Yari no Yuusha no Yarinaoshi (LN) - Volume 2 - Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: Carved into the Heart 

“Eagle Piercing Shot!” 
Itsuki locked onto Father with pinpoint accuracy and unleashed his attack. It was an attack with considerable piercing might—powerful enough that I worried it might shatter Father’s defensive capabilities. But Father, implementing the power-up method I had taught him, did his best to block the attack. 
“Air One-Way Shield!” Father cried, creating a shield that managed to deflect Itsuki’s arrow. “Itsuki! Please listen! We can’t afford to be fighting now!” 
“Shut up already!” 
I had to figure out some way to silence Itsuki without killing him. He wouldn’t listen to us as long as he didn’t know who was really stronger. So if we gave him a little taste of failure, perhaps he’d be willing to hear Father out. He needed to understand just how vast a difference there was between us. 
The only problem was that if I launched a high-powered attack, I’d end up killing him. 
“That’s right! This is a holy war!” cried the high priest. He struck the ground with the Legendary Replica Weapon, creating a massive chasm in the earth. 
It wasn’t too difficult for our troops to simply run away from the chasm, but soon magma came bursting out of the ground. 
“Yikes!” Father quickly created a shield underfoot as the magma rushed across the plain. 
They couldn’t even scratch us. 
Incidentally, that skill the high priest had used to make the chasm was called Fissure Strike. It’s a skill that creates a chasm randomly in the nearby area. If you focus to control the direction, you can also ensure that it only attacks your enemies. 
“At long last, the time to exterminate the demonic Shield Hero has come!” cried the high priest maniacally. “Begin the Judgment aria!” 
“Don’t lose now!” called Father. “Everyone, start the collective ritual magic!” 
I turned around and saw the shusaku representative and the filolials racing up from behind, beginning to chant a protective spell. Sakura rushed up to Father and hugged him tight. 
“Naofumi, are you okay?” 
“We’re fine,” Father said. “Just be careful, Sakura!” 
“Don’t be so reckless, Naofumi!” Filo-tan always used to be concerned about Father too, I say. 
“Take that! And that!” 
Meanwhile, Kou was mowing down Melromarc soldiers with a series of vicious kicks. 
“Haikuikku Strike!” cried Sakura, racing into an attack of her own. 
Oho? Her attack reminded me a bit of Filo-tan’s. 
Sakura launched off at a high speed, knocking down countless soldiers between the high priest and us. It was like Sakura was picking dust out of her feathers. 
“We opened a clear path, Motoyasu!” called Sakura. The soldiers that had been standing in the way vomited blood and keeled over. She had wiped out all the soldiers in a straight-line attack. 
“Thanks, Sakura!” I declared. 
The most troublesome opponent of all remained—the high priest. I was determined to stop him now and took a step forward. 
Just then a large group of Melromarc reinforcements arrived. 
“Ha!” The high priest laughed. “My reinforcements are here. Eliminate the Shield and Spear Demons where they stand!” 
But the new Melromarc reinforcements were attacking their own troops. 
“W-what’s happening?” the high priest cried. “Why are they betraying their own countrymen!?” 
“Oiyoink!?” The crimson swine was squawking as if she couldn’t believe what was happening. 
“That’s because you’re not the real Melromarc army!” a knight shouted. 
A knight on horseback cut through the enemy on the way over toward Father, with none other than the old genmu at her side. 
Could that be? 
“E-Eclair!” Father gasped. 
“Sorry we took so long,” Éclair said. 
“What are you doing here?” Father asked. “I thought you went to Faubrey!” 
“Luckily for us, we ran into the queen of Melromarc on our way over there,” Éclair said. “She explained everything to us—the situation in Melromarc, the details of the heroes’ summoning, and what barbaric acts the king had planned too.” 
When Trash saw that Éclair and the old genmu were with us, he called out with a furious expression. 
“Eclair! You traitor! You’ve turned the Melromarc army against us!” 
“That’s right, I did. But you’re not the true Melromarc army in the first place—just an annoying band of misfits, because now, by proxy, I will announce the will of the queen!” 
Eclair unfurled a parchment and withdrew a crystal. An image of the queen floated to the surface of the crystal and began to speak. 
“I declare that the group claiming to be the Melromarc army is no longer a part of our country. From now on, all these traitors to the Melromarc army—sparing no effort and cooperating alongside the Siltvelt military—will fight Shieldfreeden instead!” With that, the projection vanished. 
“What . . . What the . . . My wife, betraying me? It can’t be! Impossible!” 
“The queen of Melromarc has told us the truth—that you’re a lying imposter masquerading as the Wisest King of Wisdom,” Eclair shouted. “The real Wisest King of Wisdom is still in the castle, opposing this war! Melromarc soldiers! Capture the imposter, bring him back to Melromarc, and we will take his life! Tie him up! The imposter Wisest King of Wisdom!” 
Trash couldn’t believe his ears. He screamed back at Eclair. 
“The one in the castle is the real imposter! Listen, Melromarc forces, the Church of the Three Heroes, annihilate the fraud Melromarc army! I command you!” 
The army bellowed its agreement. 
“Well, they’re not listening, so we don’t have much of a choice,” Eclair said. She turned to me and whispered into my ear. “Mr. Kitamura, can you do me a favor? Do something insanely powerful and show them all that we can’t afford to be fighting each other here.” 
But as she said that, I noticed that there seemed to be a change in Itsuki’s expression. 
“Itsuki, who do you think is right here?” Father was saying to him. 
Itsuki took a step back, looking flustered. 
“N-no way! Just like King Aultcray says, you’re the evil ones! Say your prayers!” 
How stupid could he possibly be? 
Meanwhile, it looked like the high priest had started to cast some magic. I hurried across the path of fallen soldiers that Sakura had opened up for us. 
“So you’re the Spear Fraud, I see,” sneered the high priest. “Your sins are heavy! In the name of God, exterminate him!” 
The high priest proclaimed his victory and fired a Brionac in my direction. 
But his replica weapon wasn’t much of a replica. He wasn’t much stronger than any other small fry, as it turned out. 
I blocked the attack with my spear and flung it right back at the rows of Church of the Three Heroes priests who were busy chanting that magic aria. Their agonized screams were like music to my ears. 
The high priest stared at me in disbelieving horror. 
“Maybe you understand now?” I said. “You never stood a chance.” 
I grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off the ground—and raised my fully charged-up spear to his throat. 
“Brionac X!” 
“Oh God—” the high priest screamed. 
With that, I turned him and his fraudulent replica weapon to dust. 
The surrounding priests were at a loss for words. 
“He killed the high priest so easily . . .” 
“N-no! The high priest is just pretending to be dead! He’ll fly back down any moment now! Pray, everyone, pray with all your might!” 
They were doing everything they could to escape reality, I say. 
“If by some miracle he comes back, I’ll just kill him again,” I informed them, but for some reason they didn’t seem to hear me. 
Oho? In the background, I noticed that Father and Itsuki were fighting. 
Looking around the battlefield, now I could clearly tell apart the real Melromarc army and the enemy—the imposter army and the Church of the Three Heroes. I could finish off our enemies easily. 
“Mr. Kitamura, we’ve been ordered to apprehend the culprit pretending to be Aultcray alive,” Eclair said. “You might not like it, but can you catch him without killing him?” 
“Leave it to me, I say!” I declared. “Aiming Lancer X!” 
I focused intensely and launched the skill. I activated multi-lock functionality and sent a flash of light over the enemy army, targeting a wide radius, including the imposter army and the Church of the Three Heroes. I fired. 
My spear shot out a burst of light that glimmered through the sky and, landing in the battlefield like a blinding comet, annihilated hundreds of soldiers and priests in a scourge of flame. Screams scattered to the sky like flocks of birds. 
“Air Strike Javelin!” I shouted, cutting down the surviving soldiers. 
“Ritual Magic Typhoon!” 
By that time, the magic that Yuki and the filolials had been chanting had finally taken shape, and it thoroughly eliminated the remaining soldiers in a violent storm of thunder and lightning. 
The Siltvelt army was able to return to the fight against Shieldfreeden in good spirits, leaving the remaining Melromarc imposter soldiers to the real Melromarc soldiers. 
All that was left was the imposter Trash. I could see him at a complete loss for words, guarded by a group of soldiers. 
“This isn’t over yet!” Itsuki said. “We haven’t lost yet!” 
Itsuki still hadn’t learned his lesson. He was preparing to use a skill. 
“Shooting Star Bow!” 
Shooting Star Bow is a long-range attack that launches an arrow with stars trailing it. Itsuki faced Father and fired. 
Cool and composed, Father blocked the arrow with his shield. 
“Aiming Lancer!” I shouted. 
After my cooldown time had elapsed, I struck Itsuki with Aiming Lancer set to its bare minimum power. 
Itsuki and his comrades were knocked off their feet and groaned with pain. 

Last but not least . . . 
“Paralyze Lance!” 
All of his writhing around was a nuisance, so I used Paralyze Lance on Itsuki to freeze him in place. His face had a strange expression. As if he wanted to say, ‘This is just a game, right?’ 
Unfortunately for Itsuki, this was not a game, but very much a real-life defeat. 
With the rest of the soldiers finally disposed of, Eclair rode up to Trash on her horse. 
“All right then, imposter Wisest King of Wisdom. By order of the queen, I’ll be escorting you back to Melromarc.” 
The imposter moaned. “I haven’t lost! I haven’t lost!” 
“Certainly, the real Wisest King of Wisdom wouldn’t have been defeated so easily,” Werwer muttered, watching the scene. 
Where did the crimson swine go? I figured as soon as she sensed they were at a disadvantage, she abandoned Trash and Itsuki and ran off. But just where did she flee to? 
Then I spotted her hiding across the field. 
“You’ll never escape me!” I proclaimed. 
Sprinting after her and leaping forward, I stabbed her with my spear from behind! 
Éclair did say that we only had to capture Trash, right? Which meant that disposing of the crimson swine was perfectly acceptable! 
“Oink oink!” 
The crimson swine was squealing madly after I stabbed her. 
“Your despicable deeds have come back to bite you, I say!” 
Father and Éclair watched in shocked silence. Finally, Éclair spoke up. 
“So you’re that scheming princess, Myne. I’ve received a message from the queen for you too. She says you’ve gone too far.” 
“Oink! Oink, oooiink!” 
She wasn’t dead yet, I observed. Unexpectedly tough. 
But her vile pig squeals were making my ears ring. I had to put a stop to them, I say. 
“Burst Lance X!” 
The crimson swine let out one of the most blood-curdling oinks I had ever heard in my life. 
Burst Lance X is a skill that causes the object you stab to explode. I ran my spear right through the crimson swine’s gut and thrust her up into the air. She exploded with such a vicious force that not a single trace of her existence remained. 
There was a bit of an awkward silence. 
Éclair stared blankly at me and the place where the crimson swine had been standing. I had no idea what she was thinking. 
Trash, although still restrained by Éclair, flung out his hands toward me in wild agony. 
“Malty!” he screamed. “Malty!!!” 
I had eliminated one more repugnant piece of trash from this world, I say. I felt refreshed and invigorated. 
“Sorry, but it’s a pain if you’re going to make a fuss like that,” Éclair said and gave Trash a heavy blow on the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. He toppled over. 
The Siltvelt forces and Éclair’s Melromarc troops let out a bellowing roar at our victory. 
“Well, I doubt the fight is over, but we can at least take a breather now, right?” Father asked. 
“We just need Shieldfreeden to give up the fight as well,” Éclair said. 
“They’ll never give up,” I declared. “This won’t be over until we defeat the remnant aotatsu.” 
“Yeah, I guess so,” Father said. “But we’ve probably at least bought some time, as they should realize that they’re now at a disadvantage in the war.” 
“And fortunately, none of the nations have exhausted too much of their fighting power. We still stand a chance against the waves of destruction,” Éclair said. 
“Yeah—and Eclair, how did you possibly get Melromarc on our side in the first place?” 
Father’s question was the most important one. Like Éclair had mentioned before, the queen must have been the reason. 
“The queen was opposed to this war from the start,” Éclair said. “I also explained to her what Mr. Kitamura told us about the future of the country. And so she evaluated that and a variety of other factors and decided that it would be best to end the war here so long as we didn’t lose too many soldiers to fight the waves of destruction.” 
“Of course,” Father said, “Siltvelt and Melromarc . . . if either country’s forces were to be wiped out, fighting against the waves would be pretty much impossible.” 
“That’s right. Also, at around the same time of the death of the Whip Hero, Takt, in Faubrey it was confirmed that the other owners of the seven star weapons had been killed. So Faubrey abandoned plans of joining forces with Shieldfreeden and decided to focus on clarifying exactly what had happened.” 
“It sounds like we might just be able to stop all this war and focus on preparing for the waves after all,” Father said. 
Father was right. We destroyed all of Takt’s planes and airships and easily stopped Itsuki, Melromarc’s so-called trump card. Now we just needed to prepare for the waves. 
Hm? 
“I’m not so sure about all that!” called a voice. 
One of Itsuki’s comrades, wearing a shining suit of armor, stood up on the battlefield. I remember in the first go-around he had been a friend of Ren’s. He started walking toward us. It was only hearsay, but in the first go-around he caused Father a lot of trouble, if I remembered correctly. Well, I’d simply destroy him. 
Regardless, he certainly was a waste of splendid armor . . . Wait, now I started to remember. His name was “Smoked Human,” right? I recalled something about the Bull of Phalaris, so we called him Smoked Human for whatever reason. 
“Ugh . . . agh . . .” Itsuki still was completely unable to move. 
“Who’s on the side of justice now?” 
“You lying Bow Hero! You were wrong all along!” 
Smoked Human and his fellow soldiers were standing up and moving toward Itsuki. My instincts told me to be on guard. I started to run closer to restrain them. 
It seemed to be just quarreling among friends, so Father and Éclair’s response was not quite fast enough. 
“Pathetic, lying Bow Hero! Talk to me again about justice!” 
Smoked Human and his comrades grabbed their fallen weapons and lunged at Itsuki, who was still unable to move. 
They moved so quickly that even I couldn’t get there fast enough. Only because I had gone quite a distance chasing down the crimson swine, that is. And if I were to use Aiming Lancer, I wouldn’t be able to lock on in time. Could I use Brionac? Gungnir? Air Strike Javelin would be fast enough, but it would only knock out one or two of the soldiers. 
“Air Strike Javelin! Gungnir!” I shouted, attacking as fast as I could. 
“Itsuki!” shouted Father. “Air Strike—” Father started to call for a shield as well. 
“Die!” 
“Stop—” Itsuki cried. 
I managed to take out all but two of the enemies in a furious explosion. But Smoked Human had made it all the way to Itsuki and, raising his axe high, brought it down. 
Even though Itsuki couldn’t move, he could certainly scream. 
“Hahahaha!” cried Smoked Human. “I’ll kill you, you false Bow Hero! You lied to us all! Shield and Spear Hero—he deceived us, I tell you!” 
Blood squirted from Itsuki as Smoked Human called out to us. He seemed to be trying to help us, so I figured I would hear him out before I killed him. 
“No!” cried Father. “We were so close to getting past all this war . . .” 
“What have you done?” Éclair cried, charging toward Smoked Human on her horse. She raised her sword, prepared to cut him down. 
Things had escalated quickly, I say. 
Father turned to me quickly. “Motoyasu—it looks like the time loop reset condition will be activated.” 
Father, brilliant as always! He had figured out exactly what was going on. And he was right. We had only until Itsuki drew his last breath before we’d be sent tumbling back in time all over again. 
“I’m sorry, Father,” I cried. “I, Motoyasu Kitamura, was not strong enough!” 
“Really, I have a lot I want to say, but since we don’t have time, I’m going to be quick,” Father said. 
“Tell me anything, Father!” 
“First, I’m sorry that you’re the only one who’s going to suffer from the memory of all this. Know that I’m here for you.” 
“You bestow an honor on my very soul with your words,” I wailed. 
Father chuckled. “Somewhere along the way, I’ve gotten used to your weird expressions. I wish we could’ve met your ‘beloved’ Filo . . .” Father sighed. 
I nodded. I, too, desired to meet my beloved Filo-tan. 
“Okay, so let’s get serious. Motoyasu, please recognize that you have an extreme side, so you need to think before you act. Check your own actions. Don’t assume that if even you make a mistake, things will be okay. That will only backfire. If you just crush the leader of our enemies, it will create hordes of remnant soldiers bent on revenge, like what happened with Takt. Or they’ll just get a new leader.” 
I nodded, teary-eyed. “I have carved your words into my heart!” 
A half-smile fluttered on Father’s lips, a bittersweet expression that told me he knew exactly how I felt. 
“You saved me so many times,” Father said. “I’m really grateful we did this together. Thank you, Motoyasu. It was short, but it was fun. If we get sent back again, let’s make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes—” 
Suddenly, Father was cut off. 
The bow icon in the corner of my field of vision started to flash. The world was fading to gray and everyone stopped moving. My spear trembled as a clock appeared and started to wind backward. 
“I understand, Father,” I proclaimed, teary-eyed. “This time, I, Motoyasu Kitamura, will fulfill your every wish, I swear it! Armed with my knowledge and memories of the future, we’ll stop war at all costs!” 
It seemed as if bringing Father to Siltvelt—even though I had done so for his own safety—only ended up causing war after war. If I were to bring him to Shieldfreeden, I doubted that the result would change. I needed to think more about how to prevent things from becoming this way. 
That was what Father had asked me to do, after all. 
A world without war. How could I create a world without war? 
Now that I thought about it, although there had been a civil war in the first go-around, there was barely any large-scale war like this. If I could analyze what had happened then and move forward based on that, I would naturally be able to fulfill Father’s wishes. 
Violence is power, but so is knowledge, I say. 
I vowed to use the knowledge I gained in this go-around to keep my promise to Father. 
And as I thought and thought, I went soaring, spinning, into the past.