After killing Liver, Aaron immediately deactivated his Incursio transformation.
He looked at the headless corpse on the ground, speechless.
Maybe his previous fights had been too smooth... Well, calling them 'smooth' when he was always coughing up blood was a bit weird.
It was more that his previous Teigu user opponents either had no teammates or had some integrity.
A Teigu user like Liver, who had teammates but zero integrity, was truly rare.
Niou wasn't even dead, and Liver used the Black Marlin's ability to drain him dry through the wounds Kiana had made.
But thinking about it, in the original story, Liver was willing to give his own life for Esdeath. So him sacrificing his teammates for Esdeath... actually seemed completely in character.
"Aaron..."
After taking off her earplugs, Kiana looked at her companion and said softly:
"I'm sorry. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have had to use that move."
"Don't overthink it. That move was unexpected—before the fight, I never imagined this guy would be so depraved."
With a soft sigh, Aaron walked over to the three bodies and collected their Teigu into his storage space.
"Under normal circumstances, the cloak I strengthened for you would have been more than enough for this fight."
"And that guy's Blades of Blood... normally, he'd have to conserve his own combat strength, so he couldn't use too much of his own blood."
"And I have Incursio, while you have your Noble Phantasm cloak plus [Spectator]. Even if he aimed for your exposed skin, you could have dodged it with your reaction speed."
"Him using his comrades' bodies to attack was a complete accident. And that accident happened because I misjudged his personality."
"If anything, I should be the one apologizing to you. I almost got my teammate killed just for the sake of 'gaining experience.' I'm sorry."
"...You... you always take all the blame on yourself."
Taking off her mask, Kiana looked at Aaron with a trace of dissatisfaction.
"It was the same last time at the river. You felt sorry for dragging me into this... but I never thought that way at all."
"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have gotten stronger. And this time, if you hadn't planned ahead, we would have had a much harder time against these three."
"Stop carrying all the responsibility on your shoulders all day and completely ignoring your own contributions."
"Aaron, you're already doing great. Who can guarantee they'll be flawless... I feel like if you keep this up, you're going to drive yourself crazy."
"No. If there's a flaw, you have to admit it. Only by knowing your mistakes can you know how to avoid the danger next time."
"Wait, what are you doing..."
"This time, I really did miscalculate Liver's resolve, and it forced me to use my trump card early. If I make that mistake again... next time, I might be the one on the ground."
"That's why I'm asking what you're doing!"
Seeing Aaron take gasoline and a lighter from his storage space, Kiana's tone suddenly became uneasy.
"The... the f-f-fight is already over, right?"
"Yeah. That's why I have to destroy the evidence."
Calmly dousing the three bodies in gasoline, Aaron spoke to Kiana with perfect composure.
"We fought these three. The wounds on their bodies inevitably contain 'traces' of our fight. For a combat expert, these traces can be used to deduce some of our fighting methods."
"I don't think Esdeath would go out of her way to investigate, but with her experience, she might be able to make a preliminary judgment just by glancing at the bodies."
"Letting the enemy know your fighting style... Look, these three are the best possible examples of what not to do."
After finishing with the gasoline, Aaron opened the lighter, tossed it onto Liver's body, and said to Kiana with an indifferent tone:
"I don't want you to be in danger again because of an avoidable mistake."
"I... I see... This lady understands..."
Kiana, who had wanted to ask, "Isn't this going too far?" ultimately swallowed her words.
Although she felt that defeating them and taking their lives was already too much, and destroying the bodies was even worse... considering they had just been seriously trying to kill them...
*Whatever. It's better not to get hung up on these things at a time like this.*
*Aaron is doing this for my sake. The only thing I can do is not get in his way over trivial matters.*
"But Aaron, I have a question. This time, I was vulnerable because the cloak doesn't cover enough. So maybe next time..."
"Wake up. This situation was special. Liver's Blades of Blood, with enough blood, could attack your exposed skin and defensive blind spots from all angles. And it was poisoned. That's why the Noble Phantasm cloak wasn't effective."
"In a normal fight, the cloak is lighter and provides more coverage, which is practical enough. As for it being inconvenient for wielding weapons... you use guns, so that's basically a non-issue for you."
"There's no need to change an advantageous setup just because of one special case. Excessive caution isn't caution at all."
*Wow, he even thought of that?*
*Just how many details does Aaron think about when he's not fighting...*
At the same time, Aaron stared at the flames on the ground, waiting silently for several seconds.
*System?*
*System?*
*Sys?*
*Dammit. Looks like it's really not responding.*
*No response means I'm not 'out of combat.' Not out of combat means there might be another enemy nearby.*
*Someone who could become an enemy... Someone related to the Three Beasts...*
*Wait. Does that mean...*
*Damn it, damn it, damn it! Esdeath isn't nearby, is she?!*
........