by Ao Jyumonji
Today, however, was not that day.
Zodiac-kun was being felt up by the pigworms just like Ranta, but the demon could do no more than just stay by its dread knight’s side. As he accumulated more vices, his demon gained access to special abilities.
From 0 to 10 vices, at rank 1, it would warn when enemies were approaching.
If it felt like it.
From 11 to 40 vices, once it had reached rank 2, it would also whisper in the enemies’ ears to disrupt them.
When it felt like it.
Once he got over 41 vices and reached rank 3, it would do things like trip enemies to disrupt them.
Of course, this was also only if it felt like it.
Also, this was when the sun went down and the dark god Skullhell’s natural enemy the god of light Lumiaris’ powers were weakened. At rank 1, he couldn’t even summon his demon during the day. From rank 2 onwards, the demon acted as if he was one rank lower during daylight hours.
Ranta was currently rank 3.
He couldn’t be totally sure since he was underground, but it probably wasn’t evening yet. Even so, Zodiac-kun would still use its rank 2 abilities for Ranta.
...When it felt like it.
“As I accumulate vice, my demon powers up, and it will do what I want more often,” Ranta said. “That’s what my master said, at least...”
“Really? Is that really true? Keehehehehe... Did he really say that? Ehehehehehe...”
“He said it, okay?”
“You’re being tricked... Tricked... Ehehehehe... You’re being tricked... Keehehehehehehe...”
“Don’t say ominous things like that.”
“Ominous... Ominous... Ominous... Keehehehe... Today, you’ll die... Ehehehe...”
“...Dammit. This is why I don’t like summoning you, Zodiac-kun...”
Still, Zodiac-kun does help out sometimes, like how it warned me about the enemy approaching just now. Besides—if I were alone, I’d be feeling a little lonely right now.
No, Ranta shook his head.
“...I’m not lonely. As if I’d ever be lonely. I mean, the word ‘lonely’ isn’t even in my dictionary.”
“You’re putting on a brave front... Ehehehehe... It’s a thin front, thin front... Keehe... Keehehe... A skin and bones front...“
“I’m not putting on a brave front, and what’s a skin and bones front supposed to be?”
Well, anyway, getting pissed at every little thing it says isn’t going to help, but thanks to Zodiac-kun, I’m not bored at least. Ranta nodded to himself.
“That’s an important factor, you know. Yeah, a factor. Damn, that word’s cool. Not an element, a factor. Though maybe it just sounds cool ’cause I’m the one saying it? In other words, that’d mean I’m cool, huh? Well, that was already obvious. Whew... Hey, Zodiac-kun? Not going to poke fun at me?”
“...”
“Why do you have to go all quiet at times like this? Say something.”
“......”
“Hey, Zodiac-kun.”
“.........”
“Hey, I’m talking to you. Hey? Zodiac-kun?”
“............”
“Wait, huh? What? Is something up? Zodiac-kun? Are you all right?!”
“...............”
“Z-Zodiac-kun?!”
“Ha... Tricked you... Keehehehe... You got tricked...”
“You jerk...!”
Ranta tried punching Zodiac-kun, but his fist bounced off the demon, and there was no sign his iron fist of retribution had had any effect whatsoever.
“You’re supposed to be a dread knight... You don’t even know how to inflict damage on a demon...? Keehehehe...” Zodiac-kun said.
“Y-You idiot, it’s not like that. Come on, you’re my demon. What would I want to hurt you for?”
“You... Keehe... When you say that... are you serious...?”
“Damn straight, I am. You think I could say it if I wasn’t?”
“...Go die a million times.”
“Why?!”
“Keehehehe... Keehe... Keehehehehehehe... Keehehe... Keehehehehehehehehehehe...”
This is pointless. Acting out something like a husband and wife comedy routine with Zodiac-kun’s not going to help my situation. It’s been fun, but I don’t have time for this.
“Sitting still’s just not my style. Besides, hiding won’t do me any good,” Ranta said.
Even if he stayed here, he didn’t think help would be coming.
It isn’t coming... right? They wouldn’t come... would they? Yeah, no. There’s no way they’d come.
—What am I getting my hopes up for? It’s pathetic. I’m a man, dammit.
“If I get found, whatever happens, happens.” Ranta told himself that, deciding it was time to make a gamble. This was more his style, he thought, satisfied.
Pushing the pigworms away from him, he jumped out of the pen.
I’ve still got a long way to go... I hope, he thought, so he didn’t sprint. He ran straight down the path between the pens.
“Easy. This is a cinch.”
There were a lot of workers in darkshroom, holly-fern, and lightflower fields, and they had a clear, unobstructed view across them, so it was dangerous there. However, in this area where the pigrat and pigworm pens were concentrated, an elder or worker only came around on patrol once in a while, so it wasn’t so bad by comparison.
The fences around the pens were pretty high, too, so if he kept himself low to the ground, he wouldn’t stand out.
Was I being too cautious before? Ranta wondered.
“I’m so giddy I could skip, heh heh!” Ranta grinned.
After Ranta got carried away and started skipping, a worker stepped out from between two pens on his left and they collided.
“Whoa!” “Yelp!”
It surprised him, but he didn’t have time to be surprised right now. Ranta threw himself at the worker and grappled with it. He did that because he didn’t think he could afford the time to draw his longsword, but what was he going to do now...? He had a flash of inspiration.
These days, Haruhiro used a skill called Spider sometimes. That was it. He didn’t know how to do it, but he figured he could just imitate what he’d seen and figure out the rest on his own.
“D-Don’t move!” First, Ranta put the worker in a full nelson.
Of course, the worker thrashed around and resisted. It was incredibly strong, but Ranta was desperate, too. He locked down both of the enemy’s arms with his own. When he tried to wrap his legs around the front of his opponent’s legs, too, it didn’t quite go as planned and he ended up tumbling over along with the worker.
“—Urkh!”
As he was rolling around with the worker, he struck his head a number of times. With it elbowing him in the side, too, he was in a lot of pain.
The technique looked simple enough, but it’s harder to do than I thought. For now, it doesn’t feel like keeping the worker’s arms bound like this is getting me anywhere.
“Gotta get its throat...!” Letting its arms free, Ranta went to wring the worker’s neck. He wrapped both arms around it and squeezed hard.
When it found it couldn’t breathe, the worker flailed about even more frantically than before, trying to throw Ranta off.
I won’t let you throw me off, Ranta thought.
“Arrrgh...!” he shouted.
The worker scratched him in the face. It jabbed its fingers into his mouth, tearing the corner of his lips open. Ranta bit the worker’s fingers and kept on squeezing its neck.
“Hunnnnnnnngahhhhhh...!”
Finally, finally, the worker went limp.
“...Did I kill it? No!” Unable to believe it was over, Ranta didn’t let go of the worker’s neck for another five to ten seconds.
Is it safe now?
He checked to see if it was breathing. It was not. It looked like it was dead.
Ranta pushed the worker’s corpse away from him. He tried to get up, but he didn’t have the stren
gth.
Zodiac-kun floated nearby, looking down at Ranta. “Keehehe... What are you doing...? You’re inexperienced... Unripe... An unripe grape... Ehe...”
“...How am I a grape?”
Still, that was a close call, huh.
Nah, it wasn’t a close call at all, was it? I was absolutely, totally fine, wasn’t I?
“Yeah, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.”
With some effort, Ranta got up. Now, what to do with the body? First he took the talisman from it. That put him in a better mood, and he almost wanted to shout in celebration as he chucked the worker’s remains into the pigrat pen.
“And that’s that, whoa...?!”
There was a lot of barking.
It’s a kobold. No, kobolds. There’re a bunch of kobolds coming my way from that direction.
“Fight... Dread knight... Keehehehehehe... Fight them... Keehehehehehehehe...”
“No, I’m not gonna fight! There’s too many for me to handle, obviously!”
“Wimpy, wooly caterpillar... Caterpillar, caterpillar, caterpillar... Ehehehehehe...”
“Dammit, Zodiac-kun...!”
Ranta turned heel and ran.
My body feels heavy. On top of that, my whole face, especially my torn lip, hurts. How bad is the tear? This is awful. What’ll I do if I’ve been turned into a slit-mouthed man? My handsome face would be ruined. Guess that’s not what I should be worrying about though, huh.
When he turned around, it looked like the kobolds had almost caught up to him.
He wanted to whine and complain, but he knew Zodiac-kun would just mock him for it. He wasn’t sure he could survive Zodiac-kun’s barbed tongue in his current mental state. So Ranta decided to keep quiet, not look back, and run as hard as he could.
14. A Boy
“...Isn’t it kind of noisy over that way?” Haruhiro asked, pointing.
Everyone turned to look in that direction.
“Hmm?” Yume brought her hands up to her eyes like a pair of binoculars. “...Hmm. It’s hard to see with all the fences, but somethin’ that looks like a head is bobbin’ up and down over there.”
“I hear kobolds barking, too.” Merry was listening closely. “There seem to be a large number of kobolds over there.”
“Do you think...?” Shihoru said, clutching her staff.
Moguzo nodded. “I-It could be Ranta-kun... maybe?”
Haruhiro and the others were on the fourth level, the farm. They had come down from the third level to the fourth and they had just a little further to go before they would reach a well down to the fifth level when Haruhiro noticed something strange.
“Did he make it up from the fifth level to the fourth on his own...?” Haruhiro wondered.
I always knew he was a stubborn guy. It may not be the most incredible feat ever, but it’s still pretty impressive if he pulled that off.
At the very least, Ranta had a greater ability to survive than your average person. That never-say-die attitude was something none of the others had.
“Let’s go!” Haruhiro said.
They all looked at one another and then headed towards the uproar. They went quickly, but carefully. If they ended up being chased around, too, it would defeat the purpose.
Still, isn’t it kind of impossible to approach a place where a large number of kobolds are running around without being discovered...? Haruhiro had everyone else stay back, poking his head out from behind one of the pens.
“...Oh.”
There they were. A whole bunch of them. The kobolds were running this way and that, sometimes jumping over the fences into or out of the pens, barking madly like dogs all the while.
Haruhiro watched them for a while. The kobolds didn’t even look in his direction. Not that he minded.
Haruhiro pulled his head back in. “...Not happening.”
That was the only possible conclusion.
If they went any further, the kobolds would be sure to find them. If they were willing to be found, they could try to lure the kobolds away to help Ranta, who was probably on the run or hiding, but even if they did that, they couldn’t be sure they’d be able to draw all the kobolds to them.
Besides, compared to the five of them, Haruhiro thought Ranta might have an easier time running around and hiding.
If Haruhiro and the rest of the group found themselves pursued by kobolds again, there was no guarantee they would all be able to get away. In fact, it was best to assume they wouldn’t. They needed to throw away any optimistic notions like that.
He really didn’t want the kobolds to find them. How they could help Ranta without being found, however, was something Haruhiro was having a hard time coming up with. It was a matter of priorities.
What should the order of priorities be here?
Right now, what’s most important? And what comes next after that?
The most important priority was...
...keeping the five of them safe.
Saving Ranta came after that.
That order couldn’t be changed. It had to be this way.
Even if it weren’t Ranta who needed saving, if it had been Yume or Shihoru, or even Moguzo or Merry, Haruhiro would have had to make the same decision. He believed that was his role as leader.
“We’re getting out of here,” Haruhiro said, shaking his head. “I don’t doubt that Ranta’s in this area, but if we get found by the kobolds, too, and make this into an even bigger uproar than it already is, the situation will only get worse. Kobolds don’t exactly seem all that patient. They give up pretty quickly. I’m sure they have work that needs doing, too. So... things’ll settle down eventually. Let’s look for Ranta once that happens.”
“But, what if...” Shihoru said hesitantly. “What if Ranta gets caught before that and... Oh, I’m sorry, I just...”
“If he does...” Yume bit her lip and grimaced. “...If that happens, we won’t be seein’ Ranta alive again, to say the least.”
“You’re right,” said Merry, her face a bit pale.
Moguzo let out a long, deep sigh.
“The one who made the decision...” Haruhiro clutched his thighs tightly. “...was me. No matter what happens, the responsibility is mine alone.”
“No, that’s not right,” Yume shook her head vigorously. “It’s not just your responsibility, Haru-kun. This is somethin’ we all have to—”
“No, it is.”
He was glad his voice didn’t tremble there. He didn’t want to show off his pathetic weakness any more than he had to. It didn’t matter so much when there was nothing important happening, but not right now. Now was not the time for it.
“If everyone does what I decide, the responsibility is mine,” Haruhiro explained. “I don’t know, I can’t really explain it well, but that’s how it has to be. I can’t handle this without all of you supporting me, but still. I think if we’re just supporting one another, we’ll still be weak. A core... a central pillar... I think the party needs someone like that. The problem is, I’m not sure I can do it... Well, I plan to try at least. I’ll do my best. So I want you to let me carry that burden.”
Yume suddenly slapped Haruhiro on the back. “Haru-kun, now you’re actin’ like a boy.”
“...I-I’m a guy, you know? Always have been.”
“No, Yume didn’t mean it like that. Umm, let’s see... Uhh, Yume doesn’t really know what she meant, but she sure thought you were actin’ like a boy there. Yume’s gonna follow you, Haru-kun.”
“Huh? Uh, sure. Thanks. Weird as that sounds to say...”
When Yume’d said she’d follow him, it’d made Haruhiro’s heart skip a beat. When a girl said something like that, it was hard for him not to read more into it. It wasn’t good for his heart.
Of course, it probably just meant that Yume was accepting him as the leader for now.
“Um...” Shihoru lowered her head for some reason. “Haruhiro, let me say thanks in advance, for everything...”
“Th-Thanks. ...But w
hy?”
“...It just seemed like the thing to say,” she murmured.
“Okay...”
Moguzo grunted and gave him a thumbs-up.
Unsure what to do for a moment, Haruhiro returned the thumbs-up. Next, Merry extended a hand to him. After hurriedly wiping the palm of his own hand on his cloak, Haruhiro took Merry’s hand.
Her skin’s ridiculously smooth, he thought. Merry’s hand. It’s so smooth.
Haruhiro checked the area where they thought Ranta was once more.
Yeah, nothing’s changed. Charging in there would be suicide.
“Let’s pull back far enough that we can just tell what’s going on,” Haruhiro said to the others, adding, “Ranta’s fine. If this could kill him, he’d be dead many times over by now.”
Of course, that was just to assuage their worries. His comrades must have known it, too. Even so, they all nodded. He was grateful for that.
—I don’t need you coming back to haunt me. That would be the absolute worst. As they left the area, Haruhiro whispered in his mind, So don’t die, Ranta.
15. The Fall and Rise of the Dread Knight
“...Ow, that hurts...”
Ranta pressed down on his left arm with his right hand, still holding his longsword with his right arm. He tried gripping his left hand, but it made him groan in pain when he did.
That was no good. He couldn’t groan right now.
Ranta was in hiding.
Like always, he was hiding in the middle of a pigworm pen, or in the middle of the pigworms, to be more precise.
He was being sheltered by the great and respectable pigworms, to be even more precise.
Ranta was hiding in a group of pigworms that had gathered in the corner of one pen. Alone.
Now, he was truly alone.
The demon Zodiac-kun had taken its leave. The spell he used to summon his demon, Demon Call, had a time limit on it. Thirty minutes after being called, the demon would return to the dark god Skullhell’s side. Ranta didn’t have the willpower to summon Zodiac-kun again now that the demon was gone. If I did, I’d just receive a torrent of abuse that’d depress me more...
With a million—or at least it felt that way to Ranta—kobolds chasing after him, even the great Ranta-sama who had run around with such magnificence and skill was exhausted now.