Invaders of the Rokujouma!? Volume 7.5

by Takehaya

  “Tch... Whatever.”

  After Alaia pointed that out, Dextro clicked his tongue and his smug grin slowly resurfaced.

  So he’s the type that gets emotional, but doesn’t totally lose control... He’ll be a tough opponent to deal with.

  Koutarou analyzed Dextro’s character from their argument. It was important to him to know his opponent before walking into a fight.

  “Let’s cut the greetings here. Come this way, Alaia.”

  “You will hand over the antidote, right?”

  “If you come with me.”

  “Then it looks like I don’t have a choice.”

  Alaia nodded at Dextro and turned back towards Koutarou and Clan.

  “I’ll be going now, Layous-sama,” she said as if nothing was wrong. “I’ll leave the rest to you.”

  “I’ll come get you right away.”

  “Thank you.”

  Alaia responded to Koutarou’s whisper with a smile, then turned towards Dextro again.

  “Have you said your farewells?”

  “I only ordered them to have my favorite kurka fruit ready for me when I return.”

  “You’re quite the woman. I like it!”

  Alaia began walking towards the laughing Dextro. It was hard to believe that she was desperately ill looking at her now. She was radiating power and nobility.

  “Alaia-sama...”

  “How sad...”

  The citizens seemed to feel much the same way. Sighs were coming from the crowd here and there, and most of the murmuring voices expressed concern for Alaia’s future.

  “I’ve come, Dextro.”

  Alaia quickly closed the dozen or so meters between her and Dextro.

  “Good.”

  Dextro grabbed her arm and held on with a strong grip so that Alaia couldn’t shake him off.

  Ugh...

  Although they were both knights, his touch was almost unbearable compared to Koutarou’s.

  “Now, Dextro, give them the antidote you promised.”

  She was screaming on the inside, but Alaia spoke in a dignified manner. Even now she refused to break down.

  Even though it may cost me my life...!

  What kept her strong was the talk she’d had with Koutarou the previous night.

  “You’ve captured me now, so there’s no need to make anyone else suffer, is there?”

  “That’s true. All right, men!”

  What’s going on?

  Koutarou sensed something ominous from Dextro’s smile. He felt like he was staring into something terribly dark.

  “Kill Alaia’s followers! Charl too! And if anyone else gets in your way, kill them too!”

  “What?!”

  Alaia’s expression finally betrayed her emotions. Seeing that, Dextro’s lips twisted into a dark, eerie grin that sent chills down Alaia’s spine.

  “That’s right, Alaia! That’s exactly the face I wanted to see you make!”

  “Wait, Dextro! What happened to handing over the antidote?!”

  “What antidote?”

  “No... You don’t mean...!”

  Panic, fear, and despair made their mark on Alaia’s face. She knew what Dextro was going to say.

  “It doesn’t exist. It never did. But if I had just said that, you wouldn’t have shown me that face of yours, now would you?”

  “I...”

  Alaia was at a loss for words. Instead, it was Koutarou that spoke up.

  “You spread something that you have no way of treating?!”

  “What are you talking about? All you had to do was not drink any of the polluted water.”

  Dextro seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

  “How could you...”

  Alaia, who had behaved courageously up until now, rapidly began losing strength. Her knees gave out. She had been so determined not to cry, but tears now streamed down her cheeks.

  Charl will... Flair, Fauna, Lidith... The villagers... Everyone will die...!

  Alaia was about to lose everything she wanted to protect. What she had sworn to protect. Everything she had done would all be for naught. Despair wasn’t powerful enough of a word to describe how she felt. It was like her entire world had been snatched away from her. Weak, she had nothing left to support her and she slumped to the ground.

  “Why... Why would you do something so horrible? Why, Maxfern...?”

  Alaia lowered her head and shed bitter tears. They trickled down her cheeks to her chin, then tumbled down to the dry ground below where they were absorbed into the earth. As she saw even her tears disappear, Alaia felt even more helpless. She was overwhelmed by the feeling that everything was useless.

  “Heh, that’s simple. It was to capture you. And it also serves as an example. With a display like this, any idiot will learn what awaits them if they resist. Although since it’s a chance to get promoted, I don’t want it to stop with just one village.”

  Dextro was callous. His impudent words and merciless ridicule butchered Alaia’s heart into pieces.

  “Of course, since there’s only one of you, I might need to crush a lot more villages for my next promotion. Ahahaha, muahahaha!”

  “Hic... Hn... Hnngh... Waaaaaaaaah!”

  Crouched down on the spot, Alaia finally began sobbing. All hope was lost and there was nothing that could be done. Not even the legendary princess could do anything but cry.

  “There’s no antidote?!”

  “Then what?! We’re all going to die?!”

  “I don’t want to die! Why do we all have to die?!”

  “At least save the children, I beg you!”

  As if responding to Alaia’s cries, panic spread through the gathered crowd. And as soldiers approached to cut down Alaia’s party, the panic escalated and the main street fell into chaos.

  “Ahahahaha! Muahahaha! Kill, kill, kill!”

  Dextro’s loud, laughing voice filled the street as all 35 of his men marched on the town in an orderly fashion. They were planning on going through each home to find Alaia’s party. At this rate, Alaia’s friends, still weakened by the virus, would be hunted down and slaughtered. Some of the panicking villagers would be mercilessly cut down in the process. And those who were lucky enough to survive the raid would still eventually die from the virus. It seemed no one could escape the fate that would befall this village now. Corpses would line the streets by morning.

  “Clan, don’t stop me this time.”

  “I won’t stop you, Veltlion. I will only give you orders.”

  However, there were still those who were willing to fight. A knight in blue armor, and a girl with glasses. They were vastly outnumbered by Dextro’s troops, but neither one seemed intimidated. They both bravely stood in the soldiers’ way.

  “Layous Fatra Veltlion.”

  “Yes.”

  “In this urgent situation without an empress, I, Princess Clariossa, will act in her place.”

  With a metallic ringing sound, Koutarou unsheathed his golden sword. He traced a graceful arc in the air with the tip of the blade and then pointed it at the approaching men. Drawn by the ringing sound, everyone turned towards the knight brandishing his sword.

  “This is a royal command. As a knight of Forthorthe, do what you must!”

  “As you wish, my princess! I will do so wholeheartedly!”

  This was the first time the legendary hero Layous Fatra Veltlion appeared to the people of Forthorthe.

  “Curse you, you contemptible dastards, poisoning a river to capture a single woman! That is unforgivable! I’ll have your blood stain my sword!”

  Koutarou channeled his anger into his sword and used it to put pressure on the 36 enemies in front of him. The words he chose mirrored the Blue Knight’s lines in the play, but Koutarou no longer cared about that. He was too angry.

  I will save you right away, Princess Alaia!

  Koutarou directed his rage at Dextro, the one responsible for spreading disease to capture Alaia, and at Maxfern, the one who had given him tha
t order. But the greatest horror of all was learning that it had no cure. It had already started to take the lives of the elderly, and at this rate, many more people would die. That included Alaia and young Charl. There was no forgiveness in Koutarou’s heart for the men who’d committed such a terrible deed.

  Meanwhile, Alaia was currently captured by Dextro, and Koutarou couldn’t tolerate that either. Imagining Alaia’s feelings as she so bravely walked over to Dextro of her own free will and how she must have felt when Dextro took sick pleasure in trampling those feelings, Koutarou couldn’t stand it. He wouldn’t wait another moment to save her.

  “Stupid! What can you do on your own? Oh right, I suppose even dogs can bark! Hahaha!”

  Dextro sneered at Koutarou. He didn’t think Koutarou stood a chance against so many men on his own.

  “That’s where you’re wrong. Unfortunately for you, I’m not alone!”

  With a hint of a smile on his lips, Koutarou dashed forward. He was planning on tangling with the 36 men in front of him.

  That’s right! I have the strength they’ve given me!

  The first thing Koutarou did after breaking into run was unleash the power in his armor.

  “Activate battle mode!”

  “As you wish, my lord.”

  Obeying Koutarou’s order, the armor paused all nonessential operations and focused its resources into combat functions.

  “Select your weapon.”

  “Go with one I always use!”

  “Understood. Activating sonic impact barrier.”

  The sword in Koutarou’s hands began quietly growling. With a direct hit, the barrier surrounding the sword would knock out the enemy without killing them. It had quickly grown to be Koutarou’s favored method of attack.

  “Information: The enemy force consists of 36 people. Breakdown: One heavy infantry unit, twenty regular infantrymen, ten archers, and five unknown units.”

  “The unknown five are magicians. You can assume that they’ll be in charge of bombardment and diversion!”

  “Understood. Reassigning target tags. Defining the five unknown units as magicians.”

  Clan assisted Koutarou through his armor. Using her bracelet, she adjusted the armor’s settings and then pulled out her own weapon through a black hole in the air.

  “Don’t kill them, Clan!”

  “I know!”

  Clan now had in her hands an oddly blocky gun. In modern Forthorthe, it was commonly known as a stun rifle. Since its bullets unleashed high-voltage shocks, it was a convenient weapon capable of knocking out its targets instantly.

  The reason Koutarou and Clan didn’t carelessly kill their enemies was partly because they knew if they accidentally killed people important in the war, history would change. But most of all, they simply didn’t want to kill citizens of Forthorthe. That was also Alaia’s wish. And in Koutarou’s case, he believed that Theia would have wanted the same thing.

  “Fire! Turn them into pin cushions!”

  Dextro, on the other hand, was quite intent on killing Koutarou and Clan. Instead of keeping quiet and just watching as Koutarou rushed up to him, he ordered his archers to attack. Obeying Dextro’s command, the archers surrounding him drew their large bows and fired their arrows at Koutarou all at once.

  “I’ll leave the arrows to you.”

  “Understood. Deploying barrier.”

  As ten arrows sailed at Koutarou, translucent white hexagonal tiles appeared around him. Each arrow smashed into a tile and bounced off.

  “Clan, you deal with the guys with bows! We don’t want any stray arrows!”

  “Got it!”

  Clan agreed to Koutarou’s plan and readied her rifle. The rifle, linked to her bracelet, began automatically taking aim at the archers. Since she and Koutarou were being protected by barriers, they didn’t really need to worry about the arrows, but they wanted to prevent any stray ones from flying into the crowd.

  “The arrows have no effect?! Then, magicians— Damn, he’s fast!”

  The archers had proved ineffective, so Dextro wanted the magicians to attack Koutarou with their magic. But with the armor in battle mode, Koutarou was moving faster than anyone expected and was quickly closing in on the infantrymen. He was on top of them so fast that Dextro lost his chance to attack Koutarou with powerful magic. If he had the magicians attack now, his soldiers would get hit as well.

  “It’s only one guy! Surround him!”

  With no other option, Dextro gave the word for his infantry to attack. On Dextro’s orders, the twenty infantrymen spread out to the sides to surround Koutarou. The spearmen equipped with shields pushed towards him.

  How did Sanae do that thing back then...?

  Koutarou focused on his own body and tried to recall the sensation he had when Sanae was clinging to his back. As he did, Koutarou could feel his spirit, fueled by his rage, flowing through his body.

  “Like this!”

  In that moment, Koutarou’s view completely changed. A faint white light overlapped with each of the twenty infantrymen. Their intentions to attack manifested as various forms of that light, telling Koutarou exactly where they would attack and when. This was spirit sight, the power to read people and predict attacks that Sanae had used when they fought together before.

  “And...!”

  Koutarou’s movements suddenly got sharper. So much, in fact, that the armor had to quickly adjust its settings to keep up. Now even more nimble than before, Koutarou swiftly dodged all of the spears being thrust at him. That too was the effect of a psychic power Sanae had used to enhance his body. His movements were precise, and not a single one was without purpose. Between his speed and his spirit sight, Koutarou dodged attack after attack with ease, like a leaf dancing in the wind.

  Koutarou was able to use these powers thanks to the spiritual energy circuits that Sanae had created when using her powers. While Koutarou had nowhere near the amount of spiritual energy Sanae did and couldn’t use the powers as effectively as she could, it was more than enough to deal with twenty normal human enemies.

  “Hey, can you protect Princess Alaia with your barrier?”

  “It is possible, though it will be weaker because of the distance. Warning: You will be defenseless.”

  “Do I look like I need a barrier right now?!”

  Koutarou exhaled sharply and swung his sword around. The sound of several explosions rang out, and Koutarou sent five spearmen flying.

  “As you wish, my lord.”

  “You’re awfully cooperative today!”

  However, there were still five spearmen left and their spears were all coming for Koutarou at once. He was able to dodge three of them, but not the remaining two.

  “Warning: Please use the barrier to defend yourself.”

  “I said I don’t need it!”

  Koutarou knocked away the remaining two spears, one using Theia’s sword in his right hand and the other using Kiriha’s gauntlet on his left hand.

  “Uwaaaaah!”

  The man holding the spear Koutarou had knocked away with Kiriha’s gauntlet shrieked and fainted. The current in the gauntlet had flowed through the spear directly into him.

  “...Just who is this guy?”

  Seeing Koutarou swiftly take out six of his men, the cocky Dextro started to look a little nervous.

  “Hey, you guys go too!”

  “B-But...! Uwaaaaah!”

  Now that he sensed danger, Dextro ordered the archers forward as well. To his surprise, however, three of the archers had already been defeated.

  “Damn, it’s that woman!”

  Dextro had only seen Clan as a powerless servant of Koutarou’s. He wasn’t paying any attention to her, so he hadn’t seen her draw a weapon. She’d taken advantage of that and sniped three of his men. Together with the six that Koutarou had defeated, that made the total nine men down. Dextro’s forces had already been reduced by one quarter.

  “That’s impossible! There’s only two of them!”

 
; Dextro began panicking. He hadn’t even entertained the thought of losing, but now the possibility crept up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder. Refusing to accept that, Dextro shouted more orders to his remaining men.

  “You guys go kill that woman! Don’t let her do as she pleases anymore!”

  “Yes, sir!”

  Finally realizing the unrest among Dextro’s troops, Alaia looked up from where she was huddled on the ground.

  Layous-sama...?

  Through the tears in her eyes, she could see Koutarou slowly advancing towards her.

  Layous-sama is fighting... He’s protecting everyone...

  There was no medicine, but Koutarou was fighting to protect the villagers and Alaia’s party.

  And he’s fighting for my sake...

  He was fighting to honor his promise with Alaia. Seeing Koutarou now, a certain question entered her mind.

  So... what am I doing?

  She asked herself why she was on her knees doing nothing. Wasn’t there something else she should be doing? Didn’t she also have a duty to fulfil? Even if not, shouldn’t she at least get up and make it easier for Koutarou to save her? Those were the questions that ran through her mind one after another as she watched Koutarou approach.

  He’s still fighting!

  A strong will returned to her eyes, but she didn’t stand up right away. She was planning on letting Dextro, who was still holding on to her arm, think she was crying for a while longer while she waited for her chance.

  “In that case... Hey, magicians, stop him from moving with your magic!”

  Dextro ordered the magicians to attack Koutarou.

  “But we’ll hit our allies too!”

  “If you don’t, we’ll all be in trouble! Quit your yapping and do it!”

  “U-Understood!”

  Despite knowing that his men would get caught in the spells as well, Dextro ordered the magicians to attack. Koutarou had already defeated another three men, making for a total of twelve. Dextro now considered Koutarou a serious threat, and he needed a surefire way of hitting him even if it involved turning friendly fire on his men.

  “Heh, no matter how strong he is, he’ll have no way of escaping this...”

  Oh no!

  Alaia quickly stood up to warn Koutarou.