Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 10 Episode 4 (section)

===Part 4===
「U, uu……」

Lux lost consciousness. He got a fever due to the extreme exhaustion from the Over Limit’s backlash.

A day passed since then. It was the time when his consciousness finally returned.

「Lu-chan. Are you okay?」

「Yes. I’m getting better, bit by bit……I think I can go back to the New Kingdom tomorrow……」

Although he tried to act strong, his body was still heavy and couldn’t move.

Lux was tasting a delusion as though his whole body was deeply buried within clay.

It felt like his body became one with the bed. He couldn’t move as though his body was plastered onto the bed.

The underground market was closed after that commotion. Rosa, who was captured, was arranged to be handed over to Calensia and the Resistance to be judged.

Heiburg military’s main force was still conquering the first Ruin Babel at Triport in the New Kingdom.

In order to make the military retreat, it was necessary to thrust this case before Heiburg’s military and make them recognize the crime.

Therefore, right now they were searching for the record of Rosa’s transaction with Dragon Marauder behind the scenes and carrying out the procedure to appeal to the world alliance.

『My apologies Lux-san. I want you to wait for a bit more about the matter of Rosa until Heiburg’s complication is settled.』

The afternoon of the next day, Calensia showed herself at the inn where Lux, Philuffy, and then the Triad were staying. She said that while looking like it was very hard for her to say it.

If they appealed with this fact to the world alliance before Rosa’s sin was formally judged, the Lords who wished for the annihilation of the traitor would interfere and the chance for Heiburg to clean itself up would be lost.

At present, because the majority of the military members staying in the capital were also those who were threatened by Rosa, they had rebelled and joined the Resistance’s side.

In order to treat the many injured people, reorganize the organization, and ambush Rosa’s subordinates, the Servants, Calensia wished for more time.

At that time, Lux feared Rosa’s counterattack and thought that there was no choice but to kill her, but right now she was completely restrained and there was no risk of that.

And then──Lux who sympathized with Calensia’s intentions decided to return to the New Kingdom for the moment.

From what he heard from the Triad, the capture of Babel by Heiburg’s military was progressing well. They had reached until the tenth floor just the other day.

Including the highest floor, there were three floors remaining.

The pace of the capture was really high, but it wasn’t because the Heiburg military’s ability to investigate the Ruins was exceptionally excellent.

It seemed that the moment powerful Abyss came out, they would use a horn flute to let the Abyss escape outside the Ruin through the nearby transfer device.

Thus, the extermination of the Abyss was in reality being mostly done by the forces of the New Kingdom staying there. That was to say Lisha, Celis, Krulcifer, Yoruka, and the subordinates of Lord Dist.

Because the New Kingdom couldn’t accompany the investigation, there was no proof that Heiburg was using a horn flute, but from the high frequency of the Abyss’s appearances outside, there was almost no doubt about it. Lisha and the others were glowering at Heiburg’s military.

The gate that existed in the middle of the Ruin, on the sixth floor, seemed to be opened by Krulcifer because of Heiburg’s request.

It was annoying to cooperate with them despite the possibility of the harm it would bring to the New Kingdom, but in the first place the world would perish if the Ruin wasn’t liberated, so she couldn’t refuse.

After hearing that story, Lux said to the Triad that he wanted them to go back to the New Kingdom to convey the situation here, but they refused.

They chose to constantly stand on guard around Lux while he was sleeping in the inn.

「If we take our eyes off from Lux-chi here, you are going to cross the goal line at once with Philuffy. If that happens, we won’t have any face to meet everyone else.」

「Hahaha, well, she is hiding her embarrassment like this but, I’m also worried about you. Just because it’s a difficult situation in the New Kingdom, there is no way we can leave you alone here while you are seriously injured with only the injured missy Philuffy to take care of you.」

「Yes. I judged that we should carry out the best action depending on the situation.」

Tillfur, Sharis, and Noct each said that and stayed here for him.

Philuffy’s injury also wasn’t shallow, but the Abyss’s strength seemed to quicken her recovery. She was completely healed within a few days.

After that she diligently nursed Lux.

「Lu-chan. I made lunch. Open your mouth, aahn」

Philuffy made a vegetable soup that was different from the inn’s meal and brought it to Lux.

Philuffy usually would make nothing but sweets, but it seemed she was taught by the inn’s owner to make the soup.

After also eating a soft bread that was soaked into the soup, his feelings calmed down just for a bit.

When the meal was over, Philuffy wiped Lux’s body for him using hot water and a towel.

But, Lux who was sitting up on the bed was still making a cloudy expression.

「Why……」

Suddenly such words spilled out from Lux whose eyes were hollow.

Lux was unable to move all this time not just because of his physical exhaustion.

Since that day when he cornered Rosa and almost killed her, Lux’s heart stayed cold as though he was dead.

「I wonder, why was I unable to finish off Rosa……」

「…………」

Philuffy didn’t answer Lux’s question.

After stopping her hand’s movement slightly, she wiped Lux’s body again while slowly changing his bandage with slow hand movement.

「There was no other choice than that. If I killed her, everyone in Heiburg would be saved, and yet……. Even though I understood that she won’t reform or anything, and yet──」

And yet, he was unable to finish her off.

He was unable to answer the expectations of his surroundings.

『I think from the view point of other countries, it must look like she is a really bad existence. But……I cannot believe that.』

The words of Stefa who told him that she was worried about Rosa.

Even those words were blown away from his mind when Philuffy was slashed from behind.

But the moment he cornered Rosa until the very end, Lux’s heart was shaken.

Even if that begging for her life was just her acting to trick him.

Even if it was just her getting her just desserts when the surroundings directed their hatred at her.

The Rosa at that moment overlapped with the image of himself when he was a child.

Just like when Lux was pleading tearfully, asking for help for his mother who met an accident and was on the verge of death.

「I couldn’t kill her……. In the end, perhaps I am just like what Fugil-niisan said. I don’t have the resolve to destroy evil for the sake of performing justice. I’m, unable to do anything, I cannot go anywhere. Something like achieving my ideal, from the start that’s──」

『Someone who wasn’t loved by anyone will try to be loved by anyone.』

Perhaps he was just like how Fugil expressed that, he was only fighting simply so that someone would recognize him, and that he had no true resolve.

(Then──I cannot continue anymore as a Seven Dragon Paladin like this.)

Lux was about to speak out that feeling into words, it was then.

「Ah……」

A faint sweet scent enveloped Lux suddenly.

Philuffy was hugging Lux from behind while he was sitting up in order to have bandages wrapped on his body.

Lux had his voice stolen from him just from that action.

The sound of the clock’s hand was carving into the stopped time.

「……You’re wrong, Lu-chan.」

Philuffy whispered into his ears gently, with a soft tone as though to persuade a child.

A tranquil smile was tugged on the lips of the girl who was reflected on the mirror inside the room.

「Lu-chan, isn’t mistaken at all. That’s why, don’t worry.」

「Tsu……!?」

Those words soaked into his chest, pushing out the emotions that he was suppressing.

Tears slowly overflowed from his eyes, as though they were squeezed out.

「But, I──!」

Was unable to grant everyone’s wish.

He was unable to cut Heiburg’s darkness called Rosa with his hands.

He was unable to persist in his justice even if he had to dirty his hands.

Just like five years ago, when he was abandoned by Fugil when he tried to save even the members of the Old Empire and failed.

「You see Lu-chan, what you want is not to beat someone who is the bad guy you know?」

Philuffy tightly hugged the shoulders of Lux that were trembling from the stirring in his chest and she told him her thought.

「Lu-chan, you are just unable to overlook it, when there is someone troubled in front of you. That’s why──it’s fine like this. Abandoning someone else who can be saved, for the sake of someone, it’s fine even if you don’t do that.」

「……Uu, ku」

Instantly, strength left Lux’s body. Drops of tears were spilling down from his eyes.

At that time, everyone told him to kill.

The soldiers of Heiburg who feared retaliation, and also Calensia, they wanted Lux to finish off Rosa.

But at that time, the fight was settled and Rosa was in a state that was unable to fight.

「That’s why, don’t force yourself. Don’t hurt yourself. It will be fine, because I will protect Lu-chan, no matter what.」

「…………」

Her warmth enveloped the worn and beaten up Lux.

And then, Philuffy kept embracing him tightly until the beating of his heart had calmed down.

──It’s nostalgic.

That painful day when he was worn out and beaten up, helpless to do anything.

This hug was just like the one she gave Lux that time, when he was standing still in front of the grave of his mother.


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