Ch.24Humanoid Demon – 2

“Kuhuhuhuhuh. Looks like you’re out of stamina now. I’ll make sure you die as painfully as possible.”

Only after nearly ten seconds of delay did Scarface cackle as he saw the arm clinging to his shoulder. It was a trick he’d been using for ages, but it was always effective.

It was extremely well-known that regenerative monsters or the rare individuals with super-regeneration abilities first show delayed physical recovery when their stamina runs low.

Of course, this didn’t apply to me, but I’d had quite a bit of fun exploiting that stereotype.

When exchanging attacks in the later stages of a fight, I would deliberately delay my healing, making them mistakenly believe my stamina was depleted.

Then, to finish me off for good, they would gather every last bit of their strength and try to kill me with what they considered their ultimate moves.

Unless they were at Charlotte or Serena’s level, using ultimate techniques required significant power buildup.

This naturally created openings, but since they believed my stamina was nearly gone and there was no one else around to attack them, they recklessly made such stupid moves.

Well, what happened afterward was predictable.

“…You, who made you like this?”

“Does a soon-to-be-dead person need to know that?”

This isn’t working. I deliberately spoke while panting, but he wasn’t as arrogant or brainless as I’d hoped.

By this point, he already saw me as someone who would die anyway, and there were surprisingly many empty-headed people who would fall into unnecessary superiority complexes and spill all their secrets.

But he wasn’t that type.

The plan was useless now. I’d spent all this time letting him hit me as he pleased while pretending to be on the verge of death, but I never imagined he wouldn’t be the type to brag to an opponent on the brink of death.

Considering how he’d fallen for simple provocations earlier, I thought it was a strategy worth trying, but I was wrong. It was quite deflating to see all my efforts go to waste.

Time to change tactics, even if I’m not particularly thrilled about it.

A heavy foot pressed down on my stomach. Everything inside screamed in protest. I made a show of grabbing his ankle and trying to push it away in resistance. The sneer on his face deepened.

“What a pathetic attempt.”

The pressure on my stomach intensified. I was certain something inside had been crushed. Only when my stomach was compressed to the point where it nearly touched my back did the foot stop moving.

I delayed my regeneration slightly. If the foot’s position returned to normal immediately, he might become suspicious.

Eight seconds. Seemingly trying to deplete as much of my remaining regenerative ability as possible, he twisted his foot around, tearing even my skin.

Nine seconds. Something mushy protruded between the claws pressing down on my mangled stomach.

Ten seconds. The healing delay time reached its limit.

Whatever was between the claws went back into my stomach. The torn skin merged together, and my compressed abdomen, which had been nearly touching my back, regained its original volume, pushing up the foot that was crushing me.

Scarface smirked as he watched me groan in pain.

“First I’ll rip out that damn tongue of yours, then gouge out your eyes. Don’t die before I get to enjoy myself, alright?”

As he slightly curled his fingers, his already long claws grew even longer. It seemed he was about to start the torture.

Naturally, I had no intention whatsoever of enduring such treatment.

I’d been taking all his attacks until now hoping to extract some information, but since the plan had become useless, I had no more time to waste on this guy.

“Enjoy? You’re the one who’s going to die, not me.”

“Die? Me? Khahah! What nonsense you spout! Starting to get scared now? How could someone like you kill me!”

“Me killing you? That’s a strange thing to say. You seem to be under some serious misapprehension, but I never said I could kill you.”

The eight eyeballs rolled around in all directions, scanning the surroundings. Since I was acting so confident, he probably thought I had something else hidden.

I do have something hidden. I’m about to call it over.

I took a deep breath. Tensing my stomach, I looked up at the sky. Then I shouted with all my might.

“Serenaaaaaaa!”

A moment of silence followed. Scarface’s gaze focused on me. The sight of four pairs of eyes, which had been constantly looking everywhere at once, now simultaneously fixed on one spot was quite a spectacle.

Scarface’s reaction was understandable. As far as he knew, there was only one person named Serena in this city.

“You bastard, what are you—”

Scarface couldn’t finish his sentence. The eyeballs that had been looking at me were now directed just above my head.

A shadow was cast. With each approaching footstep growing louder, terror froze in his eyes.

In my human days, I might not have noticed. But now, being no longer human, with the animalistic senses of a monster fully intact, he instinctively felt fear.

“You called, my lord.”

“You came earlier than I expected, Serena.”

“I only regret not arriving sooner. But, what is that?”

Though she referred to it as “that,” the subject was clearly Scarface, who had his foot on my body.

“Hmm… probably the culprit. Ah, since he’s no longer human, maybe ‘culprit’ isn’t quite right. Let’s just call him the source of trouble.”

“Understood.”

The sound of Serena drawing World Eater rang out.

Scarface let out a monstrous cry in an attempt to intimidate, but ironically, it was the one making the noise who was backing away cautiously.

Still lying on the ground, I tilted my head back and turned sideways to look at Serena. With World Eater in one hand and an expressionless face as she approached, Serena was fear incarnate.

The next moment, Serena was standing behind Scarface.

When the human who had been walking toward him from the front disappeared, the eight eyeballs rotated faster, then he jumped and turned around, sensing the killing intent right behind him.

Or rather, it would be more accurate to say he tried to turn around. He stopped moving and lowered his head.

It was because his right arm had been severed.

The cut was so clean that even he didn’t understand the situation for a moment.

The eight eyeballs busily alternated between looking at the right arm on the ground and the shoulder where it had been attached just moments ago.

Just as he finally grasped what had happened and was about to scream, his lower body collapsed. Scarface’s lower half was being chopped into hundreds of small cube-shaped pieces.

His body wobbled in the air after losing half of itself, but soon the remaining upper body met the same fate.

Having absurdly lost both upper and lower body, Scarface seemed to want to say something as his mouth gaped open and closed.

But no sound came out. Of course, with his throat cleanly severed, his vocal cords were gone.

The bodiless head rolled helplessly on the ground. The eyeballs continued to rotate ceaselessly, suggesting he was still alive in that state.

A mixture of blood and saliva dripped between his teeth. A lone right arm remained next to a tower of hundreds of blood-soaked cubes.

Serena sheathed World Eater. A small metallic click sounded.

“Any residual mana?”

“None detected, my lord.”

The biggest difference between ordinary monsters and regenerative ones is the presence of residual mana after body parts are severed.

If residual mana is detected in the severed body parts, it’s a regenerative monster; if not, it’s an ordinary monster.

Since Serena answered that she couldn’t sense any residual mana from the severed right arm or the diced cubes, it meant Scarface wasn’t a regenerative monster.

“Why did you leave the right arm?”

“Shouldn’t we show evidence of the monster’s appearance to the lord of this place?”

“The head would be sufficient evidence, wouldn’t it?”

“I presumed you might need the head for something, my lord.”

“You can read minds too? How impressive.”

“You flatter me.”

…I was just making a light joke.

Shouldn’t she have said something like, “I just noticed from your expression,” or “I guessed based on your past actions”?

Why did she say “You flatter me”? Could she actually read minds?

I shook my head to clear away the ominous thought. It’s just an unfounded suspicion. Come to think of it, when I met Serena again after eight years, I made a light joke then too and got an unexpectedly serious response.

I pushed aside the blood-red cubes scattered over my legs and abdomen and stood up.

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to get up after lying down since coming to this city. Serena approached from the side and dusted off the dirt on my clothes.

“Could you pick that up for me, Serena? Oh, and that right arm over there too.”

“To headquarters?”

Serena strode over and picked up Scarface’s head in one hand and the right arm in the other.

The sight of just the head, still alive and rolling its eyeballs around while being held, was quite pitiful. It was impressive that it was still alive in that state.

Most monsters die when their heads are severed. While there are monsters that can rampage without heads, they aren’t that common. As far as I know, there are only about ten types.

Usually, they either have skin too tough to be cut by blades from the start, or they have such incredible healing abilities that they reattach their heads before they’re completely severed.

The fact that he didn’t die despite having his head cut off meant he belonged to one of those rare types, but he faced the wrong opponent.

Serena’s face, as she stood beside me holding the arm and head, showed no trace of curiosity. It was as if she already knew what I needed the head for.

“Serena.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Aren’t you curious about why I need that head?”

“I dare not presume to guess at your grand plans, my lord. The chivalry I pursue is merely to be a weapon in your hands. What use is it for a wielded weapon to have thoughts of its own?”

“…”

So it wasn’t that she knew what I would use the head for; she simply wasn’t curious at all.

Among the three I’m currently involved with, Serena is probably the most passive.

Charlotte goes without saying, and even Christine, despite her severely limited scope and problematic methods, acts proactively.

But Serena was different.

If I ordered her to stand here, she would truly stand in this spot for 10 or 20 years until another order came.

No matter how reckless my commands might be, she would blame herself for failing to carry them out, never blaming me for giving impossible orders.

Even after being separated for eight years, she had remained anxiously in the Royal Knights because I had ordered her to stay there, only coming to find me thanks to the special circumstance of the lord’s request for help due to a dragon’s appearance.

If the dragon hadn’t appeared and the lord hadn’t requested help, she would have remained holed up in the palace until I came looking for her, no matter how much time passed.

Of course, I had no intention of blaming Serena for this. Thanks to that personality, she was the most serious about ending my immortality.

Christine is just as serious as Serena, but her methods are quite misguided, and I don’t understand what human sacrifices have to do with anything. As for Charlotte, I’m not even sure if she’s been doing research for my sake recently.

Looking at it this way, Serena seems the most normal of the three.

Sometimes she seems to get excited and inflict wounds on my body when overcome by desire, but that’s within an understandable range.

When you live as long as I have, you meet so many crazy people that this level of behavior still counts as normal.

“My, my lord?! Why suddenly…”

“Hmm? It’s nothing. I just thought you were admirable.”

When I patted Serena’s head a couple of times, she immediately reacted with surprise. Her cheeks were even flushed.

Serena was also the only one who would get embarrassed when I approached her first. The other two would take it as permission to proceed with whatever they had in mind if I made the first move.

Caught off guard, Serena followed me with flushed cheeks and her head bowed, and I didn’t initiate conversation with the embarrassed Serena, so silence prevailed for a while.

Well, the main reason we could be quiet was that there was no one else around.

Despite the commotion on the main street, the surroundings remained quiet. It felt as if everyone in the city had disappeared.

If there had been people nearby, Serena would have been acting as Serena Elizabeth, the First Captain of the Royal Knights, not this bashful woman, and I too would have been playing the role of Nameless, the lowest-ranked adventurer.

Serena hated it when people spoke informally to me, but what could I do?

“Did you hear about the cause?”

It was an abrupt question without context, but Serena seemed to understand my intent and immediately answered.

“Yes, I did.”

“From the lord? Or from the knight beside him?”

“I heard it directly from the lord. He had regained consciousness. His complexion was still a bit pale, though.”

“That’s a relief that he’s awake. So, what happened?”

“Well… it’s a bit complicated to explain.”

“Complicated? How so?”

The appearance of a humanoid monster with intelligence, understanding of language, and the ability to speak human language was certainly an event that could be considered complicated.

It was serious enough that a direct report to the palace via teleportation gate wouldn’t have been surprising.

However, up until the very moment I arrived in the city and went around assessing the situation, Scarface had maintained a human appearance.

Even during our first encounter, when he ambushed me and threw me into a nearby house, he was in human form.

In other words, until he was caught in the magic from the scroll I activated and revealed his monster form, he was simply an ill-tempered high-ranked adventurer.

If the lord had known Scarface’s true identity, he would have requested Serena to eliminate him as soon as she arrived at the mansion, and it wouldn’t have taken long to sever his head.

Even though it was a weaker version, he had survived the Purgatory magic at close range, so he probably wouldn’t have died just from having his head cut off, but given Serena’s personality, she wouldn’t have left Scarface alone.

So what was the problem? I stopped walking and waited for Serena’s next words. She continued calmly.

“I’ll tell you the conclusion. There was a civil war in the city.”

Indeed. That’s quite complicated.