CH 45

T/N: This chapter and the next won’t be Shirou-centric. We’ll return to him on Chapter 47.

Also, I’m not the one dividing it into two parts. The original Web Novel split it into First Part (Ch 45) and Second Part (Ch 46). In fact, this is the only part of the novel where the title is split into First and Second Part.

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Once she had entered the back alleys off Longin Street, it didn’t take Cecily long to find what she was looking for. 

The building itself was old but recently renovated. Hanging from the brick wall was a wood and iron sign that read ‘Three Thrushes Pavilion’, confirming that she was at the right place.

Cecily cautiously looked at her surroundings, but the alley was dark and deserted. The door to the store was closed, and it didn’t seem to be open for business. The shutters were also dropped on the windows, but the light from inside the room was leaking through the cracks.

She quietly crept over to the window and peeked inside, finding that her four hated enemies were sitting at a round table in the middle of a card game with Janice at the head.

“Ooh, looks like I win again,” Janice happily showed her hand.

“Again!? Captain, your luck is really extraordinary today.”

Cecily’s nose wrinkled furiously as she watched Janice make her underlings call her captain. The sounds of the silver coins changes hands alone was making her angry.

“Roy, bring me another bottle of rum!”

Janice called out, and a young man in his late teens appeared from the back of the room.

That must be Janice’s lover.

The young man had a handsome face, but his eyes looked somewhat downcast.

“I’m sorry, Janice. The one I gave you before was the last.”

At Roy’s words, Janice’s voice suddenly turned cold and ruthless. “…are you trying to embarrass me in front of my crew?”

Janice’s sudden change of attitude made the young man turned completely pale. “I didn’t mean to. But you see, that was really the last bottle of rum… and at this time of night most of the liquor stores are closed…”

Janice made an exaggerated sigh.

“You’re really hopeless, Roy… You know it’s a man’s duty to do his best to please his lover, right? Do something about it.”

Under Janice’s cold stare, the young man flinched and made a hollow smile.

“I-I guess I’ll just bang on the door on a nearby liquor store. If I can’t get some rum there, I’ll just have to visit other stores…”

“That’s good. And be quick about it.”

Roy was relieved to see Janice’s expression soften as he headed out, though his smile was devoid of affection.

“Hey Captain, he might run away if you’re that harsh with him.” Futch said, her eyes following Roy out with a sidelong glance. Janice didn’t even take her eyes off the card.

“Let me tell you something, Futch. A man has to be disciplined first. You have to make sure that he knows in his mind and body what makes me happy, and how to make me feel good.”

For Janice, Roy was nothing more than a convenient tool.

“Izzat so?”

“Once you get a lover, you should try it too, Futch. If you educate him properly from the beginning, you will get him to do everything you wish until the end.”

“Everything I wish for?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Everything in both everyday life and in bed.”

The pirates were leaning in close to listen to Janice’s words.

“What kind of things, for example?”

“Let’s see… how do you girls clean up after things are over? Usually by wiping it with sheets or towels, right? Well in my case it’s a little different, I use Roy.”

“And by using him, you mean…”

“I made him clean me up with his mouth.”

“No way! You really made him do that!?”

Janis had the face of a beauty, but her expression was twisted with vulgar, sadistic glee.

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Cecily left the window without listening to the rest of the pirates’ conversation and proceed to check the rest of the house.

There seemed to be no one else in the two-story building; if she were to break in and start a fight, there was a good chance that she would win. However, Janice was a cautious woman, and there were plenty of places where she could have set a trap.

Might be safer to launch a surprise attack with an extremely large explosion magic, but a large concentration of magical power would be easily detected by them; it wouldn’t be a good idea to have her presence known before she could launch an attack.

I think it’s better to use ‘that’…

Cecily went up to the roof and took out the artifact, a purple jewel attached to a silver pedestal, a souvenir from a trade ship she’d raided long ago.

It was a dangerous magical tool found in a dungeon possessing gravity magic, a lost ancient magic. Once the artifact was activated, it would crush everything within an eight-meter radius. Legend had it that not even a dragon could be able to resist its crushing effect, and since the effect would be activated a mere three seconds after inserting magic power into it, less chance for the enemy to become aware of it.

Cecily put the orb directly above where she thought the pirates would be, and infused her magic to start activating it. Contrary to her expectation, Cecily didn’t feel like she has final spiteful words towards the soon to be dying Janice, just a cold emptiness.

Remembering Janice’s conversation earlier, she didn’t think her enemy was living a happy live. After all, to live with but not have feelings for your lover, that couldn’t be called happiness. She didn’t know why, but she thought that Janice and the others, who lived their lives moving from one cheap moment to the next… it was like refusing to find real happiness.

“…”

Cecily finished activating the artifact in silence.

As Cecily leapt to the roof of the adjacent house, she turned and saw a powerful radiance expand around the orb and force the building into the ground, crushing downward in a cylindrical form through the center of the house.

A roar echoed throughout the city streets, and a massive cloud blossomed from the rubble.

The neighbors rushed out to see what had happened, but were blinded by the dense cloud of dust.

As time passed and visibility cleared, Cecily looked down at the collapsed site from the roof; the room that Janice and the others had been in was crushed to smithereens at the bottom of the sinkhole, any semblance of its original shape completely destroyed. Moreover, it seems that there had been oil lamps inside the room, as brilliant red flames were spreading through the debris.

Cecily turned her back on the scene below, satisfied.

She didn’t want to dwell on her past any longer, and her desire to start her new life as soon as possible grew stronger by the second.

With this, her revenge was done. Cecily the pirate had died at the hands of her treasonous crew, and Cecily the Avenger had died in the room with Janice and the others, crushed by a mysterious act of God.

The morning sun would rise on the face of Cecily the Adventurer.

She would become the adventurer who would explore the dungeon on Monte Chris Island. It might not be an easy life, but at least it wasn’t a criminal life; it would be her chance to make a name for herself, to save money, and to raise a proper family.

Unbidden, a certain man’s face came to mind.

That alone made Cecily feel as if she couldn’t wait for the dawn to break.