Katahane no Riku Chapter 10

Whether people at castles or at villages were shocked by seeing her, nothing of the sort would matter during the war.

Even if she was a human and a descendant from a famous spiritualist family, she wielded her power as a member of the Demon Lord army and was accepted. If she was strong, she would be able to keep living, but if she were weak, she would die and lose her place to belong to.

And more than anything… she was had been able to obtain a place to belong to.

If she was strong, she would be able to live on and protect the place she belonged to, and she was weak, she would simply lose such place. For that sake she would swing her halberd. When she was taking and losing life on both sides, Riku would become free. As if it wasn´t unnatural at all, she would feel at ease in such times.

“Well then, let´s go report, shall we?”

Riku was wearing the armor she had been carefully polis.h.i.+ng.

Just as the color of her hair, the red armor was difficult  to differentiate from blood. And so, every time she would go clean the armor, without her noticing, some blood stains would remain. As a human descendant from a spiritualist family, she was a target of despise and mockery, and there was no reason to give people more reasons for doing that.

Besides, she didn´t wish for the impression of the Dragon Demon Division because of her stained armor.

“Yotto”(よっと)

Riku lifted her halberd she had similarly polished up to her shoulder.

Leaning that weight she had already become used to on her shoulder, she headed out by foot to the room her superiors were waiting. The blowing wind was refres.h.i.+ng and somewhat warm. Looking up to the sky, it was a radiant blue sky just like that day. After seeing that, Riku gave a faint smile. Since then, ten years had pa.s.sed and she was now seventeen years old. The memories of when she was still seven were like a distant horizon, but she would remember that day as if it was yesterday.

How she was thrown down a cliff and being carried by the waves to that port city.

And the face of the demon who was more important to her than her life, who had saved her, who was about to die.

“Hey, the one there is that rumored…”

“Ah, that jumped-up human. So unfair, really.”*1

Riku heard the whisperings of gossip.

And because of that, her happy mood was blown away in one go. At the corner of her view, there were two demons looking at her full of mockery. She didn´t really care, but she didn´t like this back-talking either. And more than anything, she really hated to be brought back to reality. In that instant, she felt like using her halberd on them, but held herself back, knowing that if she were to cause trouble here, all it would happen was she being sent to confinement. The hand that had lost its intent slowly went back to its place, and Riku left the place at a fast pace.

…Pretending that she hadn´t noticed anything.

“…”

Not all demons looked with disdain to Riku. For instance, the demon that had been together with her through her life in the Dragon Demon Division from the time she was  seven years old acknowledged Riku´s capability. To be fair, there weren´t many demons that were like that to her to speak of, but after living together for many days, there were a few that were enough to be worth noting were being formed.

During these ten years, the Division had achieved many merits and increased in its size, and so having the number of newly recruited soldiers being many. From the very beginning, the Dragon Demon Division had always been composed mostly out of newcomers. And such demons had antipathy against Riku. In a certain way, this happening was only obvious.

After what happened before, ignoring the discrimination gazes that would be directing to her from times to times, she had finally reached the place she needed to get to. Fixing her hair with her hand, she lightly knocked the door. As she did that, from inside the room, a sharp voice of a man came in response.

“Who is it?”

Hearing the familiar voice she hadn´t hear by a few days, her gloomy feeling was blown away.

Deeply inhaling some air, she raised her voice as much as possible.

“From the Dragon Demon Division serving the lieutenant general Leivein Adlar, second lieutenant Riku Barusak has returned.”*2

“Enter.”

“Yes!”

Straightening up her back as much as possible, she entered the room.

And then, she looked at the young man, who was doing his official duties. Comparing to when Riku first met him, his stature became much taller, and had grown two splendid wings. Slowly raising his view from the doc.u.ment he was looking, he looked at Riku with his never changing two sharp eyes.

“Is that so? You´ve done a good job, second lieutenant Riku.”

The corners of his mouth had slightly risen.

Hearing Leivein´s words of appreciation, Riku´s heart started beating fast.

Leivein, who had saved her, was Riku´s benefactor, and also the person she had sworn loyalty to. Indeed… It was only for her to hear these kind of words from Leivein that she swung her halberd. Kneeling using one her knees, she had deeply bowed.

“Yes! I´m very honored by your words.”

“I´ve heard that together with Vrusto, with about two hundred soldiers you had gained control of Perikka. With all the resisting forces eliminated and with control of the merchants, as a trade city, it will be very useful in the future. This time, you were noted even among the top bra.s.s. Charlotte-sama is deeply pleased with your deeds.”

“Could you be talking about that girl?”

For her to disregard the higher position this much, Leivein got a bit surprised.

Now that the Demon Lord is sealed, his younger sister Charlotte, in his stead, is commanding the demon race.

To Riku, the most she could be viewed as was as just “some important demon figure”. To her, what mattered the most was Leivein. It could be said that anything else didn´t really matter.

To Riku´s actions, Leivein made an unpleased gaze.

“It´s the Demon Lord´s younger sister, and his subst.i.tute. You should call her Charlotte-sama. Calling her like that is disrespectful.”

“Yes, I beg your pardon.”

“…Well, it´s fine. From the achievements of this time, it has been decided for you to be promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant . Because of the promotion, a transfer order had been given to you.”

“Transfer order?”

The moment she had heard that, she felt the impact similar to being hit by a club in the head.

Without thinking, Riku had approached Leiven. Because of how strong she had hit the table with her hands, great amounts of doc.u.ments fell to the ground.

“Why!? Why can´t I be in the Dragon Demon Division anymore!? If that´s the case, I don´t need the promotion to first lieutenant. My life was saved by commander Leivein. That´s why I must fight for…”

“Calm down, first lieutenant Riku Barusak.”

“Don´t worry, you will still be aligned to the Dragon Demon Division. After one year, you will be able to come back here.”

Hearing that, she stood rock still.

She would be able to come back eventually, so she didn´t understand why it was necessary for her to transfer. And so, she asked.

“After one year, I will be allowed to come back, right? But if that is the case, then being transferred…”

“The reason for your transfer is for you to acquire experience, since you are someone that will eventually rise to be an important figure. Being to a place you are not used to, many hards.h.i.+ps will come after all. I will let you bring together with you a number of soldier as your subordinates… You should be thankful for me to be giving a recommendation on you.”

For the sake of acquiring experience, as someone that will become an important figure.

She had heard various words from his mouth, but all that really entered her ears was about when Leiven spoke of him giving a recommendation. Her respected and beloved Leivein had given her a recommendation.

Only that was enough.

Without saying anything, Riku put one of her knees to the ground.

Doing a respectful bow, which was one of the demon standards, she looked up at Leivein.

“Thank you very much, captain Leivein. After coming back, I will without doubt had become stronger and more than before a capable soldier.”

“Umu.”( うむ) (It means yes for those that don´t know)

Only saying that, he extended his hand as to say that she was dismissed.

Quickly leaving the room, Riku turned her back from Leivein.

Having been decided that she was to be transferred, Riku had a mountain of things she needed to prepare. In order to not make a fool of the image of Leivein´s Dragon Demon Division, she needed to make the preparations to the best of her ability. And so, Riku was very enthusiastic on that.

“I´m looking forward to what will become of you, Riku.”

From behind her, the voice resounded.

Unconsciously, Riku turned her head back.

Leiven´s eyes were already turned to the doc.u.ments, but even so, Riku was very happy.

Leiven always called her name together with her ranking. So having him calling her without any ranking t.i.tle was really nostalgic to her.

Having the impression on how much she was trusted, she became even more motivated.

Because of that, she ended up letting out a faint smile.

“Yes!”

Doing one last bow, she left the room.

She swore to her heart that she would definitely correspond to his expectations.

—————

Replacing the in a good mood Riku, Piguro now was the one entering the room.

Leivein would as always be diligently focusing on the doc.u.ments. But this time, right at the moment when Piguro had entered the office, he had lifted his head to look at him.

“What is it?”

“There were so many choices, so many choices.”

With his monocle s.h.i.+ning, he came closer to Leivein.

Different from Riku, who was in high spirits, Piguro´s mood was so bad it was falling to the ground.

Piguro´s mother was Leivein´s wet nurse. And other than that, he was also ordered by Leivein´s father to be his friend and to protect him as a body-guard since the time he was only a child.

Following Leivein´s promotions, the Dragon Demon little battalion, which was commanded by him, came through big changes and increased to the size of a division. The ten thousand demons serving under him, as a lieutenant general, was only appropriate.

Exactly because of that that the incident was the worst possible case.

“Why did you give recommendation to Riku Barusak? Even though I told you to recommend Momein or s.h.i.+ruk rather than that thing.”

Since then, it had been ten years, and even so, he didn´t trust Riku at all.

Of course he recognized Riku´s fighting prowess. Swinging her halberd around, her figure running through the battlefield was like the one of a battle devil. People that had as much power as her, even among the demons, weren´t many. There weren´t many, but there were people that were in awe of Riku, calling her [Red Devil].

But Riku Barusak was a human. And more so, someone of one of the spiritualist families. It was obvious that she was untrustworthy.

And that´s why he believed recommending either the demons s.h.i.+ruk or Momein would be better.

“It´s very simple. Even though she has this much strength, she still have room for improving. And more than that, I´m intending on making her my Right-wing”

“Doing that is a mistake is what I´ve been telling you! As if I would let you make a human spiritualist your Right-wing!!”

With a loud sound, Piguro hit the table.

Right-wing, or so to say, could be said to have a similar to an adjutant.

The number two of the Dragon Demon Division was the staff officer Piguro. But, in the vital position of adjutant, there was n.o.body. He wanted Leivein to have that position filled as soon as possible, but he couldn´t let Riku take the position of adjutant.

“Do you even know what you are talking about? If Riku Barusak becomes the adjutant, she becomes the number two of the division… You should already know what this would mean, right?”

The human Riku, who all she really had was physical power would stand above him. He would need to be asking advice to such a thing.

Just by thinking about that his head started to hurt. Besides that, if he let a human become an adjutant, the other divisions from the demon lord army would definitely laugh and look down on them. That´s why he had listed other demons for the recommendation. But in the end, Leivein had ignored his proposals.

“That thing is strong.”

“I know. But you see, even if it is strong, but there is no meaning to that. There are also things like reputation.”

“That´s why, in order to acquire that, I recommended it.”

Leivein drank the whole water of the gla.s.s that was near him all at once.

Doing that, it made one wonder how thirsty he actually was. With water gla.s.s empty, Leivein put it down back to where it was, doing a sound of the gla.s.s. .h.i.tting the table.

“That thing will definitely not bite me. It´s only a faithful dog I carefully trained.”

“The Dragon Demon Division is already an unified existence. For there to be somebody to betray…”

“Is impossible. Don´t tell me things I already know.”

“That thing is by far much more capable. Specially in the battlefield. Even after unsealing the Demon Lord-sama, it will definitely be of use to the Demon Lord army. But that thing has no social standing or someone´s backings. There is the problem with her being a descendant of spiritualists. So, in order to deal with those problems, what is the necessary thing to do? To simply obtain everything by sheer power. Building up achievements so that everyone can´t not recognize her strength, and moreover attracting many supporters. This is simply the best thing to do.”

Finis.h.i.+ng saying what he wanted, he immediately turned his eyes back to the doc.u.ments.

Piguro became unable to say anything further.

Her relation to spiritualists which burdened her from getting promotions must be made unnoticeable and negligible as soon as possible. If such is not done, then not only her promotion for right-wing, but most importantly, her affiliation to the Demon Lord army would be threatened.

In order to fix this, Leivein had sent her away. If Riku is capable of having another division to recognize her strength, then in the Demon Lord army, in which strength is the most important thing, she will have a successful career. The principle behind his decisions are reasonable, but even so, Piguro couldn´t accept it.

“Why… Why do you favor that girl? If it is about strength, then there are other people too.”

Leiven didn´t say anything to answer.

He only kept managing the doc.u.ments silently.

Giving a sigh as if he was tired of this, Piguro left the room. But before he could even touch the door, it had been opened wide in one go. The one there was Riku, looking to be in hurry. Because of that, her hair was a bit messed up.

“I´m very much sorry, captain Leivein! Ah, staff officer Piguro was also here.”

“…What is it, second lieutenant Riku Barusak?”

Piguro couldn´t hide his bad mood.

Riku also noticed that Piguro was in a bad mood. But since he was pretty much all the time like that, she didn´t think much about it. While bowing, she said…

“Yes, actually… I actually forgot to ask where I am being transferred to.”

“Are you stupid?”

Piguro held his head with his hands.

Perhaps with the slightest chance not… No, rather, without doubt, after coming back from the transfer, Riku would definitely have acc.u.mulated many achievements.

Thinking how this stupid person would soon become his superior, Piguro´s mood became even worse.