One-Hit Kill
"What an arrogant bastard!"
"We should kill him at once!"
"There are only six of them! Meanwhile, five thousand soldiers stand ready in the capital today. That's more than enough…!"
After King Friedrich departed, the palace erupted into chaos.
Not only had the demands been outrageous — that swaggering attitude of his was unforgivable. Killing him on the spot would not have been nearly enough.
There were only six of them. How could five thousand soldiers possibly fail to cut down six?
Serengeti. What do you make of this?
Amid the uproar, Marquis Weiser turned his head toward Serengeti.
She only shook her head, her expression rigid.
Even she — a Level 12, 1-Star Transcendent — had found herself unable to move freely under the presence of those she had just witnessed.
Hah. If Serengeti is reacting like that, the situation must be truly dangerous.
Marquis Weiser knew his daughter well. She was the sort who could never stand by in the face of injustice, the Pure White Knight who charged first no matter how strong the opponent. For Serengeti to openly shake her head meant only one thing: she could not even begin to gauge the enemy's strength.
Just how powerful were they?
Was this not the same Serengeti who, after fighting alongside Randolph, had grown so strong that she had virtually no equal left in the human realm?
"…If five knights must step forward tomorrow, who would be suitable? Are there any proper candidates?"
Seated upon the throne, the King of Balan pressed a hand to his forehead as he spoke.
When Saintess Seia had appeared, he had thought there might still be a way — yet King Friedrich had barely reacted to her presence at all. Who would have imagined that even a threat would fail to land?
At the sight of their weary king, the vassals only raised their voices higher.
"Your Majesty! Are you saying you will accept the duel?"
"Then that man will only look down on the Balan Kingdom even more!"
"We beg you to reconsider!"
The creases between the king's brows deepened further.
Reconsider?
Reconsider — meaning, think again?
"Have you all… truly lost the ability to think?"
As if he could bear no more of it, the King of Balan opened his mouth. The sight of them ranting, unable to master their own emotions, was unbearable.
"The Iron Kingdom already holds more than forty territories. It can field over five hundred knights at a moment's notice. Its soldiers number fifty thousand, all veterans tempered by endless war. Do any of you truly believe the Balan Kingdom holds even a single advantage over them?"
"Then King Friedrich is…"
"You must not know why the Mune Kingdom fell. They were in the same position as we are now."
"But isn't that just a rumor?"
The King of Balan shook his head.
The Mune Kingdom was the ill-fated nation destroyed by the Iron Kingdom — wiped out so thoroughly that not a single blade of grass, not a single soul, was left behind. The war had ended so swiftly it barely deserved the name, and almost no one knew how the kingdom had truly fallen.
But the King of Balan knew.
"King Friedrich went to the Mune Kingdom with five knights, and they too were offered a duel."
"Did they accept?"
"No. They attempted an ambush. And the next day, the Mune Kingdom was gone."
"…"
Silence fell over them all at once.
The Mune Kingdom had been roughly the same size as Balan. If a realm of that scale could be reduced to a wasteland and erased in a single day… there was no guarantee the Balan Kingdom would not meet the same fate.
The King of Balan was not a man who spoke carelessly. If he spoke with such certainty, it was the truth.
"So make your recommendations. Who among our knights should face them tomorrow? And in what order?"
"The first duel carries the weight of seizing the initiative. If we must choose one, then of course Battus — the finest knight in our kingdom — should step forward first, should he not?"
"Ah, Battus. He is truly reliable. Duke Scien."
The young man addressed as Duke Scien stepped forward. After the previous head of the house had been assassinated by Maxim — once called one of the Eight Heroes — this man had inherited the family.
Beside the duke, the knight Battus squared his shoulders and lifted his chin. A knight who contested the title of the kingdom's finest. No one could object to him.
"…Even so, would not Lady Serengeti be the better choice? Did the Pure White Knight not survive the Great Expedition and return?"
"Do not even speak of that expedition — the one that ended in defeat and slaughter. What great achievement is that supposed to be?"
There were such opinions, but the young Duke Scien cut them short with barbed words.
If his own knight went first and struck down one of King Friedrich's champions, his standing in the kingdom would only grow stronger. The disgrace of having been assassinated by the likes of Maxim would be washed clean. Above all, because the disaster had come from taking in Maxim — who had once numbered among the Eight Heroes — Duke Scien despised the very words "Great Expedition."
"Besides, I heard from my late father that Lady Serengeti returned from the Great Expedition as little more than a cripple. I question whether she can even display the strength of her prime."
"…Lady Serengeti has no such problems, Duke Scien."
Marquis Weiser shot back at once.
The Serengeti who had returned from the Great Expedition had been crippled — cursed by the Demon King, her consciousness gone. Just remembering that time made the marquis's face flush red with shame. He had nearly sold his own daughter, Serengeti, to the old Duke Scien. No matter how desperate the territory's finances, it was something he should never have done. If Randolph and Hudson had not appeared… even imagining it was horrifying.
The young Duke Scien frowned.
"Then are you saying Lady Serengeti is stronger than my Battus, Marquis Weiser?"
"Why do you think the Knight King chose Lady Serengeti rather than Sir Battus?"
"The Knight King? Knight King Wilhelm? Ah, yes — the Balan Kingdom once placed great hopes in him. But what was the result of trusting him? What did we have left? You yourself, Marquis, lost five hundred knights, did you not?"
The decisive reason for the Balan Kingdom's decline had been the Great Expedition, undertaken with the fate of the realm at stake. Marquis Weiser had lost the five hundred knights he had poured everything into training. The King of Balan and the majority of the nobility had all suffered bitter losses.
And yet it was not only loss.
But it had not been only loss. Through Knight King Wilhelm, the kingdom had reaped enormous gains. On a barren stretch of land that produced no resources of any kind, the only reason it could still be called a "paradise of knights" and draw in human talent at all was thanks to Wilhelm. Even now, many gifted individuals continued to flock to the kingdom under his lingering renown. And that was not all. He had also resolved countless problems that had long festered within the Balan Kingdom. If one simply weighed profit and loss, the kingdom had gained far more than it had lost — for this had originally been a weak nation mocked by every neighboring kingdom, the Mune Kingdom included.
Marquis Weiser's expression hardened further.
"Have you forgotten that the kingdom was able to prosper at all only because of the Knight King…"
"…Enough."
What could be more unsightly than internal strife with the enemy standing right before them? In the end, the King of Balan stepped in to mediate between the two.
"Battus will take the lead. Second will be my knight Abdullah. And third… Serengeti will do."
"…!"
Marquis Weiser went rigid, his body trembling. Across from him, the young Duke Scien looked at the marquis and Serengeti with a broad smile — as if he had known from the start that it would end this way.
Battus.
He was the strongest knight of House Scien, a master who had honed his sword until he had virtually no equal even across the entire kingdom. Once, his name had often been spoken in the same breath as the Pure White Knight Serengeti, held up as her equal.
I am stronger.
He could not accept it. A mere woman. Whether one looked at physical ability, or at the time and effort devoted to the sword, there was not a single point on which he fell short of Serengeti. Why Knight King Wilhelm had taken her on the Great Expedition instead of him was something Battus still could not understand.
Did he just need a woman at his side?
Outwardly he played the part of the pure and noble Knight King — but men like that were always the worst of all. More cunning, more impossible to read. If Wilhelm had taken him instead, the Great Expedition would never have collapsed so easily.
Today I will prove once and for all that I am the superior one.
The Pure White Knight? The Knight King? All of that was the past. After today, every soul in the kingdom would cry out his name — the three syllables of Battus — at the top of their lungs. He was not a man who had been pushed aside by some mere woman.
Hooo…
Thinking thus, Battus steadied his breath with his sword in hand. Everyone was watching. The king, the nobles, the soldiers. He would prove himself with overwhelming force.
"So the King of Balan's head is not merely decorative after all."
"…"
King Friedrich clapped once as he looked over the kingdom that had come out for the duel. Had they attempted an ambush, this place would already have been a sea of fire.
Then King Friedrich's eyes turned to Battus.
"But it seems he has no eye for talent. I expected him to send his strongest first…"
"Sir Battus is the strongest man in the kingdom."
"Is that so? Then I shall send my weakest knight. Shala."
Thud.
A slight figure in full plate armor stepped forward — the weakest among the five knights he had brought.
A woman?
Battus's expression hardened further. That build was a woman's no matter how one looked at it. The faintly protruding chest plate, the slender line of the neck visible through the gaps. Above all, the eyes. Those eyes, thick with allure, could never belong to a man.
Sending a mere woman out first… He's lost his mind.
Against him, of all people! Completely, thoroughly insane. A disappointment. It was King Friedrich who clearly had no eye for talent. Absurd — but all the better. Now he could show Serengeti beyond any doubt who stood above whom.
Battus raised his sword.
I have grown stronger.
Swaaaaah—!
A blue aura gathered along the blade.
"Th-that's Sword Qi!"
"Sir Battus has manifested Sword Qi!"
"Ooooooh—!"
At the vivid appearance of Sword Qi, the entire kingdom was thrown into an uproar. Sword Qi was the very proof of a true powerhouse — the most formidable weapon, usable only by a genuine master of the blade. And Battus had brought it forth.
"A blessing upon the kingdom!"
"If he can use Sword Qi… he can win!"
"Long live Sir Battus!"
Every voice rose as one. A smile touched the corner of Battus's mouth.
Go on. Cry out as loud as you like. My name!
At the reaction he had expected, Battus rolled both shoulders. Sword Qi users were rare even across the entire continent. When he glanced aside, even the King of Balan's eyes held a deep warmth.
A stage prepared for me.
A perfect stage in every way. All that remained was victory.
"Forgive me, but I'll be ending this quickly."
Battus settled into his stance. He took a step forward. She was a woman who would die soon enough — he had no intention of offering any courteous greeting.
Hwaaaaaang—!
He poured Sword Qi to its absolute limit and launched himself like a whirlwind, using the ground itself as a springboard.
You will die without even knowing how — but do not blame me for it.
A speed the eye could not follow. She would not even be able to react!
And then Battus's blade reached his opponent's neck.
At the same instant—
Thud.
Thud!
The sound of something falling.
"Wh…?"
"What is… wha…?"
"Why…?"
"What just happened?"
Horror filled the eyes of everyone who saw what had fallen. It was Battus who had attacked — that much was certain.
…So why was Battus's head rolling across the ground?