Mayoi Black Summoner: Volume 7

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-7183-7560-4
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 250 Seiten

Reihe: Black Summoner

Kelvin, the battle junkie Summoner from another world, finally clashes with Leonhart Gaun, the king of the host country of the Beast King Festival. They bring all their strength, wits, and cunning to bear, each struggling to gain dominance over the other and proceed further in the tournament.

As the same time, the organization who pulled the strings behind the Demon Lord incident and manipulated Trycen into declaring war on the rest of the continent seems to be on the move. Will this entity shrouded in mystery appear before Kelvin and his companions once again?

Come along for the ride as this black-clad Grim Reaper and his friends confront the forces squirming about in the shadows in the seventh volume of this epic journey!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Mayoi, Doufu

Weitere Mitwirkende

Taishi,

DaiXt

Leseproben

“What are you—”

“Rion-chan, I don’t want to fight you. But as the Beast King, I can’t just forfeit without making an appearance. So please, cut me down.”

“Wh-What are you saying?!”

“I mean it, Rion-chan.”

Although his steps were small, Leonhart had walked right up to Rion before she knew it. He stopped at the precise distance where he was entirely disadvantaged: within the reach of Rion’s weapon but beyond that of his bare fists. The smile remained on his face as he waited for her to make her move.

“What’s wrong, Rion-chan? My neck is right here. Please, just one quick chop.”

“Ugh...”

Rion hesitated, unable to determine if this was a trap or if Leonhart really had no intention of fighting. Her mind locked up as doubt and questions swirled like a whirlpool within. Most of all, her kindness made her unable to choose to harm her friend, especially when she was entirely defenseless.

“I see. You really are kind, Rion-chan. But in that case...”

“Huh? Wait, what are you doing?!”

The Beast King slowly reached out and grabbed one of the swords in Rion’s grip. Blood dripped onto the stage as the palm of his hand was cut on the razor-sharp edge.

“If you can’t do it, I’ll have to do it for you, Rion-chan.”

“No, don’t! Let go!”

Leonhart was forcibly bringing the blade towards his own throat. Even though he looked like Shutola, he still had all his strength as the Beast King. Rion desperately tried to resist, but her sword inched closer and closer in defiance of her will. The blood slowly drained from her face with each moment.

“Please, stop! I don’t want to win like this!”

“But I don’t have a choice. I really don’t want to fight you, Rion-chan.”

In contrast to the Beast Lord, who looked entirely unfazed despite practically courting death, Rion, who was desperately struggling to pull her sword back, was sweating like a waterfall. Could this actually be called a fight? Who was winning? No one could tell. The only thing that seemed obvious was that Rion’s sword was going to pierce Leonhart’s throat very soon if the situation continued.

“Don’t worry, Rion-chan. Even if I die, you’ll still be the winner.”

“That’s not...the issue...here!”

“Well, you can’t have it all, Rion-chan. The only other thing you can do is...surrender, isn’t it?”

Just as Rion was on the verge of tears, a single ray of hope was delivered to her in a sugary voice. The smile on Leonhart’s face slowly turned into a smirk as he recommended the words that would cause Rion’s downfall, and yet they sounded oh so sweet to her ears. Finally, the sword tip reached his white, unblemished throat, drawing blood.

“I surrender! I surrendeeeer!”

“Oh, you do?”

“Ouch!”

The Beast King suddenly let go of the sword, causing Rion, who had been pulling back with all her strength, to fall back onto her rear end.

“Did you hear that, Ronove? I won! Yay! Announce it, announce it!”

“Huh? Oh, uh, right. Um, Rion-sama has announced her surrender! Therefore, the final match of Block B goes to ‘Reflector’ Leonhart Gaun! But personally, I can’t accept this!”

What followed the declaration of the Beast King’s victory was a storm of not cheers and applause but booing and jeering.

? ? ?

The cries of displeasure from the crowds were still going. Considering the things they were shouting at the king of their own country, freedom of speech was clearly not a problem in Gaun. And for his part, the Beast King was acting like a heel on stage.

“I’m so sorry, Kel-nii. I even promised to meet you in the finals...”

“I’m sorry too, dearest brother. I should have foreseen the Beast King using this tactic.”

As soon as Rion returned, she and Shutola came to apologize to me, both looking very down.

Gerard stood up. “Rion, Shutola, wait here. I will go and deliver that monster divine punishment with my own hands—”

I raised an eyebrow. “Do you think you can cut down the Beast King when he looks like Shutola, Gerard?”

“Ugh, that’s...” Gerard looked so furious that he seemed about to assassinate Leonhart right then and there, so I stopped him before he did anything stupid...especially since he would be at even more of a loss than Rion in the same situation.

“All I can say is, I’m sorry about my old man,” Sabato offered awkwardly.

Goma bowed. “Please allow us to apologize on behalf of our father. We are truly sorry for what he did.”

“Nah, it’s nothing for you two to apologize for. The Beast King didn’t break any of the tournament rules—what he did does count as a tactic. He managed to poke Rion exactly where she’s weakest. Rion, the cost of tuition was high, but you took something away from the match, right? You know what you have to work on next, right?”

“Mm...”

If the Beast King had gone on the offensive, Rion would probably have been able to put up a fight in spite of his appearance. This time, he had used nonresistance as a weapon to get to Rion’s heart. There were a number of other approaches Rion could have taken, such as trying to knock him out without hurting him, but she got tunnel vision. As her older brother, I very much wanted her to treasure her kindness, but I did not want it to be something that would handicap her in critical moments.

“Why aren’t you angry about this?” Sera asked indignantly. “The way the Beast King fought was clearly against the intent of the tournament!”

“I angry.”

“Why not?! Rion is— Wait, you are? You only have this blank look on your face.”

“Oh, I’m angry all right.”

Whether I was angry or not was a different matter altogether. I was grateful to Leonhart for showing Rion what she needed to work on. However, the crime of bullying Rion, my little sister, definitely needed to be paid back one hundredfold. The only thing on my mind at the moment was what I was going to do to him when we met in the finals. If he was going to fight “within the rules,” then I was going to have to respond in kind and go the full mile.

“Heh heh heh, I’ll enchant my swords with both Vortex Edge and Ground Cleave. Since he can be healed anyway, I’ll slice off pieces of flesh while taking an arm...”

“Ahh...okay, yep, let’s leave him alone for now. Efil, come with me.”

“Understood, Sera-san. Master, I wish you all the best.”

Sera and Efil stood back as if to give me space.

“Kel-nii?”

Rion made to approach me, but Sera held her back. “Stop, Rion! Don’t get any closer. If you do, your Absolute Purification will erase his anger.”

“Whaaat? But I don’t want revenge. And I feel bad for Goma-chan!”

“Ah, don’t worry about us, Rion-san. I spend every day trying to think of ways to make my father pay too.”

“No complaints from me either! Our old man is the freaking Beast King. I’m sure he knows his actions come with consequences.”

Sera nodded. “Even I would want to beat him to a pulp if I met him on stage!”

“Well, now you’ve heard everyone’s opinions,” Mel said, pulling Rion’s hand. “What do you say to visiting some food stalls and joining me in eating some good meat? It’s meat! Whenever something bad happens, meat will make you feel better!”

“Meat?! Mel-sama, I’m coming too!” cried Ruka.

“It’s important to maintain a balanced diet, Mel-nee! And now you’re influencing Ruka too!”

Rion was almost forcibly dragged out by Melfina, with Ruka tagging along. I hoped it would serve as a good distraction to get her mind off things.

Just as I was about to dive back into my thoughts using Parallel Processing, Shutola came over to me.

“Dearest brother, may I sit next to you?”

“Hm? Aren’t you going with Rion and Mel? I think it’d make Rion happy if you did.”

“I want to, but I’m also feeling angry at the Beast King for using my appearance to corner Rion-chan and angry with myself for not seeing it coming. So I will continue watching the matches with you. Even though I might not be much help this far into the tournament, I still want to contribute somehow.”

Resolve gleamed in her eyes, almost as if the general of the Black Ops were shining through for a moment. Or perhaps this strong sense of responsibility was something that had been inside her all along. Regardless of what she said, however, I did not fault her in the slightest for what had happened. I looked to Gerard for advice, and he nodded, crossing his arms.

“Okay. The next match is Sera’s, and she’s up against Bahl, someone we know almost nothing about. Tell me if you notice something or if anything comes to mind. I’m counting on you, Shutola.”

“Thank you, dearest brother!”

“Well, I’ll be winning anyway, so there’s no need to get too worked up about it,” Sera announced. “All right, it’s about time, so I’m heading off!”

Shutola and I watched her ponytail disappear through the door as she...