Rebellion - The Thorny Path Chapter 4

[shivalries]

Season: Summer

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Location: Soundproof Practice Room



Izumi: Uh, excuuuse me? Naru-kun, Kuma-kun, Kasa-kun... You're all having practice and leaving me out?

Arashi: Oh? My, you're here earlier than expected, Izumi-chan.

Izumi: Yeah, well. You see... Yuu-kun went crying to Nazunyan because he's dead-set on getting away from me, or something.

Nazunyan's kind of a pushover, too, so he ended up spilling all the beans to Yuu-kun. ♪

So... Looks like our stupid King's not messing around this time, surprisingly. The moment I learned the truth, I kinda made a mad dash over here to tell you guys. The truth is totally insane, y'know?

Ugh, and now I'm all sweaty from all that pointless running.

So anyway, better be careful with His Majesty.

We can't go around thinking he's some convenient shounen manga plot device we can defeat for some experience points. Oh no, he won't go that easy on us.

Arashi: W-What? "The truth is totally insane"? What does that even mean?

Izumi: Okay, so you know how the King's put together a temporary unit to fight with us, right? Now we know who the members are.

And would you believe it? They're ridiculously powerful.

Tsukasa: Excuse me, and my apologies for interrupting, but what is this "temporary unit" you speak of?

I assume they'll be our opponents, but...?

Izumi: Oh right, you wouldn't know. Well, you don't see such units around too often these days, maybe because the student council tightened up the rules.

Though it feels like it's getting a liiittle more lax these days?

Temporary units are only active for a certain amount of time... Basically, exactly what it says on the tin.

They're like limited-time units made for a specific purpose that don't have to follow the usual unit rules.

Besides being temporary and having a free choice of members, they're basically the same as any regular unit.

If you need people for some outside job, like a karaoke contest, for example...

Then you find the best singers in the whole school and throw them together in a unit. That's the kinda thing that usually happens, I think?

Maybe comparing it to baseball might make it easier to understand.

They pick players from different teams to form the Olympic baseball team, right? Kinda like that.

Tsukasa: I'm afraid I am not very knowledgeable about baseball... But I see. So it's a unit created for a certain purpose.

If we Knights are warriors beneath a crown, then perhaps such units are akin to mercenaries?

And to think this is the sort of unit we are up against... So you're saying that the lineup of this "temporary unit" is so dangerous that we must exercise caution?

Izumi: Exactly. By the way, you know the temporary unit His Majesty's cooked up is apparently called "Knight Killers"?

Tsukasa: Knight Killers... Are they out to murder us?

Izumi:The name alone sounds like they're ready to kill us, right? Like, seriously coming for us?

But if they think we're going down so easily, they've got another thing coming.

Maybe we should totally wipe the floor with them, huh? Teach this mishmash group of mercenaries a lesson in hubris.

Well, we can't completely underestimate them either. Having the King and his songs on their side is already enough to worry about...

But the thing is, the Knight Killers lineup is full of big shots strong enough to be powerhouse unit leaders, you see?

If we let our guard down, we won't even stand a chance.



Tsukasa: ......

C-Can we even hope to win against such powerful opponents?

I'm afraid I might drag you all down again... I-I can't believe it. Did this all happen just because I lost my temper with Leader...?

What should I do? What if we lose because of me? What if Knights were to disband forever?

I-I could not face my ancestors—let alone all of you!

Izumi: Oh, don't make that face... It's not your fault we got in this situation, Kasa-kun.

It's all his fault, after all—that absolute idiot of a King.

If he didn't start going off about all that stupid stuff, we wouldn't even have to deal with all this trouble in the first place. What a real pain he is, huh?

We'll be fine. In the end, Knight Killers are just a bunch of randos slapped together in a unit. They're nothing for us Knights to worry about. Heh heh heh ♪

Trickstar don't hold exclusive rights to the biggest prey, and we'll make sure the whole world knows it.

It's fine. We got this. We're not gonna stumble just because you're dragging us down a little.

Let's take it easy and win like we always do. That's just how we do things, right?

So don't worry so much, and don't keep it all to yourself either, okay?

...Try relying on your "Onii-chans" sometimes, you stupid brat.

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