A Greatsword Knight Is Romance

A greatsword-wielding female knight is romance. A greatsword female knight is romance itself. A greatsword female knight is the ideal. What do you mean? It means you're a heretic! Seize that heretic!

As people live their lives, they discover all sorts of tastes. Some like bunny girls, others prefer voluptuous milfs, and the guy who was panting about liking little kids—I kindly escorted him straight to the police station.

"Pedophiles deserve to die. Damn right!"

The conversation took a weird detour there, but the point is that people have all kinds of preferences.

"So a big-breasted greatsword female knight is a perfectly normal taste!"

If you refute it, that just proves me right. Anyway, that's how it is. But even someone like me ran into a huge problem. Just to be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠clear, it's not that kind of erotic problem. Lower your ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠heads, everyone.

"I woke up and now I'm a big-breasted greatsword knight."

To be precise, it was more like I'd remembered my past life.

"Does my taste from the previous life affect the next one too?!"

Just how rock-solid were my preferences in my past life that they influenced even my reincarnation? It was a terrifying situation even to me.

"But I like greatsword female knights. I never said I wanted to become one."

Is this what they call a successful fanboy or something?

"Hmm, it's heavy."

I picked up the crude greatsword lying beside the bed. The blade, which boasted a considerable size, easily weighed over twenty kilograms.

Whoosh~! Whoosh~!

Despite its ridiculous weight, swinging it posed no problem. Well, that made sense. In this life, the amount of time I'd spent training to wield a greatsword was nothing to scoff at.

"Are the memories merging?"

The sudden awakening from my past life sorted out my jumbled head, and my memories reorganized themselves.

Jiggle.

"First, I should put on some clothes."

A woman swinging a greatsword in nothing but her underwear was a rather unsightly sight. I pulled clothes, underwear, chainmail, and a breastplate out of my luggage.

In my newly reorganized memories, today's task floated to the surface.

The women of the village couldn't gather medicinal herbs because of the pack that had taken up residence in the nearby forest, so they'd requested a swift extermination. Today was the day of that subjugation.

"Gnolls, huh."

Along with goblins, they were one of the representative monsters in RPGs. Individually weak, but they always moved in groups, which made them a real headache.

"They said it was one group, so there probably aren't that many."

I estimated around thirty at most. That much I could handle alone.

"Before the greatsword, all are equal."

Weight and speed are power. Those pathetic gnolls could never stop my greatsword.

"Oh, we're finally going gnoll hunting?"

When I descended the inn stairs, the owner at the counter greeted me warmly.

"I've rested enough from the journey, so now it's time to work."

"Please finish it quickly. Those bastards kept me from getting the herbs I need for the soup. That's the secret to our inn's soup, you know."

"Is it okay to just tell me that? What if someone overhears?"

"What does it matter? Even if they know the ingredients, they won't know how to make it."

His overflowing confidence and thick-skinned attitude were impressive.

"You eating before you go?"

"I'll eat after I'm done. Eating before a fight makes my stomach feel weird."

It was the same as how exercising on a full stomach was rough—combat worked the same way.

"Take care, then."

With the innkeeper's farewell, I left the village.

"It was a forest five kilometers east of the village, right?"

It was quite a distance. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Five kilometers might sound short, but it wasn't. For an ordinary person on foot, just getting there would take over an hour.

"Why did the gnolls settle in that forest? They usually make their homes in caves or mines, not forests."

Canine animals and monsters tended to dig burrows or inhabit natural caves. Gnolls were monsters, but since they were canine, most of them settled in caves.

"I'll find out when I get there."

I walked slowly, warily eyeing the entrance of the distant forest. The place I was looking at was the forest from the request. It wasn't particularly large and had no dangerous animals or monsters, so it was a nameless forest. Right now it was simply serving as a flimsy shield for the gnolls.

"Good thing I only wore the breastplate."

Armor was nice, but the noise was a clear downside. Even with just the breastplate, it was still borderline.

"The wind… is blowing from the east. Lucky me."

Gnolls had keen noses. Once they caught a whiff of human scent nearby, they immediately went on high alert. Their hearing was good too, but there was nothing I could do about that. I simply had to endure it.

"Looks like I haven't been detected yet."

When I reached the forest entrance, I steadied myself and climbed a tree. I moved slowly, traveling from tree to tree.

Gnolls didn't know how to climb trees despite being canine.

"Other canine animals climb just fine, though."

That was why the standard way to hunt gnolls was to shoot arrows at them from the treetops.

"Found them."

After traveling between the trees for a few minutes, I spotted the pack.

"Roughly forty… Their equipment is a total mess."

Only a few carried proper weapons. At most ten. Several injured ones were visible too, making the whole group look like routed soldiers.

"Are they really remnants from a lost battle?"

It happened sometimes—defeated monsters driven out of their territory who settled somewhere else. Those types had nothing to lose, so they caused trouble for the surrounding area. These guys were probably the same.

"You'd be better off staying quiet in the forest. Why cause a ruckus?"

I dropped from above a gnoll standing guard and crushed it with my greatsword.

"Kek!"

The combined force of my weight, the greatsword's weight, and the momentum of the fall snapped the gnoll's neck in a single blow.

"Next!"

I slashed the neck of the panicked gnoll beside it. The neck was pulverized rather than cleanly severed, and blood gushed out like a fountain, staining the ground.

"Not a single one of you is leaving here alive today."

The only good monster is a dead monster. Accept your deaths obediently.

As I rampaged like a berserker, carving through the gnolls, a sound that made me doubt my ears rang out.

I returned to the cozy inn room and sat on the bed, calming my trembling heart.

"I'm sure I heard the status window opening in my ears."

With a mix of excitement and embarrassment, I thought to myself.

Status window.

Fortunately it wasn't my delusion. I'd even wondered for a second if I'd gone crazy.

"Why are all my stats 1? And why is the trait description so snarky?"

All the effort I'd put in until now only amounted to 1? I got angry for a second but held it in.

"Maybe my actual physical ability and the status window stats are applied separately."

Since I had three remaining stat points anyway, I decided to spend them.

"Should I raise them evenly?"

I increased every stat by one.

Crack!

"Ugh!"

The moment I raised the stats, intense pain shot through my body and a scream slipped out.

"That surprised me."

It was only momentary pain so it wasn't a big problem, but it still felt terrible.

I stood up and checked my body's condition.

"Amazing."

This time the surprise was for a completely different reason.

"My strength doubled instantly."

It felt like my muscle strength, agility, and durability had all doubled.

"It's light."

The greatsword that used to feel so heavy now felt like an ordinary longsword.

"This is the power of the status window."

Now I understood why so many novels sang its praises. What a ridiculous ability.

"As for mental stats… honestly, I can't really tell."

Unlike the physical stats that had given me such a surprise, I couldn't sense any change with the mental stats. There had to be some difference, though…

"I can't tell with aura either."

I did feel my whole body grow warm for a moment, but it was instantaneous. The pain made it hard to be sure.

"No point looking at traits. Next is the inventory, I guess."

Ding!

A transparent hologram different from the status window appeared before my eyes.

"A hundred slots? That's pretty generous."

The inventory capacity was one hundred slots. I had no idea how it calculated weight and size, but it was still an enormous advantage.

In a world crawling with thieves, an inventory was basically an invincible safe.

"Let's run some tests."

I performed all sorts of experiments on the inventory. How much weight and size one slot could hold, whether time flowed inside it, and so on.

The results were even more shocking than I'd expected.

"Same items have no ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠quantity limit, and time doesn't flow inside."

It wasn't restricted by size or weight either.

"Isn't the inventory even more broken than the status window?"

With an inventory like this, becoming a merchant tycoon wouldn't be a dream. Of course, my goal was to become a greatsword knight.

"Let's store all the luggage I need."

I immediately shoved the heavy baggage I'd always carried around into the inventory. Now I wouldn't have to fear thieves anymore.

'Still, I might draw suspicion, so I should carry a small bag with me.'

The people in this damn medieval fantasy world were all terminal cases of paranoia. It was better not to give them any excuses than to do something that would get me caught.

'That story would change once I become a knight, though.'

A knight with real martial prowess was an existence even high nobles couldn't treat lightly. Anyway, long live knights.