Rio shook his head bluntly. “No, not yet. We’re only just finished warming up.”
Aki refused to back down. “B-But Masato’s at his limit! You’re just bullying him like this!” she said, pointing at Masato. His breathing was harsh and his complexion was pale, and both his legs trembled fiercely. Rio sighed quietly.
“Masato, do you want to give up?” he asked. A silence suddenly fell over everyone present as their attention gathered on Masato.
“I’ll...” Masato murmured, then raised his voice. “I’ll do this!” he yelled with intensity, fixing his gaze on Rio.
“Masato, you...” A sour expression crossed Aki’s face. She wanted to say more, but Masato’s glare made her close her mouth.
“I see. As long as Masato desires it, I won’t ease up.” Rio shook his head slowly, his expression emotionless.
“...I apologize for interrupting. Please take care of Masato.” Aki’s face was woeful as she bowed her head at Rio and spoke in a shaking voice. Her eyes were filled with frustrated tears.
“...Got it. Let’s resume this, Masato.” Rio nodded, immediately returning to the battle.
Ten minutes later, Masato was lying face up on the floor, mentally and physically drained to the core. “Hah... Hah...” He attempted to pick up his sword once more, but his body refused to budge.
“...That’s enough, Masato. It’s over. You did well,” Rio informed Masato gently, letting the strength drain from his own body.
Masato scraped together the energy to speak. “Is it... hah... hah... over? I can... still... go on.”
“It’s all right. I know how strong your heart is now, so I’ll be teaching you swordcraft properly from tomorrow onward,” Rio declared.
“R-Really? I-I did it.” Masato must have been relieved, as his whole body relaxed and he slumped his full weight against the ground.
“...I’m sorry. I may have been a little harsh,” Rio said with an apologetic look.
“Haha... I thought so too. But it was for my sake, right? Thanks to that, I know just how naive I was. Thanks, Haruto.”
“...You’ll become a good swordsman, Masato.”
“That’s because you’ll be my teacher, Haruto.” Masato nodded, giggling.
“Really, now...” Rio huffed with a smile.
“Looks like that’s settled, then. You were wonderful, Masato,” Sara said.
“Yup. You were really cool,” Orphia added.
“That wasn’t a test that just anyone could pass. You should feel proud of yourself,” Alma said, adding to the praise.
“Masato, good work.”
“...Well done, Masato.” Miharu and Aki also called out to him.
“You did it, Masato. Rio’s training was no walk in the park, huh?”
“Right? He was way harsher than the instructor I had!”
“You stood before Onii-chan face to face. I think you should be proud.”
Arslan, Vera, and Latifa gave Masato words of encouragement and praise, too.
“Hehe, everyone... Thank you. —Ow, that hurts, Aki.” Masato looked up at them and thanked them; his face was as bright as the clear and sunny sky. But when Aki struck him on the head, he pouted his lips.
“It’s your fault for worrying me with your recklessness.”
“Heh, so you were worried for me?”
“Shuddup.” Aki prodded Masato in the head once more.
Rio watched the siblings’ exchange. “Let’s make Masato’s favorite foods tonight, to celebrate,” he suggested.
“Ah, that’s a good idea,” Orphia agreed. “Let’s have a party! Miharu, we can cook together.”
“Sure, I’d love to.”
“Eeh, that’s not fair! I want to join in too. Make us meat patties!”
“Me too! I want to eat spaghetti!”
Arslan and Vera voiced their desire to join in.
“Hey, it’s not your favorite foods they’ll be cooking, you know?” Sara stated with a sigh.
“Ehehe, then I want to go to the hot springs with everyone after dinner,” Latifa suggested with a happy laugh.
“That sounds good. The sparring matches earlier did make us sweat a bit,” Alma nodded, interested.
Haruto, you worked hard today. Aishia’s voice echoed in the back of Rio’s mind.
...Aishia? Rio looked around his surroundings in surprise, but he didn’t see Aishia anywhere; he figured that was because she was in her spirit form, but...
Dryas taught me how to communicate with my contract partner through long distance telepathy. I’m to your left right now, but I can communicate within a one kilometer radius. Focus on the path that connects us and look my way.
Rio moved his eyes as ordered, then spotted Aishia at the corner of the square.
...So that’s what you mean. Is this okay? Rio immediately replied to Aishia through telepathy.
It’s good.
Have you finished talking with Dryas already?
Yup. We finished talking for today, so I came to find you.
I see. Will you tell me what you talked about later?
Of course. We’ll talk then.
While the people around him made merry, Aishia’s gentle voice echoed in the back of Rio’s head. That was enough to fill his chest with a strange warmth, healing him.
◇ ◇ ◇
That night, Rio and the others prepared an extravagant meal and held a dinner party to celebrate Masato’s ability to overcome the practical test. However, Masato was so exhausted, he fell asleep right away.
Afterward, Rio offered to watch the house as Masato snoozed away in his room, while the girls — excluding Aishia — headed for the hot springs near the town hall that they had reserved. With Rio and Masato remaining in the house, Arslan went home by himself. Aishia passed on the hot springs as she wanted to sleep, since spirits could remain clean even without bathing anyway.
After seeing the girls off at the door, Rio returned to the living room alone. Everyone had cleaned up after their meal together, so he didn’t have anything in particular to do.
Aishia seems to have fallen asleep... I guess I’ll take a bath, too. Better go get a change of clothes.
Rio stretched lightly to relieve his stiff body before heading to his room. He turned on the artifact-powered light in his room and entered.
“Haruto,” Aishia said, suddenly materializing beside Rio.
Rio’s eyes widened slightly. “...You’re still awake.”
“Yeah. I have something to tell you.” Aishia nodded.
“Oh, right... About the required knowledge of a spirit that Dryas told you about?”
“That, and about you, too.”
“...Me?” Rio responded in surprise.
Aishia nodded, peering at Rio’s face closely. “Yeah, because you’re feeling a little sad. Are you okay?”
“That’s not true... Why do you ask?” Rio swallowed his breath, watching Aishia back.
“Because you showed everyone a side of yourself that you didn’t want them to see,” Aishia stated without any hesitance at all, as though it was obvious.
“...Why do you think that?” Rio asked nervously.
“I told you in the beginning: I know everything about Haruto,” Aishia asserted in response. By the “beginning,” she probably meant the first time she woke up in the rock house. Rio’s eyes widened with shock.
“I see... So I guess there’s nothing I can hide from you, Aishia...” he said, disappointed. He let a bitter smile show through his facade.
“Yeah.”
“Ahaha, of course you’d say that. I just want to ask one thing. Was I acting weird after the mock battle?”
Aishia shook her head. “You looked normal from the outside... But deep in your heart, you weren’t.”
“It’s all right. It’s fine, Aishia.” Rio said as though he was convincing himself, shaking his head slowly, but Aishia suddenly walked forward.
“You don’t have to act strong in front of me,” she said, hugging Rio g
ently.
“?!” Rio froze stiff with a flinch.
“Even if it’s fine, I want to hear it. What Haruto is feeling, what Haruto is thinking,” Aishia whispered by Rio’s ear.
The strength in Rio’s body gave out as he sighed. Aishia’s warmth was so comforting — his heart felt completely at ease.
“...I do feel like I showed them something I didn’t want them to see. The truth is, I didn’t want to show them that. But if they want to live in this world, then I believe there are things they need to see. The violent and cruel side of humans,” Rio added after a moment with a mumble at the end.
“Was the reason why you didn’t want to show them because it was Miharu, Aki, and Masato?” Aishia asked, seeing through him.
“...That’s right. I wonder what they think of how I acted today... It’s possible that I scared them. When I imagine that, my chest kind of hurts.” Rio nodded, voicing a feeble whine he would have never revealed to anyone else. “But... it’s fine,” he said with a smile of resignation, as though he had sensed something.
It was true that Miharu and the others had yet to scrape the surface of this world’s values, but Rio believed it was better that way. Ignorantly believing in peace would expose them to danger, so a certain amount of exposure was necessary... but there was no need to submerge them in it. That was why they only needed to know enough to understand that they couldn’t always wander through the world with only idealistic thoughts in their minds.
Rio didn’t want to force that role on anyone else. That was why he thought teaching Masato swordcraft was the perfect opportunity; humans revealed the ugliest side of themselves when they were fighting, so if anything, it was a little better to cause them to feel fear. Not to mention —
The worlds we live in are different.
That was right — they lived in different worlds. He could no longer turn back, and the visitors to this world still had the possibility of being able to return to Earth. That’s why Rio believed this was for the best.
“I will always be with you, Haruto. I’ll accept all of you,” Aishia said, hugging Rio even tighter.
“...Thank you.” Rio hugged Aishia back softly and awkwardly.
◇ ◇ ◇
Thirty minutes later, Miharu was thinking about Rio as she sank into the water of the hot spring.
I’ll have to thank Haruto again sometime.
Of course, she was thinking about the situation with Masato. He respected Masato’s own will, faced him seriously in battle, and agreed to teach him how to use a sword. When Masato first said he wanted to learn swordcraft, Miharu had imagined a vague extension of some kind of sport instead. She hadn’t properly understood that swords and swordcraft were weapons and techniques that were required in a fight for your life. Perhaps, if it was Haruto — the Haruto that had memories of life in Japan — then Miharu believed that he would have been able to teach swordcraft from the perspective of a sport.
But Haruto didn’t — Rio didn’t — do that.
He clearly explained why swords and swordcraft existed, then challenged what Masato wanted to do. He must have thought that it would have been unfortunate for Masato to live in this world thinking of swordcraft as a type of sport. Miharu could keenly feel the amount of thought that Rio had put into Masato, as well as the rest of them.
Even though I should be pulling myself together, I’m still relying on Haruto for everything.
Miharu’s face fell with shame. Rather than pulling herself together, she had been unreliable, and constantly needing Rio’s support. She hadn’t done anything for Aki and Masato, as their elder. The fact that she felt pathetic was inevitable.
I can’t do anything about swordcraft myself, but... Yes — the least I can do is make sure I support Haruto properly.
Miharu nodded firmly, having made her decision.
For now, I have to find something I can do... Rio was the kind of person who could do anything flawlessly, so it was difficult to find something she could do for him. Miharu groaned quietly.
“What’s wrong, Miharu?” Latifa, who had already been soaking in the bathtub, asked her with a tilt of her head.
Surprised, Miharu shook her head. “Huh? Ah, umm. It’s nothing.”
“...Were you thinking about Onii-chan, maybe?” Latifa asked, as though she had seen right through Miharu’s thoughts.
“U-Umm... Yeah. How did you know?” Miharu’s eyes widened.
“Ehehe, because I was thinking of him too,” Latifa said, nodding confidently.
“You’re always thinking about Rio, Latifa,” Sara said in an exasperated tone, as she’d been listening to them.
“Heh. Don’t you also think about Rio at a fairly frequent rate, Sara?” Alma quipped, jumping into the conversation without a moment’s delay.
“I-I may have been doing so just now, but it doesn’t happen frequently.” Sara shook her head in embarrassment.
“Fufu, were you thinking of the Rio we saw earlier today? I was too,” Orphia said with a smile; she was submerged in the tub. Then Sara looked at Miharu, Latifa, Orphia, and Alma, the four girls who were in the bathtub with her.
“I guess we were all thinking the same thing,” she said with a small sigh.
“Hmph! I was thinking about Rio too, you know?” Vera pouted her lips as she spoke up. Aki nodded hesitantly beside her.
“Well, me too... I mean, about that mock battle between Masato and Haruto.”
“Then, what did you two think after seeing that battle today?” Sara asked Vera and Aki, watching their expressions.
“I... umm. Honestly, I was scared. I almost thought Masato was going to get killed,” Aki said with a pained expression.
“I had chills running down my spine. His intensity was amazing, even though I was just an onlooker,” Vera agreed, shuddering.
“It’s a rite of passage. It’s all in order to understand that sometimes, you need to be relentless before your opponent’s death. It might be drastic, but it’s a necessary experience in order to become a warrior. You have to learn this, so it’s better to do it earlier and in the safest situation possible,” Sara said with a strained smile.
“So if a war begins, every warrior in this village will turn to what Haruto was like today?” Aki asked timidly.
“...No, not everyone can show the same amount of vigor that Rio can — only the warriors who have crossed the line of life and death before.”
“Ahaha. I felt overwhelmed by it, even though I was just watching from the sidelines.”
“Right. It gives me chills to imagine what would have happened if Rio had fought us in that state when he first wandered into this village with Latifa.”
Sara, Orphia, and Alma — the three girls who sometimes had to become warriors — each voiced their thoughts.
“...Does that mean Haruto has overcome that much carnage on the battlefield?” Aki asked, swallowing.
“In a place we don’t know, probably.” Sara nodded with a serious expression.
When we first arrived in this world, the slave trader who kidnapped us seemed to be really afraid of Rio too. Did he see it too? The Rio from today... Aki suddenly imagined, an indescribable chill running down her spine. She felt too irrationally scared to think any more than that.
Unconvinced, Vera turned to question Latifa. “Hmm, while it wasn’t a Rio that we were familiar with... Did you recognize that side of him, Latifa?”
Latifa shook her head, a fleeting smile on her face. “Nope, I didn’t either. But to me, Onii-chan is Onii-chan. Nothing has changed. What about you, Miharu?” she asked. Miharu had been silently lost in her own thoughts. Miharu seemed to search inside herself for her feelings before agreeing with Latifa.
“Hm? Yeah, I agree with Latifa. Even if there’s a side of him I don’t know, Haruto is still Haruto. I don’t think that will change.”
The Rio that had faced Masato was certainly colder and scarier than she ever imagined he could be from his usual self. However, even then, there was
something sad and lonely about him. Strangely, that didn’t make him feel like a different person to Miharu. Perhaps it would be better to say that the Rio Miharu knew hadn’t changed at his core.
That being said, when she thought about that Rio, something strange within her chest stirred, as though he was somewhere far away, despite being right nearby. With that as her only concern, Miharu gave a pained smile.
“Ehehe, I see. Then you’re just like me.” Latifa nodded happily.
“...Yeah, just like you.” This time, Miharu was able to smile happily, and the painful stirring in her chest quieted down a little.
“I see. That’s true — Rio is still Rio. I think I understand now!” Vera also seemed to comprehend something, beaming widely.
“Hmph, it feels like you took the spotlight off that moment.” Sara pouted a little in protest.
“Fufu. Then that means you’re thinking the same thing. I am too,” Orphia said, smiling gently with amusement.
Caught off guard, Sara blushed deeply. “Ugh...”
“Ah, Sara’s embarrassed.” Alma grinned.
“Hmph!” Sara turned away to hide her embarrassment, the others all watching her before breaking into giggles. Sara groaned and ducked her head, cheeks turning all the more scarlet.
“Fufufu, this is fun. If only Aishia came along too,” Latifa said, a happy smile on her face.
“She’s probably turned into her spirit form and snoozing away inside Haruto right now, though she’ll sometimes turn into her physical form in her sleep and end up burying into Rio’s bed,” Aki remembered, her lips tugging upward in a grin as she spoke.
“Eeh, really?! That’s not fair. I want to sleep in the same bed with him!” Latifa exclaimed with jealousy.
“Eeh? B-But isn’t Haruto like a brother to you, Latifa? Umm, that is... wouldn’t it be embarrassing? Sleeping together with your brother...” Aki seemed to be imagining herself in Latifa’s place, her speech awkward.
“Huh? That’s not true. I want to bathe together with him, too,” Latifa replied passionately.
The Silver Bride Page 7
