Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? - Volume 39 - Chapter 2

In the Shadows

Saturday, August 27th

Unfortunately, Kiriha’s worries were well founded. Ralgwin had indeed left a unit behind. But rather than a detachment, it was an elite soldier—the formidable Gray Knight himself.

“Now then, the problem starts here...”

For the Gray Knight, returning to Earth from orbit wasn’t difficult. He could just blend in with meteors or space debris entering the atmosphere, and once they burned up, conceal himself the rest of the way with the power of chaos. As long as he didn’t land near Koutarou and company, no one would be any the wiser. He thus made a strategic touchdown in the mountains some distance from Kisshouharukaze City.

“His sword shines with the light of nine colors, so why is it still in Signaltin’s form? As long as that remains a mystery, I’m not going to get anywhere,” the Gray Knight mused with a click of his tongue.

He’d remained on Earth to investigate Koutarou’s sword—something not even the sharp-witted Kiriha could have predicted. Each light Signaltin shone with gave it greater power, and with that power, the sword’s form changed. With all nine lights, it should have looked like an entirely different sword. Yet Koutarou’s Signaltin was still Signaltin. The Gray Knight was determined to find out why.

“Guess I’ll observe for the time being... I need to avoid clashing with the sword of kingship while it’s in this incomplete state.”

If he didn’t draw out the true sword of kingship, he wouldn’t be able to accomplish his goals. A battle now would spell a deadlock. He didn’t want to consider it, but it was also possible that he’d ended up in a world where the true sword of kingship didn’t exist at all. The technology for traveling between parallel realities was only in its infancy. He’d potentially ended up in a world that was only similar to his intended destination.

“Jeez, what a pain...” the Gray Knight muttered as he made for Kisshouharukaze City. His gray armor and cape blended into the dark of night, and he seemingly disappeared into the shadows of the trees.

Ever since the civil war, Ceilēshu had been serving as Elfaria’s assistant and secretary. She’d initially been the regent in the empress’s absence, but Elfaria had taken a liking to her delicate work and chosen to keep her close at hand after the fact. This was in accordance with Ceilēshu’s wishes as well. Rather than wanting to become empress herself as she had during the war, she’d since realized that she much preferred working for the empress. And to that end, she was going to see Elfaria today with a message from Earth.

“Oh, you’re earlier than usual today, Ceilēshu-san,” remarked Elfaria, greeting the princess with a smile.

The two women were in the corner of a greenhouse of the imperial palace. Meeting here had become a daily routine for them. Ceilēshu would bring classified reports to share and other sensitive matters to discuss over a cup of tea.

“I see you were waiting, Your Majesty.”

“I woke up early, so I finished with my work early and thought I would take care of these.” With that, Elfaria tucked her pruning shears into her gardening bag and turned to Ceilēshu. As someone who enjoyed drinking tea, the empress was growing several varieties in the greenhouse. She was particularly fond of an ancient variety called Rubustori.

“That’s so like you, Your Majesty. Heehee,” Ceilēshu giggled.

“What?”

“In truth, I’m here because I just received an urgent transmission from Layous-sama,” she reported.

“My!” The moment Elfaria heard this, her face blossomed into a smile and she ran over to Ceilēshu. She looked less like an empress and more like a young girl. It was perfectly clear what Koutarou meant to her. “What did he say?!”

“Please take a look at this.”

Ceilēshu tapped her bracelet to bring up the message for Elfaria in hologram form. Elfaria impatiently touched it with her own bracelet to translate and read it with intense focus. Watching her, Ceilēshu expected her to look like she was reading a letter from her lover... but Elfaria suppressed her feelings. Ceilēshu had served as regent empress herself, so she now understood that Elfaria wasn’t always as free as one might think.

Elfaria’s high spirits quickly faded, her smile replaced with a frown. Koutarou’s message wasn’t personal in nature, but rather a boring administrative request for aid. After sending him a reply, she unhappily leaned on the table and stirred her tea with a spoon without a trace of her normal dignity and elegance.

“Please cheer up, Your Majesty,” Ceilēshu urged her.

“I’m starting to understand Clan-san’s pain. Layous-sama is too perfect of a hero.” Right now, Elfaria looked like a girl in a long distance relationship who was sulking because she hadn’t heard from her boyfriend. “Would it kill him to butter up his mother-in-law...?”

Elfaria would have been happy with a single line in Koutarou’s message meant specifically for her, even if it was just about the Rubustori tea she was growing in the greenhouse. Yet there was nary a word. Koutarou was a workaholic, or rather a heroholic, and it broke Elfaria’s heart. Of course, given the gravity of the situation, Koutarou couldn’t be blamed for his forthright seriousness.

“Would Empress Alaia truly have loved him if he were that kind of man?” Ceilēshu pressed her. Though she’d mentioned Alaia, she had a different imperial royal in mind—she simply kept that part to herself.

“I hate it when you are logical like that,” Elfaria replied.

“My, haha, you’re acting like a child.”

Ceilēshu had brought it up herself, but she couldn’t help reflecting on how true it was. Elfaria and Theia were a two-person family, and because of Elfaria’s duties as empress, Theia had undoubtedly had a lonely childhood. Elfaria’s likely hadn’t been much different—until she met her knight in shining blue armor, that is. There was no question that he’d become a pillar of support for her. As a fellow royal, Ceilēshu was painfully aware of Elfaria’s feelings for him.

“To Your Majesty, Layous-sama must be...”

“Ceilēshu-san?”

“I-It’s nothing... I was just thinking that perhaps you should express your frustration to Layous-sama directly.”

“What do you mean?”

“Based on this message, Layous-sama will be returning to Forthorthe before long.”

“What?”

Elfaria quickly reread the message. In it, Koutarou mentioned his battle against Ralgwin and subsequent voyage to keep him at bay for as long as possible. She’d been too upset to realize it on her first readthrough, but now that she put everything together, that did indeed mean he was currently on his way to Forthorthe.

She’s become such a wonderful empress whilst retaining her feelings from her youth... I really am no match for Her Majesty, ahaha...

Elfaria was ordinarily a sage woman, but when it came to Koutarou, she would sometimes lose sight of herself in the heat of her emotions. Ceilēshu felt like it was part of her charm.

“Ahem... I apologize for behaving in such an unbecoming fashion.”

“There’s no need to apologize, Your Majesty. It’s only natural for the royal families of Forthorthe to be fixated on him.”

“Let us get to work straight away, Ceilēshu-san. I want to be perfectly prepared for Layous-sama’s arrival.”

“Certainly.”

Elfaria wanted to give Koutarou a piece of her mind, and she couldn’t do that with Ralgwin on the loose. That meant she needed to do something. The empress and Blue Knight would only be able to talk in peace when the safety of the people was assured.

Upon receiving word from Koutarou, Elfaria immediately moved to suppress Ralgwin. The first thing she did was expose a holdout of Vandarion’s faction in hiding outside of the Forthorthian star system. Thanks to Nefilforan’s campaign before she left for Earth, Vandarion’s faction had been all but snuffed out already. There were small cells still active in distant systems, but that was to be expected given the vast galactic reach of the Forthorthian Empire. Elfaria’s first countermeasure was thus to prevent Ralgwin from finding and uniting with them.

Her second countermeasure—monitoring the distribution of specific rare materials—was done in tandem. It was similar to what Kiriha had done in Japan to locate Ralgwin’s base. In addition to military technology, she watched the buying and selling of niche goods needed for the production of magical and spiritual technology. This, however, was largely a preemptive measure. Ralgwin wouldn’t be in the trade for some time yet, as he’d yet to reach Forthorthe and set up his operation. Elfaria was simply casting an anticipatory net.

Her real objective was her third countermeasure, which was a special variation of the previous two. Forthorthe naturally had areas rich in mana, and the most appealing to Ralgwin would be the mana-rich lands nearest to the holdout bases of Vandarion’s factions. Even without an existing base nearby, as long as the land was sufficiently mana-rich, Ralgwin would want to build there to make use of it. In light of this, Elfaria’s third countermeasure was scouting such places and moving to secure them before Ralgwin could. In charge of this mission were her newly appointed court magicians.

“Crimson, I get that you’re happy, but you can’t just go around destroying everything,” scolded Green.

“I know that. I’d hate to get fired before I fight the grand wizard,” replied Crimson.

“Getting fired is the least of our worries...”

Elfaria’s court magicians—the former leaders of Darkness Rainbow, sans Dark Navy, whose seat was currently empty—served her directly. Crimson, Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Purple were originally sentenced to imprisonment for their involvement in the civil war, but Elfaria had struck a deal with them—their service in exchange for their freedom. As they’d switched sides toward the end of the war, Elfaria didn’t think they were truly evil. Moreover, they already had a good understanding of the culture and the situation in Forthorthe, so they were an immediate asset. If Elfaria had instead recruited magicians from Folsaria, it would have taken quite some time to get them up to speed. The arrangement was beneficial for both parties.

“For better or worse, nobody’s going to complain even if we were to destroy the location,” said Purple. “It’s an old mine.”

“For real?!” gasped Crimson.

“Yes. It was built to extract gold tinged with mana, but as gold mines go, it’s not very large. It was shut down years ago. In addition, the planet it’s on isn’t conducive to habitation, so there are no civilian facilities in the vicinity. Vandarion’s faction has been confirmed to be in the area, however, so we need to secure it.”

Their objective this time was a mana-ridden gold mine. Of course, its original owner had been none the wiser about the mana in the mine. They’d simply extracted and sold the precious metal there as regular gold, ultimately folding their operation due to lack of profits. It was completely abandoned now. No one would really care if Crimson raised hell there.

“If it’s abandoned, there aren’t going to be any enemies there... I got my hopes up for nothing,” she complained, her shoulders slumping when she heard Purple’s report.

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” cut in Yellow with a smile.

“What do you mean?” Crimson asked, looking up at her.

“It seems like Vandarion’s faction is doing whatever they can to stage a comeback... even sending people to look into abandoned mines.”

“I guess they don’t have any magic weapons, do they? Are they just interested in mining the gold? Don’t they know the place shut down ’cause it couldn’t turn a buck?”

The remnants of Vandarion’s faction in Forthorthe weren’t aware of the existence of magic, and they would remain oblivious to it until they reconnected with Ralgwin. So even if they reopened the mine now, they’d only be harvesting mundane gold like the previous owner. Crimson couldn’t wrap her head around why anyone would want to restart a failed business venture.

“It wasn’t profitable before, sure. But that could change if they take a page out of our old book,” Yellow explained.

“Ah, so that’s what you meant,” Crimson remarked.

The previous owner of the mine had been an ordinary citizen who used ordinary methods and business practices. If Vandarion’s faction took a different approach—ignoring safety regulations, using forced labor, evading taxes, and so on—they might be able to turn a tidy profit.

“And here we are now trying to put a stop to exactly that. What a strange twist of fate...” Blue muttered as she played with her hair.

Though the girls were now court magicians, it wasn’t long ago that they’d been the leaders of an evil organization. They knew every dirty trick in the book, but now they were on the other side of the fence. It was indeed quite a turn of events.

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles,” Orange said matter-of-factly. “We found out we just weren’t cut out for that kind of life.”

They’d had a change of heart after their defeat at the hands of Koutarou and company. They’d come to realize that they would never win by exploiting their own allies. Since then, they’d been spending more time together and learning how to cooperate. It opened up a sort of understanding between the girls and an awareness of their common interests. That gradually colored their interactions and their views of each other until they’d grown to be as close as they were now. Deep down, they understood that they were all just looking for friends they could trust.

“But fighting’s a big pain, so I’ll leave that to you, Crim-chan,” said Orange.

“You’re always like this,” sighed Crimson.

“I hate getting dirty.”

“Jeez... Anyway, Purple, does this mean there’ll be enemies to fight after all?”

“There’s a fifty-fifty chance based on the intel I have. I guess it just comes down to luck.”

“Then I bet they’ll be there. I’m pretty confident in my luck.”

“Wouldn’t it be lucky if they’re not there...? You really do love fighting, don’t you?”

“Right, wrong, whatever... Honestly, I don’t really care so long as I get to fight.”

The six girls set out in matching outfits of bright colors. Even after departing, they still stuck together—something they never did before. They’d developed a strong sense of camaraderie and a desire to accomplish their goals as a team.

The mine investigation turned into a combat mission, just as Crimson had anticipated, when they encountered a reconnaissance team sent by Vandarion’s faction. Nevertheless, after they returned to the spaceship they used for missions, Crimson despondently collapsed onto the table in their meeting room.

“In the end, there weren’t any enemies...” she sighed, looking bored.

“Yes, there were. What are you talking about? There were quite a few of them too,” Green replied, taking a seat next to her as if to console her. Her words, however, had no soothing effect whatsoever.

“Those guys totally didn’t count,” Crimson insisted. “They were just small fry.”

Crimson was unhappy because the enemies they’d fought were weak. Although Vandarion’s faction was armed with military-grade weapons such as assault rifles, they were no match for Elfaria’s six court magicians. In other words, the difference between them was such that Crimson hardly considered it a fight at all.

“They were just a small force hiding in a remote region. There wasn’t much chance they’d have elite soldiers or heavy artillery,” said Yellow from across the table.

She, for one, was glad the enemies had been weak. The girls had only just been established as court magicians and there wasn’t a prayer of them getting backup in the near future. Everyone aside from Crimson was hoping to avoid any intense clashes.

“Aren’t there any enemies out there?! You know, good ones! I’m not asking for the grand wizard to show up, but couldn’t they at least send some giant robots or something?!”

If such enemies really did start appearing, the court magicians would be in grave danger. But Crimson didn’t care. She’d learned to love her friends, but she loved combat above all else.

“Crim-chan, the people who’ll bring out that kind of stuff have only just gotten here, you know? We won’t see them for a while,” Orange said from where she sat across the table, kicking her legs. And she was right.

Ralgwin and his forces aside, Nefilforan had put in a great deal of work to quash any significant resistance lingering in Forthorthe. And since Ralgwin had likely only just arrived in Forthorthe, it would be some time yet before he and his men made their move. They needed to settle in and prepare first.

“What are they taking their sweet time for?!” Crimson demanded. “Being able to act on your whims and do as you please is half the fun of being evil!”

“Don’t worry, Crimson. If you show off your strength, I’m sure strong enemies are bound to come up with countermeasures specifically for you,” Green assured her.

“Really? Did you see that in one of your future forecasts?”

“I did. It’s not entirely clear to me yet, but it seems likely.”

“Then I guess I’ll try a little extra hard...”

It was hard to say that Crimson truly thought of herself as a court magician. Nevertheless, her dedication to her comrades and her obsession with fighting drove her to stay the course. Watching her raise a fuss, Yellow grew pensive.

Maya and Elexis sure left some big shoes to fill... Will we ever really be able to do it?

Yellow worried that Crimson’s agitation was the result of losing people precious to her for the first time. The same could be said for the other girls and even Yellow herself. She’d often catch herself wondering what Maya and Elexis would have done if they were still around. It wasn’t like she was nervous about her new environment or the missions the girls were now taking on. She was simply concerned about their future.