What on earth was this?
With how the young girl’s eyes were all black and her lips turning violet, Lauren could only think of one thing. The girl had turned into a black mage. But how could that be? She was but a young child, someone who was supposed to be innocent.
A black mage giving birth to another black mage wasn’t possible. Black mages were not capable of reproduction at all because their existence was against the law of nature so it only meant that this girl had turned into a black mage by doing forbidden sorcery.
But how could that be? Books about sorcery had been banned in all lands and if there were people who had access to it, only those in power and smart enough to hide their dirt, which a mere child wasn’t capable of.
"Who did this to you?" Lauren asked the girl, hoping she still had a little sanity left to point out what caused her ruin.
The girl smiled creepily, showing her darkened teeth.
She had gone completely insane, Lauren thought.
There was one thing that made her wonder though. She had come across some black mages in the past and she knew that black mages, may it be an old one or just recently turned, all of them had the same smell – like the smell of the soil after a heavy rain. The smell was something so strong to not be noticed especially in close proximity.
However, the little girl in front of her who appeared to be a black mage didn’t smell that way.
"I want to kill you," the girl uttered in a small voice and Lauren saw how the girl’s nails turned longer.
The girl was about to jump for an attack and Lauren was ready to defend herself, but a bullet came out of nowhere and created a hole in the young girl’s forehead and made her collapse on the dirty ground of the alleyway.
Lauren turned and saw who shot the bullet.
"Step back, Your Highness," said Sean Devitt as he went to check if the girl was still alive. As he believed the girl was a black mage, planting a bullet on her brain was the only thing that could kill her.
"Were you running after her?" Lauren asked, standing behind the officer.
"Yes. She is a servant in Mr. Carley’s mansion who ran wild and killed four other maids."
Officer Devitt was about to put his gun down when he saw the girl rise as if she was resurrected. Thinking that the bullet failed to reach her brain, he shot another two bullets straight into her head. But unlike the first time, it didn’t even move the girl from where she was standing like it didn’t affect her at all.
Lauren knew that the only way to kill a black mage was killing its brain and a bullet was supposed to be enough, but how come the girl was still standing?
Shooting the girl’s head until her face could hardly be recognized, Officer Devitt didn’t expect the girl would still be able to stand and move so fast that he didn’t see how she managed to throw the pistol away from his grip and scratch his arm.
Crawling to the dirty wall effortlessly, the girl laughed before jumping to the officer and aiming for his face. Officer Devitt moved away and grabbed his knife.
As an ordinary human, he could rely on nothing but his strength and skills. He had killed some black mages before, but they weren’t as fast and tough as this one which made him wonder if a mutation was possible.
The girl moved in between the walls, jumping from one to another. When she jumped to Officer Devitt again, this time he caught her leg and slammed her to the wall before piercing his knife to her right eye. After creating another hole in her head, he pulled the knife and was about to ruin her skull by slamming it to the wall, when the girl’s long nails dug into his left chest.
Officer Devitt backed away out of pain, his hand on his bleeding chest.
Before the girl could kill the man, Lauren pulled the long gold hairpin from her hair and threw it straight to the girl’s heart.
It didn’t take a second before the girl’s body fell to the ground like an empty vessel.
Noticing that the girl’s body didn’t change a bit unlike how black mages turned to ashes once dead, Lauren said, "She is not a black mage."
"I will send the body to the inspection house to be examined. We can’t be sure if she is not a black mage or if a mutation is possible," Officer Devitt said as the wounds on his chest continued to bleed.
"I think you should seek medical attention first, Officer. The girl’s nails could be poisonous," Lauren said mockingly. "You were quite slow in killing the girl. You should have tried her heart after ruining her brain didn’t work. If I didn’t do the job, you would have been killed."
"You see, the initial assumption was the girl being a black mage and we both know the hearts of black mages will stop beating and turn to nothing but useless stones inside their bodies once they run wild. That’s why I didn’t think targeting her heart was useful."
"But with the way she moved faster than a normal black mage and how she remained standing after you planted many bullets in her head, you should have thought it was possible she wasn’t a black mage."
With her auburn hair on the loose, Lauren walked toward the dead girl’s body. Sitting on her feet, she retrieved the hairpin from the girl’s chest and put it on her handkerchief to wipe off the blood.
"As I observed her while you were fighting, I noticed her goal was to kill you but not to suck your soul. Black mages running wild are crazy for a person’s soul but the girl didn’t seem to care about that. Also, she didn’t smell like soil. So I’m sure she is not a black mage."
With the way Lauren was speaking seriously, Officer Devitt couldn’t help but notice that the princess was a capable young woman. He expected her to run away while the girl was attacking him, but instead she stayed unfazed while observing the situation and even managed to kill the dark creature in one hit. He realized she was more than what he thought of her.