Volume 6, Chapter 11 – Leon

The black magic armed unit began to be covered in a layer of ice.”A-Aah, this really sucks.”

What is with that guy? He can do anything. There was a blizzard everywhere.

The surrounding landscape was covered in ice and froze you just by looking at it.

It felt like the temperature in the cabin was dropping.

He keeps squeezing the energy out of Louise. If we keep fighting like this, Louise won’t be able to last much longer.

“Do you always use humans as disposable batteries?” That guy is the worst.

Master, your heart rate is rising. You seem to be very angry. He spoke lightly, but my partner, Luxon, knows how I feel.

Yes. It’s frustrating.

I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable.”How are the three girls?”

Tired, but recovering on Einhorn’s Bridge. Negotiations in the spirit world have failed.

“I’ll save her, even if it’s by force.”

After all, it couldn’t be solved intelligently. It always seems to be too soft, Master.

One leg was stuck, both arms were missing, and the weapons in the container were depleted.

… Arroganz was that fully wounded, but there were no feelings of sadness neither in Luxon, nor in me.

“We’ll get serious from here.”

Next time be more serious from the beginning. Schwert, deploying.

The magic armed unit started attacking me, but I anticipated its movement and avoided it with the least amount of movement.

-Haha! You are moving worse than before!

The magical armed unit has increased in both speed and power, but it seems that it can only make vague movements.

Since Louise can’t control it, the core must be moving it instead. A damaged core can only move like this. Here it comes again. Please continue to avoid him and hook up with Schwert.

-Leave it to me.

The magical armed unit approached, but I avoided it and ran towards the Sacred Tree. Then I saw a big black wing passing through the trees.

This was in the shape of a fighter.

The fighter was assembled with the hands and feet, which were spare parts for Arroganz. Arroganz purged the injured parts of both arms and legs.

As the container also purged and fell, Schwert went from behind and docked with Arroganz.

“Combining is every boy’s dream.”

Sorry, I’m not used to piloting giant robots. “Idiot, don’t be sarcastic.”

Arroganz exchanged his missing arms and legs for new ones, while flying around the branches of the Sacred Tree.

There, I saw the magical armed unit chasing him. The place where he passed was frozen.

Master, Arroganz’s arms change modifies our options to combat the enemy magical armed unit.

“It doesn’t look any different to the naked eye.” You focus a lot on that, don’t you? Here it comes.

When the magical armed unit approached, he let Arroganz catch the ice blade.

Previously, Arroganz’s arms were easily cut off, but this time it was different.

The ice sheet melted.

The magic armed unit tried to break out of attack range, but I grabbed it and didn’t let it go. -Do not escape. I had to chase you!

Heat transferred from both arms and the armor made of magic ice melted. Ahhhhhhh !!

I heard a scream mixed with metallic sounds, but I ignored it and ripped its arms off. Luxon’s single red eye glowed suspiciously as he enjoyed watching.

You have hurt me a lot. But I have collected your data. I have prepared countermeasures.

We had prepared Schwert, who had been completely merged in a short period of time, and prepared the best moves based on the data from the battle.

We knew we were going to win.

“I’m taking her back.”

I removed the armor from its chest and found Louise’s figure there. Arroganz’s hand gently grasped Louise.

Once we got her back, she was ours. Are we finished, Master?

-You never change.

As Arroganz walked away, the demonic armed unit tried to poke its tail. I caught it in one hand and flew up to the treetops again, easy as that.

“You’ve made me spin around a lot.” I’m going to destroy you without leaving a trace of dust! Destroy the weapons of the new humans …

Impact!!

A red glow was generated from the hand gripping the tail that directly burned the magical armed unit.

I took the magic armed unit to the treetops and threw it away.

Since Schwert was docked at Arroganz, lasers shot out of there and ripped through it.

The magical armed unit fell on the Sacred Tree. Stop !!

While Luxon was very enthusiastic about dropping it, I was about to draw Schwert’s greatsword to stop him — when suddenly a missile rained down on the magic armor.

-Eh!?

Looking up, I saw a box-shaped aircraft, larger than Luxon itself, floating in midair.

Luxon was frustrated.

Ideal!? Why are you getting in the way ?!

As Luxon protested, Ideal opened a communication channel to speak to him.

I’m here to help. I’ll take care of the magic armed unit from here. More importantly, are you sure you want to leave that woman like that?

Louise, whom Arroganz gently held in his arms, was naked.

Given the outside temperature, we couldn’t leave her in that state any longer.”Luxon, let’s go back.”

… It is understood.

The truth is he’s following my orders with an air of reluctant obedience, although he really doesn’t want to … he’s still following my orders.

If you are an artificial intelligence, you should be able to obey orders like Ideal. However, there seems to be some parts that Luxon disagrees with. Ideal, I will contact you later to explain.

Is there a problem?

… Many unnatural things have happened.

There is some kind of misunderstanding. I get it. We will discuss it later.

Louise was dreaming.

She was lying in the shade of a tree on a nice day. Her brother was next to her, staring at Louise’s face.

Louise could see her brother’s pale face and tears welled up in her eyes.

-Leon

“What is it, Sister? Did you have a nightmare?”

-Its not that. You know … I’ve always wanted to apologize for a long time.

-Why?

As Louise lifted her upper body and hugged her brother, she realized she was a girl.

She realized that this was a dream, and she became sad.

“I’ve never been able to apologize to you. I couldn’t do anything about it. You are my brother and I couldn’t do anything!”

Her brother held Louise when she started crying and gently comforted her.

“You didn’t have to worry about that. Besides, I’m sorry too. I was almost not on time. But you already seem to have gotten a great deal of help.”

When Louise saw her brother smile, she was sure this was the real Leon.

-So is. Two more left … wait.

-What?

“Leon, did you save me?”

When Louise looked at his face, questioning Leon’s dialogue, he smiled. She would also worry if her late brother told her he was here to help.

And most importantly, if he is her real brother.”You came to save me, right?”

“How did I come to save you?” This was a dream.

It couldn’t be helped that it was incoherent. Still, Louise held on and searched for the truth.”Leon, tell me the truth.”

-Oh I’m sorry. It’s time to go.

After telling him so naturally, Leon got up and ran off.

When she got up to chase him, Leon was saying goodbye from afar.”See you later, Sister!”

Leon said “See you later”, turned around and ran away. When he reached his hand behind her, Louise woke up.

—Le… on… don’t… go…o.

Louise woke up from her dream.

She spread her hands and her breath quickened.”Ah, have you woken up yet?”

I was sitting in a chair near the bed and had just woken up. I was tired and looked like I had fallen asleep while sitting. Thanks to that, I had a strange dream.

I feel like I’ve had a very nostalgic dream, but it’s not natural.

I think I was talking to my older sister, but I don’t remember having that much fun with Jenna.

Is that what I want? Don’t tell me … am I a siscon? I was a bit surprised.

“Huh, uh, what?”

Louise raised her upper body and looked around the room.”You’re on the aircraft I have.”

Louise, who was lying on the bed in the spare room, was dressed in the clothes Anjie and the others had brought her.

I stretched out and stood up.

-Luxon has investigated, it seems that the flower has nothing to do with the Sacred Tree. He said he had a weapon attached to it called a magical armed unit.

When I briefly explained the situation, Louise looked down.

“… So it wasn’t a dream.”

“I’m glad you weren’t euthanized.”

-So you think? It doesn’t change the fact that you interrupted me. If you go back, you’ll be in big trouble.

She looked at me accusingly and I told her what happened.

-No problem. After all, the acting president has given me permission to do so.

Louise’s eyes went wide, and then she looked stunned when she guessed.

“My father did something stupid too. Now he will be blamed by the other families. Even if the story of the Leon is true, the heads of the six noble families will not believe it. They will protest because you let the flower wither on your own.

I’m sure that even if I explained that: “That was a fake!” they wouldn’t believe me. I’ll have to leave that to Alberg-Sama.

-This is a problem. Do we have to flee to the kingdom for this? I smiled as I said that, and Louise looked at me.

-What happened?

“… Why did I look at you and think you looked like my brother when I only knew him as a child? That’s what intrigued me. When I look closer, he’s not like you. Leon was a much more obedient and kind boy.”

I looked at Louise, who had turned away and sulked, and apologized for the deception.

-Do not be mad at me. If I can’t convince you, I would have to deceive you, right?

“Your methods are too dirty.” Leon, you deliberately let yourself be beaten by Serge when you fought him, didn’t you? It was too unnatural now that I think about it. You could even take me to the people who came in. I am aware that it was an inefficient strategy.

Well, there were many things I wanted to try. Thanks to that, we had a good opportunity.

When Louise looked back at me, her mouth complained, but she was worried.”Would you go that far?” You even coughed up blood, right? You are injured?

“Oh, that?” It is clotted blood. It is not obvious?

I showed him one of the small capsules and put it in his mouth and chewed it.

Then, it seemed like blood … was coming out of my mouth. Louise was pulling my cheeks.

-You are terrible. You made me worry about nothing.

-Do not be angry. It was really effective, wasn’t it? Also, I don’t want to be overestimated. It was a random strategy, you know? Right now I regret that I could have done better.

Actually, Ideal’s defense team was on the way, and it took longer than he thought.

It would have been a lot easier if Ideal hadn’t interfered.

“I wonder if Leon would have been like you when he grew up. I would not like that as an older sister. I wish you had grown up to be a better and more honest boy.”

“I heard from you, Alberg and the others, but Leon was a naughty boy, right? He wouldn’t have grown up a good, honest boy, would he?”

“My Leon is not like you.”

She sulked again and walked away from me, so I decided to leave the room.

-I’m sorry about that. … It’s true, Louise, I just thought about the answer to your question.

-What? Maybe you have been thinking about it the whole time? You will never be right.

As I was dreaming before, one thing came to mind.

That is the question with which Louise saw through my lie.

She seemed to think she would never be right, but she had a strange confidence in me.

I received the clue in my dream, an item that I remember giving my parents in a past life.

At the time, it was a ticket to help, but in my dream, it was a “ticket to save.”

“Ticket to save … was I right? Well, I probably failed. Oh, it’s almost time to go, so I’ll go.

As I left the room, I saw the look of surprise on Louise’s face.”

Does it mean I failed? She showed a face saying “What is this guy talking about?” It would have been better if I hadn’t said that.

Louise couldn’t move when she heard Leon’s reply.”H-How could you guess?”

The paper ring his brother gave him was a piece of paper that initially read “three tickets to save.”

When Louise said that she would not forgive him, her brother rolled them up and turned it into a ring.

So even if they had known about the paper ring, no one would have known what was written inside.

Not even Serge would have known. How long has it been?

There was a knock on the door and Noelle entered the room as Louise answered.

“Noelle.”

“Louise, I need to talk to you.”

-… Take a seat.

Louise also remembered what happened in the spirit world.

Now that she knew what she was hiding, it was time to talk to Noelle. But she couldn’t help but thank her.

-You saved me. Thank you. Noelle was silent.

She exposed the facts in that spirit world. Now Noelle knew what Louise really felt.

She has romantic feelings for her little brother, even if they are mild, and she would be upset if she found out that the reason he was stalking her was because she was the woman who took him off.

From Noelle’s point of view, it’s a recrimination. Noelle got up and slapped Louise on the cheek.

… Well, that’s how things turn out.

Noelle, while Louise accepted the slap indulgently, began to speak to him little by little.”I didn’t know about the engagement.”

“… Huh?”

“There are many things I don’t remember from my childhood, but at least I didn’t hear about my engagement.”

Louise giggled when she found out that Noelle didn’t know about Leon.

-What? So, Leon was being tricked? It really disgusts me. I wonder how far the Lespinasse family has to go to make fun of us and make us feel better.

Noelle’s hand reached out and grabbed Louise’s chest. When Louise looked at Noelle’s face, she was crying.

-Why are you crying?

“W-Because when we were connected I could see your memories! I didn’t know you cared so much about your brother.”

“It’s unpleasant to see the spirits connect.” Am I the only one who was spied on? Thinking that this is not a fair conversation, Noelle continued.

“I didn’t expect you to be so pleased with my engagement story. I sincerely apologize for not being able to attend the funeral. So I will go visit his grave soon.”

“I’m glad you did. —I’m sorry. I lied. I don’t want you near Leon’s grave. Noelle giggled when she told him how honest she felt.”

“After all, you look better this way, Louise.”

-What?

“A foul-mouthed, sarcastic woman, that’s the Louise I know.” It was unpleasant when I saw you hiding behind Leon like a cat.

-What have you said!?

Louise also grabbed Noelle’s chest and they stared at each other. Noelle seemed to be having a lot of fun.

“Yes, your face!” I can’t help but laugh when I think that the woman who bullied me was jealous that I thought I had taken her beloved brother from her.

“S-Say what you want!”

They grabbed hold of the hair and began to fight, clawing at each other.

“I’ve always hated you! How dare you bully me just because I took your brother from you !?”

“Thanks to that, the other boys didn’t touch you! You should at least thank me, annoying woman!”

Pillows were thrown and hit each other … and after a few minutes, they both lay on the bed, exhausted.

They were lying side by side, staring at the ceiling and panting. Their hair was a mess.

Their clothes were ruined.

And probably because they said what they had to say, the conversation was more fluid than before.

Noelle seemed refreshed, letting out her previous exasperation.”Oh ?, I said it. That felt good.”

Louise didn’t like it, but she was a little happier.

“You are a rude woman. I’m glad you don’t have to be Leon’s wife.”And the second says so too.”

“As soon as Leon met you, he would immediately have chosen me again as his number 1.”

They laughed while complaining about it.