And then there was one. Since this chapter is more like Chapter 10.2, let"s just jump right in! A mini-warning though, this is no where near as happy, fairy tale-y as the anime version of events. But if you"ve gotten this far, I think you might have already guessed that~
Chapter 11
“s.h.i.+buya, no!”
“Your Majesty?”
An unbearable scream pa.s.ses my throat.
I press my hands to my ears and fall down with my eyes wide open. I writhe around in the dirt and the dust sticks to my damp clothes. My head is splitting in two, my eardrums are bursting and my eyes are burning! I open my mouth as far as it can go to get some oxygen, but I can’t breathe because of the screams being forced out of me.
“What’s wrong!? Captain, what’s wrong!?”
I throw Flynn off as she tries to grab hold of me. Even after Josak grabs my arms from behind, I still kick around in the air with my legs. Let go it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts it hurts so much it feels like my head is going to explode!
“s.h.i.+buya, calm down, calm down. You"re in pain because you’re trying to use magic. You have to control yourself. You can do it, right? Slowly calm your anger; put away your sword of justice. See? You can breathe normally. You can hear properly and you aren’t burned anywhere.”
Murata’s fingers that likely spend most of their time typing on a keyboard touch my feverish cheek. Tears are coming to my eyes from the pain and my difficulty breathing.
“You can’t use magic here. There isn’t anything that obeys the demons here under normal circ.u.mstances, but now those monks lined up over there are casting a s.h.i.+eld over this place.”
“… ugh.”
“Kind of like the baseball domes you like… why are you laughing and crying at the same time?”
“… You… said… sword of justice…”
“Well don’t you like dispensing justice, s.h.i.+buya?”
“Murata, you… who are you really?”
“What are you talking about? We were in the same cla.s.s in second and third year in middle school weren’t we?”
I can finally breathe normally. I doubt I can stand by myself, but I’ve got enough strength to wipe away my drool. My head still hurts like it’s split open.
“… s.h.i.+t, it hurts… hey, that thing Cropped Pony is holding…”
“Hm?” Murata lifted his gaze.
I glare at the blurry image of Maxine. However, he’s not going to deal with a trivial thing who was writhing around on the ground from using a tiny bit of magic.
“… That’s Conrad’s arm.”
The blood was still rus.h.i.+ng up to my brain and I lifted my chin and gulped for air like a dying koi fish. Breathe. You need to breathe.
“What did you say!? What’s going on back home!? What do you mean that’s my commander’s arm!? You sure you’re not mistaken…”
Josak peers at me from behind. I want to give him a proper answer, but I don’t have the ability.
“I’m not mistaken… It’s Conrad’s arm. There’s no way I’d ever mistake it for someone else’s. That arm has protected me so many times. That arm has…”
“Wait, by Conrad do you mean Lord Conrart Weller? That’s Dunheely Weller’s son right? Why is that person’s arm here!? That key should have been put under Big s.h.i.+maron’s control by their archers with the Wincott poison,” Flynn asks.
“The one who got shot was Günter, not Conrad… Then out of the three of us, that arrow was meant for Conrad! But…”
“No… There’s no point if his arm was cut off… I can’t believe it…” Flynn murmurs to herself.
While we were talking, Maxine and the young s.h.i.+maron soldier lifted the lid to the rotted wooden box. I don’t know what it looks like inside, but nothing came leaking out.
“Stop! That’s not the key to that box!” Flynn yelled.
“What did you say?”
“"A certain man’s left arm’ is the key to The End of the Wind! I’ve heard that the key to The End of the Land is the left eyeball of a certain bloodline. If you open the box with a different key, no one will be able to stop its rampage!”
“Do you think Lord Saralegi didn’t test it? That left eye was already tested in Svelera. However, all that happened was that the man’s face was burned and nothing changed. In other words, the key to this box is not the left eye. Then all we need to do is test out this key before Big s.h.i.+maron can.”
Murata yells out and starts running.
“Stop! If you carelessly let him loose it can’t be undone! It won’t end with just these humans here dying, the entire country – the entire continent will be ravaged by that box! If the continent falls into chaos, the entire world will be affected! That’s not something that humans can control! Only those who have the key in their bodies can seal The Originator again!”
“Hmph, are you the aide of that demon with his magic sealed? I only follow Lord Saralegi’s orders. No one knows what will happen… In any case…”
The color of the clothes, the shape of the elbow, it was definitely Conrad’s arm. I remember that arm along with a baseball glove. I remember how that arm bent as it caught a ball in front of his chest.
Maxine lays the ‘key’ in the ‘box’ and carefully positions the soldier. Since Conrad’s burned arm is still inside he hasn’t strictly ‘opened’ the box with the key but perhaps inserted it somewhere inside?
“… If the entire world is thrown into chaos, there would be nothing more joyous.”
At the sound of a metallic clank like a lock falling, Flynn collapsed to her knees.
“That key… is wrong…”
“There’s no time to sit around!”
Murata grabs her arm and yells out to Josak and me.
“Hurry! We need to get somewhere where the ground is even a little bit solider! It might be too late though.”
T-Zou turns her face to the south and the hair on her nose stands on end. I felt faint tremors from far away and just like that, they’re right below my feet. I heard the scream from an older woman amongst the spectators outside the fences.
That was the beginning of the nightmare.
The screams multiplied immediately and everyone ran about in random directions trying to escape.
Running directly from the south to the north, fissures and projections appeared in the ground randomly. The barrier that the exorcists erected is useless. The fissures immediately appeared inside the fences. It took all we had to run around and avoid falling into the fissures with the level 5 tremors under our feet.
“Murata! Flynn!”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I didn’t even have time to figure out what was going on.
I desperately called after the other two as Josak helped me along. The sheep had more jumping power than humans and she had already glued herself to my side. For every large fissure that opens up, several people are sucked into the cracks. It doesn’t matter whether they’re soldiers or prisoners. The same thing goes for the spectators.
“Murata!” I grab the collar of my friend who jumped over and shook him even harder than the tremors. “I don’t have time to ask who you really are, but we need to stop this earthquake! We have to save as many as we can! You know what needs to be done, don’t you!? You know how to stop this, right!?”
“… Unfortunately, even I don’t know.”
No way.
“If it was just an earthquake caused by an exorcist it would stop if you killed him, but this is the punishment for opening the box. The Originator of the Land that was sealed in The End of the Land is running around at will.”
“But there must be a way.”
“If the proper person who had the proper key opened the box in the proper manner… we might have been able to control the contents of the box… it’s really only a ‘might have’ though.”
“So then we just watch this happen!?”
Murata just says my name with a troubled voice.
“Do we just sit on our hands until everyone is gone!?”
“There’s nothing we can do. We have to let it run its course. If we’re lucky, it’ll get bored of this place and move on. If we’re lucky, it’ll get bored of rampaging and calm down like a dormant volcano. But this destruction will probably go on for near-forever. If that happens, this continent is lost.”
Small cracks formed under our feet. We withdraw to a less damaged area. Everyone is trying to escape to the safe area so the s.p.a.ce quickly fills up.
“… There must be something we can do. We don’t have to stop it completely; we just need to keep the casualties to a minimum…”
On my left, Flynn sucks in a breath and runs out into the dangerous area. There are four or five children left behind in a shaky spot that looks like it will crumble any second. I try and follow after her, but Josak grabs my shoulder.
“Not you, Your Majesty.”
“Why?! Are you going to go on about how I’m the king again!? Do you think that Flynn can save them by herself!? No one else is going to help her!”
“I’m going to help her so Your Majesty and Your Highness should stay where it’s safe! If not, those three brothers will kill me.”
Murata and I are left behind with the others as he jumps over several fissures with his long legs and moves towards her and the children. He carries one at each side and turns his back on the last one. Flynn takes the hands of the two older children and tries to ease them forward while calming their tears.
At that moment, a huge tremor came.
No one was able to remain standing and we all crouched on the ground.
“Watch out!”
Josak withstood the tremor more or less, but Flynn fell while holding onto the two children. A fissure was running along the ground behind her. Trying to get to her, I leap twice over small fissures. As I’m about to put my all into one more leap, I meet her gaze as she remains unable to stand.
Stop.
What do you mean, stop?
Flynn turns to me once again and wordlessly says not to come. Her light green eyes narrow and she slightly shakes her head. Behind her, an earthen wave rises and the dry ground bursts.
“Flynn!”
I’m a.s.saulted by the pain from before. I’m brought to my hands and knees and I hold on to the sharp pain threatening to make me lose consciousness. I can’t just let this pain go away. If I let it go I can’t save her.
“s.h.i.+buya, strong magic in human lands is impossible and there are even a bunch of exorcists around.”
“Leave me alone!” I complain childishly without meaning to. The other evacuees step away from me, startled. Murata is lightly rubbing my back. I really feel like I’m going to throw up.
“It’s too dangerous. People have died trying to do that. I can’t allow you to-”
“What do you mean ‘allow me!?’”
His hand stops moving right on the center of my back.
“What do you mean, ‘allow me?’ I don’t even know who you are and you’re talking about giving me permission to do things!? If I can’t use it when I want to… If I can’t use it in times like these, there’s no point in having this power!”
“… What are you going to do?”
“I can’t say for sure, but I’ll definitely make it better than it is now.”
I heard a long, resigned sigh. This wasn’t like his cheerful self. But, his voice quickly gains some resolve and he grabs my shoulders.
“You’re not going to regret whatever happens to you?”
“No.”
“… Okay. Then do what you want. I’ll watch over whatever you do.”
Flynn and the children are only half above ground now and are only a tiny tremor away from disappearing beneath the earth. There are several other people also about to fall. Several hundred are falling to the very bottom. (1)
There’s another tremor like the first one coming from the south.
I have to hurry. As it is now, many of the people left behind on the rocks and hanging from the edges of the fissures will all fall straight into h.e.l.l with this tremor.
My emotions are so worked up that I wouldn’t mind falling into that trance state, but the voice that’s been guiding me isn’t saying a single word to me today. Keeping myself aware of Murata’s hands on my shoulders, I calmly question myself.
Think. Who do I want to save me?
Or, who do I want to save?
It’s not like I want to borrow someone’s power. I should be able to control it myself.
The overwhelming, sharp pain makes me think I’m really going to throw up this time, but there’s nothing in my stomach.
Deep within my ears, I hear the sound of what I called forth. It’s coming from below the surface with great speed. The water that smashes rock and splits the earth and fills every little gap has come closer.
Get over your fear and resignation.
Believe and make an effort.
Suddenly, my consciousness fades and my body sinks deep, deep down as if I’m falling asleep.
----
(1) Linguistic note! The word for ‘the very bottom’ used here (‘naraku’) can also mean h.e.l.l. It gives the impression that these people aren’t just falling, but they’re very definitely dying as well.
The clear blue water wells up at an unbelievable speed and catches the people about to fall into the fissures.
Flynn and the children fell into the water, but they somehow washed up on the ground on the other side. It’s wider and safer than the other surfaces and if they hop over two or three cracks, they can make it to the road leading into town.
Many humans fall into the flow and end up slowly drifting in the new river. The one saving grace was that the flow was gentle. If they have enough strength to stay afloat, they’ll eventually get to a sh.o.r.e somewhere.
However, the next large tremor that comes doesn’t let the water in that’s been acting as a cus.h.i.+on and creates another huge creva.s.se.
Three seconds earlier it was only a centimeter wide crack, but in the next moment the two sides push together and rise up and turn into a sort of ravine with gigantic cliffs.
My utterly exhausted and heavy body suddenly lightens for a brief moment.
Before the thought of ‘I’m falling!?’ even enters my mind, my arms instinctively reach out to grab hold of the edge of the cliff. My friend who was rubbing my back next to me isn’t there anymore.
“Murata!?”
The aftershocks show no sign of dying down and the irregular and intense tremors are jeopardizing the humans who are trying to jump over fissures. They can swim across the fissures that are filled with water, but they have to either jump over or walk along the newly formed ones. The people hanging off of ledges are struggling to climb up, but the tremors are preventing them from doing so as if on purpose.
“Murata! Where are you!? d.a.m.n it! My right hand is tingling… Don’t tell me you fell. Give me a break, please… Mura-”
“Your Majesty! Young Master!” Josak’s voice comes from the other side of the cliff. With the fingers on both of my hands tingly and numb, I turn my head to see Josak pulling up Murata from the edge of the cliff on the fairly distant other side. That’s a relief. At least he avoided cras.h.i.+ng down into the abyss.
In any case, this is one h.e.l.l of a creva.s.se that formed here. It’s got to be at least 20 meters wide.
“Your Majesty! I’m gonna get over there as soon as possible so hold on until then.”
Before I could ask how, an aftershock makes my fingers go even number. Josak let out a shout.
“It’s okay. I’m alright. Hey, I have a favor to ask you.”
“What’s that?”
His orange hair is disheveled and he’s struggling to cross over to my side. It’s impossible. It’s too far even with a running jump and there’s no footholds in between to cross with multiple jumps.
“I’ll take care of myself somehow so take Murata somewhere safe. Take Murata and Flynn back to The Great Demon Kingdom and treat them like guests until I come back.”
Murata is an amateur who knows nothing about this world and still thinks that this is on Earth and the only one who can protect him is me… is how it was supposed to be. The circ.u.mstances have changed a bit, but as the one who brought him here on a Star Tours it’s my responsibility to get him home unharmed.
“I can’t leave Your Majesty behind!”
“Please, Josak. I’m begging you! There’s no one else I can ask.”
“Well of course His Highness is important too! But still!”
I don’t even have enough strength left to talk much less ask what’s important about him. With the next small tremor, I’ll definitely fall. I have no feeling left in my fingers at all and after losing focus for a split second, my left hand slips off. My one arm holding on becomes three fingers, two fingers, and lastly my middle finger…
My awareness comes back with a shock like my shoulder is being dislocated.
Pale fingers and a sleeve in a familiar color were solidly grasping my right wrist.
“I finally caught you.”
“… Wolf… why are you here..?”
Lord Wolfram von Bielefelt gives a bitter laugh as his beautiful face twists into a grimace. For a moment, I see traces of his eldest brother and despite the state of emergency I’m in, I feel a sense of admiration.
“You’re a flirt and a cheat so I secretly stuck a transmitter on you so I can chase after you anywhere in the world. Hey, it’s no good with just one hand. Grab on with both of them.”
“But with your weight… you won’t be able to pull me up. If things go wrong, you might even-!”
“If that happens…”
Wolfram grabs a hold of my sweaty wrist with both hands as it starts to slip and gives me a stern and manly smile.
“I’ll fall with you.”
Something must have happened while I was away because this is the first time I’ve seen such an expression on his face.
“Trust me.”
Overpowered by his confidence, I swing my dangling left arm overhead. The Pretty Boy, who used to be a delicate and high-strung little yippy puppy, pulled me up with all his strength a little overenthusiastically and he ended up falling on his back and pulling me down with him. When I panicked and tried to get off of him, a part of my sleeve or something caught against his cheek and left a small sc.r.a.pe.
“Wolf, you’re bleeding… I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize. It’s to be expected,” he says rapidly and then looks around impatiently. “It would have been nice if Gisela had come to this side. Unfortunately we’ve been separated. Anyway Yuuri! What were you doing and where!? It’s inexcusable to leave me, your fiancé, behind and go off on some journey without thinking about anyone else! And on top of that, you couldn’t even pull yourself up as you’re about to fall off a cliff… This weakness is unfit for the Demon King. This is why I call you a wimp… Yuuri?”
Didn’t I endure it until now?
“What’s wrong?”
Even when night came, when I was alone, when I met Josak, didn’t I endure it until now? Then why can’t I bear it anymore? It’s only been a few dozen seconds since we met again.
“Wolf… Conrad is…”
“I know.”
I must look really miserable. He’s not even getting mad that I’m talking about the brother he doesn’t like and he’s put an arm around my shoulders.
“It’s okay if you cry. I was a little distraught as well.”
“He’s not dead. He’s definitely not dead, but…”
But he’s not here or anywhere. Lord Weller isn’t coming back.
“You can cry as much as you want. Gurrier, Gisela and I are all here. You can cry as much as you want any time now.”
“… d.a.m.n it!”
I force myself to pull away and show him my injury from getting caught on a jagged rock.
“Look at this, you can see the flesh… It’s bleeding so much… And then this is where you grabbed me and pulled me up. It’s all swollen and hot. I might have sprained my wrist. Worst case, it might even be broken. What do I do? d.a.m.n… it hurts… it really hurts. It’s so ridiculously painful there are tears in my eyes… How stupid am I?”
“You’re not stupid. The foolish one is Conrart.”
Why are you only saying things like that to me? Things that just make me hurt even more.
Things that just make me want to cry out and sob.
“But even if you know it’s foolish, there are times you have to do it anyway. Even you’re like that, right? You’ve always done things like that.”
“Well sorry for being a fool.”
A man that looked like a companion of Wolfram’s comes running forward while stumbling. I recognize that closely shaven head. It’s Günter’s subordinate Dacascos.
“Your Majesty! Ah what a relief that Your Excellency is safe too!”
“How far is the damage?”
When Wolfram asked in my place, Dacascos wiped the sweat off of his forehead with his sleeve as he stood there out of breath.
“… It’s really horrible. They’re saying that there are fissures cutting across the continent… and that the epicenter was near the southern tip of Caloria so it seems that the port town of Gilbit is completely destroyed.”
“Caloria!? The port town of Gilbit!?”
Dacascos nodded with pity.
“According to the Flying Skeleton Tribe, chaos is inevitable with their leader absent. I don’t know the exact reason, but it seems like it’s going to be very severe.”
The port town of Gilbit in the autonomous territory of Caloria is where the elderly haul cargo during the day and at night they wait for the return of their children and grandchildren who were stolen for the military. The people of Caloria truly despise war so they bear discontent and anxiety in their heart regarding their suzerain state and are hoping that the feudal lord Norman Gilbit will make the proper decisions. They believe that he will guide them to their hopes.
However they don’t know that Norman has died and the successor Flynn has been emotionally destroyed and won’t cry out for the people who have been hurt.
I will strength into my knees and stand next to Wolfram.
“… If they have a mask, can anyone become king…?”
“No. The only ones who can be a king are those who have the talent for it.”
Even though he doesn’t know what’s going on, Wolfram is searching for the words I want to hear.
“That’s something that you possess.”
I’m the only one left who can wear the mask of Norman Gilbit.
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OMG! I MADE IT! I feel like this one took FOREVER. Actually, no. I know it took forever XD ANYWAY, if you"re looking for novel 7, the first three chapters (and the last three chapters, as well) are on this site. I"m going to fill in the middle chapters here semi-asap. Oh, and the links to the translations have it listed as novel 8 because it"s translated from the Chinese version and the Chinese series considers the first gaiden as the fifth novel so the numbering is different. The German version does that too. I forgot to mention that...
Anyway, the reason that I said semi-asap is because I"m going to translate Apollo 00 first. It"s an original short story by Takabayas.h.i.+-sensei that I"ve been told is KKM related but since I"ve only read the first few pages and it"s written in a vague sort of way I can"t tell. No one has names yet and all I know is that it"s on Earth (somewhere) in a museum. There are six chapters, but I"m going to put them out all at once because it"s just that short ^-^
Speaking of things that aren"t short... While I"m working on novel 7 I"ll also be working on the first gaiden, KakkaMa. I was originally going to trade off chapters, one 7 and then one gaiden, but then I opened KakkaMa and remembered that gaidens don"t have chapters and KakkaMa is basically just three long side stories. There"s the bearbee story and Conrad on Earth with Jose which are both 63 pages long and then the Romero and Argento story where Anissina tried to get out of meeting a guy her brother set her up with by doing that whole Romeo and Juliet thing. It"s basically that episode in the third season. Anyway, I"ll just be working on that bit by bit while I do the main story because it"s going to take a while (it"s the same length as a normal novel). It also comes with the added challenge of having to guess where the ill.u.s.trations go because I bought the re-released omnibus version that also has MusukoMa... and the omnibuses don"t have the ill.u.s.trations ^-^;;; On the upside, it has an extra story at the end.