Good Friends (6)

“Lena. Traps alone can’t perfectly protect a base. It’s the meticulous design that deceives them that’s the pinnacle of a secret base.”

Lena knew this voice. She remembered that laugh and vivacious movement too. His name was Parsus. He was the person in charge of accounting and trap setting in the Black Society, and all requests passed through his hands before being distributed to members.

He wasn’t particularly skilled at infiltration like other assassins, but he was good at gathering information due to his wide network of connections and had a genius-level ability in trap creation and design. He made great contributions to the Black Society in evading the guards’ pursuit or wiping out avengers without casualties.

“…What is this place? What kind of trap have you set?”

Lena asked sharply while drawing her dagger. Even in the darkness, Parsus’s eyes seemed to see her dagger clearly. In the gray-tinted world, Lena could see Parsus startling and stepping back.

He showed his palms to Lena and said:

“Don’t worry. The traps you’re concerned about aren’t here because this isn’t the Black Society’s secret base to begin with. The other Black Society members left here long ago. I’m the only one from the Black Society here.”

Lena didn’t believe his words. Parsus had always enjoyed teasing Lena with lies. The most malicious prank was when he made earrings that dissolved in the air on their own for her birthday and teased her.

There were also times when he surprised her with toys like jack-in-the-boxes or installed prank traps on Lena’s door, leaving her covered in mud.

“Don’t lie. What are you up to?”

Parsus gave a strange smile at Lena’s words. That warm smile, like a father smiling at his child, was the expression he always made when Lena was about to get angry. Lena had never been able to overcome that expression.

That’s the kind of man Parsus was.

Strict yet playful, while also taking care of the Black Society members.

Lena recalled Parsus encouraging her when she failed her first mission, saying he had given her the wrong route. She remembered Parsus casually handing her a box when she was excited after succeeding in a proper mission. Inside the box, which she had opened carefully thinking it was another prank, was

A cake with the words [Congratulations on truly becoming part of our family. Lena.]

Family.

Even then, Lena disliked how the resonance of the word ‘family’ felt cringeworthy and awkward. She had consciously tried not to use the word family, but at some point, she found herself saying that the Black Society people were like family.

“What are you up to, I said!”

Recalling that memory, Lena shouted even louder. Parsus was startled by Lena’s voice but didn’t back down. An emotionally agitated assassin wasn’t scary.

“Lena. There might have been… some misunderstandings between us, but the boss’s and our intentions haven’t changed. Join us again.”

Lena’s eyes wavered for a moment. Parsus’s proposal was so unexpected. Even though several people had already died at her and the hero’s party’s hands, Parsus was still talking about family.

“No.”

But that conversation was already too late from the moment Parsus sided with the demons.

Lena had no intention of negotiating such a conversation. She extended her hand holding the dagger forward and carefully lowered her body.

Lena didn’t let her guard down even though her opponent was the weak Parsus. The fact that he confronted her one-on-one meant he had something he was relying on.

That’s why Lena, while exuding killing intent, couldn’t easily approach. Her opponent was Parsus, the genius of trap design. She didn’t know what kind of tricks he might have hidden in this open space to torment her. In this situation where she could neither advance nor retreat, Lena wore an unpleasant expression.

Parsus had the initiative.

Seeing that Lena couldn’t make a move, Parsus started talking with a warm smile.

“You said you’d kill me, but you can’t easily make a move. Right? Well, since it’s come to this. Let me tell you an old story. Lena. You’ve probably thought all this time that your parents abandoned you, but that’s not actually the case.”

Lena felt her body stiffen as she heard those words. Although she had never openly expressed curiosity about it, family was one of the things Lena lacked.

“Your parents were murdered.”

Lena blinked, trying to understand what she had just heard.

---

A faint light began to spread through the cave. As the people holding weapons manipulated something, torches all around automatically began to light up. Ashuria frowned at the sudden bright light but didn’t forget to stay alert to her surroundings.

But the creatures only writhed and swung their weapons in the air, not directly attacking Ashuria. They were just staring straight at Ashuria, burning with hatred.

Ashuria didn’t even recognize their faces.

The figures visible through her blurry vision were closer to creative objects than humans. Some had five arms, some had abnormally long legs and arms and moved with a swaying gait. Others had monstrous heads on human bodies.

“…Who are you?”

Ashuria felt cold sweat running down her back. These weren’t human. But the monster with five arms, the monster with abnormally long limbs, and those with monstrous heads, they all clearly had some human form.

And the very fact that they were speaking to her gave Ashuria a strange sense of unease.

Why? What exactly was making her so anxious?

A man with a monstrous face tilted his head. He was monstrous only above the shoulders, with strange flesh stuck on like strawberries on top of a cake.

“Who, are, we, you, ask?”

He pronounced each syllable clearly. And following the monster’s words, another monster opened its mouth. It was a woman whose arms and legs were so long that her weapon-holding hands swayed as if dancing.

“We are people who have decided to dedicate our lives to the demons.”

A man with five arms shouted.

“Do you want to call us traitors! Do you want to insult us for not following you!”

Ashuria frowned. She felt she should say something, but no voice came out. Her intuition was warning her.

That she was seeing something she shouldn’t see, hearing something she shouldn’t hear.

“You claimed to save the world grandly under the hero’s name, but in the end, you don’t care about us ignorant country folk!”

Stories that would have been better left unknown were spreading here.

“The church called us heretics and killed our families! They stole our property, insulted us as devil worshippers, and spat on us! The heresy inquisitors burned and killed my family! No one would listen to us! Only the demons! Reached out to us!”

“That, that’s…”

Ashuria’s face turned pale. She shook her head and took a deep breath.

And she repeated to herself.

This is a lie.

This is a lie.

Hadn’t she seen it herself while working as a heresy inquisitor?

That it was being operated cleanly.

Surely.

---

“What do you mean?”

Lena’s voice sank. Her emotionless voice seemed to make Parsus feel uneasy. He naturally took a step back and said.

“We’re not the only humans who have turned to the demon side. There were traitors among the nobles, and traitors among farmers and commoners too. While talking to these converts, I was able to obtain one interesting piece of information. It was from a man who worked as a servant for a rural noble, who wept bitterly when the demons said they would avenge him.”

Parsus stretched out his hand. Covering his face dramatically with that hand, Parsus let out a deep sigh and said.

“The story I heard from him was horrific. He said that a neighboring lord who coveted the noble’s wealth colluded with the church to falsely accuse him of being a devil worshipper. The noble was dragged away by investigators without even being able to defend himself, and under severe torture, he ‘confessed’ the ‘truth’. This noble, who had committed unspeakable, filthy sins, was immediately burned at the stake, and his family fell from grace and scattered.”

Parsus’s hand pointed at Lena.

“The noble had a daughter, and the servant said she was a girl with orange hair and green eyes, and was 4 years old at the time of the incident.”

“…H-how can you prove that’s me? It might not be. I don’t even have memories from my childhood!”

Lena shouted. It was true that she had no memories. Her first memory was wandering the slums of the capital when she was very young.

No memories.

Perhaps Parsus’s story might be true.

The fact that she had no memories made her more agitated by the story Parsus was telling.

Parsus said:

“Lena.”

And that single word made Lena even more confused.