Chapter 59
Chapter 59
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 59
Chapter Title: Scar-12
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"Arbitrary..."
Indeed, it didn't suit her at all. I hated Elenor.
Not a single word she said sat right with me. I hated how she brought up her imperial duties even in a situation like this, and I hated how she tried to save me on her own accord.
I brushed the dirt off and stood up. But I had no choice except to pause for a moment at the voice coming from behind me.
"Wow, she must be some high nobility. She's a real baroness..."
That legless adventurer had somehow survived.
The few adventurers who had come out with her were filling the gap in the battle lines distanced from the Orc Lord.
"Tch..."
I didn't have time to stand still. I needed time to think, but even in that instant, my hands couldn't afford to stop.
I slashed down two orcs right away and shouted at her.
"Don't worry about me!"
"The Princess herself came out here—if we hold back our lives now, it's a major crime. The maid's even over there fighting with a sword because she's worried about you. Just go, run away."
Tears welled up slightly in her eyes.
"You have a lover too! You should be the one running..."
"That... he's gone now."
Just a short while ago, she'd met that person with such a warm, happy face, yet she could say he was gone so firmly and calmly.
But that was probably normal. In this world, death was commonplace. As an adventurer, she must have known that on a battlefield like this, either she or the person next to her could die.
Still, that composed attitude of hers made my head throb like it was splitting open.
Could I have saved him?
If I'd charged to the front first like Elenor did, drawing the enemy's attention.
This body of mine would hurt a lot from taking an Orc Lord's attack head-on, but that was all. Against orc grunts, I could hold out even if surrounded.
If I'd taken the lead up front and we'd concentrated our limited firepower there.
It was a half-baked assumption. It might have reduced the casualties, but then I might not have had the stamina left to fight the Orc Lord.
But her lover might have been among those reduced casualties. What about the adventurers from that tavern, or her father?
Were they already dead?
"You think I'd run...?"
I'd already run away.
The old me would have chosen that path without hesitation. But instead, I'd taken the most ambiguous action possible.
I feared people dying, yet I didn't want to step up front and do something about it.
They were right. Elenor was right.
Even those who could be saved had to run. I needed to abandon everyone here and survive alone.
"I absolutely won't do that..."
I hated that 'correct' judgment. I couldn't accept it. I couldn't stand seeing the lives of everyone here dismissed as something 'expendable.'
"I can hold out..."
No, that wasn't enough. Even if I gritted my teeth and endured, there was no hero party here. Elenor, who had gained the hero's power, was nowhere to be found now.
I had to push forward. Not just hold out—I had to make it happen.
"Get out of the way!!!"
Elenor faltered as she saw me charging from behind.
"Why haven't you left yet?!"
"Because we're going to win!"
I cut down the two orcs swarming around her and pointed my sword at the massive monster.
She was wrong. That choice of hers couldn't possibly be right. I'd prove it.
No more deaths. No more sacrifices.
"Die!!!"
I slashed at the Orc Lord's side with all my strength.
Just like before, the sword sank in only about the width of a finger before being halted by its enormous muscles.
But I had no intention of stopping there.
Even if the Orc Lord swung its fist down at me, I could endure it once.
The longer time dragged on, the worse the battle situation would get. If I wanted to save even one more person in this fight, what I had to do was clear.
Somehow finish off this monster with this very attack.
"There's no way that'll work! You don't need to push yourself that far!"
Everyone was trying to stop me. This action of mine might even render their sacrifices meaningless.
But I wanted to protect them. I wanted to save even one more of the people left behind me.
I wanted to deny it. Refute it. Even amid this, I wanted to shout at Elenor—making her flimsy sacrifices while claiming it was unavoidable for the empire's sake—that she was wrong.
I wanted to prove it.
The Orc Lord bellowed, but I gritted my teeth and refused to let go of the sword.
"Urgh...!"
I could do it. For some reason I didn't understand, an unknown energy was surging within my body.
I didn't know where the limits of this power lay. It might get blocked surprisingly easily, or I might barely cut down the Orc Lord only to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of orcs.
But I had to do it. Even if I couldn't, I had to.
"Nngh..."
In that instant, the sword glowed magenta. The specks of light bursting from my body vanished, and the holy sword blazed fiercely.
The holy sword itself didn't advance any further. But the light pouring from its tip was more than twice the sword's own length.
And the sword aura leaking out ahead of the blade slowly burned into the Orc Lord's flesh as it pushed forward.
Like its massive body had been sliced in half by a gigantic iron plate, the hulking monster's frame shifted slightly.
The battlefield had been noisy, but in that moment, it was quiet.
The Orc Lord's upper body crashed to the ground. A massive thud echoed as dust billowed outward.
"See. It worked..."
At some point, I'd started believing I could do it.
But even without that certainty, I would have charged at this orc anyway.
Because I had to. Because I had no choice.
Still, seeing Elenor's dazed expression staring at me brought a strange sense of triumph.
Of course, I didn't have much time to savor it.
"All of you, fall back! I can hold out longer!"
"What does that..."
I didn't know what power it was, but something was boiling up inside me. At this rate, I could hold for at least another hour.
That magenta sword aura—no, that alien blade of light—vanished in an instant. Even trying to summon it again wasn't easy.
Of course, the remaining orcs would be simple to cut down with the holy sword alone, so no issue there.
"It's not dangerous right now, so join up with the main battle lines first!"
The maid, Ceres, had drawn her sword from somewhere and was cutting down orcs. The way she immediately guided the others away as fast as possible upon hearing me was truly appreciated.
"No, what was that just now, how..."
The prosthetic-legged adventurer, the other knights—they all stared at me in utter disbelief.
"I don't know either! This isn't the time to worry about it!"
The situation was urgent.
After a brief moment of thought, I recalled how Elenor had moved in a situation like this.
'Start with the commander, shake up the enemy lines as much as possible...'
From the moment I put that into action, there was no time for breaks. Surrounded by countless hordes of orcs, I had no choice but to focus.
I was giving it my all.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The afterimage of Enel's sword aura lingered in Elenor's retinas. She stared at that light in a daze.
"...He could do it."
Maybe she hadn't been needed after all. If she'd just left him alone, he might have awakened the hero's power on his own and become a true hero.
It had been a blunder. If he'd led this battle to victory by himself, he could have claimed all the fame and glory unshared.
But she'd come here. She hadn't provided any real help in the fight, leaving only the awkward result of having 'participated in the battle.'
Even in what might have been their last conversation, she'd prioritized the empire. Surely, he hadn't liked that attitude of hers.
"What... was that."
Her ominous imaginings were steadily turning into reality.
Elenor gaining the hero's power might not have been the wise choice.
The massive sword aura he'd unleashed was on a scale she'd never reached.
If its sharpness was on the same level as hers—and considering this was the sword aura of a novice hero who hadn't even had the power for a full month—it was an unbelievable feat.
"Was my talent... insufficient?"
He had the capacity to protect everyone. The fact that his sword aura shone magenta instead of blue was a bit unsettling, but that power was real. Hero power was influenced by emotions, so he must have made a resolve as strong as the size of that aura.
Even if he fell to corruption or the hero's power twisted, she had no right to blame him. If his fall came from a shaken heart or anger, the culprit would be Elenor herself for coming here.
She'd been useless right up to the end. If he'd been the hero, he might have saved more people, faster.
But she gripped her weary mind and stood once more. There were still plenty of orcs left. If the hero had decided to fight here, then she, as an imperial knight, had to follow his lead.
"I have to move somehow..."
And then, so abruptly, she caught the scent.
The smell of burning oil and mana grass. It was a scent she could never get used to, but one she could look forward to from past battles.
"You came to apologize to Enel too...?"
Atop the hill, a small silhouette appeared. A diminutive figure closer to a gnome than a human, clutching a staff as large as its own body in both hands.
Light burst from the staff. Fire rained down from the sky.
