Side Story 3 — She Who Serves Her Master (Part 2)

It was supposed to be an easy mission; Accompanying their young master in stealing or provoking a girl has been done countless times to the point it feels like just another mundane day. Such are the days in becoming a prominent young master henchman, the pay is nice but there’s no real adventure nor danger that lies within their duty.

It makes them complacent. Gone were the days they tirelessly train themselves and doing dangerous moves that could’ve gotten themselves in great danger.

This time, however, it's different.

The instincts within them are alarming like a siren to not mess with this bizzare girl their master laid his eyes upon.

They may not be the best. But they sure aren’t dumb, there’s something wrong with this girl. It's faint, but it's definitely there.

The way she acts as if she anticipated them; the Chaun sacred shadow stealth art that can be traced all the way back from their once prosperous ancestors in the ancient Verum Shihi Era is nothing to scoff at.

Even some of the conventional highest level of detection spells won't be able to detect them. But this random princess-like girl is able to pinpoint their exact location.

The way she wields her blades as if they were merely flimsy wooden sticks when they could tell the blades are crafted with dense magical almost-ancient-like steels.

And those eyes of hers. Foolish people would discern nothing but luminescent beauty, but to those with years of fighting experience, it shows something far more menacing— The eyes of a veteran of countless battles that never lost.

How could this be?

No calluses form in her hands and the smooth skin of hers greatly contrast to her fierce veteran eyes. And yet here she is, showing confidence that is hard to be mistaken with brash cockiness.

This is not the look of a soft young dragonkin princess that their young master told them; It’s something much more viscous than they’ve ever encountered.

Learning your enemy is half the battle. The Chaun kind take this deep to their heart. Before they even harbor a single thought of learning any combat magic or swordsmanship, the first thing they must learn is information gathering. Whether that’s a magic spell similar to that of the human《School of Wits Magic》that specializes in reading the enemy's mana constitution, or a unique instinct or intuition that was passed from generation to generation.

And their instinct alarms them that this is no ordinary soft girl.

With clear reading of the uncanny girl's prowess, they all internally scream to their young master that the young girl is dangerous. That she can’t be taken lightly. That her soft divine goddess appearance is a venomous trap – waiting for a fly to be drawn to the sweet nectar inside of its wide gaping mouth trap.

However their young master's silent words are absolute. Unless their master says otherwise, they have no other choice but to gamble their very own lives.

Taking their chance, they surround her in the midst of her solemn prayers.

Three underlings dashes towards her sides for a pincer attack as she says her last gospel, hoping to end this and cripple her.

She opens her eyes. Grabs her swords. Then, lets out a flurry of sword strikes.

Leaving a splash of blood in their neck, blood scatters throughout the room. The vanguards all squirm in the ground covering their neck. A second later their gargled throat lets out their last sound.

「 W-what. 」「 W-what. 」「 W-what. 」

The rest of the survivors are unable to fathom her swift and precise moves.

For a second, they can only stand still to process what the hell happened. Their years of experience coordinating with one another even in the most dire state becomes halted.

「 I remember your kind, 」a sweet, almost seductive voice wakes them up from their stupified state,「 your ancestors, all your petty tricks are the same. Even after all these years nothing has changed — The Chaun is as weak as ever.  」

Blood runs through her blades. Her eyebrows pulled down with her dainty nose wrinkled.

「 Tch. To think these swords first blood would be the inferior Chaun kind. 」

She swings her swords to the ground, causing blood to splatter to the ground.

「 What are you all chickening out for! 」Their young master shouts, awakening them off their fears. 「 After her! 」

Fast, small needles whistles towards her right from the young master's hands. Hard to discern under normal eyes.

She easily counters and parries the coming needles. All it takes are simple twirls with her blades.

Yet, the young master does not relent. Needles springs out between the fingers of his gripped hands. He leers to his underlings out of her sights. And from the simple eye exchanges, a plan was formed.

Swarm of needles comes their way to Shen, as two underlings side by side push forward, swords and daggers raised.

The needles that come at her are many and from all sorts of angles. Yet

Next, a sword swiftly thrusts to her stomach.

Another takes the chance to sneak attack from behind her while she’s occupied.

The strong momentum of her parry moves the underling, shaking his balance. A moment later, undefended, she easily thrust her other sword towards his abdomen.

Sweat starts to run down the young master's face in the supposed chilly night.

「 Shit. Change of plan! Cut off all of her limbs! Anyone who’s able to cripple her will be rewarded a year’s worth of pay! 」

They don’t bother with the young master command since that's what they’ve been planning since the beginning. But the additional handsome reward makes them become more eager, more brave to take riskier attacks.

Or maybe a cowardly move.

In the heat of the battle where the seamlessly endless enemies attack her, a  gush of wind flows behind Shen. Not near her enough to be something threatening to her.

However, something is off about it.

She looks back, and she is shockingly right.

An underling is just in front and facing towards her master’s bed. The underling’s face unknowingly becomes cocky even though knowing Shen caught his surprise.

He has the upperhand. Shen is tens of meters away from his position. There’s no way she can prevent what he is about to do.

With a sadistic smile on his face, his sword thrust it way towards Shen’s master.

As the tip of his blade comes centimeters close to the peacefully sleeping master’s face, a foreign blade unknowingly blocks its way.

Caught by the surprise of the momentum of the parry, the underling failed to see the strike coming from Shen’s other blades.

Without missing a moment, she dashes towards him and swings her sword – his hand cut off. And before he’s able to scream from losing his hand, a soft finger points near the top of his forehead.

From Shen’s fingertip, a thunderous bolt springs out and joltz to him. His whole body convulses from the shock, electrocuting him fried to the darkest possible matter.

The remaining underlings and the young master now truly realize just how deep of a trouble they just have got themselves into. Not only is she an undeniable expert in some sort of arcane dual swordsmanship, she can even do chantless magic spells.

With seemingly monstrous opponents with no weakness, doubt soon grows and mutates itself to something far worse.

Mutiny.

Just as they ready themselves to use their last trump card, it is at this moment they realize their voices aren't coming out.

A foreign mana unknowingly stirs inside their bodies, leaving their internal mana clogged within their bodies, unable to circulate from within themselves to cast even the most basic spell.

Their sole trump card of the Chaun’s secret art, shadow teleportation is gone. They can’t teleport away and they can’t even run away.

Another man thumps to the ground amidst each individual internal chaos, its body covered in the same hundreds of slashes from her.

With their escape route gone, only despair awaits.

Looking at all of the confused henchmen with them trying to scream their lungs out with no avail, it was the right decision to cast that silencing spell beforehand, lest it would awaken her master.

She takes a quick peek at her still peacefully sleeping master. Nothing much has changed. Her master is still sleeping with his back and arms by his side.

She can’t prolong this fight anymore.

In just mere seconds, the last underling is down, his eyes still wide awake, as the holes in his body seeps out blood on the pristine ceramic floor.

The young dragonkin master looks to his surroundings, all of his underlings dead on the floor.

The odds are stacked against him.

He didn’t expect the situation to become this dire at all.

Shivers run through his spine like never before.

He knows his life expectancy has become mere seconds now.

「 P-p-please forgive me! You will never see me ever again! I-I promise in the name of my ancestors! 」

「 Even the way you beg for mercy are all the same. 」

With surprisingly dainty steps and blood dripping off her blades, she approaches him.

「 And I treat those who dare to oppose me, all the same! 」

The young master brazenly looks up to her.

To be greeted with a hideous smile and a sword ready to be swung at him.

「 W-wait! I’ll give y— 」

With a flash of the sword, his head comes out flying. Leaving a stream of blood wherever it trails off. Thankfully that ugly bastard's face flies outside of the house, to the far corner of the courtyard.

She wish she doesn’t have to give a bastard like him a swift death. A slow torturous and antagonizing death fits him more. She’s rather curious whether the same slowly digging ice spikes and electrocuting that she always uses to torment dragons would leave the same impact inside human bodies.  But alas, there’s simply no other choice. Who knows what other little tricks he has on his sleeves. And with her master so close to her, she can't take the risk.

She still has much to learn of the way of the sword. A second slower, a second late, and her master would’ve died.

This little, brittle human body she transformed to is far weaker than her supreme dragon body, so she can’t use brute strength. Worst of all, the mana lurking in the atmosphere is abysmal, rendering most of her magic spells useless. She can only resort to the human way of fighting, using sharp tools such as swords.

After experiencing her first real fight using swords, one thought comes to mind. One where she never thought she would come up with when she’s the all supreme dragon – She needs to become stronger.

With everything clear, she finally goes ahead to check up on her master's condition.

Still in his peaceful sleep thankfully. It would’ve pained her greatly if there’s even the slightest scratch on him or if the fight would disturb his sleep even the slightest bit. To cause discomfort to her master even the slightest is the greatest sin she could imagine.

Although now that she pays more attention towards him, his position changed. Before he sleeps on his back, now he sleeps sideways while clutching to the pillow with both his arms and legs dearly.

She feels… great animosity towards the pillow he’s embracing.

It should’ve been her in place of that pillow. How dare it steals her rightful place to be beside him. She starts fantasizing what it would feel like laying so close to her master. To be hugged with his entire being. To be in his embrace and warmth. To feel the fire of his life.

She slowly grabs and clutches the pillow away from his embrace. It’s quite hard with how tightly he clutches to it with his whole body including his legs, but with careful pulling and tweaking she’s finally able to pry it away from him.

With the hideous pillow out of the way, her mind starts to come up with numerous ways to tear this sly piece of abomination that dares to steal her position.

She points her sword to the pillow, and when she’s about to shred it to pieces, she spot something. At the bottom corner of the pillow.

A stain.

It could only mean one thing.

Her curiosity takes over her ferociousness.

She succumbs to the pillow, fully immersing in whatever scent and left over of his presence imbued on the pillow.

His saliva.

His essence.

His smell.

The more she breathes and the more she licks, the more it tingles down there. It excites her to a tremoundes degree.

「 Aaaahhhh master~  」She giggles sultrily.

It’s fine to have an upfront little reward for doing a good job right?