Third Arc: Forty-Second Chapter

After we'd talked a while, Michael's color started to go bad, so we decided to rest a little. He wiped the sweat on his brow, drank some water, and the moment he lay down on the bed he began breathing in his sleep.

"He was quite worn out... I made him overdo it. Lucky Master Hattori had a canteen."

"Heh... naturally, so it is."

"As expected of Master Hattori!"

Whipping aside the ninja scarf that covered his face, Master Hattori struck a mysterious pose, like something out of a hero show. And Anje praised him at once.

Somehow those two have fallen in together without my noticing.

By the way, what Master Hattori carried was a bamboo tube, deeply familiar to me. A ninja after all, so maybe he's from the Eastern lands. Maybe he even knows Yoshihero. If we get out of this mansion safely, I might ask.

Glancing at the two whooping it up, I went to the window and tried to open it, but sadly it was locked and wouldn't budge. I looked for an inside latch, but all I found was a keyhole.

"So this window is one you lock and unlock with a key even from the inside..."

"Every window is the same type of lock, so it is. But outside is a bare wall with nothing to grip, so bringing Michael down is difficult, so it is."

"Hmm..."

"This mansion is built rather carefully, so it is."

So it's different from Marquess Gransir's house, where I was locked up before. A ninja like Master Hattori, or me with my window-escape experience, is one thing, but for Anje, or an off-form Michael, going out by the window would be rough. Naturally, the door we'd come in by was locked too and wouldn't open.

"For now, all we can do is wait for Elliot..."

How long passed while I turned things over in my head? As I sat blankly by the bedside and looked up, I thought the outside of the window flashed.

"Ah..."

"Mm. Be at ease. It's the signal, so it is."

The moment he spoke, Master Hattori swiftly moved to the window and flickered a lamp's light several times. As if timed to it, the floor below suddenly grew noisy. Even to this tucked-away room came shouts and the clash of blades, and I shuddered.

"Cosette, it's all right. I'll protect you."

"Michael! You're awake. Is your body all right?"

Turning, I found Michael sitting up. His color was much better than before, and it eased my heart.

"Yeah. I feel completely fine. Mm, it's noisy. Maybe Elliot's come."

"Probably. But it's very lively, so it is."

"...Yes, I can hear what sounds like swordfighting too..."

In the plan Master Hattori had told us, Elliot was to join Michael in this room and secure his safety before calling the soldiers in.

"Has something unexpected happened, I wonder."

Just as I murmured it, the door was kicked open hard without a knock, and Dunhill burst in with a desperate look on his face. He gripped the cane in both hands, readied the sword hidden inside it, and glared at Michael with eyes burning with hatred.

"...King! There's not a moment to lose now! You'll die here!"

"Wha...!"

"I won't allow it!"

"Kyaaa!"

Master Hattori leapt at Dunhill, who swung the sword up with a speed that belied his age. From who knows where, he drew two short blades and crossed them to catch Dunhill's sword. The two ground against each other in a blade-lock, but from behind Dunhill a dozen or more armed private soldiers appeared and edged toward us. Locked with Dunhill, Master Hattori shot us an anxious glance but couldn't move.

"M-Michael! Anje!"

"No, Cosette, get back!"

"Kyaaa! Master Hattori...!"

I'd stepped forward without thinking, to protect Michael and Anje, and looked around for a weapon. But of course there was nothing that would serve as one.

"No! I won't give up! I'll protect them, no matter what! Anje, stay with Michael!"

"Cosette!"

"Lady Cosette!"

I grabbed the empty vase on the bedside and shoved Anje toward Michael, who was trying to rise. Then I hoisted the vase, big as my own face, and threatened them at the top of my lungs.

"Don't you come over here! You blithering fools! Next to a truck, you lot aren't the least bit scary!"

"Blithering fools...?"

"Truck...?"

But though the private soldiers tilted their heads, they didn't stop their creeping advance. The ring tightened. The soldiers' swords drew near, and as a last resort I swung the vase down hard, meaning to clobber them with it. Just then, outside the window right beside me, something came hurtling toward us at tremendous speed, like a comet.

"Huryaaaah!"

"Ddoraaaaaaa!"

CRAAAASSSHHH!!

Almost the instant I hurled the vase at the soldier in front, the window was smashed spectacularly from outside. Scattering glass, mowing straight down the private soldier who had caught my thrown vase, was Georg.

"Geo... rg?"

Frozen in my vase-throwing pose, I gaped up at Georg. He shot me a quick glance, then drove a merciless roundhouse kick into a soldier trying to get up.

"Cosette! Are you safe?!"

"S-safe! Wh-wh-why are you here?!"

"Talk later! I'll clean these guys up, so wait there!"

No sooner said than Georg mowed the soldiers down with the work of a war god. At the soldiers rushing him all at once, what Georg let fly was, of all things, the hula hoop.

"A hula hoop?! Why?!"

"Hurraah!"

The hula hoop went shakin! in the air, and countless spikes sprang out on the inside and outside of the ring, spinning at high speed and jabbing the soldiers full of holes.

"Ow! Owowowow!"

"Next up is this!"

What Georg pulled from his coat was...

"A t-training tube...?"

A training tube that had to be two meters long. And extra thick. Georg hoisted the tube, swung it around hard, and brought it down on a private soldier. Bending exactly like a whip, the tube landed a clean smack across the soldier's face.

"Ora ora ora ora oraah!"

"Abababu!"

"Guhaa..."

It was over in a blink. Before I knew it, every private soldier who had flooded into the room was knocked out and trussed up tight, wound round and round with the training tube.