c1 (2/2)

— a line of heat ran horizontally along his throat.

“——?”

A numbing heat.

He touched his windpipe with his hand, and felt something warm.

His voice won’t come out.

He looked down and saw his palm stained red.

A great amount of blood that would have been frightening to merely see was coming out of his neck.

“—, ——”

He tried to utter two, three words, something, but instead of a sound, blood gushed out from his throat.

The next thing Eamond saw was a cold silver scalpel reflecting the starlight.

A small but sharp looking knife had appeared in s.h.i.+zuru’s hand unnoticed by him.

The blade was stained in the same color as Eamond’s blood.

But that vision and his own state, and also the strength draining from his body, did not feel related at all.

Until the end, he never reached the truth that the man in front of him was the one who slit his throat.

The wicked merchant Eamond was dead.

— s.h.i.+zuru POV —

A pool of blood was spreading with the collapsed Eamond’s neck at the center.

Looking down on it, s.h.i.+zuru wiped the blood off his knife.

“… huff”

He let out a quiet sigh.

He skillfully spun the knife in his hand and held it like a pen, and stowed it away in a pocket at the side of his bag.

The handle and scabbard had the same color as the bag. The shape vanished over the bag so that if one doesn’t observe closely one wouldn’t have noticed it was there.

s.h.i.+zuru then blew into a small whistle hanging from his neck.

It made no sound. It was a dog whistle.

When there was finally no sound, a large shape came down.

It made a faint landing sound, appearing before s.h.i.+zuru. A dark shape that blended into the darkness.

Completely pure, black fur, like the night had been wrung out and dyed onto it.

The only thing that stood out was the pair bewitchingly bright golden pupils.

A hue almost as if the moon that didn’t appear that night had become two and came down.

She was a beautiful black wolf, having a body so big that its eyeline was as high as s.h.i.+zuru’s was.

“— have you finished him, my dear”

It suddenly was heard, a voice like the sound of a gla.s.s bell ringing.

Unless one knew about it beforehand, one wouldn’t have immediately realized this voice came from the wolf.

“This is the man who makes money selling fake gemstones? Yes, he does look like he had been padding his own pockets”

“Ahaha …”

In front of the corpse, the wolf let out a snort and muttered disinterestedly.

She approached the wryly smiling s.h.i.+zuru and gave his cheek a single lick.

“Can I count on you today, Lady” 1

“Very well, my beloved”

bzzzt

The sound resounded in the air, the air shook.

Not only the air, but the shadow of the wolf called Lady also shook.

In fact, it was better said that the shadow’s shaking carried over into the air.

Finally, the shadow, that was almost indistinguishable from the darkness, peeled away from the ground.

Before long, the shadow stood on its own. It trembled and began moving just like the original.

“Come, eat, my likeness, Doppelgänger”

On the original’s order, the shadow began to devour Eamond’s corpse.

It indiscriminately ate everything, his blood, his flesh, his bones, his boots, and everything he had with him.

After a minute had pa.s.sed, the scene had been perfectly cleaned up.

Without leaving a single drop of blood, the shadow devoured everything and returned to Lady’s feet.

— It was a strange power, no matter how many times you see it.

With those thoughts in mind, s.h.i.+zuru petted Lady.

She gave him a satisfied groan in return.

“Now, let’s head to the meeting place, Lady”

“Yes. I’ll carry you there, get on”

Lady lowered her body. s.h.i.+zuru hopped on her back.

Immediately, she soundlessly jumped into the air, landing on a nearby building’s roof, and began running like the wind.

“Say, my beloved. May we, take a little detour? I would like to stay with you, even just a second more”

To her request, s.h.i.+zuru took a watch from his pocket and gave it a glance.

“Alright Lady. We still have time, don’t stand out”

“Of course, I understand”

The destination she changed to was the town’s landmark clock tower.

Landing on top of it, s.h.i.+zuru and Lady looked down on the city’s townscape.

“… it’s beautiful”

s.h.i.+zuru muttered.

About the sight beneath his eyes, the townscape of the other world.

The black wolf Lady snuggled up to him.

And thus the person and the beast stayed there until it was time to meet.

⇐ Previous | TOC | Next ⇒

<script>