Katahane no Riku

Chapter 16.The red haired?demon

“Wha, you… Why are you here?”

Gortoberuk was greatly surprised. His shocked eyes were looking at her, alternating between Riku herself and her halberd. By his looks, it seemed that he still didn′t get a grasp of the situation. While still giving a light salute, she went through her report indifferently.

“The transportation of materials was successfully completed. On the way, there was those unpleasant spiritualist flags set on top of the fort, so I snapped them in two before coming here.”

“Snapped them in two? …Do you mean that you recaptured the fort?”

“That′s impossible!”

Selestinna raised her voice enough to be close to a scream. Putting down the hand that was being used for saluting, she looked at Selestinna′s direction. Because of the out of the expectation developments making everything confusing, the hand Selestinna was using to hold her crossbow started to tremble a bit. With that, it was impossible for her to take aim properly.

“But I left there the ace of the Bistolru family, you know? There is no way for him to be taken down by something like demons!!”

“But it is the reality.”

Riku lightly rotated her halberd. With the blood that was stuck to the blade dripping away as she did that, a bit of the blood flew and stained Gortoberuk′s prided mustache. But he didn′t get angry. He only kept looking at the scene dumbfounded while still holding the stump of what was left from his arm. *1

“Good afternoon, Selestinna Bistolru. Are you ready to die?”

“Ggh, if you get too cocky, I will make you suffer for that.”( っく)

Selestinna narrowed her eyes. Reloading her crossbow with a bolt, she aimed at Riku. Looking at her acting like that, Riku couldn′t help but do a bitter smile.

“How stupid.”

As if she had forgotten that previously Riku had defended against her prided crossbow shot, she shot at her one bolt after another. All which Riku had skillfully deflected. Strangely, all the bolts would fall to the ground without being damaged. Whether it was the quality of the bolts or Selestinna′s power, it wasn′t possible to know. But to Riku, such thing didn′t matter at all. More than that, seeing that Gortoberuk was still showing no reactions made her start to see him in a bad light. After not knowing how many bolts has it been anymore, Riku decided to quit waiting and directly ask him.

“Lieutenant general Gortoberuk, please, give me the order. Whether it is to annihilate all these trash that dared to attack the Myuuz castle, or whether it is for us to retreat to the fort.”

With these words, Gortoberuk finally came back to himself.

Gortoberuk then slowly checked the situation of the battle. From the castle, flames were arising, and the flag had already completely burned down. His adjutant, staff officer and half of the elite troops he personally led were already dead. The demons that were being led by Riku were already giving all their effort, but they still weren′t in enough numbers. Just as he was about to think about the situation, he tried touching his covered in blood mustache, but then remembered that one of his arms had been blown off. While giving a bitter smile, he gave Riku the order.

“…I used to not trust you.”

“…”

“That′s why, first lieutenant, if you really are loyal to the Demon Lord army, then get the head of that girl that stole my arm. Once you get it… You can go back to the fort.”

Saying only that, he held the reins with his remaining hand, and then, he shouted in an ear piercing loud voice.

“All troops, retreat to the fort! This is a top priority order!”

Gortoberuk′s angry voice resounded through the whole battlefield well.

Turning his back from Selestinna, he retreated towards the direction of the fort. If they were to keep up this fight, complete annihilation would be inevitable. If they were to get annihilated, then retreating was first concern.

“Wa-wait up there!”

Selestinna couldn′t just let that run away. In that instant, she changed target and started following after Gortoberuk. But Riku didn′t let her get her way. Swinging her halberd with great force, she took down a bolt Selestinna had shot at her. In order to keep hindering her, Riku got in her way with her horse. Then, Selestinna gave Riku an annoying look.

“Get out of my way, you lowly red head!”

“Which one of us really is lowly, Bistolru pig?”

To get another bolt, she extended her hand to the quiver. Unfortunately for her, there were no bolts remaining. She had used all of them. The sword had been blown far away and although she still had her crossbow, she didn′t have any bolts to use. The head of the Bistolru household, Selestinna Bistolru, didn′t have any other ways of fighting remaining.

“S-such a thing.”

“You didn′t have enough prepared for the battle, right? Then, goodbye.”

Riku swung down her red halberd. But the blade didn′t reach her neck. In order to stop Riku, a great amount of arrows came from the side. Riku didn′t have any choice but to change the course of her halberd. With her halberd, she deflected the arrows that were raining down on her. While she was still defending from the arrows, Selestinna turned around to another direction and started to retreat.

“Wait, you pig!”

“We won′t let you! Protect Selestinna-sama!!”

The ones that shot arrows from the side were spiritualists from Bistolru. There was no way they would let their family head die. With expressions that seemed like they were ready to die if necessary, they kept shooting at her. Even if she tried to go after Selestinna, with their attacks, it was impeding Riku from being able to follow after her. Riku clicked her tongue.

“What a pain.”

Riku stopped defending from the arrows. After pulling the reins with full force, she charged after the group that were shooting at her. Going through the rain of arrows, Riku readied her halberd.

“Shoot, shoot! Shoot until it is dead!!”

“I won′t die that easily.”

Different from Selestinna′s arrows, the arrows they were shooting only held ordinary demon banning power. Defending against only the ones that seemed they would hit a vital point, she ignored the rest of the arrows. It seemed some arrows had hit her horse, but she didn′t have the time to care about that. All she did was keep charging at full power. The distance between her and the group of archers was rapidly closing up. Riku felt like the rate the arrows were being shot increased, but it was still within her expectations.

“S-stop shooting! Switch over to your swords!”

Thinking Riku was already too close, the spiritualist ordered. If the distance was any closer than that, they would start having friendly-fire problems. But by the time the spiritualists were ordered that, it had already been too late. By the time he uttered his last word, Riku had already reached right in front of their faces. Humming through the wind, the halberd cut the archers to pieces. Once she got there, the conclusion was decided in a instant. *2Riku was slaughtering one after another, driving the archers to annihilation.

There were some spiritualists that barely managed to throw away their bows and wield their sword. But even so, the result didn′t change. Her halberd would mow down everyone without mercy. There were some that were aiming for her horse rather than her, but before they would get close enough, they would already have been cut in two.

The Myuuz territory was drowning in a rain of blood. Aiming at the last remaining spiritualist, right when she was about to raise her halberd…

“Stop it there, red haired demon!”

A voice came from behind Riku.*3 After killing the last spiritualist, she slowly turned to the direction of the voice. Right there was the figure of Selestinna, who should have already ran away. Together with her, there was an old soldier that felt somewhat familiar to Riku.

“You really came here to get yourself killed, Selestinna Bistolru.”

“Came here to get yourself killed? It′s wrong. I came here to get revenge for my comrades that you killed.”

Selestinna readied her sword. Maybe because she got her sword back, any signs of uneasiness she had before faded away. Surprised, Riku shrugged her shoulders.

“Can it be that you thought just because you have a weapon, you could win?”

“Haaaaa!!”

Raising her voice, she charged at Riku. Whether it was the anger of having her comrades killed, the anger of letting Gortoberuk run away or the anger of being underestimated, or even all of those mixed together, it was unknown. The silver sword violently descended upon Riku.

“Such short-sighted attack.”

With her halberd, she kept defending her seemingly roaring swordplay. Sometimes she would parry, sometimes dodge. From each time she did that, gradually Selestinna started becoming even more enraged.

“You, how dare you!”

Being controlled by her own anger, her blows were more powerful. But, in contrast, she started to do wider movements. Riku didn′t overlook that. By the time the flaws in her swordplay were starting to become obvious, Riku had already seen through it.

“Yes, and with that, it′s over.”

The moment Selestinna had lost her breath, using the power of her whole body, Riku brushed Selestinna′s sword away. With the same level of strength that Gortoberuk had used to take her sword away from her hand previously, there was no way for her to withstand that blow. With a dim sound, her sword flew away to the air.

“Eh…?”

“There isn′t enough anger. To be more accurate, there isn′t anger imbued on your sword.”

Riku calmly caught the falling sword. The silver sword was Just like before, she didn′t have any bolts left in her quiver. There weren′t any allies to save her. Even the old soldier that had been there all the time didn′t show any signs of moving to help her. This time, her destiny was set.

“Goodbye, Selestinna Bistolru.”

“N,no… Help me…”

To who she was directing those words, in fact nobody knew. After what was to happen, she wouldn′t be able to finish her words.

“Unfortunately, help isn′t coming.”

With the silver sword, Riku cut her head off.*4 Because of the fear of death, Selestinna Bistolru died with her eyes still open. Stabbing the head that fell to the ground with the sword, she was about to leave the place. She didn′t have any business remaining with this battle after all. All she had to do now was just complete Gortoberuk′s task by going back to the fort.

But…

“Wait!”

A somewhat familiar voice came from behind. It was the old soldier that came together with Selestinna. The spear wielding old soldier was looking at Riku as if to confirm something. Except for him, there were no spiritualists in the surroundings remaining. Before, Riku had wondered whether he was her attendant or something, but thinking how he didn′t save her from dying, it seemed he was something else in the end. While she was thinking about who the old soldier in front of her was, he calmly took off his helmet.

“It has been a long time, Riku Barusak ojou… Or rather, Riku, the traitor.”*5

Riku then noticed the old soldier′s true identity.

And then, she remembered. The ones that attacked the Myuuz castle weren′t only spiritualists from the Bistolru family.

“Toudo Barusak. To think you would be here.”

The old soldier was a spiritualist that served the Barusak household for many years. The forgotten memories from ten years ago were rapidly coming back. Toudo used to pass by the Barusak residence often times. But other than that, she didn′t remember anything else noteworthy. At most, all she knew was that he made his name through many wars.

“The Bistolru head had said about a red haired demon appearing before. Thinking about the coincidence, I came here to confirm, but… Are you really planning on paying back your father′s benevolence with this?”

“Benevolence? There was no such thing.”

While leaning her halberd on her shoulder, she started thinking. She was able to handle the halberd with only one hand easily, but she had the feeling that fighting Toudo with only one hand would be hard. If she was to fight him, she would rather use both hands, but she couldn′t just throw away Selestinna′s head.

“The benevolence of how he had been raising you for the entirety of seven years and the gratitude for sparing you too. It′s very deplorable…”

“Deplorable?”

But she didn′t have the option of running away. With this Barusak senile old man spouting nonsense, she needed to end his life already.

“Even though he dropped his own daughter from the cliff?”

“Ah, it couldn′t be helped back then. But it seems we ended up creating a mad dog instead. Very well, this Toudo will dispose of this disgrace of the Barusak.”

Toudo sighted. With his face full of wrinkles twisting, he pointed his spear directly to Riku′s direction. Riku also pointed her halberd to Toudo.

“That′s just perfect. I will make you end up just like her.”

On Riku′s face, her expression was turning into one with an unnatural complexion of ecstasy.