Chapter 83: Sayan is an ordinary girl
“It’s the middle of the night and there’s a lot of noise!”
A sharp rebuke flashes through the buzzing air.
It’s a beautiful and stern voice that sounds like it belongs to a woman. The knights’ clamour ceased as soon as the voice sounded, and they all knelt down in unison without a trace of disorder.
This is the only way to realize that the owner of the voice has absolute status and charisma.
Stepping between the kneeling knights with their trident lances, a woman emerges from the midnight scene.
Her face is western-like face. She is an Elven woman with long ears and platinum blonde hair that reaches to her waist, divine even at midnight. Her eyes, like the sea, blaze with emotion as she looks around the scene of the tragedy.
“…… Oh, Queen!”
When the Queen’s minister saw the Elf woman coming, he immediately knelt down and rubbed his forehead on the floor. The idea that the queen of this world is in a position to be respected to such an extent comes to mind momentarily. The other ministers are quietly bending over, and she assumes it is simply because this minister has taken a grand gesture.
“Well, well, well, the Queen. I thought she was long gone to bed - but I guess all the commotion has woken her up.”
Walkins, who should be doing the same as the minister, shows no sign of being offended at all, and laughs happily, making light of the situation.
He was glowering at the minister who had just been arguing with him from the same height as the queen (although Walkins was higher than him) as he knelt down. The queen’s maid was chastising him for his overzealousness.
The Queen’s blue eyes were so angry that they could have been mistaken for red. After giving Walkins a stern look, she noticed that the saints were waiting at the back of the room, and looking at the kneeling minister.
“What’s this all about?”
“…………”
“Why are the saints still in the palace?”
The queen is speaking rather politely, perhaps because she is in the presence of the saints, but there is a clear anger in her voice.
“The King’s condition is not good.What are you waiting for?”
With her eyes flashing, the Queen looks around at her ministers. They all just stood there in silence with their faces down.
“Rumours have been spreading among the knights and servants. Are you going to take all these rumours to be true?”
“My queen, that is…”
“Did you think I didn’t know? The knight and his servants - even the lower-ranking servants - have heard of it, and it is a known fact. The summoning of the saints was an outrage by the unruly queen - a waste of magic power and the height of tyranny.She refused to give permission for the journey to overthrow the Demon King because she knew it would fail from the start. -The Queen is delaying the departure of the saints in order to prevent the King from dying. The list goes on and on. Did you really think that you could have stopped all of this before I heard about it?”
The kneeling minister finally looked up.
On his knees, he looks up into the queen’s face, and with a look of anguish on his face, he makes his appeal.
“It was necessary for the good relations between the Saints. So many people, so many different environments, so many different ways of thinking. It will take time to bring them together, my queen!”
“Good relations? Don’t make me laugh. - Un, you are insane, You took a long time to develop a good relationship and this is what I get?”
Without so much as a pause, the queen waved her arms in an exaggerated manner, like a well-oiled whip. She pointed to the wall of the room, slowly scratched the void with her fingertips in an arc, and pressed her fingertips to the forehead of the minister with a look of grief.
The most frightening face of a beautiful woman is not that of anger. It’s when she’s so neat that her face freezes - when she shows an emotionless look of disappointment, of abandoned expectations, of trust, of nothing. It is like glaring at an abandoned dog in the rain - an emotionless, condescending look. There is nothing more frightening than the expressionless face of a beautiful woman.
The minister’s face was pale, his hands were on the floor, and his eyes were fixed on the fingertips on his forehead, as if he were trying to escape reality.
“-This is an order. Now arrange everything necessary for the departure of the saints.”
“My queen!”
“Are you sure you don’t want to die? To disobey this order would be to despise the life of the king - it would be treason!”
The king is under a cruel curse and is still in unbearable pain. The queen’s face, which had been blank, now turned sorrowful. The queen’s face, which had been fixed in silence, changed to one of grief.
“Now that the King is in such a state, the life of the Queen, the Mother of the Nation, must be absolute. I have the power to accuse anyone of treason.”
The queen turned on her heel and walked out of the room with her servants, leaving the minister still sobbing with the threat of an order.
From the look of her face, this is not the first time she has pointed out the delay in the departure of the saints.
The Queen is sincerely concerned about the King’s condition. She may have felt that her passionate and sincere feelings were belittled by a vassal whom she trusted.
“Well, well, well, the queen is quick on her feet. She’s already returned to her chambers.”
Walkins, who had never shown any sign of respect for the queen, glared at the sagging minister and said something in an agitated tone.
How Walkins and the minister interact, Ran thought there’s one proverb suited with the situation ‘rubbing salt into a wound’ but Ran wonders if there is a similar idiom or saying in this world.
“Shouldn’t you tell the Queen? A Deserter - A saint who had been driven out and disposed of, but he had returned and rebelled. Ah, I should have told you that it was the Saint, himself, not me, who were the rebels.”
“Kh…”
The minister bites his lip, as if to say, “I don’t know anything about it. Ran was sure the minister would have lost his mind and grabbed at Walkins if he knew that Walkins knew everything that was going on.
They could not tell the Queen about the deserting saints.
It was not for the simple reason that it would offend her or that it would only be an excuse to shift the blame.
The Queen does not know that one of the Saints has been excluded from the group. The Queen does not know that the ministers, on their own initiative, were going to dispose of Ran Kirishima as a “failure”. The Queen did not intervene in that plan.
There was no need for the minister to say unnecessary things and expose the misdeeds that he had covered up.
The minister, glowering at Walkins, his posture, his eyes, etc…made him look like a frog stared at by a snake, and he slumped down.
◇◇◇
It was a night where a lot of trouble piled up,The minister realise that the situation is not going to get any better if they continue lingering around.The saints were told to go back to their rooms for the night and prepare for the training tomorrow, and the soldiers went about cleaning up the room where the tragedy had taken place.
It would have been more appropriate to question and punish each of the Saints who had been involved in this outrage, including Ran but there were a number of irregularities that intervened, and the ministers were unable to do anything on their own, so they agreed to disband for the night.
At first, though, there was an air that the Saints would have to do something. The saints, who were like new students on their first day of work, just wandering around anxiously, not knowing what to do, seemed to be nothing more than a hindrance to the knights, who were tidying up quickly, and were thrown out of the room as if to say, “Get out of here.”
Only Aya bent down beside the wall she had broken and helped to repair it with earth magic. Aya says she can’t bear to waste other people’s magic power and materials to fix the wall she broke.
Aya gathers her hair up with a handful of hair bands and barrettes and sets to work restoring it. Ran can’t help but admire the sight of this fake delinquent gal with light brown hair wearing her hair in a healthy, athletic-looking ponytail.
It’s a bit of a rush job, though, compared to Kanami’s ponytail, which is an established hairstyle. It’s nice to see a girl who usually wears her hair down, tying it up or bundling it up. There is something about it that makes Ran’s heart flutter.
Perhaps it was because she noticed that Ran was admiring her swaying brown ponytail, Hibiki blinked her emotionless eyes, raised her arm and walked over to Aya.
“If Mikoshiba does it, I’ll help her.The reason why Mikoshiba broke the wall was because of me.”
This is what Hibiki says as she picks up the scattered pieces.
Following Hibiki’s back, Sakuya ran up to her.
“If that’s what Hibiki wants, so be it. It’s not that I wanted to help Mikoshiba or anything like that.”
“Sakuya, that sounds like a tsundere, depending on how you look at it.”
Sakuya replied to Hibiki’s light-hearted remark, “Shut up,” and glanced at Ran with a sad look.
It is written on her face that only Hibiki and Aya are taking Ran’s attention. Sakuya’s jealousy is a bit misplaced but it was partially true, because Ran didn’t do it with Hibiki this evening, only Aya.
Ran ponders about Sakuya and figures out that he hasn’t been doing loving stuff with Sakuya lately, Ran nodded to himself that, if he wanted to be soothed by that soft, sweet-smelling JK again, he’ll take the initiative to call Sakuya.
“Should I do anything to help?”
Kanami, who had been watching the three delinquent girls(including the fake one) take the initiative in repairing the damage, asked Ran if he was worried.
Ran guess Kanami felt unworthy as a member of the discipline committee when she saw the three of them, who were not well known in the class, devote themselves to service work.
“There are a lot of knights here, and I think it’s safe to leave the repair of the wall to the three of us. If something happens it only hinders our progress.”
“I see…If you say so, I’ll go back to my room.Even though we have the enhanced recovery Schwartz Energy, I’m still worried about Nekoyama…”
With a slightly sad look on her face, Kanami stretched and left the scene of the tragedy.
When she stretched out, Kanami’s magnificent tits swayed and Ran couldn’t help but notice them.
Ran watched Kanami’s back and turned his face to a nearby figure leaning on the wall. It was Sayaka leaning against a wall lined with bookshelves, her eyes downcast as she stared into the void.
She must have noticed his gaze. Sayaka looks at Ran’s face for a moment and then quickly looks away.
Yuri and Emi haven’t come to check on Sayaka. Aside from Yuri, who has skills unsuitable for combat, how is it that Emi, who has skills suitable for capturing foreign enemies, has not come?
Before long, Reika has disappeared with Subaru, and Saki has returned ahead of the others to take care of Misuzu, who is feeling unwell.
The only saints left without business were Ran and Sayaka.
Perhaps she had been waiting for him, Ran thought as he walked towards Sayaka.
“Hey, Sayaka.”
“…… Yeah.”
“Let’s go back.”
They leave the room, shoulder to shoulder. The rain has not stopped and is still drenching the windows of the corridor with its rasping sound.
As they first left the room, they could hear the ministers and commanders giving orders to the knights, and the sounds of goods and equipment being moved. As soon as they went further away, only their footsteps and the sound of the rain accompanied them.
It was quiet.
Ran nor Sayaka have not spoken a word.
Ran tried to call out to her, and she responded. If he asks her a question that she can’t answer with a yes or no, she answers it, albeit in an exasperated voice.
It is true that Sayaka is not a talkative person by nature, and it seems that she has always been like this. Ran doesn’t know why. It’s hard to describe in words, the so-called distance of the heart, or the dark wall of some kind of blurred feeling that has been born between the two.
Ran is a bit worried that it might be due to the removal of the [Underling Training-Sexual Lunatic] but as if to disprove Ran’s concern, ever since they left the room and until now Sayaka squeezed Ran’s hand tightly and forcefully.
She doesn’t seem to have any aversion or wariness towards Ran.
Did something happen to her? Unbeknownst to Ran - did Sayaka have any scary thoughts before he came into the room?
“Sayaka.”
“…… Yeah.”
“Is there something wrong?”
Sayaka’s shoulders twitch and the pressure around her fingertips becomes stronger.
“…… I’m okay.”
“Aa.”
Ran felt the slightest hint of sweat on her fingertips as they touched and frowned thoughtfully.
Ran was sure there’s something wrong. But Sayaka doesn’t want to tell him.
Ran was in a difficult position, he can’t force Sayaka to tell him, at the same time, he also can’t pretend that he doesn’t notice her troubles and ignores it.
As far as sexual experience was concerned, Ran had gained a tremendous amount of experience in the past few months, but he still lacks experience in how to interact with girls and how to communicate with his partner.
“With poor knowledge and a lack of imagination, I can’t break into Sayaka’s heart.”
The current Sayaka is no longer under influence of [Seuxal Training-Underling Training] ; she is now a normal high school girl.
Careless remarks may incurably hurt Sayaka’s innocent heart.
“Shall I stay with you till morning?”
Ran wouldn’t think of having sexual intercourse in this atmosphere, but if Sayaka had experienced something frightening, it would be safer if Ran is beside her rather than being alone in a room.
Of course, if Sayaka is in the mood to be alone, Ran doesn’t want to deny her that wish.
As if to rest her body for tonight’s troubles, Sayaka’s body pressed against Ran’s breastplate.
Her gaze relaxes into a slightly softer one and her eyes twinkled with relief. But the look in her eyes does not catch Ran’s face.
“Thank you…”
It was neither rejection nor acceptance. It’s a middle ground reply, without a hint of emotion.
Sayaka’s body is trembling slightly in close contact with Ran as her hand grips Ran’s fingertips tightly, as if to say she will never let go.
Sayaka is currently having a mixture of conflicting emotions.
I don’t want your attention, I want you to leave me alone - but I want you to care. I want you to notice my emotional turmoil.
I want to say something bothersome and you would spoil me, but I don’t want to annoy you for nothing, and I don’t want you to think I’m a troublesome girl.
Ran can read such feelings fighting each other in Sayaka’s eyes.
“For now, I’ll accompany her to her room.”
“If later, she wants to go to my room, I’ll be there waiting.”
In a world of just the two of them, colored by the night rain, Ran carefully plans for his beloved girlfriend.
◇◇◇
“Hey, Sayan? What’s wrong, why did you come here, at this time of night?”
A few tens of minutes had passed since Sayaka had separated from Ran. Instead of going to her room, she went on a detour to her best friend room - Yuri Fujiyoshi.
Although Yuri was somewhat aware of the commotion, she was not summoned to the scene of the tragedy in the middle of the night, as it was judged that her skills would not be able to compete with the threat.
Emi, like Yuri, had been excused from the meeting this morning because she had been feeling unwell and had been taking the Lure fruit.
Therefore, Yuri has no idea what the reason for this evening’s meeting was. The only thing she knows is that there was a lot of noise outside the room about the possibility of a foreign enemy invading.
“……Yuri-chan.”
“What’s going on? You know, things that would be difficult without me or Emirin. I don’t even know why you were gathered in the middle of the night.”
Keeping her eyes downcast, Sayaka quietly shakes her head.
A few seconds of silence drifted between the two.
Yuri understood that there was no urgent call, but she could not stand Sayaka standing outside in silence.
“Why don’t we just go into your room? If you have any problems or worries, I’m here for you.”
She knocks on the side of her head with her fingertips in a playful gesture, saying that she has all the common sense in the world in her head.
It’s probably not because of that joke. But-.
“Yuri-Cha-……………………………………………………Kirishima-kun”
“Fu-Fuee??W-wait…Sayan”
Sayaka buried her face in Yuri’s chest and suddenly, without warning, began to cry.
It was a rewarding experience for Yuri to have Sayaka face buried in her chest, but even Yuri is not so dense as to be fooling around in this situation.
Yuri gently hugged her friend, who was in tears, calling out Yuri’s name and sometimes Ran’s, as if her emotions had broken down.
Rubbing her back and patting her head, Yuri looks at Sayaka with calm eyes.
Over the sound of the night rain, she could hear Sayaka’s cries. She let Sayaka cry in her chest until she felt better.
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