CH 97

[Racing Through the City]

The next day, Amanai was racing through the city chasing a wagon running in front of him.

“Wait! Stop! Hey!” (Amanai)

His voice calling for it to stop echoed to the surroundings, making the people he passed by directed him a curious look, wondering what was going on.

However, Amanai was so impatient that he couldn’t even sense them; he desperately kept moving his legs.

The curtain of the wagon was blown by the wind and shook like flapping wings.

Visible through the gap in the loading platform was an unconscious girl, Akano Reika.

She did not seem to be injured, but the situation was as is. He had to rescue her as soon as possible— so Amanai’s impatience pushed his back.

“You hear me!? Hey! Sakurai!” (Amanai)

In response to the voice of Amanai chasing after the wagon, the shaking curtain of the wagon was brushed aside and Sakurai showed up.

Seeing him, who puffed out his chest and made a fearless smile like he was not afraid of anything, anger arose in Amanai’s heart.

“You! What the hell are you up to!? Stop right now!” (Amanai)

His voice calling for stop was intentionally ignored, and his distance to the wagon gradually widened.

Still, Amanai kept chasing the wagon.

He gritted his teeth, shook off the thought of giving up that surfaced in his mind, and continued to run while repeatedly telling himself that he could still catch up to it like he was grasping at straws.

———The matter began when Sakurai, who had disappeared, appeared in front of Amanai and co.

The second competition of the academy festival, Capture the Flag, was postponed due a trouble occurring on the military academy side.

‘On account of the inn where the knight apprentices were staying was burned up early yesterday due to the mishandling of fire, the second competition is postponed to ensure fairness in terms of physical condition when challenging the competition’… so was the contents of the distributed official notice, and the students were delighted to get free time.

However, not few students suspected that there was something going behind the scenes, and Amanai was one of them, but he didn’t think deeply about it and just aimlessly took a walk around the city with his friends.

“…Hey, why don’t we go find Sakurai and see how he’s doing? I mean, we need to discuss about the upcoming competition too, right?” (Amanai)

“Then, I’ll go check on Tōru by myself, so you guys should go and relax.” (Ethel)

“Eh?” (Amanai)

Amanai, who was somewhat impatient because yesterday’s matter was weighing on his mind, proposed to check on the condition of Sakurai who disappeared into the sky during yesterday’s competition, but Ethel volunteered herself to take on that role.

For her wanting to check on Sakurai alone, she must be up to something, he thought, but——

“Your expression is dark right now. If you show him such an expression, who knows what he’d say, right?” (Ethel)

“Well, I agree that if you don’t show him a firm expression, who knows what Sakurai-kun would say. This is an unexpected free time anyway; I think it’s okay to go around the city to relax yourself.” (Reika)

He had no word to return to his two friends who appeared to have found out that he was still bothered by Baldasare’s words, but he couldn’t deny their opinion of who knew what Sakurai would say if he showed him that he was mentally weakened, albeit slightly.

“Then… Reika. Can you, accompany me to go around the city?” (Amanai)

“Un, gladly. Where should we go, then? We can visit stalls, the flea market, or we can relax in a quiet place. Ah, but in that case, it’d we be difficult for us to receive contact from Ethel-chan if something happens, huh.” (Reika)

Akana made a wide smile, unable to conceal her joy of being able to go around the city with just the two of them, while beginning to think about a way to maintain contact with Ethel.

A world without communication devices such as mobile phones sure is inconvenient— he thought while feeling somewhat amused at the now worrying Akano.

“Hey, Amanai. Isn’t that Sakurai?” (Ethel)

“Sakurai?” (Amanai)

At that time, Ethel pointed her finger while tugging on Amanai’s sleeve.

When Amanai and Akano followed the direction of her finger, there was certainly Sakurai there, sitting in the coachman’s seat of the wagon and going through the city.

Perhaps Sakurai also noticed Amanai and co; after he said something to the cloaked person who was holding the horse’s rein next to him, the wagon slowly changed direction and started moving their way.

“Hey… is it just me, or they’re really getting faster?” (Reika)

“Or rather, that Tōru, he is laughing, isn’t he?”

“For now, let’s step asi——” (Amanai)

“Aaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaaanaaaaaaiiiiiii-kuuuuuuuuuunnnn!!” (Sakurai)

His scream, combined with his smile, with the corners mouth raised to the limit, made him looked like a wild beast, which intimidated Amanai and co; and the wagon was approaching them fast like it was not going to stop.

“W-what on earth!?”

At the sudden situation, Amanai and co moved to the side of the road in a hurry, but they were still confused by what Sakurai was intending to do.

Then the wagon, without showing any signs of slowing down, turned its course to one that would have it narrowly miss Amanai and co, and eventually, it ran right beside them while keeping that momentum.

“Heroine fishing!” (Sakurai)

“Huh, eh!? Kyaa!” (Reika)

“Reika!?” (Amanai)

“Hey! What’re you doing!!” (Ethel)

“I’m taking this girl with me! For the sake of the completion of my plan!” (Sakurai)

Then Akano, having caught by her collar, was immediately brought into the wagon.

It went without saying that Amanai reflexively reached out to Sakurai, who spouted a line like a villain, to try to recover Akano, but before his hand reached him, two shadows leapt out of the wagon at him, so he had no choice but to draw back his hand.

“Tsk!” (Amanai)

“We won’t let you.” “No passing through here.”

The ones who appeared were two girls wearing cloth armor, one with red hair and the other blue.

The twin sisters, who were identical except for their hair color, held daggers in their hands and attacked Amanai.

The twins were sister knights who worshipped Julia, and originally were duel opponents that appeared in Julia’s event.

Why were these two people teaming up with Sakurai? He had no time to ponder such a question, but he was certain that Sakurai were up to no good and might bring danger to his precious childhood friend.

“Don’t get——” (Amanai)

He had to stop him at all costs. Which meant had no time to deal with this level of opponents.

The twin sisters swung their daggers from the left and right at the same time.

However, their attacks only brushed past the front of Amanai, who had reflexively moved back half a step. Right after, he stepped forward and grabbed the sisters’ faces.

“——in my way!” (Amanai)

“Hogya!?” “Gueh!?”

And just like that, he slammed their heads to the ground. A heavy and dull sound echoed twice on the cobblestone ground.

The full power head slamming without any consideration for the other party instantly robbed the twin sisters of their consciousness.

“Ethel, I’ll leave the rest to you!” (Amanai)

“Okay! Quickly go!” (Ethel)

After leaving the miscellaneous tasks such as the treatment and restraint of the sisters to Ethel, Amanai broke into a run without checking them.

The only thing that occupied Amanai’s head was the thought of rescuing Akano, who was suddenly kidnapped, at all costs.

However, Amanai could only chase after the wagon.

Although his current speed was enough to slowly close the distance between them, with the fundamental difference in stamina between a horse and a human, there was no way he could maintain such a speed.

“Sakurai! What are you going to do! Answer me!” (Amanai)

“I told you, I’m going to use her to complete my plan! What, she’s not going to die— probably. No worries!” (Sakurai)

“What are you going to do with Reika!” (Amanai)

“Well, I’m just going to use her as a trading item. I don’t know how she’s going to end up to be, though!” (Sakurai)

Hearing what Sakurai said, Amanai was lost for words.

Perhaps he was getting tired of Amanai who still continued to run to rescue his childhood friend, Sakurai raised his hands and shook his head.

“Can’t be helped~. Hey, Amanai! Look at this!” (Sakurai)

What he showed to Amanai was a person he brought out from the inside of the wagon.

The name of the unconscious girl was Julia von Knaust.

Her body, which was tied by a rope, had some sort of lacerations all of over it, seemingly wounds from combat.

“Heave ho.” (Sakurai)

Then Sakurai thrusted a knife into Julia’s abdomen and threw her from the wagon while making a lighthearted voice.

“————Huh?” (Amanai)

Amanai’s thought stopped at the murder done in front of him.

He reflexively moved his body to slip beneath Julia, who was falling to the ground, and caught her body.

After pulling out the knife from her abdomen, he took out a potion and tried to heal her immediately, before noticing the shallowness of the wound.

Looking at the knife while administering the potion, the blade had blood only on the tip, and its handle had a small camouflaged button that was difficult to notice.

When he pressed it, most of the blade was retracted into the handle, and the knife became something that could only be said to be useless.

“‘The Magician’s* Good-for-Nothing Knife’…?” (Amanai) [TL: As in a person who performs magic tricks]

From unconsciously referencing on his game knowledge, Amanai surmised that it was an item that could be obtained from a quest involving a certain magician.

Its attack power was the weakest in the game; it was a weapon whose only usage was to be sold off. Such a weapon was stabbed into Julia’s abdomen.

If something like it was stabbed into one’s body from the top of their clothes, they’d at most shed a little blood.

Therefore, Amanai, who spent a little time to realize that its purpose was to stall for time, immediately took his eyes off Julia and looked up.

“Sakurai!!” (Amanai)

He yelled, but the wagon was nowhere in sight.

Because of his exhaustion, coupled with the fact he had stopped running, his legs trembled like a fawn as he stood up.

In such a state, he could no longer chase the wagon, which he didn’t even know to where it had gone.

“Where did you go… what are you going to do…” (Amanai)

While holding up the unconscious Yulia, Amanai stood up and muttered weakly.

How did it turn out like this, why did this happen, and what was Sakurai going to do?

Unanswered questions continued to swirl in Amanai’s head.

“Answer me… answer me, Sakurai!” (Amanai)