My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

This time it’s very long.

Too long.

I thought about cutting it and making it two chapters halfway through, but I didn’t want to break the flow while I was on a good roll, so I kept going.

To borrow the protagonist’s words: I have no remorse or regret.

Yes, none at all.

GOUNCH!!

My shadow magic collided with the wind magic and an enormous shockwave exploded. Because my shadow magic was absorbing the wind enchantment’s thrashing, the damage was limited; otherwise several elves would have been blown away — and it might have been worse.

Amelia, bewildered and not knowing what was happening, screamed in my arms. Since I was taking the full brunt of the shock, her scream was probably directed at Kirika’s cutting strike.

"Kirika! What are you doing to Akira!?"

Amelia reached out toward Kirika as if her memories were scrambled.

Sorry, Amelia. I murmured that in my head and lowered the hand that had been holding Amelia to her collar. I caught her as she collapsed. There’s no time to explain now. Besides, I didn’t want to show her.

I didn’t want her to learn that her sister had orchestrated everything until now.

"Hey, Kirika Rose Quartz. Why does your sword weep like that?"

After making sure Amelia had fallen, I asked Kirika that question. It was something I’d wondered ever since our duel.

Commander saran had said that a sword carries the wielder’s emotions. At first I thought he’d finally lost his mind, but I’m beginning to understand.

Around the sixtieth layer of the labyrinth we encountered humanoid demonic beasts that wielded weapons. Their bodies were decayed in places — probably liches or the like. As I clashed with their blades, their thoughts passed through their weapons. People thought demons didn’t think and only had killing impulses, but that wasn’t right. Most of them probably did think only of killing, but some also felt a desire to live. An immortal lich wanting to live likely means it wants to be human again.

Anyway, emotions that even the wielder isn’t consciously aware of can be transmitted through swords.

"Kirika, what are you crying about?"

I forced the blades apart and used strength to create space.

Kirika was blown back but twisted midair and landed without touching her hands. Her vacant blue eyes fixed on me. Her face twisted.

"Me crying? Sleep-talk is something you do with your eyes open. Look, I’m smiling properly, aren’t I?"

Oh — that was supposed to be a smile. Or at least she intended it as one. I couldn’t see it that way.

"Hey, did you hate Amelia?"

"Hate?"

She looked down when I asked.

At some point, the king and the others whose charms had been broken had stopped fleeing and had begun to listen to our conversation.

I laid Amelia down a little distance away. Kirika knew that and didn’t attack.

"Of course I hate her."

"Is it because Amelia is an outcast?"

When I said that, Kirika slashed at me again. This time, her emotions were so disrupted that her magic didn’t trigger and it was just a normal cut. I took great care to stop it so no trace of wind reached Amelia behind me.

Kirika’s eyes were emptier than before.

"An outcast? That legend is nonsense. Long ago there was such a thing and one of the pair of outcasts would be killed, but from the time of my late great-grandfather it was abolished. No catastrophe ever came. Besides, the Elf race rarely has children. It would have been a waste to kill a precious child over a vague legend."

Kirika said that and sheathed her sword.

Her gaze was on Amelia, who lay there.

"Oh, beautiful sister. Born with hair and eyes that never appeared in the Elf race or even among the High Elves. Only a few seconds before me."

Kirika looked at me again. Flames swam in her vacant eyes.

"You can’t understand, can you? Until a few hundred years ago people discriminated against those labeled outcasts. Then a legendary vocation appeared to someone who had been treated as an outcast, and the whole continent turned it into a festival. I, as the younger sister, was only an enchantment mage. The divine child could never be matched."