The Defense of Roholan (4)
I didn’t want to trust people.
I couldn’t.
Humans who changed with their position, with their station—I found them detestable. I hated those who would cast anything aside for their own sake. I loathed the goddess who had stood by and let the world rot this far.
Just as I was about to turn my back on the world entirely—
I met Noah.
Even in this dogshit world, Noah shone with a pure light. She kept pressing forward no matter how hard things became. She affirmed the me who had given up on humans and on the world. She gathered the pathetic wreck of me into her arms. When no one else remained, she became my only friend. When the entire world called me the Priestess, only Noah ever called me “Rubia.”
The wish to try trusting people once more kindled into a small flame.
If it was the world Noah lived in—if it was the world this child loved—then I wanted to save it. Even if I hated the hundreds of millions of humans, so long as it was a world where Noah remembered me, thought of me, then there was meaning in saving it.
I looked at the adventurers ringing the west gate. People I could not trust, yet had decided to try trusting. And slowly—careful that no strange note would escape my throat—I cleared it and spoke.
“Adventurers. No matter what happens, you must hold the formation. If it breaks even a little, this entire village will fall into danger. So please, I beg of you. Do not give up until the end. Protect the village.”
Voices cursing that there was nowhere left to run, voices swollen with the confidence that they would hold the line no matter what, voices trembling in terror—and voices already calculating a rise in rank—reached my ears.
Forcing my crumpling expression smooth again, I continued.
“I will take responsibility for your lives. So… you must protect the villagers… so that the nightmare of the past is never… re… peated…”
I meant to speak with strength, but in the end my voice shook. I let out a deep breath, steadied myself, and opened my mouth once more.
“I beg of you.”
With the words finished, I stepped forward. Between the adventurers. Past the Gold-rank standing at the head of the line. Still farther ahead.
“I will take the vanguard.”
And, forcing out the words I least wanted to utter, I loosed Divine Power at the thousands of magic beasts surging toward us.
“All for Erden.”
The instant the words left my lips, the southern wall collapsed, and the battle in the west began.
“Kid!”
Heinzel’s voice rang out at the same moment I flung myself sideways. In that same breath his Unique Ability erupted where I had been standing. The halberd, swung hard enough to tear the wind, shredded dozens of gnolls in a single stroke.
“A-Are you crazy…?! A-Are you trying to kill me?!”
He ignored my cry of pure shock and swung again.
“Kwahahahaha! You gotta dodge at least this much if you wanna make a living as an adventurer!”
That brute Heinzel. That bald, shiny-domed, polished-egg Heinzel!
“Ugh… Using your Unique Ability is cheating. Don’t count that…”
I stood, brushing the layered dust from my hair.
“If you don’t like it, use yours too!”
“Th-This…! B-Baldy…!!”
I wanted to spit something far worse… but held it in. Baldy wasn’t that harsh, so it was fine.
“Doing that to a kid half your age… Don’t go around claiming we’re the same generation, Heinzel. That aside, looks like I’m in first place.”
“Ah, you’re exactly the same, mister…? Unbelievable…”
Despite the leisurely tone, Luci—already a walking wreck—swung his sword in a blur of motion. The cuts looked almost light, yet more than a dozen gnolls fell in pieces. Compared to that, I…
“Hnnngh—!”
Even putting my whole body into the swing, I could only drop three or four.
Why is it only me like this… Is it because my weapon’s cheap…? No… a craftsman doesn’t blame his tools, so it isn’t the gear. This… this is because I don’t have a Unique Ability. Just wait until time passes. I’ll beat them all.
“Fine… If we go the distance, I’ll win…”
If we go the distance… Heinzel and Luci will be hunched old men, so I’ll win.
Ignoring the old geezers’ words, I steeled myself and threw everything into the fight. Cutting, tearing, breaking without pause. I kept fighting until a wall of gnoll corpses rose around me. When an edge dulled I switched to another greatsword. I never stopped moving. Minor wounds I ignored; only strikes aimed at vitals did I turn aside. Not Heinzel’s style—Luci’s swordsmanship. Smooth, measured, one at a time, never greedy.
And so, when five greatswords had been reduced to a single remaining blade—
A vast surge of power shot skyward from the west.
“Huh?”
Rubia’s Divine Power.
“That’s the Priestess’s Divine Power… But what’s happening?”
Luci halted mid-motion and stroked his chin. Heinzel likewise rested his halberd on his shoulder and looked up. An uneasy feeling crawled over me. I swept my greatsword in a wide arc to clear space from the gnolls and left my post.
“I’ll cover you.”
“…Thanks.”
The moment Heinzel’s escort began, I flung my Qi Sensing wide. The first thing painted in my mind was the adventurers. Dozens of them. Adventurers who had no business being where they were. I pushed the sensing farther. Adventurers. Adventurers. Adventurers. Fleeing adventurers. Adventurers who had abandoned Rubia alone and run. They kept appearing, one after another, inside my head. I pushed farther still. Magic beasts filled the picture. Countless orcs—easily hundreds—were painted there. People being crushed, torn, eaten, dying beneath those orcs. I stretched the sensing to the westernmost edge, to the place the adventurers should have held.
Only then did I find Rubia.
Rubia, alone at the west gate, was painted in perfect clarity. A body studded with dozens of arrows. A spear driven through her abdomen. A sword buried in her leg. Teeth and claws sunk all over her flesh. A twisted arm. A broken leg. A hole in her side pouring blood. Her staggering frame. And still she stood alone, holding back thousands of orcs.
My head, which had burned white-hot, finally began to cool. The tremor in my hands stilled. The boiling emotions sank away.
“The west has been breached. So… I’m going.”
“…I see. Finish up quick and follow after.”
“I’ll save as many villagers as I can, so don’t push yourself too hard, kid. Even if you die, you gotta buy me a meal first.”
Heinzel’s stupid joke steadied me a little.
“I’m going. See you later.”
I reined in my ragged breathing. Spat a broken tooth from my mouth. Wet my parched throat with blood, and ran toward Rubia. Trusting Luci and Heinzel, I ignored every magic beast that lunged at me. Into the once-peaceful Roholan, despair rang out. Sticky sounds of flesh tearing. Screams that never became words. A child’s wailing. Rage against the beasts. The raw desperation of dying. They hammered into my ears. But I had to ignore them. Cover my ears. Close my heart. Thinking only of Rubia, I ran. I trusted Heinzel and Luci. I smashed the skulls of orcs that blocked the path. I slit open goblin bellies. And I kept going forward.
By the time the Divine Power visible in the west had grown faint, I reached the place where Rubia stood. I swung my greatsword at the beasts surrounding her. Without pause. Hoping a path would open. Hoping she would not break. I swung and swung. I no longer knew how many times, or how many I had killed. Screaming, roaring her name, I forced my way ahead. Countless attacks crashed toward me. Kill, kill, kill, and kill again. My body moved before thought. Pain no longer registered. Defense was irrelevant; only attack remained. I had to reach her. She must not break. She could not break here. I snatched a fallen spear and thrust. Swung a club. Hurled an axe. Drove a dagger home. Burst hearts, tore out eyes, ripped hides free. And when no more beasts remained within reach of my hands—
Behind me, hundreds of corpses lay heaped. And before me—
Rubia, staggering, pouring blood.
“Rubia.”
“No…ah… is that you…”
Her trembling hand reached toward me. I stepped closer and took it.
“You’ve… been hurt so, so much… Doesn’t it hurt? What is all this… Wounds on that cute face… Haa… How upsetting…”
I had trusted the adventurers. I had believed they would never do this. Of course they would hold, and hold again. Because the Priestess was there. Because villagers stood behind them. Because on the other side, just three people were fighting for their lives. If they were human, of course they would hold.
“I’m fine… Noah… Can you… see this? It’s gradually… recovering. I won’t, won’t die. Until I die together with the End… I won’t die. No,ah… don’t get hurt.”
Her weakly trembling hand stroked my hair. With a voice cracked to pieces, she was worrying about me. Even as her body swayed, she poured Divine Power into mine. Every single one of her actions scraped raw against my nerves.
“The… villagers’ condition… how is… it?”
I could not answer.
“I see… The adventurers…”
I did not answer.
“Haa… It’s my fault for trusting… My own weakness. Then… let’s hurry and save at least the villagers… Those people have no sin…”
“Didn’t Rubia hate people?”
At my words her body flinched.
“How… did Noah know…?”
“Then why are you worrying about the villagers?”
My chest felt tight. Irritation surged.
“Why… why didn’t you run away?”
A cold voice tore out of me before I knew it. But Rubia answered in a voice still warm.
“Because behind me. Behind me was Noah. If I ran… Noah would have a hard time, right?”
“…What am I supposed to be.”
Her weakly trembling hand stilled. Strength returned to the cracked voice. The staggering body straightened.
“Noah… Noah must never become like that. You must never… break the way I did.”
And then a soft hand, a warm voice, a metallic yet sweet scent—everything that was Rubia—wrapped around me.
“The world, the goddess made it this way. People didn’t make it this way. So… Noah, don’t become like this. Please keep that light until the very end.”
And in a tear-soaked voice, a voice that seemed ready to snap at any moment, she begged me.
“So that I can save the world. So that my heart doesn’t break. Please, become my milestone. Please… I beg you.”
I must not break. I must not collapse here. I have to find Rubia’s hope. Plant faith in people. Plant the will to save the world. Rubia is here. There’s an Elixir in Luci’s bag. No matter what I do, I won’t die. So… let’s try.
“Rubia.”
I pushed her gently away and took her hand.
“Let’s go.”
Her trembling hand. Her swaying body. Her eyes wet with tears.
“Come and see with both eyes.”
I pulled her forward by force.
“What I can do.”
And I met her gaze.
“Watch carefully.”