Chapter 16: Square 13: The Square Wound
Faced with this situation, I racked my brain desperately. That butler had said Elizabeth was level 5, so it would be fine. But looking at the results, was that really true? No question, this was an insane fight, but even to my untrained eye, Nest clearly had the upper hand. Something felt off. I’d assumed Nest was level 5 as well, but... I remembered a conversation I’d had with a guard back at the hospital.
(...What does it mean, the estimated level 5 written under the bounty amount here?)
(Estimated level is a measure of a person’s strength, compiled through statistics gathered by skilled figures around the town, based on estimates of destructive power, danger level, combat ability, influence, and so on...)
...Right, in other words, it was just an estimate. And from what I’d just seen, that woman was clearly stronger than Elizabeth, a level 5. Which meant Nest’s actual power went beyond what the estimate suggested.
"...Level 6. Someone capable of taking on an entire army alone."
To put it in familiar terms, something like Lu Bu from the Three Kingdoms. Not an opponent any normal human could beat. But Elizabeth was the only person I had left to rely on.
"I still have options left. Come, then, if you dare!!"
Elizabeth provoked Nest. She hadn’t given up on winning yet.
"...Elizabeth, I’m betting everything on whatever those options are."
Trusting that Elizabeth really did have some kind of plan, I pulled out my phone and started working the screen.
"Ufufu, well then, since you insist. Here I come..."
Nest was clearly going for the finishing blow. If an opening appeared, even for just an instant, that would be enough. Just hold on for one more strike, Elizabeth!!
Nest lowered her stance into something like a crouching start position. She was going to end this here. A moment of near silence. She could move at any second. A crushing tension filled the room.
The attack came in an instant. A charge straight ahead, an attack almost too simple. But because of the earlier feint, Elizabeth had been on guard in multiple directions, including behind her, and her reaction came a beat too late. An attack coming in a straight line, the shortest possible path, was harder to dodge than it looked. By the time Elizabeth reacted, it was already too close to avoid.
Sparks flashed through the room along with a loud clang of metal. The blade, which should have delivered a certain killing blow, was instead caught cleanly, sending a shudder through the air. Nest’s eyes went wide, an expression of disbelief.
"Too bad for you. My blade isn’t just the one, you know."
What Elizabeth held in her hand wasn’t a piece of debris, it was a parasol. The parasol that should have been broken had somehow become two, blocking Nest’s attack.
"Wha... debris turning into a parasol!?"
"Ohhohohoho, it’s a bit early to be surprised!"
"What?"
Elizabeth had happened to catch it, hidden by the clash of metal between parasol and curved blade, someone tossing a phone in through the window. She hadn’t known what exactly had been thrown, but she’d trusted there was a reason for it. Sliding across the floor, the phone’s screen displayed an alarm. And right now, that countdown hit zero!
"RADIO CALISTHENICS, PART ONE!!!"
A booming male voice blared out at full volume, and Nest whipped around toward the sound. Seizing the once in a lifetime opportunity, I slipped in through the window opposite from where I’d thrown the phone. Seeing this, Elizabeth clamped down hard on the curved blade with both parasols to keep Nest from pulling free.
"What... what is this? Is this your doing!?"
Caught in the middle of a life or death standoff, a deafening noise suddenly blaring out of nowhere, some mysterious magic from Elizabeth, Nest’s confusion had reached its peak. In a state like that, there was no way she could notice me moving in from behind. Carefully, but quickly, I closed in on Nest from behind. Even the sound of my footsteps on broken glass was drowned out completely by the calisthenics music. Masking the sound, throwing off her senses, I brought my hand close to the back of her head.
"Fufu, nothing’s happening, is it. In the end, it was just noise, nothing more than a shallow little prank, ufufu..."
I had already thought this through beforehand. The dice that appeared in my palm. What would happen if I pressed both hands against a wall and summoned the dice then? Would it fail to appear? Would it come out on the back of my hand instead? Or... At the perfect possible moment, I finally got my answer.
"Dice!!"
The instant I shouted it, no, the instant my hand touched her head, Nest had already let go of the curved blade. Twisting her neck around, her eyes locked onto me, pitch black, almost demonic. She raised her arm, fingers thrust forward as if to gouge out my eyes, and right then, blood sprayed from her.
"Gah..."
She collapsed the way someone might after being shot from a distance. From the round hole opened in her head, blood gushed out like a broken fire hydrant. Something square shaped was faintly visible in the wound. No question, it was the die. Nest’s body jerked repeatedly, a sound escaping her each time. The force of the bleeding pushed the die out, and it rolled across the floor. With the die gone, no longer plugging the hole in her head, the blood sprayed out even more violently. Nest had stopped breathing. Both Elizabeth and I were certain of that, without a doubt, but...
"Give me a break... seriously..."
"...What a monster."
Her body kept jerking every few seconds, and somehow she forced herself upright, bloodshot eyes wide open. She started walking, dragging her feet like something risen from the dead. Looking closely, her lips moved faintly, but the blaring calisthenics music drowned out whatever she was saying. She was clearly weakened, but there was still an oppressive presence about her, as if the smallest opening would get us killed. And more than anything, it was her eyes. No life in them, yet not the eyes of a corpse either, something like an emotionless killing machine, a fear with no warmth to it at all. Nest lowered her stance slightly and stopped moving.
"...Here she comes."
Tension shot through both of us. A wounded tiger’s next move could never be predicted. Unable to even blink, I swallowed hard.
Nest’s knee twitched. Or so it seemed, before her posture slowly sank lower and lower. And once her knees hit the floor and her body collapsed, that oppressive presence was gone completely. The force of the bleeding gradually faded, and her breathing stopped along with it. In that moment, Nest Darrich, who had carried herself with a strength worthy of a demon, reached the end of her life.
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