18 13

The minister of the left planned to absorb any surviving dwarven units and townsfolk they encountered along the way, and then defend the gate to the death. The hope was that they might even be able to strike out from the Great Ironfist Gate, break through the enemy encirclement, and escape.
Haruhiro could only pray the gate hadn’t fallen. It was kind of why he’d drawn Arnold and his unit into that chase. If Axbeld and his dwarves could make it to the Great Ironfist Gate, maybe Haruhiro could convince himself that all that running for his life had been worth it.
The group headed to the warehouse where the iron king and her retinue, Captain of the Royal Guard Rowen, old Utefan the guide, the members of the House of Bratsod, Elder Harumerial of the elves, and Eltalihi of the House of Mercurian had already gathered.
“You’re late!” Rowen roared at Haruhiro the moment he saw the thief. The dwarf was really agitated. Or it might have been that he was dissatisfied with being the one who defended the iron king during her flight while the minister of the left remained in the Ironblood Kingdom.
“Rowen.” The iron king was clad in armor, a helmet, and a cloak, hiding her face. However, the voice that rebuked the captain of the royal guard was unquestionably that of the king. The way her silver hair sparkled as it spilled out of her helmet was unreal. “Now, let us be on our way.”
Once the iron king said that, the members of the House of Bratsod began opening the iron door. They and old Utefan led the way, with Rowen, the iron king and her retinue, Harumerial the elven elder,
Eltalihi Mercurian, and Haruhiro’s group following behind them in that order as they proceeded along the passageway toward the Walter Gate.
“What about Gottheld-san?” Haruhiro asked, but Itsukushima shook his head.
“He went with the minister of the left.”
“Oh... Well, it’s impressive that you managed to at least persuade the king. I had a feeling she’d be pretty reluctant to do this.”
“She must’ve decided she doesn’t want to die,” Neal said with a cynical smile. Kuzaku scowled at him.
“I dunno that you should be lumping her together with someone like you...”
“We are the same, though, aren’t we? What’s so different?”
“Lots. Obviously.”
“Whether it’s me or the dwarven queen, once we bite it, that’s the
end. No difference between us. Yeah, I know you people wouldn’t give a shit if I died. But this is the only life I’ve got.”
“Well, I guess you should take good care of it, then, huh?”
“That’s what I’m doing. Don’t need you to tell me to.”
“Yeah, go figure.”
“Mark my words. I’m gonna survive, even if every last one of you dies.”
“That’s the kind of line a guy who’s gonna die says, you know?” Ranta smirked.
Neal laughed it off. “Here’s a tip; speaking from experience here. It doesn’t matter what I say. It’s what I do that’ll decide whether or not I survive.”
Setora nodded with no particular expression on her face. “An opinion worth heeding.”
“I know, right?” Neal smirked. Then, lowering his eyes, he let out a sigh. “What do I do, though? That’s the one thing I have to think about. If I hadn’t kept trying too hard at my job under Mogis, I’d never’ve ended up in this jam. I should’ve slacked off a bit. But it was all I could do at the time. I’m not making a mistake. I’ve been doing well. Yeah. That’s why I haven’t ended up like Bikki. Screw dying. At least until I can say I was glad to be alive...”
He was mumbling something to himself. It seemed Neal was feeling pushed into a corner.
The delegation’s original mission had been to deliver Jin Mogis’s letter to the iron king, negotiate with her, and then return with the results. It was always going to be a long road, even if all they did was go and come back. There was always the possibility that negotiations would break down and it would be all for nothing too. Haruhiro had been prepared for that sort of difficulty. But maybe his read on the situation had been too naive? He’d never imagined the journey would be so harsh.
The group walked along the stone corridor reinforced with iron. There were lanterns in alcoves carved into the walls, so they had no need to carry lights of their own.
“Mungh...” Yume groaned.
“What’s up?” Ranta asked her.
“Hmm? What’s up? Somethin’ is...”
Yume kept twisting her head in different directions. Was something bothering her?
There were iron doors here and there along the passageway. The group would open one, pass through, and then close them again before moving onward.
Were they missing something? Haruhiro lacked Yume’s perception, but he was getting a weird feeling too. Given how bad things had gotten, they’d probably made tons of mistakes. Were any of those faults or failures ones that he ought to be thinking about now, while he had the chance?
Merry was walking beside Haruhiro. He looked at her face in profile, and noticed her eyes were wide and focused up ahead of them.
Haruhiro tried to call out to her. But for whatever reason, he couldn’t do it.
Old Utefan pounded on the last iron door. The old white-bearded dwarf looked ancient and walked with a staff, although for some reason, his staff seemed unusually heavy. It was made of metal, and its head bulged out like a hammer. He was rapping hard on the metal door with the end of it now, making an incredible racket.
The iron door began to open. That was presumably the work of the dwarven guards on the other side.
As they were passing through, Captain Rowen asked the guard, “Anything amiss?”
“Nothing.”
“I see. Keep up the good work.” Rowen clapped the guard dwarf on the shoulder, causing the man to stumble a little.
The group passed through a limestone cave and exited through the Walter Gate. Haruhiro looked up to see what was going on in the watch stations, picking out dwarves that were poking their heads out of the rock huts. One of them came down from his post. It was Willich, the dwarf with the evil countenance.
“Your Majesty...”
Willich was about to kneel down before the iron king, but the king stopped him.
“That will not be necessary.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Willich responded, not dropping to one knee, but still lowering his head. “We will seal the Walter Gate at once. Please, hasten away from here.”
“You are to follow us once you finish sealing the gate. We need as many people with us as possible.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Willich waved to the others, and dwarves began coming out of the rock huts one after another. They headed to the Walter Gate, and were presumably going to make sure it would never open again.
“We’ll want to buy as much of a lead as possible by sunset,” Setora murmured. Being underground for so long had messed with their sense of time a little, but there were probably still a couple hours before the sundown.
The former mine city on Mount Spear was supposed to be about a hundred kilometers east of the Kurogane Mountain Range. That was strictly as the crow flew, however. Besides, the Walter Gate was on the west side of the Kuroganes. That was going to add several dozen kilometers to the actual distance they’d be traveling. The forests in the foothills of the Kurogane Range were Southern Expedition territory, so their route would probably have to take them through the mountains too.
“This is gonna be rough...” Neal grumbled with a sigh.
Honestly, Haruhiro felt the same, but in for a penny, in for a pound. Once they had escorted the iron king to the former mine city on
Mount Spear, then they could either head back to Alterna or visit the free city of Vele. If he remembered correctly, Mount Spear was maybe seventy or eighty kilometers from Vele. The free city was supposedly neutral, but they had ties to the K&K Pirate Company. The party could rest there awhile. Depending on how things went, they might be safer not returning to Alterna and staying in Vele instead. No, that wasn’t an option. They needed to do something about Shihoru, and Haruhiro was still worried about the Volunteer Soldier Corps.
Anyway, for now, we have to get to Mount Spear.
The group was marching single file through the gaps in the massive rocks. Haruhiro and the party went along with them.
As they were descending along a mountain stream, Haruhiro noticed Itsukushima was looking around an awful lot. Yume was frowning too, or rather puffing up her cheeks one at a time as she looked this way and that.
“Poochie?” Merry furrowed her brow as she said the wolf-dog’s name.
“Yeah,” Yume nodded. “Poochie’s supposed to be around here, waitin’ for Yume and Master. He oughta notice us and be comin’ along any moment now, though.”
“Well, I’m sure he’ll find us in good time,” Itsukushima said, but it sounded more like he was trying to reassure himself. It wasn’t like him.
Haruhiro turned to look back. The broken rocks that had, in a way, served as a landmark for the Walter Gate were no longer visible from here.
Though these were wetlands, there were rocky areas along the river, and two people could walk across them side-by-side. As long as they didn’t spread out, they could avoid having to step into the running water, which was preferable even if it was shallow.
The area on the left side of the mountain stream was relatively flat, while on the right was a sheer cliff.
“Haruhiro?” Kuzaku called his name.
“Yeah,” Haruhiro responded vaguely.
The group was still descending along the mountain stream. Haruhiro was the only one not moving.
“Is something bothering you?” Setora asked, stopping as well and looking up at the sheer cliff on the right. Merry, Kuzaku, Ranta, Yume, Itsukushima, and even Neal stopped too.
“Hey, wait up!” Ranta yelled after the rest of the group. The iron king turned back, and the rest of them stopped too.
“What is it?!” Captain Rowen demanded.
Haruhiro quickly exchanged glances with each of his comrades. They more or less understood him without having to talk it over. “I’m going up top to have a look, just to be safe,” he told Rowen, pointing to the cliff on the right.
“Be quick about it,” the dwarf said. Then, turning to his men, he instructed them, “Everyone, remain alert!”
Rowen was an impatient man, but he was no fool. Itsukushima joined Haruhiro as he headed toward the cliff.
“I’ll go too,” he offered.
“That’d help.”
Itsukushima probably sensed something too, and feared the worst. The two of them wouldn’t have to go back up the stream. They could clamber up the side of the cliff directly. Itsukushima reached the rock face first. Haruhiro took a deep breath, then looked up to the top. That was when it happened.
“Osh!” “Osh!” “Osh!” “Osh!” “Osh!”
“Orcs?!”
Haruhiro saw someone jump off the cliff.
“Oooooooooshhhhhhhhhhh!”
White hair streaming behind him, and a sword held in each hand. He knew that orc. There had been a unit holding Mount Grief with a mixed force of orcs, undead, and kobolds. He was their commander—Zan Dogran.
“Shit!”
When he heard Kuzaku cursing, Haruhiro got the chills. Even Renji had struggled against Zan Dogran, despite having the relic Aragarfald. They were in trouble now, weren’t they?
“Kuza—”
“Ngohhh!”
Kuzaku instinctively drew his large katana and went to intercept Zan Dogran. Was he trying to slash the orc as he fell?
“Zweagh?!”
Then, for some reason, though Haruhiro couldn’t be sure what because his eyes hadn’t been able to catch it, Kuzaku got sent flying by the orc. He collapsed into the river.
“Personal Skill!”
Not missing a beat, Ranta took a swing at Zan Dogran—or made it look like he was going to before suddenly coming to a stop right in front of the orc and quickly lowering his stance. Lower than a crouch. It must have made it look like Ranta had up and disappeared. This was particularly effective against a large orc like Zan Dogran. Or it should have been, but no dice. It wasn’t going to work, huh?
Zan Dogran swung the one-edged sword in his left hand. He was clearly aiming at Ranta.
“Tch!”
Ranta did a frog-like jump to the side to get out of the way, but Zan Dogran’s right-hand sword was swinging at where the dread knight was trying to escape to.
“Whoa!”
He got him.
It was like Ranta was cut in half, then hastily stuck back together. No, obviously that’s not what happened. It had only looked like the dread knight had been cut. Ranta had actually managed to avoid it somehow.
“Osh!” “Osh!”
“Osh!” “Osh!” “Osh!”
“Osh!” “Osh!” “Osh!” “Osh!”
“Osh!” “Osh!” “Osh!” “Osh!” “Osh!”
The orcs with their hair bleached white, carrying one-handed swords with single serrated edges, raced down the cliff one after another. Some of them were sliding down. And it wasn’t just orcs. The undead who had likely followed Zan Dogran here from Mount Grief were with them too.
“Master!” Yume shouted.
Itsukushima beat a hasty retreat, and Haruhiro backed away too. If they didn’t hurry, they’d be swallowed up in the oncoming wave of orcs and undead.
“Dwarves!” Captain Rowen drew his greatsword and came at Zan
Dogran swinging. “We’ll hold them back! Please escape, Your Majesty!”
Of the members of the House of Bratsod, maybe half were armed with guns, axes, and polearms. Ten or so dwarves pointed their guns at the top of the cliff, while the remaining ten were bunching up around old Utefan, the iron king, and the elves as they tried to continue down the mountain stream.
“Hurrrrgh!” Rowen swung his greatsword down diagonally. Zan Dogran backed away, stumbling. The captain of the royal guard’s sword tore into the ground, sending stones and water flying in a wide radius. Zan Dogran disregarded that and tried to close in on the dwarf, but, incredibly, Rowen went and headbutted the orc.
“Nugh?!”
Zan staggered back after taking Rowen’s headbutt to the chest. Rowen did a nearly vertical spin with his body as he followed up with a swing of his greatsword. Not able to take it, Zan Dogran jumped and rolled, managing to get away from the horrifying slash somehow.
No, there was no escape. Rowen kept after Zan Dogran, swinging again and again.
It would have been hyperbole to say that Captain Rowen’s greatsword was as long as he was tall, but if you included the hilt in your measurement it was pretty close. Even Kuzaku, and possibly even some of the orcs, who were larger than humans, might have struggled to wield such a blade. Rowen swung that monster blade around with both hands, and sometimes just his right hand, as if it were light. Despite being fully clad in glossy black armor, the dwarf remained nimble and even flexible. His sword reached out like it was alive, pressing its incessant attack against Zan Dogran.
“Urff! Orgh!”
Zan Dogran had been forced entirely on the defensive. Rowen was overwhelming him.
The orcs and undead hadn’t seen this coming, had they? Zan
Dogran’s feats of martial prowess had stood out during the battle of the old castle on Mount Grief. Surely his men worshiped him as some sort of god of battle. Now he was being pushed back by a dwarf. That had clearly unnerved his soldiers.
“Fire!”
At that moment, the House of Bratsod’s dwarven gunners fired a volley. The sound of even just ten guns was nothing to make light of. Furthermore, this enemy unit, having come here from Mount Grief, wasn’t yet used to the sound of gunfire. Only three or four of them, possibly even just one or two, had actually been hit, and yet it was clear to see they were ready to run away.
“Haruhirooo!”
“Yeah!”
Haruhiro didn’t need Ranta to signal him. The party followed the fleeing iron king. Setora had already helped Kuzaku up, so he was fine. Neal was nowhere to be seen, but Itsukushima and Yume were next to them. Merry was in front of Yume. Or rather, Yume had probably let Merry go ahead of her.
“Diiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeiiiiii!”
Something changed about Zan Dogran. His hair stood on end, and his whole body crackled with something like static electricity. He’d been like that when trading blows with Renji too. His twin swords were pretty hefty, but he would swing them around like sticks when in this state.
“Gah! Urgh?!”
In no time, it was Rowen who was on the defensive. Though, defend as he might, was there any way to fend off Zan Dogran’s twin swords when they swung down on him this fast and full of fury, too quick for the eye to follow? There was no time to worry about the captain of the guard, though. Once Zan Dogran turned the tables, the enemy quickly regained their vigor. Ranta jumped out and cut down one of the white-haired orcs who had been ignoring the House of Bratsod’s gunners to chase after them.
“Aw, yeah!”
There was another one coming. A different white-haired orc. Haruhiro immediately planted a kick on its knee, struck its chin with the palm of his left hand, and almost simultaneously stabbed his right-hand dagger, which he was holding with a backhand grip, through the orc’s heart. Once he pushed the orc away and tore his weapon free, an undead sprang at him. Dodging, he got behind it, then used Spider. He grappled the undead, slitting its throat with a twist of his dagger. “Ranta!”
“Yeah, I know!”
He didn’t want to get bogged down and cut off from their comrades. Much as he hated to leave them, Rowen and the Bratsods were going to have to stand their ground on their own. But they were up against Zan Dogran. Could they hold out? He didn’t know. Zan Dogran’s unit was supposed to have anywhere from several hundred to a thousand guys. The dwarves were beyond outnumbered. Even if the dwarves had guns, it wasn’t going to make much difference. They needed to run. It was the only option.
They’d been found out. The Southern Expedition had known where the Walter Gate was. Come to think of it, Itsukushima and Yume had been worried about some tracks that weren’t from a four-legged creature, which must have been left by the enemy. The Southern Expedition had probably deployed Zan Dogran and his unit at the Walter Gate once he joined up with the main force, then launched a general offensive. In short, their escape had already been cut off from the start. They were like rats in a trap.
They continued down the mountain stream. The footing here was awful, the rocks often shifting or crumbling under their feet. Merry nearly tripped, but Yume caught her.
“Sorry!”
“Meow!”
The iron king was out of sight. It seemed she’d made it all the way down the mountain stream and into the forest on the right. Kuzaku, Setora, Itsukushima, Yume, and Merry followed. Neal was gone. Where to? Had he run off? When? And how? That man’s ability to run away, to just outright disappear, was the one genuine thing about him.
Haruhiro and Ranta entered the forest. This wasn’t a path they’d taken on the way here. Was it a path at all? Maybe the iron king’s group had deliberately chosen to chart a new course for their flight.
Either way, all the party could do was follow along. Haruhiro honestly didn’t know which way was which at this point. He kept turning to look behind him, checking for enemies. Unfortunately, they hadn’t managed to shake their pursuers. He sensed danger not just to the rear, but on the left and right too. Were there enemies scattered all around them now? He spotted orcs and undead here and there, only to lose track of them again.
The forest. This wasn’t just a forest. It was a sea of trees. Trunks and roots twisted and intertwined, creating swells and depressions. In some places there seemed to be deep fissures too. Still, this wasn’t a problem only for the people fleeing. It had to be just as difficult for the ones hunting them. This wasn’t like running across flat ground. It forced them to duck and weave, climbing some times, jumping over things at others, using a variety of postures and moves.
It was especially hard on the short dwarves. The iron king, who had her face hidden behind a helmet, was silently jumping from root to root, grabbing onto and clambering up tree trunks, but you couldn’t have called her moves graceful, not even if you were trying to be nice.
Yume gazed upward. Was she looking at the sky through the branches?
“Is something up there?” Itsukushima asked Yume.
Yume shook her head. “Mmm, just now, it felt like there was a big bird flyin’ by.”
“A bird...” Ranta mumbled, looking around.
“Personalized Skill...”
Whose voice was that? Above. It came from above.
It’s coming down. What? From up in the treetops?
“Ran—”
That was as much as Haruhiro managed to get out. It looked like whatever it was, it was falling toward Ranta. By the time Haruhiro figured that out, it was already attacking the dread knight. Ranta noticed too, but he didn’t dodge. He drew his katana and tried to strike it out of the air.
“Great Foul Waterfall! Right?!”
Was Ranta’s quick draw and strike too late?
No, probably not.
There was the sound of katana colliding with katana. That thing, or man rather, swept Ranta’s katana aside with his own—then slashed. He cut Ranta, landed, and then almost seemed to float as he jumped away. When the one-eyed, one-armed man settled on a root, he had an expression on his face that looked refreshed, as if he’d just gotten out of the bath, but also slightly languid at the same time.
“You’ve still got a long way to go, Ranta.”
“Gwogh...”
The wound Ranta had taken wasn’t shallow. Was it his shoulder? No, his neck. It was spurting blood. Had it struck an artery? The carotid artery? Not even Ranta could try to act tough with a wound like that. It looked bad.
“Ah!”
Merry raced over. She was already making the sign of the hexagram, preparing her spell. She planned to cast Sacrament. If she didn’t, it’d be too late. That had to be her thinking.
What did Haruhiro and the others need to be doing? Not letting the enemy disrupt Merry. Escorting her. They might not be able to defeat that man, Takasagi, but they could keep him in check. Yume was already nocking an arrow.
“Mew!”
“I guess instead of holding back I’ll show off a bit,” Takasagi said, wobbling the katana he held in his left hand. “Secret Technique, Autumnal Illusion.”
I don’t get it. What is that?
Takasagi was just standing there, shaking his blade. Was that all it was? Takasagi’s body moved as if it was swaying too.
Yume loosed her arrow. She followed up with a second, then a third in quick succession. Itsukushima was shooting too.
But they didn’t hit.
The two hunters weren’t at a range where they’d normally have missed. They were less than ten meters away. Why hadn’t they been able to hit him? Was Takasagi dodging? But the one-armed man just seemed to be standing around. It was almost as if Yume and Itsukushima had just barely missed him on purpose. Was that Takasagi’s secret technique?
It makes no sense. What the heck is that?
Don’t lose your head. Cut yourself off from your emotions, Haruhiro told himself, submerging his consciousness. His mind went to a low place while his vision rose up high. He was looking down on everything at an angle.
Merry would reach Ranta soon. Setora had her spear ready, and was trying to cover the two of them. Kuzaku was swinging his large katana at Takasagi. Wasn’t it reckless, just charging in like that? Kuzaku was generally a pretty straightforward guy, but he was playing it way too straight there.
Old Utefan and the other dwarves were focused on guarding the iron king, her retinue, and the two elves. They were all looking at Takasagi, but none of them tried to attack him. Maybe a few of the dwarves were hesitating over whether or not to point their guns at him, but that was about it.
Haruhiro went to circle around behind Takasagi.
“O Light, may Lumiaris’s divine protection be upon you...” Merry’s hand touched Ranta’s shoulder.
“Hahhhh!” Kuzaku sprang at Takasagi. He had his large katana over his head, and was about to swing it down. No matter how you cut it, Kuzaku shouldn’t have been so stupid and careless as to try such a straightforward attack. It was like he’d been led into it. Was there some secret hidden in the irregular and unstable way that Takasagi was moving?
“Sacrament!”
Merry triggered her spell. There was a flood of brilliant light and Ranta’s wounds began to heal.
Kuzaku’s overhead swing failed to hit Takasagi, as expected. Takasagi turned to the side and Kuzaku’s blade flew by in front of his nose. At the same time, Takasagi was slicing Kuzaku’s flank with his katana.
“Oh, you’re a tough one.”
“Gwagh?!”
Kuzaku instinctively jumped to the side and rolled. It looked like he’d taken a pretty deep cut, but he hadn’t been completely bisected, at least. The question was if he could get back up.
Haruhiro focused his eyes on Takasagi’s back from about three meters away. He’d gotten behind his target. From here, he could sense Takasagi’s breathing. It was completely steady, even though this man had just sliced Kuzaku.
Takasagi looked like he was just standing there. And yet, that wasn’t quite true. He was constantly moving, his center of gravity always changing. It wasn’t clear where in his body he was tensing, and where he was relaxing. If Haruhiro tried to stand like that, he’d definitely collapse. It would be hard enough just walking, and using a katana would be out of the question. Takasagi might not have looked like it at a glance, but he was doing something frighteningly advanced here. However he was moving, it probably worked differently from normal human movement.
“Drahhhhhh!”
Ranta’s wounds had healed. He exploded into motion, no doubt meaning to get back at Takasagi. Merry would be trying to heal Kuzaku. Setora went with her.
Haruhiro was closing in on Takasagi in Stealth. No one, not even his allies, noticed Haruhiro’s existence now. It got to the point where Haruhiro himself had only the faintest sense that he was here.
He didn’t think, I can do this. He wasn’t thinking, I’m gonna do it.
His mind was almost empty.
Haruhiro would plunge his dagger into Takasagi’s back. In this position, at this angle, it would pierce his kidney. That would promptly render him unconscious, followed shortly by death. It was a lethal blow.
“Whoopsie...”
He felt the dagger tear through Takasagi’s clothes and pierce his skin, but then Haruhiro found himself being lifted over the man’s shoulder.
What had happened?
He didn’t understand the trick, or where the strength to execute it had come from.
Was there a technique that made it possible?
“And down you go...”
Takasagi tossed Haruhiro with a shoulder throw. How had he done it when he had only his left arm, and was holding a katana with it?
“Urgh!” Haruhiro wasn’t able to break his fall properly.
He tilted his head forward on the spur of the moment, managing to protect the back of his head, but the impact as his back struck the hard roots made it hard to breathe.
“Y’see, I’ve got an eye in the back of my head,” Takasagi looked down at Haruhiro. “So even after losing one, I’ve still got two.” He winked with his right eye. The man was calm and composed, bouncing the flat of his blade on his shoulder as he spoke.
“Personal Skill!” Ranta swooped in like a flying squirrel, or something similar, as he slashed at Takasagi.
“Oh, shut up with your personal skills.”
Takasagi bent his wrists and elbows, twisting his katana like a snake. It caught Ranta’s katana.
“Ah?!”
Did Ranta have no choice but to let go of his weapon? Or did he do it without meaning to? Either way, the blade spun out of Ranta’s hands and embedded itself in a tree some distance away.
“Always looking for little tricks. That’s the problem with you.” Takasagi pressed the point of his katana to Ranta’s throat. “When it comes to ordinary guys like us, the absolute minimum we need to do is break ourselves down into little pieces, and then rebuild ourselves from scratch. Basically, if you stop working hard, you’re finished. With the way that you rely on instinct and flashes of inspiration, in the end, you’re just a spoiled, snot-nosed brat.”
Ranta tried to argue back. But he just let out a pathetic sigh, grinding his teeth in frustration.
What’re you letting him break your spirit for?
Haruhiro tried to jump to his feet, but Takasagi just stepped on his throat without even looking down. The thief then felt a katana go through his right wrist.
“Agh! Guh...”
“Don’t move. I’m giving a lecture here. This might be my last chance to, after all.”
Takasagi smiled. Just now, the man could have easily snuffed Haruhiro out. He could still kill Ranta too. Did he not want to? He didn’t mean to kill them. That’s gotta be it, thought Haruhiro. It had to be.
“Stop!” Merry shouted. It seemed she’d finished healing Kuzaku. The paladin was getting up.
Takasagi shrugged. “We may not be doing this because we want to, but our motto is that if you’re gonna do something, you go all the way. If you don’t take things seriously, then it’s no fun at all, even when you’re just playing. That’s a bit of adult wisdom for you.”
“Surrender.”
That wasn’t Takasagi. It was a different voice.
“Jumbo...” Ranta turned to look behind him. Haruhiro looked in that direction too.
Yume had said a bird was flying by. Was it that one? Jumbo’s friend, the great black eagle?
A lone orc walked toward them. He was unmistakably an orc, yet gave off a very different impression from others of his kind. Was it because of his glossy, flowing black hair, his green skin with a slight ashen hue, his beautiful, vibrant orange eyes, and his handsome face? He wore a deep blue kimono with a silver flower pattern, and carried a katana at his side. He was small enough, at least for an orc, that the size of the big black eagle using his shoulder as a perch stood out. Unlike, say, Zan Dogran, he didn’t look like a man who dominated others. And yet, there was something about him that demanded attention.
“You people are left with not even a shred of hope. Surrender at once. If you refuse, I will be forced to kill you all.”

Chapter end