(The strike I have left......)
Feeling the lightness of the weapon, he made his decision.
(Then what?)
He still had his own green Dite that he could use to buy time. He had been using its steel threads as support so it hadn't sustained any heavy damage. But if he used his last move, he'd forego the steel threads move that had helped him escape countless times. Losing that option would be a huge setback for him.
Perhaps this was better than losing his chance to attack, but he would be forcing himself into a dead end. Buying time would ensure Zuellni could move to safety, but if he did that, he'd lose his life.
And there were also Nina and Sharnid......
This was the only way......To determine the outcome of the fight before he lost use of the steel threads.
And it was a highly dangerous gamble. If he failed, he'd die, Nina and Sharnid would die, Zuellni might also die. Everything would vanish.
Should he bet everything on the last move......He hesitated.
"Hey, are you listening?"
"No......Anyway, you guys hurry up and escape."
"Listen up! Your bike's broken. This is the only vehicle that still works."
"As long as I beat this guy, people will come to get me."
"Can you defeat it?"
"......"
"That weapon's at its limit. Can you really beat it with this thing?"
"......It's starting to move. I have to go!"
He had no answer for her. He hadn't the confidence that she'd agree with his answer. His only reply was to head out and fight.
Sharnid pulled him back by his collar, steering the bike with one hand.
"Aaah, wait!"
"Please let go of me!"
"It's rare for the captain to order others to listen to her."
"I'll use force."
"It's fine if you tear off my arm. Please go ahead."
In reality, if he pulled himself out of Sharnid's grasp with Kei, he really might just end up tearing Sharnid's arm off. And even if that didn't happen, the bike might lose its balance and flip over.
"It's too embarrassing to come out here and not do anything. That's how it is for me, and the same goes for the injured captain. The 17th platoon can't embarrass its captain!"
"I hadn't heard that order before."
"Same here. I just made that decision."
By looking at Sharnid's back, Layfon could tell he was smiling.
"Have you got a plan?" Nina said. "Are you absolutely sure that you can win with your next move?"
She had even seen through this.
"......Yes. It's the wound on its forehead. If I strike there again......"
The scales were shattered. Half of the forehead bone was probably cracked......If he struck there.
The wound must be healing, but not the scales and the bone. If he could stab its brain and release his Kei there......But Nina had calmly pointed out the uneasiness he felt about that move.
"Do you have a plan that can take you there and make sure you strike it on its head?"
"......"
"Okay." Nina nodded. "Then we've increased our chance of success."
"Heh?"
"You were listening in, Felli? Find the setting I want nearby. Hurry."
Then Nina listed out her conditions of the place she had in mind.
"It's near. Head southwest. It's about 20 Jimels from you."
"Sharnid."
"Roger, captain." He changed the bike's direction.
"Layfon, will the filth monster leave us?"
"Huh?......Probably not. It moves faster than this bike."
"Then buy enough time for us to head for that place. Don't damage your weapon."
"With this......"
He could interfere with the filth monster's movements using the steel threads.
"Keep at it."
He nodded reflexively.
How should he put it? It was a feeling of suddenly being swallowed. He saw Nina's face through the helmet and the armor-suit......He looked at that face and the tension he held wavered.
He felt more at ease.
Should he be comforted by the wavering of the destructive pressure on him? Or be alarmed at it......He wasn't sure. Even so, he felt a part of him wasn't able to deny Nina.
He continued to control the steel threads.
Twenty Jimels.
He focused on buying them time.
They arrived at a valley surrounded by cliff faces. Green plants and clear water might have once flourished here. Now the valley was dry, extremely dry.
Nina had explained her plan as they rode the bike. They looked back at the slope, as if waiting for something to fly into its mouth.
"How long till that guy catches up?"
"Three minutes."
Nina nodded. "We're getting off. It's impossible to drive the bike here. Sharnid, take the bike to the firing position. Layfon, carry me."
Felli explained the terrain and Nina asked a few questions based on Felli's information. It seemed just by doing that, she had already formed an accurate map in her head. Layfon dismounted, clear about the instructions he had received.
The sound of shattering rocks came closer.
The filth monster was already here.
"Hurry!"
Layfon carried her deeper into the valley.
"Is this really all right?" he asked, uncomfortable with how light she was in his arms.
"The plan will be successful as long as that thing stops moving, right?"
Layfon nodded on the bike.
"It's hungry, so it'll rush straight for food, right?"
Layfon nodded again.
"Well, all we need is bait......No need to think of anything else."
"......Captain?"
"Limit your enemy's movements and turn the situation into your advantage. That's a basic tactic."
"You aren't thinking of......"
"I'll act as bait. Who else can do this besides me? Sharnid's got his mission and you have to give it its fatal strike. If you do everything, including what's unnecessary, isn't that the same as what you've been doing in the past?"
"That was how I did things in Grendan."
He had always done things this way. To change his way now......
"Weren't there many people to replace you in Grendan? Aren't there twelve Heaven's Blade Receivers? So eleven people could replace you. Even if you fall, there are still other ways, so you fought with those kinds of tactics. But nobody can replace you in Zuellni. Grendan and Zuellni are different. Grendan's way is not my way. You're my subordinate. I can't just leave you."
"But......" Layfon stopped speaking. Her determination in her eyes. Her furrowing eyebrows as if she was glaring at him, as if she was staring at him with trembling eyes...He felt he was being sucked into them.
Those eyes suddenly turned gentle.
"You want to abandon the you of Grendan, don't you?"
"......But, I can't."
Because the threat of meeting filth monsters existed everywhere.
"It's okay to abandon it."
"Heh?" His eyes widened in astonishment.
"Your desire to protect Zuellni arose after you came to the Academy City, right? Then treasure it. As for your way of fighting, living and thinking in Grendan......leave them all. It's enough to protect Zuellni. Leave everything."
"......"
"You don't think that helps you? But, that's how I feel and how the person waiting for you in Grendan feels. Isn't that what was written in the letter?"
"Letter......?"
"I can repeat this as many times as you want. I won't let you, my comrade and subordinate, die. I'll do whatever it takes to reach that goal!"
An intense light emitted once again from those gentle eyes. A determination that would never bend and break. Those eyes were what made him swallow his words. Looking at his image in them, Layfon nodded.
"I understand. Then, I'll hold senpai's life in my hands for a bit."
<
br /> "Stop talking nonsense," she laughed. "I'm the captain. Your lives are in my hands."
Nina was all alone in the valley.
Trees once stood here. Clear water once flowed. Fish once swam, and everything must have been filled with songs of birds. Lives drowned the earth as a matter of course. The lives were short, but creatures continued to sing out the song of life's chains.
Something white was stuck to the rocks. They were probably the bones of some fish.
It was a life that failed to keep on living.
The world had shriveled up. And the reason behind that......How did the pollutants manage to spread across the entire world? Some said it was a material created from humanity's insolence when human civilization reached its peak. Some said it just happened all of a sudden. And Nina had heard of many other different explanations. She didn't know which was the truth, and didn't know whether there was meaning in looking back at the past. Everyone else now only lived in Regios, living under the threat of filth monsters.
Nina hated that feeling. Couldn't something be done? She wanted to do something about it.
She hated herself for being born into a narrow world. She wanted to see other worlds. It didn't matter if it was just a tiny outside world, and so she had come to Zuellni. But she still understood how useless she was, even though she had reached Zuellni. She understood more of the cruelty of this world and her own insignificance, her own weakness.
Surviving in this world, what she should do, what she could do......
She wanted to keep on living.
And to survive, she must become stronger. Because she lived in this kind of world, she must become stronger. Because heaven blessed her with the power of Kei, she must become stronger. That was what she thought.
Except for a small failure.
She didn't think she was entirely in the wrong. She just didn't use the correct way. And now, the Layfon who corrected her was making the same mistake.
To Nina, Layfon's mistake was a small failure on his part, since he didn't know where he stood. In that case, she had to wake him up.
The rumbling closed in.
It was the filth monster, the existence on the very top of the pyramid. Covered in wounds, the creature headed towards Nina, driven by nothing but hunger.
Compared to the injuries that Layfon had sustained......If Layfon and the filth monster kept on fighting, which side would win?
She recalled she had been pondering on what the strongest existence was not long ago. Filth monsters lived in a larger world than humans, a world that humans could not enter without protection. On this level, the filth monsters were the strongest.
In the filth monster's starving stage, fighting for the most basic requirement of life, pollutants weren't enough for it.
So it had to eat humans.
Compared to this creature, humans lived in their own worlds without having to worry about food. Looking from this perspective, just who was stronger?
"What boring thinking."
The dominating presence neared Nina, its gaze piercing her like teeth. She couldn't help but imagine her tiny body being crushed by those sharp and gigantic teeth, her organs rolling on the tongue of the massive monster.
"Is this the world that he sees......"
Facing this horror alone, Nina's legs shook. The present her who was unable to use Kei was too weak. Besides, even if she could use Kei, what could she do? This must be the decisive gap in strength between humanity and filth monsters.
Layfon had been facing this type of creature all alone.
"I won't let you do this alone from now on," she said to the subordinate who was nowhere beside her.
But he should be able to hear her.
"You have me and your comrades."
A sound.
A tiny sound compared to the rumbling of the filth monster, but it echoed in the sky and in Nina's ears.
One side of the cliff face suddenly collapsed.
Caused by Sharnid's sniping.
The sudden avalanche of rocks, sand and soil descended on the filth monster and towards Nina. The creature howled anew.
Nina's body shot upward.
A long thin thread......A steel thread was wrapped around her body. She saw him as she was pulled up.
A figure that brushed past her, descending rapidly......Layfon.
He plunged straight for the trapped enemy, his ravaged sword pointing downward.
Nina confirmed her plan was successful.
Epilogue
I sent you a few letters all at once. I think I understand some of your feelings now. For some reason, I really want to read your response. But what separates us is something that can't be easily overcome......It makes me impatient. Back then, I could hear from you immediately, but now I have to wait until letters get through.
I told you before that my days were pretty ordinary, but I have to study a lot, so it's not that easy. Did you read my last letter?
I'm writing this after the last roaming bus has left, so I think my last letter should have reached you before you read this. But perhaps you'll get this letter first. Who knows?
Recently, I've been having a recurring dream. It's about a more grown-up you and I, living together in the orphanage. I have to wake you up in the morning and make breakfast for everyone. Layfon would help out at Father's dojo and I'd walk around in a suit......A small dream of the future. Just before I wake up, I'd see Layfon leaving, wearing the white and silver uniform of a Heaven's Blade Receiver. This makes me sad.
I liked the Layfon who trained in Military Arts, but not the Layfon who was a Heaven's Blade Receiver. I'm proud of the heroic Layfon who fought for everyone, but I didn't like Layfon going to such dangerous places alone.
I know I'm spoiled, but my wish for Layfon not to do anything dangerous is real.
I understand a bit more of your situation in Zuellni through your letters. In Grendan, it's hard for us to imagine a threat besides that of filth monsters, but it's possible that we might die from this other threat.
Do your best in the Military Arts Competition but I hope you don't do your best when fighting filth monsters. You can't not do your best when fighting filth monsters......I think that's what you'd say. You'd say, there's no such thing as doing your best or not when you face a life and death situation.
Yeah, I know.
But, please don't do your best. What a headache. I'm not sure how to explain this! I'm rewriting the last part of this letter.
I hope Layfon can come back to Grendan. Yeah, that's what I want to say. It's okay if you don't come back as a Military Artist. Anything's fine. I just want Layfon to come back. Six years is a long time, but if Layfon decides to return, then I'll wait for you.
I'll wait and write to you during this time, though I don't know whether letters can bridge the far distance between us.
That's all.
To my dear Layfon Wolfstein Alseif.
Leerin Marfes
"Aah......This is a piece of crap," Sharnid complained.
"Don't say that. It's managed to come this far," Nina said, but she wasn't sure whether her evaluation was right, as this was her first time being so far away from Zuellni. The bike had stopped in the middle of nowhere.
"At a time like this, we should be returning in victory. You won't ever see this kind of scene in a movie."
"This isn't a movie. It's life. Forget about that; if we don't hurry up, we won't get back before sunset. And we've eaten all the food."
"If that's what you think, why not come and help?"
"You want a patient to work? What a terrible man you are."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll do it, captain."
"Mm." Nina nodded.
Sitting on the spare tire, Sharnid lowered his shoulders and sighed. He was changing the tire. Nina sat on a nearby boulder and watched him work.
"This guy can really sleep......Geez, I've got to do everything."
"Don't say that; he's really tired," Nina smiled.
&nb
sp; Layfon......wasn't moving in the passenger's seat. He was sleeping. He was exhausted......Of course. He had been fighting the filth monster for an entire day. He must have overexerted himself.
"Let him rest."
"......Be grateful to our kind captain."
"Yeah," Nina smiled again and looked at Layfon. Both layers of his armor suit were dirty and covered in sand. Who knew what expression he wore while he slept? Nina couldn't tell because of Layfon's helmet. Was he dreaming? If so, what was he dreaming about? About...the sender of that letter? She waved away that thought.
"This guy......Is really abnormal in many ways."
He wanted to solve everything himself. Whether it was the past that Nina had heard of, or the things he encountered in Zuellni. She told him back in the valley to abandon those things, but could Layfon do that? Although he wasn't that old, what she said to abandon dominated a large part of his personality. It wouldn't be that easy to abandon everything. He would do something similar again.
(If that happens, I'll just stop him again.)
Because Nina was his captain......
"I really don't know what to do with him."
She smiled again and realized Sharnid was looking at her.
"What?"
"Nothing......You really think a lot of him, so maybe the captain likes younger guys."
"How's that possible......" She smiled and shook her head. It must be because she was tired too.
"He's my subordinate and comrade. His position in our relationship won't go higher or lower."
Sharnid shrugged. "No fun at all." He screwed the spare tire in place.
She looked at him and turned her gaze back to the sleeping Layfon, her subordinate and comrade.
"......That's all there is to it."
The tiny pain she felt when reading the letter......
Nina's words disappeared under her armor-suit without an echo.
Appendix
This section may contain spoilers! Proceed at your own risk.
Regios
Silent Talk Page 13
