Chapter 202 - The Saintesses of Sierra

Late at night, at the Hestia merchants' guild, Garnet was meeting with Zed. She was posing as its guildmaster.

She opened a book and showed him a page.

"This is the list of Dopplers the Regent brought back. Have a read."

"Let's see... Wow, this is packed with names I've heard before."

Some were notorious, but others had good reputations. Among them were men hailed as "true lords," who claimed to have turned over a new leaf and spent their personal fortunes feeding their subjects.

"No smoke without fire, after all. What does our ever-devoted Regent want to do?"

"He seems to want the covert division to handle them all."

"Now, hold on. Bunny Swallows isn't an assassination outfit..."

Bunny Swallows was a band of phantom thieves that had quietly built a reputation even before the covert division was formed. Using Black Bandana's influence, they traveled throughout the continent, exposing corrupt nobles for what they were and redistributing their wealth.

To the common people, they were saviors. To the nobility, no punishment would ever be enough for them. They were wanted criminals, but no one dared move rashly to capture them, thanks to their strict policy of never killing.

To maintain that reputation, Bunny Swallows dealt with every band of thieves claiming to work under them and every group that impersonated them.

"Exposing them like we usually do... would be too dangerous, wouldn't it?"

"It would be like lighting a fire next to a heap of straw."

Bunny Swallows merely exposed unsavory people and let public opinion tear them apart. Demon Followers, however, had nothing to lose. Exposing them would certainly cause even greater chaos—and, at worst, an unmanageable loss of life.

"Killing them would certainly be cleaner... It'd help if they had some telltale trait like doppelgangers, but these bastards keep the person's appearance even after they die, right? If the other nobles use that against us, Bunny Swallows won't be able to operate anymore."

"True..."

Garnet knew how important credibility was. She couldn't simply suggest throwing away the Bunny Swallows name and killing them all.

"Our only option would be to quietly eliminate them one by one in seemingly unrelated incidents..."

Wasn't there some other way?

Just as they were pondering that question...

KNOCK, KNOCK.

Someone knocked on their door. Zed instinctively grabbed his dagger.

"Did you invite someone?"

"One other person besides you. Come in."

At Garnet's invitation, Penelope opened the door and entered.

"You two enjoying your secret tryst! Mind if a sexy devil crashes the party?!"

"I told you to come thirty minutes ago. Why are you only arriving now?"

"But nighttime is the devil's hour! What can I do? What if the devil's minions ambush me? What do you think they'd do to this delicate body?"

Penelope struck a pose that showed off her figure. Garnet gave her a scornful look, then asked Zed,

"How much longer are you going to keep that thing around?"

"Believe it or not, she comes through when it counts..."

"Attachment is a frightening thing. You can't even get rid of an idiot like that."

"Hehehe, Zeze. You refused to admit I was an irresistible femme fatale, but your body can't lie, can it? Come to your big sister."

"Then again, slitting her throat and going our separate ways doesn't sound half bad."

"I'm kidding! Kidding! Sooo, what were you talking about? Let me see! What's a Doppler? Did someone misspell doppelganger?"

Garnet merely let out a quiet sigh and answered.

"A Demon that disguises itself as a human."

"Huh? Those exist?"

"They're what they were experimenting on at the place where you and I first met."

"Oh, that place... Just thinking about it gives me the creeps..."

Penelope shuddered theatrically. Suddenly curious, Zed asked,

"Why were you being held there, anyway?"

"That? Nothing special. The lady trying to catch me was a Dark Elf. She was fucking gorgeous, with a great tan, and I thought we really hit it off. But she turned out to be a total honey trap!"

"... According to the records, when they summoned you, you acted like a dog and said you'd do anything."

Looking aggrieved, Penelope changed her tune.

"No! I had no choice. It was a chance to play with an elf! Wouldn't you have done the same? Wouldn't you?!"

"Please don't lump me in with you. I'm begging you here."

Zed shot her a contemptuous look. Garnet stared at him.

"You're no different."

"What are you talking about? How am I anything like her?"

"I heard you tried to seduce that High Elf who recently arrived."

"I didn't stake my life on it. And I didn't know he was a man."

"So you'd have kept trying if he'd been a woman?"

"Oh dear, what does this say? My eyes are so blurry I can barely read it!"

As Garnet glared at him disapprovingly, Zed hid his face behind the list, pretending to read.

'Why do I even bother with this moron...'

Now she truly understood. Attachment was a frightening thing.

KNOCK, KNOCK.

Silence fell at the knock. Zed asked cautiously,

"Did you invite anyone else?"

"No one else."

This time, Zed drew his dagger in earnest. As Garnet quietly readied herself as well, the door opened.

"Oh?"

A woman with her eyes narrowed to slits appeared in the doorway.

"Whoa, what a beauty...!"

"Shut up. How did you get in here?"

The woman answered Garnet with an easy smile.

"I'm sorry. It's so late, and the road was frightening. I needed a light."

Her manner seemed no different from that of an ordinary woman. But Garnet didn't lower her guard.

"I've never seen you in this village before."

"I only arrived yesterday, with my older brother."

"Five people arrived yesterday. None of them were women. And do you think it's plausible for a woman to be wandering around this late at night?"

"Hmm... How awkward. I heard the merchants' guildmaster was very thorough, but I didn't realize you were this thorough..."

Even with her cover blown, she remained relaxed.

"If you're going to be like that..."

She raised both hands and made a grabbing motion.

"The beast of the night will come and get you!"

FLAP!

A sudden gust blew the window open. No—something as swift as the wind. It came flying in, the draft of its passage snuffing out the candles.

CLANG!

Sparks flew in front of Garnet. They came from Zed's dagger; he had leaped forward the instant the window opened. His blade locked with the one coming for her, and a contest of strength followed.

'Strong.'

His opponent had a slight advantage. Before he could be pushed back any farther, Zed twisted his blade. Breaking the deadlock, he threw the attacker off balance and launched a counterattack first.

But his opponent was no slouch. Rather than resist the loss of balance, the attacker twisted even farther, slipping out of the dagger's path.

The assailant had swept in like a summer storm, ragged cloth and hair streaming. Only a pair of blue eyes stood out clearly. Their shining color resembled something he had seen often before.

Before he could even try to place it, the attacker darted farther inside and stopped beside the intruder.

"You all right?"

Zed caught Garnet as she nearly fell.

"I'm fine."

Garnet raised the crossbow she had drawn and aimed it at the pair.

As usual, Penelope panicked and began babbling at breakneck speed.

"W-whaaa! What's going on? Who are you? A spy sent by Mother?! Damn it, I should've stayed holed up in the castle! I just had to follow this pretty-boy womanizer out and get my tail—mmph!"

"Who are you people?"

Zed stuffed a wad of cloth into Penelope's incessantly chattering mouth as he asked.

The assailant gave no answer. The other woman spoke instead.

"My name is Angrem, and this girl here is Yubel. She can only answer with two words: 'Full' and 'Waned.'"

"... Waned."

"All right. I'll stop the idle chatter."

Garnet recognized them the moment she heard their names.

"Yubel and Angrem... The Saintesses of the Order of Sierra."

Sierra's Wolf and Sierra's Dancer. Two class-one criminals with spectacular lists of charges against them in the Empire. But they had vanished three years ago, leaving only rumors that someone had killed them.

"That's right. You certainly know your business as the head of Black Bandana. Or should I call you the head of the covert division now?"

Garnet frowned. Ambushing them wasn't enough; they knew her past as well. That meant she absolutely could not let them leave alive.

She carefully aimed her crossbow at Angrem's chest, intending to pierce her heart and kill her on the spot.

That was when she caught sight of two glowing blue eyes. They showed her something vividly: her own death.

It was a warning. The moment she pulled the trigger, the terror of standing on death's doorstep would become more than mere fear.

"Our meeting has been a little abrupt and rough, but I'd like to leave it at that. There's only one thing we need."

"What is it?"

"That item in your hand."

It was the copy of laboratory director Linne's journal.

"Give it to us. Hand over that one thing, and we'll leave quietly."

"..."

"It's not even the original, just a translated copy, isn't it? You're Black Bandana, after all. Why not think of it as selling information in exchange for your lives?"

"I refuse."

Conviction mattered more than life. That was the will of the forebear who had led Black Bandana, and the principle of Valdrova's covert division.

"Valdrova's covert division... Not bad after all. This much earns you a passing grade."

"Waned."

"Though I admit they're still not to your liking. Normally, you'd want to kill them all, wouldn't you?"

"Full!"

Yubel's eyes gleamed like a beast's. Angrem, however, kept smiling.

"But what can we do? Tonight is the 'full moon,' after all."

"... Full."

"What a shame, isn't it?"

Yubel gave the beaming Angrem a resentful look.

"So let's just give them a little beating."

Killing intent erupted the instant she finished speaking. Sensing that the fight was about to resume, Zed yanked the cloth from Penelope's mouth.

"Pepe!"

"H-Haste!"

Red light enveloped Zed, accelerating his movements. Two points of light moved through the darkness, leaving afterimages like brushstrokes across a black canvas. Fast, but within his ability to counter.

'No.'

Zed knew instinctively: by the time his eyes followed them, it would already be too late. He brought his blade to his left.

CLANG!

Sparks flew at his side. Just as he had expected. The moving lights were a feint. The body itself was moving even faster through the darkness.

It had only been one exchange, but Zed couldn't contain his shock.

'I'm barely keeping up even with an acceleration spell.'

She could match the speed that had allowed him to outrun even those swift wolf demonic creatures. Acknowledging her skill, Zed responded all the more boldly.

"Hah!"

With their blades locked, Zed caught the woman's sword on the wedge of his dagger. Then he spun his entire body around, wrenching the blade. The sudden force tore the sword from Yubel's hand.

'I'll take her down now.'

With her hand now empty, he intended to disable her by cutting her tendons. But that was an arrogant assumption.

"Zed, watch out!"

Another sword rested in the hand that should have been empty.

'How?!'

That question nearly became his dying thought. A sharp sword point shot toward his throat.

"Ugh!"

He threw himself backward, barely avoiding the blade, but lost his balance. Seizing the opening, the woman aimed her sword at his chest. He was helpless to stop her.

TWANG!

"!!"

The woman broke off her attack and forcibly twisted aside. A small bolt shot through the gap and vanished into the air.

Both had been left in awkward stances, and now they drew apart again. Zed retreated to Garnet, while the woman flipped through the air and landed squarely on the desk.

'She's a complete monster!'

Zed used that brief respite to keep analyzing his opponent. A woman's body that could match his Haste-enhanced speed. A sword that had appeared from nowhere. And those blue eyes, which kept threatening to freeze him in place.

'There's definitely magic involved.'

This was no time to take things easy and play at sword fighting.

'I'll have to use it.'

If she was going to use her eyes, so would he. Zed was the sole survivor of the Red-Eye Clan. They had been known as Mage Killers, thanks to their extraordinary eyes, which could destroy magic circles.

Zed's eyes began to glow red.

"Oh?"

It was the first thing Angrem had said since she had begun watching with her hands behind her back.

Zed saw something surrounding Yubel's head. He directed his gaze at it.

"Urgh?!"

It worked. As a layer of magic surrounding her head shattered, Yubel's body twitched unnaturally. She dropped her sword and clutched her head.

"Uuugh..."

A groan of pain.

Zed thought he had found the answer. But it didn't take long for him to realize how wrong he was.

"AAAAAAAH!!!"

The groan erupted into a roar that shook the entire building.

"Ugh!"

"Eeeek?!"

Garnet and Penelope collapsed, unable to stay upright. It felt as though an enormous, invisible weight was crushing them. Even Zed could barely hold himself up on one knee.

Only then did he fully understand. What he had taken for the source of her power was a chain holding Yubel back.

Her frenzied movements grew wilder. She dropped her head forward from where it had been thrown back and glared at Zed.

The instant he met her eyes, Zed flinched and trembled. Those once-blue eyes were now glowing red.