We zoomed through the floor, taking turn after turn at random. Once we made a decent amount of distance from the fountain room, I disengaged [Materialize] and grew out my wings before taking flight, and making even more distance at an even faster pace.
I furiously flapped my wings, barely avoiding colliding with the surrounding trees as I stayed below the tree line. My home dungeon had countermeasures if you tried to go outside of the designated areas. Often it was nothing more than tough walls that made it almost impossible to bore through before it regenerates, but when such obstacles weren't possible, the dungeon found more creative solutions.
Back on the fields floor, if I strayed from the grassy path and entered the tall grass, large numbers of loam wolves would spawn and attack. If it wasn't for my high level, I'd have been a goner in almost an instant, as fighting dozens of wolves that easily hid in the tall grass was next to impossible for anyone who was even close to the appropriate level for that dungeon.
With that in mind, it was a risk I didn't want to take to fly above the foliage. Even more so when I had Claret struggling against my grip.
"Master, please! She needs to die!"
When I quickly glance at the dark spirit in my arms, the sight of tears pouring down relentlessly. Rather than that unbridled rage I expected, there was nothing but desperation enveloping her entire being. No, not just desperation, but fear. At least some corner of my mind thought that there was also fear under it.
Either way, trying to cheat the floor wasn't viable when I was forced to worry about taking time to find my way back to a path when I really needed to get things figured out soon.
That woman seemed to have a way to track me, even if it wasn't very reliable.
Eventually, I found a convenient spot without any monsters and landed, pushing Claret onto the ground and pinning her as she continued to struggle against me.
"Claret, I need you to calm down!"
"But Master! That, that monster, she needs to die! She HAS to die!"
I was a bit disturbed at just how hard she was insisting on this. In fact, just minutes before, she had continued to try to kill that woman against my direct order. The dark spirit in my hands was so loyal and fond of me that the thought of her trying to betray me was difficult to wrap my mind around.
"Why does she need to die, in your opinion?"
"She's a threat, Master! She's weak right now, but what if she grows strong? What if she tries to do something or ambushes you?"
"That's hardly a reason to kill her. If we find out why she tried to kill me, then maybe we can convince her otherwise."
"But what if she can't be convinced? What if she tries to use that opportunity to strike at you?"
"I'm pretty strong. I already stopped her surprise attack once already."
(Though it wasn't a very good one.)
"But, there's the chance. The possibility that you'll...I can't, I can't bear the thought of losing you again, Master! Waaaaaahhhh~~~!"
With the damn breaking, Claret stopped resisting at all and cried with her entire being.
I couldn't condemn her for that. I couldn't say that she was doing good trying to kill that woman, but I also couldn't condemn her for that. Instead, I got off her the dark spirit and pulled her into my chest and wrapped my arms around her.
"Not again Master...don't die..."
Claret's tears soaked through my clothes and the feeling of wetness spread from my chest, but ignoring it, I simply stroked her hair as gently as I could.
The minutes passed by as we stayed there unmoving beyond the trembling of the dark spirit any my hand on her head. Wary of the armoured woman, I kept close watch on [Sense Presence]. So far, the only presences I could detect were obviously monsters who were wandering around the corridors further along in both directions.
"Don't leave me alone again Master..."
This girl had been traumatized by the death of her original master, the previous Scarlet. She hadn't really spoken much about the time since her death and meeting me, but it made me wonder. She definitely hadn't gotten over her master's death, so was it possible that she spent the entire time mourning? She was unable to move on so she could only tread water until she found me, her replacement?
On one hand I wanted to know, but on another, it would be pretty insensitive to ask. Though considering Claret, she'd probably tell me every detail without any hesitation if I did. I was lacking in some social graces...or awareness...or knowledge...but I was aware of at least that much. I at least understood enough to know what it was Claret wanted most.
"Don't worry. I won't ever leave you while you need me Claret."
"You don't know that! You can't know that!"
But my words didn't have the effect I wanted. Claret's face jumped up as she furiously stared into my eyes while her face was in ruins.
"Master, you can't ever know for sure! Anything can happen! Every risk you take is a chance that something will go wrong! If we don't get rid of every risk we can, who knows what'll happen!"
Claret balled her fists as she pulled on my robes, as if she was trying to bring her face closer to mine.
"Claret, you can't go through life without risk. Just going outside brings risk."
"No, maybe not, but..."
The dark spirit's eyes turned away as she thought, but when they returned to mine, it felt like there was a tinge of madness in them.
"We can go home then! If we go into the dungeon connected to the town we used to live in, we could build a nice place to live in one of the deeper safe zones! I can go out for you and bring you food every day, and we can live our lives there together! I can bear all the risk and you can stay safe inside, with nothing to worry about! Forever!"
That sounded more like a prison than anything to me.
"Claret, that's not living. A life like that is hardly any different than death."
"But, but it's not death! You'll be alive, and you'll have me to do everything you need! I can get you everything you want, whenever you want!"
This time I lightly smacked the dark spirit in the head to emphasize my point.
"Like I said, that's not being alive at all. What you're suggesting is to simply idle away for eternity. It sounds a bit nice as a vacation, but after a few months, maybe a few years, it's simply not possible. We'd go insane before long."
"But..."
"No buts. We're not doing it. I'm all for reducing risk, but not when it compromises my wishes or morals."
"Then that monster that's trying to kill you has to die."
"Not now. It goes against my morals to simply kill her after she tried to kill me. Not when we're so much stronger than she is."
"But..."
"But first, let's try talking to her. We'll kill her if we have no choice, but until then, killing her is off the table, alright?"
"Yes Master..."
Claret was obviously not satisfied with that, not by far, but at least she was convinced that we could try something else first. At the minimum, she probably accepted it because I had proposed to confront this danger directly, rather than ignore it and let it stew in the background where it could bite us in the ass at the worst moment.
But happy with her answer, I pulled her in and went back to stroking her hair.
I raised my hand and looked at my palm, feeling it out while opening and closing my fist. It had completely returned to the small and soft looking hand that it always was. No trace of the deep burns caused by using [Light Magic] was left.
With my mind preoccupied between escaping that crazy lady and Claret's frenzy, I didn't notice at the time, but most likely it had healed while I was flying, the light of the dungeon's artificial sun landed on my exposed wings, automatically healing the injury I had self-inflicted.
"..."
"Master?"
"There's one way I can think of."
"Well, if you think about it, it's pretty obvious, though I guess only in hindsight. That woman is probably a reincarnator like me."
*Gasp!*
"I don't see how they're connected either Master."
While Alicia gave a flat denial, Claret sounded more mournful that she wasn't able to make the connection than being unable to believe my words.
"Well, it doesn't make sense normally, unless if there were special circumstances regarding things."
"This is speculation, entirely and purely speculation...but...I think maybe the gods figured out what I did and sent someone after me."
"That's it. I'm going to kill her."
"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!!!"
The moment she started to move, I tightly grabbed Claret's shoulder to stop her from going after my supposed hit-man. The that look of pure hatred returned to her eyes in the time it took me to blink even with my speed.
"Don't stop me Master. I'll eliminate any threat to your life! I know you're to gentle to do it, so I'll be the one to dirty her hands."
"Wait I tell you! I...won't deny that I'm probably a bit soft..."
It hurt a bit to be called out by a seven year old. Sometimes I really wondered if she might've retained some of her past life's experiences as well.
"Well, maybe a bit more than a bit, but still! We can leave deciding what to do with her until after we figure out as much as we can about what's going on, alright?"
"Yes Master."
The dark spirit was clearly not happy about it, but still accepted my proposal.
"What a one-dimensional skill set. It's hard to imagine her raising her level as high as she had with that alone."
Things might've been different in this dungeon, or wherever she had chosen to train at, but it was hard to imagine using nothing but a sword to fight every sort of monster, especially solo. Even I had to pick different combat styles depending on the situation, going from magical to physical, ranged to melee, evasive to tanking. Adapting to the situation was the key to success, and becoming good at it did wonders to broadening your horizons.
"I think so too, but I think it's a bit low for her level. I don't have any good comparisons, but I would think that she should've gotten [Sword Mastery] by this point normally."
"Well, since I can get skills by feeding, my skill list and rank doesn't really correspond with my experience. I've hardly used a whip or shield, yet I have pretty high ranks in both."
For that matter, I had skills I couldn't even use in the first place, many of which were racially locked, but others which had specific requirements that I lacked, like having a tail or gills.
"I think the secret is in her gear."
I thought back to what the woman was wearing. It was a full set of plate armour, layered with chain mail visible in the gaps and maybe more underneath. There were very little when it came to gaps, and most of them were in the helmet that were necessary to function. It was entirely undecorated, but it was clear it was of extremely high quality.
But even more important than that, was the pearl white sheen of it. Rather than the more dull metallic grey, it was undoubtedly white with a reflective sheen. And to get rid of any doubt, when I hit her chest plate, there was no sign of it being dented. I had little doubt as to its material.
"It was, but I think it was extremely good armour. Probably mithril."
"Not really. I can break through mithril with my bare hands if I had to. And that armour, while it's good, has plenty of weaknesses."
In fact, that was exactly what I was worried about when Claret tried to attack her. If any of her shadow tendrils made its way through the vision slit or air holes, she was done for. Even if Claret didn't do that, if she simply wrapped them around her head, she would've suffocated soon enough, presuming having her limbs bent in directions they weren't meant to move didn't end up killing her first.
"Probably. While it's bad to be complacent, it's doubtful she would be able to beat me. Oh, I'll make sure you don't experience any pain if it does come to that."
Alicia's words were faint, like she was whispering it to herself, but it wasn't difficult to catch. I would likely be able to hear anything she vocalized in our current state.
"Well, that said, what I'm more interested in is what her motives are."
"Did you just say that she was probably ordered by those damn gods to murder you Master?"
"Ah, well, I did, but I doubt that's enough on its own."
"It's not?"
"I wouldn't think so. At the very least, she'd need an additional motive. Unless of course she was one of the gods as well. We can't discount that, but if we stopped thinking there, then what's the point of having working brains?"
When Claret tilted her head as she looked up at me in my arms, I casually wondered what the point of her working brain was before catching myself.
(That's not good. I shouldn't be thinking like that about someone who's so faithful.)
Lightly admonishing myself, I turned my mind to trying to figure out that woman.
"Master, why does it even matter why she wants to kill you?"
Claret hit quite a good point, most likely entirely by accident, but even still, she had just proven my internal statement wrong.
"That's actually a good question. The thing is, if we can figure out why, then we might be able to use that to change her mind. If that doesn't work, then we'll at least be able to get more information."
Unless if she ended up being completely unreceptive to conversation. But at that point I'd be satisfied by at least trying, and we can play the victim and shift all the blame of her death onto her.
"Pretty much."
We zoomed through the floor, taking turn after turn at random. Once we made a decent amount of distance from the fountain room, I disengaged [Materialize] and grew out my wings before taking flight, and making even more distance at an even faster pace.
I furiously flapped my wings, barely avoiding colliding with the surrounding trees as I stayed below the tree line. My home dungeon had countermeasures if you tried to go outside of the designated areas. Often it was nothing more than tough walls that made it almost impossible to bore through before it regenerates, but when such obstacles weren't possible, the dungeon found more creative solutions.
Back on the fields floor, if I strayed from the grassy path and entered the tall grass, large numbers of loam wolves would spawn and attack. If it wasn't for my high level, I'd have been a goner in almost an instant, as fighting dozens of wolves that easily hid in the tall grass was next to impossible for anyone who was even close to the appropriate level for that dungeon.
With that in mind, it was a risk I didn't want to take to fly above the foliage. Even more so when I had Claret struggling against my grip.
"Master, please! She needs to die!"
When I quickly glance at the dark spirit in my arms, the sight of tears pouring down relentlessly. Rather than that unbridled rage I expected, there was nothing but desperation enveloping her entire being. No, not just desperation, but fear. At least some corner of my mind thought that there was also fear under it.
Either way, trying to cheat the floor wasn't viable when I was forced to worry about taking time to find my way back to a path when I really needed to get things figured out soon.
That woman seemed to have a way to track me, even if it wasn't very reliable.
Eventually, I found a convenient spot without any monsters and landed, pushing Claret onto the ground and pinning her as she continued to struggle against me.
"Claret, I need you to calm down!"
"But Master! That, that monster, she needs to die! She HAS to die!"
I was a bit disturbed at just how hard she was insisting on this. In fact, just minutes before, she had continued to try to kill that woman against my direct order. The dark spirit in my hands was so loyal and fond of me that the thought of her trying to betray me was difficult to wrap my mind around.
"Why does she need to die, in your opinion?"
"She's a threat, Master! She's weak right now, but what if she grows strong? What if she tries to do something or ambushes you?"
"That's hardly a reason to kill her. If we find out why she tried to kill me, then maybe we can convince her otherwise."
"But what if she can't be convinced? What if she tries to use that opportunity to strike at you?"
"I'm pretty strong. I already stopped her surprise attack once already."
(Though it wasn't a very good one.)
"But, there's the chance. The possibility that you'll...I can't, I can't bear the thought of losing you again, Master! Waaaaaahhhh~~~!"
With the damn breaking, Claret stopped resisting at all and cried with her entire being.
I couldn't condemn her for that. I couldn't say that she was doing good trying to kill that woman, but I also couldn't condemn her for that. Instead, I got off her the dark spirit and pulled her into my chest and wrapped my arms around her.
"Not again Master...don't die..."
Claret's tears soaked through my clothes and the feeling of wetness spread from my chest, but ignoring it, I simply stroked her hair as gently as I could.
The minutes passed by as we stayed there unmoving beyond the trembling of the dark spirit any my hand on her head. Wary of the armoured woman, I kept close watch on [Sense Presence]. So far, the only presences I could detect were obviously monsters who were wandering around the corridors further along in both directions.
"Don't leave me alone again Master..."
This girl had been traumatized by the death of her original master, the previous Scarlet. She hadn't really spoken much about the time since her death and meeting me, but it made me wonder. She definitely hadn't gotten over her master's death, so was it possible that she spent the entire time mourning? She was unable to move on so she could only tread water until she found me, her replacement?
On one hand I wanted to know, but on another, it would be pretty insensitive to ask. Though considering Claret, she'd probably tell me every detail without any hesitation if I did. I was lacking in some social graces...or awareness...or knowledge...but I was aware of at least that much. I at least understood enough to know what it was Claret wanted most.
"Don't worry. I won't ever leave you while you need me Claret."
"You don't know that! You can't know that!"
But my words didn't have the effect I wanted. Claret's face jumped up as she furiously stared into my eyes while her face was in ruins.
"Master, you can't ever know for sure! Anything can happen! Every risk you take is a chance that something will go wrong! If we don't get rid of every risk we can, who knows what'll happen!"
Claret balled her fists as she pulled on my robes, as if she was trying to bring her face closer to mine.
"Claret, you can't go through life without risk. Just going outside brings risk."
"No, maybe not, but..."
The dark spirit's eyes turned away as she thought, but when they returned to mine, it felt like there was a tinge of madness in them.
"We can go home then! If we go into the dungeon connected to the town we used to live in, we could build a nice place to live in one of the deeper safe zones! I can go out for you and bring you food every day, and we can live our lives there together! I can bear all the risk and you can stay safe inside, with nothing to worry about! Forever!"
That sounded more like a prison than anything to me.
"Claret, that's not living. A life like that is hardly any different than death."
"But, but it's not death! You'll be alive, and you'll have me to do everything you need! I can get you everything you want, whenever you want!"
This time I lightly smacked the dark spirit in the head to emphasize my point.
"Like I said, that's not being alive at all. What you're suggesting is to simply idle away for eternity. It sounds a bit nice as a vacation, but after a few months, maybe a few years, it's simply not possible. We'd go insane before long."
"But..."
"No buts. We're not doing it. I'm all for reducing risk, but not when it compromises my wishes or morals."
"Then that monster that's trying to kill you has to die."
"Not now. It goes against my morals to simply kill her after she tried to kill me. Not when we're so much stronger than she is."
"But..."
"But first, let's try talking to her. We'll kill her if we have no choice, but until then, killing her is off the table, alright?"
"Yes Master..."
Claret was obviously not satisfied with that, not by far, but at least she was convinced that we could try something else first. At the minimum, she probably accepted it because I had proposed to confront this danger directly, rather than ignore it and let it stew in the background where it could bite us in the ass at the worst moment.
But happy with her answer, I pulled her in and went back to stroking her hair.
I raised my hand and looked at my palm, feeling it out while opening and closing my fist. It had completely returned to the small and soft looking hand that it always was. No trace of the deep burns caused by using [Light Magic] was left.
With my mind preoccupied between escaping that crazy lady and Claret's frenzy, I didn't notice at the time, but most likely it had healed while I was flying, the light of the dungeon's artificial sun landed on my exposed wings, automatically healing the injury I had self-inflicted.
"..."
"Master?"
"There's one way I can think of."
"Well, if you think about it, it's pretty obvious, though I guess only in hindsight. That woman is probably a reincarnator like me."
*Gasp!*
"I don't see how they're connected either Master."
While Alicia gave a flat denial, Claret sounded more mournful that she wasn't able to make the connection than being unable to believe my words.
"Well, it doesn't make sense normally, unless if there were special circumstances regarding things."
"This is speculation, entirely and purely speculation...but...I think maybe the gods figured out what I did and sent someone after me."
"That's it. I'm going to kill her."
"Waitwaitwaitwaitwait!!!"
The moment she started to move, I tightly grabbed Claret's shoulder to stop her from going after my supposed hit-man. The that look of pure hatred returned to her eyes in the time it took me to blink even with my speed.
"Don't stop me Master. I'll eliminate any threat to your life! I know you're to gentle to do it, so I'll be the one to dirty her hands."
"Wait I tell you! I...won't deny that I'm probably a bit soft..."
It hurt a bit to be called out by a seven year old. Sometimes I really wondered if she might've retained some of her past life's experiences as well.
"Well, maybe a bit more than a bit, but still! We can leave deciding what to do with her until after we figure out as much as we can about what's going on, alright?"
"Yes Master."
The dark spirit was clearly not happy about it, but still accepted my proposal.
"What a one-dimensional skill set. It's hard to imagine her raising her level as high as she had with that alone."
Things might've been different in this dungeon, or wherever she had chosen to train at, but it was hard to imagine using nothing but a sword to fight every sort of monster, especially solo. Even I had to pick different combat styles depending on the situation, going from magical to physical, ranged to melee, evasive to tanking. Adapting to the situation was the key to success, and becoming good at it did wonders to broadening your horizons.
"I think so too, but I think it's a bit low for her level. I don't have any good comparisons, but I would think that she should've gotten [Sword Mastery] by this point normally."
"Well, since I can get skills by feeding, my skill list and rank doesn't really correspond with my experience. I've hardly used a whip or shield, yet I have pretty high ranks in both."
For that matter, I had skills I couldn't even use in the first place, many of which were racially locked, but others which had specific requirements that I lacked, like having a tail or gills.
"I think the secret is in her gear."
I thought back to what the woman was wearing. It was a full set of plate armour, layered with chain mail visible in the gaps and maybe more underneath. There were very little when it came to gaps, and most of them were in the helmet that were necessary to function. It was entirely undecorated, but it was clear it was of extremely high quality.
But even more important than that, was the pearl white sheen of it. Rather than the more dull metallic grey, it was undoubtedly white with a reflective sheen. And to get rid of any doubt, when I hit her chest plate, there was no sign of it being dented. I had little doubt as to its material.
"It was, but I think it was extremely good armour. Probably mithril."
"Not really. I can break through mithril with my bare hands if I had to. And that armour, while it's good, has plenty of weaknesses."
In fact, that was exactly what I was worried about when Claret tried to attack her. If any of her shadow tendrils made its way through the vision slit or air holes, she was done for. Even if Claret didn't do that, if she simply wrapped them around her head, she would've suffocated soon enough, presuming having her limbs bent in directions they weren't meant to move didn't end up killing her first.
"Probably. While it's bad to be complacent, it's doubtful she would be able to beat me. Oh, I'll make sure you don't experience any pain if it does come to that."
Alicia's words were faint, like she was whispering it to herself, but it wasn't difficult to catch. I would likely be able to hear anything she vocalized in our current state.
"Well, that said, what I'm more interested in is what her motives are."
"Did you just say that she was probably ordered by those damn gods to murder you Master?"
"Ah, well, I did, but I doubt that's enough on its own."
"It's not?"
"I wouldn't think so. At the very least, she'd need an additional motive. Unless of course she was one of the gods as well. We can't discount that, but if we stopped thinking there, then what's the point of having working brains?"
When Claret tilted her head as she looked up at me in my arms, I casually wondered what the point of her working brain was before catching myself.
(That's not good. I shouldn't be thinking like that about someone who's so faithful.)
Lightly admonishing myself, I turned my mind to trying to figure out that woman.
"Master, why does it even matter why she wants to kill you?"
Claret hit quite a good point, most likely entirely by accident, but even still, she had just proven my internal statement wrong.
"That's actually a good question. The thing is, if we can figure out why, then we might be able to use that to change her mind. If that doesn't work, then we'll at least be able to get more information."
Unless if she ended up being completely unreceptive to conversation. But at that point I'd be satisfied by at least trying, and we can play the victim and shift all the blame of her death onto her.
"Pretty much."
