19
With the pale moonlight at his back and the drawbridge control tower ahead, he faced off with his most potent enemy.
“ ”
It was pretty dramatic, if he did say so himself, Al thought ruefully. A one-armed swordsman with a blood-soaked young girl beside him. It was like something out of a heroic legend or a saga—if they both got out alive, that was. If not, well, then it could be one of the great tragedies so often found in these stories. If it hadn’t been him there, but some more powerful and more handsome warrior, the moment could have been the subject of a painting, no doubt.
“Heh, I guess this moment could be a picture, too. One of those pictures of Hell,” Al said bitterly. He fought off a pang of remorse as he pointed his dagger forward. In a situation where even his beloved liuyedao would have put him at a disadvantage, being reduced to relying on this sorry excuse for a weapon was even more depressing.
Al was quickly beginning to have second thoughts about his decision. Meanwhile, the Hornet flashed him one of those brilliant smiles. “A bad temper, eh?” The Empress of the sword slaves offered him a mocking chuckle. Between her tall frame and the two massive swords proceeding from the stumps of her arms, she almost looked like three people standing next to one another. Al found himself thinking once again what an extraordinary figure she cut.
A truly strong opponent is someone you can take one look at and realize you have no chance of beating them. The Hornet certainly met that definition. Two missing arms might normally have been considered a handicap—but the Hornet had neatly turned it into her greatest strength.
“Hee! Hee-hee! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” The Hornet laughed, seeming to hug her arms with their great blades tightly, quite uninterested in Al’s appraisal of the situation. She seemed downright delighted, notwithstanding the fact that she was turning her weapons against a longtime companion.
“The hell’s so funny?” Al said.
“Oh, my dear, sweet Al, you ought to know. I’ve always wanted to try a fight to the death with you.”
“Not a fact I ever wanted to know, but yeah, I got an inkling. We had a fight to the death, and I lost like an asshole. You kicked me into the corpse gutter, remember?”
“I dooo. And yet here you are. Which can only mean one thing.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” Sadly for Al, he couldn’t fathom the thoughts of a battle-crazed fighter like her. In ten years on the sword-slave island, he’d never once enjoyed a fight. That said, if he was going to be forced to keep battling against his will, surely it wouldn’t have done him any harm to enjoy a victory toast once in his life.
But Al couldn’t do that. He didn’t have it in him to be happy at taking the life of another. And he doubted he ever would. That was why…
“…I’ll never understand you in a million years, Hornet.”
“We don’t have to understand each other, Al, sweetie. If I can have a little fun, that’s all I want.”
What a self-interested, unilateral view of the world. How very fitting for an Empress. For the empire.
If, of course, he himself didn’t end up sacrificed to that worldview.
“Ugly…brute,” Arakiya mumbled.
“Oh, pipe down and watch me work, young lady. I really took it to heart when you told me I wasn’t an ugly brute,” Al said.
“ ” Arakiya looked back at him, unable to hide the sting of his riposte. She didn’t show much emotion in her one eye, but it was clear as a burning flame that she knew Al was at a disadvantage here.
“An overwhelming disadvantage. Believe me, I know it better than anybody,” he said. No one had to tell him the odds on the frankly idiotic challenge he’d accepted.
“All right then, sweetie, here we go! Don’t die too easily, all right?” The Hornet’s voice was veritably sugary—then she let loose with her blades, and a storm enveloped the bridge. Al immediately crouched down, raising his knife in hopes of enduring it.
“—!”
But he found his weapon swept away—along with his torso—and Al died. Very easily, as it turned out.
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