Ruria Arc: Part One Final Chapter

"… Phew…"

In the morning, Ruria enjoyed her unhurried moment of relaxation, sipping the tea Meifa had brewed.

"… Haa…"

Farida gazed at the sight of Ruria in a daze.

Ruria, standing there elegantly, was always beautiful.

"… What's wrong, Farida-san?"

"No… I was just thinking, Ruria-san, you're so pretty."

"Fufu, thank you. Farida-san, you're very pretty too."

"A-ah, thank you very much."

The two smiled at each other.

Having pushed through several weeks of harsh battles together, the bond between the three of them had deepened considerably.

… The misunderstanding hadn't been completely cleared up, but feeling some pressure from each other's presence actually drove better gains in skill, so… in the end they'd intentionally left the misunderstanding in place.

Trusting each other while rivaling each other, raising their skill in tandem — that was how they'd arrived at today.

"Well then… shall we be going, Meifa, Farida-san?"

"Yes, Onee-sama."

"Yes, Ruria-san."

The D-Class town, Drefes.

"All right, here we go!

"This month's Drefes D-Class champion Ruria challenges the C-Class lowest-ranker in the promotion match!

"Today, Ruria's fans have flooded in from Eora as well, and the town is packed!

"Conquering both Eora's and Drefes's tournaments at the same time!

"With her beautiful, splendid fights, Ruria's fans are skyrocketing!

"This year's most promising rookie favorite — will she keep climbing straight to C-Class!?"

Waaa…

Ruria!

Meifa-saan!

Faridaaa!

Cheers erupted.

… Why was Meifa the only one called with "-san"? Beats me.

The beautiful-girl trio, with their continued exploits, had become hugely popular in both Drefes and Eora.

When Ruria waved her hand in fan service,

Dowaaaaa…!

Applause rose up.

"… Hiihihi… totally the villain here, aren't I, oi…"

Opposite her was the Seeds C-Class 500th-ranked Master, Ben.

In the harsh town of Seeds he couldn't win at all, so rather than fight in Seeds, he'd settled into the bottom rank, having realized he could safely earn by hunting lower-ranked Masters trying to climb up from Drefes.

Currently on a 2-win streak. Low-aspiration Master though he was, for lower-tier Masters he was a major wall.

The moment you had three SR-Class LV50 Garumon lined up, beating you was already brutal for a D-Class Master.

"My luck's been turning up… t-these top-grade beautiful girls becoming mine… fuhi, fuhihi…!"

Ben's nostrils and crotch were swelling fit to burst from fantasies of doing lewd things to Ruria and her group.

But…

"Let's go. Today too… we'll fight normally, and win normally."

Ruria quietly took her stance. With her sword still sheathed, she simply rested her right hand on the scabbard.

Meifa and Farida fell back one step into a 1-2 formation.

Opposite, Ben's was a 2-1 formation.

An orthodox Defender, Attacker, Supporter setup.

And… it began.

"Today too, I'll end it fast!"

"Yes. Phantom Tree-Blade!"

Meifa's newly learned attack-support skill, buffing Ruria.

"Yes! Accelerate!"

Following up, Farida moved.

A self-double-action skill. With this…

"Stop! Speed Reset! Free Act!"

During Stop, the user can move freely, so Speed Reset triggered without consuming an action count.

Free Act activated using the double action.

This made it possible to give Ruria an additional +2 actions.

"Sword Demon Descent…! Iai…!"

Iai shared the name, but the skill content had changed.

"Infinite Blade!"

Zan! Zan! Zan!

Four consecutive strikes.

Infinite Blade hadn't changed from being a Skill%-based 2-hit combo. The Skill value had risen to 96%, making it nearly impossible to miss, though.

What had changed was her trait.

It had become selectable as an alternative to the previous Blade Demon (attack-power UP). Generally, having more attack count was more useful, so she'd switched over almost completely.

On top of this, Meifa's Phantom Tree-Blade added another +1. Four consecutive strikes in total.

Four consecutive strikes during time-stop. All of them landing as critical hits.

Even a high-level Knight had no recourse and was downed in one blow.

"Yosh, Sui! 'Guard'!"

…Dosa.

"… Eh? … O-oi, 'Guard'! It's 'Guard,' oi, Sui! What're you sleeping for!?"

"Iai, Infinite Blade!"

Zan zan zan zan! Following with a normal attack, she took down Yumo.

"Iai, Infinite Blade!"

Zan zan zan zan! The Free-Act additional attack took down Koino.

Dosa… dosa…

A level of brilliance that even a straw-mat test-cut wouldn't have looked this sharp at — she'd dispatched all three with ease.

"Guard… eh?"

In front of Ben, that message floated mercilessly.

"… Eh? Ah… oh, oh, d-did I miss-input something? A redo… right? Right? I-I haven't fought yet!

"I haven't done anything, so it's void, right!? R-right!?"

… Ben couldn't accept the reality in front of him.

"Oooooh!? F-fast! Way too fast! Second-kill, instant-kill! Against even a C-Class Master, decided in the blink of an eye…!

"Overwhelming! Too strong! Ruria, with overwhelming strength, has bounded up the stairs to C-Class Masterrrr!"

Dowaaaaaa…!

And so, Ruria became a C-Class Master.

 

*

 

Pikon. A message arrived for me.

A message like that.

… Oh! Ruria, finally…! … I mean, that was fast. Faster than expected.

Also Ruria, too eager. The message she'd sent was addressed to Naoto…

If she was going to play dumb, shouldn't she have sent it to the official address of S-Class Master Akai Naoto?

… Or so I thought, but once she'd become C-Class the info shielding would have come off, exposing it anyway.

"Ahh, I see…"

She'd already long since realized, surely, but technically I'd been deceiving Ruria up until this point.

I had to properly apologize.

For now, let me reply.

That much… I had to hurry to Ernest Castle too.

And so I hastily prepared to receive Ruria.

Ursula's group was absent, but I called all the other members who could attend and we received Ruria.

… And inevitably…

"… Akai Naoto-sama… and, Shaina Fervey-sama?"

We ended up receiving Ruria with two S-Class Masters.

"Oooh… s-so cute…"

Shaina was surprised by Ruria's beauty.

"Yeah, Ruria is Wallace-san's daughter."

"Oh, that Wallace-jiichan's! … Man, that guy was strong. The last opponent Wallace-san beat was this me, you know! … Wait, the 23rd-ranked person at the time was the last, huh.

"Who was it again…?"

She didn't remember.

"Ah, it was Norris-san."

"Aah, Norris. Right, that's it. I'd been hoping jii-chan would take the 23rd spot since I figured 20th-ranker Carman would be an easier win for me, and he took it. That helped a lot.

"… Though after that, I saw hell…"

Shaina gave a distant look. The result of carelessly taking 20th was two consecutive losses starting the next year.

"… I-I'm sorry."

"Aah, it's fine, it's fine. Not something Ruria-chan needs to apologize for.

"… I mean, talking with me isn't gonna get you anywhere, right? Here, here."

Shaina circled around behind Ruria and gave her a little push.

And Ruria stepped forward, in front of me.

"… Yo, Ruria."

"… Akai, Naoto-sama."

Ruria gazed at me with moist eyes.

"Yeah, your friend Naoto's true identity was… S-Class 24th, Akai Naoto.

"Sorry for staying quiet about it."

I'd been deceiving you — or rather, I'd wavered on the word, but I hadn't intended to deceive. I'd just been staying silent.

"… I knew."

So Ruria said, and threw herself into my chest. And then…

Chu… She kissed me.

"… I… did my best. To become your knight…

"Naoto-sama, please… please, take me on as your knight. I'll do anything, so please…"

Chu, chu…

So she said, kissing me again and again.

"Ruria…"

If she did things like that…

Gyu, I held Ruria close, opening her mouth wider and slipping my tongue inside.

I licked around her sweet mouth, sipping her saliva.

… Delicious. If I made her my knight, I could enjoy this sweet mouth as much as I liked.

That was too attractive an offer.

"… Ruria, you're not angry?"

"Angry, no… being able to grow close to Naoto-sama is like a dream."

So Ruria said.

"… Right. Then, you said you'd do anything, yes?"

"… Y-yes!"

Doki doki… I could feel through her ample chest that Ruria's heartbeat was rising.

"Then, the condition is one thing.

"… As before, not knight and lord, but as a friend, please act toward me as Naoto.

"… I mean, for the time being, the knight relationship is limited to half a year. From there you'll climb to B-Class, A-Class, and next year we'll both be S-Class Masters together.

"Let's stop being stiff from here on.

"If you can keep that… welcome, Ruria. Please become my knight.

"I'll train you as much as I can, so I'd like you to lend me your strength too."

"… T-that, um… i-is that all right?"

Ruria looked flustered.

"It's fine. I like friends, equal relationships. With anyone, no above or below — an equal relationship is what I want.

"… So, I want our relationship to be that too."

"I unders… I understand. Naoto-sa… Naoto. At first I may not be used to it, but…"

"Haha. Your manner toward Naoto is fine as is, so don't worry."

"… That's true. Fufu, pleased to be working with you, … Naoto."

Ruria changed her pronunciation slightly.

If addressing me that way made it easier for her to keep her manner toward me equal, that was totally OK.

"Meifa, looking forward to working with you too."

"Fufu, the pleasure is mine, Naoto-sama."

"With me, equal is fine, you know…"

"This suits my temperament, you see."

"… Well, even being polite, you're not the type to hold back on mischief, are you.

"… But, please go easy."

"Fufu, I'll do my best."

… There was a slight concern about pulling this child fully into my inner circle, but maybe that was just my imagination…

"Farida, you've worked hard too. With Ruria, you've gotten so much stronger."

"A-ah, thank you very much, Naoto-san."

"Going forward, you'll basically fight on Ruria's party, I'd say.

"But of course, sometimes you'll fight on my party too."

"Y-yes! I'll be useful. I'll do my best!"

Farida was full of spirit. Fighting together at Ruria's place seemed to have built her confidence, which was great.

"Ruria's a Samurai General, huh."

"Yes. The highest-class job, between the high-class job Samurai and the ultimate-class job Samurai Grand General.

"As a Samurai evolution, it's an orthodox path."

"I see… your mother Tomoe-san was a Samurai Grand General, right. I wonder if Ruria will evolve that way too. Whatever the case, let's keep working hard."

"Yes!"

"Meifa is a Wood-Style Ninja… the highest-class Ninja job, I take it. So you became a Ninja."

"Yes. The other choice was the highest-class Maid job, but my mother Nisa was an ultimate-class Ninja, a High-Ninja, so I figured I'd aim for the same path for now."

"Yeah, Ninja-line evasion-tanks are strong too. Defenders are tough, but do your best."

"Yes."

"Farida's a Time Sorcerer, huh. Seems like a rare job. Time-manipulation jobs themselves are pretty rare, right?"

"Y-yes… is someone like me… really all right?"

"Of course. Farida, you're a very talented, wonderful Garumon."

"… Thank you very much.

"… I'm really glad I'm not a Super Manager."

"… Pfft."

"Aah! Y-you laughed! As I thought, you were holding back the laughter!"

"S-sorry… I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

I'd been scolded by Farida.

"… Naoto is truly a wonderful Master.

"I… in many ways I'll take him as my model… I'll aim to become a wonderful Master myself."

Ruria said that to Meifa.

And so, the Ruria arc was, for now, ended… That said, this was only the first part concluded.

Part two was scheduled to resume at September's C-Class tournament, and then the B-Class challenge.

Until then, let her become as strong as possible.

… And someday…

Ruria's shining path seemed to spread out before my eyes, and I narrowed mine.

2021/11/26 Meifa's highest-class job name changed