Ore wa Mada, Honki o Dashite Inai - CH 61

Deception

Translated by Mlzkzr

Edited by Mlzkzr

In the morning at the dining room, nee-san and I were having breakfast while being served by the maids.

Nee-san and I are sitting across the long table from each other, and she’s acting a little differently than usual.

“Hey, nee-san”

“Yes, what is it, Otoutotou-sama?”

“You’re smiling more than usual, did something good happen?”

“Yes, there was.”

Nee-san stopped her hand, stared straight at me, and floated a smile.

It’s a lovely smile that seems to rob nee-san of her soul.

“I was just glad Hermes has been assigned to be His Majesty’s swordsmanship instructor.”

“Ah……”

You mean that huh.

Nee-san has been telling me for a long time that I should show my seriousness, and let the whole world know what I’m capable of.

When it comes to the role of being the King’s swordsmanship instructor, it is as if my abilities have been stamped out.

“So that’s why you’re smiling huh”

“So, Hermes finally understood, right”

“That’s not the case, though.”

“What then?”

Nee-san tilts her head slightly and asks me back.

“It just happened; it was unavoidable.”

“……I think about it sometimes, but”

“Nn?”

“Hermes, are you seriously trying to hide it?”

“Guffaw!”

It came to my chest; it came as hard as it could.

I mean, it’s making me cry.

No, I have, I have been doing that so much, you know.

I’m more than willing to hide and cover it up, but for some reason, it always backfires ……

“No, nee-san, that’s ——”

“I understand. Hermes has been motivated. And it seems like you’ve always been wearing a sword since you were ordered to play the role of his majesty’s instructor.”

“……”

I couldn’t argue with my nee-san’s point.

Certainly, I’ve been carrying a sword around with me all the time since just a little while ago.

That’s why it can’t be helped even if it seems like that.

I stopped my protest and decided to eat in silence.

“By the way, what’s Hermes up to today?”

“Nn?”

“Since it’s not an official duty day, what do you have planned?”

“I don’t have in particular, though”

“If so――”

“――! Nee-san!”

It appeared without any warning.

At first, I thought I heard a high-pitched sound, but then I felt an inexplicable pressure approaching us.

It wasn’t directed at me, it was directed at nee-san.

As soon as I guess the cause, I kicked off my chair, stood up, and rushed towards nee-san.

I tackled nee-san, who was surprised by the suddenness of the situation, as it is, which pushed her away, and rolled with her as we jostled.

Right after that ―― boom!

Something went through the ceiling and blew the spot where nee-san was sitting to pieces.

It was a meteorite.

A meteorite the size of the palm of my hand opened a crater where nee-san had been sitting, sending up a cloud of smoke.

“Thi,this is……”

“It came huh”

“Eh?”

Nee-san looks at me to see what was going on.

Immediately after, a black substance oozed out of the meteorite, enveloping me and my sister before we could react.

The next moment, the world flipped around.

The appearance of the cafeteria I had been in remained the same, but the color of the cafeteria changed to a color that was not normally possible.

White is now black, and red is now green.

It was a strange scene where all the colors have become opposites.

“Wha,what happened to this place?”

“……”

I silently shield nee-san and put my hand on the hilt of my sword.

“……There!”

A breaking flash.

The empty space was torn apart, and someone emerged from it.

“――tu!”

Nee-san gulped behind my back, I understand her feelings.

The guy who appeared had a head, torso, arms and legs, and looked human at first glance, but the air that exuded from his body was deformed itself.

It is filled with so much evil that it is unbearable to look at directly.

Its feeling is several times more oppressive than the one I once took care of on the highway.

“Kukkukku…… you’ve noticed it well.”

“Who are you?”

“I don’t have to teach it to those who are about to die. But you should be proud. It was only because you interfered at our every turn that I was taken out.”

“……By your mouth, are you some kind of an executive?”

“Kukuku, I told you, I don’t need to tell it you who’s going to die!”

At that moment, the figure of the guy in front of me blurred.

I quickly readied my sword to guard for it, and sparks flew in front of me and metallic sounds echoed in my ears to the point that it’s ringing.

“Hermes!”

“I’m fine!”

I shouted at nee-san to stop her, and then engaged that guy in a fight.

It was his arm that struck me again and again in sharp arcs, with his sharp claws tracing purple.

Not to mention his nails, the palm of his hands is as hard as metal.

After a few strikes that produced sparks, a claw grazed the side of my cheek.

“Hou, you avoided that one huh. I did that with the intention of killing you.”

“I have to, if I fall down, nee-san will be the next, right?”

“Correct, but it takes strength to say righteous things.”

Mixed with mockery words, the speed of his claws increased and its trajectory became even more egregious.

We continue to exchange blows, but I was completely on the defensive side.

“Hou? You’ll have to endure this, too, but your situation is getting gradually worse and worse. As it is, human, you’ll run out of physical strength.”

“……Kuh”

“This is the end!”

He shouted, then unleashed his sharpest and most vicious claws of all.

It was literally a killing blow, and he was determined to settle this with this one.

I who would meet his blow―― swung and throw away my sword.

“What!”

For the first time, a look of astonishment crossed his face.

I lowered my stance, dove down, and pierced his chest with my fingertip hand-blade.

『The everlasting and unchanging being that lives in the past and nurtures time. Gather at my will and burn out the impure! Primal Flame(Flames of Genesis)! 』

“Aren’t you a …… swordsman?”

My chanting was completed, and the scorching flames engulf him.

In the inverted world, the strange shape emerged from the meteorite and burst into flames.

“Kuh…… I was …… caught off guard”

“……”

“But…… kukuku, now I know how powerful you are. It seems like you have struggled with such a degree me.”

“……Don’t pretend to be tough”

“Kukkukku ……”

He laughed, then dug his fingers into his eyes and gouged out his eyeballs.

As it was, he raised his eyeballs high into the sky, and it disappeared with the power of something else, different from the flames.

“With this…… your power is…… kukku,kku……”

With one last sinister laugh, he was completely consumed by the flames and vanished without a trace.

The colors of the world have returned to their original state, and I heard a flurry of sounds coming from outside the dining room.

It seems that the servants have heard the commotion of the meteorite fall and are trying to rush over.

“He,Hermes……”

“Nee-san, are you okay?”

“I,I’m fine. I can see now that Hermes is okay, that thing must’ve failed, but it must have played the role of being the reconnaissance.”

“Maybe”

“What are you going to do, the way he said it, something much stronger is ――”

“Nee-san, you said earlier that I have started carrying a sword.”

“――Carrying, eh? Yes, that’s what I said”

“I knew the meteorites would be on to me soon enough.”

I picked up the sword on the ground, the one I had thrown away for the surprise attack, and waved it casually.

A flash of lightning was running; its trajectory was that of the previous one, and it was faster than the previous one.

“……Eh?”

It seems that Nee-san could understand it from the way her eyes look―― well, I shook it so that she could understand it.

“I’m not going to expose myself to a guy like that.”

“Err…… you mean?”

Nee-san tilts her head and asks back.

“I haven’t taken it seriously yet.”

Nee-san floated a relieved expression as it was.