Tower of Karma Chapter 8

“Willian-san! Good morning!”

“…You are already so energetic at morning. Good morning.”

Karl was looking at Willian, who had an annoyed expression on his face, with sparkling eyes.

“Oh, are you two acquainted with each other? Then, you go take care of him.”

“Wha-!? But!”

Because of the sudden arrangement, Willian let a few words escape.

“Hm? Do you want to talk back, foreigner guy?”

Being glared at, Willian flinched. The other man was his superior, and also a second rank civilian. There were many reasons why Willian couldn´t talk back.

“No, I understand. Come Karl, the place we were stationed at is to that direction.”

“Ah, yes!”

The superior officer was glaring at the back of both Willian and Karl.

Willian and Karl got to the place they were a.s.signed to. It was at the higher floors of the fort, behind the archers. Like how it would always be, from the distance, an army was starting to arrange into a formation outside the fort. Exactly like how it would always be, it was an attack that went in accord to the programme.

“You are very unlucky. For you to have to stick with a hateable guy like me.”

Maybe because of how bored Willian was, he started a conversation with Karl. Karl was being afflicted by the pressure of the silence. After being talked to,  his face brightened. And so, he went to test the waters and said…

“Willian-san, are you disliked by the others?”

Karl looked at Willian with a blank face. It seems he didn´t understand why Willian had said that before.

“I am. This is because I didn´t know the scale of it at the first.”

Karl tilted his head to the side, not understand what Willian was talking about by saying scale.

“No, it´s only that… It´s just that I didn´t think there so many soldiers that were like that to that extent, and that I also underestimated the feeling of envy of humans.” (TL note: Yep, there is really nothing specified there. T.T well, it should still be possible to get what it is being talked about)

Turning his eyes away from the open-mouthed Karl, Willian looked to outside the fort. Today wasn´t a battle at the field, but a defensive war; it was one which you would be shut inside your castle. Willian was looking at the army that was approaching towards the fort of Raconia.

“Hm, just like alwa…. Isn´t there too many?”

The battlecries started to resound through the fort. And in response, the surroundings of the castle also started to make a stir themselves.

“Rather than just saying they have more than us, it would be better to say they have many times our numbers.”

Just like always, the sounds were. The idle mood was blown away from the Raconia fort.

Karl couldn´t keep his back straight because of the fear. Yesterday was his first battle, and that battle was only a small skirmish. Compared to the army that they were facing today, it had been a very small scale battle.

“You are lucky, Karl-kun.”

Karl looked at Willian. His face

“You will be able to have a taste of battle. You will overflowing with it.”

It was a gruesome smile.

Today, the tranquilness in Raconia was no more.

The battle started. The battlefield was filled with corpses. The allied forces weren´t standing in front of the fort of Raconia anymore. There were many places that had ladders which permited the advancing of enemy troops. Things like what squad you belonged to or where the spot you were a.s.signed to didn´t matter anymore. It was a clear defeat. It was a lost battle.

“It isn´t that bad.”

With a smile, Willian cut down the invading enemies. By comparing him to Karl, it was like comparing a baby and an adult; it was to a level that even comparing was presumptuous.

“This is good just like this. Yes, this is the best!”

Leisurely piercing his sword at the openings of the armor of his enemies, Willian. Tearing through their throats, the sword made the sound of cutting through the wind. Being deprived of their throats, the enemy soldiers couldn´t even scream.

“I am really lucky.”

Willian kicked with all his strength the enemy that put out his head as he was climbing up the ladder. Willian saw off the scene of the many other people falling together from the ladder one after another with a smile.

“Now then, I guess I will keep cutting them up until the command of retreat is given.”

Jumping into all the confusion, Willian was cutting the enemy soldiers. He would evade the attacks of his enemies, and sometimes use his allies as a s.h.i.+eld. That gapless style of fighting was in a different different to the concept of the battle in ranks and formations.

“I am not like you, you bunch of worms! My practice partner is as giant as a f.u.c.king gorilla you would see at the circus. Other than that, I am not like you that kept doing practice-swinging like r.e.t.a.r.ds. I used my head and trained my body in a efficient manner. To begin with, the world I am living is different from you brain dead worthless trash that are lower than insects.””

As to be expected, there was no way Willian could speak out those thoughts. If he spilled them out, he wouldn´t be able to stop doing so.

“”Hm, oh, isn´t Karl-kun still alive? Well, he looks like he is about to die though.””

Karl was desperately swinging his sword, but it was obvious his moves were amateurish. The enemy soldiers weren´t too much of a threat either, but that guy was to the point that dying was only a question of time to him.

“He-help!”

He was asking for help to his surroundings, but obviously, n.o.body reacted to it. They didn´t have the spare time for it, and everyone was concentrated on themselves. With n.o.body reacting to his pleads, the spear of a enemy grazed right at Karl´s cheek. Karl fell down and soaked himself in p.i.s.s. And right in the verge of his death…

“So-some-body.”

At that instant, Willian´s and Karl´s eyes met. It was only an instant; it was a momentary meeting.

“”As if anyone would be helping you. After all, you too lived a happy life, didn´t you? You had a family, warm food to eat, a soft bed to lie on, and also, and also…”

Willian turned his eyes away from Karl. This was equivalent to a death sentence to Karl.

“Dieeeeeeeeeeee!”

The enemy soldier, a soldier from Ostoberg, was also risking his life. He should also have a family. A family he was supposed to love, to protect. He was here in order to… protect his family.

“Eeeehhhhh!?”

The spear was sent flying in the air. It wasn´t only the spear. The arm that was swinging it also flew to the air, and the blood scattered. The spray of blood covered the soldier´s sight. He didn´t comprehend what happened. He couldn´t understand it, but…

“Die.”

The soldier understood that he was going to die.

His head flew. As to not have blood spilled at them, Willian kicked the headless corpse away from them.

“What… am I doing?”

Willian couldn´t believe what he was doing. His hand was trembling. It wasn´t trembling because he had killed someone. It was trembling because he had saved someone. He saved a human that was unrelated to him. He saved a young man that looked to be fortunate, to be happy, and whose character didn´t match this place. It couldn´t be believed.

“”For an instant. Just for an instant, the face of that man overlapped with his face. That red haired rich boy.””

The red haired youth he had killed himself. The man whose existence he stole. His face; a face full of resentment was smiling at him as he called for him, mumbling the name “Norman”.

“Ah, ahh, Willian!”

Being overcome with emotions, Karl started to cry. Even forgetting to add the “san”, he clinged at Willian and cried. He continued to mutter “thank you, thank you”. Willian was looking at this scene with a cold look.

“It wasn´t much… Can you stand up?”

Without looking at Karl´s eyes, Willian extended his hand. There was no way he could let the expression he was making now be seen. He couldn´t let it be seen by anyone, not even by Kail or Havella.

“Thank you, Willian.   …Ah, -san.”

Remembering to add the “-san” at the end, he forcibly added it at the end.

“You can call me just by Willian. You should ready up to leave here soon.”

“Eh, but is it fine for us to leave our position?”

Willian casually killed several of the approaching enemy soldiers in one sweep, and then, turned his eyes to Karl. His expression has already gone back to his calm one now. He already couldn´t see the illusions of “himself”.

“It is not that it is fine. It is just that everyone that would reproach you for doing that has already died.”

Willian remembered using his superior as a s.h.i.+eld in order to escape from the enemy´s pike a few moments ago. There was no mistake that he did it in the heat of the moment, but it had been something necessary.

“”To begin with, the ones I need dead the most are the many high ranking officers. The surviving ones… I need to have them to die by their own, or it will be a problem to me.””

It was more than stupidity to be carried away by an already lost war and die.

“”Well, this guy should have its own uses. If I don´t think it in this way, I will lose my motivation in protecting him.”

Willian looked at Karl´s face, which now had a stupid expression on it. Karl finally remembered about the embarra.s.sment of having wet himself, and now he was blus.h.i.+ng. Even though they were still right in the midst of a war, he was acting very carefree.

“Let´s go. If you don´t want to die, follow me.”

“Ye-yes!”

With Karl following behind him, Willian went down the fort. If they wanted to escape, it was natural that they needed to go down to the northern gate first. Because of how conspicuous they were being about escaping, it should become an unnecessary burden to them later.

“”I need to get out of here… I won´t be part of the ma.s.sacre of this boring as s.h.i.+t place.””

Looking behind him, Willian sighed.

“”Ha, really, what am I doing?””

Behind him was Karl, who was following him with sparkling eyes.

At this day, in only a short moment, the fort of Raconia had fallen.