Katahane no Riku Chapter 77

77.THE DESTINATION OF THE FUGITIVE

 

 

“What? She escaped -de gozaru!?”

 

Asty Gortoberuk´s enraged voice reverberated to all directions through the forest.

 

Because of the sound of the voice, the birds became surprised and flew away. The usual Asty would be careful of that since the spiritualists would notice their location, but right now, she had ended up losing her composure.

 

“Without doubts, for Keity Fostar to have escaped prison…”

 

Asty clenched her fist

 

Asty used to get along with Keity Fostar.

 

Both were companions and girls of the same age, and moreover, both their families had about the same amount of prestigy, and so, they competed as good rivals. Keity was more outstanding than Asty and climbed up to become the provisional demon lord´s a.s.sistant, but now that she had lost her footing, their positions were reverted. However, she believed that the day she would devote her sword to the Demon Lord army, to Riku Barusak, would come once again.

 

“How did she run away? There was no way she could break away so easily from that prison-de gozaru.”

 

Asty asked the messenger for details. If she didn´t know about the situation, she wouldn´t be able to plan her next actions. Giving a small nod, the messenger immediately started talking.

 

“By what the report says, it seems that the prison was filled with guards that were devoted to Charlotte, and using their guidance, she escaped. Those guards had already been caught.”

 

“Fine then-de gozaru. Now, where did Keity Fostar run to-de gozaru?”

 

“Uhh, if I´m not mistaken… She ran to east.”

 

After saying that, the messenger opened up a map.

 

At the map that had the territories controlled by demons and territories controlled by humans next to each other, the position of the prison Keity Fostar was imprisoned at was drawn on it. Narrowing her eyes, Asty lightly leaned her chin onto her hand and started thinking.

 

“East… de gozaru?”

 

By going from the prison distant to the east, one would arrive at Taitas, the demon capital. However, even if one kept walking without sleeping, it would take more than twenty days. Even if one had trained oneself as a soldier, this was somewhat of a impossible march. Keity would be spotted while she headed to the demon capital, so the chances of she being caught once again were high. However, there weren´t any other demon towns or villages other than the demon capital that Keity Fostar could escape to. There were villages along the way, but it was difficult to imagine she would seek help in a small village.

 

First of all, it was well known among the demons what kind of crime had Keity Fostar committed for her to be imprisoned. If spiritualists came to attack the village, they wouldn´t have enough fighting power to protect themselves. And so, for them to be able to safely continue to live, they would need to ask for the help of the Demon Lord army. There was no way the villages would shelter Keity Fostar and go against the new order  that was led by Rudogar Gortoberuk and Riku Barusak.

 

That´s why running away to the east by itself was a reckless move.

 

“Considering that, would this mean that she pretended to go to the east and planned go to another direction after that?”

 

“Yes. That is probably correct-de gozaru.”

 

“If it is not east… Then, would it be south? There is a demon town there.”

 

The messenger pointed to a spot at the map. At that spot, there was a town that was about three days away from the prison Keity Fostar escaped from.

 

“It is not as much as Taitas, but it is a town overflowing with liveliness. If you want to hide a tree, you hide it in a forest, and a demon, among the demons.”(TL note: Better way to phrase this up? 木を隠すなら森の中、魔族を隠すなら魔族の中、ということですよ)

 

“I guess-de gozaru na.”

 

Although Asty answered this to him, her true feelings didn´t correspond to it.

 

Similar to Asty herself, Keity Fostar was a very simple and straight forward woman. However, even with that fault, she was still someone that was promoted to become Charlotte´s close aide. With that considered, would she really use a method that gave the impression of being hastily thought of?

 

“…”

 

Asty silently glared at the map. It was impossible for her to go to east. South would be reasonable. If it was west, she would end up going back to the place she ran away from, and so, the remaining direction was…

 

“Perhaps, she might have gone north-de gozaru.”

 

“North, you say? No, but… I think it would be unlikely.”

 

At the map, by advancing to the north, there would be city.

 

The city that was about two days away was much bigger than the city at the south. It was possible to imagine that if Keity was able to run away to that city, it would be extremely difficult to keep the pursue.  However, there was no way someone with common sense would run away to that city. Rather, there was no way they would make it alive.

 

“The town at the north… Is a human town, isn´t it? Once she goes in there, she would be immediately killed.”

 

The messenger turned down Asty´s idea. With her arms crossed, Asty herself agreed to the messenger opinion.

 

“Normally, it would be the case-de gozaru. Not to mention, Asty´s arms are exactly like ones of a beast-de gozaru na. There is no way to hide them by having clothes covering them-de gozaru.”

 

“In that case…”

 

“However! That town is an exception-de gozaru.”

 

Asty looked at the name of the city written there.

 

Asty herself had never been there, but it was a city that its name would be talked about among the demons very often.

 

“Derufoi. If it is that city, even if your figure is more or less of a demon, you can still have it pa.s.s by as a costume-de gozaru.”

 

Derufoi.

 

It was the city where s.h.i.+bira, who could see the future, lived at.

 

It was a city composed of only humans, but… Every once a few months… an event that would make it not weird even if demons sneaked inside would be hold.

 

“It is Derufoi´s masquerade festival. If it is only something of the level of Keity´s arms, it is possible to pretend that is a costume-de gozaru. It is possible that she would head to another place from that city-de gozaru.”

 

It was a festival demons of strange tastes liked to sneak into. If Asty´s memories were correct, the provisional demon lord had gone to sightsee at the last festival together with Riku Barusak. At that time, it seems that because there were many skilled spiritualists partic.i.p.ating at the festival, Charlotte´s true ident.i.ty was exposed. That said, right now, there was no need to mind about something like that.

 

“At the current situation, the spiritualists have no time to be playing around. After all, the king´s daughter was abducted and the time for the Demon Lord´s resurrection is coming closer by each hour-de gozaru.”

 

She couldn´t imagine there would be spiritualists that would be playing around in a situation like this. If there were any that would do that, it would be a completely r.e.t.a.r.ded, an useless… or perhaps, a foolish spiritualist that would only get in the way of their plans.

 

“The more skilled the spiritualist, the more likely they would a.s.sign him to protect the Demon Lord seal-de gozaru. As long as she takes the minimum precautions, there wouldn´t be any problems-de gozaru.”

 

“…Would you be saying that even if there were spiritualists at the festival, there wouldn´t be any worries about getting suspected of?”

 

“Umu.”

 

In fact, as Charlotte´s escort, Keity had already gone to Derufoi before. Previously, Keity should have already completely investigated the city beforehand for the sake of Charlotte´s protection. Even if it was a human city, rather than a city she had never seen before, it was obvious that it was better to run away to a city she already knew of.

 

“Besides, during the festival, the movement between cities would become more intense -de gozaru. That´s why there being people that didn´t live at the city there wouldn´t be thought as something strange-de gozaru.”

 

At the period the festival was being held, many people would gather.

 

There were many people that were vigilant about [people they weren´t familiar with], but at the time of the festival, their vigilance would lower down to the point that they would simply guess the person was just partic.i.p.ating in the party. Except for the fact it was a [human city], there were only merits.

 

“I see… I understand. Now then, I will be reporting this to major general Barusa…”

 

“Don´t do this-de gozaru.”

 

Asty stopped the messenger.

 

Surprised, the messenger raised his face.

 

“Riku-dono… I would like to avoid having this reported to Riku-dono-de gozaru yo.”

 

“However!”

 

“Riku-dono is putting all her efforts in the resurrection of the Demon Lord-de gozaru. There is no way I can bother her with trivial things.”

 

Asty had seen a sliver of Riku´s fury before.

 

Riku Barusak is someone that would prey on her target, waiting for an opportunity while sharpening her blade of vengeance. And then, once she brandished her halberd, a tempest of blood would violently blow. Asty had got this message many times from seeing the spiritualists that became her victims. This would be the same even if the ones she pointed that blade to were demons. In fact, because Charlotte, the former provisional demon lord, had made Riku her enemy, she had lost her future.

 

…If it was by Asty herself, she thought that it was better for Keity to receive a lighter punishment even despite what she had done, but there was no way she could say this in front of Riku. If she objected her, she would also get her hostility, and perhaps would end up killed.

 

To Asty, Riku was a benefactor that had saved her grandfather. Asty also admired the overwhelming power that had ma.s.sacred the enemy that her grandfather couldn´t compare to.

 

That´s why Asty Gortoberuk feared and admired Riku. Once she incurred her wrath, her head would end up being cut off. The overwhelming power she admired was so scary and terrifying that she couldn´t bear.

 

Without doubt, Keity Fostar would end up getting killed by Riku.

 

Asty didn´t want to kill the friend she had for a long time experienced joys and sorrows together. Closing her eyes, Asty calmly told the messenger the makes.h.i.+ft reason.

 

“…If Keity´s escape reaches Riku-dono´s ears, she would go pursue her-de gozaru. At the current state of the Demon Lord army, without Riku-dono, it is close to impossible for we to search through the land where the Demon Lord is sealed at. That´s why we can only let Riku-dono know about this after we captured Keity Fostar-de gozaru yo.”

 

“…Understood. Now then, I will be preparing a searching party to Derufoi.”

 

“Umu. As a precaution, leave people at every quarters-de gozaru yo.”

 

“Ha!!”

 

After firmly responding, the messenger immediately started the preparations for the searching party.

 

In case the searching party finds Keity, they are to immediately capture her. In case they decide it is too difficult to capture her, it would be fine for Asty to go arrest Keity herself. There was no need for Riku to trouble herself with that, and there was no need to have Keity killed. Despite all, she was still a demon that got promoted to the point of becoming Charlotte´s close aide. Once her head cools down, she would definitely be able to work for the sake of the Demon Lord army.

 

“There is no need… to kill her-de gozaru yo.”

 

“Reporting!!”

 

When Asty stood up still immersed in thoughts, a subordinate rushed in.

 

His face was showing impatience. Asty had cold sweat. ((

 

“It can´t be! Have Riku-dono already killed Keity-de gozaru!?”

 

“No! It is the enemy! A spiritualist have come to our way!!”

 

“A spiritualist-de gozaru!?”

 

At that time, Asty regretted about her mistake.

 

The concealment of Asty and her troops should have been perfect. She could only imagine one reason for their place to be discovered by the spiritualists despite that. There was no mistake that the cause for that was because Asty ended up shouting after losing control of herself due to the anger from before. Because of that shout, their position had ended up being discovered.

 

“Ku, there is no helping-de gozaru! Immediately arrange the preparations for the counter attack -de gozaru. How many spiritualists are there-de gozaru?”

 

“N-no… this… There was only one.”

 

“One? A spiritualist came by himself?”

 

Asty wondered if it was a patrol.

 

However, by looking at her subordinate´s behavior, it didn´t seem to be the case. While Asty had been thinking about what this was about, the subordinate continued his words.

 

“This spiritualist has already been disarmed… He persistently asked us to let him meet the person in charge…”

 

“…What is this about-de gozaru?”

 

“I don´t know… What should be done?”

 

No matter how the spiritualist was disarmed, there was no way Asty could let him into their base.

 

There was a chance that the spiritualist was plotting to do a suicide attack by exploding himself once he saw who the person in charge was. It was possible to imagine the possibility of them planning on having the commander dying and launching an attack at the troops that would have fallen into disorder. While frowning, Asty started to think.

 

“Really, today, problems are coming one after another-de gozaru yo. By the way, do you know what family that spiritualist is from?”

 

“Ha, I will immediately verify…”

 

“It is serious!!”

 

Interrupting those words, another subordinate broke in.

 

The complexion of his face was worse than the complexion of the subordinate that came to report a moment ago by one level. His face went beyond being pale and was completely white. It seemed that he was somewhat trembling.

 

“What is it-de gozaru?”

 

“Ye-yes. We have confirmed the ident.i.ty of the spiritualist.”

 

Asty readied herself for her subordinate´s report.

 

For him to be trembling to that point, there was no mistake the enemy was exceptional. Was it not a patrol, but a big figure that came to attack? Asty increased her guard.

 

At the room that fell silent to the point of one being able to hear his breathing, the awfully trembling voice echoed.

 

“It is a silver haired with the crest of a griffon. It is the heir of the Barusak, Rook Barusak!!”