Sevens

Volume 8, Chapter 95 – Connection

Translated by: Reiji

I made her angry just as expected.

I took a stance with my saber while looking at the enraged May in front of me.

An exasperated voice came from the Jewel.

『You should be a bit more clearer about the premise.』

『I got the wrong idea that you wanted to anger her. I can’t even give you ten points for this.』

『Lyle, are you really determined to do this!?』

『The Fifth is kind? It seems that a qilin can’t understand the subtlety of human relationships.』

『Even so, she is splendidly angered.』

They said whatever they liked but, it was just like usual so I ignored them.

In the first place the difficulty was too high.

What should I do to make a line of 「Kiss with me」 become a success?

It was impossible no matter how you thought about it.

No matter how well I persuaded her, if at the end I said 「Kiss with me」──the talk would break down eventually.

「In the end, it can’t be solved without using brute force huh.」

The lightning settled down and silence returned to the surroundings.

My ears were ringing after the explosive sound.

It felt like May’s words were coming from far away.

When May took a step forward, she was before my eyes in the next instant with her fist raised up.

「Tsu!」

I dodged in panic. May’s fist hit the tree behind me.

The tree was punched and sent flying. Cold sweat was coming out after seeing that.

I stood up while wiping the sweat with left hand. Then May slowly turned her face towards me.

「It’s hard that I can’t use my full power. Even though I can turn you into ash instantly as long as I’ve obtained your necklace──it’s really unfortunate.」

Her eyes looked extremely chilly.

It felt like I would shiver seeing that emotionless face.

A qilin’s strength──even in human form, her strength was in different dimension from us humans.

But──it wasn’t at Celes’s level.

「I cannot lose here. My bad but, I can’t give you the Jewel. I need it for my objective after all.」

「You’ll sacrifice other people for your own objective like that. You humans are always like that. You’re all beyond help.」

The Fifth sounded sad hearing May’s words.

『May, don’t force yourself.』

The Fifth──I wished you would worry about me more rather than May.

May headed towards me but, she vanished from my field of vision instantly.

The next instant,

『Behind you!』

I hurriedly rolled away from that spot hearing the Fifth’s words to dodge and stood up. Then May’s fist hit the ground.

She turned only her eyes towards me,

「Scampering around like that, how troublesome.」

She pulled out her fist from the ground and her figure vanished again.

The Fifth gave me instruction.

『Lyle, fundamentally if she vanishes from in front of you, then think that she’ll come at you from outside of your field of vision. Your judgment will be late if you rely only on Arts. I’ll give you instructions.』

The instructions of the Fifth who read ahead of May’s movement was terrifyingly accurate. I was able to dodge May’s attacks easily.

「How’re you able to predict her movements this accurately?」

I asked while dodging. Then the Sixth answered in irritation.

『That’s because it was the Fifth who taught this qilin the way to fight. He never taught us anything though.』

With this another terrible story appeared.

The Fifth complained.

『It’ll be strange if I make you fight in the same way as me when your build is bigger! Lyle, she’ll come from below next. That May, her habit from the past is still remaining.』

May was coming at me not with technique, but with brute force.

My eyes were getting used to her.

And then, I also came to understand the habits of May’s fighting style.

My breathing was getting rough, even so I regained my composure.

In contrast──May was the one who started looking irritated and impatient.

「Why isn’t my attacks landing. Why!?」

I smiled while,

「You’re just brute forcing this. Your technique is poor huh.」

In the first place, a qilin didn’t need anything like hand-to-hand fighting techniques, but May was gritting her teeth.

She must be irritated from being made fun of.

「Someone like you──Fredericks was far, far far stronger just so you know!」

She childishly yelled. Tears were gathering at her eyes.

May leaped at me and launched a spinning kick.

My body wouldn’t be able to endure if I blocked it, so I dodged by a hair’s breadth and tried to grapple May’s body to push her down──

「DON’T TOUCH MEEEE!」

She forcefully threw me away.

She grabbed my arm and forcefully threw me. I executed an ukemibreak-fall when hitting the ground.

When I stood up, I could see May’s palm right near me.

The hand stretched out to tightly hold my head. I caught that arm and,

「With this!」

Blue flame burst out from my body.

I used the First’s Art and threw May on the ground with all my strength.

May didn’t even execute an ukemi. She was dumbfounded.

「──Why? Even though I’m stronger」

The Fifth’s sad voice came.

『May, I didn’t teach you martial arts because I wanted you to do something like this. I taught you because I wanted you to protect yourself.』

May seemed to hear the Fifth’s sad voice. She frowned and leaped up from that spot, taking distance from me.

The horn on May’s forehead was sinking in.

The Fifth yelled seeing that.

『Lyle, dodge!』

May thrust her fist forward. A golden horn grew from there.

「I’ll get hit if I dodge carelessly.」

I focused in front of May’s attack that was filled with sharp killing intent.

And then──.

「Warp.」

I muttered. The Seventh’s Art instantly moved my body although it was only for a short range.

The Seventh was delighted.

『Lyle, good job succeeding! How’s that, my Art is amazing right!?』

Certainly it was amazing but, the distance that could be traveled was really short.

It was really convenient but──Warp was an Art that also had a lot of problematic points.

After I teleported behind May, I could dodge the attack but──this was really tiring.

The mana consumption was also great. The current me couldn’t use this often.

May must be flustered because I vanished from in front of her instantly.

She couldn’t stop her momentum and tumbled forward. She then got up and looked at me with her eyes opened wide.

May was flustered that she was dodged.

「Instantly──how?」

It was an Art that was hard to use but, I was glad it succeeded.

With this it felt like I could also use it for bluffing.

「It’s an Art. Did you forget that this thing is a Gem? This thing doesn’t only contain Fredericks. It also memorized the Arts of my ancestors.」

May gritted her teeth when I flaunted the Jewel. She headed toward me once more.

But, her step was shallow. She might be staying vigilant.

May slashed with the horn growing out from her hand.

I parried that attack with my saber.

The saber would easily snap if it clashed against the horn, so I really only pushed to change the attack’s direction.

Just with that, sparks scattered from the saber and it snapped.

「It snapped again.」

I discarded the saber’s handle and took a stance. There May slashed at me.

The violent slash that was only her swinging her horn around was different from Celes. I could dodge it easily.

If it was like this, facing Celes was far scarier.

I realized deeply how inhuman Celes who was even stronger than a qilin was.

I grasped the Jewel with my right hand.

『Lyle, you mustn’t cut her! You get it, absolutely don’t do it!』

The Fifth pressed his wish to me. I muttered 「yes, yes」 inside my heart while──materializing the silver great sword.

Perhaps because the Jewel was unstable, the way it struggled was more horrible than usual.

Even when I grasped its handle with both hands, it raged around annoyingly.

「What’s that? I don’t know. I don’t know about something like that!」

May was in confusion, so I explained while pretending to be composed.

「This is the Jewel’s power. The memories of the ancestors are inside this. That’s the answer.」

May couldn’t accept it. She leaped at me.

I fixed my grip on the great sword, and using the flat of the sword──I swung it from left to right horizontally in a big way to deal a blow.

The attack that was swung in a way to not hit May mowed down the trees in front of me like a storm.

May was also sent flying. She hit a rock and slid down until she reached the ground, sitting there.

I too had used up practically all of my mana from the attack just now.

The silver great sword that the First left behind was powerful, but it took away almost all of the user’s mana.

It was a weapon for a one hit kill.

I returned the silver great sword back to the Jewel. I then felt the blue flame vanishing from my body.

It was hard to even stand.

May was looking at me while crying.

「Just how can I lose. I have become strong. I became strong in order to meet Fredericks──and yet, why!」

「You’re strong. But, I can deal with it if I can see how you’ll move next.」

The Third was laughing at my words.

『The opponent couldn’t display her full strength also played a big part in it though. But, Lyle who can carry it out is also amazing.』

I could feel her holding back in order to not destroy the Jewel.

May shook her head.

「That’s a lie. How can you predict my movement? Something like this never happened until now.」

May couldn’t accept it. I turned towards her and showed off the Jewel in my grasp.

「The Fifth──Fredericks taught me.」

May shook her head hearing my explanation.

Her face said that she couldn’t believe it.

「Lie. That’s a lie. There’s no way Fredericks will betray me. Because, he promised. HE promised──that we will meet again!」

May sobbed. Her wordings became childish when I noticed.

『May, I was at fault. ──Lyle, tell her.』

I conveyed the Fifth’s words to May.

「This is his message for you. I’m sorry that I lied. When we parted, you didn’t look like you wanted to leave so I lied, he said.」

May leaked out tears while pointing the qilin’s horn growing from her right hand to me.

「You’re lying again. You humans are──Fredericks’s family was cold to Fredericks. They didn’t try to understand him at all! They used him, complained at him──who’ll believe the words of the likes of you humans!」

「What’re you saying──」

The clothes that May was wearing expanded bigger and enveloped her body. She returned to her qilin form.

It seemed that May still had stamina remaining.

「Even though I’m at my limit.」

May stepped firmly on the ground, lowered her face, and pointed her horn at me.

She planned to collide with me with all her strength to send me flying.

「Are you planning to blow me away together with the Jewel?」

「──I’ll free Fredericks. I’ve to pay back my debt. That’s why──That’s why, wait for me, Fredericks.」

It seemed she wouldn’t listen to me.

I sighed.

「You, have you forgotten? I’m not alone.」

The moment May charged, a red light rushed to the front of me.

The one who blocked the sharp qilin’s horn was Aria who hardened her short spear to have a metallic color.

She swung down the spear to May, but the hardened short spear was the one that broke instead.

However, thanks to that the attack was diverted and I was saved.

Aria quickly carried me under her arm and withdraw from this place. May then chased after us slightly behind.

Aria was complaining to me.

「That was too close! Just why did you volunteer to become the bait even though it’s impossible!?」

「It has to be me. After all May won’t even pay attention to Aria or the others.」

「May──is it that girl’s name?」

Aria was traveling quickly inside the forest. She was heading to the place that was prepared to capture May.

When we arrived, Miranda and Eva were already waiting there.

After Aria and I passed through that place where the two were hiding, May ran into there a bit later.

The sound of her steps on the ground was really loud.

The tree branches that bumped into her were sent flying. The shape of her hooves was printed firmly in the ground.

「Let’s leave the rest to those two.」

After I muttered that, Aria looked back in worry.

「Will those two be alright?」

.

──Lyle and Aria passed through. Eva was waiting for the signal.

The two of them were hiding with some distance from each other. They were facing each other.

With Miranda’s signal, Eva strongly pulled the string that was tied to a tree.

It stretched out the net created from Miranda’s string that was prepared in the route of the qilin.

Right after that, the qilin rushed into the net. The trees that the net was tied up to were making a groaning sound.

They used several trees so that the trap wouldn’t be destroyed easily. It stopped the qilin’s momentum.

But, the trap looked like it was going to be destroyed.

「So it can’t be stopped with this. Qilins are amazing.」

Eva was wondering whether she should thank Lyle for being able to see this from nearby, or should she be angry at him for angering a qilin.

And then their next plan began right away.

「Don’t resent us for this.」

Magic was used to create an earth wall around the qilin.

The wall that couldn’t even be used to buy time was instantly blown away by the qilin.

But, what they wanted to do wasn’t capture her.

It was to block her sight even if it was only for a moment.

「Wily woman!」

Eva yelled at Miranda.

「That’s a horrible way of calling me.」

Miranda leaped out from behind a bush. At the same time several earth puppets jumped toward the qilin.

Golems in the shape of animals, insects, human arms──multiple golems were holding down the qilin.

The animal shaped golems bit at the qilin with their fangs, but it didn’t deal a single scratch on the qilin’s scale.

Miranda manipulated the threads stretching out from her fingertips to manipulate multiple golems.

「I’ll capture you again.」

However the qilin swung around her head, breaking the golems that were created from soil. They became sand and crumbled.

「──Don’t think you can capture me with something like this!」

The qilin’s voice was the same as the girl they met.

「So that girl really is this qilin.」

Eva was surprised while also feeling happy to learn that qilins could transform into humans.

She went to assist Miranda while feeling happy to be able to obtain actual experience and not just mere knowledge.

Eva threw a cylinder object. It hit the ground and produced smoke.

The thin smoke was created using ingredient that had horrible smell and stung the eyes.

「Uwah, the smell reaches until here.」

Even though her face twisted from the smell, the qilin hit the ground with her front legs, causing wind to blow violently and dispersed the smoke instantly.

The moment she thought that it ended too quickly, a string was entangling around the qilin’s neck when she noticed.

The sticky string was stretching from Miranda’s hand.

Other than that, strings were also stretching out from the place where the golems jumped out from.

The golems were sent out in order to attach the strings on her from the start.

「They won’t come off so easily.」

When Miranda pulled the strings, the qilin swung around her neck.

Miranda was easily swung around in the air.

「You acted so cockily like that and yet you got swung around so easily like that!」

Miranda was irritated by those words. She changed her posture midair.

When the string caught on the trees, she used it as fulcrum and changed her direction midair like a pendulum.

She severed the string stretching from her hand and manifested new string to entangle the qilin’s neck again.

「Just watch quietly!」

Like that she increased the number of strings tying up the qilin’s neck. There the qilin rampaged.

「Mere strings like this!」

But, the strings entangled even more the more she rampaged. Furthermore it didn’t stop there.

Sparking sounds could be heard from some time ago.

Eva looked at the fluffy strings entangled on each other that fell on her shoulder.

The strings burned up when it touched her body and vanished.

The moment they burned, they stole the opponent’s mana.

(This woman, she’s amazing as expected.)

She called herself an all-purpose jack of all trades, while possessing a great number of moves.

And then, it was unknown whether he was aware of it but, the one who Lyle relied the most after Novem was Miranda.

(──But, as I thought I hate this woman.)

May who was covered with sticky strings and couldn’t use her mana like she wanted was struggling.

Miranda who finally landed on the ground was breathing heavily.

「Ho, how’s that」

Miranda captured the qilin while flying around inside the forest. Eva sent her an applause that wasn’t filled with any feeling.

「Congratulations. That’s amazing. I’m moved. You look completely like a spider woman.」

Miranda glared at Eva.

「There are unnecessary words there. Quickly go call Lyle and Aria.」

Their plan was to lure May into the place where they prepared their trap.

During that time, it was Lyle’s job to buy time.

「We came back already.」

Aria came while carrying Lyle under her arm.

Lyle looked really tired while being carried pathetically.

Eva sighed.

「Lyle, you should make yourself look a bit better. You make the scene feel sloppy even though we finally reached the climax after great pains.」

「Even I want to do so if possible.」

Lyle asked Aria to put him down and approached May.

She neighed threateningly while pointing her horn at Lyle.

Lyle faced May who was like that and started persuading her──

.

May was directing hostility towards me.

「You’re still energetic even after all this. Qilins really are amazing.」

Aria was on her guard against May.

Miranda was also similar.

Eva was──if it had to be said which, she was watching us with deep interest.

She was holding expectations towards the development from here.

The Seventh looked at May who was restrained by Miranda’s strings in admiration.

『She captured her while taking consideration to make her powerless? Although she had been weakened by Lyle beforehand, but still as expected from aunt’s great grandchild.』

I wondered how was the Seventh evaluating his aunt──Milleia-san inside himself.

The Sixth said that she was a kind girl who was blind but possessed mystic eyes but──it seemed that the Seventh’s impression was completely different.

Putting that aside, right now,

「Let’s talk. I don’t plan to harm you. But, I just want to talk.」

May glared at me with rough nasal breathing. It was clear that she was agitated.

I brought my face closer and whispered lowly so the other three couldn’t hear.

「Fredericks want to talk.」

I said that and dangled the Jewel in front of May.

The Fifth talked.

『May, just once is fine. Do as Lyle says. I don’t want you to be harmed even more than this. I don’t want you and Lyle to fight. I beg you please──listen to my wish.』

I didn’t know whether that voice of the Fifth reached her or not but, May’s horn slowly sunk in.

She turned her face towards me,

「──What should I do?」

「Returning to our first talk, I have an Art. Connection──it’s an Art that makes it possible for communication directly between minds. A line of mana is needed in order to do that. The kiss is the way to do that.」

Even though I was the one saying those words, and yet I was thinking, it couldn’t be helped that others wouldn’t believe such thing.

The Sixth often said 『Before deceiving your opponent, trick yourself to believe it completely!』.

But, in regard to this I thought, this is impossible huh.

May pondered for a while, then,

「Okay. Actually I wanted to kiss with Fredericks though.」

「Eh? You two were in that kind of relationship?」

The Fifth was getting criticized inside the Jewel.

『Eh, the relationship between you two went that far?』

『That’s appalling. Don’t tell me, you harbored desires towards animals?』

『Don’t you think it can’t be helped that I ran away from home? Or rather, what kind of face do you think I should make after learning my parent’s fetish?』

『Everyone here feels the same. After all we’re family. I too cannot hide my shock to learn that grandfather has that kind of hobby.』

The Fifth was desperately making excuses towards the criticism from the other four.

『You idiots! I ain’t taking care of animals due to that kind of impure feeling! My feeling is purer. Besides, among animals many species greet by kissing! Why the hell are you guys smirking huh! Are you listening to me!?』

They were making fun of the Fifth who was desperately making excuses.

Even though it would be better if he stopped, the Fifth was getting worked up, that was why he was being made fun of.

May looked at me.

「Do it quickly.」

「──Eh? Aa, right. But, err that’s」

May extended her neck towards my face.

──Wait a second.

Could it be, she planned to kiss me in that form?

With a qilin’s form?

It was beyond my expectation.

Aria seemed to guess what I wanted to say. She hurried me up with a red face.

「Come on, get on with it.」

「No, but!」

Miranda was also smiling, but there was something in her that wouldn’t accept any argument.

「Lyle really has it hard. Now, let’s finish it quickly.」

Eva looked dissatisfied but,

「A love romance with a qilin is also hard to discard but, Lyle’s heroine is Novem alone isn’t it? Let’s do the kissing scene here with this qilin form.」

Urged by the three──I ended up kissing with May in her qilin form.

The Fifth was angry.

『Lyle, what’re you dissatisfied about May!?』

I really couldn’t understand the Fifth’s feelings.

May’s tongue entered my mouth but, *goboh!*

It felt like that.

May’s large tongue entered inside my mouth. How should I say it──this wasn’t a kiss.

But, it seemed my Art recognized it as a kiss.

A line of mana was formed, then May’s head slumped down.

I also fell on my knees. There Aria caught my body.

.

Unlike usual, I was pulled into the Jewel forcefully.

It wasn’t the room of the round table there, but the memory room of the Fifth.

Inside the room that had nothing, the Fifth was waiting alone. He sent a smiling face this way.

It wasn’t directed towards me──but towards May.

「Fredericks!」

『You’ve grown big, May.』

May who was in the form of a qilin changed into a human while running. She leaped towards the Fifth.

Her speech became even more childish than what should be fitting for the age of her appearance.

「I’ve grown big. I’ve grown strong you know!」

『Yeah, I was watching. You’ve grown big. And you were also strong.』

The Fifth hugged May, and then he kindly patted her head.

They were like father and daughter──they looked completely like a parent and child.

It couldn’t be helped that the Sixth was angry like this.

「Fredericks, your promise──your promise with me」

The Fifth scratched his cheek bashfully. And then he placed his hand on May’s shoulder.

『My bad. I lied to you because you didn’t look like you would leave. At that time, I understood that we wouldn’t be able to meet anymore. I lied to you knowing that. I was in the wrong.』

May shook her head.

「No. It was because I couldn’t make it in time. Even though──even though I promised to become Fredericks’s wife.」

When I went 「Eh!?」 hearing the talk of those two, the Fifth made a forced cough.

『Aa~, you mean that. I remember it.』

The Fifth’s memory was called out and the scenery of the surroundings was changing.

It was the animal shed that the Sixth showed me.

May was surprised seeing the surroundings.

She saw the animals around her,

「Michael──and also Angelo. There is also Maya. And Zelt too!」

May’s eyes sparkled. She approached the big dog she called Zelt and tried to touch it──she passed through it and froze saying 「Ah」.

She became tearful.

『This is inside my memory. I’m sorry, but you cannot touch them.』

A voice could be heard deeper inside the shed.

A young child──May looking like she was five years old was sitting on Fredericks’s lap.

She looked really happy.

The animals were also gathering around them. They looked like they wanted Fredericks to pay attention to them.

「Fifth, you’re really popular.」

『Animals are really nice. They wash your heart clean.』

「Even though it would be better if you treasured your family more.」

May glared at me when I said that.

「Don’t bully Fredericks! Everyone didn’t even know how much Fredericks was suffering, and yet they were like that──」

『May, it’s enough.』

It seemed that May knew something but, the Fifth stopped her from speaking further.

『I did it knowing what it meant. It was me who was cold towards my family. It can’t be helped even if I’m blamed.』

「But」

I honestly asked to the Fifth.

「Is there a reason?」

The Fifth looked at his past self who was surrounded by animals while,

『──After mama gave birth to me, she became unable to bear a child due to an accident. Father was devoted to mama alone, and the previous head the Third also died young with only one child. Anyway we had few relatives at that time.』

The Third’s child was one.

There was also how it was a bad era at that time but, it was painful for the Walt House that he died young in war.

After that, the Fourth who succeeded the house also had only one child──it wouldn’t be strange even if the direct line perished anytime.

The Fifth was unlucky.

『Anyway we didn’t have enough relatives. That was why I chose the simplest solution. After all the quickest way to shut up the small feudal lords under my jurisdiction was by marriage.』

The Fourth became a Baron due to the Third’s achievements. He entered a position where he had to lead the small feudal lords.

But, no matter which era, such thing was accompanied by jealousy it seemed.

A house that was the same rank as them until now was promoted.

The number of houses that couldn’t tolerate that wasn’t few. The governing wasn’t advancing like planned.

But, whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the territory under the direct control of the Walt House was developing well.

『The surrounding Baron houses and Viscount houses, and even the Count further above them were hostile towards us. They insulted us as upstarts. We had few allies then.』

「That’s──didn’t you think about the succession problem it might bring?」

Nobles often met with succession problems.

To have many family members also meant that the seed of conflict would number just as many.

『I thought about it. Even so I decided to increase the number of allies. In fact it was a success. After all the children were united by having a common enemy in me. You being here meant I had managed to protect the house. Though, if my act is judged on whether it’s good or evil, then it’s undoubtedly evil.』

May grabbed the Fifth’s arm.

「Fredericks isn’t evil. Besides, you actually──」

『I’m the worst. That was why, my children didn’t approach me. That’s all.』

The Fifth only said that as the last and didn’t touch this topic anymore.