Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers

52 – A Heavy Relationship (1)

“What’s wrong? Why did you scream?”

“Ah, I accidentally touched her tail.”

The saintess’s eyes narrowed.

“The tail is a sensitive area for fox beastkin. Physically and socially. You shouldn’t touch it carelessly.”

“I’m sorry.”

The saintess and valkyrie returned, their expressions sour. Did I somehow get away with it?

Anyway, now was the time to explain the situation to the engineer.

I opened my mouth softly towards the engineer, who was blinking as if he couldn’t understand what was happening.

“Miyo.”

*

Riyo’s eyes snapped wide open, her mind reeling.

“What did you just say?”

“Miyo.”

“H-how do you know that name?”

The mage pointed at Riyo’s left tail. He used all the Holy Kingdom words and gestures he knew, trying to make Riyo understand the situation.

After a long while of communicating, Riyo grasped everything.

“N-no way.”

Her gaze trembled.

“My sister…she’s alive?”

Her vision blurred.

“…Inside me?”

[‘Finally looking my way, huh? Yeah, it’s your sister.’]

“But, it’s weird. You said she’s speaking in Hwian. I can’t even use magic, so how am I understanding her?”

[‘Hmm, good question. How about you ask the mage? Wanna switch for a sec?’]

“How do we switch?”

[‘You just need the will to.’]

Riyo’s consciousness instantly floated away. No extra work required. Miyo, now in control of her sister’s body, asked a question in Hwian.

The mage immediately answered Miyo’s question.

[“It must be because the two of you are sharing consciousness.”]

With that, the mage recounted the incident between himself and Major Rachel. He spoke of a time he’d been under a siren’s illusion magic, and how their consciousnesses had connected, allowing them to communicate.

[“You two must be in a similar state. Maybe.”]

Miyo gave control back to Liyo.

[‘…So they say?’]

Whether the mage’s words were true or not, Liyo didn’t know. But she wished it were so.

That her sister, who died over a decade ago, was actually living on with her?

Really?

Not a mental illness?

[‘Think about it. When you came to earlier, you were clinging to the mage, remember? You really think he did that?’]

She shook her head. It’d been almost a month since she’d met the mage, and he didn’t seem like that kind of person. More than anything, he was in no state to even hold himself up due to mana exhaustion.

[‘That was me.’]

Now all the pieces fell into place.

Her sister was alive. Even her playful nature was the same, so it was certain.

Liyo’s lips tightened. A hiccuping sound, like a music box, spilled from her mouth.

If she let go just a little, she felt like she’d burst into sobs, like a dam breaking. So, she clamped her hand over her mouth.

It was then that the mage laboriously raised his hand.

A rough, but warm hand covered Liyo’s head. Liyo’s ears and tail shot up, like drawn by static electricity.

“Wh-what…?”

“You’ve been through a lot.”

Liyo’s eyes widened. And Miyo was equally startled by the following pronouncement.

[“You said it was a design of eight inverted crosses on a silver ring, right? Got it. If I ever see it, I’ll crush them.”]

[“Wait, what?”]

Miyo, who had hurriedly borrowed the body, asked.

[“What do you mean you’ll do what? Do you even have the authority to do that?”]

[“I’m a First-Class Mage. A First-Class can, regardless of military rank, arrest and dispose of mages who cause casualties by violating a forbidden spell, according to procedure.”]

[“They can do that in your country? Is it similar to being a prosecutor?”]

[“If you limit the targets to mages, I guess so. It’s hard to subdue guys skilled enough to break forbidden spells on the spot unless you’re a stronger mage.”]

[“Are you that strong?”]

[“I don’t know. I’m probably the weakest of the First-Class?”]

The mage chuckled. He lowered his hand and continued.

[“Still, I’ll try.”]

Hearing those words, Liyo’s tears stopped, abruptly. The mage let out a drawn-out groan and closed his eyes.

[“I need to rest for now. I can’t do anything right now. Let’s start teaching you magic after I’m better. Work things out with your sister.”]

The mage soon fell asleep. Miyo felt an indescribable emotion.

If they see the mage group that tortured them, he’ll immediately crush them.

They’ve only met a month ago. They’re even enemies. Once they escape this deserted island, they’ll have to fight again, or perhaps never see each other again.

They’re definitely that kind of relationship…

*Whump whump whump.*

Her left tail was moving as if to generate wind.

Damn, he was like a fox. I felt like I was about to fall for him. And that made Miyo feel guilty. This body belongs to her sister. There was no point in wanting a heavy relationship.

*Swish, swish.*

The wagging tail was purely because of Miyo’s emotions. But before she knew it, Riyo was wagging her own tail too.

Riyo couldn’t even hear what the mage was saying. She was just grateful that he’d made her aware of her sister’s presence. If it weren’t for the mage, she might have spent her whole life mistaking her sister’s voice for a mental illness.

Riyo hugged both her and Miyo’s tails close and curled up on her side.

“Hee, heehee. Unnie. Unniee.”

[‘Yeah, I’ll indulge you today.’]

It had been a full ten years since their reunion.

Just a little bit.

Just a little bit longer, I’ll rest like this and then get up and do what I need to do.

*

A few days later.

I had completely recovered from mana exhaustion. My mana wavelength was back within normal range, and I’d even reached a point where I could use mana stones a little excessively without any problems.

All thanks to the Saintess and the Valkyrie’s nursing.

Surprisingly, the Valkyrie took care of me often. She always stood guard at night, and we often talked in the process.

One surprising thing was that the Valkyrie had become quite good at speaking Hazkyle.

“Ghood night.”

It’s still a little unfortunate that her pronunciation is a bit lispy, but she’s cute, so shouldn’t that be good enough?

“……”

Cute to your enemy, what’s with cute. I’m insane. I need to go die.

“Grind this.”

“The spearhead?”

“Spearhead? Spearhead. Yeah.”

Nowhere near the Saint, but her expression was getting clearer.

As soon as dawn broke, I tracked down the Saint and snuck in a question.

“Are you maybe teaching Valkyrie the language of the Magic Kingdom?”

“U-um, yes, yes. Why?”

“That’s too much. You promised you’d teach me the language of the Holy Kingdom, too.”

“Ah… That’s right. When would be good for you?”

“Wouldn’t it be good to do it together with Valkyrie’s lessons?”

That’s about the level of communication I have with the Saint.

I can communicate with the Sappers using Whispered Speech.

If only I could converse smoothly with Valkyrie, my survival on this deserted island and my safety after would be more or less guaranteed.

Finally, the lesson started, including me.

“Today I’ll teach you greetings suitable for different situations. Things used for thanks, apologies, congratulations, goodbyes, and so on. If we’re going to keep living like this, we’ll be using them a lot.”

The Saint’s lessons were intuitive.

“Repeat after me. Thank you. Thank you.”

Once in the language of the Magic Kingdom, once in the language of the Holy Kingdom.

“The polite form is, Thank you very much. Thank you very much.”

In less than an hour, we learned quite a rich vocabulary. Survival was the priority, so our lesson ended quickly, but even this was more than enough to be grateful for.

They say the more you use a language, the faster you learn it. And since I was the only one here who spoke the Magic Kingdom’s tongue, there was no better place to learn the Holy Spirit Kingdom’s language.

Valkyrie seemed to think the same, always talking to me whenever we were on night watch together. It was the same tonight.

“Hello. Good night. H-how is your body?”

“I’m okay. Thanks for your concern.”

Childish level conversation.

That’s what made it so meaningful.

Rather than fighting each other to the death, wouldn’t it be better if we both went back to our innocent selves?

“Let’s review what we learned today.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry.”

“…….”

“Valkyrie? I’m sorry.”

“Oh, uh-huh.”

Valkyrie mumbled. Normally here, the response should be ‘It’s okay.’ It seems like she’d forgotten that expression.

Valkyrie scratched her head hard and sighed.

“I don’t get it. I don’t know what’s what.”

“You should say ‘It’s okay’ there.”

“It’s not okay.”

I wondered what that meant, so I stopped keeping watch ahead and looked at Valkyrie. Her eyes, lit by the campfire, were shaking. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, as if she had a fever.

Valkyrie said, almost crying.

“Mage, I… I’m afraid of you.”

I missed a word in the middle. And after that, it was just a feast of unknowable sounds.

“It’s already been well over three months since I started living with you. All the things you’ve shown me in that time, they’re so different from the you I saw that day, it’s…confusing. If there are mages like you, it makes me wonder what all the rage I’ve poured into the Magic Kingdom even *was*, makes me feel like I’m no different from them…”

“……”

“……so I can’t get my head on straight. I want to tell you this. I want to, goddamn it. But talking to you through the Colonel is just too damn embarrassing, you know? That’s why I asked you to teach me Magic Kingdom speak in the first place.”

The words, strung together without a breath, finally ended. A very long conversation for a Valkyrie. Though, since I couldn’t understand it, it was more of a monologue.

Still, I get that she’s feeling a bit… blah.

*

A new dawn broke again.

Yesterday, things got a little weird with the Valkyrie, but it didn’t come to a full-blown relationship collapse. Guess silence really *is* golden.

Starting today, me and the combat engineer are going to come up with an escape plan and make a few things along the way.

And that’s not all, is it?

I’m going to teach her sister, Miyo, magic, too.

“Yahoo! This is so fun! Ah, no. Ahem, how…intriguing?”

That bouncing brat’s gotta be the younger sister.

After a little while, the combat engineer’s aura grew a little…s*xier. Looks like the older sister has taken over.

I put a raw stone down on the stone table. Then I sat in a stone chair and brought over the stone chalkboard.

[‘The whole world is stone.’]

[‘Ororolstondonedone.’]

I cleared my throat and showed Miyo the raw stone.

[“Can we start?”]

[“Yeah.”]

Miyo answered, a twitch in her eye.

[“So, today’s our day one, right?”]