Don't force me to use my right fist.

When the ghoul was about to turn around, they found that only its head had turned, while its body had slumped forward limply.

"I'm not resigned to this! I want to live!"

Even though all that was left was a head, the monster, still shouting with great vigor, opened its mouth as if it wanted to tear a piece of flesh off Saku even in death.

"Very good, you speak with great energy, but so what?"

Another flash of sword light, and the biting head was split in two. Contrary to Sayu's expectations of a bloody spray, only a stream of blood splattered directly onto him.

Zuo You shook the blood off his hands, glanced at the headless corpse that was still trying to crawl forward, took out a flint and steel, and right-clicked on it.

Flames engulfed the poor ghoul's corpse, eventually burning him to ashes.

When Saya turned around, he saw Saya, who had already fainted.

Well, thinking about it, that makes sense. It's not something most people could accept, let alone a naive little girl like her, to witness a decapitation and spurting blood right in front of them.

Although her true form is a terrifying monster, she is still a kind-hearted girl at heart.

Sōyū even suspected that the day she reappeared in front of him in her true form, all he needed to do was stand in front of her with a mirror, and she would be able to scare herself unconscious.

However, fainting at this time might not be such a bad thing.

At least Saya doesn't need to explain this or that to her. He can just find a safe place and casually tell her that he had a nightmare or something. Given her personality, she probably won't suspect anything.

That's what's interesting about naive girls—they're so easy to fool. The only thing that disappointed Sawa was that this monster was even poorer than Sadako; it didn't drop anything for him, and didn't even give him a single bit of experience.

He'd thought this tactical anomaly might have some good stuff, but it turned out to be such a disappointment. Saga sighed, preparing to walk towards Saya to take her to a safer place. But to his surprise, he found himself suddenly bound by familiar chains. A silver-haired girl stood before him, holding a pocket watch, and gave him a mocking smile.

"So you're the Headless Rider, Saya-kun?"

The sky-blue pupils stared into Sawa's eyes, which were hidden by the pumpkin head. Renya, who had been observing from the shadows, never imagined that instead of catching the vampire, she would learn something even more interesting. She had said that the boy who had stopped talking after seeing her looked strangely familiar.

Chapter 119 Is this even a big deal?

What are you saying? I don't understand a single word!

Sawa looked away guiltily. Although he knew the people from the brewery were nearby, who would have thought that this guy was lying in ambush right here?

Luckily, he had the pumpkin head with him. As long as he denied it, he might be able to get away with it.

Of course, that's assuming he can break free of the chains binding him. He still has half of that thing in his backpack, something called a prototype Heaven's Lock. It would indeed take some time to open it. Most importantly, if the guy opposite him doesn't agree, even if he breaks free, it'll be useless.

"Saku-kun, you don't need to make excuses anymore. I've been there much longer than you think. In fact, if you hadn't stepped in, I should have been the one playing the hero."

He helped Saya, who was still unconscious, lean against a nearby bench. Renya dusted off his hands and walked over to Saya.

Saya heard every single word that Saya said to Saya, and naturally, she learned Saya's true identity.

"Wow, I just put up a flag, and they took it down right there and then?"

Saya was a bit of a headache. How could he be such a jinx? Whatever he said came true. Saya's shout really did expose his true identity to the last person who should have heard it.

"You should be glad that I'm the one who heard this, not my boss Qingjiu, who is filled with hatred for weirdos like you." She casually picked up a small silver knife and tapped it against Saya's diamond armor. Lianye's face was unreadable.

Is there any difference?

Instead of breaking free of the chains, Zuoyou looked at Lianye, who had spoken. Judging from her words, wasn't she in cahoots with Qingjiu? Lianye snapped her fingers and extended the small knife in her hand toward the connection between the pumpkin and the thief's armor on Zuoyou's head.

"Take that thing off your head. Was it welded on?"

After trying to pry open the pumpkin for half a day without success in the time-stopped space, Renya forcefully knocked on the hard pumpkin that didn't look like a pumpkin at all. Asawasayu complained.

"No, this is better." Zuoyou shook his head. This thing is either worn the whole time, or you don't bring any of it at all.

"If you turn into a headless, zombie-like knight in the future, don't blame me."

Glancing sideways at the ghoul that had been burned to ashes by Saya, Renya said nonchalantly to Saya.

"Zombies?"

Upon hearing this, Zuoyou glanced at his status bar and indeed saw a negative status called [Infection].

"To be precise, it's necrosis. These things are highly infectious. Even if it's just blood, if it's not treated in time, once you start to transform, it will be very difficult to control." Lianye stopped halfway through her sentence because she saw the guy who should have been bound by the prototype Heaven's Lock slurping up milk that had appeared out of thin air in the bucket.

What's even more outrageous is that he's drinking from a pumpkin head! He doesn't even have a mouth!

Not a single drop of milk was wasted. Zuo You wiped his mouth with his virtual hand, thinking it was something serious. As long as it's a buff, it's not a big deal.

"Go on, why are you looking at me?"

Saya glanced at Renya, who seemed stunned. Since she had thought to remind him of this, it meant there was definitely room for negotiation. In that case, there was no need to be so nervous.

What did you do?

He narrowed his eyes and took two steps back. If Sōyū could make that milk-drinking motion, it meant that he could probably ignore the chains that attacked him.

"I've removed that state you mentioned. You didn't really expect me to become a Dead Apostle, did you?" Saya, bound like a dumpling, tried to shrug, but could only wriggle a couple of times.

"Resolve it? It depends on what you just drank, the milk?"

Renya was certain that Saya was drinking milk; the taste was exactly the same as what she usually prepared for the young lady in the mornings. Saya waved her hand. It might seem incomprehensible to others, but it was the truth.

"You really are quite strange."

Lianye's lips twitched; this guy was even more bizarre than she had imagined.

"That's strange enough, but why are you grabbing me? If you want to grab me, can't you just give me a quick death?"

Sōyu stared at her helplessly. Due to their incompatible personalities, he was completely restrained by this person's abilities.

After much thought, Saya realized she didn't have a single item in her backpack that could handle the head maid who could stop time, so she simply gave up resisting. She figured she'd talk things out first. Renya narrowed her eyes and voiced her doubts; she was certain this was what Haruka most wanted to know.

"How many times have I told you? I'm human, not some kind of monster. You can't just stop treating me like a human because my abilities are a little special, can you?"

Saya weakly tried to explain, wondering why everyone at the brewery was treating him like he wasn't human. Saya grumbled irritably, but then he saw the silver-haired girl's eyes suddenly sharpen.

"How did you know my ability is time stop? I don't think I've ever told you about this before?"

A hint of bloodlust appeared in his sky-blue eyes, and Lianye's aura seemed to have transformed completely. "...If I said I found out through your pocket watch, would you believe me?" Sawa gave an awkward smile. He had truly forgotten this; time-stopping abilities, if not actively revealed, would require a tremendous price to be paid just to obtain this information. Think of the price that invincible man paid to know what Dio's abilities were—it cost someone his life.

"You have more and more secrets about you."

Taking a deep breath, Lianye suppressed the crimson tinge in his eyes with rationality, and then curiously gestured with the knife on Zuoyou's body as if to say something.

"As for why you are a monster and I am, the reason is quite simple." Renya pointed the knife at the pumpkin on Saya's head.

"Because according to the Catalogue of Forbidden Books, you are not human at all, but just a monster with a human appearance."

"Index of Forbidden Books? What's that? Erotic novels?" Sōyū's expression turned strange again. Was that even a valid reason?

"You don't need to know what it is, you just need to know that the conclusion she draws is correct."

Lianye didn't explain much to Zuoyou. He threw the throwing knife in his hand, which stuck into the pumpkin on Zuoyou's head, before nodding with interest.

Looks like it really is a pumpkin that's been put on. I thought it was Saya's head that had been transformed.

Chapter 120 Returning a Favor

"So, based on this ridiculous reason, you deny me my qualifications as a human being? I haven't done anything heinous or immoral yet, have I?"

Sōyu ignored her throwing the knife at his head and instead questioned her seriously.

"This isn't some ridiculous reason, and you wouldn't really understand even if I explained it to you. In short, even if you're not harming anyone right now, as long as you're labeled as an anomaly, people will assume you're doing this for some nefarious purpose." Renya shook his head and pulled the dagger from Saya's head.

"And although I don't care about these things, the fact is that it happened right before my eyes, so I'm temporarily convinced of this reason."

With his arms crossed over his shoulders, Lianye put the throwing knife away.

"To be honest, I don't understand what you're talking about at all. Can we just talk openly? Being a riddle-taker isn't good for either of us, right?" whl

Saya frowned. Does something strange necessarily mean it's bad? What kind of judgment method did Saya use to arrive at such a conclusion?

"What I mean is, for the sake of my job, I need to bring you back to the winery. What happens after that is none of my business, but I think Jingjiu will be quite happy."

Lianye shook his head, but quickly changed his tone.

"But you did save me once, and I don't want to owe anyone anything, so I choose to believe you this time." whl

Renya walked up to Saya and unlocked the prototype Heavenly Lock that bound him.

"You can't even lift a finger to get me?" Sōyū moved his arms, which were still a little sore from being tied up, and tilted his head to look at the silver-haired girl.

"I won't reveal your identity now, but if you do anything to harm others later, I will personally come and deal with you." Lianye lowered his head and thought for a moment before threatening Ruozao.

If this guy hadn't actually escaped from the distillery and hadn't been completely undisturbed, spending all his time defeating monsters and protecting others, then even if he were her savior, things would be different.

"However, I'm still a little worried. How about you show some sincerity?" As Saya went to check on Naoya, Eya called out to him again.

"Sincerity?"

"I think the reason you're here isn't for that girl over there, right? Judging from your logic, it's probably for these dead people, isn't it?" whl

After glancing at the man's corpse, which had been burned to ashes, Lianye stated his deduction.

"Although I don't know why you're so keen on defeating the monsters, if we come here this way, our goals are the same. The distillery has already dealt with most of the dead here. There's nothing else for you to do if you go there."

"However, there's a big fish behind this. I don't know if you're interested." Wihl narrowed his eyes.

"I don't know if you have any methods for locating anomalies, but if you can find out who's behind these deaths, then..." Ye's thoughts differ from Qingji's. After all, she hasn't suffered the same kind of trauma as him, and besides, her father is also considered an anomaly. She doesn't see anything wrong with cooperating with an anomaly like Saya.

What's wrong with a win-win situation where both parties benefit from each other?

"Making these weird... weird?" Sawa scratched his head. He thought it was the same thing as before, but it turned out that these weird things were all made.

"Yes. You just felt its infectious ability too. They are just corpses that were killed and then resurrected. But even so, they still have the ability to turn others into the same monsters. The Distillery cannot allow such a strange thing to exist." Lianye nodded. Actually, there was something she didn't say. That was that this guy, which the Distillery also defined as a vampire, was completely different from any other vampire she had ever seen.

Leaving aside the True Ancestor level, even her father wouldn't create so many Familia, and he viewed humans merely as a self-service bread seller.

"Now that you mention it, I'm actually quite interested. So you mean I should go find this guy and take him down?"

Sōyū pinched his chin. This guy, who would become a source of infection if left unchecked, had indeed caught his attention. Whatever the reason, this strangeness could not be allowed to continue.

Tokyo is such a small place. If Wan Yuchuan Yi or Saya are unlucky enough to run into this kind of guy, he can't possibly be nearby every time.

However, there was one thing that Jieye guessed wrong: Sawa didn't have any ability to eliminate strange things. The previous times could only be said to be coincidences. Even if there was a traitor this time, he almost went astray and ended up in another place.

"That's pretty much it. If you can do that, I promise you I will never reveal your true identity to anyone. I imagine you're getting restless from not saying a word in class."

"What if I fail to do it?"