Chapter 206: I Must Live (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 206: I Must Live (2)
Maybe it’s because the setting is medieval fantasy.
Or maybe it’s because it’s a RoFan.
It could be both, but for starters, the people in this world are fundamentally devoid of a conscience.
“Are you really one to talk?”
“I’m a resident of this world too, you know.”
“So it was self-reflection!”
The basic shamelessness of a RoFan had been added to a class-based society.
On top of that, since the main characters are usually at the very pinnacle of the social hierarchy, the best way to deal with them—unless you plan on waving the flag of revolution—is to simply not engage.
“In other words, giving up is easier.”
“Don’t give up! It won’t be easy even if you do!”
However, it seemed that to save our dear Boradori, I had to fight against the unconscionable upper class of this RoFan world.
And so.
“I heard from Daisy!”
First, I recruited a Sword Master.
It seemed Daisy, despite being hit by the ban card, had been busy behind the scenes.
“Right. In that case, I’ll also—”
“I don’t need you.”
“Why?!”
“You’re weak…”
“You little bastard?!”
As a bonus, our Sososo showed up.
Unfortunately, the opponents we had to face were far too strong for Sososo to join the fray.
“If not me, then who else are you going to get!”
To Sososo, who demanded to know who else I could possibly find when I needed five people, I introduced the Boradori Rescue Team.
“The first is Prince Ellen.”
“Well, that can’t be helped.”
Even Asran had to acknowledge that Ellen was a necessary inclusion.
“And the second is our High Elf lady.”
“Why must I get involved in a human squabble?!”
“Wait, how did you even bring that human—no, that Elf here?”
“I just kept pounding on her door until she crawled out.”
I brought High Elf Yerisha, who could be summarized in one phrase: a Sword Master of self-defense swordsmanship.
And as a bonus.
“Why am I here…”
“If the older sister is being dragged along, it’s only natural for the younger sister to follow.”
“To think such an Elf is my sister… I’d rather just die.”
“You little brat?!”
By catching one High Elf, it seemed I had triggered a 'Buy One Get One Free' event I hadn't even known about.
Was that all?
“Why should I…”
“I thought you said you wanted to fight the strong. Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet?”
“A Dragon Descendant, afraid? Never!”
“That’s right! How could I, a descendant of dragons, possibly fear mere humans!”
With Boradori egging him on from the side, the Ancestor also agreed to help.
“…Then I suppose it can’t be helped.”
Looking at a lineup that was more than half heterogeneous species and consisted entirely of those at least at the level of a Sword Master, Asran had no choice but to concede.
“Since the last spot is yours… with my current skills, I…”
Looking at our Sososo, who was letting out a deep sigh, I shook my head.
“I’m not participating.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
Ignoring Sososo’s look of utter disbelief and Boradori’s moronic expression, I pulled a bag of popcorn out of my subspace pouch.
“Watching is always the best part of things like this.”
“If you’re not going, then who is? Don’t tell me you’re leaving it to Bell? I’m stronger than Bell!”
“Male. How pathetic. Coming from the one who lost recently…”
“Where did you pop out from?! No, before that, I’m ahead in our overall record!”
“Records only care about the most recent results, male…”
Asran was flustered by Bell’s sudden appearance, but he shut his mouth when he saw the tub of popcorn in Bell’s arms.
“…Are you just watching too?”
“Watching a fight has always been the most entertaining thing.”
“Then who on earth is…”
Under the two pairs of eyes staring blankly at me, I revealed the final member.
“Boradori, with one month’s worth of sorcery.”
“……”
“……”
“You have to defend your own human rights.”
I’d found four people for her; that was more than enough.
One must resolve their own karma.
At first, I wondered how the three factions would fight.
After hearing the details, it turned out to be a match format I’d seen in Go tournaments in my previous life.
Each faction pre-assembles a team of five.
Two factions clash first. The winner then fights a member of the faction that sat out. The team that has all its members eliminated loses.
Ultimately, the faction with the last person standing wins.
In other words, even if all your allies are eliminated, you can still win if the last person pulls off an all-kill.
“Is that even possible?”
“Do you think it is?”
While there was a legendary event called the 'Battle of Shanghai' in the world of Go, that was Go, and this was a physical fight.
No matter how much people say stamina is important in Go, it couldn't be compared to fighting with swords and magic.
Furthermore.
“You’re telling someone to do that twice in a row?”
“It really is nonsense.”
Even those who thought it might be possible would change their minds after seeing the awe-inspiring battle between the Sword Emperor and the Holy Kingdom’s Knight Commander.
They say watching scrubs fight is fun, but that’s only because they haven’t seen the real deal.
Or perhaps, it’s because they wouldn’t understand it even if they saw it.
The Sword Emperor, who crammed dozens of attacks into a single second, and the Holy Master’s defense, which skillfully parried them—it was a level of combat where even Asran or I would miss several exchanges if we didn't focus intensely.
“You were really planning to fight people like that?”
“……I could at least think about it!”
When sword met sword, the sky didn't split, nor did the earth shatter.
Instead, only a heavy silence flowed.
That was even more chilling.
It meant they were using the exact amount of power required to perfectly neutralize the opponent’s force.
The fact that the Knight Commander could display such finesse against the Sword Emperor was a testament to his strength.
It also explained why he had confidently stepped forward as the vanguard for the Holy Kingdom.
“So the winner of that fight faces our team, right?”
“Exactly.”
This was also something Violet had managed to negotiate.
It seemed she had done her absolute best to reclaim her human rights.
“Is the Ancestor going first?”
Seeing them busily preparing their strategy in the distance, I noted the order.
“If it’s Lady Irin…”
“She’s a sacrificial pawn.”
It looked like they were planning to start by throwing away their vanguard.
Well, our Ancestor was only like that because she was always letting her guard down.
As long as she didn't get careless, she was a powerhouse capable of holding her own against a Sword Master.
Of course, to do that, she had to commit to magic from the start, but the problem was her persistent habit of drawing her sword first.
However, watching the duel between the Sword Emperor and the Knight Commander, it was impossible to imagine the Ancestor even comparing to them.
In fact, from a distance, the Ancestor had an expression that clearly said, ‘Fight? Me? Against those things?’
“It’s starting…”
Bell, who had been quietly munching on popcorn, seemed to sense something.
And shortly after, we realized what Bell’s words meant.
“…Has he gone senile?”
A massive surge of mana began to radiate from the Sword Emperor, enough to make his own grandson utter such words.
“He looks pissed.”
“Is he saying, ‘Try blocking this too’?”
“This is dangerous! Sososo couldn't do anything like that!”
“If I could, you’d be dead by now!”
Unlike the WWE happening between Bell and Asran, a real UFC match was unfolding over there.
Well, it was more like a unilateral declaration of UFC by the Sword Emperor.
But since this was a fight the Knight Commander of the Holy Kingdom could not afford to lose either.
“What is that?”
“Looks like Holy Magic.”
“No matter how I think about it, if you can use Divine Power, it should naturally block mana…”
Watching the Knight Commander take a stance while bathed in light falling from the heavens, I muttered my honest feelings.
“If they had that kind of power, they should’ve used it back when the Holy Kingdom was a mess.”
“……”
“What? Why? Did I say something wrong?”
“I didn’t hear a thing…”
Unlike Asran, who was from Leon—a place where they believed in the sword more than religion—I was a citizen of the Empire, where religious influence was significant. Yet, I felt free to say whatever I wanted.
“Don’t you guys believe in religion?”
“It’s not that.”
If they didn't, would they have held two weddings in the Royal Cathedral?
“I just don’t like the Goddess very much.”
“You’re going to get struck by divine punishment…”
“If that were possible, the former Cardinals should have dropped dead long before Daisy beat them up.”
The Holy Kingdom was recognized as a nation, but its foundation was purely religious, making it a country with many oddities if you dug just a little deeper.
The primary example was its military power.
Attacking the Holy Kingdom was such an unthinkable act that even the Empire would face internal collapse if it tried.
Therefore, unlike other nations, it didn't need national power to preserve itself.
However, the Knight Commander before us, and the other Holy Kingdom figures set to follow him, were all among the top powerhouses on the continent.
There was only one reason for the Holy Kingdom—a place with no reason to fear foreign invasion—to possess such military strength.
It was solely to combat the pagans who followed the Evil God and the Dark Mages.
Because of that.
“These people have no humanity.”
The army of the Holy Kingdom moved only according to the will of the Goddess.
That was why the only manpower the Cardinals could manipulate was the internal security force—essentially a group of knights and soldiers in name only.
Of course, even that was enough to give the RoFan party a hard time, but they would never have won if they had faced the actual Holy Kingdom forces trained to fight external threats.
“Then isn't it a relief? If those people had been under the Cardinals…”
“Do you think that would ever happen?”
The Heresy Inquisitors were just more active; in reality, the Holy Kingdom’s army over there was also a group of lunatics.
An army raised to face the Evil God and his minions, who were prophesied in the Holy Scripture to one day be resurrected.
While regular armies tend to have a sense of duty to protect their country, they also experience actual combat and sometimes participate in wars.
But the Holy Kingdom’s army was different.
They possessed a sense of mission on a much larger scale—protecting the world—compared to a normal army.
“But the only basis for that is faith.”
Even armies in relatively peaceful times, having never experienced war, go out to hunt monsters to prepare for winter.
However, the Holy Kingdom, surrounded by various other nations, had its monster problems solved by those neighboring countries, so the army had no reason to act.
It wasn't for nothing that the Emperor of the Empire himself got involved just because the Holy Kingdom’s army moved.
I hadn't thought it was a big deal, but I later heard from the Captain that it was a much larger anomaly than I’d realized.
And so.
“Seriously, if even just that man had stepped up, would the Holy Kingdom have ended up like that?”
A strike meant to rend the world collided with a holy light meant to block even such a strike.
Of course, I’d heard from Boradori that the Goddess was under massive restrictions.
If that were the case, she should have just stayed still.
Seeing her move the army and set her sights on Delmoa the moment Boradori gave her a little breathing room made her look incredibly pathetic.
I wondered if there could be any being more shameless than the Goddess was being right now.
That was what I was thinking, but…
“It’s over.”
Thanks to her, I got to see a hell of a match, so maybe a little…
“Huh?”
The duel between the Sword Emperor and the Knight Commander ended in the Sword Emperor’s victory.
The moment the Sword Emperor’s blade cleaved through the Holy Kingdom’s shield, the Knight Commander took a posture of conceding defeat.
But it was at that very moment.
Perhaps because he had enjoyed a full-power duel for the first time in a while, the Sword Emperor was smiling brightly and reaching out a hand to the Knight Commander. Behind him, a familiar silhouette appeared.
Without even a moment to grieve the Knight Commander’s loss, the one deployed to the battlefield was the Ancestor of Leon, the Dragonkin Irin.
Come to think of it, the rules stated that the next match would follow immediately after a defeat, but…
“That is so pathetic…”
It seemed they figured they would lose unless they did something like this.
And while that judgment was correct… it was still pathetic.
It was a level of shamelessness that could rival the Goddess herself.
In fact, the composition looked so familiar.
Was it just my imagination, or did this look exactly like a 'guaranteed loss' flag from a certain reaper manga?
“Ah.”
I wasn't sure if the sound came from my mouth.
Or if it came from Asran or Bell.
Perhaps everyone had uttered the same exclamation at once.
To state only the result: a moment later, we found ourselves watching the Sword Emperor and the Holy Knight fight once again.