After throwing what she considered the most vicious insult, the white-haired loli floating in midair flapped her delicate bat wings with all her might, stumbling and staggering as she fled deep into the forest.
Though her movements were somewhat comical, she flew remarkably fast, disappearing under the moonlight in the blink of an eye.
“Well, well, I scared her off.”
Eulalia remained alone in the awkward silence, lightly scratching her cheek with a fingertip.
“I was going to ask about that pendant around her neck—it looked oddly familiar somehow.”
“Oh well, maybe it’s just my imagination.”
The golden-haired girl stood up, stretching her body that had grown stiff from kneeling too long, and murmured to herself thoughtfully.
“Still, asking someone to call me ‘big sister’ on first meeting was a bit lacking in boundaries.”
“Yeah, ‘Lady Big Sister’ would probably be better.”
Eulalia clapped her hands together with a smack, having made up her mind.
“Respected Eulalia ‘Lady Big Sister,’ would you care to explain to your subordinate just what you are doing in a place like this?”
At some point, the female knight in full armor had arrived behind Eulalia, but the atmosphere around her was far from as polite as her words suggested.
The chill emanating from her was even heavier than the sword in her hand.
Eulalia turned her head somewhat sheepishly and gave two dry laughs.
“Haha, what am I doing… using the restroom?”
“Heh, using the restroom in a deep mountain forest several miles away? You really are ‘shy,’ aren’t you?”
Angelina’s tone was strange—whether because the shocking answer almost made her laugh or because having been treated like a fool had fully ignited her inner fury.
She swept her gaze across the surroundings.
“If you mean to say that all this blood on the ground is your handiwork, then what you should be doing isn’t sending your subordinate away to go to the bathroom, but immediately going to find that Saint Lady to have her check your body.”
Especially your head.
“Haha, just kidding! Why do you always take me seriously?”
Eulalia slapped her forehead and immediately changed her tune, as if she too found the thoughtless words a bit ridiculous.
The smile on her face quickly faded as she spoke to Angelina in a serious manner.
“Actually, I happened to find a lost little wildcat sleeping here. Out of compassion, I wanted to protect it until it woke up, but I accidentally scared it.”
“A little wildcat?”
Angelina’s forehead bulged with a few veins, her heroic face barely holding together.
She glanced at the crater-like, pockmarked ground around them, then at Eulalia’s mud-caked feet.
“Your Highness… a ‘little wildcat’ that can destroy the ground like this just from being startled—doesn’t exist in this world, does it?”
“Do you think your subordinate looks like an idiot?”
Eulalia blinked innocently, her expression still serious, with no embarrassment at being found out.
“It was a pretty strong little wildcat, after all. Having a bit of a temper when waking up is only natural.”
Angelina stared into Eulalia’s clear, innocent blue eyes. After a long moment, she let out a helpless long sigh and sheathed her sword.
“Since Your Highness says so… then I’ll report it as an encounter with a fourth-rank rogue monster, repelled by Her Highness Eulalia.”
Even if she knew she was talking nonsense, what could she do?
She was the princess she had sworn to serve, after all.
She couldn’t exactly interrogate her like a criminal.
“Mhm, Angelina’s the best!” Eulalia beamed instantly.
“But!”
Angelina’s tone turned sharply angry.
“Your Highness shaking off your guards and venturing alone into the forest—that’s not something so easily swept under the rug.”
“Um… what if I said I was seduced by a demon?” Eulalia blinked, trying to explain her bewildering behavior.
“You mean a demon traveled all the way to this desolate mountain wilderness just to seduce a Saint Candidate who tries to get others to call her ‘Lady Big Sister’?”
“Who exactly is the one seducing people?”
Eulalia scratched her head awkwardly, her gaze drifting.
“Ehehe~☆”
She stuck out her tongue, trying to charm her way out.
Angelina felt her blood pressure spike. Grim-faced, she grabbed the cloak she had brought and wrapped it around Eulalia.
“The road to Kantaier Academy is still long. I have plenty of time to go over the various attention rules from the scripture with you a few times.”
“Ugh… have mercy on me…”
……
Deep in the forest on the other side, darkness and deathly silence intertwined.
In the shadows, several creatures baring fangs and claws lurked, waiting for prey to wander in.
Suddenly, a gust of wind howled through, shattering the deathly, dangerous atmosphere. As if sensing something dangerous approaching at high speed, the monsters in the shadows fled in panic.
The next moment, a girl’s voice, tinged with childishness, echoed through the forest canopy.
“Ahh—I’m going to crash!”
“How do I brake with these stupid wings!”
With the screaming growing closer, the entire forest’s vegetation rustled in the wind.
Then, a white-fluff ball plummeted from the sky like a meteor, carving a clearing through the woods with sheer force.
Rocks and dirt flew, dust billowed, and with the crackling snap of branches and broken trees, the culprit of this carnage was buried under the wreckage.
When everything settled, a pale, slender calf emerged from the rubble, twitched twice in midair, then retracted.
“Cough, cough. These stupid wings won’t obey me… Pfft! All because of that bad woman!”
With the childish complaint, Sevitis crawled out of the rubble somewhat awkwardly, coughing out dust that had gotten into her mouth while patting the dirt off her clothes with a sullen look.
She had no time to pay attention to how her voice came out much softer and sweeter than expected—even though it sounded between clenched teeth from the emotion behind it, it was still quite pleasant.
After flying who knew how far, feeling that the other party probably wouldn’t come after her, Sevitis had wanted to slow down and land, but ran into a very serious problem.
Though she had instinctively manipulated the bat wings to fly, instinct hadn’t told her how to brake.
After flailing uselessly in the air a few times, she found herself exhausted.
In the end, she gave up struggling and was forced to adopt the most primal “face-brake” landing method.
Sevitis collapsed wearily onto the ground, her legs splayed wide open, completely unconscious of having turned into a young girl.
Flying with her own wings for the first time was indeed a novel experience, but for her, it was far from pleasant.
Not only because her first flight after rebirth had been so clumsy, but also because the interweaving of reluctance and fear during her escape had made her crash into countless things like a headless fly.
After warily scanning the surroundings and confirming there was no danger, Sevitis finally had a chance to examine her new body.
She had thought she would be either dead or half-crippled after landing so violently, but she was almost completely unharmed.
Curiously, she poked her pale thigh with a finger.
Though her skin looked delicate, the physical durability of the demon race was ridiculous.
Even after plowing through so many trees and rocks, she had barely sustained any injuries.
The few scrapes she had healed in the blink of an eye.
After experiencing it firsthand, Sevitis realized that the Blood Demon Clan’s regeneration ability was even more absurd than the rumors claimed.
No wonder her attacks had left no marks on that vampire.
“Tch… sure, cheat with racial advantages.” The white-haired girl muttered discontentedly under her breath.
And if she wasn’t mistaken, the move that had flung her away at the end wasn’t a racial ability of the vampire clan, but came from that person’s own [Soul Vein] .
In this world, magic power was clearly tiered. The lowest was first rank, and ninth rank was the limit for all races on the continent.
For ordinary people, the real watershed was at third rank.
Once you crossed that threshold, a special emblem would appear somewhere on your body, signifying the acquisition of your own unique power.
That was a universally recognized law of the continent. But ironically, Sevitis had managed to break that law.
Though she had condensed a Soul Vein when breaking through to third rank, she had sadly discovered—it was an empty shell with no ability at all.
She didn’t want to blame everything on fate, but fate truly was so twisted.
But it didn’t matter. Now she had become a monster too.
If she ever met that vampire again, even without a Soul Vein awakening, she wouldn’t lose.
But that was probably impossible.
Why?
Simple. When she had scanned the area earlier, she hadn’t seen that vampire.
Besides the pool of blood under her, there was another pool not far away.
So the question was: the one under her was hers; where did the other pool come from?
That bad woman didn’t have a single scratch, so the blood couldn’t be hers.
And with such a commotion, all the other creatures in the forest would have fled long ago.
The answer was clear—it was the Blood Demon’s blood. As for where she herself had gone?
Hah, probably blown to bits by Eulalia, right?
Don’t judge Eulalia by her harmless appearance. Sevitis knew very well that woman was a complete monster.
Five years ago, her power had already reached third rank.
After another five years of training in the Theocratic Nation, how could her strength have stayed stagnant?
Add the inherent advantage of Holy Magic against the demon race, and it was perfectly reasonable for her to crush a Blood Demon without a scratch.
Judging by the monstrous strength Eulalia had used just now when she pressed her head down, that bad woman could kill her with her bare hands.
As for why Eulalia hadn’t made a move all along, instead approaching her like a concerned older sister trying to befriend a lost girl?
Sevitis could swear on her honor—that woman was just indulging in her nasty habit again. Who knew what scheming she had up her sleeve?
If she hadn’t already seen through her black-hearted nature, she might have been fooled into following her lead, stupidly becoming a toy to be manipulated.
But too bad—there was no way she would fall for the same trick twice!
So her decision to flee the instant she sensed something was off had been correct.
Running was just a temporary retreat.
And besides, how could a monster’s actions be called fleeing? It was a strategic withdrawal.