I Secretly Healed the Illness of the Twin Princesses While Wearing a Mask, and Now the Entire Kingdom Is in an Uproar ~Please Stop Trying to Expose the Street Healer~ - Chapter 52

Late at night, Ridiel left Hange Fortress and ran toward the place where the rear guard had been attacked.

What she saw there was a mountain of corpses and a river of blood.

And standing alone against a smiling female demon was a man in a skull mask, dressed in jet-black clothes.

“W-Why is Nameless here!?”

Ridiel gasped in shock.

But her surprise lasted only a moment. The instant Nameless struck the demon, his arm vanished.

Her body split open, a huge mouth opening wide as it tried to bite off Nameless’s head.

Without thinking, Ridiel released the power of her holy weapon.

“—Holy Power Release: Holy Rain!!”

Countless arrows of light poured down from the sky, dealing heavy damage to the demon and pulling her attention away from Nameless.

At least, Nameless should be safe now.

Just as Ridiel thought that, the demon looked at her and smiled wickedly.

A chill ran down Ridiel’s spine.

Like a rabbit stared down by a lion, her body froze, and she was filled with pure fear.

That moment of fear was fatal.

“Ah, eh, no way.”

As if eating a simple snack, the demon bit off Nameless’s head.

Blood burst from the torn neck where his head had been.

Nameless’s body fell lifelessly to the ground, while the demon licked the blood dripping from her lips.

“Heeeeeeey!! I’ve wanted to meet you, Ridiel-chaan!! Nn!! Such a cute name!!”

“W-Who are you? You know me?”

“Of course!! I saw you fighting monsters before!! Oh, right, my name’s Zenapart. I’m called ‘The Eater of Life,’ or ‘The Bottomless Stomach,’ but who cares!! Can I eat you?”

“Eh?”

Ridiel couldn’t understand what had happened.

She only realized that one of her hands was suddenly gone.

A huge amount of blood sprayed from her severed arm.

Clear bite marks were left behind, as if something had torn it off with its teeth.

Then the pain hit her.

Pain beyond imagination.

Unable to endure it, Ridiel collapsed to the ground while letting out a scream that wasn’t even a sound.

“—Agh!!”

“Ah♡ Such a nice sound♡ Nn♡ Hey, hey, show me your face!! Show me that cute little face, twisted in pain and fear♡”

“Ugh.”

Zenapart grabbed Ridiel by the hair and forced her face up.

Ridiel understood.

The demon smiling in front of her was an enemy she could never defeat, no matter how hard she fought.

She also knew now that Zenapart hadn’t even been serious when fighting Nameless.

This was the first time Ridiel faced despair that courage alone could not overcome.

Forced to face her own helplessness, her face twisted in terror.

Her strength left her body, she slumped to the ground, and her pants grew wet.

“Huh? Huhh? Did you wet yourself? Sorry, sorry!! I scared you!? Nn!! It’s okay!! I’ll take my time and eat you gently while you suffer!!”

As Ridiel imagined what would happen to her next, her body froze completely. She couldn’t move at all.

She slowly lowered her golden crossbow.

Her seventeen short years of life flashed through her mind, and the first thing she saw was her father’s face.

Was he doing well? He was still working as a fifth-class citizen in a dangerous mine. Had he fallen sick?

Then, the next person came to mind—

(I should have at least said goodbye to him before coming here…)

The face of that overly capable boy she had only traveled with for a few days.

Her first male friend.

She remembered how nervous she had been when they slept in the same inn room and were unable to fall asleep for a long time.

And then Ridiel suddenly realized.

(Last? Why did I think last? What is that supposed to mean? Was I about to give up? ―Don’t be stupid.)

Ridiel was furious at herself.

Giving up without achieving anything was what she hated most.

So what if one hand had been bitten off?

She still had one hand left. She could still hold a weapon. Her legs could still move.

“—Holy Power Release: Holy Rain.”

Ridiel released the power of her holy weapon and fired it straight above herself.

A rain of light poured down.

Zenapart jumped back to avoid the unexpected attack, but many of the arrows struck Ridiel herself.

The light arrows were made to harm only evil beings. To humans, they only hurt a little.

But when hundreds of them hit at once, even that pain became severe.

Ridiel took all of it.

“Nn!! What are you doing? That kind of attack won’t hit me!? Were you trying to kill yourself?”

“…No. I was just waking up my weak self.”

Ridiel stood up and glared straight at Zenapart.

“I’ve always been like this. When something scares me, or when something hurts, I try to run away right away. I hate that about myself. There are so many people in this world who work harder than I do. So I don’t have the right to stop trying.”

“…Nn!! Oh, nice, nice!! Those honest eyes, that brave face. I can’t wait to cover them in fear that I love—”

“Be quiet.”

Ridiel fired a light arrow straight at Zenapart’s head.

Zenapart tilted her neck slightly and dodged it with ease.

“Wipe that grin off your face. If you take someone’s life, you should mourn them. If you can’t do that, then stop killing.”

“Ehh? No way!!”

“Then I, Ridiel Leendiel, will punish you myself!!”

“…Nn!! If you think you can, then try—”

That was when it happened.

“Guh!? Eh? Huh? What?”

“…Eh?”

Ridiel couldn’t believe her eyes.

Because an arm suddenly burst out of the enemy she had prepared to fight to the death, straight from Zenapart’s stomach.

No, more exactly, someone had pierced through her from the inside.

Was this also Zenapart’s power?

That thought crossed Ridiel’s mind for just a moment.

But she quickly knew it wasn’t.

Because Zenapart herself looked completely confused.

“Huh? What? Wh-what is this…?”

“Hmm? I aimed for your heart, but I guess I missed.”

“Eh, g-gyah!?”

Zenapart’s stomach swelled violently, bulging outward while tearing flesh apart as something forced its way out.

Guts scattered. Blood sprayed everywhere.

“There’s a movie I like, everyone’s trauma movie, about an alien that plants eggs inside people. When the egg hatches, it breaks out through the host’s stomach. Right now… I kind of feel like that alien.”

The next moment, a familiar boy crawled out of Zenapart’s torn stomach and was completely naked.

Zenapart was drenched in cold sweat as she screamed in panic.

“H-how are you alive!? I bit your head clean off!?”

“That’s what happens when you don’t chew properly. You know, even if a human’s head is cut off by a guillotine, they stay conscious for a few seconds.”

“D-Don’t tell me that you regrow your body from the neck down inside my stomach!? That’s impossible! What kind of healing magic and mana would that take? No, that’s not the issue!! My stomach acid melts even iron in an instant! So why didn’t you melt!?”

“…Willpower?”

“Willpower!?”

The unexpected answer left Zenapart speechless.

“T-That can’t be possible! You should’ve been in pain beyond imagination!! No one could stay sane through that!!”

“Yeah, it hurt like hell when I healed and started melting again. But I’m used to pain. And it was still better than the pain I’ve felt before. You wouldn’t know, right? The feeling of your organs slowly rotting away and turning into machines. Compared to that, having my skin and muscles melt isn’t a big deal.”

“M-Machines…?”

“But hey, thank you, Germ Queen. Because of you, I finally learned that the ‘avoid getting my head cut off’ trick actually works.”

Zenapart couldn’t understand a single thing this human was saying.

There was only one thing she knew for sure—

“…Y-you’re insane…”

The boy stripped clothes from his own headless corpse and put them on.

He picked up a large scythe that looked like something the Grim Reaper would use, and wrapped a silver chain around his arm.

Seeing that sight, Zenapart suddenly gasped.

“I see. I see, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, yooooooouuuuu!!!!”

“…What?”

“I remember now!! I remember, I remember!! That jet-black outfit!! The scythe!! The silver chain!! An undying body!! Why are you still alive!? You cursed being, Black King!!”

“Black King?”

The boy felt like he had heard that name somewhere before…

“Well, no, no. There’s no point listening to a germ talk. I’ll finish this now.”

“Don’t screw with me, don’t screw with me, don’t screw with me!! I won’t let you end me with your hands. Not once, not twice, never again!!”

Just as he was about to bring his fist down on the dying Zenapart, she suddenly opened her mouth wide and spewed bodily fluids straight upward.

It blocked his vision and forced him to defend.

It happened in only a moment but…

“Hey, Germ Queen. I’m not letting you escape.”

He was about to chase Zenapart as she ran at full speed.

Then he heard a heavy thud, the sound of someone collapsing.

“Eh, Ridiel-san?”

“D-Don’t worry about me, chase her…”

“…”

The boy made his choice without hesitation.

“With that much blood loss, you’ll die. —Extra Heal.”

“Why… If you don’t chase her, more people will be hurt —Ugh.”

“You’re not wrong. But leaving someone who’s about to die goes against my rules. Besides, that germ lost a lot of blood too, and I crushed her heart when I tore my way out. She’ll die soon anyway.”

“…I see. Then, that’s fine. By the way, why did you come out of her body? And that outfit? Don’t tell me you were Nameless all along?”

“Huh? Ah.”

The boy, Asuku, finally realized that the skull mask he had been wearing had melted inside Zenapart’s stomach.

Crap, what should he do now?

◇　◇　◇

Afterword

One-Point Story

Author: “It’s scary how most readers guessed the twist.”

Readers: “Yeah.”

Author: “By the way, today is Christmas Eve. How are you all spending it? What? You think the author doesn’t have a lover? Hahaha, maybe we should drop this topic.”

If you thought, “Ridiel is strong,” “So the main character is on the Alien side…,” “You’re the one who brought it up,” please leave your thoughts, bookmarks, ★ ratings, or reviews.