Текст книги "Overlord - The Man in the Kingdom - Part 2"

Автор книги: Maruyama Kugane

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Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 17 страниц)

“Ah, must resist eating. I must, I must.”

With a ‘bop’ sound, she gently knocked herself on the head, and brought the severed hand of a man to the area below her chin. The man’s hand then disappeared with a ‘chomp chomp chomp’ sound as Entoma’s throat continuously moved. Her expression was extremely cute, but the smell of blood had also slowly spread out.

“Women’s fat is soft and the meat tastes delicious. Children’s fat is thin, and the meat tastes great as well. But, ah, the best is of course the textured meat of men.”

She nimbly avoided the bones as she ate, then threw the rest of the hand into the mansion.

“Thank you for the meal!”

She bowed in the direction of the mansion, and, in order not to be late, she began to head off to her destination in accordance with her orders. However she had not taken many steps when a nearby sound made her stop.

“Yo. It is a beautiful night, is it not?”

“...Tonight is a beautiful night indeed, but I gather it isn’t so wonderful for you?”

It was unclear whether the one who slowly revealed herself was a man or a woman. Although it felt like she was a woman, her physique was that of a man.

“You, what are you doing here?”

“Taking a walk.”

“...You, what was it that you ate so eagerly just now??”

“Meat.”

“...Human meat?”

The manwoman’s voice was as cold as ice, yet Entoma was not fazed at all. She didn’t care what kind of emotions humans harboured against her. If they dared to interfere, they would be crushed; If they did not, they would be ignored. If she were hungry, they would be caught for food. For Entoma, this was all their existence amounted to.

Slowly, the manwoman lifted her war pick. After seeing this action, Entoma spoke in a troubled voice for the first time.

“Then, have we met before?”

The manwoman had an incredulous expression, and thought to herself “Could that be?”, but did not voice this out loud.

“I am here because of work. Having you as my opponent will be troublesome, and moreover my stomach is full right now.”

“...Please excuse me. I am one of the Kingdom’s top-class adventurers. Upon encountering a man-eating monster, I cannot allow you to get away. Your continued existence in the human world is a problem.”

“Ah, so troublesome. But you are strong. In that case I’ll turn you into preserved food.

For the first time Entoma looked straight at the manwoman.

She couldn’t help thinking that this was a powerful warrior.

Mm, yes, definitely very strong.

Entoma was not a pure warrior, so she had no means to assess the strength of her opponent. However, she did not consider the other side to be stronger than herself.

“Oriyaaa!”

The manwoman darted over, and sent her war pick crashing downwards.

Entoma elegantly dodged the attack. But a follow-up attack immediately pursued her, with the war pick making a significant change in direction mid-swing, heading straight for Entoma. This movement was not a smooth blow relying on centrifugal force, but was instead a move purely based on an illogical amount of brute force.

Once again Entoma flashed out of the way, and activated her special ability.

“Ah!? Do you only know how to run?”

The war pick began rotating, creating a large vortex of wind which circulated above the manwoman’s head, ruffling her hair.

“Heh, do you like to spin things around and make woosh woosh sounds?”

The manwoman clicked her tongue in response to this jeering. When Entoma once again activated her skill, the hammer swung downwards from above. With some difficulty she managed to dodge and the war pick buried itself deeply into the ground after missing its target.

Entoma laughed at her using the same move. Her expression did not change, and the mocking gesture exposed their difference in strength.

That manwoman caught onto the overwhelmingly powerful Entoma’s carelessness.

“Get crushed!”

Having the spiked war pick as the epicentre, the surrounding ground began to collapse, or rather, the rocks scattered. It was like an earthquake had occurred. For the first time, Entoma was unable to maintain a leisurely posture, but the effect of the opponent’s magic item did not collapse everything.

Entoma saw the opponent uproot the sunken war pick.

She could not help getting annoyed.

She cursed her own carelessness.

Avoiding that previous attack had been incredibly easy. Humans would find it very difficult to escape the earth-shattering shock waves because the collapse of the surrounding ground would result in a loss of balance. However Entoma was a battle maid and all the magic items she possessed were high-class. This degree of destruction was insignificant to her.

However, there was one problem.

While avoiding the flying debris, the maid outfit she wore had become dirty.

Could such a matter be forgiven? This was high-class clothing bestowed to Entoma by the Supreme Beings.

So– it ends here then.

Hostility hidden under the mask of Entoma’s face emerged.

It ends here.

—Kill.

She embraced murderous intent, not the type of emotion that humans had when toying with insects. The war pick swung heavily towards Entoma.

Entoma thoughtlessly raised her left hand to block the hammer. Since she was not at the level of the Floor Guardians, simply using her left hand to block the hammer could not possibly leave her unscathed.

Then, at the moment of contact, the sound that rang out was not metal hitting flesh but rather the sound of metal colliding with a hard object.

A shield was attached to Entoma’s left hand. This was not an exaggerated metaphor. An eight legged insect had attached itself to Entoma’s wrist.

“Wh-what is this!”

“You see, I’m an entomomancer. So I can summon and use them at my will.”

She stretched out her right hand and an insect flew out from the darkness. A long bug resembling a broadsword attached itself to the back of Entoma’s right hand.

“These are blade insect and armoured insect. I originally did not plan to kill you, but you cannot be forgiven!”

Entoma took a step forward and thrust out her blade.

The manwoman’s armour cracked and blood spewed out, but this was far from being a fatal wound. She was completely unable to avoid Entoma’s serious blow but had only suffered a minor injury.

She had just declared herself to be a highest-class warrior of the Kingdom, and this was not an exaggeration. At her level, there were no longer any adversaries.

Although Entoma was not purely a warrior like Yuri, she was still a battle maid and possessed a strength far out of reach for humans.

She once again launched a slash, causing blood to spew and staining her cheeks.

This time the attack caused a wound much larger than the previous one, and was no longer a minor injury.

“Your movements changed! Is this the real you?!”

Manwoman roared again, swinging the war pick heavily downwards. However Entoma’s armoured beetle repelled the hammer. The powerful impact travelled across the manwoman’s entire body, rendering her unable to take a single step even with her full strength. As she struggled to move, her pride ignited fierce anger within her.

The manwoman mustered the burning rage within her, smoothly launching a combination of strikes. Her attacks raged like a violent tornado. The terrifying aspect of this was that it was created through the application of ‘martial arts’ unique to this world. However, Entoma wielded her armoured beetle and blade insect with extreme proficiency, and was completely uninjured by this fifteen-combo attack.

Entoma did not know that the previous attack was Blue Rose Gagaran’s slaying move which utilised many kinds of martial arts at the same time– a Super Combo. Each surging strike had the weight of her full strength. It was capable of even breaking the martial art ‘Fortress’, and only a small number of geniuses could use the defensive skill ‘Invulnerable Fortress’ which could resist this attack. However Entoma had only relied on her naturally grown muscles to block.

This was because of the level gap between the two individuals, and also due to the absolutely overwhelming disparity between the two race’s physical capabilities.

Desperation emerged in her opponent’s eyes, but Entoma felt nothing. She only wished to kill the opponent.

"—Fuuuu~"

The manwoman gasped for air as if she had just surfaced from underwater and stopped her flurry of attacks. The blade insect on Entoma’s right hand drew back like a bow and flew towards the manwoman’s chest like an arrow.

The target was Gagaran’s chest. The war pick rose in the air, but was as slow as a turtle. Entoma’s attack pierced Gagaran’s chest before she could respond to it.

Or so it was supposed to.

The sword cut through the air. Since the blade insect lost its target, it flew into the night.

With a “fuu”, Entoma turned her gaze to search for the intruder that had caused the interruption.

In the distance there was a girl clothed in black. Behind her was the heavily breathing manwoman.

“I’m sorry, Tia. I thought I was done for.”

“Surprisingly, it seems that the blood flowing through Gagaran really is red~”

“You rascal! You’ve seen me injured many times before!”

“I even thought you would bleed green blood. Power Up!”

“Rather than ‘Powerup’ that would be more like a race change!”

“Class change then!”

Hearing their relaxed conversation, Entoma could not help but feel anxious. As a powerful adversary herself, it was necessary to clearly demonstrate the difference in strength at a glance whilst at the same time quickly defining her own position.

“Well, it’s about time to end this. Did you say your farewells?”

For the first time, Entoma assumed a fighting posture. The manwoman – Gagaran – was not a frightening adversary; the problem was the newcomer– Tia. If her clothing was not that of an assassin, then it was that of a ninja. The pre-requisite of that job class was level sixty.

If she really was a ninja, then even Entoma would not be able to obtain an easy victory. Now was not the time to be saying “Ending this fight by holding back on full strength!”

“「Spider Talisman」!”

Entoma’s movements were even faster than the opponent as she activated the four pieces of talisman held in her right hand.

The moment the talisman fell onto the ground, it turned into an enormous spider.

The level of this spell was equivalent to a ‘3^rd tier Summon Monster’ spell, because the creature summoned was not a powerful monster, but would already be a great help in testing the opponent’s true strength. Furthermore it would allow her to buy some time to prepare for battle.

Although insect-made weapons were powerful, they had many weaknesses. One was that the weapon summoning consumed a large amount of time.

“「Shadow Clone」.”

Just as Tia’s ninjutsu skill activated, her image shimmered and another ‘Tia’ appeared in the original spot.

All this time Entoma had been wary of Tia. Clones from the ‘Shadow Clone’ skill had roughly one quarter of the original body’s battle power, but only the shadow’s evading ability was determined by the amount of magic power granted to it by the main body, nothing more. This shadow might be a strong opponent for the talisman spider, but for Entoma it was a piece of cake.

However, the real problem was how well the original body was capable of fighting. Entoma summoned her killer weapon– steel projectile insects. At the same time, she attached a talisman to herself and began to strengthen her ability.

Steel projectile insects flew out from an unknown spot and densely covered her left wrist.

These were three centimetre long insects that had a metallic shine, with a triangle-shaped body and razor sharp tip. Its appearance was very similar to that of a bullet. As for this insect’s use, of course, was consistent with its bullet-like form.

In order to avoid the talisman spider’s attacks, the shadow clone had to use its full strength, and the main body had to join the fight alongside the clone. After a long while of battling like this, they only managed to kill one talisman spider, so it seemed that her level was not any higher than Entoma’s. If this was the case, even if the battle against Gagaran were to resume, victory would still be certain.

—Looks like it’s all as I had predicted.

No mercy. Using overwhelming strength to bring about a speedy victory.

The heaviness on her left hand brought satisfaction to Entoma and she pointed directly at Tia.

Entoma’s left wrist was several times thicker than normal because of the bugs covering it. Following her movement, all of the insects began to move in unison from her wrist, rushing into the sky. Gathering into groups, the insects’ wings gave off a sound similar to an automatic gun. Even the ally talisman spider which was within firing range was ruthlessly mowed down, and within a moment, a total of one hundred and fifty insects made their way towards Tia.

A single insect was enough to puncture steel, and these one hundred and fifty insects could even pierce through a gigantic tree. In the face of this deadly barrage of bullets, Tia activated her ninjutsu.

“「Immovable Adamantine Shield」!”

A large shield radiating with multiple colours appeared in front of Tia. This radiance was enough to split apart the large dark hexagonal shield, creating a collision with the insect swarm. In an instant, the shield shattered with a crisp sound, but also at this moment the insect bulletstorm stagnated, and Tia who was standing behind was uninjured.

Entoma couldn’t resist but metaphorically click her tongue even though she didn’t actually possess one. Forcing her opponents to reveal their hidden trump cards one by one would eventually illuminate the path to victory. Although her current attacks were being dealt with for now,  the moment her attack pierces through, they would be swept away like a flood from a broken dyke.

She used the blade insect to deflect the incoming kunai and the insect shield was then used to defend against Gagaran’s blow which came from above. It was an exceptionally mighty blow which descended from above, causing significant damage to the armored bug which screeched out in pain.

Her eyes should have been blinded because of the dazzling light given off by the adamantite shield, and therefore it should have been impossible to defend against Gagaran’s surprise attack. However Entoma’s eyes were not affected by something of this degree. Her field of vision was wider than that of humans, and was able to cover the direction of this attack.

At the same moment that she determined this pursuing attack to be incredibly dangerous, her body glided away as if she was on top of a lake – seemingly without even moving her feet, her body had already pulled a considerable distance away from Gagaran. Although Gagaran possessed a large physique, her movements were lithe and she had almost completely recovered from her wounds. She stood beside Tia, crushing the steel bullet insects which made bursting sounds, as she spoke in a cold voice:

“This isn’t good; I’m not sure if we can win against her. What was that just now? Wasn’t our timing perfect? She was obviously unable to see in this direction, yet was still able to block.”

“A wide field of vision perhaps?”

“Rather than that, it seems more plausible that there are other reasons though. She has insect abilities, so it seems more likely that she used some kind of special sensory magic… Speaking of which, she possesses an overwhelming advantage. Why didn’t she attack us while we were talking?

“Only a true predator would go for the kill after determining the opponent’s true strength.”

“So that’s it. She’s waiting to see the true extent of our strength, very different to our chibi-chan. This cautious fellow really is a troublesome.”

“To be made light of by mere humans to such an extent is really distasteful. Well, there are other reasons but… Hora, come forth. In that case these insects aren’t needed anymore.”

The insects attached to Entoma’s right wrist dropped to the ground one after another, and disappeared into the darkness with a rustling noise.

“In place of that... Come forth.”

An insect as long as a centipede slowly wrapped around her wrist. Its body length was over ten metres long, the front end had abnormally sharp teeth and its eyes were still closed.

This was the strongest insect that she, an entomomancer, could summon – the thousand whips insect.

Entoma put strength in both her legs. She had already figured out the attack speed, offensive ability, defensive ability, evasive ability and movement speed of the two humans before her. Although she was not too certain about Tia’s ability to adapt to new situations, it was not enough to frighten her.

“Ah.”

Entoma used her hand to touch her chin, which was covered in transparent sticky fluid.

“Earlier, my stomach was definitely full. After a bit of exercise, it’s beginning to squeeze in hunger.”

Stuck on her hand was her saliva. This was the clearest evidence that she craved humans as her prey.

Humans were her favourite food. Until this moment, she had only been able to feast on vegetable fritters in order to satisfy her desires, but of course she did not come to hate the Supreme Being because of this. Furthermore, she was given permission to eat one of the human wrists which had been severed during the healing experiments, taken from a man who had been nabbed from a random village. She thought of this as a personal sign of great kindness from Ainz-sama.

For Entoma who had been restraining herself all along, the elite humans in front of her were food of the highest quality. She could not simply discard them without taking a single bite first!

The two persons who were bathed in Entoma’s ravenous gaze could not help but shudder. This was not the timid reaction of facing a powerful enemy’s murderous intent, but rather the naturally-occurring psychological aversion of being seen as a living creature’s predatorial target. And this made them shiver involuntarily.

“Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!”

Her high-pitched screech was as fast as the sound of a snapping styrofoam board. This was the first time that Entoma had initiated an attack since the beginning of the battle. As a predator in the act of capturing her prey, she charged directly at an incredibly fast speed.

She used the insect shield to block six consecutively launched kunai, and drew close to her targets.

When she saw Gagaran swinging her weapon and stepping forward to stand as the vanguard, Entoma had already decided which opponent she would deprive of their combat ability first.

Her right hand brandished a whip. If it were a long whip, the speed of the whip’s end would be relatively slow. This was to be expected even if it was used by Entoma who possessed superhuman strength. However this was only logical if what was brandished was an ordinary whip.

The being that was waved around was the most powerful insect the entomomancer Entoma could summon—

Originally it was supposed to be a whip with the rough shape of an arc, but it turned out to shoot out at an unimaginable angle. This whip was like an extension of Entoma’s hand, and bent in an S shape, before it launched at Gagaran with the speed of lightning.

It was a living creature at the same time as it was a weapon, and struck in an unnatural way for a weapon. Even greatly experienced adventurers had never heard of this, let alone experienced facing it before. When seeing it for the first time, not knowing what to do was the natural reaction.

But the fact they could dodge it proved they were indeed adamantite adventurers.

The insect whip was about to hit the side of Gagaran’s body, however she stumbled to avoid the attack.

“Be careful!”

—Accompanying Tia’s loud yell, Gagaran was blown upwards. This was Tia’s ninjutsu skill – ‘Bursting Flame Column’. The seemingly self-imploding explosion and flames encircled the two, and the thousand whips insect, which had done a one-eighty degree change in direction from behind Gagaran, only managed to strike the spot where her head had been.

If it hadn’t been for this almost suicidal move, there was no doubt that Gagaran’s head would have been pierced  by the thousand whips insect. It was a great dodge. However, Entoma’s attack wasn’t finished. As if it was being pulled by strings, the thousand whips insect attacked from angles that were hard to defend against, changing constantly as it took cheap shots at Gagaran.

At the same time, Entoma threw a talisman at Tia – a thunderbird  talisman.

In mid-air, the talisman turned into a small bird that emitted bluish-white electricity, and sprang towards Tia.

If there were two opponents, let one of them be taken care of by the insects. This was where the strengths of entomomancers lay.

There was an explosion of lightning, and the blue-white radiance spread in all directions. What emerged were Tia, who was enduring her pain, and Gagaran, who was having a hard time fending off the thousand whips insect.

“Dammit! This insect is really annoying!”

Gagaran’s head was pushed against her war pick, and her body was wrapped up by the ten meter long insect in a way that rendered her unable to move.

Tia took a step forward and stabbed with her magic dagger. The strike collided with Entoma’s insect shield and let out a fierce metallic sound.

“Flurry of thunderbird talismans~”

Entoma held a number of talismans in her left hand and tossed them outwards. The talismans turned into many thunderbirds which were smaller than the previous one. They rushed towards Tia, who proceeded to conceal herself. Unable to find their target, the small birds flew in the direction behind Tia.

Tia suddenly appeared behind Entoma from a shadow out of her line of sight. This was an ability which utilised shadows to traverse short distances. However Entoma had already noticed this because some insects’ antennae could sense the surrounding airflow. This was a powerful sensing ability which Entoma possessed.

She tossed the remaining few steel bullet insects at Tia who emerged from the shadow.

“Ku...!”

A pained groan came from the shadow and the smell of fresh blood wafted in the air. Facing Tia, who was bloodied but still held the will to fight, Entoma initiated her follow-up attack.

“Scattering explosion talisman!”

Even more powerful explosions than before appeared in front of Tia, lighting up the dark night. Against Tia who had been blown away and fallen on the floor, Entoma once again threw a sharp cutting talisman and a rushing wind talisman. Tia was covered in blood and didn’t even have the time to get up before she was sliced again, blown away and thrown on the ground.

“Tia! You insect bitch!”

The condemning voice came from Gagaran, who was wound tightly into a ball by the whip insect.

Their original plan was that while Gagaran used her brute strength to restrain the whip insect, Tia would seize the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on Entoma’s main body.

Entoma ridiculed this under her mask.

Such foolish beings. As a battle maid of the Great Tomb of Nazarick, triumphing over humans of this level was only to be expected. The best option for them should have been ignoring the fact she was eating human flesh and running away with all their strength. It was only because they had made the incorrect choice, that this scenario had unfolded.

“...Although the order is different to what I had envisaged, so be it, nothing more could be done. Well then, which one should I eat first? Developed muscles must taste extremely delicious ne~”

Entoma once again summoned an insect, but not the type that had ferocious combat capability. The long syringe needle on its body contained sedatives.

Entoma held the insect and briskly walked over to Tia.

It looked like she could bring home some local specialties as souvenirs. There were many in the Great Tomb of Nazarick who relished in capturing humans for food.

They would certainly like this present very much.

“Eh? What?”

Entoma’s superior intuition warned her of an elongated cold object flying in her direction from above her head and she rapidly sprung a distance away. At the same time, a lengthy weapon pierced the spot Entoma had just occupied.

It was like a crystal lance used by knights, but that was not an ordinary item. Not the slightest crack could be seen on the crystal lance which had managed to crush rocks.

“Is that… magic?”

The spirit system magic caster Entoma felt something from this lance.

“You’re correct. This is the 4^th tier spell ‘Crystal Lance’!”

The one replying to Entoma’s question was the person who slowly descended to the rocks shattered by the lance. It was a young girl with a boyish voice, whose physique was small and who wore a mask and a robe.

Yet another enemy, Entoma couldn’t help muttering. Another intruder had appeared in the middle of capturing delicious prey. It was truly cruel that she still had to endure the temptations of delicious food.

“Shall we end it here?”

“...Who are you? I can forgive you if you immediately leave this place. Children are very soft, and I like that, but they never have enough meat on them. I’ll play with you next time, after I eat these two.”

“So that’s what you are; a man-eating monster right? Even wearing a maid outfit, what kind of joke are you trying to pull? Who’d want some bloody smelling monster like you around them?”

“wHAT arE yOu SAYInG?! bItCH!”

Without pausing to think, Entoma let out her real voice, then immediately clamped down on her own throat.

The insult was enough to make her lose her composure and she could never forgive this young girl’s words. It was not because of primal predator urges, but because she was in an extremely bad mood right now, that she wanted to tear apart the woman before her into pieces.

What did this woman say?! To me, a battle maid, which is a high-level existence within the Great Tomb of Nazarick!?

Anger spilled out from the bottom of her heart.

“I’LL kiLL yOu!”

She could not help but to shout with her real voice, but restrained herself from puffing up in the back.

“Evileye!”

Tia shouted out the masked girl’s name. Entoma spoke towards the enemy whom she was already determined to exterminate with her full might:

“I was wondering what you were up to...my, my, doing your lesson 1 huh. It looks like you were assessing the difference in strength between you and your opponents. You must be thinking that ‘this one is stronger than the ones before... but still weaker than me’, right.”

Hearing Entoma’s provocation, Evileye could not hold back shouting out:

“So my companions really were under your ‘care’? You monster. Come, allow me to give you a taste of being the victim of abuse.”

Entoma had no idea that a fierce rage was burning under the mask of her opponent.

Entoma, who was seriously wound up with the intention to kill, ran forward. In her mind dominated by hatred, the other two persons had already become annoyances on the same level as pebbles by the roadside.

She actually said that nobody would enjoy my company!?

The same words repeated over and over again in her mind.

At the same time, the insect whip began to move. Entoma left about one-metre, and formed the rest into a large sphere. Of course Gagaran was in the core part of this shape.

“Die alongside your companions, you unpleasant woman!”

She swung the thousand whips insect down like a hammer.

“Hmph. What a boring attack.”

Evileye remained relaxed.

“「Reverse Gravity」.”

Entoma resisted the magic, but the insect whip lost its gravitational weight and floated upwards.

If the equipment user had successfully resisted, the equipment would likewise be resistant. However in the case of insect weapons, it was not the equipment user but rather the insects themselves which had to do the resisting.

Since it was like this, even if Entoma would not be affected, it would still influence the insect weapon. This was one of the shortcomings, although the insects could attack autonomously.

Even if it was Entoma, she needed to discard her original plan when facing magics like this.

Sensing Entoma’s intention, the insect whip gracefully removed itself from Gagaran. With the speed of a retracting measuring tape, it had formed a ten-metre long insect whip stance. While this was happening, Evileye gave directions to Gagaran who was still tumbling on the ground.

“Gagaran! Get out of the way! Go and quickly tend to Tia’s wounds! If you already used up your gauntlets’ power, then use a recovery potion!”

The injured humans had recovered. If it was only that, then there would be no problem. The fact that the two people were Entoma’s enemies had not changed, but considering the words of the magic caster in front of her, the situation was different.

Evileye and Entoma were on the same level. If they were to help the magic caster, the situation would become unfavourable.

This time, Entoma decided to make use of her ultimate trump card which she was reluctant to use.

She had already used it to eliminate all enemies inside the mansion with a single breath, leaving behind two more instances when she could use it.

That was the breath given off by carnivorous flies, fly breath.

Such breath wasn’t emitted for the sake of eating the meat, but flies would embed their maggot offsprings into the flesh. The maggots would continue to inflict damage from inside of the victim’s body. Even more terrifying was the next step, where a large swarm of flies would emerge from the corpse, then indiscriminately attack other beings inside the area of effect, with the exception of the ability user.

Entoma widened her throat. Her true mouth which did the speaking was in fact her lower jaw. To others, it was a terrifying sight, as if her jaw had slip apart.

From there she spat out swarm of flies.

“You! Could that power be associated with the demon gods! In that case!”

Evileye, who was retaliating released a white mist.

Although using cold gas to counter the attack was an extremely clever move, to completely nullify the effects was very difficult. The most appropriate magic to use would have been explosive magic to roast the entire swarm of flies.

Her opponent had made a mistake.

Entoma’s mind had already visualised a scenario where Evileye was devoured by the maggots, but the counter-magic used was far beyond her expectations.