Episode 35 — Saying Goodbye Is to Die a Little
～ Part 1 ～
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“Akeno!!”
As soon as he came back to the old castle, Suou approached Akeno. Akeno who was making adjustment to the magical beast raised her face and looked back.
“Suou? That was quick. What happened to that bunch?”
“They escaped. That bunch was onboard a land warship. May be there is a gremlin who has reached Phase 2.”
“Is that why you cautiously return?”
“No, I came back because I have a bad premonition.”
Right after saying that, Suou grabbed the collars of Akeno’s sister clothing.
“You, you killed that gryphon. What’s the meaning of this?”
Veins popped out on Suou’s forehead. His handsome face distorted into one of brutality, and his fangs were bared in intimidation.
The strength of Suou who was a Knight and Akeno who was a Bishop was almost equal. But in overall, Akeno was slightly stronger. A Knight cannot use . Therefore, she could shake him off if she wanted to, she could try to fight back if she wanted to. But Akeno did not. She was puzzled.
“Mu, no. I messed up a little. I’m sorry for arbitrarily doing things, but even if you look at his Phase 2 ability, in the future…”
“Do not say that kind of things!”
It was normal for Suou to be exasperated and shouting.
But he had almost never truly showed anger to this degree. Akeno shrugged.
“It’s fine? Even though it was also my fault for not saying it strongly enough. Once you kill, the 『negotiating』 card cannot be used anymore! What do you think would happen if you go and meet the remaining bunch!? Since the Queen has betrayed us, we can no longer take the leisurely attitude. Be more serious!”
Against Suou’s menacing look, Akeno frantically nodded her head.
Clicking his tongue, Suou finally released his hands. Akeno straightened out the wrinkle clothes at her chest.
“No, since I more or less did use an overbearing attitude against Utsurogi, I’m in no position to say such self-important things. My bad.”
“Y–yea…”
Suou roughly scratched his head. As he had said, the Queen’s betrayal was definite. However, from what he could see in the exchange at the church earlier, that bunch had yet to hear the circumstance around this time mass trip from the Queen. Suou might have planned on explaining the circumstances with Kogane’s mediation and establishing a mean for re-negotiation.
“Is–is it that bad…?”
“Considerable. Since it was Utsurogi, I was thinking that we could manage it somehow with Kogane standing in between even if we use a somewhat forceful method, but as one would expect, it is already hopeless once you kill one of them. Seriously! You! Even the time in the former world! Seriously…!”
The thing called human heart, Akeno completely didn’t understand. But only this time, she knew that Suou was seriously exposing his anger and irritation, so she became obedient.
“What should I tell Kogane…”
“I haven’t told him yet. Because there is the possibility of estrangement as expected?”
“You cannot tell him in the first place.”
Suou spat out his words. Seeing that his anger had yet to be abated, Akeno shrunk herself.
“Do not tell Kogane about the matter of the gryphon yet. It’s bad for him but we’ll hide it. I will decide how to move against that bunch after thinking about it some more.”
Forcibly carrying it out, or establishing a mean of negotiation somehow. When it came to that talk, there was no room for Akeno to intervene.
In the case of forcibly capturing them, it was dangerous to get into their base. Until now, the betrayal of the Queen hadn’t been confirmed, so they sent the Pawns in to see the situation. But now, if they tried to take a forceful method in front of the Queen, it might very well develop in to a battle with the Queen herself.
Queen and Rook are . If they were to display even half of the power in their possession, the King would sense it immediately. That seemed to be one of the reason why the traitorous Queen didn’t lead the monster army to attack this place, but as expected, that wouldn’t hold if they tried to attack them with force.
Let’s have some of the Pawns remaining in the castle head to the King. The King will know of the Queen’s betrayal soon. After that, we will deal with the matters regarding that bunch again, until then, we have no choice but to act according to the previous order.
“Let’s have the Pawn monitor that bunch for now. In case of the possibility of them acting independently, we will surround those guys and bring them back. Good? As a general rule, no killing.”
“I, I know.”
“Really?”
The look in Suou’s eyes wasn’t very clear, he was still somewhat skeptical.
“So then, where is that bunch heading to now?”
“They’re proceeding toward here straight through the valley. They’ll come here in any case.”
“However, they need to get out of the «Hydra Valley» before that.”
Suou nodded to Akeno’s words.
The Hydra Valley. Hundreds of years ago, the Demon King terrorizing this world released a giant multi-headed monster in order to destroy the nearby countries. Even now, it had settled in the valley, crawling around as if it owned the place. It wasn’t something that could be subjugated with just a few Pawns, but since it was useful as a watchdog substitute, it was left as is.
“What will you do? As expected, everything would come to nothing if that bunch gets eaten by the hydra.”
“I don’t like to take this kind of hand too much, but well, let’s leave them alone for a while. Nevertheless, I’m increasing the number Pawns for surveillance.”
Suou scratched his head.
“Since they’re upset that one of their friends has died, when seeing something that enormous, they won’t be able to stand out of fear. We’re going to help when the foundation of that bunch’s cooperation starts shaking, well, some of them will drift over to this side, perhaps.”
“Which reminds me, we didn’t find that reincarnated ogre in the end.”
“Ah—, that’s right. Seriously, it’s a heap of troubles…”
Washio Kouta has died. When that fact was told to the students gathered on the deck, they froze up for an instant.
As soon as receiving Kyousuke and Rin who came back, the heavy cruiser branch school took off. It was because there was a possibility of being pursued if they were to stay there. They didn’t neglect being careful of their surroundings, but they proceed forward into the valley at the maximum allowable speed of the ship.
On the deck, unrest gradually welled up and spread, then it became a commotion. In some way, they couldn’t keep up with this reality, and what came to them first wasn’t shock and grief but rather confusion.
“Is, is that … true…?”
Kensaki Megumi the Dullahan timidly raised her hand and asked. Ryuzaki nodded.
“This is something I heard from Rin but it’s true. That’s why we took off without waiting for Washio’s return. In the middle of escaping from the red winged devils who attacked Nekomiya group, he was chased, and killed.”
Some students who were informed beforehand hung their heads, trembling. Finally, Washio’s death began to spread as a real feeling among them.
“What, what kind of things…!”
Hakuba the Unicorn, who was always hanging out with Washio, squeezed out his voice.
“Why are you so calm…. How, why Washio…”
“The reason why Washio passed away is because of my decisions.”
Ryuzaki looked around at everyone in the class and clearly said so.
“If I didn’t say that all members of our class should leave the kingdom, if I didn’t say that we should stopped there and explore, Washio wouldn’t have died. I admit it. However, I don’t plan on stepping down from the leader position because of Washio’s death like the time when the Wight King attacked the base.”
Ryuzaki was looked at with various feelings from his classmates. Resentment, sorrow, grief, distrust and fear.
The feelings of roughly all 30 of his classmates, Ryuzaki took it head on.
He could get off here, he could also escape. However, Ryuzaki didn’t have any intention to escape to a corner of the dining room like last time. There would be students who shook in fear because of Washio’s death. Rather, there was no mistake that was the majority. Without thinking deeply, they left behind the supposedly safety of the kingdom, and one of their friends had died as a result. There would be students who was going to regret this choice.
The question whether the kingdom was truly safe or not was meaningless here. They themselves had made a choice and Washio had died as a result. The next one to die might very well be themselves. Such atmosphere was spreading in this place.
That was why Ryuzaki didn’t plan on stepping down from the leader position. If the class was to fall apart here, the number of victim would increase even more. If they lost their spirit of cooperation and scattered in this mountain, what would happened as the result was clear as day.
“I won’t make excuses. Blame me if you want to. But everyone must not fall apart here. Don’t you think so?”
Without putting his emotion into his words as much as possible, Ryuzaki uninterestedly said so. That’s right, if me alone taking responsibility for this can keep the cooperation of the class, then it’s good enough. Washio is dead, it’s sad, it’s terrifying, but we shouldn’t be doing things such as being swept away by that temporary emotion or losing sight of what we should do right now.
“Of course, I also do not intend to turn back the ship here.”
“Ryuzaki, you…!”
Anger and sorrow welled up in Hakuba’s voice.
“Tomorrow, we will hold a funeral for Washio. Until then, each person please carry out the duties assigned to you properly. That’s all.”
“Ah, Ryuzaki-kun…”
Ryuzaki turned his back at everyone in the class and left with a quick pace. Sakuma called out to him from behind but he couldn’t stop. As the commotion of the students gathered on the deck was becoming bigger, he could hear Sakuma’s voice trying to put them in order again.
I’m pathetic. I said that much so self-importantly and left it to others in the end.
Like that, Ryuzaki opened the door of the captain room and secluded himself inside. As the inside of the heavy cruiser branch school warship profusely shook, the room was by no means comfortable. As soon as he closed the door, Ryuzaki rested his back on that door, then he slowly slid down onto the floor. Holding his head in both hands, he hung his head.
Washio Kouta has die. He was a frivolous guy ever since the time they were still humans, his joke wasn’t very interesting, he used to look at the expression of others, used to follow along behind others, his favorites phrases was to grumble about work, 2nd favorite phrase was to say that he just wanted a girlfriend. That Washio Kouta, had died.
He worked harder than anyone else even though he was just an alternate for the basket ball club, when he unexpectedly came out in a championship match, purely decided by chance, he lead the team to victory in the Three-Point Shootout. That Washio Kouta, had died. When praising him for his everyday effort while treating him to hamburger on the way home after watching the game, he had awkwardly bragged 『That’s because I want to be popular with girls』. That Washio Kouta, had died.
Ryuzaki’s eyes were hot. He started sobbing, he couldn’t stop his tears from overflowing out. Inside his head was a complete mess, he didn’t know what he should think about anymore.
“Soorryy…. Washio…, I’m sorry…!”
Now, while thinking of his classmate who wouldn’t come back anymore, Ryuzaki Kunihiro did nothing but shed tears in lamentation.
To be continued…
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