A man of that caliber had lost; the implications were severe.
The fact that the opponent had the leisure to laugh during a fight against Brain meant only one thing.
Even when everyone understood, no one spoke.
The best they could manage was to silently look at each other’s faces.
Every single member of the mercenaries had their mouths closed shut, and glared in the direction of the hall’s entrance— the cave’s entrance.
In the midst of the mounting tension—
The sound of someone running could be heard; it slowly grew louder.
One could hear the sound of someone swallowing their saliva. A silence dominated the hall, and was soon broken by the noise of numerous arrows being nocked to its position.
A man completely out of breath ran through the hall’s entrance, under watch by the entirety of the mercenary group. It was a wonder how the arrows didn’t immediately fly in his direction.
“Brain!”
The boss of the mercenaries — their leader yelled aloud. Following shortly, the hall exploded in cheers. It was a roar of celebration for their victory against the intruders.
Each man pounded the shoulder of the one next to him, and shouts praising Brain rang out in triumph.
His name could be heard countless times. Surrounded in cheers, Brain weakly held his weapon in one hand and stood at the entrance of the hall with a blank expression. He suddenly began to search the faces of the mercenaries around him.
No, that was wrong, he was looking for something else.
Seeing Brain act so differently from his usual self, the cheering in the room slowly died down.
Brain ran towards the barricade.
“H, Hey! Just hold on! We’re opening it right now!”
As if he didn’t hear a word, he squeezed his body through. Not wanting to wait even one minute, one second, Brain passed the barricade and ran.
With the confused looks of the bandits following behind him, he threw open the door to a storage room and ran inside.
“What was that about? Did he leave something in there?”
“Who knows? Something was strange about him though… he looked like he was crying… no way, right?”
Amongst them, one man’s face had changed. He understood the truth of the situation that only he, no, with Brain combined; only two at present had come to grasp. However, the man had no time to ascertain whether or not he was correct.
Click, with a quiet sound, another figure had emerged from the entrance.
Needless to say, it was an unfamiliar face. If no one amongst the mercenaries knew who this person was, it meant that she was the intruder responsible for the chaos. The commotion in the hall dried up instantly.
That was impossible, then Brain’s appearance here would take on a completely different meaning. The fact that the intruder was alive meant that he had lost and fled.
There was only one intruder, with a hunched appearance that looked incredibly eerie.
A small body, she looked like young girl. Her hands were hanging loosely at her sides, and her chin was bent all the way downwards. The strange part was that considering the position of her head relative to the base of her neck, her neck looked as if it was at least three times as long as a normal person’s.
With such an appearance, seemingly unconcerned that her long and shiny silver hair was dragging along the ground, she slowly entered the hall. Her fine, pitch-black dress gave her the appearance of being clad in darkness.
No one said a word.
An appearance so queer; a heart stopping chill.
Slowly— her head moved. Behind the thin, silver hair that covered the entirety of her face, two crimson eyes lit up. And slowly narrowed like needles.
Everyone present understood. No— they were forced to understand.
She was laughing.
The frightening girl raised her chin, revealing a graceful face. But to those who saw her appearance just before, there was nothing more disturbing. The face was too elegant; it looked like a mask carved by the hands of a first-rate artisan.
“Hello everyone. I am Shalltear Bloodfallen. Is this the finish line? Is the game over?”
The girl who seemed to be spouting utter nonsense— Shalltear scanned her surroundings. But unable to spot the one she was looking for, her beautiful face frowned. With no one looking to interrupt her, once more, the girl’s voice rang through the hall.
“This time it’s hide and seeeeeeeeeeeek?”
She laughs mischievously. As if she found something irresistibly hilarious, the girl looked down and continued to laugh, her hair covering her face.
With their situation growing more abnormal by the second, the mercenaries inhaled a giant gulp of breath. All the while, Shalltear’s laughter grew louder and louder.
“AhahaaaaahahahaAHAHAAAAAAAAHAHAHA!!”
With her laugh continuing to ring out loud, she raised her head.
The face that entered their vision caused the mercenaries to simultaneously feel as if their heart stopped and their blood froze over.
There was no beauty to be found in that face. The color of her iris spilled forth and dyed the rest of her eyes in a deep crimson. Her teeth, which seemed so white and beautiful just a moment ago, were replaced with rows of narrow, needle-like fangs similar to the jaws of a shark. Her lips, which gave off a bewitching red glint, grew smoother, and a transparent glob of saliva trailed down from the corner of her mouth.
“AHAHAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHA!”
Shalltear’s lips tore upwards to just below her ears, and let loose a laughter that sounded like the ringing of countless off-tune bells.
The air in the hall sounded as if it was screaming.
Even considering that they were inside a cave, the reverberation was frightening. It was as if the air itself couldn’t endure the noise and was crying out in pain.
— girl?
— monster?
— beast?
She was none of those.
An avatar of terror—.
Even at this distance, her breath was so overpowering that the stench of blood was plenty apparent. It looked as if even the air around her was dyed red from the smell.
“Uuuuwaaaahhhhh!!”
With a scream, a mercenary completely overwhelmed by terror pulled the trigger on his crossbow.
“—Fire!”
Snapped awake by the voice of their leader, the rest of the mercenaries fired their crossbows with the feeling of wanting to reject their fear. The arrows fell with the sound of heavy rainfall and pierced Shalltear’s body.
Of the 40 shots fired, 31 of them found their mark. Every single one that hit was lodged deeply into their target. It was an obvious outcome, considering that at this distance, the arrows could easily penetrate through iron armor.