Noie presses a hand to her torn neck and glares at the opponent.
She gladly takes every attack head-on.
A mad existence like this… the moment “that” thing surfaces in her mind, a cold shiver runs down her spine.
She bites her lip hard and back-steps, putting distance between them.
She has to be careful.
If she lets her guard down, she’ll get pummeled, and the comrades who tried to punch her will be half-killed by “those people”.
She doesn’t mind getting hurt herself.
Wounds like this will heal if she waits.
But injuries to others aren’t so easy to fix.
Even if she says 「Please stop」, “those people” won’t listen.
They never stop.
She doesn’t want to see anyone getting beaten.
Memories of the past make Noie hesitate.
The ogre, who had been about to charge, notices her retreat and stops.
She wipes the blood from her face with her arm.
The wounds from the attacks slowly begin to heal.
The same as me…
Noie realizes it and drops low to the ground.
「Last one!!」
Lutte draws the bowstring to its limit and releases the arrow.
The shot flies straight from behind the target, impossible to dodge head-on.
But the giantess grabs the shaft, not the arrowhead, and stops it cold.
「After seeing this kind of toy three times, the trick becomes obvious!」
「No way!!」
The thrown-back arrow explodes at her feet.
Lutte is blasted away and vanishes into the bushes.
But Noie doesn’t miss it.
She charges straight ahead with full power, slamming her body into the opponent.
Her soles dig into the dirt and she pushes with everything she has.
Yet the charge ends quickly.
「You’ve got speed… but I’ve got the power!」
Once again, her body is seized and hoisted overhead.
She’s slammed down hard.
The impact feels like it could shatter every bone in her body.
「Die!!」
「Kuh」
As Noie lies sprawled on the ground, the ogre brings her fist down.
‘Boguu!’
The ground caves in under the crushing pressure of the descending fist.
In that split-second moment, Noie rolls aside and escapes the worst of it.
「Tch! Guess I have to catch and beat you properly.」
The ogre stands up, still clenching her shattered fist.
Almost evenly matched.
Arg, watching the scene, somehow manages to rise and leans back against a tree for support.
He knows.
He knows Noie isn’t going all out.
His too-kind wife is holding back because she’s worried about the people around her.
「Ahaha… good. Really good. This is fun! It’s been so long since I’ve had this much fun!」
The ogre bares her fangs in a wide grin.
「Should I kill and eat you? Or maybe devour that husband of yours over there?」
「!」
「What’s wrong… is your husband more important than yourself?」
「Arg-sama… I will protect.」
「Is that so, is that so?」
Arg feels something off about the way the giantess nods with that creepy smile,
like she’s probing, searching for something while watching Noie.
「Then I’ll crush your arms and legs first… and then eat your husband headfirst.」
「I won’t let you.」
「Ahaha. Eating something that big would be tough… but I’ll still devour him. Though smaller ones are easier… babies are the tastiest.」
Noie flinches hard.
Those words hit her.
The ogre doesn’t miss it.
Seeing Noie’s reaction, Arg finally realizes what she’s doing.
「……Children?」
「That’s right. Don’t you know? The child disappearance cases… the culprit is…」
「Noie, don’t listen!!」
He knew it was already too late, but he had to shout anyway.
「The culprit is me. I love eating children headfirst… I’ve eaten them all.」
「Ate… them…?」
Noie sways unsteadily, then vanishes.
In a speed too fast for the eye to follow, she appears right in front of the ogre and drives her fist into the monster’s stomach with full power.
Her right fist, wrist, elbow, shoulder… bones shatter from the sheer impact, but she doesn’t care.
「Why?」
She swings her broken, useless right arm again and slams another fist forward.
「Why!!」
The punch crashes into the ogre’s face, shattering her cheekbone along with Noie’s own hand.
「Babies!!」
They’re warm, tiny presences.
Holding one makes her chest tighten with a soft, gentle heat.
Even someone like her, who knows so little, understands.
That existence is something 「to be protected」.
To eat them… she can never forgive that.
「Obviously. Because they’re 『food』.」
With a wicked grin, the ogre swings her clenched fist down toward Noie.
-0-
The worst possible development. Damn it!
Getting angry at my own stupidity won’t help.
I have to break this situation somehow.
Noie is completely caught in the enemy’s rhythm and has lost herself.
Aren’t ogres supposed to be brainless muscle-heads?
Yet this one so cunningly struck right at Noie’s most sensitive nerve.
What do I do? What can I do? Damn it!
Noie is just swinging her arms and legs wildly now.
She doesn’t understand anything anymore.
She only knows the opponent is “bad”. She hates her.
She ate children. They are beings that must be protected.
Above all, she hurt him. The one she promised to protect…
Noie pulls back, putting distance between them.
She grits her teeth hard and glares at the enemy.
Her head spins, her thoughts swirling chaotically.
They won’t stop. They keep spinning.
He didn’t call her.
The man who always calls her name the moment something happens… didn’t call her today, not even once until the very end.
Even while slaying dragons, she always picks up his “voice”.
She uses the spell for it.
Just hearing his voice makes her chest feel warm and cozy.
But today he never called her.
She couldn’t bear to hear his pained, suffering voice.
So she abandoned her work, abandoned dragon slaying, and flew here…yet he was crouched on the ground, clutching his broken left arm.
He didn’t call her, and she couldn’t protect him.
She broke her promise.
She’s a bad girl.
She knows. Bad girls always get disposed of.
The children who were here yesterday would become “bad kids” and disappear the next day… she’s seen it happen over and over.
She doesn’t want to be disposed of.
Everyone else is gone now… but more than anything, she doesn’t want to be separated from the one person she never wants to part from.
She doesn’t want to be separated.
That’s the one thing she absolutely hates.
「What’s wrong with you… are you crying? Scared, huh?! Univance’s monster!!」
Scared?
Is this what fear feels like?
Noie doesn’t understand.
But if this is what fear is, then she gets it.
She absolutely doesn’t want to be separated from him.
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