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Published at 19th of April 2023 06:30:11 AM


Chapter 47

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The maid's eyes blinked repeatedly, the haze failing to fully clear even as she slowly focused her irises on me.

I stopped giving her the poke of life and stood up, waiting for the moment when realisation inevitably came to her in a rush of memories.

“Ah … !”

It came just as I began tapping my foot.

The maid shot to her feet, her back slamming against the wall as she took a step back, bereft of any sense of direction. She gave a wince of pain, then promptly began sliding down.

I waited for her to stand up again.

“Salutations. I'm Juliette. This is my future handmaiden, Coppelia.”

“Hiya~”

“Are you unharmed, maid?”

The young woman took a moment to gather her bearings, check to see if she had any gaping wounds, and then stared blithely at me and Coppelia in turn.

After several moments, she nodded her head.

“I ... believe so?”

“Excellent. Now that my duty of care is over, I have questions. We're here for a dryad. Have you seen one?”

“Dryad ...”

“Yes. A dryad. You're currently in a home claimed by a dryad. This is their grove. We found you upon magically discovering a hole in the side of this building, but we haven't yet come into contact with it. Have you seen the creature?”

The young woman stared unblinkingly at me.

Then, she faced the pile of rubble that Coppelia was currently standing on and slowly pointed towards it.

“I believe the dryad is there,” she simply said.

I eyed the debris, chunks of wall blasted into a small hill of stone and dust and at least half a desk. A small amount of smoke rose from a vent in the rubble.

“Oh.” I paused, then turned to Coppelia. “... That was on purpose.”

“You'll definitely need to buy my witness testimony for that one.”

My, how wonderful!

Through my clever use of my gardening techniques combined with an utterly pedestrian mailbox, I'd vanquished the monster causing terror on the streets of the royal capital!

Whereas others used brute strength, I used craft and subtlety!

Ohohohoho … how simple this was! No wonder my skills were in such demand! Who else could defeat a dryad without even looking at it? Rather, it's because I didn't know where it was that I could elude it's spells of subterfuge and enchantment!

I wasn't merely a genius. I was also a master tactician!

“Amazing ...” said the maid, her eyes now finally clear as she stared at the dryad's tombstone. “I didn't … I could barely see. It was such a powerful attack. Did you … ?”

She turned to me, glancing at my sword as she did so. I indulged her curiosity by adopting a pose with it. Was it an actual swordsmanship pose? No, but that hardly matters. I was a princess. And adopting chic poses was second nature to me, whether it be with a new dress or a trusted sword.

“Why, it was nothing,” I said, waving away the justified astonishment. “Though dryads are deadly adversaries with both magical prowess and natural strength, they also possess well-documented weaknesses which can be exploited.”

“Such as walls,” said Coppelia.

“Such as walls,” I agreed. “Now, how did you come to be in a dryad's grove? Did you originally work here? Or were you kidnapped?”

“I ...”

The maid struggled with her words, opening and closing her mouth.

She was clearly traumatised by whatever the dryad had done with her. Whatever it was, and however long it was, I had no doubt that it was cruel. But why would a dryad even bother keeping someone alive? A bank of nourishment, perhaps?

How awful. It's a wonder she could even stand, let alone speak. To be a prisoner of a dryad, she must have suffered extreme hardship under exhausting circumstances. Why, the look of desperation I saw in this maid's eyes was very familiar to me.

“You're an adventurer ...”

I winced as she took in the sight of my copper ring. The bane of my dignity.

“Y-Yes, well, in a manner of speaking. But that doesn't matter! The dryad is now dead and you are safe to—”

Bwrooooomm.

Suddenly, the pile of rubble blasted outwards, causing Coppelia to hop aside as a towering figure took her place.

A creature of pure bark and concentrated hatred rose from the ruin, bits of rubble cascading off its smoking, monstrous form as the dryad reached almost the ceiling in height.

Resembling both a woman and a tree, this creature was a hideous amalgamation of twisted branches and clawed limbs, its face shrivelled with as many creases as an ancient oak as it bristled with rage.

“You disgusting cretins!” screamed the dryad. “How dare you harm my grove!”

Foul energy pooled in its limbs. Two orbs of dark, twisting magic ringed with wilting leaves and dying flowers were conjured by the monster as it began draining the life out of its own grove.

“I will drain you! I will eat you! I will consume you! And then I'll kill you! You foul vermin cannot comprehend the torment you will suffer. Your very existence will be a prison of suffering. Every moment you near the bridge of death, I will hook you back and allow the endless agony to cycle anew! You insignificant blobs of flesh will—”

“[Moonlit Sickle].”

We never found out what our blobs of flesh would do.

Instead of the dryad's face scrawled with crazed wrath, all I saw was empty space as a massive shadowy scythe with a blade of pure silver swept across where the monster's head previously was.

It tumbled down, bouncing off the dryad's body, which remained standing like a tree with its crown removed. The head rolled into a tuft of grass where it, the grove, and the body soon began to wilt on the spot. Colours turned to brown, like autumn swept over spring.

In moments, nothing remained within the destruction of the room.

Nothing except a tiny twig. The only thing not to have withered. A single leaf grew on the end. The sole evidence that a dryad once made its home here, and failed in even delivering a complete monologue before its demise.

I looked at all that remained of the dryad, before turning to Coppelia.

She gave a wide smile.

“I objected to being called a blob of flesh.”

“You didn't object to the whole eating, consuming, then killing thing?”

“Why would I? I'm sure I look very tasty.”

Coppelia gave her scythe a full rotation, the air singing with the sheer keenness of her blade before she lightly tossed it up and held it between both palms like a very deadly baton. She squeezed and the magical weapon was absorbed back into her hands.

This was the second time I'd seen that. And it was still as otherworldly as I remembered.

Her scythe's blade was the only thing I'd known to match Starlight Grace for its sheer brightness. But whereas my sword was a beacon to the stars, that scythe was like the moon itself.

For my part, I kneeled down and picked up the dryad's twig. It was warm to the touch, and almost seemed to shiver. It was smooth with a varnished quality, as though this twig was an artisan's pride that had been shaved and honed over many years.

My first monster remnant I'd picked up. And it wasn't disgusting.

I suppose I should be grateful of that, at least.

I stuffed it into my bottomless pouch.

“I did the hole,” I said pointedly. “The person who does the hole also receives a significant share of the reward.”

“Fine by me,” replied Coppelia cheerfully. “Isn't this great? You blow down walls and I cut off heads. It's perfect!”

“Perfect would be not needing to search out errant dryads.” I turned to the maid, whose eyes had grown to the size of cheese wheels. “So, where was I? … Oh, yes. The dryad is dead now, and you're safe to depart. I would escort you, but words cannot convey how busy I am. Farewell and avoid future dryads.”

I brushed down the dust from my attire and prepared to leave.

That's when the maid sprung into action.

She swallowed a gulp of breath, dived for a bag in the corner, then looked imploringly at me and Coppelia as she presented it to us. The bag jingled with crowns.

When she opened it, it also glittered with them.

“I want to hire you.”





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