Chapter 198: A Man's Resolve

◆Yukinojo ◆

“Ugh…”

“Haruomi! Stay strong, Haruomi!”

I desperately called out to Haruomi, who was rapidly losing color.

Don’t die! Don’t die in a place like this, Haruomi!

“Uuh…”

Perhaps Norb‘s treatment was effective; Haruomi slightly opened his eyes.

“Haruomi!”

“I am…?”

Haruomi wandered his gaze around the surroundings, seemingly not understanding what had happened, but the moment his eyes saw the destroyed magic tool, his focus steadied.

“F-Fuhaha… Pathetic… What a miserable state…”

Seemingly realizing what had occurred, Haruomi began to laugh as if broken.

“To think this would be the outcome right when I finally obtained dominion over the magic tool and tried to take revenge on those who stole everything from me… I tried to use them, but ended up merely being used.”

“Haruomi…”

Noticing my voice, Haruomi looked at me with a puzzled face.

“Why are you making such a face…? Why are you making a face like you’re about to cry?”

“I don’t know! I don’t know!”

“What… did you say?”

“I am… the enemy who killed your father, you know? The enemy who tried to kill you, you know…?”

“I know… I know that, but I don’t know…”

“It will be alright.”

The man called Norb, Mina‘s comrade, said while shining the light of healing magic on Haruomi‘s wound.

“I will take responsibility and treat your older brother. So, please do not worry.”

In stark contrast to his unconfident behavior I saw in the village, the man before my eyes declared it to me with a powerful gaze that could be mistaken for a veteran doctor.

“…I see. So that is what it was.”

Hearing those words, I finally understood what my own emotions were.

I am truly dense. I am a dull-witted man to the point of hating myself.

Then what am I doing? Despite being born into a warrior house, I was making a fuss like a child without even fighting.

Is this the behavior of a samurai?

“No, I am a samurai.”

Remembering what I must do, I steadied the core of my heart and stood up.

“Norb, I leave Haruomi in your care!”

“Yes, please leave it to me.”

Quietly, but with powerful words, Norb responded. Fufu, so this is what they call a great doctor.

I feel truly relieved from the bottom of my heart!

Then, I spoke to Haruomi.

“Haruomi, I figured it out.”

“Figured it out…?”

“Why I felt this way. It’s a simple matter. I was ‘worried’ about you.”

“Wh… at?”

Haruomi widened his eyes in surprise.

Fufu, even this guy makes a face like that.

“Yes, ‘worried’. When I try to understand it, it’s a truly simple thing.”

“Are you an idiot… I killed your par—”

He probably wants to say he killed my parent.

“That’s right, you are my enemy. But at the same time, we are brothers sharing the same blood!”

“…!”

“If we are family… if we are family, correcting mistakes and forgiving them is the duty of family!”

“! …Family… you say? Me and… you?”

Haruomi made a complex face, a mix of surprise and rejection, as if he couldn’t believe it, as if he didn’t want to believe it.

“You probably do not want to admit it, but even so, to me, you are my older brother who shares my blood. Father made a mistake. He believed a fabricated rebellion and stole your name, your family from you, and banished you. But if you were family, if he was your father, he should not have distanced you, but embraced you, his young older brother. Even if he did it out of concern for your safety, if you were family, he should have kept you by his side and protected you!”

Ah, putting it into words makes it feel real.

“It might be too late. It might be irreversible. But even so, I want to protect you. Haruomi—no, Shun’ou, I will bear your and Father’s sins and mistakes!”

With the katana that lost its handguard in hand, I threw myself into the battle against the Majin.

“I am the one who succeeds the Shogun! Youren Yukinojo! Prepare yourself, Majin!”

“Gwaaaaaaaaah!!”

“Eh?”

However, when I stepped onto the battlefield, what I saw was the Majin dancing in the air, being beaten to a pulp by Mina and the others’ hands.

“Eh, eh?”

“If magic doesn’t work, we just need to reinforce our bodies with physical enhancement magic and beat him up!”

“Even if the magic tool’s magical effects don’t work, Rex‘s specially made magic items are incredibly sharp, so we just have to cut him normally.”

“We couldn’t use magic originally anyway, and we can still use physical enhancement, which is a support for our own attacks, so it’s not like we’re particularly at a disadvantage, right?”

” “Exactly.” “

Saying such strange logic, Mina and the others sent the Majin flying high into the sky.

“Th-This is absurd!!”

The Majin’s scream seemed to speak for the voice in my own heart.

With an uninterrupted barrage from the three of them, the top of the Majin’s head was slammed into the ceiling.

“Guboah!”

THUD!!

The Majin crashed to the ground looking like a tattered rag, convulsing in a wretched state.

“Kyuu!”

Furthermore, as if delivering the finishing blow, a pure white, strange creature sluggishly climbed onto the Majin’s back and began to munch on its wings.

Even though he was the cause of my father’s death and the hateful enemy who entrapped my real older brother, that overly pathetic sight gently quelled the anger and hatred swirling within me.

“Pathetic.”

Umu, how should I put it, he picked the wrong opponents.

“Phew.”

Having finished an overwhelming trampling that couldn’t even be called a battle, Mina let out a deep breath and maintained her awareness (zanshin).

“M-Mina.”

Noticing me because I called out, Mina turned around.

“Yukinojo? Is Haruomi-san okay?”

“U-Umu. Norb is treating him. I was also thinking of assisting Mina and the others in the battle, but…”

“Ah—”

Mina let out an awkward voice and glanced at the Majin.

“We already defeated him, you see.”

“S-So it seems.”

Thinking about it carefully, Mina and the others are far stronger than I am.

I knew that if I poked my head into the battle of such people, I would only be a hindrance, but even so, this was an issue before even being a hindrance.

It’s truly pathetic, even to myself.

“W-Well, we defeated the Majin, and with Norb here, he’ll treat Haruomi-san properly.”

“R-Right.”

We conversed in a somewhat awkward atmosphere.

But that led to carelessness.

“!?”

Behind Mina, the Majin stood up.

At the Majin’s feet rolled a container that likely held some kind of medicine.

Is that a healing potion!

“Look out, Mina!”

“Eh?”

My body moved unconsciously.

I grabbed Mina‘s shoulder, pulled her in, and shoved her to the side.

With this, Mina should be saved.

“Tch! But if I kill you, this country will fall into chaos! If I kill you, the next Shogun!”

The Majin, who failed his surprise attack on Mina, clicked his tongue in frustration, but shifted his target to me and charged straight at me.

“Majin!? You were alive!?”

“That’s a potion!”

Evasion is impossible. Because I hurriedly shoved Mina away, I lost my balance.

“Stop!”

Mina reached out her hand, but that hand will not grasp me.

But this is fine. You who slapped my back when I was at the brink of despair, pushing me forward time and time again.

If I die protecting you, I have no regrets!

Dying to protect the woman I love is the honor of a samurai—no, of a man!

And I am sorry. I will be leaving the cleanup to you all.

If possible, please take care of Haruomi, my older brother!

“Die!”

The Majin swung his wicked blade to kill me.

“You’re the one who’ll die!”

But that blade never swung down upon me.

Suddenly, from behind the Majin, an unfamiliar man’s voice was heard.

“Teryaaaaaah!!”

“Gwaaaaaaah!?”

And receiving a blow from behind by someone, the Majin raised a scream.

“Wh-What!?”

“That was close.”

From behind the Majin, who collapsed to the ground for real this time, an unfamiliar man appeared.

He’s not a citizen of Amatsumine. A foreigner?

“Y-You…!? Jairo!”

“Yo, long time no see, everyone!”

Mina raised her voice. It seems this man is an acquaintance of Mina and the others; likely the final comrade they were searching for.

“Where have you been wandering around all this time!”

“Hm? Nah, I was walking all over the place lookin’ for you guys.”

Mina interrogated the man called Jairo with bare anger, but the man himself was aloof.

“It wasn’t ‘all over the place’. Because whenever you saw a girl in trouble, you’d go here and there, and ended up going deeper and deeper inland, Young Master. Even though I told you over and over that everyone must be looking for you in the coastal towns.”

Then, a man dressed like a bandit appeared, as if to complain about Jairo‘s words.

“Nah, I mean, c’mon. If there’s someone in trouble, I can’t just not help ’em, right?”

“A girl?”

Hearing that he had been saving women, the corners of Mina‘s eyebrows twitched.

“Hey, what on earth were you doing! Spit it out! Spit it all out!”

“Hm? I wasn’t really doin’ anything much. There were just some people in trouble, so I helped ’em out.”

“It’s not on the level of ‘just some’. Because everywhere we went, you’d get chummy with pretty girls.”

At Jairo‘s words, the man let out an exasperated sigh.

It seems he went through a lot of trouble.

“What were you really doing!”

Mina grabbed Jairo‘s collar and pressed him.

“Hey hey, what’s with you.”

“Seriously, you always do nothing but make us worry! Really…”

Mina‘s voice, which should have been angry, gradually became quieter.

“Ah, my bad.”

Perhaps Jairo finally felt bad too; he narrowed his eyes and apologized while patting Mina‘s head.

Could this be…

“You need to calm down more.”

“Well, I’ll be careful.”

Seeing that sight, I realized.

“Ah, so that is how it is.”

Good grief. Mina‘s heart had been decided from the very beginning.

How comical of me.

“I wasn’t even standing on the stage from the start, huh.”

It’s natural. Mina is a good woman.

If so, it would be stranger if she didn’t have someone.

Rather, I should think it’s good that I realized before I confessed my feelings.

“Yo, you’re pretty good!”

“Wh-What?”

While I was inwardly depressed, the Jairo in question suddenly spoke to me.

Or rather, what is he talking about?

“You saw the Majin was alive and immediately moved to protect Mina, didn’t you? Even though you might’ve died if you messed up. You’ve got guts!”

“U-Umu.”

At that time, I was frantic. I didn’t think for a single second about a plan to survive.

Even so, hearing this man’s innocent praise, I felt nothing but happiness.

Not flattery hiding an ulterior motive towards the Shogun’s son, nor a reprimand for being insufficient as a successor, but just words praising Yukinojo. I was unexpectedly moved by it.

Ah, as I thought, I cannot win.

It must be exactly because he is such a pleasant man that Mina is attracted to him too.

A massive defeat at the very end.

But strangely, it doesn’t feel bad.

“Your strike was also magnificent.”

◆

The battle against the Majin clad in powerful magic items was brilliantly subjugated by Liliera-san, the others, and Jairo-kun, who appeared at the end.

Even though everyone used to say fighting Majins or Dragons was impossible, they’ve really grown up.

Everyone had talent from the start. All they lacked was a fair evaluation of their own abilities.

But with this, everyone has probably correctly understood their own strength, so from now on, they’ll likely display that power without hesitation.

“The emergency repair of the magic item is complete, so for now, I guess this case is closed.”

It was when I thought that.

Suddenly, from the depths of the earth, the tremendous roar of a beast was heard.

“What was that just now!?”

Everyone went on alert, wondering if it was a monster attack at a time like this.

But the anomaly wasn’t just that.

The ruins’ cave began to shake violently again, and the earth began to split!

“Another earthquake!?”

“Didn’t Rex do something about it!?”

“No, this is different!”

This isn’t an earthquake. This is something else entirely…

“What!? It’s bright!?”

“And what’s with this heat!?”

From the fissure in the earth, intense heat erupted along with an orange light.

“Could this be!”

I peered into the depths, being careful not to fall into the fissure.

Then, just as I expected, I saw a sluggishly moving, glowing orange liquid.

“As I thought, it’s magma!”

Yes, what was flowing at the bottom of the fissure was magma.

But that wasn’t all. From the bottom of the deep fissure, from within the magma, a massive object was trying to crawl up.

“A living creature!? In a place like that!?”

“F-Fuhahahahahah!!”

It was then. The Majin, who had been defeated by Jairo-kun’s strike, raised a broken-sounding laugh.

“Exactly! At the bottom of this magma, in the place where the earth veins and spirit veins intersect, it slumbered!”

“It!?”

“Yes! The Great Demon Beast that is the source of the disasters assailing this country!”

“A Great Demon Beast!?”

As if sneering at us who were boiling with victory, the Majin announced the shocking truth.