Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

The more you hurry

The less you seem to reach it

But the next thing you know

It is right in front of you

Point Allocation (Desperation)

The appearance of the bone mercenaries also affected some people not on the battlefield.

Those people were Tenzou’s group moving toward Magdeburg in the M.H.R.R. siege troops’ abandoned camp.

They could already see the mostly broken western wall of the city, but…

“A-a lot of bone soldiers are coming up behind us!”

The bones were already in pursuit, so there was no point in hiding. And there was something else Tenzou noticed.

…Is there no one in the vicinity of the camp?

Ever since the bone mercenaries had risen from the ground, he could see no sign of anyone else this close in to Magdeburg.

…Is that to make sure they aren’t caught in the middle of the bone mercenaries?

Mary ran to his left and she used Ex. Collbrande to attack the bones approaching from that side.

“Ey!”

It was a solid blow. Truly a diligent sword, thought Tenzou as the bones were broken and they rushed toward the city.

Their direction of travel meant the bones were all coming to Mary’s side.

“If you are having trouble, we can switch places, Mary-dono!”

“No, I… Thank you.”

He was unsure whether to take that as a yes or a no, but since she smiled and did not swap places, he decided she was continuing as is. She then glanced behind them.

“But Master Wet Man…”

Tenzou looked back as well and saw the bones catching up to the crossdresser.

“Ah! Why are you moving so slowly, Toori-dono!?”

“What!? Don’t be stupid! I ‘harvested’ enough for both of us!”

“Oh, thank you very much. Master Tenzou, we can have a carnival once we get back to the Musashi.”

…A p.o.r.n game carnival sounds dangerous!

Tenzou checked to make sure one of Naito’s Magie Figurs wasn’t floating nearby, but he seemed to be in the clear. The Technohexen had left. But by then, the bones were pulling full force at the idiot’s legs.

“Toori-dono, h-hurry up and throw them away! Everything except the all-important busty blondes genre!”

“Y-you’re pretty selfish yourself, you know that!?”

When he did throw one away, the bones reached out and grabbed it.

Several of them gathered around it and began staring at it.

“Look, Tenzou,” said the idiot when he noticed. “They must have some traces of their memories from life. This is such a heartwarming scene.”

“Just keep throwing them away!!”

“Wait, you idiot! That was the silver hair genre!! Sob, sob… Y-you’re so mean…”

“Now you’re pretending to cry!?”

As soon as Tenzou shouted, a new enemy arrived from the left.

It was a large bone ape. And…

“Two of them!?”

Tenzou saw the large bone ape skeletons rushing toward them.

There were definitely two of them coming from the left.

Mary was running to his left, so she immediately attacked the one in the lead.

However…

Even though she severed its front right leg, it leaped around to their right side.

It was far away. It had jumped outside the reach of the short sword on Tenzou’s hip.

He was also worried about the other one still coming from the left, but before it could reach Mary…

“Mary-dono!”

“Oh…right. Judge!”

As soon as he called out to her, she jumped to the right and behind him.

He immediately stepped to the left to swap places with her.

Mary attacked the one on the right with Excalibur.

Tenzou drew his short sword to deal with the left one.

He crouched down and attacked from below. As the bone ape charged in from the left, he made an upwards backhand slash.

Ninja sword fighting was originally created to strike an enemy on horseback while hiding down on the ground.

…The final training used a real horse.

He had some nice memories of his father acting as their instructor. The man had told them “Look, I’ll show you how it’s done. There’s no need to fear the horse’s legs.”, but not five seconds later, he had been lying unmoving on the ground. That had made all the trainees good and nervous.

Regardless, his training paid off here as he reached up for the attack.

He scored a solid hit.

Mary’s attack created a sound of impact on the right, his attack created a sound of tearing on the left, the bones on the right were crushed, and the bones on the left were sliced in two.

Without eliminating the momentum of his slash, Tenzou continued running.

As he and Mary had swapped positions, he turned right to face her.

“From here on, I will take the left side.”

“Judge. Thank you very much.”

He heard a teasing whistle from the crossdresser behind them, but…

…With Naito-dono gone, I am invincible.

He nodded twice as they left the camp. They had a shallow downward slope for approximately two kilometers before reaching Magdeburg’s northwestern wall. If the cannons on the wall had still been functioning, they would only have needed to keep running while receiving covering fire. Unfortunately…

…With the G.o.ds of War fighting west of the wall, the wall has grown silent.

The wall itself had clearly collapsed in quite a few places.

A battle had broken out there.

Without that covering fire, there was a danger of enemy pursuit as they descended the wasteland slope, so Tenzou turned to Mary to have her cast a concealment spirit spell.

That was when he saw the enemy approaching from outside the camp behind them on the right.

This was a new enemy.

It had suddenly risen from outside the camp as if in pursuit.

“A large skeleton!?”

Tenzou saw the bone giant forcefully rise to its feet.

It seemed to come together as it rose and it turned toward them once it noticed them.

It was looking only at them, so they had to react.

“Master Tenzou!”

Mary pa.s.sed her Excalibur to him and quickly raised her hands to prepare a spirit spell. Tenzou meanwhile moved between her and the large skeleton.

…If it stands up and swings its arm down, I have to make a slash!

Combined with Mary’s attack, that would take off one of its arms. Then they only had to flee. Once it could no longer balance itself properly, its speed would drop.

That was why Tenzou prepared to protect Mary.

He saw the large skeleton stand tall and raise its arm.

But then he heard something being destroyed and saw the color white spread from the left of his vision.

…!? By the time he realized that was the camp, it was too late. After standing, the large skeleton had kicked up the nearby camp with its very first step. It did not directly hit them, but the cloth of the tents spread out and blocked his vision.

“Kh!”

He could not see where the enemy was attacking, so as a reliable defense, he raised Excalibur’s hilt and pointed the blade straight down. He pressed his other elbow against the back of the blade to brace against the coming blow. He had no idea how effective this would be, but…

…I’m not about to give up!

He gathered his strength and resolve while the idiot moved behind him with an intense feminine running form.

“Noooo! It’s so scaryyyy! Save meeeeee!”

“I can’t take this seriously when you’re treating it like a joke!!”

As soon as he shouted at the idiot, the downward strike arrived, but…

“The attack is going to slip right past that defense, you know?”

With those words, the large skeleton’s right arm was instantly smashed.

Something had pierced through and knocked away the enemy’s fist and the entire camp.

Tenzou saw what had caused the destruction: Ex. Collbrande.

But it was not the one he held in his hand and he knew who had the other one.

“Mitotsudaira-dono!?”

His question was answered by an expanse of silver appearing before his eyes.

Beyond the hair spread out in the wind, he saw the gold-eyed Demi Loup-Garou. And…

“Really!? I thought I could make a nice entrance and Mito takes it from me!?”

With those words, a ma.s.s of metal fell from the sky.

The large skeleton had collapsed in front of them and it was literally crushed from above.

“Jizuri Suzaku is here to pick you up!”

The sound of impact was accompanied by a quieter sound of the landing buffer parts being removed. The camp spreading out through the sky was flattened on the ground along with the crushed bones.

Tenzou saw Musashi’s 5th and 6th special duty officers standing before him.

He saw the G.o.d of war and the silver wolf.

When they turned back with a smile, he and Mary nodded toward them.

…We’re back together again!

As soon as Naomasa gave her greeting, Mitotsudaira saw the girl remove the buffering from Jizuri Suzaku’s legs and expand the wings on its back.

There really is no affectation with her, thought Mitotsudaira as Naomasa instructed Jizuri Suzaku with words and movements of her false arm.

“This makes four people…five with me. The balance won’t be great, but we should manage if it’s only to Magdeburg’s transport ship. …Wait just a minute.”

“Judge,” said Mitotsudaira before sighing.

Beyond the camp, she could see Righteousness and Yatsufusa’s backs. Those two would know they were here due to Jizuri Suzaku’s appearance.

The two of them were probably trying to protect them.

She saw some damage on Righteousness. It had not reached the machine itself, but there were pieces of missing armor on the left and right.

…They must be having an intense battle.

They and their enemy were both desperate.

Next to her, Naomasa used her false arm to send the two G.o.ds of War some hand signals.

She raised her index finger to indicate “one minute”, raised her palm to say “wait”, and then pointed to the Musashi.

But the idiot had his own interpretation.

“Man…no thank you…get lost? Wait a second, Naomasa. Yoshiyasu may be flat, but she’s still a girl.”

“That is not what she meant!” cut in Mitotsudaira. “She said to wait one minute before we return to the Musashi!”

The idiot shrank back and tossed another p.o.r.n game to the initial skeleton unit gathered around the first one. Mitotsudaira was unsure if she should allow that, but…

…Honestly.

Naomasa was here and so was Jizuri Suzaku. That may not have been much, but…

…It was only a few days, but it feels like so long since I’ve seen her.

Mitotsudaira held Ex. Collbrande in both hands after it floated up from the fallen camp.

“Mary.”

She stood in front of the other girl.

Mary held her own Ex. Collbrande and tilted her head.

“What is it, Lady Mitotsudaira?”

“Judge.” Mitotsudaira went down on one knee and held up Excalibur. “I, Musashi Knight Nate ‘Argent Loup’ Mitotsudaira, thank you for your consideration.”

“Eh? Oh, um…”

Mary suddenly sat on the ground to put herself on eyelevel with Mitotsudaira and smiled.

“Think nothing of it. Yes.”

She placed her own Excalibur on her arm, took Mitotsudaira’s one, and held them both close.

“Did you have a good time with your mother?”

She only had one thing to say to that. Mitotsudaira also sat on the ground and did not stop her expression from softening.

“Judge. Thanks to you.”

When she reached out a hand, Mary reached out the hand not holding Excalibur.

Mitotsudaira stood up, pulling Mary up with her. And…

“My king.”

When she turned around, the crossdresser frantically hid a very full sack behind his back and shook his head.

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-what is it!? I-I-I-I-I’m definitely not hiding any p.o.r.n games! Hm!?”

…What am I supposed to do about this?

Half exasperated and half impressed, she spoke to him.

And as she did, she wondered how he would react.

“I am back, my king.”

After he spoke to her, the crossdresser scratched his head and suddenly replied.

“That’s not it, Nate.”

Mitotsudaira quickly realized her mistake.

…He’s right.

It was not that she was back. There was something else she needed to say.

“Judge. …I will continue on with you, my king.”

“I see.” He nodded. “I see.” He nodded again. “Um…When did you remove that?”

He pointed at her neck, so she brought a hand to touch it.

“Eh? Oh, um… Since IZUMO, I guess.”

“Ohhh, yeah. It wasn’t there when Naito changed your clothes, now that I think about it.”

“Y-you saw that!?”

“Don’t be silly. I didn’t see it! I peeped on it!”

She clenched her fist, but Mary nodded with a smile.

“That’s right. He was so very worried about you.”

She could only back down after hearing that. She felt heat filling her face from the neck to the cheeks, but the idiot only tilted his head.

“Hmm, if you lost it in battle, then I guess it’s my fault. How about I buy you a new one once we get back to the Musashi?”

…Eh!?

She almost nodded on reflex, but she quickly sucked in a breath. She let the cold air fill her lungs as she thought.

…I can’t do that.

Her king had not given her the one she had worn before. She had chosen it herself, so…

“A wolf only wears a collar when she places it on herself to protect her pride.”

Also, she thought. Horizon binds my king and me together. He will create her kingdom and I will pave the way for him.

So…

“How about you, my queen, and I…all choose it together?”

“I’m sure my sis, Asama, and some others will tag along too.”

“Yes, I’m sure they will.”

She agreed because arguing would not change anything.

Regardless, that settled it. She would go with him, but she would pave the way for him. And…

“Okay, all done! Hurry onto Jizuri Suzaku’s arms! We’re leaving!”

Naomasa’s voice rang out and quickly turned east as she looked to Magdeburg.

“They’re probably still having some trouble, so for now…we need to join them!”