Escape From a Deserted Island With Enemy Female Soldiers

58 – Heavy Relationships (7)

When Rachel came to her senses, she was carrying another piece of gear. That gear’s name was Field Marshal.

Rachel thought.

Why did she choose me?

*

“Who’s easiest to lean on?”

The Saint asked that. Without hesitation, I picked Valkyrie.

Three reasons.

First, Valkyrie and I have the least difference in height.

Second, experientially, Valkyrie’s body temperature is the highest.

And finally, third, because I’m the most awkward with Valkyrie.

Especially that last reason was my real motive. Communication with Valkyrie is impossible, so our relationship develops slowly. I need to have conversations like this little by little whenever I get the chance.

I only told the Saint and the Combat Engineer the first reason. That alone seemed to convince them. Valkyrie, on the other hand, seemed more bewildered.

Having to support an enemy when it’s not even an emergency?

That’s the kind of expression she was making.

Still, Valkyrie lent me her shoulder without complaint. It looked really hard on her, trying to carry her weapon and support me at the same time.

“Is it hard?”

“No.”

“If it’s hard, I’ll just walk on my own.”

“It’s fine.”

As I exchanged words with Valkyrie, we were already in the deepest part of the forest.

“…Get off now.”

Valkyrie practically dumped me down. The shove wasn’t that hard, but it still felt awkward. I scratched my head and turned my gaze to the Saintess.

“How about we split up and search?”

“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”

“Camping here is tough. We need to head back before sundown.”

The Saintess nodded.

“I suppose you’re right. Then, don’t stray beyond a distance where we can confirm each other’s locations.”

“Understood.”

I got a hand getting up from Valkyrie, but splitting into groups was another matter entirely. Needed to think about the balance of combat strength and communication.

In the end, me and the Engineer were one group, Valkyrie and the Saintess were the other. It was the expected outcome.

“Hehe.”

The Engineer giggled. She tapped my waist with her tail.

[“Here we go again.”]

[“Why, you don’t like it?”]

[“Why are you constantly shoving your tail at me since last time? You got a thing for me?”]

[“Maybe?”]

[“I told you I hate beating around the bush.”]

[“You’re so oblivious.”]

Miyo swished her left tail. That tail was inching upwards.

[“Liking someone, you know, that’s a really broad term. It could be affection between family, friendship between friends, respect between teacher and student, or love between lovers, right?”]

[“So? What about you?”]

[“I don’t know.”]

[“You don’t know?”]

[“I’ve only known you for two months. There’s a lot I don’t know about you. I can’t give you a definite answer to whether I like you or not.”]

[“……”]

[“But it’s also true that you’ve made quite an impression on me in that short time. The mages see us beastfolk as animals because of the arts they believe in, right? You didn’t. You treated me like a person from the start.”]

Miyo continued.

[“And that’s not all, is it? You sympathized with my past and shared my anger. You said you’d blow away the symbols of those mages who ruined our lives if you saw them. And you actually acted on it. You took down that wood giant we ran into a few days ago so quickly, didn’t you? Besides, you even protected my life in the end…”]

Looking back, I had done things for the Fox Sister that were by no means trivial.

I did it to increase my chances of survival, but precisely because I did those things, my life was put in danger.

Think about it.

Was I reckless?

Was I some stupid pushover idiot who’d throw away his life for an enemy in distress?

[“Because you’re that kind of person, I’m hesitating.”]

Miyo, no.

The Fox Sister said.

[“Whether becoming a little more…special with you is the right thing to do, I mean.”]

The fox half-closed her eyes and shrugged her shoulders.

[“Well, if you don’t like it, there’s nothing I can do. Shall we keep going?”]

She turned around. Her stride was smaller than usual, and her tail swayed gracefully. But her posture itself seemed somehow weak.

It was time to make a decision.

I approached the walking Engineer from behind. And carefully placed my hand on her left tail.

A flinch, and Miyu’s shoulder jerked. She slowly turned to look at me.

[“…What?”]

Despite the flustered tone, her lips were smiling.

[“Aren’t we enemies? Is this even okay?”]

[“I decide who’s enemy and who’s friend.”]

[“Hmph.”]

Riyo offered her other tail.

“Here too, then.”

[“Show me your resolve.”]

I stroked both tails, bunching them together. I used to have prejudices about beastfolk, but this softness was enough to shatter them.

This feeling… maybe it’s not so bad.

The fox girls smiled.

[“Touching tails… I told you it’s a form of courtship, right?”]

[“In a narrow sense, yeah.”]

[“You know? That’s right, in a narrow sense. But the essence is a sign of intimacy. If you don’t disappoint me from now on, I won’t disappoint you either.”]

Which meant she wouldn’t turn a blind eye if I was in danger.

Good. That’s enough. Now I can treat the fox sisters with peace of mind.

In that instant, Miyu lowered her shirt. Her snow-white, smooth shoulders were revealed.

[“Do you perhaps know that there are levels to serious relationships?”]

“Stages?”

“Granting a tail is something you can do even between siblings or friends. But relationships between people are diverse, and it’s not enough to define them with just one thing, right? If you truly want a special relationship, we’ll need more time.”

A special relationship. I don’t know what she’s talking about.

No, actually, I vaguely know. I just want to pretend I don’t.

I didn’t want to hear what she would say next. If I heard it, I would definitely be shaken.

“Here, on this shoulder, I mean.”

The fox sister stroked her forearm, a sultry smile on her face.

“I hope the day comes when your teeth sink in here?”

*

The exploration ended before sunset.

After Valkyrie and I reunited, we organized and checked what we had obtained.

“There were corpses of soldiers from both countries. And these magic stones were around them.”

“Did the corpses look strange?”

“Yes, they were strange. Every single one of them had two heads, and… their nationalities seemed different too.”

Corpses were often found where the head of a Mado Country soldier had been attached to the body of a Holy Spirit Country soldier to make twins.

The Saintess’s shoulder twitched.

“It’s horrifying. Only a demon would do such a thing.”

“It seems there are remnants of the Demon Lord’s army and pseudo-magicians behind this island.”

Pseudo, remnants of the Demon Lord’s army, the heads of each island, and experiments concerning souls.

The secret of this system is slowly starting to become clear.

“Anything else?”

“Here are some old documents and maps.”

“That’s a lot. Where did you find them?”

“Over there, I got them from that old, cobweb-covered tree. They were in a heap beneath it.”

“Good. We’ll go back and read them.”

That was it for today’s exploration. We’d gotten pretty much everything we could. This investigation would probably be our last adventure on this island.

We returned to base.

Valkyrie had been sick for a while, so there were problems with food supply. Luckily, fish were caught in the fish trap, so we shared them and some fruit.

“A technique is needed to bind multiple souls into one body. Under the protection of the legion, I began research into possession. I drew up plans and continued experimenting. The necessary test subjects were brought by the Leviathan.”

“Leviathan?”

“Combining all the research to date, the most promising method was ‘fruiting’. The trunk of a tree is one, but dozens or hundreds of fruits are borne. When those fruits fall, another life sprouts. I drew inspiration from this.”

“Fruits… does that mean magic stones?”

“Finally, I succeeded. In imbuing a human soul into an inanimate object, in sprouting life again from inanimate objects. I informed the three armies of this method. But unfortunately, most of these reconstructed bodies quickly collapsed.”

“……”

“……This is the end of the record. There’s an inverted cross ring seal stamped below.”

“As I thought, something’s there.”

My assumption is this.

Cult sorcerers were conducting experiments. Experiments to forcibly insert souls into bodies. It seems they were trying to possess something through these experiments.

In the process, a connection with remnants of the Demon Lord’s army is also revealed.

Could it be? The demon army, thought to be annihilated, colluded with some mage organization to create this island?

I looked through the other documents.

The more I saw, the more my speculation solidified into conviction.

One of them was a letter. The author was named Ledoff, and the recipient, Vignol.

[-Message from General Staff. Reporting contact with the Seven Shadows Council. Two points of discussion. First, a pledge to cooperate in the maintenance of Paradise. Second, land grants after the recovery of Goto.]

No date was written. It seemed that was all the immediate information I could glean.

“Do you think the Magic Kingdom knows about this?”

“I can only hope they don’t. Anyway, what a bunch of lunatics. What era are we even in…”

I closed the documents and spread out the map. I compared it to the maps we’d gathered on previous islands, trying to figure out what other islands were in the nearby waters.

The magic compass seemed well-recorded. It was pointing towards the twin islands where the Source Stone was originally headed. So, that way is the exit.

It was then that Riyo spoke.

“Oh, that’s right! I’ve had a good idea. How about making a signal beacon?”

“A signal beacon?”

“Yeah!”

She switched with Miyo, who continued speaking.

[“We might have to turn back due to lack of resources, or we could get lost in an accident. But this island is really abundant. There’s plenty of fruit, meat and water, and the climate’s good. We could use this place as a mid-base. We could create a remote signaling device using mana and Sephiron on the island.”]

It made sense.

An island with monsters is still an island. No matter where we go, we need basic ritual stones if we want to survive.

What if the next destination is just a desolate place covered in rock and gravel?

[‘Huk.’]

[‘Huh.’]

Just imagining it makes my mouth water… bullshit, if it looks like they’re out of food and water, we should turn right around without docking.

The mana compass only points to the exit. If we want to figure out where we’ve been, we have to navigate by looking at charts one by one.

In that sense, Liyo and I were burning the midnight oil making signal beacons before departure.

The method for making signal beacons is simple. You just use the synchronization properties of keystone.

Sharpen the ends of the stone into a lightning rod shape and stick them in the ground, facing the sky. Surround them with kyanite, and then deposit phono-stone on top to act as a transceiver.

Truthfully, it’s easy to say, but it would’ve taken forever if the fox sisters hadn’t helped. We didn’t have any high-tech equipment, so we had to carve and stick things together in a primitive way, making it look utterly crude on the outside.

Anyway, in this way, we created signal beacons that were two-channel, two-way communicators. They were designed to work whether you used Sephiron or mana.

“Alright! Shall we test it out?”

Liyo grinned and poured holy power into the phono-stone.

Wooong.

The Sephiron channel was activated, and a signal went out.

“Wonder if we’ll pick up any signals?”

“We’ll see.”

The engineer and I put our ears to the signal beacon. And…

[“Please, someone help! I’m trapped in a stone and can’t move! Captain Rachel!”]

[“That magician, he dared to put Olivia and me in this state… I’ll never forgive him. If I find him, I’ll kill him for sure.”]

The anguished words of the Ascalians were caught in the signal.