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Last Embryo Volume 5 Chapter 3 Part 6

「Thinking about it like that. . . . yeah, I guess you do have a point there. That would be the absolutely worst scenario, so we have to find some way to calm them down enough so that they would be willing to listen to what we have to say instead of attacking us!」

The peace-loving Suzuka made her suggestion while clenching her fist tightly to emphasize her point. If there was even the smallest chance of resolving the situation peacefully then they should do everything they can to achieve such a resolution, because in her mind, talking things through is always miles better than doing the same thing while employing nothing more but violence and brute force, and her gut feeling was telling her that things would end very badly if they opted for a violent approach here.

Thankfully it would seem that Asuka shared the same opinion as Suzuka, because she did not order her giant friend, Deen, to retaliate against any of the villager’s attacks. Instead, she chose to behave as one would expect of her status of the eldest person in the group she was currently leading (putting the matter of Lamia’s and Alma’s actual ages aside) and remained in the safety of Deen’s shoulder as she calmly analyzed what she should do next to avoid the needless conflict with the locals.

「Yes, you are most definitely right. If I was here only by myself it would have been an entirely different story, but now that I have Suzuka and Lamia here with me, my number one priority should be to avoid putting you through danger as much as possible.」

「S-Sorry for dragging you down like that.」

「Oh, you do not have to apologize at all. If you are Izayoi’s younger half-sister, then I consider you my own younger half-sister as well, so feel free to depend on me even more, because having someone rely on you is a pretty nice feeling.」

Asuka winked at Suzuka while encouraging her to leave everything to her reliable “older sister”. Suzuka was definitely thankful to Asuka for going along with her selfish wishes. . . but she would lie if she did not feel that being like a damsel in distress who has to be protected by everyone around her was not making her feel just a little bit awkward.

「If you would like that, then maybe I should just jump down there with my teleportation ability and try to calm them down, or maybe talk directly to the village chief? My jumps should be fast enough for me to avoid sustaining any serious damage from their attacks. . .」

「No, that is absolutely out of the question. It is just too dangerous for someone like you.」

「But. . . but like I said, I can take care of myself just fine. I just have to keep on moving and jump around. . . !」

「I! Said! No! Look, Suzuka. I know exactly how capable you are with your Gift, because I saw how adept you are at using it when you were running from that rock titan earlier when we first met. But other than your ability to teleport, you are just a regular girl without any offensive powers, and when facing an enemy, it does not matter if they are an army or just a single person, you cannot forget about the difference in not only your speed, but also in pure physical strength. Okay, let us assume for a moment that you would go out there and started teleporting to avoid getting hit by the villager’s attacks. You could probably do that for a while, but with each jump you are tiring yourself more and more, until eventually you would slow down to the point where they would be able to hit you even from the distance. With that said, what would you do in you ended up injured, captured or even possibly killed because you would be too far away from me to save you in time? See? That is why I cannot have you doing something so dangerous? That is too much of a risk and too big of a responsibility that I am not going to take without knowing that you would absolutely succeed.」

Asuka’s voice was quiet, but it contained within itself something so powerful and imposing that Suzuka could not muster the courage to try and talk back at that pinpoint rebuke of hers.

As someone who was initially lacking in the physical fitness department herself, Asuka understood full well how important it was to have both endurance and agility that can mean a difference between life and death. That is why she was perfectly aware that even if Suzuka’s Gift is giving her superior advantage when it comes to mobility, since she is basically no different from a civilian, it would be all over for her if one of the flying arrows or spears were to hit her even once during her jumping through space, and she cannot deny that the chances of that happening, while high in and out of themselves, would only increase the longer she would have to continue dodging the barrage of attacks that would continue to be thrown her way without stopping until the villagers would overwhelm her with their numbers alone.

Now that she received such a fierce scolding, Suzuka slumped her arms in defeat while feeling down, so Alma came over to her side and said to her with her gentle voice:

「Miss Suzuka, I understand that you must be feeling quite dejected after hearing such harsh words from Master, but please, you must understand that this time everything that she said was correct, but she did not mean to tell you all that to make you feel bad about yourself or to belittle you. No, if anything, she said all those things because she is worried about you. . . . . . . . . and because she does not want you to end up the same way as her late younger sister.」

She was not expecting to hear such a shocking thing, So Suzuka’s eyes went wide and her mouth soon followed suit, but out of the two of them, Asuka appeared to be even mores surprised than Suzuka was. She frantically turned away from them with her cheeks dyed crimson red, but then she immediately turned back and glared daggers at Alma while also throwing bitter complaints at her with an especially sulky voice:

「Goodness gracious. . . . for someone who is supposed to be my loyal servant, you sure have quite a loose mouth on you, do you not, Alma?」

「I am sorry if my words or actions offended you, Master, but I assure you that I only said them for your own sake, so I hope that you are going to forgive me this transgression.」

Admittedly, Asuka was quite astonished, but also amazed at how brazenly Almathea could act at time, only to justify her impudent words or actions by claiming that it was all for Asuka’s sake, and it has always been like that with her, ever since she agreed to become Asuka’s servant and started calling her Master. She made a weary sigh and leaned against the plate of the armor on Deen’s neck and then gently touched the handle of her katana on her waist as if she was trying ro recollect something that she has not thought about in quite some time now.

「I could say that it is not that I am worried about you. . .but that would be a lie. The truth is. . . the truth is that my younger sister vanished when she was bout your age, Suzuka. This sword that I am carrying right now, this {Ame no Murakumo no Tsurugi} has been reforged into its current form by using one of the relics that she left behind as its base.」

「Is. . . . is that so?」

「Yes, that is certainly so. The other relics have been collected by Queen Halloween, but I asked her to give her sword to me, and later it has become the core of this one that I am carrying with me everywhere I go now. I did not want it go to waste and simply collect dust and rust in some storeroom or a display case, so I borrowed the power of the blacksmith Amakuni, who is said to have been 「The Father of All Japanese Swords」and 「The Founder of the Japanese School of Blacksmithing」and asked him to make me a new sword from scratch while using the one belonging to my sister as a main material in its creation.」