Chapter 16: Recruit

“……Alright.”

Beatrice stood up and swiftly raised the dagger in her hand, aiming to slash her own wrist.

I didn’t stop her.

Since I didn’t intervene, Murfin didn’t either.

Blood kept flowing steadily from Beatrice’s arm.

By the time the bleeding reached a fatal level, Murfin quietly asked,

“Are you really not going to stop her?”

“I will. But I told her not to.”

With my eyes closed, I listened to Beatrice’s heartbeat gradually fading away, holding the Holy Sword firmly in one hand.

I aimed it at the center of Beatrice’s chest.

“……Weren’t you going to save her?”

“Quiet and just watch.”

“…….”

I dismissed Murfin’s question with a single word and calmly waited for the right moment.

The sound of her heartbeat slowed down little by little.

Soon, Beatrice would fully meet death.

I saw a hallucination, as if the Reaper’s hand was reaching to seize Beatrice’s soul.

Holding the Holy Sword, I glared at the wrist of the Reaper’s hand stretching toward Beatrice’s heart.

‘Now.’

Then, without hesitation, I thrust the sword.

“Gah?!”

The sword pierced Beatrice’s heart, and her body jolted violently.

Light burst from the Holy Sword, and the wound on her wrist rapidly healed.

My Holy Sword can’t kill a person.

The moment someone is cut or stabbed by it, they are instantly healed.

Even if death is imminent, as long as they don’t completely die, it fully resurrects them.

Beatrice coughed and opened her eyes wide.

“……Why, why did you save me?!”

“What nonsense are you talking about? I told you clearly, didn’t I?”

I smirked at her words and pointed the Holy Sword under her chin.

“No.”

“You act like you won’t stop it.”

“That’s obvious. Since I saw you didn’t want to die, I deliberately didn’t stop it.”

“……What?”

Beatrice frowned in disbelief.

I withdrew the sword, wiped the blood she shed on my hand, and stabbed her forehead, neck, and then her heart.

“Those who truly want to die don’t want to feel pain for long. That’s why they aim for instant death by stabbing here, here, or here in one go.”

“…….”

“Those who are afraid even to kill themselves won’t openly ask someone else to kill them. That’s basically a plea to be saved.”

“That’s some twisted logic……”

“Now then, what did you feel as you faced death?”

“…….”

Beatrice furrowed her brow deeply.

But then she looked me in the eyes and quickly averted her gaze as if she felt the sting of the stab.

“Hoo, are you throwing a tantrum? How cute.”

By all accounts, Beatrice was supposed to be devoid of emotions.

But…… was that really true?

If she were truly an emotionless puppet, the first time we fought, she should have sacrificed her life to kill me.

That would have been the rational choice.

But how did she actually act?

The moment she decided she couldn’t win, she chose to flee.

“Human emotions are truly mysterious. No matter how cold a decision seems, emotions—whether positive or negative—always mix into that choice. Whether large or small, it’s an unavoidable path.”

In other words, it’s impossible for Beatrice to have no emotions.

It’s more accurate to say she simply hasn’t learned them.

Given her environment, it would have been difficult for her to feel anything beyond a certain limited set of emotions.

She mistakenly believes her emotions are broken, but if that were truly the case, communicating with me would be impossible.

“If you felt fear on the path toward death, that’s actually fortunate.”

“……Fortunate?”

“Fear is also an emotion.”

“……!”

As if realizing something from my words, Beatrice’s pupils dilated significantly.

“I’m telling you this over and over, but your emotions aren’t broken.”

I slowly reached out and grabbed Beatrice’s chin.

Forced to meet my gaze, her pupils trembled uncontrollably.

It was a genuine expression, unlike the ‘normal acting’ she had displayed earlier.

“What you lack is the ability to learn them.”

What dwelled in those eyes?

I decided it was joy.

The thrill of discovering something unknown, the kind of delight soldiers feel when they realize they’re alive.

For the first time, I sensed that Beatrice was truly alive.

“So…… this is what emotions are?”

Not the superficial emotions acted out for show, but real feelings.

Only now did I begin to grasp how to bring this insane woman to my side.

“Beatrice. I want you. But I have one condition for you to join me.”

“……A condition?”

“Yes.”

Looking at Beatrice as life blossomed in her eyes for the first time, I said,

“I will teach you how to feel emotions.”

“Teach me? Emotions?”

“Yes. Of course, learning depends entirely on your ability.”

Beatrice looked at me skeptically.

“……How is that even possible?”

“I think I know why you haven’t learned emotions yet.”

“What?”

I grabbed her arm.

Through the sleeve slipping down, the Assassin’s Mark was visible.

“Assassins are trained to kill emotions. To survive through assassination, they can’t afford to feel unnecessary sympathy, consideration, or even guilt toward their targets.”

That’s why Beatrice, born into an assassin group, had never learned emotions.

The bigger problem was that she was born with emotions suppressed.

Left in an environment totally detached from normalcy, with an empty box called ‘emotions,’ her heart was filled only with hollowness.

Naturally, she never truly felt the world but watched and learned from it, then imitated what she saw.

In such an environment, genuinely contemplating and awakening emotions was impossible.

“Emotions are a subject you have to ponder and reflect on alone. You must truly understand others and continuously converse with them to feel it.”

“I’ve had lots of conversations while running the bakery……”

“Simple, everyday conversations aren’t enough to move your emotions. Even dealing with annoying customers probably just sounded like pig squeals to you, didn’t it?”

“Ah, right. That’s true. I even thought about getting a slaughtering knife.”

“I see. Then that feeling you had was anger.”

“……I know that much.”

“I didn’t think you’d know such basics. But I’m not apologizing.”

“Why not?”

“That was just a guess. I don’t actually know if the feeling you had was truly anger.”

Though I said that, the real emotions I needed to teach her weren’t mere joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness.

She needed no lessons on what she already knew.

We had to go deeper to the root.

“……What’s that supposed to mean?”

Beatrice frowned, unable to understand.

Murfin, quietly listening behind us, nodded knowingly and said,

“When you said it sounded like pig squeals, if your mind was calm, that could have been more like annoyance than anger.”

Unexpected support, but accurate, so I agreed.

“Emotions are more complex than you think. You can feel one emotion intensely or many emotions simultaneously. Most of this is learned instinctively. But you need to start learning from scratch. You’re basically like a child being spoon-fed.”

“…….”

“Still, I think this deal won’t be bad for you. What do you say?”

To be honest, I can’t teach directly.

But I can give someone things to think about.

If they figure it out themselves, I can pretend I taught them by saying, ‘Ah, you’ve finally realized it, my pupil.’

Ryuk often taught mages that way, so if I just follow that method, I can teach emotions.

Beatrice looked at me with lively eyes and smiled.

“If you don’t satisfy me, I’ll betray you.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll keep throwing you things to think about.”

With that, the safe recruitment of the second talent for the Special Task Force was complete……

“But what about that St. Germain Baronette? Aren’t you going to take revenge?”

Murfin suddenly chimed in from behind, quietly watching.

It was true we had to tie up loose ends, so I grabbed Beatrice’s hand to help her up and asked,

“What do you want to do?”

Beatrice shrugged.

“Is it necessary? The Demon Race sent reinforcements, but they just kept dying to me. Lately, no one’s even come around. Of course, I’m curious about the fake emotions they implanted and how they did it, but that’s not my main concern.”

Her eyes shone fiercely.

“More than that, I want to truly feel emotions as soon as possible.”

“That’s not something you can rush.”

“I don’t care. Starting right now is what matters.”

She valued knowing the emotions she hadn’t learned over petty revenge.

She was, without a doubt, quite unlike ordinary people.

“Hm, I see. That’s unfortunate.”

So, I genuinely pitied Beatrice.

“……What do you mean?”

“I mean it won’t be easy to achieve that right away.”

Boom!

At those words, a loud rumble came from the underground entrance, followed by sounds of crumbling debris.

As the sound echoed, Murfin next to me asked,

“……Is this an ambush?”

“Yes. Looks like about five of them. Their skill is incredible. I only just noticed them now, even though they got this close, so they must be excellent at stealth.”

Of course, no one in the Demon Army would openly roam in human territory.

If caught, they could be hunted.

Both the Demon Race and demons had to be highly skilled at hiding their presence in human lands.

But who sent them?

“Beatrice, how did the St. Germain Baronette send the demons before?”

“It was an ambush like this. But until now, only one at a time.”

“But this time, there are five.”

Either he’s preparing to wipe us out for real, or……

‘The Demon King is involved.’

Either way, I tightened my grip on the Holy Sword—it was a matter of finding out by fighting.

“Beatrice, stick close to Murfin and don’t take a single step away.”

“Why? Can’t I take out one or two myself? Lately, there’s been nothing fun to vent on, and my hands are itching.”

I shook my head as I recalled the Demon Race bodies butchered in Beatrice’s underground shop.

“I hope you find another way to vent. A friend of mine said, ‘Old habits die hard,’ and if you don’t fix that habit, you’ll end up using innocent people as toys, not demons.”

“So what if I do?”

“That’s a crime punishable by execution by the royal family.”

“……Tsk. That’s true.”

Beatrice clicked her tongue and agreed, then suddenly asked with a puzzled expression,

“But why are you mentioning the royal family? If I need you, aren’t you from some shady crime syndicate or something?”

Come to think of it, I hadn’t officially revealed my identity to her yet.

“I am Owen, Captain of the Kingdom of Lumin’s Special Task Force. Our main task will be……”

I slashed down a shadow descending from the ceiling, which took the form of a demon.

“Kyaaaak!”

“Demon and demon king’s decapitator.”

The severed demon glared, flying at me and swinging its hand.

I caught it and crushed it with a grip before smashing its skull with the Holy Sword.

As the black blood of the demon splattered everywhere, the scattered droplets in the air suddenly gathered into the shape of another person.

It was the Demon Race’s unique power to use the blood of their own kind to instantly teleport their comrades connected externally.

The downside was that one of their kind had to be sacrificed.

And those who came in based on that sacrifice……

‘They’re all just disposable.’

“Kyaaah!”

“Kiiik! Kihiiik!”

Black-skinned humans with bloodshot red eyes.

The enraged, berserk demons gritted their teeth and drooled as they charged toward me.

“Hoo.”

I took a calm breath, gripping the Holy Sword tightly and exhaled.

“If the Demon King’s involved, this won’t be the end……”

Though the situation was simpler than I expected, a strange unease began creeping in.