Free Web NovelThe word “play” always made Vieya unavoidably think of the old games she once played.
It had been a retro game, a Japanese-style RPG. In it, the player wasn’t a Hero, nor a Demon King. The protagonist, along with a few companions, went adventuring and leveling up—but before reaching the final boss, ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) the party broke apart, even the protagonist vanished, and the world fell into eternal night.
But how could the protagonist die? Of course, he had to crawl back from hell. After being suppressed for so long, players had to be allowed the catharsis of beating the boss bloody! If the protagonist just died, then the game would be over—how were players supposed to enjoy that?
By the traditions of classic stories, the protagonist ought to regroup with his companions, shout about bonds and friendship, and together defeat the boss.
But that idiotic producer had quit halfway through. The game ended in a sloppy rush, the protagonist never escaping the boss’s script.
On this, Vieya could only spit:
“Pah!”
“Ya! Ye-sis, what did you spit at me for?” Xiao Lü, caught off guard, clutched her head and puffed her cheeks.
“You lured the enemy right to us—who else should I spit at?” The slime-girl put one hand on her hip, looking at her like she was an idiot.
“Wasn’t that what you told me to do?” Xiao Lü glared. Compared to humans, artifact spirits like her were far too straightforward. “And this is my home, not yours. If enemies are being lured here, shouldn’t the enemy in question be you?!”
“So what?”
Vieya frowned and added, “And are you sure you want to keep showing yourself at my side?”
“...”
Xiao Lü gave her a long look. A small sigh scattered into the night as her figure dissolved into tiny green motes, like a cloud of drifting fireflies.
“Ye-sis, then be careful...”
Careful?
A slime-girl without weaknesses doesn’t get hurt.
Once Xiao Lü had vanished completely, Vieya finally put on her mask, took a knight’s sword from the waist of the unconscious Tribunal knight nearby, and walked alone toward the outer ring gallery of the observation tower.
She did not choose to return to her loli form. Holding the knight’s sword, she stepped forward.
It was only a few paces, yet it felt to Vieya as though she had walked for ages.
The upright, spotless Hero was gone. What remained was a monster girl, a monster girl burdened with secrets she could never reveal.
Tap, tap, tap.
Unhurried footsteps echoed atop the tower, like the ordered strides of a dancer upon black and white piano keys. Calm, deliberate, impossible to ignore amid the silent night.
Below, the Tribunal knights swiftly shifted formation, opening a broad lane wide enough for two or three to walk abreast.
Into that space stepped a purple-haired girl, giant scythe in hand, eyes like lightning fixed upon the extended tower top.
She was that person’s one and only student. No matter what, Rania did not want her own failures to stain her teacher’s name.
Look—was this how the student of the First Hero was supposed to act? Unable to keep custody of a single suspect, letting wolves in to throw the whole city into chaos?
What? You claim the monsters flooding from the sewers had nothing to do with the suspect? Then say that again while staring at the pile of corpses left behind!
It was easy to abandon one’s principles, hard to hold onto them.
Rania would not abandon them, because she was that person’s student.
When she saw the white-hooded, white-masked figure appear at the tower top, Rania immediately called out, her voice calm though forced, her anger suppressed, refraining from striking first:
“Who are you really?”
“As a Hero, why do you keep pestering me—a girl who doesn’t even dare kill a chicken?” Vieya carelessly lifted off her mask, green eyes revealed without disguise as she stared at Rania. “Your battlefield isn’t here. Clinging to me is meaningless. Go where you belong.”
“Vieya!”
Rania recognized her. Aside from a little growth in size, her face was almost unchanged. She drew a deep breath. Even with the truth right before her eyes, she still struggled to believe that the gentle, soft-spoken, well-behaved little human girl she once knew could be the suspected mastermind standing here now.
“Was anything you said to me the truth?” Rania sneered. Since the other had revealed herself, she no longer needed to treat her as a friend.
From now on, she would treat her as a naturally evil high-tier monster. There was nothing left but to fight.
“Already losing your patience?” Vieya hugged the knight’s sword to her chest. “Didn’t your teacher teach you to face the unknown with reverence?”
“Shut up! You think you’re worthy to mention my teacher?!”
Rania’s face was like still water. Everyone knew who her teacher was. And Vieya’s words only proved she had been hiding something from the very start.
“Less talk, more action.”
Vieya smiled faintly, hugging the sword. “Come at me. Let me weigh your worth. I hope you can prove your teacher isn’t a failure who ruins disciples.”
As she spoke, Vieya loosened her body and spirit, openly displaying her level—66.
Not very high. Nearly every Tribunal knight present surpassed her in level. Purely by brute strength, she might not even beat the weakest of them in an arm-wrestle.
Yet that level only made Rania more cautious. Lilian had warned her—the intruder likely possessed more than two Authorities.
“My, so timid.” Vieya saw that showing her level had not inspired courage, but instead greater wariness. She sighed, disappointed.
“Is your teacher a mouse? To produce such a little mouse like you? Hah, or maybe you’re all one nest of mice?”
A hush fell over the tower base. The heavy pressure lifted—only to be replaced by a killing intent ten times greater, surging from Rania.
The Tribunal knights uneasily stepped back half a pace, clearing her ample space to fight.
Rania crouched slowly, the monstrous scythe tilting behind her, her gaze fixed upon the white figure above the tower like a tiger ready to spring. freeweɓnovēl.coɱ
“Then, Miss Vieya, who so loves to hide behind masks—witness my resolve!”
