Black Badger

Chapter 235: Crow Handler (3)

The Condemners bit with their teeth and clawed at their opponents with their sharp nails.

People asked if something with a goat’s face could bite anything, but that was nonsense. I had once had my thigh bitten by one of these. The wound refused to heal and festered for a long time.

And as for their sharp nails, I had experienced that far too many times. I had been grabbed by those things so often.

But because of that, I now knew exactly how to respond.

I ran toward the Condemner climbing over the fallen pine tree.

With my body lowered, I aimed for their hearts.

Kwagijijik

Kwaziik

「You explained that in great detail.」

I laughed as I drove my sword into the Condemner’s heart.

When I pulled out the sword, blood gushed out in a rush. I spat out the blood that had splattered into my mouth and swung my sword. The blade, swung at a diagonal, cut through the Condemner’s neck.

A goat head rolled across the ground.

「The other creatures are also the ones I saw back then.」

Stepping on the head that was rolling and rolling away, I laughed as I looked at the approaching half-man half-beast.

「Seems you studied hard.」

「Of course.」

Seba ground his teeth and laughed.

The handler, who had been crouched in the corner behind the pine tree, hid his mouth behind his wings as he avoided my charge.

「I’m thinking of taking at least one of your fingers.」

「Yeah?」

Giving a halfhearted reply, I looked at the creatures swarming to surround me.

A writhing mass of goat heads. Crawling hybrids of snakes and humans.

My stomach churned.

I needed to sweep them out in one go.

I looked toward the ones crawling toward the area bordered by the fallen pine tree and adjusted my grip on the sword. Thinking back to that time no longer made me empty out my stomach immediately.

But even so, I still felt nauseated each time I looked at them.

I would get them out of my sight first, then herd the handler into a corner.

Lowering my body, I swung my sword.

Kuwaaaaang!

The familiars were shoved back along with the fallen pine tree and vanished.

I sent out two more sword blasts in succession. The silhouettes writhing in the darkness burst apart in multiple directions. Watching the muscles of the approaching familiars rupture, I felt a small thrill.

It wasn’t good for my mind, but because that memory remained so vividly, I knew very well how to kill these things as brutally as possible.

I would snuff out even the ones squirming at the edge.

As I stepped over the shattered remnants of the trees, something flew at me.

“Ah.”

I reflexively deflected the black feather.

「Seba. I’ll deal with you soon, so wait a moment.」

As I answered and turned my head, I saw a familiar sight.

Seba’s familiar, the shapeshifter, was wriggling as it shifted into human form.

A familiar height. Familiar features.

I stared blankly at the white curly hair.

Ha.

A hollow laugh escaped me.

「What the hell is this.」

Kyle would never have permitted something like this.

In front of me was the face I had longed for desperately. White curly hair and bright yellow eyes. A small height and limbs long compared to the rest of the body.

It was crumpled.

I stared at the shapeshifter that had taken the distorted form of Rei, then barely tore my gaze away.

My eyes moved toward Seba. He was grinning behind the shapeshifter.

With one hand, he was summoning others.

I stared straight at the criminal who had conducted human experimentation.

「Did Kyle allow you to go this far?」

I asked even though I already knew the answer.

「Did he tell you to win the battle even if you had to revive a fallen comrade?」

「Comrade?」

Seba snorted a laugh.

The distorted Rei was now forming a sword in its hand. I struggled not to drop the sword as my faintly trembling hand shook.

「What comrade? You killed him with your own sword.」

The tremor refused to calm.

「You look shaken. Must’ve surprised you a lot?」

「Yeah. Don’t cross the line.」

「You’re the one who said there’s no line in a situation where we’re killing each other.」

Seba laughed sharply.

Pleasure gleamed in his eyes. It seemed he was thoroughly enjoying the agitation he had expected from me.

「I prepared this just in case, but I didn’t think the impact would be this good.」

「Seba. Last warning. Stop desecrating the fallen.」

「Desecration? What am I desecrating? And what fallen? If you hadn’t killed him, none of this would have happened!」

The handler burst into laughter, then patted the shoulder of the creature shaped like Rei.

「Why are you getting all shaken up when you were the one who did it? Pretty similar, right? I trained it hard. Took some effort to steal a few photos the boss had.」

「Right. There’s no way he would ever tell you to do something like this.」

「By the way, this one was made from your memory fragments.」

Seba smiled serenely and pointed at the shapeshifter wriggling beside Rei.

I narrowed my eyes and watched it take form.

The new shapeshifter turned into the mage who had led my biological experiments.

Even the half-unfocused pupils were exactly the same.

I exhaled deeply.

「Doesn’t a trip down memory lane taste sweet?」

「Seba.」

I fixed my gaze on the scattered chunks of creature corpses strewn across the snow.

「If you hadn’t sculpted Rei, I would have given you a chance to surrender.」

Had he only created the mage from my memories, I wouldn’t have grown this furious.

It wasn’t the first time I had faced mental attacks. Since becoming a knight, I had endured countless mental assaults. It was a common method used by mages.

But usually they only materialized my fears. They showed me the scenes I dreaded the most — being too lacking to protect the people important to me again. Surviving alone once more.

Burying the ones I failed to protect with my own two hands.

They showed such things, but seldom did they resurrect the dead.

Especially a knight who had fallen in battle.

My hand trembled with rage as it gripped the sword.

All my nerves focused on the blade, yet Seba’s laugh reached me faintly.

「Calm your shaking hand before you pretend to be tough.」

I would have to make him die in pain.

「You were trying to kill Rei from the beginning anyway.」

After saying so, the handler raised his voice and shouted.

「Go, Rei! Go avenge yourself against the murderer who killed you!」

For a moment, my rationality snapped.

I don’t remember clearly what happened next.

I only remember that I blossomed the sword flower.

The petals created by the sword strikes — stacked in layers and spreading outward like flower petals — were too cruel and powerful, so I rarely used them.

Unlike a straight sword blast which ended instantly, this one unleashed weaker strikes in rapid succession. The enemy’s life didn’t end immediately; the pain was prolonged.

A technique mostly used by sadists.

I bloomed that cruel flower enormously.

Wooooong!

The innermost petal collided with something and disintegrated.

Only after the swordblossom completely faded did my reason return.

My senses sharpened.

Sounds returned.

My vision, which had turned white, regained its color.

Blinking, I stood in the forest and slowly turned my head.

「Grrk....」

The handler was crawling on the ground, bleeding.

Blood-soaked black feathers covered the snow. Shattered pine fragments and torn pieces of the shapeshifter’s flesh were strewn everywhere. Chunks of Seba’s torn flesh rolled around among them.

I fixed my eyes on the one collapsed in the blood puddle.

Then I slowly walked toward him.

「Rei.」

As soon as he heard my footsteps, desperation filled the handler’s voice.

「Rei!」

Kwaadeudeuk

I stepped on his wing.

The sensation of breaking bone transmitted through my foot. The sharp sound echoed through the forest.

Seba’s scream of agony pierced my ears.

Watching the handler struggling under my foot, I lifted it.

「You....」

Seba coughed up blood and glared at me with bloodshot eyes.

「You don’t hesitate at all, do you.」

Dudeudeuk

The opposite wing.

「Aaagh!」

The handler screamed.

Wriggling in agony, he cursed endlessly.

Seba writhed, spitting blood and saliva, then shrieked.

「You don’t even have the right to be angry! That Swordmaster is someone you yourself killed!」

I lifted my foot and moved it toward his leg.

He thrashed wildly, so I stabbed my sword into his shoulder blade to pin him down.

Ddudeuk

I snapped the leg.

「Just kill me quickly.」

Seba said this after screaming himself empty.

I watched the white breath he exhaled in ragged puffs and let out a faint laugh.

「Stop doing these perverted things and finish me off already.」

「I’d like to. But you’re holding on too well.」

Given that he had conducted human experiments on his own body, it made sense he had strong endurance.

「If you don’t want to die painfully, at least try to die faster.」

Unfortunately, Seba did not die quickly.

Only after I broke all his limbs, diligently crushed each finger, and tore off chunks of his flesh did Seba finally lose his life. At some point, the screams stopped; he was dead.

The cause of death was probably massive blood loss.

Blood soaking the snow like a sheet.

I silently looked down at the corpse with its muscles exposed.

I couldn’t move for a long while.

All sorts of emotions mixed together, leaving me unsure what I was supposed to feel.

The fight had been overwhelmingly one-sided, yet now I didn’t even have the strength to lift a single finger. I just stood there like a broken person.

Because of that, I only realized late that someone was approaching.

“Hilde.”

I raised my head.

Jonathan Kudo stepped out from between the pine trees, holding a sword stained with dried blood.

He had surely come here while slaughtering creatures along the way. He blinked as he looked at the scene spread out around us.

Then his eyes fell on Seba’s dead body at my feet.

He stared down at the corpse.

“Senior.”

I called him as he stopped in front of me.

My voice came out cracked.

“I’m sorry for running off on my own. It’s all over now, so let’s go back.”

“Did you kill him?”

Jonathan did not take his eyes off the corpse.

“Yes.”

I answered in an emotionless voice.

I felt the senior lift his head and look me over.

I pretended to look somewhere else in the dark forest, hoping that would divert his gaze enough.

But his eyes followed steadily.

So I forced myself to turn my head and meet his eyes. Looking into the senior’s dark eyes, I showed a faint smile.

“Shall we go back? I wonder if everyone else is alright.”

“Okay.”

Thankfully, Jonathan did not press further.

“Let’s go back.”

I sheathed my sword.

Much slower than usual. I returned the blade that had pierced Rei’s heart.

I considered wiping off the blood but didn’t feel like doing it now. And seeing Jonathan reminded me of the problems I ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) had forgotten. I was worried about the seniors I had left behind, and also about the squad that had been surrounded.

While going back, I would borrow Jonathan’s radio and contact them.

Thinking that, I moved sluggishly, not paying attention to the senior’s movements.

My mind had not fully returned.

And Jonathan moved soundlessly.

It was only when I heard the clear AI voice that I lifted my head.

[Warning.]

It was the same voice I’d heard in the infirmary.

[One meter ahead: humanoid Creature. One meter ahead: humanoid Creature.]