Symphony for the Insect Princess

Suddenly, someone who shouldn't be here appeared behind him.

The thorny feeling in his back told him that a weapon was being pointed at him.

"It took some effort, but I finally managed to escape..."

"..."

"Chloe's madness was truly terrifying. The ceiling, which was permeated with defensive magic, was blown down."

"...Heh, it seems you were lying when you said your father didn't tell you where the great secret treasure is."

"Nonsense, how could I possibly say that? But I'm even more surprised."

"..."

"Nya is just an ignorant little kid. You even prepared someone to take the blame for you."

"..."

"What a great self-torture trick! I almost got tricked by you, Lukes."

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Blood Transformation is finished, let's celebrate~~~ I can now focus on writing Bug Princess

Chapter 21 A Small Showdown

“Haaa…haaa…hurry up!!!”

"Woo!"

Nia grabbed Lillian's hair with one hand and held a knife against her neck with the other, pulling her towards the side door of the mansion. They both staggered, but Nia had a grim smile on his face, while Lillian had only fear on her face.

"Please... please don't do this, Nia..."

"Please don't do this? Ha!"

Nia waved her hands excitedly, and the knife almost cut Lillian's face.

"It's all like this... everyone is like this... you, my father, York, everyone... they all treat me like an idiot..."

"Please...let me go..."

"I made them regret it... I made you regret it... Do you really think I'm stupid... Sooner or later I'm going to kill you all... Kill you all... But I can't do it... I can't do it!!! But..."

Nia paused and suddenly showed a strange smile.

"Yes...just when I was in pain...I heard the voice of God...and I am the only one who can hear it!"

My lord?

Lillian was stunned for a moment. What did "Lord God" mean?

"God, comfort me... listen to my story... tell me... tell me what to do... how to teach those bastards who have always looked down on me a lesson... hahaha... hahahahaha..."

Wait, can you tell me?

Nia, was she also instructed by someone?

He's just a tool! ?

"Wait! Calm down, Nia! You've been tricked... Someone... Someone is taking advantage of you!"

"Shut up, you fucking bitch! Don't... don't insult my Lord God! You don't understand anything!"

"Please, Nia...be reasonable...I know I've done a lot of things to you in the past...but..."

"Shut up!!!"

Crack! ! !

The sharp blade cut across his neck.

The blood vessels were cut.

“Woo…Gu…Ga…”

Lillian had an expression of disbelief on her face, twitching like a fish that had been pulled ashore. She tried to block the wound on her neck with her hands, but the blood still kept flowing. She whimpered one last time and then fell limply to the ground.

The massive blood loss and the severe poison took her life almost instantly.

"Whirring whirring……"

Nia gasped for air, stared at her sister's body, and then... laughed maniacally.

"Haha ...! That's right, that's right, why do you need hostages? Just kill them all, kill them all! No one will suspect me... No one can... Look! God! I did it! I killed everyone! I did a great job, right? Very good, right!!!"

Crazy laughter echoed in the empty corridor. Near didn't know how long he laughed before he stopped. Then he kicked Lillian's body hard and staggered out.

"……Eh?"

------------------

"What a great self-torture trick! I almost got tricked by you, Lukes."

"I'm so sorry..."

"Chloe blew up the ceiling, and I narrowly escaped. I used the cover of dust to get away from her and come here."

"So, where's that little idiot Nia? Where's Lillian? Where's your good friend Nelris?"

"That's not your concern."

"Heh, let me guess. Nia took Lillian hostage and ran away, right? Nelris was either buried alive or chased out like a headless fly. Only you came here, no one else."

"..."

At the door of the secret room that sealed the great treasure, the two brothers faced each other.

Lux, the murderer who had successfully taken the hearts of three people, slowly turned around with a calm smile on his face.

York's face was so gloomy that it seemed like water was about to drip out. He held the magic scroll between his fingers and stared at him intently.

The missing half of Lux's arm grew back, but it was obviously smaller than the intact arm, and the skin was pink and tender.

"...It seems you prepared a potion to regenerate limbs beforehand. You really spent a lot of money."

"I don't deserve it. I've prepared so many things, but I don't know which one I'll be able to use."

"You'll never have another chance to use it."

"Let me ask you, York, when did you realize that I was the real mastermind?"

"...until just now, although I felt something was wrong even earlier."

"Something's wrong?"

"It's supposed to be possible to control only one person at a time with that drug, and there should be a certain interval between each control... This is where the feeling of something being wrong started, Shadow Servant."

"...Ah, Shadow Servant, as expected." Lux shrugged.

"It's true that the Shadow Servant who was initially controlled killed Father. But the problem is, Father has two Shadow Servants, both of whom are experts in assassination and counter-assassination. If he only controls one Shadow Servant, he would have to quietly kill the other before killing Father. The slightest deviation would lead to failure. This crucial first step is too risky."

"...That's right."

"So I wondered, how could the murderer overcome this biggest weakness? Improving the medicine isn't possible, since it's the work of the Demon King, after all. But we can think about it from another perspective—if there are two controllers instead of just one, wouldn't that solve a lot of problems?"

"Well... that's true. A buffer of at least half a day is necessary between each control. It's too deadly. So, I've been secretly giving that brat Nia hallucinogenic drugs for a long time, hypnotizing him, suggesting him, and inducing him whenever I get the chance... My efforts paid off. I finally made him my puppet. While I'm in the buffer period, he receives my orders and controls others."

"..."

really.

The murderer was not one, but two - after figuring this out, it became clear who the other person besides Nia was.

His father, Anhans, and Molly were indeed dead. He and Nelris could be trusted. Nia had been exposed, Lillian was cleared of suspicion, Ellen had been controlled, and Chloe was going crazy.

If we use the process of elimination, who is left?

Only Lux did not find a complete body, and these days there are so many ways to fake a corpse, and "death" can also make him completely disappear from everyone's sight, so he can do whatever he wants with this time.

The real murderer Luke, and his lackey Nia.

The culprit behind all this.

"First it was the two Shadow Servants, then Anhans, then Ellen, and finally Chloe... I guess it was Nia who controlled Ellen to kill Molly, and it was you who controlled Chloe to go crazy, right?"

"That's right, but a lot of things went wrong along the way. The bodies of Shadow Servant and Anhans should have been destroyed, and Allen should have committed suicide after completing the order. It seems that Nia was the one who messed it up."

"In order to withdraw mid-event and eliminate suspicion, you deliberately faked your death in the explosion, leaving behind an arm... The wreckage I found was prepared by you beforehand, right? And you even spent a fortune preparing a teleportation scroll?"

"That's right. I prepared a fresh corpse in advance. When the explosion was about to happen, I used a teleportation scroll to switch positions with the corpse. Although the teleportation scroll can't be used to teleport to the outside world due to the barrier, it can still be used to teleport within the manor."

"Let me ask you another question... Why didn't you and Nia control Ellen and Chloe at the same time? You could easily control them and kill us."

"Didn't you just escape from Chloe's frenzied attack? If you can escape, then the others can too. If we control them both and kill them in one fell swoop, we must succeed in one go. Even if one of them escapes, all our efforts will be wasted."

"You're really careful... Well, one last question."

York swallowed hard, trying to suppress the turmoil in his heart, and asked,

"Why, do you do all this?"

"..."

"Do you think it's really worth it to kill your own clan for the sake of treasure?"

"……puff!"

Lux couldn't help but laugh, a very playful laugh.

"Don't tease me, York. I'm doing this because I think it's worth it!"

"………………Yeah."

York raised something and pointed it at Luke's body.

"Then, from now on, you are the enemy of the family!"

It was an L-shaped metal object, so small that it could even be hidden in a sleeve. One side of the L was a handle, and at the top of the other side was a small black hole, which was facing Lux.

“…Is this a gun?”

Lux showed a surprised expression for the first time.

"I went to my room before coming to the basement. This is something called a gun. It came from the baseline world—Earth. It's a good friend of ordinary people who can't do magic. I put in some effort to get one."

"cut--!!!"

Suddenly, Lux struck! He threw out a magic scroll in the shape of a metal sheet, and at the same time, York pulled the trigger!

when! ! !

The rock wall summoned by the magic scroll deflected the bullets. Lux took advantage of this opportunity to pull out a small needle without hesitation and was about to pierce his shoulder.

"Put it down!"

York threw out his metal tubular magic scroll, and the flowing flames exploded the rock wall. The flying debris hit Lux's hand, and the syringe fell to the ground! Lux immediately threw out the two remaining magic scrolls as cover, and at the same time, he eagerly bent down to pick up the syringe.

--boom!

"Eh……?"

boom! boom! !

Three shots in a row.

Two shots in the abdomen and one in the right chest.

York's marksmanship was surprisingly accurate. He often secretly practiced with this weapon that flowed into Maya from other worlds, and he also liked to collect such things.

“Ouch… Damn it…”

Lux fell to his knees and tried to get up.

But as soon as his arms gave out, he fell heavily to the ground and fainted.

"call……"

nailed it.

York finally let go of his worries and immediately took out his only magic scroll with healing effects. He couldn't let Lux die because he had to find out from him where the hearts of the three family heads were hidden.

"... Really, it's not fun."

Knowing the face but not the heart.

Lux, his closest and most trusted brother, turned out to be the mastermind behind everything.