The Knight's Oath (1)
Rest Town.
The city that stood guard at the heart of the Empire’s southern Windfield Great Diocese.
Two walls of unequal height: the outer wall that protected Rest Town, and the inner wall that divided it.
The ash-gray fortifications rose as solidly as a fortress, imposing and solemn in their majesty. Rest Town lay beneath the gaze of those grand walls.
True to its name—“the city of rest”—most who visited were adventurers mid-journey, merchants peddling wares from city to city, or entire caravan companies. The name alone would have drawn them, but more than that, its strategic position at the southern heartland kept Rest Town forever thronged with people.
“Hmm♪ Hmm♩ Hum-hum♪”
A woman stood proudly atop the outer wall, gazing down upon the city. The black cloak draped over her shoulders fluttered in the wind. The spider embroidery upon it seemed almost to move, as if it were a living spider.
“Hmm~♪”
A peaceful little hum. Her alluring face wore a mature smile.
“A city of rest, is it…”
The woman brushed her wind-tossed hair behind her ear. Her hair was of a strange color—jet black, so dark it seemed ready to swallow every light in the world.
“Whoever named it must have been a cruel person indeed.”
She caressed the hilt of the sword at her waist.
“Don’t you think so?”
The woman looking down on the city posed the question to the red-haired man approaching with heavy footsteps from behind.
“……”
The red-haired man kept a stony face and offered no reply.
“I’ll be hurt if you don’t answer. Agnian?”
She turned her head halfway, glancing at him. Emerald eyes. Curved into crescent moons of a smile, yet those eyes held a chilling coldness.
“As the Cult Leader wishes.”
“Isn’t it?”
The woman shrugged her shoulders.
“Look at those lively streets. Do you suppose they laugh and chatter knowing how this city was built?”
The city of rest, Rest Town. To raise it, the Empire had driven out the Flame Lizard Tribe that had long settled here. The tribe had resisted. To be told to leave the land they had lived on since before the Empire ever claimed the southern continent—how could they simply accept it? Brave warriors had risen to defend their home, yet before the Empire’s mighty army they had been no more than reeds toppled by the wind.
The Empire invented the pretext that the tribe was illegally occupying imperial territory and forcibly expelled them. They set fire to a settlement the size of a small city. Those who surrendered were shown the mercy of being accepted as imperial subjects; those who resisted were cut down with merciless cruelty.
“Who would ever know this city was built by grinding the corpses of the Flame Lizard Tribe into the earth?”
A crease formed between Agnian’s brows.
“And who would ever know that the descendants of that tribe still dream of revenge?”
The woman spun around with a graceful twirl and looked at Agnian. She smiled brightly, like a merchant closing a deal—so false it sent a chill down the spine.
“Did you handle the task I gave you?”
“I failed.”
“Failed?”
“Yes. An unexpected variable arose, and I failed.”
The woman tilted her head as if she had misheard and dug a finger in her ear.
“Is ‘failed’ the word one uses when an operation is completed successfully?”
“No.”
“Or is it the word for when something is finished cleanly?”
“That isn’t it either.”
Standing ramrod straight, Agnian spoke.
“I failed to eliminate the Saintess in the Night Sky Spring Forest. I apologize.”
Hands clasped behind her back, the woman stepped closer, bringing her face near his and smiling even more brightly.
“So what you’re saying is that even with that monster, you couldn’t handle a mere two people?”
“That is correct.”
The woman who had been smiling so widely gave a casual flick of her finger.
BOOM!
A powerful gravitational force yanked Agnian’s body down and slammed him into the ground. The floor caved in and trembled violently, rumbling as if an earthquake were confined to that very spot.
“Was there a knight order present?”
She lessened the intensity of the vibration and pressed a finger firmly against Agnian’s head.
“N-no, there wasn’t.”
Pinned flat to the ground, Agnian’s voice trembled. Even though the bone-crushing vibration had subsided, he could not rise, could not lift his head, and speaking was difficult because his vocal cords still shook.
“Then did the Seventh Saintess awaken again this time?”
“N-no.”
“Then what? Did my lovely little monster slit its own throat?”
“That isn’t it either. Ugh!”
When she put more force into the finger pressing his head, Agnian’s body was crushed even harder into the floor. It felt as if the entire atmosphere were bearing down on him.
“According to the information I have, the only ones heading to Windfield are the Seventh Saintess and the single priest attending her. Saying you failed the task I asked of you means you got beaten by that stupid Saintess who can’t even use her own power properly?”
Agnian clenched his teeth and nodded.
“Ha.”
The woman let out a hollow laugh.
“Make it make sense. That monster is the kind that takes two full knight companies just to barely bring down.”
She released the pressure of her finger on his head. The crushing weight lifted, and Agnian opened his mouth.
“It was an unexpected one.”
He recalled what he had seen through the monster’s eyes.
“The man traveling with her was a Holy Knight disguised as a priest.”
He had not carried a holy sword, nor had he used divine magic. Yet his movements were nothing a priest could produce. The stamina and reflexes to take the monster’s pursuit alone, the agile mind that adapted instantly to the terrain—he was unmistakably a Holy Knight. At the very least, one of the Holy Knights who protected the Grand Saintess at Miden Great Cathedral. Whether they were aware of the danger or had some other scheme, the Holy See had disguised a Holy Knight as a priest and attached him to the Seventh Saintess.
“Common sense says it makes no sense to leave a Saintess without any escort.”
“Hmm, and so?”
Agnian explained in detail what he had witnessed.
“The one acting as bait lured the monster’s pursuit alone all the way to the Giant’s Spring, then used the fact that the forest’s water becomes holy water when it reacts to divine power to finish the creature off. The final blow came from the Seventh Saintess. The moment she poured divine power into the lake, an explosion erupted.”
After listening for a long while, the woman looked down at Agnian. With the sun at her back, darkness veiled her face, and only her eyes glowed eerily.
“And so?”
“Pardon?”
“So while the monster was chasing that man, what did you do about the Saintess who was left alone?”
She could have been dealt with easily. It had been the perfect opportunity. A defenseless Saintess running alone through the forest was practically shouting, “Please catch me.”
“I apologize.”
There was no excuse. He had been so absorbed in watching the Holy Knight’s agile movements that he had never even thought of eliminating the Saintess.
“Tsk. Idiot.”
She clicked her tongue and glared at the back of Agnian’s head.
“Seeing how stupid the descendants are, I finally understand why the Flame Lizard Tribe lost their land.”
“……”
“A tribe of morons who only stare at what’s right in front of them.”
The woman fixed her gaze on the distance. At the end of her line of sight lay the street lined with stalls, where people chattered noisily.
“Some scholars claim the Empire’s massacre of the Flame Lizard Tribe was a great stain on imperial history, but they must all be half-educated fools. Just look at this idiot of a descendant and it’s obvious. The Empire didn’t wipe out the Flame Lizard Tribe because they wanted the land—they were peeling off a scab that hindered the Empire’s growth. Hmm, I could write a whole paper on this.”
Pinned by the crushing pressure, Agnian had no choice but to listen as she insulted his people.
“No, wait—the Empire was at fault too. They should have killed every last one instead of accepting them as citizens. They showed mercy and let them live, and now those survivors try to stab them in the back—and can’t even do that properly. People like that would have been better off vanishing forever into history. Don’t you think so?”
His tightly clenched fists trembling, Agnian forced the words out.
“I… I… d-don’t… th-think… that… at all…!”
A blood vessel in his neck burst, tearing the skin. Blood streamed down.
The woman flicked her finger and erased the force that had been crushing him.
“You don’t think so? Then what do you think?”
Agnian staggered to his feet, blood still flowing.
“Cough…! Th-the Flame Lizard Tribe is a tribe of brave warriors.”
“But their heads are completely empty.”
Agnian glared at her sharply.
“For the record, calling yourselves ‘brave’ is just a way of masturbating over your tribe’s painful history.”
“It is not.”
The woman shook her head as if he were pathetic.
“Did bravery protect your land?”
“……”
“What matters isn’t being brave—it’s being strong. You should have been a tribe of strong warriors.”
He could not refute her. Insulting as it was, her words were true. If they had been strong rather than merely brave, they would have driven off the imperial army and this land would still be the Flame Lizard Tribe’s home to this day. But they had been only brave and weak, so the tribe had fallen to the Empire.
“A warrior who is not brave can never become a strong warrior.”
In the end it was little more than a child’s stubbornness, yet Agnian met her gaze squarely.
“Heh… heheh. Is that so?”
A smile returned to the lips of the woman who had been expressionless.
“Then can our brave warrior prove that he can become a strong warrior?”
She flicked her fingers. A red orb shot out of her pocket and flew toward Agnian.
“Catch.”
Agnian caught the flying orb. It was hot. Just holding it felt as if his flesh would melt.
“I’m generous, so I’ll specially give you one more chance.”
She stretched out a finger and pointed toward the Night Sky Spring Forest behind them.
“If you failed to deal with her, the Saintess will come to Rest Town. It’s inevitable.”
The finger pointing at the forest now pointed at the orb in Agnian’s hand.
“Use that power and finish the job properly. The Saintess, of course—and that Holy Knight as well. Burn them to charcoal and deal a heavy blow to the Holy See that brainwashes people, and to that Empire you hate so much. And…”
Her finger pointed at the lively Rest Town.
“Take it back. Burn every last one of those villains occupying your tribe’s land to the ground.”
She gathered her wind-fluttering cloak and smiled brightly.
“So what’s your answer?”
What was there to hesitate over? For the Flame Lizard Tribe to rise again, he would do anything. That was why he had joined the Demon Cult. He cared nothing for the Demon King’s resurrection; he needed power. He needed a flame as fiercely hot as the intense heat now clenched in his hand.
Agnian narrowed his eyes and answered firmly.
“I will keep it in mind.”
“Heheh, I like that positive answer very much.”
The woman patted Agnian’s backside.
“I just hope the results are as positive as the answer.”
“This time I will succeed.”
“Yes, you must. But if by any chance you fail again…”
Still patting his backside as if offering praise, she leaned in and whispered low into Agnian’s ear.
“Then stick a knife in your own throat and die. Got it?”
The chilling voice slid down Agnian’s spine. For an instant the red orb in his hand felt cold enough to freeze.
“Your answer?”
“Understood.”
The woman chuckled and clapped him on the shoulder.
Click-clack, click-clack.
With the sound of her heels, she perched on the edge of the outer wall.
“I’ll be waiting for good news, then.”
As if lying down on a bed, she reclined her body over the wall. Her form tilted slowly, then dropped straight down. When Agnian looked below, she was gone without a trace.
Agnian gazed down at Rest Town and clenched the red orb tightly.
Sizzle.
The heat of the orb seared his flesh, sending up thin wisps of smoke. The smell of burning skin pricked his nose. Droplets of blood beaded between his fingers and dripped to the ground.
Crunch.
Agnian ground his molars. His crimson eyes blazed with fury.
“I swear as a warrior. I will bring despair upon the Empire, no matter what.”