Operation: Seraphina Buster
Another glass for the loser who had conceded victory….
I carried the hopes of quite a few people on my shoulders.
As if to prove it, when I returned from afternoon tea in the garden, a crowd was already waiting in the room assigned to me.
The knight trainees, my brother, and Sir Kaiden.
Wondering what all the fuss was about, I looked around and found my room had somehow turned into an armory.
“What is all this?”
“…Edwin.”
Sir Kaiden, who had been living as quietly as possible so as not to offend the Countess, placed a hand on my shoulder with a thoroughly serious expression.
“Our future rests on those two shoulders of yours.”
Nod, nod.
Everyone gathered in the room nodded as if sharing a single mind.
“There won’t be a single decent set of armor left, will there? So we prepared a few things.”
I had been planning to convert the necklace I received as first-place reward in the group stage into cash anyway. With that money I meant to commission armor somehow. If it fell short I was going to borrow a little from people I knew, but for them all to show up like this….
They must have bet an absurd amount.
It was the perfect situation for the saying that the bear does the tricks while someone else pockets the money.
I looked at my brother, who stood with his arms folded, putting on unnecessary airs.
If I hand Bloodvein over to him, I can probably claw back ninety percent of the winnings, right?
Thanks to the Countess’s consideration, once the investigation finished and no problems remained, Bloodvein would pass to me. But Bloodvein was a weapon Warriors used in a specific level range. I had no need for it and planned to dispose of it; giving it to my brother would let me reclaim most of the money he had made betting.
Still feels a little short….
The skill learned at level 25 required an enormous amount of armor. I needed to leverage the odds and pull in serious cash, yet the money I had brought out wasn’t enough to make it that large a sum.
“Go on, pick whatever you want. We prepared plenty, so there should be one or two that fit.”
Sir Kaiden shoved me forward until I stood before the mountain of armor.
Which one do I go with….
Depending on the craftsman, the center of gravity of each piece differed. Unfamiliar armor needed time to break in. Right now, though, there didn’t seem to be any time for that.
In that case….
I go with the heaviest, thickest set.
A saber was a slightly curved blade whose tricky attacks, born from light wrist snaps, were a real nuisance. You thought it was coming straight on, and the next moment it was cutting your wrist or ankle. Unlike the fight against the man named Albert, this time it would be better to take the attacks on the armor itself.
“Hey, hey, shouldn’t you look at the leather armor too? Iron armor and you’ll get fried, you know?”
“But leather gets cut right through, doesn’t it?”
“Better than being paralyzed by electrocution.”
Too many cooks spoil the broth. I kicked everyone out of the room and sorted the gear I would use against Miss Seraphina.
This is the one.
Codename: Operation: Seraphina Buster.
The finals of the knight tournament.
The stage where the two who stood at the pinnacle of the participants would duel for honor.
As the last match, the stands were packed with spectators, and the Countess herself—not a knight—took charge of the proceedings.
“Second son of the Revan Viscounty, Guardian Edwin Revan.”
At the Countess’s introduction I thumped my fist against my chest.
Thoom!
The sound was far too dull to be a simple knock on armor.
“Third daughter of the Voltain Count family, Knight Seraphina Voltain.”
Shiiing.
Crackle-crackle.
Confusion filled Miss Seraphina’s eyes as she drew her saber and main-gauche.
Can’t blame her….
I had become a walking fortress.
Codename: Operation: Seraphina Buster.
It consisted of putting on an outrageous amount of armor.
Something only possible because this is reality.
In the game a character basically wore a shirt and then equipped armor items over it. But in reality there was no need for that, was there?
A sturdy gambeson over the shirt.
Special leather armor over that.
Chainmail, brigandine, and plate mail on top of everything.
I was wearing a complete, over-the-top set.
The blessing had already pushed my height into the mid-180s; right now I must have looked well over 190. Add the weight of the armor and I probably tipped the scales at 150 kg. A walking tin-can of a man.
Even the relatively weak joints were thoroughly covered, so no matter how skillfully Miss Seraphina’s swordsmanship targeted openings, it wouldn’t matter.
Barrier was a passive that created a shield equal to thirty percent of my HP based on the character’s defense score. My defense score, pushed to the absolute limit, already surpassed her attack power. She would not land a single effective hit on me.
“Why….”
Miss Seraphina’s shoulders trembled.
“Why is this….”
I carefully lifted the visor with an arm that was almost too heavy to raise above my shoulder.
“For victory.”
Clack.
I lowered the visor again.
“Do you have any idea how long I have waited for this moment…?”
I could feel her trembling travel all the way into her sword.
Crackle.
Current burst from the saber.
“Kyaa!”
Startled, the Countess half-rose from her seat and hurriedly withdrew from the arena under the knight commander’s escort.
“I was looking forward to it a great deal as well.”
“Then why, why would you do something like this….”
Why? Because—
I have to win no matter what.
“I have my own circumstances. But please understand that this is not meant as an insult to you, Miss Seraphina.”
My voice, echoing inside the helmet, sounded more resonant than usual.
Bwoooom—!
The trumpet sounded.
Flash!
In the instant blue lightning filled my vision, she was already right in front of me, swinging her sword.
Swish!
A thrust sharpened far beyond anything the man named Albert had managed.
Ting.
I simply let it glance off my round shield. There was no room for fancy parries. With the armor sealing even the joint gaps, my movement was so restricted that merely blocking attacks was already the limit.
Ching!
Accompanied by the sound of a blade flexing, her sword went for my lower body—an attack aimed at the gap at my right knee.
Crackle-crackle—!
Blue lightning flashed, sliced the targeted spot in an instant, and withdrew.
I froze exactly as I had been when the attack landed.
“Hup!”
Face twisted in frustration, she went for the opening at my right shoulder, intending to force a surrender. I didn’t bother blocking that one either.
Ting!
“Eh…?”
Under the joint, waiting for her, was a brigandine reinforced with iron plates.
“Ugh!”
She recovered the saber and tried to force the main-gauche into a seam to pry the armor open, but it was useless.
Screeech.
Clang!
The blade of the main-gauche she had jammed into my shoulder joint and twisted snapped clean off.
Of course it did.
“W-why…?”
Because that part is decorative.
The leather connecting the joints of the plate mail was just for show. Before coming to the arena I had stopped by the blacksmith and had the whole thing turned into a single solid piece that only looked like it had seams.
— Gaaah! Uwaaargh!
— A-are you all right?! C-can we keep going?!
The blacksmith’s horrified voice as he poured molten metal over me while I lay on the floor in the armor and hammered it still rang clearly in my ears.
Right now I was in full “Seraphina Buster” mode. Taking the armor off by myself was impossible; later I would have to visit the forge and have them pry it open with crowbars and saws. That was how perfect a wall it was—not a single gap.
I didn’t want to go this far, Miss Seraphina.
But the hopes of so many people were pushing me from behind. This was a match I absolutely had to win. So please don’t look at me as if a trusted comrade had turned out to be a spy.
“U-uaaaaah—!!!”
Lightning Sword Astrape.
A weapon specialized for duels that generated current by consuming the user’s mental energy and built up charge every time it struck metal equipment.
That sword drank mental energy to its limit and produced a dazzling flash. A flash that blinding could certainly punch through any remaining gap in the armor.
Clang!
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Through the narrow slit of the visor I could not fully track her movements. All I could perceive was that Astrape, charged to the absolute limit, was weaving ever more dangerous flashes of light. Only after she had passed and the afterimage remained could I barely read the trajectory.
I couldn’t keep up.
With this sluggish body, even if I read the path and predicted the next move, I could not respond. The only thing left to me was to raise my shield so that even if she lost her reason and went for my head, I could still block it.
Flash!
Rumble…!
A low peal of thunder like the approach of a storm rolled out, and the entire arena turned white.
A dangerous sound rang from Astrape as its charge hit the ceiling.
“Haa, haa, haa….”
She herself was at her limit holding Astrape. Even the red cloth wrapped around her arm was beginning to burn.
“Surrender, Edwin.”
The honorifics were gone.
“You could die.”
My answer to her final ultimatum was—
Wiggle, wiggle.
—nothing more than crooking the index finger of the hand holding the mace in a taunt.
Even with the insulation measures I had taken, the steadily increasing power of Astrape had already inflicted the status effect: Electrocution. At this rate it really would become as dangerous as she said.
But—
“Come. I’ll show you why I am a Guardian.”
“…You’ll regret this!!!”
KRA-KOOM!!!
Astrape, wreathed in lightning, swung toward my waist. I tried to catch it with the stone round shield. But my dulled body could not catch her flash-like movement.
Crack!
BOOOOM!!!
The sound of a thunderbolt striking the arena rang out.
“■■■■■!!!”
“■■■—!!!”
The noise was so loud my ears went dead; I couldn’t hear a word. I could only infer that the people in the stands looking at me were shouting something.
Ssshh.
I turned toward her as she finished every attack and gasped for breath.
Miss Seraphina’s pupils, her whole body sticky with cold sweat, shook as if an earthquake had hit them.
“W-why…?”
The Petrification status effect made the body sluggish and weak to blunt trauma, but it was extremely effective against slashing and Electrocution. From the very beginning she had never had a chance of winning.
That was why it was “Operation: Seraphina Buster.”
Thud, thud.
I approached her as she used the saber like a cane, then raised the mace. Even that I couldn’t lift above my shoulder; the pose was awkward. From that position I poured the power of Flesh-Carving Bone-Crushing into the mace and slammed it into the arena floor.
BOOOOOOM!!!
With a sound like a cannon shell exploding, dirt and dust flew, and Miss Seraphina, who had been barely staying on her feet, sat down hard on her backside.
I held the mace out toward her and asked,
“Shall we continue?”
“Ugh, uk, kuh….”
Ah, please don’t cry.
“I… kuh, concede….”
After a brief silence the Countess, acting as referee, carefully raised her hand.
“The winner is Edwin Revan!”
Waaaaaah—!!!
A massive cheer erupted from the stands.
I held out my hand to help Miss Seraphina, who was sitting on the ground, to her feet. But she rubbed her reddened eyes and refused my hand.
Ahh….
What had exploded with that BOOOOOOM!!! was not the arena floor, but the bond between her and me.
A disappointing ending left with only bitterness and a money-duplication bug.