The Executioner and Her Way of Life

“Your Highness. Er… I truly do not understand. What in the world are you saying?”

“Oh-ho?”

Ashuna’s answer was short and sharp.

She strode over and retrieved her broadsword from where it was stuck in the ground.

Then she gave the blade a swing, whistling through the air. Her eyes narrowed as she leveled it straight at Menou.

“Playing dumb is hardly an exciting response. If that’s the best excuse you can come up with, perhaps I’ll have you pay me back in blood?”

Ashuna’s anger was unmistakably genuine as she readied her beloved weapon. The broadsword she always carried was a Guiding vessel engraved with several crests. It certainly wasn’t the kind of thing you pointed at a person in jest.

Menou’s confusion deepened. She had been accused of robbery and poisoning but had no recollection of doing either. It sounded almost as if Ashuna had interacted with Menou when Menou wasn’t actually there. That meant that the Ashuna Menou had brought to the inn wasn’t really Ashuna at all.

Had Ashuna just misunderstood something? Menou’s brow furrowed. Her story didn’t make any sense unless both Menou and Ashuna had look-alikes.

But that was impossible. Unless…

She knew of a single person who could do such a thing.

“……!”

Momo and Menou both solved the mystery at the same time. They both gasped and looked at each other.

“Please describe everything that happened…!”

Abandoning the fight, Menou rushed over to Ashuna to get all the details.

Ashuna led Akari safely to the station.

Akari sighed in relief at the familiar sight.

“Should you be leaving alone? Aren’t you here with Momo?”

“We agreed beforehand to meet at the station in the next town over if anything happened.”

Their meeting place was in a different station instead of the inn where they were staying because they’d been going around defeating criminals.

The idea was that if they were attacked in retaliation and could no longer stay in town, and Momo and Akari got unexpectedly separated, they could prioritize leaving town at once while still meeting up again.

“I see. That means you’re taking the same train I am, then.”

“Oh, really?” Akari responded absently, not particularly suspicious. “What a coincidence.”

This wasn’t the pair’s first encounter. They’d met briefly at the oasis before traveling to the western part of the continent, though they barely spoke at the time. Ashuna was a very distinctive individual, one that was hard to forget.

At the same time…

Out of the many instances Akari had repeated this journey, this was the first time she’d met Ashuna.

“Ms. Ashuna, you’re a princess, right? Why are you traveling like this?”

“Hmm? Ah, I see. So this is the first time.”

What does she mean by that? The first what?
Akari gazed at Ashuna’s lovely features as she pondered the meaning of the woman’s words.

“The eldest daughter of Grisarika Kingdom must have determined that this time is the last. And so I, Ashuna Grisarika, left the kingdom.”

“Uh-huh…”

Just as she had when they shared a meal, Ashuna spoke of very esoteric things. She seemed self-centered, as if she had no intention of Akari understanding the meaning behind her statements. Unable to do anything but agree, Akari followed her into the station.

“Look, there’s our train.”

The locomotive on the furthest platform was a very luxurious-looking one.

Akari’s eyes widened. It was a short train with only five cars, but the design was very holy-looking. Even Akari could tell that this was special.

“This is my personal conveyance. I can have it prioritized over any other schedule to take it wherever I want.”

“Whaaat?!”

Only a princess could prepare such a remarkable thing. She exclaimed with awe as she entered the car, stepping onto plush red carpeting. A little startled by the sinking sensation, Akari nonetheless continued inside, her eyes widening when she realized the entire car was one big, luxurious room.

“All right, this is—hrmm?”

There were two passengers already on the train. Judging by the scowl on Ashuna’s face, she hadn’t been expecting them.

“I don’t recall inviting either of you…,” she growled.

One was an unfamiliar man. He was well-dressed in a suit and bowler hat and appeared to be in his fifties. The spitting image of an upper-class gentleman, he looked perfectly at home in the elegant surroundings.

While Akari had never seen him before, the girl sitting across from him was unmistakable.

Pandæmonium, a little girl more terrifying than any demon, was waiting for Akari on a sofa.

What was she doing here? Before Akari could even question it, she was already pointing her index finger at the girl.

It was a primarily instinctive reaction. That was how much she feared the childlike monster. Ignoring Ashuna’s indignant voice, Akari let Guiding Light shine around her fingertip.

Guiding Force: Connect—Improper Attachment, Pure Concept [Time]—

She was about to use
Suspension
, a conjuring she had used so often that it came nearly as naturally as
Regression
.

The construction assembled within a second, and she was about to invoke it when suddenly—

“Stop.”

“…Nngh?!”

Her finger was broken.

It was Ashuna who did it. Right as Akari took aim, she’d reached out, grabbed the girl’s finger, and broken it without a moment’s hesitation.

Akari’s conjuring fell apart and vanished. The fact that her Pure Concept was attached to her soul meant she could effortlessly use conjurings, but it also meant she couldn’t consciously maintain the constructions.

“Why…did you…?!”

“In most cases…”

Why had she attacked Akari? As the red-hot shock faded, the wave of pain sent Akari into a cold sweat.

Ashuna watched the young woman clutch her broken finger in agony and continued to speak casually.

“Most Otherworlders, who are untrained and use conjurings unconsciously, develop some kind of bad habit when they construct or invoke conjurings. In your case, you use your index finger to point at the target. Tell Momo that if she’s claiming to train you, she could at least teach you to fix that much.”

Akari
did
tend to point her finger like a gun when she used a conjuring. It was easier for her to have a corresponding action for invoking a conjuring to solidify her aim.

However, it also left her open to attack.

“Your attacks aren’t a threat in the least. It’s child’s play to dodge a conjuring when you know exactly where and when it’s coming. The only remaining problem is that you refuse to die.”

Even as she trembled in pain, Akari used
Regression
on her broken finger to heal it. She tried to explain to Ashuna that she’d made a massive mistake by stopping her attack.

“That’s not… What I mean is… Why did you stop me…? That’s no ordinary kid!”

“I’m aware.”

Ashuna nodded coolly, and her outline wavered. For a moment, Akari didn’t quite understand what was happening. Then she recalled witnessing this phenomenon somewhere before.

“Wha…?”

As Akari realized what was going on, her face blanched.

She felt the same sort of fear that Archbishop Orwell had during the battle in Grisarika Kingdom.

Near the end of the fight below the cathedral, when Orwell saw that Menou had used Guiding Camouflage to disguise herself, she had been astonished and despondent. Akari was no different now.

“I’m well aware of how dangerous Pandæmonium is without cautioning from the likes of you.”

There was no hesitation in her response, suggesting that she was used to seeing people react to her this way. She hooked her fingertips under Akari’s chin and lifted her face.

Her mannerisms and speech no longer resembled Ashuna’s at all.

The disguise of Ashuna Grisarika melted away.

An aggressively skimpy outfit turned into the formal dark-blue robes of a priestess. Long blond hair became short and dark red. Her youthful, confident face turned into one that had seen too much in the line of duty and regarded the world with cynicism.

Guiding Camouflage.

It was a precise form of Guiding Force manipulation that fooled the eyes of others. This ability wasn’t flashy and had no capacity for bodily harm. If anything, it was a mastery of avoiding attention.

Menou, also known as Flare’s successor, Flarette, had used this technique as a trump card, and there was only one person more proficient at it than her.

Akari could only gawk speechlessly at the woman who had used her unshakable spirit to disguise herself for so long.

“We have unexpected guests, but…oh well.” She glanced at the other two passengers, then back at Akari, and openly laughed. “Let’s have a little chat, shall we, Akari Tokitou?”

This was the Executioner who had hunted the most taboos in history, consequently becoming a living legend.

Master Flare had revealed herself before Akari.