Chapter 17 : Troll Train
SO CLOSE! SO CLOSE! THAT"S CLOSE! THAT WAS SO CLOSE!
Not only my knees was trembling, my eyes was also hazy and my lung felt like they"re about to explode. Even so, I clenched my rattling teeth and encouraged myself.
We have managed to come this far! Even if I"m very tired, I should still go on!
「DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! 」
I rushed up the last stairs without stopping,
「DOURAAAAAAAAAA! 」
I kicked open the door, jumped into the castle, and ended up sprawled on the clean and clear floor.
We somehow managed to leave the underground labyrinth. However, I couldn"t stop moving. Not yet. It was still not safe.
Therefore, I drew upon my willpower and kicked on the floor to gain momentum. Fortunately, it was not a moment too late, as the door from where I came from was busted off its hinges after I had done so.
「Seriously! They"re too persistent! 」
I shouted to vent my emotion. Though this action of mine caused my parched throat to scream in pain, still, I wrung the rest of my power and started to run once again. Like h.e.l.l I"m going to stop just because my stamina was at its limit.
Thinking that, I squeezed the rest of my already exhausted energy to move forward.
The number of labyrinth trolls that swarmed from inside of the labyrinth wasn"t just 10 or 20. Originally, I thought that they"re going to give up as long as I managed to leave the underground labyrinth. However, that was not the case.
How naive of me to think that they would give up.
Thus, right now, I was running along the corridors in accordance to my memory. I didn"t even have a spare moment to confirm my location, and just let my body naturally moved forward. All of a sudden, I saw something that made my hazy vision brightened.
It was the training field.
「DOUBLE ROW RANK! FRONT ROW GET READY! ! 」
As I, holding Reanshild, rushed on the sandy ground towards safety, we pa.s.sed by the group of royal knights wearing black armours standing ready in formation. I also heard the familiar commanding voice shouting orders to his subordinates. Right after that though, a thundering sound that was strong enough to shake the castle resounded.
「RIGHT SIDE, GO! BACK ROW, WITHDRAW! WIPE THEM! 」
As the order fell, the royal knights attacked the labyrinth trolls without hesitation.
「The heck is with that appearance! 」
Saying that, Carlile covered us who had collapsed on the floor due to exhaustion- with a blanket. Meanwhile, the sound of storm-like battle continued to resound in the training ground.
I was sure, the scene of them fighting back to back with their comrades was a sight to behold.
It seemed that Carlile truly had gathered everyone as he promised. Really, he saved me there. I truly thought that I was going to die before.
「CENTER, ON STANDBY! ADVANCE FROM BOTH SIDES! PUT THEM BACK IN THEIR PLACE! 」
Their vice captain, Molbadot-san gave his order. Molbadot-san is one of the elites within the elite in royal knight. There"s no more than 8 people in the same level as him. And right now, those elites were currently fighting against those trolls. How rea.s.suring.
Then again, even a normal knight such as Carlile-san who was affected by that demon incense thing could still fling those labyrinth troll away. As expected, the royal knights were truly strong. Even as I thought so, they kept pushing their opponent back.
Whilst the knights were fighting, I finally regained my breath, so I unfastened Reanschild from my back and supported her with my arm. I then laid her face down on the cloth that was spread on the ground, and let someone more experienced to examine her wound. That person was unexpectedly someone I knew of. She"s a warrior that belonged to the royal knight, who"s also specializing in the medical arts.
I watched as she pressed her hands on Reanschild"s back with a grim face.
「This is awful. She had done her best to endure up to this point. 」
She kept her palm on Reanschild"s gaping wound and moments later, it was wrapped in pale light.
This is…magic! It was the first time I ever see it!
As I exclaimed in my mind, the pale light enveloped the wounded parts of Reanschild"s back and closed up the gaping wound. Surely, it was magic that help fixed her wound, that was the thought in my mind.
「It seems her life is safe for now」
Hearing Carlile-san"s muttered those words with a relieved tone, I reacted as if I was slapped awake from my happy dream.
What did he say? "For now"?
「That was so close. It seems that wound had reached as far as her lung. It should be extremely painful for her」
My eyes widen in surprise the further I heard about her current condition.
H-HOLD ON. What did that mean? Didn"t she say that her life wasn"t in any danger?
I heard that from the person herself.
Yup, from the person hers-………..
From the person herself?
I suddenly noticed and then looked back at Reanschild. She was averting her gaze from me.
「You lied me」
Reanschild stayed silent.
……. THIS La.s.s.
Her wound went as far as scratching her lung? Despite the extreme pain she should have felt, on the way here, she did not show any expression indicating her pain, nor did she looked like she was choked by blood.
Turned out she forcibly swallowed her blood back while also desperately enduring her pain without leaking a single sound, huh.
「You"re lying when you said that it didn"t hurt.」
「It"s………….. Really painful, in fact」
She muttered so lowly while avoiding my gaze.
「This liar. I"m going to punish you if you do this kind of thing again」
「My deepest apologies」
Even though she treated her own life like it was a trivial matter, she did it in order to not make me worried about her. What a troublesome girl. Geez.
She really made me want to pamper her by my side.
「How can you let your body end up tattered like that. Please treat your life more carefully. You really are a handful huh. Please trust me a little」
Though why am I the one being scolded by Carlile-san?
Perhaps the treatment had ended, as Reanschild"s body was covered with cloth by the female medical arts. That cloth was similar with the one from before, that"s why she could use that cloth like a blanket even while she was lying down.
However, Reanschild was trying to raise her body despite just being healed. It seemed she was already capable of moving by herself even though she should"ve lost a lot of blood by the look of her blood-stained figure.
Just like magic.
Or maybe she could move because she"s using magic.
「Lefiysama, here, your extra potion. Your body should be tattered right?」
I received a small palm-sized bottle from Carlile-san that was filled with pale silver liquid. Was it some sort of medicine? It"s drinkable, right?
Opening the cork, I directly drank the contents since no one is going to use poison in my current condition.
A gooey sensation ran through my throat. It felt like something slimy and crunchy was mixed in my mouth and left a bitter aftertaste, though the gra.s.s-like smell and the bitter after taste came later.
It"s nothing but, YUCK. The heck is this.
「……….. Don"t tell me, now I"m going to be poisoned by Carlile-san. A back stabber was so close to me」
「……….. Stop saying misleading things. In the first place, I won"t fall as low as using poison. It"s a genuine extra potion to revitalize your stamina which is exclusive to our corps」
Carlile-san said that with tired tone. Now that he mentioned it, I could feel a warm feeling gushing out from my stomach that spread throughout my entire body. My limbs that felt like a lead suddenly became lighter.
This is great stuffs. It tasted unpleasant though.
「!!!!! ? ……… No way! ? 」
The medical arts specialist who has just began treating my body stopped moving. Her expression stiffened as if she couldn"t believe what she saw in front of her.
E? What？ What"s the matter?
The medical art specialist was timidly averting her slightly trembling eyes, looking directly to Carlile-san, who was telling her to keep quiet through his eyes.
「Even if you say exclusive for the corps. Was that supposed to be drank! ? That was supposed to be outdated and about to be disposed of you know! ? 」
「BUUUURGH! 」
Carlile-san face turned pale in a flash.
OI, CARLILE-SAN.
「M-Maybe it won"t be a problem if it"s Lefiysama! So don"t wor-BFUOOOOOO! 」
I grabbed the nape of Carlile-san"s neck when he turned around in order to quickly escape from me. Or at least, he tried to do so. Unfortunately, he was caught by me before that. I, myself, was not that angry over that rotten potion. What made me truly mad was because he said that I"d be fine without regard for my health.
Although right now he looked like he"s suffering from the pain I inflicted when I wrenched his neck in my grip, it did not satisfy me. Did he really think he could run away from me? Jus as I was about to interrogate him, an even more thunderous sound is heard from the training ground.
Releasing Carlile-san, I turned around, though by that time, a few of the royal knights have already been defeated.
「WHAT！? What was that! ? 」
A part of the corps formation is blown away. Right after that, I saw the other royal knights were leaving the formation from that spot while carrying their defeated comrades with them.
Since it seemed like the defeated knights could still walk on their own, it did not looked like there were any casualties.
Still, I wondered what exactly was the problem though?
While thinking that, I ran over to the side of the defeated royal knights, as I"m much more worried over the state of their injuries than of my own condition. They were currently being treated by medical art specialist, so I could rest a.s.sured.
Turning back my attention to the training field, I speculate that the labyrinth trolls were almost completely eliminated with only a few remaining. I should take comfort of that and see things in a positive light for now. Although as expected, the knights were unable to hide their agitation from the unexpected situation.
It was no wonder since someone had caused a disturbance within the corps formation. And, that person was still standing there.
And when that lone knight wearing the royal knights armor fell to his knees, the remaining labyrinth trolls rush at him with a loud shriek.
「BROTHER! 」
Reanschild called that person with sorrowful voice.
Eh, it"s Adolphus!
For some reason, the stimulated labyrinth trolls were rushing towards Adolphus who fell to his knees as if to pounce on him.
Their state was similar to when those trolls rushed at us in the underground labyrinth.
Minced meat was scattering around along with rains of blood.
Despite the fact that I couldn"t see his movement very well, but I was sure it was caused by his attack. Adolphus" swordplay actually minced the remaining trolls in a blink of an eye.
While the royal knights were strong, I could admit freely that Adolphus was on another level altogether, even when he was compared with the elite within royal knight such as the vice-captain.
However, something seemed off.
For some reason, the tension in this place did not disperse even though the labyrinth trolls were annihilated. The tension was so thick that I could even heard the sound of my heart beating. It was particularly loud right now.
Adolphus was standing up, and he began moving slowly. However, I felt like he"s looking at my direction. Was he looking for something? When I thought of that, in an instance, my body was trembling as if its reacting to something dangerous, like a predator.
Before my fight or flee impulse was triggered though, someone was standing in front of me. It was…Reanschild.
Reanschild eyes were wide open. Her already pale face has become even paler right now. However, she still stood tall in front of me. Facing her, Adolphus started to move with a swaying movement, and that made something inside my head to keep sending warning signals to me.
No good.
Dangerous. This was absolutely a dangerous situation.
What sort of danger we were in? I did not know.
I just know that we"re in an even greater predicament! !
「Reanschild………..」
During that tense moment, I could hear an almost inaudible whisper.