I Refuse to Be Your Enemy! Volume 2 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Color Illustrations

  Chapter 1: Counterattack on the Hills of Dilhorne

  Interlude: Her Bloodstained Hand

  Chapter 2: Fate Closes In

  Chapter 3: Departure from Évrard

  Chapter 4: The Battle of Fort Clonfert

  Chapter 5: Mercenaries in Maynard City

  Side Story: Dreaming Under the Sunbeams

  Afterword

  Bonus Short Story

  About J-Novel Club

  Copyright

  Download all your Fav Light Novels from Just Light Novels

  Chapter 1: Counterattack on the Hills of Dilhorne

  When I came to, I was staring up at a stone ceiling. As I blinked, it all came back to me bit by bit—where I had just been, what I’d been doing, and what I had seen.

  Suddenly, it felt hard to breathe.

  I’d fought because I had to. I knew I was the only one who could pull it off, so I was never struck with the urge to run away. But ultimately, my actions had amounted to the deaths of many, many people.

  The castle was safe. And we’d managed to save the margrave, at that. Still, I couldn’t find it in me to rejoice that everything had gone so smoothly. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see were corpses, corpses, and more corpses.

  “Are you awake, Kiara?” I heard a gentle voice call out.

  Someone was sitting beside me. When I turned my head, I found it was Lady Évrard’s attendant, Maya.

  The room was dimly lit; the only source of light was a single candle placed atop a small table. The look on Maya’s face, illuminated by the orange glow of the candlelight, told me she was exhausted. Her brown hair was falling loose from the neat bun she always wore to keep it out of the way.

  “How...?”

  How many hours had I been asleep? Last I remembered, the Llewynian forces still had the castle surrounded. What happened after that? Was everyone okay? I wanted to ask, but my voice was so hoarse I couldn’t get the words out. Upon noticing my struggle, Maya sat me up in bed and handed me a glass of water poured from the carafe at her side. Once I’d quenched my thirst, I finally found my voice again.

  “How long have I been asleep?”

  “About three hours. It’s past nightfall now.”

  “What happened to the Llewynian—”

  I opened my mouth to keep firing off questions, but after taking the empty glass from me and setting it down on the table, Maya cut me off with a hug.

  “Don’t worry; you saved us. The Llewynian soldiers have fallen back.”

  I slowly started to relax. At least I really managed to make a difference, I thought.

  But Maya’s next words chilled me to the bone. “You slew their general.”

  “Slew...”

  “The enemy’s chain of command is in chaos, it seems. They’ve no choice but to cease their attack for now.”

  All because I’d crushed him underfoot with my golem.

  I had been so terrified of what I had been doing that I hadn’t even looked at the enemies’ faces. I remembered being surrounded by knights, some of them dressed in particularly striking jackets. I’d zeroed in on those men, assuming that if I just took them out, their forces would pull back before I had to kill even more soldiers. Maya knew for a fact that I’d slain him, so Cain must have been watching—since I hadn’t had the guts to make sure of it myself.

  “His Lordship has returned safely as well. Thank you, Kiara. Truly.”

  Maya gave me one last squeeze, then told me she’d let everyone know I was up and left the room.

  Everything felt like a blur.

  Apparently, I’d done something commendable. So why couldn’t I feel the least bit happy about it? The only thing I felt at the moment was tired.

  There was a knock on my door, but any reply I could have mustered got caught in my throat. I didn’t have the energy to so much as lift my head.

  Despite my lack of a response, I heard whomever it was step inside. As they silently walked over to me, I wondered who it could be, but I couldn’t be bothered to look up and see.

  The moment they sat down in the same chair Maya had just been sitting in, they wrapped me up in an embrace that made it impossible to keep ignoring their presence. I caught a glimpse of a familiar pale military uniform and a whiff of a scent I recognized.

  “Reg—”

  “You don’t have to force yourself to say anything. As long as you don’t mind staying like this, that is. Oh, however,” Reggie added, a little mischief in his voice, “I am of the mind to bully you, enough for each year you took off my life. I waited a terribly long time for you to wake up, you see.”

  So he said, but given the way he was gently rubbing my back, I didn’t feel terribly bullied. I could almost feel the warmth of his hands melting away the tension that reached all the way to the bottom of my spine.

  The touch of Reggie’s hands felt oddly familiar; it brought back memories of when my mother had coddled me in my past life. Perhaps that was why I found myself slumping against Reggie before I even realized it.

  When I did, he scooped up my left hand in his.

  “It’s too bad you’ve become a spellcaster, but that’s the way it is. In all honesty, I never wanted you to gamble with your life like that, but it was your own choice to make, and you were so sure you could do it.”

  Delivering his words almost like a soliloquy, Reggie placed a kiss on one of my fingertips. I jolted at the soft sensation as it graced my forefinger.

  “The reinforcements I arranged for aren’t likely to arrive until the day after tomorrow. I never predicted that Llewyne would join hands with Salekhard, given their recent quarrels. I have only my own lack of foresight to blame.”

  He lightly nipped at my fingertip in some sort of expression of his frustration. Along with the sweet rush of pain, I grew flustered, at a complete loss as to why he would do such a thing.

  “Hey, Reggie!”

  Next, he pressed his lips to the center of my palm. I sucked in a breath as he tickled my skin.

  Wait a second! We’re supposed to be FRIENDS, right? I’m pretty sure friends don’t do things like nibble each other’s fingers and kiss each other’s hands!

  I thought back to what had happened yesterday when we’d held each other close right before the meeting. I’d been so desperate to get Reggie to see things my way, to get his blessing, that I’d ended up getting way too close to him.

  With no regard for my inner turmoil, Reggie went on in an eerily calm voice, “I understand your actions up to the point that you saved the margrave. But past that, I wish you’d had a little more regard for your own safety. You spotted me atop the castle walls. Why didn’t you ask me to send out more soldiers so we could rescue him together? Why didn’t you have any faith in me? Am I truly so unreliable?”

  Reggie placed a tender kiss on the inside of my wrist.

  “Don’t...” A chill ran up my spine.

  “You don’t like it?”

  Reggie looked so forlorn as he gazed into my eyes, I couldn’t bring myself to tell him to stop. “Um, it’s less that I don’t like it, and more that you’re freaking me out a little...”

  “Is it me you don’t like?”

  “What? No, of course not. I could never dislike you. Never.”

  All the way down to the deepest depths of my heart, I didn’t hold a scrap of ill will towards Reggie. I was simply embarrassed.

  “Why must you say things like that? If only you did hate me, then perhaps embracing you would be enough to make you listen to me.”

  “Are you saying you want me to hate you? But why?”

  “Bec
ause I don’t want you to push yourself, but that doesn’t seem to be getting through to you at all. If Wentworth hadn’t been with you, you could have been cast into the middle of the Llewynian army right in the heat of battle.”

  He had a point. If Cain hadn’t been there to support me, it would’ve taken all my strength just to hang on to the golem’s shoulder, and my magic would have burned out partway through. If the enemy found the spellcaster who killed so many of their comrades collapsed alone on the battlefield, they might have done a lot worse than skewer me with a thousand swords.

  As he watched the color drain from my face, Reggie seemed satisfied that I finally understood what he was getting at and continued, “You need to think before you act. Have you ever imagined what could happen if a lone woman was thrown out into enemy troops, where no one could immediately rush to your rescue? I’ve been thinking of ways to stop you from treating your own life so carelessly.”

  Reggie was totally right; I had been too reckless. Thus, I braced myself for a lecture, but what I got was something entirely different.

  After repositioning himself next to my foot, Reggie grabbed hold of my ankle from over the blanket. My eyes nearly popped out of my head.

  “What are you doing?!”

  “Perhaps if I abase myself before you, you’ll finally listen to my pleas.”

  Reggie pulled away the part of the blanket covering just the tips of my toes and lowered his head toward the instep of my foot. Oh god, please don’t tell me he’s planning to give it the same treatment as my hand!

  “Hey, wait! You can’t do that! You’re a prince, for goodness’ sake!”

  Besides, making a guy kneel and kiss my feet is NOT a fantasy of mine!

  “But you see, you won’t listen if I ask normally.”

  When Reggie cast his eyes downward, dejected, I nearly gave in... But nope! I’m not letting you get away with this one!

  “Look, I’m sorry! You’re right and I was wrong, so just don’t do THAT!”

  My foot still in Reggie’s clutches, I screamed with all my might. But before the deed was done, Reggie lifted his head, and pointed out with an unfazed expression, “You know, if you keep struggling, you might kick off the blanket and show me your whole leg.”

  “So just let go of me! Problem solved!”

  As my yells became more and more desperate, Reggie chuckled. “Then how about this? Repeat after me, and I’ll stop: ‘Next time, I’ll be sure to call on your help.’”

  “O-Okay, okay. I’ll say it...”

  Once he’d let go of my leg, I did as Reggie asked, my shoulders heaving as I tried to breathe again.

  “Still, it’s a fact that many of our people owe you their lives. Everyone’s taken to calling you a hero. Good for you, Kiara. You accomplished everything you’d hoped for; you must be pleased.”

  “I wouldn’t say that...”

  That comment hit me like a sucker punch, and I was so busy catching my breath that I couldn’t even put up a happy façade. But as soon as I said it, I was struck with a realization: I can’t say I’m not happy. I’ll just be putting a damper on everyone else’s joy.

  I was clearly the weird one for not feeling glad about it. Yet every time I tried to say otherwise, I couldn’t manage to get the words out of my mouth.

  After a stretch of silence, Reggie murmured, “I see. So that’s what’s bothering you.” Given his reaction, he’d probably figured it out on his own. “Maya told me you were behaving strangely, and now I see what she meant. Why aren’t you happy, Kiara?”

  “Maybe there’s just something wrong with me, but killing people isn’t something I can just... get over.”

  “You feel guilty?” he asked, and I nodded.

  I couldn’t shake the feeling I had done something truly despicable. In an RPG, it was easy to “beat” the enemy, but in reality, that action equated to murder.

  As a daughter of the count, I’d lived a life far removed from any bloodshed, so my sense of morality was likely a holdover from my past life.

  “It’s nothing for you to feel bad about. After all, if you hadn’t killed them, they might have killed you.” Reggie excused my actions for me.

  He wasn’t wrong, of course. No matter how much it pained me to kill people, not being able to save Reggie or Lord Évrard would have been even worse. In order to protect them, someone else had to be sacrificed. Only some sort of genius could figure out a way around that, and I was no genius.

  That didn’t change the fact that I didn’t want to kill people. I managed not to think about it when I was focused on surviving, but once the danger to my life was gone, I couldn’t take it. My whole body shook with the knowledge that I’d ended another person’s life. And no matter how bad I felt about it, I had no way to take responsibility for my actions. The guilt over the horrible things I’d done felt like a weight bearing down on my chest, ready to crush me.

  “If that isn’t enough to alleviate your conscience, then let’s say I’m responsible for the deaths of the men you killed.”

  “But I don’t want you to take on that weight, either.”

  “It isn’t a heavy burden for me to bear,” Reggie asserted. “It’s my duty as someone who was born into royalty. Whenever we declare war, we must be prepared both to kill and to watch our own men die. I’ve grown used to it, so there’s no need for you to worry for my sake.”

  I didn’t know what to say. I had no idea that Reggie had been thinking about war that way. It finally dawned on me that commanding officers weren’t all people dodging responsibility from afar.

  A single order of his could send his men to their deaths. Since Reggie had the final call when it came to strategic decisions, if he didn’t think everything through properly, he would be directly responsible if his forces met a grisly end.

  Still, just because he’s used to it doesn’t mean it can’t hurt him.

  “You see, Kiara? This is why I was so opposed to you standing in the line of fire. You have good intuition. You’re resourceful, too. But for better or for worse, you’re just an ordinary girl. I knew how hard it would be for you to be subjected to the horror of a kill-or-be-killed scenario.” Reggie had anticipated that things would turn out this way, and that was why he had tried to stop me. “You can’t bear the weight of this burden. That’s why I didn’t want you to become a spellcaster... even if your doing so would allow me to survive.”

  There wasn’t much I could say to that. After all, Reggie had objected to my ambitions after taking all that into consideration, and now here I was, exactly as overwhelmed as he’d predicted.

  Just as I started to get down on myself, I heard a knock at the door.

  Reggie softly stroked my head one last time and then stood up. The knock must have been a reminder that he was short on time.

  “If you’d like, I can arrange things so you won’t be an active participant in any future battles. Think about it again and decide what you want. So long as you stay in this castle, I’m sure you’ll be expected to use your powers to assist us in some way or another. But at the very least, I can insist that you not be taken out onto the battlefield again.”

  After calmly pointing me toward an escape route, Reggie left the room.

  What a guy. It felt like I was some runaway kid trying to pretend I wasn’t. Not only had Reggie figured out exactly where I was headed, but he’d smoothly handed me directions on how to get home while he was at it.

  “This is almost depressing.” Even more frustrating was that I couldn’t deny that he’d made me feel a little better.

  Right then, I heard a small laugh.

  “Oh, to be young and in love! Eeeheehee.”

  “What?! Is that you, Master Horace?!”

  As if that voice could be anyone else. Where is he, though?

  I looked around in a panic, and there he was, sitting like an ornament atop the fireplace opposite the bed. I’d been so preoccupied, I hadn’t noticed him there at all.

  “Wait, don’t tell me you S
AW all that!”

  While I was horrified to find that someone had been watching us the whole time, Master Horace laughed with glee. “Now that was a good show! It’s the little things that make life worth living, even as a disembodied soul. Why, back when I had my hands full as an animal handler, I never imagined I’d be having this much fun!”

  Ugh... So he really DID see everything. And did I just hear him call those monsters “animals”?

  I was so embarrassed, I couldn’t help whining, “You should have said something, Master! You have some nerve, quietly spying on my private affairs!”

  “With the way you were jostling me around inside that rucksack, even a doll like me would start to feel queasy; I was quietly recovering. Looks like that got me mistaken for a personal belonging of yours. That little lady who was looking after you took great care in setting me up here. Eeeheehee!”

  “Nooooo...”

  I would really hate for anyone to think I owned a doll like this.

  Maybe it’s strange for the person who made it to be saying so, but no girl should have a clay figurine this hideous. We’re not talking about some quirky little knickknack here! She probably thinks I’m a total weirdo now... I need to remember to clear this up with Maya later.

  “I don’t want anyone thinking this is my idea of cute,” I accidentally mumbled aloud.

  “Hold it right there, little disciple! Just what sort of form did you make for me?!”

  Oh... Oops. I haven’t had the chance to explain to him what his new form looks like. “Uhh, you know, it’s sort of like a miniature version of that golem I made.”

  “If that’s all it was, you wouldn’t have such a problem with it.”

  He’s too sharp. I couldn’t think of a good excuse, so I just fell silent.

  Master Horace indignantly stomped his feet, making little clinking noises as he did. “I can move my neck a little, you know. I’ve caught glimpses of my arms and legs! The intricate pattern looked like it belonged on a piece of pottery, so I figured you’d turned me into a real classy doll! But thinking back on it, everyone who’s seen me gives me a mighty startled stare!”