RATH 110
TL: Eevee

12. It’s not over til it’s over (8)

Her happy smiling appearance disturbed me immensely.

She smiled at me, in a way that If this had been the imperial palace, the maids and butlers would be cowering in the corner and shivering in fear, and the soldiers and knights would be on full alert ready to mobilise at any time,

“It’s really been a long time, hasn’t it, Ast?”

How should I respond here.

Should I also say that it’s been a long time?

Or that it was nice to see her again?

Or should I try saying that she’d gotten the wrong person, and I wasn’t Ast?

Just what should I say so that I could deal with the aftermath of that choice?

No, before that……`

“How did you get in here?”

She could not have investigated for a long period of time like Sia had.

The escape routes at the organization were ones that I had spent over 10 years to elaborately craft out, but this was a new one that wasn’t even a year old!
How could she have discovered this piping fresh escape tunnel?

“I assigned people to the dwarves, no, just about every non-human that knew you. You do not trust humans, but you trust non-humans very well.”

That’s true.

Humans are animals of betrayal, but elves, dwarves and the non-human races do not betray you.

It was just that they had a long history of being betrayed by humans, but once you had their trust, as long as you retained it they would keep their word with you to their graves.

And yet she managed to use that trust and put shadows onto them!

“Putting spies onto elves and dwarves without them realising, was that actually possible?”
“I had a bit of a hard time. It was an achievement created by mobilising all of the empire’s intelligence agencies, after all.”

Although she said it as if it were nothing, that basically meant she had every single secret agent in the empire mobilied all for the single purpose of capturing me.

She wasted that much manpower just to try and catch me!

A month’s salary of a skilled agent costs more than the entire monthly earnings of a rural barony!

Just how much had invested into this!

“Is that not a waste of manpower?”
“It’s alright. The empire’s paying their salaries very well.”
“Isn’t that salary the taxes of the imperial citizens?”
“Mm, nope. The empire’s finances have been pretty good lately. You know too, don’t you? We beat up Howling last year.”

I knew. That was my old workplace.
And the place the woman in front of me ordered the Crown Prince to blow to kingdom come!

“It turned out Howling had quite a bit of money on them?”

When she smiled brightly again, ten knights appeared at light speed and took up guard positions around her.

“Hm? You didn’t have to come out yet?”

The princess tilted her head on seeing their blanched faces, and the knight that seemed to be their leader shivered and said.

“Y, you said you would give us the signal to come out……”
“I hadn’t given you the signal yet?”
“That… Your Highness smiled… so we unconsciously……”

Ahh. It seemed the imperial court was still the same as ever.

Well, no wonder.

Whenever that princess who normally went around with either a deadpan or a scowl actually smiled, many incidents and crises erupted out.

“…Really, now?”

The imperial princess made a dissatisfied scowl.

“Whew…”

And her knights all collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

“Really, what did I ever do.”

What did you ever do. Consider how you caused a bloodbath every time you laughed.

“Awhew, people have been treating me weirdly ever since you left me, Ast? At least people treated me like a normal person while you were here.”

Wait, what’s that supposed to mean?

“Your Highness? Did you just say that Your Highness was treated like a normal person thanks to me?”
“Why do you look so surprised when you’re just stating the obvious?”

Why?

“Your Highness! How could you say such a thing to the last normal person who served you!”
“Hm? What? The person officially named by the imperial court as the maddest dog in the entire empire was you?”

This discussion is going on parallel lines.

At moments like this the best way is confirmation by a third party.

“You over there, who is the right one?”

“Huh?”

I turned to the side slightly and asked the knight who had spoken to the princess just now.

I’d seen some of the others around her before, but this was the first time I’d seen this particular knight.

Well, ten years had passed since my time at the imperial palace, so it wouldn’t be weird for there to have been a change of guard.

“I, I wasn’t there at the time so……”
“But you have heard the rumours about Ast. It wasn’t just one or two incidents that this man caused.”

When he avoided my gaze to refuse to answer, the princess pressured him.

Faced directly by the princess, the knight glanced over at me resentfully until he couldn’t hold out against the imperial princess’s pressure and bowed his head.

“From what I heard from my seniors, Sir Ast was the maddest dog in the entire empire.”

This is a conspiracy!

“See?”

This was definitely a conspiracy.

The senior who told knight about me definitely had a bone to pick with me.

For example, one whose achievements I stole… or not.

If anything, I gave them achievements, I never stole any of them.

Then someone who was jealous of my closeness to the princess… or not.

Only those outside the imperial court would ever be jealous, anyone who’d ever experienced life on the inside and knew everything worth knowing would never feel jealous.

Then, what was it?

What was the reason people were spreading such misinformation about me!

“Your Highness, that person is one of your knights. It is natural that your knight would side with Your Highness. Taking that person’s word to validate Your Highness’s argument is fundamentally flawed.”
“Isn’t the one with flawed logic the one who brought up the question first and proclaims it invalid the moment their begins to fall apart? And……”

Slam!

-Uwiiit! Izza fail, owner!

“Your tricks as you talk to buy time.”

With a wave of the imperial princess’s hand, a section of the wall was destroyed.

And so was a part of the metal bat, stretched thinner than a thread!

“Do you think I’m going to lose you again?”

As she smiled radiantly, she swung her hands a few more times and the area the metal bat had been in just now was swamped by a storm of aura blades.

-Uwiiiit! I’m gonna die! Dat’s scawy! Owner stop her!

There was no way this thing would die unless it was completely melted down, but my escape attempt ended in failure.

But on that note, what the hell was that letting off sword aura waves just by waving your hand?

I knew she became a swordsmaster ages ago, but she wasn’t on this level!

-Uweeeee! I nearwy got my hair snipped off! Thank goodness I got it all!

The metal bat whined as it returned to my hand.

Damn it, I didn’t expect my perfect tactic of a stealth ambush through the shape of a string to end this pathetically.

“Before that head of yours gets any new funny ideas… should I cut off a leg to start?”

From an objective point of view, her appearance as she delicately licked her full red lips was very seductive.

But from my subjective point of view, that sight only instilled fear in me as I looked at it in reality.

I’ve seen that face before!

To put it simply, in a manga with an axe-crazy girl who diligently wrote a diary that ended up recording future diaries as well.(1)

If she just puts her hands on her cheeks then that’s 100% the same picture!

Mamotte ageru!

Although the princess’s lines aren’t ‘I’ll protect you!’

“I believe humans need two legs to stand, Your Highness?”
“It’s alright, Ast. I won’t abandon you just because you’re missing a leg.”

No please abandon me. Just abandon me now!

“I am not alright with that.”
“I am.”

Cold sweat ran like a waterfall down my back.

Indeed. Just when had this princess ever thought about the situations of others.

But I could not have my leg cut off just like that.

I will use the same method I used to escape from Sia!

-Metal bat, fusion!

Last time it was cut because it was the thickness of a thread, but in the form of armour, it could even withstand attacks from sword aura!

And so I used my last resort.

-Owner, sowwy. Ultimate transformation, Arcanaruan is impossible!
-Why!
-No mana… I used the remainder I had left when I transformed, and I scwaped the bottom of th’ bawwel when I got my cut fragments back.
-Why are you out of mana now of all times!
-innit obvious when I’ve been splurging on magic power since we awwived at the academy?

“Hm? You’re being very quiet unlike yourself, Ast. Is there a problem?”

Unlike her gentle smile, the silver light of sword aura in her right hand only began to flare larger and brighter.

Would I really have a leg cut off and dragged back to the imperial palace here?

Is there no hole for me to escape out through?

No, I still have the metal bat.

“Hoo… really… can you really not just let me go?”

I sighed and stretched myself out.

“Hm~ so you want to try beat me?”

With sword aura in her right hand and the wooden bat in her left, the imperial princess looked at my with an expression as if she was highly, highly amused.

“Your Highness, you’re strong.”
“I am.”

The creature in front of me was not a woman who was simply lucky to be born as an emperor’s daughter.

If she had been born a commoner, she could have overturned a nation and founded a country in her own right.

Having been born with an overwhelming talent and magic power that made you disbelieve she was human, and she had managed to achieve whatever she had wanted to.

Facing the being whose strength could not be summarised simply by calling her ‘strong,’ I curled the edges of my lips upwards and smirked.

“But, can you stop me?”

Yep. She can. Very easily.

In all honesty there was only one way I could defeat a swordsmaster.

The alpha strike!

When fed a taste of the metal bat, even a swordsmaster would suffer a momentary delay as they rebooted their body, no, their minds.

And once I got into that gap and continued to pile on the damage with the metal bat, even a swordsmaster could be defeated.

But right now, I was the one in the ambush, and I was also surrounded by knights.

I had to create a gap no matter what to get that first attack in.

One hit. Just one hit.

Everyone is equal in front of the metal bat.

Since I’d seen the princess hurt from the wooden bat in the past, of course the metal bat would hurt her!

“Hm…… well I feel like I could stop you, but I can never let my guard down if Ast is the enemy.”

Yes please don’t let your guard down.

Assume that I had something hidden away, and every single one of my actions had a hidden meaning behind it, that was the only way I had a chance of survival.

“Coming here with just ten knights… did you use all your knights at the academy building to capture me? Or are there knights hidden behind somewhere I can’t see? Or, are you looking down on me?”

To be honest ten knights made my quiver in my boots, but I could not afford to show any weakness here.

Right now, I had to make myself look much, much bigger than I actually was.

A few knights seemed disconcerted at my words, but they didn’t show it in front of the princess.

Since there were a few who had experienced me directly, that was a reasonably valid threat.

I had to make them remember the time I was called a ‘great general of the empire’ beating the crap out of the neighbouring country.

“As long as Sir Reia isn’t here, there are no knights that can stop me.”

I held up the metal bat and took a stance.

In response, the knights also drew their swords as they took their stances as well.

A powder keg of a situation.

The moment the princess gave the order, they would all come to get me.

I would drum the metal bat on the first one, and use him or her as a shield to approach the princess.

So come! Please come! Don’t have the princess come at me herself!

“Hm, yes. Ten knights… without even Sir Reia. You would be right in thinking that I might by looking down on you, Ast.”

But the imperial princess’s moved differently to my predictions.

Normally she would have snapped her fingers and ordered them to get me.

Had she finally come to understand the greatness of words with her age!

Was it possible to solve this through dialogue!

“But Ast? I’ve waited a very long time for you. I’ve held myself back again, again, and again. Waiting for you.”

I was slightly hopeful that I could get out of this with my tongue but I felt like if I listened to the princess any more then that would no longer be an option.

“I’ve waited over ten years just thinking about you and waiting for you.”

…Hm. I’m being confessed to by a beautiful woman and yet I am not at all happy about it.

She was emanating such a frigid aura even the metal bat shouted ‘Hiik! Scawy!’

“Every day I thought about you again and again. I pondered and brooded over just what I needed to do to capture you. Should I just try overwhelming you with sheer numbers? But your disciple already tried and failed that approach at Howling. Even though it was a strategy even I evaluated as having a low chance of failure.”

She even knew of Sia’s attempt?

And she still only brought ten knights despite knowing this?

Did she evaluate that these ten knights were more effective than all of Sia’s personnel?

That imperial princess did?

“You mean…”

When adding up all the information I had, there was only one conclusion that joined all the dots.

Where each individual was a match for a hundred.

No, where each person was powerful enough to be worth a thousand soldiers.

Then that meant these knights were…

“Yes, you’re right, Ast!”

As if she had expected something.

As if she was happy for something.

As if she was certain about something.

With a face containing all sorts of different emotions, she smiled radiantly at me.

“Ast, I made it just for you! Just to capture you… a swordsmaster knight order!”
“Ah, I don’t need that kind of thing.”

I bluntly said my feelings on the matter as I looked on at the radiant lights in front of me.