“Essentially, nothing’s changed. Akuto Sai remains a student here, and we’ll continue to protect him. Peterhausen’s existence doesn’t break any laws either. Specifically, there aren’t any laws we can apply to him.”
Fujiko felt relieved. Lily was, after all, the student council president, so she was already working for the government. So Fujiko was very grateful that there wasn’t going to be a fight here.
“Excellent. That is good news, yes.”
“That’s not all. I don’t believe that simply maintaining the status quo is ‘good news.’ Just know that I’ve gotten tired of the pacifists... that is, the majority faction that I belong to.”
Lily grinned. She had a face like a young boy, but when she smiled it sent shivers down Fujiko’s spine.
“Tired of them...?”
“Those old geezers are using a Liradan to try and seduce Akuto Sai.”
Fujiko was shocked.
“Um... seduce him?”
“I don’t think that’s okay. Liradans can’t disobey orders. And on top of that, they’re telling her that if she fails she’ll be removed from the mission. I know that boy’s dense, but still, no man’s ever been able to refuse a Liradan when she seriously tried to seduce him. A lot of politicians used to be caught up in scandals like that.”
“That... that’s unforgivable!”
“I agree. Someday, I gotta become an adult who’s okay with that stuff. But once I start hating something, I can’t stop. And that’s the good news. I’m going to start getting involved in this matter personally.”
“What do you mean...?” Fujiko asked. It certainly didn’t seem like she was planning to help Akuto.
“I’m not going to be working with the pacifists, is what I’m saying. But I’m not going to be ignoring the hardliners like Akuto Sai does, either. I’ve found information on the leaders behind this attempt to start a war. And no matter what Akuto says, I’m going to kill them!”
Lily smacked her fists together in front of her chest.
“The leaders behind the attempt to start a war?”
“CIMO-8.”
“Is that their name?”
“The Cabinet Information Magic Office. They have eight agents. I’ve also got information that they’ve already begun to act. They’re experts in information gathering and anti-magical combat.”
“That... is good news, yes.”
Lily had come to share information with them, and she was also going to crush their current enemy. Maybe for all her talk, she really did care about Akuto, Fujiko thought.
But...
“But that means I’ll be your enemy.” Lily said.
“Huh?”
“If he ends up being a tool of the black mages, or doing anything to destabilize society, no matter what the pacifist faction says, I’ll crush him. You, in particular, should keep this in mind, Fujiko Eto...”
Fujiko tensed up, but she knew that there was no way she could defeat the Student Council President. She started thinking of a way she could get Peterhausen to handle this for her. But Lily quickly broke into a grin.
“You’re not the meal I’m looking for. Pass him a message, okay? Tell him I haven’t shown him everything.”
“...Alright.” Fujiko nodded, and Lily left.
Fujiko slumped backwards, and Peterhausen laughed.
“She’s a good kid, huh?”
“I’d rather fight with my mind,” Fujiko said.
“If you take stubbornness to that degree, it actually turns to your advantage. Anyway, if you’re really so clever, shouldn’t you be passing some information to our master?”
Fujiko gasped, and took out her student handbook. It had a communicator function. She tried to contact Akuto, but for some reason he didn’t pick up.
“Mana interference...?”
Fujiko turned to Peterhausen for an explanation.
“I wonder about this anti-magical expert. Mana jamming is a basic skill someone like that would know.”
“But if the whole class at the retreat is under its effects, the teachers should have noticed. Maybe it’s only Akuto that’s in danger...”
Fujiko decided to send a message to Keena instead. She picked up after a few rings.
《Oh, hey there. How’s it going?》
“Don’t ‘how’s it going’ me! You tricked me and stuck with Peterhausen! Wait... we can talk about that later! Where’s Akuto?”
《Huh? Ackie? I don’t think he’s around, actually.》
“Are you listening? Because this is important...”
○
Akuto heard a noise in the bushes and tensed up as he moved away from the tree. He readied himself for whatever might pop out of the bushes.
But...
“Ackie! I finally found you!”
It was Keena.
“Keena...”
“I got a message from Fujiko, so I followed you so I could tell you.”
Keena sat down right in front of him.
“Sorry. I think somebody was watching me... I followed them with Korone, but she ran off...”
“Oh. When I went to your room I saw you running into the bushes, so I just followed your light,” Keena said, laughing. Akuto felt silly for getting so tense.
“So what did she want?”
Keena tilted her head.
“Huh? Um... there were a lot of things.”
Keena looked like she was trying to remember. Akuto felt a little worried. She wasn’t usually this slow.
“Are you okay?”
He peered into her face. Keena’s face was red, and she was out of breath.
“I’m okay... I just ran and flew for a little, so I’m out of breath. Oh, I remember! One of the things was that a bad guy named Simon-5 is coming after you!”
Keena clapped her hands together.
“That sounds like the name of some kind of five-member folk band...”
“No, I think I might’ve messed the name up. But somebody bad is after you. And they’re good at killing mages. Scary, huh?”
Keena didn’t look scared at all, so Akuto wasn’t sure how to respond. But thinking rationally, this was bad news.
—So that’s what caused the problem with the mana device?
There was no point in telling this to Keena, so he just nodded to himself.
“What else?”
“Um... It was the student council president who told her, she said. What else was there?”
Keena was just too dumb sometimes. That, and her face was really red.
“It’s so hot, isn’t it? But don’t worry. I brought this so we could drink it together.”
Keena took a canteen off of her belt. She took the cap off and poured out a thick white liquid into it.
“What’s that?”
“Heheheh... It’s a new drink I came up with! I got thirsty and had some on the way here, so I can guarantee it’s delicious!”
Keena held the canteen cap up high.
“Okay, so it’s delicious, but... what is it?”
“It’s rice juice!” said Keena as she puffed her chest out proudly. And then she swallowed it down. “It’s so good!”
“...Uh... good? No way...” Akuto said uneasily.
“You can have some too, okay? I always wondered how you could make rice juice, and I finally figured out a way! So I brought it with me on the trip...”
Keena filled up the cap again from the canteen, and offered it to Akuto.
“...You make rice and then you crush it and mix it up with water, and then this is what’s important, you add yeast and yogurt and put it in a bottle! Then you let it sit for two days and the stuff on the top tastes really good! And then I found out something even more amazing! If you skim the stuff off the top and put it in the fridge, it gets carbonated like cider!” Keena happily explained.
—Oh... that’s... Yep. I knew it.
Akuto took the cap and sniffed it. It did smell good, but it didn’t seem like something minors should be drinking.
/> “Keena, this has alcohol in it...” Akuto said, but she was already too far gone. She was bright red and swaying from side to side.
“Hehehe... I see lots of Ackies!”
—She drank a whole bunch of it after running, so...
“Okay, no more drinking that. Come here and rest.”
Akuto leaned Keena up against the tree he’d been resting against. When he put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from falling over, Keena suddenly yanked him forward.
“Uwah!”
“Hehehe... Ackie, this feels good.”
She rubbed her cheek up against him. He’d been crouching down to keep her from falling over, but since that was uncomfortable, he just sat next to her. Keena kept her arms wrapped around him as she leaned onto him with her whole weight.
“Onyonyonyonyo...”
She started to make weird noises as she nibbled at his ear.
“H-Hey! That tickles!”
“Aww, isn’t it nice? It feels kind of like the old days...”
—The old days? Wait, didn’t I think that I’d met Keena somewhere, a long time ago?
Akuto thought back to his past. Just when he’d been leaving the orphanage, there was a girl who had just arrived. She was crying so much that he’d spent all the money he had to buy her a hairpiece like a grownup would wear. It looked just like the one Keena was wearing now, but Keena didn’t seem to remember this.
“Maybe we really did meet a long time ago.”
“Maybe, huh! Maybe I was destined to meet you. Hehehe...”
Keena laughed for a while. It wasn’t the serious answer that Akuto had hoped for.
—There’s no reason to worry about it though, I guess. But wait... why does this bother me so much?
He remembered what Junko had said to him earlier that day.
“Y-You call Keena by her first name, don’t you? We’re friends too. So why don’t you call me by my first name?”
He’d thought it was because Junko was always so formal, but thinking back, that didn’t seem to be it. Maybe it was just because he found it easy to relax around Keena?
—If that’s the case... Maybe I fell in love with Keena a long time ago?
Once he started to think about that, he couldn’t stop.
Thanks to her “rice juice,” Keena smelled a little like baked sweets. Her soft, defenseless body was like a fresh rice cake...
—Rice cake? Maybe Keena’s influencing me more than I thought.
Akuto shook his head and tried to calm down. He looked at Keena’s face. She’d gotten so quiet he thought she’d fallen asleep, but she was looking at him with wide-open eyes.
—Uwah...!
He almost gasped. Somehow he managed to avoid looking away. It felt like if he did, it would be rude.
Keena smiled gently, and he felt like he could forget all the things that had happened today. Her eyes seemed to be drawing him in.
“Ackie’s trying to kiss me. Naughty!” Keena said suddenly.
He felt like she’d seen into his heart, and started to panic.
“D-Don’t be stupid.”
“Hmm... Yeah, that’s right. You’re not allowed to be naughty. But you can kiss me on the cheek,” Keena said, and offered him her bright red cheek.
—That’s right. That wouldn’t go against my religion... Wait, yes it would. But...
For Akuto, it was less a feeling of lust and more a feeling of deep contentment in his heart. Something like the family he’d always wanted. It was something he’d sought, but always rejected when it was offered to him. But Keena was the one person he felt he could get it from.
—If it’s just out of friendship, maybe it’s okay...
He brought his face closer to her.
“Yay!” Keena yelled happily, and wrapped her arm around his neck.
His lips moved closer to her cheek...
“Hiya!”
POW!
A violence thwack knocked him away. He fell headfirst into the ground.
“Hey...”
He got up and turned around, and saw Korone standing next to Keena.
“Y-You didn’t need to hit me,” he complained, but Korone responded with her usual expressionless tone.
“I was taking evasive action when you happened to be in my way.”
“I heard you say ‘hiya!’”
Korone ignored him.
“As I said, I was taking evasive action. There’s no time for arguing.”
“What are you talking about...”
He took a step forward, trying to understand what she meant. And suddenly he felt something like a sharp headache.
He staggered for an instant, and then...
BANG!
At the same time, Korone began to slowly collapse.
“Korone!”
He tried to run towards her, but as she fell to her knees she held out a hand to stop him.
“Stay away. I’ll be fine. I was simply shot.”
—Shot? Wait, I know that sound... It’s the sound of an Incantation Gun.
“Is it the guy we were following?” Akuto asked. She nodded. Korone’s body was tough, and her exterior seemed unchanged, but he couldn’t tell how much internal damage she’d taken.
Akuto knelt down, holding his breath as he tried to sense anyone around him. But he couldn’t sense anyone.
“I believe I know who the enemy is,” Korone said.
“Who is it?” Akuto asked, but she shook her head.
“I can’t say.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t say that, either. But there’s something I have to ask you now.”
“What?”
Korone looked at him sternly.
“How do you feel about Keena?”
Through the shock of hearing such a question so suddenly, he noticed that her eyes were different than usual. There was emotion in them.
“Wh-Why are you asking me this now?”
“It’s important. It concerns whether I can fight the enemy for you now.”
“Wh-What are you talking about...?”
“There is no need for further explanation,” Korone said.
—Is this...
Even someone as dim as Akuto was starting to realize what was going on here. Or perhaps his interaction with the drunk Keena had finally made him start thinking about “love.”
—Is Korone in love with me, and trying to disobey the government to help me? Is that why she’s trying to find out what I feel about her? Wait, if that’s right, then what do I do? I need Korone with me, but there’s no way I could be in that kind of relationship with her.
“L-Listen... Are you mad that I was with Keena?” Akuto asked.
“I am not mad. But it causes problems for me,” she responded.
—Come to think of it, Korone has started to use the words “me” and “I” more often lately. I thought Liradans didn’t really talk in those terms... I guess when they get their own identity, they start to do that. Which means that...
“No, I’m sorry. But I don’t think things are going to go in the direction you’re hoping for... ever,” Akuto said. He was hesitant, but he felt that he needed to make this clear. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like you, or that I don’t need you. I need you, and that’s not going to change. But I don’t think I can give you what you’re hoping for.”
For a moment, Korone didn’t answer.
“That is, for me, a very sad thing.”
Korone looked down, but he could see the sorrow on her face. Akuto felt something wrenching at his heart. It was something he’d never felt before. Her next words were a whisper that she seemed to be forcing out of her lungs.
“I judge that the mission is a failure. I may no longer be able to stay here.”
“W-Wait, what does that mean...”
“I cannot say. But this may be the last time I see your face. If that’s correct, I must say goodbye.”
“Wait a second!”
With a feeling o
f dread, Akuto reached out a hand towards Korone.
But she just shook her head.
“I will do my best. But you shouldn’t expect much. Thank you for everything. And goodbye...”
Korone took something that looked like a doorknob from her bag and held it over her head. A hole opened in space, like a door appearing out of nowhere. Korone slipped inside it. It must have been some kind of personal teleporter.
“Wait. Why are you leaving without any explanation? I need you...”
Korone was already halfway through the teleporter. She turned back and waved her hand sadly.
“Goodbye.”
And then she disappeared.
The teleporter door vanished, and he was once again surrounded by dark woods. The only things left, it seemed, were the tears that Korone had shed.
But there was no time to think about it. He heard the sound of someone moving in the bushes up ahead.
—Is it the guy that shot Korone?
He looked towards the bushes. They were moving as if someone was trying to flee. They must’ve tried and failed to escape without being noticed.
—Maybe I can at least keep them from getting away...!
Akuto was a consistent failure when it came to magic, but at this point he didn’t have a choice. He concentrated on trying to freeze all the bushes. But with the mana jamming, and the headache he’d felt just before Korone was shot, something went wrong. At this point he could’ve guessed that someone nearby was keeping him from using magic, but right now, he wasn’t thinking clearly.
—Damn it!
The power in his hands was already going out of control. But it was too late. An explosion struck the bushes, violently shaking the surrounding area. A blast of light illuminated the darkness. It must’ve been visible from a long way away.
“Kyaah!”
He heard a scream from the bushes, and was surprised at how young it sounded.
“Huh...?”
He ran towards the scream with his light. Reflected in the light he saw a young girl, who must’ve been around ten years old.
“A-Are you okay?”
Akuto kneeled by her. Fortunately, she was unhurt, and still breathing. She was just unconscious. The moment he’d realized he’d failed, he’d reduced the power of his magic. Evidently that had paid off. That, and the fact that he hadn’t hit her directly. But a loud explosion that close was more than enough to knock a young girl out.
Demon King Daimaou: Volume 3 Page 6
