Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1332: The Legacy Bites Back



"Ah, so we finally found some, Yu," Grim said with a grin. "I thought many experts from the past would be pouring in, but we've only just now met a few. Did the others mass slaughter a majority of them?"

Yuyui merely shrugged. It was possible.

They had noticed at once something their master had told them to look out for.

"Experts from the Grand War can't just pass through into our time, according to Suzamete," Skullius had said to all the Stark Troops and Unlimited Stars earlier. "To do that, they have to superimpose their Territories on themselves and maintain them at full throttle all through their 'visit'. Even in the age of the strongest combatants on Aigas, there are few who can do that. So, expect enemies at the Transcendent Stage... and worse."

And it was clear. The four women had odd designs impressed on their skin and clothing, and a vague shroud of spiking Nitros was constantly flaring around them.

But while Grim was appreciating just how skilled these women had to be to confidently move around and perhaps engage in battles while constantly expending power like this, Yuyui was staring each of them in the eye, appraising them.

'The scouts estimated that there were about 2,000 experts from the past coming into the present. But I bet these are a cut above the rest,' she thought. 'Where's the rest of them?' "That look. You know who we are, don't you, girl?" a beast of a woman, tall, broad and curvy said, grinning viciously. She looked more ferocious than Oum even at a glance. She had wild locks of dirty blonde hair that cascaded down to her shoulders and large cruel-looking hazel eyes. The scaly plate armour she wore spotted splotches of fresh and dried blood. It stank, quite frankly, but its owner didn't mind.

"Yeah. I know who you are," Yuyui said, and her eyes moved on to stare at the others. They didn't look as lively as the large woman, but one among them...

"Are your eyes telling you something about me? I feel mine whispering plenty about you."

There was a woman who stood out from the bunch, even more so than the giant. By all accounts, she qualified to be called the womanliest woman out there just by her looks. She looked gentle, kind, dainty and perhaps, she might have sold the identity of a Priestess if she really wanted to.

Yuyui's eyes trembled.

She realised, what she had felt before and what she had felt just now - the resonance - was connected to this woman. Her long, straight dark hair falling in curtains on both sides of her long, thin face oozed grace, as did her tiny eyes and thin pink lips. She was dressed in long, pretty velvet robes and a large pink slash of silk. She didn't appear to be dressed for battle at all.

"Her armour is something special. I can't sense anything from her," another of the women said with a placid face. She was stocky and short with curly silver hair. "She resisted Franceesta's compulsion though. She's probably strong, thank goodness."

"No. Look, there's something on her forehead. It responded to Franceesta's voice. It's not uncommon for the weak to find measures against soul manipulation," another of the women said. She reminded Yuyui of Kintar. She had a wide face and lively eyes that said a lot of harmful nothings. She looked the most 'normal' among the four, and was carrying a large, nasty-looking double-bladed sword. It was larger than her.

This woman gave Grim a sharp, dangerous look.

"Ah. I was right," she said, scowling so deeply her face might have been kneaded dough. "He shares the same armour as her. They are partners in some organisation, I bet." She turned to the woman in the velvet robes, her face turning darker with wrinkles. "I told you. Nothing good would come out of our legacy being received by someone from this pitiful age. She's probably painfully below average just like everyone else here."

The giant woman, Franceesta also gave Grim a hard look, but her grin persisted.

"The world has reverted back to a state where women HAVE to ally or submit to men. And here

I thought we made the tiniest difference." Her spit reached Grim's feet.

The Unlimited Star turned to Yuyui, baffled.

"Hey, you could have told me it was them, you know," he said.

Before Yuyui could respond, the stocky woman interrupted, a disgusted look on her face:

"Ha! She lets a man talk down to her. Dear me, what in the world happened in that temple? Did Fuwin not vet properly those who entered?"

Franceesta shook her head. Her eyes fell on Yuyui and then in the blink of an eye, she was standing right in front of her, staring her down.

Yuyui didn't look surprised or shaken. She met those inhuman hazel eyes, like lanterns torching down, with her own calm pair. A few seconds of silence passed, cold and stagnant.

"Good, good. I like the look in your eyes, girl," Franceesta said. "You're not as great an abomination as Porria makes you out to be. I love that. You've been through some dark turns, haven't you? Good, good. You have a lot to prove, but that's not a bad thing. I'd like to get to know and understand you. We all would."

Porria, the wide-faced woman with the double-bladed sword snorted. The long-faced one wore a calm smile and simply watched.

Grim did not interfere. The Stark Troops stayed put too, but they had already assumed a formation in response to the level of the threat while also guarding the sleeping beasts.

Yuyui continued to look into Franceesta's eyes. Then, she spoke:

"Do you really go by the name, the Order of the Trodden Rose?"

Franceesta's expression did not change. Yuyui might have asked if she wanted a cupcake.

The giant of a woman gently rolled Yuyui's lime-green hair around her finger.

"It's not a name that's meant to inspire a feeling of glory, is it? But it's served us well. It communicates our purpose and intent very well, especially in our time. You saw all about that in the Temple of Unlusted Tears, no?"

Yuyui remembered the atrocities just behind the entrance to that temple.

"And what really is your purpose?" she asked.

Franceesta grin disappeared. She sighed.

"Don't disappoint me like this, girl. How did someone like you inherit our legacy?" she said.

Franceesta could already sense that Yuyui did not align with the purposes of the Order of the Trodden Rose. It was as Yuyui had intended, actually. She wanted to establish her stance

immediately.

"The answer to that is simple," Grim finally intervened. "She didn't. She only got your

powers."

Franceesta's eyes seemed to light aflame.

"Who asked you, corpse?"

Grim grinned, matching the energy.

"Didn't like that answer, did you?" he said. "Well, you're not going to like the rest of my

attitude."