Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

Volume 7 Chapter 16

“I’m heading off. You guys wait here.”

On the promised day’s noon, Kyle had prepared himself and said his goodbyes to the others in front of the inn. Minagi and Souga were still hurt so they were taking the day off, leaving them to Kyle’s team and Yuriga.

“But…”

Mera did tell Kyle to come see her alone, but Lieze couldn’t shake her worries.

“It’s fine. Just believe in me. I’m feeling great today,” Kyle confidently said after a long and comfortable sleep.

Even his allies could tell he was in particularly good shape today.

“Hm, you seem like you’re all freshened up. Your face is completely different from before, too.” Shildonia commented as she looked at Kyle.

“It’s like…he’s found new conviction. In a good and bad way, too.”

Lieze was somewhat dubious about this change in Kyle, but since he was doing better than before, she decided to let it slide.

“I’ve got some business to attend to, so I’ll tag along,” said Shildonia.

“But you can’t enter the Tower, right?”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I won’t enter the Tower.”

Kyle thought about Shildonia’s ominous comments but decided to have her tag along.

“I don’t like the idea of this, but you better come back quick so that I can give you the report.”

“Sorry about this, really. I’ll take some time later,” Kyle apologized to the grumpy Yuriga as he wondered to himself how he ended up in this situation.

“All right, I’m off.” Kyle started walking with Shildonia after.

“…Good, let’s go after him.”

Seeing Kyle take the corner, Seran spoke up.

“Huh? What are you talking about…?”

“I’m not about to fool around. I have a reason for that. I’m pretty sure there’s gonna be people getting in his way…as a wall…or of sorts. I don’t like acting as his guard, but I have to do it.”

“Ah…” Lieze understood what Seran was talking about, as her face grew pale.

“Yeah. So, you guys stay here and—” Seran said, only for him to swing his sword to deflect the knives flying at his back.

“…I see now.” Seran glanced at the direction the knives came from—the inside of the inn, and grit his teeth. “Sorry, Lieze. You were right about Dalia. The presence I felt wasn’t from her…” Seran sighed.

“Wh-What do you mean?”

“Not only that, but it seems like I was the reason for it all along…Makes sense that I’d constantly get the creeps if the people I’ve been avoiding all this time were this close.”

Timed with these words, a woman appeared from the inn. One that even Lieze knew…as she was one of the employees working for Dalia, called Maria.

“C’mon, don’t leave me hanging. Where’s the other one?” Seran grinned as he provoked the woman, only for another woman to appear right after Maria.

She looked awfully similar to Maria, even wearing the same clothes.

“…Huh? They’re twins?” Lieze couldn’t contain her shock.

“I see how it is. What’s your name? I know the other one is Maria.”

“Miria…” said the woman.

“Maria and Miria…And without masks today, no less.”

When they attacked Seran in the public bath back at the Empire, they were both hiding their faces.

“Right back at you. I can see you’re not attacking us while naked today.”

“Are you going to strip naked when you run away?”

Maria pointed out something about their past encounter, with Miria offering the final blow.

“Can you not make me sound like a maniac?!” Seran screamed, as he wanted to believe the reason Lieze and Urza moved away from him was solely because they knew a battle was about to ensue.

“Are you…into exhibitionism or something?” Yuriga gave Seran a disgusted look. “Because if so, I cannot allow such a twisted human to be by Luiza-sama’s side…”

“Shut up! I’m not that type of person! Enough about this, already!” Seran bluntly cleared his throat and then looked at the two women. “So you two were twins, eh? Makes sense your coordination was on-point.”

The level of their coordination was the main reason Seran decided to escape. But hearing that they had been together even before birth explained a lot.

“So you were watching over us in turns?”

It explained why Seran didn’t pick up on anything except an eerie feeling.

“Yes. Dalia-san is completely innocent. We acted under Cordi-sama’s orders, and had her move to safety before last night.”

“Cordi…sama, eh? I thought you two were that old hag’s disciples? Why did you leak information to the creep?”

“We may be her disciples…but Cordi-sama was the one who took us in.”

Both of them seemed uncomfortable when speaking about this. It seemed like they were stuck between helping Leyla and Cordi.

“I see. So you were trying to please both sides.”

The two might not have liked that way of phrasing the truth, but they didn’t deny it.

“But you know that Cordi’s already beaten the dust, right?”

“Of course…We are currently acting under Leyla-sama’s orders. We cannot let you follow him.”

“So you’re here to keep me tied down. What did that old hag say?”

“That we can take an arm or a leg.” They both looked at Seran like they had mentally prepared themselves.

“Sounds like her, all right. Well, fine. I still don’t like how things ended last time, so I’m going all out today. I feel great, actually,” Seran smirked, as the twins steeled themselves.

They could tell just from looking. The reason they could hold their ground the last time was because of all the particular conditions they had created. Even so, Seran was still much stronger. Surely, they had no way of winning now.

“You two stay out of this,” Seran said to Lieze and Urza, who nodded with a stiff expression. “Same goes for you, Yuriga.”

“Naturally. I didn’t come here to play all buddy with you,” she said with a harsh tone, but her eyes were glued to the impending battle. “Now then, no time to waste. Let’s get this started.”

With those final words, the battle that would end in an instant began. As for the twins, Maria first stepped forward, as Miria attacked from behind her. There was no coordination there. It was just a desperate attack. The main goal was for Maria to hold down Seran as much as possible. If she could have Seran focus on her for even a second, then maybe Miria could strike down Seran’s arm or leg to leave him unable to fight. They were prepared to sacrifice their lives for this—Because this was the least they could do to repay Leyla.

They were born somewhere in the boonies and lost their parents in a battle with beastmen. They were then raised as part of the extremist faction that hated anybody who wasn’t human. But one day, Leyla came to face Cordi, realized the talent they had, and took them in. Strict but kind, she raised and trained the two, and they felt indebted to her. Thus, they didn’t hesitate to agree to Leyla’s request to slow down Seran. They were ready to sacrifice themselves. Seran’s first attack came in at the speed of light, forcing Maria to use up all her focus to merely intercept it. It was far too close for comfort, but she didn’t die at least.

“Oooooh?!” Seran raised a voice of shock, and Maria looked over at Miria to signal her to attack—

“…Huh?”

However, standing there was a translucent woman—The Wind Spirit Sylphid, restraining Miria’s body.

“What a shame.”

The last thing Maria saw was Seran’s devious smirk and Lieze’s fist approaching.

“All right, that’s done. Good thing it worked out.” Seran finished tying up the twins and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“D-Didn’t you talk about fighting fair and square…?”

Maria may have gotten knocked out by Lieze’s punch, but Miria was barely conscious.

“I was lying, of course. Why would you listen to the person you’re about to fight?” Seran ridiculed the two twins.

He may be right, but it still wasn’t something they could just swallow and accept.

“What did that old hag even tell you? You should know we act like this.”

“Don’t say we, please…” Lieze grumbled, but since she participated, she couldn’t argue back.

“Hold on a damn second! How did you even pull that off? Did you plan this beforehand?” Yuriga was still bewildered as to how they managed to show such perfect cooperation.

“I mean…when Seran says we’re supposed to say out, he usually means to help out.”

“Exactly that,” Lieze and Urza looked at each other and nodded.

“Forgive me, Leyla-sa—”

“Not happening.”

Miria wanted to bite her tongue to end her life, but Seran knocked her out with a clean swipe to the back of her head.

“Sorry, but we’re gonna need you later. Gotta clean up after our mess.” Seran grinned as he imagined the face of the strongest enemy being troubled.

“Seran…”

“Hey now, you don’t have to get all emotional on me, you guys. This is what I’m hoping for.”

When it came to Seran, there was no real feeling of melancholy when he went off to fight like during Minagi’s battle with Souga. Having spent so much time with him, Lieze knew that better than anybody.

“It’s pretty simple. There’s someone I want to fight. In that sense, that old hag and I are the same…and so, I’m counting on you to handle the rest,” Seran grinned and then ran away.

“I can’t believe he’d use that hand…” Yuriga watched him run off as she glared after him.

“But you know…Seran just doesn’t want these two to die,” Lieze pointed out as a defense lawyer for Seran.

“What do you mean?”

“He knew that these two were willing to sacrifice their lives in order to slow him down.”

Since they were technically his fellow disciples, Seran chose this course of action to ensure they wouldn’t have to die.

“So he acted like the bad guy while intending to save them…?”

“Pretty much. But don’t give him too much credit. He still enjoyed toying with them and—Ah, she’s not even listening,” Lieze didn’t even finish her sentence because she realized that Yuriga was mumbling something to herself.