Paradigm Parasite

Chapter 177: "Exposed"

The process is complete, but to make it look that way, he cracks his head open with a halberd, and the bluish return blood? The victim was then bathed in blueish blood before coming out through the mouth.

"Oh, it came out. Are you all right?"

Outside, Aspizal was waiting with a slightly surprised face.

"You jumped into the mouth out of nowhere, you scared the shit out of me."

"You managed, didn't you?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

Aspizal looks at it and sounds somewhat dismayed.

"Are you always like that?"

I don't know.

I'm not aware of it, so I can't say.

"Sometimes... yes."

... and I just answered.

Aspizal laughs when he hears the answer.

Well, now that we've got this one sorted out, I'm going to support Yonomori -.

When I turned around, a shredded tentacle blew up near me.

When I looked to see what was going on, I saw that Yonomori was in the process of beating the monster to death with her bare hands, and had just torn the tentacles to shreds and thrown them away.

...Hey, hey, hey, how did you rip it to shreds?

The monster was also using its tentacles to catch Yonomori, but more than half of them had already been shredded in half, exposing their cross-sections, spewing blood.

She used nimble footwork, unimaginable from such a figure, to avoid all the tentacles, and then she ripped at something close at hand with her claws, forcing her hands into the wounds that had formed, spreading them out forcefully and ripping them apart further.

In this way, the monster that had lost all its tentacles became a sandbag for Yonomori.

I was watching it, and it was such a spectacle that even I was lightly taken aback.

A tremendous amount of blood - could that be ink or something else? - gushed out.

Yonomori threw down the head she had pulled out and looked back at us.

"Oh? Are you finished already?"

... she said in her usual tone.

"I don't know if I'm supposed to kill them, but they look amazing. So what are they really?"

Aspizal looks at the dead monsters in front of him.

The one I killed relatively kept its shape, but the one killed by Yonomori was completely reduced to a piece of meat.

"Azusa. Since we're going to examine it, you have to finish it off a little more neatly."

"They were so tough, it's impossible to control them."

"What? The one who was killed was a piece of meat."

"I mean, how did you beat it? It doesn't look like there's much damage to the body..."

"It was amazing! He jumped into its mouth and destroyed it by crushing its head only. Smart, isn't it?"

"Yes, yes. I'm violent anyway!"

I magically produce water to clean off the dirt from my body while listening to their conversation at random.

It's not particularly surprising that Aspizal is unscathed, as he was providing cover, but what does it mean that Yonomori is also almost unscathed?

No matter how you look at it, it's not ordinary when you're almost completely shut down against a monster that boasts a lot of moves.

I only saw the last part, but what is that footwork that doesn't suit that figure?

Is it because she's a reincarnated person? Or is it some kind of item?

...Well, okay. Let's rely on them while they're not the enemy.

I'm not going to let my guard down while shelving my thoughts.

Of course, against both these two and the surroundings.

Aside from the former, there is no reaction with regard to the latter, so it seems that no followers will come.

... with the proviso that for the time being.

The first is the one that is the most popular.

"...It's clear that we're being targeted anyway, but what are you going to do now?"

"Hmmm. The first thing to do is to get a good look at the body. I'd like to clarify a few things before we do that, okay?"

"What is it?"

Aspizal said this in a formal tone and came looking straight at me.

I have a very bad feeling about this.

"Roe. You're a reincarnated person, aren't you?"

See, here he comes. And he's saying it out loud.

Yonomori next to me was also looking at me without feeling particularly upset.

"...What are you talking about? I don't understand what you're saying."

I'm almost giving up inwardly that I can't fool around with this, although I do fawn over it.

No matter how I look at it, these guys look like they're saying it with proof.

"It's no use hiding it. I thought it might be the same for you."

...Why?

'I don't remember ragging on you, and I've been careful about what I say and do.

"I knew from the moment I met you that you weren't normal, but the fact that that monster went after the three of us has convinced me. At least me and Azusa have something in common in that we come from the same place. It's only natural to assume that you, who was also targeted, belong to the same category as us, isn't it?"

Hey, that's a great idea.

We come from the same place? Does that mean Aspizal is a reincarnated person too?

I'd suspected it was that way, based on the conversation and the circumstances, but does that mean he's the same as me? That's tricky.

"And when you called me, you didn't call me by my first name, you called me by my last name. Over here, first names are followed by family names. Yet you called me 'Yonomori-san'. At least it proves that you were familiar with Japanese names."

Ah... so that's what you're saying. So that means I was suspected from the very beginning.

Unfortunately, even in this neighbourhood it's first name, last name.

It's too much to hope for.

This was a mistake.

I did call him by his first name without thinking.

Did this bear anticipate that and call herself by her real name? If so, I've been duped.

Come to think of it, the king here also switched his name and surname.

Sigh. I was careless. I guess there's nothing I can do about this.

"Even if it's ........., I don't think it's any of your business, do you?"

"Not really. Finding reincarnated people is one of our objectives."

"Yes. We didn't think there were others besides the king, but we were lucky to make contact with them."

Yeah, I'm almost sure who these guys are now.

"Darzain, eh?"

When I say this, Yonomori's eyes widen as if she is upset.

"You... you knew?"

Ah, damn it. That's a deal.

That's the worst possible answer.

"Well, I've suspected it for a while. I had my suspicions when he was a reincarnation, but being from Ursula Laguna, talking as if your life is in order, you don't seem like a knight by the looks of it. From what I've heard, the Gnosis give reincarnations a certain status, so by process of elimination you guys don't look like that, you're Durzain. You're members of a higher order called the Apostles, aren't you?"

Could have been Tuke, but I heard they're affiliated, so let's lump them all together.

"Wow. You know a lot. Did someone recruit you?"

"I was, but they attacked me when I refused, so I turned the tables on them."

I thought about telling him that I attacked him on the job, but I won't say that.

It's best not to give unnecessary information.

I slowly move away as I say this.

Yonomori is the same, but Aspizal is in trouble.

From the way he speaks, it is certain that he is an 'apostle'. Despite this, it is completely humanoid.

Probably completely the same specifications as me.

As long as they belong to Darzain, they should have more experience than me.

As long as Savage is also absent, the odds of winning are slim.

The fact that the Aspizal was also not able to see the hand of the battle earlier, thanks to his support, is also a major negative.

"I see. If you've already made contact with our members, it seems that ...... you've been very rude."

"I told you to make sure you didn't get ahead of yourself."

Aspizal looks troubled and Yonomori sounds reluctant.

"I'm sorry if we've offended you. So could you at least listen to what we have to say?"

The first time I saw her, she took a step closer to me, so I stepped back and didn't allow her to close the distance.

"Then could you take a couple of steps back? I'm aware that the Darzain are a bunch of jerks who'll attack you as soon as you refuse them. At ...... this distance, your fist will reach me immediately."

Yonomori nodded and took three steps back as told.

In the meantime, we will contact Savage and tell him to come here.

In the meantime, the reply was that they were waiting not far away and it would not take long to move to a position where they would not be found.

...The rest is just stalling.

If I could drag out the conversation in a lazy way, I could make it work.

I move slowly so as not to seem unnatural and lean on the corpse of the monster I just killed.

Damn, I should have let it pretend to be dead instead of killing it if this is the case.

Sneakily invade the roots and start repairing the destroyed parts.

Can you make it in time?

"Well, let's talk about it, shall we?"

I urge him to proceed so that he doesn't realise what I'm doing.

Aspizal is about to say something, but Yonomori restrains him with her hand.

"It gets complicated when you talk, doesn't it?"

He shrugs his shoulders at being told that.

"All right. I'll leave it to Azusa."

After regaining her composure, Yonomori cleared her throat and began to speak.

"First of all, let me introduce myself again. I am Azusa Yonomori. You are right, I am a reincarnated person known as an Apostle in Darzain. He is Aspizal. He is the current representative of Darzain."

...Representative?

"That's right. People often call me boss."

Seriously?

This is the head of Dasein? Are you joking?

No, is it a natural progression in a way, considering his abilities?

I know it's the result of a replacement because Yonomori added 'now', but I don't really connect the image of Durzain with Aspizal.

"Our aim is to gather the reincarnated."

I know that.

"I remember the Gnostic septon knights saying the same thing."

The reincarnated are a good force to have.

One reincarnate is much stronger than a dozen knights.

I guess that perception is shared by Durzain and Gnosis.

"Oh, you met the gentile Etranze."

"He was talking in his sleep about how sickeningly straight-forward it was to be human again and go back to the world he came from."

I feel somewhat uncomfortable, remembering the ant I met in Royal Capital.

Hearing this, Aspizal let out a small gush.

There is a rare hint of mockery in his expression.

"They're still the same, aren't they? Aren't they stupid?"

"Absolutely."

I agreed with him.

--Because...

"We're already dead."

"We're already dead."

We say the same things at the same time.

"You're good after all. I've met a few reincarnated people, but I'm sick and tired of most of them saying either 'we're not dead, we're going back to where we were' or 'dream of reincarnating in another world, psycho' and all that nonsense."

I don't know what he's talking about. It's nonsense.

I myself just wield power and do whatever I want. I'm not so different from the rest.

The only difference is that at best they are more or less self-promotional.

I cut my gaze from Aspizal and return it to Yonomori. I urge her to continue talking with my eyes.

She senses it and continues talking.

"Yes, first I will tell you about us, the Durzain."

The Darzain was originally a group of demon worshippers, run by the Aspizal family for generations, albeit in a very small way.

At that time, it was still a cute little group that just prayed to the devil, but it seems to have changed a lot in the previous generation.

The question arose as to whether Aspizal had a family home, even though he was supposed to be a reincarnated person, but he decided to listen to what they had to say anyway.

The previous generation, in short, Aspizal's grandfather, made a discovery.

Yonomori didn't know much about it, but apparently it was the source of the technology used in the self-destruction and summoning of demons in Darzain, as well as the technology currently in operation.

It was good that they had the knowledge, but they didn't have the know-how to handle it, so they sublimated it to a technology they could handle by cooperating with an external organisation, Tuke.

As a result, Darzain was transformed into its current form.

It is a so-called 'secret society of evil' that mass-produces monster-like people by implanting them with demon parts.

At that point, they seemed to have acquired a certain amount of knowledge about reincarnated people.

They were also putting a lot of effort into searching for them.

In fact, they had several reincarnations when they replaced Aspizal's father.

...So.

Here's the thing.

Aspizal's father seemed to have gained knowledge about the reincarnation's substrate - the worm - and was lucky enough to capture it.

That much is still understandable, but the problem is what comes afterwards.

Aspizal's father apparently got confused and fed the worm to his son.

As a result, the Aspizal of today, whose consciousness is a mixture of the Aspizal and the worm, is complete.

I see. Then you're a bit different from me.

But still, I'm amazed you managed to catch it.

Do you have a method?