Editing Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut:Volume 11 Episode 3 (section)

===Part 6===
The sun set faster when it was Winter.

At the time of dusk, when the sun was almost sinking in the West, Lux and Yoruka were taking a break in the central plaza.

They bought fatty meat skewers from a food cart and ate it there while the people walking down the road were calling out to Lux one after another.

「Ou, ain’t this Lux. Help me out next time again.」

「Oi you. Lux is already the Princess’s knight. Good grief.」

A middle aged husband and wife conversed like that, then a slightly older youth manning a stall too,

「You are taking another beautiful girl again huh, introduce me to one at least.」

「Lux-kun too has become distant huuh……」

There were also city girls looking up to the sky with a faraway look while saying such things.

In the end, it became noisy even when he went outside the Academy. Lux smiled wryly at that while responding to them, but there was just one thing that was decisively different from the past.

「You are trusted by everyone, Aruji-sama. It’s not just your character──even your skill in Drag-Rides. That aspect is the difference between Aruji-sama and my little brother.」

Yoruka who was sitting down beside him suddenly smiled while saying that to him.

What was different from before, it was what Lux obtained from the Academy.

During his five years of doing chores, although he won over the trust from the people, they only thought of him as the Weakest Undefeated, a Drag-Knight that wouldn’t attack at all in his matches. But now he was renowned for having protected Syvalles and the Academy, and furthermore even Cross Field itself from the attacks of the Abyss, Ragnarok, and so on.

Right now Lux had become an existence that people acknowledged in admiration as a Drag-Knight who protected the New Kingdom, as well as someone who was chosen as Lisha’s personal knight.

「I can be like this thanks to everyone. Of course, it’s also thanks to you, Yoruka.」

However, Lux was thinking like that not from being modest.

He was able to wield his strength exactly because of the girls’ consideration and cooperation with him.

「I──am?」

It seemed that Yoruka herself had no awareness of that. She tilted her head in puzzlement.

「The other day, when defeating the Ragnarok Metatron too, I heard that you stood up to face it many times even when it was an untouchable opponent due to the attack reflection. Thanks to that I was able to find the clue for defeating it and won.」

「It’s something that I ought to feel embarrassed about. Originally, I had to remove the enemy approaching Aruji-sama instead of troubling you to take care of it.」

「Even so──I’m grateful to Yoruka. Thank you.」

He said that and took Yoruka’s hand.

The cool and smooth skin texture felt pleasant. A mysterious bittersweet feeling overflowed in Lux’s chest.

On the other hand Yoruka’s serious face stared still without blinking at that hand.

「So, sorry. That’s, for holding your hand for too long──ah……」

When Lux said that and his hand was going to let go, Yoruka took his hand instead without letting go.

「Aruji-sama’s hand, is warm.」

Different from usual, she murmured with a faintly uplifted tone.

But, she immediately let go of his hand and smiled while looking at the setting sun.

「But──there is no time to enjoy that. My value lies solely in becoming a blade to destroy those who are aiming at Aruji-sama.」

「That’s, when Yoruka’s little brother died──」

Lux almost said that, but he then closed his mouth hurriedly.

While Yoruka was branded as a failure of a princess in the nation of Koto, she was granted with the position as the royal guard of her little brother, the candidate to become the next king.

But, her little brother was betrayed by his chief vassals and he was offered as a sacrifice.

The girl who was said to be disqualified as a human tried to discover the meaning of her life by clinging to the position of a tool as her little brother’s servant but── Yoruka was made to realize that she had no qualification or anything for that, and so, as expected, she wasn’t human or anything.

「Yes, I failed at that time. I was only thinking of myself. The fellows who tried to conveniently use my little brother who succeeded the throne while still young. Even though I vaguely felt apprehensions towards their existence and thought to get rid of them──」

Her tone was bland as though she was chatting casually about an everyday matter.

However, Yoruka smiled while emitting a vaguely bottomless aura.

Instantly a bad premonition was born inside Lux. When he noticed, he asked her.

「Could it be, your little brother, stopped you from doing……?」

It wasn’t like Lux had any inkling of what Yoruka was planning to do.

Lux was only thinking, that if by any chance, if Yoruka was going to try to do the same thing, then he himself would surely stop her too.

Yoruka didn’t answer. She simply kept her mouth closed while her smile was deepening.

People were vanishing from the central plaza. At that time when the moon was hanging completely in the sky, Yoruka stood up.

「Let’s go back, Aruji-sama. It won’t be good for the body to stay in this cold air.」

「Ah, right. I, guess……」

Yoruka who said that had already returned to her usual self.

But, different from when they had just set out, she didn’t try to link her hand with his hand beside her anymore.

Lux softly called out to Yoruka instead of taking her hand from his own initiative.

「Say Yoruka. Since you came to the New Kingdom and entered the Academy, did anything change? Did you find anything important to you?」

「……Nothing has changed. Aruji-sama’s younger sister and Noct-san, then everyone in Syvalles has treated me well but, I’m still the same as ever.」

「……I see.」

Lux murmured looking somewhat sad while he noticed that Yoruka sometimes was caressing her musical instrument case.

「That Sword Device is something really important for you isn’t it?」

Even in the middle of the date she would keep holding it close to herself, the Sword Device of Yato no Kami.

He thought that in a sense it was an attachment that was just like her. Lux leaked out a wry smile unconsciously.

「In the end this is the only thing that I can understand. If it’s a useful tool, then it’s only reasonable for anyone to want to put it at their side and treasure it.  Someone like me who is not a human can only understand something at that level.」

That was why Yoruka earnestly continued to try to become Lux’s 『useful tool』.

Surely it was something like that.

But──

「Is it, really like that?」

「Eh……?」

Lux suddenly muttered the question emerging in his heart while they were on the path back to the Academy.

「The reason why Yoruka continues to be fixated on that sword, and also in being a servant. It might not simply be because you don’t understand anything about humans. It could be that Yoruka yourself simply doesn’t notice it too.」

「……That’s an interesting interpretation Aruji-sama.」

Yoruka’s eyes opened wide in astonishment for a moment, then her eyes narrowed bewitchingly.

「But, someone like me cannot answer everyone’s expectations. After all I’m just a mere thing in the end.」

「…………」

Her smile was bright as usual.

For such smile to look lonely no matter what to Lux might be just his imagination.

Even since this day, there was nothing particularly different in Yoruka’s state even while she was striving in her guard duty that she did alternately with Coral.

And then, perhaps thanks to the two, or perhaps it was just a coincidence.

The period of rest was passing peacefully without any report of even a single Abyss showing up, not to mention any enemy like Dragon Marauder.

Like that, ten days later, the outing to Garden was finally carried out.