The curtain of night descended.

  The pleasure quarters, where soldiers and merchants that finished all their jobs of the day that would gather at, was very noisy and illuminated by the dazzling fires there. With the prostitutes calling out for customers without stopping, it was as lively as if it was broad daylight.

  However, except for that place, all was dead silent. Except of the pleasure quarters, for the other places, it was the time for one to close the doors and prepare to sleep. The water fountain plaza was one or two streets away from the pleasure quarters. That′s why, differently from when it is day, there weren′t any people to the point of it feeling uncanny. All there was there was the moon that still had begun to become round silently shining its blue light upon the fountain.

  “…He is late.”


  Alone in the place, Riku muttered.

  Sitting down at the edge of the fountain, bored, she waved her legs. All the preparations had been completed. All there was left was to wait for the prey to arrive.

  “It′s fine; I can do it.”


  Riku muttered to herself.

  She would perfectly complete this plan. No matter what kind of bad situation was to happen, she would be able to avoid whatever may come with her strength. In order to do that, first of all, it was necessary for her to be in the right state of mind. Giving a deep breath, she listened to the sound of water falling. With the sound of the water and the dim moonlight, it felt that all unnecessary thoughts flowed away. まるで、自分の中にスッと一本の筋が入り直したようだ。(TL note: No idea what this means…)

  “Sorry, I′ve made you wait!”


  It was at that moment.

  Breaking the quietness, a voice resounded through the plaza.

  Looking at the direction of the voice, it was possible to see Rook waving his hand. With a carefree smile, while pointing to Riku with her right hand, he was holding the hand of the girl behind him with his left hand. Without no need to guess, the girl behind him should be Catherinne. Riku put on the mask of the countryside girl that came to work in the city. Getting off the edge of the fountain, Riku waveringly kneeled.

  “Ro-Rook-san, perhaps, could… Could the person behind you be…?”


  Using trembling and timid voice, she put up a face of doubt. With that, Rook happily turned his head to the girl. The girl that had her hand being pulled by Rook looked at Riku with a noble smile.

  “Nice to meet you, Anna-san. I am Catherinne Shiidoru.”


  Catherinne extended her beautiful hand that had never known of hard work to Riku.

  Catherinne was more beautiful that Riku had heard.

  Even in the darkness of the night, her beauty wasn′t obscured. It looked as if she became even more beautiful. Her golden shine made one doubt whether Catherinne had stolen the shine of the sun, which had already set down.

  “N-nice to meet you, princess-sama.”


  Riku was about to take the princess′s hand, but then, noticing something, she quickly moved it back. Catherinne looked strangely at Riku, who was acting suspiciously.

  “Did something happen?”


  “N-nothing. It′s just that for the dirty hand of someone like me… To touch princess-sama′s gracious hands.”


  Still acting, Riku decided to hang down her face as if in fright and speak a cookie-cutter line. Without worrying about dirtying the edge of the skirt that was adorned with a lace, Catherinne crouched, and looking at Riku′s eyes, she gave her a smile.

  “Both you and me has the same human blood flowing inside us. There is nothing to be worried about.”


  Catherinne held Riku′s hands. Her palm was as soft as cotton. Probably, that was what it would be called a [girl′s hand]. Although Riku was a girl too, her hands, which would hold her halberd or sword, were completely different.

  “Th-thank you very much. Actually… There is something I would like to give to the princess-sama.”


  Timidly moving her hand away from Catherinne′s hand, she put her hand in a bag.

  It happened at the instant Catherinne and Rook leaned forward, wondering what kind of thing she wanted to give. From the shadow of the water fountain, a boy with rabbit ears came running at them.

  “Princess Catherinne! Prepare yourself!!”


  Raising his voice as much as he could, Roppu raised his knife, aiming it at Catherinne.

  Because of the sudden attack, Catherinne couldn′t defend herself. However, the knife didn′t reach at her body.

  “What are you doing!”


  Jumping in the middle of Catherinne and Roppu, Rook drew his sword. With a metalic sound, Roppu′s knife was repelled. After dancing at the air, the knife fell at the pavement without accomplishing anything. Rook closing his distance from this assassin, he was about to restrain Roppu. However, jumping back, Roppu easily got away from Rook.

  “Tch, I failed!”


  Giving a frustrated shout, Roppu ran to a back-alley. Rook, who let Roppu get away, clicked his tongue in a low sound.

  “Shit, I let him escape! Princess Catherinne, Anna, wait here. I will be back soon!”


  While shouting this, he went after Roppu. Without suspecting anything, he went to the back-alley Roppu had run into.

  At the water fountain plaza, only Riku and Catherinne remained.

  “As expected of Rook-sama… For him to protect me from that demon. He is so cool.”


  Catherinne looked at Rook, who vanished into the back-alley with a love-struck face. It looked to be she was seeing Rook as her prince that saved her from danger. But if he really wanted to protect her, he should have went after Roppu only after having ensured Catherinne went to a completely safe place.

  Originally, Riku had thought that Rook would probably leave Catherinne behind and go pursue the enemy, and so had made this plan. For him to really go after Roppu was to the point of making Riku want to say “thank you” to him.

  “Well then, I will show you what I wanted to give you.”


  After Riku quietly stood up, Catherinne gave her a smile.

  It seemed only after Catherinne was spoken to that she had finally remembered about Riku′s existence. While still sitting down, she looked at Riku.

  “Ah, that is true. What would it be?”


  “Before that, first of all…”


  While smiling, Riku raised her foot overhead. Then, without hesitations, she dropped her foot at the face praised to be a work of art made by god. Catherinne must have been confused by what was happening. While putting her thin fingers at her broken nose, she groaned.

  “Shall we move to another place, princess-sama?”


  While being grasped by her hair, Catherinne, who was fainting in agony, had a piece of cloth shoveled in her mouth by Riku. Because of how Catherinne forcefully had the cloth stuffed in her mouth, and also because of the kick, it seemed that many of her teeth had broken. However, Riku didn′t mind about that.

  In addition to that, Riku made the proper arrangements so that Catherinne wouldn′t spit the cloth. All there was left was to do was to tie up Catherinne′s arms and legs in order to prevent her movement, and all would be done. Now, she couldn′t move her body, nor scream for help. (TL note: Well, about “the proper arrangements”, it would actually be the literal translation of what was written there pretty much. It doesn′t say what Riku did, so I can only write that :/)

  “It′s finished. Now, come out.”


  Snapping her fingers, Riku gave the signal.

  With that sound echoing at the plaza, the demons that were hiding at the shadows of the stalls and at the other streets all showed up. After them lightly lowering their head to Riku, the demons with better physique were tasked to go take care of Catherinne. As to put up resistance, Catherinne was desperately trying to move her arms and legs, but they were all useless actions. With demons not caring about Catherinne′s resistance, they put her on a big box that had been specially prepared for her.

  “Lieutenant colonel, we can depart at any time.”


  “Good job.”


  Receiving the report from the demon, Riku nodded.

  If it was by Riku, she would leave Catherinne for the demons to deal with. And then, she would go after Rook herself and cut off that face with that carefree smile.

  However, it would be a problem if an obstacle to the plan would happen because she had made unnecessary actions. And besides, it would be very disregarding to Roppu, who was luring Rook away from them with the resolve to risk his life. Right now, she needed to put away her own feelings and devote herself in finishing the mission.

  “Now, let′s quickly escape.”


  It happened at the instant Riku and the demons started to run.

  From the direction of a dimly dark street, it was possible to hear an out-of-place sound of clapping.

  Riku and her demon subordinates prepared themselves for whatever was coming.

  “It was really good that we kept watching after that bait.”(TL note: Bait = Rook. I couldn′t figure out how to phrase it out in a clear way…)

  The figure of a man slowly appeared from the dark street.

  With his silvery hair fluttering, the man was calmly showing a smile. Behind him, there were tens of spiritualists and soldiers he had brought along.

  However, in contrast to that smile that seemed to show love to everything in the world, his pair of eyes were glaring at Riku in irritation.

  “Th-this can′t be…”


  His voice, his face, his figure. All stimulated Riku′s memories.

  It was the man that would touch her hair without hesitations; the same hair that everyone despised and that even her first friend ran away from. It was the man that comforted Riku when her mother had died more than anyone would. His training was strict, but he would always give her anything she wanted.

  It was the man Riku used to love, and that had trampled over her feelings. It was the man that would make her whole body twist out of hate; the man she wanted to crush his bones, steal all the happiness he had at hands, and have him taste all the despair of the world.

  “It has been a long time, Riku.”


  The man spoke to her in the same gentle voice he would do when she was still a child.

  As if nothing had ever happened, he spilled out her own name from his mouth. Riku couldn′t endure anymore. At the instant she stopped holding herself back, a vast amount of killing intent gushed forward from near her feet.

  While tightly holding her sword, she glared with all her strength at that despicable man.

  “Raimon Barusak.”


  For how long had Riku been waiting for this moment? The killing intent that kept growing worse not only made the spiritualists Raimon had brought with him tremble, but even Riku′s subordinates too.

  However, Raimon Barusak, the origin of all her killing intent, didn′t react to Riku′s killing intent.

  While showing a gentle expression, he spoke to her as if nothing had happened.

  “I′m happy I could meet you again. So happy to the point of making me want to crush you with my fingers.”