Yuusha-sama no Oshishou-sama

Chapter 44

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Chapter 44
Confession Beneath the Tree of Light (Part 2)

With his dying breath, the chief’s second-in-command cast an explosion spell.

As he intended, the boom successfully caused his allies to return to Doria Village, but the sound also alerted Royce to the fact that the situation had changed.

Royce, along with the young woman who was waiting with him, hurried towards Doria Village.

“Are you scared?”

Breathing heavily as he moved, Royce asked her a question. Her face hidden in the hood she wore, the young woman didn’t answer. She merely set her eyes straight ahead as she walked.

Impatience, Fear, Grief.

She was headed to a battlefield, but she felt none of those emotions, but rather, a solid determination.

She focused on walking straight ahead. She didn’t answer the question, nor did her eyes waver.

Royce silently mocked himself as he moved his gaze away from the girl to stare forward once more.

‘Well, it’s a natural reaction.’

She had accompanied Kelvin, Wynn and Locke when they met back up with Royce. At that time, he could plainly see the wariness on her face.

Despite being in his mid-thirties, his belly was as fat as a beer barrel, his head was bald, his face was round and squishy, and his chin was flabby. Moreover, his sharp, appraising eyes made it look like he was always plotting something sinister.

Royce himself didn’t realize how repulsed females would be upon seeing him for the first time.

She already didn’t have a good impression of him, and also just had a bad experience. She couldn’t be faulted for being wary of Royce.

It used up energy to talk while they moved.

Royce did not try to start another conversation with the girl.

It was three against two hundred.

Against such an overwhelming difference in numbers, Wynn’s side would normally have no chance of winning.

But the enemy was wary of the fact that there were only three of them.

Sure enough, the aged man who appeared to be the leader sent five knights and around a dozen bandits under his command at them.

They probably suspected some sort of ambush lay in wait for them.

If they recklessly charged into the plaza, they might face a coordinated garage of ranged attack magic from all sides.

“Split up!”

Wynn and the others were lucky that there were only a few people.

The three ran off to different parts of the village.

Wynn dashed into a nearby two-story building.

He could never win against mounted knights, so he moved to a place where the knights couldn’t stay on horseback.

“Stop there!”

“Aren’t I acting like a delinquent right now?”

Wynn ran up the stairs.

Kicking open the wooden door, the three men rushed in after him.

“Hehehe… you ran into a dead end.”

“I’ll slaughter ya fer lookin’ down on us.”

They charged at him.

Waiting at the top of the stairs, Wynn sidestepped their spears and slashed the first man.

It would be a different matter if he were facing magically strengthened knights, but against simple bandits and mercenaries, Wynn’s diligent training gave him the advantage.

While he was thrown off balance by the slash to his chest, Wynn kicked him with all his might.

“Whoa!”

“s.h.i.t!”

The man fell over, b.u.mping into the two people behind him, and they all ended up falling down the stairs.

Without a second glance at the men at the bottom of the stairs, Wynn dashed into the room at the top of the stairs, and then jumped out of one of the windows.

Before he ran into the

building, he confirmed that there was a shed beside it. He planned to land on top of it.

For a moment, Wynn was worried that the planks that made up the roof would give in, but he landed safely.

He dashed across the roof.

Then, he jumped once again.

“Wha? Yo– Agh!”

He rammed into a knight on horseback, and they both tumbled to the ground.

One of them had expected the fall, while the other didn’t, so the one that did, got up quicker.

The armour they wore was also different.

Wynn’s leather armour was lighter than the metal armour the knight wore, so he got up faster.

Ignoring the fallen knight, he raced towards the horse, and grabbed its reins.

“Locke!”

Wynn rode towards Locke, who was fighting in an alley between two houses, where horses didn’t fit.

“What!?”

Seeing his opponents hurriedly jump out of the way, Locke ran towards Wynn’s horse and jumped on.

“You saved me there, Wynn”

“They’re behind us! Some magic would be nice!”

“Those two are over here!”

Having already stolen a horse, Kelvin took the lead. His body was soaked in blood. Wynn decided that it was probably his opponents’ blood.

As Wynn and Locke neared where Kelvin was fighting, they saw a horse that had lost its right leg. Beside it, they could see the figures of two slain enemies.

Wynn wondered how Kelvin even defeated a mounted knight.

Seeing that they had stolen horses, the enemy realized that there was probably no ambush.

All of the knights sprang into action.

“Locke!”

“I’m on it!”

Clinging onto Wynn’s back, Locke used wind magic to deflect the arrows. They were lucky that there were only two horses,

“Into the forest!”

They rode into the narrow forest paths

The knights pursued them.

“You helped me with the arrows.”

Locke thanked Wynn.

Locke could deflect the arrows with wind magic, but Locke couldn’t completely defend against the barrage of magic.

At first, the three of them weren’t riding horses, and wore lightweight armour. The knights must have thought that they were merely adventurers or mercenaries.

Neither their magic nor their arrows. .h.i.t their target.

On horseback, it was hard to cast attack magic, and even if they fired arrows, Locke would change the arrows’ trajectory using magic.

The knights were slowly catching up to Wynn and Locke. Even though the knights were equipped with heavy armour, their horses could still move faster than a horse with two people on it. On the other hand, Kelvin’s horses, unburdened, had already left them far behind.

“Shoot, another one!?”

Locke, who had been watching their backs to avoid being hit by arrows, called out.

At that moment–

“Captain Royce!”

Kelvin called out to Royce, who he had spotted running with heavy footsteps.

“Hah… Hah… The people… fled into the forest… Quickly… I leave the rest to you.”

Kelvin stopped his horse right beside Royce. Meanwhile, Wynn and Locke’s horses ran past them.

That was when the battle began.

“Hey, Onii-chan…“

Leticia smiled, her face illuminated by the puffs of light emanating from the tree.

“I understand well why you tell me not to fight. I really needed to realize that I had gotten Onii-chan involved–”

Cutting off Wynn’s protest, Leticia gently stroked Wynn’s cheek.

Her eyes were filled with affection. They momentarily became clouded with pain, but soon cleared up.

“Thank you, Onii-chan. Thank you for worrying about me, but I must apologize.”

Pausing for a moment, Leticia looked down. She then looked back up, resolution in her eyes..

She looked straight at Wynn with an unsmiling, serious expression.

“I am sorry. The one who taught me the warmth human of human kindness was you. The one who taught me how to fight was you. Because I met you, I realized that I wasn’t alone in this wide world. That’s why I want to walk alongside you. I want to fight alongside you. Even if I hurt others, even if I get called a monster by others, even if I am called a Demon Lord by humanity. I still want to walk alongside you. That is my selfishness. I will fight of my own free will.”

‘Even if the world doesn’t acknowledge me, as long as you do, that is enough.’

Wynn and Locke ran past Royce. Then, the person beside Royce moved.

It was only for an instant, but the hooded figure met Wynn’s eyes.

Wynn bit his lips in frustration.

‘Right now, I am not worthy of standing by her side. But someday…’

Kelvin pulled Royce up onto the horse, as he looked towards the hooded figure and the enemy knights.

‘This is bad…’

Kelvin’s body trembled as he felt an overwhelming desire.

‘I want to fight. I want to slaughter.’

Despite telling Wynn and Locke to flee from the army of two hundred at Doria Village, he was holding back a desire to charge forward. Of course, he didn’t believe he would win.

He didn’t think he would lose to a ragtag group of a hundred mercenaries and bandits, but there were a hundred more knights. Against mounted knights, they would only be able to take down three or four knights at best.

He savored the euphoria he felt from delineating the border between life and death.

He was willing to risk his life to feel that rush of pleasure.

The two hundred men before him looked delicious. They were first-cla.s.s prey.

Bloodl.u.s.t swelled up.

He couldn’t contain it any longer

“Hey, Kelvin. Your bad habit is coming out again.”

Royce, who had finally clambered onto the horse, called out to Kelvin, bringing Kelvin back to his senses.

“… What are you talking about? Anyways, shouldn’t you lose some weight, Captain? I pity the horse for having to bear such a heavy burden.”

“Urgh… I’m really sorry.”

Kelvin regained his calm and returned with a frivolous rejoinder.

Making sure that Royce was holding on tight, he urged the horse forward.

The hooded figure didn’t even look back at Kelvin.

The hooded figure didn’t even react to the hostility — or rather, bloodl.u.s.t — that had silenced the knights that had picked a fight with Wynn and the others when they had first arrived at the camp.

‘I see. What a monster. That was close. I almost cut him down.’

If Royce hadn’t noticed Kelvin’s bloodl.u.s.t and called out to him, he would have cut Royce down. Royce had interacted with Kelvin for a long time now. It was easy for him to tell what Kelvin was thinking.

‘But it feels like we just bicker all the time.’

Royce desperately struggled to keep his balance on the horse.

Smiling inwardly at the sight of his superior’s efforts, Kelvin decided that he would have to discuss Count Elstead’s eating habits and relationship with women some time soon.

Just as Royce and Kelvin had finally started moving, the pursuing knights came upon a hooded figure standing in the road.

The hooded figure stood in the middle of a small clearing in front of them.

Upon seeing the hooded figure blocking their path, the leader of the knights raised his hand to stop the knights.

The knights split into two groups. One to apprehend the hooded figure, and one to continue the purs–

Whoosh! They felt a gust of wind, and before they knew it, the hooded person had drawn their sword.

A long groove in the ground appeared in front of the group that was about to continue their pursuit.

“Who the heck are you!”

One of the knights called out.

The figure threw off the hood. They could see golden hair billow in the wind, and a pair of emerald green eyes.

The young woman’s breathtaking beauty caused most of the knights to be lost for words, but a few of them were trembling in fear.

“Magic… Q- Quickly, cast magic! Everyone, give it all you have!!”

One of the knights, trembling in fear, lost control and started screaming.

Some of the spellbound knights came to their senses and tried to hurriedly cast a spell.

However, the number of spells that were cast was far below the knight’s expectations.

Even then, the few Flame Arrows that were cast all hit the young woman, igniting the area with raging flames.

“You imbeciles! I said all of you, and with all your power!”

However, the knight’s allies only returned bewildered gazes to his impatient shouts.

There was a reason.

She certainly was a beautiful woman, but that was it. Rather, the blaze they had just cast was overkill. Even though it was part of their orders, many of the knights felt that it would be a pity to kill off such a young and beautiful woman.

“Again! Fire the next volley!”

None of his allies sympathised with the knight’s desperate cries.

But when the flames died down and the smoke cleared, the perplexed knights also paled.

They finally understood why that knight was so frantic.

The young woman had not moved a step.

The young woman’s clothes were not even singed, and not a hair on her head was disturbed.

She stood there boldly, as if nothing had happened.

Most of them held the status of Chevalier. They weren’t poor, but they weren’t particularly affluent.

That was why none of them had ever seen her in person. At most, they had only seen her likeness in a portrait.

The knew of her. They knew she was only fourteen. They knew she had golden hair emerald eyes, and a beautiful face. They also knew that she was the third daughter of Duke Mavis, one of the prominent n.o.bles of the Remulshil Empire.

They slowly realized who she was.

Mavis the Brave — Leticia van Mavis — was standing before them.

“First of all, you all have made a mistake. I won’t hesitate to kill all of you. If I had any hesitation, I would not have been able to survive my journey. That’s why, not a single one of you will leave here alive. Please prepare yourselves.”

“Waaaaaaaaah!”

This time, all of the knights cast a spell with all their might.

With a violent boom, the numerous flame arrows created a pillar of fire high into the sky.

“Attack! Destroy her!”

They no longer knew who was screaming. Everybody was casting as many spells as they could.

They put their all into each spell they cast.

Eventually, after having expended as much magic power as they could, sank to the ground, gasping for air.

All of their gazes were glued to one spot.

The raging inferno gradually subsided. Suddenly, a violent gust of wind blew away all the smoke.

Leticia emerged from the smoke, without a burn on her, or a speck of ash on her clothes.

“Eeeek!”

“A monster!”

The once orderly ranks of knights broke ranks and fled in panic.

Throwing away their pride and reputation, the knights tried to flee into the forest, pushing their supposed allies aside as they fled.

But it was futile.

“W- What?”

“How did we end up back here?”

They should have fled into the forest, but in the next instant, they found themselves back where they were. Those who had fled towards Doria Village also ended up in that same clearing.

“Forest of Illusions — The forest is our domain. In order to protect it, I cast a barrier spell.”

A single elf appeared — it was Tiara Sciurus Belfa.

A single person cast a barrier spell that would normally require the magic power of several individuals to cast it.

“Impossible! Elves don’t interfere with human fights, right?”

“This is a diplomatic issue!”

“We elves are not interfering. We are merely protecting the forest.”

Tiara’s dispa.s.sionate tone doused the incensed knights’ protests.

“A- Ah…”

With nowhere to run, the knights looked at Leticia. She released countless b.a.l.l.s of red light.

She casually sent those lights at them.

The knights instantly chanted a Barrier spell. It was a fruit of their daily training. However, that barrier was quickly pierced.

Many knights fell with cries of anguish.

Only a handful of knights remained. Most of them had used all of their magic power to attack Leticia from the very beginning.

They had been skilled enough to notice Leticia’s overwhelming power.

They hadn’t blocked Leticia’s spell, but due to the barrier absorbing most of the power, they were merely sent flying. Their whole body ached, and their limbs were bent in unnatural directions. They were on the brink of death.

No matter what, they had lost all strength to fight.

Leticia sighed.

“Thank you, Tiara.”

“I was merely protecting the forest. We elves do not interfere in fights between humans. Sorry, one of them escaped.”

The normally expressionless Tiara wore a rare expression of regret.

“The leader?”

“Yes.”

As the knights were enthralled by Leticia, one person had silently observed the situation.

He must have somehow escaped while Leticia’s line of sight was hidden by the second barrage of flames.

By the time she had cleared away the smoke, the man was nowhere to be seen.

He had enough power to break through the Great Sage’s barrier spell.

‘I might have let a dangerous enemy escape.’

As she thought that, Leticia turned around and started running to where Wynn would be waiting.

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