Raid (3)
Raid (3)
But Lucas couldn't cut my throat right away.
Sword auras flew in from both sides and collided exactly where Lucas had stood just a moment before.
A genuinely murderous sword aura, the kind that could have torn a person to shreds if caught between the blades.
It was nothing like the Claire I'd seen during sparring matches.
"Tch...!"
Lucas pulled back with that sound, slightly bending at the waist.
That was—
"Indeed."
The emperor spoke, as if he'd noticed my gaze.
"It means there was a reason he had to go to the trouble of bringing that equipment."
Lucas was injured. Meaning he still couldn't exert his full strength.
Was it a wound he'd suffered while obtaining those vestments and that sword?
If he'd tried to take on the knight order all at once, it made sense. Even if he could defeat them all, he couldn't avoid taking at least one hit.
And among those hits, there were bound to be wounds that simple healing magic couldn't fix.
"Heh. You really think that's all there is to it?"
Lucas laughed, and the Masked Woman flinched.
"I might not look like much, but I happen to know more than His Majesty over there. You know people in the Holy State are already arguing about your identity, right?"
"......"
That might have been true.
There was the Berati incident, too... though, granted, Berati would have been caught even without me.
I slowly got to my feet and steadied my stance.
Even so, I couldn't just keep sitting on the floor like that.
"Shall we try this?"
Lucas flashed a grin at me.
"Aren't you curious? Why you have to be in this state right now. When normally you could dodge my sword without even blinking."
"......"
"Well, at least one thing the Holy State was wondering about has been cleared up."
Lucas, it seemed, had reached some kind of truth on his own.
Something far more important than the fact that the emperor's blood flowed through his own body.
"What on earth are you talking ab—"
While I managed a few more words,
the door burst open with a bang.
And at the same moment, Alice, Claire, and Leo entered. Behind them, knights poured in like a flood and filled the room.
"I believe I gave orders to seal the room."
At the emperor's words, the knights flinched.
"I insisted on entering."
Alice spoke as she stepped out to my left side.
"Do you imagine you'll be of any help? Truly?"
The emperor rebuked her sternly, but Alice only glanced toward me.
"Alice."
"Lucas."
When Lucas called her name as if in greeting, Alice responded in kind. At a glance, it seemed like a fairly composed reply, but her eyes weren't smiling at all.
"And the pups of the Grace barony, I take it. No matter how many of you there are, you won't help at all. In fact, you'll just be a nuisance. Won't even be able to throw your sword auras around freely."
"Well, by that logic, wouldn't you have to argue that superior numbers are always a hindrance on the battlefield, which would be bizarre, don't you think?"
Seeing Leo and Claire's faces go pale at Lucas's words, the Sword Saint answered.
"No matter how many madmen there are swinging sword auras around as they please, in the end they'll be forced to yield before superior numbers."
"Hah. That so?"
Lucas curled one corner of his mouth up in a smirk and said,
"Then let's try it. I've already confirmed what I wanted to confirm, anyway."
With those words, Lucas surged straight toward us.
At the same instant, every knight in the room lunged at Lucas—
and with a wet sound, my vision was dyed red in a single moment.
Several knights who'd charged ahead of me collapsed. I had no time to check whether their wounds were fatal.
My hands were already moving. As if mechanically replaying a motion I'd practiced over and over, my hand drew the automatic pistol from under my arm,
Bang, bang!
Two shots in rapid succession.
I'd definitely aimed properly.
But in that instant, I saw Lucas's gaze shift toward the muzzle of my gun.
Lucas was already moving before I pulled the trigger.
Monster.
That was the thought that flashed through my mind. It was not Lucas's usual slouching attitude but an expression drenched in killing intent, as if he genuinely meant to kill me this time.
And at the same time, that expression, grinning as if he were enjoying himself, was utterly alien.
Lucas's body spun right past my muzzle, and he unleashed a sword aura.
Two more knights fell,
"Tch...!"
and with a sound like a boxer exhaling, the Masked Woman was pushed backward. The sword aura she hadn't managed to block completely left shallow gashes on both her arms.
Clang!
Before I could even register that, the sound of blades colliding reached me again. It looked like Lucas had caught the emperor's sword with his own blade.
Lucas's sword had bitten almost halfway into the tip of the emperor's blade.
"A sword aura? Truly impressive, Father...!"
Did he mean the blade hadn't been cut clean through because he'd wrapped it in a sword aura?
"Whoops...!"
Lucas lightly dodged the sword aura that came flying from the side.
"Old man, keep worrying about the people around you like that and you'll die."
That bastard's mouth never stopped.
Lucas twisted his sword as it stayed locked. With a clear ringing sound, the tip of the emperor's sword split clean apart, and Lucas's blade slipped free through the widened gap.
"Hmm...!"
The emperor brought his own sword straight down and cleaved the incoming sword aura in half.
"Guhk...!"
But the broad sword aura was still more than enough to cut down the people around him all at once.
Bang-bang!
Two more shots. But I must have turned the gun too hastily; they only grazed Lucas's shoulder. The vestments tore slightly and were stained red, but Lucas kept his eyes fixed on me without the slightest concern.
I gritted my teeth and pulled the trigger again—
Ting. A clear, bright sound reached my ears.
For a moment, I couldn't comprehend what had happened.
At the same time as that ting, sparks seemed to fly from Lucas's sword—
I heard Alice beside me suck in a breath.
"How's that? Like magic, isn't it?"
Had he just deflected a bullet with his sword?
"Magnificent. That expression alone was worth coming here for!"
Lucas swung his sword again with that same grinning face.
And then a sword aura hurtled straight toward me.
I couldn't dodge this.
That thought crossed my mind in an instant,
"No!"
...and the golden hair of the sister I could never have beaten in a lifetime if I hadn't cheated so many times filled my vision.
Blood spattered with a sharp sound.
Huh...?
The person who'd thrown herself in front of me collapsed straight to the floor. To my eyes, which had no more than an ordinary person's ability to track movement, her falling figure seemed to move in slow motion for a single instant.
"Alice!"
A voice screamed as if in agony.
The Masked Woman lunged straight at Lucas's side,
and Lucas swung his sword again. Casually, as though he were flicking a blade of foxtail grass—twice, left and right.
Another scream rang out, and blood flew.
My stomach felt hot.
When I looked down, it was soaked red.
My vision slowly tilted sideways, downward...
But what filled my head wasn't my own condition.
Alice.
Alice, collapsed on the floor and bleeding as if in agony.
Alice's gaze turned toward me. Her expression was flooded with despair.
Even though her wounds were far deeper than mine.
Alice looked up at me with a tormented expression.
I heard Claire's shout, Leo's battle cry.
Probably, in the next moment, the two of them would—
In my fading vision, I saw the two of them from behind, and Lucas swinging his sword—
No.
Here, because of me, if they were all killed—
"Again!"
The word tore out of my mouth like a scream.
*
A jolting impact, a sensation I'd already experienced several times before.
As if I'd slammed into something hard, my head rang with a dull hum, and my breath rushed out of me.
The ringing slowly faded, the star-speckled darkness of my vision began to accept light again, and what met my eyes was the back of a blue-haired girl dashing forward.
"Again!"
*
Thud.
A sensation like slamming my body straight into a boulder.
Strangely enough, the impact seemed to clear my head a little. An ability I'd never been able to use properly whenever the Masked Woman was present or whenever we crossed paths.
But was that really the case?
Had my ability really been blocked completely?
Think. Think.
Again, the girl running ahead. The two imperial princesses bleeding.
"Again!"
*
Thud.
Crack.
In one moment, what I felt was space itself.
As though I'd fallen into the center of a kaleidoscope. A world where nothing was distinguishable—like light passing through a prism and splitting into a rainbow of colors.
But even while looking at such a world, there was one thing I could tell.
I had definitely smashed through this world once before.
By ramming into it with my body.
I had shattered space, and in that instant I had certainly wound back time.
I'd wound it back, all the way to just before the battle with the Masked Woman.
If that hand that had grabbed me by the collar and dragged me hadn't been there, I would have—
"Again!"
*
Thud!
My whole body rang with the impact.
But it still wasn't enough.
I felt like I understood. Why I hadn't been able to go back.
Something was definitely blocking the path that should have been open to me. But it wasn't a barricade so strong that I couldn't break through it.
On the contrary, it was something unstable enough that I could shatter it by ramming into it with my body.
It hurt when I hit it, sure, but if I hit it with everything I had—yes.
A crystal I could break for certain, as long as I didn't let fear stop me.
Ha. Honestly, it was laughable.
No one had deliberately deceived me. I'd simply been deluding myself, all on my own.
The reason I'd been able to break through back then at the ruins was one single thing.
I hadn't known.
I hadn't known how much it would hurt if I slammed into it.
Like someone charging headfirst into an unmarked pane of glass, I'd simply smashed through that membrane and gone straight in.
And after hitting it once, I'd been too scared on my own.
Well, I wouldn't come out unscathed. Not when I was ramming into it that hard.
But back then, too, I'd gotten a few bruises and still hadn't died.
Which meant—
While watching the blue ponytail flutter in my vision, I thought.
In that case, there was only one thing for me to do.
Harder.
Farther.
With all my strength.
If I went back, that would settle everything.
"Again!"