STAW Vol. 1 pt. 5 (Patreon)

“Wait!” Lilith shouts. “He’s my brother, and the head of the tribe, so we can’t just—”

I thrust the trident down into her brother’s neck. Each of its prongs pierce through his flesh and bone with ease. It is not that I am strong enough myself to inflict such damage, but rather that this weapon is just incredibly sharp. I feel as if I could cut through rock with these conjured weapons of the devils. Oh, he’s trying to say something.

All I can hear coming from his mouth are the choked sounds of him trying to breathe through blood. Whenever he tries saying something, he just ends up spitting more blood onto himself. Fortunately, I’ve stepped away as I would rather not get any blood on this new suit of mine. Blood is a pain in the ass to get out of clothes.

I look behind me and see Lilith on her knees with her hands over her mouth. I’m sure that watching her brother die is hard on her. Even if he apparently mistreated her throughout her whole life, they are still family.

It is idiotic, but understandable.

“Lilith,” I say, holding a hand out to her. “This is why I was chosen, wasn’t it?”

She doesn’t look me in the eyes nor take my hand, but she nods.

“I just realized why I would be chosen over anybody else. There are all sorts of cruel, horrible, intelligent humans from my world that could have been chosen. Yet, you chose me. I can only assume that it is because rather than knowing all of the tired clichés of fantasy, it is because I am able to do what needs to be done. Correct?”

I walk back to where her brother is still suffering. Lifting the trident from his neck, I thrust it back down this time with its center prong lined up directly to his forehead.

His suffering is over.

“I have fired single mothers trying to save money for their children’s medical bills. I have fired depressed divorcees with nothing to live for but work. I have blackmailed those who would try to blow the whistle on the company’s less-than-ethical practices. I took my mother off of life support because I didn’t want to deal with paying the bill for it. And now, I have killed your brother. I admit that something feels strange within me knowing that I taken a life with my own hands, but I doubt I would have been brought here if it were not for the fact that I am capable of doing such a thing so easily. I am correct, am I not?”

Lilith looks up at me with a conflicted expression. I cannot tell if she is angry with me for what I did, or incredibly impressed. Either way, it is safe to assume that she is still on my side after that.

There was no way that I could have let her brother live without it coming back to bite us in one way or another.

“You – you could have let me do it,” Lilith says.

“Wrong. If I would have let you finish him, I would have been running the risk of you hesitating or him being able to take advantage of you. Killing him myself was the only way to ensure that he would actually die, and even then, I still made the mistake of walking away before ensuring that he was dead. He could have used that time to somehow escape and survive if he were not so weak,” I explain to her.

“He was… weak? But he was always—”

“He was weak. He was a pathetic weakling with no ambition, motivation, nor purpose. He was not even worthy of calling himself a man; he was nothing more than an angsty, annoying little brat pretending to mean something. Any adult could have looked at him and told you that.”

“Milord, you may be a human, but you put devils to shame,” she says, twisting her hair around her fingers while staying slumped over on her knees. “How did a human become so evil?”

“Is that a problem?”

“N-no, Milord! I just… I never thought that I would summon such a perfect candidate. I was just wishfully dreaming before, but now I believe in Milord. I truly believe that you could become the greatest dark lord to have ever existed!”

“Lilith,” I pause and stare directly into her eyes. Despite her trying to sound cheery, I can see it in her eyes that she’s still affected by the death of her brother. Those quivering eyes that look to be on the verge of tears, the subtle twitches of her face that let slip her desire to hurt me for hurting her – I have seen this countless times before, and I am sure that I will see it until the day I breathe my last breath. “I do not expect you to hold no ill feelings toward me for killing your brother. It is only natural for a human to feel such a way. Many are bound by their ties of blood and are too ignorant to realize that blood means nothing.”

“But I’m not a hu—”

“It doesn’t matter. Devils, humans, demons, angels, monsters, animals, gods, spirits – you all have emotions and feelings. As haughty and superior over humans as some of you may be, there is one thing that never fails to cause the downfall of the mighty, and it is feeling. It is the greatest weakness of humans, gods, and devils alike. Fortunately for you, I have trained myself not to feel. I can shut my emotions off and be purely objective at all times. That is why I do not care if you hate me or wish to harbor feelings of resentment toward me. It makes sense for you to do so, and I know that you are too dependent on me right now to kill me. Should that change, I will reevaluate your worth.”

I clear my throat. I could really use some water with all of the talking that I’ve been doing since I’ve gotten here, plus the air itself is very dry. Unfortunately, I doubt that this world has humidifiers in it. Wait, am I really complaining? This is why being human is horrible. Less than an hour ago and I was about to drown and surrounded with nothing but humid air and floodwater, and now I am complaining about how dry it is here.

“I – Milord, I won’t let you see me as worthless or somebody to get rid of. I promise that I am going to try my best for you!” Lilith declares. When I look into her eyes now, I see a determined spirit desperate to prove itself. The sadness and anger has been pushed aside, likely locked away somewhere in the depths of her miniscule mind.

“You are an interesting one, Lilith. Devoting yourself to the man who just killed your own brother.”

“I – I mean… he did kill all of our other brothers, and killing your family isn’t really that crazy for us devils, so it’s not that big of a deal, Milord.”

Right. I probably should stop assuming that a bunch of devils are going to have the same sort of social norms as humans. They may both have emotions, but devils wouldn’t be known as evil without good reason. Stereotypes exist for a reason.

“I hate that I feel sad and angry over his death if anything, Milord. I want – I want you to teach me to be more like yourself. I want to learn how to shut my emotions off so that I can do what needs done!

I place a single hand on top of her head to pet her. Her face immediately turns bright red, and I am fairly sure that I can see some of the hot air in her head escaping from her ears.

“Hawawa, M-Milord! I – why, you – uuu…” she has the expression of a flustered blob.

“A girl who reacts like this to being touched is too sensitive to become like me,” I say, taking my hand off of her head. “I do not wish to see you become like me. Become a better version of yourself rather than wish to become like others. Understand?”

Lilith looks at me with large, watery eyes as she opens her arms and lunges at me. Fortunately, my hand is still close enough to her head to stop her by her pushing against her forehead.

“Now then, have your goblins take care of his body. Have a small funeral for him, toss him in the trash, or let them eat him – it doesn’t matter to me. Once that matter is taken care of, we will proceed with preparing this manor as a proper headquarters. Do I make myself clear, Lilith?”

She looks over at her brother’s corpse and nods.

I may not have much in this world, but at least I have a good assistant.