The Blade of Chivalry That Slices Dark Fantasy
I swung my sword alone in the thick darkness. My breath had already climbed into my throat, and every muscle in my body screamed in agony. Facing more than a hundred goblins with nothing but the second-class realm—perhaps that was arrogance after all. A creeping anxiety began to cloud my mind, but I crushed that unease, shattering my limits and pressing onward. Until the first light of dawn rose beyond the horizon. Until nothing remained around me.
“……This is the Blue Sky.”
The place was so overrun with hideous demons that I had no choice but to cut them down in a trance of no-self. I never even had the presence of mind to check what lay behind me. In short, I had been so absorbed in slaughtering goblins that I failed to notice Rina watching from the rear.
I must be out of my mind. No matter how deeply the martial arts fever had taken hold, to speak of the Blue Sky with only the second stage of the Blue Sky Great Connection Divine Art…
Even with the thickest iron face in the world, this is embarrassing… She didn’t hear that, did she?
At least I had muttered it quieter than a true soliloquy. All I could do was desperately hope Rina had not caught the words. I slid my blood-worn longsword back into its sheath and turned my head.
A stench-filled mountain of corpses stretched before me. The horde of over a hundred goblins had failed to survive even until dawn and now lay butchered. Yet none of it had been easy.
To be honest, it was a razor’s edge. At the end my stamina hit its limit and I nearly died for real.
The difference had been so narrow that saying it was a single sheet of paper would not be an exaggeration. If I had neglected training for even a single day… or if my proficiency had fallen just a little short, the one rolling across the ground like trash right now would have been me.
Still, I shook my head and cast off the distracting thoughts. In the end I was the victor, and the spoils were not insignificant.
You have defeated a goblin for the first time.
Vagabond proficiency has increased.
Karma has decreased by executing an evil spirit.
Stat increases are restricted due to the goblin race’s physical limitations.
……Did I gain a lot?
When I thought about it again, the rewards seemed rather meager compared to the hardship, but… I set that aside for now. Fortunately I did not need to clean up the corpses of more than a hundred goblins. They had already turned to ash and vanished on their own. Besides, I had finished all preparations to depart yesterday. All that remained was a short rest before leaving.
“Mister! Are you all right?”
“This much is nothing.”
“That’s a relief… I was afraid something had gone wrong.”
“More importantly, why are you here?”
“Eh? W-well… that is…”
When I deliberately put on a stern expression and pressed her, Rina’s face crumpled and she desperately tried to explain herself. To summarize, she had thought the noise had stopped because the fight was completely over. I let out a deep sigh. It was a good thing the battle had already been in its final stages. Had things gone poorly, Rina could have been seized by the goblins and taken hostage.
“When lives are on the line, how can you move so carelessly! You must protect your own life with your own hands.”
“I-I’m sorry, Mister.”
“……Do not do that again.”
“Yes!!”
Watching Rina answer with such vigor, I clicked my tongue inwardly. There was no point lecturing her any further; I would not be the one responsible for her in the end. Once I returned her to her own people, they would protect her properly. That being the case, only preparations remained.
I washed the blood, flesh, sweat, and grime from my body in the valley stream, then performed one final check.
“This should be all the preparations finished.”
“There’s an awful lot of luggage, isn’t there?”
“This place can no longer serve as a sanctuary. Not after the commotion I caused.”
I had not only raided the bandit camp and the lowest-ranked knights, but had also exterminated every last goblin afterward. Continuing to stay here would be no different from waiting for enemies to arrive. Of course, the growth that followed battle was tempting, yet opponents I could not handle might appear. It was time to find a new location.
“Then that means you still haven’t decided where to stay, Mister?”
“If we look only at the conclusion, yes.”
“I-in that case, why don’t we live together in our forest!”
“Your forest? You mean the Elf Forest?”
“Yes! Of course! Our forest isn’t very large, but it’s still quite abundant!”
Perhaps because she had come to trust me somewhat, Rina invited me to live with them in the forest. I was grateful for the sentiment, but… it seemed impossible. A goblin living in an elf forest? There were limits to how ill-matched things could be. Still, I did not want to shatter her innocence by saying so aloud, so I played along.
“Are the fruits from your forest tasty?”
“Yes! Every single one is sweet and refreshing!”
“That sounds promising. I suppose I can have a few when we arrive.”
“Of course! I’ll serve them to you myself!”
Rina’s bright smile caught the light of the dawn rising beyond the horizon. It was the light of hope. But sadly… that light did not last long.
The forest that had once pulsed with blue vitality and echoed with birdsong had become a tomb shrouded in acrid smoke and silence. Trees burned completely black, soil mixed with ash, and lingering embers that had yet to die. Rina simply stared with a dazed expression at the place that had once been her home. I, standing guard beside her, spoke carefully.
“Is this truly your hometown?”
“……”
There was no answer. Of course there wasn’t. When one’s home had been reduced to ashes, no words would reach her now. It had taken us only two days to arrive here, and even that had been lengthened by the need to avoid humans. Yet to think the entire forest had been burned to the ground. The cruelty exceeded imagination and made me frown.
Presences nearby… there are some. Fortunately their numbers are very small…
It seemed a few had remained after burning the forest to clean up the aftermath. Though it could hardly be called normal cleanup. After all, normal people would not set an entire forest ablaze without reason. I would have to meet them first.
I glanced at Rina. She had fallen to her knees and was scraping together the ashes.
“Why…? Where did everyone go…?”
“Rina, calm down first…”
“There they are. Didn’t I tell you? There’s only one place a runaway slave would head.”
“Impressive work. No wonder they pay good money to hire slave hunters.”
They had caught our scent and arrived in that brief opening after all. I quietly stepped in front of the despairing Rina. The men wore armor and carried a variety of weapons, much like the deserters I had met before. The single difference was that while those deserters had been in poor condition, these men looked far better by comparison.
The shaggy-haired leader with a lumberjack’s beard tilted his head and spoke.
“But what’s that thing up ahead?”
“It looks like a goblin… but something about it is a little different.”
“It’s wearing a bizarre hat. And the sword is still sheathed.”
“From now on I will ask you only one question.”
“What? It can talk??”
Their reactions were all similar, but such trivial things were beneath my notice. Strictly speaking, I had no connection to this matter. It was unfortunate for Rina, but it was her home that had vanished, not mine. Even so, I could not simply walk away. Protecting my own chivalry—that was the proof that I was human.
“Did you do this to the forest?”
Moreover, looking at them filled me with irritation. Since they were evil, my karma would decrease as well. There was no reason to spare them.
Perhaps because it was the first time a goblin had asked them a question, the leader froze with a stunned expression for a moment before bursting into laughter.
“You idiot, can’t you tell just by looking?”
“I see. Then die.”
“……?!”
BOOM!!
A single stomp. That was all it took for the earth to tremble. Before their sneering gazes could even reach me, my form had already slipped behind them. I drew the sword at my waist like a flash of lightning.
SHIIING!
The sound of blood spraying like a fountain. In a single exchange, the heads of two subordinates flew off. Which meant the leader was still alive.
“I really thought I was going to die. Just who the hell are you?”
“……”
“Hey, you bastard. You were talking just fine earlier, so why are you keeping your mouth shut like a mute who ate honey n—”
“This isn’t the time!”
The man called a slave hunter who had survived alongside the leader issued a warning, and thanks to that the leader kept his life. His shoulder had simply been deeply slashed. Fragments of shattered armor fell to the ground as dark red blood continued to flow.
Looking at the leader clutching his right arm and the slave hunter bewildered by the sudden turn of events, I opened my mouth.
“Is there any need for long words when dealing with mere beasts?”
I will tear away that human mask you wear.