Knight Commander vs. the Heavenly Demon
A knight of towering dignity strode into the training grounds, shoulders thrown back, every step announcing that he expected to be watched.
A soft rush of air. Golden hair streamed past, carrying a gentle, fruity scent.
Hm. Just as I thought. The young lady's sce—
He shook his head, hard. Knight Commander Getz snapped back to himself and fixed his eyes on Lilith.
What was that just now?
Lady Lilith had ignored him completely and gone right by. She had clearly stepped onto the running course, and yet she had brushed past him as if he were empty air. In the middle of it her hair had touched his face, and it had felt... pleasant—
It did not!
Getz hauled his thoughts back into line at once. This was Lady Lilith, of all people.
I may be starved for a woman, but getting my heart racing over a pig like that is ridiculous!
Just look at all that fat still wobbling. The mere sight of it turned his stomach. Granted, if one considered only the set of her features, her face was rather pretty.
"Ahem."
Clearing his throat, Getz waited for Lilith to come back around.
You won't slip past me this time.
She had already finished a lap and was running straight for the knight commander.
Now!
Getz planted himself squarely in her path.
She'll dodge left again to avoid me. I'm sure of it. But what if I move left with her?
A blur.
"Huh?"
What had that been? Lady Lilith had definitely gone left. He had seen her foot shift that way and stepped across to cut her off—and yet she was already past him, running on.
I lost her movement?
"Heh."
A hollow laugh escaped him at the sheer absurdity of it.
Am I still half-asleep?
He turned it over again and again, and that effortless motion still made no sense. There was nothing for it but to blame the whole thing on not being fully awake.
"That ought to do it."
Crack. Crack. He might as well have been standing in the rain. Sweat poured off his whole body in a frenzy, his breath came short, and the muscles in his legs began to tremble.
"Drove the body hard again today."
All he had done was run the training grounds, and yet the toxins had drained out of him along with the sweat.
"Not yet. Still not enough."
Those damned maid bitches. Just how much poison did they feed this body?
While the Heavenly Demon was still grumbling, Getz came to stand before Lilith.
"Young lady. Raise your head."
It sounded courteous enough, but telling her to lift her head was an order, and irritation leaked through the tone besides.
"Haaah?"
Still bent at the waist, the Heavenly Demon cracked one eye halfway open and cocked only his head, crooked.
Wh-what is this? I feel like I ought to hand over my money this instant!
The effortless street-thug air of it pushed Getz's momentum back a notch. The knight commander recovered at once, though, and spoke in a solemn voice.
"This is the knights' training ground. Did you even ask our permission? Charging in and training as you please will not do."
The Heavenly Demon's eyes traveled over him.
Hm. Solidly built, this one.
Solid, by his measure, meant reasonably useful. Of everyone the Heavenly Demon had seen so far, the strongest had been Duke Briton.
And this fellow comes next, does he?
A vivid blue energy brimmed through the man's body.
In this world, they call that mana.
The mana was well refined, and the body was pure muscle. If they clashed now, he could not promise himself the victory.
"So that's your complaint, is it?"
But the Heavenly Demon was not about to flinch over a reason so petty. The man could be as strong as he liked. This body was the daughter of a ducal house.
"Yes. That is correct."
Getz met Lilith's eyes without so much as a blink. He had a knight commander's seniority behind him, and his opponent was Lilith. If anything, the other ladies of the house would praise him for it. Openly dismissing her here would not put him in any difficulty at all.
"And what exactly is the problem? That I'm a woman? If I ask permission, will you let me train here?"
"Hm..."
Getz let the silence hang, then shook his head.
"No. I have no intention of granting it. A woman on the training grounds? It would bring ill fortune."
This son of a bitch.
The Heavenly Demon's face hardened by degrees. In the old days, a wretch like this would not have managed a single word in front of him.
You dare talk back to this seat?
He wanted to cut the man's throat on the spot and send the head rolling across the ground. But he knew the truth of it. As he was now, he was weaker than this man.
"A woman... You look down on me because I'm a woman... Fine. If I beat you, will you allow it then?"
"Pfft!"
At the Heavenly Demon's words, Getz burst out laughing hard enough to spray spit.
"Haha! Ah, forgive me. Are you a comedian by any chance? To think the young lady can even tell jokes like this—the ladies will be shocked at how much you've changed."
Hoo. The Heavenly Demon let out a breath and slowly straightened. His stamina had already returned over the course of the talk, and moving was no trouble at all. When he drew himself fully upright, his eyes came level with Getz's.
"Well, look at that. You're the same height as a woman. Your build looks about the same, too."
The Heavenly Demon mocked him, pretending to measure their heights with one hand.
"Those are just pumped-up show muscles, aren't they? What are you going to do with those? You couldn't even catch a rabbit!"
Red, then pale, then red again. Getz's face flushed deep crimson. He had never suffered a humiliation like this. Noble blood or not, the other party was a woman. To be scorned by a mere woman—
A knight's pride cannot allow this.
"Hey! Squire! Go fetch two wooden swords!"
The squire standing by the storehouse startled and ran to get them.
I-is this really all right?
Knight commander or not, the other party was the young lady. They had been hired to protect every soul of House Karma, and here he was speaking as if he meant to slight the daughter of Duke Briton.
And he means to fight her?
No matter how he turned it over, this felt wrong. Even so, an order was an order. He gathered two wooden swords and brought them before the commander.
"The swords. Now."
One look at the commander's face said the anger was real. Terrifying. Utterly, utterly terrifying—and yet!
"Th-this doesn't seem right!"
In the end, the squire shouted it.
"A sword bout with the young lady? She's a woman who's never even held a blade!"
Tsk. The Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue, eyeing the squire.
There's always one fool with no sense of the room. Still, the spirit's commendable.
He could already picture the boy's future. Take a beating here, or take one after he himself was gone.
BOOM!
The answer was the former. Getz's foot had already slammed into the squire's chest.
"Gahk!"
The force was tremendous. The armor he wore crumpled, and with a great crash the squire went tumbling backward.
"You dare talk back to your commander? Looking to die?"
Getz clenched a fist and raised it.
"What do you think you're doing in front of me? Stop."
The Heavenly Demon let the words fall, light as anything.
"..."
There was a weight of authority in that voice. Before he realized it, Getz had lowered his hand and snapped to attention.
N-not again!
On the outside, the young lady looked thoroughly pathetic. And yet that manner of speech, that voice, was anything but ordinary.
"Just pick up the sword."
The Heavenly Demon already had a wooden sword in hand.
Whoosh—!
He cut the empty air with it, testing the feel.
Hm. It's been a long time since I've held something that actually feels like a sword.
It was only wood, but the light timber made the blade nimble. The length was decent enough, and it settled into his grip as if it belonged there.
"Keh-heh! Seen this somewhere before, have you?"
Lilith swinging a sword was laughable. She was putting on airs, and above all there was no strength in the blade.
"Pfft! Shall I fight at thirty percent of my skill? Or would you rather I stand in one spot and not move at all?"
The contempt was total. Already certain of victory, Getz would have accepted any terms at all.
"No conditions worth naming. The match is fundamentals only. The instant either of us uses mana, that one loses."
A knight's strength lay in swordsmanship, yes, but skills mattered just as much—buffs that reinforced the body, and the aura blade that laid aura along a sword. The knight commander, of course, was not so great a knight that he could use an aura blade.
"Pu-hu-hu-hu-hut! Did you just say mana? Me, use maaaaana against the young lady? Heavens, I'll laugh my navel clean off! Hu-hu-hu-hut!"
He was laughing, but rage filled him to the brim. What infuriated Getz most was that the damned girl truly believed she could beat him. Even a young lady of a great house had no right to scorn a knight. At the very least, the two of them ought to observe basic courtesy. This went far past mere disregard.
"...Ah. Might I add one condition of my own?"
The laughter stripped from his face, Getz glared at Lilith.
"What?"
"Let us promise that even if one of us is hurt, neither tells a soul. How do I know that after I beat the young lady black and blue, His Grace the Duke won't come after me later?"
"If that worried you, you shouldn't have picked the fight to begin with."
"To begin with? That's my line. To begin with, you shouldn't have used the training grounds."
"Hmph. Don't worry. I promise I won't breathe a word to anyone."
They leveled their wooden swords at each other.
Clack!
Wood tapped wood, light and sharp, and the match began.
"It's really started..."
Still sitting where he had fallen, the squire watched the two of them with a face on the verge of tears. If the young lady so much as collapsed, then...
I'll have to step in and save her!
Whoosh!
Getz's sword grazed past Lilith's neck.
"So close! I could have shattered your neck!"
"Close, nothing. You missed because I dodged you."
"Pfft! Let's see just how far that confidence of yours goes!"