Claudia and Sophia were running through the streets.
Their breathing was heavy. They were barefoot too, so their feet were bleeding.
A few minutes ago. A group of ghouls entered the slave store.
They started attacking everyone.
They were able to escape because a ghoul opened their cell and because of their size they could escape.
They ran as far as their legs could carry them.
"O-Onee-chan, my legs hurt..."
Said Sophia who was forcibly carried by her sister.
"Run Sophia! Mom is not with us to save us. We must run away from this place while the chaos is going around."
Claudia was also tired.
Unlike her sister, she hardly ate. Food in the slave store was scarce.
She always gave Sophia her portion and she ate a few crumbs. Payment for her kindness was costing her running.
"We must escape as soon as possible. If we stay here, we'll either die for those things or stay in that tower like the others."
In the slave store there were several children like them.
One day, almost all of them left.
Someone bought them. They were saved only because they caught a cold.
The buyer wanted healthy children without diseases.
They never saw those children again.
"Kyaah!"
Sophia shouted as she tripped over a rock.
Claudia fell too.
She wanted to get up, but couldn't. Her legs prevented her.
"Get up! Come on!"
She shouted to herself to stand up.
A dry sound she heard.
Turning to look. They observed a ghoul that was once an adventurer.
It opened its mouth to approach the girls.
Sophia hugged her sister tightly.
"Mom!"
Claudia began to cry too and call for her mom.
Just when all seemed lost for them.
"What do my eardrums hear on this grotesque night?"
"A couple of beautiful damsels crying because of a repulsive being."
Loud footsteps began to echo in their direction.
More ghouls began to approach.
A cloud covered the red moon.
The mysterious figure arrived in front of them and said.
"There is nothing to fear, Mesdemoiselles, your knight is here."
The cloud finished crossing, and a man in shining armor was reflected under that red sky.
His hair was fashionable and short. Like his eyes it was light blue.
He drew his sword and began to... pose.
"How dare you terrorize these ladies with your gruesome faces!"
"I, the knight protector of women! Lucius of Erzberger Household, the saint of beauty, I will defend them!"
Just as he said, this guy was a sword saint. But there was a mistake.
He is the saint of mercury, for that is his magical attribute. But it wasn't "fancy" to say so he changed that name himself.
One of the pay capture targets, Lucius Erzberger. A very popular game character with women.
It was because his designer was a very famous one in the BL community and his voice dubbed was a half-Japanese, half-Korean pop singer, which made his sales ridiculously high.
Male gamers who played that otome game did not complain despite having to listen to his comments on his route. It was due to their excellent stats and parameters in combat.
Even the "Lily" of the game didn't talk to him much. Since she didn't allow him to do so either.
So, the best annoying ally they could ask for, was him.
Claudia and Sophia had panicked faces, not because of the ghouls, but because of him.
"O-Onee-chan, a really weird guy is talking to us."
"D-Don't look at him, he looks like he will help us, but don't look him in the face."
Lucius didn't hear anything they said. They weren't the only ones to tell him that.
The imperial palace even does it. A few days ago he was sent on a mission to go and stay outside the palace for a long time.
But he finished the mission very quickly, it was more due to the knights who couldn't stand him.
Even his own family, being the heir, didn't want him. They suggested excuses for him not to spend at home.
Even some adventurers like Gladys avoided contact with him despite being surrounded by ghouls.
It was preferable to hear the sounds of monsters than their annoying words.
In this world unlike the world Razel came from, Lucius wasn´t at all popular.
"Disappear! Beautiful Court."
Lucius shouted his attack. A crescent made of mercury shot out from the edge of his sword and cut the ghouls like a hot knife in butter.
The ghouls died instantly as the mercury absorbed and disintegrated them.
This was only the minimum power he possessed.
Lucius combed his hair before turning away.
"Ladies, you mustn't have any more, the ghouls have-"
He couldn't finish his heroic dialogue as the girls disappeared.
"Wow, what fast girls. The fear of being devoured was so great that they prioritized their lives and could not thank me. Sounds good to me."
Lucius elegantly and repulsively moved his white cloak.
He walked around making annoying noises with his armor that attracted ghouls.
He cut them down without mussing his hair.
Then after a while of cutting ghouls, he visualized in the distance two figures on top of a building.
One of them seemed to have received orders, he moved at great speed.
He jumped between the buildings. Lucius saw it and said.
"Obviously that's an enemy. In the name of Erzberger Household I will eliminate you."
Lucius took a great leap and approached the mysterious leaping figure.
It seemed to sniff something, as he watched Lucius approach...
"Don't get in my way!"
It told him that before giving him a hard slap on the cheek. The blow was hard enough to send him flying straight into a building.
A group of ghouls were entering the slums. People had nowhere to go.
But Lucius, who was unconscious, knocked down the building which hit the ghouls.
Unwittingly, he became a true hero.
The mysterious figure said before continuing to jump.
"Amy onee-sama gave me this mission, I will kill you if you come near me again!"
A sword saint was defeated without his opponent knowing about it.
◇◇◇
(Why am I spitting blood?)
Krulcifer was on his knees spitting blood.
Even he didn't understand that reason.
(What the hell happened?)
He looked up and saw a girl with animal ears and tail in front of him.
(It was her! She left me in this state!)
Krulcifer stood up. His legs were shaking.
But the anger he felt was stronger than any sensation he felt.
"I'm going to kill you bitch!"
Once he stopped shaking, he pointed his finger at Leila.
"I'll rip your head off!"
He stomped his foot and ran straight at her. His big footsteps echoed in the place.
In a split second, he was half a meter away from her.
Leila didn't even look at him.
She only turned slightly and her leg hit Krulcifer's calf.
"Gaaah!"
A scream of pain emanated from deep inside her.
It was real pain.
What he had forgotten.
Leila hovered around him in a disinterested manner.
"Hey you."
"What the hell did you do to your body?"
She said looking at him sternly.
"I can tell your body underwent severe transformations. Something was done to you, wasn't it?"
Her words were true.
Krulcifer remembered to be strong. One day some mysterious men appeared.
They told him that if he wanted to be stronger, he should eat some red pills.
He didn't know what they were made of.
But he wanted to be strong, much stronger than Gerhardt.
Days passed, Krulcifer's body was growing in an unimaginable way.
In the end, a few years passed and so they managed to create the pills that the important members of the Black Crows use.
Unfortunately, they have not been able to succeed in obtaining Krulcifer's power.
Because of his strength, Gerhardt appointed him as lord of the underworld, if he won 4000 fights as the undefeated champion, he would be allowed a duel against the night king.
This was his 4000th battle.
The victory of this duel was everything to him.
Nothing else mattered to him.
On this day, his wish would be granted.
"Don't fuck with me!"
He stood up and his muscles began to contract.
I am the supreme champion! I am the one-eyed tyrant king, Krulcifer! And a vile bitch like you won't make me-
"Shut up."
He couldn't finish his sentence, as Leila leapt up, and with a flying kick, sent back his jaw.
He spat blood and was sent flying straight into the wall.
The stands could not believe their eyes.
Even Lambert who had one of his eyes open.
"W-what... what's going on?"
A semi-human girl out of nowhere was beating the crap out of the king of this place.
Once again, he stood up, only this time. His skin was turning red.
"You've had enough of me!"
Krulcifer was releasing his magic power.
A great amount of magical power was shaking the earth and the air.
Leila was just watching him without interest.
"Leila was in charge of rescuing these two, after I was left waiting for the Master when he was done."
"As if I cared!"
Krulcifer's body was so red, it could be called a demon.
"Aaaaaaah!"
He screamed at the top of his lungs as he ran towards Leila.
He raised his big left fist and buried it in the ground.
Leila jumped back from her position without taking her hands out of her pockets.
Observing that she dodged it, he madly threw punches.
"Aaaahh!"
Left.
Right.
Large amounts of blows at high speeds.
Leila dodged it without even paying the slightest interest to her opponent.
It seemed as if she was dancing in slow motion because of the natural and advantageous way she was dodging the attacks.
The large hands rose and fell together.
He thought she was crushed, but then he noticed how something similar to a feather flew close to him.
It kicked him lightly and he fell to the ground.
He had lost two teeth.
As he fell to the ground, Leila said to him.
"My clan specializes in combat. We live to fight. We sleep thinking about how we will fight tomorrow and to die fighting is our greatest desire."
"You are not strong. You're just a piece of garbage that got big. Leila hates parasites like you."
Hearing that word "parasite," Krulcifer had a memory.
A boy was alone.
He was in a bed.
He was so upset, he ran straight at her throwing punches everywhere.
Leila hit him lightly with her hair.
It was hard enough to leave a scar.
Again he fell down in pain.
Krulcifer was losing.
He was being too serious against a girl who didn't take him seriously.
But he got much angrier and his muscles grew.
He was getting ready to explode into a frenzy of madness, but-
"You're so annoying! Leila hates annoying people!"
Quickly running towards him.
Leila threw a combo of destructive punches at him.
To his stomach.
To his pancreas.
To his ankles.
His abdomen was taking a lot of punishment.
His fists were sinking into her body.
Leila delivered a spinning flying punch to his jaw.
Krulcifer spat blood, but the punishment didn't end there.
Leila grabbed his head and her knee embedded itself in his face.
His nose was broken and several of his teeth came out.
The undefeated champion fell to his knees.
He looked like a living corpse.
Leila swung her arm back. Her sharp nails were ready to tear.
"Let me kill you like a warrior at least."
She quickly moved her hand straight to Krulcifer's chest.
She sliced through skin, muscle, tissue and bone like butter.
Her hand went straight to his heart and began to squeeze it.
Leila squeezed Krulcifer's heart like a sponge.
She could feel the blood stop and she wanted to have a heart attack.
But, there was something else that amazed him.
It wasn't that he was defeated by a girl, but something else.
In the sky, in that beautiful red sky.
A figure was falling.
"Unbelievable... "
Krulcifer watched Gerhardt, the night king, the ultimate existence of power he knew, turning to ashes as he stretched out his hand.
It was there, where he remembered it all.
◇◇◇
Krulcifer was a reincarnate.
In his previous life he was a child suffering from a degenerative disease.
Medical science advanced so much that they could cure almost any modern disease.
But diseases that are inherited are very difficult these days.
He was in bed all day long.
He watched through his window other children play with joy.
But he who was also one, spent in bed.
At the age of 18, his end came.
He had one wish.
(He wished he could walk like everyone else).
Only that innocent wish crossed his mind before he closed his eyelids forever.
Sometime later he woke up in a mud puddle.
It was in the slums.
He remembered nothing of his past self.
Nor much less that his younger sister was playing an otome game near him to keep him company.
The main character was a girl, but she told him if he wanted a proper name for a good laugh.
He said. "Krulcifer. A cross between my haircut and my taste for secret societies."
That was the first time he smiled heartily.
Time passed and bad things happened to him.
Sometime later, he changed his name to one I didn't know and then he was called the one-eyed death. Then came other names.
In the end, the question of what it meant to be strong. It rolled around in his mind.
Having his heart being crushed, he understood his mistake.
"What's the point of having a second chance if it ended badly?"
With those words, Krulcifer's heart was crushed and he fell backwards.
Before his eye closed. He watched Gerhardt turn to ashes and mutter.
"Even kings fall. Glad to have seen that even the smug get what they deserve."
With a smile on his face of satisfaction. Krulcifer dreamed forever of a good place to go.