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Last Embryo Volume 3 Interlude Part 2

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

Even though the value of Indra’s Spiritual Rank greatly diminished over the course of his life, it was not to the point where he would be having trouble defeating such basic monsters.

The same could be said for Arjuna. Judging by his movements, we was probably still in the middle of adjusting to his new youthful body after his long slumber, but even so he was still able to effortlessly keep the enemies at bay before they could even get close to him. If he ever felt like it, he could probably wipe them all out in an instant with a single attack. But since he has chosen not to do so, they were simply falling to the ground one after another, felled by the arrows that were faster than lightning itself.

After it became apparent that these two won’t have any trouble with the monsters, the audience’s attention shifted onto the process of clearing the Game itself.

The Stymphalian Birds were themselves not related to the 2^nd War for the Sun’s Authority at all since they had nothing to do with the sun, so no matter how many of them were killed, the Game would not be cleared. Everything seemed to be pointing to the fact that for now, the beast that had to be slain by Homura’s team to achieve victory remained outside of the Viewing Crystal’s field of view, which could only mean one thing: if the Players were to underestimate this Gift Game as nothing more but a simple presentation, then they were in for a painful surprise.

(This might be nothing more than a pseudo-match meant to familiarize the audience with the contesting Players, but even so, this Game is not something that can be conquered by slaying monsters left and right as they appear. Clearing this Game will be impossible if one is not familiar with the Sun Authorities and the beasts that are their Avatars.)

This thought left Scathach so amused that she actually had to fold her arms on her chest.

At that moment, a voice of a lively girl could be heard from across the veil of incense smoke.

「*Cough!* *Cough!* So much… smoke! Too much of it! I can’t breathe! You hear me, Demon Bull King?! I said there is too much smoke in here!」

「Calm yourself down Kurma, you’re definitely overreacting. I feel like this is just the right amount.」

「Well you know what?! This beautiful Kuu-chan here does not feel like that at all! Where the hell even are we, actually?! And why is no one greeting us?! Treating us so cruelly after we have travelled so far because of that invitation Shiroyasha sent us, it… it makes me want to puke poison all around me just like I did back in the good old days!」

The girl, who was no on the verge of crying kept on complaining about how she didn’t like the smoke in the wagon. Now that she practically announced who they were, the smoke which was supposed to conceal the identities of those who came here has practically lost its purpose, but Scathach deliberately chose to ignore the pair of peculiar guests and focused her attention back on the Viewing Crystal…. Only to be genuinely startled by Queen, who smacked her teacup back onto its plate with a very non-elegant noise.

「Shiroyasha? So she has already returned?」

「Hm? Ah, yes, it would seem that this is indeed the case. She is the winner of the previous War for the Sun’s Authority after all. If you wanted to meet her you could have done so if you paid a visit to the administrative wagon, but…」

「Next time be sure to tell me such important things as soon as you hear about them.」

Following those words, Queen stood up from her seat, her beautiful golden hair fluttering all around her. Since she was someone who usually treated anything else aside from her teatime with nothing but disinterest, seeing her like that made Scathach open her eyes up in surprise. She wanted to say something, but didn’t even get the chance to do so, because Queen was stull not done talking.

「Scathach, you should go see Ayato. She should be coming here soon from the VIP wagon.」

「It will be done as you command, but what about you, my Queen?」

「I will go play with little Shiroyasha for a bit. See you soon.」

Saying that last bit quietly, Queen took her leave. Scathach just watched her disappear with an astonished face. An audience with Shiroyasha, know and feared throughout Little Garden as 「The King of the White Night」 and the winner of the 1^st War for the Sun’s Authority which was held in the distant past was not something that anyone could do simply because they wanted to. After all, she was the Celestial Spirit with the highest Spirit Rank and the one in charge of the sun’s revolutions. Even though she and Queen were both Demon Lords and Celestial Spirits related to the Sun, in most aspects Shiroyasha was the polar opposite of Queen Halloween, who was charged with governing the Celestial Boundaries. So for Queen, meeting with her natural-born enemy of her own accord was quite a strange way of initiating one of her games. Unless she had an entirely different goal in mind of course.

Regardless of what her reason might be, Scathach found this new development to be extremely amusing, and so hid her smile behind her glove-covered hand.

(Shiroyasha and Queen, huh? To think that these two used to be pretty close way back in the day.)

Knowing that Queen actually had a genuine friend despite her nasty personality was somewhat of a relief, because usually people tended to avoid her entirely, since the intensity of her Spirit Rank evoked something akin to a primal fear in them. However, Shiroyasha seemed to be entirely unaffected by it. Also, that shed some new light on the fact that Queen used to periodically sneak out of the castle without saying as much as a word to anyone. Knowing that she was probably meeting with her friend during those times of absence has put Scathach’s mind at ease.

(If I recall correctly, the time limit for the Game was 30 minutes, so they will probably still be here tomorrow seeing how they are currently faring. Heh, looks like they weren’t ready to participate in the Gift Games of such a grand scale after all. No matter, it’ll be best to forget about their shameful display and move on to the next task at hand…)

With that in mind, Scathach was just about to leave the stage wagon to go to where Ayato was, but the gong signaling the end of the Game sounded off right when she took her next step.