Chapter 15: The Lives of Strangers

For a short while, a strange silence ruled over the surroundings.

“……we should just talk things through, you say?”

The one who broke that silence was a man from the mountain bandits.

“After killing our comrades in such a manner, you tell us to talk things through!? Don’t fuck with me!!”

“Kyaa-!?”

The man’s hand stretched out, grabbing Akari’s hair and pushing her towards the floor.

“It’s already gone way past the point where we could settle things just by talking!!”

“I completely agree.”

“Eh?”

Right after Syltina agreed with the yelling man’s words, he released Akari’s hair. As she followed gravity and tumbled to the ground, something began to rain on Akari.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! My arm!! My ARM!!!!!”

“Hi…iyaaaaa……”

What fell before Akari’s eyes was the thing that had been grabbing her hair until just a few seconds ago.

The moment she understood exactly what the red thing pouring down on her was, Akari’s vision began to go dark.

“Oi, little girl. You can’t fall yet.”

Just as Akari was on the verge of falling unconscious, Kuroitsu threw those words at her and mercilessly poured cold water on her.

Even though she became soaking wet, Akari still remained dazed at everything that had occurred. Her eyes remained open as she was forcefully made to stand and retreat 3 steps, while Syltina moved forward in exchange.

The red colour that clung to Syltina’s thin sword told Akari that it had been Syltina who had cut off the man’s arm earlier.

“‘It’s already gone way past the point where we could settle things just by talking’. I certainly do agree with that. However, please do not misunderstand. The ones who created a reason for your comrades to be killed were none other than yourselves. Even though just abducting our ‘target of protection’ was enough of a ‘reason to be killed by us’, I still gave you all the ‘choice to keep your lives’. The ones who chose to answer by picking up their blades were all of you. I would like for you to refrain from rushing at us while giving stupid reasons like your comrades were killed, or your husbands were killed, or your fathers being killed, despite having done such a thing first.”

“Stupid, you say!? Just what do you think human lives are!?”

“I think that they are ‘the lives of others’. My life and those of my comrades are ‘lives I want to protect’, and the requester and lives subject to the request are all ‘lives I must protect’. However, any other than those ones are simply ‘the lives of strangers’ to me.”

“Are you realy human……?”

“Are you saying that my way of thinking isn’t that of a human’s? How rude. Then I shall ask, just how many people have all of you sold off?”

“Eh?”

“You would have sold off my companions if I hadn’t come to save them, correct?”

“……”

“Have you thought about what happens to those that have been sold?”

“……”

Seeing the mountain bandits’ lack of response, Syltina laughed bemusedly.

“To you guys, all of the people that you have sold up until now are ‘strangers’. That’s why you don’t particularly care about what happens to their ‘lives’, correct? See, there isn’t much of a difference between you and me, is there?”

“Y-You’re……wrong!! It’s not like we’re doing this because we want to!! Don’t just say whatever you want even though you don’t know anything!!!!”

An enraged man headed towards Syltina while swinging his blade.

“Are you going to do the same thing again……?”

From behind Syltina, who murmured in a fed up manner, several knives came flying and stabbed into both of the man’s legs.

“Gu-!!”

“What truly foolish humans you are.”

The fallen man groaned in a low voice. Before that man stood Kuroitsu, who made eyes as though he were looking at something pitiful.

“No matter how much you all proclaim that we are your enemy while taking up your blades, you are no match for us. Foolish people incapable of even understanding the difference in power with those they confront cannot choose how they live or die. That is the truth of this world we live in. Now, foolish humans. This is your last chance. Just how many of you possess the resolve to point your blades at us?”

“U-ua……uwahhh!!”

Starting with a single person turning their back and running away, one by one, the mountain bandits began to run away.

In the end, the only one left behind was the first man, whose legs had been injured by knives earlier.

“P-Please wait!! Don’t kill me! Please!!”

“……”

Syltina watched expressionlessly as he crawled on the ground in an unsightly manner, all the while begging for his life with a desperate expression.

“P-Pl-Please!!! Just leave me my life!! P-Please, have mercy!!!!”

“Just what are you saying now that it’s come to this……?”

“Y-You’re mistaken!! We were originally just villagers!! Y-You know, from Rufhanna Village that’s up ahead!!! Because that village became tainted, people couldn’t live there anymore!! But the other villages and towns wouldn’t take us in!! That’s why!!!! We had to do this!! In order to survive!! See?! You understand!! Right!?”

With snot and tears soaking his body, the man frantically begged.

“Yes. I do understand.”

Syltina smiled at the man’s words.

Why, her grin was an extremely strange one.

“In order to live, even if the way of doing so can not be called proper at all, one must have a livelihood. I sympathize with all of you, who were driven to this point.”

“T-Then!!”

“However, I merely sympathize with you.”

“Eh-”

“Whether you became mountain bandits, thieves, or pirates, if it’s in order to live, then you probably cannot choose the means. However, if you are stealing the lives and wealth of others in order to live, then you have to risk the same thing yourselves. The world that you stepped into is that kind of place. If you steal, then have the resolve to be stolen from. If you kill, then have the resolve to be killed. If you deceive, then have the resolve to be deceived.”

“S-Stop-”

“If you don’t have that resolve, then you shouldn’t have tread upon this world in the first place.”

A single flash. The fallen man would never move again.

“Why……”

“……”

Akari, who had been dumbfoundedly watching these events unfold, murmured just one word.

“Why did you kill him? Even though this person……”

“Though he originally was a ‘villager’, right now he is a ‘mountain bandit’. Because he turned his blade towards us, we did the same thing in turn. As a result, we survived and they were destroyed. That’s all.”

“But, that’s……”

“You know, Saintess. Don’t forget it. The ones that made the first move were them. They abducted us and, in addition to that, were planning on selling us off. Originally, we didn’t have any sympathy for them, but, even so, we gave them a choice this time. A choice in which they’d be able to live. However, they kicked that aside themselves and chose death. We don’t have such big hearts that we would take it easy on guys like that.”

Though Alhart had been skillfully standing while sleeping just a few seconds ago, before Akari knew it, he was already standing in front of her.

The expressionless Alhart’s amber eyes were tinted with a cold colour as he wove words that seemed to thrust her away.

“If you still want to take an attitude and denounce killing despite that, then say it after you’ve become strong enough to do so. While still being someone that can only be protected……a foolish person who can’t even properly protect their own life has no right to say anything about the actions of others.”

“Tsk-”

After spitting that out, Alhart turned to walk outside, as if his business with her was done.

“The words that you speak are very beautiful and undoubtedly sound proper.”

This time, Akari, who speechlessly saw Alhart off was called out to by Syltina.

“In reality, that is probably quite reasonable to people who live in a world unrelated to such conflicts.”

Like how she had once been.

However, Syltina was made to understand.

That there was a world in which such pretty words couldn’t do a single thing.

And that that world was precisely the one that they were living in.

In addition-

“Your words do not have any heart. They are just empty words that you are reading like the lines in a script. That’s why they do not shake anybody’s heart. Your actions in brandishing such words can not even be called ‘hypocrisy’, and are simply ‘folly’. I would ask that you never take such actions in front of us again. This Rideiran Kingdom is no longer a place where such sugary words will pass.”

In this country, people who were once mere villagers were forced to become mountain bandits. As one of the main culprits in creating such a situation, how dare she say something like ‘don’t kill’ at this point in time?

Taking off her hood, Syltina took once glance at Akari, who was still looking into empty space speechlessly, and exhaled.

“In order to protect you, we will have to take the lives of many strangers from here on out. I won’t tell you to ‘get used to it’, but please ‘understand’. Like Al said, you, who can’t even sufficiently protect your own body, are not in a position to give us attitude when we are the ones protecting that body in your place.”

Leaving those words behind, Syltina, like Alhart, headed for the outside, where the sun had begun to rise. Following silently after her were Kuroitsu and Miliane.

The remaining three people simply stood there idly.