Raising a Neglected Holy Knight
“…I’m sorry.”
Laward hung his head low.
Amelia had said it not long ago. Lately Laward had been living in the training grounds to a degree no other student could match. He was always the first to arrive and the last to leave.
The undead Ester had blown apart with her F-Rank recovery magic. Back then Laward had been able to do nothing. He had simply been knocked flying. Bones broken, sprawled in an ugly heap. All he managed was to crawl across the floor and grab the undead’s ankle. In the end Blash had not recruited him into the knight order.
Yeah. You must have been the one who regretted it most. You must have been more furious than anyone.
Even protagonists sometimes… fall into despair. No. Precisely because they are protagonists, they despair.
After that, Laward must have thrown himself into training like a madman. He must have prayed the hardest and the longest of anyone. Humans only begin to pray toward the highest place once they have reached the lowest. Just as Blash always muttered like a habit.
On the day Laward had collapsed and wept, I knew he had hit the ground. Still, standing back up was what a protagonist did.
“I don’t think I can use it against people anymore…”
“You can’t use it against people? What does that mean?”
“You were holding back against me?”
Before Laward could even answer, Rebecca strode right up to him.
“What the hell is that…”
Her grip on the sword hilt tightened until it looked ready to burst.
“You think this is a game?”
She looked like she was barely restraining the urge to hurl the blade away.
“Don’t hold back. Come at me with everything. I’ll… fight properly too.”
“No, Rebecca. You stay as you are.”
“No. I’m sorry.”
Snap—!
Rebecca flicked her fingers. The instant the two digits rubbed together, a streak of light shot toward Laward.
“Kh!”
Deflecting it with an ordinary sword was impossible. Magic had to be met with magic. In the end he wrapped divine power around his blade and knocked Rebecca’s lightning aside.
Laward’s divine power was S-Rank, yet he still only sheathed the edge of the blade in a thin red glow. At first the form had been a matter of insufficient skill, focusing everything on the edge; now he no longer needed to, yet he kept the same shape. His orientation toward pure offense remained unchanged. His nature lingered like a scar.
Snap!
Lightning, then flame. A pillar of fire erupted from beneath Laward’s feet. Had he not rolled aside at once he would have been reduced to ash. Confirming the spot he had dodged to, Rebecca detonated two more pillars in rapid succession.
Boom! Whoom!
Laward tumbled this way and that, barely avoiding them, yet the hem of his clothes still caught and smoldered. Rebecca was reading the direction of his evasion and striking half a beat ahead of wherever he would throw himself. Just as when she fought with a sword, she was playing a game of positioning and psychology.
Because Laward had no habit of always dodging or blocking in one direction, he was not hit; but if he had kept fleeing the same way, the second pillar would have caught him cleanly. Of course, learning that he possessed no such habit was itself another piece of data for Rebecca.
Meanwhile—
Wuuung—
Laward had no choice but to raise a halo above his head and press forward. No. More precisely, he was pressing forward. From the moment his opponent began casting, he had been advancing little by little while evading Rebecca’s magic. Without her noticing, the distance kept shrinking. And now—
Bang!
Laward tore across the ground and thrust his sword. At that exact instant a fierce gale shoved him back. Stripped of the momentum of his charge, he was driven backward instead. Behind him—
KRA-BOOM!
A pillar of fire erupted, and another blast of wind whipped the flames into a raging vortex.
“Khrr…!”
The fire, larger and wilder than before, lunged at Laward. He drove his sword into the training-ground floor to anchor himself and forced his way forward. Then the wind vanished. Not even a breeze stirred. Silence.
Crack!
This time from above. A bolt of lightning aimed straight at the crown of his head.
Fwoosh—!
Laward abandoned his sword and rolled sideways. Rebecca, who had been waiting for precisely that moment, closed the distance in a flash and seized the blade planted in the floor.
“Finally in my hands.”
She swung Holiday.
Whoosh!
As Laward put distance between them, lightning struck the spot where he landed.
CRACK!
“Ghhhk!”
First solid hit. The bolt slammed into his body. Pitch-black smoke swallowed him.
The natural flow of sword and magic. He had forgotten that she had been aiming for a second chance from the very beginning. As Laward groaned in pain, Rebecca pressed the back of her hand to her forehead as well.
“Ugh…”
Her stance wavered slightly. Laward, for his part, spat acrid smoke from his mouth and fixed his gaze on her.
“You know… a lot of magic.”
“Hmm, who knows? Maybe there’s more? Around… eight thousand?”
“You’ve only used destructive magic so far. Do you know any defensive or recovery spells as well?”
“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re still being cocky…!”
“I hope you do.”
Wuuuung—
A halo was etched across Laward’s back. Not above his head—his back. Two halos spun slowly behind him. Laward’s unique magic. The rusty, iron-lump-like rings rotated with an ominous sound. The one that had been above his head was already gone.
“I developed this solely to defeat the undead.”
The moment the words left his mouth, both halos flared crimson. A familiar sensation. Yes—like the exhaust nozzles of a fighter jet heating up.
Kiiing—!
The ominous hum became a tremendous roar.
“Please be careful.”
As if giving a signal, Laward spoke.
“People don’t come back to life.”
KRAAAAAASH!
The two halos blasted beams of light behind him, adding thrust. Acceleration. By the time anyone realized what was happening, Laward was already in front of Rebecca. She cast a freezing defensive spell, but the mere approach of Laward—the shockwave generated by that immense speed—shattered the crystals encasing her body into glittering fragments that scattered across the training ground like broken glass.
Laward snatched the collar of her clothes mid-air and, the instant he landed, slammed her to the floor. Rebecca, barely managing to keep hold of the sword, desperately tried to move her hands, but Laward’s were faster. One of the halos behind him flipped like a coin and changed position. It floated above his forearm. Then, with the same roar as before, it heated to a furious red. Opposite the direction that had given him thrust from behind. This time the beam would fire the other way. Straight into Rebecca’s face.
…Ah. So that was it.
A magic he could use like a booster and also as a direct strike. Exactly the same as the F-Rank stun magic. The only magic I had ever taught Laward. At the same time, the absolute basic of the Holy Knights. Without my knowledge he had polished that F-Rank stun spell to its absolute limit and created this. Even F-Rank materials became a masterpiece when carved by an S-Rank hand.
Laward had sublimated the humiliation of that day’s defeat into the only weapon he possessed. He had stood up again. Solely to crush the undead. I could feel the power of the weapon born from that desperate extremity. I, too, had once poured research and failure into defeating a single enemy.
“Stop.”
Because I knew that time, I had no choice but to stop him.
I carried Rebecca in my arms and stopped by the infirmary. Not Infirmary One, not the practical training room—definitely Infirmary Two. The real infirmary.
“Oh my.”
The nurse spun her chair around with a bright smile. Her long golden hair swayed with the motion. When she turned with that playful expression, she was so beautiful I unconsciously held my breath. A mature, easygoing impression different from the heroines settled firmly into my eyes. Even when I played the game I had thought it an oddly mismatched combination. Golden hair and a pure-white coat were her personal colors.
“You’re the sponsor, aren’t you? I believe I saw you at the closing ceremony.”
Her face lit up as if she had just remembered.
“Yes. More importantly, please look at Rebecca.”
“Mm, first lay her on the bed.”
Akikira—the nurse with that ridiculous name—spoke calmly. She glanced back and forth between the unconscious Rebecca on the bed and Laward.
“And over there… is that Laward?”
“Ah, yes.”
Laward answered at once. “Laward-kun”… It was a strangely awkward form of address.
“Ah, I heard you pulled Laward-kun out of the slums and even got him a recommendation admission. I heard about it. How fascinating.”
She sent him a meaningful smile.
“That day I passed by there as well.”
In the game she was the one who had picked up Laward and raised him. In Lucia’s ending—Ending Six—the woman Laward called “Teacher” was none other than Akikira. “Teacher,” and “Eunsanim.” I never expected to face Akikira like this, but looking at each other with Laward between us felt strangely complicated.
“Well, I was just wandering around drunk and ended up there!”
That was exactly why, when I played the game, Akikira had never been my type among the teacher characters. Thirties. Her relaxed attitude made her seem mature, yet her face alone looked youthful. A figure that could be bluntly called “spectacular.” Golden hair and a doctor’s coat that, while not my taste—really not my taste—would certainly satisfy someone else’s. The reason I had wanted to romance Grace instead of Akikira was simply that this woman was a heavy drinker. Instant disqualification.
She took a pen from the front pocket of her coat, scribbled something, then looked back at Laward. She fixed her gaze squarely on the “Laward-kun” who, in this life, was a complete stranger to her.
“Be more careful from now on, Laward-kun. If you’d been even a little later, Rebecca could have been seriously hurt.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Apologize when Rebecca wakes up.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
“I told you you don’t need to apologize to me. Don’t push yourself too hard. No matter how soon the Joint Sports Festival is…”
Huh?
“Ah, you two weren’t sparring to prepare for that?”
We weren’t, but now that I’d heard it, it was a topic I couldn’t simply brush aside.
“You two can leave now.”
“Is Rebecca all right?”
“I’ll leave after I see Senpai wake up…”
“I’m going to take her clothes off, you know?”
…We quietly left at once.
Rattle— click!
The distinctive sliding door of the Academy closed with a solid sound, and Laward walked away with a gloomy expression. I, on the other hand, leaned against the wall of Infirmary Two and slowly closed my eyes.
“The Joint Sports Festival, huh…”
The main event of the second semester, where three schools gathered in one place to compete. Winning awarded a reward that randomly raised one stat rank by a single stage. It was about time to start preparing.
According to the game scenario, first-year Laward could never win the Joint Sports Festival. Just like the founder undead not long ago—an impossible goal within the scenario. The route was fixed: he would collapse miserably in his first year and only claim victory in his third. Fall, grow, stand up again. Because he was a protagonist who repeated that cycle.
But I had already overturned routes the game scenario declared impossible, more than once. I had turned Laward into a fanatic of the Goddess, blocked the forced event that saved Amelia, and used Ester to pulverize the first undead. Even if it wasn’t the orthodox route. There were always side paths. Steeper climbs than the main road, but ones that could reach the summit sooner.
And the magic Laward had developed on his own that I had just witnessed. Laward’s original. It might be possible. A route that shattered the forced scenario and won from the first year.
049.5 — What’s My Name?
“Rebecca, you can open your eyes now. They’re gone.”
“…Teacher.”
Rebecca cautiously opened her eyes and sat up.
“Thank goodness. You remember me. Still, let’s check first. Rebecca, what’s my name?”
“You’re Teacher Urarachacha.”
“It’s Akikira. Seeing you joke around like usual means your mind’s perfectly fine.”
“I was just pretending to sleep because it was embarrassing. I’m fine, so…”
“No.”
Thump—
Akikira gave Rebecca a light shove, sending her flopping back onto the bed.
“From the looks of it, you broke our promise again and used magic however you pleased.”
“……”
“Rebecca. I told you not to.”
When she scolded her in a stern voice, Rebecca remained silent for a long while.
“I’m the school nurse, but I’m also the guardian who got you into this academy. Everything is for your health.”
“…Yes.”
“Next time you might forget my face.”