My mother's love song

The natural fighting instinct of this talented girl told her that it was a more disturbing existence than any agent, or even a real demon!

How is that possible? I must be too tired...

Bazette shook his head, attributing this feeling to the illusion of losing the battle just now.

The sound of metal hitting the ground echoed in the dark sewer, and the boy and the maid walked up to Bazette.

"Ah you are……"

The boy turned to look at Bazette.

The crimson short hair and crimson eyes, paired with her delicate and neat and neutral beauty, complement each other perfectly.

She wore gloves engraved with runes and had diamond earrings on her ears that looked very expensive.

She was wearing a dark purple suit that highlighted her slender and capable figure.

Although she is an impeccable beauty, her makeup and clothing are very masculine. If it weren't for her prominent breasts, it would be easy to misunderstand her gender.

The boy stared at Bazette with his dark pupils.

To be honest, I felt very uncomfortable being stared at by him like that, as if a snake was wrapped around my legs, crawling up my waist and all over my body.

There was clearly no obscene color in that gaze, but it made Bazette feel as if he was being stripped of his clothes piece by piece, until every inch of his skin was seen by him.

Just as Bazette was about to complain, the boy spoke up.

"Hey, this is really a headache. Onee-san, this is not a place for people from the Magic Association to come."

In this obviously abnormal atmosphere where one wrong step would lead to immediate death, the black-haired boy Rhode acted calmly as if he treated this place as his own backyard, and spoke to the red-haired and red-eyed girl beside him.

Then, the red-haired girl

The Magic Association's premier combat weapon, Basset Fraga Macremitz, stared at him with bated breath.

"You are from Einzbern..."

The maid Lijelite behind Rhode had silver hair, red eyes, and a doll-like beauty that surpassed that of a human being. It was like an identity card, and Bazett immediately realized who she was.

"I see. Was that you the one behind this? On the surface, you are a group that studies alchemy, but in reality, you are doing this kind of heretical demonic research behind the scenes.

To actually use one of their own people as a vessel to raise the 'devil', the noble Einzbern has also fallen."

Bazett said coldly with a sarcastic smile: "You are indeed worthy of being an artificial human. You have never had human morality and honor in your heads."

Although they were just artificial humans, just thinking about those cruel human experiments made her tremble with anger.

The child inside must be the same.

From the moment they were born, they were treated as props in magic experiments and toyed with at will. When their value was exhausted and they became waste, they were thrown on the roadside. When they made a noise, they were destroyed without hesitation.

“It’s not what you think.”

Lijelite behind Rhodes took a step forward, her eyes sharp as if she was going to argue with her. The boy raised his hand, and the busty maid immediately took a half step back and lowered her head obediently.

He smiled and said, "I see. You figured it out. Well, this is the area you are best at, so you should maximize its value.

But by the way, magician, you said something very interesting. "

"What?" Bazett asked, staring at Rhodes warily.

"The reason you're angry is not [conducting heretical research], but [conducting human experiments on artificial humans]."

"What's going on?"

"nothing."

Rhodes smiled and said, "It's just that your moral values ​​are very different.

After all, any normal magus would use androids as props.

To a magician, androids are either cannon fodder in battle, batteries for performing magic, or guinea pigs for experiments...

Meat puppets are made to be used as convenient props by magicians, and this is part of the system that runs the world."

Rhodes raised the corner of his mouth and looked at Bazette with a meaningful look.

"So, magician, what are you angry about?"

"..."

"Can't answer that?"

"..."

Bazette, who was hit in the heart, pursed his lips in silence.

The boy's words made her doubt her identity as a magician for the first time.

Two years ago, when Bazette was still an ordinary girl from a small Irish seaside town, she was so longing for the world on the other side of the sea.

The center of the magic world, the Clock Tower, is like a holy place in her eyes, where sages who hold the truth gather in secret.

That's why she ignored her parents' opposition, broke her family's centuries-old tradition, and entered the Clock Tower alone.

After that, every day was filled with setbacks and cold treatment.

Bazett had no doubt about his talent, so he gritted his teeth and persevered.

But in the end, the girl thought, am I really a magician?

Can I really cross the bottom line of humanity...

Maybe those people in the Clock Tower saw through my weakness and shallowness and treated me as a decoration to show off.

"I"

Bazette looked at the runes on the back of the gloves.

"I...of course I'm a magician."

The boy showed a very satisfied expression to the girl's vague answer.

"How is that possible? A magician would discard a homunculus without hesitation, right?"

"No, that kind of thing... there are magicians who don't want to do that kind of thing. It's normal." Bazette replied hesitantly.

"That doesn't make any sense. Your words have been completely illogical since just now."

Rhode sneered, "If you don't want to be a pure magician, then don't get involved in this mess.

Big sister, what are you afraid of?"

"!!!"

Bazette then realized that what she had just felt, "the boy had seen every inch of her," was not a metaphor.

This boy, who looked only 12 or 3 years old, saw through her true nature the first time he met her.

Bazette desires recognition from others more than anyone else because she is a descendant of the great Knights of the Red Branch.

The more others look down on her, the more she wants to prove herself.

Wanting to prove your strength to the world is nothing but lies to deceive yourself.

She was simply afraid of everything in the outside world.

For no apparent reason, Bazett had always been afraid of "losing" since he was very young.

It’s not that I’m afraid of losing something, but I’m afraid of the concept of “loss” itself.

Glory, life, power, for Bazette, these precious things she possessed could leave her at any time, and therefore it was very terrifying.

That's why I always try to be strong and why I want to be recognized more than anyone else.

"You... are right. Sometimes, I even feel miserable just living."

Bazette revealed the weakness that had been buried deep in his heart for a long time.

Rhodes' eyebrows twitched, revealing a slightly surprised expression.

She immediately regretted what she had said.

I spoke out of turn.

Why do I have to tell such a truth to the little kid I just met for the first time, in front of my enemy...

The feeling of humiliation made Bazett lower his head, not daring to look at Rhodes' reaction.

The boy said in silence.

"Big sister, you are living a really tangled life."

A very correct evaluation.

"You're right... I'm just a coward who looks strong on the outside but is weak on the inside. That's enough!"

Bazette shouted loudly, but his voice was trembling and he seemed very unconfident.

Sensing that Bazett meant to end the conversation, Lijelite stretched her neck and asked, "Lord Rhodes, how do you deal with this person?"

Bazette clenched his fists: Come to think of it, these two people just now wanted to silence me.

That's right, I have discovered the secret of Einzbern, there is no way they will let me go back alive.

Bazette healed his wounds while adjusting his breathing and preparing for battle.

Lijelite also clenched her weapons tightly. As long as Rhode gave the order, she would swing the giant halberd with strength comparable to that of a heroic spirit and smash the magician.

Rhode tilted his head, observing her face as if he was carefully tasting Bazett, and then burst into laughter.

"Lijelite, I changed my mind."

"……What's the meaning?"

"I like big sister very much."

Rhode pretended that Bazette didn't exist. He stroked his chin and said, "Don't kill her. I want to be friends with my elder sister."

"Aha?"

Bazette's mouth dropped open.

Be friends?

No... that should be a metaphor, right?

No matter how you think about it, it's like this.

Although I don’t know what he meant specifically, it’s very annoying.

"Illya will be angry."

The conversation between the boy and the maid was like discussing "whether to take the stray dog ​​home".

"It doesn't matter. I'm not going to take her back."

After saying that, Rhodes took a step and walked towards Bazett, a frivolous move that took away his defenses.

"...You've been fooling me since just now. I'm going to make you regret it!"

Bazett's humiliation and anger had already reached their limit. When he saw Rhodes walking towards him, there was no need for him to swallow his anger any longer.

The half-bent girl's body is like a fully drawn bow, elegant and sharp.

With the sound of air breaking, the girl turned into a purple shadow and flew out.

"Drink!!!"

Bazett is a magician who has specialized in combat to the extreme.

As a natural born mage, she relies on more than just the mysteries of the Age of Gods passed down through her bloodline.

Now, the girl's slender hands and feet have become weapons capable of crushing everything.

Her fists, legs, and knees are engraved with hardened runes, and her fighting skills are a precious legacy accumulated over thousands of years.

But to be able to improve her martial arts to such a level at the young age of 17, one can imagine how much blood and sweat she has shed in training.

The purple-red figure arrived as expected like lightning.

Seven steps away, the magic bullet is fast; within seven steps, the fist is fast.

Faced with a human weapon like Bazett, any magician would be knocked down before he even has time to react.

However, the glory that the girl was so proud of was shattered and scattered all over the ground in just a moment.