Chapter Five: Esdeath

No, that's not quite accurate. It should be: Can you bear to let a perfect work of art have flaws?

Lilith couldn't.

However, considering that figuring out whether she was a vampire was the most important thing, Lilith gritted her teeth, closed her eyes, and twisted her arm.

Hiss...

A bruise immediately appeared on Lilith's arm, causing her to feel a pang of heartache.

But before she could even rub it with her hand, the bruise vanished in the blink of an eye.

It truly vanished in the blink of an eye.

Feeling the slight pain that still lingered on her arm, Lilith fell silent.

With this kind of recovery, she wouldn't believe she wasn't a vampire even if she said so herself.

Lilith put the knife back. There was no need for further experimentation.

Then, Lilith didn't know what to do next. She just stood there blankly.

She felt as if her mind was wandering.

It was the smell of blood that finally brought Lilith back to her senses.

She lifted the tent flap to find Esdeath.

After all, Esdeath was still there processing the prey, and it wouldn't do for her to be staying in the warm tent. Her conscience wouldn't allow her to just sit in the tent.

Then... not long after Lilith left the tent, she returned with an embarrassed expression.

Lilith covered her face with both hands, feeling her face was extremely hot.

It was too embarrassing.

She felt utterly useless.

She had wanted to help, but she found she didn't know how to process the prey's corpse at all. She was even just causing trouble by handing over props.

After handing over the wrong prop twice in a row, Lilith returned to the tent very consciously. She sat quietly in the tent, which was the best help she could offer Esdeath.

Sitting in the tent, Lilith couldn't sit still.

To her, everything around her was unfamiliar and novel, making her want to understand it.

But considering she was in someone else's home, Lilith decided to just sit properly.

She could only use her eyes to survey the tent's furnishings, while her thoughts drifted off somewhere else.

Once she quieted down, she increasingly felt that the name Esdeath sounded familiar.

But she couldn't recall where she had heard it. She always felt a sense of disconnection, as if she heard the name often, yet it felt very distant.

This was truly contradictory.

Speaking of which, had Esdeath always lived here?

When Lilith arrived at this tribe, she only saw Esdeath, the only living person, from beginning to end. Where had everyone else gone?

She didn't know how long Esdeath had been living alone. She must have been very lonely.

Time passed as Lilith lost herself in thought.

Lilith only snapped back to reality when she heard the sound of the tent flap being lifted.

Esdeath lifted the tent flap, added some water to the iron pot hanging over the fire in front of the bed, then brought in a pile of firewood, and finally sat beside Lilith with the wooden basin containing the processed raw meat.

Lilith shifted a little further away. It wasn't that she disliked Esdeath; it was just a subconscious action.

Esdeath seemed not to notice, lowering her head and tending to the fire.

"Hey, what's the outside world like?"

In the tent, apart from the crackling sound of the burning fire, it was very quiet.

This silence made Lilith very uncomfortable. She wanted to find a topic of conversation, but she didn't know what to say.

After all, she knew almost nothing about this world.

But she hadn't expected Esdeath to actually ask her about this world.

"...I... I don't know."

Lilith spoke the truth.

"My father told me that the world outside the snowfields is vast, with the world's most powerful empire, and also foreign races that the First Emperor drove out of the empire a thousand years ago. There are also high mountains, vast seas, and even Dangerous Species living in these places."

Hearing Lilith's answer, Esdeath didn't show any surprise. Or rather, she didn't expect Lilith to be able to answer her question. She simply hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time and wanted someone to chat with.

But with just this short sentence, it was as if a flash of lightning struck Lilith's mind, and she finally understood that sense of disconnection.

So that was the sense of disconnection between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional worlds!

Lilith looked at Esdeath with astonished eyes. She never imagined that Esdeath was that Esdeath.

No!

Lilith took a closer look at Esdeath and realized that the current Esdeath was very different from the one in her memory.

This was also why she couldn't recognize her immediately.

At this time, Esdeath had not yet left the Icefield, nor had she joined the army. She might not even know what an Imperial Arms was.

Her strength should be at the weakest stage of Esdeath's life. The current Esdeath was not yet the invincible Great General.

Esdeath's face at this moment was slightly immature. Although it was cold, compared to when she became the Great General, she didn't show many expressions, but she seemed more human than when she was baptized by blood and enjoyed it.

At least, that's what Lilith thought.

"Is there something on my face? Why are you looking at me like that?"

Esdeath felt uncomfortable under Lilith's direct gaze.

Having hunted in the snowfields for years, she was very sensitive to gazes. She had sensed Lilith looking at her, but she hadn't expected Lilith to stare for so long.

"···It's nothing."

Lilith's heart beat uncontrollably faster. She never expected to encounter the "killing star" Esdeath.

Or rather, she should be fortunate that she met Esdeath before she joined the army, when her killing intent wasn't as strong.

Wait, although Esdeath enjoyed killing, she didn't seem to slaughter civilians?

Lilith breathed a sigh of relief.

If that was the case, then she was safe.

She was just an ordinary, harmless young girl. Esdeath probably wouldn't kill her for no reason... right?

Lilith suddenly felt uncertain.

Lilith turned her head away guiltily. After knowing Esdeath's true identity, she no longer dared to look at her so openly.

She had a feeling that if she looked at Esdeath for a second too long, Esdeath would stab her with her sword.

"I feel like the way you're looking at me is very uncomfortable."

"Ahaha... that's your imagination, just your imagination."

Lilith once again estimated her combat prowess against Esdeath.

And then... she realized that even with the Vampire's immortality, she still couldn't win.

Perhaps the only difference was that Esdeath would become even more excited upon discovering her immortality.

Yes, more excited to chop.