Not Quite a Companion
Joni and the thug squared off with swords in hand, both of them wearing faces so grave you’d have thought the fate of the world was on the line. Judging by the actual fight, though, it hardly seemed like they were worthy of such solemn expressions, but I didn’t feel like throwing cold water on the whole thing.
She’s holding up better than I expected.
A few weeks wasn’t nearly enough time to transform someone’s skill overnight, but it was more than enough to smooth out awful fundamentals. She probably didn’t realize it herself, but to me, the Joni standing here now was clearly different from the one from a few weeks ago.
Which meant she was at least managing to hold her own against the thug.
“Hn… hyah!”
With a bizarre battle cry, Joni swung her sword hard.
The thug blocked the blade flying toward his chest without trouble and stepped back a couple of paces.
His physical ability seemed a little better than Joni’s, and yet…
The reason she could still last was that the thug’s level wasn’t all that high either.
Every time I saw it, I thought the same thing: Apostles were all like this. Their technique was terrible compared to their physical abilities.
If they had bodies like that, you’d think their technique would grow to match, but for some reason they were absurdly lopsided.
Like someone who’d gotten strong all at once without building up their strength step by step.
Was that Edel’s blessing too?
“Hah!”
“Ugh…!”
Look at this.
One of them barely has any difference in raw strength, yet insists on smashing the other down with brute force, while the other is just taking it straight on.
What a complete mess.
Still, I’d identified the problem clearly enough.
I’d known what was wrong for a while, but watching this fight gave me the final confirmation.
Yeah, fighting someone around your own level really is the best way to figure out what’s broken.
Clang!
As I watched with mild interest, sword met sword with a sharp crash, and Joni’s blade was knocked from her hand as her strength gave out.
She should’ve either picked it up quickly or retreated, but instead she panicked and flailed helplessly as a silver flash lunged for her heart.
“Aaaah!”
“That’s enough.”
Clang!
“Gah?!”
Thunk!
I struck down on the face of the blade rushing at me at high speed, and the thug stumbled and fell.
It was the perfect opening to take his life.
But instead of driving a sword into his exposed neck or back, I grabbed Joni, whose legs had gone weak and given out beneath her, and hauled her upright.
What was there to be so afraid of, anyway? If you died, you’d just come back.
Joni was shaking so hard she looked like a trembling aspen.
I even picked up the sword that had fallen to the ground and placed it back in her hand. Only then did she finally catch her breath and speak in a quivering voice.
“Th-th-thank you….”
No problem.
I gave a casual nod.
“Why did you suddenly…?”
The thug looked stunned, as if a bolt from a clear sky had struck him.
Well, of course he’d be upset. He’d thought he had the fight won, and then I’d interrupted.
From the start I had no intention of letting anyone die, so I’d planned to step in right before it was settled, but I did feel a little bad.
Even if death just meant resurrection, Joni would have to wait all over again until she got back here.
What a waste of time that would’ve been.
I took a single coin from my pocket and flicked it with my finger.
Ting!
“Hm? This is….”
It had no real value as currency, but it would make a decent souvenir. It wasn’t legal tender, sure, but it was still gold, so he could always sell it and turn it into money.
The thug reflexively caught the Grasis commemorative coin I’d tossed him, looking dazed.
“Why are you giving me this all of a sudden…?”
“For your trouble.”
He’d earned that much for humoring the entertainment for a bit, so he shouldn’t have any complaints now.
The thug turned the coin over in his hand, looking at it from side to side, flipping it over, then glancing between it and me before bowing deeply at the waist.
“Thank you!”
It seemed to mean thanks somehow, but… why was he so grateful?
While I was tilting my head at the intensity of his reaction, the thug shoved the coin into his pocket in a rush, as if afraid I might change my mind, then took off running and disappeared somewhere.
His exit had been just as abrupt as his entrance.
As I stared after the place where he’d vanished, Joni came over and spoke to me.
“...Kana, what about mine?”
“...?”
Did I promise her anything?
When I ignored her, Joni dropped to the dirt and rolled around on the ground in a fit of tantrum-like whining.
“I want one too! I want a present from Kana too! Give me one!”
Waaah!
Thwack!
“Knock it off.”
“...Yes, ma’am.”
As I buried the scabbard right beside Joni’s head, she stopped rolling around and shot upright.
Why was it that people never listened when you spoke nicely, but immediately understood when you used violence?
I really couldn’t understand it.
Pat, pat.
Ugh, dust.
I brushed off my clothes, which had gone cloudy from Joni rolling around in the dirt, and a faint cloud of dust puffed into the air.
I kept my distance so I wouldn’t get caught in it and organized my thoughts.
Joni’s problem was still exactly what it had always been: she was too scared.
Keeping yourself safe while inflicting damage on the enemy is basic combat; I could understand holding back to avoid getting hurt, but there had to be a limit.
She’d gone to the trouble of dodging and blocking well enough to wrest control of the fight, only to refuse to attack and keep playing it safe. There was no way she could win like that.
More accurately, I guess I should say she only moved when she was absolutely sure.
To seize the advantage, you had to press the offense to some degree, but she seemed too afraid of a counterattack to strike on her own.
I’d let the Greatsword Chick pester her because I thought it might help break that habit, but the Greatsword Chick hadn’t shown much interest in Joni at all, so that plan had gone nowhere.
Come to think of it, I didn’t see the Greatsword Chick today.
“Where’s the Greatsword Chick?”
“Yuki? Uh… training. She said she was going training.”
Well, there she was. Consistent as ever, that chick.
Actually, come to think of it, even if she were here, I doubted she’d be much help to Joni.
Unlike the thug from a moment ago, there was a huge gap between Joni and the Greatsword Chick, and given her personality, she’d probably never go easy on Joni even if they did spar.
What I needed was to cure fear, and all she’d do was scare Joni more and make her shrink back further.
…
Curing fear, huh….
There was a good way to do that, actually.
The Crimson Flame Knight Order, where Grasis’s most outstanding talents gathered….
...Though that was old news.
The Crimson Flame Knight Order I knew had been the kind of place where the nobles with real skill went to the Royal Knight Order, while the nobles who couldn’t make that cut—or those of low birth who were still talented—came here.
Or someone who was genuinely overflowing with patriotism and determination to stand against the enemy.
The ones who joined the Royal Knight Order were happy because they didn’t have to risk their necks fighting enemies, and the royals and nobles were happy because it gave them more people to keep them alive.
If it was funny that they ended up dying before we did, well, I guess that was irony for you.
Still, the Crimson Flame Knight Order wasn’t exactly a weak force.
The commander of the Crimson Flame Knight Order held the seat reserved for the strongest person in Grasis, so its upper limit was actually higher.
They’d ignored the purpose for which the Crimson Flame Knight Order had been created, yet still kept up the tradition to the letter. It was almost laughable.
...I’ve drifted a bit off track.
Anyway, there had often been timid people who joined even a place like the Crimson Flame Knight Order.
Hiiiii?!
I-I can’t do this! Kill me instead!
People whose bodies had stiffened like logs or who’d stumbled backward in fear.
Usually, they were the ones who’d built their skills through sparring against humans in the training grounds and then reacted like that when they encountered a monster for the first time.
Of course, there were plenty who had no field experience but still fought calmly and well.
When you should have been able to win without even breaking a sweat, they’d just panic and run.
And my solution back when I was vice-commander was simple.
Go.
...Pardon?
Go fight.
...I don’t think I heard that right.
Then I’ll say it louder.
W-waaaah! I curse you, Vice-Commanderrrr!
Or I forced them into situations where they had no choice but to fight.
Vice-Commander?
Yeah.
...Why are you handing me a sword?
You said you wanted to die.
...
...
...Bring it on, you monster bastards!
Or I gave them an even greater fear.
It stung a little that they were more afraid of a sword being drawn once than they were of monsters, but better that than the alternative, right?
Oh, and for the record, the guy who’d cursed me ended up fighting monster hordes for days on end. By the time he was done, he’d become so brave he even asked me for a spar.
Hiiiii…! Vice-Commander, you’re scary…!
He seemed to have developed a different fear after that, but that wasn’t really my problem.
Even Apostles blessed by Edel were still human.
There shouldn’t be much difference between them and the people I’d trained before.
In other words, if I worked them to death, the issue would sort itself out naturally.
“W-why do I suddenly have chills…?”
As if sensing something, Joni shivered and looked around.
I’m not forcing you because I want to, you know. I’m doing it for your own good. Yeah.
Got it?
The post had ignited the comments section.
So if you follow Joni around and pick fights, you can get a present from Lady Kana?
Huff, huff... Kana’s gift, touched by her hands...
I can’t take this. Going to go beat up Joni, brb
The floodgates had finally opened for the people who’d previously been unable to approach Kana because of her wariness and barriers, and who could only look at her through broadcasts. Now that it had become clear the bird in the nest had come out into the open, and that unlike before she wasn’t simply drawing her blade on sight and dancing with it without asking questions, the desire they’d been suppressing began to surge up at once.
“Wow! Fan meeting!”
So if I go now, Kana will talk to me, shake my hand, hug me, let me pet her, and even give me a present??
I can’t resist this lol
Her cute, docile-looking face was completely at odds with her indifferent attitude. And yet she accepted Joni’s physical affection and quietly took care of her in her own way.
People fell head over heels for the charm of a prickly cat that would only allow the touch of its butler’s hand.
Those who thought, Could I be that person too? and wanted to get close to Kana, as well as those who simply liked her, heard the news.
And with that fan-meeting-that-wasn’t-a-fan-meeting, just like people heading out to see a celebrity when one appeared in their neighborhood, Apostles who happened to be nearby began swarming in.
Which was how, on the road to Ordo, a crowd of players ended up gathered in front of Joni and Kana.
“Hey, stop pushing!”
“Line up! Line up! I said keep your order!”
“It’s not order, it’s corn, right?”
“Popcorn for sale! I’ve got popcorn too!”
Before long, merchants had joined the chaos, and the whole thing had become a veritable boiling pot of confusion. Kana seriously considered something very dark.
Should I just kill them all…?
Her already fragile image of Apostles, which had improved a little since the day the knights invaded, plummeted straight back down.
But the biggest victim wasn’t Kana, who’d become a spectacle, nor the Apostles staring death in the face.
“Hey, come out already! Let’s fight!”
“You’re that good at fighting? Follow me to the rooftop.”
“Lady Joni! I’m your fan! I’ll hug you!”
“Kyaaah! W-what the hell is wrong with you people?!”
Joni, who had been happily traveling toward Ordo with Kana, was the greatest victim of this incident, having been buried under a mountain of challenges.
She was terrified by the endless PVP requests and looked around in panic, but wherever she looked, eyes like those of carnivores sizing up a delicious prey were waiting for her.
“Waaah! Kana! Help me!”
In the end, Joni abandoned all dignity, clung to Kana’s leg, and burst into tears.