In the dark night, eggs hanging from tree branches emitted a strange, flickering glow, vaguely revealing the silhouettes of human children within.
The Apostle that Guts would later deride as the "Queen Bee" actually resembled a moth more. She had a pair of broad, furry wings capable of releasing seductive scales. Only her bare upper body retained a faint human likeness.
The Queen patrolled the most important incubation area deep within her domain. These children, enchanted by her scales and wrapped in her cocoons, would over time transform into "goblins."
In the future, when they hatched and the entire Mist Valley was filled with these "fairies," she would become a true "Fairy Queen."
The Queen's human name was Rosine. She had originally been a little girl living in a nearby village, but her life had been miserable due to her circumstances.
During the Hundred-Year War, this area had been a border zone, constantly ravaged by armies and mercenaries. The people lived in misery.
At that time, a woman who hadn't managed to flee was gang-raped.
Though the woman survived, her husband and the villagers ostracized her because of what happened.
After the woman gave birth to a daughter named Rosine, the husband's abuse intensified, directed at his wife.
As Rosine grew up, her father's domestic violence increasingly targeted her.
Amidst her father's abuse and the villagers' cold stares, Rosine learned of her origins at a very young age.
She never experienced much family warmth. Instead, she poured her emotions into a fellow villager, Jill, and into fantastical tales like "The Goblins of Mist Valley" and "Peg the Red-Eyed."
Finally, one night, unable to bear the domestic violence and the lack of any real affection, Rosine bid farewell to Jill and decided to run away from home. She set out for Mist Valley to find the legendary fairies.
But unfortunately, Mist Valley had long since lost its fairies.
Rosine tried to reach Mist Valley, searching for days. Of course, she found nothing, which deeply depressed her.
Worse still, her parents came after her.
Her father beat her for running away, mocked her fantasies, told her her existence was a disgrace to him, and then turned to beating her mother.
Unable to endure any of it, Rosine finally performed the demon-subduing ritual through a chance Beherit. She sacrificed her parents and reincarnated herself into what she is today.
By this point, there was no turning back for her, just like Peg. There was no going home.
Since there were no fairies in Mist Valley, she would have to create "fairies." She wanted to become the "Fairy Queen" of this kingdom.
At times, she thought of Jill, the girl she considered a sister. The softness that hadn't completely faded in her heart stirred. But that was all.
At best, she would take Jill in the future and let her become a member of the "fairies." Jill's home life was bad; she would surely agree with me.
The Queen Bee, walking barefoot on the cold ground, thought this and laughed. Her laughter echoed through the hollow tree.
Suddenly, her laughter cut off. She heard a strange sound on the wind.
Thump, thump, thump—
What was that sound?
The Queen frowned, spread her wings, and flew toward the sound. The closer she got, the clearer it became. A faint unease stirred in her heart.
And what made that unease peak was not the strange thumping growing louder—but its complete cessation.
The surroundings were dead silent.
The Queen flew over, looked down, and saw an extremely bloody scene below. Her eyes flew wide in disbelief.
Grass, flowerbeds, ponds, trees—Mist Valley's picturesque landscape was now littered with bleeding corpses. All of them were her "fairies."
The Queen had let her "goblins" play at killing each other, but they had been restrained. An army being completely wiped out like this was absolutely impossible. She couldn't accept such a loss.
She had reincarnated as an Apostle less than a year ago. The number of "goblins" she had transformed through insect cocoons was small. Each one was precious, meant to contribute to her future goblin kingdom.
But... but... they were all dead. Not one remained. All dead.
Who did this? Who?
The Queen's eyes blazed. She scanned through gritted teeth and soon spotted a knight, covered in "fairy blood," standing there, drinking liquid from a flask.
"You..." The Queen let out a cry—whether a roar or a scream, it was unclear. "You killed them! You want to destroy my goblin kingdom!"
"That's it! That's it! You're all so unreasonable! Always interfering with my good deeds!"
Nidhogg put away his Flask, calmly looked up, and regarded the Apostle in the air.
A registered Apostle.
She had also appeared on the eve of the Eclipse, one of the Apostles who attacked Rickert and the remaining troops. Naturally, she had participated in the Eclipse.
Having cleared out these wasps along the way and now facing the culprit behind it all, Nidhogg had no intention of idle chatter. He simply drew his Lordsworn's Greatsword and Bloodhound's Fang and looked at her.
"Eee—!"
The Queen spread her wings and dove, releasing bursts of scale dust. The curved protrusion on her forehead suddenly straightened, becoming spear-like!
FWOOSH—!
The Queen's dive was extremely fast. In an instant, she was before him, aiming directly at Nidhogg.
She was absolutely confident in her speed. One blow would kill!
But what she didn't expect happened again!
Nidhogg slashed an arc with Bloodhound's Fang, his body moving with the blade. In an instant, he spun and backflipped, landing a short distance away, dodging the Queen's sure-kill strike!
The spear on the Queen's forehead pierced only air. She couldn't hide her astonishment.
Honestly, Nidhogg wasn't afraid of the Queen's spear or her scale dust. He was afraid of her wings.
The Queen could fly, and Nidhogg currently had no reliable way to fight in the air. That was a significant disadvantage.
So his only option was to lure her in, wait for her to descend and negate her main advantage, and seize the opportunity to defeat her without getting drawn into a prolonged aerial battle.
That's exactly what Nidhogg did.
FWOOSH—!
Bloodhound's Step activated. Nidhogg lunged forward with ghostly posture and speed, instantly closing the distance!
His Lordsworn's Greatsword swung, striking the Queen!
The Queen's reaction was lightning fast. She flapped her wings and shot upward. But one arm and one wing were instantly severed, blood spraying from the wounds!
She gritted her teeth and managed to stay in the air for only a moment before tilting like a broken kite and crashing to the water's edge.
Nidhogg pounced like a hound, giving the Queen no respite.
The Queen struggled to rise, howling in pain. In a last desperate move, she thrust the spear on her forehead at Nidhogg.
FWOOSH—!
Nidhogg tilted his head, dodging the spear thrust!
But his Lordsworn's Greatsword pierced the Queen's chest cavity with unerring precision and emerged from her back!
The Queen spat out a great mouthful of blood, staining the greatsword's blade red.
She looked at Nidhogg with resentment. "People like you... people like you... you're all the same—detestable..."
Nidhogg knew the Queen Bee's backstory. He sympathized with Rosine. But he didn't pity her.
Perhaps every Apostle had a past so unbearable that they no longer wanted to be human.
But when they reincarnated as demons and became even worse—when they created more beings like themselves with tragic lives and killed more people to satisfy their own evil desires—there was no need for persuasion or communication.
Nidhogg indifferently raised the Queen and then, with one swing of his greatsword, cleaved her in two.