Free Web NovelChapter 326: Intermission: Cassandra’s Sword Chasing Chronicles (02)
--This Chapter is written in Cassandra’s POV--
It was the first day of my quest to hunt Elizabeth.
My replica swords were throbbing as lightning bolts struck behind me one after the other, quickly gaining on me.
I angled my feet and turned a sidestep into a dash, headed straight for the Demon Queen’s neck.
With a proper sword in my hand, I cut the wind blasts she launched and jumped, evading the ground that ceded beneath my feet.
Before my blade could find her, the Demon Queen covered herself in her own wings, snapping open only to burst into the sky.
I only needed a moment to adjust my momentum.
Sticking my blade into the ground, I used my sword as a pole to launch myself upward.
Crossing the air, I turned myself into a small, thin sword and evaded the downpour of hail that the Demon Queen cast to block my way.
Returned to my human form, the demon and I met face to face, separated only by a couple of centimeters.
There were no words between us, just sword and magic.
As my blade pierced her chest, coming out of her back, Elizabeth coughed up droplets of blood.
Without flinching, she pulled the sword further inside her body, black electricity running through her hands.
Cassandra: "Oh? OooOOooh~"
My body was scorched, the lightning burning from inside and outside.
The electric armor plates I wore overcharged, sending a current so strong that I started spasming as I fell from the sky.
I couldn’t muster enough strength in my legs to crawl away.
In my spasms, I wriggled and humped the snow-covered grass, wetting it as much as I had wetted my armor.
Cassandra: "Ah... I’ll be a good girl, so... Ah... Again?~"
The demon’s blue eyes, as pure and clear as the sky, looked down on me as if trash scattered around a beautiful garden.
She slowly pulled the sword from her chest, but before kindly returning it to me, the blade of a cheating fox reached her neck from behind.
The old hag didn’t give the fox the satisfaction of so much as touching one of her barriers with such an underhanded trick.
Without sparing her a glance, the demon turned the nearby river that had surged upward into a beam of water, blasting the fox away.
Elizabeth: "...Leave me alone."
She had no care for the two women she left wet in the cold, turning her back to us without a second thought.
Cassandra: "Hmnm~ See you tomorrow~"
Even though I had cut her arms twice each, minced her wings more times than I could be bothered to count, and even got her heart a couple of times, the Demon Queen Elizabeth strolled away without a single drop of blood staining her body.
While heavily damaged, she left me on the brink of what I could heal myself.
However, she had failed to fry my plates or destroy my replicas.
Thus, I could still continue my campaign without getting new equipment back home.
Elizabeth: "You’re not bringing her?"
Watching me walk away, the demon glanced towards the fox that rested against a tree, struggling to catch her breath.
Cassandra: "...You didn’t kill the fox? Getting soft, old hag?~"
Another lightning bolt came my way.
This one tormented me much more, as it wasn’t strong enough for my plates to react.
After wishing the demon a good night’s rest, I followed the river downstream, setting camp a few feet away from her.
While undressing, I saw the fox coming down, her chin lowered and her eyes fixed on the ground.
She sat by the riverbed as I entered the cold water, alternating between my sword and human forms enough times to finally get rid of the burns and bruises that the demon had gifted me.
Drawn by the unarmed, defenseless girl bathing in the river, the monsters inhabiting the forest crawled out of the bushes.
Predictably, all of them ended with blades in their necks.
As I left the river and picked up my armor and equipment, the fox stood up.
Reina: "...I’ll be taking a bath now."
Cassandra: "Hm? Wasn’t the one Elizabeth gave you enough?"
The fox glared hard, her face almost as red as her hair.
She sat by the riverside, taking off her clothes while I dressed myself.
Despite despising her, when seeing her naked body, my respect for the sword master increased.
Her features weren’t much different from my own, at least in size.
However, her flawless skin elevated every part of her body.
She was a peachy fruit, delectable-looking.
I could only imagine the will required to take a bite without eating the whole thing.
Cassandra: "Did you snatch something for yourself?"
I sat below a giant sword I had stuck in the ground.
It worked like a cave’s rooftop, protecting me from the snow.
Reina: "I wouldn’t dare soil this body before My Lord does."
She thought exactly as I did before the sword master first graced me with his treasured blade.
Whether these were her real thoughts or an attempt to close the distance between us mattered not, though.
Having already experienced the joy only the peerless sword could bring me, I was free to train with as many replicas as my body could endure.
As night fell, the moon was eclipsed by the grey sky caused by Elizabeth’s magic.
Reina: "You’re not going to sleep?"
Lying on the grass untouched by the snow, the undisciplined fox sounded bothered by my training.
Cassandra: "So you can stab my neck?"
For a brief moment, I heard the fox growl.
She had clenched her fists, but after a deep sigh, she sat facing me.
Reina: "Do you know of the progenitor of your kind?"
Her expression remained too hard to read.
And I was too busy to try.
Cassandra: "Yes, daddy~"
Her breathing grew heavier with discontent.
Reina: "...Are you really his daughter?"
Cassandra: "Ah... I’m almost there~"
Training outside, in the dead of a chilly night, made my exercises all the more taxing.
Having finished my first exercise, my eyes landed on the fox, quietly biting her lips as she watched me with arms crossed.
Her eyes told me she still wanted a response.
Cassandra: "...Whatever you heard, it’s probably true. That man really loved his swords."
It was crucial to rehydrate after intense exercise, and the cunning fox sat right in front of my bag, making it impossible for me to avoid her.
After answering her, I made sure to bring my bottle to the blanket I trained on.
Reina: "Your Gift, the ability to summon the spirits of the swords you’ve eaten... It’s almost the same as his, no?"
Cassandra: "You have my memories, don’t you? You already know why."
The man whose Gift allowed him to give human forms to weapons and accessories wasn’t my father, yet the fox got quite close on her first guess.
The progenitor of the Living Armaments was my grandfather.
Reina: "I’m still processing Elizabeth’s. And yours might be even harder to navigate. At least, I don’t enjoy them as much."
Hearing those words, a grin flashed across my face.
Cassandra: "Shame the witch girl got hurt, then. Unless you wanted to keep them?~"
The fox stopped saying anything for a second, and thinking we were done, I returned to my blanket, a couple of steps away from her.
However, before I could start my next exercise, her voice once again pierced the night’s silence.
Reina: "...Why didn’t you tell her that My Lord was troubled by her actions? Surely you do not question her loyalty, as you question mine?"
Her question made me turn back the clock to the morning.
...It didn’t take long for the fox and me to find Elizabeth.
The fox’s appearance was deceitful, and she didn’t slow me down when traversing the forest.
About two hours after we had departed from the mansion, we met Elizabeth in the center of the forest, using the trunk of a chopped tree as a branch.
She was meditating. Her eyes closed, her wings spread.
When searching for food, whether vitality or souls, demons would often hide their demonic features as needed to blend in with other races.
Hiding their hoens, tails, and wings for long periods of time was a matter of pride for all demonic races, and Elizabeth was the greatest at it I had seen.
It was a talent mostly wasted in the entourage of the sword master.
For the longest time, no one but me knew demons that deeply.
Thus, I was the only one who knew Elizabeth was a show-off who quietly enjoyed flaunting her ability to appear as a human woman, the race that required her to hide most of her features.
I thought about making fun of it.
However, I enjoyed having a secret shared between only the two of us.
And despite not coming close to my love for swords, I couldn’t help but like cute, innocent maidens like her.
Still, when excited about an opponent, Elizabeth would often show her wings.
On purpose, of course.
It wasn’t that she lacked control; she was clearly too good at it for that to happen.
It was simply her way of showing respect.
A parting gift to a prey worth the hunt.
And yet, even though there was no prey around her, the fox and I found Elizabeth with her wings spread.
Not only that, her horns flickered in and out of existence.
I could hardly contain my surprise, seeing her falter like that.
After some friendly back-and-forth, Elizabeth asked me why I had come to her.
And when I told her it was the boy who sent me...
Elizabeth: "...Did he say I was a problem?"
I almost laughed.
Well, I laughed.
But not too hard.
Just hard enough for her to fight me over it.
There was nothing I could do, though.
In that moment, I realized more about her than she herself had.
Maybe even the sword master hadn’t yet figured out as much as I.
However, she certainly knew I couldn’t fix this.
Only Elizabeth herself could.
So, to answer the fox’s question...
The sword master never cared about the thunderstorm. Or the blizzard. Or the rain.
He only cared about Elizabeth herself and the matter of her heart.
Cassandra: "...The old hag is strong. If I figured it out, she’ll figure it out. I’m only here to make it quicker~"
Reina: "This is unexpected. You treat her horribly. I thought you hated her."
I had no idea what the fox meant.
Lizzie and I were practically besties, like bread and butter.
Besides...
Cassandra: "...Elizabeth is a trophy any man would die to get their hands on. Once the boy has a taste of her, he’ll be addicted for a while. I need to make sure he knows we’re an inseparable pair. At least when he takes her to bed~"
Reina: "Parasite."
Cassandra: "Kya~"
The fox made sure to put as much distance between us as she could, resting her head near the sword’s tip.
I spent the night practicing my squats and other simple exercises, and after a few hours, I caught a brief glimpse of the sun rising on the horizon before the clouds hid it again.
Thus began the second day of the Elizabeth hunt, which, all things considered, wasn’t as eventful as the first.
Having provoked her too much on the first day, I brought her a conciliatory gift.
Not one to care for swords, even when they were just toys, she destroyed all of my babies in front of my eyes.
That led to a friendly discussion between besties, and we ended our time together with a couple of her limbs severed and my shoulder dislocated.
After that, it was back under the sword for more swordsmanship training.
Though annoyingly, it was also time for more of the fox’s probing.
Reina: "I fail to see how your strategy is helping. It seemed better to let her meditate on her own than distract her with... your method."
Seemingly afraid of getting her perfect skin bruised and not willing to get hurt for nothing, the fox fought the second round indirectly, throwing knives from afar until the demon had exhausted me.
Recognizing her feelings, the demon only threw the fox around using air blasts, careful not to draw blood.
Even though getting rid of her would be like killing two foxes with one stone for the old hag...
Cassandra: "Second-guessing your Lord?~"
Reina: "I would never. I’m only second-guessing you."
The air was cold.
Despite being a beastwoman, the only fur I could see was on her tail and ears.
Her level was substantially lower than mine, her shoulders were exposed...
Crossing her arms didn’t feel like only a sign of disapproval anymore; she was literally bracing herself.
And yet, when opening her mouth, the fox was firm in every word, never once gazing away from me.
She’d remain solid as a rock, stone-faced even when provoked.
Except when the sword master was mentioned.
Cassandra: "Oh, ye of so little faith~"
The fox clicked her tongue once, turning away from and tucking in for the night.
After two days without sleep, I also felt tired enough.
However, I didn’t trust the fox enough to shut my eyes near her, even for a second.
At least, not without some reassurance.
I summoned a couple of sword spirits to keep watch, and ended the second night of my hunt quietly recalibrating my armor plates until I had fallen asleep.
As such, I started the third day of my campaign feeling completely refreshed.
Elizabeth: "...Why are you still here?"
The demon only spared me one eye, keeping the other closed.
As soon as she opened her mouth, a gust of wind blew past me, increasing in power as it traveled.
It tore down a tree behind me, revealing the fox hiding behind it.
Cassandra: "I’m checking on my favorite hag~"
Elizabeth: "...I’m fine. Now, leave me."
As I stepped closer, I felt the ground eroding beneath my feet.
I jumped to hug my bestie, but she was too shy and launched dozens of spiked stones my way, forcing me to retreat.
Cassandra: "Oh, don’t lie to me. I can always tell when you’re feeling hurt, and that last defeat must’ve stung~"
Elizabeth: "I wasn’t defeated."
I enjoyed that flavor of falsity much more than the fox’s.
Then again, I’d favor Elizabeth over that thief no matter what.
Cassandra: "Is that so? Then why are you training your mana output?"
Elizabeth: "...So I can share more of my mana with His Majesty and the other healers."
It was a believable tale.
Especially since Elizabeth wasn’t the type of woman to throw a tantrum in the first place, and with her level of magic, she couldn’t get any meaningful training done in the sword master’s world.
Not without endangering the lives of innocent bystanders there, at least.
And yet, despite all of these reasons, I didn’t believe her for a minute.
Elizabeth wasn’t lying.
She just wasn’t being honest.
Then again, for a demon, that small lie was still cute.
Cassandra: "Funny. I thought you were doubting yourself."
Elizabeth: "Why would I?"
Cassandra: "Maybe because your little king’s auntie is more powerful than you?"
The demon hag didn’t answer.
Cassandra: "...Or maybe because if the old man hadn’t overestimated himself and activated his second Gift sooner, you’d have lost. Obviously?~"
She couldn’t keep one of her eyes closed after I said that.
Standing up from the tree trunk, the lightning suddenly stopped, bringing an eerie silence to the forest before a single lightning bolt fell behind me.
As the trees around us fell to the ground, the weak monsters that hid behind them jumped us all at once.
The fox threw one of her kunai, killing a horned rabbit before drawing her shortsword.
But scanning the area, she realized her movements were wasted.
The river that had bathed her multiple times already burst upward, defying gravity.
As the river crashed back into its bed, countless droplets cut the air, blowing holes through the monster’s bodies.
This time, Lizzie seemed even more intent on getting me wet.
Though unlike what she had done to the fox, she wasn’t content just throwing some water at me.
While deflecting the water bullets, I sensed something wrong with a grass blade near my feet.
It was slightly darker than the others.
And there was a small trace of mana in it.
Before a thin shadow blade erected from it, I had already taken a side step.
Only to see two more dark grass blades on the ground.
Cassandra: "If you wanted to see me dance, you could just grab my hand~"
The number of shadow blades kept increasing until the grass had turned pitch black.
Since she was escalating, I took it a little more seriously, making even smaller movements that left no opening for her to exploit.
Cassandra: "Are you sure you wanna take this so seriously? You’ve been losing a lot since meeting the boy. If you were to lose to me in a serious fight, too-"
Tree roots sprawled from the ground, grabbing my feet before trying to throw me like a whip.
I waited until the right moment to summon one of the fire swords I had eaten.
It briefly appeared midair before diving down, cutting the root and sending me off-course from the air bubble Elizabeth had created.
Though I would’ve loved to experience the asphyxiation endurance training she had prepared for me, I used the fire sword to send a flame slash at Elizabeth.
Safely landing on the ground, I retrieved the fire sword and launched the other one I was using.
Elizabeth deflected it with her wing, as she hovered above the ground.
After eating the fire sword, I took a second to breathe.
A second later, I had a new longsword.
Cassandra: "...A little hand?"
Reina: "As soon as I can."
While Lizzie showed me all of her creative combinations of elemental magic, the fox struggled to break free from a couple of roots that bound her limbs.
It seemed so fun that it almost made me wish I hadn’t escaped from the same fate.
Elizabeth: "Are you done yet?"
Cassandra: "With that skill, it’ll take a while for me to finish~"
Elizabeth: "...I’m starting to enjoy this. Try not to break, sword."
The blizzard and the rain stopped on the third day of my hunt.
As did the wind and the thunder.
Even the sun finally appeared in full.
Both of them?
Cassandra: "...Oh, that’s a big boy~"
Elizabeth: "The second shape of redemption, the Blazing Prism."
As she chanted her spell, the second sun fired a beam of flames that, after reaching some mark in the air, burned in multiple colors and directions, surrounding me in a prison of colorful fire.
Cassandra: "...End Cut."
A silver flash slashed through the flames.
In the same instant, seven more slashes.
In the same instant, two hundred more slashes.
Finally, before a second had passed, more than five thousand slashes dissipated the flames.
Unfortunately, my sword melted in my hands.
Cassandra: "Hya~ I can’t believe a virgin is making me move so much~"
Elizabeth: "...I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen a physical enhancement spell of that level." freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
I was hoping her eyes would widen with surprise.
Instead, she flashed me an excited grin.
Elizabeth: "The north wind hauls-"
Not interested in anything less than a challenge, the demon gave me enough time to summon a replacement for the sword I had destroyed.
But as her chanting started, the shadow of a fox suddenly appeared behind her back.
Again.
Elizabeth: "The south wind blows."
Despite using End Cut to free herself from the roots, the fox lacked the mana and the technique to make more than a mockery of me.
Elizabeth wasn’t naive enough to miss her presence, even for an instant, and the same scene as the first day repeated, only this time, with wind instead of water.
Elizabeth: "...Oh?"
While she couldn’t surprise Elizabeth by catching her off guard, the fox managed something similar by staying up immediately after the impact.
Behind the fox’s eyes burned an intense fire as she gripped her sword tightly.
It seemed like she had finally found a strategy she believed was fruitful.
And so, while Elizabeth finished her spell with a third chanted line, I raised my sword in kind.
Five days later...
Elizabeth: "...Is that true, Novaes?"
After extracting dangerous information from me the night prior, the fox said something stupid that ended with her lying on the ground, unconscious.
My bestie kept drawing blood from the cuts I left on her body, hurting herself more than my blade did.
Elizabeth: "You and His Majesty... Are you truly that connected?"
Cassandra: "Huff... Hah..."
I knew the fox was a problem.
To a bitch like me, loyal women like them always were.
Cassandra: "Old hag... I see you~"
After the eighth day, my hunt ended.
