Katahane no Riku

“Uwaah!?”

Rook´s body hit something soft.

No, he was embraced. He was embraced into a warm chest. The sound of the heart beating reverberated next to him.

Rook couldn´t understand what happened. Before, he thought he was going to fall onto the ground or onto the hard stone, or perhaps even fall onto the spear of a demon and have himself pierced by it. What could it have been that caught him?

“What… could have…?”

As his consciousness was fading away, he barely managed raise his eyelids. When he did that, there was a silver hair fluttering in his view.

Narrowing his eyes, Rook gazed at the hair. He had the feeling of having seen that long hair before, but he couldn´t remember whose hair it was. By the time Rook gave up on thinking about it, he heard the voice of the owner of the hair right next to him.

“What Rook, are you already worn out?”

“This voice… Raku-ane?”

Because of how surprised Rook was, his body woke up somewhat and let out a groan because the pain at his back. Seeing how Rook was acting, Raku Barusak gave a loud laugh.

“Like always, you are stupid. You leisurely go out by yourself, get immediately caught and get close to dying. I wonder how you would be by now if I hadn´t come save you.”

However, in contrast to Raku´s happy tone of voice, she had a serious expression. While quickly glancing through the surroundings, she kept sending hand signals to the spiritualists that were running towards her into a formation around them.

Before his notice, Rook had suddenly already crossed through the sea of demons. He could hear the yelling sounds of the demons and the metallic sound of swords clashing behind him from the distance.

This was nothing more than a guess, but the spiritualists probably had aimed for somewhere where the vigilance of the demons was low and launched a surprise attack. Using sheer force, they escaped the front lines of the battle after having rescued Rook.

Raku had come to save Rook.

Right when a warm feeling was forming inside Rook´s heart, doubt was brought about.

“Why are you here? After all, Raku-ane…. should have been together… with Raimon.”

The knowledge of the game started surfacing at the back of his mind.

At this point in time, Raku Barusak was Raimon Barusak´s subordinate and would do all just as he would tell her to. In order to stop Raimon´s plans, it would be necessary to capture Raku into the harem.

However, he didn´t proceed her route to that point. Rather, he had kept doing actions that would cause her to hate him instead. He had caused many worries for everyone at the battle of Karkata, and also at the battle of Sherr island.

By now, there was no way she would view him favorably.

Instead, it was clear she would let him die while thinking of it as something “well deserved”. However…

“Hmph, I cut off my relations with father.   All the way through, you know?”

Raku declared.

Saying those words with a somewhat angry voice, she gently embraced Rook.

“There is no way I could abandon this little brother of mine seeing how much trouble he brings me, you see? …Now, let´s refocus on the problem at hands for the moment. We´ve already identified their destination, so we are pulling back from here and reorganizing our troops. We can go rescue the princess later.”

Raku quickly muttered next to Rook´s ears.

At that time, Rook finally realized that the princess wasn´t in his hands. He hurriedly tried to turn his head back, but he couldn´t move his body. The exhaustion and pain reached at the extreme limits and it felt that his consciousness would be cut off at any moment.

“At the time you were sent flying, you let go of the princess. …Don´t worry, she is still living. She is needed for the resurrection ritual after all.”

…Since that was the case, then all that had to be done was to simply go save her.

Raku lightly patted Rook´s back in order to calm him down.

As if that was the signal for it, Rook, who was trying to remain conscious, fell asleep. With a warm feeling wrapped around his body as if he was being submerged inside a bathtub, Rook closed his heavy eyelids.

Yes, if the princess wasn´t in their hands, they wouldn´t be able to resurrect the Demon Lord.

However, in the same way, if they didn´t have Rook too, neither would it be possible to do so.

Leivein was certain that Rook was coming to save the princess. That was why Raku didn´t pursue him any further.

And so being the case… then he might as well have some rest himself during the time.

Rook had gone through a day-to-day life he couldn´t sleep; in unfavorable conditions and with stench wafting in the air.

Rook´s body was at its limit.

He was now preparing himself for the decisive battle that was to come after that short break.

——-

The darkness of night approached.

That was the Demon Lord army.

Following behind was the Barusak personal troops commanded by Raku.

Besides them, there was one more force; one small shadow riding through the dark of the night.

It was Riku Barusak.

After killing Raimon Barusak, she immediately stole a horse and escaped. However, for some weird reason, she didn´t feel the presence of pursuers.

Moreover, the security of the Barusak residence was shallow. Even though Raimon fell from his office room, there weren´t any signs of someone rushing to where he fell to check what happened.

It was just as if all of the people at that place went out for the exception of Raimon…

“Well, it doesn´t matter to me.”

She wouldn´t go back to the Barusak residence ever again.

She was heading to the land of the seal, trying to get there as soon as possible so that she could become of a.s.sistance even if by only a little. She was resolved in receiving punishment for going against her orders. With how she was already going to get punished from the time she escaped from the Demon Lord castle, she didn´t mind that the punishment would get a bit more severe.

Rather, only if she was to stay at the castle that she would have fallen in regret.

In that case, it would be better to go for the path she wouldn´t regret. To fight to the bitter end without any regrets and to live her life to the fullest until the very end. Was there anything to be ashamed of by doing that? No, there wasn´t.

“Besides… as I thought, I really have things I want to ask….”

While clenching her teeth, Riku whipped her horse.

If Riku´s calculations were right, there were a few hours remaining until the Demon Lord Army would arrive at the land of the seal. In case she wasn´t to meet the time, it was possible she would be missing it by even an hour. If she was to keep riding her horse at full speed, the chances of her making in time were fifty-fifty.

“Really, why does it have to be today that it is cloudy.”

Riku looked up at the sky irritated.

If only the stars showed up in the sky, she would have been able to find the directions from it. However, not only the stars, but even the shine of the moon was being blocked by thick clouds and wouldn´t reach the land. Only the lantern she tied at the front of her horse would give her line-of-sight.

Riku wished she had brought Vrusto or someone that would fit his role along her if she had known that her sight would become that bad after night. Although she regretted not having done that, she immediately shook away the thought. By guessing from the time she took advice from Vrusto, there was no mistake he would dismiss the idea as her going against her orders and would increase the amount of guards.

Most of her excellent subordinates were headed to the land of the seal, and it also wasn´t possible to bring Asty, who was was tasked with the protection of Myuuz castle. While it is at this late hour to be thinking of that, she was aware of how few the amount of people among her subordinates that would do as she wished were.

“Really… Hm?”

It happened at that time.

A dazzling light shone through the surroundings. Then, Riku stopped her horse.

At a place not so far from there, light overflowed. The beam of flash pierced through the darkness and cut through the clouds. It was like a pillar of light that reached the starry sky.

“…What could it be, that light…?”

Narrowing her eyes, Riku gazed at the light.

The light finally grew dim and vanished, seeming as if it had set the night sky free again. Only, fortunately, the sky continued to be clear. From the gap that was cut in between the clouds, the moonlight shone onto the road.

Riku glanced at the positions of the stars. Conveniently, the direction the light came from was the same direction she was heading towards. Besides, the light came from somewhere close to the surrounding region of the land the Demon Lord was sealed at.

“… Has the war already started?”

Kicking the sides of the horse, Riku once again started moving. Hitting her whip on the b.u.t.tocks of the horse, she made it run faster. Until a few moments ago, she had been moving while constantly checking around where she should go. However, now with the clouds cleared, she didn´t need to worry about it as much. She knew the directions. Now, all she needed to do was to keep riding on the same direction.

It would be a piece of cake.

Nothing to mind too much about…

It happened at the next moment.

“!?”

Suddenly, a spear showed up right in front of her horse.

Because the horse became surprised by the sudden attack, it raised both its front legs with a force that was shaking off its rider. Riku hurriedly held control of the reins. By a hair´s breath she didn´t fall from her horse.  …However, her horse agitation continued. After fixing her posture, Riku turned her eyes to the direction the spear came from… and then, she raised a surprised voice.

“Why are you here?”

“This is my line, general Riku.”

At the same time of the response, the second attack followed. Riku made her horse slightly hop and was able to evade the horse. And then, she released her hands from the reins.

“…I see, you were the pursuer.”

Quickly drawing her halberd, she took a battle stance.

When she did that, the demon that was wielding his spear showed a bold smile. Being bathed by the moonlight, the fangs being bared at her sharply shone.

It was the demon that had been tasked with taking care of her for those ten years.

It wasn´t exaggeration to say that he was well familiar with Riku´s habits in battle, and also her line of thought.

It was him the one that had been suspicious about Riku planning to escape since the beginning. Somehow, Riku could understand that.

As sweat showed up at her forehead, Riku muttered the name of that person.

“Vrusto Asuteroid.”