Chapter 44

Into the duchy's underground waterways, which reeked of gutters, I walked on wordlessly, ignoring the rats that scurried out of the tunnel with a snap.

Just because I let the Holy Maiden go, doesn't mean I let her out of my sight.

In fact, in a sense, she was never out of my sight until now.

The uniform of the Black Snake that I gave her wasn't just a formality.

"Yeah, I can smell it, I can smell the dark strands!"

Alice said, taking up a sniffing position in the darkness.

"I feel it close!"

The shadow at Alice's feet smirked, tearing at the corners of her mouth.

"─It seems we have some unwelcome company."

It wasn't hard to guess their identities.

"What needs to be done is the same."

Nothing was different. I took a step, dodging a few rats scurrying underfoot, and that was it.

Kwajik!

It sounded like something was being devoured right under our feet.

"...."

"...Why, why?"

"...Nothing."

I turned my head, and Alice turned her head back, unable to make eye contact with me.

The shadows at her feet, the corner of her mouth smeared with an unidentifiable red liquid that looked like ketchup.

What the hell did she eat?

I didn't want to hear what it was, so I decided to pretend I didn't know.

"─Who is it!"

I didn't care and kept walking. Soon enough, we ran into a group of people who were walking along the underground waterway for the same purpose. I could tell by their pretenses even if they weren't wearing gleaming steel armor.

Their tanned, dark-brown leathers and stiletto daggers gave away the nature of their mission.

"You come to seek the whereabouts of the Holy Maiden."

"You do not...!"

"Stand down."

"What?!"

I don't care as they place their hands on the hilts of their swords in unison. I pulled a cigarette out of my pocket, popped it in my mouth, and lit the tip. After lighting it, I answered.

"No, thanks."

They wouldn't hear me anyway.

"Alice."

"Yes!"

The already bloody shadow at her feet smirks.

"Deal with it."

"I've been waiting for you to say that, Chief!"

I said, and then I turned on my heel, ignoring the crusaders in our path, treating them as if they were never there in the first place.

Aria followed wordlessly behind me, silent as ever, with her eyes shielded by a black bandage.

"How dare you-"

"This way, Cherrypie!"

Just as they were about to fix their hilts and point their swords, the shadows beneath their feet moved faster.

-Kwajik!

"Wait, don't tell me these guys...!"

"How come the "Black Snake"!"

The knights realized the situation only after one victim had been claimed, and by then, they couldn't even afford to pay attention to me passing by them. They were only concerned with survival.

"I wonder if the rumors were true...."

I can't afford to waste time with Alice's bragging either so I make my move.

Having come this far, it wasn't hard to find them in the labyrinth of underground waterways.

I could 'feel' them, as Alice would say.

The sign of a comrade wearing the same clothes, the proof and mark of being a snake.

"Have pity on us...."

"Aaaaahhh!"

Soon, behind my back, a one-sided slaughter was unfolding that could hardly be called a fight.

Shouldn't they have been more clear? Well, I'm tired of asking them now. It's like an echo that echoes into nothingness.

I turned away from the echoing screams and once again traversed the tunnels of the aqueduct.

Not far away, I sensed two figures that made no sign of running away.

Again, the distance closed.

"...."

She was there, no, they were there.

Two female swordswomen, the Holy Maiden and the Immortal Swordswoman, named Jeanne and Alina.

"You...."

"I have come to hear your answer."

In front of Alina, who was openly hostile, I spoke unconcernedly and Jeanne bit her lip in response.

"What was it like to turn the world against you, to run from the eyes of the world?"

"I heard about what you did at the World's Fair."

"I had a job to do."

I answered her question calmly.

"What business do you have with him, Jeanne?"

Alina snapped at me, her voice coldly hostile. The Death Knight, pale and frosty, was living up to her name.

"As I said, I've come for an answer."

"What do you mean, an answer....?"

Alina turned to face Jeanne, and Jeanne bit her lip wordlessly under her gaze.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Alina."

After biting down, she forced herself to say.

"Despise me if you want."

"Despise, how could I possibly despise a saint?"

"I am not as beautiful, nor as virtuous as Miss Alina."

"What do you mean by that...?"

Alina's eyes narrowed as if she couldn't understand.

As if bowing to a temptation she could never resist, even in the midst of her shame, Jeanne spoke.

"Because I've been waiting for...this day since the beginning."

"This day."

"The day when that man will reap the harvest in their name."

"!"

Alina swallowed wordlessly, her skin, already pale as a corpse, seemed to turn even whiter but the holy maiden didn't care, and continued.

"These are their uniforms, the man gave them to me."

"No way...."

She must have vaguely noticed that it was no ordinary garment, but an outrageous armor and artifact, blessed by the Black Snake.

As if I could feel her presence close to me, the enchanted crest on the back of my hand glowed. Alina sucked in a breath as she pondered the meaning and form of the inscription.

"The Crest of Submission!"

Alina's expression freezes as she realizes the mark, or crest of submission.

"What in the world have you done to the Holy Maiden...!?"

"No, Miss Alina."

But the Holy Maiden smiles, cutting the Immortal Knight words.

"This is my will."

Gently, she squeezed her shoulder, restraining her.

"I, for one, have been a slave and a puppet all my life."

"What's that....?"

"I've lived my life moving at the whim of the goddess, at the command of His Majesty the King, and at the whim of the powerful and mighty around me."

"...."

"So when I was given a freedom I didn't know what to do with, I realized."

The Holy Maiden Jeanne knelt before me. It was not a sentence, not a command, not anything; it was an act of her own will.

"The life of a submissive slave is the form of life that suits me."

She remembered the words Aria had whispered to her earlier.

"I like Miss Jeanne, and the way she has lived her life."

Then, perhaps, Aria had known her nature from the beginning.

"I can't believe...."

It hadn't been a long journey, but Alina, who had been with the Holy Maiden all along the way, bit her lip in silence.

It was him again.

The hateful man had taken away the man she loved and her companions, and now, as the Knight of Death, he had taken away the one person who understood her ugly body.

It should have been.

"Join me, Miss Alina."

"...?"

She had to doubt her ears at the next words.

"I will protect you, Ms. Alina."

"─"

"So please stay with me."

The holy maiden said.

"It will be much better...than running away from people, scaring them, eluding pursuers, and killing them day after day."

"You mean, becoming a "black snake" and joining them in their evil?"

"Yes."

Jeanne smiled, not denying it.

"At least it will be better than now."

She didn't answer.

"A bed and comforter to lie in, a bath full of hot water to soak in, and no more nights spent in terror, worrying about pursuers. I'm sure you'll have a much better life than you have now, Miss Alina."

Exactly what kind of life they've had, I don't know but judging by the scars on their faces, it's not hard to imagine their hardship, especially with the manhunt for the Holy Maiden heating up after the events of the World Fair.

"Abandoned by the world, with no place in the world, we have nowhere to go but here...."

"Holy Maiden...."

At those words, Immortal Knight bit her lip.

"Here!"

At the same time, from the opposite direction from where we had come, a group of what seemed to be the Duchy's secret state police appeared.

"Hoo-hoo, Miss Alina. You'll never be able to escape!"

"!"

Hearing the voice that rang out between them, the Immortal Swordswoman shuddered with the fear that was instilled in her instincts.

"Uh, how."

"Because the Hydra has seven necks!"

Saying that, the man revealed himself.

Colonel Hydra Waltz of the Fourth Bureau of the Duchy's National Security Service, aka 'The Corpse Falcon'.

He was a very personable-looking man with a wide smile.