Editing CubexCursedxCurious:Volume14 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 5===

After quietly murmuring "how troubling" in nonchalance as though encountering rain upon exiting a convenience store, Lilyhowell slightly lowered her still-gloomy gaze and said:

"How did you know of this place&mdash;No, I can guess. It must be the Lab Chief's Nation."

"How do you know?"

"In order to find out Nirushaaki's location, I made a deal with them and sold out confidential information from the Knights Dominion. I should have expected that from that point onwards, they would have complete knowledge of my movements."

"You sold out the Dominion's information...?"

Haruaki frowned. That kind of thing was possible? Of course not. Then the woman before his eyes here&mdash;

"&mdash;Right now, I am not taking action as a member of the Knights Dominion. My identity is simply Lilyhowell Kilmister. Well, they might be sending pursuers after me. After all, my methods were a little forceful... when I took these swords out from the Dominion's weapons vault..."

"I don't care about what's going on inside the Knights Dominion. Anyway, we can't allow your cruel acts to continue&mdash;Kuroe!"

"Yes yes~"

Kuroe silently extended her hair and pulled the couple over along with the chairs they were tied to. Haruaki was expecting Lilyhowell to stop them, but she simply stood with her heavy cleaver of a sword without moving from her position.

"Eek... Eek... Eeeeeek!"

"Ahhhhhhh!"

"Woah~ Keep still, you guys. But I don't think you'll listen even if I say that. You might get traumatized if you see more weird things, so I'd be happy if you could sleep for a while. Mode: «Sleeping Sadayoshi»!"

Probably strangled by their necks. the couple closed their eyes together and stopped moving. Although this treatment was a little forceful, there was no luxury of being considerate now. Haruaki could only hope for their forgiveness and understanding.

"What kind of knight are you? Your recent behavior is atrocious. Anyway, we'll capture you first!"

"This would&mdash;trouble me greatly."

"Like anyone cares about you! Mechanism No.22 bludgeoning type, spike-ball form: «Morgenstern»!"

Fear charged forward with the spiked metal club in hand.

"I'll cover you. She should be easier to deal with than a Japanese sword!"

Kirika extended the cursed belt. Seeing that, Lilyhowell said:

"I have no wish of exhausting «Sigarsholm»'s power. Against opponents like you, I shall use this slaughtering blade «My Bloody Valentine»&mdash;plus «ESP» along for the ride!"

Apart from the heavy blade that was in her hand to begin with, she also drew out a burning sword from her back. Her palm also seemed to be burning, but she only raised an eyebrow. She was probably suppressing the pain through sheer willpower.

"What...!?"

Kirika groaned. The extended «Tragic Black River» had merely brushed past «ESP»'s blade but the belt's tip was already charred, resulting in the stench of burnt leather. Kirika frantically slapped «Tragic» against the ground, extinguishing the fire that was spreading upwards along the belt. Behind her, Kuroe made a "Oh crap! Too scary!" look after confirming the unconscious couple's condition. Presumably, she was worried that her hair would more than likely suffer the same fate.

"As always, you're carrying many interesting weapons!"

Fear swung her spiked metal club to attack. Lilyhowell blocked using the slaughtering blade, then attacked with the flaming sword. Fear frowned at the hot air sweeping in front of her, but did not falter, instead pressing on the attack&mdash;

Full vigor. However... From Haruaki's view, both Fear and Lilyhowell's movements were not clean enough.

Upon further thought, it was only natural. The battle against Nirushaaki had taken place this morning. The date had not changed on the calendar. Fear had been trounced soundly by Konoha. Konoha's counter had also injured Lilyhowell's shoulder. Both of them had fought desperately against Nirushaaki. Their stamina could not have recovered fully yet.

However, the two of them were still fighting hard, opposing each other with indomitable wills. As though saying "it's fine as long as I extend the burning end," Kirika mobilized «Tragic» for support again.

It suddenly struck Haruaki&mdash;Was this the time to be doing this kind of thing? A sense of emptiness spontaneously rose up in his heart.

These two people in front of him, as well as the rest of them, did indeed harbor a certain kind of indomitable will, refusing to back down absolutely. But, that was...

"Nuuuuuuuuu!"

"Ohhhhh!"

Fear and Lilyhowell swung vigorously in a collision, causing them to fly back at the same time. After rolling several times on the floor, Fear slowly stood up. Glaring ahead, she said:

"Huff... Huff... You should give up and throw down your swords...!"

"This I cannot&mdash;"

Using the two cursed swords for support, Lilyhowell looked at them with her gloomy eyes while struggling to stand up.

"Those swords look like they're clearly cursed. Don't you guys reject cursed tools!? You're doing these cruel and inhumane things because of cursed tools, right!? Why, why won't you stop?"

"It goes without saying. Everything is for the sake of defeating Nirushaaki..."

Lilyhowell bit her lip hard while even stronger light appeared in her eyes of darkness.

"I have long forgotten the taboo of curses. Neither do I know what is meant by a knight's honor. Walking the orthodox path is completely meaningless. Indeed, no matter what happens to me, even if I must be cursed, I do not care..."

Next, Lilyhowell&mdash;

Yelled, with even elements of sorrow in her voice:

"In my current state... All that remains is only defeating Nirushaaki. Only avenging that child&mdash;These are the only goals!"

What could be felt from her was pure and genuine resolve.

Looking at her, dressed in disheveled clothing, yelling her resolve...

Certain thoughts flashed through Haruaki's mind.

He realized what was the impulse residing in a corner of his mind all this time, unable to articulate in word. The impulse that drove him to see Lilyhowell no matter what.

Directly and firmly&mdash;Haruaki readied his resolve as well.

Hence&mdash;

"Hold it&mdash;&mdash;!"

Yelling, Haruaki rushed right in between Fear and Lilyhowell. Fear exclaimed in alarm:

"Idiot, what are you doing!? Hurry and stand down!"

He was not going to stand down. Lilyhowell was already trapped in the darkness known as vengeance but she still retained a final sense of ego. She had simply removed her limiter in choosing means to achieve her goal, rather than going insane completely. Hence, she was not going to do something so meaningless as kill him&mdash;Haruaki gambled on this.

His gamble paid off. Lilyhowell simply raised an eyebrow and stared at him.

"Our main goal is to rescue Konoha who's staying by Nirushaaki's side. And your goal is to defeat Nirushaaki. If that's all there is to it&mdash;"

Haruaki gulped and continued:


"''We should be able to cooperate. Let's stop fighting each other now and join forces''."


"W-What are you talking about, damn shameless brat!"

"Yachi! You are..."

"Oh~ Haru, you're really going out on a limb here."

Hearing Fear and the girls cry out, Haruaki still gazed intently at Lilyhowell. Likewise, she stared back intently at Haruaki as though trying to confirm the truth of his claim.

In other words&mdash;The possibility existed.

"Right now, you're abducting people or hiring people and instigating them so that you can power up the sword that extends using people's terror, right? Instead of strengthening a single sword's power, wouldn't chances of defeating Nirushaaki be higher if you obtained our power instead and fight on the same side?"

Lilyhowell still remained silent. However, she narrowed her eyes as though ponder a certain matter.

Haruaki still had matters to declare beforehand. The minimum conditions.

"I'll state the conditions. Of course, first of all, Konoha must not be killed. That sword was called the «Wathe Breaker», right? That said, it's apparently broken already. Second condition, you can't harm ordinary people. You mustn't use other people to feed the curses like you were doing just now. As long as you're willing to abide by the conditions I've stated, we will provide you with full support in the fight against Nirushaaki."

"It is not just the «Calamitous Sword of Sigarsholm»... For example, «My Bloody Valentine» here also requires the sacrifice of others to strengthen its power."

Lilyhowell waved the slaughtering blade lightly as she spoke. Haruaki shuddered inside but&mdash;

"However&mdash;One, provided that Nirushaaki can be killed, I will resort to any means necessary. Two, in terms of overall combat potential, joining forces with you does seem more favorable. Plus three, I have already thought up a plan to defeat her. That is all. So long as you are willing to assist in my battle plan and devote your efforts to carrying it out, this proposal is worth considering."

"Really!?"

At this moment, Fear took a large step forward and pulled Haruaki's arm forcefully.

"Hold it right there, don't decide on your own! This woman is a member of the Knights Dominion! She can't be trusted at all. Hurry and recall what atrocities those people from the Knights Dominion have done so far!"

"Same here&mdash;I don't think this is a strategy we could recklessly commit to. Just now, she was planning to harm ordinary citizens, right? If you ask me whether this woman is trustworthy, all I can say is that it's an absolutely ridiculous question."

Kirika agreed with Fear's opinion. Their objections were very correct.

"I can understand why you can't agree so easily. Lilyhowell here was in the process of doing something very cruel. Once everything is over, I'd like to ask her to make amends, perhaps that might even break out in a conflict, but&mdash;I believe that there's something more important than that right now. Absolutely... Konoha must be retrieved."

"..."

"Also, have you all forgotten? There's only a week's time left. Once it's over, Konoha might go somewhere else to fight that Commander guy&mdash;And who knows what'll happen. There's no time to pick and choose now."

"Well... That might be true, but..."

Kirika turned her eyes in a pleading manner, shifting her gaze towards Kuroe. Unlike Kirika and Fear, she was smiling as though enlightened.

"Fair enough. I guess I'm neutral. But as someone who's been living in that home since the past, as someone who's been living together with Kono-san until now, if I really had to say it, my feelings are the same as Haru's. Since Haru made his decision, I will follow him."

"Even you, Kuroe-kun..."

"Seriously&mdash;I'm begging you, Fear and Class Rep."

Saying that, he stared directly at the two of them. Unable to argue against him, Fear was the first to sigh.

"So unfair. You saying this, knowing clearly we can't refuse, right?"

"N-No, I'm not..."

"The result is the same either way. Suppose we refused, then you might end up saying you'll assist her with Kuroe, just the two of you. Now honestly, that would be absolutely ridiculous. We're not going to let you two hang around someone who might betray you any time. In other words, we have no choice at all..."

"&mdash;Sorry."

"Hmph, even if you apologize, you have no intention of changing your mind, right? No helping it, anyway, I'll agree for now... But make no mistake, shameless brat, we don't quite approve of this. The current situation happened all because Cow Tits was too careless, so she has to be the one to take responsibility. I believe in going so far as to join forces with an enemy."

Facing another direction, Fear pouted as she grumbled quietly again and again.

"In the end, I'm agreeing passively... My opinion is basically the same as Fear-kun's. I believe that people from the Knights Dominion are very dangerous. If there is another way, we ought to choose another way instead&mdash;"

Kirika also spoke softly. Her gaze directed downwards, her face looked as though a million emotions were entangled in her heart.

"I know what you two are saying, but there's really no choice right now."

Haruaki felt anxious, thinking: why are these two saying such things? Of course, he knew very clearly there were risks. But compared to that, in this current situation, they should focus on thinking how to devote their full efforts towards rescuing Konoha, right? They should be more united, taking action for the single-minded goal of saving Konoha.

"I know, that's why I said I'm agreeing for now."

"Okay okay, now that both sides understand each other's view, more talking won't make any progress. Anyway, let's hear what the knight has to say, okay? Because she just mentioned 'battle plan.'"

Hearing Kuroe, Haruaki turned his gaze back to Lilyhowell.

"Indeed, a battle plan to defeat Nirushaaki."

While re-sheathing the burning sword and the slaughtering blade, in other words, showing her earnest intention to join forces with Haruaki's group, Lilyhowell spoke quietly:

"That «Wounded Knee Massacre», which renders all attacks ineffective. It actually has a weakness. And I know what that weakness is."