Horizon:Volume 1 Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Those Who Prepare in the Courtyard

Will the festival eventually end.

And, will the festival start.

Point Allocation (Density)

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In the courtyard, you could see the tremors running through the Academy.

The mayhem seemed to have been noticed by others; an audience stood outside the Academy's outer fence.

"Ahh, again...?"

No-one entered the school grounds, though they all spoke.

Azuma, standing in the courtyard, had gathered everyone who had run away from the disturbances happening everywhere in the school. He heaved a sigh as as they all stood there, atop the lawn.

Somehow, it seemed that inside, a fight had broken out between the students and the mercenary groups. From time to time, some white thing, or people in bodysuits, or cosplay that was hard to even describe would be ejected from the emergency exit or windows of the first floor.

...They're really going at it.

He thought. Beside him, Ohiroshiki shoveled the snacks he had brought with him as a late night stack.

"Mmm. I am of the humble opinion that we should call the teacher on night duty. Will she be alright?"

"Oriotorai-sensei...? When I went to see her just now, she was sleeping soundly, a sake bottle in her arms."

The person who answered him was Adele. Using her handkerchief, she was fanning Asama, who was lying on the lawn face up.

'So we can't...' Everyone muttered this, Azuma included.

As they muttered this, another person in a black bodysuit fell after being blasted through the wall. He looked this way, thrusting out his chest, on which the word 'Love' was written in red. Afterward, he disappeared to the starboard.

"...Anyone know him?"

Hearing Norikiri's voice, Naomasa folded her arms and tilted her head to the side.

"That guy who left just now was prob'bly Koide Ou from Shinagawa's chamber of industry and commerce. That pillar before was wavin' at Asama-chi, so...Asama-chi, your father didn't leave the shrine tonight without tellin' you where he was going, did he?...Hey, why're you glarin' this way. It's time to accept your father's true end."

"T-This isn't over, t-this hasn't been decided!"

Asama said before she collapsed. It was Suzu's duty to lay the handkerchief out under her face.

And looking at everyone, who was doing this, Azuma thought.

...It's just like always, huh.

He nodded in his heart, but today, he felt this way again.

...Everyone's in a good mood?

Tomorrow, Toori will confess to the girl she loves. Everyone has a good mood because of that, right? Because I came to Musashi after secondary school, I didn't know what they were like before then. It seems like many of them have been with Aoi since elementary school. Because of this, I wasn't excluded, but, the way I feel during these times is different.

He thought this as well.

Hassan took a drink from the curry he kept inside a thermos.

"Ah, it's the Schaeder couple. They're always a big help at our stationery shop."

The skeleton couple ran out of the emergency exit on the first floor, clutching the suspension platform used to hold samples. While they were dashed out, the husband's rib bone fell off. The wife grabbed it out of the air and inserted it back, bowing to the group as she did so.

"It's gradually become the sideshow of a carnival..."

Looking closely, there was a mummy on the roof.

"Ah, that's Mishra the Third. He runs the dried foods restaurant, 'Horus'"

He hung his bandages from the edge of the rooftop and started to rappel down, his movements hurried. As he did so, when he was around the second floor, Aoi's sister ran to the edge of the rooftop. She grabbed the edge of the bandages. f "Teeheehee, there were some nice dried goods here! What do you want me to do with this lifeline, your bandages!? Should I cut it!? Take it off!? If you don't want to fall, then worship me! If you don't, not only will I drop you, I'll spin you around like a handmaiden!"

"That girl really doesn't know how to threaten people. Or rather, Mishra the Third can't talk can he, since his throat's dry?."

Azuma nodded at those words, which everyone spoke. But really, amongst everyone, it seemed that it was Aoi’s sister that was devoid of energy.

...If things were normal, she would have definitely said that she'd drop him and still order him to worship her.

Something about her is strange tonight. Well, she's always strange, but the way she's being strange is different, or should I say, not dropping him immediately is in itself strange.

'It's a difficult problem,' Azuma thought. As he watched, Mishra the Third, dangling in the air, had put his arms over his head, making a heart shape with them.

Seeing this, Aoi's sister put her hands on her cheeks and shook her head.

"Hehehe, it's wonderful to be so beautiful that even dried goods acknowledge it~!'

Because she had released the bandages, Mishra the Third fell.

However, below them, Nenji had come from behind the school building.

"Hrmph, no-one was behind the school building! It must have been because of the invincibility of my party's majesty!!"

His invincible majesty was blown apart by the dried humanoid that came falling from above.

Everyone watched as Itoken, a refreshing smile on his face came from behind Nenji. He was completely naked.

"Hiiii! Everyone! The back of the school is fi--waitwaitwait, Nenji-kun! Are you alright!?"

While he was speaking, Mishra the Third rose. Wrapping his bandages around himself, he raised a hand to gesture sorry several times before leaving. Nenji, left behind, slowly reformed.

"He, Hehe...that was dangerous."

...He's serious, as usual.

Azuma thought.

It would be perfect if Oriotorai was here, or rather, if she was here the mayhem would be quelled with overwhelming levels of violence. But if that were to happen, it would definitely become a bigger disturbance than it already was, so it was a matter of whether to go with 'quality' or 'duration'.

Suddenly, there was a movement beside him.

Suzu had stood up.

"U-Um, w-water, A-Asama-san...'s b-breath is, r-ragged."

She was going to draw water. The tap that sprinkled water to the school from the waterways was close to the entrance, but it wasn't drinking water, as this was the water that circulated throughout the interior of the ship. The drinking water was inside the school.

"Bell-san, um, if you go there now, you'll get drawn in."

Adele tried to stop her, her tone suggesting that she had no idea what she was doing. At that moment.

A large voice boomed out nearby, coming from the direction Suzu was trying to go.

"--What on Earth is this outrage--! This disturbance in my town!!"

Everyone turned to look up at Yoshinao, who had stood in front of Suzu at some point in time.

He, Yoshinao, seemed to realise that everyone had fallen silent at his shout. He looked around.

"This is completely inexcusable! Who started this! Get out here!"

'He's got a point.' Everyone nodded, but one person reacted differently.

"--Hyaah...!"

That sound, a breath filled with fear, came from directly in front of Yoshinao.

"--Hy...aaa...ah..."

Her arms clutched before her chest, Suzu was trying to keep her trembling back.

'Ah', Azuma thought. 'This is bad'.

If a large voice suddenly comes at you while you're nervous...

Suzu, who was blind, had entered a state akin to one where she had been punched.

Her breath caught, but when she tried to breathe out, she felt like vomiting.

And apparently, Yoshinao had just noticed her.

"--? What is the matter with you? If there is something you want to say, then come right out and say it!"

At his insistence, Suzu opened her mouth wide and screamed.

"Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah!!"

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Suzu burst into tears.

Everyone reared back at the sound, which seemed to blow away all the noise that had been happening till then. Yoshinao stood there, panicked.

"H-Hey, you, w-what..."

"I-I-I-I d-don't like, t-this guy...!"

'Wow, Suzu-san, you're completely in the right.' Everyone nodded. However, Yoshinao heard this.

"A-All of you! Causing such a disturbance is-"

"Hyaaaaaaan!!"

Her voice rang out. As might be expected, the crowd had started to panic. But despite this, Azuma, in the midst of them, waved his hands about, attracting attention to himself.

"U-Umm, about what we should do now..."

Hassan nodded at Azuma's proposal. Taking a medicinal pouch from his chest, he poured white powder from it and into his magic bottle, which he had only drunk a little curry from. Replacing the lid, he shook the bottle.

"Well, if you drink curry, all your worries will fly away~"

"W-What did you put in there just now!?"

Hearing Naomasa's question, Hassan nodded, his face expressionless.

"Spice."

"That can't be right! That was definitely a drug!"

"You're wrong. Curry is made out of several different spices. So what you put in curry is spice. It's only logical."

"Somebody take a dump in his curry next time!!"

"I am trying to say that you kids have been ignor--"

Yoshinao said. Just as those words left his mouth, all the windows of the school opened at once. The people inside the building thrust their heads outside.

For a moment, they all looked to the left and right, but not long after, they noticed Suzu, who stood there crying.

"Nuuah--! Warning! Warning! Musashi's important system with bangs has been brought to tears!"

"Damn it, how did this happen! Whatever the cause, we seek everyone's opinion concerning the offender's punishment!"

Everyone who had their head sticking out the window stuck their fist out, thumbs facing downward. All of them nodded.

"Alright! Unanimously decided to be the death penalty! No problems, no questions, no mercy! The offender is--"

Toori, who had stuck his head out of a window on the top floor, found Yoshinao.

Yoshinao's eyes met his.

"Y-you! Chancellor Student Council President! The disturbance this time is--"

"Hey, guys, everyone look! There's an idiot who's cosplaying as a king, right over there! He must be the culprit! Seriously, that's a douche move, dressing like the king so he can lower everyone's inhibitions!"

"W-What are you saying!? I am the real thing! I am the true king of Musashi, Lord Yoshinao!!"

"Huh? What did you say? The king's got no friends, so he wouldn't come here. As expected, the fake doesn't know anything about the king. The real king's playing minesweeper on his PC, alright? Didn't you know?"

"You bastaaard--!!"

"Uwaaaaaan!!'

Suzu's voice resounded again.

The instant directly after.

"----"

Suddenly, the sound of Suzu's crying halted.

She fell silent.

Almost as if her voice itself had been stopped.

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'Eh?' Everyone looked at Suzu, who stood in the middle of them. She softly closed her mouth, which had been wide open.

Suzu touched her ears with her hands.

"Eh...?"

She spoke the question that everyone had been thinking.

As she stood there frowning, a voice came from above her.

"Hey, king, move! And get down! You're getting in Bell-san's way!!"

Hearing these instructions, Yoshinao felt lost. But matching everyone's movements, he lowered himself.

Left in the middle of the crowd, all of whom had knelt down, Suzu tilted her ears to the left and right without even wiping the tears from her cheeks.

After a moment...

"--O-Over there."

She looked towards Musashi's port. The east.

Located there was Kagamihara's mountain range.

However, in the depths of night, all that was there was a pitch black, bottomless space. Beyond the mountains, towards the south, should have been the town of Mikawa, but from Musashi's point of view it lay in the mountain's shadow, so you could not see the light from the town.

Black. It was even unclear whether the mountain itself was there. There was just a darkness that seemed like a black fog, beyond which nothing could be seen.

Despite this, the darkness suddenly shattered. Within the embracing dark, a light shined.

It was the light of a fire starting.

Flames. On the peak of Kagamihara's mountain, an inferno was born.

"Huh..."

Exactly as Suzu spoke, a sound which seemed like distant thunder could be heard.

Hearing that noise, Naomasa muttered, her body still kept low.

"Isn't that an explosion?"

As if responding to her, Neshinbara, whose head was thrust out of the school building's windows, said this.

"Of the watchouses the Testament Union set up to maintain surveillance of Mikawa, there should be one at the top, around there...It's true that they should be packed with Tres Espana's students now, but what could it be? An accident? Maybe it's just a fire...the watchhouse below it can't be seen from here, but I wonder...hasn't it noticed?

As the flames in the distance became stronger, small voices began to break out from within the crowd.

'What's wrong?' 'What's going on?' People were saying. There were also people who had started trying to make calls with their phones.

"Oookaaaay! We'll have to wait till next time for the continuation!!"

Hearing Toori's voice, everyone besides Yoshinao nodded.

They started to move. Everyone left the windows, exiting the building from the entrance. Everyone stood up and started to walk off.

They started to move.

As they started to move out, Yoshinao gave the crowd a glance before lightly bowing his head to Suzu.

In response, Suzu drew back slightly. However, Yoshinao dropped to one knee, right before her eyes. He did this even as the people in the crowd were headed towards their homes or the places they needed to be. Upon kneeling, he said this.

"I had no intention of scaring you. Please forgive me. Also..."

He stood up and pointed to Toori, who was above them.

"I play solitaire, not minesweeper. Understand?"

He corrected him before turning his back.

He left. Seeing his back start to walk off, everyone in the class heaved a sigh.

Pushing her glasses back up to the bridge of her nose, Adele clutched her practice lance.

"It seems like we managed to cover it up somehow, but...what could those flames be?"

Shirojiro exited from the entrance of the building. He spoke together with Heidi.

"I can't contact the Mikawa's chamber of industry and commerce. There should be automatons there, though."

"Even looking at it now, the light coming from Mikawa isn't increasing...Could it be the town isn't working?"

All around, they could see all the cosplayers and the real monsters had left, following the spectators outside the Academy. Only the people who had gathered on the bridge at the beginning and Azuma were left behind.

Shirojiro cast his gaze upon everyone before folding his arms. He took his Mouse, a white fox, out of the armour by his neck.

"...The phones' circuits are probably scrambled. The effect should be reduced if we use the Mouse's direct Divine Communication or written Divine Communication. If you're a hurry, everyone do it themselves. That's fine, right? In general, the fee for sound Divine Communications are high--"

"Shiro-kun, Shiro-kun, you're starting to lecture."

Hearing Heidi's warning, Shirojiro nodded. After a while, he raised a hand lightly.

"I'll be busy. Heidi, please use use Erimaki to enable the opening of Divine Communications to all of the Far East residential areas in each country. I'm going to pull a step ahead of the other people in Musashi's merchant group. Please prepare the introduction of hard currency for all countries into my finances within Musashi. Not just yen, the common currency."

"Jud. Haha, I think we're going to be glared at after this, but that happens every time...Then, everyone, it's time for us to dispe--"

"P-Please wait..."

Suzu formed that voice.

She had noticed the flames first. Hearing her words, everyone opened their eyes and stopped moving.

Suzu shrank back a little, but she stretched her right hand forward, as if to grasp at something.

"U-Um...Excuse me..."

Everyone looked in the direction Suzu was pointing. At a single boy, who stood there. It was...

"--Me?"

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Translator Notes

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