Chapter 66
‘……So you finally showed up.
Good timing.’
I stood on the rooftop railing and watched.
A woman in a pure white dress was walking toward .
Her long black hair was disheveled and flying wildly, and her skin was pale.
That was the mid-boss of the second wave, the ‘White Lady Banshee’.
Her character design was so creepy that I was afraid she might appear in my dreams.
‘Anyone who sees her would think she’s a real ghost.’
……No, she really was a ghost.
I pulled sothing out of subspace and fiddled with my ear.
Then I leapt off the railing and descended below.
‘As expected of a nad monster, she was much stronger than a ghoul.’
It wasn’t that she had particularly high defense.
Unlike ghouls, she was agile, and she had the special ability to command ghouls to launch coordinated attacks.
On top of that, if she wasn’t killed quickly, she could unleash a scream that paralyzed movent.
It was true that she was a troubleso monster to deal with.
‘But it doesn’t look like I’ll lose.’
Once you knew her strategy, she wasn’t hard to defeat.
After landing lightly, I gripped my sword and walked forward.
The banshee’s jet-black eyes locked onto .
She recognized , then charged with another spine-chilling shriek.
Krrraaahhh……!
The sluggish ghouls nearby suddenly dropped to all fours and began rushing quickly.
‘Co.’
I adjusted my grip on my sword.
The banshee, having caught up in an instant, swung her hand deftly.
Dodging it wasn’t difficult.
But as soon as I avoided her attack, ghouls to my left and right swung claw-like hands.
A relentless pincer attack followed.
‘This never ends.’
I couldn’t allow even a single hit.
Both ghouls and banshee had razor-sharp claws, carrying deadly infections.
‘Better not to get greedy for a counterattack and focus solely on evasion for now.’
I didn’t bother forcing an attack.
It might have seed pointless just dodging, but……
The ti would co.
‘Now?’
After weaving through attacks for a while.
The banshee, who had been attacking wildly, suddenly showed abnormal signs.
She abruptly knelt down and gazed at the sky.
She opened her mouth and inhaled deeply.
Kiiiaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh……!
The banshee’s scream echoed throughout the area.
A high-pitched shriek so sharp it felt like my ears would burst.
‘A very threatening ability that renders players unable to act.’
But thanks to what I had prepared, it barely affected .
In fact, it seed even more agonizing for the ghouls than for .
Even they clutched their heads, unable to bear the wailing.
Paralyzed, they couldn’t even rise.
I smiled at the banshee.
“……Now it’s finally fair.”
A one-on-one situation.
This was exactly the opportunity I had been waiting for.
I had to finish before the ghouls recovered their senses.
‘First strike.’
I swiftly rushed the banshee and swung my sword.
Several tis faster than her movents.
Even an agile banshee couldn’t avoid my strike.
Kiiiiek!
My swing was too fast to follow with the eyes.
But the sensation of cutting sothing shot up through my hands.
‘Second strike.’
I slashed swiftly toward her waist.
I didn’t miss the mont she staggered and lost balance from the pain.
‘……Final strike!’
Gripping the sword with both hands, I drove it into her chest.
Kiiieeeeeeeek!
With a death cry, the banshee’s body went limp.
When I pulled out the sword, she collapsed, all strength gone, then disintegrated into black ashes that scattered.
‘……Finally over.’
I touched my ear and pulled out sothing round.
It was a rubber earplug.
‘Without this, I wouldn’t have been able to hold on either.’
It could be bought in the shop for less than one gold.
It was an item used against monsters like banshees that attacked with ultrasonic screams.
Without earplugs, hearing a banshee’s scream would leave you incapacitated.
But that applied not only to players, but also to ghouls.
‘When the ghouls she controlled couldn’t move. That was my only chance to attack.’
The banshee ended up destroying herself with her own deadly weapon.
‘This is?’
I spotted sothing glittering where the banshee had died.
When I picked it up and examined it, a hologram appeared.
Core of the White Lady
‘Right, there was an item like this.’
Unlike the grotesque banshee, the core was spherical and looked like a beautiful jewel.
‘It’s not particularly valuable.’
Still, there was no harm in keeping it, so I stored it in subspace.
‘Let’s finish off the remaining ghouls quickly.’
I gripped my sword as I looked at the ghouls beginning to shake off their grogginess.
‘……What’s this?’
A strange sensation.
My heart pounded, and all my nerves were on edge.
The strong feeling of being watched.
I had felt this before.
‘It was when I first t Curio.’
It was the passive skill of detecting stealth activating.
‘……Did the boss of this wave already appear?’
I thought so for a mont, but shook my shoulders as if denying it.
‘No, the bosses in this episode don’t have stealth abilities.’
Then what was happening?
‘It couldn’t possibly be Curio coming here…….’
I turned toward where I felt the gaze.
Sothing translucent was plumting from the sky.
McGrim was flying with her small wings spread.
‘Everything’s annoying, so I’d rather be alone.’
Maybe it was because she distrusted nobles.
She disliked the wavering princess, and she disliked that man Verdi’s eyes even more.
‘Since he was a knight commander at the frontlines, I thought he’d be different from the vain nobles.’
But after seeing those eyes that seed to be hiding sothing, McGrim abandoned hope.
In the end, they were all the sa filthy nobles.
Especially that man called Villed.
His towering height, his irritatingly relaxed deanor.
He was surely the killer.
Perhaps all the nobles were in collusion.
Inside this barrier, there was no one he could trust.
‘In the end, the only one I could trust was myself.’
McGrim looked down below.
The blood-red street was filled with ghouls.
Just looking at it made him frown.
‘Where could it be.’
Leaving the ghouls behind, McGrim examined the surrounding buildings.
From what she had heard in passing from Biju of the Barrier Departnt, there was supposed to be a barrier core sowhere around here.
‘Since it’s the core, it should be where the strongest magic is felt, right?’
She was wandering in search of where the flow of mana led her.
That was when she discovered a strange sight far off in the distance.
Beneath the largest building, there was a space where ghouls were abnormally clustered.
But at the very center of it……
‘……The ghouls are disappearing?’
To be precise, soone was killing the ghouls.
‘Who is it?’
Could there really be another person trapped inside the barrier?
McGrim quickly flew in that direction.
‘……That person?’
As she focused her gaze, she was able to make out the figure.
A black mask and a coat.
McGrim’s mories overlapped.
‘How is that person here?’
Wasn’t he the killer I had seen in the passageway?
He should already have been bound and under surveillance.
So why was he here?
‘Then that high-ranking noble wasn’t the killer?’
Could it be I had been mistaken all along.
They had been entirely different people?
That was bad news.
Of all places, why did a killer have to be trapped inside this barrier too……
And right in front of him stood soone else.
A woman dressed in white.
‘There was another survivor? That’s dangerous!’
……No, from a distance she might have looked human.
But upon closer inspection, she was grotesque.
Was she a ghoul-like monster?
The monsters were launching multiple attacks on the killer.
‘How is he dodging that……?’
Seeing how easily he avoided them, he was clearly more skilled than expected.
‘N-no, this isn’t the ti for this.’
I had to get back to the cafeteria quickly and report this.
Just as I turned to change direction.
Kiiiaaaaahhhh!
A piercing wail rang out.
Goosebumps erupted across my whole body.
“Kh-ugh……!”
McGrim imdiately covered her ears.
But doing so too late, her muscles felt paralyzed.
Her head was spinning.
Her breathing grew ragged.
Her vision grew darker and darker, until nothing could be seen.
‘Ah…….’
A bead of sweat dropped from McGrim’s face.
Her mind grew hazy, and her mana started to destabilize.
Crack, snap.
At that mont, fractures spread across McGrim’s wings.
“N-no……!”
McGrim belatedly ca to her senses and flailed, but her mana would not stabilize.
Within seconds, her wings would shatter completely.
She would crash.
She needed to at least find a landing spot, but she couldn’t see, nor could she move.
‘……Is this the end?’
From this height, she was certain to die.
Even if she sohow survived, she would end up crippled or torn apart by ghouls.
‘……It’s all over.’
Her wings broke completely.
Even the mana veil that had made her body transparent was fading away.
Drawn by gravity, McGrim’s body plumted straight down.
McGrim sensed her death.
‘……So my life ends here?’
McGrim closed her eyes in resignation.
She quietly accepted death.
‘It was a damn life anyway.’
In the next life, she wished to be a bird who could sing freely in the skies.
Ah, and she hadn’t even told her manager she was sorry.
McGrim closed her eyes, wings gone.
………
……
……
Could one still feel touch and breathe even in death?
No way, such a thing couldn’t be.
McGrim slowly opened her eyes.
“……”
When she did, the killer’s glowing eyes.
Were right in front of my face.
“Hik, h-hkkk.”
Overwheld by terror, even breathing was hard.
McGrim imdiately shut hwe eyes again.
……Ti passed, but ahe wasn’t hard.
Peeking them open slightly, McGrim realized the killer was carrying him sowhere.
‘……He saved ?’
He was holding her in a princess carry.
Before long, he gently set her down.
Looking around, it seed they were on the rooftop of a building, not the ground.
Here, at least, she was safe from the ghouls.
‘……What is he planning? What does he want from ?’
Just as that doubt ford.
The killer offered McGrim sothing.
A bottle filled with clear liquid.
‘……Water?’
McGrim glanced between the water and the killer.
‘He wouldn’t have poisoned it, right?’
There was no reason for that.
Even without poison, he could have easily hard her while he was completely defenseless.
So this water should be safe.
McGrim accepted it and drank.
It was refreshing water that eased her thirst and tension.
McGrim set the bottle down.
She still couldn’t bring herself to et the killer’s eyes.
She wasn’t completely free of wariness yet.
Growl.
Her stomach had no sense of timing.
It rumbled loudly at the worst mont.
McGrim’s face flushed red.
“……”
The killer looked at her briefly, then handed her sothing.
A well-boiled egg.
Peeled, with even a sprinkle of salt on it.
McGrim took the egg and bit into it, eyes brimming with tears.
Was it the relief of finally surviving, or the sorrow of having suffered so much?
“……Th-thank you.”
Wiping her tears with her sleeve, she finally gave her thanks.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
At her gentle voice, McGrim’s guard seed to falter.
“No……”
“That’s a relief.”
He seed to genuinely want to help.
There was a fairy tale where a witch fed children candy to make them taste better before eating them.
‘Could that be ?’
McGrim quickly shook her head.
‘Maybe he’s not a bad person.’
Then what about the murder she had witnessed?
……Ah.
McGrim let out a small gasp.
‘……It wasn’t murder?’
The person I had seen in the passage had turned into black ash the mont they fell.
Just like ghouls, who always turned into black ash when killed.
‘And this man had been killing ghouls too.’
McGrim’s eyes widened.
‘……The killer, it was all just my mistake?’
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