Dai Densetsu no Yūsha no Densetsu:Volume 3 Chapter 2

Status: Incomplete

20% completed (estimated)

   

Chapter 2 - The Burden He Shoulders

“Why is Ryner and Ferris-san together, and I’m aloneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”

Suppressing her heated emotions, Kiefer Knolles walked alone.

With shoulder length red hair, and strong, dignified red eyes.

With a girlish body, feeling a little uncertain to be travelling alone as a girl, having a lovely appearance, and on top of that, wearing a one-piece dress that has a short skirt length.

The truth is, it would have been more convenient for her to wear the light armor made for travelling, but right now, there was no way she would wear that useful armor.

The reason was because, the strongest and worst love rival, peerless beauty Ferris Eris, for some reason, was wearing a one-piece dress for travelling!

For a girl with such an expressionless face!

For a girl who has no interest in fashion at all!

Wearing such a cute one-piece dress!

And if.

And if I don't wear a few one-piece dresses as well, and because of that,

(Ah-reh, Kiefer doesn't look very womanly, not cute at all)

Ryner might mock me privately like that, and that is something I don't want happening, geez,

"Idiot!"

Kiefer let out a soft incomprehensible holler.

By the way, currently, Kiefer was on a wilderness trail a short distance away from the highway of Nelpha.

She had heard from the villagers whom she had dropped by en route to here that there were bandits in the vicinity,

"Hey, hey Miss, if a girl like you wears such 'flashy' clothes, you will get abducted for sure! Even if not so, for a cute girl like you, it's better to be more careful you know!"

The part on "even if not so, for a cute girl like you", however much she wanted Ryner to hear that,

"Why is Ryner never by my side during crucial times like this!"

She ranted loudly all by herself.

And when Kiefer was done with her rants after some time,

"Wait, this isn't the time for this......"

She retorted at herself.

During these few years.

While Kiefer was travelling alone in search of a way to nullify Ryner's Alpha Stigma with the hope of saving him, she had acquired a bunch 'self-conversing' techniques to pass the time.

On this day as well, after leaving the village, getting off the highway and while walking along the wilderness trail, she had been talking to herself and fantasizing all this time, and consequently, she did not feel any boredom in the slightest.

"Wait, isn't it a little sad that I've gotten used to talking to myself?"

She muttered and followed that with a chuckle.

And then, she looked up at the clear sky.

"............"

Since morning, the weather had been good, giving off a comfortable air that made her wonder whether the current dark situation in Nelpha was really happening.

But the truth was things had become rather serious. It appeared that the chaos of the war was about to sweep across the country.

During her travels these past few years, she had witnessed such landscapes numerous times.

Attacked by neighboring countries, the people who had neither power, money, nor information to aid them in escaping got swallowed up the ambitions of other countries.

The ordinary people who knew nothing, were the ones who got sacrificed first.

Even the villagers at the village which Kiefer had made a pit stop at earlier seemed ignorant of when the Roland army would reach this vicinity and turn it into a battlefield, but yet, the only thing they were worried about was Kiefer travelling in a one-piece dress by herself.

No, most of the people who could escape had already escaped northwards. The only ones left were those elderly who did not have the strength to run, and they had clearly already given up and continued living here calmly.

"............"

Thinking of those calm faces made Kiefer feel like crying.

Wars had always been like this, she thought.

As always, there was no salvation anywhere.

Only destruction and despair.

It was the same during the time when Kiefer's sisters got killed.

And there was nothing she could do to change that. No, rather, she had also never have thought about doing something about it.

War is always cruel, but, it'll be fine as long as the people precious to her did not get caught in it, she would only think.

"...... in the end, everyone died......"

She murmured with a sad looking face.

But, this time, it was different.

Her journey this time was different.

The thing she was going to accomplish this time through her journey, was to stop this unproductive war.

It was a plan thought out by Ryner.

It was a plan thought out after much mulling by Ryner, who was always so kind, and always only thinking about sacrificing himself to save everyone.

It was a wonderful plan.

And the most important part of it was entrusted to Kiefer.

And that gave her a little sense of pride.

"............"

And at that moment, she recalled the words of Ryner.

"Kiefer, I'm leaving the most important part to you though, but, I think you are the only one who can pull it off. That's why, I'm entrusting it to you."

He had said.

You are the only one who can pull it off. That's why, I'm entrusting it to you.

That was what Ryner had said.

He had said it with a serious face.

She recalled that moment when Ryner had entrusted this to her, believing in her.

After having betrayed everyone again and again, when she recalled the moment when Ryner had entrusted this to her, believing in her,

"........................ uwufufu."

She laughed again, all by herself.

Despite the fact that her being all alone had bothered her when she thought about it, since this made her happy, it couldn't be helped, she thought.

That's why, even when she should be traveling alone enthusiastically, whenever she thought about the fact that the beauty Ferris-san was by the side of Ryner, uwuuu ~, she would get depressed, but whenever she thought about how Ryner was believing in her, depending on her, uwufufu ~, she would cheer up again; anyway she was a solitary busy woman right now.

"But, well."

She looked at her surroundings.

She then spread the map of Nelpha in her mind.

Entered into her head was most of the map, starting from Roland then northwards, past Imperial Nelpha and the Autonomous Holy City of Cassla, and even further past the central continent, up till the northern continent all the way to Gastark.

She was generally aware of the situations of roughly each and every country.

While she had accumulated all this knowledge after three years of traveling, she had never thought that this would be something useful to Ryner, but somehow, it was currently the most useful thing to him.

Kiefer looked in front of her.

A hill that was as small as her left hand was ahead of her, and beyond that would be a river.

But, further up the river, it opens up into a plain, and if Toale Nelphi's ten thousand troops were to hide themselves from the army of Roland, and prepare themselves from surrounding attacks, they might be lurking on the side of the woods there were beyond the plain, and with that supposition, Kiefer had come all the way till here.

Then.

"...... seems like my guess was right."

She looked at the ground.

On the ground were almost faded traces of campfires. If there were bandits, they would not bother erasing the traces of the fires they built. Then, who was responsible for all these?

"............"

Kiefer crouched down and touched the remnants. She brushed off the ashes, attempting to find out how long ago were the fires extinguished.

This was probably the work of scouts sent by Toale to find out the place where Roland's army was concentrated at, she thought.

Maybe Kiefer and them had just passed each other.

If that's the case, then it might be faster if Kiefer were to just go after the scouts and ask them the location of Toale.

"............"

At that moment, Ryner's face surfaced in her mind again.

His rare serious, drawn face.

"Before you manage to meet up with Toale directly, avoid contact with any contact with Nelpha soldiers alright? Toale isn't the type of person who will do anything to a woman without first listening to her, but with regards to the soldiers of Nelpha, due to the hostility posed by Roland's army, they might act violently, and attack you without listening to your story, thinking that you might be a spy, so you must move cautiously."

He had said.

And Kiefer had laughed at that.

"Oh, Ryner, so you're worried about me?"

On hearing that, he had made a strange face,

"That's natural right. I'm sending you alone into the enemy's base. There's no way I won't be worried. Kiefer, please be careful no matter what."

He had said.

Upon thinking about that.

"............"

Kiefer's face softened again.

However, she was also aware of how dangerous this mission was.

In this current situation, it was certain that the Nelpha soldiers would act hostilely against others. And they were not limited to outsiders, but included past comrades of the this very country as well.

The truth was, Prince Starnel had made use of these ten thousand troops to cover his escape, abandoning them. Before Toale appeared to lead them, the abandoned troops must have felt disheartened, she thought.

That's why, right now, this place was unbelievably dangerous.

But of course, compared to the plan that Ryner was executing now, which was to beat down the number one monster of Roland's forces --- Crimson Finger Claugh Klom, and use him as bargaining chip, this was nothing.

"But, my success or failure will also determine the fate of Ryner, so I have to give it my best......"

And she started walking again.

Paying heed to her surroundings, she erased her tracks so as not to set up an unfortunate encounter with the scouts of Nelpha while she advanced forward.

This was a specialty of hers.

Traveling alone, infiltrating other countries.

Alright, she shall do her job properly this time as well,

"In order to get praised by Ryner."

She murmured and at that moment.

"............"

A faint sound riding on the wind reached her ear.

Instantly.

She lowered her body.

It was really a faint sound that could be attributed to mishearing, but still, she tensed herself up and lowered her body.

While crouching down, she moved to a place where grass grew, hid herself there, and extinguished her presence. She listened intently.

However.

"............"

She could no longer hear anything. The only thing she could hear were the sounds of the grass rustling in the wind. Perhaps, she really had misheard.

But still, even so,

"............"

She kept still.

Her sixth sense, that had protected her all this while she journeyed alone, told her not to move.

Something was there.

She could feel it.

No, even if there wasn't, there wasn't a need for her to move for a while. If there wasn't, then so be it.

However, the problem would arise if there was something there and she were to let her guard down and move. That would be fatal.

Compared to Ryner and Ferris, she was not that strong. Even though she could take care of one or two soldiers who have not received a lot of training, but she could not afford to let her guard down just because of that.

She might just die if she even let her guard down one bit.

"............"

That's why she continued to conceal her presence.

At that moment, she could once again catch hold of a faraway sound riding on the wind.

"......ig.........................re."

This time round, she was certain of it.

It was the voice of a person.

And it was coming closer towards here.

This time round, she was pressed to make another choice. Whether to ascertain who was heading towards here or not.

Now, which one should she choose?

"............"

Kiefer considered as she held her breath.

In the meantime, the owner of the voice was getting closer. From the sounds, she could tell the number of people.

The hooves of horses.

Three of them.

From the sounds of the hooves, they were moving fast.

Seems like they are in a hurry.

From their hurried motion, the possibility of them being scouts is high, Kiefer thought.

"...... now, what should I do?"

Hidden in the grass, she peered through the gaps with her red eyes.

She could see the sand stir up from the south.

The sand stirred up by the horses.

Three horses galloping towards here.

However.

However, the people riding on the three horses were clearly strange.

"............"

Without thinking, Kiefer almost cried out in surprise. With her eyes widening, what's that! She withheld her impulse to almost cry out.

But, the scene that was unfolding before her was clearly a strange one.

There were three horses that were galloping at an extremely fast pace, but yet, only the one at the center was ridden by people.

And for some reason, that horse at the center was ridden by three people.

On top of that,

"Yahorh!!"

The one who was sitting right in front, leading the three horses and had shouted loudly, was but, a ten year old, no matter how one looks at it, bishoujo with golden hair and blue eyes.

On seeing that, Kiefer stood up.

"I-Iris-chan! You can't be so loud here!"

It was hard to tell whether she had said that in a loud or soft voice.

Following that, Iris turned.

Looking at Kiefer with a happy face, she waved without thinking,

"Wah Kiefer-neechan, here we are!!"

"Dduh, as I was saying, hush! Hush!"

She put a finger to her lip, gesturing to Iris to keep quiet.

In response to that,

"Hush?"

Iris raised a finger.

"Hush hush."

And then, on top of making a 'V' sign, she said,

"Yay!"

Status: Incomplete

20% completed (estimated)