“You’re here, Sister Albedo.”
“I’m sorry for calling you at such a late hour…”
That night, Albedo received an order to report and visited the lord’s mansion.
She was greeted by the lord of this place, ‘Agravain, the Pioneer City,’ and the priest of the ‘Goddess Church’ of this land.
“I have called you here for one reason only.”
In the unlit office, the lord addressed Albedo.
“Inviting the forces of a neighboring territory without my permission is a grave crime tantamount to aiding an invasion. At the soon-to-be-held trial, you will be sentenced to death.”
It was a verdict everyone had anticipated.
No noble would forgive a lowborn who acted against their will.
To set an example for others, traitors must always be killed.
This was the norm in this world.
“But…”
The lord rose from his luxurious armchair.
He approached Albedo and looked at her voluptuous figure, as if licking her with his eyes.
“You are quite alluring. If you demonstrate your loyalty to me with the body under that nun’s habit… I might be lenient in my judgment.”
In other words, that was why he had called her at night.
The lord was anticipating it.
That this nun, terrified of death, would abandon her chastity and desperately try to please him.
“I am kind, am I not? Isn’t that right, priest?”
“Yes, indeed!”
The elderly priest affirmed the lord’s vile proposition.
He had no intention of protecting the nun.
On the contrary, the priest cast a resentful glance at Albedo as if to say, “You did something presumptuous.”
“Accept the lord’s mercy, Albedo. You must not refuse. Demonstrate your sincere loyalty to this gentleman and continue to contribute to the church’s development. This is the true path of faith.”
“Hehe…”
At that moment.
Albedo, who had been silent and downcast, suddenly smiled.
“What…?”
“Hey, Albedo!?”
The lord looked suspicious, and the priest was flustered.
Ignoring their reactions, Albedo began to speak.
“I realized something when I saw the people of ‘Tristein, the Pioneer City.’ With their knowledge and technology, adventurers can become very strong.”
With hope in her heart, Albedo continued.
“Did you know? To become the master of the ‘Adventurers’ Guild,’ you must have a background as an adventurer.”
“Hey, you!”
“I was an adventurer once. But as I got injured, pain remained in my joints, and eventually, I developed an eye disease. I still tried to persevere, but eventually, I had to acknowledge that aging had made it difficult to move, so I retired.”
“Hey, don’t ignore me! What are you talking about!?”
Finally, the lord lost his temper.
He grabbed Albedo by her collar.
“In other words, you mean that ‘if we incorporate the damn neighboring territory’s technology, the adventurers you’re so fond of might become stronger,’ right!? Is that what you want to say!?”
The lord trembled with rage at her audacity.
“Hah, you’re a model guild master. But as my subordinate, you’re the worst.”
She was just a woman he planned to violate and then sentence to death anyway.
There was no need to hesitate.
“I can’t stand it anymore. Soldiers, gather! She’s a traitor!”
The lord shouted in his rage and laughed.
“Tremble, Albedo! We’ll carve you up in pieces, and as you’re on the brink of death, we’ll violate you and kill you!”
No noble would stand being looked down upon.
This lowborn woman would certainly die in agony.
“Then, we’ll use your corpse as a toy for the soldiers and display it in the city until it rots away!”
As he spoke of her gruesome fate, Albedo quietly said, “Allow me to correct something.”
“Huh? What? Do you want to take back what you said now?”
“No, that’s not it, my lord. I want to correct your misunderstanding.”
Soldiers burst through the door, aiming their swords at Albedo.
But Albedo remained unfazed.
“My lord. You interpreted my statement earlier as, ‘With the neighboring territory’s technology, the adventurers I care for might become stronger,’ right?”
“Enough, stop talking! Soldiers, cut her up without killing her!”
“No, you’re wrong.”
At that moment.
The lord fell back, landing on his backside.
“Ugh!?”
It hurt. It was embarrassing. And it was strange.
He was sure he had grabbed Albedo by her collar.
Yet she remained standing, while he had fallen.
“Huh…?”
It was then he noticed.
The hand that had grabbed her collar was still there, clinging to her chest.
His own hand was missing from the wrist down.
“Aaaahhh!?”
The realization brought a wave of excruciating pain.
Simultaneously, blood spurted from the severed stump, quickly pooling at his feet.
“I’m dying! I’m going to die!”
“Lord!?”
The lord writhed in agony as the priest rushed to his side.
The situation had plunged into chaos in an instant.
The soldiers, stunned, watched as the woman discarded the severed hand.
“Hehe.”
A beautiful smile blossomed amidst the carnage.
It was clear she had done something.
“Hey, woman! What have you done to the lord?”
“Be quiet.”
The soldier’s protests were silenced in an instant.
When Albedo made a throwing motion, the soldier’s head was split open.
“Ugh, gaaah…?”
The soldier made a strange noise as he died.
The nun killed as if it were nothing.
“Albedo, you…!?”
“My lord. You’re mistaken. It’s not about making other adventurers stronger.”
She continued speaking, ignoring the fallen bodies.
“The reason I was thrilled by ‘Tristein’…”
Her cheeks flushed as if in love.
But the lord, lying at her feet, no longer felt any arousal. He was trembling.
“Th-that’s because, as the guild master, it would be pleasing if your adventurers grew stronger… right!?”
“No.”
She placed her hand on her cheek and said,
“Not for other adventurers—for myself! I thought I could become stronger again!”
With a voice full of ecstasy, the nun, the former top-class adventurer known as ‘Albedo the Ripper,’ sang.
“I had given up on the future! I thought I would live quietly, nurturing the next generation! But they tempted me! With their knowledge and technology, I could fight again like I used to, kill and win, and be praised by those around me!”
“What are you saying, Albedo! You raised your hand against the lord, a noble!”
The priest shouted, replacing the groaning lord.
“You won’t be praised! You criminal!”
Spit flew from the priest’s mouth, almost hitting Albedo.
“You should have stayed quiet and let him violate you! How do I report this to the church headquarters?”
“You picked a fight with me?”
The priest’s words ceased.
With a crushing blow, Albedo shattered his head.
“Gyaa!?”
His neck twisted, his head spun around.
“Hey, you spat at me, didn’t you?”
With a sickening, squelching sound, Albedo struck him repeatedly.
Each blow turned the priest’s neck further.
“Guh, guah…?”
“Apologize, apologize, apologize, apologize, apologize, apologize, apologize!”
“Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah!?”
The priest was already dead.
But his brain, forcibly shaken and his neck twisted, caused him to emit strange sounds reflexively.
“Speak, you trash. Or I’ll violate you.”
Finally, with one more blow, Albedo sent his head flying.
“Hi!?’
A headless corpse.
Blood gushed out.
Seeing Albedo bathed in blood, everyone was paralyzed with fear.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to kill you… Well, it’s fine.”
Now Albedo’s mental state had reverted to her adventurer days.
If there’s dissatisfaction, use ‘violence.’
If attacked, ‘kill.’
Even if the opponent died miserably, it was their fault for being unpleasant.
“Now, next. For me to become stronger.”
She turned her gaze to the lord at her feet.
“Hiyaaah!”
The lord screamed in a voice he couldn’t believe was his own.
“S-soldiers! Kill this woman! Whoever succeeds will receive a billion or two billion gold!”
“Ooooh!”
A desperate promise, but it had an effect.
The soldiers, thinking they still had a chance, charged at Albedo dreaming of a windfall.
Therefore, they died.
“Item Box open. Unleash, ‘Faceless Thousand Blades.'”
In an instant, invisible blades slashed from the void.
The soldiers had no chance to defend, and they all fell dead before the lord.
In a moment, countless lives were taken.
“This… can’t be…!”
“This is my lovely magical weapon, ‘Faceless Thousand Blades.'”
Bathed in the soldiers’ blood, the weapon’s form finally became visible.
It was a short, thin blade, like a scalpel.
Its surface was covered with the scales of the monster ‘Lizardman.’
This granted it the unique ability of ‘environmental camouflage.’
By mimicking the surrounding colors—this time the night—it became the deadliest stealth weapon.
“Oh, how nostalgic. This feeling of taking lives so carelessly. Back before the ‘Dark Destruction Dragon Genocide Dragon’ that I admire so much started rampaging, there were many more monsters, and countless victims. There were also many people who would take advantage of that chaos to go on rampages themselves… I used to kill those meat sacks who could be slaughtered without consequence so often.”
I like being adored by people, but I also like killing them. It lets me physically acknowledge that I’m stronger than my targets.
“What, what are you!? You weren’t such a woman!”
Contrary to the ecstatic Albedo, the lord had turned deathly pale from fear and blood loss.
“Your background, if I remember correctly, was that of a fourth-rank adventurer who drifted here from a distant town ten years ago, working as a nun! Your nickname was ‘Albedo the Merciful’, a weak and lonely woman, so…”
“Oh, that’s someone else’s background. I stole the adventurer identification name tag from an Albedo who died around the same time.”
“What!?”
This was a complete crime. And thus, he was deceived.
“A powerless woman wouldn’t resist, and even if she did, it would be easy to kill her with the power of nobility,” he thought as he tried to strip off the nun’s habit, resulting in this.
“My real name is ‘Albedo the Dismemberer’. However, I’ve garnered quite a few grudges. With my old wounds aching, I thought dealing with trivial avengers would be a hassle… guh.”
Her serene beauty twisted with delight.
“Once my body heals, I can start rampaging again, you know?”
“Ugh…!”
Both her weapon and true nature were a facade. The lord finally understood that he had reached out to a ‘predator’ disguised as a flower.
“I’ve always decided to retaliate thoroughly. You and the priest tried to take my life, so it’s only fair that I take ‘everything’ from you, right?”
And thus, the end approached.
“Even if you kill me, you’ll be finished too!”
The lord screamed to the very end.
“My sons will inherit my position and will relentlessly pursue you! They will surely avenge me…”
However.
“Oh, don’t worry. Your sons are already gone.”
“What?”
Thud.
From the void that opened beside Albedo, three somethings fell.
They were the heads of his sons.
“Ah, aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
“The timing was fortunate. Because of some incident, many adventurers died, so I blended their bodies among the corpses.”
“You, you, you, you, you, youuuuuuuu!”
“Well, I feel a bit sorry for mixing trash meat with those who died fighting, but they can entertain themselves in their graves with some group assault…”
“Youuuuuuuuu!”
“Shut up.”
She stomped on him with her heel.
The sharp heel pierced the lord’s ear.
“Gyahhhhh!”
“Come on, die while being trampled. Let’s explore a new kink at the end, shall we?”
She applied more pressure. The hard tip pierced his eardrum and eventually reached the deepest part, causing blood and a clear fluid to spurt from the lord’s hole.
“Aha, your brains splattered. You’re like a girl, lord!”
“St-stop, stop it…!”
“I won’t, you trash. You did the same to women, didn’t you?”
“Aaaahhhh!”
Regret surged along with the excruciating pain. Drawing the worst ‘bad luck’ at the end, the lord finally regretted his evil deeds.
“Well then, former lord.”
And Albedo, with the most beautiful smile, said,
“I’ll be the next lord, so goodbye!”
“Huh?”
Confusion, chaos, and the overwhelming despair of ‘that can’t be happening’. Crushing these into him, she stomped his brain with all her might—
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
‘Tristain Newspaper: Month of Summer Beginning / First Fire God’s Edition’
・The ‘Pioneer City Agravain’ has its lord and priest both ‘flee’!
A truly despicable incident occurred.
The catalyst was the recent mass monster outbreak. Due to the restrictions on influx technology imposed by the lord and priest, numerous adventurers tragically died.
After the incident was resolved, both the lord and priest, along with their families and soldiers, disappeared. A letter with their joint signatures was left on the desk.
‘(Excerpt) We are not at fault. Who would accept the technology of a woman who calls herself Lady Sarah, whose humanity is questionable? No matter how many lives are lost because of it, we don’t care. We will not take responsibility. If anyone has complaints, they should seek guidance from the neighboring territory’s Count Iscar, who seems to have taken that woman as his concubine. Let him bear the responsibility and compensation.’
This enraged the bereaved families and locals. They searched for the lord and priest’s families to execute them but to no avail.
Our lord, Count Iscar, judged the letter’s closing as a ‘transfer of territorial management rights’. He immediately contacted the homeland, and on the condition of ‘maintaining control over the almost rebellious citizens due to distrust in the nobility and ‘Goddess Church’ upper echelons,’ the homeland approved the transfer to Count Iscar.
Afterward, the compassionate Count Iscar tearfully praised Guild Master Albedo, who had requested rescue despite the risk of being condemned for this incident. He took full responsibility and granted her ‘territory supervisory authority’.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
‘Tristain Newspaper: Month of Summer Beginning / Third Gold God’s Edition’
・Albedo woman, establishing three powers—!
We received follow-up news from the neighboring ‘Pioneer City Agravain’.
Our wise Count Iscar proposed to the upper echelons of the ‘Goddess Church’ that ‘Vice Priest Albedo’ be promoted to Chief Priest. This was to avoid the danger of sending a new priest, fearing the citizens’ distrust towards priests.
However, the upper echelons of the ‘Goddess Church’ rejected this. They ignored Count Iscar’s wise words and sent a priest from the homeland, but this person was murdered near the city by someone.
Following these events, the upper echelons accepted Albedo’s promotion.
Thus, effectively all powers of the territory were entrusted to Guild Master Albedo, with the consent of all citizens.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Sarah: “Become the backup for a crazy woman.”
Unknowing Iscar: “Ehhh!?!?”
