Chapter 3

In the midst of cherry blossoms dancing in the wind, the child's expression suddenly lost all emotion.

With a face that seemed to lack any will, like a Noh mask, the child stared at the man in front of him.

The last words the man, who had been trying to sell the child as a slave, managed to utter were in a voice that sounded as if he didn't understand what was happening.

Something enormous had burst out of the ground and, in an instant, had 'eaten' his companions.

"What... what is this...?"

The man stood in shock, staring at the giant plant that had suddenly appeared before him.

This plant was not ordinary.

Its stems and vines writhed as if it were alive.

Moreover, it was incredibly large, and the man had never seen such a gigantic flower before.

"Hey!"

When he looked at the petals of the plant, he saw that his companions were only partially visible, with their upper bodies sticking out.

He called out to them in a panic, but there was no response.

"Ah... ah...!!"

When the man looked closely at his companions, he saw that they were spitting out large amounts of blood and their eyes were vacant.

He realized that they were already dead.

Their lower bodies, hidden inside the flower, had likely been torn apart.

"Someone... help!"

"AAAAAAH!!"

"!?"

The man turned around, seeking help.

There should have been other guild members and kingdom knights who had accepted the same mission to eliminate the dark guild.

However, the ear-piercing screams of their final moments made him widen his eyes.

"Oh... the plants...!?"

The guild members and knights were impaled by roots that had burst out of the ground.

The tips of the roots, which had easily pierced through human bodies, were sharp.

They were pulsating with human blood, as if they were deriving nourishment and joy from it.

Even the sturdy armor worn by the kingdom knights had been easily penetrated and used to immobilize them.

"Are you okay!?"

"You... you're alive!"

"Try...!"

The man, who had collapsed in a most undignified manner, was approached by the knight captain who had been leading the group.

Despite having cuts on his cheeks and head, the captain had somehow survived.

"Hmm. There are two of you still alive."

A chilling voice reached the two survivors.

Though it was the voice of a normal, cute child, to them it sounded like the whisper of a demon toying with their lives.

The child, adorned with flowers, seemed very displeased that the men were still alive, and approached them with a puffed-up cheek.

"Who are you!?"

The man, trying to bolster his courage, shouted at the child.

The sight of a tough-looking man, who was trembling in fear, shouting at a child, must have been a strange one.

The child, seeing the pitiful man, giggled with amusement.

"You were just talking about making Lala a slave a moment ago. You change so quickly."

"What do you mean, what are you talking about!!"

The man, his face red with anger, raised his voice in a manner that showed he felt deeply insulted.

However, the child continued to giggle meaningfully, showing no signs of fear.

"Lala is a member of the 'Army of Salvation,' which you foolishly opposed. See, isn't this a very nice emblem?"

"What...!!"

The child showed the right cheek, which had been smooth and white just moments ago, now bearing the black emblem of the guild.

The child touched the emblem with a sigh, a movement that was unusually sensual and far beyond what one would expect from a child.

However, the knight and the man were too shocked by the child's words to notice such details.

"Such a child is a member of a dark guild!?"

"Hey, that's rude. Lala is much older than she looks."

The child puffed out her cheeks, looking offended.

If not for the many blood-soaked corpses around them, it would have been a touching scene.

"Let's run. We can't fight this child."

"Y-yeah..."

The knight leaned in and whispered.

The man agreed with this plan.

His companions had been eaten by the flower, but in the Grey Guild, there was no real sense of camaraderie.

If the roles were reversed, the other man would have abandoned him too.

"...What's wrong, mister?"

The child tilted her head, maintaining the innocent demeanor she had when they first met, despite having killed several people.

Occasionally, she would show a face that seemed to be in a state of ecstasy, but otherwise, she appeared to be a normal child.

The dark guild had members like this...

"You think you can run?"

"What? You won't let us go?"

"Of course not. Since you targeted the Master, you deserve to die. Even if Lala were to let you go—"

The child declared that she would kill them as a matter of course.

The man tried to distract her with conversation, hoping they might be able to escape.

"—I won't let you go."

The man's faint hope was shattered by a woman who appeared beside the child.

"Ah!?"

A small blade was embedded in the knight's neck.

It was a kunai, a weapon used by warriors from an island nation far to the east.

"Ahhh!?"

The knight, who had been talking to the man just moments ago, collapsed to the ground, spraying blood from his neck.

Thus, all the knights and guild members, except for the man, were dead.

They had been impaled by the plant and stabbed in the neck by the kunai, leaving pools of blood on the ground.

"Sorgloss, why didn't you come out? Were you slacking off?"

"No, that's not it. Lala-dono's abilities are more useful when dealing with multiple opponents. I was monitoring those who were trying to escape. I wasn't watching the Master and getting hot, I swear."

A woman in ninja attire, Sorgloss, appeared next to the green-haired child, Lala.

Her face was mostly hidden by a cloth, but her cold eyes and long, tied-up hair were visible.

As she said, several men who had tried to escape were lying on the ground with kunais in the back of their necks, clearly dead.

"Phew. Using so much magic in the morning is tiring. I need to get some magic from the Master."

Of course, she still had plenty of magic left.

This was just an excuse to get closer to the Master.

She rubbed her cheek, which bore the emblem, against the man and pressed her body against him.

It felt so good that it was like being lifted to the heavens.

"That's unfair. I want to use magic too."

Sorgloss had been watching the sleeping Master from the ceiling, and just that made her body heat up.

It was difficult to handle, even when she had to deal with it in the attic.

"Damn it! What are you guys!?"

"As I said, Lala and I are members of the dark guild 'Army of Salvation.'"

"Yes. We were just brushing off the sparks that fell on us."

The man, with tears in his eyes, shouted out his inner thoughts.

It was impossible for such a small and seemingly weak child to create such a horrific situation.

No one could have imagined this.

"What do we do with this man?"

"Hmm... Well, he might know something. Let's get some information from him."

"Wow, are you going to do that? I don't feel sorry for him after he targeted the Master, but he does look a bit pitiful."

The two discussed the man's fate.

Lara looked sympathetic at Sorgloss's words, but she was also half-smiling, so it wasn't genuine.

"What... what are you going to do to me!?"

"Ah, you might have been better off if Lala had killed you. You'll be subjected to this by this perverted ninja."

The man, feeling an unbearable sense of dread from their conversation, asked, spitting out saliva.

However, the response he received was a cruel prediction of his future.

He couldn't run even if he wanted to; his legs were too weak to stand.

Sorgloss approached him, her face close to his.

"I'm just going to play with your brain a bit. If it goes well, you'll be fine."

"You don't intend to do it well at all, do you?"

"Ah...!!"

Sorgloss didn't respond to Lala's comment.

Her hand began to melt, losing its human shape.

The unnatural movement of her hand revealed that Sorgloss was a demon.

She slowly brought her melted hand closer to the man.

The man, tears streaming down his face, began to urinate, the smell of ammonia filling the air.

"Stop... stop it...! Help meee!!"

"No."

Sorgloss coldly rejected the man's final plea.

Immediately after, the man's scream echoed through the forest.