Linea (1)

Now that things have happened, there’s no time to just sit back and observe the situation.

The destination is House Spirin’s annex. Whether I run on foot or take a carriage, it would take about the same time.

So the method I chose.

“Let’s go, Titan.”

“How insolent to ride on a king’s back.”

I attach chains to Titan’s body, which possesses overwhelming physical abilities, and hang on.

His mobility is so fast it far surpasses even an ordinary carriage going at full speed. Moreover, when he starts running, people naturally clear the way.

“Are you complaining about it?”

“No, just hang on tight.”

Though Titan knew he was being treated like a mode of transportation, he laughed it off.

He’s the type to value his own authority, but he can consider human lives more important than that. He truly has the qualifications of a king.

How else would he even take the initiative to lead people and move?

“Give me directions.”

“First, run straight ahead.”

Thud!

Every time Titan strikes the ground, the paved road cracks and scatters fragments. At that earthquake-like rumbling, carriages moving in the middle of the road gently turn their reins toward the edges.

His movements are more agile than they look, requiring all my strength just to hang on. If I hadn’t secured chains on his shoulders to support my body beforehand, I would have been thrown off long ago.

“I see something.”

“There’s a crowd gathered. Can’t see well, what should we do?”

“Uwooooooooooh!!”

At my words, Titan lets out a roar as if there’s no need to think about it.

At that, the gathered crowd scatters in panic, creating quite a scene.

“…That’s certainly effective.”

“Hehe.”

This guy now knows how he appears to people.

Far from being displeased by it, seeing him use it like this shows he’s actually quite shrewd in his own way.

They say genius and foolishness are separated by a paper-thin line, and he demonstrates that perfectly.

Screech!

After driving away most of the people and scraping to a stop, Titan narrows his eyes as he looks ahead.

“…”

A group quietly placing their hands on their sword hilts.

Surprisingly, the imperial knights had already arrived.

If that’s the case, then whatever happened must have happened quite a while ago.

“One moment.”

Just as an ominous atmosphere starts brewing between Titan and the knights.

I jump down from Titan’s back to mediate between both sides, blocking them simultaneously.

At that judgment, Titan, who had been standing with his arms spread and eyes narrowed, shrugs and folds his arms.

In response, the knights also withdraw their murderous aura and look at me.

Each one a powerful warrior approaching master level. Though not quite the imperial knights, they’re an organization of comparable standing.

“Would you identify yourself?”

The atmosphere is closer to that of a guard force. I suppose in the imperial capital, they can even use knights as security guards.

“I am Lost, a priest of the Pantheon Temple. Would it be alright if I examined the scene briefly?”

“…”

I ask while pointing at the bloodstains barely visible between the knights’ ranks.

The knight at the front seemed to contemplate as he looked me up and down.

“Would this serve as proof?”

Before the knight could speak, I manifest holy power first.

The knights flinch at the brilliant form of an inverted cross.

“Go ahead and verify.”

The knight who had been blocking me steps back hesitantly to clear the way, and following his lead, the other knights also move aside to reveal the scene.

This is the perception of heresy inquisitors. Organizations with any connection typically find it unsettling to get involved with the temple’s cleanup crew.

Though it makes it easy to obtain cooperation… it’s difficult to win their hearts.

“As expected…”

The scene before my eyes is a field of mushrooms centered around a purple flower.

It appears as if the mushrooms grew under the influence of the purple flower.

Though the reality is the opposite, anyone would naturally have their attention drawn to such a large and magnificent flower.

“If I may, Inquisitor. No demonic energy was detected.”

“I can see that. But do you think all half-demons only commit crimes using demonic energy?”

“…I couldn’t say for certain.”

“Yes, though it’s quite rare for those bloodthirsty madmen to refrain from wielding the power in their hands… it’s not unheard of.”

Spore Witch, Margaret.

As one of the Blades of Calamity, she was the perpetrator of a mass slaughter that prevented humans from passing through forests in the past.

She had hidden her identity for a long, terribly long time, and the reason for this could only be understood after incidents occurred.

“I know of a half-demon who uses methods like this. It corresponds to unidentified criminal FM-233 who is currently wanted.”

“…May I check that for a moment?”

“Go ahead. As I said, I’ll examine the scene.”

At the knight’s gesture, another knight begins searching through the luggage strapped to their horse. They probably carry a list of wanted criminals.

After briefly confirming that with a sidelong glance, I immediately return to examining the scene.

“Nothing special about their status.”

Based on their clothing and still intact skin, most of the victims appear to be commoners.

“No apparent connection either.”

There’s no obvious reason why it had to be these people.

In other words, anyone would have done. This is closer to being a show for display.

“Were there any unusual occurrences at the scene? Did anyone flee?”

“…Now that you mention it, there were witness reports of a red-haired girl who jumped up through the crowd to check the scene before quickly running away.”

“I see.”

At those words, I begin directly examining the corpses with my hands.

The knight standing beside me frowns as if nauseated.

Seems he’s a young master who grew up pampered, usually having subordinates do such things. Can’t expect much help.

So I continue sorting through the corpse-covered mushrooms alone.

“Two adult males and one female. Three boys who appear to be in their teens. And…”

A lone arm without an owner.

The arm, estimated to be from a middle-aged man wearing a distinctive bracelet, was conspicuously protruding among the corpses.

Thinking it was a bracelet I’d seen somewhere before, combined with the witness testimony, led to an unexpected conclusion.

“…”

Shade was hit.

This is his arm, and Mar must have discovered this first.

I immediately turn to check the surroundings. With darkness starting to fall, it seemed difficult to find anything.

“…”

Slash!

I open my palm. Immediately, a cross-shaped wound forms and blood begins beading up to drip to the ground.

Using holy power that can be deployed directly from within my body, I add the power of sacred blood to deploy holy magic.

Flash!

Baldr’s Radiance, borrowed in exchange for holy power and sacred blood.

The street that had been shrouded in darkness transforms into daylight as it illuminates the surroundings.

“What in the…”

I ignore the knight who had been watching me like a guard muttering as if this was impossible, and turn my head.

The situation continued from here.

Right now, what’s important is calmly finding clues. I slowly look around with a wide field of view like that.

“…Found it.”

Traces remaining in shaded areas.

I immediately approach something rotted and decayed beyond recognition in that direction.

Looking closely at the rotted and decayed material, there was something that had risen like foam.

Spores.

“Titan, this isn’t the place. We’ve been led on. I’ll point out the direction, so we should move immediately.”

I call Titan over and immediately place my foot on his back like before.

After looping chains around both his shoulders like reins and gripping them tight, I lean my body down as much as possible.

“First, into this alley.”

Boom!

Titan launches the moment my direction comes down. The knights watching from behind wore dumbfounded expressions, but who cares.

They’ll keep their mouths shut anyway once they discover the bounty amount set for the Spore Witch.

“Jump over the building on the left here.”

I try to narrow down the direction of movement while Baldr’s Radiance remains.

We dash between buildings.

“The next trace is… damn it.”

As time passes, the traces left by the Spore Witch become harder to see.

It was probably left behind just to lure Mar in the first place, so it wouldn’t remain long. I’m tracking traces of traces that have already disappeared.

“Is there really need to be so anxious? That kid’s quite wise, even if not as much as me.”

“No, you still don’t understand Linea’s nature well.”

With this type of trap, Mar, who still struggles with emotional control, would have no choice but to take the bait. And Linea isn’t the type to leave Mar alone.

She definitely would have followed, and will end up confronting the Spore Witch.

And by that time, Mar will likely be incapacitated.

When that happens, there’s only one action Linea will take.

“Linea won’t let Mar die.”

“Being righteous is a good thing.”

“If only that were the case… but the reality is a bit different.”

Linea fundamentally doesn’t step forward. She always stays back, hiding her abilities. Even from us who have been together for over a year.

But there are times when someone like her reveals herself without hiding.

When someone is in danger. She throws herself in without hesitation.

Regardless of who it is.

“The important thing is, she doesn’t try to find a method first – she throws her body in to get herself hurt.”

Linea is certainly a good person. That’s why she hates seeing others get hurt and stands in the way regardless of means when someone is in mortal danger.

Her own life isn’t part of that process.

She never puts her own life on the scales.

It was the same when infiltrating the Ryan barony, when protecting Geppetto in Nidavellir, and even in Rubia where she exposed her back defenseless.

With that brilliant mind of hers, she simply doesn’t factor in her own injuries.

I remember before my regression.

Her, alone in a small hospital where no one visited, hanging herself.

I remember that scene.

I remember the contents of the letter where the tear-stained girl cursed the world.

A girl who hated the world and herself, but didn’t hate others.

An idiot with such low self-esteem she couldn’t even think of such things.

“That idiot lives seeking a way to die.”

The lonely girl who had been constantly rejected by those around her could only find her value in such ways.

*     *     *

When was it? There was a time when Linea’s heart had become lighter.

-I don’t know what problems you hold, Linea.

At her most desperate moment. When she realized what she had been searching for was simply the most special thing in this world, and she was still just an ugly being, she crumbled.

-But isn’t it okay to close your eyes for a moment?

She told Linea it was fine to turn her eyes away from the truth.

If she hid her ugliness until the end for a moment’s happiness.

-For the happiness of now. If you become happy and happy like that, when you look back later, maybe the worries you held will turn out to be nothing.

Maybe she could become happy.

Maybe she could think her ugliness was actually nothing.

The person who made her suppress emotions that burst forth like that.

‘Revenna. Seems it’s still not possible.’

She had doubted herself all her life.

The lines she saw that harmed people seemed to represent her very essence.

So infinitely ugly and horrible. She thought everything was her fault.

She knew infinitely simple ways to kill people.

Like breathing, vital points touched her eyes. Everyone treated her as strange and turned their eyes away as if she were some kind of monster.

No. It couldn’t be. She tried to push herself like that, but actually, she knew too.

“Humans are quite troublesome, aren’t they?”

Linea muttered the words that Belial and Margaret had spoken.

But her conclusion was different from theirs.

“So… easily broken…”

Lines appeared in her eyes.

The red lines permeating the world everywhere become clearer under her dagger that has started containing aura.

The limit point of what she can do.

It becomes clearer the stronger her power grows.

That’s why her world was red.

Mar, who barely managed to cling to life, appears as nothing but something red.

“Hah… this is.”

Margaret muttered as if dumbfounded. Linea stands in the middle of Margaret’s domain.

Still, she couldn’t kill her.

Wearing a surgical mask and gloves, with her skin covered as much as possible. She was enduring Margaret’s powerful spore poison while standing.

Why couldn’t Margaret do anything about someone like that and just leave her be?

No…

“You monster.”

Linea was slicing apart everything pressing down on her with just a single dagger that Mar had dropped.

“I suppose so. Maybe you’re right.”

Linea spoke with self-deprecation.

She was looking up at the sky while stepping on countless tree roots that had been torn to shreds at her feet.

The night sky is nice. At least there was no chance for red to seep in.

But her heart is different.

It must have already been torn to shreds and dyed a murky red.

“Even you, a half-demon, look at me with those eyes.”

Linea lowered her head and detected faint fear in Margaret’s eyes that were now wary of her.

At that clear fact, she could only whimper.