NOVEL WEB 025 – She, Who Knew Herself
"No, I won't."
...
"Why are you saying this? They hurt others and even killed orc villagers, Lady Euphemia! You should kill them, they are not my parents! Why?!"
Kirina asked, sounding confused.
She couldn't understand why I would say such a thing.
I had already decided to spare one of the werewolves, but I realized Kirina had been abducted by them, so she wouldn't know.
And hearing those words from her hurt in a way I couldn't quite explain.
"Please, Lady Euphemia. ... . Kill them here and now."
To put it simply, this world is just one misery after another. Death, killing, being killed, abandonment, forsakenness.
Is it a remnant of my past self? Or empathy? Or perhaps... even immortality doesn't erase this pain, is this what it means to be immortal?
To despise death?
--You seek enjoyment yet you're as dull as flour!--
I'm the cutest, Euphemia Grimwood, that's an undeniable fact.
--You might be cute but you're a fool among fools! Killing is a norm, murder is an art, why can't such simple common sense penetrate your pea-sized brain?!--
--You're immortal, you're the most adorable person ever! Kill! Kill those who don't appreciate your cuteness!--
--Embrace the art, embrace your...
Stop.
Pushing aside those self-inflicted thoughts, I found an answer to clear my mind and shift my focus before it wandered into dangerous territory.
My only purpose in this new life is to find my 'enjoyment'!
Nothing more, nothing less. Who doesn't want happiness? Hehe...
"Lady Euphemia... why..."
"To gather information from them. Interrogate them, make them talk about various things. They can't speak if they're dead, can they?"
That's what I said, regaining full control of myself.
Kirina, who seemed resigned to patricide, hesitated for a moment, then nodded somewhat dazedly and said, "Well, if that's the case."
It's strange to accept keeping someone alive to interrogate their parents, but it's not my place to say. If she doesn't spew out sophistry to justify herself, it doesn't matter to me, Euphemia Grimwood, whether a child kills their parent or a parent tries to dominate their child.
After all, in this world, if you want to do it, just do it without thinking! Such a beautiful world, isn't it?
My parents who adored me now forsake me to save themselves, humans tried to burn me at the stake for stupid reasons, twins used me as a guinea pig, demons tried to crush me, and now, a child asking me to kill their parents. What a story, isn't it?
If my life were a story, I'd want to punch the author for making worthless story full of nonsense.
...Thinking about it, the person with such admirable morals is surprisingly quiet.
Before I realized it, Kirina's mother lay on the ground.
Judging from the expression on Serena's face, the nearby kitsune, she must have done something to put Stella to sleep. She didn't kill her, I can somehow tell.
Now then...
"Euphemia. Seems like I went a bit too far. Didn't think he'd revert to his human form, so I cut off his legs, but he might die like this," Junos said.
Zamba, lying face down on the ground, had his right leg severed just above the ankle, and blood was gushing out continuously from there. Since there wasn't much bleeding from the right hand pierced by the black sword, it should be fine to leave that alone.
"Hmm... right, someone use magic to cauterize Zamba's wound. Don't do it too intensely. Seal the surface quickly with gentle heat,"
So, Jade was assigned to handle the rissole , a cooking method where the surface of the meat is seared firmly over high heat, and as expected, Zamba woke up halfway through, screaming loudly, and Montego came running again after Junos knocked him out again.
The three-meter tall swine beast, clearly frightened by our actions, said,
"What on earth are you doing, Lady Euphemia...?"
The answer was simple.
-Cleanup and preparation.
The preparation stage before the actual battle is the most crucial.
I hate battles, though. I will do what I want. No one has the right to said what should I do. I hate battles, it was simply part of me since battles are physically and mentally taxing!
There are things that will move me, you know!
Things that can't be help for example saving Serena and the orc village, things that I hate like blowing up the heads of three people, things that necessary like leaving the human realm, things that will benefit me greatly in long term like building my home and help others building theirs and of course, things that I enjoy!
Now, the location has changed to the assembly hall.
This place, which occupies almost all of the space like a school gymnasium, seems to require this much space for everyone to gather and discuss various things.
Indeed, when the orcs and I sat cross-legged, I couldn't shake off the feeling of a distorted scale, and I found it quite interesting.
Including the fact that we placed Zamba, who had lost one leg, in the middle of the cross-legged sitting — let me say it was quite interesting.
When Zamba woke up from unconsciousness, he was remarkably quiet and clearly despondent, and he answered all our questions.
On the other hand, Stella couldn't seem to get the hang of it and just kept screaming no matter what we asked, so we decided to silence her by making her bite on a gag made from torn orc loincloths.
Hehehe... that's my idea and the sight was bringing me joy!
It was a brilliant choice by Euphemia Grimwood the cutest, even though women of both demons and orcs seemed disgusted, but of course, I didn't care. Hehehe...
This is the enjoyment I want.
"As for the points of concern, there are three major ones."
Firstly, the human allies cooperating with the werewolves.
If they are someone from the Kingdom of Louisse, as a former Louisseian noblewoman, I might know them, or even if not, it would be necessary to recognize who from where is cooperating with the beastmen's coup.
I told Zamba, "The collaborators don't know about the werewolves' goals; humans only look out for their own interests," but that was about half a lie.
There's no reason to cooperate with someone whose interests are opposed to yours.
In other words, the goals of the werewolves and the "collaborators" would, at the very least, not conflict.
"...I've met the messenger of a noble called Sol Spade a few times. They were unhappy with Randall dominating the beastmen's territory,"
So they formed a cooperative relationship there.
Spade — probably Baron Soltice Sol Spade of the Kingdom of Louisse. In terms of position, it should be further southwest than the Escard frontier, closer to the beastmen's territory but distant from the demon realm.
Orcs, harpies, and werebulls... werebulls, what do they look like? Bull sheets? Well, that's beside the point, but using such beastmen as livestock or slaves, and then... and then, what?
Unlike Earth, this world doesn't have an abundance of land. So are they planning to utilize the beastmen for colonization, or do they have other motives?
Regardless, since beastmen have their own consciousness, I can't imagine them silently submitting to slavery. The idea wasn't enjoyable to me in slightest to be honest.
In that case, there must be something to subjugate the beastmen, but I've never seen or heard of an item like a "slave collar" that appears in isekai light novels as far as I know.
"Hmm..."
Well, never mind.
Let's put it on hold for now.
The second point of concern.
Zamba Broad and his tribe— if we're limited to the number of people who attacked this village, there are only twelve of them.
In this case, rather than inciting them as I did, it seems somewhat better to just personally confront Lion King Randall and pick a fight, rather than trying to succeed in a so-called coup with such a small number of people. There's no way a coup with such a small number of people could succeed.
So, perhaps this coup is a coalition force.
"Heh... so you saw through it... yeah, we knew it was impossible with just us. But you see, we didn't want to just be underestimated by Randall,"
In addition to Broad, there are four other tribes from the werewolf side, and it seems a coalition force consisting of four types of beastmen and their tribes has been formed. It seems that the initial moves of a coup d'état in the beastmen's territory are currently underway. In other places, it seems that other beastmen are being attacked.
"Hmm... is this Randall guy really that incompetent in politics?"
I asked Serena aside from the three points of concern, but Serena also shrugged ambiguously with a puzzled expression.
"I've been holed up in that other world for over ten years. I wouldn't know much about the current state of affairs. At the very least, when the fox tribe was disbanded, there wasn't anything resembling governance going on,"
"Ah, I see."
The information is outdated.
Montego said they were paying tribute to Lion King Randall with wheat, which bothered me. According to Serena, it was treated like a sort of supreme court with military power, but after ten years, has it become a functioning government... or even a dynasty?
"Well then, next. This is the most concerning question for me."
The fox clan, or tribe, whatever you call their group, was disbanded on Randall's orders, and its members scattered throughout the beastmen's territory.
This was over ten years ago.
Serena received a sort of punishment to guard that place by the riverside that separates the demon realm and the beastmen's territory, preventing intruders from the demon realm, and faithfully continued to protect that place.
Well, in the first place, there were only a few of us who came to such a place, Dubil the dwarf and us.
So, the crucial point is ten years ago.
When Kirina was still a baby, Stella came to Serena to leave her.
How did Stella know Serena's whereabouts?
That's the problem.
Serena didn't know where the scattered foxes were. Probably, the other foxes didn't either, not to mention the elite Kitsunes1group of fox people capable of using magic, atleast stronger than basic magics. Otherwise, there would be no point in disbanding them. They would just gather again.
"...A close aide of Randall's told me."
When Junos removed the gag, Stella muttered with a resigned expression. I don't think the orc loincloth gag smelled that bad, but even if it had a floral scent, her expression wouldn't have changed.
"Who is she?"
"A woman from the leopard tribe. She should have been in her teens at the time. She's very smart and valued by Randall... At the time, I was ordered to mediate between the Broad clan and another tribe that were in conflict, but when I was leaving, that woman told me Kirina's whereabouts."
"What's her name?"
"Lex Asuka, alias, Oordinary."
"Ohordinary?"
"No, Oordinary"
"What a strange alias. I'll remember that."
Stella seemed to have some value left.
We questioned and answered several other points of concern, and some of them seemed pointless to think about here and now, so I shelved them for later. The shelves might collapse under the weight, but well, there's no helping it.
Then.
"Um, Lady Euphemia. May I ask something?"
Montego timidly raised his hand—since he was huge, even if he was as modest as could be, raising his hand would make him stand out— and spoke as timidly as his attitude.
"Uh, how should we proceed?"