episode_0042

She smiled and covered my face with her index finger. She seemed confident in her skills.

Since she said she came from the top floor, there was no doubt about her skills.

“How about it, Iris? Do you want to learn swordsmanship?”

At that, Iris pursed her lips.

“No, thanks.”

“Huh? You don’t understand?”

Iris shook her head from side to side and slowly spat out a word.

“Sword.”

She doesn’t know the sword. Does that mean she doesn’t have a sword master? I thought, but after continuing to question her, I found out an amazing fact.

“Iris… You haven’t tried learning the sword, have you?”

At that, Iris nodded. Iris stumbled, saying that she first touched a sword in the arena.

“Wow…! Our Iris is a genius!”

As I praised Iris by patting her head, her cheeks turned red.

“Hehe, of course, my disciple!”

Bianca sparkled her eyes and hugged Iris. No, she tried to. The moment she tried to hug Iris, Iris swiftly left Bianca’s side like a cat and moved from my left to my right.

“This point is good too!”

Seeing Iris firmly attached to Bianca, a pleasant laughter flowed.

‘Even if the teacher and the disciple are tough right now, it seems like they can become good friends.’

Right now, Iris clings only to me, but someday, she will surely communicate and laugh happily with others.

To make that day come, it was good to have people like Bianca around.

Wow -..

While having such thoughts, a scream came in through the window. It sounded much quieter than the previous floor. It seemed like it had been magically processed.

“Oh, has it already gotten this late?”

Bianca clapped her hands and got up from her seat.

“I’ll leave for today since you don’t seem to like it. If you change your mind, be sure to let me know next time I come down occasionally!”

Bianca put on a charming smile and walked towards the door as if to say she was leaving. Iris and I saw Bianca off.

“Goodbye. Feel free to come anytime.”

“Thank you!”

Bianca left with a bright smile.

“She seems like a good person.”

“…”

Iris just looked at my face without much of a reaction.

Creak, thud.

The door closed, leaving only silence in the hallway.

***

“Heheh.”

Bianca walked down the splendid corridor with light steps, wearing a happy smile on her face. Her steps stopped in front of a beautifully patterned door.

Click.

Beyond the smoothly opened door, there awaited a splendid and cozy facility befitting the top floor of an arena, all without a sound.

Bianca hummed a tune as she entered the room and closed the door behind her. She passed through the spacious living room and entered a room where weapons were stored.

“This time, it’s definitely this one, right?”

She raised a sword similar to the one Iris had used. Reflecting her face on the sharp blade, she burst into laughter.

“You’ve never learned how to use a sword? Isn’t that the mark of a true genius?”

Bianca patted her cheek as if proud, causing the shadow to sway with her movement.

“If I’m this good without learning, imagine how skilled I’d be if I did learn. Ahh, I’m so excited.”

Bianca lightly swung the sword. Even in her playful swing, she exuded a captivating yet fearsome aura befitting a top-floor gladiator.

“It’s better to savor it after properly honing it, right? Or should I just swallow it right now? Hmm…”

Bianca stopped her swordplay, casually tossed the sword onto a rack, and pondered with her chin in her hand.

“I’d rather raise them to a level weaker than me and then devour them. It’s best to play it safe, isn’t it?”

As if in response to her words, the shadows split sharply in both directions. Amidst the split shadows, only an adult man’s forearm-sized sharp thorns densely grew.

Ssshh.

What was once a shadow gradually pierced through the ground and took shape. It looked like the form of a monster pulled from a sticky black swamp. Irregularly grown sharp thorns seemed to be attached to flesh that one couldn’t tell whose it was.

Krrrk, kehehek.

The monster’s voice, spat out as if boiling, would have been disgustingly unpleasant for anyone who heard it, but Bianca blushed as if she had heard the endearing cooing of a baby.

“Right? I’m smart after all!”

Bianca sang, saying, “This match will be effortless too!”

The highest power is only given to ten people. However, new slaves constantly come in, and there are countless challengers aiming for the top.

In this place where only the strong survive, Bianca had managed to survive for a very long time.

Unaware of any limits as she grew stronger without encountering anything like walls, Bianca was a formidable presence, adeptly handling dozens, even hundreds of weapons, preparing and responding in ways others found impossible.

Bianca had managed to secure a position in the sky above the sky, a place challengers dared not even consider.

However, she was called the “lazy genius.” She had never been seen practicing with a sword, always lounging around or walking with a man by her side.

Her ability to survive was entirely thanks to her shadow’s power. Her shadow possessed the ability to absorb and transmit the abilities of what it devoured to its owner.

She befriended capable slaves with a kind face, then devoured their abilities when they least expected it.

That was the secret to her sitting at the pinnacle of power.

“Hehe, should I bring her in as a concubine when my younger sister dies and I feel sad?”

The prey she was targeting this time were Iris and Lian. Iris was her prey, and she intended to make Lian her concubine.

“Well, it doesn’t matter since she’s practically no different from my younger sister, right?”

If she devoured Iris, all of Iris’s abilities would become hers, so she would be no different from Iris herself. She burst into laughter, unfolding the miraculous logic that she would soon learn firsthand that ‘eating recklessly leads to trouble,’ but for now, she was simply happy.

***

It had been a week since I had adapted to the new house.

After hearing from Juisuin that a new match had been arranged, I shouted, “Ah! That’s right!” and clapped my hands. I had completely forgotten about Gargantua.

After Juisuin left and told Iris that he would go to the bathroom, I headed to the restroom. Standing in front of the sink, I silently called out to Gargantua.

Shwoong.

A cluster of light gathered on the back of my hand, and a small crimson lump, no bigger than a fist, emerged. Soon, the light flowed down like liquid.

From within the lump, Gargantua appeared, now reduced to the size of a knife rather than a dagger. I was taken aback by how much smaller it looked compared to when I first saw it.

“Sa…ve me…”

Gargantua was speaking in the voice of a patient who was truly dying. I immediately lightly cut my wrist. It seemed somewhat self-harming, but it didn’t sting.

Chweup-.

Like a sponge absorbing water, blood seeped into the blade. After a second, the demon murmured in a dying voice.

“Is it… tasty?”

The blade trembled slightly against my lips as if coming to its senses. Then, it began to greedily suck up the blood.

“Ugh! This, this is…!!”

The sound of crying, even in a dignified tone, as if to show how hungry it is. Because the wound was shallow, the blood did not absorb properly. When I stirred the wounded area, the blood spurted out.

Uung-.

The blood that had shot up into the air was quickly sucked into the sword. Thanks to that, there was no dirt on the clothes.

[Heup -… Huh, haaak!]

Hearing a voice that seemed completely out of it made me feel a little sorry.

‘How hungry must the child have been.’

Looking at the foolish figure, I found myself treating the demon sword like a child.

The gushing blood was swallowed by the sword without leaving a single drop. Except for a few drops of blood that fell when the wound was first made, the floor was clean.

“Oh, there’s so much, eat slowly.”

I urged the demon sword, which was half crying like a grandson who had returned home after a long time, to eat without any hesitation. The demon sword sucked up the blood as if it were crazy.

So a while passed. The demon sword, which had roughly regained its original size, absorbed the blood and said,

“How could you leave me alone?!”