By Zephyria 
I seem to recall hearing that the Calderia succession battle was fierce when I was in Actan, but has it been resolved now? Whether the King has changed or not, they were not qualified to be Aska’s family.
That’s what I thought, but Aska might think differently. I was reminded of how he used to defend his family when he was young, and then Aska suddenly stepped forward. He moved closer to Zero and they both began to examine the bracelet together.
“The characters around here feel a bit different from the other characters.”
“Different feeling? What kind of feeling?”
“It’s just different. This one… turn it over.”
“Are you saying that each character feels different? Ah, I’ve seen this character in a book before.”
The two of them put their heads together, turning the bracelet this way and that, chattering away. Of course, they weren’t really touching, but they were close enough to be almost touching. Even though I knew it was to uncover the truth, I couldn’t hide my awkward feelings.
I was about to move closer and naturally squeeze in between them when Aska took the bracelet. As the bracelet touched his smooth, white wrist, its size changed to fit.
Aska tilted his head a few times and then stopped moving.
“……”
“……”
“……”
Silence ensued for a few seconds. Just as I was about to call his name, Zero widened his eyes and muttered.
“Could it be…”
Zero cautiously reached out with a surprised expression. His fingertips were aimed at Aska’s wrist, where the bracelet was. Even as I watched the scene, I kept thinking to myself, “No way.” There was no way that Zero, who knew all of Actan’s imperial laws, would touch Aska without my permission.
But contrary to my expectation that it would never happen, it eventually happened.
“You die…”
Before I could finish my sentence, Aska’s form dissipated like smoke. I reflexively reached out to grab the disappearing Aska. I desperately swung my arms, but he vanished without a trace.
At that moment, someone grabbed my hand in the empty air. I was already on edge, so I reacted more strongly than I intended. My elbow hit something hard, and a dull thud was heard, followed by a low groan in my ear.
I turned my head and saw Aska clutching his chest.
“That hurts.”
“What?”
“It’s the bracelet’s ability, right?”
It was Zero who answered my question. I was the only one who couldn’t grasp the situation, as I hadn’t felt the strange sensation that Aska had mentioned, nor could I understand the meaning of the characters like Zero.
“It seems to be an ability that allows him to leave a clone and hide the main body. The clone disappears with even a small impact, and then the stealth is also released, right?”
Zero kindly explained to me, who was bewildered. But none of it registered in my ears.
“Why did you suddenly disappear?”
“I was just trying out the bracelet. Why did you hit me?”
“I was surprised because someone suddenly grabbed my hand.”
No, he disappeared without saying anything and now he’s talking back? I frowned and spoke, and Aska burst out in annoyance.
“Who? You’ve held my hand so many times, how can you not know who it is?”
I was speechless at those words. It was an absurd logic, but when I thought about it carefully, it seemed like it was my fault. Inevitably, I cleared my throat and gently rubbed the spot I had hit with my elbow earlier. Then I turned to Zero and asked.
“So that’s the bracelet’s ability?”
“Ah, yes, yes. We’ll have to investigate further to see if there are any other abilities.”
Whether there were other abilities or not, it didn’t matter much anymore. This is because the ability that has been revealed now is enough to infer Ralph’s method of committing the crime.
I was only watching to see if he came out of the tent, so if Aska hadn’t brought the bracelet, I would never have known.
It doesn’t seem like they found it in the Ruins that Aska and I went into, so is there another place? Or maybe they didn’t necessarily find it in the Ruins, but they were lucky enough to excavate it.
Whatever it is…
“……?”
At that moment, Aska suddenly spread his arms wide and hugged me tightly from behind. Because of his long robe, my whole body was covered as if wrapped in a cloth.
Is he sorry for getting angry earlier? Even so, there’s no need to go this far when we’re not alone… I was just staying still because I didn’t dislike it when Abyss hurriedly entered the tent.
“Theodore, we’re under attack!”
I couldn’t help but frown at the unexpected words. Only then did I begin to faintly hear unfamiliar sounds.
“You hide properly. Don’t come out, no matter what.”
“Don’t worry about me. I can protect myself.”
I ran out of the tent with Aska clinging to my back. Several people with their faces covered by black masks were lying on the ground, having been subdued by Abyss.
I was about to go to the place where the loudest noise was coming from when Aska, who was closely attached to my back, whispered in my ear.
“They came to the village too.”
“The village? You don’t mean the survey team in Pukara Village was also attacked?”
“Yeah, Chichi is there, so don’t worry.”
Chichi was a cat. I was relieved for a moment, but it wasn’t time to be relieved yet. If they attacked at the same time, it means they intend to wipe us out. Could it be that they found out the bracelet was missing?
Since it was a rare Relic, it was highly likely that it belonged to the royal family rather than an individual. If so, it would have been specially bestowed for the operation, so there would be a big fuss if they lost it. And it would be even more of a headache if it flowed into another country.
First of all, I had to subdue the attacking group as quickly as possible. Subduing them wouldn’t be a problem, but the problem was time. The longer the battle lasted, the greater the chance of casualties.
Besides, there were far more non-combat personnel here.
“Aaaah!”
At that moment, a desperate scream rang out, and a person fell from the tree along with a bow. The man covered his eyes with both hands and continued to scream in agony as he struggled. The sound of flapping wings was heard not far away, and an eagle dodged an incoming arrow and rushed to another tree next to it.
“Kkyaaaak!”
Invariably, another person fell below. When I looked closely, both of them had blood gushing from their eyes. The eagle glided towards us with bloody talons holding eyeballs.
“How many are there?”
—Beeeep. Beep. Beep beep.
At Aska’s words, Pipi hovered in place, shaking his body, and threw the eyeballs he had been holding tightly to the ground like trash. Then he naturally tried to sit on Aska’s head.
“Don’t come here, you’re covered in blood.”
—Beeeping.
Aska waved his arms to chase Pipi away and said to me.
“Are you going to kill them all?”
“Um… we can’t kill them all.”
I answered dazedly and asked.
“Don’t tell me Pipi is going around plucking out eyeballs?”
“He could do that, but it’s faster if I go. There aren’t that many. About fifteen or so. But about three of them were hit by arrows.”
“Then let’s subdue them quickly.”
Before there were more casualties, I moved without delay. But before I could do anything, Pipi quickly picked out only the enemy and plucked out their eyeballs, so the situation was quickly over.
“That bird…”
Abyss, who had put his sword back into its scabbard and ran over, caught his breath and looked at Pipi.
“It’s Aska’s bird. Did you catch them all?”
“Yes, two investigators were injured and one was confirmed dead just now. We captured all of those hunter groups from yesterday.”
I nodded and asked Aska.
“What about the village?”
“It’s over there too.”
“Good, then let’s evacuate to the village first. Return as quickly as possible and disband the survey team.”
Before long, under Abyss’s command, the survey team quickly retreated in formation. After everyone left, there were five subdued hunter groups and five masked people who were still alive despite having their eyeballs plucked out. A total of ten people remained.
“Kkeueuk…”
“Ugh…”
Painful groans flowed from here and there. Before giving Abyss an order, I glanced back and whispered to Aska, who was still clinging to me.
“You go inside.”
“Why?”
“The scenes from now on are not for kids to see.”
“What are you talking about.”
“Go in quickly. I’m not kidding.”
I pushed Aska away and spoke calmly, but he didn’t seem to want to listen.
“I told you not to treat me like a kid, right? I’ve seen more blood and corpses than you. And if you think I’m such a kid, why do you copulate with me?”
“……”
I was speechless at the very logical words. But what is copulate, we’re not beasts… I didn’t think he would listen, so I sighed and took a step back.
“Then close your eyes.”
“Haa…”
At the sigh full of annoyance, I put my hand inside the hood. I groped around my face with my fingertips and confirmed that Aska had closed his eyes, then said to Abyss.
“Kill all the guys who were holding bows.”
“Stop.”
At that moment, Ralph, who was bleeding from his closed left eye, spoke fiercely. I shook my head and gestured to Abyss.
“I don’t want to.”
Abyss drew his sword and killed all five of the suffering men with a single stroke.