Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 10 - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Knight and Savior

A full-force attack from an ogre-like body closed in on me. I couldn’t react—I could only see myself getting bisected at the waist and dying—when suddenly, my left arm sprang up.

“Wh-Whoa?!”

My shield moved and blocked my sight. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I reflexively put all my strength into my left arm. In the next instant, the ogre’s sword struck.

“Gah?!”

It was a heavy blow, and I couldn’t withstand the impact. My feet came right off the ground. The only thing my brain recognized was that I was flying through the air. I crashed into something, breaking right through it.

Before I knew it, I found myself in a wooden hallway. I could hear screaming from another room. I’d been blown through the door of the house that I’d been protecting and had tumbled into one of its hallways. This was pretty bad.

My entire body was numb from the impact. If they came after me now, I wouldn’t be able to do anything...but the pursuit I feared didn’t come.

“Let’s go, Ayame!”

“Graooooh!”

A series of explosions rumbled outside the building. The mist I’d barely managed to maintain located Kei and Ayame atop the roof, raining fireballs and grade 2 magic down on the two knights.

“What a pain in the ass!” Edgar roared.

It was an ambush, but he managed to fend off the attacks. He used his large sword to cut down a fireball headed straight for him, then jumped back from the magic Kei had aimed at his feet. Still, their efforts were more than sufficient to buy the time I needed.

“Well done...” I remarked, gathering mana inside me. “Misty Lodge...”

I used the mana that kept Salvia manifested as well and spread our magic mist densely around the entire house. With this, Edgar and Zoltan’s visibility was gone. Now, we just needed to...

“It’s up to you, Ayame...”

“Graooh! Graoooh! Graooooh!”

Explosions burst intermittently inside the sealed white world. Reading the intent of this fog, Ayame continued raining down fireballs. She’d been left watching the manamobile a lot lately, but she wasn’t just our little mascot. She was tiny, but she was still a monster from the Depths. No one could make light of her power.

The flames from her belly were as destructive as grade 3 magic. What’s more, unlike magic, she needed only a single breath to prepare her next shot. I was actually surprised at the amount of mana she used to keep up this incessant barrage, yet she showed no signs of weakening whatsoever.

“Fuck!” Edgar cursed. He was being forced to remain on the defensive, and not even the Battle Ogre could retaliate against an enemy attacking from long range with this dense fog blocking his sight. Ayame couldn’t see her target either, but in her case, she was trying to keep enemies away from the house, so she could just fire indiscriminately.

With the restricted range, we could maintain the Misty Lodge for a relatively long while, which bought me a good amount of time.

“Ssster?”

Asarina stretched out from my left hand, moving in front of my eyes as I lay there on the ground. She cocked her head in concern.

“Thanks, Asarina. You saved me.”

The block with my shield earlier had all been Asarina’s work. Since she was wrapped around my left arm, she’d immediately brought it up to defend for me. Sadly, as a result of being forced to catch Edgar’s blow, my left arm was broken now. Blood dribbled down my fingertips. My arm was out of commission until I could get it healed with magic. Still...

“I managed...” I murmured quietly.

There was an unconscious fervor to my voice. A fire burning deep in my chest was seeping out of my mouth.

They’d called me naive.

They’d declared this for thinking that I could hold out until Gerbera or Lily arrived, yet I was still alive. I couldn’t move my left arm, but I could still fight. Asarina’s sacrificial defense, Ayame and Kei’s ambush—they were all cards we’d been hiding. We only survived the enemy’s trump card because of the preparations we’d made for the worst. It was wrong to call me naive.

They’d called me naive.

They’d labeled me as such for thinking a lecture could get them to repent, but I never thought they would. I’d had no intention of criticizing them when I asked why they’d attacked the villagers. I didn’t believe people like them would repent so easily. Nonetheless, deep in my heart, I’d felt like I had to ask, like I had to confirm something.

They’d called me naive.

They’d disparaged me so for having such delusions about knights...and maybe that one was true. I didn’t know them, and they were knights themselves, so I couldn’t deny it. Maybe knights were pawns used as vanguards, expendables to die in the stead of irreplaceable saviors. At the very least, some people in the Holy Church, which had great authority in this world, believed it. If so, who was I to refute it?

Maybe knights and saviors were simple pawns, one replaceable and the other not. I couldn’t deny that either. As for his comment that there was nothing noble about it... Well, that was different. He was wrong. He was absolutely wrong.

I’d experienced it in Fort Tilia, after all. Shiran, the commander, and all the Alliance Knights who’d fought at my side had risked their lives to protect others. They’d been earnest, single minded, and pure. I’d felt the nobility in their actions.

That was my truth. No matter what anyone said, my reality consisted of what I saw, touched, and sensed for myself. Even if knights were nothing but pawns, my outlook didn’t change.

“That’s why...I have to...”

I dragged myself into a seated position, and just then, a hoarse voice reached my ear.

“Takahiro...?”

It was a girl’s voice, so weak it might vanish at any moment yet still so strong. I raised my head and spotted an elf coming around the corner of the hallway toward me.

“Shiran...?”

I called her name in a daze. She was supposed to be weaker than ever and bedridden in her room. She knelt on the floor, so it must’ve been hard for her to even stand up. Judging by her haggard expression, anyone could see that she was in no condition to be walking around.

Still, I didn’t question why she was here. I was surprised, but not confused. That was because Shiran had a firm grip on her sword.

“I see...”

That was more than enough for me to understand the situation. I let out a sigh of understanding.

“She’s a knight. Hopelessly so, in fact. No matter what happens, that will never change.”

Helena’s voice resounded deep in my mind.

“She is a knight. Please don’t forget that.”

Then I remembered the words the commander had said to me. I knew why she’d entrusted Shiran to me. I knew what I had to do. With that newfound conviction, I clenched my bloodied fist.