Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers, Vol. 3

by Ishio Yamagata

  Maybe she was moving around to different hiding spots, then? No, that was impossible. They would have found something like traces of a hieroform that had been used or an underground path.

  Don’t panic, Adlet thought as he continued his search. The clock was ticking.

  Meanwhile, Fremy and Rolonia were in Chamo’s pit. They were driving bombs into the trapezoid-shaped hill, blasting the ground little by little. Magma was pouring up from underground through a big hole they’d created. There was no sign of any fiends around—Rolonia, Fremy, and Hans had killed them all.

  “Not here, either?” Fremy muttered as she looked up. They’d searched through every cavity dotting this area, but they didn’t find Nashetania, and neither did they find any signs that she’d dug a hole here.

  Mora watched over her allies, in deep distress as she continued administering life support to the girl in her arms. Chamo already lacked the strength to pretend she was all right. Now even Mora didn’t know when the girl might die.

  “Fremy,” said Hans, “any more searchin’ underground is a waste of time. Nashetania ain’t there.”

  “…But there’s still places we haven’t searched,” Fremy said. “Maybe we overlooked her. Or she hid underground and then used some other kind of technique.”

  Hans shook his head. “Forget it. If she was underground, then they’d be comin’ to stop ya diggin’. If nobody’s comin’ to attack us, that means yer guess is off,” he said.

  Fremy ground her teeth in frustration.

  “Don’t be feelin’ down. At the very least, now we neow fer sure she ain’t underground. That’s results.”

  “But if she’s not underground, then where is she hiding? Addy hasn’t contacted us. So what should we do?” asked Rolonia.

  “It’s Goldof,” said Mora. “He must hold a hieroform, after all. They’re using its power to hide.”

  “Then Adlet should find them for us,” Fremy countered her.

  “We got to rethink it all from square one,” said Hans. “Tgurneu must’ve been trickin’ y’all, after all. Forget everythin’ it said and take another look at the facts!”

  “There’s no point,” said Fremy. “No matter what Tgurneu’s game is, Nashetania still has to be within one kilometer.”

  “Then it has to be a fiend’s power that’s hiding her, after all,” said Rolonia. “It would make sense if there’s a species Fremy and Addy don’t know about, and it’s hiding her. There’s nothing else it could be…” The three of them shouted at one another as the debate simply went around in circles.

  Chamo spurted blood again. Watching her, Hans asked, “Hey, Mora, ya really can’t meowve Chamo?”

  “No,” replied Mora. “Moving her even a hundred meters would be too much for her to bear.”

  “…Then I’ll help look for Nashetania. We ain’t gettin’ nowhere at this rate.”

  “It looks like that’s our only option,” said Fremy.

  Though they’d killed all the fiends in the area, more could still come later. If Hans was away at that moment, Mora alone might not be able to protect Chamo. Even so, Mora nodded. “Go. I’ll protect Chamo, even if it means my life.”

  “Mew better. Chamo’s more strategically important than you.”

  “…Rather blunt, aren’t you? But so be it. You’re right.”

  The moment Mora was done speaking, a voice called to them from outside the pit.

  “This will not do.” The voice was sexless, not clearly identifiable as male or female. A little creature stepped out from between the cracks of a smashed rock and slowly approached the group. It appeared quite odd, similar to a dog but also to a squirrel. It didn’t look at all like a fiend, but there was clearly a horn on its forehead. “Please wait a little longer before you go hunting for Nashetania.”

  “Are you familiar with that fiend, Fremy?” asked Mora. The moment she saw it, she felt just the way she had when she’d faced Tgurneu, or when she’d fought Hans. Her senses told her it was a powerful foe. For what reasons, she didn’t know, but it was wounded all over, large gashes marring its face and stomach. But she still had a gut feeling that defeating it would be no easy task, despite its injuries.

  “I’ve seen it once before,” said Fremy. “Here, in the lava zone. Tgurneu said it was Dozzu.”

  “Quite right. My name is Dozzu. It seems I owe you a considerable debt for your treatment of my comrade within the Phantasmal Barrier,” said Dozzu, and sparks flared out around its horn. This was the traitor to fiends, and if they were to believe Tgurneu’s information, also the mastermind between their battle within the Phantasmal Barrier. Tension shot through Mora’s body.

  “Incidentally,” said Dozzu, “it seems you’ve encountered Tgurneu. What did you discuss? I would very much like to be informed.”

  “Not tellin’,” said Hans, and he gave a hand signal to Fremy and Rolonia. It meant, Go.

  “Can you handle it alone, Hans?” asked Fremy.

  “Don’t worry ’bout me. Worry ameowt Chamo.” Hans smiled.

  Fremy and Rolonia retreated behind him, then disappeared past a shattered rock hill. Dozzu ignored them.

  “Meow-hee? Yer lettin’ ’em go? Ain’t ya come to slow us down?”

  “It’s surely enough to stall you, Hans. Nashetania has told me that you’re more powerful than either Adlet or Chamo.”

  “Mya-meow. The princess has got good judgment,” Hans said as cold sweat beaded on his forehead.

  “Might I help, Hans?” asked Mora.

  “Hrmeow, naw. You just keep protectin’ Chamo.” Hans raised his swords.

  Then Dozzu said, “I think it may be better for us to move a little ways away. I doubt you want to involve the little lady in our battle.”

  Hans glanced over at his comrade. “All right, let’s meowve, then. Pretty considerate for a fiend.”

  “Not at all.”

  “Meow, anyway, are ya okay with those wounds?”

  “Thank you very much for your concern, but you need not worry on my behalf.”

  Mora silently watched Hans and Dozzu walk away together. Finally, Hans dropped into a fighting crouch, and sparks shot from Dozzu’s forehead. “Now, then, Hans. Let’s battle to the death.”

  The fight commenced.

  “…What does this mean?” Adlet muttered as he sat on a broken rock.

  He was already done searching the whole area of the gem’s effective range. The only place he’d found traces of a hieroform’s activation was that one tiny spot in that pit. What’s more, it had been triggered some time ago. There was no hieroform currently in use within the gem’s area of effect. Was that really how Nashetania was hiding? Something she’d used once a while back that continuously kept her hidden? If Adlet believed what Mora had said, then that shouldn’t be possible.

  Adlet examined the region again. Fremy’s bombing had improved the view. The only thing around was some lowered mountains sparsely dotting the area. But no matter where he looked, he couldn’t find Nashetania or Goldof.

  Had Tgurneu fooled them? If so, then how, and what was the trick? Adlet thought back on what Tgurneu had said, but he just couldn’t figure it out. The fiend had mostly just talked about Dozzu. It had barely said a thing about where Nashetania might be.

  Was Nashetania camouflaging herself not with a hieroform but with a fiend? So then what the heck was the hieroform that went off before?

  Adlet could feel his legs trembling a little. He’d never imagined that he’d come this far and still fail to get to the truth or even find any clues at all. But he had a gut feeling. He was overlooking something; there was something he couldn’t see. He just needed something to get the ball rolling, and he could solve all these mysteries.

  That was when Fremy and Rolonia ran over from Chamo’s pit toward him.

  “Fremy! Rolonia! You find her?” he yelled. But the question was pointless. If they’d found Nashetania, they would have already let him know.

  “Bad news!” cried Rolonia. “Dozzu’s come
! It’s fighting with Hans right now!”

  “What?!”

  Fremy and Rolonia explained the situation to him, and Adlet realized things had gone from bad to worse. But he couldn’t go help Hans. He had no choice but to leave Dozzu to his ally.

  “What should we do, Addy? About how much time do we have left?” Rolonia was on edge.

  “…Goldof,” Adlet replied. “He has the key. I can’t think of anything else.”

  But just as they couldn’t figure out where Nashetania was, they hadn’t seen her retainer, either. As Adlet worried, Rolonia told him, “We did see him once.”

  Adlet looked at her. Fremy explained in Rolonia’s stead. “Sorry we didn’t tell you earlier. We saw him about thirty minutes ago. He was north-northwest of here, at the edge of the area of effect. We tried to kill him, but he got away.”

  “Which way did he run?”

  “Out of the circle. The terrain was complex, and we couldn’t find him.”

  Adlet didn’t know what to say. He had thought Goldof was fighting to protect Nashetania. So why would he run? He wasn’t going to fight Fremy or Rolonia? He wasn’t going to join Dozzu to kill Chamo?

  Suddenly, there was an explosion about fifteen meters off to Adlet’s side. Reflexively, he lowered his center of gravity, but it was just hot steam shooting from the ground. Fremy breaking up the earth had destabilized the underground magma and water vein. A second spurt came up right beside Adlet. “Damn it, that scared me,” he said.

  “Let’s go. Hurry,” Fremy urged him, and he set off running.

  As he forged ahead, he thought about Goldof.

  What was his role in this fight? He’d drawn the party to this place, and then he’d shown up again to stop them from killing Nashetania. And if Goldof was the one with the hieroform, then he’d used it once for some yet unknown reason.

  But that was all he’d done. If his goal was to kill the Six Braves, he could have accomplished that several other ways. He could have hindered their search or gone straight for Chamo. Adlet didn’t get the man. Who was he?

  They had multiple enemies converging here in the lava zone: Tgurneu, Dozzu, Nashetania, Goldof… What was going on behind the scenes?

  “…Damn it!” Adlet barked, in spite of himself. There wasn’t the time to be wondering about the truth behind it all. For now, searching for Goldof came first. That was all Adlet could do. They had forty-five minutes left. If they couldn’t find Goldof, then this might be the end.

  Mora swallowed as she watched the battle raging just fifty meters away. Hans and Dozzu’s fight was a desperate mortal struggle.

  “Hrmeow!” Hans spun wildly every which way to evade Dozzu’s lightning strikes. Dozzu, on the other hand, was constantly moving out of Hans’s range as its thunderbolts fell. Not a single strike hit Hans, though the attacks seemed to be completely unavoidable. It wasn’t reflexes that enabled him to do this—it was his unique skill of foresight. If Hans misread a single move and messed up the timing of a dodge, Dozzu would burn him to a crisp.

  Meanwhile, Dozzu was also frantic. If Hans got too close, Dozzu would be instantly sliced in two. As they fought, it darted all over the place to keep Hans at a distance.

  Mora realized that it had been the right choice to let Hans handle this alone. She wouldn’t have been able to keep up. One wrong move from her, and she would have surely made things more difficult for Hans.

  “…”

  Mora hugged Chamo hard. She wanted to get her out of there as soon as possible. She wanted to go with Adlet to search for Nashetania. But all she could do was send Chamo a small amount of energy that, at this point, was more a gesture than anything.

  “Catboy’s…fighting hard…huh?” The dying girl spoke for the first time in a long while.

  “Don’t speak. You’ll only tire yourself,” said Mora.

  But Chamo didn’t listen. “Listen…Auntie. This may be weird…for Chamo to say…but…this is kinda…nice.”

  “?”

  She smiled. “You know…’cause of who Chamo is…no one’s ever…worried.”

  “…Oh…”

  “Who’da thought…everyone would…fight so hard…for Chamo. Especially Fremy… And catboy didn’t say…You’re such a drag…I don’t need you…and just kill Chamo…after all.”

  “Really? You thought that?” Hans was still fighting Dozzu with everything he had.

  “…Catboy’s…a good guy, isn’t he?” Chamo said, and closed her eyes. Mora could tell she was very near her limits.

  “Move yer ass, ya stupid mutt!” Hans yelled as he slashed at Dozzu.

  “I’m not a dog. How rude.” Dozzu shot out a bolt of lightning, but Hans leaped sideways to dodge it. There was no end in sight to their battle.

  Rock mounds still covered the space outside the gem’s area of effect. All Goldof had to do to give his pursuers a hard time was stay low. Adlet, Rolonia, and Fremy split up and spread out to search for him. Fremy and Adlet stayed near the area of effect, while Rolonia headed farther out.

  They must have been running for about fifteen minutes when Adlet found something unusual. The ground was glowing faintly. Someone had used a hieroform here, and it couldn’t have been Nashetania. It was Goldof.

  “…What the hell?” Adlet murmured. Now he was even more confused about the true nature of Goldof’s enchanted object. Did it really have nothing to do with keeping Nashetania hidden, after all? If so, how on earth was she staying hidden?

  Then suddenly, something small exploded in the distant sky. They had agreed that if any one of them found Goldof, that person would immediately throw a signal flare into the air to call the others. Adlet ran off as fast as he could. On the way to the explosion, he found Rolonia, and they continued together. They were headed back into the gem’s area of effect.

  “Why would he be there?” Adlet muttered. Once they had reached the circle, they immediately found Fremy running toward Goldof, who was about three hundred meters away.

  Then Adlet noticed the knight’s helmet. It was glowing faintly. That was the hieroform. The power behind the dim light couldn’t be too strong, either. If Adlet could just figure out what that helmet really was, he could solve the mystery.

  “…He’s not gonna run?” Adlet muttered to himself, observing Goldof closely as they all closed in on him.

  Fremy held him at gunpoint when she reached him, but he didn’t fight back or even raise his spear.

  “Be careful, Fremy!” Adlet yelled as he approached, and that’s when he realized Goldof was standing where the three Braves had been just fifteen minutes earlier.

  “You came…Adlet,” said Goldof quietly, once Adlet was standing in front of Fremy with his sword drawn.

  He wasn’t looking at them. His head was turned to the side as he stared intently at the shattered fragments of a boulder. But he revealed no weaknesses to them. Attacking him would not be easy.

  “What’re you looking at?” Adlet asked him. Goldof didn’t reply. He just watched the rock in silence.

  His eyes were tranquil, his expression calm. Adlet knew it was the bearing of a man expecting to fight with everything in his life on the line.

  “What’s over there?” he asked again, but he received no reply.

  Then finally, Goldof turned his gaze toward the three of them for just a few seconds and spoke. “Have you…found Her Highness?”

  “Yeah, we’re close,” said Adlet. “You’ve been giving us a rough time, but…that ends now.”

  “…Have you figured out what’s really going on?” Goldof’s eyes were still locked on the rock.

  “Who do you think you’re talking to? I’m the strongest man in the world.” It looked like Goldof was almost smiling. “Tell me about your helmet. What’s that hieroform, really?”

  “…Hieroform?” Goldof muttered.

  “I’m going to kill you now,” Fremy said, her finger sliding onto the trigger of her gun. “But before that, let me ask you this: Is it your hieroform that’s keeping Nashet
ania hidden?”

  “That question…is pointless. For you…and for me.” Goldof shifted his spear from a one-handed to a two-handed grip.

  Adlet swallowed. He had a grasp of Goldof’s skill. Three-on-one, they wouldn’t lose, even if they made a few mistakes. But now Goldof had something to overcome the difference in numbers.

  “I’m disappointed…Adlet.” Goldof looked at him calmly. “I thought…maybe…you’d figure it out.”

  “Figure what out?”

  “Once it’s…all over…I’ll talk.” Goldof lifted his spear, and the other three readied their weapons as well. Rolonia began whispering her invective under her breath.

  “I will…protect Her Highness,” said Goldof. And then, what he said next shocked Adlet. Rolonia stopped mumbling to herself, and Fremy’s eyes went wide.

  “And…I’ll save Chamo…too.”

  He launched himself at Adlet.

  Chapter 4

  Goldof Auora’s Anguish

  Goldof Auora.

  He was known all over the world as a gifted young knight, extolled as the pride of the Kingdom of Piena. But in truth, few knew of his background. His origins were unfamiliar not only to foreigners, but also to the people of Piena. Even some among the knights and nobles were unaware.

  Goldof was born into the lowest class of Piena, in a tiny port town on the western fringes of the kingdom. His father was a rag-picker-cum-petty-thief who targeted the wallets and accessories of passers-by. Goldof had been told that his mother was a prostitute, but he didn’t know her name or what she looked like.

  He grew up in the slums, the territory of thugs and the abode of those who made a living stealing from honest people. Young Goldof’s job was to search among the piles of refuse for anything that might still be useful and then sell it. To him, the upper classes and the royal family were so far beyond his sphere of interaction, he was barely even aware they existed.

  Goldof was a very taciturn boy. He would rarely reply when spoken to, and when he did open his mouth, he’d mutter a word or two at most. He just expressionlessly followed the instructions of his father and the other adults in his life. The people of the slums all thought he was simply stupid.