Vol 2 Chapter 62 – Eleonora’s True Nature【Vol 2 – The Condemned Knight Edition】

After Erik’s words, the place fell utterly silent.

He, Miriam, and Eleonora all said nothing.

Eleonora, especially, didn’t even twitch from the position where her gauntlet had been blocked.

If Erik felt like it, he could probably cut off her head with his sword.

The fact that Eleonora, a veteran of so many battles, was exposing such an obvious opening meant Erik’s words had hit her that hard.

As she looked down, not moving a muscle, he watched her not with concern… but with a look of anticipation.

Her short-cut black hair hid her eyes, so Erik couldn’t tell.

What kind of expression is she making?

“…Heheh.”

“…Huh?”

Erik watched Eleonora with a quizzical look as her shoulders began to shake with quiet laughter.

That laughter grew louder and louder, until finally…

“Ahahahaha! Ahahahaha! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!”

It had transformed into a booming laugh that seemed to echo across the sky.

Looking as if she found something so funny she couldn’t possibly contain it, Eleonora clutched her stomach and began to laugh, despite her enemy, Erik, standing right in front of her.

“W-What the…?”

Miriam’s face contorted in terror at the laughter, so utterly out of place.

Only Erik was thrilled.

After a while, Eleonora’s laughter began to subside.

And then, just like that, silence fell again.

Miriam gulped, a cold sweat on her brow, while Erik gulped in excited anticipation.

Eleonora, now quiet, slowly raised her face.

Gone was the gallant face filled with the sense of duty to execute justice, gone was the warm smile she wore when being thanked by those she saved; in their place was a cold smile, steeped in desire.

“…You’re amazing, Erik. How did you know? I had everyone else fooled, and even myself.”

“W-What do you mean? You’re not Eleonora-san…? Have you been possessed by something evil?”

Before Erik could answer, It’s because my own proclivities are twisted, Miriam posed her question.

Eleonora laughed at her words and shook her head.

“No, I’m me, Miriam-san. Eleonora Blatukhina, the knight entrusted with the kingdom’s peace… right?”

Eleonora gave Miriam a small smile.

To Miriam, the coldness of that smile seemed nothing at all like the woman she’d been before.

“So, was I right about what I said?”

“Yes, yes. You were… absolutely correct.”

“Correct, correct, correct… Aaaaaaaaah!! Enough already!!”

The rational Eleonora suddenly snapped.

Miriam’s body jolted at the sudden transformation of the woman, who was now screaming with a furious expression.

Erik, however, was his usual self, looking as if he were expecting something.

Screaming, Eleonora charged viciously toward him.

“…!?”

And she swung down her gauntleted fist.

Erik dodged it at the last second, but he had the feeling that the force that shattered the ground was even stronger than before.

“I was doing such a good job fooling myself, so don’t you dare go and guess right!!”

“Guh!?”

Eleonora’s movements, which had lost their precision after being called out, were now even faster than they were before he’d hit the mark.

She spun around and tried to slam a backfist into him.

A blow from that massive gauntlet, covered in sharp spikes, would do an insane amount of damage.

Erik blocked it with his sword, but her strength was still superior, and the arm holding his sword was knocked upward.

“I was using justice as a shield to justify myself… so could you please not get in my way!?”

“Gah!?”

Eleonora’s toe, backed by her full weight and speed, slammed into Erik’s unguarded stomach.

He was sent rolling across the ground, so damaged he could barely even stand.

Watching him, Eleonora cackled.

“Ahahahaha!! Ahhhh… it feels so good…! Hitting people, hurting them, killing them… It’s the ultimate pleasure…!!”

With her cheeks faintly flushed and her beautiful eyes moist, she looked bewitchingly seductive.

But what she was saying and doing struck terror into Miriam and pleasure into Erik.

“Guh, ugh… So when you spoke of justice, was it all a lie…?”

“A lie? Of course not. No matter what my motive is… even if that motive is simply wanting to beat and torture people, I have still destroyed evil. Therefore, I am justice.”

Eleonora spoke as she walked slowly toward the immobilized Erik.

Finally, she stood before him and, raising her heavy gauntlet, gave him an enraptured smile.

“The truth is, I want to beat everyone, good or evil! I want to kill them! But I know that’s wrong… so, I kill evildoers instead! That way, I get to feel good, and other people are happy, too… It’s the most wonderful idea there is!!”

Eleonora screamed and attacked.

Erik desperately blocked with his sword, but Eleonora’s fists rained down one after another like a tempest.

“That’s why, now that you know my true nature, I can’t let you leave here alive. Die here. Let me kill you. For my pleasure…!!”

“Guh…! Gehah!?”

Eleonora’s gauntlets began to wound Erik.

Even if he avoided a direct hit from the gauntlet, the spikes gouged his cheek.

He blocked with his sword, but the fatigue was starting to build.

His arms grew heavy, and as a result, the gauntlets began to connect with his body.

Blood sprayed, and the ugly sound of impacts echoed.

“I want to keep hitting people! I want to keep tormenting them! I have to! I can’t stand it… The only way for me to get by is to wear this mask of justice by killing evildoers!!”

Eleonora roared and swung her gauntlet down with all her might.

“Ah…”

Who was it that uttered that sound?

But a high-pitched sound, louder than that small voice, rang out.

It was the sound of Erik’s sword breaking.

No matter how fine a sword it was—a gift from Debora—it was bound to break after blocking so many attacks from Eleonora’s powerful gauntlets.

In fact, that it had lasted this long was a testament to what a fine sword it was.

Erik’s eyes went wide as he watched the fragment of his sword spin through the air as it fell.

Eleonora looked down on him without a shred of mercy.

With a smile that looked utterly joyful… and yet somehow sad, she readied her gauntleted fist.

“———Please die.”

Eleonora’s powerful, gauntleted fist slammed into Erik’s jaw from below.