"Take a deep breath. Take a deep breath. I'm not angry. I'm not angry…"
Muttering to herself, Claire closed her eyes and tried to calm down.
"Hahaha… haha…"
Bang!
A burst of clear, bell-like laughter reached Claire's ears from behind, and she felt as if something inside her mind had snapped.
By the time she came back to her senses, the sofa had suffered the same fate as the table earlier. She was holding the mithril sword, pointing it at the sofa that had been cleanly split in half. Judging from the scene, it was clearly her doing.
"Calm down, Claire. You can't hit her. You can't hit her…"
Repeating that to herself, Claire finally managed to suppress her anger. Forcing down the urge to swing her sword again, she turned her head toward the empty space beside her and spoke.
"Stop laughing, Aurora, the Witch of Calamity!"
In Claire's eyes, a woman with long black hair and violet eyes was sitting leisurely in midair. The deep purple dress beneath her black robe accentuated her elegant bearing, while the beauty mark at the corner of her lips added a hint of charm.
The gesture of covering her mouth while laughing softly did not ruin that elegance at all. Instead, it made her seem even more refined, like a noble lady raised with impeccable manners.
Aurora.
A mysterious girl who had possessed Claire's body during an accidental incident. No one could even say for certain whether she was something like a ghost.
"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to."
Realizing she had laughed a bit too much, Aurora stopped, clasped her hands together in apology, and spoke. Yet the smile on her face did not disappear as she added teasingly,
"Anyway, if I were to summarize what you did over the past two days, it would be something like this. You sold yourself, and while you were at it, you also dragged your little brother into it and sold him too. Am I right?"
"Your wording is a little off, but the general sequence is correct. So if that's how you want to put it, fine… Hey, why are you laughing again?"
"Pfft! Hahaha… sorry, sorry. I just can't help it."
Seeing the witch start laughing at her again, Claire felt the urge to cut her down on the spot. But after thinking for a moment, she crossed her arms over her chest and let out a cold snort.
"Forget it. There's nothing for me to say to someone who doesn't even have a younger brother. You wouldn't understand the bond between me and my brother anyway."
The witch laughed even harder.
"Tch."
Claire had thought she had scored a point, but now she only felt more annoyed. Unfortunately, she had no way to attack the other party, so all she could do was click her tongue in frustration.
"Alright, you've laughed enough. Let's talk about something serious. Aurora, didn't you say it would take some time to repair my body before you would come out?
So why did you come out early? Did I run into something dangerous in the past few days?"
Joking aside, Claire knew when to be serious.
The woman in front of her was known as the Witch of Calamity. According to her own claims, she had wiped out several races and carried sins heavy enough to shake the world. In Claire's estimation, she was a being who could rank within the top fifteen in the world.
If something existed that could make a being like that interrupt repairing her body and immediately emerge from within her just to ask what had happened recently, then it was definitely not something Claire was qualified to deal with.
"Hmph."
Aurora's laughter stopped, replaced by a cold snort.
She had originally been floating at the same height as Claire, but now she slowly rose half a body higher and looked down at Claire with clear disdain in her eyes.
"Au… Aurora, why are you looking at me like that?"
Claire felt a strange uneasiness under that gaze and asked nervously.
"Scum."
Aurora's first word was an insult.
Claire was stunned and had no idea why she was suddenly being cursed.
"You already left the World Battlefield. Why didn't you tell me?
While I was inside your body repairing it for you, you were out there eating, drinking, and having fun.
If I hadn't sensed his presence and come out to take a look, I wouldn't even know that you had already left the World Battlefield."
"That's my fault?
You were inside my body. How exactly was I supposed to inform you? What, did you expect me to stab myself just to get your attention?
And besides, now that our lives are tied together, the sooner my body recovers, the better it is for both of us, right?"
"Why not stab yourself? You wouldn't die anyway.
And if I remember correctly, I told you before that someone is protecting you. You don't need to worry about dying at all."
"..."
Claire fell silent for a moment. She genuinely could not understand how the woman in front of her could say something so cold so casually.
"Anyway, I'm done repairing your body. It would recover on its own in a few months anyway. Just to save that little bit of time, you expect a frail, helpless beautiful young girl like me to stay in some dark, sunless place for days. Don't you think that's far too cruel?
When all is said and done, the fact that I even lent you my power was generous enough. Why should I also have to repair your body because of your recklessness?"
A witch who may have wiped out several races was actually calling herself frail and helpless. Did she have no shame at all?
Claire was completely dumbfounded, but Aurora was not finished. She continued complaining to Claire.
"What is wrong with me charging you some rent when I'm living in your body? If you're so capable, then stop living in my body."
When Claire said that, she actually felt a little guilty, because she knew that if not for the witch in front of her, she would have died several times over already. Still, out of pride, she stubbornly kept up her tough front.
"Hah?
Yes, if I'm living in your body, then I should pay rent. If your injuries had really been caused by fighting an enemy, then of course I would help you recover.
But aren't your current internal injuries the result of your own stupidity?
If you hadn't decided the moment you saw that red haired guy that you wanted to die together with him, and then forced out a huge amount of power until your body started collapsing, I would not have had to spend three days without sleep repairing you.
I really have no idea what you were thinking, doing something that foolish. There was no way a strong person like that was someone you could take down with one strike. Honestly, it is a good thing you never actually launched that attack. Otherwise, the other side would not even have needed to move. The moment you unleashed it, your body would have collapsed and you would have died on the spot."
Hearing the witch question her reasoning from back then, Claire could not hold it in anymore.
"Aurora, let me tell you this. If I had to do it again, faced with the same situation, I would still make the exact same choice.
As long as he could not swear that oath while I was charging up, then I definitely would have launched that attack. There was no way I could let someone who had seen me kill my teammate leave alive. Who knows whether he could keep his mouth shut? You should know that if this matter were exposed, Cid would be dragged into it too.
And who told you I couldn't take him down with me? I know very well that forget one strike, even if my body would not collapse from using your power, I still would not be able to beat him.
But I believe that a full power strike from an SSS could severely wound even someone ranked in the world's top fifteen, even if they survived. And a heavily wounded top fifteen would undoubtedly become the highest priority target for those beasts. The SSS class otherworldly monsters on his level would instinctively rush over to kill him the moment they sensed the opportunity. At that point, he would definitely die.
And even if he really did have some hidden trump cards and managed to survive against an otherworldly monster on his own level, would he even dare come back?
A heavily wounded SSS who has already used up all his trump cards is worth far more than the life of a small fry like me. There is no guarantee that one of the world's top fifteen would not be tempted."
After laying out such a precise analysis, Claire had thought that no matter what, she would at least convince Aurora that she was not an idiot and make her stop looking at her like a fool.
Instead, Aurora merely covered her mouth with one hand and looked at her strangely.
"It would drag Cid into it too. Pfft. Pfft. Hahaha…"
"No, Aurora, what are you laughing at now? What is wrong with caring about my little brother?"
At those words, Aurora stopped laughing and looked Claire up and down.
"You damn brocon."
Whoosh!
A silver flash passed straight through Aurora's body, and yet another sofa was split cleanly in half.