Vol 2 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Episode 4: What my father left… (父が残したもの)

「This is pretty bad…」

Kuu and I were hiding among the many trees, separated from the Firefox village we watched its state from afar. The village was in a state of desolation.

There is no resemblance of buildings, just burned ash and small blown away pieces.

No… the building’s stone and grit have melted into hard lumps that gave off light.

For that to happen to the village…

Empire tents are sporadically setup here and there with soldiers coming and going.

Elves have good eyesight, but honestly the range is too far to see. But with the binoculars I made while I was in my dwarf form, Kuiro, I could clearly see it.

Since we are separated from the village by a fair distance we won’t be noticed.

If you want to ma.s.s produce binoculars you do need to make super high precision lens. The craftsmans.h.i.+p as well as the lens arrangement requires a level of skill that is difficult to obtain.

「Kuu, is the Firefox village really here?」

I ask Kuu just to be sure.

Because I am finding it difficult to believe that the rubble that I am looking at is the village.

I had the wrong impression of this just being a empire soldiers night encampment.

「……. There is no mistake, this is the village I grew up and lived in with everyone for 14 years.」

Kuu murmured it with a ghastly pale face.

I was antic.i.p.ating this, but regardless I still felt sick to my stomach .

If I was feeling like this, it must be like a nightmare for Kuu.

「I see, why did you want to ask how it became like this? If you saw the situation you would have expected this to happen.」

「I tried, and I just couldn’t understand it, but Cyril-sama would know from seeing, right?」

「These sort of things I am use to after all…」

In my past lives I had many memories of war. I had enough to fill the sky if each memory of battle was a star.

Of course, within those memories were those of being defeated and searching deeper, suddenly were those of genocidal warfare that was carried out.

「Are you ok with me telling you what I see?」

Kuu turned pure white and clenched her fists.

To entreat Kuu, I frankly start to tell her what happened based on my conjecture.

「The men who stayed behind in the village, I think they couldn’t win on equal ground.」

With countless arrows raining upon them from afar and their flames being blown away by wind, even with a place with an open view they couldn’t win.

If they were to fight in the forest, it might cause a forest fire.

「So, they decided to fight in the village. There is countless places to duck and cover from arrows. Also with it being close quarters even wind wouldn’t be able to scatter the flames in time.」

Usually, invading a village would be considered a loss.

But, everyone made that choice so that they would be able to retaliate.

With the soldiers efforts aimed at obtaining the Firefox’s magic stones, they had to enter the village. Of course doing so raised the opportunity of them encountering surprise attacks.

「At the beginning, the Firefoxes used Guerilla-tactics. Hiding behind buildings and behind cover sometimes burning down houses. However, there is a limit to that. The differences in number the soldiers while some of their comrades were getting torched from the front, they would come and cut you from behind.」

Now that I think about it, there is a a lot of places for cover. But the downside is that the possibility of being attacked from all sides also rises with the the surroundings being flammable buildings. That kind of environment would become shackles when they caught fire.

Even if you could endure the flames, the smoke that gets produced would cause the surroundings to lose oxygen. Even Firefoxes can’t survive suffocation.

「Even in blind alleys, with soldiers rapidly entering the village and the situation getting even more dire…. This was what the Firefoxes were aiming for.」

With more and more of the Firefox’s resistance wavering, the empire would let their guard down and start to be more daring and invest more of their forces.

The village was completely inundated with empire soldiers, this was the Firefox’s trap that was unknown to the empire.

「When the village was filled to the brim with soldiers, they activated their final trap. With magic stones gather from their fallen friends, and using their own magic stones they triggered it to go out of control, producing a large-scale explosive flame.  Dozens of Firefoxes took part to activate it… Destroying the village as well as all the soldiers who were in the midst of it.」

Elves and Firefoxes from the start each have their attribute affinities. Races that have over 90 when they have their hearts taken out while they are alive, turns into magic stones.

Magic stones have two uses. As a catalyst it can raise the attribute affinity, and when smashed and allowed to run wild it can allow unbelievable magic power to be used.

If you think about it, a person can use the magic stone within them if they take their own heart out.

Races with strong magical power also have stronger a life force. Even after having their hearts taken out they can live for dozens of seconds. While they are still alive, if they pour in magic power into their hearts that were changed into magic stones, and allow it to destabilize…

To do such an unthinkable thing, would have required extraordinary willpower and spirit…

Such valiant acts were not just carried out by a few, but dozens of Firefoxes.

To use magic that caused destruction that left the ground melted and turned the village buildings into ash.

I pay my respects to the Firefox men who accomplished their mission. Even though I knew it was necessary for them to have done it, to actually go through with it must have been horrifying for them… I am sure they must have also wanted to escape with everyone else. But for their friends and family who were trying to escape, they gathered what courage they could and executed their task gallantly. It was a show of valor and sacrifice that left an impression on me that I could not forget…

For their efforts, only a few dozen empire soldiers remained. The Firefoxes should have won, but their facial expressions were still sunken heavily.

「what is this, that.」

After listening to me finish the story, Kuu’s eyes were soaked with tears. What was there was just a girl sitting on sunken on the ground.

She strikes the ground with both hands.

「My father said it while fighting until the end, even allowing people to escape, and doing their

best to drive the empire soldiers away, you will recall it someday he said, regain our livelihood up to now.」

「….. that, will happen.」

「My father was a liar! To want to do such a thing, from the beginning wasn’t he just wanting to die?! Dad and the others, I knew they were going to die. Why up until now did they!? Even though we could have escaped together it would have been ok. If that happened we would have been together with one another, laughing. But their lives and memories, no matter what to go to the extent of blowing away the village! How could he do such a thing?!」

Even if Kuu’s mind was made up. Somewhere deep down, the men who were left behind in the village must have also wanted to live.

The situation was just completely destroyed and messed up beyond recognition.

「My father was a fool, talking about the Firefox’s Pride… To fuss over cheap pride and to get everyone caught up on it. Even to kill themselves to buy us enough time. They only had to go far enough for our escape to be nearly done and it would have been ok! Then we would have been reunited with everyone and n.o.body else would have had die, they wouldn’t have had to die a meaningless death!」

「Kuu, Don’t you dare say such things!!」

I hit Kuu on the cheek.

Of course I went easy on her. The sound was loud and was just for show, so there shouldn’t have been any pain.

It made a good snapping sound, Kuu’s white cheek is dyed red.

I couldn’t forgive Kuu saying it was meaningless. To not understand why they fought and for whom those people had traded their lives away…

「Kuu if you’re saying that as just an angry little girl then such things are understandable. But, you’re more than that now! You’re the Firefox family head right? You came and accepted training, use your head and think! Don’t just decide on your own that all this was just for cheap pride. To disgrace and speak ill of the dead and worse to not understand the degree of what they felt, that is what would make their sacrifice truly meaningless!!」

「Cy, ri,l-Kun?」

Kuu is wide-eyed, the heat still coming off her cheek from where I had struck her.

I couldn’t believe I hit her.

「Kuu, for the women who are not used to traveling, do you really think they could outrun the empire forces? Much less for you to say that when all the firefox men were cornered and rounded up.」

「…… I did not think.」

「What do you think, Kuu? If the buildings were still standing and the empire soldiers captured the village and made it into a base of operations. It would make it more efficient to more easily chase down the escaping Firefoxes, right?」

「…. I also have the same opinion.」

The disastrous state of the village is not enough to change the situation that the empire is using it as a night encampment. But regardless, the village can’t really be utilized by the empire though.

「What is the empire’s purpose?」

「To obtain magic stones.」

「Yes, but in this exchange those guys did not obtain even one magic stone, your father and the other parents went up against the empire soldiers, but when the Firefoxes were cornered though, the soldiers conduct shows without mistake that they were still hesitating right?」

The empire’s objective was to subjugate the Firefox village not to exterminate it.

But, just wanting the fire magic stone only.

Even so, the Firefox race when cornered were understood to become suicide bombers.

Even if you attacked them, if you were not able to obtain the magic stones it would obviously be unprofitable.

Looking at the battle’s outcome it was the empire’s victory. But with the large amount of funds used on this expedition, the majority of the soldiers that were lost, and not obtaining anything. Looking at it from a total standpoint, the Firefoxes won against the empire.

「Your father, fought to reduce the number of the soldiers and to crush a future base that would serve as a platform for future raids. They gathered their courage fighting the fear of death for their friends who were escaping, no matter how you look at it, it had to be a painful decision. Don’t you get it?! If you had just thought about it just a little you would have understood rather than turn your eyes away from it, don’t just a.s.sume and step over their sacrifice.」

Kuu raises her face, and glares at me with a little hostility.

「My father didn’t tell me anything! For such a thing… I only watched my village burn, how could I have understood that?! My hometown is gone, it’s all nothing but ash and sadness, I… I… can’t even think straight…」

Kuu exposed her weakness. She was an adult in age but she suddenly became a little child.

「And anyway, I know what my father did was what he needed to do. I know that! Even so, even, I…… Everyone wanted to be together. I wanted to escape. Someday, I thought we would meet again, is that so bad..?!」

Her tears overflowing.

Kuu’s words were extreme. But everyone in the village, they all would have wanted to continue living happily, I mean who wouldn’t?

They shouldn’t have wanted to die. To be separated in such a way had to be excruciating.

Even so that is unforgivable.

「That is bad Kuu, right now you are in charge of fifty lives and must think calmly and a.n.a.lyze the situation! For you to act like a spoiled brat, your father and the other parents thought that with no Firefoxes left to be caught and also being made into Empire toys, they suppressed their emotions to the extreme, and because of that you and the others are still here.」

「I… I can’t find a clear solution just like that…. Cyril-kun are you able to do it?」

From earlier, she changed from calling me Cyril-sama to Cyril-kun.

Being stricken with grief and to smooth over things I will allow it.

Kuu’s question is very simple.

So I will answer it without hesitation…

「I can. That is why I was made Elucie’s chief. And also the one who is recognized as the Foxfire head is you Kuu.」

「I…. about me….」

Kuu looks at me with humble requesting eyes.

She wants to push it on my back…

「Kuu, I have already decided to help you if I can. But do what you can yourself and don’t rely on me. Of course, if you are that lost you can quit and throw away the family head t.i.tle. Are you okay with just being one of the normal Firefoxes?」

「but, If I am not there, everyone….」

「I will take take care of everyone…」

This is the last resort.

「It would be difficult for the Firefoxes to be recognized as equals, when it’s just as easy for them to be discriminated as just tools for elves. Such a thing happening can’t be helped, I mean when you think about it that is all they would become. Without a representative, their nothing but refugees and they will be treated as such.」

Without thinking of anything and while waiting for them to open their mouth, this is also an effective strategy. [No Idea]

「Well you don’t have to think about the other Firefoxes, as long as they do all the instructions given to them from A to Z. I will also use you well in the battle against the empire giving you the minimum amount of compensation for it. Also I wonder how we should keep the Firefox’s bloodline going? Respecting Firefoxes is just troublesome when thinking of methods to best serve elves. We’ll just use a brothel and we just stop all this talk about minimum compensation. In exchange for embracing elf customers how does giving food for that sound? We’ll let them have s.e.x with you guys and you can eat until you’re full. And the ones who do not we can feed them enough so you guys don’t die. It would just be a line of Elves and Firefoxes since there would be a lot of beauties to pick from. Since Elve’s hold the idea of purity and chast.i.ty highly, there is undoubtedly going to be a lot of requests for cheap s.e.x with women who are there. I would also take part in that as well. Also, so that you don’t bother the elves, you all will cooperate with each other to raise the children that result from the pregnancies. If you get pregnant you won’t do much work and your meals would increase Kuu. I mean you also think there needs to be more people, so you should give birth to children one after another. With that the Firefoxes would be secure wouldn’t they.」[Really Long]

「isn’t that just being slaves to the elves?!」

Kuu yells at me in anger.

It certainly is treatment as slaves, and not treatment as a citizen of Elucie.

「I would say abandon that way of thinking. If you don’t like it what are you going to do about it? You have to think about what you need to do to protect yourselves! I am Elucie’s chief, Get rid of your doubts and show me your determination! It doesn’t have to be the plan I just said. Elucie can accept you on merits, that’s the way to have an equal position. And anyway, Kuu, you don’t have to think of this alone. It’s ok to ask for everyone’s opinion. But most importantly, if you do your best I can also lend a hand.」

「Cyril-kun, why.. why did you say such cruel words?」

「It’s not cruel, what I said was just common sense. Anyway, I believe it’s not something Kuu can’t do, so I will ask you one more time. Are you going to resign yourself here?」

Kuu rubs away her tears and then directed her reddened eyes toward me.

「I am the Firefox family head. I will protect everyone.」

「Is that so, if that’s the case do not forget everything that has happened now, and above all move with the pride and respect of a Firefox!」

「……. Cyril-kun… is like father.」

Kuu still hasn’t regained her footing, I gaze back at her with slightly softened eyes.

That Kuu with a slightly pouting tone opened her mouth.

「Stubborn, obstinate, strict, high-handed.」

When she put it that way it kinda stung.

I completely preached some various big-headed things.

「but, it was honest, prudent, and understanding. The root points a good-natured person, all those points are the same as such a person.」

「Well, I am the Chief, aren’t I? another way of saying it is I am everyone’s dad.」