Chapter 186: 171

「Evetta-san, what's the plan?」

「Souya, Medimu-sama has lost his head. There's only one way to bring him back to his senses」

And what's that?

「Until he comes back to his senses, give him a good beating」

So you're not going to suggest persuasion, magical means, or convenient items, huh?

「Well then, leave him to me」

Worst case scenario, I'm prepared to lose one of my limbs.

「That's right. It's the leader's job to clean up his party member’s mess. Then I'll take the one in the back with the long horns」

Evetta-san pointed her mace at the Horns with two horns.

Perhaps she saw it as a challenge, but the two-horned Horns pointed her oversized sword back at her in the same manner.

Medimu stepped in between the two women.

「Evetta, I'm sorry, but………」

「Then don't get in the way」

I was the first to move.

Sparks flew as katana met katana.

I locked our katanas together and forcefully pushed Medimu away from the Horns.

Evetta-san charged at the two-horned Horns. There was a high-pitched screech as the mace and the oversized sword came together.

I won't let anything get in her way.

With the women's fight behind me, I took a few more slashes at Medimu.

「Hmph!」

Three attacks in an instant. All of them aimed to kill.

This wasn't an opponent I could afford to go easy on.

As if to prove my point, all three were dealt with easily. Not a single spark flew. Even the impact of the blades meeting each other felt light.

At my fourth slash, my blade cut through empty air.

I heard the distinctive sound of a katana clicking back into its scabbard. After ducking under my slash, Medimu had dropped to one knee and sheathed his katana.

This is bad.

A chill ran through me.

From close quarters, I sprung away from him.

Even I didn't quite comprehend what I had done. When I landed and came to an abrupt stop, I stumbled. My head spun for a moment. It felt like all my blood had gone to my toes. It appeared that I had done a backflip like some kind of acrobat to get away from him.

After a brief moment, I felt my left cheek flap open.

As usual, I was unable to see anything from the drawing of the katana to the actual slash itself.

The regeneration point closed it back up, but the healing it provided wouldn’t make the blood return to my body.

I wiped the blood from my cheek and regrouped.

Medimu sheathed his katana and took the stance for performing an iai-draw once more. I raised my katana and held it above my head.

We were both at the edge of each other's blade's range.

「………………Medimu, let me ask you something. Why didn't you kill Shuna?」

「He didn't need to be killed. That's all there is to it. Don't waste your time with this nonsense. Just leave me behind and move on」

「I refuse」

Just like how you don't care about my circumstances, I don't give a damn about yours.

I held my breath and slid closer to him without lifting my feet off the ground.

He's right. I shouldn't waste my time with this nonsense.

I'll decide it in the next exchange

Our katanas are brother swords made using Lola's claws.

Even if our weapons are the same, I'm nowhere near as skilled as Medimu at using them.

「Souya, you can't see out of your left eye, can you?」

「No, I can. Well, maybe not. Take that any way you like」

On top of that, due to the blurred vision out of my left eye, my sense of distance is off. My simple attempt at mind games probably won't do any good either.

But when it comes down to it, spirit and guts are what matters most in fights.

「UUOOOoooooo!」

I stepped into range and swung my sword down with a spirited cry.

It's a very simple and transparent attack, but it won't lose to an iai-draw in terms of speed.

My target is the kashira(pommel) of his katana, which is the starting point of the iai-draw.

Despite my wonky sense of distance, my blade struck the kashira, stopping him from drawing his katana.

That went as planned, so I will now――――――went as planned?

「Not good enough」

Medimu had intended to take my attack with the kashira from the start. Things had gone as planned not for me, but for him.

I was hit with a terrifyingly keen foot sweep.

My world spun sideways and I landed headfirst into the ground. As a follow-up attack, the butt of his scabbard was thrust into my abdomen.

「Urgh」

Perhaps he had driven it into some sort of tender spot, but it hurt like hell when he put his weight on it.

「This is how it is. Now that you understand, beat it」

「You're the one who doesn't understand」

I had gotten used to this level of pain. I grabbed his katana's scabbard and kashira.

As I am now, I'm just as strong as any monster. A mere human won't be able to draw the katana one iota.

「You………what's that light?」

My regeneration point glowed with a suspicious light. Medimu let go of his katana and kicked me, using it to launch himself backward.

As expected, he has excellent judgment.

But with this, he no longer has a weapon………………my katana is missing.

「I had figured it would be a little different, but it’s completely different, I see」

Medimu had my katana.

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He was making a few light swings to gauge the difference in feel.

「Youu」

I had forgotten, but adventurers are notorious for having sticky fingers.

I'll defeat him before he can get used to it.

Lowering my stance and launching myself at him, I immediately closed the distance between us.

I'm going to use the katana I snatched from him to do an iai-draw. It's easy for me to copy a technique I've just seen.

「About this technique of unleashing it from the scabbard………it has a fatal flaw」

Its sharpness.

Its speed.

I managed to replicate his technique of cutting space itself. But I didn't even come close to scratching him.

「The path of the slash can be read from the angle of the scabbard」

My return slash was fatally slow.

I felt an instant of coldness followed by a gush of heat. I had been slashed open from my right shoulder down to my left ribs. My nerves must have been severed because my body stopped listening to me and crumpled to the ground.

Oddly enough, there was no pain. But I knew that the cut was very deep from the amount of blood that had sprayed out

「It's just short of a mortal wound. Given how tough you are, you'll survive」

「………………What a shame」

You've left yourself open for the first time.

「What?」

I gritted my teeth against the pain racking my body and tackled Otou-san.

Not even the father of adventures could have anticipated the speed at which I could regenerate.

Hooking one leg with one hand and grabbing his shoulder with the other, I slammed him back into the wall of the throne room. Because of how badly I had been hurt, any consideration I had for his aging body or the fact that he was my party member evaporated.

I took the mount position.

With my knee planted on the hand that was holding the katana, I brought my fist down on his head. Fist after fist, I delivered each blow with the intent to kill.

You, you, you stupid father!

「Hey………………」

I gradually increased the speed of my fists. I rained blows down on his head like a jackhammer.

「Hey………hey」

Otou-san seems to have something to say, but I couldn’t care less.

To cap off the barrage, I clenched both fists together and raised them up――――――

「I don't think I can take much more without dying」

Otou-san landed a kick. I was knocked off of him and tumbled to the side. But I immediately got back up and swung at him. He blocked my right punch, though not easily.

「No, just die」

「I won't resist. I've lost」

「Is that so?」

He looked like he still had some fight left in him though.

I turned a bit of my attention to Evetta-san's fight. It was an intense back-and-forth battle. Despite the size of the weapons both of them were wielding, their speed was unbelievable. The aftershocks of their clashes made the throne shake. The wind whipped up by their swings made my blood run cold.

「Or would you prefer I say that you brought me back to my senses?」

「You never lost your head in the first place, did you?」

That's the reason why my anger had boiled over.

「Go ahead and laugh. In the end, this is the kind of man I am」

I don't find it funny. It pisses me off.

So this is what became of the man who was unable to forget about his party member who had disappeared and continued to search for her for three whole decades. Even after gaining new party members and going on new adventures with them, for him to still cherish the memories of the past more......

It's really annoying.

「I'll say it again. That's not Lanseal's mother. It's no more than a monster that looks like her」

「Even if that thing called me by my name?」

What did you say?

「That thing called me by name. I didn't imagine it. It definitely said my name」

「No, it's all in your head. Your party member, Lanseal's mother! Died a long time ago on this floor! She became famous and lived on through the stories told about her! Are you trying to destroy that?!」

「I know. Yeah, I'm well aware of that. ………………But」

「There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. That's an enemy, and you were misled by it. Accept that right now. If you can't accept it, then as your leader, I'll have no choice but to kill you」

Otou-san had a worn-out look on his face.

It wasn't because he was getting old, but because he was mentally exhausted.

「I learned something from the fight with you. ………Fighting a fellow party member………is so damn taxing」

「Oh, I see」

It kinda doesn't mean anything when an elderly person says something like that though.

「It has been more than thirty years since I became an adventurer. After helping countless young ones, people started calling me the "Father of Adventurers". I tried to stay humble, but I'll admit to taking the slightest bit of pride in it. My reputation, that is. But look at the fool I’ve become」

I feel angry. Really angry. This is all I've been feeling ever since I stepped foot on this floor.

No, could it be that I'm just jealous because Otou-san chose his old party member over us?

「You're not a fool. I'm pretty certain that if a monster took on the form of a party member I had lost, I'd be misled too. I'm sure I'd stop and let myself be seduced by that sweet dream. But I'm the leader of the party. I have the responsibility of making sure everyone gets back safely. Next time, no matter what phantoms appear before you, be sure to prioritize your current party」

「………………Responsibility, huh?」

It's not easy to shoulder, but it's something I have to bear.

「How truly laughable. Who'd have thought that the man called the father of adventurers would have none of the qualities needed to be a leader………」

That's true

In short, that's just how it is.

「Well, that's it then. Please take a short nap」

I struck Otou-san in the jaw and knocked him out.

I feel like Souya kinda uses the principles of Jigen-ryu when he fights. The focus on the one killing swing and the ear-piercing yell during it. The practitioners of Jigen-ryu used to actually practice the yelling, as it’s meant to be so loud that it disorients the enemy for that one decisive moment when they attack.

Just in case the “It kinda doesn't mean anything when an elderly person says something like that though” was confusing(it took me a while), Souya is saying that everything is taxing to an old person so Otou-san isn’t exactly saying much by telling him that it’s taxing.

Well, it’s short, but with the end of Souya vs Otou-san, that’s it for this arc! One more to go! How will this volume end?! Stay tuned!

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