AN: Sorry, but it's short.
Even though the chapter is a bit packed, but the end is good.
There is only dialogue. The battle will be from next week.
*zudon-*, the demon king-sama fell from the sky with speed and impact like a falling meteor.
The bizarreness of the Agni - Orkan his shoulder carried was excessively eye-catching.
Starting from Koone, Lilin, Spike, and also all the other escort squad members similarly had their mouth gaping open. Their gaze was busily moving from the explosion hypocenter where there was a mushroom shaped cloud generated, then to Kouki, and then to the incarnation of absurdity.
「Nagumo……」
Kouki murmured his name. Hajime stored back Agni - Orkan into his treasure warehouse while walking up toward Kouki, and then he asked with a tone that sounded like it was only an afterthought.
「Anyway, they looked like they are going to be nuisance so I killed them but……they aren't your acquaintance right?」
That question was asked while glancing at Koone and co. It seemed that Hajime couldn't deny the possibility that perhaps the
was rushing toward Kouki and group in a scene like 「O~i, sorry we're late for the appointme~nt 」.
For now, Kouki thought this.
That question should be asked before moving to killing, was his thought.
「Ye, yeah. That was dangerous and we might get killed, so you saved us just now. You came, to pick me up right? Thanks, Nagumo.」
「Hmph?」
Hajime raised an eyebrow hearing the words "might get killed" and then he stared scrutinizingly at Kouki. Just from that it seemed he perceived Kouki's unfit state. And then, perhaps he guessed something because for a moment he made an expression of feeling unpleasant and then looked at Koone and co.
「……Well, doesn't matter. If it's thanks say it too Shizuku and others. If they didn't ask me I won't purposefully spent magic power like stupid to e here. This world is absurdly far just so you know.」
「Is that so……as expected it's Shizuku and others. Are they ing?」
「Just as you can see, it's only me who came here.」
Kouki felt something out of place from that strange roundabout sentence, but right now wasn't the time to pry so he shelved it away.
「I see……」
「e on, we're going back right away.」
Hajime turned around on his heel with an atmosphere of wanting to finish the troublesome matter right away.
Koone didn't really understand about the matter of Hajime, even so she guessed that the "going home prospect" that Kouki once mentioned had finally arrived and she grasped Kouki's sleeve with an expression that was going to cry.
Kouki smiled to such Koone to reassure her, and then he conveyed his will toward the back of Hajime who was taking out Crystal Key and about to point it to an empty space.
「Sorry, I cannot go back.」
「……What?」
Hajime looked back across his shoulder. And then, seeing Koone holding Kouki's sleeve, he showed an exasperated face that said 「This guy's hero sickness relapse back again」.
「This is troublesome. If it's like this I'll call someone here to lecture──」
「No matter who it is and what they are going to say to me, I have made my decision. Even if you for example tell me that this is my last chance to go back home, I won't go back. I believe I understand what will Shizuku and also my family feel about that but still……sorry.」
「You……」
The situation just now, and then the very young girl who while looking childish but also gave off dignity vaguely, and also the tough looking men who appeared to be the girl's guards. If all those factors were bined, it could be imagined how Kouki was poking his nose into a troublesome conflict.
If this was only like before, when Kouki got worked up saying 「I swear I'll save everything!」 in mere heroic aspiration, Hajime would just say 「I don't give a damn」 before punching Kouki and then dragging his unconscious body back, but……
Hajime couldn't make that prompt decision.
Because Kouki's eyes were determined.
It wasn't a gaze that was carried away, hesitating, or looking at a dream far away. Those were eyes that showed determination which was created while his feet was stepping firmly on reality, with resolve to accept the caused result. The eyes of a person who was struggling without giving up.
Hajime wondered just what had happened. He couldn't see the "lightness" from when they were summoned to Tortus or the "insecurity" after the decisive battle from Kouki.
「I had killed a lot. They also had their own will, it was necessary to survive, that was why I was fighting……but, I was unable to abandon the people of the city and I fought. I cut down several thousand lives.」
「……」
Hajime looked at Kouki once more. Kouki's weakened state, his body that was wounded all over told Hajime more eloquently than anything the carnage that Kouki had experienced to the extreme.
「Many times I thought I was going to die. While fighting, I also saw past images like revolving lantern. And then──I found my answer.」
「Answer?」
Kouki nodded while feeling surprise and happiness that Hajime was listening to his talk.
「I cannot stop dreaming. I want to save everything. But if I'm forced to choose no matter what──I will choose "the many" rather than "one important person". I'll choose, but even so I'll continue to dream and struggle without giving up.」
「……Idiot. Are you planning to suffer until you die? You might be masochist huh.」
「Haha, it's certainly idiotic. But I'll deny being a masochist.」
Hajime looked at Kouki with eyes as though he was looking at a genuine idiot after hearing Kouki deciding a way of living of hardship.
Then, at that timing, Koone who had been silently watching the conversation between Kouki and Hajime all this time raised her words by throwing away her usual audaciousness, and spoke as a mere young little girl.
「E, excuse me, Nagumo-sama? I beg you, please I ask you to save my one-chan! Please.」
「Aa? Onee-chan?」
Koone letting out a sigh of relieve seeing that she wasn't ignored, and then she explained to Hajime about the situation in general and about Kouki's choice.
「Kouki-sama is still not giving up. He is going to save the people at the rear, and after that he is planning to save onee-chan.」
She didn't notice it before. She only felt despair thinking that Kouki abandoned her big sister.
Indeed, speaking pragmatically Kouki wouldn't make it in time. Therefore, Koone's conclusion that he was abandoning Moana wasn't mistaken. However, when she recalled back how Kouki repeatedly said 「Sorry」 looking as though he was going to vomit blood while clenching his fist so hard, she understood that Kouki's heart was demanding him to go to where Moana was quickly for even a second faster.
However, right now light could be seen in that pragmatic problem. Kouki's connection brought about hope.
The curbstomp just now. A power that annihilated a thousand
in the blink of eye. If there was such power in their side, then perhaps her big sister could still be saved.
Koone pleaded. In order to save her big sister, and Kouki who injured his own heart by swinging down blade of penance and resolve toward himself who was unable to choose Moana.
「Please lend your strength in order to grant the dream of Kouki-sama. Nagumo-sama is Kouki-sama's friend correct? Please──」
「Don't say such corny thing. There is no way I'm his friend.」
「Eh?」
Koone was astonished. She didn't know about the how, but this person came here by crossing world like this in order to pick Kouki and the first thing he did when he arrived was to remove the danger that was approaching Kouki. It seemed that they knew each other, and Kouki was expressing out his feeling toward him without hiding anything, Koone pletely thought that the two of them had close relationship but……
Ignoring the shaken up Koone, Hajime moved his gaze toward Kouki. His eyes were cold without emotion in it. Kouki reflexively held his breath.
「You are close with this so called "big sister"?」
「……She is my benefactor. Since I came to this world, she was kind to me who only kept hesitating. Because of reasons I couldn't control myself and vented angrily at her several times, and yet she accepted the hesitating me. ……I made a promise with her, that I'll talk more to her someday.」
「And you abandoned her?」
「……Yeah, that's right-. Right now, even in this moment, she is trying to end the war by offering her own life. But at the same time, a lot of people is in the verge of dying right in this moment. That's why, I──」
「And so rather than "one important person
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