Katahane no Riku

Chapter 70.New chess piece

“So hot!!”

Right after Riku entered the room she had been assigned to, she took out the smiling mask that had been stuck to her face for about one whole day.

Brashly taking off the first division′s brooch, and even the second army′s, she fell onto the bed just like that. Her military uniform became wrinkled, but she didn′t care about something trivial as that.

It had already been two days since she departed from Myuuz.

Until she arrived at Taitas, she took more or less one entire day riding her horse without resting, and ever since she got to the demon capital, she got greeted by demons of renowned families and got dragged into welcome parties, and so, she was completely exhausted.

Of course, in response to that, she would receive them in a open attitude as much as she could; she was okay at changing herself to look a bit intimidating. Although she had been behaving herself in a manner different from her usual until now, it wasn′t like she was particularly good at it.(TL note: Yes, that ; sentence is really just like that. It is weird in English, but it is how it was written in Japanese.)

In either case, it was a pain in the ass.

“…It is much easier to swing my halberd around at the battlefield. I can′t understand the fellows that like those kind of things.”

Sighing, Riku sank her face into the pillow.

It seemed this exhaustion was weighing down onto Riku′s body. She understood the connection the fame she acquired at those welcome parties had with her next moves. Each second was important; relaxing was not allowed. Even though she was tired of it, she could only brace herself.

“Haa, what are you doing, ojou-chan.”

As Riku was enjoying the softness of the pillow, she heard Vrusto′s big sigh from behind her. Slowly rising her face, she felt she was about to lock Vrusto out of the room.

“…Ojou-chan, treat your uniform with more care. That uniform is a newly made one, isn′t it?”

Vrusto let out complaints from his mouth.

While hugging the pillow with her single arm, Riku glared at Vrusto.

“I still have another new uniform at my bag, so it isn′t a big deal to have it wrinkle a bit. Besides, right now, resting has the priority.”

“Well, this might be the case… That said, I actually needed to be giving you my report first.”

Riku received a letter from Vrusto. The parchment that was elegantly stamped with a wax seal didn′t have the name of the sender written on it. Instead of that, it had a feather of a black crow on it. Taking the black feather, Riku quietly narrowed her eyes.

“The wings of a crow… It should be a letter from Karula Fezah of the fourth division.”

Riku thought back about the bird shaped demon messenger that had come to Sherr island. She was one of Leivein′s subordinates, and so, was a demon soldier closer to Riku than to Charlotte. Right now, Riku was having her show her capability as a messenger in place of Roppu, who she had left at Myuuz in case an emergency happened.

“Yes, it arrived at the time ojou-chan was still talking to the nobles.”

“You should have handed it over sooner.”

“Stupid, I didn′t have the opportunity.”

After glaring at Vrusto for a bit more, she put the pillow aside and broke the seal of the letter. And then, she looked down at the text that had been smoothly organized. The more Riku kept reading, the more her frown became deeper. Right at the time the wrinkles aggravated to the point that it felt as if it wouldn′t go back to normal no matter how much she stretched her forehead, Riku finally raised her face.

“…Apparently, they perceived our movements.”

Dejected, Riku dropped her shoulders.

Riku and Gortoberuk didn′t believe that the Charlotte′s side wouldn′t discover their actions before their uprising started. However, even if they were discovered, it should have been about tomorrow′s night that their suspicions would start. If Riku were to do a wrong move now, she would need to change the plans. With that said, it was difficult for Riku to directly meet with Gortoberuk. Both Riku and Gortoberuk had their schedules tight. They needed to agree on a time were both of them could meet each other with just the two of them alone.

Right when they had just finally found a convenient time for both of them, Charlotte ended up perceiving they were planning an uprising, and so, it wouldn′t be exaggeration to say that Charlotte was now looking out for Riku′s and Gortoberuk′s actions.

Since it became like that, they needed to adapt, bit by bit changing their movements by themselves as they execute the original plan.

While letting out a sigh, Riku glanced through the [list of demons that needs special attention] which was included in the letter sent by Karula.

“Keity Fostar… Ah, that macho woman. As long as I am careful about her power, it should be fine. Now then, the real problem is that… Fiore Panther, but… Vrusto, do you know her?”

Right after Riku brought up the subject, Vrusto′s eyes became wide-open in surprise.

“Haa? Don′t you know, ojou-chan!?”

“I don′t know. I′ve been only focusing on the battles until now after all.”

With Riku responding with those words, exhausted, Vrusto put his hand onto his forehead. While muttering something in the lines of “I shouldn′t have taught her only about fighting, but also more about the common sense of the demons”, Vrusto shook his head frustrated.

“You see, the Panther family is a noble family that has great authority even at the parliament. In particular, Fiore is known for controlling the parliament as Charlotte′s right hand. She can be a reliable person if she is your ally, but if you make her your enemy, she is a terrifying girl to the point that you can′t even look at her in the eyes.”(TL note: At the sentence where the parliament is mentioned->シャルロッテの右腕として時代の議会を率いていく若手って知られてる<-, there is this時代の. I guess it is referring that the parliament is recent to the era, but it might also be something else. Either way, I couldn′t think of a way to fit this into the sentence without making it completely weird.)

Vrusto suddenly had a slight tremble. It seemed that his fuzzy fur stood up somewhat.

With a snort, Riku started to think. From what she saw from Vrusto′s reaction, it looked like she had made an outrageous enemy.

…If she gave up now, because she still haven′t done anything, perhaps she would be able to escape punishment. However, there is no mistake that the position she had been building up until now would crumble down in an instant. But this was only the best possible ending, and there was no doubts that her moves would become restricted since she would be monitored as the person who was the mastermind of this uprising. The chances of her being able to fight alongside Leivein once he wakes up would decrease considerably. Only that she needed to avoid.

“I don′t know what mess ojou-chan is planning on doing, but it seems that they got you at the palm of their hand. You should stop doing this kind of reckless thing and give up now.”

Vrusto still didn′t completely recognize Charlotte as the enemy. Riku trusted Vrusto, but there were exceptions to that. Riku decided to make it so she didn′t trust him for now.

“Not really. I am not planning on doing anything.”

While spinning the black feather she was holding with her left hand, Riku started to think of counter measures.

However, no matter how much she would think about that, without being able to have any good ideas, the time simply passed. Now that it became like this, she couldn′t help but think that she should have gone with the assassination, which was her last resort plan. If she concealed herself in the darkness of the night that was as black as Karula wings, she would be able to easily assassinate Charlotte.

When she started thinking of that, suddenly… Riku remembered a certain incident.

“Now that I think about it… Charlotte had her own messenger squad, right?”

With a quiet voice, Riku decided to ask that to Vrusto. As she did that, Vrusto made a sour face.

“Yes, she does.”

“There was one person from that squad at the garden party, right? If I remember correctly, her name should be Mei Asuteroid.”

Riku gave a try on pursuing this matter.

If Riku′s memories were correct, the messenger that had picked up the information about the Demon Lord crown had a name like that. Although it was impossible for her to forgive Charlotte for sending them to Sherr island without confirming whether the information was correct, Mei Asuteroid, who to begin with had been made to gather false information, was also a target of hatred. If she weren′t convinced about the false information, she would have definitely been able to confirm the credibility of a rumor of this level.

However, the reality was that she wasn′t able to do that and had been tricked by the spiritualist side.

Something like being manipulated by the spiritualists is not forgivable. Just by thinking back about it made Riku angry.

“Yes, Mei Asuteroid. That guy that adds “nya” at the end of her sentences, right?”

“Yes. Is she your relative?”

If Riku′s memories were not mistaken, her face was clearly one of a wolf. And adding to that, the surname she named herself with was the same [Asuteroid]. With that, it was impossible for Vrusto to say that she was unrelated to him. Rather, her being unrelated is what it would be weird.

Being asked that by Riku, Vrusto nodded with a moodiness of the bottom of his heart.

“Yes. Rather than just relatives or anything, she is actually my younger sister.”

“Younger sister? Did Vrusto have a younger sister?”

“Something like a younger sister, of course I would have. Then, what about her? I don′t know much about her.”

Vrusto declared in an unusually casual way. It was the first time the word [sister] came from Vrusto′s mouth in these ten years Riku had gone through with Vrusto. Perhaps, he didn′t have a good relationship with his sister. To say the least, there were no doubts that regardless whether they were on good or bad terms, Vrusto was distant to his sister.

While making this assumption, Riku gave a complacent smile. Whether it was that the muscles of her face were stiffen because of how she had kept showing a smile during the whole day or because of some other reason, Riku didn′t know, but she was able to easily show a smile.

“I see, you had a sister then.”

To say the least about how she served Charlotte in her messenger squad, Riku didn′t want to believe that a demon that would be caught up by a false information would be Vrusto′s younger sister, and she didn′t want to use such a demon girl that had nothing in her head, but it was out of Riku′s expectations that the situation would develop into her current one.

“Could you introduce your sister to me? Since we came to the demon capital anyway, I think it should be fine if we went to meet her.”(TL note: Just by saying introduce gives the feeling that it is just about Vrusto talking about his sister instead of going to where she is and introduce her to Riku. I couldn′t think of better words so that I could have properly this message across.)

Riku would use anyone she could use.

Even if Riku was working together with Gortoberuk, he had less capable people and less money than Charlotte. In that case, she should use anyone she could. Even if that one was clearly the enemy, she would use the person as her chess piece.

Riku′s heart was secretly jumping around for the appearance of this new chess piece.