Kyou kara Ma no Tsuku Jiyuugyou! Vol 6 Chapter 8

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      Hi!  Long chapter this time.  Makes me think there’s going to be a super short chapter in here somewhere…  Although, it may have just seemed long because there were so many breaks and the other two chapters were almost 5 pages shorter...

      Also, for some reason I typed ‘Commander Mountain Range’ as ‘Captain Mountain Range’ last chapter… It’s fixed now XD

      So I know I’ve been calling Yuuri’s stone a ‘magic stone’ but now I feel like it should be ‘demon stone.’  I originally started calling it a magic stone because Conrad said it amplified a demon’s magic and the ‘ma’ character 魔 in the context of this story can either be a sort of adjective that means demon or magic.  But now there’s a bunch more ‘ma’ objects in the story that I’m calling 'demon ____' so now it’s kind of like, the odd man out… I dunno.  I still called it a magic stone in this chapter.  Opinions?

      Lord Gegenhuber Grisela is his cousin in law on his father’s side.  In the past, there were similarities in their outward appearances and their relatives told them they looked alike at every opportunity.

      Looking down on the thin body on the floor, he lifts his right leg up and kicks him.

      “Gwen, why!?”

      Gegenhuber tries to push himself back up with his elbows, but before he can, he’s kicked down again and he awkwardly writhes about on the cold floor.  By the time he’s kicked in the stomach the fourth time, the man is completely incapable of putting up any resistance.

      Placing a hand on his trembling shoulder, Greta desperately tries to get him to sit up.

      “Yes, he will die like this,” Anissina says as she places a hand on the girl’s shoulder.  “Step away.  I won’t let him die yet.”

      “Now listen, Lord Grisela.  I despise you.  Live in shame for the rest of your life that you had to be saved by me.”

      “You’re shameless!  If you value your life, get out of here!” yelled Gwendal.

      “Then I’ll kill you!”

      “Your Excellency!  Lord Grisela is still ill.  He’s only been conscious for a few days so he may not be thinking clearly!”

      It was rare for Lord von Voltaire to show so much emotion like this.  With his rage and his shame for being related to this man, the fingers gripping the hilt of his sword are turning white.

      Still clutching to his nursemaid’s waist, Lord Lindsey von Wincott said apathetically:

      “Hube, did you really do something that horrible..?”

      “I am fully prepared to be beheaded here… my survival depends on the compassion of Your Excellency… However, I have just, just one thing I must report!  Please let me meet with Her Majesty Cecilie!  I have something I must tell her…” (2)

      The man who had been unconscious ever since he’d been brought in from a foreign country murmured dumbfounded.

      “Hube, the king of The Great Demon Kingdom is Yuuri.  He’s got black hair and black eyes.  He’s my father now.”

      “… You don’t mean… that person at the resort town who was with … then I have pointed my sword at the present Demon King… what have I done…”

      Gwendal takes a dagger from the waist of the guard and throws it, scabbard and all, in front of Gegenhuber.  The sound of the metal hitting stone makes the dry air tremble.

      “… Your Excellency, I…”

      “I did not know that person was His Majesty in Hildyard… I swear it!  I just thought that if that person was in danger, Lord Weller would try to cut me down in earnest.  It didn’t even occur to me that Her Majesty Cecilie could have retired… I am prepared to take responsibility.  I won’t do anything else unsightly.  However, before that, please let me meet with the new king.  No, if that will not be granted to due to my lowliness, I have something I must tell you all and have you understand!  It is of great importance, a horrible truth that puts the very existence of the kingdom at stake.”

      Thrusting herself in between them, Greta attempts to head off his anger.

      “That man turned his blade against Yuuri.  He’s not worthy of being protected by you.”

      Gegenhuber lifted his head.  His unsightly sealed left eye is exposed in the light of the room.

      She has manly eyebrows and long eyelashes, but her eyes are glistening with tears and she spreads her arms as wide as she can.  Her reddish brown, unbound hair is in tight waves and is touching her shoulders.

      “Greta.”

      “But Yuuri doesn’t get angry.  He’s never said that I was bad.  He would never ever say that he hated me.  He says he loves me and that I’m cute and ka... kawaii!  I almost cry when he tells me these things, but I hold back.  Even though I’m so completely ashamed, I hold back because everything is good now.  I don’t want to ruin the time I have with Yuuri now.  I say in my heart ‘I’m sorry… I’ll never ever do that’ so many times and I hold back my shame.  Gwen, you and Wolf say it a lot too, don’t you?  ‘What do you think Yuuri would say if he was here?  Do you think he’d say you were bad?’  So Gwen!  If Yuuri was here, right now, what do you think he would say?  Hube did a really bad thing, but if Yuuri was here, what would he say?” (3)

      Gwendal staggered and then knelt and gently grasped the girl’s shoulders.

      Arms thin yet filled with life, along with the heat characteristic of children, wrapped around the adult’s back.

      The reborn Lord Günter von Christ sniffed discreetly so no one would notice.  He pretends to be oblivious as he walks past everyone and stands in front of Gegenhuber.

      The man’s right eye looked up at the beautiful royal advisor.

      Yes, my place of work is here.

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(2)    Another language note!  Hube uses a really old form of ‘I’ that samurai used to use, ‘soregashi,’ and he actually does speak very much like a samurai.  I wanted to point this out because this is the third samurai-like thing with Hube.  The first time was him disguised as a komusou, then there was the old-timey way of saying ‘I’m in your debt’ (that Yuuri isn’t sure if he actually said or not), and now soregashi.  Samurai Hube!

      I believe you know that I continued to search for the Demon Flute without returning to the kingdom by the order of His Excellency Gwendal.  The result is that I discovered a piece of the Demon Flute in Svelera, buried one piece in a grave in place of the corpse of an infant and another I entrusted to an acquaintance I met on my travels.

If you think that it passed through the hands of blasphemous fellows buying and selling treasures, it’s strange that it was deep within such a place.  It would be appropriate to assume that it was in the treasure vault of a collector.

      At that time, the kingdom of Svelera had put much effort into the procurement of their esoteric stones for the betterment of the kingdom and many of the unemployed citizens began to work in the mines.  I’d even heard that the raw ore of superior quality had a mysterious nature and could only be handled by women and children.

      For magic stones that possess supernatural power in the same way, there is no such characteristic.  I have… held a magic stone before, but neither the stone’s power nor its effectiveness fell.

      It took a long time, but I finally discovered their true intent.

      The sky above the Longalbalu river was a light grey and completely different than the stone’s Lion’s Blue.  It feels like I haven’t seen a clear sky in forever.  I wonder if it’s the normal weather for this place.  The young salesman from Copperfield’s had also said it was a strange sky.

      Flynn, done with her never ending tea party with Commander Mountain Range, quietly sat down next to me.  She adjusts the front of her leather jacket.  I wonder if it’s a bit too heavy for a girl.

      “In that situation, isn’t there a way to swap prisoners of war?  Weren’t there negotiations to return the Shimaron soldiers captured by the… other country?”

      That’s right.  Her country, Caloria, was beaten by the same country and forced to become their territory.

      Flynn rested her chin on her knees and gazed at the river’s flowing surface.  She looks at least five years younger holding her knees sitting here than when she was in the estate covered in extravagant clothing.

      “I do too.”

      “That’s why I’m taking you to Big Shimaron.”

      “I promised I would explain properly, didn’t I?  I’ll tell you everything, no lies.  Once you hear it, you may think it’s a joke.  Or, you may even approve of it.  But whichever way it turns out, I can’t just keep leading you around without telling you the reason.  If I did, I’d end up just like Lord Saralegi… I don’t want to be like him.”

      “Although Caloria is autonomous, it is a territory of Small Shimaron.  If they are going to fight with the demons, then we have no choice but to abide by that.  They’ll take our goods and fortune and, most importantly, they’ll steal all of our young lives… I don’t know why you’re away from your country, but you were born amongst the demons, right Captain?  The Wincotts are one of the founding families of the nation, after all.  What about your country’s soldiers?  Are they also enlisted at 12?”

      Since Wolfram, at the age of 82, looks the same age as I do, I can’t even imagine what a pure demon at the age of 12 would even look like.  I’ve heard that they decide their lives at 16, so I’m sure they’re allowed to be children until that point.

      “… I think so too.  I’m always saying that we can’t have people dying in war.  I’ll say it as much as I need… Right now, you’re calling me a captain, but in reality… in reality…”

      “A secret messenger from Big Shimaron came with a proposition.  The Wincott poison is supposed to be in the recesses of the Gilbit Estate.  They wanted that terribly.  Furthermore, they were in a great hurry.  It is the only substance in the world that will let one control another at will.  If a body is afflicted by that poison, it will become a puppet of the descendants of the Wincotts.  Whether it’s alive or not.  I gave them that poison.  In exchange for the lives of the Calorian soldiers.”

      “Big Shimaron negotiated with Small Shimaron and reduced the military allotment of my country.  Of course, the fact that a secret agreement took place was not brought to light and it was supposedly to deal with the lack of workers loading and unloading cargo at the harbor which they have joint ownership of.  The child soldiers returning to us are, in reality, very few, but those children were freed.  Soon, the second group will come back.  They no longer have to go to battle.”

      Murata fishes up a boot.

      At the end of the ship, there’s an apparatus for setting the ship’s orientation that the helmsman operates.  Two of the boards that look like a huge fish’s tail and fins are lined up parallel.  They’re gradually changing their angle and the current at the bow has begun flowing diagonally.  It’s slowly slanting to the left.  Maybe it’s going to head near the western bank.

      The nearly cubical, wooden containers are cramped together on the deck.  At night they block the wind and during the day, they provide shade against the sun.

      It might have been the wind running across the surface of the river, but she shivered.

      “The proper key that will open the lid is a person!?”

      “… With the magic stone that had the insignia of the Wincott family?”

      It might be because the topic of conversation had gotten too intense, but I had the completely unrelated thought that she had gotten pretty tan in the sun.  She’d spent years with that mask on and spent her daily life without ever leaving the estate.  Her forehead and cheeks that were so white they were almost transparent are now sunburnt and red.

      “Your country’s soldiers will all come home happily, huh?”

      That’s why you’re trying to send me to the Shimaron mainland.  It’s to save as many of your young people as you can.

      “Flynn, I’m actually-”

      I couldn’t hear any footsteps so I didn’t notice him.  Ken ‘Robinson’ Murata is holding his fishing haul, the boot, and is gazing towards the west shore as he stands right next to us.  With those non-prescription contacts, I wonder how the far away scenery looks.

      … huh?

      “I can see it, the next stop.  Ah, it’s really bad without my glasses.  Rather than cargo, it looks like there’s a bunch of armed soldiers.”

      Poison on arrowheads.  The Big Shimaron soldiers did that.  In order to fight the demons with a dangerous box weapon that must not be touched.  In order to control the stubborn key that would not bow to anyone.

      Naturally, the king of Svelera did not know the significance of the box nor the power it had.

      And near that place, the treasure of the demons, the Demon Flute, was sealed.  As soon as they discovered the box and brought it out of the esoteric stone pit, I had my acquaintance inconspicuously sneak down there and secure the Demon Flute.  The power slowly leaking out of the box over hundreds of years may have slowly changed the surrounding bedrock into esoteric stone.  Or, the part of the earth fighting against the power of the Demon Flute may have resulted in its quality being changed.  At any rate, once the two objects were removed, for some reason esoteric stones completely stopped appearing and the Sveleran citizens lost their jobs.

      As someone who knew of that danger, as soon as I learned that the box had been brought to the royal castle I met with the king to persuade him one way or the other to return the box to its original place.  However… did you know?  Did you know what the key is for the box buried at the bottom of the earth?  Each box has its own key.  Each of the four boxes has its own proper key and if you attempt to forcibly open the box with a false key, an uncontrollable atrocity will occur.  The Sveleran royal family eventually tested this with the left eyeball of a certain bloodline of a certain species.

      While I was spending my days regretting my own worthlessness in prison, I met that girl over there.  I entrusted the insignia to her so that she would be able to return to the kingdom.  If it was the previous king’s regent, His Excellency Stuffel, I’d hoped that he’d seize the insignia and send someone to investigate, but…  it seems Greta has held on to the insignia for me till this day… However, I also couldn’t trouble the country by bringing unreliable information after I had been driven out.

      Since Svelera did not have the key – the left eyeball of a certain bloodline – and could not open the lid, they sold it to a large country.  The middleman was Luis Biron and I gained that man’s trust and began to tactlessly search around, but… the only important information I was able to find out was that the box was sold to Small Shimaron.

      The name of the box is ‘The End of the Land.’  It is said to bring betrayal, death and despair to the world. (1)

(1)    A language note.  Both boxes are ‘The End of ____’ but the ‘ends’ are different.  The End of the Wind is fairly straightforward.  The wind stops blowing, no more wind anywhere.  The End of the Land, however, doesn’t mean that there isn’t going to be any more land left like the box is going to destroy it all if it opens.  The ‘end’ used here means the limit or boundary.  As in, you were walking and all of a sudden there’s a huge cliff and you can’t go anymore.  That sort of end.  The names are both taken from the wiki page, so I’m not going to change them, but I did want to point the meaning out.

*.*.*.*.*

      Having listened up to that point, Lord von Voltaire’s boiling anger was replaced by surprise.  His clenched fists slowly cooled.

      “No, I definitely heard… ‘End of the Land’…”

      “Please calm yourself, Gwendal.  Shimaron is divided into Big and Small.  That being said, they definitely do not have an amicable relationship.  If one of them got their hands on ‘The End of the Wind,’ the other would definitely feel pressured.  It’s not unsurprising that they would then get their hands on ‘The End of the Land.’”

      “That means that two out of four boxes have made their way into the hands of humans.”

      “Yes, there are four objects in this world that must not be touched.  If you open the lid, an atrocious power and an evil being will be released and the mountains, rivers, land, people and cows will be mowed down and destroyed.  It is something that was sealed thousands of years ago before we became demons.  It seems that the humans believe that they can control it, but it’s not something that can be controlled.”

      “In most cases, yes.”

      The Wincott descendant, Lindsey, started crying.  Anissina simply commented “If I could do something with my power,” and bit her lip.  Information on the other two is limited.  If the humans abuse that power until then, not only will The Great Demon Kingdom’s existence be short-lived, but the majority of the planet as well.

      “Your Excellency… but I reported the bare minimum of the information.  Since I was not accompanied by even the Flying Skeleton Tribe on my journey, I had to rely on commercial messengers.”

      “Like I said… I sent them to Lord Stuffel von Spitzweg.  I hadn’t known that Her Majesty Cecilie had retired…”

      “That man… Someone find Stuffel!  Drag him here even if you have to put a rope around his neck!”

      “Gegenhuber, is there anything left you have to say?”

      “Yes, that was unfortunate.  I’ll send experienced healers to the Grisela Estate.”

      “No, that’s not what I meant.  Your Excellency… Your Excellency should take care.”

      There’s no way he’d just let it go after being told something like that.  Gwendal crosses his arms and looks down at his cousin who has yet to stand up.

      “I’ll keep that in mind.”

      Interrupting the tutor’s questions, the soldier who brought the flying skeleton in yells out.

      Laying his bleached companion on the floor, he grabs the dry, thin wrist and lifts it.  It probably doesn’t have a pulse.

      The family tree of a flying skeleton is completely unintelligible.

      “Yes sir… ‘Father, I am now in the breast pocket of the king’…”

      “Bfa!”

      Random note: I've noticed that cows keep on coming up in random places in this series.  Especially when discussing powerful objects XD   Seriously though, they've been mentioned in almost every book I've read in the series.

Chapter end