Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 4 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Knight Who Protects Humanity

“Please wait a moment.”

Her voice was pure. It had a reassurance to it that drove off the despair in the air. Lily and I came to a stop just before charging in. We kept our focus on Juumonji and glanced to the side, where we spotted Shiran stepping forth with her helmet still removed. Mikihiko, who had hardened his resolve to face battle much like us, also looked at her in shock.

“Shiran...?” I muttered.

The expression on her beautiful features was gallant as she glared right at Juumonji. I could tell in an instant. Unlike the other knights, her fighting spirit was at full force.

“Takahiro, Mikihiko, please go with the commander and chase the fleeing Sakagami Gouta,” she said calmly. “If he is the one manipulating the monsters, we should be able to break this siege by capturing him. If so, we’ll be able to create an escape route for the people of the fortress.”

She was very matter of fact, but her tone hid a strong will. Shiran drew her sword and pointed at a crumbled section of the wall.

“With Miho’s...I mean, Lily’s, sharp sense of smell that can even distinguish doppelgangers, you should be able to chase his scent.”

“That’s true, but...”

It was impossible. There was no way Juumonji would allow it.

“Yes, I understand what it is you wish to say.” Shiran surmised the unspoken part of my sentence as her lips curved into a faint smile. “Be at ease. I shall take charge here,” she said resolutely.

“What...?!”

“I will pin down Juumonji Tatsuya. In the meantime, I would like you to capture Sakagami Gouta.”

Shiran pointed the sword in her hand right at Juumonji.

“You sure are making light of me,” he said, snickering. It stood to reason. From his perspective, someone like Shiran wasn’t even on his radar until now. Her butting in like this was bound to get a chuckle or two out of him. “Let me just check. You serious? A mere native defying me? Sounds like suicide to me.”

“I’m serious. I don’t make a habit of spouting nonsense.” Shiran wasn’t getting worked up. She was deadly serious. “I shall stop you right here.”

“Oh? That so?” Juumonji took this as an insult. His unconcerned expression twitched with a spasm. “Then die,” he said in a voice so cold I shuddered.

Juumonji kicked off the ground. He closed the distance to Shiran at a speed I could just barely follow and swung his blood-soaked broadsword. Shiran moved in response. She decided her large shield meant for facing monsters would be a hindrance against him and discarded it without hesitation.

“Ooooh!”

He stepped in with a single slash. His sharp sword, which had been gifted to him as a savior, came down on Shiran. It was a hardy blade charged with the power to smash anything and everything. This strike from the exploration team’s elite warrior could bisect the sturdy body of a monster with ease. Even fully equipped in armor, the slender body of a woman would be torn apart like paper. I felt a scream in my throat, but right before it came out, the clang of metal grazing against metal rang in the air.

“Wh-Wha—?!”

The utterly dumbfounded voice came from...Juumonji. His cheek had a scratch on it and Shiran was pulling back her sword. What happened? Despite watching the whole thing, I only understood one beat later. Shiran had scraped off Juumonji’s blade and struck him with a counterattack. Juumonji had managed to lean his head to the side with his astounding reflexes, just barely avoiding having his face split in two. If he’d actually taken the strike head on, even with the tenacity of a warrior, he would’ve been killed with ease.

“Ugh... H-How dare you?!”

Without showing a moment’s hesitation, Juumonji unleashed a barrage of continuous slashes. Even one blow could easily bisect a human body. It was like a storm of guillotines. They were far too fast and far too strong. However, Shiran fended off this as well.

At that time, I noticed something sparkling at the edge of my vision. Upon closer inspection, Shiran’s sprite was scattering yellow light while dancing around in circles. Something Kei had once told me suddenly came to mind.

“The sprite who is always by my sister’s side will use earth magic and raise her physical abilities in battle.”

“I see, so this is a spirit’s support—a spiritualist’s ace in the hole.”

The sprite’s magic amplified Shiran’s physical strength to the point where she could deal with Juumonji’s attacks. However, that wasn’t the only reason Shiran was capable of standing on equal ground against him. Her physical capabilities boosted by the sprite were impressive, but even so, she wasn’t as fast or as strong as the warrior Juumonji. She had skill.

As a warrior, Juumonji was terrifyingly athletic and instinctively knew how to fight, but that didn’t equate to skill. Shiran’s accumulation of training and life-threatening combat experience closed the specs gap between them.

Juumonji was now being cautious. Even though she couldn’t get a counter in like before, she was reliably fending off his relentless storm of strikes. I couldn’t even imagine how much concentration and willpower it took to do that.

“We must move at once, Takahiro!” the commander yelled, forcefully grabbing my arm. Her subordinates were behind her. Much like Shiran, her heart didn’t seem to be broken either. “Shiran has opened an escape path! We cannot allow it to go to waste!”

“Y-You want to leave her behind?!”

“There is no other way! She will fulfill her duty! She has the power to do so! Why do you think an elf was granted the important rank of lieutenant in a company of knights to begin with?!”

The reason an elf was granted a rank among knights...? I had never thought about it before. What did it have to do with the current situation? I pondered over the meaning of the commander’s words as a sight jumped into view.

“Scurrying and scurrying and scurrying! You pain in the ass!” Juumonji yelled.

He jumped into the air. His large body was brimming with a surging wave of mana. He was about to unleash magic. Not off-the-cuff magic like he used before. This was his real magic. By the time he landed, Juumonji had accumulated even more mana and deployed his glyph.

“Go to hell!”

He unleashed grade 3 magic. In just a few seconds, he wove together the greatest force the people of this world could manifest. Flames shot out of the broadsword in his hand, forming an enormous blade of fire.

“Oooooh!”

The flaming sword came down in a diagonal slash, landing a direct hit where Shiran was standing. An enormous explosion broke out. Rubble flew into the air, the shock wave carrying it all the way over to where we were standing. Kei screamed, and I pulled her toward me and protected her with my shield. The heatwave passed, and all that was left at the center of the explosion...was a single girl.

“Wh...at...?”

Juumonji was left completely dumbfounded, staring at Shiran, who was still fully armored and suffering from nothing more than light burns.

“Those are...” I muttered.

She stood there with dignity, and around her...spirits were dancing about in a somewhat comical fashion. Elves who possessed the qualifications to do so could take on a spirit’s trial to form a contract with them, though at the risk of their own lives. It was the elves’ trump card that only their greatest spiritualists could obtain. I knew this, but I couldn’t help but doubt my eyes. There were four spirits in total around Shiran. They formed a circle around her as they danced about.

“Juumonji Tatsuya. You would do well not to make light of us.”

Aside from the yellow sprite who always floated about her, there was now a red, blue, and green one as well. All four of them had apparently blocked the flaming sword together. They likely also protected the knights from Juumonji’s grade 4 magic that had caused the ramparts to collapse.

Now that I thought of it, when Kei was bragging about her older sister, she had said Shiran’s swordsmanship was amazing, she was a spectacular spiritualist, and that wasn’t all there was to her. I could only agree after seeing the scene before me. Regardless of the Alliance Knights’ weak position in Fort Tilia, and regardless of the commander’s recommendation, there had to be a reason for an elf, a race that faced discrimination, and a young girl at that, to be appointed as a lieutenant. It was because of Shiran’s overwhelming combat prowess.

“Ooh. I see. You didn’t know, Takahiro?” Mikihiko said, standing close to the commander. “The strongest knight in the northern Woodlands. That’s Shiran.”

I gulped. The strongest knight in the northern Woodlands. This was the frontline in the eternal battle against monsters, so it meant she was among the highest class of knights in the entire world.

Now that he mentioned it, something did come to mind. When the counteroffensive operation was decided on, the commander went out of her way to go get Shiran. She was also the one selected to go into the Depths to rescue any surviving visitors from other worlds. Knowing the importance such visitors had to them, it would only stand to reason that the strongest force in Fort Tilia be dispatched to carry out the mission. That was Shiran.

“It’s not enough. Not with this body. No matter how much I train myself, comrades I’m unable to protect keep dying one after another.”

Shiran put in all her effort yet still grieved that she hadn’t reached her ideal. Precisely because she clawed her way further and further, her nonstop devotion crystallized into the position of the strongest knight in the northern Woodlands. And now that Shiran could say it didn’t matter whether I was a savior, much like the commander mentioned, she had the willpower to point her blade at a savior of this world. Faced with an alien who used his rule-breaking power to spread meaningless tragedy, this strongest of knights was now the bulwark that blocked his path.

“Please leave this to me!” Shiran yelled, keeping her back to us. “I shall hold Juumonji Tatsuya here until you manage to capture Sakagami Gouta!”

“Shiran...”

I hesitated. Unlike the other knights, with their crushed spirits, Lily and I could still fight. Wasn’t it better for us to work with Shiran to take Juumonji down? Any hope of defeating him was still meager, however. At worst, we could even hold her back. However, Shiran was able to contend with Juumonji, so leaving things to her and doing something only we were capable of stood to reason.

Just as she said, if we could secure Sakagami, we could force the monsters besieging the fortress to retreat. By doing so, the soldiers still here could escape into the forest. Even Juumonji wouldn’t be able to slaughter hundreds of people scattering into the trees all on his own.

The monster problem could be solved by having Shiran detain Juumonji while we chased after Sakagami. Shiran had the detection ability of the spirits. If the monsters were to disappear, she would definitely sense it happening. This meant she could retreat when the time was right. This was the best choice there was. Even I could see that.

I could see it, but...did that really make it okay to leave Shiran on her own? She believed in me. Could I really leave such a...no, even disregarding that, could I really leave a girl here all on her own...?

“Takahiro,” Shiran said, noticing my hesitation. Her voice was cheerful. “Didn’t I tell you already? I’m looking forward to speaking with you again, remember?”

“Shiran...”

“Please go, so that we can take hold of such a future.”

Those words dispelled the last of my doubts.

“I’ll capture Sakagami as quickly as possible! Don’t die!”

I turned on my heels and ran. I could hear Juumonji’s roars behind me along with the intense sounds of battle. I suppressed my urge to turn around and ran into the corridor from the collapsed ramparts.

“Let’s go!”

“Right!”

Lily nodded and took the lead. For now, accompanied by the knights, we simply ran.