3 bar menu

Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 8 Chapter 5.9

In other words, the current situation to Ikusaba is that he is forced to help everyone with the promise of the benefits dangling in front of him.

And so his honest thoughts are… he was manipulated.

That doesn’t sit well with him.

Even though he felt irritated, Ikusaba understood that this wasn’t the only reason he was angry. He didn’t know if it was a difference in perspective, or way of thinking. But he could say this for sure: he definitely would have thought of something like this if he was in that situation.

He gritted his teeth.

「Well played, Yama-kun.」

Then Hiiyo Ikusaba jumped out from the shadows of the hallway and quickly drew his <<bow of light>>. The flashing arrows of light turned the humanoids into black mist one by one. The group of them that had been closing in on Asumi and the others from behind were quickly eliminated.

As Ikusaba continued walking, he spat an irritated remark at Juugo, who had joined him.

「Hurry up, Yama-kun.」

「I got ya.」

Then Hiiyo Ikusaba once again readied the <<bow of light>>, and this time aimed at the group of humanoids in front of him. He fired arrows at the humanoids, knowing that he would be firing them at Juugo later.

Then he realized that it was the large man who was creating these humanoids. He was the former owner of this <<bow of light>>.

He couldn’t help but mutter, 「Oh… so he was a leprechaun too.」

2

Ikusaba’s intervention was overwhelming.

A group of pitch black humanoids were attacking Asumi and her friends from behind, attempting to pincer them. Then arrows of light were fired at them from behind. Perhaps it was a weakness, but as soon as the arrows of light hit them, they disappeared in an instant. They were annihilated in no time.

Ikusaba then makes a bold move. He arrives at where we are, protected by the giant dragon, and holds his left hand (which is wrapped in light) in front of him. He places his right hand on the back of the light and pulls his right hand as if to tug at the light. Then, the moment he lets go, a huge light spurts out from his left hand. The cannon of light blew away the barricade on the way from the <<ruin>> to the great hall.

He fired it into the ceiling directly above the big man. The ceiling cracked and began to crumble from the canon shot, causing the large man to step back. He fired three more shots in succession, and the ceiling collapsed, raining down on the large man from above.

By the time the smoke from the wreckage cleared, the passageway in front of the large man was blocked.

「This is it.」

From there, it was a one-sided battle of annihilation. With no way to retreat, the humanoids left behind were instantly turned into black smoke by Ikusaba’s shrapnel-like arrows of light.

「Amazing.」

It was better than I could have imagined. With Ikusaba’s intervention, the humanoids were all wiped out. As expected, the Nanana collection <<bow of light>> in Ikusaba-san’s left hand is incredibly powerful.

「Thank you for your help, Senjo-san and Yama-kun.」

With the humanoids gone, everyone relaxed and Nishi-san, who had been directing them, thanked us.

「This should buy us some time, so we can come up with some countermeasure.」

Nishii nodded at Ikusaba’s words and turned her attention to Yun-chan, who was lying on the ground.

「It may be difficult to protect her in this location any longer. I don’t want to move her too much since she’s injured, but if our defenses are breached, everything will be for nothing. I think we should move to a nearby room. It seems that the child with the healing item also made it into the royal castle with the help of everyone.」

Misao next to me raised her hand. It seemed she was using her Nanana collection, which allows her to use telepathy.

In any case, that was the end of the battle. If it were possible, I would have liked to take advantage of the confusion and punch Nanika once, but I couldn’t get too greedy.

「Well, now we’re out of trouble. Let’s have the deciding match, Yama-kun. I found a good spot on the information board earlier」, Ikusaba-san quickly suggests.

「Well, I think we should wait until everything is settled…「

「Let’s go Yama.」

I made the suggestion with a polite smile, but he glared at me with anger.

Oh, this was an intimidating offer he couldn’t refuse. Damn it, I thought we could all just keep going and sweep this all under the rug, but it seemed like it wasn’t going to work out that way after all.

「OK, I have to get going, so please wait just a little bit.」

I step away from Ikusaba-san, who is trying to get us to leave quickly, and call out to everyone.

I saw Nishi-san once again, greeted President Yuiga, who is holding his pocket watch up to Yun-chan’s eyes, gives a wink to Haruto, who is collapsed nearby, start breathing heavily when I’m by the two shrine maidens (just kidding), and get a lengthy lecture from Ageha-ojousama.

And also I apologize to the person I needed to apologize to.

「I’m sorry Tetsu-kun. I messed up and this happened.」

Tetsu-kun, sitting on the floor, shook his head.

「I heard from Taisei and the others that an unexpected incident occurred, so don’t worry about it.」

「But…「

He glances over at Yun-chan, laying on the floor.

「You came all the way here. That’s enough. So let’s achieve our mutual goals.」

「Our mutual goals?」

「I’ll save Yun. And you’ll get your hands on the sword, right?」

Those were my words from earlier. Hearing that from Tetsu-kun made me smile without me realizing it.

Tetsu-kun, on the other hand, laughed sadly.

「Even so, there’s nothing I can actually do for Yun.」

It was Nishi and the others that were actually trying to help Yun-chan, who was bleeding and unconscious, but he couldn’t do anything for her. I could understand all too well the frustration that Tetsu-kun was feeling.

That’s why I say, 「At least, if you hadn’t taken action Tetsu-kun, would anyone else have done anything?」

「Huh?」

「Well, I think we all have roughly the same thoughts. Like, we want to help someone. That sort of feeling. But even if we say that, it’s hard to take action on our own. We think those nice things, but if we want to do something on our own we can’t achieve much. So it feels like there is no point in trying.」

「….」

「I think no one likes their hard work going to waste. But if someone takes the initiative to speak up, to take action, then it’s a different story. It makes you feel like you’re not alone, and then you can work hard together with the person who spoke up. It may be embarrassing to do it alone, but it’s even better with two or more people. It makes it easier to get involved. It makes you feel like what you’re doing is the right thing.」

「…..」

「If you speak up, if you take action, then surely people who agree with you will gather right? So, even if you feel like you can’t do anything, aren’t you already doing something? …But that’s just what I was thinking earlier. I’m just rambling now….」

As I laugh to hide my embarrassment, Tetsu smiles and says, 「Maybe that’s true.」

I hope this will ease his mind a little, but I have to go soon. The scary guy over there is glaring at me with all his might.

「Well, it’s time for me to go.」

「Juugo. Can you beat Ikusaba?」

「I’ll win, somehow.」

As I waved goodbye to Tetsu-kun and walked away, my eye fell on the great detective leaning against the wall in front of me.

「Even if it’s just to drag Ikusaba into the fight, you came up with a very interesting idea, Juugo. You’re truly a worthy opponent.」

「How did you figure out what I was doing?」

「Obviously, because I’m a great detective, my worthy rival.」

「Yeah, yeah. Is that right? ….But why have you been calling me a worthy rival all this time? It’s not like I’m a worthy rival to you Tensai.」

「Mufufufu.」

「And why are you laughing at me with that condescending grin?」

「Don’t worry about it, don’t worry about it.」

「And why are you patting me on the shoulder now?」

I don’t understand at all.

「Even so, whether it was making a deal with Ageha-dono or enlisting Hiiyo Ikusaba’s help, you willingly made yourself the one to bear the consequences.」

In order to get Ageha-ojousama to give up on her dream of winning, I promised to help her with something in the future. To repay the debt for Ikusaba’s help, I bet the <<sword of Nanana>> that he has worked so hard to obtain and will engage in a one on one battle with Ikusaba.