Katahane no Riku

The mountain nearby the royal capital were completely colored in red.

The mountains that used to be shining in green was now colored in the red color, giving it the feeling that autumn was at its pinnacle. After the few days there are left for the leaves to fall off, it would finally become the period of time when the ground would become covered in snow.

“Ah, such a beautiful scenery.”

A spiritualist muttered.

An army of spiritualists was gathered at the cave system deep into the mountains filled in red. Half of the spiritualists were deep inside the caverns while the remaining ones were standing outside them in guard. This certain spiritualist was part of the latter. Leaning against the entrance of the cave, he looked at the redness in front of his eyes.

“Now that I think of it, the young master of the Barusak household had said something about [leaf peeping], that was some kind of banquet that you would look at the autumn leaves. Ah, I want to drink some alcohol.”(TL note: Autumn version of that sakura seeing thing I guess?

“Hey, don′t lower your guard! The Demon Lord army might attack at any time, you know!?”

Standing next to the spiritualist who had casually dropped his guard, his colleague urged.

“This is the land the Demon Lord is sealed at. You see, now that the princess-sama was captured, they will be attacking here next. It wouldn′t be weird even if the enemy attacked any time, you know!?”

“Hm… Well, I guess, but… is the Demon Lord army really that strong?”

The spiritualist wasn′t really feeling any sense of tension.

In these last few years, and in these few months in special, they had suffered many great defeats to the Demon Lord army. However, they killed the commander of Fert, Zerrik, and at a battle from few days ago, Leivein, who could be said to be the core of the Demon Lord army, had been put to the verge of dying. Most likely, they were able to deal an injury that made him close to death when Leivein went to protect the provisional demon lord Charlotte.

“Aren′t all the strong people of the Demon Lord army disabled? In that case, we should be able to deal with them somehow, right?”

“What are you talking!? Don′t you know about that?”

In a fit of anger, the colleague grabbed the spiritualist by the collar.

“What are you talking about?”

“The rumor of the red haired demon. A demon of small build that had annihilated a whole army at Karkata. With her red hair dripping blood, he would swung her huge halberd around.”

His voice was slightly trembling.

The rumor of the red haired demon had spread among the spiritualist. This spiritualist had heard about that before, but laughed it off as if it didn′t matter much.

“But you know, isn′t it that the rumors are just being exaggerated?”

“Stupid! Apparently, it is not the case. I′ve heard it directly from the survivors of Karkata.”

“But even though you say it is a demon, isn′t its hair red? In that case, should the demon be the [traitor Riku]?”

“…Traitor Riku?”

The companion frowned. He inclined his head with the words [traitor Riku] he didn′t recall hearing about. And then, the spiritualist spoke in a lowered voice.

“Just between us, but it seems that Raimon-sama′s second daughter had betrayed the spiritualists and had been working to the demons.”

“Haa!? What do you mean by…”

“Shh, you are being too loud.”

The spiritualist hurriedly put his hand at the mouth of his colleague. The colleague was surprised to the point that it looked as if his eyeballs would fall off. With the spiritualist putting up a somewhat serious face, he continued while lowering his voice even more.

“My aniki is from the squad Raimon-sama directly controls, you see. It seems that she was thrown away from some cliff and survived. And then, she was picked up by the demons.”

“…Is this true?”

Removing the hand from his mouth, the colleague quietly muttered back.

It is known to the spiritualists affiliated to the Barusak household, or rather, even if they are not spiritualists from the Barusak household, it is known that Raimon Barusak had a red haired daughter. How he had dealt with her some years ago is a common knowledge that people usually don′t talk about.

“It′s true. And besides, it seems that Raimon-sama cut off her right arm. So, doesn′t it mean that there aren′t anybody among the demons that could pose a threat.”

“I-I see. But this isn′t a reason for lowering your guard. There is still a chance that they have someone strong that we still don′t know of.”

Tapping his own cheeks, the companion once again made a serious face. After answering back, he once again looked towards the direction where the mountain range extended to.

“But if they are really heading to the [seal], shouldn′t the others notice them coming?”

The spiritualist muttered while looking at the red leaves fluttering down.

If someone spots the demon army coming to the foot of the mountain, it would be immediately reported. It wasn′t possible to think that a small demon army would be able to overpower the elite spiritualists that were protecting the seal, and if a large army barged in, they would definitely be spotted midway. With the spiritualist saying that, his colleague hesitantly nodded.

“Well, that makes sense. But you can never be too careful, you know? There is no mistake that the troops protecting the seal are elite-picked. But…”

The companion′s words were interrupted.

It wasn′t that he had stopped speaking, but that his head had flown to the air together with the sound of air being cut. By sudden occurrence, confused, the spiritualist looked at his companion whose head vanished from sight.

“Eh?”

The only thing the spiritualist could say was that.

In the next instant, his own neck also ended up getting cut off by the sharp halberd. With the overpowering pain that was impossible to imagine of, while having his consciousness disappearing, what the spiritualist had seen in his last moments was a girl in a red armor with vermillion colored hair that made his cheeks blush… (TL note: WTF? 退魔師が最期に目にしたのは、赤い鎧に身を包み、頬を紅潮させた朱色の髪の少女 Just in case ^^)

“For this to be the elite-picked troops. How disappointing.”

It was a one-armed girl that blended with the autumn leaves of the mountain.

—-

”Suppression complete.”

Riku Barusak sat down at a rock nearby.

The mountain that was colored by the autumn was now colored even more in red by the blood. Taking out a blood covered paper, Riku gave a small sigh.

“It′s not here either”

The paper she had spread at her things was the map which had the surroundings of the royal capital drawn on it. At the mountains and coastlands, there were some circles and x marks written on them. Conveniently making use of her finger soaked with blood, she wrote an x mark at the circle of the place they were at.

“Really, there are too many places where the seal might be. Couldn′t they bring down the numbers a bit more?”

“There is no helping to that. This is the most they could do.”

As he said that, Vrusto′s figure appeared from inside the cave.

“By the way, isn′t ojou-chan from the Barusak? Shouldn′t they have at least taught you about the place the Demon Lord is sealed at?”

“Unfortunately, I don′t know. The real location is only told to the heads of the four spiritualist families and the elite troops. Other than that, everything is [bait] information. …But by how they were acting, it seems they didn′t let the troops protecting this false location know about it.”

Riku looked at her feet. Laying there, there was the bodies of the spiritualists that had believed they were [really protecting the seal]. Without doubt, this too was only false information just so that the real place the seal is at is not discovered.

Immediately after sealing the Demon lord… the spiritualists of that era didn′t announce the [location of the seal] by probably fearing the counter attack of the demons and the resurrection of the Demon Lord.

In order to carefully hide where the seal is, the spiritualists sent some troops to protect places that had no relation to the seal as [places where the seal could possibility be]. Those places were also kept secret, but after many years of investigation by the Demon Lord army, they had discovered many points that might be the location of the seal

Receiving Gortoberuk′s orders, Riku went to do a thorough search at those places.

“With this one, it is already the fourth. …For them to do this kind of thing, they should be very scared of the Demon Lord resurrecting.”

Since childhood, Riku had been learning about the threat the Demon Lord was.

The Demon Lord had done every possible act of cruelty in this world, and it seems that he had drown the royal city in the blood of several humans. With that said, there were many points that were different from the reality in the information she had learned about. Riku couldn′t get a clue about to what extend the Demon Lord′s strength was true. (TL note: What would this mean? ->退魔師時代に習った<- Is it talking about an era or about the time Riku was learning spiritualist things?)

“Now then, which one should we go crush next?”

“Hmm, right. What about we go attack the caves around here before reporting the information we got? If they become aware of our attack, they might fortify their defenses, and it would be bothersome since we keep getting the wrong places.”

“That′s right… But considering the report of the movement of the spiritualists that I received this morning from Karula, it feels like the mountain of the other side is suspicious.”

The movement of the spiritualists in these last weeks were relentless.

As if they were trying to hide something, without holding a certain [ceremony of departure] they would usually always do when dispatching troops at all, the movement between the royal capital and the garrison increased.

“I think it is important to send scouts to the other side of the mountain and be ready to launch an attack anytime.”

“Stupid. It′s obvious they are leaking information on purpose, you know? Since we can′t confirm the veracity of the information, we should just dispatch Asty′s troops together with a scouting squad to the other mountain. It′s better for us, the main troops, to go attack other places.”

“But what would we do if that place was where the real [location of the seal] was at? If it was to be the case, the defenses would be stronger, and there is nobody else that is strong enough to break through their defenses other than me.”

“…You have quite the confidence, ojou-chan.”

Riku gave a glance to Vrusto′s slightly surprised face.

“Well… Indeed, there is no way we can use unreliable information for our movements. For now, we will send the scouts of the main forces and have Asty arrange her troops for them to be ready to launch an attack anytime. We will keep searching around the places nearby. Is this fine?”

Riku understood that it was just sheer stupidity to base an attack in unreliable information without sending scouts before. At the times they had been attacking the places around here, they would send scouts before so that they could confirm if there were any traps and the number of stationed spiritualists, and only after that, she would choose about twenty of the best demons and lead an assault to the place.

…Although they couldn′t find the correct location, because they had used the scouts beforehand, they had been putting the losses of the demon side to the minimum. With just that, it was good enough.

“No problems. Then, I will go contact Asty.”

“I will be counting on you… Hm?”

After seeing Vrusto off, Riku felt a gaze at her.

The figure of someone coming from in between the trees colored in red was caught by her eyes. Because the person rushed in faster than birds were, Riku unconsciously brandished her halberd. With Riku putting her halberd right next to that person′s throat, the person was pushed down to the ground and stopped his moving.

“Who?”

“Hii, it′s me! Roppu Nezaaland!”

With the halberd pressed next to his throat, Roppu′s face became pale to the point of it being pitiful.

After her eyes becoming wide-open for a moment, her expression softened, looking apologetic.

“Sorry, major sergeant Roppu. So, did something happen for you to be in such hurry?”

Putting down her halberd, Riku waited for Roppu to get up. After coughing violently a few times, he started talking after sorting out his breathing.

“Yes, actually… A request for an appointment with major general Riku has arrived….”

“Appointment? In a time like this?”

Riku frowned.

Now that there wasn′t a provisional demon lord anymore, Riku had come to be Gortoberuk′s aide. Because of that, it became convenient now that she could directly meet him instead of seeking his contact. But on the other side, there would be demons that would try to flatter Riku despite her being a human, although most of those were more desperate for flattering Gortoberuk.

“Who? A demon from some noble family?”

“No, that is…”

Hesitantly, Roppu took out an thin envelope. 𝑓𝑟eℯ𝒘𝗲𝑏n𝑜𝚟𝙚𝒍.𝒄o𝐦

The instant she saw the symbol of the wax seal that was pressed in the letter of fine quality, Riku eyes became wide-open to the point of them looking as if they would fall off.

“…Who did you get this from?”

“From the sender herself. I was also half doubting about this, but since her appearance was the same to what I had heard from major general Riku…”

Riku started pondering for a while.

Putting her finger at her head, she started to think. She couldn′t seriously think that the sender of the envelope would propose to meet with her time like this. Was this a trap? She was worried that once Riku would go to the meeting place, spiritualists and human mercenaries would ambush her and try to take her down.

“Major general?”

Roppu looked at Riku acting nervous. After pondering about it, Riku decided to open the envelope for now, biting it off as to have it open. While thinking how it would be convenient if she had both of her arms at times like this, she bit the seal of the envelope open and took out its contents.

There was one folded letter inside the envelope, and together with it, there was also a map with the place they should meet drawn. The letters were big, but unusually for Riku , the letters written were unexpectedly very elegant. While doubting whether it was a trap, she calmly read the letter.

“Major general Riku, what do you think about it?”

“…Impossible.”

Riku quietly muttered.

After finishing reading it to the last letter, Riku′s eyes changed. Her cheeks and the hand that was holding the letter somewhat trembled.

“What is it?”

This was a earth-shattering development

Because of how astonishing it was, Riku couldn′t hide her trembling.

That was because what was written in the letter was an information of something that should have been impossible no matter how one would think.