Part 2
Rain peered down at Shelfa’s face after he closed the door with a bang.
“……Accompanying me, you say?”
“Yes. Please, Rain……won’t you listen to my selfish request?”
How should he put it…… Rain found himself a little hard-pressed for words because Shelfa was looking at him directly while looking like she had been brooding over something for an incredibly long time. He felt like she would start crying if he said that she couldn’t come with him.
“But still——”
“I beg of you!”
Rain didn’t think Shelfa thought that she had seen any hopes of convincing otherwise, but there was still another layer of zeal added to her pleas anyway. She grasped his hands with both of her small and sweaty ones and drew closer to him.
Rain searched for any presences in the area in a hurry and found that no one seemed to be close by. Everyone was likely tired and had decided to rest a little earlier than usual.
“There’s the fact that I’ll be lonely without you, of course, but it also hurts that I’m always leaving everything to you. I feel so terrible about it. So please……”
“——Alright.”
Rain smiled wryly as he caved and placed his hand over Shelfa’s cheek and hair.
“Alright. Besides, you’re the master here. There’s nothing I can do if that’s what you want.”
“I’m so glad……”
Rain had been a li~ttle sarcastic with his words, but it had flown completely over her head. She was evidently incapable of sensing any sort of ill will in his words.
Rain was a little troubled at how to react to this because he knew that even she wouldn’t have listened to his words so obediently if they had been spoken by anyone else.
Still, Shelfa started to hug him in all smiles and joy without the slightest hint of hesitation. She had already forgotten to be careful about her actions. She probably thought that everything was okay since Rain was sensitive to the presence of other people.
Moreover, she lowered her long eyelashes and whispered,
“a life where you’re always right by my side, Rain, no matter when or where……. That’s the kind of life I dream about.”
——It’s dangerous to say something like that, isn’t it!?
Rain wanted to voice his thoughts out loud.
But he somehow missed his chance to do so.
It could have been because he thought that, in the end, there was no way he could win against Shelfa’s purity.
Rain smiled and gently peeled Shelfa off of himself. He stroked her white cheeks while staring deep into her face.
“You’re looking good today. Well, you’re as beautiful as you always are, but you’ve been bottling something up inside of yourself recently, no? I was getting a little worried. ……But it looks like you’ve already resolved whatever it was. You look real good today. Yep, you’re a beauty as usual.”
“Rain……”
Shelfa looked back at him as if she was a little surprised and then abruptly began to tear up for some reason.
“Wh, what is it? What’s wrong?”
Shelfa buried her face in Rain’s chest again as he remained dumbfounded and whispered,
“it’s nothing, nothing at all——. Rain……I love you so much.”
The next day, Rain’s army of three thousand, which had somewhat managed to replenish their numbers, gathered in the plaza in front of the castle gates. They were about to head north at full speed in order to convene with their allied army, Ralphus’.
Naturally, Selphie and Yuri, the ever-close pair of friends, were among their number.
Unlike Selphie, Yuri was originally supposed to be working under Leni’s supervision, but she had gradually come to be placed under Rain’s direct control because she was always loitering around him. Leni could have admonished her to put her back in place, but his kind personality kept him from being able to call her out too harshly.
And so, the two of them were chatting, as always, in a hidden corner of the plaza while they awaited Rain’s arrival. Kris was with them for some reason and was eating bread out of Selphie’s hands. Yuri, who was drinking wine in the morning while hiding behind Kris’ large torso, of all things, was giving her companions a side-eye as if she was making fun of them. It needn’t be said that she hadn’t the slightest intention of feeding Kris herself. Rather, she was patiently waiting for the chance to snatch Kris’ food away. She still hadn’t forgotten how Kris had stolen her food (though it was actually Leni’s) a while back.
“Hey Selphiee, you should stop giving him so much food already. Now he’s gone and made it a habit to come to you whenever anything happens.”
“It’s fine, isn’t it? I’m only giving him some bread.”
Selphie beamed as she gave Kris the last piece of bread and let him drink black tea, which she had brought a lot of, out of her leather canteen. Kris was drinking it ravenously and narrowed his eyes.
The horse probably ate and drank anything.
Kris nuzzled his moist nose up again Selphie’s cheek after he was done eating as if he was saying, “Man, that was good. Feed me agaain~”
“Teehee…… You’re very welcome. Please let me fly in the sky with you sometime if you feel up to it, okay?”
Yuri choked on her wine.
“Huh? What the heck? Do you seriously believe in the rumor that Kris is a pegasus!?”
“I do~. I mean, a lot of people say it’s true, including Captain Leni. And besides, Kris ran down a vertical cliff in the last battle, didn’t he? A normal horse can’t do that. Plus, he eats everything.”
“Uh……no, I’m pretty sure that last one has absolutely nothing to do with pegasi. But yeah, I guess it was weird.”
The two girls happened to observe Kris at the same time.
The horse, however, blatantly looked away and looked around with a bla~nk look in his eyes, as if he was just the everyday farm horse. He was “looking into the distance,” as the saying goes.
It seemed to Selphie that he was nonchalantly asserting, “I’m just a normal horse and I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.” He even let out a huge yawn that smelled like black tea.
It all looked like a barefaced charade in Selphie’s eyes. Still, Yuri seemed to think that Kris was just your everyday dumb horse and readily said,
“can’t it be explained this way? The Geeneral put some kind of trick on Kris’ legs.”
“Eh~, but what kind of trick would that bee? That isn’t really much of an explanation~”
Selphie refuted in all seriousness.
Hard pressed to respond, Yuri quickly changed the topic instead.
“Well, I wouldn’t really know about that. ——But more importantly, I forgot to ask you earlier, but what happened on top of the cliff after you stayed behind?”
“Wh, what happened……you say?”
Selphie bashfully looked down.
It’s too embarrassing to talk about that even if she’s my friend……
Then, a sudden glint appeared in Yuri’s eyes.
“Oh my god, something happened, didn’t it? C’mon and tell your big sis about it?”
She looked obviously excited as she guzzled down her wine.
Big sis, she says…… I’m pretty sure I’m a year older…
Selphie protested quietly.
Still, she figured that it actually wasn’t something to be too embarrassed about and decided to tell her friend about what had happened.
“I asked Lord Rain to……h, hold me. I was so moved~”
——Just then.
“Bwhah!”
This time, the wine that Yuri had been drinking flew a good two meters straight out from her mouth.
The wine was about to hit Kris squarely on the stomach, but the horse used his excellent reflexes to immediately run straight ahead.
Hey, that was gross!
he seemed to say as he glared at Yuri.
Ignoring him, Yuri whispered,
“……does that mean you guys did it outside?”
“N, no, absolutely not!”
Selphie’s cheeks burned bright red. She continued,
“besides, what do you mean did we “do it outside”? Why did both of you ask something so similar?!”
“Ohh, so it was just a regular old hug, huh? ……That’s boring.”
Yuri understood what Selphie had meant at once and went back to looking disinterested.
But suddenly,
“hey, what are you yapping on about so loudly?”
“——Ah!”
Both girls exclaimed together.
Everyone had started staring at them at some point. They stuck out like a sore thumb now that Kris, their wall, had moved away. Moreover, Rain had suddenly appeared and was looking down at them with the Princess not too far behind.
——And he was smiling.
She didn’t know about Yuri, but Selphie was extremely embarrassed. Everyone else aside, Rain had superior hearing and had probably heard everything that they had said.
“You two are pretty bold~. We’re about to depart for the front with our lives on the line, but here you are, dead drunk and spewing out vulgar stuff one after the other.”
Yeah, he definitely heard us.
“I, I’m sho sorry!”
Selphie lowered her head in a hurry and added,
“but I wasn’t drinking!”
“S, Selphie! You traitor~~!”
“——Well, whatever.”
Rain didn’t particularly seem to mind. He continued,
“it’s good that you two are so composed. ……All that’s left is to make sure that bottle of wine wasn’t your last.”
His words made Selphie’s heart skip a beat.
“Um, will this be dangerous?”
Selphie asked without thinking before realizing that she was being rude.
The bold look on Rain’s face did not change in the slightest.
“Battle is always dangerous. But this time……let’s see, I guess it’s a fifty-fifty chance that we’ll even be fighting to begin with? In any case, it’d only be dangerous for people on your level. It has nothing to do with me.”
If Selphie had heard him say this right after coming from Galfort she would have undoubtedly felt animosity toward his words, but right now she found them to be dependable instead.
This is how Lord Rain is supposed to be!
was what she thought.
And so, she said exactly what she was thinking out loud.
“You’re so dependable, Lord Rain…… You’re so wonderful……”
Then, the Princess, who had only been looking at Rain’s face up until now, suddenly shifted her gaze.
She locked eyes with Selphie, making it the first time that the two of them had observed each other up close.
There was no ill will in the Princess’ gaze, despite that her heart was beating furiously. She simply stared at Selphie with a mix of bewilderment and empathy in her eyes.
Her azure eyes were speaking to Selphie voicelessly.
When Selphie nodded ever so slightly in response, the Princess returned a modest smile.
Selphie’s mien lit up as she grew jubilant. She began to think that she wanted to sit down and have a proper conversation with the Princess one day. She had never dreamt of such thing before because they were too different in social status, but now she felt that she and the Princess could become great friends……
It was eventually time for Rain to leave Selphie and Yuri so he could organize his troops.
As Selphie watched him leave, she heard the Princess’ innocent voice asking Rain a question as she walked alongside him.
Selphie saw her tug on Rain’s sleeve and ask,
“Rain, what does it mean to “do it outside”?”
Whoa.
I, I guess you heard us, too.
~~*~~*~~*~~
A great commotion stirred when Rain mounted Kris and surveyed his allies.
Shelfa was seated near him on a matching white horse and had drawn closer to him. In truth, she had wanted to ride on Kris with him, but he had casually vetoed the idea this time.
A great number of people stole glances at the Princess, though, in their defense, they did not know what was going on.
However, their gazes eventually returned to their commander.
Once he had everyone’s attention, Rain began to speak and deliberately delivered each and every word with clarity.
“We’ll be departing now……but first things first. The Princess will be accompanying us this time.”
A tumult spread out amongst the troops like a wave with Rain at its center. The stir was half a result of surprise and a half a result of a sudden uplift in morale as most of the men thought, ‘I’ll definitely have her see me fight!’
Rain raised his voice in order to speak over them.
“Hey, wait! We don’t know if we’ll actually end up fighting yet. If all goes well, we might not have to fight at all. But of course, there’s still the possibility that’s we’ll be fighting. Everything depends on the other party. Still, if we do end up fighting——”
Rain cut his words short and ran his gaze through the crowd.
Slowly, he continued,
“——it goes without saying that some of you will die. Even I can’t guarantee you that “no one will get hurt and no one will end up dead.” Someone will always die when it comes to battle. But you already knew that, right?”
Everyone was listening to him in silence. Most of the soldiers in the army had once been mercenaries, and even if there hadn’t, they were commoners who had not grown up living in affluence.
And so, no one raised an objection against Rain’s statement.
They all already knew……that death could suddenly befall them no matter how famous the general commanding them was.
Rain nodded to no one in particular……and spoke with a kind look on his face.
“It’s all fine and well as long as you understand. ——For now, there’s only one thing that I can guarantee.”
He waited a beat before he continued in a loud voice that seemed to reach their very souls.
“No battle commanded directly by me shall end in defeat! The battlefield we’re about to head to is a victorious one. Know this, and follow me without hesitation! Understand?!!”
Rain thrust his pike toward the heavens as soon as the words had left his mouth.
——And then, everyone responded together as one as they lifted up their own spears.
“Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
The battle cry voiced by three thousand officers and soldiers resounded before the gates of Cortecreas Castle.
Their cheers, reminiscent of rampaging lions, were absorbed into the endlessly blue sky. Selphie, who was looking passionately at Rain as she yelled in her cute voice, naturally joined in with everyone, and even Yuri raised up her spear, thought she was a little embarrassed to do so.
No one gathered here held even the slightest hint of doubt at Rain’s words. They all felt their morale burning bright and rising exponentially.
And a few minutes later, Rain’s unit departed from Cortecreas Castle.
Part 2
Rain peered down at Shelfa’s face after he closed the door with a bang.
“……Accompanying me, you say?”
“Yes. Please, Rain……won’t you listen to my selfish request?”
How should he put it…… Rain found himself a little hard-pressed for words because Shelfa was looking at him directly while looking like she had been brooding over something for an incredibly long time. He felt like she would start crying if he said that she couldn’t come with him.
“But still——”
“I beg of you!”
Rain didn’t think Shelfa thought that she had seen any hopes of convincing otherwise, but there was still another layer of zeal added to her pleas anyway. She grasped his hands with both of her small and sweaty ones and drew closer to him.
Rain searched for any presences in the area in a hurry and found that no one seemed to be close by. Everyone was likely tired and had decided to rest a little earlier than usual.
“There’s the fact that I’ll be lonely without you, of course, but it also hurts that I’m always leaving everything to you. I feel so terrible about it. So please……”
“——Alright.”
Rain smiled wryly as he caved and placed his hand over Shelfa’s cheek and hair.
“Alright. Besides, you’re the master here. There’s nothing I can do if that’s what you want.”
“I’m so glad……”
Rain had been a li~ttle sarcastic with his words, but it had flown completely over her head. She was evidently incapable of sensing any sort of ill will in his words.
Rain was a little troubled at how to react to this because he knew that even she wouldn’t have listened to his words so obediently if they had been spoken by anyone else.
Still, Shelfa started to hug him in all smiles and joy without the slightest hint of hesitation. She had already forgotten to be careful about her actions. She probably thought that everything was okay since Rain was sensitive to the presence of other people.
Moreover, she lowered her long eyelashes and whispered,
“a life where you’re always right by my side, Rain, no matter when or where……. That’s the kind of life I dream about.”
——It’s dangerous to say something like that, isn’t it!?
Rain wanted to voice his thoughts out loud.
But he somehow missed his chance to do so.
It could have been because he thought that, in the end, there was no way he could win against Shelfa’s purity.
Rain smiled and gently peeled Shelfa off of himself. He stroked her white cheeks while staring deep into her face.
“You’re looking good today. Well, you’re as beautiful as you always are, but you’ve been bottling something up inside of yourself recently, no? I was getting a little worried. ……But it looks like you’ve already resolved whatever it was. You look real good today. Yep, you’re a beauty as usual.”
“Rain……”
Shelfa looked back at him as if she was a little surprised and then abruptly began to tear up for some reason.
“Wh, what is it? What’s wrong?”
Shelfa buried her face in Rain’s chest again as he remained dumbfounded and whispered,
“it’s nothing, nothing at all——. Rain……I love you so much.”
The next day, Rain’s army of three thousand, which had somewhat managed to replenish their numbers, gathered in the plaza in front of the castle gates. They were about to head north at full speed in order to convene with their allied army, Ralphus’.
Naturally, Selphie and Yuri, the ever-close pair of friends, were among their number.
Unlike Selphie, Yuri was originally supposed to be working under Leni’s supervision, but she had gradually come to be placed under Rain’s direct control because she was always loitering around him. Leni could have admonished her to put her back in place, but his kind personality kept him from being able to call her out too harshly.
And so, the two of them were chatting, as always, in a hidden corner of the plaza while they awaited Rain’s arrival. Kris was with them for some reason and was eating bread out of Selphie’s hands. Yuri, who was drinking wine in the morning while hiding behind Kris’ large torso, of all things, was giving her companions a side-eye as if she was making fun of them. It needn’t be said that she hadn’t the slightest intention of feeding Kris herself. Rather, she was patiently waiting for the chance to snatch Kris’ food away. She still hadn’t forgotten how Kris had stolen her food (though it was actually Leni’s) a while back.
“Hey Selphiee, you should stop giving him so much food already. Now he’s gone and made it a habit to come to you whenever anything happens.”
“It’s fine, isn’t it? I’m only giving him some bread.”
Selphie beamed as she gave Kris the last piece of bread and let him drink black tea, which she had brought a lot of, out of her leather canteen. Kris was drinking it ravenously and narrowed his eyes.
The horse probably ate and drank anything.
Kris nuzzled his moist nose up again Selphie’s cheek after he was done eating as if he was saying, “Man, that was good. Feed me agaain~”
“Teehee…… You’re very welcome. Please let me fly in the sky with you sometime if you feel up to it, okay?”
Yuri choked on her wine.
“Huh? What the heck? Do you seriously believe in the rumor that Kris is a pegasus!?”
“I do~. I mean, a lot of people say it’s true, including Captain Leni. And besides, Kris ran down a vertical cliff in the last battle, didn’t he? A normal horse can’t do that. Plus, he eats everything.”
“Uh……no, I’m pretty sure that last one has absolutely nothing to do with pegasi. But yeah, I guess it was weird.”
The two girls happened to observe Kris at the same time.
The horse, however, blatantly looked away and looked around with a bla~nk look in his eyes, as if he was just the everyday farm horse. He was “looking into the distance,” as the saying goes.
It seemed to Selphie that he was nonchalantly asserting, “I’m just a normal horse and I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.” He even let out a huge yawn that smelled like black tea.
It all looked like a barefaced charade in Selphie’s eyes. Still, Yuri seemed to think that Kris was just your everyday dumb horse and readily said,
“can’t it be explained this way? The Geeneral put some kind of trick on Kris’ legs.”
“Eh~, but what kind of trick would that bee? That isn’t really much of an explanation~”
Selphie refuted in all seriousness.
Hard pressed to respond, Yuri quickly changed the topic instead.
“Well, I wouldn’t really know about that. ——But more importantly, I forgot to ask you earlier, but what happened on top of the cliff after you stayed behind?”
“Wh, what happened……you say?”
Selphie bashfully looked down.
It’s too embarrassing to talk about that even if she’s my friend……
Then, a sudden glint appeared in Yuri’s eyes.
“Oh my god, something happened, didn’t it? C’mon and tell your big sis about it?”
She looked obviously excited as she guzzled down her wine.
Big sis, she says…… I’m pretty sure I’m a year older…
Selphie protested quietly.
Still, she figured that it actually wasn’t something to be too embarrassed about and decided to tell her friend about what had happened.
“I asked Lord Rain to……h, hold me. I was so moved~”
——Just then.
“Bwhah!”
This time, the wine that Yuri had been drinking flew a good two meters straight out from her mouth.
The wine was about to hit Kris squarely on the stomach, but the horse used his excellent reflexes to immediately run straight ahead.
Hey, that was gross!
he seemed to say as he glared at Yuri.
Ignoring him, Yuri whispered,
“……does that mean you guys did it outside?”
“N, no, absolutely not!”
Selphie’s cheeks burned bright red. She continued,
“besides, what do you mean did we “do it outside”? Why did both of you ask something so similar?!”
“Ohh, so it was just a regular old hug, huh? ……That’s boring.”
Yuri understood what Selphie had meant at once and went back to looking disinterested.
But suddenly,
“hey, what are you yapping on about so loudly?”
“——Ah!”
Both girls exclaimed together.
Everyone had started staring at them at some point. They stuck out like a sore thumb now that Kris, their wall, had moved away. Moreover, Rain had suddenly appeared and was looking down at them with the Princess not too far behind.
——And he was smiling.
She didn’t know about Yuri, but Selphie was extremely embarrassed. Everyone else aside, Rain had superior hearing and had probably heard everything that they had said.
“You two are pretty bold~. We’re about to depart for the front with our lives on the line, but here you are, dead drunk and spewing out vulgar stuff one after the other.”
Yeah, he definitely heard us.
“I, I’m sho sorry!”
Selphie lowered her head in a hurry and added,
“but I wasn’t drinking!”
“S, Selphie! You traitor~~!”
“——Well, whatever.”
Rain didn’t particularly seem to mind. He continued,
“it’s good that you two are so composed. ……All that’s left is to make sure that bottle of wine wasn’t your last.”
His words made Selphie’s heart skip a beat.
“Um, will this be dangerous?”
Selphie asked without thinking before realizing that she was being rude.
The bold look on Rain’s face did not change in the slightest.
“Battle is always dangerous. But this time……let’s see, I guess it’s a fifty-fifty chance that we’ll even be fighting to begin with? In any case, it’d only be dangerous for people on your level. It has nothing to do with me.”
If Selphie had heard him say this right after coming from Galfort she would have undoubtedly felt animosity toward his words, but right now she found them to be dependable instead.
This is how Lord Rain is supposed to be!
was what she thought.
And so, she said exactly what she was thinking out loud.
“You’re so dependable, Lord Rain…… You’re so wonderful……”
Then, the Princess, who had only been looking at Rain’s face up until now, suddenly shifted her gaze.
She locked eyes with Selphie, making it the first time that the two of them had observed each other up close.
There was no ill will in the Princess’ gaze, despite that her heart was beating furiously. She simply stared at Selphie with a mix of bewilderment and empathy in her eyes.
Her azure eyes were speaking to Selphie voicelessly.
When Selphie nodded ever so slightly in response, the Princess returned a modest smile.
Selphie’s mien lit up as she grew jubilant. She began to think that she wanted to sit down and have a proper conversation with the Princess one day. She had never dreamt of such thing before because they were too different in social status, but now she felt that she and the Princess could become great friends……
It was eventually time for Rain to leave Selphie and Yuri so he could organize his troops.
As Selphie watched him leave, she heard the Princess’ innocent voice asking Rain a question as she walked alongside him.
Selphie saw her tug on Rain’s sleeve and ask,
“Rain, what does it mean to “do it outside”?”
Whoa.
I, I guess you heard us, too.
~~*~~*~~*~~
A great commotion stirred when Rain mounted Kris and surveyed his allies.
Shelfa was seated near him on a matching white horse and had drawn closer to him. In truth, she had wanted to ride on Kris with him, but he had casually vetoed the idea this time.
A great number of people stole glances at the Princess, though, in their defense, they did not know what was going on.
However, their gazes eventually returned to their commander.
Once he had everyone’s attention, Rain began to speak and deliberately delivered each and every word with clarity.
“We’ll be departing now……but first things first. The Princess will be accompanying us this time.”
A tumult spread out amongst the troops like a wave with Rain at its center. The stir was half a result of surprise and a half a result of a sudden uplift in morale as most of the men thought, ‘I’ll definitely have her see me fight!’
Rain raised his voice in order to speak over them.
“Hey, wait! We don’t know if we’ll actually end up fighting yet. If all goes well, we might not have to fight at all. But of course, there’s still the possibility that’s we’ll be fighting. Everything depends on the other party. Still, if we do end up fighting——”
Rain cut his words short and ran his gaze through the crowd.
Slowly, he continued,
“——it goes without saying that some of you will die. Even I can’t guarantee you that “no one will get hurt and no one will end up dead.” Someone will always die when it comes to battle. But you already knew that, right?”
Everyone was listening to him in silence. Most of the soldiers in the army had once been mercenaries, and even if there hadn’t, they were commoners who had not grown up living in affluence.
And so, no one raised an objection against Rain’s statement.
They all already knew……that death could suddenly befall them no matter how famous the general commanding them was.
Rain nodded to no one in particular……and spoke with a kind look on his face.
“It’s all fine and well as long as you understand. ——For now, there’s only one thing that I can guarantee.”
He waited a beat before he continued in a loud voice that seemed to reach their very souls.
“No battle commanded directly by me shall end in defeat! The battlefield we’re about to head to is a victorious one. Know this, and follow me without hesitation! Understand?!!”
Rain thrust his pike toward the heavens as soon as the words had left his mouth.
——And then, everyone responded together as one as they lifted up their own spears.
“Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”
The battle cry voiced by three thousand officers and soldiers resounded before the gates of Cortecreas Castle.
Their cheers, reminiscent of rampaging lions, were absorbed into the endlessly blue sky. Selphie, who was looking passionately at Rain as she yelled in her cute voice, naturally joined in with everyone, and even Yuri raised up her spear, thought she was a little embarrassed to do so.
No one gathered here held even the slightest hint of doubt at Rain’s words. They all felt their morale burning bright and rising exponentially.
And a few minutes later, Rain’s unit departed from Cortecreas Castle.
