5656!_Knights' Strange Night
Page 7
“These eyes…I knew it. They’re just like that young vixen’s.”
Another voice then spoke.
“You’re still quite young yourself, now.”
“Please, Elder.”
The young voice and a voice clearly belonging to an elder were conversing.
Drip. She heard something falling.
In a corner of her recovering vision she saw something red dripping from tip of the shining object in the young man’s hand.
But the girl was not afraid.
After all, the men in her dreams rose from pools of blood and breathed blood like fire.
“Do you remember your name, little girl?” The young man asked in Mandarin. The girl took a few seconds to prepare her voice, then mumbled.
“…Lilei. Lilei Horrocks.”
“I see. You will no longer need your mother’s family name.”
Confused, the girl—Lilei—slowly looked up.
She saw the face of a boy. He had sharp eyes, and he seemed to be about five or six years older than herself.
The boy with tattoos on his face placed his Chinese broadsword across his shoulder and continued, his eyes as cold as ice.
“And if you cannot overcome the trial I have prepared for you…you will not need our family name. Or your own, for that matter.”
He gave a signal. A group of men in black entered the room.
They dragged in a small figure and threw it at Lilei’s feet.
As her eyes adjusted, Lilei realized that it was a young girl, only a little smaller than herself.
At the same time, she came to a realization.
This girl must have been the helper who had been at her side.
“Her vocal cords seem to be damaged. Did they do this to keep your existence a secret? An obsolete strategy. It would have been over for them the moment she learned to communicate.”
“…”
“Her condition aside, this girl is one of the people who took away your light.”
The young man pressed down on the back of the helper’s head with the broadsword.
Then he raised his chin. One of the men in black drew a knife and offered it to Lilei.
She took it and stared, wide-eyed.
The young man gave her an uncharacteristically cold look.
“Kill her.”
A single command.
“We’ve killed the rest. This pup is all that’s left. She may have been your caretaker, but no matter the circumstances she is one of the rabble who imprisoned a member of the Ei bloodline.”
“…Kill…?”
“You must take revenge. We have no need of anyone who is incapable of such a trivial act.”
Lilei comprehended what he meant.
She was to kill the girl who had taken care of her—the girl whom she had only now seen for the first time.
If not, she would die as well.
Lilei was only about 10 years old. But she could sense the bloodlust in the boy’s voice and bearing.
It was the first time she had ever felt such bloodlust.
But she was not particularly shaken.
After all, she had lived in the carnage of worse things; the grotesque creatures she had created in the dreams during her time in darkness.
Lilei was silent for a long time. But she eventually looked around, her eyes finally adjusted to the light.
Her eyes came to a stop at a certain point. She tossed the knife aside and walked over—and before the men could react, she picked up the object on the floor.
It was a partly rusted lead pipe.
“So you’d prefer to bludgeon her to death?”
Ignoring the young man, Lilei stared at the pipe.
It wasn’t as colorful as she had imagined.
But she was not too rattled.
After all, the magic wand in her dreams was already long stained with blood.
She walked back to the young man and the girl in the very same rhythm as before.
This time, she stared down at the girl on the floor.
The girl’s vocal cords really must have been damaged, as she moved her mouth but did not vocalize.
The girl, who was covered in injuries from head to toe, looked up tearfully at Lilei.
She was a nondescript girl. Simply an adorable child.
Why was someone like this looking after her, Lilei wondered.
Then she remembered something.
What had the previous helper said as they ran?
“I have a daughter just about your age, a little younger than you.”
“I watched over you because I at least wanted to free my little girl.”
“Adorable children should be happy. But, you’re adorable, but my daughter too. Yes. If an adorable girl like you is happy, my daughter will too…”
In the jumble of memories, Lilei came to a conclusion.
This girl was the previous helper’s daughter.
She quietly went up to the girl and knelt.
Then she placed a gentle hand on her head. The girl flinched, but when Lilei patted her head she stared, wide-eyed.
She reminded Lilei of a puppy.
“…Adorable.”
“What?”
The young man frowned. Lilei continued mechanically. For herself, the one who protected her world.
“This girl. She is adorable. She has to live. Or I can’t live. If the adorable girl is happy, I am happy… She said.”
“I don’t claim to understand completely…but you mean you cannot kill her.”
To the tattooed boy, Lilei’s words must have sounded like delusional rambling.
He raised his broadsword and drew an air around himself to cut down both Lilei and the girl in one stroke.
“Not to fear. You will die together here and now.”
Lilei looked at the broadsword, and instead of trying to run, she thought to herself.
‘What is this.
‘What is he trying to do?
‘Is he going to kill us?
‘I’m not scared.
‘I’m not scared this time. But—
‘He’s an enemy, too.’
She did not differentiate between dreams and reality now.
She could defeat the enemy that threatened to take away her light, just as she did in her dreams.
That was all that mattered to her.
Lilei simply glanced at the boy.
The boy with the broadsword felt a chill run down his spine.
His pores seemed to scream as the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
‘What’s happening?’
He was a stranger to this sensation. The boy froze without thinking.
‘No. I’ve felt this before.
‘I know this sensation…
‘It’s just like the time I faced a gun for the first time.
‘Like the time I first felt a blade against my neck.’
The boy who had clawed through countless battles felt his instincts screaming.
He had just stepped into mortal peril, they warned him.
‘Impossible!
‘Am I…afraid of a child like her?!’
Refusing to accept the fact that he was cowed by a single glance, the boy decided to shake off that fear by swinging his sword.
But then, he felt an impact on his hand. Something glinted as it flew across the room.
The moment he realized that the object was the tip of his sword, he saw that the girl at his feet had moved.
But it was too late. She had moved out of his line of sight.
“?!”
He heard a resounding impact near his left temple.
He saw a creaking lead pipe right before his eyes, and a foot clad in a black shoe that had deflected the pipe.
“My word. I thought I’d taught you well, Lihuang.”
The one who saved his life was the old man who had come to the room with him.
“…”
Even as the old man spoke, Lilei continued to swing her pipe at uneven intervals.
The man Lihuang had earlier called ‘Elder’ parried the attacks with practiced ease as he spoke to the girl in Mandarin.
“Not to worry, young one. We will do nothing to you. Or the adorable young lady.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than did the attacks stop.
“…Really?”
“Yes. I swear I will make them stop.”
“Elder.”
The boy stepped forward, disgruntled that the old man was pursuing the matter without his input. But he quickly noticed the sweat on his hands and instinctively realized that he had just narrowly escaped death.
The old man laughed jovially.
“Lihuang. I will take your sister under my care for the time being.”
“…What will you do with her, Elder?”
“What I taught you and Yili was simply self-defense. I did not instruct you in the ways of killing. However…”
He grinned fiendishly and gently put his hand on Lilei’s head.
“I’ve gotten the urge to teach this child ways to kill and break people. I am not a young man anymore. And though these techniques may be of little use in modern times, I do not think it would be such a bad idea to pass them on.”
“But Elder…”
The boy was stubborn. But the old man was ruthless.
“I can’t have you getting jealous later, so I will tell you now. This girl is more talented than you are.”
“What…?”
“More importantly, you almost lost your life to her just now.”
“…!”
The tattooed boy’s expression changed. The elder continued.
“I know what you’re thinking, Lihuang. ‘How could a concubine’s daughter surpass me,’ you wonder. Worry not, boy. This talent did not come from blood. It is clearly learned. Remember; even your own father has little talent for battle.”
The old man walked up to Lilei and stroked her head.
“Aha…I will raise you to be stronger than me in five years’ time. I will turn you into a weapon—unnecessary in peacetime, wastelands, or battlefields, useful only on this island. What you do with your life after that is up to you.”
The girl thought for some time on the difficult words the old man used.
Then, still looking quite gloomy, she replied.
“I’ll be strong? …So no one stops my dreams?”
The question seemed to come from nowhere, but the old man nodded firmly.
“Of course.”
“Okay then.”
The girl accepted her fate with surprising ease. The old man guffawed and stroked her head again.
“Ah! Splendid! I like your honesty. Now we have nothing more to discuss, Lihuang.”
The old man turned. The tall boy stared anxiously, but eventually he resigned and turned to Lilei.
“Lilei Ei. That is your new name. And from this day forth, you are my sister.”
“…Sister?”
“You’ll understand the circumstances soon enough. Do you have any questions?”
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you’ve been saved, said the look on Lihuang’s face.
A new hell will be unveiled before your eyes, said his expression.
Lilei looked at him, her lead pipe dragging against the floor.
“Sleepy.”
“What?”
“I’m going to sleep. Sleeeeeep.”
Immediately, Lilei lay down on top of the helper and closed her eyes.
The helper froze in surprise. But the warmth from Lilei’s body seemed to calm her down.
“…What just happened here…?”
“She took the wind right out of your sails, I see. I have the feeling that someone similar to her may be fitting for your future wife, Lihuang. A woman who can instantly deflate the air around you.”
“Enough of your jokes, sir.”
The boy sighed loudly, then turned to the girl supporting Lilei.
“What is your name?”
The girl flinched, but she wrote her name on the floor with her finger.
“So you’re called Fei.”
The girl nodded weakly.
“You were lucky, Fei. I will have you remain as Lilei’s helper from this point on. …Elder, I leave the rest in your hands.”
With that, the boy led the other men out of the room.
In her terrified confusion Fei came to two conclusions.
One was that she was spared.
And the other was that the one who rescued her was the girl snoring softly on her back.
Her tension drained in an instant. Tears ran down her cheeks.
As though giving her her blessings, Lilei continued to snore.
The girl christened Lilei Ei, who joined the Western District’s clan.
Several years later, people once again began to call her ‘Sleeping Beauty’.
It was a term of respect.
For her love of sleep, and for the eternal sleep her lead pipe delivered.
Eight years later, the rooftop of an abandoned building.
“Agh… Grrrrrrrkaaaaaaaaaaargh…”
My own scream is echoing from the distance.
I’m so confused. I don’t understand.
What just happened?
What’s happened to me?
I can’t feel my right hand.
No…I feel something. I feel pain.
It’s like there are two of me. One’s screaming and bewildered. The other is watching calmly from afar.
But I still don’t understand.
What did I just do?
What did she do to me?
“Nrghaaaaaaaa… What…is thiiiiiiiiiiiiiis?!”
“It is loud.”
I shouted in the midst of my pain. Without even blinking the girl raised her rusted and stained lead pipe and crushed my left wrist.
“GAAAAAAAH! Urgh!”
By the time I thought to pull away, the pain was ringing through my body.
My wrist came loose. It dangled dangled dangled dangled dangled ohgodfuckfuckfuck
“GRAAAAAH! EEEEYARGH! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!”
What is this
What the hell
is
this
I almost lost consciousness.
Writhing in pain, I began staggering around the rooftop like a drunkard.
My first instinct was flight.
My left knee turned. There was an impact.
“GYAAAARGH!”
I thought my leg had exploded.
The pain the pain the pain the pain the pain the pain the pain the pain the pain the pain the pain the pain the pain the paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—
…!
…!
…
My fading consciousness was jolted back into my body at times.
What’s happening?
Why
Why is this happening
What did I do what
“AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!”
Calm down! Calm down!
I have to think! What is happening?!
I-I just came to help!
So why is she beating me with a lead pipe?!
Why? Where? How?
Where? Where did I go wrong?!
Think. Think! Once I figure it out, I’ll make it up to her—
And resolve this misundersta—
Ssshh.
I…think I heard something in my ear.
The noise turned to the sound of something deflating as it enveloped me.
As I dragged myself away, I began to feel like the world around me was moving very slowly.
I couldn’t move properly. As if I was dreaming.
I just didn
’t understand what was happening to me.
I had to think.
Why is this girl beating me with a lead pipe?
I came to this island because I did the right thing.
I exposed the company’s corruption. That’s how it started.
The great power of evil tried to eat away at me. At the world.
…That’s right. Evil. You can’t really apply a black-and-white morality to the world, but I can guarantee that those bastards—the company bigwigs—were unquestionably evil. I only wanted to expose that and lead the company in the right direction.
But I was fired, and society didn’t protect me, either.
In other words, the power of their evil was stronger than the rules of society.
So I was fired.
But I didn’t give up.
I had to make them pay for their crimes and stop them from committing any more injustices. I had no intention of returning to work, but I had to do something to help the good people in the company and all the people who would work for it in the future so that they could lead upstanding lives.
The enemy was strong. The CEO, the chairman, and the media execs who covered up the news were all my enemies, too.
So I decided to begin by cleaning up my surroundings.
An executive from the newspaper company that tried to gloss over the corruption. I caught him having an affair on camera.
Then I used the photo to lure him to a deserted place. I hit him with my car and put him in the back seat, taking him deep into the mountains.
And with a great deal of effort, I managed to extract information on the corrupt executives.
Once I had all the details, I no longer needed the man. I didn’t need to kill him, either, so I just left him in the mountains.
His arms and legs were broken and he had some ruptured organs, but if he managed to survive three or so months until hiking season, someone would definitely get him help. I don’t kill people without a good reason. Because that is not right.
After that, I used the information I obtained to take away the material possessions they had acquired illegally.
First I decided to burn down their homes. Real estate is the easiest way to use dirty money, after all. They might have had bond certificates—and if those burned too, it’d be like killing two birds with one stone.
Because I didn’t intend to kill them, I waited until the executives were out at night to start the fires.