You’ve waited a whole week, and now here is the next chapter. Unfortunately for you, it’s a short chapter. Enjoy.

Moonlit Night, Parade of Corpses【８】

In the first place, just who is the Ghost-user Umbra.

He is the shadow of someone that had fallen into becoming a Living Dead called a Lich for the sake of their pursuit of magic.

In life, he was a man that was a renowned and excellent alchemist but after touching upon the mysteries of life, he became fascinated with the human body and the soul.

He possessed a technique that intervened with the soul, and was able to manipulate ghosts at will.

With the soul coming from the basis of life, it could be agreed that manipulating souls meant that it equaled obtaining the authority over the opponent"s life and death.

「(There are a lot of things I want to ask you. How you were able to see that I was the Hero through the Recognition Obstruction that was cast on me.
Your motive, why you didn"t attack Alicia before she finished repairing the barrier.
……There are a lot of things. But, I"ll only say one thing for now. ……Get away, from Alicia. She isn"t someone that should be touched by a sleazebag like you.)」

「(Fufufu…… A violent anger like a flame. I can see that your soul is shining brightly.)」

His, and Alicia"s voices resounded inside of my head like the two were overlapping each other.

「(Please be at ease. This princess is just a shackle meant to prevent you from subjugating the Ancient Dragon. Allow me to guarantee that as long as you stay like this and don"t move, this princess won"t receive a single wound.)」

「(I"m not stupid enough to believe that. Particularly, you"re the only one I would never believe.)」

「(Fufufu. I"ve come to become quite hated, haven"t I.)」

I was about to instinctively slash at Umbra, who was stiflingly laughing, but I controlled myself, and firmly planted my feet in the ground.

「Is something the matter?」

Probably thinking that me still facing Alicia was somewhat strange, Henrietta asked but, I couldn"t let my eyes turn away from that guy.

「（You, who cannot accept a person’s death as a death, are the only one that I can’t trust. At any rate, you’re probably just trying to outwit me to “take Alicia away” or something, aren’t you?）」

「（Fufufu. Certainly, she is an intriguing specimen but……she is not enough to an enemy out of you, is she.）」

Even while saying that, he stiflingly laughed.

「（That princess, she doesn’t have as much research value as Saint “Olivia”.）」

「（………… Is that so, then you run home right now. If you don’t, who knows just what the heck I’m going to do to you, got it? I just might kill you together with Alicia.）」

While raving as if I was seething with anger, I threatened with something like final advice.
But, that was

「（Fufufu. One worthy of being the Hero, you shouldn"t "lie".」

a lie. It was a completely random bluff.

「（If it were either one person or a hundred, you are a human that would cast away a hundred. If it were for the sake of this precious princess, a hundred, a thousand. You’d cut down ten thousand! You are that kind of existence. You are the leading person of life and the soul, that I guarantee you!
Therefore, you can no longer lay a hand on that Ancient Dragon. Not until I, release this princess!!）」

………That’s it, that’s exactly it. I can only give up now. I am human after all. Even if I am called a Hero, I’m not a champion of justice.

I can"t become a champion of justice. Those precious to me come first, because I am just a simple human.

The moment he took Alicia as a hostage, I, was checkmated.

Only I, was.

「Dragon Clad: Dragonic Rage!!」

In an instant, deep crimson glinted eyes ran across his view.

Maybe because they were basked in the red moon’s light, or maybe the deep crimson eyes were reflected in the moon’s light, like taillights traveling a dark night, they ran.

「……Take this, you sc.u.m soaked in magic!」

「（……Fufufu!）」

A sword flash ran.

Perceiving the silver haired maiden, Alicia, that sword stroke did not injure her, and only tore Umbra to pieces.

「……Thank goodness. So I made it just in time.」

While catching Alicia, who was released from Umbra and about to tumble down from Silber, in his arms, he, Pretty Boy-kun muttered.

「Fufu, ……Fufufu. The entrance of the current Heroes, is it.」

「You as well, there"s no mistake that you are the Duke cla.s.s Umbra, is there?」

「Fufufu……」

They had quickly come to this town in accordance with the 『Witch of Time』’s prediction but, it would seem that the worst case that she had mentioned was avoided.

He had doubted her predictions and things as a joke or something from the moment he had met her but, having come here, that accuracy was a cut above the rest and sank deeply into his mind.

「……っ, Yu, u?」

「! Are you hurt anywhere?」

When he closely observed the maiden that he was holding since she was slightly stirring, her eyes slowly opened.
Silver hair that shined like gems and a beautiful, well-featured face that could even overshadow a G.o.ddess of beauty.
It was a very young appearance of the beautiful princess that he had encountered several weeks ago, Sylvia-san.

He had heard that it was she was her sister but they looked just alike.

「……Y, you are?」

Her l.u.s.trous lips that were like white peaches opening, her voice was heard.

「My name is Amagi Kaito. ……I"m a Hero.」