Like a Real Man

In the dark room, only the soft breathing of the shadow-les girl, the cracking sound of the burning wood, and the flipping of the pages could be heard.

Currently, Ashy was right at the side of the fireplace, using it as a light source to read.

He didn't know if a transcendent being was helping him behind the scenes or if he was just simply lucky, but one of the books he had found was about botany. So, it had a lot of knowledge about herbs and such.

Thus, Ashy was patiently flipping the pages to see if he could find the berries Elissa offered.

While he read the diary of Elissa's father, Ashy couldn't trust the words of someone he didn't know. So, although Elissa didn't have a shadow and somehow found him in the pitch-black night, he still wanted one more confirmation.

Finally, Ashy found the page he was looking for. His face stiffened as he read and he slowly squeezed his sword before putting the book down.

[Blood berries.]

[Grows in the dark places full of corpses where the rays of the sun can't reach. It grows exponentially when bathing in blood. To differentiate Blood berries from red berries, you can taste a little or look at their color. Blood berries are bright red and give a similar to rusty metallic taste while red berries are sweet and close to pink in color.]

[Can be used for causing fever and drowsiness, however, if it is consumed more than 10, it will lead to certain death for normal people.]

Being as quiet as possible, Ashy brought one of the berries and carefully spurted a little bit of its juice into his mouth.

"...!"

It wasn't as sweet as he hoped. It was rusty and metallic.

'I need to kill… no, threaten her to give me information.'

Confirmation was done, the girl was an enemy. Not an ally. To live, removing the threats was the normal thing to do.

'No, I need information…'

Killing a person wasn't something he expected to do. After all, just two days ago a truck crashed into him and yesterday he broke apart an undead's spine.

But now, he needed to kill a human or something that looked like a human.

'Shit… my isekai journey is escalating too quickly. Where is my cheat? Where is my big shot sensei? Fuck my luck!'

His eyes moved to the berries, then to the sword, then again to the berries. This repeated a few more times before he did what he must do.

***

Holding the handle of the sword with both of his hands, Ashy positioned himself right at the shadow-les girl's legs and lifted the sword.

He was sure that he wouldn't be able to cut this girl's legs in one swoop. He was inexperienced and his body was weak, devoid of energy. Plus, the sword was worn out and dull.

All odds were against him. His hands were trembling.

But at least, Ashy could injure Elissa's legs and cause her to lose a significant amount of blood. She would be at his mercy and would tell everything she knows.

'Fuck!'

Firing himself up, Ashy stopped thinking twice.

The sword descended on the girl's legs and cut her flesh. Black, transparent blood spurted like a fountain, covering Ashy's face but unable to block his vision.

"AAAAARGH!"

The girl began to scream in agony and roll, causing Ashy to sweat bullets, making him doubt his previous suspicions.

"Shut up!" He screamed back as he steeled his heart. He had to not doubt himself right now and speak with the girl.

As he expected, the legs of the girl were still intact, the sword stopped without even reaching the bones.

He didn't know if he was just too weak or if this shadow-les girl was too extraordinary. He didn't have time to think about this question anyway.

Interrogating the girl was the priority.

"Sob! Sob!"

"I said shut up!"

Shouting once again, Ashy pulled the sword from the girl's thighs. The black blood began to seep slowly, painting the floor to pitch black.

The sobs stopped. An eerie silence descended. Goosebumps climbed to his arms.

"Why did you try to feed me poisonous berries?"

"..."

"Speak, or else say farewell to your legs."

Elissa grimaced.

"I didn't know they were poisonous! They didn't affect me even once!" She cried out as pain found its place in her voice. "Please stop the bleeding, I don't want to die!"

"Shut up." Ashy gritted his teeth. "Then where is your shadow? Why were you perfectly in good condition before finding me?"

Elissa began to cry again. "I don't know! I was like this from the start!"

Ashy clenched the handle of the sword. He couldn't get a satisfactory answer from the girl, who was losing a considerable amount of blood every passing second.

He had one last question to determine if Elissa was just a girl without a shadow or a monster like her father said.

Ashy took a deep breath and readied himself before parting his lips.

"Then, why did you kill your mother?"

"No, I didn—! huh? How did you know?"

"Well, it was obvious, don't you think? You lost your shadow and began to act weird and your mother 'committed' suicide after 10 says. You must have a finger on this case."

"You found out with just that?"

The expression of pain faded from Elissa's face, replaced with a playful smile. There was no fear or hostility in her gaze, just pure curiosity..

Seeing this, Ashy swung the sword immediately. He didn't have the leisure to entertain this creature.

"You are pretty interesting. Let me peek into your mind~"

Jumping back before this creature in human skin did something, Ashy left the sword in the girl's legs and grabbed a chair to use as a weapon.

"Come here~" the creature playfully called before removing the sword from her legs.

Blood spurted once again tainting the floor with transparent blackness. As if shadows were cast on the ground. The usual metallic scent of blood wasn't on the air, this blood was scent-les.

"Shit!"

The girl stood on her feet with the sword in his hand.

'I should have cut her neck instead of legs!'

Ashy regretted it but regret was useless. It wasn't going to save his life or put food into his empty stomach.

Thus, Ashy took a deep breath and looked at the creature in front of him.

The brown-haired girl was smiling mischievously, showing her four lengthy fangs. There was no sign of pain or fatigue on her face, the wound and blood loss were maybe nothing for her.

However, although she looked perfectly fine, she was leaning towards it slightly. The wound possibly might prevent her movements.

It was the time for Ashy to man himself up.

Giving strength to his legs, he began to run—

"Where are you going, you coward~"

— away from the creature in human skin without any shame.

'I will kill you and survive… somehow!'