Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

Book 7: Chapter 13

Once everyone was sound asleep at night, Urza swiftly started gathering her belongings. She thanked Lieze, who was pretending to sleep next to her, and then swiftly left the room. Here in this town, there was actually a strict curfew for the nights, but using spirit magic, escaping the town wouldn’t be impossible. She turned around once to glance at the inn and imagined Kyle’s face in her head. When he came home earlier, he seemed somewhat above the clouds. Thankfully, he didn’t realize that Urza and Lieze were acting off, but it also made her full of regret.

“Thanks for everything,” Urza shook her head to get rid of her lingering attachment and started thinking about the one thing only she could do.

To prepare for the upcoming war, she would first return to her hometown. Remembering it did give her some weird feelings, but that was her only choice. She was about to step away from the inn, when—

“…Huh?!”

All her world turned upside down.

***

As for Kyle, it was already midnight and yet he couldn’t get a wink of sleep. Naturally, he was still thinking about the same thing as he was slowly getting frustrated because of Seran’s loud snoring. He was about to knock himself out in order to sleep, but then—

“…?!”

He felt a wave of hostility, which made him, as well as Seran, jump up from their beds in unison. They were ready for combat in an instant, jumping down the window instead of rushing down the stairs. Outside the inn, they met a familiar face.

“Souga…”

The old man smiled innocently, completely contradicting his status of being the world’s second-greatest assassin. Shortly after, the girls came rushing down, too. Minagi was evidently shaken.

“It has been a while.”

Facing Souga, Kyle felt something important missing. Before he could figure out the origin of this sensation, however, he first caught the object Souga threw at him. The moment he understood what this object was, an immense wave of killing intent emitted from his whole body.

“Whoa?!”

Let alone Souga, the target of this hatred, even Seran jumped a step away from Kyle. The object in Kyle’s hand…was the charm with the green crystal he had given Urza as a present. The feeling that something important was missing…was that Urza was nowhere to be seen.

“Hoh…Not bad, not bad.” Souga tried to play it cool, but even he was on edge witnessing Kyle like that.

He couldn’t remember the last time he was met with such murderous intent, or if he even experienced anything of this level before.

“…I got a message from Cordi. Meet him at the Mera temple above ground. Alone, of course. That elf gal’s gonna be there.”

“And Urza’s safe, right?” Kyle’s voice reaching absolute zero temperature even made Souga whimper.

“Cordi’s wish is to have a conversation with you without being interrupted. As long as you come to see him, she won’t suffer any harm. He promised me this when I accepted this request.”

“You’ve got guts saying this kind of crap after abducting Urza,” Kyle cursed Souga’s nonchalant statement, but he knew that talking with him any more than this was pointless, so he turned around and was about to dash off.

“You’re not actually gonna go there all by your lonesome, right?” Seran stopped him.

If Cordi simply wished to talk with Kyle, then Seran wouldn’t have any issue with it…but now that Urza’s safety was on the line, he had no intention of just sitting back and waiting.

“I expected nothing less. That is why I prepared myself beforehand with some necessities…Two steps of keeping the rest at bay.”

“Necessities?”

Together with Kyle’s question, Souga took out a familiar object—a magic stone.

“This one is a [Poison Cloud] magic stone. I also have [Explosion] stones at the temple for Cairys-sama, and they will both activate once the sun rises.”

If a magic stone like that were to activate in a crowded place like this town, it would create countless casualties. Not to mention that Cairys’ temple was always the spot most popular early in the morning.

“If you can take care of them now, you’ll make it in time…But you will need two to three people.”

He had no remorse for keeping faithful followers of Cairys hostage all to slow down Kyle and his party. Plus, someone other than Souga must have set up those stones, so questioning him here wouldn’t do them any good, either.

“And one more thing…I’m also here to keep you guys busy…and I wouldn’t mind enjoying a one versus one,” Souga said as he glanced over at Minagi.

“…”

She accepted this gaze, seeming more determined than ever.

“Then let’s split up into three groups!” Kyle gave an immediate decision.

The first group consisted of just Kyle, who’d head over to meet Cordi and save Urza. The second group will have to head to Cairys’ temple to get rid of the magic stones, designated to be Seran and Shildonia. And finally, the third group—

“Minagi, keep Souga at bay here. Lieze’s gonna help you.”

“That sounds best. Let’s go.”

“Oh for the love of…”

Seran and Shildonia took off.

“That sounds like a plan. I’m the best bet to deal with Souga,” Minagi’s face was pale, but she seemed determined.

“K-Kyle! I’m coming with you! It’s my fault that Urza left…I couldn’t stop her…” Lieze pleaded, her face messy from all the tears she had shed.

She seemed to blame herself for all of this happening.

“Have faith in me. I’ll bring her back home safely. So please, I need you to stay here…and look after Minagi,” Kyle smiled at Lieze to give her a bit of relief and then started running so that he wouldn’t even lose a second.

Left behind, Souga and Minagi looked at each other. Each of them held a small dagger in their hands. Lieze wiped her tears away and then watched over their fight.

“Can’t believe the day would come when I’d have to fight you, Souga.”

“Do you think you can beat me?”

And then, the fight between shinobi master and pupil began quietly.

***

Because of the curfew of the town, not a single person was outside to witness Seran carry Shildonia through the streets.

“Still, to think Urza was attacked…Well, I understand she must have left so that Kyle wouldn’t suffer any harm,” Shildonia grumbled to herself as she crossed her arms.

“Yeah. I just wonder how she got attacked with such great timing. I’m sure she was careful of her surroundings, but she must have gotten attacked the second she was alone…Someone’s leaking information about it,” Seran said with confidence.

“I was thinking someone must have been watching us, but if you haven’t realized with your inhumane instincts…”

“It didn’t make sense for Cordi to just wander inside the inn, either. I thought I was being careful there.”

“Agreed. That means, our prime suspect would be…Dalia?”

“Yeah. There’s a good chance she was working with Cordi…Dang it, I knew something was off.”

Seran had always been wary of Dalia, but after the meeting with the Goddess, his mind was somewhere else entirely and he wasn’t as careful as he usually would be. He regretted not being more aggressive.

“Hmm…But we need more workers,” Shildonia said and munched on the sweets she took out.

“Hey! Don’t eat something while I’m carrying you! The crumbs are going to get my hair dirty!”

“What else am I supposed to do? I need food to be able to work. I need to supply myself with energy.”

According to her, she needed to eat to supply her magic, so she continued to munch on her food.

“I should be able to figure out the location of the magic stones. But if I have to disarm all of them…Do we even know how many there are?”

Shildonia questioned if they could even realistically pull this off, looking at the numbers.

“What else are we supposed to do? We can’t even trust that old hag of mine right now…Dang it.”

Since Seran didn’t know who he could trust now that the Mera cult was involved, he couldn’t ask any official organization for help, either.

“We can only try to disable as many as we can find…Wuh?!”

Seran suddenly came to a halt and stared into the darkness.

“What’s wrong?”

“But…this couldn’t be possible…” Seran didn’t answer Shildonia’s question, as he twisted his head.

“I attempted to hide my presence, but I can see your senses have only sharpened.”

The voice responding to Seran’s bewildered murmurs was one he was very familiar with. She was neither friend nor foe, not showing any caution. In fact, they already fought together before. The silhouette appearing from the shadows was a woman wearing a hoodie with a coat to hide her body. What stood out the most despite all of that, however, was the single horn growing from her head.

“Why the hell are you here…Yuriga?”

For better or worse, Seran often had dealt with this demon.

“I finally found you…Can’t you stay in one place for longer than two days? Though I guess it was good luck that I just got here a while ago.” Yuriga didn’t answer Seran’s question and instead complained.

Demons like her could sneak into human society through the help of influential people like Marco from the business association.

“I came to report something. Where is Kyle?”

“Ohh! Perfect timing! The Goddess smiles upon us!” Shildonia clapped her hands together.

“Huh? You’re gonna have her help?”

“There’s nobody better! Because we know for sure she isn’t part of the Mera cult!”

“Well, that’s to be expected. And I know how strong she can be.”

“Wait a second, what are you talking about? I just came here to report the progress of our operations. I’m not your convenient partner.”

Shildonia and Seran were plotting amongst each other, giving Yuriga awfully weird vibes.

“Also, my mission comes first. This is a letter from Luiza-sama for you.”

Yuriga took out a scroll that looked like a letter which looked rather light at first, but Seran felt its gravity once he grabbed it.

“You’re not going to tell me you won’t read it, right?”

“No, I will…But, later. Once I have the time.”

“I was told to hear your response, so get to it.”

Hearing that, Seran groaned to himself, but he remained strong.

“I’ll fill you in on the details later, but we need your help!”

“How are you people always wrapped up in some sort of trouble?”

“Please save your complaints for Kyle later!”

Not knowing what was happening, Yuriga couldn’t stop herself from giving Seran a dubious look. At the very least, she understood she got wrapped up in a mess.

“…Okay,” Yuriga reluctantly agreed.

Seran was genuinely surprised at that. He knew he was asking for a lot, but he thought he’d have to fight harder for this.

“Luiza-sama asked me to help you to the best of my ability…and I have a debt to repay, too.”

Yuriga seemed to have resigned herself and accepted the fate she couldn’t run from.

Jumping into the temple for the Goddess Cairys, Seran and the other two began looking for the magic stones with Shildonia’s strong perception and began collecting them. Below a chair, behind the altar, going through all sorts of places, they collected a total of 20 magic stones. If they had exploded, it would have caused a great calamity.

“There are usually two ways of activating a magic stone. First, setting up a timer…or if it receives some sort of stimulus to activate. And since we’re dealing with a time-sensitive one, the best way to resolve things is to destroy it.”

“So like this?”

Listening to Shildonia’s explanation, Yuriga crushed a magic stone in her hands, and then she scattered the shards around. Only sand remained in her hand. This kind of raw strength is on an entirely different level from what humans could do.

“That’s some hefty plotting…But, you’ve got some strength packing, eh?”

“This much is nothing unusual. In fact, I’m shocked you humans can’t even do this much.”

Both parties realized the gap between their two races.

“Keep your voice down. It might be the middle of the night, but people will eventually show up.”

If a believer happened to spot them, they would be the prime suspects for having set up the magic stones.

“I know, I know…Were those all of them?”

“I can feel one more presence…But the location is a bit complicated.”

Shildonia’s eyes narrowed as she glanced over at a pillar in the corner.

“This one, right?”

Since Yuriga stood close to it, she swiftly spotted the magic stone and reached for it. However—

“Wait! That one will activate based on touch! Don’t stimulate it!” Shildonia warned her, but it was too late.

Yuriga reflexively pulled back her hand, but in doing so dropped the magic stone. It was imbued with a touch-based activation formula amidst all the previous ones that were merely time-based. Paired with that, it was set up in a place much harder to find to ensure whoever was looking for them would drop their guard at the very end. Truly, a nasty way of setting up a trap like this. And Yuriga fell for that beautifully. If she were to get hit with a close-range [Explosion] spell, not even her defenses as a demon would save her. With no time to escape, the magic stone—surprisingly didn’t explode.

“That was a bit too close for my taste. Be a bit more careful, yeah?”

The moment Seran heard this magic stone was different, he stepped forward without hesitation and grabbed the magic stone. Realizing that she had been saved by Seran, who risked his life to save her, Yuriga was bewildered. Shildonia rushed over in a hurry, chanting a line of ancient magic language, or something like a curse, to which the magic stone dispersed into particles of light.

“All right, that should be all of them.”

Hearing that confirmation, Seran sighed in relief, but Yuriga still looked bothered.

“How many more times will you end up saving my life…” She grumbled to herself.

Seran didn’t remember saving her life at all, but he had a few ideas as to what she could be referring to.

“Are you talking about that thing with Ganias? You don’t have to be hung up on that. And with Targ, we were even fighting together.”

With the incident at the mining town, Seran did, to some degree, save Yuriga back then, but that was more of a coincidence than anything. In fact, he even tried to kill her himself. And when they fought the demon Targ in Eddos, Seran was mostly just using Yuriga to gain an advantage. And this time, he just didn’t want her to end up hurt after basically forcing her to help. That’s why he only felt more guilty when being thanked like this.

“As a demon, I haven’t forgotten my pride, nor do I feel the need to repay a human…But, I can’t exactly ignore the debt I’ve built up, so…although I don’t like to admit it…you’re one hell of a man, Seran.”

“H-Huh…?”

Seran was completely thrown off by this sudden compliment. Granted, they had been on good terms ever since they fought together, but Seran never intended for them to become friends or anything of the like.

“That said, things change now that you’re a possible candidate for Luiza-sama. I have to confirm with my own eyes if you are a worthy man of her.”

“Stop jumping to conclusions!”

“You definitely are strong, and as one of the people who defeated Three-Arms, you have made yourself a name amongst the ranks of demons.”

“Hold on a damn second! What are you talking about?”

Seran picked up a comment he’d rather not have heard.

“If you’re strong, you’re bound to attract attention. As the man who defeated the previous Demon Lord, Randolf received much hatred from my fellow demons, but they also treated him with respect. Three-Arms was a hero in his own right, so there is no way to stop your rise to glory.”

“Stop it please?!”

“Apologies, but Luiza-sama is only fuelling this herself.”

“Why would she do that?!”

“Also, we have been receiving notice of many demons aiming to challenge you.”

“I don’t wanna!”

Seran and Yuriga were screaming at each other, when Shildonia interrupted them.

“You fools…There’s a time and place to flirt around like this.” Shildonia seemingly picked up the presence of people arriving soon.

They must have caused too much noise.

“Crap…I’m worried about Minagi, so let’s hurry on back,” Seran put Shildonia on his back again as he started running, with Yuriga following after him.

That reminds me, the people in Galgan also value strength over everything…This poor soul sure is loved by those who love the strong. Fate is a cruel mistress…

Shildonia looked at Seran’s head as these thoughts raced through her mind, munching on some more sweets.

***

The battle between Minagi and Souga couldn’t have been more one-sided. The difference in strength between the elderly Souga and young Minagi put the girl in an absolute advantage. However, Souga’s raw skill forced Minagi to dance to his tune. Experience trumped raw power over everything. His movement with his dagger, skilled enough to create mirages, his body moving in ways that shouldn’t even be possible. It almost made you doubt if Souga was really as old as he seemed.

“But it’s not just that…”

Lieze watched this battle unfold, quickly realizing that Minagi’s movement was much more dull compared to what she was used to seeing. And that, in a way, was also expected. He was the one who taught her, so she must have been filled with some hesitation. At the same time, Souga was fighting like he would any other battle. And from that, he governed the fight.

“Ugh!”

Another one of Souga’s swings connected with Minagi’s body, leaving a rather deep wound. She tried to retaliate, but Souga’s body disappeared.

“?!”

But in reality, Souga simply crouched down. His small stature made it look like it vanished, sweeping Minagi off her feet with a swift roundhouse kick. The first thing that greeted Minagi when she landed on her back was Souga’s sole.

“Grk!”

She managed to ready her blade and just barely block off the attack. It was a harsh kick paired with Souga’s weight and momentum, so if she had been too late for even a moment, it could have proven fatal. Souga jumped backward, turning in the air and landed on his feet as Minagi got up. She took her distance from Souga, but she was heavily gasping for air, whereas Souga didn’t even break a sweat. The situation spoke for itself.

“Minagi!”

Unable to sit still, Lieze tried to lend her a hand.

“Don’t!” Minagi screamed. “This is my job, and my fight. If I were to borrow your strength now, I would stop being myself…Stop being a shinobi!” She said, her voice mixed with identity and self, respect and self-diligence, as she pushed Lieze away.

“Nay…The way I see it, you’re plenty a failure of a shinobi.”

“…?!”

“For example…If you went all out right now, you could definitely hold your ground against me. Even defeat me. But, your heart is in disarray. All because you’re fighting the man who raised you?” Souga’s words inflicted another mental wound. “This shows that you’re still not ready. Over the past half a year, your heart has grown weaker.”

He was referring to the time she had been traveling with Kyle. And Souga was saying that he made her weaker.

“If you want to succeed as a shinobi, you have to kill me. Right here, right now.”

“Wha…”josei

“Let me say it again…Kill me. If not, I will be forced to kill you myself,” Souga calmly exclaimed, as he continued attacking Minagi. “I was the one who trained your body, trained your skill. But only your heart is your own…So, obtain control. Calm down, and cast aside your moral values. If so, you can continue to grow.” Souga’s words latched right onto Minagi’s weakness, as she was thrown off even further.

“I…I…”

Her hands and voice were shaking. Suddenly, Minagi understood it all. This is what it meant to inherit Souga’s teachings. And at the same time, she realized that this was Souga’s wish all along. But right as she wanted to make up her determination to pull through with it—

“Then…Then you can just quit being a shinobi!” Lieze screamed.

“What type of fool are you…Huh?”

Souga took this as the ramblings of a crazy person, but Minagi’s reaction left him silent.

“Quit…being a shinobi?”

If Souga’s voice slowly but gently took grasp of Minagi’s heart, then Lieze’s voice struck her whole body like lightning. All the images filling her head depicted Kyle and his friends, the memories she had spent with them over the past half year.

“Minagi!” Lieze screamed once again, which made Minagi run at full speed.

It was nothing like she had done before, aiming directly at Souga.

“Krh!”

With his movement sealed, Souga was trying to fight back, but it was too late. Minagi’s dagger was stabbed right into his shoulder.

“Lieze! Help me!”

“Got it!”

“L-Let go of me!”

Lieze was gunning right for Minagi’s back. It was the very same move she used on Kyle two days ago, the armor-breaker. The impact would go straight through Minagi and hit Souga instead. It was an attack without any hesitation, even though Minagi was in the way.

“Agh…Hagh!”

Receiving this blow at full-force, Souga was blown-off even from Minagi’s arms. He rolled along the ground two to three times and then remained still on the ground. He tried to get up again, but the damage he took right to his core left him unable to even move a single finger.

“I’m glad that my practice with Kyle worked out…But I don’t like the idea of punching my allies.”

Lieze remembered the time she punched Kyle in the back during his battle against Three-Arms, which she doesn’t like.

“And I knew that, so I used this reckless method. If not, I would never have my allies attack me.”

Minagi had faith in this strategy because she knew how much Lieze had practiced.

“Well…Thanks for believing in…Wait, let me treat that injury of yours!” Lieze rushed over, but Minagi first made her way to Souga.

“…In terms of skill as a shinobi, Souga is definitely stronger. But, I can fight battles that aren’t meant for shinobi. I’ve learned about all of this over the past half a year.”

“So it seems…And I can’t do any of that, I bet.”

Souga may have worked with other people before, but he’s never fought side-by-side with others that he could trust with his life. Ironically enough, the only person he could put this much trust in was Minagi herself.

“Even though I taught you…the only way for you to live is to be a shinobi…” Collapsed on the floor, Souga grumbled to himself. “But of course, I won’t call this cowardice. Using whatever necessary to defeat your opponent means you’re the winner. Now…finish the job.” Souga said it like it was the expected result.

Minagi responded with a pained expression as she took a step forward.

“Huh? Why? You already won!” Lieze couldn’t believe what was going on so she broke between the two.

“Don’t get in the way. This is our problem.” Souga glared at Lieze, but she didn’t back down.

“And it’s my problem, too! I was the one who defeated you, and I’m Minagi’s friend!” Lieze said with zero hesitation, leaving Minagi flustered.

“F-Friend…?”

But Lieze didn’t mind that comment and continued.

“And to be honest…Did you two even have to fight?”

“…Huh?”

Lieze’s comment threw off Minagi and made her wonder why she even had to fight Souga. Minagi was hired by Kyle, and Souga was hired by Cordi. This situation alone made it obvious that they would stand on opposite ends, and thus, they fought. Minagi accepted this as the natural course of events.

“I don’t like it at all…But it’s necessary for us shinobi to…” Minagi said, as if she wanted to convince herself.

“But why do you have to abide by some rules? Is there a punishment?”

“Um, no, but…”

There was no such thing, but because she had followed this principle for so long, it became engraved in her soul, and breaking this principle would make her a failure of a shinobi.

“I just told you, right? You can just quit being a shinobi. Why do you continue doing something you don’t like?”

“…”

A reason why she would continue this…In reality, she never even thought about it.

“And why don’t you look at the bigger picture? We’ve got gods and the end of the world on the line, so why should you bother with the small details?”

“S-Small details…?”

Having her whole ideals and lifestyle questioned and rendered a small detail completely threw Minagi off. That said, when the fate of the world was on the line, some ideals or long history of shinobi seemed rather insignificant.

“A lifestyle that doesn’t follow the way of the shinobi…Can I really do that?” Minagi thought to herself.

Lieze observed this with a dubious look, but she realized that she at least stopped Minagi from finishing off Souga. And since there was no ending to his life today, Souga’s body relaxed as he collapsed.

“Anyway, I should attend to your injuries,” Lieze said and had her drink high-tier healing medicine.

Although it wasn’t a fatal injury, the wound was still rather deep, so this wasn’t enough to completely heal it. As always, medicine like this was extremely useful, but using it too much would scrape off the individual’s vitality, so it was much better to leave the rest to a natural healing process.

“And now it’s your turn, Souga-san.”

Seeing that Minagi was taken care of, Lieze moved on to treating Souga.

“Why…are you helping me?”

“Why? I mean, why wouldn’t I?”

“I was the one who abducted that elf girl.”

“Yup. That’s why you’ve gotta apologize to her later. They’ll probably be back soon.”

“…Minagi…You have found yourself some rather peculiar allies.”

“Yeah…And they’re all like this.”

The shinobi master and pupil both shared a wry smile.

***

“We’re back.”

Around the time Lieze finished taking care of Souga, an exhausted Seran returned.

“Ah, good to see you’re—Wait, Yuriga?! Why are you here?” Lieze happily trotted her way over to Seran, only to find Yuriga with him.

She had an expression of resignation on her face as she explained the circumstances.

“I see…Oh well, Kyle and Urza will be back soon.” Lieze said without a worry in the world.

And not just her. Everyone else believed that Kyle would be back in no time. Meanwhile, Souga was rather bewildered to see Minagi, his own daughter in a sense, show such a genuine smile. He didn’t understand his own feelings too much, but it definitely wasn’t a bad sensation.