Eve waggled her slightly curved hand—shake, shake, shake. With this, the other person would like her. Because she had liked it.
But what surfaced belatedly was that she’d only come to like it after seeing it about ten times. Until then, if he’d taken just one more step closer, she had wanted to run.
If the other runs, you can’t catch them. Eve at least knew the assassin was faster than she was.
Thus a strange standoff persisted between the two.
"......."
"......."
If there was a relief, it was Balmung’s memory.
"Ah, you’re..."
Balmung subtly lowered the muzzle.
"You were with Professor Dante back then."
"??"
"What brings you here? I’m extremely on edge because I’m on my final mission right now. Today I accepted an assassination request from the Nibelung family, and I’m thinking of sniping them for the first time. It’s a meaningful kill for me."
"??"
"Anyway, it doesn’t look like you came to stop me, but I have no leeway to oblige you. If you have no business, please go."
The doberman jerked his head, eyes locking on the target. Far below that cliff. Toward some building three thousand meters away.
The elephant standing blankly glanced that way, then approached Balmung again.
Why?
Because approaching is how you become friends.
...Probably.
"......."
"......."
But if you rush in all at once, they’ll want to run away like she did.
Eve tiptoed closer.
The way the human did.
Tiptoe... tiptoe...
An ill-tempered pair of eyes flicked back to look at her.
"Ah."
",,,??"
"What are you doing."
"??,,,?,,;;"
"I said go, didn’t I?"
Eeve tilted her head. But it was clearly a different tilt from when she usually tilted because she didn’t understand.
Tilt...!!
When she hesitated like that, Balmung returned his focus to the target. Then Eve trotted closer again.
If Balmung started to turn around, she stopped with a smooth slide.
When he brought his head back to the scope, tiptoe...
"Honestly, what."
Balmung snapped his head around and bristled, but Eve had already turned her head and was whistling—only feeling the vibration of her lips.
"What is this supposed to be? Do I sound like I’m joking?"
"......."
At this point he would usually have attacked at once, but Balmung shut his eyes for a moment and calmed his mood.
"...You seemed quite close with the professor. Well, you were a bit odd back on the airship, too."
Balmung set down 「Siegfried⚉」. If it were anyone else, fine—but since she was connected to Professor Dante, he decided to at least talk.
"What do you want."
...Success!
So congratulating herself, Eve rummaged out a board from somewhere. Then she pulled a thick marker and began to write.
She had learned writing separately from Ran for today. Usually she only talked to Dante, so there was no need. But with this person, she had to become friends.
[ Let’s be friends ]
But since the language in her head was sign, the letters popped out in a flow like sign as well.
"Be friends? With you and me?"
[ Can’t hear ]
"......."
Balmung pointed at himself and Eve.
[ Mm-hm ]
[ Friend ]
Suddenly up close, Balmung snatched the marker and wrote.
[ Why would I ]
Eve snatched it back and wrote again.
[ Save the world together ]
Simultaneous.
Balmung’s eyes flew wide, nearly splitting.
"......."
In that instant, Eve’s intent transmitted precisely into Balmung’s mind. Save the world together. From the implications it held, to the size of the opportunity—everything. It had to be so. From the nights long ago when the Nibelung Matriarch would enter his bedroom with scissors and hover over him, she had hammered the same words into his ear until a nail was set.
— You’re different, Balmung. You’re special.
— Your seat is reserved higher than nonsense like rankings that change with the times.
— So if you listen to Mother, you’ll become the most important assassin in this world.
— And I’ll be the mother of that assassin.
Right now, that opportunity had appeared in his life—out of nowhere.
***
Once, Dante had looked at Glory and thought, pitying, what a guy. If he had seen this now, he would have thought the same.
Glory no longer picked up long cigarette butts from the ground and smoked them (Dante had harangued him until he quit that), but he hadn’t thought ahead to buy several packs in advance in case there were no convenience stores on a long trip. Because up to now he had just picked them up and smoked on the spot.
Thus now—
‘One single cigarette.’
Glory ran up the mountain path in agony.
It had been a week since he’d chased the assassin into the mountains. And for a week, he’d been half-forced to abstain from smoking.
The target lay before his eyes.
A female assassin, judging by the silhouette, wrapped head to toe in black ops garb.
‘How is she that fast?’
He needed to catch her, talk, and say let’s save the world together, but the chance never came.
Every time he thought he had her, the assassin instantly pulled away or used [Stealth] and vanished.
Then Glory had to find her again from scratch, by feel.
His thought that someone who wasn’t that stealthy and fast had no right to be his comrade lasted only a moment...
‘I’m going out of my mind.’
Failing to catch her for a week, the pain grew.
The problem was, if Glory had a “sense,” it even told him the date—and today was the very last day by a hair.
‘I guess there’s no choice...’
With shaking hands, Glory brought the cigarette to his lips.
Two hours of catnaps a day, running eighteen hours through the wilds, shivering in the cold, hardly eating—one week. At the end of it, the first cigarette.
He finally lit it and took a drag...
"Haa..."
...An unidentified force began to well up.
"UooooOOOOOOOOOOO...!!"
Charging with that vigor, Glory managed to catch the assassin.
"......?"
Only her pink eyes visible, the assassin gazed at him languidly.
After a week of dog-suffering, at last, time to talk.
"Hello. I’m Glory."
"Why do you keep following me?"
"Allow me to introduce myself first. I’m a Hero who will save the world. And I absolutely want to speak with you. It’s a very important talk."
The pink eyes crumpled with contempt.
"...I’m on a mission."
Cold, clipped voice.
Glory had already realized that she was the woman he’d brushed past aboard the airship after the Holy Sword auction, but this was their first face-to-face conversation.
And she seemed not to know him. ‘Bad memory, was it?’—something Professor Dante had hinted at.
‘...If only he’d shared a bit more info.’
At this time, Dante had neither given Glory much information nor contacted Elize directly, because that would harm the Heavenly Way.
Just as humans try to minimize interference with nature, Dante was aligning himself as much as possible with the flow of the world.
"...Assassin. We don’t need much talk. Only a moment."
"I said I’m on a mission."
"In that case, make a contract with me as well. I’ll give you an astounding, great mission."
"......."
The assassin’s name was Elize Xikos.
And when Elize entered a mission, she tended to view people as objects.
A lawnmower that smelled like cigarettes had suddenly appeared and started blocking her path.
"Irritating."
"I’m not such an irritating fellow. You wouldn’t know this, but once I complete this one great mission, I’ll retire to a cabin in the country woods and live out a quiet old age."
"Shut up."
"That’s not true. I’m the quiet-voiced type. I often got scolded by the professor for mumbling. Am I not calm even now?"
Elize raised a hand and rubbed her eyes. At the same time, she kept flicking her tongue over her upper lip to show her discomfort—she had no more time to waste on him.
"I’ll remove you."
"...Pardon?"
Elize’s hand went to her waist.
Srrring—
She drew 「Formless Sword○」.
『 Morning-Wilds Promenade 』
─── He didn’t even register the idea of “cutting through the air.” Glory raised his knuckled backhand by instinct and knocked the blade aside. KAAANG!!! The blow was so heavy his arm shook and his body nearly flew.
He’d once heard from Professor Dante that she had reached the upper realm of [Master], but that seemed very out of date.
With a single exchange he understood. The opponent was [Grandmaster]. And an upper tier at that. By ranking, a monster at about 350th.
‘Top 350 in your early twenties?’
Glory also had to draw his longsword and cross blades.
『Reverse-Heaven Step』
The soles of his feet began to press Glory away from the world. Using that footwork, Glory set his stance and knocked Elize’s blade aside.
KAAANG!!
With a wet rip, the skin of Glory’s cheek split open.
He had clearly blocked.
He thought he had—but in less than 0.001 seconds, the sword’s form changed and struck him. She was using the Stigma of 「Shadowless Star○」 to its extreme.
『 One-Heart Soul 』
『 Dragon-Catcher’s Spirit 』
Glory held his ground and drew up his force. Mana condensed in his heart. At the same time, he sprang with the ferocity of a hunter.
『 Domain Declaration: Ocean 水 』
At once, with that sticky mana laced with [Stigmata], he inverted the properties of the area. It was to hinder Elize’s speed.
Kang— kang—!
Then the attacks slowed a little. Elize squinted, as if realizing it too.
"I don’t intend to fight! Just a few words will do!"
No reply. Dropping from the air in a slow fall, Elize slid the sword back at her waist and closed her eyes.
『 Fishing 』
At once, she rushed, rippling her body like a mermaid.
『 Tug-of-War 』
An invisible sword unfolded into dozens of pairs and targeted one man.
Glory, aghast, had to parry.
Kakakaka— KAANG!!
A continuing barrage. It tried to tear Glory apart like a contest of strength. If he didn’t hold, he’d be dragged. If he didn’t parry, he’d be ripped. Such was Elize’s force.
In that moment, Glory marveled inwardly. It was insane talent. In that brief span, not only had she perfectly adapted to an environment occupied by extreme sticky mana, now she was overwhelming him within his own domain.
"Stop! Stop, please! This kind of violence only hurts us both! We can move in a better direction through dialogue, not violence!"
"Just die."
Elize chose the easy, simple conclusion.
If so, there was no helping it.
‘I can’t die.’
He must not die.
Even if ten million people die—
he, at least, for the sake of this world, must not die.
‘It’s still hard to control, but...’
Legs are essential, so maybe he’d cut off an arm and take her along.
"I warned you."
Glory drew from his waist the magic sword 「Peacebringer♠」 he’d borrowed from Dante this time.
Then he began to haul up the hated, curse-aspected♠ power until it was about to burst; Elize, sensing the ill omen, widened the distance.
" To drive humanity... into hell— "
Just as he was about to chant the trigger phrase,
Glory hesitated.
Because the killing intent washed clean off Elize—and at the same time, her pink eyes went round. "Oh—?" a surprised voice slipped from her lips.
What on earth was this? he thought. Elize began to approach. It gave Glory a primal fear, but he kept still for the moment—because she was coming very carefully.
"Mm?"
She «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» sniffed with her nose.
Tilted her head again.
"Oh—?"
She sidled closer and sniffed again.
Then nodded.
"That."
Elize pointed at the magic sword.
"...Pardon?"
"That. That one."
"This? It’s a magic sword..."
"Nooo, not that."
In that instant, Elize even set down Formless Sword○, pulled back the hood that had wrapped her head tight, and long, luxuriant, profusely curled pink hair spilled down. And her face filled with delight.
"...Professor’s smell!"
What followed was, to Glory, shockingly smooth-sailing.
"Elize Xikos—since I’ve introduced myself, I should state the purpose of the commission. Simply put, I’m a Hero, and from now on I’d like you and me to save the—"
Elize smiled bright before he could finish.
"Okay."