The Daughter of Evil - Volume 2 - Chapter SS2

song of the black bird; scene 2
Song of the Black Bird short story 

✠ Lich ~In the Country of Marlon, “Column Forest”~

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I had crossed the sea and arrived in Marlon.

When I reached the forest nearby the capital city of Bariti, I could see a bear waving to me.

It was my friend, Eater.

When I alighted on his shoulder, Eater first asked me, “Is Lord Held doing well?”

“…Yeah, you know.” I brushed it off with a vague reply. I wasn’t going to make him worry unnecessarily by responding honestly, that he was on death’s door. “How are things on your end?”

When I turned a question around on him, Eater nodded in satisfaction.

“We’ve got an understanding. Everyone in the forest says they’ll welcome us as friends.”

“Is that so? Thank goodness.”

Frankly speaking, if it was just me alone I wouldn’t have any need to live in a forest. As long as I had a tree to rest my wings, I could be fine living just about anywhere.

But it wasn’t so for Eater. Exposing his enormous frame to the public would get us wrapped up in needless turmoil. And I didn’t want to put a friend through that kind of danger, a friend so dear that he had run out of the Millennium Tree Forest and swam through the ocean all the way here to Marlon because he missed me.

“You’ve become quite sociable with people–or perhaps I should say, sociable with animals, Eater.”

“Heheh.”

Eater seemed bashfully pleased, scratching his head.

But his expression abruptly clouded.

“…Ah. But.”

“What’s wrong?”

“They said they had a condition to it. They wanted us to solve some trouble.”

“What trouble?”

“They said that lately some weird people have been coming from town and laying waste to the forest.”

“I see. Hunters, right?”

“No.” Eater shook his head. “Those kinds of people have been there for a long time now, and because they don’t hunt more than necessary the forest animals have accepted it. –This is different, they say some group of pure white-skinned people have started randomly rampaging around.”

“Pure white skinned people…Hm.”

That was very interesting.

Perhaps I had arrived at a purpose already.

But then—

“I can’t say anything on it unless I actually see them for myself.”

“I hear they always show up after the sun’s gone down. They’re more likely to appear on nights when the moon is close to full.”

“…As I recall, tonight should be a full moon. Wonderful. Well then, shall we go dole out some punishment for the ruffians that are disrupting the peace of our forest?”

“Yeah! I’ll do it!”

“Naturally. I am the brains of this outfit, after all. It is your job to fell our enemies…However, try not to kill them if possible. We can’t afford to get caught up in any more troublesome developments. Try to drive them off with moderate wounds.”

“Got it!”

Well—

That was assuming that our foes were mere human beings.

.

But that night.

Under the full moon, as I waited on a tree branch fighting drowsiness, just as Eater said these things appeared.

In number—there were perhaps ten. Certainly their skin was white, so much so that they seemed entirely bloodless, and most of them were naked. They weren’t wielding anything that looked like weapons.

No…One of them is different.

There was a woman in the center of the group. Unlike the others, she seemed to be a normal human being. Her skin wasn’t that pale, she was wearing a black outfit, and—

In her hand she was clasping a red wineglass.

Without meaning to, a laugh fell from my mouth.

Bingo. I’ve found it. A Vessel of Deadly Sin that rules a demon!

While taking care not to be spotted by the group, I flew down to Eater’s shoulder as he crouched in a nearby clump of bushes.

“Eater. …Eater, wake up.”

“—Hm? Right. I’m awake, I’m awake,” Eater replied, half asleep.

“They’ve come, our enemies.”

“Oh. Well then, we gonna do it?”

“Yeah. But—We have a change in plan.”

“…?”

“There’s no need to go easy on them. It seems our targets are not humans but rather ‘dead soldiers’.”

“Dead soldiers?”

“Walking human dead. They’re dead from the start, so there won’t be any problems in doing anything further to them.”

“Okay, I see.”

“Ah, only, there is a woman in the center—she’s holding a wineglass, and she’s an exception. Don’t kill her—just knock her unconscious.”

“The woman with the wineglass. Got it.”

Eater stood, and then with me still on his shoulder he began to walk in front of the intruders.

“…Ho. What’s this—”

The woman with the wineglass gazed at Eater with great interest, despite her surprise.

“—A bear, how odd. It’s the first time I’ve seen one so big. …Well, good. This is a rare opportunity to see the combat strength of the dead soldiers.”

The woman raised the wineglass, up, and then all the dead soldiers glared at Eater at once.

It seemed that all of them now regarded the enormous bear before them as an enemy.

I was correct; unmistakably this woman was manipulating the dead soldiers by borrowing the power of the demon who dwelt in the wineglass.

“Come…My dead soldiers, devour this bear!”

In concert with the woman’s cry, the dead soldiers launched their assault on Eater.

.

In the end, it was shorter than I had anticipated.

Without even ten minutes passing by, the dead soldiers had all been reduced to rubbish, and the woman who’d been controlling them was on the ground in shock before Eater.

“Shit! Useless bloody corpses!” she spat.

The fighting spirit had not yet faded from her eyes as she glared at Eater.

But the outcome was clear.

“—Wrong, woman.”

I spoke to her from Eater’s shoulder.

“–! The bird…speaks!?”

“The weak one is not the dead soldiers—it’s you. It seems you haven’t yet gained full control over the demon’s power.”

“…Tch.”

“I do understand. You’ve been practicing controlling these dead soldiers here. However…You’ve had a bit of bad luck. Of all things, we have chosen this forest as our home.”

“Just…who are you!? You’re not just animals!”

“That wineglass is beyond you. Hand it over. If you do, we will spare—”

“Answer the question!”

The woman threw a knife at me while screaming.

I deftly moved to the side, but I failed to get away, the knife grazing my left wing.

“–! My beautiful feathers…you’ve wounded them…”

I could feel myself beginning to simmer with welling anger from my heart.

“…Eater. Please dispense some punishment.”

Eater drew close to her, and slapped her right cheek with his open paw.

“Hwoogh!?”

The woman’s body was blown to the side.

“…”

She didn’t get back up.

“Looks like she’s passed out. That’s what she gets for being such a disobedient child. …Anyway, I think perhaps we shall accept the wineglass now.”

The wineglass had fallen from the woman’s hand, and tumbled to the bushes nearby.

“Hey. What is that glass?” Eater suddenly asked me.

“Inside this vessel—is the ‘Demon of Gluttony’. Your relative.”

“I don’t know anybody called that.”

“Ah…that’s right.”

He had also had his memories stolen by Held.

But well, once he’d reunited with “him” dwelling in the wineglass—that might serve as a jumpstart for Eater regaining his memories.

More important than that was…the dead soldiers.

Earlier had been a bit of a let-down, but still a power that lets one move dead bodies was extremely fascinating for me.

That power, and the “mud doll” technique that I had—if I combined the two, maybe.

Maybe that would bring me one step closer to the completion of a “new race” that I sought.

I landed on the ground and got closer to the glass.

“Come—Show yourself. Our colleague residing in the vessel…’Demon of Gluttony’!”

In response to my call, the vessel began to emit light.

The light eventually rose up from the vessel, and gradually began to take on a human shape.

.

That form must have been “him”, who I knew so well—

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No.

It wasn’t.

.

It wasn’t “him”.

.

“—Who are you?” the light asked me.

But that was my line.

“Who are you!?”

“I…am the ‘Demon of Gluttony’—”

“No you’re not! The ‘Demon of Gluttony’ that I knew isn’t anyone like y—”

“Huh…Does that make you an acquaintance of that pig?”

It was a joking woman’s voice.

Without a doubt, it didn’t belong to “him”.

What did this mean?

While I had been living in the forest—

What had been occurring in the world outside?

Eater, who clearly didn’t get the situation at all, spoke to the light. “You my ‘rel-a-tive’?”

“Oh my, what a delicious looking little bear—but regrettably, I am not related to you.”

“Well then, who’re you?”

“I am the ‘Demon of Gluttony’. My name is—”

.

–And that became my first meeting with “her”.