Leave a comment

I was trying to crawl out from under the lifeless Devil. Once its neck was cut halfway and it lost its strength, its body fell back on me as if to crush me. Its over-five-meter tall body had an equally big mass, so I was having a pretty hard time.

“Here.”
“Uh.”

Lyell came up to me and extended his hand. I was perplexed a bit, but Lyell already knew that I was reborn as a girl and that this was a disguise. The difference between this illusionary form and my real body has narrowed down considerably, but there was still some difference.

Lyell seemed to have sensed that too and had a complex expression.

“You still have no intention of showing us your real appearance?”
“I don’t.”
“Still, this appearance looks just like Nicole…”
“Of course it does. I modeled it after Maria, so it would naturally also look like her daughter who takes after her..”
“Even so, without the difference in eye color, you’re a spitting image of her… No, wait, Nicole’s a bit superior, I guess?”
“Hmph!”

He said something a little irritating, so I kicked up his crotch without warning. I don’t mean to brag, but it was a spectacular kick with no wasted movement. It landed right where I intended, making him fall forward. I had to give it to him for not fainting there.

Whatever the case, I was still a girl at present. I couldn’t feel good about having my looks compared unfavorably in my face. Even if the other party was my original body.

“The hell was that for! What if I can’t get it up anymore?!”
“You already have two daughters. It already served its function, didn’t it?”
“You fool, I still want two or three more! Maybe a boy too and marry you two.”
“Die.”

I mercilessly drove a kick in his back as he lay toppled.

At any rate, it wouldn’t be good to keep talking for too long or he might find out who I am by voice.

I stopped my attack for the time being, then dusted off my body and gazed towards the Devil Lyell defeated. Seeing the corpse that had its head pulverized with one stroke of his sword, I felt the difference in our strength.

“As expected.”
“Hmm?”
“I’m talking about you. Back then fighting to a draw was the most I could do.”

He managed to crush its head with practically no injury one-on-one. I could not imitate that at all.

“That was because of your support. Without it, I would’ve had a harder time. Managing to lop off its arm early on gave me a big advantage.”
“Really?”
“Really. Besides, haven’t you defeated one without an injury yourself? And I’ve continued training since then. Isn’t it a little, I don’t know… unfair to be comparing me to your former self?”

Lyell certainly kept training his skills since then. Moreover, he had maintained his prime body condition due to the God of Destruction’s medicine. He was probably not to be compared to his former self in terms of strength. So his objection was correct on that front.

If you were to ask me if I would’ve been able to obtain the same strength if I kept training as long as him, the answer would be no. However, it would just become an endless argument if I insisted on that, so I tried to turn away and promptly take my leave. Lyell stood up at that timing too.

But my body had been put under too much strain, so I ended up falling on my knees at that one step. Lyell gently stopped my fall. He was a gentleman when it came to these things.

“Whoops.”
“…Thanks.”

Bracing my weak knees, I somehow managed to support my body while clinging to Lyell’s arm. For a moment, we ended up in what looked like an embracing posture.

“So your body is an illusion, after all. But you’ve really become a woman, huh. And you have quite a rack there.”

At those words, I realized that my chest was hitting his elbow. I reflexively pushed his arm away and covered my chest. Touching them myself was nice, but having others touch them felt disgusting.

The last time I met Lyell as Reid, I was using Polymorph, so there was no problem with physical contact. But now I was using an illusion, so hidden in it was my real body.

Haumea that I made through imagination and my current body had some subtle differences in stature. Those differences were apparent if you touched me.

“Stop that! Acting like that with Nicole’s appearance makes me feel hella guilty here!”
“Oh really now. I’ll be sure to tell that to Maria.”
“Please don’t. I’ll die.”

Lyell was speaking roughly but once Maria’s name got mentioned, he immediately started prostrating. Satisfied with his attitude, I decided to take my leave.

“Well then, later.”
“Wait, you’re going already? Come on. Let’s go have some booze.”
“I’m not so strong with alcohol to keep up with you.”

I approached Baa who was grinning towards us and nodded.

“Where’s he?”
“Headed to the Labyrinth’s direction. Would be pretty hard to find him if he entered it. The first floor has Slimes.”
“I see.”
“Who’s he?”

Lyell interjected into our conversation. He didn’t know about my battle with Kufar, so it was a natural reaction.

“I’m talking about the Slime Kufar. He has his human cunningness remaining so he’s a really nasty foe.”
“He was still alive?!”
“Looks like he entered the Labyrinth. It would be hard to tell him apart from the other Slimes, so it’s impossible to chase him.”

For the time being, he wouldn’t be able to do any more schemes if he left the town. And if he was inside the Labyrinth, Baa’s detection net should spot him. This guy was inhuman in more than one sense, so Kufar shouldn’t be able to escape his eyes.

It was extremely regretful that I failed to put an end to him, but if I managed to near-permanently stop his actions, that was a good enough result.

“That aside, I’m surprised you came to Berith.”
“Huh?!”

My legs suddenly stopped. I was currently supposed to be in the north. Yet I showed up here now, so it was certainly doubtful.

I looked towards Baa asking him to come up with some excuse, but he was holding his stomach and desperately enduring a laugh. This guy’s no good. He’s enjoying himself too much to help me out here.

“Uhh, well… Right, Finia. Cortina entrusted her to me.”
“Oh yeah, she did say something like that.”
“Yup yup, I had it quite tough.”
“Looks like you have troubles of your own. My daughter had a bad experience too. Fortunately, it ended well.”
“I-I see. You’ve had it tough too huh.”

I looked away while saying. I was the person concerned, so I felt quite shameless. I felt like I was doing a ridiculous monkey show here.

“I’m off then.”
“Okay, I should go check on Maria too.”
“Where is she?”
“She’s tending to the people who were hit by the Devils’ roars. There were some who started acting violently due to confusion.”
“Oh, so that happened. Okay, I’ll leave that to you then.”

The Devils’ roars had an intimidating effect, and it had spread quite far and wide. Lyell heard it and rushed here, but Maria who could dispel its effects was too busy to afford that.

At any rate, it would be bad to keep staying here any longer. I glanced at Baa, and then raised one hand and nodded at Lyell. Along with that, I teleported nearby the inn.