Rune Troopers: Self-Defense Forces Adventure - Chapter 6: A Hymn to the Living (Part 4)
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- Rune Troopers: Self-Defense Forces Adventure
- Chapter 6: A Hymn to the Living (Part 4)
I lost consciousness…!
As Carda tried to escape, the monster’s tentacles reached out and entangled her legs. As if trying to drag her into its own body. Carda gritted her teeth and clung to the edge of the flower bed to hold on.
Soon, the hammer that destroyed all would rain down from that otherworldly ship. At this rate, I too would be collateral damage and end up in the afterlife. But the power of the tentacles is so strong that it is unlikely I will escape on my own.
“I won’t let you get away… Richarda! You will go to hell with me!” Several tentacles extended from the monster’s main body and tangled around her entire body.
Carda dug her claws into the ground and resisted, but it seemed she could take no more. She felt a sense of resignation. Then, she heard an explosion coming from her feet.
When Carda looked up, she saw that some of the tentacles had been shredded by the blast. The force that was dragging her along weakened.
No way, she thought.
“Carda-san!” It was Kuze. He abandoned his unloaded recoilless gun and came running, throwing a grenade.
“We’re here to rescue you!” Saying that he pulled the knife – bayonet – attached to the Type 89 rifle from his waist and slashed at the tentacles that were relentlessly entangling her.
“Damn it! Peel them off, you monster!” He desperately tried to detach the tentacles from her legs, but the tentacles were unexpectedly strong, and it didn’t work.
Carda shouted, “Stop it, Kuze-dono! Leave me now! If you continue like this, you will die!”
“I’m sorry. That’s fine for you, but it’s not fine for us!”
“Everyone should understand that! The brethren of Marysea…”
“Abandoning a beautiful woman like you and returning home alone… then there is no salvation.” Kuze chuckled at Carda, who was stunned, not understanding the meaning of the words.
I don’t want to see any more unsatisfying deaths. She could not abandon him in order to have a life of restful sleep every day from now on.
It didn’t matter if it was a military man’s calm decision, a situation that could not be helped, or any of those things.
“Oh, please, Kuze-dono! Don’t make me regret this! For you…” Carda was puzzled by Kuze’s desperate attempt to save her.
“I don’t want you to die!” She thought to herself, what was she talking about? But she had only one thought.
If I don’t do this, I will lose him twice. She would lose him again. That was her only fear.
“I don’t want you to die either!” Kuze shouted.
Carda could not say anything back. She had never thought that she, as a knight, who had been on the side of saving and protecting others, would be on the side of being saved. And it was a young man who looked somewhat like him who would say that.
“I’m apparently a hypocrite just like the General said. I can’t stand to leave a beautiful woman like you behind and survive on my own.”
“Kuh, such a joke at a time like this…”
“I won’t risk my life over a joke, yo!”
Kuze put all his strength into swinging his bayonet down. He thumped, with a dull sound, and finally, all his tentacles attached to Carda were cut off.
“Quick!” She reflexively grasped the outstretched hand. Helped up forcefully, they ran off together.
She felt a faint sense of nostalgia in this extreme situation. It was the summer of seventeen when the wedding date was set. She had once slipped out of her parent’s house with that man and enjoyed a moment of freedom.
The memory of enjoying the few remaining moments of freedom with that stranger in the face of the constraints of a political marriage. They were still a boy and a girl who knew no fear…
She now realized that she had not taken a single step forward from that time.
She had not been able to move forward in any way since she lost the person she decided to walk with. Wearing a military uniform like mourning clothes, she has never tried to start a new life.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I even wanted to die on the battlefield. Yes, I wanted this. This is what I wanted. I wanted him to pull my hand and run with me. Kuze-dono called himself a hypocrite. Speaking of which, so was that person. And above all, I was like that. I wish I hadn’t asked him to wish him good luck as he headed off to the battlefield.
I wanted to be free, but I could not give up my pride in being a noblewoman. That is why I wanted him to be a knight. I wished for him to live…
At that time, before going to battle. Why didn’t I cling to him? I was cowardly. Was it enough for him to stay alive? Then why did I wish him good luck in battle with a straight face?
Kuze’s former lover is a strong woman. She really wanted him back. All she desired was the person she loved to stay alive. I should have said that first. I should have told him that.
“Damn… Can we make it in time!?”
“Sorry…”
“It’s okay! Don’t worry about it!”
Her apology was not directed only at him.
Yes, yes, it was. Carda realized.
The real reason why I continue to wear this mournful military uniform. It was because it was as if I had killed that man.
It was her punishment for being a fool who could not abandon her aristocratic status and let the person she loved die.
I do not deserve to be saved by someone like Kuze-dono. Still, he tried to save me. And he wants to be saved. It’s outrageous. At the same time, I am so happy that I want to scream. I was a hypocrite, too.
A hypocrite, myself.
── and…
“Ah!?” The running Kuze suddenly lost his balance and fell on the spot.
“Kuze-dono!” Carda rushed to help him up, but it didn’t work.
“Oh no!”
When she looked, she saw that one of its tentacles had grabbed his leg. It was the monster’s persistence.
“Hahahahahahaha! Take me with you, monsters from another world, summoned forces, the Rune Troopers!”
“Damn it!” Kuze kicked at the tentacle with his half-boots, but the tightly tangled thing refused to leave him at all.
Carda pulled a bayonet from his waist and tried to slash at it. But before she could do so, countless tentacles attacked them both.
“Waaaaah!” The tentacles entangled the two of them, engulfing them, and then tightening around their entire bodies.
“Carda-san, you are such an idiot!” Kuze felt indignant that such an ending was waiting for her at the last minute.
At the very least, he wanted to save her at least. But there was nothing he could do now. The black tentacles had taken all her freedom.
“Kuze-dono, Ah… Kuze-dono!!!” Carda too let out a sad cry. A sense of frustration and guilt stirred her heart.
Do you call this punishment? Punishment for letting him die? God!
She had sent her beloved to death through her own fault, and now she was about to send another young man from another world to die. It was too cruel to be a Divine Punishment.
“Please, just save him!” Carda yelled as if she had forgotten her previous tone.
I am going to hell. I can’t go to the underworld of warriors.
But still, she did not want Kuze to die. He would surely continue to save many people.
And I am sure he will make one lucky woman happy for the rest of his life. His death will make many people unhappy. So, not for me, but for those who will meet him in the future…
That was what Carda wished.
[Buzz… Captain Kuze! … Buzz… ] The radio went off.
“Is that Sgt. Yaegashi!” Kuze heard someone’s voice over the noise.
──And in the darkness, he saw a dazzling light.
“Light, illuminate the darkness. Light, fill it all!” A spell was heard.
Thinking it couldn’t be her, Kuze tried to escape from the darkness. He could see the tentacles retreating as if they were melting.
It was Rumi. The Holy Magic that Rumi and the other priestly warriors had done their best to use was repelling the darkness. This was probably their last chance.
Kuze searched frantically for Carda through the darkness. Then he grabbed her hand again and pulled her out, into the intense spotlight, Kuze rolled out, holding Carda in his arms.
“Kuze-dono…? Are you safe?” Carda stared at his muddy face.
In the light of the Holy Magic, she felt sadness at the sensation of being held by him. The sensation of being held by him on that happy last day came back to her. But it didn’t last long.
Yes, it is not over yet. I have to live. For both him and myself.
“Platoon leader Kuze! This way!” There was high-pitched engine noise and a furious downwash rolling through the courtyard.
Kuze did not know what it was for a moment.
What is this?
Two Black Hawks, transport helicopters, were flying above them.
These were the same helicopters that had to take off, leaving the ground troops behind. They had returned after refueling. To save their friends.
Rumi and his team, who were chanting Holy Magic, boarded one of the helicopters, which was beaming magic light toward them. The other helicopter was in a dive.
[There is no time! I’m going to take it from the side!]
“Yaegashi!” Kuze cried out, and he and Carda lent each other their shoulders as they moved forward.
Both of them were wounded to the bone. The Black Hawk was approaching, with its side doors fully open.
Yaegashi and the others provided covering fire from the sky toward the monster. The wind tightened. The Black Hawk came up to them and hovered in front of them.
“Carda-san, first!” Kuze pushed Carda into the Black Hawk’s cabin, with or without her.
Then he tried to climb aboard himself. But–
“Ugh!”
“Noooooooo! Rune Troopers!”
Even after being hurt so much, the monster still extended its tentacles and caught Kuze’s legs.
“Kuze-dono!” Carda tried to jump off the helicopter, but Yaegashi stopped him.
Kuze desperately kept clinging to the helicopter, but the tentacles tried to pull down the entire helicopter. The next moment, however, the tentacle that was holding Kuze was shredded.
Kuze huffed. He did not hear any gunshots. No, he thought, then the gunfire arrived late. It was a sniper shot from a very long distance!
“Oh, I hit it!
“Yes!”
Ichinose and Lalona made the steeple slap with each other’s hands.
Kuze laughed as he climbed into the helicopter.
Stupid, cocky little bastard, but a good subordinate, isn’t he?
The pilot shouted.
[We’re going up! Hold on!]
[Tomahawk, incoming!]
[Here they come!]
The Blackhawk quickly gained altitude and escaped the point of impact. The monster looked up at the otherworldly vehicle with hatred.
“Nooo! You Rune Troopers! You foreign thing that blended into this world!”