Chapter 32

Chapter 32 \n<h1>Chapter 32</h1>

 

Fighting is fun.

It satisfies me and fills my heart…

Aah, this was simply the best… My friends, soldiers, and Lyngle Kingdom were joining forces to fight in this war. When I thought about these conditions for me to enjoy, I couldn’t help myself from standing up and entering the battlefield.

Even so, I wouldn’t take the lives of my enemies; I still had something called humanity after all…

Or perhaps this was proof that I was entering the battlefield with a half-baked resolution.

But it’s true that I wanted to avoid the act of killing. I still had ‘morals’ from my former world.

Despite not having any intention of returning to the world I came from, I still couldn’t completely agree with this world’s common sense… It’s really laughable.

I looked pretty on the outside but on the inside I was just an ugly and filthy person… It’s as if I was a stuffed toy packed with mud…

“……Hah.”

“Haaaah!!”

In the midst of war— A demon soldier threw a spear that resembled a fork over this way.

If I got hit, it would probably hurt. If I got hit, it might not finish me. If I got hit, I might just die. It was something I could recognize at a glance. The person who threw the spear intended to kill me. That intent was being aimed at my heart.

I strongly felt the sensation of ‘death’. Even so, I didn’t stop moving. No, I couldn’t stop moving even if I wanted to.

“Hahaha…..”

“This human—”

Twisting my body, I rotated and dodged the spear. I then placed my hand onto the enemy’s abdomen covered in armor.

I couldn’t use my sword for anything other than defense in this situation. I didn’t have Sigris’ physical strength to cut through thick armor like this.

Therefore, the obvious choice was to use an offensive magic attack.

What’s more was that my magic was [Lightning] magic which was exceptionally effective against living beings.

“Haah!!”

“Gwaah?!”

I was the one making light of lives the most by treating my magic as a convenient ‘tool’.

Even though I didn’t have the resolve to kill or to be killed, I was standing here on a battlefield… It’s not an exaggeration to say that I was looking down on lives.

Kazuki resolved himself before coming here.

He faced his own fears and although he was afraid, he stood up.

Usato-kun was walking on a completely different path from me.

….No, if one looked at the bigger picture… he wasn’t that different from me. He had no resolve to kill; we were the same on that point. But we were different in everything else. Although he looked like an honest and apathetic person, he really hated to lose. Thinking about the cold attitude he had towards me, he probably guessed my true nature to an extent.

“Aah, Usato-kun…”

I was immersed in my own emotions. This world was wonderful—

Even if people were to label me as a pervert, I couldn’t help but find this world to be enjoyable and fulfilling. New encounters, the unknown, and hope… It was filled with the impossible.

For this reason, I had to survive this war no matter what.

“Next, huh.”

After glancing down on the fallen enemy, I started to look for my next prey.

Before I knew it, there were no enemies around me. The other side was cautiously looking this way.

I suspect that they were now scared and this should diminish their numbers but—

“Kazuki-kun…”

He was fighting.

Wielding his sword, he cut down his foes. In some respects, it felt bloodcurdling to watch… But I could sense an even more violent emotion coming from him.

His magic wasn’t as convenient as mine.

Light magic— It was magic that could inflict unrecoverable damage to demons, one could say it was magic to oppose demons. It was an ability that was very advantageous in this war. However, it was more of a burden for Kazuki.

“Haah—— Hhaah——Hhaah——“

He was going easy on his opponent despite being thrown into a war like this where the other side would kill him without any questions asked.

If his opponent wasn’t a demon, Kazuki might have used even less power despite how tough it would be for him.

If he were the same as me, ‘A person with a screw loose in their head’, he would have been able to calmly face the opponent and take them down.

The other side was attacking Kazuki-kun with murderous intent. Kazuki-kun responded by matching his opponent’s intent.

While being cautious of my surroundings, I ran up to Kazuki-kun and attacked his opponent with lightning magic. The enemy was incapacitated and could no longer fight.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah… But I’m mentally exhausted.”

“You can withdraw if you want.”

“Your worry is unnecessary… I can still… do it.”

It would be a waste of words to continue.

He was more stubborn than you’d expect. I imagine it was due to his nature to self-loathe himself.

Although it was his weakness, it was also his strength. To make yourself suffer wasn’t something you could easily do.

“I see, but if it gets too intense, you can step back.”

“…..”

After I said so to him, he ran towards the enemy with his sword.

I also started running and pursued Kazuki-kun.

The war was far from over.

 

*

 

I wonder just how many people I’ve treated since the war had started.

It was around the time I started to get used to the smell of blood and had just finished treating a soldier. Another soldier was carried in and as I was treating their injuries, Rose uttered a few words,

“It’s almost time… It seems.”

Orga-san’s expression became tense due to Rose’s words.

“Are you going? …Rose-san.”

“Idiot, you’re supposed to call me Leader in a place like this, Orga.”

After a few seconds, I naturally understood what Rose’s words meant.

Aah, it looks like I’ll be entering the battlefield soon.

I had plenty of magic power stored and my body was in good condition.

The white uniform I had received was still clean. This uniform symbolized my duty. It was also something I could be proud of.

“What do you think, Usato? Have you resolved yourself?”

I was suddenly interrupted as I was treating the soldier.

Rose was giving me the usual smile with ferocity behind it as she asked me.

This wasn’t a rash question but rather it was to test me— I understood why I had to give an answer right now. It had to be now; I intuitively knew that I wouldn’t be able to give an answer unless she asked right now.

“Of course. I’ve been training to be your right hand after all.”

“Aah, that’s right… That’s the kind of person you are. Then I have no need to worry.”

“You were worried? That’s unexpected.”

“You… This mouth of yours… Well it’s fine. Orga and Uluru, I’ll be leaving this place to you two. If the enemy arrives here, you should think about running away before anything else. You should know why even without me saying it.”

The HQ here held the most importance.

If the enemy came here, they had to run.

Leaving Rose and me aside, the two of them didn’t possess strong bodies. It would be dangerous for them and I want the two of them to get away if possible.

“I understand. Don’t worry about us and save as much people as you can out there.”

“Try not to get hurt.”

“Yeah.”

Rose turned around and waved her hand in the air to reassure Orga-san and Uluru-san.

It was a short and blunt response but one way or another, we understood what she was trying to convey. She really wasn’t honest at all… not that I should be the one talking.

“Well then, Orga-san, Uluru-san. I’ll do my best so that this doesn’t become our final farewell.”

“Take care…”

“If it gets dangerous, run away Usato-kun… I will pray for your safe return.”

Thank you, Orga-san, Uluru-san.

Turning my back towards the two of them, I headed out the tent and followed after Rose.

“So slow, let’s hurry up and go.”

Unexpectedly, Rose was waiting for me outside the tent.

Crossing her arms in silence with an unpleasant expression, she was silently telling me to follow her.

After leaving the tent, Alek-san gave some words of encouragement to me and I heard about the current war situation from the other soldiers. Afterwards we departed from the encampment.

I followed after Rose while suppressing my rapidly beating heart.

Before heading into the battlefield, this was probably the only time I would have to relax.

While sweat dripped down onto my eyebrows from walking, Rose glanced in my direction with her eyes locked onto mine and started talking,

“……Before you head into the battlefield for the first time, I have some final advice for you.”

“Yes? Advi…ce?”

“Well, we’re talking about you after all. You probably can’t hurt anything resembling a human right?”

“No, I mean… My job is to save people.”

“If you get cornered and say the same thing, then you’re a big idiot.”

….I haven’t even thought of hurting someone, let alone actually considering it. After all, I was thinking this whole time that if I got hurt I could just immediately heal myself and try to avoid them…

“Well, for an idiot like you, this is big advice… No, it’s a skill that I’ll be teaching you, so listen up alright? I’ll only tell you once.”

“……..Yes.”

“It’s——“

From Rose’s mouth, she told me her ‘advice’.

That skill was simply just unheard of because of how violent and savage it was— It was a skill in which I didn’t understand the purpose it served.

Even if I used it, it would be pointless. Even if I used it well, the other party would just faint.

However, that [Skill] was——— The wrong way to use healing magic, is how I would describe it.

Even so, that incorrect way of using it—

“This fits me perfectly, doesn’t it?”

“I see, I’m glad.”

“Don’t tell me that you thought of this skill just for my sake?”

“….There’s no way that’s possible.”

“Thank you very much.”

“……….Yeah.”

Rabbits are cowards.

Because I have ‘rabbit’ in my name and am like that as well, I don’t want to use this skill. Assuming that I do use it, it was a skill that wouldn’t harm my opponent in a sense.

Rose seemed to be satisfied with my reply and turned around.

The place where the war was taking place was right in front of my eyes.

Inside the cloud of dust, I could hear the voices of humans along with beasts as they resounded throughout the battlefield.

With such a reliable person next to me, I had nothing to fear.

“Let’s go, Usato.”

“Yes, Leader!”

Rose and I started running.

Without saying anything, I ran in a different direction from Rose who headed directly to the frontlines in one jump. Rose would be covering a different spot from me.

Blood, blood, blood, the smell of blood. I’m already used to it. Something like this couldn’t stop me! While ignoring the armed demons, I thought of the wounded that I entrusted to my comrades back at the tent.

I kept on advancing forward and forward. I kept cutting through. The frontlines were just ahead.

“This is the battlefield…”

I strongly held my hand near my heart.

I was definitely not making light of it.

The frontlines were literally an all-out-war. It was a bloody feud of two sides fighting against each other.

The fight was so fierce that there was no time for people to heal themselves.

But it was already decided what I would be doing here. I immediately spotted two individuals with serious wounds. After I enveloped my feet with power, I broke into a run.

I forged my motion perception during my time in the forest.

I forged my stamina through daily training.

I forged my agility by running through a town full of people.

If I feel fatigued, I could use magic to fix that.

My healing magic was in top form today.

I ran through the free-for-all fight between demons and humans, going for the shortest route towards one wounded individual.

“!? You’re a user with healing magic, huh!?”

“…..”

There was a nearby demon that swung their sword towards me but it was slow. Compared to the snake I faced, it was nothing at all. I didn’t feel afraid.

Fighting with others wasn’t my ‘fight’. My fight was to save others.

Holding one person under my arm, I nimbly dodged the attack from the demon. I was then able to easily reach the next wounded soldier and carried them under my other arm.

“Uu… Y-you are?”

They’re conscious. With just these injuries, I should be able to heal them in just a few seconds.

I healed the first person I got a hold of but this one was still conscious. As expected of soldiers fighting in frontline, they had a tremendous amount of endurance.

“I’ll begin my treatment. Please don’t move.”

I moved to a spot away from the battlefield and let the two people I was carrying on my shoulder down.

The two soldiers I let down looked at me in surprise as they touched the places where they had been injured— But I had no time to be concerned about every little thing.

Even now, people’s lives were on the line. I had to hurry up and return.

“You’re both fine now. If you feel that your conditions are still not up to par, you can withdraw from the frontlines.”

After declaring that, I headed back again.

——As long as these hands of mine could reach you, I will definitely, definitely not let you die.

 

*

 

On the same frontlines, at the time that Usato had been deployed…

Inukami and Kazuki were confronting a formidable enemy.

“Ah, this is boring. I thought I would have trouble with some slightly stronger humans. But humans are still just humans after all… Boring, boring, boring.”

It was the Black Knight with armor that appeared to be moving like a living being. The armor had such an unnatural luster that just looking at it would give off an intense and unpleasant terror.

One could see it wasn’t an ordinary set of armor.

Around the Black Knight, several human soldiers covered in blood were scattered.

“It would seem like the both of us are going to have to fight him…”

“Yes..”

“Haah? You’re going to do it? I don’t really mind, I’m really bored anyways… I’ll kill you immediately.”

An extraordinary foe had appeared but the two of them intended to bring them down.