Master’s Smile

C77 – In The Forest at Night

“Fu, fufu, fufufufufufufu!”

In a certain forest, in a whimsical place where the moonlight gently illuminated the grass and trees, a girl was laughing eerily.

She was writing words on the bundle of papers on her lap with great vigor.

The writing was not the kind used in the kingdom, as it was something insane that just looking at it would make you go crazy.

(TLN: Bet it’s R’lyehian script.)

The girl was using the demonic script to avoid being spied on, hence her humanity was in question for using such a horrible script for just that reason.

(TLN: Called it.)

Though, she was indeed not human.

Perhaps even among the Yelquchira members who are all irregulars, she and her master are the only ones who can read all of the letters on this massive bundle of paper.

“Hafuuh…. I-I-I finally finished it….”

The girl with the gray ringletsーーーKrankheit smiled with satisfaction.

For some reason, there was a sneer mixed in with that smile, but it was just the usual.

“I-I-It’s nice and quiet here… M-My guild is really noisy, always… I-I can’t concentrate on my writing there….”

Krankheit bit her nails in annoyance, creating an irritating atmosphere.

The guild headquarters of Yelquchira is always bustling and lively.

It’s a wonderful guild where cursing, shouting, and killing intent are thrown around.

However, when Krankheit was writing, she wanted to have a quiet environment.

Furthermore, for someone with a shy personality like hers, being lively and noisy was only making her stressful.

However, even if she told them so, there were some members who seemed to be happy to make more noise instead.

It is the “Salvation Army (Yelquchira)” who love to pull each other’s legs.

“I-I can’t write this “Book of Taboo” in such a noisy place….”

Krankheit flipped through the bundled papers and nodded in satisfaction.

Even a fleeting glimpse of it was filled with vicious demonic letters that could destroy your mind.

Even for the other guild members, having such a dangerous book written in the guild headquarters was unbearable.

What Krankheit is aiming for is to become a mature woman with charm points like the main character in the book “The Fallen Angel of Beauty”, a gift from her master.

The “Book of Taboo” was a book in which she wrote down her fantasies of how to become an intelligent and seductive adult like the protagonist, and what she would do after she became one.

Whenever she was at the guild headquarters, the guild membersーーーbasically Kühlingーーー always tried to interfere with her, which annoyed her to the core.

That was because only she and her master were allowed to see the “Book of Taboo”.

However, the overflowing miasma from the demonic letters that Krankheit wrote was so strong that Kühling and the others’ irritation was understandable.

“I-I’ve written down everything I had in mind… a-and Master might come home so let’s go back….”

This plain tone of voice faded into a more mature tone soon after.

Recently, through repeated practice with her master, she has been able to speak and act in a much more mature manner.

Well, even so, when her emotions got the better of her, her true nature came out immediately.

The guild members who knew Krankheit before sometimes ridiculed her, but she won’t take hold of this way of speaking unless she uses it repeatedly.

If they laugh at her, she’ll give them another nightmare.

Krankheit thought so as she stood up from the stone on which she had settled on….

“…Huh?”

She couldn’t help but let out a dumbfounded voice that was unbecoming of a mature woman.

The reason for this was the scene which unfolded before Krankheit’s eyes.

The forest she was in was small and peaceful, with almost no monsters around, and it was the kind of calm place where people who lived in towns with no combat power often came for picnics.

In fact, the scenery around her was also very peaceful.

However, the scene she saw had changed.

The trees had grown twisted and distorted, and the leaves were dead and falling.

In addition, the beautiful moonlight that used to brightly illuminate her papers had changed its color to a dull red, which was an abnormal situation.

“Could this be… a hallucination?”

Krankheit’s adult mode, switch on.

She sensed that someone was nearby and immediately masked her true self.

This was a very familiar change for Krankheit, and it allowed her to accurately assess the current situation.

Naturally, she was well aware of the rapid changes of her world, as if she were suddenly thrown into another world.

“Correct.”

A sudden voice answered Krankheit’s monologue.

It sounded calm and a little timid, which made Krankheit have a feeling of kinship with it.

No matter how you look at it, it was the enemy, though.

The young man who emerged from the twisted trees was a timid-looking one.

“Ara? You are the one who deceived me, aren’t you?”

“Y-Yes. My name is Ild. I am an adventurer belonging to Inicken.”

The young man… Ild replied to Krankheit’s slight allure with a blush.

Krankheit, as a mature lady, was in high spirits.

Unlike Yelquchira members who completely understand who she is, the people who met her for the first time didn’t know about her, so she put on her adult mask with excitement.

“You are under the spell of my illusion magic.”

“Ara, this is troubling.”

Krankheit had a relaxed expression on her face, but in her heart, she was surprised in her own way.

That is because people who can use illusion magic are very rare.

Unlike fire and water, which are relatively easy to learn, it is necessary for someone to have a lot of talent and put in a lot of effort if they want to learn illusion magic.

For that reason, the power of illusion magic was quite strong, so much so that even a skilled person like Krankheit is trapped by its illusions.

When Krankheit was wondering what to do, the young man spoke to her apologetically.

“Umm… Could you find it in your heart to surrender?”

“Ara? Why? You’re not going to kill me instantly?”

Krankheit couldn’t help but ask back at the unexpected offer.

…rather, she had been saying nothing but “Ara” since earlier.

In Krankheit’s mind, a “mature lady” is an image with such room to spare.

“It is true that our master… Rousseld wants to kill all of you, Yelquchira members, and become the kingdom’s number one-… no, the world’s number one dark guild. But to be honest, I’m not really interested in being the strongest like that. And unlike Rousseld and the others, I don’t like to kill people unnecessarily.”

Ild answered with a bitter smile.

It was a very naive statement for someone from a dark guild, even though he was being exploited so hard by Rousseld.

However, from the general public’s perspective, he would have a favourable impression.

Those were his thoughts about Krankheit, but….

“That won’t do.”

Krankheit rejected him mercilessly.

“…is that so?”

“Yes. Yelquchira can’t afford to lose to the same dark guild.”

If the guild is defeated, then that means their master is also defeated.

Krankheit will never admit to such a thing.

“…that is unfortunate.”

Ild murmured and his atmosphere changed completely.

He had been calm and somewhat timid, but he was suddenly cold and sharp, just like a member of a dark guild.

No matter how virtuous he looked, Ild was still a member of the dark guild, Inicken.

“You can’t escape my illusion magic. Please stay here and die while dreaming.”

The space around Ild began to distort slowly.

This was a true indication that Krankheit was under his spell.

It was as if the fight had already been decided with Ild’s victory.

Illusion magic is powerful magic. If the spell is casted on someone with no comrades around, then they will almost have no way to get out of it.

There are two choices; either the affected person has the mental strength to break the spell, or they are also familiar with the spell.

It was for this reason that Ild, despite being afraid by nature, was able to daringly appear against Yelquchira, even though he was quite reluctant to fight.

“That’s scary. Will you let me see a dream so wonderful that I’m willing to die for it?”

If it’s the kind of dream where she got pampered by her master, then she might as well die.

In a corner of her mind, Krankheit thought so.

However, she smiled bewitchingly like a mature lady so that Ild would not notice any such thing.

Despite the fact that Krankheit was his enemy, Ild’s heart throbbed.

(TLN: As of current, Krankheit is the cutest imo) (EDN: Nah Sorglos is where the action’s at)