Arrest (2)
Arrest (2)
"A knight is dead!"
"The Princess has fallen!"
"An arrow came flying! It's an ambush!"
"Wait! Stop!"
"The Grand Archduchess is in on it too! They're all in cahoots!"
"Arrest them!"
"Kill them!"
The chaos intensified as the knight fell to my arrow.
This was a level of panic the Royal Knights would never normally display.
Such chaos could only have occurred if someone had deliberately orchestrated it.
The instigator's objective had been only half achieved.
The Princess had fallen to the sword swung by a knight.
The other knight's sword, aimed at the Grand Archduchess, had bounced off the mana barrier deployed around her.
Though the mana barrier shattered at the same time, the Grand Archduchess managed to save her life.
But the Princess couldn't dodge the blade.
My arrow had pierced the knight's plate armor and impaled his heart as he tried to kill the Princess.
Yet it couldn't completely halt the momentum of his swing.
The sword came down, and the Princess collapsed onto the ground.
The Grand Archduchess wasn't completely out of danger either.
The knight kept attacking. Her mana barrier was already broken, and there was no time to use another artifact.
Just then, Balea moved.
Thud.
As she stomped her foot, the ground surged upward.
As she spread her hands, the garden trees uprooted themselves.
"The trees are moving! It's a monster!"
"It's not a monster! It's an ability!"
They were indeed the Royal Knights. They instantly deduced the cause and responded.
They broke apart the surging ground and slashed at the branches and roots.
While the other knights cleared the surroundings, the knight who had attacked the Grand Archduchess cut through the blocking branches and prepared to attack again.
But I was already standing behind the tree.
I swung my sword at the knight visible behind the severed trunk.
Slash.
The knight's head was severed.
Stunned by my decisive strike, the knight giving orders stared at me in shock.
"Treason! He killed a Royal Knight!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs, pointing at me.
The flustered knights turned to look at me in shock.
Becoming a traitor just for killing one knight, huh?
Honestly, by this point, it didn't really matter, but I shouted back just as loudly.
"That knight tried to kill the Princess and the Grand Archduchess! I merely stopped him to protect the Grand Archduchess!"
The knights who were about to charge flinched and stopped in their tracks.
Behind me stood the Grand Archduchess, and a few paces away lay the collapsed Princess.
Once they came to their senses, they seemed to realize my words weren't wrong after all.
Fortunately, the Princess was still alive.
Without turning my head, I scanned our surroundings with my senses.
Balea was holding the knights back with her ability, while Joachim was surrounded by knights.
That left Mirisa.
"Mirisa! Quickly, give the Princess a potion!"
I barked the order to Mirisa at the top of my voice.
"Ah, y-yes!"
Though paralyzed with fear by the sudden chaos, she was still a talented student at the Royal Academy.
Snapping back to her senses, Mirisa ran over to the Princess.
Through my senses, I could feel her pull out an emergency potion—one she had previously distributed to our team members—and feed it to the Princess.
I hadn't been able to perceive human actions so accurately before, but at some point, my senses seemed to have grown sharper.
"Our comrade is dead! Attack at once! What are you doing!"
The man who appeared to be the Senior Knight leading them kept roaring, but the other knights were at a loss as to what to do.
Fortunately, it didn't seem that every knight in the order was part of the plot to kill the Princess and the Grand Archduchess.
Even if the Royal Knights were rotten, there was no way all of them were complicit in assassinating the Princess and the Grand Archduchess.
I'd shouted back with exactly that in mind, and fortunately, it worked.
Besides the two dead knights and the Senior Knight shouting orders, there might have been more conspirators, but they didn't step forward for now.
That was likely because they had seen me kill a knight with a single strike.
"The Princess's injury... That's right, she was struck by a flying arrow! The knight was hit by the arrow while trying to shield her!"
For someone shouting in excitement, the Senior Knight was surprisingly quick at making up a story on the fly.
"Knight Arnin was merely cutting down the tree blocking his way to protect the Grand Archduchess! And this fellow killed him!"
It was a fairly plausible lie, but unfortunately, I wasn't the only one standing here.
"That knight attempted to kill me. I can testify to that."
The Grand Archduchess behind me refuted the Senior Knight's claims clearly and distinctly.
The Senior Knight's words cut off abruptly.
Silence fell over the area.
At a loss for words, the Senior Knight looked around for a moment, then let out a sigh.
The knights who had hesitated at the Grand Archduchess's declaration were all looking to him.
"Since Your Grace says so, there is nothing I can do here. We shall determine right from wrong once we return to the Royal Palace."
He wasn't admitting he'd been wrong; he was simply saying he wouldn't discuss it further here.
Though he was only deferring the matter, that was enough to bring the volatile standoff to a halt.
I felt relieved, too.
Given the situation, it seemed unlikely they would try to kill the Princess and the Grand Archduchess again.
As I breathed an inward sigh of relief, the surroundings returned to normal.
Balea had withdrawn her ability.
The Princess's labored breathing calmed down as well. Though her injury was severe, her life didn't seem to be in immediate danger.
Just as things seemed to have finally settled down, the Senior Knight opened his mouth once more.
"But knights have died. I ask that you no longer block our forced summon."
This entire mess had broken out precisely while they were carrying out the forced summon.
And now he was saying they would proceed with it again.
"No, that is..."
The Grand Archduchess attempted to protest, but this time Joachim stepped forward.
"I will go. I don't know why such a misunderstanding occurred, but the Carlos Kingdom surely wouldn't recklessly kill an exchange student from the Empire."
He unsheathed the sword at his waist, tossed it onto the ground, and raised both hands.
Our teammates sighed at Joachim's surrender, but the Senior Knight didn't seem satisfied with taking Joachim alone.
"There is one more person to be brought in."
He raised his sword and pointed it at me.
"The one who killed a Royal Knight must also be detained. The arrow that killed the other knight came from his direction as well. Whatever claims of self-defense the Grand Archduchess made can be argued in court."
The Senior Knight gritted his teeth as he glared at me. It looked like he wanted to finish me off no matter what.
At the Senior Knight's words, the Grand Archduchess's expression darkened.
And understandably so—it wouldn't be easy for me to be acquitted at trial.
I had slain a Royal Knight right in front of the other knights.
On top of that, if they found the discarded crossbow, the number of knights I had killed would definitely increase by one.
With the Princess unconscious, there was virtually no way to defend me.
Joachim had been cornered into being arrested, and amid all this, the Princess and the Grand Archduchess had nearly been assassinated.
This had been engineered at least by the high command of their faction. There was no way they would leave me alone after I ruined their plot.
If the Princess regained consciousness and spoke up in my defense, there might be a chance of release, but in her current state, it was impossible to tell when she would wake up.
Those bastards might rush through a quick trial and cut off my head immediately.
The Grand Archduchess whispered in a low voice.
"Since my title is tied to the Duchy, my testimony might not carry much weight in court."
My only witnesses were the team members standing here.
But Joachim was no use in that regard; the Princess was unconscious, Mirisa was a commoner, and Balea was the daughter of a deceased baron.
Choosing team members with no ties to politics had led to this exact outcome.
It was painfully obvious how things would turn out if I were arrested here.
If I was lucky, I'd rot in prison for several years or more; at worst, my neck would be hanging from a noose.
I had no intention of waiting around for that.
From the moment I fired that first arrow, I had already given up on continuing this life.
Killing a Royal Knight right in front of the Knights Order—I never entertained the naive thought that I would emerge unscathed.
I had no desire to watch the Princess or the Grand Archduchess die, and there had been no other way to stop it than to kill the Royal Knight.
In the end, I had no choice but to forfeit this life.
'Was this why it asked me if I wanted to create a Save Point when I left the capital?'
Because of an ominous gut feeling, I had declined to set one back then. Thinking about it now, I'd made the right call.
I looked back at my team members.
The Grand Archduchess and Mirisa were looking at me with worry; Joachim was gritting his teeth; and Balea was staring at me with a smirk.
And finally, Princess Aisha was cradled in Mirisa's arms.
I etched their figures into my mind.
Their appearance at this exact moment would soon be nothing but a memory.
"Drop your sword. You're coming with us along with that Imperial scum!"
The knight shouted, but I did not let go of my blade.
I was prepared to die, but I couldn't just die meekly.
There were still things I had to do before dying.
I shouted, infusing my voice with a dense surge of mana.
"Marquis Pisen, are you watching? If you are there, I believe it's time for you to step out!"
My team members flinched at my words.
It seemed they'd only just realized how strange the situation was.
This was the inner courtyard of the Marquis's estate.
The Marquis's honored guests—the Princess and the Grand Archduchess—were locked in a standoff with the Royal Knights right in his courtyard, yet the master of the house hadn't even shown his face.
It was utterly unthinkable.
If he had made a prior arrangement with one side, it might make sense, but now that things had gone awry, the host had to step out.
A moment later, the Marquis emerged from the doorway accompanied by his butler.
Perhaps out of embarrassment, he kept his eyes averted from the Grand Archduchess.
Instead, he addressed me first.
"You were supposed to be sparring at the training ground..."
"The Knight Commander stepped aside for me."
"Don't tell me Sergio refused my orders?"
"No. I made him step aside."
"Could it be..."
The Marquis studied me once more.
Before he could utter another word, I spoke up first.
"Since such a disgraceful incident has taken place on your estate, how about you personally guarantee the safety of the Princess and the Grand Archduchess for as long as they remain under your roof, my lord?"
At my words, the Marquis furrowed his brows. He clearly didn't like what I was suggesting.
I was asking the Marquis to publicly guarantee the safety of the Princess and the Grand Archduchess.
It was difficult for the Princess and the Grand Archduchess to leave immediately, and although it was only natural for the Marquis to protect them in the meantime, publicly declaring that protection was another matter entirely.
But he couldn't refuse my request.
For such an unsavory incident to occur in one's house without guaranteeing the safety of one's guests would be an unthinkable stain on a noble's honor.
That was precisely why he'd avoided showing his face earlier. But now, he could no longer evade the matter.
"Very well..."
The Marquis bit his lip and answered my request.
I seemed to have thoroughly angered the Marquis, but that didn't matter in the slightest right now.
I had secured a guarantee of safety for both the Princess and the Grand Archduchess.
"Summon the knights from the Duchy. Stay with the Princess, and once the knights arrive, return to the Duchy."
After hearing the Marquis's response, I erected a soundproof barrier and spoke to the Grand Archduchess.
The Grand Archduchess nodded at my words.
She could not remain indefinitely in a country where a princess of the Duchy had nearly been assassinated.
"What about the Princess...?"
"The Queen will protect her."
Honestly, there was no telling what would happen later.
I didn't even know if this world would continue after I died.
I was simply doing the best I could.
'It seems everything I needed to do is done.'
Now, all that remained was what I needed to find out before dying.
There was too much I didn't know about this incident. It was no different from being blindsided out of nowhere.
If I just died like this, I wouldn't even know what to investigate in the next loop.
I couldn't just die right here. But neither could I surrender and be locked away in prison.
I wouldn't be able to gather information in a cell, nor could I afford to waste long stretches of time in prison.
In that case, there was only one way.
After giving Balea a meaningful glance—
I swung my sword.
Slash!
The arm of the knight approaching me was cleanly severed.
"Aaargh!"
Everyone froze at the sudden strike.
In that frozen moment, I kept moving.
Channeling mana into my legs, I dashed toward Joachim.
As I ran, I shouted to Joachim,
"Run! We're breaking out of here!"
A startled Joachim stared at me, but instead of looking back at him, I kicked the sword lying on the ground.
Joachim snatched the flying blade out of the air and, caught up in the momentum, impulsively began running in the direction I was headed.
"Pursue them! They're traitors!"
The Senior Knight's roar came belatedly from behind us, but Joachim and I had already broken through the Knights Order's encirclement.
Rather than be arrested, I chose to become a fugitive.
It was a life I had already given up on anyway.
My plan was to gather as much information as possible before I was captured and killed.