Disregarding the silver haired girl’s astonished expression and everyone else’s ridicule, I gracefully flipped my daggers into a normal grip and crushed the gems embedded in their handles.

You never thought I’d waste my time on some useless shiny decorations, did ya? The gems were actually magical tools endowed with Shapeshifting skill, and set to be always active.

The true forms of the daggers were dramatically revealed– my dual glaive-spear hybridized weapons. 

Note to self, I really need to name these things…

Without giving them a chance to register what had just transpired, I bypassed the girl and wildly launched myself on the thug standing right behind her.

I had already removed all the limiters placed on my body, so I encountered no resistance whatsoever when my glaives made contact with his body.

In the blink of an eye, I cleaved through both of his shoulders like a hot knife cutting through butter.

By the time he felt the first pang of pain, he was already lying face down in a large pool of his own blood.

I dropped one of my weapons right into an open Spatial Storage portal, elongated my fingernails until each was taller and sharper than a knife, and jabbed them straight through his chest.

His body immediately went limp, his eyes dimming until they became like those of every single creature I killed before.

However, such eyes were oddly captivating when placed on a humanoid body… Nah, it should just be my imagination.

Slowly retracting my arm, I relished in his final death throe as I pulled out his weakly beating heart and held it up in front of everyone present in a sickening gesture of victory.

 

{Condition satisfied. Acquired title [Human Slayer]}

{Acquired skill [Taboo LV 1] as a result of title [Merciless].}

{Skill [Taboo LV 1] has been integrated into skill [Taboo LV 10].}

 

Their reactions were varied, but there was one shared commonality– they all directed immense hostility towards me.

Some retched, some had their anger ignited, but most could only do their best to hold back the overwhelming dread they felt towards the little girl– no, the demoness standing in front of them.

She had just mercilessly slaughtered their possibly long time companion as if she was a farmer harvesting some crops.

“Here you go, Mister! I believe this is yours!” Shoving the heart back into his chest, I let out an innocent giggle, my smile widening at the sight of their increasing fear.

Woooooo-hooooo, that felt fucking amazing!

Please tell me somebody clipped that! You better have done so, D!

Anyways, the truth hath cometh out at last! ‘Tis now official, human I definitely am not! Well, I’m technically a fish monster right now, but I’m talking about the soul aspect.

Goddess Alkreya described my soul as peculiar, which I subconsciously equated with a biological body mutation phenomenon, but it seems like she meant something completely different.

A soul would never rejoice at the death of its kin, it doesn’t matter how mutated it gets. That’s just how a mortal soul’s instincts work.

Also, no matter how I look at it, a soul endlessly growing without any apparent material consumption is definitely abnormal. 

This breaks one of the most basic laws of reality– the law of conservation of energy.

So there’s no way I belong to any functioning universe. My current guess is that I’m a void born soul that wandered into a living universe by mistake.

However, now’s not the time to get the bottom of this. That’s for future Violet to do!

As my train of thoughts made a temporary stop, my enemies finally recovered from their daze and began approaching me.

“Just surround ‘er and attack together, she’s only one person. Don’t ya dare underestimate ‘er like that dead fool though!” I heard Shadow yell to the others through Telepathy.

…Did this guy just do what I think he did? Those words are totally the ones every third-rate villain yells before his whole group gets absolutely demolished, aren’t they?

Poor dude just unknowingly ended his entire career… My condolences.

Throwing away my other weapon, I charged at them with nothing but my knife-like claws and my Spatial Magic.

They did the same, charging at me with their fragile shortswords, toy daggers, and weak magic.

The results were….. a one sided massacre as you might expect. It was the obvious result considering I came at them with full power.

My claws effortlessly slashed through two of the thugs’ necks, sending their heads flying and causing a literal rain of blood to erupt from their now headless torsos.

Suddenly, a crawling shadow flashed to my position and wrapped around my entire body, aiming to deprive me of my senses and ability to move.

However, I just tore it off and threw it away like a piece of garbage. It’s not like it could actually lock me up with my sphere and Spatial magic active.

It only served to incite a minor pause in my happy murder fest.

Shadow, who was the caster of the iconic Shadow Magic stood there, dumbfounded at how futile the results of his strongest spells were.

He had actually been the first to react, sending tens of shadow tendrils towards me the moment I killed the first thug.

Unfortunately for him, it was all for naught. There’s no way he can bypass my resistance and defensive stats with his puny three digit stats.

At the same time, the other thugs weren’t just standing there foolishly watching this happen.

They had all taken the opportunity to launch a well-practiced joint attack on my supposedly immobilized body.

Four slashes from four different angles, two fireballs from my left and right sides, and finally, an arrow from the right in front of me. 

Their coordination shows just how many times they’ve performed this trick over their time together.

Making a split second decision, I ignored all of that and teleported to one of the fire mages.

The fireball he cast hadn’t even reached its destination before his body neatly bisected into two halves.

And before those could even hit the ground, I had already teleported once again, this time behind the archer guy squatting on the rooftops.

This guy has been overlooking the entire situation from a high rooftop and regularly sending out telepathetic reports to the others.

He’s definitely doing a great job as a scout, but he’s a pain in the ass as far as I’m concerned.

I appreciate his expertise and commitment, but letting him go would delay this entire farce. I can give him a painless death though, that should be a nice gesture.

Piercing his heart from behind, I injected a strong dose of paralysis poison into his body, giving him a quick, painless death.

Like a puppet that lost its strings, his body collapsed and fell off the roof.

I took an assassin’s leap of faith right behind it, my claws stretched in front of me and towards my next target.

Before his companions could alert him, I had already pierced my claws into the other fire mage’s back and violently yanked out his spine .

In less than five minutes, six of my enemies were already lying dead on the ground, none of their bodies in one piece.

And it was great. I loved every single bit of doing it!

Overall, I felt liberated, as if some sort of invisible shackle was taken off of me.

“Well? Do you have any hidden trump cards you wanna show off? Maybe you wanna call for some backup? Just get it over with already.” I mocked, giving Shadow a cocky grin.

“What kind of monster are you?! That pompous fucker never said anything about this shi–!” He shouted hysterically.

“Are those your last words?” I cut him off in a cool manner, but I was dancing with giddiness inside.

It’s not everyday that I get to say some cool anime boss words, after all! I gotta make sure I give my hidden audience a worthy performance!

My sudden interruption caused him to choke on his words, bringing him back from whatever delusions his panic brought about.

As he calmed down, his eyes went over everyone present, eventually stopping on me.

“...Retreat. Run the fuck away from here and never come back.” Looking me dead in the eye, he calmly enunciated each word to his living buddies.

They were taken aback by his command, but it wasn’t long before everyone except for the silver haired girl, Silver, and Shadow himself disappeared from the scene.

 

{Condition satisfied. Acquired title [Fearbringer]}

{Acquired skills [Intimidation LV 1] [Heretic Attack LV 1] as a result of title [Fearbringer].}

{Skill [Heretic Attack LV 1] has been integrated into skill [Soul Seeker].}

 

I detected Shadow pushing his entire MP reserve into a magical construction, likely in an attempt to stall me as his friends escape.

Quite the heroic fella, aren’t cha?

Sadly for him, he wasn’t even half done with the spell when horrendous screams were heard from their direction.

An eerie silence settled over the alley.

You couldn’t even hear the sound of the nocturnal critters shuffling around. It was as if time itself had stopped at that very moment.

“Ahhh, did you perhaps think I’d let my lovely friends leave here unscathed?” I cutely titled my head. “Sooorrryyy, but that’s impossible, y’know? I don’t like pausing mid-game, after all! Tehee!” Giggling, I shook my finger like a naughty child.

“...What did you do to them, you monster?!” He shouted at me, his state back to the previous hysteria.

“Hmmm?” I placed a finger on my chin in a thinking expression. “Oh, that! They must’ve bumped into my barrier, and got torn to shreds by the unstable space.” I unhurriedly explained, my grin widening ever so slightly at the mention of their gruesome demise.

Shadow just stood there, trying his best to understand which part of what I said could be considered funny. But he couldn’t comprehend it.

However, the main point of my explanation did get through to his head— the companions he had resolved to sacrifice his life for were all dead, and it was a horrible death at that.

At that moment, I could literally see his last bit of sanity slipping away.

“AaaAAaaaAAaaaaahhhh! I’ll kill you, you bitch! I’ll destroy everything you love!! Raaaaah–”

He was about to go on a rant about how he’ll make my entire life a living hell, but I swiftly shut him up by impaling his throat with a finger.

I didn’t let him die though. I kept on pumping healing magic into his body while slowly saying my next words.

“That’s not so nice, Mister. Saying such a cruel thing to a child… Alright, I’ve decided! You’re definitely not a good person, so I think it’d be best if you go to sleep forever!” Nodding to myself, I mercilessly pronounced his final sentence.

Cutting off the healing spell’s magic supply, I savor the last bits of madness in his eyes draining away, the usual dimness replacing it shortly after.

“Ahhh, that was some nice exercise!” I bubbled while stretching my body. “Now, I wonder what to do with you? Hmmm?” I turned to face the silver haired girl.

Her face had a mixture of dread, gloating, and a little bit of relief drawn at it at the same time.

I always wondered how humans could give away such complex, rich, and contradictory emotions at the same time, but I guess I can see where she’s coming from.

A devil in a little girl’s skin, standing in between several mangled dead bodies of her companions with a morbid grin on her face, just turned around and looked at her.

Honestly speaking, I commend her for not soiling herself and fainting right then and there. She’s definitely got guts… for a human that is.

But it’s strange.

Why does she gloat for the death of her presumed companions? Why is she relieved? And why do I feel no hatred towards me when I read her emotions?

“Answer me this and then I’ll decide what verdict to enact on you.” I order, to which she slowly nods. “Why do you not grieve for the death of your companions like he did?” I ask while pointing towards Shadow’s corpse.

“I a-am not their companion!” She shouts, hatred pouring out of her very being. “I used to be an adventurer, and one of those beasts joined my party as a temporary member for a difficult quest, then one of my actual ‘companions’ blathered about my birth village while drunk. The next thing I knew, they had slaughtered everyone living there except for my family!” She gritted her teeth. “Apparently, they took a fancy to my appearance and thought I’d be perfect to trick children away from their parents, so they took my family hostage and forced me to help in their slave trading shit! You can kill me, drink my blood, eat my heart, or whatever, but please! Just please, save them!”She pleaded while kneeling on the hard cobblestone floor.

The way she looks at me is similar to that of a drowning man tightly grasping a straw to survive.

Hmmmmmm. Her story is quite interesting, I give it that.

I can tell she’s not lying by reading her emotions, but there are about 0 reasons why I should accept.

Saving some folks I don’t know nor give a fuck about because some desperate lady asked me is just a thankless act, y’know?

Especially when that lady had just broken into my inn room a few minutes ago and tried to help with an operation to enslave me.

I’m not some kind of selfless Hero, quite the opposite actually.

Well, there is a deal we could reach where we both get something we want, and it works best for this situation since she sees me as some kind of devil.

Shapeshifting my hands back to normal, I walked up to her kneeling figure and placed a finger on her forehead.

“Don’t resist.” I commanded in a light tone, though I believe the powerful magic power converging in the palm of my hand was more than enough of a deterrent.

Sage, draft up a nice soul contract for my new servant. You can reference Student Roster and D’s basic contract for the spell technicalities.

{Affirmative.}

A few seconds later, the lady’s eyes widened in disbelief as the W system’s words resounded in her head.

{Contact established. Individual Alexia has been added to registers of skill [Student Roster].}

Sweet. Servant get-o!

Also, her name was Alexia, huh? Silvia would’ve been better, honestly.

Not gonna lie, I expected a level in the Demon Lord skill from that. I’m actually quite surprised I didn’t get one.

I mean, I basically just forced this lady to enact a deal with the devil. She quite literally sold her soul to me in exchange for a shot at saving her family.

This is totally fair by the way.

If I went about this the normal way, she’d wouldn’t be kneeling in front of me right now. Instead, she’d just be a bunch of limbs and organs scattered around.

Buuuut… Since she’s a pretty lady and since I’d like to have someone that listens to orders without any questions around, I decided to spare her.

No way I’d be applying this kind of heinous magic to my cutie! Even if I call her a future maid, her actual position is more akin to that of a companion or possibly even a daughter, ‘kay?

“So? Did you enjoy the show, O’ Mister Ellois?” I suddenly inquired, my eyes still lingering on Alexia’s face.

“Definitely, Miss Letisia. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.” Mister Ellois’s serene voice came as he stepped out from a dark corner.

“Lovely! I guess it’s time for a curtain call now, isn’t it?” I proclaimed while performing a grand theatrical gesture.

Dramatically clenching my fist, I roused the Dimensional Barrier I had previously enveloped this place in, teleporting all ‘evidence’ of the crime into my Spatial Storage.

“I believe you’ll be giving me a satisfactory explanation for this, right?”

“Of course.” He affirmed without hesitation. “I will thoroughly investigate the involved individuals and provide a chance to eliminate them when we move on from this city. Is that acceptable?”

“Oh? That’s more than enough! I’ll let this lady over here serve as our exclusive courier then. She can serve as a bodyguard for you or something.”

I already sent the information directly into Alexia’s brain through our contracts, so she naturally stood up and took her place behind Mister Ellois.

“Happy cooperation.” He stretched his hand towards me.

“Happy cooperation!” I cheerfully repeated, shaking it.

Seeing that there’s nothing else for me to do, I decided to take my leave for the night.

Disabling my barrier, I jumped onto a rooftop and located my inn.

“You might want to take a look at the letter, Miss Letisia. I assure you, I wrote it with nothing but the best intentions in mind.” Mister Ellois remarked right before I took off.

“Sure, I’ll take a look at it. I hope it includes a fun surprise, alright!”

It’s not like I forgot about the letter… I definitely didn’t, okay?!

It was just postponed until I found a nice place to settle down!

Anyways, Mister Ellois is just too sharp for my liking, so Imma get the hell outta here real quick.

I wouldn’t wanna end up revealing my entire life experience without realizing it.

That wouldn’t be fun, not in the least…

 

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