Kyou kara Ma no Tsuku Jiyuugyou! Vol 6 Chapter 10

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Hi! It's currently 5am.  I can't even believe I'm still awake.  Good thing it's Sunday!

Anyway, I actually had a hard time picturing the place they're in.  The only thing described in any real detail is the ground and how big and round the place is and that there are fences.  Then all of a sudden there's walls and doors and it's like, yeah...  Even the picture (yes, there's a picture this chapter XD) doesn't have anything drawn in the background.  In that respect, it's a bit confusing because it's obviously different than the anime version.  Ah well.

Well anyway, let's get started~

      Near the entrance, there is a rock with a short poem chiseled into it with angular and complicated letters.

      … Well Bashou has sure come a long way. (1)

      If I kick aside the small, beadlike clumps of dirt sprinkled across the ground, there is bedrock just beneath the surface.  I kick at the ground with my heel and give my opinion as a grass-lot athlete.

      There are bunches of spectators between the gaps in the fence.  I wonder if there’s going to be a really interesting event.  What do we do if they make us put on a fighting exhibition?  Some bad memories replay in my mind.

That means what’s waiting for us is definitely nothing good.

      “… You think maybe they’re baseball mascots?  Like Maron and Roman?”

      Flynn has wrapped her arms around her body and is shivering from the cold.  Her cheeks that she finally got a little tan are now paled and she looks ill.  Noticing that I was peering at her, she gave a forced smile.

      “No, it’s alright.  Even I’ve had the shakes for a while and my head is unbearably heavy.”

      “I definitely caught a cold.  I really want to get out of here as soon as possible and take a nice warm bath.”

      Even though it’s cold and the prisoners are in thin clothes, if they walk fast enough they can heat themselves up.  On the other hand, we’re in wet leather coats. The more we’re buffeted with the wind, the colder and heavier the coats become and our body heat is just whisked away.  Not being able to just watch us suffer, Josak took all of our coats off along the way, but our clothes were stained green from that water all the way down to our underwear so it didn’t do much.  It was especially severe in Flynn’s case.  Cold is the greatest enemy of girls.  Even though we’re in the middle of over a hundred people, it’s still hard to dodge the wind.

      We stepped closer to each other in order to share even a little bit of warmth.  T-Zou squeezed in between us and even though she isn’t dry yet, she’s warm.

      The bees in my head abruptly step up their activity.  I stagger a bit.

      “Shibuya!”

      Josak silently lends me his shoulder.  This part of him is very similar to Lord Weller.

      He’s got the Shimaron soldier’s official beard and hairstyle.  He has gaunt cheeks and, for lack of a better word, narrow eyes.  Because of that, the overall impression you get from him is that he’s a shrewd, lethal weapon rather than a strong and fearless man.  The man who looks like he’d even smell cold if you got close enough to him gets off of his horse with precise and efficient movements and turns toward us.  The nickname I’ve given him is Cropped Ponytail.  Abbreviated cutely: Cropped Pony.

      “… Maxine…”

      “At ease.”

      “Now, everyone, I have some good news to begin with.”

      “As you all know, these people are all those who fought against us, Small Shimaron, in the last war.  If they are still soldiers at heart, then they are living in daily anguish at the cruel fate of being reduced to mere captives.”

      “However, even though they’ve spent their days engaging in manual labor, I’m sure they’ve heard that not just Small Shimaron, but all of the areas that regard the Shimaron countries their suzerain are uniting for a holy war against the demons.  As you have been shouldering a part of this endeavor, this is very good news for you.”

      “After many years of exploration, His Majesty Saralegi of Small Shimaron has finally gotten hold of what we’ve been searching for.  This is a blessing from God!  We humans shall wield this great power and vigilantly rule over the continent, no, the world and break through these dark ages!  This is the weapon that will defeat the evil demons!  This is a holy power that has been bestowed upon us by God!  Our hegemony has been promised and we can prevent this world from becoming steeped in evil.”

      Why does everyone believe that!?  Have any of you been to The Great Demon Kingdom?  Have you ever spoken with a demon child?  Have any of you spoken with me, the king of the demons, about the fate of this world!?

      “Murata?”

      “What are you saying, all of a sudden..?”

      “They’ll be betrayed again and again.  From this point on, many times over.  Each time, they’ll shed blood and they’ll be hurt.  The one who’ll be shedding blood won’t be the king.  The citizens will suffer hundreds, thousands of times worse.  Rather than God or luck, stopping that from happening depends on the abilities of the rulers of the countries.”

      “Shibuya, you’ll probably be hurt over and over again.  It’ll be so painful you’ll want to die.  If you don’t act cautiously and daringly, you might actually lose your life.  You might lose a lot of what you hold dear and become wracked with regret.  Knowing that, will you do it?  Can you keep going on like this without stopping?”

      At some point he must have taken his contacts out because when I turn to face him, both of his eyes are black.  I had the strange feeling that I had just met a friend from a really long time ago in a foreign land.

      “… Yeah, I’ll do it.  It’ll probably be hard, though.”

      “Like I thought.”

      “I thought this would happen.”

      Ignoring my confused mutterings, Murata continues his calm speech.

      “Wait wait wait wait wait, hold up, you… When the hell was that!?  It’s rude to ask someone’s age, but Murata, how old are you?”

      “What are you talking about?  Ken Murata is sixteen.”

      “Probably, yeah probably.  I think those guys standing there like monks are sending out some sort of radio waves,” said Murata.

      “Thought waves then.  Kind of like telepathy.  According to Professor Ueda’s ‘Come at me, Paranormal Phenomenon,’ it’s a sort of hypnotism using low voices.  If it was just hypnotism, then I’d ‘come at them,’ but magic and the occult are an entirely different matter, actually.”

      “And on this wonderful day that the object that will promise us happiness and eternal hegemony, The End of the Land, has become our kingdom’s great fortune, our benevolent King Saralegi of Small Shimaron has granted you all amnesty!  You will no longer be prisoners!  You’ll be able to bring honor and dignity back to your souls after suffering defeat and humiliation as soldiers.”

      I have no idea who you’re talking about.  How does he relate to Abraham Lincoln?

      “But for proud soldiers, I don’t believe that it should be so easy to lift your spirits.  Luckily, there is a duty you robust, muscular and brave men can perform that will redeem you.  We want you to display your strength in there to your heart’s content.”

      “… Why does… Small Shimaron have a box..?”

      “No,” Murata says loathsomely in a severe voice that I’d never heard from him before. “That’s The End of the Land.  It’s not The End of the Wind.  There are four things in this world that must never be touched… two of those have… they’ve already fallen into human hands..?”

      “It’s not easy.”

      “Numerous countries have been competing and searching for them for decades.  They weren’t quickly found.  But for them to fall into people’s possession one after another… I thought only Big Shimaron had a box and key.”

      “Fortunately, we have obtained the key to open the box.  Now we need to make it known just how tremendous the power it has is and throw the feral demons into the very bottom of despair.  Gentlemen, we wish for you to prove that no matter what sort of brave hero fights back they are no match for this power.  Lord Saralegi will be pleased!”

      With shouts bordering on shrieks, the prisoners are suddenly thrown into unease.

      Nigel Wise Maxine continued speaking without changing his expression at all with his confused sacrifices before him.

      “Wait!”

      “That’s enough, Mr. Maxine!  You think you can just go on and on about your own country if people shut up and listen!?  If that really really is the horrible ‘box’ then shouldn’t you know that you should never touch it!?”

      “I was thinking I’d seen you before… It was at the Gilbit Estate.  My thanks for how you treated me.  My injuries haven’t quite healed yet.”

      “Oh, is that Gilbit’s wife next to you?  No, there’s no way.”

      “Flynn Gilbit was a determined lady who took the place of her husband in an unwomanly way.  Even though it was hidden under a mask, her real face was even more noble and beautiful.  There’s no way that the filthy girl in front of me is the Lady of Caloria.”

      Contrary to Maxine’s words, I feel like she’s at her most ladylike right now.  Even with wet and disorderly platinum blond hair and modest work clothes made for men.  Even with her entire body soaked with that green river water.  I like Flynn Gilbit now much more than when she was wearing that mask and pretending to be her husband.

      “What’s that got to do with a little girl?  No, even if you were the indomitable Lady of Caloria, you have no authority to dictate the methods of Small Shimaron.  In any case, Gilbit is a place that has disregarded its suzerain state and engaged in criminal activity with Big Shimaron.”

      “Then as per the advice of the village girl, we will have the spectators removed.  But, you have no right to interfere with these prisoners carrying out their duty.  They are prisoners of our country and have forfeited their rights of their own volition by committing crimes.”

      I’m not sexist but I can’t just let a girl do all the fighting.

      “Go home?”

      “Black eyes and black hair, I don’t know why a rare Twin Black demon like yourself is here, but… Then, nameless demon, use that magic from before and try to stop me.  If you put on a display of that terrible magic, it would be easy to rip off one of my arms.”

      Nigel Wise Maxine holds the cylinder that looks like a music case and has a soldier pull out the contents.  The young soldier holds the near half-burned and black object high.

      And I saw that.

(1)    Matsuo Bashou was a famous poet in the Edo period.  Yuuri is being a sarcastic little punk here :)

(3)    For the non-Americans (and quite possibly for many of the Americans as well ^-^;; ), The Gettysburg Address is a speech that Abraham Lincoln gave during the Civil War where he proclaimed that the war was not only just a struggle between the Union and the Confederacy, but also a war for human equality.  The part of the speech (kinda) referenced here is "...that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

(5)    Panty-ra’s Box is a reference (kind of) to a joke in novel 5.  I mentioned it in my post about stuff that got left out of the German version.  Basically, when Conrad and Günter were telling Yuuri about The End of the Wind, Yuuri tried to compare it to Pandora’s Box and apparently forgot what it was really called. ^-^

Chapter end