Chapter 40
Chapter 40
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: The Verdant Knight Order (4)
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Flames reflected in Irina's emerald eyes.
With her hood thrown back, she sprinted toward the mansion at full speed.
The maids who had come out of the mansion.
Even the guards who didn't know what to do.
The front yard of the mansion was pure chaos.
"Wh-what the hell happened here?"
Gasping for breath, Irina asked a male servant.
The boy stammered in panic.
"I don't know. The kitchen was out, and there was no reason for a fire to start, but suddenly...!"
As he explained what had happened.
The flames roared louder, and the sound of shattering glass echoed out.
"Eek!!"
Building debris and shards of glass rained down from the impact.
The maids scrambled to flee from it all.
Everyone was plunged into panic.
I looked at Irina as I followed behind.
I figured even she must have been stunned by the shock.
But....
The princess had changed.
Her eyes quickly calmed, like a still lake.
With a face as resolute as the emperor's, she shouted to the servants.
"Everyone, listen up!"
Her voice rang out loud and clear.
At the sound, the servants all focused on her.
"There should be buckets in the warehouse that we prepared in advance."
Irina took off her raincoat.
She rolled up her blouse sleeves and continued.
"Maids, get water from the warehouse. Men, line up and take turns putting out the fire!"
The princess grabbed a bucket.
Then she headed straight to the warehouse herself and started drawing water.
By rights, royalty should stand back for safety.
But Irina did her utmost for her mansion and her people.
Thanks to her, the chaotic crowd united at once and began extinguishing the flames.
As a result, the fire that had spread to the first floor gradually died down.
But.
Moments after pouring water on it, the flames surged back up fiercely.
As if by "magic."
I gazed at the mansion's third floor, where the fire seemed to originate.
That was Irina's bedroom, where she also kept her valuables.
A fire starting in a place with no reason to burn.
And its relentless strength, refusing to be quenched no matter how much water was poured.
This wasn't a simple accident.
Someone had intentionally set it.
"This... water won't put it out. It's magic...!"
Even the soaked princess quickly grasped the situation.
She turned to a nearby guard.
"Go to the palace and fetch a royal mage!"
To convey the urgency, the princess handed him the ring she wore.
A royal treasure would prove the dire situation.
Watching this, I chimed in.
"Judging by how fierce the flames still are, the arson mage is probably nearby."
If we caught the bastard, we could uncover who was behind the attack on Irina.
I concentrated mana in my legs.
Just as I was about to leave.
The princess called out to me briefly, her hair disheveled.
With a wistful expression, she said.
"Vale, be careful...."
Irina approached me.
Her delicate fingers gently stroked my palm.
"If they targeted me, it's definitely another imperial family member checking my faction."
Fingers wrinkled from the cold water, even in midwinter.
I could feel her trembling so vividly.
"They'll be far stronger than any knight you've met so far."
Yet her face remained calm.
As if she'd already analyzed the foe, she offered advice.
"So...."
Then, in a tender whisper.
"Please be careful. Don't try to handle everything alone."
Having given her warning, she gazed up at me steadily.
Probably because I was just a defensive knight, a rookie. A caution out of kindness.
"Understood."
So why did my chest feel so heavy?
I couldn't figure it out.
Carrying that feeling with me, I headed to the back of the mansion.
A spot with a clear view of the whole place would be ideal for casting large-scale magic like this.
I looked toward the mountain behind the mansion.
Soon enough.
I spotted two black silhouettes amid the brush.
Intense mana emanated from one of them.
That one was probably the spellcaster.
I wrapped mana around my legs.
Bent my knees deeply.
―――.
I compressed mana until the ground buckled beneath me.
The moment I straightened my knees.
I leaped, landing right in front of them.
"Why burn the house of a princess who owns nothing?"
A mage pressing his hand to the ground, maintaining a magic circle.
And beside him, a smaller figure wielding a rapier-style blade.
Even under their robes, I could guess their roles.
'These aren't just your average mercenaries.'
I drew the sword from my waist.
Just as I swung toward the mage maintaining the circle.
A blade shot out from the watching swordsman's robe.
"Why is a defensive knight here?"
A woman's voice, sounding around my age, in her twenties.
She fiercely parried my sword.
In that instant clash, I could tell.
At least vice-captain level of a prestigious knight order.
"If you're a knight too, you can tell just from crossing blades."
The robed swordsman raised her sword firmly with one hand.
Aiming it at me, she said flatly.
"That a mere defensive knight can't stop us."
She wrapped her blade in light-green mana.
Not yet the brilliant gold, but beyond the blue realm.
"So don't pick a pointless fight. Go call a mage instead."
Her goal achieved, she seemed ready to leave.
She had no desire for killing.
'A retainer of the imperial family, huh.'
All the more reason I couldn't let her go.
I pushed hard against our locked swords.
As she countered with sword aura.
I stomped on her foot with my boot.
She grimaced in that split second.
I slid my blade downward, slashing the back of her hand.
"...!"
No panic even seeing my sword aura.
But pressed hard, she hurriedly backpedaled.
Blood dripped steadily, startling even the mage.
He hesitated, wondering if he should drop the circle to help.
"I've been waiting for a day like this for so long."
I lightly shook the blood from my blade.
Flashing a grin, I said.
"The day I could beat down arrogant nobles like you without sparring rules."
Against rookie knights my age, I'd felt some guilt.
But real villains were a different story.
I focused mana at the sword's tip.
Just like Allen had shown.
But my legs had endured brutal stamina training all this time.
Swinging the sword imposed no burden at all.
―――!!
I swung long, aiming for both the swordsman and mage.
A blue sword beam shot forth.
The swordsman blocked it upright with her blade.
But the mage couldn't hold.
He released the circle and retreated.
Soon, the flames began to die down.
"What a nuisance...."
The mage stood, visibly annoyed.
The swordsman bowed her head in apology.
"I'm sorry."
"You call this promising? What a disappointment."
The mage lectured her leisurely right in front of me.
He clasped his hands together, red energy flowing from his palms.
He thrust out his condensed-mana palms.
I ducked as intense heat blasted toward my face.
I barely dodged the flame shards.
But the surging heat passed right through me, igniting the forest.
'Planning to burn the whole area...?'
Sword raised, I charged the mage.
But each time, the injured swordsman blocked my path, batting my blade away with force.
Blocked up close, then mage fire from afar.
A headache of a situation, handling both ranges.
"Spamming flames like this will just give away your position, you know?"
I tried taunting to suppress his magic.
He scoffed in response.
"Doesn't matter. Dodging some guards is nothing."
But as if reading my intent, the mage slammed his palm to the ground.
The vibration made the scattered embers flare wildly around us.
Soon.
The flames roared high, encircling me.
Like a birdcage.
'So that's why he sprayed fire everywhere.'
Then, the mage extended a hand, wrapping the swordsman in blue flames.
"I've pinned his movements. Go finish him!"
The swordsman bowed in assent.
She strolled casually into the flame cage.
Thanks to the blue fire, perhaps.
She entered unscathed by the cage's blaze.
She swung her light-green mana-clad rapier freely.
The blade bent like a serpent.
Backing away dodged it easily, but the searing heat at my back interfered.
Trapped in tight space against an advanced expert swordsman.
Without sword aura, no less.
'What a pain...!'
If my existence got out to the imperial faction targeting Irina, trouble.
I lightly deflected the blade aimed at my throat.
As I went to knee her.
She evaded with quick learning.
Then pressed me relentlessly with her signature arrow-like speed.
Inside the cage her boss had made.
Busy defending, she grew bolder, driving her sword harder.
She even attacked the spot I'd lured her to.
A burning tree at the cage's edge.
She unleashed sword aura freely—and cleaved the tree too.
The crashing tree engulfed me and the swordsman.
She halted her assault, twisting away to dodge.
Kwarrr―――!!
As the tree fell, the mage smirked at his creation.
Imagining his chosen swordsman having subdued the defensive knight.
But....
The scene before him was utterly unexpected.
"I'm sorry...."
The swordsman, timing disrupted by the falling tree.
One side of her chest slashed, blood dripping as she retreated.
Seeing her vivid blood, the mage dispelled the flame cage.
He reached toward the ash-covered ground.
Dust rose at his touch, forming black mist around us.
It soon blocked my vision completely.
"...."
I'd grown somewhat used to mist fighting Dasha.
Mages made their mana flow even clearer from their bodies.
I sensed the mage trying to summon mist and snatch the swordsman—then fired a sword beam.
A solid hit.
I charged after the sound.
But....
Seeing what I'd struck, my brow furrowed.
My sword beam had torn not the mage, but his cloak.
He'd poured all his mana into the cloak.
Used it as bait, then escape magic with the swordsman.
"Would rather die than get caught, huh."
A perfect feint.
But in escaping, they left fatal evidence.
The red bloodstain on my blade's tip.
Our esteemed nobles overlooked one fact.
Criminals like them... play dirty better than guys like me.
I carefully transferred the blood droplet to a glass vial.
Then leisurely returned to the mansion as the flames fully subsided.