Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist Editor: Weasalopes
【Episode 3: Tension and intention, Part 5】
Even after we got out into the corridor outside senpai"s room again, the violent tremors continued, causing more and more blackish-red shadows to emerge from every surface possible: walls, floor, ceiling, everything within our line of sight was being slowly overrun with them.
*SLASH! SLASHSLASH!*
Thankfully each time they were getting too close to us, they end up sliced into shreds by Shiki"s wires. They weren"t crying in pain or showing any kind of reaction to it, they just quietly dissipated into nothingness.
「Those are the lowest ranked monsters from another world. Materializing in our world takes them a considerable amount of time and energy, so if we destroy their bodies fast enough we should be able to gain a bit of a breather.」
Seeing how seemingly effortlessly Shiki was dealing with those monsters made me feel nothing short of impressed.
「Also, it looks like Yugao aimed for quant.i.ty instead of the quality of summoned monsters. Even if they are designed to kill Lords and their Knights, Fujisato Yuika And Kuhoh Nagi will have no problems with protecting Kaguya as long as they won"t allow themselves to be overwhelmed by their numbers.」
「Looks like you know quite a lot about those things, huh?」
「Eventually we"ll have to fight the high-level ones, so I highly recommend you to have a good old Olympic stab at fighting those low-levels yourself, Monjiro. Trust me, you"ll need every last bit of EXP you can get for the upcoming boss fight.」
「So you also think that a fight with her is unavoidable?」
Honestly, if it was for the sake of protecting Shiinamachi-senpai, I didn"t mind fighting against those things, even if even stronger species of them were bound to appear at one point. Only this time I don"t have my immortality, which means I have to be extra careful as every injury can prove to be a fatal one to me, and in turn to senpai, now that her heart acts like my emergency life support system. *Sigh* Something is telling me that this night is far from over.
「We"ll see about that, but right now we need to focus on what"s right in front of us!」
Right, we need to find Yugao-chan, the source of this entire situation, and stop her.
Shiki"s hidden feelings, Asagao"s trust in me, and my own wish to help those three be a real family again.
Thinking about those things I keep Kuhoh"s knife close to my chest as we ran into the corridor that was under the influence of the gravitational distortions.
「Do you have any idea where Yugao-chan might be, Shiki?!」
「I do. If she wants the barrier to envelop the entire mansion, the best place to do so would be the courtyard, since it"s in its exact center. The trees, gra.s.s, and even the stones there serve as the elements of its activation mechanism, and that"s why they had to be protected. If even one of the trees happen to fall off or be destroyed by the typhoon, putting it to use would have been impossible.」
Hearing Shiki"s words, I thought about what Asagao was doing earlier today… and then it hit me. Was she already making preparations back then? Was Asagao working with Yugao-chan all this time, helping her with everything she was doing today? Or maybe there is some other reason for her actions? If I meet her again, will I be able to hear it? As we were running forward, I tried to look at the courtyard through the window, but the distortions were so strong here that we were now upside-down, so all I could see outside was the darkness of the night sky preventing me from confirming if the typhoon caused any kind of damage to the courtyard. But there was one thing I could see very clearly: the shadows that were congregating outside, creating a dense, mud-like ma.s.s. Will we be able to find our way in the midst of this… darkness…
「You, the one who is walking beyond the beaten path, and who has obtained a genuine heart: The time has come for you to return from the midst of darkness…to make the curtain fall on the King"s life.」
I hope I"m wrong about this, but if those shadowy monsters can be cla.s.sified as 「Darkness」… then it means that we failed to prevent this 「Dangerous Day」 from happening, and senpai"s life is still in danger!
「Monjiro, I know you"re quite upset by this whole situation, but now is not the time to be daydreaming! Pull yourself together!」
「I know that, but just now it occurred to me that…」
「I"m sure that whatever it was it"s very enlightening, but it can wait until we"re done with arguably more important business here!」
Shiki"s reprimand helped me settle down a little. Senpai"s life was in constant danger ever since my heart was stolen, so knowing that the story of another 「Dangerous Day」 proceeded without a hitch changes nothing in our immediate situation. And since we can"t do nothing against that now, all we can do is to deal with the danger one by one as it places itself in front of our weapons. Thankfully it was just as Shiki said, and the monsters here still did not possess any kind of supernatural abilities; they just charged at us and tried to halt our advance with their number advantage. And yet despite that, there was still one thing that bothered me greatly.
「Shiki, since when did you knew about this whole barrier affair? Did you figured it out before you rejoined me when it activated?」
「No. From the very beginning.」
「From the beginning? As in, since the time I was killed?」
「No. As in, ever since we arrived in this villa.」
We were approaching the stairs leading down to the first floor, but my brain had trouble processing the information that I just heard.
「So you knew about it the monsters beforehand and prepared yourself to counter them in case they"d be used against Shiinamachi-senpai since it"s another one of her 「Dangerous Days」?」
「That was also one of my reasons, yes.」
Since we were about to enter the s.p.a.ce where gravitational distortions were the strongest Shiki held her hand out to me, and I gripped it tightly as she deployed her threads around us to steer us in the right direction. This time I knew what was coming and I was prepared for it, but it didn"t make the sensation of being flung in every direction, both vertically and horizontally, any more bearable, but at least we were able to get to the ground floor"s entrance hall without any accidental detours. I was slightly confused, however, when I saw the big chandelier next to our landing point, and it took me a few good seconds to realize that we were actually on the entrance hall"s ceiling due to the messed-up gravity.
「Monjiro, you can let go of my hand now.」
「Oh, uhh, sorry, my bad.」
And I let go of Shiki"s hand. Strangely enough, my own hand felt a little bit numb, as if Shiki was gripping it with more strength than it was actually necessary. I glanced at her briefly, but she was as expressionless as ever, and it looked like she was not going pursue that matter any further.
From where we were standing, the doors leading to the courtyard were located way above us, on the floor, which now became the ceiling.
「Think you can get us there?」
「With my threads it shouldn"t be much of a problem.」
She then extended her left hands towards the doors in the distance, hooking her wires onto it. All she had to do now was to pull us towards it.
「Sorry for the inconvenience, Monjiro, but I"m gonna have to ask you to carry me for a bit.」
「Ah, yes, of course.」
Of course I have to do that, it would be impossible for someone as pet.i.te and fragile as her to hold someone of my weight and posture with just one hand. I carefully lifted her off the ground and held her in my arms, just like I did with senpai back when we were on our date at the beach and Kuhoh attacked us. For obvious reasons Shiki was lighter than Shiinamachi-senpai, but her body was just as soft and pleasant to the touch, not to mention the additional stimulus of holding her so close to me that I could feel her every breath tickling against my neck, which sent shivers down my spine. Trying to keep my mind from plunging head-first into the gutter, I decides to ask her, as casually as I could:
「Say, Shiki, how far did you go with those preparations of yours?」
Knowing her, she will probably say something along the lines of 「I"ve prepared countermeasures against every possibility」 but that would be both incredibly praiseworthy and terrifying at the same time. She stared at me for a moment with her blue eye, only to lean closer to me and whisper into my ear with her hot breath.