Translator: Alpha0210
Luca's heart was pounding.
It was as if her body was violently ringing an alarm.
At the sa ti, one overwhelming thought filled her mind.
‘It’s this person……!’
This was the first ti they’d t face to face. That much was certain. That chilling gaze wasn’t sothing one could forget after seeing it even once.
And yet, Luca knew who the woman in front of her was, and what her purpose was.
The person who had constantly pursued her hyung……! And the one who caused her hyung to decide that Luca should wait Outside!
In other words, the reason why Residue didn’t go to the fortress city with Luca was all because of this person!
“…….”
Luca had heard Residue speak about this person a few tis. He usually referred to her as the ‘Blue Knight’ or the ‘crazy woman’.
But the Pale whom Luca now faced didn’t feel that way at all.
On her expressionless face was a deep lethargy and exhaustion. There was little trace of madness.
Her outfit was far too simple to be considered that of a Knight. She wore an easy-to-move-in top and leather pants. The only thing that even slightly resembled a Knight was the sword in her hand. But even that was poorly maintained and full of scratches.
Then, her dull, indifferent eyes turned this way.
The mont Luca saw those eyes shining vividly even in the darkness, goosebumps wouldn’t stop crawling all over her body.
Half-frozen, she looked up at that face.
“…….”
Receiving no response, Pale readjusted her grip on the sword she was letting hang, and began walking toward her.
With each step ca a dragging sound- “clank, clank.……”
Looking closer, Pale’s right arm was tightly wrapped with chains, which extended all the way to the sword.
The sight gave the impression that the chains had been forcibly wrapped to make her grip the sword against her will, and Luca shuddered once again.
At the sa ti, countless thoughts crossed her mind as she watched Pale approach step by step.
What should I do?
Should I fight?
Could I win if I fought?
She now knew she wasn’t weak. She had, in fact, easily driven away the group of Absolutes who had co targeting Amdal.
They were beings far stronger than soone like Mayor Tucker, who once ruled ltown, yet Luca had been able to subdue and drive them out without a scratch on her and without revealing most of her power.
That brief battle had given her so confidence.
But……
“I-I won’t stop you!”
With about three steps remaining between them, Luca scread almost like a cry and quickly stepped aside. The pride she’d gained from fighting the Absolutes was blown away like a leaf in the autumn wind at the sheer intensity of the opponent’s aura.
“…….”
Pale looked at Luca for a brief mont, then passed by with an uninterested expression.
Luca pressed herself tightly against the wall, as though touching her would an death, waiting for Pale to pass by.
She tried to wait.
“Ggk, ugh……”
“Agh……”
“…….”
Chains.
There were people bound to the chain that descended from Pale’s arm and continued to the sword. They were being dragged along like fish tangled in a net.
Now that she looked more closely, it seed so of the people Luca had assud to be corpses were actually still alive.
Luca closely examined their faces and soon gasped in shock.
So she didn’t recognize, but many she did.
The crew mbers of Amdal, and the captain, Bardrog.
“…….”
Their noses had collapsed, ears were cut off, foreheads cracked open, mouths dripping with blood.
They were in such a miserable state that it was hard to look at them with both eyes open, but one thing was certain.
They were still alive.
“Agh, ugh……”
Her eyes t Bardrog’s.
A pleading look in his eyes, his blood-sared lips moved faintly.
Luca looked away.
“……!”
Then she was struck with shock at her own action.
Her life had been filled with regret and anxiety, so she had decided to focus on helping others. Along with the belief that all life was precious.
Because she knew it was hypocrisy, she had tried to beco an even more thorough hypocrite.
It was because she knew. That all of it was to justify herself.
Because when she was at her lowest, she wished soone would help her. She hoped a hero would fall from the sky. And because she knew just how happy it made her when soone like that actually appeared.
The thought that “all life is precious” was the sa.
When Amdal fell.
The reason she saved not only the crew but also the prisoners was that if they were denied salvation simply because they were criminals, then Luca herself had no right to be saved by anyone.
But what had she just done?
Did she ignore the signal of soone in distress, soone asking for help?
Just how selfish was she?
‘But…….’
She had been too scared.
Her eye contact with the woman in chains had only lasted a mont, but those pale eyes were burned into her mory and refused to fade.
Shrinking back, Luca opened her eyes to slits and looked ahead once more.
The mont she saw Bardrog’s face, lowered as if resigned to his fate.
“Uh, excuse !”
Luca had already done sothing crazy. She stopped Pale, who had almost completely passed by.
Whether that was fortunate or not, Pale ca to a halt. And she turned her head slightly to the left. Because of her tangled hair, her eyes weren’t visible, and it didn’t feel like she was really looking at Luca. Her motion was lifeless, like soone idly glancing at a scene unfolding to the left while walking.
“Why didn’t you kill them?”
Luca’s voice trembled violently. She almost wanted to praise herself for not biting her own tongue.
“Because it’s an inconvenient world.”
“…What?”
“If I kill them, the flesh rots. Rotten flesh has little nutrition and tastes bad.”
She could talk!
Just that alone brought a bit of color back to Luca’s face.
Of course, Pale’s words were vague and unclear.
“I’m not sure what you an, but……”
“You’re similar to , aren’t you?”
She asked in a puzzled voice, and the eye previously hidden by hair now turned toward Luca.
To be precise, toward the large backpack she was carrying.
“No matter how much food you carry, it’s never enough. Still, it’s an inconvenient but abundant world. Wherever you go, there’s plenty to eat.”
“……”
Food.
Those chained individuals.
…Thinking of them as fish caught in a net, in a way, had been the most accurate perception.
Realizing Pale’s true intentions, Luca’s face turned pale. A kind of fear she had never experienced before swept over her entire body. Up until now, the greatest fear she had felt ca from her unknown inner self or identity.
So this was the first ti.
Was it always this terrifying not to be able to guess what soone else was thinking?
While Luca was paralyzed in fear, Pale began walking again. Her tongue had gone numb, and she couldn’t bring herself to try stopping her again.
“What are you doing?”
But sohow.
Why was Pale, who had left, now standing in front of her with a confused expression?
“…Ah.”
Luca belatedly realized that she was standing in Pale’s path.
The blue eyes turned toward her. It was as if her whole body had been pierced through, and she couldn’t move. Her throat was parched, and she couldn’t move her tongue.
“Um, I…”
Luca was certain she was either making a crying face or already crying.
“Those people… I was wondering… would it be possible… for you to just leave them… behind?”
“……”
Stamring, she forced the corners of her mouth up to form a clumsy smile.
You can’t spit on a smiling face. It was a servile survival tactic she’d picked up while scraping by at rock bottom, based on so saying she’d heard sowhere.
“Because, they didn’t do anything wr-”
She couldn’t finish her sentence.
Luca’s vision suddenly flipped. A sickening churn surged through her insides, and a dizzying shock slamd over her entire body.
“Only one warning.”
Luca, covered in blood, slumped against the corridor wall, her head bobbing weakly. …What just happened? Ah. She’d been attacked. She couldn’t even move a finger. It felt like every bone in her body had been shattered into pieces.
-This is bad. At this rate, I might completely lose consciousness.
To be honest, she didn’t even know what hit her or how.
Wasn’t I supposed to be pretty strong? Or is that person just on a completely different level?
…In the anti, it seed Pale had started walking again. The damage to her body was severe, but her mind was relatively intact. Watching Pale’s back, Luca’s thoughts kept spinning.
Is she not finishing off? She didn’t seem like soone who’d have any sense of rcy…
Right. She must believe she finished with that last strike. It was a perfectly reasonable conclusion. How many could survive a blow like that?
The thought “thank goodness” flickered in the back of her mind.
As long as she stayed put like this, her safety would be guaranteed.
If she remained motionless, embedded in the wall like this, she wouldn’t die or be hurt any further. And it wasn’t an excuse or exaggeration, she truly was on the verge of blacking out.
The difference in power was so clear that there was nothing she could do even if she tried to stop that person now.
So Residue would understand too.
Therefore.
“Ex…cuse ……!”
What am I doing?
She saw Pale’s face turn toward her, her eyes slightly widened.
Luca, staggering to her feet, looked at her and said,
“Those people… please leave them be-”
Smack.
Her vision went dark.
It felt like a heavy blow to the chin. Was it a knee? Or a kick? Either way, she almost bit her tongue. Even though she didn’t, the forcefully clenched teeth hurt as if they might shatter but soon, there was no ti to care about that pain.
This ti, the attack didn’t end in a single strike.
Her throat, chest, solar plexus, abdon… where else? All the vital points were hit simultaneously, and she couldn’t even exhale properly, her breath mixed with blood. Her body, lifted into the air by the barrage of blows, slamd to the ground monts later with a sickening thud.
“……”
Pale looked down at Luca, who had crashed face-first into the corridor floor. Tilting her head slightly, as if trying to determine whether she was still alive or dead.
No movent. No signs of life.
Dead.
With that confirmation, Pale turned to leave.
Grab.
Before she could, a small hand gripped her ankle tightly.
“P-please, they didn’t do… anything wrong……”
Before the blood-tinged voice could finish, Pale stomped down on Luca’s back with her other foot.
“Guh.”
Twice. Three tis. Four. Five.
“Ugh, ngh, agh. Gack.”
The floor dented with each strike, and blood and flesh splattered even onto Pale’s face. The final execution was carried out with precision and attention to detail.
Delivering a certain death wasn’t difficult. All she had to do was destroy this tenacious being to the point it could no longer retain a human form.
“Ah, ahhh……”
One of the crew mbers still bound in chains let out a pained voice. But none of them had the courage to intervene in that brutal and ticulous act of destruction.
They shut their eyes tightly, forcing themselves to ignore the girl who had thrown herself to protect them as she transford into a mass of blood.
“……”
And then the savage kicking ended. Pale wiped the blood from her face with indifference.
This ti for sure, definitely, without any doubt, she had finished her.
Now, all that was left was to deal with that asshole nearby-
“…Shit.”
“……!”
Pale flinched and turned around.
In her blue eyes, a rare look of shock flickered.
"Let's talk for a mont. Really......"
Muttering weakly, Luca, who had finished regenerating, spoke with a tearful face.
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