Chapter 113

Olivia listened in disbelief to the thing that had her sisters face. Not a shred of the sweet girl she remembered. The pitch of her voice kept changing and only at times resembled the tones that Olivia remembered. Even Emily’s face had signs of change, the result of abuse of Shadow Body Swap.

“P-princess? Queen?” Olivia asked, having caught the end of Emily’s monologue. “What are you saying?”

“You might have resigned yourself to living off scraps and dying alone with nothing, but I have ambition!” Emily said with a proud smile. “Play along properly and I might grant you position in my court once I become the new queen. Perhaps a nice pen to share with the other loyal dogs?”

“Is there no end to your madness?” Olivia finally rose up from the floor. “This and that aside, what makes you think you’d ever be let anywhere near the throne?”

“I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. And no matter how I look at it marrying in is the most straightforward way. The queen has seven daughters. I’m sure I’ll find at least one or two among them that are manageable. After that it’s just a matter of time before the current King and Queen end up dead. Everybody knows that the King spends most days high out of his mind. He’s bound to overdose eventually. Who’s to say the Queen hasn’t taken up his hobbies? Even if I have to help things along, I doubt anyone would think much of it. Nobody really likes them much anyway.”

“And you think they’d agree to let you marry any of their daughters?”

“You’re insulting me now!” Emily said, annoyed. “King Selirius has offered his daughters countless times before as rewards: for saving the Kingdom; for bringing a live demon to the palace; for plowing his coldhearted ‘bitch of a wife’ until he sees her ‘orgasm face’ ... And those are the more reasonable examples. And Princess Julia has probably fucked half the city by now, so they’d be grateful if a sweet, respectable noblewoman of high status such as I took that cum receptacle off their hands.”

“...” Olivia had no words. She wasn’t talking to her sister. A delusional, sadistic narcissist had taken her sister’s face. “Emily ... Whatever you went through ... Even if ... Even if I was the one that hurt you somehow, please, let me help you!”

“Absolutely!” Emily exclaimed and clapped her hands. “I knew you’d see things my way sooner or later! We have still so much work to do! Daddy will find an opportune moment to start the conversation, but we have to prepare before. Since you have adequate skill in combat, I’ll need you to train up loyal soldiers for me. Obviously not all Seven Sisters will just sit and let me take over, so we’ll need to be ready to strike—”

“What!? No!” Olivia interrupted Emily. “I want to help you get out of this mess! Can you not see all the suffering you’ve caused? How much you’re still causing now? How you’re treating even those you claim to be your loyal guards? I do not know how long it will take to atone for all you’ve done, or if it can even be done, but I will do whatever it takes to take you off this path of madness that this entire city is walking on.”

“I see,” Emily lowered her head. A shadow fell over her eyes. “It was too good to be true that you’d come around so fast. I’ll need to train you properly first.”

“Like you trained them?” Olivia pointed at Emily’s victims. “How many did you kill!?”

“That’s what happens when fools don’t listen or are too incompetent to be worth the food they consume,” Emily said. “But don’t you worry. The others are expendable. You are just one. I won’t kill you. And I’ll spare no effort in training you. No matter how long it takes!”

“It looks like I’ll just have to beat some sense into my little sister,” Olivia said and steeled her resolve to attack the one she came to save.

“I wonder—”

“Princess!!” a man’s voice came from behind Emily.

A big, chubby, balding old man in purple attire scurried toward Emily, surrounded by a squad of guards.

Emily put her hand over her face and changed her features back to Ophelia’s before she turned around and cheerfully yelled, “Daddy!”

“Princess-huff-why are you still here!?” Belmot asked as he hurried to his little girl, struggling for breath, surrounded by dozens of guards.

“I couldn’t just leave without you,” “Ophelia” answered. “Also, there was a small situation...”

“H-huh!?” Belmot finally noticed an unfamiliar face. And between the wounded unfamiliar girl, two charred corpses, wounded cat girls, and damage all over the hall, the “situation” was not hard to figure out. And then he saw the fresh blood stain just under Ophelia’s chest armor. “Your wounded!? Kill that woman at once!!”

“Wait, wait, it’s alright! I’ve got this under control!” Ophelia called out to the guards that already ran to apprehend Olivia.

“You do!?” Belmot in disbelief. “But the blood! She dared harm you!”

“Most of it isn’t even my blood, she barely scratched me. Don’t worry!” Ophelia smiled and hid Olivia’s bloody dagger behind her back. “I don’t want to kill her.”

“Is that so? But why? Who is that!?”

“It appears it’s one of those poor commoners that lost their minds to Black Pixie Dust,” Ophelia said, feigning pity.

“Is that so?” Belmot asked. But even while their lord was indecisive, the guards made sure to surround him and slowly encircle Olivia from two sides.

“Absolutely!” Ophelia nodded. “I heard that drug ran rampant in the city, and I want to help—”

“BULLSHIT!” Olivia shouted. “That girl is not your daughter!”

“What!?” Belmot asked if he heard that nonsense correctly.

“Her real name is Emily! She’s my sister!” Olivia continued. “She used Shadow Body Swap to change her appearance and replace your daughter!”

“S-shadow body ... Huh?” Belmot was even more confused.

“See!?” Ophelia pointed at Olivia. “Her sister, ha! What nonsense! You should have been here when she claimed that the demons are controlling everything. Raging lunatic! Completely out of her mind! What sane person would run into a collapsing building, attacking and antagonizing everyone they could?”

“T-that does seem to not be something a well-adjusted person would do,” Belmot said while scratching his double chin. “And the heavy addicts have been known to fall into hallucinogenic madness ... But all the more reason to bind the crazy person before she does harm to my precious little princess or to herself!”

“I promised to help this poor druggie, if she promises not to hurt anyone again,” Ophelia spelled it out while throwing glances at Olivia.

The guards had already completely surrounded Olivia.

“I know how you like to try and help,” Belmot looked at the huddled kids and wiped away the sweat from his forehead. “It’s just that it doesn’t always work out...”

“Some are beyond help,” Ophelia gestured dismissively. “But I have a good feeling about this one! Please~, daddy, make sure that the guards don’t harm her yet!”

“Oh, if she doesn’t resist,” Belmot sighed. “But we can’t stay here for long! Who knows if the earthquake happens again. Guards!”

The dozen Purple Capes that encircled Olivia pointed their swords and spears at her and slowly encroached on her from all sides.

“As if!” Olivia dropped two smoke bombs at her feet.

“Again!? Sofia!!” Ophelia yelled.

“R-right! At once!” the cat girl responded from somewhere within the smoke.

Once Olivia realized that just trying to explain things would be pointless, her course of action was obvious. She had to show it.

“Princess!?” Belmot shouted for his daughter.

“I’m here, I’m fine!” Ophelia answered.

“I’m coming, princess!” Belmot ran to the voice of his little girl.

Perfect! Olivia thought as she ran in the same direction. The ninja girl would have found Ophelia through the smoke regardless, but this situation was even better. The visibility was near zero, but if Belmot stands right next to Emily, he’ll see it before that cat girl even undoes the smoke. Shadow Body Swap requires concentration, even for someone who used as religiously as she has.

“Princess!” Belmot ran up to his daughter and hugged her.

“I said I’m fine!” Ophelia didn’t seem thrilled about the embrace. “Sofia! Hurry the fuck up!”

That was when Olivia ran up behind Ophelia and, with the pommel of her dagger, struck Ophelia’s funny bone.

“Ghyah!?” Ophelia yelped and twitched from the sudden jolt in her elbow.

Olivia expected the dagger to be knocked away right after contact, but either the barrier still hadn’t been restored or Ophelia turned it off to avoid electrocuting lord Belmot.

“W-WHAT IS THIS!?” Belmot screamed just as the rapid vacuuming of the smoke began.

Perfect! Olivia smiled. Though she could only make out Emily’s back and pink hair through the smoke, she knew that her face was revealed. Even if it was for just a second, there’s no way Belmot will ignore that. I might have more luck dealing with Emily now that the fat bastard knows she’s not his daughter. As long as she loses her position here—

“KYAAAAAAAAAAA!?!?”

“Ghuh!”

When the smoke cleared, Belmot was on the floor with a dagger sticking out of his bleeding neck.

“DADDYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!” “Ophelia” fell on her knees and wept with her face covered.

“Kill the bitch!!” the guards screamed and rushed at the only possible culprit that stood right next to Belmot and his daughter.

“Cough-cough ... bleh,” Sofia coughed and spit from the horrible aftertaste of the smokescreen she sucked in to restore vision. The Sofia heard a scream earlier coming from within the smoke, but only after recuperating from the inhalation did the cat girl look ahead and saw what had happened. Ophelia was in tears on the floor, at Lord Belmot’s side who laid on the floor. He let out his last pained breaths, struck down by the intruder ninja with a single dagger to the neck.

“Eek!?” Sofia let out a cry of a mouse and covered her mouth with both hands.

No, Olivia’s heart sank when she realized what her had done.

Despite slowly realizing how many atrocities her sister committed under the guise of Belmot’s daughter, despite not caring in the slightest whether Belmot would have lived or died, it was with this act that it truly dawned on Olivia that Emily would stop at nothing to never return to the way things were.

It was as if it hadn’t somehow still fully clicked for Olivia what Emily had become. Olivia naively thought—hoped—that if she got Emily out of here, if she had enough time with her, she could bring her back to her senses, she could see Emily’s happy smile again and hug her lovingly. That hopeful image inside Olivia’s mind cracked.

Olivia had little reason to think that Emily had any feelings for the man, and the ninja girl had slain countless men and women on her way here. What shocked her was how decisively and mercilessly Emily had reacted, and how quickly and masterfully she switched to a grieving daughter.

“Kill the bitch!!”

When all the guards cried out for her head, Olivia knew how pointless it would have been to try and explain that she wasn’t the one that killed their lord.

Not a single captain’s badge among them, I can handle this, Olivia tried to reassure herself as she pulled a dagger and reached for her last smoke bomb. Last one, two more daggers. I’ll deal with the small fry first and use their weapons. Even if it takes three Shadow Clones I will—

“GHYAAAAAAAAH!!?” Olivia screamed in agony after receiving a full blast of “Ophelia’s” lightning magic from behind.

“Don’t any of you dare to kill her!!” Ophelia threatened with tears in her eyes. Lightning still forked around her fingers when Olivia fell on the floor. Olivia stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Daddy ... For something like that ... Death is too quick and easy. Her punishment must be more severe!”