Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1) by Arthur Stone (top 5 books to read TXT) 📕

guess their degrees, but my sixth sense suggested that a serious fella like him wouldn’t let just anybody into his entourage.

So what did all of that mean?

For starters, that this wasn’t a pickle Treya was likely to get out of. Though I wasn’t privy to the backstory of what was happening, it seemed utterly obvious that the one I’d been forced to call ‘mother’ was going to be imminently attacked. And if I were a betting man, I’d go all-in on her opponents, as they were clearly the favorites in this fight.

So, on the upside, my dream was about to come true.

The bitch was going down at last.

On the downside, I was likely to go down right after her. Alas, that was just the way the local aristocrats operated. Once you commenced with a massacre, it was considered bad form to take pauses. The Crow Clan had already been an exception once, and a repeat violation of this rule was unlikely.

The one time was bad enough.

Was I scared? I wasn’t entirely sure. I had already died once, and I couldn’t say that the new life that followed had been a source of great joy. A part of me saw my impending death as liberation.

It’s settled, then. I’m not scared. In fact, I’m all for it.

But only under one condition.

I had to die after Treya. I would not be denied the pleasure of watching her bite the dust.

Not a moment sooner, you hear me?!

Meanwhile, the scene continued unfolding before me, the participants lacking the common courtesy to wait until my mind processed everything and drew the above conclusions.

“You mean too much to me to entrust our business to a third party,” Pence replied to mother’s ill-mannered greeting. “These are but night’s shadows, faceless and nameless. No, the final entry in the Crow Clan’s chronicles must be entered by my hand, and none other.”

“So that’s what the Emperor’s word is worth,” Treya spat out with scorn.

Pence shook his head.

“The Emperor has nothing to do with this, I’m afraid. Though I suspect he may be relieved to hear what happened here, it was not a desire he had expressed. The Crow aren’t much loved by too many factions. And for good reason.”

“Lady Treya had gone into exile, having given her word that she will never again become a mother,” Camai interjected. “Her death would be without purpose and without honor.”

That caught even me by surprise. When nobles spoke, those of Camai’s station were expected to hang on every word while keeping their own mouth shut. Voicing his objection was a gross violation of conduct, akin to a cleaning lady snatching the mic from the British Prime Minister during a meeting of the UN General Assembly.

Pence gave another shake of the head.

“Camai... I remember you well, old friend. You had shown promise. Yet, you’ve buried your own prospects, and that’s a shame. You’re not the first victim of this woman’s snares, but you will be the last.” He paused, then looked askance towards mother. “You see, going into exile meant that no one would see or hear her ever again. Writing letters wasn’t part of the deal. And considering the contents of said letters and their addressees, the whole notion of exile turns into a farce. She had already been shown mercy once. A great mercy. There shall not be a second time. Stand aside, Camai. You know full well that you cannot stop me. I do not require your death. I have come for Lady Treya and her degenerate spawn.”

He shouldn’t have said that last part. My mother was, on the whole, a patient woman. There was just one thing that could shatter her self-control in an instant.

Calling me a degenerate.

The hefty naginata spun in her fine delicate hand as if it weighed nothing at all.

At the same time, a flash of bright light escaped from mother’s other hand—so blinding that I had to shut my eyes.

What was it her servants had whispered about her? Their stories suggested that Treya’s magic could make her enemies’ eyes boil in their eyelids. I had always regarded such stories as shameless exaggeration at best, and pure balderdash at worst.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so dismissive.

Chapter 4 The Crow Clan’s Chi

Degrees of Enlightenment: Empty

Attributes: none

Skills: none

States: none

I didn’t know what kind of sorcery mother had flashed, only that it proved ineffective. As for her first attack with the naginata, I had missed it due to my eyes being closed, but that, too, had clearly missed the mark.

I opened my eyes to see Pence effortlessly dodging the fervently flickering blade. Moving as fast as lightning, he was nonetheless doing everything possible to show how amused—not threatened—he was by the attacks, doing everything short of scratching his ass in between the feverish sweeps and lunges executed by Treya at breathtaking speed.

Despite the utter loathing I felt for this wretch with every cell of my half-baked brain, I found myself admiring her fighting. Never would I have guessed that the mother of this pitiable body was capable of such feats. She fought with the agility and skill of a distinguished martial artist, and the grace of a professional ballerina.

Yet, she couldn’t push back Pence so much as an inch. Somehow the man kept moving in between the blades of a working propeller—always a fraction of a second ahead with a crouch, a sidestep, or a duck. He hadn’t even bothered unsheathing his sword, and his careless grin made the futility of mother’s efforts painfully obvious. At times, he seemed on the verge of roaring with glee.

Having apparently refused the gracious offer to stand aside, Camai was approaching Pence from the back, gauntleted hand gripping the hilt of his sword. Two years ago this warrior had needed but one swing of his