Royal Princess of Blood

Now how the fuck are we gonna deal with all these dead bodies?

No, wait, I just realized I didn’t have to deal with them and clean them up. There were still a lot of criminals left to clean and drag them into some corner or something. However, everyone was still quite tired — not too bad though, as we killed the ninjas pretty quickly than you’d expect.

We lost only seven members on our side, so that was pretty good.

“You good?” I asked Miyako. As she had lost her sword, she was using one of Satomi’s. I was intending to retrieve her sword if I came across it back at the enemy castle, but I didn’t find it. And considering the people I had to fight, carrying it all around might have made things a bit more difficult for me. “You two hurt somewhere?”

“We’re good. I can’t say the same for the others.” There were others who were wounded.

“I can afford to use a little healing magic. It’s up to you if you want to use yours on them.” I was aware that she disliked these criminals, so she might not want to help them in any way. As for me, I just wanted to appear helpful. This was no different from trying to gain the… um, what’s the word, the adoration of the knights. Yeah, I just wanted to be helpful and to be adored. That way, they might treat me nicely. Of course, considering that they were criminals, that might not work… But there’s also the benefit of not letting them die if they didn’t get treatment in time. Any more of them dying was not in my interest.

It was always essential to value those on your side, even if they’re temporarily with you. This of course only works if they’re not really your enemy in the first place. For Miyako, they were in a way her enemies, but not for me.

Well, to be short, I had to fix things before more work gets laid on me later on… Have to avoid that.

“... Um…” She glanced at the wounded in our convoy, clearly hesitating.

I went on to approach the wounded. As I did, I glanced at Miyako, who was frowning deeply. But in the end, she went and walked over to the nearby wounded. She might dislike the idea of helping them, but the fact still remained that we were working with them. Leaving them to suffer and bleed out would just not be good at the moment.

There was a guy lying on the ground who had a slashed abdomen. Not too deep, but was currently bleeding, waiting for a healer to come and heal him. The group had a couple of healers, but they were a bit slow. Being a healer was not a strong suit here. The guy was merely covering his wound with a cloth to keep himself from bleeding out.

He looked up at me with widened eyes. “You’re…”

I crouched beside him. “Hang on.” I held out my hand, and a light started to shine. Gradually, his bleeding stopped, and a sign of relief formed on his face. “Feeling a bit better?” I asked with a small, gentle smile.

A blush rose on his face. “Y-Yes. Thanks.”

“Good, good.”

My healing magic was quite powerful, despite using a little of it. Therefore, I finished healing the man faster than the others. I proceeded to the next one, he had a deep cut on his leg, and he was looking a bit pale now. Need it be said that I was quite charming? Hehe.

Once his wound closed, he let out a sigh of awe. “Thank you, Miss! You’re so wonderful! Like a goddess!”

Damn right I am!

I smiled sweetly. “I’m glad you think so.”

As I went on to heal the rest, I noticed that Miyako was healing someone, and she was quite stiff about it.

Come on, use that charm, Miyako! A woman’s greatest strength is her beauty! You could conquer nations with that shit.

Just as I was about to finish healing all the wounded, minor or severe, the criminal supervisor arrived after assessing the damage.

“Good thing we didn’t suffer too many casualties. But what the fuck, why did it have to be ninjas of all people? A lot of them at that.”

I stood up and faced him with a displeased expression. “The bigger question is — how did they find us? I was under the impression that all of this was a secret.”

“... How should I know? They’re ninjas.”

“No, if they had followed us from the very beginning, we would have known.” There was something off about this.

“Well, we killed everyone. So there’s no way we can ask any of them now. But from what I can tell, they’re after you guys.”

“You already knew the risk. What I care about is how the ninjas found us.” I slowly stepped forward. “Surely you have nothing to do with it.”

The criminal frowned deeply. “What are you implying?”

“Did you sell us out?” This was something a criminal would do, it wouldn’t be surprising. However, that had consequences. And it would be quite displeasing if we couldn’t complete this transaction.

My gang slowly came up around us, staring, but only increasing the pressure.

The criminal glanced around and clicked his tongue. “No, we didn’t. We don’t work with damn ninjas, or the fucking government. You guys don’t even have a fucking bounty.”

“You didn’t? Or you just didn’t know a deal was made?”

“The boss ain’t like that.”

“Then how the hell did they know where to find us?”

“Don’t have a clue…” He let out an exasperated sigh. “But it could be spies, or they got the information somehow. But does it matter? They’re all dead.”

“No, it does not. But what does matter is you…” I pressed my finger into his chest and tapped it. “...betraying us or not. Don’t do anything stupid, you saw what we can do. Don’t think you’re hard to kill.”

“Tch, don’t have to tell me that. The boss warned me to treat you nicely.”

I nodded. “Good then. Now, can you please get rid of the corpses?”

“... We’ll get on it.”

With that, he went on to order the men to clean up the corpses from the camp.

Miyako walked up to me. “Everything alright?”

“Yeah… Just making sure.”

“... I didn’t think they would go this far just to go after us.”

I glanced at the ninja leader’s corpse. “He wasn’t after any of you precisely.”

“Hm?”

“Just me. They were after me.”

Miyako blinked in surprise. “Why you?”

“Same old story, revenge.”

“Revenge? But I was the one who sent you there.”

“... People sometimes won’t see it like that. Nor did they know of the situation.”

Miyako had a worried look on her face, like she felt guilt or something. “I gave you another trouble, didn’t I? Their resentment directed at you.”

Oh no, not again her feeling guilty, we didn’t need any more of that, for her sake. She already had a lot on her plate, no need to add something this insignificant to her conscience. Might drive her crazy.

“Think nothing of it. I did kill their master, so something like this is not so surprising.”

“But—”

“Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself. Besides, as you can see, they’re done. All of them. They won’t go after me again. You understand?”

She stared at the ninjas for a moment before giving a mild nod. “Okay…”

Well, not like it would be the first time something like this happened, blaming the assassins for killing someone they valued. There was a cop once who lost a friend, and she became determined to search for the culprits. That led to her discovering the existence of the organization. She was an annoyance. Determined people were the most annoying people to deal with.

And of course, not like anyone would believe her without definitive proof — and so she went to get one. She was a good person just looking to get justice and to stop the bad guys. But of course I killed her, so…

It didn’t do her good in the end.

Fuck around and find out, I guess. Well, not like she was ever the first to do something like that. There were others for certain, you just never got to hear about them. Frightening, isn’t it? You get to do something good, but fail in the end, and no one would even ever get to know who you are and what you were trying to achieve. Tragic. Well, tragic for them, haha!

“I believe that normally, this many ninjas would not be sent out all at once,” Miyako said.

“That guy did say he was the new leader of their clan.” I pointed at the guy I had last killed.

“Even so, it wouldn’t be all ninjas. They would still follow the word of the one above them all. But that is gone, so…”

“They went and did what they wanted.”

“... It could mean no one has yet the power akin to the lord. They hadn’t voted or picked anyone. But that is within expectations…”

“In that case, it would seem your goal of causing a civil war might indeed be coming.”

Miyako pursed her lips and nodded. “Yes. With them divided, their forces at the border wouldn’t even think of stepping into Nishinoa. Their generals at the border might either pick a side or make their own.”

“As they already had their forces there, what if they chose to keep it as their territory?”

“As long as they don’t attack us, that is fine with me.”

Well, it would be pretty stupid to try to invade another island when their very own island was fighting amongst themselves. You’d have no reinforcements or anything.

“Hm. That is good.”

I glanced up at the ball of light in the air. Seeing that everyone was still working on stuff, I decided to keep it up for now. It didn’t take much mana, anyway.

***

Angels were among the most powerful beings in the world, a minor divine entity. Soldiers of the gods. And long ago, many of them were sent to this world to face a goddess, to put a stop to her rampancy. Many of them perished by her hand.

However, a few of these angels were unable to completely die. They were stuck in the realm between the living and the dead. Their state was unnatural, beings that were stuck on the very brink of death. That was why there were still ‘dead angels’ wandering on the archipelago of Shinoroa, where the fight between the angels and the goddess of blood took place.

Minor divine entities, if bearing such weak spirits, were susceptible to the dark corruption ever present in the world. Being taken by this blight meant being corrupted, ‌as was the case with these dead angels. Their bodies, instead of perishing, were being maintained by the blight. And in this land abandoned by the grace of the gods, it couldn’t be more prevalent. Its influence here was stronger.

And one of these angels sensed a nearby god, a familiar one. The angel sensed her power, and he followed it. Upon finding her, on instinct, he attacked. Gradually, a small hint of sense returned to him. He began to remember his purpose, his mission, his duty.

However, he was defeated by immortals. They believed he was dead, but not quite. His will to live was immense. As a being maintained by the blight, and a divine being lurking within the very brink of death, a corrupted entity, he was hard to kill. His body was torn apart, but that was not enough to destroy the dead angel, especially that he had rediscovered his purpose.

He stood and moved again, where one little push might cause him to crumble apart. Still, he kept moving, focused on his ‌single mission. And ever so gradually, he’d heal. Despite how hard it was, he must fulfill his mission. Was this truly done by a rational mind? Or just a beast following its instincts? Where the corruption was causing him to march onto a path of insanity? It was still unclear.

Even so, the angel marched on.

The angel was once but a mere footsoldier, no one special. One of the many sent to slay the goddess. But he was determined, loyal to the gods, always had been. As all angels were. That was why that last order stuck closely in his mind — “Slay the Goddess of Blood.”

As he slowly walked with a ruined body, the monsters evaded him, as what was natural. Beasts feared beings greater than themselves. Even though the angel was weak, he was still a divine entity, and coated in blight.

He continued on, and with his legs‌ almost halfway healed, he arrived at a human city. He observed from afar, slouching and limping as he looked around. Angels were sensitive to the power of gods, and every power of the gods was divine. Divinity was the strongest power, the holiest, and it would always leave a trail. And the angel followed the faint presence of divinity to the city.

But it would seem it was nothing but old remnants of power. And the angel turned towards a particular direction, sensing the tiniest bit of divinity.

“There… divinity…” he spoke in a weak, and raspy voice.

Every time the goddess uses her power, this angel would be able to follow. Despite how slow he may be, or how vague the trail was, he’d find her. He would not stop.

And thus, the corrupted angel took a slow step forward.