Chapter 249: B - The deadly mission begins
The towering gates of Frank Pyton’s mansion loom before us.
Besides the long black cloak, Kimberly is now wearing a wig as well. She’s visibly tense — much more than I am.
I press the intercom, and a moment later, a damnably ambiguous voice answers, one that gets on my nerves the instant I hear it.
Philip Serghel.
“You’re late tonight, my dear Axel.”
“Something came up.”
Yeah. Something called a night of wild sex on the grass.
We were supposed to finish by midnight so we could be here by one — the time I usually show up. But truth be told, at midnight we were still naked and tangled together in Central Park, rolling around in a puddle of Kimberly’s orgasms like pigs in mud.
“And who’s your little friend?” Philip asks.
“I’m a mage who fled N’Raeth. I arrived on Earth only a few weeks ago, and ever since then, the Monster Slayers haven’t given me a moment’s peace. Axel told me I could offer my services to you in exchange for protection and a roof over my head. That’s why I’m here,” Kimberly replies with absolute seriousness.
The way she speaks, the weight she gives each word… damn, she’s so convincing that I almost believe her myself.
“Oh, perfect — then I’d say you’ve come to exactly the right place,” Philip replies cheerfully.
The heavy electric gate slides open just wide enough to let us through.
“My boss is currently busy taking care of a few matters. Given how late Axel was, he assumed he wasn’t coming tonight and locked himself away in his office. Take the newcomer to the mansion entrance — I’ll personally make sure our guest receives a proper welcome.”
At this point, the plan calls for me to lead Kimberly to the mansion and point out the exact window of Frank’s study.
It takes us about ten minutes to make our way through the dense woodland covering the outer section of the enormous grounds surrounding the estate.
Beyond it lies the vast clearing where Frank trains Melania and me, and right in the middle of it stands Frank Pyton’s enormous mansion.
“All this silence is really strange…” Kimberly murmurs suspiciously. “I expected the stronghold of someone like him to be crawling with security, yet we made it all the way here without running into anyone. There aren’t even any guards at the entrance or around the mansion’s perimeter. Something doesn’t add up…”
Fortunately, she seems to dismiss this thought quickly.
“Axel, show me where his office is. After that, this is where we part ways.”
I do as she asks, pointing toward a lit window on the third floor of the mansion.
“Thank you, Axel,” she says with a smile.
And then… a sword of solid light materializes in her grasp.
“W-What the fuck are you doing?!” I stammer in terror.
D-Don’t tell me her plan from the very beginning was to force me to bring her here and then kill me in cold blood?!
Damn it… I’m an idiot!
She told me herself that she’s currently been assigned to kill me, and if she showed up at headquarters with both my head and Frank’s, she’d probably earn herself a promotion.
And yet… she never struck me as that kind of ruthless girl.
I could scream for help, but she’d kill me before anyone could get here.
What a fucking mess…
“Isn’t it obvious what I’m about to do?” she murmurs, pointing her sword at me. “I’m saving your life.”
“I think you have a pretty twisted idea of what ’saving someone’s life’ means,” I reply through clenched teeth, trying to hide my fear behind sarcasm.
“Idiot. If Frank found you lying on the ground barely alive, you could tell him I tricked you by pretending to be a mage looking for his help. Not even someone like him would suspect that you deliberately let yourself get nearly killed just to give yourself an alibi. But I’m warning you, though — it’s going to hurt. A lot. And it’ll take months for your body to regenerate a wound inflicted by Sacred Light. But it’s still better than dying, right?”
She says it with a radiant smile.
A smile that sends an icy shiver down my spine.
“And what about all that talk about risking our lives together? The way you said it made it sound like I’d be fighting by your side to the death — and now… why did you change your mind at the last second? W-Why didn’t you tell me this was your plan from the beginning…?” I murmur, consumed by a growing sense of guilt.
“Come on, Axel. I said your help would be appreciated — not mandatory,” she replies with a trembling smile, the tension now impossible to hide. “I’m the Monster Slayer, not you. Blackmailing you into bringing me here was really unfair, and I felt terrible about it — believe me. But it was necessary to get you to cooperate without putting up too much of a fight. Now turn around and don’t move a muscle — I want to avoid damaging any organs that would make the next few months even harder for you.”
“There’s no need — I can come up with something. Say I lost sight of you or something like that…” I mutter, my eyes glistening, tears threatening to spill over.
“Suit yourself.”
Then Kimberly gives me an amused little smile.
“Come on, don’t tell me you’re crying over me?”
“In a way…”
Kimberly adjusts her hood and cautiously makes her way through the trees, ready to burst into the clearing.
But before she does, she turns back toward me one last time and smiles again.
“You were right, Axel… giving up sex all these years was a mistake. The pleasure you gave me was so intense that it could only be a gift from the God of Light to us humans, meant to make life a little easier to bear. If I make it out of this alive, I want you to help me make up for all the years I’ve wasted,” she says with a faint, mischievous smirk.
Then her expression softens, turning bittersweet.
“…but if this is the last time we ever see each other… I want you to know that I’m really glad I met you, Axel. And promise me that even when I’m no longer around to stalk you day and night, you’ll behave yourself and stop hunting humans, okay?”
“I-I promise…” I sob, collapsing to my knees, completely shattered.
Kimberly gives me one last nod before sprinting across the vast lawn toward the mansion.
But halfway there, she suddenly stops.
The massive front doors swing wide open, and two figures emerge.
One is Frank, while the other appears to be a woman, judging by the curve of her hips and the obvious swell around her chest, though a long brown cloak conceals her from head to toe.
Could it be Clarissa Felmont — the girl who was at that business meeting with Frank, Philip, and my mother? I can’t think of anyone else who could be hiding beneath that cloak, though I don’t remember her being quite that busty…
Kimberly spins around — probably intending to retreat back into the trees — but she’s forced to stop once again.
She summons her blade of light and assumes a defensive stance as the very trees we’d been hiding behind begin transforming one after another into humanoid beings at least two meters tall, some with dark-gray skin, others pitch-black. Their hair ranges from white to pale gray.
Dark elves.
Beside them, dozens upon dozens of orcs emerge — massive, concrete-gray creatures armed with heavy weapons, led by Joe Callhan in his orc form, so enormous that he makes both the other orcs and the dark elves look like dwarfs by comparison.
Joe and the orcs had been concealed among what, until moments ago, appeared to be ordinary trees, waiting vigilantly for the signal to attack.
And that signal was the front doors swinging open.
“Excellent work, Axel,” Philip’s voice rings out from behind me as he gives me a pat on the shoulder. “Now stay right here and enjoy the show. We’ll take care of her.”