Chapter 36: Like A Cirsium V (2/2)

「Ye, yeah」

I had remembered all of a sudden.

Why did such an obvious thing disappear from my memory?

『Check completed. Based on the detailed check by the Izora Program, you’re provisionally recognized as team member Souya. Nevertheless, as an emergency measure, your user rights will be lowered by six levels. Team member Souya, explain the situation』

「Ye, yeah」

I couldn’t hide my agitation because of the shock.

What happened? What on earth was that?!

「Hey, you look terrible」

『Vitals unstable. Team member Souya, please calm down. ………Putting you through to Rana-sama』

『Dear! Are you okay?! Any injuries?! Are you alive?! I’m heading back there right away!』

That calmed me down in one shot.

If you let me hear Rana in such a state, I’ll have no choice but to calm down.

「I’m okay. I’m alive. I’ll be troubled if you come back. Oh, I suppose it’s fine now? No, but—」

『Aah, hey! Ea?!』

『Onii-chan, are you okay?!』

『Onii-san, are you alright?!』

『Ah, nothing in particular from me. Oh, is Irvin okay?!』

The communication got crowded as everyone chirped in.

『It's Izora again. Team member Souya, have you calmed down?』

「Yeah, more or less」

『Explain the situation』

「We've defeated the enemy. The location is secure for the time being. Irvin is slightly injured, on his face」

『Team member Souya, did you suffer any injuries?』

Her reaction was weaker than I had expected. I would be troubled if she really lost her head though.

「I don't think that there are any problems with me physically. But please perform a medical check once I return. My brain may have been damaged」

『Are you experiencing any problems with the vision in your right eye?』

「Right eye? No, my eyesight is fine」

『Understood. Izora will check in with Makina about the preparations for the medical check. While moving between floors, we came into contact with Medimu-sama. He has been informed of your location. Izora believes that he will join up with your side before long』

「Understood. Is everything alright on that side?」

『Yes, the depletion of the regeneration point and magic power appears to be a temporary effect. They returned to their original values when we reached the stairs going up. Once the injured have been delivered to the Guild, everyone will head back right away』

「Understood. Are the injured going to survive?」

『No problems on that end. The beastkin is already walking under her own power. Team member Souya, Izora has a suggestion. Please refrain from such behavior in future. It’s nonsensical for you, who denied the pride of other people, to do something like betting your life on a different pride』

「No, this is different from the dispute that happened outside」

『Izora can’t tell the difference! ………Izora out』

She had snapped and cut off the communication.

It was somewhat depressing.

「Hey, it’s gross when you mutter to yourself like that. Did you hit your head?」

「Shut up. I was talking to my party upstairs. Your party members are alright」

「You can pull off a feat like that? Well, for the time being, I’ll say thank you」

Ryutetto knelt before her dead party member and offered a prayer. I also took off my poncho and wrapped Sanperie’s head with it. He had a calm expression.

「Souya, let me offer a simplified prayer of requiem」

With heavy steps, Irvin took Sanperie’s wrapped head. He offered the prayer while hugging it in his arms.

「This is the blood pledge that connects us to the eight kings. Here, one man sends off the soul of the one who has lost his life in battle. Please, with the seat of eternity, save his blood. Grant him a tranquil sleep. We wish for the soul’s peace. Oh St. Lyridias, there are no more beasts. Blood is the very thing flowing inside humans」

I couldn’t help but feel that those words were ill-omened.

Irvin remove a lock of Sanperie’s hair, and then placed his head beside the body that had become crucified to the wall.

「Souya, do you have oil and fire?」

「I do」

Are you going to set him on fire? There is still something that I have to look into though.

「Irvin, do you know………………what this is?」

It may not be something that I should be asking him right now.

But I can’t help but be bothered by it. Was this caused by the dungeon? Or……

「I don’t know anything about what is true. But if I had to make a guess…… St. Lyridias, that god didn’t attain godhood because of the efforts she put into the founding of the nation. Perhaps, this curse——」

Irvin choked.

「Hey, what’s wro——」

I supported him with my shoulder. Both of us were covered with blood, but new blood was smeared on top of the old.

「Irvin!」

Supporting him as he collapsed, I laid him down on the ground. Fresh blood spilled out from within his torn armor. I undid the buckles and took off his armor. I took out my water bottle and washed away the blood from the area around the wound. His abdominal muscles had been gouged out and his injured internal organs were visible.

「Souya, do you remember what I ——」

He vomited and his mouth was stained with blood. I checked Irvin’s regeneration point, but it was still transparent and in a depleted state.

「Don't talk, it's deep, but it's not a wound that can’t be healed」

「Listen, to me. I said it before, right? That for this party, nothing is impossible」

「Yeah, that’s right. It’s just as you said」

「To tell the truth, to me, my sister―――――」

Irvin's breathing became shallower.

「Ryutetto」

I nocked an arrow to the bow.

「Return your sword to its sheath. I’ll shoot you between the eyes!」

「Hey, that man is also a knight of Lyridias, right? Can't you understand what that means right now, in this situation?」

「You’re jumping to conclusions. Sheath your sword. Besides, Irvin is a former・knight of Lyridias」

「Contracts with the gods have no source or reality. Even if we die and become souls, we belong to the gods」

「I don’t have the time to mess around with you」

I aimed the arrow at Ryutetto, and she……

「Huh?」

……died from being pierced through by a thrown sword. The sword stuck in her throat stood upright like a grave marker.

「Irvin」

With a confused state of mind, I looked at him. His wound had closed. However, his regeneration point remained empty.

「What are you doing?」

I knew. What I should be doing next as well.

Hurry up and move.

It’s coming.

The scary thing is coming.

However, just as I had thought, people are dogs leashed by emotion. If I could be unfeeling enough to kill him, people won’t be people. I won’t be me.

His hands drew closer awfully slowly, and then tightened around my neck.

「Gagh」

My flesh was crushed. All at once, my vision blurred and everything was dyed red and black. As he wasn’t a pure beast, the power of the Lycans didn’t activate.

My resistance was that of an infant’s.

I'm sorry, I said.

To the names I muttered inside my heart.

Rana, Ea, Geto-san, Shuna, Bel, Zenobia, Evetta-san, Makina, Izora, Gravius-sama. And, Misuranika-sama, Yukikaze.

This is it for my adventure,

A dull sound resonated through my bones.

I was pulled back to reality.

「Gu, gaha, goho」

My throat demanded air. What——

「Ah」

I thought it was a joke. A sword had sprouted from Irvin's body. Exactly where his heart would be. From behind without mercy.

「Sto—」

The sword was pulled out.

Unmoved by my pitiful plea, Otou-san swung his sword, and Irvin's head was―――――

My liberated body dropped limply to the ground.

I couldn’t process my feelings.

Therefore, I stopped feeling anything.

I closed my eyes.

I’ve had enough, I want to be relieved of this misery.

Abandoning all reality, I sank into darkness, and was enveloped by absolute tranquility.

Into that darkness, my consciousness melted.

Into darkness.

Everything.

Into darkness.

However, in the depths of that darkness, I heard a small growl.

A lucky ship is a designation given by the Japanese Navy to ships that have managed to return from real combat with little to no damage. Souya(the ship) is a lucky ship as well.

I’ve read this arc around 6-7 times now and it gets me every single time. I’ve tried my best to avoid mentioning the numerous death flags that Irvin had been raising in my afterwords, so was it a surprise? I’m sure some of you had kinda anticipated this though, like I said, so many death flags. One thing that I wanted to mention though, is their friendship. Souya was practically sold into slavery by his “friend” and when he returned, he was a social misfit, which meant that he never had a friend after that. But in this world, a man who’s serious though a little childish inside, a bit goofy, charismatic but weak against women, was all that despite having endured a hellish period of time growing up, and was risking his life for his sister's sake, that man had called Souya his friend. Did you realize that the description above can be applied word for word to Souya, and that Irvin is almost a mirror image, similar and yet opposite, of Souya? That’s why, for the first time since he had been betrayed, Souya called someone his friend. And that's who he just lost.