Reunion
A battlefield where the Demon King's Army and the Royal Knights clashed with savage intensity.
"Captain Reyna! Our casualties are critical!"
"We have to retreat!"
Hearing her subordinates' frantic pleas, Reyna's eyes blazed with fury as she roared back.
"What the hell are you talking about?! Don't you dare stop attacking! If we halt here, every sacrifice we've made will have been for nothing!"
"But—! If we keep this up, we could be wiped out!"
"......"
And then a messenger came sprinting across the field, shouting.
"A dispatch from the Supreme Elder Council! You are ordered to retreat at once!"
Reyna took the order. She didn't think twice.
Riiip— riiip—
She tore it to shreds.
"What would those old fossils know about the front lines?! The Royal Knights are my unit! I am the commander here! We made it this far on my strength!"
"......"
Reyna didn't give a damn about the Elder Council.
"Nobody retreats!"
She drew her sword and charged to the front of the line.
Slash—!
Every swing of her blade carved through several soldiers of the Demon King's Army. The knights behind her stared in awe.
"As expected... she really does deserve to be called the new Sword Saint."
"It's swordsmanship you can barely believe even seeing it with your own eyes. Every last ounce of her focused on offense..."
Watching Reyna's display, the knights recovered their morale, rose to their feet, and charged alongside her. But far too much blood had already soaked the field.
"Don't stop attacking! Don't give them an opening!"
Thanks to that relentless assault—
"The Demon King's Army is fleeing!"
"We won! We actually won!!"
They had, by the skin of their teeth, won the battle against the Demon King's Army.
But...
With so many dead and wounded, the Royal Knights were a wreck. Reyna inspected every injured soldier. With each successive battle, the number of wounded only kept climbing. It wasn't as if she was unaware of her knights' discontent. The exhausted men were muttering among themselves.
"How did we end up like this...? We weren't taking losses this bad until recently."
"You're telling me. The fighting used to be a lot more stable."
"Maybe... Dale's defensive ability mattered more than we thought."
"Right. That's why we could fight so freely."
"I don't know how much longer we can keep this up without Dale..."
The moment Reyna drew near, the knights hastily shut their mouths. Sensing the grim atmosphere, she still tried to rally her subordinates.
"We won again today. We took some losses, sure, but we cut down just as many of them. Our new tactics have them completely thrown. We keep pushing like this all the way to the Demon King's castle."
Ever since Dale had left, Reyna had doubled down on all-out offense.
Offense is the best defense. Seizing the initiative and dictating the fight is a far better path to victory than sitting back and fighting passively.
She never let it show, but even as the empty space Dale had left gnawed at her, she clung to the belief that she had not been wrong.
For myself. With my own strength. In my own way. That's how I'll fight. I don't need Dale's help.
She still believed, without a shred of doubt, that she didn't need him at all.
And so, after scraping together yet another hard-won victory, they were resting when—
"Captain!!"
A scout came sprinting over in a panic.
"......?!"
"A nearby village is under attack by monsters!"
"Tch...! Of all the times!!"
Reyna urgently summoned her adjutants.
"How many troops can still move?"
"Not many..."
"Doesn't matter. You're coming with me."
"What?!"
"Did I stutter?!"
"N-no, ma'am!"
And so Reyna took the handful of knights still in decent condition and headed for the village. But her exhausted men couldn't help arriving late.
"Are we too late...?!"
They were so delayed that a horrific massacre should already have run its course.
Damn it...!!
And yet, for some reason, the village looked fine. When Reyna and her knights made their appearance, the village chief came out to greet them.
"Oh, you've come. To rush here and save us like this—we're truly grateful."
"But... what happened? The monsters?"
"The monsters have all been dealt with."
"What? How?"
"Two adventurers lent us their aid."
"Adventurers...?"
And the ones who stepped into view were none other than Dale and a young woman.
Dale...?!
For a split second, Reyna nearly ran to him without even realizing it—but she forced herself to look composed.
"Didn't expect to find you in a place like this."
"We were handling a request."
Reyna looked Dale over, then the unfamiliar girl beside him.
"Adventurers, you said?"
"That's right. Amelia and I founded an Adventurer Guild together."
Reyna took in their shabby appearance and started to laugh.
"Puhahaha! Adventurers? You've got to be kidding me."
And she had reason to. The profession of adventurer was a vanished occupation, the kind of absurd fantasy that belonged in fairy tales. To most people, adventurers were nothing more than dreamers chasing after romance, freedom, and idle fancy.
"You leave the Hero Party and the best you can come up with is 'adventurer'? Pathetic."
No matter how much Reyna sneered and tore into him, Dale didn't so much as flinch.
"It doesn't matter anymore. What I do is none of your concern."
And in the girl standing at Dale's side, Reyna thought she caught a glimpse of herself.
"......"
She snapped out of it soon enough. A smug grin spread across her face as she addressed him.
"Well, if you really, desperately want to come back, I suppose I could allow it."
But for all her talk, Reyna's weapon and armor didn't look to be in good shape. Once, Dale would have found some way to help her, no matter what. Now, everything was different. He refused her without a hint of hesitation.
At that, Amelia, who had been standing right beside him, clung tightly to Dale and shouted at Reyna.
"That's right! Dale will never go back to you!"
"......"
The way Amelia stuck to Dale's side grated on Reyna terribly, but she pretended it didn't bother her in the slightest.
"......"
Completely undaunted, Amelia spoke with ringing confidence.
"I was saved by Dale once. He helped me without asking for anything in return. I will never forget that kindness. I will devote everything I have to making him the greatest adventurer on the continent."
Then she jabbed a finger at Reyna and declared:
Hearing that brazen declaration, Reyna only laughed.
"What an amusing pair of insects. Sure, give it your best shot. Puhahaha!"
She did nothing but sneer down at Dale and Amelia, looking at them with open contempt.
The day Dale left the Royal Palace of Erinas.
Before the palace gates.
"Hah..."
I had finally thrown off every last burden. I had quit the Hero Party I had thrown my body on the line for, and I had said my farewells to the women I had spent a lifetime with.
They were the ones I had been with for nearly my entire life, and yet... the deep wounds I had taken from hearing their true feelings would not heal easily.
My body trembled.
And it wasn't only the psychological shock. The moment I cast aside that heavy shield and peeled off my armor, the truth of my body was laid bare: I was covered in wounds, every inch of me.
Ugh... it hurts.
All that time, as the Hero Party's Heavy Knight, I had taken every attack with my own body. Wounds opened endlessly, splitting open again before they could even close. I had fought on even through that excruciating pain.
It's going to take a while before this body is fully healed.
Honestly, it was a mystery how I had even lasted this long in this condition. Still... there was a sense of relief. It almost felt as though every weight on my heart had been lifted. And because I felt so unburdened, a sliver of guilt even started to creep in. But I forced myself to stop thinking about guilt.
No. From now on, I'm living for myself.
And yet, now that I finally had time that was entirely my own, the silence felt almost deafening.
Now... I can do whatever I want.
Even so, a quiet fullness began to well up inside me.
My body feels light. Like a weight's been lifted.
My body felt light enough to float away, and yet—
"Ghk—!!"
The wounds that hadn't closed yet hurt far too much.
I should get these treated first.
So I went looking for a local potion shop, only to find the elderly proprietor in the middle of closing up.
"Why are you closing so early?"
The shopkeeper jumped at the sound of my voice, but his eyes were sad.
"You startled me... I'm not just closing for the day. Potion shops can't operate anymore."
"What are you talking about?"
"From now on, potions can't be bought or sold except the ones distributed by the Goddess Cult. You can't even use them."
"......?"
What on earth was going on...?
"Couldn't you at least spare me a few healing potions?"
"Aigoo—absolutely not! If you go using potions without authorization, they'll arrest you as a heretic!"
"What...? A heretic?"
The Goddess Cult's power had grown so strong that they were now controlling the populace and holding trials.
"......"
What in the world was happening inside the Goddess Cult...? This felt nothing like the church I had known.
Something's been changing ever since Claire became the Saintess...
It was a situation I could hardly believe.
"Can't you just set a few aside for me? My body's in no condition to wait."
"I told you, I can't."
"Come on, just—"
"No!"
We were right in the middle of that back-and-forth when a woman's crisp, ringing voice cut in from behind me.
"Sell me some potions too!!"
"Hey, I was here first."
The moment I turned around—
"Huh...?!"
"Ah?!"
I was stunned to see a familiar face.
"You're..."
But rather than surprise, her face lit up with pure joy.
"Teacher!!! I've missed you so much!! Not a single moment since graduation have I ever forgotten you!"
Tears even pricked at her eyes as she threw herself into my arms.
"A... Amelia?!"
Her name was Amelia. She was a girl I had met long ago, back when I had taken a post as an instructor at the Military Academy to earn money. She was a young lady from a prestigious noble house, raised on nothing but the most rigorous elite education—and perhaps because of that, she had an extremely bold personality.
She used to be a tiny little loudmouth. Now she's grown into a proper—and still loud—young lady.
It had been a very long time since I had last seen her—not since I had left the academy to return to the Hero Party.