Dancing with the Queen

Apostle Dierk stood before me.

But I was unarmed.

You can’t bring weapons into an illegal casino.

Theodora — no, Dierk — crossed his legs and looked at me.

—We meet again, yet you pretend not to recognize me. How disappointing.

“……”

I examined Theodora’s subordinates and their reactions.

But they were all expressionless.

As if accustomed to this.

This Theodora couldn’t be Dierk’s true body.

Like with Byorn, he must be controlling remotely.

Then should I probe a bit?

I also crossed my legs and wrapped both arms around Mirei and Iselen’s waists.

Overtly leisurely.

Dierk’s eyes narrowed.

—You seem to like women?

“Even if I liked men, I wouldn’t like you. Why serve the Seven Sin God?”

—Why does life created by the god ask why they obey the god? Isn’t it natural for you to follow your father?

“Would you follow a father who throws you a knife and tells you and your sibling to kill each other?”

Of course, I had no real intention of persuading Dierk.

While responding, I tapped Iselen’s heel with my toes.

A signal to follow once I started.

Dierk smiled.

—Yet afterward he revives you as a higher-dimensional being? This is all a trial containing Father’s deep meaning.

“So? If I sign up now, do you make me a diamond member?”

—Of course. Rigen Librata. Do you know how exceptional your heart is? If that body received the god’s grace……

“No. You’re after my body, aren’t you?”

I cut him off.

Dierk had tried to take my body during the Byorn incident too.

Rigen’s growth rate was absurd.

Starting at third rank, after a few fights already fifth rank — probably the fastest growth in history.

Dierk touched his lips.

—Ah, since you know everything, there’s no point. Yes, I want your body.

“……”

A burly middle-aged man telling me he wants my body in a sultry voice.

……If you’re going to sell, pay attention to visuals next time, I wanted to say.

Mirei’s eyes went wide as saucers looking between me and Dierk.

Dierk covered his cheek with his palm and spoke softly.

—Ah, don’t worry. As you just saw……

“You can infect while leaving the original personality intact. Infection spreads through blood, and it’s meaningless unless you kill the main body.”

Suddenly Iselen spoke.

Dierk turned as Iselen continued.

“Infection targets only humans, and activity declines during daytime. Kill the main body and everything ends. But individuals can exchange information with each other, so killing the main body isn’t easy.”

—Hmmm? I thought you weren’t an ordinary dark elf, but could it be? Could it be?

Dierk spoke craftily.

Iselen responded coldly.

“Apostle, vampire Dierk. An experimental creation made by the banished Seven Sin God.”

—Hahaha, what nonsense. Experimental creation. You don’t really understand……

“You’re an experiment. If you’d truly succeeded, you’d have been deployed during the war. If deployed, the imperial military would have become a bloodbath.”

Iselen spoke icily.

“The reason for limiting it to humans only is obvious. To divide the races, and because the emperor was also human, to plant distrust. But before you succeeded, the empire won and you melted into darkness.”

—……

“You’re the source preventing the empire from trusting each other.”

—……As expected, the Queen of Assassins. How surprising. That voluptuous body is quite tempting. A woman like you would become such an adorable little kitten in bed, wouldn’t you? You can act so haughty, but once pinned beneath the emperor you’d gasp so sweetly……

Thwack!

Theodora’s body swayed back and forth.

He’d taken my punch to the face.

Iselen looked somewhat surprised, but I was also surprised after throwing it.

My hand just moved on its own.

Crrrunch.

Dierk twisted and reset his broken nose bone.

Not making a single groan — as expected, direct attacks didn’t reach Dierk himself.

Iselen spoke coldly.

“This control isn’t perfect either. There’s a distance limitation. You’re in the capital right now.”

—Correct! But where among the capital’s forty million citizens could I be?

“I can tell where you want to go. To infect someone, you must feed them your blood or bite them directly. In other words……”

Iselen glanced at me.

“If you covet Rigen Librata’s body, you’ll come in person. And you actually came.”

—You think you’ve trapped me? How unfortunate. Even if you turn this place into a bloodbath, I won’t feel pain or itch……

“You don’t know why you’re an experimental subject.”

—……

“You’ll find out soon.”

Iselen spoke coldly and brought alcohol to her lips.

A queen dismissing even the Seven Sin God’s servant as beneath notice.

“Ah, so that wasn’t said sincerely.”

“……What?”

Iselen didn’t understand, but I just shook my head.

Judging by her words, she’d been tracking Dierk for a long time.

Iselen hadn’t truly intended to abandon the empire so readily either.

I turned forward and spoke.

“Well, since we’ve both finished talking, shall we throw down?”

—Are you also siding with that woman?

“No, I’m just sane so I dislike you? Would anyone hand over their body to a weird parasite like you?”

—Para……

At that moment, I threw the fork that had been lying in front of me.

Infused with telekinesis.

Thunk!

A surprise attack — the fork struck directly into Dierk’s eye.

He froze briefly.

As expected.

The controlled body — even ignoring pain, he couldn’t control the stiffness!

I kicked up the table with my toes.

Crash!

Colorful cards shot up to the ceiling, and the overturned table fell onto Theodora’s head.

Then Theodora’s subordinates around the table all simultaneously rolled back their eyes.

As expected, all infected by Dierk!

“Everyone fight for yourselves!”

“Yes!”

Mirei rolled away and swung forks gripped in both hands.

A scene that looked like a joke. But flames blazed at the fork tips!

Elven spirit magic.

Mirei slashed and cut enemies with the same forks she’d been eating cake with moments ago.

Attacking only enemy throats and eyes was very effective.

Looks aside, she was from rural mafia — fighting with her back to walls and sofas, her skills were quite good.

Whoosh!

Meanwhile, Theodora, who’d thrown the table aside, leapt toward me.

Magic wrapped around both hands.

But I immediately kicked him and slammed him back into the sofa.

Not difficult.

Thirty humans all Dierk’s subordinates right now?

Most ordinary humans are rarely ambidextrous. Even I became one through practice.

But could controlling thirty people remotely with no delay in perfect coordination be possible?

If that were possible, he wouldn’t be an experiment!

While pressing Theodora’s abdomen with my foot, I punched away someone climbing over the sofa.

Crack!

“Gah!”

One fell, but two more climbed over the sofa in succession.

Like dogs that had seen blood.

Smack.

At that moment, Iselen elegantly kicked upward.

The blade protruding from the front of her heel pierced one man’s throat and withdrew.

I caught the remaining one with my palm and slammed him toward Theodora’s face.

Wham!

The two who’d kissed faces trembled.

“Kyaaaah!”

As blood splattered, customers screamed and rushed out like a tide.

Conversely, enemies flowed out like an ebb tide and attacked Iselen and me recklessly.

Crunch!

Having crushed Theodora’s abdomen, I pressed my back against Iselen’s.

Iselen immediately handed me a knife.

Stab!

I stabbed under the chin of an employee charging frontally with the knife I received, then withdrew it.

Fighting back-to-back in a melee is effective but hard to maintain.

If movements overlap you get tangled, and moving too much exposes your partner.

Stab! Shhhhk!

But we did it very naturally.

When an enemy attacked and I dodged sideways, Iselen stabbed without even turning around as if waiting.

I pivoted and struck the throat of a dealer aiming at Iselen’s flank.

Then we pressed our backs together again like magnets.

And blew away the face of an enemy who attacked thinking it was an opening.

Sensing each other’s breathing by ear, detecting the attached partner’s movements and immediately reinforcing.

Like dancing a battle dance.

“Ahahaha.”

Laughter naturally burst out while cutting enemy throats and spraying blood.

Iselen’s laughter — I was laughing too.

Fighting like this reminded me of the old days and was fun.

After we dropped about twenty, Dierk hesitated.

Even though they ignored pain, we hadn’t taken a single wound.

Iselen mocked.

“As expected, multiple control doesn’t work properly. Are the relay functions also poor? Befitting an unfinished experiment.”

—……What did you say?

A dealer standing some distance away whipped his head around.

At that moment, I kicked off the floor and charged at him.

Iselen wouldn’t have mocked for no reason.

Provocation, to draw out the enemy’s true intent.

In this case, Dierk’s main body.

The relay for freely controlling Theodora and his subordinates!

—Kh!

The beautiful dealer stuck cards between her fingers and hastily swung.

Looked like a joke, but green magic rippled.

“You can do this?”

I admired while dodging and thrust my hand.

Telekinetic Palm.

—Gah!

The dealer staggered back vomiting blood.

I struck her neck bone with my toes.

Snap.

A chilling sound, and the dealer’s body went limp.

Thud! Thud!

Then Theodora’s remaining subordinates collapsed like puppets with cut strings.

An interior wrecked with blood, corpses, and fallen people.

Customers had already all escaped outside, but it was meaningless.

The police surrounded the area.

“Hiing. I just bought this today……”

Mirei grumbled that blood got on her clothes.

I turned to Iselen.

Arms crossed, she looked down at the corpses haughtily.

Breathing slightly quickened after battle.

“……”

“……”

Exchanged glances.

Iselen looked at me, feeling strange.

An expression dazed from recalling nostalgic memories.

But Iselen quickly hid her expression and spoke.

“You’ve achieved great merit again. Congratulations, Headquarters Commander.”

“Thank you. Though the more famous I become, the harder it seems for Your Majesty to kill me.”

“Why would I eliminate you?”

Iselen glanced alluringly.

“You’re calming the empire’s chaos, so I should cheer you on? I actually joined the Counter-Terrorism Investigation Headquarters, approved its legitimacy, and provided this information. Also, with Lang Ei protecting you, touching you would only cause discord.”

“Right. I also want to know that. If you know that so well, why are you trying to kill me?”

“……”

I looked around the blood-soaked surroundings.

“Originally you’d have sent me here alone to test the waters. If I died, good, otherwise you’d get information on Dierk. You intended to narrow down where Dierk was controlling from.”

Dierk’s ability seemed terrifying at first glance, but had clear weaknesses.

He couldn’t smoothly control multiple people, and couldn’t exert power beyond the original body’s strength.

So he must want my body — Rigen with tremendous potential.

Iselen laughed coldly.

“Wasn’t that what you wanted? Also, I came along as you requested.”

“Ah, that……”

Smack!

As I spoke, one fallen human man pounced on Iselen’s back.

I wrapped my left arm around Iselen’s waist and pulled while thrusting my right hand.

Crack!

The man with his head smashed knelt and collapsed.

“One was pretending to be finished and watching for an opportunity. Too classic a method, isn’t it?”

“……”

I examined Iselen, whose waist I held.

She was blinking vacantly.

A confused expression, body trembling finely.

Still holding her, I spoke.

“Since we did this here, you’ve definitely narrowed the candidates, right?”

“……Dierk’s main body is in House Sagittari.”

Iselen answered vacantly.

A dazed face as if dreaming.

I briefly pressed and spoke.

“Right, Dierk is inside the Sagittari ducal house, and he’s the culprit who siphoned off the bombs. You joined the investigation headquarters to investigate and confirm that.”

“……”

Iselen didn’t answer, but that was correct.

Right now, she’d probably obediently believe and accept whatever I said.

Even if I revealed I was Sirik.

But it was noisy outside.

“Detain everyone!”

“Breach! Breach!”

Voices from outside.

The police seemed to be almost suppressing the situation.

They’d enter here before long.

No time for a long talk.

“Well then, shall we do this? We go to the Sagittari house together. When we go, Dierk will emerge, and we finish it then.”

“……We can’t approach inside the Sagittari house. They’re also nominally one of the twelve houses and meritorious subjects of the empire.”

“I’ll handle that. That’s why I became headquarters commander.”

I interlaced fingers with her blood-stained hand.

Iselen’s hand was also blood-soaked.

While overlapping our blood-stained hands, I spoke lightly.

“Let’s make whoever cuts Dierk’s throat first the winner. The winner gets one wish granted. If I win, let’s have a proper talk.”

This was a bet that couldn’t actually work from the start.

Though we just fought in perfect sync, we don’t truly trust each other.

Just a proposal to settle everything completely there.

Iselen seemed to understand, asking.

“……If I win?”

“That won’t happen, Lagriz.”

When I whispered quietly near her pointed ear, Iselen twisted her body, ticklish.

Cheeks flushing like old times.

Reflexively relaxing lips, melting eyes…….

“……”

At that moment, Iselen bit her lips hard.

Intense self-loathing.

Seeing her up close, I clearly realized.

This woman didn’t hate me, Rigen, right now.

She couldn’t forgive her own heart wavering at my call, the passion rising from within.

As I realized this in surprise, Iselen instead pressed our interlaced hands firmly.

Tightly clasped.

The queen answered resolutely.

“Good, I accept.”

If husband and wife are united in body and mind.

They should play bait together too.