Lilith

"..."

Maiden didn't know how to answer.

The first time she heard the person before her speak, she had naturally understood the unfamiliar language. By the second time she heard the woman calling herself Esdeath speak, she had already learned it.

This wasn't scientific!!!

She suppressed the urge to complain.

Seeing Esdeath still waiting for her answer, Maiden opened her mouth. Instinctively, she wanted to give her name from her previous life—or rather, from before she had transmigrated—but when the words reached her lips, they became...

"Lilith."

Maiden—no, Lilith—lowered her head and looked at her slender fingers, which had become somewhat translucent beneath the sunlight.

No matter what, she had already become this way. It was time to make a clean break with the past.

Lilith raised her head and looked at Esdeath. "My name is Lilith," she said.

Esdeath looked into Lilith's ruby-like eyes and praised, "What a lovely name."

After saying that, Esdeath shifted her gaze away.

This was bad. This girl possessed some kind of magical power that constantly drew Esdeath's eyes toward her.

And her voice sounds lovely too.

Esdeath had originally looked away, but the moment she heard Lilith's voice, her gaze snapped right back.

"Ahem. So, Lilith, how did you end up here? Where are your guards?"

Esdeath had taken Lilith for a noble young lady.

Lilith: "???"

Lilith tilted her head in confusion.

Fortunately, Esdeath had shifted her gaze and didn't see Lilith's adorable expression. Otherwise, who knew what reaction she might have had.

"I... don't have any guards. And I don't know what sort of person you took me for, but you've misunderstood. I'm just an ordinary person."

An ordinary person...

Upon hearing those three words, Esdeath dearly wanted to ask exactly how the girl before her had reached the conclusion that she was merely an ordinary person.

"No guards? Then how did you get here? You should know that the nearest human village is quite far from here."

"..."

Lilith fell silent at Esdeath's words.

If she said she didn't know how she had gotten here either, would Esdeath believe her?

Lilith certainly wouldn't.

Seeing Lilith fall silent, Esdeath didn't press the matter further. After all, everyone had their own secrets.

Even so, the heart Esdeath had frozen away when her father and tribespeople died began to beat once more.

It wasn't because of Lilith's unusual charm, but because the person before her was far too mysterious. Esdeath couldn't help wanting to tear away the veil of mystery surrounding Lilith and learn all of her secrets.

Besides, Esdeath wasn't the sort of person who let her emotions influence her.

If one day she truly was affected by her feelings, and that factor stood against her, she would only kill the factor affecting her emotions and make herself even stronger!

"My home is nearby. Would you like to come over for a while?"

Thus, Esdeath invited Lilith.

Lilith didn't refuse. She had no reason to.

This was the perfect opportunity to leave this snowfield.

Then, Lilith followed Esdeath toward Esdeath's home.

Walking behind Esdeath, Lilith looked at the unknown creature Esdeath carried in one hand, a full size larger than herself, and guessed that Esdeath must be incredibly strong as well.

And before Esdeath spoke, Lilith hadn't even noticed Esdeath approaching her.

Lilith reflected on herself. She had been far too lacking in vigilance.

She was in an unknown world, yet someone had managed to come up behind her without her noticing—and that person had even been carrying an obviously heavy corpse. If it had been some other bloodthirsty person, she would have been in danger.

Though walking through the snowfield for so long without seeing any living creature had contributed to lowering her guard, that couldn't serve as an excuse.

If she escaped this time by making excuses, then the next time she encountered something similar, there was no guarantee she would have a chance to survive.

But putting that aside, who exactly was the person before her?

Her thin clothing, the strength to drag such a massive corpse, and the agility to approach Lilith without being noticed...

This person's strength far surpassed her own!

If the person in front of her attacked, Lilith would have a hard time defending herself. Or rather, she might not even know from where the attack would come.

After all, one shouldn't overestimate the fighting ability of an ordinary human who had barely ever fought.

Well, elementary school kids' clumsy scuffles didn't count.

Also, Lilith felt that the name Esdeath sounded very familiar, and Esdeath herself seemed like someone Lilith had seen somewhere before.

But she had never met Esdeath before. What was going on?

Lilith couldn't figure it out.

Esdeath, walking ahead, had no idea Lilith was evaluating their respective combat abilities. If she knew, she would surely scoff.

Because in Esdeath's eyes, Lilith was full of openings.

Esdeath only needed one strike to knock Lilith down.

The reason she would knock her down rather than kill her was that Lilith's ability to stand on the snowfield wearing almost no cold-weather clothing, combined with the veil of mystery surrounding her, made Esdeath unsure of just how strong Lilith's constitution truly was.

Led by Esdeath, Lilith arrived at the place where Esdeath lived.

It seemed to be a tribe. There were quite a few tents in it, constructed from animal hides and the bones of unknown giant beasts.

However, these tents appeared to have been uninhabited for a long time, and quite a few were damaged. It was impossible to tell what had happened here.

Lilith followed Esdeath onward until they stopped before a tent.

It seemed this was where Esdeath lived.

Lilith looked around.

She found that this tent stood at the center of the tribe and was much larger than the surrounding tents. It was likely where this tribe's chieftain had lived.

"Find somewhere to sit."

With that, Esdeath lifted the tent flap and walked outside. She was going to deal with the prey she had hunted this time.

After Esdeath left, Lilith's attention was drawn to the beast skulls that nearly filled the tent.

Calling them beasts wasn't quite accurate, since she had never seen some of the skulls before. One enormous skull was even a meter long. It was difficult to imagine how large that creature had been while alive, or how Esdeath had managed to kill it.

Aside from a bed covered in animal hides and those skulls, there weren't many decorations inside the tent.

In the end, Lilith didn't sit down. The skulls made her feel somewhat uncomfortable, so she lifted the tent flap and went outside as well.