Life makes Kiriko much tired. Kiriko sleep now~
Enjoy the chapter~nya~ *yawn*
Credits:
Editor: Ghost
TMBRFNL Chapter 14: Those who point their blades"Fuaaaahh~~~"
Within the underground cell, the echo of a loud, unstifled yawn caused numerous sharp gazes to be directed towards its source.
"Why are you yawning without a care in the world!? Wasn't it your job to protect us!? If so, why did you just obediently let yourself get caught without even trying to resist!?"
As Fract shouted that, Alhart lazily turned his eyes towards him.
"Oh please, Prince. The request we accepted was to be guards for the 'Saintess'. You guys aren't part of the deal. To begin with, someone who vigorously jumped into the fray, then quickly had the tables turned on him doesn't have the right to talk. To lose to those amateurs who haven't even grown any hair out yet, just how weak are you?"
"What did you say!?"
Alhart watched the enraged Fract with a big sneer on his face.
"What? You wanna go, young master?"
"How dare you look down on me!!"
Fract'ss brandished fist cut through the air. His remaining forward momentum caused him to fall as Alhart tripped him.
"You-!!"
Somehow managing to keep his balance, Fract once again raised his fist. This time, however, before he could bring it down, he was stopped by Kuroitsu.
"Please do not get carried away with your games too much, Alhart."
"I'm bored, so it can't be helped."
"If that's the case, then a good time-killer just arrived. I, too, have become rather bored of staying quiet. On top of that, Sylti's presence seems to be approaching, so it's about time to start fighting back."
At the same time Kuroitsu said that, several men came rushing to the front of the cell.
"Time to fight back, huh. These guys are Sylti's leftovers, right?"
"So it would appear. Perhaps they came to use us as hostages against Sylti. We could obediently become hostages, but if we don't start our counterattack soon, Sylti will probably tell us off quite sternly later."
"Ahh, it's gonna be a pain either way, but dealing with Sylti after pissing her off is pretty hard……"
Quickly deciding that it couldn't be helped, Alhart approached the prison cell's bars.
"Hey, kidnappers. It seems like you've got some business with us, but it's best if you stay ju~st a little farther away from there."
"W-What the hell is that woman!? Is she one of your allies!? Is she!?"
"T-That……without any hesitation, she……"
"Oii, listen when people are talking to you. It'll be dangerous unless you move from there……oh, ahh, it's too late."
"Eh?"
The same moment Alhart suddenly dodged to the side, several black fireballs came flying towards the men.
Instantly passing through the iron bars standing between Alhart's group and the men, the black fire mercilessly attacked the kidnappers, causing them to burst up in flames the moment it touched them.
"AaaaAAaHHHHH!!!"
"H-Hot!! Please, put them out!!!!"
"Gyaaahh!!"
They let out agonized cries. As the men burned in the black flames, Alhart and Kuroitsu exited the cell, looking down at them expressionlessly.
"I told you it'd be best to stay farther away."
"Hmph. How noisy."
Kuroitsu snapped his fingers. Immediately after he did so, the black flames that had been burning the men went out.
Inside of that space in which the smell of burning human flesh lingered, Alhart and Kuroitsu (as well as Miliane) focused on searching for their stolen luggage instead, as though they were accustomed to the odour.
"Hiii…no…….."
"Gu-…….ueee…"
"……tsk…"
Akari cowered in fear and shivered as she cried.
Fract vomited with a pale face.
Tedla, like Fract, had a pale face as he furrowed his eyebrows.
Without regard for their reactions, Alhart went back into the cell and grabbed Akari's arm.
"Kyaaaaaa!! Nooooo!!"
Alhart heartlessly dragged a half-crazed Akari out of the cell as she struggled violently. It was at this point that he finally turned his attention towards the men who were still in agony.
"Say, where is our carriage?"
"Aaahhh……it hurts……..hur…ts…"
"No, like I asked, where's the carriage?"
"P-Ple…please stop! N-No more!!"
"……oi, Kuro. You went too far. At least make it so that they can properly talk."
"Even if you tell me that, I did hold back quite a bit……There are other people; it's fine if we just ask them, is it not?"
"That's true. Then let's meet up with Sylti first. Don't drop the Saintess, Kuro."
"I know. Follow behind us properly, Miliane."
"Ah, y-yes."
At Kuroitsu's words, Miliane hastily hid behind a wooden box. Seeing her appearance, Alhart smiled wryly while shrugging his shoulders. Then, taking the lead, he walked forward.
Following him was Kuroitsu (who was still dragging the half-crazed Akari) and at the end of the line was Miliane as she used nearby shields to hide herself.
Incidentally, Fract and Tedla, who had been left behind, followed after the four with Tedla, who had returned to his senses first, lending his shoulder to Fract.
"Yo, Sylti. We've made you spend some effo-……uwah!!"
A little less than 10 minutes after they left the prison. Sylti, who was coming towards them from the opposite side with Tieltinkle, raised her hand and sent a ball of water flying at Alhart.
It hit his face and burst, causing Alhart to become soaked.
"…….Sylti, what are you doing?"
"Are you awake now, Al? Could you explain why things turned out like this?"
"Even if you ask me to…didn't you hear from Tiel? We were abducted by the mountain bandits."
"I'm. Asking. You. Why? Fulfill the 'request' properly, geez."
"I'll do my job properly according to the 'contents of the request'. This time……well, yeah. It's cause it was tiresome!"
"……"
Splash! This time, a large amount of water came pouring down from above, soaking Alhart once again.
After seeing him like that, Syltina looked refreshed.
"Well then, in any case we've managed to safely meet up. All that's left is to take back the carriage. Shall we hurry up and leave then?"
"Sylti, do you know where the carriage is?"
"It seems to be parked behind the mansion. I'm not sure how safe the provisions and other luggage are, but Tiel said that the horses are still tied to it."
"Behind the mansion, huh……for now let's head back up."
At Alhart's words, Syltina's group went up to the first floor together. What they saw there was a group of people lying in wait while holding several weapons.
Most of the people holding these weapons were women and children. Seeing that there were some people holding crude "weapons" such as kitchen knives and scissors, Alhart made a fed up expression and sighed at the situation.
"Oi oi, are you telling us to go up against women and children next?"
"If you had at least run away, then we could have ignored you; but to think that you would once again point your blades towards the people that you were no match for earlier……there's a limit to how foolish you can be."
"Shut up!! Those men you killed were our comrades, and the husbands and fathers of these guys!!"
"That's right! How dare you do that to my husband?!! Unforgivable!!"
"We're gonna avenge father!!!!"
" " "Ouuu!!!!" " "
Glaring at Syltina and co. with hatred in their eyes, they raised their angry fists.
The men, women and children were all there only to take down their most hated "enemies" that now stood before their eyes.
"Even though it's not like we really wanted to go and kill people……"
"But, well, we haven't given up on our lives to the point where we'd let some openly hostile guys come and kill us without resisting at all."
"Unfortunately, whether you're a man, woman, or child, we won't have any mercy on those who attack us while armed."
As Sylti and co. drew their blades, tension filled the air.
After a brief period of silence, when the tension had reached its limit and what remained of the mountain bandits were about to move, a voice called out to stop both parties.
"W-Wait!! Please wait!!"
The voice belonged to Akari, who had been a weeping mess until just a few moments ago.
"You must be kidding me……"
Raising her voice, Akari stood between the two groups. Seeing her actions, Syltina muttered tiredly while placing a hand on her forehead.
"Kuroitsu-sa~n?"
Syltina glared at Kuroitsu, who should have been holding onto Akari's arm, with bitter eyes. In return, Kuroitsu just shrugged his shoulders timidly.
"It's not like they'll suddenly cut her down for cutting between us."
"That might be true, but letting her move around freely like that is troublesome for various reasons. That's why, please hold her back a little, would you?"
"It is fine as long as she doesn't die, correct?"
"Even so, she's the sort that sticks her head into troublesome things if you leave her to her own devices. Despite being completely powerless, she's a little walking trouble who holds some weird sense of confidence in herself, so there's a need to restrict her movements to a certain extent."
"Understood. I'll handle it more carefully next time."
"I'll leave it to you……………now then-"
After finishing her conversation with Kuroitsu, she turned back around and found Akari glancing sharply at her.
"Were you listening!?"
"No, not at all."
Even though Syltina looked towards Alhart in an attempt to seek an explanation for Akari's anger, the instant he realized that the battle's start was going to be postponed, he had begun to fall asleep. Thus, Syltina's silent complaint failed to reach him.
"I was asking, why can you kill people so easily!?"
Akari questioned her.
"Why, you ask……isn't it obviously because I don't want to die?"
Just what kind of stupid thing was the Saintess in front of her asking?
In the face of a blade bearing clear killing intent, just why would she ask about "something like that"?
"An important person was killed". That was probably the reason why they had pointed their blades at them. However, that was by no means a reason to obediently let themselves be killed.
"Why didn't you try to talk things out!?"
"……hah?"
The sound that Syltina reflexively let out exposed her inner thoughts, which were saying "What the hell is this girl talking about?".
"People who want to kill others don't exist! That being the case, isn't it best to talk things through!? Because we are all human!!"
"…………"
In an extremely natural way, as though she couldn't be wrong at all, Akari said this with remarkable self-confidence.
"Talking things through-"
Things have already gone far past that point – Syltina silently murmured.
Editor Comments:
I was lazy and didn't edit this for a while (Thedas needed an Inquisitor). It also got delayed because the final touches (which I do with Kiriko) took some time (this one was Kiriko's fault). Anyhow, hope you enjoy the chapter and stuff.