“Gggh?!” I... I can’t breathe! Because of her boobs...!
“Hey, what are you doing?!” Once Yukihime barked that out, the woman let go of me and stared blankly at her.
Then, that gentle smile returned to her face. “Oh, sorry. I just can’t resist children. Do you want one, too?” She stared at Yukihime and opened her arms.
“...No, thank you,” Yukihime replied.
This is playing out much differently from how I imagined it would. I thought that we’d be coming face to face with two scary, hostile people... But this just looks like a sexy, older woman.
The other envoy looked to be a boy around Towa’s age. He had long, blond hair, and a black mark that looked like a lightning bolt near the center of his forehead. He also had lightning bolt earrings, a lightning bolt tattoo over his left eye, and was dressed in a customized military uniform.
“Are you the two envoys from Khaos Schwartz?” Yukihime asked.
“Yes, that’s right. I’m...” As the woman began to answer, she was interrupted.
“Of course we are. Who else would we be?!” the boy shouted in an irritated voice.
At first, Yukihime and I were too surprised to retort.
“Umm... Maybe the translation star sorcery isn’t working properly.” Yukihime tried to pass it off, but the boy went on.
“What do you think Grom just came out of? The gate that leads to Khaos Schwartz, of course. Or are you mistaking Grom for a piece of Semuleice trash? Are all Azur Étoilians this stupid?”
Yeah, it probably had nothing to do with the translation star sorcery.
“You’re the stupid one here!” the woman shouted, then swung a white-gloved fist down on the boy’s head. “Sorry for the late introduction. I’m Elemia Argyros, one of the Seven Wicked Knights who directly serve Lord Redge, the Dark Emperor who rules the Granz Empire, the capital of Khaos Schwartz’ human realm. And this...” She grabbed the boy’s head and raised it up. “Go on, tell them your name.”
“...Grom Eguleil, from the same place,” the boy said grumpily.
“I’m Yukihime Yukigane, Headmistress of Azur Étoile.”
Elemia interjected. “Over here, the representative of your defense agency/star sorcerer training facility also acts as the representative of your world, correct? So strange.”
“Is that why these two kids are here? So this isn’t just a joke? She’s really their representative? Grom thought they were just trying to insult us.” After Grom spoke, a loud ‘wham’ sounded out as another one of Elemia’s powerful fists collided with his head.
Elemia cleared her throat. “Who’s the other kid?”
“Kokuya Kurono, my bodyguard,” Yukihime answered.
“Ooh, so your name is Kokuya?” Elemia peered into my eyes, and I quickly averted them... right to her deep cleavage. I felt like I could dive right in.
“...What are you looking at?” Yukihime whispered, then administered a lightning-fast chop to my head.
I had thought they were acting way too casual for two envoys who had the weight of their world on their shoulders, but I guess my captain wasn’t much different.
Just give it up, captain. You’re no match for an otherworldly bust like that no matter what you try. Don’t take it personally.
“So, where should we talk?” Elemia asked.
“I’ll guide you to the meeting room. But before that... Can I take your star armaments, like we agreed earlier?” Yukihime replied.
“Oh, right... Star armaments, was it? Tee hee...” Elemia gave us a suspicious smile. “Liberation – Sand Scorpios.”
In Elemia’s hand appeared a silver, wide-bladed sword, which she gave to Yukihime. Both parties had agreed to keep their arms out of the meeting room. If the star sorcerers had access to their weapons, all kinds of ambushes would be possible.
“You too,” Yukihime said to Grom.
“What? No. Grom came here as her bodyguard, after all. Don’t worry, Grom will be nice and quiet as long as you two don’t try anything stupid. Man, this is gonna be so boring...” Grom glared at me. Grom was short and looked very young, yet his glare betrayed a spine-tingling malice. “You can keep your weapon, too. We’re just doing this as a courtesy, right? I mean, you people could hide soldiers all over this place if you really wanted to. Grom would be able to murder them all in a flash, though...”
The kid certainly had a mouth on him. Even though we hadn’t planned anything like that, he was right. We could promise that we had no intent to fight, but there were still many other star sorcerers lurking about in our world. Still, he had quite the confidence. I imagined he probably possessed enough power to back up his arrogance.
Khaos Schwartz was split between two rival races who were locked in a furious struggle: humans and monsters. Unlike Azur Étoile, the star sorcerers of Khaos Schwartz were always at war. The only two star sorcerer wars we’d experienced had been the Second Otherworld War nine years ago, and the First Otherworld War sixteen years ago. My generation started training after the second war ended, when the academy started gathering star sorcerers to prepare for the next war. We became star sorcerers during peacetime, so we didn’t know what war was really like.
In the past two wars, we had fought against Khaos Schwartz. Not the two standing in front of us right now, but a different force from their world who had attacked us. The enemy hadn’t taken it seriously, though. They had just figured Azur Étoile would be an easy world to conquer. Despite that, our star sorcerers had fought desperately in order to protect our world.
Khaos Schwartz had many more star sorcerers than us. Their military strength was far superior to ours. If we tried to fight them head-on, we’d surely lose. Their world was simply on a different level than ours in terms of power. They had their own problems to deal with, though. With their world always at war, they were never able to deploy their full power in an all-out attack on us. Basically, if they fought us with all they had, we’d lose. But since that would probably never happen, we always had a chance at survival. This knowledge was a combination of what I had learned in my time with the Phanatics, and what Yukihime had taught me.
“Well then, shall we head to the meeting room?” Yukihime asked, as we put the Crack behind us.
While the meeting began, Grom and I stood outside the room. Next to us were Yukihime’s Snowbloom and Elemia’s weapon.
“...Hey, you. What was your name again?”
“...Kokuya.”
“Right. Kokuya, Kokuya. Okay, Grom’s probably got it memorized... Hey, Kokuya. What do you think’s gonna happen here?”
“What are you talking about?”
Grom grinned as he stared at me. “You know, are you guys gonna end up fighting us?”
“...That all depends on you.”
“That’s Grom’s line! This would all be over if you’d just hand us the Ruinmaker!”
Stupid kid...
“You Azur Étoilians are too cocky. Weaklings like you should just do as you’re told!”
“If we’re so weak, then why do you want to steal our weapon?”
“Why does Grom need to explain that to you? Elemia’s probably already explaining it inside... Man, this is so boring. Hey, let’s fight!”
“What did you even come here for?”
“Grom told you! Grom’s the same as you! A bodyguard! Bo-dy-guaaard...”
“Then just shut up and wait for them to finish talking.”
“What’s it gonna be, though? Are you guys gonna hand over the Ruinmaker or what?”
“That’s what they’re discussing inside.”
“You’re not just some flunkie, are you? You gotta at least know that much. Better tell Grom, or Grom might go a bit wild here...”
“...We’re never going to hand the Ruinmaker over to you.”
The moment I muttered that, Grom’s smile grew wider.
“...’zat so? Ah well. If you put up a fight, we’ll just steal it by force, and then it’ll be playtime. Then Grom will get to play with you, Kokuya.”
Grom’s words sent fear into my heart. He was an ass, but I could sense something dangerous in his words. He wasn’t just spouting off nonsense. He had the bite to back up his bark.