Ch.388I’ll Make You an Offer You Can’t Refuse.

The next morning, as I was preparing to depart for Panam at my residence, an unexpected visitor arrived.

“I don’t know how long it’s been since we last met. You’re really hard to find.”

A head shorter than me with lemon-colored hair. Ears that grew elongated to the sides.

The suffocating smell of alcohol that once surrounded her was gone, but how could I fail to recognize such distinctive features?

The fossil of the Special Building. A 15th-year student at the Academy. The woman who doesn’t know graduation.

Perneisia was standing right in front of me.

“Oh, Perneisia. What brings you here?”

I didn’t think we were particularly close enough to visit each other socially.

Have we even met four times until now?

“I want to make you an offer you can’t refuse.”

Perneisia smiled slyly as she uttered something outrageous.

“An offer I can’t refuse?”

She doesn’t understand how the world works.

There’s no such thing as an offer that can’t be refused. Except for my offers.

“Let’s say an offer you won’t want to refuse?”

Perneisia’s smile deepened.

It was pleasant to look at her smiling with that fairy-like beautiful face, but I couldn’t let my guard down.

According to Lacy, fairies only smile when they’re planning terrible torture and massacre.

She said if they start smiling, you should rip off their ears first and be on guard.

I stared at Perneisia’s twitching ears among her lemon-colored hair.

…Should I pull them off? They do look like they’d come off easily if I tugged.

“I don’t know what kind of offer makes you look so confident. I’ll hear you out though. Is it a long story?”

After some deliberation, I decided to postpone ripping off her ears.

I expanded my senses to scan the surroundings, and it didn’t seem like there were other fairies hiding nearby.

“If you save me, I’ll give you the opportunity to enslave all fairies. How about it? Doesn’t that tempt you?”

….

……

“…What?”

What kind of crazy talk is this? This isn’t something you say with a bright smile.

Her statement was so shocking that my brain momentarily froze.

“What… what nonsense is that?”

“Humans like to enslave fairies, don’t they? Even though only the exiles who’ve lost the World Tree’s blessing end up like that… wouldn’t it be interesting if all fairies suffered the same fate?”

No, I think that’s a bit insane.

What is this fairy planning? She was actually more normal when drunk.

As I was left speechless, Perneisia extended her hand toward me and smiled ominously.

“I can see it. The anger and destructive impulse filling your inner self. The endless hatred toward other races. The infinite hatred burning like flames. In other words, you and I are kindred spirits who desire the same thing.”

I don’t know what you think you saw, but it seems your alcohol-damaged brain is making you hallucinate.

I could only let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.

Perhaps mistaking my laughter as agreement, Perneisia narrowed her eyes and stepped closer.

As if asking me to take her outstretched hand.

“Come. Let’s burn the World Tree together.”

“…Burn the World Tree?”

That’s not something you should say out in the open.

Actually, it doesn’t seem like something that should come out of a fairy’s mouth at all.

She’s chosen the wrong person to talk to as well.

“Yes. If we turn the World Tree into firewood, all the blessings bestowed upon fairies will disappear. Then they’ll become slaves, unable to even resist.”

Certainly, she wasn’t wrong.

The strength of fairies comes from the blessing of their god, the World Tree.

A fairy who has lost the World Tree’s blessing, even the strongest of their race, is no more than a slightly agile knight.

If that were to be burned away, the fairy race would instantly tumble to the bottom of the food chain.

“Together with me, we’ll throw all fairies into the pit of hell. As long as they target humans, you, who claims to be a protector of humans, have no choice but to strike first before being struck, right?”

I don’t recall claiming to be that.

Perneisia’s proposal was so extreme, bordering on insanity, that I couldn’t find words to respond.

I thought she was just an alcoholic fairy, but why does she become a genocidal maniac that would shock even Hitler when sober?

Did fairies kill her parents or something?

“…Should I introduce you to Lacy? You two might get along well.”

“I’ll pass. That woman would probably want to burn me too.”

That does seem likely.

—-

After the shocking conversation, I finally calmed my bewildered mind and asked Perneisia for a detailed explanation.

I needed to understand why she was suddenly proposing fairy genocide.

“So… you betrayed and left Alvheim?”

“I didn’t betray them… they, those creatures, betrayed me, betrayed us.”

According to Perneisia, she was originally a fairy patrol officer and one of the main figures in a faction that sought to reform Alvheim’s outdated system.

However, their reform was suppressed by force from above and failed, and the surviving reformists all became worse than slaves.

The reason she had come to the Empire was also because she was sent as a spy, with other reform faction members held hostage.

“Then shouldn’t you not betray them? If Alvheim finds out, all the hostages will die.”

“Judging by the fact that I haven’t heard their voices for 15 years, they’re probably already dead or trapped in the World Tree’s roots, having their life force extracted until their lifespan ends.”

Perneisia seemed to have given up hope that her comrades were safe.

Anyway, Perneisia had been responsible for informing her homeland about the Empire’s information as a spy for fifteen years… but she says she never really did it properly.

Since they had no way to verify, she just half-assed it.

The reason fairies hadn’t attacked the Empire was also thanks to her slightly exaggerating my and the Empire’s strength when she reported back.

“But now they’re telling me to kidnap one of the Dwarf bloodline’s heirs and return. As if I’d follow such orders. It’s obvious they’ll dispose of me once I return to the homeland, saying I’ve served my purpose.”

So these pointy-eared bastards were trying to kidnap Asha.

I wonder if they would have ended up like a beehive if they tried. Considering how many machine guns she had in her workshop.

Of course, Perneisia says she didn’t follow those orders.

She just sent a letter agreeing and then left the Special Building, disappearing completely.

I suppose she couldn’t remain as a special admission student anymore once Alvheim ignored the Empire and attacked Himmel.

“Thanks to that, I have nowhere to go now. I thought about seeking refuge with Emperor Leopold… but I thought you might be better than him, so I came to you.”

Her condition was simple. To provide her with a sanctuary from fairy assassins who might come looking for her.

In return, she would guide me to the path leading from the Great Forest to the World Tree.

The condition itself wasn’t particularly difficult, so I accepted.

Providing a sanctuary would be as simple as sending her to the Golden Flower Palace.

Even fairy assassins would find it difficult to infiltrate a place where masters and high-level mages reside.

“Thank you for accepting. I feel relieved now.”

When I accepted her condition, Perneisia grinned and grabbed my hand, shaking it.

“I knew it, you want to exterminate fairies too? Looks like I’m a good judge of character.”

“Uh… yeah. If that’s what you think.”

No, you monster. Don’t smile at me like we share some kind of kinship.

Unlike you, I only want to exterminate evil ones who threaten peace.

—-

After the shocking conversation, I left the imperial territory wearing the cloak of concealment as Leopold had instructed beforehand.

I felt awkward without Durandal, which I always carried, and in everyday Empire-style clothes, but it couldn’t be helped.

Since I was going to commit assassination, I couldn’t wear my personal equipment.

It was better if my movement southward remained unknown as much as possible.

If Panam people had brains to think with, just the rumor of my southward movement would be enough for them to identify the assassin.

I traveled on horseback for three days.

Considering the horse’s stamina since I couldn’t replace it if it died.

[Quite leisurely, isn’t it? Sometimes traveling alone like this is nice.]

Come to think of it, it’s been a while since I’ve been out alone.

‘I wouldn’t call it leisurely. There are too many flies buzzing around.’

Complaining to Hersella, I catch a fleeing thief and tear him in half.

Blood and entrails pour out from between the torn surfaces. Like an overturned pot of stew.

[That too is part of the joy of travel, is it not?]

‘Is it…?’

It’s getting more annoying than fun.

Being a woman traveling alone in remote areas, the number of people who underestimate me and attack is countless.

Dismembering nearly fifty people a day means the smell of blood never leaves my hands.

I don’t even have the luxury of taking a leisurely bath.

“Aaaaargh! Someone please help! A demon, a demon is—!”

“Really, if you’re going to run away, you shouldn’t have attacked in the first place.”

After crushing a thief who was fleeing in tears with my Karma of Murder tentacles, I took out a cigarette from my pocket and looked around.

The ground was strewn with fragments of what used to be people, and severed heads were stuck on tree branches like fruit.

The stench of blood, entrails, and excrement permeated the forest that had turned into a scene from hell.

Though I couldn’t smell it at all.

[That mask is truly useful. I didn’t expect it to be this effective.]

‘Yeah. It works well.’

As Asha had guaranteed, the portable purification device performed beyond expectations.

I could still smell the forest’s fragrance, but not a hint of the stench.

I was curious about how it was structured to work so effectively.

—-

The next day, I finally made contact with the disguised merchant group that Leopold had arranged.

After washing my body in the makeshift bath they prepared, I boarded the cargo wagon heading to Panam.

They said the wagon floor had a double structure, and I just needed to hide inside when crossing the border.

When we approached the border and I got in, it was a bit tight and pressed against my chest, but it was bearable.

And so, crossing the border, I finally arrived in Panam.