Chapter 14
A Blood-Rose Portrait
With the wait for Diana to finish up the paperwork becoming too tedious, René decided to chance a better glance at the quest pinboard .
The quest forms listed first the description of the work, followed by rewards, client and finally the rank required to tackle it .
Gathering herbs, stomping out a rat infestation in the sewers, uprooting goblin settlements, collecting feathers of an Earley Bird… All René looked through, she could only see quests fit for beginning rookie adventurers .
Her eyes scanned for the rarer kinds of quests, like exterminating a camp of ogres that decided to settle near villages . Well, quests like those were delegated to larger branches, so they weren’t likely present here .
The members of Dragon’s Throat were all level 4 adventurers, earning the title of Guards . This was somewhere in the middle in terms of ranking, but even they were treated as an extremely valuable resource in this town . Thus there were no methods existing to the townspeople to deal with quests requiring level 5 adventurers, those of the Adept class . However, it would reflect poorly on the guild branch if these kinds of quests were simply left in the back as decoration .
That was why the quest board looked so hamfisted with so many low-level quests . Since there were barely any mid-level adventurers around, there were barely any mid-level quests .
Nothing in particular caught René’s eye, until she chanced upon something that wasn’t a quest pinup .
Illustrations of Monsters swinging their claws and baring their fangs . Records of their battles and physical features sat under the captions of “The Bloodfang” and “The Mad Beast” .
Hmmm… Printed using magic, probably . They look like bounties .
Just as humanoids have different kinds of people, ranging from the ordinary everyday to heroes sung of in epics, there existed different kinds of Monsters as well .
Thus when there arose a particular off-shoot of a common species, or a single or group of monsters that showed exceptional might and ferocity in battle against adventurers, the Guild distinguished them from the rabble by providing relevant information on them alongside a new name .
This was the system of Named Monster .
Named Monsters were feared not only by the commonfolk, but by adventurers as well . However, in a way, this was part and parcel of the spirit of adventuring .
Even if one wasn’t a battle-junkie, a seeker of stronger fights and foes, the thought of doing battle with a dragon surely lit a fire of passion in one’s heart . In the same vein, the thought of battling against Named Monsters were considered to be a heroic feat, one worthy of admiration and adoration of many .
Of course, it was a given that all Named Monsters had huge bounties on their heads, given either by the locals they plagued or by a country offering it, and any who subjugated a Named Monster would receive fame and wealth (as per their participation) .
While looking over the few pinned with titles such as ‘Destroyed an entire village’, or ‘Decimated a Level 3, title Explorer, Adventuring Party’, René discovered a very peculiar one, one that stood out above the others .
A beautiful girl, drawn with such care that it exuded an alluring and aesthetic depth that would draw all eyes to it .
She held in one hand, the head that had been parted from her shoulders, eyes closed in the offering of a prayer, as if she were an angel descending from heaven . Clothed in a light dress overflowing in frills, on the lower left of her skirt was the print of a single rose in full blossom, red as blood .
At any rate, her delicate beauty was diluted by the ferocious nature of the drawing, in a sense vastly different from the others around it . It bore its title like the name of a painting…
“Rose Princess of Hellrage?”
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“Ah yeah that, that . Ya know that little scuffle in the capital from a few days back? That’s the one behind it all . ”
“The one where the beheaded princess came back as a Dullahan?”
Picking up on her unintentional whisper, the Guild Master responded, followed by Diana .
――… . Oh yeah, right! That’s- Yeah! That’s totally me!
René tried desperately to hold a poker face on Iris .
“Someone’s put a lot of effort into this one drawing . ”
“Ya know how it us, the artists ain’t usually commissioned to draw more than monsters . Musta been a long time since he last drew somethin’ human so he went gung-ho on it . I hear this one’s particular ‘bout makin’ everything into stories too . Heck, even the Order of Knights bitched ‘bout calling that thing a ‘princess’, but… To hell with that shit . The Adventurer’s Guild called a female orc a princess before . If she got royalty in her blood, hell with all that political shit, we’re gonna call her a princess . ”
“Named Monster aliases often sound like no forethought was put into them, after all . “
――Hmmm . The girl in the picture doesn’t really look like me . To think there was another girl who came back as a Dullahan after getting beheaded just like me .
…yeah not like it’ll change anything if I pretend this isn’t me .
To name a Monster after its subjugation was a very rare occurrence . Even rarer was pinning up a poster of it after that fact .
“B-but… this monster was killed by the Chief of the Order of Knights, right?”
“I heard that too, but that’s not how it went down apparently . The kingdom didn’t order a name for this one, it just asked us to keep tabs on this particular one . Let ‘em know if somethin’ comes up . The Guild just thought somethin’s fishy and gave it a Name so everyone knows . ”
――So the kingdom still thinks I’m alive!? Oh wait no… That can’t be right, I’m Undead . They think they didn’t beat me back then! Eeehhh… When you lose like that, you’d think whatever you killed is gone, right? Why the hell do they know I hightailed it outta there?
Although she appeared calm on the surface, a sea was brewing inside of René .
She thought back to her fight with Lawrence in the capital . To escape the losing battle, René abandoned her body and fled . She assumed he would think her to have fallen, allowing her some freedom until she became powerful enough to handle him . Or so she had thought but…
――Did the blood give it away? Yeah that was totally a bad idea, wasn’t it . God, why on earth did I leave those stains on his damned magic sword?
She couldn’t think of any other reason .
Hex spell ≪Bad Blood≫ . A hex that made her blood and curses flow as one, and any who come into contact with it are cursed .
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It was supposed to be a last-resort thing, but did they just end up reverse-tracking me with it?
――Yeah no, I better watch how I go about doing things . Man, getting caught now would be awful…
They’re just looking for more info right now . That’s why they asked the Guilds for help . It also means they have no idea where I am right now . The kingdom doesn’t think René is gone, and they don’t want to leave her alone either . Just means I gotta be extra careful about this .
Even if she had decided to be on alert, René felt a bit more relieved .
Named Monster ‘Rose Princess of Hellrage’ .
Not bad, not bad at all, René nodded .
Spreading infamy so far that just mentioning my name scares people more than mentioning the Demon King sounds pretty nice, not gonna lie .
Simply the thought of it, that if by chance, Hilbert sat on the throne, fearing for his life, fearing because she existed somewhere in the world… The thought poured ecstacy into her cheeks and veins .
――Mmm… Not bad . This kind of revenge wouldn’t be bad at all . Now that I think about it, killing him will end it all in a flash, right? Yeah . So what I’m gonna do, is make a name for myself . Spread it far and wide . Get him quaking and shaking . Once he’s a broken mess, I’ll take that big head of his off his shoulders… . Once this thing I’m in ends, I’ll think about how I’m gonna go around building my brand name, for the medium and long run .
“But these guys sure are doing some awful things to a girl as little as that . ”
Diana said through clenched teeth . Her words brought René some warmth in her throat, in her already-shattered, beating heart .
To think there existed anyone who would pity her .
“The Princey’s people gonna keep their trap shut but I hear they lobbed her head off after putting her through hell . By the time she got brought up to that scaffolding, they say they couldn’t even tell if she was a boy or a girl from how black and blue her face was . I’d wanna come back to kill ’em all myself, just sayin’ . ”
The Master added with lament .
Sure, rumours are rumours but it’s true that I got messed up .
Deprived of a future, deprived of a family, sentenced to unending yet meaningless torture before being led to her death .
The mastermind, Hilbert .
The Chief of Knights who betrayed his own King and took everything René had from her, Lawrence…
――That’s right . I will have my vengeance . I must .
“…Iris?”
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Diana’s voice snapped René back to her senses .
“That’s quite the scary scowl . ”
“Ah, erm… I was just… Think how terrible it must’ve been…”
“That so . ”
Diana stared at Iris, her eyes swimming over her .
“I’m not too fond of politics but… People who make a girl as little as her make that kind of face aren’t good people . ”
René stopped, speechless . She knew all too well what kind of people they were . That said, whether René herself was in the right or not was debatable .
“Being angry isn’t good for the heart or the mind, Iris . Moderation is key to a long life . ”
“It’s… I… What do you care? I want to be angry about this . Or are you telling me I should smile and look the other way, let everything slide?”
The fear of being out-of-character failed to keep her mouth shut . This wasn’t something René could laugh off . She would not let this go . She couldn’t .
Diana shook her head .
“You’re right . Someone has to get angry about these things . But you know, you won’t be happy if you’re just angry all the time . That’s why I want you, and kids like you, to be happy . To not have to feel that way . Kids should enjoy their time as kids, leave the dirty work to the adults . ”
“Be happy…”
“Be happy . A girl’s smile, that’s magic all by itself you know . ”
“I’m not gonna be that kinda kid . ”
“Get over here you brat . Show me that ‘tude after you grow some hair down there . ”
“Ow!”
Diana slapped her knuckles over Iris’ head lightly .
René immediately read her feelings .
True to her words, there was nothing but warmth and kindness in her heart .
If I showed myself here and now, would she be able to say the same thing again? Well, nonetheless, her words would not save me .
If, say, there were to be a function, a method present in a person’s heart to become happy, René’s had already crumbled away, nay, that had been seized, stolen and crushed .
――I’m not meant to be jumping around like an ignorant child, all smiles and giggles . What I’m meant to do is, for example…
René kept the babyface on Iris as she concentrated, spreading her spatial awareness outward in waves, with her being the epicenter . Quickly, the immediate area was enveloped . Moments ago, when she looked through Diana’s emotions, she picked up something peculiar .
Soon, the entire Guild was embraced by the blanket of her awareness .
Among the myriad of emotions were terror, hesitation, greed, and sincere prayers of the clergymen offered to their gods…
She felt the full range of emotions of the citizens outside .
But among those, an outlier stuck out like a sore thumb .
Malice . No wrath, no anger, no desire to enact vengeance . Only the cold and sharp edge of malice .
The average person felt malice most commonly as the result of an offense that sprung them to anger, or perhaps birthed from a wish to take an eye in return of an eye taken .
To bare malice without feeling a shred of anger or desire for vengeance… Those who killed as part of their job, only assassins could perhaps be this way .
――Someone’s… coming .
I don’t know who’s the target or why, and I don’t even know if Night Python is responsible . But it’s definitely worth checking out .
――In the end, right now, I’m just an escort and a body double . I can’t help but be on the defense . But, on the off-chance they come at me, I’ll make sure to catch them!
On top of that, I need to definitely keep them away from Diana . If she worries any more, she might just pop like a balloon and propose something like cancelling the quest .
“I think I’m going to head out early after all . Diana, I’m going to go buy some dried waterfowl fruits on my way back, so I might be late . ”
“That so? Careful on your way back then . ”
“Okay . ”
A white lie . René will obviously come to jump into danger, but the matter of fact remained that she would never dare to say it .
Translator: Fried Hedgehog