Yay!  I did it!  Such relief XD

Without further ado…


Chapter 8



      Flynn Gilbit had become half crazed.
      “Dear, hold on!  Norman!  Oh please, please G.o.d!  Save my husband!”
      “… Huh?”
      She had her silk-wrapped hands clasped together and she was praying to G.o.d while looking to heaven.
      “Mughhgghh.”
      The body on the stretcher was Norman Gilbit with his mask on writhing around.  Wolfram was at the head of the stretcher and Flynn, Murata, and Josak were at the patient’s side as they ran along with him.
      Disarrayed silver hair fluttered in the wind.
      “Wow, how horrible.  The lord was suddenly struck ill.  With a young wife it’s such a shame… Huh!?  Wait a minute!”
      The masked feudal lord had been coming into bloom since the moment we met, or rather, the person who was pretending to be Norman Gilbit until today was no one else but me, Yuuri s.h.i.+buya.  But, time flies by and just a little while ago the second generation Norman Gilbit the Masked Feudal Lord had officially retired.
      Despite that, right now the man being transported at a reckless speed was wearing the mask that I had come to know too well.
      “Wait, Flynn!  Who is that!?  Who is that man!?”
      Did the third generation just come to an end?
      When I ran after the group and tried to get in the room, the youngest lady in the group of curious onlookers in the hallway told me.
      “Oh, you’re the young officer that danced with that lady, right?”
      “Young off-…”
      “You have a... relations.h.i.+p with that lady, don’t you?”
      “What kind of relations.h.i.+p?”
      “You know… a relations.h.i.+p.  Adultery.  Adultery.  An adulterous relations.h.i.+p.”  Even though she was deliberately speaking in a low voice, she emphasized and repeated it three times.  “Of course, of course, that lady is beautiful, isn’t she?  She’d have one or two lovers, huh?  But this is good for you.  Congratulations.  You might be able to become her official husband.”
      Having no idea that the relations.h.i.+p between Flynn and I had ended, the young lady kept on proudly unveiling the scandalous news.
      “You know her husband, Mr. Norman Gilbit, fought hard in the tournament finals, right?  He fought hard and won, but was injured, yeah?  It seems like those injuries got worse and he finally collapsed.  He’s apparently on the verge of death.”
      “Collapsed!?”
      Wait, I’m Norman Gilbit, right?  Then who is that wearing the mask?
      “Flynn!”
      I go into the room in a big hurry and close the door so the secret doesn’t get out.  All eight eyes of Flynn, Murata, Josak, and Wolfram focus on me.
      “Why is a Norman Gilbit that isn’t me about to die?”
      “Shh!”
      All four of them raise a finger to their mouths simultaneously.  The masked man was still in agony.  He was grasping his knee – not his neck that got injured in the match – and rolling around.
      A mischievous look appeared on Murata"s face as he brushed snow off of his shoulder.
      “We need the corpse of a man of high status.  To be more accurate, the coffin.  Because of that, we’re all putting on an act.  Well, as for him…”  The person playing Norman’s role was writhing around on the bed.  “He’s not necessarily acting.”
      “That’s the truth,” said Josak.  He already had an amazed expression on his face.  It looks like he wants to say that he just can’t keep up with the strange plans of the children.  “After slipping in the snow and breaking his kneecap, this middle-aged soldier has a sock shoved in his mouth that was worn for three days straight.”
      “Ugh.”
      What a terribly simple gag.  That’s very close to torture.  Now I understand his realistic acting.
      “Then this person is going to die after this…”
      “That’s right.”
      “Whaefer, ut alleaf ake ow is agh eesh,” the seriously injured young man said unintelligibly. “Amph inf you fay you ud iff me um paingifferz?”
      “Ah, yeah yeah, painkillers.  And you want me to take the gag out, huh?”
      With the mask off, he was a completely normal guy.  His hair wasn’t as long as a normal soldier and he didn’t have a stern look on his face that said ‘Let’s fight!’  He was a gentle man that had the feel of an artist to him and he seemed like the type that women would love.
      “Phew… The inside of my mouth still feels gross.  It was mean to not take the sock out even though I agreed to this.”
      Feeling a little better after getting his painkillers, he sat on the bed and drank some water.
      “The way he talks sounds like a diligent exchange student,” I said. (1)
      “Ah, me, I’m called Gardino.  I came to the capital to study art and drama, but since I was a student I didn’t have enough money.  So, I became a temporary soldier in the garrison.  I want to study art and drama more, but tuition at upper-level schools is high and I can’t afford it.
      “He really does sound like an exchange student.”
      The young Gardino clenched his fist and made some calculations with burning eyes.
      “If I can get amount suggested, I can go to the upper-level school for two years.  And also, if it’s just once a week, I can hire a lady to take off her clothes… I’ll do my best!  My absolute best!  It’s really going to be my best!  I’ll put my body and soul into playing the role of the corpse!  Everyone, please watch my death!”
      We seem to have hired quite the unique actor.  He’ll be wearing a mask so he probably only has to be careful of his breathing.
      “Hmph.  The place that excels the most in the arts out of any country is the Royals Arts a.s.sociation in our Great Demon Kingdom.  There even cats can perform and there are even prodigal turtles that are master painters.”
      Wolfram, who always proclaims that demons are the number one at everything, has flippantly said something amazing.  Prodigal, master painter turtles.  I want to see them.  I really want to see them.  But there is the danger that creating one painting would take several hundred years…
      “Amazing!  I want to study on exchange there… but I’m getting kind of tired…”
      Laying the part-timer who had finally started to feel the effects of the painkiller on the bed, Flynn fires herself up and prepares to cry.  She lets down her hair and musses it up and gives herself a gaunt appearance by messing up her makeup.
      “… Wow, beautiful people are beautiful no matter what they do, huh?”
      “Honestly, Your Majesty, what are you saying?”
      My mood turns strangely miserable in a way that I can’t call bittersweet.  People’s emotions are odd.  Why can I unabashedly say a pick-up line as soon as I decided I wouldn’t fall in love?
      “But why do we need a coffin?  If it’s Norman Gilbit’s funeral, you can do it properly once you go home.”
      “Huh?  Did n.o.body tell s.h.i.+buya?”
      “What?  I’m the only one left out?  Just who do you all think I-”
      “Okay!  And now we enter the second act, the Death of Norman Gilbit!”
      Before they told me the truth about the situation, Josak opened the door.
      With her hair disheveled and her eyes red with tears, Flynn entered the hallway while saying a prayer.
      “Oh G.o.d, to think the trial you give me would be this painful!”
      It is unbelievably horrible acting from the woman who pretended to be her husband for several years.
      “Everyone, on this moment on this night in this month, my husband, Norman Gilbit, has pa.s.sed away!”

-------

(1)    In the original j.a.panese, parts of Gardino’s speech are written in katakana and some parts are elongated to show that he’s messing up the accents.  I ended up italicizing the wrong parts of the English words to stress.

 

      The funeral procession was subdued at first, then it was restless, and at the end it moved forward as if escaping.
      As long as we were in Big s.h.i.+maron, we had to behave like we were part of a funeral service for an important person.
      After all, now Norman Gilbit wasn’t the mandated overseer of Small s.h.i.+maron’s autonomous colony of Caloria.  Caloria had gained official independence by being the first victorious team that wasn’t from the sponsoring nation of Big s.h.i.+maron in ‘Use you knowledge, speed, and skill to win!  The World’s Best Fighter Tournament!’
      The leader of an independent nation deserved to be sent off with respect.  For example, the coffin holding the remains shouldn’t be handled carelessly.
      Even if there was only another small box inside of it.
      The more you heard of it, the more astonished you would be at the plan.
      Not astonished by the ingenuity, but by the fact that the so-called savior of the kingdom, the Twin Black Great Sage, came up with such a childish plan!  That sort of astonished.
      It was all well and good that he got the ‘End of the Wind’ out of the temple in Big s.h.i.+maron by switching it with a DIY box made on the s.h.i.+p, but there was no way to get it somewhere safe.  He even thought that since it was painted white and looked like a boy’s coffin that it should be carried in a funeral.  However, if a soldier has questions during an inspection, he can’t be allowed to open the lid and check the contents.
      Then how about putting it in a bigger box and giving a reason why they can’t look inside?
      The reason for not opening the lid being… an ideal ‘deceased’ is inside.
      It was Norman ‘You are already dead’ Gilbit who had just been injured during the World’s Best.
      Big s.h.i.+maron had even given it a catchline of ‘Caloria’s Great Star, Fallen’ and had wanted to conduct a temporary burial for Norman Gilbit.  They probably wanted to show their open-mindedness by showing respect to the victor even though they were defeated.
      Gardino put on a splendid performance as a corpse without moving even the tiniest bit.  However, his breathing while asleep was loud so someone had to stay by his side and continuously speak.  Flynn held on to her grief and as a tragic wife who clung to her husband, she received sympathy from women all over the capital.  Wolfram and Josak were extolled by a poet as teammates who fought together with him and whose friends.h.i.+p surpa.s.sed even death.  Even though they had never met the actual person.
      Murata employed his memories of the past and walked about as the experienced ceremony leader.  Without him consistently coming up with plans, the temporary burial in a foreign country would have been impossible.
      I’m the one who didn’t have a part.
      I did wear goggles in the arena, but I didn’t wear the mask.  As such, a part of the ladies and men who were watching recognize my Norman Gilbit face.  On the other hand, the women at the party we were invited to treat me as Flynn Gilbit’s young lover.  In the end, the young ladies who loved to gossip started up a rumor that Caloria’s mistress was giving her affection to a young man that looked like her husband.
      Hurriedly dyed, chestnut brown hair and cosmetic, brown lenses.  I don’t even want to know if that resembles the real Norman.  However, just by being by Flynn’s side as she sobbed, all of the young women who came to offer their condolences whispered, ‘Look, that’s Madam Gilbit’s rumored lover.’
      Far from her lover, I didn’t even have a lover in my actual life.
      After closing the lid, there wouldn’t be another government official who would check inside.  Even though it was immediately following its independence, doubting the funeral of a leader of a country would be imprudent all by itself.
      Although, what was inside the extravagant coffin wasn’t a corpse, but the ‘End of the Wind’ wrapped in cloth.
      As soon as we got out of the capital, we started making our getaway in a mad rush.
      Since the Demon King statue with the elephant head was stolen from the treasure room, they hadn’t realized that the box had been switched out yet.  That being said, once they discovered it, we would fall under suspicion.  We had to get away as soon as possible before they realized.  We had the fastest group of sheep on our side.
      Flynn, Murata, and I rode in the carriage being pulled by T-Zou’s Team ‘Seep.’  Apparently having been a sheep shepherd in his hometown, Gardino was sitting in the driver’s position in high spirits.
      I don’t know why he’s coming with us.
      Lady Celi stayed behind in s.h.i.+maron with Fanfan.  Her next aspiration is to take a world cruise of free love.  Naturally, Chevalier was underfoot waiting on her as usual.
      Wolfram, Josak, Sizemore, and Dacascos were on a horse-driven carriage parallel to us.  The troublesome part was that in j.a.pan it’s said that horses and sheep are like cats and dogs, so they both had the sense of a huge rivalry about them.  Lined up together, they meaninglessly dashed forward and if one of them fell behind, there would be a shower of feces from their displeasure.  Sheep are super-early-morning types so by the afternoon, they were in a bad mood.
      We reluctantly put a distance between the sheep carriage and the horse carriage, but if an enemy attacked us, we would be at a disadvantage.
      No one told us that ‘seep’ and horses had this bad of a relations.h.i.+p with each other when we bought them.
      “At any rate, there’s one thing I don’t get.”
      “Hm?”
      “You made Josak make a fake box while we were on the boat, right?” I asked Murata who was swaying around in the luggage compartment as I sat next to the driver.
      “Yeah.  His hobby is carpentry.”
      “I didn’t know that… No, what I mean is, you planned on switching the box out while we were still at that stage?”
      “Yeah.”
      “Which, which means that even though you came along as a spare teammate, you thought that we couldn’t win!?”
      Murata put a hand to the back of his head and laughed loudly. “No way, I didn’t think that.  I absolutely believed that you would win.”
      “But you were preparing for us to lose on the s.h.i.+p, way before the tournament even began.”
      “That wasn’t preparation for when you lost.”
      “Liar.”
      “I’m not lying.  I thought things would turn out the way they did.”
      Flynn sticks her head out of the roof and lets the winter wind run through her silver hair.
      My friend the Great Sage leaned on the gold-encrusted coffin in an unlucky way and petted it as if soothing the dangerous object within.
      “I thought that you probably wouldn’t wish for the box even if you won.”
      “… What’s up with that?  You’re saying stuff like those twins’ predictions.”
      “It wasn’t a prediction.  I don’t have that sort of handy ESP.  In any case, the only person with ESP in j.a.pan is Esper Itou, right?  I just thought that things would happen that way.  I heard about the demon sword from Josak.  If it were you-gah!”
      The carriage ran over a rut.  The luggage compartment swayed violently.
      “Owow, I bit my tongue…  If it were you, you would probably realize how dangerous it would be for Caloria to officially take the ‘End of the Wind.’”
      “Nmofu?”  T-Zou looked back at me.  It was like she was asking if she were going the right way.
      “You’re good.”
      The sheep who were supposed to have much better eyesight than people suddenly fell into disorder and stopped running.
      I hurriedly take out the magic-powered telescope and peer off into the distance.
      “You guys, what are- whoa!”
      “What’s wrong, s.h.i.+buya?”
      “Soldiers!  They’re on horseback and there’s more than thirty.  Gardino, bring the carriage near the edge of the forest.  d.a.m.n, how far away are the guys on the horse carriage!?”
      The brown spot that I couldn’t see with my naked eye became larger in an instant.  With the trembling of hooves. .h.i.tting the earth, thirty men on horseback come directly at us from the front.  In our ill-prepared state, we were surrounded by them.  And it wasn’t just one or two, but thirty hors.e.m.e.n in uniform.
      I call them uniformed, but I didn’t know what country they were soldiers from.  It wasn’t the yellow, brown, and white that I was used to and it wasn’t the light blue and grey uniforms from the other side of the border in Small s.h.i.+maron.
      More than their green clothes, there was a part of them that stood out.
      It was their ominous red and green masks.
      The moment I saw that, I felt like all the blood in my body started to boil.  Everything started with these guys in masks.
      They were the men who shot Günter before my eyes and cut Conrad’s arm off.  They were the men who threw me into a rampage near the window in Norman Gilbit’s estate.  I remember those sickening red and green masks.  I haven’t forgotten those green, fluttering clothes.
      They surrounded the sheep carriage from a distance and their bare blades s.h.i.+ned in the afternoon light.  When one horse got impatient and neighed, it spread around to all the others.
      The man who had moved forward called out.
      “Are you the party from Caloria!?”
      I see, so the suspicion of them being a group of thieves in the wilderness was now cleared.  They have clearly chosen their target.  And quite a unique target.
      “I wonder if we should say that we are,” I murmured to Murata while still sitting next to the driver.  Since the horse-drawn carriage fell behind, this is what happened.
      A carriage filled completely with non-combatants was surrounded by a professional group of murderers.  Most pressing was that even if our rear group arrived, they would have no chance in a thirty versus four fight.
      “Nmomomofuu!”
      T-Zou braced her legs and crouched down.  Sorry, I didn’t count you.
      “I’ll ask again!  Are you the party from Caloria!?”
      “What will you do if we are?”
      “Then we will claim your lives.”
      I shouldn’t have responded.
      I rush into the luggage compartment and search around for a weapon.  I discovered a meager club that seemed as if it would just barely stop an attack.  Isn’t there something here like an iron ball or something?  Like a sickle and chain?
      While I looked around in the carriage, the gold-encrusted coffin pops into my view.
      … Inside this is the wooden box that is the strongest and worst ultimate weapon…
      I roughly knock on my head with my fist as if to shake off my improper thoughts.  No, no, once the lid opens, no one knows what will happen.  It’s not even clear if it will activate or stay silent or if it will respond to anything but the real key.        Furthermore, it might spit up a side character and bring serious damage to half of the continent.
      I can’t think of using this weapon for even a fraction of a moment.
      Then what about the superior magic of the Demon King that I have some control over, albeit only slightly.  So far I didn’t know what b.u.t.ton to press to get it working, but this time I have the reliable starting system called Muraken.
      “I’d like to give the others time to catch up, but even if they get here, there aren’t enough of them to have an even fight.  But, if we don’t wait and surrender before they get here, it’ll be impossible to meet up with them again if we end up as corpses…”
      “Hey Murata, this isn’t the time to sit around worried in the Rodin Pose!”  I grab Murata"s collar and pull his face to mine.  It lacks any traces of sensing the impending danger.  “I have a favor to ask.” (1)
      “Ask away.”
      “Lend me power.”
      “You mean, switch myself on?”
      “Th-”
      “No,” he refuses without even giving me time to answer.  “What’s going to happen if you keep on exploding without replenis.h.i.+ng your fuel?  Eventually you’ll have nothing left to burn and you’ll end up destroying yourself.  Right now you are clearly in the red zone.  You’ve run out of gas and the needle on the meter is pointing towards empty.”
      “No matter how much you think about it, there’s no other way to get out of this situation alive!”
      “Even so, you can’t!  If it’s frustrating, how about trying to fill up your MP.  Although in your case, just sleeping at an inn won’t be enough to recover.”
      “Ugh, d.a.m.n it!”
      The Anytime, Anywhere Starting System Murata had an unbelievable lecturing feature included.  On top of that, he was much better with words.
      “… Guess there’s no choice.  Shall we try pleading for our lives?  You’re smart so help out…”
      “If that’s the case, then I’ll be glad to.”
      We leave Flynn and the exchange student in the carriage and step out.  We’re surrounded by red and green in a complete 360 degrees around us and it feels like we’re standing inside of a totem pole or something.
      “Um, and now, I shall make my request as is my right as a person!”  Murata had his right hand lightly gripped underneath his chin.  He was holding a fake microphone.  “Sadly, if you seek to claim our lives, there must be a suitable reason!”
      “A suitable reason!”
      “Sadly, if we can’t escape, ah, before we die we wish to know why!”
      “To know why!”
      “Make good food!”
      “Good food!”
      Always be clean! … The point of our request had changed into something different.
      Even with this horribly unrelated plea for our lives, most of the red and green didn’t react even a little bit.
      Even though if there’s a group of more than ten people, there’s always one person who laughs at stupid jokes.
      Only the leader responded in a brief and clear way.
      “There is no reason to tell you.”
      That’s it?
      “They’ve received an order to eradicate the Calorian group.  It’s unfortunate, but you have to accept that,” said Murata.
      “Wait, they’re not even considering that we’re not Calor-”
      Something that cut through the air with a loud noise hit one of the masked riders in the chest.  Then there was another shot and then another at the feet of the horses.  The confused, timid animals rear up in fear and agitation.  Two of the riders fall onto the ground wet with lingering snow, but they immediately stand up and grip their swords.
      “Get inside!”  I shout at Flynn and the exchange student and then I immediately turn to where the arrows came from.  There is a group composed of people of various sizes running towards us stirring up the frosted-over, muddy earth.  There were three warriors on horseback, but the rest were men in dirty clothes.
      “… Who are they?” Deflecting a sword coming at my head from above with my weak club, I make sure that Murata is safe.  “You get inside too!  It’ll be a shame if you get your head smashed in!”
      “Nmo!  Motamanimofu!”  Tearing off the leather belt, the Queen of ‘Seep’ joined the battle.  As she bit the legs of the horses, the enemies fell to the ground.  She would turn her head to the side and spit out the blood.  H-how manly.
      The reinforcements who came from who knows where charged in with strange voices I can’t express in writing.  It was at that time that the other group finally caught up with us and Sizemore and Josak sprung forward.
      “Yuuri!”
      “I’m here.”
      Looking relieved at hearing my response, Wolfram comes running forward.
      “Who are these people!?  Or perhaps I should ask who they are.”
      “Those are kind of difficult questions.”
      In the battle of 30 versus 15… 16?  About 17.  However you looked at it, the smaller group seemed superior.  There were only two swordsmen on horses, so being maneuverable seemed to be an advantage.  Also, the group with a.s.sorted clothes and weapons fought dirt-… er, cunningly.  None of them were fighting one-on-one and none of them went in for a direct attack from the front.
      I ended up behind Wolfram and T-Zou and I leaned back on the muddy carriage wheel.
      The world is a large place, but I might be the only man who has been protected by a sheep.  It’s a depressing thought.
      “… Conrad…?”
      One of the two silhouettes on horseback in the distance looked like Lord Weller.  The other one was in an embarra.s.singly gaudy outfit, but the one that looked like Conrad was in a s.h.i.+maron military uniform.
      “Hey Wolf, that’s… Conrad.”
      “What!?  Why is that idiot here… He does look like him.”
      Getting confirmation from his brother, I try moving in that direction, but I valued my life and couldn’t move.  Even so, I follow him with my eyes.
      A silver flash of steel draws an arc in the noon sun.  That way of drawing a sword without any unnecessary movement… It’s definitely Lord Conrart Weller.  Who is that person in the gaudy clothes next to him?  I wonder if his eyes don’t hurt with all of those layers of bright, primary colors…
      “Yuuri!”
      “Whoa, huah!?”
      I had only let my attention stray for a few seconds, but a knife had stuck into the cloth canopy behind me.  It was only a few centimeters from my ear.  It looked like it had been struck with something that set it off course right before my eyes.  Maybe someone threw a rock.
      “What do you mean, ‘huah!?’  Don’t say ‘huah!’”
      Wolfram was fairly strict with language.
      The group with red and green masks suddenly headed for their horses.  They had lost about half of their number, but they took off north at full speed.
      “They ran away?  Are they retreating?”
      I fix my gaze on a point high up, being careful not to look at the ground.  Climbing out of the luggage compartment, Ken Murata noticed my unnatural gaze and asked what I was doing.
      “Ah, well, there’s a lot on the ground.”
      “Ah, I see.  Like heads and stuff.”
      Jumping down from the carriage and looking at the blood-stained snow and mud, Flynn Gilbit let out a sigh.  “… Why were we targeted?”
      “It’s a shame that we’ve made Caloria independent.”
      That pretty girl anime voice.
      Murata, Wolf, Josak, and I all turned to look at the speaker, startled.  He was wearing something like a gaudy poncho of primary colors and had unhealthy, yellow skin.  He was gripping a narrow sword with his abnormally thin, right arm.
      “His Majesty Belal IV…”
      “Hi!  Whe~re exactly did we meet?  Was it at the award ceremony or perhaps at the ball?”
      His gaunt chin and bowl cut hair was covered in a shower of blood splatters.  With him smiling at me like that, I felt like Ripley being glared at by the Alien.
      “Ahaha!  Getting in the way of Uncle’s plan feels, aha, really goo~d.  With this, your Caloria will properly become independent and Uncle’s approval will go down again.  Ahaha, seeing those with power become fl.u.s.tered is so fun I can’t get enough of i~t!”
      After that cheerful and drawn out word, His Majesty Belal IV mutters a brief comment.
      “… If only he’d hurry up and disappear.”
      My eyebrows had already shot high up on my forehead and the gooseb.u.mps all over my skin were even popping up inside my ears.  Scary.  Humans are scary.
      “Ah, you don’t have worry~.  s.h.i.+maron will handle the corpses and the injured.  If you trace it all back, these people are soldiers from our country after a~ll.  We won’t leave them here until spring or anythi~ng.”
      “Your Majesty!”
      Belal IV and I both turned at the same time.  However, I immediately realize who was called out to.
      Lord Weller doesn’t call me ‘Your Majesty’ anymore.  It’s because he won’t come back with us to the Great Demon Kingdom.
      “Let us return, Your Majesty.  If we leave the palace for too long, His Highness the Second will become suspicious.”
      “That’s true~.”
      The man in the s.h.i.+maronian military uniform urged his new master along and turned his back.  If it will divert my misery, I’ll give up my abstinence from alcohol and tobacco.
      I must have been making quite a pitiful face because Wolfram lightly touched my elbow.  His tone was much gentler than usual.
      “Do you remember what I said to you?”
      “What?  You’ve said a lot of things to me so I have no idea.”
      He sheathes his sword that was cleaned of blood.  It made a clinking sound of the end of battle.
      “… That the foolish one is Conrart.”
      Now that I think about it, Flynn had been acting suspiciously for some time now.  Hiding herself in the luggage rack and the living wool, she was stealing fleeting glances of the battlefield.
      It happened when I attempted to call out to her to ask if she was hiding for some reason.
      “Oh!  The Mistress!”
      “Aah!”
      Her silver hair instantaneously stood on end.  A man who had been crouched down examining the body of an enemy soldier had found Flynn and called out flirtatiously.  He was so overjoyed, his mouth had spread open so wide it was animalistic.  With the speed of a mischievous, large dog, he ran to his beloved Mistress’s side.
      It would be a serious issue if his ears started drooping down.
      “The Mistress!  The Mistress!  It’s the Mistress!  Everyone, it’s the Mistress!”
      “Ah!  Oh, no way!  Wait a minute!  Wait a-umph!”
      The reason I’m not seeing this as s.e.xual hara.s.sment as I watch on from the sidelines is likely because I know that they are a lady and servants.  Being a.s.saulted by one man after the next, Flynn ended up like a player surrounded by a huddle.
      “Rugby is pretty rough as well, huh,” says the soccer fan, missing the point.
      A large man that can easily surpa.s.s two meters stood up.  On his shaven head, there is an X-shaped scar.  He’s hugging a round stone to his chest… Hm?  That glossy thing wasn’t a rock, it was a skull he had loved and spoiled for many years.
      “Commander Mountain Range!?”
      The polished, amber sphere was Commander Mountain Range’s sweetheart, Miss Terrine.  They say that the commander had taken just one person along with him from the remains of those he had killed.  All of them call her Tewwy Bewwy and love her, but it’s a secret that she was actually ‘bones from birth’ and part of the body of a member of the well-known Flying Skeleton Tribe.
      A large portion of those that had run to our aid were graduates of the Plainsmen.  They are all in dirty clothes, but not the pink prisoner outfits from before.
      “Commander Mountain Range, what are you all doing in Big s.h.i.+maron?  Ah, I have to say h.e.l.lo to Miss Terrine first, right?  Good afternoon, Miss Terrine.  Your skin is radiant today as well.”
      “Mishy Terrine devotes herself to grooming every day. Her fundamental skin-care pwoduct is egg whites.”
      “… Commander Mountain Range is the same as ever, too.”
      This vicious, mountain range of a man with a shaven head will only speak through Mishy Terrine.
      After finally managing to get away from the huddle of men with great difficulty, Flynn Gilbit starts yelling hysterically, forgetting her position as the new leader of Caloria.
      “Oh honestly, all of you!  Why do you always greet me so childishly?  Why don’t you try asking ‘How are you?’ like refined gentlemen for once!?”
      “Mistress, we’re fine!”
      “That’s right, Mistress.  We’re fine!
      “No way, I’m swine!” (2)
      Flynn gave up trying to teach them manners.
      “… And furthermore, stop searching the pockets of fallen enemy soldiers on the field.  Unless you intend to pa.s.s the belongings on to the bereaved family in the future, doing such a thing is very disgraceful.”
      The Plainsmen graduates were dejected after being coldly reproved.  That’s what’s amazing about Flynn.
      As a ruler of my own country, I feel like I have to follow her example.
      Until now, I’ve thought of Murata as guy who wore gla.s.ses and got bullied a lot.  However, that Murata I had such a prejudiced view of has done a full 180 with a manly att.i.tude and bravery.  As for what he was doing at the moment… He was leaning over the corpse of an a.s.sailant and diligently investigating the cause of death.  I had never seen a corpse on the battlefield outside of photos and television.  After coming to this world I’ve gotten used to many shocking experiences, but… even so, investigating injuries on your own is probably impossible if you’re not a coroner.
      “There’s nothing stuck in him.”
      Peeking out through my fingers, I glance at Murata and the victim.  My voice when I asked, ‘What would be?’ was heavy.
      “An arrow.  An arrow did come flying and hit him, but there is only an injury and there’s no arrowhead.”
      “And, what does that mean?”
      “Either I just thought I saw an arrow or… it wasn’t from a bow.  If so, then there is someone else who came to our rescue.”
      Now that he mentions it, I also saw three men on horseback in the beginning.  However, when His Majesty Belal and Conrart left, there weren’t any other horses with them.  Where did the last horseman disappear to?
      Feeling a gaze upon me from afar, I turn my head towards the forest across the wilderness.  The place where there were many trees… on the boundary where the sunlight grew dim, there was a blonde man who looked much better than a few days ago that had come to a stop on his horse.
      “Hey,” Adalbert von Grantz said in a muted voice while he gazed at me as I came running.  “You seem well.”
      “You too… You’re a lot better than the day before yesterday… Um, how is your arm and leg…?”
      The leg and arm he had fractured were covered with white casts.
      “I ended up amusing you.  Seeing a military man like this isn’t something you can do very often.”
      “Was it you?”
      “What?”
      “Something like a bow and arrow, but… someone shot something that wasn’t an arrow and deflected that knife coming at my face with a rock I couldn’t see.”
      “Who knows.”
      “Like I said, if you have the strength to do that, use it after healing your body!”
      Adalbert looked like he was the recipient of an absurd scolding, but he shakes it off with a ‘Well, whatever.’
      “With this I paid you back for that night.  Remember this, the next time we meet…”
      He spurs his horse into a gallop without saying the rest.  The way he leaves behind only anxiety hasn’t changed a bit.

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(1)    For those who don’t know, the Rodin Pose is how the famous sculpture, The Thinker, is sitting.
(2)    The original pun was playing off of the word they were using for fine (gokigen) and instead saying ‘gokiburi’ which means c.o.c.kroach.