It was evident to anyone that Vampire Judite was dead.
Her body remained seated in the chair, but her head was detached from her neck and lay shattered on the floor.
It was a gruesome sight.
I had followed the advice of not lowering my head and avoiding eye contact when first interacting with Vampire Judite, which had led to me noticing her death a bit late.
"It's like she was killed by someone…"
Agetha commented as she looked at the corpse.
She frowned as if she had seen something she wished she hadn't. No one would want to see a brutally murdered body.
"Yeah."
It was unlikely that Vampire Judite had been killed by a dungeon-dwelling monster. One reason was that Vampire Judite was stronger than most monsters. Besides, the cut on her body was far too clean, as if it had been made by a blade.
Furthermore, given that her body was still seated in the chair, it was highly probable that she hadn't noticed the presence of an enemy until just before her death.
That would have required someone or something with the power to kill Vampire Judite so easily.
But who could it be?
I thought.
Yet, I couldn't think of any possible suspects.
First, Agetha had been with me the whole time, so it was impossible.
Parasitic Sword Puppeteer was a huge monster. If such a creature had approached, Vampire Judite would have noticed.
Even if she was to be killed, it would have been while she was still standing.
Were there any other beings capable of challenging Vampire Judite in this dungeon?
I had explored this dungeon multiple times, and I couldn't recall encountering such an entity.
"Hey, Kiska. What do we do now?"
Agetha asked with an anxious tone.
"Well, for now, we should consider leaving the dungeon," I replied.
Now that we couldn't rely on Vampire Judite, our only option was to escape the dungeon using our own abilities. It would be more efficient to search for a way to turn Parasitic Sword Puppet Puppeteer into a human outside of the dungeon.
The major concern was the possibility that the person who had attacked Vampire Judite might come after us. What was most frightening was that we had no idea of their motives. If it were a sadistic killer, they might have no reason at all to target us. After all, they had easily killed Judite, indicating they were incredibly powerful.
If we were to engage in a fight, there was no doubt that we would end up dead.
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After that, Agetha and I worked silently to strengthen ourselves for dungeon conquest.
First, I acquired the skill "Swordsmanship" in a hidden room where I could obtain the "Crystal of Wisdom." Then, we used another hidden room containing the Golden Living Armor, which allowed me to acquire a significant number of skill points.
While I no longer had the Parasitic Sword Puppeteer, which had been helpful in my conquests, Agetha's newly equipped greatsword was easy to handle, and we successfully cleared the room with the Golden Living Armor.
"Um, Kiska, I have a favor to ask. Is that okay?"
"A favor? What is it?"
"I want to fight alongside you, Kiska!"
Agetha made this declaration. Perhaps she felt sorry for leaving me to fight alone all this time.
"Is that so? Then, let's fight together."
"Huh? Are you serious?"
Agetha was surprised, as if she hadn't expected her request to be accepted.
"Why are you so surprised?"
"Because I thought you might say no."
Well, if Agetha were a regular girl, I would likely have declined, but given her true identity as a hero, she was much stronger than me. If Agetha was willing to fight with me, that would be a tremendous source of strength.
"In that case, let's start your training, Agetha."
"Sure, I'm ready!"
She nodded energetically.
◆
"Look, Kiska! I defeated a monster!"
Agetha rejoiced over the defeated monster in front of her.
I admired her as I watched.
Even though she had lost her memory, her body seemed to remember how to fight, and she effortlessly defeated the monsters. Truly, she was like a hero, and her movements were more refined than mine.
"Hey, Kiska, praise me!"
"Good job, good job."
I patted her head as I spoke, and her face relaxed.
By the way, I had returned the greatsword I borrowed from Agetha, and now she was using it. In exchange, I was using a one-handed sword that I had taken from the Golden Living Armor.
"All right, let's continue forward like this."
"Yeah!"
With Agetha fighting alongside me, our fighting force had effectively doubled. Our relationship was also going quite smoothly. With this momentum, I thought we might even be able to defeat the dungeon boss. At that moment, I was being a bit too optimistic.
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