Chapter 338: Younger Sister, and the Black [Crown].
Chapter 338: Younger Sister, and the Black [Crown].
Several dragons are lying down on the beach at Dracliff Island. None of them are dead; however, they’ve all received severe wounds, and probably won’t wake up anytime soon.
In front of the barrier preventing intruders from entering the island (except dragons) that stretches across the beach, a girl stood on top of one of the fallen dragons with a haughty posture.
The young girl was wearing something like the black goth-loli dress Rin always wears, and standing behind her was a small black knight-looking golem with a long muffler. Besides the golem was a maid with violet-colored short-cut hair who looks apologetic for some reason. Why a maid?
I did hear that she’s a kid, but she’s pretty small. Suu… No, I think she’s even younger than our maid Rene. Around six or seven years old? Despite her youth, one can feel some sort of dignity in her atmosphere as she stood glaring this way with an almost-arrogant look.
I’m looking at her using [Long Sense] from the villa situated within the center of the island, so she shouldn’t be able to see us here…
“That’s your sister?”
Instead of answering my question, Dr. Elka who was looking at the image I projected into the air nodded her head quickly. Eh, what’s with all that sweat? Is she scared?
“Anyways, let’s go talk to her. If Dr. Elka explains to her, I’m sure—”
“Don’t wanna!”
…She strongly refused. Not only that, but she also began clinging onto one of the trees in the courtyard in desperation.
“She’ll definitely get angry you know! That child is scary when she’s angry! If she gets angry at you once, you would understand too!”
“Are you a kid!?”
Looking at the girl who’s hugging the tree and shaking her head while shouting “don’t wanna” repeatedly with a half-crying expression, I really can’t see her as the elder sister of the girl currently being projected in the air. Or more like, shouldn’t this side be the younger sister…?
The people there, me, Yae and Hilda, looked at each other with troubled faces. When an older woman is throwing a tantrum like this in front of you, you would naturally have no idea how to deal with this.
I turned to the wolf-type golem, Fenrir, next to Dr. Elka with a look that says “Oi, do something”.
“Mu. Master is weak against her sister after all. Furthermore, since this time Elka just took off by herself on her journey and did not contact her sister at all, the other side should be quite angry. I don’t think there’s anything I can do here…”
“Didn’t contact her at all… Why-degozaru? You could’ve sent a letter or something whenever you stay at a town…”
“If I sent a letter she would be able to pinpoint the origin! If she knows where I am she’ll definitely come and catch me!”
We’ve got a fugitive here… Still, she’s that scared of making her younger sister angry, huh. Also, if she had communicated with her sister properly before going off on that journey of hers, she wouldn’t be angry would she?
“Master jumps into action as soon as she thinks of something, after all. If she becomes interested, she wouldn’t hesitate in throwing away everything else and focusing on that alone. It’s a bad habit of hers.”
Yeah, I feel like I’ve understood that part of hers as well. It’s to the degree where she asked to go to a different world without hesitation. It’s probably normal for her sister to be angry at her.
Well, standing around here isn’t gonna get us anywhere.
“Anyway, come on, let’s go.”
“I—don’t—wanna—!”
Hilda grabbed Dr. Elka’s arms and tried to drag her away, but she clung onto the tree with even her legs, showing off her determination of not budging from this spot no matter what.
Sigh, this kid-throwing-a-tantrum case here…
“For the moment, can Touya-dono speak with Master’s sister first? If you explain the situation, her anger may subside somewhat… I think.”
“Ehh…”
I’m bad at dealing with that type of children… That time with the fiancée of Paluf Kingdom’s boy king, Rachel, too, she picked a fight with me and I ended up making her cry.
No matter how I look at her, she’s younger than Rachel too; would she even understand it properly if I explained to her?
After asking Yae and Hilda to watch over Dr. Elka to prevent her from escaping, I reluctantly proceeded down the path that leads to the beach.
Imouto-san is still standing on top of the unconscious earth dragon she was on, and glaring in this direction while folding her arms.
Just like that, the two of us faced each other with the barrier between us. Since there’s the added height of the dragon’s body, I was the one who had to look up.
“You’re the Mochizuki Touya that the king of Primula talked about?”
The young girl opened her mouth while sending me a condescending (she’s forced to look down on my physically, so) gaze. O-oh. She definitely sounds like a strong-willed girl.
Since she also has enough ability to come all this way, this probably won’t go down well…
“Aah. And you’re the younger sister of Dr. Elka? What’s your name?”
“Norn… What’s with that face?”
“Ah, no. I have an acquaintance with the same name, so.”
Seems like I let a bit of my surprise show. The same name as one of our knight order’s vice commander, the wolf beastman, Norn-san. Well, it’s not a rare name, so this kind of thing could happen once or twice. Their personalities are pretty different, though.
“And so? Where is my sister?” (Note: she calls her sister “onee”.)
“Shivering in fear up there. Says she doesn’t want to come down.”
“… I was going to let you off with a single hit if you’d obediently handed my sister over, but a hostage?”
“Hah?”
“Noir!”
Upon hearing the young girl’s command, the small knight-like black golem behind her began running towards the barrier, and unleashed a full-force punch towards it.
Of course, it could not penetrate the barrier, and its small fist was blocked by the invisible wall.
To think she’d come swinging all of a sudden, oi. She’s quite the decisive girl…
“Ano, please listen to me. I don’t remember ever kidnapping your older sister. She was the one who tagged along—”
“Noir! [Summon Weapon], No.10 [Newton]!”
“Roger.”
Before I could finish saying “you know”, the black golem before me… Most likely, the black [Crown]; it was swinging a gigantic hammer, which appeared in its hands before I realized, at me. It’s huge!
While the golem itself doesn’t even reach a height of 1 meter, the size of the hammer is around that of a microvan.
With a *Gakyann* sound like that of breaking glass, the barrier broke under the attack. Fumu, to be able to break that barrier, that isn’t an ordinary hammer, is it?
“Noir! [Summon Weapon], No.09 [Schrodinger]!”
“Roger.”
As the black [Crown], Noir, answered the command of Norn who is its master, the giant hammer disappeared from its hands to be replaced by two magic guns. (Note: I have no idea what these are. The kanji used mean “magic guns”, but the katakana name says “spell caster”. Is it a type of weapon that appeared in the novel before? If so, I can’t remember.)
Lightning is unleashed from the twin guns. It seems that the power has been reduced to a level that won’t become fatal, but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna sit here and take the hit.
“[Absorb].”
I erased the incoming lightning with absorption magic. Several more shots were fired, but all of them dissipated before me.
For now, I need to do something about this golem. Since I can’t just damage it, guess I’ll seal its movements.
“[Prison].”
There’s that hammer from earlier as well. Just in case, the prison magic I used on the black [Crown] had a bit of divinity mixed in.
The black [Crown] was encased in a translucent prison cube with 1 meter edges. Leaving that golem aside, I tried to jump up to where Norn was at the top of the dragon.
“Master!”
The short-cut maid-san charged at me to prevent that while brandishing a slender sword she took out from somewhere. How dangerous… I’ll have you stay still for a while as well.
“[Paralyze].”
Dodging the tip of the sword being thrusted at me, I grabbed the wrist of the maid before casting paralysis magic. I thought she would stop moving with this, but for some reason the maid’s movements aren’t affected at all.
“!?”
I avoided the blade which swept horizontally to catch me. Although her physical abilities are high, her swordsmanship is amateurish, so it isn’t hard to dodge her swings.
[Paralyze] was ineffective? Tch, maybe she has something like a protective talisman. I had thought that the people in this world wouldn’t have things like that…
“Sorry about this. [Gravity].”
“Kya!?”
I touched the maid-san’s shoulder and activated weight manipulation, making her kneel down on top of the sands due to her increased weight.
“Kuh!”
Norn pulled out a magic gun from within her clothes and pointed it down towards me. Oops, that won’t do.
“[Slip].”
“Hya!?”
Norn slipped and fell from the top of the earth dragon and landed on her butt on the beach. Before she could get up, I sealed her in a [Prison] like how I dealt with Noir earlier. Alright, checkmate.
“Ku! Open up, damn it! You coward! Kidnapper! Ero magic user!”
“Ero magic… Do I really have that kind of impression?”
I began feeling a mysterious sadness while looking at the young girl who’s pounding on the walls of the [Prison].
Ah, don’t tell me she’s thinking I kidnapped Dr. Elka while aiming for her body or something like that? Please don’t joke with me.
Thinking that I need to correct her misunderstanding from the base up, I plopped myself down on the beach.
“… And as you can now see, it was Dr. Elka who asked to be brought along to our world. She was pretty forceful as well. Got it?”
“… Got it. There are several points which I still can’t consent to, but I understand the situation now. My sister has caused you trouble.”
I relaxed since she finally became understanding. I was worried if a kid like her can understand talks concerning an alternate world and whatnot, but should I say as expected of the younger sister of Dr. Elka who’s called a genius in this world, she seems to be quite smart as well.
“… Since I’ve understood your situation now, could you release this?”
“Ah, sorry.”
Norn tapped the walls of the [Prison] with an unhappy face.
I also released the [Prison] trapping Noir behind me, and removed the effects of [Gravity] from the maid.
Maid-san stood up while brushing sand off herself before making a small bow.
“Well then, once again. I’m Norn Patolaqshe. The golem there is Noir, and the one here is Elfrau. Eh, why with that face again?”
“Ah, well… There’s a country named ‘Elfrau’ in our world, so I’m surprised.”
“Hmm. How confusing.”
It really is.
“I am called Elfrau. If it’s too confusing, please call me Frau.”
Elfrau-san said something similar to our ero-maid, Cesca. Isn’t it supposed to be “Eru” there? Cesca too didn’t go for “Fran” even though her full name is “Francesca”. Is this some kind of rule?
“So, my stupid sister is up there?”
Norn asked that while pointing at the villa standing midway up the mountain visible from here. Stupid sister… Even though she’s technically a genius golem engineer; but well, I guess that sort of thing doesn’t really matter to her own family.
“Fenrir’s there too. Dr. Elka was shaking in fear when she thought about how you might be angry at her.”
“Yes, of course I am. Ignoring the fact that she up and left without a word, spending two whole years drifting around? Drifting here, drifting there, causing trouble everywhere she goes, and worst of all, she leaves the cleanup of all those troubles to me! Thanks to her, I’ve been dragged into things like being seen as an assault suspect and being chased around by a greedy casino owner… I’ve got oh-so-much things I want to say to her!”
Although it probably can’t be described with “years of grudge”, it seems like she’s accumulated quite some unpleasant things. Since they’re sisters, I guess the wise thing to do here is to not excessively interfere.
“You’ve sure had it tough even though you’re a kid. To have worried her little sister so much, what a bad elder sister…”
“Ah, don’t!”
“Warning, forbidden words.”
The maid… Frau-san and the black [Crown], Noir, opened their mouths at the same time.
Eh? And while I was distracted by the two, I didn’t notice Norn who had brandished the magic pistol in her hand.
From point-blank range, a metal-wood composite block flew at a considerable speed and hit the spot between my legs squarely.
“Fu!? Guho…!”
I cannot form voices. Expelling all the air in my lungs, I kneeled down on top of the hot sands and curled into a fetal position while holding ‘that’ with both my hands.
This… I can feel, greasy sweat dropping, down my face like a waterfall… Wait a minute…! This is too much…!
When there is so much pain that one cannot keep on standing and can only squirm on the ground.
This is exactly that…
“Don’t treat me like a kid! I’m 15 years old you know!!”
She’s saying something, but my brain isn’t working well… Fi-fifteen? The same age as Elze and Linze? Ha… Fu… Breathing is painful… I feel like I can see a field of flowers… You would never understand this pain… A perfect surprise attack aimed at a vital spot is super-effective…
“A-are you ok!?”
“I’m… Not ok, but… Let me, stay… Like… This for, a while…”
Frau-san rushed over in a panic, but I stopped her from approaching with my hand. There’s nothing others can do regarding this. I can only wait for the pain to pass away…
That reminds me, a similar thing has happened in the past… That time I got stepped on by the clumsy manager of the [Warehouse], Parshe… I didn’t think I would receive this damage again…
“Short temper, apologize.”
“Ku… The other side said something rude first!”
Even the golem is accusing the master’s behaviour. Well, if she was really a six-years-old girl then this much might’ve been forgivable, but for a fifteen-year-old teen… Wait, even if she’s really 6, is this forgivable?
I suppose she has some serious complex regarding her looks; no matter how you look at her, she looks like a six- or seven-years old kid… It’s not as if she’s from a long-lived race like Rin, so just what is going on…
While enduring the dull pain coming from my lower half, within my muddled consciousness, I swore to enchant my pants with [Shield] from now on.
Author note:
I thought about changing the names of the characters, but since I have some attachments, I decided to let them through in the end.
- Pixel