(What did I do wrong?)
He thought of the possible reason.
Nina had been acting strange since yesterday's celebration party. Putting Felli aside, who was absent, both Sharnid and Harley greeted him. Nina was the only one who didn't look like she wanted to talk to him. All she said was "Thanks" and then she had gone to sit by herself.
She must be angry at his hiding of his true strength.
This had to be the only reason. Even he could understand her unease. Someone with a lukewarm attitude actually exceeded her in her best area. It was like he was mocking her hard-won accomplishments.
"Excuse me......" he called to her. Her brushing movement stopped.
"What?" she said without looking at him.
"Are you angry?" he blurted out.
(I'm an idiot!)
He could have said something better.
"......No."
He thought she'd roar at him, but all she did was deny in a low voice.
"There's no reason to be mad, but......" she sighed, lowered her shoulders and turned around.
Her gaze didn't directly touch his.
"I regret letting you enter the platoon."
"Huh?"
"I was deceived by the Student President. I was satisfied to have you since the platoon match was close and we still lacked members. You took my Kei directly, so I thought if you trained well, you could become an attacker in the platoon. Even if we lost the match, you could become stronger somehow, before the real Military Arts Competition."
"But your real strength is way beyond my calculations."
"No......"
"Was the Student President lying when he said you were a receiver of a Heaven's Blade?"
Looking embarrassed suddenly, Nina moved her gaze further away from him.
"Did he tell you?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"He told me what he knew, and all I can do is pray it's not true."
Her eyes, questioning him and wishing for something, made him release the breath he was holding. He felt debilitated, as if a certain tension was suddenly cut away, the weight of his body disappearing into thin air......the emotion of despair.
(It's all over......)
Just what had ended? What he had left behind in Grendan had returned to him. What he had been running away from had finally caught up with him.
"Tell me it's all a lie," she pleaded.
But she didn't think the Student President had lied to her.
Wolfstein......from the moment he learned of the twelve Heaven's Blade Receivers.
Everyone had been scolding him, saying it was wrong, yet nobody had taken care to explain just how wrong it was. All they did was scold him.
His stiff expression relaxed.
Yes, his old self had returned.
Nina's face turned frosty. She must have obtained her confirmation from his look.
"Was it true?"
"Yes," he nodded.
"I participated in underground matches in Grendan, tainting the reputation of the Heaven's Blade and was exiled."
He watched with indifference as the muscles on her face twitched.
"Why?"
"To earn money."
He trained in Military Arts for that purpose and won again and again.
But the prize money from normal matches was too little.
As a result of unbroken victories, he had become a receiver of a Heaven's Blade to serve under the Queen of Grendan, Alsheyra. But his salary was still too small and the special scholarship he obtained was still too little.
"I needed a lot of money for the many children in the orphanage."
The money he had was enough for himself or just a normal family.
But there were too many orphans. The money he earned wasn't enough to provide for their education and living. His Master wasn't the only one managing an orphanage. Layfon needed money to give to his comrades, for all the numerous orphans in Grendan......and what he was earning wasn't enough.
He could have just earned enough for the orphanage he lived in, but he felt he needed to provide for all the orphanages. He didn't know why either. Perhaps, all the orphans were his comrades.
So he wasn't earning enough.
"And at that time, I found out about the underground matches."
Nina's expression swayed.
She probably thought what he did had tainted the Military Arts. Many people thought of Military Arts as a sacred art to defend a city from outside enemies. This viewpoint was especially strong in those who lived as professional Military Artists.
The sacred art must not be tainted by human desires.
But in reverse, because it was sacred, people wanted to taint it. The students gambling secretly on the platoon matches are immersed in the festival-like atmosphere committing their illegal act.
But compared to the students, there were people who wanted to do such things with clear-cut intent. Perhaps they weren't satisfied with the normal matches that began and ended ceremoniously in the spirit of sports. What they lusted after were the mad and bloody fights.
And for this reason, the underground matches offered huge prize money.
Layfon had found out about it. He contacted the people who organized such matches. Using the threat that came from the authority of a Heaven's Blade Receiver, he suggested that they could advertise his unbelievably strong power. It was easy to tell who would have won in a normal match, but it was another matter to watch a Heaven's Blade Receiver fight without holding back.
He used his Kei as if he was in a show, and through that, obtained money from the audience.
"But I couldn't keep that up for long."
It was difficult to shut people's mouths. The rumor of his deeds spread widely in Grendan and eventually reached Queen Alsheyra's ear.
"And so I was exiled."
"Of course," Nina said, as if to let out all the anger and irritation inside her.
Nina's outrage was the same as the people's at Grendan, including Layfon's Master, the other Heaven's Blade Receivers and even his comrades – the orphans.
Even so, he still didn't understand.
"Why are you so certain?"
"What? You......"
"Kei is an important treasure for humanity, striving to survive in this world. Because of it, the orphans and I didn't have to worry about food. Why must people make using it a crime?"
He truly couldn't comprehend.
"The Queen exiled me because a certain Military Artist was threatening me."
"Threatening......?"
She probably didn't know about this.
"That person wanted to participate in a Heaven's Blade match. He showed me proof of my fights in the underground matches and threatened to spread it around unless I lost to him purposefully and let him have the Heaven's Blade."
There were twelve Heaven's Blade Receivers. The only way to get that title was to either defeat a Receiver in a Heaven's Blade match or win the numerous matches after the death of a Receiver.
The blackmailer had another way than Military Arts to win a match, and he used it to threaten Layfon. But Layfon didn't accept the deal. He couldn't abandon his title as it was his key to the underground matches, to fight as a Heaven's Blade Receiver.
So he tried to kill the other person. His secret would be safe if this person died.
He planned to win with one strike. He had that confidence. Once his opponent got careless, Layfon would deal a fatal strike and finish him off.
But, he failed.
His one strike only managed to sever his opponent's arm, and the match ended as his opponent was unable to keep fighting.
And then the news of Layfon's deed in the underground matches spread.
"I don't find him despicable," he said to the speechless Nina.
"He was only doing everything he could to obtain what he desired. But he got careless in the end. That's all there was to it."
To Layfon, the way he finished his opponent was naive. One must fight desp
erately to survive, but the level of desperation he showed in his method was meaningless. At that time, there were still things driving him to act that way solely for the purpose of survival. And as such, he wasn't angry with the Student President. Karian's attitude of manipulating things and people to ensure Zuellni's survival was the same as Layfon's.
But Karian's concern on what Layfon had abandoned made him revisit the feeling he had in Grendan all over again.
"And that is who I am. Do you find me despicable?"
Everyone in Grendan reproved him for being base.
Was Nina the same? He waited for her reaction with a neutral expression.
He felt pain as of his heart being torn apart. The pain was an illusion, but he had no way of shaking it off, so he could only suffer it.
Why was he feeling this kind of pain?
No. He had already experienced it before – the punishment that Queen Alsheyra had passed down to him. All the Heaven's Blade Receivers served her, so Layfon could only surrender to her judgment.
All the Heaven's Blade Receivers, officials and his Master watched him as his punishment was dealt out. Their gazes were cold and icy.
The pain jolted him back to reality.
"You......are despicable," she said.
And then the ground shook violently.
Chapter 6
On the Polluted Earth
"It" had been living inside the earth for a long time. Without moving, only ingesting pollutants from within the soiled earth, for a long time.
Maybe "It" didn't even have a sense of time; living beneath the surface without ever feeling discomfort, moving slightly between sleeping and waking to eat soil. Time was wasted away in slumber.
However, the time to awaken was approaching. Since "It" was already a Mature Form, it could survive by consuming pollutants. But it's offspring were different. Since the larvae were intolerant of pollution, they couldn't digest it.
That's why they needed unpolluted nutrition.
In order to thrive, it could no longer sleep.
With the cracking of the earth, the signal to awaken rang.
The sound of grinding pipes echoed all over the place. The violent shaking of the floor caused Nina to lose her balance, but Layfon caught her by the arm.
For a moment, there was a sparkle on her face. Feeling that he just did something which shouldn't be done, Layfon thought of letting go of her arm. However after reconsidering it instantly, he slowly stooped.
"What...is this...?"
To overcome the sound of metallic screeching all over the place, Nina raised her voice. Otherwise, her voice wouldn't be heard by Layfon, who was standing next to her.
"It's a city-quake."
Layfon also raised his voice.
"This is...... a city-quake?"
Looks like this is the first time Nina has experienced such a thing. Layfon thought, as she looked at her surrounding with a confused face.
"At first it was shaking up and down; maybe the city took a misstep into a ravine......"
Layfon carefully checked the pattern of the shaking. At first it was shaking vertically, and then it was shaking diagonally. The bucket and brushes that were near their feet were now sliding freely along the floor.
If it took a bad step, maybe it's sliding into some kind of hole? If so, then this was the worst possible situation. A city which cannot move is perfect prey for filth monsters.
Nina, who was momentarily overwhelmed by the shaking, quickly recovered herself and shouted, "There should be an emergency call! We have to return, quickly!"
"But the floor is unstable! We can't move around yet!"
"Even so, we still have to go back!"
Nina shook off Layfon's hand and stood up, Kei running through her body. Using Internal-type Kei to enhance body movement, Nina ran between the gaps of the pipes, as if weaving them together like a needle.
"Ah, the hell with it!"
Also using Internal-type Kei, Layfon chased after Nina. Even faster then Nina, Layfon quickly moved forward, as if he was half-flying.
In front of him, Nina was running through a passageway suspended in mid-air.
"She's too reckless."
Although that was the shortest route to go to the surface, it was a risky action. At that moment, the passage was swinging left and right, as if it could collapse at any moment. As such, it wouldn't be strange if Nina, who was running with all her strength, suddenly got thrown out from the passage.
There wasn't time to use the stairs. Layfon leaped upwards, using the pipes around him as footholds. Beneath the corridor was the heart of the machinery, where the Electronic Fairy lived. While chasing after Nina, he caught Zuellni at the edge of his vision, an existence pulsating with dim light. In the form of a child, Zuellni was gazing at the deep earth with a terrified expression. She was curled up, as if she was too scared and was trying to hide somewhere narrow.
As if she was peeking at some terrifying existence and hoping it wouldn't surface......And Layfon got his confirmation.
"Oh, no!"
Muttering, he jumped off the last pipe to land on the corridor.
"Wait up!"
Just as Nina was about to run past him, he grabbed hold of her wrist again.
"Let go! There's no time to spare!"
"Yes! No time!" Layfon said, his anger matching hers.
Even the bold Nina paused, caught by his aura. She stared at him with wide eyes as he shouted.
"This is an emergency. We don't have time to laze around. If we don't escape......"
"What did you say?"
"Hurry up and head for a shelter. We need every single second we have."
"Just what are you talking about?" she questioned. Irritation and annoyance filled him at her reaction.
(How could she be used to such peace!?)
He just wanted to shout out in lamentation, but Nina still didn't know anything. If this was Grendan, anyone would have known what Layfon's expression was about. But this wasn't the case in Zuellni. Perhaps the other students here were the same. Just how many people knew the real situation? The more he thought of it, the more irritated he became.
"Layfon!?" Nina's angry voice called him back to reality.
He slowly let out his breath and tried to speak in a way that would affect every corner of Nina's body.
A simple and absolute message.
"The filth monsters are here."
The siren rang. Informed of the situation through the phone in his dormitory, Karian immediately left and went to the school building.
His destination wasn't the Student President's office. He entered a conference room in the middle floor of a tower that was surrounded by the Military Arts buildings. The few students in the room turned their gazes on him, including Vance.
"Situation?"
A thin, tall male student replied to Karian's short question. "One-third of Zuellni's legs are trapped in the ground, unable to escape." His pale skin looked green.
"Escape?"
"Yeah......It should be able to move on its own under normal circumstances, but now......Well, the legs are stuck."
Karian addressed Vance. "How's the evacuation going?"
"The City Police are evacuating the students, but it's too chaotic; they don't have the situation under control yet."
Vance shook his head with a scowl. Karian nodded to comfort him.
"That can't be helped. We don't have enough people here with real fighting experience. But I hope you can speed up the evacuation as much as possible."
Next he turned to the representative of the Alchemy course.
"Release the safety setting of all the Dites of Military Arts students, and please hurry and activate the city's defense system."
"We're already on it."
"Gather all the platoons. We must fight with them as the core."
Karian once again looked at Vance, who nodded but voiced a question with a stiff face. "Do you think we can do this?"
Everyone looked
at Karian.
The problem of an Academy City was that it lacked experienced fighters. Everyone in it was a student. There were no adults in any of the grades, from seniors down to freshmen. These factors caused the greatest pressure and doubt in its citizens.
Could they pass this crisis safely?
"Only a dead end awaits us if we don't do this. Not only will the Military Arts students die, but everyone in Zuellni," Karian concluded.
Everyone in the room was holding his breath. Once again, they understood the situation they were in. Under the shadow of death, no one wanted to say "Let's run away".
Even if they ran out of the city, they still couldn't survive on the polluted earth.
"We have to live no matter what. This is for everyone's - no, also for our own future. Please understand this fact and act accordingly."
Everyone nodded at Karian's icy resolution.
"......The filth monsters?" Nina said after pausing for half a second. She had taken some time to digest his meaning. This told Layfon how serious her lack of experience was in regards to the danger around them.
"How could that happen?! The city should be moving and avoiding the filth monsters. This can't be happening......"
"A city can only avoid the filth monsters on the earth, and even then there are limits. What Zuellni encountered this time is likely a mature mother-form sleeping beneath the ground." He told her his hypothesis.
The female filth monsters had eggs inside their bodies. The mother hibernated until the eggs mature into a larval stage. The young ones that just hatched could not absorb the pollutants, so the mother would provide them clean nutrients she had stored in her body during her hibernation. If this still wasn't enough food, the babies would devour each other. The mother would choose a few of the leftover ones and care for them till they fully matured.
And if even that wasn't enough, the mother would become food for her young.
The instinct of filth monsters to reproduce and care for the next generation was this strong.
"The mother won't become food if there isn't a need for it."
If there was close enough food source......
"What......"
Now Nina understood what Layfon was saying.
Chrome Shelled Regios Page 12