Katahane no Riku

At the time Rook woke up, it had been many hours since then.

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was an unfamiliar ceiling. It was a ceiling made of iron framework and a somewhat dirty cloth. Sometimes, the cloth would flutter with the wind and it would become possible to see the night sky from the gap of the cloth.

“Where is here?”

“You are inside a tent-de gozaru yo.”

Rook heard someone responding to the words he had unconsciously said.

Turning his eyes to the direction of the voice, the ones standing there were Asty Gortoberuk and her subordinates, gathered inside the tent. Apparently, they were waiting for Rook to wake up.

“You have lost your consciousness-de gozaru.”

“And we carried you here.”

“Really… Why do we need to act as the servants of a human…”

“There is no helping to it. For the moment, he is our guest after all.”

Following Asty words, her subordinates gave their comments about the situation in turns. It seems that the demons were considerably reluctant in treating Rook as a guest, but… it seems that they had been courteously treating him even so. Rook looked down at the blanket covering him. Its color, quality, feeling of touch… No matter what, this was a blanket of first quality for one to be using it for camping.

…Guessing from that, it seems he had been receiving quite the guest of honor treatment.

Becoming aware of the treatment he was receiving, Rook became somewhat relieved. ƒ𝘳𝗲𝑒𝒘𝐞𝚋𝚗𝐨v𝘦l.𝒄o𝐦

“Why?”

While grabbing at his blanket, Rook asked in a small voice.

“What do you mean by “why”-de gozaru?”

Asty asked back in a surprised face.

“I mean, it′s weird, isn′t it? I… Uh… Even though I did pretty much the same as killing your provisional demon lord…”

The volume the sentence gradually died down at the end of the sentence.

With a gloomy face, while choosing his next words, Rook spoke of the issue.

“If I didn′t associate myself with Charlotte-chan, she wouldn′t…”

There were two reasons why Rook had approached Charlotte.

The first one was because she was a harem character he liked.

The second one was for the sake of using the position of provisional demon lord.

No matter how one would see, this weren′t actions that was for the sake of the real Charlotte, but for the sake of capturing her as if that was a game.

When Rook would be becoming intimate with Charlotte and was increasing her affection levels, Charlotte would meet with the heroine that was accompanying Rook. Being an exceptional spiritualist, she would notice that Charlotte was a demon in an instant and become hostile to her. Because of that, Rook would successfully annihilate Charlotte′s escorts and activate the event to capture Charlotte.

Everything was for the sake of stopping the resurrection of the Demon Lord, or otherwise, defeating him.

…However, was this kind of development really necessary?

At that time, he didn′t think too much over it, but… if he was to just become in good terms with Charlotte and just bid farewell after that… Perhaps her subordinates wouldn′t have died.

Perhaps all the spiritualists that had perished at the city of Derufoi wouldn′t have needed to die.

Perhaps Kurumi and Rebecca wouldn′t have died.

To begin with, wasn′t there the choice of not approaching Charlotte?

Even though the defeat of the coalition army of the Barusak and Bistolru became expected, Rook went to play around at Derufoi without taking any measures against the demons who had taken their initiative. Because of this, he received complaints from his subordinates. If thinking calmly about it, even though his subordinates were correct, he completely ignored their important advice and went out to play.

This was because there wasn′t the choice of not going to Derufoi.

If he didn′t go to Derufoi, the story of the game wouldn′t develop.

Rook′s heart fell even more into the darkness.

He should have noticed that [the game was developing in a different way] at the time Selestinna had died. He was supposed to have become aware that this wasn′t [the world of a game], but [reality].

No, actually, he should have noticed this much before… He should have become aware of this ever since he had let Riku Barusak die…

“Charlotte′s future… Everyone′s future… I destroyed all of it!!”

“Future-de gozaru?”

Because of Rook′s scream, Asty let out a confused voice.

“Rather than you having destroyed it or anything… To begin with, isn′t future something you don′t know about-de gozaru?”

Asty spoke as if this was the obvious.

Rook shook his head. If he was to talk to Asty about the [things about the game], there would be no way she would believe him, and she wouldn′t be able to understand it either way. That′s why Rook was saying it as if this was a [supposition].

“But, what if I..! What if I hadn′t met with Charlotte-chan!!?”

“There is no meaning to hypothetical things. That′s because it is something that won′t happen after all-de gozaru.”

Asty continued her words.

“It is a fact that Charlotte had become friends with you-de gozaru; it is a fact that she isn′t here anymore-de gozaru. In that case, all you have to do is to acknowledge that and and keep living the present, building up over what you experienced-de gozaru.”(TL note:Better way to phrase this up? 0.0 なら、その事実をふまえて、今を進んでいくだけでござる)

“To… live the present?”

“This is the reason you came here, isn′t it, Rook-dono?”

Asty showed a complex expression in her face.

It felt like the expression someone would look at the enemy with, but it was also like the expression one would look at a friend, and moreover, it looked like an expression of someone that was looking at a child that didn′t know of anything as well.

“Besides, regardless of what happened at your past, you are merely a human that is seeking an audience-de gozaru. If I was to treat a guest badly, it would taint the honor of the Demon Lord army-de gozaru yo.”

Now, speak of your objective.

Asty was silently urging.

“To live the present… is it?”

Rook was showing a wry smile.

Yes, that was exactly it. He had indirectly destroyed Riku′s life, and because of that, Selestinna, Kurumi and the others had died. But this was the past. In order to atone for his sins, he needed to live the present. Wasn′t this the reason why he was able to go on a journey without losing himself on how he was banished from the royal capital?

“I…”

After thinking about that, it felt as if heavy chains that had been enveloping his heart broke up.

“I have come in order to with Charlotte.”

Little by little, Rook started to talk about the reason for him

“One way or another, I would like to negotiate having the princess back still alive. And besides that… This is a personal thing, but… I would like to apologize to Riku-ane once again.”

“To Riku-dono?”

Asty′s eyebrows twitched.

“I don′t really want to say it, but I don′t think you would be able to reconcile.”

“I don′t mind.”

Rook has set his resolve to be killed by Riku.

Riku Barusak hated Rook to the point that killing him wouldn′t be enough. His words will definitely not affect her. No matter how much sincerity he was to apologize with, what he had done was something that had no pardoning to begin with. He had already experienced it with his body well enough to know about this fact.

But even so, he wanted to apologize to her.

If he had saved Riku at that time, perhaps everybody′s future wouldn′t have been destroyed.

Even if he had decided to [live the present], there was no way he could avert his eyes to the cause of all this, to how he had [left Riku to her death]. Because of that, he decided in his heart that atoning for this sin was of his upmost priority.

“I don′t mind even if she kills me. If her anger calms down by having me killed, then… I would be able to atone for my sin.”

However, there were things he needed to do before that.

“However, I need to save the princess before that. This was a task entrusted to me, and this time, I want to properly carry it out.”

In honesty, when Rook had looked at the princess not as a game character, but as an actual living human, his feelings of wanting to marry her weren′t as strong.

However, the princess was entrusted for him to save. Until now, Rook had been casually doing all of his missions as if they were only [a game event]. In result of him doing his tasks in accord to the playing guide of the game without thinking too deeply, most of it ended up terribly.

That′s why he wanted to complete his mission this time.

He wanted to put effort in finally having some responsibility over the task that was entrusted to him.

“…The task that was entrusted to you…-de gozaru?”

Lightly leaning his chin onto her hand, Asty started to think.

Then, finally… as if she was exhausted , she let out a long sigh.

“Sorry, but the matter about the princess is not something I can carelessly decide about-de gozaru. This needs to be brought up in the next meeting to be discussed about… For now, would Rook-dono mind to wait until the meeting is finished-de gozaru?”

“No, I don′t mind. I also don′t mind being tied by ropes if necessary.”

“No, as I said before, Rook-dono is a guest, and doing something like that… That′s right!”

Asty put her hands together as if she had a brilliant idea. The expression from before completely changed, becoming the expression of an innocent child.

“It will take a considerable amount of time until the meeting reaches a decision. However, it would be too boring for you to be waiting here with nothing to do. How about this-de gozaru? What if Rook-dono goes to the festival at Derufoi and kill time while the meeting isn′t over?

—-

“…Was this really ok?”

After Rook Barusak had already been sent to Derufoi city, one of Asty′s subordinates asked.

“Isn′t it too dangerous to let a human free in a human city? If he runs away…”

“We will be monitoring him, so there will be no problems-de gozaru yo.”

Asty answered as if this was nothing important. 𝙛𝘳𝒆𝒆𝒘e𝗯n𝗼𝘷𝚎𝚕.𝒄૦𝓶

In fact, Asty was planning on taking part in the monitoring.

“Besides, Rook Barusak being there is nothing more than a bait for us to catch Keity Fostar-de gozaru yo.”

“Bait, you say?”

The subordinate leaned his head to the side. Somewhat filled with satisfaction, Asty started to explain her own plan.

“Keity should know that Rook Barusak and Charlotte had an intimate relationship. There is a high chance that she will attempt to get in contact with Rook Barusak by some means-de gozaru.”

Asty didn′t know if Keity thought of Rook Barusak as[the one that made her lord be cornered to death], her worst enemy, or as someone that also held Charlotte dear.

In either case, there is no mistake that once Keity spots Rook at the city, she will come to contact him in some way.

“If we can catch the fish with our bait, we will be able to save the time we would spend looking for her-de gozaru.”

“I see. As expected of the grandchild of Gortoberuk-sama!!”

Asty became euphoric with the words of praise from her subordinate. While scrubbing her nose, she puffed her chest with pride.

However, at that time… She overlooked a big hole in her plan.

Indeed, she was going to catch the fish using her bait.

But she overlooked the fact that there was another fish nearby that could catch the bait instead.