NOVEL NEXT Chapter 73- Rescue
Briskly jumping up to a solid tree branch, I let my legs dangle below and closed an eye to activate my shared vision with Alexia.
Mister Ellois had already contacted me through her only half a day after my super duper bloody fun time with my slaver buddies.
He blurted out a bunch of words that confused the heck out of me since I was completely ignorant of the context, but I thankfully got the gist of it.
He had already already locked the fellas involved in slave trade, no matter how minimal their involvement was.
As such, he’d like me to lurk behind when the caravan departs and wipe them all out as soon as he presents me the chance to do so.
We decided he’d have a disguised Alexia accompany him during this operation and the signal would be sent through my connection with her.
Yup! You heard that right! The contract I forced on Alexia was extreme, to say the least.
Its contents pretty much transformed her body into a drone-like existence that I can remotely control and do whatever the heck I want to do with.
Shared senses, memory transmission, and body hijacking are just its basic functions.
I didn’t hide those from Alexia either, those were neatly and clearly written in the contract, and she chose to sign it out of her own violation.
You could argue that she was forced since her only other option was a gruesome and painful death, but that’s not my problem now, is it?
Of course, I didn’t really deprive her of free will and body control. I want a capable servant that’s knowledgeable about this world’s common sense and customs, not some rigid machine that can only accept orders.
Also, there’s a limit to the number of times I can draft up such a harsh contract because I actually need to permanently allocate a part of my soul to maintain it.
However, that’s hardly a problem with my ever-expanding soul. And as a bonus, as long as my soul is stronger than the other party, it’s impossible for them to forcibly break free.
…I don’t know if she actually meant to or not, but D has created a true devil by giving me a glimpse of soul contracts’ true power.
Should I come up with a succubus form for my Shapeshifting loadouts? …You know what, don’t answer that.
If I try to cosplay as succubus, I’d only pull some fetishists and deviants with my poor assets… Dammit!
Are breast pads a thing in this world? Should I ‘invent’ them and sell them in partnership with Mister Ellois? A certain goddess of fortune always used them, so it should be okay if I follow her lead, right?
A sudden tug on my soul luckily saved me from my spiraling delusions. I refocused my attention back on Alexia’s side since that tug was the signal I’ve been waiting for.
Mister Ellois had somehow convinced a few of the escorts and merchants to go ahead and scout the road, only leaving behind the folks I need to kill.
It’s my time to shine!
Without a moment of delay, I launched a teleportation spell, soundlessly appearing directly behind Mister Ellois.
Dramatically raising my arms, I enveloped my intended targets in a dome-shaped Dimensional Barrier and quickly disguised it using Heretic Magic’s Phantasm spell.
The leaking magic power attracted the attention of a few keen escorts, but they dismissed it after their Danger Perception came up with a blank.
Compared to dragons, or monsters as a whole, humans’ natural intuition is much weaker, especially since they’re missing a bunch of crucial survival instincts.
They can only rely on the system’s skills for perception, but using Mischief against those is pretty much just like turning god mode in an assassination game playthrough.
I waited a few more minutes till the forward scouting party went out of sight, then directly teleported above one of the carriages and turned off Mischief.
“Hello! Fancy meeting you gentlemen and ladies today! Now, goodbye!” I cheerfully announced, now fully exposed in plain view.
Immediately, the eyes of every single person present warily darted to my figure. But before they even blinked, illusory runes covered my entire body and burst into a blinding light.
I hadn’t used it in a long time, but Phantom Runes did it’s intended job flawlessly.
The armed escorts promptly turned on their companions as if they saw their mortal enemies while the merchants just fell on the ground, paralyzed with fear as if just glimpsed an incomprehensible horror from the void.
Everyone’s eyes had gone eerily dull, making it seem as if I walked in on a scene coming right out of a zombie apocalypse movie.
It took just a few minutes for an entire camp filled with some of the finest human warriors to turn into a haunted graveyard.
This is fucking awesome! Wahahahaha!
Sure, there was no blood pumping close combat, but this was thrilling in its own way!
It has a similar vibe to those scenes where the main character causes a huge explosion and strolls away without looking back.
The only difference is that I’m currently leisurely strolling in the middle of a bloody battlefield that was inspired by my very own powers! It’s cool as fuck, I tell ya!
Hopping into the special carriage, I randomly threw a few sheets of fabric into my Spatial Storage before making my way to the expensive sandalwood crate.
I could clearly make out the figure of my future maid pitifully huddled inside, totally oblivious to the bloody carnage happening right outside her tiny little cage.
Just a light tug on the wooden boards using Psychokinesis was needed to eliminate the well thought out disguise, revealing the iron cage hidden underneath.
The barrier between the girl and the outside world was removed, letting the long lost light shine on the entirety of her thin, frail body.
“Rise n’ shine, sweetheart! You’ll be staying with this big sister from now on!” I chimed, giving her my most amiable smile.
Sadly, the only response I got was her unfocused eyes soullessly staring at my general direction.
“Ah, we’re gonna have to fix that sooner or later, but I guess it’s okay for now.” I mumbled to myself.
Kneeling down, I heaved her body into my arms, adjusting it into a comfortable princess carry shortly after.
Not wanting her to get as much as a whiff of the blood outside the carriage, I quickly notified Alexia of the slavers’ uneventful demise and teleported away from the scene.
Fortunately, Phantom Runes doesn’t leave behind any magic traces, so this entire thing will probably be written off as a bandit raid or an internal conflict.
Most likely the former though, since I went out of my way to take away their money pouches and several expensive fabric sheets.
Tens of kilometers away, I reappeared on a peaceful river bank. The cutie was still laying there motionless in my arms.
I did sense a fluctuation in her emotions when we teleported though, so that’s a start, at least. Thank D, she’s not a completely lost case.
Softly caressing her hair, I restored her body to peak state using Healing Magic– except for the malnourishment problem, of course.
That stuff requires the higher tier Miracle Magic, which I’m currently unaware as to how I can acquire.
Now that her pain became a thing of the past, I carefully carried her into the cold morning river water and gave her a much needed bath.
Her weak body could hardly handle the low temperature water, and she was a shivering mess in my hands by the end of it, but she powered through it with the Healing Magic I kept casting on her.
As I cleaned off the last bit of grime from her hair, I hastily took her out of the water, covered her body in a large piece of soft fabric, and placed her on my lap.
I took a cup out of my Spatial Storage and used Medicine Synthesis to fill it with sweet medicine.
“You must be incredibly thirsty, so drink this up! It’s sweet and light, just right for your current state.” Smiling sweetly, I placed the cup firmly in between her petite hands.
I don’t know if her body’s operating on autopilot or something, but she began drinking it in small, almost mechanical sips.
Leaving her to her own devices, I made full use of Sage’s fine magic manipulation to cast a makeshift hair drying spell using Fire and Wind magics simultaneously.
{Proficiency has reached the required level. Skill [Wind Magic LV 1] acquired.}
Ah, right. I didn’t actually have the skill before now.
I just found a few basic life magic spells recorded in the Adventurer guild’s archive room and copied them into Sage’s database.
Most likely due to experiencing a sudden change in living environment, along with the sudden alteration between hot and cold temperatures, the little girl soon started dozing off in my arms.
I waited for her to fully drift into dreamland before teleporting back to my room in the inn and snuggly placing her under the covers.
Raising my hands, I enveloped the room in a barrier that doubles as a safety measure and a soundproof barrier at the same time.
No one knows about the little cutie except for me and the merchants responsible for transporting her. Even Mister Ellois is completely oblivious to her presence in his caravan.
However, I’m not sure if said merchants had already made preparations for her eventual sale or if her ‘kidnapping’ was commissioned by some noble in the first place.
In fact, her entire situation could be the result of some orders from royalty or even the church! That’s why I'm going about this entire thing in a lowkey way.
It’s not like I’m afraid of them, it’s just that I’d rather not get caught up in something troublesome for no reason at all.
As I made my way towards the only window in the room, I heard the sound of a hard object dropping onto the wooden ground.
Turning back, I found D’s smartphone laying there with its screen turned on as if it was there from the very beginning.
“Moshi Moshi! Your vilest, most vicious evil goddess D requests your attention.” Her voice came through the speakers.
Chuckling, I walked up to the smartphone and skillfully picked it up.
“Heya, D! How are your entertainment seeking endeavors going these days?”
“I don’t need to actively seek those anymore. Watching your antics has recently become a fixed part of my daily routine.” She playfully replied.
I would’ve loved to respond with the good ol’ Pervert! like every anime protagonist does, but we both know this stuff doesn’t really work for us two.
“As long as you’re happy. By the way, why’d you contact me all of a sudden?” I curiously inquired.
“It’s because I discovered that you picked up one of my old toys, so I thought I’d share some of my interesting stock of stories about her.”
Old toy…?
My eyes slowly drifted to the innocent figure sleeping on my bed.
“Her?” I pointed.
“Yup. She was one of my favorites for a long time!” She boasted in a reminiscing tone. “–Pity how her choices got too repetitive, forcing me to up her difficulty to the max.”
Her voice was so lighthearted, you’d think she was just describing today’s weather.
Yet the truth is, she was describing how she turned an innocent child’s life into a living hell.
“Hoooh? Care to share a bit?” I sat down on the window ledge, curiosity overflowing from my whole body.
“Sure. Sharing creepy stories is said to be a staple activity among friends, after all.” She obliged.
…Yeah, Imma ignore how naturally she compared this little angel’s life to a horror story. Evil gods have their quirks, it’s understandable.
“Well, let’s start with the basics. This girl is, in a way, a reincarnation just like you.”
“...But isn’t everyone in this world the same? With how you set the system up, all the creatures in this world are reincarnations, right?”
“Indeed, but this girl is different. Just like there’s the first generation Demon Lord and the first generation Hero, she’s the reincarnation of the first generation Saint.”
“Saint…? I thought that title was bestowed by the church, not your system though.” I quirked an eyebrow.
“There is one in the system, but it’s not exclusive like the other two. Anyone can acquire it as long as they gain enough purification points.” She explained. “This little girl was the first to ever gain the title, and she even went on to completely purify her soul by the end of her first life.”
“Then why is she still connected to the system? Shouldn’t she have returned to the universal reincarnation cycle?”
Although I was a bit surprised that someone was actually able to beat D’s hell mode purification game, I was more interested in why this little girl’s soul is still connected to the W system.
“When she was laying powerlessly on her deathbed, I showed up and offered her two choices. First: I will disconnect her from the system, setting her free. Second: I will leave her connected to the system, but for each life she lives without accumulating crime points, I will set ten thousand souls free from the system.”
Damn, that’s a low blow if I’ve ever seen one.
A literal saint who was capable of gaining enough purification points to free herself will definitely pick the second choice without even thinking about it.
But D will definitely make sure her future lives will be filled with nothing but unending misery and sorrow.
For D, every single being in this world are just toys for her entertainment starved self.
“Ah. I think I have an idea of what happened next. Your title as an evil goddess really is deserved, huh?” I chuckled.
It’s not like I appreciate what happened to the little cutie, it’s just that I’m the kind of person who’s best at playing favorites.
And right now, D can be said to be the highest on my priority list, so I have no qualms about her having her desired fun.
It was all in the past anyways. The little cutie’s life is certainly gonna change for the better now that she’s with me.
“The evil goddess title does get kinda repetitive every now and then, so I’d prefer it if you called me Malice Incarnate or Personification of Despair some time.” She stated, boredom evident in her voice.
“Noted. What’s her current life’s story though? I mean, she seems to have gone through some very fucked up shit for her to break like this.”
“Frankly, she was nothing but a victim this time. The Word of God’s pope already knew about her situation since he’s also a repeat reincarnator, but that man’s manipulative nature finally came back to bite him in the ass.” She snickered.
So it really was the church who was responsible for her current situation, huh? Glad I was extra careful about this little rescue mission of mine.
“She had been reincarnated as many different races before, including halfling of other humanoid races as well, but this is the first time her race had anything to do with the Demons. The pope was unaware of this cycle’s peculiarity, so he just sent people to look for her in the same way he did before.”
Okay? It seems like the pope guy didn’t really plan to do any funny business with her, so what could’ve happened?
“Human malice never ceases to surprise me however. The man who was tasked with bringing her back turned out to be a staunch human supremacist whose father was killed by Demons in the previous war. He selfishly interpreted the pope’s order of ‘bringing the girl back’ as ‘capturing the demon spawn to be imprisoned for her sins’ upon discovering her race.”
Oh. It seems like there’s much more to this than I thought.
For now though, that man's name has just jumped to the top of my ‘to be slaughtered as gruesomely as possible’ list.
“He swiftly beheaded her mother for ‘colluding with Demons’ and kept on torturing her father for days without end, all while she watched in a locked closet. After the father finally died from blood loss, the man crushed open the closet and dragged her out, revealing that he had known about her presence all along and that she, the ‘demon spawn’ was the reason all of this happened in the first place. He also took every chance he could to torture her, both physically and mentally.”
D reminisced in a tone that she suggests she fully enjoyed how both the little saint’s heart and mind broke.
“Can’t say I share the same tastes, but I can certainly relate.” I responded, remembering just how fun it was killing those slavers yesterday and today. “You’re already done with her though, right? Can I take her for myself?” I pleaded, giving her my signature puppy eyes.
“Sure. I was already done with her the moment she broke anyways. I only ask that you make sure the pope recognizes her identity. I would love to savor his reaction upon realizing that the only back door to releasing this planet’s humans from their endless torment was closed by themselves, heh.” She snickered.
“Totally fine by me! By the way, what about her previous life’s memories and all that stuff?”
“She does not. They usually return by her thirties, but not anymore. This is her last life on this planet since she failed to last until then.” She lightly revealed.
That’s great! I would rather she follow me forever instead of repeatedly sacrificing herself for some humans that don’t appreciate her efforts nor even know about them.
At least, I’ll actually treat her the way she deserves, not kill her entire family due to a foolish reason like racism.
Shaking my head, I hopped back into the room to check on the little angel.
Thankfully, she was still sleeping peacefully, not disturbed by any nightmares.
Psychiatrists back on Earth would definitely kill to get their hands on something like Heretic Magic. This thing’s like a real life cheat for them.
D’s smartphone had vanished sometime ago, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the girl’s steady breathing.
We need to leave this city before the church starts sending pursuers.
I hope she gets enough rest until then.
