Volume 0 Chapter 2: Chance Encounter on the Bloodstained Beach
Translator: The Light
Edits by Yukan
In her past life, Bella was a person who couldn’t keep any secrets. As she thought about her worries, she decided to confide in Angel about them. After all, she was the first friend that Bella had made in this new world.
“Sister, don’t worry about it, you’re nowhere near as scary as she is and I don’t consider you an enemy”
“She?”
“The little Sister that hangs around the St. Emilia Church; she’s the other existence that I sensed when I arrived here. The aura around her is too evil, I’m scared to approach her. ”
Bella didn’t think that there were any other existences that she had not known about living in this wasteland. Apparently, when Angel had arrived on this continent and was scared of bothering Bella, she had wandered around the rest of the continent.
She had discovered a grand church behind a forest, along with another girl. Angel was frightened by the dark aura that the girl exuded and ran off before finding out the difference in power between them.
Bella had originally wanted to go see what the adventurers were doing on the beach, but changed her plans after hearing Angel’s words. Bella decided to pay a visit to this other girl, who was probably another final boss like her; it probably wouldn’t hurt to have good relations with those on the same team.
Bella and Angel looked around Bella’s castle for something to bring as a greeting gift. After all, she shouldn’t greet a fellow final boss empty-handed.
After they scoured the castle for a while, they discovered nothing of value. Bella silently cursed Frederic XIX for not keeping all the wealth he had extorted from his people within his castle, causing her to be unable to procure anything for a gift.
Without any choice, Bella and Angel could only leave empty-handed, and hope that they could find something that was presentable as a gift on the way to the grand church. Of course, they didn’t find anything but the many bones that littered the continent.
Finally, the two of them uneasily arrived at St. Emilia Church empty-handed. The church was much larger than the one Bella had taken Angel to for their discussion yesterday. Although it was also in a rather poor condition due to millennia of not being used, one could still see the remnants of the former glory that the building had once held.
From afar they could see a little loli sitting on the stone bench outside of the church, seemingly reading from a rather large and dusty book.
Another loli? Is this the land of abundant lolis?
Bella held onto Angel’s hand that was shaking slightly from nervousness and walked towards the loli.
This loli was just a bit taller than Angel, which was probably why Angel had called her Sister. She wore what looked to be a shrine maiden outfit, except that the colour of the attire was completely black. Her silvery white hair hung to her shoulders and she was currently clutching the thick book with her petite hands.
When they got closer, Bella could physically feel the pressure that the loli was giving off. She couldn’t describe what it was, but she felt like it was slightly harder to breathe, as if there was something weighing down on her. As they were not able to find any gifts, they had no idea how to initiate conversation with the mysterious loli.
Lydia Mia secretly observed the two existences that had shown up; she had noticed them as soon as they had entered the vicinity of the church. She had been scared of them coming to look for trouble as both of them were at least on par with her own power so there was no way she could beat them 1 on 2.
If it came to that, she would have to flee. To feign confidence, she remained there reading her book; she kept flipping through the pages in order to not give away the fact that her hands were shaking.
“Sister? you’ve been looking at the same pages for quite a while now!” Angel asked innocently, finally breaking the tense atmosphere. Bella and Mia both quietly let out a breath that they had been holding.
“Come inside and sit for a while, the atmosphere outside isn’t suitable for discussion.” Mia left her book on the bench then turned around to walk into the church.
Bella discovered that as soon as the loli had started speaking, the pressure had immediately disappeared. Was it just an illusion? This loli’s beauty wasn’t any less than Angel’s, Angel gave off a cute and naive feeling while this loli gave off a calm and steady one. Bella concluded that two of them probably had a big difference in personality.
What caught Bella’s attention the most was that apart from the pretty left eye that had a pink iris, the loli’s right eye was covered by a black eyepatch decorated with a beautiful white flower that looked like a lily from Bella’s previous world. The loli’s actions didn’t seem like she was sick with a case of Eighth Grade syndrome so why was she wearing an eyepatch? Bella wondered as she followed her into the church.
The layout of this church wasn’t any different from the one near the cemetery, the location where the statue of god would have been had also been destroyed.
Bella wondered what unfortunate god had been worshipped in this church. The three of them found a bench to sit down together. As Angel was scared of the newcomer, she sat on Bella’s left while the loli sat on Bella’s right. If anyone had walked in on them without knowing the situation, it would have looked to them as if an older sister had brought her two younger sisters to church for service.
“Mia, you can create supernatural items?”
“Yes Sister, It’s my specialty.”
“Wait...why are you calling me Sister too?”
“Angel can call you Sister, can’t I?”
Bella looked at Mia in surprise, she had thought that this loli wasn’t good at holding conversation, but when she opened her mouth the words did not stop pouring out; Bella was sure that if they had given the loli a cup of water to quench her thirst, she would have been able to make Bella and Angel question humanity.
Through their discussions, Bella learned about the loli. Her name was Lydia Mia, unknown identity, came to this continent six thousand years ago along with Angel and Bella. She had accumulated an intensely evil aura as she spent her time researching different types of evil rituals and magic, the nearby monsters had thought her an evil god and avoided her. Apart from the time where Angel wandered around the church for a while five thousand years ago, no one had paid her a visit since.
After the three of them was more familiar with each other, Bella started to plan for the future.
From what they knew so far, the three of them were almost definitely villainous final bosses; if they were to stay here in this wasteland they would eventually have to face against heroes who would surely come to challenge them after people got hold of their identities.
Most importantly, Bella had no clue on how to use her own abilities. Something had probably messed up during the reincarnation that caused her to not retain the memory of the previous owner of Bella’s body.
Fortunately for her, Mia agreed to teach Bella the evil magic that she had been researching.
“Is there no source of clean water nearby?” Bella looked speechless at the vile-smelling stagnant river near the church. How had the three bosses spent the last six thousand years without water or food?
It was nothing short of a miracle that the three of them were still alive.
“Why don’t we go down to the sea? There’s water there,” Mia said as she began packing what little material possessions she had, just a few thick and dusty tomes much like the one she was reading on the bench outside.
It would have taken the three of them a long time in order to get to the seashore, but it was sped up significantly by Angel who had called down the flying skeleton of a giant eagle. When they got closer to the beach their noses were attacked by the thick scent of blood.
The scent was so strong that it almost caused Bella to faint; she had never experienced such a thick smell of blood in her previous life. Angel and Mia, however, had a calm face, as if they were no stranger to the scent.
The silhouettes of a few giant wooden warships could be seen along the shore and blood ran like rivers around them, dying the seas red. When she looked at all the bodies on the ships, Bella almost threw up as the sight was too vile and shocking; none of the bodies were left in one piece, with severed limbs and organs scattered on the deck, clearly the work of monsters.
On the biggest warship, there were still a few dozen humans grouped together, resisting feebly against the tide of monsters around them, most likely the stronger individuals. It seemed like the monsters would break through and kill the rest at any moment.
Bella remembered that she had only spoken with Mia at the church for a little over an hour, but now the battle was already almost over. She was about to leave the remaining humans for the dead but hesitated when she saw who they were protecting at their center.
It was a female knight with golden hair on one knee propping herself up with her sword stained with the blood of many different colours, evidently that of monsters. The female knight wore full silver armour etched with intricate designs, likely the work of a skilled artisan. It seemed that her social standing was rather high.
The knight’s eyes were tightly closed, with a trickle of blood coming out of her mouth, She was evidently wounded. In front of her lay the corpse of a giant scorpion type monster, which looked like it had been dead for a while.
“That sister is a holy knight. It’s my first time seeing such a young one.”
“She’s not half bad, a holy knight that’s able to kill a Scorpion King has quite a bright future, even though this Scorpion King is only a juvenile. Too bad she’s already been afflicted with the monster’s poison, she most likely won’t survive till night.”
Bella looked a little speechless at Angel and Mia, the two lolis had the appearance of little girls, yet were discussing the age of others.
“Is there any way to save her?” Bella couldn’t bear to see a beautiful girl die in front of her to monsters. In her past life, Bella’s favourite class in video games was Knight; she felt obliged to save this dame before the monsters broke through the dame’s subordinates and reached her.
“There is, but I think that you should try disguising yourself a bit. Heterochromia has been an evil sign since ancient times, aren’t you scared of frightening her?”
Mia shifted the positioning of her eyepatch slightly while saying this; it was very likely that she also had heterochromia.
With Mia’s help, Bella found a large grey cloak that had a hood to cover her face. While it was rather old and weathered, Bella decided that it would do the trick for now and that she should probably go shopping for clothes someday.
As soon as Bella stepped on deck, the monsters that had been surrounding the humans immediately scattered, prostrating themselves on the ground while shaking; they were evidently scared of Bella and the two lolis. Bella waved her hand like that time at the fortress and the monsters all cleared the vicinity in a matter of seconds. The humans on deck were basically all dead, the only one remaining was the female knight who was still kneeling over there.
When they walked closer, the female knight finally lost her grip on her sword and fell to the ground. Bella stopped trying to avoid suspicion and hurried to prop her up, but when she got closer she realized that the female knight had already breathed her last breath.
“She’s dead? Why did this happen?” Bella was glum as they were unable to save her.
“She was long dead, she was just worried about her subordinates and clung on with sheer willpower. They all finished dying just now so the willpower that supported her died with them.” Angel said a little regretfully as she looked around.
“Is there anyway to save her? I thought you said that you could!” Bella asked Mia a little angrily, Mia’s confidence earlier did not seem like a lie.
“None of our abilities are suitable for saving people’s lives. However sister, weren’t you going to take us off this continent? We can use her body!”
“Isn’t she dead? What can we do with the body? I won’t agree if you want to turn her into a zombie knight.” Bella was a little nervous that the two lolis might cause some big problems, knowing the perverse hobbies that the two had.
“Sister, I’m not that bad! What I meant is that you can keep on living in her stead, I have a special spell that can let you hide inside this sister’s body, living her life for her inside her body.”
“That wouldn’t be morally correct.... How can I take her body and live her life for her?” Bella was a little guilty, this spell sounded like how she had reincarnated in this world.
“Sister, even if you don’t do this, her body will be zombified by the environment here. Why not do what Mia suggested? Knight Sister probably wouldn’t blame you. Just think of it as finishing her journey through life in her stead.”
When even Angel decided to backup Mia trying to convince Bella, she gave in to the pressure and agreed. She had been actually secretly eager to test out this spell that resembled another reincarnation.
“Alright, but Mia are you sure you can do it?”
“Yes, originally I wouldn’t have been able to pull off a spell that would defy the heavens like this, but if the three of us join our powers together there should be no problem.”