Yuusha-sama no Oshishou-sama

“Please… don’t kill me… I’m begging you…”

The little girl cowered while sobbing in a weak voice.

Bewildered, Wynn turned towards Kelvin and Locke.

But they also seemed dumbfounded.

“… it hurts”

“Ah, So- sorry!”

Wynn realized that he was clutching her right wrist tightly, so he hastily let go of her wrist.

While rubbing her right wrist, the girl curled up tighter, as if to conceal her body.

“Umm, I’m very sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you, uh, hey, I won’t do anything.”

With a stiff smile, he held his hands out and took a step backwards to show that he meant no harm.

Not expecting it to be a girl, Wynn’s heart was also pounding furiously.

“Your words… Are you… from the empire?”

Still crouching, she looked up at Wynn’s face. Her face still showed signs of trepidation.

“Umm…”

Wynn once again looked towards Kelvin.

Kelvin nodded in affirmation, and Wynn knelt down to meet the little girl’s eyes.

The little girl wore simple clothes, and tied around her head was a light-colored kerchief, acting like a scarf. Her clothes were somewhat dirty, but they weren’t dishevelled.

Although they were covered in tears, the girl’s large eyes were beautiful. She appeared to be around Wynn’s age. Her eyes were slightly swollen from crying, but she had an attractive face.

“We are from the Imperial Knight Order. I am Knight Cadet Wynn. That is the person in charge of our unit, Lieutenant Kelvin. And that is Apprentice Knight Locke. What is your name?”

“Sherry… Sherry Torc.”

“Sherry, is it? I’m sorry for scaring you. Is your wrist alright?”

Sherry nodded in response to Wynn’s question. Her kerchief, which was shifted when the blankets were pulled off of her, came untied and fell off when she nodded.

“Ah…”

“Your ears…”

The ears were longer than a human’s ears.

“No! Don’t look!”

Sherry shut her eyes tightly and covered her ears.

“A half-elf, huh.”

Her eyes were a dark brown. All elves had blue or light blue eyes. There were no elves with dark brown eyes.

Sherry curled up and began to tremble when Wynn said the words “Half-elf”.

“It’s alright, don’t worry.”

The three knights waited for Sherry to calm down. In any case, they couldn’t do anything else, and there was plenty of time.

After waiting a while for her to calm down, she eventually stopped trembling.

“Are you from Torc Village? Could you tell us what happened?”

Sherry timidly raised her head. Tears once again started falling from her eyes. However, she was calmer than before.

She began to tell them of how Torc village was attacked, and of the tragedy that happened that day.

“What is it?”

“How would I know! Tell that to the elders!”

Rosefeld, the leader elf, spat out those words.

With an expression

of disgust, he walked quickly as if to get away from the stone building where the humans were being held as quickly as he could.

Rosefeld’s feelings became stronger when he saw the girl who was already being held in that building.

It was hidden by the scarf on her head, but he could tell what she was from her distinctive magic power.

A Half-elf– or as the elders would say, a Tainted One.

The elves lived in the forest, but that didn’t mean that they spent all their lives in their communities. When they went out to hunt or forage, they would sometimes end up pretty close to human settlements.

Some of them ended up leaving the elven commune, yearning for the humans’ towns.

That was fine.

The news about the human world that they brought back was important.

But some people kidnapped the elves that wandered in the outside world.

Many elves were flawlessly beautiful

That was because elves were closer to the divine than humans were. The ruling tribe of elves were High Elves.

That beauty stimulates the l.u.s.t of the humans, so elves were sometimes treated as s.e.xual commodities. As a result, some of the captured female elves would give birth to unwanted children.

The result of a union between a human and elf would be a Half-elf.

The elves couldn’t tolerate their existence, since they were a mark of humiliation.

”s.h.i.t! I just can’t accept it…”
’Elves will repay any debt, but those who tarnish our pride will be given a suitable reward.’

That was the Elven Law.

That was why Rosefeld couldn’t hold back his irritation.

Due to the Elders’ old-fashioned thinking, they would repay kindness with hostility.

Rosefeld walked straight to the largest building in the village, where the Elders were, while recalling the day he had met with the elders. He thought of his brothers-in-arms from the past–

“s.h.i.t! Resist it! If we fall here, this front will crumble. The pride of us elves are at stake!”

Rosefeld cut down the spider monsters that were leaping at him.

‘There’s too many of them!’

He gasped for air as he looked around him.

His comrades had numbered almost a hundred, but only a third of them were left. Moreover, none of them, including Rosefeld, were unscathed.

It was a dismal situation.

Quite a long time had pa.s.sed since the battle started. Elves had more magic power than the other races, but even that had its limits.

Rosefeld’s own magic power and stamina were already rock-bottom.

All of the other elves lined up with him were also breathing heavily.

Their enemy, spider-shaped monsters the size of a cow, had slowly cornered the now injured elves with their reckless leaps, and were closing in.

All the fatigue that he had ignored in the heat of battle came crashing down upon him as he rested.

The exhaustion he felt made it feel like his arms and legs were made of lead.

The spider monsters slowly tightened their encirclement, their fangs chattering. Their fear slowly intensified, like a silken noose around their necks.

The cause of it was–

‘No, I should worry about that later! We’re already lucky that that monster already left, since we would have no chance of winning against it. Instead, I should focus on the mess in front of us.‘

He shook his head. The existence that led the horde of monsters was no longer on the battlefield. The monsters right here have nothing to do with that existence anymore.

They couldn’t hope for reinforcements.

The whole battlefield faced a similar crisis. Since the Demon Lord appeared on the battlefield, their allies were defeated one after another.

It was a hopeless war of attrition, a fight against despair.

Even worse, there was n.o.body near Rosefeld’s group to provide support. Rather, even if there were, they wouldn’t be able to help.

“s.h.i.t! So it ends here. Then I should take out as many as I can!”

Rosefeld gripped his tattered sword, imbuing the remainder of his magic power into it. Strengthening his body, he glared at the spider monsters that were about to jump at any moment.

”Let them come! Show them the resolve of the elves! Take as many as you can with you to h.e.l.l!“
”Yes Sir!!!”

The other elves responded to Rosefeld’s rallying cry. They channeled the rest of their magic power into their swords, intending to fight to the end.

The spider monsters leapt off the ground, their fangs making an eerie sound.

They would fight to the death. Blood and flesh were scattered through the air. Another life, extinguished.

Rosefeld and his comrades fought desperately, but they were hopelessly outnumbered.

Completely overwhelmed, the number of elves still standing slowly decreased.

Time became meaningless to them. The seemed to have fought for an eternity.

Rosefeld lost track of how many monsters he had slaughtered.

The tip of his sword had already bent, but he still impaled the monsters through sheer strength.

”Behind you, Rosefeld!”
“Tch!”

He forced himself to turn around at his comrade’s warning– and his feet slipped.

‘d.a.m.n it!’

He didn’t know whether he slipped on the blood of his comrades or the fluids of the monsters. He lost his balance.

He tried to recover his footing, but all the strength left his legs due to fatigue, and he was pushed down by a monster.

‘So this is it.’

The monster’s fangs drew near.

The elf who had warned him was already occupied by other monsters, and wouldn’t come to his aid.

Rosefeld braced himself for death.

Then suddenly–

The head of the spider monster that had pinned Rosefeld down went flying as the gleam of a sword flashed by.

‘What?’

Crawling out from under the collapsed monster, what Rosefeld saw was–

“You elves! Get inside the wall I made! The medics will treat you with healing magic as soon as they can! Hurry!”

His saviour was a young man with long blonde hair tied behind him, and narrow blue eyes. Among the humans, a knight clearly was successively giving out orders to his subordinates in a clear voice.

”Humans? You humans … saved us?”

“Can you stand?”

Rosefeld realized that the knight held out his hand and called out to him to help him up.

”Ah, yes. Thank you”

Saying his thanks, he took the hand.

The man who killed the monster that had pinned him down smiled gently.

Rosefeld questioned whether or not this was a dream.

”You might not be able to believe that humans had just come to your aid, but it would be bad if you guys fell here and we got attacked from behind. That’s why General Zaunas ordered us to support you.”

He judged that Rosefeld was the elves’ commander and spoke to him in Elvish.

”However, we were only able to spare two hundred men.”
“Thank you. This is plenty. You saved us”

Rosefeld bowed his head in grat.i.tude. He had thought that there wouldn’t be any reinforcements.

He had believed that fighting alongside humans would hold them back since the humans would squabble amongst themselves even in battle.

For those humans to have saved him–

“Hey Kelvin, how long are you going to play around? You can’t do anything but fight, so clean all those things up in one go.”

The knight who was giving out orders a while ago walked over. To even an elf like Rosefeld, he was good-looking.

“Don’t say such an unreasonable thing, Sir Royce. I certainly do like fighting, but even I can’t defeat all those monsters in one go.”

“If you have time to object, then just hurry up and go”

“Okay, okay.”

Despite his reluctant sounding words, the young man called Kelvin wore a joyful expression as he leapt into the horde of monsters.

He must have used a unique magic. Every time he swung his sword, a section of the monster the blade hit went flying.

He was strong.

Even Rosefeld could tell that Kelvin was a better swordsman than he was.

Monsters’ body fluids sprayed onto Kelvin. He didn’t bother wiping it off and instead leapt at his next prey with glee.

“Sheesh, what a battle maniac…”

Royce watched Kelvin fight for a while, then turned to face Rosefeld, who was still slightly dazed.

”Are you the elven commander? I am attached to the Remulshil Empire’s Northeastern army, Colonel Royce. I came to support you under Commander Zaunas’s orders. We were told to come under your command. Currently, we are treating the wounded and allowing the troops to recover their stamina, but we will obey your orders.”
”You human knights are under my command?”

He couldn’t believe it.

All of the races cooperating with each other to defeat the monsters was one thing, but one race taking commands from another race was completely different.

However, Royce smiled boldly while closing one of his eyes.

”That way, there will not be any confusion. If there are two commanders in this small battlefield, it would cause confusion. Since you have the positional advantage, and there’s no time for you to completely recover your magic power, you elves will stay back and give us orders and provide support. That is the most efficient option.”

The elves treated their wounds and recovered any stamina and magic power they could while they devoted themselves to providing command and support from the rear as the human knights fought with Royce and Kelvin at their center.

From a section of the battlefield, the army made of both humans and elves, at a cost, fought the weakened monsters until dawn and were able to prevent the collapse of the defensive line.

’We always repay our debts. Especially a debt to our brothers-in-arms.’

Returning to the present, Rosefeld smiled as he arrived in front of the building where the elders were.

A bright flash came from the roots of the World Tree’s sapling.

‘I’m sorry, Kelvin. I’ll get you out of there as soon as I can. That little girl as well. What taint? There isn’t any such thing. That girl is innocent. I’ll get you out of there quickly, and then treat you guys to good food and drink!’

He smiled at the chance to finally be able to repay his old friend.

In the World Tree sapling’s roots any layers of elaborate patterns from magic formations emerged in mid-air. The formations spun and shone in a bright light

As the light faded away, two people were in its place.

“Hah, Thank you for bringing me here, Tiara.”

“No problem. More importantly, I look forward to meeting your cherished person, Leti.”

“Big Brother probably hasn’t arrived. This sure is convenient though. Can we really go anywhere the World Tree’s roots reach with this?”[2]

“Well, not anywhere. ”

“I have to thank Prince Alfred for allowing me to meet Onii-chan.”

“I can’t understand human society. It’s so weird that you can’t move freely even though you’re the Brave.”

“Isn’t it a bit cold?”

“Transfer magic takes time. It must be night already.”

Leticia shivered slightly.

“Well, the sun doesn’t even shine here during the day, so the nights are cold. Should I get you something else to wear?”

“No, it’s fine.”

As they spoke, Leticia and Tiara walked towards the center of the commune.

Noticing the light from the transfer magic, a handful of elves had gathered.

“No way… The Princess!?”
“Why would she come to such a remote place like this?”

The people greeted Tiara the Great Sage, and a well known member of the elven royalty, and Leticia the Brave. Tiara raised her hand in response.

”I am sorry for coming so late in the night. I had thought that guests from the Empire arrived, but…”

The elves looked at each other.

Four elves stepped out from the crowd.

”Ah, Princess. You must have come a long way. We extend to you our most sincere welcome. What business brings you here today?”

”The… knights? If it’s about the knights that invaded our territory, then they were brought to the jail.”
“Jail!?”

Leticia, who had been silent as Tiara and the elves conversed, interrupted them.

“What do you mean by jail?”

Brave Mavis.

The blood instantly drained from the elders’ faces.

“Big Brother!”

The doors to the magic sealing holding cell were flung open with a bang.[3]

“L- Leti?”

“Huh? Lady Leticia?”

There stood Leticia, who should have been in the Remulshil Empire, panting in the doorway of the cell,

Startled, Wynn threw off the blankets and got up from the floor as quickly as he could.

“Wh- why are you here?”

“Are you alright, Big Brother? Did they do anything to you?”

“Nothing happened to me. Well, I was locked up here, but…”

“That’s good…”

Leticia hugged Wynn with a relieved expression.

Wynn’s heart started racing as he was hugged.

“Wh-why are you here, Leti?”

“Of course, I’m going to help you, Big Brother!”

“Eh? Lady Leticia is going to get involved!?”

Locke also jumped to his feet in shock.

“With Lady Leticia on our side, there’s no way we’d lose! Right, Wynn?”

Leticia looked up at Wynn with a wide smile.

If Leticia, who could destroy the Demon Lord and hordes of monsters, were with them, then no matter how many people are part of the Petersian army, they would be no match for her.

“Could it be that you are one of Captain Royce’s ‘tricks’!?”

Locke looked at Wynn with a cheer, but–

Wynn put his hands on Leticia’s shoulders, and gently separated himself from her hug.

“You can’t, Leti. You can’t come here. Return to the Capital.”

Leticia widened her eyes, and Locke became speechless.

The room was dimly lit, and Wynn was looking down, so she couldn’t see what expression he was making.

“Why… ? Why can’t I go with you?”

But Wynn didn’t respond, and turned to Kelvin.

“Vice-captain Kelvin. Was Captain Royce’s ‘trick’ to use myself to involve Leti– no, Brave Leticia van Mavis– in this affair?”

Kelvin did not answer. His silence was a deafening affirmation.

“You wanted to use Leti through myself– through me? Leti is strong. If Leticia fights with us, what about Petersia? Even if all of the Petersian Knight Order were to attack, Leti could singlehandedly defeat them. That’s why the Empire desires her power so much! But this isn’t Leti consenting to get involved after being asked. This is just dragging Leti in using me. HAVE YOU NO HONOUR!?”

Wynn clenched his fists, seething with anger, and bit on on his lips hard enough to make them bleed.

Wynn had become aware of it. He knew that he was Leticia’s weak point.

As the Brave, and as a Duke’s daughter, she couldn’t just leave for the battlefield for his sake.

Society would never allow it.

The Empire would want to use Leticia’s power. However, n.o.body should be able to use her power against her will.

If only Wynn himself weren’t involved.

Because Wynn was involved, Leticia prioritized him.

He might even have been locked up for that purpose.

Leticia couldn’t be free.

On the other hand, if anybody wanted to control her, the only existence that could truly keep her in check was Wynn.

Royce took advantage of that.

Wynn was used to summon Leticia.

“Leti, go back to the capital. You mustn’t partic.i.p.ate in this.”

Glaring at Kelvin, Wynn walked past Leticia.

“I am very sorry, Vice-captain. It is true that if Leti– no, Brave Mavis became involved, our victory would be certain. That’s why I can’t acknowledge this way of doing things.”

Kelvin sighed.

“Leti, come here for a bit.”

Wynn saluted Kelvin, took the stiffened Leticia’s right hand, and led her out of the cell.

Translator Notes