I Thought It Was a Fairy Tale but the Genre Is Strange - Chapter 68



Episode 67 – Snow White (8)

“Kyahahaha!!!”

Along with Alice’s lively laughter, her mace slammed into Vivid Count’s barrier. *Crack!!* But Vivid Count’s barrier was sturdy. He snickered as if it were laughable.

“Such attacks will not work, though.”

“Oh, really~?”

Alice made a meaningful expression, then lightly landed on the barrier, looking down at them. Vivid Count looked up with a displeased glare as Alice raised her mace above her head. Then, a relentless barrage of mace strikes rained down. Amidst the unrestrained onslaught, Vivid Count yawned languidly, as if still bored.

“I told you it wouldn’t work… huh?”

Vivid Count’s pupils trembled. In front of his eyes, the barrier he had believed to be unyielding was now cracked with spiderweb-like fissures.

“No, how…?”

Yes! Good job! Upon confirming the cracks in the barrier, Alice stopped her mace assault and lightly tapped it with a fist, as if knocking.

And then.

* * *

*Clang!* The sound of shattering glass echoed as the protective barrier turned to dust. Count Vivid’s composed face twisted into a scowl.

“Hunter! Execute that wench at once!”

“Yes, Master.”

At Count Vivid’s command, the Hunter immediately drew a dagger from his hip and swung it at Alice.

“Ah, no!”

Snow White screamed in terror, fearing Alice would kill the Hunter. Alice, seeing the blade aimed at her throat, smirked, then slightly lowered her stance, dodging his attack, and with a slight rotation of her body, unleashed a kick. Alice’s kick slammed into the Hunter’s abdomen.

“Gah!!!”

The Hunter let out a strangled cry, flying backward to smash into the building’s outer wall, not getting up again. It seemed like he might be dead, but thankfully, his chest rose and fell, suggesting he was still alive.

“Hunter!”

Snow White and the dwarfs hurried to the Hunter, rushing to his side. But I, wary of the situation, stayed by their side, in case the Hunter, still not free from his brainwashing, might attack.

Count Vivid stared at the unconscious Hunter in disbelief before finally moving his pompous body. He jumped to his feet, his eyes bulging as he glared at Alice, who was leisurely filing her nails with her war hammer.

From noble mtl dot com

“So, it was you who killed Willump, I see now.”

“You’re only figuring that out now? You’re truly dense, aren’t you?”

“Alright, I admit it. You people are strong. That woman making those strange mechanical noises, and you too.”

Ugh, am I just completely ignored now? But still, the situation was pretty good. It would take time for the soldiers swept away by the rapids to regroup, and if Alice took out the Count in the meantime, the soldiers’ morale would definitely plummet. They might even surrender out of sheer terror.

“So, how about it? Do you want to become one of my subordinates?”

“Oh, now, let’s get the words right. You have to beg me to become your subordinate, saying ‘please, please, take me as your subordinate, woof woof.’ Isn’t that right?”

“……I see that words won’t do. I’ll make you regret this, even in the afterlife!”

Count Vivid, emitting a chilling bloodlust, raised his hand high, and the bodies of the scattered soldiers around us floated up into the air. What in the world is this spectacle? It was at that moment that I wondered.

“Kurk! Krr-grrk!”

The soldiers’ bodies twitched, and then crimson blood began to pour from every hole. Both Snow White and I were speechless at the revolting sight.

The soldiers, drained of all their blood, collapsed to the floor. They were like mummies, skin stretched over bones, just like the soldiers who had been drained by Willemuff. A massive pool of blood gathered around Count Vivid. That blood was all absorbed into Count Vivid’s body, transforming into something else.

Armor. Armor hardened by blood, enveloping Count Vivid. He wore a cold sneer on his face.

Whoosh! With a flick of his hand, several massive blood slashes engulfed Alice. Alice casually swung her war hammer, turning the slashes into dust. The Count couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

He ground his teeth and lashed out again, unleashing a torrent of slashes, but they were hopelessly ineffective against Alice’s war hammer.

“Krrk! Let’s see how long you can last!”

He conjured countless blood-red blades and unleashed them on Alice. The blood blades shattered the moment they collided with her hammer, but their sheer number made it impossible to deflect them all.

So Alice had no choice but to dodge some of the attacks, while trying to get closer to the Count. But even that wasn’t enough for him, and he grabbed a massive greatsword made of blood and charged at Alice.

Thwump-! The massive greatsword aimed for Alice’s head. Instead of her war hammer, Alice kicked the side of the greatsword, knocking it off course. Then she swung her arm, trying to smash the Count’s head with her hammer.

But the hammer stopped just before it made contact, recoiling back instead. Countless blood-red blades that had been floating in the air were now impaled where Alice had been.

“Haah!”

The Count pressed his attack, not giving Alice any opening. Yet, the Count’s face was etched with anxiety, while Alice remained calm. She evaded every attack with her characteristically smooth, agile movements.

At that moment, a large water droplet appeared in front of the Count. Count Vivid flinched. He sensed danger and tried to pull back, but…

Whump-!

A powerful water bomb exploded in place, pushing the Count back. He was unharmed thanks to his armor. He growled ferociously, glaring at the owner of the water bomb.

“You dare interrupt our sacred duel!”

[Stop with the crap. Duel my ass. You’re dying to me today.]

Furious, Ariel conjured countless water blades in the air, just like Count Vivid.

“Oh my~ You didn’t need to help me~ I’m so touched?”

[Don’t you fucking act up either. Did you think I wouldn’t realize you’re deliberately stalling while playing games with me? I’m gonna take care of this annoying prick quick and go to my prince!]

“Hehehe, busted.”

As Ariel fully joined us, the Count, sensing the crisis, suddenly leaped into the air. No, wait! He was flying! Bat-like black wings were spread wide on his back.

And beside him, countless soldiers were floating. That b*stard is cowardly, trying to use his goons’ blood instead of his own!

“You, you cowardly prick! Are you so scared that you can’t even use your own blood, so you’re trying to fight with your underlings’ blood?!”

He glared at me with murderous intent at my shout, and I kindly flipped him off. But he didn’t have time to pay me any mind right now. Ellis and Ariel had finished getting ready to attack. He started rapidly draining all the blood from the soldiers, sucking it all in.

“Ugh! Save me!”

“C-c-cough! C-Count-nim….”

The soldiers screamed for help. But the Count casually ignored their pleas. After absorbing the blood of nearly half his forces, the Count’s aura became more menacing than before.

Just then, Ariel threw a water spear at him. The spear, cutting through the wind with ferocious force, vanished the moment it touched the Count, like it had evaporated. Ariel flinched in surprise, and right after, Ellis slammed her mace down on the Count.

The Count managed to block the mace with both hands. But Ellis’s power was so immense that the mace was steadily descending toward his head.

“Grrr! You damn b*tch!!!”

The Count roared and tried to jam blood-made swords into the air, but the moment they materialized, they went *pop-pop-pop!* and burst. Ariel had destroyed them all.

“Is that really all you’ve got? How are you going to survive in this harsh world if you’re so weak?”

“SHUT UP-!!!”

The Count got kicked by Ellis and crashed, headfirst, beside the corpses of the soldiers he had devoured. He scrambled to his feet, trying to prepare a counterattack, but several tendril-like streams of water, like tentacles, immobilized his arms and legs.

“Tch, you think this is enough!”

The Vivid Count effortlessly broke free from his restraints, but the very act of breaking free had cost him a brief moment, and that gap was all the time Ellis needed to finish him off. The moment the Count raised his head to face Ellis again.

*CRACK.*

His head exploded. Splatters of the Count’s flesh and bone flew in all directions. The sight made me think of when the Queen of Hearts had been so brutally murdered. Ugh, gruesome. The Count’s body, now headless, fell to the ground with a *thud*.

Alice planted her foot on the Count’s body, a terrifying smile spreading across her face as she faced the remaining soldiers. They recoiled in horror, immediately dropping their weapons and shouting their surrender.

“We did it, we, we did it!”

“They did it!”

“Heroes! They’re heroes!!!”

The dwarves leaped with joy, and Snow White, almost in tears, showered me with thanks.

“I’m so, so grateful! Finally, Count Vivid…”

But something was off. Snow White’s bright expression suddenly began to darken rapidly. No, it wasn’t just darkening. The storm clouds above thickened even further, making it practically night.

Alice and Ariel’s gazes shifted. Count Vivid’s corpse, which had been trampled under Alice’s foot, had somehow moved back and was now standing straight. Then, as if someone was pulling at the corpse’s limbs, it stretched and stretched, until *crack*, his body was truly torn apart in all directions.

And the torn body formed a shape. It was a door. A door made of the Count’s corpse and blood. And from within it emerged a queen, more elegant and noble than any woman, with skin as pale as a corpse.