by Takehaya
Elexis looked at Ruth with pity in his eyes—pity that indicated he was absolutely sure of his victory.
“If I give up, who else will save Her Highness?! I will never surrender! I am Her Highness’s knight after all!”
“But can’t you see how useless all this is...? If not, that’s truly unfortunate for both of us.”
Seeing as Ruth was refusing to give up, Elexis felt he had no other option. He was going to have to knock her out. Once unconscious, he would bring her aboard his own spaceship. He could then use Ruth as a bargaining chip to get Theia to cooperate. And so Elexis raised his fist.
“I don’t think it was useless. Besides, the only one that’s going to be regretting this is you.”
But instead of Ruth being struck, Elexis was. A fist blindsided him from the right and connected squarely with his cheek.
Having taken a direct hit to the face, Elexis collapsed. In the process, he lost strength in the hand that was holding Ruth, and she managed to break free. When she turned to look at the person who’d punched Elexis, Ruth’s eyes began sparkling.
“Satomi-sama!”
“Hey, Ruth-san. Your voice reached me, you know.”
It was indeed none other than Koutarou. After hearing the situation from Clan, he’d gone immediately looking for Ruth.
You saved me, Clan...
Since Koutarou’s bracelet was connected to Clan’s Cradle and the Hazy Moon, he couldn’t access Ruth and Theia’s location information directly. However, thanks to Ruth using various communication methods in an attempt to contact Blue Knight, Clan’s unmanned reconnaissance craft was able to determine her location. Clan relayed that information to Koutarou, and he came straight to the park. Really, it was only because Ruth had refused to give in that he was able to find her.
“So Ruth-san, what’s going on?”
Koutarou glared at Elexis, fists still clenched. Elexis was clearly staggered, but he was still conscious. After collecting himself and lightly shaking his head, he slowly stood up.
“Satomi-sama...”
Seeing Koutarou step between her and Elexis, Ruth was overcome with a secure feeling. She felt safe.
Ah, he really is the one... As long as he’s with me, I will be okay no matter what... He’ll definitely be able to save Her Highness too...
Nothing had been resolved yet, and she had no grounds for thinking any of that. But even so, Ruth believed everything would be okay with all of her heart. She believed in Koutarou, and after wiping away tears from her eyes, she converted those feelings into words.
“Please lend me your strength, Satomi-sama! I want to protect Her Highness! From all kinds of enemies! And from all kinds of hardships!”
That was the future that would make Ruth the happiest. It was her wish. She was sure of it now.
“As you wish, my lady!”
And Koutarou responded without any hesitation. He was prepared to answer that call because he had his own wish, and he’d resolved to uphold it a long time ago.
Once he got back on his feet, Elexis had lost his previous calmness. The unexpected interruption had thrown him off his game.
“Curse you, you primitive barbarian...”
From Elexis’s perspective, a gorilla had interrupted important business by punching him. And so he gave Koutarou—the gorilla—a wicked and condescending sneer of a glare.
“Hmm...? Hahahaha!”
Koutarou, however, only laughed when he saw it. Elexis reminded him of someone he’d met long ago. The whole encounter was similar, really, and Koutarou laughed even harder when he realized that. It was obvious that this was a completely different person, but the resemblance was so striking that Koutarou couldn’t help it.
“...What are you doing in a place like this, Dextro? You haven’t taken a single step forward in two thousand years...” Koutarou mumbled to himself in a quiet voice as he chuckled.
“Dextro...?”
Only Ruth heard what he said.
Satomi-sama just said “Dextro”...
Ruth knew that name. He was a character that appeared in the legend of the Blue Knight. However, in the interest of conciseness, Theia hadn’t included him in her play. So it wasn’t a name that Koutarou should have known.
Maybe Her Highness showed him a movie when practicing for the play...?
Ruth ended up writing it off and shifted her focus back to Elexis. She didn’t have the time to be thinking of anything else right now.
“What are you mumbling about, Neanderthal?”
“Neanderthal? It’s been a while since someone called me that.”
Clan, it seems this synchronicity thing of yours might really exist...
Koutarou recalled something Clan had said to him as he casually approached Elexis. Elexis pulled out a pistol and leveled it at Koutarou. It was a new model that DKI had developed; not only was it compact with little recoil, it was also a multipurpose firearm that would take all kinds of bullets. It was one of the products that DKI wanted to sell to the army.
“What does the unarmed Neanderthal want?”
A smug grin crossed Elexis’s lips as translucent white hexagonal tiles appeared around him. It was a barrier activating. An unharmed human wouldn’t be able to touch him now. To Elexis, Koutarou only looked like a thoughtless Neanderthal who didn’t know when to back down as he approached.
“It’s true that I’m unarmed, but you shouldn’t get too full of yourself.”
“That’s true. There’s a saying in my family that you shouldn’t play around when things get serious.”
A loud bang rang out. Elexis didn’t hesitate to fire at Koutarou.
Looks like you learned a little, Dextro!
However, Koutarou dodged the bullet with merely a turn of his head.
“What?!”
Elexis doubted his eyes. He couldn’t believe that his gun could be dodged at such close range.
In order to improve the accuracy of the gun in Elexis’s hand, it had been made so that the trigger didn’t need to be pulled. Instead, it sensed pressure that was applied to it. That improved the accuracy of the gun by eliminating the need to move your finger to fire it.
It also meant that Koutarou shouldn’t have been able to tell when he was about to fire. And considering the speed of the bullet, no human should have the reaction time to dodge it.
“Your shooting is too honest!”
Koutarou broke into a sprint to close the distance between him and Elexis as quickly as possible.
“Who the hell are you?!”
“I’m the victim!”
As Koutarou closed in on him, Elexis continued firing. But not one of the bullets scored a direct hit. Instead, they would graze his cheek, pass under an arm he had casually raised, or slip between his arm and body. It was a bizarre sight that made it look like Elexis was missing on purpose.
How?! Why can’t I hit him?!
Elexis started to panic as he fired round after round. Even though he was the one on the offensive, he couldn’t have been more confused.
Koutarou was able to dodge the bullets thanks to the spirit sight he had gotten from Sanae. Elexis’s aim was quite precise, and so was the gun. Elexis didn’t have any hesitation like Ruth did, and his shots were logical and accurate. The bullets went exactly where he intended them to go. That’s why his attacks were so easy to dodge for Koutarou.
“A victim, you say?!”
“That’s right! I’m just a regular civilian from a planet that your princess invaded!”
Koutarou was now right in front of Elexis. Elexis fired one last shot at him, but the bullet flew wildly astray as Koutarou’s fist struck Elexis in the face and knocked him flat onto his back.
“Wh-What happened...?”
After hitting the ground, Elexis was unable to move. Part of that was because he was dizzied from the punch, but mostly it was because he was so taken aback. Despite being protected by a barrier, Koutarou had been able to punch him. Elexis had no clue what had happened.
> “Satomi-sama... you...”
Ruth, who had been watching Koutarou from behind, saw the whole thing. Yet even though she’d witnessed it with her own two eyes, she was still surprised.
Immediately before El-sama fires, the barrier in front of the gun vanishes for a moment! Satomi-sama punched him during that small window! I... I see how it worked, but that should be impossible! Just how much training would you have to go through to be able to do something like that?!
Koutarou had been able to pull it off thanks to a combination of the power Sanae had given him and all of his combat experience. Elexis had a tell when he fired his gun. Just before shooting, he would hold his breath. He used it to focus on his attack, and that showed in his aura. Koutarou also knew from experience that it was a common habit among marksmen. So by reading Elexis and swinging his fist at just the right time, he was able to land a blow right before Elexis fired.
“Ouch, that barrier recovers quickly...”
While Ruth looked on in surprise, Koutarou shook his right hand in an attempt to ease the pain. He’d managed to hit Elexis, but then he was repelled by the reformed barrier. Still, he was acting so casually about it now that it was hard to believe he’d just done something so amazing.
“I see, Neanderthal, you aimed for the opening when the barrier was down!”
Elexis finally put it together when his tactical support computer reported on what Koutarou had done.
“But now that I know that, your little trick won’t work on me again!”
Elexis ejected the magazine loaded into the gun and quickly exchanged it with another.
“All I have to do is attack you with lasers without lowering the barrier!”
The new magazine contained a miniature irradiation device that fired lasers. By loading it into the pistol, it was essentially now a small laser gun. Since it was only a prototype, there was a limit to the amount of shots it could fire, but this kind of flexibility was the selling point of the gun.
“You’ve surprised me quite a bit, but it looks like I win, Neanderthal-kun!”
After loading his new magazine, Elexis ordered his computer to change the settings of his barrier. Normally Forthorthe’s protective barriers guarded against lasers as well, but Elexis now instructed his to allow lasers to pass through. That would let him fire at Koutarou without having to lower the barrier.
“Let me tell you something.”
“Is that your wish? I’m no knight, but I’ll at least hear your final words.”
Elexis waited for Koutarou’s last words with his gun held at the ready. He was absolutely certain of his victory now.
“Unarmed, I have no way of breaking through your barrier, but you can still attack me all you want. All I can do is run around, but I won’t be able to save Theia that way.”
“That’s right. I’m glad you at least understand that much.”
“However...”
Koutarou began running towards Elexis once more.
“What is this? Are you so desperate you’d go in for a suicidal charge? I guess that’s only fitting for a Neanderthal!”
Elexis confidently kept his gun trained on Koutarou. He had no need to defeat Koutarou with this attack. He only needed to buy time, so he’d be fine as long as Koutarou didn’t take him out. And he wasn’t worried about that since there was no chance that an unarmed opponent could break through his barrier. Elexis had been caught off guard the first time, but he wouldn’t make that mistake again. He had the upper hand now.
“Satomi-sa— Ah...”
At first, Ruth was also worried that Koutarou was throwing his life away. But then she noticed that Koutarou was smiling. It was the same kind of smile he usually had on his face when he was teasing Yurika.
“My partner is the slyest of them all!”
Before Elexis could fire, several beams of light came pouring down from above. They passed right through his barrier. They struck the gun in his right hand and the barrier generator on his waist, destroying both.
“Wh-What?!”
Elexis was once again taken aback by this most unexpected turn of events. But he didn’t have much time to appreciate it. Koutarou’s fist came at him full force. And without a gun or his barrier to defend him, Elexis was helpless. He just stood there, stock-still and slack-jawed. An easy target.
“Guah...”
Elexis passed out as Koutarou’s fist buried itself in his stomach.
With Elexis defeated, Koutarou and Ruth headed deeper into the park under Clan’s guidance. While Koutarou was fighting, she’d managed to identify heat sources corresponding to Theia and five men using her reconnaissance craft.
“This is all I can do to help. I can’t leave any evidence that the Schweiger family was involved.”
Clan had sniped Elexis with her lasers, and she had guided Koutarou and Ruth to Theia. If she did any more than that, there was a high chance that Elexis and the military would discover she was helping them. That meant this was as far as she could go with them.
“Thanks, Clan.”
“You just keep owing me more and more, Koutarou.”
“I know, I know.”
“Thank you very much, Clan-sama.”
“Why am I being thanked by Pardomshiha? Jeez...”
Since Clan wasn’t good at socializing, she barely knew how to handle heartfelt thanks from someone she wasn’t used to. Dealing with Ruth was a completely different ballgame than dealing with Koutarou. As a result, Clan’s hologram projected by the bracelet blushed ever so slightly.
“...I’m confused myself.”
Ruth put her hand on her chest and smiled gently. Ruth’s earnest feelings seemed to have an effect on Clan as she gave an embarrassed smile in return.
“One last warning, Koutarou. DKI is trying to sell weapons far more powerful than that gun to the army.”
“So what should I do?”
“I would say this is an ‘all our resources’ scenario.”
“I understand. Thank you.”
By quoting Koutarou, Clan conveyed the magnitude of the situation to him. He pulled himself together and began thinking in preparation for the upcoming fight. Seeing Koutarou get so serious, Clan smiled gently.
“...You came back through all those hardships. Now protect her until the end, Satomi Koutarou.”
With that, Clan terminated the hologram and recalled her reconnaissance craft to the Cradle. The rest was up to Koutarou and Ruth.
Not long after Clan withdrew, Koutarou and Ruth reached their destination. The incinerated trees and scorch marks told them they were in the right place. From the look of things, the fight must have been a fierce one
“Her Highness is... there! She’s over there, Satomi-sama!”
“Theia!”
A bit away from Koutarou and Ruth, just past some trees, was a spaceship even smaller than Clan’s Cradle. It was only about the size of a large truck. Walking towards it were the five men, one of which was carrying Theia over his shoulder. She appeared to be unconscious. She almost looked like a doll slung over the shoulder of such large man.
“Oh no! If we don’t hurry, they’ll take her away!”
“So there’s no time for petty tricks, huh?”
Theia would be carried into the spaceship any moment now. If they just idly stood by, she would be taken away right in front of them. However, Koutarou and Ruth only had the weapons for self-defense that Clan had left with them. They couldn’t use anything too powerful that would tip anyone off that Clan had been involved. Against five men with special forces training and cutting edge technology, however, that wasn’t going to be easy. They’d been able to take out Elexis because he was alone, but not even Koutarou could dodge attacks from five men if they decided to attack him with lasers all at once.
But there was no time to waste. There wasn’t even time to call for backup. They had to act immediately, but they stood no chance of winning as things stood. Realizing his dilemma, Koutarou repeated what Clan had said to him.
“All our resources, huh?”
Koutarou had said something similar before their battle with Maxfern. Back then, just like now, they were faced with a terrible dilemma. Knowing that, Koutarou had told Clan to be prepared to use any means necessary, even if it was a last resort.
Back then, our last resort was Clan’s Super Space-time Repulsion Shell. So what is our last resort now...?
Just as Koutarou reached that thought, Ruth spoke up.
“Satomi-sama, I’ll act as a decoy and draw them away. Meanwhile, please save Her Highness. I’m sure you can do it, so I’m counting on you! Please save Her Highness!”
Ruth couldn’t wait any longer, so she quickly explained her idea to Koutarou with a serious expression on her face. It was an extremely dangerous plan with almost no chance of Ruth surviving.
“Ruth-san...”
Koutarou understood Ruth’s determination. He didn’t even need to look at her aura. It was obvious enough just by looking at her face.
Ruth is prepared to die for this. She wants to save Theia, even if it costs her her life. Because she would always regret it if she didn’t... Because she can’t be happy without Theia...
“Here I go! I’ll leave to rest to you!”
Ruth didn’t fear her own death because she knew that even if she died, Koutarou would still save Theia. In the face of Ruth’s selfless resolve, Koutarou made up his mind.
There’s no meaning in keeping the secret if it leads to Ruth’s death. And I’m sure Her Majesty will forgive me for using it in this situation. It’s for the sake of the people Her Majesty fought to protect, after all!
Koutarou was prepared to use any means necessary to protect Ruth and Theia.
“...Please wait, Ruth-san.”
Koutarou grabbed Ruth’s shoulder just as she was about to rush out towards the men.
“Satomi-sama?”
Ruth was confused as to why he’d stopped her and gave him a puzzled glance.
“Ruth-san... If possible, I’d like you not to mention what you’re about see to anyone else.”
Koutarou smiled at Ruth. It was his normal smile. An awkward, yet earnest and guileless smile. The very one Ruth loved to see.