BBYW Vol. 2 Interlude Part 5 (WN)
Interlude – Dietrich Maxwell’s Adventure
Part 5 – The Alley’s Man-Eating Demon
The town’s main roads were packed with people, locals and foreigners alike, but one step into a back alley and the population switched to beggars and ruffians.
As strong sunlight breeds dark shadow, the people who could not receive the blessings of the thriving city sunk into the darkness of its backstreets.
This city was no exception: the atmosphere of the dark alley was oppressively heavy.
“Oh…?”
After walking for a while, I found a small group of people: a woman surrounded by four men. It looked like they were having a heated discussion: the smell of trouble was stronger than ever.
“……”
Hiding in the shadows, I watched the situation unfold.
“Just shut up and come with us!”
“We know a really nice, cozy place, see? You’ll feel so good you won’t be able to think anymore, trust me!”
“Come on, you can drink all you want, it’ll be all on us. Deal?”
The men’s sleazy voices echoed in the back alley. They looked just as crooked as they sounded: judging from their tanned skin and muscles, they had to be sailors or pirates.
I couldn’t see the woman very well in their midst, but it was easy to imagine what they had in mind for her.
“Either they’re trying to pick her up, kidnap her, or sell her into a sleazy establishment…I guess you can find men who think with their crotch all over the world, huh.”
The conversation continued to escalate: eventually, one of the men grabbed the woman’s wrist.
“Fucking come already!”
“Tch…”
I clicked my tongue and jumped out, ready to give the men a lesson.
I wouldn’t even need my sword against scum of that caliber: just my hands and 10 seconds would be enough.
Well, at least that was the plan.
“Bghah…”
“Eh…?”
I stopped dead in my tracks. Something incredible had just happened.
The head of the man who grabbed the woman’s wrist burst open like an overripe tomato. Blood spurted everywhere.
“Heek!?”
“W-W-What the hell did you do!?”
The other three men, showered in the blood and brains of their comrade, yelled and screamed.
A few seconds later, the now headless body collapsed, letting me see the woman’s full figure.
“….!!”
“You men are so persistent! Can’t a lady enjoy her drink in peace!?”
A petite woman in a white dress. She might even be called a little girl — yet she just squashed a grown man’s head with her bare hands. She even licked the blood from her fist and flashed a feral smile.
“Your blood reeks too! There’s no way to make this taste good, it’s the blood of scum!!”
“W-What the fuck are you talking about!? How dare…”
The man couldn’t finish his sentence.
The woman’s dress flapped high in the air, as she swept his hips with a spinning kick.
The cracking sounds of broken bones echoed in the alley. The man was folded over, beyond what was humanly possible, and crashed into a wall.
“E-Eeek!! Monster!!”
“RUN!!”
Seeing their comrades crushed like flies, the remaining two men attempted to escape.
“If you’re going to run, you shouldn’t have picked a fight in the first place! If you fight, you do it to the death!!”
“Ghyeaahhh!!”
“GAHAHAHAHA!!”
With a loud laugh more befitting a demon than a human, the woman caught one of the men and knocked him to the ground. She then sat on top and started pummeling him with wild punches.
Under that rain of bone-breaking blows, the crook quickly turned into a mass of flesh and blood.
“For real…man, she’s a real monster!”
The scene of carnage left me wide-eyed — and made my heart pound in my chest.
The last remaining man came running in my direction. His expression tense with fear, he desperately reached out to me.
“H-Help…”
“A fateful encounter? Django, my man, it really happened!!”
“Gwah…”
I drew my sword and sliced the running man’s head clean off.
“God, it feels like my heart’s going to burst from my chest! So this is what they call love!”
“Huh? Another one? What are you doing, stealing my prey like that?”
The woman turned her neck around and glared at me.
Her white hair and dress were already drenched in red.
I gazed at her, and my heart wouldn’t stop pounding. Was it fear, or something else? I wasn’t sure myself.
There was one thing I knew, however.
(We were fated to meet here! Fated to fight to the death — !)
Maybe it was my warrior’s instinct telling me that I found a worthy opponent. Or a spirit of justice intimating me to slay that demon.
I didn’t care either way. No matter the reason, we were going to fight to the death, then and there!!
“What a beautiful crimson dress you have there. Wherever have you bought it, lovely lady?”
So I approached the woman, who curved her lips in a beastly grin.
“Gahahaha!! You got great eyes, all ready to kill! And you sure look like you’d taste good!”
“Why don’t we see who’s going to eat who? I’m going to carve your cute little face into something even prettier!!”
“Gahaha!! Try me!! I’ll eat you alive!!”
I swung my sword towards the woman, who answered with her fists.
Our back alley duel to the death, without any reason or cause, thus began.