Chapter 17
Chapter 17
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Refusal - 8
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"Stop right there."
"...Are you talking to me?"
I wasn't in a good mood. It hadn't been long since my huge fight with the Hero.
Even spitting out a single word took time. I had no spare energy left to keep my composure.
"What happened on the day you met Her Highness the Princess alone?"
I fell silent for a moment.
She was a knight. She looked young—probably still a minor or only a few years into adulthood.
"You need to explain why Her Highness was upset after meeting you."
"No particular reason."
According to her plan, I was supposed to keep the secret. I was the one clinging to her obscenely, and the Princess—the woman who would be Empress by then—was supposed to reluctantly accept me.
But I was too exhausted to weigh all those concerns.
Declaring that I was the true Hero wasn't something to boast about anyway, and I'd already promised to keep it hidden.
Whatever the Princess was thinking, it was none of my business. The deadline had passed.
"I just turned down her marriage proposal."
The knight scoffed.
"You act like you're somebody just because of the Leodrín name... Fat chance. Her Highness the Princess isn't someone who should suffer accusations from a thug like you."
She just seemed overly fond of the Princess. Given how popular she was everywhere, it wouldn't be strange if she'd been asked to say exactly that.
"Ah, I see. So, what do you want me to do?"
"Atone to Her Highness with your life."
I couldn't do that. It wasn't my fault in the first place.
The Hero's party members had tormented me so badly during our adventures that I couldn't even speak, but oddly enough, after the adventure ended, they started acting subservient.
The Saintess seeking reconciliation, the Archer craving my scent for some incomprehensible reason.
No matter how much I despised them, I couldn't bring harm to someone trembling pitifully before me.
At most, it was like spotting a revolting bug in my room—I'd just wave it away.
But the Princess hadn't done that. She'd acted with brazen confidence, as if I were someone obligated to follow whatever the Empire decreed.
"You, who knows nothing of the Hero's adventures or sacrifices..."
She didn't look skilled with a sword. Her body wasn't properly honed yet, and she lacked any real killing intent.
Considering her benchmark was the strongest of knights, there was some allowance for that, but even accounting for it, she didn't strike me as competent.
"You think I don't know?"
The very existence of the "Porter" had inevitably spread far and wide, but very few knew it was Leodrín Enel.
"Even if trash like you spreads rumors, the truth will come out soon enough. When it does, you won't get off with just my warning—you'll end up as dew on the execution ground."
She had no intention of understanding. I figured talking more to someone who wouldn't listen was a waste.
As I moved to brush past her, the knight grabbed my shoulder.
"Where do you think you're slinking off to?"
She clamped down on my shoulder with a vise-like grip.
I hated it. I hated hearing about the Hero, hated having to fight other people because of her barging in with her selfish demands.
"Let go."
"If you're not going to listen... I challenge you to a duel."
Did the Hero send her? No—if it had been her, she'd have come straight to torment me herself instead of dispatching some half-baked amateur.
She was dressed like a knight, but deep down, she was pure noble lady. A world without knights like her existed, but the one standing before me wasn't from it.
"Speak up! What insolence did you show Her Highness—and apologize!"
I wanted to throw in the towel on everything. My resolve was crumbling.
I approached the flustered guard and snatched the sword from his belt.
"Mind if I borrow this for a sec?"
"Y-Yes, s-sorry!"
The whirlwind of thoughts in my head cleared away.
I hadn't wielded a sword in real combat all that often. Mostly, it was when I served as the Hero's punching bag.
Whenever I'd gripped one then, thinking had been out of the question. If my clumsy brain tried, I'd soon be reduced to a state where pain was the only thing I could focus on.
I hated it. The familiar heft of the sword in my hand—I loathed it. Just holding it set my entire body trembling. The mere thought of what was coming made me shudder all over.
"Fine. Duel."
I extended the sword toward her, my face blank.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The guard stared at the two of them, swords pointed at each other, his face drained of color.
'This is bad...'
Normally, it should have been the guard drawing his sword to protect the Baron's safety.
But the opponent this time was no pushover. Her swordsmanship was merely average, but her family was not.
Of course, House Leodrín wouldn't yield to just anyone either. Still, as a mere guard not formally tied to the family, rashly blocking her could turn him into shrimp caught in a whale fight.
'Too risky...'
Baron Leodrín enjoyed the Emperor's favor, so somehow he needed to fetch reinforcements. The fact that this was happening inside the imperial palace—and with only two guards present—only made it worse.
Even if her skills were just average for a knight, that still meant an untrained noble couldn't hope to win against her just by picking up a sword.
"Come at me. I'll drag you before Her Highness and make you kneel and beg forgiveness."
"Can't we settle this with words right now? Preferably without... her involved."
"Show some respect to Her Highness, you fool!"
It was above his pay grade, but if the Baron was truly in mortal danger, he'd have no choice but to throw his body in the way at least.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The sword came flying at me. A diagonal slash.
Compared to the blades I'd faced, its speed was laughably slow—enough to yawn at—but recognizing it and actually dodging were two different things.
After a split-second hesitation, I belatedly raised my sword to parry hers.
"Hngh, haaah!"
She bellowed as she brought her sword down, but she lacked the raw power to smash through mine.
No matter how I sliced it, she wasn't a real knight. Just a noble lady playing at one, with some passable sword training.
My own body was embarrassing to call "trained," but it was enough that I wouldn't be overpowered by a woman her build.
Like it or not, muscle had built up on me. Traveling with the supreme hunter—the Archer—meant meat was on the menu for most of the journey, foul-tasting or repulsive game aside.
If I'd shown even the slightest weakness, the Hero would've beaten me to death before any monster could. Her training had been that merciless.
A knight juiced up by the Hero's power, swinging her blade at me nearly every day with half-murderous intent.
Compared to that, this woman's sword felt far too light and feeble.
"Haaaah!"
Mana flared brilliantly from her blade. Her upward swing sheared my downward blade clean in two, steel and all.
But the arc of her sword never came close to touching my body.
"Urk!"
I drove my foot hard into her gut. Sword slipping from her grasp, she crumpled to the floor, heaving ragged breaths and dry-retching.
"Sorry it had to come to this."
I stepped toward her prone form.
"...What did you say?"
"I know it's immature to vent my rage in the wrong direction. I know hurting you won't do a damn thing for my healthy new life."
"Apologize... to Her Highness... not me..."
"Everything that's about to happen? That's all on me failing to control my emotions—on my immaturity."
Realizing I had no intention of hearing her out, the woman's face went ashen where she lay sprawled on the ground.
My fist slammed into her solar plexus.
"Kyaaaah!"
I buried my knuckles into her side. Flesh pulped under the blow, and I felt something deep inside shatter.
"Guh, kghh, urgh!"
It had been ages since I'd been the one doing the hitting. It didn't feel good.
"S-Stop, let go! Do you even know who I am?"
Her crying face, her attempt to invoke her family in this mess, her flushed skin—everything about it disgusted me.
I kept pounding away until she hung limp, too battered to even speak.
"Hm?"
In that instant, she vanished.
No—not vanished, exactly.
Where her body had been, a single small frog now sat.
"W-What's going on? What the..."
"Wasn't me."
The guard yelped in shock. I scanned the surroundings, searching for whoever had pulled this off.
Among the people I knew, only one could manage something like this.
But that person wouldn't waste her talents on pointless theatrics.
Turning a human into a frog was, obviously, harder than killing one outright or just summoning a frog.
And killing was more efficient by jabbing something sharp into the heart anyway.
Catching a frog from a nearby stream by ordering a servant was way more practical than conjuring one.
All that was straight from her teachings. Magic was an art overflowing with absurdity and inefficiency.
"A little gift. Do you like it?"
And there she was—the sorceress, strolling out with leisurely grace as she gently scooped the puff-cheeked frog into her palm.
It was Pashier.