Chapter 55

The street lay in chaotic ruins, mixed with dust and the smell of blood.
In the high sky, the giant monster was still drifting, and screams came from every direction.

Serpens clenched his fist, swallowing his anger through rough breaths.

“What can I do?”

The guard was right.
There were still people left who could be saved.
Even while he stood dazed like this, someone else might be dying.

“Facing the Wyvern with our current forces would be suicide. So the best option is to minimize the damage and evacuate the townspeople.”

The guard was wearing a helmet that covered his entire face.
The only place that could be called a breathing hole was the eye section opened to secure his field of vision.
Because of that, it looked so uncomfortable that one wondered whether it would hinder him in battle.
But he continued speaking comfortably, as if it didn’t bother him at all.

“Let’s deal with the monsters on the ground while evacuating people as quickly as possible.”
“Understood.”

Serpens briefly steadied his breath and gathered himself.
He did not calm down easily, but trying to think rationally made him feel a little better.

“The problem is where to evacuate them…….”

The guard said while looking around.

“If that’s the issue, I know a suitable place.”

Serpens began running ahead of him.

One place came to mind.
An underpass located on the outskirts of town.
It was a road for carriages crossing the hill, and it was fairly long and difficult to see from the sky.

“I don’t know if it can hold everyone, but the underpass on the outskirts of town should be suitable as a place to avoid the Wyvern’s gaze.”
“An underpass……. Feeling uncomfortable because the space is cramped is far better than losing one’s life to the Wyvern.”

The guard glanced at the boy.

“Have you been here before?”
“Why do you ask……?”
“You seem to know the geography here well. It’s a relatively small and remote town, so not many people know much about this place.”

Serpens hesitated for a moment before answering.

“That’s not the case. I was just lucky enough to pass through that underpass on my way here.”
“You could certainly call that lucky.”

It was not that he had lied for any particularly special reason.
It was simply because he thought that if he said he had been here before, more questions might follow, and those questions might create an uncomfortable air.

Kireuk?

As if making such worries meaningless, the two encountered a group of goblins searching for people.

“We don’t have time, so let’s move quickly. Little knight, you take the left, and I will take the right.”
“Yes.”

Serpens inhaled and adjusted his grip on his sword again.
The goblins had also noticed the two of them and were ready to charge.

“Be careful. You must not underestimate them just because they are goblins.”

As soon as the guard spoke, one goblin charged in with a short spear.
Serpens dodged the attack, grabbed the spear shaft with one hand, and swung his dagger as if counterattacking.

Puk.

Blood spurted from the goblin’s nape.

The rest attacked one after another, but Serpens dealt with them calmly.
He quickly changed position, deflected the enemy’s attacks, and targeted their vital points to end their lives in a single blow.
A moment later, all the goblins on the left had fallen.
The guard had also cleared the enemies on the right.

The two began running again without saying much.

“Everyone, follow us!”

The guard shouted to the people standing there in a daze,
and Serpens also waved his sword to draw attention.

“Senior knights! The underpass! Please evacuate the people toward the underpass!”

More people joined in to help with the evacuation.

“We’ve taken down three orcs!”

The number of invading monsters began to decrease.

By the time all the visible people were following the guards.
The first evacuees entered the underpass.

“Ugh. What’s that smell?”
“We have to stay here?”

At the sound of people’s complaints, Serpens’s brow furrowed.
They should’ve been grateful that they had survived, yet they were complaining.

But the boy shook his head and relaxed his expression.
They were people whose everyday lives had collapsed in an instant.
In a way, it might have been natural for them to feel dissatisfied.

“It’ll only be for a short while! Please endure the discomfort and maintain order! You only need to wait until the Wyvern leaves!”

The guards were each carrying out their duties.
They directed the people, then returned to the town that had become a sea of fire.

“…….”

Serpens felt his perception of them changing.
From people who interfered with his life to people who protected the lives of others.
He remembered that they too were knights who had passed the knight examination.

Tadat.

Serpens moved his feet again.
He had no intention of staying still in the underpass.
There were probably still people inside the town.
He had to bring them out.

The rescue proceeded smoothly.
They annihilated the weaker invading monsters, avoided the difficult ones, and searched for those who had not managed to escape.

For the first time, Serpens felt relieved that Satus was a small town.
It didn’t take that long to go around the entire town.
They could check places they hadn’t been able to confirm and had time to look through every corner.

There were occasional crises.

Kugwagagagaga-

The Wyvern circling the sky threatened them by unleashing its Breath.
Every time he avoided an attack, Serpens glared at the Wyvern with narrowed eyes.

‘Why is that thing attacking the town……?’

It didn’t look hungry.
It killed humans, but didn’t eat them.
Just what did that thing, and monsters in general, attack humans for?
Did they simply want slaughter and destruction?
If that was so……. If that was truly the case…….

‘I will treat you the same way.’

Serpens returned to the underpass.
It was so noisy that he could barely hear the voice of the guard shouting until his throat seemed about to burst.

“Little knight, you came.”

It was that guard.

“……Please just call me a knight.”
“Ah, it made you uncomfortable. It was meant to be a nickname of sorts.”

He was a gentle person.
The face hidden by the helmet was very likely wearing a smile.

“Are there any more people to save?”

Serpens asked while looking around.
Was it because there were many people?
It felt as if he had forgotten someone.

“For now, it seems we have saved all the surviving townspeople. Whether it is unfortunate or fortunate, it seems the only deaths were the two people caught by the Wyvern.”
“I see…….”

The terrible sight briefly flashed before his eyes.
Serpens squeezed his eyes shut and let out a sigh.

“We haven’t heard any more requests to find someone. Since all the townspeople know one another, we judged that there are no more missing people.”

The more he listened, the more uneasy he felt.

“The damage we suffered from the Wyvern was severe, so it’s hard for the guard to move any further. And just in time, the final patrol team is returning.”

His fingertip pointed toward the field.
Two people were approaching the underpass at a quick pace.
There was no one following behind them.

“It looks like there’s no one else. If there is, even as a very small possibility…… perhaps it would be the beggars?”

Beggars.
At those words, goosebumps rose all over Serpens’s body.
The boy’s face quickly turned pale.

“No way…… no. He must be there.”

He quickly turned his head.
He had to see that face.
That face that was all too familiar.
The face he himself had now had to be somewhere in that crowd.

“Who are you looking for?”

But his unease gradually grew, and he began trembling as if the ground were burning beneath his feet.

“By any chance, did you see a little beggar a bit younger than me?”
“A little beggar……. I think we saved a few. What else did he look like?”
“Light brown hair like mine. He looks similar to me…… no, he looks exactly like me.”
“Hmm……. I don’t think I saw him. I will ask my colleagues.”

The guard set aside his confusion and asked his colleagues.
But the answers that came back were not what Serpens wanted.

“Damn it!”

He quickly shot out of the underpass.
The guard’s shout followed from behind, but it did not reach the boy’s ears.

‘I forgot myself, of all people! Damn it…… damn it!’

He had forgotten the fact that his younger self was here.
He had also forgotten the fact that there was no one to look after that child.

He kicked off the ground and ran toward the center of town.
The flames had already died down, and his view opened between the collapsed buildings.
However, at that very moment.

“Hey, little knight!”

The guard’s voice rang out again from behind.

“There! The sky!”

Serpens raised his head.
And for an instant, his breath stopped.

In the far sky.
A giant Wyvern was flying with the blazing sun at its back.

Below it, one small shadow was running with all its strength over the collapsed street.
It was the boy Serpens had been searching for.

He couldn’t make out his face, but the fluttering brown hair and slender frame.
Even from far away, he could tell who it was.

And behind him, a shadow like death was following close.

“No……!”

Serpens gritted his teeth and ran.
He pushed the muscles in his legs to their limit.
The boy’s vision was fixed on only one thing, the desperate child coming toward him.

“Uah!”

The running child fell.
Serpens kicked off the ground even harder.

“Haaak…… haaak…….”

His breath boiled as if tearing through his throat.
But he couldn’t stop.

Swaaaaaak-

The Wyvern began to dive.
The distance to the ground narrowed.
Its wings spread with a great roar, and the sound of tearing wind fell over the field.

“Uaaaaah!”

Serpens drew his sword, wringing strength from his entire body.
At the same time, he grabbed the fallen boy’s arm with his left hand and pulled him back.

Gugugak!

The Wyvern’s claws cut through the place where the two had been.
Blood and dust scattered.

“Kheup!”

Holding the child with trembling arms, Serpens bit his lip.
Red blood flowed between his tightly closed lips.

The Wyvern rose back into the sky.
It let out a long roar and prepared its next attack.

“Uh……?”

The younger Serpens’s pupils shook.
An expression of disbelief.
His eyes seemed unable to understand why he had been helped.

“W…… who asked you to help?!”

The voice that shouted bravely was trembling severely.

“I didn’t help you because I like you. Hurry up and get over there.”

Serpens said, pointing toward the guard who had followed him.
The child ran off without the slightest hesitation.

The small back receding into the distance.
The guard shouted in an urgent voice, but Serpens couldn’t make out what he was saying at all.

“I’m fine, so take that kid and go!”

Serpens shouted in the loudest voice he could make.

He felt pain in his back.
The warmth flowing down his back was probably blood.
It seemed he had been hit badly by the Wyvern’s attack.

Moving was difficult.
Even the slightest twitch sent extreme pain rushing in.

‘It doesn’t seem…… that I’ll be able to get back.’

Shaking off the Wyvern in this state was impossible.
If he fled toward the underpass, it would surely cause an even greater accident instead.

“Haa……. Haa…….”

Serpens rose to his feet.

Seeing the two moving away, he felt an oddly great sense of relief.

What he had to do now was grit his teeth and grip his sword.
The boy turned on his planted foot and faced the approaching monster.

His vision blurred.
It was probably because he had lost a lot of blood.

Strength wouldn’t enter his arms, and he couldn’t keep his body balanced.
That too was probably because he had lost a lot of blood.

The Wyvern approached.
It approached with its enormous mouth open to end the boy’s life.

Serpens took his stance.
He lowered his center of gravity and raised his sword above his head.
He prepared the stance he had practiced thousands of times.

“Hoo…….”

He held his breath to steady himself,
and closed his eyes to shut out his wavering vision.

With his sight cut off, his sixth sense sharpened.
He felt the headwind created by the approaching Wyvern.

‘Step forward lightly and find your balance.’

When the headwind was right in front of his face.

‘With the mindset of cutting through a great mountain.’

Black Aura rippled over Serpens’s blade,
and the muscles throughout his body pulled taut.

“I will kill it in one strike.”

The boy swung his sword with all his strength.