Volume 3, Chapter 24: Flander of Human Furniture④
「I-Impossible… 『Shelf』’s 『Decapitation Scissors』 is…!」
Flander still couldn’t believe that Lambert easily destroyed 『Shelf』’s trump card.
Slowly, color drained from his face as he saw such a scene.
Amongst the three human furniture pieces that he brought along this time, the strongest one was 『Shelf』.
If even 『Shelf』 was defeated, he literally screwed up.
「…Ah, w-what happened?」
Flander had already considered the option of retreating once he snapped back to reality.
The lower half of 『Shelf』 kept chasing after Lambert, while black-colored blood gushed out from the cross-section of her body.
Even Flander was really surprised by this.
The fact that『Shelf』’s lower half kept chasing after her enemy, even after being severed alive, was never in his design.
But as the first-rate white sorcerer who designed 『Shelf』, he understood the reason immediately.
‘Lucky… so she’s trying to protect me! This is divine punishment for destroying my work of art!’
Naturally, 『Shelf』’s lower half didn’t have a brain to think.
The reason why she was still chasing after Lambert despite losing her upper half was simply that there was still the residual order from her spinal cord.
The same phenomenon could be seen from demon beasts with extremely powerful lifeforces or bugs with extremely simple body structures.
But the overwhelming lifeforce that was borne from the fact that Flander experimenting on living people had created this phenomenon.
Naturally, this phenomenon wouldn’t last for too long.
Living beings with complex body structures would have a hard time moving once their organs were damaged.
The being called 『Shelf』 had already lost her unnecessary bodily functions, turning her into an armament called human furniture.
Nevertheless, she would reach her limit sooner or later.
But there was enough time for 『Shelf』’s lower half to rush at Lambert.
‘I… can survive! It’ll happen this time too. Heaven would never allow an artist like me to die. No matter what kind of blunder I make, I always escape from the worst possible outcome. Whenever the situation seems to be hopeless, heaven always saves me.’
Flander laughed with a stiffened look on his face.
His level of heavenly luck was an absolute truth.
‘I’m a genius after all! I’m an irreplaceable human! God must’ve been protecting me! This must be God’s message! He wants me to create more supreme works of art!’
In the next moment, Lambert rushed forward as he unleashed a slash behind him.
That slash severed 『Shelf』’s lower half again, bissecting it right down the middle and erasing the last trace of her life force as she fell on the ground.
However, Flander was so fixated on his fantasy of winning that he failed to notice this.
But then, he finally understood.
He definitely couldn’t win against Lambert.
Luck decided the outcome of their battle.
But the one who fought against him wasn’t the kind of enemy that could be defeated by luck alone.
Flander came to understand that his opponent was an even more outrageous existence.
In fact, Lambert was the main driving force behind Regios Kingdom’s victory in the Eight Countries Unification War. Trying to rely on mere heavenly luck against a man of Lambert’s caliber was nothing more than absolute foolishness.
「Alante! You might be able to escape this time, but you’re mistaken if you think that you can escape from Tony Lair. One of the so-called Eight Wisemen, 『Spinner of The Truth』 is nothing more than an imaginary figure; Tony Lair is the real monster. Moreover, with one of the Eight Wisemen, Le Look-sama of 『Laughing Clown』, returning to Tetomburgh, you have no way to escape from this land…!」
After Flander said this, the human furniture called 『Chair』—who had an ambiguous gender and whose body was twisted in a strange oval shape—quickly turned around and escaped from Lambert.
This 『Chair』 was Flander’s magnum opus amongst the human furniture that he created.
It wasn’t as elaborate as 『Shelf』, but its running speed was really fast.
The kicking power of its disheveled, long legs was comparable to the power of an ogre’s full swing.
「Struggle as much as you can! Only despair will await you!」
Running, 『Chair』 carried Flander away from Lambert.
Flander expected 『Chair』’s running speed to surpass that of Lambert, who wore full-plate armor, but it was nothing more than a fleeting wish.
‘Dammit… to think that I was forced to escape with my tail between my legs!’
Flander gritted his teeth, desperately suppressing his anger.
‘But I will definitely kill that armored swordsman the next time we meet… Considering his frame, physical strength, and range of attack, I have to prepare special human furniture. I should be able to do that. I’m a genius after all. That’s why I need more humans. Tetomburgh has proven itself as a good test site, but…’
Suddenly, Flander’s ears heard heavy footsteps.
When Flander turned around, Lambert was already in hot pursuit, steadily closing in on the 『Chair』 that was carrying Flander.
He was slowly but surely closing the distance between him and 『Chair』, which meant that Lambert’s running speed was superior.
It was another unbelieveable spectacle for Flander.
How could someone who wore such massive and bulky-looking full-plate armor run even faster than his greatest masterpiece in terms of speed—not to mention while swinging around a greatsword on top of that?
「M-MONSTER! S-STAY AWAY FROM ME—!」
Flander put his hand into 『Chair』’s mouth.
『Chair』 suddenly raised an indescribable scream the moment Flander’s arm entered his mouth.
And when he pulled out his arm, he already held a cane in his hand.
‘I need to buy some time first. Aim for his feet to slow him down…! Now that he is chasing after me, he should be neglecting his defe— Ah?’
Flander then noticed that his right arm had already fallen on the ground along with his cane.
It was rolling on the ground, scattering fresh blood on the ground.
At that moment, the moment Flander took his cane from 『Chair』, he made a grave mistake by looking away from Lambert, who was chasing after him.
And Lambert didn’t miss that chance to close in on Flander.
Lambert had already readied his greatsword right next to Flander, who was still looking at his severed arm with a dumbfounded look on his face.
「M-M… MY ARM… MY ARM! I-I STILL HAVE TO CREATE MORE WORKS OF ART! THAT’S WHY, WITHOUT MY ARM…! T-TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND QUICKLY! FASTER FASTER FASTER, DAMMIT! LOSING MY ARM IS THE GREATEST LOSS OF THIS WORLD! SOMEONE, MY A—!」
Lambert ignored Flander’s rambling and unleashed two slashes.
Flander’s body that was riding on the 『Chair』 was bissected in half.
His innards spilled from the cross-section.
At the same time, the 『Chair』 that was carrying him toppled over and started to vomit blood.