and left the room.
Even until the moment he exited, his perfectly composed appearance seemed terribly enviable to her.
It was as though he was certain that a hopeful future awaited him.
When she looked at the perfect old butler, she even felt pathetic for hurrying toward her own destruction.
“Sigh...”
She pushed the damp towel that had fallen onto her thigh aside and climbed out of bed.
It was a dark night, with even the moon hidden in shadow.
When she approached the window, it reflected her figure like a mirror.
In that mirror, a girl who had once frolicked in a happy home while wearing a flower crown was looking back at her.
But the arrogant higher races had trampled her home, and the flag raised in the name of justice had burned even her new home to the ground.
- Jane! Run!
- You know that Daddy loves you, right?
Her nightmarish past unfolded before the mirror like a panorama.
A burning village.
The laughter of the higher races, filled with sadistic delight.
The shouts of vigilantes who had stolen people’s happiness in the name of justice.
Crack.
As she stared at the mirror-like window, she clenched her fist.
Her revenge should have been proceeding smoothly, so why did the pain keep growing?
Amid the tightening pain in her chest, she lightly bit her lip and redirected her thoughts.
‘Maybe it’s for the best.’
If anger was her driving force, then it would be better for that anger to continue until the moment her revenge ended.
That was when she was rationalizing her condition.
Clomp, clomp.
Thud.
A strange sound came from the hallway.
“?”
She came out of her reverie and turned her gaze toward the hallway.
‘An intruder?’
She instinctively tried to draw up her mana.
But she had exhausted her mana in the final battle and had none left to use.
With no better option, she drew her spare dagger and readied herself against the intruder.
Thud, thud.
After several noises, the footsteps reached the door.
The presence that had stopped outside the door remained silent for a moment, then...
Knock, knock.
“Miss Jane. It’s Dominic. I brought you something to eat. May I come in?”
The familiar voice of the old man asked for her permission.
But there were plenty of superhumans in this world capable of imitating voices, so she did not lower her guard and continued the exchange.
“Prove that you’re Dominic.”
“Shall I tell you how many moles are on your body, miss?”
Her thoughts came to a halt at those words.
‘Wait.’
Her gaze lingered on the hospital room, her freshly washed body, and her hospital gown.
After putting all of that together, she reached one conclusion.
“You perverted old geezer!!!”
Bang!
She flung the door open as though she intended to tear it off its hinges.
When the door opened, the old butler welcomed her with a benevolent smile.
“I was joking. The nurse took care of it.”
“...You sly old geezer.”
“I brought some soup. It should help with your recovery.”
“I’m not eating it.”
She refused the food like a child throwing a fit over a side dish.
Part of it was her defiance toward Dominic, but guilt was an even greater factor.
Having just been lost in her past, she did not feel like swallowing anything.
Dominic’s blue eyes gazed at the sulking woman’s face.
The old man, who seemed to have many stories of his own, soon opened his mouth.
“If you burn yourself up already, what will you burn in front of the person you truly need to take revenge on? Will you try to set fire to the ashes?”
“What would you know...”
“Revenge is not achieved by burning something. You sharpen your blade, eat well, sleep well, and wait for a single opportunity. That is how you accomplish it.”
“You say that like you’ve actually done it.”
“What could an old man’s past possibly matter?”
Dominic smiled and brushed it aside.
For a moment, the dragon that had cut in on one of his past opportunities and thrown his schedule into chaos, along with the three-year journey he had undertaken to slit its throat, came to mind, but he did not say it aloud.
As usual, Dominic offered her the tray holding soup and bread with a good-natured smile.
“You must not become a moth to a flame. Revenge is complete only when it ends and you become happy.”
“That’s unexpected.”
“What do you mean?”
“The person who told me not to make murderous intent my enlightenment is giving me advice about revenge.”
“That was not a denial of revenge. If you stop growing after your revenge ends, won’t you become no different from the person you took revenge on?”
“I think I understand what you mean.”
In short, even after taking revenge, she had to think about what came afterward. And she must not become a monster drunk on blood, consumed by revenge.
The old butler’s words resonated with her, if only a little.
“Thank you.”
“Think nothing of it. If you ever need this old man’s advice again, please let me know.”
Jane nodded.
Dominic also nodded calmly and headed toward the door.
Just before he left the room, she asked him a question while looking at his back.
“But why are you being so kind to me?”
“Haven’t I told you repeatedly? An old man who has accomplished nothing is bound to want to leave something behind in his later years.”
The old man left her hospital room.
For a brief moment, his snowy-white hair as he departed gave her the impression of ashes left after a fire.
*
Dominic left her room.
When he turned a corner in the hallway outside the hospital room, a corridor lined with blood and corpses greeted him.
“One, two... eight. Hmm...”
The old man counted the corpses and nodded.
“I should tell my master.”
The old butler left the corpses behind and headed toward the narrow-eyed tax official.
After the old butler left, one of the fallen corpses rose to its feet.
“Damn it. I have to tell Father.”
The figure wearing a black mask abandoned the bodies of its comrades, opened the hallway window, and leaped outside.
When one corpse had disappeared from the hallway, Dominic reached the narrow-eyed tax official’s room and spoke.
“We have seven uninvited guests. I’m sorry to bother you so late at night, but might I ask you to clean them up, Master?”
The narrow-eyed tax official readily agreed to the old butler’s request.
While the tax official removed every trace of the corpses, Dominic let out a wild laugh in his mind.
‘It was about time those on the other side noticed me.’