RATH 106
TL: Eevee

12. It’s not over til it’s over (4)

#7 Their story: Aris ril Letia’s story.

“Kuhk!”

I drove my fist into vice-president’s stomach, and he fell down with a grunt.

“Tch, I messed up…”

How unfortunate.

I thought I’d been controlling my strength relatively well, but he still went and fainted.

“Well, I still have to do what I have to do.”

I picked up a plank of wood and started writing.

I hung it over his neck and hauled him up onto a flagpole.

“Ha… I wasted too much mana.”

Vice-pres was the fastest person in Yugrasia.

Capturing someone like that when he was doing his best to run away was a very difficult feat.

I only caught him by forming walls of sword aura to block off all his escape routes, pretending to want to talk to him, and only then could I attack to just successfully capture him.

I didn’t know about anyone else but if I ran into Marcis’s Lady Nermia right now then…

“Um…”
“Ah?!”

Damn it, me and my big mouth.

The voice that came from behind me was definitely that of Lady Nermia’s.

But…

“What’s… the matter?”

Differently from normal, she was walking like a zombie with her head right down.

Even to me, her enemy, she looked downright pitiful.

There was no trace of the woman that had fought tooth and nail against Yugrasia, swinging her fire sword with her archdevil Surtr.

“I, I’m going over to Yugrasia.”
“Huh?”

I was surprised once at the words she said as she lifted her head, and surprised once again as I saw her emotionless dead eyes.

“Wh, what kind of tactic is this?”

I said in a moment of shock, but it didn’t seem like she’d come here for strategic purposes.

Not even our acting skills which were honed in Yugrasia could hope to replicate her appearance right now.

“Tactic? Nothing of the sort.”

As she lethargically shook her head, her hair flung itself side by side.

As I blankly stared at her I wondered if I should draw my sword or not, but I thought that even if I fought her now, I’d still lose due to mana exhaustion and so I opted not to.

“Then why?”

It was a question loaded with many different meanings.

Why? Just what happened for someone to be so thoroughly ruined like that?

At my question, she bowed her head deeply once again and shuddered for an agonisingly long time.

It scared me.

It felt like she was either cursed, or something entered her body that shouldn’t have.

“…structor.”
“Hm?”
“I made an enemy… of the instructor.”
“Instructor?”

I heard the faint murmurings that leaked out but I couldn’t understand them.

Instructor? Not even a professor or teacher, why was an instructor popping up all of a sudden?

“Tell me clearly.”

And what I heard was a shocking truth.

“Nar… no, Professor Nicerwin. I was taught by him in the past.”
“Mm…”

It was a shock at first, but after I thought it over it a bit, it all made sense.

No wonder she didn’t feel like an outsider.

To think she’d actually learned from Professor Nicerwin!

But there was another thing that was the true shocker.

“That thing you guys call… the silver devil… we got beaten by something that was probably similar to that when I was being taught?”
“Lies!”

That was a lie. That had to be a lie!

Something similar to the silver devil? There was no way something like that could exist!

But she had mentioned that she had been beaten as she was taught.

Even if we had mentioned the silver devil, even if we had said that it was a pain worse than death, none of us had ever actually said we had been directly beaten by it.

But really? Seriously? There was another accursed object of the Evil God that was similar to the silver devil?!”

“What’s… that?”
“Bat… it was a weapon named the wooden bat…”
“Weapon…”

To think that there was also a weapon as well as a living creature, I should probably heed Professor Nicerwin’s words better from now on.

“But… why are you surrendering?”
“Think about it. I… I directly refused that man and opposed him! He told me to come to Yugrasia, but I refused! He was going to make Yugrasia win the imperial festival, and I tried to stop him!”

I tilted my head in puzzlement at her tearful voice.

“What’s wrong about that?”

Even if she was once taught by him.

Lady Nermia is still a Marcis student.

What was weird about her moving to secure Marcis’s victory over Yugrasia’s?

“Think about it! The opponent is Na… I mean, Professor Nicerwin! Think… think about it if you were in my shoes!

Her fearful voice made me think over it briefly.

Let’s say that Professor Nicerwin taught me when I was young.

And I went to Arucia, and opposed him.

And if I stole away Yugrasia’s victory… then…

‘Is this your resolve as the student to surpass the master?’
‘It is a good resolve.’
‘Go, Arcadia.’
‘Aru, aru!’

“Hiiik!”

Many thoughts flickered through my head but all of them led to a single conclusion.

The silver devil would come find me.

And she would hit me.

It’s scary. Really, really scary.

Just the thought of Professor Nicerwin and the silver devil smirking as they approached me made my legs shiver in fear.

“Yugrasia has to win. It has to. Only then do I get to live.”
“Even if it means abandoning Marics?”
“You know as well, if you’re that man’s disciple. Things like that aren’t important at all!”

It didn’t seem like a lie.

That declaration was definitely something that a disciple of Professor Nicerwin might say.

“Then… welcome aboard!”
“Thank you!”

From the look of relief on her face, you wouldn’t think that she was someone I’d been fighting this entire time.

So our strongest fighter the president had disappeared, but Marcis’s strongest was ours now!

That meant the only wild card left was the president!

And that president.

-Death.

Was soon going to die.

#8 Their story: A certain student council president’s story.

Killing intent began surrounding me from every angle.

“Sinner Nerkia. We will state your crimes, if you wish to plead then do so.”

At Reedan’s grave declaration, a person clad in black robes making them unidentifiable stepped out and said.

“First sin. Betraying the academy.”

Mm, yes, I did feel sorry for that.

That was undoubtedly my fault without much to speak about.

“Second sin. Being lovers with Arucia’s vice-president, Lady Arietta rul Meirae.”
“Wait, why is that a sin?”

That made absolutely zero sense.

Betraying the academy was definitely my fault.

But dating Ari was also a crime?

Ari and I are dating, it’s like there was anything wrong with that?

“Third sin. Being lovers with Arucia’s Renya ti Silgran.”
“How?”

This time I was surprised for a different reason.

At least in Ari’s case everyone knew since I’d confessed publicly, but only Kiir and a very small minority in Arucia knew about Renya?!

Was there another traitor in Arucia like Lady Nermia?

“Fourth sin. Being lovers with Mercaria’s Iiana mel Rudratian.”
“How did you know that!”

That one was truly shocking.

At least in Renya’s case I met her a lot together with Ari up to last year at least, so I couldn’t say with confidence we were never seen together.

Because no matter how quietly we dated, Ari, Renya and I were all famous figures in our respective academies.

So it would not be weird if we were found out.

But big sis(1) Iiana never met me when she was still a student.

Because she said she wanted to focus only on her studies while she was here.

Because of that, when she went back home during the holidays she would even manage to push away Ari and Renya to monopolise me as if it was her reward…

How the hell did these people know of my meetings with big sis Iiana?!

“We have Risen, the great sage who knows everything.”
“Risen…”

What a fearsome man.

He had been furious when he found out I had a lover, and five of them at that.

But that had all been an act.

Risen had already known everything, and had already investigated everything!

Having known everything already, the moment I chose to publicly reveal that I had a lover, he took that opportunity when everyone was angry to reveal everything.

How meticulous was his plan?

Rather than get angry on his own, he held it in and gathered evidence, and only revealed it once everyone else’s anger was at its peak.

This was undoubtedly a plan to ensure I would die!

How fearsome, you fearsome man, Risen!

“Fifth sin. Being lovers with Aine ru Julia.”
“Sixth sin. Being lovers with Tinya hil Terecia.”

I had nothing more to say.

Risen… you…

How did you know about Tinya as well?

How the hell did you manage to investigate Tinya who wasn’t even attending any of the academies yet!

There was nothing to even suggest a link between us aside from the fact that my family’s territory was close to the Terecias’.

And yet he managed to find out that Tinya was my lover.

Just what were your limits, Risen!

“Now, criminal. We have named all your sins. If any of them are not true, raise your head and say so.”

As Reedan solemnly declared so, my jaws clenched shut.

I simply had to say no.

If I lied and escaped here, I could survive.

I did it many times in Yugrasia, as well, didn’t I?

I just had to refuse just this one time?

The devil within me whispered.

But, but!

-Lies! How am I supposed to trust you!
The image of Ari in tears came up in my mind’s eye.

Even though it wasn’t me that said it. It was only yesterday that lies had made Ari cry.

But. But, could I really make her cry again.

No, including Ari, could I make all my lovers cry, who had all liked me since I was little?

“So are those my sins?”
“Indeed, sinner.”

At my shameless expression, the killing intent directed at me thickened.

But I simply raised my head with pride, puffed out my chest and stepped forward.

“If those are my sins… if being the lover of those girls is a sin! Then the price for that sin, I will pay it, and gladly!”

I squeezed out all the mana I had.

I had plenty of experience, no? I’d done it a lot to survive against the silver devil, hadn’t I?

I couldn’t lose to just over a hundred elementalists.

I am the Elemental Army.

If a hundred elementalists summoned a hundred elementals.

“I just have to summon a hundred on my own.”

Beginning with the Spirit King of Lightning, then highest-rank elementals from each of the Four Elements.

And afterwards, I summoned crowds of high-rank, mid-rank, and low-rank elementals.

If I met my limits when I fought against Lady Aris.

Now was the time to overcome them.

“Ugh…”

Every second that passed sapped my mana reserves drier and drier.

I couldn’t make a fool of myself here.

Their parents could be watching me right now as well.

My family’s total lack of fame or significance had already caused its fair share of dirty looks thrown at us.

Shouldn’t I at least leave an impression in a moment like this, so I can score some points with my future in-laws at least?

“Come.”

When I declared so, each of the hundred elementals summoned by the hundred elementalists started preparing to attack.

“Very well, I will kill you.”

A quiet voice.

But the owner of the voice that didn’t penetrate my ear, but right through my skull, was one that I knew well.

“Risen…”

Risen who had at some point managed to get down from the flagpole he’d been tied to, glared at me and snarled.

“Nerkia!”

Risen’s body became wrapped in darkness.

This wasn’t Reedan’s darkness elemental, but instead he ran at me cloaking his body with his own shadow.

“O King.”

The power of a Spirit King of Lightning clashed against the power of a god, and the shockwave from the impact was powerful enough to stagger everyone else in the area.

“I’ll kill you, you little bastard!”
“Show me your anger that you’ve held in for so long!”

I yelled back in response to Risen’s furious cry.

I don’t know how long you’ve investigated me for, but your anger.

I’ll face it head on with my power!

“Nerkiiiaaaaaa!”
“Riseeeeeeeenn!”

And so we began the battle that would later be hailed as the greatest in the history of the imperial festival.