Hitsugi no Chaika Volume 1

The Sisters Decision Chapter 2 (Part 2)

Chapter 2 ( Part 2)

"....."

The man was standing in front of the Feyra's corpse.

It looked like his entire body was covered in brown and green, but that might have just been the clothing he was wearing. At any rate, he blended into the scenery around him. His head had been shaved completely bald, and he had spread some sort of dye all over it to camouflage it in the same color as his clothes. When he closed his eyes, from a distance it would probably be difficult to recognize him as a human.

"Ohh..."

His face contorted tightly.

It was difficult to discern his expression because of all that paint, but in the next moment big tears started to flow down his face.

"Ooooooooh..."

The man dropped to his knees, and clung to the Feyra's corpse with his entire being. Its remains had been bisected from head to rear as if filleted by an enormous knife. So much blood had poured out from its large, dark body and been absorbed into the ground that; this magic-wielding monster that once had the potential to scare an entire nation seemed to be a whole size smaller.

"It must have hurt...You must have suffered so...ooh...oooh...poor thing, poor thing!"

The man sobbed for a while on top of the Feyra's dead body.

It was as if a member of his own family had been slaughtered.

Then-

"But, it's inconceivable."

The man muttered in a composed tone, as if a switch that completely changed his personality had been flipped.

"The unicorn was in this forest and on the offensive, and yet a wizard was able to defeat it. No matter how you look at it, the unicorn had the advantage in this terrain. Against a young girl wizard, carrying her luggage, no less, there should have been no contest."

The man released himself from the unicorn's corpse, stood up, and tilted his head.

"I had expected some setbacks when taking on this task, so I borrowed some eyes and ears. But could I have overlooked something...?"

The man surveyed the area, and in the next moment, he once again dropped to the ground and roamed about on all fours, as if he had transformed into a beast.

Narrowing his eyes and sniffing around, he prowled around the Feyra's corpse for a bit, and-

"Was there...someone else besides the target?"

He muttered.

The man's eyes zeroed in on trampled leaves and snapped twigs.

That was most likely the limit of what normal human eyes could see, but-

"Footprints...other than the target's...they appear to be those of an adult male...one set. Oho. Ohoho. It appears we have quite the master. But what in the world kind of person was he? But wait, up until now that girl has always been by herself. Did she meet someone here? But then again..."

The man tilted his head.

"I see. As I thought, it seems that acting on my own was poor judgement. If the target had a partner, then certainly, it might have been too much for me to handle alone. Perhaps it would have been best to wait for Gillette-dono's arrival after all..."

The man stood up-and turned his head in a certain direction.

"At any rate, it's a safe bet they've arrived at that town by now."