Obligatory Harem Shenanigans 3: The Shameless Nostalgia Cash In

Chapter 19

Mina

Despite the initial moment of horror and surprise we all moved back and fell into combat formation. We’d been together too long to forget our training and all the hardships that had beaten it into us. The skeletons mirrored us and came forward, moving with the confidence we usually had. Everything about them felt disgustingly familiar as we fought but unlike us, they didn’t show any signs of fatigue.

“Lilian!” I shouted, wondering why she wasn’t starting any prayers to repel the undead we were facing. Sparing her a glance I found her with her shield up as her counterpart hammered away. She was being driven back, eyes showing their whites and expression twisted in terror. I’d always associated clerics with driving back swarms of the undead with holy power. Now that I was thinking about it, we’d never fought anything like them before and she’d never spoken of them.

“Breaking left!” I shouted, rushing to shake off my own skeleton and knockback Lilian’s with my shield. Caught by surprise it went flying back and I was just able to get my feet under me before my own caught up and struck.

“Get your shit together!” I said harshly, still covering for her. Even if I was wrong about her powers, she was still important to our fighting strength against such creatures.

“R-right!” Lilian still sounded shaken as she spoke but when she came forward to join me her eyes had hardened, and the obvious fear was gone. Her skeleton was slow to get up, legs tangled in scraps of her robe. Together we took mine on and her mace took off its sword arm. Nimbler than I’d ever recalled being myself it threw its shield at us and dove to retrieve the sword. It rolled and came back up on its feet in a one-handed fencing stance.

Lilian’s skeleton joined it and they fought well together with only one shield between the two of them they weren’t doing as well as they had been. My skeleton and Lilian’s were cornered but then we heard a cry from behind us. The skeletons looked behind us, the fire of their eyes seeming to brighten in surprise. Stupidly, we looked too.

“Retreat!” Reiner shouted as Andrea was falling into the skeletons attacking them. If I’d just looked a second later, I would have missed his foot still in the air. Hanging there for a small eternity as I took in how he’d kicked her in the back. He was using her to cover his retreat.

The next sound I registered was Lilian’s mace on a shield and I recalled my own fight. Since Reiner had given up on Andrea and the Skeletons, they were fighting which meant I had to be quick and break away or end up facing four. Even so, I didn’t turn back, all of the little things I’d been refusing to acknowledge and Mira’s behavior jelling in my head finally.

Andrea who’d chased him like a lovesick child was going to die because of him. He’d done it before and if I’d been the one next to him when he gave up, it would have been me thrown to my death. I was too far away to help her and frozen by fear. The only thing I could do was watch, but I looked away. I expected the too pure mirror to reflect my own terrified face back at me as I watched the reflection of her death.

Instead, I found myself looking at a handsome young man who crackled with energy as he ran forward and seemed to burst from the mirror. He looked like a musketeer from the movies of my world with a rapier in hand and my heart fluttered like his long black hair.

He moved too fast for me to see, one moment in front of the mirror, face hidden by his hat, the next catching Andrea before she was impaled on the sword of Reiner’s skeleton. Reiner went pale then and slashed wildly at both the man and Andrea only to find his sword passing through empty space. The young man had quick-stepped, leaving a trail of blue energy and was just to the left of where Reiner had expected him to be.

It was a move I knew well. He was a chevalier like Andrea. He would have been a bad match for Reiner, as a heavy swordsman and hero, even without someone to protect clinging to his arm. I could only wonder what he was thinking, able to only see him from behind and most of my view still obstructed by his hat.

“Reiner!” Lilian screamed as the chevalier slashed the exposed back of Reiner’s leg. The incomplete armor Mira had been after him to replace finally betraying him. When she turned to run, I expected her to head for the exit, acting on instinct. She didn’t and foolishly I’d let my guard down. A moment later I felt a moment of pressure and then a spreading warmth. Looking down I found a replica of my own sword jutting out of my side. The skeleton pulled it free a moment later and I slumped to the ground, clutching the wound.

“Lilian!” I called, dimly hoping she’d heal me but she either didn’t hear me or care. Thinking about it, it didn’t really matter which it was. A few hours earlier I might have been angry, at that moment I just felt piety.

“Behind you!” I shouted, trying to warn her of the skeletons closing on her. I’d had a crush on Reiner, he was her reason for existing. We were both going to die because we didn’t see our situation and him clearly. Her skeleton caught up and hit her with the mace in the back of the skull, I prayed that she died instantly for her own sake.

Putting pressure on the wound as best I could I wished I hadn’t passed up learning first aid. It had seemed pointless next to the magic I couldn’t use either and I felt like a fool. I wouldn’t last long and looked up, hopeful that perhaps Andrea would survive. The young man set her down gently and she crawled away from him fast. It was then that I got another look at his face, but I found a skeleton instead of the handsome man from the mirror.

I wanted to laugh. A skeleton had more piety than the Hero of Stromholt. It was the sorriest thing I’d ever seen but providence kept me from literally splitting my sides. I had no laugher left in me as I watch my skeleton and Lilian’s passed her by and rather than run for the exit, she turned toward me. She had to have been confused as she tried to run on weak legs only to fall on her knees and crawl the last distance to me.

It was a stupid thing to do but I didn’t say anything, and she pulled out one of her fancy handkerchiefs and pressed it to my wound. It hurt badly enough that I wanted her to stop, but I bit back my words. I mustered up a weak smile for her and she collapsed, head resting on my chest while she sobbed. I wanted her to run away but my mind was fuzzy and somehow the thought slipped away.

Unable to focus I watched what was left of the fight unfold framed by the shaking coils of her auburn hair. The Chevalier might have had the same class as Andrea, but he fought differently. Instead of letting the other skeletons take point and preforming hit and run’s he led the charge against Reiner. Moving nimbly, he locked Reiner’s movements, inflicting small damage and creating openings for the others to exploit. Andrea’s skeleton moved in sync with him, the pair looking like they were dancing circles around their hapless quarry.

It was hard to watch, part of me still loved him and was desperate for any excuse to justify what he’d done. The rational part though kept my eyes fixed even as my vision grew blurry, wanting to make sure I saw his end before my own came.

Blond-haired, blue-eyed, and beautiful, I looked at Reiner and remembered his face more than I was able to see it. I could still recall how awkwardly he’d approached me. The boy from another world who’d just received a sword he could barely wield. I’d wanted to be his strength and help him fulfill his destiny to rid the world of evil.

Even so I’d resisted at first, if weakly. I hadn’t felt worthy of the honor or up to the task. Even so he’d persisted and when I finally gave in, he’d bestowed me with a Lilly pendant. The holy symbol of Strom and the coat of arms of the king of Stromholt. It was the symbol of the nation as much as his faith in me. We’d set off arm in arm with me on his right Andrea always wheedling her way in to claim his left while Mira and Lilian trailed ever behind.

Fearing I wouldn’t live long enough to see him die I reached for the chain around my neck. It was alight thing of silver that looked like it would snap at the slightest tug. Taking hold of the pendant I pulled hard felt the chain dig in. I wasn’t sure if it would cut me or break first, but its resistances only compelled me to pull all the harder. Finally, the chain snapped, and I felt an electric thrill race through my body.

“Okaasan…” I muttered as my tears flowed heavier. I’d been desperate to find a way home to my family. It was why I’d joined Reiner’s party, not some half-baked crush. I’d forgotten that somehow. No, not somehow, only one thing had changed. The pendant was broken, and I felt like an idiot. I should have suspected something was wrong when he offered me jewelry let alone a Lilly. It was just another variation on Stromholt’s chief invention, the slave collar.

“What?” Andrea asked, sitting up with eyes swollen from crying. I felt weak but I managed to reach up and find the chain around her neck. Andrea hadn’t been a tag along princess, she’d been Reiner’s dear friend. The consummate tomboy who’d snuck away to the orphanage to avoid tea parties and learn sword fighting. Reiner had always laughed when he told me stories of her escapades in the town and her father, the local Barons, chagrin.

“Mina what are-” She tried to reach for the chain as it dug painfully into her neck, but she wasn’t quick enough. It snapped, my long hours of sword training with a heavy blade for far more than show. I felt a lesser thrill the second time, but it seemed Andrea was treated to the full effect. Confusion and anger played across her face as the directed a glare at Reiner before turning back to me. Less gently she pulled out more handkerchiefs and stuffed them under me on the back side of my wound and pressed hard on the top side.

I smiled, happy to see her again even if it was for the last time. We’d all been tricked but my final tears as my vision failed were for the all the time we’d been together, yet asleep within ourselves.