Vol 23 Chapter 2 (1/2)
Fire Up Spirits (The Dispute Arc, or the Helpless Day)
The deeper the black, the more beautiful the red became.
In the darkness produced by the obscured light, the princess endured the scent that made her nostrils itch. That scent was warm and exotic, and surrounded all the emotions concealed in the darkness.
She was the bearer of the sealed emotions.
Red surrounded by pitch-black.
All the emotions sealed inside...... were confusion, joy, as well as immorality...... She was the intense red that made one shudder deeply. She was also the one wholeheartedly waiting for the veil to be lifted.
Ahh, how much I look forward to those charmed by this scent, who tremble from the feeling, and then step into the midst of this darkness.
”Hey! It's really dark here, can I open the curtains?”
That voice reached her ears as she s.h.i.+vered from her fantasies in the darkness.
”Honestly, what are you doing? The feeling is perfect right now.”
”But it's so dark here I can't see myself.”
A new voice continued speaking.
”That's not a big deal, right?”
The Princess of Darkness was quite indignant. Her mood had been so good, but the voice of reality had ruined everything.
”It's too dark here. We can't see anything at all if you block the light so completely.”
”Uuu......”
”Tony's really scared, so if possible I'd like to open the curtains.”
”Why?”
”Because that guy's scared of the dark.”
”Honestly!”
If he was scared of the dark, there was no helping it. The Princess of Darkness stood up and walked to the window to open the curtains, in place of the other three who couldn't move because it was too dark.
Light shone into the room and drove away the darkness.
The Princess of Darkness...... Claribel unhappily turned around, black lace fluttering, and the figures of the three sitting on the sofa appeared in her eyes.
They were Teresa, Tony, and Cody, three people of the fourteenth platoon.
”Hey, why are the three of you not wearing those clothes?”
Claribel, wearing her Princess of Darkness outfit, crossed her arms, glaring at the outfits of the three of them.
School wasn't in session today, but the three of them wore their uniforms.
”Uh, because it's a holiday today......”
Cody answered on behalf of the three. His body was frail, but he was very tall, and if he stood up Claribel would have to look up to see him. Even though he was sitting on the sofa, he was taller than the other two by a head.
”Walking around all the time wearing that is a bit......”
Tony's face looked a bit pale, and cowardice showed on his fat cheeks.
”But we're holding photography sessions regularly.”
Teresa tried to alleviate the atmosphere with a weak smile, but Claribel's anger burned fiercer......
”Sorry to bother~ Oh, you're all here? Uh, Lon isn't here. Well, that guy's the same shut-in as always.”
The sound of the door opening rang out and the platoon captain s.h.i.+n entered the room. As expected, he wore his uniform, which finally made Claribel's anger explode.
”All of you, line up!”
At Claribel's order, the three on the sofa hastily stood up, and s.h.i.+n also joined their line. They had pulled Claribel into their platoon with such inspiring acting when they had competed for her, but now it looked like that atmosphere was completely gone.
That made her unhappy.
”You all have no spirit! Why don't you properly wear your outfits!”
”Uh, because......”
”Umm--”
”Yeah.”
The three stated their thoughts with odd expressions.
”Uh, it's because we'd have to go in front of the disciplinary committee if we got in trouble today. The student council is pretty serious about modifying the uniform.”
In an emergency, the student uniforms they wore served as personal identification, and also displayed their positions, so the school rules had strict provisions that modifying the uniform was disallowed.
”We can't do what we did with the fighting clothes.”
Wearing fighting clothes implied that one was a Military Artist, so there was just a bare-bones provision that said their functionality needed to be proved. That said, doing too much to them would draw attention, so actually only platoon members whose strengths were recognized would modify their fighting clothes.
”Can you change them just a bit?”
”Ah, we could put a logo on them.”
s.h.i.+n's answer made Claribel look up and sigh.
”Ahh, really! In that case, then we'll have to make do with our casual clothes...... Uh...... Come to think of it, what should we call this platoon?”
”The fourteenth platoon.”
”No, that's not what I'm asking, there should be a name more appropriate for our atmosphere, right?”
”We have to go that far?”
”We have to.”
”It's not good to go too far.”
”What's wrong with going too far, it's only good that way.”
”Um, then I'll think about it. On another note, what's today's meeting for?”
This was Claribel's room. At her command, all of the fourteenth platoon except for their Psychokinesist had arrived here.
”The main topic is another matter. We should first decide on a team name.”
”Hmm...... Teresa, what do you think?”
”Huh? Me? Uh......”
Teresa kept blinking at s.h.i.+n with a troubled expression.
”Well, you won't know what to say when you get asked that so suddenly. Ah, oh well. Tony and Cody, you think too, and talk about it with us if you think of something.”
”Ohh......”
”What is it?”
”You look frivolous on the outside, but you're not a bad captain.”
”Ahahahaha! I'm amazing, right!?”
Claribel thought s.h.i.+n would get mad, but didn't imagine he would stick out his chest instead. Maybe he was unexpectedly magnanimous.
”Well, let's put this matter to the side for now. It's not the main topic, right?”
”Yeah...... Ah, but the clothes--”
”Alright, alright.”
Claribel pouted as s.h.i.+n placated her. That wasn't the main topic. Though it wasn't the main topic, Claribel hoped to be able to cultivate that kind of atmosphere all the time. After all, that was the reason Claribel had chosen this platoon.
”In that case, I don't need to stay in this platoon in particular......”
”I understand. Our casual clothes should be in as much black as possible, okay? Is that alright?”
”......The platoon name......”
”That too, let's talk about it once I think up a good name. Okay?”
”Ugh......”
It felt like he was trying to appease her. A hard-to-describe displeasure made Claribel puff her cheeks out.
”Alright, alright. Don't be like that, what business do we have for today?”
”Fine. Then, let's enter the main topic.”
Claribel changed the topic, standing up straight and facing the four of them.
”Today's topic is related to our enemy - Layfon Alseif.”
”It really is about that, huh.”
”No, well...... He's Lay the Flash, an apostle of light who hates the darkness.”
”Hmm, well, it's that kind of setting, I guess.”
”Please don't say anything like 'setting'.”
Though Claribel thought that way too, it was a bit of a buzzkill to be told that by someone else.
”But we decided our goal was to be a theatrical platoon, so it's good to have an enemy.”
”Don't say theatrical...... Come to think of it, what's 'theatrical'?”
”Hmm? Ah, it means our main purpose is to put on a show. Glamorous style combined with dramatic lines. To Military Artists, battlefields are important places where they train themselves, but to spectators, seeing how much power the people who protect their city have is also meaningful. But among the spectators are also people who enjoy the fights between Military Artists as a form of entertainment, and there are quite a few of those people.”
”Ah, that's right.”
”So we want to pay more attention to that group. But when you think about it, the other platoons don't approve of that thinking, and if you want to fight theatrically, you have to even plan on who wins and loses. But in that case, the battle would just become an ordinary play. That's meaningless to Military Artists. So I planned on first dressing up extravagantly before anything else, even if we're the only ones doing that, so I called us a theatrical platoon. Well, it's an experiment.”
”I see.”
”......Let me first ask, you weren't thinking that we actually dressed like that and spoke those kinds of lines all the time, right?”
”Ahahaha, of course not!”
Claribel said this, but she couldn't deny that her voice was a bit hoa.r.s.e.
”......But, I think that at least our fans wish that we were usually like that, right?”
”Hmm, maybe.”
”So our casual clothes really should be black, and we should wear as much silver as possible when we wear uniforms.”
”Okay, okay.”
”Then let's return to the main topic, let's not talk about settings anymore!”
”Okay--”
After restoring the atmosphere, Claribel took a deep breath.
”The important point is that he has no motivation, and fighting with him when he's weak isn't interesting at all.”
”Won't we be more likely to win?”
Teresa tilted her head and made a confused expression.
”Just winning is meaningless. To me, what's important is surpa.s.sing the real him.”
”That's true.”
”Yeah.”
”Uh, why does Layfon-kun have no motivation?”
Tony timidly raised his hand.
”No, more importantly, since when did he start being unmotivated? If the Layfon we know has been in an unmotivated start from the very beginning, then......”
”He was very cool when the horde of filth monsters attacked before.”
Cody's murmur overlapped with Teresa's words.
”Yeah, although he uses a different Dite, I feel during platoon matches that his strength is clearly on a different level. I've always thought, what if he's been holding back during platoon matches?”
”In that case, we have no chance of winning at all.”
Tony's face turned pale and he s.h.i.+vered at Cody's speculation.
”I don't know what he was like last year, so I can't give an opinion. But I'm here now, so that's why we can think about surpa.s.sing him, right?”
Claribel encouraged the apprehensive three.
”From what I heard, he doesn't use steel threads in platoon matches. Installing safety equipment on his steel threads would be meaningless, so I can understand why the school doesn't let him use steel threads in compet.i.tion. The steel threads can become any weapon he imagines, but his specialty is sword fighting after all, so we don't need to think about how to deal with weapons meant to combat filth monsters.”
”You're pretty knowledgeable. If I recall, you were born in the same city, right?”
”Yeah.”
”Oh, so that's it? So you came here to chase after him?”
”Yeah, I guess.”
”Ohh! How is it, how is it, any romantic stories of love?”
”No, there's no such thing.”
”Whaat, how boring.”
”But you still followed him. Ah, that's not a bad feeling.”
Teresa mentioned that topic, her expression lighting up.
”A girl coming here chasing after a guy who ignores her...... how nice. It will definitely make lots of romantic stories.”
”Ah, do you like those kinds of things, Teresa?”
”I do. Captain, do you not?”
”Well, I prefer something feeling more straightforward.”
”Even more than this?”
”Sleeping together the day of an encounter and then starting to develop a relations.h.i.+p isn't bad.”
”Ah!”
s.h.i.+n felt that he had given some kind of profound opinion, but Teresa covered her face and staggered. 'Ah, so they had that kind of relations.h.i.+p.' Claribel realized.
”Right, that made me think of something. Now that I think about it, I introduced a senpai who was in the platoon last year but who's graduated now to Layfon. Through my connection to Sharnid.”
”What!?”
”That senpai's the kind to attack directly. I wonder how it went? I still don't know how things ended up.”
”W......W.....W.....What did you say!?”
That was bad. She hadn't thought such a terrifying thing would have happened this year unbeknownst to her. Claribel regretted. She really should have come here with Layfon back then.
”W......What do you mean 'attack directly'? Also, who is the platoon senpai you're talking about? She couldn't have been the captain, right?”
Teresa also looked at s.h.i.+n with an anxious expression.
”Ah, no, I'm not her type, and she's not my type, so there's nothing at all between us.”
”I...... I see.”
Claribel glanced at Theresa's relieved appearance, then thought of something.
”......s.h.i.+n, you're not the kind of person who's all talk and no action[1], are you?”
”Don't call me that!”
Claribel felt like s.h.i.+n was a bit off compared to her master Troyatte, who was libido incarnate, so she tried saying that phrase. Combined with her mood of wanting to escape reality when faced with a shocking fact, Claribel's words ended up sounding particularly grating.
”It's just that no girl to kindle my romance has appeared yet.”
s.h.i.+n was clearly shaken.
”Oh my, but you'd do it with anyone, right?”
”Not just anyone......”
”For example, what about Teresa-senpai who's standing over there?”
”Hah?”
”What?”
Claribel's proposal made Teresa make a strange noise of surprise.
”You're not satisfied with her looks?”
”Uh, that's not it......”
”Then go do what you want in the room over there.”
”No...... No, suddenly doing that would be a bit...... You understand, right?'
s.h.i.+n looked at Teresa. Though she was covering her hands with her face, the crimson face that showed from the gaps between her fingers gave off the same feeling.
Tony and Cody, the two with weak presences, watched the scene with bated breath.
”Uh......”
”Go on, go on.”
The four of them looked at s.h.i.+n. s.h.i.+n was frozen, his forehead sweating under their gazes.
”Go on.”
”Go on.”
”Go on, go on.”
”I'm sorry, please forgive me.”
”All talk, no action.”
”Uuu......”
s.h.i.+n collapsed to the ground after Claribel coldly uttered those words.
”No, but - Teresa is an important platoon member, so forcing myself on her would be a bit...... Right, Teresa!?”
s.h.i.+n looked to Teresa for help, desperately grabbing on to a thread of hope, but......
”Um, Teresa-san?”
””............All talk no action.”
”Guaaah!”
His hope crumbled brilliantly.
s.h.i.+n lay trembling on the floor, as if he had become part of the carpet. The two males console him from the side: ”Captain, you weren't wrong.” Claribel ignored the two of them and clapped her hands to regain control of the situation.
”Okay, s.h.i.+n's uselessness isn't important anymore. More importantly is how we should get Layfon to give it his all.”
”In this kind of situation, we really should use Clara-chan's female charm......”
”Teresa...... Did some weird switch of yours get flipped?”
Cody reb.u.t.ted in place of the still-quivering s.h.i.+n. However, the girls were no longer listening to what the guys said.
”If that move were effective, things wouldn't be this troublesome......”
”Right! It's all because we talked about that guy that I became this miserable! What's his deal? Has he done it? Or has he not?”
s.h.i.+n shouted this, having recovered. He had an angry look on his face. Though it was obvious that he just wanted that brat to share his suffering, his motivation happened to be consistent with the girls' concerns.
”What happened with that senpai?”
Though s.h.i.+n's anger was irrelevant, Claribel was concerned about that outcome.
”What happened...... Uh...... I didn't ask, but it seemed like the senpai had a very satisfied expression.”
”What!?”
A very satisfied expression? What did it mean to have a very satisfied expression?
Did that mean they did it, or not?
”Ah, come to think of it, I remember that senpai said something like 'As I thought, just hooking up is no good'...... Gaah, if I knew beforehand I would have asked for more details!”
”Really.”
Claribel stewed as she considered the possibilities. She didn't necessarily have to be Layfon's first, but that didn't mean she could allow him to have relations.h.i.+ps with others.
”Ugh...... That senpai's already gone, so he shouldn't have a relations.h.i.+p with her anymore......”
”Does he still miss her or something?”
”If that were possible, then before, in Grendan, he would have......”
No, she couldn't completely dismiss that possibility, right?
”It couldn't be......”
If parting with her in Grendan had been a deep blow to him - even if she wondered that now, it did no good. But if that senpai had become his source of comfort, how would things have turned out?
”There are a lot of stories where useless men escape from reality through women's bodies.”
Although it wasn't nice to say that...... Layfon seemed......
”He's very suited to that kind of role, how troublesome.”
Had he become despondent and lost his motivation because that senpai graduated and left?
”If that's the case, things make sense.”
In other words, seduction would be effective on him.
”Meaning I'll have to use that move?”
”That's what I said, that's what I said!”
Teresa excitedly expressed approval.
”Uh, in that case, right now I should......”
”A nighttime attack.”
”Right.”
The two of them nodded at each other.
”The problem is, how do I infiltrate his room?”
After all, Layfon was a veteran Military Artist. Even if Claribel used Sakkei, she didn't know if she could get close to him.
”It has nothing to do with that, right? Just walk into his room normally, then charm him with alluring clothing.”
”Alluring...... Like a black lace nightgown?”
”Maybe? In this situation, deliberately wearing completely normal sleepwear might not be bad, and then tell him something like 'I don't want to sleep alone tonight' with teary eyes.”
”Ohh, I see. Teresa-senpai, you're amazing.”
”Yeah, it's because someday I'll use that move on the person I like, right!?”
She used a strong tone at the end and shot out a glare at the same time. s.h.i.+n, who was crawling back up, crumpled down again.
”I think Layfon's different from s.h.i.+n, his relations.h.i.+ps with girls are exactly what they look like. But if that situation is real, then right now I have to do my best.”
”Yeah, good luck!”
”Right, I'll become a woman! And this is also for you, Teresa!”
Motivated by Teresa's spirit of self-sacrifice, Claribel made a fist and resolved herself.
Just then......
”Um~”
One of the two guys who had been completely forgotten by everyone...... Tony, timidly raised his hand.
”What is it?”
”Uh, it's a bit hard to say, uh......”
”What is it? Speak clearly.”
”Um...... The topic changed from fighting with Layfon-kun to pus.h.i.+ng him down in a completely different sense. Is that really okay?”
”That's just a triviality!”
”Uh, sorry, sorry.”
Teresa's indignant exclamation made Tony cringe.
”Honestly...... Isn't that right, Clara-chan?”
”Clara-chan?”
”Ah, no, how should I say it...... Yeah, that's right. Fighting and pus.h.i.+ng him down are different. And he might not be able to fight me seriously if I push him down. Well, considering him, that's definitely true.”
”What are you saying, Clara-chan? Love is a battle. It's life or death! It's also an incredible battle, so surpa.s.s him!”
”Ah, no, sorry. Now I feel like that kind of 'surpa.s.sing' is a bit......”
She seemed to have lost control because strange information had reached her ears. Claribel took deep breaths to calm herself down.
Right, whatever he does with other people doesn't matter. Right now, what's important is......
No, she really was concerned about that matter, but there would be other opportunities to dig into that matter so it was better to leave it to the side for now. What she had to think about now was what to do to have a real battle against him. But she really was concerned about that matter. Yeah, very concerned. What should she do, should she just go for it? But but but............
Knock knock.
The sudden sound of a doorknock made everyone jump from fight.
”Clara, are you here?”
That voice frightened them again.
Speak of the devil, it was Layfon's voice.
”I...... I'm here, come in.”
”You didn't write your schedule for tonight...... Are you going to be out?”
After coming in from the living room, Layfon looked at the fourteenth platoon members in the room and spoke. He had long since felt their presences and judged that there were people in the room, but he hadn't thought they would be s.h.i.+n and the rest.
”Ah, well? What should we do?”
The second half of what was a question for s.h.i.+n.
”Well, uh, that's fine. We can find somewhere to eat.”
s.h.i.+n, who had been lying flat on the ground until just now, unconsciously rose and acted normal. His transformation speed was surprising.
When she joined the fourteenth platoon, Nina had emotionally vouched for him for whatever reason: ”That senpai's an incredible person. Even though he looks like that! Despite what he looks like!” But maybe the speed at which he changed his att.i.tude was a reason she respected s.h.i.+n.
”Really? Then it'll just be Felli and I eating dinner.”
”Hold on. Maybe I should stay behind to eat dinner.”
”Huh? But......”
”I want to stay for dinner.”
”Really? I'm fine either way...... Ah!”
”Huh?”
Layfon's expression suddenly changed, and that reaction alarmed Claribel. Had he noticed something? What was it? Her own feelings? Or the plot they had been talking about?
”That's no good, I didn't even bring out any tea.”
After saying that, Layfon walked into the kitchen and started to boil water.
”Uh...... Ah, sorry.”
Come to think of it, s.h.i.+n and the others had come over but he hadn't prepared anything at all. Claribel's face reddened from the embarra.s.sment of over-thinking things and from not even providing this common courtesy.