Gambit Of The Living Weapon

A blond woman who seemed to be in her mid-thirties was taking a small break from her work while drinking a cup of coffee and sitting on the sofa inside Evlin"s apartment.

She released a small sigh while staring into nothing and began to talk to herself.

"... I hate this world..."

Her attire was mostly casual composed of a s.h.i.+rt and long shorts with a face mask around her chin to stop the dust from entering her mouth and her entire hair tied up so it wouldn"t fall on her eyes with a broom by her side.

Her name was Detra Castes. She was Evlin"s personal housemaid and her entire morning could be resumed in using all her energy in order to make the whole place look absolutely spotless.

"... I hate this house..."

Her daily routine consisted of constantly cleaning up Evlin"s house as part of their agreement. Evlin would help her by giving a place to live and Detra would return the favor by aiding Evlin"s mother on anything that she might need. But since Detra wasn"t fully knowledgeable of the way things worked, the most aid she could provide was with simple tasks like was.h.i.+ng the dishes, taking out the trash, cleaning the bathrooms, dusting off the rooms, so on and so forth.

Evlin tried to encourage her on taking private lessons to learn new things that she could help with, maybe even finding a job, but the maid declared it would be "beneath" her to do so.

"... I hate my life..."

Not too long ago she had bid farewell to Evlin while she would go to babysit her niece, leaving Detra to take care of the house. She was now awaiting for Evlin"s mother to return home to welcome her, as was instructed by Evlin herself. She wanted to make sure someone was always on the house so her mother wouldn"t feel lonely.

"... I hate that girl and her stupid family..."

The few moments Detra had after having her work finished and before having to keep company to her boss"s mother were the only minutes of peace she had for herself, so she was taking this time to enjoy her momentary calm before having to return to work once again.

"... Maybe I just hate everything..."

While enjoying her coffee, she was taking the chance to gaze upon the house she had just finished cleaning up. Even if she hated her job, being able to see her work giving results was still enough to fill her with pride and satisfaction. A small victory among what she considered a long list of defeats.

"... Sigh... But I guess it could be worse..."

As she said that, she heard someone knocking at the door outside, and before she could get up to answer it the entire door went flying across the living room and completely undid Detra"s entire morning of work as it proceeded to trash the entire place.

Detra wanted to scream and pull her hair out but instead simply held her face with both hands and sighed.

"... ... ... Sure... Why not..."

Surprisingly, Detra didn"t react with anger or frustration. She basically a.s.sumed that the universe already hated her by this point and that this was just another way it picked to remind her of that fact.

"So this is where you were all this time..."

"...?"

Detra turned her head once she heard someone"s voice coming from outside. The culprit behind this small demonstration of destruction was a little girl with twin ponytails and weird colored eyes.

Detra glared at the girl.

"Do you have any idea how long it took me to put this place in order?"

"... Huh... What...?"

The girl was acting as if she did not expect that kind of reaction from the blond woman. Detra took another look at the girl and realized that she recognized her.

"Oh... It"s you... What do you want...?"

"... Is... Is that really the first thing you say after seeing me? Aren"t you curious about how I got here?"

"My mind right now can only think about how long it"s going to take me to clean this whole mess again... What do you want? This is supposed to be my "me" time..."

"... Riiight... Anyway... I"m going to visit stick-girl in a bit but I was curious about you and wanted to check how you were doing, East."

"How I am doing? I feel like all of my life"s work has amounted to a huge waste of time and that now I need to live with a shadow of what I used to be for the rest of my days... Happy?"

"... Man... You"re kind of a downer... Gonna take a guess and say you don"t get invited to parties often."

Detra took another drink from her coffee which now had a bit of debris in it and took a deep breath while trying to remain composed.

"What do you want Mia? Did the universe decided to send another annoying girl to bother me?"

"Actually its the opposite!"

Detra raised an eyebrow but kept skeptical about this situation. She gave up a.s.suming good things could happen to her a long time ago.

"I"m here to give you your power back!"

"Eh...?"

"You heard me! I"m bringing magic to this world! That means you will be able to get your blessed energy back as well! Neat huh?"

"And you would do that because...?"

"Because I have a really big heart!"

Mia answered while making a heart shape with her hands.

"..."

But Detra didn"t seem convinced.

"And... Because I have a small favor that I want to ask in return."

"No thanks... I"ll pa.s.s..."

"Eh!!??"

Mia was in disbelief with that remark. The woman once known as the G.o.ddess of the east just rejected her chance to become a divine being again.

"Wh Why?? Don"t you want your power back??"

"My power comes from prayers... In this world where n.o.body knows me, I would be just as useless as the south G.o.d when his kingdom was overrun by demons and everyone stopped praying to him, if not more... All it would do is give me my immortality back and that would mean being stuck in this dumb world forever."

"But, but... What if you return to your old world?"

"Wouldn"t matter... Because of the contract I made with that girl with stupid hair I can no longer interact with the humans of that world... I would have no power from people once again and West would use this chance to kill me..."

"What about getting a new champion to fight for you?"

"As long as Marcus is alive I can"t make a new champion, and he will never fight for me again after our last meeting..."

"Then... Then..."

Mia was starting to run out of offers to give. She did not expect the blond woman to just give so many dumb reasons to not be a G.o.ddess again.

"The stick-girl!! Don"t you want revenge? You can use your power to kill her!!"

"Again... I would barely have enough power to even touch her right now... Besides... If she dies I have no one to help me survive in here..."

"... Are... Are you serious right now...? Are you ok with just living like this for the rest of your life? Heck, why not just go ahead and kill yourself by this point...?"

Detra started to ma.s.sage her head with one hand as if trying to find the strength to just get over with this conversation.

"Because that"s what the people who hate me want... And I refuse to give that to them..."

"..."

"I lost everything, but I refuse to go out with no dignity... I will live my whole life until the end and die when I feel I have done enough... I refuse to give the satisfaction of giving up after all this."

"... And you have no complaints...?"

"I get free food, a bed to sleep, and a roof above my head. All for the price of cleaning this place every now and then. I can make it until the end."

"I see..."

"..."

"I guess bribe is not going to work after all..."

"...? Bribe...?"

"Then... Time to resort to threats..."

"What are you-"

Mia pounced on Detra and started to choke her with one hand while pressing her against the wall. The woman was gasping for air while the little girl glared at her with a cold expression. Her dual-colored eyes felt like they were staring into Detra"s soul.

"What are you doing??"

"I want the location of the other six!"

"What??"

"The other six demon leaders! I know they are hiding in this world. North told me that your champion from a millennia ago locked them in here so they would be powerless in a world without magic. Where. Are. They??"

Detra tried to speak but Mia was closing the grip on her neck too tightly and making her unable to breathe. At this moment, Mia heard a voice on her mind.

[I think this will be enough... We don"t want to kill her without getting the information. ]

Mia agreed with the comment and released Detra who was now s.h.i.+vering on the floor with pain while trying to breathe again.

"Arf... Arf... Are you crazy???"

"Yes!!! Did me knocking out the door not make that clear?? Now give me the location!!"

"Why would you want that? The leaders have no power in here..."

"I told you, old lady... I"m bringing magic to this world as well... Soon they will recover their energy and will be just as powerful as the idiot that was killed by stick-girl."

"... Again... Why would you want that? If that pack of psychopaths gets their power back they will eat you alive!"

"Not if I eat them first..."

"... What...?"

"Do you know about the blessing that I received from North?"

"Your blessing...? You mean that weird mouth in your hand that eats energy? What did you call it? Spell breaker?"

"Yeap, that one! I"ll use it to absorb all six demons and get their energy for myself. Just like I did with my dryad friend."

"You absorbed a dryad...? You really are crazy..."

"You bet I am!! Now, the location!! Give me!!"

"I am not going to help you bring demons back to their glory stupid girl... I hate demons... Well... I kinda hate everything right now... But still... Demons are pretty high on my list... Besides... I know you also have a curse. I saw you during the war. I would nev-"

"Detra?"

"!!!" x 2

Mia and Detra were so engaged in their conversation that they didn"t notice when an old woman entered the house and began to stare at the two with confused eyes. She had long black hair and was carrying a teacher"s bag on her left arm while dressed in a dark blue suit.

"Detra what happened to the house?? Who"s this girl?? What"s going on??"

Detra began to lose color. If something bad happened to that woman Evlin would rip her head off.

"Madan... You better leave right now..."

Detra tried to warn the lady but she then realized that it was too late. Mia had already locked target on her and began to smile uncontrollably.

She turned around and started to approach the lady.

"Well, well, well... You must be stick-girl"s momma... Stick-momma!!"

"... Wh What...?"

Detra began to shake in fear.

"Mia... What are you planning to do...?"

Mia turned around and looked at Detra to answer her.

"I"m taking a souvenir with me!"