Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 13 - Chapter 7

As You Wish

Saturday, May 22nd

Several days had passed since the battle, and Koutarou and the girls had returned to their everyday lives. Theia and Elfaria, who had escaped from their homeland, were now staying on Earth. The situation in Forthorthe had progressed exactly as Elexis had predicted, and there was now a temporary lull in the coup d’etat. Theia and Elfaria remained in contact with the Elfaria’s supporters left behind in the country, and they were now in the process of gathering information and making preparations to retake the country. As a result, they couldn’t make any moves at the moment either.

As the commotion began settling down, Koutarou called Theia up to Harukaze High’s rooftop. He was going to reveal what he had been hiding from Theia all this time.

Even after the battle had ended, Theia hadn’t asked Koutarou anything. She was patiently waiting for him to tell her. He couldn’t find it in him to betray that trust. On top of that, Theia had risked her life to protect him. He felt the least he owed her now was the truth. And he’d decided to make good on that today.

“The weather’s great today...”

With the summer season drawing ever nearer, the May sky was a vivid blue. There were thick, fluffy clouds here and there in distinct shapes. Koutarou leaned against the handrail on the roof and blankly stared up at the sky. He could hear the sounds of birds and cars off in the distance. It was a calm pre-summer afternoon, and he quickly lost track of time taking it all in.

“Hahh, hahh, hahh...”

The next thing he knew, he heard the sound of labored breathing. It sounded like someone had run all the way up to the roof. They sounded exhausted. But nevertheless, Koutarou could tell who it was just from the sound of their breathing. After all, it was someone he had a very deep relationship with.

“Phew...”

Once they caught their breath, they stood next to Koutarou and, just like him, leaned on the handrail and looked up into the sky. They were short and barely reached Koutarou’s shoulder, but their long hair fluttered behind them in the breeze. It shone like golden flax, or woven rays of sunlight.

“...”

“...”

And the two of them just stood there in the warm breeze for a while. Since it was nearly summer, it was exceptionally pleasant outside. A near perfect day. The girl’s fluttering golden hair fell into disorder from the wind, but it continued to shine radiantly as it reflected the sun. She ran her fingers through it, making her look like an actress in some movie. Koutarou stared at her until the wind slowly died down.

“Say, Theia...”

The girl with the gorgeous golden hair was none other than Theiamillis Gre Forthorthe, the very one Koutarou had invited up to the roof. She’d come at his request, and looked up at him when he said her name. With her facial features, clear blue eyes, and golden hair, she looked just like an angel that had descended from the heavens.

“Can you believe everything I’m about to tell you?”

“Why would you ask something like that?”

“Because I’m about to tell you something nobody would normally believe.”

“Is our relationship normal?”

“I’d say it’s not.”

“Then you can tell me without worrying. If you seriously told me that the sun would rise from the west tomorrow, I would believe you.”

“Thanks, Theia...”

With that, Koutarou stood up from leaning on the railing and turned towards Theia. She responded in kind. They stood facing each other, so close they could reach out to one another.

“Now then, where should I start...?”

“Start from the beginning. There’s no need to rush.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

There was so much Koutarou had to talk about, and she was right. The best way to tell her everything without causing confusion was to start from the beginning. He thought back to what had caused the complex situation he was in now. It had started with a very specific event about half a year ago.

“Theia, do you remember when Clan and I went missing?”

“Yes. There’s no way I’d forget. That was the day I realized that I love you.”

Theia blushed slightly and smiled. Looking at her cute expression, Koutarou almost forgot what he was talking about. But it was important for him to explain now, so he quieted his racing heart and continued.

“The problem was where we ended up.”

“You said you went to a different world.”

“Yeah. It was complicated, so I left it at that.”

“Then where did you really go?”

That was when Theia’s expression clouded over. Koutarou’s sword, his strange back and forth with Elfaria, the various programs installed aboard Blue Knight. With all of those things in her mind, Theia felt the vague anxiety she had the day of the battle.

“To Forthorthe, specifically two thousand years in the past. And there... I met the Silver Princess.”

“H-How could...”

Theia’s eyes opened as wide as they possibly could.

What Koutarou had just said far exceeded anything she could have imagined. She had suspected that Koutarou might have travelled to the past, but not two thousand years to the time of the Silver Princess.

Hearing that, Theia’s mind wandered in a very specific direction. There was something she had wished for in the past, but she would be troubled if Koutarou spoke of it now.

“There, I got in the way of the Silver Princess and the Blue Knight meeting. That’s why I had to take the place of the Blue Knight.”

He said exactly what Theia thought he might.

“Koutarou, wait!”

She interrupted Koutarou with a pale face. She spoke so quickly to stop him that she was at risk of biting her own tongue. To Theia, something that must never happen was about to occur.

“If what you’re saying is true then, the legend of the Blue Knight in Forthorthe is all about you?!”

“That’s right. We never did find the real Blue Knight, so I had to see things through to the end. If I didn’t, history would have changed and we wouldn’t have been able to come back here.”

“Do you understand what that means?!”

With her eyes full of tears, Theia grabbed at Koutarou’s chest. She clenched his white shirt tightly between her small fingers. She was distraught.

“That means that you are the real Blue Knight!”

“I’m just a substitute.”

“No! You don’t understand a thing!”

Theia shook her head violently. Both her scattering tears and her disheveled hair sparkled in the sun.

“How could just a substitute attract that Silver Princess’s heart?! How could she entrust just a substitute with Signaltin, the sword that controls the fate of the country?! There was never any other Blue Knight from the very beginning!”

Koutarou had called himself a substitute, but Theia who was more knowledgeable of the legend knew that there never could have been two Blue Knights. He’d appeared mysteriously to begin with, and disappeared the same way. He had magical armor and weapons. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. But it all made sense if she assumed that the Blue Knight had come from a different age.

“Think back to it! Did you save the Silver Princess because you were just a substitute?! You didn’t, did you?! Since she understood that! She loved you! She wasn’t naive enough to be fooled by your acting!”

The most convincing evidence of all was the way the Silver Princes—Alaia herself—felt for him. There was no way the legendary princess would fall in love with an act. And Alaia had certainly fallen in love with the Blue Knight, with Koutarou, because he had desperately protected her and the others until the end.

“She’s the same as me! She fell in love with you because of who you are! That was why she entrusted you with Signaltin! You are without a doubt the Blue Knight!”

Theia loved Koutarou as well. She had also entrusted him with a sword. She was painfully aware of how Alaia must have felt. There was no substitute for Koutarou anywhere in the universe.

“I’m... the real...?”

“That’s right! You are! You are the Blue... the Blue Knight...”

Theia’s words deteriorated into sobbing. Unable to properly answer him, she sunk down on the spot, placed her hands on the ground, and let her emotions out.

“Uuaaaaah, waaah, aaaaahhh!”

She was overflowing with tears and deep sadness.

“Theia... Why are you crying?”

Theia’s reaction came as a surprise to Koutarou. He thought that she would be disappointed or angry. He hadn’t expected her to cry like that.

“Because... Because you’re the Blue Knight!”

Theia slowly clenched her fists, scratching her fingers along the concrete floor. Tears dripped from her cheeks like tiny waterfalls, and her voice trembled with sorrow.

“The Blue Knight is the Silver Princess’s knight! Someone like me doesn’t stand a chance against her! You wouldn’t love me! You only became my vassal because of your loyalty to the Silver Princess, right?!”

To Theia, Koutarou was no longer just your average knight. She wanted her bond with Koutarou to be simple. Something that had come from a simple meeting, and slowly grown into something more.

But now she’d come to find out Koutarou was the Blue Knight. The Blue Knight had absolute loyalty for the Silver Princess, and he was still protecting the royal families even now. That meant that the bond Theia and Koutarou shared was really just an offshoot of the Blue Knight’s bond with the Silver Princess.

Theia didn’t have the confidence that she was a splendid enough princess to win his loyalty on her own. That’s why she believed that Koutarou was protecting her because of his loyalty to the Silver Princess. So to Theia, Koutarou admitting that he was the Blue Knight was the same as saying he was out of her reach.

“Theia...”

“Why... Why did you have to be the Blue Knight?! I could never be a match for the Silver Princess! Not a selfish and immature woman like me... Uaaaaaaaahh!”

Theia broke down crying again, and her already small body shrunk further. Her sorrowful cries rang out, her tears rained on the concrete roof, and she trembled under the weight of it all.

“Theia.”

Koutarou squatted down next to Theia and gently touched her shoulder.

“I don’t need any sympathy! I... I loved you! Not the Blue Knight, but you! Yet... Yet...”

Theia shook Koutarou’s hand off and continued to cry. In the past, she had desired to obtain the Blue Knight for herself, but now he had appeared when she least wanted him to. What she wanted now wasn’t the Blue Knight, but the Koutarou she’d always been with. To Theia, this was a horrible twist of fate.

“Theia, listen. You misunderstand.”

Now that he understood why Theia was upset, Koutarou called out to her in an attempt to clear up the misunderstanding. That had to be resolved no matter what.

“I don’t want to listen! I don’t need you to comfort me! No matter how much you try to gloss it over, you are the Blue Knight!”

But Theia didn’t want to hear him. Her rival was the Silver Princess. Once she learned that, she was beset with inconceivable shock, and her heart closed itself off. And that troubled Koutarou, which was why he desperately spoke of how he really felt.

“Think about it, Theia. I came back. To this age. Where you guys are. Why would I be here if what you’re saying is true? Wouldn’t I have stayed by Her Majesty Alaia’s side?”

The moment she heard those words, Theia and her tears froze completely. It was just as Koutarou said. If he truly loved Alaia, there would have been no reason for him to come back to Earth. If his position as the Blue Knight was a problem, he could have just hid it and stayed in the past. Yet here he was, proof he’d returned to Earth.

“Her Majesty did ask me to stay in Forthorthe and serve the royal family, but I declined.”

Theia pressed her hands against the floor and pushed herself up. She then slowly looked up and stared at Koutarou. Because of all her tears, her face was mess.

“...Why? Why did you come back?”

Looking so unlike a princess, Theia asked Koutarou pointblank why he was here. Faint hope and the shadow of anxiety were visible her eyes. He reached out with his hand, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and smiled.

“Because I made a promise with you guys.”

“Promise...? What are you talking about?”

Theia tried to recall what promise Koutarou was talking about and blinked repeatedly in blank confusion. As she did, the few remaining tears in her eyes streamed down her cheeks.

“At the Christmas party. We all made a promise back then, remember?”

Koutarou gave Theia an embarrassed smile for a moment, and then explained.

“We all promised to make the play a success.”

“That promise... You so earnestly protected a promise like that...”

The promise they exchanged at the Christmas party, and the bonds they’d cultivated that led up to that were what had brought Koutarou back to Earth. The Silver Princess had indeed been a wonderful person. She was someone Koutarou wanted to help, someone he wouldn’t mind serving. However, even then, Koutarou hadn’t forgotten about the promise and the people waiting for him back on Earth. That’s why he’d declined the Silver Princess’s offer and returned home.

That might have been the first case of Koutarou, who normally kept people at a distance, actually desiring others.

“Oh, and also, you said that I was Her Majesty Alaia’s knight, but you’re wrong.”

“How could that be?! You’re the Blue Knight, aren’t you?!”

“I was acting like a knight despite not having a title. That’s why I was never formally her knight.”

“Then...”

“That’s right. There is only one person in this world who I’ve asked to make me her knight.”

Koutarou stared directly at Theia, and spoke the name of his one and only lord.

“Theia, you are my only princess.”

“K-Koutarou...”

The tears that should have stopped began flowing all over again. Yet this time, they were tears of joy.

“Don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying! I’m laughing! At how stupid you are!”

“Stupid?”

“That’s right, stupid! She was the Silver Princess, you know?! The strongest princess and empress in Forthorthe’s history! And you declined her offer to come back here! You’re not just stupid, but an idiot, too!”

Still crying, Theia began pounding on Koutarou’s chest. The force behind her fists was weak, but the emotions in them were powerful. Koutarou felt Theia’s earnest and warm feeling pouring into him each time she hit him.

“Don’t call me stupid all the time. I might start believing I really am.”

“You really are! You chose us over the legendary princess! And on top of everything, you chose to swear loyalty to a flat-chested, selfish woman!”

Koutarou had chosen his own life over the life of the Blue Knight. That’s why he returned and sworn loyalty to her. Theia was unbelievably happy. It was like this validated her entire existence.

“A traditional knight of Forthorthe upholds his oaths and is a man of his word. Isn’t that a perfect match for an old-fashioned princess like you?”

“Stupid! Idiot! You big idiot!”

Unable to contain herself, Theia embraced Koutarou and began crying even harder. She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her cheek against his chest.

Theia needs me this much...

Koutarou gently hugged Theia back. He wanted to let her know that he needed her too.

“You might call me stupid, but I’m glad I came back.”

Theia’s small body fit perfectly in Koutarou’s arms. It made him smile.

“Because I can protect you with my own hands like this... It’s best to keep people precious to you close by so you can protect them yourself.”

As he hugged her, Koutarou felt like was protecting Theia. Like he was protecting someone who had put her life on the line to protect him. That sensation gave him joy.

“Then protect me... Take responsibility and do so until the very end...”

Theia muttered and closed her eyes. She had found someone she could entrust not just her body, but her heart to as well. She was truly blissful at being able to connect with him like this.

“And... only once you have seen us all live happy lives to our fullest may you die...”

Being hugged by Koutarou, Theia also clearly felt like this was the place she belonged. Just like she and the others needed Koutarou, he needed them. Those feelings and bonds were surely stronger than fate itself.

“...As you wish, my princess.”

“Mm... Very good...”

That’s why Theia could believe that even if further hardships awaited her in the future, Koutarou and the girls of room 106 would live happily ever after.

For a teenager like Shizuka, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that maintaining her looks was one of her top priorities. Thanks to her doing martial arts training, her figure was not a problem. But she was aware that she had let her guard down and eaten a little too much since the battle a few days ago. She was sure of it because the floorboards in her apartment were starting to creak more. That’s why she began worrying that she might be putting on weight even if she didn’t look like it.

So immediately after getting out of the shower, Shizuka pulled out a scale from her wardrobe. Her only chance she had to weigh herself was when her roommate, Maki, was taking her shower.

“All right...”

After bracing herself, Shizuka timidly put a foot on the scale.

The scale that she had been using for over ten years was an analogue one, a rare sight these days. Shizuka’s ideal weight was 46 kilograms. Compared to her classmates around her height, it was a little on the heavy side, but she knew that was because of her muscular build thanks to her martial arts training. But after eating so much, Shizuka was prepared to see a figure of around 48 kilograms.

“Huh?”

But when Shizuka put both of her feet on the scale, the needle took off and hit the far end of the scale with a dull thud. The scale went up to 200 kilograms, and the needle was pointing past that.

“Oh, it’s broken... I’ll have to get a new one... Hahh, another extra expense...”

Shizuka figured that the scale must be broken and slumped her shoulders. There was no way that she could weigh over 200 kilograms, after all.

But Shizuka had no idea that there was a dragon living inside her that stood over twenty-five meters tall. She’d be lucky if she only weighed 200 kilograms.