“A Chance Meeting”

When Rare arrived in the skies above La Colline, she looked down using Yoroizaka's field of vision and saw a huge flame below that seemed to be a campfire. She immediately closed her eyes and activated [Demonic Eyes]. In that pale pink world, she was able to see people-shaped magical power gathered around that fire.

"It looks like a battle. Pretty hardcore to be going at it in these ruins… If the city lord really did get away before, though, then they're probably involved."

As she descended, she could see who the two sides fighting were. It looked like one side consisted of four human-looking people controlling skeletons, while the other had knights and sellswords under the command of a well-dressed male human. Considering Rare's own circumstances, it was clear which side was her enemy. However, that didn't mean she had any reason to help the other side. After the battle was over, she could take care of the survivors then go find the city lord.

Rare initially thought the two sides were pretty evenly matched, but when she looked closer that wasn't entirely true. The skeleton side was steadily losing ground. It irked her to see the human side winning, but she was curious why neither side seemed afraid of injury. If any of these combatants were followers and they were fighting with the assumption that they could revive, then it could be dangerous for Rare to reveal herself.

At last, the numerical advantage shifted from the skeletons to the sellswords, which meant they had secured victory. Wanting to make certain of his win, the commander-looking man on the human side held up a bow and fixed an arrow to its string.

The moment she saw that, an unpleasant memory surfaced in Rare's mind.

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"Even though they're all strangers to me, just sitting back and watching someone get killed by arrow seems bad for my psyche," Rare grumbled to herself as she tossed aside the arrow that had been pinched between Yoroizaka's fingers.

There appeared to be three humans on the hill. In front of them, the sellswords who had been battling the red skeletons froze and looked up at her. The skeletons could have taken that opportunity to continue attacking, but they didn't. It seemed they were also concerned about Rare. The arrow had come from the man atop the hill, near the center. From his attire, he seemed to be a noble. It appeared that even though she had only just arrived, she may have already found her target. When she looked closer, the two knights on either side of him were the same knights she had encountered in the capital. Which meant this was absolutely her man.

Rare was about to call out to them when she realized that it was possible they didn't recognize Yoroizaka and wouldn't understand that it was her. She decided to exit from the armor.

"Hello! I just saw you earlier, my knightly friends. I'm glad to see you were able to return home safely! As for the gentleman—"

"Whoa, what the heck is that?! A robot?! It's a robot! It's huge! That's so awesome!!!"

Well that was rather startling. Rare guessed that it was the leader of the skeleton group that had been fighting the humans just now. Based on the clothing, she had thought it was a man, but based on the voice she now believed it was actually a woman. While Rare hesitated over what to say next, one of the other women spoke up first.

"M-Master, shouldn't you thank her first? She just saved us, you know?"

"That's where you're wrong, Azalea; she was going to say something really important just now, so we should let her keep talking—"

"Anyway, why don't we retreat just a little—"

She was having an even harder time collecting her thoughts now. More like, these girls were all just about to get massacred, what was with this carefree bickering?

"Oh, r-right! Thank you so much! Ah, sorry for interrupting, we're just gonna head over there, ahaha…"

With awkward smiles, the four girls fell back a ways. The three red skeletons that had been in melee combat also followed after them. The sellswords who had been fighting those skeletons didn't chase after them, they just continued to observe Rare with caution.

"…What was I saying again? Umm… Right, that man! Is that man your owner, then?!"

While the humans kept their guard up, none of them answered. At this distance, she had to yell quite loudly, which made conversation difficult. Rare jumped off from Yoroizaka and floated down toward the hill. As she approached, the knights seemed to get more nervous. The sellswords also all ran for the knights in a panic. It wasn't like them being there would make a difference either way, so Rare didn't concern herself with them.

"If I come this close, we should be able to talk normally. Since you didn't seem to have been able to hear before, I'll repeat myself. I just saw the two of you earlier. I'm glad to see—"

"We already heard you! Damn catastrophe!"

"I see… So then, may I take that dust-covered person there to be your owner?"

However, they just continued to glare at Rare without offering a response.

"Well… if you don't want to talk, there's nothing else to be done."

At that, the man in the middle who she thought was the lord spoke. "—Are you the catastrophe who attacked this city?"

"Oh my. So you're one of those kinds of people. You won't answer my questions; you only want to talk if you get to hear what you want to know. This kingdom sure is going to the dogs."

Although Wayne, who was that same type of person, didn't belong to this kingdom.

"I don't enjoy this posturing, so I'll answer you out of pity. I am indeed the catastrophe. However, and I've had to clarify this a number of times, since I don't exactly call myself one, I won't take responsibility if it turns out I'm not."

"So you did this to the city…!"

"Well, yes. Although I'd like correct one point: not city, but country. I've already taken over the royal capital. But since those knights are here beside you, I'm sure you already knew that."

Seeing that the knights got to La Colline before Rare did, she assumed that, just like players, if another force took control of their respawn points, they couldn't respawn there anymore. She guessed that their previous respawn point prior to the capital was here, in this city. It was hard to believe there were still respawn points somewhere considering how badly she had messed up the place, but it was possible that there were some underground. That could explain how the lord was still alive as well. Not that she had confirmed whether he was actually the lord yet or not. Either way, it was true that Rare had been naive in her belief that the La Colline raid had been thorough. She just had to now turn that belief into reality.

"All right, that's enough chatting. I need to find the lord of this city. If that happens to be you, then I suppose I could indulge you a bit more."

"I am the lord! Because of you, all the innocent people in this city have…! What offense did they ever commit toward you?!"

Rare had never met these innocent people before, so she wouldn't know, but if they had lived here, then it was true that they probably hadn't ever done anything to her. However, along the lines of that logic…

"Well, if I remember correctly, wasn't there an army here? I heard this from His Excellency the prime minister in the royal capital, but those soldiers were on their way to the Great Liebe Forest in order to put me down, isn't that right? It seems they had departed from the capital ten days ago. That was when my death was decided. So please, enlighten me, at that time, what exactly had I done to deserve such action?"

It was a lie that Rare had heard this from the prime minister. It was actually in a letter she had intercepted from the prime minister to the army's commander. However, those details were unimportant now. Going by his logic, they had dispatched an army to kill an innocent catastrophe that had done nothing wrong. Granted, whether said army existed or not would not have changed Rare's decision, and furthermore, she only learned of the army's existence after she had already demolished the place, so it wasn't exactly a compelling excuse.

"That's… because…! …Y-You're… a threat to humanity…! That's why!"

Rare was a catastrophe, therefore she had to die. That's what he was saying. It was like finding a hornets' nest and choosing to exterminate the entire colony before anyone got stung. Unfortunately, Rare wasn't a simple hornet, so she couldn't easily be whacked. If she didn't screw up, at least. And since she was also a player, it was also impossible to get rid of her permanently.

"What you're saying is inconsistent, then. If you believe that I'm a threat to humanity, then there was nothing particularly wrong with what I did. In fact, as an enemy to humans, you should be praising me for a job well done."

She wondered how the prime minister would have countered that. Well, he was already dead now, so she wouldn't ever hear his voice again.

"We're done here. Farewell."

Having lost interest in the man, Rare activated her [Feather Gatling], turning him into a honeycomb. Immediately after, the knights and sellswords crumpled to the ground as though their strings had been cut. That man had definitely been their master. He must have been the city lord as well. They all probably thought that she wouldn't attack them during a discussion. No one had positioned themselves defensively between Rare and the lord. She did say she would chat, but she never said anything about staying her hand. And with that, Rare could finally say that La Colline had been completely destroyed.

In truth, there were still some loose ends with regards to the royal capital, namely the king in exile. Rare wanted to hunt him down, but she didn't know where he had gone. Plus, if the prime minister's words were to be believed, the king had numerous artifacts with anti-demon lord effects, and there were even more of them held by the other five countries. That made it too dangerous to invade other countries looking for the king.

But right now, there was an even more important matter, which was that loud group of people behind her. That girl had yelled about a robot; she had to be a player. And given that her female attendants called her "Master," and from what she could see those red skeletons seemed to obey her, there was a very high chance that she knew [Subordinate] or a similar type of skill.

There was another player aside from Rare who had learned it.

This was a serious discovery that could threaten her dominance in the game. If possible, Rare wanted to sit down and have a long conversation. From what she could tell, she believed that this girl was antagonistic to the races of humanity. If so, then it was possible that she could meet the conditions to be Rare's collaborator, a monster player mischievous enough to pretend to be a game boss.

But also, it would just be her first time chatting with a friendly player.