Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 11 Episode 4 (section)

===Part 3===
At the same time──inside Garden.

Inside the small room of the small world that was illuminated by a fake sun, with forest and lake, Lux stepped inside it once more.

The arm of Lux’s Wyvern was carrying Airi. Beside him Lisha was flying wearing Tiamat.

If they went straight like this, they would arrive at the altar that he visited together with Krulcifer in the past, but right now he wouldn’t be able to enter there even if he wanted to, and there was also no need for that.

After all in the end he only needed to leave behind the treasure box that was keeping the Grand Force in a place where it would be easy to dig out again.

「How about under this rock, Lux?」

「Yes. I also think there won’t be any problem there.」

In that place that resembled a real forest, there was a large rock the size of several houses put together, it looked like it would take time to destroy it using the ability of a general purpose Drag-Ride.

「Then here I go. Suppressor!」

Lisha activated Tiamat’s Divine Raiment, the gravity manipulation and floated the large rock in midair.

Lux took distance from the rock’s spot and opened a large hole on the ground under it using Cannon.

There was no problem until then, but when he dug up the soil using his Drag-Ride’s hand, a strange white stone caught his eye and he dug it out.

「What’s this──!? Human bone!?」

Lux was taken aback and he held his breath. Lisha and Airi were also surprised and peered in.

Human bones, furthermore they looked like they belonged to a child or a girl from the small size.

A gruesome incident could be imagined from the trace of the broken skull.

He unconsciously stared with intense concentration at it, but right after that, a sharp sound of slicing wind caressed his back.

Airi reacted to the sign of a violent attack that was fired from the direction of the forest.

「Is it the Abyss? Then──!」

Without delay, she was going to blow the horn flute she was carrying just in case, but at that instant several Daggers flew out between the forest’s trees.

「──Howling Roar!」

When Lux stood up in front of Airi and blocked them, something flew out like a squall from the opposite direction where the Daggers came from, and took away the contents of the treasure box.

The big crystal around the size of a human head, the Grand Force itself was taken away.

「Wha──!?」

The happening that was too sudden caused everyone including Lux to stiffen.

What plundered the Grand Force was a large man with dark brown skin wearing a flying type Divine Drag-Ride.

He didn’t say even a single word and flew away to the distance.

「Who is that guy!? Why did he take away the box!? No──」

There was no time to think right now.

They had to reach Avalon in order to stop the Sacred Eclipse──which couldn’t be done with the Grand Force stolen when it was necessary to conquer the Ruins. But there was something even worse than that, which was if this fact became known by others.

If the fact that the New Kingdom was hiding a treasure that was related to the Ruins’ conquering was reported to the world alliance, they might be falsely accused as a traitor.

「Lux! I’ll chase after that guy! You hold back the guy who threw the Daggers just now!」

Even within the situation that drastically changed right away, Lisha made a snap judgment as calm as possible.

The Daggers were thrown from the right side, which was a diversion action from an enemy. From the left side another person with a flying type Drag-Ride ran off with the treasure box.

Because Lux wasn’t in his best condition, the time he could use Bahamut was extremely short. He wasn’t suited to chase after the fleeing Drag-Ride and fight.

Originally he wouldn’t want to fight in this situation and expose Airi to danger, but it was a point of compromise that he only barely could accept.

「Please be careful! The enemy is likely a division commander of Dragon Marauder!」

Lux somehow told Lisha that before she vanished inside the forest chasing after the enemy.

Right after that, the enemy who threw the Dagger before this slowly showed himself.

「Not only did you avoid getting damaged in that instant, you even found out. That’s a great discernment.」

「You are──Vine Hachettes?」

「Vine……. One of Dragon Marauder’s three division commanders……the Earth Dragon division commander?」

Airi looked doubtful because the person before them was younger than expected. He was a youth with a slender face.

He looked far removed from the general image of a Drag-Ride mercenary, but his calm attitude made him seem like an experienced powerful person.

He was wearing a land battle type Divine Drag-Ride with deep green color, but there was no information at all about its Divine Raiment or special armament.

With Lux in his current condition, it would be a herculean task to face him while protecting Airi.

When Lux glared at the opponent nervously, Vine’s armor suddenly shined radiantly.

「{{furigana|Curse Fader|Miasma of Petrification}}」

「……-!?」

Violet air was blown out to the surroundings.

Lux immediately leaped back from that spot, but his armor from his wrist downwards that was touched by the violet smoke stiffened, and each joint became unable to move as though they were glued.

It was air of instantaneous binding with adhesive property.

It also caused the energy from the Force Core to become unable to get transmitted to the touched part too.

「──This is!? Is it that Divine Drag-Ride’s…… Divine Raiment that binds objects!?」

「Well, you’re right. The name of this Divine Drag-Ride is Basilisk, but this ability itself isn’t that amazing. The effect will cut off before long if the target isn’t bathed in this miasma continuously after all. There is no way I can fight with you in this situation. ──Sayonara.」

Right after that, Vine turned on his heels and skated away from the courtyard at full speed.

Why did he let go of the perfect chance to defeat Lux? And then why didn’t he chase after Lisha? Those puzzles were solved a few seconds later.

–

──*UUUUUUUN-!*

–

「This is──Ruin’s outer wall is rumbling!? Even though we only came inside just now!」

Airi looked around to the left and right with a surprised expression.

The Garden had a mechanism that would take in objects from outside the vicinity of its outer wall while transferring things from the inside to the outside in reverse every fixed period.

But, Airi that possessed a pocket watch informed him that this was something different.

「Why is the Ruin activating even though the time hasn’t passed that much, don’t tell me──!?」

The possibility that came to mind, was an existence of a Xfer.

Just like how the Ruin once detected danger towards Krulcifer and took her inside it, there was the possibility that the Ruin could be freely opened and closed by a Xfer’s existence and strength of will.

「However, how? Both Krulcifer-san and Mishis-san shouldn’t be here.」

Lux tried to move to outside even while feeling anxious like that. It was then, the one other uncomfortable feeling that he felt from some time ago showed its true identity.

「──Don’t move, you traitor of the world alliance. Lux Arcadia. I caught you red handed, handing over a Grand Force to Dragon Marauder. I’ll have you wait for my lord to decide what to be done with you after this.」

「……You are, Sir Singlen’s──!?」

Airi opened her eyes wide in shock while her voice was trembling in fright.

The aide of the Blackend Kingdom’s Seven Dragon Paladin, Zweigbergk Gimle.

An old soldier with a tall and lean figure, wearing a steel mask that was covering his face.

He was wearing an armor called suit armor that accomplished the same function as a pilot suit, along with an unfamiliar Divine Drag-Ride.

「I once heard from Magialca-san, most likely that Divine Drag-Ride is Tarasque…… there is no other information other than that is a land battle type.」

Lux was listening to Airi’s information while pondering in order to grasp the reason why this man suddenly appeared here.

Lux ignored his words of catching them red-handed while making conversation to buy time.

「Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be taking post together with Sir Singlen at this time inside the first fortress?」

「That’s right. But I happened to catch sight of Dragon Marauder’s members and gave chase. There I happened to see what was taking place here. You all handed over a treasure box filled with a Grand Force to them by pretending to have it stolen away. By the way──my subordinate who is a Drake user is recording the image of what happened just now. Acting innocent is just a pointless waste of time.」

「I see, so that’s the reason Vine didn’t attack me just now and retreated ……」

Lux was reaching an understanding seeing Zweigbergk talking with him with a bland tone as though threatening him.

In other words, since the beginning, Dragon Marauder and Singlen had each prepared two traps that differed from each other for Lux and the others who entered the Garden.

Dragon Marauder, through an unknown method, had somehow obtained information that Lux and the others would try to hide the Grand Force, and so they prepared in advance here to steal it.

On the other hand, Singlen who knew about the existence of the Grand Force predicted the hidden plan behind this Abyss extermination mission. He must have ordered his aide Zweigbergk to catch Lux and the others in the act of burying the Grand Force.

But, an unexpected situation occurred.

Each side’s objective clashed with each other.

Vine, a division commander of Dragon Marauder feared that it would become a battle against Singlen’s aide Zweigbergk, he threw away the good chance to kill Lux and escaped.

That was the sequence of events just now.

「Please don’t joke around! We aren’t betraying──」

Airi suddenly objected with her voice unusually loud.

「It’s pointless even if you feign innocence. We have proof. But, we aren’t demons. If you swear an oath to serve under my lord’s command, we won’t let the matter just now drop and hold back from publishing the image.」

「From the start that is your intention──!」

Airi groaned with a shaking body.

Even so it was impossible to oppose them if they had taken irrefutable proof, that was what she thought but,

「I want to ask one thing, it’s a lie that you saw Dragon Marauder and pursued them until here right?」

「…………?」

Zweigbergk kept silent under his mask toward Lux’s question.

「In the first place no one can enter this Garden for investigation without making a request to the New Kingdom. Sneaking inside here without permission is a violation of the agreement.」

「Nonsense.」

Zweigbergk coldly cut off that objection.

「Do you think you can cover up your fault with that kind of excuse? It’s clear as day whose offense is heavier here.」

「You cannot be so sure of that.」

Till the end Lux firmly declared without shrinking back.

「That time there was no other Drag-Ride other than us around the Garden. In other words, you had sneaked inside the Garden beforehand while waiting for our arrival. And then, you didn’t give chase when there was Dragon Marauder member right in front of you──that means」

Conversely the possibility of Singlen faction having connections with Dragon Marauder instead could be pointed out.

「Kukukuku. Your tongue is slicker than your appearance suggest. But it’s pointless. You are nothing more than a puppet dancing above my lord’s palm. I have no need to chase after those guys. After all this Garden is already surrounded by our White Ridge knight order.」

「──!?」

The complexion of Lux and Airi who heard that changed.

That was the true reason why Singlen was leading his army to the first fortress that was near the Garden.

By threatening Lux with this case while easily letting Dragon Marauder get away with the Grand Force, there was the possibility that it would be them instead who got accused for having connections with Dragon Marauder.

In order to prevent that counterattack, Singlen had already launched his countermeasure.

(But, what is this──this strong uncomfortable feeling……!?)

Even if Singlen had spies within the New Kingdom, there was no way he should be able to obtain information this specific.

But, from his talk with him at Babel, Singlen talked as though he knew the fact that the New Kingdom was hiding a Grand Force in their possession.

Then, there was a high possibility that Singlen had noticed their plan since the New Kingdom requested to do an Abyss extermination mission around the Garden a few days ago.

Just with that, Singlen had seen through the plan of Queen Raffi to bury the Grand Force secretly.

That was to say──

Yoruka who was on guard against Singlen, might be vaguely sensing that too.

If Yoruka noticed Singlen’s scheme this time, she would──

『Vi, vice captain Zweigbergk! Please respond!』

At that time, a Dragon Voice from Zweigbergk’s subordinate contacted his Tarasque.

The old knight let out a sigh while answering it in front of Lux and Airi.

「What is it? You should be forming formation to intercept the Abyss at the outer perimeter. Why did you enter this Garden?」

『Sir! I approached the Garden in order to avoid getting mixed up within the chaos and got transferred in suddenly──no, more importantly it’s an emergency state! The Drag-Knights of our army who were stationed around the first fortress suddenly began to attack each other!』

「What!?」

『I escaped from that conflict in panic and approached the direction of Garden, it was then I got sucked inside here! It had become impossible to form an encirclement. At this rate the strategy will──』

The voice of the male member of the White Ridge knight order that made his report was impatiently cut off there.

Zweigbergk stood still in surprise that their plan had collapsed. In front of him, Lux and Airi who felt the uncommon threat looked at each other’s face.

「Attacking each other……? Nii-san, could that be──」

「Right. Most likely, surely……」

Lux also nodded without concealing his discomposure towards Airi’s muttering.

The possibility that this was the work of the Divine Raiment of Kirihime Yoruka’s Yato no Kami──Spell Code, was extremely high.

Yes──if Singlen kept a watchful eye on the movements of the New Kingdom and he didn’t miss this chance── that girl was also the same.

If Kirihime Yoruka also didn’t fail to notice Singlen’s movement…….

「This is bad Nii-san! If Yoruka-san noticed this situation……!」

「──I know. We also have to go outside!」

There was a chance that Yoruka would move to directly crush Singlen who was trying to trap Lux.

But, the two were stopped by a single gaze from Zweigbergk.

「Do you think I will let you go, you brat?」

「Kuh! This is not the time for us to fight like this!」

Lux fired a Howling Roar and started the battle.

Dragon Marauder, Singlen ──and then the New Kingdom.

A battle where the motives of three factions were entangled was started.