The Villainess Will Not Bring Dishonor To Her Family

78 - Secrets of Villains - Part 2

A roar cuts through the screams from a bit further ahead. Haruki stares at me with a determined look and then puts his hand on my shoulder, just for a moment... and still my knees nearly buckle with exhaustion. I can't tell how much of the blood on my body is mine anymore... I think most of it.

"You should return, Rei-chui. You are too valuable to lose here. I will hold them off."

He puts his katana in the hand of the arm he can still swing and then looks to the side.

Kenta leaps at the enemy samurai and with a roar cuts off the her hand at the wrist. With her now unarmed he slices her throat.

"Kenta! Take her back!"

"I refuse!" I scream back at the top of my lungs, and Haruki gives me a faint smile.

"Then I will go to death for disobeying my superior and devote my remaining time to protecting her."

He's so high on adrenaline he can't feel the pain anymore. He's gone numb.

Kenta lifts me up into his arms easily, though deep gashes in his armor reveals how injured he is.

"Put me down! Kenta!" I screech at him as he sets into a run...

Haruki turns around to face the enemy, but his sword hand is not his dominant one. He's going to die like everyone else. There's no one else. Haruki and Kenta are the last ones.

Takumi and Asahi died to the rains of arrows.

Yukio and Matsumune ended up drenched in oil and burned up alive while approaching the wall.

Oiwa and Yuna died at the end of spears... Tsukio pieced herself further to cut down the foe before she died.

All of them are gone in the roaring flames and masses of bodies.

I will not leave them.

"NO! Put me down! I must protect them! I will not leave them! I can still fight!" I screech while ripping and clawing at Kenta's armored back... but he doesn't answer...

"Kenta! I order you!" I fight against his hold desperately, but I'm too exhausted to put up a struggle.

"I CANNOT!" He screams back at me.

"I will not let you die here! I cannot let you! I've sworn to protect you, no matter what!" He vows such to me while moving over the piles of bodies clad in yellow and blue.

"No!" I scream back once more... but Haruki is already out of sight. Enveloped in the thick smoke where he will die and rest along with everyone else.

"Aoko, Aoko had twitched, she- she might still-!"

"You cannot do anything right now, Rei!"

---*---

"Rei...?"

Where....

Kenta watches me with exhaustion on his face.

Where did I go just now?

I am in court... but all the seats became empty without me noticing anything...

Kenta presses his lips together in a bitter line.

I slipped again... and in public... this... won't look good...

"We're going to the Scorpion lands."

I see... I've slipped too much so I'm taken off the battlefield...

"Rei?"

"...I understand."