Chapter 16
Chapter 16
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 16
Chapter Title: Dance in the Night Sky
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Grabbing his weapon and rushing straight to the terrace, Enri slashed at the monster charging toward him and looked up at the sky. There, countless wyverns were flying around chaotically, screeching.
Below, soldiers were firing arrows and guns like mad, but it was utterly futile. Arrows didn't even reach the wyverns, and bullets completely missed the wyverns that appeared as mere specks.
It was the result of lacking a proper anti-air defense system. Enri clicked his tongue at the soldiers' antics and focused on the culprits riding on the wyverns' backs.
Every time they reached into their black pouches, monsters dropped one by one. Seeing this, Enri realized they were black mages.
Black mages. Trash who lurked beyond the north, worshiping demons. Pandemonium's minions. Normally, to deal with them, a proper mage would need to step up, but...
'Damn nobles.'
Enri frowned at the nobles inside the party hall who had no intention of stepping outside. It wasn't incomprehensible. All nobles were mages and learned magic at the academy—but it was little more than a liberal arts education.
Just like a chaebol heir studying history at university doesn't pursue a career as a historian. Being a noble didn't mean one could necessarily fight with magic. Those who learned proper magic were often sent to the magic tower.
The exchange ratio being garbage was another problem. Anyone could become a black mage by contracting with a demon, but proper mages had to be born nobles first. Even if ten black mages took down one mage, it was still a win for them.
"Bring the greatbow! Get the greatbow!"
"No, what if we just blast them with cannons..."
"Are you crazy!? Have you forgotten where we are? Fire cannons inside the royal palace?"
As the knights floundered in confusion at this unprecedented method of attack, Enri began eyeballing the distance from the terrace to the wyverns.
It seemed like he might roughly make it if he jumped... but if he messed up, he'd plummet without reaching them. What choice did he have? Better to try something than get pummeled one-sidedly—
"What are you all doing? Pathetic."
"—Lady?"
And at that moment.
The villainous lady stepped out from the ballroom.
Revealing herself with her black hair and dress swaying gracefully, she tilted the wine glass in her hand, spilling the wine onto the floor. The pumpkin-colored liquid spread across the floor, forming a perfect circle. Inside the circle, a pattern worthy of being called a magic circle completed itself automatically.
"Enri."
"Lady, it's dangerous, please go inside..."
"Jump."
"...Lady?"
"It means don't think at all. Just swing your sword."
Flashing a rose-like smile, Eve began chanting her magic. The Claudia family's magic was domination. Her attribute was darkness.
Thus, Eve Claudia's magic was Darkness Domination.
At this hour, the night cloaked in darkness was her stage.
"—Go."
Hearing the command, Enri charged forward without a care for what came after, leaping into the air. Amid astonished voices around him, sure enough, as he had predicted, he fell just a bit short. Even desperately flailing his arms, his sword wouldn't reach. Moreover, the black mages who spotted him incoming flew a little higher.
As his leaping kinetic energy finally bottomed out, and the immense gravitational force no human body could resist began pulling him down—
Enri spotted a pitch-black platform in the corner of his vision.
The moment he saw the platform, words Eve had once said flashed in Enri's mind.
—You're an idiot.
He stepped toward the platform.
—Pardon? Isn't that too harsh?
—No, listen well. You're an idiot. A complete fool. An irredeemable dimwit.
The platform, formed from condensed darkness, granted him the power to leap once more.
—So don't think at all. I'll do the thinking. When, where, and against whom you swing your sword—do exactly as I say.
"Hup!"
"Wha-what!?"
The black mages, reacting belatedly to Enri leaping again, yanked their reins to soar higher, but no matter how fast wyverns flew, they couldn't outpace a knight.
—If you just do that.
He swung his sword.
True to a blade from the royal armory, it effortlessly severed the wyvern's neck. The startled black mages tried to unleash spells, but it was far too late.
—I'll make you the greatest knight.
Tonight's night sky.
Was our stage.
"He flew..."
"A knight, in the sky?"
Below the sky.
In the ballroom of the royal castle towering high above the ground, nobles who had been watching the outside began crawling out one by one. In their eyes, they glimpsed a single knight freely soaring and dancing through the heavens.
The knight swung his sword as leisurely as if he were on solid ground, bisecting wyverns and black mages alike. It was so shocking that one might even envy, wondering why their own house knights couldn't do the same.
Since ancient times, the sky had not been a realm permitted to humans.
The sight of a knight flying through the sky made the nobles realize that they were merely human.
"Wha-what? He's falling!"
After cleaving all the wyverns and sending them crashing down, the green-haired knight lost his platforms and plummeted straight. Even for a knight, it was a height worrisome enough to cause serious injury.
As everyone anxiously watched the knight's fall, stomping their feet, one person who witnessed the scene swiftly dashed out and caught the knight.
"Kyaaah!?"
"Got him!"
"He's saved!"
Amid cheers erupting from all around, Luca—who had snagged the falling Enri—grinned as she looked down at him cradled securely in her arms.
"How was it, Captain? Smitten yet?"
"...Nice one, Luca."
"You could praise me a little more, you know?"
After flicking the forehead of Luca, who spouted such nonsense, Enri slowly descended and breathed a light sigh of relief at the sight of soldiers and knights finishing off or capturing the wyverns and black mages that had fallen to the ground.
He had worried there might be stragglers left uncleaned, but he didn't need to concern himself with that. After all, he wasn't the only one here.
-Kyyyeeeee...
"Here! This wyvern's still alive!"
"Kill it! Don't leave a single monster!"
"Spare the black mages! We need to interrogate them for information..."
Satisfied at the sight of those who had merely spectated below while he diligently swung his sword now working hard belatedly, Enri grinned and returned to the ballroom.
His original duty was escorting the Lady, not monster cleanup or hunting down black mages. Let the palace knights handle such drudgery.
Upon returning to the ballroom, countless nobles and their escort knights stared at him with utterly inexplicable gazes.
'What the hell? Why this all of a sudden.'
Since it was such a bizarre look, Enri ignored it entirely and headed straight to Eve's side. Eve greeted Enri with a soft smile in her eyes.
"Good work, Sir Enri."
"Ah. Lady."
"I suppose I should bestow a reward when we return to the family."
Enri stiffened rigidly, like a husband caught red-handed cheating on his wife. Eve was using a tone she never employed normally, all while smiling. Did she realize her smile didn't lift her lips even a fraction...?
As Enri shuddered, intuiting what the future held, the king—who had been safely hiding inside—belatedly revealed himself with caution.
"—Incredible. Truly incredible. Perhaps only the inaugural Gracia King from the histories achieved such a feat!"
He immediately praised Enri's exploits and led a round of applause. The surrounding nobles followed suit, clapping along. The king, who had set the mood, then spoke again.
"A talent far too precious to be confined to a single territory! Therefore, I propose once more. Sir Enri, will you become a Royal Knight? For your sake, I shall create the Royal 3rd Knights—"
"I apologize, Your Majesty."
Another scouting offer came flying in.
However.
This time, it wasn't Enri who refused.
"My knight has overexerted himself... He requires immediate rest."
"Pardon? Lady, I'm still perfectly fine..."
"......Shut up."
Eve, who had silenced Enri, offered the king a bow with utmost elegance before swiftly escorting the duke and Enri out of the ballroom.
Right after exiting, as they walked a corridor beyond others' prying eyes, Eve muttered curses under her breath, too quiet for anyone else to hear.
"That old geezer trying to stick his spoon into a perfectly laid table..."
Enri, with his exceptionally keen hearing, caught every blasphemous word but quietly let it slide in one ear and out the other.