Chapter 17 (1/2)
17.THE BLACK HAIRED GIRL VS THE BLACK SHEEP
At the outer walls, a pool of blood was made at the front of the ladders. It was the acc.u.mulated blood of both the armies of Arcadia and Ostoberg. With more life being lost, the profundity of that pool increased. The battlefield was a place that consumed the life of people. No matter how much people deluded themselves with the romance of the war, this reality wouldn´t change. There were many reasons and questions of righteousness connected to it. War was a complicated thing. However, in fact…
“Fuhjurururuuuuuhuh”(ふじゅるるっるうゥううッ)
It was simpler than anything. No matter the intentions of people, there was only one thing that controlled the battlefield.
“Hah, hah, baaah?”(ハァ、ハァ、バァぁァあア)
It was only power. A beast had lost his way into the battlefield. It was a beast that was like the embodiment of power.
The crimson gem splattered in blood that hanged by its chest shone as if it represented the beast´s destiny of being covered in blood.
His body was slim and flexible. He had supple muscles, and its nimble moves hid danger.
“How horrendous. And also…”
The man that was looking at that beast could see a crowd of spirits coiling around it. At most, they were only illusions, but even so, they also represented the beast´s nature. That was something that could be said to be his aura. It couldn´t represent the situation of his twisted mind any better. It was its own insane world that was disgusting just to look at.
“….strong!”
“Jaahahahahah!”(じゃああアああぁァっ！)
The white beast jumped in front of the man. It had its hands at the ground and moved like a four legged beast. It had thrown away all its reason. It would simply do things because it wanted to. And that was a nuisance.
“Surround him.”
With the words of the man, the beast was separated from the soldiers that were as much insane as the beast. The beast wasn´t bothered about that.
The beast and the man were surrounded and the tall s.h.i.+elds stood around them as the walls of the circle. The subordinates of the man acted in order to exterminate the mad people outside the encirclement. With that, it was perfect.
“With that, I guess I will be able to examine you to my heart´s content.”
The man blocked the fang of the beast. It wouldn´t be weird that he would have already died if he was at the level of a centurion. For how he was able to parry the attack of the beast only proved how much power he had.
“Grrrr”(ぐるっるうう)
As soon as the beast noticed it wouldn´t be able to win by fighting directly, it took impulse by kicking one of the s.h.i.+elds that were surrounding him and took a [higher] position.
“Nu, coming from the skies!?”
People were weak against attacks that came from above. The more one would fight in a certain way, the more one would get used to fighting in that way. For people that were used to fighting at the ground, this was overwhelming and outside expectations. Therefore, it became a weakness. It was the weak spot of warriors.
“Slow.”
The man easily handled the attack. By that, it could be seen that he didn´t have an average historic of wars. He recognized his weak point and took measures against it. It was possible to react to attacks that had no thoughts put behind them. Because of that, there were no gaps in his defenses.
“Fushyaaa”(ふしゃぁァぁア)
However, the beast wasn´t any weak. No, it was because it had thrown away its weakness that it was a beast. It was because it could throw away its humanity and because it could follow its instincts that it was a beast. Humans had humanity. The instincts knew the weakness of men.
And so, it aimed for the legs. From a stance so low that it would be impossible to stay in that while standing on two feet, it attacked the man at his ankles. Of course, for humans, who stood in two feet, this could only be a weakness.
“You are still slow.”
Sticking his sword onto the ground, the man defended the attack. Seeing that his sword was blocked, the beast threw it away without hesitations. Since it was a beast, it still had its claws that could cut through flesh and fangs that could break bones. Closing upon the man, the beast jumped at him and aimed for his neck, but…
“I already said you are slow!”
The man snached the neck of the beast and hit it at its stomach with all his strength using his free hand.
“Ghaaaahgogeeeaahhh”(ごがぁぁああああぼげぇぇぇえあああ)
The beast staggered as it threw up. Falling down, the white beast writhed in pain on the ground.
“That´s what happens when people fall to the level of beast. You big fool.”
The interest in the eyes of the man was fading away. He was already about to be finished in examining the beast.
“You can find people like that as many as you want on circuses or coliseums. All of them are considerably strong, but in the end, they are nothing but beasts. They will definitely not become true warriors.”
Seeing that the beast didn´t show any signs of listening to his words and kept repeating “It hurts, it hurts”, the man sighed. The one in front of his eyes wasn´t the egg of a warrior. It was simply a beast.
“His Highness will probably become disappointed. Even though I thought I was going to be able to bring some meaning to this farce even if it is only a little.”
All meaning had already been lost. All that remained was the routine of tidying up. He was about to turn his head to his soldiers to order them to start the tidying up, but…
“It´s alright, Al. Nee-san is together with you. Pain, pain, go away. See, it doesn´t hurt anymore, right?”
Hearing that weird tone of voice, the man quickly turned his head to the beast.
“Uuu, it hurtss. I´m scareed.”
“That´s right. That big, strong and [black] sheep… It is very scary, right?”
The man frowned.
“Uuu, it´s scaaryyy.”
The white haired man stood up. The aura from before had completely changed, and while his appearance didn´t change, he had completely regressed to becoming a child. And then, the man saw something he couldn´t believe.
““What, is that? I´ve never seen [something] like that.””
The spectacle that was happening in front of his eyes. The aura that was supposed to represent the white haired young man. In there, the crowd of corpses filled with insanity were squirming around and being formed into a single body in the shape of a skeleton. This was the usual illusion of death that could be seen in that aura, but in the middle of all those corpses, there was a single person. As if she was protecting the young man, and as if she cared for him, the black haired girl gently held him in her arms.
It was something that existed outside of all reason. The man had never felt something like that from someone else before. In the long war experience of the man, and during his whole life, he had never seen such an unreasonable sight.
“It´s alright. Nee-san is together with you. I will protect you.”(TL note: The kanji being used is憑く, which actually means to haunt and possess instead of the one that would be used for saying “together”.)
“Uuu, thank you, Arlette-neesan.”
And then, the young man that was talking to himself once again became a lump of mystery. By himself, the man would use two different tone of voices and would do this little play, making it look like he was talking to someone. No, perhaps the person himself was really thinking he was talking to another person.
“…….”
And then, the body of the young man was engulfed by the crowd of dead bodies. If this was the [usual case], the person would have its ego engulfed and would become completely insane. The man had seen people that ended up becoming like that many times. At the battlefield, at the colosseum, at circuses, at very dangerous places…
“Huhu, isn´t he cute? This child is still not strong. He is still a crybaby; a cowardly and sensitive boy. He won´t sleep if I don´t sing him a lullaby; my cute little treasure.”
The amount of dead bodies increased. The one controlling them was the black haired girl. She embraced the man and protected him like she was his guardian angel that would stay beside him. That girl gently opened her mouth.
“Steal from the thief. Rob from the robber. Kill the murderer. Forgiveness won´t grant you anything; even if you look up at the sky, G.o.d won´t give you anything. That´s why let´s steal. Let´s rob. Let´s kill. My little treasure, kill this mad world that has stolen me away from you♪”
The content of the lyrics was filled with so much despair, hatred and sorrow that one wouldn´t have imagined that by how gentle the lullaby was being sung.
Blood was gus.h.i.+ng out from the dead bodies. Tears of blood flowed from the eyes of the girl. The young man also cried.
The ruby beautifully s.h.i.+ned in anger in place of the sorrow, despair and hatred. Even in this inexplicable situation, that everlasting s.h.i.+ne from the crimson that represented all the young man was would continue to express those feelings.
“Ufufu, such a beautiful red. It is just like this child…. It makes me envious.”