My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

In the dark, deep sea, I felt like I heard Akira's voice.

And two threads of killing intent reverberated through my body.

They woke my consciousness.

"Ak...ira... Akira...?"

Akira's presence was nearby.

A tremendous shockwave was scraping at the surrounding walls, but strangely my body was unscathed.

"Haha!! The princess has awakened!"

A boy's voice rang out.

I realized that voice belonged to the green-haired boy.

"Hey, pick one way to call Amelia. Earlier you were calling her 'princess' after all."

"You're an idiot~"

Metal clashed against metal.

The wall near me trembled.

"When someone wakes up it’s always the princess, that’s how stories go."

"This isn't a fairy tale, it's reality, damn brat."

After blinking a few times, the scene before my eyes cleared.

Sensation returned to my body.

My fingers moved.

It seemed my body was lying against the labyrinth wall.

I used the wall as support with my still-numb arm and pushed myself up.

"Akira!"

"Stay right there, Amelia. You… I will never let you be taken."

Akira, his back to me, tossed the cloak he had been wearing toward me.

Akira's scent wrapped around me.

It was very comforting.

My hand, which had been gripping the labyrinth wall, slipped.

As I almost fell, a soft warm surface supported me.

"Yo...ru?"

"Do not push yourself, Miss Amelia. Trust your master and wait."

Golden warm eyes looked at me kindly.

He hadn't shifted back to his usual black-cat form; whether transformed or not, it was definitely Yoru.

That warm body pressed against my cold one as if to warm me.

His tail gently wrapped my body together with Akira's cloak.

Surrounded by the two familiar comforting scents, my tension loosened.

"Yeah... I always believe in you. Both Akira and Yoru."

Akira, bloodied with wounds here and there, kept clashing sword and spear with the still-unharmed boy.

Akira was losing, but surviving with only these injuries against the Demon Clan was impressive in itself.

"...Akira looks like he's having fun."

"Master's power is about two heads above others in this world, whether human or demonic. Against most opponents it would end in a single strike. Master dislikes bother, so he usually wouldn't bother seeking a fight, but still..."

Yoru turned his gaze to Akira and the others.

Although Akira was wounded and bleeding and it should hurt, he was smiling.

He swung his sword with a joy I had never seen before.

"Fighting an evenly matched opponent is enjoyable for him. He unconsciously smiles. ...He doesn't want to think of himself as a battle fiend, but there is no doubt—master is a battle fiend."

He truly looked happy.

That figure reminded me of Kirika practicing swordplay alone.

"...I'm jealous."

A gooey emotion welled up inside me.

Yoru probably didn't hear, but the words slipped out of my mouth.

"Look, none of his attacks have landed yet. It's amazing he’s endured this much against the Demon Clan, but if his attacks don't hit then it's pointless, right?"

True, there were no massive wounds, but small cuts bled and Akira's face had gone pale, probably from blood loss.

Drops of what looked like Akira's blood speckled the ground over a wide area.

No — they were scattered as if thrown rather than simply dropped.

Almost as if they were deliberately placed there...

"No, finally the preparations are complete."

The boy furrowed his brows.

Akira grinned and raised his hand horizontally.

"What now...?"

"Activate 'shadow magic'."

Every shadow in the labyrinth gathered at Akira's feet.

The two shadows that had been cast by the light on the labyrinth—the boy's and mine and Yoru's—vanished and became Akira's shadow.

"Scatter!"

At Akira's shout, the gathered shadows dispersed.

It was a technique I'd never seen.

As far as I knew, Akira could only use his own shadow.

He shouldn't have been able to gather and manipulate surrounding shadows.

When did he learn that...?

The scattered shadows seemed to be guided somewhere.

'The blood...'

Following Yoru's whisper, I looked at the blood scattered on the ground and saw that the shadows had gathered over the larger pools of blood.