The Leaders and the Led

by Ao Jyumonji

  “Ohh. Look at them go at it,” one soldier said pityingly.

  “Wa ha ha,” the next laughed. “Good luck.”

  “When you’re at the level that those guys’ll attack you, it’s tough,” the first one agreed.

  “Well, it’s a stage everyone goes through, you know?” a third one pointed out.

  “Nah, when we first came, they never attacked us, remember?” said the first one.

  “Yeah, yeah,” the second agreed. “They didn’t.”

  “Now that you mention it, you’re right!” the third one cried.

  In fact, the spriggans didn’t even turn an eye towards that party.

  Four men, and two women. Their composition is two warriors and a paladin, a mage, a priest, and a thief, Haruhiro thought.

  Even at a glance, it was plain to see. From the quality of their equipment and their overall demeanor, they were nothing like Haruhiro and his group. Without a doubt, that party was stronger than Haruhiro’s.

  If they could get that good, the three demi-human groups wouldn’t try to lay a hand on them. They could walk right through here.

  “You could help us out, y’know!” Yume complained loudly.

  You can say that again, thought Haruhiro. Haruhiro and his party were fighting a hard battle and were in serious trouble. The other party should have seen that, so it wouldn’t have killed them to help out a little. If Haruhiro had been in their shoes, he’d have at least called out, Are you okay? Should we help? As a fellow human being, he’d want to do at least that much.

  I mean, isn’t that what you ought to do? he thought. But, these guys, what’s wrong with them? They’ve wandered off while having a pleasant chat. Are they sane? Are they even human? They didn’t look particularly cruel and evil. Well, maybe they looked relatively normal, but they’re actually a band of inhuman monsters...?

  It’s a rough world.

  You can only trust your comrades. Don’t count on anyone else. Because you can’t. We’ll have to get out of this by ourselves. In order to survive, our only option is to carve out our own path.

  “I’ll do it!” he called.

  He needed to cool his head. He understood that, but he couldn’t help but get a little hot under the collar.

  Haruhiro hit Spriggan A’s knife with a hard Swat, then flipped a switch. No, there wasn’t an actual switch anywhere to flip, it meant that he consciously changed the mode he was in, like flipping a switch.

  “Assault!”

  He attacked like crazy with his dagger and sap. However, he stopped after the fourth sequential strike. Spriggan A looked at him with a, Huh...? look on his face.

  Now. Haruhiro dashed past Spriggan A, whacking him in the back of the head with his sap as he passed. He then jammed his dagger into the staggering spriggan’s neck.

  “Merry!” Haruhiro shouted from his diaphragm, causing Spriggan B, the one Merry was fighting, to look his way.

  Merry swiftly swept Spriggan B’s legs out from under him with her short staff. Spriggan B fell. On his back.

  Haruhiro leapt on Spriggan B’s back as he tried to rise. He took a cut to his arm, or somewhere near there, but that was no big deal. Haruhiro jammed his dagger under Spriggan B’s jaw. He then slashed his throat wide open. Spider. Spriggan B died.

  “Haru! Your injury!” Merry cried.

  “It can wait!” he called back. “First...!”

  I’m on a roll. I’m scared that I might get carried away, but it would be a shame to cool down and lose the momentum I’ve got going. Maybe I should go as far as I can, to almost the limit, without going over? I feel like I might be able to grasp something. Like I might be able to take the next step up.

  “Punishment!” Kuzaku finally got around to slamming his longsword into Duergar B’s brainpan.

  Good. Good, good, good! Haruhiro traded glances with Yume. Yume seemed to get what he wanted.

  With a grunt, Yume cried, “Comboooo...!”

  Yume unleashed a somewhat forced combo using Brush Clearer and Diagonal Cross, causing Spriggan D to back down a bit. However, she hadn’t been taking advantage of an opening, so Yume ended up throwing herself off balance a bit. It was dangerous, but that was fine.

  It’s been a while, thought Haruhiro.

  He saw that line. That faint line of light.

  Rather than him tracing the line, it was more like his body followed it on its own. The dagger didn’t so much stab in as slide into place. Haruhiro landed a Backstab on Spriggan D, snuffing his life out in a single stroke.

  We’re in top shape, he thought. We can do this. Things’re going our way.

  “Yume, and you, too, Kuzaku! We’re going! We’ll get Ranta—”

  Whoa. Haruhiro felt dizzy, the strength draining out of his legs. We can do this? How? How is this being able to do it? Going our way? Oh, something’s heading our way all right. More enemies.

  Duergar from the left tunnel. Bogies from the right.

  The three types of demi-humans don’t get along. We should make them fight each other. That idea occurred to him, but he couldn’t think of a specific way to do it. No matter how I look at it, running’s the only option here. But , then, what do I do about Ranta? I dunno. Honestly, I can’t decide.

  “Merry, Shihoru! Run for it!” he yelled. “Yume, you too! Kuzaku...!”

  Haruhiro looked to Kuzaku. Kuzaku was raising the visor on his helmet.

  Kuzaku’s shoulders were heaving with each breath, but he met Haruhiro’s gaze and nodded.

  Yeah, at times like this, this is how it goes, Haruhiro thought. This is how it always goes, doesn’t it? Not because we want to show off—it just happens this way naturally.

  He didn’t hear Yume, Shihoru or Merry’s responses. Haruhiro rushed towards the bogies, and Kuzaku charged at the duergar.

  Ohh, Haruhiro wanted to moan. I’m so scared, I want to cry. The numbers, they’re seriously bad news. How many bogies are there? I can’t get a quick count. What the hell? Seriously, what the hell? I’m gonna die. This is it. I am so going to die. If I charge straight in like this, they’ll mince me in an instant. This is no good. I need to buy even a little time. I know.

  He was scared, so scared that his every hair was standing on end, but he drew them in, further and further. In another step, probably, the bogies would spring on him.

  That was where he made a sudden turn. He couldn’t do a full one-eighty, but he banked about a hundred degrees or so to the left.

  Haruhiro ran. With everything he had. The bogies were biting at his heels and raising an ungodly racket. He wasn’t going to be able to lose them. For another second or two, he had to run around—

  “Meow...!”

  Yume. Why was Yume in front of Haruhiro?

  The arrow she fired whizzed past Haruhiro’s face, and may or may not have hit a bogie. He couldn’t check without looking back, and if he looked back he was sure they’d catch up to him, so he couldn’t check.

  “Yume, why?!” he shouted.

  “Did you think we could run away?!” Yume let off another arrow, then took off running alongside Haruhiro. There were tears streaming down her face. “Runnin’ away and leavin’ you guys behind! There’s no way we coulda done that!”

  Well, no, maybe not, Haruhiro thought. But—wait, it’s not just Yume? Yeah. They’re here.

  Over by Kuzaku, who was surrounded by duergar and taking a beating, were Merry and Shihoru. Kuzaku was desperately protecting himself with his longsword and shield, still just barely managing to stay on his feet. As for Ranta, who was still being chased around by the spriggans, there was no telling how much longer he’d last.

  We’ll be wiped out, Haruhiro thought. We can struggle all we want, but we’ll get wiped out. All of us are going to die here.

  Sorry, Moguzo. I know it’s like, what am I apologizing for, right? Just, sorry. We shouldn’t be following after you so soon. Dammit. Dammit! Dammit...!

  “No!” Haruhiro screamed.

  What good will shouting that do? W
hat will it change?

  “I don’t want to die!”

  There was nothing he could do. Nothing any of them could do. No one in the group, least of all Haruhiro himself, had the power.

  So, whether they wanted to or not, they were going to die here. They would die, leaving nothing behind. If no one was kind enough to burn them, they’d turn into zombies. When their flesh rotted and fell from their bones, they’d become skeletons. This was the worst.

  “Augh!” Yume shouted.

  One of the bogies had slashed Yume’s leg with its claws. Yume fell behind. She was going down.

  This is the place, Haruhiro thought.

  He had to flip his switch. He knew it was futile. But dying without doing anything, that would just be awkward. At the very least, he’d give it everything he had. Haruhiro changed to a new mode.

  “Assault!”

  I don’t care if I die. I mean, I’m gonna, anyway. The bogies. How many are there? Eight? Nine? More than ten? Who gives a damn?

  Haruhiro closed in on the bogies that were about to pounce on Yume. He cut them with his dagger. Whacked them with his sap. He cut and whacked and cut and stabbed and whacked and cut and whacked and stabbed any that he could get his hands on.

  For a moment, the bogies were intimidated by Haruhiro, but they quickly launched a counterattack. The bogies’ claws dug into Haruhiro. In no time, Haruhiro was a mess of injuries. He didn’t care—Haruhiro attacked with abandon. If he stopped, it was over. He refused to stop before he was dead.

  Yume kept firing arrows at point blank range. With each arrow she fired, Yume screamed.

  Suddenly, his field of vision was cut in half. It looked like they had gotten one of his eyes. He couldn’t swing his sap anymore. His left arm stopped moving.

  It was hard to breathe—actually, he couldn’t breathe properly.

  Yume took a knee. She was swinging an arrow around blindly. One bogie circled around behind her.

  I’m not letting you take her! Haruhiro tried to take a swing at that bogie. Right after he did, he felt impacts all over his body, and the next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground. Yume was on top of him. Was she trying to cover him?

  Stop that, he tried to say. He had no voice. —This is it, huh.

  Was this as far as he went? The bogies’ claws tore into Yume’s flesh, and she let out a scream.

  Stop it, Haruhiro thought. She’s just a girl, damn it.

  But his body wouldn’t move. It broke his heart. He had already resigned himself. But, at the very least...

  Haruhiro worked up the last of his strength and hugged Yume close.

  Haru-kun, she called his name.

  He turned her over, facing her downwards. At least, he tried.

  “Ha—”

  What? Haruhiro thought numbly. What happened?

  The bogies, they’ve stopped attacking.

  They couldn’t possibly attack now. That was because...

  All at once, there was a splatter of blood from the bogies. All of them, at once. That was impossible. But, in Haruhiro’s eyes, it appeared instantaneous.

  The bogies doubled over and collapsed. They fell on Haruhiro and Yume, too. When they fell on top of Haruhiro, of course it hurt. But, more than that, he was utterly amazed.

  What is this? he thought. What’s happening? I don’t get it.

  Yume mumbled something next to his ear. Yume’s face was right next to Haruhiro’s face. Actually, they were touching.

  “Are you okay?” he heard a man’s voice say.

  A man? Haruhiro thought. Who? And, wait, does this mean...

  “...We’re... saved...?” he croaked.

  “Meow...?” Yume asked tentatively.

  “Just wait,” the voice said.

  Haruhiro finally saw the man. You’re kidding me, he thought. He couldn’t believe it.

  The man moved aside the bogie corpses, first helping Yume, then Haruhiro up.

  It seemed it wasn’t a joke or a dream. Haruhiro couldn’t believe it, but he was going to have to.

  The man still looked young and he wore a cool suit of black armor that fit him tightly, but which looked light to wear. There was orange light leaking out from inside it here and there. The asymmetrical skirt-like piece he wore to protect his lower half was cool, too. The long blade he wore over his back was cool, and so was the shorter blade on his hip. His face was cool, too. He wasn’t particularly beautiful, but the way his almond eyes were full of composure, intensity, and sorrow was cool. Anyway, he was cool, or rather, insanely cool. Way too insanely cool.

  This man was the strongest volunteer soldier.

  The most famous volunteer soldier.

  “...Soma-san?” Haruhiro asked, without having meant to. The answer was obvious.

  “Hm?” Soma blinked. “Do you know me?”

  “...No, of course I know you... but—wait, what about everyone else?!” Haruhiro suddenly cried, looking around hurriedly. It was already over.

  The duergar that had been clobbering Kuzaku had been wiped out by a beautiful young elf woman with silver hair, eyes like sapphires, and skin as white as the snow, as well as a man with awfully long arms who wore a mask and strange armor that covered his entire body.

  Ranta had seemingly been saved by the swarthy man with his hair in dreadlocks who had sanpaku eyes. The paladin Kemuri.

  Kemuri-san! Haruhiro wanted to call out to him. Just once, Kemuri had treated him to a drink in Sherry’s Tavern, ostensibly to celebrate the party’s victory over Death Spots. He wasn’t a talkative man, but he was ridiculously well-built, and while his bad eyes made him look scary, he was definitely a good guy.

  If he recalled correctly, the elf was Lilia.

  The long-armed man who wore a mask was, from what Haruhiro had heard, not human.

  Standing a little distance away from the rest, with the face and physique of a child, was the muddy-eyed necromancer Pingo. Haruhiro didn’t really know what a necromancer was, but they apparently created golems, or something like that. But, what did that mean, creating them? Haruhiro had no clue.

  Regardless, Haruhiro’s comrades were safe. From the looks of things, Ranta, Kuzaku, Merry, and Shihoru weren’t hurt as badly as Haruhiro or Yume.

  Thank goodness.

  “Shima, treat them,” Soma called.

  The gorgeous and sexy older girl walked over. “Oh, me. Oh, my. This is pretty bad. It’s a good thing you’re still alive.”

  “...Uh, right, sorry...” Haruhiro mumbled.

  “What are you apologizing for? You silly thing.”

  When Shima giggled, Haruhiro’s mind went blank and he couldn’t think of anything. In the time that he’d been taken out of commission by the abnormal degree of adult sexiness she exuded, she finished healing him. It wasn’t like a priest’s magic. He didn’t really know what kind of magic it was.

  Yume got Shima to heal her, too. Apparently Merry had already used her light magic on Ranta and Kuzaku. Merry and Shihoru were lightly injured. Merry quickly healed Shihoru and was in turn quickly healed by Shima.

  “Thanks!” Ranta bowed down and performed a kowtow in front of Soma’s group. “Seriously! Seriously! You saved our hides! We got our hides saved! We nearly died there! We nearly got wiped out there! Thanks! Hey! Haruhiro! Yume! Shihoru! Merry! And you, too, Kuzaku! All of you! Bow your heads! Hurry up! Are you all stupid?! You have no common sense at all, huh? You pack of morons! You wanna die?! Huhh?!”

  “Don’t sweat it,” Soma said simply, and Ranta jumped back up on his feet at the speed of light.

  “I know, right?! Getting kowtowed to for something so minor, it’s just off-putting, right?! Come on, Haruhiro! It’s just like I said, right?! Don’t make me kowtow like that, you dolt!”

  “...You did that all on your own.”

  “Like I would ever do that! Me! You think I’d kowtow for anyone if you weren’t forcing me to?! Honestly, this guy’s a real piece of work! I apologize, seriously! He’s got those sleepy eyes and he’s a ma
licious villain! He tries to knock me down every chance he gets!”

  “You’re a natural piece of trash, you know that, man,” said Haruhiro. “You never change...”

  “What a funny boy,” Shima said with a giggle.

  “Swoooon,” Ranta put a hand to his heart and fell to the ground. “...Dammit. That one totally got me... I’m in love...”

  “...How embarrassing,” Shihoru said, shrinking into herself.

  “If only he’d just disappear.” Yume arched her eyebrows, looking sad if anything.

  “Um,” Merry bowed her head. “—Thank you. This all happened because I wasn’t doing my job as healer properly...”

  Kuzaku sat on the ground, hugging one knee, an awkward expression on his face.

  “No.” Kemuri twisted his thick lips into a slight frown. “There was nothing you could have done there, I’m sure. It wasn’t an issue with your healer.”

  “...Uhuhuhuh,” the necromancer Pingo uttered a creepy laugh. “The moment they attacked you, it stopped being worth talking about... Uheheh...”

  Beside Pingo, the golem emitted a low groan of agreement.

  “I agree.” Lilia’s voice was incredibly cold. “If you’re trying to press onward with a level of skill that lets the three demi-humans look down on you, I’m sure you must not want to live very much.”

  The much-too-beautiful elf’s look of contempt, paired with her cutting tone of voice, really hit home.

  At this point, honestly, all I can say is that I’m sorry, Haruhiro thought. Or rather, if I could, I wish I could just fade away without saying anything.

  “They’re right,” Soma nodded. “You have to value your lives.”

  “...Right,” Haruhiro said. “Sorry. We won’t do it again...”

  “That’s not good, either.”

  “...Huh?”

  “If all you do with them is hold them dear, your lives have no value,” said Soma. “Life is something that’s meant to be used.”

  “Life is meant to be used,” Haruhiro repeated slowly.

  “You yourselves decide how yours are to be used,” Soma continued. “That’s what it means to live.”

  “Here he goes again,” Shima said with a bewitching smile. “Try not to take the things Soma says too seriously. He’s sure to forget them by tomorrow, then start saying something else entirely different.”