Sentimental Voice

by Shūsuke Amagi

  Felli should be in the same room as Nina, but it appeared those two weren't willing to spend a long time together.

  "It's not good to eavesdrop," Felli said after closing the door. She understood why he had come to her.

  "Sorry," Layfon lowered his head.

  "But those two are the worst saying what they said in that situation."

  "Senpai as well......"

  "Fon Fon......"

  "Ah, um, I've given Felli trouble as well......"

  "Really, I don't feel as good," she mumbled.

  Layfon lifted his head.

  "Whose fault is it that we're in this situation? Those people don't understand at all. That's why I don't feel good."

  "Still angry?"

  "Of course."

  Nina had known of Felli's true strength in the previous fight with the filth monster in its aged phase. No one but Felli could support with psychokinesis over the distance that took one day to cover.

  From that time on, Nina had reduced her demands of Felli in training.

  Layfon wasn't sure why the captain was doing that. It didn't seem she had let Felli go because of Felli's lack of enthusiasm. Same as Layfon, Felli had also wanted to ask Nina the reason behind her unusual action.

  But what she did was continue to observe the captain and did all she could to avoid being alone with her.

  "......I'm concerned that she allows me to participate with the way I am," Felli sighed lightly.

  "Felli?"

  "Fon Fon, I don't think we have any other way."

  Lying on the bed, she looked smaller than before. The calmness she maintained was nowhere to be seen. What she gave off was an air of intense exhaustion.

  "To a psychokinesist, using psychokinesis is as matter of fact as breathing in the air. I'm so tired of suppressing it."

  "Even so, you still hate it."

  "Of course."

  Layfon was put at ease by Felli's usual reaction.

  But that only lasted one moment......

  "Fon Fon......Why aren't we normal?"

  He couldn't answer her.

  (You must constantly remind yourself.)

  The Queen's words surfaced in his mind once again.

  (Constantly remind yourself that we, as Military Artists and psychokinesists aren't normal. As humans, we must not allow ourselves to forget this.)

  Those words whipped him more painfully than his injuries.

  "We......" Felli mumbled and suddenly lifted her face.

  "Felli?"

  "Outside. A live response 200 meters south west of here. It definitely isn't livestock!"

  "!"

  Layfon responded swiftly. Internal Kei ran through his body as he picked up his harness and jumped out the window. The steel threads spread out as he headed for the direction Felli had indicated, running in the city illuminated by the pinprick stars.

  Running silently on steel threads thin as spider threads, Layfon arrived early at the destination.

  The thing hadn't run away, as if it was waiting for him.

  "What is this?"

  Dumbstruck, he looked at the shadow of a four-legged creature. A horn protruded from its head. Standing before Layfon was a golden goat.

  Chapter 4

  The Darkness of Gushing Water

  Even if he wanted to forget what had happened on that day, he couldn't. To Layfon, it was a branching point of his fate, and to Leerin, it was the usual end of a day. The curtain of the stage fell on that day.

  It was a fine day, as if nothing unfortunate would happen during it. The tiles of the roof used for rainy days were spread out in the audience seats at the battle arena, bouncing back the glare of the sun. The shadow of Queen Alsheyra could be seen through the thin curtain on the stage, and before her stood eleven Heaven's Blade successors.

  The twelfth stood in the middle of the arena.

  "Wolfstein!"

  Loud cheering rose from the audience. The young Heaven's Blade successor waited in the arena, his Heaven's Blade already restored as he regulated his breathing with eyes closed.

  Leerin watched with the kids from the orphanage in the audience stand. The young girls put their hands together in anxiety, as if they were praying. The young boys stirred in their seats, their hands balled into fists. They were all calling "Nii-san" (brother). Leerin confirmed the younger kids were all right, then turned her attention to Layfon.

  Today's match was the deciding match as to whom the title of 'Heaven's Blade successor' would be bestowed upon.

  There were only twelve Heaven's Blade successors. The only time when a vacancy appeared was when a Heaven's Blade successor died and a match was conducted to decide on the next Heaven's Blade successor. The other way to become one of the prestigious twelve was when the Military Artist who topped the year's fight record was appointed for a match with a Heaven's Blade successor of his choice, and won in that match.

  The match for today fell into the latter category.

  The challenger hadn't yet shown himself.

  In a fight for a Heaven's Blade, the current Heaven's Blade successor was usually the one to appear first in the arena.

  Leerin couldn't see Layfon's face as he was facing her with his back, but she could see him waiting with eyes closed on the screen. That was enough to put a stir in Leerin's heart.

  She knew he was worried in the recent days. He was always smiling in front of everyone, but she caught the shadows flitting past his face. She knew he was worried, but she didn't ask him about it.

  He was practicing as hard as usual and he was obviously avoiding being alone with her.

  She had finally found a chance to be alone with him yesterday night.

  She couldn't sleep, so she got up and went to the kitchen for some water, and as she passed through the corridor, she saw him out in the yard. She changed her route and headed for him.

  "Layfon."

  "You're still awake."

  Layfon wasn't surprised at all. He must have noticed her when she entered the corridor.

  "Yeah, I'm not sure why. Layfon too?"

  "A little."

  "Could you be worried about tomorrow's match?"

  "That's part of the reason. My opponent was trained by the Luckens, from which another Heaven's Blade successor was raised. He'll be harder to beat than other opponents."

  His voice was dry and irritated. She knew in the blink of an eye that that wasn't the reason behind his anxiety.

  "But you won't lose."

  "Of course not."

  As expected.

  Although he was indecisive about a lot of other things, he was full of confidence and arrogance when it came to Military Arts. Because of this reason, he had very few friends outside the orphanage. This end result was because of his being a Military Artist, a Heaven's Blade successor when he was outside the orphanage – Layfon Wolfstein Alseif.

  Nobody knew the side of him when he was in the orphanage with his younger siblings. He picked up babies and paced around to keep them from crying. He stayed up all night to look after Leerin who had a high fever. He stopped going to school in order to earn money. So to comfort the angry Leerin, he flattered her like a dog to make her happy. Whether she was sad or happy, he was always by her side.

  No one. No one understood Layfon.

  But Leerin knew. She knew very well when it came to things associated with Layfon.

  So.

  "It'll end quickly," Layfon smiled......

  "Tomorrow's match will be boring."

  No one but Leerin would have noticed his heartbreaking back as he strode away.

  "The challenger, Gahard Baren!"

  As the announcer shouted out the name, the Layfon on the screen opened his eyes.

  It was an extremely icy expression, an expression of a Heaven's Blade successor that would never appear in the orphanage.

  The challenger appeared on the screen. He was in the same Military Arts school as the Luckens. The restored Dites that had changed into armors enveloped his a
rms and feet.

  The Luckens family was a family of Military Artists, excellent in the Arts of hand to hand combat. Gahard had been trained by that family. The rumor that there might be two Heaven's Blade successors from the Luckens school was a hot topic before the match.

  Strong and firm muscles showed on Gahard's sleeveless arms. The difference between Gahard's and Layfon's body builds was the difference between that of an adult and a child.

  "Can Nii-san win?"

  "Don't worry," Leerin patted a younger girl's cheek. "Layfon is invincible."

  She didn't care whether he could win or not. What she worried about was his expression she saw yesterday night.

  (Layfon. What are you thinking?)

  More like, what was he planning?

  But she never guessed his plan.

  She thought she knew everything about him, but she still didn't know what he had in mind. She knew he was obviously troubled and it was something he had to make a decision on.

  Leerin was angry and uneasy about herself for not understanding Layfon.

  "Begin!" the announcer called.

  Gahard readied his fight stance.

  Layfon raised his sword.

  The match ended in the next second.

  Intense light enclosed the arena. The air vibrated and the ground echoed that vibration. The entire arena shook, and Leerin hugged the younger brothers and sisters as they gathered close. The keening of the arena ran through her head. Fear ate into her heart.

  Silence came soon enough.

  Feeling the pressuring silence in the air, Leerin lifted her head. She watched the screen. It showed nothing but rolling dust and sand.

  Layfon stood in the middle of the arena – in the middle of a huge crater. He swung down his blade naturally, the end of his finishing move.

  Gahard had flown back to a corner of the arena along with sand and debris.

  "Oh......Ah......" His chilly screams echoed in the silence of the arena. He coughed up blood. His left hand trembled.

  Pointing at his right hand.

  "Aah......Ahhhhhhhhh......"

  Moaning with despair as he bled.

  Gahard's right hand was gone. More like his entire right arm was gone. Blood pooled around him.

  "Ah, Ahhhhhhhhh......Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh......"

  The screen cleared.

  "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!"

  The screen showed the side of Layfon's face. Within that icy expression, his muscle twitched.

  Gahard had exposed Layfon the next day to the entire population of Grendan. The match became the best proof of Gahard's accusation.

  She remembered it all. When it came to anything with Layfon, she would recall that day. In that match, Layfon Wolfstein Alseif was turned back to Layfon Alseif.

  The day when she didn't understand Layfon.

  It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to ask why things turned out like that. But she couldn't blame anyone. Not Layfon, not father.

  She couldn't consider things like "Just whose fault is it?"

  If she didn't look for the reason behind this incident, but rather for the person involved in it, she might have traced the cause back to the debris scattered on her clothes.

  That case must be something she couldn't easily face.

  The time of peace continued. No filth monsters had yet attacked Grendan. Nothing had changed much around Leerin. Savaris and Lintence's worry hadn't affected her. She continued to enjoy her normal school life with Synola. These were Leerin's current feelings.

  Protect. That was what Savaris had said.

  To protect her from what......? Although she wasn't comfortable with his answer, she knew that it must have nothing to do with her. Heaven's Blade successors would never protect a normal resident like Leerin this closely.

  But......It must have something to do with the city.

  She pondered this question, but she didn't have a clue.

  Noise that didn't match the scenery of dusk drifted to her. Leerin frowned.

  The noise came from the high metal fence that was fencing in a flat-topped building. It was a familiar noise of something heavy. As the sound of sparks scattering off contacted blades drifted into Leerin's ears, her stiff expression softened.

  She opened the door to the building and the sound pressed towards her.

  Inside the building, it looked much the same as other Dojos in Grendan. Males and females wearing protective gears practiced with training swords. As a normal person, Leerin couldn't see the unseen force that sometimes hit her. The wind inside the Dojo blew her hair around.

  She headed deeper into the Dojo to the audience stage.

  The person sitting in an audience seat nodded at her. An aging male whose short hair was streaked with white. Leerin nodded back and opened another door to head deeper into the Dojo.

  "Then......Next."

  The waiting room was narrow, but it was enough space to live. Leerin walked into the kitchen, checked the food in the freezer and thought of what to buy. She picked up a shopping bag and the key to the medicine box, then left through the backdoor.

  She bought what she needed in the shops nearby and returned to the kitchen to make dinner.

  The noise in the Dojo stopped when the smell of food dispersed from the wok. As she set up the eating utensils, the people from the Dojo entered the kitchen in a racket.

  "Good work, father."

  "Aye," the person from the audience seat responded simply and sat down at the table.

  Derek Psyharden. Leerin's adopted father.

  "There seems to be more apprentices."

  "Yeah."

  "Looks good. Oh yes, did a letter come from the administration?"

  "Yes."

  "Really? Then let's look at it later."

  The sound of moving eating utensils spread out in the kitchen. Derek was usually quiet, but his silence felt strange today.

  His apprentices were being noisy as usual, sitting around the table as if it was a war.

  Father had resigned as the Head of the orphanage. He resigned and gave the position to someone else so that the orphanage, the place from where Layfon hailed, could avoid public attention. The people living near the orphanage knew Derek's personality, so they didn't have much of a response to Layfon's event, and they came to the Dojo as usual, but it wasn't the same with others. The current Head of the orphanage also hailed from the same orphanage. In reality, the real Head was still Derek, but he didn't show himself in the orphanage and had moved out to live in the Dojo.

  Leerin was given permission to live in the Dojo once a week to look after him.

  "......Are you not going over there?"

  "Hm?"

  "There shouldn't be a problem even if you show up in the orphanage."

  "......I can't."

  "People over there should have calmed down and thought through it all by now."

  "Perhaps......However, this is a problem of responsibility. I'm Layfon's comrade. To other people, I shouldn't appear in that place anymore."

  "If you've decided, then there's nothing more I can say."

  "That's the way things are."

  The conversation ceased. They didn't speak till the end of dinner.

  "......Did anything strange happen recently?" Derek asked suddenly when she was washing the dishes.

  "Huh?" Leerin's hands stopped their motion and she turned around.

  "What do you mean by strange?"

  "Do you feel something awkward recently?"

  "Awkward? Is something wrong?"

  "Hm, it's difficult to explain. It could be caused by a human......or could be not......"

  "What......"

  She wanted to laugh, but she couldn't.

  (Could it be......)

  Was this what Savaris meant when he said she was targeted?

  But she wasn't sure whether this was linked to Layfon.

  "I have an impression of it. It feels like something totally different. How should I put it......Well......
" he stood up, turned around to enter his room and came back out holding something.

  "Father," she looked at him, shocked.

  He was holding a Dite.

  "Leerin, stay behind me."

  "What?"

  "There's a murderous intent in the air......It's here."

  He pulled her behind him and restored his Dite, watching one of the walls in the room.

  The suffocating feeling only stayed for one moment......

  The next moment, the wall had been destroyed.

  "Ha!"

  Kei shot out from Derek's sword, bounding off the debris.

  The cold night wind blew in. Leerin saw a huge hole in the wall.

  "Who......?"

  Water gushed out from the water pipe.

  A figure appeared. Through the hole and the gaps in between the high fence, Leerin saw someone standing on the road outside the Dojo. That person drew close to them in a relaxed manner.

  "......"

  Derek resumed his fight stance.

  Light in the room illuminated that figure.

  "...... Huh?"

  "What......?

  Both Leerin and Derek were dumbstruck.

  This person didn't have a right arm.

  They had seen him before and they would never forget him.

  In Layfon's last match.

  The one who had turned Layfon from a hero into a criminal.

  "Why......"

  That person appeared before her......and in this situation.

  He hated, but he had no way of avenging himself.

  And he must still hate a certain person......

  "Gahard Baren," Derek murmured.

  A golden goat.

  Layfon restored his Dite.

  "Just what......is this thing?"

  It was a strange feeling. Numerous horns extended from its head to legs like the many branches of a tree, and the golden light emitting from it overwhelmed the darkness around it. It was about as tall as Layfon. This wasn't some livestock.

  Tension rushed up inside Layfon, gushing out, showing no sign of stopping. This was a warning Layfon knew from long-term battle experience.

  He readied his fight stance and cautiously kept his distance from it.

  The golden goat watched Layfon.

  (It doesn't look like a filth monster, but......)