Ankoku Kishi Monogatari - Chapter 79.2

Chapter 79.2: The Beginning of the Storm

Honestly, it’s not like I didn’t understand her feelings. I mean, I’m a dancer. I knew what kind of hardship a dancer goes through to survive.

But, there was no way I’m gonna let her blabber around without even knowing what kind of suffering I went through too.

I felt magma-like rage boiling up in my heart upon hearing her venting like that.

I don’t know what kind of hardship you endured, you say? How dare you say that when you don’t even know a single thing about us.

We were born from our father, a priest of Oudith-sama, god of law and our mother, a priest of Ishtar-sama, goddess of love and beauty. Ishtar-sama’s creed prevented the two of them from getting married. Since our mother has no citizenship, we were treated as bastards who had no citizenship.

According to the Republic of Ariadya’s laws, a child who isn’t born from an official marriage won’t be recognized as the father’s child, even if we’re related by blood.

That’s why I have never lived like a princess in my entire life. The same went for my brother.

I’ve lived my entire life in the poor outer city along with my brother and mother.

Our life was by no means full of riches.

Such a lifestyle continued until someday, our father came to adopt nii-san. My father, who didn’t have an heir from his official wife, then adopted nii-san to become his heir.

But, it didn’t mean things were that simple.

According to the Republic of Ariadya’s law, he needed permission from Faeria temple who oversaw marriages in order to adopt niisan.

I don’t know about the details, but it seems to be a requirement to prevent human trafficking in the form of adoption.

In addition, Faeria temple didn’t admit niisan’s adoption.

It seems the fact that my father, Oudith’s priest, the god of law having a bastard gained their ire.

In addition, whether it was my father’s relatives or Oudith-sama’s priests, neither of them acknowledged niisan as our father’s child since he was a bastard.

But, niisan did his best to gain their recognition.

I am also putting a great effort on my own.

Everyday was a grueling training for me to master etiquette as fast as possible. Just like niisan, I did my best to gain recognition from the other people around me.

And yet, they still gave me a cold shoulder despite all the efforts I put in.

But, I knew that the great angel was watching over our efforts. On a certain day, niisan received the divine protection of the archangel, Sulsha-sama.

Seeing that niisan received the divine protection of the archangel, Sulsha-sama, the people around us had no choice but to recognize him, thus my brother became the official son of our father.

I was staring back at Ainoe-neesan.

I don’t mind if she trash talked me. But, I absolutely won’t forgive her for bad mouthing niisan without even knowing what kind of hardships he went through to arrive at his current position.

Once, a long time ago, I saw Ainoe-neesan play. Her at that time was really dazzling, and beautiful. I also wished to become like her someday. Thus, I enrolled in the same theatre troupe as her and trained desperately to be able to reach my goal.

I did my best to be able to reach my goal, Ainoe-neesan. That’s why I felt really sad, and angry at the same time when I heard her scream.

Did she think that she was the only one who was suffering from hardships out there?

「Neesan, I can’t understand what kind of trouble and suffering you experienced back then to reach your current position. But, don’t spout nonsense as if you know about niisan and me. Let’s settle this right here, right now.」

I readied my katana.

「Some nerve you got there, SIENNA!! FINE, I’M GONNA BEAT YOU IN YOUR OWN GAME!!」

Neesan readied her flexible sword too.

「W-WAIT!! AINOE-CHAN!!!」

「ZEAL-SAMA!! PLEASE, LET ME DO THIS!!」

Though the Lesser Daemon was trying to stop our fight, it seems Ainoe-neesan had no intentions of backing down from this fight.

「Sienna…」

Niisan was also calling my name with a worried look on his face.

「Don’t worry, niisan. Please watch my fight from there.」

Finally, we were facing each other.

The Lesser Daemon was waiting nervously behind Ainoe-neesan.

「O WIND, DANCE!!」

Ainoe-neesan recited her magic’s aria, it might be the power she received from the Lesser Daemon. Moreover, Ainoe-neesan’s flexible sword was moving weirdly along with her.

As if the sword itself was dancing along with her.

In that case, I’ll dance along with her.

As if reacting to my feelings, the black flame burst one more time from the katana which was entrusted by the Dark Knight to me.

If she was dancing in the wind, I shall respond to her with my dance of flames.

The flexible sword clad in the wind came toward me.

I ran toward Ainoe-neesan while turning my body to dodge the incoming sword.

”
”
And then, our shadows passed each other.

「So, I really can’t win huh…」

Ainoe-neesan muttered in a whisper. The flexible sword’s blade in her hand was gone.

I smashed the sword’s blade with the katana’s power.

And then, Ainoe-neesan fell on the ground as I hit the nape of her neck with the hilt of the katana. That moment, I saw tears flowing down from the tips of Ainoe-neesan’s eyes.

I feel sorry for her, but I shall take this victory.

I mean, just knowing about my patron, my victory was guaranteed.

Please don’t hold a grudge against me for this since the power of my patron was also part of my power, the same goes for you and the Lesser Daemon.

Ainoe-neesan should’ve understood that much. Nevertheless, she still insisted on fighting me.

I looked down at the woman who fell unconscious on the floor.

「Ainoe-chan…」

The Lesser Daemon was rushing toward her.

「PLEASE DON’T KILL HER!! I PROMISE YOU THAT SHE WON’T APPEAR BEFORE YOU AGAIN, BUT PLEASE DON’T KILL HER!!」

After telling me that, the Lesser Daemon carried Ainoe-neesan and vanished into the depths of the underground waterway.

Despite what the Lesser Daemon had said, I got the feeling that the Dark Knight he called master that I met before wasn’t a bad guy. That’s why, I wouldn’t blame Ainoe-neesan for her contract with a Lesser Daemon.

Naturally, there was no way I would tell niisan about that.

「Sienna. You, what in the hell is that sword?」

Niisan and co rushed toward me.

The ratmen who lost their leader were clearly confused.

「Let’s save the story for later niisan. Rather than talking about that, please lend me your flute for now. That flute should be able to control those ratmen.」

I recalled what the Moonlight Goddess-sama had told me.

It seems this flute’s effects didn’t just work on Karkinos, it also worked on ratmen. It seems neesan had no idea about this.

Well, she might never realize that. I mean, what other reason does she have for giving up so easily to retrieve such an important tool?

But, it was a trivial matter now.

I received the flute from niisan and placed it on my lips.

===

◆Hero of Water, Nephim

「Oi, Nephim. Still alive?」

Hero of Earth, Godan, who stood back to back with me asked me such a question.

「Naturally. I won’t go down by these small fries.」

But, there was no one left to fight beside me aside from Godan. All of them got done in by the ratmen.

Though I’d almost hit my limit, we somehow managed to escape from their previous encirclement.

「I lost my torch. And I have to rely on your power.」

Godan spoke with a smile on his face.

I, who had water spirit’s power, even if it was less effective than light, could do something in a place with water.

That’s the biggest reason I survived for so long in this battle.

But, I knew from my water senses that more ratmen were coming toward us.

Their numbers were more than what we could handle in the current situation.

「They’re coming. This time, there’s thirty of them.」

I spoke while looking into the end of the underground waterway.

Even the ratmen behind us were rushing toward us now. We’re checkmated.

「Ain’t gonna escape this one, huh. I’m gonna open the path. Make sure to follow me from behind.」

「I understand. That’s the only choice left in this situation huh.」

I nodded to Godan. Godan couldn’t see his surroundings without a torch.

My job was to tell Godan the best place to rush and cover his back as he opened the path for us.

Those ratmen seem to be able to see in the dark. As much as I hate to say this, we’re in an extremely disadvantageous situation.

Those ratmen went after us since they could see us.

「Eh?」

「What’s the matter?」

Godan asked anxiously since I suddenly spoke with such a dumbfounded voice.

「Those ratmen’s movements are strange. Even though they should be able to see us, they went somewhere else instead.」

The ratmen who ambushed us from the front went toward somewhere else as if being called by something.

Therianthrope like the ratman has far more sensitive sensing organs than humans. They might have gone somewhere else after hearing some sort of sound that was far too low for human ears.

「But, we barely came out alive from this situation.」

「You’re… right.」

We kept running inside the underground waterway and didn’t dare to take a rest.

===

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

「What’s the matter, Nao-san?」

I asked Nao when I saw her flinching.

「I hear a flute’s sound, Chiyuki-san.」

「Flute sound?」

But why couldn’t I hear it?

That might be because Nao’s hearing far surpassed all of us.

「Yeah, it’s definitely a flute’s sound, Chiyuki. It feels like it’s calling something. The same sound before those karkinos’ attack.」

Reiji, who also has sharp ears like Nao said the same thing.

「Is is a trap?」

「I don’t know, Shirone-san. If this sound appears when we’re at the entrance of the altar, it is most probably a trap. But, it’s clearly strange when this flute’s sound appeared at such timing when we’ve yet to enter.」

We were standing in front of a passage leading toward Badon’s Altar.

Originally, the underground waterway wasn’t connected to Badon’s altar. For that reason, the monsters dug up a tunnel from the closest location to Badon’s altar in order to create a path toward the altar.

Those flute’s sound made me raise my vigilance against magic traps.

It was a nasty trap that would be activated when someone’s magical power reached a certain threshold.

Though installing such a trap was really troublesome, I could use it too.

If we entered carelessly, we might end up triggering the trap.

I then recalled the event that unfolded in Cornes’ mansion. She might’ve used some sort of trap. And that flute’s sound was the trigger.

And then, when I was busying myself to solve and cancel the trap.