At this point, all of the girls had gone through except for Salicia, Siti, myself, and the Grand Master. With the Grand Master dead, that left Siti. She had actually used the knife to kill her own Master? That was when a thought suddenly came to me. Maybe, she had been a traitor all along! How had I been so foolish? I had thought that if we moved quickly enough, that we’d resolve this problem before it became an issue, and I ended up handing the knife to the exact person that I didn’t want to.
Siti seemed like she wanted to say something, but her mouth was opened and she didn’t seem to be able to get any words out. Pulling my sword, I walked past Salicia, holding the sword up to Siti’s neck. I was careful to keep my distance. Her hands were behind her back, and she seemed to be fumbling for what was presumably the knife. If she made a lunge at me, I couldn’t even allow her to scratch me!
“How could you do this?” I demanded.
“H-h… I-I…” She was stuttering, her expression changing strangely panicked.
I started to feel like something was off. We had given the knife to her. That was undeniable, but she didn’t look like someone who had deliberately murdered her own Master. Did she accidently kill him? Was she just walking with it out and then ran into him when he stopped? That sounded ridiculous the second I thought it.
“Where is the knife?” I decided to demand for that instead.
If I could get the knife into my Inventory, then, at least we’d all be safe for the immediate future. However, the more I pressed her, the more terrified she seemed to get. She was backing away while her mouth flapped open. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she started to cast a spell. I lifted my sword to strike her, but she didn’t stop. It seemed like she was willing to let me strike her as long as she finished the spell.
“Look out!” She cried.
Those words were what stopped me from attacking. At just that moment, a massive force slammed into me from the side. I realized it was some kind of spatial attack. I went flying to the side, from the massive hit, slamming into a nearby building. It was enough force that I went right through it. This was a structure that had already been on fire and put out. Structurally, it wasn’t very strong. My form being slammed through the brittle charred walls was enough that the entire place collapsed. Thankfully, it didn’t have much of a ceiling, and other than a giant puff of smoke and ash in the air, I wasn’t hurt too bad.
I healed myself immediately, while berating myself for holding back. Just because she said something that confused me, I allowed her to hit me. I started crawling out of the wreckage, but just as I peered out at Siti, I was immediately frozen by the scene. Salicia was standing across from Siti, but it wasn’t Siti holding the dagger, it was Salicia.
“Why did you kill Master?” Siti was crying, holding up her hands and backing away defensively.
“Hmm? Why?” Salicia asked, her voice strangely filled with malice. “Perhaps, because it was fun!”
“Salicia… how could you!”
“Salicia?” She seemed confused for a second. “Ah! You must be talking about this body. Is that the name she was going under? Sorry, perhaps it’s better if you just call me by my real name. My name is Calypso. I’m the Bandit Hero.”