Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 257: Arc 4, Act II, - 102: Consequences

Jotou paused, "Ohp, sorry~" she smiled.

The soldier opened his eyes and panted, the dagger still there, right to his eye... His head recoiled as far back as he could. "Fucking madwoman..."

Jotou gave a playful pout, "Hmph, now I really want to gauge your eye out."

"Yeah, she’s crazy. You think the Thundering Blade’s sane to pull off all the things she did? You’ve heard of her, haven’t you? Now, tell us what your plans were here. How, when, everything," Fumeko got closer.

’... I’m gonna gauge your eye out now Meko. I swear, if this becomes my reputation. Then again, these soldiers are probs going to prison anyway.’ "She’s right, I am~ You better answer."

"I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Get that dagger away from my eye will you!?"

"But it’s fun this way! Ugh, fine; the more you talk, the further the dagger gets," Jotou replied.

The young soldier glanced to his comrades and sighed. None of them looked to him with disdain; rather, it was pity. "I said I’ll talk," his heart raced. "We were so supposed to take over this place.

Cravolta—at least this division—sent out a company towards our base in the west. We didn’t advance, but the Psyching Dread managed to reach a few of them and was able to gather some things before they left."

Jotou moved the dagger back by an inch. Daiyu was tapping her feet at every interval.

The soldier’s breath calmed, just a smidgen, "After some time, about a day later, another group came from the same direction. They had more supplies and were about to set up camp nearby, but we moved in and captured them.

We took their supplies; took all their uniforms. The Psyching Dread organized everything from there. She outranked our general and told us the plan to move in here," the soldier’s head circled, signing the area of Division Four.

Jotou moved the dagger back more. "A lot of us could come in invisibly, after she got into the heads of the enemies around here. Some of us in uniform, the rest invisible.

She made a lot of the enemy soldiers go mad, start ripping each other part. We slowly had them confined before we decided to ambush.

We kept the ones here quiet, stuck in tents till you arrived. Problem was, a lot of the enemy soldiers just ran away in random directions to flee.

So some of us were sent to find the runaways before they could inform any of the other Cravoltan troops; it was shoot on sight. Some of us looted the supplies here and took them back to our base.

We were the ones left here. The Psyching Dread had a pretty good impression of that general," his chin pointed to the Division General standing with her arms crossed. "She got all the intel she needed from calling the other companies from this division.

She also got any important info about some of your plans, positions, you get the gist. And sent them all back to base via radio. So everything’s already leaked, her plan was done before you could ever arrive.

When we did realize you were coming, the Psyching Dread set out a plan. She knew she had orders to capture the Thundering Blade, the Undying Princess and Fumeko Namora."

Fumeko wrinkled her brows, "Why?"

The soldier immediately shook his head in a frenzy, "I don’t know! Honest!" with cuffed wrists, he raised all his fingers.

"Relax will you?" Jotou circled the tip of the dagger in the air.

"I think he’s telling the truth," Daiyu continued to tap her foot. "Go on then."

The soldier eased his shoulders, "R-right. The Psyching Dread told us she couldn’t get into the minds of the Thundering Blade or the Undying Princess.

But she knew there were others with you. She was going to get into their minds and turn them against you two, getting Namora in the process.

She knew you knew her weakness and that would make it harder for her. We were meant to get you into a closed space and surround the area.

Once we got orders, we were supposed to come in and keep distracting you and corralling you till the Psyching Dread could get ahold of their minds and make them see things."

Jotou pondered aloud, "She didn’t expect Asobi to have the circlet or even realized it. She also didn’t expect," Jotou looked up to the brunette, "Fumeko to get out of it so quickly."

The smug grin had already begun painting itself across her lips. "Anything else you have to say?" Fumeko’s nose was pointed high.

The soldier nodded is head and gave a loud groan, "I don’t know anything else. Isn’t that all you wanted to know? How we got here?"

"Stop whining," the Division General ordered. The soldier went silent.

"That’s all he’s got," Daiyu muttered.

Jotou stood up and handed the dagger back to Fumeko. She placed her boot right in front of the soldier, "Wait a second. Aren’t there more forces supposed to be coming here?" she glared down.

"Huh? Oh! I completely forgot! I’m sorry-"

"I’m not crazy, will you shut up and just tell me?" Jotou grunted.

"It’s all the forces that went back after we first came here. They’ll probably be coming back, maybe they’re staying behind, I’m not sure. The ones chasing the scattered enemies will likely come back here."

"Looks like he actually forgot. You got everything you need general?" Daiyu questioned.

"Should we stay in case another attack comes in?" Asobi added.

"I think we’ll be fine, your aid could be required elsewhere. Companies Seven, Fifteen and Nineteen are closest to returning. Before any attack, I believe we will have recuperated and a few soldiers coming in, we can deal with. Thank for you everything."

_

The night sky, so brilliant up high. The hours had gone by, making no one bat an eye. Exhausted, spent, tired—the main base of Division Four was pulling itself back together in spite of it.

Daiyu tossed the greatsword she had cradled like a child for a while now, into the back of the carriage. She seemed to be the only one ready to depart.

Yellow lamps all over; this wasn’t exactly the place to celebrate with some beer over a victory... Both sides of the carriage’s doors were open; the horsaroaches fed with no driver in sight.

Daiyu got up the steps and sat on the side of the seat, feet out the door while she leaned her head onto her fist. She watched the movement and shadows of soldiers as she overlooked the base—everything running though the crickets chirped and cold wind howled.

"Hey."

"Hey," Daiyu recognized the voice coming from the side. "They don’t need ’the Thundering Blade’?" she ridiculed.

Jotou closed the distance in between them, "What am I supposed to do? Carry stuff? I just made sure everyone’s okay and came to leave.

Fumeko said she’d keep an eye out, so she stuck with Hotaru while she healed some people. Arabella’s taking it slow, just taking a few steps to warm herself up; Asobi’s helping her. Feyan’s doing his work."

"It’s like going to the mall and your mom runs into a friend... We’re never leaving here," Daiyu sighed.

"There’s no more serious injuries. So I’ll go poke and annoy everyone till we leave, don’t worry," Jotou crossed her arms and leaned her back against the carriage.

Daiyu glanced to the sky, "...Yeah."

"What’s up with you then?"

"Ha?"

"We won, didn’t we?" Jotou shrugged a shoulder.

Daiyu puffed out a laugh, "Did we?"

"Ah. So that’s it. Finally weighing in the consequences are we?"

"Fine," Daiyu rolled her eyes, "Yeah, you were right before; and you’ve got a point."

"I’m not even gonna mock you for it. Cause if you’re admitting that, you must be really down in the dumps right now."

Daiyu fluttered her lashes to the sky, "I got told off... by Feyan," an expression of pure shock.

Jotou stifled a giggled, "Must be rough."

"He was still kinda polite, but man was he stern..."

"Come on then. What’s on your mind?" Jotou lent an ear.

"Ugh. Too many things. How d’you like, do fifty spells against Gale and not freeze up?" she faced the blonde.

"I’m surprised Niah hasn’t told you something about that."

"I never asked," she shrugged. "It was like, master level spells, right? You casted a bunch of them and were still moving."

"Well... the first time I casted such a high spell-"

"You almost died."

"Yeah..." Jotou shut an eye. "When I fought Gale, I didn’t give it my all like the first time I casted it. I don’t know how exactly to explain it. It feels like a, ’quota’ is depleted.

And the better I get at magic, that ’quota’ increases. So you’re mana’s kinda like the quota you’re depleting to cast a spell. It will refill, but even so, it’s about trying to control the magnitude of your spell.

Spark can give a light shock if I wanted to, but that’s about it. If I give it more juice, it surrounds more parts of my body, like my feet or my head. As for Zap, I release a really small amount to mess with people, but if I wanted to, I can cease their motor functions."

Daiyu raised a brow... "I get what you mean—kinda. I gotta control how much I output and not go all out every time."

"Pretty much," Jotou shook her head. "I heard you can only cast with your feet."

"Hm? Nah, I can cast with my hands too. I think it’s like, I need to be touching it?

It’s not really clear, but I know I gotta be touching the ground and it’s a helluva a lot easier to cast with my feet for sure. These puppies can do other things, like stopping Dread," Daiyu flexed her arms.

Her arms, slowly went back down. The smirk she had faded with each second after she uttered the name Dread again.

Jotou took notice, "Dread was seriously powerful. Asobi tires out all the time after her illusions, especially after using her manifestation affinity.

A small army invisible; the minds of countless soldiers preyed upon? She’s been basically working from four a.m. till she died. Even then it took us that long and that much to finally outlast her."

"I uh," the princess sighed, staring at the camp; or rather, staring into space. "Saw Dread’s memories. She died and gave me some stuff, screaming that this couldn’t end like this. Who she was; some of it, anyway."

"Hm," Jotou’s brows knitted, "What d’you see?"

"She was just a person. Like the fucking rest of us and had a power she shouldn’t’ve had. I wanna be angry, but..."

Daiyu threw her arms in the air, "I just feel fucking pity. No one chooses to be evil. Watch the world burn, I mean sure, I’m sure there’s some maniac out there, but that ain’t the case for like ninety-nine percent.

Things in life’ve just gone and been bad for them. They just, fall into it." A question crept up into her head of who Gale was before he was turned into a confetti of gore. The princess groaned.

Jotou tilted her head, "Every life has a story to tell. But you can’t know every single story and figure them all out. It’s best to respect them and move on, not making a mockery of it. Unless you’re trying to piss them off of course~"

Daiyu huffed a chuckle to that. She took a moment to ponder. The corrupt officials. The people of Cravolta, living in luxury, poverty and in between. The countess she so harshly treated... "That simple huh?"

Jotou smiled, "At the end of the day, everyone has a choice. If you’re not aware of what you’re doing then you might as well be a zombie.

Whether you choose to be good, evil or somewhere in the grey is up to you. Whatever you choose, stand by it without a doubt. Because whatever you choose, there’ll always be others who’ll stand against it. Every action has an opposite but equal reaction."

Daiyu pouted, "Really? Physics?"

Jotou giggled, "The same goes for morality. Whatever her story was, she made the choices she made. She could’ve not join the battle; opposed her superiors.

Difficulty doesn’t mean it’s not a choice she could’ve made. At the end of the day, it sounds like she cried like an immature child, unable to accept the consequences of her decisions."

Daiyu furrowed her brows, "Well, what if someone made stupid choices and wants to change it?"

"Learn from the past and move on without regrets. That’s how I’ve lived haven’t I? I don’t think I really believed in second chances. Look at us now. I think this is my tenth chance," she chuckled. "As I said psychopath, there’s always choices."

"Is it their fault too if they can’t see the other choices? If they’ve been influenced? Brainwashed?"

Jotou took a deep breath, "I agree to disagree. If you know what you’re doing is wrong then don’t complain when the repercussions hit."

"You bitch and whine about everything," Daiyu argued. "I don’t think that’s fair at all to say. You’re making a wide ass general statement when even you fall into it, I’ve seen you do the wrong thing plenty of times and complain."

...The blonde went silent. She eyed the ground, before looking back to Daiyu, "You’re right. I’m trying to make something general when it’s more so a case by case basis.

I don’t know what you saw in Dread’s memories, so I can’t really judge. Then I guess, it’s up to you to decide," Jotou gave a tired smile, "My morality’s way too grey at this point."

"You’re still you; and you’re a good person, I think your morality’s perfectly fine." Daiyu smiled and looked ahead, "Maybe it’s just that there was no one to pull them out; no one to help them out of the dark."