Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 12 - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: The Puppet’s Hard-Fought Battle ~Rose’s POV~

How long had this battle gone on? I’d long lost my sense of time. The fighting simply went on and on.

“Hyaaah!”

I weaved through the downpour of magic and arrows, then kicked off the ground. I slammed my axe into the line of shields in front of me and ate the spears that struck back in retaliation. When I judged that my limbs couldn’t keep going, I swapped them out and went at it again.

Over, and over, and over...

If my body were flesh and blood, no matter how strong my muscles were, I’d have long reached the limits of my stamina and fallen to my knees.

I’d broken through enemy formations twenty times now, but the enemy’s numbers remained strong. There were too many of them for me to make a noticeable dent in the first place. Additionally, I hadn’t delivered a killing blow to the majority of those I’d defeated, so the army’s battle lines were gradually recovering. That didn’t really matter to me, though. My goal wasn’t to annihilate them. I was here to obstruct their march and buy time.

The enemy army was exhausted. Many soldiers suffered from injuries, and their fatigue was building up. Even if they weren’t dead, many had broken bones and such, rendering them incapable of fighting.

I was succeeding at buying time. This was reflected in how long I’d spent here, but it was reinforced by all the medical treatment that would have to be administered before the enemy could begin marching again.

I was spent in equal measure, of course. The provincial army had long recovered from the shock of the initial attack, and the fighting had only intensified since. I’d consumed many of my spare parts and only had thirty left.

Although, from another perspective, I could reset my condition thirty more times. I could keep this fight going for a while longer. It wasn’t a bad pace either. Actually, to be frank, this pace was far better than I’d expected.

My combat matryoshka had prolonged the fighting more than my initial projections had suggested. The fighting techniques I’d learned from Shiran had been extremely effective too. After putting all of this to use in real combat, I now understood. Given a set of extremely strict conditions—having plenty of time to prepare and facing a foe who relied entirely on numbers in a battle of attrition—my aptitude for combat was fairly high.

So long as I had the time to get my spares ready, I could instantly recover damage to my body. I had many spare weapons and an abundance of disposable magic tools. As a puppet, I never ran short of breath, I never fatigued, and injuries never affected my endurance.

Faced with a large army like this one, only Lily would be better suited to fight. No, in terms of pure potential, maybe one other could, but in any case, it didn’t change the fact that I was very well equipped for this situation.

Hypothetically speaking, if our group had been in perfect condition, we could have clashed against the entire Maclaurin Provincial Army head-on. Naturally, with our master unconscious and the village elves accompanying us, compounded by the fact that Lily and Gerbera had to remain dedicated to healing and defense, that was nothing more than a pipe dream.

Things right now were going well enough that I could consider such thoughts. If I just held out a little longer, it would be difficult for the provincial army to catch the others within the day. I just had to hold out a little longer. Once that was over... Once it was over, what then?

A thought suddenly bubbled in my mind.

Things are going better than expected. In that case...maybe, just maybe...

Maybe I would be able to escape too.

It was a tempting thought. I’d come here prepared to die, but it wasn’t as if I wished to die. I wanted to live from the bottom of my heart, which was why such thoughts came to mind.

My combat matryoshka had proven more effective in battle than expected. It was possible that, by the time I exhausted the enemy to the point that I’d projected, I would still have spares left over. Could I expect the same effectiveness from them when running away? Once I was done doing what I had to, I could possibly get away from this battlefield.

It didn’t matter if I had to use my entire stockpile. The opportunity to return to those dear to me existed. My sisters would surely be angry with me once they learned of what I’d done. Mana might even cry. As for my master... He was very kind to us, and in certain ways, he was very soft on others, but after I had done something so selfish, he might get rather angry with me. He might even scold me.

Aah, how happy a thing that would be. If I could meet my beloved once more and face his anger, an anger that came from how dearly he thought of me, there would be no greater blessing. I wanted to go back and apologize. I wanted to keep saying sorry until he forgave me. And once he did, I wanted to tell him how I felt. I wanted to convey the feelings I’d finally discovered.

With such wonderful ambitions filling my heart—a crushing blow hit my body, shattering those ambitions to pieces.

“Gah?!”

I screamed, and my body creaked. I heard the sound of a collision accompanied by cracking wood. I’d received an awful blow while in the middle of combat. Unable to withstand it, I threw my head back, barely managing to perceive a bundle of rocks. This was magic. I’d been attacked by a barrage of magic rocks.

“Ugh, gah...”

The impact blew me back. I slammed against the ground, and an instant later, I twisted my body and landed on my feet.

“That was...too close.”

My right arm, which I’d brought up to block the attack at the last second, was pulverized. My torso had been so close to being destroyed. It’d been pure luck that I’d managed to block it. I immediately used my combat matryoshka to replace my damaged arm, then pulled a new axe from my apron to replace the one I’d dropped.

“That just now was...”

I shuddered as I recalled the blow. It had such force behind it. It’d also been extremely accurate, despite the fact that I’d been in combat against other soldiers. It wasn’t an attack after they suppressed me and pinned me in place; a sniper had dealt that blow. In that sense, it was very clear now. My naive ambition was impossible.

“I was hoping to avoid encountering you. How unfortunate...”

What I’d feared had finally joined the fray.

“The Holy Order.”

A portion of the soldiers’ formation opened up, and a group of knights clad in heavy armor stepped forth.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Leave this to us.”

Twenty knights appeared before me. There weren’t all that many of them, but they weren’t the same as regular soldiers. The knights affiliated with the Holy Order were all descendants of saviors—those of blessed blood. They had fostered their talents through training since early childhood, so they were all experts in combat. In certain cases, they had even inherited their ancestor’s powers, making them the worst of enemies.

I readied my axe and turned to face them. I started by evaluating the possibility of escaping. I wasn’t here for honor or glory, so when faced with formidable enemies, it was best to avoid contact with them to prolong the battle.

I was forced to discard that notion, though. The soldiers surrounding us were in the way. They formed shield walls that would require two or three strikes to break. I couldn’t possibly leave myself open to the knights in such a manner.

This could’ve been avoided had I thrown myself into a melee with the soldiers before this, but now that they’d launched a preemptive strike and caught me in this net, nothing could be done about it. My only choice was to face the knights in battle.

“It took so long that I was starting to think that the Holy Order wasn’t accompanying this force. It seems I was too optimistic.”

“The reason we took so long was because you were doing so well,” one of the knights responded. I hadn’t expected an answer, so I was a little surprised. “We were late to react due to the unexpected attack. Because of that, information on what was going on was in disarray, and as a result, it took us a fair amount of time to capture you with you on the move the entire time.”

The man’s gaze was steady. Judging by how he was using this opportunity to talk, he was likely the officer in charge of these knights. Now that I thought of it, his voice sounded like the one who’d said, “Leave this to us.”

“I never thought anyone would charge into the entire army unaided. What beautiful devotion.”

In contrast to his flattering words, his voice had no real emotion in it. He sounded detached. I wasn’t one to talk, but this man was like a puppet. He didn’t have the ambition suitable for a member of the elite Holy Order. That didn’t mean I could be careless around him, however.

“Allow me to praise your hard-fought battle. It was splendid. Regrettably, that comes to an end now.”

In concert with his speech, half the knights stepped forward. The remaining half started casting support magic on the front rank—the specialty fighting style of the Holy Order. During the defensive battle at the reclamation village, I’d avoided this by launching a preemptive strike using combat fireworks.

“Go.”

In accordance with the puppetlike man’s command, the knights came rushing in. These were the greatest knights in the world—excluding exceptions like Shiran. It was my first time witnessing their movements up close.

“Guh...”

I blocked the first blow with my axe’s haft. One beat later, another knight delivered a thrust at my flank. I jumped back to dodge it, then felt an impact against my right arm. A third knight had attacked me.

My axe-wielding hand went flying off at the wrist. They got me good. I immediately began exchanging parts, but right before I could, I stooped over.

“Eat this!”

A sweeping blow passed right over my head. Having lost my right hand, I had no weapon, so I had no time to straighten myself back up. I pushed forward instead, tackling the knight who’d swept his sword above me. I picked him up off the ground and thrust him against the next knight who tried to attack me.

That was when I finally managed to replace my right arm. I didn’t have time to pull out another weapon, though. Another knight was before me, and I thrust my empty hand at his throat. He blurted a “Hrgh,” but that was it. I’d thrust hard enough to break a normal human’s neck, but I hadn’t done much damage to him—a blessing he received from the magic boosting his physique.

The knight recoiled and stepped back, and two other knights came between us to take his place. Using the small break between attacks, I shoved a hand into my apron pocket and pulled out a knife, throwing it at one of the knights.

He dodged the projectile, but the imitation runestone in the butt of the grip exploded behind him, throwing him off-balance. This was my chance to get a strike in, but I wasn’t able to. The other knight thrust his sword at me. I tried to dodge, but he was too fast.

“Gah...”

The thick blade plunged into my waist, which was bad. I had no way of replacing my torso using my combat matryoshka. In other words, I couldn’t swap it out on the spot. Until now, I’d gotten by by sacrificing my arms and legs whenever an attack was beyond my ability to block or dodge, but now an attack had finally gotten through my defenses.

They continued coming at me. My left leg flew off from the thigh down, and they severed my brand-new right arm at the elbow. The moment I stopped moving, a stone bullet flew in from the rear. Having lost the support of one leg, I tilted over, and the knights closed in.

“Not yet!”

I spat out what I’d been hiding in my mouth. It was a small imitation runestone. I didn’t use my mouth to vocalize words; I’d simply trained my lips to move so that it looked natural when I spoke. I’d been able to speak back when my face was no more than a smooth surface, so it was a simple matter to hide a weapon inside my oral cavity.

The imitation runestone exploded, catching me in the blast as well. I tumbled across the ground, escaping certain death. Even as thin plumes of black smoke billowed from my body, I sprang back to my feet. When I did, I stood face-to-face with a stumbling knight who’d been stopped by the explosion. I was long done replacing my damaged arm and leg as I came down upon him.

“You goddamn monster!”

The knight reacted with incredible speed and intercepted me with his sword, his swing backed by the support of magic. I sacrificed my left hand to catch it.

“Wha—?!”

I grasped the blade and pulled him toward me. I pulled out another knife and rammed it into his throat. His eyes shot wide open, and after a short scream, he collapsed backward.

“I did it...”

I defeated one. After such a long exchange of blows, I’d finally got one. I didn’t have time to bask in my victory, however. I swapped out my left arm once more, then pulled out another axe.

I had a rough idea of the difference in strength between us. After recovering from a single misstep that would’ve taken me out of the fight, I’d barely managed to defeat one of them. What’s more, I’d used up many resources to do so. The Holy Order was strong. The strength of an individual knight was far beyond that of an average soldier. Because of the magic reinforcing them, it was best to assume that each was at least as strong as me.

The only reason I could contest them on even ground was because I could sacrifice my limbs. That said, at the current rate, I would run out of spares at a terrifyingly fast pace. It was a question of whether my stores would be depleted before my enemies were defeated. In either case, this was the end for me.

It turned out that I wasn’t going to meet my master again. I’d gotten a glimpse of a cruel dream earlier. I laughed at myself, then focused on the fight. I’d been prepared for this from the very beginning.

Even if I was durable, I didn’t have explosive power like Lily or Gerbera. The moment the Holy Order took the field, I knew it would end like this. It was disheartening that my dream would remain unfulfilled, but I wasn’t shocked, and it didn’t cloud my fighting spirit.

“Now that it’s come to this, I’ll take as many of you with me as I can.”

I readied my axe and spread my feet shoulder width apart, glaring at my opponents carefully. I was prepared to deal with any manner of attack.

“I see... You’re stronger than I thought,” one of them said.

It was the puppetlike man again. He didn’t order his men to attack; he just kept his gaze steady on me. On the other hand, the other knights stepped a fair distance back. It was as if they were yielding the stage to him.

“The dangerous ones are the spider, slime, and dragon. That’s what I was told. You’re an unexpectedly formidable enemy. If handled poorly, you might take us with you to hell.”

He kept acknowledging my strength. There was something ominous about his demeanor. The atmosphere he clad himself in reminded me of something. Yes, now I remembered. He had the fathomless accumulation of mana visitors like Iino Yuna and Fukatsu Aketora exhibited.

“I suppose I’ll have to reveal my hidden hand as well.”

His “hidden hand” was a reproduction of a power once used to save the world. Those who inherited such power were called beloved of blessed blood.

The man planted his palm against the ground and said, “Angel Puppets.” A pillar of light then shot up into the air.