Chapter 29 - Averting Gaze
"Clay...?"
Nael murmured unintentionally.
"How...?"
As she murmured, her expression suddenly turned grim.
And she bit her lip, shaking her head abruptly.
As if desperately denying what was before her eyes.
"Beatrice!"
Her face filled with rage, she looked around.
"Come out now!"
What was before her now was not Clay.
It was merely a puppet made from the corpse of a dead person.
In the sense of crisis that just seeing it might cause her mind to collapse, she anxiously pursued the lingering scent.
"Found you...!"
Behind a certain rock.
A strong scorched smell wafted from there.
She immediately ran towards it.
That was all she could do right now.
"Nael."
However, the puppet Clay intervened in her path as she ran.
"That's not where you're going."
"!"
SWISH!
Nael's foot skimmed the ground and she stopped.
"Get out of my way!"
Her eyes wavered, unable to focus.
"You're not Clay!"
"Then who am I?"
"You're just a shell!"
The skin of a dead man.
Merely an existence of that.
"You're just Beatrice's puppet!"
"You're having a serious conversation with such a puppet."
Gasp.
Nael's body swayed greatly for a moment.
"If you thought I was just a shell, you should have attacked me first."
Something as disturbing as a shell must be removed first to focus on combat.
"I don't know why you keep aiming at the wrong place."
"Shut up...!"
Nael barely managed to squeeze out her voice.
"That body is also something I must retrieve. You wouldn't be unaware of that, Beatrice."
"You're mistaken."
He said quietly.
"That's not my name."
What was moving his body now was by no means a puppeteer.
"If you still wish to believe that,"
Clay drew his sword and rushed at Nael.
"What?!"
A surprised Nael flinched and stepped back.
SWISH!
In the spot where she had just been, Clay's swinging sword traced an arc.
"Ugh!"
Clay swung his sword again at a stumbling Nael.
Once, twice, thrice.
She dodged them all, but Nael's expression grew darker and darker.
"This can't be...!"
His physical abilities were definitely inferior to before.
But one thing was certain.
The familiar swordsmanship.
"Cl-Clay?"
It wasn't impossible for an undead to use the abilities remaining in the corpse.
But this was different.
Because this was the swordsmanship Clay used when he intentionally went easy on her.
It was impossible to control a puppet so meticulously.
She realized that a will beyond simple memory was now residing within him.
"Im-Impossible."
Her face twisted.
Clay was dead.
She had believed that with all her heart.
"Clay...!"
Even now, it was difficult to easily admit that the real Clay was standing before her.
Yet, she couldn't abandon the faint hope that had sprung up.
"Is it really you?"
"Foolish question."
Clay answered quietly.
"I've never existed as a fake."
Living as a Hero, dying as a traitor, resurrecting, and now standing here to become the Demon King.
All these processes were purely his own experiences.
"Nael."
He pointed his sword at her again.
"I feigned hesitation for a moment to show you who was pointing this sword at you. But I won't do that anymore."
"Wh-What are you talking about?"
Nael said with a dazed expression.
"We are comrades."
"I was waiting for you to say that."
SWISH!
Clay's sword immediately lashed out, grazing Nael's cheek.
"Gasp?!"
"True comrades must be able to have faith in each other. How about you, Nael?"
Clay continued to swing his sword at Nael, who only moved and dodged.
"Did you ever protest the fate that awaited me? Or at least declare that you would trust me?"
"I...!"
"Then give up."
Clay's eyes glinted chillingly.
"I will not acknowledge your regrets."
Regrets.
Nael hadn't even expressed them yet.
She still couldn't truly comprehend that the Clay before her was real, and she was merely replaying the words she heard, stunned.
Nevertheless, she couldn't help but murmur reflexively.
"What do I...?"
She wasn't quick at thinking.
"What should I do?"
So she asked.
"What do I have to do for you to come with me?"
"Die."
To her, Clay was simply resolute.
"That's all you can do for me."
What on earth happened?
Clay was not the kind of person to utter such words carelessly.
He was the Hero of Light.
He was not obscured by shadow, and he salvaged hope from the depths of despair.
He was that kind of person.
Therefore,
"Lie."
The current Clay was still not the complete Clay.
"It's a lie."
She glared around.
"Beatrice! Let go of Clay's consciousness!"
She had confirmed actions that only a conscious being could perform.
But that didn't mean Clay was free.
A part of his consciousness could be held captive.
"Release the brainwashing!"
As Clay was unable to properly handle holy power due to severe torture, he might have become vulnerable to brainwashing.
For Beatrice, one of the Demon King's Four Heavenly Kings, and the strongest at that, it wouldn't be impossible to somewhat control Clay's consciousness.
"Release it!"
But no one responded to her shouts.
SWISH!
No, there was someone.
"Nael, it's not brainwashing, so give it your all."
Clay's sword continued to target Nael.
"Clay!"
She could dodge.
Yet, Clay's attacks remained sharp.
Unable to stay put, Nael suddenly gritted her teeth.
"Fine. I have no choice."
If Beatrice didn't appear, she had no choice but to take Clay by force.
"I'll take you and undo that brainwashing!"
CRASH!
It was then, as Nael stomped hard on the ground and took a step towards Clay.
"Can you?"
In Nael's startled gaze, Beatrice, who had been invisible until now, appeared in her human form.
♧
"That seems a bit reckless."
Before meeting Nael, Clay had conveyed his plan to Beatrice in advance.
"What if Nael harms you?"
Beatrice, who had been listening for a moment, murmured with a worried expression.
Clay said he would personally step forward and distract Nael. Beatrice was not at all pleased with that.
"I think you'll manage somehow."
Even though she had spoken out of concern, Clay answered calmly.
"Somehow?"
"Nael won't injure me, at least. If she came here alone, she probably came to find my body."
If she didn't care about the body, she should have gathered troops more recklessly and attacked them.
"She didn't come to fight the Demon King's Army."
Clay saw through that point.
"She's still attached to my body."
"Hmm, attachment."
Beatrice tapped her chin with her index finger.
"Why are your former party members so eager for your body now?"
It was amusing.
Since the dead don't speak, do they think they can just take and use them as they please?
"How unsightly."
Beatrice knew that Clay thought the same as she did.
That must be why he was here now.
"Beatrice, can you do it?"
Clay just asked blandly.
Beatrice nodded slightly.
"If you can keep her attention, I'll keep targeting Nael from behind. But one thing,"
She raised one finger.
"Only if you're certain that Nael isn't trying to inflict a fatal injury on you."
"I'm certain."
Clay let out a sneer.
"You remember Tia trying to retrieve my body through her subordinates, right? The fact that Nael caught up to us so quickly suggests she received information from Tia regarding our location. If so, it's safe to assume their goals are the same."
Guilt.
An emotion they felt at their own convenience.
"To lighten their burden, they'll want my body to be perfectly intact more than anyone."
♧
"Gah!"
Nael, stabbed by Beatrice's dagger from behind, quickly put distance between them.
"Bea-trice...!"
Drip, drip.
She avoided a fatal injury.
She had been in danger because all her attention was on Clay, but her innate beastkin reflexes had saved her.
"You really are fast, after all."
Beatrice said, holding a dagger flickering with flames.
"I even brought out a dragon sword made of flamestones to finish you in one go, but the result is a bit disappointing, isn't it?"
"You bastard!"
Nael bared her fangs, howling like a beast.
"What did you do to Clay!"
"What did I do?"
"You brainwashed Clay!"
Nael clenched her fists.
"He was alive, Clay was! He crawled out of where he was buried, barely surviving! And you dare insult Clay?!"
"Hmm."
Beatrice sighed, as if dumbfounded.
"Then why didn't you do better before I insulted him?"
"What?"
"Why didn't you stop him from going to the execution ground?"
Beatrice's red eyes stared directly at Nael.
Although Nael was consumed by fury, she felt a momentary fear in those eyes.
She didn't know why, but she felt that Beatrice's words held sincerity.
"Clay must have trusted you all until the rope was around his neck. It wasn't the gallows that killed Clay."
Beatrice said in a chillingly cold voice.
"It was all of you."
"SHUT UP, YOU BASTARD!"
Nael finally screamed, as if in desperation.
"What do you know to babble such nonsense, Beatrice! I'll finish you here and take Clay with me!"
"Go on."
Beatrice said, dismissively brushing off her threat.
"Without Clay, you're no longer the Hero's party."
"BEATRICEEEE!"
Nael pushed off the ground and leaped.
SWISH!
Her extended foot instantly reached Beatrice's face.
"!"
Beatrice instinctively bent backward at the waist.
Nael's foot narrowly skimmed past the spot where Beatrice's head had just been.
SWISH!
Nael, landing as if sliding on the ground, quickly turned around and ran towards Beatrice again.
SWISH SWISH SWISH!
This time, she aimed for perfect close combat.
Her kicks shot at Beatrice like a frosty wind.
Beatrice parried by striking her instep, retreating, until Nael caught up to her, a handspan away.
CRASH!
A direct hit.
In an instant, Beatrice was struck in the abdomen by Nael's attack, who dug her legs into the ground and unleashed a punch.
"Gah?!"
Beatrice's body was lifted straight up.
No, it was flight.
Beatrice flew in a straight line, her body half-embedded in a rock.
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
Nael ran towards Beatrice, furiously throwing punches.
CRASH! CRASH CRASH CRASH! CRASH!
"Let go of Clay! Let go of Clay, let him goooo!"
A flurry of punches.
It seemed like a one-sided assault, but...
"...Are you done?"
Beatrice, who had raised her arms to guard, revealed her face during Nael's brief pause to catch her breath.
"I'm quite a tenacious woman myself, you know."
Drip, drip.
Wiping blood from her nose, Beatrice struck Nael with an arm covered in dragon scales.