Kyou kara Ma no Tsuku Jiyuugyou! Vol 8 Chapter 8

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Chapter 8

      Flynn Gilbit had become half crazed.

      “… Huh?”

      “Mughhgghh.”

      Disarrayed silver hair fluttered in the wind.

      The masked feudal lord had been coming into bloom since the moment we met, or rather, the person who was pretending to be Norman Gilbit until today was no one else but me, Yuuri Shibuya.  But, time flies by and just a little while ago the second generation Norman Gilbit the Masked Feudal Lord had officially retired.

      “Wait, Flynn!  Who is that!?  Who is that man!?”

      When I ran after the group and tried to get in the room, the youngest lady in the group of curious onlookers in the hallway told me.

      “Young off-…”

      “What kind of relationship?”

      Having no idea that the relationship between Flynn and I had ended, the young lady kept on proudly unveiling the scandalous news.

      “Collapsed!?”

      “Flynn!”

      “Why is a Norman Gilbit that isn’t me about to die?”

      All four of them raise a finger to their mouths simultaneously.  The masked man was still in agony.  He was grasping his knee – not his neck that got injured in the match – and rolling around.

      “We need the corpse of a man of high status.  To be more accurate, the coffin.  Because of that, we’re all putting on an act.  Well, as for him…”  The person playing Norman’s role was writhing around on the bed.  “He’s not necessarily acting.”

      “Ugh.”

      “Then this person is going to die after this…”

      “Whaefer, ut alleaf ake ow is agh eesh,” the seriously injured young man said unintelligibly. “Amph inf you fay you ud iff me um paingifferz?”

      With the mask off, he was a completely normal guy.  His hair wasn’t as long as a normal soldier and he didn’t have a stern look on his face that said ‘Let’s fight!’  He was a gentle man that had the feel of an artist to him and he seemed like the type that women would love.

      Feeling a little better after getting his painkillers, he sat on the bed and drank some water.

      “Ah, me, I’m called Gardino.  I came to the capital to study art and drama, but since I was a student I didn’t have enough money.  So, I became a temporary soldier in the garrison.  I want to study art and drama more, but tuition at upper-level schools is high and I can’t afford it.

      The young Gardino clenched his fist and made some calculations with burning eyes.

      We seem to have hired quite the unique actor.  He’ll be wearing a mask so he probably only has to be careful of his breathing.

      Wolfram, who always proclaims that demons are the number one at everything, has flippantly said something amazing.  Prodigal, master painter turtles.  I want to see them.  I really want to see them.  But there is the danger that creating one painting would take several hundred years…

      Laying the part-timer who had finally started to feel the effects of the painkiller on the bed, Flynn fires herself up and prepares to cry.  She lets down her hair and musses it up and gives herself a gaunt appearance by messing up her makeup.

      “Honestly, Your Majesty, what are you saying?”

      “But why do we need a coffin?  If it’s Norman Gilbit’s funeral, you can do it properly once you go home.”

      “What?  I’m the only one left out?  Just who do you all think I-”

      Before they told me the truth about the situation, Josak opened the door.

      “Oh god, to think the trial you give me would be this painful!”

      “Everyone, on this moment on this night in this month, my husband, Norman Gilbit, has passed away!”

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(1)    In the original Japanese, parts of Gardino’s speech are written in katakana and some parts are elongated to show that he’s messing up the accents.  I ended up italicizing the wrong parts of the English words to stress.

      As long as we were in Big Shimaron, we had to behave like we were part of a funeral service for an important person.

      The leader of an independent nation deserved to be sent off with respect.  For example, the coffin holding the remains shouldn’t be handled carelessly.

      The more you heard of it, the more astonished you would be at the plan.

      It was all well and good that he got the ‘End of the Wind’ out of the temple in Big Shimaron by switching it with a DIY box made on the ship, but there was no way to get it somewhere safe.  He even thought that since it was painted white and looked like a boy’s coffin that it should be carried in a funeral.  However, if a soldier has questions during an inspection, he can’t be allowed to open the lid and check the contents.

      The reason for not opening the lid being… an ideal ‘deceased’ is inside.

      Big Shimaron had even given it a catchline of ‘Caloria’s Great Star, Fallen’ and had wanted to conduct a temporary burial for Norman Gilbit.  They probably wanted to show their open-mindedness by showing respect to the victor even though they were defeated.

      Murata employed his memories of the past and walked about as the experienced ceremony leader.  Without him consistently coming up with plans, the temporary burial in a foreign country would have been impossible.

      I did wear goggles in the arena, but I didn’t wear the mask.  As such, a part of the ladies and men who were watching recognize my Norman Gilbit face.  On the other hand, the women at the party we were invited to treat me as Flynn Gilbit’s young lover.  In the end, the young ladies who loved to gossip started up a rumor that Caloria’s mistress was giving her affection to a young man that looked like her husband.

      Far from her lover, I didn’t even have a lover in my actual life.

      Although, what was inside the extravagant coffin wasn’t a corpse, but the ‘End of the Wind’ wrapped in cloth.

      Since the Demon King statue with the elephant head was stolen from the treasure room, they hadn’t realized that the box had been switched out yet.  That being said, once they discovered it, we would fall under suspicion.  We had to get away as soon as possible before they realized.  We had the fastest group of sheep on our side.

      I don’t know why he’s coming with us.

      Wolfram, Josak, Sizemore, and Dacascos were on a horse-driven carriage parallel to us.  The troublesome part was that in Japan it’s said that horses and sheep are like cats and dogs, so they both had the sense of a huge rivalry about them.  Lined up together, they meaninglessly dashed forward and if one of them fell behind, there would be a shower of feces from their displeasure.  Sheep are super-early-morning types so by the afternoon, they were in a bad mood.

      No one told us that ‘seep’ and horses had this bad of a relationship with each other when we bought them.

      “Hm?”

      “Yeah.  His hobby is carpentry.”

      “Yeah.”

      Murata put a hand to the back of his head and laughed loudly. “No way, I didn’t think that.  I absolutely believed that you would win.”

      “That wasn’t preparation for when you lost.”

      “I’m not lying.  I thought things would turn out the way they did.”

      My friend the Great Sage leaned on the gold-encrusted coffin in an unlucky way and petted it as if soothing the dangerous object within.

      “… What’s up with that?  You’re saying stuff like those twins’ predictions.”

      The carriage ran over a rut.  The luggage compartment swayed violently.

      “Nmofu?”  T-Zou looked back at me.  It was like she was asking if she were going the right way.

      The sheep who were supposed to have much better eyesight than people suddenly fell into disorder and stopped running.

      “You guys, what are- whoa!”

      “Soldiers!  They’re on horseback and there’s more than thirty.  Gardino, bring the carriage near the edge of the forest.  Damn, how far away are the guys on the horse carriage!?”

      I call them uniformed, but I didn’t know what country they were soldiers from.  It wasn’t the yellow, brown, and white that I was used to and it wasn’t the light blue and grey uniforms from the other side of the border in Small Shimaron.

      It was their ominous red and green masks.

      They were the men who shot Günter before my eyes and cut Conrad’s arm off.  They were the men who threw me into a rampage near the window in Norman Gilbit’s estate.  I remember those sickening red and green masks.  I haven’t forgotten those green, fluttering clothes.

      The man who had moved forward called out.

      I see, so the suspicion of them being a group of thieves in the wilderness was now cleared.  They have clearly chosen their target.  And quite a unique target.

      A carriage filled completely with non-combatants was surrounded by a professional group of murderers.  Most pressing was that even if our rear group arrived, they would have no chance in a thirty versus four fight.

      T-Zou braced her legs and crouched down.  Sorry, I didn’t count you.

      “What will you do if we are?”

      I shouldn’t have responded.

      While I looked around in the carriage, the gold-encrusted coffin pops into my view.

      I roughly knock on my head with my fist as if to shake off my improper thoughts.  No, no, once the lid opens, no one knows what will happen.  It’s not even clear if it will activate or stay silent or if it will respond to anything but the real key.        Furthermore, it might spit up a side character and bring serious damage to half of the continent.

      Then what about the superior magic of the Demon King that I have some control over, albeit only slightly.  So far I didn’t know what button to press to get it working, but this time I have the reliable starting system called Muraken.

      “Hey Murata, this isn’t the time to sit around worried in the Rodin Pose!”  I grab Murata's collar and pull his face to mine.  It lacks any traces of sensing the impending danger.  “I have a favor to ask.” (1)

      “Lend me power.”

      “Th-”

      “No matter how much you think about it, there’s no other way to get out of this situation alive!”

      “Ugh, damn it!”

      “… Guess there’s no choice.  Shall we try pleading for our lives?  You’re smart so help out…”

      We leave Flynn and the exchange student in the carriage and step out.  We’re surrounded by red and green in a complete 360 degrees around us and it feels like we’re standing inside of a totem pole or something.

      “A suitable reason!”

      “To know why!”

      “Good food!”

      Even with this horribly unrelated plea for our lives, most of the red and green didn’t react even a little bit.

      Only the leader responded in a brief and clear way.

      That’s it?

      “Wait, they’re not even considering that we’re not Calor-”

      “Get inside!”  I shout at Flynn and the exchange student and then I immediately turn to where the arrows came from.  There is a group composed of people of various sizes running towards us stirring up the frosted-over, muddy earth.  There were three warriors on horseback, but the rest were men in dirty clothes.

      “Nmo!  Motamanimofu!”  Tearing off the leather belt, the Queen of ‘Seep’ joined the battle.  As she bit the legs of the horses, the enemies fell to the ground.  She would turn her head to the side and spit out the blood.  H-how manly.

      “Yuuri!”

      Looking relieved at hearing my response, Wolfram comes running forward.

      “Those are kind of difficult questions.”

      I ended up behind Wolfram and T-Zou and I leaned back on the muddy carriage wheel.

      “… Conrad…?”

      “Hey Wolf, that’s… Conrad.”

      Getting confirmation from his brother, I try moving in that direction, but I valued my life and couldn’t move.  Even so, I follow him with my eyes.

      “Yuuri!”

      I had only let my attention stray for a few seconds, but a knife had stuck into the cloth canopy behind me.  It was only a few centimeters from my ear.  It looked like it had been struck with something that set it off course right before my eyes.  Maybe someone threw a rock.

      Wolfram was fairly strict with language.

      “They ran away?  Are they retreating?”

      “Ah, well, there’s a lot on the ground.”

      Jumping down from the carriage and looking at the blood-stained snow and mud, Flynn Gilbit let out a sigh.  “… Why were we targeted?”

      That pretty girl anime voice.

      “His Majesty Belal IV…”

      His gaunt chin and bowl cut hair was covered in a shower of blood splatters.  With him smiling at me like that, I felt like Ripley being glared at by the Alien.

      After that cheerful and drawn out word, His Majesty Belal IV mutters a brief comment.

      My eyebrows had already shot high up on my forehead and the goosebumps all over my skin were even popping up inside my ears.  Scary.  Humans are scary.

      “Your Majesty!”

      Lord Weller doesn’t call me ‘Your Majesty’ anymore.  It’s because he won’t come back with us to the Great Demon Kingdom.

      “That’s true~.”

      I must have been making quite a pitiful face because Wolfram lightly touched my elbow.  His tone was much gentler than usual.

      “What?  You’ve said a lot of things to me so I have no idea.”

      “… That the foolish one is Conrart.”

      It happened when I attempted to call out to her to ask if she was hiding for some reason.

      “Aah!”

      It would be a serious issue if his ears started drooping down.

      “Ah!  Oh, no way!  Wait a minute!  Wait a-umph!”

      “Rugby is pretty rough as well, huh,” says the soccer fan, missing the point.

      “Commander Mountain Range!?”

      A large portion of those that had run to our aid were graduates of the Plainsmen.  They are all in dirty clothes, but not the pink prisoner outfits from before.

      “Mishy Terrine devotes herself to grooming every day. Her fundamental skin-care pwoduct is egg whites.”

      This vicious, mountain range of a man with a shaven head will only speak through Mishy Terrine.

      “Oh honestly, all of you!  Why do you always greet me so childishly?  Why don’t you try asking ‘How are you?’ like refined gentlemen for once!?”

      “That’s right, Mistress.  We’re fine!

      Flynn gave up trying to teach them manners.

      The Plainsmen graduates were dejected after being coldly reproved.  That’s what’s amazing about Flynn.

      Until now, I’ve thought of Murata as guy who wore glasses and got bullied a lot.  However, that Murata I had such a prejudiced view of has done a full 180 with a manly attitude and bravery.  As for what he was doing at the moment… He was leaning over the corpse of an assailant and diligently investigating the cause of death.  I had never seen a corpse on the battlefield outside of photos and television.  After coming to this world I’ve gotten used to many shocking experiences, but… even so, investigating injuries on your own is probably impossible if you’re not a coroner.

      Peeking out through my fingers, I glance at Murata and the victim.  My voice when I asked, ‘What would be?’ was heavy.

      “And, what does that mean?”

      Now that he mentions it, I also saw three men on horseback in the beginning.  However, when His Majesty Belal and Conrart left, there weren’t any other horses with them.  Where did the last horseman disappear to?

      “Hey,” Adalbert von Grantz said in a muted voice while he gazed at me as I came running.  “You seem well.”

      The leg and arm he had fractured were covered with white casts.

      “Was it you?”

      “Something like a bow and arrow, but… someone shot something that wasn’t an arrow and deflected that knife coming at my face with a rock I couldn’t see.”

      “Like I said, if you have the strength to do that, use it after healing your body!”

      “With this I paid you back for that night.  Remember this, the next time we meet…”

(2)    The original pun was playing off of the word they were using for fine (gokigen) and instead saying ‘gokiburi’ which means cockroach.

Chapter end