Chapter - 20

It was an opponent that Ikki at his very best could have no hope of surpassing. The first place in Hagun Academy's internal ranking, who reached the best four of last year's Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival.

To Ikki, who was on his hands and knees at the bottom of the earth, it was an excessively burdensome opponent. This kind of thing, there was no need to accept it. Eventually, he would meet with Stella's father. If he held out until then, he would arrive at the end of all of this. At a place that Akaza and the others could not reach. And in the first place, this talk about fighting was rude to Touka who had impressed him. Ikki had no reason to accept it.

However―

"Ahh, incidental to this topic, the king of Vermillion is already coming directly here. Which is to say… it would only take a little blunder, and the king would find out about your decision on the duel. Nooo, I'd feel completely regretful. Moreover, the king was extremely enthusiastic about seeing it. He wouldn't give his daughter to a man who could not surmount even an ordeal of that level! And, well, it sounded something like that, yes. If you refused here~, hmm, it would give a very poor impression, wouldn't iiit?"

Akaza had obstructed Ikki's escape perfectly.

…I see. From the beginning, this was the development that they intended to get, wasn't it?

And Ikki realized it accordingly. The inquiry was, from the start, just a pretext to separate Ikki from Hagun. Akaza and the others weren't thinking about bullying Ikki mentally in order to have him give up. It was all to have him make this promise, and to force him into this desperate duel. It was a scheme for this.

"Of course, you'll accept this like a man, won't yooou?"

If he had this duel, it would already become nonsense without reason or righteousness or anything else. The outcome of the battle was everything. It was the custom of knights since ancient times. Though there was no fault in Ikki, if he lost, he would become the bad one. In becoming the bad one, he would lose everything.

―It was a cruel offer. The risks were high, and the gains were nil.

If there were any gains at all, it would be Ikki regaining the freedom that by all rights he was already due. Truly, a cruel offer. But―

"…I under...stand. I'll do it."

Ikki answered so with a face full of bitterness. With all of his escape routes severed, he could do nothing else.

"Ha, ha ha, hahahahaha! Wonderful, wonderful! How wonderful! He he he! You are a boy after all! Everyone has heard him, right!? What he just said! At this moment, everything will be left to the duel tomorrow, to the outcome of that battle! Everything about the decision is in accordance with the ancient knight tradition, decided by the sword! And no one will make objections to that proud ruling! Well then―we'll declare the end of the inquiry here!"

In this way, the Worst One who was already under siege threw himself into a still more desperate struggle.

Ikki's opponent was Raikiri, who boasted an invincible sphere of influence over the close range that he was limited to. To face that opponent who he was uncertain of defeating even with perfect physical condition, he would be dragging his badly sickened body. Gambling all of his future―

But, standing before that fight, Ikki remembered the words Utakata had spoken some time before.

「Between the two of you, the weight of responsibility you're carrying is different.」

Indeed. Ikki could imagine the burden of many hopes and wishes that Touka had on those slender shoulders. That wasn't limited to just those of the children of the institution. Because she was burdened with the great admiration toward the best four of the entire country.

That kind of proud person… could he bring her down?

Could he do so with the sword of a worthless person whose own father would not even entrust with a single hope?

seemed to have been a very long telephone conversation.

"The director was in good health?"

While sitting on the sofa of the student council room and biting into a huge red tomato, Utakata asked about the person who she had been conversing with on the phone. About the circumstances with the director of Wakaba House, the orphanage that the two of them had received favor from.

"It felt like she was as completely full of energy as ever."

The director―the elderly woman who Touka had called "Mother"―had suffered a heart attack last year. At that time, Touka had spent a whole night weeping, and even Utakata who was usually whistling had a pale face, but having heard the voice on the telephone just now, it seemed that her condition was already settled, and her energy had come back. Too much, in fact.

In any case―

"They already made a banner, she said?"

That. Even though victory in the selection battles hadn't been decided, or decisions regarding representatives, it seemed the director and the children of the facility had already made a banner for her taking the Seven Stars Sword-Art Festival. As expected, even Touka was lost for words.

"Because everyone is hasty… they really are."

"That's the only thing everyone is hoping for, you know. To the kids of Wakaba House, it's their wish for their hero, Raikiri."

Saying so, Utakata handed to Touka a photo taken from inside the cardboard box filled with vegetables delivered from Wakaba House. On that photo was the smiling mud-covered faces of the children who harvested the vegetables, and at the bottom were encouragement written with letters that they had memorized with utmost effort.

Indeed, there was no doubt that for the children of Wakaba House, Touka was a hero. Orphaned like them, graduating from the same facility, fighting grandly at the forefront of the world. Fighting, and continuing to win. That figure was what the children of Wakaba House admired.

Someday Utakata also wanted to shine like that girl. With that dream, the courage to face that dream was continuously being given to him by Touka.

And again, Touka herself was aware that she was that existence to others. Therefore, she couldn't lose. To preserve that kind of expectation, she couldn't let her strength bend to pressure. To an extent, it was the strongest part of Touka Toudou, Raikiri.

This, I'll read it slowly later.

Holding the photo to her chest with sweetly for a moment, Touka put it into her bag. Then she turned her attention to the box full of vegetables. Tomatoes to eggplants to cucumbers―it was an assortment of summer vegetables harvested from the facility's vegetable garden. Each and every one was scraggly, giving a warm feeling that couldn't be put into words.

"Wow, look Uta-kun. This eggplant, it's so fat and splendid. If we made eggplant curry or something, it might come out delicious, right?"

"Yep, it's so dark and fat ant and splendid, huh?"

"J-Jeez! Giving such an old-man response!"

"Ha ha ha. But since it'll go bad being left here, we have to take it to the school cafeteria tomorrow, won't we?"

Suddenly, the words Utakata uttered. At those words, Touka's face clouded over slightly. Because she thought of something unpleasant.

"…Tomorrow, huh?"

Some time ago, a message came for her. It had come from Kurono Shinguuji. Its contents―was a change to her opponent for tomorrow. And furthermore, because that opponent was the Worst One, the topic of an upheaval right now―and unavoidably giving the impression that he had committed a crime.

Touka had inquired about that, and Kurono had not concealed it either. The adversity that Ikki was under, which she heard from Kurono, it was undoubtedly beyond description. The malice that surrounded him, that cornered him into the worst condition, and in addition was sending herself as the assassin against him.

However, needless to say Touka was unwilling to be that.

"Touka will be the representative to take up that duel?"

Even Utakata understood the matter. Therefore he, to Touka whose expression had clouded over, asked with a worried tone of voice. In response, Touka lowered her eyes.

"I don't have the right to decide. Madam Director also said so, but for me it's the absolute final selection battle match."

Indeed, It was a duel for Ikki, but for Touka it was an absolute selection battle. It was only changing the opponent, and she could not risk anything for the sake of the outcome. And even though there had not been alterations this sudden, changing situations had happened many so far. Therefore even Touka could not protest strongly. However―

"But you feel that this shouldn't happen, right?"

"Yeah…."

Because of that, there was no way this unpleasant feeling of shock would go away. All the more for a girl as kind-hearted as Touka.

…Therefore, she had taken one measure.

*knock knock*

Right on time, a visitor knocked on the student council room door.

"Who would that be at this hour?"

"I called her. Please come in."

"Forgive my intrusion."

The person who opened the door and entered was a petite young girl who looked like a bisque doll. She was the one who had fought with Touka with all of her strength, Shizuku Kurogane, the Lorelei.

This is an unexpected guest, isn't it?"

"…I didn't think that I would be called here by the person who gave me a such a black mark on my record this late at night either."

"Ha ha. That's quite natural. Oh, that's right, do you want a tomato? It's very sweet and delicious, you know."

"…I've already brushed my teeth, so no thank you. Besides, I probably wasn't called here to eat tomatoes. ―Student President. What is it you want from me?"

Shizuku urged Touka toward the main point.

…She was being childish. Shizuku herself thought so. But meeting and speaking with the person who destroyed her dream, her goal of heading in front of the entire country with her brother, was making her uncomfortable after all.

Touka had the same exact feeling. Therefore she got right to the point, and spoke her reason for calling Shizuku here.

"The truth is, Madam Director sent a message a while ago… and because you're not unrelated, Shizuku-san, I wanted to convey it―"

What Touka was saying was that the competition schedule for tomorrow had been suddenly revised. And that Ikki was wagering his entire future in that fight, and had to make a challenge. Little by little, as Shizuku listened to the spiteful reality, her expression became full of wrath. And soon after she was done hearing all of it,

"…Lowlife…!"

With green eyes shining furiously, she spat a curse at someone who wasn't here. And after that, she asked Touka.

"…President, will you fight? Against Onii-sama, whose physical condition is disturbed?"

"The student council president is nothing more than an ordinary student. Even if I cry objections, I have no power to change who I'm matched against."

Even if it was Touka, who was reluctant to fight, she could not do enough. However―even though it couldn't be helped and was she was unable to convince Shizuku, Touka had still called Shizuku here.

"Therefore Shizuku-san, I have a request for you who is Kurogane-kun's family."

"For me…?

"Yes. …Shizuku-san, can you advise Kurogane-kun not to do this?"

"…Eh?"

"Kurogane-kun's physical condition seems to be considerably bad. At worst, pneumonia. …I heard that it might be even worse than that. Speaking plainly, he very much cannot fight with his body like that. …However, it has been only a few days of interaction, but I've seen the kind of knight that Ikki Kurogane is. Speaking from that impression, I think he would drag himself to the fight even with his entire body full of wounds. Not in desperation, but in order to fight me seriously. He will definitely hold prospects of victory and resolution."

And―

"And I too, I am a girl who won't let the opponent I'm facing escape. If he comes to the fight, I will face him as his opponent with all my soul. As a result, even if a disastrous accident occurs…."

In that instant, a shiver ran through Shizuku's whole body.

This person… is serious.

Behind the glasses, she could clearly see the glint in Touka's eyes, and Shizuku was convinced. Touka was not exaggerating. Indeed, she was even thinking of the possibility of killing Ikki. And seeing the worst possible future, she had called Shizuku here.

"I beg of you. Please stop Kurogane-kun. The only one who could do that is you who are his family, I think."

Shizuku didn't respond immediately.

What should she do? What would be the correct thing? Without knowing that….

"…One night, please give me one night to think about it…."

The best she could do was squeeze out those words.