Kyou kara Ma no Tsuku Jiyuugyou! Vol 8 Chapter 5

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This chapter is short, but DEM DRAMZ!

Chapter 5

      What happened to him in the few dozen days I hadn’t seen him?

      According to my bad math skills, it’s only been a month or so since we were separated.  Despite that, he looks a little older than before.  Although, it’s so subtle that I can’t really express it in years.

      Even if you didn’t nervously tell us that we understand our position.

      That being said, I don’t want to kneel or prostrate myself before him or lick his boots.  Kissing the old man’s hand would be even worse.  Especially Conrad… He might not be the man I know anymore, but… I didn’t want him to see me act submissively to the man he chose as his new master.

      I compromise and lightly bow my head.  A simple greeting won’t hurt my Made in Japan pride.  Trying to make myself sound like a young feudal lord, I offer up salutations to start.

      “… Your Highness Belal II… uh, I am glad to see that you are in good health.”

      When I turn to Muraken who I can count on in a pinch, he was suppressing a yawn of boredom.

      “Brave warriors representing the territory of Shimaron, Caloria, first I offer my blessings to you for your victory in ‘Use your knowledge, speed, and skill to win! The World’s Best Fighter Tournament’ otherwise known as the World’s Best.” Even if he is raging on the inside over the humiliation of his country being defeated, he could not lose his rationality on the surface. “Your daring courage and strategic fighting even struck the hearts of us Shimaron citizens.”

      “Thank you.  All of my team members cooperated together and moved towards victory as one.”

      The old man made a slight gesture with his hand and a petite man that seemed to be an attendant came forward.

      Before I could say that I don’t drink alcohol because I’m a sportsman, Wolfram, Josak, and I were each handed their own cup.  It was a stone liqueur glass with a stem.  The amount inside was less than my mother uses for cooking so I gave up.

      Luckily, it wasn’t alcohol.

      “Ugh.”

      “By the way, his corpse never surfaced.”

      That’s probably because there was never a corpse to begin with.  It would be childish to refuse to participate in a ceremony because I was swayed by a disgusting legend.  I can’t spoil the host’s mood.  Prepare yourself, Yuuri Shibuya.  From a worldwide point of view, even the water in the ocean is full of corpses.  Like plankton.

      When I resigned myself and raised the glass to my mouth, Josak grabbed my arm.

      “Huh?”

      “But that’s…”

      “We want to offer the most auspicious cup to our leader.  Will Your Highness Belal II sympathize with that sentiment?”

      I was wondering just what was so auspicious about it when I noticed that there was a red object inside the water.

      It’s flapping its tail energetically.

      “It’s a goldfish!”

      “… ng… uck… blegh.”

      “Amazing, Shibuya.  The flame of a tiny little life is going out inside of you.”

      “Now then, Caloria representative, Lord Norman Gilbit.”  His Old Highness started speaking again so I once again focused on his beard.  I absolutely want to look at the person behind His Highness, but I desperately restrain myself from doing so.  “That was truly an impressive victory.  Especially that getaway at the last curve with the ‘seep.’  It made me want to reopen the races for the first time in a while.”

      “And then the decisive battle in the third round, your fighting prowess was riveting.  I could not hear your voice from the high up place I was seated or through the glass, but what was that?  Was it magic that could control the weather simply by chanting a curse?”

      However, the days where people would think it was a curse are long gone.  Now they would just think it was the Northern Kantou dialect.  (1)

      “Norman Gilbit’s… in other words, my Caloria was the origin of the Wincotts.  Your Highness has some knowledge of this, I assume.  You have requested the Wincott poison from none other than my own wife, after all.”

      “As you know, the Wincott family crossed the ocean and became a distinguished family of demons in a new land.  However, why do people say that there aren’t any left on the continent who shared their blood!?  It seems that my soul and body were abundantly endowed with the qualities of the Wincotts.  Humans like that are born on the rare occasion.”

      “I see.  So then that is why you could use something like magic in a place controlled by the particles that obey exorcism like this.  What a truly enviable story.  You did not retreat from having Adalbert von Grantz as your opponent and instead showed admirable courage.  That man Adalbert just showed up and defeated all of the soldiers chosen to be representatives through the severe, kingdom-wide selection process.  Cornering him into being unable to continue fighting was quite impressive.  Thanks to that,” His Highness Belal II glanced at Lord Weller.  “Lord Weller from the famous fencing family lost his opportunity to take part.  Which reminds me, I could not hear from above, but I wonder what you talked about with Conrart before the match.  Just what exactly did you agree upon?  Or, Lord Norman, had you been acquainted with our countryman Conrart Weller somewhere previously?” (2)

      Even though I had decided that I absolutely would not look at him, my gaze ends up meeting Lord Weller’s.  He has his arms crossed as he leans back in his chair and he is twisting his foot around irregularly in his military boots drawing senseless designs in the air.

      Conrad and I are…

      “… Not personally,” Norman Gilbit with his mask shook his head slowly while grinding his teeth.  “I simply felt that I had seen him in another country’s military.  I had thought that maybe he was a soldier somewhere else before he came here.”

      Lord Weller let an emotionless smile appear on his face and gave a short answer to the power of Big Shimaron.  “I have been a soldier for a long time.”

      “Yes.”

      I can’t reach Conrad anymore.

      To think that wish would be granted like this.

      Murata is looking at me.  He’s probably worried that I’ll lose my cool and explode.  Wolfram took a half a step towards me and laid a hand on my left arm.  It was as if his body heat that had suddenly risen with his emotions was flowing right into me.

      “Well then, let us move on to the main event.”

      After being brought here right after the match, Team Caloria was near dizziness with fatigue and hunger.  Nevertheless, I might be better off than the other two.  Even though it was small, I had eaten a fish.

      “I am sure you have heard of the blessing bestowed upon the victors.  Big Shimaron, in our graciousness, praise good effort and will grant the wish of the victor.  However, you are Caloria’s representatives.  Take care to make a request relating to your affiliated region.  Have you already reached a decision?”

      I am the rookie Demon King of The Great Demon Kingdom, and at times I am the feudal lord of Caloria.  I have a duty to the currently dead Norman Gilbit and at the same time I cannot choose something that would have negative consequences for the demons.

      It was the plan to take back the worst and ultimate weapon in all of history that Big Shimaron was in possession of, the ‘End of the Wind.’

      As long as he wasn’t there under the compulsion of someone else, my wish would never be fulfilled.

      “By the way, the master I served before,” Lord Weller interrupts as if to forcefully block my wish.  “Perhaps by praying to heaven, but he had been blessed with the opportunity to get his hands on a powerful weapon.”

      Who is he talking about?  What episode was this?

      The desire of humans is endless; there is no way to cure their unease. Even if I try thinking up a philosophical sentence like that, it doesn’t change that I myself am a big lump of desire.

      “If utilized, it had enough power to annihilate an entire city.  However, only one person was able to use it and if someone else held it, it was simply a ghastly piece of metal.”

      “I see.”

      “I know why Conrad is here.”

      “That’s not it.  He’s the ‘key’ so he is someone that Shimaron needs.”

      “The reason that Big Shimaron bought the Wincott poison from Flynn and attacked us and turned Günter into Okiku is because they needed the key.  Isn’t that right?  If they have his left arm and the Wincott poison that lets them control people at will, they can use the box whenever they need to.”

      “Ah, I see.”

      “He is here of his own volition.  At the very least, that’s what it looks like to me,” Murata says mysteriously as he pushes up his glasses with his index finger.  Of course, he’s not wearing his glasses.  It’s a habit his fingers just remember from years of experience.  “So as long as Lord Weller himself doesn’t agree, no matter what anyone says he probably won’t come back.”

      “… Either way, I’m getting the box back.  If I do then… maybe Conrad…”

      “Eh?”

      As for me, I was wiping the sweat off of my palms onto my thighs and ended up just staring at my feet.  Underneath my borrowed mask, I was doing nothing but sighing pitifully.

      “What?  I’m not misunderstanding…”

      “That’s…”

      “… I did.”

      “Is it okay for the spoils of that being Conrart who disappeared?”    

      “I feel the same.”

      “But that’s not our right.  It’s the right of the man whose mask you’re wearing.”

      “If you’re saying that getting the box is for Conrart, then that’s a misunderstanding on your part.  Don’t forget whose victory this is.  Don’t forget who you are.”

      So I can proudly return to those who saw me off at the harbor that day.

      The conversation that had gotten conspicuously louder reached my ears as I lifted my head.  With his fingers resting on his long, crossed legs, Conrad continued as if telling as story to a child.

      “What a foolish decision!  That king and his country deserve to be cursed!”

      Well excuse me.  I am that foolish king.  And besides, won’t you be cursed?  It’s always been said that if you curse someone you should dig two graves.  May all the goods in the treasure room in the country of this old His Highness turn into cursed objects.

      The one who arbitrarily decided to not return with the demon sword Morgif in working condition was me.

      “…Hmph…”

      I lift my heavy arm and rub Norman Gilbit’s mask with my fingers.  I can’t see how it looks while I have it on, so I tried feeling with my fingers and nails and palms just how his face was.

      With touch rather than sight, I verified the face of the late feudal lord of Caloria.  And then I raised my voice to the best of my ability and got Belal II’s attention back.

      “Ah, have you decided on your prize?”

      “Eh?” Josak asked, caught off guard.  He had thought all along that I would request the box.

      Murata lets out an annoyed but slightly amused sigh and mutters that he thought it would turn out like this.

(1)    This is kind of a joke~  People from Yuuri’s area tend to have a hard time understanding other dialects and this dialect in particular is a bit strange.  So, if someone in the city heard someone chanting a curse, they’d probably just assume it was a dialect they didn’t understand.
(2)    Belal said Conrart Weller in the human name order.  Usually everyone says his name as Lord Weller Conrart.  It’s times like these I kind of regret not reversing demon names because stuff like this gets missed ^-^

Chapter end