(Vol-1) Ch. 11 – Three Methods of Murder
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Someone had entered the Silva forest and the news of it reached Lilith's ears immediately through the sound of the buzzer. Lilith thought it to be the perfect time for Isabelle to start her training to be strong.

Lilith handed her friends' various tasks to complete and took Isabelle out of the mansion for a fun little adventure. Right now, Lilith and Isabelle were traversing through the Silva forest, trying to track the intruders that stepped into her domain.

"Miss Lilith, what was that beeping noise earlier?" asked Isabelle, who got curious about that beeping sound that alerted Lilith of intruders

"That's sort of an alarm mechanic that yours truly made herself" replied Lilith with a proud grin on her face, seeing which somewhat irritated Isabelle.

"How does it work?"

"It's nothing special. Around the boundary of the forest, I have laid some special cobwebs. When they destroy one to walk further, the destroyed one loses its connection with others, thus making the leftovers vibrate a little. The tiny vibrations produced travel by them travel towards the mansion and add up to form a bigger vibration which triggers the bell on top of the door." explained Lilith with the same interest she showed while watching Isabelle get devoured by the hawks

"a-ah....I--see..." but everything just went over Isabelle's mind.

"Hahaha! of course, it did! Can't expect a child to understand my genius" laughed Lilith while showing a mocking smile to Isabelle.

The mocking smile angered Isabelle and she got ready to throw a punch but seeing Lilith raise her hand, Isabelle quickly lowered her fist as if nothing happened

'How is she strong and smart at the same time? does Miss Lilith not have any weakness?' thought Isabelle, trying to think of a way to get an upper hand on Lilith over future arguments and fights.

They continued searching the forest for the sign of intruders, though it was mostly Lilith doing the searching.

There's no noise in the Silva forest, the forest is always silent. The silence is due to extreme deadness of the forest, there's not even a single critter present here to produce noise, hence inside this tranquillity, even a faintest of sounds could be heard if someone concentrates a bit. That's why the most important thing Lilith told Isabelle to keep in mind is to walk very slowly and with as little noise as possible.

Isabelle followed the rule and kept silent, letting Lilith do her work. The countless number of dead trees surrounding them made Isabelle very uneasy but she still tried her best to not get in the way of Lilith's work. Whether she liked it or not, Lilith was now her teacher, thus following her was the first step towards becoming strong.

The Silva forest is spread of several kilometres, they walked for a quite a while until Lilith finally stopped and turned around to smile at Isabelle.

"Princess, it seems like we have found out naughty intruders" whispered Lilith into Isabelle's ears.

"S-so, wh-what now?" sweat started forming in Isabelle's palms, she gulped her saliva down and started getting nervous over her first fight

"Nothing now. Princess will just watch and let her master showcase what's magic and fighting is like from the basics"

"B-but!" Isabelle didn't like the idea of doing nothing

"No buts. I'm the master, so follow my words. The princess can do nothing as of now, except being a burden to everyone"

"Th-that's!..." her eyes became moist because of frustration, she didn't need someone to tell her what she already knows. Even though she didn't have any training before this, so asking to be useful was just Isabelle being harsh on herself.

Lilith got down and patted Isabelle's head. Lilith knew it was harsh of her to tell Isabelle that she's useless, but Lilith doesn't want to sugarcoat anything and give her false confidence. Still, she had taken a student, so it was her duty to make sure that the student doesn't fall into depression, hence Lilith started speaking

"But! that's the present. Even if the princess is nothing but a burden today, tomorrow she may prove otherwise. The princess gotta start someday, so make sure today's that day"

Hearing words of encouragement from the mouth of a killer like Lilith made Isabelle somewhat perplexed, but what shocked her, even more, was that a woman like Lilith, "Y-you can be k-k-kind too?"

Hearing which suddenly a very dark expression ruled over Lilith's face, "Don't push it, kid"

Chills ran through Isabelle's spine and she immediately closed her mouth. 'Does she not like being called kind?' thought Isabelle and quietly followed Lilith to the destination of the intruders, to take her first steps.

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John and his group entered the forest, they immediately got into formation in case anything unexpected happens.

John, the leader, was in the front along with his tank friend Julia. Behind them was the mage Sarah, while protecting their rear was the ranger Noeya and the knight Jeremiah.

The group carefully traversed the forest, tackle any obstacle that comes their way and going even further.

"Hey, John. Aren't there just way too many cobwebs? ain't this suspicious? I mean isn't this forest supposed to be without any living being?" Jeremiah was the first to notice the anomaly. It was weird for the forest which was famous for its emptiness or deadness, to have so many spiders producing cobwebs

"Hmm, it is suspicious but that just makes our suspicion of some monster inhabiting this forest even stronger. This is our chance to prove our worth" claimed John while pumping his fist up to boost the morale of his group.

"A-as expected of J-john" praised the mage Sarah with a low and shy tone.

"Huh?! It's nothing special! Even I came to that conclusion!" spoke the tank Julia as if trying to compete with everyone.

"HaHa, sure sure, big boobs" mocked the knight Jeremiah to Julia.

"Wh-what did you say! You, you, you, honour struck fool. Should I tell John about your dirty doing?!!" anger and mock in Julia's voice.

"Don't you dare do tell him! Otherwise, I will leak how you constantly think about his dic—mmmfff" before Jeremiah could finish speaking, Julia immediately jumped to the rear and blocked her mouth.

"huh? what was she saying?" John, innocently tilting his head

"N-Nothing at all John! Don't pay attention to her" tried to explain Julia with an embarrassed face.

"O-Oh, ok, but there's no need to fight. Let's do this together! everyone" put the leader an end to their fighting.

John didn't understand what his friends were talking about and decided to focus on their mission. Sarah's face was beet red thinking about the stuff he teammates were talking about, after all, she did understand what the talk was about

The only want to remain silent and indifferent throughout the whole things was the ranger Noeya, it was difficult to tell what was going inside her mind, nobody noticed the quick click of the tongue that she did while witnessing the whole scene.

Julia got back to her position and tried her best to not match John's eyes

"Let's do this everyone. They probably know by now that we sneaked away, so let's prove the worth of our group before they catch us" reminded John, everyone, their purpose of coming here and for the final time motivated them. Not noticing the two figures that were hiding up on the trees.

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.

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Lilith and Isabelle went towards the loud noises of fighting and spotted the group of intruders, which numbered five in number.

"Princess, can you climb a tree?"

"S-Sorry" shamefully claimed Isabelle while hanging her head

"Hahhh, well no helping it, I guess. Quick, climb on my back" ordered Lilith while crouching down and prompted Isabelle to get on.

"huh? o-ok. What about this umbrella?" Isabelle was curious from the start why Lilith brought an umbrella even though it's sunny outside.

"It's my weapon, just hold onto it as we climb"

'wha? umbrella a weapon?' Isabelle was confused but decided to not think too much and do as told. She took the umbrella hanging from Lilith's purple gothic dress through the holster and hesitantly climbed onto Lilith's back.

Lilith spotted the tree with a large number of dry, dead leaves and quickly climbed up using her arms and legs. She reached the strongest branch and both of them sat on top of it

"They will probably pass by us in a few minutes. Is there anything you want to ask before we officially start your training?" asked Lilith but after not getting an answer, irritably turned her head towards Isabelle but got taken back after seeing Isabelle's face.

Isabelle's eyes were shining, there was an expression of awe on her face. Even though before her was nothing but the vast spread of dead trees

"What? are you impressed by this gloomy view?" asked Lilith, surprised.

"It's beautiful" claimed Isabelle while showing her excitement to Lilith

"huh? What's pretty about this gloomy and dead view?" the more Isabelle spoke, the more taken back Lilith got

"I don't know...it just feels like the most beautiful things I have ever seen" Isabelle herself couldn't understand why, but something about this empty and bland view penetrated deeply into her heart.

"hmm, weird kid. Anyway, focus here, I'm going to start your training now" Lilith decided to think about her surprising behaviour, later on, right now it was to focus on the task as hand.

"Listen carefully, Princess. There are three ways to kill someone, you have to choose one based on the situation. The first is to use magic, the second is the use of weapons, can you guess what the third one is?" started Lilith her class while resting her arm on Isabelle's shoulders. Instead of using the word fighting, Lilith used the cruel word kill. Lilith didn't want Isabelle to have the idea that fighting someone is different from having to kill them

"Uhhh, traps?" answered Isabelle, while trying her best to ignore how casually Lilith just placed her arm over the shoulder

"Close, but not quite. It's trickery. You trick someone, deceive someone, using underhanded methods to kill"

"B-but isn't that, dishonourable?"

"Yes, it is. Using trickery to kill someone is shameful, but that's exactly why you should throw your honour away while fighting"

"huh?" Isabelle didn't see any sense of joke on Lilith's face, she was completely serious about throwing away honour while fighting

"Isabelle, during a fight, what matters the most is that you win, stay alive and come back to me. But this honour thing many a time puts you in a situation which makes the things I told earlier very difficult to achieve. It binds you and makes it unable to achieve reach decision"

"What decisions? isn't it important to respect the opponent while fighting?"

"It is if you want to die with honour. And princess, you will not die with honour. You will make sure that you stay alive no matter what method to use in achieving it. Though I will not force you, if you want to increase your chances of short life and leave everybody you may come to love in future behind, then be my guest and bind yourself down with honour"

"..." Isabelle didn't answer, she couldn't decide whether to follow such a rule. Being the princess of Nora Empire and not being honourable seemed very wrong to her, almost shameful for her royal birth, but she did understand what Lilith meant. It was to always prioritize your own life over anything.

"Well, enough of that and let's discuss trickery when we reach there. First thing in the three methods to kill someone is MAGIC"

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