Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 8 Episode 4 (section)

===Part 10===

「……Good grief. Just when I thought that you became quiet recently, but your perverted mind hasn’t actually changed at all.」

Lisha somehow settled down after Lux explained that the incident with Celis was because he got caught into a trap.

But, in the end the atmosphere wasn’t suitable to continue the massage anymore and the two switched to talking with each other.

When the talk shifted from the incident into the matter of Celis, Lisha abruptly started the talk.

「──And, you’ve been making a depressed face since some time ago, was it because of Celis?」

「Eh……?」

Lux’s thinking froze for a moment because Lisha suddenly hit the bull’s eye.

After that battle where he and Celis got a draw against Rosa and her aide, he shouldn’t be making a gloomy face, but──.

「Lux, don’t underestimate me too much okay? Even I have been lying for a long time. When I look at mirror, I can at least understand what kind of smile I made at that time. And also the bitterness that made me have to smile like that even by forcing it.」

「Lisha, sama……」

After Lisha who was once taken hostage by the old empire got abandoned by her father Count Atismata, she was rescued──and placed as the princess of the new kingdom as the daughter of the proud great man.

Even while thinking that she didn’t have the qualification, she had to act the role for that position no matter what.

That was why, she couldn’t bear to look at Lux who was forcefully making a smile and she told him that.

「Besides it’s not like you. If it’s the usual you, you will go to console Celis even if you have to be forceful right? Personally I don’t mind if you don’t do anything like that but……, why are you hesitating only at this time?」

Lux smiled bitterly at Lisha who said that looking somewhat irritated.

「I became unable to understand myself, whether doing that will be the right thing to do or not.」

And then, he slowly spoke out his feeling.

「Since that time five years ago, I caused a lot of people at the old empire’s side to die and became chore prince, I’ve been puzzled all this time. Why did my elder brother Fugil betrayed me, or else, was he tricking me right from the start and only using me?」

He met Lisha at such time and he was given a new place to belong and purpose.

He chose the path of being Seven Dragon Paladins in order to fight for the sake of people who believed in him, this time for sure.

But,

「And yet, when I met again with Nii-san……with Fugil at the summit, my feeling wavered. Perhaps in the end I’m still the same like in the past. Perhaps in the end I don’t understand a single thing about people’s feeling. When I thought that……, I who was unable to help Celis-senpai just now, became unable to understand, how should I talk to her──」

「…………」

Lux expressed his distress slowly. Lisha observed him for a while silently, and then she suddenly moved her hand.

*Slap* Her palm lightly patted Lux’s cheek without the slightest strength in it.

「Aa……」

It didn’t feel painful at all, but it felt like he was awakened.

Lisha’s face didn’t look angry, she also didn’t look sad, and she also didn’t look disdainful.

She was merely staring at Lux straightforwardly, with the face as a noble princess filled with self-confidence and pride.

「It looks like you have forgotten so I’ll tell you this──, I’m weak you know?」

「──Eh?」

Lux felt perplexed getting told that with a tone that was full of confidence.

「As a Drag-Knight, those stronger than me are steadily becoming your comrades, new women are also approaching you one after another, I also cannot act skillfully as a princess──I’m so weak that my heart broke when my father abandoned me. I intend to endeavor so that I won’t be like that but, honestly, I don’t know whether what I’m doing right now is right or not. But see──not doing anything because of that is merely running away.」

With that as the preface, Lisha looked straight at Lux.

The same like when they met the first time, she looked at him with crimson eyes that contained strong confidence.

「If you will stay by my side, then I can fight without running away. I don’t mind even if you make mistake. Just by you fighting trying to help me, it has saved me like this. Don’t get convinced by yourself that you cannot do anything just because you don’t understand.」

「…………」

The hesitation dwelling inside Lux’s chest was vanishing while he was listening to Lisha’s words.

This wasn’t the time for him to break in this kind of place.

There was still thing that he had to do.

Even if in the end his action couldn’t save Celis, even if his action was mistaken, it was meaningless to hesitate in taking action just because of that.

「──Lisha-sama. Can you know the opponent’s Drag-Ride from looking at this armor fragment?」

Lux put his hand inside his pocket and presented the clue about the attacker that he obtained.

It was the fragment of Drag-Ride worn by the suspicious man who attacked Coral in the middle of the campus festival.

Then, after Lisha who was also a Drag-Ride developer took the fragment, she immediately answered.

「This is……, it’s a fragment from the shell part of the probing device installed on EX Drake’s shoulder. When the part is shaved like this, it cannot get easily repaired, so it should be possible to specify the Drag-Ride this came from if you observed closely whether they have damaged part or not.」

Gorynych that the Steel Witch──Rosa Granhide controlled along with its Drag-Ride clones, and then the EX Wyrm her aide Calensia equipped.

Lux had secretly observed their Drag-Rides while fighting, but their Drag-Rides were spotless at the opening of the skill exhibition battle.

Thus this fragment couldn’t be proof that the attack to them was because of Rosa, but there was still one other possibility remaining.

How did the attacker slip through the detection of the Drakes guarding around the Academy and became able attack Celis?

The attacker visited first as ordinary visitor and observed the movement of the guards.

And then if it was EX Drake that possessed camouflage function, 『that』 could be done.

(Their objective is to harm the new kingdom with official procedure at the surface. Then──their next aim will be)

When he was thinking that, a conviction was born inside Lux.

「Celis-senpai, is in danger……」

But, in preparation for the worst case, he would play a hand just in case.

The problem was whether it would make it in time or not──.

When Lux was considering that, the door of the atelier opened and Tillfur rushed inside in panic.

「Lux-chi! Lisha-sama!? You are here!?」

Lisha was surprised seeing Tillfur running out of breath while replying back.

「Oo, you came at a nice timing. From now, the owner of the Drag-Ride where this fragment came from──」

Lisha was about to say that proudly, but Tillfur’s yell drowned her words.

「Cross Field is in danger! About a hundred Abysses are suddenly gathering from the surrounding! Also no one can summon Drag-Ride other than us who are already wearing it right now!!」

「──!?」

Lux and Lisha’s expressions changed hearing Tillfur’s words.

Right after that──tremendous roaring sound and vibration could be heard from the center of the Academy.