Ch.130Interrogation

“Charlotte?”

At my bewildered voice, Charlotte met my gaze and flashed a sweet eye-smile. It was a complete 180 from the look she had been giving Serena.

Her eyes, curved like crescent moons, overflowed with affection for me, and her blood-red eyes dripped with honey.

Her radiant smile quivered longingly, as if she had so much to say.

“Though little time has passed since we parted, it felt as if a thousand years had gone by. Have you been well, my dear?”

“Well, I’m alive, so I guess that counts as being well. What about you? You said you were going to investigate that forest disappearance. Seems like you wrapped things up nicely. What was the cause?”

Charlotte’s face twisted into a sneer. It was an incredibly sharp reaction.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m sure you can guess what could have caused such an incident.”

The moment I saw that cutting response, I knew instantly. There were only two beings in this world who could elicit such a reaction from Charlotte.

But since one of them had been stuck to my side for over a week, there was only one option left.

“It was Christine.”

As if even verbally confirming my answer was distasteful, Charlotte nodded slightly with an irritated expression instead of speaking.

“Did you find out why she did it?”

That was the first question that came to mind after confirming Christine was responsible. The Christine I knew was far from the type to go around destroying things needlessly.

All her interests were focused solely on offering sacrifices and human tributes to me.

From Christine’s perspective, taking interest in anything unrelated to me without reason would be a blasphemous act.

The flipside was that her eyes would go completely crazy the moment she thought something had even the slightest connection to me, but as long as I stayed away from Christine, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Unless someone committed suicide by giving Christine’s figure a lustful look or voicing sexual harassment.

“All I discovered was that the culprit behind the destruction was that mad woman, and that holy power was used. Why that lunatic did what she did is hardly my domain, is it, my dear?”

Christine’s thoughts aren’t exactly my domain either. I smiled bitterly to myself.

At first, I had tried to stop the human sacrifices altogether, but when persuasion failed, the dramatic compromise we reached was a promise to use only criminals as offerings.

“Why didn’t you go to the palace first? We were about to head back too. We’ve finished everything we needed to do here anyway.”

“Seeing you standing before me unharmed despite having completed your task, it seems it was a failure after all.”

Charlotte knew why I had come here.

After hearing my reason for going to the magic tower, it was Charlotte who had told me the locations of criminals who could be sacrificed to a demon without much consequence, so it was only natural.

And as if she had predicted this outcome, she didn’t even blink at the sight of the vast wasteland having transformed into a ravine that used to be a wasteland.

She merely cast a contempt-filled gaze at Serena.

Noticing that look, I gestured to stop Serena who was about to flare up. I had no desire to see Serena and Charlotte get into a fight here.

“I didn’t expect much to begin with. Everything has failed so far, so why would this time be any different? If I could die, great. If not, I’d just count it as taking down some bandits. Though, I never imagined that so-called demon would stab me in the back.”

“What?”

Blood-red eyes flashed. Charlotte’s demeanor changed instantly. An icy chill enveloped the surroundings.

“That worthless demon dared to deceive you?”

“Strictly speaking, he didn’t deceive me. Like all demons, he just played word games. When I asked him to kill me, he said he’d take over my body and put me in a state no different from death.”

Charlotte’s face grew increasingly distorted as she listened to my explanation. Her expression suggested she would tear that demon to shreds if he appeared before her right now.

“You can relax your expression now, Charlotte. He’s already dead. Evaporated without a trace along with World Eater.”

At the mention of World Eater, Charlotte’s eyes moved to Serena’s waist.

Noticing the absence of the sword with the red jewel in its hilt that had always hung there, Charlotte’s eyes gleamed with interest.

“So you’ve bestowed a new weapon upon that beast?”

In typical Charlotte fashion, she had immediately deduced the sequence of events. I’m not the type to let Serena fight empty-handed.

Since the demon residing in World Eater had betrayed me, World Eater couldn’t be used anymore, so I would have had to give her a new sword.

Charlotte didn’t bother asking what new sword I had given Serena. Instead, she looked at me with a subtle gaze.

“I trust you have something for me as well, my dear.”

“For you, Charlotte? Why?”

“Do you truly not understand the reason?”

“…Because it’s unfair?”

“Correct.”

Charlotte nodded proudly. Watching this, Serena’s expression soured in real-time.

“I gave you a staff before, didn’t I?”

“That was to match the World Eater that beast possessed.”

Her logic was that since she received a staff and Serena received World Eater, those two were equivalent, but since Serena had been given something new, she should receive something new as well.

It was an argument bordering on unreasonable, but not one I could completely ignore.

Excluding Christine, who had completely walled herself off from the concept of fairness, there was an unspoken rule between Serena and Charlotte that whatever was given to one should be equal to what was given to the other.

Though not documented, it was a rule that would cause quite a headache if not strictly followed.

And the one to suffer that headache would naturally be me.

“Fine. I’ll pick something suitable for you later.”

“If it’s merely ‘suitable,’ I must decline, my dear. I have a specific item in mind.”

“What is it?”

“It must be the Dragon’s Ring, of course.”

The moment Charlotte uttered those words, I heard the ground cracking beside me.

I didn’t need to look to know what had happened. Serena must have barely managed to suppress her rage upon hearing the word “ring.”

Why, of all things, would she choose that? I glanced sideways at Serena.

As I expected, Serena was trembling, clutching a translucent Wind Shear in her right hand. She seemed to be debating whether to pounce right now or not.

The Dragon’s Ring would certainly suit Charlotte, but not in the way Serena was thinking.

Even when I gave her the staff before, she had tried to choose the Dragon’s Ring, but I had forced the staff on her, saying the ring was too much for her.

The bigger problem was that Charlotte would definitely wear that ring on the ring finger of her left hand. Serena knew very well what it meant to wear a ring on that finger.

Though Christine probably wouldn’t know.

“…Anything else?”

“Do you truly believe I need anything other than the Dragon’s Ring, my dear?”

That question required no thought. I shook my head.

For a magician of Charlotte’s caliber, who could turn thoughts into reality, there truly was nothing comparable to the Dragon’s Ring.

Things like staves that made magic more efficient or necklaces that sped up incantations were meaningless artifacts to Charlotte.

In the end, I had no real grounds to refuse.

“…I’ll try.”

When the affirmative answer left my lips, Charlotte broke into a radiant smile.

Then she grabbed my throat.

“Guk?!”

“My lord!”

I heard Serena’s shocked voice beside me, and Wind Shear was swung at tremendous speed. The slash was blocked by layers of defensive magic circles.

Serena could probably break through such defensive magic circles with a single blow if she went all out, but she seemed to be hesitating, not wanting to involve me in the attack.

My throat was crushed, and my neck bones shattered instantly. The thickness of my neck was reduced to almost half, and everything inside spilled out through my mouth.

The blood that gushed from my mouth soaked Charlotte’s hand and uniform sleeve, but she didn’t seem to mind at all.

Unable to withstand the pressure squeezing my throat, blood flowed not just from my mouth but also from my eyes, nose, and even ears.

“Now, let us get to the main point.”

My hyper-regeneration ability activated, and the blood that had been spilled into Charlotte’s hand flowed back into my mouth. The stains that had seeped into her uniform disappeared, and my neck bones and throat returned to their proper places.

The blood that had been unable to circulate and had rushed to my head stabilized, and my face, which had probably turned red, returned to its original color. The pressure I felt in my head eased slightly.

Soon after, Serena, with a face full of murderous intent, shattered the defensive magic circles. She was about to cut off Charlotte’s neck with Wind Shear when she froze at the question that followed.

“Have you been with another woman?”

“…What?”

My neck bones broke again. There was a cracking sound as even the spine connected to my neck bones was completely shattered. My lower body stiffened.

Charlotte tightened her grip and severed my neck. My headless body fell limply to the ground with a wet thud, and Charlotte’s face drew closer.

With a cold smile, the question continued.

“I am asking if you have been intimate with another woman, my dear.”