The Ghost Knight (2)

Say he gave some thought to who the Lord Protector had actually been as a person.

Even in the game she was already dead by the time the main scenario got going, and her background only ever got a brief mention.

Dame Teresa Adelite. Of Noelle’s generation, a few years older than her.

But she’d had far more experience on the battlefield, and she was also the benefactor who’d taken Noelle in when the war left her an orphan without a single relative to her name.

She’d had an immense influence on the values Noelle formed, and she’d been practically the only family Noelle had.

In short, she’d been as good as a parent to her.

She was also the master who’d taught Noelle everything she used: the pure-white ki, and the swordsmanship.

Of course, on sheer ability alone, Teresa had been closer to the one who put the theory in order, while the one who actually perfected it was Noelle, so Noelle would be the stronger of the two.

“—A ghost?”

…Not that any of that was the problem right now.

Noelle’s voice had sunk to almost nothing, yet the emotion packed into that tiny sound was fiercer than anything Aiden had ever seen on her face.

What was the word for it, even?

Grief. Despair. Confusion.

Whichever one he picked, it wasn’t going to help them break out of this.

And watching her face from right beside her, Aiden could take that read a little further.

This had gone past a simple loss of composure, almost into denial of reality. She couldn’t even properly take in what the thing in front of her actually was.

Never mind who was stronger or weaker. With Noelle like this, she’d be no help in a fight, and they couldn’t even run.

“Why… here—”

Still, the mutter that spilled blankly out of her was one he agreed with completely.

Why this person…!

Not once in the main story of the game had she shown her face like this.

She’d been mentioned and nothing more. She’d never come back as a ghost, as something that had to be fought.

Let alone something that would raise her sword and fling a slash at Noelle!

Aiden gritted his teeth and threw himself at her, ramming into her, and the next moment he was tangled up with Noelle’s frozen body, the two of them rolling across the ground with a clatter.

I have no idea what that person is doing here…!

There was a way out of this, at least.

The fissure, the source of the phenomenon that let spirit bodies manifest on the material plane, had already been closed. Whatever reason the Lord Protector’s spirit had for suddenly popping up here, it couldn’t stay manifested for long.

So all they had to do was get away from this spot, out of the spirit body’s ‘combat range’, and the immediate event would be over.

The problem was.

I can’t get clear…!

Aiden’s body simply wasn’t good enough to outrun a spirit that flung monstrous slashes like that.

He absolutely needed someone’s help.

“—Dame Stella, could you carry Dame Noelle and me at the same—!”
“…It can be done, but—!”

Stella answered through gritted teeth and grabbed a nearby street lamp with one hand.

Then, with a grinding crunch, that enormous lump of iron came up out of the concrete it had been set in, held in a single human hand, smashing the concrete apart as it came.

It was a feat of strength absurd enough to leave anyone watching with their jaw hanging open, yet the eyes of the woman doing it were strung tight and fixed on the Lord Protector’s ghost.

She seemed to sense it by instinct. Just how powerful ‘that thing’ was.

“Not while we are trying to shake that thing off. Dame Noelle must come back to herself!”

With that, Stella hurled the uprooted street lamp over there like a javelin. A lump of iron bigger than a whole person flying off like a shot was enough to make his hair stand on end, but watching the Lord Protector cut it clean in two with a single stroke was more absurd still.

Before long, Stella drew her own sword and threw herself at her.

She was clearly buying time. She’d never once had any thought of fighting her and winning.

Which meant: get Noelle pulled together somehow in the meantime.

…The intention was admirable, but.

With Noelle in this state, forget getting away. Even bringing her back to her senses looked hard.

Her eyes had no focus, as if she were staring at somewhere very far off, and her arms and legs hung slack, as if all the strength had drained out of them. She seemed to be struggling just to take in what had happened.

“…Teresa…?”

She murmured the name under her breath, almost sobbing. She plainly didn’t even know what she was saying.

“Did you, attack? Me?”
“Dame Noelle, snap out of it!”

Aiden brought his face right up to hers, as if he were hauling her up by the collar.

“…Aiden?”
“At this rate we all die! We have to get out of here first!”

And it was true. He did still hold the Prince’s skill-mimicry right, but there was no point spending it with the Lord Protector as the target. He’d only be able to use it well once he’d worked out more means to go with it.

“—We die?”

Noelle repeated it weakly, her eyes still unfocused.

“Teresa is going to, kill me?”

Her voice had lost all sense of reality, which was nothing like her. She seemed unable to grasp at all how any of this was even happening.

“…”

Thinking about what this person and the Lord Protector had been to each other, he did understand.

…It would be a lot like hearing that your parent was trying to murder you.

But the state of things was what it was. He had to find some way to bring her round…!

“…?”

Just as he thought that.

All of a sudden, blood came trickling down Aiden’s forehead.

He must have torn something open while he was rolling across the ground with Noelle wrapped up in his arms.

The moment a single drop of it fell onto her face, Noelle’s pupils went wide.

Drop by drop, as the falling blood touched her forehead, the focus came back into her eyes.

As if a mind that had been drifting far off in some unreal place were finding its way back.

As if.

As if she’d remembered ‘the thing she had to do’.

She lifted a trembling hand and swept it across Aiden’s forehead, and bright red blood came away on her fingertips.

“…Are you hurt?”
“Sorry?”
“Aiden, are you hurt?”
“…Well, yes, I suppose I am? It’s nothing serious.”

And it really wasn’t. It was barely a scratch.

But as she looked at it, something like resolve settled into Noelle’s eyes.

“Nothing serious? How is this nothing serious? You are bleeding!”

“…”

“Honestly, you really…!”

“…”

Noelle barked that at him and got to her feet. That alone seemed to have knocked her out of the shock in one blow and brought her back to herself.

Just how far did she mean to go in overprotecting him?

Her coming back to her senses was all to the good, but his feelings about it were subtly complicated…

“…”

Once she was up, Noelle looked at the Lord Protector’s ghost trading blows with Stella and gritted her teeth.

Whatever else was going on, she seemed to have realized what had to be done now, too.

“—Haah.”

She let out that sigh, then wrapped one arm around Aiden and clamped him snugly against her side.

“…”

No need to ask who Dame Stella had learned her way of carrying people from.

Holding him like that, Noelle put her strength into her back leg and kicked off.

Behind her, a crater opened where the paving stones had been, as if a bomb had gone off.

Nor did it stop there. For an instant the whole ground rumbled, and anyone who saw the place could hardly have helped mistaking it for the site of a bombardment.

Noelle reached Stella in an instant, and with all that momentum behind her, she kicked the Lord Protector.

And.

— WHAM!

— WHAM!!

That alone sent the Lord Protector’s body flying far off and buried it in a building, caving half of it in, much as if it had been struck by a battering ram.

A moment ago she had been pressing Dame Stella with ease, yet she didn’t seem to have been able to react to this blow at all.

No, what the—!

He’d honestly thought Dame Stella pulling up a street lamp with her bare hands just now was outrageous, but set against this it was a drop of blood from a bird’s foot.¹

While Aiden was taking in the fact that Knights who wielded supernatural power were a breed playing in some demon realm far beyond the human, Noelle tucked Stella under her other side the very same way and spoke.

“—Hold on tight.”

The ground cracked apart again under her as she finished.

“We are getting out of here!”

And with that, in an instant, the whole lot of them were up in the air.

Of course they weren’t really flying. Noelle had just leapt high enough that it looked that way.

“…”

But.

Even while doing a thing like that.

Noelle’s eyes stayed fixed on the Lord Protector, which glared back at her from inside the half-collapsed building.

Right up until she passed out of view.

The whole time.

Getting out of there that way was all very well.

But now Aiden was being tormented by a headache that felt like it was splitting his skull.

…Oh, boy.

Looking at the window strung out in front of his eyes, Aiden let out a heartfelt sigh inwardly.

He’d seen it coming, honestly. They’d let the boss fight, the most important finish of the whole event, slide right past, so there’d been no chance of it all working out that conveniently.

Still, the boss getting even stronger on top of that was dizzying.

Even before this, she had looked strong enough to go toe to toe with Noelle. If she got ‘far’ stronger than that, then for all he knew, even throwing Noelle and Katya at her together wouldn’t be enough.

Oh, my head…

How was he supposed to come up with a solution this time?

As he groaned inwardly over that, Noelle, who’d been winding a bandage tightly around his forehead, took her hands away.

“That should do it.”
“…Anyone who saw this would think I’d taken a bullet to the head.”

Before he could even get out what an overreaction this was to a scratch, Noelle paid him no mind and went on.

“I have sent for a specialist. Just in case, do at least have yourself examined.”
“Even so, that’s—”
“Aiden.”

Noelle cut him off with a broad smile.

Her eyes, of course, weren’t smiling in the slightest. She had the air of someone who’d take no objection whatsoever…

“Have yourself examined.”

“…”

…Aiden just quietly nodded.

“It is a wound you took from contact with a spirit body, is it not? Nobody knows what sort of injury it may turn into.”
“…Ah, I see.”

Mind you, by that logic, getting pounded to pieces by Meyer almost every day was the bigger worry, but there was no need to say that out loud…

More to the point.

Something was bothering him.

“…Might I ask you just one thing?”
“Yes?”
“Dame Noelle, are you all right?”
“The injuries are all grazes—”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”

Aiden let a pause hang for a moment, then spoke again.

“Are you really all right?”

“…”

“You may well end up having to face that thing again later on.”

Realizing he meant the Lord Protector’s soul, Noelle shut her mouth with a click.

“You may end up fighting her again.”

“…You sound rather as though you are certain it will come to that.”
“Yes.”

Because there was a solution. Watching her fight yesterday, he’d caught at least a dim outline of a ‘breakthrough’.

But.

The problem was whether Noelle could stomach it along with him.

Even yesterday, in that brief exchange of blows with Teresa, hadn’t she seemed to hesitate terribly, nothing like her usual self…

As if she never, ever wanted to be doing this.

“…”

Noelle kept her mouth shut for a good while, then let out a deep sigh.

“…I am not all right.”

She said it calmly.

But carved into her face was a knife wound, cut as deep as her memories of the past.

“Teresa was by my side since before I can even remember. To me she was as good as my own older sister.”

“…”

“…Even calling her to mind still hurts. So if I am told to fight the thing that may be her soul, how on earth could I be all right?”

…Of course she couldn’t.

With her like this, then, the thing to do the next time they clashed would be to leave her out of it from the start—

“But.”

And.

Noelle cut that train of thought short and went on.

“If you try to settle this without me, I will be angry.”
“…Yes?”
“I am the one who dragged you into this in the first place.”

Before he could answer, Noelle set a hand lightly on Aiden’s shoulder.

The corners of her mouth curved up slightly. It was a light expression, yet it only made the real intent behind it land harder.

“…Well, as things stand there is no firm proof that it really is Teresa’s soul, either. And even supposing it is.”

Noelle took a deep breath and spat the words out.

“Whatever happens, I will take responsibility and send you back to your family.”

Just as she had when everything blew up yesterday.

Even if it meant crossing swords with what might be the soul of her own older sister.

She would take responsibility for Aiden himself, at the very least, right to the end. That was what she meant.

“Do you understand? Do not concern yourself with my circumstances. Your safety comes first.”

“…”

For a moment Aiden was lost for words, and he just looked at Noelle.

…All over again.

He let out a wry inward laugh and drew a hand down his face.

He’d heard her say often enough that she’d protect him and so on.

…He just hadn’t known she meant it this much.

That even with the Lord Protector of all people tangled up in this, she’d still put his safety first.

“Why that look on your face, Aiden?”
“Because I’m a little embarrassed.”
“Yes?”
“It’s just that you look a little different to me now, Dame Noelle.”

How was he supposed to put it?

It wasn’t as if he’d ever particularly disliked her before.

…But now he genuinely felt close to her, ‘as a person’.

He wasn’t about to go so far as to call it romance or anything like that, but at the very least, she really did seem likeable to him now.

A fine mess, truly.

“…”

The moment she heard that, Noelle backed away in hesitant little steps.

“…Why would you say a thing like that in a situation like this…?”
“Yes?”
“Aiden, it is not that I dislike you either, but this does not seem the right situation for making a pass at someone…”

“…”

No.

That hadn’t been what he meant at all.

…He’d have to turn the mood around.

“Anyway, what’s that?”

Meaning to change the subject for now, Aiden jerked his chin at the newspaper lying on Noelle’s desk.

He’d only asked because he’d never seen her read anything like that, but the moment she heard the question, Noelle’s face darkened for an instant.

“…Ah, this is—”

Seeing Noelle trail off, Aiden narrowed his eyes and craned his neck for a look.

And when he saw the headline, his own face changed abruptly too.

<The Lord Protector’s Ghost in the Imperial Capital… “The Lionhearted: What Happened Back During the Coalition War?”>

“…”

“Everyone seems to be in an uproar over what happened yesterday.”

As Noelle said it with a bitter smile, Aiden read down the article with a hard look on his face.

For a ghost to take on a body and appear on the material plane, as Meyer’s case made clear, several conditions had to be met.

It had to have reached a remarkably lofty realm, and a ‘lingering attachment’ so fierce it couldn’t close its eyes even in death had to remain, among other such conditions.

“…The Lord Protector died because of Dame Noelle, so now she’s back with a grudge, out for revenge?”

So going back over those conditions, the Lord Protector’s spirit appearing last night could be ‘manufactured’ into a story like this, too.

The wording had been twisted around artfully to dodge any responsibility on the paper’s part, but in effect, the article was treating that as an established fact.

If whoever ran it could be written off as a yellow rag, that would be one thing, but this was one of the more reputable press houses even by the capital’s standards. And a place like that had put out a report openly attacking the Lionhearted, the Empire’s hero.

On top of that.

…Even so.

It was too fast.

This had happened only last night. For an article like this to come shooting out of a press house like that before even half a day had passed, let alone a full one, there had plainly been some malicious ‘pressure’ at work.

As for who it might be, well.

The Prince.

…However he looked at it, nobody else was hostile enough to Noelle right now to lean on them like that.

“Well.”

Still wearing that bitter smile, Noelle picked the conversation back up.

“It hardly matters how they chatter, does it? Those people are free to think whatever they please.”

“…”

“I do not much mind it. It does not bother me in the—”

Noelle’s sentence broke off short as she went to carry on.

Because Aiden had strode up in front of her and planted his hands on both her shoulders.

“Dame Noelle.”
“…Yes?”
“We haven’t known each other long, but there’s one thing I do know.”

Aiden spoke with his hands pressing firmly down on her shoulders.

“I don’t think you would have done a thing like that.”

“…”

Noelle closed her mouth and met Aiden’s eyes.

“You don’t have to tell me the details, so I’ll just ask. Did you?”
“…What do you…?”
“The ridiculous rubbish this newspaper is spouting. I’m asking whether you really did it.”

Noelle blinked and looked up at Aiden, dumbfounded.

His face wore the slightly tired look she always saw on it, but the air in his eyes was a little different.

As if he’d made up his mind to go and pull off some great piece of business.

“…Of course not. Teresa is my benefactor.”

The moment Noelle said it, Aiden nodded and took his hands off her shoulders.

“Good. Then let’s go.”
“…Yes? Go? Go where, exactly—”
“We’re going to go crack the heads of the fellows who talked nonsense about you, Dame Noelle.”

“…”

“And that gentleman, the Prince. Where is he right now, and what’s he up to?”

Exactly as Noelle had done with Aiden a moment before.

He had the air of someone who’d take absolutely no objection.