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Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 Chapter 1: New Domain, New Enemies On the southwest edge of the former territory of Brijit was the Bertaquin Domain. With mountains to the north, and the sea to the south, the area was a natural fortress, but the trade-off was that the region consisted mostly of mountains. Because of the expanse of ranges, it only had half the land that the Eintorian Domain did for cultivating and inhabiting. With so little usable land, we would have to do slash-and-burn farming on the mountains to use them for agriculture. That would give us more room to work with. I had chosen to restart from the west side of Brijit, including Bertaquin; the neighboring domain, Ryhein; and the former capital of Brijit, Brinhill. At the moment, it was impossible to rule over any more than that. Even setting aside the issue of our insufficient population, I had a shortage of capable administrators. It took a lot of people to maintain just one city. If I let just anyone have the job, then they'd only make things worse. If that led to a drop in popular opinion, degrading the strength of my nation, then I'd be ruined. That's why I'd given up on the territories east of the Brijitian capital currently occupied by Runanese forces. I planned to get myself set up first, then take over the rest of Brijit later. "As you were saying, Your Excellency, after the Naruyan invasion began, our forces in the southeast of Brijit headed back home to Runan. When that happened, I remained in Bertaquin as you ordered, before occupying Brinhill and Ryhein." Of the forces led by Fihatori, some twenty thousand men had retreated to Runan. They would likely join up with Ronan, who'd made his escape to southern Runan. Well, I'd left one more ember of strife with the man. If that ember didn't do its job, I'd find another way, but for now, I intended to sit back and watch things burn. That ember had a name—former advisor to the Runanese Army, Heina Berhin. She had been seeking power in order to avenge her father's death. At one point, she even sent assassins after me over a misplaced grudge, but I'd made her see that Ronan was the root cause of everything. Knowing her, she wouldn't spare any effort to save the dying Runan, and would instead work to take revenge on Ronan. "What happened to the people of southwestern Brijit?" "They were originally citizens of Brijit, so...while I did recommend that they come join us in the west, I was unsuccessful." "Well, I can't blame you for that. If anyone in the Ryhein or Brinhill Domain wants to leave, don't stop them. If we restrict the people now, it could have a devastating effect on public sentiment." "Understood, Your Excellency!" To the people of Brijit, I was still no more than an enemy. An invader. But I didn't need to go out of my way to win them over. If I just ruled well, they would come rushing to me of their own accord. For now, I'll focus all of my power in one place. This is where things truly begin. There was a load of things to be done, but I decided my first order of business would be to investigate all the checkpoints between Brinhill, the old capital of Brijit, and the east of the country. I had to be cautious of the east. The roads eastbound were open now, but they weren't all through valleys; some small mountains dotted the route too. Those mountainous areas had strategic checkpoints meant to thwart any enemy attack on Brinhill. "This way, Your Excellency." However, the checkpoint Fihatori brought me to was in an even sorrier state than I'd anticipated. Brinhill Checkpoint Durability: 50 "There are a number of checkpoints east of this one, but they're generally not in very good condition either. The country stretches a long way from east to west, and the mountain stopped most of their enemies, so I suspect they became lax in maintaining them." In the end, I had to pay for repairs. While I'd been able to bring all the gold that was once hidden beneath Eintorian with me, there were still limits to how much funding I had. Fresh gold wasn't going to come pouring in on its own. If I grew overdependent on that gold, I was in for big trouble later, especially since, as I was currently forced into a zero-taxation policy, my treasury was only dwindling. Still, I couldn't leave what might be the critical border of my realm undefended. "Release whatever food we can afford to from the storehouses at Brijit's palace and use it to round up some labor. We're going to need to not only repair but also start some new construction, after all." "Understood, Your Excellency!" There's no other faction that would invade this region anytime soon, but as they say, a stitch in time saves nine. I plan to deal with our finances through trade and commerce in the future, so that's going to have to make up for it. The important thing for now is to focus on these gatehouses at strategic passes that will protect us. After prioritizing them, I moved on to distributing the population. To confront the King of Naruya, who'd invaded Runan and killed the king, and to unify the continent, I was going to announce the foundation of the New Eintorian Kingdom. Obviously, the capital would be here in Brinhill. It wasn't a bad pick. After all, as the former capital of the Brijit Kingdom, it had a reasonably good castle. Eintorian Domain Total Population: 1,050,000 I hadn't proclaimed the foundation of the state just yet, so the system still showed the three regions of the Eintorian Domain and their total population. The original Eintorian region had a population of twenty-five thousand. That was a lot for a mere count's lands, but then again, I had actively been encouraging people to settle down in my domain. The existing populations of Brinhill, Ryhein, and Bertaquin came to another fifty thousand. When you consider that Brinhill was once the capital of a sovereign country, that number was actually on the low end. Granted, that was because the war I had fought here before had caused an outflow of people to other regions. The rest of our population was made up of the refugees who'd followed me here from other regions of Runan. The existing residents of Brijit's most important stat was their Opinion, and currently sat at a measly 43. But the people I had brought here in advance from the Eintorian Domain, the ones who were already loyal only to me, boasted a high 92. As for the refugees I led here after smashing the Naruyan Army, their sentiment toward me sat at a reasonably stable 85. Still, when you looked at the entire population, their average Opinion score came to 66. Not a very good number at all. Such a score wouldn't cause an immediate explosion of discontent with disastrous results, but it was also going to be hard to raise it. If I pursued policies that favored the former Brijitians, then I would probably face strong pushback from the rest of my people. That'd defeat the entire purpose of doing it. I had to wait for the Brijitians' opinion of me to slowly rise on its own. I divided the population so that there were sixty thousand people in Brinhill, thirty thousand in Ryhein, and fifteen thousand in Bertaquin, based on the relative size of each territory. Now the issue was who I should make lord of each region. To be perfectly honest, I sorely lacked the number of qualified personnel needed to govern them. Hadin Meruya Martial: 60 Intelligence: 57 Command: 70 Bente Martial: 49 Intelligence: 38 Command: 82 Jint Martial: 93(+2) Intelligence: 41 Command: 52 Yusen Martial 82 Intelligence 60 Command 90(+2) Gibun Martial: 70 Intelligence: 34 Command: 76 Mirinae Martial: 5 Intelligence: 74 Command: 10 Euracia Rozern Martial: 87(+3) Intelligence: 57 Command: 95(+2) Erheet Demacine Martial: 96 Intelligence: 70 Command: 92 Fihatori Delhina Martial: 81 Intelligence: 85 Command: 89 Ganid Voltaire Martial: 30 Intelligence: 60 Command: 61 Bertalman Martial: 80 Intelligence: 50 Command: 78 Erheet hadn't fully become one of my retainers just yet, but he was still doing good work for me as a sort of assistant. I was hoping he'd become my retainer in the future, but I felt no need to rush it. I planned to wait until he came to me to speak about it himself. He probably had a lot to think about. One positive development so far was that all of Erheet's retainers were now firmly opposed to Duke Ronan. They knew what kind of country Runan had been better than anyone, so they weren't going to talk about trying to restore it. So long as Erheet didn't aspire to become king of a nation of his own, he'd officially become my retainer in due time. Also, Count Voltaire ended up sticking around. He didn't seem to plan on going anywhere, seeing as he constantly kissed up to me. He was timid and had low ability scores, but that in turn meant he didn't have the guts to betray me, which made him a safe choice in that regard. But as far as Erheet's retainers, Voltaire's retainers, and the retainers of those Runanese lords who chose to accompany me went, none of them had ability scores high enough to be worth taking note of. I could let them manage the administration of the regions I had for now, but I'd eventually run up against the limits of what they could each accomplish. Erheet's retainers in particular were specialized toward the military, so I intended to make him the head of my armed forces eventually. For now, I needed to manage each region of my domain up until the wars of conquest formally began. To that end, I put Yusen in charge of Bertaquin, since he'd already made contact with the mountain folk and learned various things about the area, and put Hadin in charge of Ryhein. They're the two I trust most. When it came to pure ability, Fihatori was superior in some ways, but he already had a lot of tasks on his plate. As for Mirinae, her Intelligence score had begun rising as she studied, but I planned to put her in charge of government affairs when the time came. Lord of Bertaquin Yusen The Opinion of Bertaquin has increased by 5. When I assigned Yusen as Lord of Bertaquin, there was a surprising change. Did that happen because of his high Command, or because of what Yusen had already done in the Bertaquin Domain? Maybe it was both. Either way, Yusen was a talented guy—a fact further demonstrated by the absence of any similar change when I assigned Hadin to Ryhein. * I headed to Ryhein Domain. My goal was to raise the people's opinion of me there ahead of encouraging agricultural development and the fishing industry. The Ryhein Domain was larger than the Bertaquin Domain. Of course, in terms of overall importance, the iron in Bertaquin was going to be massively more vital to my cause. There was no way to carry out the expansions to the military I needed to prepare for war without first activating the Bertaquin Domain's mining industry. But the Ryhein Domain had more flat land than the other territories, as well as a number of fishing ports. Ryhein Population: 325,031 Opinion: 74 The low opinions of the former Brijitians had mixed with those of the new settlers for a combined score of 74. While the new settlers had already been told about my tax policy, the native Ryheinites hadn't heard about it yet. And so I went there myself. As far as they were concerned, I was just an invader, and the settlers' enemies who came to steal their land and jobs. I needed to make them see it wasn't like that. I was their new ruler, and these people, their comrades. That meant I needed to make a personal visit as soon as possible. "I am sure you must all be bewildered to see so many new residents. But have no fear! I won't do anything to harm your current lifestyle. In fact, I promise you a better future!" I gave speeches at the different villages as I toured the area. My tax policy had a great effect, of course. Being exempted from taxes for a whole year meant a significant amount to the people, and it was really nothing to sneeze at. My tax strategy helped lower the discontent among the former Brijitians, raising the Opinion score to 85. That only left Brinhill. Brinhill Population: 624,501 Opinion: 54 This was the territory with the lowest Opinion. Not that there was any helping that, considering that the vast majority of the people were former Brijitians. More than anything, they were afraid of being displaced by settlers. Of course, I had no intention of doing that to them. In both the Brinhill and Ryhein Domains, the land I was giving the settlers was undeveloped. This did nothing to harm the existing residents of the domain, and I was even making life easier for them by exempting them from taxes for a year. I planned to conscript them to fight in later wars, so I needed to rule benevolently now in order to improve popular sentiment as much as possible. "...and that's why, through my tax policy, I intend to help the existing residents and the settlers come together!" Obviously, no one objected to a tax exemption. The Opinion of Bertaquin has increased from 54 to 76. A bonus effect has increased Opinion from 76 to 91. For some reason, an unusual bonus effect raised the Opinion score of the Brinhill Domain even further. That didn't happen in Ryhein. I pulled up the system, trying to figure out what it was. Bonuses didn't just happen without some sort of cause. "Is something the matter?" Euracia asked innocently, tilting her head to the side. She had become a lot more expressive recently. "If you stare so hard, your eyes are going to fall right out of your head. Would you mind if I keep them if they do?" Now she was saying horrifying things and making strange requests. "Uh, I just had something on my mind." There was only one thing that made Ryhein and Brinhill different: the presence of Euracia. Her Command score of 97 shouldn't have had this much of an effect on its own. Euracia's high Charisma had also gone up along with her Command, so perhaps that was what was responsible for this kind of Opinion bonus. If I were to put a score on her Charisma, it was probably close to 100. That's why just having her at my side when giving speeches could make the people's Opinion rise by a whole 15 points. It was one hell of an effect. Maybe I should bring Euracia with me on another speech tour in Ryhein? It was certainly worth giving it a try. * "Ohhhhh! So this is Bertaquin Castle, huh!" Gibun cried out in delight when he saw the lord's castle in Bertaquin. "This is going to be ours? Whew, I sure have moved up in the world! Nice work, Gibun! I always knew it was important to have connections. If I'd been in another unit and never met His Excellency, I might already have died in the war with Naruya," Gibun murmured, patting himself on the head. Of course, Gibun's advancement wasn't solely down to luck. His abilities were a part of it too. If Yusen and Gibun hadn't been there during the battle at Lynon Castle, there was a good possibility that Erhin wouldn't have been able to coordinate things so well. "Anyway, the important thing is what comes after this. Go to the mountain folk's headquarters and fetch Bertalman right away. His Excellency has summoned him." Yusen chided Gibun for getting so giddy, but on closer inspection the corners of his own lips were upturned too. "Sure, sure, I'll get right on it." The mountain folk patrolled the peaks under the command of Bertalman. Because most of the domain was rocky terrain, it would be incredibly difficult for any unit to traverse the ranges without their help. That's why Erhin meant to expand the scale of their activity to Brinhill. "What will you be doing, Captain Yusen?" "I need to focus on developing the farmland in this domain. I also have orders to encourage the fishermen and grow the port towns. I'll need to increase the number of privately owned fishing ships too." The people of this domain were more amicable to their new rulers thanks to Yusen's efforts, so the area didn't merit any special concern. * "Mirinae." "Yes, my lord!" "Why did you bring him along? Jint, you don't trust me calling her?" "That's right. I told him to stay in the house..." Mirinae said, still holding Jint's hand. Uh, that's not really something you should say while holding hands. "It's not that I'm tagging along. I just had business in the palace too." "Oh, yeah? Well, I didn't call you here." "What? What do you mean you didn't call me?" Now he's just talking nonsense. "See! I told you he wasn't calling you! It was just me! Get away from me!" Save the arguments for after you stop holding hands so tightly. No, wait. Are they going out of their way to flaunt how close they are? Well, whatever. I was always having Jint come along with me, so I could understand it was important for them to be together when it was peaceful like this. In fact, this was the perfect time for it.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter1_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 That's why I hadn't given Jint another assignment. Well, not that I could count on Jint to do anything that didn't involve fighting. "Oh, forget it. It's not like I'm telling you to go home." I'd summoned Mirinae to try giving her a job. She'd always been very smart, but her passion for her studies had caused her Intelligence score to rise considerably. Looking at the system's domain management screen, Brinhill currently had a score of 46 for Agriculture. That number represented production efficiency, basically meaning the domain was only at 46 percent of its potential output. The Brijitian king's almost total disinterest in domestic policy was probably to blame for that. For now, I needed to boost the territory's Agriculture score. I didn't need it to be 100, but if we were only harvesting 46 percent of what we could be, then people were going to starve. Brinhill Opinion: 91 Agriculture: 46 Fishing: 52 Forestry: 45 Despite the significant area the region covered, the numbers weren't very good. I needed these scores raised as high as they could be by a year from now, when the tax exemption policy ended. So I'll start with Agriculture. Fishing and forestry both required someone more knowledgeable in that field. "There are a lot of books on agriculture. Mirinae, you have farming experience, right? You must know more about it than someone who used to be a nobleman or a soldier. Could you meet with the farmers, hear what they have to say, and then carry out agricultural reforms based on the books in the palace library?" "Me? You'd trust me with such an important job...?" Mirinae asked, her eyes wide with surprise as they went from me, to Jint, and then back to me again. "Euracia, how would you feel about helping Mirinae with her task?" Just having her around would probably give some kind of bonus like she had before. The way that her Charisma gave boosts to internal administration just by having her around made it feel like cheating to have her. Obviously, I'm not expecting too much. But with Mirinae's smarts, I'm sure she can come up with something. She's got the highest Intelligence next to Fihatori. "Very well," Euracia said, quickly nodding. "I'm always for anything that helps the people. It's a pleasure to work with you, Mirinae." "You want me to work with the princess?!" Mirinae jumped into the air in shock. When Euracia cast a dubious glance in her direction, Mirinae started trembling. "Um... Someone like me...shouldn't be working with a princess..." "Have some confidence, Mirinae. That's an order. As is the job I just gave you." It was something that she needed to do to build her self-confidence. I needed her to be more audacious, like Jint. On second thought, maybe "like Jint" was taking it a bit too far? * Public opinion, policy, and agricultural reforms are all looking good. But in the end, military power is going to be the most important thing. These are troubled times we live in. I'm going to need to prepare a military not just so that I can unify the continent, but for defense as well. Having not yet announced the foundation of a new country, the Runanese forces that I'd brought with me and my own forces that I'd raised in Eintorian were both referred to as the Eintorian Domain Army in the system. They numbered roughly sixty-two thousand men. The existing Eintorian Domain Army had been twenty-two thousand men, and their Morale was obviously sky-high. On average, they had a high degree of Training too. Honestly, they were fine as is, as long as I could maintain the status quo. As for the Runanese troops led by Fihatori, they had an incredible Morale of 98. That wasn't far from the Eintorian Domain Army, which had just tasted victory. "Fihatori, I wanted to talk about the unit you've been leading. Why is their morale so high when they haven't fought in any major battles?" They had a Training of 72, but a Morale of 98. I didn't understand what could have caused that. "Oh, the reason's as plain as day. These men have been following you since your defense of Rozern." While, yes, that was true, was he suggesting that it was enough, on its own, to explain them maintaining such a high morale? "They're thrilled to be able to fight under you again, Your Excellency. Because they know that, with you in command, they're unlikely to lose, and the odds of them dying are much lower." He certainly had a point there. "Of course... There's another, larger reason for it. These men crossed the mountains with you and gained victory. You kept your promise to them then, and convinced them you were different from the other lords. I hear some of the men stayed up all night, crying for joy, after they were able to send the reward money back to their families." While this was something I had deliberately engineered, it had only worked out this way because Fihatori communicated things to them in such a way that it was thanks to me, and not the King of Runan. As I started to think in earnest about a plan for how to train my army, Erheet approached from behind Fihatori. "Is Erhin here?" "Can I help you, Your Excellency?" We really needed to do something about styles of address soon. Just how many excellencies did we have walking around here? But it was best to save the proclamation of a new country for when public sentiment had moved more in my favor. It would seem more justified if, rather than just declare "I'm going to be king!" I seemed to be doing it at the urging of those around me. Obviously, I had a legitimate claim as a descendant of the Eintorians. Anyway, I decided to take a wait and see approach for a little longer. "I had a proposal to make. Would you consider training lancers? If you would, then I am prepared to spend my life training and managing them for you!" "Lancers, you say?" "That's right. I proposed the idea several times in Runan, but was always rebuffed because we lacked iron and they wouldn't give me the budget for it." Yeah, I can't see that king ever approving a costly proposal. Lancers, huh? This might have seemed obvious, but lancers were cavalrymen who fought using lances. It was a somewhat rare troop type in this world for various reasons. The first of which being they were hard to train. It took a lot of talent to be able to control a lance freely while in an unstable position like on the back of a horse. Also, lancers needed a lot of iron. Their job was to charge into the enemy's formations with their lances. That required sturdy lances and armor in case they got surrounded. But it was also true that if we could train a large number of them, they'd be a force to be reckoned with. They were a charging unit with long reach and superior mobility. That on its own was already enough to make them scary. Range dominated the battlefield. So long as it didn't devolve into one-on-one combat, the soldier with the longer weapon had an overwhelming advantage. If I combined them with my existing iron cavalry, then I could trample over my enemies with that overwhelming destructive power. I had an iron mine now, and Erheet's skills with a spear had earned him the nickname The Fiendish Spear. With someone as suited to teaching spear techniques as Erheet, and the iron to construct the equipment needed for him to arm his new recruits with, there was no reason not to go for it. "I ought to be asking you if you'd do it for me, Your Excellency. I will do everything within my power to help. Please lend us your strength!" "You mean it?! Good! Then I'll begin preparing at once!" Erheet sounded like a giddy child. After that, Fihatori, Erheet, and I had a meeting about military preparations. * Just as I was getting things on the rails internally, an incident broke out. The mountains protected us to the north, but the coast was wide open. It was true that the sea had stopped an invasion, and that was why I had chosen this territory, but if any nation in the vicinity had a war fleet, that changed things. "So, one issue I have with Brijit," I said to Fihatori. "Yes?" he asked. "Why did they only have a grand total of four warships?" "There is a reason for that. I believe that, under the king two reigns before the last King of Brijit, they lost a major naval battle against the Luaranz Kingdom. From what I've been told, they lost all control of the sea after that, and they had no means of fighting back. The Luaranz Kingdom has been famous for their formidable navy ever since the time when the Eintorian Kingdom still reigned supreme. In the time of the Ancient Kingdom, Luaranz had a massive port and a grand fleet, which they used to expand across the continent. It was the House of Luaranz from the Ancient Kingdom that built that great fleet, and who founded the country, so they had been a naval power for generations." Oh, yeah, that's right. There's a coastal port city called Luaranz. It's a naval country. The kings of Brijit must have decided that, rather than half-heartedly build a new fleet only to get it crushed by Luaranz, they were better off focusing on their land forces. "That only makes the problem worse. Look at this," I said, pointing at a map. The sea routes from the Luaranz Kingdom to the Brinhill Domain, Ryhein Domain, and Bertaquin Domain were far too close. If the Luaranz Kingdom attacks us by sea, we're in trouble. There were mountains to the north, and we could defend the west side with the army, but we were completely exposed to an attack from the sea. Especially if the Luaranz Kingdom were to ally themselves with another country and attack on two fronts. That could be fatal to us. At the very least, I don't want this area to end up getting turned into a battlefield when we're going to be spending more than a year recovering. If my domain got invaded before I could attack anywhere else, then that would make it impossible to unify the continent. Besides, who wants to live on the coast when they don't know when enemies might attack it? "That's certainly an issue, but... There is a reason the Luaranz Kingdom hasn't made a move, even after all this chaos." "Why is that?" "King Luaranz is old, so he is avoiding war. He also lacks a successor, and the factional strife between different nobles vying for the throne is growing more intense." I see. They're all desperate to seize power. "So there's little chance of them starting a war, then. Is that it?" "It is as you have surmised," Fihatori said with a nod, but I remained wary of the Luaranz Kingdom. That's because, while I didn't remember the succession crisis, I did clearly remember an important character from the game was in Luaranz. There's going to be a coup d'état there soon. The usurper would then immediately go on to start a war of conquest, and accomplish a whole lot with their superior abilities and grand fleet. Later, they would grow to become one of the people vying for supremacy on this continent. The coup d'état took place after the fall of Runan. If it hadn't happened yet, then that meant it would soon. "Excellent. So, what do you think of making the Luaranz Kingdom's grand fleet our own?" "The grand fleet?" Fihatori looked at me as if he didn't understand what I was saying. What I was saying had to sound like a total non sequitur when I'd been worried about them invading just a moment ago, so it was a perfectly natural reaction. "I'm just asking what you'd think about getting our hands on their fleet. The mountains keep our enemies at bay, but they also make it hard to head outside ourselves. But with a fleet, we could invade anywhere on the continent easily." "I suppose we could. It is true that a fleet would be a considerable addition to our war power." "Send a messenger to Luaranz. Tell them we want to send a delegation to request an alliance." Of course, I would never form an alliance that didn't benefit me. The alliance was only a pretext. How to fully remove the threat to our exposed south—that was the real issue at hand. If I could build an army of around a hundred and fifty thousand men, with popular opinion and our agricultural base stable, then I would finally be ready to declare the foundation of my country and head out into the continent at large. There was no way to train that many men while I was in a situation where it was impossible to know when an enemy might strike. I had to increase my population to be able to raise that many troops. And the solution to that population issue was actually in Luaranz too. * Mirinae busily rushed around, talking to farmers who had worked the fields of the Brinhill region for generations. She scoured through every book she could get her hands on, approaching the task she had been given with total seriousness. Euracia followed her around as she worked, and the effects of her Charisma made the farmers considerably more cooperative. On top of this, Euracia also had been given some work training the military, so she had loads of things to do. I visited Euracia and told her, "I'm going to the Luaranz Kingdom." "The Luaranz Kingdom? Why?" "To protect our backs...you might say." "I don't really understand, but I'll get ready." Euracia planned to come with me as if that were the obvious thing to do. But this time, I couldn't let her. Right now, the internal situation in Brinhill was completely reliant on her. Our military training would be more effective with her here too. On top of that, I couldn't exactly take someone who stood out so much when I was trying to keep a low profile. Euracia stuck out by her very nature, so she was a poor fit for an infiltration. "I'll go by myself. In the meantime, you take care of training the army and managing the domain. I'd be in real trouble without you here." "..." Euracia puffed her cheeks up at this. She was not amused. It was scary seeing those pretty, golden eyebrows of hers arch like that.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 Chapter 2: The Naval State, Luaranz The port in Luaranz was just as massive as I would have expected. If I were to say it felt like looking at the Suez Canal, I'd be exaggerating a little, but all of those military ships moored here, filling every slip to the brim, were still a magnificent sight to behold. I had so much to gain here in Luaranz. It would cost a fortune and take ages to build a fleet of this scale from scratch, and I wasn't even sure if it'd be finished before I unified the continent. The more I looked at the ships, the more I wanted them, but all I could do right now was stare enviously. All this staring was only making my mouth water. I turned back and headed toward Luaranz's palace. For now, my goal was an alliance. Of course, that was never going to happen. The request was just a facade meant to justify my visit. Anyway, having already sent an envoy ahead of me to get a response, I headed to the palace, where I had been granted an audience. The King of Luaranz was just as old as I'd heard. The game's backstory said that, because he never sired an heir, a conflict had broken out between competing noble factions, and so that magnificent fleet sat rotting away, unused. The white-haired King of Luaranz stared at me. He was a mediocre king. His authority wasn't particularly strong, but it wasn't as though his power had been completely stripped away by the nobility. If anything, this in-between state of affairs frustrated his retainers. King Luaranz's eyes hovered over me idly for a while before he spoke. "You are the Eintorian ambassador?" "Yes, indeed." At this point, one of the close associates of the king glared at me. "Eintorian, huh...? It seems His Majesty permitted your visit because of your connection with the Ancient Kingdom, but you're nothing but a frontier count! Occupying Brijit doesn't make you a real state, so what possessed you to think you had any right to request an audience with His Majesty?! And how dare Erhin Eintorian send an ambassador instead of coming here himself!" Word that I was the one who broke Naruya's massive army of a hundred and sixty thousand men ought to have spread here already, but I could understand why he would want to emphasize the other details as a way of establishing diplomatic superiority. I obviously wasn't happy about it, but I didn't let that show on my face. Because right now, I was here not as Erhin Eintorian, but as his retainer, Hadin Meruya. Also, the alliance didn't even really matter. It was okay if they wanted to brush me off or even insult me, because my initial goal was just to get inside the castle. Kashak Lechin Age: 34 Martial: 92 Intelligence: 81 Command: 90 As for my second objective, it was this nobleman who was currently running his mouth in an attempt to humiliate me: Kashak Lechin. He's got good stats. Two of his scores are over 90. Yes, I knew who he was. He was the one who would, in the game's future, launch a coup, seize Luaranz, and then throw his name into the hat as one of those who were going to try to unify the continent. If his coup succeeded, he'd invade Brinhill too. He was the type to get fired up after hearing the rumors about me. I was confident I could beat him, but I didn't want us to get exhausted by war when we were supposed to be building our strength. And so I'd come here to preemptively eliminate him. To that end, I'd hidden my identity. "U-Um..." I backed away, acting as though I was overwhelmed by Kashak and didn't know how to react. "I-I'm here to propose an alliance!" "Did you say an alliance? With the people who fled to Brijit because they couldn't defend their own country? Don't be absurd!" Kashak raised his voice in anger. His shout made me fall on my backside, and I looked around anxiously. What a sorry sight I must have made. "There's no need to be so harsh, Count Kashak. Erhin Eintorian wasn't able to save Runan because the king had already sent him to Rozern. It's nothing short of extraordinary that he was able to defend the people, defeat Naruya's army, and settle in Brijit in that situation."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter2_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 Surprisingly, one of the nobles was supportive of me. Everything he said was true, but what surprised me was that he knew so many details. Calling up the system, I learned he was Count Dofrey. By all indications, he had a positive inclination toward us, but since he wasn't a famous character in the game, I couldn't be sure how he really felt. "However, if they cannot even defend themselves, wouldn't you agree it's ridiculous to think that they have anything to offer us in a military alliance? If anything, I can only say that it looks to me as though they want the alliance as a safety measure, and after that they want to develop and regain the former territory of Runan. They only mean to use Luaranz, Your Majesty." Kashak was on the money about everything, except for the fact that I wasn't even serious about forming the alliance. All of the nobles but Dofrey nodded in agreement. The king may have felt the same way, because he shook his head in dismay before speaking. "Ambassador, it is entirely thanks to the Ancient Eintorian Kingdom that my nation, Luaranz, has such a powerful navy. For that reason, with respect to the Eintorian name, I will confer with my nobles once more. You are dismissed for now. You will be provided with a place to stay in the palace while you wait." * Count Kashak Lechin was the most influential young commander in the Luaranz Kingdom. He was highly ambitious, though he never let it show. Under him, this country could be born anew, better and stronger. The current king was old and timid. He had no concept of expanding the nation's power through war. All he wanted to do was maintain the status quo. That was why the nobles were able to lead him by the nose, and he was hesitant to act in these wonderfully chaotic times. No amount of reasoning would convince the king that they had to act now, or they would be eliminated by someone else who did. It wasn't just the king. The counts, obsessing over the succession issue, were the same. Kashak saw them as nothing but a pack of incompetent fools, slowly eating away at the country. The continent was only growing more chaotic. These were times when they had to act or face nothing but ruin. If the center of power in this country weren't occupied by a cowardly king and infighting nobles, they could have sent out the fleet during the war between Rozern and Brijit to sweep in once both sides were weakened. If that had happened, a significant portion of Brijit's territory would be theirs by now. That was their first opportunity. Now, with the fall of Runan, a second had arrived, and yet all anyone did was watch! Kashak couldn't bear it any longer. That king couldn't even take a firm stance against that pathetic envoy from a mere lord. Kashak had to go through with the coup that he'd been planning for a decade. Now was the time. Things couldn't be drawn out any longer. It's our last chance. Now, while Naruya's lost their grand army! Kashak was confident. He strongly believed in his own ambitions. It didn't matter if he was up against Eintorian, which had fought Naruya, or even if he was up against Naruya itself. He believed he could win. "I'm going to change this country! The king's lived for long enough. I'll kill him, install a puppet, and then I'll be the one to change things! I'll remove anyone who gets in my way too." Kashak spoke of the secret ambition he had harbored these past ten years in front of his loyal right-hand man, Nerchin. "Your Excellency! We're all prepared! Once those two old fogies defending the king are removed, Luaranz will be ours!" Kashak nodded, agreeing with Nerchin. The two old men who defended Luaranz were Commander Chesedin of the First Fleet and Captain Shark of the Royal Guard. Ever since he was a young boy, Kashak hadn't been able to stand either of them. "We'll take out both of the geezers at once. Once they're dealt with, we will quickly seize the palace and replace the king! It all needs to be done swiftly. At the end of the day, history belongs to the victor. If the monarch is replaced, we'll become the good guys, and those who oppose us will all be remembered as traitorous rebels." "Yes, Your Excellency!" "There's no room for complacency. Success comes to those who are cautious." Kashak ordered Nerchin to act with special care. Kashak wasn't someone prone to missing vital information. But now that he had confirmed the details of the mission, he was certain of it. He couldn't fail. The plan was perfect. No matter how he thought about it, there wasn't a single thing that wasn't as he expected it to be. * Duke Chesedin Ramel was the commander of the Luaranz Kingdom's First Fleet. It was this First Fleet that gave other nations pause when they thought about attacking Luaranz. Luaranz was surrounded by a massive canal. Having learned not just techniques for fighting at sea but also on the canal, Chesedin was a fairly important figure inside Luaranz. Also, while they were called the Navy, they could do more than just fight at sea. If anything, they did most of their fighting during landing operations. If Chesedin were left alone, the coup would need to fight the invincible First Fleet. Still, if they could just get rid of Chesedin, it wouldn't be hard to seize control of the First Fleet after that. Kashak had a man at the center of power inside the First Fleet. Once the old man was eliminated, it was just a matter of having that guy assume command. Currently, Chesedin was on his way to the palace for the retirement ceremony for Captain Shark of the Royal Guard, which was to be held soon. Kashak, who was with his trusted retainer Nerchin and a number of soldiers, called after Chesedin. "Duke! I have something to speak to you about." "I have a prior engagement. Let's talk later." "It's an urgent report regarding the Naruya Kingdom. I want to meet with you and His Highness together." "An urgent report, you say? I had heard that the Naruya Kingdom had lost that grand army of theirs." "They still have the unit that was led by their king. The information suggests that the fires of war could spread all the way here to Luaranz..." "Oh, it's that bad, is it?" After hearing all of this, he had no choice but to go with Kashak. Even after losing that massive army, Naruya was still Naruya. If the strongest country on the continent was coming to attack them, then he couldn't ignore that. Incidentally, at this point in time, Chesedin's friend Shark was not in the barracks. This was on account of his already having been cut down by Kashak's blade. Kashak called out to the soldiers who were on standby, and one of the lieutenants came forward. "This is the spy we had infiltrating Naruya. He just got back with an important report." Seeing the grave look on the man's face, Chesedin could only nod. Ultimately, he followed Kashak, never dreaming of the ambitions the other man harbored. "What happened?" "I'll go into the details in front of His Majesty." Once Kashak said that, there was nothing more he could ask. When they entered the palace, they were all disarmed according to the usual procedure. Kashak, of course, as well as his men, and then Chesedin and his trusted retainer who followed behind them silently. Once they were all disarmed, Kashak took the lead. The palace was the largest, most majestic building in the Luaranz Kingdom. The golden interior decorations caught and reflected the light, only adding to its splendor. Kashak stopped in front of the bedroom of the queen. The eighty-year-old monarch had welcomed a new queen who was only twenty-two years of age. The king had long since lost the ability to sire children, but he loved his queen dearly and still stayed in her room. When Kashak stood before the bedchamber door, the soldiers of the Royal Guard crossed their spears in front of it, blocking his way. "We bear urgent news for His Majesty. Open the door," Kashak said, glaring at their spears, but the soldiers objected. Perhaps hearing the argument, the head chamberlain appeared. "His Majesty is declining all visitors at the moment." Kashak furrowed his brow at the head chamberlain's stubborn refusal. "It has to do with the Naruya Kingdom. Pass that along. We may be invaded." They didn't share a border with the Naruya Kingdom, but everyone had still heard rumors about the largest nation on the continent. The head chamberlain blanched. "Is that true?!" At Kashak's firm nod, the head chamberlain hurried inside the room. It wasn't long after that. "Please, enter." The head chamberlain urgently waved Kashak and Chesedin inside. As he did, Kashak signaled Nerchin with his eyes so that Chesedin wouldn't notice. Long had they waited for this day. The plan was a decade in the works. Obviously, a coup d'état was the last resort for Kashak. That's why it took him ten years to come to this point. Today was the day he would seize the power to pursue the ideals he'd long dreamed about. Kashak followed the head chamberlain thinking that even the clear, blue sky seemed to be blessing him. Chesedin followed behind. Only high nobles were able to meet the king. Of course, Kashak's men and Chesedin's trusted retainer were not welcome to come in with them. This had been Kashak's aim: to pull Chesedin away from his trusted retainer. That retainer was the reason he hadn't been able to assassinate Chesedin the way he had Shark. The man was a warrior boasting great martial prowess who had protected Chesedin for many long years. That's why the assassination of Chesedin proved such a headache. He absolutely could not allow a situation where the assassination failed and then that retainer was able to bring Chesedin back to the fleet. That's why he sought a better way, a method of separating the two. This was the moment. Kashak walked forward with satisfaction, having skillfully maneuvered Chesedin into meeting the king with him alone. But time seemed to slow to a crawl as they headed to meet the king. The tension seemed to place greater gravity on every single moment. Finally, the king came into view. He sat beside his queen, allowing her to feed him fruit. "What is this about Naruya? We don't even share a border..." the king asked before being interrupted by a harsh coughing fit. It was clear that the king already wasn't long for this world, but Kashak had waited a decade already. The king had lived a long life despite his chronic condition. Thanks to that, the opportunities were becoming fewer. Hiding his hateful glare, Kashak looked at the king and at Chesedin. "Wait, who are you...?" Here Kashak scowled again. There was another person here, in addition to the king and queen. One who he had not been expecting, but he quickly looked away. It was the ambassador from Eintorian. The man had acted shamefully in the audience chamber earlier. It was wrong to show such weakness in a foreign court. If his legs gave out from under him just because Kashak acted intimidating, then the man was a weakling, neither a help nor a hindrance to anyone here. That's why Kashak ignored him and spoke to the king. "Your Majesty, we've received a report that the Naruya Kingdom has set their eyes on Luaranz," he reported, kneeling down before his monarch. Sweat dripped down onto the top of his hands. Hearing this false report, the king hacked up the piece of fruit the queen had been feeding him, then fell into another coughing fit. "Wh-What does that mean? How could the Naruya Kingdom do that?!" The king meant to ask how that could be possible when the Naruya Kingdom didn't even share a border with them. Obviously, Chesedin looked at Kashak with the same doubt. "Is it true?! How do they mean to do it?!" Kashak answered their questions with a look of utter seriousness. "It is true." At that moment, shocked looks came to Chesedin's and the king's faces at the sudden sound of weapons colliding. Then there was a metallic sound and a scream. "What do you people think you're—gyarrrgh!" The scream belonged to Chesedin's trusted retainer. That was the signal. Kashak swiftly went for the flexible sword hidden in his belt. Then, with blade in hand, he declared, "I'm sorry, Duke. I do this for the new era." Chesedin, who had been looking outside the bedchamber to see what was amiss, turned as he heard Kashak's words. No, he tried to turn. Kashak never gave him the chance. The sword swung down toward Chesedin's back, still straight and broad despite his advanced age. "Duke!" The queen was the first to notice, and she threw her fruit as she shouted. But Kashak's sword was faster. Chesedin fell and crumpled as he turned to face him. The powerful blow ensured the old man would never rise again. Trembling at the sight, the king shouted, "Kashak, you cur!!! What is the meaning of this?!" At the same time, the queen shouted toward the outside, "Guards! Come in here and defend His Majesty at once!" But Kashak just smiled. No guards entered. In fact, it was Kashak's own men who came in. "Your Excellency, the Royal Guard will be here soon!" Nerchin whispered in Kashak's ear. It was a race against time. They just had to finish up before the guards arrived. Once the king died, it was all over. Kashak immediately pointed his sword toward the king. "You mustn't!" Queen Serena put herself in between them. "Turning your sword against the king? Can you still call yourself a proud noble of Luaranz?!" "Your Highness, we don't need a king who's ruining the country." As he looked into Serena's wide eyes, staring back at him, Kashak cocked his head to the side. For a young woman, only twenty-two years old, she was displaying an admirable strength of heart. Still, he couldn't leave her alive. He liked her moxie, but everyone in his way had to die now. "Eliminate the ambassador! He's a witness! I'll finish the king and queen!" With his orders given, Kashak swung his blade down at Serena. * Shortly before Kashak's surprise attack, the young queen Serena tended to her king. "Are you tired, Your Majesty? Let me give you a massage." "Oh, could you do that for me?" "How is that?" Serena asked as she rubbed the king's aged shoulders. "It feels good. But stop for now, and sit down beside me, would you? The nobles' squabbling just leaves me with a headache... I'm only happy when I can see your smiling face. Ho ho ho." "You really know what to say to make me happy," Serena replied with a grin. The reason she had been made queen was because her father, Dofrey, was in the neutral faction. Because the nobles of Luaranz were divided into two bitterly feuding factions over the succession of the throne, neither could afford to let the other get one of their people made queen. It was well known that the king couldn't sire offspring at this point, but they still couldn't just wait for him to die. Someone had to become queen on the remote possibility that it might happen. However, if the queen came from one faction, that would place the opposing faction at a disadvantage. That's why the daughter of Dofrey, who was neutral and wielded no influence, was chosen to be queen. That was Serena, chosen irrespective of her own will, or even the will of her father, Dofrey. Obviously, the king's own desire played into it. Serena was breathtakingly gorgeous. "Ho ho ho, what a beautiful face you have." At that point, the head chamberlain appeared. "Your Majesty! The nobles have all gathered!" The king looked at him with annoyance. "Your Majesty, there are important matters to be decided today, so I do ask that you attend," added one of the nobles who had come to collect the king. "Damn the nobility! Troubling an old man like this." Left with no other choice, the king left the queen's room with a less-than-enthusiastic look on his face. Sometime later, another man came to visit—her own father, Count Dofrey. "Father, I've been waiting for you," Serena said, her face lighting up. Once she had led Dofrey to the table, she turned to the maid. "Bring us tea," she ordered. "Yes, Your Highness." Once the servants had left, Serena looked at Dofrey with a face like she had been waiting for ages. "You called for me, Your Highness?" Dofrey asked and Serena nodded. "I hear an ambassador has come from Eintorian." Dofrey stared at his daughter. She had loved hearing about what was going on in the world around her ever since she was a young girl. She took an interest in everything from rumors, to life, to romance, to war, to any topic really. And out of all of those topics, Eintorian had her especially interested lately. People said that they'd defeated the Naruya Kingdom and Brijit Kingdom, after all! Whenever word of Eintorian came around, she paid rapt attention, her eyes sparkling like she was a little kid. "Rumors about Eintorian are even more important to you than I am, Your Highness?" Dofrey asked with a sardonic smile, but Serena shook her head. "Perish the thought! Of course you come first, father! But the rumors are all so fascinating, I couldn't help myself... That's all." Or so Serena claimed, but Dofrey was smiling inside. She wasn't just a little interested; she was completely enthralled. She must have been so bored, shut away in the palace like this. The young lord from Eintorian was a free spirit, winning victories across the continent, so perhaps she found satisfaction in living vicariously through the stories about him. "What is the ambassador here for? And what was his name?" Dofrey smiled at the curiosity on his daughter's face. "It was a man by the name of Hadin," he told her. "I am told he is a retainer of Count Eintorian with the rank of baron. He came to offer us an alliance, but... I'm sure it won't be that simple. Kashak seems to think there's nothing in it for us." "No! If we join hands with him, he will be a great strength to us. Have the other nobles not heard those rumors about him?" "I suspect the larger issue is the small size of his faction. Nobles like to compare numbers, after all. Even if he did beat Naruya, there is no way they could forge an alliance of equals with a minor power. They must assume his victory was just luck." "But...even at his current size, I'm sure he'll grow quickly. If anything, I'm sure he's building up his strength now for an even greater challenge!" Serena shouted in frustration. There was passion in her voice. "I feel the same way. I am sure Count Eintorian purposefully chose the former territory of Brijit after looking at the situation on the continent. It's a fact that he defeated Naruya for a second time in the process. The same Naruya everyone is so afraid of." There was his plan which saw through Naruya's surprise attack and forced them out of the country in the first war, the strategy he used to defeat and turn the tables on Brijit after they invaded Rozern, and then his recent battle where he led a massive army into a mana circle and then routed them. Was there another man in history like him? He was like the living incarnation of the first Eintorian king who founded the Ancient Kingdom, at least in Dofrey's opinion. And he'd also sent people to Eintorian in order to gather information for his obsessed daughter here. "If we can't form an alliance... That'd be such a shame." Seeing his daughter so dejected, Dofrey considered for a moment, and then opened his mouth. "Would you like to meet the Eintorian ambassador yourself? If all you do is talk, I don't see the harm in that. I am sure he can tell you much more than I could." "D-Do you mean it?! Then I'll talk to His Majesty. If we speak to him together, maybe that will change something. He might even change his mind about the alliance..." Seeing Serena's bright smile, Dofrey smiled on the inside. His daughter was like a bird in a cage. It always pained him, but seeing her so happy, Dofrey resolved to do whatever it took to make the meeting happen. He didn't expect that it would change anything, but making his daughter happy was a worthwhile endeavor all on its own. * Kashak's sword swung down. Serena shut her eyes tight against the flash of the blade. She knew this was the end for her, but it was still depressing. So dying like this is my fate, she thought, giving up all hope, but then... Something happened. The ambassador who had been standing beside her suddenly struck the blade aside. Obviously, Kashak and his subordinates were surprised by this. When had he drawn his sword? No, he shouldn't have even been able to bring it here in the first place. "What do you think you're doing?!" Neither Kashak nor Serena could mask their confusion. But his sword had saved Queen Serena. Instinctively, Kashak's men rushed Erhin. But they were no more than fodder. Kashak's men all fell to Erhin's sword. * "Look out behind you!" Serena shouted at Erhin's back as he cut down his enemies with Daitoren. She backed away, keeping the king behind her to protect him. But the monarch's blood pressure must have shot through the roof or something, because he'd collapsed with his face a bright shade of red. He looked like he wouldn't even be able to get up on his own. Serena supported the king, trying to drag him to his feet. "Let's hurry and escape, sire," she urged. "Y-Yes, that makes sense. Let's leave this place at once." The king accepted Serena's suggestion with a nod. But Erhin stepped in front of them, blocking their exit, and said, "That won't be necessary, Your Majesty. This is the palace. Where else would you go?" He didn't even pay any mind to Kashak, who was behind him. "The Eintorian ambassador, Hadin, was it? You're not going to tell me you were acting all this time, were you?" Kashak was a little bewildered that Erhin had slain Nerchin with a single blow. In no small part because he wasn't convinced that he could have done it himself. With a sour look on his face, Kashak leveled his blade at Erhin. Erhin didn't even plan to talk to the guy. "You don't need to know. I'm putting you down here and now." When Erhin needed someone dead, he got right to it. Erhin swung Daitoren again. Kashak quickly parried with his own sword and stopped it. Well, he tried to stop it, but Daitoren's follow-up attack was faster and sharper. With a Martial score of 92, Kashak was A-class and could therefore use mana, but he was as hapless as a newborn babe in the face of Erhin's Daitoren. The battle was decided before it had begun. In no time, Daitoren traced a graceful arc through Kashak's neck, and his severed head plummeted to the ground. "You're not hurt at all, are you?" Erhin asked, shifting his gaze from the rolling head to the king and Serena. The King of Luaranz looked at Erhin as he nodded. Serena helped the king into a chair. "Ambassador of Eintorian, I am in your debt!" "It's still too early to let our guards down. There must be other insurrectionists still about. This isn't the kind of plan you come up with overnight." "Wh-What?!" the king shouted before falling into an awful coughing fit due to his surprise. "Sire!" "Have no fear. I'll take out any enemies that come." Erhin calmly picked up Kashak's head and carried it out of the room. As he suspected, the palace was in a state of chaos. Kashak's agents among the guards had opened the palace gates, and his soldiers who had rushed inside were fighting an intense battle with the Royal Guard. If Kashak had been able to kill the king and Chesedin, then led those men himself, he'd have overcome the numerical disadvantage, and the coup would have succeeded, just as it had in the original history. But Kashak was dead. Erhin threw Kashak's head on the ground in front of the rebel forces and shouted, "I've taken the head of the rebel leader. Royal guards, execute these traitors at once!" The rebels all froze when they saw Kashak's head. Although the royal guards were confused when Erhin showed up and started giving orders, they went after the traitors regardless. Erhin silently laughed to himself as he watched. I knew about the coup in advance, but I never would have expected it to happen on the day I arrived. Being called in to see the queen was a surprise too. I was considering inciting Kashak to act, if that was what it took, but he went and made things a whole lot faster for me. Luaranz has A-class commanders, but no S-class ones, and their king is mediocre, so there's no one here I felt any need to go out of my way to keep alive. It was lucky that I managed to both eliminate a future threat, and also win the king's trust at the same time. * On hearing about the insurrection, Dofrey rushed to the palace so fast that he was wheezing for breath when he arrived. The sweat pouring off of him spoke to how desperately he'd run. The king had passed out from shock, and Serena, who was looking after him, welcomed Dofrey when he arrived. "Serena! Are you okay?!" Dofrey was so beside himself with worry that he called his daughter by name. Serena, however, responded with a composed nod. "I'm fine." "I was so shocked when I heard... Are you unharmed?" "Yes. You don't need to worry." "Well, that's good, then." Dofrey let out a sigh of relief as he sat in a nearby chair. "Still, I never would have thought Kashak would be a traitor..." "Yes. It caught me by surprise too. But the ambassador from Eintorian saved us in our moment of peril." Sitting next to Dofrey, Serena began telling him about that tense moment. The more she said about it, the paler he got. "If it weren't for the ambassador, I'd have never seen my daughter again..." "Oh, father. I'm still alive and well, as you can see." "Hah hah hah," Dofrey let out a relieved laugh, shaking his head. "Still, I'm glad. Just so glad..." "Who is that man, by the way? This happened before I had the chance to speak to him all that much..." "You said he killed Kashak, right?" "Yes. It was over in an instant," Serena explained calmly as she recalled that moment. Dofrey was struck by how courageous his daughter was. She remembered everything that had happened in such a tense moment. Any ordinary girl would have been out of her mind with surprise in that situation. "He was that incredible, was he? I had been thinking he seemed awfully timid for an Eintorian ambassador... It seems I should make a point of meeting him again." "Father, that man saved Luaranz." "You're right. He did. What was your take on him? I'd like to hear your opinion." Serena needed no time whatsoever to come up with an answer. She already had one. "He was a big man." "Big...in what way?" This wasn't what Dofrey expected to hear. He cocked his head to the side questioningly. Serena smiled at him once more. "I don't mean physically," she said, waving her hand to dismiss the idea, before returning to a more serious expression. "It wasn't over when he cut down the enemy. He immediately moved on to handling the next situation. In no time, he had assumed control of the Royal Guard, and they could do nothing but obey him. Thanks to that, the remaining traitors were quickly subjugated." "I see..." Dofrey had never seen his daughter lavish such praise on anyone before. "Father, I have no intention of interfering in state matters. I know that I'm in a position where I really shouldn't. But...at the very least, we must repay this debt of gratitude, or we will bring shame to Luaranz. And I am certain we will lose nothing by forming an alliance with them. Please, try to convince the other nobles once more!" "Well... I'll do everything I can." Dofrey nodded, but he couldn't be sure the other nobles would listen to him. For them, an alliance they couldn't see the merits of was far less important than getting their preferred candidate on the throne. "Oh, and I'd very much like to see him again myself. I have a lot I'd like to ask him, father." Serena looked at Dofrey with adoring eyes once more. Obviously, the count couldn't possibly refuse her request. And so, after leaving her room, he realized he'd been treating her not as the queen, but as his daughter, and he gave himself a light slap across the face. * "If we must thank him, a reward should suffice... Alliances are a matter of state, Your Majesty!" "I agree entirely!" The council was reconvened, and there the Luaranzine nobles pushed back strongly against an alliance. Yeah, I more or less expected this. Alliances between nations weren't just about being friends. They only worked if the two parties were either somewhat equal, or had something to gain from the other, not unlike the former relationship between Runan and Rozern. But I had no intention whatsoever of serving Luaranz. "Could you try and explain what we gain from an alliance with Eintorian?" Count Dofrey asked me in the middle of deliberations. He was oddly favorable toward me for some reason. Dofrey was the one who'd arranged for me to meet the king and queen too. He was probably telling me to persuade the nobles gathered here. "Our intelligence informs us that the Holy Ramie Kingdom has begun deploying their forces along the border with Luaranz. They've likely been incited by Naruya into starting a war. But if that happens, Eintorian's military will be able to help. We have expert soldiers who fought against both Naruya and Brijit, one after the other." This was no lie. It was a little further in the future, but the Ramie Kingdom, which bordered Luaranz, was keeping an eye open for opportunities to expand. However, the nobles seemed to take offense at what I was telling them. "The Ramie Kingdom are our allies. You're making absurd claims with nothing to back them up. And even if that did happen, Luaranz has the mightiest navy on the continent. As if we'd ever need your help!" one of them shouted, showing his confidence in the fleet. However, things were different now that they no longer had a talented commander. With the death of Chesedin, the fleet would soon fall into the hands of someone totally inept. "Ambassador," the king said after a coughing fit. "I cannot simply ignore what you've said. The Ramie Kingdom had long been a friend to me. I cannot imagine they would ever attack us." "There's more. The Naruya Kingdom is prepared to attack at any moment. You may not share a border with them yet, but that should be no cause for you to rest on your laurels." The Naruya Kingdom did not have a well-developed navy. This had made the Luaranz Kingdom think they were totally safe, but it was absurd for them to feel that way. There wasn't a country in this world that Naruya wasn't out to get. "Enough. You're just making baseless claims to spread confusion. We've heard enough. Now, it is a fact that you prevented the rebellion, so let me give you one last chance. Pledge your service to Luaranz. If you pay us tribute and become our vassal, I suppose we can let you go." The head of the nobility, Duke Zeyda, was of course talking nonsense. "That won't do. This needs to be an alliance between equals." "Then leave this place at once!" With Zeyda having come to this decision, the other nobles soon followed suit. There was nothing more for me to say. The promises of any alliance would only be surface-level, able to be broken through betrayal at any point anyway. Besides, I still had more important things to do. "If that's what my lords say, then..." The king began before being interrupted by a coughing fit. "Ambassador, I'm sorry, but you will have to return home to your own country. I will repay the debt of gratitude I owe to you for saving my life in gold...!" Ultimately, the king gave in to the nobles. * "Bro died?" "Yes... It was a terrible end he met, Master Lushak!" "Heh heh, I see. Bro died, huh?" In Kashak's domain, Kashak's younger brother Lushak laughed in front of the bereaved retainers. He had meant to keep the laugh to himself, but it came out on its own. "Master Lushak?" Lushak's expression changed when he saw the retainers' reaction. "Oh, I'll avenge him, of course. After they killed my bro like that. I'm not letting the king and the nobles get away with this!" That's what he said, but Lushak wanted to squeal with glee at the fact he was going to inherit all the influence his brother had built up. "You said my bro's agents in the capital and the palace are still alive, right?" "Yes. If it weren't for the Eintorian ambassador's intervention, they all would have risen up to defend His Excellency!" Thump! Lushak kicked the retainer as he was still speaking, then he roared, "Shut up! The only Excellency here now is me! You got that? You're to call him His Former Excellency! Don't forget the Former!" "I-I'm terribly sorry," the retainer apologized as he got to his feet. Lushak snorted. "Well, whatever. It sounds like bro's old friend Count Lexeman is willing to help us, which makes things simple. The Royal Guard will be no issue once bro's agents among the palace guards open up the gates for us!" Kashak had spent a decade carefully preparing this plan. He hadn't factored his own death into the equation, but it wasn't so frail that a single failure would scrap the whole thing. "We'll rush into the palace. This is the start of my blood feud against the House of Luaranz for trying to hold me jointly responsible for the rebellion!" It would obviously only be a matter of time before the family of the coup mastermind were arrested. Lushak didn't have any intention of letting go of the power that had finally slipped into his hands, and so he led all his men in an attack on the capital.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter2_2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 It happened swiftly, under cover of night. * Lushak Rebel Army Manpower: 22,000 Morale: 90 + 10 (Indignation) Training: 88 Lushak's rebel forces advanced on the royal capital. With the help of Kashak's collaborators, the gates were thrown open for them with ease. "For Lord Kashak!" What Kashak had built up over a decade proved surprisingly resilient. The +10 indignation bonus that was applied to the Lushak Rebel Army spoke to that. The soldiers were as good as might be expected, having been trained by Kashak, and they occupied the capital in short order. If I hadn't managed to kill Kashak, there's no telling when these guys might have invaded Eintorian. "Kill them all! Every one of the king's men must die!" Lushak rampaged around the capital, spouting clichéd lines. Luaranz Royal Capital Defense Force Manpower: 20,000 Morale: 70 Training: 80 The Royal Capital Defense Force had started with thirty thousand men, but nearly ten thousand of them had turned coat at Lushak's call. These were Kashak's infiltrators. Thanks to them, the scales quickly tilted in the rebellion's favor. The vast majority of the guards who were meant to defend this coastal city against attacks from the sea were naval troops. That ended up working against them. Fire spread through the capital. However, the marines had yet to reach the palace. Well, that was to be expected. The capable commander of the fleet, Chesedin, had been assassinated by Kashak. The old general, Shark, who had been the king's emotional support, and the defender of this nation for many long years, had also been killed by Kashak. How were they supposed to stop the rebels now? The capital was aflame here, there, and everywhere. In short, the rebellion was fated to succeed even if Kashak died. Lushak Lechin was no big deal himself. He was a brute, and if I recall, in the game, Kashak had him executed for his excesses after seizing power. If a guy like that came to power, Luaranz would be a mess. I was grateful to see the incompetent Lushak seize the nation. After this, I would defeat his regime in order to get my hands on the fleet. I couldn't move my own forces now, but Naruya couldn't attack them either. So, if I led them to destroy themselves, I could get the biggest return for the least risk. That was my plan. * "This way, Your Majesty!" When he received word that Lushak had barged into the palace, the king began making his escape through a secret passage along with his royal guard and the chamberlains. This was a hidden tunnel, like the one in Eintorian, that could accommodate a thousand people. Dofrey, who had been worried for his daughter, Queen Serena, and rushed to her side was with them too. The influential nobles, seeing that the palace was sure to become a sea of flame, stayed away, quickly fleeing the capital. That was the fastest way to get back to their own domains in this situation. Still, what good were nobles who wouldn't fight to defend king and country? They pulled out of the capital because they thought Lushak would kill them if they remained, but Lushak wasn't about to let them leave. No matter what they did, the nobles' lives were hanging by a thread. Only the king knew about the secret passage. Ultimately, Dofrey had made the right decision in staying with him. After some time, the group came to a massive iron door. "What do you suppose that gate is, sire?" "I don't know either. I've heard this place was built in the time of the Ancient Kingdom, but as for how to open it, I don't know..." the king said, coughing as he finished. "Could that be a mana circle in the very center of it?" Serena asked, having seen the mana circle in a book, and Dofrey nodded. "It would appear to be, yes. But this isn't the time for us to worry about a gate we cannot open, Your Highness." "He's right, Serena. The secret passage built by the former King of Luaranz is next to the gate. Let's hurry on ahead." On the king's order, they all forgot about the gate and resumed walking. "Are you all right, father?" Serena held Dofrey's hand. Dofrey nodded in response. He couldn't show weakness while his daughter was still okay. "I'm fine." The king and Serena's entourage took a long time making their way out of the secret passage. The king walked with an unsteady gait due to his old age, and the passage could be awfully steep in places, so it wasn't easy to get out. However, because the secret passage was, well, secret, there was no sign of them being pursued as of yet. That was one spot of good luck in the middle of all their misfortune. At the end of their long path, they finally exited the passage. It led outside the capital, which also meant they were now outside the high walls that encircled the city. "Let me take you to my domain for now, sire. First, we'll withdraw to a safe place, and then we'll work with the other domains to retake the capital." "Y-Yes. Let's do that. I don't care what we do now so long as I can rest." "Yes, sire!" But the aged king was in no condition to ride a horse. They had to walk on foot, pulling the horses behind. Just as Dofrey was thinking they were in trouble, their pursuers caught up to them. Having noticed the king must have fled due to his absence from the castle, Lushak's rebel forces began combing the area around the capital. The royal guards went pale as soon as they saw the rebels. They didn't stand a chance with these numbers. "Capture the king! His Excellency Lushak has promised a big reward to whoever catches him! Kill the rest! Kill, and kill, and kill, and then capture him!" As the rebel army tore into the king's line, the royal guards and Serena's maids were killed in no time. They were cut down as they ran, or once they tripped and fell. Somehow the king, Dofrey, Serena, and a number of servants were able to escape into the forest, but they wouldn't make it much farther. The blood drained from Dofrey's face. "We should flee in different directions, sire. It's you that they're after." "I don't care how we do it," said the king. "I can't die yet...! Come up with some plan!" "Change into the head chamberlain's clothes," suggested Serena, leaning forward as she spoke. "If His Majesty dresses as the head chamberlain, and vice versa, the vast majority of the rebels are from domains outside the capital. My presence beside the double should be enough to trick them." Serena's beautiful face was known widely throughout Luaranz. She stuck out like a sore thumb. If there was someone dressed like the king standing beside the queen, then it was natural to assume he was the king. Obviously, this didn't solve the fundamental issue. Because the rebels were so numerous, splitting up to flee might mean that both parties were still caught. But it wasn't as if they had any other option. The rebels, blinded by the bounty on the king, would hopefully all chase after the fake, buying the real one some time. "You would do that, Serena? But..." "We haven't the time for this, sire...!" The king agonized over it a little. He loved his queen, but his own life came before anything else. "I suppose it must be done... All I can do now is rely on what you've offered to do for me. I will reward you handsomely once I regain the throne...!" The king nodded and made promises he couldn't keep as he accepted Serena's proposal. "Find the king!" Still, because there were a thousand royal guards, the group was able to split up while the men were putting up a strong resistance in the rear. "Your Highness, this is putting your own life at risk," Dofrey shouted after his daughter, feeling the blood pumping inside of him. "As queen, it is only right that I should protect my husband, the king." "The king is saying he'll sacrifice you! Why are you acting so loyal to him...? I know that you haven't been together as man and woman, and that you have no feelings for him! How can you call him your husband when you've never spent a single night together?!" "You may have a point, but I am still queen!" Dofrey was overcome by despair. The way things were going, he was going to lose the country he loved, and yet right now, at this very moment, there was something even more important—something which he absolutely did not want to give up on. And so, he took Serena by the arm. "Father?" "Serena! Hurry and flee!" "You cur! Have you any idea what you're saying?!" the king roared, red in the face. However, Dofrey silenced him with a glare. "I cannot," Serena protested. "No matter how I came to the position, I am queen." "It was a mistake for you to marry His Majesty in the first place! Damn it! The moment the nobles started trying to use you, I should have taken you and fled to another country...!" Dofrey's regret was palpable. "Even so!" "Enough. I want you to live in freedom, even if you're the only one who can, Serena. Out in the world you've dreamed of since you were a child! I should have done this a long time ago." "Father...!" Dofrey took one last look at his daughter, searing her image into his memory. "I'm sorry." He loved her more than anything. And so, with that final word... "Fa...ther..." He delivered a powerful, barehanded chop to the back of her neck, knocking her unconscious. Count Dofrey was a commander too. "Take my daughter and run! Hurry!" he shouted, entrusting her to the two retainers who'd come with him. These were men who had served Dofrey since Serena was a little girl. "But Your Excellency...!" "Hurry and go! If you hesitate, you won't be able to escape. This is my last request. Think about what you'd do in my position. Could you abandon your daughter? Take her, and return to the domain where your families are waiting! This is my final order as your lord!" "..." Seeing his will was firm, the two retainers looked at one another. "You go! I'll serve His Excellency to the bitter end!" "No, I'll be the one to stay!" "We don't have time for this. Go already! The rebels are almost upon us!" In this tense situation, one of them had to agree. As they thought back and remembered their own families, they had no choice but to accept Dofrey's proposal. "I'm a commander myself. I'll fight the rebels to buy time. You run away while I do!" Dofrey drew his sword and faced down the rebel army, intending to risk his life to buy time for them to escape. He knew he couldn't hold out for long, of course. But it was the only way. * The fall of Luaranz was brought on by a succession crisis due to the lack of an heir. In short, it'd caused factional strife. If the two factions had been warring over different visions of the country's future, then that would be one thing, but there was no helping people whose only concern was padding their own pockets. So it only made sense that a faction of people appeared who also despised the existing nobility like Kashak did. Now, would Lushak, the guy who'd replaced him, be as tyrannical as I was expecting him to be? I needed to see that for myself, so I planned to remain near the capital for the time being. As I did, I noticed rebel forces gathering outside the city. "What have the people done to deserve this?! Please, stop this senseless slaughter!" I heard a voice I recognized from up ahead—Queen Serena. I had only met her once, but she was unforgettable. Although they differed in many ways, she was every bit as beautiful as Euracia. But more than her pretty face, what had stuck with me about her was the courage she'd shown, not even hesitating to put herself in harm's way to protect the king. Even Kashak had shown respect for her. I'm not entirely sure why the Queen of Luaranz is alone, surrounded by the rebel army. "What's she going on about?" The rebel soldiers ignored her, of course. "You people..." Serena cast a powerful glare at the soldiers, with an attitude that said, Kill me if you want. But she had missed one very important detail. The soldiers didn't plan to just kill her. "I've never seen a woman look so hot." "Look at them fancy clothes. I'll bet she's a real fine lady." "Hey, quit drooling like that! It's gross." The rebels licked Serena's body all over with their eyes. In order to keep morale high, it was normal to allow soldiers to plunder, pillage, and kill to their hearts' content. This was even more so the case with Lushak in charge. As one of the men reached for Serena's shoulder with a depraved grin on his face, she clenched her eyes tight in fear. That's when I surprised them from behind. I wouldn't even need to use Daitoren against these pissants; that's just how much I'd leveled up. If anything happens, I can use 30 Second Invincibility. I lopped the arm off of the man reaching for Serena, then decapitated him on the backswing. His surprised companions held up their pikes and prepared for battle, but I pounded the Attack command until they were eliminated. "Aaaaaaaargh!!!" Serena Dofrey Age: 22 Martial: 2 Intelligence: 77 Command: 72 Looking at her Command score, she was likely similar to Euracia, in that charming people with her high Charisma was her strength. Her face was just as attractive as Euracia's, so her low Martial probably was the only reason her score wasn't quite as high. Euracia was the type who stood on the battlefield personally, which worked well in tandem with her high Charisma score to make soldiers obey her. Serena's Command score was probably different from the kind of Command needed on the battlefield. Hearing the sudden screams of the soldiers, Serena's eyes slowly opened as she took in the situation. As a result, she cracked her eyes open just a sliver and met my gaze. "What are you doing here, Your Highness?! And all by yourself!" Noticing me, she reacted with a hundred times my own surprise, covering her mouth with shock. "Wh-Why, you're Lord Hadin, are you not?!" Oh, yeah, that's right. I was using Hadin's name here. Anyway, now that she noticed me, she suddenly took my hand. "Please, save His Majesty and my father! I beg of you! I'll do anything that I can in return...!" Her fingers gripped me with a strength I'd never have imagined from that slender body of hers. "Before that, what are you doing here alone?" "Well... My father helped me to get away. He said that I should survive, even if I was the only one who could. But I could never abandon my father just to save myself. I wanted to help him somehow, but the head chamberlain, who stayed by my side during my escape, was spotted by the enemy." Her father's Count Dofrey, right? Well, if the only guy who showed a favorable attitude toward me is in trouble, I'd better save him, then. "We should mount up for now. By the way, do you know how to ride a horse?" "Yes! I can ride! I learned how to as a young girl!" I guess that's to be expected for a noble. After pulling herself up into the saddle of one of the dead rebels' horses by herself, she turned to look at me. I could see from her expression that she wanted to make haste. I had a pretty powerful card in my hands now—the queen. I just had to play her right to use Lushak's rebellion to Eintorian's advantage. And so I rode back toward the capital with Serena. * "It's over there! That's where my father sent me off..." Serena drove her horse even faster, anxiety for her father's welfare hastening her pace. Obviously, there was no avoiding an encounter with the rebels. "Eek!" They attacked me and Serena like it came second nature to them. Each time they did, I used the Attack command before they could so much as get close to her. There were limits to even my abilities, though. I hurriedly broke the lance of a cavalryman who was attacking her. If I was willing to use Daitoren, I could make it so nobody could get anywhere near her, but there was no telling what might happen, or when, on a battlefield like this. I couldn't waste my ace in the hole on some random grunts. "It's going to be hard to protect you, riding alongside you like this. Please ride with me on my horse, Lady Serena." "V-Very well." And so she slid from her own saddle into mine, her body pressing against me from behind. After riding together for more than half an hour, we witnessed a horrific battlefield. Dofrey had collapsed in front of many rebel corpses, the fight long over at this point. "Father!" Serena leaped down from the horse to rush to his side. A spear stuck straight up where it had pierced Dofrey's chest. "Fatheeeeer!" Serena wailed. When she did, the remaining rebels pounced on us. I took care of them. As I blindly cut down rebels left and right, someone who appeared to be a commander finally showed his face. Lecter Gesman Age: 34 Martial: 84 Intelligence: 20 Command: 78 His Martial score surprised me. It must have been higher than Lushak's. So, someone actually capable came to the front in order to capture the king himself, huh? "Who're you?!" the man asked with a suspicious look at me. "So you're Lecter Gesman, eh?" Kashak had a right-hand man—a close friend who, in the game, led the Luaranz Kingdom together with him until it was destroyed by the Naruya Kingdom. "You know me? Who are you? You don't look like a Luaranzine noble," Gesman said, eyeing my aristocratic garb. I didn't answer him. I needed this rebellion to run wild, with Lushak calling all the shots, which meant it'd be a problem if someone was around to rein him in. The unfortunate thing was that he had a Martial score of 84, while mine was currently only 82. I have points in reserve, so I could just raise my Martial. But is there any need to? Using Daitoren on a guy with a Martial of 84 was overkill, but I wanted to conserve my points in case of emergency. I summoned Daitoren and used the Attack command. "Wh-What...?!" He died with a look of confusion on his face, just like Kashak. I used that momentum to take out the rest of the enemies in the area. Once I was done, I rushed to Dofrey's side. He was still breathing. "You shouldn't have come back, Serena..." Though he said this, Dofrey's lips twitched upward into a pained smile. "And you, Ambassador... I'm glad to see you're well..." "Yeah." When he saw me, Dofrey's smile grew even as he coughed up blood. "I know I will be imposing on you with this request, but...would you look after my daughter for me? I'd like you to take her to Eintorian... I want her to live on... Even if that means abandoning her country." "Father... Father!" Serena desperately tried to stem the flow of blood from Dofrey's wound with her own hands, to no avail. The blood spilled from between her fingers. "Serena..." Dofrey let out a bloody cough as his gaze shifted to Serena. "Father...!" "Serena, I'm sorry I couldn't do this for you sooner. May you be happy...for the rest of your days..." "Don't say another word, father. I don't want it to be like this... No...!" Dofrey reached out a hand toward his blood-soaked daughter, but his arm fell away, and he was unable to say another word. "Father!!!" Serena screamed again. But there were no tears in her eyes. She just screamed on and on, half-crazed. Her psyche couldn't take any more of this. I practically yanked her to her feet, then threw Dofrey's corpse over my shoulder. "We can't leave a hero of the nation to get trampled under the horses' hooves. Let's give him a proper burial." Serena followed me, mutely holding her father's arm. * Serena spent a long time just hugging Dofrey's grave marker before, finally, she opened her mouth to speak to me. If she was talking, that meant she'd recovered at least somewhat, thankfully. "Thank you, Lord Hadin." "No, I only did what anyone ought to." "By the way..." she trailed off as she eyed me in an odd way. "What is it?" I asked her. "Have you no intention of revealing your real name?"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter2_3.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 For some reason, she said that with utter certainty. "What makes you think I'm not Hadin?" "I know you aren't." "And you know this how?" "Lord Hadin is more of a bureaucratic type, and also...he's much older than you are." "I see..." How'd she know that? Up until Fihatori joined up with us, Baron Hadin Meruya was the only noble among my retainers, so he was a little more widely known than the rest of them. Even so, I wouldn't have expected anyone here to know such a small detail about him as his age, not this far from home. "You see, I...I've admired Eintorian for a long time now. Not being able to leave the palace, I always pestered my father for tales from the world outside... In the stories he told me, I heard about Lord Erhin Eintorian's escapades over and over again. It made me feel like I was out there myself, wandering the great expanse. I've always dreamed about it, you know. I even badgered my father into sending people to Eintorian in order to bring back more stories, so... I know a lot about it." I looked at her with some surprise. It was true that Erhin was now famous across the continent. I'd definitely made a name for myself when I destroyed Brijit. So her knowing who I was didn't surprise me, but I didn't expect this level of knowledge. Of course, even if they sent people, she still only knew what I'd made public. "So that's how it was." "Yes. I even pestered my father to introduce me to the ambassador, hoping to learn more details about Eintorian. I also told him that, if possible...I wanted us to form an alliance..." So that's what that was about, huh? I had been a little suspicious of why Count Dofrey was trying to help me, but her story explained it. "For me, shut away in the palace, the tales of Eintorian were always so very fresh and interesting. So, I know that you're..." "Who do you think I am?" Serena looked a little troubled when I asked her that. "You don't fit my mental image of Lord Yusen or Lord Erheet... And then there's your hair color... But you can't be..." "Well, gray hair is the mark of the House of Eintorian, after all." There was no need to keep it a secret any longer. Still, even once she'd figured it out, Serena just stared at me, blinking vacantly, still unable to believe it was true. "Your Highness?" I said, waving one hand in front of her eyes, and she finally spoke in a quivering voice. "Lord Erhin... Well, I had been thinking you looked like how I imagined you to, but... Why are you, the Lord of Eintorian, here? I can't believe it!" "I came because I felt the job of ambassador was just that important. Is that a problem somehow?" "It's Lord Erhin... In the flesh! Oh, whatever will I do! What should I do...?!" She started stammering and losing her composure. "Perhaps you should calm down a little before we talk... Take a deep breath." I placed my hands on her trembling shoulders. When I did, she gave me a firm nod, and then took a deep breath. "Whew... But it's just not possible!" "I'm not what you imagined?" "No, that's not it! You're spot-on. Father will be thrilled. He's always so happy when he talks about Eintorian. He was the first to tell me the stories too..." As she started to recall these memories of her father, she closed her mouth. Her eyes wandered back to the grave marker, and it came back to her that he was gone now. After that, she stayed sitting in front of the grave for a long while. * Two weeks passed after Lushak's uprising. His men completely occupied the royal capital, but Lushak didn't take the throne himself. Instead, he placed a young royal on the throne who he could easily control. Then, once he had taken all of the real power, he had himself made a duke. At this point, Lushak's rebel forces were now the Royal Army. There was a simple reason he hadn't taken the throne himself: many of Kashak's close associates were still around, so someone must have warned him against it. They had only taken the capital, not all of Luaranz. Obviously, they had captured the influential nobles...that is to say, the duke and all the others who had tried to escape. That meant all the nobles who served under the duke were his hostages too. By putting someone—anyone, really—from the House of Luaranz on the throne to continue the Luaranz Dynasty, he could at least keep up the appearance of this being the Luaranz Kingdom. Anyone who pushed back against it would become a traitor. If he could gain this much power even without sitting on the throne, then Lushak would have no choice but to accept it. But it wasn't as if the nobles out in the countryside had accepted Lushak. If the central government he held, even with the sparks of discontent flying about, were to vanish, domains all around the country would rise up against his authority. Lushak managed to hold the capital and keep up the appearance of them being one country, but without him, Luaranz would probably fracture. If that happened, other countries in the vicinity wouldn't leave them alone. They wouldn't miss the chance to pick off and subjugate the domains of Luaranz individually as they squabbled among themselves. It would turn into a free-for-all, each of their neighbors competing to occupy the most land, and that, in turn, would mean fewer eyes on Eintorian. Once my back was secure, I could feel safe taking on Naruya and Southern Runan. We stood on a hill overlooking the gates of the royal capital, where the head of the former king still hung on display. Fortunately, Serena had a stout heart, and recovered over the past two weeks. Her familiarity with the local area was a great help to me. "What do you plan to do now?" "Defeat Lushak." "Count Lushak...?" "He's Duke Lushak now, though." "Is that truly possible? If you can defeat Lushak...can avenge my father, then I'll do anything I can to help!" "I won't be doing it so you can get revenge. I'm doing it for Eintorian." "All the same!" "All right, Your Highness. Please, raise your head." As I helped her to her feet, Serena seemed to think about something, before opening her mouth once more with a look of resolution. "Lord Erhin, please don't call me Your Highness. His Majesty has passed away, and I am a fugitive, no longer a queen. I am just a frail woman who couldn't save her husband or her own father..." "You have a point... If you'll resolve to do just one thing, Your Highness, then I'll do that." "What is that? I'll...do anything. I am at your service." Dimples formed in Serena's cheeks as she smiled. "Please, join Eintorian." "M-Me...? But I have no talent. Why would you take in someone like me?!" Her high base Charisma value was more than enough to justify keeping her around for use in internal politics. Charisma was a hidden value not displayed by the system, but if it was high enough, it let the person conscript troops and raise taxes without the people's Opinion going down. It also had an effect on development and agriculture. Having another person like that would be a considerable bonus for Eintorian. "Perhaps I shouldn't say this myself, but...I became queen, not for any talent I possess, but because of my pretty face and family name. All I did was help my father to carry out policies he wanted, so it's not as though I accomplished anything myself." "Are you so sure about that? I think that some of the things that you just mentioned count as talents." When I said that, Serena stared at me vacantly, unable to speak. Several seconds later, she continued. "W-Well... I don't know if I agree about me being talented, but...whether it's as a member of Eintorian or not, I will obey you, Lord Erhin. My dream was to travel the world freely. Right now, at this very moment, that dream has come true. Because I'm stepping out into the wider world at your side. I'm very excited about it. I could shout out loud, 'I'm free!'" "Well, if that's how you feel...I'll treat you as my subordinate from now on. Is that all right?" "Yes, of course!" She gave me a big nod. It seemed a little exaggerated. "If you're that ready for it, then here are my first orders for you." Serena stood up straight and looked at me. A moment of silence passed between us. "Go ahead and cry." When I gave her that order after a dramatic pause, she looked surprised. "I'm the only one here right now. This is the perfect place for it, with a clear view of both your father's grave and the royal palace. You should let it all out." After a pause, she said, "Yes, I suppose you're right." She hadn't cried at her father's death, desperately forcing down the emotions that had welled up inside of her. She'd endured that sadness all this time. At first, it had even looked as though she hadn't accepted his demise. Later, she'd hugged his grave marker, acknowledging he was no more, but seemed to have missed her chance for tears, and I'd seen her holding them back on several occasions. But she couldn't do that forever. Nodding at what I'd said, she looked around the area. Then she let out a wail. She cried out the name of the father who had loved her more than anyone in the world, and then ultimately broke down into tears. As the first drops overflowed from behind the reservoir of her emotions, she cried loud and hard. But I had no intention of stopping her. She can cry all she wants right now.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 Chapter 3: Together with the People Irritating as it was, if I was going to defeat Luaranz without using manpower, then I had to take my time. Ultimately, the fastest way to take down a puppet regime was to bring the populace's discontent to the point of bursting. It was even easier when you had a justification for it, which, conveniently, I did: the existence of a queen who could claim to be carrying on the will of the late King Luaranz. Lushak was running wild, just as I'd hoped he would. The guy was the absolute worst kind of human being. In less than two weeks, he'd already started oppressing the people who lived around the capital. Dozens of nearby villages disappeared, one after another. Puppet regimes had an inherently weak claim to legitimacy, and the only counter to that was a high popular opinion. A state that turned its back on public sentiment couldn't hope to continue functioning properly. In the game, if Opinion dropped below 10, there would be rioting, and rebellion would break out. So if I could lower Opinion to that point, then in this world, which could be viewed as an extension of the game, a revolution was guaranteed to occur. If I could manipulate the sporadic rebellions, then it was more than possible I would be able to drive out Lushak and create a vacuum of power. Then I could take advantage of the public sentiment created by that anger in order to gather the people and bring them back to Eintorian, killing two birds with one stone. This was also a chance for me to boost Eintorian's population, which currently sat at one million fifty thousand. Ryhein was fairly spacious, so there was still plenty of room for more. The larger the population, the higher the cost, but it meant I could raise even more troops. Manpower was going to be indispensable for Eintorian going forward. Absolute monsters abounded in Naruya. I couldn't rely on using points forever, so I needed troops that could fight them on even footing. Since my plan is to get the Luaranzine people to move to Brijit, no matter how things play out, this place is going to be a battlefield. With the justification of overthrowing the puppet regime, I'll explain the grim realities of war, and persuade people that I can guarantee them a stable life. It's all pretty self-serving, but hey, what choice do I have? I need Opinion and Population. This is all part of clearing the game, which is the only way I can protect my own life. Frankly, my own survival comes first and foremost. I'm not from this world, and I don't have justice on my side, or any kind of real justification—only the will to beat the game. Regardless, it should be simple to manipulate public sentiment so that a rebellion breaks out. Originally, the royal capital of Luaranz had an Opinion score of 70, meaning that it was fairly stable. Thanks to their mediocre king, there wasn't much going on aside from infighting between the nobles, so the number had hovered at 70 without intervention. And yet, in just two weeks, Lushak had caused it to plunge all the way down to 30. All I needed was to lower it another 20. Right now, things weren't shaken up enough for a revolt to break out. There were just murmurs of discontent here and there. In order to foment a rebellion and make it strong, I had a number of things I needed to do. First of all, infiltrating them so that, once the puppet regime was defeated, I could convince the people to become my people was the most important goal. Without an army of my own here, I was going to have to use the will of the people to overthrow the regime. Besides, I was confident that if I stood at the vanguard, I could ensure the insurrection ended in success, not failure. It wasn't as if I couldn't liquidate Lushak on my own, because I could fight for at least half an hour without anyone being able to get in my way. But that wouldn't bring the people's hearts over to me, nor would it give them any reason to obey. If I was going to get foreigners to submit to me, I'd have to give them a damn good reason to. Population was power, and a high population was tied to popular opinion, so I decided to infiltrate the largest village in the area. * "You're going to infiltrate a village?" "Correct. And to do that...I want us to pretend to be a husband and wife who lost everything to the war." "Husband and wife?!" Serena looked pretty shocked. "You don't like the idea?" "No, it's not that... But I'm a married woman, after all..." "We're not getting married for real. You just have to play the part." "Yes, I know that, but... Okay." "All right, first things first... No, wait." A smoke signal rose in the distance. I raised two pillars of smoke in response. "What are you doing?" "It's a signal. I'm calling people from Eintorian." "I see! I'll be able to meet other people from Eintorian, then! I'm already nervous!" The face of the self-proclaimed Eintorian scrunched up in anticipation. "There's no need to be so tense." "Who's coming?" I shrugged my shoulders. There was someone perfect for infiltrating a village like this. I didn't know what village life was like in this world, but of my retainers, Jint was the most familiar with it. Not that calling just Jint would help that much. That's why I had Mirinae come with him. She was perfect for this mission. I'd told them where I was with my smoke signals, so they'd be arriving shortly. Serena looked off into the distance, tense with anticipation. Not long after, the sound of hoofbeats heralded the arrival of the pair we were waiting for. "My lord! Come on, Jint, hurry up and dismount!" Mirinae and Jint greeted us the moment they saw me. Jint wasn't the type to pay the proper respects, but when Mirinae was with him he'd bow his head, if only to spare himself her nagging. "I'm glad you made it." I was going to need Jint when I eliminated Lushak, which was why I had summoned the two of them here. Mirinae spotted Serena, standing behind me demurely, and cocked her head to the side questioningly. "Who is this with you, my lord?" "A new retainer. Her name's Serena Dofrey." "Ah! I didn't realize she was nobility." When Mirinae heard me refer to Serena by her full name, she got very tense and closed her mouth. "I may have once been a noble, but now I am no more than a fugitive without any redeeming qualities. Still, it is an honor to meet the Jint and Mirinae! I've heard so many stories. You're both truly wonderful!" She even knew Mirinae? "Mirinae, how many times do I have to tell you this? You and Jint are practically nobility yourselves. I'll be able to give you noble titles once we declare the founding of our country, so start acting the part now." "I'm, um...really struggling with that, my lord," Mirinae said, awkwardly scratching her head. "You oughta be able to do it. Nobles ain't such a big deal," grumbled Jint. Mirinae stomped on his foot as if that were the natural response. "Anyways, it's like I said," I continued. "I want you to help me go undercover in a village for a while." "Eliu Village?" Serena asked, sounding as if she knew the place. "You're familiar with it?" "Yes. The mayor is quite famous. He met my father on a number of occasions. Fortunately, I've never met him myself, so he won't recognize me." Well, even if she didn't get found out, that conspicuously beautiful face of hers was going to be a problem. I had an idea for what to do about that. Even though we wouldn't be entering an unruly mob but a village of generally good people, we still needed to act as though we'd fled in the chaos of war. "First of all, Serena, we'll cover your face in soot. Everyone, do the same. It needs to look like we've had a hard time on the way here." "Got it!" Mirinae said with alacrity. She and Jint got to helping each other with their disguises, and I applied the soot to Serena's face. "Eek...! Hey, that tickles!" Don't say it in that bewitching voice. I had gotten used to being around pretty faces at least to some degree thanks to Euracia, but they still each had their own appeals. "Well, that should do." "So, now I just pretend to be your wife?" "That's right." "You know... I'm quite the actress, actually. And especially good at seduction," Serena told me with a broad smile. "Yeah, that's a lie..." Serena gave me a look like I'd just suddenly slapped her. "How could you tell...?" "It was kinda obvious." "That's a tad frustrating." I don't think it's anything to get frustrated about. "We're all ready over here, my lord!" Anyway, with our preparations complete, we entered Eliu. From the entrance to the village, we could see people working in the fields. Their gazes turned toward us, the sudden interlopers. With all the rumors circling after multiple villages had vanished, the looks they gave us were not kindly ones. Immediately, one of the men of the village came over to us. His wariness was readily apparent as he said, "State your business here in the village." "We're looking for a place that will take in refugees... Our village was razed to the ground in all this recent chaos." "You've lost your homes?" "Yeah." "Hmm. Well, sorry, but we've already taken in a lot of refugees. We can't handle any more of you. Try somewhere else." Serena's brow twitched. She'd heard that we absolutely needed to infiltrate a village near the capital in order to foment a rebellion, so she was probably getting worried. The man from the village shooed us away. Two weeks ago, most of the villages surrounding the capital had been destroyed, and many of the dispossessed residents had drifted elsewhere. That meant the surviving villages were also having a hard time, and with only so much arable land to go around, this sort of reaction was inevitable. I would have expected the same anywhere near the capital. With a look of desperation, I approached the man again. "We'll pay you for your hospitality. Will this be enough? It's all we have..." The man's eyes went wide, but at just that moment, there was a sharp voice from behind him. "What are you lot doing?!" The man standing in front of the group jumped a little, and the men standing behind him slumped their shoulders. "M-Mayor!" The men made way as a white-haired man walked over and looked us up and down. Though his hair had grayed, the man was still only in his fifties, not an old man yet, and possessed a certain charisma. No sooner had the mayor, who introduced himself as Vintora, appeared as he whacked the villagers upside the head with his cane. He didn't seem to have any trouble walking, so it was possible that he only carried that cane as a beating stick. This was probably the infamous mayor that Serena had mentioned. "We're all human. Everyone's got struggles, don't they? Who do you think you are to drive them off?" Vintora scolded the men before looking at us once more. "Good of you to come. We saw a lot of refugees a little while back. Where do you all hail from?" "The soldiers from the capital wiped out a village recently. We're from there... We were traveling to another city to trade, and when we returned, our homes..." "Your village was gone?" "I think...it had something to do with the rebel army..." When I started to talk about the rebellion, the mayor hurriedly covered my mouth. "If you don't want to die, you should keep your mouth shut about that." "Ah! I'm sorry!" We were dealing with the kind of guys who could massacre a village and then cover it up, but clearly word was getting around. "Well, fortunately, there's a mountain between our village and the capital, and we're able to do slash-and-burn farming... We can make the food situation work out somehow. The villagers aren't heartless. They're just wary of newcomers. If anything, we could use more hands to prepare the fields. Don't you worry." With that said, Vintora turned to look at the men. Perhaps the mayor's word was law here, because they just scratched their heads, unable to talk back to him. "Put that money away," he said to us. "Save it for when you need it later." Planting his cane on the ground, Vintora began giving orders to the men of the village. "Show them around. Have them work on cultivating the fields, and then see what we can do about arranging a living situation for them." "Y-Yes, sir..." After hearing their response, the mayor smiled before disappearing into the village. The first man to talk to us watched until he was out of sight, then approached me again. In a conspiratorial tone, he whispered, "Hey, to celebrate the occasion, would you consider giving me a small amount of money anyways?" "Come again?" "Nah, forget about it. Ha ha. I'm Merol. Come with me." "Okay." Serena and I followed him. Jint was giving the men from the village a death glare, but Mirinae put a stop to that. Yeah, it was definitely the right call to have her come with him. We proceeded through the village until we came to a wooden building that appeared to be a warehouse of some sort. "We've been having the others who came here stay in this place, at least temporarily. We'll build you houses once there's time. For now, though, men stay here, and women in that building over there." There was a lumber pile in the direction he was pointing. It had a roof and walls, so it was better than roughing it, but that was all. Still, thanks to the mayor, the men really did do a lot for us. Well, the villagers don't seem like a bad bunch either. There are probably some places that would have run us off. I'd say we made the right choice in coming here. "There's no one here now. They've all gone off to work. Come with me. I'll introduce you. Oh, and you two, head off to the fields." Jint and I went with Merol, while Mirinae and Serena went to the fields. "It looks like we're going over there, Serena." Although she had been a little hesitant to talk to a noble, at my urging, Mirinae was doing her best to be someone Serena could rely on. We quietly followed behind Merol until we came to a rocky mountain behind the village. There were a little over ten men here, digging up rocks, big and small, to prepare the area for cultivation. * "This is how we work with the newcomers, helping them to cultivate the land so that they'll have their own fields. Hey, Gordun!" "Hey!" The man called Gordun laid down the stone he was carrying and came over to Merol. Then, noticing us, he cocked his head to the side. "They're our first new friends in a while. Mayor Vintora let them in. They'll be working with you." "Gotcha." Gordun seemed to accept it easily enough. He wasn't going to object. I'd been worried that we were going to get the outsider treatment, but it looked like that wasn't going to be an issue. "Was everyone here accepted by Mayor Vintora?" I asked, and the men, who showed obvious signs of respect at the mention of the mayor's name, vigorously nodded. They then went on to explain it to me. "I was hurt bad when I ran away, but Vintora treated me," the man next to Gordun said with a cheerful smile. "Everyone here is really nice. I was lucky to end up in a village like this one. It's more or less the same story for the others too. We all want to repay them somehow." They seemed like good folks, generally. "Thanks. I'm Erh, and this is Jint," I said, shortening Erhin to make a fake name for myself. Jint nodded curtly. We started helping the villagers after that. It was the first time I'd done such sweaty work in ages, so it was pretty hard on me. I'd thought I was getting stronger, but I guess that was different from the stamina I needed for this kind of intense manual labor. Still, I gritted my teeth and bore with it. I needed to blend in for now. "Put your back into it, pal. You're built stronger than me, so I don't see what the problem is!" Gordun teased me, but at the same time he constantly heaped praise on Jint. "Your little brother's no slouch. Ha ha! He's a real good worker." The men stared at Jint with their jaws hanging open as he carried two huge rocks at the same time. I couldn't help but do the same. One of his strong points was that he wasn't just fast; he was strong. Maybe I should've told him to hold back a little? He was making me look bad by comparison. Well, it was too late now. In the lodging house, Gordun gave me the newcomer treatment, assigning me the bed at the very end. Jint, meanwhile, was given a much nicer one in recognition of the hard work he'd put in that day. Jint was visibly unsure what to do about this. I waved my hand, telling him it was fine. For some time after that, I ended up getting teased for being a weakling who couldn't do his job properly. It frustrated me, but there was no point in showing off my power here. I was just going to have to suffer the cold draft that blew on my corner bed in silence. That's how our first few days in the village went. "Hey, mister! Is this right?" If there was one thing that changed, it was that I was put in charge of educating the village children. But here too, since I was always just reading the automatic translations of their writing system, it was Serena who had to teach them to write. That was something the mayor had asked Serena to do each morning after he found out she could read and write. There was no harm in making ourselves useful, so we instantly agreed. In fact, Serena seemed pleased about it. On top of that, she also had a knowledge of herbs. She'd apparently been studying medicine. That was something she had in common with Vintora, so the two often chatted about it together. I ended up helping Serena as she taught the children, which freed me from hard manual labor. "Yeah, that's right. You've got them all correct." I patted the kid on the head, doing my best impression of a kind smile. Once the lesson was over, the children all picked up large baskets. "Where are all of you going?" "We forage for vegetables and herbs in the mountains until we're old enough to work in the fields!" answered the snot-nosed little kid next to me. "We're not just playing around," said the boy from before, puffing himself up with pride. It seemed that, while the people's attitudes were cheerful, the situation the village found itself in was not so bright. The people worked from dawn to dusk. Merol had mentioned quotas on the first day, and that probably had something to do with it. Perhaps Lushak had set quotas for how much produce each village needed to provide him. His demands were bound to only get more unreasonable from here. That was what I wanted. The more unreasonable he became, the further the people's opinion of him would drop, and soon the opportunity for a rebellion would arise. The more I worked alongside them, the more I'd be able to sense it. So it was important to work by their sides, eat the same things, and share in their burdens. When I finished my teaching job and went to the center of the village, I found the mayor and villagers dividing the produce. "It's quite the harvest," I remarked innocently, but the mayor just sighed. "I can't say that it is. We won't meet our quota with this." "Even with all this?! What is the king thinking?!" "We've been warned they'll destroy the village if we don't obey them. We've had a better harvest than usual this year, so we'll still meet the quota somehow. Anyways, I've told you to watch your mouth about that kind of thing!" When the mayor nodded, so did the rest of the villagers. But he still looked worried. It wasn't time for me to make my move yet, so I just nodded too, then headed back to the rocky mountain to help prepare new fields. As I approached the untamed lands, I heard the mountain rumbling. It was a dull sound. I rushed toward it and found a tragedy unfolding. There were rocks rolling down the mountain—a landslide. The people who noticed it fled in a panic, but one man who had been absorbed in his work didn't realize what was happening and got trapped under a huge boulder. "Mandel!" Gordun shouted, rushing over. "Urgh..." The man's face twisted with pain. Gordun tried to save him on his own, but it was no good. Me, Jint, and some other men joined him in trying to shift the boulder, but it wouldn't budge an inch. What made such a huge rock come rolling down? Not even Jint can move this thing. Villagers who noticed the situation gathered around, working together to try to do something about it, but the rock remained unbudging. The villagers shook their heads. The mayor did too with a sad look on his face. "This is awful. It's not as though we can just cut his legs off..." "Help him, please!" cried Gordun. "He's my friend! We came all the way here together. We were finally getting settled in here at this village too. Why did this have to happen...?" "I get how you must feel, but..." Merol and the other villagers' faces twisted with frustration. "I have an idea," I said, causing dozens of eyes to turn toward me. Gordun, who was on the ground, weeping, clutched at my arm. "Is there something we can do? Please, save him! I'm counting on you!" The mayor looked at me with surprise as well. "What are you suggesting we do?" "We tie a rope around the boulder, and use a pulley to lift it," I said, explaining how a pulley system worked. "I'm not sure I understand, but you're saying that will do it?" "Yes. Please, lend me your strength, everyone." When I said that, the villagers began murmuring among themselves as they decided it was worth a try. Thanks to that, I had enough people to do it. The sky darkened, and work continued until the sun had long since set. Under the moonlight, our labor came to its conclusion. The rock moved. "Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Cheers went up all around. I hadn't been that confident we could pull it off, so I was pretty satisfied with the result. The day I saved Gordun's friend, the way the young men of the village treated me changed. The mayor worked diligently to treat Mandel's legs. He'd likely never walk again, but he'd survive, at least. While I hadn't planned for this, I was slowly starting to fit in here. Another day went by, and another opportunity for me to act came. One of the children who had gone out to collect herbs came running back into the village, tears in his eyes. He said a beast had appeared. I rushed to the scene and saved the children who had climbed up into a tree to get away from the animal. After that, I was completely excused from manual labor, and instead helped Vintora with his work. His job mostly consisted of treating the sick, so I wrote simple prescriptions for them. This let me make my presence known to the villagers. The more time passed, the more people saw me as a sort of vice mayor. "Thank you for your hard work. With more children being born, I'll have to work even harder!" Vintora never failed to encourage the villagers who were straining under the heavy workload. I could see why they trusted him so much. "You can slay beasts, and read and write, yet I can't see you as truly being husband and wife... Be honest with me. Let's not keep secrets anymore." I was a little surprised when the mayor suddenly hit me with this while we were walking around the village together. Okay, I'd stood out a little too much, so maybe this was unavoidable. "Okay... Could you come with me?" I was going to have to give Vintora a story that would convince him. In my time here, I'd learned that he had a lot of sway with the nearby villages due to his personality. That's probably what Serena was talking about when she'd said that he was famous. I went to the lodging house and called Serena. After that, we explained some things to him. We couldn't tell the truth yet, so there were some lies mixed in. Okay, no, it was mostly lies. "So, what you're telling me is...this young noblewoman...fled here with a commoner like yourself?" "Yes. The two who came with us are her bodyguard and servant." When I explained this, Vintora looked at Serena's face and nodded, as if he was convinced. "I was sure there was something about you... So you really were a noble, huh? I'll keep it a secret, of course. I can see your commitment in how hard you work. Besides, you're not the only ones with an unusual background. Gordun used to be a mountain bandit. Did you know that?" "Huh?" That was a slightly surprising revelation. I had assumed from his brusque attitude and large, muscular body that Gordun was a deserter, but I never would've guessed he was a bandit. Well, not that it mattered. Like Vintora said, looking at how hard the man worked, I could see he'd turned over a new leaf. "That's quite a decision. Accepting a bandit into your village." "The country is falling apart. Life is hard no matter where you go. I'm sure many people have had no choice but to turn to banditry. When you get to my age, you can tell those who have bad intentions from those who don't." The white-haired Vintora smiled. This was probably why Gordun felt so indebted to Vintora. The more I learned about him, the more I liked the guy. "Thank you for telling me. Now I need to have lunch and get back to work." Vintora waved to us before heading back to his house while we returned to the lodging house. And so, another day passed. It had been more than a month at this point, yet the opportunity I was waiting for had yet to present itself. Still, the days I'd spent here weren't in vain. Because, from what Vintora told me, the tax collector would be coming two days from now. * "How are you finding the work here, Serena? Hard to get used to, right? I'm sure you've never worked in the fields before..." "Yes, you're right. It's embarrassing... But I'm getting used to it now, so I'll be fine." Serena was grateful for all the care Mirinae showed her. To think she'd be shown such compassion by one of the people of Eintorian she'd admired all this time. "You really are amazing, Mirinae. I don't know all the details of what you've been through, but it must have been difficult. I hear that Jint rescued you, and Erhin brought you together in Eintorian? The love between the two of you really is wonderful. I know it must have been hard sometimes, of course, but... That's part of why I respect you so much." "It's all thanks to our lord. Heh heh!" Mirinae twisted around bashfully. The two of them had been awkward with each other at first, but after bonding over their shared experience of going through hard times, they were as close as sisters. "Lord Erhin tells me you had it rough too, Serena..." "I wouldn't say that..." "But let's not dwell on it! There's no time to waste on such gloomy topics!" Mirinae also had emotional baggage, but she always tried her best to maintain a sunny disposition. "You're right. Let's change the topic. Your sewing is really wonderful, you know that? How can you be so fast and neat? Did you see how surprised the other women in the village looked when they saw your work?" "Well... I made my living as a seamstress at one point. I wanted to be able to treat Jint to something nice to eat when he came back from the war..." "Oh, so that's why." "Yes...!" Even though Serena had lost her parents, she had lived a privileged life up until recently, so the more she heard about Mirinae's story, the more she came to feel her own pains were not so great. She also took an active interest in hearing about Eintorian. "Would you mind if I ask one more thing?" "Go on! Feel free to ask anything." "Anything...huh?" There was one thing Serena had always wanted to ask, but she was still a little bit hesitant to. Especially because she could never ask Erhin himself. But she worked up the nerve. "Uh, so Euracia of Rozern... What's she like?" "Huh? The princess? Well..." Mirinae started to say something, then suddenly stopped. Then she stared at Serena. "I want to have your back, Serena, but... I have to support Lady Euracia too, so... I can't side with either of you!" She let out a heavy sigh and paused again. "I'm sorry!" Mirinae backed away a little, as if she'd realized something. Serena hurriedly tried to correct her. "No, it's not like that! It's not... I just wanted to know." "About your romantic rival, right? Hee hee!" "Not at all. I could never..." Serena shook her head vigorously. "Why not? You have grace, and you're more than pretty enough. Although Lady Euracia is no less beautiful. But the princess is a bit of an oddball." "An oddball?" "Yeah. She pretty much only talks to our lord. And even then, her responses are brief... It's hard to tell what she's thinking most of the time. But when she gets into a fight, she's incredible!" "I see..." She's just like I heard, thought Serena. "Well, I look forward to meeting her in Eintorian." "Don't worry, Serena. I'll be sure to show you around to all sorts of places when we get there. Just watch yourself when you pick a fight with the princess, okay?"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 Mirinae cheerfully slapped Serena on the back. * "Serena." "Yes." The sun had gone down after another day's work, and, remembering something, I called Serena. "The First Fleet was manned by a unit that was centered around Chesedin and his retainers, right?" "Yes, that's correct. Our fleet was the mightiest because of them." "The members of his house would all have been in the capital, so I'll bet that Lushak's purged them all, retainers included." "It's such a shame to have lost him..." "Is there anyone outside of Chesedin's house who you think could do a good job of controlling the fleet?" Yeah. That was my greatest concern. I didn't have a detailed picture of Luaranz. In the game, Kashak and Lecter were just about the only named commanders of note. "There are some, yes. Most domains are on the sea, or along canals, so it is tradition for our nobility and soldiers to train for the navy. Many of the people in my own domain will have trained under Chesedin." "Is that right?" Well, if the Dofreys' domain was on the sea or a canal, then that only made sense, I guess. * At last, the day came to execute my plan. There were soldiers coming to collect taxes, and the village was abuzz with activity from early in the morning. Lushak was no doubt itching to use the supreme power that had fallen into his hands for the first time. This was something like a game to him. Looking at his massacres and general policies, it was easy to tell. Opinions of him were abysmal as a result. Almost as if he were going out of his way to prove what I just said, the tax collector arrived in a gaudy carriage. "Hmm, so this is the last village, then?" The man embodied arrogance as he stepped down from the carriage. As soon as he had disembarked, one of his lackeys who was carrying a chair set it down on the ground for him. The man sat down with a look of satisfaction, crossing his legs. Manshak Lechin Age: 23 Martial: 23 Intelligence: 10 Command: 40 He had piss-poor stats, honestly. People only obeyed him out of fear due to the ongoing tyranny, which had to have been the only reason his Command was as high as 40. Going by his name, there was no doubt this guy was a relative of Lushak's. "I am Manshak, the son of Duke Lushak!" Predictably, in a show of arrogance, the man announced himself with a voice of feigned grandeur. Once he did, his assistant, who was standing beside him, loudly barked, "What's taking you?! Get down and grovel already!" The duke's son who enjoys playing with his power, huh? Well, the issue is that the duke has no legitimacy. For the moment, I chose to bow down to him. Despite looking exasperated, I could spot some of the villagers also beginning to get down on their hands and knees. Beside me, I heard Gordun mutter, "What a scoundrel." "You said it," I agreed with him. At just that moment, Manshak asked Vintora, "Have you met your quota?" "Of course we have. The whole village pulled together to manage it somehow. The goods are over there..." Vintora began to explain, but Manshak stopped him as if it was too much of a bother to listen. "Fine, whatever. I'll take the stuff, but... Ohh! That's right. I'm going to be entertaining a foreign dignitary! Sorry, but the original quota isn't nearly going to be enough, you know." "I-If you do that, then work as hard as we might, there won't be enough left for us to eat our— Gah...!" Before Vintora could even finish, Manshak sent him flying with a kick and then flew into a rage. "All I see around here is fields, and you're saying you don't have enough to eat? Drop the bullshit and bring out the stuff you've got hidden away!" The soldiers began walking toward the warehouse. Kicking Merol as he clung to them and begged them to stop, the soldiers opened the door, and began seizing the meager amount left behind for the villagers' one meal per day. There were angry whispers and clenched fists, but none of the villagers could oppose them. One of them, Gordun, couldn't tolerate this, and suddenly rose to his feet. Before anyone could stop him, he ran up to Manshak and shouted, with his eyes bugging out, "If you take the crops that we grow as taxes, and then even seize what little we have left for ourselves, how are we supposed to survive?!" "What was that?" With a simple gesture from Manshak, his assistant sent Gordun flying with a solid punch, then proceeded to administer a one-sided beatdown. He left him almost on the verge of death. Manshak looked at Gordun, lying there exhausted, and the corners of his mouth turned up as he presented a change of subject. "This village is terrible. We're not done here yet. There's one more thing. Round up all of the womenfolk. All of them, from the youngest child to the married women!" "Why do you want to see the women...?" Vintora asked, his expression pained, but he already knew why. That was the reason he looked so tormented. Manshak didn't answer him, though. He simply raised his voice. "Just do it! Or do you want your village razed to the ground?" With a wave of his hand, twenty-five soldiers unsheathed their blades. Shocked by this, the women of the village began coming forward one or two at a time. Irritated at how long it was taking, the soldiers began roaming around the village, pulling every last child out of hiding. Having predicted this, I'd asked Serena and Mirinae to leave the village in advance. There'd be trouble if either of them got caught. The moment anyone laid a hand on Mirinae, Jint would probably go berserk on them. Obviously, I had no intention of just abandoning the rest of the villagers, but the process was important here. "Hmm, we've got some lookers here, unlike the last village. We'll be taking you, you, and that kid over there to the castle. Heh heh!" Manshak pointed to his victims with a malicious grin. Even having seen this coming, I had trouble holding back my laughter at what an absolute cliché this guy was. Once Manshak had finished choosing his women, he rose from his chair as if to say his job here was done. Vintora rose too, as if a fire had been lit inside him. "Lord Manshak, we will give you all the crops you would like, but, please, I beg you to spare our women!" As Vintora made his impassioned plea, the rest of the villagers glared resentfully at Manshak. "Yeesh, this village is a lost cause. You're too defiant. Oh, I see. It's your fault, huh?" Upset with the attitude he was getting, Manshak gripped his sword and swung at Vintora. The blade slashed downwards across Vintora's chest, splattering the ground with fresh blood. That single blow brought him to the ground. "Mayor!!!" The villagers all shouted, their faces full of shock, but Manshak planted his boot on Vintora's writhing form and went on.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3_2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 "You uppity peasants. Get on your knees already. Do you want your village burned?" "Hey, you!" Seeing Vintora go down, Gordun flew into a rage. However, it only got him another kick from the soldiers. The soldiers all started swinging their blades menacingly, advancing on the villagers with no mercy in their eyes. That's the exact moment it happened—the Opinion of Eliu Village plummeted to a measly score of 3. The time had come. As if to prove it, the villagers all ran at once to their homes to fetch farming implements. I saw them arm themselves with spades, scythes, and even clubs. Merol led the way. Even Gordun, who'd been sent flying by that last kick, reemerged with a knife he'd been hiding in the lodging house. All eyes focused on Manshak, who still had his foot on Vintora, with stares of rage. The mayor had been their emotional pillar, supporting them through many trials and tribulations. He'd reassured them that, if they could just meet this quota, things were bound to be all right. Once they saw Vintora fall, the villagers completely snapped. "Everyone! Avenge the mayor!" The villagers rose up in indignation. But as things stood, it would only end in them being massacred by Manshak. "Eeeeeeek!" Women screamed as Manshak's men charged. Anyway, this was a situation that was brought about not through my incitement, but the villagers' own actions. I had to join the fray. I couldn't allow there to be any more casualties. Jint was off protecting Serena and Mirinae, so it fell to me to act. I could say one thing for sure, I'd been successful in getting their Opinion score lowered. I'd have preferred Vintora not get hurt in the process, though... While this was happening, Manshak started feeling up one of the girls who had been brought to him, a lascivious smile on his face. "How do you like this? I'll keep you for four years before I kill you, you lucky girl. Bah hah hah! But it's death for the rest of you uppity peasants. Burn their village to the ground!" Manshak gave his orders, cackling all the while. I walked out in front of him. "Who're you?!" The soldiers rushed to stop me, but I obviously cut them down with a single swing of my blade. Seemingly a little surprised by what just happened, Manshak let out a confused, "Whuh?" The look on his face was priceless. "You imbecile," I said with a smirk. Manshak gave me a look of exasperation and shouted, "Kill this guy first! I want him torn to pieces! Who the hell does he think I am?!" It seemed Manshak was not open to talking this over. Well, not that I was either. The soldiers who'd been attacking the villagers all turned to focus on me, and the villagers naturally ended up watching too. "You took this too far when you harmed the mayor. That's justification enough to kill you all on its own." When they heard me, the villagers started shouting too. "Yeah, he's right!" "How dare you hurt our mayor!" "He was the only one who'd take in a guy like me. All the other villages turned me away." Gordun sympathized with what I had been saying and glared at Manshak. Manshak, however, just snorted derisively. "Hey, you losers! What do you think you're... Wait, whuh?" Manshak couldn't believe what he was seeing. The soldiers I attacked died instantaneously. While he was still dumbstruck, I planted a kick on him that sent him tumbling. Teeth flew through the air as Manshak went down with his chair. I gestured for the girl he'd been molesting to run, then went back to taking down the rest of his soldiers. "Out of the way!!!" The soldiers were currently heading to attack the villagers who had armed themselves with farm tools. The groups hadn't collided yet, but Gordun was already fighting by himself. I didn't particularly need to buy time, so I just decapitated the soldiers who were fighting with him. In no time, there were twenty-five dead soldiers, and Manshak was left alone, laid out on the ground by my kick. "Well, since it's come to this... You're gonna have to die now." "What the hell are you?!" Manshak looked at me like he was seeing a monster. He tried to crawl away, blood gushing from his mouth where I had kicked him, but he didn't get far. I decapitated him completely with a single swing for dramatic effect. Then, after flicking the blood from my sword, I rushed over to the fallen mayor's side. Fortunately, the wound wasn't lethal, probably thanks to Manshak's pitiful Martial score of 23. "The mayor's still breathing! Merol, bring Serena here at once!" Merol ran off to do as I'd said. When he eventually returned, Serena began checking Vintora's condition. "He can survive this injury! I'll need some herbs to treat it, of course." That was good news. When Serena nodded at me, the villagers all put their hands together and breathed a sigh of relief. I left Vintora to Serena and called Gordun and Merol. "Merol, even if the mayor was almost dead, what good could have come from you getting aggressive with them? If you or the other villagers had died, it'd all be for nothing." "W-Well..." Merol, who had kicked off the struggle, mumbled. "Before that, who even are you? How are you so strong?!" Merol demanded. He wasn't so much angry as surprised. "What does it matter right now?! Save it for when the mayor wakes up!" Thankfully, with Serena's help, Vintora survived. However, due to the depth of the wound, he wasn't regaining consciousness. The village was now faced with a major issue, and everyone gathered in the warehouse. "I understand how you must have felt, but you could have gotten everyone killed." I wish he'd held back. While I'd managed to take advantage of the situation, the truth was that this wasn't how I'd wanted things to play out. The plan had been for them to suffer this outrage, and then I'd use their mounting indignation to launch a big revolution all at once. In all honesty, my predictions this time had been a bit naive. There was no way the world would go as I'd planned. "They didn't just take our food; they wanted our women too... Even the children were being taken away... When I saw him step on the mayor on top of all that, I couldn't take it anymore," Merol argued. "Yeah, he's right," Gordun agreed. "You said it too. That guy messed up when he laid a hand on our mayor." I shook my head. "I'm not blaming you for what you did. The question is what we'll do now. Just wait for death?" "No... But assuming we run, where can we even go?" "Well..." The villagers looked at one another, murmuring indistinctly. It seemed to have dawned on them that their situation was hopeless. I sent Jint out to investigate later, and he found that three nearby villages had been completely razed to the ground. Probably Manshak's handiwork before he came here, if I had to guess. That meant that his barbarism hadn't only affected this village, but it also had spurred resentment elsewhere. The apple didn't fall far from the tree. Thanks to him, I was going to have a much easier time finding sympathizers. Eliu Village had an Opinion of 3, while the kingdom as a whole was at 8. The way that Manshak had been using his job as tax collector as an excuse to burn villages rapidly lowered it. He'd also been laying his hands on women and even young children, so that was only to be expected. All of this anger would inevitably turn toward Lushak. "We buried Manshak and his men, but people will come searching soon. They'll turn all the nearby villages upside down looking for them. It's only a matter of time before they figure out who did it." "You can read, and you're probably the cleverest guy in this village. Do you have any ideas? And on top of that...you're damn tough. How in the world did you end up drifting here?" "Yeah, see, I told the mayor about it...but, well, there are circumstances." At this point, I turned from Merol to Gordun. "Gordun, how happy were you when the mayor made it so you could live an ordinary life as a farmer? What changed from your time as a mountain bandit? Assuming you had been able to sell and eat these crops, without having them stolen, that is." "Huh? How do you know about that?" Gordun reacted to the words "mountain bandit" with surprise. But I continued on. "Even if you used to be a bandit or a deserter, you're a member of this village now. We're all facing the same crisis here." "Yeah, that's right..." I looked around at the villagers. They all nodded. I could probably take that as them agreeing with what I said. Having just come through a life-or-death experience together, the village was united, and where anyone had originally come from wasn't important. The sense of camaraderie that had taken root between them transcended all of that. "I appreciate the sentiment. You're right. It felt incomparably more fulfilling than being a bandit ever was. If only that piece of shit had never shown up here!" "I know, right?" I agreed with Gordun, then paused for a moment. The villagers stared at me earnestly, like children waiting for a parent to tell them something. "We can't let them run roughshod over us forever. So that's why all of us are going to run the rebels out of the capital." An excited buzz ran through the crowd. It was just too extreme of a thing to say. Speaking up for the rest, Merol said, "That sounds rash. Even if we could pull it off, more soldiers would come. We'd just be condemning ourselves to death." Hearing the sigh in Merol's tone, I shook my head. "And so we stay here doing nothing and wait for death? Shouldn't we at least try? Is it better to let them rob us and starve us to death, or to fight back and be violently suppressed? We may be just as dead in the end, but wouldn't you feel better about it if we could at least kill those fat bureaucrats who've been feasting on the crops we grow by the sweat of our brows first?" When I finished speaking, the villagers looked at one another. The reality that they were going to die either way as things stood helped them find the resolve to act. There was no backing down for them now that they'd slain the son of the rebel army's leader. "He's right!" "Yeah! He is! We can't just keep taking this lying down. Since it's come to this, I say we take this as far as we can before we die!" Excited murmurs spread through the warehouse. Sensing that things were going my way, I spoke again. "But know that death isn't an inevitability here. We won't be the only ones fighting. I mean to round up people from the nearby villages. If I can manage that, we'll be an army in our own right. From there, it's a matter of fighting smart." "Will the nearby villages help?" "They've been suffering all the same things that this village has, only without someone to lead them. If all they have to look forward to is being robbed until they die, I expect volunteers from those villages will stand with us. It will make success far more likely." Once I said this, Gordun stepped forward. "He's right. Let's give it a shot. We'll show them what we're really capable of!" * Serena came back after tending to Vintora. "Thank you for doing that, Serena." "The mayor is a very good person, so it's only natural that we would try to help him. Still, the tyranny the people here have experienced is just awful. I can't believe the rebels would do such outrageous things..." Serena shook with contempt. "Will you be joining the villagers in their fight against Lushak, Erhin?" she asked. "That's the plan. I can't bring my own forces here, after all. Ultimately, if I'm going to defeat Lushak on my own, I need to use the people to do it." "I can't say I understand it very well. But I am hoping for your victory." Having said this, she pushed something wrapped in cloth toward me. "I've heard that you will be traveling around to other villages to recruit volunteers." "Yes, and what's this?" "Something I expect will help with that. The Luaranz Kingdom is no longer the Luaranz we knew. It is run by a band of brigands without any legitimacy." As Serena unwrapped the cloth, the room shone with gold. The royal seal. That's what lay within the bundle—the symbol of royal power in Luaranz. "This is a sign of true legitimacy, left to me by the last king of Luaranz. Please, use it. And, as the last queen, you are welcome to use me as you see fit. I will make any statement you require. Without this seal, the current army are no more than brigands. If their illegitimate king continues with his tyranny, then we must protect the people, even if that means destroying the palace. That's what I plan to claim the last king said." "Even if this means that the Luaranz Kingdom vanishes completely?" Yeah, that was my true goal here. After she'd said so much, I had no intention of keeping my objectives cloaked behind the claim I was doing it for the Luaranzine people. "I am fine with that, so long as I can have my revenge. Besides, after what Lushak's done to it, this country can't be called Luaranz any longer. Everyone knows that. It's a country that no longer exists. I am your subordinate now, Erhin... I will simply do as you tell me to." She'd go that far? "I'll ask, just to be sure, but there's no way it's a fake, right?" "None. The royal seal of Luaranz was made from an unusual metal. It can't be imitated. It is one of a kind." "Okay, I'll gladly use it, then." Serena nodded quietly when I said that. "Thank you. I'm sure my father would have been happy to hear that." * At first, it was a feeling of admiration. She was sure that was all it was. The stories made her heart dance more than any others on the continent. She'd admired the man in the stories, but he was an incredibly mysterious individual. Serena had spent all this time suppressing her true self. There was always a falseness to the expression on her face. Her smiles were lies. She'd had to live that way. Her genuine smiles were lost the moment she became queen on behalf of the Dofrey family. But still she smiled, because her bright smiles caused the king, her maidservants, and all of the nobles to show her affection. If that's what she had to do to make a positive impression, then that was how she would have to live. The only joy she had was listening to stories of the outside world. But she never smiled when she did. When hearing a story that made her heart race, it made her think of her own circumstances, and she just couldn't. That's why, when Erhin told Serena to cry, her mind went blank for a moment. It was the first time anyone had been able to see through to how she really felt. "I'm no one special." She was worthless, born into a family with no power. It had seemed obvious to her that no one would ever try to understand how a person like her truly felt. She was a victim of the power struggles between the nobility, leading an existence inferior even to that of a caged bird. That's what she had thought, and so she was grateful to Erhin for seeing how she felt. All it took was those few brief words from him, and she broke down into tears. Never in her life had she bawled like that in front of another person. In the time since then, Erhin had seen through her lies multiple times. When he told her he wanted her to pretend to be his wife, she'd been mysteriously excited by the idea, and let out her first genuine smile in a long time. It was the first since she'd entered the palace. Obviously, she'd continued with her fake smiles even after that, but he quickly saw through them. It had dumbfounded her so much that she asked a question that she really probably shouldn't have. "How can you tell the difference?" It just sounded so silly. There was someone who recognized her for who she was, and that person was someone she admired too. How could she not be happy about that? But old habits died hard. Even though, now that she was free, and at the side of the man she idolized, she could have openly shown her true self, there was a part of her that habitually put on a fake smile, even with the villagers. A calculated smile, meant to elicit positive reactions. When Erhin saw it, he'd said, "Don't you think it's time you lived your own life? I know you need to keep up this lie that we're married inside the village, but when you're away from the village I would hope you could be yourself, as you truly are. It's okay to frown at things you don't like." Hearing that put Serena at ease in many ways. That's why, without thinking, she'd offered him the royal seal. Her father had told her to dispose of it, so it never fell into Lushak's hands. But she wanted to be of use. And so she didn't hesitate. He was very happy about it, giving her a fond pat on the head. She wished he'd do it more often, and the thought surprised her. That day, when she left the room after giving him the royal seal, she realized a lot of things. The way her heart raced was no lie. "Father, what should I do?" She mustn't wish for things that were not to be. But even as she thought that, the hand that Serena held over her chest clenched tight. * Things got busy after the day I temporarily took on the role of mayor. After Vintora fell, I worked with the villagers, who'd come to see me as a sort of deputy mayor, and tried to bring everyone together. Once Vintora was back in action, I planned to gather people from the nearby villages. It was still going to be some time before then, but that time was incredibly important. I had a boatload of things to do other than rallying the nearby villages. "Jint, you go for me." "I'm on it." I sent Jint with a letter for Fihatori. Even if I couldn't use Eintorian's military forces, that didn't mean I couldn't engage in a diplomatic war. With those preparations made, I traveled around to nearby villages. I needed to be fully aware of the situation there. Fortunately, Merol's friend Barild was in frequent contact with the neighboring villages, so traveling to them wasn't a major issue. When I arrived in the nearby village of Mesequin, I could feel something brutal in the air. The village wasn't burning, which meant that they had accepted Manshak's unreasonable demands. It was little wonder things felt unpleasant. "Those bastards hurt our mayor..." When I explained Lushak's barbarity, the mayor of Mesequin, a friend of Vintora's by the name of Gadoro, looked aghast. "They really tried to kill him too?!" he asked, his expression pained. "It's the truth. If we had been any slower in treating him, he might not have made it." "Grr...!" Gadoro slammed his hands down on the table, anger readily apparent. His own losses the other day must have been bad too. I cut straight to the chase. "Can we really leave things like this, Mayor Gadoro?!" "It's all we can do. This is the largest village in the area. We have a lot of strong men, but many of the people who were displaced by the chaos of the war will have settled in the capital, and they'll mobilize all of them. We would have liked to resist, but it's hopeless. There's nothing we can do." "That's why we all have to band together," I said, producing a detailed map of the surrounding villages from my pocket. "There are hundreds of tiny villages in the area around the capital. If we all work together against the rebel army, even more people might flock to our side. We're all suffering under their tyranny. We'll be fighting for our own sakes, not because we were conscripted. It may be hard now, but it's to bring peace in the future. If we gather people from throughout the capital region, we can easily muster a force in the tens of thousands." As the biggest city in the country, Luaranz had the most villages surrounding it, and the largest. That meant that once the people's anger boiled over, their manpower would be immense. Every city had a Manpower commensurate with its population. When I laid out the numbers for him, Gadoro stared at me as if in a daze. He quickly recovered however, shooting me a look of disagreement. "You're talking about storming the castle with just the villages in this area, aren't you?" "I've heard you're the eldest around here. Please, lead the people. We all have to fight together and break this chain of misery. Will you wait and starve, or fight for freedom from oppression? With the second option, only once you're prepared to die can you see the path to survive. We never know what will happen until we try." "Hmm..." Gadoro blinked more times than I could count. But think as he might, he couldn't bring himself to do it, and shook his head once more. "If we subsist on grass roots, we can avoid starving. But as things stand, we'd be marching to our deaths. It's far too reckless. And you don't have anyone who could lead that many people, do you? I am the eldest around here, as you've noted, but that's all that I am. I know nothing of the way of war." Yeah. Everyone was angry. Many had seen their wives or daughters taken away, so of course they were. But they all thought they'd be dying in vain. "I'll come back with an answer for you about that once Mayor Vintora awakens. We do stand a chance of winning, at least." That was the answer I gave as I went around the villages. * Mayor Vintora of Eliu Village. Vintora Age: 56 Martial: 23 Intelligence: 68 Command: 88 He was a unique individual with a great knowledge of medicine. His Command score was also fairly high, so there was no reason not to hire him. He had a useful skill, and a good personality. There wasn't a single drawback to having him among my personnel. It was only natural I'd want him. I was going to have more domains in the future, and entrusting one of them to him would be ideal. He was just the kind of person I needed, and so I had to have him. Looking at his Command score, part of it was that he lacked experience fighting in a war, so given his personal virtues, it would definitely grow to above 90 once he had that. I had learned how much the other mayors respected Vintora when I traveled around the nearby villages. Overall Opinion currently sat at 8, and would only drop lower in this situation. It had come to the point where, once the fire was started, an uprising would occur in no time. If I could just arrange for it to be organized, not just spontaneous, then I'd easily be able to defeat Lushak and the rebel army. They had no just cause, after all. Obviously, this plan hinged on Vintora, so I had to prepare for it while I waited for him to awaken. Today, after a week had passed, he finally regained consciousness. In preparation for future developments, I decided to reveal my true identity to him. It was necessary in order to not just use him, but win his heart over to my side as well. "I see... The villagers did that for me..." Vintora sighed as he saw there was no turning back. "The important thing is what we do from here on. But first there's something I need to tell you." Vintora looked suspiciously from me to Serena, then back again. When Serena offered him a chair, as he wasn't fully recovered, the mayor nodded and sat down. He'd already been told she was a noblewoman, so he felt awkward accepting her kindness. "So, uh, it's about who she is..." I began, looking at Serena. "Hm? What about Miss Serena?" Vintora asked, his expression dubious as ever. "I told you she was a noblewoman before." "Yes, you did. I've tried my best not to betray that fact, but I can't help but feel intimidated by her." "Well, what I told you was no lie, but there's one more fact that I've been keeping hidden about her identity." "And what is that?" Vintora looked at me with suspicion. His strong doubt made him frown, raising his white eyebrows. "Her true identity is Serena Dofrey, the last queen of Luaranz." Vintora's pupils widened. "No, how can that..." Vintora's and Serena's eyes met, and Vintora quickly cast his gaze to the ground. Then, gulping, he quickly bowed down before her. "I have been incredibly rude to you, without ever realizing!" "Please, stop that. You needn't do this when you're not well." "No, I must do it. I cannot be so rude in front of my queen!" Vintora shook his head vigorously as he stubbornly refused to rise. "I was unable to protect His Majesty. I am not the kind of person you should bow your head to." "No... Lushak is the one to blame for that. You are without sin, Your Highness!" "Would you please just stand up?" I said. "You're derailing the conversation." "Well..." At my and Serena's urging, Vintora finally got up. "I'm sorry for keeping it from you. But I thought it was about time we tell you the truth." "Wh-What in the world is happening? Don't tell me... You sneaked in to save the queen when she was being targeted by the rebel army?" "That's right." Well, it was half right. Or at least partially correct. Maybe twenty percent? "Here is the proof," Serena said, pulling out the royal seal for Vintora to see. His eyes fixated on its golden gleam. "The current national army are brutes. They treat the people like insects, not human beings. At this rate, the villages around the capital will all lie ruined and deserted. All justice and legitimacy currently lie with me. While I hold this royal seal, the so-called 'Royal Army' are no more than traitors and brigands, falsely assuming the name of Luaranz!" "It is just as you say, but..." "Will you not fight alongside me? Together, we may yet drive out the atrocious Royal Army!" "Of course we will. There's already no turning back for Eliu Village. No, even if that weren't the case, there would be no shortage of villagers willing to rise up for their queen!" Vintora had finally gotten to his feet, but bowed down again after he finished saying that. "The villages surrounding the castle have always received your grace before now. The people are still grateful that, one year ago, when we had a bad harvest, you persuaded His Majesty to lower our taxes. And given Lushak's tyranny... The people will rise up, even if it leads to their own destruction!" That was only natural. They had an Opinion of just 8, so it was only a matter of time before there was an uprising. If I poured a little oil on it and started a fire, then the flames would burn even hotter. "If this battle was one that led to your own destruction, I wouldn't be showing you the royal seal to persuade you. I believe there is a chance of victory, Mayor," Serena said as she walked closer to me, then took hold of my arm. There was a certain modesty in the way she looked up at me. "Are you aware of who this person is?" "Your servant, perhaps? No, come to think of it... He's also proven himself superb in a variety of ways. Are you a noble too?!" Vintora asked with a look of surprise. "This gentleman is Erhin Eintorian, the Lord of Eintorian," Serena told him. "He fought the Naruyans to defend Runan and Rozern. Although he was out of the country on the king's orders and couldn't stop the Naruyans' second invasion, he heroically returned to defeat them again and defend the people of Runan!" Not even Vintora knew what to say about this revelation. * From that day forward, Vintora went about passionately persuading the nearby villages to rise up. It wasn't an easy argument to make, so I left him to it while I focused on training our own villagers in combat. Because we couldn't immediately get our hands on any weapons, I started their training with bamboo spears, which served as a good stand-in for the time being. Gordun and his buddies, who had some previous combat experience, were a great help, and they, along with Merol and Gadoro, proved especially talented. The people of other nearby villages also came to learn from me. This was exactly why I had gone around, showing off what I could do. No one outside of the most important people knew my true identity, so I'd had to demonstrate my abilities to ease their hesitation of fighting back. "Yaaah!" That day, there was a boy who'd joined us. I liked the vigor with which he held the bamboo spear in both hands, how he pushed grown men aside with it, and the look of anger in his eyes. "You, there. What's your name?" "Commander! My name is Damon, sir!" "Damon, why did you take up that spear?" At some point, the villagers had started calling me "commander" because Vintora argued that my deep knowledge of strategy I had from my time in the military made me the best fit for the role. The rest of them agreed with him as the elder of the village, and that was that. The story's changed from me being the Lord of Eintorian to just a guy who happened to be in charge of military strategy, though. "Because they killed my parents," the boy answered. "I will never, ever forgive them!" I shuddered at the hatred this child held. Though I'd checked the various village mayors' ability scores in my search for talent, I hadn't even thought to look at kids like him. Stricken with curiosity, I decided to scan this kid. Damon Age: 17 Martial: 72 Intelligence: 56 Popularity: 51 And I was shocked. A Martial of 72 at just seventeen? Jint would've had a Martial of over 80 when he was in his teens, so this kid's similar in a way, isn't he? Looks like I've found a diamond in the rough. Great change happened during one's youth. If he was seventeen now, then his abilities would bloom as he turned eighteen, and again at nineteen, and so on and so forth. Having so many people gathered here gave me the opportunity to make rare finds like him. It was a lot of fun searching for personnel this way. Gordun and Merol weren't exactly superb, but they were still more than worth recruiting. But in Damon's case, he had the potential to grow into one of the pillars that would support Eintorian's quest for power in the future. I called for Jint, who had just returned from Eintorian. "I want you to fight this kid," I told him. "But you take him on barehanded." Then I turned to the boy. "Damon, would you mind fighting this man here? I swear I'll make it so that you can avenge your parents." Damon looked at Jint for just a moment before he nodded. He wasn't cowed by his opponent being an adult. Damon brimmed with confidence borne of going undefeated by the other villagers as he closed the distance between him and Jint. Jint easily kicked aside his bamboo spear, though, and the boy faltered for a moment. I would have lost all hope for the kid if he let that beat him. But despite his hesitation, Damon quickly recovered, and went on with a flurry of blow after blow against his opponent. He turned the point of the bamboo spear upward and aimed for Jint's head. Jint dodged, but the boy followed up on the backswing with elegance, never wasting an inch of movement. The saying went that the best defense was a good offense, and he seemed determined to prove it with his unrelenting assault. The kid started to panic when Jint handled all his attacks. I waited for the right moment to give Jint the signal. Once I did, Jint sent the spear flying away with a roundhouse kick. I immediately called for a halt to the fight. "That's enough!" I'm pretty satisfied with his abilities. "You did well, Damon. Don't let this loss get you down. He's even stronger than I am." Damon had already lost to me once in training. The boy looked at Jint with utter surprise and no small amount of awe in his gaze. I'm sure Jint can make something of him. I liked the look in Damon's eyes. If he wasn't intimidated by a man who was stronger than him but instead felt a sense of admiration, then there was a good chance he'd continue to grow. "But you're more than strong enough. I'm impressed you could keep Jint on the ropes like that. I'll make sure you're able to do big things in this uprising. Get revenge for your parents." "Thank you!" the boy's voice resounded with cheer. "Okay, you can go back to training now," I said before whispering to Jint. "How was he?" "Great. Better than I thought." I smiled with wry amusement at how impressed Jint seemed. He looked like an old man seeing a promising youngster. * Finally, the day of the uprising came. I didn't plan to let this training go on indefinitely. We needed to catch the enemy by surprise. If the villagers could take on the soldiers, then that left Jint and me freer to act than I had anticipated. "Yeaaaaah!" A battle cry rang through the air as the villagers charged toward rebel-occupied Luaranz. We had a simple plan: we would storm the open gates of the capital, as the common folk came and went freely about their business. Our ranks had swelled to a hundred thousand with villagers from the surrounding area I'd managed to recruit to our cause. Eintorian's population had started at two hundred and twenty thousand. This being the capital of Luaranz, the population of the city and its surrounding villages nearly reached double that, just shy of four hundred thousand. With all of the commoners who could fight taking part in the charge, their battle cries reached an incredible volume. Obviously, their Training level sat at a mere 30; pretty awful, honestly. But still, my hurried training had raised it from the 10 it was at before. Their Morale, meanwhile, soared to 90. "Huh? What?!" Due to the surprise nature of the attack, despite Lushak trying to have the rebels he'd led here from his own domain and then made the capital's garrison force stop them, they couldn't close the gates. The villagers had already taken the gatehouse, and I'd sent Jint over to the south gate, so the defenders there likely died before they could even so much as shout. I stood at the vanguard, with Damon at my side like I'd promised him. The boy fought the rebels with firm resolve. Since this was his first time in a real battle, I had thought he'd be afraid to kill people, but no, there was no sign of that. His anger over his parents' deaths was far stronger than any fear he might have felt. I just went around dispatching soldier after soldier, even going out of my way to use Daitoren, showing off flashy mana effects as I did. Dozens of rank-and-file soldiers fell with every press of the Attack button thanks to my powerful S-rank attacks. There wasn't a soul in this country who could stand up to me when I had Daitoren equipped. "Wh-Whoa..." Damon and the other villagers who came with me were awed by my power. We smashed the gates to the palace and forced our way inside. "Yeaaaaaah!" As the enraged people surged toward them, the palace defenders began retreating. Well, most of them were just terrified of the way I was going wild at the front of the mob. Meanwhile, Lushak was out by the castle's pond, engaged in a debauched scene of gluttony and fornication with the women he'd captured. He called himself a duke, but he treated the castle like it was his own property. Utterly appalling. "Your Excellency, the people! The people are rushing into the palace!" "Quit talking nonsense. You people need to get out there and find Manshak. I told you to bring him back, even if you have to burn a village to the ground!" "I'm terribly sorry, but the situation...the situation is..." Looking at how things were shaping up outside, the soldier stammered the same words repeatedly, but he was too incoherent for Lushak to understand. Lushak scowled. "Hey, you louts!" At this point, Lushak heard the battle cries. And they were really close too. "Yeahhhhhh!" Finally, Lushak clued in to the fact his soldier was telling the truth. "Defend me at once. What were you people doing that let things get this out of hand?!" he shouted angrily at the royal guard. Seeing us, Lushak got a sour look on his face and started preparing to flee. The women he'd captured were still with him. "Father!" "Brother?" "Darling!" A touching reunion, huh? This'll push their anger to the max. There isn't a man alive who wouldn't seethe with rage after seeing his daughter or wife toyed with like this. "Kill him!" "Kill hiiiiiim!" "Stay back. Get any closer, and the women all die!" Lushak shouted as he tried to flee, but his back was to the wall. His luck had run out when he decided to fool around by the pond where there was no route he could use to escape us. This Lushak guy, in all honesty, was of no interest to me. He was no Kashak. "Who the hell are you people?! And men, how dare you let these peasants in here?!" "Shut your trap, scumbag!" I shouted as I kicked Lushak in the face, smashing his teeth as badly as his son's, and sending him rolling across the ground. The man had pulled off a successful rebellion based on what he'd inherited from Kashak, but not knowing how to use it, he'd just lost everything in an instant. I handed him over to the enraged people, who quickly beat him to death. We took Lushak's head to the garrison. When we arrived, the peasant army led by Jint was fighting Lushak's men there. "Lushak is dead. All you're doing right now is turning your blades on your fellow countrymen. Aren't you people of this land too? Throw down your weapons, and we'll let you live!" With that, people began surrendering here and there. Honestly, many of the soldiers had been just as fed up with Lushak's tyranny. Ultimately, the problem had been Lushak, the evil leader of the rebellion. "Lord Erhin! Outside... They're gathering outside!" Vintora shouted, spittle flying from the corners of his mouth. "What are you talking about?" Has another enemy shown up? "From the other villages. The people are gathering from all over!" Hearing this, I climbed up on top of the gates. Phones didn't exist in this world, nor anything even close, so people shouldn't have known what had happened yet, but here they were, showing up late to join the fray. At first, the uprising had just been Eliu Village and the other neighboring villages that Vintora was close with. Obviously, many villages had shown reluctance. But the number of villagers gathered outside was only growing. This rebellion had started with fifty thousand, but looking at that crowd, there were likely over two hundred thousand people now. "Lushak is dead, and the soldiers of Luaranz have surrendered! The battle is over!" I shouted, holding up the tyrant's head for them all to see. "Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" the crowd cheered. Well, what's really important is that rumors will spread after this. That's why I used Daitoren and made a deliberate show of my power. Those who were watching me up close will talk about it, and it's important that those rumors spread and help to plant the impression that those who serve under me will be safe. And so, the capital of Luaranz was conquered by the peasants. The former nobles, namely the ones who'd surrendered to Lushak, had all run away back to their own domains. On top of that, Lushak left behind a puppet king when he died, so there really was nothing left of his regime. The young king fled together with a group of nobles who'd wanted to gain power and influence, but Lushak was the one I was after, so I had no plans to pursue them. They'd ruin themselves in time even without my involvement. "Lord Erhin, what do you plan to do now? Will you rebuild this country alongside Her Highness, the queen?" Mayor Vintora asked me inside the castle. But I shook my head. "The people aren't properly trained..." I said. "In the end, they're just farmers. And in the present political climate, a country as divided as this one is just food for other nations. For the foreseeable future, Luaranz is going to become a battleground for other countries aiming to take its land." Yeah. All the other countries will start looking to invade Luaranz soon. With effectively no government, the domains of Luaranz will be unable to band together, and they'll be picked off one after another. "Then what would you have us do now...?" "How about leaving?" "This place is our livelihood, and you're telling us to leave it?" Vintora asked, looking troubled. "There's not much else you can do. Sorry, but battles are going to rage across this entire country in time. If you stay here in the middle of it, you're throwing your lives away for nothing." "But...where will we go...? This is our homeland... That's why we all rose up to defend it, isn't it?!" I could see where Vintora was coming from, but after I had already gone to all the trouble of saving these people once, I wasn't about to leave them to die, even if that meant making them cast aside their homeland. "Would you be willing to lead the people, then?" "What do you mean...?" "I'm thinking of accepting all of you in Eintorian. My country doesn't have a lot of land just yet, but I promise you it will grow by leaps and bounds. Also, I don't plan to do anything that would expose my people to the dangers of war." Once I had said all of that, I bowed my head to Vintora. "And I know you should be able to lead the people of Luaranz." "N-No...!" Vintora seemed even more bewildered at the way I had bowed my head to him. "Many of the people already respect you," I explained. "I want you to lead them to find refuge in Eintorian. I will find land for them. I know this may seem like a bit of a roundabout method, but once the situation in the north stabilizes, I swear we'll return to take back Luaranz. You'll all be able to return to your homeland then... I believe you're the only one fit to be made lord of the former domains of Luaranz. Let me make this simple, Mayor. I'm asking you to become a vassal of Eintorian." Vintora shook his head with a look of surprise. "No, but...I mean to end my life as a humble farmer. I could never handle such a role!" "I'm asking this for the Luaranzine people. You're the only one who can lead them properly. They can't be expected to just obediently follow a foreigner like me. I won't make life hard for them. I'll work my hardest to give them peace. Or...would you prefer to create a situation where many of them will die in the war, leaving the rest to become refugees or orphans? If you'll just stay in Eintorian for a short while, you'll be able to go back home again. I promise you that, if nothing else." Vintora's mouth hung open as he searched for a response. This guy'll make a good lord for Luaranz when we come back here. If I have him work with Mirinae to encourage agriculture for the time being, I expect he'll be able to produce considerable results since that's his specialty. He's indispensable to me in all sorts of ways. "We're only a tiny domain now, but I swear to you that I will eventually unite the continent under Eintorian's banner. I'm asking you to become my people. If, at any point, you don't think I'm up to the task, then you're free to leave Eintorian immediately without question. So, please, let me say one last thing. Will you join me? In these chaotic times, I expect your neighbors, the Holy Ramie Kingdom, will be coming across the border shortly. There's no time to delay, Mayor." Vintora just stared at me in silence, but then finally made up his mind. "I can't bring along those who insist they won't go," he said at length. "Of course not. It's everyone's choice what they want to do with themselves. If they come, I'll exempt them from taxes for now and provide them with land they can farm. They'll receive support until things stabilize, and after that, they just need to pay the taxes we agree upon and live as they like. I won't exploit them. Make sure that you explain that thoroughly." "Well, let me try talking to them, at least... I trust in your character, Lord Erhin." I could only offer this because of the gold in my coffers. That mound of gold was the only thing keeping Eintorian's finances from collapsing. Obviously, if I didn't shift over to a more stable budget, it would eventually run out. Eventually, I would need that gold in order to open trade with other countries, but for now, increasing our population was the priority. Fortunately, Vintora nodded his head in assent, and then fell to his knees. I planned to talk to the folks in Eliu Village and get them to cooperate with him. I wasn't sure exactly how many people would migrate to my country with a current population of five hundred thousand, but I'd prepared for word to spread throughout Luaranz. * "Your Majesty, this is clearly the perfect opportunity!" In the palace of the Holy Ramie Kingdom, the nobles were trying to persuade their king. The reason, it went without saying, was that Luaranz had fallen into a state of anarchy and its lands were up for grabs. "I see your point...but what if the Naruya Kingdom were to invade us while we were preoccupied?! That's what happened to Runan. Their lust for Brijit's lands ended in their own destruction!" "The situation is different. We have no border with Naruya!" "Well, no, but..." Ramie's king was not a bad monarch. He led his country reasonably well, but the fact that he could be rather indecisive was an issue. "Sire! Sire! Urgent news!" "What is it?" The king shook his head in dismay as the noble who led the intelligence division rushed into the room with a report. "It's Rozern. Rozern is on the move." "What?! Are they after Luaranz, then?" Now that the Runan Kingdom had collapsed, Luaranz had Rozern to the west, and the Holy Ramie Kingdom to the east. Because Luaranz was sandwiched in between them, Ramie didn't share a border with Rozern, though. "The way that things are going, won't the Sintrage Kingdom in the north set their sights on Luaranz too?" "Sire! We must act first. If we occupy the territory, surely the others won't take aim at us. Ultimately, the faction that will gain the most land when a nation falls is the one that acts fastest!" The thought that other nations might steal his prize cured the king's indecision. "Invade Luaranz at once!" "Yes, it will be done!" It was the same in every nation that shared the slightest border with Luaranz. They all heard that Rozern was on the move. Of course, Rozern's move was all for show, and they had no intention of going to war. Erhin controlled them, in truth, and the other countries fell for the deception hook, line, and sinker. He didn't just plan to cause chaos and trigger a mass migration of Luaranzine peasants. Only one other thing was on his mind, one other thing he had to gain from the fall of Luaranz: the jewel he had coveted all along. This long trip abroad had all been so that he could take it for himself without trouble. "This is the Dofrey Domain, huh?" "That's right. It's been so long since I've been back." The Dofrey Domain had been laid waste under Lushak's rule and was in a state of total collapse as a result. It saddened Serena to see her homeland in such a state, but there were survivors in this once ruined land. We had come here to pick up the retainers of the former House of Dofrey. Once Serena appeared, the retainers who'd escaped Lushak's forces and gone into hiding made contact with her one after another. Due to Dofrey's good character, his retainers had stuck with his family to the bitter end, never abandoning them. "Erhin slew my father's killer!" Serena explained after gathering them together. "So why don't we help him now?" Once they knew what had happened, the loyal Dofrey retainers were, of course, all too happy to join Serena. Even those who had served under those retainers but were still in hiding came. The remaining Dofrey retainers all raced to swear their loyalty to Serena, and also to me, who had avenged their master. There was another reason this was important: I had something for Dofrey's retainers to do in Luaranz's port. Once that was done, we returned to Eintorian. Sometime later, a fleet appeared off the coast of Brinhill, which was now practically the de facto capital of the Eintorian Domain. It was the pride of Luaranz, the First Fleet. "The Dofrey Domain is also a port. There wasn't a soul there who hadn't been on a ship, because we of the House of Dofrey prided ourselves on our many sailors." That was how Serena had introduced the House of Dofrey to me, and it was why I'd rushed to her domain as soon as the uprising succeeded in order to save the people there for my navy. Now, I could see the results before my eyes. As the ships drew closer, I could see the fleet were now flying Eintorian's flag, and standing at the prow were the two people I'd entrusted with bringing together the members of the former House of Dofrey, and retrieving the First Fleet from the capital, Yusen and Gibun.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 Chapter 4: A Shocking Reunion It wouldn't be long now until I announced the founding of the Eintorian Kingdom. The revival of the Ancient Kingdom was almost here. The only thing holding me back now was Duke Ronan. After making a fortuitous escape, he'd created the South Runan Kingdom. Now that they had occupied the former Runanese capital, Naruya had shifted their attention to their front with the Herald Kingdom. The loss of so many men had forced them to focus on the invasion that they already had in progress there. My spies told me that the occupation of Herald was going smoothly, and in all likelihood the kingdom would soon be destroyed. My problem was with Duke Ronan, who had fled south into southern Runan and made himself king there. The King of Naruya had deployed his forces in Runan's direction, which is to say the thirty thousand or so of them who'd survived fighting against me, to the Runanese capital. I'd even received a report recently saying those forces were now close to South Runan, positioned to advance. Ronan would no doubt seek a hurried alliance with the Gebel Kingdom and try to get them to send reinforcements. Ronan's family had marriage ties there, so he'd certainly make use of them. For me, the very existence of South Runan was a hindrance—a chain around my leg, keeping me from proclaiming the foundation of the Eintorian Kingdom. If I was going to absorb the former territories of Runan, I needed the support of the people there. Using the name "South Runan" to assert greater legitimacy than my "Eintorian Kingdom" could potentially sway the populace, and that would be a serious nuisance. Only once Ronan and South Runan disappeared would Runan truly be gone for good. I hadn't heard anything from him yet, but the moment Ronan got into serious trouble, he'd definitely call for me. If I didn't go to his aid, I'd be labeled a filthy traitor. Our relationship was annoying. Because Ronan was a blood relative of the Royal House of Runan, I couldn't destroy his country personally while it was called South Runan. Regardless, most of the retainers and soldiers who were originally from Runan were now in South Runan, as well as the majority of the common people. Even if the people had sworn loyalty to me, with South Runan carrying on the Runan name, it would shake their loyalty to me if I were the one to destroy it. I suspected that that was true of most of my Runanese subjects. At the hands of another nation altogether, however... That was a different story. Heina was central to my plans for that. She was a spark of discord I'd cast into their midst. Besides, the Gebel Kingdom wouldn't be so eager to send reinforcements. Ronan would no doubt promise them a portion of Runan's lands in exchange for protecting South Runan, but he didn't have the power to make good on any such arrangement. In fact, he had been unable to do anything to stop the first Naruyan invasion—I'd handled that one—and he couldn't do anything to stop this second invasion either. All he had was a lust for power. When the time came, I would pretend to help by sending him aid, and then just watch as he died. Then I just had to feign grief as I took in the South Runanese soldiers, and I'd be free to declare my new country after that. Obviously, I had to control the timing of it. Waiting for Naruya to attack South Runan would take too long. If Ronan was trying to get the Gebel Kingdom to make a move, then I would turn that around and use it to destroy South Runan. Once the deed was done, I would sway the people by fighting the Gebel Kingdom to show I'd tried to save South Runan, but it was just too late. First, I'll make the Gebel Kingdom South Runan's enemy. Then I'll fight them because I can't leave an enemy alone. That's my plan to destroy South Runan. In fact, it's been in progress for quite some time now. * "Let's head out, Euracia. A new café opened in Brinhill, and I hear their fruit cake is delicious." "Really? Let's go, then! Right away!" It had been a few days since I made it back to Brinhill, and I decided to take a much-needed break by asking Euracia out on a date. Euracia got up the moment she heard the word cake. If there was something she loved more than eating, I'd yet to see it. Her ability to pack away a heaping plate of food in an instant was an incredible talent. "What made you look for information on the new café, though?" "I figured I put you through a lot of hard work while I was away, so I wanted to take you somewhere. Do you like cakes?" "Of course! Cake is righteous!" Wasn't it meat that was righteous, and the truth before? How quickly she changes her mind. "Cake! Cake! I want a big ol' cake!" She spread her arms wide and started speaking like a child. This was a sign that I'd better take her there quickly, so I did just that. "But didn't you just eat?" "I have an extra stomach for desserts! Heh heh, cake!" Looking at Euracia, I could believe it. Still though, who knew she was such a big fan of cake? I should've brought her here sooner. When the cake finally appeared, Euracia cooed with delight. Um, excuse me, it's out of character for you to be so obviously delighted when there's this many people around.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 "Oooh, you can tell they're popular with a cake that looks as good as this," Euracia said, nodding emphatically. "Your Excellency! Your Excellency!" At that very moment, Bente raced into the shop, drenched with sweat. Euracia looked on, fork still in hand. "We've got trouble!" Euracia's fingers twitched, perhaps getting a bad feeling for reasons beyond what Bente had already said. Her fork was almost touching the cake. Erm, now probably wasn't the time to be watching Euracia, but she was so darn adorable I couldn't help myself. "What's happened?" "There's a messenger from South Runan!" Looks like the time has come. * Ronan's envoy was his retainer who also happened to be a count. There's no need to learn the man's name, so just remember that he was incredibly arrogant. He seemed to believe that South Runan had all of the legitimacy of Runan, and that me and my forces in Brijit were just a territorial force of theirs. "I am sure you must be quite pleased with yourself, living a relaxed and affluent life down here like this." To think a mere count would dare talk to me like that. I was too appalled to say anything. "I will now read out His Majesty's message. On your knees, Count Erhin Eintorian!" Ronan's envoy commanded in an intimidating tone. Obviously, the commanders attached to Eintorian like Yusen, Gibun, Jint, and Hadin were all visibly upset by this. Still, I couldn't just kill the guy. South Runan was not long for this world, but it was still Runan, so it was best for me to bow to public sentiment and obey them. Yeah, I knew that, but it didn't mean I wasn't pissed. Should I kill this asshole and invade South Runan? No need. With the proper application of my strategy, South Runan will be finished in no time. I just have to bear it for now. I've been putting up with this kind of nonsense all along, so I can't make the worst possible move by losing my temper now, when Ronan's so close to going down on his own. I couldn't let myself become a traitor to Runan. I had to be seen as the one who'd saved the ruined nation and founded his own on top of it. If I attacked Runan now, I'd never win the opinions of the Runanese people in South Runan over to my side. Normally, in a war of conquest, the invader had to win over the sentiment of the people afterward, but that's when they were a different nation. As a former vassal of Runan, I was restricted by that position. If I was directly responsible for the nation's ruin, it would have a massive negative effect on the people's opinion of me. So I have to put up with this. I need to endure, so Ronan can suffer an even more miserable fate. But that doesn't mean I need to kneel, right? "By 'His Majesty,' do you perhaps refer to Duke Ronan?" "Of course! What other 'majesty' is there?!" Ronan's retainer roared. I chuckled. "So he's using 'His Majesty' now. If you insisted on me bowing my head to His Highness, I might have agreed, but His Majesty? What gives him that kind of legitimacy? Do these orders you come with bear the royal seal of Runan?" "The royal seal... We don't have it yet!" Of course they didn't. That would have been with the king when he fell into Valdesca's hands. "If he doesn't have the seal, then doesn't that mean Duke Ronan is just another of those who abandoned His Majesty?" "Don't make me laugh! His Majesty evacuated before the duke, and met with tragedy as he did. Everyone knows that Duke Ronan is of royal blood. Even without the royal seal, he has legitimacy..." "Speaking of legitimacy, I would think there ought to have been a prince who fled along with you. No?" "Enough! You're being disrespectful. I am an envoy who comes bearing His Majesty's words. You are to treat me with the respect accorded to the king himself. Or does Eintorian mean to rebel against his righteous authority?" The envoy's voice got louder as he realized he was losing the argument. In terms of legitimacy, as a direct heir of the Ancient Eintorian Kingdom, my claim to it was just as good. "Not at all. If you have orders, then let's have them." "Fine. Count Erhin, you are to lead your troops to South Runan at once, and defend the new capital! This is your duty as a retainer of Runan!" Well, then. The orders themselves are obvious ones. These are the chains that bind me as a Runanese retainer. Now is the time to break them. Well, I'll just take it slowly. Nice and slow. * Heina Berhin was still agonizing over what to do. When Erhin said that the duke was the man responsible for her father's miserable death, he wasn't wrong. His talent exceeded her own, which was why she had been more frustrated with him. But the facts are the facts. Her father's untimely end and the fall of the House of Berhin were purely the fault of Ronan's whims. She'd spent years kissing up to Ronan in an attempt to do something about it. But the world had changed, just as Erhin had told her it would. Because she'd been warned in advance, she had returned to her own domain, and prepared a small force of soldiers of her own. When the second Naruyan invasion came, Heina led her unit to go and save Ronan. If the Naruyan pursuit had been more intense, they wouldn't have been able to fend it off, of course, but then Erhin drew the Naruyans' attention and routed them. Erhin had won. Again. "He's incredible..." Heina bit her lip. She had to face the facts: the man was an amazing strategist. Thanks to his efforts, Ronan was able to settle in South Runan without further issue. The reason Heina had deferred her revenge against Ronan so far was because he still had his forces and retainers to stop her from taking his head. She also felt he deserved a more miserable end. Heina knew Ronan's ambitions. He clearly wants to be king. Knowing that, she wanted to strike at the moment he finally did, knocking him from the zenith of joy to the nadir of despair all in a single instant. A fate as miserable as my father's. Now that would be the ultimate revenge. She was ashamed that she couldn't move into action until now, when Ronan was no longer the most powerful man in Runan, and not such a frightening figure anymore, but that didn't mean she was going to do nothing about it. Now that the chance had come, she was going to carry out her revenge no matter what it took. There's one problem, though... If he became king, that would make killing him harder. With Erhin having smashed Naruya's grand army, South Runan was now able to survive even longer. This meant her fears came to fruition, and Ronan did become king. She was constantly searching for a chance to kill him, but Ronan was an incredibly distrustful man, and never met with her alone. I'm the one who saved him, and yet he never trusted me. The most galling thing about Ronan was that, even without that trust, he'd still try to use her as much as he could. Despite being the very person who had removed her from her position as advisor, he hinted at giving her another important position. He was an unbelievably cunning man. But she was also a strategist. Things had gotten easier for her the moment that she accepted she couldn't keep up with Erhin, but she'd been able to read the situation on the continent, at least. South Runan? Ronan becoming king? Those were but momentary issues, seeing as the kingdom couldn't last long. But if things played out the way she saw them going, she wouldn't be able to take revenge personally. Ronan would just die. What part would she have played in the fall of the man who had wronged her father and her entire house? As she was worrying about this, a man came to visit her in secret. "My name is Yusen. I've come with a letter from my lord. I must ask that, whether you agree to do as it says or not, you read it and then burn it in my presence." Burn the letter. He was asking her to destroy the evidence. That way, even if she agreed to do as the letter said and then betrayed them, there would be no evidence of her connection to Erhin. The nobles in Runan knew what her relationship with Erhin was like—absolutely terrible. So even if she later confessed that Erhin was the mastermind, no one would believe her. "You're very cautious," was all Heina could say, a hint of self-mockery creeping into her tone. "His Excellency wants to believe in you, but...if your feelings on the matter aren't settled, then he says there's nothing he can do about it." "It doesn't matter. I'll consider the contents of the letter, but tell him that whatever I do about it, I acted of my own accord. I have pride enough for that, at least." "Yes, ma'am." Ronan was the one who killed my father. Her enmity toward Erhin was merely born of jealousy toward his abilities. She had opposed him before because of it, so, as a strategist, it would be unwise for him to ever fully trust her. But that didn't matter. She had already resolved to take revenge on Ronan, and the moment she'd made that decision she gave up any particular desire for life. I'll watch Ronan die a miserable death, and then die laughing at my own ineptitude as a strategist of a failed nation. That was what she resolved to do. Having led a miserable life where she never trusted anyone, she at least wanted to cap it off with something glorious and go out with the self-satisfaction of knowing that she'd taken the ultimate revenge for her family. The predictions in Erhin's letter were all correct. After founding South Runan, defending against Naruya was an urgent priority, so Ronan had requested an alliance with the Ducal House of Kalt in the Gebel Kingdom, with which he had marriage ties. The cost was a promise to divide Runan's lands between them. It wasn't an especially appealing deal from the Gebelians' perspective. They could do away with their marriage ties whenever they wanted, so there was no need to go out of their way to save South Runan. They were even considering attacking South Runan themselves. Erhin wanted to work through Heina to incite them to do just that. Heina went to the Gebel Kingdom as a formal envoy, and met with Duke Kalt's more ambitious rival, Duke Plenett. "You're saying you'll create an opening for me, and you want me to take just South Runan?" "Yes, Your Highness." It was certainly a tempting proposal for Duke Plenett. Of course, not being able to tell if she was sincere about it, he couldn't take her at her word immediately. "The moment Ronan is gone, the Gebel Kingdom will be able to take South Runan without issue. The land there is fertile. With Naruya still at war with Herald, their forces are currently spread out toward the east. Who do you think they'll want to fight next once they're done? The Gebel Kingdom, of course. This is your best chance to expand before then, securing fertile land, and also easing your access to strategic resources." This was also true. The king and nobles of the Gebel Kingdom were prepared to stand and fight against Naruya. Having already had their request for an alliance rebuffed, they already knew Naruya's ambitions better than anyone. "Here in Gebel, we have a powerful commander named Papme Diondi. Although he may be fooling around now, saying it's his time to rest...so long as we have him, we can fight Naruya. If you say there are fertile lands up for grabs, then of course we want them. But the question remains. How can I trust you?" That was the most important issue, of course. She had no collateral, and nothing she could promise. "Currently, South Runan has made a request for troops, so please send the Royal Army for now. Answer that you cannot form an alliance yet, but you will send troops to help, and a formal alliance can be agreed to later. Then, once the Gebelian Army has entered South Runan, I will raise a rebellion in the heart of the nation." "What?" "That will give you an excuse to move your troops to quell the insurrection. Using the chaos, you can blame whatever happens on my rebels. Why not say that, while you were able to put down the revolt, the South Runanese government had already fallen?" "Heh heh heh heh, gah hah hah hah hah! In short, we move our troops under the guise of putting down the rebellion, then strike the government of South Runan too, huh?" "Correct. All I ask is a chance to take Ronan's life. You can blame everything that happens on me, if you'd like." "You hate Ronan that much?" "He is the enemy of my parents, and my house." "If I tell him about this, your life is over, you know...?" "It's a life I've already cast away. Now, will you take advantage of it to enter the capital of South Runan effortlessly and claim it as your own? Or take nothing but my life? I believe that is the question I've set before you. Anyway, the rebellion will be our signal." Heina explained it all in a dispassionate tone. Duke Plenett was actually aghast at how detached she seemed. He had nothing to lose. If he executed Heina here and now, he would gain nothing, but going to South Runan with the Gebelian Army to wait and see wasn't a problem. If they attacked once an alliance was formed, they would face international criticism, so no matter how profitable it might be, it was best not to betray South Runan in that way. They risked becoming an enemy of the entire continent. The disappearance of any country made it easier to unite the continent, but that wasn't an excuse that other countries would quietly accept. However, if he did as Heina suggested and sent troops before the alliance, then moved them only to suppress a rebellion, then he could claim they'd had a just cause. With just cause, they wouldn't be subject to criticism. Things were bound to happen during the chaos of a rebellion. It would be easy to lay all the blame on Heina like she had offered. He didn't know how great her resentment of Ronan was, but it wasn't a bad idea to at least send in the troops. He'd go there first, and act if it seemed advantageous to. If not, then he would make some excuse to withdraw. Anyway, that was about the shape of it. That was how badly Gebel wanted the land of South Runan. And if they could get it easily, without having to fight? With the capital of Runan already occupied, they were going to end up bordering Naruya soon anyway, which made the proposal all the more tempting. * The time to send troops to South Runan had come. I still needed to leave units to defend each of my domains, of course, and I also couldn't send fresh recruits who hadn't been adequately trained into battle. I planned to send in a force of twenty thousand men, one half of them iron cavalry and the other half infantry. Erheet came to me to say, "I'd like you to take me with you. There's something I need to confirm for myself..." I could hardly blame him for asking, especially considering his relationship with Ronan. If I can't win him over completely, then I have no use for him, no matter how talented he might be. If I don't bring him along, and then cleanly resolve the relationship between the three of us, Erheet will never be mine. Ten thousand iron cavalry, and ten thousand infantry, with me as commander-in-chief. Erheet would command the iron cavalry, and Yusen the infantry, with Jint joining us as a strike commander. We set out for South Runan, and set up camp outside the capital there under the justification that we were securing the main road, which Naruya's grand army would surely use to attack us. I'm sure if I send a letter saying we're going to camp here, we'll be told to come inside the capital. Communicating by letters like this would serve to buy time, so it wasn't a bad thing. My agents had informed me that the reinforcements from the Gebel Kingdom would be arriving in South Runan soon. While I was on patrol as we were setting up camp, I heard some of the soldiers speaking loudly. "You say you came from Runan?" "Yes. My daughter and I came here from Runan. This man came from there too." Some of the refugees heading toward South Runan from the old capital had apparently gotten lost and wandered into our camp. "What's going on?" I asked as I approached. The soldiers saluted me and one reported, "They say they've come from Runan, so we were questioning them. We were told to be on the lookout for spies disguised as refugees, after all!" If they were hanging around near our camp, I couldn't discount that possibility. That's why I'd told my men to be wary of such people. That order had filtered down from the thousandman to the tenman, and now these soldiers were just faithfully carrying it out. "I see." Honestly, I had no way of telling whether they were spies or refugees who had just happened to get lost along the way, so the best thing to do was to give them directions and get them away from the camp. "Handle them according to the instructions you were given." "Yes, sir!" the soldier replied so enthusiastically I worried for his throat. It's good that his morale is high, but he's going to shout himself hoarse. With that idle thought, I was about to move along... Right up until I saw who it was that the soldiers were talking to. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. But no matter how many times I looked, there was one person in the group who I most definitely knew. Hold on. Why? First, I looked at the man talking to the soldiers now. Gram Age: 55 Martial: 45 Intelligence: 81 Command: 70 It was some guy called Gram. His Intelligence caught my eye. He was no ordinary man. He's a commoner? With stats like those? Celly Age: 20 Martial: 11 Intelligence: 62 Command: 50 His daughter's Intelligence score wasn't bad either. Maybe it was genetic? It didn't really matter though, because these two weren't the ones who I was so shocked to see. Their identities were still suspect, of course, but the true surprise was the man who'd come with them. The one Gram had mentioned before. Frann Valdesca Age: 28 Martial: 90 Intelligence: 96 Command: 90 What is he doing here now?! I looked around, and he didn't seem to have any of his attendants here with him. Not his little sister Medelian, who was first ranked among the Ten Commanders of Naruya, or the retainers who'd helped him to escape. What's with this situation? What is he doing, coming here so openly, and all alone at that? Gram's and Celly's Martial scores were just awful. I couldn't imagine they were Valdesca's bodyguards. "Take the road over there! If I find you lurking around our camp again, I'm going to have to kill you as potential spies!" The soldiers were giving them directions, as per my orders. "Hold on!" I immediately stepped in. I had no choice but to. If the system said he was Frann Valdesca, then there was no question that this guy was Valdesca himself. He had long hair, and a face that was attractive. In a manly way, I mean. His face wasn't androgynous. No, it oozed true masculinity. I thought it might just be a look-alike at first, but it really was him. My greatest foe was here, right before my eyes, and completely undefended too. What in the world is he thinking? "It's been a while, Frann Valdesca. Well, maybe not that long, I suppose." When I spoke to him, Valdesca cocked his head to the side, confused. "What are you talking about?" "What? You're not going to tell me you've forgotten your own name, I hope?" "I apologize, but I truly don't know what's happening..." His head remained tilted to the side as he responded. "Do you know me? If so, could you please tell me who I am?!" If anything, he seemed desperate for me to tell him what he was doing here. What's going on? He's an amnesiac now? "Who are you?" I asked Gram, trying to start sorting things out. Based on his Intelligence score, he didn't seem like an ordinary person. "I...was staying in the house of Count Seraon in the Runanese capital. I taught the count's son, and also authored a number of books there." "You're a scholar, then?" "Yes. Something like that." A scholar, huh? "Do you know any of the other nobles from the capital? Lord Erheet, perhaps?" I tried throwing out Erheet's name. When I did, Gram happily answered, "I am well acquainted with Lord Erheet. He provided funding for my research." Knowing Erheet, that seemed plausible. "Then considering the young man with you has lost his memory, it seems best to me that you stay here for a while. Lord Erheet is with us as well." Gram looked rather surprised. "Do you really mean it?" Valdesca seemed unable to read the situation, but I couldn't decide off the cuff whether that was because he was a good actor, or if he genuinely had lost his memory. * Erheet did, in fact, know Gram. That assured me of his identity. Obviously, it was still possible he was a long-term spy sent from Naruya years ago, but by that logic there was no end of people I could suspect of the same thing. After letting him meet Erheet, I asked for more details. "That young man traveled with us for quite some time, but it seems he lost his memory after suffering a head injury in the war. My daughter discovered him north of Runan Castle, where he had been sent flying from somewhere else. After treating his wounds and helping him to recover in secret, we came here, where we'd heard people from Runan were gathering." Based on what he told me, Valdesca had used his treasure to escape from Eintorian Castle, but somehow the massive mana circle had interfered, and instead of reaching his destination, he'd crash-landed on the northern side of Runan Castle. The story wasn't completely implausible. I could see how he might strike his head in the process and lose his memory as a result. But it was too convenient even for fiction. Honestly, if it wasn't true, I couldn't imagine what would possess Valdesca to show his face here so openly. Now, hold on. Is he trying to get me alone to do me in, then? He should already well know how many our troop numbers, so he can't really have anything to investigate here. It's just a weird situation. The problem was that I couldn't kill him. I'd tried last time, but a powerful protective mana circle boosted his Martial score up to 105. I assumed that had been Valdesca's ultimate mana skill, Circle of Defense. If I leveled up until my Martial was higher than that, then I could kill him, but 105 was still a long way off, even for me. The other option was to run him off. But that would be a waste. I wanted to take this opportunity to see what kind of man Valdesca was. It was dangerous letting him stay here, but my curiosity outweighed the risk. If I'm completely honest, I want to hire him. He was someone I needed if I was going to dominate the continent, and it wasn't as though it was completely impossible. I recalled that he didn't always get on with the King of Naruya, and they sometimes ended up wasting each other's time and effort because of it. Despite the risks, he didn't seem like he was going to try to kill me right now. If he was a genuine amnesiac, then I was lucky that he hadn't made it back to Naruya before now. Sure, he'd likely go home when his memories recovered, but I didn't like the idea of locking the guy up just because I couldn't kill him. "Frann Valdesca, huh..." What's he going to think of me when he gets his memory back? With a sense of wonder, Celly asked, "Father, is that the man you were teaching?" "That's right," Gram answered. She was talking about Erheet. It was strange to her that Gram had been teaching such an important individual. She jumped up and down with glee. "You're so amazing, dad!" "All I did was talk to him a little, Celly. It's nothing that special." Due to her inquisitive nature, Celly wandered around the camp asking about everything there was to know. Then, when the soldiers scolded her, she'd look up at Gram, frowning. "Can I go back to the lodging house, dad? I want to rest up a bit." Gram looked around when she asked him that. "Are you getting dizzy? Okay. Let me take you back there." He led her by the hand. As they walked through the camp, Gram approved of what he saw. The troops were rigidly disciplined, and there was something in their eyes—something he hadn't seen in the eyes of other Runanese troops. They had a certain restraint, perhaps even an elegance. Their loyalty to their commander was also a cut above the rest. The other thing that surprised him was that, formally, these men reported not to Erheet, but to Erhin. Well, I had figured that a man of his caliber would be able to create troops this disciplined. Gram was able to tell a lot about a person just from the way they looked, and he'd sensed that Erhin was a man of considerable skill. "I can make it on my own from here, dad. You go meet with that noble called Erheet! Talk to him about what life's going to be like for us from here on. We can't just keep running forever. Whether it's research, or something else, you're going to need to find something to do for a living...since you're too sickly to work the fields." Celly confronted Gram with reality. It was a perfectly reasonable argument. "I'll try and find a job too..." she added. There was no one who was going to pay him to do academic research in the middle of a war. That had Celly pretty worried. "You will? I probably can't get him to hire you, but I still want to see Lord Erheet. Should I ask if he'll see you too?" "Yeah, sure! Well, I'm heading back to the lodging house now!" Celly eagerly raced off. The bit about her feeling dizzy was a lie. The camp where all the soldiers were gathered had caught her attention at first, but that faded quickly. It was boring seeing the same thing. But then a certain person popped into her head. Teasing him was her greatest pleasure lately. Part of why she'd sent Gram off to see Erheet was that, after having claimed to be having a dizzy spell, she'd have had to rest in the lodging house otherwise. Instead, Celly went looking around for Valdesca. She found him sitting on the grassy hill where the camp was, and immediately went to sit down beside him. "Whatcha doing here? Staring off into space, old man?" "Don't call me that." With only the vaguest glance in Celly's direction, Valdesca shut her down. Celly had developed an affection for him over the course of the long journey here. She didn't realize it herself, but the fact that she'd secretly gone searching for him when Gram wasn't around was the greatest proof of it.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4_2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 "Oh, I know you're not an actual old man. But you're an old man to me. Hee hee, You're twenty-eight, right? That's eight years older than me. That's why I'm gonna call you 'old man'!" "You're twenty?" Celly covered her mouth without meaning to. She'd been keeping her age a secret, but had just disclosed it by accident. "No, I'm not." She tried to talk her way out of it, but it was too late. "Did you not just say you were with your own mouth?" Valdesca looked somewhat surprised. "I'd assumed you were younger... You can never tell with women." "Do I look that young? No way! Your eyes are just bad, mister!" "Urkh..." Valdesca had spent all his life cooped up indoors, studying military strategy and mana circles, so he had no romantic experience. "I don't know how it really works, but aren't you happy being perceived as younger? I've heard it works out in your favor later in life. And you're cute too..." "Wha...? Did you just say I'm cute?" Celly reddened at the unexpected comment. Not that Valdesca had uttered it calculatingly. The fact of the matter was she was cute. He said it not as a compliment, but as a statement of how things were. Celly turned her head aside bashfully. A long silence passed between the two of them. Celly sat there for a long moment with her head hung and her legs crossed. She raised her head because it seemed awfully quiet, but Valdesca was just lost in thought again. He's awful. How can he be like this when I'm right here? she thought angrily, but then the bandage wrapped around Valdesca's forehead caught her eye. Thinking back, that bandage had always bothered her. Celly reached out slowly toward Valdesca's forehead. When she first rescued him, he was already bandaged. So it wasn't an injury he got from slamming into the dirt. "How did you get hurt?" she asked out of curiosity. Valdesca, reacting with surprise, swatted her hand away. "I don't know. I can't remember. But it seems I have a habit of hitting things with my head when I'm agonizing over something. I still do it too. Even though my forehead is bandaged, I'm compelled to smash it into things." "Whaaa... That's a weird habit! And you do it so hard you draw blood?!" Valdesca was a little surprised to hear her say that, and brought his hand to his mouth as he thought about it. "If you can't focus without slamming your head into something, then why not use my hand instead of something like a table? Here!" Celly opened her hand wide and pressed it to Valdesca's forehead. Valdesca just stared at her. He'd never thought of this before. But consider the idea as he might, the floor was a much better option. He couldn't see how smacking his head against the palm of her hand was supposed to help him focus. Still, Celly's innocent laughter left Valdesca at a loss for words. He was an incredibly innocent man himself. He'd never held a girl's hand before, not even once. Despite his incredible power as a duke, he'd done nothing but study all his life. As Valdesca sat there in silence, Celly got impatient and shoved her palm against his forehead again. "How's that? Is it helping you focus? My hand is fine too, right? See?" The girl laughed as she said this. Valdesca was just confused.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter5.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 Chapter 5: Runan Ruined I was going to have to wait until the Gebel Kingdom's expeditionary force arrived in the capital of South Runan, and that was assuming that Heina even did as I was planning. In the meanwhile, Valdesca was the bigger issue for me, but I chose to take an optimistic view of the situation. I could take this chance to lay the groundwork for recruiting him later, and if it didn't work out, then I just had to beat him again when he went back to Naruya. Whether his amnesia was genuine or not, I had no idea what his intentions were, but I chose not to care. Because regardless of what they were, the mana circle protecting him meant that I couldn't kill him right now anyway. Locking him up wasn't ideal, though. I didn't want anyone to see me doing something that lame. Even if this was just my pride making me take a less practical decision. I also didn't want to eliminate the possibility of recruiting him later. If he was unkillable, then it was best to just leave him be for now. Losing his memory wouldn't change his personality, so this was a prime opportunity to learn what kind of man Valdesca was. If that made me genuinely eager to recruit him, then maybe I'd start working on a scheme to actually do it. I'll do whatever I have to do to recruit him. Setting that aside for the moment, I called for Gram and Celly. Gram was a scholar, and of Runanese origin, so I definitely meant to hire him. Gram and Celly came to my lodging house. Celly was fidgeting awkwardly. "Come in. Sorry for making you stay in the camp for so long." "Don't be sorry. Thanks to you, I was able to meet with Lord Erheet, and the young man was able to discover who he was, so I'm happy with how things have turned out. But while the young man can decide for himself what to do, I don't think that us staying in your camp any longer can lead to anything good, so I would like to leave..." Celly arched an eyebrow at what Gram said. She wasn't happy about it. "I'm not ready to go, dad... That guy hasn't fully recovered yet." Hm? It seemed she was quite fond of Valdesca. Is it a one-sided thing? Or am I totally off base here? Well, that's not important right now. "Where do you plan to go, and what will you do?" The father and daughter looked at one another. They had no plans, apparently. With there being a war in progress, he'd struggle to find work as a scholar, so that should have been obvious. "We're always looking for people with a wealth of academic experience. So, I was thinking... I've heard that your research focused on improving the people's quality of life, starting with agriculture. Would you be interested in continuing it?" "Do you really mean that?" A scholar to the core, his eyes sparkled at the mention of research. Scholars put their whole lives into their chosen field of inquiry, after all. "Oh! In that case...will you be able to fund us?" Celly chimed in. "Of course. I'll see that you receive the best treatment possible. We need researchers in your father's field." "In the Eintorian Domain, right?" Gram checked. "Right." Yeah, it was still called the Eintorian Domain. I needed to make it a country soon. This was getting inconvenient. "Dad! Dad! This is an amazing chance! We'd have a hard enough time just making a living elsewhere, and you'll also be able to do your research! I'll do everything I can to help too! Oh, but if we're taking this offer, we don't need to leave here right away anymore, right?" "Yeah. You can come back to Eintorian together with us." Hearing this, Celly nodded and began working to persuade Gram. Obviously, he was already pretty enthused by the prospect, so it looked like I was going to have little trouble recruiting him. The issue was Valdesca. * The commander-in-chief of the Royal Gebelian Army, Ruteca Mikal, arrived in South Runan together with a force of fifty thousand men. Ruteca was Duke Plenett's right-hand man. Known for his incredible caution, the duke had placed him in charge of carrying out the plan. Ronan welcomed Ruteca eagerly, because if he hadn't come with the Royal Gebelian Army, then Ronan would have had to go to that upstart Erhin for help. He didn't like the idea of that. Much as he meant to go on using Erhin, he needed an insurance policy, so he'd use each of them to do half the job. In Ronan's mind, this was the best way to handle it. "It's an honor to meet you, Your Majesty. Congratulations on the founding of South Runan." "There's nothing to celebrate about it. We're in the worst situation imaginable. But with your help, I am sure we will both be able to take part of Runan's lands. Isn't it wonderful to have such a mutually beneficial arrangement?" "Yes. That is why the Gebel Kingdom agreed to send troops." King Gebel was a very practical man, and he'd intended to send troops from the very beginning. He'd initially thought that even if he went out of his way to help South Runan, he had more to lose than to gain, but Duke Plenett was able to convince him otherwise. If he was able to get his hands on the lands of South Runan for free, then it would be pure idiocy to pass up the chance. "I see. All right! I'll prepare a banquet! Hey, you, we're throwing a massive party for the reinforcements!" Ronan began enthusiastically barking orders. Ruteca immediately scowled. The kingdom of South Runan was founded after they had narrowly escaped with their lives, so they needed to be sparing with their supplies right now. This behavior showed a lack of understanding of that, and yet, as it was his men who were being treated to a banquet, he had no need to refuse it. It was another nation's supplies being depleted, after all. "Thank you, Your Majesty," replied Ruteca. If nothing happened in the capital of South Runan, then the Gebel Kingdom would use the excuse of an invasion from their north to withdraw their forces. If the rebellion broke out, then they would chase out any soldiers who witnessed it, and shut down the capital after spreading rumors. With the leaders of South Runan purged, it would be easy to gain hold of the territory. All they had to do now was wait. "I am grateful that you'd feed my men so well. But we can never know when Naruya will attack, or from where. You requested reinforcements because Naruya has deployed its troops forward, didn't you? That being the case, we must decline this banquet. Wouldn't you agree that it's a warrior's duty to prepare for such a conflict with a sober head?" Having said all of that, Ruteca forbade his men from drinking alcohol. * Heina stood atop the gates, looking out toward the Eintorian camp being built on the west side of the South Runanese capital. "His Majesty requested that Count Erhin come inside the palace?" "Yes. It's getting late today, so he says they will enter the palace tomorrow." Heina nodded at what her second-in-command told her, and then turned and went to visit Ronan. He met her with his retainers in tow. The same as always. "Well done, Heina." "I only did what I ought to." "You've been on a roll lately, Heina. Coming to welcome me, and getting reinforcements from the Gebel Kingdom. I always knew you were intelligent. It's why I appointed you as advisor in the first place. You've made mistakes in the past, but if you keep on like this, I expect there will continue to be important work for you." "Thank you, Your Majesty," Heina said with a bow of her head. An important post in a state with no future would do her little good. It was irrelevant anyway. As Heina was about to rise, he continued. "Yes, keep working as you have been. Without repeating the folly of your father. That alone will let you restore your house to glory. Do I make myself clear?" Ronan was the last person who should have been saying that. He was the man responsible for her father's death. He'd let him die so miserably. If all he'd done was murder him, she wouldn't have complained. But Ronan had pushed the responsibility for his own failures onto her father, and driven him to suicide. The result was that Ronan came out unscathed, while her family had been treated like garbage. Heina bit her lip. It was all she could do to hold back the venomous words rising inside of her. Why had she ever tried to rebuild her house working for a man like this? Don't defy His Highness, Heina. He's the path to restoring our house. She cursed herself for having resolved to follow her father's will. The position of duke, and the overwhelming power it granted Ronan had been frightening to her, of course. But while she was envious of Erhin's abilities, which allowed him to easily transcend that power, he had also shown her that Ronan wasn't such a big deal. "I understand...Your Majesty." It's the last time I'll be calling him that. I have to hold my tongue for now. Because I need to command the troops from my domain. Gritting her teeth, she left the palace. "Father, our house will meet their end as traitors. But I fully intend to drag the hated Ronan down with us," Heina said as she looked at the palace. The sun was setting, and the curtain of night would soon fall over the land. She had to get things started before Erhin reached the palace. It all had to be over before morning. "Maybe you should rethink who you ought to be taking revenge on?" Heina suddenly thought back to what Erhin had said to her. Back then, her desire for vengeance had still been directed at him. South Runan will be ruined, and so will my house. If she hadn't been in the depths of despair, her hatred would likely still have been toward Erhin, the subject of her envy. Although she had only found the resolve to take revenge now that there was nothing left for her, Heina mistakenly believed her desire for it was genuine. But whether it was or it wasn't, Heina called up her retainers, resolved to witness the moment of Ronan's ruin. "I'm sorry to have made you all wait so long. Your parents were killed by Ronan, just as my father was. Just for being members of our house. I cannot apologize enough to all of you." "No, Your Excellency. We're just honored to be able to join you in your revenge." When Heina was plotting this out in the capital, she had let all of her retainers who held no enmity toward Ronan go. The ones still with her resented him as much as she did. "When is the changing of the guard?" "Two hours from now." "That will work out perfectly. We'll force our way into the palace then. I intend to make this insurrection a big one. As big as I possibly can." "We're with you, ma'am." "We'll set fire to the palace as soon as we're inside. Don't forget to prepare oil for that." "Yes, ma'am!" * "Commander! Commander!" As Ruteca was sitting in his room inside the large barracks he'd had constructed in his camp outside the walls, his retainer rushed in shouting. "Has something finally happened?" "Yes, it seems like it. There's a fire in the palace. The Berhin Domain Army rose in revolt, and the battle is still raging inside!" "So it was true, then. To think she'd do this to avenge her house. I can see why it's important for her, but still." "What will we do?" "Wait for the fighting to spread from the palace to the gates before we go in. Let word of the insurrection spread outside the walls first." "Understood." "But get our troops moving now. Once the fighting spreads to the gates, we'll intervene immediately and seal off all the gates of the capital. We will be entering strictly in the name of putting down the rebellion. Then, after swiftly storming the palace, slay the king. There's no need to spend time on the soldiers, although, obviously, anyone who witnesses what we do inside the castle must be eliminated. When the deed is done, we seal off the palace too. Leave the Runanese regular forces fighting outside to do what they will." Whatever happens inside the palace, it was the doing of the rebellion, and we were too late to stop it. Or that's the story, at least. Whatever ended up happening in the battle between the palace and the gates was none of Ruteca's concern. The Gebel Kingdom only needed word to spread that they had sealed off the palace after going inside to save the king, but it was already too late. They would then remain in the fractured territories of South Runan under the pretense of bringing stability. The plan was perfect. But well, as the expression went, "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry," and all that. Execution was key. * There was shouting and screaming as the palace fell into utter disarray. Death and murder unfolded around every corner. The defenders inside were confused by the surprise attack. However, the Berhin Domain Army's numbers were incredibly small. They held the initial advantage as the flames first rose, and the chaos broke out, but they soon started to be pushed back. "What are you doing, Heina?" Ronan demanded, surrounded by his retainers and soldiers, and she came for his life with only a few retainers of her own. "Did you think you could take my life with so few men? Even after I cautioned you repeatedly. Don't be like your father. To think this is the path you'd choose. It's pathetic. That's what it is." "You're pathetic. You and your greed, Duke Ronan. My father died a miserable death because of you... Isn't it only natural I would do this in response?" Heina said as she glared at Ronan. "Bah hah hah hah! Maybe save those words for after you've done something! What do you think you've even accomplished here?" Ronan laughed mockingly at Heina. Heina just laughed back at him, which in turn only made him laugh all the louder. "Ah hah hah hah! Hah hah hah hah hah! Duke Ronan, you have no right to be called king! This is the end for you!" As Heina laughed, there were screams from outside the hall where Ronan and Heina were facing off. Screams that were gradually drawing closer. Heina absolutely cackled. It wasn't long before the Royal Gebelian Army appeared from behind her. Leading them was Ruteca, clad in a set of armor that, while not particularly aesthetic, was practical in its design. The soldiers of South Runan fell before him. "Wh-What's happening?! Count Ruteca, what is the meaning of this?!" one of Ronan's retainers demanded. "If you've come to put down the rebellion, the men you just slew weren't part of it! If you'll just kill Heina, then—" The retainer's head flew as Ruteca attacked him. "Wh-What are you doing?!" Ronan shouted at Ruteca in shock, but the man did not answer him. Ruteca continued swinging his blade without mercy, forcing Ronan's retainers to fight him, but they were no match. Ruteca was one of the top five commanders in the Gebel Kingdom. Ronan's retainers couldn't possibly stand against such a man. He was on a completely different level from the retainers of the Berhin Domain. Ronan's retainers fell in an instant. He was the only one left standing. The other soldiers nearby were all subdued by Ruteca's men. Heina was still there too, of course. The only ones left were Ronan, Heina, and Ruteca and his Gebelian soldiers. "You curs! What is the meaning of this?! How dare the Gebel Kingdom do this. Aren't you afraid of being denounced?!" "They won't be, Duke Ronan," Heina said, taking great pleasure in emphasizing the word duke. "The House of Berhin will take all of the blame. I could never have killed you otherwise." "Wh-What...?" Ronan began backing away as he finally grasped the situation. "You sold out the nation for your revenge?! You and that garbage house of yours...?!" "Sold out the nation? What legitimacy does a country like this have? It was only founded on your say-so. I might not have been able to have pulled this off in Runan, but... You were never fit to be a king, Your Highness." Heina shook her head. "You've said enough, Heina. I respect your desire for vengeance. Allow me to give you the opportunity to carry it out. I'm afraid I can't let you live once you've finished, however." Having said this, Ruteca stepped back, indicating he meant to kill Heina once she killed Ronan. If the leader of the rebellion survived, it would ruin the Gebel Kingdom's justification for their actions. When the Royal Gebelian Army arrived, Ronan was already dead, so they disposed of Heina, who had killed him. That was how the story had to go. Obviously, Ruteca could have taken care of both Ronan and Heina himself, but he held Heina in high regard, and so he gave her the chance to settle things. "I already threw away my own life when I sent the slave traders after Count Erhin. Heh heh heh! Accept your fate, Duke Ronan." Ronan turned his back to her to run away. Heina had lacked the Martial to overcome his retainers, but she had a better Martial score than Ronan. She'd have no trouble avenging her father. Witnessing one last act of cowardice from the ugly Ronan, Heina bit her lip. "This is the man my father so feared? What was holding our house back all this time...?" she muttered with a tone of self-mockery as she closed in, then buried her blade in Ronan's back. "N-Nghhh! You bitch... You'll pay...for this..." Despite his cursing, Ronan's body slumped to the palace floor all the same, never to rise again. The duke was no more. Heina looked down at him, then closed her eyes. It was a bitter life, and she'd spent all of it thinking about her house. What a pathetic ending. But she had lived a life that deserved an ending like this, so she wasn't dissatisfied. Where did she go wrong? Was it when she saw her father's will? Heina shook her head and then knelt down. Ruteca approached her with slow, deliberate steps. "Have you any last words?" "If I did, I wouldn't have planned something like this." Ruteca raised his sword high to strike. "That can't be right," came a voice from behind them. "Huh?" Heina's eyes widened with surprise. Ruteca turned to look, sword still raised. A man stood there, with the corpses of Gebelian soldiers who'd died without so much as a sound lying behind him. "Who are you? Are you with the House of Berhin?" Ruteca demanded I identify myself, but I didn't intend to. What good would revealing my identity now do me? And to a man who'd soon be dead. He had been planning to kill Heina, and then manipulate events here to the advantage of the Royal Gebelian Army. I didn't plan on letting him live. The soldiers still outside in his camp could be pardoned, but the ones who'd entered the palace all had to die. I summoned Daitoren. Ruteca Mikal Age: 36 Martial: 91 Intelligence: 65 Command: 80 The Gebel Kingdom had sent someone fairly capable. They must have understood how important this was for them. But even if he was capable, this commander needed to die. Daitoren slammed into Ruteca's head. He had a Martial of 91. It was a score high enough that Ronan's retainers couldn't even block his attacks, but he was powerless before Daitoren. Clang! The sound of sword striking sword rang in my ears. I'd already beheaded Ruteca by mashing the Attack command. His head sailed through the air, then rolled across the floor to rest beside Ronan's body. "Erhin! What is the meaning of this?" "What do you mean?" "Don't tell me you came to kill me yourself," she said with a chuckle, still kneeling. "Well... In the end, I'm just an incompetent woman who was used by you... It's almost humorous that I ever tried to make you suffer, isn't it?" "Why are you mocking yourself like that?" I shook my head. I wasn't here for the reason she thought I was. "I don't know what you're even talking about." "Huh?" "I came here under King Ronan's orders to support South Runan. But when I arrived, I found the Royal Army under attack by the Royal Gebelian. I simply came here to deal with the treacherous Gebelians who journeyed here under the guise of reinforcements, and then murdered the king," I explained as I walked toward Heina. "The Royal Gebelian Army spread slanderous rumors about the House of Berhin instigating a revolt, entered the castle to kill the king, and then tried to gain hold of South Runan while laying all the blame on you. Or am I wrong?" "Wh-What...are you saying?!" Heina looked at me, blinking in utter bewilderment. "You don't understand? A woman with your intelligence?" "No, I do... I do understand." "Of course you do. Because I only told you the truth. You were the first to step up to stop the Gebelians, and this is what happened. So become my vassal. If you have any interest in restoring your house, that is." "..." The Gebel Kingdom had come to seize South Runan. People could raise a fuss about there being a rebellion, but that was just a minor detail. Ultimately, the truth was the same. It didn't change the story all that much. It was a fact that they had come with the intention of betraying South Runan. Even if someone made accusations about a clandestine agreement, there was no proof of it, and they would only be confessing that their own hands were dirty too. In all likelihood, they would try to claim that Ruteca acted alone. "It's okay for me to live...?" Heina asked hesitantly. "Live on," I told her. "Live your own life. I'll forget everything that happened in the past." The Royal Gebelian Army are going to run amok now that Ruteca's gone. The war's just started. Because I can't let them have South Runan. Even if I chose to give up on the land and go home after this, I needed to bring back the people with me, if nothing else. That meant I had to drive off the Gebelians first. The underhanded Gebelians who'd come to steal South Runan under the guise of providing reinforcements. "Your house's name can only live on if you do, Heina." "Heh heh heh... Bah hah hah hah! I truly...truly am no match for you... I would have never dreamed you'd make an offer to me like this. Hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah!" Heina rose to her feet after a good, hearty laugh. Then she knelt down again in front of me. "I have no pride left to wound... I'll follow you from now on!" * My next concern was the Gebel Kingdom. I tried asking Valdesca how he'd go about conquering them. "Hmm... So, what do you think?" "About striking down the Gebel Kingdom, which entered South Runan under the pretense of an alliance, you mean?" "Right. If I were to do it, what would be the best way to quickly defeat the Royal Gebelian Army?" It was a direct question, but Valdesca simply stared into space for a while before shaking his head. "I don't know about that kind of military strategy." "That can't be right. You were an incredible strategist before you lost your memory." My comment brought an even greater look of confusion to Valdesca's face. "What is the situation? I should be able to tell you anything that comes to mind, at least." "It's simple. Before we arrive, the Gebel Kingdom will try to seize South Runan. Is there any way to prevent that?" "Well, let me see. If there is, I don't know it. But if they are going to try and get their hands on the territory, then isn't that fine? That will demonstrate to the world that they were coveting the lands of South Runan." "Well, you do have a point there." I knew it. He'd just been speaking off the cuff, and yet this man accurately cleft to the heart of the issue. "I think it would be faster if you were to find an effective way of retaking the capital from them afterward." "Okay, anything that comes to mind?" "I think you should deceive the enemy. For instance, you can surround the city, but there is no need to attack. Once you have them surrounded, you use their psychology to control them. I think a war like this can be won in two days." "A psychological battle, huh? Is this the kind of thing you're talking about?" I went on to explain what I was thinking. Valdesca had another answer for me. "That is a viable option too, but I think a trap like this would be better." "Aha, and after I do that, I can use it one more time." Yes. This is the perfect strategy. With our opinions aligned, once this affair was settled, it would give birth to an even larger strategy. "I see. Yes, I think you're right," Valdesca said with a big nod. He was every bit as capable as I'd thought. It'd be a real headache if he went back to being an enemy. Should I just try to find some way to kill him? No. If I can bring someone like him over to my side, it will be even more satisfying than beating the game. I couldn't resist that kind of challenge. Even if, after he regained his memories, it ended up like the time Cao Cao recruited Guan Yu. At least Cao Cao survived because of it. Guan Yu was the one who spared him when he fled, defeated, at the Battle of Red Cliffs. I simply thought it would be a shame to let him go. There was no fault in that. * Without their commander-in-chief, the Royal Gebelian Army ran around willy-nilly before ultimately deciding to occupy South Runan. Their leader's last command had been to quickly occupy the capital, after all. If they had made another decision at this point, such as withdrawing to the Gebel Kingdom, that might have served to show that they never had any designs on South Runan, though. Ultimately, Ruteca's last command tripped them up. The soldiers of Eintorian were enraged by the Gebelians' treachery. The Eintorian Army's Morale is now 100. That anger showed up in their morale. With the addition of Valdesca's strategy, we were able to take South Runan in less than a day. With that done, the foolish Gebelians who had lost their commander began to withdraw. "Woooooo!" Eintorian morale was sky-high, and the people of South Runan who had been suppressed by the Gebelians welcomed us with whoops and cheers. To them, I was the one who had come to their aid, and then avenged the wrongs done to them. Thanks to that, their Opinion of me had risen to 99. This was a successful conquest of the South Runan region. Obviously, I had no intention of leaving my troops here, in a territory wedged between Naruya and Gebel, which was sure to be destroyed. I planned to take the surviving South Runanese soldiers and people back with me to my own domain. That was one of my goals accomplished. Now there was another truly important one that it would help me with: Erheet. This was the branching point that would decide if he became my retainer. * "Your Highness... So it turned out like this in the end, after all." Erheet buried Ronan with his own hands, and knelt before the grave, reminiscing. This was the man he had sworn to serve all his life. And yet, he had learned the man had a number of flaws. When Erheet heard that Ronan fled the capital while he was risking his life fighting at the checkpoint, that had been the decisive betrayal for Erheet. Yet still he had shown no visible outrage. Now that the master who he'd had such mixed feelings about had passed away, Erheet could only shake his head. "Your Excellency, Duke Ronan had already abandoned the House of Demacine. And twice at that," said one of Erheet's retainers who couldn't bear to see him like this. "That's fine. He was still my master," Erheet answered the man with a sharp look. After that, his retainers had to remain silent until he stood up once more. Then, after standing there for some time, Erheet looked around at the South Runanese scenery. "It's good to see the people seem to be all right." "Yes, it is. Thank goodness." "Because these people have a new lord who will embrace them." "Your Excellency?" Erheet's retainers looked at one another as they tried to parse this odd comment. But Erheet said no more. In reality, he was torn over what to do. Runan was truly finished now. As such, he thought that, as a Runanese commander, he was done too. His life as a military leader was over, and it was time for him to retire. His own lands had fallen into Naruya's hands. He had nothing left, but wasn't sure he could live on as an ordinary person. "If I'm going to retire...then there's no need for all of you to come with me. So... If you can, I want you to be of assistance to Count Eintorian." "Come again?" "Your Excellency! What are you saying so suddenly?!" His bombshell statement made their eyes widen with shock. * "Where have you been, Lord Erheet?" "I hear you were looking for me." "Yes. I didn't know where you'd gone, so I asked people to look for you." "I went to say my goodbyes to His Highness," Erheet said with a deep sigh. "I don't entirely know how to feel about it. Would you let me have a cup of tea?" "Of course." I invited Erheet to sit at the table. His pallor wasn't looking so good. His face was a mess of emotions. He must have had a lot of worries on his mind. Now, so did I, of course, but that was because I needed to persuade the man. "To tell you the truth," Erheet began in a grave tone after taking a sip of tea. "I have to ask, do you plan to become a king now, like I've long suspected? I always knew you were too great to remain a mere count. You have the power to control public opinion, and in my opinion, that qualifies you as a ruler." "Well..." I trailed off, not sure how to respond to a question that was so on the mark, but I couldn't dodge it now. If I go hiding things from someone I'm truly trying to win to my side, then I'll never be able to act openly. "Yes, I do. The fall of Runan was a shame, but I am also a descendant of the Eintorians. I plan to restore the Ancient Kingdom, which has long been the wish of my clan, Your Excellency." "The Ancient Kingdom, huh? Yes, that's right. You were a descendant of those Eintorians." "And...there's one other thing I need to tell you." I couldn't tell him I deliberately let Runan fall. But I at least wanted to be open about the matter with Ronan. "Another thing? What is it?" "I never liked Duke Ronan. And that dislike only grew after the matter of the slaves. In truth...I didn't have any heartfelt desire to save him." I was forthright in telling him that I used this incident to manipulate public opinion. In light of Erheet's own connection with Ronan, if I didn't tell him about the conspiracy, we could never have a proper relationship between us. "Ah... So that's what was going on." "However, I never meant for the people of South Runan to come to harm. That is the truth." "I know that. Since you've been honest with me, let me do you the same courtesy. I am planning to retire. I suspect my life as a warrior ended together with the nation of Runan." "Huh? I hope it's not because of what I just told you." "No, it's unrelated. Runan has fallen to ruin now, and having been at your side, I know as well as anyone that it couldn't have been saved. Knowing what things were like between you and Duke Ronan, I can fully understand your dislike of him. So it's nothing to do with that. I also know you are incredibly capable. I'm sure you'll do a fine job of protecting the people of Runan... Seeing the way you exempted your people from taxes, I was deeply impressed." Okay, so why retire, then? I definitely couldn't let him do that. Do you have any idea how much effort I've put into recruiting you? "Are you fully resolved to retire?" "It's my intention to, yes. I have no lands of my own, so I'm no longer a noble, but I think I'll become a simple man of the countryside." No, that's out of the question. Where can you find a man who belongs on the battlefield as much as him, who must be there to shine to his fullest? The man is a true warrior, not a gamer like me, who's just in it for his own benefit. "Your Excellency." I've been waiting for him to say something to me, but was that a foolish move? It looks like if I want to recruit capable people, I can't be so passive about it. I mean, Liu Bei had to ask Zhuge Liang three times before he was able to recruit him. Not long after they met, he petitioned him earnestly to join him. That earnestness persuaded Zhuge Liang, and he served Liu Bei and his son for the rest of his life. I started to think it might be too late, but I bowed my head to Erheet. "Won't you consider becoming a commander for Eintorian? It's much too early for you to retire! Perhaps the thought of serving under me hurts your pride, but...as a descendant of the Ancient Kingdom, I, Erhin Eintorian, must have your power in order to bring an end to the chaos of war on this continent. There is no other commander on the same level as you, Your Excellency. The Ten Commanders of Naruya? They're strong individually, but that's all they are. There is only one true warrior who reigns supreme on the battlefield, and from all I've heard, it's you." "..." However, Erheet didn't respond. He simply stared so hard that his gaze could have bored right through me. I went on talking. I hadn't said everything I wanted to yet. I needed to say it all, so that even if he did retire, I wouldn't be left with regrets. "Won't you please become an Eintorian retainer? I need you!" This caused a complete turnaround. Erheet jumped to his feet and took my hand with alarming alacrity. "Do... Do you really mean that?!" "Of course I do..." "I had thought you didn't need me. That's why I resolved to retire!" "Huh?" This came totally out of left field. "What do you mean? I need you more than anyone, Lord Erheet. I was avoiding saying so out of an excess of caution. There was, um, the matter of your relationship with Duke Ronan, after all..." Erheet immediately shook his head. "My connection to His Highness is a separate matter. I'd already lost my respect for the man. I was merely trying to behave honorably. So, essentially, you're saying you do need me, right?" "Of course." "Gah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah! This isn't news to drink tea to! Hey, you! Fetch us some wine! Wine, I say!" Erheet seemed giddy as a child as he shouted. I hadn't been ready for this at all. "Your Excellency?" "If you need me, I'm at your service. I'm saying I'll be your retainer! I, Erheet Demacine, am going to serve Eintorian for life. I think it's wonderful that you're a descendant of the Ancient Kingdom! And I couldn't ask for more in a lord than someone like you, who can protect all the people of the world!" Was it this simple all along? "No, I'm not doing this right. I can't speak so informally to you anymore," Erheet said, standing up straight as he bowed his head to me. "From now until the day I die, I serve Eintorian!" My head started to hurt as I looked at him. I really should have gone to him with an offer sooner. From the looks of it, had Erheet just been sulking because I kept making offers to other people, but not to him? * All that remained was the issue of Valdesca. Obviously, unlike Erheet, there was no way to immediately recruit him. "You called for me?" "There's something I wanted to talk to you about. We're scheduled to pull out, so I should arrange things so you can go home too." "Do you really mean that?" "Yes. So, you still can't remember anything?" "No. Not a thing," Valdesca said with a hint of self-mockery. He sounded frustrated. "Your name is Frann Valdesca. You are a duke of Naruya, a genius in the use of magic circles, and my enemy. Oh, you're also the most feared strategist on the continent too." "Is that right? If that's all true...then there are two things I'm left wondering." I told him what he'd wanted to know, but Valdesca's reaction was muted. And he still wants to know more? "What would those be?" "If we are enemies, then why set me free?" I agonized over that one myself, but ultimately decided to let go of him. "It would be a different matter if we'd captured you on the battlefield, but could I really call it a victory if I took you prisoner after you walked in here of your own accord? When you get your memories back, I'm sure we'll meet again on the battlefield, and that's when I'll capture you. After taking away your infuriating ability to teleport. Oh, I recognize you as a strategist, of course. I'd never have won if I hadn't used the ruins left behind by the Ancient Kingdom. There's really no telling how our next battle will play out. But that's all the more reason it needs to be settled on the battlefield." Valdesca smiled in a self-effacing manner as he listened to my response. "Then let me ask you the other thing." At some point, the smile faded, and Valdesca's expression grew unusually serious. No longer did he have the far-off look in his eye that the young amnesiac had possessed. No, this was his face as a strategist. "What do you think is the most important thing in war?" * Had anyone ever made him taste defeat like this before? As his retainers evacuated him, Valdesca was left like a puppet, powerless to do anything himself. Misery dominated him, and a sense of defeat ruled over his mind. The earthquake gradually intensified as the mana circle spread. The teleporter—a tool that was packed with the essence of the Ancient Kingdom's magic, and was the most special of all those passed down by the Valdesca family. Valdesca's memories cut out at the point where red flames burst up from underground, rushing toward him, and his retainers activated the tool. But tools also work using mana circles, and the influence of the massive one being activated in the immediate vicinity stopped his from fully functioning. Valdesca awoke north of Runan's capital. When he came to, for some reason, he couldn't remember a thing. "Are you okay?" "Dad, water! Go get water!" A father and daughter found and cared for him. That was Gram and Celly. They saved his life in the middle of all the chaos of war. On top of that, Valdesca heard that he'd been out cold for quite some time. When he learned that, because of him, the father and daughter had missed their chance to evacuate, and were hiding out in the mountains, he felt awful. "No, don't be sorry," Celly told him. "We were being chased by some brigands when you suddenly came falling out of the sky, and an incredible explosion killed them all! You saved us, so of course we had to take care of you until you woke up!" "I-Is that what happened?" "Yeah, it is. So you don't need to be grateful," Gram explained. "But more importantly, that effect when you fell out of the sky must have been caused by a mana circle... When you struck the ground, I saw one activate." Gram had also done a lot of research on mana circles. They weren't his area of expertise, of course, and he couldn't use them. But as part of his studies, he'd looked into the historical link between the Ancient Kingdom and mana circles. That's how he was able to recognize one when he saw it. "Is that a fact?" Valdesca could only scratch his head. "Now that you've awakened, I'd like to set out. A new nation called South Runan has been formed, and it's possible that a noble acquaintance of mine has gone there, so I was thinking we'd drop by to see." Hearing that, Valdesca set out on a journey with Gram and Celly. His condition gradually recovered along the way, and though he kept it from the father and daughter, so too did his memory. The shock of defeat and the influence of the mana circle on his brain had kept him from fully remembering, but once he awoke it slowly came back. It finally came back to him completely when they were in South Runan. There Valdesca saw the Eintorian flag. "I know that flag..." In that instant, the sense of defeat rushed in on him again, powerful as ever. However, at the same time, new feelings were born inside of him. "I'm terribly sorry to have to ask this of you, but I'd like to go over there for a while. Would that be all right with the two of you?" Valdesca pointed at the Eintorian camp, which flew their banners. "To that military camp? Isn't that dangerous?" Valdesca mentally scoffed at the question. If this was a sign from Heaven, then he wanted to meet that man. To see him in a context other than on the battlefield. Thus began Valdesca's life in the military camp. It was a hard act to keep up, but eventually he realized that all he needed to do was pretend he was lost in thought. Looking like he was in a haze came naturally to him when he was agonizing over something, so it was an easy act to pull off. As he did, Erhin asked Valdesca about strategy. Valdesca hesitated somewhat. He felt as though, perhaps, the man had seen through his amnesiac act. But what did it matter at this point? He also felt a desire to speak with the man about strategy. What kind of superb stratagems would he employ? How well could he make use of his manpower? Valdesca couldn't help but be curious about the insight that had always been not just one, but two steps ahead of him. It was the entire reason he'd gone to such efforts to infiltrate the camp, wasn't it? Debating strategy with Erhin even became something close to enjoyable. It gave each the chance to point out shortcomings in the other's thinking. With Valdesca and Erhin working together, of course the Royal Gebelian Army was hopelessly routed. It was a good time. But all good things had to come to an end eventually. As he sensed the time to go home nearing, Erhin called for him. The man revealed him for who he was, and suggested he go home. Internally, Valdesca smiled. It was a smile of recognition. And the more he recognized Erhin's abilities, the greater his desire was to beat him. Although being able to keep up the amnesia act as he left would have been far better for Valdesca in the long term, there were things he wanted to ask even if that meant his lies were revealed. There was just one thing that had been on his mind this whole time: Valdesca had visited the Eintorian Domain while Erhin was away rescuing Rozern. Having ultimately given up on moving his forces, he actually went to Rozern instead. He had been intensely curious about exactly what Erhin was trying to do. Of course, he thought the strategy employed was incredible, but that wasn't it. That wasn't what bothered him. He understood it. Although, he didn't know if he could have done the same. There were some parts he absolutely didn't get, though, and those bothered Valdesca to no end. "What do you think is the most important thing in war?" "The opinion of the people, obviously." Erhin answered Valdesca's question without a moment's hesitation. But that answer wasn't what he truly wanted to know. It was merely a lead-in to his actual question. "Then could you explain to me what you were doing in Rozern?" Those words laid Valdesca's deception bare. They revealed he had all of his memory intact. But the question was more important than that. Besides, Erhin was the one who'd opened this serious discussion between them. "What part of it do you want to know about?" What composure. The question had revealed he was being deceived, and yet this man remained calm, focusing solely on the question at hand. "Why did you bury the people of Rozern who were massacred by Brijit inside the cities? No matter how awful the stench of their rotting corpses was, you could simply have had your soldiers rest outside the walls. Was there any need to give your exhausted men such a command? The dead were even foreigners to you." Even as he pursued the Brijitians, each time he came across another of their massacres, this man had ordered his soldiers to bury the dead. It was something Rozern could have done themselves once the war was over. Yet Erhin carried on doing it, and Valdesca couldn't comprehend why. "A country without a people is of no use at all. In short, that means that a country is its people. The same can be said of uniting this continent. It's only possible if the people will come along with me. If they won't, then even if I emerge victorious, things will crumble in no time." Still, his doubts were not dispelled. Valdesca tried asking another question. "What does that have to do with the people of vanquished nations? They are not your people, so why do their opinions matter? I would think a true king is one who looks after his own country's troops." "Well, in general, you're probably right. However, my actions weren't for the people of our country who died." "Huh?" Valdesca's brow furrowed as he failed to understand. Whenever he couldn't understand something, he rammed his head into a solid object. But he couldn't do it now, and that only frustrated him more. "The people inside the cities were all dead, but there was no time for them to have exterminated all of the outlying villages. Those people were out in the mountains, hiding. When the war ended, they would come back out again. If we didn't bury the corpses, those people were going to see something terrible. There's a world of difference between hearing there was a massacre and seeing it for yourself. If the people saw, they would all think, 'Rozern is a garbage nation that couldn't protect us.'" "Given you were in foreign land, isn't it fine for that sort of turmoil to happen? Especially if they are going to think it was Runan that prevented them from feeling that way." "That all depends on the circumstances. I didn't need to improve their opinion of the Runan Kingdom. No, not of the Runan Kingdom." Huh? In that instant, Valdesca felt as though he'd been struck by lightning. "The survivors of Rozern would go on living in that land. Because Rozern itself was not destroyed. There's no need for people who will go on living to carry such a deep emotional scar. The things they'd feel seeing the bodies scattered around aren't conducive to the country's development. As someone who talks of uniting the continent, shouldn't I always be considering how to make Rozern's people my own?" What they'd feel when they saw the bodies? "And the reason I am letting you go, despite your memories fully returning, is that, someday, you might join me. If you and I work together, there's no way we could ever lose, right?" Valdesca was momentarily speechless. It was like he'd suddenly been punched. This was the second time in this conversation that he felt like he'd been smashed in the back of the head. The entire core of this conversation had never been about the people, or anything like that. Erhin had been using the conversation to extract the questions Valdesca wanted to ask. It made Valdesca want to laugh and to cry at the same time. He had the boldness it took to try and poach the Frann Valdesca? In spite of Naruya being intact, and their king still being alive and well? Yet, surprisingly, a seed of curiosity was budding in Valdesca. He could try to suppress it all he wanted, but it was no use. The king he served, or this man? Who would be the true hegemon? That was the question that inspired the powerful curiosity welling up inside him. There had been many rulers in history who cared for the people. But would that bring about the unification of the continent? Valdesca didn't think so. There were times when mercy could be the greatest weakness. If the argument was about unifying the continent, that is. This man, however, was the opposite. The Erhin Eintorian he'd seen was not simply a lord who cared for the people. He was a person who manipulated them from the shadows, bending them to his will. In short, he was a man who controlled public opinion. That had been visible in the strategy he employed against the Gebel Kingdom here too. It was what made him horrifying, and yet it was also what made him great. "I already have a master, one who I also believe is fit to be a sovereign. I definitely want to settle things with you. Even if I have already lost three times." In the First Runan War, in the massive defeat at the Eintorian Domain, and lastly...in this conversation. Yes, Valdesca felt this conversation had also been a defeat for him. As such, he had now lost three times. After all of that, he wanted to win at least once, all the more because his opponent was so strong. * I had gained some things, and lost others. Well, no, Valdesca was never mine to begin with, so maybe "lost" isn't the right word. He couldn't be mine right now. It hurt to let him go, but this was all laying the groundwork for my later moves, so I just had to hope it had some small effect. Setting aside the bitter feelings, I hired Heina and Erheet, and brought them back to Brinhill along with the soldiers and people of South Runan. With their numbers added to our own, the population grew again. We now totaled two million and twenty thousand people, with a total manpower of eighty-two thousand. I hadn't drafted people yet, so there was still room in my recruitment cap for more. Although there was room to raise my manpower just a little more, I didn't act on it immediately because developing the farmland was a slightly higher priority. More active farmland led directly to more provisions and more funding for the nation. The Opinion score of the newly arrived South Runanese people was actually higher than the average value across all of my territories. That in turn raised the overall Opinion to 88. With the fall of South Runan, there was nothing left to fetter my founding of a nation. I was now within sight of casting off this ambiguous position as an amalgamation of different domains and forming them into a single nation. "Serena." "Yes, Lord Erhin!" I summoned Serena before doing so. I wanted to learn my retainers' views. I couldn't imagine any of them would oppose it, but if anyone had a different opinion, then that was something I ought to know about. She had only just joined me as a vassal, and had not been entrusted with any post yet. For that very reason, she could ask questions without it affecting anyone's interests. Either way, everyone was going to be a member of the nobility soon, but there was still some lingering discomfort. Her high Charisma would help get positive answers out of people. "I have something to ask of you." "Sure! Whatever it is, I will give my life for it!" "Uh, you don't need to give your life..." Serena pressed her hands together with a beaming smile. I actually backed away a little seeing how gung ho she was. * I needed to ask those who became my retainers first. Since all of them were going to become nobles of the newly founded nation anyway, I thought Serena would be the fairest judge. First, she met with Hadin. After hearing from him that of course I should become a king, Serena moved on to Bente. When he was alone with her, Bente couldn't even look Serena in the eye. His gaze wandered. His face reddened. Bente was uncharacteristically unsure what to do. "It's the first time we've talked alone, isn't it?" "Yes? Yes, yes!" Bente answered three times, then scratched his head, his fingers naturally digging into the back of his scalp. His eyes were still focused on the table, not Serena's face. Charmed by her beauty, Bente only stole furtive glances at her face. He'd lost his wits too much to look at her directly. There was no distrust there. He was purely overwhelmed. "I've called you in here to ask one question." Serena cut to the chase. "Huh, what is it? I'll answer all the questions you want. Hah hah hah!" "What do you think of Lord Erhin becoming a king? Are you prepared to serve him as if he were Heaven itself? A king and the will of Heaven are one and the same, after all." Bente just blinked at this question. He fidgeted around as he was suddenly hit with a topic of such grand scale, but his answer was already set. It wasn't long before Bente opened his mouth. "I know I'm a moron. But there's one thing that never changes. Ever since His Excellency saw something in me, and gave me an important position, he'd be the only one I'd ever serve. Even if he goes from being an Excellency to being a Highness or a Majesty, that will always stay the same!" "Is that right?" Bente nodded firmly. Serena smiled. Then she thought for a moment. Erhin had told her she didn't have to put on fake smiles anymore. But no, this smile now, it wasn't fake. He really was like the protagonist of the stories her father had told her. After parting with Bente, Serena's next meeting was with Yusen. He was the most important person she knew of, and had many accomplishments. He was also someone she respected. "I'm sorry to come calling so suddenly." "Don't be... But more importantly, my condolences on what happened in Luaranz." Serena could sense those words weren't just for show. He genuinely felt sorry for her. Grateful for his concern, she hurriedly shook her head. "Thank you. But I've already forgotten it. I'll be fine." "Really?" "I'm here to discuss something more important with you today. I believe that Lord Erhin should become a king... What are your thoughts, Lord Yusen?" "That would be the natural flow of things. His Excellency once said he would make our country the best. And that he'd make those who came with them the best too. After hearing that, I've followed him all this way. In accordance with his will, I've striven to be my best, and to make the men who serve under me their best too." "Did he say something like that?" Yusen smiled and nodded. Then, briefly, he added, "So there's only one answer for me." "And for me," chimed in Gibun, who was with him too. Serena smiled again. Yes, she really was happy. Erhin had told her not to put on a false smile, but it had never been necessary since coming to Eintorian. The smiles welled up naturally from her own heart. Unlike the fake life she'd led in Luaranz, there was a reason for her glee. Just as he had inspired respect in her, so too had he earned the respect of his subordinates. Her idol was everyone's idol. Next, Serena went to see Jint. No, she was looking for him, but turned to head back. In her mind, Jint wasn't the sort of man who needed to hear any more words. Still, in order to carry out her mission, she decided it was better to meet with Mirinae instead. "Serena!" Mirinae exclaimed and rushed over to her. "Sorry to drop in on you so suddenly, Mirinae. You must be busy, right?" Mirinae had a number of books open as she agonized over some problem. "Not at all. Come over—whoa!" A mound of books collapsed, scattering all over. There was no place left to stand. "Heh heh, sorry... Looks like over here's not going to work. Let's head over there instead." Scratching her head awkwardly, Mirinae took Serena by the hand and led her outside. There was a bench out there. "So, what is it?" "What do you think of Lord Erhin becoming a king?" Serena cut straight to the chase. "Uh...?" Mirinae cocked her head slightly. "I don't know about that kind of thing, Serena. But if Lord Erhin told Jint to die, he'd die. Hee hee!" Though Mirinae chuckled as she said that, there was a sincerity in her eyes. Serena concluded that she need ask no more. Next, she visited Fihatori. "I've been thinking about it for some time. I was considering when to bring the idea to him, but with South Runan having been destroyed, I think now is the time." "Is that right?" He'd already been planning it out. "Our forces are prepared, and His Excellency was meant to be a king. If he isn't fit to be one, then who else on the continent can claim to be?" Fihatori had been thinking about this from the time that he left Ronan's camp to come and swear loyalty to Erhin. What's more, because Erhin was a lineal descendant of the ancient Eintorians, his restoration of the Ancient Kingdom had major legitimacy. That was a vast difference from Ronan, who'd never had any such justification for founding his own nation. "Oh, and..." Fihatori went on expounding on the theories of statecraft. He was just so serious about it all that, this time, Serena couldn't crack a smile at it. He'd go on all night if she let him. Excusing herself, she escaped, and next, she went to see Erheet. "Hah hah hah hah hah hah hah! It's a matter of course that he will. Don't ask pointless questions. I already knew he would when I swore my loyalty to him." "I-I see." Erheet was exceedingly jovial. As she had expected, no one objected. No one even showed the slightest hesitance about it. However, there was someone she wasn't able to meet until the very end. Despite seeing everyone else, even Heina and Voltaire, one person remained: Euracia. Eventually, the two had to run into each other, so Serena steeled herself for the encounter and started walking. The two of them both lived in the royal palace, and both in the outer palace at that. They were a stone's throw apart from one another, and yet she was the hardest to visit. Serena steadied her breathing as she returned to the outer palace. Once there, she approached the door to Euracia's room. Knock, knock. The door opened immediately. "Oh, hello!" As Euracia appeared before her eyes, Serena immediately bowed her head. Euracia just stared at Serena. Not only did Serena's high Charisma score not help her out here, but it was also actively harmful. In short, her skill for making conversations go smoothly was of absolutely no help in this situation. "Right," Euracia responded, impassive as ever. Each looked into the other's eyes. Neither seemed about to look away. In that instant, Serena forgot her mission. She couldn't look away once they'd locked eyes. Feeling as if she'd already lost that first exchange, she wasn't about to lose this battle of wills too. For her part, Euracia kept on staring at Serena too. Silence descended and time seemed to stand still as the two continued facing off. "Hey, stop that!" That's when Erhin stepped in. "No, I guess you've both already stopped." Incredibly, even after his appearance, the two didn't look away. Each just kept stubbornly staring into the other's eyes. In the territory of the Herald Kingdom, King Cassia of Naruya had led his forces to occupy all the castles on the western half of the kingdom, and was a stone's throw from Quabi Castle, which was on the road to the capital. Answering his summons, Frann Valdesca knelt before King Cassia. "Your Majesty, I will gladly accept any punishment!" Valdesca prostrated himself with a look of agony on his face. "Erhin Eintorian, was it? Was he that strong? I don't understand it. How is it that Frann Valdesca, the greatest genius since the founding of our country, returns to me in such a miserable state?" "There is no excuse I could possibly make for it!" Hearing Valdesca's response, Cassia appeared completely emotionless. "Dying would be easy. But how would that atone for your sins? Atone for them while you live, and then die. Do I make myself understood? I hereby strip you of the rank of duke! If you die after having atoned for your sins, I'll restore your title. You must redeem yourself not only for my sake, but for the House of Valdesca as well." Without a title, he was essentially no longer a noble at all. To take the title from the House of Valdesca also meant stripping all the retainers who served under them of their titles as well. But Valdesca couldn't speak back to his king. All he could do was grind his teeth at the words, "Live and atone for your sins." Yes, that was right. Even if he was going to die, it should be after he'd won once. "Valdesca, prove your strength. If you cannot prove to me that you are a commander who will not take a defeat lying down, then at least die on the battlefield. That is what it means to be a man," Cassia declared, his eyes a conspicuous golden color. * Two days after I had sent Serena to gather everyone's opinions on the matter, as I was patrolling the streets of Brinhill, all of my retainers converged on me. Hadin, Bente, Yusen, Gibun, Fihatori, Euracia, Serena, Jint, Mirinae, Shanes, Erheet, Voltaire, Heina, Damon, and all of their retainers were all there. They formed a line and bowed down before me. Once they had, Fihatori spoke on the group's behalf. "Your Excellency, the time has come at last. Will you become king of Eintorian and lead us forward?" Once Fihatori shouted this, the other commanders raised their voices to say the same, creating an exciting scene. It was as if they were all chanting it. Of course, this was just what I wanted to see. But still, did they have to come at me with it in the middle of town? "Please, be our king!" As all my retainers shouted that once again, the common people began gathering around. They were driven by curiosity at first, but as my retainers kept shouting, they joined in the chant. In no time, word spread, and even more people gathered. I glanced at Fihatori. This was probably why they'd gathered here on the street. He must have forcefully rounded everyone up. Still, he was confident that if they called for it in a town like this, the people would join in. I was confident of it too, of course. With an Opinion of 88, the people in the game would offer you high praise. "Your Majesty!" The people started calling me "Your Majesty" as if I'd already ascended the throne. Obviously, I wasn't going to let this scene drag on. Now it was time for founding a nation. It was absolutely essential to have a country of my own if I was going to unite the continent. In short, now I was finally at the start. With my own faction and a nation of my own, I could jump into the game. Because everything was beginning here and now. That's the kind of game this is. Everything before now was a preliminary match to decide if I could participate or not. Because this was a game where you could only win by having your country fight other countries in order to unite the entire continent. Given the situation, there was no need for me to make a show of initially refusing. With everyone gathered like this, it was the perfect time to make an announcement. Still, I was a little too embarrassed to just say, "I hereby declare the founding of a nation!" right here. Instead, I declared, "I'll do as you all say!" and moved along to the palace. Brinhill became the capital. It might move somewhere else in the future, but in our current circumstances, Brinhill was the only place that was a good fit. The name of the country was also Eintorian, of course. It was the name of a country that no longer existed, but was still carved into the hearts of people everywhere. With the country's name and capital decided, I ordered a formal assembly of the people. With all of my retainers in attendance too, of course. The crest of Eintorian and its blue banners went up all around Brinhill. It was a color we shared in common with Runan. Because many of the new country's people were of Runanese origin, it was the perfect symbol that we were a successor to the spirit of that nation. I looked down at the masses from atop the largest gate in the capital, above which flew an especially large banner. I closed my eyes for a moment, then opened them once more. This was my first step toward mastery over the continent. It all starts now! As I appeared, a hush fell over the crowd. Their eyes all turned toward me. They were waiting for my announcement. After some time, I got my voice under control and shouted out, "As you all know, Runan has fallen. Without a country of our own, all of the people who lived in this land may be subject to persecution by other nations. In order to live not as slaves, but as masters, I hereby proclaim the founding of a nation. I will create a country that always strives to do the best for its people. Any country that would cast you all aside deserves to no longer exist! Now that I have taken the throne, declaring the return of the Ancient Kingdom, I am going to rise up for all of you who stand here before me!" I issued the founding declaration to an audience of two million and twenty thousand people. Obviously, not all of them were here right now. My words would be carried to people who were currently far away. My speech concluded, and there was instant applause. "Woooooo!" The great cheer spread backward like a wave through the crowd. Unlike in the game, when I saw a scene like this unfolding before my eyes, there was a genuine sense of excitement. I'm really a king now. Okay, yes, it's a game, but it's also reality. So does that mean I'm a real king? Having issued the declaration as the feeling that any of this was real slipped away, my words would likely spread across the continent. Some would mock me. Others would dream of revenge. There might be an immediate war over it. Ultimately, I'm going to triumph over all of that, and beat this game.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-04-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/copyright.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 Copyright Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 4 by Waruiotoko Translated by Sean McCann Edited by Ori Starling This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Copyright © Waruiotoko 2022 Illustrations by raken First published in Japan in 2022 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property. J-Novel Club LLC j-novel.club The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Ebook edition 1.0: January 2024 Premium E-Book for
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Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/afterword.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Afterword Thank you for buying the fifth volume of Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up! This is the author, Waruiotoko. There was a bit of a gap in releases after the fourth volume, and I'm very sorry to all of the readers who I've kept waiting. Still, I'm really glad that I was able to get this volume published. Now then, as of this volume, Erhin's nation, the New Eintorian Kingdom, is up and running! The plan from here on out centers around a white-knuckle battle of great nation vs. great nation. The story has gotten a bit more complicated, but because of that, I think I'll be able to fill it with lots of interesting stuff! What's more, Medelian's suddenly shot to the front of the heroine race! I'm sure the illustrations will show everyone how cute she is. I couldn't be more grateful to raken for drawing them. If the serious and loyal Euracia is a dog-type heroine, then the capricious and clingy Medelian is a cat-type heroine. Of course, Serena won't be taking this lying down. The romantic developments around Erhin are going to pick up even more in the next volume! I really want you to look forward to it! Also, the manga adaptation in Gangan Online and Manga UP is going strong too! Euracia's finally shown up in that version. Seeing her back at the point where she mistakes Erhin for a villainous lord is a bit of a trip down memory lane. The first collected volume of the manga is available now, so please support both the manga and the original work if you'd like! Now then, everyone. The threat of the coronavirus has yet to pass, and things are only getting worse out there in the real world. But even so, I want to do my best precisely because of the trying times we live in. See you in the next volume! Waruiotoko
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chaper1_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Who was the most suitable? Ultimately, I wasn't able to choose a second-in-command that day, and I decided to focus on just enjoying the banquet. The day after, I called Serena in to talk about it again. However... "You don't know who to suggest either?" I asked. "I don't... I only lived in the domain when I was a little girl. After that, I went to the capital with my father. He spoke of his men from time to time, of course, and I've met them on occasion, but there's a lot I don't know when it comes to their level of ability and their personalities." "Hmm... Well, we can take advantage of that lack of familiarity. I'm sure a lot of these guys will want to be second-in-command of the fleet. I'll spread a rumor that says you're giving me a recommendation for the position. The gossip will suggest that the man you push is the one I'll choose." "Me?" I explained the reason to her. A week after spreading the rumor, I called Serena again. She came to me in tears. "Your Majesty! It's awful... The retainers all keep following me around, and some even begged me to choose them. And those weren't even the worst of them! Some sold family heirlooms so they could pay bribes to me! I don't know what's gotten into them...!" Serena shook her head in dismay. However, this was the entire point of the rumor. I wouldn't be giving the post to guys like that. "Was there anyone who didn't say anything?" "Just one... Viscount Hoffman." "Huh. You mean the man who attended the banquet and then just sat in the corner looking like he didn't want to be there?" "Yes, that's him." "Where is he now?" "He should be at the port. He's often there helping with the expansion." "Okay, I guess I'll go meet him in person. I'm curious about what had him looking like that." And so, Serena and I visited Hoffman together. I asked one of the soldiers at the port to call him for me, but for some reason, the soldier came back by himself. When Serena asked why, the man got very quiet. "His Majesty came in person to see him, so...where is he?" she asked. "Well, you see... He's on a ship." "What about that is preventing him from responding to a summons? Go call him again!" "Ah, no, it's fine," I interjected. "There's no point in waiting. I'll try going to him." By now, I was really curious, so Serena and I made our way toward one of the ships that was docked in port. Hoffman was there, naked from the waist up and fully absorbed in what he was doing. "Is that task more important than meeting me?" "Y-Your Majesty!" When I called out to him from behind, Hoffman jumped up into the air and turned to face me. He then started to grovel. "I'm sorry I couldn't respond to your summons!" It looked like he recognized me as king, at least. I'd thought that maybe, since he'd come from Luaranz, he was dissatisfied with the idea of me being king, but apparently not. "I would have liked to come to you immediately, but I simply couldn't step away!" I looked down at his hands and saw that he seemed to be carrying a set of tools used to repair ships. "I will gladly accept whatever punishment you feel is appropriate for disobeying orders!" he continued. "But please, let it wait until I've fully repaired this ship. I cannot leave the ship I was entrusted by Your Majesty in this incomplete state! Especially when the soldiers here are so ignorant of how to care for her! If they try to work on her themselves, they're likely to ruin her, not fix her... Oh, no, I've said too much. Please, forgive me." "I'm not here to punish you, so keep on working. I just wanted to come see your work for myself." He had taken this job and was fully prepared to lay down his life for it, so there was no way that he could bring himself to stop. Especially not when the job had come from me. "O-Oh, I see. I'll get back to work, then. Also, about the banquet the other day... I just wanted to say that if you call me to events like that, it means I have less time to work on this ship." "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Then when I have further instructions for you, I'll come here." "I couldn't ask you to do that! But if you're offering, I suppose it would make it easier to explain things about the ship..." I couldn't help but laugh at the way Hoffman trailed off, mumbling to himself. Despite his viscount title, he might've been more of a shipwright. "That's enough. You can get back to work now." With that said, I disembarked. If there was one descriptor that he made me think of, it was "single-minded." That night, his work done, Hoffman returned home. The first thing out of his wife's mouth was, "Listen here, you! I'm told His Majesty came to see you, but you ignored him to focus on your work. Is that true?" "How did you know?" "Haah, how did I know...? You're hopeless." Hoffman's wife slapped him on the back. "People are falling over themselves to lick his boots right now, so what in the world do you think you're doing, obsessing over your job like this?" "What, would you rather I let the ship sink?" Hoffman asked earnestly, shaking his head. His wife slumped to the floor. "We're finished... Finished. Even if he didn't punish you then and there, he could still have you beheaded later! And even if it doesn't come to that, you could be demoted. How will we live then? Ooh... The Dofrey Domain was destroyed...and now we could lose everything after coming here!" "Well..." There wasn't anything Hoffman could say in response. The words just didn't come to him. He was this way by nature—earnestly focused on his own work. He was an awkward man, but one highly regarded for his work ethic. He didn't know how to butter people up, so he'd often been disliked by his superiors in the armed forces of Luaranz. "Is that really what will happen? His Majesty had an odd look on his face." "Haah, have you finally realized the mess we're in?" Hoffman's wife shook her head. "Ah, it'll work out somehow! Always has before now." "It's never worked out before! I hear that everyone else has been to see Lady Serena already! They say she'll be choosing the second-in-command of the fleet, and everyone lost their minds trying to get her recommendation... Yet here you are, not kissing up to her, and on top of that, ignoring royal commands!" As Hoffman stared at his wife, not sure what he could say in response, there was a knock at the door. They exchanged looks of surprise. They knew all too well why someone might be calling on them. "Are you home? I've come with a message from His Majesty." Hearing the voice outside, they both went pale, thinking the inevitable was upon their doorstep. "Aah... So this is what it's come to," moaned Hoffman's wife. "What are you doing? Hurry up and run! You may not be much, but you're still my husband. I don't want to have to watch you die. I'll check whether they're here for your head or just to dismiss you from your post!" "Hey, who are you telling to run?! I've fixed all of the ships I was entrusted with, so if it's time for me to die, then so be it!" Hoffman's wife wouldn't hear of it. "How am I supposed to live on without you? You're going to let yourself die just because I gave you an earful over it? Don't be silly..." As they were arguing, the door opened. They were still grappling with one another as they looked outside. "Mr. Hoffman?" It was Gram. Celly was standing beside him. The husband and wife had been expecting a soldier, and they didn't know what to make of the pair on their doorstep. "That's me... Who're you?" Hoffman managed to say. "I'm a scholar by the name of Gram," he said with a smile. "His Majesty told me about you. I'm informed that you have a knowledge of fleet tactics." "Huh? What's the matter, you two?" Celly cocked her head to the side, staring oddly at the way Hoffman and his wife were holding each other. The couple matched her stare with expressions of utter confusion. * "You met with all the candidates?" "Yes, Your Majesty." I'd asked Gram to interview all of the potential second-in-commands of the fleet. The goal was to have him evaluate how much they knew about fleet tactics. During his time in the Runan Kingdom, Gram had compiled a record of all the tactics used in the key fleet battles that had occurred in the past. He was the most versed in the theory, which made a conversation with him an accurate way to gauge their abilities. "They're all veterans who've seen actual combat, so they had a lot more practical knowledge than a mere theorist like myself." "So they have a high-average level of ability. Did anyone stand out to you?" "If I'm being frank...no one stood head and shoulders above the rest. Not as far as I could see, at least." This was probably an accurate assessment. They all had similar ability scores, so naturally, their knowledge and depth of experience weren't that different either. There was no brilliant commander readily apparent, and yet I still needed to pick somebody I could entrust the fleet to. This was a headache all on its own. But if their stats and general impressions were more or less the same, I figured I should go with my gut and pick Hoffman for the time being. If nothing else, I could see that he was the most committed to his duties, and he certainly had a strong attachment to the fleet. I was especially pleased that he hadn't resorted to bribery. There was basically no chance that he'd betray me out of a desire for money or ambition. As such, I made Hoffman second-in-command. The grand fleet was now his to control. * In a gloomy forest... "Why are there so many trees here?! It makes it hard to walk! Swegg! Rollins!" Medelian Valdesca complained loudly and used the two swords hovering in the air to cut down any tree that blocked her path. But the forest still stretched on in front of her. "Aaaaaagh! I can't take any more of this. What is this place?! Where even am I?!" Why was she all alone in a place like this? Well, it had to do with her being hopelessly lost. She'd headed in the rough direction she thought she should be going, and had trotted off into the forest, only to get to the point where she couldn't even find her way back to where she'd come from. However, her pride refused to admit it, and this hubris was leading her to tread yet deeper into the woods. Craaaaaash!
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Chapter 1: Beginning of the Kingdom It had been about a week since I'd announced the founding of the New Eintorian Kingdom, and I was now stressing over something very important: what statuses, positions, and ranks should I give to my subordinates? Their treatment and job titles couldn't remain the same. Up until now, they'd all either had no noble titles or been provisionally continuing to use whatever title they'd had under the Runan Kingdom. However, now that I had become king, my retainers couldn't just remain as they'd been. At the same time, I couldn't make everyone a duke. I had founded the kingdom, but that wasn't the finish line. I needed to keep on expanding it. And to do that, just fighting wars wasn't going to be enough. I needed to pay attention to internal politics as well. The subordinates who had followed me all this time possessed loyalty beyond question, but having a clear goal in the form of titles would help motivate them. Maybe it would be fairest to have them all start on even footing as counts? Sure, I'll make all of them landless counts. I also need a second-in-command who can unite all of my key retainers. Erheet fit the bill perfectly. If I were looking strictly at ability scores, then Fihatori would've also been a candidate. He likely had a greater aptitude for domestic politics than Erheet did. But he was still young. Erheet was the only one among my retainers whom the others would recognize without question. They wouldn't follow someone who lacked his level of accumulated experience and achievements. In that case, Erheet can be a duke. That'll make him the only person in the New Eintorian Kingdom with the title of duke, but he'll be one in name only for a while longer. Normally, dukes were really high-ranking nobles with domains of their own and counts as their retainers, but I didn't have a large enough domain to start handing out territory to my retainers just yet. For now, the title would have to remain honorary. Obviously, once the country expanded, they'd all get their own domains. We were going to keep on gobbling up more and more land. That was the only way to clear the game, so it needed to be done. The only one I couldn't give a title to was Euracia. Although she had been following me since the fall of the Runan Kingdom, she was still a princess of Rozern. If I gave her a title when Rozern still hadn't fallen, they'd think I was treating them like a vassal state, and it would cause a diplomatic incident. In the time of the Ancient Eintorian Kingdom, the Rozerns had been a ducal house. So, from a historical perspective, you could say she was already a duchess of my kingdom. Regardless, at the present juncture, I couldn't just go around openly calling her one of my vassals. I also couldn't give Gram or Celly titles. They simply hadn't accomplished anything. Not yet, at least. With all of that said, I had made up my mind about title assignments for the retainers of the New Eintorian Kingdom. The next thing to settle on was what jobs to give them. Currently, the New Eintorian Kingdom had three domains, including the royal capital Brinhill. But because we had taken in refugees, our population had outgrown our land, so I planned to expand into the vacant territory to the east soon. Yes, into the lands of the former Brijit Kingdom, which I had destroyed. Because this land currently belonged to no one, I could just send someone with an army to claim it once things settled down. In addition to the issue of overpopulation within the kingdom, there was a mountain of other things to take care of. These included mitigating a food shortage, developing our farmland, and improving our finances. I'll give each of my retainers a job to help tackle all of the problems we're now facing. I opened up the system. You are now the king of a nation. Congratulations. Kingdom Mode has been added. A strange message popped up. This one had never appeared in the game. No, maybe it came up during my fourth playthrough...? I had recently started to notice that my memories of clearing the game back in the real world weren't perfect. The gameplay experience just wasn't in my mind anymore. It was like someone had put a lid on my memory, and recalling anything from back then was like searching through written records. Looks like this Kingdom Mode is one of those things I forgot. Anyway, I tried opening up Kingdom Mode in the system. The change was immediately apparent. The ability scores I'd been seeing for everyone up until this point were now broken down into more detail, and this mode also added new entries. Politics and Charisma. These were clearly stats for internal politics. Up until now, I'd only been able to estimate Politics using Intelligence, and Charisma using Command. However, now that these values were visible, I could make more accurate decisions about aptitude when assigning positions to my people. Currently, the stat I was most interested in exploring was Euracia's Charisma score. She had a Command score of 97 with the treasure bracelet Rinkitsu equipped. However, this was an item that raised her Charisma, not Command directly. That meant her Charisma score had to be over 97. Euracia Charisma: 99(+2) Knew it. Euracia's got a score of 101, putting her in S-class. In her case, that high Charisma paired with her high Martial was what gave her a high Command score. Anyway, I'll look over all of this later. I need to find out what else Kingdom Mode can do. With that thought in mind, I looked through the system until I came across another entry that caught my attention. It was a mode called Manipulate Information. I pushed the button, and a message appeared. Will you send a Spy to Manipulate Information in an enemy Castle? This definitely existed in the game too. Since it hadn't come up before now, I'd just assumed it had been removed, but apparently, it was exclusive to Kingdom Mode. Manipulate Information could be used to spread misinformation in the enemy castle. This fake intel could lower Morale or influence the enemy lord to act in a desired manner. The Intel skill is required to use Manipulate Information. Intel is a skill that can be gained by building an education center. Building an education center requires the Education skill. Why's it so complicated? In the game, I could just leave it to a character who was good at being sneaky. Here in reality, Intel was a specialized skill that only literal spies had any use for. To raise those spies, I needed an education center. And of course, before the center could operate, it needed to be staffed with someone who could educate people. I can build the education center, but do I have anybody who can run it? I wanted the facility up and operational as soon as possible. Manipulate Information was a fairly powerful skill, and because of that, it had been hard to use, even in the game. No doubt it would be even tougher in reality. But the Intel skill was incredibly useful in and of itself. It wasn't only used for Manipulate Information. Intel could also be used to send agents into another country and gather information. And the more spies I had access to, the more information I could gather. Since I was going to continue launching wars of conquest, the ability to learn what was going on in enemy territory would be incredibly important. Just for testing purposes, I think I'll take a look at Brinhill's domain information. Brinhill Population: 1,220,000 Opinion: 99 Manpower: 52,000 For starters, there's the basic information. Now, if I look at the details for Manpower, it should show information on Morale and Training. This was all info I'd had access to before Kingdom Mode, but now, I could see more detailed info too. Brinhill Castle Walls Wall Endurance: 91 East Gate Endurance: 88 West Gate Endurance: 82 South Gate Endurance: 98 North Gate Endurance: 90 It even gave me stuff like this. In war, this was the most important, core type of information, but obviously, the system wasn't going to display this much detail for the domains in other countries. I'd have to go to those places if I wanted to check that information. Still, if I raised spies at the education center and sent them to infiltrate enemy territory, the system would let me learn these things from a distance. And the ranks of the spies I raised in the education center would change the depth of information they could gather. If the spy had a B-rank Intel skill, they would only be able to gather basic information. However, the higher their rank, the more important the information they could gain access to. I'd definitely have to focus on educating them. And if I raise spies, I'll be able to use Manipulate Information. Manipulate Information could lower Opinion. In hostile countries where the lord was unpopular and Opinion was already low, a little manipulation could really tank an enemy's Opinion score. And when Opinion dropped below 10, it would cause an uprising like the one I'd experienced in Luaranz. It would be incredibly easy to occupy a domain after that. On the other hand, if the spy's rank was low, or if there was someone with a high Intelligence score on the other side, Manipulate Information's success rate fell. Furthermore, whether they used Intel or Manipulate Information, there was an increased risk of discovery with a low-rank spy. That was why I wanted to set up a system for raising high-rank spies as soon as possible. In order to use the system effectively, I needed to assign the right personnel to the right places. To do that, I pulled up the full status list for all of them. Hadin Meruya: Martial 60/Intelligence 57/Command 70 + Politics 75 + Charisma 65 Bente: Martial 49/Intelligence 38/Command 82 + Politics 21 + Charisma 52 Jint: Martial 93(+2)/Intelligence 41/Command 52 + Politics 2 + Charisma 61 Yusen: Martial 82/Intelligence 60/Command 90(+2) + Politics 71 + Charisma 88 Gibun: Martial 70/Intelligence 34/Command 76 + Politics 14 + Charisma 67 Mirinae: Martial 5/Intelligence 74/Command 10 + Politics 56 + Charisma 80 Euracia Rozern: Martial 87(+3)/Intelligence 57/Command 95(+2) + Politics 42 + Charisma 99(+2) Erheet Demacine: Martial 96/Intelligence 70/Command 92 + Politics 54 + Charisma 90 Fihatori Delhina: Martial 81/Intelligence 85/Command 89 + Politics 94 + Charisma 85 Ganid Voltaire: Martial 30/Intelligence 60/Command 61 + Politics 43 + Charisma 55 Bertalman: Martial 80/Intelligence 50/Command 78 + Politics 43 + Charisma 45 Serena Dofrey: Martial 2/Intelligence 77/Command 72 + Politics 89 + Charisma 95 Gram: Martial 45/Intelligence 81/Command 70 + Politics 95 + Charisma 75 Celly: Martial 11/Intelligence 62/Command 50 + Politics 75 + Charisma 76 Vintora: Martial 23/Intelligence 68/Command 88 + Politics 87 + Charisma 81 Heina Berhin: Martial 60/Intelligence 81/Command 55 + Politics 76 + Charisma 68 I looked over all of them. Their Politics and Charisma scores, which I had needed to use Command to estimate before now, were about what I expected them to be. For example, Jint only has a 2 in Politics. It sounds obvious now that I say it, but that really fits him to a T. Erheet was popular, so his Charisma was high, but his Politics wasn't that impressive. That was probably because he was such an honest man, both for better and for worse. He wasn't made for politicking. Meanwhile, the practical Fihatori, who'd betrayed Ronan, had a high Politics score, which was just as I'd expected. Well, Fihatori was solid across the board. There was a high probability that he would be one of the most important people in the Eintorian Kingdom in the future. Serena secretly had a pretty high Politics score too... Okay, maybe not so secretly? After all, she was using her political marriage to maintain the balance of power between the different factions in Luaranz. Gram really was specialized for internal affairs. That was clear just looking at the numbers. In that case, he might be a good pick for the education center. He'd already been recognized for his ability as a scholar in the Runan Kingdom, and this showed in his Intelligence and Politics scores. Of course, his Education skill must have been high too. From what Erheet had told me, Gram was a master of many practical subjects, including military science and agriculture. He wouldn't just be useful in intelligence gathering, but also in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and any number of other areas. But for now, I wanted his Intel. So, I decided to call in Gram. * "You called, Your Majesty?!" "How's Brinhill been suiting you?" "I'm grateful that you've loaned me a place that's even larger than what I had in Runan! And my daughter...is happy too." Gram had started out so cheerful, but his expression darkened a little when he mentioned Celly. Well, that was to be expected. She was depressed over the sudden departure of Valdesca and constantly sighing. I always knew she must've had a crush on him. That's a private matter, though, so there's not much I can do about it. "Don't let it worry you too much," I told him. "She'll calm down soon enough." "You...were aware of it, then, sire?" "Vaguely. She was always hanging around Valdesca, after all." "O-Oh, I see. I don't know what to say. To think she'd be in love with an enemy." Gram hung his head, looking depressed. "Let's not dwell on the matter. I've called you in today for something more important. I have a job for you." "Do you really? I was just starting to feel bad about fooling around all the time," he said jokingly, his expression brightening just a little. "I, Gram, will humbly endeavor to do my best! Now, what sort of work did you have in mind for me?" "I was thinking of building an education center." "An education center?" "Not just any education center. An academy for intelligence operatives. In a time of turbulence like this, information is the most important asset, wouldn't you agree?" "Well put!" Gram nodded repeatedly. "Information is the foundation of warfare. It's no exaggeration to say that the fight's only begun once you know the enemy inside and out!" "I've heard you're versed in military science. How are you at this aspect of it?" "I can't claim that it's one of my specialties, but with some time to research, I'm confident I can achieve the results you're hoping for!" "It's in your hands, then. And of course, I'll offer you all the support you need, both in terms of finances and personnel." "Do you really mean it?! I-If you'll do that, then I'll definitely get you results! I swear on my life!" Gram was exceedingly pleased with his new job. * So, on that note, Gram was put in charge of Intel. His job title would be something like "first director of the education center." I'd be putting him to work training people, not only in Intel but in all types of abilities. The next problem to solve is agriculture. Mirinae was already doing research, but since she was working on the project all by herself, things hadn't improved all that much. Even though she was a former farmer, it wasn't like she had a wealth of specialist knowledge. She also lacked experience with actually conducting research, so there were limits to how far Intelligence could take her on its own. Come to think of it, I could use Kingdom Mode to view the Agriculture values for the country as a whole and each of its domains. New Eintorian Kingdom Agriculture: 55 Agriculture was tied to provisions, so it was every bit as important as Intel. As such, I needed to assign some more personnel to the task. If I could raise our Agriculture score, then next year's harvest would be larger, even if we used the same fields. Honestly, if our score didn't increase by then, it would probably put pressure on both our food stores and our finances. The one-year tax exemption period was coming to a close, but I couldn't just suddenly hike taxes at year's end. Even if I did, without sales or a harvest, there would be nothing to take from the people. First, I needed to increase the harvest and help the people achieve a stable lifestyle. This would also give the kingdom a wealth of provisions. Mirinae was on good terms with Euracia, so I was having the latter help out with research, but...frankly, Euracia wasn't cut out for it. Her abilities were more attuned to war, which was the furthest thing from farming. Besides, she was a princess. She'd probably never tilled a field in her life. If I wanted results, I'd be better off choosing Vintora instead. In fact, he was just the man for the job. As the former mayor of the largest village outside Luaranz's capital, he was a specialist among specialists when it came to managing farmland. He was also highly regarded, so I could expect him to be able to communicate well with the farmers. That's why I chose Vintora as Mirinae's partner. Euracia seemed a little dissatisfied when I broke the news, but when I looked behind her, I could see that Mirinae looked a little relieved. She must have been through troubles I couldn't possibly imagine... After that, I called in Serena. I had something for her to do too. "Serena, I wanted to talk to you about the people we brought from the Dofrey Domain." "What about them? They haven't caused you any problems, have they...?" I'd cut to the chase far too quickly, and my words had brought a worried look to Serena's face. "No, it's not like that," I clarified. "I've just been too busy to talk to you about them before now. I was thinking I'd like to have a meal with them." "Really? Everyone will be delighted, I'm sure. And even if they aren't... Well, our country used to be hostile to yours, so some of them have been worrying that they'd be mistreated." I'd never do that. After all, I needed them to crew the grand fleet I had brought back with us from Luaranz. There had just been no time to talk to them properly, so I hadn't been able to learn about their abilities and personalities yet. And from their perspective, they probably saw me as a mystery man who'd come out of nowhere. I needed to arrange an opportunity for us to sit down together sometime soon. * "Celly! Celly!" "Ungh... What is it, dad...?" Celly was buried under the covers. She spent her days cursing Valdesca over and over, while at the same time being tormented again and again by memories of him. "Get up now! How long are you going to lie there? Come on, His Majesty's given me a job!" "Hmm...?" Celly mumbled sleepily. "What kind of job?" she poked her head out from under the covers to look at Gram. "What kind? It's a job! I have to go there right now, so you're coming along too! We're going to be busy from now on!" Gram started forcefully dragging her out of bed, and Celly hurriedly protested the treatment. "H-Hold on... Dad! Okay! I get it, so let go! I can't go out dressed like this!" "I-I guess you've got a point." Finally coming to his senses, Gram reached out and touched Celly's messy hair. Sometime later, the father and daughter had changed into formal attire and were headed for one corner of Brinhill's central plaza. "Excuse me, but would you happen to be Lord Gram?" "Yes, I am." When Gram and Celly arrived at the designated location, a robed man appeared. His appearance was rather distinctive. His face was far too beautiful. "Nice to meet you. My name is Vinay Shanes. I've been ordered to show you around. Now, please, come this way!" The man who introduced himself as Vinay took the lead. Gram and Celly followed behind. "Erm, Sir Vinay, was it?" asked Gram. "Who exactly are you...?" "Aah, I was a scholar in Brinhill. Much like yourself, Lord Gram. Mana circles were the major focus of my studies. However, after the brilliant defeat the Brijit Kingdom suffered in the war, the country was ruined, and I was out of a job. Hah hah hah!" Vinay let out a refreshing laugh. "I was at a loss for what to do, but then, who should take me in but His Majesty himself! Now, obviously, mana circles are primarily a tool of war, so I've also dabbled in tactics and strategy. But, well, the circles I can use myself aren't so powerful. They do such things as emitting light or changing a person's hair color... Ah, we've arrived! Here it is!" Vinay smiled broadly and pointed to a domed building made out of marble. "Hee hee," he continued, "this building is the New Eintorian Kingdom Intel Education Center! It was previously the Great Library of Brijit, but we've remodeled it. Lord Gram, I'm told that His Majesty will be giving you the entire building!" Gram's jaw dropped. Beside him, Celly let out a squeal of delight. Erhin had said he'd do everything to support them, but Gram had never expected to be given a facility of this size. When they went inside, the support staff were lined up and waiting to meet him. This had previously been a library, so it had a wealth of documents and offices. "Starting today, we, the staff of the Intel Education Center, are at your disposal. In short, you have command of this entire building! I envy you... I only have a tiny office myself, you see." Vinay gave a sad sniffle and pointed out the window to a small, detached building. Gram was confused by this whole situation. "I-Is that right?" "D-Dad! Are all of these people working for you?" Celly's shocked eyes looked ready to jump out of her head. Gram was already incredibly grateful to Erhin for how well he'd treated him and his daughter. If the king was going to give him such an important task, then he'd have to make sure he lived up to expectations. He hadn't anticipated this kind of support. It did put a lot of pressure on him, but that only fired up his academic spirit even more. Though he'd been funded by nobles in Runan, this was on an entirely different level. The occasional donations he'd received from Erheet had been the largest, but Erheet hadn't owned a particularly wealthy domain, so he hadn't been able to offer a lot of support. "All right..." Gram cleared his throat and slapped his cheeks to get himself into the right headspace. Then, he gave his first directions to his new subordinates. * Duke Plenett of the Gebel Kingdom was awfully upset. This was because of the failure in South Runan the other day. Heina had suckered him into sending troops, and they'd returned with massive losses. Worse than the defeat of his troops, however, was the death of his valued retainer Ruteca. It was an immeasurable loss. "Damn that conniving wench, and damn Eintorian... I swear they'll pay for this!" Duke Plenett slammed an enraged fist down on his desk. Despite his fury, he had not lost sight of the situation. He hadn't been completely deceived, so it was shameful to complain about how Heina had tricked him. In launching a surprise attack on South Runan, he had let his ambition get the better of him. That was simply a fact. Besides, Heina hadn't plotted out the whole thing alone. She'd had the backing of the recently founded New Eintorian Kingdom. That meant Heina had been working on Erhin's orders from the time she'd first approached him. Unable to see through her facade, he'd been talked into destroying Ronan and his South Runan Kingdom, only to then be forced into retreat by the New Eintorian Kingdom. Refounding the Ancient Kingdom? What a laugh that was. The more he heard, the more enraged he got. What made it worse was that the land they'd chosen for their domain was absolutely perfect. Duke Plenett would have liked to raise troops and avenge this humiliation immediately, but as he looked into it, he found that there were several reasons why he couldn't. First of all, north of the Gebel Kingdom, the Naruya Kingdom was currently engaged in an invasion of the Herald Kingdom. His information indicated that the Herald Kingdom would soon be forced into surrender. If he dispatched his forces to invade Eintorian now, Naruya might well decide to keep on going and send their troops from Herald to Gebel. Additionally, to the south of Gebel was the Holy Ramie Kingdom. He was already at odds with them over the former territories of the Luaranz Kingdom. That meant if he started an invasion, there was a high probability they would seek to undermine it, and this would further expose the homeland to danger. In this situation, it was unrealistic to contemplate an immediate invasion of Eintorian. Duke Plenett let out a deep sigh to vent his frustration. He was a man of great and violent emotion, but he could also think rationally. "Your Highness. It's not as though we have no means at our disposal." The one who spoke up now was the very same man who had delivered this report. He'd also offered some advice: "Now is the time to control our anger." This man was Duke Plenett's secretary, Garint. He was a sharp advisor and a gatherer of information. "What means do we have?" asked Plenett. "Did you not just tell me yourself that now is the time for us to restrain our anger?!" "I did, yes. However, as I thought about it, a brilliant plan occurred to me." "A brilliant plan? Well, what is it? Stop making a big deal of it and just tell me already!" Duke Plenett urged his advisor on with a mix of anger and joy. The anticipation was killing him. "Soon, the Naruya Kingdom will have fully occupied the Herald Kingdom. When that happens, they will share a border with us." "Yes! That is His Majesty's greatest concern! Honestly, nothing seems to be going right! Nothing! It's giving me an awful headache! Just awful!" Duke Plenett stamped his feet, showing off his frustration. Garint calmly continued on. "I believe we would be able to solve all of these issues through an alliance with the Holy Ramie Kingdom, Your Highness." "Work with Ramie?! Impossible! I believe they already offered the Naruyans an alliance and were rebuffed. How could we align ourselves with a nation that lacks even a shred of pride?" "Their offer simply demonstrates that they view the Naruya Kingdom as a threat. All the more reason they won't be able to refuse our offer of an alliance." "What do you mean they can't refuse? I might see your point if it was any other nation, but we're currently struggling with them over the lands of Luaranz." Strike an alliance with an enemy? Duke Plenett thought the idea was preposterous. Garint, however, remained confident. "Let us suppose for a moment that our Gebel Kingdom falls to Naruya. The Ramie Kingdom would then share a border with Naruya, yes?" "That's correct." "That would make them next on the chopping block. If they have already proposed an alliance with Naruya, then that is tantamount to a declaration that the Ramie Kingdom cannot oppose Naruya alone. That is why they would form an alliance with us. We can oppose Naruya together. And of the two of us, we will be the first target of Naruyan aggression. The Holy Ramie Kingdom will send reinforcements in the hopes of ending the conflict on our territory. Because if they hold out on us, they only put their own necks in danger." The duke didn't like what he was hearing, but he understood it. Ultimately, it boiled down to the Holy Ramie Kingdom using the Gebel Kingdom to fight their enemies on someone else's territory. Still, having reinforcements would bolster his confidence. They would be a great asset in the war against Naruya. "Hmm... I'd like something I can be a little more confident in. You're certain that they would agree to this alliance of yours, right?" "Well, you see...the key to this strategy is to let them have all of Luaranz." "Wh-What did you say?" Duke Plenett sputtered. "What is this sleep-addled nonsense you're spouting? You want us to pass up the Luaranzine territories that fell into our hands, all in order to gain an alliance?" Duke Plenett was even more upset after hearing this, but... "If the Ramie Kingdom can get their hands on Luaranz for free, I am sure they'll get greedy for more. The more there is to gain, the more they will want." Garint calmly pointed to Eintorian on the map. "The first condition of the alliance is that they send reinforcements to the Gebel Kingdom. The second condition, that we will give them Luaranz, is a carrot we are dangling in front of them. And the final condition is that they destroy the New Eintorian Kingdom in exchange. Of course, they will be free to do as they please with the conquered territory." "Hm? So in short, you're saying that you want us to have the Ramie Kingdom put down Eintorian?" "Indeed. If we were to send our own troops, it would exhaust the power of our nation. Eintorian will not be a particularly easy foe." "Basically, what you're saying is that if Ramie does well, they'll have destroyed the source of our anxiety for us, and we'll have gotten our revenge. But even if they fail, it will weaken them, so it's not an issue. We will come out ahead either way." "Precisely, Your Highness." Plenett nodded. It was a reasonably good plan. "That will give us the freedom to prepare for war with Naruya, yes? But more than that, if we can weaken the Ramie Kingdom in the process, it will be exceedingly simple to retake Luaranz from them once the Naruyans have been repelled." "Yes, Your Highness. We will be able to focus entirely on the crisis before us while disrupting Eintorian, the threat to our rear. The Ramie Kingdom was slow to act, so they must be frustrated that we were able to seize most of Luaranz before they could. I'll go in person to secure the alliance!" "Very well. I will inform His Majesty of our intentions," said Duke Plenett. "Oh, and bring Adonia to me at once! Now isn't the time to be playing around. If you mention that the king of Naruya and his men are all elite warriors, you should be able to get that battle-crazed fool to come here!" After shouting this, Duke Plenett hurried to the palace. * The port of Brinhill was the largest in the former territory of the Brijit Kingdom, but it was still a far cry from Luaranz. Without proper port facilities, I couldn't make use of the grand fleet. To that end, I'd invested some amount of funds in expanding the port. As this work was ongoing, I met with the people from the Dofrey Domain. They were exceptionally pleased that I was holding a banquet for them. "Thank you for the invitation, Your Majesty!" Now that I had a fleet, I needed sailors. There was a lot of work for them to do. That was why I went out of my way to come talk to them. Serena enthusiastically introduced me. These people were your stereotypical sailors, so almost all of them had a healthy tan. The people from the Dofrey Domain came from various backgrounds. Among them were nobles, rank-and-file soldiers, and even commoners. All had been members of the navy, and many had also worked on fishing ships. Because of this, these people would become the core of Eintorian's fleet going forward. There was just one problem. Even if I appointed Yusen or Fihatori as their commander-in-chief, I also needed someone who could actually command the fleet on the battlefield. Naval battles were outside Yusen and Fihatori's field of expertise. And when it came to the ships themselves, the two of them were even more lost. That's why I'd had Serena invite a number of potential candidates who might be able to act as second-in-command. "Sire, this is Gugen. He was one of my father's most trusted men. He has a long service record with the First Fleet, so he'd be a first-rate commander for both naval battles and the general running of the fleet!" "The name is Gugen, Your Majesty! I may be flattering myself, but I'm confident in my ability to operate a fleet!" This Gugen fellow bent ninety degrees as he bowed to me. He had been a viscount in the Dofrey Domain, and his ability scores weren't bad either. However, all of the other Dofreyan lesser nobles who were introduced had broadly comparable stats. That made it a headache to pick out a second-in-command to help run the fleet. Experience alone wasn't enough. They needed to have the personality for it too. "Over there is Hoffman. Jeez, I told him to come and say hello, so why is he sitting alone in the corner again?!" The man Serena pointed to had ability scores that were about the same as Gugen's. He was also a viscount. But he looked incredibly grumpy. Apparently, he didn't like the banquet.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter1_2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Cutting a path willy-nilly with her treasured swords, Medelian had been wandering all day and was thoroughly exhausted. "This is all his fault," she complained, sitting down in the middle of the mountain path. Medelian was currently on the run from her brother, Frann Valdesca. Somehow, as she'd darted around, disobeying his orders to join in the war against the Herald Kingdom, she had ended up near Eintorian. "The problem is that there're no signs anywhere... There's no way I wouldn't get lost! Aaah, and here I was, trying to go to the Herald Kingdom like I'm supposed to!" Medelian griped, as if she expected someone to overhear. This hushed mountain path was starting to creep her out, and because it was so quiet, she felt she had to say something to stay calm. You might wonder how she could've mistaken the road to Eintorian for the road to the Herald Kingdom, but she wasn't the sort to pay attention to such minor details. She also felt a strong need to exact revenge against Erhin Eintorian for the thrashing he'd given her last time. For that reason, she got to her feet and glared at the trees once more.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Chapter 2: War of Defense Six months had passed since I'd declared the founding of my nation. Because I'd immediately set to work on internal matters, we had already begun to stabilize in many ways. However, there was now another new and pressing concern. Yes, it was money. I'd been spending like a drunken sailor, so that was to be expected. The starting bonus I'd received in the form of gold bars was beginning to run out—I was going to have to find new sources of funds and be responsible with the country's management. If the nation was in the red, that burden would fall on the people. I'd gone to a lot of trouble to raise their Opinion by exempting them from taxes, and if I placed heavy taxes on them now, that would lower it in no time. Low Opinion meant a greater chance of rebellions and coups, and it would decrease the Morale of my soldiers. I needed to get us back in the black or this nation was headed for ruin. My remaining gold was just enough to carry me through to the end of the tax exemption period when I could start collecting taxes properly. At that point, there would still be a tiny amount of money remaining, but I wanted to keep that as an insurance policy, just in case. As things stood right now, if the nation had any sudden, unexpected expenses, I had no doubt that we would go bust. For that very reason, the first year of taxes was going to be important. The nation had enough citizens and workers. There was just nowhere for them to work. We urgently needed to develop new farmland and increase the efficiency of our agricultural industry. Thankfully, the tag team of Vintora and Mirinae was hard at work improving that situation. The combination of his practical experience and her high Intelligence contributed greatly to their success. Also, thanks to the farmers' high regard for Vintora, the efficiency of our agricultural sector was growing fast. The higher our score, the more we could harvest. Currently, our Agriculture had gone up all the way up to 85. This was the most important thing for the treasury. If I was going to get us into the black while maintaining a low tax rate, then I needed to massively raise the size of our harvests. That said, without opening new land to farming, increasing our overall efficiency with our current land could only do so much. For that reason, I intended to expand my domain. In between Eintorian's capital Brinhill and the former territory of Luaranz, there were ten distinct domains that had previously belonged to the former Brijit Kingdom. My current objective was to bring all of them under my sway. I planned to install Erheet, Voltaire, and the other former Runanese nobles as my magistrates for now. Later on, I would distribute the domains to other nobles based on their accomplishments. Deployment Fihatori Infantry: 15,000 / Morale: 92 / Training: 95 Yusen Infantry: 15,000 / Morale: 92 / Training: 95 I gave each of them fifteen thousand troops and orders to occupy five locations. The minute details of positioning were left up to them, but the idea was they would have around three thousand men per domain. It wasn't hard to make unoccupied territories submit, so Fihatori and Yusen accomplished their mission in short order. With this, Eintorian now controlled thirteen domains, which made it roughly the same size as the former Brijit. The most important of these domains were on the east side: Beland and Kinburg. They bordered the former Luaranz. Currently, the mountains north of Eintorian served as our border with the former Runan, and we bordered Rozern at the eastern end of those mountains. To the south was the sea. West of Bertaquin there were more mountains, and beyond them, also the sea. Lastly, there was the former domain of Luaranz to the east, directly adjacent to Beland and Kinburg. Technically, there was a river separating the former Brijit from the former Luaranz, but it narrowed the farther north you went, which allowed for the passage of troops. The Holy Ramie Kingdom was keeping the Gebel Kingdom in check inside the Luaranz Region, and with the Naruya Kingdom starting a war of aggression to the north, none of them were in a position to mess with us. Thanks to that, I'd been able to establish the New Eintorian Kingdom and spend a full six months building the power of our nation, all without facing any particular danger. * I was visiting the Beland Domain, which bordered the former Luaranz Region. The New Eintorian Kingdom's population currently stood at 3,240,000. We'd annexed ten new domains and had added all of those people to our population. At least, all who hadn't fled their homes due to the chaos of war. That, of course, meant a slight decrease in Opinion, and even with this amount of people, I couldn't say that we had a large population for a nation of thirteen domains. Even so, our population had increased—that was a fact. I had also drafted soldiers gradually over the six-month period and raised our Manpower, which currently stood at one hundred and twenty thousand troops. I needed to garrison some men in each domain to keep the peace and prepare, just in case anything happened, so I organized seventy thousand of them into my defense forces. First, I stationed twenty thousand in the standing army at Brinhill. That number included the mountainfolk defenders from the western mountains. There were also twenty thousand men in Bertaquin who were in training. Because the area was deep in the mountains and was practically unassailable, there was no need for a garrison force there. The other thirty thousand defenders were distributed throughout the other eleven domains. This left me with fifty thousand troops that I could manipulate freely, which generally meant that I would use them to attack other nations. The breakdown by troop type was as follows: First, there were thirty thousand infantry. Next, there were ten thousand iron cavalry. And finally, the ten thousand lancers newly trained by Erheet. It was an elite force and the pride of Eintorian. Out of that force, the ten thousand iron cavalry were currently stationed with me in Beland. I planned to deploy them here, and also in Kinburg. "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" As I was on my way toward the border checkpoint where Fihatori had set up his camp, a soldier bearing the mark of his unit rushed over to me. He looked rather desperate. "What's wrong? Is there a problem?" Bente shouted. The soldier who'd run over was wheezing and out of breath. Instead of answering immediately, he just bowed down before me, too overwhelmed to answer. He caught his breath after a moment and exclaimed, "Sire, I come bearing an urgent message!" "What's happened?!" "The armies of the Holy Ramie Kingdom are on the march. They're coming toward Eintorian!" * The Holy Ramie Kingdom worshipped a god known as Ramie, and its people called themselves the Children of God. It was a special nation, different from others in the game. The country's defining feature was that they had access to a unique troop type, the priest. The priests' devotion to God allowed them to use mana in the form of divine power. It gave them an instant healing ability that was a pain in the butt to deal with. As you might expect from a nation that called themselves a "holy kingdom," pretty much every one of their units included a priest. So, even if soldiers took heavy injuries, the priests could heal them on the spot and quickly get them back in the battle. In short, the Holy Ramie Kingdom could sustain a war effort for much longer than other nations. And because of the existence of these priests, the Holy Ramie Kingdom had immediately accepted the Gebel Kingdom's proposal for an alliance. Since the territory of Luaranz had been ceded to them by Gebel, the Holy Ramie Kingdom was now in the best position to attack Eintorian without the need for crossing the mountains, and the king of Ramie felt sufficiently threatened by Erhin to do so. Furthermore, the new alliance had freed him of the need to keep Gebel in check. He could attack Eintorian using the forces he had already been using to occupy Luaranz, so this attack didn't put any greater burden on his military. But most important of all, if he was able to successfully occupy Brijit, the majority of the southern half of the continent would belong to the Ramie Kingdom. With that much power, he could even fend off the powerful Naruya Kingdom. These were the motivating factors that had led the Holy Ramie Kingdom to begin its westward advance. "What do you think of Eintorian, High Priest?" The commanders-in-chief of the Holy Ramie Kingdom's military were called "high priests." Their military was subservient to the Ramie Church in which the four high priests held supreme authority. One of the high priests had accompanied their reinforcements to the Gebel Kingdom, while the other three had joined up with the forces invading Eintorian. The highest-ranking of them, High Priest Hamuni, was speaking with Garint, who had used the alliance as a justification to come watch the Ramie Kingdom's invasion. "We don't have much information on that country at the moment," said Hamuni. "Rumors say that their sovereign, Erhin Eintorian, is rather sharp. If anything, I'd like to hear your opinion." Garint was participating in this war on behalf of Duke Plenett, and he was making a point of being obsequiously polite around this high priest, who possessed incredible divine power. Gebel's alliance with Ramie was Garint's accomplishment, and his orders from the duke were to ensure that the war dragged on without a decisive victor, exhausting both sides. That was the best possible outcome for the Gebel Kingdom. "I see it much as you do," Garint answered, shaking his head. "We won't know anything until we face them head-on." Obviously, he had done a detailed investigation into Erhin. There was no way he would have set this up without that kind of knowledge. But he couldn't risk giving the Ramie Kingdom advice that they might then use to win a crushing victory, so he played dumb and lied. Just how far had High Priest Hamuni seen through his deception? Garint was worried he'd get suspicious, but the high priest merely murmured, "I see." * "The Ramie Kingdom is attacking?" "Th-That's right, sire. That's what our spies in Ramie reported!" The soldier pulled a secret letter out of his pocket. This missive explained that the Holy Ramie Kingdom and the Gebel Kingdom had formed an alliance and that it had happened three whole months ago. The education center that Gram was running for me had successfully trained some spies, but they only had an Intel skill of 55. Despite his breadth of knowledge, Gram was not a specialist in intel gathering. It seemed that, as things stood, 55 was the upper limit for us. That met the bare minimum, so I had been sending my spies to all of the enemy countries to see what would happen. This info had been uncovered by one of them. However, it seemed that there was another drawback to only having an Intel skill of 55—it took them a considerable amount of time to send information back home. That wasn't a fatal flaw, but if I was being completely honest, I would have liked to know about Ramie's plans just a little sooner. The Droy Company, which I'd previously acquired, would have been perfect for Intel, but now that the Runan Domain was under Naruya Kingdom occupation, I wasn't able to use them right away. Regardless, this enemy alliance had caught me off guard. Sure, in the game, the Gebel Kingdom and the Holy Ramie Kingdom worked together to fight against Naruya. But the timing was different, so this development was probably the result of me changing the game's history. Anyway, I'd already anticipated that one of them would attack me. It was the entire reason I'd gathered troops in Beland and Kinburg. I scanned the message once more, thinking about the implications of this alliance. It definitely didn't look like a fair deal to me, so I tried asking Jint for his opinion. "This says that the Gebel Kingdom requested reinforcements in exchange for giving up on all of the land in Luaranz, but...what do you think?" Jint shook his head with a dubious look on his face, almost like he couldn't figure out why I would ask him. Yeah, that's a fair response. My bad. I tried asking Bente and got similar results, at which point I gave up on getting anyone else's opinion. It turned out that my right- and left-hand men didn't have heads for anything besides fighting. Anyway, there was no way that the Gebel Kingdom would really give up Luaranz in exchange for some paltry reinforcements. Is Duke Plenett just that desperate to ruin me? Maybe he's trying to get us to destroy each other. "Good work," I told the messenger. "I'll go ask for the rest of the details in person!" "Thank you, sire!" I'm the grateful one. I had that soldier come with us and quickly sent my troops marching to the border checkpoint where Fihatori was garrisoned. The gatehouse there only had an Endurance of 61, so I'd asked him to repair it, but there was no need for that anymore. "Your Majesty! You're here!" Fihatori ran out to greet me. "We received info that the Ramie Kingdom is attacking!" "I just heard from your messenger. I'll hold a meeting tonight, so call Erheet for me. And don't panic. Keep the men's spirits up!" "Yes, sire!" * Night came soon after, and the strategy meeting with it. On such short notice, I had only been able to gather Erheet and Fihatori. They were quick to respond because I had garrisoned the two of them along the border in advance. It was only by coincidence that I was here at the border for an inspection. There wasn't time to gather all my other commanders. If I needed them to do anything, I would have to urgently call the necessary personnel and send out orders. "Fihatori. When do we expect the enemy to arrive?" I'd been given a rough outline of the situation, but Erheet and his retainers still had no clue what was going on, so I had Fihatori brief everyone. "The most recent report states that they've set out from Ertendo in Luaranz. Considering the marching speed of a common infantryman, I would expect them to arrive in two days." If the infantry will take two days, then they're close. The cavalry could be here in less than a day. Obviously, I didn't expect them to send the cavalry ahead on their own, but it was important to consider the fastest timeline for their arrival. It was fortunate indeed that we knew they were coming. In a lot of cases, there was just no way to tell that an invasion was coming until it was closing in on the border. Even with an Intel skill of only 55, our spies had done good work, so the investment had been more than worth it. After Fihatori finished going over the other key details, Erheet's expression darkened. "The Holy Ramie Kingdom is...an exceptionally odd country, isn't it?" he asked. "I've heard that they use a mysterious mana there." "That's right," I replied. "Which is why we need a detailed strategy." The Holy Ramie Kingdom used a kind of mana called divine power. They showed up in the game, so I knew all about it. In game terms, their army had healers. They were a real pain in the butt. But obviously, there were limits to what they could do. If they'd possessed infinite healing capabilities, then the Ramie Kingdom would've already taken over the entire continent. "The enemy will most likely go after Beland," I said, pointing to the map. Fihatori's and Erheet's eyes followed my finger. Though both Beland and Kinburg bordered the former Luaranz territory, there was a river running between here and there. If they were going to invade us, then they would have to go through Beland where the river was shallower. The Kinburg Domain was on the sea. Up until about the middle of the territory, the river was incredibly deep. It got shallower around where the Kinburg Domain met the Beland Domain. Because of that, it wasn't unthinkable that they might invade that part of Kinburg. Still, it would be easier to attack the Beland Domain. The water was incredibly shallow, so it was far easier to cross the river, especially with an army of a hundred thousand men and not just a detached force. Yes, they're likely coming for Beland. That said, the intelligence we've gotten our hands on didn't include details about how many troops are coming, so I can't make an accurate prediction. I'm probably going to have to confirm it using the system once they show up. "Fihatori." "Yes?" "Is there any need to meet the invaders head-on?" I asked. "What else would you have us do?" "We should strike before they can." The troops I'd brought with me included some of Eintorian's finest, and the enemy didn't know about Erheet's lancers yet. "Although... Hmm. It's a problem that we don't have our logistics set up yet. Especially if we try to advance." I had just recalled an event from the game that triggered if the Gebel Kingdom and the Holy Ramie Kingdom successfully established an alliance. That was something that only I knew about for the moment. If I can take advantage of the event, then I might be able to rapidly turn things around. This war came suddenly, but I've been training my fleet for just such an occasion. Instead of getting flustered, I should probably see this as a good opportunity to try out some things. I told my subordinates about the plan I'd come up with, and we spent time further refining it. * Under the cover of darkness, I headed toward the enemy force alone. My goal was to get close enough to use the system to check their Manpower. I found a suitably high hill along the way and climbed it. This gave me a vantage point from which I could see the enemy far off in the distance. Holy Ramie Kingdom Army Manpower: 105,000 men Troop Types: 65,000 Infantry / 20,000 Cavalry / 20,000 Archers Morale: 93 Training: 85 It's not a bad army, I thought. That high Morale probably came from their devotion to the god Ramie, and I suspected that about five thousand of their infantry were dedicated to logistics. Their forces seemed reasonably prepared, and they were coming at us with a fairly straightforward attack. They would probably cross the river to attack Beland like I had predicted. We would be facing them tomorrow. I let out a sigh as I looked at the well-trained enemy force. * The next day, a large force from the Holy Ramie Kingdom crossed the border and encamped there. They planned to first establish a bridgehead with stable supply routes, then move to occupy both Beland and Kinburg. "We must minimize the risk to our rear, High Priest! The invasion should only advance once Beland and Kinburg are definitely occupied. And since we can only bring in supplies through Beland, where the waters are shallow, this will be an important base of operations for us." "Yes, that stands to reason." The high priest nodded after listening to his advisors. "I'll do as you've all suggested. We act under the protection of our god Ramie! Surely we will achieve the greatest possible success!" Though he held the highest authority, the high priest was an amateur at war. He was well aware of that, though, so he left the strategy completely up to his advisors. In his view, his role was to give the men Ramie's blessing and increase their morale by performing miracles. More than anything, he believed that all things would ultimately submit to Ramie. No matter what might happen, their victory was unshakable. As he offered a prayer to Ramie, the high priest asked, "Then what will we do once the base is established?" The advisors explained the plan to him. "We will arrange our troops in a pyramid formation and occupy Beland first. The pyramid will charge all the way to Beland Castle, and then at that point, we will switch over to siege tactics." "I see. Then make it so. Ah, yes—" The high priest turned to Garint, deciding to consult him as a courtesy. "Do you have any thoughts, Special Emissary?" The pyramid formation his advisors were talking about would be performed with units of roughly ten thousand men. Each unit would form its own pyramid and charge. These triangular formations would place cavalry in the front with the infantry following behind, and if there was any sort of surprise attack while their units were advancing on Beland and Kinburg, the tip of the triangle could turn to face the threat. It was an excellent formation, blessed with both speed and stability. "Your men have proposed a solid plan. You shouldn't have any problem." Though he said this, Garint was curious about how Eintorian would respond. "The enemy has only a hundred and twenty thousand troops in total. They can maybe send sixty thousand to the border immediately. I'm interested to see where they'll mass their forces for the decisive battle." "Even if they came with all hundred and twenty thousand, we would still have no cause for concern," the high priest responded, shaking his head. All would be as Ramie willed it. This view could be seen as optimistic, but it was also a show of total confidence in the priests' ability to heal with divine power. Though Garint nodded along with the high priest, he was actually thinking about something else. He hadn't passed the information about Eintorian's fleet to Ramie. He needed both sides to fight until they collapsed. Gebel held the initiative here, not Ramie or Eintorian. After all, he who controls the information controls the war. Garint clenched his hand into a fist where the high priest couldn't see. * "We'll target the enemy's supplies. I want to keep our expenditures to a minimum this time." Fihatori and Erheet simultaneously perked up. "Intriguing!" "As for how we'll do that... Bente!" "Yes, sire!" "Take twenty thousand troops with you to the port at once," I commanded. "I sent a messenger to inform Yusen yesterday. You will join up with Yusen as soon as the fleet arrives, then head to Luaranz together. Yusen will take command of the fleet, with Hoffman as his second-in-command. The enemy controls the territory of Luaranz, but now that they've sent their troops here, the area should only be lightly defended. So, Bente, circle around behind the enemy by sea and cut their supply lines. As soon as that's accomplished, return to Beland. We'll catch the enemy in a pincer movement with their supplies cut off." Basically, I was telling him to attack the enemy base from behind. "If, by some chance, they happen to have learned about our fleet, they might have stationed an army in the port. Force your way through. Another plan will be coming after this." "Understood, sire!" "As for us, once we've drawn in the front of the enemy's pyramid formation and destroyed it, we'll seize some of their uniforms." Once the fleet dropped Bente off, I planned for them to return to Brinhill and pick up twenty thousand of the defenders there. Those twenty thousand would head for the eastern side of the Holy Ramie Kingdom where there was a border with the Rotonai Kingdom. In this season, if they traveled with the wind, they would arrive in no time. The idea was for them to go ashore in secret. My men would be disguised in the uniforms of the Holy Ramie Kingdom. They would make it look like a Ramien invasion and then immediately pull back to the ships, allowing us to cause chaos for the enemy without exhausting our own forces. If either Bente's attack from the rear or Yusen's deception were successful, the Holy Ramie Kingdom would suffer a major blow. At which point, we'd turn our attention to the Gebel Kingdom. The Naruya Kingdom had already destroyed the Herald Kingdom, so it wouldn't be long before they began marching on the Gebel Kingdom. I might not know what else is going on, but that much is certain. The problem's going to be how the Gebel Kingdom reacts. I knew that the Gebel Kingdom had pushed the Holy Ramie Kingdom into invading us. But that was information I had gained strictly through my spies, so we weren't in an open state of war with the Gebel Kingdom. Sure, there were still harsh feelings over South Runan. But with the Naruyans invading and the Ramiens proving useless, Gebel could potentially send a request to Eintorian for aid. If things went the way I was thinking, then I might be able to retake the territory of Runan once more. I doubted it would all go exactly as I wanted, but that was the ideal outcome, at least. And if things didn't go as I hoped, I'd just have to adjust on the fly. * Let's review the situation on the continent. First, there was the Naruya Kingdom in the north. Their mainland consisted of thirty-five domains, with another fifteen domains subjugated in the Runan area. Once they pulled back for a time to subjugate the twenty-five domains that had made up the Herald Kingdom, they would be the largest power on the continent with a total of seventy-five domains. The Gebel Kingdom was in the middle of the continent, and they possessed a total of thirty-four domains. The Holy Ramie Kingdom was to the south of the Gebel Kingdom—they controlled twenty-six domains. The Rozern Kingdom, a minor nation west of the Gebel Kingdom and north of the New Eintorian Kingdom, had a total of seven domains. The New Eintorian Kingdom presently had thirteen domains. That was more or less the present situation on the continent. However, there were also two other countries in the south of the continent that had barely been relevant before now. First was the Rotonai Kingdom. They were located to the east of the Holy Ramie Kingdom, and they possessed a total of thirty domains. Finally, to the north of the Rotonai Kingdom (and therefore to the east of the Naruya Kingdom) was a major nation known as the Jenas Kingdom. The original protagonist of this game was of Jenasi origin. With fifty-eight domains, Jenas had been the largest on the continent up until Naruya had occupied Runan and Herald. Now that the gold I received as a bonus is running out, it's vitally important that I get my hands on the fertile lands of the former territories of Runan. While it hadn't been my original plan, I was thinking I'd use this incident to throw down the gauntlet and challenge all the other nations of the continent. The situation is unstable. Things have already diverged massively from the history of the game. I now need to expand my domain using only my own power. If there was one thing I had on my side, it was that the backstories of people who played major roles in the game remained unchanged. I had scanned the key individuals from the top of Beland's wall, and I'd found one person who was worth keeping an eye on. That individual was not the high priest who released a white light that healed fallen soldiers. It was the man standing next to him, Garint. He was a Gebelian. I wasn't looking to recruit him. No, the goal was to use him. So, for the time being, the plan was to defend and then retreat. Once the Ramien Army advanced, they began using traditional siege tactics. I played it by the book too. "Loose your arrows!" My archers on the walls rained arrows down upon them. Because the enemy chose a formation that prioritized speed, they had no shield bearers up front, so they couldn't defend themselves against the barrage. But in a sense, the first unit that charged was meant to be sacrificed. By the time the enemy's third rank charged, our archers had run out of arrows. Now that we had achieved some initial success, the siege battle began. "Let's hold out as long as we can!" I called out. "Make it look like we're fighting our hardest!" My current forces were made up of ten thousand trained infantry and twenty thousand cavalry. This wasn't a distribution that lent itself to fighting on the defense, but I couldn't load cavalrymen onto the ships, so I'd had no choice but to send the infantry. Obviously, our defensive lines gradually got pushed back. We looked for the right moment, just before we were fully surrounded, then began the retreat from Beland Castle. * The Holy Ramie Kingdom was drunk on victory. The men knelt down as the high priest offered a prayer to the god Ramie. "By the way, the Eintorian Army had fewer troops than we thought. Does that mean they're withdrawing in order to join up with reinforcements?" "That seems most likely. We'll need to grind down the enemy's numbers as much as possible before their reinforcements arrive!" This was bothering the Ramie Kingdom's advisors. Though they had won, they weren't able to decrease the enemy's numbers. "Well, I'm sure it's fine. Our victory is unshakable either way! Now, begin marching toward our next objective!" The men cheered at the high priest's words. The Eintorian Army refused to yield. They put up a fight at the next fortress too, but the longer the fighting drew on, the more their lack of numbers hurt them. Ultimately, they were forced to retreat without offering any real resistance. They appeared to be running terrified before the forces of the Holy Ramie Kingdom. This only added to Garint's suspicions. Thus far, there was no way that their army had faced any more than forty thousand Eintorian men. There were no reports of approaching reinforcements either. That meant there were more troops hiding somewhere. I guess that means they're using the fleet they stole from Luaranz. If so, maybe we're in for an intense battle from here on? Well, I'm in real trouble if that doesn't happen. If the Ramie Kingdom keeps on winning these one-sided victories, that's just not good for the Gebel Kingdom's interests. But even if Eintorian does use the fleet to get behind the Ramie Kingdom while their guard is down, how do they plan to deal with the eighty thousand Ramien troops coming at them head-on with all the momentum of victory? It doesn't look like a winning plan to me. Ultimately, Garint was unable to fathom Erhin's strategy. * We kept pulling back, handing over another four domains to the enemy. That brought the Holy Royal Ramien Army deep inside Eintorian. "The enemy's momentum seems to keep on building," observed Erheet. I nodded. "I'll bet. They're so drunk on victory that they don't realize they're the only ones being worn down." "You're so right!" Fihatori agreed. We had held out for a day before withdrawing, then we'd dug in and resisted before withdrawing again, so the time was drawing near. The time for our counterattack. I'd even prepared a bomb to signal the start of the counterattack. I called the chief of the mountainfolk, Bertalman, to talk about it. "Well, are you making good progress leading her in?" I asked. "Yes! Our maze is perfect!" Bertalman asserted confidently. "The woman is strong, but no match for us in the mountains! The forest is on our side." The woman in question was none other than Medelian Valdesca. I planned to use her by throwing her against the Ramiens. Whenever our enemy finished a siege battle, they always pursued us using a pyramid formation. The pyramid formation was able to charge without losing its momentum, so they could use it to fight a pursuit battle with power and mobility. If we ran infantry into the tip of the pyramid formation, we would get taken out, and if we confronted it with cavalry, then it would be a contest of strength. In short, either way, we'd take casualties. The enemy's Morale kept rising, and their Training was high. So it was inadvisable to face them head-on. I wanted to keep troop losses to an absolute minimum in this war because my real objective was in the war to come after this one. However, there wasn't enough time to raise new troops. Things were going the way I wanted them to, at least. The twenty thousand men stationed at the Holy Ramie Kingdom's supply base in Beland had been worn down considerably because many had been pulled into the main Ramien fighting force. Our repeated defeats and withdrawals had increased the enemy's momentum, requiring them to pull more soldiers from their base. The Ramiens had occupied all the castles along the way here, so they thought they'd eliminated the threat of a pincer attack. But that was only true for attacks from inside Eintorian. I was sure they'd never dreamed that we would strike their rear unit in Luaranz. The twenty thousand men I'd sent with the fleet were commanded by Bente and Jint. With Bente's Command and Jint's Martial, their success was more or less guaranteed. And with the enemy's supply lines through Luaranz severed, an attack on the base in Beland would leave the main force isolated. Fighting a defensive war was effective when it came to fending off an enemy, but it provided no way to wipe them out in one go. For that reason, I'd needed to come up with another idea for how to beat the Ramiens. One method was to use the bomb currently in the mountains. As for Medelian, she had shown up around two weeks ago. When I'd heard from the mountainfolk that she had suddenly appeared in the mountain maze, my immediate reaction had been one of horror. I never would have expected her presence to be such a stroke of good fortune. "It's about time to get started. Do it like we planned, Bertalman." "Understood!" Medelian apparently held a major grudge over having lost to me. And yeah, given how prideful she was, I'd always figured it was a possibility that she would come to Eintorian alone looking for a rematch. She'd also been wandering the mountainside for two weeks, so her rage had to be reaching its peak right about now. Obviously, I'd had the mountainfolk lead her toward places where she could get food and water so that she wouldn't be weakened by starvation. Currently, she'd been left in a maze. In the worst case, if she really got sick of it, she could probably teleport home using a tool. Her problem was that she'd chosen to travel in a straight line all the way from the Naruyan capital to Brinhill. If she could've made it over the mountains, then it would have indeed been the fastest route. At least, it would've been if there were no mountainfolk in the mountains north of Brinhill. I myself had crossed these mountains to attack Brinhill, so I'd made sure we were prepared against anyone else trying to do the same. I wasn't sure whether I could get out of the mountainfolk's maze. It was just that complicated, and the mountainfolk using their techniques to lead her around inside only made it harder to escape. But I was about to have Bertalman release her from the mountains. Once she escaped, she would immediately run into the forces of the Holy Ramie Kingdom. If I could just deploy Medelian in the center of the enemy forces, she'd probably wipe them out on her own. Then, once the enemy was forced to retreat, it would finally be our turn to take action. "My secret letter will be reaching Valdesca soon, right?" I asked. Fihatori counted the days, then answered with a nod. "Yes. It should have arrived." I was more or less certain that Medelian had violated orders to come here. Having her wipe out the enemy was all well and good, but if my own allies got mixed up in a fight with her, it would defeat the purpose. So, I'd sent a secret missive to her brother to have him come pick her up. When the Ramiens started to retreat, I'd show myself in front of her and then lead her into the forest once again. Keeping up the ruse that I was fleeing, I'd draw her into the mountainfolk's maze and then have her leave the mountains on the north side, in the direction of Runan. Once she was there, she'd be picked up by soldiers sent by Valdesca. Naruya probably needed her strength too. She was ranked first among their Ten Commanders. They couldn't just let her wander around wherever she pleased. As a backup plan, I also spent some of the four thousand points I'd gained in the previous battles to raise my Martial score. That brought me up to a Martial of 70, which meant I'd have a Martial of 100 when using Daitoren. Her Martial was 105 when she used all her swords, so with my increased score, True Crush would be able to handle her. Everything was now ready. "You've all done well to endure this long. With this plan, we're going on the counterattack! Take out the frustration you've been feeling all this time on the enemy!" "Yes, sire!" Fihatori and Erheet led the men in a war cry. * Medelian was out of the mountains for the first time in two weeks. As she was chasing the shadowy figures who appeared from time to time, she finally found her way out of the maze. "Aghhhhh! I'm mad! Sooo mad!" How could they move from tree to tree and forest to forest so quickly? When she'd first seen one of the mountainfolk up in the branches, she'd just been speechless. With anger, that is. They'd run when it had seemed like she would beat them, then appeared when it had seemed like they'd fled. And once they appeared, off they would run once again. She hadn't used a tool to return home after getting lost in the maze. This was largely due to her pride, which had stopped her from returning without anything to show for her journey. However, her anger at these impertinent mountainfolk wouldn't let her leave either. "#)@$!" The way they yammered on in their nonsense language as they ran away... This especially rubbed her the wrong way. Still, the fact she was finally out of the mountains helped to cool her head. It irked her that she hadn't been able to beat them, but there was a simple joy in knowing that she was free of that creepy place with its seemingly endless forests. However, not long after, she was confronted with a new problem. Where was this? She'd been lost in the mountains, but she was still lost outside of them. Medelian had no sense of direction. On top of that, there was nothing around that could help her find her bearings. Look around as she might, there was only an endless expanse of foothills. It wasn't even clear if she'd come out on the Eintorian side. That was when Medelian spotted something. There was smoke rising in the distance. Maybe there was a village. If so, they could tell her where she was. Medelian hurried toward the smoke. When she considered that it might be a village, she got very hungry. But of course she would be famished, given what she'd been eating. She had discovered a new appreciation for her survival skills. She'd chomped down on unfamiliar fruits and spat them out when they'd tasted awful. She'd injured the inside of her mouth with thorns. But despite this, she'd continued on, chewing and swallowing without hesitation. She'd been thrilled when wild beasts had found and attacked her. What could be more delightful than meat walking up to her all on its own? Still, she was sick of tasteless meals. She wanted something tasty to eat. Medelian ran like she was possessed. However, when she arrived, she saw not the cooking fires of a village, but some sort of signal fire. Disappointment and rage welled up inside her. And at that point, she saw more smoke rising up ahead. Medelian burst out laughing. "Oh, I see! That's how it is! Just how much of a fool does he think he can make of me? Fine, I'll do it! I'll give them all the beating of a lifetime!" * The advisors of the Ramie Kingdom's army were pushing their troops forward with determination. This time, they would do real damage to the Eintorian forces. Even as they dutifully marched onward, they didn't break formation. The fundamentals were important. Garint appreciated that about them. None of the advisors here were famous, but they knew how to stick their heads together and reliably achieve success. Because their ranks were equal, none of them stood above the others. They couldn't get fixated on their own strategies, and that had worked out in the Ramie Kingdom's favor. If the army was in too much of a rush and broke formation, or if they sent the cavalry charging ahead, that would give the enemy an opening. An army that is faithful to the fundamentals is always frightening. That was Garint's assessment of the Holy Ramie Kingdom's forces, but he still harbored some suspicions about the Eintorian Army, which continued to run away. It was clear that they were up to something. He just didn't know what. Regardless, no simple plan was going to shatter the Ramien Army. Garint couldn't see this ending in anything other than a Ramien victory. * Following the signal fires until she came to the plains, Medelian was flabbergasted by what she saw in front of her. "Why are there so many people?" Medelian was staring at an army of tens of thousands. Given that she was being lured here, she'd expected someone to show up, but not tens of thousands of someones. Medelian instinctively checked the color of their uniforms and their coat of arms. It'd be bad for her if these were her brother's men. Not even Medelian could kill her own allies. She'd just have to run. But fortunately, they weren't wearing Naruyan uniforms. She'd never seen uniforms of this color before. Medelian let out a sigh of relief. If there was one thing in this world she was afraid of, it was her own brother, Frann Valdesca. She remembered him viciously scolding her when she was young. He'd been really scary back then. But if these guys weren't the Naruyan Army, then it was fine. She stood to block the path of the onrushing soldiers, figuring that she could always look for the way to Brinhill after she'd beaten them. Once they got closer, she could see their banners clearly. The moment she saw the royal flag, Medelian cocked her head to the side. She knew that coat of arms. It belonged to the Holy Ramie Kingdom. Their country was pretty far to the east. No matter where this place was, she was pretty sure she couldn't have wandered into the Holy Ramie Kingdom. "Well then...why's this big army here?" As Medelian was considering that question, the first cavalrymen raced past her and kept on going. There was a cacophony of hoofbeats as the larger force behind them passed by too. Medelian was mad that they had ignored her. "Hold on! How dare you ignore me?! Stop! Stop! I told you to stop!" A number of cavalrymen rode toward her, swinging their swords. They didn't slow down—they meant to kill her and keep on advancing. But... The cavalrymen who attacked Medelian were slashed. They fell to the ground. This was the point when the unit as a whole recognized her as an enemy. "You'd face us all on your own?! How dare you take us so lightly!" "You're the ones taking me lightly!" With a nasal laugh, Medelian chopped up all the cavalrymen who came at her. However, she clearly couldn't take on these numbers without using her skill. As more men than she could count began to surround her, Medelian unleashed the swords that she was carrying. "Swegg, Rollins!" Two swords floated into the air. This was Medelian at her best. The flying swords scattered her opponents with ease. But corpses weren't the only things that piled up. Their weapons did too. Medelian turned these fangs against the Ramien Army. "All of you dieeeee!" Her skill allowed her to freely control weapons within a certain range. Her enemies' fallen weapons floated up into the air and then rained down on her foes. The weapons of the men she struck down joined in her next attack, meaning that the more she killed, the wider her attack radius became. "Huff... Huff..." Medelian stood in one place, unleashing her mana, until the entire first line of the Ramien Army was completely demolished. But that wasn't the end of it. There were too many soldiers, so they kept on surrounding her. "Augh! I'm hungry...!" She was weakened by hunger and overusing her mana. Too tired to want to keep on fighting, Medelian unleashed her swords so that she could break out of the encirclement. "Swegg, Rollins." She even used the last of her swords. "Valdesca!" As all her swords worked together, a flash of white light shone down from the sky and struck the enemy directly. Kaboom! Medelian turned her back as she heard mana exploding. Then, she mounted a horse that had lost its master. Even after everything she'd done to them, the soldiers wouldn't stop coming. This wasn't a defeat. She was just hungry, and there were too many of them. Way too many. Really, what choice did she have but to leave? Medelian made excuses to herself as she turned her back on the enemy. That was what her pride demanded of her. * "Now's the time, Erheet! Divide the enemy's vanguard with your lancers!" "Understood! Men, the moment has come to show the fruits of our training! Everybody follow me!" Once Erhin confirmed that Medelian had collided with the Ramien Army, he had one segment of his forces execute a sudden turn. That segment was Eintorian's newly established lancers. Erheet and all of his retainers were masters of the spear, and he had directly petitioned Erhin for permission to create the unit. Ten thousand lancers charged into the center of the Ramien Army. Polearms had an advantage because of their long reach. Obviously, it was beneficial to be able to attack safely from a distance. However, it was incredibly difficult to control a spear on horseback. Erheet had personally selected soldiers with an aptitude for the spear, and then he'd gone to the effort of molding them into this elite unit. With their mobility and reach, they split the Ramien forces in a flash. "Yeaaaaah!" The Ramien Army's momentum was not to be underestimated, but the lancers' own momentum overwhelmed it. * "They turned around ten thousand of their men? Are you telling me that they deliberately came to us to be defeated?" The heads of the Ramien Army, the high priest and his advisors, were questioning the news. "It's terrible!" At that very moment, an urgent report came in about the battle that had broken out on the front lines. "High Priest! Something awful has happened. The first row of the pyramid has collapsed. The frontline cavalry suffered serious casualties, and then the enemy horsemen broke our formation..." "What is this nonsense? There are only ten thousand of them!" The high priest turned to his advisors after hearing the report. They all came to the same conclusion: "If the enemy is attacking, we have the advantage. We need only to envelop the enemy and defeat them one by one!" It all sounded so very obvious. But then, another messenger rushed over. "I have an urgent report! We can't overwhelm the enemy cavalry that split our formation. They're actually pushing us back!" * Medelian's power truly was incredible. The enemy's pyramid formation utterly melted before her might. She wasn't the first among the Ten Commanders of Naruya for nothing. The enemy's forces had been gutted by her onslaught—combine those losses with the men that had fallen during the pursuit battles, and it meant that Ramie's numbers were down from a hundred thousand to seventy thousand. At the same time, the mightiest warrior in Eintorian, Erheet, had flanked the enemy from the side with his lancers, splitting their formation. Erheet's lancers were having an incredible effect due to troop type efficiencies. Royal Eintorian Army Lancers: 10,000 Royal Ramien Army Infantry: 20,000 Terrain Type: Plains Troop Type Advantage: Lancers — Attack Power Up 70% Commander Ability: Erheet — Command 97 — Attack Power Up 50% Thanks to Medelian's actions, the lancers were easily able to reach the enemy infantry in the rear of the formation. When the lancers faced infantry, the efficiency of their attack rose by seventy percent. That was how they were able to dominate an infantry unit that had twice as many soldiers. Furthermore, during a surprise charge like this, it was normal to keep going until they exited through to the other side of the enemy formation. That wasn't what Erheet's lancers did, though. Under his command, they thrust through the enemy at a ferocious pace, then turned around and stopped in front of the enemy battle lines. They stood there like a dam blocking the flow of a river. At the center of it all was Erheet. His powerful Command effect had raised the efficiency of the attack another fifty percent. He also used his mana skill to mow down his enemies without restraint. Thanks to all of this, the roughly twenty thousand enemies at the front were completely separated from the fifty thousand at the rear. It wasn't long before the enemy lost all momentum. * With Erheet and his lancers holding strong, I had all of my forces to charge the front line of the Royal Ramien Army. Of course, "all of my forces" still only amounted to twenty thousand men—iron cavalry and infantry included. The enemy army's front lines had been sundered from their rear forces, and Medelian's attack had decimated their numbers. These events had been critical to the battle because they'd left the enemy in a state of Confusion. Now, the Ramiens were unable to decide whether they should advance, fight where they stood, or withdraw. Royal Ramien Army Front Line: 20,000 Battle Effect: Confusion — Attack Power Down 50% Morale: 50 The Morale of the Royal Ramien Army's frontline unit had fallen to 50. That meant their momentum had been totally blunted. My own forces had been frustrated by having to hold back their real potential and engage in a series of false retreats, but their momentum was only building with this charge. "Charge!" "Aaaaaaaahhh!" The attack led by Fihatori and myself threw the enemy unit into further disarray. That was because, at the moment, the Royal Ramien Army had no unified command structure. So in some units, it went like this... "Sh-Should we withdraw? Our losses are staggering!" "We have no orders! Maintain position!" And in others— "Pull back!" —their thousandmen ordered reckless retreats. The battlefield descended into chaos. "I finally found you!" "You made it, Medelian!" In the midst of that chaos, the bomb appeared once more. There was Medelian, arms crossed, with a big grin on her face. But she was clearly pissed. I had confirmed that she'd pulled out on horseback, but apparently, she'd charged right back in once she'd figured out that we were the Eintorian Army. This is the best result we could hope for. If she'd gone and run off somewhere else because she couldn't find me, that would've been an emergency situation. No matter what havoc she unleashed on my armies or my domain, no one could do anything in the face of her power. I had to act as a decoy and lead her away. "Fihatori, continue the advance!" I commanded. "When the enemy starts to collapse, pull out! Have the infantry withdraw first and then reorganize the troops. I leave the rest to you!" Once Fihatori had his orders, I sent my horse racing toward the Royal Ramien Army. "Erhin Eintorian! I've got something to say to— Hey, hold on! Where are you going? Wait! I said waiiiiiit!" Medelian's face was a mask of anger as she chased me down. "Why won't you stoooooop?!" "As if anyone would stop when you're chasing them!" "Huuuuuhhh?!" The countless weapons she had floating in the air rained down on me. I kept on running using 30 Second Invincibility. "Y-Your Majesty?" Erheet called out in confusion as I galloped past him. "Clear a path! And don't stop the woman behind me! That's an order!" It's clearly lunacy for the king of a nation to be doing this. But I'm putting my life on the line here. "Out of my way!" Medelian yelled. "I don't have time for you small fry!" She rushed heedlessly after me. I was untouched thanks to my 30 Second Invincibility, but her rain of weapons did cut down my enemies, clearing an easy path for me. Finally, we ended up right in the middle of the rear group of the Royal Ramien Army. In short, we were surrounded by fifty thousand soldiers. "Wh-Who the devil are you people?! Attack! Attack!" The Ramiens immediately charged the two of us. "Don't interfere!" Medelian roared. "You're seriously getting on my nerves! Hey, I've got something to say to— Aaaaaughhh! I'm so hungry I could die here!" As she became more wild, the ring of soldiers surrounding us got thicker and thicker. I mowed them down with Daitoren, and she did likewise with her weapons, but there were fifty thousand of them, so they weren't going to run out of men anytime soon. Then, suddenly, there was a powerful flash of white light in the area around the fallen soldiers. They rose to their feet once more. This was the power of a high priest, the pride of the Holy Ramie Kingdom. However, at the same time, it provided an opportunity. That bright flash allowed me to pinpoint the enemy commander, the one who they called a high priest. I wasn't about to pass up this chance. I cut my way through the enemy forces, heading toward that light. As I drew near, I spotted a man in white robes surrounded by bodyguards. These bodyguards were all A-class commanders. There was no doubt that they were strong...but they were no match for me. When I was using Daitoren, my Martial was 100—S-class! "H-High Priest! It's an enemy commander! He's coming! Please, run...!" "High Priest!" "Your head is mine!" I declared as I slashed through A-class commanders, closing in on the high priest. I galloped past the high priest, and in one smooth motion, lopped off his head. "High Priest! High Priest!" I could hear them shouting. The shock of losing their spiritual support was going to throw the enemy into even greater disarray. I raced on without letting my speed drop, then turned my horse in a direction that would take me out of the enemy forces. Behind me... Boom! I could hear the explosions. It seemed Medelian was keeping up with me just fine. She was at a comfortable distance, so I could lead her where I wanted. I just had to hope she'd follow me all the way to the mountains. * It happened just after Erhin killed the high priest. Erheet had watched Medelian go, and then he'd carried out the plan that Erhin had given him. He remained at the rear, blocking the enemy. Obviously, as a warrior, he'd wanted to fight Medelian himself. She was the top-ranked member of Naruya's Ten Commanders. That would have made any warrior's blood boil. It had been frustrating to simply make way and let her pass. But the war, and his country, came first. Erheet understood that. Soon, the enemy's rear group of forty thousand men started falling into disarray. "Something must have happened to the enemy commander!" Erheet declared. "His Majesty has succeeded! In that case, we charge! We'll thoroughly tear apart the enemy's formation and then withdraw!" "Yes sir!" Erheet's retainers enthusiastically began the charge. The lancers had been acting as a sort of bulwark until now, but the unit's specialty was actually offense. They were able to open a path in front of them with minimal resistance. And once they were in, they wreaked havoc on the enemy's main camp. "We are the pride of Eintorian!" This would go down in history as the brilliant beginning of Erheet's lancers.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter2_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 * One man was speechless as he gazed at Erheet's performance. He was the sole objective observer of this war—the advisor from the Gebel Kingdom, Garint. This conflict had started with the Ramiens at an overwhelming advantage. However, their pyramid formation had been broken in a manner that Garint couldn't understand, and then these powerful lancers had turned the tables completely. The lancers were a menace. It was plain to see how strong they were. But at the same time, there were elements of this battle that confused him. For example, the S-class commanders who'd executed that incredible charge. Did Eintorian really have two such people? Garint couldn't suppress the shudder that racked his body. Lancers, along with two S-class commanders. Garint had always known that the New Eintorian Kingdom was not to be underestimated. But now he'd seen it for himself. He'd hoped to make Ramie and Eintorian fight until they both collapsed, but given the way this was unfolding, he finally realized how reckless the idea had been. He hadn't even given all the information he possessed to the Ramiens. After all, they'd held the advantage until now. Unfortunately, that lack of information might have already become a fatal injury. The Gebel Kingdom knew that the Eintorian Army had far more troops than Garint had seen deployed in this battle. This had to have some connection to the vanished fleet. "No, but..." It was too late for him to tell the Ramiens. But would the war have gone all that differently if he had? Not really. That was Garint's conclusion. And for that reason, he decided it was time to get out and return to the Gebel Kingdom. * Despite still having thirty thousand men left, the Royal Ramien Army began to withdraw once the high priest was killed. Two S-class commanders. It was beyond their wildest imagination. They wouldn't have believed that Eintorian had even one! In addition, they had no way of knowing that Medelian wasn't on Eintorian's side, so the Ramiens could only conclude that she was. Once they realized that the momentum they'd been allowed to build had actually been a trap, they were knocked down into an abyss of despondency. Even as they withdrew, the advisors of the Ramien Army looked panicked. For some reason, their supplies hadn't arrived in time. That was an even bigger issue than losing the battle. Ultimately, they pulled back all the way to the supply base in Beland. The idea was to at least solidify their occupation of that territory as they waited for further instructions from the homeland. However, it was not easy to retreat that far. The massive defeat had raised the risk they might be trapped in any castle they entered. As a result, they couldn't pause to catch their breath along the way. They just absorbed the smaller forces they had left in each of the castles, then retreated alongside them. "I-It's the enemy! The enemy is raiding us! Defend yourselves!" Even as they retreated, the enemy lancers kept showing up, charging into their lines, and then leaving again. "Damn it... Pick up the pace! We'll march night and day until we reach Beland!" Despite their haste, they ultimately suffered a total of four raids by the lancers. "Advisor, we're almost at Beland Castle!" Seeing the banners of the Royal Ramien Army flying over the castle, they somehow managed to drag their exhausted bodies up to the gates. Those gates did not open for them. Just as the soldiers were feeling relieved that they could finally rest, archers who had been hiding atop the walls started firing. "It's the enemy!" "Aaaaaaahhh!" The Ramiens had been ready to enter the castle, so when the sneak attack came, they hadn't been prepared to defend themselves. The hail of arrows caused massive casualties. Then, even more archers swarmed to the top of the walls. "How are they in Beland Castle...? What happened to the troops we left here?!" The advisors shuddered at the incomprehensible situation they'd found themselves in. The Eintorian Army's main force had been their cavalry. They didn't have that many infantrymen. So how had they been able to get here first, and occupy a castle held by ten thousand men? It was impossible. "Advisor, b-behind us... It's those lancers!" The advisors were shocked. At this rate, they would be wiped out by an attack from the rear. "Go around the castle at once and retreat! Luaranz! Retreat into Luaranz!" They shouted for everyone to pull back, but as they fled down the road around the castle, the Ramien army found their path blocked by Jint and Bente. "Attack! Attack! Don't let the enemy get away!" Bente shouted, sending his men charging in. Jint led the way. Lancers charged at the rear, archers perched atop the castle walls, and Jint's infantry marched along the road around the castle. Jint started cutting down the Ramiens. Garint, who had long since left the Royal Ramien Army and was watching the carnage unfold from a distance, let out a deep sigh. He'd wanted both armies to fall, but this had turned out to be a great victory for Eintorian. The scariest part was that Eintorian had taken practically no damage throughout this entire series of events. Well, it still wasn't the worst possible outcome. He'd managed to expend the Royal Ramien Army's forces, and the Royal Gebel Army had already been called in to reinforce them. There was nothing more to be seen here. With that decided, Garint returned to the Gebel Kingdom. * The grand fleet under the command of Hoffman, the newly appointed second-in-command of the Eintorian Navy, had been underway for days. They had first dropped off Bente and Jint in Luaranz. After that, they had made a swift return to Brinhill to load up the twenty thousand defenders who would take part in the second phase of the battle. It was an incredibly important operation. Yusen's men changed into some Royal Ramien Army uniforms that had been taken after the massive victory and then quickly boarded the fleet. This operation was to be handled by Yusen and Gibun, with Heina and Vinay serving as advisors. "I really have to dress like this?" Vinay looked down at the uniform in dissatisfaction. He was wearing a holy vestment from the Royal Ramien Army.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter2_2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 "You're going to be central to this operation," Yusen explained in an attempt to console Vinay. "Central?! I'm not the kind of person who stands on the front lines!" Though Vinay complained emphatically, he didn't really have a choice. "Ah hah hah hah! You look great in it! What's the fuss!" Gibun slapped Vinay on the back. Obviously, this was no comfort at all. Vinay was feeling dispirited, but that had no effect on the plan. The fleet mercilessly set sail. "Is the wind steady?" asked Yusen. "Yes, Commander," Hoffman answered with a nod. "The winds blow due west this time of year!" And so the fleet sailed past Luaranz, entering the territory of the Ramie Kingdom. The destination of these twenty thousand men was the Rotonai Kingdom. "Isn't it about time you prepared a mana circle?" Yusen placed a hand on Vinay's shoulder as they gazed toward enemy territory. This was the whole reason they'd brought the scholar into battle with them. Vinay had spent many long years studying mana. Naturally, he was aware of the Ramien system of spells known as divine power. If he were to put up a circle using a similar kind of mana, the Rotonai forces would obviously mistake them for the Royal Ramien Army. That was Erhin's plan. Of course, there were no soldiers in need of healing here, so Vinay prepared a different circle instead. One of the circles Vinay knew emitted a bright flash of light. It was no use as anything more than a distraction, but it closely resembled the flash given off by the high priests' divine power. It used the same mana, so it only stood to reason that it would look similar. * I had been running from Medelian for the past five hours. During that time, I had gotten a feel for the range of her skill, so I'd taken to riding my horse just outside of it. However, because I'd summoned Daitoren to fight the Ramiens, it was going to take time before I could use it again. Despite the dogged tenacity she showed in pursuing me, her stamina was starting to falter. Whenever I saw her stop her horse and stare hatefully at me, I took the opportunity to rest too. It's about time, though. I moved close to the forest and made sure she could see me dismount. Medelian gradually closed in. She stopped in front of me, jumped down from her horse, and the first thing out of her mouth was, "I told you to stop, so why didn't you? Ugh! Ugh! Ugh! You piss me off so muuuuuuch! Aaaaaagh! I'm so mad!" Her entire body shook as she balled her hands into fists and started swinging with reckless abandon. "I could've practically died of hunger and from overusing my power, but you just kept running! Seriously, what are you trying to do here? Do you want me to kill you?" "What, so you weren't coming to kill me?" I asked. "I kept running away because I was pretty sure that was your intent." For some reason, my words only angered her more. "You, you...! Arghhhhhh!" She started trying to tear out her hair. What does she even want to do...? "I'll kill you. You are so dead. You're already in range too, so running's not going to save you. I'm not just saying it—I'm gonna murder you for real now." Man, she's pissed. "You're gonna murder me 'for real'? Don't tell me you had something else in mind when you chased after me..." That got her shouting again. "Aaaahhh! Shut up! Shut up!" Swegg and Rollins simultaneously flew up into the air. Suddenly, I had an idea. I tossed a waterskin at Medelian. She caught it reflexively. "What's this supposed to be?" "Water. Have a drink and calm down. You've gotta be exhausted, right? Don't worry, it's not poisoned." Not that I'd know, but she's gotta be pretty parched. "It wouldn't matter even if it was. My mana would beat your lousy poison. Hmph!" Having said this, she immediately opened the lid and tried to take a drink. But no water came out. Not even a drop. She shook the waterskin over and over, but it was dry. "Youuuuuu!!!" "Whoa, whoa, hold up! It was a simple mistake! I didn't mean to do it, honest." I'd apparently given her the waterskin that I'd just finished drinking myself. No wonder it had felt so light. I hurriedly found the right one and tossed it to her. Medelian accepted the new waterskin with silent fury. There was a slight sloshing sound when she shook it, so she trusted that this one did indeed have water inside. But her pride seemed to get in the way. She looked back and forth between me and the waterskin. Thirst won out in the end. She emptied the waterskin with big gulps, only moving her lips away once it was drained to the last drop. "Thanks..." Medelian said coolly after wiping her mouth with her sleeve. "Heh..." I suppressed a laugh. "No problem." I'd assumed she was the type of battle maniac who just charged in blindly, but maybe there's a good amount of room for dialogue? For just a moment, I imagined the Valdesca siblings working alongside me, impossible as it might have seemed. Surely it was nothing more than a far-fetched dream. But it was an appealing dream nonetheless. Grumble! That massive delusion was wiped away by the sound of a rumbling stomach. I looked over to see Medelian bent double and holding her belly. "Urghhhhhh." "Pfft!" I finally burst out laughing. Honestly, if she were a normal girl, I might have even thought it was cute. I quickly got myself under control, though. She was an S-class warrior. No matter how adorable she might've appeared, her strength was monstrous. Ahem. I cleared my throat. "So, what did you come after me for?" Medelian glared up at me as she answered, "To fight." "If you're here to fight, then you're here to kill me, aren't you?" "It might turn out that way if you're weak! But then it'll have been your weakness that killed you. Not me. If you lose, it means you just don't have what it takes!" "'What it takes'? To do what, exactly? You came all the way out here..." "Well... What it takes to play with me!" "Come again?" I couldn't help but be exasperated. What was she even saying? "You're not making any— You know what, forget it. Just eat this." I was so done with her that I didn't even want to fight. Shaking my head, I tossed her a leather pouch, punctuating the gesture with a disdainful click of my tongue. "I don't need any more water!" "It's dried meat. At least look at it first!" "Dried meat? Seriously? Oooh!" Medelian opened the leather pouch and began stuffing its contents into her little mouth. She's way too delighted. But her face quickly went pale, and she looked at me with desperation. "Y-You don't have any more water, do you...? I got some caught in my throat!" I was speechless. I kindly gave her some more, which she gulped down with a look of satisfaction. "Hee hee. Okay, I'm all full. Now I can fight!" "Now listen, you... Shouldn't you be in Herald or something? You're one of the Ten Commanders, but that doesn't mean they'll just let you off the hook if you disobey orders." "W-Well, His Majesty and my brother might give me an earful! But whatever, I can't avoid that. I've got more important things to do!" "Like fighting me...?" "Exactly! It won't be like last time. I'm gonna go all out from the start!" At that very moment, I sensed an intense bloodlust radiating from her. She'd seemed somewhat defanged up until a moment ago, but she was still a ferocious beast. Medelian drew Swegg and Rollins—that alone boosted her Martial score to 102—and then lunged at me. I immediately answered her with Daitoren. My blade clashed with hers. Shiiiiiing! An ear-piercing shriek of metal on metal rang out with every impact. It was 100 against 102. As things stood, she was stronger than me. But that was actually more convenient when it came to leading her where I wanted. I could retreat without having to put on a bad act of losing. It wasn't that easy, though. "Valdesca!" True to her promise to go all out, Medelian called her mightiest sword. Swegg granted her a +1 to Martial, and Rollins gave her a +2. Those were both solid numbers, but they had nothing on Valdesca's +5. I should have expected no less from a weapon bearing the family name. I had forcefully neutralized Swegg and Rollins using True Crush the last time we'd fought, so 104 Martial had been her highest score back then, but now she was using all three simultaneously. That boosted her Martial to a score of 107. Her skill let her use all three swords freely. The fact that she could attack from three directions at once was enough trouble on its own. It's impossible to face a Martial of 107 with a Martial of 100. The Attack command won't be able to fend off all of her blows. Knowing this, I used 30 Second Invincibility to get on my horse and flee, setting my mount galloping toward the mountains. "What? You're just going to run again?" She looked blatantly disappointed. I felt the incredible bloodlust from earlier ebb away. Because I wasn't fleeing at a distance like before, I was in range of her attacks the whole time. I wouldn't have been able to stop them all without 30 Second Invincibility. I did manage to lead her into the mountains, though. Well, I didn't want to resort to this, but if my reluctance is going to get me killed, then what's the point? With that thought in mind, I opened up the system. Okay, my current Martial with Daitoren is 100. But if I raise my base Martial to 73, it'll give me a total of 103. If I use True Crush on top of that, then that lets me temporarily beat her with a score of 108. I just barely have enough points, though. Raising Martial from 67 to 70 had cost me 300 points per Martial point, for a total of 900. However, from 70 onward, it cost 700 points per point of Martial. That meant I'd need to spend 2100 total points to raise Martial from 70 to 73. I'd also used 30 Second Invincibility five times at a cost of 200 points each. That uses up all of the 4000 points from earlier... Regardless, if I used True Crush to get a higher score than her, I could get through this. I hid for a moment and raised my Martial to 73. Just as I finished leveling up, I heard Medelian's footsteps behind me. Whoosh. Her blades felled the trees all around me. I rolled out of the way just in the nick of time. "Ooh, so that's where you were hiding," she taunted. "I wasn't hiding. I was waiting for this moment!" I faced her with an inscrutable expression on my face as I used True Crush. Remembering what'd happened last time, Medelian met Daitoren with Valdesca and Rollins in her hands. "Ooh...! Now we're talking!" She looked absolutely delighted, like a child who'd just found a playmate. The three swords sent sparks flying as they struggled against each other. True Crush had the awesome effect of neutralizing mana skills, but that part of it only activated once it made contact. By sending Swegg up into the air, she could take True Crush while still receiving its stat boost. She's not the top member of the Ten Commanders for nothing. If it'd been 107 against 107, there would have been a blast wave like last time. But right now, my True Crush was just one point higher. The result: Daitoren began slowly pushing her swords back. For some reason, Medelian started laughing. Like a total goof. "Wah hah hah hah hah hah hah!" With True Crush overwhelming her, she looked at me and said, "I knew you were worth paying attention to! I won't lose next time! See you soon!" Then, just as Daitoren was about to touch her, she vanished without a trace. She must have used a tool. Those things return the user home, so I guess she's in Naruya now. Well, it'll do, I guess. I had been planning to get her lost in the mountain maze and then let her out on the Runan side, but this was faster. Once he found out she was back home, Valdesca probably wouldn't send soldiers in my direction. * "Did you retrieve all of the Ramien Army's supplies?" "Yes, Your Majesty! We took everything they had along the supply lines from Luaranz, as well as what was at the base in Beland!" Reports indicated that the Ramiens had supplied enough to feed a hundred thousand soldiers for about a month. It was fair to call this a massive win. Of course, the end goal isn't just to defeat the Ramien Army. The situation on the continent is only going to get harsher from here on. I planned to use this chance to showcase just how horrifying the Eintorian Army could be. It would be desirable to create a situation where they fear the New Eintorian Kingdom just like they fear the Naruya Kingdom, but at the same time, I want them to fall over one another to seek our aid. That's why I'm going to intervene in the war between Naruya and Gebel. To that end, I had deliberately let one of the sparks of that conflict return home alive: the man called Garint who was an advisor in the Gebel Kingdom. * "A high priest is dead, and our expeditionary force was wiped out? Oh, Ramie! How could this be?" The King of Ramie had just been informed of the disaster. One of the high priests was away in the Gebel Kingdom, but the remaining two high priests shared a look of anguish. "This is but a small scratch to the powerful blessings of Ramie. Let us reassemble the army and attack at once. All is as Ramie wills it to be!" one high priest declared, and the other concurred. If the army of their god was defeated, it would have a devastating effect on the people's faith. They couldn't allow this defeat to stand. "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" At that moment, an urgent message arrived. It had come from the border with Rotonai. "What is it now?" the king asked, clutching his head. The priest bearing the message shouted, "A great army from Rotonai is invading Ramie proper!" Both high priests looked at the man in surprise. "What in the world do you mean?!" "They sent a letter saying, 'We accept your declaration of war. Justice is with us.' It just keeps repeating that they are responding to an unprovoked attack by the Ramien Army." None of this made any sense to the Ramiens, but... Rotonai knew that the Holy Ramie Kingdom was stretched thin after they'd dispatched troops to Eintorian, Luaranz, and even the Gebel Kingdom. Thus, they were going to take the excuse to invade, regardless of whether the attack was a Ramien provocation or not. Never let weakened prey escape. Such was the way of a world at war. * A few days after we beat off the Ramien Army, word came that war had broken out between Rotonai and Ramie. "Your Majesty, the Ramie Kingdom is shaken, just as you anticipated. Though they are closely matched in terms of war potential, Rotonai has the upper hand." Yeah, I'll bet. Rotonai had the stronger momentum, but Ramie still had its powerful high priests. It sounded like there was an intense contest of strength unfolding along the border. These chaotic times had been unleashed by the Naruya Kingdom's wars of conquest. The other kingdoms had realized that they would be nothing but victims if they sat still. So, they'd begun launching wars of their own in order to amass more territory and more supplies, which in turn had allowed them to support more troops. "Meanwhile, we in Eintorian will harden our defenses. Until the time comes, that is." We were preparing to intervene in the war between the Naruya Kingdom and the Gebel Kingdom. Our own defense had to be perfect, otherwise we wouldn't have the freedom to reinforce other nations. From what we're hearing, Naruya finished destroying Herald the other day. I'm sure that Medelian played a big part in that. It would take the Naruyans some time, though. They would need at least two or three months to replenish their forces. I planned to use that period to prepare my forces too. I turned to Gram, who was heading a research team tasked with developing new equipment. "Gram." "Yes, Your Majesty?" "Has there been any progress on development?" "Yes. You've given us plenty of funding, so our research is going smoothly!" "Good. Fihatori, I want you to work with Gram to oversee our preparations. Also, repair the fortress walls and gates at all of our strategic passes." "Yes, Your Majesty!" Gram and Fihatori both responded. "Hoffman, you have to seize control of the seas. No one can be allowed to violate our territorial waters. If there are any provocations, work hand in glove with the land forces to respond." "Got it. I'm ready to die for our waters!" The mountainfolk would defend the mountains. The newly developed traps would be of use to them. Beland and Kinburg would also need defenses. In particular, I planned to prepare a number of surprises along the road into Eintorian that went through Beland. That would give pause to anyone invading my territory. With the seas locked down on top of that, our nation's defense would be perfect. "As for the rest of you, stick to the fundamentals. Continue to focus on training our troops! Understood?" "Yes, Your Majesty!"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Chapter 3: How to Take Advantage of an Alliance After they had completely subjugated the Herald Kingdom and made it part of their own territory, the Royal Naruyan Army took three months to reconstitute and gather another grand army of two hundred thousand men. Before them stood their young monarch, King Cassia, with Frann Valdesca and the Ten Commanders awaiting his command. "Our forces will now advance into the Gebel Kingdom! The chief of staff for our entire army will be Duke Frann Valdesca!" Valdesca bowed his head deeply at this proclamation. With full command over the entire army, that made him second only to Cassia himself. There had been rumors among the nobility that Valdesca was "finished" after his loss to Eintorian. However, in this most recent attack on Herald, he had foreseen every move the enemy would make, and he'd taken absolute control of the battlefield. This had won him an overwhelming victory, along with renewed recognition of his talents. "Furthermore, we will deploy all but three of the Ten Commanders! Our defeat is an impossibility! Trample them underfoot with the full might of our forces!" "Yeaaaaaaaaahhh!" The crowd erupted into ear-shattering applause. * As soon as Medelian got home, she was dragged off to the new border with the Gebel Kingdom in former Herald territory. She had been unable to defy her brother's warning that, "If you don't come immediately, then I really will throw you out of the house." Her brother had raised her after they'd lost their parents at a young age. That made him both a brother and a father to her. She didn't want to slight him. But Medelian still wanted to prioritize her own feelings. There was one issue with the way Valdesca had raised her—he had coddled her far too much. On arriving at the battlefront, Medelian was immediately appointed commanding officer of the vanguard unit in the First Army of the Royal Naruyan Army. The vanguards had an important role. They would be the first to go into the Gebel Kingdom and secure a route of advancement for their allies. It was a mission reserved for the strongest commander. "Hey, bro, do I really have to? I've got other stuff I wanna do!" However, Medelian was less than enthused by the current conflict. She'd found something far more interesting than this boring war. So, after the king had assigned her to the vanguard, Medelian had gone to visit her brother every single day. During these daily chats, she would walk around and around him in circles, complaining all the while. "Don't ignore me!" she exclaimed. "Your adorable little sister's talking to you!" Valdesca sighed. This was the umpteenth time he was having to endure this exchange. Obviously, their conversation was nothing like a discussion between the chief of staff and the commanding officer of the First Army's vanguards should have been. By appealing to the fact that she was his adorable little sister, Medelian had already dragged this from an official complaint into the realm of a personal one. Faced with this behavior, Valdesca slammed his head onto the table in front of him. "Medelian! What do you even want to do?" Valdesca was the type to maintain a polite tone with everyone, regardless of whether they were above or below him in the hierarchy. However, he didn't do that with Medelian, who remained the only other member of his family. He knew his sister was strange in a lot of ways. Having raised her himself, how could he possibly not know? The girl was prone to acting in unpredictable ways. Even so, her behavior over the last few months had been erratic. "There's someone I've gotta challenge! I want a rematch with the first guy to ever beat me!" "I think there's someone else who beat you before that..." Valdesca noted. Medelian scowled in response. "His Majesty doesn't count! I mean, we were kids then anyway. Ever since he was little, he'd always hit me and hit me and hit me...!" Medelian shook her head with frustration as she recalled her bouts with the current ruler, King Cassia. "Anyway, he doesn't count! His Majesty's not even my type! I'd rather not see him at all..." Medelian shuddered as if recalling some childhood trauma. "Wait... Not your type? Why does that even come into this?" "N-No, it's not like that!" Medelian shouted, shaking her head. She covered her mouth and looked toward the mountains. The clever Valdesca sighed and continued to press her. "Out with it, Medelian! What's it 'not like'?" Medelian quickly corrected herself. "That bit about not being my type was a mistake... This is really about revenge! Yeah, revenge!" This reasoning gave Valdesca such a headache. He knew exactly who she wanted to take "revenge" on. Erhin Eintorian. The man was his greatest rival as well. He'd even gotten a letter from Erhin urging him to "Hurry up and take her home." How was it that she could talk about her type in the same breath as revenge? Valdesca was completely ignorant when it came to the relations between men and women, so her behavior was utterly incomprehensible to him. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but let me say just one thing. Save your selfish behavior for after we've occupied the Gebel Kingdom. If you get it done quickly, you should have some free time afterward." "You mean it? Okay! Now I'm motivated! Time to go smack them down. I'll go all out from the start!" Medelian raced off. It concerned Valdesca a little just how quickly she darted away. After all... He thought that Eintorian might intervene in this war. * "Your Majesty! The Royal Naruyan Army is closing in on our border!" Duke Plenett of the Gebel Kingdom announced this with a tense look as he bowed before his king. After taking a moment to digest this news, the monarch responded, "I understand. We've done much to prepare. You must drive them off at all costs!" "I'll do it, even if it costs me my life!" After making this bold declaration in front of the king, Duke Plenett left the castle. He then gathered all of his retainers to give them urgent commands. Duke Plenett felt just as the king did about the situation. Naruya's impending invasion had been obvious, and so he had done his utmost to prepare. He had three hundred thousand men on the border, and that was only counting Gebelian soldiers. At this time, they were aware of two hundred thousand on the Naruyan side. His preparations were ironclad. He also had fifty thousand reinforcements from Ramie. Obviously, it was an issue that those reinforcements were going to be reading the winds and preparing to go home as soon as they could. The Ramie Kingdom would soon need them since they had just received a declaration of war from the Rotonai Kingdom. However, if Gebel was defeated, the Ramie Kingdom would be exposed to an attack not only from Rotonai, but from Naruya as well. They also had to be wary of an attack from the New Eintorian Kingdom, and so the Ramie Kingdom found it difficult to withdraw their reinforcements. Their orders to the reinforcements in Gebel were to maintain their manpower as much as possible while keeping abreast of the situation. Obviously, Duke Plenett's right-hand man Garint was well aware of those orders. The Gebel Kingdom also wanted to conserve their forces, so they were looking for a way to deploy the Ramiens to the front lines. "Bring him to me at once! Find everyone in the capital that we can mobilize! I don't care what force you have to pull from. Take even the Royal Guard!" The "him" in question was Duke Plenett's son Adonia. He was called a prodigy for his high degree of talent with mana, and he now stood among the ranks of the S-class commanders as the pride of the Gebel Kingdom. However, his current whereabouts were unknown. No one could discount his abilities, but he was always taking advantage of that reputation to fool around with women. He'd recently disappeared with the one he was currently seeing. Duke Plenett had sent men all over in search of his son. "Why don't we appeal to the neighboring countries for support?" Seeing the state of things, Garint hazarded this suggestion, but Duke Plenett shook his head. As far as he was concerned, Gebel was thoroughly prepared, and Eintorian was about the only country they could go to for help now. * Naruya's elite forces were nearing the border with the Gebel Kingdom. This massive army of two hundred thousand men crossed the former territory of the Herald Kingdom and attacked all at once. The Royal Naruyan Army was planning to break through by focusing on a single point. There was a strategic pass along the sole road leading into the Gebel Kingdom from the former Herald Kingdom. The gateway here had protected Gebel all this time. If the enemy were to try to invade without going through this strategic pass, they would be forced to climb over the mountains or take the long way around. This meant that a grand army could only invade by breaking through this checkpoint. The gateway stood on a road through a steep valley, looking incredibly impressive. The walls had to be twice as high as ordinary fortress walls. If the Naruyans couldn't break through here, their supply lines would be stretched. It was inefficient to resupply their forces over the mountains, and all too unreliable. They had to smash through this barrier. The vast sea of Naruyan soldiers appeared in front of the gateway. "Two hundred thousand men, huh?" The Gebel Kingdom commander who was defending the gate stood on the walls of the checkpoint, looking out over the Royal Naruyan Army. He gripped the hilt of his sword. "If our scouts' reports are accurate, there should be no doubt about that number." The Herald Kingdom had attempted to storm these gates many times in the past, but the Gebel Kingdom had never lost. Not at any time in the past century, at least. "We'll still be fine!" shouted his second-in-command. "Our allies are camped nearby, and they will be joining us soon. Then we'll have even more than two hundred thousand! We can definitely defend the gates!" The Gebel Kingdom had been preparing for this war, so they had two groups of forces ready to go. The first, consisting of a hundred thousand men, was posted at the gateway itself. Another hundred and fifty thousand had been stationed in the surrounding area, and these troops could join the gateway forces at any time. The hundred and fifty thousand men were positioned so that they could respond no matter what invasion route the enemy chose. It would also take them less than a day to reach the gateway. If the whole army had been deployed to the gateway, that would have caused a different issue. The enemy could have given up on resupplying and then taken the long way around to flank them. The reinforcement troops were deployed as they were to eliminate as many strategic avenues for the Naruyans as possible. Normally, overwhelming a gateway with walls this high would require the attacker to have five times as many troops as the defender. And, taking the scale of the checkpoint into consideration, the defenders could likely hold out for at least a month. That was why the Gebel Kingdom saw this as the best battlefield for them. How much could they whittle down their opponents without exhausting themselves? The Gebel Kingdom saw that factor as the key to this battle. * Someone walked up to the gates. It was a man with a slender body, long hair, and a long coat. He wasn't dressed for the battlefield. Behind him was a woman carrying a number of swords. Gebel's defending commander thought that the man must be a messenger, here either to declare war or demand surrender. This man and woman hadn't come with troops. It was just the two of them. However, the man who appeared in front of the gates—Frann Valdesca, the chief of staff for Naruya's entire military—was planning something the defending commander never would have imagined. That these two had appeared here together, without any soldiers, was proof of that. Accompanying him was none other than Medelian. With this trusty bodyguard at his back, Valdesca began drawing a massive mana circle in front of the gates. The defending commander, who had initially taken him to be nothing more than a messenger here to warn them to surrender, panicked when he saw what Valdesca was doing. "Fire your arrows! Stop him! Immediately!" The Gebel Kingdom knew about the mana circles that the House of Valdesca used. They fired a volley of arrows in an attempt to stop him from activating one. "Hmph, is that all you've got?!" Medelian stepped forward to stand in front of Valdesca. Glaring into the hail of projectiles, she unleashed her weapons. Three swords flew up into the air. "Wh-What is that woman?! Stop them at once! There're only two of them!" "Don't you dare think your pathetic arrows can kill me!" Medelian shouted as she easily defended herself against the volley. Meanwhile, Valdesca was quickly creating the circle and pouring his mana into it. At this point, the third-ranked among the Ten Commanders, Istin, and his second-in-command, Lucana, arrived. They were leading Naruya's Second Army. Suddenly, light stretched up into the air as the seal inside the circle activated. This mana circle had the ability to lock down an area. This meant that the Gebelian reinforcements wouldn't be able to come inside the sealing circle to join the troops defending the gatehouse. The Gebelian commander gazed up at the skies, despair written on his face. * The war situation changed rapidly when the enemy broke through the Gebel Kingdom's gateway in less than a day. Duke Plenett had considered the battle at the gateway to be the key to this entire war, but he'd never expected the seal Valdesca had used. Now, all of Gebel's plans had been completely upended. "The Gebel Kingdom must be getting pretty desperate now," I remarked after hearing the latest report. "You're probably right," Euracia agreed. We were near the battlefield in the Gebel Kingdom. Not in any official capacity, of course. This was purely an informal visit. We had come to assess the situation, and if possible, intervene. Soon after the fall of the strategic pass, the Royal Naruyan Army split into three units. The Second Army and Third Army broke off to the sides to occupy the domains in their respective directions. Meanwhile, in the center, the king personally led the First Army against the main force of the Royal Gebelian Army, which was a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers strong. At the vanguard of the First Army was Medelian. She was a dominating presence on the battlefield. Could there have been a more suitable vanguard captain? Medelian surged through enemy lines, crushing foes underfoot and then moving on to the next targets. King Cassia of Naruya followed behind her. Fighting Naruya on the plains would be a stupid plan. The Royal Gebelian Army quickly realized this and began a temporary retreat, pulling all of their manpower back to the rear. The Naruyans took three domains in the blink of an eye. However, because Valdesca couldn't use his Circle of Sealing multiple times in such a short period, he instead massed his forces to attack their next target, the Hertana Domain. Obviously, the Gebel Kingdom also gathered their forces, intending to fight their hardest to defend Hertana in a siege battle, but this too ended in their defeat. The Gebel Kingdom was starting to grow very concerned by the way that Naruya was pushing them back. They had already lost four domains, and the momentum was completely against them. "As for us... Let's go to the Jeiran Domain," I said. "There's something we need to do there." Our ultimate goal was for the Gebel Kingdom to make a request for support from Eintorian. But there was something else I definitely needed to do. Although the path of history had changed considerably, there were still aspects of the game's plot that remained relevant. My ability to take advantage of that knowledge would influence the course of this war. * "Where is Adonia?! Haven't you found him yet?!" The defeat at the gateway came as a shock to Duke Plenett. The very idea that the once unbreachable gates of the border could fall in a single day seemed absurd. "W-Well, you see...we suspect that your opposition to his latest romantic partner has pushed the two of them to disappear completely..." Duke Plenett turned wrathfully toward the retainer who'd just told him what all the others had been too afraid to say. "What kind of nonsense are you spewing when our nation is hanging by a thread?! How dare all of you...!" The retainers all got down on their knees before their enraged lord. "We're sorry! We'll keep looking! He must be somewhere within the country!" It was true that the most important thing right now was finding Adonia. If he'd just been there from the beginning, then surely their battle lines wouldn't have crumbled so easily. "Your Highness! Bad news! The Ramien reinforcements we sent to the front lines in the Jeiran Domain have suddenly retreated!" Like rubbing salt into a wound, the thing Duke Plenett had feared most of all was now happening. The reinforcements had been biding their time, and they'd finally chosen to act. With the battle lines under pressure, the Ramien unit had decided to return home before they lost troops. "Damn them... Damn them all...!" Duke Plenett's anger overwhelmed him. He shook with wordless rage until he passed out. * "Messengers headed to Jeiran Castle? I'll have to kill them," the man murmured as he looked at the advancing unit. He'd already slain one smaller unit, and now he rode on one of their horses. He hadn't meant to show himself like this—the man had never intended to see his father again. But the situation had changed. His country was on the verge of collapse, and he needed to act. Especially if the domain where he was hiding was going to be trampled by the enemy. "This is shit." Defending the nation would protect his family. Such was the logic of a world consumed by war. He'd been avoiding his father by living life as a simple villager. His wife had already borne him a son. He needed to protect them. "This is utter shit!" His father had dismissed his earnest feelings as a mere dalliance. He'd said that his son's love was nothing more than fooling around with a commoner. The longer the dispute had gone on, the more the man had wanted to cast aside his position and his country to be with her. But that couldn't happen. He was Adonia of the Gebel Kingdom. And while he had been able to abandon his social status, he would never be able to give up his country. If this domain fell into enemy hands, it was possible that many of its villages would be trampled. Naruya might not carry out massacres immediately, but there was no guarantee that they wouldn't change their mind at some point. War always crushed innocent lives like so many cockroaches. Leaving his wife and child at home, Adonia had galloped off on horseback. When he eventually reached Jeiran Castle, he saw Naruyan banners. The Second Army was about to assault the castle. "You're in the way! Move it!" Adonia charged at Naruya's Second Army alone. "Wh-Who are you?! A Gebelian spy?!" The Naruyans naturally assumed that Adonia was performing some sort of espionage, so they tried to kill him. However, he deflected all of their attacks, and their arrows did not reach his back. Adonia mowed down his enemies like he was batting away flies as he continued his headlong rush toward Jeiran Castle. He arrived as the Naruyan Army's vanguard was assaulting the castle gate. Istin was the commander-in-chief of the Second Army, and Lucana served as his second-in-command. The defense of Jeiran Castle's gates was falling apart before a force led by the third highest-ranked member of the Ten Commanders. "Has this country fallen so low that we can be beaten by the enemy's Second Army?" Adonia shouted at his allies. "You gutless cowards!" Without another word, he raced into battle. * Of course, the Naruyans weren't going to let Adonia pass by them unscathed. "Hey, you there! Who are you?" Lucana stopped Adonia as he wove his way through the Naruyan Army. Breaking through their forces all alone, from the rear, wasn't something that any ordinary soldier could have done. And since it was clear that Adonia was an enemy, she obviously couldn't let him go. So, Lucana took direct action. She was an A-class commander, ranked seventh among the Ten Commanders. She never even considered she might lose. But the moment she parried Adonia's blade, she was thrown from her horse. His attack had been filled with mana. She instantly braced herself for the fall, but with the power of his mana pressing down on her, she couldn't rise again immediately. Adonia continued on past her. She survived only because he was solely focused on getting to the castle. Once Lucana went down, even more soldiers swarmed Adonia. "Get lost!" Adonia stopped, then unleashed a spinning attack with his sword. The powerful mana it emitted formed a fiery whirlwind, assaulting the soldiers. As the men burned in his firestorm, he easily burst through their encirclement.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Of course, even Adonia felt threatened when he was isolated in the middle of tens of thousands of enemies. However, because this was a siege battle, and the vast majority of them were focused on taking the castle, only so many of them could afford to turn and fight Adonia. The soldiers around Adonia were reduced to ash, and he kept on galloping ahead. When he reached the gates, he dismounted from his horse, killed some soldiers climbing a siege ladder, and then climbed the walls himself. He also cut down the Naruyan forces fighting on top of the wall. That was when Lord Jeiran noticed him. Adonia was dressed like a farmer, so it was hard to identify who he was. Because this was a battle, the lord had to remain wary of an unknown man's intentions. With all of the Naruyan soldiers on top of the wall slain thanks to Adonia, and Lucana injured, the enemy force temporarily withdrew. Lord Jeiran watched them go and then turned to Adonia, who was now surrounded by Gebelian soldiers. "Who goes there?!" yelled Lord Jeiran. Adonia was exasperated. "You guys're useless!" he shouted, making Lord Jeiran jump a little. "Can't you even tell friend from foe?" The man was certainly talented. That was precisely why the lord assumed that he couldn't be of common birth. "If you are our ally, then identify yourself! What unit are you attached to?" Lord Jeiran demanded, following the usual protocol. "I'm not attached to any unit... But I am Gebelian!" Of course, Adonia had no intention of identifying himself. It mattered little, however, as he was already famous in the capital. Lord Jeiran may not have recognized him, but one of the lord's retainers took a good long look at Adonia's face. Lord Jeiran rarely traveled to the capital, so he had only met Duke Plenett a few times. He was also not a member of Duke Plenett's faction, so he wasn't called to the capital more often than he went on his own. Also, when Lord Jeiran paid taxes to the government, he always sent a retainer to act in his stead. That very same retainer was staring at Adonia with his head cocked to the side. After a moment, he whispered in his lord's ear. "I've seen that man before, my lord...in the house of Duke Plenett. He resembles the duke's son, Adonia." "What?" Lord Jeiran stared at his retainer in surprise. Then, he looked at Adonia once again. "Now that you mention it, there were orders to search for him, weren't there?" "Yes, that's right. There were! I'm sure of it now. With that talent, who else could he be?!" After his retainer said this, Lord Jeiran rushed toward Adonia. "Lower your weapons at once! Lower them, I say! Just who do you think you've been pointing them at?!" Lord Jeiran shouted at his men, even though he was the one who had given the order to surround Adonia. The soldiers lowered their weapons with looks of exasperation. "Where have you been all this time, Your Excellency?!" Formally, Adonia held the rank of count. It was his father, Duke Plenett, who held the rank of duke. As the eldest son, he would immediately assume the title if his father died. However, that was a world that Adonia had already walked away from. "Everyone, on your knees! You're in the presence of a future duke!" Lord Jeiran shouted in an ostentatious fashion. There wasn't a person in the Gebel Kingdom who didn't know the Ducal House of Plenett, so the soldiers knelt down in surprise. "That's not important now!" Adonia snapped at the lord. "What happened to the kingdom's pride?! Why are you losing so pitifully?!" "Well..." Jeiran couldn't bring himself to say, "Because you didn't show up." Adonia was here now, and that was all that mattered. "Attaaaaaack!" "Kiiiiiillllll!" That was when the Naruyan forces whose battle lines Adonia had broken finished regrouping and resumed the attack. "Fine..." Adonia drew his sword and shouted, "Everyone, on your feet! I'll lead our forces!" * Adonia Grebadia primarily wielded fire elemental mana with his sword. His mana was S-class too. Obviously, he was able to use the element because he was S-class. It would have been impossible otherwise. A-class characters could only use their own personal skills. However, S-class characters had an element in addition to their skills, which made their mana that much more powerful. With each swing of his sword, enemy soldiers fell as though they had been struck by a flaming cannon. The commander of the Second Army, Istin, was a careful man. He'd never assumed that this war would end easily. There were some among the Ten Commanders who were only there because of their incredible martial abilities. Medelian, for instance. Istin, on the other hand, had excellent scores in both Martial and Command, making him an ideal commanding officer. The problem was that he was far too quiet. It was only with Lucana at his side that he could adequately communicate with his men. Without her, his forces would remain perfectly coordinated, but he wouldn't be able to give complex commands. The Second Army required both Istin and Lucana to function. "Divide the army! Ten thousand of you, follow the commander. The remaining forty thousand, come with me to take the castle! These are the commander's orders. Hurry up!" Lucana shouted, communicating on Istin's behalf. The soldiers who had been taking on Adonia swiftly began to divide themselves into two groups. "Basically...the ten thousand who go with you will be stalling that man who uses fire mana while we storm the gates, correct?" Lucana asked. Istin nodded silently, and Lucana gave more orders. The gates of Jeiran Castle were already practically broken. However, Adonia had suddenly arrived and yanked the Gebelian forces back onto their feet. To counter this, Istin had switched to a strategy using two separate forces. His men surrounded Adonia while Istin came face-to-face with the man. Of course, after their first encounter, Istin was already aware that Adonia was his equal, and perhaps more than that. But now wasn't the time for pride. Istin had shown such great respect for Erheet because the man thought about what was best for his country and his own soldiers before himself. Adonia pointed his sword at Istin. "You... You're Istin of the Ten Commanders, aren't you?" Istin nodded, then swung his spear. Adonia deflected it, of course. But Istin used that moment to back away. Once he did, soldiers carrying shields rushed in to block Adonia. "You small fry! Don't get in my way!" Adonia's powerful mana took down hundreds of soldiers all at once. After the attack, Istin used his skill again, and once he'd bought some more time, he had the shield bearers stop Adonia again. His ten thousand men were slowly ground down. But Adonia was being pulled away from the gates without noticing it. After a while, Istin's mana ran out, leaving him unable to use his skill to buy time. By now his ten thousand men had been reduced to two thousand. And then, suddenly... Rumble, rumble, rumble! The gates opened, and forty thousand Naruyan men poured into Jeiran Castle all at once. "Defend the commander!" Istin's men threw their own safety to the wind in order to stop Adonia, while Lucana surged around him and into the castle. It took no time at all for the forty thousand Naruyan soldiers to overwhelm the slightly over ten thousand Gebelian defenders. The only way it would've been a fair fight was if the reinforcements from the Holy Ramie Kingdom had actually turned up. "Damn it! This is shiiiiiit!" Realizing that the fall of the castle was now inevitable, Adonia began attacking Naruyan soldiers at random, intent on inflicting as many casualties as he could. He'd been able to fight an even battle against ten thousand men because he was one of the five S-class commanders on the continent. But any more than that was untenable. And so, Jeiran Castle fell to the Royal Naruyan Army, and Adonia was forced to make a temporary retreat. Having secured the castle, the Naruyan forces weren't foolish enough to pursue him. Adonia shouted angrily as he sprinted across the plains. Then, when he ran out of breath and stopped to sit down, a man appeared before him. * Adonia Grebadia was the eldest son of Plenett Grebadia and also one of only five S-class commanders on the continent. Adonia Grebadia Age: 24 Martial: 109 Intelligence: 61 Command: 84 An S-class commander is worth a thousand—no, ten thousand soldiers. That was the kind of man sitting in front of me now, laid low by his recent defeat. "I wish that I could congratulate you on a battle well fought, but I really can't. You lost the castle." "Who the hell are you?!" yelled Adonia. "A Naruyan dog here to laugh at me?" "Hey now, I'm no one's dog. And if I was, I'd have killed you, not stopped to chat." I shook my head. "I've got nothing to do with Naruya. I just came to offer you a word of advice, Adonia Grebadia." "Advice?" Adonia gave me a distrustful look. "Yeah, that's right. Strong as you are, there are limits to what you can accomplish alone. I know you may hate your father, but without a powerful unit at your command and a capable strategist, you'll fail to protect the things you could have." Adonia rose to his feet, glaring at me. "How do you know about that?! Don't tell me that father sent you!" "Nah. I'm just here to offer some advice. Go back to your father. If you want to defend your country, that is." Adonia shook his head. "You call that advice? Don't make me laugh. Besides, I hear the enemy has an advisor called Valdesca. Garint probably can't beat that guy. Our battle lines are constantly being pushed back. What's going to change just because I decide to join in?" "Well, why'd you come to Jeiran Castle, then?" "I have family in Jeiran. If this place gets taken, Naruyan occupation will put them in danger. I'm going to take my family and run." "And abandon your country?" I asked. "That's not—!" "If you're there, the situation will change. I guarantee it." "That's big talk, but who even are you?" "Erhin Eintorian. That's my name." "Huh?" Adonia looked incredibly surprised. "Eintorian...? That's the name of the king who just started a new kingdom. What would he be doing here? You're talking bullshit!" "I came hoping to meet you," I answered. "You're absolutely essential to the defense of the Gebel Kingdom. Take your family and go back to your father's place for now. He'd do well to stay away from the fighting for a while. You might do fine fleeing to another country, but what about your wife and child? Think about it carefully." Having said my piece, I turned to go. Adonia remained silent. He was dumbstruck by what had just happened. * Ultimately, Adonia did as I told him to and returned to the capital with his family. Duke Plenett would likely accept Adonia's wife and son, if only to keep him around. Though, the duke could go back on that decision once the war was over. He would probably tell Adonia to keep his current wife as a mistress and take another woman as his real wife. It doesn't matter to me if their discord resumes once the war ends. Obviously, Adonia joining up with the Royal Gebelian Army was not enough to cause any immediate change. Like Adonia had said, Garint wasn't up to the task of beating Valdesca. On top of that, Naruya had Cassia. He and Adonia hadn't fought directly, but his presence was part of the reason the Gebel Kingdom's battle lines were collapsing, and also why they'd been pushed back as far as the capital. Gebel's only remaining domains were the three surrounding the capital: Midrett, Heberett, and Eugena. Even the Gebel Kingdom had to understand how dire their predicament was. These were the circumstances under which I visited Adonia's war camp in the Heberett Domain. "It's you..." Adonia murmured. "Ahem, Sir Erhin. You certainly do get around, don't you?" "I was right, wasn't I? You were better off returning home, if only temporarily." "You were, but...I couldn't change the situation! If the capital falls, then I'll lose my family and my country! I should have run away—" "No you shouldn't have," I said, cutting him off. "Because I'm here now to tell you how to change the situation." "And how am I supposed to do that?" "Request support from Eintorian. If our forces join yours, we can beat Naruya." "Request support...from Eintorian?" Adonia repeated incredulously. It sounded like he thought this was an absurd suggestion. "That's right," I insisted. "We've already prepared to dispatch reinforcements." "Even I've heard that you beat Naruya twice. But even if you're telling the truth, why would you do it? I can't understand why you'd make us this offer right now!" "Well, of course, there's something in it for us too." Indeed, we stood to gain an incredible amount. "It would be in our interest for Naruya to lose troops here in Gebel. If you can break Naruya's momentum, it will be easier for us to take back the former territory of Runan." "Oh, I see... Well, that makes sense," Adonia said with a nod of understanding. "Gebel won't owe us anything for the reinforcements. Our goal is to drive out the Naruyans. But I'm only going to provide the troops. I'll request you to supply them with provisions. Of course, there's been strife between your father and us, so I don't know if he'll actually make the request for assistance." "Yeah, that would be the problem..." Adonia scratched his head, possibly because he knew what had happened. "That's why you need to persuade him," I insisted. "Garint will probably help you out with that. With your battle lines being constantly pushed back, he'll have no choice but to listen to the two of you. If you can convince him, then next, I'll tell you how to hold the line until my forces arrive." Adonia peered at me closely. "Assuming that's all true, the problem is that I can't be certain whether you're the real Erhin Eintorian." That was an important point. I could look up people's names using the system, but Adonia had never seen me before. "I've called Garint here for a strategy meeting," Adonia continued. "He told me he met you before on the battlefield." As soon as he said that, the flap of Adonia's tent was drawn back, and a man entered. "What's the King of Eintorian doing here?" asked Garint, who'd coincidentally stopped by the tent because he had business with Adonia. He looked absolutely shocked to see me. Adonia nodded slowly. Garint backed away involuntarily. Apparently, the way I'd taken out the Royal Ramien Army had left an impact on him. That effect had been further enhanced thanks to Medelian. "Wh-What are you doing here...? N-No, it is an honor to see you!" Garint meekly bowed his head. I wasn't their king, but he paid me the appropriate respect. Adonia began laughing in disbelief. "Ah hah hah hah hah! So, you are the King of Eintorian, then? Really?" * "I can't believe this... Was the difference in strength truly this great?!" Duke Plenett shouted, a look of bewilderment plastered on his face. If this continued, the country would collapse. The Gebel Kingdom wasn't like Runan. Their army wasn't rotten and corrupt. He'd maintained a proper fighting force. And yet, look at what had happened. "Damn it! Don't just stand there in silence! Come up with a plan! Any plan!" But the heads of the Royal Gebelian Army couldn't say anything. No matter what plan they brought to the table, Valdesca would most certainly unravel it. Duke Plenett could only clutch his head. If the battle lines were pushed back any farther, the enemy would enter the capital. That had to be prevented at all costs. That's when Adonia called him aside. The dispute between them was still unresolved, but this situation was far too serious for petty squabbling. "It's not too late to call for reinforcements, father!" "Reinforcements?" Duke Plenett's hands shook as he spoke. "Where are we going to get those when the Ramiens have already fled?! I've already asked the smaller nearby nations for assistance, but none have responded. They all act as if we've already fallen!" "There's one last nation you haven't spoken to yet, isn't there?" Duke Plenett immediately asked, "Which one?" "Eintorian, father." "Eintorian? Eintorian, he says... Why would we turn to that country?!" "Father! They're the only ones left at this point." Duke Plenett shook his head. "Not them... Never them! They are our enemies! We can't turn to enemies for help!" "Your Highness, it's true that they are interested in this war," Garint added helpfully. "Eintorian and Naruya are bitter rivals. If we provide the supplies, they will send reinforcements. The most important thing is that they also want to defeat Naruya." "What do you mean by that?" "Eintorian are seeking to reclaim the former domains of Runan," Garint explained. "Still, we can't go begging to them, and even offer supplies!" the duke exclaimed. "It would be another thing if they were pleading with us to let them help!" "Well, Your Highness... They will have other opportunities even if they don't take part in this war. They can also form an alliance with Ramie when Naruya invades there." "Would you shut up?!" Duke Plenett shook his head, glaring at Garint. But Gebel continued losing the next day too. Now that the situation had deteriorated this far, Duke Plenett was left with no other choice but to call in Eintorian. He'd accepted that he couldn't afford to be too prideful. He summoned Garint late at night. "You're certain you can bring them into this?" "Yes," replied Garint. "Eintorian will definitely come. The capital must be defended at all costs. If we can just hold the capital until Eintorian arrives, the situation will change!" The duke was silent. "Now is not the time to dwell on past grievances. We need to drive out the Naruyans first, Your Highness!" Having seen the strength of Eintorian with his own eyes, Garint was thinking that Eintorian might be the only nation that could make a breakthrough and turn things in a more favorable direction. "Call them at once!" ordered Duke Plenett. "No, send a request. They can have supplies if they want them!" If this was the only straw he had left to cling to, then cling to it he would. It was better than losing everything without trying anything. * "The envoy has set out for Eintorian," said Adonia. "He should arrive sometime tomorrow." "That sounds about right," I agreed with a nod. The time has come. Time for New Eintorian to unveil its greatness to the entire continent. "Now let me tell you how to hold the line until my soldiers arrive," I said. "This is where the real war begins. Adonia, I'm about to show you just how strong a man like you can be when paired with a proper strategist." * The war to occupy the Gebel Kingdom now focused on an intense back-and-forth struggle over the three domains in front of the capital. If the line broke there, the enemy would reach the capital in no time. The Gebelians would hold it for as long as they drew breath, but the situation was overwhelmingly in Naruya's favor. Valdesca was commanding the Naruyan Army. "We have trouble, sir!" announced one of Naruya's staff officers. The war was going exceptionally well from the Naruyans' perspective. There had been hardly any unknown variables that would have resulted in unpredictable outcomes, so Valdesca was surprised to hear of trouble. He turned to face his advisor. "Calm down. What will the men think if a staff officer blows things out of proportion?" The chief of staff had many staff officers serving under him. This staff officer, who came from the house of a count, looked around to see who might have overheard his outburst. "I-I'm terribly sorry!" "It's fine. Now settle down and tell me about it. What is this trouble we're facing?" When Valdesca asked this, the man quickly forgot how "sorry" he was and went right back to panicking. "They've attacked our supply unit. Just this morning, the main supply unit was en route to the front lines when reports came in that they had been wiped out in an ambush! Wiped out, sir!" "What do you mean? I need details. The Gebel Kingdom shouldn't have any spare troops they can use to attack us from behind. But more than that, how would they even know what route our supply unit would be taking?" "We are not entirely sure yet. We have been making use of multiple supply routes, so the other units are still intact, but..." Broadly speaking, Naruya was currently using three supply routes. The stockpile of supplies was located at the rear base in Remenett Castle, and there were over fifty thousand troops stationed there. The supplies then had to be sent from there to the front lines, but that was a rather short distance to travel, so it should have been difficult for the enemy to intercept them. That is, assuming the scouts remained attentive. "Sir, this is bad! They've taken out the other supply units!" Valdesca's expression grew dubious as the reports came in one after another. "What kind of force could possibly be attacking our supplies?" "Actually...it wasn't a whole force. It was just one man..." The aide-de-camp who had delivered this most recent report could hardly believe the words coming out of his own mouth, and it showed in his eyes. He was passing the information along because that was what the report said, but the idea that just one man might have done this seemed absurd. However, for Valdesca, this explained everything. If the enemy had moved around a force large enough to destroy their supply lines, Naruya would have noticed. He just couldn't imagine all of his scouts missing it—his forces weren't that incompetent. Therefore, the Gebel Kingdom couldn't have sent a detachment to attack the supplies. A single man, on the other hand? That was possible. Valdesca's brow furrowed as he approached the map. The other staff officers automatically gathered around. "There is only one man who could cut our supply lines all on his own. It must be Adonia Grebadia. We should at least check. Bring in a prisoner who knows Adonia's face." "Yes, sir!" "Ah, hold on a moment," said Valdesca. "I believe that Istin and Lucana encountered him before, correct?" He took a beat to ponder this, but ultimately, he was hesitant to call the two of them. If they came here, their part of the front line would be pushed back. "No, never mind. Just bring the prisoner for now." "Yes, sir!" Once he confirmed what Adonia looked like with one of the prisoners, he was certain that Adonia was the one targeting their supply lines. However, knowing and being able to stop him were two different things. A few days after the first report, there were definite signs of fracture. Supplies had failed to reach the front lines, and that was having an effect on the soldiers. The army couldn't store all of their supplies on the front lines. It would massively impact their mobility. The most common solution to this was to amass supplies inside the safety of a castle they had captured. But because the supply units headed to the front lines were being continuously attacked, there was a negative impact on the troops, and Naruya ended up having to temporarily halt their attacks. Not eating was terrible for morale. Obviously, the troops had less energy when they were hungry, but there was a psychological effect on them too. After all, it was said that ninety percent of warfare was logistics. Supply units were weaker than assault units. If an S-class commander was attacking them, then of course there would be mass casualties. But as the losses piled up, that in turn made the next target more obvious. Valdesca gathered his staff officers to tell them what they were going to do about it. "Call the Ten Commanders. We need to lay a trap!" While cutting their supply lines might have blunted the Naruyan troops' momentum and forced things into a stalemate, all Adonia had managed to do was buy time. If anything, this plan of his was a blunder. Attacking the supply units was a brilliant move by itself, but if Adonia himself was the one doing it... "If the supply units are being attacked, then that means Adonia is not at Heberett Castle," Valdesca reasoned. "There are two rabbits before us, and we shall chase both. I will pursue Adonia with the Ten Commanders. While we are doing that, our forces will occupy the Heberett Domain, which Adonia was guarding. The castle was only holding because Adonia was there. It should fall in no time. Does everyone understand?" "Yes, sir!" During this strategy meeting, an urgent message arrived from the king. "Sir! His Majesty! His Majesty is coming! He says to stop the advance so we can take on Adonia!" "Aah... His Majesty has always been rather interested in the Gebel Kingdom's S-class commander." Valdesca furrowed his brow. He'd been making a point of not letting the king meet Adonia. When Cassia had heard the initial rumors about Adonia, he'd insisted, "I'm going to take him on." Valdesca had only just managed to convince Cassia to attack the capital instead, but the king had changed his mind, and now he once again wanted to battle Adonia. Valdesca didn't have any fears of Cassia losing in a fight. However, he couldn't risk some unknown variable appearing on the battlefield. Up until now, the king had been leading the unit attacking the enemy capital. Although, even they were being affected by the supply shortage. The plan had been for them to conquer the three domains, forcing Gebel to divide their attention while Cassia launched a direct assault on the capital. However, once the king heard that someone was single-handedly taking out their supply units, his personality would never let him stay quiet about it. "We'll have to catch Adonia before then..." If Cassia arrived and ordered them all to stand back so he could face Adonia personally, they wouldn't be able to use any kind of trap. As such, it was of paramount importance that they execute Valdesca's plan as soon as possible. Obviously, all of this caused a decisive delay in their offensive, and the front lines bogged down. * "So you want us to trade places now?" asked Adonia. He'd been attacking the supply routes I'd investigated, and to great effect. Valdesca's no idiot. If Adonia keeps on going, he'll actually be in more danger. "That's right. You head back to Heberett. There's a possibility that the entire enemy force will head there, so you go and stop them with all your might. If you can hold out...if you can buy enough time, then the Eintorian Army should be arriving shortly." "And what will you be doing, King Erhin?" "Taking your place and pretending to be you to attract attention. We just need to draw things out. Valdesca doesn't yet know that I'm secretly involved." "So Valdesca will throw everything at you, thinking he's taking me on...but I'll be at Heberett, and when his men attack, I go on the counterattack! Hah hah hah!" For some reason, Adonia burst into a strange laugh. "No matter how I look at it, you're clearly more of a danger than Naruya!" he declared. "You give me goose bumps. You've got us all dancing to your tune. I couldn't help but laugh. This alliance of ours is obviously just temporary. In the end, I'm sure you're going to be Gebel's enemy too." Adonia didn't take his eyes off of me. "Well, I'm not going to disagree," I said. "That will likely be the case... But let's focus on the present. We can think about that after saving Gebel, all right? We each have clearly defined goals, after all. Or were you hoping to take my head here and now?" Adonia shook his head. "It looks like I'll have to play along. But...I'm sure I'll come to rue the day I invited you into this country." After he said that, Adonia laughed again. * "You ordered the supply unit to travel along this road, right?" asked Valdesca. "You made absolutely sure of it?" Valdesca's aide-de-camp nodded. "There won't be any issue. I've confirmed it repeatedly." "Then I want you to continue observing." "Yes, sir!" Having given the man his orders, Valdesca turned to Istin. Istin nodded without a word. With Lucana wounded, Istin had to come alone. Communicating with the taciturn commander was a little difficult, but Istin had yet to misunderstand one of Valdesca's commands. He wasn't a problem. The real issue was— "What about me, bro?" "You will be staying by my side for now." "Whaaa, that's boring! I wanna fight too!" —his restless little sister. Valdesca pressed a hand against his forehead. However, if he was going to stop Adonia, he needed both Medelian and Istin. Valdesca was chasing after the supply unit. He couldn't bring a whole fighting force with him. It would've been too obvious. If the enemy noticed them and didn't attack the supply unit, that would be a problem. For that reason, he'd chosen to take a small but elite squad including Istin, one of his aides-de-camp, and Medelian. Obviously, in a head-to-head battle, Adonia probably still held the upper hand, even with Istin and Medelian around. How would Istin and Medelian fare in a battle against Cassia? They would put up a good fight, but they couldn't win. Valdesca joining the fray wouldn't change the result unless there was one more condition in play. Generally speaking, an S-class commander couldn't be beaten using traps. That was why Adonia was able to run around attacking the supply units without worrying about such things. However, if the trap was a mana circle, that changed things. If the supply unit they were following was ambushed, Valdesca intended to send in Istin and Medelian as a distraction while he used the Circle of Sealing. He had used the same tactic while taking Gebel's strategic pass, but by limiting the area that the circle covered, he could pour even more mana into it. No one would be able to leave the circle until he dispelled it or ran out of mana. He meant to contain Adonia, not kill him. The Gebel Kingdom was no match for his forces without Adonia. Obviously, Valdesca couldn't use the Circle of Sealing over and over. This would probably be the last time he could use it during this war. But that was no issue. Not even if it was Erhin Eintorian who showed up instead. Erhin no doubt had some strange ability that would allow him to dispel the Circle of Sealing anyway, so Valdesca saw no point conserving it for a fight against him. "They're being attacked, sir!" Finally, someone took the bait. Valdesca looked at Istin and Medelian. After exchanging glances, they rushed off in the direction of the supply unit. * There was no need to reveal my identity, so I put on Adonia's clothes and donned a mask to attack the supply unit. No traps had been prepared on any of the supply units I had wiped out yesterday. But that was actually good for me. The longer it took for Valdesca to show up, the more time I'd be able to buy. I'm only keeping up this charade until he appears. The unit coming from Eintorian would arrive soon. The Gebel Kingdom was going to supply them, so they didn't have to bring their own supply units, and that meant they could march faster than normal. In fact, I had already bought enough time for them to arrive. However, I maintained this ruse because keeping Valdesca away from the front lines was advantageous to me. Valdesca will be assuming that Adonia is still out here, so he will have sent troops to attack Heberett in Adonia's absence. And if Valdesca's here, then Adonia should be able to take out a good chunk of the Naruyan troops advancing on Heberett Castle. Without their brain, Valdesca, or their heart, Cassia, the Royal Naruyan Army is just an army like any other. Adonia should be able to turn the situation to his advantage. I repeatedly used the Attack command to wipe out the supply unit. "It's an ambush!" "There's the enemy! Kill him!" The supply unit soldiers started coordinating closely with one another, but they were still just a supply unit and therefore no threat to me. However, it looked like the enemy had run out of patience. I could see Valdesca, Medelian, and Istin coming my way. All right, time to run. * "There he is, sir!" "I see him! Begin the plan!" Valdesca nodded, glancing at Medelian and Istin. He then dismounted his horse to begin preparing the mana circle. "Huh?" his subordinates uttered in surprise. Valdesca hurriedly got back on his horse. They were taken aback—the person they assumed was Adonia had suddenly started to run away. Istin gave Valdesca a look that asked, "Do we chase him?" "We chase him!" Valdesca ordered with a nod. Istin and Medelian took off after the fleeing enemy. "By the way, does Adonia always wear a mask?" Valdesca asked his aide-de-camp. It seemed suspicious because if Adonia did indeed wear a mask, they wouldn't have been able to get a description of his appearance. "No, we've received no reports indicating that." That was not what Valdesca had been hoping to hear. He had a bad feeling about this. Cold sweat ran down his back. "Recall Istin and Medelian at once! Hurry!" The man was wearing a mask when there was no need for him to. He'd also run away at the first sight of them. If he'd fled that quickly, that meant he knew who they were. And he obviously knew them well enough that he could be certain of their identities at a distance. I have a very bad feeling about this. "Sir?" "Something is wrong! Please, hurry!" Valdesca urged. "U-Understood!" The aide-de-camp that Valdesca had brought along mounted his horse and rushed off. "Get the supply unit back in formation and proceed to the front on schedule. We have a supply shortage on the front lines." "Ah, understood. We'll do that, sir!" Once he'd given the supply unit their orders, Valdesca went to follow his aide-de-camp. He needed to join up with the others again before doing anything else. It's beyond suspicious that he's wearing a mask. It couldn't be, but...is Adonia trying to get us to chase him? Despite being the Gebel Kingdom's one and only S-class commander...? Valdesca scratched his head, feeling suddenly doubtful. If that masked man wasn't Adonia, then who the hell was he? The Gebel Kingdom didn't have anyone else who could single-handedly wipe out a supply unit. That limited the possibilities for the man's identity. And as far as Valdesca knew, there was only one man who would execute a plan like this. What if he's already intervening in the war? Valdesca hadn't expected this war to be easy. He'd anticipated an Eintorian intervention all along. But I didn't expect it to be happening already... "Damn!" That was when Valdesca realized something. If Adonia wasn't here, then where was he? If even the king was headed this way, then the members of the Ten Commanders who were headed to Heberett Castle were in danger. This place wasn't important right now. Valdesca changed course on his own. He needed to send a message to the force attacking Heberett Castle. * As they chased after the enemy, Medelian cocked her head to the side. She felt like she'd seen this back turned to her and running away once before. The memories of the hours she'd spent chasing him came back to her. Even disguised as he was, she'd never mistake him for anyone else. Medelian was certain of it. "Istin, stop!" she shouted, pulling back on the reins of her horse. "You go and protect my brother. This guy's too far away for the Circle of Sealing anyway. I'll join back up with you after I see where he flees to, so you go on ahead." Istin blinked dubiously at this. It was true that Valdesca was alone. But that didn't seem like any reason to disobey his orders to pursue. Military law was incredibly harsh, and breaking it without good reason was out of the question. Medelian got angry at the man's hesitation. "Hey, Istin! Are you refusing my orders?!" But that's when Valdesca's aides-de-camp arrived. "Lady Medelian! Lord Istin! You have orders to pull back at once!" Once he heard that, Istin finally turned his horse around. However, Medelian shook her head. "I don't mind pulling back, but let my brother know I'm going to find out where this guy's fleeing to first. You can all head back before me!" Medelian turned her horse, a look of satisfaction on her face. "Please wait, Lady Medelian!" She ignored the aide-de-camp calling after her. She was going to have to pursue the trail of her enemy using only the hoofprints he'd left behind. * I couldn't run north forever. The question of whether to attack the supply unit again or to head back still remained, but... "This is good enough," I concluded. As much as I might have liked to attack the supply unit again, that could have proven more trouble than it was worth. I'd bought enough time, so it was a good opportunity to head home. I turned my horse, meaning to take the long route around using the road opposite the one that I had fought on earlier. Besides...Valdesca probably caught on since I ran so quickly. He'll be rushing to Heberett Castle around now. He's got to be in a hurry too, so we won't run into each other...right? As I was thinking that, an awfully familiar woman appeared in front of me. "I knew it!" Knew what? "It was you after all!" "Who are you? I don't think I know." Since I had the mask on still, I tried to feign ignorance. Medelian covered her mouth as she burst out laughing. "That's just adorable!" "What do you mean...?" I didn't have the heart to try to keep on pretending. Still, calling an enemy adorable? I had no idea what she was thinking. "It's adorable! You can't disguise your voice, but you still think you can go on claiming it's not you just because you've got a mask on!" I took off the mask out of exasperation. "We've only met a couple of times, and you already know my voice?" Medelian scowled. "And you don't know mine?" "No, I remember you. You're pretty unusual..." "Sure am! Hee hee. Well, as long as we both remember, it's all good!" What's so good about it? I was worried I might have to fight her again, but that wasn't the vibe she was giving off right now. If I'd had to, I could've driven her off. I'd already proven that I could beat her, and since I hadn't used Daitoren yet, its time limit wasn't an issue. "So tell me. What're you doing here?" she asked. "You'll probably figure it out soon enough. If you don't want to fight, I'd appreciate it if you could let me go." "Why? I don't wanna." Medelian shook her head with a look of annoyance. "You don't wanna... So, what? We're fighting again?" "Oh, I do wanna fight! But not right now." She shook her head again. "Because if I lose, I'll get sent flying back home." Well, if you don't want to pretend we never met, and you don't want to fight, then where does that leave us? "Okay, so what do we do?" I asked. "I'm gonna follow you!" "Erm, Medelian? I'm probably going to end up fighting Naruya. You're not planning to betray them, are you?" I asked with a shrug. Medelian suddenly got all cheerful again. "You're going to fight us?" "That's right. It's what I'm here for." "You mean it? We're really gonna fight?" "That's what I said." "Hee hee, great! In that case, it's all good then. I won't follow you." Sure changes her opinion fast, doesn't she? "I'll see you on the battlefield, then?" she asked. "In all likelihood, yeah, but— Hey, wait." "Okay, I'll go obey my brother's orders now. Because I may end up disobeying him later!" With that nonsensical comment, Medelian turned her horse and rode off. The sword on her back hadn't floated into the air once the whole time. "What was that about...?" I didn't understand the situation. It'd left me with a headache. Valdesca was incredibly dangerous, but at least I could predict him somewhat. Medelian, though? She was beyond my comprehension. Well, let's just forget about her for now. As long as she has one of those accursed tools the members of the House of Valdesca like to carry around, there's no point in fighting her. Trying to understand what cannot be understood is a waste of time. * "Your Highness! We've received word that the Eintorian Army is heading this way!" After hearing Garint's report, Duke Plenett went up onto the walls around the capital. It was true that he needed a mighty army, but... Too powerful an army would actually be a source of worry for him, so he wouldn't be at ease until he had seen the Eintorian reinforcements for himself. "Those are the lancers you spoke of?" "Yes, Your Highness... They're incredibly dangerous, but they should make for reliable allies. That man riding at the front is Erheet Demacine. His martial abilities are no match for your son's, but his ability to command troops is among the best on the continent." Even Eintorian's rank-and-file soldiers were on another level, and they had better equipment too. The soldiers of the Gebel Kingdom gulped when they saw them...while at the same time, thanking their lucky stars that they had come as reinforcements. * "I'm hooome...?" Medelian quietly slunk into Valdesca's command tent, trying to gauge his reaction as she did. Of course, Valdesca barked at her for disobeying his orders. "Medelian!" "It's not like that! I didn't violate your orders! It's just...the guy was way too suspicious, so I wanted to keep going a little longer to find out who he was!" Hearing these excuses, Valdesca slapped his forehead and let out a long sigh. "And? Was your pursuit a success?" "Uh, yeah... In a way!" By contrast, Medelian was a bundle of positivity. She was so cheerful that it was easy for him to figure out why. "Based on your reaction, it was him, like I thought," Valdesca said with certainty. Medelian was quick to nod. "Yep! This war's going to get fun. And it means I don't have to go to Eintorian again!" Valdesca's shoulders slumped. He had no idea what was going on in Medelian's head. It doesn't seem like she wants to join him. Don't tell me she's in love...? At this point, even Valdesca was starting to think that his little sister might be feeling sweet for his rival. After all, Medelian was delighted that Erhin had shown up on the opposing side. Even if the war weren't a factor, he'd be worried because she was his little sister. The mystery of what Medelian wanted from Erhin was only growing larger. Wham! Valdesca slammed his forehead into his desk. "W-Well, I'll be going now!" When she saw that, Medelian vanished, leaving Valdesca to tear his hair out. He had bigger problems to think about right now. He could worry about her later. The real issue was that he was facing Eintorian yet again. But this time, the full might of Naruya was on the field. Valdesca even had both of his trump cards, Medelian and Cassia. This is the one fight I can't lose. There was another loud thud as Valdesca slammed his head into the desk again to clear his mind. * Adonia had been unusually effective in cutting off the enemy's supplies. However, now that Naruya had a means of neutralizing him, that kind of strategy was no longer available. As a result, the plan had to be completely reformulated. The problem was that I couldn't appear openly. This wasn't a war of conquest. It was strictly us responding to a request for aid from a neighboring country. There were all sorts of problems with a king like me showing up in person. So, for public purposes, the leader of the reinforcements was Erheet. He had Heina supporting him as an advisor. That personnel selection was sure to raise Duke Plenett's blood pressure, which was exactly why I'd chosen her. Instead of heading to the front, I joined up with the rear unit led by Yusen before entering the Gebelian capital. The number of reinforcements we had dispatched to participate in this war was sixty thousand. During this period, Fihatori had been tasked with defending the homeland. He was the perfect man to have in place in case something happened while I was away. All of my other commanders were here: Erheet, Jint, Heina, Yusen, and Gibun. I split my forces into two armies. The First Army was led by Erheet and the Second by Yusen. Our reinforcements weren't able to enter the capital, so we camped outside while the key members went to the palace for an audience with King Gebel. That left only Jint with me. Euracia had traveled to the Gebel Kingdom with me, but we'd split up after I'd assigned her another task. I unfurled a map with Jint, our representative quiet guy, standing beside me. This may have been obvious, but the Royal Gebelian Army's situation was not good. They'd had a massive force of three hundred thousand men, but half of it was now gone. Combined with my forces, that brought us to two hundred and ten thousand troops. We had the Royal Naruyan Army outnumbered, at least. Although, if Gebel's defenses kept breaking and they kept on losing siege battles, the issue wasn't with the soldiers, but with their commanders. That was how the Gebelian front line had been pushed back so far that we were facing the Naruyans across the three domains in front of the capital: Midrett, Heberett, and Eugena. Those three domains were now effectively the front line. The Royal Naruyan Army had divided their forces into armies of roughly sixty thousand troops each, and they had been attacking all of them simultaneously. Between our disruptive attacks on their supply units and my own forces arriving, the Naruyan Army had been forced to stop pressing the attack. We were now at a lull in the fighting. They're going to have to change tactics now too. I had been able to suggest our earlier strategy thanks to Adonia. While he was attacking the supply units, the Naruyan king, Cassia, hadn't been on the front line. The king hadn't been with Valdesca and the members of the Ten Commanders who came up from the rear. He also hadn't been fighting to take any of the three domains. By extension, that meant he'd been pursuing another mission. Could he have been taking some circuitous route to launch a surprise attack on the capital? If not for Eintorian joining the war and Adonia's attacks on the supply units, that plan would have undoubtedly ended in success. But things are different now. King Cassia of Naruya has probably pulled back to his own camp. That means we have to assume he'll be coming at us with a different plan. Knowing that, I went around to each of the front lines, confirming the composition of the enemy's forces using the system. I was trying to predict Naruya's next move so I could counter it. "Jint, place this on Midrett Castle." I tossed a tiny wooden horse to Jint. It had "Royal Naruyan Army Second Army" written on it. Jint did as I asked and placed the horse where Midrett Castle was on the map. Istin was the commander of the Second Army. After taking Jeiran, he had immediately advanced toward Midrett. "This one goes on Heberett." The Third Army was led by a commander named Bleicke who had risen to become the third-ranked member of the Ten Commanders after the last guy had died in the previous war. "And this one goes on Eugena Castle." That left the Fourth Army, led by Maruand, the fourth-ranked member of the Ten Commanders. He was an A-class commander. The ninth- and tenth-ranked members of the Ten Commanders were only on the upper end of B-class, but Medelian was capable of using abilities that effectively put her in S-class. Looking at the Royal Gebelian Army as a whole, they had one S-class commander in Adonia, as well as four A-class commanders who were known as the Four Generals. Well, there were only three now, since I had killed Ruteca in South Runan. Altogether, Gebel didn't have enough commanders to fight Naruya. The Second, Third, and Fourth Armies were under the direct command of Valdesca and were fighting on the front lines. The problem is the First Army. Their vanguard captain was Medelian, and their commander was the commander-in-chief, King Cassia of Naruya himself. Now that the First Army had rejoined the front line, Naruya currently had a total manpower of one hundred and eighty-seven thousand. Just looking at that number, combined with the level of the commanders that had been deployed... Well, it was clear that this war would have the attention of the entire continent. It was the hundred and eighty-seven thousand strong Royal Naruyan Army against the two hundred and ten thousand strong Gebel-Eintorian Alliance. But with the numbers so close, it wasn't troop counts that mattered. It was how well each side could use them. "Oh, right, Jint," I said, suddenly remembering something. "That kid you're training, Damon. Has he gotten to the point where you think he'd be of any use?" "If you want him...he fights well." During the last war, I had uncovered a young diamond in the rough, Damon. He was currently being trained by Jint, and I'd had him participate in this war as one of Jint's subordinates. If he proved himself useful, I meant to assign him a relatively important mission. * "You're saying those are the lancers who drove off the Ramiens?" "Yes, Your Highness!" Duke Yohanett, a member of the Gebelian royal family, smiled as he observed the Eintorian forces. He could see their strength—it was no wonder that they'd been able to drive off the Royal Ramien Army. "To think Plenett would suddenly request Eintorian's assistance when he had been so averse to the idea before. Things have certainly gotten interesting." "Well, since their aid has prevented our lines from falling back any farther, isn't it for the best that he did?" suggested Yohanett's retainer. "Yes, you do have a point there," Duke Yohanett agreed, nodding. Duke Plenett currently held all of the authority, so any failure on his part would be to Duke Yohanett's advantage. However, if Plenett's mistake led to the fall of the nation, that would be a problem. Duke Yohanett would have to cooperate for now. "Still, I have my doubts. Regardless of how elite these lancers are, will their arrival really have a dramatic effect on the situation? Duke Plenett's pride and joy, Adonia, joined the war effort, but conditions haven't changed in the slightest." "Well...we're likely better off with Eintorian than without them," said the retainer. "If they act as shields for our men, then that's good enough." Yohanett nodded once more. "Well, I suppose so... It's better to have them, yes. Still, it amuses me to no end. Just having to call for Eintorian's aid is already a defeat for Duke Plenett. Because, despite crowing about how well prepared we were for this war, it's been nothing but one loss after another. If he can't win this, I'm sure I'll be able to have him removed from power..." "I spoke with Garint. He said that with Adonia by our side—as well as Eintorian, who have already bested the Naruyans once—we should be more than capable of turning this around." "It's Plenett I have a problem with!" Duke Yohanett exclaimed. "He'll be joining up with the Eintorian Army and leading them on the front lines, right?" "Yes, Your Highness!" "How shameless. The man's already failed as a commander. Isn't it about time that he takes responsibility for his actions and allows someone else to take over? If we're so certain of victory, then ideally, I'd want to call him to account for his failures. I would prefer to keep him tied down in the capital while someone from our house distinguishes themselves in his place..." This was Duke Yohanett's greatest problem: Plenett had been given a position that matched his abilities. Yohanett wouldn't deny that. A loudmouth like himself could only talk big, but his fellow duke did, in fact, have actual talent. Would Yohanett be able to do what Plenett couldn't? Certainly not. Duke Yohanett knew himself too well to think otherwise. It was what frustrated him so much about this situation. As he was fuming about it, his head chamberlain approached. "Your Highness, a guest from the Eintorian Army has come to visit. They say they wish to see you. What shall we do about it?" "From Eintorian?" Duke Yohanett looked at the retainer he had been talking to before. The man shook his head, having no idea who this unexpected guest could be. The head chamberlain observed their reactions, then asked, "Would you like me to chase them off?" Yohanett weighed his options for a moment before shaking his head. "Chase them off? Hold on, we can't go mistreating the reinforcements. I'll have to at least meet with them." With this order, the head chamberlain nodded and left the room. He soon returned with the guest—a graceful woman with her hair cut short. "Greetings, Your Highness. My name is Heina."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3_2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 The world of politics was merciless, and at the end of the day, the winner was the winner, regardless of what methods they used to get there. That was why Erhin had sent Heina Berhin to do political maneuvering. She was the most adept politician among his followers. "Heina, you say?" "Yes, I am Heina Berhin." Duke Yohanett searched his memories, trying to remember where he'd heard of her before. He wasn't the type to remember the names of those who were beneath him in rank, but he did recognize hers for some reason. This signified that she was somehow special. Duke Yohanett, who was well aware of the prejudices of his memory, took another look at Heina. But her face was unfamiliar. Of that, he was certain. He glanced at his retainer. The man looked as if he'd already figured something out. Fortunately, the retainer had a better memory than his master. He approached Yohanett and whispered, "Your Highness, she is the one who pulled the wool over Duke Plenett's eyes during the South Runan incident..." Upon hearing this, Duke Yohanett clapped his hands with glee and welcomed Heina with an unusual enthusiasm. "You're the schemer who fooled Duke Plenett, aren't you?" Duke Yohanett asked with a big smile. "I only wish we could have met sooner. You must be the first to have ever humiliated him so utterly!" "I am honored by your kind words," Heina replied, her own smile much cooler. It was an expression that revealed nothing of the feeling that lay beneath it. "Now then, I have a favor to ask of you. It involves Duke Plenett..." Those words were enough to tell Duke Yohanett all he needed to know about her. Heina Berhin had come bearing the good fortune he had long been waiting for. * "We'll use Eintorian's forces as much as we possibly can. Send the Eintorian Army to the front lines of every battlefield!" This was the policy Duke Plenett had taken as commander of the combined forces. "Father, shouldn't we confer with Eintorian before deciding on our strategy?" Adonia suggested. "We're providing the supplies, so it's only natural that they follow our plans," Duke Plenett countered. "What is the problem with putting Eintorian's troops at the front like Garint's strategy suggests? If you care one whit for that miserable lowborn concubine of yours, you'll shut your mouth and do as you're told!" Duke Plenett had been forced to swallow his pride and call for reinforcements from Eintorian, a nation he strongly disliked. As such, he was feeling even more stubborn than usual. A full sixty thousand Eintorian men had come to Gebel's aid, and he intended to take as much advantage of them as he could by positioning them as sacrificial pawns. "Father!" Adonia opposed Duke Plenett's approach. He felt it was important to consult Eintorian about their strategy. When the duke brought up his wife and son again, he exploded with anger. He'd thought his father had finally accepted them, but now he was calling her a concubine. Adonia had never once thought of his wife that way. She was a commoner, but that fact was unimportant to him. She was the only woman for him, now and forever. "Well, let's set that matter aside for now. We can discuss it once the war ends," said Duke Plenett. "There's been a lull in the fighting on the front lines, so we'll try a night raid." "A night raid?" asked Adonia. "I mean to use Eintorian's lancers for it. They're supposed to be strong on the plains, right?" This was yet another plan that threw away soldiers without considering the big picture. These sorts of strategies had enabled their enemy to push back the front lines quite far. Even with the addition of sixty thousand more troops, would anything change as long as Gebel continued doing things the same way? This wasn't the time for meaningless battles of attrition. In order to change the situation, they needed a new strategy with a clear view of what victory looked like. "Father, it's time to change how you think. Eintorian has an excellent advisor. Why not hold a meeting with him and see what he has to say?" "A meeting, huh? If he has good ideas, I'll listen. But shouldn't he show us what he's capable of first?" Suddenly, Adonia realized the point of all this: Duke Plenett was executing the night raid to facilitate an Eintorian defeat. The hope was that the experience of losing would make them more obedient. Adonia balled his hands into fists. The duke was always like this. He had used his son's considerable martial prowess purely as a tool to build up the House of Plenett. And if he was willing to use his own son that way, then there was no chance that he would ever truly rely on the Eintorian Army. Erhin's plan was the only thing that'd kept the front lines from being pushed all the way back to the capital before the Eintorian forces could arrive. His strategy had also allowed Adonia to score Gebel's first victory in a while against the defenseless Naruyan charge toward Heberett Castle. The Naruyans had been quick to retreat, but it had been a long time since Adonia experienced such a satisfying win. That was why Adonia was completely in favor of Erhin's assertion that strategy was paramount. The way things stood, not only was Duke Plenett no longer needed, but his presence was actively harmful to the Gebel Kingdom. "Hey, step aside!" Suddenly, there was a commotion. Their eyes naturally turned toward the outside of the camp. Soon, a man entered the stables. "Duke Yohanett?" Adonia regarded this unexpected visitor with suspicion, while Duke Plenett's brow furrowed with the sort of contempt reserved for cockroaches. "Where do you think you are? You have no place here. Get out at once!" Duke Plenett demanded in an intimidating tone. Yohanett simply smiled and then opened the letter he was carrying. "Your Highness, Duke Plenett. His Majesty wishes to speak with you, so it seems you'll be needing to return to the capital. I have here a royal decree that appoints me as interim commander until your return." The laughter in Yohanett's voice caused Duke Plenett to stand up and roar, "What nonsense is this?! His Majesty would never issue such an order in the middle of a war!" "You intend to defy his command, then?" "Shut up. Adonia, get rid of him for me!" Plenett shouted. However, Adonia merely shook his head. "This is a valid order. It cannot be ignored." Duke Plenett snatched the letter out of Adonia's hands. His expression filled with despair as he read it. * When Cassia returned to the Naruyan Army camp, all of his men were there, bowing down as they welcomed him. But the king was not in a good mood. Going somewhere and having nothing to show for it was a waste of his time, and he hated that more than anything. So, having just finished wasting his time, his anger was at its peak. And yet...it had been his own decision to take troops and ride off to defeat Adonia. He couldn't blame Valdesca for this one. "What is the plan?" he asked Valdesca, keeping his words short out of frustration. Valdesca went on to explain their current policy. It was the ultimate strategy, born as the result of much difficulty on his part. "Sire, the Ramie Kingdom once asked us for an alliance." "Did they?" Cassia's response was curt and disinterested, but Valdesca was used to that and just continued on. "The Ramiens formed an alliance with the Gebel Kingdom, but the reinforcements they sent have since returned home. I would say that means their alliance has already been dissolved." The king didn't even respond. He looked completely uninterested. The nearby retainers were overcome with fear, and they all glanced at Valdesca. "I intend to make use of those reinforcements," Valdesca continued. "We will provoke the returning Ramien Army to attack the Gebelian Army from behind. What do you think of that?" "You mean to enter an alliance with the Ramie Kingdom?" asked Cassia. "Hardly. Naruya does not make alliances. I have no intention of violating that principle. The idea is to put them in a position where they have no choice but to attack." "Oh?" Cassia finally showed a mote of interest. "I would also like to have you lead a detachment of twenty thousand men and strike at the heart of the enemy once again. We must thrust all the way through them with such overwhelming force that no one can defend against us." "You're sending me to face death?" Cassia forgot his earlier frustration and laughed out loud. "Hah hah hah hah hah! This is finally starting to sound fun. Give me all the details." What kind of man would come up with a plan that sent his own king onto the field of death?
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3_3.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 * The Eintorian forces had settled in at the barracks of Heberett Castle. There was currently a lull in the fighting, so we were focusing on preparing ourselves. First, we had to decide who would be in command on the battlefield. This was the most important issue at hand. I couldn't stand front and center personally, so I needed a puppet commander from the Royal Gebelian Army. This war had the attention of the entire continent. It was an important conflict that would decide who held sway in the south. Depending on the outcome, any of them could fall prey to Naruya next. The New Eintorian Kingdom needed to make a name for itself here. We were a new nation with a powerful military—the true successors of the Ancient Kingdom! For that, I needed a commander who would listen closely. I'd only be able to seize victory if the Royal Gebelian Army came under my command too. The greatest barrier to my plans had been Duke Plenett. There was bad blood between us, sure, but even if there hadn't been, he still wasn't the type to do as I said. I could provide the best strategy ever, and he'd dismiss it with a laugh. Then, he'd just push forward with his own idea. His methods would only lead to our utter defeat. And so, I immediately took steps to deal with the problem. "Sire, it looks like Duke Plenett's gone back to the capital!" came the report from Yusen. "And Adonia?" I asked. "He didn't really do anything to stop it. He seems to have decided to act as the duke's representative in his absence." So far, things were going according to plan. You could say that it was thanks to Heina playing her part well. But also, Duke Yohanett's ambitions were in line with my desired outcome. "This way, Your Highness." Heina led Duke Yohanett into my tent. "You're the Eintorian advisor, then?" Yohanett asked me. I nodded, rising as Heina introduced me. Adonia's the only one who needs to know who I really am. It's actually better if word spreads that my armies are strong with or without me leading them. That way, no one will be able to attack the country recklessly in my absence because they'll come to fear the Eintorian Army itself. Maybe there will be rumors that I was acting behind the scenes all along...but that's well within the range of acceptable outcomes. "It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness, Duke Yohanett," I said. "Adonia here highly recommended you and vouched for your talents. You were the one who created the lull in the fighting that allowed time for the Eintorian Army to arrive. This led Adonia to victory at Heberett Castle, yes?" "Yes. Although I am, of course, only carrying out His Majesty's strategy on his behalf." I turned toward Eintorian and placed my fist over my heart. It was meant to be a salute to His Majesty, Erhin Eintorian. Farcical as it seemed from my perspective, it was important to posture like this. "Anyway, I am sure that if Eintorian works with us, you will definitely be able to win this battle." Duke Yohanett gave a smile and a nod. "I value my own life more than anything, so I won't be going out onto the battlefield myself. As long as you can win, I won't tell you how you ought to go about doing it. If you can position me as the commander who won this war, then I will give you all of the support I can." When he's this open about it, I almost have to like the guy. Duke Yohanett must've had a talent for identifying whose coattails he ought to ride. "Please do," I said. "While you rest in the rear, we will work with Lord Adonia to deliver victory. The accolades will, of course, go to you as the commander." "Brilliant! I see you're a man who understands these things. That's the most important thing between us! And I hope, like Miss Heina was saying...if we should happen to lose, Eintorian will take all of the responsibility, yes?" "It will be just as I told you, Your Highness," Heina answered on my behalf. "Good! Then let me watch what you can do! Ah, but not from the front lines. I'll pull back a little and wait for you to deliver news of our victory! Hah hah hah!" As Duke Yohanett departed with a hearty laugh, Yusen gave me a questioning look. "Why was Duke Plenett removed as commander?" "Because he wasn't up to the task," I replied. "Yes, and as we suspected, the king viewed Duke Plenett as a threat," Heina added. "With only a little prodding, he quickly joined hands with Duke Yohanett and agreed to this plan." One of the biggest fears of a king was that his close associates would amass too much authority for themselves. Even greater was the fear of rebellion. Of course, Duke Yohanett won't be getting the credit for this war either. All of that needs to go to Eintorian. * Even after Duke Plenett was forced to leave for the capital, the stalemate continued for several more days. After all, his removal didn't change the fact that this was a siege battle, and therefore, we couldn't rush out to meet the enemy recklessly. The focal point of the front lines was Heberett, which was especially crowded. But that was only to be expected. There were a lot of forces massed there, between the existing Gebelian defenders and the Eintorian reinforcements. Castle Heberett had been transformed into a fortress. The same went for Midrett Castle and Eugena Castle, of course. Currently, I had Erheet and Jint at Midrett Castle, while Yusen and Gibun were at Eugena Castle. I had also reassigned the Royal Gebelian Army to retainers recommended by Adonia and redeployed them to each of the castles. Naturally, Adonia and I assumed direct command of Heberett Castle ourselves. Knowing Valdesca, it was plain to see that he'd execute some sort of scheme here. After all, it would take months to fight a traditional siege battle, and time was against Naruya. That was the biggest advantage of a siege battle. We only had to defend ourselves to win. That's why he'll constantly be trying to catch us by surprise. And it won't be with just one or two plans either. I expect him to challenge us with a whole series of different strategies. Our objective is to efficiently fend them off...but just defending doesn't feel that impressive, huh? For that reason, I chose to prepare my troops and wait. How would the enemy come at us? That was the critical question. However, Naruya continued to stay put. It was Yohanett who came instead. "Are the Naruyans still keeping quiet?" He'd set up his camp as commander-in-chief of the combined forces far to the rear of the fighting, but for some reason, he had still come to visit the front lines. "Well, the wait is to our advantage, so I suppose it doesn't matter," he remarked. "Make sure you defend this place properly. I'll leave my retainers here with you, so use them as you see fit!" I had tensed up for a moment, worrying that he'd grown impatient at the lack of enemy attacks. I'd feared he would say something like, "They're scared! Why don't you go out there and attack them instead?" but apparently not. Fortunately, Yohanett stood by his earlier statement that he wouldn't tell us what to do—he'd come only to check on the situation before disappearing again. The problem occurred that night when Naruya launched a raid. "They're finally here! And at night too!" Adonia exclaimed after hearing the report and rushing to rouse me from my sleep. I rose, got ready, and hurried outside. That was when Heina ran up to us. "Your Majesty! It's the enemy!" "I've already heard. It's about time they showed up." I was getting sick of waiting. "Your Excellency! Your Excellency!" Not long after we headed outside, Adonia's retainer rushed over to us. "Why the fuss? We already know the Naruyans are attacking! We're going there now!" "That's not it, Your Excellency! It's treachery! Our allies have betrayed us!" the man shouted, spittle flying everywhere. Heina and I looked at one another. As we did, Adonia seized his retainer by the front of his shirt. "Betrayed us? What are you talking about?" "Duke Yohanett's men suddenly opened the north gates! And now...the Naruyans are flooding through..." "So, you're saying that Duke Yohanett betrayed us?" "That's how it seems!" Adonia turned to look at me, his brow furrowed in disbelief. "Let's head to the north gate for now," I suggested. Adonia nodded and we ran there swiftly. The Naruyans were indeed pouring through them. At the front of their forces was Yohanett's retainer, leading the way—a blatant betrayal. Seeing this, Adonia's face turned bright red. "What have you done?!" he shouted. "Your Excellency, Gebel's fortunes are already on the decline," replied Yohanett's retainer. "It's absolute folly to think that joining with Eintorian will protect us!" "How does that justify abandoning your pride as a Gebelian to become the dog of another nation?!" Adonia attacked the man, his face incandescent with rage. Duke Yohanett had turned on us. Every country had its treasonous snakes, and playing your enemies against one another was a time-honored tradition. So we had tried to use Duke Yohanett to defeat Duke Plenett, only to in turn have him used against us this way. "Defend His Excellency!" As Adonia threw himself into battle, his retainers all raced forward to confront Duke Yohanett's retainer and his men. That was how the Naruyan cavalry, who burst through the gate after them, were able to break up our formation. Naruyan First Army Morale: 98 Training: 99 The Naruyan soldiers in this attack were elites. The First Army. That's the unit led by the King of Naruya. They were taking into account the fact that Adonia was at Heberett Castle. Valdesca had seemingly been trying to keep the King of Naruya from encountering Adonia before now, but he must have changed his policy. That could only mean one thing: Valdesca had a concrete vision of how this operation was going to bring them to victory. * Several days before the night raid, Mutega, the ninth-ranked member of the Ten Commanders of Naruya, received secret orders from Valdesca to make contact with Duke Yohanett. "You're offering to make me lord over all of Gebel?" "Yes, you will become the Duke of Gebel after this war," Mutega replied. "His Majesty never forms alliances, but he does value obedience. He is generous to those who submit of their own accord." "H-He is? And he has such authority..." Gebel had continued to lose, even after Adonia had joined the war, and this was in large part due to the authority of the King of Naruya. That was what Yohanett believed, and it was why he was so quick to nod. "Besides, do you even believe Gebel can endure this?" Mutega asked. "Think about where the lines of battle currently are. It pains me to suggest this, but could it be that due to the actions of Duke Plenett's faction, you've never been given the power you ought to hold? Although you'll have to submit to His Majesty, at least within Gebel, you'll be able to rule like a king. Heh heh." Mutega chuckled as he offered this shady deal to Yohanett. Power and his own survival were the two things the duke wanted most. If he could have them both, then it mattered little to Yohanett whether he served the King of Gebel or the King of Naruya. "Hmm, this is quite a weighty proposition," said Duke Yohanett. "Could you give me some time to consider?" "Not long. I will return tomorrow." There was a reason Valdesca had sent Mutega. Valdesca had always foreseen an Eintorian intervention, and he'd considered a number of ways that he might outwit Erhin. Valdesca also would've never overlooked the relationship between Plenett and Yohanett or the one between Yohanett and Eintorian. And based on the information he'd gathered, Yohanett was a classic example of a fair-weather ally. That made him the easiest to crack open and exploit. "Aah, Your Highness," said Mutega. "There is one thing I forgot to tell you. Even with Duke Plenett driven off, it is his son Adonia whose deeds will stand out. So even if you become the commander-in-chief of the Gebelian forces, it is questionable whether you will be able to take credit for your achievements..." Mutega did not come right out and say it. He also left it to the end, as per Valdesca's instructions. Yohanett mentally cursed the man. I'm already well aware of that. Don't think you're so clever! However, the proposal was still alluring. As soon as Mutega left, Yohanett immediately consulted one of his closest associates. "Who do you think will win?" "Your Highness, the lancers from Eintorian may appear powerful at first glance, but that image is ultimately a false one." "It is?" "Eintorian has won two victories against Naruya, but never in a total war, with the Ten Commanders, the King of Naruya, and Frann Valdesca all in play. What's more, Eintorian's king, the one who has fought Naruya, is not participating this time. I can't see a mere sixty thousand reinforcements turning the tide. It's clear as day to me. Naruya's army is the mightiest on this continent." "That all sounds very reasonable," Yohanett agreed with a nod. The scales suddenly started to tilt toward Naruya. This was a gamble, and he absolutely had to pick the winning horse. However, no matter how many times he thought about it, it seemed he had far more to gain from a Naruyan victory. That outcome was already the more likely one anyway. It was obviously better to side with them. He'd already heard that Herald was now ruled by a noble who had surrendered. That only made the offer on the table more appealing... Far more appealing than the proposal Eintorian had brought to him. * It was a few hours before Mutega made contact with Duke Yohanett, on the same day that Heina had made contact with him in the capital. She didn't think that Duke Yohanett was trustworthy. He was a small man, always ready to switch sides—the type she hated most. Whenever she met a man like him, some sense inside of her acted up, and she naturally got goose bumps. This time, that sense once again proved accurate. However, they still needed to prevent Duke Plenett from interfering, so she went ahead with persuading Duke Yohanett as planned. With a man like him who was only focused on his own self-interest, all she had to do was dangle some bait and he'd quickly take it. That had made it simple to get Duke Plenett recalled. If she had Adonia help fabricate evidence that Duke Plenett was planning in secret, Duke Yohanett would have to go for their proposal. That was what Heina was thinking as she left his mansion. "I'm sorry for the wait. Please, come this way." On her way out, she passed the head chamberlain. He was leading in a man who was dressed like a member of the nobility. Taken on its own, this wasn't anything out of the ordinary. But something about it struck Heina as incredibly unusual. The head chamberlain was acting as if it were the man's first visit. There was a certain tension in the air too. No... Is it fear? If this noble was affiliated with the duke, he should have been to the mansion dozens of times before now, so the treatment he was receiving was strange. Also, the dukes were incredibly prideful men. They didn't let just anybody in to see them. Yet here was a noble visiting him for the first time in the middle of a war. Suddenly, another man flashed through her mind: Duke Ronan. Having endured humiliation so many times just to curry favor with Duke Ronan, this scene felt all the more off to her. However, there wasn't anything she could do about it right away. Heina saddled up and rode off to join Erhin as soon as she could. "Your Majesty, I witnessed something strange." "Something strange?" Erhin repeated. Heina relayed her observations: a noble was visiting Duke Yohanett for the first time during a war, and the head chamberlain seemed unusually frightened. There must have been some reason for the visit, just as there had been for Heina's. And if he was visiting Duke Yohanett, then... Erhin immediately went with Heina, who had a pass that would let them through the gates, and they hid outside Duke Yohanett's mansion. The goal was to get a look at this noble for himself. Eventually, a man who looked like a noble stepped out of the mansion. Erhin immediately activated the system. Mutega Ramey Age: 26 Martial: 89 Intelligence: 65 Command: 71 Instantly, he uncovered the name of the suspicious man Heina had witnessed. Erhin could only laugh at what he learned. He already knew that name. He'd had the Droy Company infiltrate Naruya in order to thoroughly investigate each of the Ten Commanders, and Mutega Ramey was one of them. That meant Naruya had also made contact with Duke Yohanett. * The day after that secret meeting with Mutega, Duke Yohanett made his appearance at Heberett, confirming his betrayal. As a result, the Eintorian Army prepared for battle. The way he'd come and gone was suspicious enough on its own, but on top of that, he'd left his retainers behind. Of course, I only realized how dodgy this situation was because I already knew that Yohanett had been meeting with Naruya in secret. If I hadn't known, Valdesca would have beat me for sure. I was going to have to chalk this one up to good luck on my part. Sending the Droy Company to uncover the names of the Ten Commanders had also proved incredibly useful, since the system didn't display affiliations outside combat. As a result of all this, we were able to swiftly respond to the Naruyans coming through the opened gates. Obviously, it would have been possible to defeat Yohanett's retainers before this moment, revealing his betrayal. However, that could have backfired on us—it was entirely possible that we would've been treated as traitors for attacking them. Or, alternatively, Yohanett might have discarded his retainers like a lizard dropping its tail and then tried to talk his way out of it. That was why we'd quietly waited for the betrayal. Once I dealt with Yohanett, the forces of the Gebel Kingdom would be completely under my control. For the duration of this war, at least. I also benefited from them opening the gates and letting the Royal Naruyan Army in. For those two reasons, I sat back and let Yohanett's plan proceed. "All units, intercept the enemy!" On Heina's command, thirty thousand Eintorian troops rushed the Naruyan First Army. Ten thousand lancers and five thousand shield bearers stopped the Naruyan cavalry, and the remaining fifteen thousand infantry supported them in that task. Only the Eintorian troops had been told to prepare for this. Although Adonia was trustworthy, we couldn't know whether any of the people serving under him were in cahoots with Yohanett. Who can be trusted, and who can't? That will all be laid bare tonight. I rushed to the front of the gates and began leading our defense. Meanwhile, the Naruyan cavalry was pouring in because the gates were open. This is the First Army, which should mean the King of Naruya is here. He would want to lead his elite forces personally. But Valdesca would never allow his king to stand in the vanguard. I couldn't be sure of that, of course, but I knew that Valdesca wouldn't plan anything that could result in his king being isolated. What if King Cassia does come in? I'll have to fight him with Adonia at my side. If we could close the gates and kill the king of Naruya...that would bring their momentum to a full stop! I looked around just to be sure, but King Cassia was nowhere to be seen...yet. There was another person in his place. The vanguard of the First Army was pouring in right now, and their vanguard captain had just made her appearance. I didn't need the system to tell me who she was. It was the first ranked of the Ten Commanders, Medelian. But she didn't fight the way she usually did. Instead of using her powerful area-of-effect skill that made the swords of the fallen float into the air and strike her opponents, she was just looking around. Our eyes met. Instantly, she ran toward me. Adonia had been cutting down the enemy cavalry one after another, but once he spotted her, he started heading in my direction too. "I'll handle her!" he declared. "No, dealing with the cavalry is more important right now. Join up with Heina and follow her commands!" I shouted back. I turned and headed toward Medelian myself. Cassia's waiting somewhere behind her. I don't know if it's a smart move to summon Daitoren at this point. Despite my uncertainty, I needed to confront her. "We meet again," I said. I expected her to say, "Finally, we can fight!" and come at me, but for some reason, she pointed behind me without drawing her sword. "Shut up and come with me!" Shut up and come with you? That line sounded like something a thug might say before dragging a person into an alleyway to rob them. But after shouting it at me, Medelian ran off in the direction she'd been pointing. Basically, into Heberett Castle. She's the enemy's vanguard captain. Her job is to break past my lancers and shield bearers, but she isn't even looking at the soldiers. She acted like a total battle maniac before. But now...why doesn't she seem interested in fighting? I debated what to do for a while, but it was actually advantageous to get her off this battlefield. After all, if she used her skill, our battle lines would definitely collapse. That was why I decided to follow her, even though she could be leading me into a trap. Is she trying to lure me away from the battlefield? No, that can't be it. Not having someone like her, who can use wide area attacks, is actually a bigger loss for Naruya. Whatever the case, I'll have to brave the danger if I want to find out what she's really thinking. I had already given Heina all of her orders, so I followed Medelian. She was waiting for me in the shadow of one of the buildings in town. No one else was around. The moment she saw me, she dismounted from her horse and beckoned for me to come with her. I slid off my own horse and followed her. Leaving her horse behind, she led me into a gap between the buildings. We ended up in a back alleyway that would shield us from any prying eyes. "You're acting weird again... What are you even thinking?" I asked. "Don't tell me Valdesca put you up to whatever it is you're doing here." Medelian responded by grabbing my arm and pulling my face closer to hers. Then, she whispered into my ear. "This has nothing to do with my brother. Ugh, that's not the problem! You do know that stupid duke from the Gebel Kingdom betrayed you, right? That's why the gates opened!" Um, if you're going to whisper, at least do it quietly. My ears hurt. "What, Medelian? You're reporting him to me? Are you planning to turn against Naruya?" What she had told me was definitely a secret, the kind of thing that ought to be reserved for a clandestine meeting like this. She couldn't let Naruya's soldiers overhear. "Aaaugh! You dummy! Why are you so unfazed? The gates are open, and the castle's about to fall. I'll help you, so run away right now. My brother's laid layers and layers of traps, so if you stay, you'll get wiped out!" Medelian sounded genuinely concerned for me. She wants me to run. I couldn't understand what was happening. Why would she try to save me? She was even going so far as to act as an informant. From Naruya's perspective, this was a grave act of treason. Of course, I already knew everything that she'd told me. It seemed bizarre to hear my enemy—the first-ranked member of the Ten Commanders and a daughter of the esteemed House of Valdesca—talking like this. "You're going to help me? Your enemy?" "That's what I said! Have you even been listening?" "Why?" "Why...? Augh! Are you trying to get yourself killed here? I know you're strong and all, but His Majesty's stronger. You don't stand a chance against him!" I finally understood. She's genuinely trying to save me. This isn't Valdesca putting her up to it. She's acting all on her own here. "I don't know why you're doing this, but whatever. I appreciate your kindness. But I don't need to run away." "You must have lost your mind to be saying that. Are you running a fever?" Medelian pressed her hand to my forehead, a look of utter bewilderment on her face. She then cocked her head to the side. "You don't seem overheated... So you're saying this with a clear head? If you are, then you're a real idiot!"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3_4.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 She gave me another look of heartfelt concern. This woman's getting weirdly close, sticking her hand on my forehead like this. Under these circumstances, who would think that we were enemies? We look more like lovers right now. If anyone sees this, won't I be branded as a traitor...? "Hold on, you don't understand the situation," I said. "I already knew they were going to betray us." "Huh...? You're lying!" "I'm serious. I've taken every countermeasure, so I promise I won't die. Just watch. You'll see for yourself whether I'm lying or not." I peeled Medelian off me and left her there, then headed for my horse. "Hey, hold on!" she called after me, but now that I knew what she was up to, I didn't need to hang around any longer. "I appreciate the warning. But we're going to win." Medelian just glared at me until my horse galloped away. I immediately returned to the battlefield and went to Heina for a sitrep. "Your Majesty! Where were you?!" "I'll explain later. What's the situation?" "Around ten thousand soldiers have come through the gates." "That's about right, then. Let's get up on the walls immediately." "Yes, sire!" Ten thousand men in the vanguard, huh? The king will be in the main force that's waiting behind them. If we were to let too many of them inside, things would get out of hand. I decided to take this vanguard force as a gift from Yohanett. Thanks to how shifty he was, we had been able to thoroughly prepare for them. Adonia was leading the Eintorian forces and killing cavalrymen by the thousands. So, with the enemy bogged down inside the walls, I looked outside the castle. For the moment, I couldn't spot the King of Naruya out there in the darkness. According to what Medelian had just told me, there were other plans in motion, which was all the more reason to end this battle quickly so we could prepare for the next. "Now, Heina!" "Yes, sire!" When I gave the signal, soldiers ran up onto the walls carrying barrels of oil. They quickly overturned them and let the oil pour down outside the north gates. At the same time, my archers let loose the flaming arrows they had prepared. Fire met oil, and then... Bwoosh! In no time, the highly flammable oil created a wall of flames in front of the north gates. "Gwaaaaaagh!" Doused in oil and shot with flaming arrows, the Naruyan cavalry trying to enter through the north gate quickly found themselves ablaze. The wall of fire rising up from the ground forced the cavalry unit to back away, at least temporarily. "Take aim, archers. Focus your fire in front of the north gates!" With Heina's second command, arrows began raining down. All of this was obviously to buy time for us to close the gates. I immediately descended into the castle and shouted, "Adonia! Go with your men to close the gates! Once they're secure, we'll surround and eliminate the enemies inside!" "I'm on it!" It didn't seem like Adonia had a good grasp of the situation, but he had picked up on the fact that he ought to close the gates. He quickly broke past his foes and sprinted toward them. Meanwhile, our infantry began surrounding the enemy cavalry. The shield bearers stood in front of the enemy, blocking their way, while the lancers thrust their spears through the gaps in the shields—this was the most effective tactic against attacking cavalry. Ultimately, we were able to surround and eliminate ten thousand of the enemy's troops almost instantly. The Gebelian Royal Army, who had been delayed in their arrival, soon began to join up with us. Silence fell over the battlefield. "Arrest Yohanett's retainers and their men at once!" Adonia ordered the Gebelian troops. The Eintorian Army let out a victorious shout. "Yeaaaaaaaah!" This was still just the first of many battles to come, but nonetheless, the Eintorian Army had fended off a surprise attack from Naruya's ten-thousand-man vanguard force while taking hardly any losses. That was the most important thing. Of course, there was no time to bask in the afterglow of victory. "Urgh... How dare you." Medelian suddenly emerged with her cheeks puffed up in annoyance. As she dismounted, soldiers surrounded her on all sides, swords ready. "I don't think you get to say that when you're the ones who attacked us," I pointed out. "What now? Do you want to try and solo my whole army?" She glared at me across the wall of soldiers around her, which was two or three men deep. Then, raising her hands, she said, "I surrender."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Chapter 4: Shooting Star, Goddess, and Battle Fiend "You surrender?" "That's right. Have you got holes in your ears or something?" Uh, ears are supposed to have holes. I'd asked her to repeat herself because I couldn't believe my ears. It was simply unfathomable. And yet, for some reason, Medelian thrust her chest out proudly as she nodded. "Who is she?" asked Adonia, who had returned from mopping up the rest of the enemy. Of course he'd want to know that. She was armed to the teeth, and yet she'd surrendered without a fight. How could he be anything but suspicious? On top of that, it was plain for anyone to see that Medelian wasn't one of Naruya's rank and file. She had the sort of customized armor that only a noble could wear, and the swords she carried were as gaudy as could be. "One of the Ten Commanders," I answered. "Then wouldn't it be better to kill her?" It was a reasonable thing for Adonia to ask, but he wouldn't have an easy time killing her. Besides, quietly taking her prisoner would result in fewer casualties. Ultimately, after agonizing over what to do, I gave the orders. "Just tie her up for now and throw her in the prison. I've got questions. I'll interrogate her personally later." I don't know what to say. I couldn't figure out her true intentions. It hadn't made sense when she'd wanted to run away together either, but surrendering like this when she didn't have to was even more incomprehensible. What exactly is she thinking? Is this another one of Valdesca's strategies? No, it doesn't feel like it. She was the one element that felt completely foreign to me on this battlefield. "Hold on! Don't touch me. I may be surrendering, but I won't be disarmed. And I don't want you tying me up either!" Now she was talking utter nonsense. In what world did a prisoner have the right to dictate terms like this? But it seemed she was serious. She was entirely capable of fleeing in this situation. "If you come near me, I'll kill you all!" she spat, threatening the soldiers. For their sake, I shouted, "Everyone, stop!" This had to be handled delicately, or she could potentially wipe out my men. There's no point in accepting her surrender if we take losses anyway. "Sire?" questioned Adonia. He'd recently begun addressing me that way. "What is the meaning of this? Why would you let her go free?!" He probably can't comprehend it. I can relate to that. Maybe I should double-team her with Adonia? If we both attack her at the same time, she'll probably go home. I'm starting to feel that might even be for the best. On the other hand, I didn't know why she had surrendered, and I wanted to uncover whatever secret plan might lie behind that decision. But what if there is no plan? Even if there wasn't a strategy involved, I was still curious why she was doing this. Especially because, like Valdesca, I wanted to make her my subordinate someday. "Adonia, we have bigger concerns right now. Go hunt down Yohanett's retainers inside the castle. We're going to go and seize Yohanett soon too, so you prepare for that. I'll deal with her." Adonia considered this and seemed to conclude that dealing with Yohanett's retainers was the more urgent matter. "Understood," he said before rushing to carry out my commands. Once he was gone, I turned to Medelian once again. "Yeesh, you said you'd surrender. If you don't want us to touch you or tie you up, then what are we supposed to do?" This got a smile out of her. She pranced over to me and extended both her hands. "It's fine if you tie me up. Also, I don't like prisons, so take me to your room instead. Those are my conditions!" "Huh? What kind of conditions are those?! Does any prisoner get that kind of treatment?" "One does! And she's right here in front of you." Talking to Medelian always threw me off-balance. "Damn it... So, is there any point binding you when you can use your swords freely, even with your hands tied?" "Nothing in this world can hold me captive! But I'm offering you that honor. You're not going to tell me you don't want it, are you?" "Is it a matter of whether I want it? If you're just screwing around, I'll hand you back to Valdesca. Or...do you want to fight right here? I bet you'd have a hard time against both me and Adonia." "Adonia...? Oooh, that guy from earlier? I feel like my brother said to be careful of him. But he doesn't interest me. More importantly! Not having me fighting against you is a pretty big advantage, don't you think? If I fight for real, I'll be a real menace to you and your troops, right? But if you tie me up, I'll kill less of your men." "You're right about that..." I was gradually getting sick of talking about it, so I gave up and just bound her arms. "Huh? You really tied me up!" Is that something to squeal with glee about? The problem is...I have to go capture Yohanett now. Should I put her in my room, like she suggested? Not a chance. Throwing her in prison is just as impossible. There's no telling what she might do if I leave her alone. "All right, prisoner, come with me for now. We've got a traitor to take care of." "Really?! Sounds fun!" Medelian's eyes sparkled all the brighter now that her hands were tied. * "Hah hah hah hah! This kingdom will be mine. Has word of our victory come in yet?" In the camp erected behind Heberett Castle, Yohanett was laughing loudly while he drank himself silly. It wasn't the Gebel Kingdom's victory he was waiting for, of course. No, it was word that Heberett Castle had fallen to the Royal Naruyan Army. However... "You won't be receiving any such report, Yohanett!" Adonia stormed into the commander's tent at Heberett, killing the members of the Royal Guard who stood in his way. I had ultimately brought Medelian along with me and gone with Adonia to launch a surprise attack on the camp. "Uh, Adonia? What are you doing here?!" Yohanett blinked in confusion as he dropped the goblet he had been holding and collapsed into his chair. "I have no words for traitorous scum! If I had my way, I'd kill you right here...but I'm not impulsive like you are. I'll escort you back to the capital, and His Majesty can decide what to do with you!" Adonia was suppressing his anger, but somehow, that actually provoked Yohanett more. "Hmph, looks like you got lucky in fending off Naruya. But it won't do you any good! We can't beat the Naruyans! Eintorian? Don't make me laugh! How far can you trust that advisor from Eintorian?! I have Naruya's backing! They'll save me, I'm sure of it!" Not if you get decapitated first. What does he think he's saying? This is why I hate guys like him the most. As I stood there, too appalled for words, a red bullet shot past me—Medelian. Even though I didn't care about the insult, she'd launched herself at him with a flying kick. Wham! Her hands were bound, but her body soared gracefully through the air, twisted, and then she stuck the landing. She followed up by kicking the fallen Yohanett some more. "Who do you think you're pointing your stubby little finger at?! I'm the only one who gets to disrespect him like that, you pig!" Wham! Bam! Thump, thump, thump, thump! For some reason, Medelian was pissed. It gave me goose bumps seeing her like that. Adonia was just standing there, similarly awestruck. However, if I let her keep whaling on Yohanett, she was going to kill him, so I seized her by the arms. "Whoa, whoa, calm down. We're taking this guy back to the Gebelian capital." "Hmph! I hate his type! They're the worst. And hold on, didn't he betray you? That's why my brother... Ah!" Medelian stopped herself and covered her mouth. "Well, um... You know how it is. Heh heh." It was like she'd almost leaked some vital information but had stopped herself just in time. Noticing the suspicious look I was giving her, Medelian quickly turned away. She gave Yohanett another kick for good measure. "Ugh! This is your fault!" "Hold on, we get it already, so stop that," I told her. "Anyway, why are you so mad about what he said when you're on Naruya's side?" "He said something?" she asked. "Yeah." "Ooh, yeah, he did, didn't he? Hmph, it looks like you do get it. But that's not so important anymore!" Medelian's hair was a mess after she'd repeatedly kicked Yohanett. It was sticking to her cheek. Adonia looked back and forth between Medelian and me. He clearly found our relationship suspicious. But that was the thing... So did I. What's with her anyway? "Adonia! We're done here, so take Yohanett to the capital immediately. And tell King Gebel to give you command of the whole army. You do that, and I guarantee we'll win. You're the only one the king can trust now. He'll leave everything to you, at least until the war ends." "Got it. I'll be right back!" Adonia nodded, then dragged Yohanett away. It was good that we could seize control of the Royal Gebelian Army. If Adonia was made commander-in-chief, then I had Gebel in my palm. After all, he trusted me and would do as I said. That would take care of all our problems. For now, at least. "You're dragging him away?! I'm not done hurting him yet!" Medelian complained. "I think you've done enough..." Our other enemy, who was staying with me, was still angry at Yohanett for some reason. * "So he knew about the betrayal?" Wham! Valdesca bashed his head against the table. His hands were shaking. Eintorian had been trying to use Yohanett. There was bad blood between him and Duke Plenett, so it was predictable that they would use him to try to remove Plenett after the reinforcements arrived. Valdesca thought he'd been able to get a step ahead this time. He thought he'd be able to catch Erhin off guard after Yohanett replaced Plenett. Wham! After striking his head again, Valdesca bit his lip and tried to calm down. In war, it didn't matter how many times he lost. If he won just once at the end and took all the spoils, then he was still the victor. He'd already given up on protecting his pride. He just had to win. As long as he ultimately triumphed, it didn't matter. Besides, this strategy hadn't been all that important. Valdesca called in Mutega, the one he had sent to convince Yohanett. "There are still other seeds of discord in the enemy camp," said Valdesca. "Restoring Duke Plenett to his position will be most effective. He was stripped of his command without being suspected of anything concrete. If he becomes commander-in-chief again, the friction between the Eintorian Army and Royal Gebelian Army will build to critical levels. They won't be able to coordinate closely after that." Valdesca was prepared to use any means necessary, no matter how underhanded, to win. "You are to return to the Gebelian capital at once and spread rumors that the commander of the Eintorian forces is Erhin Eintorian himself. Understood?" "Yes, sir!" Of course, this was still only one of the means at Valdesca's disposal. Another plan had gone into motion at the same time as Yohanett's betrayal. * After dismantling the camp Yohanett had been using, I ended up taking the road back to Heberett Castle with just Medelian. At some point, she had undone the ropes binding her arms. They must have come loose during the earlier scuffle, and frankly, I didn't see any point in tying her back up again. Halfway back to Heberett Castle, Medelian pointed to the sky. It had only been a few hours since Yohanett's nighttime insurrection, and the stars still twinkled above us. "Huh? Look over there! A falling star!" The skies of this world were so clear that countless stars were visible at night. It had been a while since I'd come to this world, so I was no longer moved by how magnificent these starry skies were compared to those of the modern world I'd been born into. However, this was my first time seeing a shooting star. "Hey, you're right," I murmured. "It's pretty!" Medelian exclaimed. "Yeah, it's pretty." "And what am I?" "Pretty." Wait, hold on. The word slipped out before I had time to think. "You mean it?" she asked. "Ah hah hah hah hah! I'd expect no less from the man I chose! My brother and His Majesty have never called me that!" "Uh..." She was so busy running around with a giddy smile that I lost the chance to explain myself. But how can I take it back when she looks so happy? Besides, it doesn't seem like she's lying. What kind of environment did she grow up in? Well...knowing Valdesca, he's not the type to compliment someone on their appearance. And Medelian herself probably wasn't interested in anything but fighting. Still, with her catlike eyes and red hair, it was fair to say that she was a pretty girl. She didn't have the noble beauty of Euracia or Serena. No, hers was more wild. "I didn't really mean to say that earlier..." "I know that, obviously! But it's too bad! Because we're enemies! Hee hee!" What do you mean, 'too bad'? I don't know what you think you know, but you're definitely wrong. Please, if we're enemies, act like an enemy. Her attitude toward me during this situation hadn't been hostile at all. Back at Heberett Castle, she'd led me into an alley, and from the moment she'd laid a hand on my forehead, she'd been getting awfully close to me—too close. The more this went on, the less keen I was about bringing this source of headaches back to Heberett Castle with me. She had also gotten genuinely angry and kicked Yohanett when he'd insulted me. Honestly, it felt less like she was an enemy and more like she and I had an incredibly close relationship. But she was undeniably one of Naruya's Ten Commanders...and a daughter of the House of Valdesca. "Hey, Medelian," I said to the giggling girl. "Yeah? What?" Medelian stood in front of me, peering at me with slightly upturned eyes. She smiled. No, seriously, what is going on? Why's she acting so charming? "Let's sit down for a while. I think we need to talk." "Talk? Fine with me. We're enemies, but I'll allow you that much." We were crossing a hill at the moment, so I sat down on the hillside, and she sat down right next to me—so close that we were touching. Hah hah, what a laugh. How can she say, "We're enemies," when she's getting this close to me? As things stood, I'd been thinking about how to win her over to my side. But the total lack of any distance between us was making me start to hallucinate. Had we been this close all along? "Just one question. What's your goal?" I asked. "Even if I concede that you came to Heberett Castle to help me, what reason did you have to surrender after that? You could have gotten away, right? I'm sure there's something behind your decision." I thought it was a pretty serious question, but Medelian just looked shocked. "Huh? Well, it's because... Augh! I don't want to talk about that! It's boring!" she shouted. She grabbed my face with both hands and stared into my eyes as she continued. "What if I was suddenly like, 'I'm gonna kill you!' and attacked you right here? Now that'd be hilarious! I love fun stuff like that. It makes things unpredictable. I hate anything that's a pain." She suddenly got on top of me and pressed her body close to mine. "Hee hee!" she giggled. Medelian's proximity was messing with my mind. She smelled nice, and her strangely pleasant fragrance teased my nostrils. It felt ticklish somehow. I decided that just sitting here and letting her do as she pleased wasn't going to solve anything, so I grabbed her by both arms and flipped her so she was on the bottom. "And what if I killed you here while you're so defenseless?" I murmured. Medelian stared up at me. The world was silent as our eyes met. For a while, she simply blinked. Then, finally, she opened her mouth. "You say that, but you didn't kill me. Just like you didn't back then. Besides...even now, I could ram a sword through your back in an instant. Maybe you're the one who's too unguarded?" So she likes the thrill... Is that it? What the hell is going on? I've never dealt with anyone like her before. "I give up... You win." I got off her, at a loss for words. But then she grabbed me by the arm and said something totally off the wall. "Whatever, I'm tired!" "Huh?" "It's because you tossed me on my back. I'm gonna sleep, so you'd better protect me while I'm passed out!" After saying this, she actually closed her eyes. Could she be any more capricious? "You want me, an enemy, to protect you? From other enemies? Hey... Wait just a minute." "Zzz!" "Zzz"? You're just saying the sound out loud! "Oh, fine... I'll do it." Heberett Castle was plainly visible at the bottom of the hill. It was nothing if not peaceful down there. The Naruyan forces had lost ten thousand men when their plan to use Yohanett as a traitor failed. This had caused them to pull back from Heberett completely. Whatever, I guess. I'll go along with her whims for now. There were things that I wanted to think about by myself anyway, so I decided to kill some time. The most fun thing to do in war is to boldly outwit your opponent. Like what Valdesca tried to do to me here. What's he thinking? He must know I saw through the betrayal by now. Is he frustrated? I'll bet. But he couldn't have expected one little trick like this to decide the entire contest. Which means... I looked next to me, at Medelian. She'd been pretending to sleep at first, but she'd dozed off for real at some point. "Zzz..." What a happy look on her face. Even a ferocious beast can look cute when it's sleeping. I couldn't help but murmur, "If only she could always be like this..." * The reinforcements that Ramie had dispatched to the Gebel Kingdom had only just made it back to their own border when a man approached them. He was an envoy from Naruya. This messenger bore a secret missive, one containing a request for military support. "So Naruya is offering us an alliance...?" "It's not an alliance." The high priest cocked his head to the side at this statement. The envoy was calling on them to fight but was insisting it wasn't an alliance. What in the world was going on? "The Ramie Kingdom is fated to fall, even without us ever moving against you. Surely, you are not so audacious as to think that you can fight us whilst already embroiled in conflicts with the Rotonai Kingdom and the Eintorian Kingdom? Well... It's only a matter of time," the Naruyan envoy explained with a sneer. The Ramien high priest's face flashed red. He was so angry that he was about to lose control of himself. He'd thought that a call for nations to fight together would naturally entail an alliance. Yet this was no offer of alliance. It was a threat, and nothing more. "Who do you think we are?! Have you no fear of Lord Ramie's wrath?!" the high priest demanded threateningly, but the envoy simply smiled. "I see. Then you wish to go to war with us, High Priest." The envoy rose to his feet and turned to go without hesitation. "Ah... N-No, hold on a moment!" the high priest hurriedly called after the envoy. As much as it galled him to admit it, the Naruyans were right. In fact, they could only formulate this threat because of how right they were. If Naruya were to occupy the Gebel Kingdom and then roll straight across the Ramien border, then the Holy Ramie Kingdom would be in an incredibly dire situation. Even so, Naruya had offered nothing in return for Ramie's assistance. The Ramiens would be used up and then discarded. The high priest could see one advantage: Ramie would have the chance to rebuild their army while Naruya was preoccupied with fighting the Rotonai Kingdom or Eintorian Kingdom. If Ramie refused this offer, there would no doubt be risks for Naruya. After all, they would need to face the Royal Ramien Army while engaged with the combined forces of Gebel and Eintorian. However, being able to pull off that sort of thing was what had made Naruya a great power. The Ramiens' pride was thoroughly crushed. The high priest lamented that, although this offer was something he normally wouldn't have even entertained, his position demanded he treat the Naruyan envoy cordially. "This is all because we lost to Eintorian," the high priest grumbled to himself without meaning to. Not one to miss such a thing, the envoy grinned broadly. "Yes. That's precisely it." "Huh?" "I offer an opportunity to strike Eintorian—the nation that has wronged you. In short, you would be sending reinforcements to take revenge." Once the envoy had delivered the message Valdesca had sent him to convey, the high priest had no choice but to nod in agreement. "Take our fastest horse and go to the capital. Immediately!" Ultimately, the Ramien reinforcements decided to wait on the Gebelian border without ever returning to their own capital. The Ramien king summoned all of the high priests, with the exception of the one killed in Eintorian, for a strategy meeting where they accepted the Naruyan proposal. Or rather, where they were forced to accept it. No other option ever existed. Several days later, after resupplying in the surrounding domains, the Royal Ramien Army crossed the border into the Gebel Kingdom once more. The soldiers had tears in their eyes. This time, they came not as reinforcements, but as enemies. Obviously, they did this without a word to Gebel. They were greeted at the border by the Naruyan emissary, and the emissary told them Valdesca's strategy. * "Nghhh!" It was nearly dawn when Medelian awoke, yawning after a roughly three-hour nap. "That was a good sleep. I haven't been able to catch a wink lately, so... Huh?" After glancing around, she spotted me next to her. Her face lit up with glee. "Ooh, you were actually protecting me?" "Well, actually..." I couldn't leave her alone, so I'd kept watch over her all night. But it wasn't to protect her. It was because I had to monitor her. Incidentally, multiple wild beasts had appeared in the night to attack us. I had gotten ready to fight them, for lack of other options, but Medelian must have sensed their murderous intent or something. Each time she'd risen unsteadily to her feet and immediately launched a sword that killed the offending creature. The dead bodies still lay nearby. Apparently, that was what made her think I'd protected her. Did she not remember slaying them at all? When I explained this to her, she brought a hand to her mouth before bursting out laughing. I'd seen her do the same thing before. "No need to be embarrassed. Gosh, you're so cute! You should puff up your chest and be proud of what you did!" she said, sticking her own chest out. Guess she doesn't think she's too good to have someone else protect her. "So, do you think these guys are edible? I'm hungry," Medelian said. She rubbed her belly as she approached the wild beast carcasses. Then, she drew a sword and started butchering. She gutted the beasts, cutting them into pieces that would be easier to eat. "What are you waiting for? Get a fire started. A fire!" she ordered, looking at me with exasperation. "Yeah, yeah, I'll do it." In the end, I did as she said and helped her prepare. We sat around the campfire, cooking and eating the meat. Once she'd had her fill, Medelian lay down again. "Aah, I had a good sleep, and I'm full of food. I don't want to do anything now." Having declared that she was going on strike, Medelian stared into the sky for a while. She soon pointed up at the stars. "There sure are a lot of falling stars today! Did a whole lot of people die?" "Why would you ask that?" What do falling stars have to do with people dying? "Ooh... Is that the thing where the souls of the dead become stars in the sky?" "That's right. Isn't it obvious? Shooting stars are pretty, but if you think of them as that last flash before a person's life slips away, don't they feel even prettier?" I shook my head. "Death, huh? People in my homeland don't think of it that way." "Huh? Your homeland? So it's different in Eintorian?" "For us, they have nothing to do with death. But...we do have a belief about them. If you make a wish on a shooting star before it vanishes, it will come true." I don't believe it myself, but it's a lot more romantic than that death stuff. "As the star falls, its sparkling light lends great power to people's wishes." "Wow," Medelian said, impressed. "People sure think differently in Eintorian." "The tail of a star is filled with hope. Isn't it more romantic to think that? If your wish comes true, then great. And if it doesn't, well, it doesn't." "Are there people who've actually had their wishes granted?" "Yeah. There are." I don't know of any examples, and if wishes did come true, it was probably the result of people's own hard work...but I'll just say that it's happened anyway. "Okay, I'll make a wish too, then! It's gonna be big, so I'll save it for when there's a really big shooting star." Even though she'd treated this belief as strange, she seemed to like it. "So, how do I do this?" she asked, peering up at the sky. "Okay, here's how it works. You put your hands together." "L-Like this?" Medelian asked as she interlocked her fingers. She looked at me, eyes sparkling. "Yeah. Look at the star with your hands together, and make a wish in your heart. Yeah, that's the way to do it... It might work even better if you raised one leg." "One leg?" "Yeah. Support your body with just one leg and then slowly fall over." "Huh? Wha?!" Just like that, Medelian fell over, hands still joined, and rolled all the way to the bottom of the hill. I was just having a little fun with her. I hadn't expected her to actually do it. Shortly after that, Medelian came back with her hair full of grass and proceeded to energetically shout at me. "Wh-Why you...!" "The more you roll, the more likely your wish is to be granted," I explained. "I'm serious, you know? Don't get mad. How many times did you roll?" "Wait, really? Umm, err, five times?" "Pft! Ah hah hah hah hah hah hah!" The way she was counting the number on her fingers was so far from the image she gave off on the battlefield that I couldn't help but laugh. Medelian bit her lip as she kicked me. "Grrrr! You tricked me! When I was playing along to be nice too! You really are a bad guy!" "Sorry, but it was all true up to the part where you wove your fingers together. If you make the wish at that point, it might come true. That's the truth." "It is...? Well, whatever. I'll try it some other time." "So, what was this big wish of yours anyway?" I asked, suddenly curious, but Medelian just stuck her tongue out. "It's a secret!" She turned her back to me before adding, "Thanks. This helped to solidify how I feel. I'm going home now." "Huh?" "To tell you the truth, I have things to do...even if I don't really like my orders. So, bye-bye for now! Hee hee!" Medelian took off with a smile on her face. I'd been planning for us to part ways here anyway. Forcefully, if she wouldn't listen to reason. And yet, she moved first and left of her own accord. Honestly, she'd remained incomprehensible to me from beginning to end. * Having made it back to Heberett Castle, I waited for Adonia to return before carrying out my next strategy. My greatest concern had been that the Royal Gebelian Army would slip from my control, but with them totally under Adonia's command, I no longer needed to worry about that. "I'll be leaving the castle as part of the next operation. Adonia, I leave it to you to hold the battle line here. You can use my Eintorian troops as you see fit too." "Why so suddenly? What's going on?" Adonia looked surprised since I was letting him control my troops too. "Duke Plenett and Duke Yohanett both had the potential to wreck the plan, but now that we've taken them out of the picture, we need to make moves of our own. We can't just stay on the defensive forever. Things won't improve that way." "Then...do you have a strategy that will turn our fortune around?" "Of course. Right now, the Eintorian Army and the Royal Gebelian Army are at Heberett because it's the most important front. Isn't that right?" Adonia nodded. "It is, yes." "Well, that's the thing. Naruya thinks so too. So I'm going to outwit them." I gave Adonia a rough outline of my plan. Once he'd heard it, he was dumbfounded. This was a strategy I could never have carried out without him. But with a powerful warrior and commander like Erheet to stay by Adonia's side and work with him, I could feel comfortable trusting them to handle things here. So, once I had persuaded Adonia, I called Jint. We would be going in a small unit without soldiers. If a large force went on the move, we risked the enemy noticing, but having me and Jint quietly slip away wouldn't be so hard to pull off. We were heading for an area already held by Naruya. I looked at the system and noted that the enemy had positioned all of their troops toward the front. We were facing the enemy's main force at Heberett Castle. One unit that had vanished—the one belonging to their king. At this stage of the game, not even I could read every move Valdesca was making. Still... He's probably heading for the Gebelian capital. Which means...I need to use alternative methods to neutralize his plans to the highest degree possible. I planned to target a castle inside occupied territory. It was where Naruya had their supply base too. With supplies cut off, Naruya's situation would become more and more difficult. Adonia's raids hadn't gone after their bases. He'd only targeted the supply units as they were on the move. However, defeating the units again would be inefficient, and we couldn't expect that plan to achieve any great effect. Obviously, Jint and I couldn't assault a castle alone. But I had a plan. Without assaulting the supply units, we would take all of the castles in the rear, complicating the enemy's retreat. That was what I was looking to do here. * After leaving Heina and Erheet in command of the Eintorian Army, we departed Heberett Castle. Soon, we arrived behind the Royal Naruyan Army. We gazed at our first target, Bazarett Castle, which was in the former territory of the Gebel Kingdom. "We're attacking with just the three of us?" Jint asked. It was an uncharacteristic question for him. His protégé, Damon, had also come with us, and he had a tense look on his face. This is his first battle. I don't blame him for being nervous. "What's wrong? Are you scared?" I asked with a smile, but Damon shook his head. "Hardly! This is what Jint's been training me for!" He's got the right attitude, at least. Now we just have to see if he's actually of any use. "Well, we won't be doing this with just the three of us. I'm not that reckless. If I were, I wouldn't have had Jint bring you along—he and I have a monopoly on that sort of crazy stunt." Jint was with me when we'd opened the gates of Lynon Castle together and when we'd attacked an enemy castle in Rozern to burn their supplies. Those had both been reckless ideas, but I'd been able to pull them off thanks to Jint. "I'm just going to follow orders. No matter how ridiculous they sound." It was good of Jint to say that, but I shook my head. It was absolutely impossible for us to take every castle in the enemy's rear with just two men. Still, I couldn't afford to lose any more Eintorian troops. I'd already brought in every soldier that I could spare. The rest needed to stay and defend the homeland. Our enemies aren't idiots. If I devote too much of my strength toward beating the Naruyan Army, they'll target our undefended home front instead. It risks tempting other hyenas too. That would defeat the entire purpose. However, there was one group from which we could borrow strength. "O-Over there... It's the enemy!" Damon shouted, trembling as he looked off into the distance. I just laughed out loud. "Those aren't enemies." They were allies who'd taken the long way here through Runan. Because Runan was currently under Naruyan control, Naruya was likely aware of the existence of this force. There was no avoiding that. Still, if the Naruyans wanted to wipe out our allies, they needed to first get the message out and then get ready. On the other hand, we could team up with these allies immediately. Obviously, we were going to be faster. It's a race against time. Will we be able to destroy the supply bases before King Cassia of Naruya breaks through the front lines using Valdesca's plan? Well, I trust her more than anyone as a commander. And I trust the soldiers too. They respect her so much that they would throw their lives away at her command. The commander of the force that had just appeared raced boldly forward on her horse, her golden locks streaming behind her. "I am sorry to have kept you waiting. The Royal Rozernan Cavalry are here to render assistance to Eintorian." It was Euracia Rozern—my goddess of victory. * Royal Rozernan Army Cavalry: 30,000 Morale: 100 Training: 75 The Royal Rozernan Army had improved their Training considerably. They'd clearly been putting effort into developing their military since the war with Brijit. Their Morale had always been unusually high, but with Euracia's high Command applied on top of that, it was little wonder that they had a Morale of 100. Having arrived at the designated meeting point, Euracia dismounted and ran over to me. "Did we make it in time?" "Yeah, no problem there. We just arrived ourselves. Sorry to bring you all the way out here, by the way." "It's fine. My brother and the Rozernan nobility were in favor of sending troops this time. Hence the size of the force you see here... Hm?" Suddenly, Euracia stared at me. "What is it?" I asked. "You have...a strange smell on you," she said, bringing her face a little closer. Strange smell?
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 "Jint, do you smell anything?" "Nope, not a thing," Jint responded instantly. He wasn't the type to lie about something like this, but I looked to Damon, who was beside him, for confirmation. "I don't smell anything either...?" Damon also vouched for my innocence. But seriously, what did she think I smelled of? "It's a loathsome smell..." Euracia's brow furrowed, and she circled me. She sniffed in front, then sniffed again behind. Um, are you a dog? A detection dog? Euracia looked at me almost like she was a detective searching for a culprit. "How curious! I smell a woman! One I don't know." Huh? A woman? Euracia's eyes were filled with suspicion. What does she mean, a woman? Suddenly, Medelian came to mind. It was true that I'd gotten awfully close to her, but surely the scent had faded by now. It had been days since then. How could it linger like that? It seemed impossible. "That can't be right," I said. "I did meet an enemy, though. Uh, anyway, that's not important now. Let's set it aside and move along. We don't have time." Yeah, the surprise attack came first. I knew that if I let this go on, it was definitely going to be a headache. I took Euracia's hand and led her in front of the Rozernan forces. "Hey, hold on just a moment!" she protested. "Hurry it up. Get on your horse. Come on, let's go!" I forced Euracia, who was looking at me with suspicion, to mount her horse, and then we set off again with her troops. The Rozernan Army advanced at our command. With their Training score of over 70, they were able to do it in a somewhat orderly fashion. Soon enough, thirty thousand Rozernan troops had arrived in front of Bazarett Castle. Rozern had sent these men to us for two simple reasons. Partially, they wanted to repay their debt to me, but more importantly, once the Gebel Kingdom was taken by Naruya, Rozern would inevitably be their next target. They now had a border with the former territory of Runan. Though Runan was under Naruyan occupation, its lands were vast enough that Naruya didn't have full control of them yet. Knowing these things, I'd developed my read on the situation. While there had been a risk of discovery, I knew that the Rozernan Army would be able to make it here without suffering any delays. Unlike the Gebel Kingdom or Ramie Kingdom, Rozern had a fundamentally trusting relationship with me. The fact that Euracia was my ally had probably been a decisive factor too. She still held great influence in Rozern. That had helped her persuade them that driving off the Naruyans was in the long-term interest of Rozern. The supply bases would be somewhere to the rear. Obviously, the enemy would be changing their locations regularly out of wariness against any surprise attack. This meant that our primary objective was to take as many castles in the rear as we could. We would start by attacking Bazarett Castle, which wasn't prepared for us in the slightest. "Attack!" Valdesca was probably aware the Rozernan Army had joined the war now, and he'd be moving to do something about it, but he couldn't have had time to prepare just yet. Of course, the troops at Bazarett Castle were panicked by the sudden attack. The Rozernan forces charged in with a roaring battle cry that was a testament to their high Morale! Morale Bonus: Attack Power temporarily increased by 20% Because our Morale had reached 100, it increased the efficiency with which our troops fought. Their loud battle cries stripped the enemy of their will to fight, and since the enemy hadn't even had time to prepare archers, the Rozernan forces were able to start climbing ladders and get up onto the walls. "Yeaaaah!" Naruyan Force at Bazarett Castle: 6,871 men Royal Rozernan Army: 30,000 men The Naruyan force camped at Bazarett Castle has a Training of 92 and a Morale of around 85. They seemed a little complacent, perhaps because they'd been positioned toward the rear and the war had been going well for Naruya. Regardless, their Morale score had fallen compared to the Naruyan forces fighting on the front lines. Now that they found themselves under attack, it threw them into a state of confusion. Confusion: Enemy Morale fell by 10 Their Morale had dropped to 75. The slow response of the defenders at Bazarett Castle meant that Rozern's soldiers were already making it up onto the walls one after another. Jint looked like he was itching to do something. "You're up, Jint. Climb the walls and pry those gates open." I'd checked with the system, so I already knew that the commander of Bazarett Castle was nothing special. He had a Martial of 75, which was strong, but not enough to make him one of the Ten Commanders, and it was no match for Jint's. "I'll smash them!" Jint raced toward Bazarett Castle with a look of glee on his face. * Jint began climbing the ladder. Once he surged into battle, the soldiers already clinging to the ladders picked up their pace. There were already a good number of them on the walls, so Jint was able to make the climb without any real trouble. Still, he had to hand it to the Naruyans. Although they had fallen into a state of confusion at first, they'd quickly reorganized their battle lines and prepared some archers. Arrows rained down on the ladder, but they were obviously no threat to Jint. Things got a bit dicey when the Naruyans started pouring boiling oil, but the moment Jint detected this plan, he jumped to another ladder and avoided being scalded. Nice work, Naruya. They don't call you "the strongest army on the continent" for nothing. This was a supply base, and their Morale was lower, and yet they were still managing to put up an effective defense. However, their fierce resistance only fed Jint's fighting spirit more. He was always thirsty for battle because he felt that no matter how much he fought, it would never be enough to repay the debt he owed Erhin. He hadn't been getting as many solo missions lately, so he was especially fired up about this one. Just distinguishing himself wasn't enough. He had to do it in a way that was useful to Erhin, which meant that he needed to take this place as soon as possible. Jint had never been a particularly deep thinker, but even he understood the basic goal of this operation. As the arrows gradually got more accurate, the boiling oil poured down more frequently, and the defense became more organized, Jint finally reached the top of the wall. Jint drew his Nameless Sword, and powerful mana spread out around him. He danced wildly, beginning to mow down the Naruyan forces all by himself. Each swing of the blade sent blood flying. The blood dripped down the walls, making them glisten with ruby redness. Naruyan soldiers gathered, attempting to stop Jint, but he knocked them all away. Thanks to him, the majority of the Rozernan forces were able to get up on top of the walls and start fighting. This also meant that Jint had more soldiers to help him. Obviously, the commander of Bazarett Castle wasn't going to just sit back and watch. "Kill that enemy commander!" he shouted. "If we let him survive, more of the enemy will make it up onto the walls!" However, the moment he yelled out, the commander let Jint know exactly where he was. Jint charged toward the commander's position, moving with incredible speed. His blade was as swift as Ganeif of Brijit's. Jint launched into a series of attacks: he slashed through one man's chest, decapitated another, jumped into the air and skewered a man through the throat, and then used the recoil to free his sword and tear his next victim open at the waist. Jint chased the fleeing enemy commander into the castle, and the Rozernan soldiers followed behind him. With an A-class commander showing off such incredible power, the Rozernans were able to fight the Naruyans on even terms. The knowledge that such a powerful warrior was on their side helped them to overcome the gap in Training and lent them great strength. Of course, their Morale, which Euracia had raised up to 100, played a big role in that too. Jint slashed with reckless abandon until he finally managed to catch up to the fleeing commander. "Aaaah! How did this guy get here?! Shoot him! If you come any closer, you're dead!" The Naruyan archers let their arrows fly without a care for whether they hit friend or foe. The infantry immediately moved to block Jint once more. They were protecting the castle gates so that he couldn't open them. The Naruyan soldiers were now showing their grit. No other military could have put up such a solid defense under these circumstances. But they were powerless before Jint. He chased the commander toward the gates, then sprang at the infantrymen who were guarding them. "All of you, out of the way!" Jint activated his skill. When triggered with the Nameless Sword, it caused many earthen swords to shoot up from the ground into the air. The ground rumbled for some time, and then the earthen swords started impaling Naruyan soldiers. "Aaaaaah!" "Gyaaaah!" "My leg... Aah!" Jint's skill skewered the men who had dared to face him. With the enemies' legs stuck, he bounded past them toward the gates. Jint began cutting the enemies down with swift strikes. Finally, he spotted their commander. He killed an enemy, then used the man's body as a springboard, slashing the enemy commander's neck as he landed in the middle of another group of infantry. "I am Jint of the Eintorian Army!"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4_2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 He looked like a battle fiend. Jint's Martial increased by +1 Young as he was, fighting was a source of great experience for him, and it led to growth. Even if he wasn't aware of it himself, his rising Martial made Jint's swordsmanship even faster. The enemy's battle lines completely collapsed, and he was able to join up with the Rozernan forces who had come down from the walls. Together, they finally managed to create an open space in front of the gates. Jint got the gates open, just like Erhin wanted. (To be continued in volume 6)
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/copyright.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Copyright Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 by Waruiotoko Translated by Sean McCann Edited by C.D. Leeson This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Copyright © Waruiotoko 2022 Illustrations by raken First published in Japan in 2022 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property. J-Novel Club LLC j-novel.club The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Ebook edition 1.0: April 2024
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-05-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/signup.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 5 Sign up for our mailing list at J-Novel Club to hear about new releases! Newsletter And you can read the latest chapters of series like this by becoming a J-Novel Club Member: J-Novel Club Membership
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/afterword.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Afterword Thank you for reading the third volume of Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up. This is the author, Waruiotoko. We were able to publish volume 3 thanks to you, the readers! Who would have thought I'd get to write an afterword for a third volume! Thank you so, so much. Just a little while ago, the original work was suddenly removed from the site Shosetsuka ni Naro, where I had been serializing it. That caught me by surprise, and it must have made the people who were following my work there worry that the story wouldn't continue. I'm so happy to be able to let you all read the continuation in book form. I've resumed serializing the original on Kakuyomu now, by the way. I'd like it if people would read the story there too. Now then, in this third volume, our protagonist Erhin finally starts making moves in order to found his own country and try to beat the game. The turbulent world unleashed by Erhin and the Naruya Kingdom is only going to heat up from here. Mind games to overcome the fleet of another nation! The protagonist becoming a king! That's what I have planned for volume 4. Oh, and the new heroine, Medelian, will have her chance to shine there too, of course. That's assuming they decide to publish volume 4... Also, there's a manga adaptation starting too! It's currently serializing in Gangan Online and on the Manga Up app. This adaptation is quite different from the original work, with a more comedic flavor. For the most part it doesn't have the serious tone that the original work does, so I had my concerns about how it would turn out—but once I saw it, I was more entertained and satisfied than I expected (lol). Thank you so much, Esuo-sensei, for your work on the manga adaptation. Now then, everyone, I know that times are hard right now with the coronavirus, but let's all keep on doing our best! I'm looking forward to seeing you all again next volume. Waruiotoko
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Chapter 1: Company Conspiracy Frann Valdesca, advisor to the Naruyan Kingdom and mage of rare talent, now stood just across the border of the Runan Kingdom with a small number of his subordinates, all of them disguised as peasant farmers. They'd abandoned their horses to avoid drawing suspicion, instead continuing the rest of the journey toward the Eintorian Domain on foot. But for Valdesca, who lacked stamina, the trip was torture. Normally, he stayed cooped up in his study, working on magic and military strategy, so he could hardly be blamed for that. Even so, despite his subordinates' attempts to dissuade him, he kept walking onward without rest, intent on his goal. And thus, Valdesca finally came to the garrison in the Eintorian Domain. Frann Valdesca had crossed the border into this domain to see what they were doing with his own two eyes. Why did this domain, of all the domains in Runan, have his special attention? There was a clear reason for it: Erhin Eintorian. The only foreign noble who had ever defeated him was the ruler of this domain. When the next war with Runan came, he was sure to face Erhin again. On top of that, his scouts had recently reported suspicious activity in the Eintorian Domain. That gave him the additional impetus to see it for himself. It was a mark of how highly Valdesca rated Erhin's abilities. He wanted to beat him. No matter what the cost, no matter what strategy he had to use, he was intent on avenging his past defeat and preparing for the war that would eventually come. There was no rush, of course. Preparations for the Grand Subjugation were proceeding apace. Their losses in the last war were negligible in the grand scheme of things for Naruya's army. If all went according to plan, they would be ready in another four to five months. In fact, if he were to let his drive for vengeance blind him, they would no longer be able to unify the continent. Valdesca knew that very well, so he instead steadily amassed strength, though that didn't ease his concern about Eintorian. "A barracks here? I don't believe it was in our earlier intelligence reports, was it?" "You are correct, sir." There was no way that his subordinate Milton could possibly know anything that Valdesca himself did not. Valdesca watched the soldiers training near the barracks. However, military facilities are always on guard against enemy scouts. As he might have expected, a lone soldier rode up to them on horseback, shouting, "Who goes there?!" A surprised Milton quickly turned and answered, "Just some passing farmers." The soldier let out a suspicious grunt before saying, "This is a military facility. Where are you going? Did you get lost on the road?" "We're heading to Eintorian Castle." "This isn't the way, then. Head all the way down there, and you should see it," the soldier told them. He'd explained it kindly because the number of migrants was on the rise due to Erhin's tax policy, but his expression quickly changed when he was done, gesturing to shoo them away. Valdesca was forced to comply. Once the soldier went away, he remarked, "What high morale. Everything about these soldiers is impressive, including their training. Seeing the way they enthusiastically go about their training without complaint, even at an outdoor camp like this..." He had only seen them practice for a short time, but Valdesca was still able to determine everything, from the state of their training to their high level of discipline. "I knew there was something different about him." Yes. There was a clear disconnect between the reports they received about the Runanese Army and what he'd just seen of the Eintorian Domain Army. Valdesca continued moving forward. This time, a small village caught his attention. Oddly, the soldiers here were working the fields, and everyone who wasn't a soldier seemed to be a woman. "Um, mind if I ask some questions?" Before Milton could stop him, Valdesca went to query them about this without bothering to put on any sort of act. It was just so strange. Not that Valdesca had any great ability as an actor either way. "Please, don't talk to them so carelessly!" Patrick rushed over to whisper in his ear. "Oh, that's right," Valdesca said, realizing his mistake and rapidly shifting tone. One of the soldiers rose from the field and looked at Valdesca. "Mind if you ask some questions?" the man repeated sarcastically. "What are you, some kind of big shot?" You look like a peasant, though? the soldier's face said. "Tch! It seems I said something I shouldn't have." "Hmm." The soldier's eyes were suspicious. Valdesca cleared his throat, trying to beat a hasty retreat, but this time he tripped over a rock and fell. The women couldn't help but chuckle at that. This pathetic display quickly dispelled the soldier's suspicion too. If this were something Valdesca had planned, it would have been brilliant, but... "You really do have to watch where you're going," Milton said as he hurried to support Valdesca. "Why must there always be rocks in front of me?!" "Why's a man with such a broad view of world politics unable to see a rock that's right there in front of him?" Patrick mused with a sigh. Despite all this, Valdesca turned to the women to ask another question. More politely this time. "Is this a newly built village? I feel like it wasn't here before..." "That's right. It's a new village, built to accommodate migrants. Were you people intending to settle here as well?" "Well, something like that." "There are some uncertainties, living along the border, but the soldiers visit all the time, so we're very satisfied with the place." That meant Erhin was increasing the population of his domain. Valdesca couldn't fail to notice that would have a large effect on the number of troops they had at their disposal. Increasing his population. Increasing his manpower. Wasn't he supposed to have sworn loyalty to Runan...? Not only that, based on what they'd observed so far, many of the policies being pursued strengthened the domain, not the kingdom. Valdesca stroked his chin as he considered this. Valdesca followed the road and entered Castle Eintorian. He already knew Erhin was away, so he had ample time to carefully look around the castle town. As he did, he heard something unbelievable from the townsfolk. They'd been exempted from taxes for an entire year! It was unthinkable. Such a thing would cause the domain's finances to collapse. They wouldn't have the tax money to pay to the central government. Unless they were sitting on a vast amount of secret funds, it was impossible. No, even if they did have such a fortune, they'd only draw the royal family's attention to it. That was a negative, in the long term. His suspicions mounted. The barracks outside the castle, the newly built village, and the construction he had witnessed on their way here... Valdesca began bashing his head against a notice board. Finally, he felt he could concentrate a little. What exactly are you plotting, Erhin Eintorian? What is it you're strengthening your domain for...? As he was pondering this, a shudder suddenly raced through his entire body. "Hold on..." "Master?" Milton asked in a whisper, but Valdesca didn't respond. Instead, he just kept on talking to himself. "What if he were taking aim at Runan...and at Runan's king...plotting a rebellion...?" Valdesca turned around. "We're heading home. We must capture Eintorian while their lord is away, before he can cause any trouble. Hurry!" "Master...? What do you mean?" His bodyguards Milton and Patrick hurried after their master. "As soon as we've returned, we advance on this territory with the forces of the Ducal House of Valdesca!" Valdesca was well aware of how dangerous it was to suddenly lead a force to attack Eintorian, and how it might risk ruining their preparations for the Grand Subjugation. That's why he planned to only use his own house's troops. If Erhin became the King of Runan, the Grand Subjugation they were planning might drag on even longer. Even if it meant sacrificing some of his own troops, he needed to crush Eintorian early, before their plans became unsalvageable... Or maybe not? "No, hold on!" Valdesca quit panicking and came to a stop again. It was because it occurred to him that this could be another trap. "We'll move our troops, but first we need to ascertain the situation in Rozern. Understood?" Once he'd given new orders to Milton, Valdesca headed for the Naruya Kingdom's Sentreet Domain, which was near the border with Eintorian. Should he attack Eintorian, even if that meant acting on his own initiative, or was this clear display of movement toward independence itself a trap? After a long night agonizing over the question, he came to the decision to strike, but just as he had... "Your Excellency! Your Excellency!" "What is it?!" "Urgent news from the Brijitian front! The Brijitian capital has fallen! Erhin has returned home to Runan!" Valdesca stood bolt upright when he heard this. "Pull our troops back at once. We're going back to the capital!" Eintorian had many troops, with good training and high morale. Any siege of the territory would take a long time. If Erhin were away, it would still be winnable, but now that he'd come back, it would be utter folly to proceed with the attack without a proper plan. No, even before that, Valdesca felt a sense of awe toward his archnemesis. How had Erhin taken the Brijitian capital in such a short time? Could Valdesca have done it if he were in the same position? It was absolutely impossible. Valdesca had total confidence in his own abilities. Looking at things objectively, he would have been able to go as far as defending Rozern, but no further than that. Yet Erhin went on the offensive and took the enemy capital? Fists clenched, Valdesca ordered a thorough investigation of the circumstances, then turned back to the Naruyan capital as if fleeing from Eintorian with the thought, Only Erhin Eintorian stands in my way, graven in his mind. * Exhaustion rushed over me when I awoke in the morning. It was like all the fatigue that had built up before now hadn't gone anywhere. Even though my stamina ought to have recovered. I sat up, yawning. The room looked the same as ever. The posh interior of a lord's bedroom. Outside my window, the domain was at peace. The scenery hadn't changed, but my reputation as a lord was completely unrecognizable at this point. It hadn't been long since the people stopped calling me a villainous lord, and yet rumors of my tax policy and land development had brought refugees flocking to the domain. Indeed, the largest change during my time in Rozern had been to the population. It had gone from two hundred and twenty thousand to two hundred and thirty thousand over the past two months. An increase of ten thousand people. I might not have been at my goal of three hundred thousand yet, but the important thing was that the numbers were going up. Opinion sat pretty at an impressive 80 too. If I can maintain that score, it's good enough. I just need to avoid doing anything to lower it. The newcomers flowed here with high expectations of their new lord, so they hadn't had a negative impact on public sentiment. In my absence, training continued for the army that was now twenty thousand soldiers. Eintorian Domain Army Manpower: 20,000 Training: 89 Morale: 80 They were operating on a much higher level now. Those numbers were made possible by some of the high-Command personnel that I had in my camp. If I have twenty thousand elites who'll just follow my strategies, then these scores are more than good enough to get results. The training would continue, as would the policy of rewarding my people to raise morale. I could never stop those. I'm level 25. I reached level 22 when I killed Poholizen, then went up another 3 whole levels for defeating Brijit. Killing a commander with a Martial of 98 had had a major effect. Commanders with a Martial of 95 or higher had a positive modifier to the experience they gave. Those three level-ups had given me a total of 900 points. 150, 150, 150, 150. Setting aside three hundred points for any skills I might need to use, I spent the other 600 on raising my Martial score 4 whole points from 65 to 69. Because Daitoren got powered up during the war, I could fight the strongest warriors on the continent, albeit with a time limit of thirty minutes. My Martial will be 99! That time limit is unfortunate, but there's no getting around it. This is a game. The management team may dole out bonuses, but they have to balance them. This is probably how they chose to make that balance. There were also the spoils of war I got from the treasury after occupying Brijit's capital. There was nothing from the Ancient Kingdom, unfortunately, which meant that none of the items were on the same level as the Nameless Sword that I had found stored in Rozern's treasury. None of the treasures of the Ancient Eintorian Kingdom that were supposedly shared between the Twelve Houses were in Brijit. Brijit was one of the Twelve Houses, so they definitely would have received some of the Ancient Kingdom's treasures. Did they manage to misplace them? Not even their king had used any special items. I asked the head chamberlain in Brijit's royal palace about it later, but he didn't know anything. The same went for the rest of the royal family. Well, the ones in Rozern had been left sitting around, their importance forgotten there too. It's been a long, long time since the Twelve Houses founded their own countries, so maybe there's no helping it. I thought the treasures of the Twelve Houses held great significance. Like there might be a secret of some sort, or maybe more bonuses, since this was a game. A secret felt more likely than another bonus. That made me all the more eager to find them, but the fact was that I had no method for doing so. There were no hints whatsoever. Maybe I'll find a lead in Runan's palace. Runan was approaching its end of days. If things went as planned, I would have a chance to investigate Runan's treasury eventually. I just had to hope I found some kind of hint there. Well, setting that aside, next it's time to distribute items. There might not have been any treasures from the Ancient Eintorian Kingdom in Brijit's palace, but there had been some that the system identified as items. Two of them could raise ability scores: Jade Sword Martial +1 A jade sword handed down since antiquity. Black Armor Command +2 Jet-black armor that raises the user's majesty. I didn't need either myself, so I decided to try using them to raise my retainers' stats. I immediately called up the system and had it display all of their ability scores. Hadin Meruya: Martial 60, Intelligence 57, Command 70 Bente: Martial 49, Intelligence 38, Command 82 Jint: Martial 93 (+2), Intelligence 41, Command 52 Yusen: Martial 82, Intelligence 60, Command 90 Gibun: Martial 70, Intelligence 34, Command 76 Euracia Rozern: Martial 87 (+3), Intelligence 57, Command 95 (+2) You can't equip more than one sword. That rules out me, because I use Daitoren, and Jint, who's using the Nameless Sword. I plan to have Yusen do big things in the future. His stats are good across the board and he's highly loyal to me, so it'd be good to give him the Black Armor to raise his Command. Not as sure what to do with the sword though. I expected that I would be getting more and stronger commanders later, so I decided to hold on to it for the time being. If there was one inconvenience, it was that because this wasn't a game I was playing on a screen, ability scores didn't automatically go up. A weapon would only have an effect once they were able to fully make use of it. This world really is a mix of game elements and reality. * Heina Berhin visited a slave trader in the capital. Even in this world where slavery existed, making a living off of human trafficking was strictly prohibited... But only on paper, of course. In every era, there are things the powerful are drawn to precisely because they're so forbidden. Owning people was the ultimate pleasure for stimulating the nobles' human greed. And in Runan, where their avarice destabilized the country, there was a rather large-scale network of slave traders working in the shadows. Of course, even with the protection of the ruling class, slave traders couldn't operate out in the open. Their headquarters in the capital was in a top secret location. "Well, well. What do we have here?" This organization, called the Droy Company, specialized in underworld jobs like human trafficking, abductions, and assassination. They were a massive company with their tendrils extended all across Runan and even into Naruya. The master of the Droy Company, Gensema, was always in Runan, where his main customer base was clustered. As befitted a slave trader operating in the darkness, if a customer had the money, he would enslave anyone they wanted, whether the person was wealthy or poor, and present them to his client. However, the Droy Company's greatest power lay with their assassins. Because they had taken so many jobs, the nobility couldn't touch them. Gensema identified Heina at a glance. He knew everything there was to know about the nobility. He welcomed her with a sly look on his face. "You know me?" she asked, surprised. "Information is power. Of course I know you. Heh heh!" Heina furrowed her brow at his crude laughter but chose to endure in the name of her objective. "You seem to be using that power to do other things behind the scenes, though?" she said. When Heina cut straight to the point, Gensema played ignorant, cocking his head to the side. "Doing 'other things.' Hah hah hah! Whatever could you mean...?" Suddenly, he stopped laughing and his expression grew serious. With an expression that looked every bit like the scoundrel he was, he said, "But that is what you've come here for, isn't it? Please, ask away, Your Excellency Heina. If you are looking for a male slave, just tell me your preferences..." "My interest with you lies elsewhere. There's a man I want killed. I want it more than anything!" "Oh, do you? Heh heh heh! Then you've come to the right place, Your Excellency." Heina clenched her fists. Having lost Ronan's trust, the other nobles looked down on her even worse than they had before. She'd completely lost any chance to distinguish herself. Heina loathed Erhin Eintorian, the root cause of her troubles. She would never forgive him for ruining her and her clan. But she stood no chance if she challenged him in any orthodox manner. That fact was an affront to Heina's great pride, and only served to strengthen her determination to end Erhin's life. If he were gone, the position of advisor to the Runan Kingdom would return to her. There was still a thin sliver of hope that Ronan might call her back. That was why, much as she hated to stoop this low, she had come to visit Gensema. "They say there's no one you people can't kill." "Tee hee. What are you saying? There are some beings that even we cannot kill. We wouldn't be able to slay the five New Stars of the continent, for example. Anyone else, though, I'm sure we can manage." The five mightiest people on the continent. In game terms, these would be the only S-rank characters. People called them the New Stars out of a sense of awe. The greatest among them was the King of Naruya. "We manage a special organization of assassins, Your Excellency. We raise them from a young age, and many grow up to be excellent at their craft, so you have nothing to worry about." Showing his absolute confidence, Gensema let out a low chuckle. "If we are talking about a mark on the level of Erheet Demacine, then things become more difficult, but...not all assassinations need to be carried out by the knife. Poison is effective against any target, and we also have ways of making it look like an accident. Tee hee. Although, it'll cost you an arm and a leg. There aren't many nobles in Runan who would be willing to pay it." Gensema brought up the Runan Kingdom's mightiest commander. He was boasting that, while Erheet was strong, he was not one of the five New Stars, so they could kill him. The Droy Company were confident that they were the continent's largest organization operating in the shadows. "So, who would you have us kill? The cost changes depending on the class of the target, so could I ask you to tell me who that is?" Gensema rubbed his hands together. "Erhin Eintorian," Heina replied without hesitation. "I want him dead." "Oho... Why, if it isn't the man everyone's been talking about recently," Gensema said with a chuckle, rubbing his hands once again. "Now, if we are discussing Count Erhin Eintorian, he is a rather capable man, is he not?" "What do I care how competent he is?! I'm asking if you can kill him." "It is as I've already told you. Would you suggest that, even though we could kill Erheet, we couldn't kill Erhin? War and assassination are two separate things, Your Excellency Heina. Of course, given his high class, the cost will be exorbitant." "How much?" "Let me think..." Gensema put on a creepy smile and held up five fingers. "Around five years of your domain's income, I suppose." "What are you saying?!" Heina exclaimed, scowling at Gensema over this outrageous sum. "He is a gifted strategist. The high price should have been a given. The rare thing about our Droy Company is that we always succeed at the jobs we take on. If you can't afford it, then please give up this charade. Let us simply pretend you never said anything." Gensema's firm stance on this made Heina tremble with rage, but the money mattered less to her than her wounded pride. "You really can kill him, right?" "Certainly." Gensema nodded firmly. Heina bit her lip. "You'll be paid after you've disposed of him." "But of course. We here at the Droy Company are famous for collecting our payment only once the job is complete, after all. Heh heh!" Erhin Eintorian. He was known for being an excellent strategist, but his martial abilities were not well known. The people of Runan hadn't seen his battles in Rozern and Brijit for themselves, and even in the war with Naruya, he hadn't displayed his ability to fight except at Lynon Castle, where he fought alone. Because so few people knew about Erhin's martial prowess, he was sorely underestimated. * As the sun dipped down below the horizon, I found myself at my office desk after I returned from inspecting the Eintorian Domain. I had a mountain of other things to do on top of that, the most important of which was approving expenses. While we did have a great fortune under the castle, it would rapidly dwindle if I spent it frivolously. I picked up my pen to begin filling out paperwork, and then it happened. Suddenly, I was interrupted. My glass window shattered. "Huh...?" A team of five men clad in black rushed in through there, each one carrying a sword or knife. Without so much as a hello, they dashed in to begin their assault. Four of them had C-class Martial scores, and the last boasted an A-class Martial score. There were only about forty A-class characters across the entire continent, which meant if this team of assassins had one with them, they were pretty experienced. This surprise attack is dangerous. Without Daitoren equipped, my Martial was still low. I only kept my cool like this because Euracia sprang through the window at almost exactly the same time as they did. "Who are you people?" Euracia interposed herself between the assassins and me before taking a merciless swing at the nearest of the black-clad men. Blue mana pierced the masked man's chest as she swung her blade in a wide horizontal arc, neatly cleaving the man beside him in twain. Blood rained in the office. "Er, Euracia... You don't need to go to such violent lengths." The corners of her eyes turned up angrily for some reason, and she didn't bother to respond as she took on another of the masked men who came at her. I couldn't just sit back and watch. There's an A-class talent with them, after all. Said A-class talent must have decided to kill me first, because he left Euracia to his subordinates and sprang at me. With a Martial of 90, he's probably the best assassin in their entire organization. But I have a Martial of 99 with Daitoren equipped. That's higher than any of the forty or so A-class characters on the continent. So this guy's no match for me. I faced the enemies with Daitoren held at the ready. It only took two swings of my blade before the enemy fell. That's what they got with the overwhelming difference in Martial scores. The man died with a look of disbelief in his eyes. "Wait, Euracia!" I wanted to keep one of my assailants alive to find out who they were, but Euracia had wiped the enemy out by the time I spoke. She has a Martial of 90 with Rossade equipped. I probably should've expected this. "What is it?" she replied, her expression oddly pleasant. Is it just me, or does she look like she wants to be praised for a job well done? "I wanted to keep one of them alive so I could ask who sent them after me." "Huh?" Euracia's cheeks puffed up a little. She must have seen the logic in what I was saying, because she crouched down and slapped one of the fallen masked men with a blank expression on her face. That's not gonna wake him up. He's dead as a doornail. Her cheeks inflated further, and she rose to her feet, giving up on the dead man in the mask. "I was just so mad I couldn't control my power." "What made you so upset?" "I just sort of felt that way." Now that she'd said her piece, Euracia vanished out the window she'd come in through. * My retainers gathered in the office in Eintorian Castle. Naturally, since their lord had just been attacked. Seeing the bodies, Yusen scowled and asked, "Were they talented?" "Yeah. They were fairly skilled." "Oh, no...! We'll have to assume that someone with considerable power sent them after you then... Do you have any idea who that might be?" Any idea, huh? I've killed everyone I ought've. Ronan and the king still need me, so they wouldn't have pulled a stunt like this. Of course, there were those who resented me. It's not like I had no idea who it might be. But I shook my head. "No one in particular." Without concrete proof, I'd just have to hold my tongue for the moment. There was no point in making any accusations just yet. "We'll have to look into it." I nodded in agreement with Yusen. At that moment, Jint, who had been examining the bodies with a serious look on his face, lifted one of their wrists. "This..." he said darkly. "What is it, Jint?" "You said that they were assassins, but it's really just like I suspected... I had to check just to be sure, but it's them." There was a spider tattoo on the man's wrist. "'Them'?" Jint showed his own wrist in response to my question. It bore the same spider tattoo. Once I saw it, it hit me. "You don't mean the slavers who took Mirinae, do you?" Jint nodded firmly, a fire burning in the depths of his eyes. That was to be expected. The slavers were old enemies of his. In order to get Mirinae back, he joined the assassination group they managed, and shuttered his emotions under lock and key in favor of living like a robot. "They were called the Droy Company." The Droy Company, huh? I knew the name well. They were famous in the game too. After the fall of Runan, the scumbags worked underground in Naruya and the Matein Kingdom, engaging in human trafficking, abductions, and assassination. Because of their great size and connections to people of influence, they never vanished from the stage of history. But their name wasn't known to the general public—only to the powerful—because only nobility ever utilized their "services." "The Droy Company? What's that?" Of course, a commoner like Yusen was hearing about them for the first time. My other retainers had similar responses. Apparently, even a rural noble like Hadin knew nothing of them. "Think of them as a shadowy cabal. As far as I know, if the Droy Company are out for my blood, it must be because a noble from the capital sent them after me." "You're saying a noble from the capital tried to have you assassinated, Your Excellency?" Yusen asked with a look of surprise. "That is what I mean, yes. So I'll need to go there and ask about it directly." It wouldn't be tough to wipe out the Droy Company. After destroying the Brijit Kingdom, something like that would be a piece of cake. They might slink around in the shadows, but they weren't on the same level as a nation-state. If someone is targeting me, I definitely need to find them and take revenge, and these guys deserve to disappear anyway. Also, there was one more thing: if my guess was right, then I should be able to use them to pull Erheet over to my side too. The Droy Company has deep ties to Runan's nobility. I don't know precisely how high up any of their clientele go, but Duke Ronan and the king can't be unaware of it. If the honorable Erheet were to learn of the slave traders, I'm sure he'd oppose them. If I could plant the seeds of discord between Erheet and the nobility, I could possibly manage snagging him. Either way, I need to find the Droy Company's home base and prove they're involved with the Runanese nobility before this can go anywhere. Fortunately, I had some idea where that could be already. In the game, the Droy Company move their base once Runan falls. It was in Runan up to that point, but when you're chasing down the Droy Company in the game, there are a number of locales within Runan's borders where you can fight battles to mop them up. In the original timeline, they would have relocated their headquarters already, but unlike in the game, Runan hasn't been destroyed, so their main base should still be here. I'll bet one of those locations is their current headquarters. I stared at the map and began plotting which spot was most likely. * Mirinae was reading a book. Ever since Erhin gave her the opportunity to learn to read, she read whatever books she could get her hands on. Mirinae had said she'd sew or do anything to repay her debts, but instead Erhin had her learn to read. She'd always thought reading was only for the nobility, but the man was their savior, so she did as he asked, and to her surprise she was starting to find it interesting. This is what her stats looked like when she came to Eintorian: Mirinae Age: 21 Martial: 5 Intelligence: 59 Command: 10 But they changed after she learned to read. Mirinae Age: 21 Martial: 5 Intelligence: 70 Command: 20 Her base Intelligence was good, but she'd never known how she could put it to use before. Learning to read boosted her Intelligence by a full 11 points, and her Command score went up by 10 points at the same time. Her ability scores were like children—they grew up fast. "Mirinae." "Oh? When did you get back?" Mirinae looked up from her book, surprised, then rose to greet Jint. "Just now." "I've been reading this. I don't know if it will be of any help to our lord, though..." Mirinae said with an apprehensive smile. Jint felt nothing but happiness seeing her like this. Because, after living on the run for so long, she was able to have such a good life. During the war in Rozern, there was a moment when Erhin's life was in danger. Jint tried to throw his life away for their benefactor. But he was the one who saved me instead. This was the second time Erhin had ensured he would come back to Mirinae's side. And today he gave me the opportunity to take revenge on Mirinae's enemies, and my own. "Jint? Did you mess up again?" Mirinae said in a loud voice, putting her hand on her hip as she noticed the change in Jint's expression. "I didn't do anything...! I'm sure your studies will help him. He's not been wrong about anything so far." "Well, you're right about that." "Anyway, I'm going to the capital on his orders. I'll be away for a while again." Jint didn't tell her about the slavers. There was no need to bring them up and retraumatize her. "I see. Well, I'll need to pack you a lunch to take, then. I'll get right on that!" Mirinae rushed off to the kitchen without ever noticing Jint's clenched fists. * "Okay, is everyone here?" After deciding to head out to deal with the Droy Company, I gathered my retainers and allies. It was important to clarify their orders before I left. Hadin Meruya: Martial 60, Intelligence 57, Command 70 Bente: Martial 49, Intelligence 38, Command 82 Jint: Martial 93 (+2), Intelligence 41, Command 52 Yusen: Martial 82, Intelligence 60, Command 90 (+2) Gibun: Martial 70, Intelligence 34, Command 76 Euracia Rozern: Martial 87 (+3), Intelligence 57, Command 95 (+2) I called the only Eintorian noble among my retainers first. "Hadin!" "Yes, Your Excellency!" "The checkpoint at the border has been fixed, I assume?" "Indeed it has, Your Excellency!" "And has construction of a castle wall in the direction of the capital been moving forward?" "That will take a while still." I was in the process of building a castle wall not just on the side facing Naruya, but at key points in the direction of the Runanese capital as well. Considering the chaos to come, there was no point in only being able to defend the Naruyan side. "I see. Continue focusing on the construction. And be careful not to do anything that would lower the people's opinion of us. Keep accepting refugees, give them jobs, and provide them with as much food as you can manage. Don't forget to keep developing more farmland." "Yes, Your Excellency!" I had no fear of Hadin exploiting the people of the domain. That's why he was such a good pick for this. "Yusen!" Yusen was a man of many talents. He was the most exemplary of my retainers, with strong ability scores across the board. "I want you and Gibun to go to Bertaquin, the place I told you about before. I've asked Count Fihatori, who is garrisoned in the former Brijitian capital, to send some troops. You'll go there as my magistrate. I need you to secure shipping routes for iron ore." This was the most important task of all, but I didn't have time to go myself. That's why I chose to leave it to Yusen, who I could trust because of his cautious approach to everything. "Understood. We'll set out at once!" Finally, it's time for me to head out. "Jint and Bente, you'll come with me!" Will you deploy? Available Troops Eintorian Domain Army: 20,000 men Training: 89 Morale: 80 I don't need that many men. It would be a problem moving around with such a large force. Cavalry Unit: 100 men I chose to set out with a hundred men—elites with 89 Training and 80 Morale. I wouldn't be able to train any iron cavalry until I had iron from the mines in Bertaquin, but there was no issue paying the upkeep for a hundred cavalrymen. "I'll go too." At this point, Euracia made her appearance. She wasn't officially my subordinate yet, so I'd been letting her do as she pleased. She could come in handy, though, so I nodded, and... Morale of deployed soldiers has temporarily increased by +10 ...suddenly, the soldiers I was deploying got a boost to Morale. Is this the power of her 97 Command? * A boy and two girls were imprisoned behind iron bars. Emaciated, all of them—wearing filthy, tattered rags. They all came from the same village. Having lost their parents in the war, the villagers sold these unfortunate waifs off so there were fewer mouths to feed. "Lilian." One of the girls weakly raised her head at the sound of her name. It was the boy, Sedick, calling out to her. "Are you cold?" "I'm fine..." Lilian shook her head, but she was shivering. Sedick took off his coat for her. Once he put the sleeveless, vestlike garment around her shoulders, Lilian didn't quiver quite so much. "You gave your coat to Frill, so you must be cold yourself, right?" Sedick said with a gentle smile. Frill was sleeping with Lilian's coat as a blanket. "If only we could be as carefree as Frill..." "Yeah," Sedick replied, his shoulders slumping. "Do you think it'll be as bad as they say, being slaves...?" Sedick and Lilian were already fifteen. They knew what kind of treatment slaves faced, and what kind of fate that awaited them too. It was Lilian's seven-year-old sister Frill who remained blissfully ignorant of what lay ahead. At that moment, there was a clatter as the cell door opened, and two men entered. The captives' eyes all turned toward them. "I hear we have newcomers?" Gensema asked his men as he looked through the bars. "Yes, three of them. Here they are," one man responded, leading Gensema to the cell that held Lilian and Sedick. "Ohhh, that girl shows promise," Gensema says, pointing to the sleeping Frill. "Well, he should be satisfied with a girl like this. He's quite particular in his tastes." With a treacherous smile, Gensema went to pick up Frill. Lilian moved to stand between them, having figured out the situation. "I-I'll go instead. Let go of my sister!" "Oh, is that right...?" Gensema looked at her, intrigued. "I'm sorry, my precocious young lady, but you're a little too mature for my client." With that, he casually shoved Lilian aside. Unable to watch this any longer, Sedick sprang at the man. "Let go of Frill!!!" However, before he could even get close to Gensema, one of the other men kicked him to the floor. Emaciated as he was, he had no strength to resist. "Hey, you. Don't rough up the merchandise. There's demand for boys too these days," Gensema scolded his subordinate before picking up Frill. As he did, the little girl drowsily opened her eyes. "Sis?" Gensema patted Frill on the head as her eyes wandered in search of Lilian. "There, there. You're going to live well from now on, I'll make sure of it. You'd like to eat tasty food, wouldn't you?" "Tasty food?" "No, Frill!" Lilian tried to rush Gensema but was immediately restrained by the man beside him. "Frill... Frill...!" The girl was her only kin, entrusted to her by her parents before they died. She had to protect her precious little sister. Lilian cried and kicked and screamed, but the men around her simply looked on, smirking. As the heavy iron door closed behind him, Gensema pressed his close associate Lutri, who was waiting for him there, on another issue. "You've made sure Count Erhin is dealt with, I hope?" "I sent Hog just to be sure. Even your average general wouldn't stand a chance. I'm sure he's on his way back from the job already. Don't worry about it." "Hog? Isn't that a little excessive?" Gensema furrowed his brow at the mention of the name of their strongest assassin. At that moment, having finally fully woken up, Frill looked around, searching for Lilian. "Where's sis...?" "She's already gone on ahead. Heh heh!" Gensema flashed the girl a fake smile and melded into the darkness. * The Droy Company's secret base was located daringly close to the royal capital, inside a long-abandoned fortress. The company's private troops and the assassination group seemed to be stationed here at all times. Large carriages came and went frequently, so it likely doubled as a holding area for their slaves. I had every intention of destroying this fortress, of course. In order to move covertly, I had the hundred cavalrymen I had brought with me disperse, and then meet up again in the mountains where the base was located. It would be bad if any of the nobility in the castle caught wind of what we were up to. Fortunately, thanks to their training, we were able to assemble near the fortress without incident. Standing at the vanguard was Jint, burning with an even greater hunger for battle than usual. "Listen to me, Jint. No harm must come to the innocent people they've abducted or were sold to them." "Of course. They're just like Mirinae. We have to save them." From the sound of his response, it wasn't going to pose a problem. "Okay, we're going in!" I immediately ordered an attack on the fortress. The Eintorian elites intrepidly charged in. Thanks to all their training, their movements were incredibly swift. They moved so fast that Jint's charge demolished the fortress's main gate. "Who're these guys?!" The Droy Company's private troops drew their blades and began to fight back against our sudden raid, but while they might have had success if they were fighting the Royal Runanese army, my forces were on a whole different level from that sorry lot. They never stood a chance against us. Eintorian Domain Army Cavalry Unit 100 men Droy Company Private Troops 250 men We might have been at a numerical disadvantage, but we had a Training score of 89, and Euracia boosted the men's Morale to 90. My cavalry were handily beating the company's private troops. Of course, since the assassin organization was based out of this fortress as well, some of them did have a high Martial. But since I'd killed the Martial 90 assassin they'd sent after me, their combat potential was already obviously degraded. "How dare you trade people like cattle," Euracia spat. Even Euracia joined the fight, alongside Jint, who had turned into a battle fiend, resulting in a one-sided massacre. However, at the same time, there was chaos behind the iron doors where people were being held. The private army had opened the doors in order to cause confusion. As a result, the prisoners ended up witnessing the battlefield outside. I immediately sent my troops toward them. Taking the captives into our protection was top priority. Of course, the company's soldiers gathered there too. Eventually, the area in front of the door became the spot where the most intense fighting was taking place. No, that's not quite right. The battle was completely one-sided. Eintorian Domain Army Cavalry Unit 100 men My forces' numbers hadn't dropped, but... Droy Company Private Troops 87 men ...the number of private soldiers had rapidly dropped. Our side had some wounded, but Jint and Euracia's efforts at the forefront sapped the enemy's spirits, and we made it through without any fatalities. In the chaos, even children started running out from inside. I was beside myself with fury when I saw them. Even going as far as trading children... I'd known this logically, but actually seeing it for myself made me seethe with rage. * In the middle of all the chaos, people were cowering, not sure what to do with themselves. But Sedick was different. "Lilian! Let's run. Now. I don't know what's up, but this is our chance!" "But what about Frill?" mumbled Lilian, scarcely louder than a whisper. She was still in a daze, slumped on the floor with her back against the wall. "You dummy. We can't search for her if we don't get out of here!" With that, Sedick took Lilian by the hand and raced out of their cell. "It's dangerous out there, kids! You'll be safer here!" one woman who had been locked up in another cell shouted after them, but her voice was lost among the din. With their command structure in tatters, the private soldiers were now killing the fleeing slaves so they couldn't get away. Thanks to that, the captives stayed quivering inside their cells. But Sedick worried that they would be locked in again if they didn't act now. He'd made the wrong call. "Sedick!" As he ran, dragging Lilian behind him by the hand, a blade flew out and stabbed Sedick in the back—another victim of the private army's indiscriminate killing. Lilian fell to her knees, screaming his name and crying.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter1_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Crimson flowed from the wound in a cascade, his life leaking out with it. "Sedick! Sedick...! No, don't die. I can't lose you too! Not after they already took Frill!" At that moment, the private soldier who'd spotted them making their escape was already swinging his blade again. The sword came down, but it didn't meet its mark. A loud clang rang out as it was deflected by Bente, who'd forced his way into the jail. "Get back in your cell for now! It's dangerous outside!" Bente shouted, but Lilian wouldn't stop clinging to Sedick, desperately trying to keep what little warmth she could from escaping his gradually cooling body. * And so, with the Droy Company fortress having fallen in short order, Bente led Erhin to the prison. This was where the captives were, so there were things that he needed to do here. "Your Excellency, I've gathered them all up!" said Bente. Erhin nodded in response. Then he addressed the people gathered before him. "I am Count Erhin, Lord of Eintorian. In order to exterminate slave traders and stamp out their vile business, I've come to rescue you all. Anyone here who has been abducted, please raise your hand. If you have somewhere to go back to, we'll see to it that you get home!" A number of women, looking around anxiously as they tried to judge the situation, hesitantly raised their hands. "Good. Could you all gather in one place? I will make sure you get home, no matter what. This must have been horrible for all of you." Dozens of women gathered at Erhin's instructions. The remaining captives murmured, never taking their eyes off of Erhin. "The rest of you were likely sold as slaves. If you go home, you'll either be oppressed or sold off again. So let me give you a choice. If you want to go home, you can. But if you want a new life, then all of you should come to the Eintorian Domain. We are currently developing new land in order to welcome refugees. Those of you who can't go home ought to build villages in Eintorian and live there. My land is a border domain, so there are risks, of course. But have no fear. I will protect you. I swear it. If you don't want to lead a miserable life any longer, then step forward!" The people whispered after Erhin spoke. "Count Eintorian... Isn't he the one who ended that war?" a recently abducted woman said, her voice rising with surprise. Having been abducted in the conflict region, she'd heard rumors about Erhin. It also helped that rumors of his talent as a strategist had already spread all around Runan. "Yes, that's right." Erhin nodded, prompting the woman to step forward immediately. "After being abducted like this...even if I did go home, I'm sure that people would talk about me behind my back. I want to go. Will you take me with you?" "The choice is yours to make. It's up to you." Nine-tenths of the captives were women. That's why they seemed worried they were about to be carted off somewhere else, but this woman's words set off a chain reaction. Their trust in him suddenly rose. Soon the women were racing to step forward first. Following that, more than half of the people who said they wanted to return home now wanted to go to Eintorian instead. Eintorian's weakness was that it had a low population due to it being a borderland region. Of course, refugees had begun drifting there due to Erhin's recent fame, but it still wasn't enough. For a border region, their rise and fall was tied to the flow of migrants. Meanwhile, Lilian, who had been forcibly dragged away from Sedick's corpse and brought here, just stared vacantly at Erhin, not stepping forward or even standing up. The woman beside her took Lilian's hand, her eyes full of pity. "You have nowhere to go either, right? Your friends are dead. I saw it all. You poor thing... This is a good opportunity. Why don't you come to that Eintorian place the man was talking about and live with me?" Lilian's gaze shifted to the woman. "Is he someone important?" she asked. "Yes! I don't know much about him myself, but it sounds like he's a very important person." Lilian saw the confidence with which Erhin carried himself. She saw the other men—the ones who'd killed all of the scary guards—and she saw the one who'd shouted orders to those men. Maybe he could save her little sister? That thought dominated Lilian's mind. With Sedick dead, Frill was all she could think about. She'd made a promise to her parents. If he'd saved all these people, surely he'd save Frill too. As Lilian was thinking about it, Erhin shouted some more orders. "Bente, I'm going to the capital, so stand by here with the men. Once I return, we're taking everyone back home!" Having watched him all this time, Lilian raced to Erhin's side. She was prepared to do anything if he'd just save Frill. * Gensema visited Duke Ronan's son, Cervil, who was also his most important client. The idea was that, with his son as one of the company's customers, Duke Ronan couldn't lay a hand on Gensema. "You called for me, Your Excellency?" Gensema said. The ducal title still belonged to Ronan. As he had the rank of count until he inherited his father's title, Cervil's address was Your Excellency. Cervil looked incredibly unamused. "I don't like the slave you brought me last time." "Y-You don't?! We don't normally accept returns, but...if the slave was not to your liking, then I will, of course, prepare another!" "Heh heh. That would be most appreciated. Once I become duke, I'll mobilize the country's resources in order to support your company." "We can only swear our loyalty to you as we eagerly await the day. Hah hah hah!" Gensema politely agreed with Cervil. "Bring me a replacement at once, then. Heh heh heh." Cervil drained his glass of wine and rose from his seat. "Understood. I will present one to you right away." Gensema left the room with his head still bowed. On his way back, he grumbled to his subordinate, "That scoundrel. A replacement? Slaves aren't things you can exchange for a new one." "Isn't that why you brought the child from the fortress?" "Well, yes, it is. But it hurts my pride to hand her over so easily... Tch! There's no other choice. I'll bide my time now in order to make a puppet of him later." With that, Gensema headed toward his secret base in the capital. * Because I'd known more or less where the Droy Company's secret base was, I was able to mobilize the cavalry and find it immediately. The issue was that the master of the company hadn't been at the fortress, nor did they keep any accounting records there. I need the ledger. It's sure to have a record of their transactions with the nobility. I won't be able to move Erheet without it. It's a secret document, so if it's not here, then the master must keep it on his person at all times. I'll just have to search for the master. With that in mind, once I finished interrogating the survivors, I used the information I had obtained from them to withdraw my forces temporarily and visit their secret base. Since it's a secret base within the capital, there can't be all that many enemies inside it. Jint, Euracia, and I can take it on our own. Following the map I was holding in one hand, we arrived at a simple two-story building. The survivors claimed the base was in the basement here. The upper floors weren't being used now, and it seemed that they had chosen not to post guards so as not to arouse suspicion. "They're awfully unguarded," Euracia remarked. "If they looked like they were on guard, it would kind of defeat the point of hiding in the first place," I explained to her. "Is that how it works?" Euracia tended to be more aggressive than necessary. If there had been any guards standing around, she would have cut them down without question. "By the way, have you ever seen the master, Jint?" "I've never seen him myself. He's supposedly so cautious that he doesn't reveal his face to anyone but those he can genuinely trust." "I see." Well, I'll be seeing his face soon enough anyway. On my signal we began heading downstairs, a casual kick from Jint smashing the basement door to splinters. Inside, there was a group of seven nasty-looking men sitting around drinking alcohol. The men looked at us and the demolished door in shock. "Who're these guys?!" "Don't they know what this place is?!" Jint was silent for a moment before howling, "I'll kill you!" He whipped out his sword, but the company's men just sneered at us. Euracia scowled, but I signaled with my eyes for her to stop. "What a bunch of jokers. They charged in here knowing what this place is. What, did we nab your sweetheart? Gah hah hah hah!" It was the worst thing he could have possibly said. Jint's eyes went bloodshot. In an instant, the sneering man's head said goodbye to his body, and then the severed head was further cleft into four pieces. "Bro!" the remaining thugs shouted, glaring at Jint, but the battle was over before it had begun. In less than a minute, every man in that basement had been decapitated without even having time to scream. It was a total massacre. Crimson pooled on the floor, fed by the blood gushing from seven headless corpses. His shoulders heaving with each breath, Jint lowered his sword. In the middle of this grotesque display, someone came up from an even lower level. "You're making a racket," a middle-aged man said, sticking his fingers in his ears as he came up, followed by a young man and a little girl matching the description that the girl Lilian had given us of her sister. Fortunately, it seemed she hadn't been sold off anywhere yet. I turned to Euracia. "Could you rescue the girl and protect her?" "All right," she answered. The men scowled at us. "Master Gensema, it looks like some crazy people are attacking us." "That it does." Gensema Age: 49 Martial: 71 Intelligence: 66 Command: 70 Lutri Age: 26 Martial: 94 Intelligence: 20 Command: 30 It looked like the middle-aged guy was the boss of the Droy Company, while the tall man was his bodyguard. He's probably the strongest they have. The assassin they sent after me was their number two, and this guy's their number one. Well, he's still no big deal. Euracia wasted no time before rushing at Gensema. When Lutri tried to stop her, Jint charged in and locked blades with him. "Wait, you're not Jint, are you?" Lutri recognized him. Jint recognized Lutri too, and glared at the man, shouting, "You... You're from the assassin team!" "Long time no see. I worked you hard because there was something in your eyes that told me you were going to amount to something, but then you went and ran away like a coward. Unbelievable, huh? If you've come back here by your own will, I imagine it's not just to commit suicide, right? Heh heh heh!" "Shut up!" Jint took a vertical swing at Lutri, who easily swung back. But it left an opening for Euracia to take advantage of, closing in on Gensema, kicking his arm aside, and getting his hands off the girl. Lutri meant to make quick work of Jint and then defend Gensema, but Jint was far stronger now than he had been back during his days in the assassin group.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter1_2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 They were more or less evenly matched, with neither able to strike a decisive blow. Perhaps sensing that, Lutri's face twisted into a snarl, and Euracia pulled the girl close to her and held her tight. "Who are you?" Gensema asked in a commanding tone. "Me? Just the man you tried to have killed...Count Erhin Eintorian." "Eintorian? What?! And Hog? What happened to Hog?!" I guessed Hog was the name of the assassin who tried to kill me. "He's dead." "Hog, dead? That's absurd! It can't be true!" Gensema still didn't understand the situation. "You don't seem to understand there are people in this world who you should never piss off," I said, causing Gensema to snort derisively. "So this guy killed Hog, did he? If he can face Lutri on even terms, then maybe it's possible. But Lutri is many times stronger than Hog!" Gensema seemed to have great faith in the man called Lutri who was currently fighting Jint, not realizing that his faith was meaningless. "Tell me who hired you. You do that, and I can spare your life, at least." Well, not that I plan to do that either way. Taking my words at face value, Gensema trembled with rage. "What's taking you, Lutri?! Finish him off and come kill this one already!" Of course that would be his response. Up until now, with a Martial of 94, there hadn't been anyone in the Runan Kingdom other than Erheet who could have dealt with him. That a mere slave trader like him was able to have continent-spanning influence was likely because of how superb Lutri and the organization of assassins he'd trained were. But that was only when it came to assassination. "Jint. Stand back, would you?" In order to crush Gensema's confidence, I summoned Daitoren and attacked Lutri just once. I didn't even have to use Crush on him. Lutri was immediately bisected. The assassin who had never known defeat was reduced to two hunks of meat without ever learning fear. "Wh-What...?!" Gensema shouted, spittle flying everywhere. It must have been awfully shocking to him after having been able to rely on Lutri and the assassins to support his evil ways for all this time. "Wh-What's happening?! Lutri is the strongest in Runan! He can't lose..." Gensema sputtered, backing away, as it finally dawned on him that things had changed. His once confident features twisted with terror. Then, he sprinted for the lower basement. There was likely a passage there he could escape through, but... "Have some shame, you scum," Euracia said coldly, covering Frill's eyes with her hand as she tripped Gensema with Rossade, sending him tumbling down the stairs. That's just the kind of thing I like to see happen to scumbags like him. I strolled over to Gensema and lopped off one of his arms. It flew through the air, brushing the ceiling before falling back down to the floor. "Gahhhhhh!" Gensema screamed, his face contorting with pain as he clutched at the bleeding shoulder his arm was once attached to. "Do you want me to spare you?" Gensema nodded frantically as I leveled my sword at his eyes. The bastards who hurt others the most are always real tenacious when it comes to preserving their own lives. "Okay, take me wherever you were going to bring the girl. If you don't, the next swing parts your head from your body. Oh, and I'll be having your ledger too. Also, it'd be wise to tell me who hired you to kill me." "..." "You still need to think about it in this situation? Fine, I guess this is how it has to be, then." I took hold of Daitoren without a shred of mercy. "W-Wait! You're really going to spare me? You're saying that you'll spare me so long as I do as you say, right?" He really seems to think he's got a chance of revenge if he makes it out of here alive. No way. "Well, that's certainly something I could do. You have five seconds to decide." "F-Fine, I'll take you where we were going! I'll give you my ledger too!" Ultimately, Gensema confessed while nodding his head. "And Heina Berhin hired us to kill you." * Yusen and Gibun finally made it across the mountains to Bertaquin. "I never thought the new domain would be so remote..." Gibun, exhausted by the long journey, shook his head in dismay. It wasn't that far in terms of actual distance, but having to cross the mountains to get here made it feel a whole lot further. "It may be a frontier territory, but it's an incredibly important one. Assuming, of course..." Yusen looked around, confirming there was no one else to overhear him before continuing, "...that there's iron." "Yeah, no kidd. I've never heard of any iron in these parts, myself. Well, there are a lot of mountains, so I guess there could be." "Shh! Hey, you're talking too loud!" Yusen smacked Gibun lightly upside the head. "Come on, there's no one here!" Gibun grumbled, frowning. "And you said it first, Captain!" Silencing Gibun with a look, Yusen turned his gaze back to the lord's castle which was visible up ahead. This domain was on the level of a village, practically speaking, so the castle was small in scale. The vast majority of the land was mountainous, after all. It wouldn't have been an exaggeration to call whoever owned Bertaquin a mountain lord. "Anyway, let's head to the castle." "Yeah, yeah, let's go." Yusen and Gibun moved on to the castle. The flag of the Runan Kingdom was flying there. Noticing the Runanese guards, Gibun approached them. "Hello there, Mr. Runanese Soldier. Good day to you." "Who're you people?" the soldier replied, scowling at Gibun's cocky attitude. "You dolt!" Yusen whacked Gibun upside the head again, before turning back to the guard. "We've come from Eintorian. I believe you should have been informed..." Once Yusen politely showed him the standard that bore the Eintorian crest, the man dropped his suspicious expression and nodded. "Oh! You're the ones from Eintorian! Please, wait just a moment!" The soldier rushed off somewhere. Gibun smiled with satisfaction. "Yeah, that's right. That's how you do it. Gah hah hah hah!" "I swear, you are such a pain in the ass. How did I end up with a subordinate like you?" He could trust his war buddy with his life on the battlefield, but Gibun was always saying things that caused problems. As Yusen gave Gibun an earful, the soldier soon returned with a man wearing armor that denoted his high rank in tow. Those of hundredman rank and above were able to wear armor. It was only natural that someone of commander rank would have been sent to occupy the domain, but what surprised Yusen was that this man wore noble armor. "I am His Excellency Erhin's retainer Yusen. Might I ask who I have the honor of addressing?" Seeing the confusion on Yusen's face, Fihatori scratched the back of his head awkwardly as he replied, "You're the one His Excellency Erhin sent? It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Fihatori, commander-in-chief of the Runanese Army in Brijit." Yusen was surprised to hear this. Erhin had told him about Fihatori. Fihatori was supposed to send soldiers to Bertaquin, but he never expected the man to come here himself. "I'm sorry to ask, but what are you doing here, Your Excellency? I was told you would be sending some of your men, but..." "I couldn't delegate a direct request from His Excellency Erhin to my subordinates. His words that I have a role to play are engraved deeply in my mind. I was also interested to see what it is he plans to do here." "Y-You were, were you?" Now it was Yusen's turn to scratch his head awkwardly. Bertaquin was originally Brijitian territory. There had been a need to have Runanese soldiers take the domain from the existing Brijitian forces and lord because Eintorian didn't have the resources to spare. Yusen was under orders to send the Royal Army home and then begin searching for iron mines in secret. "The truth is... His Excellency Erhin gave me instructions to maintain only the minimum number of guards necessary and send the rest of the soldiers home. I will defend this place. I know you've come out of your way to be here, but orders are orders, so I can't say any more than that..." Yusen said with a look of disappointment. It was all he could do. "Well, that's fine. You don't need to look so troubled. I've only done my best to do as His Excellency requested. This was the only place that he requested for himself after the occupation of Brijit's capital, so I came here to put things in order for him personally. I've already persuaded the residents of the domain for you, so he can go ahead and manage the territory as he sees fit. I'll leave you with as many guards as you need when I head home. Please just inform His Excellency that I was here," Fihatori responded as if it didn't bother him. * I couldn't help but let out a sigh when I looked at the ledger I'd seized from Gensema. Go figure. The thing was packed full of the names of influential Runanese nobility. At the very top of the list was the highest member of Runan's nobility, Duke Ronan himself. This meant Ronan was involved with the Droy Company. Regrettably, however, the duke hadn't purchased slaves himself. The one dealing with slave traders was his son, Cervil. "So you were going to give that girl to Duke Ronan's son, then?" "That's right." "...Screw you." I kicked Gensema and sent him flying. What an absolute piece of human garbage. Jint walked over to the fallen Gensema and pulled him up by the hair. This is why it's been impossible to eliminate slavers from Runan. If even the highest of nobles like Duke Ronan has his hands dirty, who would dare touch them? This means, ultimately, I'm the only one who can eliminate these guys from Runan, because I don't need to be concerned about the king, Ronan, or anyone anymore. I didn't need to visit Ronan now. This ledger was detailed enough that I was already perfectly set to head toward my goal. Because the duke's name appeared in it so unambiguously, I immediately went to visit Erheet instead. "Is this true?! You must be joking...!" Erheet trembled with rage as he looked at the ledger. This guy's the rare noble who isn't involved with slavers. In fact, if anything, he was the type who couldn't abide such injustice. Because of this personality of his, the other nobles were desperate to hide their involvement with the slave trade from him. That was how he'd languished in this state of total ignorance. "I traced the assassins to find out who tried to have me killed. That led me to a fortress their organization was based out of, and then I found a ledger in their secret base inside the capital. The evidence is all here, Your Excellency." "Then His Highness knew about all this and left them alone?" Erheet asked again, unable to believe it. His face begged me to deny it, but I couldn't do that. "In fact, His Highness Ronan has been using their services. Look at just what his son Cervil has done, and you'll see how vile it is." I pointed to Frill, who was playing in Erheet's garden. She was picking flowers, a look of innocence on her face. Euracia was sitting next to the garden, putting flowers in Frill's hair. "..." Erheet watched that peaceful scene in silence. "His Highness Ronan has the power to wipe out the slavers while still keeping it under wraps, but he didn't do that. Instead, he introduced other nobles to the slavers and used their weaknesses in order to control them. It's all right there, plain as day, in the ledger." "..." Erheet slammed his fist into the table. He was infuriated. "I can't believe it. I just can't... How could he do something so filthy...!" Well, given he's sworn loyalty to Runan all his life, this kind of reaction was probably to be expected. I needed to turn that reaction into a distrust for Ronan. "I'll give the ledger to you, Your Excellency. I don't mind if you give it directly to His Highness Ronan. I'm not able to act on the information it contains myself." Even if I showed it to the king, nothing would happen. Nothing would change. That's just how far the rot had progressed. That's why all that could be gained from this was this man's anger. It wouldn't be enough, on its own, to tear Erheet and Ronan apart. But this is enough of a spark for what will come later. * "Is this true, Your Highness?" Erheet was a very straightforward man. So he immediately took the ledger to Ronan. "Cervil has lived a sheltered life. He makes mistakes sometimes. And I needed to have that sort of dirt on the nobles if I was going to rally them together. Are you not so broad-minded about such things?" "But human trafficking? That changes everything!" "Human trafficking? I never ordered any such thing. What are you talking about?!" Ronan's voice grew angry, causing Erheet's eyebrow to twitch. Not even he could believe the duke. Everyone knew that slave traders were engaged in human trafficking. "So it's true that you deliberately left the slave traders to do as they pleased, sir?" "Where did you even come across that ledger?" Erheet shut his mouth. Erhin had said it was okay to talk about it, but Erheet was not the sort to name names so easily. "I came by it by coincidence, but I didn't believe it was real until I saw your signature for myself." "I see. I understand what you're saying, so hand over the ledger. You're to leave the handling of this matter to me." "But, sir!" Erheet rose from his seat. "You dare defy your master? Erheet, you cur!" Ronan shouted angrily. That shut Erheet up. He had no choice but to be silent. "I will give you the ledger. But as for the punishment of the nobles named in there..." "You had best go and cool your head for a while." Erheet's mind had gone blank. He'd completely lost sight of the idol he'd pledged loyalty to all his life. Ronan genuinely desired to protect the country, and unlike all the other dukes, he had gone off to war himself. It was only because of him that Erheet had pledged loyalty to Runan. But to think that he would employ such a vile method in her defense... It was little wonder Erheet was left in a total daze by this revelation. "You will go to a fortress on the border for the time being." No matter how loyal the general, Ronan couldn't stand anyone speaking against him. And the slave traders were a sore spot for him too. Now that Erheet had touched it, no matter how close he and his subordinate were, Ronan couldn't overlook the affront. * Fihatori was true to his word and really did leave with the soldiers. Yusen was impressed by the man. "Hmm, so there's nobles like him, huh?" Gibun said, apparently feeling the same way. "Well, anyway, we have things to do. Let's leave defending the domain to the guards while we go to the mountains," Yusen said, unfurling a map inside the office at the lord's castle. "His Excellency said it would be around this area. We need to do a thorough search here. First, let's ask the residents who are familiar with the local terrain." Erhin only knew the rough location where it appeared in the game. Of course, there was a huge difference between knowing that and knowing nothing. This, fortunately, allowed him to narrow down the search area to a degree, and he passed that on to Yusen. "Gather up the village chiefs. There aren't many villages, so there can't be that many of them." "Understood." Gibun went to carry out Yusen's orders. Fihatori had already taken steps to protect the residents of the domain, so he was able to do it without any interference. Some time later, the elderly chiefs came to see Yusen. "Have you seen iron anywhere in these mountains?" In an isolated domain like this, it was hard to imagine word of this conversation leaking to the outside. Even if it did come out, it would probably be after Erhin declared independence. They couldn't talk to the Runanese soldiers yet, so they had no choice but to seek the cooperation of the domain's residents. Those were Erhin's instructions. "Iron, you say? I wonder. This is the first I've heard of it. But that area is..." "Is there something about it?" Yusen asked, detecting something strange in the man's expression. However, the chief shook his head. "The mountainfolk are there, so I've never gone." "The mountainfolk?" "Yes. That has always been the mountainfolk's domain. We've handed down warnings against approaching them for generations, so none of us have been there." Yusen suddenly rose to his feet when he heard that. He instinctively knew they had it, especially since the domain of these mountainfolk overlapped with the area that Erhin had told him. Yusen asked the chiefs for directions to the mountain where the mountainfolk lived and then set out with Gibun. "But what are the mountainfolk?" "An indigenous tribe, I'm sure. They seem to be protecting something, so there ought to be something there. Let's hurry." "You were never this sharp before, Captain... Were you imitating His Excellency just now?" "Shut up and follow me." Gibun earned another cuff to the head for jabbering. After a desperate climb up the mountain, they set foot in the area the chiefs had told them about. When they did, three men with just their lower halves covered and their faces painted green dropped out of the trees, blocking their path. "Karagatel!" "What's he saying?" The words were incomprehensible. All that was clear was that they definitely were not welcoming. "Captain. This is just a guess based on how they're acting, but maybe he just told us to get lost?" "You could be right. Well, it seems they aren't friendly." It was at just that moment that the mountainfolk rushed toward them. Yusen drew his sword reluctantly. "Gibun, don't kill them under any circumstances. It could make things worse if we kill indiscriminately." The battle started right after Yusen gave his cautious orders. Given that he was a commander who boasted considerable martial prowess, Yusen was naturally able to take care of the three mountainfolk in no time. "Who are you people?! Invading our lands and attacking us!" Another man had dropped from the treetops. This one, fortunately, spoke the common tongue of this continent. "This is all a misunderstanding! We only fought back after you people attacked us first!" "You started it by trespassing!" Ultimately, there was another fight. This man was built completely differently from the three who'd attacked them before. It was obvious just looking at him that his martial prowess was on a different level. Yusen crossed blades with the man for some time. When Gibun tried to step in and assist, Yusen shouted, "Don't get involved! Stay there and watch!" The battle went on for a while after that. At the end of their long struggle, Yusen emerged victorious, but he was pretty exhausted. "We don't mean you people any harm. We just came to ask you something!" When Yusen caught his breath and said that to the man he'd just bested, Gibun let out a sigh of admiration. "Captain, ever since you put on that black armor, you've looked so much more dignified!" "Oh, yeah?" Yusen chuckled. "You don't have to say that just because it was a gift from our lord... No, no, that's not important now. Do you see this, Gibun?!" "See what?" "The man is wearing something like iron armor. It would take incredible craftsmanship to make iron that thin." "Huh? That's iron?" Gibun's voice raised with surprise. Then the fallen man suddenly got up and ran away. "Captain, let's go after him!" Yusen shook his head. "It's obviously a trap. If we were to go after him, they'd surround us and attack from all sides. That's just basic strategy. It's dangerous to chase him." "But..." "We're taking the long way around. That way." The two took a side route in the direction the mountainfolk man had fled. This led to them wandering the mountains for hours. At the end of it, they arrived somewhere mysterious. "What...is this place?" There was a massive stone wall in front of them, on which there was a mana circle. "What's this doing out here in the mountains?" As Yusen approached the mana circle with a surprised look on his face... "Balkarka!" ...the mountainfolk appeared again from the opposite side of it. This time they were in a rather large group. "This is no good. We can't kill them, so let's fall back for now!" Fortunately, because they had taken a side route, they were able to go back the way they came and escape without being surrounded. Once they had retreated some distance, the mountainfolk stopped chasing them, perhaps unwilling to leave their own territory. Once they were sure of it, the two men sat down to catch their breath. "Gibun." "Yes, Captain." "Are you tired?" "Of course." "I need you to work anyway. Head back to Eintorian at once." "So soon?" "Tell His Excellency everything that we just saw exactly as it happened. I'm not able to make any decisions here. There was something strange about the thing they're protecting too. I didn't expect to see a mana circle. This is already beyond the scope of anything I can decide. That's why you need to go inform His Excellency directly. I couldn't leave such an important task to anyone else, could I?" "Well, that's true, but... What will you be doing in the meantime, Commander?" "I need to gather more information. That's why you're the one going to ask His Excellency for instructions. Got it?" "Understood." Gibun nodded at Yusen's order. * In the royal capital, the size of a noble's residence changed depending on where they fell in the hierarchy. The more powerful a noble, the closer their home was to the castle. The mansion in front of the castle, for example, belonged to the duke. Those nobles who lacked power, however, had their houses on the outskirts of the capital. I was visiting one of those residences in the outskirts. It wasn't an official visit, so I'd asked Euracia to help because of her special ability that let her walk along walls using mana. Using that power, we crept into the office of that house. "What are you planning to do here?" "To settle things." Euracia shook her head in dismay before vanishing out the window. She'd seen too much of the corrupt side of Runan recently and had an expression on her face that looked like she was fed up with everything. Jint stood behind me quietly. He's a reliable bodyguard. After waiting for some time, someone entered the office. The room lit up as they came in. The only people who could enter a countess's office were the maid who cleaned it or the lady herself. And cleaning was done during the day. Naturally, only the countess herself entered at night. "Who's there?!" Heina shouted, immediately attacking Jint. Jint instantly forced her to her knees and put a gag into her mouth. His speed increased continually as his Martial rose. At the rate he was growing, he'd outstrip the Swiftblade who gave me trouble in Brijit soon enough. "It's been a while, Your Excellency," I said, earning a glare from Heina. Frankly, I was being pretty tolerant, all things considered. She tried to have me killed. Normally, I'd have gone further than this. "This simply won't do. This whole business of you sending assassins to kill me and all that." I couldn't raise a ruckus, so I whispered those words in her ear. Her features twisted with indignation. I have no idea where she gets off being angry at me in this situation. "I am not here to ask, 'Why did you do it?!' or any other such nonsense, Your Excellency." Yeah. I wasn't here to confirm what I already knew. Of course, with a gag in her mouth, she couldn't answer my questions anyway. "You must have looked into my accomplishments more than anyone. The battles in Rozern and the ruin of Brijit. You investigated all of that, didn't you? So you must have known I wouldn't go down to mere assassins. Looking at their ledger, you promised them an outrageous sum. Although, I'm sure you never intended to pay it." Heina twisted around, a look of surprise on her face. "You have the intelligence to have worked as advisor to the army. I would like to credit you for that much, at least." Heina was struggling to say something, but I didn't intend to listen to obvious falsehoods, so the gag stayed right where it was. "You were aware that Ronan's name was at the top of the ledger. Your true aim was to create enmity between the duke and myself. Right? Were you not able to predict I'd come here to kill you like this?" Heina let out a muffled cry as I showed some bloodlust. "Ronan doesn't like me. He's simply using me. When you learned that, it must have made you all the more eager to get your job as an advisor back. You wanted to win yourself back into Ronan's good graces, then regain the seat of advisor and use it to rebuild your house. I understand you have strong feelings about this, but you have to use your head. You chose the wrong person to fight. I think you would have done better currying my favor rather than Ronan's, you know?" With that said, I removed the gag. I didn't care if she shouted at this point. I'd said my piece. "The fact is, I've put cracks in your relationship with His Highness, haven't I?!" Heina crowed. "His Excellency Erheet has been sent off to the borderlands, and His Highness has figured out that you were the one who gave him that ledger. He'll never let someone who's openly opposed him run free!" "Oh, yeah?" Well, it'd have been pretty easy for him to figure that out if he really wanted to. It sounds like Erheet didn't tell him, though. "If you're going to kill me, then kill me! You're finished too! Revenge is mine!" "Finished, huh? I don't know what mistaken impression you're under, but I don't care one bit what Ronan thinks of me. Nor do I care what happens to you."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter1_3.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 "What?!" "If anything, I'm actually grateful. You created a rift between Ronan and Erheet. I was aiming to do that myself." "What?! Do you think you can survive in Runan when Duke Ronan has it out for you? My father died a miserable death after Duke Ronan cut him loose!" Avenging her father. Rebuilding her house. It wasn't that I didn't understand her motivations, but she was going about it all the wrong way. "Try to take a broader view of the situation. And by that I mean, look at the continent. How long will Runan last, as rotten as it is? Ronan's not even a consideration for me. I intend to seize this entire world for myself. Destroying Brijit was only a small part of that. I haven't hitched my cart to Runan's by any means. Maybe you should consider a new path too, Your Excellency? Let me let you in on a little secret. Naruya will be invading again soon. This time, Runan won't be able to stop them, and I certainly don't intend to. There are many other ways for you to rebuild your house and take revenge. Maybe you don't need to get Ronan to like you after all?" "What are you even saying?!" "Think with your head a little. Your father died a miserable death after Ronan threw him away. Why not kill Ronan to avenge him? Your chance will come in time." If she couldn't control her anger and tried to have another go at me, then next time I'd kill her for sure. For now, though, she was still useful. I didn't know how just yet, but there had to be something. "How about, instead of going after me, you take your revenge on the direct cause of your misfortune?" Yes, this was a spark. A spark for her to go after Ronan. Anyway, I had said everything I had to say to her, so I gave Jint the signal and she was set free. She didn't move, though—just stared at me vacantly. Leaving her to struggle with her thoughts, I slipped out of the residence. Then, immediately meeting up with Euracia, she asked me, "By the way, what exactly are your intentions? If another Naruyan invasion isn't far off, then...in the end, the people of Runan will be..." It seemed she'd heard everything. "The king is an imbecile, and the duke is greedy. I don't care what happens to them, but I don't plan on letting the people die in the war." "..." Euracia said nothing in response to my answer. In fact, when I looked at her, she turned her face away from me. * "Where do you think you're going?" Jint said as he caught Gensema trying to escape. "Spare me! You're going to spare me, right? I've done everything just as you've told me to! Please, spare me!" Sorry, but I never said I'd spare you. I only said that I could. "What goes around comes around in this world, right? When you do something bad, then that much retribution is headed your way," I said, handing Gensema over to Jint. "Do with him as you will." "You mean it?" "Of course I do." At my nod, Jint bit his lip and grabbed Gensema by the hair. Then, just like that, he dragged the man up the hill. "Ngh! Spare me! Please...! I get it, I'll give you everything. If it's gold bars you want, just say so. I have mountains of them!" Perhaps sensing an alarming amount of bloodlust, Gensema cried and begged for mercy. Jint gave him no answer, though. He simply looked at Gensema, then swung his blade down. "Spare—Gwagh...!" In an instant, Gensema's head flew through the air, his lips still moving. It took seconds for him to lose consciousness, and the severed head kept making noise the whole time. In those brief moments, his flying head likely had time to see the body it had been parted from. To stare down at its own decapitated torso. Seconds of despair. It might not have been nearly enough for the end of a scoundrel who'd plunged so many into the depths of misery, but I'd say that it was still a reasonably fitting end. Once he'd snuffed Gensema, Jint walked over and suddenly knelt before me. "I don't know how I can ever repay you... What could I possibly do...?" It was a truly foolish question. What's that question for? "You want to repay me that badly?" "Of course! You've done nothing but help me, yet I haven't been able to do anything for you in return!" "Then get stronger. That's how you'll repay me. Get stronger, and be more useful. That's enough." Yeah. Hurry up and become S-class. A loyal S-class subordinate. I'm going to need that kind of power. The stronger he gets, the less risk there is of him dying, so it's a good thing for Mirinae too. "You want me to get stronger? And if I do...I can be of more use to you?" "That's what I was saying, yes." "I'll get stronger, then." Jint was a man of few words, as always. But judging by his enthusiasm, he seemed to get it. There are more pressing matters right now, though. That's that even with Gensema dead, the Droy Company still hasn't been destroyed. Destroying their fortress in Runan and killing the master only meant their boss was dead. The branches in the rest of Runan and Naruya were still unharmed. The Droy Company was structured a lot like the drug cartels and other criminal syndicates in the modern world. Because they held their secrets tight, it wasn't easy to get a precise handle on what the situation truly was. There was the top of the cartel, and then there were the people who procured the drugs, split them up, stored them, shipped them, managed the black market, pushed the drugs, watched for trouble, and managed the books. Everyone had a role assigned to them. It was normal for the commanders of the organization not to show themselves in public. This assignment of roles meant that while there were vertical connections between the members, they weren't connected horizontally, so each member only knew their direct superiors. Most of the time, when it came to people doing the same job, they only knew one another's faces, not the names that went with them. So even when a person managing sales was caught, it was difficult to hunt down the leadership and catch them all at once. On interrogating the captives from the fortress, we learned that Gensema of the Droy Company only managed the fortress and the main branch in Runan, while he gave orders to the other branches in secret without showing his face at any of them. In conclusion, that meant the Droy Company was still largely intact at this moment, and I could take it for myself. * Euracia took Frill on ahead to the fortress. Once we'd disposed of Gensema, Jint and I met up with her there. When I arrived at the fortress, I began interrogating our captives again. "So they report in regularly. Each branch has a person who comes here, and then returns to their branch with orders?" "Y-Yes!" the prisoner shouted emphatically. "Your information has been accurate. Thanks to that, I was able to kill Gensema and Lutri. As long as you give me that kind of precise information, it makes it worth my while to keep you alive. You catch my drift, right?" "Yes, of course! I... I'll never lie to you!" the prisoner shouted, trembling with fear. There's no need to show mercy to men like these. But if there's something to be gained from it, then that's another matter entirely. "Did Gensema ever show himself to the people from the branches?" "No. He was deeply suspicious of others. Things are much stricter in the Naruya Kingdom, so he hasn't shown his face to any of the people from the branch there. By keeping the branches ignorant of each other, even if one is put down the rest are able to survive." "That branch in the Naruya Kingdom is the one I need." More precisely, I need the accurate intel they could provide. As a criminal syndicate that dealt with the nobility, it was easy for them to get their hands on important information, and they would uncover more than if I sent my scouts. In war, intel is worth more than gold. It's what leads the way to victory. I was all too happy to become the master of the Droy Company in order to get that information. Of course, I didn't intend to tolerate human trafficking. I planned to gain information while capturing the other Droy Company branches in one fell swoop. If I'm going to round them up anyway, pretending to be the master of the organization to get intel out of them has got to be fair game, right? It's two birds with one stone. Getting information about what's happening in Naruya is more important than anything right now. More than the gold beneath Eintorian. No, more than the iron in Bertaquin, even. "You were saying the messengers from the other branches gather again half a month from now, right?" "Y-Yes!" "Then start preparing immediately. I'll be meeting with the other branches' intermediaries personally," I declared to my captive. * "Frill!" "Sis!" Frill hugged Lilian. Frill had been dragged around here and there without any idea what was happening, but it was different for Lilian. The girl shed tears as she hugged Frill tight. The girl had come to me, crying, and begged me to save her little sister. It was immediately obvious that I should grant her wish. Her earnestness was palpable to anyone listening, and it was the little things like that which came together to form the public's opinion. The fact of the matter is Opinion scores are the most important element to take into consideration in the game. No matter how much I raise my level, without popular support I don't have a proper country, and world domination is impossible. Everything I did was to become the true winner of this game. "Don't worry. My domain is building villages, so everyone can live there. No one is going to make the two of you suffer anymore," I told them. "Frill, hold on a moment." "Sis?" Leaving behind Frill, who was perplexed by her big sister's sudden tears, Lilian walked over and prostrated herself before me. "My lord!" "Huh?" "I... I'll do anything! No matter what you ask of me! So, please, let me stay by your side to serve you!" What she was saying was outrageous. "Stay by my side and serve me? There's no need for that. You should go to the village and live however you please." When I gave that kind of realistic response to her sudden request, she grabbed my leg while remaining prostrate in front of me. "My sister and I were sold by our village! There's no freedom for us if we go back there... Instead, I want to live for you, the one who saved my sister's life, my lord! Please, let me repay this debt. I beg of you!" "Uh, it's nice of you to say that and all, but..." Unable to brush her off, I was at a loss for what to do. In a way, it's easier dealing with scum like Gensema. I suddenly broke into a cold sweat. She locked her little arms around my leg, unwilling to let go of me even if that meant being dragged around. The longer this went on, the more people who would see. This situation actually risked creating misunderstandings. Misunderstandings that were bound to lower people's opinion of me. I needed to handle the matter delicately. If she started crying now, there'd be no saving me. I did have one idea that was kind of like serving at my side. With my brain racing for solutions, I proposed, "Then will you serve as a maid in my castle? There's a lot that you'll have to learn, but that would be serving me, in a way." "I'll do it! Please, let me! I'll make your castle the cleanest on the continent!" Lilian declared, announcing a rather strange ambition. If that's what she wants, then so be it. I can leave the rest to the head chamberlain. "Okay, okay. I'll handle the formalities once we return. Now stop clinging to me and stand on your own two feet." "I'll do my very best! I mean it! I'll give it everything I have!" Lilian put her hands together in front of her as she tried to show how passionate she was. Having seen this, of all things, Euracia suddenly appeared and shook her head with dismay. Then, she uttered two words. "You pervert." Whoa, hold up. What about any of this makes me a pervert?! "Hey, Euracia!" I shouted after her desperately as she went, but she didn't seem to have any intention of stopping.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Chapter 2: Secrets of the Mountainfolk Having ordered my soldiers to disguise themselves as the Droy Company, I returned to my domain for a time. I couldn't stay away too long, or it might come out that I'd been moving my troops around on unofficial tasks. When I got there, Gibun had just returned from Bertaquin, and after hearing his report I ended up setting out for Bertaquin next. I was feeling a little fatigued, and I didn't want to be away from Runan too long with the matter of the Droy Company still remaining, but Gibun's report was also not something I could ignore. He said they'd found a mana circle. For some reason, in the game, this mountain region didn't get activated until it was occupied by the player. Maybe this mana circle was part of that secret. "You sure you're all right, Gibun? You can rest, if you'd like." "Not an option. Someone's got to show you where the mountainfolk are, and prevent you and the captain from missing each other too!" "Well, you've got a point there. I'll keep you working just a little longer, then." "I can take it." Euracia, Gibun, and I headed out on horseback. I'd assigned Jint another task, so he was busy elsewhere this time. "That's the castle!" This was my first time visiting Bertaquin. True to expectations, it was an underdeveloped domain. We entered the castle as soon as we arrived. Yusen might be there, after all. But there was no sign of Yusen. "He said he would be surveying the area, so I guess he's still not back yet..." Gibun said, scratching the back of his head with a look of concern on his face. That leaves us with nothing else to do at the castle. "Let's head into the mountains." "Yes, sir!" With Gibun leading the way, we headed to the area where the mountainfolk were. "I think it was this way..." However, Gibun got us lost on the way there. "Well, you see... It was a very tense situation at the time!" Forest here. Forest there. With all this green everywhere, it was understandable that he couldn't tell one place from another. "Let's just move forward for now. Those weirdos with the green face paint will show up eventually!" Just as Gibun said that, something fell down from up in the trees. A person, incredibly enough. "It's one of them! They look just like that! Eeeeek!" Gibun tripped and fell over as he backed away. Euracia meanwhile quickly drew her sword. But on closer inspection, it was a familiar face. "Hey, it's Yusen!" "Your Excellency, you came!" At this point, Gibun rose to his feet with indignation. "Captain! What was that for?! Why are you dressed like one of them?! Did you become one of the mountainfolk while I was away?" "Shut up. The bigger problem here is the way you failed to recognize me and started wailing like you'd seen a ghost." Yusen gave Gibun a swift kick in the butt before turning to me. "They paint their faces green in this fashion. I stood out too much on my own as I was, so I decided to do the same." "Well, that's certainly true, Captain. Just looking at your face, there's no way to tell you apart from—" Gibun, who'd said a little too much, was cut off as Yusen gave him another punishment that left him lying on the ground. Nice to see they get along so well. "So, have you figured anything out?" I asked. "I investigated their territory. Here's a map!" Yusen said, handing me a hand-drawn map. "For now, is there any way of reaching the place where the mana circle is without them finding us?" "They won't leave their territory. It's an unbreakable taboo for them. So, if we take the side route over here, we can get there easily, but..." "But what?" "It seems to be a holy site for them, so they're guaranteed to notice if we trespass there. That's the problem." There's no avoiding a clash, huh? I may not like it, but I came all this way for that mana circle, so I'm gonna do what I have to do. "Until I see that mana circle, I can't decide how I'm going to deal with the mountainfolk. Lead me there." "Yes, sir." Following Yusen, we took a big detour off the path. Unlike Gibun, however, Yusen knew the area like the back of his hand. "There it is, Your Excellency!" Let's see if it's what I think it is. A massive cliff. And at the bottom of it, a mana circle. It looked very familiar. "I knew it. It looks like the one we saw that time, doesn't it?" "I was thinking the same thing. Look at this!" It was the same as the one in the underground space Euracia and I found during the war with Brijit. Remembering what happened that time, Euracia held out her hand. Blue light shone from her ring. This was also the same as back then. In short, this circle of mana was a device created by the Ancient Kingdom. If there's iron somewhere in this area, could it be that it's not from an iron mine, but iron ore that was being used by the Ancient Kingdom? Was it lost with the fall of the kingdom? "Ukakakakakauka!" At some point while I was thinking about all this, a green-faced gang had surrounded us. It was immediately obvious they were the mountainfolk because they were dressed the same way as Yusen. Hundreds of them appeared from on top of the cliff and from the rear, encircling us with faces that showed unmasked hostility. "Who is your chief?! I am Erhin, the new Lord of Bertaquin!" In response, one of them opened his mouth. The man with the broadest shoulders in the mob. "It matters not to us who you are. Begone at once. Or your life will be forfeit." They seemed uninterested in my status as their lord. Well, that had been obvious at first glance. They were all short, but with comparatively broad shoulders and muscular frames. "I suspect that one is the chief," Yusen explained. "He was rather strong. I was only barely able to beat him." "Oh, yeah?" I replied. Bertalman Age: 28 Martial: 80 Intelligence: 50 Command: 78 I immediately checked the man's ability scores. He wasn't A-class, but the numbers were certainly still appealing. "If you won't leave, then you must die! Kill them!" The mountainfolk attacked because we ignored their warning. We could fight back, but that risks casualties. That being the case, we'll break through instead. "Euracia, it's probably fastest to dispel the mana circle and go inside. We'll cover you, so get that door open!" "Got it." Euracia nodded and raced toward the mana circle. As she did, I arranged for her protection. "We'll hold them off until Euracia opens the door!" "Leave it to us!" Then, just as we were about to make contact with the onrushing mountainfolk... It only took a brief moment. The mana circle flashed with the same blue light as Euracia's ring, and the ground began to shake like an earthquake. "Ukakakakaka?" The mountainfolk, shocked by the tremors, ceased their attack. At the same time, the wall on which the mana circle had been drawn opened up as if it had been vertically bisected—and then the shaking subsided. Euracia's ring and the mana circle were still emitting a powerful blue light as they resonated with each other. She went inside, and I followed behind her. The mountainfolk looked on in a daze, clearly confused by what was happening. "Look at this. What do you think it's doing here?" Euracia said, pointing in front of the door. There was a sword thrust into the ground there. Cocking her head to the side questioningly, she drew the blade. It was brown, like the sword that had been in Rozern. Nameless Sword Martial +2 The item's effect was identical. Don't tell me the Ancient Kingdom's treasures are all the same. No, even if they're harboring some secret, surely there can't be twelve of these brown swords, right? "Your Excellency! Look! Look at them!" Gibun's shouts caused me to turn and look at the mountainfolk. "Ukakakakaka!" The mountainfolk assailants had all prostrated themselves before us at some point. And as they lay in supplication, their apparent chief addressed Euracia. "Master!" He spoke as if he were speaking to a goddess. Euracia pointed at herself with a blank look on her face that seemed to say, "Master? Me?" Speaking on her behalf, I asked, "What do you mean, 'Master'?" The chief raised his voice and answered, "It is as our ancestors foretold. She is the one who opens the holy place with blue light—the savior who will liberate and lead us. We have protected this place, waiting eagerly for the one who will lead us with the blue light!" On hearing this, Euracia cast a troubled look in my direction. She was even more divine when her poker face slipped, making the mountainfolk prostrating themselves before her look like worshippers. Their presence complimented Euracia's beauty. "What do you suppose they're doing?" "They appear to be worshipping you." "Huh?" Euracia hid herself behind me. It was unusual for her to do this, since she typically stood in front of me, ready to fight whenever a battle broke out. And she was even grasping the hem of my shirt. I'd have loved to look at this fresh side of her a little longer, but I turned to face the mountainfolk again. I had mountains of questions for them. "You're saying that you were waiting for someone to open the door sealed by the mana circle?" "Who are you?! I have nothing to say to anyone but our master!" Chief Bertalman's response angered Euracia, who shouted from behind me, "I don't know if I'm your master or not, but he and I are together!" "What? Oh, I see. He is your spouse, then?" Bertalman said, jumping to an unbelievable conclusion. "E-Erm, no, he's—mmph?!" Euracia was quick with the denial, but I covered her mouth with my hand. "If she's my spouse, then will you listen to me?" "If you have sworn vows with our master, then we will swear our loyalty to you as our master as well." I see. So that's how it is. I put my hand around Euracia's shoulder, pulling her close. "In that case... Your master is my wife!" I declared boldly, but Euracia objected of course. "Wait, who're you calling your wife?!" "Just play along for now. We need to get the mountainfolk on board," I muttered, putting my hands together in a conciliatory gesture. Euracia pursed her lips slightly. "Even though I'm not your type! Yeesh!" she complained in a whisper. She then raised her voice so everyone could hear her: "It's true. He is my partner." "What?" She accepted it so plainly that I couldn't help but be astonished. "Is that not what you meant?" "Well, yeah, but..." "If it helps you, then I'm fine with it. And besides..." "Besides?" At a loss for words, Euracia smiled, and she shook her head. "Even if you are a pervert, maybe I can accept that...?" With that, she turned her back to me and headed inside.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter2_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 No, hold on. Do you really still think I'm some kind of deviant? "Whoa, hey, Euracia! I told you that was a misunderstanding!" Euracia pretended not to hear me as she looked around, vanishing inside. I watched as she left me behind out here, then turned my gaze back toward the mountainfolk. I'd considered going after her, but this had to come first. "Anyway, you heard her, right? My questions are her questions. So answer me. Were you waiting for someone to break the seal of this mana circle?" Bertalman, who had been watching us, seemed to draw some conclusions, and opened his mouth to say, "When you get in a fight with your wife, the best strategy is to let her win, Master!" What kind of conclusion had he come to? Why was he looking at me like I was pathetic? With a look that told him to shut up, I asked, "Listen, just answer the question, would you?" "O foolish Master. I will answer your question. Yes, we have waited many long years." "Was there some reason for that?" "We mountainfolk were brought to ruin by Brijit a thousand years ago. But we had a benefactor who saved us then. Our ancestors did as he told them, and have protected this land with the mana circle ever since. He told us the one who would one day appear with a blue light would be our master, and that that master would spread the name of the mountainfolk across the entire continent." "Whoa, hold up. I get that this guy saved you, but you're telling me you've really been waiting for an entire millennium?" "We are not like those of Brijit. No matter how many millennia pass, we never forget our gratitude! It is said that he foretold many things, and our ancestors bound us to do as he said. And so, we obey!" Hmm. That was a pretty cool little speech. Their high degree of loyalty's no lie. I wanted these mountainfolk as my subordinates badly. Their mobility and ability to conceal themselves while in the mountains was a big part of that. I'd be a real lucky guy to have them as loyal subordinates. But even more important was the fact that their story had hints to the treasures of the Ancient Kingdom in it. The man who the mountainfolk said saved them was likely the original bearer of Euracia's ring. He must have taken the treasures from the Ancient Kingdom that were stored in Brijit, then brought them to be stored at this mountain with the mountainfolk protecting them. In that case, was their savior involved with the Ancient Kingdom? In other words, one of the ancestors of the Eintorians? I could theorize that their savior left this place and then went to Rozern to give them the ring. Not that I have any idea why he'd have done that. Still, having any clue at all makes a world of difference. "Hrm..." Well, if I keep pursuing the mystery, the pieces of the puzzle are bound to fall into place at some point. "Your Excellency! You married Her Royal Highness?!" Gibun approached and asked as I was deep in thought. "What?" I responded, shooting him the most incredulous look I could muster. Yusen let out a sigh and shook his head before dragging Gibun off. Gibun hadn't been able to say a word to Euracia the whole way here. He'd been overwhelmed by her beauty, or her position. Probably both. Anyway, I turned to the mountainfolk and said, "Basically, you were looking for a master who would bring honor to the mountainfolk, then? It sounds like his prophecy was correct, because I am the man who destroyed the same Brijit that drove your people out. If you serve under me and Euracia, I promise you the whole world will know the name of the mountainfolk!" "Brijit was destroyed? O Master, is that true?" Bertalman asked with a look of stunned disbelief. Considering his people couldn't leave the mountains, it was no surprise that he didn't know. "The reason Bertaquin has a new lord is because Brijit was destroyed." "You truly destroyed them, Master?" "The master you've been waiting so long for has appeared before you. If you cannot even believe what he tells you, then what have you been waiting these many long years for?" "We believe you! You are our saviors!" Bertalman turned and spoke to the tribesmen in their own language. "Whoaaaa!" The mountainfolk immediately let out a great cheer. Then they repeatedly bowed their heads toward me. "Are you still doing this?" asked Euracia, who had returned at some point. She was always making sudden appearances, so it didn't even surprise me anymore. "How far in did you go?" I asked. "This place is really deep," she replied. "It seems there's an iron ore mine, but at the entrance was another one of those magic circles." "What kind was it?" "The sort that increases our mana. Just like the one we found a while back." "No way!" It looks like the mana circles associated with the Ancient Kingdom really do have that function, like I suspected. This was really good news. I could raise two people's ability scores this time. "Euracia, do you know the origin of that ring? Like, who it came from?" "No. Father never told me. Or rather, he likely didn't know himself." The answer's not going to come easy, I guess. What purpose did these facilities from the Ancient Kingdom and their treasures have? "Well, it's fine. We have unsealed the mana circle that you people were protecting. You are to follow me and my wife Euracia from now on!" "Yaaaaaaaaaay!" Their cheer echoed through the mountains. Why were they driven out of Brijit, and for what reason did my Eintorian ancestor save them? Whatever the answer, the important thing now is that I've found myself some powerful pawns in the mountainfolk. There are mountains everywhere, but with this world's level of technology, none of them are highly developed. That means that the mountains aren't yet part of humanity's domain. It's just a fact that having the aid of the mountainfolk, with their incredible mobility inside the mountains, will be useful. On top of that, it looks like the huge volume of iron ore that I was expecting is in here too. I planned to use that iron to build myself an elite unit of iron cavalry as soon as possible. The iron cavalry boast both offensive and defensive power. They'll be invaluable in the age of chaos that comes with the destruction of Runan. And I already had a man in mind to be captain of my iron cavalry. Martial 96. Intelligence 70. Command 92. He was one who possessed superior abilities for a commander. Yes, it has to be Erheet Demacine. * The iron problem was resolved. Gibun and Yusen were to bring in engineers from Eintorian, then secure the transportation routes. Management of the domain and development of our manpower were proceeding apace too. Which means what I need to do now is gather information—information on the Naruya Kingdom. So far, I've been able to keep winning thanks to my experience with the game. But there was no second Naruyan invasion in the game. It'd be dangerous to go up against the powerful forces of Naruya without any intel whatsoever. They have characters—their king foremost among them—who I can't overcome even with Daitoren equipped, after all. If I fight blindly without accurate intel, I really will be risking my life in this war. There's that saying that if you know the other guy, and you know yourself, you won't have to worry about the result of a hundred battles. Some famous Chinese strategist guy said it. If I know the enemy, I can win. Of course, that's easier said than done. "I'm gonna head to Naruya," I said, thinking aloud. "Wha—? What's this, coming out of nowhere?" Euracia asked, her expression dubious. "It's to gather information. There's something I want to use the Droy Company to find out." Euracia stared at me. "Is that right? Well, let's make sure we're adequately prepared," she said as if that were the natural conclusion. Which meant she planned to come with me. "Uh, listen... I think I'd better go it alone this time. You kinda stand out... You're not a good pick for a covert mission." "Just what about me do you think stands out?" Euracia asked, pouting. She was upset I'd told her not to come. "Everything about you. Your very existence. That soft, blonde hair and your creamy-white skin. Your breathtaking beauty. You stick out like a sore thumb." "..." Euracia stared at me in dumb amazement when I said that. "Wh-Wh-Wh-What are you saying?! This is way too embarrassing! You can't just say that...!" She turned away, her face reddening. Hey, wasn't her reaction too slow there? "That's just how much of a sore thumb you are. So, much as I might like it to be otherwise, I'm going alone. The domain's set up to run when I'm not around, at least. I've got a favor to ask of you instead." "A favor?" Euracia asked, bashfully hiding her face behind her hands. "Can you move Rozern to act on my behalf? I want you to head there for that purpose." Yeah. Infiltrating Naruya to gather intel was great and all, but I needed to be able to move Rozern if I was going to put it to use. "Move Rozern...you say?" "Yeah. In the coming war, I'm going to want Rozern to choose me over Runan, and to help me out." "Of course we'll choose you. If the choice is you or Runan, the answer is obvious." "Is that right?" "Yes," she answered instantly, an expression on her face that showed she felt no need for hesitation. "Because you said Runan was a sinking ship. But no, there's more to it than that..." "More to it?" "I've actually chosen you over Rozern too." "Huh? You have?" There was a silence, followed by, "You dummy! I don't even know you anymore!" as Euracia stormed off looking genuinely angry. * Near the Runanese capital, the soldiers guarding the Droy Company fortress had been replaced by Eintorian troops. And inside the fortress, there was a prisoner I'd spared because he knew the chief of the Naruyan branch of the company. The branch chiefs just pass orders along and rarely visit the fortress, so nothing should look like it's changed as far as they're concerned. I had traded my usual noble garb for Gensema's clothes. "Today they'll be coming from Cassis, the Naruyan capital, right?" "Yes. That's what was scheduled." The chief of the branch in Cassis. In other words, the key individual in this situation. "You're certain Gensema's never met his branch chiefs directly?" "Yes. He only sent out messengers with orders for the branches." The prisoner nodded, wincing a little. After seeing how mercilessly we'd killed his comrades, he probably had no intention of trying to trick me. Naruya's not corrupt like Runan. In fact, in order to preserve the absolute authority of the king, they systematically eliminate any unpredictable elements like criminal organizations. Because of that, unlike in Runan, the Naruyan branch of this company is at a high risk of being wiped out. That's why Gensema chose not to show his face—to prevent it from ending up on a wanted poster if the branch did get swept up. He could only do that because he was running a crime syndicate, not an ordinary organization. It's going to make mopping the rest of them up all at once tough. "In that case, think of me as Gensema from now on. Got it?" "Understood!" Once I'd driven that point home, the person we were waiting for arrived. His name was Martin, and his ability scores were nothing impressive. "I am Martin, chief of the Cassis branch! You're the master? I never expected you to be so young..." "I inherited the position from my father. If you've heard anything about the master that is contradictory to my appearance, then that was likely him." "I see. So that's how it was... Anyway, why is it you've called me to the main fortress? Isn't this in violation of company rules?" Martin eyed me suspiciously. He was as cautious as I'd expect from the branch chief of a criminal organization. "That's just how important this is!" the prisoner standing beside me interjected. "Oh, who are you? You've come to Cassis a number of times to deliver messages, haven't you?" "I see you've been good enough to remember me." Perhaps thanks to that acquaintance, Martin put his suspicions aside for the time being and nodded. "I have an important task for you, and that is why I've made an exception to the rule," I explained before clapping my hands together. When I did, the soldiers brought in the gold bars. Four boxes worth. Even one box was equivalent to five years of the Droy Company's revenue. They opened the boxes to reveal the gleaming gold. Martin's eyes lit up as he approached. He'd joined this organization for the money, so that was to be expected. "What is this...?" "The advance payment for the important job I'm assigning you." "All of this...is the advance payment?" "Correct. And you'll receive twice this much if you're successful." "Double! You're serious?" Martin looked at me with disbelief...because there was enough money in the advance payment alone to walk away from this lifestyle and live like a king. "Where in the world...did so much money come from? No, just how dangerous is this job?" The higher the price, the greater the risk. That was a given. "There is something that I am hoping to investigate by ingratiating myself to the Naruyan nobility. This gold is the price of the information." "No way!" "You just need to accept the payment and help me infiltrate Cassis. I'll handle the rest. Our client is a great man. If the job is a success, the Droy Company will be able to make inroads in the Jenas Kingdom. I think you can see why it was worth breaking the rules now. However, because we've had to go against protocol, I expect you'll be transferred to another branch once the job is done. That, or you could quit entirely. You can consider this to also be a retirement bonus." "I can't believe we're moving into Jenas!" That meant moving into an incomparably larger market than Naruya. Unlike the insular Naruya, Jenas was a country whose profile had been rising due to their trade with other nations. Obviously, they were even more watchful of what business was going on in their country than other nations. That was why the Droy Company hadn't been able to extend their tendrils into that region yet. Martin looked at the boxes again. Then he gulped. "By the way...would I, personally, be in any danger?" "Not at all. I'll do all the risky stuff myself. I only need you to set things up so I can infiltrate the country." "I'll do it, then! You're really giving me all this gold...!" "Good. The gold is yours. Once you've gotten me into the country, you may return to the fortress to claim it. But only after you've gotten me in. Understood?" Martin's eyes bulged as he thought about this. From the perspective of a villain like him, it must have been concerning that he wasn't being handed the gold here and now. In a shadowy organization like this, it was only natural that he would fear he might be repaid not with gold but death once he'd served his purpose. After all, this was an organization where people didn't meet face-to-face. They were bound by gold, not loyalty. "I just have to get you in, that's all? And then I really get the gold?" "That is correct. Obviously, if you were to talk, I would die when I infiltrated the country. If that happens, you won't be getting the gold. What, do you think I'd do you harm when I'll still need the Cassis branch to help me make my escape?" "You have a point... Okay then. I'll take my payment when the job is done. Heh heh heh!" Martin said with a chuckle. He seemed ready to stab me in the back once he had the gold bars. With that much money on the line, that's a natural outcome. But there's no way he should be able to betray me before he has the gold. I'm sure Martin must smell the danger, but the allure of the gold in front of his eyes is much greater. "Now, let's take the company's route to Cassis." "You're not going to bring Lutri with us?" "It's a top secret operation, after all. The fewer people involved, the better." "I see. Then you'll be acting on your own in Cassis?" "That is what it means, yes." Those words lent Martin a sense of certainty, his lips curling ever so slightly up into a smile. The Gensema he knows is weak, and Lutri is the strong one. And we'll be going to Cassis, his sphere of influence. That means if I kill him instead of paying him, his men can turn me into the authorities. It's a profitable deal made all the more tempting by the security measures he has in place. He must have sensed that as long as Lutri isn't with us, it should be possible. * The Droy Company branch near Cassis was also a fortress with an underground prison. It was a facility for holding slaves who were being trafficked. The children who didn't sell would be taken in by the assassin group and subjected to advanced training from a young age. Those who survived would become hired killers, while those who couldn't handle it would simply perish. Of course, they just killed any adult they couldn't sell. That's the kind of place the Droy Company was. "So, how are you planning to get me in? You've brought me here with some plan in mind, right?" Martin nodded in response to my question. "Of course. There's a group in Naruya called the Ten Commanders." "Surely you aren't suggesting I wasn't aware of them?" "The truth is, we have a customer in the Ten Commanders. Heh heh heh!" Really? "Only Naruya has an organization like the Ten Commanders." The Ten Commanders of Naruya were literally the ten strongest guys in Naruya. Whenever a stronger guy appeared, the lineup changed. Whether they were a noble or a peasant didn't matter. Basically, they're a total meritocracy. When a commoner was chosen as one of the Ten Commanders, they stood above the ordinary nobility. They might not have a title, but for as long as they were one of the Commanders, the nobles couldn't lay a hand on them. That included every noble outside of the royal family and the House of Valdesca who came from one of the Twelve Continental Families. Naturally, it was incredibly prestigious for a noble house to have produced a member of the Ten Commanders. The Ten Commanders system had existed since the founding of Naruya, and the post was seen as sacred. But at the same time, it was also a license to do anything without facing the censure of anyone outside the royal family and the House of Valdesca. * Three months later, in the royal palace in Runan, the king was shouting at his retainers, his face turning red as he was unable to control his fury. When Duke Ronan answered his sudden summons, he looked at the king dubiously. "What is the matter, Your Majesty?" The king immediately pounded the armrest of his throne in response. "Those Rozernans have gotten full of themselves! All of a sudden, they're refusing to pay the promised annual tribute? What ingrates! I'll make those underhanded curs pay for this!" Not just Ronan, but all of the nobles present furrowed their brows when they heard the king say that. Yes, this is outrageous. Curse those measly Rozernans, they all thought. Even though they weren't the ones who'd saved Rozern. "We'll destroy them at once. Prepare for war!" the king roared. While the king and Ronan thought alike much of the time, the duke was still the more logical of the two. "Sire! We can't go to war." Consequently, he opposed starting a war on impulse. "We've already sent many of our troops to Brijit, where there are still elements resisting our rule, and they are busy suppressing the domain." They had only given Erhin a small number of troops when he said he would take Brijit, but once the capital fell, the lords replenished their troops and headed there one after another. Thanks to that, the Royal Army and the nobles' personal forces were largely away at the moment. If they recalled them to start another war, they would quickly face pushback from the nobles and an insurrection in Brijit, among other problems. "Still, we cannot suffer this in silence. Damn that petty country!" The king's words worried Ronan. Once the man got angry, there was no changing his mind. He was strong when facing the weak. At this point, the nobles came together to make a suggestion. "Why not send Count Eintorian, sire? Then there won't be any need to fight a war. Sending him should be enough to intimidate them!" "Oh, I see. That is a move we can make. To think things would go so badly after we withdrew him. Fine, send an envoy to Erhin. We'll demand that Rozern pay ten times the annual tribute for going back on their word. If they don't, then it will be war. Also, they must send us hostages. Yes, I think that the princess who came here last time will do nicely." He wasn't thinking about the big picture. He'd completely forgotten about Naruya. The possibilities of money and a beautiful woman dangling before him were all that went through the foolish king's mind. "But sire, that will make it hard to use Count Eintorian..." "I don't want to hear it. Are you suggesting that Runan ignore a slight from measly Rozern, then, Duke? We either send Erhin, or we send in the troops to destroy them utterly!" the King of Runan declared firmly.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Chapter 3: The Road to Being King In the Naruya Kingdom, the young king—Cassia de Naruya—sat upon his throne. Despite his youth, the king already possessed both dignity and a regal aura that befitted a hegemon. Before him stood Count Roland with his head bowed. He was an emissary of the Herald Kingdom and was also said to be the strongest fighter in that country. The Herald Kingdom bordered Naruya to the east. In terms of power, they were roughly on the same level as Brijit, meaning that they were weaker than Runan. But in part due to his fame within his own country, Roland remained confident even when standing before the King of Naruya. "So, in summary, you are asking if we would like to form an alliance?" "Indeed I am. And it is not such a bad deal, if I do say so myself!" There had been a similar proposal from the Brijit Kingdom the other day. Not that Brijit existed as a nation any longer. Of course, Cassia had no intention of accepting. "You people are also targeting Runan, then? You wish to join hands with us in order to occupy that country, is that it?" "I won't deny it. However, Your Majesty, if you were to form an alliance with Herald, I can assure you we would be able to conquer Runan with even greater certainty!" Count Roland declared, releasing mana as he spoke. It was a way of boasting about his own power. Perhaps an ordinary ruler might have been intimidated, at least somewhat, by such a display. However, Cassia merely dug the wax out of his ear in boredom. "It seems that the Herald Kingdom's information is out of date. It's absurd that someone like you is a famous commander there. A man with your level of martial ability would be no use anywhere else. You fail to even arouse our curiosity, emissary of Herald. Begone." At that moment, red light overflowed from around Cassia. The power of his red mana made the entire throne room shake. Count Roland's mana was swallowed up in an instant, and the overpowered count was forced to sit on the floor, his trembling legs unable to support him. The king's power was so great he was speechless. With quivering lips, the count said, "I'm sure you'll regret this... We're after Runan too, so next time we meet...it'll likely be on the battlefield...!" He was likely attempting to save his pride by saying that, but all he was doing was wagging his insipid tongue.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter3_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Two of the royal guards flanked Count Roland, picking him up and removing him from the audience chamber in shame. He was so overwhelmed he couldn't even stand up on his own. "What a pitiful wretch," the king remarked with a look of boredom before rising from the throne. Once he was gone, Frann Valdesca, who had simply been watching as the situation unfolded, asked the Ten Commanders, "Have you finished searching for Runanese scouts?" "Yes, Your Highness. The intelligence service has captured them all. Many of them were given rather sloppy missions, so it wasn't difficult. It seems Duke Ronan isn't very good at this." "I see. Please catch them and take as much advantage of them as you can." The King of Runan and his right-hand man Ronan were fools. Ronan didn't even merit being seen as a threat. There was only one among the enemy who did. And if Valdesca's reading of the situation was correct, that person would actually be pleased by the destruction of Runan. That being the case, the advisor to the Naruya Kingdom felt he should take as much advantage of the man as he could. * Soon, Naruya would invade Runan. The time was at hand. If so, this playthrough is coming to the main event. No, rather than the main event, it was actually the beginning. Normally, this game starts with the destruction of Runan. With the fall of Runan, the surrounding nations intervene in order to occupy some of their vast territory. That's the fuse that sets off the era of war in earnest. I managed to dodge that opening, but the fall of Runan is inevitable. In the three months since I'd infiltrated Naruya, I had been steadily preparing countermeasures against the Naruyan invasion. Clearing the game is only going to get more difficult from here. It's an era where the things that I know are intermingled with a newly rewritten history. Once Runan falls, each country should ultimately react in the same way that they do in the game. But this is also the point where there's bound to be inconsistencies with the game's original history. Because I exist, and the Brijit Kingdom no longer does, there'll be things that go like in the game, and then all sorts of unpredictable butterfly effects, both of them winding together as we enter a time of turbulence. That'll make things more interesting, and more dangerous. As part of my first strategy for that time to come, there was a need for me to not be in Eintorian, on paper at least. I'd turned to Euracia and got her to move Rozern. She had them declare they wouldn't pay the tribute from the prior war. As anticipated, the King of Runan flew into a rage, and he gave me secret orders to go to Rozern. I had used the Droy Company to notify me of the Naruya Kingdom's invasion so that I could prepare myself a justification. If I was in the Eintorian Domain when it happened, then I'd be obligated to defend Runan. Who wants to be known as the incompetent who let Runan be destroyed? It needs to be strictly the fault of the shortsighted king who sent me to Rozern. Yeah, I was only in Rozern on paper, while I was actually in my own domain, shoring up the defenses, of course. And Naruya would soon cross the border. * "Whoa! What's that?!" At a sentry post on the Runanese border, a Runanese guard collapsed in shock at what he was seeing. The forces arrayed before him made him doubt his eyes. Soldiers here, there, and everywhere, roughly one hundred and fifty thousand men. He could see the banner of the Ducal House of Valdesca at the center of the massive army, flapping in the wind alongside the flag of the Naruya Kingdom. On top of that, the banners of the Ten Commanders were everywhere. This time, they'd come with a massive expeditionary force on an entirely different scale from the last. "Yahhhhhh!" Just like that, the Royal Naruyan Army advanced on the border, their battle cries the only notice of the start of war. They were divided into three formations, each attacking Runan's border from a different spot. This also marked the coming of a time of turbulence. It was a sign that the entire continent would be pulled into a maelstrom of war. * "Your Majesty! The Naruya Kingdom's invading us!" There was chaos in the Runanese palace when reports reached them. The nobles looked around in a state of confusion. "They've finally gone and done it...!" The nobles murmured among themselves. They had been pouring resources into taking Brijit in a time when the threat of Naruya hadn't completely vanished. The vast lands of Brijit had proven a sweet temptation. The cost of succumbing to it was that they now lacked the manpower to defend their own nation. But Ronan had an idea. If they occupied Brijit, they could raise their manpower. He planned to use that to counter Naruya. A major factor in all this had been the way Valdesca used the scouts Ronan sent into Naruya to deliver false information. They'd believed the fake reports that a new invasion from Naruya was still a long way off. As a result, the enemy broke through the border forts before they could muster an adequate response, and the Royal Naruyan Army was bearing down on the capital at a breakneck speed. The King of Runan and Ronan had already been thoroughly defeated in the preliminary battles. In this situation, there was obviously only one person the king could think of, and even Ronan and the other nobles were on the same page. The king was the first to say it out loud. "Call Erhin to the capital at once! Assign him to protect me!" His words brought a sudden look of bewilderment to the nobles' faces. Ronan was so exasperated that he just shook his head. "Your Majesty, we sent Erhin to Rozern!" "What are you saying?! What does Rozern matter at a time like this?!" That the king carried on as if he knew nothing of this, despite it having been his own decision, made the nobles mentally curse at him. "We sent him there to punish Rozern for not paying the tribute they promised, remember?!" "Who allowed that? Send a messenger after him at once! At once, I say! He can't have arrived in Rozern yet!" the king shouted angrily. "Your Majesty!" It was at that moment when a soldier slipped into the room and prostrated himself before the sovereign. "They've broken through Bern Castle. They say the enemy have over a hundred thousand men... No, it may even be two hundred thousand!" "Spare me this nonsense! Two hundred thousand? They can't...! Hey, lop that man's head off! No, first, Erhin! Bring me Erhin! I want Erhin!" Instead of coming up with any other countermeasures, the king simply kept on shouting Erhin's name. * The First Army of the Royal Naruyan Army was a combined force assembled from their northern domains. The Second Army was a combined force from the southern domains. They were each commanded by one of the Ten Commanders who had the domain lords serving under them, each managing ten thousand troops. The commander-in-chief of the Naruyan Army, Frann Valdesca, had occupied the nearby domains in no time after they crossed the border. He had decided that they would take the capital as soon as possible in this invasion. Haste was a virtue for soldiers. That's why on this occasion, he chose to avoid the Eintorian Domain, where he expected to meet fierce resistance, and invaded exclusively from the north. There was no chance of Runan defeating him, but if there was then the threat lay in Erhin Eintorian alone. It was why he had to take the Runanese capital while Erhin was away. He'd long since received reports that Erhin was sent to Rozern as an envoy. However, Valdesca believed that was a trap. What he saw in the Eintorian Domain and a comprehensive analysis of everything his agents had told him could only lead to one conclusion: Erhin's after Runan just like we are. The man must have been making preparations to seize the Runanese throne for himself. Once Valdesca had that hypothesis, he started to see a strategy. He must be trying to gain a justification for ruling Runan. The defeat of Runan and the death of the king. The cause of avenging his fallen liege. He no doubt plans to absorb Runan's remaining manpower. "I'm sure the Eintorian Domain Army will come to retake the Runanese capital no matter what happens. And they'll do it once the king is dead. The key is that they'll definitely appear after he dies." "Bwah hah hah! I should have expected no less from you, Your Highness!" Commander Kediman of the Third Army let out an obsequious laugh. Meanwhile the famously taciturn Commander Istin of the Second Army lived up to his reputation by remaining silent, but he said the same thing with a glance. Still, the reason Valdesca was occupying the capital first was so that he could use Erhin's own strategy against him. Runan Castle boasted the highest and firmest walls on the continent. He couldn't afford to pass up being given it for free. If Erhin had instead used the castle against Valdesca, protecting the king inside while forcing him to fight a siege battle, that would have been more troublesome than Erhin's current strategy. But because Erhin had motives other than loyalty to the king, it actually turned into an opportunity. He would take Runan Castle effortlessly and kill the king. That was just what Erhin was hoping for, but he didn't care about that. If I take Runan Castle and kill the king, then that will massively boost our troops' morale. It's what Erhin wants, but I don't mind. Valdesca didn't have any intention of giving Erhin the time to trumpet his righteous cause and start absorbing soldiers into his army. Indicating points on the map with his pointer, Valdesca gave orders. "The Second Army will head for Lynon Castle. Once you take Lynon Castle, head through the checkpoint in front of the capital and advance on Runan Castle." At this, Commander Istin of the Second Army bowed his head deeply and thumped his chest with his right hand formed into a fist. "The Third Army will take the other castles, including Bern Castle, and then join up with the Second Army to advance on the capital." "Yes, sir, Commander!" "Also, the First Army will move with you. While the Second and Third Armies are taking their respective castles, we will take a detour and head to the capital!" This was how Valdesca divided his forces. "Once we've killed the enemy king, the Fourth Army will immediately go along the west border to advance on Eintorian." "If we do that, then the Eintorian forces that set out to save Runan will be forced to..." Valdesca nodded at what Kediman was saying. "Yes, they will be forced to return and defend Eintorian. We will pursue and deal the enemy a blow from behind. If we join up with the Second Army to encircle and eliminate Eintorian, then Runan will be finished for good." This was Valdesca's plan to turn Erhin's hopes for a just cause and popular support against him. What would happen if Eintorian didn't send troops to support Runan? In that case, Valdesca would just have to occupy the country and isolate Eintorian. He was ninety percent sure that Erhin would make the worst choice for the sake of his just cause and public opinion. "Of course... We can't afford to let our guard down." Despite his confidence, Valdesca shook his head. If the man could be so easily conquered, he wouldn't be treating him like a serious opponent. * Word of Lynon Castle's fall reached the palace in Runan. In the recent war, Erhin retook Lynon Castle, but this time it didn't even hold out for a day. As soon as he heard about the fall, the king was so shaken that he made up his mind to flee. "We'll go south! Are we so short of people?! How could you let them break through so easily?! When will the troops we sent to Brijit return?! How could you invade Brijit when Naruya's so close and bearing down on us?! No, wait, Brijit has a lot of mountains, doesn't it? Let's go to Brijit! We'll move the capital there!" He had zero intention of fighting. Even if Erhin had been here, the king would have hidden himself while he made Erhin defend Runan Castle. "We'll head for Brijit. Have Erhin come there too. Defend me, my royal guards!" With that, the king slipped out of the castle with nothing but a desperate plea for Erhin, his envisioned hero.. When the king abandoned the castle without any forewarning and went outside, the people approached and began pleading with him. He should have left quietly, but insisted on taking a gaudy carriage—essentially advertising his intent to flee—so it was little wonder that chaos ensued. The guards pushed aside the waves of people rushing toward them. The crowd quickly turned into a mob, and the royal guard began cutting their way through the rioters. But this only fueled more terror. "Kill everyone who comes out of Runan Castle!" shouted one of the rioters. The king in turn urged his royal guards to make haste. It would probably have been faster if he had been riding a horse himself, but the old king insisted on a carriage even in this situation. Yet despite this decision, the King of Runan managed to slip out of Runan Castle and successfully escape toward Brijit. "We must flee quickly! Hurry!" The carriage sped along, encouraged by the king shouting until his throat was raw. People called Runan Castle the most impregnable castle on the continent, and yet it had just seen its master evicted with relative ease. * A few hours after the king's carriage took off for Brijit, Ronan also slipped out of Runan Castle. He had considered settling in for a siege, but he thought what the king was saying did have some merit. He decided fleeing to Brijit was the wisest thing to do. Obviously, he was a little different from the incompetent king who had fled with nothing but his royal guard. He was already having the forces of the Ducal House of Ronan assemble in Runan. They'd be here any time now. Although roughly a third of the army had been sent to Brijit, there were still enough troops remaining. That's why he meant to join up with his forces along the way. After leaving Runan Castle, Ronan began fleeing in a different direction from the king. "Your Highness, what about His Excellency Erheet?" "Forget about him. We have no time to wait. I'm sure he'll be able to escape and survive on his own." His priority was to assemble the troops somewhere far away from the enemy forces which had the momentum right now. The worst thing would be for them to scatter and be defeated in detail. If he considered how long it would take fighting the enemy while he waited for Erheet to join up with him, he was better off withdrawing to Brijit immediately and reorganizing there. "Your Highness! Your Highness!" As he was thinking this, a large number of soldiers rushed to his side. Ronan was frightened and on edge, but soon let out a sigh of relief. The three thousand men who'd rushed to his side were the army of Heina's domain. "Why, if it isn't Heina!" "Your Highness! I've come for you!" "I see... Well done! I always knew you were sharp, unlike the rest of those incompetents. Really, well done!" Ronan joined Heina with a smile so broad you never would have known he was the one who'd buried her father. * About half a day before Ronan left the castle, Valdesca, having left the capture of Lynon Castle to the Second and Third Armies, had advanced at a breakneck pace to reach the front of Runan Castle. Without Erhin around to interfere, he meant to seize the castle, bringing the heart of Runan under his control. "We will spend a day here, laying out a great camp to demonstrate the splendor of our forces, but I forbid any further pillaging of the Runanese people." These were Valdesca's orders to the First Army, which he commanded, with Runan Castle in sight. This was one of the frightening things about Valdesca: he, too, saw the importance of public opinion. There was no country without its people, after all. Tyrannizing those who would soon become citizens of his nation would only serve to weaken it. On top of his superior intellect, he also had advanced techniques that made use of mana circles, the fame of heading one of the Twelve Continental Houses, and a power of command that was born of his good character. The man seemed perfect, but he was also humble, not known to boast of his own prowess. "Your Highness!" He had his shortcomings, of course. He'd nearly fallen from his horse as he attempted to dismount just now. He'd been getting on and off of horses since he was just a young child and he didn't have especially slow reflexes, so it shouldn't have been difficult for him. Yet he could be awfully clumsy when it came to actually doing things. Perhaps people found that side of him relatable, though, because it only served to make him more popular. "Sorry. I'm all right," he told Patrick, his lieutenant, as the man rushed to his side, then adjusted his posture and gazed in the direction of Runan Castle. This was the castle he'd failed to take in the last war. It gave him such a rush to have it in his sight now. However, he was still rather concerned about Erhin's movements. Despite how quickly they'd taken Runan Castle, he wasn't doing all that much about it. That was actually more troublesome. What in the world are you thinking? What's your aim? Isn't it to usurp the throne by retaking Runan? Is it because we let the King of Runan escape? "Wham!" Ultimately, Valdesca did the same thing he always did when he was agonizing over something. He slammed his forehead into a nearby tree. "Your Highness! Stop that! You'll cut your forehead again!" Patrick and the soldiers hurriedly rushed toward him, but Valdesca raised a hand gesturing for them to stay back. "Don't mind me. Has Eintorian made any move?" "None yet, as far as our information shows, Your Highness." It irritated Valdesca that, although the war was going smoothly, there was still someone out there who could make him uneasy. "Well, it's fine," he said. "For now...we'll set it aside and deal with Runan Castle. If things go as I predict, it will have emptied out by nightfall." The reason Valdesca had made camp in sight of the castle instead of just attacking was to give the Runanese time to flee. There was no need to go out of his way to shed blood. If the king fled, Runan Castle would be practically undefended. That meant the castle ought to fall into his hands come morning. * He was sick of living as a landed count. No, the life of a warrior was what had his interest. Feats of courage were displayed on the battlefield. He stood there, sword in hand, for the first time at the age of fifteen. He'd defended the country for twenty-seven years since. Erheet Demacine was approaching the final checkpoint on his road to the Runanese capital. He'd have liked to die holding off the enemy at the border, but the Naruyans were pushing south along many different roads. Because fixating on the border would do nothing, he waited for further orders from the central government, but as none were forthcoming, he ultimately chose to act on his own initiative. He stopped at the checkpoint between Lynon Castle and the capital. Valdesca hadn't participated in the attack on Lynon Castle, instead taking a long detour around the side where Bern Castle was. But for the Second Army, which was tasked with taking Lynon Castle, and for the Third Army, which would join up with them later, this checkpoint lay on their quickest route to the capital. This basically meant that the Second Army would have to break through this checkpoint in order to establish a supply line. Furthermore, in order to keep up a smooth flow of supplies, the Naruyan Army needed to hold the checkpoint. Speedy resupply was key on the battlefield. That's why Erheet had stopped just as the enemy were attacking Lynon Castle. "Wouldn't it be better for us to fight them at Runan Castle instead, Your Excellency?" one of his retainers asked, but Erheet shook his head. "I will break their supply lines here even if that costs me my life. That should help His Highness and His Majesty, who are fighting at Runan Castle. If we can halt the remaining Naruyan forces here, that should delay the castle's fall. And then...there's Erhin! That's why I'll die here!" Erheet was relying on Erhin too, but in a different way from the king. He planned to put his life on the line holding his ground here for that reason. However, his intentions were based on the naive idea that the king and Ronan would actually fight for Runan Castle. Erheet never would have imagined his own king would flee immediately without so much as lifting a blade. The five retainers who always joined Erheet on the battlefield knelt before him when they heard his words. "What are you saying, Your Excellency?! If anything should happen to you, then Runan will truly be finished!" They tried to dissuade him, but Erheet only shook his head more forcefully. "Listen, just shut up and stand strong. What would it do to the men's morale if they saw you like this? The only thing we must think about is stopping the enemy that is rushing toward this checkpoint!" His firm resolve ultimately persuaded his retainers. And so, they all drew their swords. There was nothing left for them but to die defending the master they'd served all their lives. * It was the Second Army that came after Erheet's checkpoint. Commander Istin of the Second Army was a powerful warrior, ranked third among the Ten Commanders. He was joined by another of the Ten, a woman named Lucana who ranked seventh among them, as his second-in-command. Unlike with Naruya's previous invasion force, all of the Ten Commanders had joined forces to participate in the subjugation of Runan. This was an obvious move to prevent a repeat of their earlier failure. The Second Army boasted a massive force of fifty thousand men. "That's the checkpoint on the way to Runan Castle," Lucana said, laughing with glee at the easy battlefield. "Commander! Let's hurry and take it, then join up with His Highness—no, I mean with the commander-in-chief and the main force." Istin gave her no response. The man was famous for actions over words, and what words he did say were few and far between. When the orders came down, he just focused on carrying them out. In fact, it was fair to say that none of the soldiers who had fought alongside him had ever heard the man talk at all. Lucana, however, had been at his side since they were both young and had fought many battles with him, and so was used to carrying on by herself. "By the way, did you hear that the guy who beat back our commander-in-chief during the last war's not around? I kinda wanted to see what he was like... We all respect Lord Valdesca, so... Huh, I wonder what happened back then anyway? Did that guy just get lucky? Well, yeah, that's probably all it was..." Istin just stared at Lucana, but she went on answering her own questions and asking more as if she could read his mind. "Okay, men! That's the checkpoint there! Let's break through it!" At Lucana's command, twenty thousand elite Naruyan soldiers with a Training level of around 90 or so charged toward the checkpoint. The remaining thirty thousand would trade places with them once they got exhausted. It was this tactic that Istin used when taking small fortification walls. If the walls weren't that large to begin with, then trying to attack with everyone all at once was pointless. They only had so many ladders. In fact, by dividing their troops, they could keep the wave attacks going around the clock. The battle began using Istin's strategy, but as time went by Lucana shook her head. The dubious look on her face lasted until the next day. "It's never taken us more than half a day before... What's with this checkpoint?" Istin, who was just standing there as silent as ever, obviously did not respond to her question. "Hmm... I guess it's my turn, then?" Istin just looked at Lucana, still giving no response, but she took that as a sign he approved. Lucana drew her favorite sword and mounted her horse. "All right, time for a switch-up! This time, I'll join the team that goes in!" When Lucana shouted this, the thirty thousand troops who were currently unable to get over the wall turned their backs to the enemy. It was time for the other twenty thousand to go back in. But that's when it happened. A man with a massive spear leaped down from the checkpoint's walls as if he'd been waiting for them to change shifts—it was Erheet. He swung his spear at the troops that had turned their backs to switch out with the other team. It was like the grim reaper swinging his scythe. A dark shadow assaulted the soldiers of the Second Army, and in the next instant, hundreds of heads flew through the air. It was Erheet Demacine's mana skill Fiendish Spear, an instakill attack with a massive area of effect. Standing in a sea of flowing blood, Erheet thrust his spear into the ground as he stood in front of the checkpoint. "What was that?!" Lucana furrowed her brow at this development. At that same time, arrows rained down on the soldiers who were racing toward the checkpoint. Erheet's troops had been conserving their arrows. As the retreating force were caught off guard by Erheet's skill and starting to lose their nerve, the hail of arrows sent them into total disarray. Erheet stood in front of them, spear firmly in hand. "Your Excellency, that's the famed Erheet Demacine of Runan!" shouted one of Lucana's retainers. The name brought a smile to Lucana's lips. If there was anyone in Runan worth fighting, it was Erheet. "Erheet? The Erheet? I've heard he can be almost as taciturn as our Commander Istin, you know that? This'll be interesting. I doubt anyone's quieter than our commander, though." With that, Lucana rushed forward to turn the situation around, when... "Hear me, enemy commander," Erheet shouted. "I am Erheet Demacine. How long do you intend to watch from the rear? If you call yourself a warrior, then step forward and fight me. One-on-one duels are the only fun to be had on this bloody battlefield, wouldn't you agree?" "Huh?" It was clear to anyone listening that Erheet was calling out Istin and not Lucana. Lucana looked at Istin in exasperation. "Now hold on, Commander!" she cried. "Are you really going to fight him just because he's caught your interest? What are you saying?! You've been wanting to fight a Runanese commander, and he'll do perfectly?! That's not funny! Now that he's come out all on his own, it'd be fastest to just gang up on him and kill him...!" It didn't look like Istin was saying anything as far as the soldiers around them could tell, but Lucana went on as if only she could hear him. As she did, Istin slowly approached Erheet. "Hold on! Wait! Let's go together!" Lucana hurriedly tried to stop Istin. There was no need for him to fight the enemy commander. She didn't think Istin would lose, but it was absurd to agree to a one-on-one duel with the commander of a force so much smaller than theirs that it stood no chance against them. If he did somehow lose the fight, morale would plummet. They might be reprimanded by Valdesca for accepting at all. But Istin was rather prideful. Lucana was well aware that once he'd made up his mind to do something, there was no convincing him otherwise, so she just shook her head as she watched him go. The newly deployed Naruyan troops parted to make way for their commander. Istin's horse trotted between them until he reached the front. The two commanders faced off with about fifty meters in between them. Of course, there were fifty thousand men at Istin's back, while Erheet just had the checkpoint and three thousand men behind him. "Who are you?" Istin didn't answer Erheet's question. Lucana rode up, as if she were there to interpret for him. "You face His Excellency, Count Istin, ranked third among the Ten Commanders of the Naruya Kingdom!" Erheet smiled when he heard her. He recognized the name. To think I'd be able to face such a strong opponent. Could I ask for a finer end to my life? Of course, regardless of who his enemy was, he didn't plan on going down easy. Still, the soldiers at the checkpoint were reaching their limit. Unlike the Naruyans, whose fifty thousand men were able to fight in shifts and take time to rest, the three thousand suicide soldiers from the Runanese Army hadn't been able to rest at all. Erheet wanted to fight the Naruyan commander in order to buy time for his men to recover. "Thank you for accepting my challenge. I never would have thought I'd face a warrior as strong as you in what will no doubt be my last war. Hah hah hah hah hah! I don't know whether to consider it good fortune or bad. Regardless, I'm pleased to meet you. Let us fight, Istin. If you are a true warrior, then will you face my spear one-on-one?" In response, Istin put his hand on a greatsword that was every bit as heavy as his silence, then nodded. "Wait, Commander! We don't have time! We have to break through the checkpoint and join up with the commander-in-chief quickly! What? A duel between men needs no justification? Are you kidding me...? No, that's not what I mean! Augh, fine!" Lucana ultimately backed down with a look of exasperation on her face, unable to dissuade Istin. Of course, she still didn't think he'd lose. The fight was just incredibly pointless. Thus, the duel between two commanders began. * "What is that monster?!" The Royal Naruyan Army were astonished. They thought Istin would win handily, but the enemy commander held his ground. "Lord Erheet...!" Meanwhile, Erheet's retainers, who knew exactly what he was thinking as he went into this battle, gulped at the tense showdown. The greatsword tore into the ground. The spear caught nothing but air. They took turns unleashing attacks, parrying, and attacking again. Any one of the blows could be fatal. One mistake would mean certain death. That was the kind of duel Erheet was fighting. His opponent ranked third among the famed Ten Commanders of Naruya, whose infamy spread the length and breadth of the entire continent, and Istin's martial prowess was indeed slightly greater than Erheet's. But while Istin had an estimated Martial score of 97, Erheet's Martial was 96. With such a small margin of difference, there was no telling who would win. They'd have to fight like their lives depended on it, and that would be what decided the outcome. Another factor was that Erheet had no way out. He couldn't afford to think about conserving his stamina. He'd gone into this fight just trying to buy time. That's why they were at a standstill. The longer the battle dragged on, the more time his men had to rest. That was the only thing that mattered to Erheet. Of course, he'd been polishing his skills for decades. He never considered he might lose. He would buy time, then win the fight. He could only think that, once he won the showdown and the enemy fell into disarray, that would buy him even more time. He knew better than anyone that, even if he bested this enemy commander, overall victory in this battle would not be his. Nevertheless, he fought on for his people and country. But the truth was, deep down, the main reason he chose to fight Istin was for his own satisfaction. Bwoooosh! Erheet blasted Istin with his skill, Fiendish Spear, engulfing the area around them in a massive explosion. Istin generated mana with his greatsword to form a barrier and stop it, but that didn't stop Erheet himself. He leaped high into the air, holding his spear ready to strike. This was the ultimate technique of the spear-fighting style that Erheet, the mightiest warrior in the Runan Kingdom, had spent all his life polishing. "Aurora Spear!" When Erheet threw his spear in midair, it shone brilliantly as it shot toward Istin like a laser beam. The light of the powerful mana surrounding the spear was blindingly bright to anyone who looked at it. Erheet had used Fiendish Spear to mess with the area around Istin, forcing him to stop it with his greatsword. Then, before the smoke cleared, he'd immediately used Aurora Spear. Even as Istin was blocking the explosion, he'd sensed the power of Erheet's longspear right in front of him! Instantly realizing the spear was moving faster than he could dodge, he poured mana into his greatsword. Bright light shone from Istin's greatsword as he swung it, and the blade grew to twice its already great size, and he used it to block Erheet's spear. Shiiiiiing! Their powers collided, shaking the earth and filling the area with light. The famously quiet Istin let out a battle cry, swinging his greatsword around as it grew even more massive. That one swing blew away Erheet's Aurora Spear. Roarrrrrr! Erheet's spear, which had been flying with a thunderous roar, stabbed into the fortress wall of the checkpoint. Landing on the ground, Erheet jumped into the air once more in order to pull his spear from the wall. Obviously, Istin wasted no time in springing at him. Erheet was in front of the wall, while Istin had been pushed back as he tried to block the skill earlier, so Erheet managed to snatch his spear in the brief opening he had before colliding with Istin in midair. The two both landed heavily on the ground, skipping not a beat as they launched back into the fight. Having both used up their most powerful skills, they moved on to a never-ending contest of physical stamina. Istin had been trying to save his strength at first, but it was no longer viable for him to do so, and so they both went all out. "Gah! I got totally absorbed in the battle..." Lucana cried, slapping her own forehead. If she stepped in here, she could feasibly end this meaningless battle in an instant. In fact, she had been planning to do just that if it ever looked like Istin was about to go down. But only as a last resort. Istin hated it more than anything when people interfered in his battles, and thought it was a shameful injury to his pride. And so Lucana couldn't intervene. This battle between monsters went on for six whole hours. Eventually, the sun set, and darkness swallowed the battlefield. The two men suspended their duel and looked at one another. "Why don't we settle this tomorrow?" Erheet suggested and Istin nodded. He immediately looked at Lucana. "You want to pull back?" Lucana shook her head at this order. It was unthinkable. But Istin's eyes were filled with a strong will to defeat this man and seize the checkpoint from him. "You just had to try and beat Runan's strongest man..." Lucana wanted to give him a piece of her mind, but she held back. She'd stayed with Istin all this time precisely because he was like this. And so, with his grand army behind him, Istin withdrew to camp, and once Erheet watched him go, he headed back within the checkpoint where he collapsed. Erheet's retainers all rushed to his side to support him. "I'm fine. I managed to buy time for our men to rest, didn't I?" His retainers clenched their fists, seeing him like this. They shook with rage at their own inability. * "Commander!" "What is it?" "Our scouts have found the Runanese king!" Hearing this report from one of his subordinates, Valdesca awkwardly scratched his cheek inside the commander's tent. The King of Runan, huh? If I killed the king, then I'd be doing just what Erhin wants me to, wouldn't I? Valdesca was confident Erhin was gunning for the throne. So if he killed the king, he'd be giving him a justification. Still, now that he'd found the king, he couldn't just not kill him. The King of Naruya had ordered his death. Wham! Valdesca slammed his forehead into the table. So what if he's after the throne? Justifications and righteousness had nothing to do with this. His goal in this war was to beat Erhin. So long as he won, there wouldn't be a problem. He couldn't fight properly if he stayed scared like this. You should be ashamed of yourself, Valdesca Frann! Valdesca smiled bitterly. They had mobilized a full three hundred thousand troops for the Grand Subjugation. Two hundred thousand of them had been deployed to Runan—enough to occupy the country and then immediately continue onward into the minor nations of the south. Runan's manpower was insignificant. Erhin could move around fifty thousand troops at most. The gap in their forces was overwhelming. And Valdesca also had the powerful Ten Commanders on his side. If he couldn't win like this, then he'd never be able to win. So what was he so afraid of? Wham! Valdesca slammed his forehead into the table again. I don't care what his intentions are. I'll kill the king, then destroy Runan my way. He had already formulated a perfect plan for taking Erhin's main stronghold in Eintorian. The Subjugation Army for Runan wasn't limited to just the First, Second, and Third Armies which he was leading personally. There was also a trump card, the Fourth Army, still standing by in Naruya. "Encircle him. I want to capture Runan's king." "Yes, Your Highness!" Once that was decided, it didn't take long. Valdesca soon arrived at the place where the search team had the king surrounded. The royal guards were no longer among the living by this point. They had been no match for Valdesca's elite soldiers. The king was soon dragged from his carriage and forced to kneel down on the dirty ground, a far cry from the throne he was accustomed to. "King of Runan," Valdesca said, looking down at the king with cold eyes. "S-Spare me!" The king quickly began pleading for his life. He'd never had so much as one iota of pride to begin with. "I'll go into exile in the Naruya Kingdom. You can have Runan. I surrender! Surrender, I say!" "That won't do. It would be one thing before hostilities began, but now that we're at war, I cannot accept your surrender without my king's permission. If you intended to concede, then you should have offered up your country before our troops crossed the border." "I'll give you all of Runan! So, please, just spare my life..." Valdesca shook his head in dismay at this pathetic display. The king was an even greater fool than he'd heard. The wretch truly believed that if he cried and begged, thinking only of his own self-preservation, there would be some way out for him. Valdesca despised men like him more than anything. "I regret to inform you that I cannot allow you to live. You made a mistake in fleeing along the main road." "D-D-Don't be absurd! I am Tutankha, King of Runan! A member of the most renowned family on this continent! You, a mere commander of an invading force, kill me? The idea is risible! Take me to the King of Naruya! I will speak to him personally!" The King of Runan volunteered to become a prisoner in the hopes of extending his life even a little longer. "Gah hah hah hah hah!" Valdesca laughed in his face. "I am Valdesca Frann! Inheritor of the House of Frann! Not once have I ever thought my house inferior to the House of Runan." "F-Frann...? You're a Frann?! Th-That's absurd...!" The King of Runan shook his head in disbelief. The House of Frann was one of the Twelve Continental Houses. It was of the same rank as the Royal House of Runan. "Would you stop this unsightly behavior? Runan is already finished. Now, Your Majesty, I believe it's only natural you meet your end too." Valdesca nodded to his subordinate Rump, who responded by pointing a sword at the king's throat. "N-No... Spare me! Stop! Gwarrrgh!" The king resisted to the last, but his head soon sailed through the air. Such was the end of the King of Runan. "Yeahhhhhhhh!" The soldiers cheered wildly at the sight. The demise of the last king of the once great Runan Kingdom could not have been more worthless. "We'll send the king's severed head to His Majesty. Prepare it so it can be sent to the front line in Herald." "Yes, sir!" At that time, King Cassia of Naruya was personally leading another army into the Herald Kingdom. He had been more interested in their eastern border with Herald than he was in Runan. There were rumors of a worthy opponent, another S-class warrior like King Cassia himself, in Herald. That's why Runan never interested him to begin with. "All forces advance on the vacant Runan Castle." Those were Valdesca's orders. This was the moment when that castle, with all of its long history, fell into his hands. * Istin and Erheet's battle resumed in the morning. The fight looked the same as it had the day before, each man doing all he could to kill the other. However, a little past noon, the situation suddenly changed when another force appeared, approaching the checkpoint. Lucana let out a big sigh when she saw what unit it was. "Damn! Why's he gotta be here...!" It was the Third Army, roughly the same size as Istin's Second Army. Their arrival changed Istin and Erheet's battle as the man at the front of their vanguard rushed into the fray, his horse galloping at top speed. "What are you doing? Is this really the time to be indulging in a duel, Istin?" It was Kediman, commander of the Third Army and fourth in rank among the Ten Commanders. As he shouted that, he attacked Erheet, who was still fighting Istin, from behind. Istin didn't have a chance to stop him. In that moment, the perfect balance of their duel was broken. Blood spurted from the wound in Erheet's back and his knees gave out. Istin pointed his greatsword at Erheet's now defenseless head, ready to deal the final blow. "You're so pathetic. If you just did it like this, you'd have finished him in one blow. Now finish him off and let's go!" Kediman exclaimed. Even as he bled, Erheet shouted, "Is this what warriors are like in Naruya? Have you no shame, sullying a duel where the pride of two men is at stake!" As Istin swung his greatsword, Erheet thrust his spear forward, fully prepared to offer up his head in exchange. Even if my head flies, I'll take down the enemy. That was the thought that led him to swing his spear without evading. In that instant, the greatsword came to a stop. Seeing this, Erheet also halted his spear and asked, "What's wrong?" Looking at the way that Erheet managed to stay firmly on his feet, despite the deep wound in his back, Istin shook his head in dismay. Then, with a murderous glare at Kediman, he pulled back. "Heh! Pathetic to the end. Fine, I'll take him on myself!" Now it was Kediman's turn to take a swing at Erheet with his sword. Erheet was already sorely wounded, but he fended off the blow with sheer force of will. However, the Third Army came charging in behind Kediman. Unlike the Second Army, they had no intention of waiting to see how the battle played out. "We're pulling back? You plan to leave this to Kediman? Hold on, Commander!" Istin's unit began to pull back. Obviously, they weren't withdrawing completely. Istin's army still had to make it through this checkpoint in order to join up with Valdesca. But Istin had no desire to work with Kediman. He would have liked to kill the man for interrupting his duel, but he liked to think he wasn't so selfish that he could turn a blade against his ally when they were at war. If Kediman were one of his subordinates, he could have executed him for disobeying orders, but they were of equal rank. Istin quivered as he tried to suppress his rage. Erheet was a lot like him. Both had many techniques born of a lifetime devoted to the martial arts. That's why he'd at least wanted to kill him with his own hands. But that barbarian Kediman stole that from him. Lucana saw all this, but she couldn't say anything; she could only be relieved that she wasn't the one who'd intervened. She'd planned to if the situation turned against Istin. If she'd had to do it, his anger would have been directed at her. When she thought about it like that, she was actually grateful to Kediman. She didn't like him much, of course. The brute was a barbarian, after all. And so, once Istin and Lucana were gone, Erheet was forced into a battle that was clearly not in his favor. Kediman's Martial score was roughly the same as Erheet's. On top of that, the wound in Erheet's back slowed his movement, while his opponent was in top condition. Erheet found himself gradually being pushed back. "Defend His Excellency!" Erheet's retainers shouted as they tried to push back the enemy soldiers rushing onto the walls of the checkpoint. On his arms, and on his chest, the wounds grew with each stroke of the enemy's blade, and soon Erheet thrust his spear into the ground without meaning to. "You giving up? Heh heh! And to think they called you the strongest in Runan. You put up so little of a fight I can't even be properly disappointed. All right, time for you to die now!" Despite having snatched away Istin's prey like a hyena, Kediman still had the gall to mock Erheet. That's when Erheet's retainers broke through the surrounding enemy forces and jumped in front of him. "Your Excellency! Leave the rest to us! You get up back on top of the checkpoint and heal your wounds. We'll buy time for you!" "Stop... I can't sacrifice my fellow countrymen to save myself! You all head back up on top of the checkpoint before me. I've long since thrown away my life!" Bleeding all over, Erheet mustered the last of his strength in order to activate the skill Fiendish Spear, decapitating hundreds of troops behind Kediman who had been preparing to charge in. Kediman, who'd noticed the activation of a skill in time to dodge the Fiendish Spear, laughed. "Oh, you're fun. Real fun. I never knew Runan had a guy like Istin too." "Your Excellency!" At that moment, a pair of Erheet's retainers rushed in front of Kediman. They were no match for him, of course, but they still managed to slow the enemy's advance a little. "Are you going to let my death be in vain?! You all have to hurry back up on top of the walls! Just hold out a little longer. Runan needs your strength now!" Erheet rose to his feet once more. Adjusting his grip on his spear, he glared at Kediman with the determination not to let him pass so long as he still drew breath. Erheet's remaining retainers looked at one another. If they kept what they knew a secret any longer, their master would die. They nodded in unison, then shouted to tell Erheet. "Forgive us, Your Excellency! The truth is...we received a message earlier. His Majesty has already abandoned Runan Castle. He fled at the first opportunity, without defending the people he was supposed to protect. And so did Duke Ronan... He abandoned the castle without waiting for you. There are no soldiers fighting for Runan Castle. It was left empty, and fell into the enemy's hands! So, please...retreat, Your Excellency! There's no need for you to die here too!" The retainers told Erheet this because they wanted him to live, but their words instantly extinguished the flame of life that burned within him. "I-Is that true?! Why would...His Highness do that...?" Spitting blood as he trembled with rage, Erheet sat down. How could he have run away so easily? He'd served Ronan because the duke was the only one in the kingdom who was putting in the effort to protect Runan. He'd been disappointed to learn about the slave traders, but still didn't consider it a betrayal. This, however, was different. "Gah hah hah! That's just how your leaders are! Did you only just realize? Looks like your loyalty never meant anything. Well, I suppose it's a fitting end for disgusting bugs like you. Runan Castle is already in our commander's hands! I won't spare you even if you surrender, though, so shut up and die. I hate boring people." Finally, Kediman's sword pierced Erheet's chest. Even as he sank into despair, Erheet clutched the blade with his bare hands, seeking to put off his death as he glared at Kediman. But at that very moment, arrows suddenly began to rain down on Kediman's army. "What?" Kediman's unit, made up largely of infantry, turned to focus on this surprise attack. Atop the checkpoint, Erheet's men rubbed their eyes in disbelief. "I-Is that...!" Erheet's soldiers pointed in shock—at blue uniforms emblazoned with the Eintorian crest! The iron cavalry clad in brilliant blue were charging in with enough speed to trample Kediman's men under their hooves. "Y-You're...!" A red-haired man wielding a rusted sword rushed ahead of the iron cavalry, forcing his way between Kediman's men. It was Erhin Eintorian's strongest weapon: Jint. "My lord gave me an order. Rescue Erheet Demacine!" The moment he saw Jint, Erheet's hands clenched the sword that was stabbed into his chest even more tightly, as if saying he'd never relinquish his life. Kediman pushed with all his might, trying to snuff out Erheet, but he spent far too much time on it. With one great leap, Jint cleared Kediman's soldiers and landed next to the two of them. At the same time, he struck Kediman with his sword, lopping the commander's hand off at the wrist. "Gahhhhh!" Kediman screamed as he clutched his arm, having been so preoccupied with Erheet that the attack caught him off guard. Jint's actions also constituted interference in a one-on-one battle, but Jint hardly cared. Staying out of it because they were fighting one-on-one? The thought had never even occurred to Jint. Erhin told him to save the guy, and so that's what he did, regardless of the methods involved. The key thing to Jint was that he'd followed orders. The iron cavalry, who arrived a little behind Jint, began crushing Kediman's unit. Intimidated by the terrifying speed and momentum of these armored cavalrymen, Kediman's forces were forced to pull back. Kediman's unit had a Morale of 80 and 95 Training, while Jint's iron cavalry had a Morale of 90 and 97 Training. This was the unit Erhin trained to be the main force of the Eintorian Army! He meant for them to be second to none when it came to their Morale and Training. But more than just that, Kediman's unit was made up of infantry, so it was only natural for them to be pushed back by iron cavalry. Especially with their commander Kediman on the ground, screaming! Erheet pulled the sword out of his chest with Kediman's hand still hanging from it. The wound bled, but it wasn't deep because he'd mustered all his strength and used up his mana to stop it. Then, taking his spear in his hands, he stood. "Yarrgh! Damn you... Damn youuuuu!" Kediman sprang at Jint in a berserk rage. He refused to accept that Jint had been able to cut off his hand because of any degree of skill. He was just some kid who got lucky with a surprise attack. He'd be no match for him in a fair fight. Or so Kediman believed. "Give me a sword!" Taking a sword from one of his soldiers, he immediately pounced at Jint. However, the moment his hand was cut off, Kediman's Martial score had fallen precipitously. Jint's sword struck like lightning, slashing open Kediman's chest. "Argh...!" And just like that, Kediman died with his eyes still open. Jint kept up his usual poker face as he moved on to cutting down the other nearby soldiers. * Sometime after they moved away from the checkpoint, Lucana and Istin thought there was something strange about the sounds of combat they were hearing behind them and turned back around. There they saw the blue iron cavalry and the young man with red hair leading them. At first, Lucana also took Jint for just a kid, and she didn't pay much attention to him. The problem was the massive damage the iron cavalry were doing. But when she saw the intense speed with which Jint drew and handled his sword, she reconsidered that evaluation. Neither Istin nor Lucana had thought Kediman would go down in a single blow like that, even if he had lost his hand. Istin immediately looked at Lucana's face. She knew what he meant and nodded. "We're moving to assist the Third Army at once! Charge!" Lucana had never liked Kediman, so she didn't feel even a twinge of sympathy over his demise, but his soldiers were still her countrymen. They couldn't just abandon them. But more than that, they couldn't let the enemy soldiers who'd just joined the fray run free when they didn't know what their objective was. Istin's unit rejoined the battle in front of the checkpoint. That changed the balance of forces in this fight once again. Kediman's unit was fifty thousand men, and Istin's was another fifty thousand. That gave them a hundred thousand in total. Meanwhile, the iron cavalry were just ten thousand men. They'd still been able to hold the advantage when it was five to one because of the difference in what category of troops they were, but that inherent advantage against infantry couldn't outweigh them now being outnumbered ten to one. Also, since this was an open field, there were no tactics they could use to take advantage of the terrain. The numerical advantage was overwhelming. Jint was commanding the iron cavalry now. He'd just been at the front in order to save Erheet. The iron cavalry had scattered all around, striking down Naruyan soldiers at random. Because of that, Istin chose to form a semicircle around them with his unit to cut off their escape route. Basically, that meant they had the checkpoint in front of them, and Istin's unit at their backs. "Lord Istin is in command here. Kediman's troops will follow his orders! Form into battle ranks at once!" With the famed Commander Istin of Naruya now taking the field, Kediman's soldiers, who had fallen into disarray, let out a war cry and began regaining their vigor. * Jint's abilities were specialized toward defeating the enemies he saw in front of his eyes. That's why he was unusually powerful in one-on-one fights and situations where he could get the drop on his enemies, but he had practically no potential as a commanding officer. "Hey, Erheet Demacine! Can you hear me?!" However, he was second to none when it came to following Erhin's orders. "He told me once Runan Castle falls to take this unit of iron cavalry and go to Voltaire Castle!" Jint shouted after cutting his way over to Erheet. On hearing this, Erheet looked at the iron cavalry again. They're a well-trained unit. That much was clear at a glance. "Gah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah hah!" Despite their current predicament, he roared with laughter. Erhin was just as unpredictable as he'd thought. "I see. So Count Erhin was training a unit like this." Runan Castle had already fallen. He'd given up when he heard that, but the sight of the Eintorian crest had made him muster the last of his strength to grip the sword. If Erhin is around, that changes things! He thought it was wrong for him to assume command of one of Erhin's units, but there was no time to let that bother him. There was clearly no other competent commander here. These iron cavalrymen were sent to save him. If he treated their lives as carelessly as he had his own, then that would be far more wrong. Ultimately, Erheet forced his battered and exhausted body into a saddle. In addition to the wound on his back, it was hard to fight with his mana so spent, but he wasn't so weak he couldn't give orders. In fact, if he didn't rally the troops here, then he'd be too ashamed to face Erhin even if he did survive. "Hear me, iron cavalrymen of Eintorian!" As soon as he was mounted up, he shouted to the iron cavalrymen scattered around the battlefield. "I am the Runanese commander Erheet Demacine. I will be taking command of you for the time being. Will you follow me?!" There wasn't a soldier in Runan who didn't know his name. "Yeahhhhhh!" The iron cavalry let out a cheer when they heard his voice. 96 Martial. 70 Intelligence. And 92 Command! He had built up his intensely commanding presence over the course of a lifetime spent on the battlefield. It was something completely different from Euracia's charm, or the Brijitian king's overwhelming charisma—a power that was purely for dominating the battlefield. "Listen to me, soldiers of the checkpoint! You will abandon your posts and join up with the iron cavalry! Then, working together, we will find a single point to break through the enemy, so gather in the center! Do you understand me? Jint, you stay at the front and buy us time!" In no time, he was giving orders to the soldiers of the checkpoint, to the iron cavalrymen, and even to Jint. Having been instructed to follow Erheet's orders once he left the iron cavalry in his command, Jint obediently nodded. Istin and Lucana were members of the Ten Commanders. Of course their Command scores were reasonably high, but they had been hired primarily for their martial prowess. When it came to commanding men on the battlefield, Erheet was far better than they were. Now that he had assumed command, Eintorian's iron cavalry began moving around like they were an entirely different army. "If I can't get you out of here safely, I won't be able to face Count Erhin!" Erheet shouted. "Slowly assemble, and then break through at a single point! Those of you who are inside the checkpoint, follow the iron cavalry!" Following his orders, the iron cavalry clumped together for a while, then broke through Kediman's unit and charged at Istin's encircling forces. Istin's plan had been to encircle the scattered iron cavalry and exterminate them one by one, so he couldn't handle the rapid change in the way they were moving. Erheet's commands raised the iron cavalry's morale even further, and neither Kediman nor Istin's men could stop their momentum. The encirclement was broken in no time. What was more, the battle fiend Jint stood at the vanguard! The Naruyan soldiers who were standing in the iron cavalry's path were sent flying by the momentum of the horses. The incredible vigor of the iron cavalry unit broke through them, and there was nothing they could do about it. The Naruyans were left grinding their teeth in anger as they watched them go. * "You knew he was an incredible commander? But you didn't expect him to break through us so quickly?" Frustrated, Lucana grabbed Istin by the front of his shirt. "You're not going to pursue them?!" But Istin simply shook his head. "They already killed our momentum, and how are we supposed to chase them when they're fleeing on horseback? Okay, you have a point, but...!" Lucana groaned as she mussed her own hair. Her long hair, which was tied back, came undone and fell to shoulder length. "You're telling me our original mission was to take the checkpoint, and then join up with the commander-in-chief at Runan Castle, and we've accomplished that?!" That was one way of looking at it, sure, but Lucana couldn't help but feel they had lost, and badly. Lucana was frustrated over the idea that Valdesca might ask them about what happened, but Istin was unconcerned. "You're going to settle things with that man on the battlefield, so you can't wait for that day to come? Next time, you'll fight fair and square? Augh, this is the problem with you..." Lucana shook her head in dismay. Istin remained impassive, and once he had finished communicating with Lucana in a way that only someone who had known him since childhood could understand, he advanced his forces into the checkpoint.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Chapter 4: Eintorian's War Voltaire Castle. Eintorian was situated in the west of Runan, and the domain that lay along the road between Runan Castle and Eintorian was none other than the Voltaire Domain. The fires of war had not spread to Voltaire Castle yet. Though the northern territories had already fallen into Naruya's hands, and many of the nearby castles had seen their lords flee, the Lord of Voltaire, Lican Voltaire, had shut his gates tight for one simple reason: Lican had gotten drunk with all of his retainers and, in the elevated spirits brought on by drink, had declared, "I'll defend this domain, come whatever may!" Lican was brazen enough that he could have pretended to never have said it, but stubborn enough to follow through on his declaration. Seeing how moved his retainers were by his will to do what was right for the country, he could no longer suggest they run away, and so found himself in this predicament. "Like His Excellency said: if we die, we'll do it here, in this land. It would be far too pathetic to die with our backs turned!" Those words oozed with contempt for the king who'd died just such a pitiful death on the run. Of course, every time one of his men said something like that without knowing how Lican really felt, he thought he would go crazy. "Yes, I suppose you're right..." Lican agreed. He was a timid man when sober. "Word has spread that His Majesty was captured while fleeing, and that they lopped his head off. Countless refugees have attested to it, so there can be no doubt." Many of the people escaping Runan Castle had passed by Voltaire Castle by necessity. That, of course, led to the natural spread of such rumors. Valdesca was not the kind of commander given to massacre, especially civilians. Him laying hands on the commonfolk was rare. Not that this had any effect on the people of Runan's decision to evacuate. Many of them feared that they might become slaves under Naruyan occupation, and naturally, people wanted to live in their own country. "I don't care if the commonfolk flee. Don't stop them. We don't have the resources to detain every person who flees in fear of Naruya, or to save everyone who stays." Lican gave these orders in the hopes of leaving himself some opportunity for escape. "Yes, sir!" The decision only served to further ignite the passions of his retainers who were spoiling for a fight. That's when it happened. A cloud of dust rose in the distance, and not long after, a unit of cavalry were spotted making their way toward Voltaire Castle. "Your Excellency! It's the enemy!" one of his retainers shouted in surprise. Lican nearly let out a gasp of astonishment. To think the enemy would be upon them so quickly! He had been seriously contemplating whether or not to flee, but now he thought he was just going to die without being able to put up a fight. What were his retainers thinking, getting all fired up like this instead of proposing that they retreat? Useless fools! he mentally cursed them. "Close all the gates at once! Hurry!" "We'll defend them to the death! Close the gates, quickly! We're going to keep this place safe with our own hands!" What are they saying? Maybe it's too late, but still... I have to swallow my pride and suggest we flee! Indecisive though Lican was, his own life still took priority. There was no need to defend his pride now, in his final moments. Yeah. What good's pride going to do me? Lican made a firm resolution. "This is it." "Your Excellency...!" "They're charging toward us at a terrifying speed... We should flee..." "They're a cavalry unit! If we close the gates, we have an absolute advantage over them! Wouldn't going outside actually be more dangerous?" "Oh, right... You have a point! Darn it, I never said we should run away. If that's what I wanted to do, I'd have done it long ago. We'll stop them. All right, bring it on!" "Oh, look...! Your Excellency!" "What is it now?" His retainer had his head cocked to one side. That's because, as the cavalry approached, the man was finally able to distinguish the color of their uniforms. "Blue! They're blue!" "What's blue?" "Their uniforms, sir. They're on our side!" "How can you be so sure? What are they riding toward us for?" Lican shook his head. It was true that their uniforms were blue, but still, reports from the front lines told of one defeat after another. There was no way any cavalry unit could be coming to support them. "I see how it is!" "What do you mean, Your Excellency?" "It's a disguise. The Naruyan Army is wearing Runanese uniforms to trick us. We mustn't open the gates. We mustn't!" "I-I see. It does seem entirely possible." Lican's retainer nodded in agreement. They reclosed the gates and prepared for combat. "Have the archers ready to go at once. We'll make pincushions out of those Naruyan scum who dare try to trick us!" With that command, his retainers prepared to make it rain arrows. "But...what if they really are our allies?" Lican wondered aloud. "Huh?" Lican's indecision had reared its head again. "Well..." his retainer didn't know what to tell him. "I might become an incompetent lord who slew his own comrades!" Lican's retainers looked at one another when he said this. "Th-Then, what do we do...?" they asked. "For now, we stand by. A cavalry unit won't be battering down our castle gates in a hurry. We'll wait and see what's happening. Stand by! Archers, hold your fire!" The castle fell silent at Lican's words. Finally, the cavalry arrived in front of the castle gates. It was an iron cavalry unit whose uniforms bore the crest of Eintorian. Jint and Erheet stood at the front of the group. "Who goes there? State your affiliation!" one of Lican's retainers shouted from atop the gates. "Is that you, Count Voltaire? It's been a while. My name is Erheet. Could I trouble you to open your gates?" "Why, Lord Erheet! It's you!" Lican shouted as he recognized Erheet. "Open the gates at once! We're saved! Saved, I say!" With that, Lican let out a sigh of relief. He didn't know what brought Erheet to his domain, but all he had to do now was follow him. Lican jumped down from the gates to greet Erheet, thinking he had found a good excuse to escape. "Jint, you're certain that Count Erhin said to meet him here?" Jint merely nodded at Erheet's question. His attitude was rather rude, but Jint acted the same way toward Erhin. It was just who Jint was. Erhin didn't mind, obviously. If the man was loyal to him, then who cared about his attitude. Erheet wasn't the type to be bothered by it either. "He said to wait here. That's all. I was told to wait, so I'll wait here even if it kills me!" Erheet actually laughed at this. He'd taken something of a shine to Jint. "Your Excellency! Your Excellency!" It goes without saying that, once Lican finished racing over to them, effective control of Voltaire Castle passed over to Erheet. * With the king dead, Runan was headed toward certain doom. Perhaps if he had chosen to meet his end in a decisive battle at Runan Castle, things might have been different. If he'd put up a hard fight until I came back from Rozern, it would have raised his chances of survival. Of course, I knew that wasn't the kind of king he was, so I'd predicted him dying as he fled, and the man never once defied my expectations. Thanks to that, Valdesca had Runan Castle, and I now had justification to avenge my king. I sent out scouts, confirmed the status of the king, and then immediately rushed to the checkpoint. Following that, once I received a report that Jint and Erheet had met up, I waited for about two days and then headed for Voltaire Castle. The story was that I'd been in Rozern, after all. The king had ordered me to go there. While I set out on the trip a little early, the key thing is that I went to Rozern and came back. My image as a loyal commander who wanted to save Runan but couldn't is going to be vital in the future. If they think I refused to save Runan, I'd be criticized even more harshly than the king who fled. That's why I had to go to Rozern and return. I'll use everything at my disposal to unify the continent! That's the goal of this game, after all. I'm just doing what it takes to beat it. The people's opinion of me was going to be important for unification, so it only made sense that I would try to win them over. Even if that meant resorting to underhanded methods. And so, two days later, I arrived at the Voltaire Domain. Voltaire Castle Domain Opinion: 60 Voltaire Domain Army: 3,000 Troop Types: 2,500 Infantry, 500 Archers Training: 30 Morale: 30 Reinforcements Eintorian Iron Cavalry: 9,330, Demacine Infantry: 2,800 Troop Types: Cavalry, Infantry The domain's army is three thousand men. That's pretty low, but also to be expected. This isn't a border territory. It would be weird for them to have a lot of troops. The information I was able to confirm with the system wasn't that far from my expectations. The walls of Castle Voltaire were low. It wasn't built with a focus on making it defensible. Since it wasn't on the border, wasn't the capital, and wasn't a checkpoint, that was to be expected. This place wasn't a place of any particular strategic importance. I had chosen to send Jint and Erheet here entirely to influence the people's opinion of me. The Voltaire Domain was on the road to Eintorian whether you were coming from Northern Runan or from the capital. That meant a lot of refugees would pass through here. In order to sway their opinions, I needed to do something here that would result in favorable rumors about me. "Who goes there?!" shouted a man, presumably one of Lican's retainers, when I appeared alone in front of the gates. The gates were shut tight, and I could see lines of refugees all over. The walls only protected the center of the city, so the closed gates wouldn't stop the refugees from fleeing to the southwest. Since they weren't attacking me, they must have seen my Runanese armor. I was about to identify myself when, suddenly, the gates opened. As they did, a single man rushed out. It was the commander who'd shouted down at me a moment ago. "Why, you're Count Erhin Eintorian!" he declared, looking pretty tense. He must have heard of me. "That's right. Where have Count Voltaire and Count Erheet gone?" Even though we were all counts, there was still a hierarchy. As things stood, Erheet was unquestionably higher than me. Since I still needed to rely on the name Runan, I couldn't defy that hierarchy just yet. Lican, on the other hand, was beneath me. Bearing the name of the Old Kingdom, Eintorian, was seen as an honor, and so most counts who hadn't been elevated, like Erheet, were lower than me in the hierarchy. Of course, this was all separate from ranks in the military. "Lord Erheet is recovering, but Lord Voltaire will arrive shortly!" "Oh, yeah? Anyway, there's one thing that's bothering me. How did you know it was me?" "Well, there's a man with us who claims to be an Eintorian retainer..." I figured out who before the man could even finish speaking. Jint's been waiting for me on top of the wall the whole time, huh? At just that moment, the ground-shaking sound of hoofbeats echoed through Voltaire Castle. The iron cavalry appeared in front of me—roughly ten thousand of them, all rushing in my general direction. They formed up into orderly ranks as I watched, then all dismounted to bow before me. "We've been waiting for you, Your Lordship!" These were my soldiers, so it was only natural they would greet me. It was such an obvious thing for them to do, but the sight of ten thousand cavalry forming into ranks must have intimidated the Voltaire retainer, as his expression grew even more tense. I didn't need to look to know the man who led the iron cavalry to me was Jint. No sooner had he dismounted than he ran over to me, shouting, "I completed the mission!" That's the first thing out of his mouth? How cute. "Well done. Now take the iron cavalry back. Why did you bring all of them here? The men need rest." I gave Jint a slap on the back, then turned to look at Lican's retainer. "Can you take me to Lord Erheet?" "Yes, sir!" he responded in a loud voice, then led the way. As I was following behind him, Lican hurried over to us. He was a little pudgy and looked like he had trouble running. There was certainly something to be said for the man as a lord, given that he hadn't run away yet, but... His ability scores were absolutely nothing to write home about. "Would you happen to be His Excellency, the famed Count Eintorian?" Lican asked between wheezing breaths. He wasn't being so obsequious just because I outranked him. Considering that the majority of the soldiers in his domain answered to me, he didn't have any other choice. "That's right. For now, I'd like to meet with Lord Erheet." "Oh, certainly!" Erheet was lying in bed. He'd suffered a fairly deep wound in the battle at the checkpoint. But even injured as he was, he'd made it here with the unfaltering belief that I would follow suit. If I entrusted him with troops, he was the kind of man who'd risk his own life to see that they all made it to me. It was why I respected him, and so badly wanted to recruit him. He had the soul of a true warrior, something that I, who would stop at nothing to clear this game, did not possess myself. Of course, I wasn't going to try to hire him right this moment. If I rushed things, I would make a mess of it. I needed to be cautious when trying to gain a man of his caliber. Either way, we shared the common goal of fighting Naruya, so I could take my time winning him over. "Your Excellency, are you all right?" "You came!" Erheet shot up in bed, like an exuberant child. If that caused his wounds to reopen, we'd lose a valuable asset. "You're here, at last! I've been waiting for you!" "I came from Rozern as quickly as I could, but, well...the capital has already fallen..." "What happened to His Majesty?" "He was caught by the Naruyans while he was making his escape... It's too late for him..." I shook my head, laying the act on thick, and Erheet clenched his fists. "He fled without trying to defend the country and paid the price for it, then... And what happened to His Highness, Duke Ronan?" "I don't know." He was silent a moment before saying, "I see." "Your Excellency, the duke's a heartless bastard who abandoned us!" said one of Erheet's retainers who had withdrawn from the checkpoint along with him. The man's face was full of anger. Honestly, thanks for the assist. Erheet's retainers were probably highly dissatisfied with the duke over the slight they must have felt when he sent them to the border, since they wouldn't have known anything about the discord between Ronan and Erheet. Given Erheet's personality, he'd never have told them the secret details involving the slave traders. "Enough of that," Erheet said, shaking his head at his retainer. Then he looked at me. "What do you plan to do from here on?" His eyes were unswerving as he asked the question. There could only be one answer to it, of course. "I will fight Naruya," I replied instantly, earning me a big laugh from Erheet. "Gah hah hah hah hah! Really now... The enemy has an army of a hundred and fifty thousand men. Just how do you plan to face such a... No, wait. If you're the one to take the lead, it just might be possible. Because you're you!" Erheet got up out of the bed, his body wrapped in bandages. "Then use me as you see fit in that war. I've already died once, as far as I'm concerned. No matter how reckless your plan, so long as it has some chance of success, I will risk my life to carry it out!" That's just what I wanted to hear. It didn't mean I'd recruited him, but it did mean we had a common cause in the war against Naruya. "First, the people are shaken up, and we need to settle them down. I mean to hold out for a while using Voltaire Castle as our base of operations. We'll make it so that the people of Runan can evacuate to the southwest, avoiding the battlefields." My true goal was to lead the people of Runan to the southwest of the country, and then later make them my subjects. For that, word needed to spread that, after both Ronan and the king fled, I became the shield of the people, buying time for them to escape. Such rumors would secure the people's opinion of me. This operation would be vital to swaying public sentiment in my favor. Honestly, it was a sort of show I was putting on for them. "What do you mean? I-It's impossible to hold out here. My domain only has three thousand troops, and cavalry are not well-suited to fighting a defensive siege battle!" Lican, who had been listening to us quietly, interjected, his face ashen. "Why don't we pull back to Eintorian and fight another day? I'll lead my domain's forces and go with you!" So, basically, he wanted to run away. "We can do that later. The priority right now is winning back the people's trust before they completely give up on Runan. Doing that will help us later when we need their support to draft men as we regroup. There's a world of difference between forced conscription and conscription done with the support of the populace." "But...!" "If you're that frightened, you're free to part ways with us here. I have no intention of stopping you," I responded instantly, since I didn't need him either way. Lican immediately backed down. "No! The safest place is with you, Your Excellency! But why... Ah! Could it be that the Naruyan scum have started heading south, without coming this way first?" "As if they'd ever do that!" Lican looked like he wanted to cry. Valdesca's not the type to ignore me and head south. I'm sure he'll have read my mind, though I can't say to what degree, and he'll constantly be on guard. I'm the only irregular variable in this war. So he's guaranteed to come try to kill me. Lican seems torn over whether he's better off running for it, or staying here with me. Agonize over it all you like. I don't care what you do, as long as you don't get in my way. There's a whole lot that's about to start. I have detailed information on Naruya that I got from the Droy Company. It's time to use it, along with the Eintorian forces that I've trained in order to gain as much as possible. * After their bloodless takeover of Runan Castle, Valdesca met Istin in front of the throne. The throne once belonged to the king, but now Valdesca stood at the foot of it, his brow furrowed. "You're telling me a unit of iron cavalry intervened?" "Precisely!" "They took away Erheet, the battle god of Runan. This has gotten troublesome." "We're terribly sorry, Commander!" Lucana stood by Istin's side, bowing her head repeatedly. "They were able to kill Kediman too. These enemies aren't to be taken lightly. And it was an iron cavalry unit... When could they have trained soldiers like that?" Runan is not a country that can mine iron, and these troops weren't in the intelligence reports, so they must have been trained by Eintorian. To think he'd be able to produce iron cavalry in a nation without iron. It was far too unexpected. "He says, 'I'm sorry. This was a failure on my part,' Commander!" Lucana said on Istin's behalf. "Well, it's fine. We'll leave Kediman's Third Army to Rump. Fortunately, our side suffered no major losses. I will hold you responsible for this later. For now, think of how to redeem yourself." Still, this is frustrating. I really didn't want to lose. Even though he'd gained Runan Castle, Valdesca couldn't help but feel defeated in some way. Valdesca immediately slammed his head into a pillar. There was a loud thud, leaving a red indentation in his forehead. "I won't let him have his way this time. I'll tolerate no indolence. Deploy all our forces in front of Runan Castle, save for Commander Istin's troops, who shall remain here as guards. I shall lead the rest of us for Voltaire Castle, where the iron cavalry withdrew to!" "He says, 'Let me go!' Commander." Lucana relayed Istin's intentions, but Valdesca shook his head. "With such an overwhelming numerical advantage, it would be a poor idea to divide our forces. I won't give them any chance to fight back. We'll leave only enough forces to guard Runan Castle, and all the rest will advance on Voltaire Castle." This wasn't a foe he could beat with his forces divided. It would be the worst possible plan to divide his men and risk them being defeated in detail, so Valdesca had no intention of doing that. It would only be giving the enemy a chance of victory, no matter how remote. I swear I'll win, and I'll beat him with strategy, Valdesca resolved as he gave his commanders their orders. * Are we going to face Valdesca's main force on these low walls? It would be madness, pure self-destructive madness, not even fit to be called a strategy. Once a hundred and fifty thousand soldiers surrounded the walls, we would no longer hold any kind of advantage. The elite iron cavalry I had raised would be fenced in, without any chance to distinguish themselves, and then we'd all starve after the attack began. That sounds like a good way for me to end up getting hit with the same tactic I used in Brijit. And to have it happen here, at Voltaire Castle, where I haven't been able to prepare for it? That won't do. "Your Excellency. Lord Erhin. Your Excellency!" As I was coming up with another way to make Naruya suffer, one of Lican's retainers ran over to me. "What is it?" "It's Naruya! A massive Naruyan force is pressing toward us! See the dust cloud rising in the distance?" he shouted, terrified and out of breath. Was he going to be able to fight properly in this state? "A massive Naruyan army? Well, I'll go take a look, at least," I answered calmly. "R-Right!" It was impossible for the Naruyan Army to have arrived so quickly. They had a hundred and fifty thousand men, after all. There was a great difference in the marching speed of an army of ten thousand versus an army of a hundred and fifty thousand. Although, if Valdesca had divided his forces, perhaps sending in an advance party like the King of Brijit had, that would be another matter. I'd appreciate it if he did, but there was no way the Valdesca that I knew would ever do such a thing. He was a strategist on a whole different level from the Brijitian Army. Regardless, I followed Lican's retainer to see for myself. * "Not this way. They're over that way!" As I hastened to the east side, the direction of Runan Castle, Lican's retainer pointed to the west. "Naruyans coming from the west? You're sure you saw their uniforms?" "N-No, they were too far away for me to tell what color they were." Yeah, go figure. I'd come to see if Valdesca had done something that diverged from my expectations, but no, he hadn't. The Naruyan Army weren't the only unit I was expecting. Still, just to be certain, I scanned the unit off in the distance. Eintorian Domain Army Manpower: 20,000 men Troop Types: 15,000 Infantry, 5,000 Archers Morale: 90 (+5) Training: 95 It was safe to say these were friendlies. They were my own troops—the Eintorian Domain Army which I had gone to great trouble to train! These twenty thousand men, together with the iron cavalry, were part of the thirty thousand elite troops I had managed to raise. The +5 Morale bonus proved that Euracia was with them too. That Morale buff was a halo effect from having a commander with a Command score of 95 or higher. "Were your eyes even open when you were scouting? They're on our side." "Huh? Hold on... Where do we have allies coming from?!" "It's the Eintorian Domain Army." "You mean it?! I never expected reinforcements!" Lican's retainer jumped up and down with glee. We couldn't expect any other allies to show up yet. But if I showed off that I was still here, and that I had Erheet with me, it was true that there were domains between Voltaire Castle and Eintorian that would join the battle. Even so, considering the efficiency of leaving Eintorian empty to send all my forces here, that was all a part of the strategy. This battle was all part of my plan to win the hearts of the people. "Open the gates and welcome my forces in at once." "Understood. I'll go do that!" Lican's retainer shouted, jumping for joy. * Because our numbers had increased with the arrival of the unit from Eintorian, we immediately set about providing food to the refugees. If we do this, word will spread that, "If you can make it to Eintorian, you won't starve," and people with nowhere else to go will gather. "Eat well." I took a bit of time to join in, handing out food personally. "Thank you! Thank you!" There probably weren't many noblemen who cared this much for the people, especially in Runan. Thanks to that, most of the people offered me their heartfelt gratitude. Still, there were all sorts of refugees. "Is this all?" Some of them were audacious enough to say that kind of thing during a war, and to a nobleman, no less. Maybe they were simply taking their usual frustration with the nobility out on me. "That's all you get. Try and have a thought for the people behind you. We're awash with refugees, but we're still doing all we can." At those times, Euracia stood by my side and spoke powerfully on my behalf. I'd sent her to the Rozern Kingdom, just in case the invasion pushed all the way to Rozern, but as I predicted, the Naruyan Army settled for just occupying Runan. That being the case, Euracia had come back to my side. Being a princess who put the people first, she volunteered to help out with distributing food on her own. When she spoke, the people who had been making snide remarks fell silent, unable to say anything in response. Erheet, who had recovered somewhat, joined the effort too. He decided he would donate all of the assets from his domain, but that didn't really mean anything now. His domain was in the south of Runan, and it was impossible for him to bring supplies from there immediately. "Don't push yourself. You should rest... You're not fully healed yet." "I'm fine. I can't rest when no one else is. I wouldn't have expected us to be distributing food to the people at a time like this." "If it's provisions you're worried about, then don't be," I responded, thinking he might be concerned that we wouldn't have enough left for the troops, but Erheet shook his head. "I didn't mean it that way. You've thoroughly impressed me." "Oh, what are you saying? Anyway, just rest. I'm going to put you to work out on the battlefield, so I can't have you exhausting yourself here." "Hah hah hah! Fair enough. I get it. I'll rest, then!" The refugees who passed through here were just a small portion of the population flowing out of northern Runan and the capital. The refugee flows would be going to the south and the southwest. The people of the southwest were the ones who would've heard all the old rumors that went around Runan about me, so I needed to take extra care with them. Turning that around, however, this influx of people couldn't go on forever. No, there would certainly be an end to it. That was why the best move was to buy time here for as long as was appropriate and then pull out. "Yusen." "Yes, Your Excellency!" "I plan to head out of Voltaire Castle leading a unit for a little while." "You're leaving Voltaire Castle?" I explained my first strategy of the war to Yusen. * Naruya's massive army of a hundred and fifty thousand men marched on Voltaire Castle. Valdesca had them all advance at the same pace without dividing the infantry and cavalry units. As they were on the move, his scouts came back to the main unit. "You're telling me Erhin headed out?" "Yes. Once the unit from Eintorian joined up with the forces at Voltaire Castle, he took his iron cavalry and headed out." Valdesca furrowed his brow at this. Why did Erhin leave so suddenly? It was strange that he'd brought such a large-scale force from Eintorian too. It would leave his domain lightly guarded. What is he plotting? Valdesca spread out a map. He expected that Erhin had left the bare minimum needed to defend Eintorian, but this would still make attacking Eintorian incredibly easy. Does he mean to fight at Voltaire Castle? What in the world is he aiming for? It would be easy to isolate Voltaire Castle. With a hundred and fifty thousand men surrounding them, a castle like that wouldn't be able to hold out for even two days. Members of the Ten Commanders like Istin, Lucana, and Rump, Valdesca's own retainers, and the Naruyan nobles who had come along on this campaign all looked at one another. That was because of the serious look that came over Valdesca's face as he agonized over what to do. "Commander, will you organize a party to pursue him?" Rump asked, but Valdesca shook his head. "No. We continue advancing as planned. The sooner we reach Voltaire Castle the better." He could only imagine it was for an ambush to lower their morale. That, or perhaps to cut off their supply lines. However, now that they'd taken Runan Castle, it wouldn't be so easy to break their supply lines. If Erhin meant to try and retake Runan Castle with so few troops, it was an incredibly poor idea. He'd only be gifting Voltaire Castle and his main force to Naruya. Surely he wouldn't do that. So that only leaves an ambush. What still remained completely unintelligible was why he had dug in at Voltaire Castle. Whether the fight took place at Eintorian Castle or Voltaire Castle, it was still just a matter of isolating them there and then winning, so it made no difference to Valdesca which Erhin chose. If anything, the low walls of Voltaire Castle raised serious concerns about the defensibility of the place. It frustrated Valdesca being unable to figure out why Erhin went out of his way to choose to fight there. "I have no intention of giving the Runanese forces in the direction of Brijit time to join the battle. Even if those reinforcements did come, we would still outnumber them... but I'd prefer to remove as many uncertain factors as possible." His intel told him that there were fifty thousand troops in Brijit. But if they all came, Runan would instantly lose control of Brijit. The men would scatter, and the domains of Runan and Brijit would all lose their owners. Either way, Naruya held an overwhelming advantage. Valdesca also had no intention of letting Erhin join up with the reinforcements in Brijit. He'd already come up with a strategy to win the battle at Eintorian quickly! "Well, anyway, our best move is to surround and exterminate them." "Do you still plan to keep the Fourth Army a secret, Your Excellency?" "The moment they retreat to Eintorian, the Fourth Army will move into action. I can't imagine they plan to stay at Voltaire Castle for long." Valdesca couldn't figure out what kind of strategy this was. Whether Erhin chose to fight at Voltaire Castle or in Eintorian, neither was advantageous to him. The terrain wasn't favorable. If Erhin had wanted to take advantage of terrain, he should have fought near the checkpoint or at Runan Castle. "There's no need to get confused. Let's proceed as we have been." "Yes, Your Excellency!" "I expect he'll ambush us with five thousand cavalry. Be sure we're thoroughly prepared for them!" The massive Naruyan army of a hundred and fifty thousand men continued advancing under Valdesca's orders. * Eintorian's army composition diverged a fair bit from established theory. Because we had more cavalry than usual, we were specialized more toward offense than defense. We were also ill-suited to fighting siege battles. Cavalry units were only able to show their full power on the flatlands. The reason I had gone to such great lengths to raise ten thousand of them before developing my infantry was that I expected to need their mobility. That was factoring in the fact that Naruya had more soldiers than us to begin with, and only my unit and Erheet's were really going to function. Basically, the premise was that we would be facing an overwhelming disadvantage in troop numbers, which meant that fighting a siege battle was a no-go from the get-go. Even if we went back to Eintorian, we'd be isolated. Sure, we could hold out for a while. With enough food held in reserve, I was confident that Eintorian Castle could hold out for a fairly long time, even if it couldn't last for as long as Runan Castle. But that was still a battle of attrition. I'd have allowed Runan to be destroyed only to gain nothing from it as I watched my dream of uniting the continent fade off into the distance. So the key point in this war was going to be how much I could whittle down Naruya's forces as they advanced. My plan was to make things as painful for my enemies as I could while slowing the rate of their advance. The better a job I did at that, the more refugees would pass by Voltaire Castle and hear the rumors. It wasn't as if Naruya's massive hundred-and-fifty-thousand-man army didn't have cavalry units of its own. But Valdesca was forcing them to advance at the same pace as the rest of the army to avoid his units being picked off. That means they're no faster than common infantry. I had the iron cavalry stand by in the area while Jint and I climbed a nearby mountain to scout out the enemy forces. When an army is as massive as a hundred and fifty thousand men, its movements are obviously going to be noticeable. That isn't a scale where they can advance covertly. The enemy had assumed a complex formation. They had cavalry in the front, infantry in the rear, and a supply unit in the middle with another unit of cavalry to protect them. It was clear at a glance that they were all moving as one clump just from this positioning. As was to be expected from a military embarking on a war of conquest, their composition was centered around infantry—a hundred thousand of them—in order to fight siege battles. The remaining fifty thousand were archers and cavalry. Traveling as a pack is effective against ambushes. The man's clearly an excellent student of military strategy. But even if the enemy units didn't move around on their own, there were still other opportunities to pick them off individually. In fact, them moving around all bunched up together like this could prove to be a weakness. In order to make that possible, what I need is mobility and a weakness in the enemy's ability to command their troops. He'll have heard about the tactics I used in Brijit. If that makes him timid, it'll give me even more of an opportunity. The key was the Third Army. With the death of Kediman leading to a sudden change of commander, their internal cohesion wasn't all that great, and their morale had fallen. That meant the Third Army wasn't as well-commanded as was standard for the Naruyan Army, and if we could throw them into disarray with a surprise attack the effect of it would spread. The Third Army was at the rear of the advancing enemy column. The most important thing to do now was to make the optimal use of our mobility to execute a hit-and-run attack. "Jint, I want you to take two thousand cavalrymen and charge the front of the Third Army. All you have to do is charge them. Once the momentum from the initial charge attack takes down the enemies in front of you, charge through and then pull away!" "Got it!" "Euracia, I want you to take two thousand cavalrymen and charge the center of the Third Army. Do like Jint, and charge until you come out the other side of the enemy." "Understood!" If we temporarily separated the front and middle of the Third Army with charge attacks, then the forces in between them would be isolated. While those four thousand cavalrymen were charging the enemy, I would take the other six thousand and cause chaos among the enemy's isolated forces. Basically, this was a plan to defeat them in detail. "Okay, time to charge!" This plan would work best not when the enemy was camping, but while they were advancing at a steady pace. Since we were attacking an infantry unit with a cavalry unit, we would have an overwhelming advantage in mobility. If the enemy's cavalry breaks off to pursue us, all the better. We just have to pull them in and destroy them in that case. At my command, Jint and Euracia charged into the rear of the enemy's massive army in the area where the Third Army was located. Because this was the plains, the enemy's rear units could easily see them coming and prepared for battle. However, due to how absolutely massive the enemy force was, the units in the front didn't notice. Either that, or they couldn't stop marching. Thanks to that, a gap formed between the front units and the rest, temporarily splitting up the enemy! "Follow them without delay!" And with a part of the enemy temporarily split off, I charged in with the six thousand cavalry under my command. "Yahhhhhh!" Six thousand powerful and motivated cavalrymen trampled over the infantry of the Third Army. Separated Naruyan Third Army Troop Types: 20,000 Infantry Morale: 60 Training: 92 The middle portion of the army that had been split off by Jint and Euracia's individual charge attacks was the Separated Naruyan Third Army. "Charge! Kill every enemy you see, then pull back here!' Eintorian Iron Cavalry Troop Types: 6,000 Iron Cavalry Morale: 93 Training: 97 Naruyan Third Army Infantry: 20,000 Eintorian Iron Cavalry: 6,000 Battlefield: Plains Type Advantage: Iron Cavalry, 50% Attack Bonus Morale Bonus: Additional 50% Attack Bonus This was a battle on the plains. In a battle between common infantry and iron cavalry on the flatlands, we received a massive troop-type advantage. Naruya's Third Army did hold a numerical advantage, but my vastly superior iron cavalry let us cut them down one after another. The center of the Third Army was currently cut off by Euracia's charge attack. They'd probably also broken ranks to attack Euracia's unit. I assaulted the portion of the army cut off by Jint and Euracia. Also, because their current commander, Rump of the Ten Commanders, was at the very rear of the Third Army, cut off from this segment of his forces, we'd be long gone by the time he arrived to help them. Naruyan Third Army: 15,000 Eintorian Iron Cavalry: 5,700 Once the battle began, Naruya's Third Army quickly panicked and took more than five thousand casualties. While this was a surprise attack, this result was born of the attack power advantage generated by the difference in troop types! However, Naruya's Third Army were obviously well trained, and they began organizing into ranks and fighting back. "Withdraw!" I didn't plan to keep up the attack. Surprise attacks like this are only meaningful during the first exchange, while there is the element of surprise. If we stay too long, we'll face a pincer attack. Jint and Euracia's units will be pulling out by now, so I'll get out of here too! The fundamental rule here is to hit and run. This strategy wasn't a one-and-done kind of thing. We'd be ambushing them as many times as we could between here and Voltaire Castle. The enemy knew this too, but they had no means to prevent it. The moment they organized a force to pursue us, they would have defeated the purpose of advancing all in one bunch like this. It's a long column of a hundred and fifty thousand men. We get to decide where and when we'll cut off parts of it. All they can do is remain alert night and day. Not that we'll be able to do anywhere near enough damage to truly influence a force so massive... This first raid is probably the one that will hurt them the most. They'll be alert against future ones, and we can expect a more vigorous response. But I'll bet this has massively lowered the enemy's morale. Just how much we can sap their will to fight will be the key to this strategy. * "Hey, did you see?" "Yeah, you bet I did. The Eintorian cavalry were racing all over the place, cutting down those Naruyan bastards!" Eintorians were seen launching surprise attacks in many places. And as Erhin had predicted, the refugees began to speak about it. As the rumors spread, they grew increasingly exaggerated. "I hear the Lord of Eintorian is the only one still fighting after all the other lords fled." "Yeah, he must be. I mean, even the king made a run for it!" The king was the subject of harsh criticism everywhere. Not only had he done nothing for the refugees, his terrible decisions had earned him a miserable death. All of the resentment and blame for the current plight of Runan was pointed squarely at the king. All of which only served to expand on the rumors surrounding the opposite example Erhin was setting. "Should we evacuate to Eintorian, then?" "It sounds like the best idea." Thanks to that, more and more Runanese people came to believe in Erhin. * Valdesca was smashing his head against the table. He knew that Erhin's raids with the iron cavalry would be coming, and yet he was powerless to stop them. The areas already weakened by those attacks were only getting hurt more and more. But even so, if he were to reorganize his armies now, he would lose control over all of them. "If they come again, this time we'll go after them and crush them completely!" Lucana shouted with indignation. "We have cavalry of our own, do we not? Those bastards strike, and then they hide... We should go after them!" insisted Rump, whose Third Army was taking the brunt of the losses. The other commanders were just as frustrated and enraged. Valdesca stopped banging his head and rose to try and calm them. "No. That is the one thing we absolutely must not do. If we fail to control our anger and divide our forces, we will only be doing exactly what the enemy wants us to. For now, we can only bear the pain..." Looking at the individual raids, the casualties weren't that great. However, the fact of the matter was that, as the days went by, they were growing to a number that couldn't be ignored. The great army of a hundred and fifty thousand men had been reduced to an army of a hundred and forty thousand men. The measures they had taken meant that there wasn't much loss in troop numbers, but with the threat of the iron cavalry looming over everyone at all times, all of them—from the highest commander to the lowest common soldier—were at their wits' end. Normally, they would have organized a pursuit and gone after the iron cavalry, driven by berserk rage. However, if they did, they would only meet with another ambush along the way and lose the troops of the pursuit team. This was clearly a strategy that took advantage of people's anger, but Valdesca could control his. "We will move cautiously, without being driven to impetuous actions. Let your anger build and build until it comes time to unleash it on Voltaire Castle. We'll be arriving there tomorrow regardless. Let them feel all of your wrath then. Do I make myself clear?" "Yes, Commander!" As a duke, Valdesca's position demanded absolute respect. Everyone had to nod in agreement. And so, the following day, having suppressed their anger and moved cautiously, Valdesca's massive hundred-and-forty-thousand-man army finally arrived at Voltaire Castle without breaking ranks. * In the war room at Voltaire Castle, with everyone in attendance, I made the obvious announcement. "We will abandon Voltaire Castle." Digging our heels in here would be suicide. There was a big difference between just retreating, and retreating after taking measures to shake up the enemy, though. The enemy losses were good, but the real reason was that showing the will to fight as we withdrew was necessary to keep the people's opinion of me high. Having done enough to ensure that was the case, now it was just a matter of retreating at once. "You mean it?!" Count Voltaire cried, sounding almost happy about it. He also understood fighting here would be the death of us. Of course, he followed this with a cautious, "Where will we go, then?" That was a question that should have been on everyone's mind. Everyone who wasn't a retainer of Eintorian, that is. "The Naruyan Army number a hundred and forty thousand. Meanwhile, we have only around thirty thousand. Even if the other lords rally to our banner, they would only add another three to five thousand. We stand at an absolute disadvantage." The fact of the matter was that, whatever we did, this entire situation was practically suicide. Unlike the north of Runan, these were flatlands, with hardly any terrain we could use to our advantage. At best, there were some hills here and there, but they weren't going to be of any use to us. "We'll withdraw to Eintorian." That had been decided from the beginning. Going anywhere else had never been an option. My own retainers already knew the plan, so they just looked at one another and nodded, but Erheet and the others who had joined up with us cast doubtful looks in our direction. "So, it's finally time to execute the plan?" Yusen asked. Erheet couldn't hold his tongue any longer. "What exactly is this plan you speak of? I think that it's about time you let me in on it." First, I'd need to explain this to Erheet. But anyway, if this plan was a success, I'd finally graduate from being a lord under someone else to creating my own country, and jump into the competition for mastery of this continent. It was all on the line now. * A short distance from Voltaire Castle, Valdesca laid his camp and immediately sent out scouts. "Commander! Something is strange!" "Strange, you say?" "The castle is strangely quiet." Voltaire Castle was on the plains. It made the place easy to attack, but also difficult to approach in order to conduct intelligence operations. The scouts were repeatedly being found and chased off by archers. Also, with refugees becoming scarcer, the scouts couldn't blend in with them. Especially with Erhin having returned to eliminate the scouts, they hadn't been able to gather information, and it was only as they got closer that they realized the castle had been vacated. Valdesca's brow furrowed at the report. "Quiet, you say? What does that mean?! Explain!" Rump shouted in frustration. "Their banners fly above the walls, but the gates are closed with no soldiers anywhere in sight. It's as if the castle is empty!" "An empty castle?" Rump turned to look at Lucana. "I thought this might happen. They never planned to fight at that castle with its low walls. Their real goal was to split us up and ambush us with their iron cavalry. Have the Second Army scale the walls with ladders and scout ahead, exercising the utmost caution. There is a risk they may be planning to burn the castle with us inside." "Understood!" Lucana replied. Once Istin nodded as well, they led their unit toward the front gates. However, the Naruyan camp were only getting angrier now that they heard the castle lay empty. They had been planning to vent all of their rage on Voltaire Castle, but with no one there, the camp was dominated by despondency and anger that had lost its outlet. Because of that, the retainers prayed for the castle to not actually be empty, but Lucana returned with a look of intense anger on her face as she reported in to Valdesca. "Commander, the castle is empty! There was nothing there!" The retainers bit down on their lips hard when they heard this. "Is that right?" Valdesca, of course, was his usual, calm self. "The captain said he would check and make sure, but it would seem they aren't planning to burn the castle. There was no oil spread around, and no piles of kindling." "Understood. When you've finished scouting, open the castle gates." "Yes, Commander!" The gates of Voltaire Castle were soon opened at Valdesca's command. But as they had suspected, there was no one in the castle. The only thing that they'd gained for their efforts was a comfortable place to rest. No supplies had been left in the abandoned castle for them to seize. Worse still, because they had to pursue the Eintorian Army immediately, they couldn't even avail themselves of the comfortable resting place. "Well, I had already anticipated this, considering that the castle is of no importance, but to think he'd withdraw without preparing any scheme..." Valdesca had been sure there would be a trap, but his retainers didn't feel the same way. "Commander, he's only human. Are you sure you're not overestimating him...?" The Ten Commanders were just following orders. They didn't get why Valdesca was so nervous about Erhin. Neither did the King of Naruya. The king believed that Valdesca had lost last time because he had come without any proper commanders, then let his guard down on top of that, so things would be different now that he had the Ten Commanders accompanying him. The only one who thought differently was Valdesca, who had been so thoroughly defeated before. "Anyway, we'll begin the pursuit at once. I know you've all just lost the outlet for your frustrations, but I, on the other hand, have been waiting for this moment. The moment when the Eintorian's forces return to their domain. Now, while they are retreating, is when we have our chance. We'll strike from both sides and drive them into a corner!" "Wait, does that mean..." "Then the Fourth Army is finally making its move...?" Valdesca nodded at Rump and Lucana's question before pointing at the map. "He will likely continue his retreat all the way to Eintorian. I don't know what strategies he'll use, but I believe in my own strategy. We will attack them from the front and back here. After that, the remaining soldiers will enter Eintorian, and destroy them using the mana circle I've prepared in order to take Eintorian Castle. He'll have nowhere left to run." * "Your Majesty, it's about time we prepared ourselves. If the Naruyans push all the way into southern Runan, then our own lands in Rozern will be next!" The conflict had lit a fire under the butts of everyone in Rozern, so the palace was abuzz with activity. "Has my sister requested reinforcements?" "There has been no word from Her Highness just yet. But we don't have the spare troops to send to reinforce them." "But they have Erhin, don't they? I'm sure he'll protect them again," the young king said, but the nobles were still quite shaken. "He was right to tell us not to send Runan the promised supplies. Thanks to that, we will be able to tell Naruya that we've severed ties with Runan. Perhaps we should take this opportunity to cut our ties to Erhin too, and then build a good relationship with Naruya." "How could you say something so shameless, even in light of the current situation!" roared a noble who backed the princess, rising to his feet. The nobles in the king's faction pushed back against this, and a riotous debate soon broke out. "Brijit and Naruya are different. Naruya has a whole ten commanders who are just like Brijit's Ganeif. Besides, the ingenious strategist, Duke Valdesca, who is from one of the Twelve Continental Houses, is with them too. We must prepare for the worst-case scenario!" They could debate this endlessly and never come to a conclusion. Ultimately, they agreed to be cautious and wait a little longer to see how the war situation developed before making a decision. * "The Naruyans are behind us again!" Gibun shouted with a look of exasperation. "Looks like we're definitely being pursued. Those guys don't even look at the other castles. They're so persistent. Maybe they don't plan to occupy any of the other domains of Runan?" "You said it. They won't suffer us to let our guard down for even a moment." Yusen agreed with a nod. "I beat their commander-in-chief really badly during the last war. He must think that if he doesn't get me out of the way, I'll do it again." I was of the same opinion as Gibun and Yusen. If the guy would just look down on me, let down his guard a little, then it would make it a bit easier to fight. Instead, he fought cautiously, as though he were the one at a disadvantage despite the overwhelming superiority of his forces. Because of that, although I was able to do some damage with the iron cavalry, it wasn't as much as I'd expected. "Well, whatever. If he's not going to relax his guard, I'll just use that to my advantage instead." If this were a situation where I was trying to defend the Runan Kingdom from Naruya's invasion and live on as a Runanese noble, then maybe it wouldn't have been that hard to assemble all of Runan's troops and stop the attack at the checkpoint in Northern Runan and at Runan Castle. But then I'd always be nothing more than another pawn of the king and Duke Ronan. That's why Runan had to be destroyed, even if that meant letting someone else do it for me. I need to walk this risky path in order to declare independence later. Overcoming these difficulties is what's going to let me create a legitimate nation of my own. If Runan was destroyed, and I were to try to defend Eintorian as the surrounding countries were looking to get a piece of the fallen nation's lands for themselves, then I'd be surrounded on all sides by enemies and nothing good would come of it. "We're going to settle this in Eintorian, just as planned!" I pointed to the vast plains of Eintorian, where the idea was to lead the enemy in. We hurried to the stage of the final confrontation. My total current manpower was thirty-three thousand men. In some ways, that might seem like it wasn't enough. But in war, the important thing is to decide on and prepare the battlefield, and we had a one-day lead on the Naruyan forces. Even if we hadn't been that far ahead, because we were mostly cavalry we had an advantage in marching speed, but I deliberately had us slow down. "Your Excellency!" As we were approaching Eintorian at that relaxed pace, Bente, who I'd left behind in Eintorian Castle, raced over to me. "We've got big trouble, Your Excellency!" The man could give Gibun a run for his money when it came to being thoughtless. When he reached my side, he jumped down from his horse to give me his report. "Bente? You're supposed to be protecting the castle. What are you doing here?" If the guy who's supposed to be protecting Eintorian Castle with Hadin is here, then that means... The people behind me, which included Yusen, Gibun, Euracia, and even Lican and Erheet, all looked rather surprised too. Jint wasn't particularly interested, but that was par for the course with him. "It's the Naruyans. They've crossed the border to attack. They're marching this way right now!" "The Naruyan Army?" "Yes, Your Excellency!" Bente gave me a big nod. Shocked, Yusen asked him, "No, the Naruyan Army should be behind us... No, don't tell me they had yet another army?! Is that it, Bente?" "That's exactly it!" Bente nodded vigorously. "Judging by their course, they aren't heading for Eintorian Castle. They're heading straight for here, where you are, Your Excellency!" It seemed everyone but I was stunned to silence by what Bente had told us. If what he was saying was true, we were caught in a Naruyan pincer movement. Of course they'd all be stunned. "Damn it! I knew it... I should have run away from the beginning..." Lican blurted out despite himself, then hastily covered his mouth. "What does it matter? They're all enemies we'd have to fight eventually," Erheet said coolly, adjusting his grip on his spear. I'd anticipated this from the beginning. It was why I'd deliberately slowed our march. Because by deliberately walking into this pincer movement, I could get the Naruya Kingdom to display its full might to us. This was what I used the Droy Company for. I'd spent copious amounts of gold coercing Naruyan nobles who'd illegally purchased slaves into giving me accurate information. What I learned from them was the total manpower that Naruya would be mobilizing for this war of conquest: roughly three hundred thousand troops. However, only a hundred and fifty thousand came across the border. Where did all the rest go? According to my intel, a hundred thousand of them went off to occupy another country under the direct command of the emperor. Where did that leave the remaining fifty thousand? They were right where I expected them to be. So I was right to lower our marching speed. I had a simple reason for walking into their pincer attack: it was better to take down Naruya's entire army all at once. And thus, I'd waited for them to all gather in one place like this. "What basic troop type are the new enemy?" "They have cavalry and an infantry unit. They're using an incredibly basic formation, with the cavalry up front and infantry in the rear!" It was a formation so rudimentary I'd hardly even call it a strategy. "Will you go with the iron cavalry, Your Excellency?" "No, we'll go with infantry first. I intend to assume the fish scale formation!" The fish scale formation involved positioning infantry in a solid arrow shape. If the soldiers at the tip are defeated, the row behind them engage the enemy, and if the enemy's cavalry charge into the center of the formation they're easily surrounded. "Understood!" My well-trained troops changed formation in an instant. "The archers will stand by in a position in front of the fish scale formation, and release their arrows the moment the enemy appears. They will then quickly pull back to the rear, and the foot soldiers of the fish scale formation will engage the enemy cavalry. Yusen will lead the fish scale formation, and Gibun will handle the archers!" "Yes, sir, Your Excellency!" Now that those two had their orders, I looked to Jint. "You're coming to drop in on the enemy commander with me." "Got it!" With all those orders given, Erheet looked at me vacantly. "What should I be doing?" "You're not at your best, Your Excellency. So, for now..." "What are you talking about? I've almost fully recovered!" Erheet said firmly. In all honesty, I had been waiting for him to say that. "Then can I ask you to command the iron cavalry? Once the enemy cavalry slam into the fish scale formation, I want you to circle around behind them and hit them in the back." "I swear I'll accomplish that mission. Let's go!" "Yes, Your Excellency!" Erheet's retainers nodded enthusiastically and followed him. There's just one problem. Who exactly is controlling the new enemy unit? That's going to be the most important question. I had a bad feeling about this. Valdesca had gone to great lengths not to split his forces, and yet the very same Valdesca had deliberately set this unit aside. Whoever it is, Frann trusts them more than anyone else. My greatest fear right now is that we'll take major losses. At the very least, I can't retreat until Frann's unit catches up with us. I want to avoid a situation where my forces are damaged. Actually, the best thing would be if we could break this new enemy unit before the main force arrives. If we break Frann's unit after that, then we'll be able to take out two hundred thousand Naruyan troops in one stroke, so that's pretty efficient. But...there's no way he doesn't see that coming. While I was still lost in thought, Euracia spoke to me. "Is something wrong, Erhin?" "I'm getting a bad feeling about this..." "A bad feeling?" "Well, it doesn't change what I can do, so it's not a problem. If my plan fails, head back to Rozern immediately. You mustn't die here." Of course, I had no intention of failing. But all the same, I didn't want her to die fighting in what was really my battle. As soon as Euracia heard me, she drew Rossade and fell into a fighting stance. "You're talking like that again! I really will stab you this time!" Despite her harsh tone, she looked sad. "I need you to make it home safe, even if I die on the battlefield." "I've cast aside Rozern to be with you. It's not so easy for me to go back now. I'm not a Rozernan anymore. I won't leave you until you show me the world you promised. Even if that means I die at your side!" It was a thrill to hear her say that. I'm such a lucky guy, having people willing to die with me. "Okay, okay, I get it. Lower your sword, please. I won't say it again." "As long as I've made myself clear." Euracia bit her lip as she lowered her blade. It looked like she still had more she wanted to say. Well, I'll try asking her after the battle's over. First, I need to make this plan work. "Jint." "I feel the same. My life's been in your hands for a while now." "What are you talking about? You need to survive too, for Mirinae's sake." "Well..." Jint sounded just a little hesitant. "I'll die in your place. I'm sure you'll look after Mirinae after I'm gone. That's good enough!" Euracia and Jint both know what to say to make a guy happy. They were the only ones in my entire army who I'd really trust with my life. I'd started out all alone, without a friend in the world, so having two people I could feel this way about was incredibly moving. Anyway, I have zero intention of dying here, in a place like this. And I'm confident I won't. Regardless, as far as I recalled, the events that were about to play out weren't in the game's history. I was getting a little sentimental because I had no idea what the future would hold from here on out. All I can do is believe in myself and fight on. "Jint, Euracia. Both of you charge at the enemy from your respective positions. I'll advance along with you." Of course, my goal was to identify the enemy commander. * "I suspect that the Fourth Army should be encountering the Eintorian Domain Army around now," said Lucana. "Yes, you're right," Valdesca agreed. "Knowing them, they'll be throwing the Eintorian Army into disarray." "Of course." Lucana shook her head with dismay as she remembered Medelian. The color drained from her face as she recalled the unpleasant memory of the time she'd almost died while training with her. Any unit paired with Medelian's destructive power would be the strongest. She expected the Eintorian Army would struggle against that power. The Fourth Army were their ace-in-the-hole. "There isn't a commander in Eintorian who is a match for my little sister. Only His Majesty can control—" "Oh? I have to disagree." Lucana cut Valdesca off. "She's always running away from His Majesty, so clearly no one can control her." * The Fourth Army had been separated into its own unit just before the invasion of Runan. There was a young lady in the House of Valdesca—Frann's little sister, Medelian Valdesca. Bearing the blood of House Valdesca, she was every bit as gifted at controlling mana as her brother. That's why the Naruyan Army needed her power. But as far as she was concerned, war was a bore, and she was always running around, avoiding the orders of King Cassia. That didn't stop her from being the highest-ranked of the Ten Commanders. The moment she graced the battlefield, victory was assured. Even the most capable commander was just another grunt before her. It was why she was allowed a degree of leniency. Medelian had been optimistic that, with this dispatch of troops to Runan, so long as she kept on groaning about it, she might not have had to go to the battlefield. Or she was, up until the point Valdesca threatened her with, "If you won't join us, then I'm going to throw you out of the house." She could be a little rebellious, but now that he was laying down genuine threats, she couldn't disobey his orders. Valdesca and Medelian had lost their parents at a young age. They were each other's only kin, and Valdesca had practically raised her too. Left with no other choice, she put in an appearance at the front while making it very clear she didn't want to be there. Once Medelian joined them, Valdesca entrusted her with command of the Fourth Army of Naruya's Runan Subjugation Force. This unit would move completely independently of the First through Third Armies which he would be leading. They were the unit that would be the core of his operation to catch Erhin, and so it was important that they have the person who boasted the greatest martial prowess. Medelian Valdesca—the strongest of the Ten Commanders, and the most capable in Naruya next to only King Cassia himself. "Am I really going to have anything to do, big bro?! I've got more important things to be doing!" However, Medelian had visited her brother's camp that morning to complain about it at length. "Don't ignore me! Your adorable little sister is talking to you!" Of course, this wasn't a conversation between the commander of the Runan Subjugation Force and his subordinate. The way she was playing up the cute little sister bit, it was a sibling squabble. Medelian had never thought of her brother as a superior officer anyway. "Save it. I'm busy. Can't you tell?" "You're the one who called me to join the military! And I'm busy too! I've got stuff I need to be doing!" Medelian punctuated her complaints by slamming her fist down on the table. After being given the Fourth Army, Medelian had made a habit of visiting Valdesca every day to vigorously object. That said, there was no changing the plan now. Also, before dispatching troops, he had his hands full with checking over his provisions and other supplies, as well as gathering information on other countries. Sure, his sister was cute, but he didn't have time for her. Finally at his wit's end with her, he slammed his forehead into the table. "Medelian! What do you even have to do?!" He knew that his sister was somewhat self-centered. Perhaps he'd coddled her too much as she was growing up. Because of that, she was temperamental, and all too happy to act in ways that he couldn't predict. She just wasn't suited to an organization like the military. But he needed her to get out there and work for him. "Hmm, all sorts of stuff? Well, things that are more fun than this war, I guess!" War was tiresome for her. She enjoyed fighting, but not when it was totally one-sided. And yet, no matter where she went, there were never any commanders who could put up a decent fight against her. Too strong to find a rival, she always left the battlefield feeling unfulfilled. It was starting to really get to her.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4_1.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Obviously, Valdesca understood his sister's frustration with not being able to put her skills to their full use. "Medelian, this war won't go like the others before now. I expect things will happen to make it interesting for you too." "Impossible. You're trying to tell me there's someone strong enough to take me on in Runan, of all places?" "Yes. Not only will it be an even match, he might even beat you." Of course, Valdesca himself didn't believe that. He knew the strength of Erhin and his cadre, but even in light of that he was certain that Medelian's victory was unshakable. That was why he needed to provoke her curiosity, even if he had to deceive her a little to do so, in order to get her to head out. "Hmm..." Medelian crossed her arms and regarded him suspiciously. She was pretty sure he was leading her on. But if Valdesca was willing to say this much about them, then maybe she was just a teensy bit curious. "So, who exactly are we talking about?" "Erhin Eintorian." "Oh! That guy you fought? He's tough in battle too?!" "He is. And his retainers have considerable talent of their own." "They're that good...?" She'd taken the bait. Valdesca decided to give her one last push, just to be sure. "How's this sound, Medelian? If you distinguish yourself in this war, I'll grant you one wish. So just stay on task, and lead the Fourth Army as you're instructed." Medelian's eyes sparkled at this. "You mean it?" "Yeah... I know you've been avoiding His Majesty. If you're so sick of him, I've been thinking it might be good to dismiss you from military duty so you can wander the world for a while..." Medelian instantly turned to leave. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna go beat them all!" Medelian ran off with fierce speed before Valdesca could finish telling her all he had to say. * The battle began. Naruyan Fourth Army Manpower: 50,000 Troop Types: Cavalry, Infantry Morale: 92 Training: 95 The enemy was a unit called the Fourth Army. Frustratingly, they were made up of elite soldiers. On top of that, I hadn't been ambushing them, so their morale hadn't fallen like the rest of the armies had. It was going to be hard to gain an advantage on that front. Though I was able to use our respective troop type and combat formations to put myself in a better position. They also didn't have a strategist like Valdesca with them now, so I was confident in my ability to win at mind games. Assuming the enemy commander moved as I hoped, that was. "Yahhhhhh!" "Kill them!" "Dieeeeee!" The battle began, and the enemy cavalry charged toward our prepared formation, just as we'd planned. The front line of cavalry went down in a hail of arrows from my archers. Naruyan Fourth Army: 48,000 men Eintorian Domain Army: 33,000 men With five thousand archers firing, those numbers kept dropping. When the enemy approached, the archers pulled back to the rear, and the infantry moved up front. The cavalry finally charged into the fish scale formation. The enemy had the troop-type advantage here, but all I could do was hope that the fish scale formation would minimize it. "We're heading to the enemy commander!" Euracia, Jint, and I all jumped into the onrushing mass of the enemy together. As the cavalry in the front row of the enemy army pushed on with incredible momentum, the infantry were behind them, preparing to jump into the action. Erheet's iron cavalry unit would get around the very back of the infantry and then break them from there. Even before troop types were considered, Erheet's ability to command meant his troops had a higher morale. When we were about to charge the enemy commander, a blindingly bright flash of light demolished the fish scale formation. Light rushed forth from the same place several times, and with each blast of light, my army's numbers dwindled. The momentum let their cavalry break my fish scale formation, and with my troop a disorderly mess their numbers fell in no time. Mana exploded off in the distance. I started to feel more and more panicked. I spurred my horse onward, racing toward the scene. When I arrived, there was an incredible woman up ahead. She was using the countless swords that had fallen on the battlefield to slash apart my soldiers. Any weapon they dropped became hers, floating into the air and then raining back down on my forces, always exploding with a burst of light. I couldn't help but furrow my brow. Medelian Valdesca That name... Her family name was the first thing to make a real impact on me. She was a Valdesca. House Valdesca was one of the Twelve Continental Houses, and also the one that Frann Valdesca was head of. Age: 21 Martial: 99 (+1) Intelligence: 34 Command: 72 As should be readily apparent from her Martial score, Medelian Valdesca was the strongest of the Ten Commanders of Naruya, a great nation that was seen as the biggest threat on the continent. She was their number one. Now that I saw her for myself, she lived up to the rumors. She had more than enough martial prowess to hold the first rank among the Ten Commanders, which also meant that she was the mightiest commander in Naruya. She even had a bonus applied to it. That meant her actual Martial was 100 right now. She must have had a treasure like Euracia's Rossade. Two more swords hung at her waist too. I couldn't view detailed information on them, but it was safe to assume that since she was keeping them in reserve, they were treasures in their own right. I didn't know if she'd been given such destructive weapons at such a young age because of the special nature of House Valdesca, or if it was purely a recognition of her talent, but that wasn't important right now. She's too strong. That's the problem here. That said, I couldn't exactly ignore her or retreat. Running into Valdesca as we withdraw would be the worst. Still, there were too many issues with leaving her alone. She'd already completely shattered my fish scale formation. For every dead soldier, another sword floated up into the air to assault my forces once again. It was maddening. My men were dying, beheaded one after another. I realized that if this kept up, I was going to lose them all, so I summoned Daitoren. I got in range of the flying swords, but Medelian wasn't paying attention to me. She just slashed at me like any other soldier. The style was unorthodox, but Daitoren was more than capable of stopping attacks like these. It was a wide-area skill, but not one that particularly increased her attack power. Her Martial score of 100 was reflected in the attack, which was common for many area-of-effect attack skills. It meant that each of these attacks were at Martial 100, so ordinary soldiers couldn't possibly handle them. I completely avoided Medelian's attacks as I approached her. The closer I got, the fiercer the attacks grew, but I could still stop them. Once I closed in, Medelian drew her sword and came at me. It must have been a Valdesca family treasure. The blade crossed with Daitoren, their powers colliding. I didn't understand mana, but the basic way it functioned was that Daitoren was a mass of mana that released white light, not unlike the sword before me. There were bright flashes each time Daitoren and Medelian's powerfully mana-charged blade clashed. "Hey, there is someone pretty good here," she said as if she were enjoying the situation. "Hee hee! I was getting bored, so you'll do just fine. Let's play!" The problem was that she kept using her mana skill while crossing blades with me. Even as we fought, every sword that fell on the battlefield became her weapon, flying up to rain back down on my troops. There was a bright flash each time. She's tough. Even as she's fighting me, she's still able to keep doing massive damage to my troops. I never knew monsters like this existed. No wonder she's S-class. If this keeps up, we're going to lose. Even if I can hold out against her, eventually Valdesca's reinforcements are going to arrive. In short, I'll have to accept the punishment of death on top of my failure to beat the game. That's the one thing I don't want. The only reason I was able to fight her when she had a Martial score of 99 was that she wasn't taking it seriously. This was all just fun and games for her still. Now was my chance. I'd take her out with True Crush before she got serious. Even if Medelian had skills for single combat, True Crush had the awesome effect of nullifying enemy skills. I could only do this now, before I'd tipped my hand. But there was a reason that I couldn't act right away. Her floating swords were fighting me ceaselessly, as though she had an inexhaustible supply of mana. What is she hiding? I turned my horse around. If this fight dragged on, that would mean my forces took that much more damage, and the risk of the main force joining up with them increased. I needed to settle this as soon as possible. "Where are you going? It's a pain, but my brother told me I couldn't let so much as one mouse slip away from this battlefield. So you aren't going anywhere. And you're such a good way to kill time too!" Even with Daitoren, I'm just an idle plaything to you, huh? I've got a half-hour time limit, so I need to hurry. Now's the only time for it! I used True Crush on her. Daitoren emitted a flash of white light and shot toward Medelian. There was a twinge in her expression for the first time. The swords flying toward my men all switched to defending her, but the moment True Crush touched them, her skill was nullified, and they fell to the ground. She began to assume a defensive stance with the treasure sword in her hands, but it was already too late for that. "Swegg! Rollins!" Or so I thought, but then she threw the sword at me. Another shot off of her hip as if following the first. Perhaps because she'd revealed the names of her treasures, their effects displayed for me now. Swegg gave her Martial a +1, while Rollins was a Martial +2. The two blades collided with Daitoren! As they did, True Crush nullified the mana skill, and with the loss of momentum, Swegg and Rollins fell to the ground. Normally, equipping two or more swords wouldn't have given her any further boosts to her Martial score. However, because her personal skills allowed her to control the blades simultaneously, the system considered them both to be equipped. That meant that with the combined effect of Swegg and Rollins, her Martial rose to 102. If I were still using Crush, it would have been deflected, and I'd have died for sure. Fortunately, True Crush could negate it. That meant her Martial was now 99. I can win with True Crush!
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4_2.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 But it looked like Swegg and Rollins' resistance also affected True Crush. They delayed it hitting Medelian, if only by an instant. That was long enough for her to call the name of her final sword. "Valdesca!" Perhaps sensing the power of True Crush, she gripped her last sword and attempted to deflect Daitoren. Valdesca gave an incredible +5 to Martial. I'd used True Crush anticipating she would use her last sword. Her base Martial was 99. Another +5 brought that up to 104. As for me, with Daitoren my Martial was 99. True Crush raised it to the same 104. Our numbers are even. But there's still hope! Under the game's system, when two powers of S-class or greater collided, they would counter each other, creating a blast wave that dealt damage and caused a knock-back effect. Many players criticized it for being too cartoonish, but right now, I could only be grateful that the system existed. If I miss with this, I'm a dead man. Now! Please! At that very moment, we were both blown away. I'd been getting ready to use my 30 Second Invincibility, and activated it at the perfect moment to completely avoid the blast wave. I was blown backwards, and then sent rolling across the ground, but since I was invincible, it didn't hurt. The pain wasn't why I'd used my 30 Second Invincibility, though. The blast wave itself had a Martial of 104. "Whew..." The powerful mana explosion blew all of the soldiers around us to smithereens, and Medelian collapsed off in the distance. I was fine because of my 30 Second Invincibility, but she'd taken the force of that blast wave to her entire body. Her legs were still twitching a little, though, so she apparently wasn't dead. That was the top-ranked member of Naruya's Ten Commanders. Who knew she'd be so formidable? If she had gone exclusively for me from the beginning, without bothering with the soldiers around us... No, if she'd used that Valdesca sword from the start... This ended the way it did thanks to her arrogance. But before I could go and deal the finishing blow, she was suddenly wreathed in light and disappeared. Looks like it's that tool activating again. It was the same with Valdesca. He collapsed right next to me, but used that tool to escape. I think I remember hearing that, in the time of the Ancient Kingdom, the House of Valdesca were the ones who designed those tools, the ruins, and that kind of stuff. Mana circles, ruins, tools, and treasures. Their family's deeply involved with all of them. If I hadn't been sent flying, that might have been a chance to finish her, but because I was so far away, I couldn't do anything. Daitoren had vanished too. Because my battle with her had already dragged on for so long, my time had already run out once I used True Crush. Fortunately, I was still able to do a good amount of damage. That blast wave was really something. Who knew that it would be so dangerous when two special attacks from evenly matched commanders collided? Anyway, judging from the way she was looking, she isn't going to be able to rejoin this war in any hurry, at least. We'll call it a victory by decision, I guess. This wasn't how I'd wanted it to be, but at least I was over the hurdle. "Whew...!" I let out an involuntary sigh of relief. The moment I did, arrows rained down on my forces. These weren't fired by Medelian's Fourth Army. No, the Fourth Army didn't even have archers to begin with. Valdesca's massive army had finally arrived. * "The enemy is estimated to have roughly twenty thousand men. Lady Medelian most definitely ground their numbers down." "I see. Still, it's hard to imagine that proud girl retreating." Valdesca cocked his head to the side in confusion at Rump's report. "Regardless," he continued, "They had no supply unit. They pulled back from Voltaire Castle to here without resupply. You understand what that means, right?" Lucana clapped her hands and answered, "They have supplies in Eintorian?" "Correct. Ultimately, the heart of our enemy lies in Eintorian. If the Fourth Army had held out a little longer, then we could have kept the number of enemies who were able to flee back to Eintorian to a minimum... It's unfortunate that things worked out this way." "Incidentally, we don't have a full grasp of the situation," Rump explained. "The soldiers near Lady Medelian all died, without exception... No one knows what happened." Valdesca scratched his cheek. Right now, winning was more important than his sister. "Let's take an orthodox approach. We'll surround Eintorian Castle. There is a limit to the amount of supplies they can have in there, and the enemy only numbers twenty thousand." If the Fourth Army hadn't been beaten out on the open plains, the battle could have ended there. That it hadn't was disappointing, but the Naruyan Army's overwhelming advantage remained unshaken. They outnumbered the enemy eight to one. Even if the battle happened at a castle with fortifications instead of out in the open, it was still indisputable who would win. On top of that, most of the Ten Commanders were still alive and well. And so, Valdesca's massive army of a hundred and sixty thousand men began marching on Eintorian Castle. As they were chasing a fleeing enemy, he positioned his cavalry at the front and had the infantry follow behind. But then something changed about the enemy they were pursuing. When the report came in, Valdesca didn't even know what to make of it. "You're telling me a small number of the enemy's troops entered Eintorian Castle, while the remainder headed south?" "Yes, indeed! Will we pursue both groups, Commander? We await your command!" What in the world does this mean? There isn't a single benefit in splitting their forces like this. If this is some sort of an attempt to confuse their enemies, then it's not a method any strategist ought to use. They're already down to just twenty thousand men. It takes a whole lot of guts to divide that number further and still expect to win somehow. He said that a small force entered Eintorian Castle, but what am I supposed to conclude from that...? "I don't think there's any need to dwell on it, Commander," said Rump. "Perhaps there was a rift between their commanders due to the crisis they're in?" "I feel the same," Lucana agreed. Istin maintained his silence but appeared to concur with the other two. It was the same with all of Valdesca's other officers and retainers. They had pursued the forces of Eintorian and pushed them into a corner. There was nowhere for them to go now. Victory was all but in their hands. "In the end, strategy relies on manpower. That's something that I can say with confidence after the long time I've served under you, Commander." Valdesca nodded. No matter how he looked at it, there was no way the enemy could turn things around on them now. No matter how highly he overrated Erhin's abilities, it just wasn't going to happen. "Where did the gray-haired man go? Erhin Eintorian?" "He entered Eintorian Castle!" "Then we go to Eintorian Castle. Ignore the rest of them!" "Understood, Commander!" As the officers ran off to carry out his orders, Naruya's forces rushed toward Eintorian Castle. "Create a multilayered encirclement of Eintorian Castle. We mustn't leave so much as a single gap." I'll handle this with the orthodox strategy. Valdesca decided not to think about anything else. * This was to be Eintorian's final battle. That's what the current situation led the refugees to believe. "We all came here to rely on Eintorian, but they're getting beaten. What's happening?!" "The people who've seen it in person are saying that they're hopelessly outnumbered, so you can't really blame them." "They don't have the numbers to win, then?" The refugees who had gathered nearby whispered among themselves as they wandered in search of somewhere to go. "Eintorian's over there, right?" "Yeah. A big battle's going to start there soon." "Everyone's saying this will be the final battle." "Yeah, after the king died on the run, the Lord of Eintorian showed up too late, the only one willing to keep fighting on... What are the other lords even doing?" "It sounds like he was the only one who had his troops ready too." "He was able to stop the Naruyans last time. Do you think it's just too much for him to do it again?" "I hear by the time he got back from Rozern, the north had already fallen, or something like that?" "Yeah. That's where I fled from. The enemy tore through the area so fast we barely knew what had hit us." The refugees bemoaned their current situation. At this point, it was probably best for them to accept that they were going to be Naruyans, but they had vague misgivings about becoming the people of another country. "Oh, who cares. I'm gonna go see this final battle." "You'll die!" "You think I'll be able to see it if I climb that mountain over there?" "Seriously, stop! It's dangerous!" For many of them, curiosity won out over fear. Many of the people began climbing the mountain to watch the battle. Word of the situation had spread, so no one expected Runan to win. But there were also rumors that Erhin was the last lord in Runan to still put up a fight, so onlookers flocked to see it—even knowing it was dangerous. "By the way, the people in Eintorian are being awfully quiet, don't you think?" "They are, now that you mention it." Throughout it all, the refugees had one doubt lingering in their minds: there was no sign of the people of Eintorian trying to evacuate. Not only that, there was nothing inside the domain. "It's like there's no one but soldiers in this vast domain." They weren't just talking about inside the castle, of course. They meant the entirety of the Eintorian Domain. * Finally, the time had come. The armies of Naruya had assembled. Honestly, Eintorian was not a good territory in which to found a country. Especially not when there were so few people that I could trust, and so few soldiers—and on top of that, we were also surrounded by Naruya. Not to mention, the vast majority of the Runan Kingdom's manpower was currently in Brijit. Of course, the king sending his troops there, blinded by a juicy prize, had all been part of my plan, because I'd wanted Runan ruined more than anyone. Even if all of that manpower joined up with me, I couldn't amass power here. This land was ideal for starving people to death—an exposed territory, under pressure from more than just Naruya. It just wasn't suitable as a place for me to declare the founding of my country and then keep growing stronger. But even if I was going to lay the foundation for my country somewhere else, I still had to break the Royal Naruyan Army first. It would be impossible to regroup while on the run. First, I need to defeat Naruya, then gather the people, organize my armies, and build the strength to invade other countries. This is the first step toward that. I'd sent the main body of my forces elsewhere while I led a smaller force into Eintorian Castle in order to lure in Valdesca. I surveyed his army from on top of the castle walls. They surrounded Eintorian on all sides, with an encirclement that was several layers deep. What genuinely disciplined troops. I couldn't be happier to see so many of them here. To be honest, it was the secret hidden in Eintorian Castle that was making this entire plan possible. Those secret passages that were created in the time of the Ancient Kingdom existed in Eintorian too. The room with the gold and the room where I'd found the bonus both had nothing to do with the Ancient Kingdom. The former was created by the descendants of Eintorian, and the latter was made by the game's management team. However, Eintorian, which had shared the same fate as the Ancient Kingdom, also had another secret room—a secret passage that I couldn't have entered without Euracia's ring. I'd searched the entire castle. There's no way that Brijit would have one and Eintorian wouldn't, I'd thought, and was proven right. The plan now was to use myself as bait to lure Valdesca's massive army into attacking an empty Eintorian Castle. The sun was setting, but he'd probably attack anyway. All without realizing that Eintorian was now empty. Valdesca's not going to give me time. He'll want to use his current momentum to take Eintorian Castle in one push. This was my chance. Valdesca must have assumed it would be easier to attack under cover of night, because his forces stayed quiet until the sun went down, and then as soon as it had he ordered the assault. * "All forces, charge!" Valdesca had no intention of dragging out the conquest of Eintorian Castle. He had all of his forces charge toward the castle. The first to go in were the Third Army, using ladders. Due to the death of Kediman, Rump had asked Valdesca to let the Third Army take point in order to redeem themselves. With no defenders protecting the castle, the massive army quickly got in and opened the gates, allowing Rump's forty thousand men to rush inside. The burning gates lit the way, allowing a fairly rapid advance. The troops who were inside also opened the other gates, allowing even more soldiers to rush in. But no matter where they pushed toward, they found no one to fight. Rump thought the enemy were lying in wait for one last ambush, so he ordered all of the rest of the gates be opened, but search as they might, his men couldn't find a single Eintorian soldier. "Report to the commander-in-chief at once!" Finding this suspicious, Rump sent a messenger to Valdesca. After that, a small unit came rushing out of the castle gates. "Captain, the enemy is ahead of us!" "Were they hiding, then, like I thought?" Rump nodded and then went to stop that unit, but Erhin was at the front of the group, and Rump's head quickly flew. Enough time had passed that Erhin could use Daitoren again, and Rump paid the price. Meanwhile, at the same time, Rump's messenger arrived at Valdesca's camp, which was positioned at the very rear so that he could command all of his forces. "Commander! Commander!" "What is it?" "We have trouble. There's no one in Eintorian, just like at Voltaire Castle. The place is completely empty. There isn't a soul to be found!" "What do you mean? You're telling me he abandoned his own home base?" Valdesca felt like he'd been bashed in the head with a hammer. He thought that Eintorian already had other units deployed, and they were using them to disperse his attention. It was unthinkable that Erhin would truly abandon his main stronghold. "Have everyone pull out of Eintorian Castle at once. At once, I say!" Valdesca shouted. Faced with the incomprehensible, he had a bad feeling about all of this. * The massive Naruyan force entered Eintorian, more than sixty thousand of their troops all pushing forward at once. The Naruyan Army had gathered nearly all of their forces—an army of a hundred and sixty thousand men—in the area around Eintorian Castle. The secret space was full of insults directed at the Twelve Houses by the ancient king who had been forced by their betrayal to retreat from the original capital of the Ancient Kingdom to Eintorian. This ancestor had developed the mana circles, and built secret passages all over the continent. After retreating all the way to the area currently called Eintorian, his heart broken, he began work on completing the last mana circle of his life. It was a self-destructing mana circle—his most horrible technique, one he meant to use to take the world down with him. However, in the end, the Eintorian ancestor never actually used it. It was still unclear why. After Jint had helped evacuate all of my remaining subordinates and subjects through the underground passage, Euracia and I stayed behind in the castle—just the two of us—waiting for the enemy. "They're here... Euracia, we're going underground!" "Got it!" There was a vast, open space that led into the underground passage. When Euracia stood there, a mana circle appeared. Holding up her ring, she was able to activate it, and the mana circle flashed a blinding white light. At the same time, there was a great rumbling from underground. The self-destruction circle was working. "Okay, let's run!" We had to get to our horses quickly. I'd explained that it would take a fair amount of time for the mana circle to get going, but we couldn't know exactly how long that would be, and that gave us reason to hurry. I was willing to take this risky gamble because I could still use 30 Second Invincibility two or three more times. It's a race against time, but as long as we can escape it's all good! Euracia nodded. And so, the two of us tried to slip out of the mana circle. However, just as we did, the light of mana vanished! "..." Euracia and I stared at one another. "It would appear...it doesn't work once the user leaves the mana circle," she said. It had that kind of secret? Don't tell me that the reason the Eintorian ancestor couldn't use it was because he was afraid to die and just ran away. As I was struck by a wave of despair, Euracia bit her lip. "You go on by yourself," she said to me. "I'll stay here." That was out of the question. "Not a chance! If it means sacrificing you, I'd rather just run away! Even if Naruya defeats us, so long as we survive, we'll have a chance to recover. Let's give up and get out of here." The ring, once worn, couldn't be removed until death. Yeah, that's perfect for something you're going to commit suicide with! Even though he made the tool himself, once he put it on, there wasn't any way for him to take it off again! "If this ring is the key...then perhaps we could just leave it here?" Euracia suggested, and then... "Wait, Euracia!" Without a moment's hesitation, she sliced off her own finger with Rossade. Blood splattered the ground, and Euracia winced with pain as her finger fell into the circle, causing it to activate once more. At this point, we left. With the ring touching the mana circle, this time it kept on working. "Damn it...! We've got to get out of here!" There was no more time to think, so I grabbed Euracia by the arm. We raced through the underground passage on horseback. The light of the mana circle was growing stronger, already setting off sparks outside Eintorian Castle. The Eintorian ancestor had apparently built this thing without the determination to blow himself up or even to sever his own finger. Once we got outside, the design of the mana circle underground was being projected up into the sky. This was after I had mercilessly cut down Rump, and we slipped out the gates! Soon a massive flash of light spread out and engulfed the entirety of Eintorian Castle. I spurred my horse onward, using 30 Second Invincibility as I did. * "What in the... This is impossible!" A massive mana circle was projected in the sky. As the circle began to shine white, the ground shook. The land where the mana circle had been carved began breaking apart. It was an earthquake of intense magnitude with Eintorian Castle as its epicenter, the disaster rippling and tearing through the land to affect the surrounding areas. The ground crumbled away like melting chocolate, and the earth swallowed up soldiers as the powerful quake kept spreading out.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter4_3.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Fissures continued to form in the splitting earth, closing in right before Valdesca's eyes. Magma spewed forth from the ground, engulfing his soldiers. Eintorian Castle collapsed completely. "Commander! You have to flee!" The retainers of the House of Valdesca immediately took Valdesca by the arms. "Run away! You have to run! Now!" The soldiers who hadn't been part of the encirclement went pale, running like madmen in the opposite direction of Eintorian Castle. It was the same for the Ten Commanders. Unable to defend themselves, they could only survive by fleeing. The Naruyan Army, which had been focused on bunching together for the sake of unity, were separated as they ran off in all directions. "What is this...? This mana circle is impossible! What kind of power could..." As Valdesca stared at the mana circle with hollow eyes, he began trembling as it occurred to him what this was. "No, it can't be a mana circle from the Ancient Kingdom... They used that relic of old?!" The mana circle spreading out from the castle closely resembled the designs of the Ancient Kingdom. Having studied them all his life, Valdesca was certain this had to be a remnant from that period. I was up against a descendant of the Ancient Kingdom. I shouldn't be surprised that he has the same kind of thing. Considering how suspicious his movements were, I should have been on guard against something. No, I've already lost. What good does realizing it do me now?! Valdesca had a hollow epiphany as he watched the earthquake strike. "Your Excellency, you must flee this place at once!" Valdesca's retainer forced a tool into his hand, then triggered it.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/chapter5.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Final Chapter: Victory and Its Price Thirty thousand men were all that remained of Naruya's once massive army. It may have cost me my domain, but I was ready to call this a big win. Repeated notifications that I'd leveled up appeared before my eyes. My level rose all the way from 25 to 35, and I'd gained 4,000 points! However, my bigger concern was Euracia's finger. We couldn't get that back. "Euracia, are you okay?" "I'm all right. Were we able to drive off Naruya?" "Yeah. I think so, but... You idiot! There had to be another way..." I had no words. Euracia just seemed indifferent. Something she'd said once before came back to me. That time I said I'd like her to lend me the ring, she was about to cut her finger off, wasn't she? "I swear I'll repay you for this. Even if it costs me my life." "Don't be silly. You've already saved Rozern, and you saved me. There's no need to feel so bad over one little finger." "Euracia..." All I could do was clutch the hand that was now missing a finger. * With the enemy scattered, the iron cavalry which had pulled back earlier returned to attack them. The Naruyans still had a total of thirty thousand troops, but they had just suffered a massive blow to the psyche. Royal Naruyan Army Third Army Manpower: 9,200 men Morale: 20 Training: 92 The Third Army had fallen to ninety-two hundred men, and their morale had dropped precipitously. Meanwhile, the iron cavalry were my best troops. My infantry and archers had taken heavy losses in the battle against the Fourth Army, but the iron cavalry which had gone on a detour with Erheet to ambush the enemy still had eighty-four hundred men. The Third Army, composed primarily of infantry, was no match for them. Eintorian Iron Cavalry 8,400 men Morale: 100 Training: 97 The unit had a hundred points of Morale, and an overwhelming troop-type advantage on top of that. Royal Naruyan Army, Third Army: 9,200 men Eintorian Iron Cavalry: 8,400 men Troop-Type Advantage: +50% Attack Morale Advantage: +100% Attack The oversized gap in morale gave us a massive attack bonus, and the Third Army, which had begun retreating before fully entering the castle, was soon being pushed back. Royal Naruyan Army, Third Army: 2,300 men Eintorian Iron Cavalry: 7,900 men It was a one-sided rout. The death of Rump, the member of the Ten Commanders who led the Third Army, was probably responsible for their morale falling that far. The Third Army was broken. That only left the retreating Naruyan Army with less than twenty thousand men. * "This is a mana circle of the Ancient Kingdom. It's hard to believe, even after seeing it with my own eyes." Erheet had a look of disbelief on his face even now that the battle was over. The tremors had already subsided, but there were places where the ground had swelled or subsided, and magma had flowed forth, leaving clear traces of what had happened here. Normally, this kind of disaster would have killed tens of thousands. Naturally, my allies began talking about the power of the mana circle among themselves, and also how the present-day Eintorian, which was established by those ancestors from the Ancient Kingdom, had such a facility, and we had been able to use it. Erheet had trouble believing it at first, but he had to accept what he'd seen with his own eyes. "I'm glad it worked properly. The Naruyan Army won't be able to move for some time now. Not until they join up with their king on the Herald front, at least." That's right. Impressive as Naruya is, they won't be able to exert their power much after losing an army of a hundred and sixty thousand men. Well, with the exception of the hundred thousand men who the Naruyan King took with him, that is. Now that they've taken such massive losses, I'll definitely have time and opportunities. But not here in Eintorian. It's a stone's throw from Naruya, and exposed on all sides. There's no telling where an enemy might attack from in this situation. For that reason, I had moved everything to Bertaquin. I'd already relocated the people of the domain and the riches beneath the castle there over the past three months. The only reason no one found out about it was because of the secret passage. I couldn't have executed this sort of plan without it. The secret passage in that ruin that the mountainfolk of Bertaquin were protecting was connected to Runan. Bertaquin doesn't just have iron, it's also a land of natural bounty, what with being surrounded by mountains on one side and the sea on the other! Bertaquin was small by itself, but I was in a position to claim the neighboring domains too. My first goal was to expand my country into a state that was about the size of three domains of the former Brijit Kingdom. It was made possible by the fact that the land I wanted was guarded by the mountains, making it a natural fortress. In a way, my position was similar to that of Liu Bei of Shu. Shu was also in a mountainous region, so he'd declared the foundation of his country in a natural fortress that was hard to approach. Of course, Shu fell in the end. If I'm going to beat this game, I'll have to make sure that I don't follow the same path as they did. I had twenty thousand troops left. Erheet was with me, of course, and so was Lican. I hadn't particularly wanted the latter of the two, but he'd ended up sticking with me through everything that happened. It wasn't just Lican who stuck with me. There were also hundreds of thousands of refugees behind me who saw me as their shield against Naruya. I opened up the secret passage for them. It would take too long to make them cross the mountains, so there wasn't really any other option. Besides, my own people had already all learned about the secret passage when they'd agreed to the relocation. I planned to move the refugees through it, then destroy the entrance so that no one else could use it. It'd be a problem if Naruya came through to attack us. It's a shame to give it up, but I'd better hurry up and let it go. * "We've already come a long way, and the Naruya Kingdom's taken our homes, so we've gotta go check it out. If we stick with the Lord of Eintorian, he'll give us farmland, and he won't even charge us taxes for a while!" "Is there really a land like that?" "They were saying it's on the coast, you know?" "The seaside, huh... I've never seen the sea." The refugees were receptive to Erhin's suggestion that, rather than stay in Runan which was going to be right in the middle of a war zone, they should come with him to another region where their safety would be assured. He told them that soon Naruya would be fighting against many other nations for control of Runan's territory. Just the thought of it was hell. No one wanted to find themselves caught on the battlefield. Giving up their homeland was better than losing their lives. If there was someone saying that he'd protect them, and a place where he was offering to do so, then it was only natural they would be swayed. To capitalize on this, Erhin went around giving speeches to the refugees. "If you come with me now, there may be a lot of uncertainty, but I guarantee you that your lives will not be at risk! I will give you farmland, and exempt you from taxation for the time being. You can settle there permanently! But I'll be taking back the lands of Runan eventually, so you can return home then too! If you'll believe in me, I'll do it all! I will serve as your shield!" Word spread, and the refugees' Opinion of Erhin rose to over 90. * It wasn't just the refugees who were thrilled by my victory. The lords of the southwestern territories of Runan and their troops started coming to me too. Even if they stayed in Runan, they'd have to surrender to Naruya. Cassia wasn't known for being a merciful king, so the lords of the southwest decided to side with me instead. Of course, since, unlike Lican, they had only come to me after the battle where I broke the Naruyan Army, they had clearly taken their time to read the situation. Anyway, for all of his faults, Lican had stuck with me to the end, without running away. Although, it seemed that was at least in part because he was too indecisive to choose whether he wanted to fight with me or flee. Regardless, I intended to treat him better than these new fair-weather friends. Ultimately, relocating this many people to a new domain was a huge undertaking, and things were going to be hectic for a while. Things wouldn't all get sorted out until the migration was complete. After the large-scale migration, I took my key retainers through the secret passage, and we emerged just a stone's throw from Bertaquin. And when we arrived in Bertaquin proper... There was an army of thirty thousand men waiting there for me. Unlike my own exhausted troops, these thirty thousand were fresh and full of vigor. Everyone tensed up for a moment, but... This unit wasn't wearing the black uniforms of Naruya. They wore the Runanese blue. "I want to speak with you, Your Excellency! I've done as you said, organizing all of the domains. And now I have come here to greet you!" The commander of the great army got down from his horse and bowed before me. His troops bowed too. The leader of this massive force was Fihatori. Fihatori Delhina Age: 24 Martial: 81 Intelligence: 85 Command: 89 The commander who'd saved Rozern with me—a young genius with the talent to command over a hundred thousand troops.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/copyright.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Copyright Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 by Waruiotoko Translated by Sean McCann Edited by Ori Starling This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Copyright © Waruiotoko 2021 Illustrations by raken First published in Japan in 2021 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author's intellectual property. J-Novel Club LLC j-novel.club The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Ebook edition 1.0: October 2023
Officially Translated Light Novels	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up/Only-the-Villainous-Lord-Wields-the-Power-to-Level-Up-Volume-03-[J-Novel-Club][Premium]/signup.txt	Only the Villainous Lord Wields the Power to Level Up: Volume 3 Sign up for our mailing list at J-Novel Club to hear about new releases! Newsletter And you can read the latest chapters (like Vol. 4 of this series!) by becoming a J-Novel Club Member: J-Novel Club Membership
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/afterword.txt	Afterword Afterword Just as death is a part of life, we lose all kinds of things even as we gain others. Only when we lose them do we understand their true value. Health is one example. When we get a cold and feel unwell, we realize how important our health is. Relationships are another. When we lose them, we learn how precious they were. Some things can be recovered, but some can't. Although we only have one chance at life, by the time we notice our losses, it's too late. At a certain point in my life, I realized that the things I take for granted today will one day be gone. That doesn't mean I'm a pessimist. Imagining future losses makes me value things in the present even more. One day, I may lose all contact with the people I work with today. The thought makes me want to value our time together and our relationships more deeply and to be kind. One day, I may grow apart from the friends I spend time with now. So I want to appreciate them and enjoy our time together with all my heart. Not even our dearest family and friends are here forever. It changes how I think of them. The main characters in this book lose important things they once took for granted. It's a sad story but not a tragedy. Many people helped this book reach publication. For all the support I received, I am beyond grateful. In particular, I learned much from my editor. I look forward to continuing our relationship in the future. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to all my readers. I can't thank each one of you individually, so allow me to bow my head in appreciation for all of you here. Thank you for reading this book. I hope our paths cross again somewhere in the future. MISAKI ICHIJO
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter10.txt	An Unknown Girl and Her Unknown Boy An Unknown Girl and Her Unknown Boy 1 When Izumi told me about the boy in the sketchbook, confusion overwhelmed me. Meanwhile, she was talking about my relationship with him. She told me that our first odd encounter, which you might call a coincidence, turned us into a fake couple. That we saw each other every day. That each day's me gained strength and became more optimistic because of him. That I had him to thank for picking up drawing again. And that suddenly, one day, he died due to a heart complication. She also told me that his last request was to erase all trace of him from my journal. I was in shock. I wasn't angry at Izumi or Kamiya's sister. I was in a vulnerable place, and they did what they thought was best for me. Also, it was his last request. If I was in their position, I'd probably do the same thing. But I was appalled that I forgot all of it. I was speechless at the realization that I'd so easily forgotten a person I cared so much about. Izumi apologized over and over, and I kept telling her she shouldn't worry about it. Even so, my mind went blank, and I couldn't wrap my head around it. Izumi seemed worried about me and said she was going to get something. I nodded. My eyes fell on the sketchbook. I'd had no idea the guy in the sketches was my boyfriend. Even when I saw the drawings, the memory didn't come back to me. But…maybe my body and heart remembered him. Maybe my heartbeat was desperately trying to tell me something. I picked up the sketchbook and flipped through the pages. The pictures showed him with different expressions. I still couldn't remember him. Even though he meant so much to me, and I never should have forgotten. My eyes grew hot, though from sadness or regret, I wasn't sure. There were many versions of him before me. Yet I couldn't remember. I sat there in a daze for some time. After a while, Izumi came back. I forced myself to smile. She nodded and, with a sorrowful expression, held out a stack of notebooks, binders, and a big folder filled with drawings. "These are the real journal and notes you wrote and more pictures of Kamiya. The diary will tell you everything about your time with him. I'm sorry. I should have told you right away after you recovered. I'm so sorry for keeping it from you these past months and for depriving you of your most important memories." I told her she didn't need to apologize and took the stack from her. I considered reading it then and there but realized I might start crying and decided not to. She was looking down guiltily. "Izumi, at least eat something. Eat something sweet." Finally, she looked up. "What?" "You have absolutely nothing to apologize for or feel guilty about. Words can't express how grateful I am to you. Thank you. I mean it," I said. Partly to cheer her up and partly to mollify the waiter as we sat in that café for so long, I ordered a ton of desserts. I ordered a smoothie made with seasonal fruit, the usual shortcake, chestnut chiffon cake with whipped cream, and Izumi's favorite, chocolate cake. Sweets always cheer us up. Izumi's tense expression began to soften as we ate and bantered. I made a lot of jokes to lighten her mood. "I guess when I had amnesia, the new items on the menu were always new to me," I said, grinning. Izumi was kind enough to do the same, even if it was a little forced. "You used to make that joke all the time," she said. "I know," I answered. We smiled at each other like we always did. Back home, I gathered my courage and opened my diary. The whole story, from the day we met until his death, was there in my own handwriting. I could tell as I read it—this person named Kamiya was always by my side, always treating me with care, always trying to fill my days with joy. I had described his subtle habits, his interests, and his attention to "being sanitary." I had written about how he smiled faintly when something troubled him. I couldn't read everything in one sitting, but through my writing, I sensed his living, breathing being. The binder had a special page labeled "Tooru Kamiya" that was also full of information about him. As I sat there engrossed in the notebooks and binder spread before me, twilight fell, and my room grew dim. My mom came up the stairs to tell me dinner was ready. I said I wasn't feeling well and would eat later. She hesitated, then said, "I heard you learned about him—about Tooru Kamiya." I was surprised she knew, but she said that Izumi had called to tell her. Through the door, she told me not to blame Izumi. She said that Izumi and Kamiya and his sister had all struggled, but they had done what they thought was best for me. I opened the door and looked at her. "Mom…did you know him?" I asked. She cast her eyes down and shook her head. "I wish we'd met. We never got that far. But…your father and I are still deeply grateful to him. On the anniversary of his death, we always visit his grave, although we kept it secret from you, of course. There's no question in our minds. He is the person who believed most in your future and protected your heart." Mom was crying. Crying like she did the day my amnesia went away. Then she pulled herself together, wiped her tears, and smiled. "Let me know if you get hungry," she said kindly and went back downstairs. After I shut the door, I sat on my bed and hugged a pillow. The darkness outside was deepening. I tried to concentrate, but my thoughts were too scattered. The minutes ticked past. Moonlight shone into my darkened room. I wanted to remember something in that stillness. I prayed that I would. A little after eight, my phone lit up. It was a message from Izumi saying she had my old phone and that she'd charged it and could give it to me whenever I wanted. I wondered if seeing photos and videos of him would help me remember a little. I almost accepted her offer, but in the end, I didn't. Thank you, I texted back. Maybe if I saw the photos and videos, I'd be able to remember him. But I feel like it would be a bad idea. If I looked at them, the image of him that I already have might be blotted out by the image in the pictures…and that scares me. I might only be able to remember the version of him in those photos and videos. Maybe I'm being silly. Sorry. She texted back: No, I'm sorry. I think I understand what you're saying. How about just listening to his voice? I hesitated but ultimately agreed to her suggestion. A few minutes later, she sent me an audio file she'd extracted from a video. I clicked play and heard something rattling and then my own happy squeals. There was the sound of the wind. Gradually, I remembered when this was recorded. It was the day I'd insisted we ride a bike together. I heard myself again. Could I really have laughed so innocently and joyfully? And could I really have forgotten it? "Hino, you shouldn't lean forward like that. You'll fall off." There was another voice. Kamiya's. Tooru Kamiya. The guy who was my boyfriend. His voice sounded oddly calm for a high school student. I answered happily. "I'm fine! You're just a worrywart." "You're just a daredevil." "What? I can't hear you over the wind!" "Nothing." "Tooru, thanks for another good day." "What? Did you say something?" "Nope, I didn't say anything." The recording ended. My whole body was shaking like it was resonating with the past. In the stillness of the night, I listened to the recording over and over. 2 Starting the next day, whenever I didn't have prep school, I visited various people to ask them about my relationship with Tooru Kamiya. I contacted my classmates from the past and told them about my amnesia and recovery. All of them were shocked. And they all said the same thing about me and Kamiya. "The two of you always seemed to be having so much fun together. At first, I was surprised to hear you were dating, but when I got used to it, I started to think you just might be perfect for each other. It was cute the way you always called him 'my boyfriend' or 'Tooru,' but he always called you by your last name." Maybe word spread that I was asking around, because one of Kamiya's classmates from second year got in touch, and we ended up meeting. "I was actually the reason the two of you started dating," he said. "Or my bullying, I should say." He was a serious kind of person whose white button-down shirt seemed to suit him. He didn't seem like the type who would have bullied other kids, but then again, that might be true for every former bully. He explained what had happened, not glossing over the truth, but while recalling it all, he sounded pained. He told me how Kamiya had spoken up for another kid in their class and how he came up with a dare on the spot. Apparently, the guy had excelled at sports and academics in junior high and been quite confident. Once he got to high school, though, his grades started falling, and he became depressed. He turned into a bit of a bad boy. Then, partly because he became isolated after the incident with Tooru, he started rethinking his life and studying harder. He even moved up to Izumi's advanced class in his third year. "I… The name of the guy I bullied was Shimokawa. He transferred to a school overseas, and he's still over there. He actually launched his own start-up even though he's still in university. When I heard Kamiya had died, I knew I had to contact him. He rushed back from China for the funeral and cried louder than anyone else there. I'm pretty sure he knew about you." He told me Shimokawa's full name, and I was able to find his information online right away. He came across as an intelligent, well-educated man with a handsome, toned face. Izumi introduced me to one last person who had known us. Tooru Kamiya's sister. Meeting someone I'd only read about in the journal made me nervous. She would remember me, but I'd forgotten her. I was able to get a sense of her personality through the entries. I made my way to the café in a hotel attached to the terminal station downtown where we'd arranged to meet. I told the waiter the name the reservation was under. He led me to a seat in the back. Kamiya's sister was already there. When she saw me, she stood up. "Hello," she said before I could greet her. Embarrassed, I hurriedly bowed. "H-hello. Thank you for making time to meet me today. And thank you for coming here when I really should have gone to you." "It's all right. I had an errand nearby, so it really was no trouble," she answered, sounding like the novelist she was. She gazed at me. She was a beautiful woman. I sensed a refined gentleness and a quiet intimacy in her. Suddenly, her expression softened. "You've recovered from your amnesia?" "Yes. Thankfully. And I…," I said, looking down. She gestured for me to sit. We both sat at the table, opened our menus, and ordered drinks. When that was done, she resumed gazing at me like she was thinking about something. "Actually, I've said this before, but thanks to you, I know that Tooru was happy." I forgot to blink as I thought about the meaning of her words. He was happy. Could that really be true? He had stayed by my side until the day before his death. Yet I had lost all my memories of him. I had lost them, every single day. Our past together wasn't really mine. All that remained was the journal and binder. "I don't remember Tooru," I said. "I know. But that doesn't change the fact that Tooru was happy," she answered. Our eyes met. I thought I glimpsed something like sadness in her eyes. "I think his time with you gave color to his life. He's gone now. But the person he loved was you. You were the one he cared about and the person he wanted to make sure was always happy," she said. My chest tightened. I pressed my lips together. From the corner of my eye, I saw Kamiya's sister looking down. "I'm sorry…I know that was sudden. But I don't intend to tell you I wish you could remember Tooru. On the contrary, I want you to forget Tooru and start a new life. That was the future he was trying to protect. Possibilities. I want you to put him in the past, to be your own kind self, and to make another person happy. You have the ability to do that. You can reach out and claim happiness for yourself. I want you to live like that. And I'm certain Tooru wanted that, too." She was talking about my future. I couldn't help thinking about the people who had believed in my future even when I had amnesia. Izumi, my mom, my dad. She herself, I'm sure. And… "Is that really all right? To forget him?" I spat out, thinking of the face in the sketchbook. His sister looked at me with clear eyes. She smiled, maybe to reassure me. "Yes, it is. People live by forgetting." "What about you?" I asked. She looked into the distance. Just then, our drinks arrived. She gazed into the amber liquid in her teacup and took a stip. I did the same of my coffee. "One day, I think Tooru will slip into the past for me as well. If I'm still writing novels then, maybe during interviews I'll mention him by accident. He'll become a person from my past. No wound vanishes completely, because wounds are also memories. But the pain won't last forever. I think that's how life works. Although, I'm sure I'll still remember him when a nostalgic wind blows or I happen to type the character for his name in a manuscript." Wounds remain, but the pain doesn't. I suppose that's the way people survive their sorrow. Do they grow less sad with time? Maybe. You can't walk forward if you're forever a prisoner of the past. Yet it made me sad to think that one day I wouldn't be anymore. "Memories are important, aren't they?" I said. His sister looked at me questioningly. "I've lost that. If everyone else is gradually forgetting him, then I want to gradually remember. I want to try to get back what's important to me. That's how I feel." His sister knitted her eyebrows in consternation. "It might be painful," she said. "I want to remember for myself. Everything important ought to still be here inside me." "Can you promise me you won't become a captive of the past and that you won't neglect your own life?" "Yes." "Someday, someone…," she said, then paused. "It's a bit bold of me to say this, but one day, when a person who loves you comes into your life, love them with all your heart. Put Tooru behind you." I still didn't understand love. At the same time, I couldn't help remembering the descriptions in my journal of my time with him. What should I call that? Youth? Love? He didn't want any reward. He simply gave and gave. Every day, asking nothing in return… "I promise I will. Of course, that all depends on a person like that showing up," I said, smiling sheepishly. She smiled back gingerly. It was the first time we had smiled at each other. After that, I asked her a lot of questions about Tooru. What kind of child was he? How was he raised? She answered slowly, searching for the words. "I'm finally able to read your book and remember what I read from day to day," I told her as we talked. She smiled, looking very beautiful. When I asked what she was writing now, she hesitated before answering. "It's a serious story but not without redemption. A story about a boy and a girl. Perhaps if they hadn't met, they would have lived out their individual lives happily enough. However, through meeting, they found greater happiness and meaning. That's what it's about." Starting the next day, I made sure to prioritize my current life, just as I'd promised Tooru's sister. I kept up with my studies, but at the same time, I began trying to remember him. My present was the future he had created. Fall ended, and winter came. I studied furiously and managed to pass the university entrance exams. Although it was my second choice, I got into a university in the prefecture. I would start that spring, two years later than my classmates. I wonder how Tooru would have reacted if I told him. Would he have been happy for me? On a sunny spring afternoon, to celebrate my acceptance, Izumi and I had a picnic beneath the cherry blossoms at a park that was famous for them. We'd been there a few times before. The early-blooming trees rustled in the breeze. It was still a little cold when the wind blew. We ate Izumi's homemade bento and walked around the park. She poured a black tea from her thermos into a paper cup and handed it to me. The aroma was fruity and refined. "I feel like I remember this smell," I said casually, looking at the blossoms. Izumi stopped walking. "Maori…you said that once before." "Did I? When?" I could tell from the way she hesitated that it was when I had amnesia. She told me the story. It was in our second year of high school, when we went to the aquarium. "Kamiya ended up running into his sister, so the two of us went to the aquarium alone. We took the bento he had packed in a rattan basket with us. He'd made this beautiful chirashizushi with lots of toppings, and he included this tea because he thought it would go well with the rice. When we drank it, you said it seemed familiar. Actually, he'd made it for us once before at his house." She went on to explain that the sense of smell is connected to the hippocampus, which processes memories and emotions. For that reason, smells sometimes evoke memories. After she finished talking, I looked down at the amber liquid. A petal fell toward it but drifted to the side instead. I wondered if I would always be like that petal, so close to remembering him but ultimately unable to. It had happened before, where I felt like I almost remembered something only to have it slip away. "Is that so?" I answered absently and took a sip of tea. I'm going to show tomorrow's Hino a good time. Without any reasoning or knowledge, someone's voice rose from my pool of memories. It caught me off guard. The voice was so clear. Was my mind reading out lines from my journal in the voice I'd heard on the audio file Izumi had sent me? I don't expect happiness. And that's fine with me. No, that wasn't it. Those words weren't in my journal. I saw a faint smile. It was blurred so I couldn't see it well. But still… Until I met you, I thought that's all my life would be. I recognized the face. It belonged to a pale, thin, kind person. Every time I say your name, I get a thrill. The person who mattered so much to me. The person who always made me smile. Is it okay if I fall in love with you? The voice stopped. I was in a daze, and for some reason my eyes felt hot, and my vision blurred. A soft wind blew, tearing the freshly opened blossoms from the trees. "Can I say something?" I turned around at the sound of Izumi's voice. She was looking worriedly at me. I bit my lip to keep myself from crying. "Yes. Thank you. Just now…I started to remember something." "You did?" "I heard a voice. He was laughing. He said he would show tomorrow's me a good time. At least, I think so." She seemed to know right away who the voice belonged to. She looked down sadly, but I smiled. Still, my voice was shaking. "I don't remember anything. But I'm alive. And one day, I'll remember it all. Just watch." "Okay." "Everything important is here inside me. I'll remember all of it, every last thing. I know I will. I…I…" I covered my face with my hands. No matter how deep our sorrows, humans eventually forget. Wounds don't hurt forever. I remembered what Kamiya's sister had said, but as long as my wounds did hurt, I would keep crying. That was fine by me. Who cared if I was a crybaby? It was all mine. The sorrow, the pain, the joy, the memories, all of it. When I thought about that, I started crying again.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter12.txt	My Heart Will Draw Your Portrait My Heart Will Draw Your Portrait 1 Cherry trees are blooming here and there on the road from the station to the park. The sun was shining strongly this morning, but after noon, it weakened. The mild rays cast a pale light on the people and plants in the park. Cherry blossom season is here once again. For the first time in ages, I'm strolling along with nowhere to go in a hurry, gazing at the city scenery around me. Not long ago, I was in high school. Hounded by university entrance exams, I thought my third year flew by faster than any other year in my life. But my first year as a working woman went even quicker. Amid these hectic days, high school feels like the distant past. Sometimes, I wonder if it was all a dream. Maybe none of it ever happened. Maybe I'm still in high school, passed out from exhaustion after studying. When I open my eyes, I'll see Maori or Tooru smiling and be reassured by the sight of them being happy together, giving me a peace of mind. Unfortunately, that's not reality. I'm twenty-four already. I don't remember anything. But I'm alive. And one day, I'll remember it all. Just watch. Three years have passed since Maori said those words to me with such determination. She's in her fourth year of university now, and she's still trying to remember Tooru. Using her journal and my stories as a guide, she's gone to the places they visited, done the same things, and desperately tried to remember. It didn't work like the Lady Grey tea. Things didn't go so easily or simply. Nevertheless, she kept looking inside herself, never giving up. Even in university, she kept searching for her own forgotten past. Little by little, she remembered Tooru. Now that I'm working, I can't see her very often, but we still try to see each other at least once every three months. This sunny Sunday is one of those times. We've arranged to meet at the park famous for its cherry blossoms, where we've been a few times before. It's already crowded. She and I came here when she got into university, and during spring break before our third year of high school, we came here with Tooru. "Izumi! Over here!" As I walk through the park searching for her, I hear her bright voice calling me. There she is, sitting on a big picnic blanket in a spot with a great view of the flowers. She said she wanted to try choosing the spot herself at least once and didn't mind holding down the fort as time would fly by if she was sketching the trees. Even as she tries to remember Tooru, she's living her own life to the fullest. There are a few people sitting with her, probably friends from university. "You look cheerful as always, Maori," I say. "I'm a little creepy when I'm not cheerful," she jokes. I think of the day I told her Tooru had died. That, too, is far in the past. She introduces me to her friends, and we all help ourselves to the picnic dishes spread on the blanket. Everyone brought something, and Maori brought homemade chirashizushi. She used to be an awful cook, but she's improved since then. It's different from when she and I made it before, when she was trying to recall memories of Tooru. This time it's piled with tasty toppings and looks beautiful. At first, her university friends are reserved around me because I'm slightly older and already a working adult, but when I smile and talk to them, they warm up to me. Little by little, I'm changing, too. All sorts of things are happening every day out of view. I think that's what it means to live. I glance over at Maori. She's chatting happily with a friend. I wonder if her current life is what Tooru wanted for her. To take ordinary things for granted, have good times and bad times, a peaceful life. To fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning. Is her life now what he always believed it would be? A constantly evolving life, where in a few decades she'll be able to look back on the sad events of the past as one part of her story. Wanting to talk to her alone, I suggest we take a walk along a path lined with cherry blossoms. She brings her sketchbook, saying she wants to draw the flowers. We banter for a while as usual, and then I ask, because I've been wondering about it, "So what happened after that?" Maori stops walking. She doesn't ask what "after that" means. After a minute, she says "Well…" and holds out her sketchpad. I wonder what she's up to, but I take it. We go stand under a tree so we're not in everyone's way. I open the book. There are all sorts of drawings—landscapes, portraits, animals. Probably her daily sketches. "Very nice, as always. But what's the point?" I ask. "Well, I'm a little embarrassed to show you, but keep going," she answers. What could she be embarrassed about after everything we've gone through? I smile and look up. Petals dance silently downward. "The cherry blossoms are beautiful, aren't they?" I remark. She glances up, too. "They really do look like snow. Snow that never knew the sky, was it? I read that in my journal. We came here together, didn't we? And he told us about the poet who called them that." I look at her. A poet once called cherry blossoms snow that never knew the sky. Maybe to the sky, the scattering petals do look like snow that materialized from nowhere. Tooru had an oddly refined side to him, probably due to his sister's influence. Maori must have read that journal a thousand times. I didn't remember the line until she mentioned it. Sadly, the passage of time has stolen my memories of Tooru. I close my eyes and pull up an image of him. He appears from the darkness, but his face is slightly blurred. It's sad how much he's faded in just six years. "My journal also said something about how he taught us another meaning for May sickness, although there weren't many details. I wrote down that it was funny," she says, then falls silent. I open my eyes and glance toward her. She still stubbornly refuses to look at the photos and videos of Tooru from her phone. She says that everything important is within her and keeps trying to remember. Sometimes, whenever I think of her struggles, I become sad. Even if she does remember him, he won't come back. Not ever. I press my lips together and start turning the sketchbook pages. She remains deep in thought. "Oh, I remember," she finally says. "It was about how everyone is busy when the cherry blossoms are falling, but in May, things calm down, and…" I come to a drawing, and my hand stops flipping through the pages. The wind blows, sending up a storm of petals around us. I feel like I'm watching an emotionally moving film for the first time or stopping in front of a striking painting; a fresh feeling courses through me, moving relentlessly forward. Tooru is there in her sketchbook. Drawings of Tooru I've never seen before. In all the sketches of him in her old sketchbooks, he's looking to the side, frowning shyly or smiling faintly. But not the Tooru in these drawings. These are pictures of Tooru as Maori remembers him. I calm myself down and turn the page. There he is again, with the same expression. I lose myself among the drawings. There are many versions of him. They are exquisitely drawn, as if to proclaim that this human really did exist. I can almost hear his familiar voice. I look up at Maori. She's staring at something. A row of cherry trees. I almost say something to her but then stop. I've seen her with this look before, when she was trying to recall something. "Izumi, I'm sorry, but could I see the sketchbook for a minute?" "Hmm? Oh, of course." I hand it to her. She takes out a pencil and starts drawing beneath the flowers in full bloom. She draws quickly. I realize it's the first time I've watched her draw. I'm surprised by how fast the forms take shape. Of course, it makes sense. She does it every day. She did it when Tooru was alive, and afterward, too. In minutes, she's completed her rough sketch. Someone is sitting under a cherry tree. She fills in the outlines, and the figure comes to life. It's a drawing of Tooru on the day the three of us picnicked under the cherry blossoms. He's gazing at me with tenderness glowing in his eyes, with the exact kind look he had that day. No video or photo retains a trace of that look. Only someone who was there with him could draw it. My vision slowly blurs. Damn it, I think, pulling out a handkerchief and dabbing my eyes. Sanitation. You can't fake it. You know something, Tooru? After I met you, I started ironing my handkerchiefs. Suddenly, the time I spent with him replays in my mind like a fast-forwarded movie. All of it will be lost eventually. It will deteriorate and disappear. But…even if everything is constantly shifting, even if the process of continuing to live dims the souls of the beautiful ones, some things remain unchanged. The world that our hearts draw never fades. "I remembered something else about Tooru. But I'm sure I haven't remembered it all yet," Maori says, still sketching. She lets out a long breath. "I loved him…and he's gone. But the memories are here inside me. Sleeping here in my body and my heart. By remembering him, we can continue to live together. I can't explain it very well, but it's similar to hope. The world is gradually forgetting him. But…" A tear falls from her eye. She wipes it away and begins to draw again. "I don't know why I'm crying. Maybe I'm still hurting. Except I feel warmth, too. I think I still love him. But it's all right. I'll fall in love again one day. I'll reach out for happiness. Until then, just a little longer…" I want to say something, but maybe words aren't needed right now. Tooru is here in this world of constant loss. He lives on inside of Maori, and in her memory, that's the expression he's making. In all her drawings of him, he's smiling. He's still there, smiling like he did that day, watching over her with those kind eyes of his.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter2.txt	An Unknown Boy and His Unknown Girl An Unknown Boy and His Unknown Girl 1 I used to think I'd live my whole life without surprising myself. I thought I would never be the type of person who would do something and think, Hey, that wasn't like me, or I can't believe I just did that. The same went for tests and grades. I was never surprised by how well or poorly I did. I never underestimated or overestimated myself. But that day after school, I surprised myself. Shortly after the new school year started, a couple of guys in my class started harassing another boy. They were probably venting their anger about having worked hard to enter a public college-preparatory high school to then only end up in the non-advanced class in our second year. I understood their feelings, but I couldn't sympathize with them. The victim of their bullying sat in front of me. Although I didn't intentionally avoid making friends, I spent a lot of my time in class reading, and I didn't go out of my way to get involved with people. But I couldn't stand watching a decent guy suffer right in front of me. "What's the point of doing that?" I finally asked them one day when they were up to their usual antics. The whole classroom went silent. The ringleader turned around and sneered at me. That was the moment I became their new target. Figures, I thought indifferently. Everything up to that point was fine. I couldn't have cared less about the childish horseplay, baseless rumors, or scornful jeers. They must have gotten bored when I ignored them, because they eventually shifted their focus back to the other boy. This time, they did things more discreetly. I heard they even extorted money from him. Not long after, he started skipping school. I told them to cut it out. I didn't raise my voice, but I was angry. "Fine. Do one thing for me, and I'll stop," the ringleader said. I told him I would. I knew it was going to be bad, but his order was like something a junior high schooler would ask for. "Go tell Maori Hino in Class 1 you like her. Today," he said. That day after school, I stopped her in the hall. I asked her to go behind the school with me, as instructed, and did what he'd asked while he secretly watched. I figured I'd explain it to her later and apologize. "We can date, but only under three conditions," she said. I never imagined she'd go along with it. She raised her fingers one by one, listing off each condition. I was so shocked, I could hardly talk. I'm sure the guys who were watching were equally stunned, too. I didn't know much about Hino. She was in the advanced class. Apparently, a lot of guys thought she was hot. I'd heard a couple of my classmates talking about her before. I took a better look at her. She was beautiful, sure, but she didn't mean anything to me. If I said no to her conditions, she probably would have flipped her long black hair, said, "Fine, we'll pretend this never happened," and walked off. I wonder if it would have been better to just let everything end neatly. "Okay." My voice didn't sound like my own. That was my first thought. My second thought was Why did I just say that? I couldn't believe what I'd just done. She could probably tell that I hadn't meant it when I said I liked her. But her tense expression suddenly relaxed, and, to my surprise, she smiled. "Okay. So starting tomorrow, we're girlfriend and boyfriend," she said before turning around and starting to walk away like her business was done. Then she paused and turned back with a faint smile that looked natural but not eager, like a true reflection of her personality. "By the way, what was your name? Could you tell me again?" "Ah, um, it's Tooru. Tooru Kamiya." "Oh, I remember now. That's right. It's Tooru. I'm Maori Hino. Let's talk tomorrow after school. And one more thing. I would really appreciate it if you could keep the fact we're dating to yourself. Well, bye." She smiled again and walked off. This time she didn't look back. The group of bullies who'd been hoping to watch me be rejected came out of their hiding spot looking disappointed. "What the hell's wrong with you?" said the ringleader, who I'm sure had been waiting for the perfect chance to laugh at me. "I just did what you told me to do," I replied simply. The atmosphere grew ominous. He glared at me and snorted, then walked past me, banging into my shoulder as he went. The other guys looked like they wanted to say something but silently followed him instead. I watched them go, then turned in the direction Hino had left in. I'd never had a crush on anyone in my class before. I've got a classic case of what people call a "sister complex." I adored my older sister like a mother, and I always figured my dad and I would live together, just the two of us, while we waited for her to come back. I honestly believed that's how my life would go. Because of my family situation, I knew I would have to get a job straight out of high school instead of going to university. I'm pretty sure that's part of the reason I was put in the non-advanced class this year. I'd never paid attention to the girls in my class, even after starting high school, although it wasn't exactly because I saw us having different futures. Maori Hino was just another girl I didn't pay any mind to. I wondered if I should chase after her and tell her I'd been forced into this fake confession. Though it would be awkward to say that after accepting her conditions for dating. She'd said we could talk tomorrow. I figured I might as well wait till then. Maybe by then my thoughts would be clearer. I started walking home, looking up at the twilight sky. That was how the two of us met. 2 The first thing I do in the morning is wash our clothes. I live in a public housing complex with my dad. I do most of the housework. Maybe I don't need to do the laundry every day, since it's just him and me. But after my sister left, I wanted to keep up her routines. Like she always used to say, it's important to keep things sanitary. We might be poor, but she always made sure Dad and I had ironed handkerchiefs and clothes that weren't frayed, stretched out, or stained. The important thing isn't to have a facade of cleanliness; it's to make being sanitary part of our daily lives. That's another thing my sister used to say a lot. When I think about it now, she might have said that to protect our family from shabbiness. I hung up the laundry and was making our breakfast and bentos when Dad got up and poked his head into the living room. "Morning, Tooru. What's for breakfast?" "Morning, Dad. Before I tell you, how about finally shaving that beard of yours?" Dad doesn't look especially sanitary at first glance. He takes care of himself, but his stubbly face undoes all his efforts. He works the assembly line at a car factory near our house. He doesn't work nights, and the pay is lower because of that. My mom died when I was little. Back when she was alive, I feel like he had the sort of ambition you'd expect from a dad, but not anymore. A lot of our relatives say he really changed after Mom died. Dad sat down with me to eat breakfast. I finished first and put the rest of our lunches together before washing up the dishes. I grabbed my schoolbag and my bento, said goodbye to Dad, and headed out. I didn't forget my handkerchief. The May sky was high and blue. The month was almost over, but I like May. It probably has to do with the story my sister made up about "May sickness." It referred to college freshmen who start school in April and feel listless by May. She told me that by then, the cherry blossoms have fallen, and the busiest time of year is over, so everyone feels more relaxed. You can sit around looking at the fresh leaves, and people become a little lazy. According to her, that's what "May sickness" was. Such an elegant lie. My sister was as gentle and quiet as a tree. Except now and then, she would tell me a completely straight-faced lie like that. I thought about the past as I walked to the station. At the park on the way there, I found some especially brilliant green leaves. I was so moved that I wished I could have left my heart there while I went on to school. May sickness. So elegant. "That's really interesting, Kamiya, but I think Wataya has been staring at us for a while." It was break time after second period. I was telling Shimokawa, the guy who sits in front of me, about May sickness when he abruptly pointed out the girl in the hallway. "Look, over there," he prodded. I turned around. A beautiful but grumpy-looking girl was standing there. It was Hino's friend Wataya. A bunch of our classmates were giving her confused stares as she peered into our classroom. I'd never talked to her. Like Hino, she seemed unrelated to my life. I'd heard she was quite smart, and she had a secret following of guys who adored her cold beauty. The day before, when I'd stopped Hino in the hallway after school, Wataya had been standing next to her. She hadn't followed when I told Hino I wanted to talk to her behind the school, but she'd looked at me like I mystified her. "I guess I forgot to mention that I told Hino I liked her yesterday," I mumbled, looking back at Shimokawa. "What? You did? Why?" he asked, turning away from Wataya. Shimokawa had been absent yesterday, so this was the first he'd heard of it. Before I answered, I glanced at the group of popular guys in our class. When I caught the eye of the one who'd ordered me to approach Hino, he looked away with a bored expression. So far that morning, they hadn't harassed Shimokawa. They seemed to be keeping their promise. I glanced at the hallway again. My eyes met Wataya's. She had short hair that looked great on her and a symmetrical face that was hard to read. Although, I'm hardly one to talk when it comes to poker faces. I saw her mouth form the word um. Considering how she was close with Hino, she might have heard what had happened the day before. I didn't want to attract too much attention, so I stood up before she had a chance to call out my name. "Sorry, Shimokawa. I'll be back in a minute," I said. "What? Oh, uh, okay." I walked toward Wataya, then right past her. She turned toward me with a suspicious look. I pointed to a corner of the hallway. She must have gotten the message since she followed me quietly. "Sorry. Did you want to talk to me?" I asked once we'd made it to a relatively empty spot. "It's Kamiya, right?" she asked curtly. I nodded. "And you're Wataya, I believe?" "Yeah. I don't think we've ever really talked before. I had a hard time finding you." She looked me over with interest. To state the obvious, there can be no reaction if there is no action. Just a matter of cause and effect. Yet, for some reason, it felt like she was curiously observing a static object about to move on its own. "Did you want to talk about something?" I asked. "Oh, yeah. It's about Maori Hino… Are you two really dating?" I floundered. I'd guessed she was going to ask me something like that, but the words still stuck in my throat. "I guess so," I managed to say. She looked surprised. "So it's true. But it's so out of the blue. You didn't even know her, right?" "The heart is a mysterious thing." "You mean it was love at first sight?" "Um, yeah. I guess," I said vaguely. Wataya looked like she was deep in thought. "It's going to sound bad to say this with no context, but…," she began. "Say what?" "Just that…if you don't really like her, and you just said it to mess around or on an impulse, I wish you'd take it back." I looked at her, caught off guard. Did she know something? Only a couple of guys in my class had overheard my conversation with Hino, and I doubted they'd make a big deal of it on social media or anything. "Why do you think I don't like her?" I asked, setting my other question aside for the moment. She furrowed her eyebrows slightly. "Well, I have a reputation for being cold and blunt, and it's pretty accurate, but Maori is important to me. If I can protect her from being hurt, I will. I started looking for you as soon as I heard what happened, because it just doesn't seem like you like her." She'd seen through me. I didn't know what to say. "How would you know that?" I managed to ask. "I just do. You're like me. You even talk in a cold way. Normally, if someone asked you about a girl you fell for at first sight, you'd show some emotion on your face. But you didn't even look embarrassed. You just looked annoyed." I stared at her. Was something showing on my face right now, too? Should I tell her I'd lied about liking Hino? And finally, you can't fall in love with me. I remembered Hino's words. She seemed to have figured out right away that I wasn't being sincere, that there was something else to it. Maybe that was why she'd gone along with it, and Wataya might not know about the conditions. "Anyway, I'm meeting her after school. Can we talk another time?" I said, trying to dodge the issue. Wataya gave me a long look. Her expression didn't change, and I couldn't tell what she was thinking. Her eyes darted away for a moment. "Sorry. I know how weird all of this must sound to you. It's also awkward of me to bring it up as soon as we meet. You don't seem like a bad guy. I don't think you'll hurt her. Sorry. I just wanted to talk to you a little." I made a poor attempt at a fake smile. "Uh, okay. So you accomplished your goal?" "Basically. Oh, one more thing. If you ever run into trouble with her, you can talk to me. Can we at least exchange contact info?" I had an old flip phone, so I opted to exchange email addresses. After that, Wataya left. I wanted to talk to Hino right away, but I remembered the first condition (don't talk to each other until after school), so I went back to my classroom. When I sat down, Shimokawa asked curiously, "Did you have to talk to Wataya about something?" "Hard to say. Kind of yes, kind of no," I said noncommittally. Shimokawa looked down. "I feel like I caused you trouble again." "No, no way. Why?" "I mean…they haven't done anything today. And while I was out yesterday, your life changed drastically. You said you told Hino that you liked her. I feel like they forced you to do something because of me." There was something childlike about his earnestness. Shimokawa got teased for being slightly pudgy, but he's got a beautiful heart. You can't see a person's heart, though. Heartless people made fun of him and took out their anger on him. That's what led to the bullying. I pushed back, so they started targeting me. People stopped talking to me, which made Shimokawa worried, so he started reaching out to me on a regular basis. I don't care about being isolated or being bullied in that immature manner. That should have been a good thing, but since I completely ignored the bullies, they went back to bothering Shimokawa in a crueler and meaner way. I hadn't realized it right away, but they even started taking his money. When Shimokawa stayed home from school, I confronted the bullies, and that's when I struck the deal with the ringleader. That was how I ended up telling Hino I liked her. I felt bad about doing that to her, but I figured she would just reject me and brush it off, and later I could give her my sincere apology. Though, everything went off the rails, including my answer to her. Swearing Shimokawa to secrecy, I told him everything that had happened except her three conditions for dating me. At first, he had on a blank expression as he listened, but at a certain point, he started looking unsettled, and finally, surprised. "So that's what happened," he said when I was done. "Yeah. I figure I'll talk to her about it after school." "Well, thanks. You've come to my rescue again. But…" He paused, looking anxious. "What?" "Nothing, it's just… I'm not sure they're the kind of people who will give up that easily. I'm changing schools, and once I'm gone, I'm worried they'll harass you again." Shimokawa was suddenly moving to China. I hoped it didn't have to do with the bullying, but he said it was because of his parents' situation. Summer vacation starts earlier in China than Japan and in mid-June in some places. They timed their move with that in mind and were tying up all the loose ends in preparation. "I'll deal with that when it happens. You don't need to worry about it. You've only got two weeks left here. We should try to enjoy it," I said. He still seemed worried, but he nodded and said, "Okay." Then he smiled, which I hadn't seen him do at school for a long time. The rest of the day passed peacefully, and the bullies left us alone. But my meeting with Hino was hanging over my head. We hadn't decided where to meet. I wasn't sure what to do, but I'd mentioned which class I was in the day before, so I decided to wait in my classroom. When homeroom was over, I said goodbye to Shimokawa. Neither of us were in a club or on a sports team, so we always walked to the station together. I was worried the bullies would try to take his money or something if he was walking by himself, but he said his mom was coming to school to turn in some paperwork related to their move; they would talk to our teacher and then drive home. I scanned the classroom from my seat by the window. The bullies were gone. I took a magazine out of my bag and sat at my desk, killing time. As the classroom emptied out, I could hear the school band tuning their instruments and the sports teams warming up in the distance. I sort of liked that feeling of being halfway between isolation and group solidarity. The blue sky outside the square window panel made the empty classroom feel like something from a sad song. I'm not sure how long I sat there like that. The sounds from other classes had gone silent, and the hallway outside the open door was empty. Then I heard footsteps approaching. They weren't hurried, but they weren't relaxed, either. They sounded like the footsteps of someone heading straight toward their destination with a hint of nervousness. The footsteps stopped. I looked toward the door. She was standing there. She raised her eyebrows briefly in surprise, then smiled innocently. "Found my boyfriend! Tooru Kamiya, right?" It was none other than Maori Hino herself. "Uh, yeah." I nodded. She looked at me with deep interest. All things considered, she'd sounded so casual a second earlier. I'd been prepared for the worst. As I was thinking about that, she walked into the classroom. "Mind if I sit here?" she asked, walking straight to the seat in front of me, sitting sideways in it. Her black hair shimmered centimeters from my eyes. She repositioned herself so she was facing me. When our eyes met, she smiled happily. "Aren't you in a club?" she asked before I could say anything. "Me? No. Are you?" She set her elbow on the desk and rested her chin in her palm. She was grinning. I'd never seen someone look so happy in that pose. "I'm not in anything, either. The go-home club, as they say. I'm glad you're not busy with anything. I didn't ask yesterday, and I was worried you might have skipped today because of me." I didn't see a lot of smiles in my everyday life. I made the daily round of school, home, and supermarket. Dad and I don't smile much, either. Hino, on the other hand, wore all sorts of facial expressions. She took her hand from her chin. "Also, sorry for not saying where we should meet after school. I was so relieved when I saw you sitting here. I have a lot of things to ask you about dating." "Yes, about that…," I said, looking away. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her tense up slightly. "Changed your mind?" she asked. "I thought you might, since I laid out all those weird conditions. Guess it's unavoidable. How sad. I'm sorry to pull you into this awkward situation." "Oh, no, not at all," I responded, trying to decide what to do. Should I tell her the truth and take back what I'd said? "Wataya came here after second period," I said, trying to hide my confusion. "Yeah, I heard," she said. "Since she was there when you came up to me yesterday, I told her what happened. She took an interest, I guess. Anyway…sorry about that. I didn't tell anyone else, but no one likes being talked about." She lowered her voice, looking guilty. I hadn't meant to make her feel that way. "No, it's fine," I said hurriedly. "It's normal to tell stuff like that to your friends. So you two are close?" "Yeah. Izumi looks normal, but she's actually pretty weird. Just when you're thinking how oddly calm she is, she'll say something super bizarre. It's so funny. And she's a really good person, so I always end up telling her everything." So Wataya's first name was Izumi. Mulling this discovery, I said, "I could kind of tell that from talking to her. But about what I said yesterday…" This time, I went through with it. I gave her the backstory. I thought she'd be upset, but she didn't seem very surprised, and she even smiled happily when I finished. "Oh, so that's what happened. I thought it was some sort of dare, but you did it to help someone getting bullied. Very impressive!" "It wasn't a big deal. He's a good guy, considering he's willing to be friends with someone like me. I didn't want him to have a rough time. He's switching schools soon, actually." "Really? That's too bad." "Yeah. Anyway…I know I said yes to your conditions. It's weird. I don't know why I did." I noticed she was staring at me. "Tooru, do you not want to date me?" It had been a long time since anyone but my dad called me by my first name. Strangely enough, the simple act of her saying my name made it seem more special somehow. "I don't know… Maybe." "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, smirking like she found this entertaining. I tried to smile but failed, instead searching for something to say. "This might sound rude, but I thought it might be kind of fun," I said. "Three conditions, right? We wouldn't really be what people normally call boyfriend and girlfriend, would we? More like a fake couple. We're not allowed to fall in love, so if you're okay with it, I guess I am, too," I finally concluded. She rested her elbow on my desk again and rested her chin in it, smiling her happy smile. "Then let's do it! But Izumi will worry, so we'll have to tell everyone we're dating for real. I didn't tell her about my conditions." That was the odd agreement we came to that day. We were going to date, with certain rules in place. 3 "I'm home! Hey, that smells great." I heard the front door open as I was cooking curry for dinner. A minute later, Dad poked his head into the kitchen. "The usual Wednesday-night curry," I said. "By the way, Dad, I'm seeing someone now. I thought I should tell you." "What?" Dad said, widening his eyes in response to my dutiful announcement. At my sister's suggestion, we had all agreed to tell each other important things when they happened. "Seeing someone… You mean a girlfriend?" "I guess dating a boy is a possibility, but yes, a girlfriend." "That's not what I meant. I mean, it is, but—it's just so sudden," Dad said, sitting down at the table still in his work clothes. I always ask him to put his work clothes in the laundry when he comes home, but he can't shake the habit. Considering he's the one who pays the bills, though, I don't push too hard. "So you've reached that age," he mumbled emotionally. "It's not like anything's going to change. I just wanted to tell you," I answered. The day before, after we decided to date, Hino and I had sat and talked for a long time. "So, do you mind if I ask you some questions?" she inquired. I shook my head to show her it was fine. She took out her phone to take notes and basically started interviewing me. "When's your birthday?" "February twenty-fifth." "Got it, February twenty-fifth. Hey, that's Renoir's birthday!" "I had no idea. Is it really?" "Yup. Can I ask about your family?" "I live with my dad, just the two of us." "I see." "Why do you look like you just figured something out?" "Because you seem to have your things together for someone our age." "Do I? When I was in my last year of junior high, I came to school with a rubber band around my wrist, and after that everyone started calling me Mum." "I love it. A junior high kid whose nickname is Mum." "You're writing that down?" "I am. Blood type?" "AB." "Makes sense." "And? What about you?" "…AB." "Makes sense." "You're making fun of me." "I am not. Any more questions?" "Who do you respect?" "…Keiko Nishikawa." "I'm sorry, but who is that?" "A geeky author of literary fiction." "What do you like about her?" "She's very sanitary." "…Sanitary? Do you mean clean?" "You can fake being clean, but I don't think you can fake being sanitary." "You're an interesting guy." She asked me a bunch more questions, about my hobbies, the celebrities I like, movies, places, whether I like cats or dogs, what I do on my days off, my favorite foods, et cetera, et cetera. I asked a few of the same questions back, and she answered most of them. She likes dogs and parks, apparently, and she's crazy for sweets. She seemed like the typical girl. It was still daylight, but the moon was already visible. For whatever reason, she said, "Let's do something people who are dating would do." According to her, that would be to take a picture on their phones. It turned out funny. Against the orange background of the classroom, she was cheerfully making a peace sign while I made an awkward, embarrassed face. I told her I had a flip phone, and we exchanged numbers. She sent me the photo and suggested I use it for my home screen, but that was more than I could stomach. Afterward, we walked to the station together, since we both commute by train. She scampered around, chasing her shadow. We discovered that we took the same train line, and in the same direction, too. I took it three stops, and she took it four. We decided to take the train together after school as often as possible. We weren't on the train for very long, but talking while sitting next to her gave me a sort of indescribable feeling of restlessness. I didn't go into that much detail with my dad and just gave him the basic story over dinner. Since Hino had asked me to keep the fact that we weren't genuinely dating a secret, I kept that to myself. After he'd finished all his curry and rice, Dad sat in front of his empty plate and closed his eyes. He made an unintelligible noise of appreciation, then abruptly got up and went to his room, which is next to the living room. Our house isn't very big, but Dad had managed to make enough space for a simple family altar. He sat down in front of it and started talking to Mom. "Tooru has a girlfriend now. I was worried about him because he never talked about girls, so this is a relief." "Please, Dad, would you stop saying weird stuff to Mom?" I pleaded. "It's not weird stuff. I think you having a girlfriend is something I ought to tell your mother. If Sanae were here, I'm sure… Well…" He let my sister's name slip, but as soon as he said it, he seemed lost. I think he feels guilty. He doesn't say it, but I know he believes she left because she was ashamed of him. "Stop babbling and help me clean up dinner for once, would you?" I said. "Oh, right. Of course." After dinner, we always do our own thing. I finished washing the dishes and was folding the laundry and ironing handkerchiefs and uniforms when Dad came out from the bath. I took my turn before the water got cold. My sister didn't leave because she was disgusted with Dad. Even though we usually share everything with each other, something happened that she couldn't tell him. That was why she left. I finished showering and got in the tub. It's too small for me to stretch my legs out, but it was a place where I could relieve all my tension. A lot of stuff had happened that day. The next day would probably be the same. I used to think I'd never surprise myself. However, just the day before, I'd answered yes to Hino's proposition. I never thought I could do something like that… I wondered what Sanae would say if I told her I was dating someone. I smiled wryly at the thought and got out of the bath. After drying off, I put on my boxers. I glanced in the mirror. There was my slightly gaunt self, looking nervous as usual. 4 My daily routine didn't change that much after I got a girlfriend. The next day, I went to school like normal. On the train, on the walk to school, and at the school entrance, I caught myself looking for Hino and Wataya. That was a different feeling. A new person had come into my life. In class, I talked to Shimokawa. He was moving next weekend. We hadn't been friends for long, but it was sad for someone to be leaving my life, just as Hino was coming into it. Although I should have been used to that by now. "Can I ask you something?" Shimokawa said. He always asked for my advice about various things. Today it was about his weight. "You think I should try to lose a few?" This was the third time we'd talked about it. I told him no, like I always did. "Think about it, Shimokawa. Commoners don't have the luxury of having flab." "But I hear that in the US, people think you can't control yourself if you're overweight." "Maybe, but what Americans consider fat is totally different from what Japanese consider fat. I don't think they would even classify you as overweight." Shimokawa gazed at his stomach. "I'll root for you if you want to diet, but don't you think it's bad to push yourself too hard?" "I dunno." "Also, there's the view that some people don't look right without a few extra pounds on them." "What do you mean?" "I could easily eat a kilo of steak out of affection for you. With a second helping." "You're insane." "You, fat? Where? In my eyes, you're a slender lady." "And you're an insane knight in shining armor." "I pledge to you that I will never leave a scrap of food on my plate, maybe not until my deathbed, but at least from the first to the last bite of my meal." "It doesn't make sense, but I love it. Maybe I'll just be a crazy fat guy." I definitely was not messing with him, but he always tended to overthink things and get depressed. To prevent that, I tried to keep the conversation as upbeat as possible. He looked pleased with himself for a while after that and started thinking of pickup lines you could only make if you're fat. Then he remembered he never talked to girls and ended up sitting in front of his highly nourishing bento, looking at the ceiling. "Kamiya, I always learn a lot from you, but in the end, it all comes down to the importance of taking action." "Huh? Is something wrong?" I asked, pausing as I opened my own bento. I wondered if I'd inadvertently hurt his feelings earlier. But he didn't look upset. "No. But now that I'm about to change schools, I'm realizing a lot of things. You've always tried to cheer me up. I've been lucky to know you. I wish I'd made the effort to make friends with some girls, too." Even though he was expressing regrets, he sounded okay about the situation. I couldn't help smiling. "You should get to know the girls at your next school. It'll be a brand-new place, and you have the chance to be a new person." "If I have any luck, I'll introduce some of them to you. Oh, but Hino might get mad." He didn't know we weren't a real couple. I smiled back noncommittally. After school, I waited for Hino in my classroom again. As Shimokawa left, he called out, "See you tomorrow." It was so natural, I answered without thinking. But as I flipped through my magazine, I realized something. He was by himself today. I immediately closed it and exited the classroom. Afraid the bullies might go after him again, I ran to the shoe lockers near the front entrance. His indoor shoes were there, and his outdoor shoes were gone. That seemed like strong evidence they hadn't pulled him into a bathroom somewhere inside school or anything. Still, I was worried, so I quickly changed my shoes and went outside. I saw him strolling toward the front gate. I let out a sigh of relief. There was no sign of anyone lurking in the shadows to drag him off. As I stood there, I heard someone behind me. "What's the big rush?" I knew who it was from the voice. I turned around, and there he was—the ringleader. The same person who made me tell Hino I liked her. "You're that worried about fatso?" "Of course I am. He's my friend," I snapped. He smiled mockingly. "Your friend, huh?" He gave me a long look, then told me that today at lunch, our homeroom teacher and the guidance counselor had given him a warning about Shimokawa. This was news to me. "The asshole recorded us hassling him for money." "Recorded you? Shimokawa did?" "Yeah, the second or third time we did it." His voice was dry with resignation, like he was talking about someone else. "I never expected a spineless, passive lump like him to pull that shit. What a joke. And you know what he said when the counselor asked why he did it so late in the game? He said he didn't care what happened to him, but he was worried that after he left, we might take money from you or from other students, so he made up his mind to snitch on us." According to him, when Shimokawa's mom came to school the previous day to fill out the transfer paperwork, Shimokawa stayed afterward to talk to the homeroom teacher and counselor. I could hardly speak from shock. Shimokawa cared that much about me? "You should have known this would happen eventually if you kept pulling stunts like that," I said. "Why? Why did you do it? You must have worked hard to get into this school." He smirked but looked somewhat dejected. "Good question… I'm not sure. I thought I was a decent student, but at some point, I started skipping class like it was no big deal. The kids I thought were my friends, they turned on me, said I told them what to do. Since money's involved, Shimokawa's parents showed up saying I better apologize before they go to the police. I guess Shimokawa said he didn't need the money back, but they asked for it anyway." He sniggered again, then let out a moan. "Why does my life suck all of a sudden? Why do you think, Kamiya?" I didn't know what to say, so I just stared at him. With a sneer, he started walking toward the gate. Was he going to chase after Shimokawa? Would he attack him in desperation? No, he probably wasn't that much of an idiot. He'd worked hard and had enough ambition to get into this school to start with. He'd just taken a few wrong turns… I went back to the classroom. Everyone was gone. I sat down at my desk and took out my phone, which I hardly ever use. I was going to call Shimokawa, but I stopped just before I pressed the call button. He had his own plans. I should probably pretend I didn't know anything until he brought it up. I took out my magazine and started reading. Like the day before, Hino suddenly showed up. "Ah, there he is. Found my boyfriend," she called from the doorway. I was kind of relieved to see her, even though I hardly knew her. It felt strange that there was a girl who wanted to come see me. "What am I supposed to say to that?" I asked with a wry smile. She thought for a minute. " 'Hi, honey,' or something?" "I feel like people don't even say that in foreign movies anymore." "Aha, so my boyfriend doesn't like to call his girlfriend honey." "You're writing that down?" While she was typing on her phone, someone said in an exasperated voice, "Oh, come on, you two, enough with the flirting, please." Wataya peered in from the hallway. She looked as if she had heartburn from eating something too sweet. I'd seen her with Hino a couple of times, but the three of us had never talked together like this before. "So you're hanging out with us today?" I asked. "I was worried about you two," she said, stepping into the classroom and walking toward my desk. Hino followed, gazing intently at me. "What?" I stared back at her. "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all," she responded, and laughed. "Anyway, Kamiya, don't you think you should be happy that two beautiful ladies came to see you?" Talking with her the previous day, I had gotten the sense that Wataya was a little unapproachable and very straightforward. "Haven't you ever heard that guys get used to even beautiful women after three days, Wataya?" I teased. She must not have been expecting that, because she looked impressed and smiled. "I believe the saying is 'guys get bored of even beautiful women after three days.' And anyway, we haven't known each other for three days yet. You only had a proper conversation with Maori for the first time yesterday, right?" "That's right," Maori answered cheerfully. "We got to know each other yesterday." "And what did you learn?" Hino told Wataya the basic facts about my life, except the stuff regarding my family, maybe because she was being discreet about the single-parent thing. Wataya said her blood type was AB, too. "I feel like this is a gathering of three weirdos," she declared happily. "But, Izumi, don't they say three heads are better than two?" Maori asked. "With our three heads, we're more like a chimera," she shot back. I could tell they were close friends from their banter. Hino was perpetually cheerful while Wataya stayed cool. "Anyway, Tooru mentioned he likes the author Keiko Nishikawa." Wataya looked surprised. "Keiko Nishikawa? That's an odd choice. But I noticed you were reading Literary World. What are you, a bookworm?" she asked, and started spouting her own opinions about the magazine. Literary World is one of the main magazines covering literary fiction in Japan. Some stories they've published by new writers have been nominated for the super-famous Akutagawa Prize. Keiko Nishikawa has published some stuff in Literary World, but I never expected someone in my grade to know who she is or even know about the magazine. "No, I'm not really a bookworm," I answered. "But how do you know about Keiko Nishikawa and this magazine, Wataya?" I don't get an allowance, but one of my pleasures is buying magazines and books with the money left over from being thrifty with our household budget. Dad reads them, too, so we split the cost. "Oh, I love literary fiction," Wataya answered nonchalantly. "I like French and Japanese movies, too, and lately I've gotten into Russian films. The quirky, gloomy ones that obviously aren't trying to win over the masses." Again, I was amazed to hear these things coming from the mouth of a girl my age. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Hino writing something on her phone. "Hino, you better not be writing down that I'm a bookworm." "You're not? Okay. I'll write that you're a bookworm who doesn't like to be called one." "I feel like I'm shooting myself in the foot here." The three of us decided to spend the afternoon together and headed toward the station. Wataya and I were walking next to each other, talking about books and authors, when I heard a shutter sound behind me and turned around. "Hino, why are you taking our picture?" I asked. She was using her phone to photograph Wataya and me. She flashed me a look like an elementary school kid caught misbehaving. "Don't be rude, Kamiya. Does a girl need a reason to take a picture of her boyfriend?" Wataya asked pointedly. She didn't know we weren't really boyfriend and girlfriend. "I guess not. I'm just not used to it." "Well, get used to it. It's already the third day since you guys started dating." "Don't be ridiculous. I'm not even used to talking to two beautiful women yet." "I thought you said you were used to us earlier." "But three full days haven't passed yet." As we were rehashing our conversation from the classroom, Hino interrupted. "So, guys. In order to get used to each other, how about we go get something to drink and deepen our relationship?" "A café? I guess that's fine," I answered. We started talking about where to go, but the family restaurants and cafés they suggested were all out of my price range. I don't carry a lot of extra cash with me. "Don't worry about it," Wataya said. "I'm tagging along stealing your alone time, so the least I can do is cover you. Besides, I have a job, even though we're not supposed to, so I have some spending money." "But I don't really like other people paying for me," I said. "Seriously, it's not a big deal." Hino, who had been lost in thought while I wrangled with Wataya, suddenly spoke up. "Better yet, how about we go to Tooru's house? Then we won't have to spend any money." "Wuh…?" Naturally, I was the one who sounded like there was no brain in between my ears. 5 Ultimately, I convinced myself it would be okay because Wataya was with us, so we all went to my house. Which is to say, my little apartment in a housing development that has nothing whatsoever prideworthy about it. "Wow, your house is so clean!" Hino exclaimed, peering around curiously. "Can I take a picture?" "Uh, I guess so." No female had stepped foot in our house since my sister left. I felt like my usual drab surroundings had just gotten a tiny bit brighter. It didn't feel real. I couldn't believe we had ended up here. I asked the two of them to sit at the dining table while I put on some water for black tea. My dad and I drink black tea three days a week, so I knew how to brew it quite well. Meanwhile, Hino and Wataya were chatting in the way that girls usually talk with each other. "Kamiya's house is seriously neat and tidy," Wataya was saying. "No one's here right now, but is his mom a neat freak or something?" "Ah, I didn't tell you this earlier, but it's just my dad and me. Cleaning is kind of my hobby. I keep up with it pretty well," I said simply as I watched the timer for the tea bags. "Oh yes," Hino said proudly. "Being sanitary is very important to my boyfriend." "Being sanitary? Not being clean?" Wataya asked, skipping over the bit about me having a single parent. "Nope. You can fake being clean, but you can't fake being sanitary. Take a good look at Tooru's shirt. The collar and sleeves are perfectly wrinkle-free. And he washes and irons his handkerchief every day. Keeping the things no one sees clean is a sign of good sanitation." "Wow," Wataya said, sounding impressed. "I didn't realize till we talked, but you're a strange one, Kamiya." "Like you're not?" I retorted. "Also, tea's ready!" I dumped out the hot water I'd poured into the teacups to warm them up and poured the Lady Grey tea from the ceramic teapot. The distinctive citrusy scent of bergamot filled the kitchen. "Please accept this humble brew," I said. "We're not having green tea, are we?" Wataya said. "Oh right, you don't say that when you serve black tea," I answered, bringing their cups to the table. Then I brought my own cup along with a white plate with cookies piled on top that I'd bought on sale. We still have three chairs from when my sister lived with us. I sat down and sipped my tea. The orange-and-lemon-scented tea went down easy, soothing my nerves. "This is so good! Tooru, you make a good cuppa. And it smells amazing," said Hino, who was sitting across from me. She looked surprised. "…Oh wow, it does. What is this? What brand?" Apparently Wataya liked it, too. I sighed secretly with relief. "Just a cheap supermarket brand. Lady Grey is inexpensive and good. But I steeped it a tiny bit too long. I'd give myself a seven out of ten. Anyone want some more? There's plenty," I said before going to get the still-full teapot. I pulled a fluffy tea cozy stuffed with cotton batting over the pot and set it on the table. My sister taught me how to sew, so making a tea cozy was easy. As I sipped my tea, I noticed the two of them staring at me. "What?" I asked. "I didn't notice it before, but you're like some kind of downfallen aristocrat. Like, you're oddly refined." "Don't call me downfallen. And, Hino, don't write that down!" We chatted about various things until the pot and the plate were empty. Eventually, the two of them started poking around the house, but there wasn't much to see, considering it's an old, boring two-bedroom apartment. I wasn't about to show them Dad's room, so the only things to see were the living room and my room. Wataya looked at my bookshelf for a long time while Hino took a bunch of pictures. Whatever. That's fine. "Hino, why do you like taking pictures so much?" I asked. "There's nothing interesting to photograph here." "That's not true," she answered. "I've never actually been in a guy's room before. It's very interesting!" Just then, with the voice of some strange old man none of us knew, Wataya made a remark. "My oh my, Kamiya. You have excellent taste. These rare books would be worth a fortune if you sold them to an antique book dealer. Where'd you get them?" "My dad hunted for these ones at used bookstores. He's the type who buys books and leaves them lying all over, so I end up putting them on shelves in the living room or my room." They both made vague sounds like maybe they were impressed, maybe not. "You're really on top of things, Tooru. All these books and your room isn't even dusty." "What can I say? Sanitation is important." "Sanitation again!" "Please, Wataya, you sound like a cockroach." After that, for some reason, they both said they wanted to see me iron, so I took down the laundry, stashed my underwear away, and ironed some handkerchiefs and shirts. Wataya said I was so good, it was intimidating, and Hino took a video. Around sunset, I walked them to the station. I figured I'd do the evening shopping at the same time, so I grabbed a reusable shopping bag I'd gotten as a free gift. "Oh wow, that bag suits the downfallen aristocrat perfectly. Honestly, are you even a high school student?" Hino snapped a picture of Wataya suppressing a smile. The whole day felt unreal. That night, after I finished preparing dinner, I was sitting at the table reviewing my textbooks when I heard the door open. Dad was home. He was late, and when he poked his head into the kitchen, his face was flushed. He seemed to have stopped somewhere to drink again, even though he can't hold his liquor. "Dad, if you're going to go out for drinks after work, at least let me know." "Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I was so happy to hear you have a girlfriend." When I told him my girlfriend and her friend had come over to hang out earlier, he gaped in surprise. "You brought them here?" "I didn't show them your room or anything. I thought it would be okay with you." "Of course it is. But I think… Doesn't it smell good in here?" "Please, Dad, promise me you'll never say weird things like that in public." I sighed and walked into the kitchen to warm his dinner up. Dad sat down in a kitchen chair and stared at me. "What?" "You went and grew up on me." I didn't say anything as I took the stew out of the fridge. Dad poured himself another glass, even though I'd asked him before not to drink at home. He nibbled at the dinner I'd made while he sipped at his low-malt beer. He was passed out before it was half-empty. "Dammit, he hasn't even taken a bath." I dampened a towel with warm water, woke him up, and told him to at least wipe himself down with it. While he was doing that, I went to his room and laid out his futon. Another time, he'd fallen asleep on the sofa and was sore the next day. As I was squatting down to fix his futon, the man of the house came staggering in. "Are you okay? You know you can't hold your alcohol, so you should take it easy. Hey, at least change out of your work clothes!" "Don't worry, Sanae. I'm fine." I froze, and he didn't notice. He changed into his pajamas and lay down on the futon. I looked at him. He must have been really drunk, because he'd just mistaken me for my sister. 6 "My house is kind of like yours, so I'm sure you'll feel at home," Wataya said. It was the next day after school, and we'd decided to go to her house, partly because it was close enough for me to use my commuter pass to get there. School that day had been uneventful. Shimokawa seemed relaxed, and the main bully was by himself, separated from his group of friends. I saw him looking at a magazine with job listings, but I didn't talk to him. After school, I met up with the girls, and the three of us headed to Wataya's house. She took the train as well. She was on the same line as Hino and me but only two stops away from school. She lived in an apartment building with an automated lock on the front entrance. I gazed at the fancy entryway with longing. I'd always wished we had a similar lock for our building. "Another picture, Hino?" She turned to me and held up her phone, smiling. "I wanted a video of my boyfriend in awe." "Looking stupid is more like it. You shouldn't waste your phone storage like that." "It's no big deal." "Stop flirting and come inside!" Wataya shouted. We followed her to the elevator hall. She told us she lived with her mom, who designed book jackets. Her mom worked at night, but during the day, she was often out running errands, apparently. Sometimes, as a part-time job, Wataya helped her by looking for reference materials, writing up documents, and organizing receipts. Her father lived separately for reasons she didn't go into. To be honest, I felt kind of nervous about visiting a house inhabited only by women. "So, guys, sit down!" Their apartment was significantly larger than mine. She led us to the spacious living room, which had a lot of pictures on the walls and carefully chosen furniture and decorations, like you'd expect a designer to have in their house. They were on the top floor of a ten-story building, with soaring views of the sky, and the laundry was— "Sorry, Wataya, I just saw something I shouldn't have." "Huh? Oh, that. No worries. I don't care, but it probably bothers you. Sorry about that." Hino and I sat across from each other in the living room and waited while Wataya prepared tea for us. I noticed Hino staring at me again. "What's wrong, Hino?" "Downfallen aristocrat." "I told you to forget about that!" "Sorry. It just fits you so well." She might have been praising me in her own way, but I wasn't exactly overjoyed by the nickname. It must have shown on my face, because she said, "Don't make that face. You should smile more." "I didn't think I was making a weird expression," I said, but I knew I probably was. In contrast, she was grinning cheerfully as usual. "You're always smiling," I mumbled unenthusiastically. She raised her eyebrows. "Yeah, I know. Well, not always. I try to when I can. Because when you can't smile, you just can't…" I couldn't help staring at her. As soon as she noticed my surprised expression, she started walking it back. "Oh, I'm not talking from personal experience. Just some stuff I read in a manga." "Really?" I asked suspiciously. She nodded with a grin I could tell was fake. "Really." "Okay, but still…," I said, leaning toward her and lowering my voice so Wataya wouldn't overhear us. "We might be a fake couple, but if something's wrong, I hope you'll tell me." "What?… Oh, right." I looked at her surprised face from close up. Just then, Wataya came in holding a tray. "If you're going to flirt, can you at least do it where I can't see you?" she said. Hino answered with a joke, like she always did. "But, Izumi, you might still hear us." "Oooh, an adult joke. You're very confident now that you have a boyfriend." She set the tray down on the table and started tickling Hino. She resisted but eventually broke out laughing. I watched them, but my mind was on Hino's words. Because when you can't smile, you just can't. She said she was talking about a manga she read, but it sounded like she was speaking from experience. Or was I misreading her? I watched her playing around with Wataya. You can't see a person's heart; you can't look inside. Her smile seemed carefree and happy. 7 The days passed quietly. Hino and I have been dating for more than a week. The only major change was the way I spent my time after school. Or was it? Lately, Hino seemed to be all I thought about. I'd remember her smiling with her chin in her hand, and her beautiful, healthy hair that seemed alive to the very ends. When it caught the evening sun, it shone like silk. Was I only captivated by her appearance? Was I misinterpreting my feelings because I'd had so little interaction with girls before now? I felt like there was more to it. I couldn't stop thinking about what she'd said that one afternoon. I wanted to know what she was hiding behind her perpetual smile. If I could, I wanted to help her. Those thoughts would engulf my mind when I least expected it. "Kamiya, your mind seems like it's somewhere else lately," Shimokawa said one day at lunch in the middle of our conversation. "Really? I don't think that's true," I said with a smile, glossing it over. Shimokawa had on a gentle expression. "Oh, by the way, you know how I asked you about books a while ago? I've been ordering Japanese novels and stockpiling them. They won't be easy to get once I'm in China." I was slightly confused by the sudden change of topic, but I remembered that conversation. "You did say something about that. Did you find any good ones?" "Yeah, lots of great stuff, but my favorite is the collection of proverbs. You can find them online, but somehow a book feels sturdier, like this body of mine." He thumped his stomach. He probably brought the topic up to make me smile, and I fell right into his trap. "You'll be like a walking dictionary of proverbs." "Anyone can walk, but taking the first step is never easy." "I've never heard that proverb. Who said it?" "Shimokawa, the big eater. Brief biography: did nothing much during his life." He got me with that one. I chuckled. I was starting to genuinely enjoy the conversation. I told him I'd heard smart guys got all the girls overseas. He looked happy about that. "By the way, do you know a proverb that goes 'you can't hide a cough' and something?" he asked. "Hmm…," I started, then hesitated. We had a collection of proverbs at home that I'd read. The one he'd mentioned was under the "Love" category. You can't hide love or coughs. "Wasn't it 'you can't hide sneezes or coughs'?" I said, playing innocent. "That's it!" he said with a smile. That was how my days passed. At school, I talked to Shimokawa as usual, and afterward, I hung out with Hino. I'm not used to sending texts and am not especially good at it, so I didn't stay in touch with her all the time. When I apologized for it, she just told me not to worry. "Anyway, you're following the second condition," she added. Instead, we had long conversations after school in my classroom. "So you do all the cooking? I'm sure you're a way better cook than me," she said one day. "I don't know if I'm good at it, but I manage." "That's a verbal tic of my boyfriend's. 'I manage.' " "Are you writing that down on your phone? Anyway, I don't have a habit of saying that." I hadn't had any serious conversations with Hino since the day at Wataya's house. Maybe I could have forced it out of her, but I didn't want to do that. We were a couple and not a couple. One of the conditions of our relationship was that we couldn't fall in love. At first, it was easy. I was the one who started the whole thing. I didn't know her reasons, but being in a fake relationship didn't bother me. Maybe faking it made it real, or maybe there is no such thing as real love. Either way, I was puzzled by the way that dating Hino steadily changed me. It was the second Friday since we started seeing each other. The next day was a day off. "Hino, I was wondering about this weekend. It's June now. How about we go somewhere?" "I can't believe it's June already!" Her face clouded over slightly. But just as quickly, she smiled and said, "I'm sorry! You wanted to talk about the weekend. Do you have any plans?" "Sunday, my friend Shimokawa is moving, so I'm going to see him off." I'd told her about him before, and I'd wanted to introduce them, but Shimokawa had rejected the idea. When I asked why, he said that having more friends would only make it harder to leave. "Make the most of your time with her," he'd said. "I've gotten to hang out with you a lot." He smiled calmly, and I realized he was one of the few close friends I had. He was moving overseas, but it wasn't like we were saying good-bye for eternity. There were plenty of ways to stay in contact. We could still remain friends. It made me sad to think about him leaving, but at the moment, I focused on my conversation with Hino. "I'm free all day Saturday, though," I continued. "Where should we go?" Hino looked caught off guard. "You mean…we're going on a date?" "I guess so. We don't have to if you don't want to. I was just wondering what we should do on the weekends. You were probably busy last Saturday." "Yeah. I had a doctor's appointment. Nothing serious." She glanced away for a moment. I might not have noticed a week ago. "But a date sounds fun. Let's do it! I'm not free until the afternoon, though. Is that okay?" Distracted by her initial reaction, I was slow to respond. "Huh? Oh, sure. Are you always busy in the morning on weekends? According to the rules, we're not supposed to talk to each other until after school, but how about other days?" I asked, boldly bringing up the point that had been bothering me. "Girl stuff," she said, shying away from a real answer. "Anyway, what should we do? Where should we go? I bet you usually spend the weekend reading and doing chores." When she put it that way, it sounded pretty dull. "Yeah, basically," I answered. "And we should try not to spend too much money, right?" "Unfortunately, yes," I said, bowing my head. "No worries!" she said in a hurry. "How about we go to the park? If you don't mind, you could make us bentos, and in exchange, I'll treat us to dessert at a café afterward. That would be doable, right?" I was grateful for the suggestion. Financially and emotionally. "Definitely. Any particular requests for your lunch?" "I eat everything, so all challengers are welcome. Oh, but I'd like to have some of that tea you made!" "Got it. All challengers, huh? I noticed this before, but sometimes your choice of words really baffles me." We stayed in the classroom talking until it was twilight, then walked to the train station together. 8 It was finally Saturday, the day I'd been looking forward to. I got up early and finished all the chores, then got to work making the lunch for our outing. I'd waffled over the menu but ultimately decided on sandwiches that went well with black tea. I sprinkled cornstarch over pieces of chicken and panfried them for a low-calorie version of fried chicken. Salad was essential, of course. And some fruit, which is always nice with tea. Dad had been shut up in his room all morning. When I brought him a cup of tea from the pot I'd made for myself, he was typing on the lone family laptop. "Working on your novel again?" "Yeah, the deadline for the Literary World New Author Prize is coming up. Oooh, that smells good," he said, turning around in his floor chair to take the cup. Writing novels is my dad's hobby and form of entertainment, and maybe the whole point of his life. He's been writing them since before I was born, although he's never won a prize. His dream was to support himself as a novelist. That's why he totally neglects the household chores, but it's hard for me to scold him for it. "I'm going on a date today, so I won't be home for lunch," I told him. "I put some extra sandwiches and stuff in the fridge for you." "Thanks, I appreciate it. A date, eh? Wait a minute." He stood up and searched for his wallet. He opened it, frowned, rustled around in the dresser, and took a bill from an envelope. "Here, your allowance. You keep refusing to take it, but I know there's a limit to what a high school kid can do with the leftover change from the household budget." "That's okay. I can afford tea and other things I like with the food budget, and I'm grateful that you pay for my commuter pass and phone." "Of course I do. I'm the one who said you couldn't ride your bike to school. Also, we're on a super-cheap phone plan. Just take the money, okay?" I stared at the 10,000-yen bill he was holding out. There's power in money. The power to make people happy. People smile when they eat delicious food, and having things they like brings small joys and vitality to everyday life. All the more reason to use money carefully. "Okay, I'll use half. And I'll spend the rest on something good for dinner. How about your favorite, sukiyaki? There won't be Chinese cabbage this time of year, but I can get some good meat." "Come on, you can use more than that. But if that'll make you compromise, I'll take it. We'll have a feast tonight with the other half, then," Dad said, thrusting the money toward me as if saying to take it quickly. "Thanks. Tonight's gonna be good." "Have fun today, Tooru." I took the bill, thanked him again, and went back to my room. I slipped the money into the wallet I'd been using since junior high. Then I quickly wrapped up some chores and pulled out the picnic basket my sister had adored from the closet. It was a sturdy, caramel-colored rattan basket. I nestled our bentos and a thermos inside. I decided to leave the house at eleven, although that would get me there a little early. There was a large park about fifteen minutes from my house on foot. It was famous for its cherry blossom trees and always packed with people in spring. I'd arranged to meet Hino there in front of the fountain at noon. I thought about taking my bike, but I wanted to enjoy the breeze, so I decided to walk. I ended up arriving more than half an hour early. There were people around, but it wasn't too crowded. I sat on a bench with a view of the fountain and took out the book I'd tucked into the basket. Ever since I was little, I've liked reading outside on my days off from school. I guess I was a kind of odd kid. Reading outside was enough to get me weirdly excited, so even though I didn't have a big family, I didn't feel too lonely. Also, I knew that if I got lost in a book and kept reading until dusk to the point that I looked up in surprise and realized how late it was, someone would always come find me. "I thought you'd be here!" Someone would come walking toward me, the purple and crimson sky behind them. My sister. "Is that you, Tooru?" I looked up from my book. Hino was standing in front of me, looking slightly nervous. According to the clock in the park, more than half an hour had passed. "Yep, it's me." "Whew. Sorry, I'm not used to seeing you in street clothes, so I wasn't sure." "No worries. I'm the one who should apologize. I didn't realize you'd arrived." I noticed she was dressed differently than usual. She had on a white shirt and a long, soft-looking green skirt. I realized I'd never seen her in anything but her uniform before. As I was staring at her, she noticed the picnic basket. "Is that our lunch? Wow, this is the first time I've ever seen such a proper picnic basket before!" "This? My sister got it for cheap at a bazaar or something ages ago." "Your sister? I'm sorry. Did you tell me about her before? I thought it was just you and your dad…" "Yeah, right now it's the two of us, but until recently, my older sister lived with us. It's not that she died or anything…" Hino must have sensed that I was having trouble explaining, because she said cheerfully, "Ah, got it. Anyway, I'm starving! Where should we eat? Of course, I'm the one who made us wait until noon!" She smiled brilliantly. Sometimes, when a dazzling light shines on you, it creates equally dark shadows, and you get caught in those shadows. Like when a person who's lost a loved one sees a happy family together. Yet the light shining from Hino didn't make me feel lonely. Maybe some tragedies in the world only exist inside of a person. I smiled back at her and stood up. We blended in with the Saturday park scene. Luckily for us, a spot was open under a tree on the lawn, so we could sit out of the direct sunlight. I spread out the picnic blanket and set our bentos out as families played in the distance. Before we ate, Hino took a picture of our lunch. "Ahhh, that was delicious. You're amazing, Tooru. You're such a good cook." We were talking and having fun, and time flew by. It was a budget lunch, but I was glad she'd liked it. "It's nothing special. I just used what we had around the house." "But it was seriously good. You'll make a great husband." "You'd make a good wife, too…I think." "What makes you unsure?" I smiled wryly. Breathing in the fresh air, I looked up at the sky. I felt like a storybook character. I was connected to the person sitting next to me by an unusual bond. We definitely didn't like each other. Still, I was grateful to have someone to spend the day off with. Grateful and happy. We chatted about nothing in particular, smiled, admired each other, and gazed around at the park. Eventually, we fell silent. I didn't know how she felt, but to me, the silence wasn't uncomfortable. "It's funny," Hino mumbled. I looked at her. She noticed me staring and smiled softly. "What?" "Nothing, it's just strange. Like, really strange. I don't feel anxious or uneasy. Even when we're not talking, I don't feel bored or uncomfortable. I even feel like we've been quietly accumulating days like this together." Something was trembling in a part of her I couldn't see, a part I hadn't even realized was there. For a second, I was happy. I was glad that we had built something together, even if it was small. I closed my eyes. The sensation spread a little. I savored it. The warmth of the sun. The smell of the grass. Even the breathing of the person next to me. A strong wind blew, and I opened my eyes. Hino was holding back her long hair. In that moment, I wanted to tell her. I realized I couldn't lie about my feelings anymore. "Is it okay if I fall in love with you?" The wind had already stopped blowing when I asked her that question. I thought about that moment, which had ended before I finished speaking. So I loved her. I saw it now. Saying it made it feel real. How I felt about you… Hino turned toward me slowly. "No, it is not," she said. "Why not?" I asked. She looked down, like she was tangled in doubt. "I…" The wind blew again, as if to carry away her long hair. "I have a disease. It's called anterograde amnesia. When I go to sleep at night, I forget. I forget everything that happened that day." Maybe her voice mingled with the wind, because it took a long time to reach me.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter4.txt	Walking Side by Side Walking Side by Side 1 I begin the day called today with the sound of my phone alarm. At first, I feel suspicious of the distant ringing. Why is my phone ringing? I don't like to be woken up by alarm clocks, I prefer to wake up to natural sunlight. So when I went to bed the night before, I made sure I left the curtains open. Though, for some reason, the alarm on my phone is on anyway. Also, it's in a different place than where I left it. It's on the display shelf across from my bed. I get out of bed and patter across the floor. Hmm, it's a bit warm today. I wonder what time it is. I turn off the alarm and look at the time. …Why did the alarm go off this early? I stayed up till around midnight studying, so I only slept around five hours. But my body feels oddly well rested. I sigh at my phone, which seems to have malfunctioned, but then I remember it's Golden Week. Awesome. Vacation. I have an easy time falling asleep, but once I'm up, I can't go back to sleep. I decide to go downstairs and make myself a latte. I turn on the light in my room. I've suffered memory loss from an accident. Read the binder on the desk. Put my heart and soul into each day. Start with the binder. It's on the desk. Outside, the world is still dim. In the faint light, I see notes taped all over my room. A shiver runs down my back as a weird feeling grips me. What is going on? The unfamiliar notes are written in my own handwriting. Then I realize there was something off about my phone a minute ago. I hurriedly check the screen. The date is wrong. Yesterday should have been April 26. I remember because it was the first day of Golden Week. But the date on the phone is more than a month later. And there are all those strange notes. An accident? Memory loss? Feeling overwhelmed, I begin to panic. I hear footsteps in the hall and turn toward the door as someone knocks. When I answer, Mom opens the door, carrying a tray with a mug on it. She walks in, looking solemn. What? Why? I have a lot of questions, but first I ask about the notes. She says with difficulty, "Maori. You had an accident. It made you lose your memory." As she tells me the details, I'm stunned. Now I remember. I did get in an accident. It definitely happened yesterday. But to everyone else, it wasn't yesterday. It was weeks ago. This can't be true. I feel my face stiffen. Yet, no matter how hard I try to recall what happened the day before, all I can remember is the "yesterday" when the accident happened. I wondered if Mom was lying to me, but she would have no reason to do that. Which means I really must have suffered memory loss. To be honest, I can't laugh this one off. I want to, but I can't. To calm myself down, I sit on the chair and drink the cinnamon latte Mom brought. My favorite. Except it doesn't soothe me like it usually does. I'm shaking. Mom watches me with a pained expression. She tells me I do the same thing every day. I look at the binder and journal I keep. Apparently, I get up early every day to read it. That's why I have to go to bed by ten at the latest. It seems Mom has adjusted her schedule to match mine. She leaves me to myself, saying she'll be downstairs if I have any questions. I turn to the binder on my desk. I don't recognize it, but it has a simple design that I like. You can add pages, and there are tabs sticking out so you can find the topic you want right away. According to Mom, I usually take notes on my phone, but I write down the important stuff in the binder. That way I don't have to worry about ever losing the data. I reach out nervously for it. The first tab says "Important." This section lists essential information, like the fact that I got in an accident, the nature of my disability, and the fact that only my parents, Izumi, and my teachers know what happened. It seems I haven't told my classmates that I have amnesia. The reason is written in the binder. It says that when my parents and I consulted with the school about my disability, we were told that there's a national law for the disabled stipulating that so long as I attend school and meet the required amount of days, I'll be able to graduate. It also seems the school administrators brought up the risks of having memory loss. I'd never have thought of this myself, but if rumors about my disability spread, it could be dangerous. No matter what happens, no matter what anyone does to me, I won't remember. The next day, I'll forget everything. If other students were to hear of this, they may visit my classroom to catch a glimpse of me. Not just that; these days, information could easily spread beyond my own school. Of course, it's not like the world is filled with nothing but bad people. There are lots of good people out there. If I told my classmates, I'm sure they'd be considerate of me. However, there's no guarantee they'd keep quiet. If anything happened, it would be too late to fix. That fear could weigh on me and affect my mental state. The important thing is to try to avoid stress, enjoy life, and keep calm. Apparently, that's what the doctor said. That's why I avoid hanging out with anyone other than Izumi, it seems. By the time I'm done reading the "Important" section, I can hardly breathe. The future that was open before me has suddenly disappeared, leaving me alone in the dark. I want to stop reading. The weight of reality feels like it's going to crush me. But I continue because there was also a glimmer of hope on that page. Despite the state I'm in, I have a boyfriend. Please read the section labeled "My Boyfriend" and the diary entries starting on May 27. You'll find information about him there. I reread those lines, deep in thought. Boyfriend? How, though? Given the circumstances, what could that mean? I pluck up the courage to read those pages. His name is Tooru Kamiya, and he's in a different class from me. I barely remember seeing him before. I think he's pale and skinny. According to my notes, there are photos and videos of him in a folder on my phone. When I look at them, they confirm my hunch as to who he is. Among them are pictures of us close together like a typical couple. The section on him gives a timeline of our relationship. One day, out of the blue, Kamiya stopped me in the hallway after class. He then asked me to go behind the school with him, where he confessed he liked me. I also had written down that it seemed more like someone had forced him to do it rather than a confession of his genuine feelings. Normally, I would've rejected him. But, supposedly, I had a flash of genius and decided to take advantage of his declaration of feelings. I wanted to see if I could do something new, even with my memory loss. Up till then, it seems I'd been shocked that I couldn't build up anything over time. The days passed without me accomplishing anything. That was why I jumped in headfirst, apparently. I gave him three conditions for dating. First, we don't talk to each other until after school. Second, when we contact each other, we keep it short. Third, he's not allowed to fall in love with me. I'd written down my reasons for each one in the binder. For the first rule, I thought I'd need time each day to read my notes and get my thoughts in order, especially since I'm still attending school. Then, for the second one, if he sent me a flood of messages, I wouldn't have time to respond, and I could get in trouble if he brought up something that happened in the past. Last, even if we were dating, I was sure we'd break up eventually because of my situation, so I didn't want us to develop feelings for each other. This was going to be a fake relationship. Next, I read over Kamiya's profile. I'd written down everything from his birthday, family structure, blood type, and favorite author to his personality. Downfallen aristocrat, Mum, importance of being sanitary. I wonder what he means by "sanitary," but there's an explanation that follows. Apparently, you can fake being clean, but you can't fake sanitation. I couldn't help feeling a little impressed, and I became mildly interested in him. I reach bravely for the journal. While the binder is for summarizing important points, the journal seems to be a diary. The entries start from the day after the accident and continue to the present. There are weekly summaries so I can read them more quickly. The mood of the journal is quite different from the binder. It's written freely, without any formalities. I don't have a lot of time, so I glance over the summaries first. It seems I've been trying to stick to the routine I had before so that no one notices I'm different. I finish reading the summaries of everything that happened before I met my boyfriend. When I finally get to May 27, I start reading the individual entries. "After school." "Date." "My boyfriend." "Izumi." "Black tea." I lose myself in reading, hardly believing the entries are about my own life. Naturally, it's not all rainbows and butterflies. The summaries included some depressing stuff, like how I worked hard to get into the advanced class and now it's meaningless, or things about friends, or the fact that my memory loss wasn't getting any better. However, after I started dating Kamiya, the journal is full of positive, happy things. What we talked about, how cute he looked at this moment or that. Knowing that it was comfortable between us to not worry about all the little things helped the current me who wasn't normal to feel braver every day. By now the sun is up, and it's already seven. After I finish reading, my fear about my memory loss has receded a little. I go downstairs to the living room, where Dad is reading the newspaper. He looks the same as yesterday, but I can tell he's a little nervous. He puts the paper down and smiles at me. I wonder if he does that every day. "Um, I'm sorry about all of this, Dad," I say, lowering my head. He gets up in a flurry. "You have nothing to apologize for! Right, honey?" he says, glancing at Mom. "If you hadn't saved that child, they might have died. You did a wonderful thing. And memory loss might be rare, but there have been similar cases. It could take time, but there's a chance you'll recover. Let's take this slowly." When I think about how he and Mom must say all of this to me every day, I feel bad. But looking depressed would only make it worse, so I nod cheerfully. It must have reassured Dad because he gives me a hearty, slightly unnatural smile. We eat breakfast together, and I go back to my room. I look in my binder and see that today, Saturday, I have a date with my fake boyfriend at the park at noon. Wow, a date. Very impressive! As I'm trying to decide what to wear, Izumi calls. "Hi, Maori. You have a date with Kamiya today, right? Are you gonna be okay?" I must have told her about my plans yesterday. "I'm sorry I've dragged you into all of this, Izumi," I say. "Dragged me into it? If you mean your memory loss, don't worry about it. I only do what I can and what I want to do," she replies. I'm grateful for her nonchalant words. Izumi isn't the type who's easy to befriend and become close with. But once she's decided to let you into her world, she's super kind. "Thanks for saying that. I'm trying to figure out what to wear today." "Don't ask me." "Huh?" "Don't rub my nose in your happy love story." "I'm not!" Apparently, my past selves haven't told Izumi that my boyfriend and I aren't a real couple. Most likely because I've already caused her enough trouble, and since I'm in this relationship for selfish reasons, I feel like my past selves should be dealing with it on their own. I try on a bunch of different outfits and finally decide on one. In the time I have left, I read more of the binder and journal. I seem to have been fairly depressed at first, but I adjusted to "now" with surprising ease. I tell Mom I'm going out, and Dad's eyes widen when I tell him I have a date. Dad really wants to drive me there, but I turn him down with a smile and go by train and foot instead. As I walk toward the park, I think about various things. I'm managing fairly well. I've got all the data on my boyfriend logged in my brain. I look up. The weather is beautiful, and the sunbeams almost seem to glow as they pour down. Maybe I can go on living an ordinary life. Although, if I don't write down what happens today…I guess it will disappear. There's a guy at the spot where we agreed to meet who appears to be my boyfriend, based on the photos I looked at. He's hard to recognize in his street clothes, but he has on a crisp white shirt, freshly washed sneakers, and black jeans without a single pill on them. He exudes a "sanitary" aura. "Is that you, Tooru?" He looks up from his book. "Yep, it's me." "Whew. Sorry, I'm not used to seeing you in street clothes, so I wasn't sure." He seems to believe my excuse. Since I keep my memory loss a secret, I haven't told him about it. I wonder if I'll tell him one day. Or maybe we'll break up before that happens. An emotion washes over me, and I notice the picnic basket next to him. Based on our conversation after that, it seems he has an older sister. The basket belongs to her. She didn't die, but he seems sad when he talks about her. I want to cheer him up, so I say I'm hungry, and he smiles. After that, we act like a couple. Under a tree, we spread a blanket on the top of the carpet of grass and stretch our legs. We eat the lunch my boyfriend made as we watch families play in the distance. I wolf down the colorful, vegetable-packed sandwiches. The low-calorie side dishes are delicious, too. "You'll make a good husband," I say. "You'd make a good wife, too… I think." "What makes you unsure?" I turn to him, and he smiles. What is this weird feeling? This total stranger accepts me. However, that's not all. I accept him, too, as if it was completely natural. It's a warm feeling. I'm surprised people can be like this together. Even if I can only remember a single day, and I only know him based on information I've recorded, if he knows me, and he has memories of the time we spent together, he can look at me with those gentle eyes. I feel oddly at ease. I don't even feel uncomfortable when there's silence between us. "It's funny," I say, my thoughts spilling out. "What?" he asks. Our eyes meet for a second, and then I look away. "Nothing, it's just strange. Like, really strange. I don't feel anxious or uneasy. Even when we're not talking, I don't feel bored or uncomfortable. I even feel like we've been quietly accumulating days like this together." We look out at the gentle sunshine, watching time go by. I think about the god who made me like this. I'm certain God doesn't care about humans. That God exists in a place beyond human standards, where good and bad don't exist. But maybe God is kind. Just maybe. The wind blows furiously. I feel my boyfriend watching me as I try to keep my hair in place. By the time I notice, he's already speaking. "Is it okay if I fall in love with you?" I turn slowly toward him. He's looking at me with a serious expression. I feel like I'm going to cry. Ah, I knew it. God is vicious and cruel. 2 Anterograde amnesia. I'd never heard of it before, but Hino explained the symptoms. Simply put, it means you can't accumulate new memories. Brain trauma from an accident affected the part responsible for storing memories, and it is now dysfunctional. She's able to maintain her memories from when she wakes up in the morning until she goes to sleep at night, but when she falls asleep and her brain begins to process them, the memories from that day are erased. The next morning, nothing is left. Her memories are reset, and she returns to being herself from the day before the accident. As she talked, images of her flickered across my mind. How she always took notes on her phone and was always snapping pictures. How she looked at me with great interest when we met for our date. All of it was connected to her amnesia. That wasn't all. The established three conditions were as well. When she finished telling me how she strung together her memories using the information from her binder and journal, she looked on the verge of tears. I stared at her dumbfounded. "I'm sorry to get you involved in this weird situation," she said. She hadn't meant to tell me. "Weird situation?" Her face clouded over. "Yes." "What do you mean?" "I had the upper hand when you said you liked me, but you didn't actually, so I took advantage of it. I wanted to see if I could still do something new." "I'm the one who should apologize for saying I liked you when I didn't. That's why…" I wanted to say something to cheer her up, but the words stuck in my throat. Hino still looked glum. I didn't want to see her like that. I wanted her to smile. "Does anyone else know about your memory loss?" I finally managed to say. Everything I'd said so far was either a question or a denial. Hino was looking down. "Yes. Izumi, my parents, and my teachers." That was a small list. She said it was because of the unexpected dangers of memory loss. I was shocked to hear her say that, but it was true. Having people knowing about her amnesia would be risky. When she finished speaking, she cast her eyes down again. I didn't want to make her feel bad. I didn't want to keep asking all these questions. Was there anything I could do as her boyfriend, even if I was a fake one? I had to think of something. I knew the answer. It came to me so easily that it didn't even seem like my own idea. Do you know a proverb that goes "you can't hide a cough" and something? I thought back to Shimokawa's words. What had caused it? Was it her smile that seemed special in my world of scarce smiles? Or because she was beautiful? Or when I realized she was hiding something? My love for her had materialized quite unexpectedly. By the time I realized, she was the only thing I could see. "If you don't write down what happened today in your binder or your journal, tomorrow you won't know about this, right?" "Right. I'll wake up like I did today, thinking the accident happened yesterday. If I don't write it down… Wait a second, Tooru." She finally looked up. I'd experienced many emotions in my life, both positive and negative. Joy, anguish, sorrow, peace. Still, I couldn't remember ever experiencing a feeling as pure as what I felt in that moment. I surprised myself again. Because I'm with you. Because I want to be with you. "Then don't write down that you told me about your memory loss. And don't write that I confessed and said I love you." I said it very quietly, omitting the question mark. Hino looked surprised. I tried to force a smile. "I broke the rules, after all. If…if you're still okay with me being your fake boyfriend, then you'd probably prefer not to know I have real feelings for you, right? And if you didn't intend to tell me about your illness but the fact that you did makes you even slightly worried, then you should forget you told me. From now on, I'll pretend I don't notice. What do you think?" She didn't answer right away. I could see the uncertainty in her face. "I feel like I'm getting the long end of the stick," she said. "That's not true. I…" For a few seconds, I thought about what had changed me. To me, love was a mysterious feeling. I'd heard kids talking about it in class, but it seemed like something that existed in a different world. Now, so naturally, like it was nothing at all, I had fallen in love with Hino. I loved her smile, the way she said silly things, the way she was herself but at the same time thoughtful about other people. I could never express all the reasons I loved her. I even felt puzzled by my own first love. Except, what was the point in telling her all of that? What if it became a burden to her? "I had a boring life before I met you," I said. "As long as I can keep spending time with you, I don't care if I'm your fake boyfriend. It seems like we should just pretend none of this happened today." I could hear families making an amiable racket in the distance. She and I sat some ways away from them. I gazed up at the clouds. I could keenly feel how artificial I was when I watched those clouds floating past, so utterly free and natural. "Is that really okay with you, Tooru?" When I looked down again, Hino was watching me with a worried expression. "Yeah. I like hanging out with you. Of course, it all depends on what you think." She sank into deep thought. Maybe in the future, this decision would cause us suffering. But still, I prayed my wish would be granted and my feelings would reach her. She hesitated for a long time. She pursed her lips, then finally said, "All right. I won't write down what happened today. I'll forget it." Forget it. What she meant by those words was very different from what most people meant by them. She truly won't remember. If she didn't leave a record of her actions, if she didn't write down her path through the world, they would vanish. "Thank you," I said. "No, I'm sorry…to make you take on so much." "It's no big deal. I'm delighted to have a beautiful girl as my fake girlfriend." I was trying to be silly and laugh it off, but my words fell flat. I offered her some tea, and we both drank some from paper cups. I asked her to tell me more about her memory loss, and she readily agreed. Normally, her memories are reset when she sleeps, but apparently, if she stays up all night, they last to the next day. Though she said that was kind of pointless. She had tried it with Wataya and learned firsthand that humans can't live without sleep. All of her teachers, including her homeroom teacher, knew about her condition and never called on her in class. She turned in all her homework blank. She sat for her tests, but it didn't matter if she got all the answers wrong. She said discovering day after day that she'd lost her memory was hard, but as long as she attended class, she would be able to graduate. She hadn't yet considered what she would do after that. We'd met at noon and decided to leave at three, though it was a little earlier than planned. On the way back, I said to her, "I hope you really won't write anything down in your binder or journal. I'll know if you do. You're easy to read." "I won't." Her face looked paler and more fragile than I had ever seen it before. The current Hino was merely one page among the infinite pages that make up a life. "Tooru…thank you for today. You really are a kind person." Me, kind? I wasn't so sure. "No, thank you. Also…" I was going to ask if it would bother her if I kept loving her, but I decided not to. She was waiting for me to finish my sentence. I shook my head. "Nothing. I'll walk you to the train station." After I dropped her off, I figured I would go home, carrying the now-light picnic basket. Except Dad was in the apartment, and I'd told him I was going on a date. If I came home early, and feeling down to boot, he might worry about me. I decided to walk to another park, where I sat on a bench and read my book. However, the words wouldn't stick. I reread the same line again and again. I'm not sure how long I sat there like that, going in circles. At five o'clock, the evening music played. I stopped by a butcher in the shopping arcade that I hardly ever went to, bought some beef, and went home. Dad seemed happy about the sukiyaki I made and reported he'd made progress on his writing. "And how was your day?" he asked. For a second, I grew serious. "She loved the bento I made," I managed to say. He smiled happily. "Glad to hear it. Hey, have some more of this meat. When I win that new author prize, let's celebrate together, the three of us. What do you say, Tooru?" Despite his low alcohol tolerance, Dad drank again and fell asleep early. As I washed the dishes, I thought about a lot of things. What in the world did it mean to love someone? Why do people fall in love? Why, when falling in love can be painful and sad sometimes? There were no answers to my questions. There was only the endless monotonous clatter of the dishes being washed. 3 Sunday was my last day with Shimokawa. His new school was overseas. I wanted to see him off at the airport, but he had felt bad about me spending the train fare to get there, so he suggested we meet at a nearby station where he could catch the express train instead. I thought I was getting there fairly early, but he was already waiting in front of the ticket gates. "Sorry to keep you waiting. You got here early?" I said. He didn't say anything. I wondered why, but then he started talking about the bully. Choosing his words carefully, he said he'd told the teachers the guy was squeezing money from him. "Well…a few minutes ago, he came to return the money. The day after I told the teachers, he talked to me after school. I told him I'd taken the cash from my New Year's money and I didn't need it, but he said he'd return it. I got here early today because I'd agreed to meet him. He'd scraped it together from a part-time job, and he borrowed from his brother, too." I couldn't help glancing around, even though I knew he wasn't there anymore. I should respond, but my mind still felt somewhat sluggish after what had happened with Hino the day before. Then I remembered that I'd seen the guy alone in class, reading a magazine with job listings. "Huh. So…you did the right thing and went to the teachers." I didn't mention that I'd heard the story from the bully already. "Yeah. There's probably lots of reasons I was still getting picked on in high school. Probably because I'm dumb and fat…but I was too embarrassed to tell anyone. That ended up causing you a lot of trouble. I knew it was time for me to be brave. But I didn't realize I'd mess up his life. He said his friends abandoned him, and now he's all alone in class." I was stunned by the way Shimokawa resisted saying the guy had gotten what he'd deserved and instead was genuinely worried about how it affected him. I hadn't known Shimokawa for long, but he felt like a really important, irreplaceable friend to me. We tried to talk like normal, but it didn't go very well. Ultimately, he broke the silence. "Kamiya, thanks for being friends with me," he said. I looked up. "You'll say it's not true, but I think you're a great person. You pretend you don't have anything, but you have the things that matter. Like kindness." I couldn't help becoming serious. I'd never heard him talk like this before. "My dad says it's much harder to become a kind person than an important one. That means you're much more admirable than some VIP. Maybe it's rude of me to say this, but even though you've got a tough life, you're not warped. Another thing my dad said is that people who've had it hard usually become servile or mean. But you're not. You're really and truly kind." His words overlapped with what Hino had said the day before we parted. You really are a kind person. Kind? No, not me. Only in a half-assed, not-at-all-praiseworthy way. I was going to say that, but I didn't. "Don't suffer, okay, Shimokawa? Go become an important, admirable person," I said jokingly, although I really meant it. He smiled. "I'll try," he said. "I'm sorry, Kamiya. I'm gonna start crying soon, so I better go. Thank you. I haven't known you long, but I won't forget you. Thanks for sticking by me." He held out his beautiful hand. I looked down at my own worriedly. I felt bad making him shake a hand like mine, but I held it out anyway. He gripped it firmly. I gripped his back. "Wherever you wind up, live strong, Shimokawa." "I'll give it my best." "Just kidding. You don't have to stay strong." "Careful; you'll ruin my resolve." "And why not try to lose a few pounds? You're a handsome guy, you know." "Really, you think so? I'll give it a go, then." He smiled shyly, and I let go of his hand. "Well, my family is waiting at the airport," he said. "Hope things go well with Hino." His words shook me a little, but I nodded in reply. He smiled jovially. Then he turned and left, walking toward his new life beyond the ticket gate. He looked back and gave a big wave. I waved back. "Till we meet again!" Shimokawa shouted. "I'll be a changed man! I'll get in shape and date a great girl like Hino, and we can talk about our relationships." All I could manage was a weak "Yeah." When I got home, I could hear Dad typing. He must have been working on his novel. This was my life. I looked up at the low ceiling. I did some cleaning around the house, and it soon became noon. I didn't feel like eating, but I made something simple, and the two of us ate it quietly. By the afternoon, I felt drained and lay down in bed. I checked my phone and saw I had a message. I thought it would be from Shimokawa, but it was from Wataya. I didn't read it or respond. It was that kind of day. 4 It was break time after second period on Monday. I was thinking about how big the classroom felt without Shimokawa when I noticed someone watching me. It was Wataya, looking in from the hall with a disgruntled expression, her arms crossed. When she saw me looking back at her, she gestured for me to come outside. I walked out of the classroom, my mind blank. I followed her to the corner of the hallway where we'd first talked. "Why'd you ignore my message?" she asked after stopping and glancing behind her. "I'm sorry; I didn't know you texted me. I don't check my phone very often." "So you haven't read it yet?" "I think my phone is in my bag. I'll check it later." I hadn't read it, but I did know she'd sent it. I wondered why I'd lied to her. She swept the hair back from her temples, revealing her well-shaped ears. "That's fine. There's no point. I was just wondering…if something happened with Maori." "With Hino?" I answered nonchalantly. "Not particularly. On Saturday, we went to the park. We did end the date a little early. Why? Did something happen?" She sized me up. "Maori and I talk on the phone on days we don't see each other. We talked on Saturday night, and she wasn't herself." "How so?" "She was talking a lot." "Doesn't she always?" "This was different. When something tough or sad happens, she always talks more. I've known that for ages, and I don't think I misread her." I could tell how much she cared about Hino from her concerned tone. Based on what she'd said, it seemed Hino hadn't told her I'd said I loved her or that she'd told me about her memory loss or that I'd asked her not to write it in her notebook. But had she really not written it down? "Even if you're right, what are the chances it's related to me?" Why was I being such a jerk? I wasn't my usual self today. Wataya raised her eyebrows suspiciously. "How should I put this? Maori's family cares a lot about her. It's not to an excessive degree, though, and they're sensible. So I don't think this has to do with her family. Which leaves just you." Hino's situation hit me all over again. The way Wataya was talking so carefully made Hino's illness and her efforts to hide that much more real to me. And just like Wataya was hiding Hino's condition from me, I hid the truth from her, pretending nothing had changed. "I don't think anything odd happened on Saturday," I said. "But you never know what people are thinking. I'll bring it up casually when I see her after school today. If you want, you can hang out with us." "I… No, that's fine. I'm sorry. I'm being weird again. Will you tell me if anything seems wrong when you see her? She seemed okay so far today, but you're her boyfriend, so she might be different around you." "I'll let you know." By then, break was over. During the other breaks, I didn't have anything to do, so I finished some homework and studied so I'd have more free time at home. I felt like I'd come up with a good strategy for how to spend my time between classes now that Shimokawa was gone. When I glanced over at the bully, he was alone like me, working on something. After school, I waited for Hino in the empty classroom. "Aha, found you! Hi, boyfriend!" She'd said she hardly even noticed me before her accident. Most likely, she'd identified me just now based on a photo. She probably wouldn't notice if someone who looked like me was here instead, pretending to be me. Those were the absurd scenarios going through my mind as I greeted her. "Hi, honey," I said. "Hey, I thought you didn't like that mushy stuff," she answered. So she even wrote down little details like that. I hadn't said it to test her but instead in an attempt to cheer myself up. "I thought I'd give it a try," I said. "That must be why you look so tense," she answered bemusedly, surveying my face. I'd always found that habit of hers strange, but now it made sense. I passionately returned her gaze. She gave me a surprised look. "Saturday," I said, smiling and trying to sound natural. "What?" "Thanks for Saturday. I had fun." She paused very briefly, then said exaggeratedly, "Oh, right, right. Me too! The bento was so good. As your girlfriend, I'd like to cook for you next time, but sorry, I'm awful at that kind of thing." "I suspected as much." "Hey, that's rude!" "You said so yourself!" "It's different when I say it than when you do." I looked at her smile, as pure as fresh water, and decided that she seemed to have followed through on her promise. She hadn't written down that I told her I loved her or that she told me about her memory loss. I could probably rest assured about that. I would keep my feelings to myself and pretend I didn't notice her amnesia. I would let the little oddities slide. I was fairly sure that was what she wanted. "So, boyfriend, what should we do today?" Maybe the reason she always called me "boyfriend" at first when we met was that she wasn't used to saying my name. "What do you want to do, girlfriend?" "Me?" "Yes, you." "Hmm… Oh yes! I'd like to ride a bike together. Isn't that what all couples dream of?" I'd been slightly worried about whether I'd manage to be my usual self when we met. But it was easy. Her innocent way of talking made me smile without realizing it. I had to switch gears. I couldn't dwell on what had happened over the weekend. This was the path I had chosen. To keep loving her. To stay by her side. To not tell her how I felt. "Riding two to a bike is illegal, so that's out. Think of something more proper." "How about an after-school date?" "That's not a bad idea. Should we stop somewhere on the way to the station?" "A family restaurant!" I couldn't help but laugh at her instant response. The block of ice in my heart started to melt. Every moment I spent with her made me so happy. The sensation was undeniable. Being a fake couple didn't change anything. It didn't change my level of happiness. It didn't change my love for her. Nothing. I didn't need any reward other than this feeling. "I'll take care of the bill." "Shoot, you beat me to it! It's going to be expensive; do you mind? Of course, I'll pay for my half, and I'd be happy to pay yours, too, to thank you for dating me." "It's no problem. I got some extra cash recently. Anything else you want to do?" "Flirt at the video arcade." "I'm not going to flirt, but I'll get you a toy from a claw machine." "Go to the aquarium." "That's got to be on the weekend, but okay." "How about going to an amusement park?" "Good idea." "Oh, also, karaoke!" "Only if we invite Wataya." "You don't want to go as a couple?" "I mean, it'll be just us in that room. I'd get shy." "So the downfallen aristocrat is shy?" "Anyway, what else?" "Maybe a library date or studying together for a test?" I couldn't hide my surprise at how long her list was. When she went to sleep, she forgot everything that had happened that day. She couldn't build up her experiences day by day. How hopeless would that feel? How painful? Time had left her behind, all alone, and stolen her future. If that was how it was going to be, then I wanted to fill her journal with happy memories so that tomorrow's Hino could look forward to everyday life, even a little. I wanted the Hinos of the next day and the next to read those journal entries and feel a little braver. I wanted her fear of the future to lessen, even a little. "That's a good list. Let's do all those things one by one. We'll start with…I know! We'll start with a bang by riding two to a bike!" I said enthusiastically. She looked surprised. "Really? Is it okay? You take the train to school like me. Where are we gonna get a bike?" Let's start living in a new way, a more fun way. If anything can be called hope, that can. Right, Hino? With those thoughts on my mind, an unaccustomed grin spread across my face. I wanted to tell her without words that falling in love was making my life better. 5 Hino and I sneaked toward the abandoned school bike-parking area. Since we both take the train to school, neither of us had a bike parked there. Except I'd heard someone in my class say that the parking space wasn't very well managed, and there were always a couple of unlocked bikes lying around. No one knew if they'd been left behind by students who graduated or if someone had stolen them and ditched them there. Hino and I scanned the lot for those rumored abandoned bikes. It took a while, but eventually we found one. "Aww, look, it's got a flat," she said dejectedly. At that moment, I wanted to do whatever I could for her and to fill her journal with fun memories. "Have no fear, Hino," I declared. "I'll show you the kind of man your boyfriend is. If there's a hole, I'll fix it, and if there isn't, I'll borrow a pump and inflate it. Nothing to it. Right?" "What's with the transformation? You seem very capable all of a sudden." "Leave it to me," I said, smiling boldly. The two of us went to the custodian's office and borrowed a pump. Unfortunately, the air didn't stay inside for very long, and the tire deflated again. Normally, the custodian would fix a flat for students, but I had no idea who this bike belonged to, and it was missing the school commuter sticker. So it was a slim chance he would fix this one. I decided to try my hand at it. I asked Hino if she had scissors and double-sided tape. "I'm pretty sure there's some in the teacher's desk in my classroom," she answered. There was a bucket I needed from my own classroom, too. We decided to split up to get the equipment. "What are you going to do?" Hino asked, her bubbly voice as bouncy as her steps as she walked down the hall after we'd changed to our indoor shoes. "Something interesting," I said with a smirk. In my classroom, I opened the cleaning-supply locker, helped myself to the bucket, and went back out. Hino was waiting farther down the hallway. I smiled the crafty smile of a man with a plan, and she did the same. She seemed to have found what she was looking for. I stopped to fill the pail with water, then hurried back to the bike-parking area with Hino. I took off the tire and submerged the tube in the water. The trail of bubbles led me to the hole. Meanwhile, Hino was following my instructions to cut a Band-Aid-sized piece out of one of my plastic folders and cover one side of it with double-sided tape. The rest was easy. I pressed the piece of plastic onto the hole, reinforced it with the tape, and put the tire back on and inflated it. This time, the pressure held. "You're so handy! My boyfriend is amazing!" she shouted excitedly. I punched my palm proudly. She glanced eagerly at the bike. I'm not poor for nothing. I've got all sorts of tricks like this up my sleeve. "So, Hino, are you ready?" I asked. Fixing the flat wasn't the main event, after all. She smiled giddily. "You mean what I was talking about?" I smiled at her. "Yup, that." She grinned back at me. "Yes! Go, go, go!" We were flying down a road between rice fields, both of us on the one bike. I was straddling the seat, pedaling furiously. She was perched on the cargo rack behind me, riding sidesaddle. One of her arms was wrapped around my waist. We were breaking traffic laws. Technically, traffic regulations. If a police officer or a teacher caught us, we'd definitely get a citation or a stern warning. To top it off, we were possibly riding a stolen bike. So we chose a route far away from the one most students used to get to school. "Oh my gosh, you're so fast!" Hino screamed. I pedaled as hard as I could, silently cursing my weak legs. The newly fixed tire showed no sign of deflating. There I was, racing down a road with a girl sitting behind me on a possibly stolen bike. I was shocked I'd managed to do it. Was this even me? Now that I thought about it, up till now, I'd always been overly rational and never done anything stupid. In other words, I'd lived a boring life. That kind of life would never fill Hino's journal with fun memories. From now on, I was ready to do anything she wanted, no matter how reckless or crazy, such as riding a bike that might belong to someone else and yelling at the top of my lungs. Insane things. Things she would think were exciting. "Don't you want to take a video?" I asked loudly to hide that I was short of breath so the wind wouldn't drown out my voice. "What? Oh, a video? Good idea!" When we watched it later, it was too shaky to see what was happening. But I could still hear Hino's happy screams. Now and then, I glimpsed my own smiling face glancing over my shoulder. After we'd ridden up and down the road to her heart's content, we returned the bike. She offered to give me a ride back to school, but I didn't think she would be strong enough. Also, a teacher might catch us, so we pushed it back. Afterward, we walked to the station. She was giddy the whole time. "What should we do tomorrow?" I asked as the evening sun tinted the streets. She raised her eyebrows. "What do you mean?" "After school tomorrow." "Hmm…," she said pensively. I couldn't help smiling. "I'm going to show tomorrow's Hino a good time," I said. I'd gotten a bit too bold and raised her suspicion. "What?" she asked in surprise, looking me in the eye like she was trying to read my mind. "What's wrong?" I asked. She hurriedly averted her gaze. "Nothing. Never mind." "Anyway, make up your mind by tomorrow after school. Or we could just decide when we meet." "You seem different, Tooru." I suppose what she meant was my personality today seemed different from the description she'd written in her journal. I was happy about that difference. She probably didn't have the slightest idea that I knew about her illness. "I wonder why. Lately, I've really been enjoying hanging out with you. Maybe that makes me seem different." "Maybe. People are funny, aren't they?" Then she took out her phone to check something. I stole a glance and saw that she had written a list of all the things she'd said she wanted to do. "If you want, we can ride a bike together again tomorrow," I said, looking away. "But wouldn't it be boring for you to do the same thing two days in a row?" "You'd be doing it two days in a row, too." "True. You have a point." A strange feeling of satisfaction came over me. "I won't be bored. Don't worry about me. As long as I'm with you, I'm happy. Let's do what you want tomorrow. Okay?" "Okay!" We ended up riding a bike together again the next day after school. Each day's Hino existed only for that single day. She smiled just as brightly as the day before, because once again, she felt like she was riding a bike together for the first time. It was easier this time because I didn't have to fix the tire, and since I was with her, I wasn't bored. I was a little surprised when she wanted to do it a third day in a row, but I guess that day's Hino couldn't resist after reading the journal entry from the day before. If that was the case, then I was glad. The only difference was that Wataya was with us. She seemed slightly exasperated by our yelps as we rode but also like she found it heartwarming. "Hey, you hooligans over there! Riding two to a bike is a violation of traffic safety regulations!" she said with a smile. "Please dismount immediately. I repeat, riding two to a bike is against the law. Get off the bike this instant!" "I've got a deal for you!" Hino shouted back. "Tell me your conditions!" "If I give you a ride, will you overlook our violation?" "What is this, a bribe? I'm shocked! But the offer isn't bad." Hino took over the driver's seat, and Wataya sat on the cargo rack. Hino started pedaling but couldn't gather speed. "You need more horsepower, Maori!" Wataya complained. "Should we try dangling a carrot in front of her?" I joked as she returned, panting. "Hey! How dare you talk like that to your girlfriend!" she shot back playfully between pants. At Wataya's insistence, I took the pedals after that. She shouted happily as we flew down the road. Hino seemed to have bounced back enough to complain theatrically. "You two-timing cheaters! Step away from the bicycle immediately!" "Sorry, Maori!" Wataya called back. "I'm keeping this downfallen aristocrat. No one can stop a pair of fleeing lovers. Bye!" "Tooru, I curse you and your children and your children's children!" I couldn't help laughing. I looked up. The sky was burning crimson like a picture from a storybook. 6 We spent the afternoons that week messing around with the bike, and on Saturday, the three of us went to the aquarium. We'd agreed to meet at one at the clock tower outside the terminal station downtown. We had to pass through that station to get there, and then the aquarium was another fifteen minutes away by subway. I'd heard there was a big plaza in the aquarium where we could eat lunch. It would be kind of a late meal, but I packed enough food for all three of us and got to the terminal about half an hour early. I arrived with enough time, as there was a bookstore that I wanted to visit on the thirteenth floor of the shopping mall attached to the station. Feeling a bit like an oddball with my picnic basket, I got on a crowded elevator to the thirteenth floor and headed for the bookstore. The corridor was surprisingly packed with people milling around and chatting. All of them were holding books. Figuring they must be there for some event, I went to look at a poster on the wall. I was totally unprepared for what I found. I stood rooted to the spot in a daze. Book launch and signing with Keiko Nishikawa, Akutagawa Prize–nominated author, it read. A shiver ran down my spine. I hesitated for an instant, then made a beeline for the bookstore. Staff were herding people into lines. It seemed the signing was taking place inside and people were queuing for it. The event wasn't mentioned in the latest issue of Literary World, but it must have been announced online. It looked like I could skirt the line and walk through the shop to where Nishikawa was signing books. I made my way toward her, my heart pounding. Other people must have had the same idea because a crowd had formed here as well. I pushed my way through, receiving some nasty glares as I barged ahead with my bulky picnic basket, but I didn't have time to apologize. I was making steady progress. I could see the yellow tape that must be cordoning off the autograph table. Just a little farther. Now I was right in front of it, and there she was. The author Keiko Nishikawa—my sister. My throat felt dry. She was sitting on a folding chair at a long table, signing a book that a person in line held out to her. A woman in a dark suit stood next to her. My sister was looking at the person who had bought her book with a smile I'd never seen before. "Thank you so much," she said, handing it back and shaking their hand. They bowed and stepped away, looking satisfied. I watched silently. Suddenly, my sister glanced at me. "…Tooru?" I wonder what expression I should have made at that moment. I tried to smile, failed, and probably looked idiotic. The next person in line walked up to the table to ask my sister, or rather, Keiko Nishikawa, for her autograph. But she kept looking at me. The woman standing next to her looked confused. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Oh…nothing." My sister hesitated, then smiled at the next person in line. "I'm sorry," she said and whispered something to the woman in the suit. She then shot me a surprised look and nodded. Keiko Nishikawa went back to signing books. The lady, who looked somewhat older than my sister, walked over to me. "Hello. I hear you're Nishikawa's little brother." "Um, yes. I am." "This event will last awhile, but I think it will be done in about an hour and a half. Can you get a coffee or something and wait? Your sister said she wants to talk to you." She gave me the name of a café in the mall. "All right." I nodded. The woman smiled and glanced at my sister. She walked over to the table, picked up a book from the pile, and gave it to me. Then she smiled again and returned to her post. The people nearby who had overheard our conversation looked curiously at me. I walked away. In an hour and a half. I'd agreed to meet her, but I was supposed to hang out with Hino and Wataya. I left the busy store, unsure what to do. I took the elevator to the ground floor. Outside, I filled my lungs with fresh air and walked over to the clock tower. I was still ten minutes early, but Wataya was already there among the crowd of people. "You're early, Kamiya," she said. "Did you hear? Keiko Nishikawa is doing a signing at the bookstore. I thought I'd stop by, but the line was crazy." "Actually…Keiko Nishikawa is my sister," I said. "Is she? Anyway, there were so many people… What? What did you just say?" I could hardly tell her I'd been joking, so I smiled vaguely. We stared at each other silently as the crowd buzzed around us. "I'm sorry. I didn't know she was signing books, but when I went up there, I was lucky enough to talk to her. We haven't seen each other in a while. After the signing, we're supposed to meet again." I hesitated. Wataya seemed to guess what I was getting at. "I see. Well, these things happen. You go see her; don't worry about us." I was grateful for her thoughtfulness. I looked at the ground for a minute, then back at her. "I wanted to tell Hino, too, but my mind's a mess right now, and I feel too guilty to face her. Could I ask you to tell her for me? Oh, and here's the bento. Eat it if you'd like. There might be too much food since I cooked for three, so don't feel like you have to finish it all. After I meet with my sister, I promise I'll come find you guys." I handed my sister's picnic basket to Wataya. "You can put it on the ground if it's too heavy," I said, but she said it was fine. "Don't worry. I'll cover for you with Maori. And thanks for the bento! Do you mind if I tell her your sister is Keiko Nishikawa?" "Of course not. She's not the type to gossip, and anyway, she's my girlfriend." "Your girlfriend…yeah." She looked at me like she wanted to say something else, then smiled. "At first, I thought you two were dating as a joke or something, but lately, you're really stepping up. I can tell you're trying to make her happy. Although, to me, you seem to be trying a little too hard." I think she was testing me. She wanted to know if I knew. At least, that was the sense I got. "Don't tell Hino this," I said. "Tell her what?" "I'm in love with her. Maybe that seems obvious, but I truly do love her. If there's something I can do to help her, I want to do it. That sounds arrogant. But if I can make her happy, I want to," I told her quite earnestly. She was quiet for a moment. "Why can't I tell Maori?" she finally asked. "Obviously, because I'm embarrassed about it." "You don't seem like the type to be embarrassed, Kamiya." The pulsing din of the station crowd seemed to go silent. "You know about Maori, don't you?" she asked me. I caught her wavering gaze. I should have seen this coming. "Yes. I know." She looked me straight in the eye, perhaps trying to read my true intentions. "How do you know? She didn't tell you, did she?" "Yes, she told me. But I asked her not to write it down in her binder or her journal. Today's Hino…doesn't know that I know about her memory loss." For once, Wataya looked shaken. But she still didn't know we were a fake couple. There was no way she could know about the three conditions. "You better not tell her I know," I said, trying to cover up my seriousness with a laugh. With that, I turned toward the elevator hall. I could feel her watching me for a long time as I disappeared into the crowd. 7 June 9 (Monday) Morning at home: as usual. Homeroom: Announcement about finals. Teacher jokes around (nothing worth noting). First period break: Izumi asked about my date on Saturday. Told her what was in the journal, although I didn't write down anything special. She acted suspicious. Second period break: Izumi went somewhere. Probably to my boyfriend's class. Suzuki asked what I was doing after school. I was vague, said I had to do something. She seemed a little annoyed. Had fun chatting about gaming livestreams, which she likes (make note in "People" section of binder). Saved the situation? Third period break: Asked Izumi what happened during second period break. She said she thought my boyfriend was lying to her. So, she did go talk to him. Decided maybe she was wrong, since there wasn't anything in my journal. Fourth period break: Talked with Izumi. She said, "Wow, June sure crept up on me." I tried to joke about how everything creeps up on me. She said I'd made the same joke before, thought that was funny. Better make sure not to say it again (make note in "People" section of binder). Lunch: Ate lunch with Izumi. She had a homemade BLT. Drool. Fifth period break: Izumi is obsessed with black tea lately. Said it's because the tea we had at the downfallen aristocrat's (my boyfriend's) was so good. I want some, too. After school: Went to my boyfriend's class. He called me "honey" shyly. I said I thought he didn't like mushy stuff. He said he was giving it a try. Pretty cute. He thanked me for Saturday. I apologized for being a bad cook. He said he expected as much. Rude. Talked about what to do today. He said, "Let's do what my girlfriend wants to do." I suggested various things: riding a bike together, going to a family restaurant, having an after-school date at a game center, karaoke, aquarium on day off, amusement park. He said okay to everything other than riding a bike together (but karaoke only if Izumi comes; he's embarrassed to be alone with me in the room). He said he has some extra spending money. Then, even though he said he didn't want to earlier because it's illegal, he suggested we ride a bike together. I need to revise my information on him. This guy is up for anything. We found an abandoned bike, but it had a flat tire. I was disappointed, but the boyfriend said, "Have no fear, Hino. I'll show you the kind of man your boyfriend is." I was a little surprised. No, make that quite a bit. He got to work fixing it. I helped. I found some scissors and double-sided tape and cut a piece of a plastic file folder. What the heck, right? But he used it to fix the hole. Impressive. We went to a country road far away from school where no teachers or police would see us and rode the bike together. He pedaled really hard. It was fun. The wind was really strong. I feel happy just remembering it. Ah, youth! It's like the hopelessness I felt this morning never even existed. I'm amazing. I'm impressive. I'm so glad I'm dating him. Even if I have memory loss, maybe I can enjoy each day like I did today. Riding together was a little scary, and this weird laugh came up from the pit of my stomach. The boyfriend laughed, too. I took a video (see the "My Boyfriend" folder in phone). After we rode as much as we wanted, we walked it back to school. He asked what I wanted to do tomorrow. He said, "I'm going to show tomorrow's Hino a good time." That was a surprise. Did he guess I have amnesia? No, he couldn't have, right? He didn't act like he thinks I'm weird. I said he's changed, and he said he just likes to hang out with me. That was nice. I'm a sucker for that look of his. It's strange that I feel this way even though yesterday he was a stranger. As far as I can tell from this journal, I experience that strangeness every day. He said we could ride the bike again tomorrow if I want. He doesn't mind doing the same thing two days in a row. The one good thing about the current me is that new stuff is always new. No matter how many times I've done it, I enjoy it just like it's the first time. I feel a little more optimistic than before. Boyfriend, thanks for today. On Saturday morning, I read my recent journal entries after breakfast, blushing a bit at the girlish words. I would never have expected myself to act so giddy. According to the journal entry after that day, we played around on the bike again. The next day, we invited Izumi, and she rode around on the bike with my boyfriend. I feel embarrassed to be acting so childishly day after day, but I smile in spite of myself. I review the page labeled "My Boyfriend" in the binder, then pull up the media folders on my phone. Sure enough, there it is: a new folder labeled "My Boyfriend." It's full of photos and videos of Tooru Kamiya. I choose one and press play. It's dated Monday. I hear my own flirty voice as the video shakes. The twilight scenery passing by. This must be the video I took while we were riding together. I mentioned it in the journal. My boyfriend glances back at me as he pedals. I say something. Anyone could see how much fun we're having. It's a simple, silly video. I watch it again. The clumsy memory makes me smile. In the middle of watching, I notice something. Calmly, I accept it. An emotion that's hard to describe as lonely or yearning is sloshing around in the pit of my stomach. Today's me isn't the person in the video. I feel slightly sad as I watch them laugh and yell. I feel something like longing for yesterday's me. But…maybe I will experience just as much joy and fun today. Thanks to Tooru Kamiya, this guy whose name I hardly even recognize. I smile slightly. I cheer up and start getting ready. Today, I'm going to the aquarium with my boyfriend and Izumi. Dad's worried about me, so I let him drive me to the station, and from there, I take the train downtown. I arrive five minutes early. I spot Izumi under the clock tower, where we agreed to meet. She's holding a picnic basket. "Wherever are you going, Izumi? To your grandmother's house in the woods?" I joke. Normally, she would have an instant comeback, but instead, she looks awkward. "Um…yeah. Actually, I am. I've got a combat knife hidden in here, so if the wolf is wearing a disguise, I can cut the clothes right off that scoundrel." "You mean the hide, don't you?" "I'm planning to get myself a nice fur coat for winter." All the kids in our class say they can't keep up when we joke around like this. But this time, I wonder if she's not feeling well. Her mind seems to be somewhere else. I realize the basket looks similar to the one I saw my boyfriend holding in a picture. "Hey, isn't that my boyfriend's?" I ask. "Oh, this? Yeah." She's obviously upset. "Well…Kamiya was here just a minute ago," she explains. "He has some family stuff going on, it sounds like." She tells me the whole story. Keiko Nishikawa is an author he likes. "She's his sister? I don't know much about literature. Is she famous?" "She's the top contender for this year's Akutagawa Prize." "For real?" This time, when she answers, she sounds like her usual self. "I think so. After the nomination was announced, they rushed out the paperback version, which caused a pretty incredible amount of buzz. I think all literature is about the chasm between oneself and the world…" She goes on to give a passionate review of the book. Izumi is as tough on other people as she is on herself. If she's praising this book, it must be good. And my boyfriend's sister wrote it. "I'm so curious about her. Are there any photos of her?" "She never makes public appearances. They didn't even include a picture in the magazine when she won the New Author Prize, so I guess she really hates photos. I was curious, so I went up to get a glimpse. Sorry to say this, but she's nothing like Kamiya. She's a cool beauty. The signing event was insanely packed, though. Everyone's going to freak out if she wins the Akutagawa Prize." "Interesting. So my boyfriend's sister is your type, a cool beauty." "Come on, Maori, don't write that down." I would love to see this mysterious sister, but it sounds tough with crowds like that. We take the subway for fifteen minutes to the aquarium. It's the first time I've gone since junior high, and the first time with Izumi. She asks if I want to have our bento right away, but we decide to walk around before we eat. We take turns carrying the basket as we check out the exhibits and fish. Is there any meaning in memories that are forgotten and never accumulate? For a second, that negative thought bubbles up, but the colorful fish bring me back to a more innocent state of mind. I feel like they're washing my heart clean. "Oh, there it is!" Izumi suddenly exclaims. She's looking at a gray creature flapping its wings like an underwater bird. "I didn't know you liked stingrays, Izumi." "I do. I've never told you, but I love them." I thought about making a joke but decided against it when I saw how serious she looked. Instead, I ask her what she liked about them. "They're the gentlemen of the ocean. They swim so gracefully," she answers succinctly, then presses her nose to the glass like a little kid. After a minute, she mumbles, "Though, I've gotta wonder what kind of fathers they make. They remind me a little of my dad." I adore Izumi. She acts like nothing is wrong with me, but I know it can't be easy to have a best friend with amnesia. In my journal, it says she's told me, "I only do what I can do and what I want to do" and "I'm doing this because I like doing it. If I stop liking it, I'll stop doing it. Simple as that." That eases my worry. She was probably considering my mental state when she said it. She's beautiful inside and out. We do a quick tour of the exhibits and then head to the courtyard. We sit on a bench to eat the lunch my boyfriend made for us. The basket is fairly heavy with food for three. He was carrying it around like it was nothing. What a manly guy. We take a look at the contents. "Wow, Kamiya went over the top," Izumi says. "He really did. This looks even better than last week's. I'm gonna take a picture." The main dish is chirashizushi. It's colorful and, like him, neatly organized. There are perfectly cooked golden strips of egg and a side dish of marinated tuna that looks like something you'd buy. Japanese mustard spinach with sesame seeds balances out the meal. He's included serving chopsticks and paper plates, too. We take a picture together, then dig in. The vinegared rice has tons of toppings scattered over it that fill my mouth with delicate harmony, and it makes eating a joy. Izumi sends my boyfriend the photo and a message, but he doesn't respond. There's a thermos in the basket. When we pour the contents into cups, a fruity fragrance tickles my nose. It's probably Lady Grey. "I feel like I remember this smell," I mutter. Izumi sinks into thought. "Memory and smell… Interesting. So you can remember that?" "I'm not sure if the memory is from when he made it or from some earlier time." The chirashizushi is delicious, and we're both hungry, so we decide to finish it. We're having a good time chatting and eating. Afterward, we drink some more tea. Suddenly, I hear a kid's happy voice. I look over and see a child pulling her mother's sleeve. The father watches them with a smile. "In ten years or a little more, everyone will probably be married," I blurt out, still watching the family. I can feel Izumi's eyes on me. "I wonder…if I'll have a family, too," I say. "What made you think of that all of a sudden?" "I'm sorry. I just felt a little afraid, wondering if I'll ever get better." I smile awkwardly. Izumi looks quietly at the sky. "I don't think I'll ever get married. I don't think I can. Let's just enjoy things as they come," she says nonchalantly, probably out of consideration for me. I don't think what she said is true, though. Lots of people have secret crushes on her, both guys and girls. Even though she interacts with people on a surface level, she doesn't open up easily. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that her parents are separated. I make a joke to cover up my serious thoughts. "When you say enjoy things, do you mean with me, the girl who will forever feel like a high school student?" "I've never heard that joke before. Nice one." "Thanks for sticking with me, Izumi." "I told you, you don't need to thank me." "That's right, you're doing this because you like doing it. If you stop liking it, you'll stop doing it." "What kind of a line is that?! Whoever said it must be twisted." By the time my boyfriend responds to Izumi's message and meets up with us, it's late afternoon. "I'm so sorry I broke our promise today," he says when we met him at a bench outside the aquarium. I gaze at him intently for the first time. His breath is ragged. He must have run here from the station. "You didn't have to run," I say. "Hino, seriously, I'm sorry. And Wataya, too," he answers, his breath calmer now. Izumi watches him silently. Finally, she sighs with resignation. "Fine. I'm a kind person, so I'll forgive you." "I'm not a kind person, so I'll ask for a rain check," I joke. My boyfriend smiles kindly. "You've got it. Let's try the amusement park next time we're all free. I'll pay for half your ticket." I'm so happy about the idea of going to an amusement park that I don't even worry about him paying for us. "What a generous boyfriend!" I say. "Very like you to offer to pay half," Izumi says. "But you don't have to pay for us." My parents get worried when I'm out late, so the three of us head for the subway. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. The bento was amazing! Thank you!" I give him the basket. He takes it with a slightly vacant smile. The three of us chat happily all the way home. Even though I only talk with him for a little while, I feel strangely at peace and relaxed. 8 The café the woman in the suit named was on the top floor of the mall. I was shown to a window seat overlooking downtown. I'd never been to a place like this before. While I waited nervously for my sister, I ordered some tea and started reading the copy of her book the woman had given me. I'd read it before in a magazine. However, my mind was too full of thoughts and emotions—about my sister, about telling Wataya I knew about Hino's condition, about leaving my date with Hino—for me to lose myself in the world of the novel. I tried anyway and eventually managed to focus. How much time had passed? I lost track. When I looked up, my sister was sitting across from me. "Tooru, have you lost weight?" To me, she was a pithy, graceful, warm presence. She was wearing a simple but elegant blue shirt that complemented her long black hair nicely. I didn't know what to say back. She'd spoken so naturally to me after all this time. I smiled, on the verge of tears, and answered as casually as I could. "I'm not sure. I don't weigh myself very often. I think I grew a bit, though." "I see. There's a little something I've been wanting to say. Do you mind?" She usually keeps a straight face, but suddenly, she smiled. It's typical of her to give an introductory comment like that. "Of course not." "You've grown so much in the short time I was away. Although, I see you still lose yourself in books just like you used to." I smiled awkwardly. My chest tightened at her familiar way of speaking. She talks like a character in an old book. Very naturally, too, so it doesn't sound strange. It had been a long time. "You seem the same yourself," I said. "Yes." She must have just arrived, because she ordered tea from a waiter. We hadn't seen each other for a year and a half, but it felt natural, as if we'd only parted yesterday. "Was it a coincidence? That you were at the bookstore." It was, but I stumbled over how to answer. "Yes. Today, I…had something to do. I had some extra time, so I thought I'd stop at the bookstore. I was surprised to find that Keiko Nishikawa was signing books." "Is that so? And where were you planning to go with the rattan basket?" I floundered under her teasing look. "Nothing special. Just meeting a friend from school. It's fine." "A girl?" "Uh…yeah." "You've grown up, Tooru. Are you sure it's fine? I'm sorry for making you wait and, on top of that, cancel your plans." "Don't worry about it. I wanted to talk to you. Anyway, about your book…," I said, changing the subject. It was my own decision to accept her invitation. She told me that just having "Akutagawa Prize Nominee" on the cover sent sales soaring, so a rush first edition was printed. People started talking about it online, and an unexpected huge crowd showed up for the signing. "Huh. That's incredible. I was so happy when I saw in the magazine that it was nominated. You've almost achieved your dream," I said emotionally. She smiled faintly. "Don't be hasty. I haven't won the prize yet. Anyhow, the important thing is to keep writing. Most people who win the prize can't follow it up. I've made up my mind to make my living as an author, so writing is more important than prizes." She paused to take a breath. "I sacrificed my family for it. I sacrificed you," she said with a hint of self-mockery. I didn't know how to respond. Our mother had always been frail, and when she died of heart disease, my sister took on all the housework. She was only in her first year of junior high. Dad was depressed from losing Mom, and I had only just started first grade. I was worse than useless; I was a burden. My sister never rested when she was at home. She was constantly cleaning, doing laundry, cooking, taking out the garbage, and caring for me. Her only pleasure was reading novels when all the housework was done. Dad had wanted to be a writer since he was young, so our house was full of old books that my sister ended up reading. I remember her saying to me once, "For me, books are more like places I visit than things I read." I don't know exactly when she started writing novels. I just knew that on nights when Dad and I fell asleep early, she would secretly write. When she was in her third year of junior high, one of her stories won honorable mention in a local writing contest. Despite that, my sister refused to tell Dad about it. My guess is she didn't want to upset him when he had just started to get back on his feet after Mom's death. Dad is a hopelessly weak person, but he managed to find some meaning in his life through writing. My sister kept writing through high school. After graduating, she got an office job with a company that manufactured car parts. She'd wanted to get a government job, but several years passed with none of the nearby municipalities posting a position that only required a high school degree. The factory was her only option. She helped Dad pay the bills. She had less time to write, but she kept at it. She secretly submitted a manuscript to the New Author Award that Dad was still pining after and made it to the final round. That prize is considered the gateway to the Akutagawa Prize. It was extremely rare for a teenager to make it that far. It was truly an incredible achievement. She didn't end up winning, but the editor overseeing the contest took an interest in her. They gave her a lot of advice, but she hardly had time to write. She woke up early in the morning to do chores, went to work in the afternoon, and made dinner when she came home at night. Add in more chores and the time spent with Dad, and she didn't even have an hour a day to write. Even though she was working, she stayed as conscientious as ever about housework. "Mom asked me to do it, and anyway, writing novels isn't really necessary," she would say. On her days off, she collapsed from exhaustion. When she woke up, she did chores and sometimes went to the library, where she probably wrote. I'm six years younger than her. At the time, I had finished the first half of my first year of junior high. I had club activities, but I could still help out a little. I knew she was on the verge of giving up on being a writer. Once, when Dad was gone, I heard her fighting with the editor over the phone. I couldn't believe it. My sister? Yelling back emotionally at someone over the phone? "Just because I have talent doesn't mean I can be a burden on my family," she shouted. I remember very clearly how she looked from behind after she hung up. She was looking down, holding both her elbows. She looked like she had lost hope in life. "Keep writing," I said. Her small frame flinched. She turned toward me slowly. "Tooru…no. I'm done." I could tell from her voice that she was trying to give up but couldn't bring herself to cut it off completely. "That's not good," I said. "I can help with the housework. I'll learn little by little." "It's fine, really." "It's not." "What's gotten into you, Tooru?" "When I do something bad, you scold me, and I'm grateful for it. So I'm scolding you. Don't give up that easily. I'm begging you. It's your dream, isn't it? To become a novelist?" She stared at me silently. I went on, desperate to convince her. "You don't need to stay in this house. I can take care of Dad." If I've done anything praiseworthy with this insignificant life of mine, it's saying those words. Unfortunately, I was still only six months out of elementary school. I tried not to cry, but my eyes grew hot anyway, and tears spilled down my cheeks. The truth is, I was terrified of what would happen if my sister left. But I wanted to support her anyway. She looked down, hesitating, then looked back up at me. "All right. Let's work on it together. I won't quit writing…okay?" From then on, I started learning how to keep house and cook from her. How to value and strive to be sanitary. That was a pillar of housework for her. Every night at six, when I got home after club activities, I helped her. She was busy with work, and when I'd learned enough, I started leaving club early to shop on my way home and cook dinner. I would wash the bathtub, too. When Dad got home from his job, I would serve him dinner and get his bath ready, like it was nothing. I used to wait proudly for her to come home. After a year, learning from her and on my own, I basically knew how to run the household. My sister's burden was eased. She had time to rest and write. We only had one computer, and it was Dad's. She used a computer at work, but she wrote her novels by hand back then. I would study while she wrote. One day in late winter, I learned that I'd gotten into the high school I was aiming for. Early that morning, my sister was bustling around. Dad was still sleeping. At the time, he and I shared a room. I learned later that my sister had been preparing to quit her job since the beginning of my third year of junior high. I lay in the futon next to Dad, staring at the ceiling. I realized she was leaving. I slipped out of bed, taking care not to wake him up, and found her putting her shoes on in the entryway. "You're going?" I asked. She stood up. She turned and looked at me with her clear eyes. "Tooru…" I wasn't a child anymore when tears would pour down my cheeks even if I tried to resist them. I said the words a person should say when they see someone off. "I'll see you when you come back." She picked up her bag. "Yes. I'll see you when I get back. I'm sorry… I really am." "I'm sorry for stealing your time and your opportunities for so long." "You didn't. I know this might make your life harder." "It's nothing compared to what you did starting from your first year of junior high. Be well, Keiko Nishikawa. I'm rooting for you. I always will be." "Thank you, Tooru." That day, she flew off from our familiar apartment complex into the world. About six months later, a novel by Keiko Nishikawa won the Literary World New Author Prize. A year and a half later, another book by Nishikawa was nominated for the Akutagawa Prize. Just in a year and a half. I wanted to reject the word sacrificed that she had used. "I don't feel like I've been abandoned. You couldn't do what you wanted for a long time. You finally did it, and I'm happy. Congratulations. I mean it." She had been looking down like she was ashamed of herself, but now she looked up. She hesitated for a moment, then smiled calmly. "Thank you. You're a bit thin, but you look happy. I was planning to get in touch after the Akutagawa Prize was announced, whether I won or not." "You're not going to see Dad today?" "I think it would be better not to. Things are still too uncertain." Suddenly, I remembered how Dad looked when he was writing. He had tried to become a novelist, and she had become one. But he didn't know that. "Is Dad still trying to become a writer?" she asked a little worriedly. I felt like she'd read my mind. "Yeah. He's writing something all the time. Sometimes he skips work for it. But enough about that. I want to hear about you." I tried not to think about him as we talked about all sorts of things. Mostly, I asked her questions. After she left home, she got a job at a bookstore in Tokyo and devoted herself to writing. The woman at the signing was her editor, the same one who had seen her potential from the start. "What about you? It sounds like you found someone you like." "Me?" I thought about what had changed in the past year and a half, and what had not. Images of Hino's innocent laughter and gestures, and of her face as she gazed intently at me, passed through my mind. They only appeared for a moment in the flow of our conversation, but my sister must have seen something in my expression, because she smiled warmly. Hino was becoming more important to me than my sister. No, not more but equally important. I sensed that quietly and painfully. "I'm…seeing someone. I mean, we're really more like friends." "Are you? That sounds like a good thing." She looked like she already knew. But the next moment, her expression changed to one of surprise. "She has anterograde amnesia. When she goes to sleep and her brain starts to process her memories, all the memories from that day are erased." My sister was quiet for a few moments. Who could expect to hear something like that? That their little brother was dating someone with that kind of condition? But she took it seriously. "And you like her a lot, this girl? Truly, from your heart?" "Yes. I want to make every day happy for her. I want to enjoy life together. She keeps a daily journal, and I want to fill it with fun things so that every day, when she reads it, she'll feel a little more optimistic about her life." My sister closed her eyes. When she opened them, they were full of warmth. "Thank you for telling me. This might sound a bit dramatic, but I wish the two of you all the happiness in the world." "Thank you." She smiled faintly. Then she took out a phone, which she'd never had when she lived at home, and pulled up her own number. "I need to have a phone now. Can we exchange numbers?" I pulled out my own phone, hesitated for a moment, then added her as "Keiko Nishikawa." She typed in my number and, still holding her phone, looked down. "I feel so bad to have left Dad entirely in your hands. If you ever have trouble with him, please don't hesitate to call me." "Thanks. But this is the most important time for you. We're fine. Don't worry about us," I said confidently. "You've become quite the shoulder to lean on," she said, smiling. I smiled back. "But I'm glad," she went on. "I'm glad you have someone you care about. Her amnesia might not be cured easily, but make sure you treat her the best you can." She was looking at me with gentle eyes. Kindness and warmth felt as natural as air and water when I was with my sister. I hoped that memory, that sensation would carry over in my relationships with other people, even a little. "I will. And I won't just treat her well. I'll do everything I can to be that kind of person." I stood and reached for the bill. My sister blocked my hand. "I'll get this one," she said. "You sure? Thanks." "You're welcome. I'm coming to a turning point soon. Until then, take good care of Dad." We left the café together and met up with the editor, who was waiting in the hotel lobby on the first floor. She said my sister had a signing the next day in a different city. My sister and I both managed a smile and said our goodbyes. I took out my phone and responded to Wataya's message that I'd seen when I was exchanging numbers with my sister. I said I'd meet her and Hino on a bench outside the aquarium. I took the subway to the nearest stop and walked from there under the twilight sky. Everyone had problems. However, right then, in that moment, I felt all of them fade away within me. I wasn't a powerless child anymore. I was still a kid, but I was past the age when I couldn't do anything. At the very least, I could walk with my own two feet. There was someone I wanted to see. And I could reach her side on my own feet. Partway there, I couldn't contain myself. I took off running. Hino's face was all I could think of. My whole body was filled with joy. Maybe because I was running, my heart started beating, and for a second, it tightened painfully. I stumbled but managed not to fall. Maybe it was because I was running on an empty stomach. I laughed at my own ridiculousness. But that was me, and it was okay. Each step connected me to her. I started sprinting again. It was the powerful urge I had been waiting for. 9 I had been dating Hino for three weeks. Finals were almost here. We were in the library together after school. As long as she was a student, she couldn't avoid tests. But it was impossible for her to retain new information. Her memories only lasted a single day. I thought about that as I watched her, bent over her notebook, scribbling something. "What's wrong, Tooru?" she asked, noticing my gaze and looking up. "Nothing, you just seem calmer than usual." "I'm not going to get rowdy around the library." "Who cares? Why not?" "Come on, stop. You're kind of…making me want to," she said shyly. I smiled at her. Earlier, in my classroom, I'd asked her what she wanted to do today. She'd said she wanted to study together. It was one of the things she'd mentioned wanting to do before. We headed to the library and sat down across from each other at a table. That much was fine. But she kept glancing at me, and she clearly wasn't writing words in her notebook. Her textbook wasn't even open. Growing suddenly suspicious, I leaned over the table and took a peek at her notebook. "Hey! Stop!" she said, flustered. On the page was a picture of an average-looking teenage boy with no outstanding features whatsoever. In other words, me. "You sure must be on top of your schoolwork," I said, sitting back down. "Resting is important, too!" she said, smiling to throw me off. "We haven't exactly done enough to need a break," I answered. "Hey, did my boyfriend just say something suggestive?" "No, I mean…you're really good at drawing." I was partly trying to change the subject but also genuinely surprised. Although I'd only gotten a glance, her drawing skills were better than average. She must have taken classes. "Why are you so good?" I asked. "Am I?" she answered, sounding pleased. "I guess I never told you. I was in art club in junior high. I even won some prizes." "That doesn't sound like you." "Hey, that was rude!" "Kidding." "I know." We exchanged smiles, and she let me see her drawing. I felt embarrassed, but more than that, impressed. I guess you'd call it a portrait. I could definitely tell she'd studied art. It was way beyond what I could do. "I quit when I started high school, but all of a sudden, I felt like drawing you." "Huh. Art. Interesting…" The Sunday after our botched aquarium date, it had suddenly occurred to me to do some research on Hino's amnesia. While my dad was on a walk, taking a break from writing, I borrowed the computer to search online. I found out that there are basically two types of memory, short-term and long-term. Short-term memory is the kind you only retain for a little while, like remembering a phone number long enough to call it. Long-term memory refers to things that you recall multiple times so you won't forget, like if you're studying for a test, and those things become established memories. If you have anterograde amnesia, you can't create new long-term memories, but it doesn't mean you lose all your previous ones. To get further into the weeds, there are two types of long-term memory, declarative and procedural. Declarative memory involves conscious recollection, where you can write down information, including factual things like what you did yesterday. This is usually what people are referring to when they talk about memories. But that day, when we were studying together, I was thinking about procedural memory. That's the kind you can't write down, like, to give a simple example, how to ride a bike. Most of knowing how to ride a bike involves sensations. Even if you lost a day of memories, you wouldn't lose your muscle memory, the ones rooted in your body rather than in your brain. I didn't look into the details, but my guess was that drawing might be a procedural memory. I felt like I'd discovered something. I handed Hino's notebook back and said, trying to hide my excitement, "It's cool that you have a special skill or hobby like that." "You think so? But I'm really not that good," she said modestly. Still, she seemed happy. "I'm jealous. My only hobby is reading. I bet something like drawing is like riding a bike. Once you learn, you don't easily forget it." "What? Oh, right. I wonder." She looked at me blankly. Pretending to show off my random knowledge, I told her about short-term and long-term memories. I explained that, while knowledge is important for drawing, it must also have a lot to do with procedural memories, or the body's sense for how to do things. The more you draw, the better you get. Your body remembers how to do it. After I finished talking, Hino looked lost in thought. "Hino, are you okay?" I asked, a little worried. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Sorry. I was just thinking. Procedural memory, that's interesting." She sank into thought again. "You think procedural memories don't go away?" she suddenly asked. "I wonder if people with amnesia forget how to ride a bike," I said, knowing I was taking a fairly big risk. "I don't think so," she said. "Then there's your answer." "Huh." "Yeah." "Interesting." The next instant, her brooding expression crumpled into a smile. Crumple really is the right word for it. To me, it looked like she was trying to hide her happiness and not quite succeeding. We didn't do much of anything for the rest of the day. I completed some worksheets we had for homework, and Hino kept drawing in her notebook. On the way home, I asked her, "Was today okay? We didn't do anything very fun." "What? No, it was fine! I learned something pretty important, and I had fun drawing you." Something pretty important. I'd mentioned it casually, but I was hoping it might improve her everyday life in some small way. If she got in the habit of drawing, each day's version of herself might enjoy life a little more. Ultimately, people draw the greatest strength from within themselves. "Honestly, I wish you wouldn't draw me anymore," I said, trying to sound casual despite my serious thoughts. "It's embarrassing. How about drawing Wataya instead? She's got nice facial features." Hino struck a thinker's pose. "In other words, my boyfriend thinks Wataya has a pretty face?" "I didn't say that!" She teased me about that for the rest of the day. The next day, I noticed something. Hino seemed to be influenced by her most recent journal entries. Once again, she said she wanted to study together in the library and spent the time drawing me. The rest of the week passed uneventfully, and then our exams came. Hino sat for finals, but her grades didn't matter. During test week, we studied with Wataya, and each time, Hino drew me, although she tried to hide it. Wataya knew she'd started drawing. She also seemed to have heard that it was me who suggested it. The previous week, when I was switching rooms for one of my classes, someone slapped me hard on the back. I highly doubt many people would realize that was her way of expressing appreciation. I looked over and saw her smiling at me meaningfully, her hand still on my back. "So why are you hiding the fact that you know about her amnesia?" she asked. Hino wasn't there, so I doubt she knew Wataya was bringing it up with me. "Hino's trying to keep it secret, and I don't see any point in letting on that I know," I answered. She looked at me skeptically, as if she was weighing my words. When I thought about it, I realized this was an opportunity. I made up my mind and said, "Actually, Hino told me why she keeps her amnesia a secret from the kids at school." Wataya made a surprised noise but didn't say anything else. "I could sense her anxiety and fear," I went on. "I mean, it's scary, right? There are bad people in the world. I bet a fair number of jerks would come out of the woodwork thinking they could do anything to her because she wouldn't remember it. It's the perfect situation for bullying or abuse. She'd forget it all." Wataya stiffened nervously. "You're not like that, right? You wouldn't do anything like that to her?" "Of course not. But my class doesn't have a very good reputation. We've had some harassment incidents. If she knew her boyfriend was in that class, and he knew about her amnesia…what would she think every day? I bet she'd be worried." I didn't know what she'd written in her notebooks about my personality or our relationship. Though, I'm willing to bet she'd written down that I told her I liked her as part of a bullying incident. Wataya didn't know that part, but it could add to Hino's anxiety. "So that's why you aren't telling her?" "Right." The truth was, I wished I could support Hino in the same way Wataya did, as someone who knew about her amnesia. However, Hino and I hadn't even known each other before this. Even though we spent every day together after school, there was a crucial difference. From her perspective, we'd never met. I was thinking about that distance I could never bridge when Wataya said, "I thought you two would break up right away. Actually, I still think you will." Her words could be seen as harsh, but suddenly she smiled. "But…yeah. After what you said just now, I feel like I understand you a little better. I'm glad you're a good guy. But don't you think you're taking on too much? Make sure you don't burn out and keel over one day." I wasn't sure if she was joking, so I smiled vaguely. "If that happens, I'll leave the rest in your hands." "Me? Take over for you? Well, I do feel like I could play a guy's role in the all-female theater troupe Takarazuka Revue." "Hino might be the man in our relationship." "I don't want to see you in a frilly dress." After that, we made a point of not talking about serious things. We agreed to only contact each other if we were really in trouble and to act normal in front of Hino. When Hino tried to draw Wataya's portrait while we studied in the library after school one day, Wataya teased her. "I don't care if you draw me, Maori, but can you please stop drawing me with a frown on your face?" "I was just noticing how perfect your facial features are. Damn you…!" "What did I ever do to you? Hey, boyfriend, say something!" Wataya said, pulling me in. "I think your features are perfect, too, Hino," I said casually. "What, really? Are you falling for me?" "Yes, I love you!" "Oh, I'm so happy!" "You two sound like bad actors reading a script." Sometimes, in the middle of all this, it would hit me. I was taking our school routine for granted, but summer vacation was coming. What would happen to Hino then? She would wake up in the morning and learn she had amnesia. She'd read her notebooks and gradually accept her situation. But there would be no school. With time on her hands and the sun shining down, how would she feel? At the very least, it would be good if she had a hobby to entertain her. If she decided on a theme, she might be able to work on her drawings across many days, passing them from one self to the next. Wouldn't it be great if she could accomplish something even in her current state? I'd wanted to take Hino to the amusement park on Saturday, but I had to put it off because of finals. That made two weeks in a row that I hadn't been able to keep my promise. The previous weekend, she had some things to do, while I had jobs to do for the neighborhood association at my apartment complex. She didn't tell me exactly what she had to do, but she probably has checkups or tests at the hospital once a month. Now it was July. Our finals spanned over five consecutive days. During that testing period, the three of us went to the library together, and once again Hino started furtively drawing me in her sketchbook, peering at me curiously as she did. I felt restless, but I served as a model without complaint. Tests ended, and Saturday finally arrived. The three of us went to the amusement park. Hino and Wataya made me go on the roller coaster three times in a row. I'd never been to a theme park, and I realized what a terrifying place it is. I must have looked like I was suffering, because Hino kept asking me if I was all right, like she felt sorry for me. At one point, I said something weird when I answered. "Oh, I'm fine," I said. "Don't worry about me. I like doing new things with you. I'm always trying to think of ways for you to have fun." The two of them gave me an awkward look. "What? What's wrong?" I asked, panicking a little. Wataya scratched her cheek uncomfortably. "Nothing, it's just…sometimes you give these embarrassing little speeches." I started blushing and changed the subject by suggesting we have a late lunch. After we ate, we walked around the grounds. As the sky turned orange, we talked about summer vacation. I suspected Wataya would start studying for college entrance exams since she's in the advanced class, but she didn't bring it up. She was probably being considerate of Hino. Instead, she grumbled that she'd have to spend the whole time helping her mom and reading. I said I'd probably be doing the same thing, since I don't have any hobbies. "Are you going to draw and stuff?" I asked. Hino hadn't said anything so far. She nodded. "Summer…," she mumbled. To her, yesterday was spring, but when she woke up, it was suddenly summer. The word surprised didn't begin to express it. I think it must have been a sad feeling. "I'm jealous of you two," Wataya sighed, filling in the silence between Hino and me. "You have each other, and you can go on as many dates as you want." "Let's hang out together and go to lots of places," I answered. "We can go to some festivals and set off fireworks. Let's live it up." Sometimes, twilight brings melancholy along with darkness. I was trying to brighten up the mood. Hino stopped walking and turned to me with a distant look in her eyes. "Yes, that sounds nice." She smiled faintly. Summer was just around the corner.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter6.txt	Once-in-a-Lifetime Summer Once-in-a-Lifetime Summer 1 August 4 (Monday), Summer Vacation Morning at home: as usual Afternoon at home: Drawing. Thought about setting a goal for how many drawings I should finish over summer break. What will tomorrow's me think? Finished three simple still lifes. With my boyfriend: I went to the library at four in the afternoon. He was in the study room looking at a reference book. We talked. He said that during breaks from studying, he'd been looking at art books for me. He showed me a few. Not only that, he also summarized the main points for me. He said there are various methods for improving at drawing, but one important technique is to draw quickly. By drawing something as soon as you see it, before you have time to think, your senses are utilized as much as possible. It's called croquis in French, mainly applies to things that move, like people. I thought about that. Sharpening my senses feels like a good approach for me right now. Also, I remember my junior high art teacher talking about the importance of sketching. I decided to start a new section for notes about drawing, so refer to that ("Art" page in the binder). But I wonder if my boyfriend is falling behind on his own studies because he's helping me so much. I asked him, and he just smiled. It was kinda cute. Afterward, the two of us went to the stationery store near the library. I bought a pad of paper for sketching. There are more sheets compared to a regular sketchbook, and it's thinner and bigger. My boyfriend Mr. Thrifty paid for it, said it was to celebrate. Next time I'll buy him tea or something. Remember that, my future selves! The locusts are trilling outside, a sign that it really is summer. It's so hot, I have to keep the air conditioner on all the time, but even then, I'm still covered in sweat. Time moves on, leaving me behind, alone. "Earth, stop turning!" I say, then realize that won't do much good and restart the AC. When I woke up and found out it was summer vacation, I couldn't manage a smile. To make matters worse, I can't retain information anymore. I look at the middle finger of my right hand. I don't tell other people this, but I like my hands. The callus on that finger is physical proof that I spent hours with a pen in my hand studying every day even after I got into high school. That's how I got into the advanced class in my second year. Except the callus is going away now. I couldn't work hard anymore. Or, to be more accurate, even if I work hard, I won't get any smarter. It makes me want to cry a little. Still, in the afternoon, I manage to sort out my thoughts. I've got a handle on my situation and my friends. And it's summer, the season for love. Even in this state, I have a boyfriend. On a page in the sketchpad on my desk, there's a portrait of a teenage boy I barely recognize. Apparently, this guy with the oval face is my boyfriend. There are a lot of other drawings in the book, including some figure drawings. I quit doing art when I started high school so I could concentrate on studying, but it seems that lately, during summer vacation, I've been drawing every day. Maybe that's why my callus hasn't completely disappeared. I got the sketchbook recently, and there's no sign of a huge improvement in the few dozen pages I've filled. Nonetheless, I'm definitely getting better, slowly advancing like a turtle. It seems my boyfriend has something to do with me starting to draw again. After learning of the technical term "procedural memory," my past selves seem to have concluded that maybe, even now, I could retain these procedural memories, which are like physical memories. In other words, there was a possibility I could improve at drawing. That turned out to be true. My old pictures serve as a testament. I looked up some more information on the internet and found out that procedural memory is also called implicit memory. Besides drawing, practicing music and other similar things also help develop those memories. I don't have much to do today, so I read the binder section on "Art" and try out some croquis sketches, a technique that my recent selves have been practicing in my sketchbook. I play a foreign film on my laptop and stop it at a scene I like, using the actor as my model. Instead of thinking about it, I let my hand do the work, focusing on the sensations I feel while sketching. Just like in junior high, when I was drawing every day, the picture comes together easily. Compared to my first drawings, the lines now look more confident. I must be doing this every day to kill time. I admit, it's fun. My selves from previous days are in those skillful lines. They offer proof that even now, I can continue and achieve something over time and grow and develop. Knowing that makes me happy. I sharpen my focus and do another drawing. My phone lights up. It's a message from Izumi. Hey, how's it going? I snap a photo of the drawing I'm working on and send it to her. She is amazed. That's so good! You're really getting better every day. I've got a long way to go. But it's fun. And it kills a lot of time. I wish I had some kind of artistic hobby like that. Now that I think of it, I've never seen you do a drawing. What's your style like? They'll probably be very popular a few thousand years after I die. That's not artistic value, that's archaeological value! If I started counting the amount of bad things about my life right now, I could go on forever. So I try to focus on the good stuff. The best of all is that I already know Izumi. When I chat with her about silly stuff, I feel truly happy and at peace. By the way, are you meeting up with Kamiya today? Yeah. We're meeting at the library in the afternoon at four. Ah, young love. Izumi, sometimes you sound like an old man. Based on my journal, it seems I've been seeing my boyfriend almost every day over summer vacation. Recently, he showed me some art books, and before that, he took me to a game center. He won a teddy bear for me to draw, and I was really excited. Yet I can't find it. I guess I put it away somewhere the day I got it. I wrote the reason down. It's a little complicated, but it was that-day's me who wanted him to get the bear for her. The next day, if all that was left was the teddy bear and the fact that my boyfriend got it for me, that me might be confused or unhappy about it. I can be so annoying. Though, I could be right. After that, I message Izumi some more and go back to sketching. I read the art books from the library, too, reviewing the pages that my past selves read. I decide to focus on drawing fast today. I set a limit of five minutes per page and start sketching a foreign actor I like. Finishing a drawing in five minutes is hard. Still, if I do it every day, maybe I'll get better. My efforts might add up and have an effect. Soon, it's after three, so I spritz on some perfume, get myself ready, and ride my bike to the library. The sensation of summer clings to my bare skin. It's less than ten minutes from my house to the library. From my boyfriend's house, it takes roughly half an hour, but he's kind enough to meet me there every day. "Oh, there you are! You're actually studying today." "Hi, Hino. Don't worry; I'm a good student." I find him in the study room at the library. It's the guy from my sketchbook. According to my binder, he's always in the same position in the same spot, so he's easy to find. Izumi is going to summer school. She's enrolled in another test-prep place for college entrance exams, too, so she's kind of busy. To tell the truth, if I hadn't started drawing again and if I didn't have a boyfriend, I think my pessimism would have crushed me. My boyfriend puts away his stuff, and we go down to the break room on the first floor, where there's a vending machine. My boyfriend says he's not planning to go to university. Instead, he's hoping to get a government job at a municipal office that only requires a high school degree, even if he has to commute a long way to get there. That's why he's not too worried about studying. "Hino, what do you want to do today? You're free till seven, right?" "Right. Oh, I know! I want to go look at straw hats. It's summer, after all. But you're not allowed to buy me one, okay?" My boyfriend sulks a little but quickly agrees. "Okay. I'm useless as a sugar daddy anyway. Is the mall by the train station okay?" I tell him it is, and we get our bikes from the parking area. As I watch my boyfriend unlock his bike, my eyes fall on the cargo rack. "Think it's too dangerous to ride together? There are probably police around since we're downtown." I'd remembered the diary entries about how much fun we had riding a bike together before. He thinks for a minute. "They might be cracking down since it's summer vacation. But maybe we can do it." "Really?" "Let's give it a try." He grips the handlebar with one hand and kicks up the stand. He tells me to straddle the seat, so I do. He puts his other hand on the handlebar and starts walking. The bike rolls gently along with me on it. …Huh? As you can probably imagine, I'm like a princess on the horse, and he's the knight holding the reins. This is mortifying. I name this "princess riding." He doesn't seem to notice anything strange, because he walks right out of the parking lot like that. "Hey, no, wait!" I say. "What? I thought we'd go to the mall like this." Overwhelmed by embarrassment, I cover my face with both hands. I can feel it burning up. Maybe if I'd put on more makeup, I would have felt bolder. But not like this. "We can't let anyone see us this way!" I protest. Fortunately, we don't run into anyone. He finally seems to realize why I'm so embarrassed, because he suddenly takes his hands off the handlebars. I wobble. I try to put my feet down quickly, but the seat is too high. This is not good. I'm going to fall over with the bicycle! Just then, my boyfriend wraps his arm around my waist and saves me. He grabs the handlebars with his other hand, and the bike stays upright. To put it simply, I'm now in my boyfriend's arms. "Oh!" "Oh…s-sorry!" He's panicking, but then a giggle escapes my mouth. In this position, my feet can reach the ground, so I manage to pull myself away, feeling his eyes on me all the while. He sets the bike upright as I watch him. I feel laughter bubbling up in my stomach. I try to stop it, but I can't. I clap my hand over my mouth. "What's wrong, Hino?" I can't hold it in anymore. I burst out laughing. "What is this?" I giggle. "This is the worst romantic comedy ever! Ahhh, it's hilarious. I've never seen a couple ride together like that! How can you do that without getting embarrassed?" My boyfriend scratches his head awkwardly. "I don't know…I'm sorry. It's just, when you said you were worried about the police catching us, I thought this might work. But you're right, it was weird." Suddenly, his expression relaxes. "It definitely was! Catching me when I was about to fall off the bike? That's straight out of a shoujo manga! It's summer. We're high school students. Does this even happen in real life? It's shocking. But more than that, it's hilarious!" We both start laughing like we're remembering it all over again. Eventually, we each get on our own bike and ride to the mall. Window-shopping is fun enough, so I don't end up buying anything. We get ready to go home. "Bye, Hino. See you tomorrow," my boyfriend says. "See you tomorrow." I watch him ride into the distance. It's weird to say this, but the me of this morning was jealous of the me of yesterday. I felt like it was unfair of my past selves to be having so much fun, according to the diary, while I felt so hopeless. I wanted those enjoyable memories to be my own. I wanted to share in their fun. I wanted to take normal things for granted, like I always did before. After hanging out with my boyfriend, though, those ugly feelings have gone away. I sympathize with yesterday's me, because she also felt like I do now when she wrote in the diary. That's another weird thing to say—that I sympathize with yesterday's me. Oddly enough, when I saw my boyfriend, who should have been a stranger to me, my heart throbbed a little. I can't store information, but maybe other things do stay with me. Emotions, feelings. For one, I think I'm starting to like him. No, that can't be possible. But…maybe it is. I watched him as we were shopping. He wore a troubled smile. I think about it on the way home. I have dinner and take a bath. I write in my diary, and in the short time before going to bed, I sketch. I draw the scene I'm thinking about: when my boyfriend was pushing me on the bike. I'm not in a bad mood as I draw. 2 On August 12, the winners of the Akutagawa Prize and the Naoki Prize for the first half of the year are announced. I was restless from the time I woke up. Dad must have felt the same way, because he seemed on edge since the morning. He still didn't know that Keiko Nishikawa was his own daughter. Still, he had his eye on the Akutagawa Prize, and not just because he likes literature. As an aspiring novelist, I think he feels a mixture of longing and regret and even something like envy. After he left for work, I packed a simple lunch and headed to the library as usual. I brought a little radio with me. The prizewinner would probably be posted online first, but the radio news would announce it, too. By noon, they still hadn't announced it yet. I like literature, but I don't listen for the winner in real time like this every year. I usually find out in the next day's paper, so I didn't know what time they would announce it. I ate my lunch and then went to the magazine rack to search for the issue with Keiko Nishikawa's nominated story in it. I read it over again from the start. I don't know how many times I did. Two o'clock passed before I knew it. As I was about to turn on the radio, someone approached me. "Excuse me…" "Hino?" I looked up at the sound of her familiar voice. This was different from our usual routine. "What's wrong? It's not four yet, is it?" She was standing nervously in front of me, wearing a white dress that made her look a bit like a girl from some wealthy family and holding a big straw hat in both hands. "No, but you'll find out about your sister today, right? Would you mind if I waited with you? We'll be able to hear the news immediately on my phone, and I think we'll be able to watch the live conference." I hadn't told yesterday's Hino that today was the Akutagawa Prize announcement. She must have looked it up herself. Or maybe Wataya told her. I nodded, put the magazine back, and, at Hino's suggestion, went with her to the break room. On the way, I noticed the straw hat again. "That one did look good on you," I said. It was the one we'd seen the day before at the mall near the station. Hino had been trying to decide between two styles, and she must have gone back to buy the one I said looked better. I'd wanted to get it for her, but maybe she beat me to it on purpose so I didn't have to spend the money. That sounded like her. However, for some reason, when I mentioned it, she seemed upset. "What? You recognize this hat?" "What?" I thought about what she'd said. She'd forgotten we saw it together. I thought back over the happy memories from the day before. There was the embarrassing episode in the parking lot. Afterward, we went window-shopping. She'd messed around, putting the women's straw hat on me. We'd both laughed about it. To me, it was an important memory, but she didn't remember it. To her…that was normal. She forgot everything. "I wanted to go to the big art store by the station, so I got my mom to drive me there this morning," she said. "I stopped into some shops on the way, and I just loved this one from the moment I saw it, so…" She seemed to be having trouble explaining. I flashed a desperate smile. Not only had she gone out that morning, but she'd also met me earlier than usual. She probably hadn't planned on that. It couldn't be helped. Reading all her diary entries must take a long time. "Ah, gotcha. It's nothing important. I just remembered you glanced at it when we went to the mall together, so I was wondering about it. I guess it's not good to be overly observant, huh?" I said, trying to brush it off by stringing together some things I wouldn't usually say. I didn't mention the fact that I'd considered selling some used books to get the money to buy the hat for her. Hino looked slightly uncomfortable, but when I told her how good it looked, she returned to acting like her usual self. Wataya was waiting for us in the break room. "I thought you might have told her," I said to Wataya, pulling myself together after my interaction with Hino. "Thanks for making the trip down here. You came because you knew they were announcing the Akutagawa Prize today, right?" "Yup," Wataya answered, looking slightly worried. "Sorry to barge in like this. Are we bothering you?" "Not at all. To tell the truth, I couldn't concentrate, so I'm glad you're here." "Okay, that's good. Let's all wait together. I'm kind of on edge myself." According to her research, the prize was announced at a different time every year, but a live online press conference with the winner was scheduled to start at six. We still had some time, so Hino read my sister's nominated story while Wataya and I sat around restlessly. Wataya said this was her first time watching the announcement live. "Calm down, you two!" scolded Hino. We'd been getting up and down from our seats and making pointless trips to the washroom. "We are calm," I insisted. "Completely calm. Right, Wataya?" "Oh, yes, very. We couldn't care less," she added. "Really, now?" Hino said. The clock ticked on. As six o'clock approached, we went outside so we wouldn't bother the other library patrons and watched the online program on Hino's phone. "The live broadcast of the Akutagawa Prize and the thirty-fifth Naoki Prize winners' press conference will begin shortly," an announcer said. It was finally starting. Two men were seated at a long table. One was introduced as a commentator and began giving some introductory remarks about the origins of the two prizes. He and the other guy, his assistant, must have been speaking at the venue where the press conference would take place. The tension in the air was apparent on-screen. Since it was a live broadcast, all the nominees must be waiting in another room. I wondered what my sister was feeling at the moment. Time dragged on with no announcement of the winner. According to the commentator, it probably wasn't going to happen until between seven and eight. That was still an hour or two away. My dad had said he was eating out that night, so I didn't need to cook. I could stay out late, but the library was closing at seven. We needed to go somewhere else. I looked up from the phone at Wataya and Hino. "What should we do? I wouldn't mind going to a family restaurant or something, but what about your parents? You could go home now if you need to." "I'm sure my mom wouldn't care. What about you, Maori?" Wataya said right away. "They won't mind as long as I call and tell them. It's a special thing, so I think we should all wait together. But where should we go? The nearest family restaurant is kind of far away. Izumi is on her bike, and if we get there late, we might miss something." My house was closer than Wataya's. The streets were still relatively safe during the day, but a summer night could be dangerous. "Then how about I sleep over at your place, Hino?" Wataya said casually. "Should we sneak Kamiya into your room?" "What?!" I blurted out loudly. Hino seemed more surprised by my reaction than by Wataya's suggestion. Hino's house. It was summer vacation and all, but I still felt hesitant about going to a girl's house at night. It wouldn't look very good if her parents caught us. "Sorry for shouting, but I don't think it's a good idea," I protested. "How about we go to a family restaurant by the station? I know I'm no hulk, but I can walk you back to Wataya's house afterward." Hino ignored me, lost in thought. Wataya was grinning. Crap! Hino thought I didn't know about her amnesia. I wasn't sure what she'd told her parents about me, but wouldn't it be a heap of trouble if I went to her house? Then she smiled like she'd made up her mind and said cheerfully, "Okay! We'll sneak Kamiya into my room, so my parents won't know he's there, and wait for the announcement together. What do you say?" I froze. If there was any way out of this, I would've liked it if someone told me how. But Wataya jumped in to say she thought it was a great idea, and the two of them started frolicking around like it was all decided. "Hey, wait…what?" I mumbled. 3 Hino and Wataya basically forced me to go with them to Hino's house. According to Hino, her dad was overprotective, so we came up with a strategy to smuggle me inside. Our plan was that Hino would tell her mom that Wataya was coming over, and the three of us would head to her house. While Wataya chatted with Hino's parents in the living room, Hino would bring me inside, and the two of us would go upstairs to the hallway outside her room. She would clean up her room quickly, and when she was done, I would go in. When Hino called her mom, she said she'd be happy to have Wataya come over, especially since it was summer vacation. She didn't even mind if she slept over. "By the way," I said as the three of us rode our bikes toward Hino's house, "how am I supposed to leave?" "Don't worry," Wataya answered confidently. "I'll chat with them in the living room again. You can just slip out then." We arrived at Hino's house. It was my first time seeing it, and it wasn't one of those cookie-cutter houses. It was a proper single-family home. I walked off a little ways and locked up my bike by the side of the road. When I got back and peeked into the yard, I saw the two of them walking into the entryway, waving at Hino's parents. A few minutes later, the front door opened again. Hino poked her face out, obviously enjoying the prank, and gestured for me to come in. I tiptoed into her house. "Carry your shoes, okay?" she whispered. "Okay," I replied, picking them up. I looked over at the closed door that must lead to the living room and heard Wataya's cheerful voice coming from the other side. Hino's parents were in there. I wondered what they were like. "What are you doing?!" she hissed, bringing me back from the clouds. I followed her. We went upstairs. Apparently, the room at the end of the hallway was hers. While she cleaned up, I waited anxiously outside. The door opened, and she gestured for me to come in. Her room was much bigger than mine and very tidy. She told me to put my shoes on top of a magazine she laid out that she planned to throw away, so I did. "I'll go get Izumi and bring some food back for us. Wait a minute, okay?" she said. "Okay, sure," I answered. She closed the door, leaving me alone. I let out a long breath. Then the door opened again, and I jumped. Hino smirked at me. "This is a girl's room. You may be my boyfriend, but you better not look at my underwear or anything!" "I w-wouldn't do that." She gave me a long look. "You can peek if you want." "I told you I won't!" She was definitely teasing me. As I thought about how to make her go away, she stared at me some more. "Can I ask you a weird question?" she inquired. "No way. Don't ask anything too awkward in this situation." "Do you like me, Tooru?" "What…?" For a second, I forgot about all my complicated emotions. The ticking of the clock thundered in my ears. "Why are you asking me that? Did you forget the third condition?" I had no idea what to say. I smiled, trying to keep myself from sounding too serious, but I didn't know if it worked. "Oh, I remember. But…I was just wondering, and I wanted to ask you." "Don't worry. I won't really fall in love with you," I reassured her. There was no way I could admit I'd fallen in love with her a long time ago. I made an effort to curl my lips into a tense half smile. "Oh… Okay. Sorry for the weird question," she mumbled. Maybe I was imagining it, but her smile looked a little sad. "It's fine. But it's not like you to wonder about something like that. What's up?" I asked. She smiled playfully, making me think I'd misread her expression a moment ago. "Nothing. I was just thinking that if you really liked me, I'd better be prepared to lose a pair or two of panties." "I told you I'd never do that!" I accidentally shouted, then slapped my hand over my mouth. "Enjoy your time," Hino said, smiling as she closed the door. I heard her footsteps fade and let out another long breath. I won't really fall in love with you. Really? If the world were different, what would our relationship be like? Would I keep hiding my feelings for her while she kept her amnesia a secret and continued our fake romance? It wouldn't last long. I felt like we would break up eventually. I smiled bitterly at having thought that. I didn't regret falling for her. Even if my feelings came to nothing…I didn't care. I closed my eyes, trying to switch gears. But what should I do? I had some time before the two of them came back. I opened my eyes and looked around Hino's room. Ogling a girl's room was definitely bad. But I noticed the sketchbook we'd bought together lying on her desk. I walked over to it. There was a pencil next to it, along with a sharpener and a small utility knife. It smelled a little like the art room in junior high. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted to know more about Hino, so I flipped through the notebook. There were several line drawings of people. Suddenly, my own face appeared, and my hand stopped. The me in her sketchbook had a troubled smile on his face. I vaguely remembered making an expression like that in a photo she took earlier during vacation. I flipped the page. There were more sketches of me smiling pitifully or looking away. Other drawings weren't fleshed out yet. I recognized a few of the poses. One looked like me from behind, pushing Hino on her bike in the library parking lot. I wondered how she thought of me. What, you recognize this hat? I remembered our exchange about the hat with a twinge of pain, but I tried to ignore it. Slowly, I closed the sketchbook. I noticed a piece of paper poking out of the wide drawer of her desk. What was it? She'd said she wanted to clean up before I came in. Maybe it had something to do with that. I hesitated, but when would I have another chance like this? My hand reached out. There were several pieces of paper in the drawer, along with a binder and notebooks. Written on the piece of paper, in Hino's handwriting: I've suffered memory loss in an accident. Read the notebook on the desk. I quickly closed the drawer. Noticing that the paper was still sticking out, I quickly arranged it so it wouldn't crease. My heart was pounding, and my hands were shaking. Cruelty lurked beneath the surface of life. That thought suddenly crossed my mind. People might not notice it, but cruelty was hiding all over the place. Hino had told me about the binder and notebooks that day at the park, but she hadn't mentioned the pieces of paper. She probably hung them on the wall where she would see them every day. Every day, she was forced to face her illness. I felt like I'd glimpsed the reality of her life that I'd been so terrified of. The reality she tried so hard to keep from me. She always smiled, no matter what. I, on the other hand… Hearing two sets of footsteps approaching, I stiffened. I had to pretend I was doing something else. I grabbed an art book lying nearby. "Have you been a good boy? Oh, look, you're reading a book. Typical," Hino said with a mixture of exasperation and admiration. "Kamiya, why aren't you acting more like a typical boyfriend?" Wataya asked, following Hino into the room. "What do you mean, 'typical'?" "You know, wearing Maori's underwear on your head or stuffing a bra in your pocket with the strap hanging out or something." "Strap? Honestly, just stop." I let out a quiet sigh of relief that for now they didn't seem suspicious. Hino set the tray she was carrying down on a low table. There were two plates of curry and rice, one with a huge serving and the other normal. There were two spoons and two cups as well. "I brought us dinner so we don't get hungry. Izumi and I will share the big plate; you can have the smaller one," Hino said. "Nice. Thanks." We stuffed ourselves with the spicy curry and watched the live coverage on Hino's laptop. Instead of the commentator, the screen now showed a big room at what looked like some fancy hotel. A whiteboard was set in the center of a low stage. Two pieces of paper were taped to the whiteboard. One read Akutagawa Prize, the other Naoki Prize. What I guessed were reporters sat in chairs facing the stage, glancing at the whiteboard periodically as they waited. It was slightly after seven. The announcement was supposed to come between seven and eight. We finished eating and waited another fifteen minutes on the edges of our seats. Something started happening on-screen. I heard the voices of the commentator and his assistant. "It sounds as if…as if…the winner has been chosen!" Amid a buzz of excitement, a man in a suit walked to the whiteboard. He taped a piece of paper next to the one reading Akutagawa Prize. Keiko Nishikawa Dregs Suddenly, the reporters were in a flurry. The commentator let out an excited cry. An announcement played over the loudspeakers. "This year's Akutagawa Prize is awarded to Dregs by Keiko Nishikawa. Copies of the winning book will be placed on the table at the front of the room. A press conference with Keiko Nishikawa…" I wondered how many people were watching the broadcast at that moment. Watching at home, on the train, in pubs and offices. The news would spread on social media, and tomorrow it would be the top news in papers and TV shows. How was my sister feeling at that moment? What was my dad doing? As I watched the screen in a daze, Hino said, "She won… She did it! Your sister is amazing. She won the Akutagawa Prize!" Our eyes met. It didn't feel real. "Thanks. I'm really happy for her." That was all I said. Then Wataya smiled wryly. "I thought she'd win. She'll be the darling of the media. Are you gonna start walking around with your nose in the air, Little Brother?" I thought about that. Nose… Pinocchio… Rudolph… "Damn it, I can't think of a good joke!" I moaned. The two of them laughed. The Naoki Prize winner was announced next. My sister's press conference happened first. Cameras flashed, and she was bombarded with questions from reporters. She answered concisely. The press conference only lasted about ten minutes. I felt a little distracted. My heart was still pounding. But I knew I couldn't stay in Hino's house. I told her and Wataya that I needed to head home. While Wataya distracted Hino's parents, we whispered goodbye outside the front door. "See you tomorrow. Good night." "Good night. Thank you for today." The Hino who would only exist for this one day parted ways with the me who would go on to tomorrow. As I stepped onto the sidewalk, I looked back and thought I saw the curtain in the living room window flutter. Was it Hino's father? The figure looked like a man, but I wasn't sure. He might have seen me… I walked to my bike. As I stood next to it absently, lit up by the streetlight, I sensed someone approaching. I turned around. It was Wataya, pushing her bike. "There you go spacing out again. Maori's mom kept saying she'd take me home. It was awful. But I told her I'd ride my bike, so could you come along with me? Actually, you're so out of it; I should be the one taking you home!" That would definitely not be right, so I told her I'd ride back with her to her house. We talked on the way to her apartment. I don't exactly remember what we discussed, but I have a sense that she chose a cheerful topic for my sake. When we got to her building, I headed home alone, despite her worries. On the ride back to my apartment complex, all I could think about was my sister. It was after nine when I got back. Dad was sitting in the kitchen waiting for me. He had a somber expression on his face. The laptop was next to him, along with a can of low-malt beer. I had a bad feeling about this. He looked up at me. "Tooru, is Keiko Nishikawa…" I looked at him, forgetting to blink. "Sanae?" 4 I didn't say anything, so Dad continued. "Today, they announced the Akutagawa Prize. I wanted to know who won, so just now I looked online and saw that Keiko Nishikawa did. A young woman in her twenties. I knew the name. And when I saw the picture from the press conference, I knew it was Sanae. Did you know? Tooru…did you know?" I'd predicted this day would come eventually. Even as I rode home from Hino's house, it had been in the back of my mind. I'd also figured that when that time did come, Dad and I would have a serious talk. "I knew," I said. "We kept it secret from you, but Sanae started writing novels a long time ago. Under the pen name Keiko Nishikawa." "You're kidding me. And she moved out to become a novelist? She was escaping from us?" "She wasn't escaping. She was heading toward something." "It's the same thing." "No, it's completely different. She didn't run from her own life. She ran toward it." Dad cast his eyes down, frowning. He sighed, and then, after a pause, he said, "Did you meet with her?" It felt like I was watching a bad movie. Only the ticking of the clock marked reality passing by. "We weren't in regular contact, but recently, she had a signing event at a bookstore. We met there by chance and talked." "Is she coming back?" "She has her own life now." "What, she doesn't want to live with us anymore?" Dad looked up and, without meeting my eyes, looked down again. "It's not that, but she worked hard for our sake for a long time. Starting from her first year in junior high, she kept our family together. You have to let her walk her own path now." I said that, but I too had been waiting for her to come back. Until I met Hino and Wataya and created my own world, that had been my only wish. I had even believed that was my life. "What will happen to us?" Dad asked. "We'll keep doing what we've been doing. I'm already studying for the civil service exam. The two of us can make it work." "She's making a fool of me." "Why do you think that?" "I'm no good as a father, no good as a novelist—No, I'm not even a novelist. She looks down on me for it." "That's not true." "Then why did she move out without saying anything?" I stared at Dad in the silent room. He must have felt my gaze, but he kept averting his eyes. "If she told you, you would've tried to stop her, wouldn't you? And then she wouldn't have been able to go. So…" "So what? It's not fair to leave without telling anyone. We're a family." A family. When my sister and I had needed a father, Dad wasn't there for us. That was the one thing I couldn't let myself say. I relaxed the fist I had been clenching. "That's right. We're a family. So let's celebrate her win." "Ever since I was a boy, I dreamed of winning the Akutagawa Prize. I got pretty close to getting the New Author Prize, you know." "She won because she's your daughter. She grew up surrounded by the books you bought." "Ah, so that's how you try to boost my ego and smooth this over? Even you have a girlfriend. If you get married, you'll probably move out. I'll be left alone." I thought of Hino's smile with a twinge of pain. I had no idea where our relationship would go. Or what would happen with her amnesia. "Get married? I can't even imagine that right now." "Is that so?… I guess I'm pretty drunk." "You are. And I'm going to tell you something: You're drunk on yourself, too. On your being a widower. On yourself as the struggling author. On the delusion that maybe you can become a novelist." Normally, I wouldn't speak that harshly to him, but for the first time in ages, he met my eyes. He might turn his face toward me as he spoke or joked around with me, but he never actually stared straight at me. He had always avoided it, just like he evaded facing the truth. But he wasn't the only one. I'd avoided it, too. I'd been running away this whole time. Everything stayed the same, and I didn't try to change it. Awkwardness filled the room. I sat there silently. Our eyes shifted away from each other. "What the hell are you talking about?" Dad stood up, his can of beer in one hand, and started walking toward his room. As I watched him go, I thought about some things. Would today be another day where I didn't try to change anything? Would I keep running away tomorrow and the next day, pretending nothing had happened? Would I leave the discord in our family as it was, without saying what I really wanted to say? What should I do? Couldn't anyone tell me? Anyone? Suddenly, I thought of Hino. It didn't happen very often, but occasionally, there was a little friction or misunderstanding between us, like with the straw hat. I tried to pretend I didn't notice it, didn't see it. After all, it was insignificant compared to the big problems she was dealing with. I saw her living the best life she could every day. Time, possibilities, even her future had been stolen from her. Nevertheless, she tried to stay optimistic. What had I seen in her room earlier? What had I stolen a glance at? She faced hardship every day. What about me? Was I going to run away at the very moment I had a chance to change things? Was I okay with that? I had no idea what would happen with me and Hino. But I wanted to be a person she could feel proud of. Before I knew it, I was following Dad and grabbing his shoulder. "Dad. We have to change. We can't run away anymore." I guess I caught him off guard, because he shook my hand off and turned toward me. "I'm not running away. I just don't have talent. If I had talent, I could become a novelist tomorrow. I could rebuild my life plan." He was glaring at me. I was taller than him now. "So let yourself get hurt. Fail a few times. And learn something from it." "What are you talking about? I've been hurt plenty." "Get over yourself. I guess it's easier that way, isn't it? Making yourself the hero of a tragedy. Write a novel about it, say it's your entry in the New Author contest you never enter." My words drained all trace of emotion from my father's face. I knew the truth. He was trying to be a novelist, but at the same time, he'd already given up. "I'm—I'm not doing that." "Don't lie to me." "It's the truth. I genuinely want to be a writer. Even now, that's my plan in life." "Dad, I'm tired of lies. You don't submit it because you don't want to be hurt. Isn't that right? You wanted to be a novelist, didn't you? Then—then stop being afraid of getting hurt!" "Tooru!" He grabbed my collar. We stared at each other at close range. Would today be the day he raised a hand at me for the first time? I didn't care if he did. If you want to move forward in life, you have to experience pain. You can't run from it. You can't get drunk on yourself and evade it. We didn't look away from each other this time. I steeled myself for whatever was coming. But it wasn't anger in his eyes; it was misery… "So, you knew. You knew I wasn't submitting my stories. That I wasn't sending in the manuscripts." Suddenly my breath grew ragged. Or maybe it had been all along, and I'd just noticed it. Dad lowered his hand from my collar. "I'm sorry. Once when I was cleaning your room, I saw all the envelopes in your closet. Envelopes you'd addressed and stuffed with your manuscripts but never sent. It wasn't proof, but it was enough to make me wonder. Maybe you weren't entering the contest anymore. Maybe you'd given up." Instead of looking at me, Dad stared down at the dull flooring. "But, Dad, there's something I want you to know. Sanae and I are grateful to you. You work from morning to night to support us. You're supporting me right now. You might not be a novelist, but you're a good father. The only thing is, we have to stop running from the truth." That was everything I wanted to say to him. All that was left was to wait for his reaction. Time passed so slowly, I felt like I was watching a sandglass. I don't know how long we stood there in silence. "We've never talked like this, have we?" he mumbled. I looked at him. He was desperately trying to smile. "No, we haven't," I muttered. "You've changed lately. I think it started around the time you started dating your girlfriend." "Yeah…you could be right. She's a fantastic person." "Is she? I'm glad you met a good one. Just treat her well, okay?" I nodded. Dad took a deep breath and let it out. "So I shouldn't be afraid of getting hurt, is that it? Yes, you're right." He sounded like he was finally sobering up after a long bender. "I'm sorry if I said too much," I said. "No…I'm the one who needs to apologize. I'm sorry. I've been running away for a long time… Running from reality. I ran from the housework, letting Sanae and you do it all. And to top it all off, I quit submitting to the contest. Like you said, I was afraid of getting hurt. After losing your mom, I was afraid of learning I didn't have what it takes to write. So I ran away." Maybe his strength had run out, because he sat down limply where he was. I hesitated, then decided to sit next to him. We didn't know what to do next. Dad looked down at his half-empty beer can and squeezed the sides in. If we were characters in a book, I wonder how we would have understood each other. Life didn't play out like fiction. Reality was drier, with the characters at a loss for what to do. We sat there like we'd sunk into the floor. But the world keeps moving. I asked Dad if he wanted me to cook something. He said not to worry about it. If I knew one thing for sure, it was that we conveyed to each other our important feelings. That counted as a step forward. From now on, no matter what happened, I wouldn't run away. I would keep looking Dad in the eye. I'm sure he was lost in thought at that moment, too. After a while of sitting in silence, Dad said, "Actually, would you mind making something?" I looked up. He made a poor attempt at a smile. "For some reason, I'm in the mood for tattered eggs." It was one of his favorite dishes, one Sanae used to make a lot. Mom's family used to make it, I guess. I put half a block of tofu in a small pot and added stock powder, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Then I stirred in some beaten eggs and cooked until the liquid was reduced. I don't know the real name of the dish, but we call it tattered eggs. When it was done, Dad put a big serving of rice in a bowl. He looked at me with an embarrassed expression, but also like he wanted something. That was his way of communicating. Lazy bum, I thought and spooned the tattered eggs over his rice. My sister said it was poor manners to eat them like that, but he'd always liked them that way and done it behind her back. As he sat in the kitchen chair wolfing down the rice and eggs, he said, "Hey…next time, would you show me how to make these?" I stared at him. He smiled guiltily. "I'm sorry. I can't change all at once. But, you know, I've been looking for the chance. And…" He tried hard to hold his smile. That's true of everyone, I think. We all want to be good people. Dad and I had been avoiding the truth, but that didn't make us bad people. We'd just lost sight of the light. I knew that now, because Hino had given it back to me. I couldn't help grinning at Dad's uncomfortable smile, which he also returned. The two of us cleaned up the dishes. It was almost ten. The landline, which almost no one ever calls, started ringing. Dad looked puzzled for a second but then seemed to realize something and looked at me. I nodded at him. He picked up the receiver, looking nervous. "Hello… Oh, Sanae?" He looked at me again. I pretended not to notice. I walked over to the window and opened it. A fresh night breeze blew into the house. Behind me, my father and sister were talking for the first time in years. "No, not at all. I'm the one who needs to apologize. I've been a bad father. And I… No, I won't say any more. I'm sorry. But, Sanae, isn't today a special day for you? Yes. Yes, I was surprised. I couldn't believe it was my own daughter. Yes." After a while, he sniffled and said very emotionally, "Sanae, congratulations. From the bottom of my heart, congratulations." I felt the core of my being tremble. I looked silently up at the sky. I cried just a little. About ten days after the announcement of the prize, my sister visited home. "You've kept things looking very nice, as expected of my little brother," she said when she came in. She'd called a second time a few days earlier, and ever since, Dad had been in high spirits. Starting the morning after our talk, he'd been helping with the chores. He tried cooking some stuff, messed it up, and tried again with my help, learning little by little. The day of her visit, he'd been cleaning since morning, and he boasted that he was going to cook dinner. "I'm not the only one cleaning," I told Sanae. "Dad's been helping." She looked genuinely surprised. "I've turned over a new leaf," Dad said bashfully. "Cooking and cleaning are kind of fun once you give them a try. I'm going to take a break from writing for a while. It's not an escape. It's just that I want to wait until I can really face myself in my writing. Then I'll start up again. By the way, Sanae, feel free to take any books you want. That includes first editions. I need to pare down my collection." Sanae gazed at him. He looked at the ground, then smiled shyly. "You…you were the reason I started writing in the first place," she said. "Thanks to you, I was able to watch someone writing novels up close. At first, I was like you. I wrote to escape from my reality. Then after a while, I stopped doing that. I started to think that maybe writing was a way for me to grow, a way for me to encounter my own new words and my own new ideas." Dad was silent. He looked moved almost to the point of tears. My sister was watching him, but then she took a cheerful tone, clearly trying to brighten the mood. "And…yes, you're right. This house does have a few too many books. It's not very sanitary. I think I'll take you up on your offer to bring some home with me. Is that all right, Dad?" "Yes, of course. Go ahead. It's for the best." "Are you sure? I'm going to be merciless." The two of them grinned at the same moment. I wouldn't say that all the bad blood disappeared right then and there. Dad had chosen being a novelist over being a father. My sister took over the household for him even though she knew his dream wasn't coming true but eventually chose the writer's path herself. Both felt guilty for their actions. All the same, they both smiled. Each in their own way, they were trying to move forward. Our air conditioner doesn't work very well, so it was hot in our house, but it was a nice summer day. The kind of day where you can almost feel the sunrays brushing against your skin. 5 August 26 (Tuesday), Summer Vacation Morning at home: as usual. Afternoon at home: Sketching. Did seven drawings based on scenes from foreign films. Going shockingly well. While drawing, I feel surprised by how accurate my lines are. Afterward, can't help smiling at my pieces. Got carried away and did five more drawings until hand started to ache. Gave myself a massage so as not to be a burden on tomorrow's me. With my boyfriend: Talked with him today at the library about fireworks. On the last day of summer vacation, there's going to be a fireworks show in the neighboring district. I waffled but ultimately decided to invite him. He agreed right away. Yesss! I've never been to that show before, but my boyfriend said he's been with his sister and dad in elementary school. He said his sister is staying with them for the first time in years. Interesting. I suggested he invite her, too, but he got flustered. He tries to act cool, so it's cute when he gets like that. He said he'll ask his sister about the fireworks, and afterward, we went to the bookstore. There are some books I read before my accident that I wanted to try reading again. I also want to rent movies my past selves haven't seen and find some new favorites. Novels are harder because they take so long to read, but movies and manga are doable. I bought a bunch of manga with interesting titles. My boyfriend spent the time reading a magazine that had an interview with his sister in it. I went up and whispered that he had a thing for his sister, and he got all flustered and muttered something. When it was time to go home, he asked if I'd forgotten my straw hat again. I guess I made a mistake before. I forgot we'd looked at straw hats together. I'd written down that he wanted to buy one for me as a present, but I didn't check my notes. Then I went and bought it myself. I brushed it off by saying the size wasn't quite right. He took something out of his bag. It was a hat decoration. A fake sunflower with a pin on the back. He said he thought it would look good on the straw hat and gave it to me shyly. I think he realized that my past selves hadn't been wearing it because we didn't want him to feel bad. How can he be so kind? I thought about today, just like my other selves did before. Even when I forget important things, he doesn't mind and is still kind to me, like today. I held the sunflower tight as I watched him ride away on his bike. My heart was throbbing like it was trying to tell me something. I think I might be falling for him. I haven't been able to calm down since I read my journal this morning. Today is August 31. The last day of summer vacation. I checked my planner, and it is definitely the day we planned to go see the fireworks together. When I woke up, I saw a yukata folded on my desk. Yesterday's me must have gotten it ready. There was a Post-it note on top with a drawing of myself saying Have enough fun for the both of us! Love, Yesterday's You. I look out the window. The world is brimming with the pure white light of a summer afternoon. The scene is like the canvas of a fickle painter. Yesterday, it was full of new leaves, but today it's covered over with new paint. The landscape has been redrawn. I calm my nerves and check my plans again. The fireworks begin at seven. I'm supposed to meet my boyfriend outside the station in the neighboring district at four. We're hoping to avoid the crowds and have a chance to take our time talking with each other. Izumi isn't coming. I invited her, but she told me to go have fun with my boyfriend since it would be the last big event of the summer. Time flies as I read my binder and journal. At two, I put on the yukata. A past me has already found a video that shows how to wear and tie the cotton kimono, and by watching that, I'm able to do it by myself with no problem. The white kimono had a subdued pattern with blue flowers. Apparently, I borrowed it from Mom, which explains why it looks kind of adult. I stand in front of the mirror and put my hair in an updo. A little makeup finishes off the look. Actually, not quite. Along with the yukata, a fake sunflower is set out on my desk with a note on it. It might be nice to wear the sunflower. Your boyfriend gave it to you, it reads. This morning when I woke up, I had amnesia. When I read the binder and journal to cheer myself up, I found out I had a boyfriend. This unknown boyfriend of mine had given me a present. I'd expect to feel confused. My former self sure would have. But… I pick up the fake sunflower. It seems I usually pin it to my straw hat, but it wouldn't be half bad in my hair. I gently attach it with a hairpin. It's not my usual style, but oddly enough, I kind of like it. Part of me seems to feel the fake sunflower is special. I think I might be falling for him. That line from my diary flickers across my mind, but I push it aside. I've already prepared everything I need to bring, so I decide to head out, even though it's a little early. Since riding a bike in a yukata would be dangerous, Mom agrees to take me to the station. She offers to take me all the way to the neighboring district, where we've agreed to meet, but that would be embarrassing, so I turn down the offer. At the station, I board a train and take it to the meeting spot. The station isn't very crowded yet. I'm ten minutes early, so I figure I'll go to the convenience store, but then someone comes up to me. "Hino." I turn around and see a skinny guy wearing a dark blue yukata. He smiles when he sees my face. It's my boyfriend, same as the photo I looked at before I left home. What's going on? My heart is beating faster than usual. "Oh, um, h-hi." I'm confused because I wasn't expecting him to be there yet. Maybe he notices, because he looks sad for a second. Damn it. From his perspective, all he did was say hi to his girlfriend, so why would she be confused? "Your yukata looks really good on you," he says. "What, really? Thanks. Yours looks good, too. I'm impressed. Did you put it on yourself?" "Yeah. But guys' yukata are easy. I practiced this morning." "Wow…you practiced wearing it? Wait, were you naked underneath?" "Honestly, is that all you think about?" I manage to break through the awkwardness with a joke. No matter how close we get, or how well we understand each other, I'll forget it all. He doesn't know that. Or does he? "Want to go to a café or something while we wait? If you don't mind going to a regular coffee shop, I'll pick up the tab," he offers kindly, interrupting my thoughts. "That's not like my boyfriend! Nice try, but today we're splitting the tab." "Then I'll keep my extra cash for the fireworks," he says as we head toward the café. There are several other couples wearing yukata in the café next to the station. A waiter brings us to a table by the window, and we sit down. "So, your sister is coming today, right?" I say. Supposedly, I suggested that she come with us a couple of days ago. I guess I thought it would be nice since she's back home. When he brought it up with her, she'd said she'd like to meet for a little while at the festival. "Yeah. We're supposed to meet her at six at the bridge near the venue." "Oh, okay. I'm a little nervous." I think I really do feel anxious. I'm being more polite than usual, too. "Interesting. I didn't know you could get nervous." "Of course I do. Like when… Hmm, I can't think of anything." As I rack my brain, my boyfriend smiles. I pout, and he apologizes. "Don't feel so intimidated by my sister. We're just saying hi, so you don't need to worry." "I know I was the one who suggested it, but she's a celebrity now, right? Can she walk around in public like this?" "She says people don't recognize her as often as you'd think. There will be lots of people here, and she said she'd be fine if she wears her hair differently." After that, we talk until after five thirty. There are more people wearing yukata now, and some of them start getting ready to leave. We do the same. A few minutes' walk from the café, the fireworks show will be held along the river that runs through downtown. Local restaurants and bars have set up booths outside, and there are stalls like you'd see at a festival. The street is already crowded. As you'd expect at a fireworks show, there are lots of couples. Some are holding hands. My boyfriend seems to notice, but he doesn't say anything. What should I do? Should I just do it? I've never held hands with a boy before, but I wouldn't mind. I glance at his manly hand, the tendons clearly visible. Here goes! Before I know it, I'm reaching out for his hand. He shoots me a surprised look. I pretend to be calm and meet his gaze. But my heart is pounding in my ears. "Wh-what are you doing, Hino?" "Nothing, I just thought this way, we wouldn't get separated. Also, since we're meeting your sister, I thought we could try acting like a couple." "You're pretty daring." "You noticed?" I say. I'm talking faster than usual. I feel embarrassed to be acting like this, but today's me will only exist for today. I don't want to have any regrets about this day. We walk along, holding hands, not like a fake couple. Like a real couple. As we get closer to the venue, the crowd becomes so dense, we can hardly move. It feels even more real now. I suddenly have a boyfriend, and we're together at the last fireworks show of the summer. "I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm at a fireworks show with my boyfriend," I murmur. "Where did that come from?" he asks. "I don't know. It didn't feel real, like my feet weren't on the ground…but suddenly I realized it is real, and I guess it made me happy," I say to cover up the real reason. He gives me a fresh-faced smile. "Let's have fun, Hino. I'm kind of weak and incompetent, but I can beat anyone when it comes to sincerity." Weak and incompetent but sincere? I can't help smiling at that self-description. "I've never heard a speech that's so pitiful and so hopeful at the same time." His grin widens. I squeeze his hand. As the crimson sky slowly fades, the festival begins to light up with brilliant colors, as if to decorate the end of summer. I don't even mind the muggy weather. As we head toward the bridge where we'll meet his sister, a cool breeze starts to blow. "Ah, that feels good," I utter. He looks at me with gentle eyes. "Tooru! I'm glad I was able to find you so easily," a thin, clear voice calls out. I face toward it and see an amazing beauty. It's my boyfriend's sister. I've seen pictures of her online, but her skin glows differently in real life. "Hi, Sanae. Hey, what's this about?" my boyfriend says, noticing something. I follow his gaze and see a man wearing a white polo shirt who's probably in his fifties. They do look alike… "You came, too, Dad?" "Uh, I'm the escort. Sanae's. She's famous, after all." So it is their dad. I definitely did not expect him to be here. I'm instantly nervous. He notices me and, for some reason, looks momentarily frightened. "…H-hello," I say awkwardly. "N-nice to meet you," he responds. Suddenly, he starts peering around and taps his chest pocket. "I'm out of cigarettes; I'll go buy some," he says and disappears into the crowd. My boyfriend's sister, who's wearing an elegant indigo yukata, turns to him with a troubled smile. "I'm sorry. I was planning to come alone, but when I mentioned your girlfriend, Dad suddenly said he wanted to come along. And he doesn't even smoke!" My boyfriend smiles amusingly. "It's fine. I'm just surprised. Maybe, in his own way, he's trying to face reality head-on. He even shaved properly. Or maybe he just didn't want to be left alone at home." Trying to face reality? That confuses me, but my boyfriend and his sister both seem to understand. They're smiling, and somehow, they look like they're thinking of someone they love very much. Finally, his sister looks at me. Her gaze falls on our hands, which are still joined. She smiles. "Pleased to meet you. You're Tooru's girlfriend, I believe?" "Yes, yes, I am! Pleased to meet you. Thank you for inviting me…oh, no, you didn't. Um, I'm dating Tooru. My name is Maori Hino." This might just be a quick hello, but I still feel nervous. I garble my self-introduction, but I manage better than with the dad. I bow my head, and she bows back. "I'm Sanae Kamiya, Tooru's sister. It's a pleasure to meet you." I look at her face again. At first, I didn't think they looked alike, but now I can see the resemblance. Their kind eyes are identical. As I fall deep into them, she smiles again. "Well, we've met now, so why don't you two go enjoy the festival? I'm going to look for our father." "What, already?" I say, trying to keep her with us. She makes a face that I would describe as elegantly mischievous. "Thank you for your kindness, but I don't want to interrupt your date… Isn't that right, Tooru?" she says. "You're not interrupting anything," he replies in a flurry. She looks at him like she finds his reaction adorable. "Take care, you two. Maori, I look forward to meeting again," she says and slips into the crowd in the same direction as her father. A relieved sigh escapes my lips. "Wow, I was so nervous. Your sister is so beautiful in real life!" I exclaim. "That's my sister for you. She's finally able to do what she wants, and it's taken the edge off a little," he answers, looking proudly into the distance. "Huh. Oh, by the way, did something happen with your dad? I was interested in what you two were saying about him," I say. My boyfriend shifts his gaze, then stares straight at me. "To tell the truth, I wasn't getting along with him so well. But recently we had a good talk about it." He tells me about his family situation, the conflict with his dad, and the reconciliation with Sanae. When he's done, I look down. "Wow, I had no idea all that happened after you left my house that night," I say. He builds his life up like that, day by day. The progress is gradual, but he's moving forward. What about me? I can feel him watching me as I think about these things. "But you know what, Hino? The reason I was able to have that talk with him was because of you." "What? I didn't do anything, though!" I stare at him, puzzled, but he just smiles silently. He probably said it to be nice, but that doesn't really fit with his personality. Did I actually do something? I feel like I'm always receiving more than giving. Did I manage to give something back? If I did…it feels like salvation. Without meaning to, I squeeze his hand. He squeezes back. "Let's go. This festival will only last for tonight. Let's enjoy it." "Yeah! Let's go!" We blend in with the festival crowds. We play around like all the other couples, get all the food we can carry, buy things we don't need, and have a ball doing stuff we don't normally do. We buy takoyaki. I eat one, and it's really good, so I stab another with a toothpick and hold it out for my boyfriend. He turns his face away, embarrassed. It's funny, so I tease him. "At least use a different toothpick," he mumbles. Oops…would that be like an indirect kiss? Now I feel embarrassed. We go to the shooting range. I go for the big prizes without much luck. His arms and legs are longer, and he wins a steady stream of smaller stuff. I tell him he should dream big since he's a guy. He answers that small pleasures are important. On my next shot, I hit a card that says Free Gift, and it falls to the ground. We're both super excited. Except, it turns out to be a bunch of candy, which is basically the same prizes my boyfriend got. It's still fun, though. I laugh a lot. We fit enough memories for a whole summer into one day. I have a really good time, feeling as if I've never had more fun in my entire life. I feel naturally attracted to him, and toward me, he is affectionate. Finally, it's time for the fireworks. We sit on the riverbank together and watch them. I used to always be uncomfortable in big crowds. But tonight I feel soothed knowing we're just two insignificant people among all the others. Just like everyone else, we look up at the fireworks, grow speechless with awe, and hold each other's hand tightly. Suddenly, I think about the fate of my feelings. Will the emotions I feel today vanish by tomorrow, just like my memories? They won't take root, will they? Does my mind treat them like information so that it's impossible for them to accumulate over time? I hope something can remain. I hope the feeling I have right now carries over to the me of tomorrow. I hope I don't forget. "I…don't want to forget," I say before thinking. Tears blur my vision. Why? What's going on? The tears won't stop. Of course I don't want to forget! I don't want to forget such an important moment and for it to only exist within my diary. I mean, you only live once. You can't get back a moment in time. That's why people cherish their memories. It's too awful to think that I won't be able to remember this. It's too sad. My boyfriend watches me wipe away my tears with the hand that's not holding his. "I won't forget this day," he says. I can hear his voice clearly through the rumbling of the fireworks. "I—I won't, either. How could I forget… It's so strange. I must have had too much fun. I can't stop crying." As I cry softly, he squeezes my hand tight. "It's human nature to forget. But don't worry. No memory disappears completely. I believe that," he says. I look at this kind human as I desperately try to stop crying. Once again, I wonder if maybe he knows about my amnesia. If possibly he knows, he notices it, but he pretends he doesn't? If…if that's true…then maybe I don't have anything to fear. I squeeze his hand back and make a wish. Please. I'll be as kind as I can. I won't be selfish. I'll be grateful for my parents every day. Please just let me stay with him. Somehow, somehow. For a second, probably because of my tears, he seems to disappear before my eyes. In a panic, I tighten my grip. He grips back. "Tooru, please don't go anywhere." "Don't worry. I'll always be by your side." Another unattainable dreamlike flower blossoms in the night sky, drowning out his voice.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter8.txt	The Blankness of Blanks The Blankness of Blanks 1 Summer vacation is over, and the fall semester is starting. Which means three months have passed since Maori and Kamiya started dating. I'll never forget that day at the end of May. After school, this guy who Maori didn't even know stopped her in the hall out of the blue. Later, when we met up in front of the library, she told me she decided to go out with him. I was shocked to my core. Maori has a problem with her memory. She can't keep new memories for more than a day. If she meets a stranger, the next morning, they're back to being a stranger again. I couldn't believe she was trying to have a boyfriend under those conditions. "But why?" I asked. "He told me he likes me. So I thought I'd try dating him." "I don't get it. You said his name's Kamiya? Did you tell this guy about your amnesia?" "Nope, and I don't plan to. But I thought that maybe, even now, I could do something new, and that made me want to try." The next day during break, I went to talk to the guy. He didn't have a single distinguishing feature. When I asked him about Maori, he didn't have much to say. I figured they'd break up quickly. Even though he told her he liked her, he didn't seem like he did. Though, as it turned out, they've been dating way longer than I ever imagined. At some point, Kamiya changed. The first time I noticed was when I watched them riding a bike together. Even as a bystander, I could tell how much he cared about Maori. Now that I think about it, he probably knew about her amnesia by then. But why did he suddenly change? Wouldn't most people break up if they learned their partner had amnesia? Fall semester started, and the first few days flew past. One afternoon, I'm walking behind the two of them on the way to the station, watching them side by side, when suddenly, Kamiya turns around. "What, do I have something stuck to me?" he asks, playing dumb. "Your head," I respond, just to say something. "If that wasn't stuck to me, I'd be in trouble," he answers. "Don't worry, boyfriend," Maori says. "If it falls off, I'll find a nice new one for you." "Hino, I'm not some character from Anpanman." Maori's amnesia—it's called anterograde amnesia—isn't something that's easy to fix. To start with, there's no treatment. It might be cured all of a sudden next week, or a year might pass without anything changing. Or three years or five. Both Maori and her family, and the other people who support her, will need to persevere. Yet…I think Kamiya might be able to support her more than her family or I can. Helping her get through her daily life has already changed him. She told me she saw him almost every day over summer break. He was also the one who encouraged her to start drawing again. It turns out, even though her brain can't retain memories, muscle memory can persist over time. Embarrassingly enough, that never occurred to me. Ever since Maori started drawing, she's been more emotionally stable. I haven't told Kamiya this, but she had a major breakdown before. Her parents and I had been afraid that would happen. One day in the middle of May, without any warning, she stayed home from school. She didn't answer when I texted or called. I was worried and stopped by her house after school. When I arrived, her mother's face stiffened. Although her memories are reset every day, her emotions aren't. Due to chemicals in the brain and other factors, the emotional state from the day before can carry over sometimes. That morning, when Maori woke up and her mom explained that she had amnesia, she said she couldn't bear it. "There's no point in living like that," her mom told me she shouted. "Just leave me alone." She stayed in her room all day and wouldn't eat. Maori's mom often worried about a certain possibility. Maori's doctor had told her that in some cases, depression can be a complication of anterograde amnesia. It makes sense. If I was in Maori's situation, I probably wouldn't even be able to go to school. I'd be so pessimistic about the future that the situation might spiral into something even worse. I got permission from Maori's mom to go stand outside her door. When I said hi, she told me she didn't want to see me. "I'm sorry I've caused you so much trouble," she said. "But today, I just can't handle it." I was forced to acknowledge my own powerlessness. I thought of trying to talk to her, but there was nothing I could say that would comfort her. If only my weirdness could have made her laugh at that moment. But I couldn't think of the right thing to say. "Okay, well, I guess I'll go home, then," I said. The next day, from the moment she woke up, she was in low spirits. When I asked why, she said that yesterday's Maori had written about what happened the day before in her journal. She apologized for pushing me away when I'd gone to the trouble of coming to see her. The best I could do was play dumb and tell her with a smile to cheer up. After school, we ate a lot of sweets together. I should have told her the day before to not write anything down in her journal. However, I hadn't felt comfortable saying that. Instead, I told her a day late as we demolished a piece of cake. She looked like she was going to cry. "That makes sense. I'll get rid of yesterday's entry," she said sadly. I wasn't able to leave an impact or fill her journal with happy memories. But Kamiya managed to do it. I don't attribute it simply to the power of love. Still, at this very moment, Maori is smiling. "Oh, I almost forgot. I want to draw you again, Tooru. I improved a lot over vacation, you know," she says. "Sure, but even if you're a better artist, that doesn't make my face any more handsome," he answers. "In that case, I'll draw some roses or something in the background. Ba-ding!" "Behind my wry smile? That will be one surreal drawing." Even though Maori can't store new memories, I've noticed that she takes less time to become comfortable around Kamiya now and smiles at him more. Will they go on like this? I haven't told anyone, but sometimes I feel a little jealous of them. They continue, their relationship remaining unchanged right through Sports Day and the school festival. Fall comes, and cold winds blow. They're still dating. I observe them as the seasons change. In fall, Maori's mental state becomes unstable again. She comes to school every day, but she seems upset right from the morning. It makes sense. In her mind, yesterday was April, but when she wakes up, almost half a year has gone by. Then, when she gets to school, she's forced to think about her career options. Even worse, she's probably comparing herself to me. Even if she graduates from high school, she won't be able to go to college. There's a limit to what you can do with the knowledge of a second-year high school student. She'd have a difficult time at a technical college, too, and getting a job wouldn't be easy. She doesn't let on what a hard worker she is, but I know. She must feel so frustrated. Every day, she has to face the reality of everything she'd created falling apart. She's been left behind by time, by the future. But she has Kamiya. After school, he's there with her, trying to make her day enjoyable. When she's with him, she smiles like she's forgotten all about her morning depression. Even when he's not there, she gradually becomes more cheerful as the day goes on. I start to be overwhelmed by schoolwork and studying for tests, and I have less time to spend with her. The days fly by. It's the winter of our second year in high school now. Around Christmas, Maori starts knitting. Each day's self makes a little more progress on the scarf she's making for Kamiya. Kamiya bakes a cake to surprise her. On New Year's Day, the three of us make our first shrine visit of the year in the evening. When the first snow of the year falls, Kamiya and Maori pile it up to make a snowman after school. When she's with him, she laughs. He makes her smile. Sometimes I feel like asking him how he has the energy to do it. If I did, I'm sure he'd just say, "Because I love her." Even if he sounds nonchalant, I think he probably cares about her even more than I do. One day in the middle of February after the three of us hung out and Maori has gone home, I ask him that question. Without cracking a smile, he says exactly what I expected. I'm forced to think about the meaning of love. In the past, I saw two people who loved each other deeply begin to hate each other because of trivial things. They argued about all kinds of things, like the way their schedules didn't match or how they viewed money differently. Though, that wasn't really what happened. They simply both fell in love with other people. They steadily grew apart. One of them worried about their reputation, so instead of divorcing, they decided to live separately. I'm talking about my parents, of course. I don't think that's the only reason, but for a while, I stopped trusting people. I didn't tell anyone, though. I can't go to anyone for advice. I have to heal my own wounds. I'm a solitary animal. By junior high, people were saying I was cold, and they didn't know what I was thinking. They were partly right. Not many people approached me, but when I entered high school, Maori talked to me like it was completely natural. I thought she seemed like an interesting person. We kept talking, and pretty soon, we were best friends. I'd regained my faith in humankind. "Because I love her." Kamiya says those words casually. But I think he cares about Maori even more than I do. Love is an emotion, a feeling. It's not an act of will or logic. If you fall in love with someone, you might be able to think of a reason afterward, but that reason is distinct from the actual sensation of loving them. People don't fall in love for a specific reason. Love truly is rooted in feelings with no logic supporting it. "Just because you love someone, does that mean you'll do anything for them? Personally, I don't get that," I say self-mockingly. He thinks for a minute before answering. "I don't do anything. I do what I can." "Is that true? You seem to be pushing yourself kind of hard for someone who's just doing what they can," I say, grilling him a little. He stares at the twilight sky. "I don't do what's impossible, and I couldn't even if I tried. But if there's something I can do with a little extra effort or something I want to do, then I feel happy to do it." I don't think I'll ever forget the look on his face at that moment. Somehow, that kind, average face of his seems to glow. "My life before I met her was boring. I thought I knew all about life, and I never did anything stupid or crazy. I was like that since I was a kid. The truth is, I probably didn't believe in myself. I wasn't sickly or anything, but I did have a bunch of tests done at the doctor's, and I had a slight complex about being so skinny." He's talking more passionately than he usually does. Suddenly, he smiles. "But now I simply enjoy my days with Hino. I truly feel like if there's something I can do for her with a little extra effort, then I want to do it. She surprises me and makes me see things in a new light. She makes me feel like I want to be a better person." He looks at me. "You're probably going to laugh at me for saying embarrassing things again, right?" he says with a smile. I shake my head. "It's interesting," I say, feeling like a lost child. "But you help Hino out because you care about her, too, right?" he asks. "I guess so. I think I'm a little more hands-off than you. Maori isn't quite normal right now, and I seek out things that aren't. It's interesting to me. Maybe that's why I stick with her. For my own selfish reasons," I say, but it's not quite true. I do care for her so, so much. Only, I'm powerless. I can't do anything for her… "That might be partly true, but I don't think that's the whole story," Kamiya says. "Is that so?" "Yes. You know it, too, I think." Winter is almost over when we have that conversation. Spring comes, bringing a breath of new life. Over spring break, the three of us hang out a few times. We have a picnic under the cherry blossom trees in a park that's famous for them. "A poet once called cherry blossoms snow that never knew the sky," Kamiya says gracefully as I gaze up at the sky between the tree branches. "I don't think I've heard that before. Snow that never knew the sky… It's true, the petals do look like snow," Maori says, sounding impressed. Kamiya looks at her with gentle eyes and smiles. He tells us the story his sister told him about May sickness. He explains that after the busy spring ends, everyone gets lazy in May, and she called that "May sickness." May… What will the three of us be doing this month? I gaze up at the peach-colored snow that the sky never knew and think about that question. When our third year of high school starts, Maori and I will be in different classes. She won't be in the advanced class anymore. Before spring break started, the head teacher for our grade talked with Kamiya and arranged for Maori to be in his class. In April, she and I start spending less time together at school. Before, Kamiya and Maori were only able to see each other after school. Now I watch them from the hallway talking to each other happily in class. At those times, I think about the meaning of love. The procedural memory that Kamiya told me about is rooted in sensations. Does that mean that the sensation of love is carried from one day to the next inside Maori? "I was so surprised. I'm a third-year student already, and I have a boyfriend, and he's in my class." Even though I have a lot of studying to do, I still try to talk to Maori every night. I know now—she's made it through her second year, and she'll be okay from here on out. Kamiya is by her side. He knows about her amnesia, and he loves her anyway. All the days blend together for me as I continue to study night and day. I've heard third year goes by quick because you're so focused on college entrance exams, and it's true. Summer comes, a crucial time for test prep. By the time my pencil stops moving, it's fall. In winter, the Center Test looms near, and then after that, the second round of tests. Before I know it, it's spring. My long but short third year of high school is over. We make it to high school graduation. All three of us. Kamiya passed the civil service exam in the neighboring district, and this spring, he'll start working at city hall. Maori is making huge progress with drawing, and she'll be taking art class a few times a week while she waits for her amnesia to be cured. It's not that important, but I think I'll get into my first choice of university in our prefecture. On the day of graduation, Maori says, "I can't believe it." The thing she can't believe isn't that so much time has passed. It's that she managed to stay in school long enough to graduate, even with her condition. I really do think she'll be okay. I watch her frolicking around with her diploma. Even though she has to face her situation all over again each time she wakes up in the morning, she'll be all right. She managed to stay in school and graduate. She has the journal that connects her past selves with her present self. She has her daily drawing practice and her ability to improve despite her memory loss. Even though she won't be able to see him every day anymore, she has Kamiya. If she has all of that, she'll be okay. We spend the spring vacation after graduation getting ready for our next step in life. One day, the three of us go out like we used to. "See you later! Thanks for today!" Kamiya and I stand at the ticket gate, waving to Maori as she enters the station. The two of us have errands to run at the nearby mall, so Maori goes home first. With no warning, Kamiya says, "Wataya…" "What?" He must have prepared himself mentally for this moment. "There's something serious I want to tell you." He looks at me solemnly. I'm confused by his serious tone and expression. When people get ready to say something they've been keeping to themselves, the mood is always like this. Suddenly, I feel as if the world had left me behind. Even so, I still have to ask him. "What? What's wrong?" He opens his mouth and closes it again. He pauses, like he's mustering the courage to say what he has to say. "I found out my heart might not be very strong, and…" I feel like the scene I've been looking out at is dimming before my eyes. 2 June 9 (Monday) Morning at home: as usual. Homeroom: Announcement about finals. Teacher jokes around (nothing worth noting). First period break: Talked with Izumi about last Saturday. About the picnic at the park. She made our bento, so I said next time I'll try to cook something. She laughed and said she'd rather I didn't. How rude! Second period break: Izumi went somewhere. Probably to the library. Suzuki asked what I was doing after school. I was vague, said I had to do something. She seemed a little annoyed. Had fun chatting about gaming livestreams, which she likes (make note in "People" section of binder). Saved the situation? Third period break: Talked to Izumi about how I'm growing apart from Suzuki. She said I still have her, which made me feel better. I smiled and said, "Yes, that's true." She joked that it's not easy to catch a woman like her. Fourth period break: Talked with Izumi. She said, "Wow, June sure crept up on me." I tried to joke about how everything creeps up on me. She said I'd made the same joke before, thought that was funny. Better make sure not to say it again (make note in "People" section of binder). Lunch: Ate lunch with Izumi. She had a homemade BLT. Drool. Fifth period break: Izumi is obsessed with black tea lately. Apparently, she likes Lady Grey, which Earl Grey created for his wife. I want some, too. Also, I never realized Earl Grey was the name of a real person. After school: Izumi said she doesn't have to help her mom so much anymore, so she asked me what I wanted to do together. I suggested various things: riding a bike together, going to family restaurant, game center, karaoke, aquarium on our day off, amusement park. She said okay to everything other than riding on a bike together. Then, even though she said she didn't want to earlier because it's illegal, she suggested we do it. As usual, she's up for anything. We found an abandoned bike in the parking lot. Izumi said she'd fix the flat. Managed it with no problem. We went to a country road far away from school where no teachers or police would see us and rode on the bike together. It was fun. The wind was really strong. I feel happy just remembering it. Ah, youth! It's like the hopelessness I felt this morning never even existed. I'm amazing. I'm impressive. I'm so glad I'm friends with her. Even if I have memory loss, maybe I can enjoy each day like I did today. Riding together was a little scary, and this weird laugh came up from the pit of my stomach. She laughed, too. After we rode as much as we wanted, we walked the bike back to school. She asked what I wanted to do tomorrow. She said we could ride the bike again if I wanted. She doesn't mind doing the same thing two days in a row. The one good thing about the current me is that new stuff is always new. No matter how many times I've done it, I enjoy it just like it's the first time. I feel a little more optimistic than before. Izumi, thanks for today. Before heading to prep school, I look through some of my high school journal entries on my laptop. I don't know how many times I've read the entry from that day. Sadly, I have no recollection of the things I wrote about, but it still makes me feel good to read them. There's no question that the living, breathing person in the journal is me. I have a secret I haven't told my friends at prep school. For about three years, starting at the end of April in my second year of high school, I had a problem with my memory. Every night when I went to sleep and my brain began processing my memories, it would erase them instead of storing them. There have been other cases like mine, but there's no cure. The only way to recover is to rely on the natural healing power of the human body. It seems that the younger you are, the stronger it is, and about three months ago, in April, I recovered from my amnesia. In other words, I can remember what happened the day before. Before that, when I woke up each morning, I couldn't recall what had happened the previous day. The fact that I still managed to graduate from high school surprised me and gave me hope for the future. Still, the anxiety was there. Every morning, I would read the notes and journal I kept on my laptop and learn, for that day only, about my current situation and what had happened since my accident. Through those entries, I understood that it was thanks to the devotion and self-sacrifice of my parents and Izumi that I was able to graduate from high school and attend art class a few times a week, which I'd given up before my accident. When I had amnesia, I couldn't retain memories that consisted of information, but it seems I was able to store something called "procedural memories," which are rooted in physical sensations. I used my procedural memory to improve as an artist, and after graduating from high school, I spent the better part of each day drawing. Sometimes I hung out with Izumi, too. According to my journal, the day before I recovered from my amnesia, I spent most of it drawing. I was able to draw the lines I wanted to and was able to instinctively capture the form of the people and objects I was drawing. That brought me a fresh kind of happiness, and it moved me. Still, I feared going to sleep that night. Of course, if I didn't sleep, the next day's me would pay for it. I lay down, frightened, and slowly, I lost consciousness. The next morning, when I woke up, I thought, Oh, I fell asleep after all. I had a slight feeling that something was off, but I ignored it, since that's a typical way you can feel when you wake up. I got out of bed, feeling the sun on my face. Apparently, I used to get up really early in high school, but after I graduated, I started getting up with the sun. With sleepy eyes, I looked at the notes taped to my wall. I've suffered memory loss in an accident. Read the notes and journal on my laptop. But I graduated from high school. I worked hard for that. Put my heart and soul into each day. Don't forget to be grateful for my family. As I stared at the notes in a daze, I realized why I felt odd when I woke up. I should have forgotten everything—but I remembered what happened the day before. The fact that one day connected to the next, which, for most people, is completely normal, was unfathomable. There was a knock on my door, just like there had been the previous morning. It was my mom. When I answered, she came into my room and gave me a strange look as I stared at the notes on my wall. I turned to her, unsure of what expression to make. "Mom, with my amnesia, can I usually remember things for a little while when I wake up? Right now…I can remember yesterday really clearly." Mom's eyes widened, and she didn't say anything. Apparently, this had never happened before. She ran out to get Dad. I felt confused, but I started going over the previous day's events in my mind one by one. When Dad arrived, the three of us talked about the day before. My memories were accurate. They thought maybe it was because I hadn't slept well and told me to go back to sleep. It was hard enough for me to go back to sleep on a normal day, let alone when I felt so nervous and excited. I doubt even a sleeping pill could have put me to sleep. Mom suggested we go to the hospital and started getting ready. Dad said he'd call the office and tell them he wasn't coming in until the afternoon and left my room. I told him he didn't have to do that, but he wouldn't listen. He said it was important, and he wouldn't take no for an answer. He must have been fairly flustered because he normally wouldn't say something like that. In general, Mom and Dad are very level-headed, but they couldn't contain their excitement that day, because we ended up arriving at the hospital half an hour early. We waited in the car until it was time for my appointment. The doctor came in, and we explained to her the current development. She confirmed my memories of the day before with Mom and Dad. She did a complete exam, too, although she said it wouldn't tell us much. In the end, she told us to monitor the situation and come back the next day. On the car ride home, Mom and Dad were both happy. They must have glimpsed a ray of hope. We still didn't know if I was recovering, but Dad said, "Everything will be fine" and smiled cheerfully. His words aside, now and then I saw him gripping the steering wheel and looking off into the distance like he was trying to endure something. The next day, Mom and I returned to the hospital. I was able to remember the previous day and the day before that. It was the same the next day and the next and the day after. "I can't make a definite judgment yet, but Maori seems to be recovering from her amnesia," the doctor said. Mom covered her mouth with her hands and turned away. She was crying silently. I'd never seen her cry before. I called Dad and told him what the doctor had said. He laughed and said, "Didn't I tell you everything would be fine?" At the end of the call, though, I could hear him crying. I told Izumi, too. She was in her second year at a national university in our prefecture by then. She came to my house right away. "So it's like you said over the phone? Your amnesia is gone?" "Yes! I did it! I did it, Izumi. It doesn't seem real at all. I feel like it's all some enormous practical joke. I mean, just a few days ago, I was in my second year of high school. But time has passed, that's for sure. Now they say I'm in recovery," I said excitedly. For a second, Izumi looked regretful. Or maybe I imagined it, because the next moment, she was smiling. Since then, I haven't lost a single day of memories. I got it into my head that I wanted to go to university, so I started going to prep school. You can say it was a gap year. Aside from the weekends, I go to school every day. I'm working hard to catch up. Still, now and then I feel shaken by the vestiges of something, so I read the journal I kept on my laptop when I had amnesia. Just now, I was reading an entry from high school about when Izumi and I rode a bike together on a country road. Ah, youth…for two girls. It was thanks to her that I was able to enjoy my daily life. I can't even describe what a good person she is. She spent her days catering to my wishes, or maybe I should say my selfish demands. Apparently, the phone I had in high school broke, so I don't have any photos or videos from that time. Still, I have my journal. I'm so grateful to Izumi. Without her, there's no way I could have graduated. She believed in my new life and pulled me along with her through the end of high school. I go about my present life full of unending gratitude. When I wake up in the morning, I check to see if I can remember what happened the day before. I eat breakfast, get ready, and take the train to prep school. I've made some friends there. We complain and laugh together. I'm able to take those ordinary things for granted again. I've just gotten a little older. Sometimes at night, to give myself a break from studying, I draw. I used to take drawing classes, but I wasn't good enough to apply to art school. Which is fine. I'm happy with drawing for my own enjoyment. Time passed, and the leaves began to change color. One Sunday morning, I found a sketchbook in my room that I didn't recognize. It was behind my bookshelf, like it had been hidden there. I was tidying up during a study break, and that turned into a major cleaning spree of my room. Otherwise, I'd never have found it. I took it out to the veranda and dusted it off. As I flipped through the pages, I came across drawings of a guy I didn't recognize. The moment I saw him, a stabbing pain shot through my chest and my heart pounded. What was going on? I closed the sketchbook. My heart was still beating fast. I could hear it thumping in my ears like it was desperately trying to tell me something. I thought about the sketches. They were drawn in my style. In other words, the past me had done them. The fact that I didn't remember them was proof that I'd done them when I had amnesia. Then why had I put them behind the bookshelf? I sensed something moving beneath the surface, but I couldn't bring up the memory. I must not have wanted anyone else to see the drawings. What would I not want other people to see? Maybe…drawings of a guy I liked or something. I smiled at the ridiculousness of that idea. There was no way I could have fallen for someone when I had amnesia. Even now, for some reason, I had no interest in dating. There were all kinds of guys at prep school, some of them popular and good-looking. However, even when they talked to me, nothing inside of me shouted Wow, nice, I like this guy. I opened the sketchbook again. The boy in the drawings looked a little weak, but very kind. Strangely enough, there were lots of pictures of him looking to the side and smiling vaguely or shyly but none of him facing forward. As I gazed at them, my heart started to pound again. Who was this person? I'd read my journals many times, and I didn't think he was ever mentioned. Perhaps my mom would know, but I felt embarrassed about asking her. Maybe Izumi? I thought about snapping a picture on my phone and sending it to her, but I planned to see her in the afternoon anyway. Why not just show her then? With that plan in mind, I returned to gazing at the boy in the sketchbook. 3 "I found out my heart might not be very strong, and…" When Kamiya said those words, my mind went blank for a second. Then, when I realized he wasn't the type to joke about something like that, I was at a loss for words. "I-is that so…? But it's not like anything bad will happen right away, will it?" I responded, trying and failing to brush away the seriousness of what he wanted to say. He smiled meekly. "No. I'm just talking hypothetically. Actually, yesterday, I fainted. I must have been tired or something." He said it happened with no warning. He had been with Maori at the library the day before, as usual. On the way home, he said he was on his bike and suddenly felt short of breath. He pulled over to the side of the road and was trying to calm himself down because he thought it was weird, when his legs suddenly became weak. He tried to prop himself up by holding on to the bike seat but ended up falling over with the bike. When he woke up, he was in a hospital bed. It seems a passerby had seen him fall and called an ambulance. It sounds flippant to say, but the diagnosis was simply that he fainted. He regained consciousness quickly. There was a chance it had been caused by a heart condition, so he was supposed to go back later for tests. The sooner the better, and someone had to accompany him. Based on the hospital's schedule, he made an appointment for two days later. In other words, the day after he talked to me. "Since my mom died suddenly from a heart condition, I had a lot of examinations done when I was younger. They didn't find any specific congenital disease. But my dad is still really worried, so they're going to run some tests tomorrow," he explained. I remembered him mentioning that when he talked of his childhood before, but this was the first time I'd heard him talk about his mom. I tried to answer in a casual tone and finally managed to get the words out. "Interesting. Um, if there's anything I can do, please don't hesitate to ask. Of course, I'll only do things I want to do," I joked. He smiled faintly. Speaking of jokes, I once told him to be careful so that he didn't burn out and keel over one day. I don't think it's possible for words to create reality, but I was still shaken. Kamiya was silent for a moment, like he was searching for the right words. Suddenly, his face grew very serious. "In that case…and I'm only saying if something happens, and the chances of that are basically zero. I just want to ask you while it's on my mind. I'm not saying this is going to happen to me, but people do suddenly die sometimes." "Um, wait a second, Kamiya. What are you saying?" A cold, dry wind blew through, and I felt like it chilled me all the way to my heart. "If I die, I want you to erase me from Hino's journal." All thoughts vanished from my mind. I simply stared at the kind human standing in front of me. If Kamiya died… "But she keeps her journal in a notebook," he went on. "And I think she summarizes the important parts in a separate binder, too. So it's kind of going to be a hassle. You'll need to transfer the contents of the journal and binder to her laptop, only erasing the references to me." A powerful emotion surged in me, words bubbling to the surface. "Wh-what are you talking about? What is going on?" I looked fearfully into his eyes. They were clear and calm, like they were detached from the rest of the world. "This is important," he said. "I don't want to do that. You should do it yourself." "You're right. I should. I'm sorry to ask something like this from you. But I want you to listen." "I don't want to," I said unreasonably. He smiled ruefully and continued. "I hardly had any interactions with Hino before she lost her memory. So…if I die, as long as I'm not in her journal, we can make it like it never happened." His words reminded me that something similar had happened before. It was when Maori had become emotionally unstable. We convinced her to erase those days from her journal. "I think it might be possible. But are you okay with that?" What person would want to vanish entirely from their partner's life? He looked at me with a sad smile. "I think I'll be okay with it. We could say we broke up, but she might look for me. And I feel like if she discovered I'd died, it wouldn't be good for her mentally. That's why I think it's probably best to erase me altogether, even if it takes some work. Make it like we never even dated." What he was saying was so sad, I couldn't help looking down. "But you… I'm sure you won't die. You'll be fine." "I know. But I think it's kind of a miracle that people exist at all. I mean, think about it. We're not like industrial machines. There's no outline or master craftsman to make us. We grow in our mothers' wombs, and from the time we are born, or sooner, actually, we're alive. I think it's miraculous. We're not robots built from a blueprint. If we have an abnormality, we might not realize right away, and if we stop working, it's not like we can just change out the broken part. The truth is, I don't fully understand what it means to be alive. It's strange and at the same time completely terrifying." He looked down at the left side of his chest. In retrospect, I think I should have said something to him then. Like, "Do you really think doing that would make Maori happy?" Or something. Yet I didn't because I felt there was some truth in what he said. Just a tiny bit, but it was there all the same. There was the possibility that Maori would fall into depression, and her parents were always worrying about… "I'm sorry to bring this up," he said, smiling at my silence. He checked the time. "I'd better get going. See you later." He walked off, leaving me with only a faint smile. The following night, Tooru Kamiya died suddenly from heart failure. I learned of his death that same night from his sister. I wanted to know how his tests at the hospital had gone, so I called his cell phone. I didn't get an answer, and since he'd told me once that he didn't check his phone very often (though I'm not sure if that was true), I gave up and hung up. About half an hour later, I got a call from his number. I picked up, relieved to hear from him. "Hey, cell phones are for carrying around, so how about carrying yours? Anyway, how did your tests go?" I said. "Oh…the tests didn't turn up any abnormalities," said a voice that wasn't Kamiya's. But I'd heard it somewhere before. "Um, where is Kamiya?" I asked. The clear voice answered sadly. "Kamiya…I mean, my brother passed away suddenly from complications with his heart." It was just after nine at night. I felt like my room was expanding infinitely, and the ground swallowed up my feet. Kamiya's sister was saying something. It seemed he had collapsed in his home roughly two hours earlier and died. As I listened to her talk, my mind plunged into profound confusion. How could someone die so suddenly? A person who, just the day before, had been standing close enough to touch? His sister said she would tell me more the next day. We arranged to meet at three in the afternoon and hung up. I listened to the waves of sorrow washing over my consciousness, and at some point, they became the sound of my own heart. In this world filled with loss, I was unprepared to face death. On the other hand, Kamiya, who had lost his mother unexpectedly, probably wasn't. I had been so surprised by his words the day before. And then… Although it was pointless, I started looking up sudden heart failure on the internet. I was shaking. If I didn't do something, I felt like I would be consumed by frigid chills. A number of conditions can cause sudden death in individuals who appear otherwise healthy. Sudden cardiac arrest is one of them. It can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time. It kills far more people than car accidents, in Japan accounting for approximately sixty thousand deaths a year. This equates to one person dying every 7.5 minutes. Although heart exams are widely carried out in elementary and junior high school, many cases nevertheless occur during class. Over the last ten years, over three hundred students have died suddenly in class, and the numbers are even higher for deaths outside of school… Recently, there has been wide recognition for the need of AEDs. Many have been installed at railway stations and public facilities, but they are not available at home. With each minute that elapses before treatment with an AED, the chance of a life being saved falls by 10 percent. If more than ten minutes pass before an ambulance arrives, chances of survival fall by over 80 percent. I stared emptily at the lines of text. Suddenly, Kamiya's words came back to me. I think it's miraculous. We're not robots built from a blueprint. If we have an abnormality, we might not realize right away, and if we stop working, it's not like we can just change out the broken part. The truth is, I don't fully understand being alive. It's strange and at the same time completely terrifying. Like a miracle. Then had Kamiya's miracle come to an end? My eyes grew hot and filled with tears. I put my head down on my desk and wailed like a little girl. The next afternoon, after some hesitation, I went to Maori's house. Ever since her accident and learning she had amnesia, she'd been avoiding hanging out with any friends besides me. She had various reasons for this. For one, it would be hard to answer texts from lots of people every day. On top of that, they were all steadily walking toward their future, and there was a chance each brand-new Maori would feel saddened from watching them get farther and farther away. Our high school teacher knew about her amnesia, so it was unlikely she would hear about Kamiya's death. But he was in her journal. At some point, she would notice his absence. Especially since I had been friends with both of them, I felt I had to tell her what had happened. "Kamiya…Tooru Kamiya is my boyfriend, right?" she asked when I did. I looked down. She continued in a sad voice. "I can't believe it. I-I've only read the summary in my journal so far, but I was so looking forward to seeing him today. He seems to be a very important person in my life…" As I continued to stare at my feet, I heard her trying to hold back a sob. I looked up. She was crying. Her face was distorted with grief, and tears were falling from her big eyes. "I don't know why I'm crying," she said. "It's strange, isn't it? I don't think I have any memories of him. It's so weird. I can't stop crying. Even though I've only seen his face in pictures. The only things I know about our relationship are from my journal. But here I am sobbing. It's so strange." "Maori…" I couldn't think of what to say, but I wanted to answer her. "It's not strange, although I don't know how the two of you thought about your relationship," I said. I took a deep breath to stop the pain in my chest. Kamiya would never feel this pain and suffering again. Why did it have to be him? Why? Why, when he was so kind? Why? Desperately, I kept talking. "You two were made for each other. It had nothing to do with whether you could remember or with how many years you were together. Because the two of you truly loved each other." I couldn't continue. I started to cry again. After that, Maori asked me about Kamiya, and I told her. I told her how much he cared about her and what they were like together and where they hung out. The more I talked about him, the harder it became to bear his absence. Still, time moved steadily forward. We decided to go see Kamiya's sister together. With uncertain steps and thoughts, we took the train to his house. I rang the bell, and his sister answered. I had seen her picture in magazines and online, and we had talked the day before, but this was the first time I met Keiko Nishikawa in person. She invited us to come in and sit down at the kitchen table, where we had often had tea with Kamiya. She said that his father, who I'd never met, was out taking care of some things. When I asked about Kamiya, she said his body was being kept at the hospital as they prepared for the wake and funeral. Then, slowly but in a very clear voice, she told us about the events leading up to his death. She had gone with him to the hospital for his tests. In the year and a half since winning the Akutagawa Prize, she had appeared in the media many times. Her next novel was published in January of that year to positive reviews. The fact that she had made time to go with him to the hospital amid all this showed how worried she was. Early in the morning, the hospital staff had explained the type of tests he would be taking. The examinations lasted until the afternoon. Although the formal results wouldn't come back the same day, the staff told them they had found no obvious abnormalities in his heart. After the tests, the two of them returned home. Their father came back from work earlier than usual, and Kamiya's sister told him they didn't find anything. He was relieved, and Kamiya relaxed in the bath, having skipped taking one the day before. When he got out and went into the living room, his father and sister were cooking dinner together. Kamiya watched, smiling. His sister asked why he was grinning. "It's nothing, really. I just thought it was nice," she told us he said. She told him to go rest and went back to cooking dinner. Suddenly, she heard something fall over behind her. She and her father turned around and saw Kamiya lying on the ground. She hurriedly called an ambulance and performed CPR, but he didn't respond. The ambulance arrived and tried to resuscitate him, but he never regained consciousness. Twenty or thirty minutes later, he was declared dead at the hospital. The sound of the clock hovered among the three of us. None of us could move. I don't know how much time passed. "Actually, I know a lot about the two of you," his sister finally said, looking first at me and then at Maori. I dry swallowed and asked, "Did Kamiya…did Tooru talk about us?" "Yes, he talked about you a lot, and he was always happy when he did. I met Maori once at the fireworks display in the neighboring district. Has your anterograde amnesia improved at all since then?" she asked Maori, who was looking down. We both widened our eyes in surprise. "How do you know about my memory loss…?" Maori asked. She looked confused. Kamiya had told his sister about Maori's condition. Maybe that was only natural within a family. However, Maori didn't know that Kamiya knew about her amnesia. I held my breath as his sister continued. "I'm sorry. I don't know exactly why, but Tooru knew about it but pretended he didn't." "I…I…kept it a secret from Tooru. So h-how did he…" Maori went on to tell us about their relationship, including some things I didn't know. For instance, that Kamiya had confessed to Maori to protect a friend. That there were certain conditions to their relationship. The third of which… "But Tooru truly fell in love with you. At least, as far as I could tell," his sister said. For a moment, Maori was speechless. "I don't know. I don't remember. I really do forget everything. If I didn't have my journal, all the time I'd spent with him would be as if it had never happened." She spoke haltingly and painfully, but she kept going. "But he gave so much courage to the me of each day. He said, 'I'm going to show tomorrow's Hino a good time.' It saved me over and over again. The truth is, I was looking forward to seeing him today so much…but…" She looked down again, and his sister let her words sink in. "Thank you for telling me that. But it's no one's fault that you can't hold on to your memories. Tooru knew that when he dated you. I'm certain he enjoyed being with you. When I saw him with you at the fireworks, I was surprised. I never knew that he could fall for someone in that way. If he was able to think of you in his last moments, I think that would have made him happy. Thank you. Truly." I waited for Maori to calm down, then asked Kamiya's sister the time and place of the wake that night. After that, we left. My mind was still in the state of profound chaos it had been in since the night before. I was trying to decide if I should do what he had asked of me or not. I was the only person in the world who could carry out his wish. I went with Maori as far as her station but then said I had to talk to his sister about something and returned alone to Kamiya's house. I was worried about her emotional state, so before I left, I hailed a taxi to take her home. I told her I would meet her later and said goodbye. When I rang the doorbell at Kamiya's house for a second time, his sister answered with a startled look on her face. "What's the matter? Did you forget something?" she asked. "No, it's just, there's something Tooru asked me to do. And…I can't decide on my own. I wanted to ask for your advice." She must have sensed my desperation, or perhaps the mention of her brother's request caught her attention, because after a short pause, she nodded and said, "All right." I sat down at the kitchen table and told her about Maori's journal and binder and her risk of developing depression. I also told her that Kamiya had asked that I erase him from the journal and binder. When I was done, his sister sat there thinking for a while. "If you bring me the binder and the journal, either the real things or copies, I'll type them into the computer. I should be able to patch up the spots where I remove him. I'm good at that sort of thing," she said. I didn't know what to say. "Do you think it's the right thing to do?" I asked. I still didn't know how I felt about it. I probably would need to explain it to Maori's parents. But…if I did it, Kamiya would vanish entirely from Maori's life. If I didn't, she might suffer every day. "I don't think it's up to me to decide if it's right or wrong," Kamiya's sister said. "The world is made of words. People cling to those words. Anything can be right if you think it is. And anything can be wrong if you think it is. That is the case here because the outcome is uncertain. Maori may suffer if you don't erase Tooru from the journal. You may suffer, too, if you see her and wish you had done as Tooru said. On the other hand, if you do erase Tooru from the journal, it may help Maori. Though, your conscience may be guilty. At this point in time, however, all of that is uncertain." I listened silently as she went on. "If living life as it's presented is the fundamental reality of human existence, then I believe it is right that either Maori suffers in her life or we suffer in ours from guilty consciences. But…Wataya, Tooru entrusted this to you. So you must decide. The only basis should be whether you want to do it or not. I will follow your decision. If you can't decide yourself, then you can use me as a reason. I want to fulfill Tooru's last wish. But…" She looked down, her words trailing off. I felt as if I was on the verge of sinking into my own gutlessness once again. In the end, I left without deciding and went to Maori's house. She was lying on her bed as if she was sick. I imagined what the next day would be like for her. In the morning, she would wake up and learn that she had amnesia. She would learn that she had a boyfriend who died and all that remained was her journal recalling happier days. Every morning, she would be confronted with those two absurdities: her own amnesia and her boyfriend's death. There was the risk she would spiral into depression. If all she did was face each day with pessimism… No, I had to stop. It wasn't right to use her condition to justify my own actions. Like Kamiya's sister had said, it came down to whether I wanted to do it or not. I'd always boasted about that, hadn't I? I'd always said I only did what I wanted to and didn't do what I didn't want to. If I told Maori beforehand, I was sure she'd stop me. She wouldn't hesitate. For that reason, I decided to act on my own. If I was going to do it, I should do it as soon as possible. I knew where she kept the binder and journal. She couldn't stay in bed forever. When she went to use the bathroom, I opened her drawer. Steeling myself, I stuffed the binder and journal into my bag. When she came back, I told her I was going to the convenience store and left. I made copies of the journal, which took up several notebooks, and the binder and put the copies into envelopes. By the time I got back to her room, it was growing dark outside. If she had noticed the binder and diary were missing, I planned to make up an excuse. I was going to say I took them temporarily because I thought it wouldn't be good for her to read them in her state. She said nothing. She was lying right where I'd left her and hadn't even turned on the light. It seemed unlikely that she'd tried to read the binder or journal. I'd taken a while making copies, but she didn't seem to think that was strange, either. It was an odd time for it, but I'd bought some snacks, so I suggested we have tea. We still had the wake to get through. This was going to be a long day for both of us. Maori stood up listlessly and left her room, saying she was going to the kitchen to prepare the tea. While she was gone, I returned the binder and diary to where I'd found them. We left early for the wake to make it by the instructed time. When we arrived, I casually slipped Kamiya's sister the envelopes with the copies in them. I spoke to Kamiya's father for the first time and found him much more collected than I'd imagined from Kamiya's descriptions. He held back his own sorrow to fulfill his role as the resolute father. When he saw Maori, he bowed deeply, seeming to have realized something. I knew they'd met once at the fireworks show. "Thank you for coming. I'm certain the deceased…I mean, Tooru is happy you are here." I think I was probably the only one who noticed the drops falling to his feet. When it was time to offer incense, Maori stood in front of the open casket, shaking as she stared at Kamiya's face. The next day, I went to her house before noon because I was worried about her. She looked depressed. It seemed she had written about Kamiya's death in her binder and diary and had read the entries that morning. The day before, I had decided not to prevent her from writing about what had happened. I knew it was wrong, but I wanted to see what she was like without my interference. I wanted to know how she would react when she learned that her boyfriend was dead. She was haggard to the point of looking like a walking corpse. In the afternoon, I went alone to see Kamiya's sister. Apparently, his father was busy with the funeral arrangements, having told his sister to leave everything to him. She had stayed up the whole night typing the contents of the binder and diary into her laptop. Rather than simply erasing references to Kamiya, she skillfully substituted me for him. In reality, Maori and I were in different classes in our third year of high school. She changed that to say we were in the same class, like we had been the previous year, and smoothly adjusted the references to various people. After she explained all of this to me, she asked me to review it to make sure nothing seemed unnatural. I said I would, and she went to Tooru's room to lie down for a while. I'd been surprised that I hadn't seen her cry and thought she must be emotionally strong, but now I could hear her muffled sobs through the walls. It made my own sorrow deeper. Tears spilled down my cheeks. This wasn't the time for me to cry. I remembered the work I had to do and wiped my tears. I read through the new diary alongside Maori's original version. Every entry in the original held memories of Maori and Kamiya. I could practically see the two of them laughing happily in the pages. Kamiya—no, Tooru—had supported her so much. Thinking about it made me start crying again. 4 Within several days, Tooru's funeral was held, and I was done checking the diary. Without telling Maori, I talked with her parents and Kamiya's sister about what to do next. Maori's parents had known about Tooru since before his death and were deeply grateful for him and sad that he was gone. Tooru's sister tried to buy Maori a new phone, saying it was Tooru's last wish, but Maori's parents insisted they wanted to buy it. In the end, they split the cost. After they bought it, I kept it with me. In Maori's current phone, Tooru was there—in photos, videos, messages, and even in her text exchanges with me. We had to buy a new one to erase all those traces of his existence. We decided her parents should tell her they had to get it because her old one broke. We'd write the same thing in the new digital version of her journal and notes. As for the messaging app…we'd say we messed up the data transfer. It was the morning of the third day after Tooru's funeral. I'd arranged with Maori's parents in advance to visit her room early in the morning. Since she was still weak, she was sleeping in her parents' room at her mother's suggestion. I breathed in the quiet morning air and opened the desk drawer in Maori's room. I gathered the binder and numerous volumes of her journal and placed them carefully in my bag. I set her laptop on the desk, turned it on, and transferred the digital journal and notes Tooru's sister had given me to her computer. His sister had created entries for the days since his death as well. Using a certain program, she even falsified the time stamps on the folders and documents. Starting today, Maori would read the digital version of her notes and journal to learn about herself and her daily life and add her own new entries there as well. Her old phone was plugged into a charger on another table. I took out the new one, intentionally messed up the data transfer, and registered her on a new messaging app. Now she wouldn't be able to see our past messages that referred to Tooru. She would no longer find any trace of her life with Tooru anywhere. If that happens, I'll leave the rest in your hands. I thought of that joking exchange with Tooru. Reflexively, I looked up. Tooru, this is what you wanted, right? That reminds me, I never felt comfortable enough to call you by your first name when you were alive. I set the new phone on the desk and put her old one in my bag. I planned to keep it for her. She had lots of sketchbooks. I carefully tore out the pages with drawings of Tooru and tucked them into the large folder I'd brought with me. Then I went back and cut out the torn edges that remained in the sketchbooks. I didn't think I'd forgotten anything, but just to be sure, I looked over the checklist I'd written. I had forgotten something important. I had to change the notes taped to the wall. I looked them over. I've suffered memory loss in an accident. Read the notes and journal on my desk. But I graduated from high school. I worked hard for that. Put my heart and soul into each day. Don't forget to be grateful for my family. They were mere sheets of white paper, not the kind of things that have souls, but they had watched over her day after day. I couldn't bear to look at them for long. I felt as if I was violating them. I've suffered memory loss in an accident. Read the notes and journal on my laptop. I was only changing one, but since she might become suspicious if one looked different from the others, I switched them all for sheets I'd typed and printed from my computer. I knew every word by heart. As I worked, I discovered there was a sticky note on the back of one of her notes. When I read it, I froze. Even if I recover, always remember Tooru Kamiya. The important things will always be in an important place. Why was it on the back of the paper? I couldn't help wondering. My best guess was that she had put it there so she would see the words when she took them down…in other words, when she recovered from her amnesia. I didn't think she had noticed what Kamiya's sister and I were doing, but she must have sensed something was going on. Or was it simply an expression of her strong feelings for Tooru? I felt like I was going to cry. Regardless, I had to keep this for her, too. If I stuck the sticky note onto the back of the new sheet, she would probably discover it eventually. I put the paper in my bag with the sticky note still attached. Then I taped the printed sheets up on the wall. I turned off the lights, but before I closed the door, I looked back one more time. The new, lifeless slips of paper stared back at me. From that day on, Maori's daily routine took place on her laptop. She read her digitized notes and journal there and typed in new entries. Her mother told her she'd always done it like that. I went to see her the day after the switch. Although she didn't know Tooru had died, she nevertheless seemed to be suffering. She didn't know why she felt so off. "I guess the data transfer for my messaging app failed," she said glumly. "It sucks. They reminded me of how much fun you and I had. Now I can't look at them." I wrapped my arms around her in a hug. "It'll be okay. We'll do even more fun stuff starting now. Not just in texts; in real life. I…I'll make sure your tomorrows are fun, okay?" She seemed confused by my uncharacteristic response, but eventually she said, "Okay" and rested her face on my shoulder. "Thanks, Izumi," she said. Over the next two or three days, she gradually recovered. The human ability for self-healing made me happy and sad at the same time. April arrived, and Maori settled into her new routines. Soon enough, the old Maori was back. Although I was a university student now, I tried to see her on the weekends. On weekdays, she took drawing classes in town and went for walks in the park. Sometimes I would see her walking near the station alone. In the past, she had always been with Tooru. Something crucial was missing, but she didn't realize it. Seeing her like that broke my heart. On a warm day at the end of April, she and I went for a walk in the park. It was the place where she and Tooru had gone on their first date, and where the three of us had picnicked under the cherry blossoms the spring break before our third year of high school. Maori had asked that we go there. As we walked among trees that had already shed their last blossoms, she spoke haltingly. "It's hard to explain…but I feel like I've forgotten something very important. I just can't remember. I guess that's only natural, considering my memories disappear every night." A little less than a year later, Maori recovered from her amnesia. She enrolled in prep school, and the months passed until it was fall. Now she was sitting across from me at a café with a sketchbook filled with pictures of Tooru and a question for me. "Do you know who this is?" Several thoughts swirled in my mind. Why was she holding a drawing of Tooru? I thought I'd collected them all, but I must have missed this sketchbook. I took a sip of my water. There was no need to hide the truth about Tooru anymore. Maori no longer had amnesia, and the risk of depression associated with it was gone as well. If I told her about Tooru, she would get past it in time. She would feel some pain, but I was sure it would heal. "Oh, him? He's just a guy you saw a couple of times at the library during summer break in high school." All the same, that was how I answered her question. I didn't know what was best for her. She had completely forgotten Tooru. Even if one day she looked through the sketches again and sensed something odd, maybe she would have a boyfriend or a husband by then and forget all about it… Maybe there was happiness in that, too, and there would be no need to unearth the sorrows of the past. She wasn't satisfied with my answer, though, and began searching within herself for a better one. "But why are there so many drawings of him?" "You were just getting into drawing portraits. You wanted to have a guy to draw instead of just me all the time, and he offered to help." "I never saw anything about that in my diary. And why did I hide the drawings? I found them behind my bookcase. Now that I think about it, I used to hide important things there when I was younger." A place where she hid important things? I remembered the message on the sticky note. Even if I recover, always remember Tooru Kamiya. The important things will always be in an important place. I finally understood what it meant. It wasn't metaphorical. The important things really were in an important place. In other words, she meant to tell herself never to forget Tooru. "You know how overprotective my dad is," she said. "In elementary school, he used to sneak into my room and read the group journal I kept with my friends. I hated that, so I started hiding things behind my bookcase. He finally stopped in junior high, and I forgot all about the hiding place. I found this sketchbook back there. I don't think it's a coincidence." She pouted, like her curiosity was mixed with dissatisfaction. "Izumi, are you hiding something from me?" It's not that I'd never predicted this day would come. I could brush it off with a laugh. If necessary, I could make up a story to explain it. There were all sorts of options at this stage. Having said that, I wasn't so sure what to do. Before I realized it, my vision was blurred with tears. I could see how unsettled Maori was. I told myself not to cry. Why was I crying? Why would an eccentric person like me be crying? A person whose thoughts didn't even make sense? A cold person like me? Just smile and make up a story. Then this would all be over. "Maori, that guy…" But there was no way I could lie to her. "He was your boyfriend." The two of them loved each other too much for me to lie about this. Maori made a bewildered sound. I desperately tried to keep talking. I could see Tooru's face in my mind. Smiling vaguely, troubled, that serious face of his from the last time I saw him, when he entrusted his request to me. "But, Maori…" I choked, unable to even wipe my tears away. "He's…no longer in this world. He died."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/contents.txt	Contents CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright An Unknown Boy and His Unknown Girl Walking Side by Side Once-in-a-Lifetime Summer The Blankness of Blanks An Unknown Girl and Her Unknown Boy My Heart Will Draw Your Portrait Afterword Yen Newsletter
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/copyright.txt	Copyright COPYRIGHT Misaki Ichijo Translation by Winifred Bird Cover photo by Koichi This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. KONYA, SEKAI KARA KONO KOI GA KIETEMO ©Misaki Ichijo 2020 First published in Japan in 2020 by KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo. English translation rights arranged with KADOKAWA CORPORATION, Tokyo through TUTTLE-MORI AGENCY, INC., Tokyo. English translation © 2022 by Yen Press, LLC Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author's intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author's rights. Yen On 150 West 30th Street, 19th Floor New York, NY 10001 Visit us at yenpress.com ✴ facebook.com/yenpress ✴ twitter.com/yenpress yenpress.tumblr.com ✴ instagram.com/yenpress First Yen On Edition: December 2022 Edited by Yen On Editorial: Shella Wu, Ivan Liang Designed by Yen Press Design: Wendy Chan Yen On is an imprint of Yen Press, LLC. The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Yen Press, LLC. The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Library of Congress Control Number: 2022038171 ISBNs: 978-1-9753-4833-5 (hardcover) 978-1-9753-4834-2 (ebook)
Officially Translated Light Novels	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight/Even-If-This-Love-Disappears-Tonight-Complete-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/fm.txt	Even If This Love Disappears Tonight A beautiful girl who was supposed to have meant nothing to me once said this: "We can date, but only under three conditions. First, don't talk to me until after school. Second, when we contact each other, we keep it short. And third, don't fall in love with me. Can you do those three things?" Back then, there was a lot I didn't understand. On a practical level, how to tell a girl I liked her when I didn't. On a philosophical level, death. On a poetic level, love. And then I added another thing to the list. Myself. For some reason, I told this girl I didn't know yes.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/afterword.txt	Afterword Afterword I'll leave you with my tales of woes for a bit. Converting a script intended for a game into a book was unexpectedly difficult (at least, in my experience). For example, in a game, you can easily switch scenes with a fade-to-black and/or some special effects, but if you have only text, a sudden scene change can seem abrupt and can wreck the pacing and flow of the writing. Another thing is when you take out all the passionate voice acting and scene-appropriate music, the text can seem staggeringly dull by itself. Three or four scenes' worth of moments get crammed into a single page spread, and the story just flies by without giving you time to digest it. I was always prepared for this to be a problem ever since Volume 1, but this time was even worse, and I found myself standing alongside Lyu, screaming, "Go away, Erebus. It's not your time yet!" But I learn a lot when creating adaptations. It feels like I'm gaining experience points and leveling up alongside our wayward elf and the other characters in the story. Adapting a game into a novel requires addition. Adapting a novel into a game requires subtraction and sometimes multiplication. It's an embarrassing process to have to reveal, but I do it in the hopes of leaving my tracks in this afterword and reminding myself how far I've come. Now for the acknowledgments. First, to Usami, my editor, I give my utmost thanks for supporting me throughout this second volume. I'm going to get some sleep now, and I hope you do, too. Second, I'd like to thank Kakage for once again decorating this volume with their wonderful illustrations, and I apologize for the trouble caused by any controversy over the size of Lyu's breasts. I would like to make clear that I am not a radical flat-chest extremist by any means, and I like big boobs, too, honest! My sincere gratitude goes out to all the staff at WFS for their help and assistance in obtaining materials. And finally, a very big thank-you to all the readers who chose to pick up this book. This long struggle, recorded on the infinite stars of the boundless sky, will finally come to an end in Volume 3, War of Good and Evil. I hope you will see this tale through to the end, come what may. Thank you for sticking with me this far, and until next time. —Fujino Omori
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter1-01.txt	Chapter 1: The Taste of Stones CHAPTER 1 The Taste of Stones The skies above remained cloudy and gray. The flames of war had all but died out, yet what remained were great pillars of smoke that loomed over the smoldering city, connecting the earth to the sky. Not even birds flew in the vast, interminable smog. "Is that the last of them?" Lyra asked in a hoarse, rasping voice. It was Kaguya who answered. With no waterskin to offer, she tossed the parched prum girl a magic potion instead. "It seems so. The only ones trapped beneath the rubble now are corpses." She watched as the last of her familia returned with tired expressions after delivering the rescued survivors to safety. "You look dreadful," she said at last to the pink-haired prum. "Heh. Looked in a mirror lately? You're no better than the rest of us." Lyra forced a weary smile. She and the rest of Astrea Familia had been working through the night to aid the rescue efforts. Every able-bodied person in the city had been doing the same—adventurers, healers, Guild employees. As agents of justice, the girls refused to be outdone. The strain on the body was great. But the strain on the spirit was greater still. A few days ago, this street had been bustling with life. Now there was nothing but stone and ash. The members of Astrea Familia failed to find anything to say in the face of such devastation. Lyra downed their last magic potion and wiped her mouth. The girls had expended their healing items on the tired and wounded who most needed them, so these were all they had left. "Neze, what are we doing to combat the spread of disease?" asked Alize. As familia captain, she oversaw this operation. Though she was no doubt more tired than anybody else, her voice was firm, and the fire in her eyes burned as brightly as ever. "The members of Dian Cecht Familia are distributing medical supplies all over the city, so I don't think we'll have to worry about that," answered Neze. "And we've got a saint watching over us." "A saint? Oh, you must mean that little doll girl. Okay, well, we've done all we can here. Time to pull out." Alize called out to the other volunteers, and the group withdrew from the area. "Man, can't wait to take a shower and get some hot grub," groaned Lyra. "Then I'm goin' straight to bed." "No, you aren't," remarked Kaguya, equally tired. "After we get cleaned up and eat something, we're going out on patrol. Evil could be lurking around any corner." The streets they walked were in equally bad shape as the ones they had just left. Walls had been torn down and many buildings were in ruins. If someone claimed a giant had just charged through the town, most would probably believe it. Wooden beams and barrels lay strewn across the debris-filled street. It would be almost impossible for a non-adventurer to traverse without breaking a leg. And being as tired as they were, the girls were having plenty of trouble themselves. Lyra kicked aside a shard of glass from a toppled magic-stone streetlamp as she said, "We may be strong, but we ain't immortal. We haven't had a chance to catch our breath since the sky fell on our heads." Lyra continued to grumble as per usual, but not even Kaguya held it against her. By now, all of them had realized what an important role the prum girl's chatter served. In the Dungeon, whenever trouble arose, she always had something to say. She wouldn't allow any silence to linger unfilled. This was her way of soothing the party's troubled minds and souls. Even she, the smallest member of the party, had a crucial role to play. None of them would ever admit it, but the other girls were grateful for her constant chatter. With her usual wisecracking, they managed to smile, just a little, despite the destruction surrounding them. "………" Lyu, however, was trapped in a greater slump. She stared at her feet, a truly despondent look on her face. "Keep your chin up, Leon," said Alize, walking alongside her. "You've got to say something if you're feeling bad." She gently placed her hand on Lyu's shoulder. "You haven't spoken a word all night. If you keep it bottled up inside, you'll explode!" "………" "We're almost at the camp," she said, undeterred by the elf's characteristic reluctance to open up. "Then we can—" Just then, a group of townsfolk stepped into the road, barring the way. "What do you want?" asked Lyra, unable to conceal her bewilderment. The townsfolk, inhabitants of the camp Alize had just mentioned, simply stood there with grim expressions, like a horde of malignant specters. They glared at Lyu and the other girls with simmering resentment. Then one of the figures spoke. The words were quiet but thick with emotion. "I thought Astrea Familia was supposed to be the good guys," she said. "Why didn't you protect us? Why didn't you save us?!" It was a beastfolk woman, her voice like tearing silk. Her shoulders trembled with anger, and her eyes were filled with tears and pent-up rage. "You lied to us!" she screamed. "Give him back!" """!!!""" Lyu, Alize, Kaguya, Lyra—all the girls of Astrea Familia opened their eyes wide in shock. Then, the floodgates opened and the stones began flying. "Everyone's dead!" "And what did you do? Nothing!" "What good are you?!" "You're adventurers! Do something!" "Why is this happening?!" "Justice? What a joke!" "It's all your fault!" The crowd may have lobbed rocks at them, but what the members of Astrea Familia had to endure most was the stream of abuse that contained all of the townspeople's anger and suffering. Although the girls didn't know it, this was precisely what Finn had predicted, and there was nothing they could do. People had lost their homes, their livelihoods, and their loved ones. It was obvious why they had lost any semblance of composure as their emotions swelled. And it was perfectly understandable why they were turning against those who those who had fought for them—because they were the same people who had failed to protect them. The girls all threw up their arms to protect their faces. All of them except Lyu. "…What is the meaning of this?" she whispered. Her entire body trembled from sheer indignation and her voice steadily rose in a crescendo. "What have we done to deserve this? Is this any way to repay us after all we've done for you? All we've given?! All we've lost?!" All her pent-up rage exploded at once, just like Alize said it would. But all she received from the townsfolk in return was the cold and bitter taste of stones. That and cruel contempt for the failure of justice. The words of the protectors failed to reach the ears of the protected. It was so unfair, so unreasonable, that Lyu felt her faith shaken to its very core. And it wasn't only her face that contorted with rage. "How dare you…!" spat Kaguya. Several of them could endure this no longer, and their hands reached for their weapons. The far-eastern girl was just about to free her sword from its sheath to deflect the hurled stones and send the townsfolk packing when Alize stepped forward and reached out to stop her. "Captain! Stay back; we don't know what they might do!" But the red-haired girl ignored her. She stepped out into the hail of stones without any heed for her own safety. Of course, it wasn't long before one of those stones met its mark. A thin streak of blood ran down Alize's brow. The beastfolk woman who threw the offending stone stepped back in shock, realizing what she'd done. "Ah…" But Alize said nothing to her. Instead, she addressed them all. "I'm sorry." No rhetoric, no cleverly crafted words. Just a simple, purehearted apology. The crowd of demi-humans froze, unsure how to respond. "We were weak," Alize went on. "And as a result, we let your homes get destroyed. We let your family and loved ones be killed." """…!!""" "I'm so, so sorry." The people were suddenly quiet, like a raging fire doused with water. Some grumbled and frowned, while others looked guilty. Her sincerity had soothed their anger somewhat since it was clear that no one felt more responsible for what happened than she did. "Alize…" Lyu couldn't find the words for what she was seeing. Kaguya and Lyra were much the same. All of them had seen how Alize gave just as much if not more than anybody else. They knew how many people her tireless efforts had saved. Why did she have to hang her head in shame? Why was it that, after giving her all for the sake of others, the only thing she received in return was condemnation? It just didn't seem right. "It can't be easy working such a thankless job, and without pay to boot." "I don't think it's healthy. In fact, I'm worried about you." The evil god's words rang in her head, now in the mocking voice of a malicious court jester. "You're all gung ho about it now, but what happens after you burn out?" "Would you still say the same?" His teasing tormented her, and just as Lyu was thinking about how unreasonable it all was, someone stepped out of the crowd. Someone who didn't accept Alize's apology. "'Sorry' isn't enough…" A human woman shambled forward, like a zombie. "My child is dead because of you!!" Her ash-coated face contorted in rage as she charged Alize and struck her across the cheek. Alize could do nothing but stare. Lyu gasped in astonishment. "She was so young, and now she's gone!" "H-hey, stop that! Those are adventurers!" A man, presumably her husband, came up from behind the woman and pulled her back. "They did everything they could… They saved our little Leah once already… They…" The man tried to reason with his wife, but it wasn't long before he, too, broke down in tears. "Aaaargh! Why?! Why did this have to happen?!" All of Astrea Familia looked on in shock. It was only Alize and Lyu who saw it. Beyond the weeping couple, poised atop a heap of rubble like a tombstone, was a blood-soaked teddy bear. "I remember that… It's…" A scene from the not-too-distant past played out in Lyu's mind. A scene of a twilit street. "Ah! It's Astrea Familia!" "Thank you for saving me, nice ladies!" Didn't the girl who Alize and Lyu saved have a teddy bear just like this one? "Oh, you don't know how grateful we are to you, Miss Adventurer. How can we ever repay you…?" How could such a grateful woman have become so consumed by sadness and rage? And where…where was that innocent young girl now? All these questions pointed to one terrifying conclusion. Lyu's body turned to ice. B-but…we saved her. We saved her… It didn't make sense. It wasn't right. Lyu felt her heart come undone, and the world around her disappeared into an ashen smog. She hated those who had done this, but more than anything else, she hated herself for being powerless to stop it. Powerless to protect the ones she loved…like Ardee. All the regret and remorse bubbled up through her veins like molten magma, searing her insides until… "Aaaghh… AAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!" …something snapped. Something that had been given every reason to perish already, and only by some miracle had been keeping Lyu's mind bound together. She slumped to the floor as the world around her went dark. "Leon? Leon! …Shit! C'mon, help me carry her!" Lyra's voice was faint, as if she were deep underwater. She could hear Alize and the other girls running over, but the sounds were muffled like distant thunder. Then, as clear as day in her own head, she heard a question she could not answer. "What exactly is your justice?" At first, she didn't realize she was dreaming. The glow of the evening was so warm, so bright, that she could almost cry. Golden stalks of wheat swaying in the breeze matched the color of the sky above, and it was impossible to tell where one stopped and the other started. The air was cool and refreshing. The smell was incredibly nostalgic, but it couldn't possibly be real. Because she was standing there. Her back was turned, just like the day she disappeared forever. Leon… Her sky-blue hair. A voice that would never be heard again. Lyu didn't dare reach out. She stood, transfixed by the sight. Her face was in shadow, but her lips were moving. Leon. Justice will… Lyu wasn't ready to hear the rest. Before the next words came, everything receded at the speed of light. The dream ended, ejecting Lyu into harsh reality. All she could do was scream the girl's name. "Ardee!!" She bolted up, throwing her blanket aside. Her hand reached out, but all it caught was empty air, reminding her that what she had just seen existed only inside her own mind. Her arms fell lifelessly into her lap. She stared at them, silent, before eventually turning her hollow, sky-blue eyes on her surroundings. "Where am I?" She recognized the desk and chair. The sofa she was lying on felt familiar as well. Still, she stared wordlessly for a while before the answer came from a person standing next to her. "You're home." Lyu raised her eyes to meet the gaze of the kimono-clad woman by her bedside. "Kaguya…" Then, her foggy mind began sorting the dream from reality. The townsfolk had been throwing stones, and Lyu had passed out at some point. The other girls must have brought her back here, to the Stardust Garden. How disgraceful to let them see her like that, Lyu thought. Completely ignoring the guilt Lyu felt, Kaguya gave only a rude snort, as though nothing were owed. "At least you're finally awake," she said. Then, after confirming Lyu's injuries were mild, she quickly changed tack. "Get up and get ready. The Evils are still attacking. We need to join the others." She offered nothing but a series of indisputable facts, allowing no emotion to enter her voice. Her expression was uncomfortably calm. Lyu was silent for a moment. Then, just as Kaguya was about to leave the room… "How?" A tiny utterance escaped her lips. Kaguya returned a perturbed look. "How what?" she asked. "How are you not angry after everything that's happened?" Once Lyu had started, she couldn't stop herself. "So many died, even the ones we saved before. And the ones who didn't threw rocks at us!" All the questions she'd been holding back flooded out in one great deluge. A righteous fury took control of her voice and leveled it at her own ally. "Ardee's dead!!" she screamed. "How can you be so calm?!" Her voice echoed off the walls for only a moment, before the air grew silent once more. Kaguya only stared at the elf girl, silent, before releasing a huge sigh. "You're ridiculous," she said. "What?!" "Criticism. Mockery. Slander. Sacrifice. These are all part of the mantle of justice. We can't escape them." The drawn-out tone of her voice was the same one she adopted whenever she found fault with Lyu's actions. Only now, there was a calmness to her words that Lyu had never heard before. "This was something we all accepted and were prepared for. All of us…except you." "Hrk!!" Kaguya's words were like a knife to her heart. "We all knew this day would come. But you were the last to join us and the least ready to accept this." Lyu was speechless. Kaguya mercilessly beat her into submission with the cold, hard truth. And while she scrambled to gather her thoughts, the far-eastern girl continued. "Remember what I said, Lyu Leon. You can't save everyone." It was nine days ago, after the girls confronted Vito on the eighteenth floor of the Dungeon. "Know your place, you cocky elf. You think yourself a superhero? Nobody could possibly have saved them all, and you know it." That cold, calm statement had come after Lyu chastised Kaguya for being so dismissive of the adventurers who had died before Astrea Familia arrived on scene. The memory played in her head as Kaguya dropped her gaze to the sword at her hip and ran a slender finger along its sheath. "You'll get over it. In time," she assured Lyu. "But if you had done what I said and prepared to accept sacrifices, you wouldn't be in this situation now." Her answer left no room for interpretation. Lyu was still reeling from her words and couldn't formulate a response straightaway, but the anger inside her refused to allow that insult to go unchallenged. Her heart began to pound, sending boiling blood coursing through her veins as her righteous fury compelled her to speak out. "What kind of justice is that?!" she roared. "'Get over it'? 'Accept sacrifices'?! That is not what our goddess stands for! That is not the justice I chose to follow!!" But even this was not enough to make Kaguya recant. The look in her eyes said it all. What good is that conviction when you lack the strength to see it through? Lyu's idea of justice was nothing but a dream. An unattainable fantasy. "Don't be ridiculous," Kaguya spat. "We live in the real world. There comes a day when each of us must make a choice. It seems that, for you, that day hasn't come yet." When Lyu looked at her face, instead of the scorn she had expected, she saw sadness. "You are as skilled with the sword as any of us, elf, but your heart is the weakest by far. You aren't ready to face the horrors of war." In the wake of losing a dear friend, Lyu was on the verge of a complete breakdown. That was why she couldn't see what the sadness in Kaguya's eyes meant. The source of that sorrow was a mourning for something she had given up on but Lyu still held on to. At the same time, it was worry. Worry that the elf was not yet strong enough to face the challenges that lay ahead, and that they would leave her broken. "Kaguyaaa!!" And because she lacked the composure to recognize any of this, Lyu leaped up from the sofa in anger, grabbing Kaguya by the collar. The far-eastern girl didn't so much as blink, nor did she try to fight back. If it helped soothe Lyu's ire even slightly, then she would endure whatever the elf girl needed to get out. "Kaguya?! What are you doing?!" Alize heard the crash as Lyu upended a chair in her rage, and Alize came running into the room. She had come to relieve Kaguya of her duty in watching over the sleeping girl. Seeing the two on the verge of coming to blows, she stepped between them and pushed the girls apart. "And you, Leon. You've just woken up, so take it easy!" Alize went to place a hand reassuringly on the girl's shoulder, but before she even could, Lyu ran at her and hugged her tight. "Alize," she sobbed. "Tell me the truth. Are you also willing to accept sacrifices?!" With trembling eyes, she looked up into those of her leader, only a short distance away. "Are you willing to forget about the death of our friend? To throw up your hands and say there's nothing we can do?!" Her eyes were the color of new growth in spring. "Please, Alize, tell me! What is the justice we've been fighting for?!" It was the plea of a girl who had lost everything. Neither her elven pride nor her adventurer's armor could turn away the world's cruel realities a moment longer. All she could do was scream. She was letting her best friend see her at her weakest moment, but that was okay so long as Alize could answer her question. The flame-haired girl closed her eyes for a moment. The rhythmic, mechanical sound of the timepiece on the wall ticked away. Then, at last, she spoke. "I'm sorry, Leon." She couldn't. That was the plain and simple truth. "I don't have an answer for you right now. At least not one you'll accept." Those were the absolute last words Lyu wanted to hear. She couldn't believe her ears. It was the first time she had ever heard the bundle of sunshine that was Alize Lovell sound so forlorn. "No!" Screwing up her face like a child, Lyu sprinted out of the room, fighting back her tears. "Leon!" Kaguya shouted after her, but Lyu ignored her cry. She dashed out the front doors and into the ruined streets of the city. Shaking her arms and wiping her face, she screamed as she ran. "I don't want your apology, Alize! I just… I just…!" Beneath the ashen sky, amid the cold rubble of a town destroyed, she lay her heart bare. "I just wanted you to say I was wrong! I wanted you to smile, to take me by the hand and tell me where we go from here…like you always do!" With no destination in mind, she ran, letting her wild emotions guide her. There were no stars in the skies above to show her the way. "…Couldn't you have at least lied to her, Captain?" After Lyu had left bawling like a child, a wrinkle of concern crossed Kaguya's brow. "I may not be suited to weaning ignorant children," she continued, "but I was counting on you to succeed where I had failed." It was not an attack on either her captain's character or her own but, instead, an admission of their respective roles. Alize cast her eyes downward. "I know," she said. "I should have done what I always do. I should have laughed and smiled and been myself, but…" She shook her head, whipping her crimson hair about like a flickering candle flame. "I couldn't do it. No, I didn't want to do it. If I lied to Leon, I'd be lying to myself as well." Kaguya didn't have a response for such a heartfelt confession. The two of them simply stood there in silence until the door creaked and a third girl stepped into the room. "Let's get some light in this room, seriously. It's a good thing I stayed behind." "Lyra…" The pink-haired prum girl flashed a casual smile, replacing the one the two girls had lost. "I'll go after Leon," she said. "And you come, too, Kaguya. Looking for lost children sounds like a job worthy of our patrol." "In that case, I'll come, too," suggested Alize. "Not you, Captain. You need to stay here to take charge of the others," said Lyra, flashing a grin. "By the time we come back, you better not be mopin' around. That's not the Alize we want to see, y'know?" "Agreed," said Kaguya. "There's something wrong about seeing Alize so somber." Alize stopped in her tracks as she looked at their smiling faces. "Lyra… Kaguya…" Both of them had been with Alize and Astrea Familia since the very beginning. Alize respected their opinions more than anyone else's. "You're right!" she said at last, slapping her cheeks one at a time. "Now's not the time to mope around! I gotta hurry and come up with an answer for Leon, so we can laugh in the Evils' faces with the light at our backs!" "I don't remember sayin' any of that"—Lyra chuckled—"but you do you, girl. We'll handle Leon, so just sit tight." She looked at Kaguya, and the girls nodded to each other before leaving the room. Alize waved good-bye, and then… "………" After they had left, her smile disappeared. She dropped her hand and stared down at her feet with a bleak look on her face. The darkness was so thick, Alize was starting to wonder how they would find the light again. Lyu sprinted aimlessly through the streets, her feet scattering spray in the sudden downpour. Though it was far from dusk, the skies above were as dark as night. The streets were empty since most of the residents had fled to seek refuge from the fighting, and Lyu felt more alone than she had in a long, long time. At last, she realized how long she had been running, and the fatigue hit her all at once. She came to a stop in the southeast part of the city, far from Stardust Garden, gasping for breath. "Pant… Pant…… I'm a disgrace." All around her were the inescapable traces of war, filling her with emptiness. "I said such horrible things to Alize…and then ran away like a petulant child. What was the point?" No matter how far she ran, she couldn't escape the regret that weighed heavily on her heart. As she was pondering what to do next, she heard a commanding voice take control of the streets. "Listen up, everyone! Here are your orders!" Lyu was startled and hid herself away before she even realized what she was doing. She peeked around the corner, looking for the owner of the voice. "I won't mince words: we're short on people," the leader said. "Nursing the injured, burying our dead, and keeping the townspeople under control—these tasks should be left to the Guild and civilian volunteers!" It was Shakti, captain of Ganesha Familia, barking orders to her subordinates that served as the city watch. "We must focus on protecting everyone else from the Evils' attacks! We must be a shield for those who cannot defend themselves!" """Yes, ma'am!""" roared the crowd of troops. The sight brought a warmth to Lyu's heart. "Even after losing her sister, she's still leading with a steady hand…" Shakti had every reason to be in mourning, even more so than Lyu, but she wasn't stuck in the past. She stayed focused on the here and now. It was inspiring. Lyu was beginning to think how pathetic she must seem by comparison, but then she heard Shakti's next words. "And never show mercy to your foes! None of you must make the same idiotic mistake my sister did!" "What…?" She didn't believe her ears at first. But Shakti didn't stop there. In fact, it only got worse. "Ardee died because of mercy!" she roared, glaring with fire in her eyes at the crowd. "Because she tried to save her enemies as well as her friends! Her kindness was her own undoing! It was the very definition of folly! Our foe will not hesitate to blow themselves to kingdom come! So don't hesitate to cut them down if capturing them becomes impossible! I won't let a single one of you repeat the same mistake my sister made!" There was an uncertain pause, then the warriors answered in unison. """Yes, ma'am!""" "Very good. Now move out!" The adventurers of Ganesha Familia dispersed into the city. After they were gone, Lyu staggered into the street, unable to process what she just heard. "Shakti…" "Hm? Leon? What are you doing? It's dangerous to be out by yourself. Head back to your familia and—" "What did you mean, Ardee died because of mercy?" "………" "What did you mean, her actions were the definition of folly?" "………" "What did you mean, her death was an idiotic mistake?!" Lyu was at her breaking point. She walked right up to Shakti and roared in her face. "You're wrong! Ardee was kind! She knew more than anyone what justice meant! All she wanted was to live in a world where everyone was happy!" "………" "She…she was trying to save an innocent child! To protect an innocent life!!" "And she died for it." When Shakti finally opened her mouth to speak, it was to deliver that devastating blow. Her eyes were cold and cruel. "What?!" While Lyu reeled in shock, Shakti's eyebrows arched sharply. "All she did was get herself killed at a time when we need every able-bodied adventurer we can put in the field. Whether it was to save a child or spare an enemy, her mistake is costing us dearly." Lyu couldn't believe it. She was hearing a total condemnation of Ardee's actions from the mouth of her own bereaved sister. "I warned her about it in the past," Shakti went on. "I told her not to show compassion to her foes. We aren't gods." They were the words of someone who knew it was impossible to save everybody. The words of someone who knew what it took to be a protector. "I heard about what happened with the pickpocket, Leon. Didn't you take objection to Ardee's idealism then?" "Well…I…" "There's no room in Orario for ideals right now. What we need is to keep our people alive, no matter the cost. And that means we all need to see Ardee's mistake as a lesson." In stark contrast to Lyu's words, Shakti's were as cold and hard as stone. But Lyu's fists shook when she heard that word again. Mistake. "If we want to come through this crisis in one piece, we need to use everything at our disposal…even her memory," said Shakti. "That is my justice." Lyu heard something snap inside her once again. Translucent glass blood seeped from the cracks in her heart. It splintered into fragments and disappeared without a trace, as if everything she believed in had never existed at all. "That's your justice? You call that justice?! I don't believe you…You're lying! That can't be true! It's unacceptable!" Lyu stepped backward, one foot at a time, shaking her head in a vain attempt to deny what she was hearing. "Y-you're her sister, you can't just…!" She wasn't able to complete her sentence. Because when Shakti refused to meet her gaze, Lyu's anger had nowhere to go, and she took off running once more. "Grh!!" Again she fled, just like with Alize. Running from so-called justice. Shakti watched her go, a blank look in her eyes. In that moment, the elf girl looked so much like her sister that it was impossible for her to follow. "Shakti…" It was only the sound of his footsteps in the puddles that alerted her to the presence of the elephant-masked god who appeared at her side. She didn't know how long he had been standing there, listening. "Ganesha, do you think…I was wrong?" she asked, but the god didn't immediately answer. "Was Leon right? Was denying everything my sister believed in going too far?" "………" Though Lyu hadn't said it outright, Shakti knew what the elf girl had wanted to say, because she had considered the very same idea herself. There was no trace of the confidence and conviction she had displayed a few moments ago. All that remained was a lost and confused girl, the same as Lyu. "All it means is you chose a future for these people over honoring the fallen," said Ganesha. There was no fault Shakti could point to in his words, and that was what made them so painful. She clenched her fists tightly. "You're right," she said. "That is what I chose. I chose to spit on my sister's grave for the sake of the living!" Her anger, her fear, and her pain—they all surged forth in an unstoppable wave, clouding what was left of her rational mind. Then she peered into her god's eyes. "Tell me, Ganesha! How many more sacrifices must we suffer?!" She turned to the skies above, cloud-filled and starless. "How much more must I lose before I can finally tell her I'm sorry?!" The god had no answer. He clenched his jaw in frustration, unable to utter a single word.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter10-01.txt	Chapter 9: The Story of a Perfectly Normal Girl: Alize Lovell CHAPTER 9 The Story of a Perfectly Normal Girl: Alize Lovell I couldn't stand injustice when I was young. For me, Alize Lovell, everything needed to be proper. It was the only thing I cared about. I thought that the world could be enriched through logic, reason, and correctness. As a child, I was always at the center of my group of friends and the first to speak out against wrongdoing. It didn't matter what gender or race they were—human, dwarf, or prum. I began seeing myself as superior to others. I don't mean I was arrogant or boastful or anything. But I thought I had the right to do whatever I saw fit. When anyone tried to get in my way, I made them sit down. Whenever I saw something wrong, I tried to fix it. I began to champion justice and righteousness. Until one day, I hurt somebody. A boy who had been bullying one of my close friends. The first time I saw blood, I felt myself getting farther from justice. The grown-ups were angrier with me than with the bully. Even my friend seemed scared of me and didn't talk to me much after that. It was then that I felt things starting to change. The more I talked about logic, reason, and facts, the more I distanced myself from people. The more I tried to make everything right, the lonelier I became. For the first time, I began doubting the values I had taken for granted until then. What was "right"? What was "justice"? None of the grown-ups I asked could give me a straight answer. Not even my parents. And so, like the naive child I was, I thought to ask the gods for advice. All they did was smirk. "Justice?" they said. "Hah. Who knows…?" They found my struggle amusing, just like they do now. I was angry at them. So I left the city. I went on a journey in anger. I searched for my answer in anger. I found nothing in anger. And before long…I cried in anger. But I couldn't turn back after everything I'd said and done. One day, the rain fell so hard, I could almost forget my tears. That was when I met her. "What's wrong, little one?" A goddess of justice. Lady Astrea. "Lyra! Kaguya!" Astrea threw open the front door and ran out into the front yard of Stardust Garden. The two girls were there, receiving treatment from their fellow familia members. They had crawled all the way from the front lines before collapsing in the garden. "Gah, couldn't you have given us enough time to do our hair, at least?" asked Lyra. "We ain't exactly presentable right now…" Her indomitable quips couldn't hide the blood running down from her eardrums, and her forced smile was almost painful to look at. Seated on the grass, she looked battered beyond belief, as though she had just run through a bomb-strewn battlefield. Her heart laden with grief, Astrea turned to the Amazon girl looking after the pair. "How are they, Iska?" she asked. "Of the two, I think Lyra got off the lightest," replied Iska, wiping the sweat from her brow. "I gave them all the potions I could scrounge up; I just wish we had some decent supplies." She looked over Kaguya, lying on the ground as Marieux tended to her with magical healing and even more potions. Her silky black hair lay strewn across her face, and she had not regained consciousness, even now. "Lyra…what happened?" asked Astrea. "We ran into that dipshit god and Hera's chick; she whooped our asses. They let us get away, but we don't have a damn thing to show for it otherwise…" "Erebus and Alfia…" said Astrea. All around her, the other girls gasped. Lyra and Kaguya had run headfirst into the enemy general and his Level 7 powerhouse. It was a wonder they'd come back at all. "And that ain't the only bit of bad news," said Lyra. "In fact, this one's the real clincher. Turns out that bastard's after Leon." "!!" This time, even Astrea could not conceal her shock. Of course, Lyu had told them all about how, prior to the Great Conflict, the evil god had appeared many times before her in the guise of Eren. It was often the case that gods, loyal only to their own interests, appeared before mortals to test them and their curious ways. Not for science or even pleasure, but an altogether separate motivation that only an eternal being truly understood. And now, it had happened to Lyu. Astrea wanted to know more. What exactly had the dark god talked to her about? But before she could ask, the human girl Noin came running in, bearing Raul's message. "We've just gotten word from Loki Familia!" she said. "The city is under attack in all districts! Finn wants us to head to the northwest to break the enemy line!" "Northwest?" repeated Lyra. "But that's where we got our asses handed to us! You don't think…?" As if to answer her awful premonition, the far-eastern girl stirred from her slumber at last. "That must be where Leon is," she said, digging her fingers into the lawn and sitting herself up. "That bastard won't rest until he's had his fun." "Kaguya!" cried Astrea. "Sit yourself back down, you walking corpse!" came Marieux's concerned voice. "I've only just healed you up. Any sudden movement is only going to make things worse!" "Don't worry about me, Marieux," Kaguya replied, climbing shakily to her feet. "I'll do a lot better fighting out there than staying cooped up around here." The girl wore a ferocious grin, but the sheen of sweat was impossible to hide. "I'd listen to the doc if I were you." Lyra chuckled before adopting a more serious frown. "But I get your point. Let's all go get Leon together. Let's bring our girl back home." She glanced around at the other girls, who all nodded. Finally, she turned to her goddess. "You're not gonna try to stop us, are you?" she asked. "As you wish," Astrea replied. "But allow me to pray for your safe return instead." While the girls all steadily collected their nerves, Kaguya inquired as to the status of their missing member. "Where's our captain, Neze?" "She went to her room to rest," the werewolf girl said. "She's been working so hard lately. But she's probably in there thinking." The ears atop her head twitched, and she turned her focus to the main building. "Thinking about justice. She's trying to come up with an answer for all of us." The members of Astrea Familia all thought of their leader. A girl who bowed her head when the townsfolk threw rocks at her. A girl who showed her brightest smile when the doubt in her heart was greatest. Right now, she was alone, grappling with justice somewhere far out of reach. "I see," said Kaguya. "Well, we can't leave her there. Without our leader, we're nothing but a rowdy mob!" Kaguya dashed off through the front doors of the home, with Lyra and all the rest of Astrea Familia at her back. After meeting Lady Astrea, I started to learn about the nature of justice. But I never got an answer. Even she never taught me that. And in time, I came to feel that the only real answer was that there wasn't one. One day, for what seemed like no reason, Lady Astrea said these words aloud: "It is simple for us gods to show our children the justice they seek." "All we have to do is use our arcanum." "With a wave of our finger, we can bring happiness to all our children." "There will be no good or evil, just happy, smiling people." "But that isn't right." "That is not justice for this world." If earth became a paradise where all our desires were fulfilled, we would have no reason to keep improving. Satisfaction brings peace, which in turn leads to stagnation. A poison that kills the world—that could never be what justice is. The nature of justice…is to keep moving on. To keep asking questions, even when you think you've found the most beautiful star in the sky. That applies to right now, too. Leon, Orario—they're all waiting for me to answer their questions about evil. Sometimes I feel like the weight of justice will crush me. Sometimes I feel like evil has it better than us. They can have it all. Follow every pleasure, indulge every urge, and never struggle with contradictions. Evil is instinctual. It tells us everything we're wired to believe is right. So then, is justice the opposite of that? Something rational? To always have to suffer because of the difference between our hopes and reality? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But I have to answer, I have to. I have to. My answer is… "Alize! The enemy's here! Leon's in trouble! Open up! Hurry! Open uuuuup!!" Lyra pounded on the door to Alize's room with both fists, screaming through to the other side like a child anxiously calling for their parent. Astrea and the other girls stood in the hallway behind her. Then Kaguya stepped up. "Sorry, Captain, but you leave us no choice! I'm going to have to break down this door if you don't come out!" But just as she placed her hand to her sword, ready to draw it, there was a creak, and the door swung open. "!!" There stood Alize, eyes closed and head downcast, without saying a word. "Alize…" muttered Astrea. There was an almost holy air around her, like a hermit who had just spent fifty years in the mountains and achieved enlightenment. The other girls couldn't help but treat her with reverence and awe. "Captain," said Lyra, "does this mean…?" "…you know the answer?" finished Kaguya. Alize slowly opened her eyes, lifted her chin, and looked toward each of her friends in turn. They all held their breath as they awaited her next words. Finally, she parted her lips. "Nope." """""""""What?!""""""""" The solemn atmosphere shattered into a million pieces. "Sorry, girls. I tried my best! I tried so hard, my stomach started growling, but I couldn't think of anything!" There wasn't a hint of shame in her words. All that contemplation in ascetic solitude was just for show apparently. Meanwhile, each of the girls looked like pigeons that had just been shot out of the sky. "………" Lyra looks like she's seen the world's biggest idiot, thought Astrea, a bead of sweat dripping down her neck as she watched the prum's face twitch. Kaguya, meanwhile, seemed frozen in time for a moment, before suddenly coming to and taking a determined step toward Alize. "Captain! Now isn't the time to be joking around! We have to—!" "I'm not joking around," Alize said. "It's just that the answer is something it'll take our whole lives to find! For now, we have to keep making mistakes and getting lost!" ""!"" This was the solution she had come to just now, something she was proud to share with her comrades. Lyra, Kaguya, and all the rest of the girls couldn't believe their ears. "So I can't give you an answer now! It's not just 'cause I'm dumb—it's impossible!!" This, in itself, was Alize's answer. To admit that she was foolish and ignorant, and that was why she searched. To be a traveler, looking to the stars above and picking out the ones that truly shone. Alize proudly placed her hand to her chest. "So, girls! I want to stick with you all while we keep on trying to work out what the heck this justice thing is all about! Wink!" """""""""Grrr!""""""""" Alize's jovial punctuation earned her the ire of her entire group and an array of ill-fitting smiles. All save Astrea, of course, whose expression was better described as a kind of hopeless endearment. "All right, let's go find Leon, then! I need to go tell her all about my perfect imperfection! Onwaaard!!" With that, Alize took off down the hallway, leaving the stupefied girls of Astrea Familia in the dust. Lyra was so exhausted by her behavior that she completely forgot what she'd been in such a hurry for. "Who made her the captain?" she asked aloud. "And why did we ever agree to follow her?" Standing beside her, Kaguya grinned and answered. "Because she's Alize Lovell," she said. "Aw, crap. You know what? You're damn right!" On Lyra's face was a smile, and all the fear and worry was banished from her eyes. "C'mon, girls!" she bellowed. "Let's go!" """""""Yeah!!""""""" Lyra took off after her rambunctious captain, followed by the rest of Astrea Familia, and brought up at the rear by Kaguya. "Well then, wish us luck, Lady Astrea," she said. "Yes, good luck," replied Astrea. "And remember to always believe in yourselves." After all of her children had departed, Astrea dropped her smile. For a while, she stayed still, taking in the silence of the mansion and reforging her courage. "And so shall I," she said at last.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter11-01.txt	Chapter 10: What I Learned: Twilight Answer CHAPTER 10 What I Learned: Twilight Answer Red evening light leaked through the cracked stained-glass window, like blood mixed with tears. Lyu stood by herself at the center of the church, steeped in despair. "Tell me, Leon! Make a choice! What will your justice be?" The evil god's question still rang in her ears. Her vision was distorted, like she'd fallen into a maze of broken mirrors. She couldn't breathe. It was almost like she'd forgotten how. The light pierced her eyes, but she couldn't remember what it was or where she was standing. Her heart kept pounding, like it was trying to break out of her chest. "Rest assured, Leon. This will be the last time I ask you about justice." The dark god smiled. Lyu was clutching at her chest, about to start hyperventilating, and her face was deathly pale. "So hurry up. Give me your answer. Don't wait for me to grow bored with you. You know what will happen to that girl if you do." "Grh…!" As if on cue, an explosion painted the window in sharp shades of red. Unbelievable plumes of smoke rose off Asfi's body. It was difficult to believe that the scorched smell of skin and flesh was coming from her own body. She tried to regain her balance, only to remember that she had already fallen and now lay prone on the floor. Her cloak had saved her life, but by now it had blackened and had basically disintegrated. It would not protect her from the next attack. Asfi fought off the encroaching oblivion and forced herself awake. In her trembling arms, she gripped her whip. "Haah… Haah… Haah…!" Red drops of blood spilled from her lips as she panted, rising falteringly to her feet like a newborn fawn. Olivas stood facing her, bathed in the bloodred of dusk, grinning. "Adventurers always cling so stubbornly to life. You, girl, are no exception." Olivas gripped his magic sword and swung it mercilessly at the dying Asfi. "Urgh!" "Asfi! Dammit!" Olivas toyed with his prey, intentionally avoiding the killing blow and instead blasting her along the ground. Falgar looked over toward where she lay, dashed against the rubble, but neither he nor anyone else in Hermes Familia was able to cut a path through the unending horde to reach her. "Look at you," Olivas sneered. "The sacrificial lamb, bleeding and burned, unable to even scream. I wish I could have this moment forever preserved in a painting, Andromeda!" His body shook with an almost religious fervor. Then he turned and addressed the people around him. "People of Orario! Do not avert your eyes! Gaze upon that which your cowardice has bought and weep! Let your cries be heard all across the city!" The people were frozen in shock. They couldn't even continue fleeing. All they could do was stare at the torment unfolding before them, their hearts and minds possessed by guilt and despair. "Stop it… Stop it!!" "Help her! Somebody help her!" These were the two parents who had lost their young daughter. "Grgh…!" This was the man Ardee had spared. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee! Fools, can you not see that my allies hold your rescuers at bay? Her fate is sealed!" Olivas had to try not to double over with laughter at the hopeless wails of the townsfolk. Their cries only fed the flames of his evil. "There is no hope for any of you! This is the end, adventurer. After you, it shall be this city that burns!" Framed by the cracks of the stained-glass window, Lyu saw her friend on the verge of death. That scene, painted in the shades of the setting sun, stole away what little determination she had left. Her heart filled with a despair she couldn't shake. Another friend, about to be lost, just like Ardee. "We stand at a crossroads, Leon. But don't worry. No one's looking, so choose." The god's whispered tones were sweet and intoxicating. "The one or the many. Your friend or the faceless masses. No one will know it was them you chose to forsake." A diabolical crescent etched itself into his lips as the evil god pressed the bouquet of ruin into Lyu's unwilling arms. Her heart raced. The world turned black-and-white, flashing rapidly between light and darkness. The crossroads approached. The time was nigh to make that terrible decision and see which way the scales fell. "Leon," said the mad god. "What is your justice?" "I… I…! I…!!" "She'll come." While the scales of justice trembled, a second voice rang out. One that was not Lyu's own. "!!" Lyu lifted her head. Erebus allowed his gaze to follow hers. The two of them looked through the broken window at a silent battlefield bathed in dusk. "She'll…come." Stained in the evening light, Asfi climbed to her feet. "What?" said Olivas, wrinkling his brow. "She will come. Our hope." Asfi stood at death's door. It was hard to point to any part of her that wasn't burned or bleeding. Her legs trembled, struggling to bear her weight as the blood drained from her veins. It looked like the slightest breeze would bring her down. But her eyes shone bright. They shone with faith and determination, banishing the suffering and pain she felt. "Leon will be here." When she heard the girl's words, carried over to her on the wind, Lyu gasped. "Leon?" sneered Olivas. "You mean Astrea Familia? Hah! Foolish girl! You must be mad! To think a messenger of justice would suddenly appear now, right when you need her? That's the very height of folly! What could have possibly convinced you to spout such ridiculous claims?" The evil lieutenant laughed, joined by his dark host. Their shadows stretched long and dark in the setting sun. Standing in their shade, Asfi closed her eyes. "I know she will. Because…" She looked up, and clutched her chest. "If I can't believe in Leon," she yelled, "then what can I believe in?! Nobody else has given so much, lost so much, and hurt so much, all for the sake of peace!" Asfi had seen it with her own eyes. She saw how Astrea Familia worked to keep the people smiling. She saw how Lyu kept on fighting, even when the evil became too great to bear. No matter how loud the Evils' laughter, the path of justice would never disappear. "There's no way I would lose faith in someone like that! That would be the same as losing my faith in everything!" Lyu felt her fists quiver. "A foolish hope! And still you cling to the false promises of justice! Look around you!" Olivas swept his arm in the direction of the terrified townsfolk. "Who among them can say they agree? Look at their faces! Not a one still holds trust in the justice you preach!" In stark agreement with his words, the faces of the townsfolk were dark with despair. Among them were the young men who tossed stones at Astrea Familia, the woman who denounced them, and the parents of little Leah. They hung their heads in shame, as if now facing a trial for their actions. "They rejected justice!" Olivas howled. "Why should it save them now?! Ha-ha-ha-ha! It shall not! And all of them know this!" Olivas's words rang true. Lyu stood in the crevice between agony and despair. She still didn't know what justice was. She hadn't reached her answer. And there were no stars to which she could turn. And yet Asfi smiled. "It doesn't matter if they despair. It doesn't matter if they falter in their faith. Those girls…will never forsake them." "What?" Before Olivas's puzzled gaze, before Lyu's shocked eyes, Asfi's mind dove into the past and recalled a powerful memory. "Because forgiveness…is a part of justice, too. A dear friend once taught me that." "I've been thinking, Leon. Do you think forgiveness can be a part of justice?" A memory of a story she had heard from the girl herself, about the time she defended a man who had erred. "!!" In the crowd, the purse snatcher tightened his fists as he thought back to that day. "Aah… Aaah!" Leah's mother, who had heard those words straight from Ardee's mouth, wept. "If justice has hurt you, made you doubt, and still you find yourself wondering…then that's the mark of a true believer." All the members of the Evils froze to listen to her words. Even Olivas just stood there, wide-eyed. "That is the way of the righteous! Someone who still dares to walk the path of justice!" Her voice touched everyone's hearts. The people, the adventurers, the Evils, and even the god of primordial darkness. Erebus stood there in shock as a single tear ran down Lyu's cheek. "So yes, she's coming. They're all coming. Leon, our hope, is coming!" Asfi's heartfelt words rained down like a shower of stars, and before she knew it, Lyu was crying. "Hmph! What nonsense. Enough of this, you're only wasting my time!" Olivas snarled at the unquenchable flame of determination in Asfi's eyes. He raised his arm as if to bring a swift end to this idle distraction. "Kill her, my brethren!!" The Evils cultists all brandished their blades, descending on where Asfi stood, eager to grant her a swift death. Before she could think to stop herself, Lyu had started running. She leaped through the shattered glass window, exited the church, and cut down one of the cultists with her sword. "Gaaagh!" "What?" "Leon!" Both Olivas and Asfi cried out when they saw her, but Lyu barely heard their shocked voices as something took control of her. Her fingers gripped her sword. She swung, slicing through the crowd of darkness like a gust of wind. "All alone, little girl?" Olivas laughed. "Did you come here to die?" Sure enough, Lyu's actions had solved little. She had chosen neither path set before her but had run straight from the crossroads instead. Soon, the evil god would make good on his promise and command his legions to put the innocent townsfolk to death. All she was doing was acting on impulse. Even her brain was screaming at her, demanding to know what she intended to do with a heart still so full of doubt. "Now, die!" She heard Olivas preparing his magic sword. "Leon!" She heard her friend screaming her name. "………" Only a cruel death awaited her. Very soon, those flames would engulf her, leaving naught of her fledgling justice but— "Roooaaaaaaaghhh!!" The sounds of heavy footfalls. A voice trembling with fear. But an indomitable spirit. Before Lyu's eyes, the flames that were about to consume her disappeared. "…Wha…?" All she could manage was that one, feeble sound. Someone had covered for her rash mistake. The purse snatcher. He had jumped in front of Lyu, arms outstretched, taking the blow meant for her. The smell of burning flesh accompanied a billowing cloud of smoke, and when it cleared, the man fell to his knees. "Khrrrh!" He was not an adventurer. No familia counted him among their ranks. He was just a criminal who had attempted to rob a god and been acquitted by Lyu's friend. A petty thief who could only run away from a fight…or so Lyu thought. "You… Why…?" Lyu could barely keep her voice steady as she interrogated the dying man. "I just wanted…to give somethin' back…to that kid who bought it…" The man didn't even turn back, as if there were no face he could possibly show her that would be appropriate. Thus only his words told Lyu how he felt. "I been thinkin' how to do it…for a long, long time… Guess I finally saw my chance…" "………" Lyu noticed her own hands were trembling. Her breath caught in her throat, and she was steeped in a feeling she couldn't quite explain. The man tilted his head and looked up at the sky. "Hey," he said, as if speaking to somebody up there. "Did I repay my debt…to justice?" Then he collapsed loudly. After that, there was no sound. Time itself stopped. Everything mixed together and melted away, leaving only a blinding white. A singular justice that went on and on in Lyu's mind. The next moment, she saw it. In a field of golden wheat, dyed orange by the setting sun, she stood there, bathed in light. "Leon." She was smiling. Just like she had been back then. "Justice will go on." Those were the words that Lyu had learned from her. The words the grief and loss had caused her to forget for a time. That was her answer. Justice never died. Even if it wasn't right at first, it could carry on in a different form. Just like how the man who Ardee saved had gone on to save Lyu, justice could endure and pass to someone new. "Ardee…" Lyu's quivering lips spoke her name, even though she wasn't really there. And then what she had always wanted to tell her but never had the chance. "Thank you…" The evening light faded to nothing. The very last thing Lyu saw was the girl's smile. "That ordinary man…stood up for her?! The helpless…becoming the protector?!" Olivas could not conceal his surprise. To him, the residents of Orario were nothing more than a convenient hindrance, bringing down the adventurers of Orario, as well as allowing him to satisfy his own sadistic desires. Yet one of them had acted on his own initiative, to protect those who fought on his behalf. "Does that mean…he believed in justice after all?!" That was the flame that threatened to capsize evil's rule. A drop of justice that shone in the all-engulfing dark. Olivas was right to fear it, for it was a sign the people's despair was turning to hope. "Leon… Ardee…" Seeing the path her late friend's justice had taken, Asfi quietly shed a few tears. Lyu stepped in front of the fallen man, wiping her eyes and looking straight ahead with clear determination. "Erebus," she said. "You want to hear my answer? Here it is." With the god listening in the church far behind her, Lyu laid her heart bare. "Justice will go on! Justice is the light of every star we leave behind, so that those after us can follow!"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter11-03.txt	Chapter 10: What I Learned: Twilight Answer Lyu's powerful voice struck awe into the hearts of the adventurers, and their fingers tightened around their weapons. "Even if our flesh and blood withers and fades, justice will never be silenced!" Her brilliant determination, brought back from the brink of death, entranced the townsfolk and commanded their total attention. "That is why I will never give up!" Her voice carried to the church, where the evil god stood alone, grinning. "I will fight against despair with my dying breath! Until all that I am is ash!" Her voice carried to Asfi, who gave a fragile smile on the verge of tears. "I will count each saved life a blessing and pass on my justice to all!" Her voice rang in the eardrums of everyone present. "I will never let justice die! That is my answer!" Lyu looked now upon a new path. A path of light, crafted from the dust of fallen stars. Deep inside her heart, her friend's dreams burned brightly still, banishing her hesitation. She stared unflinchingly at the minions of evil, who still weren't sure how to respond to her resounding determination. "Ha! Inspiring words, girl. Let's see if you can live up to them!" growled Olivas, undaunted by her righteous message. Already recovered from his momentary upset, he transformed his scowling features into a hideous smile. "Look around you! Your honeyed words will not save them now!" Sure enough, the situation looked dire. Asfi was at death's door, unable to aid Lyu in the fight. Falgar and the rest of Hermes Familia were also on their last legs. Lyu stood no chance of turning it around on her own. And soon, Erebus would make good on his promise and slaughter the bystanders for Lyu's failure. So Olivas was confident, sneering at the lone elf who dared stand in his way. "You've changed nothing, girl," he said. "Soon you and all those wretched people will—" "Oh, I don't think so," came a voice. "'Cause we're here now." There were those in this city who could follow up on Lyu's determination. Lyu's eyes went wide. Olivas gasped. Asfi clenched her fist, welcoming the moment she knew would arrive. Everyone spun around to see the source of the voice. It came from high atop the city walls. Framed against the setting sun stood a single girl. Her sudden appearance shocked the Evils and adventurers both. Olivas staggered. "Y-you!" he cried. "It can't be…!" Her flame-colored hair danced in the wind. And in a proud, strong voice, she declared, "Justice has arrived!!" "The sound of battle has changed," muttered Alfia. "Did somebody pass me?" She stood on West Main Street, having suffered not a single scratch that would call her overwhelming superiority into question. She knitted her narrow eyebrows and pondered. Her opponent, Riveria, on the other hand, was battered and beaten, but she wore a triumphant smile. "Astrea Familia!" she said. "I always knew you girls were resourceful, but I never expected you to be bold enough to take the walls while the bulk of the Evils marched into the city!" Her keen elf eyes picked out the figures standing atop the fortifications. She had been watching them ever since they initiated their ambush, taking the walls' defenders by surprise and using them to swiftly reach the northwest district. "This must be your work, Slyle," she said. "Your quick and decisive thinking reminds me a lot of our own prum!" "Yeah. They got there so fast," agreed Aiz, appearing beside her, also covered in cuts. Alfia shook her head and turned to leave. "It's pathetic," she said, "that they can't even hold their own positions without our help." However, Riveria and Aiz weren't about to let her get away. "Where do you think you're going?" Riveria called out after her. "Aren't you worried what we'll do if you leave?" "If I help," added Aiz, "will you let me cut up all the bad guys? I can do that and help at the same time, I promise." Riveria grinned at Alfia like a merchant beginning negotiations. "My long-range magic can reach the battlefield from here," she explained. "I'll probably damage the city in the process, but it's already in shambles, thanks to you." Riveria was deliberately provoking her. But that didn't mean what she was saying wasn't the truth. If Alfia really wanted to uphold Erebus's will, she couldn't leave Riveria unattended. "…Impudent woman," she muttered before turning back to face the two adventurers, their staff and sword at the ready. Meanwhile, on Northwest Main Street, Zald glanced over in the direction of Olivas's army. "I could butcher the two of you right here," he said, "but it is already too late." He turned to look back at Gareth and Shakti, who stood on the brink of defeat, their weapons and armor all but destroyed. "Eight years have passed since Zeus left the city," he said. "I suppose even baby chicks grow up in time." "That may be true," said Shakti with a fearless smile, "but those girls are special!" Beside her, Gareth offered a grin as well. "Why not stand down and let us pass, Zald? It's not like a couple of old soldiers will make a world of difference at this point." "I cannot," came Zald's reply. "Erebus instructed that no adventurer should pass, and I mean to uphold my end of the deal." With that, he pointed his slab of black steel at the pair. It was easily larger than a full-grown man. Gareth and Shakti both scowled as they saw the conqueror still intended to block their path. "So then, what if I'm not an adventurer. Is that okay?" At that moment came a voice. A clear, sonorous voice that cut through the thick tension hanging in the air. Gareth and Shakti wheeled around, and they both went wide-eyed with shock when they saw who it was, as did Zald. "It's you…" he muttered. Though the helmet covered his face, the surprise in his voice was obvious. He pondered a moment, and then… "Very well," he said. "Zeus always did harbor a fondness for you. In light of that, you may go." On his lips he wore a smile. "I'm sure that font of evil will be pleased to see you…though I doubt he quite intended a meeting such as this." "Alize! Everyone!" The elf's voice cut through the evening sky as the members of her familia assembled before her. Some leaped from wall to wall, while others handled the long distance in a single drop. "Leon!" cried Alize, running straight over to Lyu. "We came to get you!" The other girls then gathered around her, each saying their piece. "Finally found ya, you little runaway," said Lyra, both arms behind her head. "You know, we busted our butts lookin' for you. Anythin' to say for yourself?" "Apologies are weak," added Kaguya, walking over with a modest smile and a graceful walk, before flashing Lyu a devious grin. "Show your repentance by acting as my peon for a week, you idiot." "Lyra, Kaguya… Gladly. I will make it up to you, whatever it takes!" Seeing their two smiling faces, Lyu was filled with remorse…but more than that, with joy. A fire spread through her cold arms and legs as the other voices of her troupe joined them. "We were worried about you!" "Well, that cheered you up, didn't it?" Olivas froze in shock. "Astrea Familia?!" But soon his smile returned. "So what? One measly group of second-class adventurers isn't enough to stop our army!" The cultists let out a cry of triumph and swarmed the girls, attempting to overwhelm them with numbers. "Hm," said Alize. "We can't have a decent conversation with all this noise. And there are people to save, too…" The girl was undaunted by the oncoming army. With one hand on her hip, she puffed out her chest underneath her breastplate and cried, "Let's do this, everyone!" In her right hand, she pointed her blade, Crimson Order. "Nobody else gets hurt! Your days of tormenting the weak are over!" On her command, the other girls all brandished their weapons and attacked. Like the snap of a bowstring, or an outburst of emotion, they leaped into action with a singular cry. "Haaaaaaaahh!!" The two forces met. A swing of Lyu's wooden sword leveled numerous foes in an instant, while Kaguya's blade dispatched her enemies swiftly and silently. Lyra's boomerangs swept the battlefield, denying the fanatical cultists the opportunity to martyr themselves, while magical bombardments mercilessly swept up the leftovers. There was no hesitation. The girls moved as one. In each of their eyes shone the light of determination. All of them had realized one very important thing—that while they may not yet have their answer, they could still go on, guided by the light of the stars, walking alongside their undying justice. Their offensive was swift and devastating. Like a surging river, they collided with the Evils horde and forced it back in an astonishing display of flashing swordplay and booming magic. "…They're fighting," said a man, one of the townsfolk, as he stared in wonder. "So fast…and so strong." "All…to protect us…?" asked another. They were not combatants. All they could do was hide behind those who were. To see the adventurers fight so fiercely on their behalf moved them, and a sorry feeling worked its way up their throats. "We don't deserve this…" The man recalled what that gray-haired young girl had told him. That each lost life was a burden the girls of Astrea Familia would never forget. Yet even so, they always strove to walk the righteous path. Blinded by grief, he and others had repaid their goodness with stones, and the guilt was almost enough to crush him. It was then that a single war tiger approached. "Hey, will you cheer them on?" he asked. "Huh…?" "It doesn't matter what you did in the past. Those girls are fighting for you." It was Falgar, finally able to break through enemy lines, thanks to Astrea Familia's timely arrival. Though too injured to fight, he addressed the crowd on the adventurers' behalf. "Please," he said. "Lend them your strength." The young man started to cry. Tears welled in the corners of his eyes, and he choked. "Get them…" Then, with all his heart, he screamed the words he had been unable to say for so long. "Go get 'em, Astrea Familia!!" Following his lead, more and more voices erupted from the crowd. "Come on! You can do it!" "I'm sorry! I'm sorry for everything we did!" "Win this thing and come back, so we can give you a proper apology!" Men and women, old and young. All added their voices to the chorus. At the center of them all stood Leah's mother. "…Honey, I think it's time." "…Dear?" "Our little girl may be gone…but we don't have to hold it against them anymore." Her husband's voice cracked as he spoke, and he fought to hold back his own tears. "We were supposed to protect her…and we didn't. We've blamed those girls for so long, but that isn't what Leah would want… It's time to make amends." The woman began sobbing, then broke down into tears. She fell to her knees, weeping. "I believe in you… You can do it!!!" At long last, she found it in herself to support justice again. "My, how the tables have turned." Staring out of the window, Erebus feigned surprise. There was no smile on his lips this time, only a wide-eyed look. "I'll be. You really did it. There's no arguing it. You forged hope from despair before my very eyes. Just you and your ten companions." There was nothing in his voice but pure admiration. For all his divine wisdom, even the god who claimed to represent pure evil could not perfectly know what was happening on the game board after it was flipped it over. "So, Leon… Is this your answer?" Erebus watched closely as the elf girl flitted like a gale wind between her enemies' weapons, faster and stronger than anything else on the battlefield. Then, in a flash, the evil god's diabolical smile returned to his lips. "If so," he said, licking them, "I shall have to uphold my end of the deal. I shall not rest until every last bystander breathes their last." Erebus placed his hand onto the deserted railroad switch, ready to unleash a bomb-laden cart onto the rails and reveal to Lyu just what reward her answer had earned. "Let's see your precious justice carry on after this," he said. "We'll see how undying it is after a good old-fashioned massacre." "Before you do that," came a voice, "do you think you could indulge me for a bit?" For the second time, Erebus's face was tinged with surprise. A pair of footsteps echoed on the wooden floor, and a figure stepped out of the darkened church aisles and into the light. "…Astrea?" said Erebus, stupefied by her sudden appearance. "Yes, Erebus. It's me. It is good to see you again…though I suppose it was only a few days ago that I was last in your presence." Her walnut hair flowed like a celestial river, and her indigo eyes twinkled like the stars. Erebus gave a twisted smile, unable to hide his shock. "Wait, you seriously came here? Alone? I knew you had moxie, girl, but damn! Ha-ha-ha, well, this I didn't expect at all. Great job, O Goddess of Justice." Erebus did not ask how she had come here. He expected it was probably Zald who let her through the blockade. The neurotic Alfia was one thing, but Zald was precisely the kind of man to do it, too. He was keen-witted, honorable, and closely in tune with Erebus's own wishes. Astrea answered the dark god's leering gaze with a stout, firm bearing. "Of course I did, Erebus," she said. "After all, it's important to repay the favor of looking after my children." "Oho, well, I'm honored." Erebus laughed. "But did you not think I might leap on you and plunge my knife between those ravishing breasts of yours?" His eyes became a pair of upturned crescents. Erebus flicked his wrist, and as if by magic, a knife as black as night appeared in his hand. It was the very same knife that had sent so many gods to heaven at the climax of the Great Conflict. "There's no reason I kept you alive," he said. "You could just as well have died that day instead of one of them." His eyes were filled with a pure and bitter bloodlust, as they were on the night he carried out his mass execution. "Is that your evil, then?" Astrea asked. "To defend yourself with a blade against mere words?" "…No, it isn't," said Erebus. Then, with a theatrical shrug, "Or at the very least, it isn't my style. All right then, let's talk. There's something I've been meaning to ask you, as well." "About justice?" "Precisely. I wondered what the goddess of justice herself makes of all this. Just as an aside, you understand." His smile deepened. The deities of good and evil stood opposed as the sounds of battle rang out over their conversation. "Let's talk, god to goddess, while our children play at war outside." Raised yells shook the old rafters like distant thunder. Erebus listened as though to sublime orchestral music, then launched into his question. "So, Astrea," he said. "Answer me. What is it that mortals call justice?" The question that Lyu and Kaguya had been so hard-pressed to answer. Astrea's reply was comparatively simple. "The stars," she said. "Huh?" Inquisitively, Erebus arched a single eyebrow. "It doesn't have to be stars, either," Astrea went on. "You see, there are many justices here on earth." "Very poetic," replied Erebus, unconvinced. "But I'm not here to listen to you deflect the question. I don't care what these mortals mistakenly believe. Which is the real justice? Absolute justice, if you will?" But Astrea only smiled and shook her head. "Listen well, Erebus. There is no such thing as absolute justice." The two stood, face-to-face, framed against the stained-glass window and the starlight magic of Lyu and her friends that caused it to light up in a kaleidoscope of different colors. "If one justice ever reigns supreme, then the mortal world has failed, and our children will be forgotten. There will be no freedom; only tyranny, oppression, and control." "Isn't that what you want? Just think: perfect order, no more wars. Everyone living in peace and harmony, just the way you like it." Erebus gave a slight, mocking smile, but Astrea flatly rejected his suggestion. "There can be no peace through oppression," she said. "All it does is establish a new power structure: one that justifies the violence of the oppressors. Eventually, submission becomes stagnation, and stagnation becomes regression. The whole world rots away into nothing." "But mortals don't need that to hurt each other—just take one look outside. Why does it make a difference whether there's one justice or many?" "Because different ideologies can coexist," said Astrea, giving a smile at last. "All those seemingly incompatible justices can join hands and work together…like they do now. Like those girls do. That is the light that we call hope." For the first time, it seemed that Erebus had no comeback. He stood there pondering what Astrea had told him, resting his elbow on his hand and cradling his chin like a child. "I see… Stars, you say. Hope. A myriad of justices, working together, perfect for the imperfect mortals who call this realm home." He considered Astrea's words courteously, turning them over in his head, muttering to himself and nodding along to his comprehension. There was a certain congeniality to his manner not unlike that of his alter-ego, Eren, and not at all how one would expect an emissary of evil to act. However, Astrea stayed silent, for she already knew what he was going to say next. "…But a patchwork justice can't possibly give me the answer I seek," he said. "What a shame." He turned back to her, flashing her a goading grin. "Erebus," said the goddess, leveling a serious glare. "Why is it you want to know about justice? Why do you want to know about the future of this world if your aim is to end it?" It was the first time Astrea had asked Erebus about his motivations. "Is that why you came here?" Erebus replied. "To ask me that?" "Yes. I would like to know your divine will." "I see. Well, apologies," answered Erebus with no small measure of exasperation, "but I've already answered that question for your girls. Ask them if you want to know, but I can't promise you'll like the answer." "………" Astrea just stared at him in silence. Erebus gave a cynical grin back. For a while, neither of them spoke. Then, the sounds of the battle outside began to change. "Not hearing so many weapons," said Erebus, casting a glance through the window. "Justice must be nearing its well-deserved victory. I suppose we've been talking for far too long, haven't we?" Then he turned his back. "Very well," he said. "Since you were so brave to come here all by yourself, there will be no slaughter today. Come, Vito." Erebus casually began walking away, and his unremarkable lieutenant slipped from the shadows. He had been standing guard the whole time, even when Alfia was there. As he rejoined his master, he gave the fickle god a sigh and a smile. "Will that be all?" he asked. "Yes, I think so," Erebus replied. "It's been an exceedingly worthwhile trip, and I got to meet someone I didn't expect. Let's head back. Tell Alfia and our troops to stand down." Abandoning his pact with Lyu, Erebus jovially made to leave, then at the door, he turned and looked back. "Farewell for now, Astrea. The next time I show my face, it will be to usher in this land's demise." With that, the evil god and his follower departed, leaving Astrea alone within the ruined church. With no one left to answer her, she asked a single question. "Erebus," she muttered. "What is it you want?" "Hraaaaagh!" Lyu roared as her sword struck home, shattering the magic sword in Olivas's hands and leaving a deep gash in his chest. The impact broke bones and drew a spray of blood, knocking the man off his feet and into a pile of rubble. "Grh!" "Lord Olivas!" One of his subordinates ran over to him. "Lord Olivas, we must retreat!" they pleaded, helping their commander to his feet. "We cannot hold out much longer!" Olivas wiped the blood from his mouth and glared back at Lyu with bloodshot eyes. "I-impossible," he growled. "Our force was clearly superior, so why…?" Among the girls of Astrea Familia, minds and weapons unbending, it was Lyu who answered. "Because of our resolve to believe in justice. That is why we won." "You sniveling whelp!! Curse you!!" Olivas's face became twisted with demonic rage. He clenched his jaw tight enough to shatter his teeth, then yelled, "Retreat!" Humiliated, angry voices swept the crowd, and the evil horde turned and hastily left. "Hmm, probably better to let them go," remarked Kaguya, allowing her sword arm to fall limply by her waist. "Yeah," said Lyra, putting on a brave face despite her trembling knees. "Our side's in no condition to chase 'em down, least of all you and me." "But at least we managed to save everybody," said Alize, resheathing her sword and beaming like the sun. At that moment, a jubilant cry erupted from the townsfolk. "YEAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Alize turned to see that many were openly weeping tears of joy. Some were even smiling. The surviving adventurers raised their arms as if to say, "Good job!"—all sharing in the taste of victory these girls had won. Alize smiled warmly, basking in the moment for a while, before walking over to Lyu. "Leon." "Alize…" It had barely been five days since the two last stood face-to-face, though each of them had changed so much in that short time that it felt as though they hadn't seen each other in years. Both had been following their own path, questioning what was right and searching for justice. "You asked me what kind of justice we all follow," said Alize, as the other girls all looked on. "After you left, I kept on thinking about it… But it's no use. I can't come up with an answer just yet." Contrary to her words, the flame-haired girl wore a bright smile. And so did Lyu. "Neither can I," she replied. "Even now that I know what justice really is, I still don't know what we can call our justice." "That's the same as me, then!" said Alize, her face lighting up. "Let's keep on searching together!" "Huh?" "For what we can call our justice!" From a distance, Asfi heard the girl's voice and smiled. "Asfi, are you okay?!" cried Falgar, running over to check her injuries…but when he saw the mysterious smile on her lips, he paused. "…Asfi?" "You were right, Falgar. I do know what needs to be done." Reminding her war-tiger comrade of the words he had once told her, Asfi spilled the feelings that were in her heart. "I know who has to speak up. I know who has the power to banish Orario's despair." It wasn't the Braver or the Warlord. It wasn't any of the other first-class adventurers. "If our enemy calls himself evil, then only the girls of justice can raise the banner of hope." Falgar looked on in surprise while Asfi let her mind melt away at the sight of the setting sun. "There is no simple answer to what is justice," said Alize. "The more we keep moving forward, the more complicated it becomes. Different people, different times, different places—there's no one justice that fits all. But even so!" Alize raised and clenched her battered fist. "Even so, we have to keep pursuing it! Even if the gods themselves make fun of us!" With a defiant smile, she spoke the undeniable truth. "Because the pursuit of an ever-changing justice is something only we ever-changing mortals can do!" Back at the church, the girl's goddess smiled. "So when we die and go to heaven, let's shove it in their faces! Tell them we found our justice! We may struggle, we may make mistakes, we may lose some fights, but we can tell them the answer we found and prove it with our entire lives!" "Alize…" muttered Lyra, eyes wide in wonder. "Don't worry, girls! If I die first, I'll come down from heaven to give you all a good poke!" "Heh." Kaguya closed her eyes and chuckled. "So keep on moving forward, without fear!" said Alize. Her will was proud and strong. Her eyes twinkled bright. Her oath was solemn. Seeing Alize give her speech to the girls of Astrea Familia, she felt the stagnation vanish from her own heart. "Alize…" They could correct their mistakes. They didn't have to choose the right justice the first time. So long as they weren't afraid. So long as they kept moving forward. This won't be the last time I waver, I'm sure. No doubt they would hurt again. Despair again. Lose their way again. But the important thing was to continue their journey. The long, long journey in search of justice. "Come on, girls, let us be born anew!" A loud voice cut through the twilight, echoing in every corner of the city. "Right here and now! Let everyone in Orario hear it!" Over on West Main Street, Aiz looked up to the sky while a warm smile crossed Riveria's lips. "A song of light that cuts through despair!" On Northwest Main Street, Gareth stroked his beard, and Shakti gave a fond smile. "A cry of justice that brings new hope!" Up on the roof of Guild Headquarters, Raul gazed on in wonder while Finn offered a look of respect. "We follow our duty! We balance the scales! Until the day the stars claim us!" The song of justice commenced. A solemn oath to keep on pursuing the righteousness in their hearts. The red-haired girl held her crimson sword of order tight. "Be a fortress of law! An honest crown! A light that banishes evil! Protect your friends, connect your hopes, and entrust your dreams to them! Justice will go on!" The words of that song were burned into the city and its people. They were etched into Lyu's heart, never to be forgotten.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter11-05.txt	Chapter 10: What I Learned: Twilight Answer "When dark clouds blot out the sky, we must never forget the stars that shine behind them!" The light of justice had been laid low by evil, but still it endured. Now, that light rose into the night sky once more, bathing the City of Heroes in starlight. "In the name of our goddess! Like comets in the sky above, we leave our starry trails on this earth where'er we go!" The adventurers filled the air with joyous cries. The people wept openly. And Lyu and her friends added their voices to their leader's pledge. "This I swear, on the sword and wings of justice!!" Their voices shook the city. The hopeful cheers of the people could be heard on every street corner. Somebody cried. "How can we see the stars when dark clouds gather to hide them?" Somebody sneered. "Just like evil swallowed the justice we all took for granted." The girls smiled. "Then we will cut through the darkness and bridge earth and sky with stars." Despair was banished, chaos groaned, and light returned to Orario. On that day, justice was reborn.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter12-01.txt	Chapter 11: Warriors' Last Supper: Final War Eve CHAPTER 11 Warriors' Last Supper: FINAL WAR EVE The curtain of night fell, turning the skies above Orario a deep blue. The thick gray clouds gave way to a shimmering starlight, illuminating the city and compounding the beauty of the softly glowing magic-stone lamps. The streets were filled with raucous cries unlike anything heard before. Valletta stood atop the city walls, looking down upon Orario. "This place was like a fuckin' wake a few hours ago. Now it's burstin' with life. How'd they do it?" Several hours had now passed since the failed invasion of district seven. The Evils' forces had withdrawn, causing the front line to shift back to the enemy encampments on the walls themselves. The adventurers, for their part, seemed content to shore up their defenses instead of harrying the retreat, and so an impromptu ceasefire came into effect. "Olivas, you dumbass," Valletta muttered. "Just couldn't keep it in your pants, could you? We were this close to breaking their hope, and now they're startin' to get ideas." Still, for all her cursing, Valletta didn't seem too bothered by this temporary setback. Just then, she heard the sounds of two pairs of light, bouncy footsteps behind her. "Everyone's having so much fun in Orario tonight, aren't they, Vena?" "Oh, yes, Dina! It makes we just want to…wish them all a good time!" It was the twin leaders of Alecto Familia, the Dis Sisters, their fingers intertwined as they danced. Their innocent smiles belied the oozing malice that slipped through the cracks in their seemingly compassionate words. ""Hey, Valletta?"" the two said in deviously innocent tones. ""Are we allowed to give them our scarlet bouquet?"" Valletta always found the twins a pain to work with. "Haven't you been listening to me?" she said. "They're crazy, those adventurers. The more we pointlessly torment them, the stronger they'll grow. Besides, if you give away our location, then Finn's spear'll come out of the sky and nail ya." ""That's scary!"" The two girls did a complete about-face, trembling in fear at Valletta's suggestion. They may have been broken, but they weren't stupid. The top adventurers of Freya Familia had been locked in combat for a few days now, and while the twins had been eager to interfere—especially to get at Hegni and Hedin—they had been scared off each time by a contingent of powerful Einherjar, eyes sparkling, and instructed not to obstruct the "holy ritual." So instead, the two imps contented themselves with enjoying the ongoing humiliation from a distance. It wouldn't do for them to suffer an injury as a result of a casual skirmish and be unable to hold their knife and fork (meaning their sword and staff, respectively) when the coveted dessert arrived. Valletta thought similarly, though the object of her obsession was, of course, Finn. Still, you couldn't catch her admitting an affinity with these broken sisters. She would sooner deny they breathed the same air or walked the same earth. Instead, she made a derisive snort at their words. "You never can predict which way this city will go," came a voice as an older yet well-built animal man ascended the steps from the market district. "For all our trickery, there is no substitute for a purebred first-class adventurer. I bring shame upon the name of my mistress, Apate." "Basram," said Valletta. "How goes the spirit warrior biz?" Basram answered while waving the ringed staff in his hand. "Two more days, and everything will be ready. Ingenious though they are, the spirit warriors are not without caveats, one of which is that such a large force requires regular tuning." The spirit warriors that had been so effective against Freya Familia were Apate Familia's secret weapon. However, they needed adjusting after every battle by a team of highly skilled mages and hexers. Otherwise, the adventurer's physical body and the spirit it was infused with would begin to reject each other, leading to mental disturbances, physical breakdown of the flesh, and eventually, complete loss of control. At that point, even Basram's ringed staff would no longer be able to exert influence over them. Basram's words, that there was no substitute for a purebred first-class adventurer, rang true. No amount of trickery could reproduce their power without running into issues. "As long as they're ready to go, I don't care," sneered Valletta. "All we need to do to stamp out this new hope is to have ourselves another night like before… Not to mention our god's special plan." It was Basram's spirit warriors that formed the backbone of the Evils' elite forces. Without them, Valletta and the other Evils were unable to initiate any large-scale maneuvers. That was why any engagements had been mostly limited to skirmishes until now. Just as Finn had predicted, they were waiting for the opportunity to act. It was at this point, as Valletta rested one foot on the battlements, gazing down at the city below, that Vito appeared, his bloodred hair quivering in the wind. "We sure did underestimate this Astrea Familia," he said. "And here I thought Loki and Freya were the only serious threats this city had to offer." All the top Evils executives had now gathered, save for Olivas, who was still recovering. "To think these girls could reignite the city's hope with their justice! Oh, they must surely be chosen by fate!" The man threw up his arms as if cheering on the heroes of a children's fairy tale. Valletta shot him a wicked glare and spat at her feet. "Wipe off that smarmy-ass grin, Faceless. We wouldn't be in this mess if you and your dumbass god hadn't slinked off somewhere by yourselves. I'm expectin' a full apology from the both of you. Where is he anyway?" His gaze as prickly as a needle, Vito didn't stop smiling as he answered. "I'm afraid," he said, "my god has already departed." Opening one eye a hair's breadth, he twisted his lips into a gentle smile. "To usher in this land's demise, as the harbinger of absolute evil." A two-story tavern in the center of town was one of many buildings to open its doors to citizens unhoused in the aftermath of the Great Conflict. Today, the light shone in through the windows, and a merry atmosphere filled the air. "Munch munch, glug, glug. Ahhh, what a meal! That'll bring a guy back to life, that will!" A human man who was enjoying the generous helpings of food and drink happened to be the very same ne'er-do-well who had stood up for Lyu and protected her from Olivas's fireball. "I can believe it, seeing you," said Lyu, wearing her mask. "I don't know how you're still alive. I did what I could to save you, but it's still a miracle…" Whatever blood the man had lost was quickly being replenished by the man's astonishing eating speed. Alize, sitting right next to Lyu, spoke up. "You should have seen Leon!" she said, looking like a proud parent for some reason. "'Ardee let him go so he could protect me!' she was saying. 'I can't let him die!' But yeah, apart from maybe Asfi, you were the most badly injured by far. It was touch and go for a while." The man stopped eating and wiped his mouth on his arm before proudly presenting the armor he was wearing. It was still black with scorch marks. "Heh-heh-heh. That's why I always wear this armor here! Upper-class adventurers get the niftiest things, I tell ya!" Lyu narrowed her eyes in immediate response to that remark. "There's no way a pickpocket like you could afford an upper-class adventurer's equipment. You wouldn't happen to have stolen it, would you?" The man froze, his thievery exposed. "Uhh… I… I'll give it back! I swear! I'll get it fixed and apologize to the familia, just don't toss me in the clink!" Lyu paused. Beneath her mask, she cracked a smile. "…Very well," she said at last. "I'll trust you, then. If you are willing to make amends, then I shall look the other way." "Wait, did I just hear that right?" asked Alize. "Didn't you always use to say that no bad deed ought to go unpunished?" Now that she mentioned it, Lyu had changed. But it was surely a change for the better. Because thanks to her friend, she now knew how important it was not to get caught up on one kind of justice, but instead to listen, to understand, and to keep interrogating her own beliefs. "It's just…Ardee taught me that sometimes you have to be willing to forgive," she said. "…Wait, what's that? Why do you have such a grin on your face?" "I'm just so happy, Leon! You're finally growing up! Look at you, all mature and stuff! Makes me wanna give you a hug! C'mere!" With that, Alize leaped at Lyu from the side and wrapped her arms around her. Their soft cheeks touched, and Lyu's turned a bright shade of pink. "A-Alize?! G-get off me! You can't do that when all these people are watching! …Eep! Stop nuzzling my ear!" The man chuckled at the sight of these two followers of justice, laughing and frolicking as young girls should—even if one of them was remarkably more eager than the other. "Well, er…" he said all of a sudden, rubbing the underside of his nose. "I don't mean to make a big deal of it or nothin' but…I guess I could try not stealin' stuff no more." His nervousness and embarrassment slowly gave way to determination. As if a weight had been taken off his mind, the man smiled. "I'll try my hand at bein' an honest man," he said. "It's the least I could do for that kid watchin' over me." "I'm sure Ardee would be overjoyed to hear that," said Alize, beaming, and even Lyu offered a smile. "Thank you," she said. "For protecting me…and for remembering her." The three of them shared a smile, and Lyu sank into contemplation. It was Ardee who had allowed this to happen, and although she wasn't here anymore, Lyu felt proud to have called her a friend. Justice would always go on. Ardee had passed hers to Lyu and this man, and now it was theirs to carry. At last, the man, perhaps embarrassed, said, "Gotta go take a piss," and excused himself. Lyu couldn't help but smile watching him go, envisioning the justice that walked alongside him. "Sorry to interrupt what I'm sure is a lovely conversation," said Kaguya, approaching the table with a bottle of rice wine in her hand, "but…are you sure we can afford this luxurious feast?" The girl's cheeks were slightly flushed. She looked around at the other patrons of the bar. There were regular townspeople and adventurers both, all enjoying copious servings of food and booze. It was like a banquet, and those who had been exhausting themselves day after day found their energy steadily returning. Some of the residents were thanking the adventurers profusely, while others were tearfully apologizing. Among them, Kaguya spotted the young man who had thrown stones, and Leah's mother. The two of them were on their knees, begging forgiveness from the other Astrea Familia girls, some of whom were trying their very best to look angry rather than amused. Kaguya smiled, but it wasn't enough to dispel her well-grounded fear. "I know everybody's feeling positive again after last night," she said, "but isn't this a bit much? We are still fighting a war, you know. Where are all these supplies coming from?" "You know what? I don't know, either!!" chirped Alize, puffing out her modest chest. "You're the captain, you're supposed to know these things," sighed Lyu. "I heard it was Hermes Familia that gathered it all." She shifted her gaze over to a nearby table, where Falgar was sinking his fangs into a piece of roast meat. He noticed her watching him and smiled back. "Ah, don't worry about that," he said. "The things we gathered from the shopping district at Asfi's request are still in storage. This is something else." Then the young war tiger looked out the window, at the trading-houses outside, and shrugged. "This is something our god scrounged up from who-knows-where." "Man, I sure am tired! Day after day of hauling crates into the city through Ouranos's secret tunnels!" Blissfully unaware of his follower's conversation, Hermes was at that very moment on the second floor of a trading-house, speaking of his troubles to someone else. "Transporting food and supplies from Demeter's secret storehouse… I've handled a lot of unpleasant jobs in my time, but this might have been the most tedious of them all!" "Thank you, Hermes. But are you sure the Evils occupying the walls did not see you?" His conversation partner was none other than Astrea. "No worries there," Hermes replied, placing his hand theatrically on his chest. "The only ones who went in and out of that secret route through the Beor Mountain Range were me, Laurier, and a few of the other lower-class adventurers. We were extra careful not to attract any attention. In fact, it's because there were so few of us that it took so long for us to finish bringing it all in." The Hermes Familia information network was not restricted to the walls of the Labyrinth City but extended beyond as well. The Guild gave this neutral party special permission to leave and enter the city as they wished, and they nearly always had agents operating in foreign lands. These tunnels were the reason Hermes Familia could operate with the same speed and secrecy, even when the city was under siege. "For the same reason," Hermes went on, "I'm afraid it wasn't possible to bring in any reinforcements that way. Sorry about that." "Not at all. That's more than enough," replied Astrea, shaking her head. "Thanks to you, we have food, medicine, and supplies for all of our children." The supply situation in Orario was dire enough that it had Finn and the others at high command scratching their heads for some time now. Solving this problem had the potential to flip allied morale in an instant. "Soon everyone will have the energy to fight again. Thank you so much, Hermes." "Hey, as long as you're happy, Astrea. Speaking of which…" Hermes straightened his back and adopted a serious tone. "Could I trouble you for a reward, perhaps?" "A reward?" Astrea tilted her head. A beat passed. "Mommy Astreaaa!! I worked so hard for you!" Hermes seemed to regress to childhood, and he leaped into Astrea's arms with all his might. But the goddess's eyes simply widened in surprise for a moment before she effortlessly stepped aside. The goddess of justice was no less agile or dexterous than Hermes. The sword and the scales were both her weapons, and meting out judgment was another thing she presided over, so she was by no means ignorant the ways of combat. However, this was not enough to dissuade Hermes. "Please, please, please, Astrea! Let me lie in your lap! Pat my head and call me a good boy!" The overenthusiastic god was insistent on taking a trip to ga-ga land, and Astrea was running out of ideas for how to deal with him when… "Hmph!" "Guh!!" A crushing blow caught Hermes by surprise. "Stay away from Lady Astrea, or I'll slap you silly!" "You just did!" It was Asfi, her cheeks red with indignation. Hermes rolled along the floor until he collided with the wall, and when he looked up, he saw the blue-haired girl striding toward him. "Where have you been all this time anyway?! You had me worried sick, disappearing without a word! Take this! And this!" "I'm sorry, Asfi! I'm sorry! No—wait—stop—not the face! Not my beautiful face! You're beating it all out of shape!" The heavy blows steadily chipped away at Hermes's vitality, and it was only after Astrea stepped in, saying, "Asfi, I think that's enough…" that they finally stopped. Even then, Asfi continued to pant heavily like a raging bull. Hermes rose unsteadily to his feet. He swept his hat off the floor, brushed the dust off it, and adopted a more serious attitude. "Look, it's just…I needed you guys to stay in the city and fight. I didn't think it was a good idea to burden you with knowledge you didn't need. For what it's worth, I feel awful, you know, for not being there when you needed me." The god gave a guilty smile and patted his follower on the head, but Asfi was unconvinced by this display. "Don't do that," replied Asfi, rosy-cheeked for a different reason this time, "and don't pretend you thought about me at all." "I did! Look, after this is all over, let's all go pay Lydis and the other fallen children a visit." At these words, Asfi clammed up. She looked down, hiding her misty eyes, before replying, "…Fine." "Get a room, you two. Geez, is it steamy in here, or is it just you?" At that moment, who should walk in with blatant disregard for the mood but Lyra. "W-w-w-we weren't…!" stammered Asfi, her voice breaking. "I mean, I—I—I wasn't…!" But Lyra had no interest in teasing the girl any further and simply stated what she had come for. "I went to Finn and asked him about that Hera Familia woman. I need you to make me a magic item, Perseus." A cunning smile appeared on her lips. The two conquerors stood unmatched by any in Orario, but Lyra was nothing if not a strategic thinker. Through fair means or foul, she would even the odds as best she could. A look of surprise crossed Asfi's face, before quickly giving way to despondency. "I'm already handling a large order of earrings from Braver…" she said. "Yeah, that's not going to be enough," Lyra chirruped back. "But I told my plan to Finn, and he agreed. So hop to it, item maker." "I can't just churn them out, you know! And I bet you've got something extravagant in mind, too! I am still injured, you know!" "Oh, just pull a few all-nighters and you'll be fine. I hear you got some armor that'll make a good starting point. Me and some of the mages'll help you out, so don't worry about it!" Lyra grinned and began ushering Asfi away, ignoring her cries of "Hey!" and "Stop pushing!" Eventually, her screams disappeared down the hallway. A short moment passed before either of the gods spoke. "…Hermes. I met with Erebus." This came from Astrea. "I heard," replied Hermes, "how you went off by yourself behind enemy lines. I almost fainted when they told me." As soon as the two gods began speaking, the tension in the air spiked. His expression, like hers, was solemn and divine. "So?" he said. "How was he?" "He hasn't changed a bit. He's just like he was back in the heavens. All he wants is to destroy Orario, nothing else." Upon hearing that, Hermes closed his eyes. He looked like a wise old sage who had seen it all before and was weary of it. "The god of the underworld, huh? I won't deny he's similar in mind to Loki and myself, but I never thought he'd join up with the Evils and work against us." Or perhaps, his was the look of a concerned friend. "Is this really what you want, Erebus? Can we no longer share a drink together…like old times?" "Hey, sorry I'm late." Far beneath the Labyrinth City, in the midst of the blackest gloom, two evil gods spoke face-to-face. "Enough games, Erebus. You nearly died out there." The one who voiced his concerns was a dark-skinned male god with short, crimson hair, built as sturdily as the strongest adventurer. "You have invited ruin upon the familias of myself and of Thanatos. How do you intend to right this wrong?" "I'm sorry about that, I really am," came Erebus's flippant reply. "Honestly, I feel terrible. So how go things on your end?" The evil god clicked his tongue, wanting to grill Erebus further on the issue but knowing it to be a pointless endeavor. Instead, he answered the other god's question. "It's gone well," he replied. "Sickeningly well. It's on its way as we speak." Here the flame-haired god walked past Erebus, placing a hand on his shoulder. "My part in this is done," he said. "Figure the rest out yourself." "Oh, I will," replied Erebus. "Thank you, Rudra." He watched as he whose name meant "the most frightening one" departed with his terrified followers in tow. Scorch marks marred Erebus's clothes where the god had touched him. Then, Erebus turned and resumed walking forward, into the depths of the ink-black gloom. His footsteps echoed as he went. "It's time for the final movement," he said. "The beginning of the end, Orario." The dawn following Olivas's defeat signaled the fifth of the Seven Days of Death was starting. Once again, ashen clouds gathered overhead, as if marking an end to the temporary cease-fire. However, unlike before, the city was silent. For once, the day saw no intermittent skirmishes with the cultists. For the guards who kept a vigilant eye on the city walls, watching for enemy movement, it was almost disappointingly calm. However, this calm did nothing to abate the tension the city's inhabitants felt. An eerie hush lay over the entire city. Gareth stood in Central Park, glaring up at the city walls that loomed in the distance. Many adventurers were stationed here, as were the citizens who had lost their homes. "You've been quiet, Evils," he said, cracking his neck. "Ever since last night, we haven't heard a peep out of you." "Have they…given up?" came the small voice belonging to Aiz. She tilted her head in inquiry. "Of course not," said Riveria. "They're just watching us. They still have full control of the city walls." The high elf looked around at the walls before closing her eyes and focusing solely on the sound coming into her long, pointed ears. "If anything," she said, "most of the noise is coming from outside the city." "Yes, they're getting ready," said Gareth. "There's a storm on the way; that's for sure." As the seasoned first-class adventurers conferred, the inexperienced Aiz seemed unable to follow. Riveria opened her eyes and spoke. "Aiz," she said. "Get ready." "Ready?" "Yes. The final battle approaches." She looked up to the sky, as if addressing her words to everyone in the city. "Whatever you can do, whatever there is left to do, make sure it's done." Over at the Astrea Familia home, Stardust Garden, a single woman approached the door of the mansion and knocked. "Excuse me," she called out, "is Leon here?" Noin led her into the main parlor, where Lyu's face lit up with surprise upon seeing her. "Shakti?" Lyu immediately felt a wave of guilt wash over her as she recalled their last conversation. "If we are to weather this crisis, we need to use everything at our disposal…even her. That is my justice." "I don't believe you… You're lying! That can't be true! It's unacceptable!" Lyu had refused to give her a fair chance, and instead screamed and denounced Shakti like a child having a temper tantrum. This is awkward… I don't feel that way anymore, but I still said all those mean things to her… But as she was meekly avoiding her gaze, wondering why Shakti had come here, the woman herself walked up to her. "Here, Leon, take this," she said. "What? Is this…a holy tree branch?!" Lyu looked up at her, amazed, and Shakti nodded. "From Lyumilua Forest, where you were born. They were among those black-market goods we confiscated. Then the war started, and there was never a good chance to return them to you…so I'm doing it now." Lyu was aware of Ganesha Familia's investigation just prior to the Great Conflict. It was Ardee herself who had told her about it. "It's unlikely we'll be able to return them to your village," said Shakti, "so will you take them instead?" Lyu faltered at Shakti's offer. "Me? B-but I abandoned that place. I don't have the right to—" "Ardee wanted you to have them." "!!" It was like she'd known what the girl was going to say, and Shakti had come prepared to pass on her little sister's will. Lyu's eyes went wide. In her head, a memory played of a sunset street. Of a kindhearted friend who only wanted to see her smile. "It's not meant to be a memento or anything like that," said Shakti. "It's just…what she would have wanted." Lyu was silent. Not because she was wondering whether or not to accept, but because she was trying to keep the emotion from creeping into her voice. "…Thank you," she said at last, and she reached out and took the offering. The branch glowed, as if in recognition of the link between the girl and her home soil. "That was all I came for," said Shakti. "Good-bye for now." With that, the woman turned to leave. But Lyu stood up and followed. In the hallway, she shouted after her. "Shakti! I'm sorry about what I said! I was only thinking about myself, I'm sorry! Nobody's suffered more than you have…nobody!" Shakti stood and listened to Lyu's apology, and when she was done, she looked over her shoulder and smiled. "It's okay, Leon. You were standing up for her that day. It made me happy." Shakti stared out into the distance through the hallway windows. Her swaying bangs hid her eyes. "Now," she said, "I can finally go see her." And this time, she left. Lyu followed her now-absent gaze and looked out of the window. In the west, the sun was setting, lighting up the ashen clouds and casting an orange glow across the city. "Ardee. I won't forget what you taught me. I'll treasure everything you left me." Her fingers tightened around the branch of the holy tree. She thought of the girl's sword, which Lyu had retrieved and now lay in her possession. It was the justice that girl had left behind to which Lyu dedicated her determined oath. "I'll use it all…to fight." "I'm sorry I didn't come here sooner." Only a few minutes after leaving Stardust Garden, Shakti stood amid a sea of graves. Simple graves, marked only by broken swords or wooden sticks. This was the makeshift cemetery where all those who had lost their lives in the Evils' attacks were buried. "…I didn't want to come here," she said. "You aren't even sleeping there beneath the soil." This was the case with many of the graves. A great many only housed whatever body parts remained or simple mementos of the deceased. A part of their soul. The victims' true bodies were either blown to oblivion or lost beneath the rubble. "…Shakti." A pair of heavy footsteps stopped behind her. Shakti answered the presence without turning around. "I wished to grieve alone, Ganesha," she said. "I thought I told you that." Ganesha spoke in an oddly subdued voice. "Will you not cry?" "I can't. Not yet." "Then I will!!" "…What?" "OOOOOOOHHH!! ARDEEEEEEEEEEE!!" The god's silence lasted all of two lines. Shakti spun around to see him bawling his eyes out. "MY PRECIOUS FOLLOWER!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!" Tears and mucus streamed down his elephant mask. Manly tears and manly mucus, of course. Shakti just stood there and stared, mouth half-agape, before finally shaking herself back to her senses. "S-stop it, Ganesha! Get a hold of yourself! If anyone sees you, it'll bring shame to our familia!" "No! Never!" Shakti attempted to reach out to him, but the god deftly stepped out of her reach. "Ardee!" he cried. "I loved your kindness, your sweetness, and the way you'd giggle like a rascal whenever you knew you'd done something wrong! I loved the way you treated everyone with kindness and sincerity and how you brightened up our lives! I miss you so MUUUUUUUUUCH!!" There was no end to his words, his feelings. Everything he had kept bottled up, he now spilled with pride. "ARDEEEEEEEEEEEE!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!" The god wept on Shakti's behalf. He howled into the sky. These were his honest tears, hot enough with emotion they could melt the iciest glacier. Shakti watched him in shock for a moment, before smiling. "You really are a noisy god," she said. Then, after a moment, she looked up to the sky. "Ganesha, the rain's coming." "AAAAAAAAA—Oh? Rain?" At her words, Ganesha lifted his gaze as well. Thin red clouds floated in the evening sky. "I don't see any rain. There's a few clouds, but—" Then, Ganesha stopped speaking. "No, you're right," he said. "Looks like a shower's on its way." Courteously, he turned his back to Shakti. "Wouldn't be surprised if we got a little wet, standing out here like this." Behind him, nobody saw the rain that rolled down Shakti's cheeks. Time flowed on. A mournful silence settled over the city as the citizens carried out funeral after funeral. There simply weren't enough healers to stop the critically injured from becoming the dead. The ashen-haired witch would likely welcome this silence, but to her dismay, it could not last forever. Twilight became moonlight, and night fell once again, ushering in the sixth of the Seven Days of Death. "………" The hall-clock standing against the wall steadily carved away time. In the war room at Guild Headquarters, Finn and Loki sat in their chairs, eyes closed, surrendering themselves to the passage of time. At last, Finn opened his bright blue eyes and spoke. "They're here." As if summoned by his very words, a pair of footsteps raced up the hallway, and the door burst open. "O-our scouts! They're back with their report!" cried the flustered Guild woman, shattering the tense silence of the room. "They've located the target, as instructed! It's even worse than we imagined!" The color drained from her face as she shakily relayed their terrible findings. "It's on its way here, destroying everything in its path!" This report, which Finn and Loki had been waiting so patiently for, confirmed their worst fears. "That bastard Erebus," spat Loki. "This is what he was after the whole time." "Yes," said Finn. "It looks like our time is up." He stood up from his seat and began instructing the Guild employee. "Dispatch messengers to every familia. I want all forces in Central Park by midnight tonight." "Y-yes, sir!" The woman disappeared down the corridor without another word. Then the prum hero made to leave the room as well. "Where are you off to all by your lonesome, Finn?" asked Loki. Finn's answer was simple. "I'm going to gather the strongest warriors we have." The sun was beginning to set. Off in the east, beyond the sea of clouds, the veil of night approached. Yet these fierce cries that filled the streets had known no pause. "Rooooaaaaaaaaaghhh!!" The boaz's greatsword met the catman's spear. Though the two stood bloodied and beaten, these beasts still raged. With the Evils' attacks had ceased, this corner of southwest Orario was the only active battlefield in the city. Here, Folkvangr was remade amid the ruins. Here, first-class adventurers engaged in ritual combat to claim each other's lives and create the most powerful Einherjar ever seen. "That damn cat…" The white elf had just lost his weapon and now kneeled on the ground, clutching his arm. He grimaced through the blood spilling from his lips. "Dammit, dammit, dammit…!!" """Dammiiiit!!""" Even the Gulliver Brothers and their legendary cooperation could not compete with the boaz man's extraordinary strength. The four of them were lying on the ground, staring skyward, unable to hide their frustration and anger. Sitting against the rubble, the battered dark elf extended one quivering arm and dragged his beloved sword toward him. "I lost…again…" he said, "to Ottar…and Allen, too… But this time…my regret burns like a flame, powerful enough to destroy all who stand in my way!" Hegni took his sword in his arms, embracing a hope that even the pain of defeat could not diminish. There were no tears to be shed—only blood. Hegni understood that. As did Hedin. As did the Gullivers and the two still fighting. The other members of the familia stood around them, allowing no one to intrude upon this sacred space. Among them were the bare minimum number of healers necessary to allow the battle to go on. All of them watched with bated breath as Ottar and Allen fought to the last. They didn't have to wait much longer before the decisive moment came. Allen charged in like a chariot, while Ottar stood fast and held his greatsword out to block. The devastating collision of blows caused a thunderous crack as the earth split beneath their feet. Shock and noise reigned, and when it finally gave way to a deafening silence, it was the catman who had bent the knee. "Ghaah…" Seeing defeated stance, Ottar lowered his weapon. "Allen…" he said. "Thank you." His voice was clear, his eyes unclouded, his anger and frustration gone. Allen, meanwhile, clenched his fists tight. "I wasn't…doin' this…for you, asshole!" "………" "I wanted to win… I wanted to be strong!!" he said, teeth about to crack. His frustration was mirrored by the rest of his peers. Eventually, he slammed his bruised fist into the ground. "Fuck!!" Consumed with self-directed rage, Allen admitted his painful defeat. Somewhere far out of sight, a pair of beautiful ears heard all, and a pair of silver eyes saw all. Allen gave a few labored breaths and then staggered to his feet. "Looks like you're goin' on ahead, Ottar. If you lose now, then don't bother showin' your face again, you hear?!" "…Of course," replied Ottar, sharpening his gaze. "Leave him to me." A solemn oath thus forged, Ottar turned his back on Allen and the others. His muscles gleamed like steel, forged anew by the fires of camaraderie. He stepped out of the field of rubble to see a small figure who had been watching the battle by himself. "…Finn," he said. "I'm sorry it's not Freya meeting you like this," the figure replied, "but I'm afraid we're short on time." Ottar already knew what was coming. He had known from the moment he set eyes on the blond-haired hero. "Is it time?" he asked. Dusk moved on and became night. The blackened veil swept over the sky, chasing the last vestiges of sunlight over the western horizon. "Yes," replied Finn. "Time for the final showdown."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter13-01.txt	Epilogue: All You Need Is Justice EPILOGUE All You Need Is Justice With night's arrival, lights and sounds were extinguished all across the city. Magic-stone torches and lamps were switched off to conserve precious resources, and people huddled together in silence. Not out of fear of the night, but of what they all knew was approaching. Eventually, the only light remaining was that coming from Central Park. Familia members from all across the city had gathered there. Astrea Familia was no exception. "All of Orario's forces in one place," mused Lyra as she looked around. "Wonder what all the fuss is about." "Don't play dumb," chided Kaguya. "You know very well." As did they all. Alize was grim-faced as she cast her eyes around at the other girls, then spoke what was on everyone's mind. "Yes," she said. "The final showdown is almost upon us." Shakti of Ganesha Familia. Asfi and Falgar of Hermes Familia. Ottar and the Einherjar of Freya Familia. Riveria and Gareth, along with Aiz, Raul, and all the others of Loki Familia. Some silently felt the heft of their weapons, others fidgeted from side to side, while still others closed their eyes and waited. Fear and nerves. Will and spirit. All these and more consumed the minds of those in Central Park, while Lyu quietly muttered beneath her mask. "It's midnight." All across the city, those clocks that still worked let out a chime. Their hands overlapped, signaling the end of one long day and the beginning of another. All eyes were focused on the south gate of Babel, where a single prum stood. "Listen up," he said, and with that, the commotion died down in an instant. All present eagerly awaited—demanded—his next word, and Finn was unhesitant in giving it to them. "The enemy's true goal has been revealed. Everything until now, including the Great Conflict—it was all in preparation for this." "…What?" Lyra, dumbfounded, spoke for all her incredulous peers, who couldn't find the words to respond. The Braver's words had stunned them all. "Their true aim," he said, "is to summon a monster of the Dungeon." This was the conclusion he and Loki had reached in the war room. "The Evils have committed the sin of sending a god into the Dungeon," he explained. "By using the god as bait, they plan to lure this monster to the surface." "Wha—?!" Asfi was dumbstruck. And it wasn't just her. All the adventurers were in an uproar over this new and unexpected piece of information. It was Kaguya who cried out before the flood of revelations overwhelmed her. "W-wait," she cried. "What's this monster they plan to unleash? Surely you don't mean some insignificant mook?" "The details don't matter, but suffice to say we believe our scouting parties have identified the target." As if already running short on time, Finn conveyed only the facts to all present. After the girls of Astrea Familia had repelled Olivas's assault, Finn realized something strange about the exodus of gods that had occurred on the night of the Great Conflict. So two days earlier, he had a scouting team conduct reconnaissance in the Dungeon. The information those scouts brought back was revelatory. "The target was sighted at noon on the twenty-fourth floor, travelling upward toward the surface and destroying everything in its path." """…?!""" Kaguya and countless other adventurers were lost for words. "According to the scouts' reports, the target is extremely large. Given the speed of its ascent and the scale of the destruction, the Guild believes that its combat ability is at least on par with a Monster Rex of the deep, perhaps greater." Soon a great panic swept over the crowd. "…You can't be serious," said Falgar in disbelief. "You're telling me," cried Asfi, her voice a shriek, "that the Evils sent their own god into the Dungeon to lure a force of nature up to the surface?!" "Which means," cried Alize, connecting the dots in her mind, "the enemy's goal is…!" "Yes," said Finn. "To destroy Babel from beneath." At the very apex of Babel, Freya's mirthless eyes gazed down on the adventurers gathered below. "So they unleashed the might of a god within the Dungeon, calling forth that jet-black monster…" "Yeah, and in the deep levels, too," added Loki, seated on the arm of an armchair. "Those pitch-black critters are basically bred for killin' gods. Dangle a divinity in front of 'em and they'll go crazy tryin' to get it… Even Ouranos's prayers won't be enough to keep 'em sealed down below." Loki Familia had encountered something similar once before, two years ago, when an evil god lured Aiz, then Level 1, down to the twelfth floor. There, the god unsealed his arcanum and summoned the Black Wyvern, an anomalous being whose power far outclassed the level where it appeared. Loki could only assume that this monster would be similar. "And to think this all managed to escape our notice, or even Ouranos's," remarked Freya, arching a well-trimmed eyebrow. "Or perhaps it's fairer to say…they concealed it from us." "Yeah, I hate to admit it, but the Evils really pulled one over on us this time. That damn Erebus and his schemes." Meanwhile, away from Babel, on the edge of Central Park, Hermes muttered his thoughts aloud, gazing over at the adventurers gathered in the square. "So this monster," he mused. "I suppose there's no question when it was summoned—on the night of the Great Conflict, right in the middle of the mass exodus." Astrea, standing nearby, nodded. "Yes. It's the only moment a god could have activated their arcanum without our knowledge." All the gods were slowly realizing the full extent of Erebus's plan. "The pillar of light that appears when a god is sent back is a manifestation of arcanum energy," Astrea went on. "Take into account nine of them and…" "Yeah, there's no way we could detect what was going on underground with that kind of energy up here on the surface." There was simply too much interference. Erebus's massacre on the surface completely masked the arcanum used in the monster-summoning down below. Hermes narrowed his eyes. "It was a sacrifice, a diversion, and a smokescreen all at once," he growled. The nine pillars of light. They weren't just meant to strike terror into the hearts of Orario's citizens. There was a more sinister purpose behind them. "And to think they didn't just send back our gods," continued Hermes, "but some of their own, as well. They sacrificed their allies just to make sure we didn't catch on to what they were up to. That's ruthless. And I'd put money on it being part of the plan all along." Astrea cast her eyes downward. "I just can't believe it," she said. "It's all so terrible." Her eyes were tinged with sorrow as she spoke those terrified words. "It can only be Erebus who planned this. We're all dancing in the palm of his hand…" "That's why he calls himself absolute evil," said Hermes. "There's no god crueler on this earth right now." The messenger god followed up his casual remark with a fiery glare into the darkness. "This explains why the Evils haven't been putting their back into it lately. They've been letting us grow weak while their real force comes up from below. All these skirmishes and guerilla warfare…it was just to buy time." And now, the enemy's greatest weapon was on its way. Once it arrived, it would be all-out war. Meanwhile, Lyra seemed to be having trouble accepting Finn's words. "What the hell?!" she cried. "I thought Zald and Alfia were bad enough, but now we've gotta fight off a Dungeon boss as well?! We're doomed! Tell us you got somethin' up your sleeve, hero!" Her panic spread throughout the crowd, and soon all of Central Park was in an uproar. Lyu was aghast at the prum girl's uncharacteristic dismay. "L-Lyra! I know things look bad, but you mustn't demoralize us further!" "Nah, it's fine. Just watch." "Huh?" Lyra gave a sly grin. "Who do ya think is standin' up there? He's our race's shining beacon of hope!" It was all an act. The next moment, that beacon spoke. "We fight." """!!!""" Lyu, Alize, Kaguya, and all the adventurers gazed in shock. All except Lyra, whose faith in her hero had never been in question. "We must split our forces in two," Finn explained. "One group to stay up here and protect the tower from the Evils, and one to intercept and slay the monster before it reaches the surface." Finn looked around at the adventurers' stunned faces as he told them of his plan. "The bulk of our forces will make up the former group," he went on, "while the latter will comprise only our strongest warriors. Our enemy's goal, whether above or below, is the destruction of Babel with this pincer attack. We must not let them succeed." His calm and level words nonetheless worked the adventurers into a frenzy. Each of them noisily offered their own opinions of the enemy's strategy. "You call it a pincer attack, but that doesn't do justice to what we're dealing with here!" cried Asfi. "True," Falgar agreed. "The enemy is encircling us vertically instead of horizontally." "We won't be able to directly support a team that's multiple floors deep," mused Shakti. "Or vice versa, for that matter. If either team falls, it's over for Orario." It was Kaguya who finally said what everyone was thinking. "Easy to say, but can it be done?" But Finn was unperturbed. "I assure you, it can." "!" Kaguya was taken aback by the prum's strong-willed words. "But only we can do it," he went on. "What is about to commence may well be the largest conflict since the age of the gods began and 'quality over quantity' became the law of the land." His azure eyes were as pure and still as the surface of a moonlit lake. "If we do not fight here," he demanded, "then who will? If Orario cannot succeed, then who can?" His calm voice trembled with latent determination. "Only we possess even the slightest chance of victory. But we will not stand idle while that chance slips through our fingers!" Before long, the crowd stood silent. All of them hung on Finn's every word. His speech imparted purpose; his words inspired courage. There was no tremor in his voice that could spoil the flag of battle he raised. Faced with his rousing leadership, every last adventurer found the heart to fight. "There is one more thing I must ask of you," he said. "Are you content to remain defeated?" The whole crowd flinched, their eyes flayed wide. Lyu, Alize, Kaguya, Aiz, Riveria, Gareth, Raul, Asfi, Falgar, Shakti, Ottar, Allen, Hegni, Hedin, and the Gullivers. Each of them felt a flood of emotion as they recalled the events of that traumatic day. "Do not lie to yourselves!" Finn yelled, his face a scowl. "We are defeated! The enemy has humiliated each and every one of us! So I ask you, my fellow lost souls: Look to your side! Where are your friends?" Lyu's fists shook. Ardee was gone. All that remained was a burning anger and a grief no words could soothe. "Look behind you!" Finn cried out. "Where are your loved ones?" A solid chunk of the adventurers grimaced in pain, remembering the ones they'd failed to protect. That night of destruction and hellfire had stolen them all away. Finn's words ignited their emotions, propelling their spirits far beyond what all the fear, anxiety, and despair could suppress. "If they are gone, who is left to avenge them? Who will carry on their wishes? To whom falls the task of vindicating our anger and grief?! It falls to us!! So do not let the despair hold you back! Break free from those chains! Do not let sorrow consume you! Let it be your courage and take back our future with your own two hands! Let nobody else experience the pain we have suffered!!" All fists were clenched. A dwarven warrior raised his stout arms. An animal person archer roared. Even an elven mage forgot their modesty and bellowed at the top of their lungs. Meanwhile, an Amazon and a human pumped their swords in the air, and the prums placed their tiny hands to their chests. "We already know the taste of defeat!" Finn yelled. "We drink the muddy waters we find there and nourish ourselves on it! In defeat, we grow strong! And we will not lose again!" His moonlit eyes quivered with the irrepressible force of his spirit. "Show me your pride, adventurers! You are the most tenacious, defiant, and hardheaded curs this world has ever known! We may have lost the battle, but show me who will win the war!!" "This land is where legends are born! This is our city!!" Central Park erupted into howls. Human and demi-human alike heard Finn's passionate words and replied with unrestrained vigor. Kaguya was shocked. "Our morale…it's unheard of." Astrea Familia stood in shock as the fiery emotions of the crowd swirled around them. Their hearts raced, and their skin tingled. "See? I told you he could handle it." The prum girl enjoyed a little chuckle at the whole thing playing out like she thought it would. "Lyra…" muttered Lyu. Lyra looked back up at Finn. "He's a swindler and a cheat. The worst kind. He shouts his lies loud and proud and keeps repeating 'em until everyone's on board. Then it becomes the truth." Her words were the words of his greatest critic, but her eyes were those of a girl in love. A girl who had found her light in the deepest depths of despair and had never let it go. She smiled like a flower in bloom. "His words are our courage. That's why he's our race's greatest hope." At her words, all the girls of Astrea Familia suddenly smiled. They knew what the fire in their hearts was; it was the courage that Finn had given them. "The hero's a swindler, huh? Yep, that sounds like something Lyra would say!" Alize laughed. "In that case, let us all help make his lies the truth," said Lyu. "This is nothing," yelled Finn, "but a trial for every one of us would-be heroes! A far greater threat awaits the world even after we succeed here!" The Black Dragon. Apocalypse Incarnate. It was waiting at the end of the world, and this battle just a stepping-stone on the way. "We must finish what Zeus and Hera began, and prove ourselves the next generation of heroes, in name and in deed!"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter13-03.txt	Epilogue: All You Need Is Justice Finn's words pierced the darkness and carried on the wind to evil's ears. "Look at you go, Finn. Can't wait to kick the shit outta ya!" Atop the colossal city walls stood Valletta, eyes trained on the soft light emanating from Central Park. Vito turned Finn's words over in his mind. "The land where legends are born. Ahhh, what a beautiful idea. I shall take great pleasure in destroying it." Meanwhile, Olivas simmered in a mixture of humiliation and rage. "Curse you, Orario… This time… This time…I will annihilate you…" Somewhere in southern Orario, the two Dis sisters danced in the moonlight amid the ruins of the city, locked in a mutual embrace. "Not long now, Hegni!" said Dina. "See you soon, Hedin!" said Vena. ""Let's have some fun together!!"" Meanwhile, beneath the city, Basram arranged his spirit warriors for combat, dominating their minds with a single wave of his staff. "Oh my, how scary," he said in response to the rumbling roars echoing down from the surface. "The city of heroes is exceedingly tumultuous today. We must ensure our evil is up to the task of subduing it." And finally, to the city's northwest, Zald stood in an abandoned church, bathed in moonlight, and wearing a smile upon his lips. "The roar of a beast unwilling to be devoured… Good, very good." "He's the same noisy prum he's always been," replied the second conqueror, turning her closed, expressionless eyes to the sky outside. Evil had completed its rise to power. Justice had finished its fall from grace. All that remained was as the dark god said: a battle between good and evil, between the ideologies of right and wrong. "We fight against absolute evil!" Finn declared. "So let us all fight in Lady Astrea's name!" He held his spear aloft and cried: "Let us fight for what is right!!" The city shook as its inhabitants' cries pierced the heavens, where their lost ones dwelled, and the people constructed a bridge of oaths to reach the stars. Like a meteor, their light ascended, blazing a trail across the crystal-studded sky. A conflict between order and chaos. A battle like no other. The memory of forgotten heroes. It would come to be known as "The War of Good and Evil." Mortals and gods would sing of it. The stars themselves would write of it. And so the greatest battle in Orario's millennium-long history began on that fateful day.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter2-01.txt	Chapter 2: Wavering Justice CHAPTER 2 Wavering Justice Chaos reigned in Orario, surrounded as it was on all sides by the Evils, who had taken up positions on the city walls. As Loki had put it, the city was under siege. Anyone who so much as approached the borders of the city was subjected to an incessant barrage of bombs. To prevent the townsfolk from being hurt, the adventurers had cordoned off the areas outside Central Park and the rest of the central district. Some refused to have their freedom curtailed so dramatically, but all were dragged kicking and screaming to the safe zone if that was what it took. It was an unpopular choice but necessary to prevent senseless loss of life. Still, some people could not be convinced that these measures were for their safety and spat insults in the faces of their protectors. Friction was mounting between the city's inhabitants and the adventurers, just as Valletta had predicted. "Do something! We're dying out here!" "We've no food, no shelter, no clothes even! And some of us are still wounded!" "What do you expect us to do, turn on each other?!" Angry townsfolk closed in on the adventurers and Guild employees manning the cordon. They were cold, hungry, and fearful of an attack that could come at any time. Each voice contributed to the pandemonium, laying the foundation for mass hysteria. "Stay calm!" shouted the war tiger, Falgar. "Rations are being handed out! Just sit quietly and do not act in haste!" He and the other upper-class adventurers desperately pleaded with the citizens to keep them under control. Off to the side, Asfi saw all this as she spoke to an employee of the Guild. "I've evacuated all the townsfolk from the gates," she said. "I'll leave the rest here to you." It had been half a day since Asfi and Shakti had witnessed the Evils attacking innocent townsfolk at the west gate. After Asfi had spent that whole time guiding people away from the other gates and walls, the exhaustion was beginning to show. "Thank you," replied the Guild employee. "Erm…do you mind if I ask?" The woman's face was pallid and grim. "We're going to win this…aren't we?" A pause. Asfi knew what the woman wanted to hear, but she couldn't bring herself to say it. "We will do everything we can," she said at last. "But we need your help to have a chance." "R-r-right, yes! Of course, silly me! Good hunting, adventurer!" Flustered and babbling, the Guild lady ran off. With a look of bitter pain, Asfi watched her go. "Even the people in the Guild are starting to worry…" "Yes, and there is little we can do to reassure them," said Falgar, appearing by her side with his greatsword and shield upon his back. "Nor the common folk, for that matter. It just goes to show how deep the wounds of last night run. The Evils wear us down from within, and there is precious little hope to be found. Whoever concocted this scheme of theirs must be truly despicable." Falgar and Gareth were of one mind regarding the craven techniques their foe employed. Asfi could feel her heart pounding away in her chest. At this rate we'll lose control of the people…and then it's only a matter of time before the city falls. We need a victory, anything, even a small one, or else… But as if to deny her even that, Hermes suddenly appeared behind her, like an omen of calamity. "Asfi," he said. "Lord Hermes?" She spun around, stunned by the god's apparent disregard for his own safety. "What are you doing here without an escort?!" she shouted at him. "Are you aware there's a war going on?!" "Asfi. From now on, you lead the familia." "Wh-what? What do you…?" Asfi was lost for words. She couldn't speak. Then it slowly dawned on her that Hermes wasn't joking. There wasn't a shred of levity about him. No trace of a smile on his lips or a bounce in his voice like usual. His gaze was distant, devoid of light and warmth. She couldn't breathe. There was only one reason Hermes would say what he had said, and Asfi's sharp mind had already deduced what it was. A terrible, sinking feeling gripped the pit of her stomach, eclipsing the beating of her heart. "Lydis is dead," said Hermes. "You're the captain now." "What?!" She almost didn't hear his cold, callous command. Before she even had time to feel shock or despair, the world around her stopped, and all the color drained from Asfi's face. "Move in! Attack! Bathe these ignorant sinners in blood!" Both the screams of the bystanders and their assailants' mad yells filled the air. The agents of evil were eager to paint the ground and ruined walls in gore. The target was a makeshift overflow camp to the north of Central Park, where any excess evacuees were placed. As if that weren't bad enough, the cultists were deliberately targeting those who couldn't fight back. People sprinted from the battlefield, tugging on the arms of crying children, sometimes leaving the old and infirm behind to save their own skins. "Th-this way, everyone! Run as fast as you can!" At the center of the chaos, one young man still stood up for the fleeing townsfolk: Raul of Loki Familia. While the upper-class adventurers fought on the front lines, he and his fellow lower-class adventurers were forced to steel their courage and stand on the battlefield. They took up sword and shield and risked their lives battling aggressors often more powerful than themselves. "Raul's almost ready for a Rank Up." Those words had come from Loki's mouth ten days prior, before the onset of the Great Conflict. Raul remembered how happy he'd been to hear them at the time, but they were little reassurance now. He'd been in Orario for only a year, and the dangers of the city were already beyond his wildest nightmares. "Th-this way! Hurry!" "O-oh, thank you, kind adventurer…!" Deathly pale with fright, his knees shaking, Raul felt like he might wet himself. That didn't stop him from guiding the townsfolk to safety. After entrusting an old lady to his ally, he set out once more across the battlefield, which was riddled with danger. Then, all of a sudden, a member of the Evils appeared from out of nowhere and lunged at him with a knife. "Hey, adventurer…! Die!" "Eep!" Raul was nearly run through before he had a chance to cry out in fright. Luckily, an even keener blade came to his defense. "Silence, whelp!!" "Gagh!" A single-edged longsword came from behind and cut the Evils footman down. "N-Noir!" An old human with a beard had come to Raul's rescue. Despite his appearance, he clearly possessed the speed and strength of a man many decades younger. His body, over 170 celches tall, was like an elegant weeping willow standing firm in the face of adversity. Even without the benefit of his Falna, he was a spry and energetic gentleman and a master of the sword besides. His name was Noir Sachsen, Level 4, and he was still actively adventuring despite being over seventy years of age. "Get back, Raul," he warned. "You can't swing a blade when your knees rattle like a loose shutter in the wind." "B-but I gotta stand and fight—!" Raul began before being cut off by the appearance of two more figures. The first was a grizzled dwarf boasting a beard that put even Noir's to shame, while the second was a woman who looked like the epitome of an Amazon. "You ain't take on anything besides monsters before, young'un," said the former, "Leave this to us old-timers." "We were Finn's equal during our prime, you know," the second added with a grin that seemed out of place on the battlefield. "Listen to your elders, Raul." "Dyne… Bahra…" These three, Noir, Dyne, and Bahra, were Loki Familia's oldest members—in terms of age, at least. They were converts from other familia, but they had been braving the Dungeon long before Finn, Riveria, Gareth, or even Loki first set foot in the city. That alone put them on the same level as any first-class adventurer. "Stay off the battlefield, Raul. That's where you work best," said Noir as the next wave of Evils cultists closed in. "Go and help the citizens to safety—all their screams are beginning to wear me down. You don't want Anakitty to get mixed up in all this, either, do you?" "…!" "Raul!" The one who called his name was a catgirl in the process of helping the fleeing old woman to safety. Her name was Anakitty Autumn, a fourteen-year-old who joined the familia about the same time Raul did. She'd always had her head screwed on properly and was more attuned to the dangers of the battlefield than Raul was. That was why when she looked at him, it was with a face of pure terror and eyes that said, "Come back, you'll die!" Seeing the young and tender girl on the verge of tears, Raul balled his fists in embarrassment. "I'm sorry," he said to the veteran trio. "Please, take care of them for me!!" With those final words, Raul ran back to where Anakitty was. Trying not to listen too closely to the clash of blades behind him, he collected her and the old woman before fleeing the battlefield. Still, he couldn't help himself, so he took one quick peek over his shoulder. There he saw Noir, tearing through foes like a god of war. We can't fight on the front lines, and we can't help the rear guard, either! We wouldn't last five minutes in a fight like that! Turning his back on the battlefield, Raul opened his mouth and screamed. "All we can do is run! Is this the age of darkness you warned me about, Captain?!" "Finn! Where are you going?!" Royman's quailing voice did not break Finn's stride. "To Central Park," he answered. "I need to see for myself what's happening out there." He stepped briskly through the hallways of Guild Headquarters located in southwest Orario, now the second-most important base of operations in the city after Central Park. "I have to reinspect the board," he said, a bold determination in his voice. "There's always another angle." Royman struggled to keep up, not only with the prum's quick steps but also with his mind. Finn alone seemed to view this war from a position of logical detachment. "How?!" yelled Royman in a tremulous voice. "Finn, how can you be so calm at a time like this?! Rarely does your arrogant behavior surprise me these days, but this truly takes the cake! Never have I seen you display such brazen disregard when we are staring down such…such calamity!" The elf in charge of the Guild could take it no longer. Despair had claimed him, like it had so many others. "Frankly, Finn, I don't know what to do! Zeus's Glutton and Hera's Silence, fighting a war against us? It's a nightmare! Doomsday!" Zeus Familia and Hera Familia. The very names struck fear into all. There wasn't a single person who hadn't heard tales of their legendary might, and nobody understood the threat they posed more than Royman Mardeel. For over a hundred years, he had stood as Orario's guiding presence, so that the city's prosperity would continue into eternity. "And to top it all off," he cried, "nine of our familias have been decapitated! Even many gods who survived the exodus have no followers left! This is the worst thing that's happened to Orario since…well, since ever!!" Royman's final words seemed so fragile, they might shatter at the gentlest touch. That finally stopped Finn in his tracks. "You're right," he said. "The situation is dire. We couldn't have dreamed of a worse enemy, and our city teeters on the brink of extinction." Finn offered no soothing words. The prum captain admitted that all of Royman's fears were completely warranted. "However," he said, turning around, "that's precisely why we need to stay strong. Now, perhaps, more than ever." The short-statured prum stood opposite Royman and looked up boldly into his eyes, wearing an indefatigable smile. "Chin up, Royman. No more of that wailing. And remember, you've got me on your side. I will do whatever it takes to inspire hope in you all. Call me arrogant for that if you like, but let me ask you: Who else has what it takes to steer us through this storm?" "…!!" "Who else can show such courage when all seems lost?" After an awed silence, Royman balled his right hand into a fist. "…Only you," he replied, begrudgingly at first, but soon with an intensity that would frighten the gods in heaven. "Only you can bring hope to this miserable city, Braver! Only you and the other first-class adventurers stand a chance at releasing us from the specters of Zeus and Hera!!" He took a step toward Finn, as if he intended to shake the prum by his shoulders. "Save us, Finn! You must defeat those who reached greater heights than any other in Orario for a thousand years!" "We will," came Finn's simple reply. "Our city's future depends on it." There was no smile on his face now, only grim determination. He turned forward once more and resumed striding down the corridor. "But to do so," he said, now only to himself, "to seize that faint chance of victory—I'll need his help." Passing through the Guild lobby, Finn emerged onto the streets, setting his sights to the southwest—where Orario's greatest protector fell at the hands of its conqueror. "Gaaaaaaaaagh?!" A single crushing swing nearly tore one man's body to shreds. Instead, it sent him flying through the air, spewing blood. The force bent his arms and legs into terribly unnatural shapes before slamming his mangled body into the ground. The scream that penetrated the air of southwest Orario belonged to one of the attackers encroaching on the city. "K-kill him!" spat the leader of a group of Evils, as if his trembling voice might be able to strike down their foe when he said it with enough venom. "His fight with Master Zald has left him crippled and weak! Now's our chance to finish him off for good!" It was hard to blame him for believing that when their opponent trailed torn bandages while blood dripped from every cut. Despite all that, his strength seemed undiminished. His iron will and the fire burning in his eyes were alive and well. The man existed for one purpose and one purpose only: to destroy anyone unfortunate enough to step into his path. "H-he can't be stopped! Nobody can take on that beast!!" The Evils foot soldiers failed to find inspiration in their leader's words. Their unstoppable foe showed no mercy as he cut them down left and right. "Hurgh… Hurgh… ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAGHHH!!" Then Ottar roared, huffing steam like a mad bull. With greatsword in hand, there was nothing alive he couldn't kill. Nothing standing he couldn't destroy. This battle was meaningless, a futile slaughter with no winner. "Pant… Pant…" Soon the earth fell silent, save for the sound of Ottar's labored breaths. A single animal person who had been watching the fight dropped from a partially destroyed building onto the rubble-lined street. "Pickin' on small fry 'cause you got beat? That's embarrassin', man." "Allen…!" Ottar wheeled around to see a familiar young catman wielding a silver spear. "I dunno if you and that armored asshole got history or what," Allen continued, "but you gotta put it aside. You can't just go chargin' off by yourself like a wild animal when we got a war to fight." Allen spoke reason. Since the moment he awoke following his ill-fated showdown with the Conqueror, Ottar had been trapped in a thorny tangle of rage and grief, committed to hunting down Zald and destroying anyone who got in his way. "Leave me," he said. "I don't have time for this." From his voice, it was clear Ottar believed he had nothing to lose. Without another word, he turned and tried to leave Allen behind. "Where are you goin' now?" "To find Zald." "Yeah? So he can finish you off?" "So I can destroy him!" Ottar pointedly ignored Allen's pleas. Allen had always known him to be a quiet man who nonetheless held incredible inner strength, but there was no trace of that Warlord now, only a mindless beast. "Right, got you," he said, staring at the boaz's back, his eyes as narrow as knife blades. "In that case, time for you to die." "!" Allen took up his silver spear and lunged. Ottar spun around and caught it on his blade just in time. A moment later and it would have pierced his heart. "Allen!" he cried as he parried the blow. "What is the meaning of this?!" "You ain't kiddin' nobody," said Allen. "You fight Zald now, you're as good as dead; we both know that. Might as well leave your excelia to me and save him the trouble." What Allen was asking, as a Level 5 to a Level 6, was for Ottar to be his doorway to a Rank Up. "Then I'm gonna tear that tin can to shreds," he said, an undeniable fire of determination in his eyes. "Rrgh! Allen!!" Meanwhile, the only emotion in the boaz's eyes was fury. He had known his vice-captain for a long, long time, and so he knew the moment he saw that spark, the ensuing fight was inevitable. Allen would not give up until he had taken the very last thing that kept Ottar going. Their weapons clashed. Allen's spear, swift like the wind, and Ottar's greatsword, as heavy as a mountain. The storm of blows pealed like thunder and buffeted the area with gusts of wind. In this deadly showdown between raw speed and raw strength, the war-torn street had little hope of surviving. Shock waves from their fight were already leveling what remained of the buildings, filling the roads with dust and stone. Sounds of their duel carried several blocks away, and those who heard them turned their heads in confusion, wondering what meeting of armies could possibly create such noise. The battle raged on. Two warriors who should have been allies looked more like wild beasts competing for the same juicy kill. "Grh?!" At long last, after an exchange scoring hit after hit, a decisive blow landed. One of the combatant's weapons wheeled through the air, and its wielder slumped to his knees. The weapon was a greatsword. The man was Ottar. But it was Allen who screwed up his face in bitterness and disgust. His arms, still locked in place after their final swing, began to tremble. "…The hell was that?" Then, he lifted his chin and yelled with all his might. "What the hell was that?! Since when did you go down so easy? When did you become such a loser?!" "Grh…" "The hell's wrong with you, Ottar?! Any fight between us oughta end with me gettin' my ass laid out!" Ottar bore his junior's criticism with obvious despair. He was devastated in mind and body. Not once had he ever lost a duel with his cat-person associate. He couldn't even muster up a single word in his defense. The pitiful sight of him only angered Allen more. "I swore to defeat you and become the greatest chariot I can be! You know how much I sacrificed! I didn't say good-bye to that idiot so that you could go and turn out like this!!" "…!" Ottar froze. As the captain of Freya Familia, he understood exactly who Allen was referring to. Once upon a time, there had been another wheel to his chariot. Allen's little sister followed in his tracks wherever he went. "Allen…" The catman had never once divulged how he felt about that sacrifice. Seeing him open up now, Ottar was silent. Meanwhile, Allen clicked his tongue, as if he'd accidentally said too much, and his gaze met Ottar's rust-colored eyes once more. "Stand up," he said. "I ain't after your pity. This time, it's to the death. With all of us." As Allen spoke those words, a series of fresh faces appeared at the border of their duel. First were the four prum brothers. "What a sight, Ottar." "You look so pathetic, it's not even funny." "But that's okay, 'cause we're the same." "We lost our fight, too. So kill us and bring to life a more powerful warrior. One who can strike down Apate Familia in our place." Following them were the white elf and the dark elf mages. "We must bring ruin to the Evils, those despicable sisters included." "Ottar…we've always fought to win, but today we must unleash our full power." They all stood before Ottar, fully armed and armored for battle. It was Hegni the dark elf who stepped forward and spoke on their behalf. "We all want to fight, Ottar. We need to. It's the only way we can atone for the mistakes of last night." He spoke proudly and defiantly, without need for the magic that usually shielded him from the looks and words of others. "Hegni and Hedin…the Gulliver Brothers…" Ottar could scarcely believe his eyes. All of Freya Familia was out in full force. "You better believe that prum's got some kinda plan up his ass," said Allen. "'Til he finally decides to share it with us, we fight." "!!" "Whoever survives gets to take down Zeus and Hera's lapdogs." By the time Ottar realized whom Allen was suggesting they fight, the catman confirmed it with his words. "This is our Folkvangr now," he said. "This street is where we'll choose our strongest Einherjar—the one who gets to kick those two freaks into the next millennium." Folkvangr. That was the name of Freya Familia's home. A place where the city's strongest warriors trained daily to surpass their limits in mortal combat. Here they would hold one final contest, to determine who among them was powerful enough to be the last man standing. Dusk was approaching. Ashen clouds held back the reddening sky. At long last, Ottar spoke. "Allen. Did you come here…for me?" "What a stupid thing to ask. There's only one person I do anything for, and it sure as hell ain't you." Allen's decision was not his own. He was merely a vessel through which a higher power made her decree. "Find this age's champion for me." Ottar's eyes went wide. "It's long past time I had my revenge on Zeus and Hera." He curled his boulder-like fists tightly. "Rrgh!!" His mistress's divine will flowed into him, becoming his own determination. His goddess was ever noble in defeat, and so Ottar needed to be the same. "If you're gonna keep on sullyin' our Lady's good name," said Allen, "then you can just die. I'll take out that armor-wearing asshole instead." Without a trace of warmth or mercy in his voice, Allen lowered the tip of his spear to Ottar's throat. "…No," came the boaz's cracked voice. Ottar looked up, a blazing fire behind his eyes, and grabbed the spearhead in one hand. "The one who will settle the score with Zeus is me. You don't know how many times I've cried and licked my wounds, waiting for the day to repay the favor!" Then Ottar rose to his feet. He gripped the spearhead even tighter, letting the blood drip between his fingers. Before his gathered comrades, he raised his voice, letting everyone hear the Warlord's determination. "I will defeat Zald! I, and no one else!!" The corners of Allen's lips twisted. It almost looked like he was smiling. He pulled his weapon free of the giant's firm grip and twirled it, before leveling it once more at the blood-soaked boaz. "Raise your voices!" yelled Allen. "It's time to fight!" Ottar wrapped his stout fingers around the grip of his greatsword, and in chorus with the other Einherjar, he roared. "ROOOOOOAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!" Sword and spear clashed in endless concert, accompanied by the crackle of magic spells both black and white. This prelude was the cry of a Folkvangr reborn. The skies themselves shook with trepidation as a ferocious, never-ending battle unfolded in the streets below. These warriors fought tirelessly, thirsting for strength. They fought, because there was no other option available to them. The sky unleashed a bestial howl, like a cornered wolf. Then the rain began. Great lashings of it, like lances falling from heaven, as the clouds above went from gray to black. "Pant… Pant… Pant…!" Lyu ran down empty roads, her face wet with tears and rain. "Shakti!" she cried. "Why?! Why would you forsake Ardee like that?!" "Do not show mercy to your foes! None of you must make the same idiotic mistake my sister did!" "That is my justice." Though Lyu had run from her, Shakti's words were not so easily escaped. They echoed in her mind, persistent, despite Lyu's furious attempts to deny them. "That can't be true! Then what was it all for? Her life? Her death? Her justice?! What was any of it for?!" She screamed into the heavy rain. Anything to drown out the thoughts piecing themselves together in her mind. Anything to stave off that dreadful realization. The realization that her friend's principles hadn't saved her and that she had died in vain. She sprinted through the streets, a wind without direction. She ran and ran and ran. At last, she arrived before a building cloaked in gloom. It was rectangular, or at least, it had been once, but like every other structure in the city, it was so full of holes, it was a wonder the place was still standing. It looked like a bomb had gone off, demolishing the walls, and every single window shutter had been blown clean off. Inside, several pillars were missing, and the entire eastern wing of the building slanted ominously, ready to come down at any moment. Lyu went inside, forcing the bent metal door. "…Why did I come here?" Beyond it, dust and rubble covered the floor. The ceiling was gone, offering a view of the murky sky and letting in the incessant rain that fell instead of starlight. This was district six, in southwest Orario. A place once believed to be an Evils stronghold…and the place Lyu's friend had lost her life. "Nobody's here… Everything's been destroyed…" Lyu shambled into the center of the room, even as the rain fell and soaked her golden hair. She almost couldn't recognize the place anymore. "There's nothing left… Not even her body… And yet…" Even the wall stained with her blood was gone. "Ardee…" Lyu stood still and gazed up into a starless sky, like a condemned prisoner awaiting execution. She stood as ice-cold water beat her mercilessly, hoping against hope it would wash her sins away…but it didn't. The ink-black night closed in around her, ready to carry her off for good, and then… She heard a noise. "!" At the opposite end of the room, a metal door squeaked. Lyu quickly replaced her mask as she realized somebody else was entering the building. "Who's there?!" she yelled, but all she heard were tiny footsteps. A prum? Lyu twitched her long ears and focused her azure eyes on the darkness. Eventually, a figure stepped into view. A small, human girl. "What are you doing here?" she asked Lyu in a flat voice. "Who are you? Are you alone?" Lyu was relieved to see it wasn't one of the cultists, but the figure's true identity surprised her even more. She couldn't quite make out her face in the shadow, but her long, radiant hair, like spun gold, left no question as to who she was. A child, dressed in armor… And that hair. Could it be? The Sword Princess. Or as she was once known, the Doll Princess. A finely honed killing machine raised to cut down monsters. Despite her young age, she was already Level 3, displaying an astonishing rate of growth that outstripped even Lyu's swift progress. Some called her the miracle child of Loki Familia. Her name was Aiz Wallenstein, and her terrifying strength struck fear into friend and foe alike. "Are you…with the Evils?" Aiz asked, tilting her head. "Wha—?!" Her impertinent accusation sent the blood rushing to Lyu's head, expelling any worries she might have had about the girl's safety. "How could I be? How could you even think such a thing?!" "But you're wearing a mask," the Sword Princess pointed out. "So what?! Is everyone who wears a mask a member of the Evils now?!" "Okay, well, what are you doing here, then?" "W-well…" The girl's innocent question caused Lyu to trip over her words. She didn't quite know what to say. She'd been running around aimlessly and just kind of…ended up here, but she couldn't exactly use that as her excuse. As she was struggling to figure out how to answer the completely unintimidating child half her size, Aiz said something else. "There's no light in your eyes, either." "!!" This time, Lyu was left truly speechless. Aiz stared at her with the glassy eyes of a doll, as if she were looking into a mirror. "They're a bit like mine from before," she said. "But also, not. Scary eyes." Lyu's sky-blue eyes had lost their luster. They were the eyes of one who knew despair. Aiz saw a person on the brink. An unpredictable element that could go one way or the other. And then Aiz unwittingly spoke the word with the potential to detonate that volatile mixture of emotion. "Finn told me about the bombs. Do you have one, too?" Of all the things she could say, it had to be that. The one word that Lyu in her present state couldn't bear to hear. The word that had taken her precious friend away from her. "Child, I'm warning you," muttered Lyu, a cold anger seeping through her lips. "Never say that word to me again." An incandescent fury took hold in her mind, forcing her to relive the scarlet flames and blood of Ardee's death. "If you won't listen," she went on, seething with rage, "I don't know what I'll do." The mere thought that she of all people could be wearing one of those despicable devices—one of the inhumane bombs that stole her friend's life—was enough to send the high-minded elf into an outrage. Her entire body shook with the throbbing beat of fury. It was obvious now, if it wasn't already, that Lyu was a broken being. "Then you are dangerous." Aiz remained unperturbed. Infuriatingly so. She reached over her shoulder without letting her doll-like expression waver and drew her sword. "I have to fight you." Lyu didn't understand the girl's reasoning—what chain of logic had led her to conclude that battle was the only reasonable option?—but she couldn't bring herself to care any longer. So Lyu drew her wooden sword, gripped it tightly in both hands, and spoke in a dark, stern voice. "I apologize in advance. This is nothing but the futile tantrum of a lost and foolish elf." "I don't understand," said Aiz as she also assumed a stance. "Which means…I have to beat you." "Easier said than done!" The two immediately readied themselves for battle. Sky-blue and golden eyes locked for only a brief instant, before each combatant launched herself at the other. ""Haargh!!"" Weapons shrieked amid the falling rain. The sword and the gale wind fought. They fought, because there was no other option available to them. The first clash of swords was all it took for Aiz and Lyu to accurately gauge each other's strength. Such power!! In the blink of an eye, the pair exchanged an uncountable flurry of high-speed slices, impossible for mortal eyes to follow, and enough to drown out all other sound. Even in the thick of it, the two girls caught each other's gazes, and it slowly began to dawn on them that they were an even match.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter2-03.txt	Chapter 2: Wavering Justice She's so small, Lyu thought, but her strikes are so clean, and she doesn't hesitate for an instant! How many monsters must she have slain to get to this point? Aiz fought like a mad beast. Lyu could barely keep her eyes trained on her. She was fast. Incredibly fast, and she poured everything she had into manipulating her sword, which seemed much too large for a child her size. When she swung, it was with all the muscles in her upper body. When she spun, it was with all the speed and force of a whirlwind. It seemed at first that Aiz's weapon was the one in control of her, but the more they fought, the more Lyu realized the girl was like bottled lightning—a miraculous condensation of tempestuous violence. If Lyu faltered for an instant, she would be torn to shreds by the relentless onslaught of blows and scattered to the four winds. Meanwhile, Aiz kept coming, never letting up as she shifted, fluid and unrestrained, from one form to the next. She's so…fast? Aiz thought. No, not as fast as Finn. But my attacks still can't get through. Lyu fought like a territorial animal. Aiz couldn't afford to take her eyes off her. She was skilled. Incredibly skilled, and she parried every last blow with minimal effort. When she moved, it was with forms she'd studied for countless nights and polished on countless battlefields. It seemed at first that Lyu was fighting a losing battle, but the more they fought, the more Aiz realized that fighting her was like fighting air itself—each time Aiz thought she managed to break her posture, the elf's flowing techniques allowed her to recover without conceding a single opening. If Aiz let up for an instant, their roles would be reversed, and she would find herself on the back foot instead. Meanwhile, Lyu never faltered, constantly modifying the flow of battle with the lightest wave of her wooden sword, as if by magic. Her style was influenced not only by the elven village where Lyu was born and raised, but also by the techniques from the Far East, the wisdom of the canny prum, and a bold, sunny resolve. All who laid eyes on her would recognize the seeds of justice planted within it, which Astrea continued to water even today. ""Rrgh!!"" Discarding their shock and unnerving revelations, both Aiz and Lyu threw themselves into the fight with renewed fervor. Two heads of golden hair weaved and fluttered, following the paths of their strikes. Their disparity in size offered neither side an advantage. While Lyu attempted to use her height and longer limbs to extend the range of her blows, Aiz was able to turn her short stature to her benefit, often dropping low to the ground to slip past the elf's sweeping sword and seize an opening. But no matter how forceful and numerous her strikes, Lyu parried each one with precision and power. In terms of technique, Lyu held the upper hand. But in terms of adaptability, it was the animalistic instincts of Aiz Wallenstein that won the day. Each combatant had a wealth of her own experience to draw upon, and so the battle waged on with no end in sight. "I see why they call you the Sword Princess," said Lyu as she directed her wooden sword toward Aiz's head. "You certainly live up to your name!" Her age belied an almost impossible level of mastery. She wasn't simply a prodigy. It was almost as though the gods themselves had created her for a single purpose—slaying monsters. "Mask… Wooden sword… Cloak… Fast…" Aiz muttered to herself as she brought her silver blade up to parry, but she failed to realize her words were tinged with wonder. She could scarcely believe the girl's strength. "I can't see your face, but your eyes are green…or maybe blue." It was difficult to pierce the persistent gloom that blanketed the area. Plus, her opponent was wearing a mask. But she grew more and more unruly as the battle raged on, and the rain striking her face made Aiz think of the Wild Hunt, a spirit said to appear during the blackest of storms. "Who are you?" she asked, but nobody answered. The only conversation here took place through their blades. The two girls were alike in more ways than they realized. Long golden hair, a combative spirit, and an affinity with the wind. They both turned themselves into storms, dancing to a tumultuous melody. Then, both of them leaped high into the air. They crossed at high speed, each unleashing her most powerful blow yet with a thunderous crash. Lyu landed, her cloak tattered and torn, and she turned around, panting heavily through her mask. "I can't get through!" she lamented. "Is this the power of Loki Familia?" She saw Aiz land and similarly turn a short distance away. Her entire body rose and fell with each breath, but the drawn-out battle had not affected her resolution in the slightest. "Pant… Pant… I'm…not done," the little girl said. "I can get…even stronger." "She's insane!" Lyu said to herself. "Is that why people call her the War Princess?" She gripped her sword firmly, and so did Aiz. Neither of them felt the falling rain anymore. Lyu steeled her resolve once more. "So that's how it's going to be?!" she cried. "Very well, then let's—!!" "Aiz! Where did you go?! Don't run off by yourself!!" At that very moment, a bellowing voice rang out—like that of a mother who had caught her child playing outside after dark. "Uh-oh." A look of worry crossed Aiz's face, just as a furious high elf stepped into the ruined building. "How many times have do I have to remind you to stick close?!" she shouted. "Are you refusing to listen, or are you just plain stupid?" "Ow!" The woman's fist came down hard on Aiz's blond crown, and the little girl groaned in pain. She quickly tossed aside her sword and began rubbing her head, teary-eyed. The image that had terrified Lyu just seconds ago was now nowhere to be seen. "L-Lady Riveria?!" Lyu had no time to laugh at the comical display before her. She was horrified by just who had stepped onto the scene. I can't let a high elf know I just lost my temper and attacked a child!! As the name implied, high elves were the most mighty and noble of all the elves. Their people were expected to revere them like gods. Perhaps even more than gods. Simply seeing Riveria brought Lyu to her senses enough to realize what she'd been doing and how bad it looked. A few moments went by as she wondered how best to rectify the situation, and then… "I-I'm really sorry but I have to go!" She bolted. Pulling her mask back over her face, she ran outside into the streets as fast as her legs could carry her. Riveria raised a single eyebrow at the sight of the fleeing figure. "Hm? Who was that? It looked like an elf," she said to herself. "Aiz, who were you fighting?" "Oww…… The Evils?" "Why is that a question? What was the fight about?" Aiz lifted her head. "She had scary eyes," she said. "It felt like…I had to fight her." She turned to look in the direction the elf girl had fled. "But after a while…she didn't feel so scary anymore." She recalled the girl's eyes as they were at the height of their duel. They were bright, just like her own. Like nothing outside of the battle mattered. "I think…I helped her, just a little," she said, and somehow, the tiny girl looked just a little more grown-up as she said so. However, Riveria was not impressed. "Well, if she's our enemy, then you shouldn't really be helping her, should you?" "…True!" said Aiz, thumping her fist in her palm. Riveria sighed and clutched her head like the girl's stupidity was giving her a migraine. "Where did I go wrong…?" she groaned.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter3-01.txt	Chapter 3: A Gray Wildflower CHAPTER 3 A Gray Wildflower The long night gave way to the third of the Seven Days of Death, yet the clouds above remained as gray as ever. Only the sky's tears had finally abated. Lyra dropped her gaze to the ruined streets and sighed. "Where the hell'd Leon go? We'll have searched the whole damn city at this rate…" Beside her walked a woman with long black hair as smooth as silk—Kaguya. Without breaking stride, she scanned the ruined streets. "We've been at this all night," she agreed. "We know she talked to Shakti, but where could she have gone after that?" Lyu had made her dramatic exit from the Starlight Garden almost a full day ago. The girls were asking around about her, taking the opportunity to gather information while out on patrol, and their search had led them here, to district eight in Orario's northern quarter. Freya Familia had been in charge of its defense on the night of the Great Conflict, and it was the most heavily damaged portion of the city after the southwest district, where Zald and Alfia had appeared. Fire and magic alike had leveled entire city blocks, leaving nothing standing. Naturally, the streets were empty, and there was nothing left of the city the girls had sworn to protect, just an eerie silence that pervaded everything. Kaguya and Lyra, however, didn't let that silence bother them. The two were similar in many ways—one of them being their rational and mature response to calamity. Lyra was the one who usually maintained the party morale with her gallows humor, and against Kaguya, she didn't see a need to hold back. Sometimes, to understand people, you had to make them talk, even if they didn't want to. Kaguya knew that as well, and that was why the two made such a good match and why they were well suited to supporting Alize as deputy captain and prum strategist. They were both pragmatic souls. They'd both seen the worst life had to offer and come through it bent but unbroken. Now, it was Lyu's turn. "Hey," said Lyra. "What is it?" said Kaguya. "First time she's ever done this, ain't it? How long do you think 'til Lyu comes back?" "She might never come back," offered Kaguya. "She's a delicate girl, even for an elf. And with things like they are, I wouldn't be too surprised if she went and got herself killed." "Man, that's cold, even for you," smirked Lyra, pretending to be surprised. "You're allowed to be a little optimistic, you know. Come to think of it, I've always wanted to ask. What did they do to you in the east that turned you into such a stone-cold bitch?" "Lyra, in the spirit of our companionship, I'm going to be frank. I've always hated your company. You just have to poke your ratty nose into every last thing." Unlike her pink-haired partner, everything Kaguya had said was sincere. Only their goddess, Astrea, knew of her painful past, and the girl intended to keep it that way. Besides that, she found the prum's attitude nauseatingly similar to her own. Unsurprisingly, however, her harsh rebuke left no mark on Lyra's pride, and the girl continued grinning, undaunted. "Damn, so you love Leon so much, you're willin' to put up with me to search for her," she said. "That's touchin'. It really is." Kaguya scowled at Lyra's quick-witted response. There wasn't much she could say to that, and she felt foolish for entertaining the prum's comments in the first place. "This is precisely the sort of thing I mean," she muttered, causing Lyra's smirk to widen. The prum girl decided it was prudent to push her compatriot no further and thoughtfully closed her eyes. The two were both pragmatic souls. That was why Astrea had saved them both, why Alize confused and fascinated them both, and why both of them saw fit to look out for Lyu, their newest arrival. Kaguya wore a stiff expression of frustration, while Lyra crossed her arms contentedly behind her head. Considering the former towered over the latter in terms of size, they made for a very odd couple indeed, but there was no mistaking the connection they shared. Then Lyra stopped. "Ah, snap. I remember that place," she said, spying an evacuee camp filled with demi-humans. "Those are the guys that threw all them stones at us." Some of the faces in the crowd were ones Lyra's keen mind remembered from the previous day. They didn't seem to have noticed the girls yet, but once they did, a response was all but certain. "Let us not overstay our welcome, then," said Kaguya. "We'll find out if Lyu came this way and then make a swift…hm?" Just as she was scanning the population, thinking there was no chance in hell Lyu would have come anywhere near this traumatic place, she noticed a sight that made her pause. Right in the middle of the camp was a lone girl, serving up steaming bowls of soup to a crowd of people. "Here you go! A nice, hot meal to warm your belly!" she said. "Give me some, too!!" "Hey, don't push!" Grown men and women who had lost their homes fought to be the first to be fed, but despite their unruliness, the girl smiled sweetly. "Don't worry," she said in a strangely sonorous voice. "There's plenty to go around!" Her eyes and tied-back hair were both light gray, and she wore a dress and purple cape, like many of the city girls. Anyone who came to her received the same welcoming smile along with their meal. "She's handing out food…" said Kaguya in disbelief. "And at a time when everyone's busy lookin' out for themselves," said Lyra. "I don't see the Guild around, either. She doin' all this by her lonesome?" After running all over the city trying to save people's lives, the two Astrea Familia girls were keenly aware of what a pitiful state it was in. Any free adventurers were busy securing the borders or placed on medical duty, and no one was left to hand out food. It was inspiring, then, that there was someone out there willing to devote their own time and resources to making sure everybody was fed. Especially just a regular, run-of-the-mill city girl with no connection to the guild or any familia. An old man approached the girl and expressed his thanks. "You don't know how grateful we are… To give out your own food when there's so little to go around." "We've all got to share the load at times like this," the girl replied. "Besides, don't worry; this all comes courtesy of a tavern called the Benevolent Mistress." She struck a proud pose with one hand to her chest. Off to the side, not speaking, was an unsociable-looking catgirl who seemed to be the girl's assistant, dressed in a green waitress uniform with a cloak over the top. She stirred the pot grudgingly. "It seems really scary at first," the first girl went on, "but it's actually the safest place in Orario. If you need help, you should stop by the shop on West Main Street!" Her bright words were the gods' honest truth, but the people seemed ill inclined to believe her. "I'm happy you would tell that lie to make us feel better…" said an animal woman. "…But we all know there ain't nowhere safe in Orario these days," agreed a prum man, the pessimism creeping into his voice. The people were so mired in their despair, even a goddess would have a hard time teaching them hope. "Oh…it wasn't meant to be a lie," said the girl to herself, pressing a finger to her cheek, "but as long as everyone gets fed, that's the most important thing." She smiled. No matter how glum the people around her were, she refused to let it affect her smile. "And then once your stomachs are warm, it'll spread to your hearts and faces, too! Is there anyone else who hasn't—!" "Stop! Stop this madness! Why bother handing out soup when we're all gonna die?!"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter3-03.txt	Chapter 3: A Gray Wildflower A ruddy-faced young man came storming out of the camp, screaming and yelling. The smell of alcohol lingered on his breath. "If we don't starve, the Evils'll get us instead! What's the point?!" "That's not true," said the girl. "The city's adventurers are working very hard to make sure you—" "Adventurers? I wouldn't trust 'em to wipe my ass! The Evils made 'em look like a buncha crybabies! Loki, Freya, all of 'em got their asses kicked! What bleedin' good are they gonna do us, eh?!" The man's ceaseless attack made the fearful townsfolk exchange worried looks. His words were an unwelcome reminder of what all of them—what all of Orario—was at this very moment trying their damnedest not to have to think about. All that remained in the space between his words was a chill air that threatened to snatch away all the warmth their soup had brought them. "I'm gonna die, we're all gonna die! The adventurers ain't gonna save us! They sure as hell didn't save my little sister…!" The despair refused to leave his voice as it became more and more fragile. In the end, it felt like he was about to cry. "…I think I preferred it when they were throwin' rocks at us," said Lyra, watching the commotion from a distance. The townspeople's weeping voices were more painful than any stones. Kaguya simply stood beside her, saying nothing. "It's over… It's all over," groaned the man. "Adventurers, this city, everything!" All around him, people hung their heads. Even the catgirl stirring the pot stopped to look over. The gray-haired girl paused and placed her finger to her cheek once more, trying to come up with something. "Hmm…" Then, like a child, her eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands together. "In that case, should we just all kill ourselves?" "What?" The young man froze. ""What?"" Lyra and Kaguya were aghast. """What?""" The people couldn't believe their ears. "Well, if life's so tough and painful and sad all the time, then why not kill yourself? Then you won't have to feel sad. You won't have to feel anything at all!" The girl continued speaking merrily, heedless of the horrified stares she was receiving. She looked innocent and pure, like a holy priestess conveying the word of her god. "Perhaps you'll even see your sister again in heaven," she went on. "And if what the gods say is true, you'll be reincarnated someday and get to live again!" She clenched both her fists and leaned forward in excitement. The young man recoiled from her. "Wha… I… But…" "Excuse me!" she called out over the crowd. "Is there anyone else who wants to die along with this gentleman here? It'll bring an end to all your hardship and suffering!" Nobody was quite sure how to react. It was as if a smiling tavern waitress had offered them a flagon of arsenic to wash down their ale. ""………"" Lyra and Kaguya were both slack-jawed. It took a lot to render them both speechless, but the girl's bizarre comeback had somehow done it. ""She's a psychopath…"" they both muttered. Meanwhile, the young man finally opened his mouth and managed to string together a coherent response. "I…I didn't really mean…" "Oh, I know," replied the girl, playfully sticking out her tongue. "I was just teasing. But you know who else doesn't want you to die? The adventurers!" "!!" The girl's statement shook the man to his core. "They're out there as we speak, fighting for you, you know? They're trying to make sure nobody else has to get hurt. Of course, they can't always save everyone, but that's not their fault. And nobody blames them more than they blame themselves." Nobody could speak out against the girl's flowing words. It was the truth that none of them wanted to hear. "It's not nice being misunderstood, is it? I hope you'll all understand that these brave men and women are doing everything they can for you." None of them could bring themselves to look at her bright, sunny smile. They stood staring at their feet, their voices caught in their throats. Lyra saw the parents of poor little Leah standing among them. The young man clenched his fists and choked out one final protest through his streaming tears. "But…you shouldn't tell us you're gonna protect us if you can't do it! Like Astrea Familia! They're nothin' but lyin' hypocrites, makin' promises they can't keep just to make themselves look good! They deserved what we did to 'em!" He had to say something—anything—to confront the guilt in his mind and justify the stones he'd thrown, but the girl answered him with a calm smile. "So what?" she asked. "What?" "We need people who look out for each other, whatever the reason. Especially at a time like this. It doesn't matter if their goodness is just for show or not." "!!" The young man was speechless. The townspeople stared in shock. Lyra and Kaguya looked on in wonder. What the girl was saying was that there was value in something less than perfect justice. Placing a hand to her breast, she glanced off into the distance with a look of respect and awe. "In days like these, anyone who makes an effort has the right to be called a hero. They're all fighting out there, so we need to fight, too, against the cruelty and depression that's trying to take over our hearts." "………" "Even if we can't all be heroes, the least we can do is stand by them, and not against them." Those words struck a bitter blow to the hearts of the drunken young man and all the people in the crowd. They suddenly felt awful for having lashed out against the people fighting on their behalf. Her truths were like knives in their chest, but their verity was unquestionable. Anyone could see that. "Rgh…" After a while, the young man hung his head. He could have screamed out, said he and his fellows were powerless and weak and couldn't be expected to do such a thing, but it seemed he finally realized that he possessed neither the right nor the cause to throw stones at the people standing up for him. One woman in the crowd found that truth particularly difficult to accept. "I just… I just wanted…" It was Leah's mother. All she wanted to do was shout—that she had it the worst, that no one else could possibly understand her pain—but she couldn't, because deep down, she was a good person, and she realized how foolish it would be. No matter how much the resentment and the grief warped her, she was still the same person who had thanked the adventurers alongside her beloved daughter. "Oh, Leah! Leah!!" It was easy for people to tell themselves they deserved safety—that they were entitled to protection—but it wasn't right. And she knew that if she put herself in the adventurers' shoes, she wouldn't want to fight for people like that, either. To be so overcome by bitterness that she lost sight of that and attacked the very people who swore to protect her—it was cowardly, base, and evil. Whatever form justice took, this was certainly not it. The townsfolk were all silent as they thought about what they'd done. "Everybody's just lost," said the catgirl helper, who had been silent up until this point. She stared at the townsfolk with vacant eyes, seeing in them a reflection of her former self, trapped with no way out. "………" Kaguya watched on from a distance, silent, while Lyra scratched her nose, impressed with the young city girl's words and actions. "Hey, you hear that? We're heroes, apparently." "Stop that," replied Kaguya. "Just the thought of it makes my skin crawl. I can't think of a word that suits me less." But Kaguya didn't elaborate on this, because at that very moment, an explosion rocked the camp. The two girls looked over, just as a scream filled the air. "It's the Evils!!" People fled in all directions at the sight of the milk-white robes, now deeply associated with death and destruction. One cultist stood and laughed as smoke rose off his magic sword. "Looks like this place is totally unguarded, even in the middle of town," he said. "Hah-hah-hah, stupid sheep!" As evidenced by their treatment of Astrea Familia, this camp was a gathering of people who had lost faith in the adventurers' protection. They had ignored orders coming in from Central Park and settled in the northern part of town, unwittingly making themselves an easy target for the Evils. "Yes, yes, flee in terror! Let the adventurers hear your dying screams, and despair!!" The apostles of evil licked their lips and descended on the crowd. Only a few didn't immediately turn and run like everybody else. "Syr!" cried the catgirl standing by the soup stall. A flickering flame suddenly returned to her eyes, as if a completely different person had taken over her body. She snatched up her weapon, which was wrapped in a white cloth and lying nearby, and stood in defense of the gray-haired girl, but the latter refused her protection. "Anya!" she cried. "Go and help everyone!" The catgirl scowled in response to this request, but ultimately did as she was asked. Just as an Evils blade was about to reach its mark, she stepped in with feline grace, pulling off the cloth and unveiling her weapon—a gleaming golden spear. "Waargh!" cried the enemy cultist as the sweeping spear knocked him off his feet. "O-over there!" "An adventurer?!" One corner of the camp descended into melee, sending into the air the sounds of clashing metal. Meanwhile, the city girl stood firm, crying out advice to the fleeing citizens. "This way, everybody! Head south! Hurry!!" A cruel Evils cultist kicked over the cauldron of soup, causing the girl to clench her fist in rage. But this didn't stop her from calling out over the chaos. Her clear, loud voice carried far, guiding the people away from the Evils' clutches. "You should be worrying about yourself, girl, not other people!!" "Ahh!!" The man who was the instigator of this attack came up behind her and caught her by surprise. Her escort was engaged with the enemy elsewhere and could not reach her in time. The girl turned, his sword reflected in her pupils, when… "Not so fast!" "Wurgh!" A cross-shaped slash, one part katana and one part boomerang, cut the villain down where he stood. "You got grit, girl," said Lyra with a roguish smile. "But it ain't gonna do you any good if it gets you killed." "Adventurers…?" asked the girl in wonder. "Oh, hardly," said Kaguya with a smile. "We're just regular old hypocrites, I'm afraid." With that, the two leaped into action. They moved quickly, even through the chaos. Through their day job, the girls were well accustomed to working with crowds, and they swiftly picked out the Evils from the innocent townsfolk. Kaguya let out an incredibly unladylike war cry, stunning friend and foe alike, and just as attention gathered on her, Lyra's boomerangs flew out from the shadows, disabling the hapless cultists before they even saw what was coming. Angry and fearful screams filled the streets. Lyra's spinning blades feasted on the enemy cultists, splattering their blood onto the cobbles. They looked around, unsettled, but couldn't spot the prum girl responsible for the onslaught, and while they were busy looking for her, the far-eastern girl made her move. Kaguya was far more adept at martial arts than any of her peers in Astrea Familia. Her attacks were not just graceful—they were divine. While the Evils scrambled around trying to find the lesser of the two threats, Kaguya's blade cut them all down one by one. Their leader—the one who attacked Syr—had already fallen, so there was no one left to call for a retreat. By now, the raiding party was reduced to a mob of wild animals. Meanwhile, the two girls had already picked out their enemies from the crowd and could be as rough as they liked without worrying about hurting bystanders. Kaguya made bold, sweeping movements without minding her back, but Lyra was there to keep an eye on her. Similarly, the prum's attacks lacked power, but Kaguya's blade more than made up for it. Even though it wasn't planned, their respective styles made for a fearsome combination. "A-Astrea Familia?! Waagh!" Kaguya cut down the last cultist, completely eradicating the enemy in under two minutes. The catgirl adventurer could only look on in complete and utter shock. "That's the last of them," said Kaguya, resheathing her sword. "Ganesha Familia should be here soon. We'll let them handle the arrests." "Yeah," said Lyra. "Looks like Lyu's not here, either. Let's go—" But just as she was about to turn around, the young man from before and Leah's mother both staggered out of the camp toward them. "Y-you guys protected us…" "Even after the way we treated you…" They both wore stunned looks of surprise, bewilderment, guilt, and pain. They each tried to say something more but couldn't find the words. Lyra stared at them for a while before turning away. "Let's go, Kaguya." "Ah, wait…" The far-eastern girl silently followed her associate, leaving the two townspeople without a single word. With utterly distraught looks, they watched the girls leave. "Are you sure you didn't want to give them a piece of your mind?" Kaguya asked after the camp was no longer in sight. "You haven't forgotten what they did to us, have you?" Lyra looked around to make sure no one was watching, then burst into a devilish grin. "There wasn't nothin' I could say that hurt them more than sayin' nothin'," she answered. "Did you see the guilty looks on their faces? Oh, man, you can't pay for satisfaction like that." "Oh dear," said Kaguya, lifting her kimono's sleeve over her mouth. "You really are the most ill-natured prum I've ever had the displeasure of knowing." However, the two were truly alike, since behind her sleeve, the far-eastern girl wore a smile just like her compatriot's. "Besides," said Lyra, stopping in her tracks and placing a hand on her hip. "Ain't it way more heroic that way?" This time, the smile on her face was an altogether more wholesome one. "True. Not that it suits you," said Kaguya. The two shared a grin, then set off once more in search of their wayward junior. Their faces were just a little brighter than they had been when they arrived. Back at the camp, the girl with light gray hair and eyes stood and gazed in the direction the two girls had left. "…Stay strong, familia of justice," she said with a smile.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter4-01.txt	Chapter 4: Those Who Struggle CHAPTER 4 Those Who Struggle It happened on a day like any other. "Asfi, take over as captain after I die, would ya?" "Huh?" Asfi had been in her studio, working hard all morning to refine her latest creation in the fight against the Evils, when Lydis stepped in and whisked her away, saying, "Let's go have lunch together!" Asfi's emphatic protests fell on deaf ears, and so she sighed as she was dragged away to a nearby tavern. The sign out front read, THE BENEVOLENT MISTRESS. It had been in business for two years and was surprisingly profitable, considering the times. According to Lydis, "If you want good food and a relaxing atmosphere, come here! It's like paradise! It's like Valhalla! Only pity is they charge adventurers extra!" It was after sitting down at the counter and being wowed by a superb vegetable quiche that Asfi heard those unsettling words. "What are you talking about, Captain?" "Just something to keep in mind. Man, the food here is great!" Lydis bit into a piping hot skewer of slow-cooked meat, ignoring Asfi's puzzled look. Lydis was a human, and even Asfi could recognize the woman's stunning beauty. Her long, ash-blond hair ran in a single plaited bunch down her right shoulder, and she wore a white collared blouse and a necktie that was curiously handsome. She was a striking, unapproachable beauty until the moment she opened her mouth, at which point she sounded like a complete and utter imbecile. "I know everyone's saying this," Lydis went on, speaking as she stuffed her cheeks yet miraculously without a single drop of fat staining her snow-white blouse, "but in times like these, you never know what'll happen. Just letting you know my wishes, you know, just in case. I'll tell Hermes as well." "H-hold on a second! Y-you can't just start talking about your death like that!" "It's not very a happy conversation, I know. But I don't want it to be sad, either. I just want things to go on as normal even when I'm gone, you know? That's the best thing for the familia and for our god as well." Ignoring Asfi's horrified look, Lydis reached out for another serving of food. The dwarven proprietress standing behind the bar said nothing. "We're followers of Hermes," Lydis said. "That means we can't let any holes sink our ship. We have to patch them up and keep on drifting on the winds of discovery. You understand what I mean, right?" "Not even a little bit," replied Asfi. "Besides, being chosen as your successor is one accolade I could do without." "Aha-ha! That's because you're always so serious, Asfi. I bet Hermes is going to have a grand old time with you. You'll be dead on your feet trying to keep up with him!" "Hey!" "But I believe in you, Asfi. Nobody else cares more than you." Asfi was momentarily surprised by Lydis's sudden transformation from a chuckling child into a sage and mature young woman. However, Lydis soon broke that illusion with an exclamation of "Wow, this meat pie is amazing!" as she resumed unceremoniously stuffing her cheeks. "You'll be fine, Asfi," she said between mouthfuls. "Whether that day comes or not. You're our almighty hero—our Perseus." "And on what basis do you say that, I wonder…?" "Hey, are you doubting me? I'm Lydis! When have I ever been wrong?!" "Is that supposed to be Hermes? Cut it out!" "Ha-ha-ha! Now Hermes sad…!" No matter how grown-up for her age, Asfi was still a child. She didn't—couldn't—appreciate the intent behind Lydis's words. At the time, she considered it just another one of the captain's tasteless jokes. But in this case, it was the playful Lydis whose mind was far more grounded in reality. And that was why she died. On the night of the Great Conflict, Lydis gave her life so that a band of upper-class adventurers could escape with theirs. With a calm and clear mind, she put the needs of the city above her own, and the tasteless joke became the cruel truth. She always knew it was a possibility, even as she said it with a laugh. In the Age of Darkness, anyone could become a martyr, and anyone could find it was their turn to step up. For Asfi, that time had come. Footsteps came running toward her, and the Hermes Familia member shouted a report. "Skirmishes in districts five, six, and eight! We're seeing more movement than ever before! What do we do, Asfi?" She was in the southern part of town, at about the same time Kaguya and Lyra were investigating the evacuee camp in the north. She was scared. How many times had she felt this way, just today? With no way in or out of the city, supplies were scarce. There wasn't nearly enough to go around. The constant attacks by Evils groups only added to the stress, and many adventurers like her were clinging to their last strands of sanity. It was all going according to Valletta's scheme. Looking after the people was proving to be a herculean task, and the strain was starting to take its toll. However, amid all this, Asfi had a different kind of pressure to contend with as well. "Th-three sites at the same time? How many of them are there?" "We've spotted at least eight warbands! They outnumber us two to one! What do we do?" Asfi was struggling to adapt to a new truth. She was the one giving the orders now. "Lydis is dead." "You're the captain now." How many times had she heard Hermes's humorless words in her head? For better or worse, she hadn't even had time to process the death of her friend and captain. She was simply cast adrift in the sea of her new responsibilities without a tether. Asfi felt that if she lost focus for even a moment, the weight of it all would cause her to pass out. "W-we don't have enough people… I'll go with the Berbera stationed in district three to provide reinforcements!" Ignoring the urge to run and hide from her familia's expectations, Asfi began coming up with a plan, but at that point, the heretofore silent Falgar spoke up. "We can't. If we do that, the east part of town will be completely undefended. The enemy have plenty of forces on standby, just waiting for us to lower our guard." Asfi was lost for words. She felt deeply embarrassed. Falgar was supposed to be operating as her aide, but it felt more like he was pointing out her mistakes. "B-but then, what are we supposed to—" Falgar, however, was completely right. The problem was that a young girl like Asfi couldn't possibly figure out where to go from there. She stood, feeling alone in the overcast streets, when a new voice rang out. "Leave that to me, lassie. Don't change our positions—that's exactly what our enemy is trying to provoke with these slapdash raids." "E-Elgarm…" It was Gareth, greatax slung across his shoulder, with a contingent of adventurers in tow. The blood of their last battle still clung to their weapons as he offered Asfi advice as a veteran. "In return," he went on, "we'd like Hermes Familia to do what it does best and investigate the locations of our greatest foes: Zald, Alfia, and the dark god Erebus. Leave everything else to us and track them down." "Understood," said Falgar, nodding in place of Asfi, who still stood rooted to the spot. Gareth had not made an empty request. Up-to-date intelligence on the enemy leader and those two conquerors was crucial. But a part of him also wished to remove Hermes Familia from the battlefield. They had just lost their leader, and Asfi was clearly struggling. "Do not falter, Perseus," he said, looking her straight in the eye. "That is what our enemy wants most of all. They are keeping us on edge, demanding we fight without rest or knowing when the next attack will come, and instilling us with fear." "B-but…" "As long as it causes chaos, our enemies don't care if it's a small battle or a big one. But a captain has to always be aware of what's happening on the entire battlefield." "Rgh…!" Gareth's words shook Asfi to her core. After he had left, she hung her head in shame. Then, after a long while, she managed to open her mouth to speak. "Falgar," she said in a quiet voice, "I can't do this. You've got to take over for me! I can't be the captain we need right now!" "Asfi…" She hadn't even raised her head. She simply screamed her desperate plea toward the ground. Falgar found it hard to watch. "I just keep giving orders that don't make any sense! I can't think straight, and my voice just keeps shaking! It's still shaking now!" Ever since taking over the captain's duties, Asfi found herself stumbling at every turn. It was only through Falgar's constant advice that she managed to avoid getting everyone killed. Perhaps if Hermes were here to support her, it might not be so bad, but he wasn't. Like many other gods, he was busy elsewhere and lacked the time to fuss over each and every member of his familia. "All I'm doing is dragging everybody down! I'll get you all killed! Just like Lydis!" She buried her sweat-drenched face in her hands. Her captain's death had triggered a visceral change. It drove home that lives hung in the balance every time she gave orders, and people could die, just as easily as Lydis had. Often Asfi had been forced to assume her captain's duties, usually at the whim of her patron god, but never had the lives of her friends depended on their successful completion. In the Age of Darkness, the captain's cup was a poisoned chalice. There were very few Finns in the world, and Asfi was not one of them. The weight of her new position was unbearable. Lydis…! What am I meant to do? Why did you pick me as your successor? What does it matter that I care more than anyone else? How is that supposed to help me support the familia now that you're gone?! Asfi felt her past coming back to haunt her. It was a part of her she had tried to leave behind when she left her hometown—when she abandoned the title of Princess Andromeda. She wanted to cry so badly, but she couldn't. If she did, she would turn back into the scared, sheltered little girl she had worked so hard to grow up from. But through her tear-streaked eyes, she could almost see the face of her captain again. She wanted nothing more than to run to her side. Asfi was not strong. She was just a fifteen-year-old girl, the same as Lyu, with no set sense of justice, drowning in a responsibility she didn't ask for. "I can't… I can't…" She looked like she was about to hyperventilate. Her subordinates all stood around her, looking at one another in discomfort. Falgar, meanwhile, regarded her with a concerned frown. There was an awkward silence as the remnants of a headless familia wallowed in despair. However, the silence lasted only a moment. Soon, Falgar made up his mind and strode over to Asfi. He took both of her shoulders in his massive grip and forced her to meet his gaze. "Listen to me, Asfi," he said. "Like Hermes, I thought you were the best one for this job. I still do. Because you care more than anyone else here!" "What…? What does that mean…?!" "You worry yourself sick because you know what needs to be done! Your sharp eyes cut through the mist and seize the present moment!" "!!" That moment is now. Asfi heard a whisper of someone else's voice. She saw, standing behind Falgar, a woman of stunning beauty. Lydis… She was waving, smiling her usual carefree smile. As if saying that her part in this was done. As if saying that Falgar's thoughts mirrored her own. "Be confident in yourself! Be proud of yourself! Because your ability to analyze a situation is no less than Braver's!" "!!" Falgar Batros was a powerful war tiger. He had joined Hermes Familia around the same time Asfi did, and both of them had seen their fair share of joys and woes. Asfi had made a name for herself as a prodigal item maker, but if there was one thing she lacked, it was physical strength. That was where Falgar came in. With her brain and his brawn, they made for a fearsome combination. If there was one person besides Hermes and Lydis who knew Asfi well, it was Falgar. If there was anyone to whom Lydis could entrust the execution of her last request, it was him. He had watched Asfi struggle, seen her highest and her lowest points, and his words were much stronger than the voices in Asfi's head telling her she wasn't good enough. She was good enough. She was Perseus, the almighty hero, and she was smart enough to give Finn a run for his money. "Think back to all those times Hermes strung you along!" he said. "This is nothing compared to that! You could handle this with one arm tied behind your back!" "Falgar…" "This job was made for you. It's something I could never do! So Asfi…please!!" This was Falgar's plea, his request to the girl who possessed what he lacked, and the fulfillment of his promise to Lydis to watch over and support the new captain. Asfi felt a tremor in her breast. She closed her eyes, as if dropping a curtain on all that had been said and done. In the darkness, she saw the playful smile of a man who had always watched over her, and the woman who ran his familia like a ship in the wind. There are many things I cannot do, Asfi realized. But there are also things that only I can do. And I…I know what must be done! The girl reached out into the blustering wind and seized her unwavering determination. The one thing she was afraid of more than anything else was becoming an impotent figurehead and failing to fulfill her captain's dying wish. She opened her eyes. The curtain rose to reveal a new world. Lydis was gone. There was only Asfi, here to carry on her legacy. "We'll fulfill the request to locate the leaders of the Evils," she said. "At the same time, try to scavenge supplies from the ruined buildings. Food, equipment, anything you can find." An awe-inspiring look of determination suddenly appeared on Asfi's face. Falgar breathed a huge sigh of relief. "…! Asfi!" "The enemy has vacated the shopping district south of Central Park in order to occupy the walls. We'll need supplies to continue the war. We have to secure whatever's left for later." Finn would surely come up with a plan to turn the tide of the war. But supplies would be necessary to execute it. Weapons and armor were always indispensable, but the war effort required food and clothing as well. Like Gareth said, Asfi could see the battlefield clearly in her mind, and she was already thinking several moves ahead. She saw what measures needed to be taken to combat the encroaching despair. If Finn were here, he would surely say, "That's right." If Lydis were here, she would surely say, "Well done." "Stick together," said Asfi, in a voice more powerful than before. "Split up into teams of four and comb the district!" "Understood! I'll go tell the others!" With obvious relief, Asfi's subordinates ran off to relay her commands. After they were gone, Asfi turned back to Falgar. "Thank you for your encouragement," she said. "If it'll help us win this war, then I'm more than happy to do enough worrying for all of us!" "Thank you, Captain! We're counting on you to lead us to victory!" No one worked themselves to the bone more than Asfi. Even Lydis knew that. In response to Falgar's smile, Asfi displayed one of her own—one that hadn't been seen in quite some time. "Still," she said, "I know you said all that only because you don't want to be captain yourself." "Heh, you got me there." The two shared a smile, then they quickly donned their serious faces once more. "I'm going to use my magic items to scout ahead on my own," said Asfi. "You take Thane and lead our people." "You got it!" Asfi watched as Falgar departed, then she set off in the other direction. "I know what needs to be done," she muttered to herself. "And I know what I can do!" The path was set. All that remained was to walk it. "Aaagh!!" "What?! Is there somebody there?!" "A blast wave just came out of thin air and—gugh!!" Fels unleashed Magic Eater, devastating the wandering group of Evils cultists. All that remained after the dust settled was an eerie silence. Nothing to show for all the losses. They dropped the hood of their cloak, the Reverse Veil, rendering them visible once more, though there was little point in doing so now there was nobody left to see them. "How goes the search, Fels?" came an old man's voice. It was Ouranos, the founding god of Orario, speaking through a magic item known as an oculus. "Just encountered another group," replied Fels. "They've all been dealt with. Coming up on the entrance to the sewers now." Ouranos was the patron god of the Guild, and Fels was essentially his right hand. Ever since the Great Conflict began, Fels had been out in the field, assisting the adventurers from the shadows under cover of darkness. Those activities didn't stop once dawn broke, either. They worked day and night, with no need for rest. Four times now, they had put a stop to brewing insurrection by sending riotous groups of people to sleep with judicious use of magic items. Anyone they came across, they healed, be they adventurers or civilians. With their owl familiar, Gafiel, they scouted the city walls and relayed enemy positions via the Guild to Finn and his associates. Now, reports had come in of suspicious activity taking place in the waterways beneath the city, so on Ouranos's orders, they were heading to investigate. "Be ever vigilant, Fels." "………" "If our enemy really is located underground as we've surmised, there will be dozens of lookouts." "………" "Remember that veil only cloaks you from sight and covers your scent. It does not render you undetect—Fels?" Fels had been working tirelessly behind the scenes, unknown to all but Ouranos himself. Fels, however, didn't mind that. So long as their efforts could help the city of heroes weather this war, Fels was content. They may have been a fool, lacking flesh and skin, held together only by bones and regret, but this was something they could do. Something only one who felt no hunger, thirst, or weariness could do. And so, the path was set. It had been decided a long time ago, and it stretched far off into the future as well. Fels had long been prepared to walk it, but at this moment…they were not moving. "Ouranos," they said. "The bodies never stop." "………" "I am no stranger to death, but the sheer scale of it…" Fels had lived for eight hundred years. They had seen much in that time, and any unnecessary sentiment had been shed along with their flesh. They lived detached from the rest of the world, and that had left them with a cold, mechanical way of seeing things…or so they thought. "Death, loss, loneliness, longing… It's all staring me in the face." None could be exposed to such senseless slaughter and come out of it unshaken. Not unless they were counted among the gods themselves. Fels was beginning to realize there were emotions that not even eight hundred years of servitude to pragmatism could erode, and from which they might never be free unless they abandoned their mortal soul entirely. Before their eyes was a mountain of corpses. One of them, a young elf boy, gazed lifelessly in Fels's direction, arm outstretched as if seeking salvation, even in death. For what reason had Fels sought immortality? For what reason did they dream of resurrection? They remembered their old self, mired in hubris and pain, long prior to donning the mantle of fool, and felt a quiver in a heart that should have long since rotted away to nothing. Fels saw before them a mirror image of everything they had lost, and so like an angel of death, they extended a single bony finger toward the young boy's. "If my foolish magicks were good for anything…could they imbue but one of these corpses with a second life?" But just before their digits touched, Fels heard a voice in their ear. "You cannot." "………" "I will not abide resurrection. Any life you could bring back, I would simply take away once more." The old god extinguished the thought. With cold, cruel yet merciful words, he took Fels's powerlessness unto himself. "By my divine will, you are to stand by while others perish. Remember this, Fels. To a god, your mortal sentiment is naught but petty vanity." "………" "You must forsake it if you are to execute my will and build Orario ever higher. Forget everything you are and offer me only your undying service." "…Yes. You're right, Ouranos." I'm sorry. Thank you. These were the things Fels wanted to say, but they remained swaddled in darkness as Fels retracted their hand. Though they could not cry for the god who shouldered their failures, they could show their appreciation in other ways. "I'm all right now… I'm all right." Muttering this underneath their breath, Fels cast aside their worries and once more donned the mask of a fool who went on living without purpose. The depths of their devotion ran deeper still. They lifted their head. "It's time to go," they said. "Blurgh! Bleaghhh!" Raul was heaving. He was determined not to be outdone by the inspiring bravery of his seniors, and though, by comparison to a certain foolish immortal, the things he could accomplish were rather scant, Raul had nonetheless lied to himself and run all over the city attempting to be of use to his beloved leaders. Though he could not fight, he contented himself to relay messages to and fro across the battlefield. However, wherever he went, the unmistakable stench of death persisted, clinging to the air. The endless devastation chipped away at his resistance bit by bit, until eventually, there was nothing left, and he collapsed to his hands and knees, emptying his guts. "Raul?!" "Blurgh! Cough! Cough!" The contents of his stomach stank worse than the blood. Anakitty came running over to him, though Raul wanted nothing more than for her to stay far away. "Raul, you have to rest!" she cried, placing her hands on his back and shoulder. "You haven't slept at all!" "C-can't stop now…" Raul protested. "I gotta keep moving. All the captains are counting on me…" He could tell his dogged persistence was worrying his fellow messenger. Tears welled in his eyes as he thought about how much this bothered her. I'm not even fighting on the front! Others have it way worse than me; why am I so weak?! It was no surprise Raul was finding it hard to handle. He may have been stronger than others, but he had an ordinary person's heart, just as susceptible as anyone else to the horrors found throughout the city. "What's wrong with me?!" But Raul didn't want to face that simple truth. To him, it was shameful. Embarrassing. However, he was forced to admit one thing: his heart couldn't take it any longer. No matter how hard his idols worked, Raul couldn't stop the denial building up inside him. It felt like evil itself were watching his pitiful state and laughing, and when Raul thought about what terrible things still lay in wait, he couldn't even bring himself to lift his head. "Raul…" Anakitty whispered his name, sharing in his loneliness and despair. It was then, when Raul was on all fours, elbows and knees quivering, that the pair heard a noise. Clang. Clang. "What's that?" Anakitty's cat ears perked up as she searched for the sound's source. Raul, too, lifted his head. The pair were currently in the western part of the city, where canals crisscrossed like woven fabric, layered in a faint mist because of the unusually chilly season. "It sounds like…a hammer?" Raul stood up and wiped his mouth dry. Together with Anakitty, he walked as if entranced toward the source of the sound. It didn't seem like an Evils' trap—the sound was far too clear and peaceful for that. The mists parted, leading the two adventurers to a large stone bridge, over sixty meders long and ten meders wide. Along the left and right edges, evenly spaced along the parapet, were statues of legendary warriors, dozens of them. "The Bridge of Heroes?" said Raul quizzically, recognizing the location. The statues depicted those who had fought to seal off the Dungeon back in ancient times. They were responsible for one of Orario's greatest achievements—perhaps its greatest achievement—and so were immortalized in stone. It was a place Raul and Anakitty had both visited when they first arrived in town. They went to pay their respects to their predecessors, and they took with them the childish hope that they might one day accomplish something of equal importance. It was a foolish dream that could not survive even the slightest contact with the harsh truth. Seeing tragedy unfold everywhere they looked, Raul and Anakitty were forced to admit that they could never be heroes. Not if this was what they had to endure. However, upon that bridge, smith's hammer in hand, sat a single god. "Goibniu?" All alone and surrounded by his tools, he was fixing the bridge. It had failed to come through the Great Conflict unscathed. Parts of it were blown away, and a huge crack ran through one of the supports. But what had been damaged most were the statues atop it. Arms and heads had been blasted off, and what remained leaned this way and that. Stunned, Raul and Anakitty stepped onto the bridge and walked on over to its caretaker. "Lord Goibniu?" asked Raul. "Wh-what are you doing here?" "Not much room for me back at the forge," replied the god, without looking up from his work. "My children are doing all they can." Raul felt that Goibniu's response didn't really answer the question, so he asked again. "Why are you fixing the bridge? Aren't there more important structures to—?" "No." "Huh?" Goibniu answered before Raul had even finished speaking. Baffled, the young boy stopped in his tracks. "We need this bridge," explained Goibniu, "If it falls, we all fall." "………" Raul and Anakitty were both speechless. Time seemed to grind to a halt. The Bridge of Heroes had existed since before the age of the gods began. It had survived monster attacks, earthquakes, floods, and even war. Of course, it had been repaired and restored many times over the centuries, but that made it a priceless treasure, maintained and preserved through countless generations by the inhabitants of Orario. To Goibniu, it was a symbol of civic pride, one they couldn't afford to lose. "This bridge is our history," he said. "Our history must never end." The old god very rarely spoke his mind like this. Raul looked down at Goibniu's hands, to see that they were blistered beyond belief. How long had he been working on the bridge already? He may have been a god of craftsmanship, but such a feat was unimaginable alone. Raul watched as the statue he was currently working on regained its former shape. It depicted a masked prum holding a long spear, accompanied by a gallant-looking horse. It was said that this hero once blazed a trail to this land in times long forgotten. He didn't know why, but Raul began to cry, and so did Anakitty. It was strange—he'd seen the statues before, but something about the way these thirty-one heroes stood bravely even now spoke to him. They were all damaged, slanting, and some were even burned. Raul wiped his eyes, and before he knew it, he was squeezing Anakitty's hand tightly. She squeezed his back. The two were of one mind. Raul steeled his nerves and rose unsteadily yet bravely to his feet. It was then he heard a voice. "Look over there! Adventurers!" "!!" It was the sneering voice of evil, locating its prey. A total of six cultists appeared at the far end of the bridge and began to approach. Though they all wore face coverings, the mad glint in their eyes betrayed the sadistic smiles beneath. "Now, what are you all doing out here by yourselves? Waiting for us to come kill you?" "They're fixing this dumb old bridge! What's the point?! Aha-ha-ha-ha!" With riotous laughter and gleeful looks, the six cultists set their murderous eyes on Raul and the others. After killing him and Anakitty, no doubt they intended to destroy the bridge, just to watch the old god suffer. "Lord Goibniu!" "I will stay and fix the bridge," the old god replied. "Take care of these interlopers." "Yes, sir!" Raul drew his sword without fear or hesitation. Anakitty did the same. The two stood shoulder-to-shoulder, ready to fight off the city's invaders. None of the enemy were high-level. Supposedly. Surely. But even if they were, it wouldn't make a difference. Raul and Anakitty would defeat them. This bridge was the one place in all of Orario where no adventurer could possibly lose. "Let's go, Aki!" "Uh-huh!" Even if they weren't heroes themselves, they could be brave and fight to the last like their heroes had done. Even if they could no longer fight, they could keep on running forward. They could inherit their forebears' courage, their will, their determination, and carry that into the future with them, like a flaming torch. "Rrraaaaaaaaaahhh!!" The pair let out a fierce yell and were repaid in courage. Everything after that was set in stone. Under the eternal gaze of heroes past, Raul and Anakitty earned their promotion to Level 2. The voices were inescapable. Groaning, moaning, wailing. Sprawled out on the ground, with only a scant cloth between them and the hard cobbles, were the countless wounded of the Great Conflict. Many of them had still not been seen to by a healer or received more than basic first aid. The only ones who watched over them were Guild employees, lacking in medical training, as well as the goddess Astrea. "We need to stop the bleeding!" she cried, a far cry from her usual calm self, "Gather any clean cloth you can find. Even clothing will do!" For one with no magic or tools, she was doing an impressive job. "Here's everything we could find, Lady Astrea!" "Thank you, Karen," Astrea replied. "Now, go and help Huey treat the patients. Clean their wounds and brace their fractures. Do you know how?" "Yes, ma'am! C'mon, Huey, you heard her!" "Right!" All were astonished by the depths of the goddess's devotion to her children. Along with every able-bodied citizen in the vicinity, she was making herself busy. After the two townspeople had left, she returned her attention to the injured animal woman in her lap. "Lady Astrea…" the woman groaned, "Please, don't sully your clothes with my common blood…" She was so injured, it seemed difficult for her to breathe, but Astrea simply replied with a benevolent smile. "It makes no difference whether my clothes wipe your blood or my own sweat and tears," she said. "Ahh… You are too kind…" A single tear rolled down the woman's cheek. Astrea held her hand in hers, then, having completed her treatment, stood up. As much as she wanted to stay and watch over her recovery, there were others in need of care. She wiped her sweat and moved on to the next patient. They were currently in an evacuee camp not far from Central Park, one of the many places where the overflow from the city center gathered. Many two- and even three-story buildings were relatively undamaged here and had been repurposed into hospitals to house the many wounded. Yet even so, these makeshift hospitals were already full, and excess patients were forced to lie on the streets outside. Just as Astrea was wandering from person to person, a woman from the Guild and a civilian townsman came running up to her. "Lady Astrea!" "What did you get?" she asked them. "Were there any items or healers to spare?" "We managed to bring back bandages, ointment, and antiseptic," the woman replied, displaying the contents of the sack she was carrying, "but potions and other items are being handed out to adventurers first. Plus, there aren't any healers to spare…" she added in a despondent tone. "We called on Lord Dian Cecht and Lord Miach for assistance, but there are many other camps in need just like this one," said the human man standing beside her. He was neither an adventurer nor a healer, merely a volunteer drawn from the ordinary residents of the city. Astrea's selfless actions had inspired him to lend a hand, but the sheer helplessness of the situation made him gnash his teeth in frustration. "I see," said Astrea. "As much as I hate to admit it, there isn't much we can do about that." She cast her eyes downward for a moment, then just as she seemed to be lost in thought, she spoke with grim determination. "In that case, there's only one thing we can do," she said. "Give me the cleanest knife or sword you have. Three of these patients need amputations." "Wha—?!" The two helpers were shocked by the goddess's macabre request. "They are all showing signs of metal poisoning, caused by shrapnel from the bombs," Astrea explained. "If we wait for the healers to arrive, it will be too late." "Th-that's terrible!" muttered the Guild woman. "You can't do that!" cried the townsman. "How could a goddess be forced to perform such a cruel act?!" "Whether I am a goddess or not is irrelevant," said Astrea. "If there is some way I can help, then I will see it done." She held out her hand. Staring at her porcelain palm, the townsman gulped. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, he reached for his belt, unhooked his sword, and handed it to her. Astrea instructed them to fetch fire and alcohol for disinfecting the blade, and after they brought them, she walked over to one patient in the sea of wounded. He was in critical condition. A horrible burn covered most of his upper torso, and his right leg was riddled with shrapnel, causing the skin to turn a deeply unnatural shade. He had just been brought over from another camp, which had recently suffered an attack by the Evils. "Hold him down," Astrea said to her helpers as she kneeled at the patient's side. "Bunch this cloth in his mouth so that he doesn't bite his tongue off." The Guild woman stood and watched in horror as the townsman volunteer steeled his nerves and prepared for the operation. The man on the ground, meanwhile, looked up at Astrea with dread. "Please…don't do this," he groaned. "I don't want to lose my leg…" "I'm sorry," came the goddess's reply, "but this is better than letting you die." It was hard to hear the compassion in her determined voice. Swiftly but carefully, she ran a flaming torch across the length of the sword's edge. The man watched all this with chattering teeth and tears in his eyes. "If you are truly a goddess, then why can't you save me?" he cried. "Save all of us and put a stop to this terrible war!" Surely it was within the power of the very gods. With a wave of their fingers, they could put Orario back to the way it was. But Astrea only hung her head in shame. "If I unseal my arcanum and restore this land, all it will take is one evil god to come along to undo it all." "…!" "And once that happens," she went on, "there is no going back. This realm will be a battleground of warring gods for all eternity. This is meant to be your story, my children." The Guild woman gasped at Astrea's ominous prediction. Astrea lowered her words to a mutter, so that nobody else could hear her. "And most importantly, if we break the seal before the promised time, then the Dungeon will…" The volunteer noticed her speaking to herself as he held the makeshift gag in the patient's mouth. "Lady Astrea…?" he ventured. But Astrea only shook her head and set her sights on the task at hand. "Be strong, my child," she said to the patient. "I will never forget the blood that has been taken from you." The sky changed as time drew on, the eternal blanket of gray acquiring a smattering of evening's orange glow. The camp, once filled with the inescapable screams of the dying, had now fallen silent. Astrea lay her bloodstained sword atop a table without a single word. She handed three cloth-wrapped packages, like swaddled babes, to the solemn volunteer. He took them silently, and he carefully carried them outside. Astrea watched him go, her hands, face, and pure-white dress all speckled with crimson. "Lady Astrea, here," said the Guild woman, her face pale, handing Astrea a clean rag. "Thank you," the goddess replied. "And how are you?" "M-my worries are nothing compared to yours, my lady," said the Guild woman, nervously staring down at the floor. "I could never be a kind and noble goddess such as yourself…"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter4-03.txt	Chapter 4: Those Who Struggle To these lowly mortals, Astrea was blinding. So much so, they could hardly look at her. Here was a goddess who dirtied her own hands to save lives, who shouldered all their anger and sadness while spreading only kindness and warmth. Astrea smiled. "This might sound a little unorthodox," she said, "but you mustn't put us gods on a pedestal." "What?" said the Guild woman, lifting her head. "Justice, at a time like this, means fighting to help those who suffer. It makes no difference whether you're a deity or not." A true angel, a true goddess—true justice—was not someone who skipped and threw daisies, but someone who fought on for the sake of the suffering. That was what Astrea believed. The Guild woman's eyes widened at this revelation. "No matter how painful it gets, no matter how much shame you feel, there is always something righteous you can do," said Astrea. "Remember that." At this, the Guild woman's eyes filled with tears. She pressed a hand to her chest and gave a firm nod. "You're right, Lady Astrea!" Astrea smiled at the look of renewed determination on the woman's face. Sex, race—even mortality. Such things were not relevant. Even deities were powerless in some respects, and what did you do when you knew there was nothing you could do? Think. Choose. Have the will to go on. These things were more important than any single capability. Astrea had faith the woman would carry her confidence like a beacon, lighting the lamps of others still doubting and in need of guidance. Then a voice called out. "Lady Astrea! Is your familia around?!" "Asfi?" The girl known as Perseus, the almighty hero, raced into the camp, her cloak fluttering behind her. "If you're looking for the girls, they're all over the city at the moment. What's the matter?" "I need to locate the enemy leader, and I was hoping they could help. Do you know where Leon is? I work best with her!" Astrea was heartened by the resolute tone of Asfi's voice, but at the mention of Lyu's name, she grew crestfallen. "Nobody's seen her in quite some time," she admitted. "She's been through so much…losing her friend…and she's been hurting…" "Rgh… Ardee…" Asfi scowled, remembering the tragedy that had befallen the poor girl. She, too, had been proud to call Ardee a friend. She was always happy to lend a helping hand, and Asfi had been deeply indebted to her. As the emotions swirled in her mind, it was Astrea who lifted her head and spoke. "Asfi… Can I ask you to look for her? Kaguya and Lyra are already searching. I must go assist Alize and the others." "Understood," said Asfi. "Thank you." Then she turned and took off running. Astrea watched her sadly for a moment, and then… "…Hm?" She heard a sound behind her, but when she turned, there was nobody there. For an instant, however, she thought she glimpsed the silhouette of a man as he rounded a corner and disappeared. "Did I hear that right…?" In a vacant alleyway, the man who had been eavesdropping pressed his back to the wall. His breathing was ragged, although he was not particularly tired. He was a man who had run into Lyu and Alize once before, when he tried to pickpocket a god. "Ardee… Wasn't that her name?" A man who had been spared punishment at the hands of a bright-hearted young girl. "That kid… She…died?" The equipment he was wearing—the armor he had stolen—rattled as he shook. The man who had fled from those girls behind such a torrent of insults—in this moment, he knew what it was to feel loss. "Rgh!" He ran, for no other reason than he couldn't stand there thinking about it for even a moment longer. Like so many others in the city, he was directionless and lacking in purpose. "These dark days go on and on." Astrea looked up into the ashen clouds, attuning her mind to the troubles of the townsfolk. If only there were stars in the sky to guide them, she thought. "But at the end of it all, surely, there is light…" She spoke these words softly, as if not to extinguish hope. "…I hear a sound." Surrendering himself to the darkness, the evil one spoke these words. "A sound?" asked Vito, standing beside him. "Whatever could you be referring to, my lord and master?" The apostles of darkness gathered in a vast underground cave, through which ran a drainage canal supported by stone pillars. The dark god stood. "The sound of struggle," he said, and his lips curled into a twisted grin. "The sound of justice. The last dying gasps of a wriggling cockroach before it gets stepped on."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter5-01.txt	Chapter 5: Banquet of Evil CHAPTER 5 Banquet of Evil The darkness hummed. Squeezed into tunnels like ants in a colony were the mad followers of evil. Those who hated the world and had lost faith in their fellow man. Those whose loved ones were stolen by death, and those led only by a sadistic pleasure. Whatever their motive, all of them were gathered here, on the fourth of the Seven Days of Death. They could barely contain their excitement. Their victories over Orario on the night of the Great Conflict still burned fresh in their minds, and now they were gazing upon the face of their leader at last—the evil that had guided them here. He stood above them, on an upper part of the underground waterways that jutted out like a balcony. "That's right," he said. "This is the sound of those who fight against evil. Dying yet unbroken. The Promised Land. You can always trust Orario to stretch out a few more seconds of tortuous existence." He didn't seem angered by the city's tenacity. If anything, he looked amused. "That's rich comin' from you," said Valletta with a wide grin. "Like you ain't the one with a way to finish 'em off for good." Erebus had planned out the entire war, from the beginning of the Great Conflict to the mass exodus of so many gods. Yet there was more to his divine plan that had not been executed. Valletta licked her lips in anticipation. "Valletta Grede. Or should I call you Arachnia," said Erebus, calmly noting her presence. "Oh, I know. But credit where credit is due. This city's greatest protectors have turned against them, and still the adventurers do not lay down their swords. Even without stars to guide them, they fight, as do the gods of light who watch over them. Why, is this not truly the City of Heroes, as they say?" But Valletta only grew spiteful at the dark god's reverent, even evangelical words. "Who cares?" she spat. "All the heroes in the world couldn't a hold a candle to your darkness! Finn, Ottar, the lot of 'em!" That was not just a compliment paid by Valletta to her dark master; it was the undeniable truth. She shivered with joy as she spoke. "We can't get enough of your wicked schemes!" she cried. "Can we?!" She turned to the dark host huddled in the chamber below, spreading her arms in reverence. "Erebus! May his reign be eternal!" "Glory to the Evils!" "Lord Erebus!" "Destroy Orario!" "Grant us our wish!" "Deliver us the grace of darkness!!" The cavern air trembled with their praise. They cried out with mad, unending zeal, beseeching their sinister god. "Thank you, my friends. Though your praise pales in comparison to the sounds of the heroes, nevertheless, I have heard it." Even when he spoke dismissively of the devotion of his followers, Erebus's divine charisma could not be stopped. The enchanting tones of his voice, like the apple that tempted mankind, seized their hearts and refused to let go. "Then let it be so," he said. "Let the fire in your hearts ignite new kindling: the very foundations of this city. Let us not be hasteful or rash, but slow and deliberate, as we construct the walls of hell around Orario." The joyous voices erupted into cheers. At the unveiling of their dark master's plan, the fanatical followers of evil trembled with delight, and some even cried. The darkness had reached its zenith at last. However, one voice among them lashed out in anger. "What is the meaning of this?!" It was Olivas, another of the Evils' commanders. He strode over to Erebus, fists clenched. "Slow and deliberate? Orario is weak! We must strike fast, before they can finish licking their wounds! Is that not so, Erebus?!" It was Valletta who responded to that on the dark god's behalf. "Didn't Erebus already get it through your thick skull, Olivas? The longer we wait, the longer the wretched townsfolk drain the city's resources. Plus, phase two of the plan is almost ready. Keep it in your pants until then, eh?" "Grr! Need I remind you," replied Olivas, his face twisted with rage, "that Orario is not our only foe?! The world expects this city to slay the Black Dragon. They will not stand idly by and watch its demise!" Orario was known as the center of the world for a reason. It was the seal that kept monsters trapped within the Dungeon. Very few outside the Evils themselves wished to see it destroyed. "And even though the merchants were sympathetic to our aims, not all of them could be convinced! If neighboring countries send reinforcements, our siege will surely be broken!" "Well, why do you think we spent all that time acquiring believers in foreign lands?" said Vito, adding his voice to the debate. "How will the other cities have resources to spare when they're dealing with an outbreak of unprecedented riots all at the same time? My, what a coincidence." The faintest trace of a grin flashed across his otherwise unremarkable face. "That should buy us some time," he said. "More than enough time to bring about Orario's downfall in as slow and agonizing a manner as we like." This war was the culmination of years of hard work. Much of that was the recruitment of fanatical followers—the Faithful—from the lands around Orario. Some were lured with false promises by Thanatos, the god of death, while others were coerced through the taking of hostages, or else promoted from small-time villain into the big leagues. On the night of the Great Conflict and thereafter, these Faithful were inspired to commit local acts of mass terrorism, even in far-off regions like the Empire. Though they boasted little combat ability, they were all bestowed bombs just like those used in Orario, and were told to wreak destruction all across the land. While the attacks were unlikely to topple any of these cities, none boasted a mighty force of adventurers like Orario did to help in restoring public order, and so it would be a long time before any of them could even think about sending reinforcements. "Everyone's gotta help themselves before they can help others," said Valletta, picking up the rest of Vito's argument. "Even if one or two of 'em manage to put down the riots and send someone over, they'll only be Level Two at best. Nothin' to piss our pants over." There wasn't a single trace of worry in her sneering voice. "That academic district could be a pain in the ass," she went on, "but it's far off in the east. Couple of cities nearby go up in flames, and that should keep those good-natured schoolchildren busy." She smiled a venomous smile, like a spider grinning at its helpless, web-tangled prey. "Besides, we can't flatten Orario alone. We need those two monsters to help us." The monsters Valletta was referring to were none other than Orario's twin conquerors, the children of Zeus and Hera. Despite her side's overwhelming superiority, Valletta remained humble. She knew that Orario still possessed the advantage when it came to combined military might and that she needed to wait until it was the perfect moment to strike. She knew when to play her cards and when to keep them close to her chest. That was why even Finn respected her cunning mind. "We're all just ants standing on the shoulders of them two giants. Except you, of course. You're a fly buzzin' round their heads, pissin' everyone off." "Valletta! I'll tear that insolent tongue from your throat!" Finally, Olivas could take the woman's mocking no longer. Red-faced with rage, he stormed over to her, fists raised. However, at that moment, their god broke his protracted silence to interject. "Tell me, Olivas," he said. "What do you think evil is?" "Wh-what?" Olivas stuttered, bewildered by the sudden question. Erebus faced away, toward his followers, staring into the darkness. "Is it injustice? Is it savagery?" "Wh…?" "I don't think so," said Erebus. "These are simply paths to evil, not its essence." Erebus, the primordial darkness, expounded on the nature of evil. It was not his domain, but he had his own little theories on its nature, as if he were a traveler from another world. A wandering philosopher. Or a god, cruel yet free of sin, like an amoral child. "To me," he said with a grin, "to be evil is to be hated." "To be hated?" Olivas found himself caked in a cold sweat. Even Valletta and Vito didn't dare interrupt their god when he was speaking. The flock below awaited Erebus's next words with bated breath. Finally, he turned to face his lieutenants. "And absolute evil," he said, "is to return all to nothing." "Rghh!" Under the scrutiny of his master's eyes, Olivas forgot how to breathe. "Lives, cities, empires. Even time itself. True evil is to undo all this universe has created. Extinction. Extermination. To smash the very scales which hold life and death in their precious equilibrium. That is absolute evil." Erebus continued preaching to his little lost lamb as the eyes and ears of his followers remained glued to his every word and action. "So do not concern yourself with the accumulation of petty evils, but with evil's grandest execution. That is what I, your dark god, have proclaimed." Before he knew it, the god was walking toward him, and soon Erebus's divine features lay just inches from Olivas's face. His master's eyes gazed deeply into his own, and Olivas saw in them an interminable abyss into which he might topple and never return. "Ugh… Ah…" "And for that," said Erebus, "the time is not yet right." With that, the dark god finally drew away. He returned to his balcony, addressing his followers. "My wise friends," he said. "I ask for your patience." The crowd was silent as he spoke, all chilled into submission by his divine presence. The only ones who could even muster a smile through their nervous trembling were Vito and Valletta. "Now come, Vito," said Erebus. "Join me for a walk, will you?" "You do ask the strangest things, my lord. It really is taxing, serving as your follower." Vito sighed. The whims of a god were about as predictable as those of a cat. As he and Erebus turned to leave, it was Valletta, leaning against the wall, who called out to her master. "Not so fast, Erebus," she said. "All you gotta do is sit on your throne and look pretty, puttin' the fear of god into those suckers down there. Where the hell do you think you're goin'?" Even before the Great Conflict began, Erebus had a habit of running off by himself, much to the chagrin of his followers, who concerned themselves with his safety. And at a time like this, when it was all but certain that agents of Orario would be trying to track down their location, the risk was even greater. But Erebus showed little appreciation for Valletta's prudence. "The little boys' room," he replied. "No girls allowed. Run along now." He made a shooing gesture without turning back, then spoke to Vito. "Now come, friend. Let us go drain the snakes, as they say." With that, the dark god and his chosen lieutenant vanished into the darkness. "Tch… That bastard's too damn sharp…" Valletta said, a frustrated grin spread across her face. Then she, too, departed, leaving only Olivas. "Grh…!" He scowled, irritated, while his fists shook like powder kegs on the verge of violent explosion. "I tell you, it's a lot of hard work being the emperor with no clothes, Vito." The gray clouds were beginning to thin. Erebus gazed absentmindedly up as he walked through ruined streets alongside his lieutenant and filled his lungs with the fresh, morning air. "Now, what could that possibly mean, my lord?" asked Vito, offering a theatrical shrug. Opening his eye a hair's breadth, he peered back at his master. "You have this city under your thumb, and still you fancy yourself the foolish emperor? What a troublesome tyrant you are." "A tyrant? How flattering," Erebus chuckled. "I should use that one on the ladies. A tyrant in the bedsheets…now that's a real emperor with no clothes! Ha-ha-ha!" Vito could only stare, a silent smile plastered on his face. "…Tough crowd. Oh, lighten up, my dear Vito," said Erebus with an exaggerated shrug. "Your indifference wounds me most deeply." The atmosphere was strange. Despite his role as their dark lord, leading Orario to destruction, Erebus was friendly, jovial, and easy to get along with. Of course, Vito understood that this was simply one aspect of the god's personality, one he adopted when conversing with mortals. Similarly, there was another facet that was impossibly cold and brutal. Primordial darkness. It was no less true a part of Erebus than the one Vito spoke with now. Before the Great Conflict, he called himself Eren. Was that a mask or a whole other facet of his being? It was ridiculous to even ask. A god had hundreds upon hundreds of faces, inconsistent and contradictory. To inquire which were real and which were fake was a foolish and impossible question. "I shall try," Vito replied. "By the way, not to be an annoying fly, but what happened to our friends Glutton and Silence?" The two had not been seen since the night of the Great Conflict. "Who knows?" replied Erebus, completely unconcerned. "Probably off gallivanting somewhere. You know what Zeus and Hera were like." "You're the one who invited them, my lord… Sigh. You gods are simply too carefree for my liking." Just then, a party of adventurers on patrol spotted the pair. "Over there! The Evils? And it's…their god?! C-call for reinforcements! Let Finn know we've spotted the enemy leader!" But Erebus was calm—disconcertingly so—as the adventurers all drew their weapons and took up formation. "Whoopsie-daisy, here they come," he said. "Take care of them, would you, Vito? I'd like to enjoy my walk a little longer." "Yes, yes," replied Vito with another sigh. "I've long grown used to your demanding nature by now." Vito stepped forward to uphold the trust his master placed in him. "Rest assured, my lord, that not a single whisper of our presence shall find its way to our enemy strategist's ears. All shall be swallowed in darkness—just the way you like it." The ensuing fight was no battle at all. It was a slaughter. "Aaagh!!" "Huh? Gurk!!" "Aaaaaaargh!!" Vito slashed throats, skewered hearts, and impaled his opponents in the face. In just a few short seconds, the adventurers were transformed into blood fountains. Vito tore through them armed with only a single knife. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Vito laughed. "Weak! So weak! Level Two adventurers come apart so easily!" He hacked off limbs, filling the air with crimson blood. "If only you could live to see me! See the contradiction I am! A man who despises oppression, but adores the sound of screams!" His eyes were clearer than those of a serial killer. They were more like a child's, innocent and pure. "Looks like you enjoyed that, Vito," said Erebus when it was all over. Bloodstains splattered the rubble, and five corpses littered the ground. The dark god was viscerally reminded of his follower's ill nature as he glanced over the scene. "Oh, I do apologize for my unseemly behavior," said Vito. He covered his mouth with his hand for a moment, and when he took it away, his cold smile had returned. However, Erebus seemed not disturbed but delighted. "It bothers me not, my friend. I find it curious how your eyes sparkle even while slitting the throats of your fellow man." At this, Vito began to chuckle. "Heh-heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh-heh! Well, you gods certainly bother me! For it was you who made this world with all its delicious defects!" "………" "Yes, defects like me. You gaze down from your world of perfection and marvel at my inconsistencies!" When he looked at Erebus, it was with such noble reverence that words like "love" and "hate" didn't seem to cut it. "But you…" he said, pointing at his dark master. "You, I accept. You, I love! For you alone promise to return this broken world to oblivion, where it belongs!" However, Erebus smoothly deflected his follower's twisted affections. "I'm afraid only women get me going." He began walking once more, strolling aimlessly through the floor of bodies. Vito said nothing more, either, and followed. "And if I'm to love, it needs to be a proud, strong woman with an unbreakable heart." His bangs danced around his eyes. Erebus smiled. "There's nothing—nothing—I love more than to see a grown woman weeping, her face twisted in despair." A sadistic grin crept across his lips. "Now, where are you, Leon?" There was a flash of steel. "Gagh!!" A short cry, and the last cultist fell. In district seven, the city's northwest, quite far from the center, Lyu had just finished off the last of a cultist warband that had been dominating the area. She cast her eyes downward. Her wooden sword seemed like it would slip from her grasp at any moment. I still haven't been back to see Alize… she thought to herself. I've been running all over the city, cutting down Evils like it's my life's mission… Her face paled with exhaustion. Even her mask couldn't hide it. How many enemies were left in the city? And what was she even doing? Lyu addressed those questions to the innermost depths of her heart, but there was no reply. The state of Lyu's mind was perfectly reflected in the wreckage-strewn streets around her. "Stay with me, my love! Stay with me!" "Urgh…" A voice drew Lyu's attention to a pair of humans. A woman and her husband. The husband was lying on the ground, clutching his severed arm stump still pouring out blood. These were the two people that Lyu had been fighting to protect a few moments prior. "Are you okay?" asked Lyu. "Of course he's not okay!" the woman shouted. "Are you blind?! Why didn't you get here faster?! What's the point of having adventurers if you can't do your damn jobs?!" Tears filled the woman's eyes as she screamed. Lyu couldn't find it in her to say a word. Anger and condemnation. It was something Lyu had seen and heard almost constantly these past few days. Whatever she gave of herself, it was never enough to escape their furious eyes. To silence their resentful voices. Voices tinged with sorrow. Eyes laced with tears. Steeped in her own powerlessness, Lyu took a flask from her pocket and handed it to the couple. "Here, a potion," she said. "Use this." Then she turned and walked away without another word. The camp was not far from here, and adventurers would surely be here before long. Thus, Lyu departed, like a ghost, down ruined streets. "Never a word of thanks—only criticism," she said to herself, her voice passing through cracked lips. "Even after I told myself I didn't need a reward…" The people's complaints no longer bothered her. In fact, she found herself agreeing with them. The proud young elf was now a master of emotional mutilation, and without a vision of justice she could cling to, it was easier than ever to fall into a dark spiral of abuse and self-pity. "I still find myself hoping, only for that hope to be betrayed. I never knew it could feel so…empty." As she spoke those words, a voice flashed through her mind, as if the darkness itself were laughing at her. "Don't you mean, when your sense of justice withers?" "…!!" It was the voice of a man—a god—who had once gone by the name of Eren. "It can't be easy working such a thankless job, and without pay to boot." "I don't think it's healthy. In fact, I'm worried about you." It wasn't only one line that shot through Lyu's mind but a whole slew of them, echoing and laughing at her as if from on high. "You're all gung ho about it now, but what happens after you burn out?" "Would you still say the same?" "If you deny yourself riches, deny yourself fame—deny yourself even a moment of gratitude—why, then it's not justice you seek but loneliness!" His words whirled around her mind, as if asking her, How does it feel? How does it feel now that your thanks and reward are truly gone? "Shut up… Shut up! Go away!" Lyu shook her head fiercely, desperate to rid herself of this nightmare, screaming at nothing yet unable to answer the question. When she stopped, all that remained were her own ragged breaths and a pounding in her head that wouldn't go away. His words…they're like poison. I can't get them out of my head! Inside her mind, a swollen evil gorged itself on a hollow justice. Lyu fought to stop it. She reminded herself of what she swore by the wings and scales upon her very back. But a bitter disappointment caused her to screw up her face. I can't keep doing it… I can't go on fighting it… She hung her head like a broken puppet. Before she knew it, she had stopped walking and begun sinking into a bottomless void. "Leon!" Like an arm reaching to pull her free, a voice rang out. Lyu lifted her head to see a girl running toward her. Another young woman wearing a white cloak. "Andromeda?" "I finally found you, Leon! I need your help!" Asfi quickly explained the situation to Lyu. "We need to track down Erebus and the other enemy leaders! Evils forces are stationed all along the walls, mocking us and trapping us in the city, but I think their leaders have to be somewhere underground! They're probably using the waterways to—" Knowing at last what it was she had to do, Asfi looked like she was sparkling. Lyu, meanwhile, couldn't find the words to respond. "Andromeda," she said at last. "Forget me. Find someone else to help." "Wh-what?" "I can't do it. Not now. I'll only slow you down." Lyu didn't even lift her head to meet Asfi's gaze. The blue-haired girl wasn't sure what to say. "I'm too weak to protect anyone," Lyu went on. "All I can do is watch people die…like Ardee." "!" Asfi gasped. "Leon," she said in terror. "What's happened to your eyes?" The elf girl's sky-blue eyes emitted a sinister gloom. It looked like she was about to join the march of the dead. Asfi grabbed her by the shoulders and twisted Lyu to face herself. "You can't give up, Leon. You can't rot away. Look at me!" she yelled. "We need you. We need all of you! If Astrea Familia falls to despair, then what's left?! We need your justice to hold out, or there'll be no hope for any of us!" Asfi laid her worries bare, pleading with Lyu, hoping against hope that she'd listen. The only thing holding Orario together was the belief that good would eventually triumph over evil. If even Lyu stopped believing that, it would all fall apart. Lyu, however, seemed deaf to her pleas. "…Shut up. What do you know?!" yelled Lyu, sweeping her arm. "That's easy for you to say!" "Leon…!" Asfi's face grew grim, but she couldn't give up. She reached out a hand to the lost elf girl, but at that moment there was a devastating explosion. ""!!"" Lyu and Asfi both managed to leap aside in time, and they turned to see a group of Evils cultists. "The Gale Wind, and Perseus, both in the same place!" "Off with the heads of those damned upper-class adventurers! Charge!" The Evils let out a battle cry and came storming down a hill of rubble. Lyu shot a wicked glare their way. "Leave me alone," she spat at Asfi. "All I can do now…is fight!" And with that, she rushed the enemy, wooden sword in hand. "All I can do," she cried, "is take out as many of these villains as possible!" On making contact, she immediately flattened the cultist in front, carving a channel through the sea of foes. "Leon!" Asfi called out after her. "Wait! Come back! Leon!!" She drew her sword and charged after her, but Lyu was like a berserker with no sense of self-preservation, and it was impossible to keep up with her frightening agility. All Asfi could do was watch from behind as Lyu cut down one foe after another. And staring down at them from above was an ashen sky that concealed the heavens. The girls cried, for they could not see the stars. "Are these all the supplies we have?" Neze looked surprised at the dismal quantity of resources handed to her. Despite her best efforts, a trace of disappointment slipped into her voice. "I'm deeply sorry. We'll have the blacksmiths repair your weapons. Try to make it last, please." The man, a human adventurer with a large frame, hung his head in apology. Astrea Familia had come to an evacuee camp just northeast of the city center. It was one of the many designated resupply points where the girls could reequip themselves with items and equipment for the battles ahead. "Make it last?! These won't last us more than a couple fights!" The pouch Neze had been given contained only three health potions and one magic potion, the latter of which was only half-full. If this was only for Neze, that would be one thing, but she was expected to share this with the others in her familia—a total of eight people. It wasn't nearly enough. Her fellow party members voiced their objections as well. "There's no way we can keep fighting on the front lines if this is all we have," said the human girl, Noin. "What d'ya think we are, slaves you can just use and throw away?" added the Amazon, Iska. The girls had been pushing themselves for several days straight now. Even if the blacksmiths could repair their equipment immediately, the toll on their minds and bodies was still a major problem. There was only so much they could do to keep spirits high, too. This wasn't a new problem. The girls had known for some time that supplies were running out, but this felt like being asked to do the impossible, and all they wanted to do was scream. However, at that moment, a voice seemingly blissfully numb to the bleakness of the circumstances took them all by surprise. "We mustn't be greedy, girls!" """Gweh?""" "Noble poverty is the foundation of justice! Just think back to our group's early days, when we had to scrimp and save for everything!" It was Alize, puffing out her modest chest as her crimson ponytail flared out behind her. For some reason, she wore the proudest-looking grin in the entire world. "I mean, this is nothing compared to that time we lost all our money on a Dungeon run, and for seven days and seven nights, all we could feed Lady Astrea was bland soup made from a few wild herbs and some salt, and she ate it every day with a smile and told us it was totally fine and not to look so sad and—" "Please, stop!!" "What are you doing, digging up our painful past, Captain?!" Critical hit! Neze covered her blushing face with her hands and fainted in agony. The other girls did likewise and rolled around groaning on the floor while the towering adventurer who had brought them their resupply looked on awkwardly. After a short period of groans and moans, the girls began to laugh. "Tee-hee." Marieux, the big sister of the party, chuckled. "You're right. If we compare what we have now to what we had then, it doesn't seem so bad." "If it comes to it, we can always chew on herbs again!" added the elven spellcaster, Celty, with joy in her voice. In no time at all, the gloomy atmosphere had been completely dispelled, and all the smiles returned to the girls' faces. "Grr, goddammit!" said Neze, disheveling her hair. "All right, fine! We'll do it! Happy now, Captain?" "Absolutely! We'll make it work with wisdom and determination!" Having restored her familia's morale, Alize smiled from ear to ear. The towering adventurer, impressed by this display of courage, said, "Thank you! I'm sorry. We'll do everything we can to support you." "All right, everyone!" declared Alize. "Go get ready, and we'll meet up back here when it's time to move out!" At her words, Neze and the other girls left to get their equipment in order and catch up on what little sleep they could. "………" As soon as they were gone, Alize dropped her smile and stared despondently into space. As a familia captain, and a second-class adventurer, she couldn't let anyone see the struggles she was enduring. She gazed up at the clouded-over sky. According to the Guild, the official number of dead and wounded is over thirty thousand. And that's only the ones we know about. Alize slipped away into a back alley, where no one could see her as the sadness overcame her heart. They say even the healers have begun collapsing from exhaustion. Things are getting really bad. At Finn's orders, the outer reaches of the city had been ceded to the invaders, and all their energy was being concentrated in the center. However, some evacuation camps refused to migrate inward. A heavy cloud was beginning to cloak the entire city in despair, and Alize could only close her eyes as she thought about it. We can't keep this up. We need to inspire hope. We need to stay determined and blast away the fear. She clenched one fist tightly. But people are losing the power to speak up. Even me… Her hand fell weakly by her side. "Leon…" she said aloud in an empty street, staring at the ground. Suddenly, a pair of boots came into view. "Are you okay?" came a voice. Alize looked up, surprised. Standing before her was a girl with light gray hair. "You seem tired," she said. "Would you like some soup?" The girl held out a small bowl of steaming soup and peered into Alize's eyes. Alize, meanwhile, was stunned that anyone could approach without her noticing them, even if she was tired. She hurried to fix her shattered smile. "O-oh, thank you. Yes, I'd like that very much," she said. Then, as she reached out to take the offering, she stopped. The moment she got a good look at the girl's face, a strange feeling overcame her, like a bolt of lightning racing through her body. "Hm?" said the girl with a puzzled look. "Is something the matter?" But Alize barely heard her. For when she stared into those deep, gray eyes, the same color as the girl's hair, she found she couldn't breathe. "Are you…human?" Even Alize could not explain why she said that. But the words crossed her mind and demanded to be spoken. "………………………" There was a long pause wherein the girl didn't answer. It seemed it was her turn to be stunned into silence. The two of them stared, motionless, as if one reflected the other. Then, at last, the mysterious girl burst into a chuckle. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Nobody's ever asked me that before!" She clutched her sides, crying laughing, as if she'd never heard anything funnier in all her life. It was all she could do not to spill the soup she was holding. "Do I look like a monster to you?" she said, and Alize immediately felt embarrassed. She was supposed to be a champion of justice. What was she doing cornering some hardworking, upstanding city girl in an alley and asking, "Are you human?" "Er…I'm sorry, I don't know what got into me. It just kinda popped into my head. My bad." Perhaps she'd been even more tired than she thought. Alize smiled awkwardly as she tried to dismiss the strange feeling she'd had. "My name's Alize," she said in an attempt to patch things over. "What's yours?" "I'm Syr," the girl replied with a smile. Her eyes seemed so pure, it was like they were boring a hole right through to Alize's soul. "Alize," said the girl. "Something seems to be troubling you. If it's not too rude of me to ask, would you like to talk about it?" About ten minutes later… "That's another thing that sucks about being the captain! And there's so much going on I have to think about! It's all too much!" Alize had been talking pretty much nonstop ever since Syr first asked her to open up, and the weariness was beginning to show on the gray-haired girl's face. "There's still more…? I'm beginning to wish I hadn't asked…" Her eyes were vacant, while in her hands was the empty soup bowl Alize had drained. The two of them had moved from the alleyways to a nearby water fountain, and were both seated upon its rim. The fountain itself had been damaged beyond repair, and the area was deserted. A chill, wintry wind blew between ruined buildings. "Well, what better way to make a first impression?" Alize beamed. "Besides, not many people get to hear me complain like this!" Alize seemed almost proud of that, for some reason. Syr laughed awkwardly and placed a finger on her cheek. "So, in summary," she said, "you want to know what kind of justice you can present to your friend?" Alize's voice grew subdued in response, and she adopted a serious look. "Yes," she said. "But it's not just for Lyu." "Hm?" "Everyone—the whole city, the whole world. Everyone wants to know what justice is. Even our enemies." Alize stared straight up at the sky as Syr watched curiously from beside her. "My answer could change it all; I'm sure of it. It could decide whether our despair stays as it is…or turns into hope." Hope was what Orario needed right now. Hope and a powerful determination. It was the light that could banish the pall that hung over the city. It wasn't just a common goal, a just cause, and it wasn't so simple as good versus evil, either. It was the question of what did the city use to have that it lost to evil? What was it that Alize could hold up and inspire all those brokenhearted people to fight again? "At least…that's what I think." "Alize…" Alize was searching for a form of justice that could turn everything around, but the skies were too dark to find it. Not even a smattering of starlight pierced those weighty clouds. And in the absence of that light, evil was flourishing, telling everyone that their justice never really existed at all. Alize stared at the claustrophobic skies, her eyes contorted in pain. It was then that the girl seated beside her finally opened her mouth to speak. "I don't know much about justice," she said, "so I'm not sure I can resolve your troubles, but this is what I think. I think there is a justice, and you simply lack the means to see it." "Lack the means to see it?" "Yes. Evil has hidden it from you, just like those clouds hide the stars from us." "!" This time, it was Alize's turn to exclaim in surprise. "But those stars go on shining, even now," Syr went on. "Just because we can't see them doesn't mean they're not there." Standing in the ruins of her city, surrounded on all sides by death and destruction, Alize could have easily dismissed the girl's words as nothing but hollow platitudes. But she didn't. Erebus was frighteningly powerful. Alize didn't know what she could possibly do in the face of absolute evil. And now she realized that it had caused her to lose sight of something important. Not of the stars, but of herself. As she looked up at the dark skies now, they appeared different. Beyond their midnight veil, the stars lay waiting. Alize felt she could almost make them out—a realm of starlight hiding just out of view. Without thinking, she opened her mouth to speak. "…You're right," she said. "I'm sure of it. And if Lady Astrea were here, I bet she'd say the same thing." What a strange person, thought Alize as she examined the gray-haired girl before her. Where could an ordinary city girl find the power to lift the dark clouds hanging over her own heart? She was almost like a ghost from an old tale, appearing in the hero's hour of need. Or an oracle, revealing the path set down by the gods above. Alize let out a deep breath, as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. "I have to find Leon and tell her all about this," she said. Syr tittered. "Hee-hee. You really love this Leon girl, don't you, Alize?" "Yeah," said Alize, nodding. "She's a wonderful friend. And she's much more serious, much more noble, and shines so much brighter than I do." Alize's eyes shone with trust and respect. "I don't even care what happens to me…so long as Leon doesn't lose her hope." That was Alize's sincere wish. And it would always be her wish, tomorrow and ever after. However, a dark figure threatened that wish with his appearance. "'Sup, Leon?" ""!!"" Two figures wheeled around to see his ominous smile. A human and a prum girl. "Whoops, I guess she's not with you," said the figure. "My mistake. Oh, well." Black clothes and black hair. His indifferent shrug made it clear he wasn't intimidated. Lyra and Kaguya stared at him for a few moments in shock as disparate thoughts cycled through their heads. "It's you…!" "Erebus!" In an instant, all their ire and murderous rage was concentrated on him, but Erebus didn't seem to care. Instead, he calmly asked the girls a question. "My little lost followers of justice. You wouldn't happen to know where I can find Leon, would you?"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter6-01.txt	Chapter 6: Melody of Silence CHAPTER 6 Melody of Silence An unsettling hush came over northwestern Orario. Kaguya and Lyra were there, surrounded on all sides by half-ruined buildings on the verge of collapse. Opposite them stood Erebus and his follower, Vito. Neither pair took their eyes off the other for a moment. Kaguya and Lyra carefully scanned the surroundings for any other cultists waiting in the wings, but there was no sign of them. Erebus and his lackey were alone. "Leon?" said Lyra. "No idea. In fact, if you see her, let us know, yeah?" "Besides, even if we did know," added Kaguya, "we wouldn't tell the likes of you. How dare you show your face after tricking us like that, Eren." The venom in their words was palpable. Especially Kaguya's. She hadn't forgotten how the god had toyed with them under the guise of his assumed name. "Oh, I don't consider it a trick," said Erebus. "Just the same sort of thing that Hermes always does. But in the end, I grew tired of it." Erebus smiled, as if the ice-cold malice issuing from his lips were nothing more than a refreshing spring breeze. "I couldn't go on hiding my true self from my first and only friend, could I? Or are you saying you preferred Eren to the way I am now?" In the next instant, his tone of voice and mannerisms completely changed. "Good day to you, my fair and sharp-tongued maidens! Oh, please don't wear such troubled frowns! What would the righteous and beautiful Astrea say if she could see you now?" ""Grrh!"" His words were the words of the mild-mannered Eren, but the smile on his face was of the purest evil. The girls were only more convinced that he was toying with them. The veins in Kaguya's forehead looked ready to burst, and Lyra sensed that they risked changing the tone of the conversation if she didn't change the subject. "So what do you want with Leon anyway?" she asked. "You've been followin' our girl for a while now." "A stalker god?" added Kaguya, providing verbal backup to her partner, loaded with all the venom she could muster. "Oh, how repulsive. Your foul-hearted perversions make me sick." Erebus, however, was unperturbed. "Keep playing the innocent sweetie with me and you'll get me in a rutting mood, human. Men are all animals, and you'd better learn that before one of them takes away your precious virginity." "…!! You filthy…!" Erebus said this as though it were nothing more or less than the self-evident truth. Kaguya scowled, barely concealing her disdain for his brazen words, but the god simply turned his attention to Lyra instead. "And you, prum. Why Leon, you ask? Isn't it obvious? Because she's the most innocent and naive of you all! She's an egg containing the pure-white yolk of justice inside her unbroken shell." ""Wha—?!"" "And so I have to know, don't I? What will she do when presented with absolute evil?" Lyra and Kaguya remained speechless. Meanwhile, the god of primordial darkness waxed philosophical regarding the nature of that ever-elusive justice. "Think of it as a kind of fortune-telling," he said. "Whichever way she goes, all of Orario will go. You girls like astrology, don't you?" The god was laughing. At the same time, on a whim, he was testing them. He wanted to see the true worth of Astrea's star-maidens. At that moment, Erebus's companion, Vito, let out a chuckle. "Oh, my master, you truly are wicked, to force a naive young elf to speak on behalf of an entire city." Hearing this, Erebus placed a finger on the side of his head. "Tell you what," he said. "If you girls can answer my question, I'll leave Leon alone. How about that?" Steeped in bitter resentment, it was Kaguya who answered. "Your question? What question?" The god smiled. "What is justice?" "What?" Lyra raised a dubious eyebrow. "Didn't you hear me? Tell me what your justice is." No hints. Erebus wanted the girls to lay their hearts bare. After a protracted silence, Kaguya spoke. "A trivial question," she spat. "Justice is a weapon. A weapon that makes our every aim a noble one. A blank flag to justify all manner of atrocities." It was a rather cynical answer, in keeping with her nature. One could only guess what circumstances in life had led her to it. "And to follow justice is to erode yourself in pursuit of an unattainable ideal," she concluded. Erebus barely paused before answering her. "Not good enough," he said, his expression unchanging. "What?!" "It's cute, the way you lie to yourself like that. Not cute enough for me, though, I'm afraid." While Kaguya stood in stunned silence, Erebus voiced her true answer, the one she couldn't bear to speak aloud. "Your so-called justice," he said, "is nothing but regret. An illusion you cling to with the childish conviction that the world has betrayed you." "Rrgh?!" Kaguya couldn't speak. She couldn't even muster up one of her trademark insults. Erebus's words had cut straight to her core. Seemingly losing interest in her, the dark god shifted his gaze over to Lyra. "And you. You still haven't given me an answer," he said. "Hoping that if you draw the conversation out, I'll slip up and say something I shouldn't?" "…!!" "Your justice is wisdom masquerading as poison. The last resort of a powerless rat who makes trickery their domain." Erebus commanded the dominating voice of a soothsayer. Lyra's shoulders quivered in indignation. He had seen through her completely, and he spoke in calm, almost pitying tones. "Or perhaps your justice is a cloak of invisibility, to hide that ugly inferiority complex of yours." "Up yours! This is why I hate gods! All-seeing, all-knowing bastards!" Lyra exploded in fury. It was the only way to stop herself from shaking. Erebus had touched on their deepest vulnerabilities and left them both flustered and angry. "Don't get so mad, girls," he said. "You've both got what it takes to go far; I'll tell you that." Lyra ground her teeth in frustration, but the dark god only smiled from the bottom of his black heart. "But I'm afraid you've lost this one. I've utterly dismantled you both. Your imperfections are so very mortal, but in the end you're nothing but a pair of lost lambs." ""Rrgh…!!"" "And since neither of your answers satisfied me, I'm off to go scramble an egg." The two girls balled their fists. Erebus had violated their innermost thoughts. And he didn't stop there. "Now, I think I'll let you go. Run along and tell Astrea that this big, bad, handsome man made you cry." "Handsome? You wish," spat Lyra. "But it's true, isn't it? I know you want me." "I'd rather sleep with a maggot," said Kaguya, capitalizing on what little payback she could seize. Erebus only chuckled. "Nothing can shut you two up, can it? But I'm afraid you no longer interest me. Time to get a move on." The dark god made to leave, only to find a sword and a pair of boomerangs barring his path. "Not so fast," said Lyra. "I know it ain't classy, but the big bad shows his stupid face right in front of us, we'd have to be idiots not to take that chance." "Killing a god might be out of the question, but we can still put you in chains," added Kaguya. "Astrea will be very happy to see you, and an end to this war as well." Yet even with these two warmaidens breathing down his neck and raring for a fight, Erebus's smile never wavered. "So you're not going to accept my mercy, then?" he said. "Guess that's just the way good and evil have to be." Then he looked around—as if searching for something, perhaps?—but after a short moment, he called out to Vito. "Very well. My faithful follower. You shall ensure my safety for the time being." "Ahhh, how did I know you were going to say that? You know, these days I feel less your loyal servant and more your human shield." In some respects, the god and the follower were awfully alike. Both possessed a rather theatrical disposition. Vito feigned offense as he spoke, an affectation immediately exposed by his gleeful smile. "It's been a while, ladies," he said, prying open a single eye. "Since the eighteenth floor, if I remember correctly. As two parties both aggrieved by the same god, shall we dance?" "Silence!" Kaguya roared. "This time, we'll finish you off for good!" And so the rematch began. Lyra, Kaguya, and Vito all drew their weapons and flew into battle. Kaguya's swift katana strike met and repelled Vito's dagger, but the minion of evil utilized that momentum to effortlessly deflect Lyra's boomerang attack. Even outnumbered two-to-one, Vito didn't give up the advantage. With polished skills and a keen mind, he made sure his two opponents never landed a single blow. In fact, with a second knife pulled from his pocket, he managed to come concerningly close to the girls' slender necks. Lyra was forced to close the distance to cover Kaguya. The two girls scowled. Clearly, for Vito, the battle on the eighteenth floor had just been a warm-up. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Is that all you've got?! Only one person down compared to last time, and this is all you can—" "Idiot." As Vito stepped in to finish things quickly, he heard Kaguya's mocking tone. By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late. The pair had simply been feigning weakness. "What you just saw was teamwork," said Lyra, jumping back to optimal range. "Perfect for getting the drop on overconfident asshats like you." "?!" When she moved away, Vito saw what she had been concealing from him: Kaguya had resheathed her sword. She crouched slightly and prepared to demonstrate her lightning draw. "Iai Strike: Gleaming Blade!" There was a blinding flash of light as Kaguya unleashed her sword. Vito could barely track its movement. All he could do was raise his dagger, which upon impact flew from his grip and into the air. "Iai?!" exclaimed Vito, reeling from the force of the blow. "A technique from the Far East?!" "How astute," said Kaguya as she stepped in to capitalize on the opening. "An art passed down through my accursed bloodline. I must commend you on blocking it, but now…it's over!" Kaguya swiveled her blade, bringing it down on a return trajectory that would undoubtedly cleave Vito's body in two. Mere moments from his inevitable death, Vito's eyes went wide. Then he smiled. "I'm impressed," he said. "However…" Before Kaguya had time to wonder what made Vito so confident, a figure stepped in, as silent as the night, between the far-eastern girl and her ill-fated foe. ""?!"" Kaguya's sword halted mid-swing, caught between the intruder's fingers. Both Kaguya and Lyra went wide-eyed with shock when they saw who it was. "My order was to ensure my lord and master remained safe for the time being," said Vito. "Thus my continued participation in this battle is, I'm afraid, utterly unnecessary." As Lyra leaped back with caution, Vito casually slipped away after Erebus. It was clear he had known all along that the mysterious assailant would step in at some point. Flowing ashen hair. Eyes eternally closed. Deathly pale skin and a jet-black dress. A witch, arriving to a fanfare of silence. "You are noise," she said in an irritated tone. "An unending, ear-grating noise." Just two fingers. That was all it took for the witch to intercept Kaguya's killing blow—just the index and thumb of the woman's right hand. Kaguya was stunned. "I-impossible! How could she…?" Whichever way she pulled, she couldn't wrest her sword free of the woman's unbreakable grip. "It's you!" yelled Lyra. "From Hera Familia!" But the witch—Alfia—did not even open her eyes to speak. "Do not shout in my ear. It's actually quite irritating." Then she swept her arm. ""Wha—?!"" With that single gesture, it was as if the whole world suddenly shook, and Kaguya was flung clean off her feet. The blast wave caught Lyra, too, and knocked her backward. "There you are, my sworn friend and ally," said Erebus, suddenly appearing on the street once more. "Have you rested enough for your liking?" "A fine thing to say after rudely rousing me from slumber with this infernal cacophony," replied Alfia. "You were perfectly aware the church I was using was nearby, right?"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter6-03.txt	Chapter 6: Melody of Silence It was now clear why Erebus had looked around before the battle began. He had been searching for the witch's resting place. "I was," he said, completely unapologetic. "Though I promise me being in this neighborhood was entirely incidental. Still, while you're here, a little bit of exercise ought to wake you up, right?" Then, he turned his attention to the two girls standing across the battlefield from him. "Show our little followers of justice the true meaning of despair." ""Ngh…?!"" Erebus directed a sadistic smile toward Kaguya and Lyra as they scrambled to their feet. Alfia's expression shifted to one of concern. "You would have me waste my efforts on something this trivial? Or are you and your followers simply too incompetent to see it done?" "Hurtful," said Vito, "but inarguable. Yet you, my lady, are quite impressive. Why, I can barely sense you. If I couldn't see you standing right there, I'd have no cause to suspect your presence at all." Vito opened his eye a crack and continued. "I hear the reason they call you the Silence is that your sound quells all others. I would very much like to see that in action." "I see," said Alfia. "So you truly are powerless. Then it will indeed be quicker for me to end this personally." She silently took a step forward. Immediately, Lyra and Kaguya felt an immense pressure bearing down on them. All was silent, save for the alarm bells ringing inside their minds. They had never felt so threatened in all their lives. "We've got to get out of here, Kaguya! We can't fight a monster like this!" "We can't. If we run, we die. If we so much as take our eyes off her, we die. She's that strong." Kaguya was the first to realize just how dire the situation was. She gripped her sword tightly and steeled herself for the inevitable. "I see there are those who still show their opponents the proper respect," said the witch. "However, my disappointment in this city is not so easily abated." While she spoke and moved almost silently, the power building up inside her body was of a terrifying magnitude. She stopped suddenly, at some distance from the two girls, causing their pulses to race. "Unfortunately, I lack the score for a funeral dirge; only a trumpet sound that will grind your bodies to dust. But please, do not cry." Alfia sounded almost saddened as the death sentence passed her lips. "There is nothing more irritating than the screams of a dying young woman." The air itself seemed to creak, groaning in advance of the unfathomable magical power this Level 7 was poised to unleash. Staring at her was like staring into the open maw of a fire-breathing dragon. "Fuck this!" cried Lyra. "I'm out! You can stay here and die if you want, Kaguya, but I'm hoofin' it! I'll take my chances!!" "No, we have to stay and keep our eyes peeled for any opening! I can't survive this without your help, Lyra!" With inhuman courage, Kaguya steadied her trembling arms and dashed toward Alfia. However… "Begone, noise." Their entire argument was a wasted effort. For the melody of silence began and ended with a single word. "Gospel." "Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhh?!" Like a giant's fist, the colossal force came out of nowhere, slamming Kaguya in the stomach and shoulder and making her spew blood. She was sent flying into the nearby ruins with the force of a surging river. Lyra, on the other hand, managed to leap aside before the invisible attack was unleashed. Her survival instincts served her well, allowing her to escape the initial blast, but nonetheless a shock wave knocked her off her feet. The devastating blow threw rocks and boulders into the air and cracked the ground. Even Kaguya's sword exploded into a million tiny pieces. A single chime, like a church bell, was all that heralded the destructive blast, although its tone was anything but jubilant. After the dust settled, all that remained was a cold, dead silence. Alfia was the only one standing. "D-devastating!" When Vito laid eyes on the aftermath, his mask fell from his face. He trembled in fright while a deafening silence rang in his ears. "Glad she's on our side," said Erebus, eyes similarly wide. "That's why you don't piss off Hera's girls." A faint smile on his face was all that indicated the depths of the dark god's excitement and admiration. Meanwhile, Lyra struggled to her feet, shaking the dust and debris off herself. Then she saw it. "Grh… Huh?!" Blood. Dozens of little droplets, falling off her face and speckling the ground. But that wasn't all. Slowly, her sight started to turn crimson as blood seeped from her eyes, her ears, and her mouth. "You're kiddin' me. I didn't even get hit directly!" My ears are ringin', my head's poundin', and I can't even stand up straight! Urgh…feels like I'm gonna be sick! The ground beneath her trembling hands roiled like swirling paints. Fighting back the urge to vomit, Lyra lifted her head and glared at Alfia. "That wasn't like any magic I've ever seen. It wasn't wind or light. It was sound!!" The woman's devastating spell broke both her body and her mind, but that wasn't enough to stop Lyra from analyzing the situation. Alfia bore the prum's fearful look with total calm as her long, ashen hair flowed behind her. "Did your allies not warn you? Loki's and Freya's children? Yes, my magic is sound. That and nothing more. I cannot burn you to cinders nor encase you in ice, only batter you about until all that remains is a mangled lump of flesh." Invisible but utterly destructive. Alfia's magic released a wall of sound so powerful, it could flatten even those not caught in the line of fire. And the scariest part was, she could do it with only a single word. An ultra-short chant that hits fast with an insane range! Even gettin' grazed would flatten an upper-class adventurer! In a straight-up spell-slingin' contest, she's a monster! It was despair-inducing. The raw power behind Alfia's spells was so great, it easily outclassed the city's top mage, Riveria Ljos Alf. Lyra scowled, struggling to keep her eyes focused on her foe, the Level 7 witch known by some as the Monstrously Gifted. "And on top of all that, she ain't even weak in a melee? That just ain't fair!" The prum girl shook with fright as she remembered what had become of Kaguya's sword. Then at last, her trembling arms gave out, and she planted her face on the ground. "Words fail me," said Erebus with a malicious smile. "I told you to teach them the true meaning of despair, but it was over so fast, I don't think they had the chance to feel it." Even a god recognized the vast gulf in ability that separated the two sides of this battle—if what had just happened could even be called that. Alfia, meanwhile, stood unruffled and didn't even glance at Erebus as she replied. "If a lesson is what you seek, then bring a more fitting opponent. Besides, this fight is not over just yet." Still without opening her eyes, Alfia turned her attention to someone else. "A convincing act, prum," she cried out over the battlefield. "Did you learn it from your fellow gutter rats, perhaps?" "Grr…!" Lyra's outstretched fingers twitched, and she cursed under her breath. She hadn't even been breathing, yet the horrid woman had seen through her facade with minimal effort. "You must be Level Two or thereabouts," said Alfia, slowly walking over to her. "I was holding back, but nevertheless, you do well to still breathe. You are cowardly and sly—the polar opposite of that other prum, with his delusions of heroism." With silent footsteps, Alfia approached the fallen Lyra. Her shadow fell over the prum girl's bloodied face. "Zald has a fondness for your ilk," she said. "But I find you irritating. Now, sleep." The woman began building up a spell in one hand. A blunt and brutal means of cutting short Lyra's final moments. But before she could unleash it, Lyra's lips parted, almost imperceptibly, and she spoke. "I'm small…" she said, "and weak… So I gotta pull my weight…" "What?" "I gotta play dead…make bombs…anythin' so I don't drag the other girls down… It's hard as shit, I tell ya…" Alfia arched a slender eyebrow. She could have sworn she heard the prum girl chuckle. "Sometimes I gotta be the bait, too… You know how crappy that is? But somebody's gotta do it…'cause…" "………" Alfia's face was as hard and featureless as a slab of granite. Her, a Level 7, being lectured to by a measly Level 2. Lyra raised her voice and shouted as loud as she could. "I ain't the only one who knows how to play dead!!" Alfia's reaction was almost immediate. But "almost" wasn't good enough. Aided by Lyra's excellent powers of distraction, Alfia's other foe reached her back the very instant before she could put up her guard. "Iai Strike: Futaba!" Kaguya appeared like a vengeful demon, bloodred from head to toe. In her hands were the short swords that bore her technique's name. She unleashed a terrifying flurry of strikes, but Alfia took one step to the side and moved out of range. "I'm surprised you have weapons remaining," she said. "Or bones, for that matter." "Haah…haah… You monster! How dare you dodge that so easily!" Blood spilled from her lips as she spoke. Kaguya had staked her entire life on that backstab, and it hadn't been enough to kill her. "But…" A crimson smile crossed her blood-caked lips. "You're bleeding, Level Seven!" Slowly, Alfia raised and examined her left arm. Sure enough, the sleeve of her dress was torn, and a single bloody line grazed her otherwise flawless skin. "It may just be a scratch," said Kaguya, "but that is still a wound! My sword shed your blood!" Kaguya rallied with triumph as though that flesh wound was enough to win her the battle. Alfia only continued staring at it, saying nothing. "Your strength may be beyond our reckoning, monster, but you're not invincible!" "………" "Even a powerless child can make you bleed! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Pathetic!" Kaguya kept on laughing and laughing. It was all she could do, yet all the same, it was a route that led to a chance of victory, however small. The enemy was not immortal. If she could bleed, she could be killed. Even so, Alfia's expression had not changed at all. "Are you finished making noise? Then it's time for you to disappear," she said, raising her arm toward Kaguya, who by now was barely standing. "Not on my watch! Try these on for size!" That voice came from Lyra, who had maneuvered into Alfia's blind spot, tossing dozens of small, spherical objects in the witch's direction. These bomblets exploded, scattering dirt and soot in the air. When the dust had finally settled, the two of them were nowhere to be seen. "A magic item?" mused Vito with mild surprise. "No, it must be improvised explosives." "One played the decoy, while the other bought time," said Erebus. "Not bad. They sure gave us the runaround." Neither Kaguya and Lyra had planned to run into Silence, but their improvised teamwork was enough to distract even a Level 7, at least long enough for the two of them to get away. "Still, they won't get far in that state," said Vito, stepping over to where the girls had been standing and spotting the trail of blood on the ground. "Shall I hunt them down for you?" "No. Let them go," said Alfia, still staring with closed eyes at the wound on her arm. "Are you sure?" inquired Vito with the devious smile of a wicked court vizier. "I thought you didn't like to leave noise unsilenced." "I had forgotten the sight of my own wounded skin," Alfia replied. "I grew lax, arrogant…like Hera was." Even now, the woman was silent. Her heart was calm and at peace. The price of this lesson was the few drops of blood dripping down her arm. "Consider this your reward for reminding me of the folly of complacency, girls." "Ly…ra…" A faint voice on the verge of disappearing completely reached Lyra's ear. It was Kaguya's, and it burned with indignation. "I swear… I'm going to kill that woman!" "I'm out… That's a Level Seven you're talkin' about," replied Lyra, helping her to walk. Despite the thrashing she'd received, Kaguya was seething with anger, and her face remained fixed in a permanent scowl. Lyra answered her between gasping breaths. "How come I gotta hold you up anyway? You're twice my size!" As a prum, Lyra was the height of other races' children, and the sight of her supporting her injured comrade would have been comical if it weren't so tragic. She had to practically drag the girl along, scraping Kaguya's knees across the ground behind her. Blood and sweat dripped down her face as she leveraged the full power of her stats. "Besides," she said, "how are we meant to beat her?" "We'll get the whole team together and gang up on her!" Kaguya replied, her face brimming with malice. "Ain't that exactly the kind of unfair bullshit you hate bad guys for?" retorted Lyra. "Then…" Kaguya clenched her hanging fist. "You think of something… Some clever trick to turn the tables. You're good at that!" Feeling the far-eastern girl's fingers dig into her side, Lyra gave up trying to persuade her. Kaguya's mind was made up, and there wasn't anything Lyra could do to change it. Besides, it was the cold, hard truth, whether she liked it or not. Something had to be done about that troublesome Level 7. "We need that idiotic elf, as well…! And the captain, and…everyone! Or else we don't stand a chance…" "Listen, I get what you're sayin', but you heard that psycho. He's after Leon, too. We gotta get back and have the whole gang find her before it's too late…!" Lyra struggled like she was climbing a mountain, barely keeping her breathing in check as she gritted her teeth and hauled Kaguya on. Seeing as nobody had come after them, she guessed—correctly—that the enemy had chosen to let them go, but this only deepened her disgrace and resentment. She couldn't even spare a hand to wipe her face as the sweat dribbled down her chin and fell to the ground. "You better not hear this and come runnin', Leon…! Just this once, learn to look the other way…!" Lyra's pleas, however, did not reach their recipient. By sheer coincidence, Lyu happened to be nearby, in the northwest streets of the city. "What was that noise?" She turned to see a plume of smoke rising over the ruined buildings. Then, slowly, as if guided by fate, she began walking toward it.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter7-01.txt	Chapter 7: Dialogues on Justice CHAPTER 7 Dialogues on Justice The clouds were thinning, the westerly winds scattering them like torn cotton across the sky. Everything was gray, but for the first time, that gray was mixed with the purple glow of twilight, allowing a precious glimpse into the world's transient beauty. Leon considered this briefly before dropping her eyes to the rubble-lined streets and casting a look around. "This is where the explosion came from, but there's nobody here…" She was in district seven and quite close to the city walls. Wherever she looked, ruined buildings were on the verge of collapse. But there weren't any signs of people, dead or alive. In fact, at first glance, it wasn't clear whether anything had actually happened here at all. Then Lyu pulled down her mask and sniffed the air. "Gunpowder," she said, recognizing the scent. "Was it Lyra? I should look around." Lyra was characteristically frugal when it came to using her crafted items. Relatively weak compared to the other girls, she tended to scheme and come up with contingency plans for every possible situation. That she had been forced to rely on her bombs could only mean she had run into something—or someone—that couldn't be dealt with, and the only sensible option was retreat. Lyu narrowed her eyes and scanned her surroundings. If there was any chance her friends were in danger, she needed to investigate. Alongside the smell of gunpowder, she sensed something else—lingering traces of magic. However, the wind had dissipated most of it, and it was difficult to ascertain its source. "There was definitely a fight here," she said to herself, "but what exactly happened?" Lyu began moving with utmost caution, and then she saw it. "What's that?" One building was miraculously intact. Lyu checked its scarred walls and damaged roof before making her way over to it. The double doors were old and made of wood, which gave a loud, low creak as Lyu pushed them open. "A church…?" she said. "How has it survived?" Lyu stepped inside to find stone walls and a wooden floor. The interior was curiously laid out with stairs that led down to some sort of central chamber, which reminded Lyu of a small theater. Standing at the top, she was eye level with a damaged stained-glass window. A chill breeze filtered through the cracks, and Lyu could see the twilight outside. Around her, wooden pews lay splintered and broken, while statues of a goddess, carved onto stone pillars, judged her from every angle. Even in its current state, the solemn atmosphere here gave Lyu the chills. Then she heard a voice. "To meet again in a place of worship. Why, this must really be fate." Lyu's breath caught in her throat. She wheeled around, though she already knew who it was before he stepped out of the dark-cloaked church aisles like a shadow. "Erebus! Why are you here?!" "I'm looking for you, of course, Leon. My little egg of justice." The god was irritatingly calm. Leon felt she was about to burst. "Enough jokes! You lied to me! You said your name was Eren!" "I've already had this conversation with your two friends," said Erebus with a dismissive gesture. "Can we skip it this time?" "M-my friends?" stammered Lyu. "You mean, Kaguya and Lyra?! You madman! What have you done to them!" "I had my fun. But don't worry—they're safe. I let them get away. Don't you think about trying anything like they did, though… Not unless you want to meet the same fate." As if on cue, a second figure stepped out of the shadows. "Y-you…! From Hera Familia!" Long, flowing, ashen hair. The indomitable Level 7. Alfia the Silence stood next to Erebus without a single word. Sandwiched between these two unstoppable forces, Lyu thought she could feel the grim reaper's scythe closing in. A single bead of sweat raced along one of her long ears and down the side of her neck. "I didn't come here to fight," Erebus said. "Just indulge me again, like you did before." "…What do you want?" asked Lyu. Erebus gave a faint smile. "I've come to see if you have a different answer to my question this time." Lyu felt her heart pound out of her chest. Its last beat reverberated throughout her entire body. Her head spun, her ears rang, and her throat felt as dry as desert sand. Before she realized it, she had stepped backward in fear. "Leon," said the dark god. "What is your justice?" A nightmare reborn. A conflict rekindled. This was everything Lyu didn't want to face. She had lost her friend to evil. Her faith in her guiding principles was shaken. Right now, this was the very last question she wanted to hear, more terrifying than anything the Dungeon could throw at her. "Why…are you asking…me…?" "Because I fell in love with you, Leon. The moment I met you." "Why…does evil care about justice?!" "Consider it a divination ceremony. A debate, if you like. This will show me the ultimate fate of this world." In stark contrast to Lyu's stuttering, Erebus sounded as if his replies had been written long in advance. There was divine intent behind his each and every word. "Right now, Orario is a microcosm of the entire realm," he explained. "The entire mortal realm has been left in chaos after Zeus and Hera lost to the Black Dragon. Whether out of desperation or to fulfill their darkest desires, people are out there right now, killing, stealing, despoiling." The mortal realm had become the battleground of a war between order and chaos while the world waited for a hero. The scales of good and evil teetered back and forth. This was what the dark god claimed. "The world has a choice: to accept the darkness or to step into the light." "…!" "And while I place myself firmly in the darkness camp, I am still curious about the part justice will play in the events to come." Erebus steepled his fingers and smiled at Lyu. His dark, fascinating eyes stared straight into her soul. "I want to know if justice has what it takes to overturn this age of darkness and bring about a new era." When he had finished speaking, the whole church fell silent. For a moment, Lyu forgot that Alfia was even there. Lyu hoped the silence would continue forever, because her whole body was screaming at her. She instinctively knew that when this dark dialogue reached its conclusion, it would destroy her. But the god wearing a wicked grin did not hear her plea. "Leon," he said. "I believe that good and evil are both perfectly valid on their own." All of a sudden, Erebus sounded gentle, like a priest. "But they shine so much brighter when they are set against each other." Lyu felt a set of invisible fingers tighten around her neck. "Wh-what are you saying?" "Conflict breeds growth. You understand this, too, don't you? After both forces have perfected their nature, they shall birth this era's true ideals. One of ultimate good and one of ultimate evil." He spoke as if reciting from scripture. It was a dark tome that spat on the teachings of any established religion and tore Lyu's fledgling wings from her back. "Then, and only then, can the final showdown commence. The winner shall inherit the world…or destroy it." The evil god gave a wicked smile. "Rather straightforward, don't you think? Exactly the sort of thing you elves like to put in your holy books." Lyu shivered as a chill ran down her spine. She clenched her tiny fists with what little determination she could muster. "…Rgh! In that case, what is your evil?! What is it that gives you cause to mock me and to look down on justice?!" With a tiny spark of rebellion in her heart, she flipped Erebus's question back on him. However, the god effortlessly answered it, as if toying with a small child. "Satisfaction," he said. "Wha—?!" "The pursuits of evil are quite simple. All we do, we do in the name of satisfaction." He grinned as justice faltered. "Satisfaction is selfish. It doesn't care about others, and thus, it is hated by them. And extreme selfishness can result in truly unpardonable behavior. That is what we refer to as evil. Or more precisely, that is what you people like to call evil." Justice and evil were almost always diametrically opposed. While justice adhered to law and order, evil was free from both. It was the ultimate expression of freedom, which in turn was the ultimate expression of self-satisfaction. There were no rules. No order. How could there be? These were the trappings of justice, something evil mocked and reviled with all its heart. One could argue that an ill-defined justice condemned everything as evil. But a self-proclaimed evil would never claim the crown of justice. Evil openly mocked that honor and trampled it underfoot. "Meanwhile, the truly inexcusable and the abhorrent become absolute evil. Like me." A flutter of ashen hair drew Lyu's attention to Alfia once more. She seemed bored, as though she had no objections to what was said. The god's candid claim had acquired a sheen of truth, which he demonstrated with glee. But Lyu refused to accept it. Hoping to stave off death just a little longer, she shouted back at him. "In that case…why?! For what reason do you seek absolute evil? Why do you want to destroy Orario?!" "My domain is primordial darkness. In other words, the underworld. To destroy Orario is to make this land my realm." When Erebus spoke, he offered nothing but the pure, honest truth. "What I do is perfectly natural. For you, what I seek may be destruction…but for me, it is paradise." "Wha—?!" "My aims are far too abstract for mere mortals to grasp. Just like any god's." "How could anybody understand that?! You're insane!" yelled Lyu, shaking her head in denial. But the god didn't so much as flinch. "Alas, being misunderstood is part and parcel of evil's fate," he said. "But in any case, I have answered your question. Now will you answer mine?" Lyu's breath caught in her throat. She was out of time. There was nowhere left to run. "I asked you this question once before, and rest assured I took your answers to heart. Virtuous deeds done without promise of a reward. Upholding that value at all times. And striking down evil wherever it rears its ugly head." "…Stop it." "Is that still your answer now? Or has it changed?" "Stop it." "Have you been thanked yet? Have you been rewarded for upholding those values in the face of great evil?" The god's words, and all the nasty truths therein, left Lyu utterly trapped. Her face grew haunted and pale. "Can you look me in the eye and say it hasn't affected you? That your justice still stands strong? That you haven't once stumbled under the weight of all the loneliness and pain?" "Stop it!!" she screamed. But it was not a determined scream. Her voice cracked, her hands covered her ears, and she squeezed her eyelids tight. There was no trace now of that proud elf warrior—only a scared young girl battered by harsh reality. "Listen to me, elf. I know you want to see me as the bad guy in all this, but I'm giving you a chance to make the right choice." The dark god would not let her escape that easily. He stood before Lyu, the point of his metaphorical knife poised over her ribs. "So I'll ask again. What exactly is your justice?" He plunged the proverbial knife. Lyu raised her head and attempted to respond, but no words came. Her quivering tongue could produce nothing in the way of justice. "I… I…" "What's wrong? Say it." "…Gh." "You can't answer?" "………" Lyu hung her head limply, wishing she could turn back time. After such a brutal execution, no light remained in her eyes. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Behold, justice! Nothing to say for itself before it plummets into despair!" Erebus burst out laughing. He swept back his hair, laughing like a madman. "You've disappointed me, followers of Astrea! But I'm glad! If none of you can believe in justice, then the people of this city don't stand a chance! No longer will your lies cloud their minds! All shall return to chaos!!" Erebus flung his arms wide, basking in his proclamation. The balance was broken, and the scales of good and evil irreversibly tipped. "I have only one thing to say to you now," said Erebus in a compassionate voice, after his laughter had died down at last. "Something I've told you before." "Weakness, thy name is justice." Lyu felt her heart momentarily give out. "And foolishness, thy name is also justice." There was a yawning chasm in her chest. What was the "right choice" Erebus had been talking about? Crushed by evil, Lyu couldn't even see where justice was. Her righteous heart began falling apart. "………" Lyu slumped to her knees like a broken doll. Erebus didn't need to say anything more. Mired in despair, the girl was perfectly capable of destroying herself from here. "Oh, my little egg of justice. You couldn't answer even one lone question. How disappointing." However, Erebus didn't look disappointed at all. He turned and gazed through the broken stained-glass window. Outside, the ashen clouds were breaking, allowing the reddening sky to bleed through. "Now you've got me thinking," he said as a malicious grin spread across his face. "What about that other girl? Alize? I wonder if she has an answer for me?" "Alize! We can finally take a break!" Alize turned at the sound of Neze's voice. "They're changing the guard! Ganesha Familia's taking over, so they said we can all go home and take a short rest! Lady Astrea's on her way over here as well!" "All right!" replied Alize, smiling brightly. "Then it's time for some well-deserved rest! A warrior's repose!" She sheathed her sword, and the entire group heaved a collective sigh of relief. After fighting countless cultists in Northeast Orario, this was their first true respite. "Anyone who's not currently doing anything, feel free to head back now!" Alize called out to the other members of her familia. The girls shared a glance. "No, you go back first, Alize," said Neze with an embarrassed smile. "Let us finish things up around here." "I agree," said Marieux, placing a hand to her cheek. "You've already done so much." "You must be craving a bit of shut-eye after how hard you've been working," added Iska, waving her hand as if to shoo Alize away. "Go on, off you get, now." The rest of the girls all reacted similarly, reassuring her that just because she was the captain didn't mean she had to stand around on formality. "You mean it?" asked Alize. "Well, if you say so! See you back at home, everyone!" She was stunned by her guildmates' kindness but accepted it gratefully. Leaving them to handle things, she turned and walked off down the street, silently but with a big smile on her face. Finn's defensive line had held fast, and the Stardust Garden remained undamaged. Sensing no danger, Alize unlocked the front door with her personal key and waltzed straight in. After it had closed behind her, Alize was alone in the empty halls of her home. With no one to see her, she exhaled a deep sigh. "………" She was not smiling now. Dropping her mask, she allowed the weariness she felt in her bones to show. She wiped her cheek, only to find her hand now covered with sweat and blood—blood that may or may not have been hers. Like a wandering ghost, she made her way to the parlor and just stood there, as if she'd forgotten how to sit. "I guess I am a little bit tired…" That was an understatement—she was exhausted. Her body and soul had taken a dire beating. How many times had she talked about justice to her friends, even after Lyu ran away? How long was she going to rally everyone under its banner when even she didn't know what its true nature was? That was the hardest truth to swallow. The thought racked her with guilt. "I think there is a justice, and you simply lack the means to see it." "Evil has hidden it from you, just like those clouds hide the stars from us." She thought back on Syr's words. At the time, they had sounded so convincing, but now Alize wondered if she even deserved the stars' guidance. "Alize." She heard the door open behind her, and she turned to see her goddess standing in the doorway. "Lady Astrea…" There was no need to hide her own sorry state from the goddess. Alize looked back at the floor. She was stripped bare of the armor that shielded the other girls from her vulnerable, pathetic sight. "Neze told me you would be here," the goddess said. "………" "Is there…anything I can do?" "I just need a bosom to cry on, if you don't mind." "Of course. Come here." Astrea smiled and held out her hand, guiding Alize into her soft embrace. The flame-haired captain buried her face in Astrea's plump chest, wrapping her arms around the goddess's hips like a child. And like that child's mother, Astrea cradled Alize's head in her hands. Alize felt her fingers on her back, warm and soothing. Tickled, she squirmed in Astrea's arms, but gradually, her tight muscles relaxed, and she allowed the goddess's warmth to envelop her. After a while, Astrea sat down on the sofa, lowering Alize onto her side, the girl's face still firmly planted between the goddess's breasts. "Lady Astrea… Am I wrong?" "About what, Alize?" "Everything." As the two sat, eyes closed, like mother and child, the red-haired girl decided to tell her goddess the tale of Alize Lovell. "I always thought I had to smile for Leon and the other girls, whether I felt happy or not," she said. "I thought I needed to banish their doubt at all costs." "………" "But to do that, I needed to never doubt myself. I always said what I thought and acted how I felt without second-guessing it." Astrea's welcoming lap was like a cradle of stars. There was no need to pretend innocence or purity here. Alize set down her burdens, like a weary traveler, and revealed the discord and anguish brewing in her heart. "But when I'm alone," she said, "that's when the serious me comes out." Alize's fingers tightened around the hem of Astrea's robe. The goddess answered her in a voice as soft as silk. "I think both Alizes are very strong," she said. "The one who speaks her mind and the one who cares for her juniors." "………" "Your light, Alize, is not just starlight. It's sunlight. That much is clear from the smiles you spread to everyone you meet." Astrea ran her fingers through Alize's crimson hair. When they reached her hairclip, she undid it, allowing the girl's fiery ponytail to fall across her lap and mix the strands with her own walnut locks. "But…" started Alize, either unwilling or afraid to allow the goddess's soothing words to lull her into comfort, "The serious me still doesn't know what justice is. Even though I'm supposed to be your follower…" For a while, the only sound that filled the hall was the ticking of the grandfather clock. The empty space between each tick seemed to mock Alize for her indecisiveness. Then, at last, after precisely eleven of those harrowing marks, Astrea spoke. "Alize," she said, opening her eyes at last. "Do you know what the happiest times of my life were? It was the day Kaguya joined us. It was the day Lyra took my hand. The day Neze, Marieux, and Iska all believed in me. The day Lyana, Noin, Asta, and Celty all came together. And finally, the day that Lyu found us." Her clear, gentle voice retraced the threads that were now so tightly intertwined. "And how could I forget, before any of that, the day you and I decided to start a family?" "………" Astrea, her goddess, laid her heart bare. Alize felt the tears welling up in her eyes. "It's okay," Astrea said. "You are not wrong. And even if you were, you're allowed to be. There's nothing wrong with being wrong." The goddess's reassurance was as clear and serene as the interminable sea of stars. "Keep moving forward, Alize. Whether it's right or not. You just have to believe." "And remember, even when skies are gray… Even when you can't see them… The stars are always watching over you." Those words touched Alize's heart. And even though her eyes were closed, she could've sworn she saw the light of a shooting star. "I cannot clear away your doubts, Alize," said Astrea, stroking her head once more. "I am only one star out of many set in the infinite night sky. You must be brave. Your justice is something only you can find." Again, a silence fell over the room. Only, this time, the clock's ticking no longer seemed malevolent. Slowly, Alize pulled her face from her goddess's breast. The specter that had been haunting her had vanished, and her lips showed the faintest trace of a smile. "Thank you, Lady Astrea," she said. "I have a lot to think about. I want to come up with my own answer, so that when I see Leon again, I can tell her what it is that drives me." Astrea smiled, her job complete. The traveler, once lost beneath a starless sky, resumed her tireless journey. It was not for this goddess to say what story those girls would go on to write or what their answer would be. That was up to them. "I hope you do," she said. "I'll always be watching over you, Alize." In Northwest Orario, in a ruined yet still-standing church, the dark god Erebus stood across from where Lyu had fallen to the ground. "Astrea is too soft on you," he declared. "Or maybe she's even crueler than I am. Why doesn't she just tell you the answer? If she's really the goddess of justice, then she must know what it is. Instead, she hides it from you, concealing the truth behind fanciful words and cute metaphors." A chuckle betrayed the pleasure Erebus took in his condemnation. Lyu could take his insults no longer and weakly raised her head. "You're wrong! Lady Astrea's not like that! She's…" But before she could manage a pathetic rebuttal, one that even she knew wouldn't hold any weight, the dark god strode right up to her and gazed deep into her wide, azure eyes. Taking advantage of the girl's fragile heart, he whispered into her long, pointed ear. "Are you sure about that? Is it not because of her negligence that you're suffering so much inner turmoil? Could it not be that this is all just some sick, twisted game to her?" "Grrh!" "Is it justice to feel pain? Is it justice that brought you here to me, just to be laughed at?" He was nothing less than the devil himself, whispering his diabolical theories. His divine voice all but shattered Lyu's faith in an instant. Suddenly, she couldn't remember the face of the goddess she had devoted her life to, and everything Astrea had ever taught her faded away into distant mists. This dialogue on justice had left Lyu truly lost, and she didn't know where she could turn. "N-no… That's not…" She wanted to scream back at him, but no words came. Erebus couldn't help but laugh, seeing the elf's fair face warped by despair. "Heh-heh-heh. Ha-ha-ha-ha! …You are so fun to tease, Leon." His eyes made it seem like he was smiling warmly, but what he truly wore was a sadistic grin. The dark god righted himself, swept back his hair, and laughed to the heavens. Lyu felt truly violated. Her lips, her shoulders, and her heart all began to tremble. And then, the whole building shook as well. ""!"" The noise came from outside the church. Lyu reeled in shock, while Erebus peered outside to see what had happened. Only Alfia remained unperturbed, not even bothering to glance over. "That sounded like…an explosion!" cried Lyu. She peered through the stained-glass window and spotted a plume of smoke rising into the sky outside. "Leon! Oh, where did you go?" Asfi had lost track of Lyu after she went charging head-first into a pack of Evils. The last glimpse she caught of the elf's distraught face burned fresh in her mind, and it scared her. While she hadn't been as close to Lyu as Ardee was, she still considered the girl a friend. And never had she seen the noble elf make a face like that. So while she searched for traces of her passage or anyone who had seen her, Asfi also felt hounded by the sneaking suspicion that she had to find Lyu, and fast. I can't let her slip into despair, she thought. I have to let her know! Inside her heart, like a torch, burned the light of duty. "I know what I have to do!" she said. "I have to—" But Asfi was not allowed to finish that thought. All of a sudden, the entire city shook. It was the same explosion that had caught the attention of Lyu and Erebus not too far away. "What…?!" The sound was deafening. Then she heard the screams and saw the sparks rising off the street. Her face paled with fright. A man with flowing white hair stepped out of the chaos. "Why are we pussyfooting around a wounded foe?" he asked aloud. It was Olivas with a warband of cultists in tow, defying his master's orders and bringing carnage to the streets. "I, for one, will not miss my chance. I will break you, Orario, in body and spirit! Prepare to be crushed!"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter8-01.txt	Chapter 8: A Tragic Performance CHAPTER 8 A Tragic Performance A voice echoed down the empty hallways of the Guild Headquarters. "Gimme a break! Why's a god like me gotta do all this work? I ain't even an adventurer, dammit!" Loki complained loudly, her vermilion hair bouncing as she tiredly wobbled left and right with a stack of papers in her arms. "This is exhausting… I just wanna go home and take a bath…in a bathtub full of booze…" The discontent deity stopped before one of the doors, opened it using her foot, and stepped in. Inside, maps of the city covered every table and spare bit of wall. "Finn! Sounds like those fortifications you ordered are ready!" she yelled, plonking the papers down on a nearby desk and rotating her aching shoulders. "Once we get the civilians inside 'em, the rest'll be…Finn?" The ominous look on her captain's face gave her pause. The blond prum gripped a sheet of parchment, eyes fixed on its contents. "What's up, Finn?" she asked. "Somethin' wrong?" "Take a look at this," Finn replied, throwing the parchment onto the desk in front of him. "Hermes just brought this over from the Guild. It's a report on the nine gods that were sent back to heaven on the day of the Great Conflict." "Aww geez, that mess," replied Loki, scratching her head. "I still ain't got a clue how the Evils managed to pull that one off." Loki took the list and ran her eyes over it. It named Belenus, Zelus, and other gods and deities who had been fighting on the front lines that day. Then she stopped. "Hold on," she said. "You sure this is right?" "Yes," replied Finn. "We all know that nine gods returned to the heavens that day. However, this report names only six of our allied familias. Which means there are still three missing gods unaccounted for." This was hardly the most devastating blow the allied coalition had suffered. The number of familias critically weakened or wiped out completely on the first night of the Great Conflict was too large to count. However, those familia who had their gods returned and lost their Falna as a result only numbered six. Even this many was a great blow to Orario, of course, but one whose true extent still lay shrouded in mystery. There could be no miscalculation—Finn had taken stock of the survivors personally after the first terrible night in order to plan their response. So where had these missing gods gone? Or more to the point, where had they come from? "What's goin' on, Finn? You don't suppose the Guild or that hat-wearin' dandy miscounted, do ya?" "What if…" said Finn, "the extra gods are from the Evils' side?" "What?!" shrieked Loki, outraged by this suggestion. "You mean, some of our people took their attackers down with 'em?! Or you think the bad guys have it out for each other?" "I couldn't say, I'm afraid." Finn sharpened his gaze, biting his thumb. "If we assume this wasn't a slipup on the part of our foe, then that leads us to only one conclusion. The aim of this planned exodus wasn't only to break our morale; it was to hide something," A hush fell over the room as Loki considered his words. The wings of imagination transformed into the key of illumination that opened a gateway into hell. And after she had eliminated every other possibility in her head, she stood. "Finn, you don't mean…" She and Finn extended the arms of their minds, hands grasping for the truth that lay just within their reach. "Those shitheads! This whole time, there true goal wasn't up here, it was down in the—!" "A-a message, Lady Loki!" The door slammed open, and in ran Raul. "A great gathering of Evils has been spotted in the northwest!" Finn and Loki stared at him in shock. "Destroy it all! Lay waste to Orario! Advance on Guild Headquarters and slaughter anyone foolish enough to stand in our way!" After Olivas gave his order, his cultists unleashed their spells and magic swords. A flicker of explosions lit up the sky, bathing the streets in fire. "M-Master Olivas, are you sure this is the right move?" asked a fearful commander. "Lord Erebus and Mistress Valletta advised us not to act until the time was—" "I care not for their cowardice!" roared Olivas, his will to fight unbreakable. "Why delay what's inevitable?!" Then, with flames in his eyes, he turned to address his army of darkness. "Orario stands at the gates of hell! It is up to us to push them through! We need not stand idle when our foe is weak and vulnerable! Finish them off tonight and bring a swift end to this war! Unleash your evil, my brethren!" "WAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!" His followers roared like wild beasts released from their cages. They descended on the streets, attacking unprotected camps and following their leader's order to the letter. The unarmed civilians were powerless to resist and ran for their lives while begging for mercy that was nowhere to be found. "An attack?! A-and so many!" Lyu watched in horror through the stained-glass window as an army of Evils, larger than any they'd seen yet, marched through the city. Erebus didn't even blink at the sight. "Oh, dear," he said. "That Olivas, at it again. I thought I told him to rein it in. And right before my very eyes, to boot." Olivas was most likely unaware that his master was watching him. Erebus, on the other hand, smiled broadly and turned to Lyu. "At the same time, he just gave me an idea. Alfia, make sure nobody interferes with them. Get Zald over here as well." "You wish me to help make more noise?" Alfia asked with open disinterest. "I do not recall joining the ranks of your fawning sycophants." Her words were enough to make even the hardiest adventurer shiver in fright, but Erebus bore it all with a smile. "Oh, don't be such a spoilsport," he said. "Tell you what: Do this one thing for me, and I swear I won't ask you for anything silly ever again." "………" "I'll get straight on with the plan to execute absolute evil, just like you want." Alfia paused, as though trying to discern the true motive that lay behind the god's smug grin. "Oh, are you worried about leaving me alone, perchance? Don't be. Anything happens, I'm sure my man Vito will come running to the rescue. Between him and my hordes of loyal followers out there, I think we can handle one little elf, don't you?" "I don't have time for these games," said Alfia. "Very well. Let us see if you will hold up your end of the bargain." With a flutter of her long, ashen hair, Alfia turned and left the building. After she'd vanished, the oppressive silence that had filled the church seemed to disappear instantly, causing Lyu to pop out of her stupor. "The people…!" she muttered, climbing to her feet. "I have to go save them!" She could hear their screams coming from the streets outside. Without waiting a moment longer, she ran for the door. "In the name of primordial darkness, I command you to stay, Leon." Lyu froze. "If you don't, I'll call Alfia back, and we'll have ourselves a real slaughter." "Rgh?!" Never had the god's threats sounded so real. It felt as if she were suddenly bound by thick iron chains, with no hope of escape. It was clear the god meant what he said. His words were solemn…and gleeful. "We're going to stay right here," he said, "and watch." "Th-the Evils are attacking again!" "Aaaaaaaagh!!" "Somebody, help us!" Screams filled the air. Whatever few structures made up the nearby camps were swiftly flattened, and bystanders ran in every direction to escape the encroaching flames. The Evils arrived in the northwest, in district seven under the shadow of the city walls, and advanced eastward toward Guild HQ. Everything in their path, they torched, leaving a trail of destruction as they moved. "They're attacking us now?! Why?" cried Asfi. The coalition's commander Finn had told her that the enemy would content itself with raids and not conduct any large-scale attacks for the foreseeable future. Did this mean Braver was wrong? "No," she said, "I see now. Some of them must have gone rogue!" The enemy's movements showed no indication of serving some greater strategy. It was clear this was not part of the Evils' true plan, whatever it was. "Asfi!" came a voice. "Falgar! You're here, too? And you brought everyone else!" She was joined by the loyal war tiger who served as her deputy as well as the other members of Hermes Familia. "We're here to help," returned Falgar. "I don't know if it is good fortune or not that brings us together on the battlefield like this, but we will need all the aid we can muster. There aren't enough adventurers stationed in this district to repel this attack without reinforcements." As Falgar stood beside her, Asfi could see he wore a deeply troubled frown. "It's not just the enemy that outnumbers us, but the townspeople as well! Too many of them ignored the Braver's orders and remained here, on the outer edges of the city!" "Grr! Reinforcements are on the way! We just have to hold off the enemy until they arrive!" Asfi's grief lasted but a moment before she steeled her nerve and drew her sword. At last, she looked how a captain ought. Her words were no empty reassurances, either. Finn would quickly learn about such a brazen incursion. "Follow me!" she yelled, her white cloak flapping as she charged the enemy. It wasn't long before her party made contact. Before the flustered cultists could work out what was happening, Asfi's quick steel and Falgar's mad rush eliminated two of their foes. "Aaaaghhh!" "Guh!!" With their flank under threat, the evil march was thrown into chaos. A melee quickly broke out. Asfi put her bombs to good use, sowing fear and confusion among the cultist ranks and allowing the mighty Falgar to bring his full strength to bear. A swing of his greatsword flattened several disoriented cultists, gouging their lines and creating openings for Asfi to slip in and take out the troublesome mages in the rear. It was a feat made possible only by the bonds of teamwork the pair had forged in the fires of many a battle. The other members of Hermes Familia acted on their own initiative, disrupting the enemy forces and drawing their attention upon themselves instead of the helpless townsfolk. Before long, small groups of reinforcements began trickling in. Nearby adventurers who had heard the sounds of battle had come running. However… "Dammit, there's no end to them!" Sweat glittered on Falgar's brow, but his curses were lost to the waves of evil descending on him from all directions. No matter how many he cut down, there always seemed to be more, fighting tenaciously with no concern for their lives. "Dieee!" screamed a cultist as he lunged at a bystander and stabbed them repeatedly with a knife. "Aaagh!" "You cur! Try this on for size!" A dwarf adventurer, noticing the heinous act, struck the cultist down in anger, but then a second foe leaped at him and latched on to his back before detonating her bomb. The resulting explosion vaporized everyone in the immediate vicinity. Asfi stared, astonished, as the blast winds ruffled her sky-blue hair. "They're targeting the civilians!" she yelled, a disgusted scowl on her face. "It's to tie us up and lure us in! Despicable!" Lacking a Falna, the Evils cultists—the so-called Faithful—knew they couldn't beat an adventurer in a fair fight. Instead, they were determined to take their enemies down with them in a blaze of self-destruction. By attacking civilians, they could corral the adventurers and then rush in close while their backs were turned. Asfi watched as the same series of events played out again and again. Even when the adventurers knew what the Evils were doing, they couldn't simply abandon the townsfolk. Slowly, but surely, their numbers were dwindling. She saw an animal man, covered in blood. One human screamed, desperately rolling on the ground to extinguish his burning clothes. More visceral scenes seared themselves into her mind. "At this rate, they'll overwhelm us! Where are our reinforcements?" There was no way Finn and the other adventurers at Central Park didn't know about the situation by now. And yet, still nothing. Asfi only grew more and more worried as time went by. What if they…ran into trouble?! she wondered. But at that moment, a dark, deep, male voice intruded on her thoughts. "Now isn't the time to be daydreaming, Perseus." Asfi wheeled around to see Olivas, a grin on his face and longsword in hand. "This place shall be your grave," he said. "Hrgh?!" With incredible speed, the two of them threw themselves at each other. Asfi couched her short sword and nimbly deflected the villain's steel. There was a flash of sparks, an intense tremor, and the young girl staggered backward. One clash was all it took to reveal the difference in their power. Asfi could do nothing to stop the monstrous man from bearing down on her. "Grrh! I can't die… Not here… Not now!" She kept up her defense as best as her slender arms and legs could manage, but Olivas flashed a malicious and leering smile. "I'm afraid this is the end, little girl." It was the grin of a viper that had finally driven its prey into a corner. Just then, however, Asfi heard Falgar's voice in her ears, shouting, "Asfi! Look out!" and time ground to a halt. She suddenly became aware of a second foe, who had approached silently from behind, dagger in hand. The assailant realized they had been spotted and gave a mighty yell before sprinting at her to finish the job. Asfi brought her blade around and, thanks to a combination of quick wits and luck, made short work of him. Falgar's warning had saved her life. However, nothing was safe in war. As if waiting for the moment Asfi would inevitably drop her guard, Olivas closed in. "You know what Zald told me, little girl?" he said. "He called me a maggot. A maggot fit only for crushing other maggots like you!!" He swung his sword and sliced her back open, spilling beautiful droplets of fresh blood like so many flower petals. "Gaagh!" The young girl staggered forward, very nearly falling to the ground. Olivas merely laughed at her. He pulled a second blade from his belt and leveled it at Asfi. "Allow me to finish you off with this magic sword," he said, and the air grew blisteringly hot. Asfi spun round to see Olivas's sadistic smile, framed against a backdrop of burning crimson. The next moment, a raging hellfire descended on her. Falgar screamed, "Asfiiiiiii!!" but the roar of the flames blocked him out. A braying tempest of fire drowned out every color except fiery red. The townspeople screamed, the adventurers went pale, and the cultists cried out in glee. The earth groaned. Smoke and wisps of flame filled the air. Asfi shot across the sea of broken rubble. The sky was red. At some point, the clouds had broken, offering a clear view of the setting sun that dipped below Orario's seventh district. Olivas saw the madder-stained skies as a blessing on his wicked task, and he smiled. "Gah! Kagh…! Ugh, ahhh…!!" Meanwhile, Asfi staggered to her feet, coughing up blood. It was no miracle that she had survived that explosion. It was thanks to her snow-white cloak—an ingenious magic item of her own creation. Just before the fires engulfed her, she had wrapped it around herself, boosting her physical and magical defense. Unfortunately, it couldn't protect her completely due to the sheer power of Olivas's sword. Scorch marks lined her face, and her arms and legs had suffered intense burns and couldn't stop shaking. Her back stung where she had been slashed, and Asfi scowled in discomfort. Olivas laughed, grinning with glee at the blood-soaked girl's pitiful state. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Even now, you vainly cling to life! Give it up, Perseus. My next attack will end this." With that, Olivas pointed his magic sword at her once more. The blade glowed red-hot before launching a massive fireball in Asfi's direction. The girl screamed as it exploded. "Aaaaagh!!" "Asfiiii!" screamed Falgar. "Dammit, get out of my way!" But no matter how many times he swung his greatsword, the war tiger failed to carve a path through the countless number of cultists. There were simply too many of them. A wall of evil that offered no way through. Olivas's magic sword released projectile after projectile. Asfi tried to run, clutching her scorched arm, but eventually one of them hit its mark. Even if she used her cloak to protect herself, it wasn't enough to protect her from that merciless barrage. In a burst of fire, she was thrown to the ground, her clothes tattered and burned. The townspeople nearby covered their mouths in shock as they were assailed by the deafening, incessant roar of flame. "That's horrible…" said a woman. "I-is that because we didn't evacuate in time?" asked a man. These people had disobeyed the adventurers and refused to move closer to Central Park. Some of them had even been in the crowd that threw stones at Astrea Familia. "Oh, yes," answered Olivas, his lips twisted in a grin. "That poor adventurer is going to die, and you're all to blame! Or should I say, to thank?" He chuckled and threw his arms wide. "The brave always die so young! You know why? Because the cowardly use them as shields!" It was a fact oft repeated, a history eternally retold. A crushing truth that even the most heroic of tales was obliged to include. "The powerless! The ignorant! The feeble-minded! They cannot swing a blade or master a staff! They can only be as chains for those who fight on their behalf, cursed to guide the enemy's blade directly into their backs!" Those content to stay at a distance, offering words but no actions. Those who put their own safety before everyone else's. Those who spoke highly of rights without ever getting involved. There was nothing wrong with people like that. In fact, it was beyond ordinary. Not everyone had the strength to be a fairy-tale hero. And it was these masses who decided whether a cause was righteous or not; every would-be follower of justice needed to obtain their approval. "At last, bear witness to the moment justice falls! Never have I felt so alive!" Olivas spoke with open contempt for the twisted form justice took. His repulsive laughter filled the air. But the people could say nothing. Never before had the consequences of their actions been laid out in such stark relief before their very eyes. The knowledge that each and every of them was party to this tragedy was too much guilt to bear. The looks on their faces drove Olivas to even greater heights. "Ha-ha-ha! Yes, yeesss!" he gloated as a sadistic shiver ran down his spine. "Such despair! This is what my lord and master wishes to see! The beginnings of a chain reaction that will grind Orario into dust!" The setting sun dyed his smile the color of blood. "Change of plan," he said. "We'll still slaughter all these foolish townspeople and proceed on to Guild Headquarters, but before that…" "Rgh…!" "Perseus! I'll stick your head on a pike and parade it through the streets!" Olivas set his wide, mad eyes on Asfi with disturbing clarity of purpose, as if his god had just granted him a vision. Asfi desperately tried to crawl to her feet but was in no state to stand. Olivas looked upon her, covered in blood and unable to manage anything besides a feeble twitch, and his darkness grew deeper. He licked his lips, spread his arms, and prepared to steep himself in the simplest evil of them all—violence. "You shall become a symbol," he said. "A symbol of this city's despair!" With that, he launched another fireball. It hit Asfi head-on, and the crimson blast flung her away. Like a broken rag doll, she skimmed the ground before finally coming to rest in a crumpled heap. Olivas could barely contain his glee. He had defeated Asfi in the most brutal manner imaginable, and now the people cowered in fear of what he might do to them next. A deep, dark vibration originated in his stomach before working its way out of his throat. "Heh-heh-heh-heh. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!" "Andromeda?!" Within the church, Lyu screamed. The Evils were committing their atrocities right before her eyes. "Oh, Olivas," said Erebus. "You really don't hold back, do you? But at least you're out there, making a difference." His detached admiration made it sound as though he were watching characters in a play. People were dying outside, and while Lyu gasped and cried out, Erebus simply smiled and laughed. The stained-glass window might as well have been a portal to another world, or a theater screen, and Lyu an unwilling spectator to this tragedy. But the screams ringing in her ears were real, and so were the blasts that shook every bone in her body. This wasn't a play or a bad dream she could wake up from; it was the real world. Then, all of a sudden, Erebus turned his attention from the screen back to Lyu. "Let's play a game, Leon," he said. "Have you heard of the Trolley Problem?" "The what?" Erebus smiled and launched into a courteous explanation. "Imagine, if you will, a rail cart that suddenly loses control while in motion. Ahead of it are five men at a worksite, all of whom will surely die if the cart continues along its path. Luckily, there is a switch. One that can divert the cart onto a different path. But if you do, the cart will hit someone else. Hmm, let's say…a woman." Erebus chuckled and glanced out the window. "Yes, there's a single woman working on the other track. Now, what is the correct course of action in this scenario? Do you pull the switch, condemning the woman to death, or do nothing and let all five men meet their end?" "Huh?" "It's a little thought experiment, Leon. Honestly, you mortals come up with the most interesting diversions." Lyu didn't understand where Erebus was going with this, but she got a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. His unending smile made him seem like a hunter eyeing his prey, and his thought process was entirely beyond her comprehension. It was here that Erebus chose to make his point crystal clear. "It's a simple conundrum, but no example more perfectly encapsulates the situation I place you in now," he said. "So choose. Will you let the men die, or allow the woman to take their place, knowing her blood will be on your hands?" The world flickered before her very eyes. A fire raged in the back of her mind. Lyu felt her heartbeat reverberate throughout her entire body. "…You don't…mean…" "Oh, but I do. Now, make a choice." All the color drained from Lyu's face, while Erebus's lit up in a broad smile. "One woman's life in exchange for all those people," he said. "What will it to be, Leon?" An unbearable fear came over Lyu and caused her to shudder. At that moment, she knew—there could be no clearer embodiment of evil than the one who stood before her. "You can leave this building right now and run to save your dying friend. But if you do, it will be the end for all those innocent people." His words were the words of a god: unbreakable and absolute. "You have my word," he said. "Whatever it takes, I will not rest until each and every one of them is dead." A sadistic, predatory smile traced his lips. "Or," he said, "stay here. Let that woman die as if you had killed her with your own hands…and in return, all those poor, innocent people will be free to go." All of a sudden, his voice took on a more merciful, benevolent tone. But what the dark god suggested was anything but. "No lies, no tricks. I promise. I swear on my soul they will not come to harm." A holy, yet incalculably dark pact. "Let her die, and I will order my followers to stand down. They won't so much as touch those bystanders." Concealed by his deceptive words, the evil god had made one subtle but considerable misdirection. The original trolley problem asked whether it was better to let the many die through inaction, or to take matter into one's own hands and kill the few. But what Erebus was proposing was the precise opposite. The tracks were switched; Lyu could do nothing and let Asfi die, allowing the citizens to go free, or condemn them to save her. There was no moral conundrum in this case. The utilitarian answer was quite clear. The crux of Erebus's new problem, therefore, was not about cause and consequence, but about duty. About whose lives Lyu valued more. There was no doubt what the correct choice should be, but was Lyu strong enough to pursue it? Or would she instead act contrary to what her principles demanded to rescue her friend? It was the ultimate test of Lyu's commitment to upholding justice, and one she couldn't run away from. His words still hanging in the air, Erebus silently awaited Lyu's decision. To Lyu, the momentary silence felt like an eternity, but to a god's infinite being, it was nothing. At last, the final vestiges of justice within Lyu wrenched her reluctant lips apart. But all she could do was unleash her emotions in a vain attempt to make it all go away. "…You're mad… You're insane!" she screamed. "What do you think you're doing?! Does life mean so little to you?!" But try as she might to disguise them, the flames of outrage in her heart were not nearly hot enough to sway Erebus's course. "I'm not interested in hearing you spout clichés," he said. "I asked you to choose." There was only one thing he wanted to hear. "Show me your answer, Leon. You can't dodge my question this time. I'll make sure of that." Lyu froze. Her breath caught in her throat, like her lungs simply gave up and stopped working. And starved of air, the fire in her heart fizzled out. There was nothing she could do or say to avoid the choice presented to her. "…I can't choose," she said at last. "You can't make me choose! How could I?!" Her voice cracked and quivered. Lyu found she couldn't move a muscle, like her feet were stitched to the ground, while her blood raced so fast through her veins, it felt like it would burst out of her. She had only the strength to manage a single step back. She couldn't move her head at all, only shake it almost imperceptibly left and right in denial while her lips shivered. But the god did not laugh at her feeble state. He only spoke. "You can choose, Leon. But you refuse to. That in itself is an evil act." "What?!" Lyu was speechless. The dark god continued his rhetorical advance. "I mean, just look at me," he said. "I could save them all with a wave of my hand, but I don't. Everyone agrees that it's evil to let people die while you have the power to save them. No ethical or philosophical argument, no matter how sophisticated, could ever justify that to the world at large. And the same goes for you, Leon. Do nothing, and everyone will know you stood idly by while innocent people suffered." Lyu felt as if she were being pushed closer and closer to the edge of a bottomless chasm. She heard a noise, like the last few cracks of a glacier before shedding a massive block of ice into the sea. Her mind felt as if it were breaking apart, and tears welled up in her eyes as the stress of the choice threatened to crush her. "Come on," said Erebus. "Hurry up. There won't be a choice left to make at this rate. The girl will die, and it'll be your callous indifference that killed her. You wouldn't like that, would you, my little follower of justice?" Erebus grinned. A vicious smile that ran all the way to his eyes, and he repeated the question that had led the two of them here, now with more anticipation than ever before. "Tell me, Leon! Make a choice! What will your justice be?" Lyu's sky-blue irises contracted to a pale speck. While the scales of justice trembled, she let out an ear-piercing shriek. "Aaaaaaaaaaaghhh!!"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter9-01.txt	Intermission: While the Scales of Justice Tremble INTERMISSION While the Scales of Justice Tremble Back in time, one hour before the elf's choice. "Make haste, Shakti, or we'll arrive too late!" Gareth sprinted through the half-ruined remains of Northwest Main Street, greatax slung over his shoulder. Word had just reached Central Park of a group of Evils led by Olivas, one of the enemy commanders, and Finn had sent Gareth ahead of the reinforcements. "I know! Curses, if only we could send more people!" Accompanying the old dwarf was Shakti of Ganesha Familia. Her traveling speed was leagues above that of an ordinary person. "That would leave Central Park completely undefended, Shakti!" Gareth shouted back. "This one's for us to shoulder!" Already the sounds of battle echoed in the distance. Gareth felt as though he could almost see the Evils up ahead to the northwest. "We're almost there!" he cried. "Hurry, we'll take out all the enemy at the same—!" However, Gareth never managed to set foot in district seven. A figure appeared out of nowhere, blocking his path. "Grrrrrhhh!!" "Gareth!" A dull thud swept over the streets, and Gareth was flung backward. His feet gouged furrows in the ground as he came to a stop alongside Shakti. The two of them stared down the road, where the newcomer stood amid a rain of dust and pebbles. "Why must I respond to these worthless requests?" came his voice, as cold and dark as blackened steel. "Then again, this entire scheme is a worthless endeavor. It stands to reason that any act carried out in its name is worthless also." It was the conqueror himself, clad in black plate and with a helm that obscured his eyes. In his hands was a sword so thick and massive that his opponents didn't believe what they were seeing. "Zald?!" Gareth spoke in astonishment. "So it's true—you chose evil, just like Alfia." On the first night of the Great Conflict, Gareth had only run into Alfia before he was knocked unconscious. He had heard of Zald's presence, but only in rumor, so seeing him in the flesh, Gareth was forced to wear a bitter scowl beneath his helmet. "It has been long since I last saw your weathered face, old dwarf," replied Zald. "Strangely, though, I only recall it in the trappings of a tavern." "Heh, I remember those days," Gareth retorted. "I don't suppose you've come to enjoy a drink like old times? There's a nice spot near here that serves up some strong dwarven spirits." "Are you sure about that?" asked Zald. "Have you forgotten already how I used to drink you and that god of yours under the table? Pass out this time, and a far worse fate awaits you than the silly pranks from the good old days." Even as the pair reminisced over the Orario of eight years past, the tension in the air caused a single bead of sweat to drip down Gareth's face, while Zald stood unfazed. Meanwhile, Shakti was simply bewildered by this sudden trip down memory lane she wasn't a part of. What are those two talking about? Wait, did he just say he beat Gareth in a drinking contest? That's not possible, is it? Ganesha Familia's reliable font of common sense was lost for words. Her brain simply went blank when it tried to picture what that scenario might look like. The black-clad man before her, scribbling on Gareth's drunken face like a mischievous child? "Wait, stop it, stop it! We have more important things to worry about right now! Out of our way! We need to—" Boom! The earth quaked as Zald thrust his greatsword into it, interrupting Shakti's sentence. "If you pass this point," he said, "then what I drink shall be no dwarven spirits, but a cocktail of your blood." ""Grh?!"" Gareth and Shakti grimaced as they readied their weapons and faced off against the black-clad man. Terror bound them like chains as the conqueror's crimson cape caught the wind and billowed. "If that is still your wish," he said, "then let us drink. I shall fill a cask with your blood and down every last drop." The conqueror lifted his greatsword with ease and leveled it at the two adventurers. "Wraaaaaagh!!" The adventurer closed in on the woman for an all-out attack. An attack she repelled with a single word. "Gospel." The silent, unseeing witch expelled a wave of sound, sending the adventurer flying. "Gah!" "Grh…! It's you…! Alfia!" Riveria scowled as she checked the other members of her party. They were supposed to be the reinforcements sent after Gareth and Shakti, but all of them had been thrown to the ground or sent into stone walls. They were on West Main Street. Riveria had just run into the second of the two conquerors, right as Gareth and Shakti faced off against the first. "Once again you appear before me, elf," said Alfia. "Even eight years ago, you were always the same. How many times do I need to crush you before you give up?" Alfia regarded Riveria with closed eyes and a dispassionate air. The high elf clutched her staff tightly. "I will always come back so long as you stand in our way!" she yelled against the witch's weighty cloak of silence. "What do you stand to gain by obstructing us like this?!" She had appeared as soon as reinforcements tried to enter district seven. It was clear that Alfia meant to stop them from reaching their goal, but to what end, Riveria could not say. She could hear the screams and explosions coming from beyond her, but there was no way through without defeating the witch. "I act on the orders of a god," said Alfia. "He said to let no soul pass, so that is precisely what I shall do. Perhaps you could say I am following the whims of a god poisoned by tedium." What happened next came not from Riveria. Alfia stood dead-center in the middle of the road, but there was one angle she hadn't accounted for. It was the perfect spot for an attack. Leaping from the rooftops, an assailant carrying a sword almost as big as her entire body took aim at Alfia's head. "Hup!" It was Aiz. She acted without fear or hesitation, her entire existence devoted to eliminating the threat in front of her. However, it still wasn't enough. "If you wanted to take me by surprise, then you should've learned how to hide your intent better, child." Alfia deftly parried Aiz's blow. Using nothing but her bare hand, she knocked the flat of the sword aside without sacrificing a shred of grace. Aiz's eyes went wide in the fraction of a second before, as if sweeping an invisible fan, Alfia aimed her other hand at the girl's chest. Aiz managed to throw up her wrist-guards just in time so that the devastating blow only knocked her to the ground instead of tearing her apart. "Rghh!" "Aiz!" Riveria screamed. But Alfia ignored her. Instead, she began moving toward the girl. "Do not think I will show mercy to a child," she said. She held out her palm, ready to unleash her boundless magic. Aiz flinched, bracing herself for complete and utter destruction…but the spell never came. Slowly, she unbraced her arms and looked up at Alfia in confusion. "You…" said the witch, opening her eyes a sliver. For the first time, she appeared genuinely taken aback. Aiz didn't dare breathe while the remnant of Hera Familia prepared her next words. "You…" she repeated at last. "The Dungeon girl?" ""!!"" Aiz and Riveria both went wide-eyed at the same time. Before long, however, Alfia's look returned to that of the silent witch once more. "I see," she said. "I do not know how you managed it, Loki Familia, but it seems the girl is now yours. I presume this means Ouranos has not given up on Makhia." As if able to see it all in her crystal ball, Alfia pierced straight through to the heart of the mystery. Riveria stood stock-still, staff in hand, refusing to either confirm or deny her theory. "So," Alfia went on. "Tell me. Is this what you intend to make of your prize? A martyr?" "Grr! Silence!!" The elf's eyebrows seesawed in anger. Giving herself over to emotion, she pounced at her foe, staff in hand. Knowing her foe was capable of nullifying magical attacks, she forgot her training for the time being and called upon her skill in hand-to-hand combat. "Krh!!" Aiz joined her. Like a mother and child, this mage and swordmaiden wove their attacks in perfect collaboration. Riveria hooked the foe's legs with her staff, while Aiz swung at the witch's arm. However, even this flawless coordination posed little more danger than the wind itself to Alfia. With a single step or tilt of the head, she dodged each and every blow, and the pair of adventurers never even scratched her dress. For seven exchanges, Alfia and her opponents swapped positions, each time their attacks reaching only thin air. Then, on the eighth, Alfia reached out and grabbed Riveria's staff in her left hand and Aiz's sword in her right. ""Rgh?!"" "Even noise must be listened to," she said. "Once in a while, it teaches you something new… Not something that can ever give rise to hope, unfortunately." With unimaginable force, given her slender frame, she threw Riveria and Ais back. "Our fate remains unchanged, and our goal is the same. We will bring an end to the age of the gods." She thrust out her right arm, and her gospel unleashed untold destruction. When all the sound had died down at last, Alfia was the only one remaining. Riveria had quickly tucked Aiz under her arm and leaped somewhere out of range, but her long ears ran red with blood. A pure note, like a tuning fork, rang in her head. "Preposterous!" she said, screwing up her dust-caked features. Aiz, dangling from Riveria's arms, trembled in fear. "She's strong!" she remarked. "Stronger than Finn! Stronger than anyone!" Her armor now was riddled with cracks, and her lips trembled as shards of metal fell from her body. Aiz saw in that fearsome witch a reflection of a hero from another time. "She's…just like Father and the others!" "Captain! Evils cultists spotted in all districts! They seem to be responding to the attacks in the northwest!" Beneath the reddening sky, Finn surveyed the city from the rooftop of Guild Headquarters, the large, Pantheon-like building on Adventurers Way. As soon as he heard Raul's shaky-voiced report, a bead of sweat dribbled down the side of his face. "Move to intercept!" he said after a moment's thought. "Our top priority is ensuring the townspeople's safety!" Ever since news of Olivas's assault came in, the situation had been steadily deteriorating from bad to worse. Pillars of black smoke were rising from across the entire city, and it took no great feat of hearing to pick out the sounds of screams, magic, and clashing steel that filled the air. The fighting was just as fierce toward the center of the city as it was near the enemy siege lines, and every available adventurer was forced to fend off hordes of Evils cultists. "Send Noir's unit to secure the factory district! Have the Berbera deploy south to intercept the other enemy force moving in from the southwest!" """Y-yes, sir!""" To Finn's expert eye, the enemy strategies seemed unsophisticated. It couldn't be Valletta's work. His intel comprised whatever he could glean from his rooftop vantage point and the reports coming in from messengers like Raul, but that was no impediment to the speed and precision of his commands. There was only one issue on his mind. "This was clearly set in motion by a rogue commander, but it's as if there's a second foe, adding forces to the battle! Could it be Erebus?" Finn could sense the god's divine will at work, pressuring his forces to stay away. He must be trying to stop us from reaching district seven! I've sent multiple waves of reinforcements, but none of them can get past Zald! The skirmishes springing up throughout the city were obviously distractions intended to tie up allied forces and keep them from reaching the northwest. Even Gareth and Riveria had found their paths blocked by the two conquerors. Owing to their mysterious absence following the start of the Great Conflict, Finn had expected Zald and Alfia to abstain from the rest of the war as well. Their sudden return came as something of a shock. I can't spare any more forces! Damn, there's not much left I can do! Finn wasn't given much time to respond, but he couldn't just start moving his forces around without thinking it through. Any sudden changes to the battle lines could open up holes in the allied defense that the enemy wouldn't hesitate to capitalize on. The only choice was to maintain the front lines and abandon district seven to its fate. Everyone I sent to back Gareth up has fallen! Perhaps I shouldn't have let Ottar's lot continue their training after all! And Mia is out fighting Apate Familia and Alecto Familia! I can't call her back now! Finn considered every option available to him, but one by one, he mentally struck them off the list. Raul, who was still standing behind him, began quaking in fear. "C-Captain!" he said. "We're running out of options! At this rate, all those people in district seven are going to die!" If Finn did nothing, Raul's grim prediction would become the callous truth. The black-clad executor of Erebus's will would be free to turn district seven into his playground, and after that, it wouldn't be long before the balance of good and evil tipped heavily in the dark god's favor. "No," he said. He couldn't let that happen. Finn lifted his arm and pointed to the northeast. There, the beacon of justice remained lit, fighting to keep the darkness at bay. "We still have them," said Finn. "Raul, get ready." "Them?" repeated Raul, uncertain. "Y-you don't mean…" But Finn's blue eyes remained fixed on the beacon of starlight that represented the city's final hope. "Astrea Familia… Alize Lovell! Answer the call!"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/copyright.txt	Copyright Copyright Astrea Record, Vol. 2 -The Fall of Justice-, Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Tales of Heroes FUJINO OMORI Translation by Jake Humphrey Cover art by Fujino Omori This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. ASTREA RECORD vol. 2 -SEIGISHITTSUI- DUNGEON NI DEAI WO MOTOMERU NO WA MACHIGATTEIRUDAROUKA EIYUTAN Copyright © 2022 Fujino Omori Illustrations copyright © 2022 Kakage All rights reserved. Original Japanese edition published in 2022 by SB Creative Corp. This English edition is published by arrangement with SB Creative Corp., Tokyo in care of Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo. English translation © 2024 by Yen Press, LLC Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author's intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your support of the author's rights. Yen On 150 West 30th Street, 19th Floor New York, NY 10001 Visit us at yenpress.com · facebook.com/yenpress · twitter.com/yenpress · yenpress.tumblr.com · instagram.com/yenpress First Yen On Edition: May 2024 Edited by Yen On Editorial: Ivan Liang Designed by Yen Press Design: Andy Swist Yen On is an imprint of Yen Press, LLC. The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Yen Press, LLC. The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ōmori, Fujino, author. \| Kakage, illustrator. \| Humphrey, Jake, translator. Title: Astrea record. Volume 1, The rise of evil: is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon? the fall of justice / Fujino Omori ; illustration by Kakage ; translation by Jake Humphrey. Other titles: Astrea record. English \| The fall of justice Description: First Yen On edition. \| New York, NY : Yen On, 2024. Identifiers: LCCN 2023053674 \| ISBN 9781975379889 (v. 1 ; trade paperback) \| ISBN 9781975379902 (v. 2 ; trade paperback) \| ISBN 9781975379926 (v. 3 ; trade paperback) Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy. \| Goddesses—Fiction. \| Adventure and adventurers—Fiction. \| LCGFT: Fantasy comics. \| Light novels. Classification: LCC PZ7.1.O54 As 2024 \| DDC [Fic]—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023053674 ISBNs: 978-1-9753-7990-2 (paperback) 978-1-9753-7991-9 (ebook)
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/prologue2-02.txt	Astrea Record: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Tales of Heroes, Vol. 2 Soon, the rain dried, as though the sky had run out of tears with which to cry. But there was no one left to enjoy the improved weather. The streets were either burning or broken, a grim reminder of what had transpired overnight. Today was the second of the Seven Days of Death, and all of Orario was consumed by fear. Over at the city's west entrance, a crowd had gathered. "Open the gate! Why the hell are you trapping all of us in here?!" "Let us out! Let us out of this place!" "The Evils could return at any time!" A huge number of people were clamoring, their clothes covered in soot and their faces marred by blood as they screamed at the adventurers manning the barricades that sealed off the city gate. "The Evils are waiting for you out there!" shouted back an adventurer of Hermes Familia. "They've surrounded the whole city!" His name was Falgar Batros, a war tiger who stood head and shoulders over his peers. Despite his imposing stature, the terrified citizens seemed almost ready to attack him for standing in the way. "If you leave the city," he pleaded, "we won't be able to protect you! Please understand!" But this only seemed to enrage the townsfolk further. "Who cares?!" "A fat lot of good your protection did us!" "Aren't you supposed to be adventurers?!" "Let us out of here!" Men bellowed and women shrieked. At their feet, little children trembled, frightened by their screaming parents. This mob was far more terrifying than any monster the adventurers had ever faced. Asfi watched from a distance, wearing a troubled frown. "The Guild must be desperate if they're enlisting the help of Hermes Familia," she muttered under her breath. This was unrestrained panic. There was no other word for it. In this state, no instructions from the adventurers or the Guild staff would do any good. Asfi understood why citizens who just wanted to escape Orario and flee to the supposed safety of nearby Port Meren were treating them like the enemy. And she could hardly fault them. The previous night's events had shaken the whole city to its core. "We have to do something, Ankusha!" she said, urging the woman standing by her side. "At this rate, we'll have a full-blown riot on our hands!" Asfi was talking to Shakti Varma, captain of Ganesha Familia, a group that acted as the city watch. Shakti's subordinates were stationed not just here, but at all the other gates as well. In fact, it was mainly her familia's members keeping the city's residents at bay. Shakti's expression was grave as she answered Asfi's call. "This must have been their plan all along," she said, referring to the Evils, who had all strangely withdrawn from the city after the battle the previous night. "They've trapped us inside these walls, certain we'd eventually turn on each other." "…!" "And if we take even one step outside, we'll be walking right into their trap. Not that we could attempt to break out, even if we wanted to." Everything was going according to plan for the Evils. There was no need for them to take risks and endanger their winning position. They could bring the city to its knees without lifting so much as a single finger. The proof was right in front of them. Shakti clenched her fists in anger and turned her gaze to the city walls… That's when she saw it—red stones falling from the skies. Inferno stones. "Run!!" she yelled, jumping clear even as she raised the alarm. As soon as the stones hit the ground, fire bloomed. Then the screams began. "Aaaaaaaagh!!" "The Evils! They're dropping bombs from the city walls!" "Gaaaaaaaaaagh!" Laughter echoed as the bombs fell, and panicking townsfolk ran for their lives. Those unfortunate enough to be at the back toppled over and the crowd trampled them as people fled with wild abandon. In a matter of seconds, there was a fresh wave of wounded for the harried adventurers to deal with. Falgar leaped into action, carrying townsfolk away from the flames. Asfi protected the Guild employees, sweat coating her brow from exertion, while Shakti met the explosions with her greatshield in an attempt to keep the people around her safe. The bombs kept coming until Shakti commanded her mages to put up a barrier overhead. Shards of broken flagstones were flying in every direction, and the air was thick with smoke. Asfi turned her eyes skyward and was shocked by what she saw. "The Evils have taken the walls!" They were dressed head to toe in white robes and face coverings. Asfi could see more than a dozen of them already. She wiped her bloody cheek with the back of her hand. Beside her, Shakti's face looked grim. "Damn. They've turned Orario into a prison!" "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Look at them run! They're so predictable!" Atop the walls, Valletta laughed as the townsfolk below scattered. She was one of the Evils' commanders, and she was delighted to watch her subordinates who were tossing bombs into the crowd below. Hearing the callous laughter of their leader only encouraged them. One ran up to her to deliver a message. "Lady Valletta. The foolish townsfolk are gathering at the other gates as well. Your orders?" Valletta was not perturbed, for there were forces stationed on the walls all around the city. "Same as here," she said. "Chuck shit down at 'em. And if they're stupid enough to step outside the city, kill 'em." Her lips twisted into a sadistic grin. "We gotta make sure they give Finn and those other bastards a hard time, yeah?" "The enemy has encircled Orario." The meeting room at Guild headquarters had become a war room. Finn glanced across the table with a grim look on his face. "All supply routes have been cut off, and there is little hope of reinforcements. Even getting refugees to Port Meren is an impossible task." "So it's a siege, then," said Loki, the only other soul present. "They plannin' to starve us out?" All the desks had been pushed together in the center of the room to form a table, which was covered in war plans, maps of enemy positions, and various reports. However, due to the urgency of the situation, all the Guild staff, as well as Finn's peers, were otherwise engaged. "There's a lot of work ahead of us," said Finn gravely. "Tending to the wounded, clearing debris, distributing food. And every day that passes means our stores get a little smaller, our forces a little weaker. To top it all off, we have a ticking time bomb right here in the city. Sooner or later, the people will turn on us, and the Evils are doing all they can to speed that process up." Enemy forces were operating out of Orario's own walls. They were perfect fortresses to keep everyone trapped inside. The Evils could safely watch from on high as their prey grew weaker and weaker. Finn analyzed the maps and calmly went over the information in his head. It was clear this was all Valletta's scheme. She clearly had no qualms about exploiting any weakness, no matter how cowardly or cruel. The cold and calculating Finn Deimne understood that better than anyone else. He wanted to believe that he was different, that he possessed qualities of respect and honor that Valletta lacked, but he couldn't deny they were deeply similar. And whenever Finn showed restraint in war, Valletta would find a way to make sure he regretted it. That was what made her such a despicable yet formidable foe. While Finn mulled over Valletta's thought process, Loki gave a deep and bitter sigh. "No attack's scarier than the waiting until something happens, eh? Here we are, tryin' to protect the same people who'll end up stabbin' us in the back." The resentment in her voice was well warranted, after all her familia had suffered the previous night. "I figured Njörðr might be able to help us get people to Meren," she went on, "but it seems the Evils got to them as well. 'Bout the one savin' grace is that they're too busy holdin' the walls to stage any more attacks in the city." To the southwest of Orario lay Port Meren, the metropolis's gateway to the sea. When the attacks first began, Meren had sent up countless emergency flares during the night, but the skies had since fallen silent. While Loki screwed up her face in displeasure, the door opened, and a single old dwarf stepped inside. "I'm not cut out for all this scheming," he said. "Give me a good old-fashioned brawl any day of the week." "Gareth! Are you okay? How are you feeling?" "I can't be lying around when there's fighting to be done," Gareth insisted. "Whenever I close my eyes, I see that witch's face again. Makes my blood boil, it does." The dwarf was still covered in bandages. The sheer number of casualties meant that the city's healers had no choice but to triage their patients. With not enough healing magic to go around, naturally robust dwarves such as Gareth were the first to receive plain old treatment instead. Finn looked at him in shock, but Gareth returned a smile. "I thought my constitution was all I was good for?" he said with a chuckle. "Don't think I forgot that snide remark of yours all those years ago." Finn's expression relaxed into a smile. "…Thank you, Gareth." A warm feeling filled Loki as her two children bantered. They were the founders of her familia, and she had watched over them ever since. "Whatever you say, you have to be careful in your condition," Finn went on. "If you're out of commission, that puts us at a serious strategic disadvantage." "Oh, believe me, I know," Gareth replied. "Now tell me, how goes the battle? I've heard scraps here and there, but that witch laid me low, and I'm sad to say I missed a good deal of it." "Yes, of course. Well, it turns out the enemy are led by an evil god called Erebus. And they have two old members of Zeus Familia and Hera Familia on their side…" Finn explained everything that happened after Gareth and Riveria were defeated by Alfia, the Level 7 witch. "…I see," said Gareth when he was done. "So Zald is here, too. I did not expect the return of two specters in a single night." "What a nightmare," said Loki. "That dirty old man and that creepy hag gave us lotsa trouble in the past…" "I don't need reminding," said Gareth. "Last night was enough to for a lifetime." The familias of Zeus and Hera were the two most powerful forces in Orario's thousand-year history. Even two survivors were enough to chisel a frown into Gareth's stony brow. Both he and Finn were Level 5, and yet there was a vast gulf between their combined might and that of either one of these titans of the past. It almost didn't make sense for them to share the title of first-class adventurer. "The wall that protected this city for a thousand years now stands against us…" Eight years ago, before they were shattered by the Black Dragon, Zeus's and Hera's familias were icons of the city. From the moment Finn and the others first stepped into Orario, they were baptized in their glory, and everyone strove to reach their heights. But things were different now. Zald and Alfia were not merely impossible aspirations; they were enemies of the city. Anyone who knew them from back then realized they were a force to be reckoned with. Their return was a nightmare, just like Loki said. Gareth's words left a heavy silence lingering in the room. "…So where has everyone gone?" he asked, hoping to change the mood. "Are they all busy?" "They're setting up a forward base in Central Park," answered Finn. "Or perhaps it's fair to call that our true headquarters from now on. That'll be our fallback position in case we need to defend the city." "Hm," pondered Gareth. "I suppose that means you've reasoned our enemy's aim is there. Babel, no doubt." "Probably," said Loki. "If the Evils occupy Babel, they can release a flood of monsters into the streets. It's what I'd do." "Yes," agreed Finn. "It would be the fastest way to take over the city. And judging by their behavior last night, I'd say it's very likely they were intending to do just that." "Hm, yes. Makes sense. But in that case, why didn't they?" Gareth stroked his magnificent beard as he tried to decipher the enemy's intentions. "Zald and Alfia had every opportunity to do so, especially after all those deities were sent back to heaven. Why not finish the job?" "Consider this," said Finn. "Our enemy is Level Seven, the equal of a boss from the deep levels, only with the speed and maneuverability of an adventurer." Finn placed his left hand on his hip, and his right on the table, staring at the written summary of Orario's adventurers that populated the papers before him. "Gareth, even without you and Riveria, most of Freya Familia was there at Central Park with me. If all of us worked together to oppose them…" "Hm, terrible odds, but a sliver of hope is better than nothing," said Gareth, seeing where Finn was going with all of this. "Assuming, of course, we're ready to do whatever it takes." "Yes. We would have a shot in one big decisive battle, but only by abandoning the townsfolk to their fates," answered Finn, picking up on the profundity of Gareth's words. "Plus, Zald and Alfia are no strangers; we have records of their abilities. And only one of us would need to survive to make things difficult for Valletta and the other villains." Without Zald and Alfia at the helm, morale among the Evils would plummet, just like it had among the defenders of Orario when Ottar fell. It was only through those two ex-heroes' incalculable might that the Evils could even hope to contest Orario's supremacy at all. "So the enemy decided to play it safe, then," said Gareth. "And now they're holding the townsfolk over us like a weapon. We can't afford to take any more risks." With Gareth apparently convinced by this simple explanation, Finn sank into the deep sea of his own thoughts. That must be what our enemy is planning—I'm sure of it. But why are they being so passive? He couldn't help feeling there was one piece of the puzzle missing…something that was key to understanding the whole situation. Namely, why did the Evils not simply have Zald and Alfia run wild in the city? Orario's forces already had their hands full managing the citizens and dealing with all the adventurer casualties. Any semblance of defense they could mount would very quickly fold to the might of the king and queen. Perhaps there's a reason Zald and Alfia can't act…or won't? Finn narrowed his eyes in thought, scanning the papers laid out before him for clues. Just then, Raul burst into the room. "C-Captain! Lady Loki! The enemy's attacking!" "Here we go!" exclaimed Loki. "Must be the harassment Finn predicted. Where are they?" "I-in the factory district to the northwest!" replied Raul. "An evacuee camp, where we put all the people who couldn't fit in Central Park!" As soon as he heard this, Gareth donned his helmet. "I'll take care of this," he said to Finn. "No doubt our other warriors are busy." "That won't be necessary," said Finn, completely calm. "I already sent Riveria there earlier." "What?! But she's still injured, and a fragile elf to boot. Isn't that the same as sending her to die?" A smile appeared on Finn's lips. "Of course not. If anything, I'm sending her to keep an eye on someone." It was Loki who ultimately divulged the meaning behind Finn's cryptic words. "Yeah. After all, a momma's gotta look after her kid, right?" A silver gleam sliced through the air. "Gah…" A human man slumped to his knees and fell face-first into the rubble before he even had a chance to wind up. His attacker swept back her long hair before dashing off in search of her next target. This young girl's movements drew not only the ire of her foes but also criticism from her own allies. "Come back, Aiz! I can't protect you out there!" Despite her tender years, the girl possessed beautiful golden hair and eyes that would put the most exquisitely crafted porcelain doll to shame. However, her rosy cheeks were now streaked with blood—the blood of her enemies. She was only nine but she carried a silver sword wrapped in her tiny fingers. Aiz Wallenstein flew across the battlefield, ignoring Riveria's cries. "It's fine," she said. "I can do it." She sprinted toward a pack of Evils cultists, the sadistic villains who tormented the innocent people of Orario. The moment they laid eyes on her, fear gripped the thugs and they cried out in horror. "G-golden hair and golden eyes! It's the Doll Princess! Who else can move that fast?!" "It's the War Princess!" Aiz only muttered under her breath. "I'll beat them all." Even the Evils recognized her at a glance. They knew her as nothing but a figurine, crafted to kill. She came to a sharp stop in front of the cultists and channeled all the power within her tiny frame into a diagonal slash, slicing up a brawny beastfolk man. Then, with a perfectly timed follow-up, she rent the flesh and weapon of an Amazon warrior approaching from the side. "Gahhh!" One after the other, villains fell to her blade, and in no time at all, the entire unit was reduced to an unmoving heap. The girl's childishly short arms and legs had done nothing to impede the ferocity and precision of her strikes. She was Level 3. Not even double digits in terms of age yet, and she had already made a name for herself as a second-class adventurer. Judging by the brutal display, it was no fluke. She moved like a tiny golden storm, devastating all in her path. She wore a set of blue battle clothes called the "Alice Dress of War." This was a specialized set of armor refitted from standard heavy-duty prum gear according to Finn's exact specifications. It was custom-built for use against humanoid opponents, and the prum hero had ordered it specifically for Aiz to wear over the coming days. In the ruins of a city that had already lost so much, the sword princess delivered her verdict with the impartiality of a judge condemning a criminal. "They've all been defeated already?!" cried the leader of this band of fanatics, revealing the whites of his eyes. "And…she hasn't killed a single one!" It was quite a feat to incapacitate such fierce opponents without letting them die. It would have been much easier to just kill them outright. But while Aiz's sword danced among her foes, never once did she succumb to bloodlust. Her purpose was to neutralize the threat and nothing more. "I said come back, Aiz! I've had it with you ignoring me!" It was none other than Riveria who came up with this restriction. She shouted as she struggled to keep up with the young girl. She had never wanted Aiz to take part in the battle in the first place. Slaying monsters in the Dungeon was one thing, but she was sure that aiming that blade at people was too much for the young girl to handle. And yet Riveria couldn't say anything when Finn accused her of hypocrisy, letting boys as young as Raul fight while forbidding Aiz from doing the same. Perhaps she was merely being overprotective. In the end, Finn had his way. After the crushing defeat they had suffered the previous night, it was no longer an option to leave cards in their hand unplayed. Even Riveria could see the logic in that. But logic and emotion were two very different things. "You'll pay for this, Finn…" And so the high elf pressed on in spite of her injuries. She cursed their hardheaded leader under her breath while keeping a watchful eye on the girl who was like a daughter to her. "Sh-she wiped out all three of Valletta's units?!" The lone enemy commander wilted as the full scope of the War Princess's devastating power became terribly obvious. Then he stiffened with grim determination. He reached into his robe and drew the Inferno Stone that had been given to him for such an occasion. "O Lord! I offer up my life in—" However, any hope he might've had of taking the girl out in a blaze of glory was swiftly dashed, for her blade moved faster than the eye could see. "Huh?" A flicker of gold passed him by. A sparkle of silver danced in his eyes. And when the man tried to press the trigger, he found he could not. His hands wouldn't obey him. It took him a moment to realize why. They were completely missing. "Finn told me how you guys blow yourselves up," came a monotone voice from behind him. "I won't let that happen." As he finally realized what must have happened, blood spurted from his stumps. She cut my hands…without hitting the bomb. I can't reach… Words flashed through his brain as he struggled to process his thoughts. And when he realized what the girl had accomplished was as impressive as threading a needle blindfolded, his mind froze in fear. "…Th-that's impossible…" The last foe fell onto his back, and the sounds of battle ceased. All that remained was silence, like the calm ocean after a shipwreck. "It's over…" Aiz flicked the blood from her sword—almost as long as she was tall—and returned it to the scabbard on her back. Then she got thwacked on the head. "Uggh!" "That's what you think, you careless child! It's not like the Dungeon out here; there's a war going on! Never let down your guard!" Riveria spat words like thunder, shooting a look of deepest displeasure at the headstrong girl. "Owww…" Aiz, however, remained unrepentant. She rubbed her head and peered up at Riveria with teary eyes. It was only times like these that she acted her age. If Loki had been here, no doubt she would have tried to spirit away the adorable little girl and take her home. "Don't look at me like that, young lady! Why don't you listen to me when I'm talking to you?!" Aiz's crocodile tears were, of course, wholly ineffective against the seasoned Riveria. Shaken, the young girl softened her gaze and began to speak. "Well, they were no match for me…" "This is what I'm talking about! You—" "And besides, you're hurt." "!!" Riveria froze when she heard those words. Like her dwarven comrade, Riveria still exhibited signs of recent medical care. She was wrapped in bandages, and her clothes—the Master's Elf Montante, a set of black-and-white robes with a jade-green cloak—were still in disrepair after the battle with Alfia. "So I thought…I have to work harder," said Aiz. "I didn't want to see you hurting, Riveria…"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/prologue2-04.txt	Astrea Record: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Tales of Heroes, Vol. 2 It was a gesture of love. Innocent, childlike love for the members of her familia. Aiz was young and shy, awkward with words and expressions. She simply stated exactly what she was feeling. Riveria closed her eyes in thought for a moment, then kneeled on the ground, bringing her jade-green eyes in line with Aiz's golden gaze. "…I'm happy you care about me, Aiz, I really am," she said, choosing her words carefully. "But do not forget that I feel the same way about you. I worry about your safety, even more than I do mine. I just don't want you to get hurt." "…Okay." At last, the young girl nodded. To anyone else, the pair would seem a perfectly ordinary mother and child. "Now, come," said Riveria. "Let's get that blood cleaned up." "Mm…" Sensing she was no longer angry, Aiz trotted over to Riveria. Like a docile kitten, she submitted her face for a cleaning from Riveria's snow-white scarf. Riveria couldn't help but smile at the girl as she scrubbed Aiz's cheeks clean, but her smile vanished when she looked down at the crimson stains on her neckerchief. "Aiz…don't ever get used to the smell of blood. To kill another person is something that should be abhorred." She looked down with despondent eyes. "Remember that. Never forget that it's people you're fighting, not monsters." In the tone of her voice was something rarely heard from the mouth of one so wise and noble as she. Aiz didn't answer this earnest plea at first. Perhaps she didn't quite understand. She simply stared back with big, round eyes. "Riveria…" she said at last. "Why do people kill each other?" "…!" Riveria's eyes flew wide. "I know about the Evils," Aiz went on, "but…don't we have other things to fight?" From the mouths of babes came the pure and ugly truth. "Shouldn't we be fighting the monsters instead of each other?" A chill wind blew through the shattered city streets. Only after a long silence did Riveria open her mouth to speak. "…You're right, Aiz. You're absolutely right." She looked to the sky, for she could change nothing here on earth. "What fools we are…to spill the blood of our brethren."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-02-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/prologue2.txt	Astrea Record: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Tales of Heroes, Vol. 2 PROLOGUE A City Shrouded in Darkness Somebody said, "Remember the stars. They have not forgotten how to shine." Somebody cried. "How can we see the stars when dark clouds gather and hide them from us?" Somebody sneered, "Just like how evil swallowed the justice everyone took for granted." It was raining. Water fell like tears from the clouds above. The color of the sky didn't seem real. An all-encompassing gray, neither light nor dark, like a rotting lichen spread out across the heavens, trapping those who still walked the earth in the crevice between night and day. It could have been mistaken for limbo, teetering on the precipice between this world and the next, if not for the presence of graves—countless graves that lay unmoving beneath the pounding rain. No, this was very much the world of the living. And this was a garden of the dead, a bleak cemetery located within the walls of the Labyrinth City. "………" A handful of gods stood together, vastly outnumbered by the graves. Even calling them graves was a stretch, for many were little more than holes in the ground, covered with dirt and simply marked with broken weapons or wooden sticks. No coffins, no headstones. Nothing but the cold earth to entomb the soulless bodies of their fallen children. All of them lost their lives in a single night. The night that evil was born in Orario. "This tragedy has claimed the lives of many adventurers and innocent townsfolk…" Her walnut hair glistened with tears. Astrea, goddess of justice, addressed her fellow deities with a profound sadness in her eyes, which were the same color as the sea of stars. She stood, as they all did, exposed to the pouring rain while staring across the field of death that stretched far into the distance. "Even now, their numbers grow," she added. The never-ending burials. Ceaseless blood and tears. Even the First Cemetery, where adventurers were usually buried, was not enough to house them. Instead, the congregation stood in a hastily constructed extension. The atmosphere was beyond dismal. Astrea stared down at her feet, while the god beside her let out a wail. "Oh, my children, my children, I have failed you! No words can possibly express how sorry I am!" It was Ganesha. His loud, booming voice was almost enough to dispel the gloom, and his tears nearly outpaced the rain. They poured from under his elephant mask, staining his clothes. "It is pathetic! Pathetic! That I, the god of the masses, can do nothing but scream and holler!!" Today, no one begrudged him his tears. No one told him to shut up or be quiet. In fact, they envied him for his ability to grieve so openly. They all wished they could do the same. A little off to the side, Hermes spoke to the graves of his fallen followers, so numerous he didn't have the luxury of visiting them one by one. "The souls of our children are long departed," he said cynically. "There is no one beneath the earth to hear our pleas or ease our regrets." The ways of an eternal god could seem callous to mortals, yet as he thought of those he'd lost, Hermes pulled the brim of his hat down over his eyes. "This is just a mortal custom," he told himself. "A meaningless gesture, and yet…" "And yet, if we do not pray for them, who will?" Astrea finished his words with a firm nod, her sad indigo eyes now set on the uncertain sky. "Our other children fight on, even now. Evil denies them their moment of grief."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/afterword.txt	Afterword Afterword This work is a novelization of a scenario featured in Wright Flyer Studio's mobile game Danmachi: Memoria Freese. There have been revisions and amendments in order to make it suitable for publication. I hope this makes it enjoyable for those who have previously played the game, as well as those who have not. One day in 2020, I was taken to a room and sat down in front of the GA Bunko editorial department's latest assassin, Mr. Usami, for a nice, quiet Talk regarding a new project in the works. "Mr. Omori," he started out. "How would you like to novelize Astrea Record?" "No, thanks," I quickly replied. Then, after a moment's thought, I added, "I can't." The idea of picking up my pen and returning to a project advertised as being equivalent to one-and-a-half cours of anime made my head hurt. I also didn't understand the point of rewriting a script I had already nearly died finishing for the game. "But you can't not release a book." "It's an important part of the setting." "The fans will riot." "You will do it, won't you?" "Won't you?" Before I knew it, I was locked in a room as dark as the Orario of seven years past, forced to revisit that harrowing tale of good and evil. So if you read this book and enjoyed it, you have only one person to thank. Once per day, you must clap your hands and shout at the top of your lungs, "Thank you, Usami!!" Astrea Record. A tale I have steeled myself to tell once more. There will be three parts. If you have made it this far, then I know my efforts were not for naught. Now for the acknowledgments. To my lord and master Usami. Though I may have sullied your name in the preceding paragraphs, this work would truly not have been possible without you. Thank you for all your help and support. To my illustrator, Kakage. Thank you for gracing this volume with your beautiful and adorable designs! The first time I saw your depictions of Alize and the girls, my heart leaped out of my chest. I very much look forward to working with you again in the future. And finally, I express my deepest thanks to Wright Flyer Studios and everyone else who assisted in the adaption of this story. Stay tuned for Volume 2, Fall of Justice. I hope you will follow these girls' struggles to their bitter end. —Fujino Omori
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter1-1.txt	Chapter 1: Astrea Familia CHAPTER 1 Astrea Familia It took some time before the flames were fully extinguished. While Lyu and company had managed to preserve much of the factory's structure, in other places, the walls had partially collapsed and the scorched interior was visible even from the outside. However, the greatest priority had been to prevent the fire from spreading, and mercifully, these efforts had succeeded. While the townspeople celebrated in the street, the girls of Astrea Familia remained inside the building to clean up the aftermath. "Stopped the fire and rounded up the Evils! All in a day's work! He-hem! I'm so great!" The redheaded human girl proudly puffed out her relatively modest chest. Her name was Alize Lovell, and she was the captain of Astrea Familia, a group dedicated to the pursuit of justice. She swept her hair with her hand, a gesture that was clearly meant to charm her audience. "Even in the depths of a burning factory," she said, "pretty and purehearted girls like us can always bring a crisis to a swift conclusion!" "What is that even supposed mean?" interjected Lyra, the prum. The girl had a all-knowing air that seemed deeply at odds with her cute prum features. "I don't know how you manage to stay so optimistic," she sighed. "I'm gettin' tired of fightin' all the time. It never seems to end." Those words seemed to dampen Alize's spirits. She dropped her head a little and said, "Yeah, we didn't manage to stop the Evils before they put their plan in motion. If only we'd arrived a little sooner, maybe we could have saved the factory as well." Her voice that had been full of sunshine shifted to a subdued whisper in an instant. Lyra held her tongue and said nothing more. However, the awkward silence lasted only a moment, before a voice like treacle joined in. "The captain cannot be held to blame," it said. "If anyone, it was that elf holding the rest of us back." These words belonged to their human comrade, Gojouno Kaguya. Her long dark hair was smooth, like silk, and her voice was as fluid and light as a musical performance. She was elegant and refined, a shining example of what those in the Far East termed a yamato nadeshiko—the embodiment of modest femininity. "Did you find some fault in my actions, Kaguya?" Lyu Leon refused to let that insult pass without comment. Though she kept her face hidden behind a mask, it was impossible not to notice the radiant and natural blond hair that flowed down her back. Their racial differences aside, when she stood side by side with Kaguya, the two often looked like sisters from behind. In truth, the two were bitter rivals—or so they might be called if the relationship were mutual. Instead, it was mostly Kaguya who kept finding new and inventive ways to get on Lyu's nerves. "Why, yes. Did you not notice?" "I'm the one who cut through the enemy lines!" Lyu roared back. "I'm the one who secured the warehouse before anyone else! Tell me, where did I fall short?!" But Kaguya's rude insinuations were the least of Lyu's annoyances. "And drop the facade," she said. "Just listening to you is making me sick!" "Very well, very well. In that case, as you wish, I shall speak freely." Lyu's outburst did little to faze her. Without breaking her perfect smile, Kaguya dropped the hand she'd been pressing to her cheek. And then. "You moroooooooooon!!" Her personality changed completely. Her deranged smile and leering eyes put even Lyu on edge. "Did I find fault?!" She scoffed. "You bumbled your way through everything!" "Wha…?!" "Who do you think has to clean up after you every time you let your emotions get the better of you? Me! So don't get uppity with me, you trash pixie!" "Trash?!" A pair of wild eyes and an unending stream of abuse. This was Kaguya's true self, behind the "facade" Lyu had been referring to. Her spittle sprayed Lyu as she raged like the saltiest of sailors. The yamato nadeshiko was nowhere to be seen now. "You oblivious, tunnel-visioned, mindless little numbskull! How dare you speak as though you've done a good job, you child!" "I—I wasn't the only one who went on a rampage out there! I would very much like to know what part of your response you considered proportionate punishment!" "Now you've done it, you trash pixie!!" "Stop calling me that!!" A fight promptly broke out between the two second-tier Level 3 adventurers. It was a fearsome exchange of punches and kicks almost impossible for the eye to follow. "Oh, here we go again," sighed Lyra. "Another swearin' match between our hardheaded elf and our far-eastern princess. I wish you'd spend all that effort buildin' each other up instead of tearin' each other down!" "I like it!" said Alize, hands on her hips. "They make a good match for each other, don't you think?" "Please stop them instead of lookin' so proud, Captain…" said Lyra with an even deeper sigh. Just then, another voice called out, and into the factory strode several high-tier adventurers led by a strikingly beautiful woman. "Sorry I'm late, Alize!" she said. "Ah, Shakti, you came!" Her azure hair was cut rough and short, and her battle clothes had a deep slit cut into the side. She was taller than Lyu and the others, with sharp features that paired well with her wise leadership. This was Shakti Varma, the captain of Ganesha Familia. Her appearance put a smile on Alize's face. It was fair to say the two were bosom friends. "Oh, well, you're just in time; we've just finished doin' all the hard work," scoffed Lyra. "You call yourself the city watch?" Indeed, Ganesha Familia was the other group besides Astrea Familia dedicated to upholding law and order in Orario. Following the will of their god, the Lord of Hosts, Shakti and company took it upon themselves to ensure that laws and customs were being followed all over the city. In the current Age of Darkness, Orario would have long since succumbed to violence and mayhem were it not for their constant efforts. "Lyra!" Alize chided, "Ganesha Familia are very busy watching over other parts of the city! Don't say things like that." "Well, someone has to, and you guys are all too goody-goody." Alize was just about to reprimand her fellow adventurer when Shakti shook her head as if to concede the point. "It's okay, Alize," she said. "Lyra's right. And though it won't make up for our negligence, we'll handle things from here." She turned and barked some orders to her followers. "Take the unconscious Evils into custody! Hurry! Keep an eye out for any stragglers!" """Yes, ma'am!""" The members of Ganesha Familia moved out with perfect coordination. They were both more numerous and better equipped than Astrea Familia, so the latter had no cause to object. "This is the fourth attack on magic stone factories so far," said Lyu, resting in a corner of the burnt-out factory as Ganesha Familia got to work in the background. "Could it be mere coincidence?" "Four attacks is no coincidence," replied Kaguya. "The Evils are plotting something, and no matter how many we put down, more always seem to crawl out of the woodwork." "And the ones we round up never seem to know the full plan," added Lyra, clasping her hands behind her head. "Wonder if we'll learn anything this time…" Just then, one of Shakti's subordinates came over and whispered a report in her ear, after which she turned to face Alize's group. "So what are we looking at, Shakti?" asked Alize. "At first glance, the same as the previous raids," Shakti replied. "An attack on Orario's all-important magic-stone-item production industry." She turned her sharp-witted eyes on the members of Astrea Familia. "But thanks to your timely intervention, we managed to survey the factory before everything burned down. That means that this time we noticed that something had been stolen." "And that was?" asked Lyu. "A batch of magic-stone ignition pieces," Shakti answered. "Ignition pieces…?" asked Alize, cocking her head in confusion. At her puzzled response, Shakti launched into a careful explanation. "Think of them as the switches that activate a magical device," she said. "They're an integral part of all magic items, right down to the humble magic-stone torch." Lyu pondered the meaning of Shakti's words. The item in her example was something any adventurer knew how to use. They came in all shapes and sizes, but the internal mechanisms were largely the same, or so Lyu understood. Of course, she wasn't an expert, so this was just based upon what people said. The point was, the stolen part was vital to the construction of any magic-stone item. "What do you suppose the enemy wants with them?" asked Kaguya. "Who knows?" replied Shakti, closing her eyes. "Are they building something?" asked Lyra. "I don't know that, either." "Well, some good we are, then. I hate bein' kept in the dark. What does it say that neither us nor the watch have an answer for this?" As harsh as they were, Lyra's words came from a place of genuine concern more than anything else. That didn't stop Lyu and the other familia members from stiffening up when she spoke her mind so frankly. "…I'll report this information to the Guild, and advise them to bolster their security," said Shakti after a moment of silence. "I'll inform Loki Familia, too." "Let's beef up patrols around the city," Alize added. "We don't need to know all the details of our enemy's plan to stop it from happening." As the two familia captains compared their plans, a third voice chimed in. "The remaining Evils have all been rounded up, sis." Cute was the word that came to mind upon seeing Shakti's younger sibling. The tomboy cut of her pale blue hair lent her less of the adult beauty of her elder sister and more of a childlike innocence. She was also more amply endowed than the likes of Lyu and Alize, with a petite build that was apparent even under layers of clothing. Her blue battle gear, however, was similar to Shakti's. But the captain seemed to take issue with her sister's casual tone. "Ardee," she said. "I thought I told you not to call me that in front of others." "Oh yeah. Sorry, sis," Ardee replied, sticking out her tongue. Shakti sighed and left it at that. "We'll take things from here," she said, turning to Alize. "We'll keep the Guild appraised, so you can all go home and rest." "Really? We'll take you up on that, then," replied Alize with a smile. "Neze! Go tell the others we're pulling out!" "You got it!" came the wolf girl's eager reply, and she ran off to relay her captain's orders. Just as the rest of Astrea Familia turned to leave, Ardee piped up. "See you soon, Leon." "Indeed. See you soon." Lyu gave a friendly smile before turning to leave. Alize took one last look at her comrades and declared, "Justice has been served! Let us return triumphant into the arms of our Lady Astrea!" By the time Astrea Familia left the destroyed factory, it was already night. Thick clouds were gathering in the moonless skies above, allowing only a smattering of starlight to filter through. It was this scant light that illuminated the way home for Lyu and the others. Though quite some time had passed since the end of the battle at the burning factory, there were still grateful citizens in the streets who congratulated them as they passed. Lyu was awkward and unsociable at the best of times and never knew how to act at times like these. She hid behind her comrades, allowing them to bask in praise instead. After leaving the main street and passing down several side roads, the group arrived at last in a quiet little neighborhood in the northern part of Orario. This was where the members of Astrea Familia called home—Stardust Garden. It was an elegant white mansion, but by no means extravagant. When they entered the lobby, a charming goddess greeted them. "Welcome back, everyone," she said. It was clear to all who saw her that this was a woman of grace, warmth, and compassion. Such was the purity and dignity with which she composed herself. Long walnut hair flowed down her shoulders, and her eyes were a deep blue, like a sea of stars, with a fascinating clarity even more striking than Lyu's. Her smooth yet supple skin was wrapped in a pure white robe that had never seen a stain in its life, and she moved and spoke with perfect modesty. The only feature that might tempt a man to sin was the deep ravine that ran between her breasts. The word goddess was invented for women like her. Such was her beauty, her grace, her magnificence. She was Astrea, patron deity of Astrea Familia and goddess of justice. "Lady Astrea!" Upon seeing her divine mistress, Alize let out a cry of elation. The captain of the familia was so full of love and respect that she looked like a little girl running into the arms of her mother. Afterward, the other members of the familia walked through the door, one at a time. "It's good to see you again, Lady Astrea," said Lyu simply. "Sorry to come back all at once like kids," said Lyra. "What's for dinner? Just kiddin'." "My, for our Lady herself to greet us at the door. What did we do to deserve this honor?" asked Kaguya. While everyone had something different to say, all of them shared the same joy when they laid eyes on their goddess. "Must it be an honor, Kaguya?" replied Astrea. "I am always happy to see your safe return. Celebrating that is universal, whether god or mortal." A benevolent smile played on her lips. Surely, Lyu thought, this was what everyone imagined a goddess to be, back before the Age of Gods began. "Especially in times like these," Astrea went on. "To see my beloved children all come back safe, it makes my heart soar like a newlywed virgin!" she added with a playful smile. "A—a newlywed…virgin?! Lady Astrea, you sure know how to get the blood pumping!" "And what's got you all hot under the collar, Neze?" retorted the industrious and no-nonsense Lyu with a sigh. Astrea gave a lovely smile before looking over the members of her familia. "You are all weary, I expect? Would you like some supper? Or a bath?" "Or you, Lady Astrea?" said Kaguya with a grin, casting her eye toward Astrea's bust—the largest of the group by far save for Maryu's. "K-Kaguya?! You lecherous, impudent…" Lyu confronted the troublemaker in a display of that famous elf temper. "Oh? What's got you so bothered?" Kaguya retorted. "Don't tell me a pure and upstanding elf such as yourself took my innocent words as something scandalous?" "Y-you…!" A smug smile spread across Kaguya's lips as Lyu fell right into her trap. The look in her eyes said "Come on, let's hear what you were thinking, you trash pixie!" Lyu could do nothing but tremble in rage and grit her teeth as a single tear rolled down her cheek. "I guess I'll take a bath first!" said Alize, ignorant of the war being waged right under her nose. "That's our captain for ya," remarked Lyra. "Doesn't read the mood at all!" Then, with a tired sigh, she exited the lobby. It was a day like any other in the Astrea Familia household. "Oh yeah, why don't you join us, Lady Astrea? Then I get to make my bath time my you time as well!" """?!""" Every member of the familia—even Lyra, who was halfway out the door—turned and stared in shock. "Oh my. It seems none of you are so forward as our Alize here," Astrea chuckled. Alize bounded over to her and, with an energetic smile, took her hand. "Come with me, Lady Astrea! Let's get you—" """No!! You can't!!""" The other girls shouted out in anger, and yet another of their daily quarrels began. "Now that we've finished with our baths and our dinner, it's time for the debriefing! Let's go over what we've learned today!" The night was drawing on, and the familia members gathered in a spacious meeting room, seated in a circle on couches and armchairs. Alize, her skin still glossy from her bath, led the proceedings in a rousing and energetic manner, earning resentful glares from her exhausted compatriots. "How can she stand up there after what she just did…?" asked Lyra, slung over the armrest of her couch. "It is quite a punchable face," agreed Kaguya with a smirk. "Don't hate me just because I'm the perfect cutie on the inside as well as the outside!" came Alize's reply. "Don't worry, though, you're plenty pretty yourself! Wink!" "Grrrh…!" growled Kaguya, her smile struggling to stay on her face. "You're going to pop a blood vessel if you aren't careful," offered Lyu, but the far-eastern girl either didn't hear or was willfully ignoring the elf's words. "Tee-hee," giggled Astrea, sitting down in her prepared seat. "I shall never tire of watching your lovely banter, but I fear we must be pressing on. Alize, do you have anything to report?"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter1-3.txt	Chapter 1: Astrea Familia "I do, Lady Astrea! The factory may have been severely damaged in the blaze, but I'm pleased to report there were no casualties! That's including us, of course!" Alize proceeded to direct the meeting while the other familia members each stood up and gave their own reports and voiced their opinions on the matters under discussion. "We're dealing with riffraff," said Kaguya, annoyed but nonetheless keeping up her polite persona. "An organized riffraff, but a riffraff nonetheless." "Yeah, someone's clearly in command," said Lyra. "Quantity over quality isn't really up to snuff these days." "Even so, the attacks keep coming," said Lyu, visibly frustrated. "Whoever's behind this is laughing at us while we run around putting out their fires." "I understand where you're coming from, Lyu," said Astrea, "but we mustn't rush into danger. Don't forget that members of the Evils have been hiding in the city ever since the days of the two titans." "Zeus Familia and Hera Familia…" Lyu intoned the names with a sense of reverence and awe. "They epitomized the Age of Gods, and they were what every familia aspired to be," said Alize, uncharacteristically serious. "Zeus and Hera ruled over Orario for a thousand years without a single threat to their existence." "Even the Evils were too afraid to make a move during their reign," added Lyra, slouching messily in her seat. "So they must have been pretty strong, huh." "They were the most powerful familias ever to exist since ancient times," said Astrea, causing Celty, the youngest of the troop, to gasp. Lyu's face stiffened as she picked up the remainder of the tale. "But the Black Dragon defeated them both…" The Three Great Quests. Orario's duty, placed on its shoulders by the rest of the world. The slaying of three powerful beasts that predated the Age of Gods. Together, Zeus and Hera defeated the first two of these monsters—Behemoth and Leviathan—but they failed to vanquish the third, a dragon so mighty it was known as the apocalypse incarnate. What kind of force could have been responsible for the fall of not one, but two of history's greatest familias? Other gods and their followers could only dream of coming close to matching their splendor. A hush fell over Lyu and the others as they contemplated it. After a few moments, it was Neze who said what was on everyone else's mind. "If they couldn't beat it, who will? No one's ever gonna put an end to the King of Dragons…" This time, the room fell deathly silent. It was a fear shared not just by her fellow familia members but all of Orario and quite possibly the entire world. The Black Dragon was a living symbol of death and destruction, a harbinger of demise that slept at the northern tip of the world. Lyu and the others could not help but feel a sense of primal dread at the mere mention of its name. A gloom had fallen over the late-night meeting. Of course, the one to attempt a return to form was none other than Alize. "We've strayed far enough, I think. Let's get back on topic! Ignite your righteous hearts, everyone! Burning justice!!" Everyone looked up at their hotheaded captain. "Remember, nobody died today, and that's thanks to all of you!" she went on. "And we figured out another step in the Evils' plan! As long as we keep making progress like this, we'll get there in the end! Let's celebrate the small victories, people!" She put on a beaming smile as though sheer enthusiasm could banish the gloom from her comrades' hearts. "And every step we take brings us that much closer to the golden days of Orario when Zeus and Hera ruled the city!" "Alize…" muttered Lyu, wide-eyed. "So don't lose faith!" said Alize, beating her right hand to her chest. "Remember, the fastest way forward is through! Our persistence will force the Evils to crack! And once they're dealt with, we move on to defeating the Black Dragon! Mm-hmm, we can't fail!" Her huge leaps of logic, if such reckless optimism could be called that, left something to be desired. The rest of Astrea Familia just stared at her, mouths agape. Even Astrea simply blinked a few times in mild-mannered surprise. The room fell silent once again, though for a completely different reason than before. It was Lyra who spoke up first. "'We can't fail,' she says. There's bein' optimistic, and then there's this." Her exasperated tone failed to hide the smile forming on her lips. Next to speak was Kaguya. She wasn't as easily swayed by her captain's words. "I find it hard to accept such idealistic platitudes," she said. "It's fine to speak of the future, but we can't look away from reality in the meanwhile." Once again, Kaguya had discarded any pretenses of humility to speak her mind outright. She wasn't quite the wide-eyed maniac she was when making fun of Lyu, but her pragmatic and stern words were still a departure from her usual composure. But Alize only turned and gave the far-eastern girl a curious look. "I don't know what you mean, Kaguya. I'm not being idealistic at all. We won't fail. We can't afford to. That means all there's left to do is get it done!" Then she smiled. A clear, almost blinding smile, as though what she was saying was the most obvious thing in the world. Kaguya was lost for words. She froze, an astonished look on her face. Then she smiled as well. "…I never can win against you, can I? I'm starting to think this is a bad matchup for me." Kaguya conceded and allowed Alize's soothing words to wash over her. Even Lyu, unwise as she was to the subtleties of the heart, could see in the girl's face that this was one debate she didn't mind losing. "Hey, it's not like we've never seen Alize be optimistic before," said Noin, smiling fondly. "That's right! We never would have joined her if it weren't for that unbeatable enthusiasm!" added Maryu. "All right, we're gonna beat the Black Dragon!" cheered the Amazon, Iska, raising a fist above her head. "I dunno when or how, but we're gonna do it!" The place erupted into smiles, banishing the girls' fears in an instant. ".….…. " It was looking at this scene that made Lyu think. You're amazing, Alize. When they look into your eyes, everyone finds the courage to believe. From cynical Lyra to pig-headed Kaguya. Noin and Neze, Asta and Lyana, Celty and Iska, and Maryu, too. And me. You reached out and took my hand and earned my unending respect. You are my hope. My inspiration. So long as we have you and Astrea leading us, we will never lose sight of what's right. Lyu thought back to the day the two first met. She could not quite explain why she felt so proud. However, in an apparent screw you to Lyu's introspection, Alize puffed out her modest chest and displayed her smuggest face yet. "Once again, everyone kneels before my overwhelming justice!" she declared. "He-hem! I'm so great!" """""""""Grr!""""""""" Everyone save Lyu and Astrea looked ready to blow a fuse. Her only flaw is that she doesn't know when to stop talking…, thought Lyu, burying her face in her hands. "Anyway! Our mission is to wipe away people's tears and bring back their smiles! That's why we fight!" Astrea nodded sagely at her captain's commendable words. "That's right," she said. "There are as many struggles for justice as there are stars in the sky. Have no doubt that our cause is one of them." "See? Lady Astrea agrees!" Alize grinned. "Now then, let's do our usual, and then we can all get some rest!" At the mention of this "usual," a few of the members grew weary looks. "Do we have to?" moaned Lyra. "I find it a little embarrassing, to be honest…" "You're not alone," agreed Kaguya. "Be serious, you two!" reprimanded Lyu. "I—I don't find it embarrassing at all! Not one bit!" So she claimed, but Lyu's cheeks had already begun to redden at the thought of what was to come. First, Alize beckoned the whole group to rise. The eleven girls stood in a circle while their fiery-haired leader extended one hand into the center. "We do our duty! We balance the scales! Until the day we join the stars!" She recited the words all in attendance had sworn by. This oath was their proof and pride that they were followers of Astrea. "Like comets racing across the sky, we leave our starry trails on this earth wherever we go! This I swear, by the sword and wings of justice!" "By the sword and wings of justice!!" Lyu and the other girls repeated the oath, and before their smiling goddess, they renewed the vows that had brought them together. Ten days until the Great Conflict…
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter10-1.txt	Chapter 10: Conquerors CHAPTER 10 Conquerors What path is there for the man with no equal? The man who, with a single step, crushes all? With a single blow, smites all? And with a single cut, severs all? There is only one path: the path of conquest. The one truth no man can deny, and the one law that endures after every last civilization has returned to dust. A jet-black sword roared in the burning town. "Gaaaaaaaaagh!" "My legs…My leeegs! Grugh!" All who stood against it were doomed. None could lay a single scratch on its wielder. The first swing tore them to pieces, then the second obliterated what remained. Lifeless corpses and pieces of gore lined the streets, marking the conqueror's triumphant return. The sword was vast, as though carved from the flesh of hell's plumpest demon. It was so large that all who saw it doubted their eyes. Its bearer stood over two meders tall. Black steel plate covered him completely save the mouth, chin, and neck. Its weight would crush an ordinary man, but the warrior walked unimpeded as though his armor were no heavier than cotton. Though his muscles were hidden, the man's monstrous strength was evident from the way rocks shattered beneath his feet and the earth shook as he walked—and the way dozens fell to a single swing of his jet-black sword. With each step, the flames quivered. With each swing, the number of corpses grew. The conqueror walked unhindered along the path of utter destruction. "Weak. Far too weak. When did adventurers become as soft as rotten fruit?" Amid the dancing embers, the man's crimson cloak billowed like a serpent's tongue. His deep voice shook those who heard it to their core. "I barely grazed you. Do you really mean to disappoint me this way, Orario?" Nobody answered. Instead, a silver spear shot out of the sky like a meteorite, precisely aimed toward the seam in his armor at the rear of the shoulder. The man didn't even go for his sword. He turned and raised his gauntlet, brushing the spear aside with a mere flick of his wrist. Allen was astounded. By his reckoning, he had taken the swordsman by surprise and from behind. Yet his foe had not only seen the attack coming, he had parried it with almost no effort. "Better," came the man's voice. "You are fast, like the wind." Allen caught a glimpse of the warrior's lead-colored eyes through the cracks in his lowered visor. He felt his hair and fur bristle. "But, like the wind," the man continued, "you are also weak." Suddenly, his hand moved, faster than Allen could follow. His heightened beast senses screamed at him to hold up his spear, and he obeyed, mere instants before an unimaginable force launched him back. The sheer impact of blocking the blow nearly broke his arm. He slid across the stone, plunging his spear into the ground in order to come to a halt, but only after traveling more than ten whole meders. Allen felt his blood race. Sweat dripped across his face. "What the hell did you just do?!" he yelled. He hadn't seen it coming. No—there had been nothing to see. One minute the man had been standing there, stock-still like a cardboard cutout, and the next, his weapon was thrust in Allen's face. "I simply scratched you," the man answered. "Nothing to be surprised by." The mysterious warrior was as solid and unmoving as a cliff wall. Allen took another look, and it was then he realized the man spoke the truth. He had done nothing more than take a swing with the greatsword in his hand. "An adventurer must be quick to make the unknown known," he continued. "Before I take your head and devour you." "…!!" Few doubted Allen Fromel to be among the strongest in the land. He never bowed down to others, remaining as aloof as a stray cat. His sharp claws and powerful teeth could fell a tiger, and he could sprint across the plains with a chariot in tow. It was this that earned him the title of Vana Freya, along with the respect and admiration of his peers. So that was why, when face-to-face with a foe even he did not comprehend, Allen shuddered. Just then, a third voice entered the fray. A second respondent to reports of an unstoppable one-man army. His blade ran red with the blood of all whom he had felled, but when he saw who he faced, his eyes went wide and time seemed to halt. "It's you…" Ottar muttered. "Ah. Finally, a face I recognize," said the man. "So this cat must be your apprentice?" When he heard the man's voice, he was freed of all doubt. Ottar's face cracked into a scowl, like an iceberg shattering. Bullets of sweat clustered on his brow. No one in Orario would believe it, even if they saw the sight with their very own eyes. Warlord was afraid. The city's strongest boaz was even more shocked than Allen was. When he spoke at last, it was like the rumbling cry of a wounded beast. "…Allen, go back to Lady Freya. Protect her." "Are you insane?! I'm about to tear this guy a hole he'll be able to shit out of! Don't get in my way!" Allen's response was so furious it almost concealed how hard he was shaking. But… "Listen to me!!" Ottar's bellowing voice caused Allen to freeze. He had never seen the boaz man so alarmed before. He was like a boulder, never so much as batting an eye, but now those eyes were creased, his teeth bared. "If you have even the tiniest bit of respect for me as your captain, then go," he said again. "Do it. If not for me…then for our Lady." Ottar had never pleaded with Allen in his life. It was enough to quell the rising flames of hate in his heart. He looked into his captain's eyes, the eyes of the man he had sworn to defeat, and saw a love for their goddess that far outstripped any other. And so, after a while… "…Tch." …He turned and ran. Allen put aside his own feelings, squashed his own pride, all to fulfill Ottar's request and get to Freya as fast as possible to warn her what had happened. Ottar watched him disappear toward the center of the city and breathed a sigh of relief before turning back to the black-clad man. "You haven't changed," the invader said. "You're still a child who has yet to be weaned from his mother's teat." Ottar's foe slowly advanced. There was an inescapable pressure in his voice. Ottar only falteringly managed to put together his words and speak the conqueror's name. "Why are you here, Zald? How can it be you?!" The explosions were unceasing, sending a hot draft down every street. Fearful voices called it the Devil's Wind. It cast flames and embers into the air in a phantasmagorical display of cruel indifference. Immolated adventurers staggered out of the blaze, making it only a few steps before collapsing onto the ground. A boy kneeled over his big brother, shaking the unmoving body and weeping. Off in a pile of rubble, a discarded teddy bear gazed up at the burning buildings with cold, unfeeling eyes. The air was filled with the sounds of bombs, blades, and screams. It never ended. ".….…. " One woman stood amid it all. Silent and detached, as if cut from the page with scissors. A hooded robe covered her face, but her eyes were shut, in deep contemplation of the sounds. She didn't seem at all afraid of the death happening around her. In fact, she didn't even move. She stood at the center of the whirling eddy of mayhem, like the eye of a storm. "What are you doing?" came a voice, along with the sound of footsteps on rubble. It was Riveria the high elf, with long jade-green hair and an unbroken posture. "This detestable noise shall never be repeated," the woman replied. Given all that was happening, her voice was unnervingly calm. "As my way of paying my respects, I am listening to it," she said. "For if not now, then when?" Her words were like a still pool of water the raging fires could never reach. "As painful as it is to listen, far more painful would it be to ignore them and regret it when they are gone. Is that not what it means to be alive?" The woman turned around to face her, but Riveria was already furious. "You have no right to speak of life, witch. Not when those people lie at your feet." Her eyes flashed with rage. The woman peered down at the bodies of the adventurers she had slain. "They are detritus," she said. "Nothing more." Riveria could take her callous disregard no longer. "Very well," she said. "Then I shall eradicate you. Perhaps your life will atone for your sins!" The indignant elf brandished her staff and began muttering a spell. Immediately, a glittering magic circle spread out beneath her, along with a wave of magical energy. "Blow with the power of the third harsh winter, advent of the end—my name is Alf!" The woman, meanwhile, appeared utterly unconcerned. "Wynn Fimbulvetr!!" Three bursts of arctic wind expanded as they rushed toward the woman. In response, all she did was raise one arm and speak a single word. "Ataraxia." That one word annihilated the fatal blizzard winds. "Wha—?!" Riveria couldn't believe her eyes. An overwhelming wall of sound filled the street, pushing everything else away and extinguishing Riveria's magic, carving it out of reality as though it was never there to begin with. At the same time, Riveria had the strangest feeling she'd seen it all before. "She canceled it out—nullified it completely!" Just then, Gareth dropped from a rooftop onto the figure's head, having felt the magical disturbance and come running over. "Roooaaaaaah!" He swung his greatax, with all the force of gravity behind it, but once again the woman spoke only a single word. "Gospel." There was a dull rumble, one that echoed in the very pit of one's stomach, and Gareth was flung backward with the force of a dam breaking. "Graaaaaagh?!" "Gareth!" The dwarf flew like a cannonball, straight past Riveria and into a nearby building, demolishing the wall. After being pelted with fallen rubble, Gareth struggled to his feet, using his ax as a crutch. All this while, the woman only stared at them without moving a muscle. "You people are so noisy," she said. "Even after eight years, it's all the same." Something about her words, her presence, her power, was all too familiar. Gareth and Riveria felt their apprehension slowly turn to dread. Now the woman's hood fell back, as though succumbing to the surges of magical energy she radiated. "I've seen this power before…" growled Gareth. "Yes—only once," said Riveria. Beneath her cowl, the woman's eyes were still closed. When Gareth and Riveria saw her fair and beautiful face, they recognized her at once. ""Alfia, the Silence!"" The woman listened in silent assent. "Ever since the Age of Gods began, no one has ever received so great a blessing as you!" said Gareth. "They called you the Monstrously Gifted!" "A member of Hera Familia…I didn't think any of you were still alive!" That legendary name echoed in the burning streets of Orario, like a prayer…or a curse. The Silent Witch had returned to Orario, in wisps of light and flame. "Why am I here, you ask?" Zald reached up and removed his helmet. When Ottar saw his face, he couldn't speak. Across both his eyes were enormous scars, as if ravaged by the claws of some mad beast. His hair was dark red, the color of blood and flesh. He looked exactly as Ottar remembered him. His master, the ex-soldier, who taught him how to wield absurd strength…had returned to Orario. "Zeus is no more," he said, "so I have come seeking worthy foes. Is that not reason enough?" Ottar could almost hear the waves of inner conflict resounding in his mind. All he was able to ask was one thing. "I thought you retired after we fought the Behemoth—some said you died. Where have you been?!" Ottar still remembered the last time he had seen Zald on that calamitous sea of black sand. Like a great hero, he felled the King of Beasts, then collapsed, his power exhausted, just as the sun rose. Ottar couldn't forget the image of Zald's greatsword, stuck into the earth as if marking the man's grave. "Do I look like some wandering specter to you? Are you hoping I come to devour your nightmares, perhaps?" Unfortunately, Zald's return was all too real. As if to drive that point home, he drew his greatsword and pointed it at Ottar. "Take up your weapon," he said. "I do not intend to make a quick meal of you. I will take my time, make your blood and bones a part of mine." "…I don't understand." Ottar scowled. "What is there to understand?" "I am not a learned man, I know. But you were once a man of Zeus, who protected the city. I don't understand how you could defile it in evil's name." Zeus and Hera had reigned over Orario, watching over its prosperity for a thousand years—all until eight years ago, when Loki and Freya took up their shared mantle. Zald had been this city's protector. Now he was its invader. Ottar could not even begin to reconcile this paradox. "What is the meaning of this?!" he roared. But Zald only narrowed his eyes with disinterest. "I have drawn my sword," he said. "Will you do the same, or will you die attempting to comprehend my motive?" There was a truth to Zald's words that Ottar couldn't deny. The man was a warrior through and through. He spoke again, this time in words Ottar recognized. Words the man had told him once before. Zald spat them like a curse. "You are weak," he said. "Fragile and soft." Hearing that, Ottar's heart began to race.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter10-3.txt	Chapter 10: Conquerors "Although you were not part of my familia, I once thought I saw promise in you. I see now I was mistaken." "Grh…!" In Zald's eyes, Ottar saw what he thought was a flash of despair. It was all he could do just to glare back in defiance. After what felt like an age, Zald lowered his sword. "But very well. I shall tell you." Like a dragon indulging a whim, he chose to answer the boaz man's question. To explain the source of his abrupt change in behavior. "It is because I am disappointed. Disappointed in this city. Disappointed in you." "Disappointed?! That's why you attacked Orario?" In another part of the city, the Silent Witch had just given the exact same reason to Riveria and Gareth. "That's right," she said. "It is disappointment that brings us back to this city. It is disappointment that calls us to war." Her ash-gray hair fluttered. She cast off her now-useless robe and tossed it aside. Beneath it, she wore a long black dress. While it seemed unsuited to battle at first glance, any mage could see that this dress boasted exceedingly strong magical wards. However, these wards were not designed to protect against outside attacks. They were there to prevent the uncontainable magic of the wearer from tearing the clothes to shreds. "What are you talking about?!" shouted Gareth. "What is it that disappoints you?" "Everything," replied Alfia without a moment's delay. "Orario is just one part of that." The elf and dwarf both felt themselves losing their cool. "Do not insult us," spat Riveria with disgust. "No matter how lofty you are, one disappointment is hardly enough reason to destroy an entire city!" "Be silent, elf. This world is brimming with noise. It has to be blocked out." Alfia's refusal to listen was beginning to annoy the pair of adventurers. Her voice carried no remorse or emotion whatsoever. Only a single regret. Back on the other side of town, the man in black spoke to Ottar, as if finishing her words. "We allowed Zeus and Hera to grow arrogant, while gorging ourselves on their fantasies," he said. "We permitted their spires to rise, and so we alone bear the responsibility of bringing them down." Now it was the woman again, speaking to Riveria and Gareth. "The Age of Gods shall soon end," she said, "and we shall be the ones to end it." Then the two conquerors spoke, in unison, across the vast distance. ""So perish, adventurers."" """…!!""" The determination and malice in that one utterance was enough to plunge Ottar, Riveria, and Gareth into an ocean of fear. "I shall return everything to silence. So vanish." Alfia spoke, and her magic quivered. She outstretched her right arm, and her spell howled. The earth shook, as if a giant had struck the bell of heaven, and all was engulfed in a blinding rumble. "Grh?!" Ottar heard and felt a loud outburst of magic from the southwest. As he cast his gaze in that direction, Zald calmly replaced his helmet. "Alfia has begun," he said. "We should, too. No woman shall lead me." "Alfia…So Hera Familia is here, too…!" Ottar grew agitated at the mention of the woman's name. Anyone who had spent any time at all in Orario knew the names Hera and Zeus and understood the heights of their power. "You must be cursed, child of Freya. Cursed to fall to my blade yet again." Ottar was one person who knew the might of those two gods on a personal level. For many times had he fought the men who were Zeus's champions. Many times had he tangled with Hera's brave warrior women. Many times had he faced the black-clad man who stood before him now. The devouring storm. And each time he tasted only defeat. "Rgh…!!" Ottar clenched his rock-like fists. Memories of his past failures played behind the windows of his rust-colored eyes. He gazed as if upon the apex of a mountain he had never once reached, and his heart trembled. "Face me," said Zald. "Hold nothing back. Not unless you wish me to devour you." All the man wanted was to sate his voracious appetite for battle. He readied his jet-black sword. Ottar clenched his jaw so hard, his teeth nearly cracked. He took up his own weapon and roared, as if to banish his own fear. "Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!" In a mad charge, Ottar raised his greatsword above his head and ran toward his foe. It was the charge of the Warlord, a man who destroyed all who stood in his path. All—except this man. "Pitiful," he said. One slash. That was all it took. ".….…. " All the speed and force—all of his body weight that Ottar put into his attack—all of it was deflected with a single flick of the armored man's sword. Unrivaled technique. Unbeatable strength. The might of Zald's parry not only stopped Ottar in his tracks—it tore his weapon from his grip and sent him reeling. The last thing he saw, as time ground to a halt, and Zald advanced, sword raised, to finish him off, were the man's eyes. Through the visor of his helm, they said only one thing. "You are weak." "…Rgh?!" Before all the emotions swirling in his mind could cause Ottar to ignite with rage, the black slab of metal in his enemy's hands brought a swift end to the battle. Just then, the earth howled. """Rgh?!""" An enormous tremor shook the entire city. In the midst of battle, Lyu, Kaguya, and Shakti all stopped fighting. They were lost for words. "An earthquake?!" cried Lyana as the tremor nearly threw her to the ground. "No!" shouted Lyra. "That ain't no quake!" It was Alize who spoke next. "It was an attack!" she said. "A stupidly powerful one!" She gazed off, wide-eyed, in the direction of the earth-shaking sound. The conqueror's blow had carved a void in the smoke-choked skies of Orario. All across the city, people turned and gazed in shock. Asfi and Falgar, tasked with lending aid to those who needed it. The Berbera, engaged in heavy battle with the Evils suicide bombers. The one-eyed smith, holding an armful of magic swords. An elf casting white lightning. A werewolf leading his familia. A prum girl, only now regaining her senses. Finn and all of Loki Familia, gathered at the center of Orario, and Freya, atop its highest point. From the top floor of Babel, she waited for the long, drawn-out rumble to finally subside, then muttered a word that no one else could hear. "…Ottar?" The goddess gazed down at a spot in the city where all the flames of war had been blown away. Only one black-clad man stood at the center of it all. "…Grh." Ottar let out a dying groan. His vision darkened and blurred. He had been blasted through so many walls he had lost count and broken every bone in his body along the way. As he lay, sprawled out, on the verge of collapse, the giant boaz mustered up what little strength he could command and turned his fading eyes in the direction of his attacker. Zald wore only a look of deepest disappointment. Ottar the Warlord had been beaten. "…Ottar?" Allen froze on his way back to the city center. His keen ears picked up only a devastating silence. He turned and looked across the rooftops, at the distant spot he had only recently left. It had been a battleground for only a short few moments. Now it was about to be a boaz man's grave. "…Get up, you asshole. This ain't no time to be takin' a nap." As he took in the unbelievable sight, he grew more and more agitated, becoming a raging storm of emotion. Clutching his silver spear in his grip, he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Ottar!! The hell are you doin'?! Get off your ass and fiiight!!" Acting solely on impulse, Allen defied his captain's last command and turned back, running as fast as he could to where the boaz man lay. "Heh-heh-heh. Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Yes…At last, Warlord is dead!!" Olivas erupted into laughter. From his vantage point, he had watched the whole fight from start to finish. "The old follower of Zeus is now one of us! Zald has defeated Orario's strongest warrior! Rejoice, my friends! Let us prepare to drag Orario into the mud!!" The Evils soldiers with him let out great cheers. """Roaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!""" """Zald!! Zald!! Zald!! Zald!!""" The crazed zealots looked up at their leader. Some pumped their fists in the air, others raised their weapons or cried out in mad song. Their voices, their violent screams, all overlapped, calling out their conqueror's name. To the stunned adventurers, it was a mocking chant of victory. A battle whose outcome sent ripples throughout the city. The defeat of their greatest icon. Of all those who learned of his defeat, it was the Einherjar who took it the hardest. "Ottar…lost…? Impossible." There was a quiver in Hegni's voice. "I refuse to believe it! The only one he can lose to is me! Us!!" "Hegni, get down!" "Rgh?!" Hedin's frantic warning came too late to stop the mad sisters' hands. ""You mustn't look away, Hegni!"" they both said. "Gaaagh?!" ""See? Now you're all full of holes!!"" Even the four prum brothers were on the back foot. "You can't beat that boar in a fight!!" "He wouldn't stay dead if you tore out his heart!!" "It's impossible!!" "Berling! Dvalinn! Grer! Stay calm!!" screamed Alfrik, his armor beaten and battered. "These are all Level Fives!" The mindless warriors they fought all cried out, as if celebrating Warlord's defeat. All across the city, people gasped. "Ottar has fallen? That can't be!" "But he's a first-tier adventurer!" "…Wh-what are we to do now?" Adventurers froze in shock and horror. Weapons slipped from their hands as their resolve began to fail. The news was like a wild storm that swept up what little morale they had and dashed it against the rocks. Lyu and Kaguya were no exception. It was all they could do not to lose themselves to despair amid the quaking ruins of their city. "Warlord…was beaten…?" "That's impossible! And you mean to say it was a member of Zeus Familia who did it?!" The scales had been tipped. And they weren't done yet. There was a second large explosion. ""?!"" Lyu and Kaguya turned in the direction of the sound. The source was a magical blast, several districts away. There, buildings on either side of the street collapsed, as an elf and a dwarf crumpled to the ground. "Grh…" Riveria was the first to fall, her barrier exhausted. Then it was Gareth, dropping his shield. Both of them fell forward onto the cracked stones. "Ridiculous…" said Alfia, unimpressed and aloof. Then Asfi appeared, first to arrive on the scene. "Impossible!" she gasped. "Both Nine Hell and Elgarm?!" She had been powerless to do anything but watch as Orario's greatest champions fell one after the other. There was no small amount of despair in her voice. Meanwhile, amid her compatriots' cheers, a mad smile appeared on Valletta's lips. "That's curtains for the first-tier adventurers! The greatest protectors this city has to offer! I can't believe it's over so quickly!!" She doubled over laughing, then threw her head back and chuckled to the stars. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! What have you got left to fight with now, Finn?! You're finished!" The biggest obstacle to taking on Orario had been those pesky first-tier adventurers. Now, with a king and queen who could thwart any opposition, the whole game swung heavily in favor of the Evils. It was all going as Valletta had foreseen. Everything was as he had planned it. "Now it's time for the real show to begin!" she declared. Elsewhere, a single man walked the flame-licked streets. "Yes. Witness evil's rise." The dark god flashed a devious smile.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter11-1.txt	Chapter 11: Absolute Evil CHAPTER 11 Absolute Evil A pair of thick sabatons stepped through the ruined street. One could almost hear the earth tremble as Zald walked over to the boaz man, lying flat on the ground. He looked down his nose at Ottar. "Is that all?" he asked. "I expected more from you." His words sounded distant and muffled to Ottar's ears, like they were coming through deep water. Ottar couldn't move. Struggle as he might on the border of consciousness and oblivion, his body refused to obey. He couldn't even muster up the strength to scowl. All he could move were the tips of his fingers, which trembled slightly. Zald looked down at him without compassion or mercy. Only disappointment. He raised his greatsword above his head to finish Ottar off. "If you can no longer stand," he said, "then this is the end." The black slab of metal came down like a guillotine, ready to cut off Ottar's head. "Tch!!" Just then, a man leaped from the shadows. He was so quick that even Zald's brow raised softly in surprise. Faster than the eye could follow, he cast aside his signature silver spear for maximum speed, then scooped up Ottar's body and carried it away mere instants before the sword came down. "Shit!" But Allen did not escape unharmed. He paid the price for Ottar's life. His left arm hung limply, dripping blood, but that didn't stop him from running like the wind, fleeing the street, still roiling with anger over Ottar's state and his own powerlessness. When he was gone, Zald scanned the empty street. He didn't give pursuit, despite how easy it would have been to catch up to Allen and skewer him. "Running away, are we?" he said. "Very well. Wallow in your defeat, powerless child." His crimson cape fluttered in the wind. "Krh…!!" During the same moment that Allen was saving Ottar's life on the other side of town, Asfi also had a part to play. Her winged sandals were not yet complete. Rather than confer flight, they could only provide acceleration while in midair. Still, by scattering bombs, she put up a wall of explosions before snatching Riveria and Gareth and carrying them to safety. But Alfia was unperturbed. "I care little," she said without a single change in expression. "There is no escape, after all." As she watched Asfi disappear into the sky, she eventually lost interest and walked off in a different direction. To where it would all begin. "For all will go as he demands." In Central Park, now home to wailing evacuees and wounded adventurers alike, a Loki Familia follower ran up to his captain. "S-sir! We're getting reports that our allies in the southwest have been wiped out!" "Wiped out?!" spat Finn with surprise. "All of them?!" "Y-yes, sir! Some managed to escape, but the enemy has completely crushed our front lines!" Then, as if that wasn't enough, a second messenger came over, out of breath. "Loki! Captain! It's Riveria and Gareth…they've been defeated!" "What?!" yelped Loki. "Are they both okay?!" "It seems that Perseus managed to rescue them, Lady Loki. But they are both badly wounded and have yet to wake up!" The paling messenger's fear spread not only to Loki but to the young familia members who were standing in earshot. "No way," whispered Raul, unable to believe his ears. "Riveria and Gareth…lost?" The most powerful mage in Orario and a man who could weather any attack. To receive news of their defeat, so soon after hearing about Ottar's, was enough to crush what little morale they had left. Their drive, their spirit, it all began to crumble, like dunes of sand. But one man refused to let that happen—Finn. "What do we know about the enemy?" he shouted. His voice caused the other members to jump, and they felt their fears dispelled. His voice, like a blast wave, lasted only a moment, but when it was over, all of his comrades forgot their despair. "Sh-she's a young witch with gray hair!" the messenger replied, standing to attention. "She uses ultra-short chants, and she seems to be immune to even the most powerful forms of magical and nonmagical attack!" Finn was not ready to give up yet. Seeing his resolve, the younger members steadied their quaking boots and set about doing their part for the war effort, guiding evacuees and reinforcing the barricades. Meanwhile, Finn turned his thoughts inward. An ashen-haired witch, able to nullify magic. It must be Alfia! So now we have not just Zeus's follower to contend with but Hera's, too! Careful not to let his own fears show, Finn put his mind into overdrive. Even if their stats haven't changed in eight years, they're still Level 7! We could throw every first-tier adventurer in the city at them and it still might not be enough!! Correlating and cross-referencing all the data he had access to, Finn could only conclude they were all in big trouble. Two of history's greatest titans—an unassailable, indomitable pair—had returned to Orario…on the side of evil. "With those two in the palm of their hand, they can dominate the war! …Valletta! They were your secret weapons all along!" With their appearance, everything Finn had worked so hard to establish was on the verge of collapsing. The fall of those first-tier adventurers would no doubt have knock-on effects on other parts of the board, in terms of both allied setbacks and enemy gains. Just then, another messenger arrived. "Sir! Morale is plummeting as a result of Warlord's defeat! The enemy is advancing in the south! There's nobody to stop them!" "C-Captain!" said Raul. "We have to send reinforcements! Riveria and Gareth are still out there!" The young boy had not even been in Orario for a full year yet, and he hadn't found the courage to immediately set to work like the rest of his comrades. "No," replied Finn. "We must stay here in Central Park and protect Babel with our lives!" As much as he worried for his two friends, Finn knew this to be the right decision. "There's no doubt what the enemy is after…" Finn's foresight bordered on divine. And so he severed all doubt and gave his command. "Fall back! Abandon the districts south of our defensive line, and focus all remaining troops here, in the center of the city! Send a message north and tell Freya Familia to do the same! Quickly!" ""Y-yes, sir!"" Raul and the other messengers hurried off to carry out Finn's order. But Finn couldn't stop there. He was the Braver, a symbol of courage for all adventurers. Even with his back to the wall, he had to push on. He looked down at his right hand. Even now, my thumb aches. Could this all still just be the beginning of something more? Finn's sixth sense was setting off alarm bells in his head. "What's coming?" He grimaced. "What's out there?" The sparks of war showed no signs of dying. Finn looked out across the vermilion cityscape and spoke to the empty skies. "Someone's behind all this…" "…But who?" Hermes stopped in the street and looked around at the destruction. "Who wrote the tune we're all dancing to?" He was certain some god still lurked in the wings, awaiting their cue. "You expect me to believe this is all the Evils' lovingly crafted plan? Don't make me laugh. It's all going too well." There was no doubt in his words. Only revulsion, disgust, and dread. An appropriate reaction for the one who had to be responsible. "The timing is just too perfect," he said. "No mortal could have ordained this. It can only be the work of a god." "Indeed," said Astrea, standing by his side. "And wherever they are, this god is mocking us. Waiting to draw us into ever-greater depths of despair." Her hand went to her breast as she pondered what was to come. "Something more yet awaits us…horrendous nascent evil!" The smoke clouds in the sky almost seemed to tremble, resonating with a demonic laughter. "…!!" Alize looked up. "What is it?" shouted Lyra while fighting off increasing waves of Evils soldiers. "…It's Lady Astrea," Alize replied. "She's in trouble!" "Trouble? What kind of trouble?" "I don't know, but something's coming for her, I can sense it! We have to find her, now!" Lyra wasn't sure if those were the senses of an adventurer or some kind of trained animal. She just looked at Alize, dumbfounded. "Wait, you want us to go find her?!" cried Neze, wiping the blood from her face between battles. "We can't even get away from here!" "Yeah!" came the voice of the Amazon, Iska. "We may have gotten all the civilians out, but the enemy is really comin' down on us now! Ilta has her hands full as well!" The girls of Astrea Familia were currently in the south of the city, where fighting was the fiercest. They fought on, in defiance of Finn's order to abandon the southern front, because the road they were on led directly to Central Park. If they left now, that would only mean more enemy soldiers for the defenders of Loki Familia to deal with. Nearby, the red-haired Amazon Ilta Faana bathed in the blood of her foes, leading a unit of Ganesha Familia adventurers. And although Alize couldn't see them from here, Lyu and Kaguya were a block away, on South Main Street, holding the line alongside Shakti. The two familias were barely holding back the waves of enemies. They had no one to spare. "…No, it's okay. Neze, Iska, go with her." "Lyra?!" exclaimed Neze, but the prum girl only looked over in the direction of Central Park. "If our captain has a hunch, then we oughtta act on it. She's just like that hero, Finn. And we can't let anything happen to Lady Astrea." If a familia's god was sent back to heaven, those of the familia would have their stats frozen and therefore be unable to fight. If that happened, the defensive line was as good as lost anyway. So Lyra placed her stock in Alize's uncanny hunch. "We'll work with Ganesha Familia to keep them off you," she said. "I'm sorry, Lyra! Thank you!" "If I die 'cause of this, I'm gonna spit on you from heaven!" Lyra forced a smile. Alize's smile, on the other hand, was so bright, she didn't seem to belong on this earth. "No! No dying!" she said. "Don't even get hurt, or you'll be sorry! Captain's orders! We're all going home together, you hear?" The girls all looked at her in shock. Lyra smirked, narrowing her eyes like she was staring directly into the sun. "…Just get goin' already, you big dummy." Then she plunged into battle once more. Alize nodded, then ran off. "Lady Astrea's come to the front lines!" she explained to her two escorts. "Talk to anyone you can and find out if they've seen her!" "Got it!" She ran, her heart sick with worry. As she did, the name of her beloved goddess formed on her lips. "Lady Astrea…!" Thick clouds of smoke obscured the sky, extinguishing the starlight that illuminated and guided the city's inhabitants, and leaving them lost. Hedin was no exception. ".….…. " From his vantage point atop the church belfry, he cast his eyes northwest, surveying the battle that consumed the streets of district seven. "Where are you going, Hegni, all full of holes?" "Come play with us! If you're going to die anyway, do it where we can see you!" "Gh…hah…?!" Down on the ground, the Dis sisters had taken Hegni by surprise, and now the dark elf was bleeding profusely. Try as he might, he'd lost too much blood to shake them off, and the younger sister, Vena, was keeping his fellow Einherjar at bay with her magic sword. Meanwhile, the elder, Dina, aimed to put him out of his misery with the twin stiletto daggers that had inflicted Hegni's mortal wounds. This combination of short-range blade mastery with long-range magic was what made the Dis sisters so fearsome and earned them their spot as leaders of Alecto Familia. However, Hegni wasn't the one in real danger. "Gaaaaagh?!" "Grer?!" No, that was the Gulliver Brothers, surrounded as they were by a total of twelve Level 5s. "Uoooooogh!" "K-kiiiill…Kiiiiill!!" The four prum were at the mercy of these so-called adventurers, summoned and commanded by the remnant of Apate Familia, Basram. Peering through the flames of war, Hedin realized their true nature. "Those shackled outlaws…They're Osiris Familia!" he said. Each of them wore a mask-like restraint that obscured their mouths, but there could be no mistake. In preparation for hostilities with the Evils, Hedin and Alfrik had visited the Guild library, poring over chronicles of old battles. It was there they had come across the likenesses of Osiris Familia, recorded twelve years ago when they fought the Zeus and Hera Familias and lost. The familia had been home to several Level 6s and even one Level 7: the captain, Melty Zara. However, they had kept them secret in advance of their assault on Zeus Familia. "Unfortunately, I can't introduce you to their captain," jeered Basram. "All their first-tier adventurers either died or broke contact. But their second-tier people were all just dying for a shot at revenge!" The Apate Familia priest smiled as his army tangled with the four Gulliver brothers. It was clear whose side had the upper hand. "After Orario threw them out, they came to us, and we were only too eager to convert them," he explained. "They trained, waiting, dreaming of the day they could exact retribution on Zeus and Hera…but of course, that day never came." Their shot at revenge died the day Orario's most powerful gods failed in their battle against the Black Dragon. After that, the revenants who used to be members of Osiris Familia had no reason to stay with Apate Familia. But Basram couldn't let such powerful warriors go to waste. If reason could not make them stay, then why let them reason at all? So, following the teachings of his goddess, Basram turned them into mindless beasts. "A few drugs here, a handful of curses there, and we created ourselves an army. Then they were ready for the next test: spirit infusion." Basram chuckled and gestured to his warriors. Where their shackles met the back of their neck, there was a dagger stuck into each of them. "Spirit infusion?" questioned Alfrik, his helmet battered and blood dripping from his brow. "No more riddles; what do you mean?" "Surely, you've heard the stories?" Basram replied. "Long ago, before the gods descended to this world, heroes would obtain the blessings of spirits to ensure victory in their trials. We were trying to reproduce that phenomenon." Those daggers protruding from their necks were all that remained of the spirits that Basram and his cohort had captured. Apate Familia had used them on the former members of Osiris Familia, turning them into powerful "spirit warriors" against their will. This was undoubtably an act of blasphemy. By restraining the rebellious test subjects and ignoring the spirits' wails, Basram had succeeded in creating fighters of unholy strength. "I am still far from re-creating the heroes of old," said Basram, "but these subjects have displayed incredible abilities, such as the power to heal their own wounds. It's just a shame I had no Great Spirits on hand, and so I had to make do with lesser offerings. Still, even without them…well, see for yourself." "Grh?!" "Away from the prying eyes of the Guild, I've been training them in the Dungeon, and they recently reached Level Five. Just in time for the Great Conflict to start. It wasn't easy, you know?" he added with a smile. Indeed, it wasn't. Basram had needed to shepherd a small army of mindless warriors through the Dungeon. Failed infusions and losses to monsters meant that an original supply of forty-two spirits and thirty-four warriors resulted in a harvest of only twelve spirit warriors. It was an experiment sorely lacking in respect for the dignity of life and death. This all stemmed from the will of Basram's goddess, Apate. Her domain was injustice. A living mockery of all that Orario's protectors stood for. His dull red eyes opened wide. He thumped his staff against the ground as a manic grin crossed his face. "Yes, we are Apate's disciples!" he cried. "Exactors of her will! We are the ones who will reshape this world according to the whims of chaos!" The tip of his staff glowed with an ominous light, and all the spirit warriors groaned in response to it. Fireballs and bursts of lightning appeared in their hands without requiring a chant, burning their own skin as they used them to attack Alfrik and his brothers. The four prums' teamwork wasn't enough. Their foes' unrestrained violence dashed them against the walls and into piles of rubble. "Twelve first-tier adventurers…?!" gasped Hedin, watching as the Gulliver Brothers were tossed about. He felt the unseemly sensation of his heart racing in his chest. Of course, including the Dis sisters, there were fourteen in all. Fourteen Level 5s, against two in Hedin and Hegni. The Gulliver brothers were only Level 4, and nobody else in Freya Familia was even close. The Einherjar were mighty heroes with no fear of death, but even they were no match for the evils of Apate Familia. "Now, my loyal spirit warriors! You who have received the teachings of Apate! Free your souls!" There was no more time for Hedin to be indecisive. "Struggle for eternity, indestructible soldiers of lightning!" He leaped from the belfry, leaving the startled Olba behind. From high up in the air, he secured a line of sight to the battlefield. "Caurus Hildr!" A magic circle surrounded him, and he unleashed a barrage of lightning. Basram, as well as the Dis sisters, instantly reacted to the onslaught. Dina disengaged with Hegni and leaped back, while Vena stopped attacking. Basram was already at a safe distance, but his twelve spirit soldiers weren't. However, they used their beast-like agility to dodge the lightning. Hedin kept up his assault, even as gravity claimed him and brought him on a downward arc. "Van! Noga!" he shouted down, the sound almost drowned out by his own magical blasts. "Get Hegni and the others out of there!!" ""Y-yes, sir!"" replied the members of Freya Familia before jumping to action. Hedin kept the enemy busy while they hurried over to the familia's strongest warriors and helped them to withdraw. Hedin watched it all from the corner of his eye, then fell more than 100 meders, landing right in the middle of the crossroads and immediately unleashing another spell. "Strike forever, indestructible lord of lightning! Valiant Hildr!!" While Caurus Hildr was a barrage of smaller blasts, this spell bundled it all into one massive lightning cannon that filled the entire street. Faced with an attack of this scale, the Dis sisters and Basram's spirit warriors had no choice but to withdraw. It didn't need saying what became of those Evils soldiers who were too slow to escape. "Tch!" Hedin had successfully forced the enemy back, but he didn't seem too pleased about it. That was because in turn, the enemy had forced him to leave his post. Until he returned to the cathedral, the chain of command would be broken, and the Evils would have the perfect opportunity to stage an attack on the evacuation shelters. Of course, Hedin had decided to enter the fray with all of this in mind, abandoning his allies to chaos and exposing his charges to danger. This was not out of misplaced priorities, but the understanding that Hegni and the Gullivers were his most potent game pieces. If Hedin was ever to make gains in this war, he needed them alive. The fact he could make this decision so quickly, despite his duty to those in his care, was not a sign of a poor commander; it was a sign of an excellent one. But the two devious elves didn't see it that way. "You abandoned your people to save Hegni!" "So mean! But that's why I love you!!" The Dis sisters grinned and jeered as the crossroads still sparked in the aftermath of Hedin's spell. He didn't waste breath telling them to shut up. As coolheaded as ever, he first made sure that Hegni and the others had made a clean getaway, then turned tail and fled. The faster he could get back to the cathedral, the safer everyone would be. Or so he had hoped. But the Dis sisters had other ideas. "You can't go, Hedin." "You made your choice." They shared a wide grin, their eyes as thin as knife blades. ""Now you have to face the consequences,"" they both declared. Then Hedin felt an enormous wave of magical energy emanating from the dark elf, Vena. Time slowed to a crawl, and four vast magic circles appeared directly above the cathedral and the other churches—where the survivors Hedin had momentarily abandoned were huddled. "Open, the fifth garden! Resound, the ninth song!" With that, Vena's chant was complete. It was not an ultra-short cast, or any kind of special fast-chant ability. She had set up the spell ahead of time. Ever since Hegni ran into her, she had been holding it, ready to activate at a moment's notice. That was why she had only been using a magic sword in the fight so far. Dina stood by her, her fingers intertwined with her sister's, channeling her energy into her as Vena spoke the name of her spell. "Dialv Dis!" All at once, the magic circles unleashed four columns of hellfire upon the churches below. Hedin reflexively held out his arm and chanted, "Valiant Hildr!" The roaring thunder collided with the falling fire. The two forces opposed each other for a moment, shedding sparks, before canceling each other out entirely. The cathedral where Olba and the others were stationed was safe. But he could only save one. The other churches were not so lucky. Each was engulfed in a cascading torrent of flame. Hedin looked on, aghast, as the churches were bathed in fire. He heard the screams of those trapped within. The innocent civilians who had looked to him to keep them safe—their voices rang in his ears as they burned to death. Hedin stood, frozen, in the middle of the street, staring at the destruction as the air grew hot with sparks and wisps of flame. It was then that he heard the voices of the Dis sisters from behind. "Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!! Isn't it beautiful, Hedin? So beautiful!" "Listen to that! The screams of the people you chose to die!" The solitary ruler stood as their maddening, loving giggles continued behind his back. "You know what I heard?" said Vena. "I heard you used to be a king! And Hegni, too!" "Oh, how scary, sister! Hedin's a mean old king who lets his subjects burn!" Hedin knew full well what he had done. He had known the moment he made his decision that there were only ever two options. Either he left Hegni and the Gulliver brothers to die, or let the people in his care be slaughtered. Therefore, it wasn't the actions of these vile, despicable, heartless pig sisters responsible for their deaths; it was his own. Hedin had done everything in his power to ensure this did not come to pass. He had acted swiftly, with zero hesitation, but it was all for naught. These laughing sirens had made sure of that. "Did you like our present, Hedin? We sure did!" "Aww, I've never seen you look so alone! I just want to cheer you up with a big hug!" ""But we're afraid there's no time for that!"" The two girls embraced each other with glee, then sprang into the air. "Our dark god told us we can't end it yet! We'll finish this some other time!" "But don't worry, we'll kill you next time! Both of you, look forward to it!" Then the two sirens disappeared, leaving only their wicked, innocent laughter. There was no need to be greedy. The Evils had dealt a grave blow to Freya Familia, and now they left district seven before facing the dragon's wrath. Hegni lay on the ground nearby as the healers saw to his wounds. His fists shaking with anger, he hid his eyes with one arm, but the tears flowed down his cheeks regardless. Meanwhile, Hedin raised a trembling hand to his glasses. He tried to take them off, but then the anger subsumed him, and he broke them in his fist. "…………………………………………………I'll kill you," he said. It was only through his iron will that Hedin didn't scream with anguish. Instead, he channeled his hate into a vengeful vow. "Both of you…shall die by my hand." The flames of the burning chapels seared a smoldering madness into his mind. And on that day, Freya Familia suffered a second loss equal to Warlord's defeat. The stars were gone now, and the adventurers were lost. Only a red sky watched over them, lighting a passage into hell. The very first sign of danger was the warning from Hermes's lips. "…Astrea, hold." His eyes pierced the gloomy corners of the backstreet, displaced from all the fighting. And then, it came. From out of the darkness, the sound of footsteps. Astrea gasped and strained her eyes. "Something's coming," said Hermes. And then, the darkness writhed. That ineffable, endless shade that gathered in the cracks of the city and even the fire that scorched and tortured its inhabitants could not dispel. Twisting, changing, mutating. Emitting a sound like straining rope, or scornful laughter, the darkness stared back. Astrea and Hermes caught a glimpse of a mad glint, and something came, like a dagger in the night, drawing closer and closer until… "Lady Astrea!" "Eep! …A-Alize?" A voice behind her made her jump, and she turned to see her flame-haired familia captain emerge from the burning city. At the same time, the footsteps halted. "I'm so glad you're safe!" said Alize. "I just felt so cold…I knew I had to find you!" Then Neze and Iska caught up to her, out of breath. The three of them had raced through the battlefield, cutting down all who stood in their path, and the feat had taken its toll. Their armor and battle clothes were ragged and torn. Astrea looked at them, shocked…and then, she heard a noise. Astrea, Hermes, Alize, Neze, and Iska all turned and stared into the darkness…from where issued an ominous, slow clapping. "Always looking after others, and never yourself. That's why you took so long to find." The darkness adopted a god's voice and spoke. "I wanted to bury you first, you know. Extinguish justice from this world and leave its inhabitants to chaos." Despite his words, the voice sounded pleased, almost gleeful. "Congratulations, Astrea. You're still alive. You have you and yours to thank for that." The clapping resumed. The startled gods and their followers found themselves showered with unexpected, yet unbridled praise. "Now, let us see what kind of future your persistence has bought." The darkness flickered. Sparks of war flew overhead, dispelling the veil of shadow. "You chose justice. Now witness its rewards." A man's silhouette separated itself from the gloom. His eyes shone like deep, dark pits into hell itself. "It's you…!" Astrea gasped. Hermes couldn't believe it. "It can't be…" It was the dark god who had masterminded this whole affair. As if appearing only to see their reactions, he gave a twisted smile and vanished into the shadows. "W-was that…" "…a god?!" Though Neze and Astrea had not been able to see the man's face, they felt his awesome presence nonetheless. Astrea was still frozen with shock. "…Hermes!" she said at last. "We must follow him at once! I must be sure of what I saw!" "Astrea, no!" Hermes grabbed her arm, preventing the goddess from pursuing the nightmarish villain. The next moment, the burning buildings let loose an avalanche of fiery rubble, blocking the road. "Leave him for now!" Hermes said. "We have to get out of here, quickly!" His suspicions regarding the enemy leader's true identity led him to conclude an unimaginable danger was imminent. "Now!!" he roared. But it was too late. The entire city shook. "…Huh?" A bright light enveloped everything. The sky cried out as if in pain. The earth roiled as if alive. As above, so below. "What's that…?" whispered Alize, looking over the buildings, to the east, where a pillar of light penetrated the clouds. The light was bright enough to momentarily blind all who saw it. The noise was loud enough to deafen all who heard it. A divine scream. All over the city, time seemed to come to a halt. Adventurers, Evils, and gods alike all turned to face the pillar, and froze. True evil was beginning. It laughed, a merciless, pitiless, unjust laugh. "One." The ground jolted beneath their feet. They could do nothing but stare at the pillar of divine light, in wonder and fear. "No way…" In Central Park, Loki's mind stopped working as she stared at the heavenly pillar. Beside her, Raul stood silent, quivering with dread like the other civilians in the area. "Th-that's…" he began. "…the Pillar of Light," finished Finn, his thumb wailing as its whispered prophecy came to pass. "The sign of a god returning to heaven!!" No one said a word. Only the laughter of an evil god filled the silence. "Two." A second count; a second pillar. A second rumbling of the earth. "What was that?! Another one?!" "Impossible…!!" In the north of the city, Kaguya and Shakti shivered with fear as they saw it. "Rgh…?!" Lyu stood speechless, watching the intense rays of light flow upward into the sky. "Three." The victims kept coming. Over to the west, another pillar burst forth and pierced the clouds. "No…" "…You ain't tellin' me that…" Asfi and Lyra—the former exhausted from carrying Riveria and Gareth back to Central Park, the latter weary from battle—stood chained in fear. Both of these sharp-witted girls had already guessed what was about to happen next, and their faces went pale. "Four." Chaos turned to panic as adventurers across the city realized what was happening…and what it meant. "Gods are bein' defeated?" "But without our blessings…Oh gods, no!" "…Somebody, heeeeeelp!!" They paled. They screamed. They pleaded for their lives. But the forces of evil cut them down without mercy. They were slashed, stabbed, and torn apart. Orario's brave protectors simply joined the many corpses already littering the streets. Their blood painted the walls. Their flesh roasted in the fires. And the departed gods were quickly followed by the souls of their children. The disciples of evil grew drunk on the sight. With bloodshot eyes and slavering mouths, they ravaged the powerless adventurers like rabid wolves. The peals of their laughter filled the streets as they gorged themselves on blood. "Five." More divine pillars appeared. The black knives of evil gods feasted on their helpless victims one after the other. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Haaah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!" Valletta laughed out loud as she watched the columns of light filling the sky. It was a divine exodus unlike any before. "The adventurers are droppin' like flies!" she chuckled. "Gyaaaaaaagh?!" And as she chuckled, she killed. Slaughtered the powerless guardians of Orario—maggots who had only ever tried to get in her way. With each swing of her sword, heads rolled, limbs flew, and voices cried out in despair. It was exquisite. This was all she had ever wanted. It was a massacre. A massacre that Arachnia had been waiting her whole life to unleash. "This is amazin'! O my god, you're the absolute worst!" Valletta's heart was full of praise for her dark lord, who had orchestrated all this. Savoring the thrill, she shouted into the heavens. "Now it's time for the real show to start, Orario!!" "Six." Order was falling apart, and through the cracks came chaos, worming its way into reality. The people lost all hope, and many were certain they were witnessing the end of the world. "Lord Belenus of Belenus Familia has been sent back to heaven!" "Zelus Familia have been completely wiped out!" At Guild HQ, the receptionists screamed their reports as more waves of information came rushing in. It was the only way to stay sane given their shocking contents. Royman stood at the center of it all, as if frozen in time. "Sent back…? Wiped out…? So without the gods' blessings, the Evils are targeting the weakened adventurers…" His perceptive mind quickly pieced together the consequences of what he was hearing. But knowing the buildup didn't make the climax any more avoidable. He was a spectator to tragedy, forced to sit in his seat and watch until the bitter end. The gates of hell had already closed behind him, and no matter how much he wailed, they would never reopen. Suddenly, one of the receptionists cried out in despair. "It's a massacre!" she yelled. "A massacre! Make it stop!" She began to hyperventilate, just as another bright light appeared in the distance, visible through the window. Somebody fell to their knees, scattering documents all over the floor. A tremor rocked the building, and a thundering roar blocked out all other sound. All that lingered in the back of their minds was an evil laughter. "…It can't be." Royman let out a groan of despair. "It can't beeeeee!!" "Seven." Despair spread throughout the city, as the unstoppable march of evil racked up sin after sin. "Gh…hah…?!" Vito's cruel blade stole the life of another brave adventurer, whose body crumpled to the ground. "Destruction! Chaos! Slaughter! Oh, it's all so good!" The wicked man trembled in mad delight. His blade plunged all his victims into a sea of blood, regardless of whether they resisted, or even had the means to resist. "What a bright and colorful feast! It's like I'm a child again!" His eyes sparkled like a kid in a candy store, though his cheeks were stained with gore. With a fixed smile, he slowly approached a cowering adventurer, whose god had been returned to heaven and now lacked the power to fight back. "I surrender!" he cried, his weapon slipping from his trembling hands. "Please don't kill me!!" But Vito ignored the man's pleas. His only response came from the knife in his hands. The adventurer's severed head hit the ground with a thud before rolling into the flames and catching fire, while a fountain of blood gushed from the lifeless body's neck stump. Vito's heart trembled. He could scarcely imagine a more beautiful sight than the one that lay before him. "We're just getting started!" he cried. "After all, there are no heroes here! Nobody has the power to stop us!" He spread his arms wide, looked up into the darkness, and revealed his truth to all of Orario. "Your great heroes are already ours to command!" Up on the roof of a partially ruined temple, those selfsame heroes looked down at the burning city without emotion. "Sublime, is it not?" noted Zald. "Yes," replied Alfia. "The sight is, at least." Her ashen hair fluttered in the wind. "But if I close my eyes…I can still hear their noise." Another pillar appeared, accompanied by another blinding light. "Eight." It was the end of days. A time when evil finally got its revenge on all those who pursued justice. "Hee-hee. Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!" Olivas laughed alongside his soldiers. He knew the fulfillment of his dark god's wish was soon at hand, and he practically drooled with anticipation. "It begins! The fall of Orario! Khah-hah-hah! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!" Clashing weapons. The wretched screams of justice. The song of life was fading. Dark clouds filled the skies, blotting out the stars. Order gave way to chaos, and a nascent evil gave its first newborn cry. "Nine." Nine pillars of light. Nine gods returned to the heavens. Never before had an exodus like this ever been seen. But while the city reeled, the servants of evil breathed a collective sigh of relief. "Now, it is ready," said he. There was nobody left to see the strings with which he tugged at the city's fate. He gave a sweep of his arm, like a conductor ending a musical performance. "We've collected all the sacrifices. Now, let's go." At last, the tremors stopped, and the dazzling pillars faded into twinkling motes of light. As silence fell once more over the city, Astrea, Hermes, and Alize all stood perfectly still, unable to mutter a word. In their place, the animal girl fell to her knees. "…It's over," she said. "Neze…" "It's all over. Orario's finished." Alize could only call the girl's name, but it did nothing to abate the despair creeping onto the girl's face. Such was the calamity they had all witnessed. It was Astrea who spoke next. "Nine gods…all returned to heaven at once…" she whispered. "So the attacks so far…they were meant to ascertain where the gods would hide in an emergency," reasoned Hermes, displaying his divine wisdom. The factory raids, the soup kitchen massacre…they were all just stepping-stones in the buildup to the Great Conflict. "We thought they were random, but all this time, we were revealing to our enemy precisely where to strike!" It was the only explanation that accounted for as many as nine slain gods. The Evils' gods must have spread out through the city, preparing to carry out their planned assassinations. They were ruthless. Meticulous. All in pursuit of the tragedy their leader had written. "There's only one god who could have done this…!" said Astrea. But just then, a voice rumbled in the moonless, starless sky. "Hark, Orario." It was the voice of that evil god. "Hark, Ouranos. I am the darkness which gives this age its name, and I have come to extinguish mortal hope." Astrea and Hermes stood in stunned silence as his voice echoed down every street and back alley. Even Ouranos, on his throne beneath the earth, heard the evil god's proclamation. His sky-blue eyes peered deep into the oculus granted to him by his assistant mage. "The time for covenants is over. I will tear man and god apart and bring an end to the Age of Gods." The contemptuous voice carried its master's dark will to every corner of the city. His words settled in like a thick, dark fog, choking the life out of all who heard it: the breathless gods of order, Orario's beaten protectors, and the helpless, huddling townsfolk, who no longer had anyone left to pray to. "I will bring us all back to true darkness—a swirling maelstrom of chaos even the gods cannot fully comprehend." All across Orario, the sounds of fighting stopped, leaving only roaring flames, as even the emissaries of evil stopped to hear the words of their dark master, their eyes glittering with delight. "You may despise me for this. You may think me a brute. Go ahead. Weep, howl, then accept my calamity. For I am evil incarnate, and what greater joy is there for evil than to be hated and reviled?" There was a clatter as the wooden sword fell from the elf girl's hands. The voice scratching in her mind, issuing scornful laughter—it was a voice she knew well. Her pulse raced, her heart pounding impossibly loud in her chest. "My name is Erebus—" In the northwest of the city, atop a storied temple, the voice's bearer cast off the shadows and stepped out for all to see. His two conquerors stood faithfully by his side. "—primordial darkness, and god of the underworld!" There was a roar from the city, as the dark host cried out in support of their lord and master. The people of Orario, meanwhile, were afraid. They were afraid of the dark god's majesty, equaled only by the most powerful divine beings in the city. "E-Eren? …E-Erebus? What?" Lyu muttered toward her feet. Her eyes rapidly focused and unfocused. His eyes, the color of the first twilight. His hair, like darkness itself, streaked with ashen gray. Something about the way he carried himself was different, but Lyu was sure it was the same god she knew. The selfsame god who had appeared before her so many times in the recent past, asking her mocking questions about justice. But that wasn't the end of Erebus's declaration. "Orario's protectors have fallen! Lain low by a power far greater than their own!" Zald's black sword glinted in the night. He stood at the god's right hand, basking in the bloodred glow of the fires below. "Orario's gods have departed! Reduced to a bothersome noise!" Alfia's ashen hair fluttered. She stood at the god's left hand, wreathed in frozen silence. "Listen well, all you who fight chaos in the name of good! For we are those who fight order in the name of evil!" There was no missing the cynicism in the dark god's words. He was denouncing everything Orario stood for—everything that good and righteousness had ever built—using the very same words that Lyu had bounced around in her head ever since she first heard them. "Listen well, for I have something you all need very much to hear." His lips curled into a twisted grin as he silently raised a single arm before him. "Weakness, thy name is justice." Those were his heartfelt words, aimed at the foolish love on which Orario was founded. Kaguya, Shakti, Lyra, Asfi, Allen, Raul, Alize, Neze, and all the other girls frowned, their faces cloaked in rage and fear. Astrea, Hermes, Loki, Freya, Ganesha, Hephaistos, and the prum hailed as the people's hero, all scowled at the dark god. And finally, Lyu. Unable to withstand the despair bearing down on her any longer, she fell to her knees. "Perish, Orario. For we are absolute evil!!" The proclamation rang throughout the streets. The laughing voice of order's demise. On that day, the city of heroes fell.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter2-1.txt	Chapter 2: Eren CHAPTER 2 Eren The blue sky overhead was completely gone, replaced with a layer of ash-colored cloud. It was early morning, and the constant gray above was beginning to reflect in the people's faces as they walked the streets. However, one particularly noisy—or rather, energetic—young woman was determined not to let the melancholy weather keep her down. "It's time to keep our promise to Shakti and patrol the city!" the flame-haired maiden declared. "We'll catch all the bad guys!" Alize was accompanied on this occasion by Lyu, wearing her usual mask to hide her face. "I doubt they'll attack another factory so soon after the last," she said, "but I suppose it couldn't hurt to keep an eye out." "Absolutely!" Alize beamed. The two began their patrol. Patrols were one of the many duties the members of Astrea Familia took upon themselves these days. In this age of darkness, crime and corruption were rife, and the Evils weren't the only ones they had to look out for; even ordinary people could fall to dark temptations. It was important that strong enforcers, and in particular, adventurers, take to the streets and keep an eye out for any wrongdoing. Of course, keeping the peace was primarily the role of Ganesha Familia, who acted as the self-appointed city watch. However, Lyu and the others often took part as well. After all, no one could deny that the girls of Astrea Familia had the city's best interests at heart. "There doesn't seem to be any pattern to the attacks," said Lyu, "but the first and second districts seem to have suffered the brunt of the damages." "This area is the heart of Orario's magic item industry," said Alize. "I heard they're managing to hang in there for now, but it won't be long before the remaining factories are completely overwhelmed." The two had teamed up to patrol the northeastern quarter of the city. The other girls were elsewhere, patrolling other districts in the hopes of warding off any further attacks. In addition to making the rounds, Lyu and Alize also questioned civilians. Alize was terrifyingly adept at getting people to open up, so she was perfect for the job. The only problem was that she talked the ears off anyone willing to listen, regardless of whether it seemed relevant or not. While she focused on canvassing the populace, the relatively unsociable Lyu kept a vigilant eye out for anything or anyone that seemed out of place. As their investigation proceeded apace, the clouds above grew thin, eventually giving way to the orange glow of evening. It was at this time, while the pair walked down an ordinary little side road, that Lyu mentioned what had been bugging her ever since that morning. "…The city feels lifeless," she said. "Orario is supposed to be the capital of the world, but who would believe that after taking a walk through these streets?" "Everyone we meet looks sad, the shops have barred windows to deter thieves…" Alize agreed. "No one feels safe or like they can relax, and it's affecting them inside and out." People walked the streets with their eyes cast downward, or they would leap at shadows, peering nervously over their shoulders. The usual clamor that filled the streets, of peddlers hawking their wares, was completely absent. "The Evils have everyone spooked," said Lyu, the frustration apparent in her voice. "They're all on guard for whatever might happen next. Despite our best efforts, people don't feel any better. What can we do?" A flicker of uncertainty crossed Alize's brow. "If nothing else, this is definitely an improvement," she said. "Remember how bad it was when we first met?" It's been three years already. Three years since Alize saved me and led me into Lady Astrea's care… It had happened not long after Lyu had first arrived in Orario. To an elf who grew up in the forests and didn't know her streets from her avenues, the Labyrinth City was a maze that lived up to its name. However, for all its size, the place seemed like a ghost town, and the face of every passerby was dark and stormy. In those days, the Evils did as they pleased, and public order was essentially non-existent. At the time, Lyu had not yet received her Falna and was accosted by dangerous kidnappers. A good-looking elf girl like her was bound to fetch a princely sum on the black market. However, it was none other than Alize who had come dashing in to save the day like a fairy-tale prince. "I couldn't believe how unreasonable you were back then," said Alize. "After I saved you, you still looked at me like you'd bite my hand off, like a stray cat!" "I—I did not! I-it's just, I'd only recently left my village, and I was a wreck…Anyway, I—I wasn't behaving that way on purpose!" "I still remember what you said to me, you know! After I chased off Jura, you said, 'If you only saved me to satisfy your own ego, don't expect a reward. Hmph.'" "Aliiiiize…!" Lyu could only whine in response to her captain's unflattering imitation. It was obvious even through the mask how embarrassed she was to see her awkward past reenacted. Even the very tips of her long ears were beginning to turn red, and Lyu hoped the ground would just swallow her up so she wouldn't have to hear any more. "He-hem! Oh, I know all about your weaknesses, Little Miss Leon! But I think you're wrong about one thing." "Hmm?" Lyu was taken off guard by Alize's sudden shift in tone. She lifted her gaze, but at that very moment, a girl on the street called out to them. "Ah! It's Astrea Familia!" she cried. "That's right, we're Astrea Familia, champions of justice!" declared Alize, turning and striking a pose. "And you must be little Leah, that girl I helped the other day, no?" "That's right! You remember me!" The girl beamed, hugging the teddy bear in her arms. Lyu recalled the girl as well. Alize had pulled her out of the way of a horde of stampeding civilians after one of the Evils' attacks had caused a panic in the streets. Just then, the girl's mother came over. "Oh, you don't know how grateful we are to you, Miss Adventurer," she said, bowing her head respectfully. "How can we ever repay you…?" "Don't worry about it," said Alize. "I was only doing what's right! We're always happy to help!" "Thank you for saving me, nice ladies! Bye-bye!" The girl waved one of her teddy bear's arms as she and her mother departed. Lyu watched, astonished, as they left. "…I don't believe it…" "Those are the smiles we're fighting for, Leon. There may not be many of them, but they're out there. We shouldn't forget that just because not everyone has the strength to smile all the time. That'd be an insult to the work we do every day." ".….…. " "We've seen what change justice can bring. All we have to do is keep fighting the good fight, don't you think?" "…You're right, Alize. Of course you are. There's no time to be standing around feeling sorry for myself when we have a job to do." Looking at her leader's gentle smile, Lyu couldn't help but feel heartened herself. It was as if all the fear and doubt was banished from her mind at once. She lifted her head and, in a proud voice, declared, "We need to do all we can for the sake of peace in—" "Ohhhh noooo!" It was at that very moment that a melodramatic male voice called out, and the two girls turned to see a low-life hoodlum running away. "Ha-ha! Yoink!" "My 444 valis! But that's my entire life savings!" the man squealed. "Somebody, stop that thieeef!!" "Huh, is that a god?" observed Alize. "What's the world coming to when even the divine have to worry about getting their purse snatched?! Also, how is 444 valis your entire life savings? You're a god!" "Now's not the time, Alize! Let's go!" Keeping her partner from uttering any more tactless remarks, Lyu leaped into action. The street was busy, despite the city's languor, and the hoodlum wove his way through the crowd with practiced ease. However, he hadn't counted on Alize and Lyu. Without hesitation, they cut through the sea of people, sometimes leaping up onto buildings and running along walls to gain on their quarry. The man very quickly found the pair closing in on him. "You can't escape us!" Alize yelled. "Prepare to be cuffed!" "That girl in the red hair…That's Scarlett Harnell?! Dammit, why did I have to run into Astrea Familia?" The opportunistic mugger cursed his rotten luck. He had skimmed a truly pathetic sum off his witless mark only to be spotted by perhaps the most famous pair of vigilantes in the entire city. When the alternative was confronting the physical prowess of a couple of upper-class adventurers, the hoodlum had no choice but to disappear down a side road in an attempt to get away. "Gweh?!" However, he wasn't prepared for someone to be standing right there, which explained why he ran straight into them before falling to the ground. "Come on, stealing isn't right. We have to work for our money, don't we?" The girl who cut off the thief was just a little too young and adorable to be called a beauty like her sister. If Alize was a bouncing bundle of sunshine, then this girl was the calm spring breeze. Even her soft, sonorous voice exuded a natural gentle quality. "Ardee!" said Lyu with surprise. "That's right!" said the girl the pair had met the night before. "Who's your fellow Level Three adventurer and the kind and upstanding Shakti Varma's younger sister? It's me, Ardee!" "Who exactly needed that exposition…?" said Lyu with a fed-up look. Displaying a sunny disposition that seemed a little strange coming from a member of the city watch, Ardee bounded over to Lyu like an excited puppy. "Hey, Leon. You're looking pretty as ever. Sniff…and you smell nice as well. Mind if I hug you?" "Listen to me when I'm talking." "He-hem!" Came Alize's proud, boastful voice. "I got to hug her yesterday when I slept in her bed! You should have seen her blush, it was adorable!" "Both of you, focus on the job!" yelled Lyu, but she was hopelessly outnumbered, with the triumphant red on the one side and the touchy-feely blue on the other. Tears formed in her eyes as she was reminded of the embarrassment of the previous night while Ardee grabbed her with both arms. She heard the voice of the little girl, Leah, who had apparently run after them to watch the chase. "You're all such good friends!" she cried. That only made it hurt even more. "Ah-ha-ha. Well, enough playing around," said Ardee, releasing Lyu and spinning to face the mugger. "Let's see that wallet you stole, mister." "Guuuh…" The hoodlum had taken a big fall and was only just now scrambling to his feet. "Argh, dammit!" he cursed, beating his fists against the earth. "I'm screwed! My life's over! Just throw me in a cell and leave me to rot already!" "Wow! What a refreshing change of pace!" said Alize, awestruck. "I've never met a criminal who volunteered to be arrested before!" "Please don't make this worse than it already is," Lyu muttered at her. The hoodlum, meanwhile, continued his rant. "The strong could never understand what we gotta go through just to put food on the table! We can't work, we can't sell shit, and we can barely breathe without someone blowin' up a buildin' halfway across town!" The human man's clothes were nearly as ragged as his outlook on life. He was fairly old, with a stubbly beard, and while he clearly wasn't an adventurer, he wore armor across his shoulder and stomach, presumably to defend against a stray knife on the street. It was a wise choice during times like these.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter2-3.txt	Chapter 2: Eren "It's all right for you lot, who've got work comin' outta your ears! Why don't you go after the real villains instead of pickin' on little guys like me?!" Lyu cast an embarrassed eye downward at the man's words. We haven't done anything wrong…but he has a point. As long as there's a lack of public order, upstanding citizens will keep falling through the cracks. It was neither right nor wrong. It was simply the reality of the situation. There was much Lyu could say, but none of it would console the man, so she simply ground her teeth in frustration. The petty thief, meanwhile, staggered to his feet. "That's right," he said, empowered by their failure to respond. "You made us like this! This is all your fault! I'm the victim here!" At this, the girl who had been standing quietly beside Lyu took a step forward. "That's your excuse?" she demanded. "Uh…" "Bad things are still bad. If stealing is okay as long as someone else stole from you first, what's stopping your victim from turning around and robbing you, hmm?" It was Ardee. There was no blame in her voice. It was as if she was simply explaining the way things were. "Your crime just now would have put somebody in the exact same situation if we hadn't stopped it." "W-well…" Though the man was not being pressed to explain himself, he flustered with his words anyway. Ardee gave him a gentle smile. "So I want you to promise me something." "What?!" "Promise you'll never resort to crime again. Promise me that, and we can forget all this nastiness ever happened." The man looked dumbfounded, but it was Lyu who cried out in surprise first. "What?!" she shrieked. "Ardee, you can't do that!" "Why not?" the girl replied. "Because he committed a crime, and he needs to be punished! If you let him off the hook, what's to stop others like him? How would we ever uphold public order if everyone was as lenient as you?!" But Ardee wouldn't change her tune so easily. "Hmm, I think I have the right to take extenuating circumstances into account," she insisted. "This man isn't lying, and I know stealing is wrong, but…" She smiled. "…We got the money back, so no harm, no foul, right? And nobody got hurt except our friend here." "Still, a crime's a crime!" Lyu bellowed. "Ardee, you call yourself a member of Ganesha Familia?!" That furious accusation wiped the smile off Ardee's face. She closed her eyes in contemplation. "The carrot…and the stick. Isn't that what they say?" "Hmm? What's that got to do with anything?" "I'm just trying to be the carrot to your stick. After all, too much of the stick wears everyone out." "…!" Ardee opened her aqua-colored eyes and stared straight at Lyu. The city watch girl had struck upon something Lyu had not expected to hear. "Y-you mean…" It was something Lyu had never even taken the time to consider. Her brutal crackdown on crime was only making the problem worse. Perhaps she could have blamed the age of darkness they lived in. Because of it, she didn't have the luxury of turning a blind eye even if she wanted to. But the fact was, she didn't want to. She'd been content to impose her own ideas of justice upon the entire population. This revelation had shaken Lyu. She couldn't find the words to respond. Suddenly Alize, who had been intently listening to the debate, stepped in. "You know, I think I agree with little Miss Ardee here!" "Alize?! Not you as well?!" Alize walked right over to the confused gentleman and pointed a finger at him. "But you won't get a third chance, understood? You can bet your life as a free man on that!" "Y-you're really letting me go?" "Yep," said Ardee. "Although I'm probably going to get in trouble for it later…Oh, and take this." Saying this, Adree offered something she had been holding in her hand the entire time. It was a baked yam, steaming and wrapped in paper. "I can't give you money, but I can let you have my Jyaga Maru Kun," she explained. "Don't worry, I haven't taken a bite yet." With that, the girl flashed her usual, sunny smile. "Eat it while it's still warm!" she said. The man was flabbergasted. He stood stock-still, grinding his teeth in frustration. And then… "…You think you're so bloody good…Well, screw you!" Then he grabbed the food out of Ardee's hand, turned, and fled, unwilling—or perhaps ashamed—to spend a second longer in her presence. The trio watched him go in silence. "I think what he meant to say was 'Don't get the wrong idea! I'm not grateful to you or anything!'" said Alize. "I mean, he wasn't shy about taking the Jyaga Maru Kun, right? Let's see if he changes his tune once he gets some decent food inside him!" "I don't see why he would," said a dejected Lyu, her emotion showing on her face. "And I don't think there's much chance he talks like that, either. Is this really going to help make things better?" "…Leon," said Ardee, turning around. "I think you're in a very privileged position to be able to speak like that." "…Huh?" "He was right. The only reason we can afford to be worried about justice is because we're the ones with all the power." "…!" Lyu was petrified with shock. "I've been thinking, Leon," Ardee went on. "Do you think forgiveness can be a part of justice?" Framed against the sunset, the girl wore an unsure smile. The other two, and even the little girl's mother, gazed at her in wonder. Leah also tipped her head in curiosity as she considered Ardee's words. "I…I…" Lyu struggled to piece together a coherent response. Her lips flapped open and shut wordlessly. It was at that moment that a hollow series of claps rang through the street. "Bravo! Oh, I say, bravo!" "It's you…!" "The god who was robbed…?" Lyu and Alize both turned to look at the newcomer. It was the very man the purse snatcher had accosted mere minutes ago. "What an excellent display from the champions of this city's justice!" he said. "Sorry to have caused all this fuss. He came at me from behind; I never saw it coming!" The light of the sun drew long shadows across the cobblestones. The owner of the voice, it had to be said, did not strike the trio as a particularly powerful god. He had a blithe grin on his face and his dark hair was long for a man, and noticeably unkempt, with stray hairs poking up this way and that. There was even a gray streak. Overall, he had a somewhat sloppy look about him. "Are you hurt, sir?" asked Ardee. "Not a scratch, cutie," the man replied. "Thanks for getting my wallet back." It wasn't really what you would call a wallet. It was more like a small cloth drawstring bag. In any case, Ardee handed it back to the man, after which he introduced himself. "My name is Eren," he said. "And what are your names? I overheard this young lady was from Ganesha Familia, but what about the rest of you?" "I'm Alize Lovell!" Alize declared. "Captain of Astrea Familia!" "…And you may call me Leon. I'm also part of Astrea Familia." As was evident from the way she always wore a mask when out and about, Lyu did not want people finding out about her heritage. There were many reasons for this, but for the most part, it was simply an elvish custom. Even though Lyu despised her own race, by and large, she still followed tradition in the act of keeping her real name hidden from all but her closest confidantes. The Guild also knew her name, of course, as Lyu had submitted it when becoming an adventurer. But with times being what they were, the Guild took the security of identifying information very seriously, as it was impossible to know when an innocent slipup could inadvertently aid the forces of evil. The point was, whenever Lyu had to introduce herself, she did so using her family name only. Alize and the others also upheld this custom when they were out in public, so it was quite unlikely that anybody else knew her first name at all. "Astrea Familia," the man called Eren mused. "The followers of the goddess of justice…" He had paused after Alize and Lyu had introduced themselves and began to ponder something under his breath. He appraised the two girls for a moment, then a smile appeared on his lips. "…I see, I see! Real, live emissaries of justice, then! It's a good thing we met, I tell you!" "…Hmm? What are you talking about?" Lyu furrowed her brow, while Eren raised his arms playfully. "I'm saying, it's a good thing you two saved me. I know I already said this, but bravo, really. Bravo." Ignoring the look of mild concern on the girls' faces, the god went on. "As for what I'm impressed by, it was that discussion on justice the two of you had. The morality of gray, beyond good and evil…I couldn't stop listening! Especially to you, elf girl." "Me…?" "Yes, you. Noble and uncompromising, yet unable to come to a clean solution. Like a baby bird, struggling to make sense of the world. Your heart is the purest here by far." Eren was a strange god. Unlike others, he almost seemed to revel in uncertainty. However, his divine charisma was the real deal, and it was impossible to stop listening to him. He continued his speech as the streets turned redder and redder with evening's light.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter2-5.txt	Chapter 2: Eren "I want to see what you make of this age—and what this age makes of you. Ahhh, I just can't wait to see what answers you reach." Lyu saw a tiny spark in the eccentric god's eyes as he stared deep into hers. It's not hostility, it's not hate, and it's not disdain. But whatever it is, I don't like it. Just who is this man? Even Lyu was unable to put the feeling into words before Alize quickly leaped over. "I don't like the way this guy talks!" she said, stepping in front of Leon and stretching out her arms. "Get back! I bet he's a freak whose laugh sounds all Bwuh-huh-huh!" "Oh, don't say that! I'll really be offended! I'm not like those other two-bit gods, I tell you!" "Yeah, that's what they all say!" yelled Ardee. "Oof! What a blow!" said Eren, doubling over as though he'd been punched in the gut. "I had you pegged for a peppy tomboy, but to think you're an airhead to boot…" Even Lyu was somewhat disappointed by the husking, raspy voice that came out of the god now, a stark contrast to his earlier theatrics. "…In any case," he said, dropping the act and returning upright. "I'd love to stay and have some more fun with you girls, but it's getting late, and I have things to do." "Will you be all right by yourself?" Lyu asked. "I don't see any of your followers around. Perhaps we could escort you back to your home." "Oh, that won't be necessary," the man replied with a grin. "I'll see you around." He gave a light wave and walked off, disappearing down shadowy streets. "The Guild is always telling gods not to wander round by themselves," Alize sighed, "But he isn't the first to break the rules, I guess." "Many gods aren't willing to listen to rules set by mortals," Lyu agreed, "but even for a deity, he was an odd one, don't you think?" Ardee nodded, her light blue hair bouncing. "Yes, he reminded me a bit of Lord Hermes," she said. "Oh, Leon, I almost forgot. It looks like branches from the holy tree in your village really are here in Orario. We didn't manage to get our hands on any, but we did pick up a few smugglers who spilled the beans." "…!! Really?" "Yeah. Apparently, the Evils have been going around to other elf villages, too, pillaging branches and sneaking them into the city." This wasn't the first time Orario had seen this kind of shadowy trade. Each elven village possessed its own sacred tree, and their branches were extremely valuable. They could be used to make weapons and staffs, but most of these were gifted to elves leaving the village and rarely sold to outsiders at all. The elves were a very protective race, especially when it concerned the objects of their worship. "Black market trade," mused Alize. "I can't believe we're seeing that sort of thing right here in Orario." "Well, Orario is the crossroads of the world, so it makes sense," reasoned Ardee, her expression grave. "All sorts of dubious items end up here. There's a lot of dealers involved, and squashing them all is like pulling weeds. There has to be somewhere they're keeping the goods when they're not being sold, though. Some kind of warehouse or something…" As Ardee suggested, smuggling activity was rife in Orario these days, yet another consequence of the Age of Darkness. "I'm sorry we couldn't find your village's treasures, Leon…" she said apologetically. "…It's okay," Lyu replied. "It's not my village anymore. I don't care what happens…" "There you go again," said Alize, noticing how much the elf girl struggled to keep a straight face. "You care about them still, don't you?" Ardee stared at Lyu's face for a while, before clasping her hands in front of her. "Just you wait, Leon!" she said, with twinkling eyes. "We'll catch those rotten Evils and take back everything they stole!" Lyu wasn't sure what to say. "I know I shouldn't play favorites," Ardee went on, "But still, I want to help those I care about first! I'll see you around!" Then, with a wave, she left, bounding off down the street without a care in the world. "Ardee! You've got it all wrong! I really don't mind what—she's gone…" Lyu let her arm limply drop, and Alize gave a smile. "She's trying to be nice, so just let her do you a favor," she said. "After all, you're just as deserving of kindness as everyone else!" "…Right." There was no greater symbol of the innate goodness of mortals than the bright and sunny Ardee Varma. Lyu already felt as though a tiny part of her burden had been lifted, and a warm smile worked its way onto her face. "Right, back to the patrol!" Alize declared. "It's time to clean up these streets and bring peace to—" "Alize," came a voice from overhead, and a small figure dropped from the rooftops. It was Lyra, apparently in some rush. "What are you doing here?" asked Alize. "Have you finished your rounds already?" "Sure have," the prum replied. "And now we've got our next job. Keepin' an eye out for any suspicious behavior." Lyra must have come all this way to spread the message, Lyu reasoned, but she still had one question. "Who did these orders come from?" "Who else? My hero!" "Captain, I've just returned from our scheduled meeting with Ganesha Familia. The details are all here in this scroll." The voice of a young man rang throughout the office of the Twilight Manor, Loki Familia headquarters, located in the north of Orario. Finn took the report and ran his eyes over it. "Thank you, Raul," said the prum man. "Good work." "Not at all, sir!" said the young adventurer with a youthful smile. "Now, if you'll excuse me, sir, I'm off to join Noir and the others on patrol!" But just before he reached the door, Finn called out. "Raul," he said. "Remind me how old you are this year?" "Hmm? Fourteen. Why…?" Finn smiled, his azure eyes as deep and blue as a pool at night. "I see. No reason. Sorry to stop you. Go on and join your patrol." "O-okay. Thank you." Raul turned and left the room. It was then that a tall elf who had been standing in the room spoke up. "Finn, why did you ask Raul his age?" "I just felt like we've grown a little too complacent lately," answered Finn, leaning back in his seat, which let out a splendid creak. "We don't even hesitate sending out youths like him onto the lawless streets where danger lurks around every corner and death comes as easily as your next breath." "True, it's not a problem we can simply brush aside," replied the green-haired high elf, Riveria. "But Raul, like Aki and the others, are just supporters. It's not like we send them to fight on the front lines." Finn was a seasoned adventurer and spoke from bitter experience. Riveria challenged his assertion not because she doubted the truth of his words but to offer an alternate perspective. However, as if spotting an opening in his vice-captain's words, Finn grinned. "You know, the girls from Astrea Familia are much the same age, Riveria." "…That is different. They are highly skilled and have convictions strong enough to match. I have no doubt that great things will come of them in the future." Riveria was a Level 5 adventurer, one of the strongest in Orario, so hearing this from her was high praise indeed. Astrea Familia's efforts in preventing the arson attack in the industrial quarter the other day had inspired the populace to believe in hope again, and the high elf princess was sure they would go on to do much more. It was then that the other person in the room, the old dwarf Gareth Landrock, shared his thoughts on the matter while stroking his magnificent beard. "Agreed. Those girls might be some of the last few beacons of hope this city can count on. It's not for us dusty old heroes to deny the future generation their chance to change the world, and in times like these, we can ill afford to." The first-tier adventurer, a man known as the Peerless Wall, cracked an aged smile. Noticing the sadness in Finn's expression, he attempted to cheer him up with some more pleasant memories. "Raul came to this city to be an adventurer, just like the rest of them. Though I daresay he bit off a fair bit more than he could chew at the time." "So he did. I remember it well," said Finn, cracking a smile. "And don't forget," Gareth continued. "You were not much older than him when you established Loki Familia. Age is just a number on the battlefield." "Things were different then, Gareth," Finn objected. "…But I suppose you're right. That kind of sentiment won't do us any good in times like these. Perhaps I should rely on a warrior's wisdom and bury my sentimentality for now." With the help of the other leaders of the familia, Finn rooted out the seeds of sorrow from his heart. The three of them shared a smile before turning to more serious matters. "Now," said Finn. "As for our regular meetings with Ganesha Familia…" He lifted the sheet of parchment on his desk and scanned it. After he absorbed every last letter of the Koine script scrawled across its surface, Gareth raised a query. "We've been meeting with Shakti quite often recently. Is something the matter?" "Grief and terror still plague the city," added Riveria, "but things are far better compared to eight years ago when this age of darkness began. There have been marked improvements in public order, and it seems that the Evils are on the back foot for the moment thanks to the efforts of the peacekeepers working with the Guild like us." Without looking up from his parchment, Finn answered her. "I'm concerned about their recent activities. At first glance, it doesn't look like there's any pattern behind the attacks, but that's just because the Evils are hiding their true intentions. They're taunting us, daring us to find out what they're up to." "…You think Valletta's behind this?" "Most likely. Either she's confident we'll never figure it out, or she's confident that even if we do, it won't matter." The name Gareth brought up was that of one of the Evils' most senior, most dangerous individuals. Blacklisted by the Guild, she was even said to be responsible for the highest number of adventurer deaths in history. Finn shuddered as the old dwarf's words caused him to recall her unsettling grin. "…According to Shakti's report, the Evils made off with a shipment of ignition pieces before burning down that factory the other day," Finn continued. "Now, what would they need with those?" pondered Gareth with a frown. "Switches and buttons alone do not a magic item make." Riveria narrowed her jade-green eyes. "Any news on smuggling activity?" she asked, changing the subject. "I accept I have a personal interest in the matter, but I still think the circulation of holy tree branches in the city is cause for concern." "Plus, it seems we've caught wind of some shady dealings outside the city as well," added Finn, reading the parchment in his hand. "We don't yet know if it's directly related, but another organization working with the Evils is probably responsible." "So, what's our angle?" asked Riveria. "We don't have the numbers to follow up on every lead." Finn thought for a moment. "We'll let Hermes Familia handle the investigation outside the city. As for us…" He paused. At that moment, the door swung open, and their goddess walked in. "Sorry to disturb ya while you're talkin'," Loki said, "but it's an emergency. We're gettin' reports of someone attackin' adventurers in the Dungeon." "Again?" growled Gareth at the contemptible acts of their foe. "Overground, underground…they just won't let up. Is this all part of a plan to wear us down?" Riveria walked over to the wall where her staff was leaning and picked it up. "Shall we head out, Finn?" she asked. But the familia leader held out his hand to stop her. "Ah, that won't be necessary," he said, a flicker of foresight flashing in his astute eyes. "I figured this would happen. Those girls are already on the job." Droplets of bright crimson filled the air. "Waaaaagh?!" An adventurer screamed. The underground paradise's clear blue sky was marred by the scent and sounds of death. "I-it's the Evils!" "Dammit! Can't they just let us explore the Dungeon in peace?!" "R-run for it!" Blood pooled on the ground, and the Level 2 adventurers scrambled to escape. This was the eighteenth floor of the Dungeon, the level known as Under Resort, where no monsters spawned. Amid the crystals and greenery of this floor, one man's bloodred hair stood out like a severed thumb. "Oh, don't tell me you're going already? Leaving your friend to die? That's not very nice, is it?" Flanked by an army of servants, the figure cried out after the fleeing adventurers. In his right hand, he clasped an ordinary dagger. Ordinary, that is, save for the fact it had drunk so much blood that was stained a deep scarlet. Walking over to his fallen victim, he first checked the unfortunate soul was still breathing…then stepped on their neck with a sickening crack. As he did so, a sadistic grin crept across his face. "Stand and fight, you cowards! You don't have to be heroes, but at least show you're worthy of being called adventurers!" The man was twisted, demented, insane. He reveled in a sea of blood. He lamented the disappointing sight before him even as he snuffed out more lives. He was an avatar of purest evil. His name—Vito. "And if you can't do that," he wailed, "then at least cheer me up! Let me see the color of your blood!!" "W-waaaagh?!" Like an opera dancer or a bloodthirsty demon, Vito lunged for his next victim. The hunted adventurers let out a scream of despair. "Hands off, stupid." "…!" A flash of steel deflected his bloodred blade. Vito leaped back as two women leaped into the clearing. "Can't believe Finn was right on the money!" cried the first. "What's goin' on in that head of his?! Makes me think about marryin' the hero of our people for real!" "It's not going to happen! Finn's a respectable prum; he won't go for a sleazy, cunning little brat like you! Also, shut up when we're fighting!" Kaguya, the one who had parried the blow, spat a surprising amount of vitriol considering she was still in her polite persona. Of course, rather than look at Lyra, she had fixed her eyes on their foe. "Leave this to us," said Alize, the last to appear on the scene, pointing westward. "You and your friends, get out of here!" "Th-thank you!" After the last straggler scrambled away, Vito cast an appraising eye over the newcomers. "Who are you?" he mused, almost to himself. But Alize didn't pass on a chance to give her introduction. "We're champions of justice!" she declared. "No evil goes unpunished under our watch!" "Justice…? Ah, you must be Astrea Familia," said the man, managing to fit an impressive amount of scorn into his gentle voice. "I see, I see. What a foolish, simplistic, and pretentious group." "Better a pretentious fool than a miserable worm," came Kaguya's scathing retort, delivered with such force it was like she had spat on him. "These foolish boots shall be the last thing you see." "Hah! What a savage thing for a champion of justice to say! You girls are far less boring than I was led to believe." Kaguya kept her guard up as she studied the man. However, there was little to work with, as he was almost completely unremarkable. His eyes were as narrow as a fox's and they betrayed nothing. His lips were turned up in a fixed smile. The dagger in his hand appeared to be his only weapon, and even his black clothes looked more like a priest's robe than anything made for combat. It all struck Kaguya as some twisted joke. After all, the only salvation this man had to offer was found at the business end of a knife. "…Why are you hunting adventurers?" asked Alize, looking down at the corpse by her feet. "Money? Magic stones?" But Vito seemed puzzled by the very question. "Why?" he repeated. "I'm not sure I follow. Do you need a reason to gaze upon beauty?" "Huh?" Lyra raised a dubious eyebrow. In response, Vito made a grand, sweeping gesture, indicating first the sky, and then the ground. "Why do you turn your head to the blue heavens above? Why do you admire the flowers at your feet? What I do is no different. Only…in this imperfect world, it is bloodshed that I wish to behold." The man's creepy grin was beginning to unnerve Kaguya. "…You're defective," she spat. "Defective. Ohhh, yes, I like the sound of that. Of the many monikers my acts have earned me, I think I like that one the best!" He laughed and laughed, as though there were no funnier joke on this earth. Then his right eyelid lifted almost imperceptibly, allowing a terrifying glimpse of his scarlet iris, as if he were searching for a drop of blood as he scanned a blank canvas. "Hmm. Yeah, you need to be in a cell for the rest of your life. No doubt about it," said Alize, giving a calm-headed nod. She drew her sword and pointed it at Vito. Vito deftly flipped the dagger in his hand as though it were an extension of his arm. "I'd rather not." "Then we'll have to take you there…" Alize, Kaguya, and Lyra all readied their weapons, poised to attack. The tension in the air grew like a bowstring, ready to snap, until… "…by force!!" The three girls shot toward their foe in unison. Vito's lips crept up into a smile as he rushed to meet them. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" The man's wild laughter was a prelude to the fierce clash of blades and the ensuing shower of sparks. First came Kaguya's gently curved blade; then came Alize's sword. And finally, Lyra's boomerangs sliced through the air. However, the man wielded his single dagger like a beast's fang, parrying all three strikes with ease while still managing to launch his own attacks in response. Their quick feet and the man's bloodstained boots moved faster than the eye could follow as they danced around one another in a deadly rondo. "Lord Vito!" Then the man's allies joined the battle, calling their leader's name. The skirmish was quickly evolving into a pitched battle. "Krrh!" The three girls held their own even against this overwhelming force. Vito continued to cross blades with them even as the Evils soldiers were cut down to the left and right of him. He welcomed their hostility and seemed especially happy to embrace Kaguya's desire to kill him. This was a battle between good and evil, between order and chaos, and neither side seemed to have the edge, until… "I see. You are strong. Perhaps there's more to you than I thought, Astrea Familia," said Vito with admiration after encountering these delicate young girls on the field of battle for the first time. "Big talk," scoffed Lyra, calmly surveying the battle from the rear a short distance away while tossing boomerangs and bombs into the enemy ranks. "But I guess you're clearly not some mook if you can take on Alize and Kaguya without breakin' a sweat." She spat with disdain for the man's despicable tactics. While the battle still raged, Alize spoke up. "Are you one of the leaders of the Evils, by any chance? I've never heard of them having someone like you!" "As much as it pains me to admit, I've often been told I have a forgettable face," said Vito with a melodramatic shrug. "Because of that, my friends all call me Faceless." Indeed, apart from the man's bloodred hair, there was very little that could be used to pick him out from a lineup. His permanent smile and narrow eyes almost seemed like a mask. His nickname fit him perfectly: He was a faceless shadow, a man in the crowd whose features would be all but forgotten by the next day. He cracked opened his scarlet eyes ever so slightly and spoke again. "…Of course, the other reason is that very few who see my face live to tell the tale." """Rgh…!""" His barbaric smile drew a look of disgust from the three girls, and they once again realized just what kind of monster they were dealing with. Just then, someone called out to them. "Alize! Lyra! Kaguya!" It was Lyu. She and the rest of the familia had just finished assisting the fleeing adventurers. "Ah, your companions have arrived," said Vito without a hint of worry as he watched the girls dash down the hillside like a gale. "I'm afraid I don't much fancy my chances against the lot of you." "We must retreat, Lord Vito. Remember our objective." "Yes, yes, I know. Well then, to you girls who dance to the tune of justice, I bid you farewell." Vito turned and led his troops to the east, into the forest. Alize called after them and made to follow. "You're not going anywhere!" "Wait, Captain. They want us to go after them. We won't be able to defend against an ambush in those trees." It was Kaguya who offered those words of advice. She watched as Vito's band unhurriedly left the clearing. Alize and Lyra both saw the sense in her words. In recent years, the three of them had become painfully familiar with how low the Evils were willing stoop, and when it was best to let sleeping dogs lie. "Are you three all right?" said Lyu as she arrived beside them. She peered out at the forest edge for any sign of the retreating enemy, while Lyra cracked her neck loudly. "All good here, not even a scratch," she replied. "Lost our chance to capture one of their chiefs, though. How about you?" "We took the adventurers to Rivira and came back to find you," answered Neze. "All of them are safe, except the ones who got attacked before we arrived…" The girls cast a glance around at the bodies of fallen adventurers that littered the grassy plains. Their blood painted the green blades crimson. "Curses!" said Lyu with righteous fury. "If only we'd been here a few minutes sooner…!" "Know your place, you cocky elf. You fancy yourself a hero of myth and legend? Nobody could have possibly saved them all, and you know it." Kaguya brought her harsh, yet sobering words down on Lyu's misplaced self-pity. But Lyu could take no more of her fatalist attitude. "Just because my standard isn't attainable doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to be better, Kaguya!" she roared. "How can you possibly save the people who need saving if you write them off before you've even begun?!" "Save it, Leon! Now's not the time!" cried Neze in an attempt to dissuade the pair from their pointless argument. "Come on, haven't we heard enough?" added Lyra, fiddling with a finger in her ear without even bothering to look over. "I know you two are such good friends, but can't you have this debate somewhere else? C'mon, Captain, say something." But Alize was kneeling over by the bodies of the fallen adventurers. "…First, we need to carry the bodies back to town," she said in a solemn voice. "We'll return them to their parties and let their comrades decide what should happen next." She closed her eyes, her heart a flutter of emotion. Once it had settled, she stood up. "And after that," she said, "there's someplace we need to go. Somewhere that's just the thing for times like these!" Alize and company made their way through the forest, keeping a watchful eye out for any members of the Evils, of course, but also any far roaming monsters that might get the drop on them. Soon, they reached the eastern part of the forest on the eighteenth floor. The sound of a babbling brook reached their ears. As they crossed it, their faces were reflected in large blue and white crystals that looked like swords discarded by giants. Despite their captain's propensity for wandering off track, the members of Astrea Familia soon arrived at their destination. "Mm! This place is always so pretty!" exclaimed Alize. It was a decent-sized clearing, nestled among trees and otherworldly crystals, while overhead the branches framed an opening in the canopy, offering a splendid view of the chrysanthemum-shaped crystals that beamed in place of the sun, radiating a warm glow. A forest of crystals bathed in light. We stumbled upon this one time while we were exploring the eighteenth floor… Lyu thought back to the last time she had been here. It hadn't changed a bit since then. The group had found the place by chance, and it had soon become one of their favorite spots. However, thanks to the constant threat of the Evils, they hadn't had much cause or opportunity to make use of it, and Neze and the others seemed overjoyed to be back at last. "Now," said Alize. "Leon, Kaguya! Take a deep breath! That'll calm the two of you down!" She stretched out her arms and, almost proudly, took several deep breaths. As she did, her face immediately mellowed. "There's nothing wrong with pragmatism," she said, "and there's nothing wrong with being ambitious, either. Now that we've settled that, do you think the two of you can relax a little?" "".….…. "" Lyu and Kaguya glanced at each other. The fire that drove them had started to wane, and they regarded each other not with disdain, but with acceptance. "…I suppose, for the sake of our captain and this beautiful place, I can forgive you." "What's that supposed to mean?" said Lyu, pouting. But already their quarrel was behind them. The other girls grinned as they watched the two of them make up, while Lyra gave a tired shrug. All was well. It was easy to forget, surrounded by lush forest, that they were in the Dungeon. The glittering crystals and the not-quite-sunlight streaming through the branches combined to create a calm and healing ambience. Even the distant cries of monsters in place of birdsong sounded peaceful. "Nicest place in the whole damn Dungeon by far," said Lyra, sitting on a tree branch and clasping her hands behind her head. "If only the monsters didn't come here, I'd build a house." "Oh, that's a good idea!" Noin chimed in. The human girl, a little older than Lyu at sixteen, had short dark brown hair and a sunny smile. She was answered by another human girl, Lyana, whose hair was tied up in twin braids. She was one of the older girls in the group and a mage. "That would be nice, this place is paradise…If I die, make sure to bury me here, okay?" "Wha—?" Lyu didn't know how to respond to the girl's unusual suggestion. It was clear Lyana wasn't planning to go any time soon, but her words didn't sound like a joke, either. "Oh, so a grave instead of a house," Lyra responded, a morbid smile on her lips. "Not bad, not bad. Who cares about monsters when you're dead? Count me in." "Me too!" came the quiet voice of Maryu, another of the older girls. Then came Iska, the Amazon, and Celty, the elf. "Make it a cool-lookin' grave, okay?" "I have no complaints if it means we can stay together…" Lyu could barely keep up with the madness. "Lyra! Noin! Lyana! Maryu! What's gotten into you all?" "Don't get so upset, Lyu, we're just jokin' around. Well, half jokin'." It was Lyra. She hopped down from her tree branch and shrugged. "Besides, we're adventurers," said Lyana, wearing a deprecatory smile. "It could happen to any one of us." "That…that's true, but…" Lyu didn't want to hear her friends talk that way. She didn't want to even think about it. "So you're not prepared to die like the rest of us, greenhorn?" came Kaguya's condemning remark. "Of course I am! Of course I am, it's just…" "We're only saying what-if, Leon," said Neze. "It may not be the Dungeon or the Evils that get us, but we all gotta go someday." "Yep!" agreed Iska. "We're just saying where we'd like to be buried when it happens. You don't have to worry, Leon." But despite her companions' attempts at reassuring her, the barbs around Lyu's heart refused to go away. They should want to see the age of darkness come to an end. They should be thinking of the bright future that lay beyond, not acting like it was only a matter of time before the inevitable. "…It's not right…" She didn't want it to end. She didn't want to see this moment erased. That was Lyu's deepest wish. "I don't want that," she said, her voice weak. Then, in a stronger tone, she declared, "And I will do everything in my power to prevent it—to protect what we have now." All her comrades' eyes were on her. Alize gave a big smile. "Is that your wish, Leon?" "Yes. You're my only friends. Is it strange to want to be with you all forever?" Alize beamed. But before she could answer her, the other girls all began tittering, especially the pink-haired prum. "…Lyra? What's so funny?" "Oh, nothin'. I wasn't thinkin' about how sappy this elf was soundin', that's for sure." "I'm quite certain there is no other elf in this world as stubborn and troublesome as you," said Kaguya. "Is there no cure for that thickheadedness of yours?" "What's that supposed to mean, Kaguya?! Are you mocking me? You're mocking me for caring about my friends?!" Without realizing the warmth in Kaguya's words, Lyu flew into another rage. It was then that the other girls reached their breaking point and erupted in laughter. "They were being nice!" said Alize. "Your sense of justice is beautiful, Leon. Hold on to that." "Well, it sure didn't sound like it…" muttered Lyu, unusually sullen. Letting out another laugh at her reaction, Alize smiled like she was gazing at the most brilliant stars. "Oh, Leon," she said quietly. "Promise me you'll stay like that forever…" "Hmm? Alize?" Hearing her oddly subdued words, Lyu turned to Alize, but she was already her usual sunny self again, smiling like a scarlet flower. "It's nothing," she said. "Break time's over, everyone! Let's head back to the surface through the Dungeon and make the next day even brighter than this one!" Roused by her voice, the members of Astrea Familia all stood up and followed her away, leaving only a promise burning inside each and every one of them. Eight days until the Great Conflict…
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter3-1.txt	Chapter 3: Busy People CHAPTER 3 Busy People The sound of footsteps echoed in the darkness. Amid the broken magic-stone torches that lined the hallway, two animal people stopped and surveyed the carnage. "…There's nothing left," said the sturdy boaz, while the skinnier cat person by his side clicked his tongue in frustration. The two upper-class adventurers of Freya Familia stood in the shadowy wreckage of another destroyed factory, an ocean of silence beneath the moonlit sky. "A whole squad of tier-twos, taken out before we even got here," spat the cat person, Allen. "Figured they were just pushovers, but these guys are tough shit." Before his eyes lay a sea of bodies. "All these wounds were made by the same blade. Was this all done by one person? It's unlike the work of any the Evils we've met so far." Going by the slash marks, it was probably a large greatsword of some kind. An unblockable, unavoidable swing that tore through shields and armor, severed limbs and heads. The room was awash in blood, but miraculously—or more likely, intentionally—not a single victim had breathed their last. As familia members investigated the wreckage, healer and herbalist girls ran between the fallen guards, performing first aid before carrying them off to be treated. Ottar cast his eyes about the scene, whittling down the possibilities in his mind. What had happened here this night was not a battle; it was a slaughter. "Well, whoever they were, they were stupid strong, just like you," said Allen over his shoulder, standing among the fallen adventurers. "What?" Confused, Ottar walked over to his compatriot and beheld what he saw. "This…" A huge hole had been torn in the walls of the factory, as if made by the jaws of some great beast. "These are adamantite walls," Allen explained. "Not many people can bust a hole through them…" "No finesse, just brute force," said Ottar, examining the edges of the massive rift. Was this how the attacker had gained access to the factory? Or was it how they made their escape? Either way, it clearly hadn't taken much effort. The hole was crude, like the attacker simply couldn't be bothered to use the door. "Never heard of the Evils havin' a freak like you on their side," said Allen. "A new recruit, perhaps," stated Ottar, his solemn voice disappearing into the gaping hole. The clouds in the air were like torn cotton. The moon was faint in the pale sky, and a single figure stood atop the city walls. He was huge, at over two meders tall, and though his face was cloaked in shadow, the man exuded a threatening aura from every pore. At the same time, it was almost comical the way his cloak and hood struggled to conceal his monstrous frame, but no one would dare laugh at him, for his greatsword, stuck into the flagstones at his side, still dripped with the blood of his most recent victims. The man was clearly dangerous. His silent eyes surveyed the town below. "What are you doing?" came a voice. A man with dull, silvery hair emerged from the shadows cast by the clouds. Sadistic, inhuman, fanatical. One glance was all that was needed to know this was not an honest and upstanding individual. But now his face wore a twisted frown. "I am looking," the man replied. "This place is just like I remember it. Perhaps you could call it…nostalgia." The giant spoke calmly, still looking over the city. There was no emotion or passion in his voice. It was like he was simply stating facts. This seemed to bother the silver-haired man, who wrinkled his brow. At this point, the giant finally turned to face his visitor. "And who are you again?" "…Olivas. Apostle of chaos, Evils commander! And now, your compatriot!" The silver-haired man, Olivas Act, raised his voice as he greeted the giant. His disdain for his supposed ally was quite evident. "And as such," he went on, "I would like to pose a question. Why did you let those fools live?!" ".….…. " "That factory was guarded by second-tier adventurers, threats we should seek every opportunity to eliminate! With your strength, it should have been a total massacre!" It was Olivas who had sent this man out earlier that night. It had been meant as a test, which he had handily passed. However, Olivas couldn't believe it when he heard the giant hadn't taken a single life, and thus came to demand an explanation in person. "If you shrink at the thought of murder, then what am I to think—" "Have you ever eaten ants?" The completely unexpected question caught Olivas by surprise. "Wh-what…?!" "Spiders, then? Wasps? Scorpions?" "What are you talking about?" "Have you ever had to survive off the flesh of monsters? Slake your thirst with their ash?" The giant turned back to the city. Olivas trembled with rage. He didn't know how to react to the man's inexplicable line of questioning, and yet his forceful tone had stunned Olivas into silence. He had come here to upbraid the man, but now Olivas found himself on the back foot instead. "I have," the giant said at last. "I have eaten everything, save my brothers-in-arms." This unsettling revelation sent a shiver down Olivas's spine. "What?!" he exclaimed. "To me, eating and killing are much the same. We do both to extend our own lives. While the means may differ, the results do not. The only difference is whether we bathe in blood or drink it." The man had eaten much in his storied life. Ants, spiders, wasps, scorpions. Monster flesh and ash. And he didn't consider the dead to be his comrades, so once they died, he thought it was only natural their corpses were fair game. "Wh-what are you trying to say?" asked Olivas, his voice quivering with a sense of primal dread. "It is my appetite that has brought me here," the giant said, without turning around. "I have the right to choose how I sate it. Your diet, on the other hand, is feeble. You only devour women and children and avoid those stronger than you. All you've ever tasted are other maggots like yourself." "Grrrh?!" "Feast on maggots, if that's all you know. But if that's what you want to feed me, then at least give it to me all at once so I can get it over with." Olivas couldn't find the words to respond. He was a Level 3 adventurer, and one of the top members of the Evils to boot. Yet the man before him saw him as nothing more than a lowly worm. A chill gust of wind fluttered the giant man's cloak as he continued. "Maggots taste terrible. I would rather tear out my own throat than let them become my flesh and blood." Olivas looked ready to snap, but a wide grin crept across his lips. "…Ha. Ha-ha. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" His fear turned to awe. Sweat coated his brow, and his heart started pounding as though he had been bitten by a wild animal. Never until that moment had he been more ready to trust the man before him with his life. "A maggot? A maggot! Me, a Level Three, no more than a maggot to you! Not even a beast?! Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Olivas could already see how this man would propel the Evils to greatness. With him at their side, no piddling adventurer could possibly pose a threat to their glory. "…Very well," he said. "You may leave these maggots to us, for now. However, I expect not to be disappointed when the time comes." There was a strange excitement in Olivas's voice. He promptly turned and left without another word. The man was alone once more, staring out across the city. Beneath his hood, old scars ravaged his face. He spoke as though to the town itself. "A thousand years of history died here. The disappointment may be too much for me to bear…" "Destroyed an adamantite wall?" A new day had dawned, and once again, the sky was full of clouds. It was a little past noon when Hermes got the news. "Yes. We heard as much from Ottar and Allen of Freya Familia. They surmise there must be a warrior of great skill working with the Evils." The one who brought Hermes this information was a blue-haired young girl on the cusp of womanhood named Asfi Al Andromeda. She was fifteen years old. Level 2, but very close to her next Rank Up. Brilliant and talented, with a honed mind. An egg that would one day hatch into a fine aide. Hermes shrugged emphatically. "That's saying something coming from the most powerful adventurers in the city," he said. "I don't even want to think about how strong our suspect must be." As always, the attitude on the streets was as gloomy as the skies above. People walked with their eyes down turned, grim expressions on their faces. Women and children cast paranoid glances over their shoulders as they hurried about their business. The streets Hermes walked now were no different. As he listened to the report from his follower, he searched for signs of change in the city itself. This had always been Hermes's way. A messenger, an arbitrator, a neutral observer. He needed to keep his fingers on many different pulses if he wanted to maintain his reputation as a purveyor of information, and right now the information he sought wouldn't be in any report or documentation. It could only be found in the slight perturbations in the atmosphere outside. Asfi served as his escort for this excursion. "Also," she went on, "Astrea Familia has reported contact with what they believe may be a high-ranking Evils commander on the eighteenth floor of the Dungeon. However, they were not able to apprehend the suspect." "Ah, our rising stars," said Hermes with a smile. "They're well on their way to rivaling the likes of Freya and Loki. Haven't you made friends with one of their members lately, Asfi? The Gale Wind or something like that." "I wouldn't say friends…More like kindred spirits…" It was only by chance that Asfi had first met Lyu. In the wake of a certain Evils' attack, Asfi had been sent to provide aid using her magic items. Even at this young age, she had already made a name for herself as a crafter. Arriving on the scene, she encountered a noisy bunch of girls who turned out, of course, to be Astrea Familia. Three of them—a red-haired human, a far-eastern beauty, and a prum girl—were teasing a fourth, a masked elf named Leon. When Asfi approached, Leon glared up with tears in her eyes and demanded… "What? Have you come to look down on me, too?!" But Asfi only flashed the merciful smile that could only come from enlightenment. "It's hard, isn't it?" "…You mean…you too?" It was the birth of an alliance between two long-suffering attendants. Not a day went by where Asfi wasn't pushed around by the likes of Hermes, or the captain, or Hermes, or also Hermes. The fact there was another soul out there gave her strength. Lyu must have also seen something in that smile, world-weary far beyond Asfi's years, and sensed a kinship. So despite Lyu being as unwelcoming as a stray cat, she and Asfi quickly warmed up to each other. While they weren't close enough to be comparable to her friendship with Ardee, she could at least call Asfi a fellow sufferer. Recently, the pair had even begun to share information. "You do both have the same mood," said Hermes flippantly. "Impossible to take a joke. Maybe I'll go pay their goddess a visit. As your patron deity, eh?" "Please don't ruin what little trust I've managed to build," sighed Asfi, roused from her happy reminiscence by her god's mischievous remark. She placed a finger to the bridge of her silver-rimmed glasses, pushing them up her nose. "Besides, their goddess is much like Lyu: purehearted, noble, and nothing like you." Just as Hermes and Asfi were debating her merits on the other side of town, the goddess in question was over in district one, scurrying through the streets in quite a rush. She finally arrived at her destination: the terrace fronting a cozy-looking teahouse. "Sorry I'm late!" she exclaimed, out of breath, to the two other goddesses waiting there. "What time do ya call this?" demanded the first, an androgynous-looking redhead. "Somethin' tells me you're gettin' a little too big for your boots, huh?" "Is hooliganism in fashion these days, Loki?" remarked the other, a silver-haired beauty sipping tea from a cup. Loki and Freya. The two most influential gods in Orario. "Were you looking after the children again?" Freya inquired. She was dressed head to toe in a robe to avoid bewitching the people on the street with her beauty. "Yes," replied Astrea, taking her seat. "I was just over at the orphanage. Then we all went over to the market to hand out soup." "Oh, here we go," Loki groaned, leaning back in her chair. "Is that what y'all call justice these days? Virtue signaling? Not that we're exactly the perfect role models, but you should really try to act more like a goddess sometime." Astrea gave a strained smile. "Everybody needs a hobby, don't they? Like how you enjoy getting drunk and complaining." A pair of deep blue eyes, dark as the night, peered back at the mischievous trickster god. "Besides," Astrea went on. "My children are out there fighting for the good of this city. I can't stand by and do nothing." "That's exactly what I hate about ya. You're so sweet, I'm gonna be sick. You remind me of Artemis, 'cept at least she has the decency to get violent once in a while." It didn't seem like she was just joking around anymore. The venom in Loki's words was all too real. "How're we supposed to be fair to everybody when we ain't omniscient no more? That ain't justice, it's just self-satisfaction." Astrea's nonplussed smile was her only response to Loki's brazen comment. However, she was accustomed to scorn, and nobody knew what constituted justice better than she did. Therefore, Loki's words didn't bother her in the slightest. "Well, I think it's rather romantic," said Freya. "Struggling endlessly for an ideal that can't be attained. Perhaps I should try it for myself and see what all the fuss is about." "Ugh, I'm surrounded by idiots," lamented Loki. "What's the world comin' to when the gods kids look up to are a Goody Two-Shoes and a nymphomaniac?" Astrea simply continued smiling. "Quite right, quite right. But if I may, to what do I owe the pleasure of this invitation? My familia is far below your great houses in terms of influence, as you are both surely aware." "Just a little tea and gossip," Loki reassured her. "You've been keepin' up patrols; perhaps you could fill us in on a few things we slackers mighta missed?" "We're also more than a little interested in your affairs," Freya agreed. "Your followers, in particular, are quite excellent. Why, if they weren't already yours, I'd love to take them for myself." "Seriously, you gotta learn how to reel it in!" Loki reprimanded her. "You keep up this obsession with ownin' everythin', and you're gonna butt heads with Ishtar one day!" But Astrea calmed her. "I shall take that as the compliment you surely intended it to be, Freya. However, if that is the case, then what about Ganesha? His children are just as committed to maintaining order as mine. Why not talk to him?" The two goddesses responded to that in unison. ""Because he's annoying."" "Oh…" Judging from Astrea's smile, she had already known the answer. Why does he shout? If you asked him, the man would say only this: "I am Ganeshaaaaa!!" At the end of the day, there is no reason. "I am Ganeshaaaa!" "Whoa, shut up! But hey, I feel better already! Thanks, Ganesha!" "I am Ganeshaaaaaa!" "Shut up already! Ah, but suddenly my worries seem so insignificant now! Thank you so much, Ganesha!" "I! Am! Ganeshaaaaaaa!" "Shut the hell up! Oh, but look, you scared that mugger right off! Cheers, Ganesha!" "We are Ganeshaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!" """Seriously, shut the hell up!! But wow, we feel our strength returning!! Thanks again, Ganesha!!""" Day after day, the elephant-masked god took to the streets, spiriting the townsfolk with his rousing voice. But man, was it annoying. Ardee and Shakti watched him from afar. "What do you think, sis?" asked the younger sibling with a beaming smile on her face. "Should we stop him, or not?" "Don't talk to me. Just…don't talk to me…" Freya almost felt as though she could hear the god's voice even now, echoing across the city, but she paid such feelings no mind. "Let us begin," she declared. "Loki, did you give Hermes his task?" "Yeah, I did," Loki replied. "Well, when I say I, I mean my familia. Perseus dropped by to give her report just before I came here. Apparently, they've figured out what the Evils are up to outside Orario. It's just as Finn guessed: They're recruitin' an army of followers—but the god ain't givin' any of them a Falna, and they're all just noncombatant worshippers." Just then, Astrea's face began to pale. "And these worshippers of the Evils…" "Yep, they're rilin' people up," Loki answered. "Violence, extortion, threats, you name it. Anything that will help expand their influence." Meanwhile, in another part of town, Hermes and Asfi were walking through the streets. "Using violence to spread faith has always given me the creeps," said Hermes. "Even us gods find it off-putting." "And pitiful?" "You said it, not me." Hermes flicked the brim of his traveling hat. "Anyway, if Orario's civil unrest starts spreading, then our reputation as the capital of the world is gonna plummet. We still haven't regained the goodwill that we lost along with Zeus and Hera." "All those judgmental eyes," Asfi said. "I'm worried. The others tell me not to let it bother me, but I'm not sure I can…" "That's because you're a sensitive girl, Asfi! But don't worry! In just seven years, you'll be a jaded, weary PA, and it'll all wash over you!" "I will not! And what's a PA anyway?" Hermes's oddly specific prediction gave Asfi the chills. Behind her silvered frames, the girl's eyes turned serious. "Seriously…Now, if that's enough digressions, I had one further matter to raise. Among the worshippers of the Evils, we've identified one group in particular we should keep an eye on." "Where are they located?" asked Freya, after Loki had finished relaying the information she learned from Hermes's assistant. "Far south of Orario," Loki replied, "in a place called Dedyne." "Dedyne…that name brings back memories," said Freya, turning it over in her mind. "Memories I'd sooner forget." "From what Hermes's kids sniffed out," Loki went on, "they've been keepin' their business on the down-low, nothing high-profile so far. But they're up to somethin', that's for sure. Apparently, the place is crawlin' with activity, almost like…they're preparin' for somethin'." The three around the table absorbed this unsettling new info. "…What could they be up to?" asked Astrea, tipping her head. "What could the Evils be doing in the lands outside Orario?" Asfi frowned as she summarized all they knew. "Ignition pieces from Orario, holy tree branches from the elven villages, and now, something down in Dedyne, too…Our enemy is planning something, but what?" Hermes scanned the streets with his eyes, but his mind was on his assistant's words. "Hmm, lots of dots, but not many lines," he said. "Nothing jumps out at me. Guess we just don't have the information to draw a solid conclusion." Beneath the brim of his hat, his citrine eyes narrowed as the god smiled. "Looks like you have some more work to do, Asfi," he said. "Get out there and find us some actionable intel, Vice-captain." "I'm only vice-captain because you forced me to be! Falgar was much more suited to this!" "And you should be captain, but for now, Lydis is in that role. Try to get along with her, won't you?" "I can't work with someone like that!" shouted Asfi, growing increasingly frustrated. "She tires me out! She's like a female version of you, Hermes! Just the other day, she was all, 'Hey, hey, I'm Lydis! That means you have to do all the boring work, Asfi! Buh-bye!' and ran away!" Asfi's imitation of her direct superior was complete with gestures and poses. "It's honestly scary how much of her brains went into her beauty!" She sounded like she was being forced to interact with a creature of another species. Tears collected at the corners of her eyes. Asfi's skill had earned her a reputation she found hard to live up to. Even at her tender age, she felt the weight of the world bearing down on her, perhaps even more so than Lyu. Hermes closed his eyes for a moment, then in a clear, dashing voice, he declared: "You should see how she looks in bed. That makes it all—Guhhh?!" No sooner had the words left his mouth than Asfi's right fist found its mark in his cheek. "Scum!" she swore, her face bright red. "I can't believe you would seduce your own familia! You're a disgrace!" Her fists of judgment reduced the god to a smoldering wreck. Ah, Hermes. You know what your problem is? You keep making innuendos in front of impressionable young girls who haven't had a chance to mellow out yet!! "I-it was a joke! A joke! I just went to wake her up one time, that's all!" "That still means you went into her bedroom, you perv!!" "Gwaaaaaaaagh?!" Hermes's tortured scream could be heard several blocks away. It was only a short while later that Asfi finished doling out punishment, her shoulders heaving with exertion. "Haaah…haaah…Still, there's one more thing I wanted to ask…" She glared at the dying god with murder in her eyes. Inches from death, Hermes got on his knees and begged. "I'll answer! Anything! So lower your bloodied fists! Have mercy!!" Asfi relaxed her posture, turned to the side, and took a deep, calming breath. "…The Evils have been oddly active of late, whether it's stealing goods or gathering followers. But who in the world is supplying them?" "Well, that's simple," replied Hermes, scooping his hat off the floor and replacing it atop his head. "They're getting them from all the merchants who come to do business with Orario." "Wha—?!" Loki explained as she refilled her glass. "Some people wanna bring anarchy to Orario. There's nothin' they'd love more than to see the Guild collapse." Her face screwed up in bitterness. And it wasn't just from the wine. "Because, while everyone is free to haggle over Drop Items," observed Astrea, "free trade of magic stones is entirely prohibited." "Exactly. The Guild controls all Dungeon-related business. To some merchants, they're nothin' but a pain in the ass." It was Freya who laid out the logical conclusion. "So they believe that by overthrowing the Guild, all those profits can be theirs." Orario's magic-stone industry made it the center of the world. The economic benefits were incalculable. This was all made possible by the limitless supply of magic stones upon which the city sat. Could any merchant contain their jealousy, imagining the business ventures that golden goose could make possible? The answer, of course, was a big fat "No." These were merchants, after all. People who saw business in war, people who put a price on life and death itself. "There's not much I can say except…it really is sad," said Astrea. "They're so blinded by profit, they would plunge Orario into chaos." "Damn right," said Loki. "I ain't got enough sighs for those fools. Wish they'd look at the big picture once in a while." She opened a single scarlet eye and asked a question. "If the Guild falls, who'll manage the Dungeon? If adventurers die out, who'll beat the Black Dragon? Who'll save us then?" It was Freya who summed everything up. "If Orario falls, the world goes with it. Even a child can see that." The silver-haired goddess gave a thin smile, like a witch. "So blinded by desire that they bring about the destruction of the very world they live in…What a fitting way for mortals to meet its end." "But this raises a question," said Hermes. "Namely, why are merchants only investing in the Evils now?" "Hmm? What do you mean?" "There have been plenty of other chances to wage war on Orario. If it were me, I would pick eight years ago, after Zeus and Hera fell and the Age of Darkness began. Orario was in chaos then, even more so than it is now. Yet we never saw any merchants buddying up with the Evils. Why now?" "I…I suppose you have a point," replied Asfi, looking puzzled. "Now, this is just a guess, but what if they're poised to replace adventurers entirely?" suggested Hermes. "Replace them…?" "Remember the first thing you told me? What kind of person could possibly be capable of breaking through an adamantite wall?" Asfi gasped. "Then the reason merchants are only investing in the Evils now…is because some powerful force is backing them?" "It's a bit of a leap, but it would explain everything we've seen so far," said Hermes. "And sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one." The intuition of a god. The most reliable and unreliable force on this earth. Asfi gulped. "A force beyond any adventurer…strong enough to rule Orario in the Guild's absence. Could such a thing really exist?" "Ya have to admit, it does make a lotta sense," said Loki. In fact, there was no other possibility worth fearing. Without saying as much, Freya gave her support to Loki's theory. And she also shared her suspicions as to the identity of the culprit. "The Evils' strange actions of late. The collusion between them and the merchants…and a powerful leader able to coordinate it all." "It's all connected," said Astrea. "Even the goings-on outside of Orario." She glanced at the other two goddesses. They both returned her nod. "There has to be one, doesn't there?" "Yes, that's right." Meanwhile, across the city, Hermes came to the same conclusion. "Yep, there's gotta be. Coordinating the whole thing from behind the scenes." Then, all four deities chanced to look up at the same ashen sky. """"There's a god behind all this."""" "Hey! Leon!" Lyu turned at the voice. "Eren?" she said, recognizing the man who called. "What a surprise to see you." He smiled back. "Still on patrol? No rest for the righteous, eh?"
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter4-1.txt	Chapter 4: Questioning Justice CHAPTER 4 Questioning Justice Kaguya turned and treated Eren to her signature thinly veiled insults. "Oh? Who's this god again? I'm sorry, you're just so forgettable I can't seem to place you." They were in the south of the city. Lyu was just on early evening patrol with Kaguya and Lyra. "Ain't this the weirdo Alize told me about? The one who almost lost his entire life savings?" asked Lyra. By now, all of Astrea Familia had heard the tale of the "444-Valis God." "Gah!" cried Eren. "You girls seriously don't mince words! I thought you'd show a little more compassion to a deity!" There was an odd sort of enthusiasm to his voice. It seemed like he was used to being a hopeless god. "You are followers of Lady Astrea, aren't you?" Eren inquired. "As virtuous as Lady Artemis, and twice as gentle? That Astrea? You girls ought to follow her example!" "Oh, you know our goddess, do you?" Kaguya shot back. "Of course! She's a kind and loving soul! A paragon of purity among the disappointing philanderers of our pantheon!" Eren's speech quickened, until before anyone knew it, he was practically shouting her virtues from the rooftops. "Filled with love and affection! A goddess among goddesses! Top of the list of ladies whose lap I'd like to lay down my head on!! Oh, if only she would be my mother, all my problems would be solved!!" ""Disgusting,"" replied Kaguya and Lyra as one. "Ouch! Say how you really feel, why don't you?!" This god was starting to give the girls the creeps. They struggled to think of a punishment harsh enough for his apparent obsession with their beloved leader. Lyu looked at the pitiful, teary-eyed god, unsure whether to be bothered by his presence or amazed by his persistence. "I don't know where to begin," she said, "but I guess I'll start by asking…why are you talking to us?" "No reason. I just happened to see my old friends while out for a stroll and figured I'd strike up a chat. Is there anything wrong with that?" "There's nothing more bothersome than a god with too much time on his hands," said Kaguya. Eren simply threw his hands up in defeat and gave a muddled grin, saying nothing in his defense. "I'm sorry," said Lyu, "but we're on patrol at the moment. You'll have to excuse us." But just as the girl turned to leave, Eren called out to her. "So, these patrols. How long are you going to do them for?" Lyu stopped in her tracks and turned. "…What do you mean?" she asked, looking back at the god's hopeless smile. "Well, you girls are working so hard for the sake of the city. When will it stop?" "When evil is destroyed, of course," replied Lyu. "Our jobs will become unnecessary once Orario knows true peace." "Don't you mean, when your sense of justice withers?" The god smiled the same dopey smile. But Lyu felt that sense of unease again, more strongly this time. Her eyes grew sharper. "…What are you implying?" she demanded. The god replied as though missing the pointedness in her tone completely. "Well, it can't be easy working such a thankless job, and without pay to boot. I don't think it's healthy. In fact, I'm worried about you," he added, as if voicing his concerns to a reckless child. "You're all gung ho about it now, but what happens after you burn out? Would you still say the same?" "Do you find fault with our work, my Lord?" asked Kaguya, in as cold a voice as the steel of her blade. "Not at all. I think it's amazing. You guys do what I could never, and you do it with pride." There was no lie in the strange god's words. "When I think of how you'll look when this world leaves you tattered and broken, why…I just think it's so sad…and a little exciting, if I'm honest." The man was being honest. A little too honest, as far as Lyu and the others were concerned. From his lofty position, it was as though he could see how it would all play out, and he wasn't shy about letting Astrea Familia know how futile it seemed to him. "I think you've said too much, my Lord," said Lyra. "I might be willin' to sit and listen to this, but these two girls are on short leashes, so how about you leave before you get bitten, yeah?" "Hmm, interesting," said Eren, peering into Lyra's cold eyes. "You know what I'm talking about, don't you? I'm glad they have someone level-headed on their side." Lyra turned and made to leave without listening to a word more. "Let's go, you two," she said to Lyu and Kaguya. "We're just wastin' time here. No sense in givin' this guy the attention he so desperately craves." "Sorry, sorry," replied Eren, rushing around to cut Lyra off. "I'll make this question the last, then. One more, then this big bad bully will disappear. I promise." Lyu sighed and, hoping it would at least get rid of him for good, asked: "…What's your question?" It turned out to be an exceedingly simple one. "What is justice?" he asked. "What do you mean?" said Lyu. "Well, I'm just wondering," explained Eren. "What's this justice that all you mortals seem to go crazy for? I mean, I'm a god, and even I wouldn't be comfortable trying to judge everybody fairly. Maybe that's just because I'm not a very good god." It was a simple question, but one that even a deity claimed to struggle with finding a satisfactory answer to. "So," he went on, "I figured I'd ask you guys. After all, your goddess is all about justice, isn't she? Surely, you must know what it is, then." "Ignore him, Leon," Lyra advised. "He's just messin' with you." "Do you not have an answer?" Eren pressed her. "Does that mean you don't know? You don't know what it is you're fighting for?" "Grr! All right, fine," said Lyu. "The answer to your little question couldn't be any clearer in my mind!" "Idiot…" muttered Kaguya, but Lyu had already taken the strange god's obvious bait. "Okay, then, tell me," replied Eren. "What is justice?" "Justice is virtuous deeds done without promise of a reward. It's upholding that value at all times…And it's striking down evil wherever it rears its ugly head." A silence lingered, broken only by a chill gust of wind that blew between the pair. Eren seemed to turn Lyu's words over in his mind for a second, occasionally nodding or tapping the side of his head. "Hmm…I see. So the people down here are guided by what they call virtue. Whatever comprises this virtue must be upheld, while anything that crosses it must be destroyed." Then Eren's lips curled up into a smile. "With violence if necessary. A sort of Justice by force, if you will." Lyu exploded at him. "That is not what I'm saying! Without us, evil would reign supreme! If we didn't use force, people would be hurt or killed!" "Whoa! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend. There's some truth to what you're saying. And I think the world needs people with a more simplistic outlook. Not everyone wants to engage with philosophy, after all." Despite his apologetic words, however, the god was still grinning. Lyu wasn't sure whether it was just her imagination, but it felt as though he was mocking her. "It's just…" he went on. "Well, your logic could apply just as well to evil as it does to good. I wonder what would happen if the roles were reversed?" The god smiled as though he were a poet listening to a pleasing melody. Then he turned his pity-filled eyes upon Kaguya, Lyra, and Lyu. "Well, I, for one, can suffer this fool no longer," said the far-eastern girl. "I'm sorry about that," Eren replied. "My fine ladies, your souls are as beautiful as your faces. I'm sorry to have taken up so much of your time, but it was very worthwhile, for me at least. Thank you." "We're done entertainin' you," said Lyra. "Next time you wanna talk philosophy, take your creepy smile somewhere else." The two girls left without another word. Lyu, meanwhile, seemed fazed by what she had heard, like there was a knot in her throat that wouldn't go away. But she turned to follow her friends, and that was when Eren called out to her. "Leon," he said. "You really are the purest of the lot. It has to be you." The others were already out of earshot. Neither of them heard his voice or saw the look in his eyes that Lyu saw. His face was cast in darkness by the setting sun, leaving only a dazzling smile. The shadows seemed darker, somehow. Darker and longer than should have even been possible, and they lingered right up until the man was swallowed by the crowd. "…I didn't sense any hostility at all. If anything, he almost seemed fond of us," muttered Lyu. "But…" Whatever she thought next, she didn't say it. She could only stare, her sky-blue eyes trained intently on the empty spot where the god once stood. "Who is he anyway…?" Dusk fell, and the curtain of night descended on the city. In district seven, to the northwest, there was nary a single light, and a pair of adventurers peered through a window in one of the buildings, both holding their breaths. "Are you sure this is the place?" whispered one. "Yes," replied the other. "We've seen some shady types going in and out, all using some kind of item to cloak their scent so even animal people noses can't track them." The two girls crouching by the window were none other than Shakti and Ardee, the Varma sisters. The building under their surveillance was a dusty old church that nobody used for worship anymore. Above the front doors, which now lay closed, was a stone portrait of a goddess, half of which had been worn away or destroyed. "Looks like we've finally found where the smugglers are storing their goods before selling them on the black market," said Ardee, fists clenched. "It wasn't in the trade district at all!" "Away from prying eyes, I assume," said Shakti. "They've eluded us for this long, but that ends tonight." Soon, the two girls were joined by another from their team. "Captain, everyone is in position and ready to begin on your mark." "All right. Let's make this a clean operation, people." Members of Ganesha Familia were hidden all around the church. They awaited only Shakti's signal. She took a deep breath, then yelled: "All units, chaaarge!" A battle cry erupted as every last adventurer hopped out of cover and descended on the church. After they kicked down the door, Ardee, the fleetest of the group, led the others inside. "This is the watch!" she declared. "We have the place surrounded! Come out with your hands…up?" However, Ardee soon discovered that her speech was not warranted. For every last person within the church's walls had already been completely incapacitated. "…Uh…Ah…" Men and women. Humans and dwarves and animal people. They lay broken, atop cracked tiles, as though crushed by some incredible force. There was no blood, and all were still breathing, but they had been reduced to such a distressing state, it was a wonder they were still alive. "There are merchants…and Evils, too!" said Ardee in wonder. It was then that Shakti entered, right after her sister "They've all been wiped out? Who did this? And how did they get here before us?" Gripped by an inexpressible feeling of shock, the familia members began investigating the scene, when all of a sudden, a voice reverberated around the room. "It's become so noisy again." ""?!"" At first, no one noticed to whom the gloomy voice belonged. Outside, the clouds allowed a moonbeam to shine on one of the stained-glass windows, illuminating a corner of the church and bringing into stark relief the silhouette of a woman wearing a thick robe. The hood was up, her face obscured, but ash-gray hair fell down her shoulders, and coupled with the unholy image of the church at night, she looked almost like a witch. Shakti and Ardee both wheeled around at the sound and were struck dumb by the sight of her. "The distractions never end," the stranger said, her grieving voice echoing off the walls. "Orario now is the same as it ever was. I can't even sleep in peace. Ahhh, now I remember why I hate this land." The members of Ganesha Familia all stopped and stared, as though trying to work out what the displeased woman was doing here. Who is she? An adventurer? Ardee was perturbed. The woman was only standing in place, yet she gave off a pressure unlike any the girl had ever felt. Shakti, meanwhile, shuddered with fright. Where did she come from? Or, no—How long has she been standing there?! The Ganesha Familia captain had failed to notice her. Her voice, her presence, her very being…they were all so faint that, if Shakti wasn't looking straight at her now, she would struggle to say whether the woman was still in the room at all. "…Did you do this?" Shakti asked. "Who else could it have been?" the mysterious woman replied. As Shakti opened her mouth to inquire further, Ardee butted in. "Why?" she asked. "They were annoying me. That's all," was the woman's reply, completely aloof. "What? What do you mean?" "This rabble ravaged the elven forest far too much and damaged the sacred trees. They even tainted this holy place. I simply gave them their just deserts." The woman spared not even a glance for the fallen Evils around her, and the disdain in her voice was enough to suggest why. That single fragment of hate in the sea of tranquility put Ardee on edge. "This place…you mean, this church?" "Yes," the woman replied. "My sister loved this place." It was impossible to see what she saw, her eyes hidden beneath her cowl, but the emotion in her voice as she spoke those last words was obvious. "H-help…" one man groaned on the floor. "Help me…!" "I ought to kill the lot of them, that they might never again taint this place with their vulgar words," said the woman, her voice as icy cold as the shards of moonlight streaming in through the window, "but to soil this holy ground with their blood would be even worse. I'll let you clean up this mess." Then she turned to leave. "You think we're just going to let you go?" Shakti shouted after her. "Catch me if you can, child," the woman said without a shred of care. "Sh-she called big sis a child?!" said Ardee, shuddering. "This isn't a joke, Ardee!" yelled Shakti. "All troops, capture her!" "Wroaaaaaaaaah!!" On one side of the church, the combined might of Shakti's forces, numbering over twenty and including multiple Level 3 adventurers. On the other, the woman single-handedly responsible for the collapse of Orario's black market trade. It was she who whispered the single word that ended the battle in an instant. "Gospel." Her spell produced a wall of noise that radiated out and scattered the group. It was an utterly destructive sound, like a thunderclap, an earthquake, and an explosion all rolled into one. It flung the combatants off their feet and rattled every eardrum like the tolling of church bells. Even Shakti and Ardee were dashed against the back wall alongside splintered wooden pews and a cloud of dust. In all the chaos, the mysterious woman vanished like a phantom in the night. "M-magic?!" cried Ardee, staggering to her feet. "She's gone!" Shakti lifted herself off the ground, using her spear for support. She was wearing a deeply sour look. The spell must have produced some kind of vacuum wave, she reasoned. The force, enough to crack the flagstones underfoot, had left her ears ringing and her balance unsteady. "What do we do, sis?" Ardee asked. Though she wanted nothing more than to give chase and redeem her failure, Shakti shook her head. "…Leave her," she replied. "We need to secure the church first." The black market was the priority. That was the mission that brought them here. "Though I fear that job has already been done for us…" she added, in a voice so quiet nobody else could hear. A little while later, Ganesha Familia were busy attending to their initially planned duty. Anyone hurt by the earlier mishap was quickly attended to by the group's healers, and afterward, everyone got to work rounding up the suspects and investigating the church. "All Evils members and black market traders accounted for!" reported one soldier. "Good work," replied Shakti. "The goods must be hidden somewhere in the church. Split up and begin searching." "Yes, ma'am!" Shakti wasted no time in giving her next orders. While the Evils soldiers were being carried out of the building, Ardee came over. She had just finished taking down names and descriptions, and she had a question for her elder sister. "Sis…Who was that woman, do you think? She took out the Evils, so does that make her our ally?" "It's hard to see it that way," Shakti replied. "All I can say for sure is that she doesn't obey orders…and she's a force to be reckoned with." Still frowning, Shakti took a look at the enemy soldiers who were being removed from the church. "Some of those she incapacitated were high-ranking Evils. Rudra Familia and other Level Threes." Ardee gasped. "You mean she took out a room full of second-tier adventurers, just like that?" "Yes. Not even Loki Familia have anyone so strong. Where could she have come from…?" The woman's skill put her on par with a first-tier adventurer, at least. Even Ardee could tell that, though her sister had undoubtedly deduced even more. All this was clear from the deep furrows across her brow. Ardee put her brain to work as well, but she didn't get very far before one of her subordinates emerged from a back door, calling Shakti's name. "Captain! We've located a stockpile of stolen goods! We've identified several items that were smuggled in!" "Oh! Sorry, could I take a look?" said Ardee, reacting to the soldier's words. He showed her what he had found, which turned out to be a hole in the floorboards concealing a single wooden box. Ardee crouched and quickly but carefully rummaged through it. "Here they are!" she cried at last. "The holy tree branches!" Ardee pulled out a bundle wrapped in cloth. All in all, it was about as thick as a woman's arm. "So those are what were stolen from Lyu's village?" asked Shakti, walking over. "I would have thought they'd all have been turned into weapons and staffs by now." "Well, it's a good thing they weren't!" said Ardee cheerily. "Because I promised Leon I'd get them back!" She beamed. Then her face fell as she suddenly realized something. "I don't know which of these are Leon's! There's so many, and they all look the same!" She picked up two of the branches, looking from one to the other, and back again, before giving up in defeat. Shakti gave a despairing sigh and smiled at her mercurial sister. "We'll ask some of our elf friends to help us," she said. "They've often said that the holy trees have different auras. I'm sure they can tell the difference." "Sis…You're right! Thanks!" Ardee leaped to her feet, all smiles again, then all of a sudden looked quite timid. "Also…Can I ask one more selfish thing?" "What is it, Ardee?" "Well…if any of these turn out to be from Lyumilua Forest, where Lyu is from, do you think I could be the one to give them back to her?" Shakti had deduced what her little sister's question would be before it even left her lips. Thus, she didn't take long to respond. However, as the leader of the city watch, she still needed to choose her words carefully. "This is not our property," she said. "It's not for us to hand out as we please." "Ugh…" "…Having said that, I have heard the elves of Lyumilua Forest are the most prideful of all. They are unlikely to accept the branches from us." "S-so that means…!" "Yes. I see no problem in entrusting them to someone who originally hails from their village instead. But only after we've inspected them thoroughly, understood?" "Of course! Oh, thank you! Thank you so much!" Shakti smiled as her sister jumped for joy. Ardee picked up one of the branches, not even knowing if it belonged to Lyu or not, and muttered, "I'm so glad…I hope this'll cheer her up…" The pale light of the moon shone in through the stained glass, bathing the child in a soft glow. Six days until the Great Conflict…
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter5-1.txt	Chapter 5: Tragedy in Sunlight CHAPTER 5 Tragedy in Sunlight For the past few days, the citizens of Orario had known nothing but ash-gray skies. The gloomy weather clouded their hearts like it clouded the heavens, a constant reminder of the Age of Darkness and all it entailed. No rain fell, nor storm clouds gathered. Only a somber and unrelenting atmosphere pervaded the streets at all times. Today, however, citizens awoke to a clear blue sky, inhabited only by meager wisps of white. It was a bright, sunny morning, and Alize put her hands on her hips and, in an equally bright, sunny voice, declared: "Now, it's off to feed the poor!" "Why do you sound so proud about that?" asked Lyra with a fed-up frown. "It's Demeter Familia who organized the whole thing…" "Because! We get to join forces with the Guild and other adventurers and show everybody the raw power of a cooked meal!" "And what is that supposed to mean?" asked Kaguya, shaking her head. The soup kitchen, as it were, was set up on a street in the northern part of town and run by volunteers. They dished out delectable yet inexpensive meals such as wine-drizzled gruel, oatmeal, and, of course, vegetable soup. The savory scent breathed new life into the streets, and the road was packed with the needy waiting to be fed. "It means today's going to be a happy day!" Alize beamed. "Now, get to work, everyone! Pitch in a hand wherever you can!" "I'm not great with all this charity…" Lyra groaned, wandering over to the lines of people. "And I am far too shy to deal with all these riffraff," Kaguya added, heading toward the partitioned-off kitchen area. All the other members of Astrea Familia quickly found a task to keep them busy. Only Lyu remained behind. "You're with me, Leon," said Alize. "We're gonna turn all these poor starving people into fat little piggies!" "Keep that language to yourself," Lyu sighed. "We don't want any complaints. Let's just see where they're shorthanded and help out." Alize and Lyu walked up North Main Street, surveying the soup kitchen. It was safe to say the venture had been a rousing success. In an age where death lurked around every corner, a stable job that could support a loving family was the stuff of dreams to many. For this one day, they could fill their bellies and their hearts. A long line snaked down the road, culminating in a bubbling pot of soup. Each time a piping-hot bowl was served, its recipient's face lit up with a smile. Children frolicked in the streets, sinking their little teeth into freshly cut fruit. It was a place for them to forget their hardships and austerity for a moment. "The energy of these people is unbelievable," said Lyu through her mask. "Especially after this place was so quiet yesterday." For the first time since its inception, the Goddess Festival—a celebration of good harvest, meant to take place the previous day—had been canceled. This soup kitchen was meant to make up for that in a way. The streets were filled with energy, merrymaking, and most importantly, smiles. Lyu looked on in wonder at the Guild staff, hard at work for the sake of the city's people. "The people are thankful, and the helpers are happy to help, too!" said Alize, wearing the biggest smile of all. "This is Orario at its finest!" Then, all of a sudden, she raised her right arm and pointed overhead. "Even the sky has cheered up!" she declared. "The sun is shining, just like everyone else! That means we've gotta burn bright, too!" Just then, a single old dwarf came over. "I thought it sounded lively around here. If it isn't Astrea Familia. You're as boisterous as ever, Alize Lovell." "Ah, old man Gareth!" said Alize, her face lighting up as she noticed him. Lyu looked like she'd just watched a princess land a triple axel with her clothes on back to front. "O-old man?! You're calling Elgarm old man?!" But Alize ignored her. "Are you here to help out, too, old man Gareth?" she asked, cheerily continuing her conversation. "Yup. Me and all the young'uns from Loki Familia are here. Strictly speaking, though, I'm just the security." Gareth stroked his long, impressive beard. "Besides, I'm sure these people would be much more pleased to receive their food from lively young girls like you rather than a dusty old dwarf like me." "Oh, Gareth! I can't believe you just called me that!" said Alize, placing one hand to her cheek and waving the other in the dwarf's direction. "A super-cutie whose staggering beauty charms all? You're too kind!" "That's not what I said," said Gareth, the smile disappearing from his face. It seemed he was well accustomed to dealing with Alize's whimsy. Lyu, on the other hand, was left wondering just what in the world was going on. I…I can't make heads or tails of what I'm seeing…Is this some kind of coordinated attack on my sanity?! To her, the venerable dwarf was the definition of a celebrity, one she very rarely got to stand in the presence of. Even now, the sight of him caused her to fidget restlessly like an awkward fangirl. "A-Alize…Do you happen to know Elgarm…?" "Not really, but we always have fun together!" replied Alize in good cheer. "And I'm so annoying, he doesn't know how to get rid of me!" "And here I thought it was just blissful ignorance," sighed Gareth. "But yes, I suppose that's the long and short of it." Alize, for her part, seemed immune to the thinly veiled scolding in Gareth's words, either through hardheadedness or just plain stupidity. "You're amazing, old man!" she squealed. "Whether it's monsters or evildoers, you beat 'em all black and blue! I want to be just like you some day!" "Ehhh…" Lyu made a disgruntled sound, to which Gareth replied, "Your inner thoughts are showing, young lady." It was no secret that elves and dwarves were not on the best of terms. To hear her best friend praise one so unreservedly was proving difficult for Lyu, and she couldn't shake the disturbing thought that Alize might harbor feelings for the musty old dwarf that were best left unspoken, if you get the drift. "Ah!" said Alize, noticing the look of internal struggle on Lyu's face. "You're thinking weird things again, aren't you? I've told you before, race doesn't matter! There are ugly bad guys among the elves, and there are proud, upstanding dwarf gentlemen like Gareth here!" Alize had said that before, about three years ago. Lyu grew flustered at her lecture. "I…Well…I mean…I know you're right, but…it just takes time to accept…" "I can't say I entirely agree with the Gale here," said Gareth, "but at least she doesn't treat me as thoughtlessly as you always seem to." "Well, that's because I always wanted to be born a dwarf!" Alize replied, beaming. "…………………………………" "Now, there's a face if ever I saw one, young lady," said Gareth to Lyu. "Ah, no! I mean, well, I didn't…!" Lyu couldn't even begin to imagine what a dwarf Alize would look like. She knew, of course, that there were cute female dwarves such as her associate Asta. But any attempt to fit Alize into that mold only resulted in something that couldn't even be called Alize Lovell—instead a stout and hardy name like Golize Lovell. In any case, what was she even thinking and…then the steam began to pour from her ears. But Alize herself seemed mercifully blithe to all this. "Dwarves are stout and can protect a lot of people!" she chirped. "…!" "Of course, the whole world would weep the loss of my gorgeous figure, but what can I say? Sacrifices have to be made!" Lyu finally started to realize what Alize was trying to say. "There are already loads of pretty people in the world besides me anyway," Alize went on. "So yeah, it wouldn't be a problem! That's why I wanted to be a dwarf!" "Alize…" said Lyu, deeply touched. "But," said Gareth, offering a wise word. "Can humans not also save the many with their quick feet? Can elves not soothe others with their beautiful song?" "Whoa, I guess you're right! Forget it, then! I don't need to be a dwarf after all!" "Alize…!" Lyu called her name again, though in a markedly less reverent tone, and with markedly more tears in her eyes than before. "Hah-hah-hah!" the old dwarf chuckled. "What a funny little miss you are! You've all the confidence in the world, but no commitment!" "That's not true! I just change my mind when I make a mistake! That's totally different!" Alize seemed if anything more defiant in the face of her embarrassment. She puffed out her chest with pride. "Well said," the veteran dwarf replied. "Still, as sorry as it is to admit, I was happy to hear you'd rather be born a dwarf. It brought a smile to my face, just as you do to so many others. There's nothing I can fault in that…Now, I'll let you two get back to work." "And you too, Gareth! See you later!" Gareth returned to his patrols. Alize watched him disappear into the crowded street, then turned to Lyu, who was standing there in silence. ".….…. " "What's up, Leon? Caught you staring." "…There really is something amazing about you, Alize. Even the great Elgarm sees it." Alize cocked her head to the side. The light scattered off her crimson hair, and she grinned a grin as bright as the sun itself. "You think? I just said what I thought was true! That's something everyone can do!" Lyu smiled. I think that's the most difficult part for most people…and the most important. I'll never forget that so long as you're here. No matter what strange words came out of her mouth, Lyu Leon couldn't help but look up to her friend, Alize Lovell. She was so dazzlingly bright that Lyu felt that just being by her side would one day empower her to cast off the chains that bound her to her hated heritage. She was proud to call Alize a friend, and no matter what happened, Lyu would always count herself lucky that she met her. Alize took one last look at the busy street, smiled, and took Lyu's hand. "Come on, Leon! Let's go put some smiles on people's faces!" The sky was clear, the bright air filled with joyous cries, and the city knew peace. But in a corner of the street, a woman stood, watching the sun take its place in the heavens. "Finally decided to show your face, huh?" she said, slowly and deliberately drawing out the words. "About time we had some good weather. Heh. Even the skies are givin' me their blessin' today!" Just then, an animal man walked into her. It was a busy street, thanks to the soup kitchen, and a little bump here and there was to be expected. "Oops, sorry about that," the man quickly apologized. The woman gently waved her hand. "No worries," she said. Then…her other hand reached for the sword concealed beneath her overcoat. The last thing the man heard was his own flesh tearing open. He managed to let out a rasping croak, before his eyes rocked back and his severed head fell from his neck. A fountain of blood rushed out, soaking the cobbles, then the lifeless body crumpled. The woman sneered. "You can pay me back with your life." There was a moment of silence where those nearby simply stared in shock at what they had just witnessed. The woman hoisted the crimson-stained longsword onto her shoulder and licked the blood from her lips. Then, a scream pierced the air. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!" Time started moving again. Her voice was joined by others. "W-waaaah!" "What happened? What just happened?!" "She killed him! She murdered him!!" Chaos and panic gripped the street. Men and women, young and old, pushed each other aside, fleeing the epicenter of violence by any means necessary. As crazed as they were, they knew what they had just seen. This was the Age of Darkness, and that meant only one thing. Evil had arrived. The woman paid no attention to the chaos her actions had just unleashed. She walked over toward the volunteers. "Nice little kitchen you got goin' on here. Gimme a taste, you Guild shits." Her hair was a toxic pink. She wore tattered underclothes and a pair of leather pants. Any adventurer recognized her at once. Only one person on the Guild blacklist matched her description. A human known as Arachnia, and the Evils' top commander. Valletta Grede was here, herald of the carnage to come. "Let me help you all out," she said. "I see some nice, ripe berries just waitin' to be squeezed!" Then she unleashed her blade upon the crowd again. Its edge danced, carving limbs, slicing heads, and drawing blood. She was a Level 5 adventurer, and there wasn't a single man, woman, or child who could escape her. "V-Valletta! What are you doing?!" cried a man, a member of the Evils who had been hiding in the crowd. He ran over to her, shouting, "We were told not to—Gaaah?" The man was cut down like the rest. Valletta's blade was indiscriminate in its slaughter. Between the terrified citizens and the rest of her bewildered allies, Valletta was the only one with a crimson smile on her face. "Don't tell me what to do, worm. Look at this beautiful blue sky! Ain't it the perfect weather for turnin' everybody into a mushy pulp?!" Valletta spread out her arms and gazed heavenward, grinning madly. The natural-born killer, accompanied by evil and singing its praises. "We gotta remind these idiots of the hell they're livin' in! They don't get to smile and be happy! Now, get 'em!" "Y-yes, ma'am!" The Evils soldiers were quick to obey their brutal mistress. Not a single one of them dared object after what happened to their compatriot. What followed was a barrage of violent explosions. "Gaaaaaaaagh!" "Eeeeeeeeeek!!" The telltale gleam of magic filled the streets. The ensuing blasts shook everything: the roads, the buildings, tearing people apart in the streets. Flesh burned, stone walls crumbled, and the street, once bathed in sunlight, was bathed instead in blood. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! What a wonderful prelude to despair! This oughtta liven up your boring lives, adventurer scum!!" The woman's mad laughter echoed like thunder. It traveled down the streets, mingling with the sounds of chaos, and reached the ears of the two adventurers. "I hear screams, and…explosions?!" said Lyu, spinning around. "What's going on?!" "Come on, Leon, let's move!" Before they even had time to be surprised, Lyu and Alize took off like the wind. A violent scene unfolded under a blue sky. The adventurers were quick to respond. Those who had been running security for the soup kitchen swiftly drew their weapons and engaged. However, their enemy was numerous, and their targets indiscriminate. Voices of terror filled the air, and all the while the buildings lining the street were turned to rubble. There was simply too much to protect, and not enough hands to protect it with. It was all the adventurers could do just to stop what was happening immediately around them, and Orario's protectors were given no opportunities to strike back at their foe. Valletta saw all this and grinned. "Die, die!" She sneered, basking in sadistic pleasure. "Let me hear your screams! Let me hear you beg!" She stepped into the expired husk of one of Orario's innocent townsmen. "This city can send all the reinforcements it wants; none of them are gonna stop me from squeezing the life outta you!" Her wanton disrespect for her victim drove a nearby adventurer into a rage. "Arachniaaa!!" he yelled, rallying his two allies to attack her in unison. But none of them stood a chance. One moment, Valletta was standing there, and the next, her blade had decapitated all of them. "There ain't no easier target than some righteous prick with his head stuck up his own ass!" she cackled, as the bodies behind her sank into the pool of blood. While positioning herself as a symbol of fear to drive the townspeople into a panicked frenzy, Valletta also did not neglect to draw out and eliminate her key targets. She was ruthless and cunning to the bitter end, like a venomous spider at the center of her cobwebbed lair. Just then, she sensed two incoming attacks: one from above, and one from behind. "Demon!!" came a voice. The attack speed was on par with a Level 4 adventurer. Valletta knew in that moment she wouldn't be able to dodge, so instead she reached beneath her coat and drew out a dagger. Holding it in a reverse grip with one hand and her greatsword with the other, she wheeled around and parried the two blows simultaneously. "Oh, well, if it isn't Astrea Familia!" she jeered in a singsong voice. "I don't remember invitin' a pair of suckling brats!" "Silence!" replied Lyu, furious. "This was supposed to be a joyous day! How dare you come and spill blood in this place!" Any reservations Lyu might have had about stabbing a defenseless target in the back were gone when it came to this foe. Alize, meanwhile, landed a short distance away and immediately lunged once more with her straight sword to follow up her failed attack. "You shall pay dearly for this!" she shouted, guided by a burning rage. "We will strike you down where you stand!" Lyu's wooden sword clashed with the dagger, and Alize's blade met the greatsword. Valletta pushed back against both of her foes. As her eyes made contact with those of the two girls, her lips curled up into a grin. "Idiots!" She sneered. "How could two Level Threes possibly hope to defeat a Level Five?!" It was an impossibly powerful fist that answered her question. "If numbers mean so much to you, then what do you make of mine?" The sturdy old dwarf strode right up to Valletta and delivered a rock-solid punch while she was busy with Lyu and Alize. Despite her attempts to shrug off the girls' weapons and extricate herself, the evil warrior was knocked clean off her feet and skipped along the cobblestone. "Elgarm!" Lyu shouted in surprise. "Are you okay, ladies?" he asked. "Curses, what was I doing? How could I have allowed these deaths to happen on my watch? Finn and Riveria ought to be ashamed of me." Gareth cast a horrified glance at the carnage, but it wasn't long before he returned his mind to the battle. A short distance away, Valletta had ground to a halt by driving her greatsword into the earth. "Damn, that hurt!" she said, giving an ominous chuckle. "So Loki Familia finally decided to show, did they?! Where's your crew, old man? Is the great Finn Deimne too scared to come help?" Loki Familia had a history with Valletta Grede. Or to be more specific, Finn did. In the past eight years, ever since the curtain rose on the Age of Darkness, these two commanders had crossed blades many times. They had foiled each other's machinations so often that Valletta had come to see Braver as her despicable archnemesis. Gareth was unfazed, his voice like polished steel. "Sorry, but it's me you're dealing with today," he replied. "Finn's seen through your little distraction and is dealing with your true plan as we speak." Valletta did not have to suspect the old dwarf's words for long, because soon a messenger ran up to her. "Boss!" he cried. "There's smoke rising in the distance, where our allies are hiding! It looks they've been attacked before they could carry out the assault!" Out over the rooftops, dark pillars of smoke loomed to the east and west. If Valletta had been versed in magic, she surely would have recognized its faint yet unmistakable traces. When she heard the news, the smile dropped from her face, leaving only a bitter scowl. "Man, fuck you. Here I am, swingin' my sword round like a lunatic, and there wasn't even any damn point." Just as Gareth said, Valletta's actions had been a diversion, meant to draw the eyes of the Guild away from the Evils' true goal. But Finn had been one step ahead and had joined forces with Ganesha Familia to intercept their main thrust. And now that her side's plan was in shambles, Valletta looked more fed up than ever. "Shit, what's even the point? You guys, hold 'em off. I'm leavin'." "L-Lady Valletta?" her mooks stuttered. "You can't be serious!" "You can't expect me to screw around here like a moron when there's nothing happening anymore. I'm goin' home, and you guys are gonna be my meat shields, okay?" Valletta was a bloodthirsty spider, but her lust for violence had not crossed over into madness. Her sharp wits were what made her such a terrifying foe, and she was ready to turn tail at the drop of a hat, if the situation called for it. "Running away? You think we'll let you go that easily?" It was Alize who moved to block her path. Flames of fury burned within her pupils, and she was joined by Lyu and Gareth, wooden sword and battle-ax at the ready. But Valletta was not perturbed. "Oh, don't worry. You'll have much better things to do than go after a rapscallion like me." She snapped her fingers, a delighted grin on her face. Her gesture was the signal for the last few remains of Valletta's unit, who had been hiding in the wings all along. From seemingly everywhere at once came the sound and force of explosions. "Aaaaaaaaagh!" The earth shook, debris rained down from above, and everywhere people screamed and ran. Valletta had been keeping one last trick hidden up her sleeve. "Magic swords?!" gasped Lyu. "They must be using them to blow up the buildings!" "Oh no! We need to save everybody!" cried Alize. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Better hop to it, then, ladies!" Valletta sneered, finding joy in their plight. "You don't get a move on, and all these poor, innocent people are gonna be squashed like nasty pancakes!" "Rgh…! Arachnia…!" Lyu growled with loathing, but it made no difference. The woman turned and walked away as explosions and clouds of dust quickly obscured her. "W-we've no choice…" stammered one of her subordinates. "Brothers and sisters! Rain down destruction! Take as many of them with you as you can!" "Scoundrels! Help the people take shelter, lassies. I'll do something about these fiends!" Then Gareth let out a battle cry, like a soldier ready to lay down his life, and charged into the crowd of Evils fighters. "Elgarm…!" said Lyu with reverence. "…I'm sorry!" "Take care of them for us, old man Gareth!" The only response from Gareth's direction was the sound of clashing steel. The two girls turned and ran. The old dwarf's battle-ax was nearly as tall as he, yet he twirled it with no more effort than he would a paper fan. As he flung and dashed his foes on the cobblestone, their faces grew fearful, and they turned their spells and magic swords on him. In response, Gareth only redoubled his charge, smiting the Evils soldiers with the long edge of his ax, the pommel, which was as hard as a diamond, or failing all else, his boulder-like fists. Gareth showed them no mercy. It was all part of his plan to divert the enemy's attention onto him. If he could spare the buildings and civilians even one more fireball or explosion, then the old dwarf would gladly shoulder any pain without hesitation. Meanwhile, Alize and Lyu, wise to the old dwarf's intentions, sought to capitalize on the opportunity as quickly as they could. "Let's split up!" suggested Alize. "Link up with our friends and the other adventurers!" "Understood!" Alize and Lyu moved swiftly, rescuing civilians from danger and eliminating any stray foes that crossed their paths. The group had contingencies for emergencies like these, and so the two girls tried to guide survivors northward, toward the designated evacuation point—Twilight Manor, home of Loki Familia. Thanks to this plan, the adventurers also had a role to play. They stopped trying to fight off the attackers and instead began escorting civilians off the battlefield. They were the guiding beacons that led the townspeople to safety. It was a swift and precise strategy, and every second that passed, more lives were saved. However, every moment that Lyu or Alize faltered was a sacrifice of life too heavy to bear. Indecision was not an option. "Gaaaagh!" At long last, the final Evils soldier fell to Gareth's ax, but by now the old dwarf was in no state to savor his victory. Due to the burns he had sustained, smoke rose off his body through the cracks in his armor, and as he rested his battle-ax upon his shoulder, he called out to the others. "That's the last of them! Raul, go and summon Dian Cecht Familia! Hurry!" "Y-yes, sir!" Raul had been hard at work evacuating civilians, and his face paled as he took in the scene before his eyes for the first time. His head jerked up and down like a stiff doll before he ran off to fetch the healers. As soon as the battlefield was deemed safe, the younger members of Loki Familia, not yet trained for combat, rushed in to aid the wounded. But just because the battle was over didn't mean the streets were silent. "Aaaaagh!" "My legs! Somebody, help!" Some had been shredded by wooden shrapnel from window shutters torn apart in the explosions. Others lay feebly, their limbs crushed beneath fallen stone or blasted off completely. The cries of young and old alike spun together like thread. The noxious scent of smoke and scorched blood pervaded the air, and the faces of Astrea Familia were harrow. "Those cowards!" spat Lyra. "Preyin' on innocent civilians…" While the prum ran around delivering healing potions, Kaguya was slicing up rubble with her sword. Neither of them had time for their usual jokes. "Leon!" shouted the far-eastern girl. "Use your magic! You're supposed to be healing!" Elsewhere, Lyu could hear Neze and the rest of the group. "The buildings could come down at any moment! Get these people to safety!" Their voices drifted in the background as Lyu shouted back to Kaguya, "I know! But my spells can't heal multiple people at once! There's just too many!" Lyu's spells produced a soft green glow, like a sunlit canopy, but she could only treat one patient at a time. Out in the streets, Lyu could see many victims who couldn't even stand, let alone walk, and there were surely more trapped beneath rubble or inside buildings who were still unaccounted for. It was clear there weren't enough hands for all the work that needed to be done. Suddenly, Lyu's eyes fell upon a young human girl crying out in pain. "Waaaaah! It hurts! It huuurts!" Her parents didn't seem to be nearby. Her arms and legs were covered in scratches, and her knee was still bleeding. She was sitting immobile, overcome by the terror of the situation. However, Lyu couldn't leave her patient for even a moment. She just watched, her face screwed up in pity, when all of a sudden, a figure approached the girl and kneeled beside her. "Oh, you mustn't cry, my dear," he said. "When you cry, you make everyone around you sad, too. Here, press this handkerchief to the wound." Lyu's eyes went wide. "It's you! Eren!" If the mysterious god noticed Lyu's presence, he did nothing to acknowledge it. He continued to talk to the little girl, attempting to cheer her up. "Stop bleeding…Stop bleeding…" he sang as the handkerchief quickly went from white to red. "There! All gone! Now, if you're brave enough to handle that, you don't need to cry, do you?" "No, mister…sniff." By the time Eren had completed his first aid procedures, the little girl had stopped crying. He smiled at her and offered his hand to help her up. "Good girl," he said. "Now, the evacuation point's just over there. Do you think you can make it by yourself? I have to help some other poor children who weren't quite so lucky as you." He pointed toward the skyline, and to the tip of the Loki Familia headquarters that peeked over the other buildings. The little girl wiped her teary eyes and returned a smile. "Yes…I can do it…Thank you, mister!" Then she ran over to join a group of people the Guild were ushering to safety. Lyu watched the whole thing start to finish. Then, when she was finished healing her patient, she walked over. "…Thank you, Eren," she said. "We really need any help we can get right now." But just as she was about to go on to say how she misjudged him, the god spoke back. "Oh, no need to worry. I just came over to offer you an apology, that's all." "…Huh?" "You see, I figured I'd take a leaf out of your book. Do some good for once. And do you know what I found?" Eren smiled, indifferent to the creeping horror working its way up Lyu's spine. "Helping the hurt, the weak. Why, if it doesn't give you such a rush! The thrill, the satisfaction! Now I see why you do it!" His joyous smile exuded an almost diabolical innocence. "Wh-what…do you…?" "So yes, I'm sorry," Eren went on. "I'm sorry I ever said your work was selfless. Now I know, there is a reward after all!" Lyu could only regard him in stunned silence as the eccentric god announced his newest theory of good and evil. "Helping makes you feel strong!" he said. "Being thanked makes you proud! Giving charity makes you feel superior! And it all feels so, so good, doesn't it?" His words were nothing but joy. Heartfelt joy at finally understanding the minds of his children. At finally realizing the missing piece of the puzzle. At finally having good cause to look down on justice. All this joy was abundant in his merry voice, enough to make Lyu's blood boil. "Oh, I wish you'd just told me this sooner! I was worried about you, you know! I thought you were working yourselves to the bone for no gain!" Lyu mumbled something in response, but only the last word was audible. "…back." "I guess there are some truths even the gods don't know!" said Eren, failing to hear her. "Hands-on experience is just the thing for these sorts of conundrums!" "…that back." "Hmm?" "I said, take that back, right now!!" Lyu's fists were shaking. Her anger couldn't be clearer—but the god only smiled. "Take what back?" he asked innocently. "The complete disrespect that just came out of your mouth! You're saying the only reason we work is to satisfy our own egos!" "Whaaat? So that's not why you do it? But then, what are you fighting for?" Lyu's fury was like raging hellfire, but the god did not back down. In fact, he pressed her with even more questions. He almost seemed to enjoy it. His attitude only fueled Lyu's burning anger. "Stop being obtuse! We fight for the good of the people. For the sake of order! So that nothing like what happened here in this street ever has to happen again!!" "Is that not satisfaction, then?" said the god, in a soft, gelid tone. "Wha—?" His voice was like a shadowy serpent, coiling around her legs. "I mean, nobody pays you, do they?" "…Stop talking." "Nobody gives you bread or buys you soup." "…Stop it." "It doesn't earn you any benefit at all." "Shut up!" By now his eyes were a sliver, the mocking grin on his lips so obvious it was a wonder he had ever managed to conceal it. "If you deny yourself riches, deny yourself fame—deny yourself even a moment of gratitude—why, then it's not justice you seek, but loneliness!" "SHUT! UP!" Lyu's heart was ready to explode out of her chest. She could take the god's know-it-all tone no longer. But in response to her air-rending scream, Eren only shrugged. "I mean you no offense, my little elf child. Think of it as nothing more than the mad insight of a capricious god. Just ask yourself this question, and see what you come up with…" He smiled a wide grin that didn't seem to reach his eyes, then spoke, slowly and deliberately. "What exactly is your justice?" Lyu could feel the blood rushing through her. Her eyes started to flicker. Seeing her stand there in silence, Eren delivered his final proclamation. "Because if you can't answer that," he said, "then whatever you call justice must be twisted beyond measure. Far more than any evil." "How dare you!!" That utterance was more than Lyu could take. She strode up to the god, grabbing him by the lapels. It didn't even occur to her that she was disrespecting a divine being. Fury commanded her, and all she wanted to do was glare into the god's dark eyes. It was proof that she had no words to refute Eren's accusation. Just then, Lyra and Kaguya came over, sensing something was amiss. "Leon, what are you doing?!" cried Lyra when she saw the situation. "We have to save these people!" said Kaguya. "Don't let this meddling god distract you!" The two of them ran over and took hold of Lyu's arms. She could only hang her head and swear. "Grr…Dammit!" There were still voices in the street, crying out for aid. Lyu knew that, and so, clenching her teeth in anger, she turned away with Lyra and Kaguya, leaving Eren alone. The god simply tidied his lapel and watched as the girls departed. "…Pride. Ideals. Conviction," he said aloud, casting a defiant smile around the scarring aftermath of evil deeds. "Certainly, only a righteous soul could keep those lights burning forever. But if starved of reward, of thanks, of validation…how long would they last? I can't wait to find out…" Four days until the Great Conflict…
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter6-1.txt	Chapter 6: Assemblies of Light and Dark CHAPTER 6 Assemblies of Light and Dark On Northwest Main Street, the road known as Adventurers Way, stood an impressive building. It was a grand construction meant to resemble the Pantheon, and many people considered it one of the city center's primary landmarks. This was the headquarters of the Labyrinth City's top administrative authority, the Guild. Several of Orario's top adventurers had gathered there, in a room large enough to house hundreds. Finn, Riveria, and Gareth were present from Loki Familia. From Freya Familia, Ottar and Allen. Shakti from Ganesha Familia, and Alize and Kaguya from Astrea Familia. This assembly consisted of familia captains, their seconds, and other top officers. It was a veritable Who's Who of the city. "Representatives of all familias are here, I see. We are ready to begin our regular meeting to discuss measures in the face of the threat posed by the Evils…" The man who addressed the congregation was a rather chubby elf by the name of Royman Mardeel. He opened proceedings in a calm, measured tone. "…But before that"—his eyes flared open—"how do you intend to explain the state of our fair city? I've forgotten the last time we went any amount of time without seeing some kind of attack, not to mention that despicable business on North Main Street just the other day!" The Evils' activities had really ramped up in recent days. They had started as mere arson attempts on factories, which, while horrible, resulted in little to no civilian casualties. The soup kitchen massacre was different, and the start of a much nastier trend. As he was one of Orario's highest authorities, these constant attacks caused Royman ample embarrassment. His equally ample flab jiggled from side to side as he gave everyone present a dressing down. "Well, maybe if you let us go after the bastards instead of orderin' us on expeditions like it's a damn picnic, we could do something about it, you fat pig!" It was Allen, the catman, full of anger, who spoke out against Royman's words. "You got us tryin' to balance clearin' the Dungeon with runnin' all over town lookin' for those assholes! Is your head full of swill or somethin'?!" "B-but you don't understand!" protested Royman, somehow able to keep his composure under Allen's furious interrogation. "Without Zeus and Hera, we must make efforts to maintain our legitimacy, or else order could fall and give rise to a second Evils! That's why it is vital that we break new ground in the Dungeon and demonstrate our strength on the world stage!" "Just admit that all you care about is keepin' your greasy little backside glued to that seat," Allen spat back. As Royman cowered in fear, Finn stepped in. "Bickering will get us nowhere, my friend," he said to Allen. "We came here to end fights, not start them." "I ain't your friend, prum. Now take your peacemakin' bullshit and shove it up your ass." The bad blood that had long existed between Orario's various factions reared its ugly head once more. Riveria was the next to speak up. "Your obstinate refusal to listen to others reflects poorly on your mistress," she said, closing her eyes. "You want me to tear your wings off, pixie?" Allen growled back. His eyes shone with murderous rage. Sweat began to dribble down Royman's cheeks. It was not looking like it would be long before the meeting would become a bloodbath. Only a few members appeared undisturbed by the hubbub. Shakti looked serene, like she'd seen it all before, and Ottar never showed much emotion to begin with. "I want to go home," sighed Asfi, watching the farce play out. "We're about to see first blood, and the meeting hasn't even started yet." It was Asfi's first time being invited to one of these gatherings, and she didn't much like what she was seeing. "Loki Familia and Freya Familia have always been at each other's throats," said Kaguya, sitting nearby with a feigned smile. "Just sit back and let it play out." "What, and watch them kill each other?" replied Asfi, a despairing look on her face. "Why did Hermes and Lydis send me here by myself anyway? Those two are going to get a piece of my mind when I return!" "Ooh!" said Alize, leaning in. "I think I see why you and Leon get on so well now! Both of you are so hardworking, you don't know how to say no!" "If you know, then why do you keep doing it?!" Asfi's pent-up anger came to a boil, and she exploded in a fit of rage, causing all heads to turn and wonder if they had even been paying attention to the meeting. Gareth, on the other hand, wisely ignored this distraction and attempted to move things along. "Much as I hate to agree with Royman," he said, "the blame for that awful attack rests squarely on me. I cannot excuse my failure." At the old dwarf's grave admission, the room suddenly fell solemn, and everyone's eyes gathered on him. "This was a brazen and sudden attack on our city," said Shakti. "There was no way we could have predicted it, and even if we had, there was little we could do to stop it. Especially when we consider the perpetrator was Arachnia herself. Finn and I had been expecting the attack to come in the form of explosives, and so we issued orders to be on the lookout for suspicious packages and the like." "Explosives?" said Alize quizzically. "But why?" It was Gareth who answered her question. "Because of those ignition pieces the curs had been stealing," he said. "We thought they might use them to build bombs." "With those installed," Riveria explained, "an explosive device could be easily detonated by anyone. It would be as simple as turning on a magic-stone torch. You can imagine the threat that would pose." Around the entire table, heads nodded in comprehension. It explained why the Evils had been attacking and ransacking factories. It also made it easy to see why Shakti had been so concerned; if bombs had been detonated across Adventurers Way that day, the damage would have been incalculable. "Unlike magic swords and magic items," said Shakti, "a bomb of this design could be used even by followers of the Evils with no combat ability whatsoever. It all fit together too perfectly, but it seems we missed the mark." "Or perhaps they're still keeping that plan in the back pocket," suggested Riveria with a sigh. It was Kaguya, who had been quietly listening all this time, who spoke next. "I see," she said. "I believe I understand now. However, I would have preferred you shared this with us sooner." Her condemning tone was barely hidden. Finn, who had concocted this hypothesis a few days prior, decided to lay all of his cards on the table. "Half of that is that it was only a hunch," he said. "The other half is that we didn't want to make security too tight, or it would tip off the enemy." It was common knowledge by now that Valletta's attack on the soup kitchen had been a mere diversion and that Finn had predicted and forestalled the true attack elsewhere in the city. However, Kaguya's disdain was palpable, even behind her polite veneer. "So in your mind," she said, "this terrible tragedy was all part of the plan? All those women and children nothing more than beads on your abacus to be tallied and weighed?" "I didn't predict just how devastating the attack would be," protested Finn. "…But I suppose we're well beyond excuses now. Still, we scored a decisive blow against the Evils, make no mistake about that." "Man, what would we do without heroes like you?" came Allen's sarcastic reply. "You're right," said Finn. "Ideally, we wouldn't have to make these decisions. We need to find an answer that gets us out of this mess, but I can't." He cast his eyes downward in shame. Kaguya, Allen, and the other adventurers who had doubted his decision found they could say nothing in response to his contemplative silence. Even Royman's constant bluster was nowhere to be heard. A hush fell over the room as everyone considered what a dire predicament they were in. "All right, all right, enough of this!" came a bright, sunny voice, completely lacking in tact. "All this gloomy talk is making me want to stress-eat!" It was the captain of Astrea Familia, standing out of her seat. "Why are you always like this, Alize Lovell?" said Asfi with a sigh. "Can't you see we're trying to be serious here?" "But it's true! Everyone here is doing their best to protect Orario. Why do we have to sit around pointing fingers?" """!!""" Their eyes all shot wide open. Allen, Kaguya, Riveria, and Finn. Even Shakti and the other adventurers watched on with the same look of shock. "Learn from your mistakes, and give people credit when they get things right! That's how you talk things through! Even kids know that much, right?" Her proclamation silenced the table. It remained so for several seconds until, at last, a boisterous laugh rang out. "Ha-ha-ha!" chuckled Gareth. "You certainly aren't afraid to tell us what's on your mind, missy! And yet, you're absolutely right!" "Tch. Self-righteous brat," Allen muttered. "If you have an objection, let's hear it," said Riveria with a smile. "That self-righteous brat just offered the most sensible suggestion we've heard all day." Alize's voice was like a ray of sunlight that breathed new life into the barren discussion. "Look at that!" she said, puffing out her chest. "My beautiful pearls of wisdom just stunned all these first-tier adventurers into complete silence! He-hem! I'm so great!" "Please don't push it, Captain," said Kaguya with a despondent frown. "You were doing so well, too…" Finn looked across the table at the two girls and cracked a gentle smile. "Heh. Well, unfortunately, I haven't any good news to share, but perhaps I can point us in the right direction," he said. "Let's start by going over the reports from Shakti's crackdown on the black market the other day…" Finn took the lead as each familia reported on what they'd learned about the Evils. The meeting covered information from a wide variety of sources, including Orario itself, the depths of the Dungeon, and even towns and cities farther afield. The participants listened to reports, then discussed and debated the implications. It was meticulous, time-consuming work, but nobody complained because they all realized, at a time like this, knowledge was their most potent weapon. Only by leaving no stone unturned could they protect their own lives, as well as those of their familias. And so, everyone shared their opinions and wanted to hear what the others thought. "I suppose that covers everything up until today," said Finn, after the minute hand of the large clock hanging in the hall had undergone three complete revolutions. "Is there anything else anyone wanted to bring up?" At that point Ottar, who had largely remained silent throughout the entire proceedings, finally opened his mouth. "The Evils have at least one powerful warrior on their side," he said. "A true-born fighter, from what I can tell." "Ah, the person who tore a hole through that adamantite wall," said Alize. "Nobody's run into anyone like that, have they?" Alize didn't seem even slightly intimidated by coming face-to-face with the most powerful adventurer in the city. It was Allen, who had also seen the hole himself, who answered her. "Still, there's gotta be someone," he said gruffly. "No one we know coulda done it, not even the Evils' top brass." "Hmm, I know we don't have a lot to work with," said Finn, "but Ottar, how would you estimate this individual's combat ability?" Ottar dropped his voice even lower than usual and replied, "Level Six. No lower." At this, the entire conference room began to buzz. "What?!" Asfi was unable to conceal her surprise. "That's the same as the Warlord himself!" Level 6 was a lofty feat indeed. So lofty, in fact, that Ottar was the only adventurer currently in all of Orario known to have attained it. The idea that the Evils might have a warrior of his caliber on their side was almost too distressing to consider. "…We also ran into a mysterious foe while securing the black market storehouse," Shakti added, as if one earth-shattering revelation hadn't been enough. "A woman of unknown origin. A mage, or perhaps a magic swordswoman. She did not go after us directly, but she was able to defeat a force of around thirty trained warriors, including me." "She fought off Ganesha Familia by herself?" mused Riveria, furrowing her graceful brow. "I've never even heard of a mage that strong…" "It wouldn't be the first time a powerful adventurer went unannounced," said Gareth. "We suspect that years ago, Osiris Familia had access to multiple first-tier adventurers they never told anybody about." Back when Zeus and Hera were around, there were many other familias who vied with them for supremacy. Among them were those who harbored Level 6, or even Level 7 captains without reporting it to the Guild. All fought to be the best, but in the end, it was Zeus and Hera who came out on top. The other gods and goddesses, their familias gutted, often had no choice but to leave Orario entirely. However, some stayed behind. Sebek Familia was one such example, though by now it was a mere shadow of its former self. For this reason, it was hard to dismiss the possibility of a secret Level 6. "…Well, I can't speak to the allegiances of the mage," said Finn, "but it seems clear to me that this Level Six is on the Evils' side. We all ought to stick together for the time being. Nobody wants to run into them alone." Everyone's faces to grow grave. The room fell silent. After an adequate pause, Finn continued. "Now then, on to the last business of the day—and perhaps the most important," he said. What he was about to bring up would make the entire three-hour meeting so far look like a child's tea party. "We've received word from Hermes Familia. They've managed to locate several new Evils bases." ""!!"" Alize's and Kaguya's eyes went wide, and so did those of every other adventurer in the room. Asfi stood up and gave her report, collated from information brought back by Hermes Familia's scouting parties over the past few weeks. "There seem to be three in total," she said. "All previously abandoned facilities, and quite large compared to those we've seen in the past. We don't know anything about what happens inside, but judging by the number of lookouts, it must be something quite important. These could even comprise the Evils' main base of operations." "Based on these reports," said Finn, taking over from her, "the Guild has also voiced its opinion that these are important Evils facilities. They've recommended we try to strike all three at—" "Astrea Familia will take one!" shouted Alize, leaping to her feet so fast she startled Asfi, sitting beside her. "I haven't said anything yet," said Finn, wearing a defeated smile. "You're going to ask for volunteers to carry out the attack, aren't you? Of course you're going to pick the Freya and Loki Familias, but you'll need one more! Well, I nominate us! We're the fastest familia around!" Alize placed one hand on the table and leaned forward, almost as though she wanted to crawl across it and shout her answer in Finn's face. Shakti, meanwhile, looked at this girl, a girl who showed no fear, who knew when bravery crossed into recklessness, and who, more than anyone else, expressed a heartfelt desire to do the right thing. She looked at her and opened her mouth. "…Finn. I propose the Ganesha and Astrea Familias join forces. That should make up the numbers." "Understood," answered Finn. "Then, as you say, we of Loki Familia shall make up the second group, and…Ottar, can we count on you for this?" "Very well," the boaz man responded with a nod. Now that it was clear the two main forces of Orario would be taking part in the operation, morale around the table began to rise. It was Kaguya who narrowed her eyes and spoke. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt the good cheer, but…are we not considering the possibility this is all a trap?" Finn's answer was immediate, as though he had factored it in already. "We must take that into consideration and not spread our forces too thinly," he said. "For that, we will need the cooperation of other strong familias: Hephaistos, Ishtar, and Dionysus, to name a few. Royman, can you handle this?" "Well, if Orario's safety hangs in the balance, I'll bleeding well have to, won't I?" Finn then turned to Asfi. "Post your scouts all over the city," he said. "If they witness anything out of the ordinary, I would very much like to hear it." "Yes," the girl replied. "I'll get the whole familia on it." There was a noise around the table unlike the previous silences. A bristling energy that came with direction and purpose. "…Now, as I'm sure you've surmised, this will be a search-and-destroy operation," Finn stated. "Now that we know where these bases are, we cannot leave them be. We must take the initiative and wipe them out." His sea-blue eyes surveyed each of the participants around the table in turn. "The operation will begin…three days from now." In their laps, beneath the table, people tightened their fists. "This operation requires the utmost secrecy," he went on. "We cannot allow our enemy to figure out what we're up to. It could be a matter of life and death." "Just leave it to me! They won't know what hit 'em!" It hardly needed saying who that sunny voice belonged to. Several others got caught up in Alize's infectious enthusiasm, but Finn's face remained serious. "In that case, meeting adjourned," he said. However, that wasn't the end of the story. ".….…. " For there was one woman who, unbeknownst to anyone at the meeting, had been listening to their conversation the entire time. In the empty room next door, an upstanding Guild employee pressed an earring-shaped magic listening device to the wall. Once she heard the sounds of adventurers leaving their seats, she put away her tools and casually left the room. "We have received word from our informant in the Guild." All it took was five hours for the information in the meeting to reach the Evils' ears. Olivas read from the discreet, folded-up notepaper in his hand and smiled. "The enemy begin their operation…in three days." The room was large, but much of it was cloaked in shadow. It was like some chamber secluded deep within a dying ruin, or a cold, dark section of a labyrinth. There sat several figures, shrouded in darkness. After hearing Olivas's news, Valletta Grede laughed and slapped her knee. "Ha-ha! She did it! The bitch did it! Damn, these faithful worshippers are pretty useful!" A smile crept across her face. "Five years ago, we planted her, and we ain't used her once! All so she could stay hidden until now!" "Heh-heh. I'm impressed," said Vito. "I didn't think you had the patience." The man known as Faceless revealed one glimmering scarlet eye on his otherwise unremarkable face. "Well, what good is a secret weapon if you don't keep it secret?" replied Valletta, the leader of the bunch. "'Sides, we had to, 'cause of Finn. That little rat's got more brains than most gods. If he goes sniffin' around, the cat's outta the bag. Had to keep it all on the down-low, until now." Valletta spoke in a celebratory tone, but Vito wasn't ready to let down his guard just yet. He returned only a pointed glare. "Come to think of it, Faceless, where'd your god piss off to? He's the one who came up with all this, ain't he?" The god Valletta referred to was an embodiment of evil. One whose depths of wickedness shocked, frightened, and excited her in equal measure. But Vito only gave an indifferent shrug. "Oh, you know how these gods are," he said. "Probably enjoying a stroll in some little corner of town." "Tch, well, his seat's gettin' cold. Whatever." Valletta would have preferred their leader stay on his throne where he belonged, but his absence didn't seem to bother her for long. She smiled and shouted back into the darkness. "You heard us, yeah? Party starts in three days. You gonna be ready? You're our real secret weapons, ain't ya?" Two robed figures stepped out into the gloomy light. One was a giant of a man. So tall that meeting his gaze would require most people to crane their necks. The other was a woman with long ash-gray hair. These were the very two mysterious individuals who were the subject of so much debate in Finn's earlier meeting. "I have nothing to prepare," said the first. "When it comes time to fight, summon me. That is my only purpose." His deep voice rippled the air. The man almost seemed to exist on another plane. Vito opened one eye and grinned. "Heh-heh-heh. Why say a hundred words when a single sword will suffice?" he said. "A most terrifying being indeed…" "We'd really be screwed without these guys," said Valletta with glee. "Even that boar bastard don't stand a chance against 'em, let alone the rest of—" "Silence." A single quiet voice cut through Valletta's words. It was the robed woman. "…What?" Valletta asked. "Your voice is not just a nuisance; it is poison," the woman said. "I feel sick just listening to it. The stench hits me as soon as you open your mouth. Stop talking." Her tone, as if she were talking to some pestilent insect, severely aggravated Valletta, whose face turned red with anger. "What did you just say to me?!" "We are content to silently follow orders. Would that you do the same." The implication in her words was clear: Everything you do just makes more trouble for us. Valletta couldn't much take her haughty attitude, but she knew if she let her anger take control, she would end up torn to pieces before she even drew her sword. "Let's not overdo it, shall we?" said Olivas with a smile, attempting to keep the peace. "We are comrades now, for better or worse. Our goals may differ, but at present, we walk the same path. Apate Familia and Alecto Familia are preparing to fight as we speak. With those mad warriors at our side, nothing can stop us from spreading the fires of calamity." Joy crept into the man's voice as he spoke. "Soon our master's desire will be fulfilled…and Orario will fall."
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter7-1.txt	Chapter 7: What She Taught Me: Twilight Words CHAPTER 7 What She Taught Me: Twilight Words A bright red sunset lit up the western sky. Dusk came early in Orario, due to the high walls that bordered the city, and there was a long period of time after its shadows began to creep along the streets before the last vestiges of sunlight died out completely. In happier times, adults would while away these hours drinking in taverns, while children would play on street corners. Nowadays, however, the specter of the Evils hung over the city, and the long twilight was spent only shivering behind bolted doors and shuttered windows. Lyu walked these quiet streets without a word on her lips. ".….…. " Even the mask could not fully conceal the fourteen-year-old elf's natural beauty. The setting sun cast a ray across her face but failed to extinguish the shadow of doubt that lurked there. As she watched the sparse crowds, she thought to herself. What exactly was her justice? Eren's words rang in her mind. Beneath the mask, she ground her teeth. "It's obvious…" she said, as though he were still there to hear her. "Our justice…the cause we all carry in our hearts…It's…" Her words reached no ears but her own. And still she failed to spit out a single answer. With just one question, the god had proved to her just how foolish she really was. A follower of Astrea, the goddess of justice, unable to even define the term. It was shameful. Idiotic. "Leon! There you are." That voice was so bright it seemed to light up the darkening avenue. Lyu felt somebody bump her from behind, and a pair of arms wrapped around her. "A-Ardee?!" "Yep! Who once told Lord Ganesha that even though I always cling to people like a dog, I actually love cats, and he said, well, elephants are ele-fun? It's me, Ardee!" "Why do you always introduce yourself like that?" cried Lyu, still not over the shock of bumping her. "Don't crash into me, it's dangerous!" "I'm sorry, Leon," said Ardee apologetically. "I just saw you all alone, and I had to." Ardee scratched her cheek, still pressing her ample breasts into Lyu's back. She shared that shapeliness with her sister, it seemed. Lyu's face grew redder and redder, until Ardee at last had enough and released her. "So, are you by yourself?" she asked. "Yes," Lyu replied. "I'm on patrol. We decided we should keep up appearances, so that the Evils don't suspect anything." Ardee fell in line beside her, and the two started walking. Alize and Kaguya had passed on the details of the meeting two days prior, so Lyu knew about Finn's plan. All the members of Astrea Familia were buzzing with energy thanks to this new course of action, but they were trying not to let it show. "Oh, right," said Ardee. "Yeah, I just got off work, too, myself! I've finally finished taking inventory of everything that we seized at the black market!" Then her eyes lit up. "Listen to this. You'll never guess what we found! It's the branches from—" But just then, Ardee noticed the look on Lyu's face. It was as if the girl was far away, not even listening to what Ardee had to say. "…Is something up?" she asked. "No, I'm just…thinking about things," said Lyu, but her eyes remained fixed to the ground. "You don't have to lie to me, you know," said Ardee. "Besides, you're really bad at it!" "A-Ardee…" Lyu looked over at Ardee's indefatigable smile. All the warmth of human kindness lay within it. "Let's worry about it together," she said. "I mean, what else are friends for?" Lyu and Ardee stopped to rest on a convenient planter by the side of the road, and the elf girl told her story. "So Eren showed up after the soup kitchen massacre…" Ardee said when she had finished. "I'm sorry; I wish I'd been there for you." Lyu shook her head. "It's okay," she said. "You and Shakti were with Braver doing what needed to be done. You don't need to apologize." Ardee thought for a moment, looking up at the darkening sky overhead. "This Eren's a lot meaner than he seemed at first, don't you think?" "I hope that's all it is…" mused Lyu. "I know gods can be detached, but this seemed like more than that." "From what you said," Ardee replied, "I think he sounds like a dumb boy trying to get a girl's attention!" "How did you reach that conclusion?" asked Lyu with a mixture of indignation and embarrassment. Then her voice took on a somber tone. "I don't think that was it. I don't think that was it at all…" The events of that day replayed in her mind. It was as if the strange god were mocking her, even now. "If you can't answer that… "…then whatever you call justice must be twisted beyond measure. Far more than any evil." His words reverberated in her very soul. Before she knew it, Lyu had turned to Ardee. "What do you think justice is?" she asked her. "True justice, I mean?" "Hmm…That's a hard question," Ardee replied. "I think everyone has their own answer to that. I wonder if gods do, too?" There was little certainty to Ardee's response. She stroked her slender chin and closed her eyes. "I'm not as smart as my big sis," she said, "If we overthink it, we're just going to go round in circles." ".….…. " Ardee's answer was insightful, and it might even have convinced Lyu, once. But she couldn't exactly go back to Eren and say, "I try not to think about it." She needed a concrete theory, one that would persuade both him and herself. What made good better than evil? That was the question she needed to answer, and now it looked like she would have to find that answer on her own. It felt somewhat like Ardee had just left her all alone at the center of a great maze, and Lyu cast her eyes to the ground once more. Then, as she pondered it, Ardee's face lit up. "How about this?" she asked. "Justice is turning weapons into music." "…Wh-what? Weapons into music?" "Yeah! Like hanging up swords and spears and making them into wind chimes! Or getting two shields and crashing them together as cymbals! Or, or beating on a cannon like a big drum!" Lyu half suspected the girl had gone mad. She gestured wildly as she talked, and her eyes were as wide as a child's. "Making it so weapons don't hurt people anymore but bring them smiles instead! That's my justice, and it can be yours as well! Do what I do and just don't think about it so hard!" Ardee's attempts to cheer her up prompted a long silence from Lyu. Then, at the end of it, she said: "That's not true, Ardee." She looked up into the carefree girl's eyes. "You've thought about this much longer and much harder than I have. I know because of what you said the other day." Lyu thought back to seven days ago, just before the pair encountered Eren for the first time. It was Lyu who wanted to pursue the law to its fullest extent, and it was Ardee who fought not to. "That man was right. The only reason we can afford to be worried about justice is because we're the ones with all the power." "I've been thinking, Leon. Do you think forgiveness can be a part of justice?" No words from Eren's lips ever shook Lyu so deeply as Ardee's did. "While I was mindlessly following the word of the law, you had gone beyond that," Lyu said. "You thought about it until you found a justice you could believe in." The two girls sat side by side, dyed in the red glow of evening. Lyu's words caused Ardee to give up her carefree demeanor. "You're right," she said. "Justice isn't easy, Leon." She smiled, a lonely smile. "You can't make others agree with it, but you can't keep it to yourself, either, or else you'll never change the world…You know, sometimes I think there's no such thing as true justice." "Ardee…" In that moment, the girl sounded much older than she appeared. Lyu gave her a supportive look. "All I want is for everyone to get along, to be happy, and to not have to think so hard about anything," said Ardee. It was a child's wish. Noble, and very simple, but almost impossible to grant. What would Alize have to say? What about Astrea? And would Lyu agree with them? The gods of heaven came down to live among the people, but they brought no answers. They would only offer guidance, as if saying "This is your story." But how long would that story take? And would Lyu ever reach its end and find the answers she was searching for? She asked herself over and over, lost in her thoughts as the red sky darkened. In that schism between night and day, when everything seemed so fickle and ephemeral, Lyu felt as though she were standing alone in a vast desert, far away. At that moment, Ardee spoke again. "But you know," she said, the smile returning to her lips. "At times like this, I find it's best to be honest with yourself." "Huh?" "About what it is you really want to do." Ardee stood up and turned around. "And what I want to do is make you happy, Leon!" she said. "I guess that's my justice now!" "…!" Lyu's sky-blue eyes shot wide open. Ardee smiled and took her hand. "Let's dance, Leon! Right here, right now!" "Wh-what? Ardee? Have you lost your—?!" Ardee pulled Lyu to her feet. Their fingers entwined, the pair skipped across the cobblestone, with Ardee leading and Lyu trying desperately not to fall over. Before long, the sunny girl broke into a fit of giggles, and people stopped and stared at the curious sight. "What's going on?" said a dwarven laborer. "An elf and a human, dancing?" said another, a weary human man. "They just started all of a sudden, in the middle of the street!" said a third, a sparkly-eyed catgirl. Before long, a great crowd gathered, to which Ardee paid no mind whatsoever. Lyu, on the other hand, was blushing so hard you could see it through her mask. "A-Ardee! Stop it!" she shrieked. "Why are we doing this?" "It's what an old hero used to say!" the girl replied, smiling innocently. "I read it in the Tale of Argonaut! 'So dance, fair maiden! Dance to your heart's delight! Show me the smile that graces your lips!'" "Wh-what?" "It's my favorite story! I think I know what my justice is! It's to make everyone happy!" Ardee recited the line with great familiarity and hastened her footsteps. Now Lyu felt she really would fall if she didn't keep up and was too busy landing her feet to defy the human girl's whims. It was like she'd been suddenly pulled up on stage to play the main part in a slapstick comedy. "What an odd couple," muttered the dwarf. "Though I must say, it does look quite fun…" "Yeah, I think I like it!" said the man. "Go, girls, go!" "You're so beautiful!" said the girl. As they watched, the initially miserable grown-ups cast aside their gloom, hooked on Ardee's smile. Soon, they were hooting and whistling, calling out to the pair. They were accompanied by the whoops of children, jumping up and dancing on the stones. Before long, Ardee and Lyu were completely surrounded by a wall of people. "See?" sang Ardee. "Everyone's smiling now! They're clapping their hands, stamping their feet, and getting all excited!" "B-but they're looking at us!" Lyu protested. "Everyone's watching me trip over my own feet! This isn't making me happy, it's just embarrassing! Stop it, Ardee!" "No! We're going to keep dancing until you like it!" "Wh-what…?!" So long as Ardee refused to listen to her, there wasn't much Lyu could do that wasn't clumsily attempting to stay upright. It was then that a familiar face appeared out of the crowd. "I thought I heard loud voices…" the girl said. "What on earth are you two doing?" "Ah, Asfi!" said Ardee. "Do you want to join us, too?" "I'll pass," said Asfi, a tired expression on her face. "I took enough dance lessons in the castle where I grew up to last me a lifetime." "A-Andromeda! Save me!" came Lyu's voice, pinning her final hopes of salvation on the blue-haired girl, but Asfi mercilessly shrugged. "I'm afraid there isn't anyone who can stop Ardee now. Certainly not me…Besides," she said, cracking a mischievous grin, "I don't get to see you like this very often. I think I'll stay and watch awhile." "Andromedaaa!!" The dance continued. There was no music, no instruments, and yet the joyous cheers of those nearby was all the melody Ardee needed. With her smile, she banished the sadness and pain that lurked within all of their hearts. "…Leon!" she said suddenly. "Justice will persevere!" "Huh?!" By now, Lyu was so embarrassed, she could hardly remember how depressed she'd just been. "Even if the answer we reach isn't the right one at first, justice can change and keep going!" This was the guiding principle behind Ardee's sense of justice. Even if it wasn't the answer Lyu wanted to hear, it was what she saw, what she felt. This was what she carried around with her every second of every day. "Softness can turn to hardness, warmth can turn to cold, but our justice can always change into a new flower! Or maybe not a flower at all, but a star that shines down on everyone!" Lyu stared back in shock. She suddenly couldn't remember when she last blinked. "Someone we save can go on to save someone else! Today's kindness can become tomorrow's smiles!" Perhaps that was just her wish. A worthless, unattainable dream. But to Lyu's ears, it was hope. A hope that spread its wings and took flight within her heart. "Ardee…" "Smile, Leon. Smile for the sake of your justice, no matter what form it takes!" Lyu stopped dancing. She reached for her mask and showed the girl the smile she longed to see. "…I will!" she said. Ardee couldn't be happier. The two began dancing again. Soon, instruments joined in and added to the chorus of cheers, and the entire street became a ballroom in the gloam. Smiles returned to people's faces, and the sounds of good cheer echoed across the town. "…Justice will persevere, huh?" muttered Asfi as she watched the two girls. Her elegant eyes burned every last detail of the happy scene before her into her brain. "I'll remember those words in the sunset." The girls remained bathed in the song of justice, dancing to its beat, until the dark crept in from the east and night fell at last. Lyu saw a light in the young girl's smile. She vowed never to forget what Ardee had told her. One day until the Great Conflict…
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter8-1.txt	Chapter 8: Sound of Life CHAPTER 8 Sound of Life As evening approached, the clouds finally parted, bringing an end to the eternal night. The sky, the streets, the buildings; all were stained in the same crimson light. Lyu sensed a different kind of energy in the air compared to the previous evening when she and Ardee had danced in the twilight. The backstreets were busy, and adventurers from both Ganesha Familia and Astrea Familia were hard at work carrying supplies this way and that and taking up positions in the shadows of buildings. "Here's the supplies from Dian Cecht Familia!" "All right. How long will it take to divvy them out?" "Ten minutes, sir!" "You've got five! Hop to it!" However, for all their speed, everyone was quiet. The two familias had gathered in the northwest of Orario, district six, to enact their part of the operation and neutralize one of the Evils' suspected bases. "Everybody is in position, Captain," said Kaguya, in her usual battle garb, katana at her hip. "Understood," Alize replied. "Do you think the enemy's spotted us?" Kaguya's eyes narrowed, her gaze keen. "If so, they haven't shown it," she answered. "It's quiet. Too quiet. It makes me wonder what we're about to walk into." "We don't have any choice," replied Alize. "We have to crush this base one way or another." Her firm resolution clear on her face, Alize shifted her gaze to the building before her. It was a large warehouse that had at one point belonged to a wealthy merchant, before it fell into disrepair. Lyu was standing nearby, listening, when something suddenly occurred to her, and she turned to the human girl at her side, steeling her nerves for battle. "Ardee…" she said. "Hmm? What is it?" "…No, nothing. Good luck." Lyu put away her thoughts. This wasn't the time. In return, Ardee turned and smiled at her. "You too," she said. Meanwhile, over in district five, a Freya Familia underling addressed his superiors. "Are you sure about this, sirs?" he said. "You don't want Hegni, Hedin, or the Gullivers going in with you?" "We don't need no elves or prum slowin' us down," Allen answered. "This pig could take 'em alone with one arm missin'." "Hedin is acting commander of the reserves," said Ottar, the pig in question. "If anything goes wrong, do as he says." The two beastly warriors exuded raw power, their equally fierce gazes fixed on the building ahead of them. Their subordinate instinctively jumped to attention. "Yes, sir! Good hunting to you both!" He left. All around them, familia members finished preparing their positions. Allen and Ottar were of one mind. "A few more minutes," said Allen, "and the Evils are history. Nothin' they do can stop us now." "Yes," said Ottar. "We will massacre them." District nine was where the final strike team lay in wait, made up of the members of Loki Familia. They awaited only the word of their leader, Finn. Riveria approached, staff in hand. "Finn," she said. "We're ready to begin the operation…What's wrong?" "My thumb. It aches." He cast a look down at his gloved hand. Even the others could tell that his digit was twitching. "That old omen again?" asked Gareth, standing nearby. "Yes," Finn replied. "It started eight years ago, when the Age of Darkness began, but now it hurts more than ever." "What do we do?" asked Riveria, narrowing her eyes. She and Gareth knew more than anyone else how canny their leader's intuition could be. Finn closed his eyes and lifted his chin. "We see it through," he answered. "We've already done everything in our power to ensure this operation succeeds. Now all we can do is hope it was enough." It was quiet enough that Lyra could hear her pocket watch ticking away. Everyone's thoughts were trained solely on the mission ahead. Across the city, gods and goddesses watched over their followers. A trickster in her mansion courtyard. An elephant man standing in his palace. A messenger atop the city walls. And a personification of beauty staring down from her tower. A pair of elves of light and dark. A quartet of prum brothers. The dwarven proprietress of a bar. An eye-patched blacksmith. An unruly female warrior. A young priestess. A werewolf who still didn't understand the true purpose of his fangs. An untainted white elf. A sword-wielding girl. Other adventurers like Asfi. Blacksmiths and healers. All stood in their designated locations throughout the city, ready to respond at a moment's notice. Alize, Kaguya, and Lyra. Shakti and Ardee. Ottar and Allen. Finn, Riveria, and Gareth. Each of them stood before the fortress of evil they had been assigned. The time for action was drawing near. The goddess of justice closed her eyes and offered a prayer for her children. Lyu drew her sword. The timepiece counted down the last few seconds. "It's time," said Riveria, in a smooth, calm voice. Finn could feel all eyes on him. He carefully gave his order. "Go." The Great Conflict had begun. Somewhere, a mysterious god donned a wicked smile. "It's time," he said. A blast blew the heavy door clean off its hinges, the magical explosion announcing the battle that was to come. "W-we're under attack!!" screamed the Evils followers as adventurers rushed inside. Across the three bases, similar scenes played out. In the abandoned trading house in district six, the sound of boots thundered on the stone floor. Shakti yelled, "Chaaarge!" and her warriors advanced with the speed and force of lightning. The unsuspecting Evils didn't stand a chance. The men of Ganesha Familia were joined by the women of Astrea Familia, dominating the battlefield like Valkyries. "Hyah!" "Gwaaaagh?!" A flash of Lyu's wooden sword swiftly eliminated one of the frontline enemies. She was joined by Kaguya, Asta, and Noin, who skillfully defeated their foes as well. "Seize control of the base!" shouted Alize. "Neze, Maryu! Take the others and split up! We'll press on!" "Don't let a single one escape!" said Shakti, separately giving orders to her squadron. "Take them all out and capture every last one!" Neze and an upper-class adventurer from Ganesha Familia barked "Understood!" and "Roger!" before splitting off to the east and west with the rest of their squads. The walls of the hallways had been torn up, and the building material within was blackened with soot. It looked less like a trading house and more like an old, abandoned factory. Certainly a locale worthy of housing the city's undesirables. "They're coming!" yelled Lyra, keeping an eye on the battlefield from her position at the center of the squad. "Back of the hall, and up above!" From the open second floor, several Evils members leaped down into the hallways. "Got 'em!" replied Ardee. The girl abhorred violence, but she was a Level 3 adventurer all the same. Her one-handed sword, Sacred Oath, was the judge and executioner of many a monster and villain. She raised it above her head and unleashed a vicious onslaught that flung the soldiers of the Evils to the ground before they even had a chance to attack. Meanwhile, two other foes kicked down the doors at the far end of the hall and strode in, only to come face-to-face with Kaguya and Lyu. "You take the one on the right, novice," said Kaguya. "The other's mine." "Already on it!" Lyu replied. The two girls danced, swords in hand, outnumbered yet unflinching, a dazzling display of beauty and strength. Kaguya's sword sliced clean through her enemies' armor, and her swift follow-up strikes allowed no foe to even land a hit, no matter how determined. Such was the power of her cold and frightening techniques. One by one, enemies fell to her wall of sharpened steel, while the ones at the back saw what awaited them and grew scared. Kaguya showed no mercy, hacking and slashing until even her own allies in Ganesha Familia turned and stared in fear and awe. Meanwhile, the masked elf ran in the opposite direction, covering Kaguya's back. As she cut down her foes, she chanted a spell. "…Cross the skies and sprint through the wilderness, swifter than anything. Imbue the light of stardust and strike down my enemy…" Reluctant though she was to admit it, Lyu was not as proficient in hand-to-hand combat as Kaguya. Still, she had something else up her sleeve. A song of power far beyond those wielded by most frontline troops. It could obliterate a whole slew of enemies with ease. "Luminous Wind!" Balls of light appeared, encased in green air, and blasted the enemy foot soldiers packed into the hallways. "Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaagh?!" Lyu's unforgiving magical onslaught slammed her foes into the walls, knocking them unconscious. Surveying the damage, Lyu dismissed the last vestiges of her magic and muttered, "I suppose I overdid it again." "What a show! And she ain't even a mage!" said Lyra. "The rest'll be a piece of cake! …As if." She narrowed her eyes attentively. Shakti came over, wielding a spear. "Indeed," she said. "It's all going far too smoothly." It wasn't like the enemy soldiers weren't putting up a fight, but this was supposed to be their main stronghold, so it was downright disturbing that no adventurer had suffered so much as a scratch yet. Everyone who'd ever been in the Dungeon recognized the feeling they were experiencing. The feeling of walking deeper and deeper into a trap. "I knew it," said Kaguya. "Something's not right about this at all." "Still, we continue the operation!" came the determined voice of Alize. "The enemy is losing numbers fast! Now's our chance to strike a decisive blow!" The adventurers could not possibly retreat at this stage. They were deep behind enemy lines, and turning their backs prematurely would only get them all killed. There was only one way to bring the Age of Darkness to an end, and that was not dragging the problem out, but to press on. Lyu and the others nodded. The six girls—Shakti, Ardee, Alize, Kaguya, Lyra, and Lyu—led their complement of upper-class Ganesha Familia members through unlit corridors. Every window was boarded and nailed shut, forbidding even a single ray of light from entering the building. The farther they went, the colder the air became, and everyone soon got the distinct impression they were stepping into the underworld. Suddenly, the long hallway came to an abrupt end, opening up into a vast room. "Look!" cried Ardee, pointing ahead. "This must be it!" Maintaining their formation, Alize and the others stepped into the open space. "Wow…!" Like the hallways before, the room was dilapidated and dark, but this one had a ceiling ten meders high and was filled with steel cargo containers. It looked like a cross between a warehouse and a shipping harbor. Perhaps it had once been a storeroom, but now the only thing stored there was evil itself. As the girls cautiously entered, they heard a voice. "Oh, hey. There you are." "Arachnia!" Lyu cried. The girls all turned around and looked up toward the source of the voice, only to find Valletta Grede sitting atop a stack of containers. Her eyes scanned the group for a moment, and then… "Tch. Thought Finn was gonna be here," she muttered, her face turning to a scowl. "Shoulda known better than to trust that worthless woman," she added under her breath. Then her lips twisted upward. "You guys sure got here fast. It ain't a race, y'know." "You don't seem too worried about it," said Lyra. "Wipe that gross smirk off your face. What are you up to?" "Who knows? Maybe I'm just figurin' out how to kill you guys?" Valletta didn't seem in the least bit bothered by the prum girl's murderous glare, or anything about the situation, for that matter. Lyra grew concerned at her mocking grin. "Valletta Grede!" yelled Shakti, taking a bold step forward. "Lay down your arms and surrender! This base is ours, and your troops are being taken into custody as we speak!" Valletta stared down the lot of them. Even now she seemed to be enjoying the flow of the conversation. "Hyah-hah-hah-hah!" she cackled. "Has anyone ever actually done that? How stupid do you think I am? Go on, you lot. Get 'em!" At her order, a band of Evils soldiers stepped out of the shadows. "It's an ambush!" shouted Lyu. "I didn't think there were this many of them left!" cried Ardee. The enemy soldiers readied their weapons. They all wore milky robes and cowls and looked exactly the same, but from their sizes and shapes, they seemed to be mostly dwarves and animal people, and none of them looked like magic users. They outnumbered the adventurers by more than two to one, and they quickly surrounded the group. "Now, come get me," said Valletta. "Let's have some fun!" Valletta leaped into the fray, her bloodred greatsword atop her shoulder, and the battle began. All the enemy soldiers roared and charged, and soon the air was filled with clashing steel. "Out of my way!" shouted Kaguya. For each foe she felled, another soon took their place. She clicked her tongue, forced to adopt a more defensive posture. To her side, she watched as Lyu sidestepped a dwarven hammer and went for a counterattack. Before her sword could strike true, however, a second foe came in and beat her back. "This is chaos!" cried Lyu. "So this is how they fight when their backs are to the wall!" "Stick together!" Lyra warned. "Don't underestimate these guys; if we give any ground, they'll trample us!" These forces were clearly more formidable than anything the girls had encountered elsewhere in the base. Lyra flitted between her enemies' greatswords and claws, tossing her boomerang blades at any foe who tried to get the drop on Kaguya and Lyu. Meanwhile, Valletta stared down Shakti and Alize. "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Not bad, Ankusha! You too, Scarlett Harnell!" She was the sole Level 5 on the battlefield. Her two foes were Levels 4 and 3 respectively. However, Shakti and Alize remained undaunted by Valletta's superior stats. They relied on tactics, strategy, and superior teamwork to plug the gap. Watching all this, Lyra narrowed her eyes. She observed first Lyu and Kaguya battling alongside the men and women of Ganesha Familia, then shifted her gaze farther down the room, to Alize and Shakti's fight. Somethin' stinks. I'm no Finn, but I know a trap when I see one. Anyone can see that these chumps don't stand a chance against our girls. It's only a matter of time before we clean house and gang up on that scum, so why ain't she scared? It wasn't Lyra who received an answer to that question, but Ardee, fighting on the other side of the warehouse. She spun round, deflecting an attack aimed at her back, when to her utter surprise, the assailant let out an oddly high-pitched scream. Ardee's eyes went wide when she saw who had just attacked her. It was a little girl, dressed in a milk-white robe like the other Evils. This human girl was so young, in fact, that she only came up to the height of Ardee's chest. "A-a child?!" The little girl clutched the knife in her hands, whimpering as tears formed in her eyes. "How could they do this?!" The mild-mannered Ardee was consumed by violent rage. She could scarcely believe the depths to which the Evils would stoop. "Put down that knife!" she cried, running over to the girl. "You mustn't fight! Don't listen to anyone who puts a weapon in your hand!" Her own justice guided her. Guided her to help the girl before her. The little girl paused, her eyes wide. Then she slowly began to cry. Ardee smiled. "It's okay," she said. "I would never hurt you." She lowered her sword and reached out her other hand. The girl stared for a moment, then reached out her right hand, her left clasped tightly to her breast. "Now, come here," said Ardee. "Let's get you to safety." Catching a glimpse of this across the battlefield, Valletta grinned a twisted grin. The little girl looked up at Ardee with vacant eyes, and in an emotionless voice she said, "O Lord, please…" It was neither good nor evil that drove her. Just a single wish. "Please let me see my mother and father again…" Then she pressed the switch concealed on her body. "__________________" Time froze. Ardee couldn't pull free from the girl's lonely fingers. The eternal moment was ended by a terrible blast. The force. The shock. The heat. It tore everything apart. Shakti, Alize, Kaguya, Lyra, the soldiers of Ganesha Familia, and Lyu all flinched. None of them could muster a single thought in the face of such unimaginable chaos and destruction. The light blinded them. The noise deafened them. The tremors racing through the earth threatened to knock them off their feet and bring the whole building down on their heads. Even some of the steel shipping containers were dented inward or flung clean into the air. A wall of sound. Like a waterfall or an earthquake. Like a castle collapsing all around them. The sudden and destructive blast leveled all it touched. It was Lyu who staggered to her feet first, cloaked in a layer of dust and soot. As the ringing in her ears subsided, and the stars in her eyes went away, she gazed upon what remained. "Wha…?" Nothing. Nothing but the sound of crumbling stone and creaking metal. Nothing but a smoldering crater, like a great wyrm had bitten away the earth. Like a god had carved out a void in space itself. No trace remained of the walls, the floor, or the two girls who had been standing there only seconds ago. Lyu refused to believe it. "Wh…what?" Alize froze. "…No." Kaguya looked on in terror. "…It can't be." It was Lyra who figured it out before anybody else. "…The kid blew herself up?" Ardee's scorched blood had been seared onto the walls like a macabre coat of paint. It was all that remained of her. That, and her sword. It had been thrown gut-wrenchingly far by the blast, smoke still rising from it. In that moment of despair, a howling laughter echoed off the walls. "Hyah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah!!" Valletta Grede trembled in wild ecstasy and mad joy. "See that, Thanatos, you son of a bitch?! That kid you tricked just took one of those damned adventurers down with her! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!" That was the deal the little girl had struck with Valletta's dark master, the god of death. Slay an adventurer and be reunited with her parents in the afterlife. Valletta bore witness to that dark pact coming to fruition with rapturous glee. As her cackling rang in the background, Shakti stood, rooted to the spot, her voice cracked and shattered. "…Ar…dee?" There wasn't anything left of her sister to bury. Shakti staggered, only by some miracle remaining upright. "…No." Lyu's lips trembled. The blast had torn off her mask. "No. This…can't be happening…" Her trembling lips disgorged a wave of denial. The quivering spread to her entire body. "Ardee?!" she wailed, running over toward the spot her friend had once stood, but Lyra grabbed her and held her back with all her might. "Leave it, Leon!" she shouted, struggling to keep the unruly Lyu under control. "Alize, Kaguya! Stay away from the fallen Evils!" The prum girl could not allow herself to give in to fear and sorrow just yet. Not while she still had a warning to issue to her friends. For she had finally deduced what was so strange about the whole operation. "They're all rigged to blow!" she screamed. As if on cue, several of the barely conscious soldiers began to move. They hauled themselves onto their backs, grasping for the switches hidden beneath their clothing. Kaguya and Alize gasped and leaped away in opposite directions, just as one of them spoke. "O Lord, I beg you…Carry my soul to my loved ones!!" Then, that piteous cry was engulfed by another cataclysmic explosion. The blast wave caught up to the girls and sent them crashing into the floor. But that wasn't the end of this flame-wreathed banquet. The Evils had converted every last one of their foot soldiers into deadly weapons. One by one, with trembling hands and tear-stained eyes, they carried out their final duties. "Diiiiiiiiiie!" one of them screeched. "Wait for me, Anju!" cried another. "May chaos take the world!!" "Glory to Lord Thanatos!!" Those were the last words anyone could hear before an uninterrupted series of explosions drowned it all out. The adventurers were beset on all sides. Many of Ganesha Familia disappeared into the clouds of fire and soot, including Shakti and Lyra. Even Lyu found herself knocked from her feet and crawling across the ground. It was the cruel and fleeting melody of life. "We attached those ignition pieces to Inferno Stones!" Valletta howled. "Ain't that a riot?! Now anyone can blow themselves up whenever we want!!" An evil smile crossed Valletta's lips as she watched the destruction from atop her mountain of containers, safely out of the range of the blasts. Lyra summoned up all the rage her small frame could muster. "You're a rotten, vile monster!" she cursed, wiping the blood and soot from her face. "Those are your friends, your comrades!" But Valletta returned only the same, mocking smile. "You finally worked it out?" she said. "Take our bases, capture our soldiers. We don't care." She grinned and gestured around the building—nothing but a carefully crafted decoy, like the two others of its kind. "These ain't our soldiers, sunshine. They're walkin' fireworks!" Meanwhile, up on the second floor, the soldiers of Ganesha Familia who had split from Shakti earlier were looking at one another in confusion. They had just felt the first explosion rock the building. "What's going on?" "Is the captain okay?" As they faltered, a half-dead enemy soldier crawled over to his unconscious comrade and fumbled with his robes. One of the adventurers noticed him. "H-hey! What are you doing over—" But it was too late. There was a click, followed by a searing light, and the bomb-laden followers of that captured god reduced their foes to ash. One explosion set off another bomb, and the chain reaction swallowed the building, floor after floor. "May my life finally atone for my sins!!" One mad zealot cried out, his face awash in blood and tears. Fortunately, Neze possessed keener senses than her companions. "Noin, Asta!" she cried. "Get away from him!" She rushed to the back of their group to grab Celty's arm before leaping through a shuttered window, sending fragments of wood and glass everywhere. The rest of Astrea Familia didn't hesitate to follow her lead. No sooner had the girls left through the third-story window than a bright red flower of fire engulfed the floor, and the girls were sent crashing into the ground on a wave of hot compressed air. "It's started a chain reaction!" cried Kaguya, her clothes tattered and torn, as she applied pressure to her bleeding arm. She looked around as deafening explosions came from the upper floors, reverberating through the building. Dust and rubble fell, and all around her, ominous cracks began to open in the walls and ceiling. "That was just the signal," said Valletta, grinning. "You can't stop what's been set in motion now. Anyway, see ya…Actually, I guess I won't!" She turned and left, disappearing through a door. Then an explosion went off behind her, sealing the exit with rubble. The building's not going to last! thought Alize, her mind going into overdrive as it attempted to analyze everything she saw and heard. It's going to come down at any moment, with us still inside! Then, with split-second determination, she made a decision. "Shakti! Lyra! Kaguya! Pull out!!" Nobody objected to her order, but… "It's Leon, she's not listening!" screamed Lyra. "Hey, stop it! We have to go!" "Ardee…Ardee…!!" cried Lyu, struggling against the prum girl's arms. Kaguya came over to restrain her, but the elf girl still fought against them both, desperate to run over to the smoking crater, where not even a single wall of the former hallways still stood. "Idiot!" Kaguya swore. "Leon, don't go! You'll be buried alive!" "B-but Ardee!! She's still there, we can't leave her!" Lyu was no longer thinking straight. Her emotions ran riot in her mind. "Alize!" she protested, her sky-blue eyes wet with tears. "Please, we have to help her! Lyra, Kaguya, please! She's there…She's right there!" There was nothing where Lyu pointed, just a crimson stain smeared across the rubble. Alize, Kaguya, and Lyra all bitterly clenched their teeth. Lyu took advantage of their hesitation to pull herself free at last. She picked up the girl's sword and ran toward the crater. In front of her stood Shakti. She had just killed an enemy soldier before he could detonate his explosive device. Now she was dazed and unresponsive, and covered head to toe in blood. "Shakti!" she cried. "It's Ardee! She's…She's…!" ".….…. " No answer. But with trembling breath, Shakti caught Lyu as she tried to run past her. She knew. She knew if she turned around, that would be it. If she saw the spot her sister spent her final moments, she wouldn't be able to tear herself away. So as the explosions continued, as the building tore itself apart, as the timer in her head counted down… Shakti had a decision to make. To be a sister, or a warrior? For love, or for the mission? What was right? What was her justice? The elf before her was a shadow of herself. The tears that streamed down her face were her own tears. Nevertheless, with a strangled voice, she barked an order. "…Alize, go!! Get out of here!!" Shakti slipped her arm around Lyu's waist and hoisted the elf onto her shoulder, even as her heart in her chest threatened to tear itself apart. She chose to be a warrior. She chose the mission. Without looking back, without any parting words, she took Lyu and ran. The only one looking back was Lyu, on Shakti's shoulder, screaming Ardee's name and reaching, grasping at air. The elf watched as Ardee's grave grew smaller and smaller, until it was nothing more than a speck in the distance. By now her eyes were so clouded, she couldn't even recall the girl's smile. Alize, Kaguya, and Lyra all clenched their fists and sprinted for the exit. They were followed by the last remaining survivors of Ganesha Familia's attack force. In place of tears, their faces were marred by blood. One final blast leveled the building. Columns buckled, supports fell, and the roof came down to trap anyone still within. Everyone ran for their lives as the ceiling caved in behind them, leaping for the exit just as the falling rocks threatened to swallow them. What followed was a cacophony of stone and dust, drowning out all sound save Lyu's voice, calling Ardee's name. Meanwhile, back at the home, Astrea suddenly interrupted her prayers and rose to her feet. "Lyu…?" she muttered. "My children…?" Her meager powers of foresight stabbed her in the breast with foreboding. But the goddess didn't have long to be astonished before everything shook. The ground. The mansion. The city itself. Her eyelids flared wide, revealing her deep blue eyes, like the dark of the night sky. "What's goin' on, guys? What's with all that smoke?!" In the Twilight Mansion, to the north of town, Loki ran outside and perched herself over the railing on the bridge that ran between the towers. Dusk had well and truly fallen, and in the black of the night, Loki could spy dark plumes of smoke to the south and southwest. As she scrutinized them, trying to make out their details against the moonless sky, Raul ran up to her. "L-Loki!" he stammered. "There's been a string of explosions in the city!" "What?! You mean they tried to blow up my familia?!" Raul took a deep breath. "…No," he said. "Huh?" All the blood was gone from his face. He was dripping cold sweat. Loki sensed the dread in his voice and waited desperately for his next words. "Not there…Everywhere." Meanwhile, in district five to the south, a deafening explosion shook the Evils base. One by one, the members of Freya Familia escaped through a hole torn by their captain's sword. "Casualties?" asked Ottar, replacing it atop his shoulder as he glanced back at the collapsed building. Already, it was a pile of smoking rubble, unrecognizable as the Evils base they had come to destroy. All around him, healer girls ran to and fro, struggling to comprehend what they saw. As the tell-tale glow signaled that they were treating countless patients, Allen Fromel landed by his captain's side, bloodstained spear in hand. "We lost five," he said. "Dammit. Don't they know who they're dealin' with?" Allen had managed to put down the enemy commander, but that did little to alleviate his unbound rage. The apostles of evil had given their lives to take out some of his team's finest Einherjar. Meanwhile, Ottar stood as still as a boulder and narrowed his rust-colored eyes. Then both their ears twitched simultaneously as they heard a second explosion. "…Huh? Wait, how long are these gonna go on for?" Allen looked around. Ottar's eyes, meanwhile, widened with shock. "…It can't be," he said. "Everyone, get inside Riveria's healing circle!" shouted Finn. "Patch up your wounds and regroup, quickly!!" In a town square, a short distance away from the base they had infiltrated, the captain of Loki Familia barked his commands. The plaza was awash with the clatter of footsteps, and amid it all stood Riveria, eyes closed and chanting. She was casting a group recovery spell. Her magic circle stretched six meders in radius and gave off a jade-green glow. Those who kneeled within it found their wounds instantly healed, a testament to Riveria's reputation as the most powerful mage in the city. But even she wore a grim frown. Her face was marred with disgust at the Evils' vile deeds. Meanwhile, Gareth handed off his smoldering greatshield to a supporter. "To think they would stoop to suicide attacks," he said, "It's a good thing you noticed when you did, Finn." Thanks to his quick thinking and Finn's perceptive eye, the members of Loki Familia were relatively safe, and no one had perished. Few had escaped unscathed, but with Riveria's healing, they would be well again soon enough. Still, despite being the infiltration party to suffer the fewest losses and regroup the quickest, Finn and his lieutenants were far from calm. "You hear that, don't you?" said the old dwarf. "Yes," Finn replied. "Something's not right." The sounds of explosions rumbled in the distance—the same ones Ottar and Allen had heard. Finn's blue eyes were grim. "What happened to us wasn't a trap," he said. "It was a signal!" He thought of the woman who was surely behind it all, and her venomous smile. "It was never us they were after. It all makes sense now!" The city was ablaze, as if the gates of hell had opened to swallow all in flame. Asfi ran through the streets. "The enemy's true target…was the city itself?" Fire spewed out of buildings, into streets and squares, bringing destruction to every corner of the city. Followers of the Evils had appeared suddenly and without warning. If they ran into any adventurers, they didn't hesitate to consign their lives to fire and ash and try to take as many as they could with them. The screams of men, women, and children could be heard from every street. Orario was awash in flames. From her vantage point atop a grand gambling house in the business district, Asfi surveyed the carnage alongside the war tiger, Falgar. The two of them shuddered in fright. "Orario…?!" The feast of evil had begun.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter9-1.txt	Chapter 9: The Opening Act of Evil CHAPTER 9 The Opening Act of Evil It all began with a scream more ghastly than any that came before. "Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!!" The throat-tearing scream of an innocent townswoman. As she and others tried to flee, they were shot with poison-tipped arrows, or burned to ash by fireballs so that not even their tears remained. The perpetrators of these vile acts were the minions of evil in their uniform robes. They were like cultists enacting a dark ritual. A ritual to call to earth their forbidden god and revel in the destruction it wrought. "I-it's the Evils!!" Screams rang out. Explosions thundered. Lifeless bodies fell to the ground, to be trampled by the blood-soaked boots of their killers. Sparks flew, and dark shadows danced. Evil approached its zenith. Vito stood in the center of a burning street, flanked by corpses. "Now come, one and all," he said. "The stage is set, the curtains flung wide." The corpse of an elf, his face still twisted in a mask of terror. The body of a dwarf impaled against the wall, his blood splattered across it. An animal person mother and her daughter, their lifeless hands still intertwined. Vito surveyed the carnage and smiled. He walked down the street alone, his smart boots clacking against the cobblestones. "Thus ends the performance of peace…and the start of our own," he said, gesturing theatrically. "Evil's opening ceremony, as my god would put it." He threw his arms wide, his voice approaching song. "Now, sing for me! Dance! An opera of death! And enjoy it, for I most certainly shall!!" He stepped out onto the main street to find it overcome by chaos. Everywhere he looked, terrified townsfolk ran for their lives. "A banquet of blood none can possibly resist! Ah-ha-ha…AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!" The ringing of his blade preceded a fountain of blood, and the streets were bathed in the vivid colors that Vito admired most. Meanwhile, on Adventurers Way in the northwest of the city, the lobby of the Guild headquarters was awash with sound as panicked townsfolk swarmed the doors. Overworked receptionists shouted to be heard over the din. "Reinforcements requested in district six! Evils agents spotted carrying out attacks! Skirmishes ongoing in districts one, two, and four!" "Reports of casualties keep coming in! We can't keep up!" At the center of it all stood Royman, who barely had it in him to utter a word. "Wh-what's going on? What's happening out there?! It's like a war! Here, in glorious Orario of all places!" The sweat dribbled from his flabby chin. Suddenly, his face paled, and he shuddered. "I-it can't be…" Atop a burning building, Valletta stood and watched the panic-stricken streets below. "It's time for the feast! Let's hear some dyin' screams!" "N-no, stop! Please!!" An animal man begged for his life. His attacker, another man of the same race, had lost his entire clan and grown resentful and wicked. "Die, you ignorant sinner! Die, Orario!" His victim's screams couldn't convince him to stay his arm. The knife in his hand kept stabbing until the cries stopped. Meanwhile, an innocent prum girl was about to discover just where fate could lead. "Help meee!" "Let my body become a flame that returns all to ash!!" His eyes crazed, the elf's hand didn't waver for an instant as it reached for the detonation switch. Both he and the prum girl, along with anyone else in the vicinity, were utterly vaporized by the blast. "I-it's you—! Gaaagh!!" There was no justice here. Only the strong would survive. Olivas's merciless fist had crushed an adventurer's skull like a ripe berry. His comrades-in-arms froze, their courage drained, as the silver-haired man reveled in his own darkness. He licked his bloodstained fists and smiled greedily. Then he descended on the startled lower-class adventurers, snuffing out lives as if in pursuit of some grand philosophy. "Now, do it," he said, turning to his followers. "Bring true despair upon Orario." """Yes, sir!""" His loyal soldiers fell upon the now defender-less citizens. The screams and yells were far too numerous to count. Fear mixed with murderous anger. A raging hellfire consumed all, living or not. Bodies lay by the wayside, smoldering. This undignified cremation left nothing behind but ash. Then, even those ashes were caught up in the chaos, scattered to the four winds. The roars and wails of the city were like the howls of a living beast, one that permitted no memento of the fallen to persist. "Ahhh, music to my ears!" sang Valletta, in merry contemplation. "I've been dreaming about this day for so, so long!" There was no madder scene than this. People dying in the streets. An unending anthem of death. The march of chaos, freed from the shackles of law. The Evils followers reveled in violence, unhindered by morality. However, they never doubted for a second the justness of their cause. They had all lost things, precious things, to the illogic of this cruel world. To them, they were simply victims, empowered to commit the most heinous acts imaginable in the name of their justice. "How beautiful! How humorous! How hideous these people truly are!" These were the words of evil gods, who pointed and laughed as Orario burned. They saw now the true face of humanity, of the mortal world. These foolish, imperfect children knew full well that murder was a sin but were content to repeat the same mistakes forever. "They cannot escape it!" they cried. "These are the bounds of right and wrong! For what are good and evil but two sides of the same coin?" They chuckled and clapped their hands, conveniently forgetting they were the ones who created this chaos to begin with. "Either come down and join us or shut the hell up!" Valletta sneered. "I ain't got time for your oh-so-clever pronouncements! I got a slaughterhouse to run!!" The woman shared in their joy, if none of their philosophy. She couldn't care less for the lives and fates of mortals, except when their blood fed her blade. Nothing made her heart race like breaking the most ancient of taboos. Nothing could be more depraved. Purpose and ideology were meaningless, fit only as kindling for the bloodlust that flared in her eyes. A horrifying and fiendish smile crawled across her lips. "I won't let a single one of you escape! Townspeople, adventurers, gods—I'll kill you all!!" She addressed her pronouncement to the paling Royman. To the innocents who ran in terror. To the heroes who scrambled to defend them. And to the various gods who watched on with concern. "This is a showdown," she said. "Between you…and us!" Now it was evil's turn to thrive. It was time for killing, looting, and pillaging. The screams didn't stop and neither did the explosions. The townsfolk were too consumed by sheer terror to even grieve as one fell after the other. "Ah…ahhh…" Lyu stood alone, unable to process what was happening. Her sense of righteous anger drew her to this place, but now that she was here, she wasn't capable of anything more than a weak and broken moan. "Waaaaagh!" "Not that way! Quick, come over—" To her right, a panicked human man ran, only to meet his end on an assassin's blade before Noin's frantic voice could lead him to safety. Behind her, she heard a female voice, calling for aid. "Help me! Oh gods, please help me!" Lyra's voice urged the woman to follow her. "This way, hurry! Get to the center of the city and you'll be al—" Then an explosion engulfed the poor grief-stricken woman. "Dammit. Dammiiiit!!" Lyra cursed the heavens. And the rest of Astrea Familia fared no better. No matter how fiercely and bravely they fought to protect the townsfolk, their lives spilled through their fingers like grains of sand. A little girl stood in the street, crying over the loss of her parents. A merchant trapped under rubble screamed for help, before going silent. Order was falling apart and chaos quickly filled the gaps. The peace Lyu had fought so hard to uphold was coming undone so quickly. The city was bathed in red, but by now it was impossible to distinguish what was blood and what was fire. Every turn of her head revealed more horrors. The hellish scene took over her mind. Lyu was overcome by despair, and she wailed. It was then that someone grabbed her by the collar, and an open palm struck her across the cheek. "Don't just stand there, you incompetent fool!" "K-Kaguya…?" The human woman arched her well-trimmed eyebrows and roared in Lyu's face. "Draw your sword and fight! We cannot be indecisive now!" Lyu recovered a trace of sanity, but it was still fear and confusion that commanded her. "B-but…Th-this…I-it can't be happening! I've never witnessed such cruelty!" It had all gone too far. The innocent young elf could scarce believe what she was seeing. Never had she faltered in her quest for justice before seeing the tragic acts of evil on this wretched day. "Well, get used to it, fool! You can't let despair control you!!" Kaguya had no time for Lyu's complaints. She pulled, squeezing Lyu's collar tighter and bringing their heads close enough to touch, before bellowing into those wide, sky-blue eyes. "Don't think! Just move! Fight! Saving even one life is worth it!" Then, fighting to control her tears, she added…"Or else…it'll be just like Ardee all over again!!" That name, and the feelings behind it, caused Lyu's eyes to flare wide. Emotions roiled out of her chest, washing away the darkness. "Rgh…!! Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!!" Her grip tightened around her wooden sword, and she flung herself at the attacking Evils. Lyu gave herself over to her emotions, slashing wildly alongside Kaguya's blade. The roaring fires knew no peace. The embers of war filled Orario, and the metallic rhythm of clashing swords rang out in every direction. Adventurers fought bravely against the Evils followers, who had become warriors of death. "There's too many of them!" shouted one. "Where are they coming from?" "The chain of command is down!" barked another. "What do we do? Protect the citizens or advance on the enemy?!" "I don't know! I don't fucking know! What are we supposed to do?!" It was all they could do just to survive. Many of them were completely bewildered. No matter how many of the Evils they defeated, more kept coming. They crawled out from every crevice, waiting to ambush an adventurer and go out in a blaze of glory. The forces of good had no room to breathe, let alone work out what was going on, and the chaos and panic gripping the townsfolk was no help. They had no idea where to focus their efforts. No means of communicating with others in the field. They weren't even members of the same familia. These were just soldiers separated from their comrades and linked together by a common fate. All they could do was swear at each other. A human archer who managed to keep the mad bombers at bay with his arrows. A half-elven swordswoman who mixed magic with keen slashes, and a stalwart beastman sentinel. It was amid their warring words that a calm, clear voice rang out, cutting through the fire and chaos. "Stay calm, children," it said. "Lest your fear spread to those you seek to protect." "I-it's you!" "The goddess of Astrea Familia…!" She appeared before the adventurers, her long walnut hair flowing behind her. A goddess had set foot on the battlefield, her unspoiled beauty captivating men and women alike. She examined the adventurers with her deep blue eyes before offering guidance. "Bring the people to the city center," she said. "There will be people there with the wisdom and foresight to understand the situation." Her slender finger pointed to Central Park. Everybody in the vicinity froze and listened to her. Astrea spoke her divine will, loud enough that all could hear. "You must be as a shield for the weak. Do not falter! And may the stars watch over you." """Y-yes, my Lady!!""" Like explorers beholding the guiding light of the pole star, the adventurers nodded. The lamp of hope had been lit once more. Encouraged, the adventurers began shouting to one another and swiftly divided themselves into two groups—one to escort the townspeople to the city center and another to stay behind and hold the line. Astrea had managed to tip the scales slightly in justice's favor once more. She smiled, and just then the footsteps of a second god came up behind her. "You watch yourself, Astrea," he said. "No god should be walking around a place like this without protection." It was Hermes, holding on to his hat to keep the fiery draft from blowing it away. "And here I thought you liked to watch events from on high," replied Astrea. "If it's so dangerous for me to be here, then what are you doing here?" She cast him the coy look of a playful big sister. Hermes shrugged and sighed. "…Guess I'm the protection," he admitted. "Besides, even Zeus would call me a failure if the world lost a beautiful goddess like you." He smirked but then soon cast aside his playful smile and turned serious. "Besides," he said, "this time I figured I'd take a leaf out of Ganesha's book." All along the street, buildings were ablaze. The city was falling, and the screams were unending. It wasn't hard to guess what Hermes was alluding to. His Arcanum sealed, and with nothing but his own two hands, he had been leading people to safety and gathering intel. He was fighting alone, just like her. Astrea looked at him and nodded. "Then we're the same," she said. "We wish to help our children and save as many lives as we can. Would you escort me?" "…You must be kidding. I've often dreamed of a romantic walk with you, but never pictured it quite like this." His words were a joke, but his eyes were quite grave. "Sorry, but all my children are busy. Us two could go missing in the fires of war and nobody would even notice." It was safe to say that right now there wasn't a single familia in all of Orario with forces to spare. All adventurers had been sent to combat the Evils, and even noncombatants were working with the Guild, evacuating residents. Even the other gods were providing aid from Ganesha, who stood at the forefront of battle, inspiring the people, to Miach and Dian Cecht, who opened the doors of their medical stores for anyone who needed it. Hermes had abandoned his preferred method of sneaking away to conduct his investigations, but Astrea had made an even bigger break with habit, heading straight for the center of conflict instead of away from it. Even for a capricious god, she was acting unusually. It was like she'd taken leave of her senses—or discarded them outright. It was only by chance that Hermes had spotted her, but now that he had, he couldn't let her go. But his words did nothing to break the goddess's gentle smile. "Perhaps you're right," she said. "But here's what I think. We may not be able to help our children directly, but we can at least show them the path." She closed her eyes and placed a hand to her breast. "Is that not one of the ways we can help our children grow?" she asked. "That's why I have to go." Then she walked off, still smiling, as graceful as a tender lily, yet firm as she approached the next battleground. "Really now," Hermes sighed. "You and Artemis are birds of a feather. You never do what other people say." He watched the virgin goddess depart, a bitter smile on his lips. Then, before she was out of sight, he hurried after her. The wailing, flame-wreathed pandemonium could not be contained on the ground. It rose, into the starless sky, to the very peak of Babel, the tower of the gods where Freya lived. "…First, they ushered our greatest heroes into three separate locations. Then, once our forces were split, they sprang the jaws of their trap across the entire city, leaving us flat-footed and unable to respond." Unusually for her, she was out of her seat, standing by the large window pane set into the outer wall. Her silver eyes fell on the city below, and as she watched her beloved children fall in the streets, her ever-perfect brow displayed a sliver of worry. From atop Orario, she surveyed the game board, and a rage brewed in her heart. "We goddesses of beauty could intervene and end this war in an instant," she muttered. "We could charm and neutralize the Evils' children. But it seems our foe is determined to prevent that." Freya cast her eyes to a hill near Central Park. There, she spied a group of armed Evils soldiers, keeping a watchful eye on the gates of Babel. They were there for her, Freya surmised. If she set one foot outside the building, she was as good as dead—or sent back to heaven anyway. She would be shot, or bombed, or whatever else it took. And even if the mortals got cold feet, the evil gods would do it personally. Freya spotted one of them, standing among the group: a goddess in heavy makeup. She noticed Freya's gaze and grinned, sticking up her middle finger. Freya only returned a cold glare before turning her attention elsewhere. In addition to the first squad, Freya spotted three others positioned on rooftops and more in the buildings and trees. Orario's protectors were busy fighting in the streets and had neither the time nor manpower to spare in eliminating them. It seemed the enemy had deduced the threat the goddesses of beauty posed and planned to deal with them accordingly. Meanwhile, to the southwest of the tower, at the heart of the pleasure quarter, sat the brothel house Belit Babili, home to Ishtar, another goddess of beauty. She, too, had noticed the Evils surveilling her position. "I suppose Freya also has no choice but to hide inside her shell," she mused. From her position in the home's main hall, she could see the fires that ravaged the red-light district of Orario. No doubt Evils soldiers were already holed up in the nearby buildings, waiting to ambush her the moment she stepped outside. She gave an annoyed frown and screwed up her face, before taking a puff from her long pipe. "I hate to let those flies keep me locked up," she growled, "but as it stands, there's no reason for me to take risks. All I have to do is wait for Freya to lose her patience, then watch and laugh as she gets sent back to heaven in shame!" Ishtar bore a burning hatred for Freya, considered by all to be the fairest in Orario instead of her. Her lips twisted into a smile as she imagined the goddess's downfall. Then she turned and headed back into her home. "Tammuz," she said to the young human man at her side. "See to it that the area around our headquarters is thoroughly guarded. Tell the Berbera to keep any rats from sniffing around our borders. I don't care what happens beyond them." "B-but, Lady Ishtar! If we do nothing, then Orario will…!" "We don't have time to care about anyone but our own," Ishtar commanded. "Now, hurry up and recall our whores before the enemy make them their playthings. I will protect my own children, and no one else's." "U-understood, my Lady!" His attempt at advising his mistress callously demolished, Tammuz quickly carried out her demands. As cruel as they were, it was with careful consideration of the war and its direction that Ishtar came to her decision. "We must not mistake foolishness for magnanimity," she said. "I am no goddess of justice." To a god, returning to heaven effectively spelled the end of their familia. It wasn't worth disrupting the delicate stalemate between Orario and its enemies. So while Ishtar knew it was precisely what the latter wanted, she ordered her followers to focus their efforts solely on self-defense. "So Ishtar has holed up, too…I suppose it's only natural." Freya looked down at the pleasure district, where Ishtar's followers were shoring up the perimeter, and her eyes narrowed. It was clear that Ishtar wanted nothing more than for Freya herself to make the first move and, in doing so, invite her own destruction. "The pieces on this board," she said, "are quite ill-spirited…and unscrupulous." There was more than one battle taking place in Orario today. While their children fought for their lives in the streets, the gods were engaged in another game. Layers upon layers of strategy, so intricate that a single wrong move could spell a player's end. The gods were forced to think long and hard about where to deploy their forces. All of them, it seemed, except Astrea. While everyone else guarded their pieces jealously, Astrea struck out fearlessly into the center of town, saving the lives of adventurers and townspeople in the process. Freya smiled as she watched her move through the streets, with Hermes following a short distance behind. "I don't think I've ever seen you so determined…" she whispered. Such words of respect very rarely passed Freya's lips. Suddenly, the door burst open, and a member of Freya Familia walked in. "I apologize for disturbing you!" he said. "Please forgive me!" The man kneeled before her. He was covered in blood, though whether it belonged to his friends or his enemies, none could say. "We cannot prevent the Evils from self-destructing!" he said. "Their chaos is unstoppable! Please, give us your commands!" Freya didn't even look back at the man. Her eyes were fixed on the soldiers gathering at the tower's base. "Recall your troops to…Hmm, no. Send them to Central Park," she said. "Set up a formation. Loki's children will be there, too." "Loki, we can't keep taking losses like this! Every time we finish one off, they take us out in the explosion!" Loki frowned as she heard her follower's report. "Dammit, they're like livin' bombs," she grumbled. "It's insane! Even I'd never stoop that low!" Loki had relocated the remaining members of her familia from the Twilight Manor to Central Park. Her careful scrutiny of the battlefield had led her to surmise it was the clearest course of action, but even now there was little relief in her perpetual frown. "I dunno how things can possibly get any worse," she muttered, as the screams of townsfolk rang in her ears from all directions, "but I still got a bad feelin' about this. Like everythin' so far's just been the openin' act." The heat coming off the burning buildings caused Loki to sweat. It was at that time that a certain group of adventurers returned to Central Park, to scattered cheers. "Loki!" one of them cried. "Finn!" Loki replied. "You made it!" She was overjoyed to see the safe return of her familia's strongest members, but such joy lasted only a moment before she got straight to business. "Where's Riveria and Gareth?" she asked. "I left half the force in their care and sent them south to strike back at the enemy," Finn explained. "How goes the evacuation?" "I called everyone I could here to Central Park," said Loki. "Raul and the others came straight from the manor, and Freya's kids are here as well." "Thank you." Finn looked around and saw that many of the townspeople from Babel's first floor and its surroundings were gathered here, huddled together like refugees. There were far more than he had been expecting, thanks primarily to the level-headed actions of Loki, as well as Astrea and Ganesha Familia. It was all but certain that some of these refugees were emissaries of evil—perhaps even evil gods looking to get close enough to one of their bitter foes to make an attempt on their life. However, there was little Finn could do about that. He would leave the spy hunting to Loki herself—who was even now scanning the crowd with one eye open—and Freya. If there was a time the two could put their differences aside and work together, it was now. "Let's erect a perimeter around Central Park," he said. "We'll make our last stands here and at Guild HQ. I'll take command of our forces!" Finn was a truly brave hero. Though he knew the enemy was likely behind his lines already, he didn't show a shred of weakness. His voice carried across the battlefield, making even the battered townspeople look to him as a beacon of hope. He ordered his troops to take their positions. As for the lower-class adventurers, too weak to fight the enemy, he had them construct barricades around the border of Central Park, gathering broken planks of wood and empty ale casks to serve as fortifications. It was nothing pretty, but it would hold. Just then, a subordinate came running up. "Captain!" she said. "Explosions are getting louder in all directions! The enemy is closing in!" "Hold fast! Don't forget that training and experience is on our side! Allow the evacuees through the checkpoint while eliminating the suicide bombers! Hit them with fire magic or a magical sword, and their bombs will go off prematurely! Blow them up from a distance before they get too close!" "R-roger!" "If you don't have a means of engaging at range, aim for their feet! Throw your weapons or whatever you can find! Go!" When the lieutenants heard Finn's words, it was like they suddenly had purpose and direction again. They ran off in all directions to relay his words to the soldiers on the perimeter. "This park is our last line of defense!" he shouted. "Stand fast and protect the weak!" """Hurraaaaaaaaaaah!!""" The adventurers all cheered Finn's decisive words. His commands were swift and precise. It was everything the troops looked for at a time like this. A good commander could make his army fight even harder. Finn's guidance breathed new life into their flagging morale, preparing them to strike back against the Evils. The veteran adventurers, just barely managing to hold the line, found their energy restored. Turning their focus from defense to offense, they began to repel the invaders gathering on the border. One group of adventurers on the front line was made up of the dwarf Dyne, the human Noir, and the Amazon Bahra. "Now that Finn's here, our formation is unbreakable!" shouted Dyne. "Look around; this place was like a wake a moment ago. Now everyone's raring to go!" "Yeah," said Noir. "Honestly, the new generation is so capable, it makes me mad. He'll always be a cocky little brat to us!" "Ha-ha-ha!" Bahra laughed. "Well, they're all cocky little brats; that's what we love about them!" These seasoned veterans were determined not to be outdone by Finn and the other rising stars and took out enemy soldiers one after the other. From the center of the park, Finn smiled. He could rest easy and leave the front lines under their careful watch. "The first-tier adventurers and reserves from Freya Familia have been deployed to the northern part of the city," he explained. "They have been tasked with defending Guild headquarters, along with the industrial district!" Before arriving at Central Park, Finn had, at Loki's suggestion, tasked Raul and the other lower-class adventurers with running messages between here and the Guild. Thanks to that, he had a good grasp as to the general state of the battlefield. He knew that members of Freya Familia had already set up fortifications, not only at Guild HQ but also to the northwest, in Hulrand's Cathedral and other historical buildings nearby. That was where they were housing evacuees in those parts of the city. Freya Familia had similarly entrusted the defense of Central Park to Finn and his associates. To put it one way, it was a sign of mutual faith between the two titans of Orario. To put it another way, it was an excuse for them to ignore each other entirely. "They will not be sending reinforcements!" Finn continued. "If we are broken here, look for Hildsleif! He has command in the north!" "Captain!" said a messenger. "W-we've received word from Hildsleif as if he knew you were going to say that! He says, 'How dare you force all the responsibility onto me, you shameless prum! Go die!' He sounds furious, sir!" "I see! Well, I'll certainly give my life if that's what it takes! Tell him I pray for his success!" "Maybe I've died already and gone to hell…" the envoy muttered, as he turned to run back the way he came. The scale of this crisis had already grown to the point where Finn needed every spare brain cell to consider his options. To that end, he needed to delegate. And delegate he would. This was no adventurer's fight. Nor was it the cause of any individual god or goddess. This fight was for all of Orario. "That's Finn's response? 'I pray for your success'? After everything I said? Is this a joke?! Did you even deliver the message properly, you useless piece of excrement, or are you looking to meet a swift end at my hand?! Well, that can be arranged!" "Eeeeeeeeek!! Don't kill meeee!!" In the northwest of the city, Finn's messenger once again reported to Hildsleif, an elf with long golden hair whose real name was Hedin Selland. The elf was furious at Finn's uncooperative response and was currently spouting all manner of abuse at the poor, helpless messenger. "Do you know how many riffraff are stuck here that I'm now responsible for?! Perhaps this is difficult for you imbeciles at Loki Familia to understand, but all we have at Freya Familia are reckless, obnoxious dullards like our boar-headed captain! How in the hell does Finn expect me to hold a line when all of my sentries are incorrigible warriors with death wishes?! You know who's going to have to clean up their messes, don't you? It's me! Me, you idiot, me!!" Is he angry at us or at them?! At rest, Hedin was so fair, casual observers might mistake him for a beautiful maiden. However, his face was so contorted by rage at the moment that not even the most myopic fool would make that error. The envoy was ready to wet himself in fear, but the petty tyrant's constant bemoaning of his incompetent allies almost convinced the messenger to pity him. Almost. Hedin was the main brain behind Freya Familia—perhaps the only one, for that matter—and so while the messenger, an animal man named Olba, sympathized with his plight, it was essential that he hear what Finn had to say. "A-also," he stammered, "Finn says to engage the suicide bombers only at long ran—" "Struggle for eternity, indestructible soldiers of lightning." "…Uh?" Olba had a confused look on face as the elf strategist finished his chant. "Caurus Hildr." A blinding flash of lightning nearly seared the poor messenger's retinas. He and Hedin were standing atop a steeple of Hulrand's Cathedral, about a hundred meders off the ground. Hedin's magic set a barrage of lightning hurtling toward the city below. "Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?!" he asked. "Engaging at long range, you fool," replied Hedin without looking at him. "…Huh?" "Once I surmised the enemy were all suicide bombers, I switched our tactics. I've been standing up here, and anytime the enemy gets close to this cathedral or any of the other churches housing evacuees, I let them eat lightning." Olba heard the distant screams of the Evils soldiers as Hedin's electrical assault rained down on them. Hedin's eyes were sharper than those of any forest ranger, thanks to his many Rank Ups, and even in the gloom of night, not a single foe escaped him. His lightning blasts ignited the bombs, taking out not only the suicide bombers themselves but any others in the vicinity by inducing chains of explosions that rolled the earth in thunderous hellfire. This was certainly what Finn had asked for, but Olba could scarcely believe that Hedin was able to handle it all by himself. This was the sheer strength of a Level 5 adventurer. "You're always so painfully slow," Hedin remarked. "Do try to keep up." Come to think of it, I did see strange flashes of light coming from the steeple…Olba idly thought while he wept at Hedin's sour words. The elf's long-distance lightning strikes seemed more like a carpet of bombs, and Olba paled as he watched the destruction being wrought below. "You might be able to fight them off," he said, "but there's going to be no city left if you keep this up!" "The enemy outnumbers us," came Hedin's calm response. "We don't have the luxury of choice." "Wh-what if there are people still trying to get away?" "You want me to sacrifice the many we've saved for the sake of a few stragglers? Then you can be the first to die." Hedin dismissed Olba's appeals. His unceasing bombardment was a merciless yet decisive way of keeping the enemy out. "Besides, I'm still holding back," he said. In what way?! Thought Olba, right before a backward kick to the gut caused him to crumple. "If it were up to me," Hedin explained without looking back, "I would burn this whole city to the ground and make sure those blasted Evils have nowhere to hide." Hedin tutted and continued blasting his magic as the beastman messenger writhed on the floor behind him. It was true that Hedin was not going all out. With his peerless control and accuracy, Hedin was making sure that collateral damage was kept to a minimum. But so long as he didn't spot any of the evacuees Olba had mentioned, he would not hesitate because of the scale of destruction his attacks would bring. After all, if any survivors had the poor sense to flee directly into an area infested with enemies, they were as good as dead already. Hedin had decided to save those he could, while refusing to devote resources to those who were lost causes. Finn surely knew this and had no intent to meddle. He and Hedin were two birds of a feather, pragmatic and calculating souls with no room for sentimentality. That was what made them both so adept at reading each other's minds. Suddenly, Hedin shouted down the spire. "Van! Go and reinforce Hegni's unit to the south! I can't get a clean shot with all the spires and steeples in that area! Go on foot and eliminate the enemy!" "Y-yes, sir!" Van, the half-prum adventurer waiting below, reacted quickly and followed his new orders. Hedin and the rest of Freya Familia were charged with protecting not only St. Hulrand Cathedral but also three other churches in the vicinity. All four of them were currently sheltering the terrified townsfolk, huddled in fear as more explosions ripped apart everything outside. As ruthless as he was, Hedin was also proud, and he was determined to protect these four shelters to the death. So it came as some surprise to the still-reeling Olba when Hedin immediately began casting lightning at whatever he could see. "Wh-what?! Isn't that where you just told your allies to deploy?! Why are you aiming right there?!" Olba had never seen anything like it in all his years with Loki Familia. Hedin, meanwhile, wondered if he ought to choke the life out of the beastman envoy and put a stop to his nagging once and for all. "This isn't enough to kill those idiots," he said, almost annoyed at the fact. "Gaaaaaaaagh?!" Jet-black steel severed the soldier's neck before he could set off his explosive vest. As his arms fell limply by his sides, a barrage of lightning came out of the sky and consumed him. Hedin's spell caused a fresh chain of explosions, but the dark elf quickly and deftly wove through them. "Man, this sucks. This really sucks. This is even worse than the battle of Heodenings. I never thought a war like this would come to Orario. Ugh, I hate war." He danced across the battlefield, not letting himself be caught in either the self-destructive blasts of his foes or the reckless onslaught of his allies. His name was Hegni Ragnar. A Level 5 adventurer, same as Hedin, and his title was Dáinsleif. None in Freya Familia could defy the danger of Hedin's spells as easily he did. Hegni fought ahead of them all, blending into shadows that even the flames of the burning city could not dispel. Any foes who evaded Hedin's aim soon met their end on Hegni's blade instead. "I-it's Dáinsleif!!" "Gaaaaaagh!" None were safe from his jet-black sword. Orario was nothing now but a battleground for wild beasts drunk on blood. These beasts were neither good nor evil; they were mindless, and so while Hegni was usually timid and reactive, today he felt no guilt in cutting them down. Trying not to look at the innocent corpses lining the streets, Hegni focused solely on hunting his prey. "Is it only the north that's like this?" he muttered to himself. "I wonder how things look in the south, where Ottar and Allen are. I don't really care about them, but I hope Lady Freya's all right. Oh, I just can't stop worrying about her! It's so scary!" The cloak of night shielded Hegni from judgmental gazes, encouraging him to voice his thoughts out loud. It was then that a pair of high-pitched voices pierced the darkness. "It's okay, Hegni!" "Give up your life, and you won't have to think such worrying thoughts anymore!" "Oh, here we go…" He couldn't bear their girly, squealing tones. He pulled up his collar, shielding himself from this filthy pair's sight; they shouldn't get to see the face that his beloved goddess had once called beautiful. "Let's turn his lifeless husk into a pretty little doll, Dina!" said one. "We can sit him next to my darling Hedin, too!" "What a wonderful idea, Vena! I'm sure Hegni loves it, too! Oh, I love him so much, I just want to strangle him!" "Careful, sister! You accidentally said how you really feel!" "Oh, did I? Whoopsie! Aha-ha-ha!" These sickly, singsong voices belonged to a pair of sisters whose hearts were black as tar. They both wore scanty robes like exotic dancers, and they each purposefully looked like the mirror opposite of the other. One tied her hair in a single side bunch, the other two. One had fair skin, as pure and white as a newborn babe, while the other's was dark and alluring like a forbidden fruit. However, no adventurer was fooled by their childlike appearance. All knew them to be a pair of carnivorous flowers who killed those unfortunate enough to attract their lustful gaze. The elder of the two was Dina Dis, a white elf with golden hair, and the younger was Vena Dis, a dark elf with silver hair. Each bore a tear-shaped tattoo beneath opposite eyes. They clasped hands and laughed sweetly and innocently. But their depravity was so base that Hegni refused to even consider them members of the same race. "You've come…like I knew you would, Dis sisters." "Of course!" said Dina. "How could we turn down a magnificent party such as this?" "We can't be late!" added Vena. "We have to hurry and kill the two of you, or else the lives our god granted us would go to waste!" The two sisters chuckled gleefully to each other. A wicked, unceasing laughter that chilled Hegni to his very core. There were two groups considered extreme even by the Evils' standards. One of them was Alecto Familia, of which Dina and Vena Dis were captain and vice-captain, respectively. Broken was the only word that could accurately describe them. They were twisted pleasure-seekers, finding joy only in the pain and suffering they inflicted on their victims. They were up there with Valletta in terms of how many adventurers and innocent townsfolk they had sent to an early grave.
Officially Translated Light Novels	Astrea Record/Astrea-Record-Volume-01-[Yen-Press][Kobo]/chapter9-3.txt	Chapter 9: The Opening Act of Evil "Please stop following me around," said Hegni. "Go bother Hedin; I don't care. Just leave me alone." "We can't!" "That's right, we can't!" ""Because we love you two to death, more than anything else in the world!"" As much as Hegni hated to admit it, these two were his and Hedin's archenemies. The sisters had been obsessed with them ever since the four clashed by chance and suffered a painful draw. Hedin loathed the girls for the dishonor they brought his people, while Hegni was simply baffled by their bizarre words and actions. For instance, they once told him: "Hegni, we're the real edgelords!" "Yeah, our god told us so! That means you're just a fake!" ""What a poser!"" Hegni hadn't the slightest clue what they meant by that, but for some reason, their words made his blood boil, and Hegni found himself overcome with murderous rage. He had lost track of the number of times he and Hedin had tried and failed to kill these two. Their strange personalities aside, Dina and Vena were both Level 5, among the strongest of any Evils fighter. In terms of height, they both measured somewhere in the region of 150 celches and resembled human girls of about fourteen or fifteen. Though, of course, they were elves, and in fact were older than Hedin and Hegni, who were both about seventy. Despite their cute and innocent act and appearance, Hegni knew the pair were more cunning and blackhearted than any he had ever faced. "Hey, look, Vena! Hegni's not such an edgelord today!" "You're right, Dina! How strange! That must be a good omen! It must mean this paradise is going to go on forever!" I should have just used my magic, thought Hegni to himself as he pulled up his collar once more. He had hoped that fighting in the darkness would mean that he didn't have to endure people's gazes, or that these two sisters would find something else to obsess over in this large, city-scale war. No such luck on either count, it seemed. I don't suppose they're going to give me time to don the Warlord's Mask now. Then again, perhaps it wouldn't matter for these two. Hegni found that, despite his usual crippling shyness, he had no qualms speaking plainly with these two girls. Not because he was especially close to them, but because he didn't care one bit what they thought of him. "Fine, let's do this," he said. "I kill you, and I never have to see either of your faces ever again, filthy sirens." In Hegni's eyes, the two of them didn't qualify as elves. They were something else—something monstrous. As soon as he said it, the two sisters dropped their smiles, and their eyes opened sickeningly wide, boring holes into Hegni's soul. ""Don't call us that word,"" they said in unison. "We are elves, whether you like it or not," said Dina. "What's the difference between us and the others, huh?" asked Vena. "You're just a meanie! A big, mean meanie!" Very rarely, as if in bitter spite of the nobility of the elven race, a twisted individual of unmatched darkness would be born. The Dis sisters were two such examples: a cruel trick that nature chose to perpetrate against their kin. They were therefore a pair of living contradictions, beings obsessed with the purity of their race yet unable to meet the standards of it. Hegni didn't know what the two girls had been through in the past as a result of this. Persecution? Oppression? Ostracization? Were these two young girls desperately trying to suppress their true natures, lest they break down completely? Hegni didn't know. But nor did he care. He had no pity for their lot. Because it didn't matter what they were before. It didn't matter their tragic past or noble motive. These sirens were responsible for untold death and destruction. That was all that mattered. ""Die for us, Hegni! Along with Hedin over there!"" Hegni had but one wish: that tonight would be the night he finally severed his bond with these two sisters. With that wish in mind, he unleashed his magic and sent his sword hurtling toward them. "Not them again." "The psycho sisters, Freya calls them." "They're not even that edgy." "I really feel sorry for Hegni and Hedin having to deal with them all the time." Standing in a line a short distance away were the four prum quadruplets, the Gulliver brothers. While the rest of the squadron gasped and looked over in awe at the battle unfolding between Hegni and the Dis sisters, the four who comprised Bringar only muttered in silent pity. The location, toward the south end of district seven, was at a crossroads surrounded by many historical buildings. Here Alfrik, Berling, Dvalinn, and Grer had just finished eliminating the enemy rank-and-file. This was a spot that Hedin couldn't see from his vantage point, and thus the ground squad had needed to engage the enemy on foot. However, the main skirmish was now over, as evidenced by the bodies lying at their feet. Hegni had encountered the sisters at the end of one of the four streets leading off from the intersection. The four brothers glanced in that direction, then turned around. """"So, who are you lot supposed to be?"""" they all asked at once. Their four sets of eyes were directed toward what looked like about a dozen adventurers. There were humans, animal people, and dwarves, all of whom looked fairly robust. Many of them were tanned, but otherwise they were a rather diverse group, both in terms of race and in terms of weaponry. There was one point, however, that they all had in common. They were all wide-eyed and fitted with some kind of gag, literally champing at the bit and frothing. It was clear to see that not one among them was sane. "Hurgh…Huuurgh…!!" "What's up with these guys?" "Gross." "They're out of their minds." The beastly groans that their mouths emitted caused the four brothers to take a step back in fright. All except Alfrik, that is. "Looks like the Evils are back to their old tricks—pumping adventurers with drugs and cursed items and using them as their expendable pawns." "Expendable?" came a voice. "Perish the thought! These are our finest warriors." The voice came from a sturdily built animal person standing at the rear of the pack. He was past middle-aged, with a long beard, and wearing a priest's habit in black and purple. An unsettling, gleeful look dominated his eyes, and in his hand he held a blood-soaked cane. Despite his priestly appearance, however, the old man was far from benevolent. "It's you. Apate's lapdog." "Basram." Apate Familia boasted the strongest forces in the Evils, on par with Alecto Familia. The four Gulliver brothers glared at the head priest with all the hate they could muster. The cruelty of their order hardly bore mentioning. In fact, Freya Familia had already killed the captain, vice-captain, and all notable lieutenants in previous battles. Now Basram was forced to stand on the front lines. It just went to show how far the group had fallen. However, judging by the old priest's words, the faction wasn't ready to throw in the towel just yet. "What do you mean, finest warriors? Explain yourself, Basram, or die where you stand." But the old man just chuckled. "Ha-ha-ha. I fear you will kill me either way. But don't worry, you shall see what I mean soon enough." He smiled, and the horde of fighters took up battle stances, eager to draw blood. "You sniveling worm." "This mad rabble won't stop us from crushing you." "This day will mark the end of Apate Familia." The three younger Gulliver brothers all spat insults and drew their weapons. Great hammer, greatax, and greatsword were all ready to go. Only Alfrik, spear in hand, seemed reluctant to engage. If these are really his finest warriors, he thought, then why haven't we seen them before? Why didn't they show up when we took down the captain? And something else is bothering me. I feel like I recognize their faces… His watchful eyes scanned the enemy lines. "Don't let your guard down," he said to his overeager brothers. Off to the northwest, another battle raged. Streaks of lightning lit up the bloodred sky, and the air was filled with thunderous booms, not from the suicide bombers but from magic. If one strained their ears, one could almost make out the sounds of clashing steel. It was a battleground no less fierce than the one taking place in the center of the city. Several people watched from afar. One of them, an Amazon, hoisted up the greatsword she had just used to cut down a foe and saddled it on her shoulder. "Wow, things are really heating up. Say what you want about Orario; at least it never gets boring." She possessed radiant good looks and an enviable figure, with long black hair tied back in a ponytail. All of which did nothing to detract from the fearsome image given off by her supple yet toned arms and fiendishly heavy weapon—almost as tall as herself. On what little fabric comprised her outfit was emblazoned the crest of her faction—Ishtar Familia. She was surrounded by other Amazons, all of whom looked to her for guidance. "What now, Aisha?" an ashen-haired one asked. The Amazon—Aisha Belka—sniffed derisively at the question. "That's obvious," she said. "We leave the pleasure quarter in search of our next battle." "But Ishtar wants us to head back and protect our home." "Yeah, and? We've only just joined. She can't expect to order us around like that." Aisha and the rest of her band were somewhat lowly fighters, even within their own familia. Of all the Berbera, they numbered among the weakest. There were plenty of stronger warriors, like the toadess Phryne, so it wouldn't matter much if Aisha's group went off to play on their own for a while. At least, that was the childish excuse Aisha told herself so that she could continue indulging herself. "You made sure all the wounded returned to base, right?" Aisha asked. "Of course. The brothels are safe, too." "Then let's go, Samira! Let's have some fun! Even in the deserts of Kaios, I never found enemies as crazy as these!" The Berbera under her command all let out a roar of approval and rushed into an unsuspecting gang of Evils soldiers. Elsewhere in town, a forge's high smith came running over to the commander in charge of defending the area. "Captain Tsubaki!" he cried. "The adventurers are demanding more magic swords!" "Then let 'em have 'em!" the commander replied. "Swords are meant to be used, aren't they?" She then swung her own magic sword at a wave of charging suicide bombers, engulfing the entire front rank in flames. "I know they're effective against the bombers," the smith shot back, "but we can't be sure that everyone who comes to our forge is an ally! We can check familia crests, but the enemy could always show us counterfeits!" "Then just look at 'em! If they look all evil-like, don't give 'em anything!" "You can't be serious!" Tsubaki made for a capable smith, but her skills as a commander were sadly lacking. As she argued, she pulled a magic sword out of the earth that she had stuck there previously and used it to launch a fireball at the second wave of foes. "Besides," the high smith continued. "Even if we only give out swords to those we trust, we're going to run out fast! There's too many enemies!" "Aaargh, shut up! Who cares?! You're not the only one short-staffed tonight, you know! Let us handle the battlefield and leave the supply chain to Lady Hephaistos!" At that very moment, the goddess in question was in her home, the Vulca Workshop. "Our stores are now open!" she declared. "Bring out all our inventory!" "L-Lady Hephaistos, are you sure about this? That's our entire fortune!" "Well, it's not going to do us much good if the entire city is destroyed! I'll start handing them out to adventurers. That way, if I see they're not who they claim to be, I can give you a signal, and you get out there and capture them!" Deities could see though any lie perpetrated by mortals. The young worker was taken aback by this clever plan and only started moving when Hephaistos told him to snap to it. After he hurriedly left the room, the goddess turned to the little old god next to her. "Now, what about you, Goibniu?" "Doubt I'll make it back to my own forge now. Hope you'll let me stay here awhile." The other smithing god, usually situated at his home in the northwest of town, had happened to be visiting Hephaistos's forge in order to discuss logistics, when the outbreak of war cut their meeting short. "Light the forge," he said. "Might as well put my skills to good use while you're out there dealing with the customers." The old god flashed a faint smile, something rarely seen on one so brusque as he. Hephaistos returned it. "That would be much appreciated," she said. "Thank you." It didn't take long for them to analyze the situation and come to a snap decision. No matter which way the war went, there would surely be a need for weapons and equipment. Therefore, it was time to start hammering out some divine works for Orario's protectors to use in the battles to come. "I'm sending some of my best blacksmiths. Fire up every furnace!" "Leave it to me." On that day, the fires of Hephaistos's forges reached unprecedented capacity. "Burques! I managed to get Hephaistos to give me some magic swords!" "Nice work, Lofina!" A young elf girl ran over to where the rest of her party hid, carrying in her arms a large sack with a bunch of weapons poking out of it. She and the fellow members of her familia were all covered in soot and dust, and they crouched behind rubble like they were cowering in the trenches. The captain, Burques, began dividing up the weapons, ready to launch an assault on the Evils soldiers who lurked at the opposite end of the bridge. "Not you, Filvis," he said when a sweat-drenched young girl approached. "You need to rest and shake off that Mind Down." "N-no! I can still fight! Let me fight!" The girl was only twelve years old. For an elf, that was so young that even other races considered her a child. The look in her eyes, however, was prouder than any of her adult peers. With jet-black hair and eyes like rubies, there was no doubt she would one day grow up into one of the greatest beauties to ever walk the earth. She was dressed in long white battle clothes like a priestess, and carried a short wand made of wood from her hometown's sacred tree. "The very fate of Orario hangs in the balance!" she protested. "I cannot just sit around doing nothing! I am prepared to do whatever it takes to soothe Lord Dionysus's fears! Ferry supplies, maintain barriers, anything!" She was Filvis Challia, and they were Dionysus Familia. All were proud to fight for Orario's safety in the name of their lord. "…Fine. Come with me, Filvis." "Lofina!" the girl replied, overjoyed. "You really do spoil that girl sometimes," said Burques with a sigh. "Fine. You make sure not to distract your big sister, okay, Filvis?" "I won't!" Her face turned into a smile. A smile of admiration for her elder sibling who served as vice-captain. Then they all turned and followed their captain into the heat of battle. The little girl summoned a shield of white lightning that would keep her loved ones safe. "Healing droplets, tears of light, eternal sanctuary. Compose a medicinal hymn—three hundred, sixty, and five." The girl recited her chant as if reading from holy scripture, unleashing her magic on the wounded adventurers before her. "In the name of all that is holy—I heal you. Dia Frater!" An exceptionally large magic circle encompassed the area, abating the suffering of those within. "Whoa?! That massive wound just closed up before my very eyes!" "You're a saint! A true saint! You've earned our worship from now on!" Cheers erupted from the crowd of newly healed adventurers. The location was Northwest Main Street. If the magic-stone factories in the northeast of town were Orario's lifeblood, then the Guild Headquarters on this street was its brain. It was here, on one of the many battlefields, where the girl stood. Her faction's emblem was a ball of light, flanked by herbs. It belonged to Dian Cecht Familia, one of the best, if not the best, medicinal suppliers in Orario. And she was its prodigal child, its secret weapon, Amid Teasanare. "Cheers, kid. You patched me up real good." "I am not a kid." "I'll be countin' on you next time, squirt!" "I am not a squirt!" Amid pouted as the ruffians all took their leave. With her snow-white robe, long silver hair, and mysterious violet eyes, she looked like a doll, and all agreed her beauty would only grow in the coming years. Right now, however, she was a little under 120 celches, often mistaken for a child or even a prum. She insisted on using a rod too large for her, and no matter how sternly she attempted to glare, she always looked painfully adorable. Yet as far as Amid was concerned, she was a full-fledged lady, with a respectable twelve (!) years under her belt. Give it another seven, and she would be walking as tall and proud as the rest of them. Of course she would. Surely. Amid looked at the revitalized adventurers with a mixture of annoyance and worry. Then, suddenly, a bout of dizziness overcame her. "Urgh…" She had been healing nonstop for hours. They just kept bringing in more wounded. Adventurers, of course, but injured civilians, too. For a small girl like her, healing them was just as exhausting as fighting on the front lines, if not more so. Luckily, a hand caught her scruff before she planted her face in the ground. Her collar tightened around her neck before rubber-banding her back up. "Gyugh!" she squealed. "Take a rest before you pass out," her rescuer said. "Here, have a potion." Then she poured the magical concoction over Amid's hair. The sweet-smelling liquid streamed down her face and into her eyes. "Blugh!" "Now, go sit in the corner and look pretty." Amid shook herself like a wet dog, drying her long silver hair, before glaring daggers at the girl beside her. "What are you doing here, Ersuisu?" "Telling you to sit this one out. You have any idea how mad the old man will be if I let you push yourself too far?" It was a chienthrope from Miach Familia called Nahza Ersuisu. She was noticeably taller than Amid, despite being a year her junior. "I'm heading onto the battlefield to serve as Miach's escort," she said. "Scaredy-cats like you should stay put." She waved her hand as if to shoo Amid away. In her other, she held her weapon, a bow. As she turned to leave, Amid puffed up her cheeks, threw aside her staff, grabbed hold of the girl's canine tail, and pulled with all her might. "Eeep?!" "Look at how your tail is shaking!" she said. "I might be a scaredy-cat, but you're just a scaredy-dog!" "Sh-shut up! I'll have Lord Miach to protect me out there! He'll save me from all the bad guys, and then love will bloom on the battlefield…" "L-love?!" "It doesn't matter how grown-up you act; Lord Miach will never love you!" "Y-yes, he will!" "And besides, I've seen you making eyes at him. Stick to your own familia, you floozy!" "Sh-shut up!" "Girls! This is hardly the time or the place!" ""L-Lord Miach!"" There to break up the catfighting was the very god they were discussing. At his rebuke, the girls turned red-faced. Ignoring them, Miach turned and shouted. "Dian! We're heading over to Central Park! I'll leave things here in your capable hands!" "What, and let you steal all the glory?" snapped the white-haired old man. "If you're going, then so are we!" "Please, must we always quarrel like this?" Miach sighed. The rivalry between their two factions was no less strong between the two gods than it was between their respective disciples. "One of us must stay back to provide healing on the northwestern front! You must understand, Dian, this is no time for petty squabbles!" "Nrgh! You have a point…Very well, but you better pull your weight over there, you hear?" "Right back at you, my fellow. Come, Slane, my captain. Let's go." "Yes, Lord Miach!" Miach departed southward alongside an armed escort, leaving the two quarreling girls to hang their heads in shame. The fires of war were burning in all quarters of the city. Only the gods in heaven and the birds above could see the true scale of the invasion. Crimson streaks erupted in the streets, igniting the buildings. It was like a fiery cauldron, enclosed on all sides by steep walls of stone, ready to drag all within it down to the deepest pits of hell. Meanwhile, atop a tall belfry, a catgirl assassin surveyed the inferno. Her feline tail swayed softly from side to side, before suddenly pricking up. "…Orario is freakin' wild, meow." Meanwhile, on a rooftop, a human girl bounty hunter peeked at the inferno while fending off her Evils attackers. She restlessly clenched and unclenched her bloodstained fists. "…Man, Orario is crazy." These two girls had coincidentally and independently arrived in the same city at the same time, on the same terrible day. Each of them cursed their own rotten luck. ""I guess I'll stay out of the war business for a while."" Each of them came to the same conclusion. To look out for number one. Amid all the buildings of the city was one that stood undamaged despite the lack of adventurers guarding it. It was a tavern called The Benevolent Mistress over on East Main Street. "Unruly customers, get lost!!" "Guooogh?!" The proprietress, a stockily built dwarf woman named Mia Grand, flattened the intruders with a single punch. "Harrumph!" she snorted. "What a feckless lot, running about like they own the place." She looked around. The streets outside her bar were ablaze and littered with piles of rubble and upturned carts. Behind her, the tavern was conspicuously untouched, and Mia's animal person staff hurried to and fro, trying to keep the flames from spreading to it. "…We can't hold out forever," she grumbled. "Guess it's time to cut our losses and head on over to Central Park." The bar was sheltering a few dozen people who hadn't been able to make it to the evacuation points in time. They were all exhausted, and covered in soot, and relied on Mia's strong arm to see them through the crisis. Mia was happy to help, but she had been an adventurer once upon a time, and her old instincts told her there wasn't much sense in prolonging the siege any further. "We're sitting ducks out here," she muttered to herself. "And I got a feeling something nasty's about to happen." Mia took one last look at the bar. If any of them mess this place up, I'll make them wish their mothers never squeezed them out. Then she quickly set about leading the civilians to safety. The heaviest Evils losses in the battle so far had been suffered by those who had foolishly attempted to attack this place unprepared. Maybe I just have rotten luck, the girl thought. It always seemed to go this way. She had no parents, no friends, no guardians. The only person looking out for her was herself, and everywhere she went, people tried to take advantage of her. And now it was starker than ever, the difference between her and those upon whom fortune smiled. They would stumble across powerful adventurers or find somebody foolish enough to stand up for the weak in a time of war. That was all it took in these times for a nobody to change their fate. Evil had taken over the minds of the people. How else could you explain all the fire and death? They let darkness into their hearts and preyed on the weak. Evil gods whispered into their ears, telling them it was the only way to make the old order fall. "Diiiiiiiie!" "Ah…" So when the young prum stared up from the gutter, seconds from meeting her end at the tip of a blood-soaked blade, she realized she was just unlucky. Or perhaps not. "Get the hell away from her!!" "Gaaaaagh?!" A figure appeared, but it was all so fast that the prum girl had trouble figuring out what had just happened. All she heard at first was the werewolf's furious voice. And then, slowly, she realized that the Evils soldier before her had just been mercilessly slaughtered. "Pick on someone your own size, you assholes. When are you gonna stop pissin' me off?" "Calm down, Bete!" came a second voice. "We've just received more orders from Braver! He says we need to make sure the citizens get away safely!" "I know!" The girl's eardrums had been numbed by the explosions, and she could barely make out a word. But she could see his face, and the blue, fang-shaped tattoo that ran down his cheek. "Selenia! Take this prum and get her to Central Park!" He turned and issued some kind of order to his vice-captain, before running off with the rest of his squad. The brown-haired human girl stopped and offered her hand. "Are you okay? Can you stand?" The prum nodded, more or less understanding the question without hearing it. "What's your name?" the girl asked. "You look like a supporter…Are you with a familia?" The prum nodded again. The girl's warm and comforting smile seemed genuine. "Lilly…" she said. "Soma Familia…" She took the girl's hand and stood up but soon fell right over again. The girl giggled and lifted her up. She had terrible luck. But even a losing streak couldn't last forever. So, drowsy from the effects of the divine wine and unable to separate dream from reality, Lilliluka Erde fell asleep in her savior's arms. "Wait! I'm not an enemy, I'm with Vidar Familia! My name's Selenia, and I'm bringing these civilians to safety!" Selenia marched through the barricades, another rescued group of townsfolk in tow. By now, the area around Babel was teeming with people, and one Evils spy chuckled to himself at the sight. He had disguised himself as one of the citizens and made his way inside the barricades at Central Park, just as Freya and Finn had suggested might happen. And he wasn't the only one. Their primary objective was to assassinate Freya. Their secondary objective was to strike a devastating blow to the enemy camp. Of course, without the help of their god, they stood little chance of harming their divine foe, but the inferno stones concealed within their pockets would give them the edge over any adventurer who might get in their way. The man had sworn an oath to evil, and soon, the time to fulfill that oath would arrive. "Excuse me. Do you mind if I stand here?" "O-of course not! Go right ahead." A new batch of rescuers had just arrived, it seemed. The man, dressed to appear as bedraggled as the rest of them, shuffled over to make some room. The newcomer appeared to be a young woman. Even the hood couldn't hide what a beauty she was. She smelled nice, nicer than anyone on the battlefield ought to smell. Her pale gray eyes, the same color as her hair, turned on the man standing beside her. "So," she said. "Where might your friends be hiding?" As soon as the man caught sight of that silver glimmer, his heart was hers. With hollow eyes, he began speaking, answering the woman's question as though it had far higher priority than his initial orders. "…There are three on the eastern side," he said. "Five to the north. Our god is waiting in the west…" "Quiet," the girl said. "Do not look this way. Let no one hear of what we speak." "I understand…" The man continued so softly that their conversation disappeared beneath the clamor of the crowd. The young woman was silent as the man divulged his secrets to her. Eventually, once she heard all she needed to know, she left without another word, leaving the man by himself. She walked back over to a group of men and women standing nearby—adventurers and healers disguised as commonfolk. "You've become quite adept at using your charms to command others, Lady Syr," said one, a young girl with pink hair tied up in bunches. "Thank you, Heith. However, he wasn't an easy man to find. It was only by borrowing our Lady's insight that I was able to track him down." The girl named Syr turned and looked toward the uppermost floor of Babel, far out of sight, almost as though sharing a telepathic moment with the goddess standing by its window. A second later, she felt the hard strike of a cane on her back. "Ouch! What was that for?!" "…Pray, share with us the information you gleaned, Lady Syr." Syr looked back and met Heith's jealous eye. Her tone was calm, but it wasn't hard to discern the envy she felt toward the girl's special connection. Syr glared daggers back, then quickly adopted a more diplomatic expression. "I have written it all down here," she said, producing a scrap of paper. "Excellent," replied Heith, taking the note and handing it to the other adventurers. "Now we shall be able to stop those would-be killers before they can get their grubby paws on our Lady Freya." Those of Freya Familia were not just followers of their goddess; they worshipped her with heart and soul. The only oath they swore was to protect their lady at all costs, and no hell was too hot for those foolish enough to threaten her. Now these assassins' fates were sealed, and soon they would all be buried in unmarked graves. "I'd like to capture them alive if at all possible…" said Heith. "Do you think you could charm the other spies, as well?" "The followers, I can. But not the god," replied Syr. "A mere vessel like me cannot hope to command such power." "Figures," sighed Heith. "We'll have to leave them to Loki Familia, then. At least we can handle the rest for them." She glanced over her shoulder. "After all, it sounds like they've got a lot more on their plate than we do." Finn was burdened with an almost unmanageable torrent of reports, not only from dedicated messengers but also from adventurers escaping the scenes of carnage happening all over the city. However, with his keen mind, he took it all in stride, analyzing the information and delivering his orders. "Major enemy movement to the south! Send the Berbera and Captain Tsubaki to reinforce! Focus all efforts on the southern and southwestern districts! Tell Vidar Familia to help make up the numbers!" From time to time, Loki would chime in with some welcome piece of news that even Finn had missed. "Gettin' reports that Vidar Familia's werewolf is kickin' ass out there! I think we can let 'em keep skirmishing to disorientate the enemy!" Reminding himself how grateful he was to have her help at a time like this, Finn focused on the battle map in his mind. To the north were situated the forces of Freya Familia, and the workshops and forges of Hephaistos Familia. Between them, other powerful familias filled in the gaps, sometimes taking orders and sometimes acting on their own initiative. The many factions of Orario were working to put aside their differences and come together, repelling the invaders in order to bring peace to their city. Finn bit his thumb. He could already see the war was reaching a stalemate. We've taken great losses, he thought, but we can still recuperate, if we focus on deploying our first-tier adventurers in critical locations. This was Finn's strategy. It stemmed from neither an overestimation of his side's abilities, nor an underestimation of his foes. He knew exactly how formidable the familias of Orario could be if they worked together for once. This is Orario. If everyone gets pulled into the war on the same side, there's no force in this world that can stand against them. Surely the Evils are aware of that. Their motives were inscrutable. Finn could understand their aims in the beginning. The suicide bombings had been unconscionable, but at least they'd ground the city to a halt. What reason did the Evils have to stay on the streets, massacring the townsfolk out in the open? Surely, they must have known that the longer they stayed, the more the tide would turn against them. Finn and some of his fellow commanders had even worked out reliable countermeasures against the bombs already. Adventurers would always adapt. Finn knew Valletta was aware of that, and he also knew that she never played a game intending to lose. They had something up their sleeve. It was all but certain. That feeling in my thumb keeps getting stronger. What are they planning? What do they have?! Finn looked to the south, just as Raul ran breathlessly over, bearing a message. "C-Captain! It's the adventurers in the southwest! They've all been wiped out!" Everyone in earshot turned and gasped. "Valletta…" growled Finn. Raul's whole face trembled. It took Finn a moment to realize he was shaking his head. "No, sir…" Twitching with fear, the boy relayed what he had seen and heard—the message his fellow adventurers had given their lives for. "It was just two people…A man armed with a greatsword…and a female magic user!" Finn's thumb was screaming at him. His sky-blue eyes flared wide. For several seconds, he didn't so much as breathe.

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