They could still hear the sounds of Madoka fighting against Alexei=Shii high in the sky above them, but Yasuo was in a hurry to get as far away from the house as possible.
In spite of the loud noise, not a single person was on the street to check the cause, no vehicles went by, and the false night sky above them was dyed in a uniform black colour. It would take a mere fifteen minutes to walk to the boundary of the “barrier-like” space that his mother had broken into, but they were assaulted three times on the way by the Shii.
Each time a Shii appeared, it was subdued by Diana and then put to rest with her requiem, but Yasuo and Nodoka were already feeling a sense of mental fatigue from the large changes that had occurred to the neighborhood that they were familiar with.
“O-Onii-chan, are we really going the right way?”
“Yeah, it should be this way.”
Yasuo replied to Nodoka who was almost in tears, but he couldn’t believe that the scenery he was so familiar with could change so much with just a change in color. He was also worried that he might have taken a wrong turn somewhere, and lost his way.
“I’m sure this is the correct direction.”
However, Diana said that confidently.
“So many Shii are appearing from the direction in which we are heading. I’ve rarely had to deal with so many Shii in a row, and I’m not sure what the principle behind this strange space is, but…”
“They’re trying to stop us from escaping?”
“Yes, I think so. I don’t have any proof, but… in some way, it puts me at ease.”
The attacks by the Shii notwithstanding, they hadn’t seen a single person apart from themselves. That meant that there was no need to worry about the people in Tokorozawa getting assaulted by the Shii that were appearing within this black barrier.
“B-But what if we leave the barrier?”
“…I don’t know what will happen. However, staying here in the middle of the enemy’s technique is not a good idea either. I don’t think that the fight between Madoka and my father will end anytime soon, and in my injured state I cannot hold out for long if the enemy attacks in large numbers. Leaving this barrier now is the most practical solution available to us at the moment.”
After saying that, Diana looked back in the direction of the sound of battle that had become slightly distant.
“Besides, it is possible that the person behind this incident is my father, who is the strongest Shii here. If there was someone else who was controlling the Shii from behind the scenes, I don’t think they’d let us escape so easily now that we’ve come this far away from Madoka, who is our strongest fighting strength. So if we move farther away from my father…”
“So this place is safe, at least for now?”
“I think so.”
It was all just conjecture, an optimistic guess.
However, the only person that Yasuo and Nodoka could depend on was the professional soldier Diana, even if she had a somewhat unreliable side. Yasuo looked at the injured back of Diana, who was walking quickly in front of him while carefully monitoring the surroundings.
The broken Castor that was meant to be used in the right hand was hanging from her belt, and in her left hand, she held the blood-stained Pollux.
If they managed to leave this barrier, should he ignore the consequences and take her straight to a doctor?
While Yasuo was thinking of such things, they arrived at a place that he definitely recognized.
“Over there! That intersection! That’s where the “border” was!”
It was a small intersection within the residential area, and it had a signal with a single lamp. Around this time, it would usually be a blinking yellow light with hardly any people around, but the surroundings were still dyed in a monotone colour.
“There is definitely some kind of barrier here.”
When Diana stretched out her hand while standing at the center of the intersection, she could feel something invisible pressing against her fingertips.
“I guess it was too much to hope for that the broken portion would remain open. If that was the case, there would be no point in constructing this barrier, as it would allow a large number of outsiders to enter the space inside. Considering the fact that we’ve seen only Shii inside, we can say that this barrier is a sort of ‘cloak of invisibility’, created expressly to get at Hideo or the rest of….”
The voice that they heard sounded like the voice of a demon king, come from the pits of Hell.
“That analysis is correct. As expected from a child of Radagast and Krone.”
They were unable to identify the direction from which the sound came. It was a voice dripping with malice, and it seemed to come from every direction as though they were trapped in a soundproof room, and it seemed to make the dark space around them even blacker.
“W-Who’s there!?”
It was a markedly different presence from all the Shii they had faced before. It did not have a strange darkness surrounding it, and the voice was that of a male. What’s more, it was speaking in Japanese.
However, even Diana, the sole combatant in that location, trembled at the irrepressible malice that leaked out from that otherwise flat voice.
An incredible enemy was approaching.
The enemy was intelligent, and was giving off a clear sense of hostility.
It was the first enemy that Diana faced who was intelligent, as she had not experienced battles against Demon King Kaul’s forces, nor had she participated in battles against other kingdoms. She had only completed her training as a Magitech Knight, and fought against the Shii which were apparently mindless.
“Leave now, young Magitech Knight of Resteria. An excellent resource such as yourself should stay in your country and gather merit in an ordinary fashion, and work diligently for the sake of your country. There is no need for your to risk your life here.”
A black substance, that looked like the soot from a fireplace, began to consolidate in front of them.
Diana, Yasuo, and Nodoka had their voices frozen due to fear, and were unable to make a sound.
The black and red flames that flickered within the soot-like substance was definitely the same as that of a Shii.
The menace of Demon King Kaul, who had once caused the distant world of Ante Lande to descend into chaos, had reappeared. That’s what Diana had told the Hero who had once saved that world.
However, Diana did not truly know Demon King Kaul.
Diana had only experienced the battle with Demon King Kaul through her history textbooks, and she had no first hand experience.
“Demon King… Kaul?”
The figure that stood before here while spreading an overwhelming sense of pressure, fear and darkness was so different from the ‘Demon King Kaul’ that she had imagined, that she just had to ask and make sure.
It looked just like a human.
Very few people had seen Demon King Kaul with their own eyes. Hideo, Madoka, Erijina, and Alexei had encountered him directly, but unlike the portraits of Hideo, all the paintings of Kaul had been done based on hearsay augmented by the artist’s imagination. In any case, the figure that stood before Diana did not match the appearance of any representation of Kaul that she had seen before.
He was about one and a half heads taller than Yasuo. He wore a soot-stained shirt that must have originally been white in colour. His khaki-coloured trousers were held up by suspenders, and he wore leather boots. Overall, he looked like a man with a well-built physique.
In one hand, he held what appeared to be a lantern, but the light emitted by it was not the ominous red colour that they had seen so far, it looked like the light from a regular flame. The other hand was on the edge of the newsboy cap that he wore on his head. Rather than a demon king or a monster, he looked like a twentieth century chimney sweep from England.
Was this the man who had used some means unknown to Diana to purposefully separate Yasuo and his family from the other people, and trap them in this space?
Was this person the true enemy behind the attacks on the Kenzaki family house, and the person who had even managed to enslave the Shii of Alexei Krone, who was once a comrade of the Hero who had saved the world?
Was this person the root cause behind the new disaster that had befallen Ante Lande?
“Demon King Kaul. Demon King. Demon King, eh? He certainly called himself by an arrogant title.”
The moment his face came into view, the unspeakable terror they had had felt until just earlier vanished, and was replaced by a sense of strangeness that was hard to describe. When he spoke, the voice of a man reached their ears.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not Kaul. I’m not a weakling like Kaul was, and I don’t think I’m as foolish as Kaul was either.”
“W-Weakling!?”
They were talking about a demon who had nearly destroyed an entire planet. What did he mean by calling such a monster a ‘weakling’?
The man chuckled as if enjoying Diana’s reaction. He then took off his newsboy cap and gave an elegant bow.
“Children of the Hero, Hideo. It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is William Bareig.”
“Hii…”
After seeing his face, Nodoka let out a small scream. The man who called himself William appeared to just be a foreigner, but his left eye was definitely not that of a human.
The evil light of the Shii burned within that eye. It made one think that he wore the newsboy cap low over his eyes to hide that, and it burned strongly with a dark red light that was incomparably brighter compared to the light given off by Alexei or the other Shii that they had encountered. His right eye was a clear blue in colour, and it only emphasized the ominous impression given off by his left eye.
“Sorry for scaring you. No matter how much I disguise my outward appearance, I can’t do anything about this eye.”
Even a smile, if tinged with evil, will cause people to feel fear
Nodoka’s knees grew weak the instant she saw William’s smile, and she sank to the ground as if she no longer had the strength to remain standing. Yasuo barely managed to remain standing, but it could be seen that he was at his limit, and any small impetus would cause him to break down.
This person was on a far different level from a Shii.
The sense of abnormality, creepiness, and fear that he inspired were fundamentally different from a Shii.
“Ku-!!”
Only the soldier, Diana, was able to summon the energy required and pull the trigger of Pollux to initiate an attack. At this point, the identity of the stranger no longer mattered.
She had no proof, but she could only think of this person called William as a living, human enemy.
“Hmm.”
However, William’s easy smile didn’t falter for a second, and he took the magic bullet from Pollux head-on.
A hole big enough to see through was opened up in William’s body at the point where the magic bullet passed through him. However, there was no blood, and William did not stagger. Instead, as though a ball had been thrown through smoke, the hole soon sealed up and vanished, and he returned to his previous appearance.
“Too bad.”
William looked like he really meant that. He said that in a tone as if he was trying to console Diana, who was standing while looking dumbfounded, and he calmly took a step forward towards the three of them.
“Ugh…”
At that moment, Yasuo also collapsed. He had tried to take a step backwards, but his legs weren’t working properly. While sitting pathetically on the ground, he was still not able to take his eyes off William.
“Y-Yasuo, take Nodoka and go somewhere else. I-I’ll take care of things here…!”
Diana got between William and the other two as if to intercept that gaze, but her voice was also trembling with fear. William stopped walking and gave Diana a pitying look.
“Stop this. You cannot defeat me with your twin swords. I do not wish to injure a beautiful young lady. Please step away.”
“I-I can’t do that!”
Diana shouted that, but it looked like it was directed at herself, rather than William.
“I am a Magitech Knight of Resteria! By the name of my father and mother, I cannot abandon the Kenzaki family, no matter what!”
“You say you cannot abandon them, but what you are attempting is impossible. I would serve as your opponent if you had even the faintest chance of victory, but what you are attempting is similar to a baby challenging a warrior to a brawl. You cannot win, even by a miracle.”
“S-Shut up! Haaaaaah!!”
Diana seriously lost her calm at William who was approaching her without even trying to protect himself. Even Yasuo, who was in the place closest to Diana, could not tell when she had moved.
The flashing blade definitely landed upon William’s shoulder.
However,
“That’s why I told you, it is impossible.”
Just like the magic bullet earlier, Pollux’s blade just passed through William’s body with no lasting effect. Let alone his body, even his clothes were completely unharmed, and of course, WIlliam was still standing there as though nothing had happened.
“I-Impossible…”
Diana was taken aback by the lack of resistance to her attack, and stopped moving even though she was right in front of her enemy.
It was like when she swung her sword in practice, or attempted to cut the air, there was no resistance at all. Was William’s ghostly body even here, in the first place?
“Be at ease. For a human, you are definitely strong. Had you not been crippled by emotion, you might have even defeated your father’s shadow. However, you will sometimes run into opponents that you can do nothing against, and incidentally, I am such a one. That’s all there is to it.”
William placed a hand on Diana’s shoulder, and spoke in the tone of a teacher speaking to a student.
For some reason, the sword had passed cleanly through his body as though he was insubstantial, but he was able to push Diana.
He did not hit her, nor did he blast her out of his path. However, Diana was unable to resist William’s small action that was meant to move her out of his path. Her body moved several steps to one side, and William easily walked past her.
By the time she realized what had happened and turned around, William was already standing in front of Yasuo and Nodoka, while exposing his back unguardedly to Diana.
“I have prepared a fitting opponent for you to battle. Please play over there for a while. Three of them at once should prove to be good training for you.”
“!!”
Three new Shii appeared from the ground behind Diana, who had been looking at William. They had an appearance that even Yasuo was familiar with now. The three Shii raised their shadowy weapons and approached Diana from behind.
While he was frozen in place with fear, Yasuo for some reason thought that one of the Shii held weapons that resembled the Castor and Pollux that Diana wielded.
“Don’t touch Yasuo and Nodokaaaaaaaa!!!!”
“Diana!!”
Yasuo’s cry did not reach Diana, and Diana’s attack did not reach William. However…
“Aaaaaah!!”
The attacks of the three Shii reached Diana’s back. After missing her strike at William, Diana’s back was pierced by a black bullet, a black spear and a black arrow. Diana was sent flying by the impact and passed right through William’s body, falling to the ground.
There was no doubt about it. One of the Shii was wielding Castor and Pollux.
One of the attacks that had hit Diana was a magic bullet that had been fired from a grip.
Diana had said that it was a mass-produced model. The other two were a spear and a bow. There was no way to tell if those were regular weapons or Techno Weapons, but Diana had said that soldiers of Resteria’s army were also able to use swords, spears, and bows.
And now, the man who had once led Resteria’s Knights was fighting in the sky.
The three creatures, no, the three people were once Magitech Knights of Resteria, just like Diana.
“Diana-san!!”
Diana still tried to rise after hearing Nodoka’s scream, but her body had already been injured in her battle with Alexei’s Shii. After taking an assassin’s blade and bullet to her back, she was no longer able to summon the necessary energy in her hands and legs.
William looked at the form of the young Magitech Knight who was pathetically sprawled on the ground, and lowered his shoulders.
“You should have just stayed back and accepted the training. You could have won against them easily, you know?”
“H-How dare you…”
If Yasuo had the strength, he might have struck out at the man for this insensitive and unworthy comment. However, Yasuo had no power at all.
As far as he could remember, he had never physically fought anyone. Faced with a killing intent and a true monster for the first time in his life, Yasuo’s words were laughably weak.
“I told her that she was no match for me, and that she would be able to have a good fight against the Shii, you know? I’m incomparably stronger than her, so it’s not like I put her off guard and struck her from behind while was distracted. Why do you still accuse me, I wonder?”
William was calmly analyzing Diana’s actions, as though criticizing the performance of players in yesterday’s soccer game.
It was merely an analysis, and his words didn’t carry even a hint of scorn.
“Besides, she said “Don’t touch them”. She attacked me while assuming that I intended to do you harm. Gross defamation, I tell you. I haven’t said a word about why I’m here, or what I want to do.”
After saying that, William took a step towards Yasuo and Nodoka without sparing another glance at Diana, or the Shii that had stopped moving after defeating her.
“No! Noooo!!”
Nodoka was overcome by fear and screamed. Seeing his little sister in a panic, the flames of self-abandonment rose up within Yasuo, and,
“Nodoka! Run!! Run awaaaaay!!”
Yasuo turned on William who had only taken one step towards them, and threw a desperate punch at him.
“Eh…”
Yasuo had forgotten to breathe due to his fright, his center of gravity was raised, and he had not even formed a proper fist. William looked truly irritated, and avoided Yasuo’s strike by just moving a little to the side.
“You should do things like that when you’re at least on the level of that Magitech Knight.”
William extended his leg and lightly kicked at the leg of Yasuo who was off balance. Yasuo was completely unable to resist it, and his vision suddenly spun around, and he landed pathetically upon the ground.
“There are a lot of comments I want to make, like you shouldn’t be attacking people older than you, or that this is not time to try to act cool. But really, you’re pathetic. You would have been better served by dragging your sister by the hand and running away.”
Those humiliating words were directed at Yasuo’s back, who was still lying on the ground.
“I understand that humans are afraid of this eye of mine, and that can’t be helped. However, I intend to treat you, who are the children of the hero, Hideo, in a courteous and hospitable manner. Well, I suppose your living conditions would change drastically, but I would like the two of you to lend your strength to protect humanity from the tragedy that will befall not just Ante Lande, but this world as well, in the near future.”
What the hell was this man talking about?
“Besides, I have taken my previous mistake into account, and even cut away this space so that your neighbors are not disturbed. If anything, you should be thanking me for my consideration.”
“S-Stop joking! You sent a Shii to attack our car! If not for my mother’s quick thinking, it could have caused a major accident!”
Yasuo couldn’t understand what William was talking about, but the incident this time had already caused a disturbance to other people.
When Yasuo shouted that in a trembling voice, William looked truly surprised and widened his eyes.
“Eh? Car? Accident?”
His red eye that was widened in surprise caused Yasuo to start trembling while still lying on the ground.
“Ah, so that’s what happened. This is troubling. Well, there’s no point making excuses here. I’ll let that accusation stand for now.”
William muttered to himself and nodded as if he understood something. And then, as if trying to approach the conversation from a different angle, he looked at Nodoka who was still collapsed on the ground and unable to even run away.
“But if that’s the case, I’ll have to hurry a bit. Now, come with me. I have just the task for the two of you who are children of the Hero.”
Nodoka, and Yasuo who was still on the ground, saw it.
Like the tongue of a serpent extending towards its prey, the ominous red light from William’s left eye was slowly stretching out towards Nodoka.
Yasuo suddenly realized it.
This was the secret behind how the Shii extracted the hearts from people. This was the mechanism by which the Shii stole the hearts of people, which the Magitech Knights had been unable to discover, despite their experience in battle. William, and the Shii led by him, were attempting to steal their hearts in this black space where they would not be seen by anyone, using that strange light.
“Stop! Nodoka! Run away!!”
“Ah, no… No! Diana-san! Save me!!”
Nodoka crawled on all fours towards Diana, but her fear was so great that she wasn’t even able to stand.
“The fear will only last a moment, so please don’t struggle. If you’re afraid, would you like me to bring that Magitech Knight with us as well? Would you be at ease if you had more people around that you know? That young lady is the daughter of Alexei Krone and Erijina Radagast. She is led by her honor as a soldier, and she has a strong will to cover for her inexperience through training. You won’t be worried anymore if that girl is by your side, right? Come, now.”
“Stop… Stop!!”
Yasuo grabbed the leg of William that was right next to him, but that wasn’t enough to stop him.
“N-Nodoka, Yasuo!!”
“Nooooooo!!”
The pitiful screams of the two girls echoed in Yasuo’s ears.
Diana and Nodoka were about to be killed without ever knowing what was going on, and without knowing who their enemy really was. He was not even able to feel anger at himself for not being able to do anything, and not having any power.
In spite of the situation, he suddenly recalled the conversation that he had with his mother in the car that morning.
“If both I and the woman you love were about to fall off a cliff, which one of us would you save?”
How meaningless that question was.
That thought exercise only made sense if he had the strength to save at least one person.
Right now, he could offer no resistance as people important to him were about to be taken away.
He had not believed Diana. He had not believed his father’s words. He had not listened to his mother’s words.
In the end, he had not found his resolve. Why had he chosen the path that required the most power, when he had no power at all?
If only he had been able to decide earlier, this would not have happened. If this was the result of the three days that he had wasted, he would never be able to forgive himself.
“Still… I gave all my effort to understand what was going on, in my own way…!!”
“Doing your best is different from giving all your effort.”
“It was only three days… It’s impossible to overturn eighteen years of common sense in just three days!”
“I’m sure you’re still giving all your effort right now.”
“All these people, they think that because they understand it themselves, they can expect me to understand too? Screw that!”
“I can tell that you’re trying your best to overcome something difficult right now.”
So what if his father was a hero?
He was just an ordinary person.
He was a powerless child, underage, a student, and a civilian.
That is why, as he still lay on the ground, he grabbed the thing that had fallen within his reach.
“Stoooooop!!”
The only thing he could do was to throw it at William.
“Ouch.”
However,
“…Eh?”
It hit William’s head. It definitely made contact.
Diana’s magic bullet and Pollux’s blade had no effect on William’s body, but Yasuo had snatched up the broken Castor that Diana had dropped and thrown it at William, and it had hit him.
“Hmm?”
William turned around and looked suspiciously at Yasuo.
Yasuo didn’t know what just happened. However, that was enough for him.
“Diana! I’m borrowing this!!”
While standing up unsteadily, Yasuo almost snatched Pollux from the fallen Diana’s fingers.
“You bastard! Don’t mess around with us!!”
Without even bothering to take careful aim, Yasuo squeezed the trigger of the Techno Weapon that he held for the first time.
“Mu!?”
They were bullets of light that were far smaller than the ones fired by Diana.
However, William avoided them. He actually dodged them.
“Get away from Nodoka!!”
The next bullet he fired grazed William’s waist and ripped his clothes.
“Hey! Onii-chan, you’re going to hit me!”
That bullet broke apart after hitting the ground near Nodoka’s feet, and his sister raised her voice reminding him to be careful.
However, Yasuo didn’t even hear that.
The attacks were landing. For some reason, the bullets he fired were capable of hitting William.
“Diana! Please get Nodoka out of here! I’ll hold him off…!”
“…Seriously… Yasuo, you’re really not kind at all…!”
Diana ran towards Nodoka at a superhuman speed, while leaving a trail of blood behind her. She carried Nodoka and moved away from William, although she looked unsteady.
“…A word of warning. You’d better not be thinking that you can defeat me. Just because a child can fire a gun, that doesn’t mean he can defeat a trained soldier.”
William spoke in a threatening manner, but Yasuo shouted back at him, partly from anger and partly from excitement.
“S-Shut the hell up! I already know that. But what other choice do I have? Stop your yammering and come at me! Could it be that you’re scared of me? You’re scared of a child with a gun!? You’re confident against a scared little girl, but you can’t do anything against a boy with a weapon?”
“…That’s a really cheap provocation.”
There was no need to even say it, it was definitely a cheap provocation. There was no way that a voice that shrill could be intimidating. He just looked like a sheltered boy who was panicking because he was pushed beyond tolerance. However,
“I will protect Nodoka and Diana. If I’m the only one who can hit you, I have no choice but to do just that!!”
There was no need to say so much to an “enemy”. However, if he didn’t force himself to shout like that, he felt like he would collapse again due to fear.
“Ahhhhhh!!”
Yasuo, whose tension had reached the maximum level, pulled the trigger once again.
“Aah, so troublesome… It hurts to get hit by that, you know?”
A child fighting against a soldier. Just like that example, the magic bullets weren’t hitting William anymore.
Still, William was still dodging Yasuo’s attacks. If he got hit, he would receive damage. Diana thought that she should take this opportunity to get Nodoka out of this black space, or failing that, return to where Madoka was. However,
“Uhh…”
“Look, it’s just like I said.”
The situation did not allow Diana to make either choice. Yasuo, who was continuously firing Pollux recklessly, suddenly collapsed.
That outcome was predictable.
The mechanism of the Techno Weapons worked by using the wielder’s magical energy to fire the magical bullets. Yasuo had been able to fire it until now because some of Diana’s energy had still remained within the weapon. However, once that was exhausted, it would begin drawing the energy from Yasuo, who had not undergone any training as a Magitech Knight. As a result, Yasuo’s body immediately ran out of energy.
William also gave an irritated look at Yasuo, who had collapsed to the ground.
“Stalling for time is a lot harder than it looks. Especially when your ally is wounded, you need to buy a lot more time for them to get away. That means you’re not allowed to exhaust yourself in the meantime. You should have at least paid more attention to your aim.”
“Ugh… Ahh…”
“Well, I should commend you for standing up to me so much in spite of your inexperience. Even most Magitech Knights are incapable of doing that.”
William kicked Pollux and sent it flying far away from Yasuo.
“In that case, taking your reckless bravery into account, I’ll start with you. It’s okay, just like I said earlier, I won’t treat you poorly. It’ll only hurt for a moment.”
Yasuo sensed William’s hand approaching him from above, and his Shii eye looking at him, but he was unable to even raise his head. All the strength had left his body, and as if he was paralyzed, even moving a single finger was difficult.
He had not even fired ten shots.
Was this all he was capable of? Diana had continued to fight even after being injured. His mother had shown how strong she was. In spite of that, was he going to die here, without taking a single wound, and without understanding what was going on?
“The Hero… Hideo.”
“Hmm?”
Yasuo muttered those words while still lying on the ground, and William furrowed his eyebrows suspiciously.
“The Hero, Hideo… is the person who will obtain victory for new frontiers.”
If only he had that power as well.
“Wings, go forth… Flower petals, take flight.”
Diana had said it as well. That Yasuo was the son of Hideo.
“…Gather the shining azure sunlight.”
Wasn’t that obvious?
That was how it went in all the stories. The protagonist’s son would always have the talent and power to continue where his father left off. However, why didn’t he have that?
“Avatar of the wind, Holy Sword Liutberga… Answer my call and take form.”
No matter what he muttered, it was of no use. He didn’t have anything.
A weak person who had never achieved anything could not do anything except looking to a Hero for salvation.
If there is really such a thing as a Hero… Please save me…
“You… Don’t tell me-!”
For the first time, William lost his relaxed expression. A single pillar of light appeared in that area enclosed by darkness. Was that holy light rising from the body of the collapsed Yasuo? No, the light had appeared just next to Yasuo.
The light continued to rise up from beside Yasuo, and it was illuminating William, who looked like he was unable to move.
“…T-That is…!”
Nodoka had been released from her fear of William, and she was no longer looking at him. Diana didn’t know what had happened to Yasuo, and she waited with bated breath to see what would happen next.
Was it a new enemy? Or was something happening to Yasuo that Diana didn’t know about?
Faced with an enemy she could not hope to beat, Diana had lost her ability to think calmly and was unable to pay attention to Yasuo who was still collapsed on the ground.
That’s why, she didn’t hear it. The son of the Hero, Yasuo, had remembered the incantation to summon the Holy Sword Liutberga, even though he had only heard it once before, and he had recited it in a low voice.
“Your memory is exceptional, Yasuo.”
The voice appeared from within the light.
“I had just crossed Shin-Yokohama station, and I was worried because it would still take me a lot of time to get to Tokorozawa… I never imagined that I would be able to come back in such a manner.”
That was the same voice that had once sown the seeds of courage within the hearts of Diana’s father, mother, and the other people in her country.
“…I thought you were supposed to be in Osaka……”
Hideo haughtily replied to William, who was frowning.
“Ah. I hurried back because I heard that something blasted my front door to pieces while I was away. Even so, my wife will probably say I was still too late in returning. But if I knew that we could do something like this, I needn’t have wasted my money by hurriedly buying a return ticket on the bullet train. Only Green Car[10] tickets were available, so all my allowance is gone.”
He had neatly barbered hair. A well-used down jacket. A gray suit. A pink, paisley-patterned necktie. Black leather shoes that had become soft with age.
“I don’t know who you are, but it looks like my family and children have been under your care.”
And lastly, he was holding the Holy Sword Liutberga, which was enveloped in a wind that threatened to disperse the darkness.
“The Hero… Hideo Kenzaki.”
William said that name in a voice that was a mixture of hatred and awe.
The central pillar of the Kenzaki Family who would be turning forty-eight this year. It was Kenzaki Hideo, the father of Yasuo and Nodoka.
They could still hear the sounds of Madoka fighting against Alexei=Shii high in the sky above them, but Yasuo was in a hurry to get as far away from the house as possible.
In spite of the loud noise, not a single person was on the street to check the cause, no vehicles went by, and the false night sky above them was dyed in a uniform black colour. It would take a mere fifteen minutes to walk to the boundary of the “barrier-like” space that his mother had broken into, but they were assaulted three times on the way by the Shii.
Each time a Shii appeared, it was subdued by Diana and then put to rest with her requiem, but Yasuo and Nodoka were already feeling a sense of mental fatigue from the large changes that had occurred to the neighborhood that they were familiar with.
“O-Onii-chan, are we really going the right way?”
“Yeah, it should be this way.”
Yasuo replied to Nodoka who was almost in tears, but he couldn’t believe that the scenery he was so familiar with could change so much with just a change in color. He was also worried that he might have taken a wrong turn somewhere, and lost his way.
“I’m sure this is the correct direction.”
However, Diana said that confidently.
“So many Shii are appearing from the direction in which we are heading. I’ve rarely had to deal with so many Shii in a row, and I’m not sure what the principle behind this strange space is, but…”
“They’re trying to stop us from escaping?”
“Yes, I think so. I don’t have any proof, but… in some way, it puts me at ease.”
The attacks by the Shii notwithstanding, they hadn’t seen a single person apart from themselves. That meant that there was no need to worry about the people in Tokorozawa getting assaulted by the Shii that were appearing within this black barrier.
“B-But what if we leave the barrier?”
“…I don’t know what will happen. However, staying here in the middle of the enemy’s technique is not a good idea either. I don’t think that the fight between Madoka and my father will end anytime soon, and in my injured state I cannot hold out for long if the enemy attacks in large numbers. Leaving this barrier now is the most practical solution available to us at the moment.”
After saying that, Diana looked back in the direction of the sound of battle that had become slightly distant.
“Besides, it is possible that the person behind this incident is my father, who is the strongest Shii here. If there was someone else who was controlling the Shii from behind the scenes, I don’t think they’d let us escape so easily now that we’ve come this far away from Madoka, who is our strongest fighting strength. So if we move farther away from my father…”
“So this place is safe, at least for now?”
“I think so.”
It was all just conjecture, an optimistic guess.
However, the only person that Yasuo and Nodoka could depend on was the professional soldier Diana, even if she had a somewhat unreliable side. Yasuo looked at the injured back of Diana, who was walking quickly in front of him while carefully monitoring the surroundings.
The broken Castor that was meant to be used in the right hand was hanging from her belt, and in her left hand, she held the blood-stained Pollux.
If they managed to leave this barrier, should he ignore the consequences and take her straight to a doctor?
While Yasuo was thinking of such things, they arrived at a place that he definitely recognized.
“Over there! That intersection! That’s where the “border” was!”
It was a small intersection within the residential area, and it had a signal with a single lamp. Around this time, it would usually be a blinking yellow light with hardly any people around, but the surroundings were still dyed in a monotone colour.
“There is definitely some kind of barrier here.”
When Diana stretched out her hand while standing at the center of the intersection, she could feel something invisible pressing against her fingertips.
“I guess it was too much to hope for that the broken portion would remain open. If that was the case, there would be no point in constructing this barrier, as it would allow a large number of outsiders to enter the space inside. Considering the fact that we’ve seen only Shii inside, we can say that this barrier is a sort of ‘cloak of invisibility’, created expressly to get at Hideo or the rest of….”
The voice that they heard sounded like the voice of a demon king, come from the pits of Hell.
“That analysis is correct. As expected from a child of Radagast and Krone.”
They were unable to identify the direction from which the sound came. It was a voice dripping with malice, and it seemed to come from every direction as though they were trapped in a soundproof room, and it seemed to make the dark space around them even blacker.
“W-Who’s there!?”
It was a markedly different presence from all the Shii they had faced before. It did not have a strange darkness surrounding it, and the voice was that of a male. What’s more, it was speaking in Japanese.
However, even Diana, the sole combatant in that location, trembled at the irrepressible malice that leaked out from that otherwise flat voice.
An incredible enemy was approaching.
The enemy was intelligent, and was giving off a clear sense of hostility.
It was the first enemy that Diana faced who was intelligent, as she had not experienced battles against Demon King Kaul’s forces, nor had she participated in battles against other kingdoms. She had only completed her training as a Magitech Knight, and fought against the Shii which were apparently mindless.
“Leave now, young Magitech Knight of Resteria. An excellent resource such as yourself should stay in your country and gather merit in an ordinary fashion, and work diligently for the sake of your country. There is no need for your to risk your life here.”
A black substance, that looked like the soot from a fireplace, began to consolidate in front of them.
Diana, Yasuo, and Nodoka had their voices frozen due to fear, and were unable to make a sound.
The black and red flames that flickered within the soot-like substance was definitely the same as that of a Shii.
The menace of Demon King Kaul, who had once caused the distant world of Ante Lande to descend into chaos, had reappeared. That’s what Diana had told the Hero who had once saved that world.
However, Diana did not truly know Demon King Kaul.
Diana had only experienced the battle with Demon King Kaul through her history textbooks, and she had no first hand experience.
“Demon King… Kaul?”
The figure that stood before here while spreading an overwhelming sense of pressure, fear and darkness was so different from the ‘Demon King Kaul’ that she had imagined, that she just had to ask and make sure.
It looked just like a human.
Very few people had seen Demon King Kaul with their own eyes. Hideo, Madoka, Erijina, and Alexei had encountered him directly, but unlike the portraits of Hideo, all the paintings of Kaul had been done based on hearsay augmented by the artist’s imagination. In any case, the figure that stood before Diana did not match the appearance of any representation of Kaul that she had seen before.
He was about one and a half heads taller than Yasuo. He wore a soot-stained shirt that must have originally been white in colour. His khaki-coloured trousers were held up by suspenders, and he wore leather boots. Overall, he looked like a man with a well-built physique.
In one hand, he held what appeared to be a lantern, but the light emitted by it was not the ominous red colour that they had seen so far, it looked like the light from a regular flame. The other hand was on the edge of the newsboy cap that he wore on his head. Rather than a demon king or a monster, he looked like a twentieth century chimney sweep from England.
Was this the man who had used some means unknown to Diana to purposefully separate Yasuo and his family from the other people, and trap them in this space?
Was this person the true enemy behind the attacks on the Kenzaki family house, and the person who had even managed to enslave the Shii of Alexei Krone, who was once a comrade of the Hero who had saved the world?
Was this person the root cause behind the new disaster that had befallen Ante Lande?
“Demon King Kaul. Demon King. Demon King, eh? He certainly called himself by an arrogant title.”
The moment his face came into view, the unspeakable terror they had had felt until just earlier vanished, and was replaced by a sense of strangeness that was hard to describe. When he spoke, the voice of a man reached their ears.
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not Kaul. I’m not a weakling like Kaul was, and I don’t think I’m as foolish as Kaul was either.”
“W-Weakling!?”
They were talking about a demon who had nearly destroyed an entire planet. What did he mean by calling such a monster a ‘weakling’?
The man chuckled as if enjoying Diana’s reaction. He then took off his newsboy cap and gave an elegant bow.
“Children of the Hero, Hideo. It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is William Bareig.”
“Hii…”
After seeing his face, Nodoka let out a small scream. The man who called himself William appeared to just be a foreigner, but his left eye was definitely not that of a human.
The evil light of the Shii burned within that eye. It made one think that he wore the newsboy cap low over his eyes to hide that, and it burned strongly with a dark red light that was incomparably brighter compared to the light given off by Alexei or the other Shii that they had encountered. His right eye was a clear blue in colour, and it only emphasized the ominous impression given off by his left eye.
“Sorry for scaring you. No matter how much I disguise my outward appearance, I can’t do anything about this eye.”
Even a smile, if tinged with evil, will cause people to feel fear
Nodoka’s knees grew weak the instant she saw William’s smile, and she sank to the ground as if she no longer had the strength to remain standing. Yasuo barely managed to remain standing, but it could be seen that he was at his limit, and any small impetus would cause him to break down.
This person was on a far different level from a Shii.
The sense of abnormality, creepiness, and fear that he inspired were fundamentally different from a Shii.
“Ku-!!”
Only the soldier, Diana, was able to summon the energy required and pull the trigger of Pollux to initiate an attack. At this point, the identity of the stranger no longer mattered.
She had no proof, but she could only think of this person called William as a living, human enemy.
“Hmm.”
However, William’s easy smile didn’t falter for a second, and he took the magic bullet from Pollux head-on.
A hole big enough to see through was opened up in William’s body at the point where the magic bullet passed through him. However, there was no blood, and William did not stagger. Instead, as though a ball had been thrown through smoke, the hole soon sealed up and vanished, and he returned to his previous appearance.
“Too bad.”
William looked like he really meant that. He said that in a tone as if he was trying to console Diana, who was standing while looking dumbfounded, and he calmly took a step forward towards the three of them.
“Ugh…”
At that moment, Yasuo also collapsed. He had tried to take a step backwards, but his legs weren’t working properly. While sitting pathetically on the ground, he was still not able to take his eyes off William.
“Y-Yasuo, take Nodoka and go somewhere else. I-I’ll take care of things here…!”
Diana got between William and the other two as if to intercept that gaze, but her voice was also trembling with fear. William stopped walking and gave Diana a pitying look.
“Stop this. You cannot defeat me with your twin swords. I do not wish to injure a beautiful young lady. Please step away.”
“I-I can’t do that!”
Diana shouted that, but it looked like it was directed at herself, rather than William.
“I am a Magitech Knight of Resteria! By the name of my father and mother, I cannot abandon the Kenzaki family, no matter what!”
“You say you cannot abandon them, but what you are attempting is impossible. I would serve as your opponent if you had even the faintest chance of victory, but what you are attempting is similar to a baby challenging a warrior to a brawl. You cannot win, even by a miracle.”
“S-Shut up! Haaaaaah!!”
Diana seriously lost her calm at William who was approaching her without even trying to protect himself. Even Yasuo, who was in the place closest to Diana, could not tell when she had moved.
The flashing blade definitely landed upon William’s shoulder.
However,
“That’s why I told you, it is impossible.”
Just like the magic bullet earlier, Pollux’s blade just passed through William’s body with no lasting effect. Let alone his body, even his clothes were completely unharmed, and of course, WIlliam was still standing there as though nothing had happened.
“I-Impossible…”
Diana was taken aback by the lack of resistance to her attack, and stopped moving even though she was right in front of her enemy.
It was like when she swung her sword in practice, or attempted to cut the air, there was no resistance at all. Was William’s ghostly body even here, in the first place?
“Be at ease. For a human, you are definitely strong. Had you not been crippled by emotion, you might have even defeated your father’s shadow. However, you will sometimes run into opponents that you can do nothing against, and incidentally, I am such a one. That’s all there is to it.”
William placed a hand on Diana’s shoulder, and spoke in the tone of a teacher speaking to a student.
For some reason, the sword had passed cleanly through his body as though he was insubstantial, but he was able to push Diana.
He did not hit her, nor did he blast her out of his path. However, Diana was unable to resist William’s small action that was meant to move her out of his path. Her body moved several steps to one side, and William easily walked past her.
By the time she realized what had happened and turned around, William was already standing in front of Yasuo and Nodoka, while exposing his back unguardedly to Diana.
“I have prepared a fitting opponent for you to battle. Please play over there for a while. Three of them at once should prove to be good training for you.”
“!!”
Three new Shii appeared from the ground behind Diana, who had been looking at William. They had an appearance that even Yasuo was familiar with now. The three Shii raised their shadowy weapons and approached Diana from behind.
While he was frozen in place with fear, Yasuo for some reason thought that one of the Shii held weapons that resembled the Castor and Pollux that Diana wielded.
“Don’t touch Yasuo and Nodokaaaaaaaa!!!!”
“Diana!!”
Yasuo’s cry did not reach Diana, and Diana’s attack did not reach William. However…
“Aaaaaah!!”
The attacks of the three Shii reached Diana’s back. After missing her strike at William, Diana’s back was pierced by a black bullet, a black spear and a black arrow. Diana was sent flying by the impact and passed right through William’s body, falling to the ground.
There was no doubt about it. One of the Shii was wielding Castor and Pollux.
One of the attacks that had hit Diana was a magic bullet that had been fired from a grip.
Diana had said that it was a mass-produced model. The other two were a spear and a bow. There was no way to tell if those were regular weapons or Techno Weapons, but Diana had said that soldiers of Resteria’s army were also able to use swords, spears, and bows.
And now, the man who had once led Resteria’s Knights was fighting in the sky.
The three creatures, no, the three people were once Magitech Knights of Resteria, just like Diana.
“Diana-san!!”
Diana still tried to rise after hearing Nodoka’s scream, but her body had already been injured in her battle with Alexei’s Shii. After taking an assassin’s blade and bullet to her back, she was no longer able to summon the necessary energy in her hands and legs.
William looked at the form of the young Magitech Knight who was pathetically sprawled on the ground, and lowered his shoulders.
“You should have just stayed back and accepted the training. You could have won against them easily, you know?”
“H-How dare you…”
If Yasuo had the strength, he might have struck out at the man for this insensitive and unworthy comment. However, Yasuo had no power at all.
As far as he could remember, he had never physically fought anyone. Faced with a killing intent and a true monster for the first time in his life, Yasuo’s words were laughably weak.
“I told her that she was no match for me, and that she would be able to have a good fight against the Shii, you know? I’m incomparably stronger than her, so it’s not like I put her off guard and struck her from behind while was distracted. Why do you still accuse me, I wonder?”
William was calmly analyzing Diana’s actions, as though criticizing the performance of players in yesterday’s soccer game.
It was merely an analysis, and his words didn’t carry even a hint of scorn.
“Besides, she said “Don’t touch them”. She attacked me while assuming that I intended to do you harm. Gross defamation, I tell you. I haven’t said a word about why I’m here, or what I want to do.”
After saying that, William took a step towards Yasuo and Nodoka without sparing another glance at Diana, or the Shii that had stopped moving after defeating her.
“No! Noooo!!”
Nodoka was overcome by fear and screamed. Seeing his little sister in a panic, the flames of self-abandonment rose up within Yasuo, and,
“Nodoka! Run!! Run awaaaaay!!”
Yasuo turned on William who had only taken one step towards them, and threw a desperate punch at him.
“Eh…”
Yasuo had forgotten to breathe due to his fright, his center of gravity was raised, and he had not even formed a proper fist. William looked truly irritated, and avoided Yasuo’s strike by just moving a little to the side.
“You should do things like that when you’re at least on the level of that Magitech Knight.”
William extended his leg and lightly kicked at the leg of Yasuo who was off balance. Yasuo was completely unable to resist it, and his vision suddenly spun around, and he landed pathetically upon the ground.
“There are a lot of comments I want to make, like you shouldn’t be attacking people older than you, or that this is not time to try to act cool. But really, you’re pathetic. You would have been better served by dragging your sister by the hand and running away.”
Those humiliating words were directed at Yasuo’s back, who was still lying on the ground.
“I understand that humans are afraid of this eye of mine, and that can’t be helped. However, I intend to treat you, who are the children of the hero, Hideo, in a courteous and hospitable manner. Well, I suppose your living conditions would change drastically, but I would like the two of you to lend your strength to protect humanity from the tragedy that will befall not just Ante Lande, but this world as well, in the near future.”
What the hell was this man talking about?
“Besides, I have taken my previous mistake into account, and even cut away this space so that your neighbors are not disturbed. If anything, you should be thanking me for my consideration.”
“S-Stop joking! You sent a Shii to attack our car! If not for my mother’s quick thinking, it could have caused a major accident!”
Yasuo couldn’t understand what William was talking about, but the incident this time had already caused a disturbance to other people.
When Yasuo shouted that in a trembling voice, William looked truly surprised and widened his eyes.
“Eh? Car? Accident?”
His red eye that was widened in surprise caused Yasuo to start trembling while still lying on the ground.
“Ah, so that’s what happened. This is troubling. Well, there’s no point making excuses here. I’ll let that accusation stand for now.”
William muttered to himself and nodded as if he understood something. And then, as if trying to approach the conversation from a different angle, he looked at Nodoka who was still collapsed on the ground and unable to even run away.
“But if that’s the case, I’ll have to hurry a bit. Now, come with me. I have just the task for the two of you who are children of the Hero.”
Nodoka, and Yasuo who was still on the ground, saw it.
Like the tongue of a serpent extending towards its prey, the ominous red light from William’s left eye was slowly stretching out towards Nodoka.
Yasuo suddenly realized it.
This was the secret behind how the Shii extracted the hearts from people. This was the mechanism by which the Shii stole the hearts of people, which the Magitech Knights had been unable to discover, despite their experience in battle. William, and the Shii led by him, were attempting to steal their hearts in this black space where they would not be seen by anyone, using that strange light.
“Stop! Nodoka! Run away!!”
“Ah, no… No! Diana-san! Save me!!”
Nodoka crawled on all fours towards Diana, but her fear was so great that she wasn’t even able to stand.
“The fear will only last a moment, so please don’t struggle. If you’re afraid, would you like me to bring that Magitech Knight with us as well? Would you be at ease if you had more people around that you know? That young lady is the daughter of Alexei Krone and Erijina Radagast. She is led by her honor as a soldier, and she has a strong will to cover for her inexperience through training. You won’t be worried anymore if that girl is by your side, right? Come, now.”
“Stop… Stop!!”
Yasuo grabbed the leg of William that was right next to him, but that wasn’t enough to stop him.
“N-Nodoka, Yasuo!!”
“Nooooooo!!”
The pitiful screams of the two girls echoed in Yasuo’s ears.
Diana and Nodoka were about to be killed without ever knowing what was going on, and without knowing who their enemy really was. He was not even able to feel anger at himself for not being able to do anything, and not having any power.
In spite of the situation, he suddenly recalled the conversation that he had with his mother in the car that morning.
“If both I and the woman you love were about to fall off a cliff, which one of us would you save?”
How meaningless that question was.
That thought exercise only made sense if he had the strength to save at least one person.
Right now, he could offer no resistance as people important to him were about to be taken away.
He had not believed Diana. He had not believed his father’s words. He had not listened to his mother’s words.
In the end, he had not found his resolve. Why had he chosen the path that required the most power, when he had no power at all?
If only he had been able to decide earlier, this would not have happened. If this was the result of the three days that he had wasted, he would never be able to forgive himself.
“Still… I gave all my effort to understand what was going on, in my own way…!!”
“Doing your best is different from giving all your effort.”
“It was only three days… It’s impossible to overturn eighteen years of common sense in just three days!”
“I’m sure you’re still giving all your effort right now.”
“All these people, they think that because they understand it themselves, they can expect me to understand too? Screw that!”
“I can tell that you’re trying your best to overcome something difficult right now.”
So what if his father was a hero?
He was just an ordinary person.
He was a powerless child, underage, a student, and a civilian.
That is why, as he still lay on the ground, he grabbed the thing that had fallen within his reach.
“Stoooooop!!”
The only thing he could do was to throw it at William.
“Ouch.”
However,
“…Eh?”
It hit William’s head. It definitely made contact.
Diana’s magic bullet and Pollux’s blade had no effect on William’s body, but Yasuo had snatched up the broken Castor that Diana had dropped and thrown it at William, and it had hit him.
“Hmm?”
William turned around and looked suspiciously at Yasuo.
Yasuo didn’t know what just happened. However, that was enough for him.
“Diana! I’m borrowing this!!”
While standing up unsteadily, Yasuo almost snatched Pollux from the fallen Diana’s fingers.
“You bastard! Don’t mess around with us!!”
Without even bothering to take careful aim, Yasuo squeezed the trigger of the Techno Weapon that he held for the first time.
“Mu!?”
They were bullets of light that were far smaller than the ones fired by Diana.
However, William avoided them. He actually dodged them.
“Get away from Nodoka!!”
The next bullet he fired grazed William’s waist and ripped his clothes.
“Hey! Onii-chan, you’re going to hit me!”
That bullet broke apart after hitting the ground near Nodoka’s feet, and his sister raised her voice reminding him to be careful.
However, Yasuo didn’t even hear that.
The attacks were landing. For some reason, the bullets he fired were capable of hitting William.
“Diana! Please get Nodoka out of here! I’ll hold him off…!”
“…Seriously… Yasuo, you’re really not kind at all…!”
Diana ran towards Nodoka at a superhuman speed, while leaving a trail of blood behind her. She carried Nodoka and moved away from William, although she looked unsteady.
“…A word of warning. You’d better not be thinking that you can defeat me. Just because a child can fire a gun, that doesn’t mean he can defeat a trained soldier.”
William spoke in a threatening manner, but Yasuo shouted back at him, partly from anger and partly from excitement.
“S-Shut the hell up! I already know that. But what other choice do I have? Stop your yammering and come at me! Could it be that you’re scared of me? You’re scared of a child with a gun!? You’re confident against a scared little girl, but you can’t do anything against a boy with a weapon?”
“…That’s a really cheap provocation.”
There was no need to even say it, it was definitely a cheap provocation. There was no way that a voice that shrill could be intimidating. He just looked like a sheltered boy who was panicking because he was pushed beyond tolerance. However,
“I will protect Nodoka and Diana. If I’m the only one who can hit you, I have no choice but to do just that!!”
There was no need to say so much to an “enemy”. However, if he didn’t force himself to shout like that, he felt like he would collapse again due to fear.
“Ahhhhhh!!”
Yasuo, whose tension had reached the maximum level, pulled the trigger once again.
“Aah, so troublesome… It hurts to get hit by that, you know?”
A child fighting against a soldier. Just like that example, the magic bullets weren’t hitting William anymore.
Still, William was still dodging Yasuo’s attacks. If he got hit, he would receive damage. Diana thought that she should take this opportunity to get Nodoka out of this black space, or failing that, return to where Madoka was. However,
“Uhh…”
“Look, it’s just like I said.”
The situation did not allow Diana to make either choice. Yasuo, who was continuously firing Pollux recklessly, suddenly collapsed.
That outcome was predictable.
The mechanism of the Techno Weapons worked by using the wielder’s magical energy to fire the magical bullets. Yasuo had been able to fire it until now because some of Diana’s energy had still remained within the weapon. However, once that was exhausted, it would begin drawing the energy from Yasuo, who had not undergone any training as a Magitech Knight. As a result, Yasuo’s body immediately ran out of energy.
William also gave an irritated look at Yasuo, who had collapsed to the ground.
“Stalling for time is a lot harder than it looks. Especially when your ally is wounded, you need to buy a lot more time for them to get away. That means you’re not allowed to exhaust yourself in the meantime. You should have at least paid more attention to your aim.”
“Ugh… Ahh…”
“Well, I should commend you for standing up to me so much in spite of your inexperience. Even most Magitech Knights are incapable of doing that.”
William kicked Pollux and sent it flying far away from Yasuo.
“In that case, taking your reckless bravery into account, I’ll start with you. It’s okay, just like I said earlier, I won’t treat you poorly. It’ll only hurt for a moment.”
Yasuo sensed William’s hand approaching him from above, and his Shii eye looking at him, but he was unable to even raise his head. All the strength had left his body, and as if he was paralyzed, even moving a single finger was difficult.
He had not even fired ten shots.
Was this all he was capable of? Diana had continued to fight even after being injured. His mother had shown how strong she was. In spite of that, was he going to die here, without taking a single wound, and without understanding what was going on?
“The Hero… Hideo.”
“Hmm?”
Yasuo muttered those words while still lying on the ground, and William furrowed his eyebrows suspiciously.
“The Hero, Hideo… is the person who will obtain victory for new frontiers.”
If only he had that power as well.
“Wings, go forth… Flower petals, take flight.”
Diana had said it as well. That Yasuo was the son of Hideo.
“…Gather the shining azure sunlight.”
Wasn’t that obvious?
That was how it went in all the stories. The protagonist’s son would always have the talent and power to continue where his father left off. However, why didn’t he have that?
“Avatar of the wind, Holy Sword Liutberga… Answer my call and take form.”
No matter what he muttered, it was of no use. He didn’t have anything.
A weak person who had never achieved anything could not do anything except looking to a Hero for salvation.
If there is really such a thing as a Hero… Please save me…
“You… Don’t tell me-!”
For the first time, William lost his relaxed expression. A single pillar of light appeared in that area enclosed by darkness. Was that holy light rising from the body of the collapsed Yasuo? No, the light had appeared just next to Yasuo.
The light continued to rise up from beside Yasuo, and it was illuminating William, who looked like he was unable to move.
“…T-That is…!”
Nodoka had been released from her fear of William, and she was no longer looking at him. Diana didn’t know what had happened to Yasuo, and she waited with bated breath to see what would happen next.
Was it a new enemy? Or was something happening to Yasuo that Diana didn’t know about?
Faced with an enemy she could not hope to beat, Diana had lost her ability to think calmly and was unable to pay attention to Yasuo who was still collapsed on the ground.
That’s why, she didn’t hear it. The son of the Hero, Yasuo, had remembered the incantation to summon the Holy Sword Liutberga, even though he had only heard it once before, and he had recited it in a low voice.
“Your memory is exceptional, Yasuo.”
The voice appeared from within the light.
“I had just crossed Shin-Yokohama station, and I was worried because it would still take me a lot of time to get to Tokorozawa… I never imagined that I would be able to come back in such a manner.”
That was the same voice that had once sown the seeds of courage within the hearts of Diana’s father, mother, and the other people in her country.
“…I thought you were supposed to be in Osaka……”
Hideo haughtily replied to William, who was frowning.
“Ah. I hurried back because I heard that something blasted my front door to pieces while I was away. Even so, my wife will probably say I was still too late in returning. But if I knew that we could do something like this, I needn’t have wasted my money by hurriedly buying a return ticket on the bullet train. Only Green Car[10] tickets were available, so all my allowance is gone.”
He had neatly barbered hair. A well-used down jacket. A gray suit. A pink, paisley-patterned necktie. Black leather shoes that had become soft with age.
“I don’t know who you are, but it looks like my family and children have been under your care.”
And lastly, he was holding the Holy Sword Liutberga, which was enveloped in a wind that threatened to disperse the darkness.
“The Hero… Hideo Kenzaki.”
William said that name in a voice that was a mixture of hatred and awe.
The central pillar of the Kenzaki Family who would be turning forty-eight this year. It was Kenzaki Hideo, the father of Yasuo and Nodoka.
