Paradigm Parasite

comfortable stare intensified.

 

　”Next, this…”

 

　Lillinette snaps her fingers.

　What…oh, this.

　I can't breathe.
Magic…it's made the air thinner around my face only.

 

Clever girl.
Doesn't work on me, though.

　Is she really the daughter of a nobleman?

I've always wondered how this girl came to be an assassin…

 

No, before that, is this actually her?

Is she some kind of demon?

　Well…whatever.
Let's just kill her and see what she remembers, shall we?

 

“Poison and suffocation nullified.
Regenerates traumatic injuries.
I love it…
you're the best.”

 

Her eyes started to water.
She seemed to be in a trance.

　Then I remembered.
No, I noticed…?

Her eyes are like that.
It's the same eyes I used to have.

 

　The eyes of a cunning, greedy man who wants what he wants and wants what others want.

Looking at the world with a sneer.
Wanting what they don't have.

But it's the eyes of a shit who makes excuses for not having the strength to just look up at the world.

 

　I even feel mildly nauseous when I realize it.

　Yeah, the feelings towards myself are especially strong.
I feel bad.

But more than that, why is she looking at me like that?

 

“I don't know how to kill you at the moment, so I'll call it a day.”

 

I'm not going to let her get away with it, are you kidding me? I stop thinking and rush into the room.

　Lilynette hits the ground with something that looks like a ball…or a flashbang…or something like that.

　The light pops off, but I've already seen it.
I protect my face with my hand and let it pass.

 

　I can't see what's ahead, but I know what I have to do.

Cut off all means to escape.
Most likely, she's going to escape through the corridor window, right?

　But unlike my expectations, Lilynette's behavior is the opposite of what I expected, and she's approaching me.

 

　Is she bluffing to escape?

　She jumped on me, ducking under my arm.

　She clung to my waist with her legs, and her face came at close range.
It was close enough for me to kiss her.

 

“That caught you! Gotta have it!”

 

　What the…?

　Before I had time to think, Lilynette's eyes lit up and something entered me.

 

　Lilynette Kristina Eldo Akosarn was originally a shy and socially awkward girl, but she was kind-hearted and considerate of others.

　Her father, Hoffer, loved her deeply, and his wife, Nisa, loved her as well.

　Three years ago, a change came over her.

 

　It was a while after she turned 13.

　One of the butlers was the first to notice it.

　She began to laugh with a strange expression on her face.
When he saw it, he told Nisa that he thought she was a different person.
At the time, she didn't take it up with him, saying, “That's ridiculous.”

 

　A few days later, he died.

He was on his way home from shopping when he was attacked by a street robber.

Since it was an incident right after she heard about it, Nisa was curious about it and decided to look into it.

 

　The more she looked into it, the stranger her daughter's behavior became.

　She was going out quietly at night with a guard, repeatedly going in and out of the office without Hoffer's knowledge, and so on.

 

　A few months later, Nisa died in a mysterious accident.

　Hoffer was devastated by his wife's death, but he had heard about his daughter from his wife, so he did not suspect…or perhaps he did not want to suspect.

 

　He was afraid of losing his wife and even his daughter.

He had doubts, but tried not to think about it.

But his daughter's behavior escalated.

 

　Hiring of people whose identities were unknown.

　Purchasing drugs and tools of unknown use.

　Involvement with a guild specializing in assassinations, the Hunters of Souls.

 

Before long, it was Hoffer's turn to do the deed, and he could no longer ignore the quandary.

　One day, Hoffer expressed his doubts to Lillinette.

　Then Lillinette changed and after hurting Hoffer, she told him not to interfere with her actions.

 

　Hoffer resisted, but the next day, the people involved in the security of the mansion were replaced, and most of them were replaced by members of the “hunters.”

　Hoffer's freedom was taken away from him as he was under constant surveillance in the name of security.

 

How long did these days go on…before he realized it, Lilynette had turned 16 and grown up beautifully, but inside she had become distorted to no end.

…Or perhaps the distortion started from the beginning, and it only came to the surface gradually.

 

　Hoffer still didn't understand.

　What had happened to his daughter….

　Before that, was that really their daughter?

 

Hoffer still did not know…he really did not know.

 

　”…Gnu.”

 

With a scowl on my aching body, I – Hoffer Mosber Rochette Acothern – pick myself up.

　…What…?

　I remember what happened just before I lost consciousness.

 

　As I recall…yes, that woman had failed to kill her target, and so she had made some ridiculous claim about framing an innocent man, making him a criminal, and putting a bounty on his head.

　I couldn't take it anymore.

 

　A lord is supposed to protect his people, not undermine them.

　My father was like that, and I have lived my whole life to be like that.

　I confronted her with a knife tucked in my desk, determined to take her with me, even if she killed me.

 

　Then a man with a black cloak, mask, and suspicious appearance entered the room….

　What happened to him…?

Wobbling, I walk out of the room.

 

There was a strange man and that woman lying on the ground at my feet.