Arc 7, Chapter 52 - 'Love Can’t Be Bequeathed”

Arc 7, Chapter 52 - “Love Can’t Be Bequeathed”

――By using the Soul Marriage Technique on the Castle, her Od was being instilled into even inorganic substances.

This was the reality of the extraordinary phenomenon of Yorna, who was using the spiraling roof tiles as a foothold.

Abel had spoken of her Soul Marriage Technique being applied to the more than hundred people chasing after Subaru’s group like it was already something unusual, but that was not even the strange part.

If he assumed she was handing out part of her Od, even to her own castle and kiseru.

Subaru: [That seems extremely bad for your body...!]

In the first place, the act of handing over Mana to someone else was quite tiring in itself.

In fact, Subaru had firsthand knowledge of how difficult it was, as he would regularly exchange Mana with Beatrice, with whom he had a contractual relationship.

While in the Sand Sea, on their way to the Watchtower, for example, Beatrice had taken a lot of Mana from him, and even though it had been only the necessary amount, he’d gotten dog-tired.

Additionally, the risk of trouble occurring with his Od tied to Beatrice alone―― in Yorna’s case, by simple calculation that risk was more than a hundredfold.

On top of that, she herself had the power to unfold a heck of a battle.

In reality, the fact that she was supposed to be dog-tired because she was sharing her power with everyone was, considering she had split the Castle with an axe kick, quite unbelievable.

Olbart: [Hahaa, you’re usin’ some strange skills. Geez, no matter how long I live, techniques I dunno come out one after the other, it’s a real headache.]

Yorna: [That’s the kind of fertile ground we live on, so there’s no point for you to lament it. From my point of view, Old Man Olbart’s skills are also troublesome enough... It’d be better to make you disappear.]

Olbart: [Kakakakka! I won’t be taken outta the picture so easily... Wuoh!?]

Olbart, laughing with his big mouth open, sprung backward in response to the hostility that followed that immediately.

Instantly, the roof beneath Olbart’s feet exploded, and roof tiles shot up from the impact from directly below. It was much like a reprisal for the previous attack that had launched Yorna.

And yet unlike Olbart’s single blow, Yorna’s attacks fired in rapid succession, as if hot on his heels.

Bang bang bang, with that sound, shockwaves chased after Olbart as he spun backward and hopped away. That had been accomplished by Yorna simply waving a supple finger of hers, using a roof tile fixed up in the air.

Olbart: [Yo! Ho! Huh! Take this!]

Yorna: [Old Man Olbart, you sure are a stubborn man.]

Olbart: [If ya got the impression they’re flies, ya dunno elderly opponents, lass. However――]

Cutting off his words there, Olbart twisted his body as he spun backward. As he did, with his back turned while in an upside-down position, the roof lifted like a wave to greet him.

Chased by shock waves from his front, and by surging waves of roof tiles from his back, he was being attacked on both sides―― the sight of the castle tower surging like an ocean made Subaru want to doubt his eyes.

But doubting his eyes was what he’d want to do for what happened directly after that as well.

Olbart: [――――]

As the roof tiles approached like a tidal wave, seeing that, Olbart kicked himself off the air itself, heading into the roof tiles of his own accord head-first.

Albeit it looked like a wave given its appearance, the tiles that made up the large wave had not lost their hardness and weight.

If he went in head-first, his whole body would be thrashed, his bones broken, and, in the end, his head would be tragically smashed. Without thinking, Subaru covered Louis’s face as he hugged her, hearing her protest with a “Uu!”.

But that cruel outcome never came to pass.

Olbart: [Ain’t I amazin’ for bein’ able ta put the technique of hidin’ in the ground into use without preparation?]

At the moment of collision, Olbart plunged soundlessly into the waves of roof tiles as if he were diving into water, and jumped straight out the back of the surge of roof waves. Scraping the torn-off roof tiles with his heels, Olbart flashed a cunning smile showing his white teeth, acting as if it had been nothing special.

In fact, Olbart had yet to display the depth of his abilities.

On the other hand, Yorna might have already exposed what terrors the Soul Marriage Technique held, but,

Yorna: [Will you be able to achieve your goal while merely running away like that, Old Man Olbart?]

With composure, she looked down from the sky towards the monstrous old man, who had still not sustained an injury.

Both of them had shown only a fraction of their power. That alone was enough to prove that the Nine Divine Generals, the Empire’s greatest warriors, held tremendous strength.

However, if the fight continued in that way, it could be presumed their even match would continue, as both sides would not give in.

Apparently, Subaru and Louis watching from the sidelines were not the only ones with this impression.

Olbart: [Good grief, that’s a painful thing to hear. Tho’, if the Third stubbornly holds out against the Seventh, well, it can’t be helped that His Excellency’d be angered.]

Yorna: [Then, what shall we do?]

Olbart: [Good question. Well, it’s not like I’ve been runnin’ ‘round aimlessly either...]

Raising her shapely eyebrows, Yorna asked that of Olbart, who stroked his chin. As he rubbed it, the monstrous old man’s cheeks twisted, his gaze turning in another direction.

Those glowing yellow eyes turned to the two children watching the battle from the sidelines――,

Subaru: [――Hk.] ViiSiit novelbi/n(.)c/(o)m for latest novels

Yorna: [Old Man!!]

Suddenly, Olbart’s gaze sharpened and Subaru drew back.

Immediately afterward, Yorna, her eyebrows raised, kicked off the roof tiles, throwing herself furiously at Olbart. Once again, Yorna rained down intense strikes on Olbart, similar to those at the start.

However――,

Olbart: [It’s ‘cause of somethin’ like that, that’cha haven’t reached His Excellency even once despite so many rebellions.]

Olbart spat that out, and a leg of his, incomparably shorter than Yorna’s, sprung up. But, the sole of his shoe collided directly with the thick sole on Yorna’s heel, sending shockwaves through the long hair of the two.

Yorna gnashed her teeth, Olbart clenched his own, and in a second the bodies of both were blown in opposite directions. Yorna and Olbart, each at the same time.

Then, as soon as he saw that there was a wide distance between them, Olbart plunged his left and right arms into his sleeves and then pulled something out. ――Between his fingers, there were round and black lumps, four in each hand.

Subaru: [Ration balls!?]

Olbart: [Ngh, looks like that, right? But, things’d get messy if ya ate ‘em. ――For ya see, chunks of Fire Magic Stones are tightly stuffed in ‘em.]

Hearing Subaru’s shriek, Olbart laughed and gave a grand swing of both his arms.

If his words were to be believed, those black balls were bombs. Propelled with an impact, they flew towards Yorna who was showing a large opening―― No, that wasn’t it.

Olbart: [In the latest rebellion, that lot were the bunch we fought, right? I wouldn’t have used something like this against them, so it’s fresh, isn’t it?]

His cheeks distorted, Olbart threw the bombs over the roof into the open sky.

From the way he hurled them, it seemed there was no particular aim, and because of that, there was no doubt about it. ――For Olbart, a bomb just needed to fall onto a place with people.

Only that――,

Olbart: [I’ve heard it said that’cha and the folks of this city are awfully tough, but... Are ya tougher than the folks of my village were?]

Yorna: [――You lowlife!]

The size of the bomb was small, but the hidden power there-in was wholly unknown.

There was also the question of how many people in the city were under the effect of Yorna’s Soul Marriage Technique at the moment. In conclusion, leaving those bombs as they were would be far too reckless.

Yorna instantly drew that conclusion as well. Hence――,

Yorna: [HaAAAaaa!!]

Stomping her foot hard enough to smash the roof, Yorna brandished her arm wide. Clutched in her hand, was the kiseru that had been used to attack Olbart.

At the same time, the smoke overflowing from the tip of the pipe traced the same arc as the full swing of her arm, and the mass of purple smoke flashed across the sky of Chaosflame like a horizontal slash.

――That mass of purple smoke had entirely caught the bombs scattered about.

Immediately afterward, the tremendous sound of chained explosions, thunderous booms and shock waves dyed the sky of the Castle. One of the explosions occurred near Subaru and Louis, blinding them and making it impossible for them to stand.

Subaru: [Kah――]

He faintly remembered seeing on the television or in a book that one should plug their ears and open their mouth when an explosion occurred.

As a result of failing to do both, Subaru’s body suffered great damage. His head was rocked, his vision was colored bright-red. That was how out of the ordinary Olbart’s bomb was.

Olbart was out of his mind to be carrying around so many of those things.

That he was going to scatter them all over the city without mercy was also clear――.

Louis: [Uau!]

There was a shout, and Subaru’s shoulders were shaken by a small hand.

Upon taking a look, he saw Louis projected in his deep-red, obscured vision and noticed that her facial expression was changed. Her mouth quivering in terror, tears were welling up in Louis’s blue eyes.

Seeing that before his eyes, Subaru went to reply with “I’m fine”,

Subaru: [――Ah.]

――At the edge of his red field of view, he caught sight of Olbart appearing behind Yorna.

Subaru: [――――]

As she was busy dealing with the bombs that had been thrown, her pose was still the same, having done a full swing of her kiseru. Olbart, having appeared right behind her, was about to draw his arm in, and loosen a strike of his hand being used as a sword.

His aim was the center of Yorna’s back; if this were a manga, it would be a situation in which her heart would be pierced with one blow.

If it truly would play out like something out of a manga, he didn’t know. But enough had been seen in the fight so far to know that both Yorna and Olbart were superhumans with manga-like powers.

If it continued unchanged, Yorna would die. So――,

Subaru: [Louis――!]

Grabbing Louis’s hand that was on his shoulder, Subaru pointed towards Yorna and Olbart.

He’d told her the procedure in detail before entering the Castle, and Louis, setting it in motion, opened both her big round eyes―― the next moment, Subaru’s vision flickered, and the teleport happened.

And so――,

Subaru: [Ah.]

Before he could inhale once, Subaru leaked a dumbfounded voice.

The reason was simple, because even his blurry bright-red vision was taken away by a sudden warm feeling. Through that sensation, he understood that the cause for that was some kind of fluid that had been poured on his face without warning.

As he tried to wipe that sensation away with his arm, he noticed a sense of discomfort.

Louis’s grip was too light.

Olbart: [The hell was that just now? Ya weaklings are supposed ta be over there.]

The sound of Olbart’s voice of curiosity made Subaru look up dumbfounded. Within his view was the monstrous old man, his head slightly tilted, shaking his hand vigorously.

???: [I love you. I love you. I love you.]

That accretion of love, originally, was supposed to be that of words filled with various emotions.

The likes of happiness, of anger, of sadness, of pleasure; the whirlpool of emotions was filled with that sort.

And yet, that which filled the love in this everlasting darkness, was nothing more than a single emotion.

???: [I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you――]

Crammed among the entirety of those emotions, in the entirety of that whirling love, was only “sadness”.

Sadness, of sadness, of sad, that love sobbed, saddened by sadness.

Unceasingly, there was sobbing.

Unceasingly, the sobbing made him yearn for death just because he was listening to it.

Love was sadness, love was made of sadness, love was made of sad, love was saddening sadness.

While sobbing, while carrying out love on love, while saddened by sadness, they united at the terminus.

???: [――Where are you?]

△▼△▼△▼△

Olbart: [I’ve heard it said that’cha and the folks of this city are awfully tough, but... Are ya tougher than the folks of my village were?]

Yorna: [――You lowlife!]

The whirling, spinning vision of red performed a rotation, and tense voices struck his eardrums.

One was that of an old man, and the other was that of a woman―― he could understand they were Olbart and Yorna respectively.

He understood, but that was the only thing he could understand.

Subaru: [Huh...]

Yorna: [HaAAAaaa!!]

Immediately after letting out a dazed voice, there was a massive boom, and, stepping hard on the roof of the Castle, Yorna’s foot crushed it. At the same time, the golden kiseru in her hand was swung.

A large, horizontal, arcing blow from the kiseru, with tremendous speed and destructive power, spread a large plume of purple smoke across the skies of Chaosflame.

Subaru knew what it was for and what would happen next.

He knew, but it would happen before the knowledge he was aware of could catch up with reality.

――A bomb struck by Yorna’s purple smoke exploded, and a shockwave engulfed the area.

Subaru: [Gah――]

His whole body bathed by the same shock that had bathed it mere moments ago, Subaru’s field of vision was dyed bright-red.

He thought he heard a small sound like something being split, and he immediately drew the connection to his reddened vision. The sound had been the bursting of his eyeball. Hence, Subaru’s vision had turned red.

If so, before long, the other side of his field of vision would turn dark――,

Subaru: [Ah, g-gyAHHHHHH――!!]

Covering his face with both hands, Subaru screamed as he was struck by two things, pain and “understanding”.

He had gained “understanding”. One of his eyeballs had been ruptured and the other one popped out. As long as his brain didn’t want to understand, it was possible to ignore the pain.

But, if he knew what had happened to begin with, he would not be able to ignore the pain.

Subaru: [AAAAAGH! AGH, GYAHHHH!!]

Louis: [Uau! Uauu!]

A small body clutched Subaru, who had collapsed onto his back on the spot, wailing loudly.

His name was being called. He did not understand. His ears were burning, and his own voice was too loud. The pain, the gushing of blood, he could hear it. He did not understand whether it was blood flowing inside or outside his body. It hurt, it just hurt. It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt, it hurt.

Somebody, help. I don’t want pain. I don’t like pain. I don’t like, pain.

It hurt, it hurt because it hurt, it hurt because it hurt, because it hurt, it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt――.

Subaru: [Wa――]

Olbart: [Oioi, isn’t that a bad idea?]

Subaru: [――Hk.]

Pain swirling around in his head, his red vision glazed over.

Right beside Subaru, there was a hand holding him down as he tried to roll around, but it was getting in his way. He wanted to scream louder, flail around more, and let the pain escape from his body.

No, it was his face that hurt. His eyes and his ears. So, if it hurt somewhere else, if this pain would go somewhere else.

Louis: [Uau! Auaa――]

Thud thud, he banged his head on the ground. A strong force pulled him up. Someone fastened their arms behind his back, making him unable to move. It hurt, he was afraid of being hurt. He hated it, he was scared, he was going to die.

Subaru: [Guh...]

Olbart: [Kakh, ya can’t be serious, foxgirl. What kinda body ya got that won’t die from that? So that’s what Cecilus was talkin’ ‘bout when he said he couldn’t lop off yer head?]

Yorna: [...There’s no way I’m going to reveal my womanly secrets to a lousy man who lays his hands on children.]

In the distance, someone was arguing. Caught between his own voice and the voice that was trying to hold him back, he couldn’t hear anything. He couldn’t understand. It hurt, everything was wrong.

Yes, everything was wrong. The red and the pain, everything was their fault. Everything was because of them.

Subaru: [It’s because of them...! That’s, that’s, that’s their fault! Not mine! Even though it’s not mine, uuuugh!]

Louis: [Uu!!]

Squirming and struggling, Subaru tried to push all of it somewhere else. What if he pushed everything to something else and was able to escape, what should he do if he could escape?

He would think about such a thing after he escaped. He would think about it after he escaped, so.

Olbart: [Wahwah, I can’t stand hearin’ the sound of children cryin’. ――Shuddup.]

Yorna: [Wait...!]

A woman’s desperate voice and an uninterested hoarse voice.

After hearing them, something approached with the sound of scraping. From behind his head, fastening their arms behind his back, someone hugged Subaru tightly.

But, being embraced by them did not help.

Because a bright-red, heated light swelled up again, engulfing Subaru and the rest.

He was swallowed, and the pain went away, and then――.

Olbart: [I’ve heard it said that’cha and the folks of this city are awfully tough, but... Are ya tougher than the folks of my village were?]

Yorna: [――You lowlife!]

A moment later, again he heard the voices he had heard just a while ago, and hearing them again, his consciousness turned white.

Subaru: [Huh...?]

Immediately after everything was suddenly and abruptly cut off, the replay began anew.

Other colors returned to his bright-red vision, he felt the sound of the wind in his deaf ears, felt the warmth of the soft girl right beside him, and――,

Yorna: [HaAAAaaa!!]

The voice of a vigorous woman was raised in volume, and a moment later, an arm was swung with tremendous force.

The trajectory of the swinging arm was already known to him.

――A series of explosions rang out, and a shock dyed his vision bright-red.

Subaru: [GYAHHHH――!!]

Covering his face and taking in the pain of his ruptured and popped-out eyeballs, Subaru collapsed back-first onto the roof, and yelled.

Louis: [Uau! Uaau!]

Someone’s voice, seemingly crying, jumped onto his fallen body.

As he felt it, as he listened to the world drowned out by harsh sounds, as he lamented the pain and suffering, Subaru’s head was filled with tears, fear, and “why”.

Perhaps, he was dead. He was dead.

He knew death. It was very painful and cruel, it kept him away from this place. But then it returned him to this place immediately, and then he died; it was painful however, due to the red explosion.

Even knowing this, Subaru repeated in his mind, “Why?”.

――This, isn’t it.

Vaguely, a sensation rang in his head, almost pushing him away with pain and redness. But it was a feeling of absolute certainty that he could not let go of.

An eyeball burst, an eyeball popped out, his eardrums ruptured, he was crying out in pain, he would soon after this die in a horrible way yet again despite wishing that the pain would be kept at a distance. Along with tears, snot, drool, and the leakage of some urine, his frenetic head thought such.

Subaru: [Tihs, isn...] [1]

Louis: [Uau! Au, uu!]

Subaru: [This isn’t, mine...]

It’s not.

It’s not, it’s not, it’s not.

It’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not.

It’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not.

It’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not, it’s not――.

Subaru: [Tihs is...] [1]

Before the pain filled his head, he thought of something that he must never forget.

Again and again, Subaru was thrown into this world of red and pain, and this, this was――.

Subaru: [Not it...!]

――It was not Natsuki Subaru’s Return by Death, but something else.

Note:

[1] The misspelling is intentional.