Chapter 74

20

The blazer, now tattered, flutters in the wind as the overcoat is worn over it.

The boy holds the sword that pierced the girl’s skull in his right hand and the chains that bind her body in his left, wearing an innocent smile.

Takuya Kousaka.

He was childhood friends with Mizuho Mijima, who passed away, and I had heard the story of how he left her and Kato behind in a mountain cabin to chase after the first expedition team. However, this was the first time I had met him face to face.

“Come on, Nee-chan.”

On the other side of the river, Kousaka, who was carrying the chained Lily, said with a warm, innocent voice.

Probably, he must have called out to Mizuho Mijima in the same way before the transfer, when we were in our world. The warmth that seemed so out of place in the situation felt as if it was gently caressing my skin.

Lily had lost consciousness due to Kousaka’s attack.

If nothing was done, she would be taken away.

The moment I thought that, I was already kicking off the ground.

“Wait...”

“Don’t get in my way.”

Suddenly, Kousaka’s voice turned cold. His eyes, directed at me, were filled with a kind of resentment.

My spine tingled.

The survival instinct I had honed from surviving in this different world sounded a warning.

“I’ll get Nee-chan back.”

The sword in Kousaka’s hand glowed. Although no magic circle was formed, a strong magical aura hit my skin.

I had started to rush forward but stopped reflexively. Almost simultaneously, the ground at Kousaka’s feet began to rise.

“Magic tool...!?”

A large amount of sand and soil poured onto the riverbank where we were standing, separated by the river.

The soil, wrapped in the stream’s water, had increased in weight due to the water. I reacted too late. Given the timing, there was no way to escape—

“—Master!”

Just before the sand and soil engulfed me, a mass of gray hair spread out before my eyes.

“Rose!?”

Pushing her injured body to the limit, Rose had inserted herself in front of me. She held up her shield and collided head-on with the surging sand and soil.

“Gii...”

A moment of balance and then a collapse. A short scream was drowned out by the explosion. Rose’s body was thrown back. In the next instant, a large amount of sand and soil swallowed the riverbank where we were standing.

“Ugh, gah!?”

Thanks to Rose’s intervention, the momentum of the surging sand and soil had been reduced. Still, the weight of the surging mass was a threat in itself. In an instant, my vision was flipped, and everything became unclear.

I held my breath to avoid losing consciousness and clenched my molars tightly.

“Whoa!?”

Suddenly, my left hand was pulled with great force. I thought my joints would dislocate, but thanks to that, my body escaped from the sand and soil.

In the rapidly changing scenery, I could see Asarina, extending from the back of my left hand, wrapped around nearby trees. She had pulled me up.

“Ugh”

Unable to regain my composure, I tumbled to the ground awkwardly. Ignoring the pain in my body, I stood up as quickly as possible. I spat out the gravel in my mouth, drew my sword, and got into a stance—

“...?”

The feared counterattack did not come.

In fact, Kousaka himself was nowhere to be seen.

“...! Could it be!?”

I hurried back to the riverbank where I had been, which had been washed away.

The landscape of the riverbank had changed, with the ground overturned.

Kousaka was not there.

...And neither was the figure of Lily, who had been captured by him.

“Damn, he got away!”

The magic attack just now was not particularly powerful. While fine sand and soil had scattered over a wide area, there was no significant damage outside the small riverbank where we were. Yet, Kousaka did not even follow up with another attack.

It was a feint.

From the look of his unhesitating attack, if he could have taken my life, that would have been fine too, but his main objective was something else.

In fact, if Kousaka had intended to, he could have annihilated us. The fact that he did not do so suggests that he prioritized his objective.

The objective.

Lily had been taken away.

“...”

The blood drained from my body. A sense of instability, both hot and cold, rose within me.

It was Kato’s call that brought me back to my senses.

“Senpai”

Turning around, I saw Kato, who was sitting down, being held by Iwanoh. She seemed to have been washed away less by the sand and soil. Judging from the way she was standing up with trembling legs, she did not seem to be injured.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yeah. I’m fine. Kato, you’re okay too, right?”

“Yes. Iwanoh-san protected me.”

“Iwanoh?”

Even when I directed my gaze at her, Iwanoh did not react. She seemed to be shaken by Kousaka’s unexpected appearance and attack.

Just now, Kousaka had launched an attack without regard for Iwanoh’s presence. From Iwanoh’s perspective, Kousaka was a member of the exploration team. She probably never expected to be attacked.

Even in such a chaotic situation, protecting Kato was a testament to her capabilities. Kousaka’s magic had been aimed at me. While she was within the range of the attack, Iwanoh had not been directly hit. With the power of ‘Vajra,’ protecting a single non-combatant would have been easy.

“Rose pushed me toward Iwanoh-san at the last moment...”

Kato, gripping her hands at her chest, looked up at me.

“...Um, where is Rose?”

***

Rose was found a little away from the riverbank.

She was half-buried in the sand and soil, so I had to dig her out.

Kato was wetting a small piece of cloth with river water and diligently wiping Rose’s mud-covered body.

Lying on her back, Rose remained still, accepting her fate.

Perhaps she had no choice but to remain still.

The skirt, spread out on the overturned ground, lacked the bulge that should have been there.

Rose had lost her lower body.

It was due to the strain of pushing herself despite already being injured. Her lower body, broken off at the waist, was buried in the sand and soil, and it was unknown where it had gone.

“...I am ashamed, Master.”

“No. You did well.”

Without hesitation, Rose had sacrificed herself to protect me. Thanks to her, I had escaped with only minor injuries.

“But to get Nee-san back...”

“...”

To get Lily back, we needed to find Kousaka’s location, catch up to him, and fight him.

Finding his location was manageable.

There was a connection between us. While it would lose its effect if we were too far apart, at least for now, I could tell the direction Lily was in.

The problem was whether we could catch up to him.

The fact that he had made such a perfect escape suggested that Kousaka had no intention of engaging in combat. Even with Lily in his arms, could we catch up to a cheater who was fleeing in earnest?

Moreover, even if we caught up, we would have to fight Kousaka to save Lily.

However, our combat strength had been exhausted by the consecutive attacks.

We had been separated from Gerbera, Shiran, Ayame, and Kai, and Rose was severely damaged. Kato was not a combatant.

The only ones who could fight were me and Asarina. While we were not incapable of fighting, we were not strong enough to defeat Kousaka, a warrior skilled in combat, and retrieve Lily.

“What can we do...”

No matter how I thought about it, our combat strength was insufficient.

As it stood, we could not retrieve Lily.

“By the way, why was Kousaka there...”

“That’s what I wanted to talk about, Master.”

Just as I was groaning, Rose called out to me. I slowly raised my gaze.

“...What is it?”

“There was something that had been bothering me. Iwanoh-san’s words just now.”

Iwanoh’s words? ...Now that I think about it, Rose had tried to say something just now.

“She said, ‘I want you to take me to the entrance of the mountain path. If I can get there, I can return on the horse I left behind.’”

“Ah, she did say that. So?”

We had taken nearly two weeks to travel from the forest to the inn town near Seratta, even though our group’s pace was slow. It would take four days on a fast horse. Iwanoh had said she had covered the distance in two days. ...Why was the horse left at the entrance of the mountain path?

I turned around, startled. Iwanoh, who was sitting down, looked up at me with a tense face. I approached her, step by step.

“What do you mean?”

I grabbed her by the collar and glared at her from close range.

“The horse was one I had been riding all the way here.”

Iwanoh, on her knees, winced, perhaps because her leg wound was aggravated by the forced movement.

“I returned from Fort Evenus and stopped by Seratta on the way. Lewis-san had also told me to do so...”

“From there, you came on horseback. ...Because you were with Kousaka, right?”

Iwanoh nodded.

“When I arrived at Fort Evenus, Kousaka-kun had already left... We met up in Seratta. We parted ways at the entrance of the mountain path. It’s better to have more people when gathering information in the villages along the way. But once we got here, it was just a matter of catching up...”

When I heard Iwanoh’s story of how she had arrived here, I had thought it was a leisurely journey. But on second thought, given Iwanoh’s personality, it would have been natural for her to come as quickly as possible.

The reason she couldn’t do that was because she had to keep pace with Kousaka.

Understanding the situation, I was stunned. Iwanoh said to me:

“Kousaka-kun wouldn’t do something like kidnapping... It must be a misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding? You were caught in Kousaka’s attack too, weren’t you?”

“That’s... But he’s really hardworking and a good kid.”

Iwanoh shook her head slightly, a weak gesture.

“When he finally made it to the fort, both his mind and body were completely exhausted. To be honest, he’s not one of the stronger warriors. Being alone in a vast forest must have been lonely. I’m sure he suffered mentally, and with the threat of monster attacks, he probably didn’t get much sleep. His physical strength would have declined, and his concentration would have waned, leading to injuries. Kousaka-kun’s situation was even worse because he was in a hurry...”

“...”

“Still, Kousaka-kun managed to reach the fort. His first words were, ‘I want to save Nee-chan.’ ‘I don’t care about myself, just save Nee-chan quickly...’ He said it like a mantra.”

I could vividly imagine the state of Kousaka that Iwanoh had described.

He must have been truly desperate to save Mizuho Mijima.

He had pushed himself to the limit, just to save the childhood friend he loved.

Regardless of the tragic outcome, his actions could be considered noble.

However, I could not agree with Iwanoh’s claim that it was a misunderstanding. In fact, hearing this made me understand Kousaka’s attack even more.

“He’s not the kind of person to do something like that...”

“That’s not a valid excuse.”

“Huh?”

Iwanoh, who had been pulled close by me, blinked in close proximity.

“Do you think all the villains in the world willingly engage in evil deeds?”

If all the people in the world were good, and only a few mutants were mixed in, how wonderful that would be.

But reality is not that simple.

There is no absolute evil. If such a thing existed, it would be almost miraculous. Anyone, given the right circumstances, can be cowardly and despicable.

For example, the cheaters who led to the colony’s destruction. I will never forgive them, but I don’t think they were born evil. Apart from their extraordinary power, they were ordinary people. It was that power that drove them to commit atrocities.

Or, conversely, weakness can lead to mistakes, as in the case of Kudo Riku, another monster tamer. It is too difficult to remain righteous in this harsh world.

Kousaka, I think, is probably the same.

Given how much he cared for Mizuho Mijima, his actions now make more sense.

“Kousaka just reclaimed his childhood friend.”

To be precise, he believed he had reclaimed her.

But in reality, it was Lily, not Mizuho Mijima.

...It was the worst possible outcome.

The stronger the desire, the greater the disappointment and anger when the failure is realized.

When Kousaka realizes that the girl he has taken is not Mizuho Mijima, what will he do to Lily...? The ominous thoughts that came to mind made my core freeze cold.

“At least, if you had told me earlier...”

Iwanoh shuddered.

She must have sensed the violent aura in my groan. I could kill her with a single slap, yet she was afraid of me like an ordinary girl.

When I realized this, a part of my boiling brain cooled down.

“...Damn”

It would be easy to hit the unresisting I