Chapter 29: Sparring(3)
Chapter 29: Sparring(3)
The training ground was in a festive mood long after the duel had ended. People clinked their glasses, and the sound of laughter was endless.
Some commoners even approached Victoria to offer her gifts. She accepted them with a nonchalant air, but a faint smile was clearly visible on her face. She’s a rare, beloved noble.
The villagers’ gazes toward Kerry were also favorable, as if they were looking at a celebrity. So this is what it feels like to make it big.
But perhaps because the peace was so great, the panic that followed when it shattered was all the more severe.
“A horde of hundreds of ghouls has appeared before the castle!”
“Aaaah!”
“Mommy! I’m scared!”
“Are we safe inside the castle?”
The residents who had been enjoying the festival were instantly thrown into a panic. It wasn’t just one ghoul, but hundreds of them. Their reaction was understandable.
Even Victoria’s escort knights looked tense.
“My lady. Please evacuate to the inner keep for now. We will handle the ghouls…”
But Victoria only offered a faint smile.
“Don’t be ridiculous. They’ve come to kill me. How pathetic. To think they’d try to kill me with mere ghouls. I will go myself. Bring me my armor and my sword!”
“You mustn’t, my lady! It’s too dangerous.”
“That’s an order. Hurry!”
Not even her escort knights could stop Victoria. Seeing Lina just shaking her head, it seemed this was just Victoria’s personality.
Lina approached Victoria.
“Lady Victoria. We will also help subjugate the ghouls.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful. Your help would be greatly appreciated. But I hope you don’t perform so well that you steal my share of the glory. Hahaha. It’s been a while since my last battle, and my hands are itching for a fight.”
As expected, in this world, no one with any real skill is normal. If I just stay quiet, Lina and the others will take care of everything. All I have to do is watch the show from a safe distance and enjoy the spoils.
After a short wait, knights appeared on magnificent horses.
Victoria’s white steed was among them.
Clad in ornate armor and mounted on her white horse, Victoria looked truly splendid.
“If you need horses as well, I will provide them.”
“We’re faster on foot.”
“Me too. I’m used to running.”
Lina and Natasha were mana users. They didn’t seem to feel the need to ride.
Seeing me standing there silently, Victoria looked at me as if demanding an answer. Why is she looking at me? I’m not going.
“…I don’t know how to ride a horse.”
This was the truth. Horses were very expensive animals. There was no way a former F-rank adventurer like me would have ever ridden one.
‘Nice. This is a natural way to get out of the fight.’
This was a battlefield where a perilous horde of ghouls was advancing. There was no way I wanted to go. Just then, Victoria extended her hand to me. What the hell? So suddenly.
With one hand, Victoria lifted me up and placed me on the horse behind her.
“Haha. You should consider it an honor. You’re the first man to ever ride behind me.”
“No, wait, hold on, I wasn’t planning on…”
“Hya! Let’s move out!”
‘Shit! I said I didn’t want to go!’
My voice was drowned out by the thundering hooves of the cavalry. It wouldn’t look good, but should I ask her to let me down now?
I was torn.
Just then, Lina gave me a thumbs-up. It wasn’t easy to betray that face full of trust.
“I’ll protect you, my husband!”
‘Yeah, Natasha! You’re my only hope. You have to protect me!’
In the end, Kerry was dragged to the very front lines, riding behind Victoria.
As the horse galloped, Kerry thought calmly. There was a question that had been nagging at him.
‘Why did ghouls appear in front of the castle? Weren’t they supposed to be preparing inside? Could this be a feint?’
Because of the voodoo, he had even made Natasha prepare a large amount of holy water. The thought bothered him, so he explained it to Victoria.
“What? You think ghouls might appear inside the castle as well?”
“They probably won’t be complete ghouls. With holy water, we should be able to restore them to normal.”
“But… there’s no way we have that much precious holy water.”
“It’s fine. I’ve already had the holy water prepared at the temple. If you just give the order to the temple, Lady Victoria, we should be able to avoid the worst.”
“….Did you predict this entire situation? You truly are no ordinary man.”
Somehow, I feel like I’m being more and more overestimated. Victoria relayed what I said to a knight riding beside her.
One of the knights broke from the formation and galloped toward the temple.
Lina, also having something to say, ran up beside us. Wow. She was just running, but it made the horse feel slow.
“Lady Victoria. To minimize the damage, we must defeat the ghouls outside with a small, elite force.”
“I know that much. That’s why I intend to sally forth with my personal guard!”
“Understood. Then I will go on ahead!”
“You’d better leave some for me!”
‘There’s no need for that, Lina! Just wipe them all out yourself!’
As we rode with the escort unit, soldiers on the wall must have seen us, as the castle gates began to open on their own.
“Are you frightened?”
Victoria asked me just before we charged out of the castle. A man has his pride.
I couldn’t very well ask her to let me down now, claiming I was scared.
“Of course not. Charge. Let’s wipe them all out!”
‘I’ve got Natasha! And Lina will come running if I’m in danger!’
“Hehe. That’s the man who caught my eye! Hya! Full speed ahead!”
The knights let out a thunderous roar as they charged through the gates. The soldiers on the walls roared back.
Looking straight ahead, I could see hundreds of rotting ghouls making their way toward us.
Lina, who had arrived at some point, was already fighting the ghouls by herself.
It was then that a loud noise began to echo from within the castle.
Black smoke rising into the sky was an ominous sign.
‘So it was a diversionary tactic? Targeting the villagers while we were away… no. Perhaps the target was Victoria all along. They probably never expected a noble like her to come out onto the battlefield herself.’
Seeing the rising black smoke, Lina gritted her teeth. Why did these bastards hold human life so cheaply?
Memories of the brutal war she had witnessed in her past life flooded her mind. She had to save them.
If Nassen or Furuku had infiltrated the castle, the damage would be catastrophic.
She had to save everyone. That sense of duty weighed heavily on her.
“Natasha! I’m counting on you to protect Kerry!”
“Leave it to me!”
Lina began sprinting back toward the castle at full speed. She was incredibly fast.
For the moment, I saw it as the right decision. It was certain that Lina, who was faster than a horse, should be the first to provide support.
We had more than enough strength here. At least, that’s what I thought. The anomaly occurred after Lina was too far away to be seen.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake, and ghouls started to rise from the earth one by one.
Furuku could also be seen climbing out of the ground.
“Buhik! I was getting tired of hiding in the ground!”
‘So that’s where you were. These guys seem to be serious this time.’
Kerry didn’t know it, but for Nassen and Furuku, this was their last, life-or-death chance. With their lives on the line, a meticulous plan was only natural.
“You look tasty! Let me have just one bite! Buhik!”
Furuku began to reach for the nearest knight. Startled by the murderous aura, the horse panicked and bucked, throwing the knight helplessly to the ground.
“How dare that vermin touch my man!”
Enraged, Victoria spurred her horse and charged toward Furuku. Couldn’t you have let me down first!
“You bastard!”
“Don’t bother me while I’m eating!”
Just as Victoria charged at Furuku, his eyes, starved with hunger, gleamed.
Furuku’s iron mace struck. Hit by the mace, Victoria and Kerry were thrown from the horse and tumbled across the ground.
Her desire to save her subordinate had made her reckless. If she had blocked properly, a tank like Victoria wouldn’t have been so grievously injured.
“Cough!”
Thankfully, Victoria was alive. I had rolled on the ground, but I wasn’t seriously hurt.
“Hoo. The real problem starts now…”
The ghouls that had risen with Furuku began to surround us.
But I had an ace up my sleeve.
“My husband!”
Natasha was slaughtering ghouls left and right as she ran toward me. Once Natasha gets here, you’re all dead.
The sight of the ghouls shambling toward us was utterly horrifying.
“Red-haired bitch! This is revenge for last time!”
Furuku, who had already devoured the knight, armor and all, charged at Natasha. Damn it. Now there was no one to protect me.
“Stand back. Cough! I’ll hold them off here.”
Victoria staggered to her feet. What did she think she could do, coughing up red blood like that?
“Just take care of yourself. It’ll be a pain if you get bitten.”
‘I can’t let one of Lina’s past companions become a ghoul.’
Somehow, I had to hold on with my own strength. At least until Natasha arrived.
‘Should I use Wind Blade? No. I can only use it once… I have to be careful.’
I had no intention of saving Wind Blade if my life was in danger, but since I could only use it once, I had to be cautious.
Just then, I saw two of Victoria’s escort knights break through the ghoul encirclement and charge toward us.
“My lady!”
“We’ve come to rescue you!”
They were true knights. They were skilled enough to charge through the encirclement on horseback.
The two knights who broke through pulled me and Victoria onto their horses.
“We will return to the castle immediately, my lady!”
“I… I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come here. Cough!”
“Don’t say anything right now.”
“Guys! This is no time for a drama! The ghouls are coming.”
“A drama? What’s a drama? No, first… let’s escape! Hya!”
The horses finally started running. The knights cut down any ghouls that blocked our path.
Kerry shouted Natasha’s name. She was facing off against Furuku.
“Natasha!”
“I’m fine, my husband! Go on to the castle! I’ll finish these guys off and be right back!”
Natasha was as reliable as ever.
“Oh, and don’t you dare cheat on me with that woman while I’m gone!”
If she hadn’t added that last part, she would have seemed so much cooler.
It was just as the knights broke completely through the ghoul encirclement. Furuku’s roar echoed.
“Buhik! Don’t let them get away! After them, my ghouls!”
But there was no way mere ghouls could catch up to galloping horses.
Just as Kerry was about to flip the stupid Furuku the bird, the ghouls suddenly rushed at each other and began to merge. The Combined Ghoul looked like a giant, four-legged beast.
It was a grotesque sight of corpses stitched together.
Guoooooo—
The Combined Ghoul let out a loud roar. Then it began to run, its steps thundering across the ground.
It was surprisingly fast. Fast enough to slowly gain on the horses, which had a head start.
“We’ll be caught on the plains! To the forest! Let’s escape into the forest!”
The trees in the forest would hinder a creature of that size.
“It’s still chasing us!”
“Don’t look back, just run!”
We were getting farther and farther from the castle, but we had no choice. The path to the castle was open plains. If we fled toward the castle, we might have been caught and trampled.
The trees and rocks of the forest at least slowed the Combined Ghoul’s pursuit, allowing us to escape this far.
How long had we been running?
It felt like over an hour. The horses were exhausted, panting heavily.
“Let… let me down. I’ll buy some time. The rest of you, escape.”
Victoria, her body a wreck, was spouting nonsense.
“What do you think you can do in your condition?”
“Are you looking down on me? I am Victoria Belarus! The eldest daughter of the Belarus family! A monster like that… cough.”
While we were having this pointless conversation, the forest ended. The massive Combined Ghoul was still crashing through trees, chasing us.
“Whoa, whoa!”
“Is this the end…”
The knights suddenly reined in their horses. Looking around, I could see why.
The place I thought was the end of the forest was a cliff. There was nowhere left to run.
“Shit. We’re fucked.”
No. Kerry still had a trump card left. The Combined Ghoul approached, knocking down trees as it came.
Seeing our predicament, it let out a low growl. The sound was like a forced, mocking laugh from a creature with no vocal cords.
“Damn it. I can’t give up here. I have to protect the lady.”
“Somehow, we have to save the lady, at least…”
‘And what about me, you bastards…’
Right. They were loyal to Victoria, not me. I understood. Below the cliff, a river flowed. The cliff was so high that a fall would likely be fatal.
Guoooooo—!
Just as the Combined Ghoul roared and charged to finish us off, Kerry held out the magic orb.
Now was the time to show the results of all his magic training.
A grand stage, perfect for showing off a man’s fantasy!
Kerry held out the orb and whispered softly.
“Wind Blade.”
Wind surged around Kerry. His clothes fluttered for a moment before a sound like tearing air ripped through the silence.
Simultaneously, a blade of wind took form and shot toward the Combined Ghoul.
The moment the Wind Blade struck, the Combined Ghoul began to fly apart into pieces.
Disgusting corpse matter rained down, splattering black blood and flesh onto the ground.
Thud—
The Combined Ghoul fell in a single blow from the Wind Blade. It wasn’t completely obliterated, but it could no longer maintain its form.
“Holy shit. That was awesome.”
Even though I was the one who did it, watching the Wind Blade slice the Combined Ghoul to pieces like a high-pressure cutter was incredibly cool. Magic really is the best!
“You… you were a mage?”
“Seeing you fight the Guard Captain, I was sure you were a swordsman.”
The knights muttered in astonishment. Victoria was also staring at me with wide, surprised eyes. It was a little embarrassing.
It was then.
“That… that… monster!”
“The ghoul is pulling itself back together!”
The Combined Ghoul was re-forming its body, its glare fixed on us.