Chapter 9 — This Is Absolutely Absurd! What Is This, Some Kind of Lolicon Harem?!
“Dammit! Where’d they go?!”
“They definitely went into the forest!”
“Search everywhere! At worst, we can burn down the whole thing!”
A crowd of people rushed into the forest where Tomochika’s group had fled, trying to hunt them down. All sorts of people were looking for them. Of course there were soldiers, but even sailors, shopkeepers, and children who looked like they had no place taking part in such violence were in a frenzy.
Meanwhile, their group was hiding in the tops of the trees. Sensing the approach of the townspeople, they had hurriedly climbed to safety. Luckily, they had Luu with them, so ascending wasn’t especially challenging.
Yogiri, Tomochika, Mokomoko inside the Enju robot, Hanakawa, the girl made from Philosopher’s Stones, who they had named Luu, Carol S. Lane, Ryouko, and Risley were all hiding among the branches.
“This is kind of terrible, isn’t it?”
With all the conflict they had experienced, Tomochika had grown used to people acting hostile towards them. But it was the first time she had been faced with such blatant hatred.
“They flew here, so make sure you check the trees as well!”
At those words, their pursuers began looking upward. One of them met eyes with Tomochika.
“Ack! There they...aren’t?”
The speaker had definitely looked directly at her, but they couldn’t seem to see her.
“Don’t worry, I’ve put up my ninja barrier,” Carol remarked offhandedly.
“That’s an awfully convenient skill!”
It didn’t seem like she had done anything special, but she had used her powers to hide them. There was no guarantee the pursuers wouldn’t have skills of their own that would allow them to see through it, but for now it looked like it was keeping the group hidden.
“I am most impressed, Sir Takatou. Despite their clear intent to do us harm, I am glad to see you have not mercilessly slaughtered them all.”
“It’s fine since we got away, but if they attack us, I’ll have to kill them.”
Even though their pursuers were common townsfolk, if they attacked, Tomochika knew their group would have no choice but to defend themselves.
“Now then, maybe while being chased like this isn’t the time, but we’re safe enough for the moment, so let’s talk,” Carol continued.
Tomochika couldn’t shake her feeling of awkwardness. She and Yogiri had left the other three behind without a word. They had more or less decided they were only going to try to get themselves back home, which was basically the same as leaving the others for dead. Yogiri had made the decision to cut them off without a second thought, but Tomochika’s conscience wasn’t quite so forgiving.
“A-About what?”
“Why don’t we work together?” Carol suggested. “You’re totally lost right now, aren’t you? It’s not like we know what to do either, but we’ve got some clues.”
“I don’t mind working together, but to what end?” Yogiri answered, not concerned in the least about their previous history.
“We want to stick with you, Takatou. And if we can, we want to go back to our home world, so I guess we should work together to do that?”
“That works for you and Ryouko, but what about Risley?” Yogiri didn’t know why the young girl was with them, but he couldn’t imagine she shared their goals.
“U-Umm...I also want to stay with you. Is that okay?”
“So what, should we consider you guys a group of three then?” Tomochika asked.
“I guess so. We can’t just leave Risley out in the cold, so that’s probably best.”
“All right. I guess we don’t have any other choice here.” Although he didn’t seem happy about it, Yogiri reluctantly agreed to work with them.
◇ ◇ ◇
“And that’s basically what happened!” Carol gave them a rough explanation of how they had gotten here. In short, they had used the teleportation devices set up by Lain to reach the island, where they had encountered a monster and fled.
“Wait, so you left Euphemia behind?! Is she okay?!” Tomochika was worried. According to their story, they had left her in a pretty dangerous spot.
“No idea, but Risley’s safety was clearly her number one priority, so we were working based on that.”
“I guess she is like the ultimate vampire, so she wouldn’t die that easily...”
“Anyway, we got to the port town and found posters with your faces on them everywhere. I put my ninja skills to work gathering information and found out you were wanted by the Malnarilna sect.”
“Is it that big of a religion?” Yogiri, since he knew little about the sect himself.
“They are the second-largest religion in the world. You can find them in any city.”
“So...we can’t walk around in the open anymore?”
“You won’t be able to walk around secretly either. There are plenty of believers in the criminal underworld too, and anyone who finds you, captures you, or kills you will get a huge reward. They’re all pretty determined. The sect has mobilized all their members to try and kill you.”
“I see. So our plan to take a boat off the island—”
“That will probably be quite difficult.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?!” Tomochika asked.
“What do you think?” Yogiri had no ideas, so he turned the question back on her. It didn’t seem like they could secure passage on a ship, and it didn’t look like Luu would be able to carry them far enough herself.
“Perhaps we could attempt to ride as stowaways? I imagine the power of a ninja would make that possible,” Hanakawa suggested.
Carol shot the suggestion down immediately. “No. Hiding a few people in an open forest is totally different from trying to do it on a crowded boat.”
“What about just acquiring a ship of our own?” Mokomoko suggested. “Soaring through the air would be quite hard on Luu, but it may be easier if we just had her push a ship through the water. And in that case, she would be able to rest if needed.”
At the moment, only Yogiri and Tomochika were wanted, so with Carol and the others’ help, they might be able to get a boat. They had plenty of money, so a ship plus a few days’ worth of supplies shouldn’t have been difficult.
“Umm, can I ask something?” Risley finally broke her silence and spoke up. “Can we go save Euphemia? With Yogiri’s power...”
“Is that part of us working together?”
“How cold can you be, Sir Takatou?!” Hanakawa exclaimed. “Do you intend to abandon a lost companion so easily?!”
“I mean, we weren’t really all that close.”
“No, no, no! Though I only saw her briefly, she was an incredibly powerful vampire and possessed a phenomenal beauty, did she not?! We should be rushing headlong to rescue someone like that without paying any mind to the consequences, setting all sorts of flags along the way! Could I perhaps ask you to start acting more like a protagonist?!”
“Uh, actually, it would be kind of an issue if Euphemia ended up becoming a rival for me,” Risley added shyly, reminding Tomochika of how she had asked Yogiri to marry her the first time they met.
“Hold on! Daddy belongs to me!” Luu stepped in front of her with a glare. She must have figured out Risley’s feelings towards him.
“Huh? Umm...who is this?” Risley asked.
“Her name is Luu. The Philosopher’s Stone you gave me merged with a few others and turned into her.”
“What?! How?!”
“No idea,” Yogiri shrugged.
Tomochika had just sort of accepted the situation, but it was true that it was pretty strange.
“Gaaaaaah! Both Luu and Risley have fallen for Sir Takatou?! This is absolutely absurd! What is this, some kind of lolicon harem?!” Hanakawa cried.
“Uhh, their ages would make that kind of an issue. It’s a crime in any world, right? If he’s going to have a harem, it should be with the rest of us.”
“If you’re making a harem, could you leave me out?” Ryouko said unhappily. “Watching him may be my mission, but I’m not that interested in him besides that. In fact, my mission is specifically to avoid getting too attached to him...”
“Umm! Getting back on track,” Risley interrupted, “I don’t think saving Euphemia is bad for you either, Takatou. With her help, we can use the teleportation devices, so we should be able to go anywhere you want!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes. There are teleportation devices set up near every major city, so we can get almost anywhere.”
“You said Lain set them up, right? Can you not use them, Risley?”
“I’m not really proud of it, but I don’t have any powers of my own! You need magic or something to use them, and I wouldn’t know how anyway.”
“I see. I guess it might be worth saving her, then?”
“Hmm...stowing away or acquiring our own vessel would both come with risks,” Mokomoko mused. “If we could avoid both with these teleportation devices, that would be much safer. I am sure there are still risks with teleporting, but adding that to our list seems like an intelligent choice.”
Their options now were to either send Carol and the others to acquire a ship and spend a long time at sea, or to save Euphemia and use the teleportation devices.
“Okay then, can you guys go and get a boat for us?” Yogiri asked. “While you do that, we’ll go get Euphemia.”
In that case, they should try doing both. Having multiple ways off the island would improve their chances.
“But we have no idea where Miss Euphemia is, do we?” Hanakawa asked.
“They got separated in some underground ruins near the capital, so we’ll just have to start there. What are you going to do, Hanakawa?”
“Ugh...as my face has not yet become known to the public, I feel I should avoid working with Sir Takatou. If I come to be recognized as a companion of his, all believers in Malnarilna across the world may come to view me as an enemy, and I would lose my ability to live peacefully in this world. But no, if I intend to return to our world with you, there is no issue being lumped together with you. But if I were able to build a harem, my chance of living a proper life all but drops to zero. In that case, perhaps it would be best to go our separate ways so that I might find some beautiful women to pamper me in this world...”
“Well, figure it out before we leave.” Yogiri left Hanakawa to argue with himself. “Where were the ruins?”
“Under the forest to the west of us. They’re really close to the capital, so you should be able to find them easily enough.”
Tomochika recalled the scenery they had seen during their flight. There was in fact a forest near the monster that had been attacking the capital.
“So how do we get there from here?”
“We could just fly...but they’d probably see us, wouldn’t they?” Yogiri looked down. Their pursuers were still scouring the entire forest. More of them had arrived, so the moment they left Carol’s barrier, they would probably be discovered. If they got attacked, they’d be forced to defend themselves, but Tomochika didn’t feel that killing their way out of this situation was the correct move.
“I guess we should wait here for a bit. If they don’t find us for a while, they might decide we’ve left the forest and look for us elsewhere.”
“Actually, is there a way we can move the barrier with us as we go?” Tomochika asked Carol. That would be enough to get them safely out of the forest.
“No. If it was just me, I could sneak out, but the barrier is fixed in place.”
“Wait, if I were to conceal my face while I stayed with you, I could act as the mysterious healer, and when a young woman gets into trouble, I could throw off my disguise...” Hanakawa was still mumbling to himself.
“Do you think they’ll give up?” Yogiri asked.
It didn’t seem like the people were being forced to search against their will. They were all desperately seeking their targets, bent on avenging their god. Even if the group escaped the current situation, things would be difficult if Malnarilna’s followers were behaving like this everywhere they went.
As Tomochika started feeling dejected about their future prospects, there was a change in their pursuers.
“Wh-What is that?!”
“I don’t know! What’s happening?!”
The people began to panic. Fear, impatience, and confusion filled the air around them. They were all looking in one direction, so Tomochika turned to see what they were staring at. After a short while, she saw a black humanoid shape covered entirely in blades slowly approaching the townspeople below.
One of the pursuers charged the monster with a roar. He must have been unable to sit still with that horrifying thing standing in front of him. Maybe sitting still and doing nothing would have been the correct answer, but instead, the man swung a weapon down, prompting the creature to take action.
The result was what anyone would have expected. The monster swung its arms, its terrifyingly sharp blades neatly bisecting the man. No matter how devout the believers looking for Yogiri and Tomochika were, there was no way they could keep up the search with that creature around. As one, the mob scattered.
“Wait...that’s the thing we saw in the tower, isn’t it?” Tomochika said.
“That’s the one that came from underground and killed that goddess,” Yogiri confirmed.
Back at the tower, where the selection trials for the Knights of the Divine King were being held, they had tried to go into the basement, but the stairway had gone on forever. As they were wondering what to do, the looped space seemed to be sliced apart and a monster covered in blades had soared past them. It had headed to the surface and killed the goddess there before running off.
“Why is it here, of all places?”
The creature let out a bloodcurdling howl, just like when they were at the tower. It had howled, and then space itself had been cut apart. The same thing happened again now. With a snapping sound, space seemed to split. At least, that was how Tomochika perceived what was happening.
“Uh oh! The ninja barrier!” Carol cried out. Anyone could tell that the invisible walls protecting them were useless in this situation.
The monster looked up at them. There were two red lights on its face, which were likely its eyes. It was definitely looking at them. Its face looked more like a mask, totally unchanging, but somehow, it looked like it was smiling.
“Takatou—”
Before Tomochika could say anything more, it moved. Its blades cut through space itself. Being up in a tree was no protection. The shock wave from the creature’s blades blew past her. It had unleashed an attack, but Yogiri hadn’t retaliated. That must have meant it was attacking someone other than the two of them. But who?
Tomochika turned around and found that Luu had been split in half.
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