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Re:Zero Kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu (LN) - Volume EX5 - Chapter 2.22




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22

Arakiya intently watched the battle unfold between the terrible woman with the gigantic swords and the one-armed swordsman. It had only been twenty or thirty seconds since the fight had started, yet she’d seen a staggering number of volleys and exchanges—attack, defense. The girl was on the edge of death, and yet she was transfixed.

“ ”

The one trading blows with the user of the huge swords, the Hornet, was the man who had brought her this far. Apparently, his name was Al, given that the Hornet kept referring to him as “my sweet little Al.”

The fact that Al somehow continued to survive against the Hornet looked to Arakiya like nothing short of a whole series of miracles. Sad to say, in her eyes, Al’s abilities were no more than second-rate—if she was being generous.

Having spent his life on the sword-slave island, he must have survived many battles for his very life. But he couldn’t hope to improve his abilities further, even with more of these mortal contests. The man named Al had reached the limits of his natural abilities, and it left him with a gulf to the Empress of the sword slaves, a chasm of power, talent, and skill, that would be difficult to bridge. Arakiya judged that if she’d felt like it, even she could have taken Al out in a matter of seconds.

And yet she was confronted with the reality she saw before her.

“Amazing…”

It wasn’t that her estimation of Al’s skill had improved, but rather Al’s fighting style—the way he would parry or dodge the Hornet’s attacks by a hairbreadth, then attempt a pitiful counterattack—that gradually turned Arakiya’s opinion.

He should have been dead by now. With those skills, he shouldn’t have lasted two seconds against the Hornet. And yet here he was, still alive and even trying to fight back. Unlike Arakiya, who had hoped to slip past unseen—an underhanded tactic—Al faced the Hornet head-on, and he kept fighting.

And he did all this—taking on the Hornet—to protect Arakiya.

“—!” She gritted her teeth and forced strength into her arms and legs.

She hadn’t exactly been cut by the blow from the giant sword; it was more the impact itself that had threatened to crush the young woman. She suspected she had a number of broken bones, not to mention a range of internal injuries. She was using the power of the water spirit she’d ingested to speed up her recovery, but she wouldn’t heal quickly. What was more…

“Ding,” the Hornet said warningly, turning toward Arakiya. Even as she’d been fighting with Al, she’d been keeping track of what Arakiya was doing. If Arakiya had tried to make a break for the control tower, the Hornet would no doubt have broken off her fight to stop her. And as much as she hated to admit it, unlike Al, Arakiya couldn’t fathom any way to dodge such an attack. She would be buried by the blow, and there would have been no point to Al’s jumping out to help her.

So what was there that Arakiya could do? Arakiya, who hadn’t been able to repay the most important person in her life even the slightest bit…

“Princess…,” she murmured, casting her eyes to the ground at the thought of the one who had been like a second self to her. Someone who had been by her side since birth but who could be by her side no longer. The imperious young woman who had looked as if she ruled the entire world and who had certainly ruled Arakiya.

“Hear me, you sword-slave rabble!”

A voice dripping arrogance echoed around the island, startling Arakiya and stopping Al and the Hornet in the middle of their battle. They both looked around questioningly, but Arakiya’s amazement was greater than theirs. For they were surprised by the suddenness of the voice, but Arakiya was astonished because she knew the voice.

“There is no future for your uprising. Your leader seeks the emperor’s head; this talk of freedom for the sword slaves is nothing but a diversion. You’ve been had. You are nothing but pitiful headless soldiers.

“Only death awaits you fools. However, your new emperor is not without mercy. If you show the proper attitude, he may reconsider your fate. I advise you to use the wits in those missing heads and determine how you will act.

“Now, O headless soldiers! If you want any hope of getting your heads back, this is your last opportunity!”

With that, before Arakiya could even overcome her stupefaction, the condescending voice cut off, having said what it wished to say.

It had been broadcast through communications devices peppered around the area—metal tubes that carried the voice—and Arakiya, Al, and the Hornet were not the only ones who had heard it. It had reached every corner of the island.

Arakiya was so shocked that she barely had space left in her brain to consider what the voice had actually said. Al and the Hornet had different reactions, however.

“Dunno who that was, but I guess they’re lookin’ to turn the tide on you,” Al said.

“Yes, I guess so. And I’m sure the cowards among us will turn traitor. Even if we might have pulled it off, depending how things went.”

“Heh, don’t be ridiculous. You can’t believe it was ever going to work.”

“Tee-hee-hee!” The Hornet hugged her swords to herself and laughed, her body producing a creaking sound as it spasmed.

“Hey,” Al said, looking at her with genuine distaste. “I know it’s crazy to talk about having a stable life in this place, but did you really take Ubirk so seriously that you were willing to ditch what you had? Tell me you’re not really trying to kill the emperor.”


 

 

  

 

 

“Ohh, of course not. The emperor lives above the clouds, and I couldn’t care less about him. If he was a great warrior, I might be interested in having a fight with him, but it doesn’t sound like it.”

“Yeah, that’s what I hear, too. So what you were after was a test of your strength. You take over the island, then try your hand against whichever of the Nine Divine Generals they send after you. You’re nuts, lady,” Al said, but the Hornet never stopped smiling.

She didn’t deny it—which meant he was right. Her goal had been to fight the Divine Generals, and her wish would come true if they lowered the bridge.

“Why not let us put the drawbridge down, then?”

“Good question. Oh, but the sweet temptation of fighting my dear Al called to me. Not to mention all the other sweet little sword slaves I’ve never got to battle. I just thought—”

“Okay, hold on, time-out. I don’t think I want to hear the rest of this…”

“I thought first I would kill everyone on the island, and when I was out of people to fight, then I would lower the bridge.”

“I just said I didn’t want to hear it.” Al scowled, disgusted by the Hornet’s blasphemous notion. She planned to kill everyone on the island—the sword slaves, everyone connected with the sword slaves, all the spectators who had come to watch the sword slaves—and then when she’d had her fill of their blood, she would throw herself into battle with the Nine Divine Generals. A sort of grand take on suicide.

“You don’t really believe you’re the strongest in the whole world, do you? The strongest person I know about in this world is walkin’ around Lugunica with an elementary schooler’s backpack right about now.”

“I’m not under any illusions that I’m the strongest. No, no, not at all. I’ll run out of strength sometime during the fighting and die.”

“ ” Al said nothing to that.

“But that’s all right by me, you see? Falling gloriously in battle is what I want. By my family name, I swear I’m going to put on a show for them before I go.”

The Hornet licked her lips in anticipation of the battle as she described the manner of her death. She was showing that her mind was made up, that she had no intention of retreating. Al screwed up his black eyes as he watched this warrior make her mad pronouncement, then took the feeble dagger in his hand and scratched his own neck with the blade. Then he said, “Everyone reads too much into dying. It’s ridiculous.”

“ ” This time, it was the Hornet’s turn to say nothing.

“Death isn’t salvation, and it’s not a treasure. It’s just painful and sad. Why don’t you understand that?” He looked at her coldly, with disgust. He felt nothing but contempt for her.

The depth of feeling in Al’s dark eyes was cruel enough to freeze the heart of any who saw him. There was an abyss within them, a place tenebrous and deep into which none had ever gazed. It was such that even the Hornet, who had never looked other than in control, found herself lost for words, stymied by his assertion that the thing she had lived and would die for was trivial, ridiculous.

“I will…fight, too.”

“Hey, young lady, I don’t think you should push yourself too hard. Just stay there and rest.”

“No… I can’t do that.”

Into the lull in the conversation came Arakiya, crawling forward on all fours before rising to her feet. Her mauled shoulder had re-formed itself, and her bones had begun to knit, so that at least she no longer looked like she might fall apart every time she moved. She was still far from fully healed, but she couldn’t let Al fight this battle completely on his own. How could she ever face the princess again if she allowed someone to die after he was drawn into a fight because of her own incompetence?

“The princess…”

The voice she had heard during the announcement belonged to the most important girl in Arakiya’s life. It proved that she had not changed at all. She was still arrogant, still firmly convinced that she held the world in the palm of her hand. That had been the voice of this world’s ruler.

Hearing that voice, Arakiya’s soul had burned within her. She was still under that girl’s control.

“I still…belong…to the princess!”

Knowing that, feeling it in her bones, made Arakiya happier than anything else. When Al saw the flare of her crimson eye, he seemed to decide it would be no more use arguing. Instead, he got a fresh grip on his weapon and faced forward again, he and Arakiya pincering the Hornet, with him in front of her and Arakiya behind.

“All right, Hornet. We’ll grant your wish and finish you. Because there ain’t anyone who can beat me.”



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