Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 3 Episode 2 (section)

===Part 4===


That night where the moon was shrouded with thin clouds.

One shadow stretched in the prison of the royal capital far away from the Fortress City.

The shadow’s owner was a doll-like figure that put on a jet black robe and wore a hood over his eyes.

His footsteps resounded on the stone corridor illuminated by flames of torches and he kept walking at a regular pace.

The capital’s prison was divided in three levels, matching the kind and weight of the crime, and managed criminals.

The shadow easily reached the most strict, deepest level among them.

“──Good evening, my dear sworn friend. Are you doing well?”

The robed figure, which stopped in front of the grill, talked to the man inside with a calm voice.

“……!? You’re──!”

The next moment, the blonde-haired man ── Balzeride, who was reading a book inside the jail, noticed and raised his head.

Though he was a criminal charged for conspiring with various backroom deals, perhaps related to his position of the heir of one of the Four Great Nobles, he wore fine clothes for a prisoner.

Perhaps because his appearance was quite unexpected, even after recognizing the robed figure’s identity ── that it was the “Black Marketer” with whom he had made deals before, he was not able to utter his next words.

“Oh my? Are you so moved you’re lost for words? That’s good to know. It looks like it was worth braving danger and coming here to meet you.”

The robed figure, his eyes still hidden with a gloomy shadow, uttered an extremely bright voice.

His attitude was completely different from when they were making deals before.

It had a trace of child-like innocence, but Balzeride was seized with a strange uneasiness.

“H-Have you come to save me? Sorry.”

When he asked so as to guess the other party’s feelings, the robed figure’s lips curved in a crescent shape.

“There’s no need to apologize, “Title Holder of the Kingdom”. I highly value the talent you have. That’s the number one reason why I came here like this.”

“I-Is that so……”

Balzeride heaved a sigh of relief to the robed figure’s reply.

If this “Black Marketer” still highly valued him like this, then the talk would be easy.

“As expected of my sworn friend, how discerning.”

Balzeride, who said so with a calm smile, stood up.

“Indeed, I still have some authority left. There’s also a hidden sanctuary in my territory. Afterwards, I’ll have you procure me new mercenaries and Drag-Rides. What, if I break out from here, everything will work either way. It’ll be fine if we just pin the crime regarding this matter on the rebel army. I’ll talk to the consuls that the Kreutzer House has won over, and when we select a criminal of substitute──”

Balzeride made an address as if pressing for an answer.

He considered this to be a golden opportunity and began to persuade the robed figure,

“Gohah……!? Gu-Guaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!?”

Fresh blood suddenly splashed before Balzeride’s eyes.

A dark red horn-like protuberance pierced from inside his chest and sprouted.

The robe figure trampled down the head of Balzeride, who raised a shriek and rolled on the floor, with the shoe that he inserted in between the lattice.

“Hey, hey, be quiet, will you? It’s night now, you’ll cause trouble to the prison guards, you know?”

The robed figure put his index finger on his lips and said with a mischievous voice.

He was looking down at the “Title Holder of the Kingdom” not with surprise or fear on his expression where his eyes were covered, but rather a smile that could be called calm.

“W-What did you do!? Y-You bastard! Guh, Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah……!”

While greatly opening both his eyes and twisting his body in pain, he continued crying.

The dark red horn, which sprouted from Balzeride’s chest increased in number and thickness, broke several bars of the grill and spread out as if eating away from the inside.

Each time that erosion advanced, blood vessels and skin burst open, and the inside of the prison was dyed red.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? What an irritating person, geez. ──I said it earlier, right? That I value your talent quite highly.”

“Gahah! Guaaaaaah! Ugaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Balzeride, who writhed as he scattered bloody vomit, the robed figure shrugged his shoulders while saying “good grief”.

And then, he widely opened his eyes covered with the hood and wickedly laughed like a devil.

“You’re a genius who makes me angry! To make this gentle me come all the way here; really, you’re an amazing genius. Ah geez, you garbage. Trash. Scum. Die. Just die at this moment. Die after fully suffering. Die while being eaten away from inside. Become like a corpse with maggots crawling all over it while keep on living...”

The robed figure continued rebuking it with a gloomy voice, but with a joyful look.

But perhaps he was not satisfied with only that, when he set foot inside the jail, he stepped on the chest, which was about to crumble, with his shoe heel.

“Listen up! <Aži Dahāka> was my Divine Drag-Ride, too. But even so, it has an energy limit. If you copy several other Divine Raiments and use them at the same time, both power and accuracy will naturally decrease. I taught you that, right? If you didn’t get cocky ── ah geez; what’s more, it has been magnificently destroyed to that extent, so even restoring it is already impossible.”

“…………”

Under the robed figure, which kept uttering words of resentment, Balzeride was already dead.

But, not even caring about such a thing at all, the robed figure danced like a child playing in a puddle of water.

“Ah, geez. Show a little backbone. So, even the last dosage was useless? Well, considering this guy’s age, the compatibility possibility seems to be zero to begin with though.──See you, useless rich young master.”

When the robed figure spat out and turned on his heel, he took out a horn from his breast pocket and put it on his lips.

“……Now, then. Without delay, let’s go get revenge for this pathetic fellow who died.”

An innocent and bottomless wicked smile spilled from under the hood.

After the interval of an instant, a violent dissonance echoed.