Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 14 Episode 2 (section)

===Part 1===

「Fuu……. This is depressing.」

The next day, Lux woke up early and did light physical exercise and checked his body condition.

Today he didn’t do his daily Drag-Ride training to remove his fatigue.

With this it became the second day. It would be one more day before the deep level floor of Avalon appeared.

If the deep level floor’s gate appeared, the competition against the Lord would begin from there.

Therefore he was scheduled to participate in the war council for the sake of capturing the deep floor level that Magialca would open at the evening.

Until then he wouldn’t be able to calm down even if he just stayed still, so he strolled inside the fortress.

He suddenly felt a presence from the practice ground at the north entrance of the fortress and Lux’s feet naturally headed there.

Even though it was the land of a foreign country that was far away from the new kingdom, for some reason he felt a presence that even felt nostalgic.

In the middle of tranquil winter morning, with the Sword Device of Lindwurm in one hand, Celis was practicing her thrust form in her pilot suit.

The soil ground and bricks at the surrounding.

And then a merely vast space where there were only large tree target and large mirror.

There Celis was practicing her thrust silently.

She was concentrating so much that the air felt tense, at the same time sublimity could even be felt from that perfectly serene figure.

She took her stance, fixed her aim, imagined the control of Drag-Ride, and thrust.

When she finished around a hundred of that sequence of action in front of Lux, Celis finally noticed him.

「──Great work, Celis-senpai.」

「Good morning Lux. If you have business with me, you could just call me right away without reservation you know?」

Celis faced Lux and smiled wryly while brushing up her front hair.

She must have been training even before Lux found her. Her healthily tight skin flushed pink, and she was faintly sweating on her whole body.

「No, actually I thought it’s better to stop training and rest but, I carelessly forgot to call out.」

Lux also smiled with a troubled look and handed her the towel he brought.

「It’s better to wipe the sweat. This is winter after all, you will catch a cold.」

「Thank you very much. Ah, but──I have to take off my suit to wipe myself……」

「Ah! Tha, that’s, it’s fine. I will face behind!」

Celis’s cheeks reddened in embarrassment. Lux quickly turned his back on her.

「U, understood. Looking here is not permitted okay?」

When there was a faint sound of rustling clothes, Lux closed his eyes just in case.

By the way Lux didn’t stop her training because she wasn’t wearing Drag-Ride, so the burden should be little, and because he became fascinated watching the way she polished her heart.

「This training is something like a daily routine after all. Even without using Drag-Ride, I can train my heart by simply polishing my sword skill. It was something taught to me by your grandfather.」

「Was it trained, Celis-senpai’ss heart?」

Lux threw the appropriate response while inside his heart was pounding hard.

「──Yes. Is what I want to say but, I should stop pretending to be tough in front of you.」

Celis sheathed her Sword Device on her sword belt. The moment she stopped the practice, her body was slightly trembling.

「I am pathetic as the Academy’s strongest and Syvalles’s captain. In the battle the other day, I was completely helpless in front of that Drag-Knight called Mishis. No, it is not that I’m fearing her. It’s scary that I who came to follow you until her as your aide am unable to do anything and accomplish my duty. Surely──」

Lux was slightly perplexed seeing Celis’s bitter smile that was unusually fainthearted.

「That’s not true.」

He started to say, but Lux noticed something.

Could it be, it was already like this for her all this time since the past?

Perhaps the reason why Celis hammered in training into herself to an excessive degree wasn’t just because she couldn’t keep up with her surrounding, but her sense of responsibility as someone from the four great nobles also drove her to do so.

That was why, she was trembling like this right now.

It wasn’t fear toward powerful enemies. She was suffering from the heavy pressure burdening her.

「My mother, can only give birth to me alone. In the old empire at that time, it was only 『male』 that has value, the tendency was to consider a wife that is unable to give birth to a son as worthless. That was why I wanted to obtain strength that surpassed male as someone who succeed the name of a famous knight family.」

She didn’t want to make her mother who was unable to give birth to a son to feel ashamed.

Due to her kindness since her childhood, Celis thoroughly trained herself and she worked her way up to become the strongest Drag-Knight in the Academy.

In addition with the incident where she lost her master who was also Lux’s grandfather, it caused her to focus more and more toward a perfect righteousness, but she broke away from that curse by her encounter with Lux.

「Even after you appeared and helped me regain back my heart, I have been thinking all this time……. Am I a foolish person who is drunk with cornering myself, to escape to something that I decided I should accomplish? Can a sword of someone like me be able to protect everyone──」

She suffered a complete defeat against Mishis who was similarly devoting an absolute loyalty toward the Lord.

It shook even the conviction that Celis had piled up until now.

That was why she was training to polish her heart here.

「Celis-senpai……」

「I’m sorry Lux. I made you listen to this foolish complain since the morning in the middle of break. I’m disqualified as a senior.」

「Such thing isn’t true. Even I, actually──……-!?」

When Lux immediately raised his voice and opened his eyes, a dazzling sight was reflected in his eyes.

There was a mirror that was hung on the wall for checking one’s form. The figure of Celis with the pilot suit on her upper body taken off while she was wiping her body with towel could be seen.

The risqué part was barely out of sight, but the bulge of the voluptuous breasts couldn’t be hidden. Each time Celis wiped her sweat with the towel, they would shake. His eyes spontaneously widened.

Because Celis herself was averting her eyes from Lux behind her, she didn’t notice that her half naked body was reflected on the mirror.

「Actually, what is it?」

「N-, no! That’, it’s scary……. What if because of my mistaken decision, everyone will get dragged into it. What if I cannot become of help to other──but」

Lux’s heart was pounding hard inside while he continued to avert his gaze from Celis’s naked body that was reflected in the mirror.

「Because everyone is with me, right now the scariness become half. If my reason of fighting is also to protect everyone of the new kingdom, then the answer that I sought and wished for might also lead to the same place. That’s why, I’m thankful. That Celis-senpai believes in me, and that you became my aide.」

「…………」

「Celis-senpai’s aid is necessary for me. Surely Celis-senpai’s mother is also happy for your feeling to her. I think she won’t say it to Celis-senpai because she surely doesn’t want to become a burden to her child but──at the very least, that’s what I believe.」

「────」

「Celis-senpai isn’t mistaken at all. That feeling of trying to become strong for someone else’s sake, that’s, it’s really beautiful and cool.」

Even he himself became embarrassed saying those words, but he was able to declare it in front of her pure heart.

「Lux, thank you very much. I too, toward you who is straightforwardly kind to anyone even if it is dangerous──」

「Eh……?」

Lux unconsciously became curious at Celis’s tone that suddenly changed and lifted up his face. His eyes met Celis’s eyes through the mirror in front of him right at that timing.

The towel she was holding fell and fluttered down, and the girl’s half-naked body entered his sight.

「──!?」

「Wai-! This is, I wasn’t intentionally staying quiet about this okay!? I was only unable to get the timing to say it-……!」

「……KYAAAAAAAAAAAH!」

An instant later, Celis whose face was bright red until her ears raised a shrill scream inside the fortress.

The guards who came running right after that were in wonder, while Magialca who arrived last showed an exasperated smile while saying 「Again huh」.

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