6. Much Ado About Nothing - 12
6. Much Ado About Nothing - 12
"Say, Chris. Would you happen to know? To be honest, I'm not terribly fond of dogs. They do have a certain charm once you get used to them, I'll admit, but I've never been able to help myself—I prefer cats. So, in that spirit, let me ask you something. Are you a dog person? Or do cats suit your taste better?"
Iris addressed Chris in a voice so utterly relaxed she might as well have been on a picnic. Regrettably, however, Chris was in no condition to answer the Imperial Princess, as exalted as the heavens themselves. Right before his eyes, wolves with bodies far larger than most cattle—to exaggerate just a little—were slashing at him with razor-sharp claws!
Crrrack!
Barely fending off the wolves that lunged to tear him to shreds, Chris had to suppress the overwhelming urge to beat the hell out of his past self from a few weeks ago—the version of him who had raised not a single objection to embarking on this absurdly dangerous journey.
The moment the Imperial Princess learned of the engagement between Kain von Estel and Bianca del Castana, she had radiated a truly murderous killing intent, then promptly declared that she herself would visit House Castana. The official purpose was to "offer congratulations on the engagement," but Chris could not possibly imagine the Imperial Princess going to House Castana, quietly clapping, and then coming home.
On top of that, the Imperial Princess had forcefully petitioned to depart for House Castana with only Chris accompanying her, arguing that traveling by carriage would make it impossible to arrive in time for the engagement ceremony. Naturally, the Emperor was not pleased with the idea of her setting out without any escort, and a lengthy war of words ensued between Iris and the Emperor.
Chris has no idea what was said between them. The only certainty is that Iris ultimately broke the Emperor's will and obtained permission to leave with Chris alone.
The weeks that followed were a forced march that could only be described as hell. There was no time to rest. When a horse tired, they abandoned it, bought another at the nearest village, and kept riding at full speed. Throughout this agonizing journey, the Imperial Princess never once showed a hint of fatigue. She simply remained silent, exuding only an ominous air—as though she was holding something in, suppressing it with all her might.
And so, in a mere few weeks, they accomplished the staggering feat of entering the Castana Marquisate. That was when the trouble began. They received strange news that the only road from the Imperial Capital to House Castana was being blocked by multiple wolves.
Obviously, they were in no position to wait for the wolves to move aside. But at the same time, the noble Imperial Princess could hardly trouble herself to hunt a few wild animals, so in the end, her guard knight Chris had to step forward.
Which brought the situation to where it stood now. Gasping for breath, Chris quietly raised his sword toward the wolves glaring at him. Any ordinary wild animal would already have become a lonely spirit from a single stroke of his blade. As the man who called himself the Imperial Princess's guard knight, Chris possessed at least that much skill.
But the creatures he was facing were no ordinary wolves, either. Their sheer size aside, wolves—according to every bit of common sense he possessed—were not supposed to breathe fire from their maws, nor were they supposed to possess such absurd durability that a sword driven squarely into the crown of their heads would simply bounce off!
What's more, their intelligence appeared to be considerable, because despite being wolves, they were attacking in a coordinated formation. Six wolves in total were lunging at Chris. The way they covered each other's weaknesses while deftly exploiting openings was reminiscent of the movements of a well-trained elite unit.
Clang!
Chris's sword met a wolf's claws head-on. Astonishingly, the claws showed not the slightest sign of dulling despite clashing with a blade forged from steel. A cold sweat trickled down Chris's spine. The dread that he might disgrace himself before the Imperial Princess surged through him.
"...Tsk."
Watching Chris in that state, Iris clicked her tongue before she could stop herself. She couldn't shake the thought that if Kain had been here, the result would have been entirely different.
"Pathetic. At this rate, it's hard to tell who's guarding whom."
The moment she muttered those words, Iris thrust her right hand out toward the wolf that was aiming its claws at Chris's flank. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like nothing but the act of someone with a death wish.
"Imperial Princess!"
Chris couldn't help but stare at her in shock. He knew full well the Imperial Princess was strong, but to throw herself at such savage creatures without even drawing her sword? For an instant, a horrific image flashed through Chris's mind—the Imperial Princess's noble flesh being shredded to ribbons by the wolf's claws.
But events unfolded in the exact opposite direction of what Chris had predicted.
Whoosh—
The moment the Imperial Princess's hand and the wolf's claws came into contact, the claws were deflected to the side as if they had been commanded never to touch her body. It was, needless to say, the power of the Flowing Star—the art of controlling all manner of "flow" within a certain range.
"Baring your teeth so carelessly at people—you're nothing but a dog that doesn't know its place. Now then, shall I dispense a little discipline on your master's behalf?"
As she spoke, Iris smiled faintly, gathering her thumb and forefinger to deliver a playful flick to the wolf's head. And—
BOOM!
In that instant, an enormous crash—something utterly impossible to believe had originated from human flesh—slammed through the area.
Thud.
There was no death cry. The head of the wolf that took her flick directly had evaporated without a trace in the blink of an eye. The headless body collapsed to the ground with a heavy thump. Then, the torso remaining on the ground began turning to dust and slowly fading away. It was an absurd spectacle, so devoid of realism that it seemed like a scene from a play.
"...Hm. More fragile than I thought. Their durability is markedly inferior compared to ten years from now. As expected, this is unmistakable proof that she, too, is still thoroughly immature."
As Iris murmured to herself while watching the wolf's corpse slowly weather away, the remaining wolves—seeing her turned back as she stood lost in thought—began snarling viciously.
They had orders from their master, so they had no intention of killing, but the only thought in the wolves' minds now was to teach that insufferably arrogant woman a lesson.
"Grrraaargh!"
Now was the chance, with that woman's back turned. One of the remaining wolves lunged at her with the speed of a ray of light.
In that fleeting moment when it seemed her back would be torn apart by the wolf's claws, Iris turned her head to look behind her with agonizing slowness. And she whispered to the wolf in a very tiny voice.
"...How ill-mannered. To aim for a lady's back so recklessly. It seems the example I made was insufficient."
Crunch!
The next instant, Iris's hand seized the wolf's foreleg and wrenched it in the opposite direction. The violent force amplified several times over by the Flowing Star carried enough power to tear through the wolf's hide in a single motion, causing bone to jut out.
"...Ugh."
At that sickening sound, Chris grimaced before he could stop himself. No matter that it was a beast that had attacked him, watching flesh being dismantled and bone bursting out right before his eyes could never be called pleasant.
And Iris's attack did not stop there. Using the Flowing Star, she instantly discerned the true body of Magic Power enveloping the wolf's entire form. She could feel it—the fact that at the very center of the wolf's massive body existed a core that was sustaining the wolf in reality.
Shunk—!
The body was tough enough to repel even steel, but before Iris's hand, its durability was no different from tofu. Having extended her hand into the wolf's heart area with ridiculous ease, Iris grasped the core and gently applied pressure.
Crack—
The core crumbled beneath her fingers like a piece of candy. With the core that had bound the wolf to this world destroyed, the wolf's body turned to phantom flame and vanished from existence.
"...Hmm. So they weren't real wolves after all, but a type of chimera. Unleashing such pets on the roadside without even a leash—that woman truly is out of her mind."
Chimeras were a type of familiar employed by mages. The difference from ordinary familiars was, perhaps, that they were specialized a bit more for combat.
Judging from the strangely absent killing intent from the wolves, it was clear that they had been set loose here with the simple intent of blocking this road. After all, the wolves had only bared their fangs after Chris raised his sword at them.
Still, even taking that into account, stationing such savage beasts on a road used by people was behavior that could scarcely be called sane. Though, thinking about it differently, it likely meant she was that desperate about this matter.
Hesitation.
Watching two wolves be obliterated beneath her hand in the blink of an eye, the remaining wolves backstepped for the first time. They too had realized who the strongest one present was.
"Clever. If they're this intelligent, raising one in the Imperial Palace might not be such a bad idea."
She was smiling wryly at the terrified wolves when—
—Screeeeech—!
Suddenly, a violent gust stormed through the area. Iris raised her eyes to the sky and saw a single bronze bird, its entire body wreathed in wind, beating its wings in the air above.
Rrrrumble—!
The earth shook. From deep within the ground, a giant whose entire body was formed of rock rose up and began roaring at her.
—Grraaaargh—!!
"...Ngh."
At the giant's roar that shook everything in every direction, Chris involuntarily stepped backward. As the Imperial Princess's guard knight, he had faced off against all manner of things, but he had never imagined he would have to cross swords with a giant made of solid rock.
"...Oh ho. Truly, she must be in quite the hurry. Did she station even these two here, just in case?"
But looking upon such monsters, the Imperial Princess, far from being frightened, wore a smile of pure delight, as if she had encountered a long-lost friend. Indeed—how could Iris possibly have forgotten them? The mightiest familiars commanded by Bianca del Castana, the mage of the expedition force.
"It has been a while. Stymphalos. And Oried."
Iris grinned and greeted them, but unsurprisingly, no greeting came in return.
—Screeeeech—!
—Grraaaargh—!
A fearsome killing intent erupted from the bronze bird and the rocky giant. They had merely been ordered by their master to let no one pass through this road. Their master had urged them to avoid killing if possible, but the bronze bird and the rocky giant realized by instinct: the woman before their eyes was a monster—one who might devour them instead if they did not face her with everything they had.
And so, they committed their full power. In the next moment, a raging gale began tearing through the area. In the violent wind that denied the very survival of life, Chris felt his own body being crushed.
Rrrrrrumble—!
The rocky giant raised its colossal arm of solid stone. A fist larger than most rocky mountains came crashing down toward Iris. No human in this world could possibly retain their form after taking that fist—
"...This is a bit dangerous."
She had no choice. She had guessed that the other side retained memories, but she had not anticipated they would come at her with this level of seriousness. It seemed she, too, would have to reveal one of the cards she had been keeping hidden.
Iris's right hand gently wrapped around the hilt of her sword. Then she stepped her right foot slightly forward and lowered her upper body just a fraction. It was the first "stance" she had taken since the fighting began.
She closed her eyes. For what she intended to do now, sight was unnecessary. All that was needed was the firm will within her to reshape this world.
"...Hah."
She drew a single deep breath. She focused her mind. She straightened the blade of the sword that existed within her heart. The flow of will connecting heaven and earth was converging upon a single human being.
Cut. That was what she resolved to do. That was the declaration of will she intended to make real in this very moment.
The next instant, Iris's eyes flashed open. A slash line was drawn across the empty air.
Click—
After that, she sheathed her sword with an utterly unbothered expression. Because everything was already over.
"....."
It was a sight as if time itself had frozen. Outwardly, nothing had changed. The monstrous bird that had summoned the gale, the giant that had shaken the very earth—both were utterly motionless, as though stopped in place.
Crack—
At last, time tilted. Space warped, and the sound of fracturing followed. And—
BOOM!
Everything within the arc of her sword's trajectory was cut. The wolves, the bronze bird, the colossal rocky giant—all of them, cut. Even the mountain in the distance was cleaved in two. At the end of it, even the sky itself was split apart.
Rrrrrrumble...
As the mountain split into two, an immense shockwave swept through the surroundings. It was a scene of majestic destruction, almost impossible to believe had been brought about by the power of a single human being.
"...Th-this can't be..."
Chris stared at the Imperial Princess, his jaw dropping before he knew it. He simply could not believe it. He had long known that the Imperial Princess he was tasked with guarding was far stronger than himself, but he had never imagined she concealed this level of power.
"Ha... ah..."
Yet Iris, who had wrought this destruction, only gazed at her own trembling right arm with an unsatisfied expression.
Her body was not yet complete. What she had just done was nothing more than forcibly manifesting that result using her enlightenment from ten years in the future as a stepping stone. In exchange for that single slash, she realized that every muscle in her right arm had been severed.
"...Ngh."
Her right arm was not the only thing broken. She wiped her mouth and found blood on her hand. It seemed her body from ten years ago was far more fragile than she had thought.
"...Haah, goddamn it..."
A curse finally burst from the lips of the well-bred Imperial Princess. Just a little farther and she could have reached House Castana—the fact that she had been caught off guard and held up in a place like this was driving her mad. At this rate, she would have been dancing in the palm of Bianca del Castana's hand from start to finish.
But she could not give up here. There was truly so little time left until the engagement ceremony between Kain and that woman Bianca. If she collapsed here, in a place like this, for a reason like this—she might regret it for the rest of her life.
"...Kain."
Forcing her trembling legs to steady, she barely managed to take a single step forward. Her two eyes shone more brilliantly than they ever had before.
"Wait for me just a little longer. I'll be there soon..."