“Let’s start from the top. We’re gonna sneak into the temple once again, then head for the dungeon. There, we’ll rescue Nyanyan.”
“I think that’d be for the best,” agreed Hibiki.
However...
“If we have to sneak right back in there, why did we leave in the first place? Soldiers of that level are no match for me.”
“Yeah! There hasn’t been much carnage yet, so I’m getting hungry...”
Certain parties were none too happy with our plan.
“Listen, Chirika. Like I said before, we have to do things as peacefully as possible, okay?”
I decided to completely ignore Rachelle and instead address Chirika’s concerns.
“Tch...”
It seemed like our previous exchange was still on her mind, as she clicked her tongue and turned away in a huff. What was this helpless feeling...?
“God, you remind me of how Hibiki used to act...”
“Wha?! What does that mean, Rekka?!”
“Oh, I don’t mean anything bad by it. It’s just that this blatant hostility kinda stings in a familiar way...”
Tsumiki and Fam had also been rather reluctant in the beginning, but in Chirika’s case, there was an especially tall wall between us. It was getting a little exhausting.
“I-I don’t think I treated you this coldly, though...”
Huh? Hibiki was mumbling to herself, but why did she look so teary-eyed?
“Boy howdy, it’s been a while since I heard one of the heroines complain about you like that,” said typical R, sitting cross-legged in the air as she observed all this in a disinterested fashion.
She looked like she was ready for a nap, but unfortunately, we didn’t have any time to relax. Even if Chirika and Rachelle were unhappy about it, the story we were in the middle of wouldn’t progress until we saved Nyanyan.
“Anyway! Harissa and I are going to go rescue Nyanyan. Everyone else should wait here and remain as quiet as possible.”
“Hold it. If you’re going to save Nyanyan, take me with you.”
When I brought up plans for the rescue operation, Sherlyn lifted the brim of her hat and asserted her desire to participate.
“You want to go too, Sherlyn?”
“I’m a phantom thief, you know? Prison breaks are a little specialty of mine... Though I’ve personally never been caught before,” she said with a teasing wink. “My magic is pretty useful. Nabbing keys and whatnot will be a piece of cake for me. Really, it’d be a good deal to have me with you.”
“Yeah?”
Was she talking about her magic? I wanted to know more, but we were suddenly interrupted by a commotion up ahead.
“What was that?”
I was worried our pursuers had discovered us, but that didn’t seem to be the case. I had Harissa cast her invisibility spell on me before I snuck down the alleyway and peered out into the street.
“Thataway!”
“Don’t let the target out of your sights!”
The soldiers were clearly after someone. I started to get nervous again, but...
“The princess escaped!”
After hearing that, I had a much better idea of what was going on.
“Corona, Harissa! And... you too, Rachelle! Follow me!”
“Aww, what about me?” Iris complained.
But there was no time. I’d have to explain later.
“Harissa, cast your invisibility spell on everyone. Corona, you carry Harissa. And Rachelle, you carry me. Then we’ll save Nyanyan from the skies! If anything happens, Satsuki and Hibiki will lead the rest of you to safety. We’ll meet up... somewhere!”
“Don’t drop the ball right at the end like that! You saw the shoreline from the top of the hill, right? Let’s meet there. All you’ll have to do is make it to the coast. Satsuki’s magic will lead us the rest of the way!”
I agreed to Hibiki’s revision of the plan, and Harissa then promptly cast her spell on everyone. I helped Corona get Harissa over her right shoulder, then waved Rachelle closer.
“Hurry! We have to save Nyanyan from the soldiers chasing her!”
“Awww... But I’m so hungry that I don’t have any energy left.”
“Argh, jeez! I’ll do anything you want later, so just make it quick!”
“Oh? You’ll do anything I want? That’s what you said, right? Yippee! I’ll do my best!”
“Huh? Ah, wait—”
I was just about to backpedal when she grabbed me by the sides and flew off. In a panic, I grabbed her arms in return so that I wouldn’t fall. I couldn’t escape the feeling that I’d just made a grave mistake... But either way, Nyanyan was more important right now.
“Rachelle, follow those soldiers!”
“Okaaay!”
Rachelle flapped her wings vigorously and picked up the pace.
“Waaah! I’m gonna fall!”
“Hold on tight.”
Corona, carrying Harissa, used her magic to keep up with us. As we followed the soldiers from the air, we watched them split up and veer off the main road down winding backstreets and alleyways.
“Hmm, the buildings are all clumped together. It’s hard to see anything from up here. You realize it’ll be tough to find her before the soldiers do, don’t you?” said Rachelle.
“That’s fine. Rather than looking, just listen out for any commotion.”
“Why’s that?”
“Ethereal Nyanyan didn’t appear to be particularly athletic. I doubt she’ll be able to run for very long.”
“So in other words, we’re not trying to find Nyanyan before the soldiers... just get to her before the soldiers can take her away?”
“That’s right.”
I shouted back to Corona to let her know the same, and we all strained our ears to listen out for the soldiers shouting.
“Young man, I heard one of them say they found something,” Corona said, pointing ahead about a kilometer.
I guess she wasn’t a Demon King for nothing. Her physical abilities were all insanely high spec.
“Let’s go!”
We then quickly flew in the direction Corona pointed, and it didn’t take long before we could hear the sound of a girl and several men shouting.
“Unhand me!”
We arrived just in time to see what looked like Nyanyan being seized by the soldiers.
“That girl’s the spitting image of the Nyanyan we saw at the temple. There’s no mistaking it,” I said.
“What are we gonna do now? There’re so many soldiers,” fretted Rachelle.
“Well, there’s a reason I asked Corona and Harissa to come along. I have a plan.”
I called them over and let them know what I had in mind.
“Hm, well, that should be fine. Leave it to me.”
“I’ll do my best!”
“I’m counting on you two. They might not be able to see you, but try not to hurt them too much, okay?”
“I understand,” Corona agreed with a nod.
After that, I watched things play out on the streets below as we waited for the right time to swoop in.
“Come on! On your feet!”
One of the soldiers grabbed Nyanyan by the arm, forcibly pulling her up before pushing her forward to get her walking.
“Now, Harissa!”
“Ealim Nekram!”
At my signal, Harissa cast her invisibility spell on Nyanyan.
“Wha?!”
“Where did she go?!”
The soldiers all began to panic the moment Nyanyan vanished. Or at least, that’s what it looked like. In reality, she was still surrounded on all sides, so...
“This’d be so much easier if I could use wind magic like Satsuki...”
Corona used a weakened form of her dark magic to blow away the soldiers encircling Nyanyan.
“Uwah!”
“Kyah!”
They were all knocked into the walls of surrounding houses, collapsing into a heap. For at least the time being, they were o
ut of commission.
“Huh? What?”
Meanwhile, Nyanyan looked around in flabbergasted surprise. Corona then landed on the ground right in front of her, and because people with Harissa’s invisibility spell cast on them could still see each other, she jumped back with a start.
“Wh-Who might you be?”
“Just come with me.”
“H-Huh? Kyah!”
She grabbed a flustered Nyanyan with her free left arm and then took off into the skies again.
“All right, let’s make our way to the shore where Hibiki and the others are waiting,” I said.
And so we left behind the dazed and confused soldiers as we headed for the coast.
▽
After rescuing Nyanyan and meeting up with Hibiki and the others, we hid behind some boulders to stay out of view.
“Um... Wh-Who are you?”
Nyanyan was shaking like a leaf after being suddenly kidnapped and carried all this way. She was clad in some rather expensive clothes and had several capped jars hanging around her waist. They clinked together noisily with every step she tried to take backwards.
“Um...”
She seemed to be afraid of us. But that was unavoidable, I guess. As far as she knew, this was our first time meeting. It was a little strange, but I figured introductions were as good of a place to start as any.
“I’m Rekka Namidare. What about you?”
“I am... Nyanyan Atlantia. Are you all foreigners? Your outfits are... ever so strange. Did you save me just now?”
“Well, yeah, I guess we did.”
Hearing my answer, Nyanyan heaved a big sigh of relief. She was clearly drained of strength, and let her shackled hands drop in front of her with a noisy clank.
“Those shackles... Corona, can you break them?”
“An attack that precise would be impossible unless you don’t mind me taking a little off the top in the process.”
“I have a knife, but it’d take me a hot minute to get those off,” Hibiki offered with a troubled expression.
“Hahh... Allow me.”
There, Chirika drew her katana with a sigh and stepped forward.
“Wh-What are you doing?!”
The dull gleam of her blade made Nyanyan draw back nervously.
“Hold still.”
Chirika paid her no mind, however...
Snap!
And sliced through the shackles with one swing.
“Uwah... hahh...”
Though she was frightened at first, once Nyanyan saw her hands were now free, she once more sighed in relief. She took a moment to calm down, then smiled brightly.
“Good job, you lot. I don’t know who you are or where you came from, but you did well rescuing a damsel—no, a princess in distress. A most commendable deed.”
“Y-Yeah?”
In that moment, I’m pretty sure we were all thinking the same thing: “Huh?” Something about this Nyanyan was definitely different...
“Now, first and foremost, don’t you have any water? I haven’t had a thing to drink since yesterday. I’m positively parched.”
Once she knew for sure that she was safe, she lazily slumped against the bolder and began fanning herself. There, I took the opportunity to gesture everyone else to gather around for an impromptu meeting.
“So, uh, what’s happening?” I asked.
“She’s nothing like the last time we met. If anything, she seems kind of spoiled... Like Iris,” suggested Satsuki.
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean? Are you saying I’m spoiled?” demanded Iris.
“D-Don’t fight...” Harissa tried to mediate.
“Did she eat something strange?” asked Tsumiki.
“Why would that make her personality change? If that were the case, then the Nyanyan we met in the sunken temple would have been just as spoiled, no?” refuted Hibiki.
“Moreover, didn’t the other Nyanyan say that she was imprisoned in a dungeon? How was this one able to escape?” asked Shirley, her head cocked to the side.
True, that was a little curious...
“Hey, Nyanyan...”
“Do you need something? Also, I’ll have you know it’s rude to address a princess that way. But in my infinite generosity, I’ll forgive you just this once.”
“Th-Thanks...?”
The difference between the polite Nyanyan we met at the bottom of the ocean and this one was so night-and-day that I hardly had any idea how to react.
“So? What is it?
“It’s just... you were captured, right? How did you escape?”
“Oh, that. They were interrogating me in the dungeon when some intruders appeared in the temple. That distracted the soldiers, so I took the chance to flee.”
Said “intruders” were probably us.
“Okay, so because we showed up in the past, the circumstances of Nyanyan’s story are already starting to change.”
I could understand at least that much, but that still didn’t explain the discrepancy in her personality.
“I see...”
“Hm? What’s up, Chelsea?”
“That’s it, isn’t it? The reason why this girl’s so different.” Chelsea twiddled her thumbs a moment as she put her thoughts together. “In other words, she was so humble and polite before because Atlantis sunk, you know?”
“What? Seriously?”
“Seriously. Think about it. If your hometown was suddenly destroyed and you spent over a millennium alone, how do you think you’d be?”
“Huh...”
When she put it that way, it made sense. She was a spoiled princess who had a change of heart (?) after losing everything... Was that it?
“Yoohoo! Rekka, was it? What’s all this about? Why are you muttering about coming to the past and the destruction of the kingdom?”
Nyanyan seemed to be rather upset about being left out of the conversation and indignantly puffed out her cheeks as she glared at me.
“Erm, the truth is...”
There, I explained to her that we’d come from the future to save Atlantis from sinking in three days’ time. But when Nyanyan heard this all, she said...
“Are you crazy?”
And that was exactly how she looked at me—like I was crazy. While I couldn’t really blame her considering the situation, it was frustrating since we’d never get anywhere if we couldn’t get her to take the threat of Atlantis sinking seriously. As such, I continued to try and persuade her.
“Don’t you people have technology to turn ethereal and return the past and stuff? Is it really that hard to believe that I came from the future?”
“What?! How do you know that?! That’s a secret of the royal family!”
“That’s not the point!”
Her surprise wasn’t unwarranted, but it was a little misplaced. So, once again, I tried to tell her about the impending doom of Atlantis... but she still refused to listen to me.
“I’ve got it! You must be spies from a foreign kingdom!”
If anything, she started to doubt us even more.
“I’m telling you... The Nyanyan of the future is the one who requested we come back and help you. If anyone should know what happens to Atlantis, it would be her, right? But she couldn’t save the kingdom by herself, so she asked us for help. Do you understand?” I started to feel like I was just repeating myself. It was exhausting. “Seriously, why don’t you believe us? Technically, you yourself were the one that asked us for help. Shouldn’t you at least believe us a little...?”
“That’s exactly the problem!”
“Huh?”
“I would never do such a thing!”
Huh?
“The technology to return to the past takes an equal number of years off your life, you know? So if you lot travelled back 1,500 years, there wouldn’t even be a shred of an ethereal life form left! You wouldn’t even be able to be reborn in the circle of life! Something that scary... There’s no way I would ever do that!”
What?
It takes... life?
“Wait a second! What’s this about taking years off your life?”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like.”
Don’t tell me that was why Nyanyan said she couldn’t return to the past with us...
“Wait. Nyanyan was already like a ghost... How could she use up her life in that form?”
“Rekka... You heard her say she’d used a ritual to preserve the life from her physical body. That means she was alive in some capacity, even in that ethereal state.”
“Hibiki...”
“The circle of life part is probably something similar to samsara. Since they had the technology to remove and preserve ‘ether,’ their religion probably believed that was the most concrete form of life there was,” Hibiki continued mumbling to herself as though thinking out loud.
Her hands were tightly holding her arms where she had them folded. I could tell her gears were really turning... Honestly, I felt the same way as I gritted my teeth and looked up into the overly blue sky.
“Why would Nyanyan do such a thing...?”
“It was all probably because she was willing to sacrifice herself for her wish, don’t you think?” asked Hibiki.
I looked back down and my gaze met her serious eyes.
“It’s true that the Nyanyan we met may have used up her life, but that doesn’t mean her story is over. Saving her story will end up saving her, too.” There, Hibiki glanced over towards the boulder Nyanyan was standing in front of. “Am I wrong, Rekka?”
“No... You’re exactly right.”
My shock hadn’t completely faded, but I suppressed it as I turned to Nyanyan myself.
“I don’t really get what you’re saying, and I still don’t believe that this kingdom will sink... But to sum it all up, you’re here to save me, right?”
“Yeah, you can think of it that way for now.”
“Then I shall welcome you with open arms. Make sure you work hard for my sake. Start by punishing that foolish uncle of mine for starting this dreaded coup d’état. I have high expectations of you,” Nyanyan said with a smile.
“...”
I stealthily shot a look R’s way.
“It seems like this Nyanyan’s story isn’t about saving Atlantis, but doing something about the coup d’état instead. Regardless, she’s most definitely a heroine.”
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 12 Page 7