She fought because she was resolute to not allow her students to become toys of war any longer, although she doesn’t regret about that matter, a murderer is a murderer. She was surely already prepared that her students would no longer call her sensei.
It should be noted that David and them, the Aiko bodyguard temple knights, were still alive and well. That was because after Aiko had disappeared, they protested to the upper brass, “Let us meet her!”, many times, and after that was confirmed to never be fulfilled they decided to search for themselves, the upper brass who were fed up decided to lowered them onto ground level and restricted them from going into the head temple. And that’s how they managed to barely escape from death at the head temple at the time. Currently they’re listening to Aiko’s words and working hard to help out with this and that for the reconstruction.
With those kinds of feelings, Aiko and the students are respectively holding their own weight in their minds and helping out with Ririana today to reconstruct the Kingdom.
Today’s agenda was to reform the Kingdom’s knights and employ commanders to each squad at the drilling ground. By the way, the new knight leader’s name was Kuzeri Rail. It was a female knight and formerly Ririana’s imperial guardsmen. The vice-commander’s name was Neat Komorudo. He was the previous commander of the 3rd knight unit.
[Thanks for the hard work. Kouki-san]
During the mock battle screening test, Kouki had been working as a partner for the knights so he was wiping his sweat at the edge of the drilling grounds and those words of appreciation ranged out. When Kouki turned his line of sight towards it, Ririana was coming over with a smile.
[No, this isn’t much of a big deal. …..As for yourself Riri, you’ve barely gotten any sleep recently huh? Really, thanks for the hard work]
When Kouki showed a wry smile in return, Ririana also showed a wry smile. Both of them hardly had any time to sleep over the past few days. To begin with, the reason why their sleeping time was cut down was due to completely different reasons.
[That’s because right now is not the time to be sleeping. …..Casualties, dealing with the loss of beloved people, disposing buildings which collapsed, confirming missing people, repairing the great barrier and the outer wall, reports and communication with each district, deploying soldiers to investigate the surroundings, reorganizing…..this is serious, they’re all things that need to be done. Even if I whine about it, there’s no other way. Mother has also shared the burden, so I can still go on. …….The people who are truly suffering are those who lost important people and their property…….]
[If you’re saying that then, even you’ve…..]
From what Ririana had said, Kouki tried to point out that even she’s lost the King which was her father but, even if he said it, nothing would change, so he shut his mouth. Riri sympathized with Kouki’s feelings and said, [I’m fine], with a smile once again, then changed the topic.
[How’s Shizuku holding out?]
[......She hasn’t changed. Usually its the same usual Shizuku but, without noticing it she looks up above for a long time]
As Kouki was saying so, he glanced towards Shizuku who was talking with Kuzeri at the center of the drilling grounds.
The two were probably friends through Ririana, they seemed to be discussing something rather intimately. However, the conversation was suddenly interrupted, and naturally her eyes glanced upwards, in other words, you could tell she was looking towards the top vicinity of [Kamiyama].
[She’s…..waiting for them huh]
[That’s right. …..Being honest, the thing that Nagumo said is too...untrustworthy...although I’d like for Shizuku and them to meet…*I think? this lines one of those lines where I get confused as to what they’re really saying, 雫には会って欲しくないと思ってるんだけどね*]
Ririana had a slightly surprised expression as she turned her glance from Shizuku to Kouki. Kouki’s expression had a complicated color, it was clear that what he said was not according to what he thought. Jealousy, suspicion, fear, pride, gratitude, antipathy, various feelings were mixed in impatiently, his expression was difficult to express.
Ririana couldn’t find the right words to say to Kouki, she looked up towards the top of [Kamiyama] where Hajime and them should be.
The sky was clear, it’s as if the crisis of extinction from a few days ago never happened. That sky looked as if it was in a happy-go-lucky mood, Ririana held slightly bitter feelings towards it and continued looking up at the sky.
Then at that time, she began to see a few black dots in the sky. With a doubtful look Ririana narrowed her eyes and she noticed that those black dots were gradually growing bigger, she noticed that something was falling down and panickingly she called out to Kouki by her side.
[Ko, Kouki-san! There! Isn’t something falling down!]
[Eh? What are you suddenly….~, everyone! Watch out! Something’s coming from above!]
Ririana’s attitude surprised Kouki but, as he looked up in the sky, he confirmed that something was definitely falling down, [Get down, it’s an enemy attack!], he warned out loudly with an impatient expression.
Shizuku and them were panicking and quickly evacuated the drilling grounds and went beside Kouki and them, simultaneously something landed onto the drilling grounds.
Zudo~oon!!
The earth trembled when whatever was falling crashed, as the dust clouds danced about, what appeared from it was…...Hajime, Yue, Shia, and with Teio it was 4 people.
[Nagumo-kun!]
The first one to take off was Shizuku. Exactly like Hajime said, she believed in them and waited. Having excess momentum was unavoidable. However, within Hajime and them, Kaori’s appearance was no where to be seen, her expression gradually became uneasy and darkened.
[Yo~o, Yaegashi. Are you living properly]
[Nagumo-kun…..where’s Kaori? Why is Kaori not here?]
Shizuku relaxed somewhat after Hajime’s joke, however it was the truth that Kaori was not in front of her, as expected, it must have been too hard to overturn Kaori’s death, she was already unable to hide her uneasiness and asked in a trembling voice.
On the other hand, Hajime had an indescribably vague expression.
[Ah~, she’ll be here soon? It’s just that.......her appearance may have changed a tiny~ bit…..because of that see, it’ll be troubling if you placed the blame on me, un, it’s not my fault so don’t get mad?]
[Eh? Wait a bit. What? What is? It makes me extremely uneasy though? What do you mean? What did you do to Kaori? Depending on the circumstance, with the black katana that you gave me…….]
Towards Hajime’s words which only further fanned the flames of uneasiness, Shizuku’s highlight in her eyes disappeared and she slowly began to extend her black katana on her waist. [Dudu], Hajime was suppressing Shizuku, suddenly, they began to hear a scream from the sky.
[Kyaaaa!! Hajime-k~un! Catch me~!!]
When Shizuku and them were wondering what it was and looked up, they saw something with a silver shadow falling down at blistering speeds.
With Shizuku’s excellent kinetic vision, she saw a woman with silver hair and blue eyes who had the beauty that could compete with a beautiful work of art that a historically named artist produced, and against her cool appearance, she was falling down while awkwardly flinging her arms and legs with tears in her eyes and a miserable expression.