Me? Go to the North? Why?
Me. The North. Why would I go there.
Ikesia Territory.
A land ruled by the Sahar Barony, in the desert reaches of the kingdom's southwest.
"Hold the line! Hold it, damn you!"
A long, wavering howl tore across the air.
A territory that had always been safer and quieter than anywhere else in the kingdom was now under assault by a horde of monsters.
"These insane things! How are there so many of them?"
"One's climbing up on the left! Look, will you!"
Amid the desperate struggle of the West Wind Knights—the only knightly order the family possessed—and their soldiers, a voice roared from atop the walls.
"The gate! Defend the gate!"
Kerel Sahar, Knight Commander, shouting himself hoarse from the battlements, was thinking.
Why are monsters attacking out of nowhere?
In the territory's long history, this place had almost never been attacked. It was far from any border, and no monsters lived nearby. Endless wasteland stretched out in every direction, leaving the land with little strategic or economic value. If this place ever fell, you could safely assume the rest of the kingdom had already been overrun.
"…Damn it all."
And that was exactly why Ikesia's defenses were so lax. A wall barely four meters tall. Not even a moat. The soldiers' training fell far short of what you'd find in the north or the kingdom's heartland—because there had never been any need to fight.
How did it come to this?
For decades—no, for over a century—there hadn't been so much as a single large-scale monster raid. This was a land with few monsters to begin with, and on top of that, there had been that black-haired mercenary who all but exterminated the monsters of the west.
"But then why, in the name of—!"
The monsters attacking Ikesia were in a completely different class from anything he'd seen here before—in strength, in numbers, in sheer scale. Each and every one of them would take several soldiers just to handle.
"Hold them! Don't let them climb the walls!"
"Over there! Rally over there!"
The knights of the West Wind Knights and their soldiers were desperately hurling the monsters back down. But—
"There are too many, Commander!"
"We have to give up the wall! Fall back to the inner keep—!"
Their numbers were simply too great for men softened by peace. Kerel clenched his teeth as he surveyed the battlefield from atop the wall.
"No, we hold the wall—!"
Just as he raised his voice—
A deafening cry rolled across the land, and Kerel's face went rigid. It was loud enough that the entire wall seemed to shudder.
"……"
The soldiers froze. Kerel too lifted his head.
…No. It can't be.
Beyond the drifting haze of sand, something was walking toward them.
The howl rose again, and three monsters came into view—thick-bodied things with yellowed hide, built like ogres. Only slightly taller than a grown man. And at the center of each face, a single hollow, pitch-black eye.
"A… Sand Howler?"
Kerel's voice trembled. He should have recognized it far sooner. Had he lived in peace so long that his instincts had dulled?
A Grade 4 monster. A Sand Howler. To face a Grade 4, you needed at minimum a knight commander—or the full strength of an entire knight order.
And yet—
"…Three of them?"
The color drained from Kerel's face. Three knight-commander-class monsters. He wasn't confident he could handle even one of them.
He bore the title of Knight Commander, yes. But he was no knight commander sworn in by the crown. He was nothing more than a seasoned Sword User who'd climbed the ranks as a regular knight—a man of a modest house who, being of baron's blood, had been handed the title almost like a promotion within the territorial garrison.
A fight where the odds of dying crushed the odds of winning. Against three such creatures. And one of them looked even larger than the others.
"…All units, retreat! Into the inner keep!"
Kerel shouted.
"But the wall—!"
"We can't hold it anyway! Move, now!"
The soldiers looked at one another, but one by one, they began pulling back. In that instant, the great beasts howled again.
Their bodies began to change. With a low, grinding groan, muscle swelled and bone twisted.
"…Hah."
The creatures, barely man-sized moments ago, were swelling with terrifying speed. Three bodies now well past four meters tall—and one of them far larger than the rest. Tall enough to look down over the wall.
"Damn it all…!"
By any rough estimate, a creature that could stand shoulder to shoulder with a Grade 3.
"Everyone into the inner keep, now! No—wait."
He corrected himself in a rush.
"Tell the Lord! We must abandon the territory!"
Kerel ground his teeth. One soldier wheeled around and sprinted away. His adjutant beside him spoke urgently.
"Commander! At the speed those things move, we'll be caught even if we leave the territory!"
Unlike the sluggish Sand Howlers, many of the monsters here were far faster than a human. Escorting every last resident while fleeing was impossible. But fighting was out of the question too.
"…Damn it all. To the keep! Full retreat!"
The soldiers abandoned their attempt to hold the monsters and began descending from the wall. The residents were already being funneled into the inner keep.
Kerel flicked the blood from his blade and positioned himself at the rear of the retreating column.
"Go! I'll cover your backs!"
Just as he moved to block the pursuing monsters—
A thunderous boom. The earth quaked. Another boom. The vibration was strong enough that the gate itself visibly rattled.
"The gate's breaking!"
Someone cried out, and the soldiers ran. But the sound that followed was nothing like what they expected. Not the sound of a gate collapsing. Kerel, looking back, felt his eyes go wide. A line was spreading along the stone wall.
"This is… this is insane…!"
"Run! Move, move!"
The massive wall collapsed in its entirety, and beyond the ruin, yellow monstrosities emerged. Colossal arms. Colossal legs. And one hollow black eye apiece.
"……"
Even profanity failed him. …They're too strong. No—the wall was simply too weak. A modest territory that had never known war, never known a great monster raid. And monsters far too powerful for it. The outcome was obvious.
The wall had never stood a chance.
"To the inner keep!"
Kerel shouted again. Most of the residents were already fleeing toward the keep, and the knights and soldiers followed behind them, cutting down whatever fast-moving monsters they could catch.
But the booms from behind kept coming, closer and closer. Kerel clenched his teeth.
"…It's no use."
He knew the inner keep was sturdier than the outer wall. But there was no way it would hold against that. It was obvious the keep would fall too.
Then—
"Commander!"
The soldier he'd sent to the lord came running back.
"Simon! What did the Lord say?"
"He says to hold out in the inner keep!"
"…What?"
Kerel's eyes went wide.
"No! It'll come down in minutes!"
Desperate, he began running for the inner keep. What in the world is the Lord thinking—!
A scream rang out, and his head snapped toward it.
"Help us!"
"Aaaagh!"
Kerel turned. A colossal body blotted out the sky, a monstrous howl spilling from its bulk. Its sheer size made it slow, of course—but the soldiers weaving between residents to shield them were even slower.
"The left side's open! Block it!"
Equipment in disarray, formation shattered—the soldiers and residents were chaos itself. Another creature seized the opening and closed in, and the residents found themselves hemmed between two towering bodies.
"Damn it!"
Kerel charged, sword raised. I can't win. He knew that. Even one of these things alone would likely kill him. And still—
"Get out of my way! Here I come!"
Kerel hurled himself at it. The Sand Howler's gaze turned to him. His sword bit into its arm—not deep. He gritted his teeth and twisted his body away.
"I'll draw it off!"
He had to pull it away from the residents. That alone he had to accomplish.
"Over here!"
The Sand Howler roared, and Kerel backed away. And then—
"…!"
An enormous shadow fell over him. He tensed his legs and threw himself aside, but his balance had broken, and he couldn't escape the massive hand.
His body was seized with a crushing grip, and he heard his own bones grind.
"Kgh—!"
The Sand Howler's fist clamped around Kerel's body like it meant to burst him apart. Two of them really was too much—! As the pressure on his torso intensified, crushing him inch by inch, a scream tore from his throat.
"Khaah…!"
His bones creaked. He could barely breathe. Is this how I die—?
Then, the Sand Howler's black eye moved. That hollow, utterly black eye—and across it, a single line was drawn. A thread of dark light, blacker than the pupil itself. The line sliced vertically through the inside of that eye. And then—
From the Sand Howler's forehead, down through its neck, through its torso, all the way to its groin—a slash. A jet-black, ink-dark aura bloomed upward.
"……?"
The Sand Howler's body split apart. The colossal frame divided in two and collapsed on either side of him with a thunderous crash. Kerel's body fell to the ground as well.
"Kgh…!"
Dropped along with the collapsing half-carcass, Kerel coughed up blood. …What in the world just happened?
He raised his head. And found himself face to face with a man's back.
"…Y-you. Who are you?"
Jet-black hair. And behind it, gleaming black armor. Without a word, the man launched himself at the remaining Sand Howler.
The giant's fist swung down—but the man didn't dodge. D-dangerous—! Silently, the man swung a longsword wreathed in rising black haze. The instant blade met fist—
The dark slash scattered, cleaving the Sand Howler's fist and body clean through, sideways.
"…Tch."
A light click of the tongue.
"…Is that all you've got?"
The beast's massive upper body slid off its lower half and crashed to the ground.
"…Hah."
His mind gone utterly white, Kerel could only stare, dazed, at the man's back.
"…Is that all you've got?"
Rian shook off his sword, thinking.
…About five days?
He looked down at the bisected half of the Sand Howler and let out a small sigh.
A literally measly payout.
Five days. That was the entire extension to his lifespan.
"……"
Rian stared at the enormous carcass for a while, lost in thought.
'Viscount Rian is hereby slated for appointment as Northern Margrave.'
'Commander, if you go north, won't there be twenty times more monsters?'
'…And how much longer do you have to live?'
"Tch."
Rian shook his sword clean again, irritation sharpening his voice.
"Me. The North. Why would I go."
His sword swings alone had kicked up clouds of dust. He exhaled heavily and looked back at the carcass.
"This one's about…"
…decent enough to pass for a Grade 3, isn't it?
The Sand Howler. By the kingdom's classification system, which ranked monsters by danger level, it fell at Grade 4. A Grade 6 monster could be handled by several grown men. A Grade 5 required at least multiple knights. A Grade 4 took a full knight commander. And a Grade 3 demanded something rarer still—a powerhouse of Sword Expert caliber.
If the matchup hadn't been so favorable for me…
Rian flicked the blood from his blade as he thought. The Sand Howler's strength was considerable. But its body itself wasn't especially durable, and it was slow—that was the only reason he'd been able to cut it down in a single stroke. Against a comparable monster with a worse matchup, it would have taken him several minutes.
Rian turned around. There stood the man who'd been clamped in the Sand Howler's fist moments ago—a middle-aged knight, frozen in disbelief, kneeling and staring at him. For a knight of a minor barony, he seemed reasonably skilled.
If I want to understand the situation, he's the one to ask.
Rian walked toward him and spoke.
"You the Knight Commander?"
The man lifted his head.
"What's the situat—"
"Du…"
A trembling voice spilled from the middle-aged man's lips.
"Duke of the North…?"
"……"
Rian's eyes narrowed.