Volume 1 – Following the Maze Drawn With Lines of Blood
For a while after her attack on the Slava Residence, Mary left the territorial capital, Captis.
There were too many soldiers gathered there.
“I went a bit too wild, I have to be quieter next time.”
In the end, Duke Slava was not at the residence.
Mary wasn’t expecting him to be, but the sense of disappointment could not be denied.
Further, it was bad for her future to have to deal with tens of thousands of soldiers now after missing her target.
Failing to kill the head of the Duchy of Slava was irritating, but she needed information first.
For now, Mary had gone to a farm village near Captis.
She could see the tall building she killed Romeo in from here.
She looked at the townscape lined up by houses made with cheap timber.
The gap was so massive that it was hard to believe these two places were in the same territory.
However, soldiers of the Slava Army were deployed in these rural villages as well.
“I can’t believe so many soldiers came here in under one day. I can see why the Duke of Slava is so proud of his army.”
She saw many soldiers passing by while hiding in the shadow of this house.
All the soldiers were equipped with the latest model sorcery guns.
“They’re well equipped as well, thanks to Majoram Technologies. I don’t have to worry about guns like that, but I’m sure they have large-scale weaponry too.”
The things holding up the economy of the Slava Territory were the mines inside the territory, and Majoram Technologies.
As the second princess, Mary had also met their management.
It was likely that they would have had a deep relationship, had she gotten to marry Romeo.
“But I still can’t run away. I won’t let myself retreat until I erase the man who killed my sister……”
The soldiers walking by in front of Mary could be said to be the hands and feet of Duke Slava.
The more she looked at them, the more her resentment welled up.
Mary bit her thumbs.
She crushed the meat, scraped the bone and felt the blood staining her lips.
But the wound she gnawed open quickly healed because of her arcana power.
After gnawing so much and feeling it in her stomach, her belly started rumbling.
She needed food.
She sadly rubbed her stomach.
“……I’m hungry. This isn’t the best timing, but… my belly doesn’t get full even if I eat corpses, so…”
She had not eaten even once since killing Romeo.
On top of it, ever since her arcana powers awakened, she was using so much more energy than before.
She never felt this much hunger before, even though she used to eat very little, and she felt that she used up a lot of energy during her assault on the estate.
Finding some kind of food was also a part of the reason Mary had come here.
“I can’t look for food with all these soldiers around, anyway. I could get rid of some of them, but-“
She didn’t want to kill anyone who wasn’t trying to kill her.
On the other hand however, she certainly had no trifling ideas like valuing life.
She wanted to avoid killing if she could, but this was only because she decided it would be the most efficient manner to reach her objective of killing the Duke of Slava.
“If I’m going to kill, I should be sneaky. I hope I can do it.”
Her slackened bloodlust began to well up again.
Her predator eyes caught the soldiers some distance off.
Two soldiers.
Large men who looked threatening just by the way they walked.
They were chatting listlessly as the weapons in their hands swung about.
“I mean, why would she be hiding in a rural village like this, anyway? The estate was attacked very recently too, right?”
“Who cares, we’re still getting paid.”
“I want to see her face once, at least. She’s an arcana user, it might be beneficial to see who she is.”
“Like hell. You’d just end up dead.”
“They say she’s a Death God, but I’m not going to die if I just look from afar, right? …Hm?”
“Ah!”
A young girl running from the direction in front of him crashed into the man.
The girl with light brown hair, who looked to be 12 or 13 years old, fell on her butt.
“Ouch…… I’m so sorry, mister soldier, I’m in a hurry!”
“I see. Let’s get you up, little miss.”
The soldier reached out to the girl.
He pulled the girl up after she grabbed his hand, and used this momentum to hit the girl in the head with his knee.
“Agh!?”
“Yaaay, a clean hit!”
The girl fell to the ground.
“..!”
Mary’s eyes opened wide after seeing this.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Blowing off some steam. These are all commoners, right? Noone’s gonna get mad at us for accidentally killing a couple of them.”
“That’s a bit…… Well, I guess we can say we thought she was Mary Pulsherima. They’re both little girls, so.”
The two were trying to kill an innocent girl.
“Agh…… Aaah…… Ah……”
The girl backed off with her hand on her cheek.
The soldiers approached her, and aimed their guns.
“So, won’t you play with us a little?”
“Don’t worry, we won’t kill you right away.”
“We’ll definitely kill you in the end, though!”
“No…… No…… Nooooooo!”
The girl stood up and started running off.
The soldiers laughed, fixed their aim and pulled the trigger.
“Baam!”
The mana bullets flew towards the girl’s legs, but were bounced off by Mary’s dress after she stood in the way.
“…What? Who the hell are you!?”
“Wait, that face… Mary!”
Thorned bones broke through the palms of Mary’s hands.
She dashed and approached the soldiers.
“I gotta kill them without leaving a trail.”
She stabbed the soldier’s chests with the thorns.
“W-Wha!?”
“Argh!?”
She fired.
The bone-thorns were buried in the men’s bodies, in the area around their hearts.
“I’ll kill them without too much bloodshed.”
Then, the bones blossomed inside their bodies and crushed their hearts and organs from within.
“Agh…… agh, guh…… buh……”
Light faded from their eyes as they started bubbling blood from their mouths.
“I can just eat them up completely before they go down.”
Mary transformed her hands into massive ‘mouths’ made of bone and swallowed the men whole from head down.
She instantly digested them to avoid spilling blood.
The girl’s face turned blue as Mary devoured the corpses while making grotesque noises.
While eating, Mary turned around and smiled at the little girl.
“That was close. You shouldn’t go out much while there are soldiers around.”
“You…… you’re……”
Mary tried to grab the edge of her skirt to greet the girl.
But that was difficult to do while her hands were in this shape.
She finished devouring the corpses she was chewing and absorbed the bones back.
Then, she restored her arms and grabbed the edge of her skirt.
“My name is Mary Pulsherima. Perhaps you already know who I am.”
“M-Mhm, I know!”
Mary instinctively smiled at the suddenly respectful girl.
This put the girl at ease, and she replied with a smile as well.
“I’m sorry you had to see that right after we met, aren’t you scared of me?”
“I am, but…… it’s more that I’m happy. I mean, you’re a hero for us, Lady Mary!”
“Hero?”
“Mhm! A hero who will save us from Duke Slava!”
Mary raised her eyebrows after this unexpected development.
But the little girl just grabbed her hand.
“Well, there might be more soldiers coming, so you should stay at my house!”
“No, I wouldn’t want to-“
“It’ll be noon soon, so let’s eat together. Everyone’s going to be really happy when they see you!”
She was hungry.
This was an appreciated offer, and while Mary was still confused, the little girl pulled her by the hand and led Mary to her house.