"A contract? Again?"
Runoa Faust was a bounty hunter. Ever since the head god of the familia she belonged to had left this realm, she had traveled from place to place, changing factions as she went, getting contract requests every day. Hunting bounties was how she covered her traveling expenses.
At the moment, the wandering girl found herself in the Labyrinth City, Orario.
Because of her strength, she was known as Black Fist in the underworld here.
"Gale Wind's killing spree wiped out the last of the Evils. Isn't the power struggle already over?"
She was in a tavern on the outskirts of the outskirts. Buried in a back alley, down a flight of stairs, several demi-humans were having secretive conversations. When she took contracts, she always used this bar.
"Gale Wind is the target this time."
Runoa wore a scarf to cover the bottom half of her face. Across from her was a human merchant. Catching wind of her real strength, he had ignored the other people in the bar and brought the contract to her. Runoa's clientele tended to bring unwelcome favors.
"I heard Gale Wind kicked the bucket in the cross fire from that."
"Gale Wind is still alive, and she left us a clue in the end. Right after the
Evils' hideout was destroyed, someone saw a bloodstained elf running away."
A detailed likeness was lying on the tabletop. The parchment showed the instant the elf ran past, a side view of a haggard face through broken pieces of a mask. Sunken sky-blue eyes, beautiful golden hair—an elf woman.
"My men investigated, and we know where she fled to as well. She's at The Benevolent Mistress."
Saying this, the merchant put a small bag with the advance payment on the table.
"One of the men under my protection was injured during Gale Wind's most recent spree. Not only that, she might have found out that our Bruno
Corporation was connected to the Evils. Before that gets out, erase her."
He got up without waiting for a reply, letting his words and the gold speak for themselves. After the client left the bar, Runoa took a deep breath.
"…Well, I said I'll take care of anyone as long as I get my reward, but…"
Runoa had gotten this far on brute strength alone. She had captured bounty after bounty in order to make an easy livelihood. But she was gradually getting tired.
"Orario's adventurers are a little too strong…"
The adventurers in the Labyrinth City got an order of magnitude stronger once you crossed a certain line. Even for Runoa's almost one hundred percent success rate on jobs, second-tier adventurers and above were inevitably difficult fights. First-tier adventurers were an instant no. Orario was a hive of superhuman monsters, sunup to sundown and beyond, fighting every day. It was a negative feedback loop where she crushed her targets, raising her reputation, leading to more crazy jobs coming her way. Her nerves were wearing down more and more with each passing day. Even the mead that she had liked so much at this bar had lost its flavor.
"Argh. I'm already tired. I just want to be able to settle down and find someone to take care of me. I could lie around a small house all day, and he doesn't have to be attractive…"
Runoa Faust. Seventeen years old.
She grumbled like someone twice her age as she looked up at the ceiling. "Maybe I should quit being a bounty hunter…?"
"Another contract? How many is that this month?" Chloe Lolo was an assassin.
She had belonged to a certain crime familia, and after getting sick of the endless stream of compulsory jobs, she had completed the unreasonable task set by the head god and been allowed to leave. As she traveled, she earned her living as an assassin.
Currently, the stray cat found herself in the place known as the Center of the World, Orario. Due to the success rate of her assassinations, her name spread in the underworld under the alias Black Cat.
"Well, if you prepare a proportionate reward, I'll do the job, but…"
Wearing a hood, Chloe was in a belfry that had been abandoned years ago. The long-silent bell hung from the ceiling as tranquil moonlight poured through the arch. It was one of the places she used for meetings when she took contracts.
"Ah, of course. The target this time is Gale Wind."
The man standing before Chloe was a dwarf merchant. He seemingly had many enemies, and he was also greedy. Sensing opportunities for money, he was a business connection who gathered contracts for her.
"Hmm, Gale Wind…is still alive?"
"Yeah. If you take the job I'll give you the details. It's a first-class wanted person this time."
He handed over a single wanted poster. Drawn on it was a masked adventurer wearing a deep hood. The sum written above the likeness was 80,000,000 valis.
"A bounty worth that much is unheard of. We got it before anyone else. The money'll be an even split—"
"Forty million in advance. And I'll take seventy percent of the reward," she cut in, shutting down his proposal.
"W-wait. Even for you…it should at least be sixty-forty…" he responded, suddenly flustered.
"No. You can say she's gotten weaker, but this is the monster who destroyed the Evils single-handedly…Taking out someone like her…if I don't get at least that much, it isn't worth it." Chloe stubbornly stood her ground.
The hood she wore fluttered in the night breeze. It was deep enough to cover her eyes, with two little peaks from her cat ears befitting the name Black Cat. The crescent moon illuminated the small movements of her lips.
"I can just do it myself, you know? I could always drag the information out of you."
"O-okay, I got it…we'll split it how you said."
The dwarf gulped and assented, disinclined to argue with an assassin who specialized in torture. He handed over the parchment with information about Gale Wind and left the belfry as if running for his life.
"…Easy, meow."
Once she was alone, Chloe's tone of voice changed, and she heaved a heavy sigh.
"That killjoy had a no backbone, not tasty at all, meow…Bringing back the contract sooner would be better, meow."
Chloe had gotten here on just her assassination ability.
Business was business, so she put on a facade that could not be looked down on and threw herself into the business of the night. But she was increasingly tired.
"Assassination here just doesn't pay off, meow. All the money I work to earn ends up going to pay for the preparations for the next job, meow."
As far as Chloe and her almost one hundred percent success rate were concerned, Orario's adventurers were too strong. The elaborate preparations required to assassinate them ate up all the rewards. Once, she had gotten lucky and taken out a second-tier adventurer. After that, the jobs were all challenges, and by the time she had painstakingly set up a gravestone, people were coming with new coffins for her to fill. Her painstakingly groomed tail that she took so much pride in was whipping up a storm.
"Ahhh. I want to live an elegant life with a handsome boy waiting on me already, meow. I want a slice of heaven where he pats my tummy and butt
and makes my heart race until I've had my fill, meow." Chloe Lolo. Sixteen years old.
Secretly filled with desire, the young catgirl whispered as she looked up at the moon. "Maybe I should quit the assassination business, meow…"
2
Rain was falling.
It was a cold rain. It washed everything away. The specks of blood dropping to the stone pavement mixed with the drops, melted, and disappeared.
"…"
Lyu walked by herself, dragging her wounded body through the empty back alley.
She did it.
She had finished it.
She had gotten her revenge.
She had destroyed them all: the familia that had stolen her comrades and all those who supported it.
However, that retribution would not bring back what she had lost. It only brought an empty feeling. "…Where am I…?"
Her field of vision, which had been crimson tinted, now turned gray.
Her friends' smiles, their final pained expressions—she could not remember any of it anymore. The tears that had poured from her eyes and the lamentations that had rushed from her lips had disappeared somewhere along the line.
She knew she had become empty.
The fury that had kept her moving had turned to a boundless darkness coiling around her heart. And in that never-ending darkness, Lyu was no longer attached to life.
As though condemning her, the cold rain from heaven stole her warmth. As though the gods had willed it. The foolish death of an elf who had strayed from her path.
Her body was so covered in blood there was no longer any telling what was hers and what was her enemies'. Wheezing as massive pain racked her heavily injured body, Lyu tried to move limbs suffering from unprecedented fatigue, and she collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut. She fell into a puddle, dirtying her body with splashes of mud. She began to freeze.
…Unsightly.
It was a cold night. She lay in a circle of dim light born of a used-up magic-stone lamp. This was where Lyu died. No one to care for her, in some dark, dirty back alley. A fitting end for a foolish fairy.
Goddess Astrea…Alizé.
The goddess's sweet smile flashed in her mind. Her affectionate words rang in her ears.
She wanted to hear the voice of her friend who was already gone and at peace one last time. Embracing those conflicting emotions, Lyu waited for her death, gradually closing her eyes. "—You okay?"
However.
As Lyu's consciousness slid into the dark abyss, someone reached out a hand.
"…?"
She could faintly see a girl in front of her as she opened her eyes. Bluish-silver hair shifted under the poncho she was wearing. The girl's voice resembled the gentle call of the chief goddess, and also her departed friend. The girl kneeled down and kindly grasped Lyu's blood- and grime-covered right hand.
…aaah.
My hand that refused the touch of other people—accepted her hand. Soft.
Warm.
Kind.
Wrapped in warmth, something spilled from Lyu's dried up eyes.
—"It's not time for you to come yet."
She thought she could hear her old friend's voice, and her consciousness completely faded.
The instant she realized the dream had ended… Lyu's eyes opened.
"—!"
Her eyelids opened wide. She was looking at a wooden ceiling. The feeling of sheets and a blanket wrapped around her body indicated she had slept in a bed. What she was seeing was not a memory but an actual wooden room. Morning sunlight shone through a window.
"This is—Gah!"
As she sluggishly tried to sit up, her upper body immediately collapsed.
Lyu was assaulted by a wave of pain and weariness. As she fell back into the blanket, she noticed the bandages wrapped around her arms. Someone had given her medical treatment. Perplexed by the unknown room, and the smell wafting through the air, she heard light footsteps as a girl opened the door and came in.
"Ah, you woke up. Great."
"…You are…"
"Don't try to do too much, okay? You were really badly hurt."
The newcomer holding bandages and a washcloth was the same platinum-haired girl Lyu had seen in the back alley. She was wearing some kind of shop's uniform, just like in Lyu's memories. It was clear she had carried Lyu to this room and cared for her.
"You were asleep for three days. It's good you were able to wake up." "Three days…"
Hearing that number, Lyu was not particularly surprised. Her only thought was:
I'm still alive. That was all.
"I'm Syr Flover."
As Lyu blankly looked ahead, the girl, Syr, introduced herself. She was cute. An affable smile floated across her face as if to put Lyu at ease, speaking to her kindness. She was the exact opposite of Lyu, who tended to be especially frank in her responses.
Someone who could just naturally get people to smile; "girl next door" was a perfect descriptor.
"This is a small building at the tavern that I work at. After I found you collapsed in the alley, I had you carried here—"
"Why?"
"Eh?"
Interrupting the girl, Lyu asked. Thoughts of regret and despair mixed together.
"Why did you help me?"
She had lost everything. Having killed her bitter enemy, she had no more reason to cling to life. The only thing left for her was emptiness. She could not find another reason to live on. Knowing just how empty her eyes were, Lyu looked back at the girl.
"Let's see…" Syr looked as though she was concerned about Lyu, smiling as she lowered her eyebrows. "I couldn't just leave someone so wounded in the rain."
"…"
It was an incredibly straightforward response. If Lyu were in her position, she would definitely have done the same.
Would she still be able to say that if she knew who I was?
Lyu was the Gale Wind. The most wanted person in Orario, who had brought chaos to the city.
"Were you not…suspicious of someone collapsed in a place like that?"
"At the moment, Orario is dangerous no matter what. And also, I'm used to people with special circumstances."
…Used to? People with special circumstances?
Doubtful, Lyu shifted her gaze back to Syr as she set the medical supplies on a shelf and knelt on the floor, looking up at her.
"Miss Elf, what's your name?"
"…And once you know, what will you do?"
"I'd like to call you by it."
When Syr responded so easily, Lyu's voice caught in her throat.
This is difficult. Her manner is strange. Who is this girl?
She did not have the willpower to live; she should have had eyes as empty as someone already dead. Nevertheless, as Syr kindly approached her, Lyu was confused.
She tried to turn away, attempting to reject the girl's innocent, sunny goodwill. However…
…She's the second person…
Lyu had not knocked her hand away. The first person had been the leader of Astrea Familia, her old friend Alizé Rovel, the one who invited her to join the familia. She had been the first and last person until this point. When people she had just met tried to shake her hand, Lyu instinctually batted them away.
However, that rainy day, in a dark back alley, the girl had grasped Lyu's hand.
The elf's hand that was so deeply stained in darkness had also not rejected Syr's hand.
She doesn't resemble Alizé at all. So why…?
She looked at Syr's smile and her hand. Unsure and with nowhere else to look, Lyu finally opened her mouth.
"Lyu…Lyu Leon."
"Lyu…That's a nice name." Hearing it, a smile bloomed on Syr's face like a flower.
Lyu's gaze fled to the blanket covering her. Syr and her joyful expression were definitely hard to deal with.