Ishura - Volume 8 - Chapter 18

Chapter 18- Red Coral

Jelky continued to hear reports from the radzio.

Rosclay had lost.

Falling one step short in his battle against Soujirou, he had suffered fatal injuries.

It was uncertain whether the voices that reached Jelky’s ears, where he lay collapsed on the ground, were real or not.

…Rosclay.

They should have been able to gain complete victory.

Rosclay was supposed to continue fighting their long fight.

Jelky had been forcing a terrible burden on him the whole time.

He couldn’t ask Rosclay to forgive him.

It’s…my responsibility. I need to…cover…Rosclay’s portion, too. Right until the end…

He could tell his consciousness was fading. He needed to get himself up, but he couldn’t.

Jelky needed to use his mental fortitude to prop up his physical body, but he couldn’t.

The only ones capable of that had been champions like Rosclay the Absolute.

……

Something warm flowed down his cheek.

At this point, Jelky’s reality was vague and unclear.

It may have been sadness. May have been anger. It may have been frustration.

Or perhaps, it was nothing more than a simple physical reaction to his exhaustion.

However—did even a man like Jelky cry at times?

“…Rosclay. Why did you lose…?”

Still with his face planted on his desk, Jelky forcefully clutched his fingers.

“Rosclay…!”

At that same moment, Hiroto the Paradox had, too, learned the result of the match from a transmission of a goblin spectating in the plaza.

Soujirou the Willow-Sword had defeated Rosclay the Absolute.

When comparing their pure fighting strength, it might have been only the natural course of events.

However, Hiroto knew just how big this fact actually was.

The chances had been far greater that Soujirou wouldn’t be able to win.

Still, Hiroto had thrown everything behind this final gamble after Zigita Zogi’s death.

It was an awfully simple, and tremendous, gamble. If Soujirou won, Hiroto’s camp’s fight would continue. If Soujirou lost, Hiroto would lose everything he had built up.

Hiroto the Paradox’s way of fighting meant that in the end, he needed to entrust the conclusion to someone other than himself.

Since that was what it meant to believe in people.

“…Mr. Soujirou Yagyuu. You fought valiantly.”

In his reception room, without any other eyes on him, Hiroto silently clapped all by himself.

“You’ve won.”

From the very beginning, there hadn’t been any preparations for Soujirou the Willow-Sword’s victory.

Soujirou the Willow-Sword and Rosclay the Absolute, both in critical condition from their unofficial tenth match, were put into the medical squad carriages that got as close to the plaza as possible through the tangled and intricate old town streets, and immediately transported away.

However, the one who had arranged for this medical squad was the same one essentially in charge of the Sixways Exhibition, Jelky the Swift Ink.

Rosclay the Absolute had been an individual, and an entire faction. As long as it was beyond the eyes of the people, they could do anything.

Therefore, the two doctors that rode along in the carriage bearing the unconscious Soujirou were there to finish him off, and make it appear as if he died in transport.

Even if they had lost, they would never let their enemy win.

“I’m stunned. He’s in this terrible state, yet he hasn’t lost very much blood. From what I can see of the bones, his right arm was keenly severed…and yet, the tissue around his artery, and only that tissue, is crushed closed, as if on purpose. Just what sort of technique are you supposed to use to manage something like this?”

“Best not to try to understand anything about a visitor. I’m guessing he’ll die if we leave him anyway, but things’ll get hairy if we wait until he’s conscious again. Dose him with a vasopressor agent, and open up the wounds.”

It was right as the carriage was beginning to leave Orde Old Town. Their “treatment” had begun.

“Not very sportsmanlike, now is it?”

“Huh?”

Without them noticing, a third man was now sitting inside the carriage.

A man with a moustache and a muscular physique reminiscent of a savage beast.

There was no way he had been there from the start.

“Ah, wait, is it bad manners to board a moving carriage?”

“Wh-what the, how did you get in here?!”

“Oh, you know. I happened to hear you docs chatting about something I couldn’t just ignore, see. Consulting with each other about how to kill a patient? I sure hope that was just a joke…”

“…”

“…”

“If you’re saying it was a joke, then I’ll ask you to get started on giving Soujirou emergency first aid right away. If you can fool me and fail on purpose, though, you’re free to try.”

The two doctors could do nothing but sit in silence.

The Gray-Haired Child understood that Rosclay’s methods would be thorough. Thus, to prevent any assassinations, he had dispatched a different monster beforehand.

During these Sixways Exhibitions—as long as someone was involved with a deviant, they were guaranteed to encounter other deviant beings, as well.

“Now then—I know this weird for me to say, but…”

Morio the Sentinel cut himself a new cigar and lit it.

“Sure don’t have any good memories when it comes to other visitors.”

Inside Rosclay the Absolute’s coach, also transporting him from the old town plaza, the scene was the opposite from what happened with Soujirou the Willow-Sword.

The carriage carrying Rosclay had stopped in an old town alleyway, and the doctors riding along were being questioned about the details. Apparently, Rosclay had suddenly vanished mid-transport.

“…Yes. Master Rosclay himself requested that we stop here… Though they were his orders, since we were in the middle of an emergency transport, I did refuse him at first, but…he told me it was something that greatly related to the administration of the Sixways Exhibition.”

“You’re trying to tell me that he ran off?! That’s absurd… Let’s assume you’re telling me the truth, how in the world did you fail to capture a critically wounded man on his deathbed?!”

“He used medicine to blind us. To be precise, it was a liquid contained in a medical bottle, so it was harmless, but…there are some powerful drugs among the medicine we use for emergencies.”

“Dammit… That doesn’t give me anything to work with! Argh, I need to find him and fast. There’s no time to waste!”

The policeman scratched his head.

If their diagnosis was correct, Rosclay had lost his small intestine and kidneys. The massive hemorrhaging was too much for even emergency Life Arts treatment to completely stop. Even with treatment, there was almost no hope of saving him.

If it truly was impossible to treat such severe injuries, then that meant…

“Throwing medicine to blind someone… Rosclay the Absolute would never do something so cheap and despicable like that!”

The plaza was quiet, as if the uproar from moments prior that had seeped into her bones had been a figment of her imagination.

A lone chestnut-haired girl in a jumper skirt was walking.

Once she had distanced herself from the plaza and entered this area near the Outer Ward, there were very few people walking around Orde Old Town.

Since most of them were all crammed into the plaza right now, Iska may have truly been the only person walking through the alleyway which had never been home to many residents to begin with.

She had decided that even if the day did come, she wouldn’t shed any tears.

Rosclay the Absolute had fought until the very end. As the champion to the people of Aureatia, he had died a noble death in an honorable fight, so Iska understood there wasn’t anything to be sad about.

Thus, the fact she was even walking along this street was nothing but sheer sentimentality.

The era of the Central Kingdom, when this old town still hadn’t gotten old yet.

One time, her mom told her that Rosclay the Absolute had saved Iska on this road once before.

It happened when Iska was still young, so she only remembered fragmented memories of flashing silver.

However, it was a road that held memories for her. She wanted to bring back the past one last time.

The sound of her shoes clacked atop the cobblestones of the empty street…

“Sheesh… I swear, you’re always…”

Then, she was unable to suppress a laugh.

Since Iska felt truly exasperated.

“…being so silly, putting on that cool front like that.”

In the abandoned street, Rosclay was sitting down, leaning against a stone wall.

The blood flowing from his stomach traveled along the cobblestone lattice, spreading out in a terribly bright red pattern.

Rosclay was smart. He seemed to be childishly boasting that he easily predicted that Iska’s feet would lead her back to this memorable road.

“…Iska.”

Rosclay smiled.

It wasn’t his normal, flawless one, but a weak smile of a man on his deathbed.

Oh. But, it was his true face.

Iska crouched down, not caring that her skirt would be soaked in blood, and brought her palm to his cheek.

“I’ve come home, Iska.”

“Yes, you did, Rosclay. You did great.”

Just like she had done some time before, she held Rosclay’s head and stroked his hair.

Rosclay the Absolute had been a perfect champion.

The people never grew disheartened in the age of the True Demon King, no matter how much terror assailed Aureatia, because the champion Rosclay was there.

It had been that way always and forever, right up to the very end, even in places unbeknownst to Iska.

To the point where he made sure not to let anyone else see the moment his life ran out in defeat.

“Iska… I’m, sorry… I, in that moment…”

“…Yes. I know.”

In that moment, when Rosclay accepted Soujirou’s challenge.

Iska thought that if he hadn’t fought, then he wouldn’t have lost.

But at that moment.

“I wanted to win…with my righteous…my just sword…”

Iska had seen Rosclay’s figure out in front of her.

She understood.

“Right… Rosclay. It must’ve been hard, and painful.”

“I’m glad… Iska…this way…no one will know where I am…”

Rosclay’s hand gripped down on Iska’s.

Rosclay the Absolute had used several schemes and stratagems.

However, if there was one true final scheme up his sleeve…

“S-so…from here on…we can…together…”

“That’s right. Always… There was nothing to worry about. We were always together, weren’t we?”

She had decided that even if someday the day came, she wouldn’t shed any tears.

After all, Rosclay had never stopped playing a role far more difficult than what Iska had to endure.

In return, she smiled like a mother would.

Good job. Thank you. You worked really hard.

She thought that no matter how many words she added on, it still wouldn’t be enough.

Since she was sure that all of the people throughout Aureatia felt the same way.

“I love you.”

These words were the ones Iska alone said.

“I love you so much, Rosclay.”

No matter how many times she tried to resign herself, these feelings were one thing she was unable to throw away.

Iska slipped onto his finger what she had never been able to part with.

It was a ring of red coral.

“Uhn, uuuuhn.”

A feeble cry echoed through the empty cobblestone street.

She had decided she wouldn’t shed any tears.

It was the crying voice of a young child.

“Unwaaaaaaaaaaaah, waaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Rosclay the Absolute was crying.

Upon Iska’s chest, he shed tears and cried.

“Rosclay, I’ll love you forever. Rosclay…”

Iska merely wore a gentle smile and rubbed his back to comfort him.

“Waaaaaaaaaaaah… waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah…”

She stayed that way until everything grew quiet.

A champion died.

Rosclay, the man Iska loved.