“Suu────”
Lonzder relaxed all the strength from her body for an instant.
Even though she had been hardened, she had been engulfed in explosive flames multiple times, her left arm torn, and she had lost a lot of blood clinging to the hell hound. Even in [Deepened State], her physical body was near its limit.
So she lightly placed her uninjured right fist against the demon’s back.
Closing her eyes, concentrating her mind. Timing was everything—there would only be one chance.
The gap where Whisper, caught between front and back, would decide which should be dealt with first.
“─────!”
Throughout Lonzder’s entire body, crimson patterns emitted intense light.
The golden flames expelled from the hell hound’s jaws drew a spiral and struck the demon directly in the chest.
It was a concentrated howl, a pathway of impact.
The gem, at the moment of exhalation, slammed all the mass increased to dozens of tons into her right fist.
The aftermath of the tremendous impact overflowed from beneath her feet, carving a massive crack into the floor.
The pincer attack from front and back exploded at Whisper’s vital center.
“Gahah─────!?”
What occurred was not a simple pincer attack.
The tremendous impacts collided within the demon’s body, ravaging it.
As a result, blood erupted from Whisper’s mouth like a fountain.
“…hya, hyaha, hyahaha. To think my own body would explode from the inside…”
With a clatter, the [Viblade] rolled to the ground.
At the same time, the tube that had been piercing her heart came loose.
Blood overflowed not just from her mouth, but from her eyes, nose, ears—from everywhere.
“Nnnnnnn… it feels so goooood…!”
With an ecstatic smile as her last expression, Whisper died.
●
“Elteel, we’re getting out of here immediately!”
Elteel, who was about to collapse in front of the now-motionless Whisper, looked up at Lonzder’s shout.
“Eh? Wait, I’m pretty tired though…”
“Don’t be stupid! I’m the one about to die from overwork! No, that’s not it—look!”
Lonzder was pointing straight up.
Thinking it strange, she looked up.
“…ah.”
There was blood stuck all over the ceiling.
“Detective-san, this is…”
“It’s going to explode soon! And both you and I went too far!”
The moment she shouted, everything around them began to shake.
This vibration felt familiar.
And in a few seconds, an explosion would occur in the ceiling.
In other words,
“It’s going to collapse────!”
“Again────!?”
●
“…Lonzder-san.”
“What?”
“How about changing your name to Destroyer Slayer?”
“Just because of ‘Slain-ey’? That’s not funny. …Not funny, but… hmm.”
Elteel and Lonzder, who had been sitting collapsed on the dim ground, turned around together to look behind them.
What lay ahead was trees and earth caught up in the sunken ground. The small stone hut buried among them had been the entrance to the catacomb. Outside the sinkhole, gravestones were lined up.
It was the cemetery in the western part of the city.
The above-ground portion of the catacomb that had just collapsed had been forest, so both of them sincerely hoped the damage to the cemetery itself was minimal.
Lonzder tore off her jacket sleeve and used it as a bandage substitute to stop the bleeding from her left arm.
“Haah… Well, we can leave the cleanup to Sphere and Iris. Speaking of which, that woman Iris didn’t tell us anything important at all…”
“There’s no point complaining about it. Let’s get away from here quickly. Both you and I are covered in blood, so if anyone sees us, that alone would get us reported. Look at my coat—most of this is your blood, you know.”
While saying this, Elteel stood up and tried to start walking while staggering.
“Lonzder-san?”
“…I know, just wait a moment.”
Lonzder remained collapsed.
Her complexion was poor and her breathing rough. She didn’t seem able to stand up immediately.
So Elteel returned to her side.
“It can’t be helped.”
She put Lonzder’s right arm around her own shoulder and helped her stand.
“…Sorry.”
“Don’t mention it.”
Supporting her shoulder and placing a hand on Lonzder’s waist, Elteel began walking.
“By the way, we couldn’t recover that weapon in the end.”
“It couldn’t be helped at that timing. It’s fine—with that durability, it shouldn’t be broken even if buried. We’ll have them work hard to excavate it.”
“How casual of you.”
“Stopping Whisper was our job. They’re the ones who withheld information from the start.”
Elteel let out a wry smile.
For a little while, the two walked forward in silence.
The surroundings were dark, and it was slowly getting brighter from the distant eastern castle wall.
Since they had been underground for a long time, they had lost track of time, but it was already morning.
In their line of sight was the shadow of Balldlum Tower.
“Hey.”
Lonzder spoke up.
“Haven’t you ever thought about going back to your family home?”
“Pardon?”
“Just making conversation. Look, this time it was a story about my past catching up with me, right? Well, that was the result. I don’t have any family left, and I have no place to return to. But you’re different. There’s the matter of not being able to leave the city because of [Cartesius], but even so, you…”
“I’ve never thought about it.”
Elteel answered quietly.
●
Elteel squinted at the sun that was gradually showing its face from the castle wall.
“Norman-sama says that we are human. That is salvation for us, but… precisely because of that, we must be aware that we are monsters.”
Elteel thinks.
No matter how much he acknowledges them as human, it’s certain that she has changed.
Transforming into a beast, cloaked in darkness, her howls and breath bringing destruction.
A monster that has changed from human, from everyone, and fallen outside.
That is what Elteel is now.
“Even if I went home, even if my family accepted me, I don’t think I could accept it myself. So… yes.”
She remembers. A month ago, just like now, what Norman had said in the morning sun.
“I don’t need to go anywhere. The person I want to serve is in this city. Yes, my heart has decided that.”
●
“…I see.”
Lonzder nodded at the words of Elteel, who was lending her shoulder.
“You’re right. As you say, the past is merely the past, and we have a definite present.”
At least, that’s how it is for Lonzder and Elteel.
No family, no place to return to. Those words were a little different.
In this city, Lonzder had obtained that.
That was an unshakeable truth for Lonzder.
“If we’re imprisoned by the past, we’d be no different from Whisper.”
“No, no, you’re overthinking it. The direction of our craziness was quite different, wasn’t it? What was with that person anyway? He said he’d stopped his revenge, then his mood went completely off the rails.”
Elteel let out a heavy, long sigh.
“Good grief… I thought you were an emotional person, but you’re even more sentimental than I thought. What kind of mindset were you in when you were a detective?”
“Shut up. …Well, yes. Maybe it’s because I’m a detective.”
“Pardon?”
“Detectives expose and reveal the truths that others want to hide. If the target is a murderer like Whisper, that’s fine, but… sometimes there might be things that should remain hidden.”
Should crimes committed not for oneself but for someone else’s sake be forgiven?
The scales of justice were completely lost when she became 《Unlaw》, but…
“…Come to think of it, I was troubled even before becoming 《Unlaw》. When I was with Norman, I left all that sort of thing entirely to him, so this time I might have overthought things.”
“I see.”
Elteel nodded.
“Well, don’t worry about me. I write letters to my family.”
“Huh?”
“I found my destined person in Balldlum, so I can’t return for a while because I want to spend my life with them. Please don’t worry. My family was happy for me too, and when I’m free to leave the city someday, I can return like I’m going on a trip.”
“You──!”
“Wh-what!?”
For a while, the two grappled with each other while still supporting each other’s shoulders.
A few minutes later, both were out of breath.
“Haa… haa… that’s enough…”
“Haa… haa… let’s leave it at that…”
After catching their breath,
“…heh.”
“…hehe.”
They smiled at the same time.
“Wahaha! What are we doing when we’re both so battered!”
“Hehe, really… exactly.”
The gem laughed out loud, while the hell hound smiled wryly and modestly.
Supporting each other’s bodies, they walked toward the bright path.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
Interval 1
“───I see. Whisper is dead, and the [Viblade] is being searched for, is that correct?”
In the windowless office, its master, Sphere-Hamish, nodded while holding a teacup.
Across from him, Iris, standing in front of the desk, nodded back.
“Yes. We’ve been digging up the cemetery since yesterday afternoon searching for it, but it will take time.”
“Well, that’s fine. Either way, [Number Two] is too unwieldy to use. The [Nine Herbs] with numbers in the first half all have too much risk.”
Shaking her ashen long hair and narrowing her eyes, Sphere smiled.
her gaze was directed toward…
“So─── if we were able to recover [Number Seven], there’s no problem.”
The bag in Iris’s hand. It was originally Whisper’s possession.
Inside the bag that had been caught up in the first catacomb collapse was [Number Seven]’s specialized weapon.
Since Whisper couldn’t handle it, he treated it roughly and didn’t even try to recover it himself.
“That man, aside from [Number Two], stole [Number Seven] as well—that was unexpected. It caused extra trouble, and the hell hound and gem destroyed two underground tombs… You gave them harassment, didn’t you?”
“Yes. As originally instructed, I kept quiet about [Dordinium] and [Limit Release].”
“Good. It would have been nice if they had died, but that was probably asking too much.”
Sphere smiled faintly, while Iris remained expressionless.
“Whisper’s matter is fine, I suppose. More importantly, I’d like to test-run [Number Seven]. It would be nice if there were a good 《Unlaw》 around.”
“In that case, there’s a perfect case available.”
“Oh?”
Sphere smiled thinly.
“Then────let’s use monsters to experiment with killing monsters.”
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