Chapter 65

“A-a giant monster made entirely of stone laid waste to our fief. And, and then that thing… it stepped on my f-father…”

This was what Edelina had blurted out the moment she arrived to find the protagonist, after escaping the Marquisate of Peyers on her own.

“At first, there were only weak monsters, and I thought we’d finished them all off. But then, all of a sudden, high-grade monsters started appearing… hic!”

“It’s okay, Edelina. You don’t have to say any more if it’s too hard.”

Piecing together Edelina’s words, I surmised that the attack was likely composed of several phases. Phase one was probably a classic war of attrition with small-fry mobs.

‘It’s not like this is some defense game or something…’

The thought crossed my mind once again.

This is supposed to be a dating sim?

“This might not be the end of it, so let’s try to preserve the traps as much as possible.”

Ilian reacted to my remark.

“Are you suggesting there might be more?”

Do I really have to spell it out for you?

I gave a subtle nod while gauging the reactions of those around me, worried I might accidentally tank the morale. Ilian let out a small sigh and patted the shoulders of the protagonist and Arianne.

“Whew, then we’d better hurry and prepare more temporary traps. Sir Hereis, Sir Arianne, and I will head down to clear out as many monsters as we can. Please focus on replacing the traps up here.”

Edelina’s traps were very simple to install, making them easy to replace. They didn’t require much effort to manufacture, and despite being “temporary,” they boasted significant effectiveness. Since the experiment-obsessed Edelina had even stockpiled materials in the Marquis’s warehouse, we probably wouldn’t run out. Because our training had prioritized trap installation, there was no issue in deploying all the soldiers to that task.

“Edelina!”

Edelina was staring blankly, as if she still hadn’t processed reality.

“Uh… Huh?”

Her eyes finally landed on the protagonist standing before her, and she began to gape like a goldfish.

“He-Hereis. Ju-just like you said, the monsters really….”

“Edelina. That’s not what’s important right now. Go make more temporary traps immediately. Get these soldiers to snap out of it and help you.”

-Edelina, you have to do this.

-Or else we’re all gonna die~

“You need to repair the broken traps or swap them for new ones right away. You don’t need to overdo it—just when it’s safe, okay?”

“Wh-what…?”

-You got that, right?

Without waiting for a proper answer, the protagonist leaped down from the rampart.

“I… I guess I have to.”

Letting out a deep sigh like an office worker on a Monday morning who didn’t want to go to work, Arianne followed after the protagonist.

“Saintess.”

Before jumping down, Ilian handed me a sword. I looked up at him with a face that clearly asked, ‘What do you think you’re doing?’

“I don’t know how to use this.”

I was sorry to say it, but as a child, I was the kind of kid who was “selected” to attend a Taekwondo dojo instead of Kendo.

“I saw you using one quite well last time. It’s for self-defense.”

Ilian forced it into my hand, telling me to at least keep it on me. If by “last time,” he meant that time I nearly killed him…

…Well, since the words were coming from a guy who had actually been stabbed by me, I decided to just tuck it into my inventory for now.

Kieeeeeeeeeee!

‘Is that a… boar?’

As the monsters drew closer to the rampart, their true forms began to reveal themselves.
Stout, blocky bodies like logs, short legs that looked powerful, and stiff brown fur that seemed like it would hurt to be pricked by. There were even sharp tusks. I momentarily looked away from the monsters and opened my Settings.

Hadn’t the options increased?

It was thanks to a new item I had bought from the Shop a while back. Strangely enough, it was a convenience-enhancing item.

I had wondered what “Settings Function Enhancement” actually was, and it turned out to be an item that copies the functions of any item ever registered in your inventory (excluding consumables) and allows you to manipulate them easily through the Settings. Even though 800 points had vanished into thin air, it wasn’t a waste at all. I should be grateful that I no longer had to go through the whole process of pulling out a Holy Relic, turning the dial, and pushing levers.

On top of that, it even added features that weren’t on the original Holy Relics. Things like that “Barrier Color” option, for instance. It meant I could keep it on at all times without it being noticed. Of course, in a situation like this, it was more convenient to see the range, so I changed it to blue.

‘First, let’s turn on the Sacred Armor of Bamea.’

As soon as I switched it to ON, the Mode and Range options became active.

‘Set Mode to Docile and Range to maximum.’

The maximum range was 50 meters.

‘Wait, the maximum range for Ferocity is 500 meters.’

I guess it’s a reflection of reality: making someone angry is easy, but calming them down is hard.

‘It’s not as large as I thought.’

It was a semi-circle with a 50-meter radius centered on me. That was nowhere near enough to cover the entire rampart surrounding the Marquisate. Back in Lanta Village, I must have been able to drive them off in one go only because the monsters happened to be gathered in a single spot.

‘Well, I can just move around myself.’

I should be able to manage at least saving people in immediate danger or luring monsters into traps. Now that the settings were finished, I couldn’t just stand there forever. I called out to Edelina, who was standing precariously by the battlements.

“Miss Edelina.”

Edelina was staring blankly at the protagonist charging toward the monsters. Instead, it was the Marquis who reacted.

“How dare you address our Edely like that! A mere maid!”

As if he had never been dazed at all, the Marquis jumped to his feet and stomped over threateningly. He raised his hand as if he were about to strike me, but…

“How impudent. I am no mere maid. I am the Saintess.”

I pulled Ilian’s sword from my inventory and thrust it toward the Marquis. The blade was engraved with the golden emblem of the Berha Knights. It was an item symbolizing Ilian’s status—not something you’d ever entrust to a common maid. Startled, the Marquis stumbled backward with his hands still raised.

“Wh-what did you say…?”

“A maid traveling with the Imperial Knights and Sir Ilian, the Commander of the Berha Knights. Doesn’t that seem strange? Would it even make sense to bring a maid into a situation like this?”

I took a step closer to the Marquis, driving the point home.

“I’m sure there are people here who saw the knights using formal language with me earlier.”

“Th-that’s right… I think I heard it too.”

“Heh! Then, she’s the real…?”

Exclamations erupted from the surrounding soldiers. The Marquis wavered.

“This person is…?”

“Y-yes, Father. Hereis said the Saintess had given him a revelation. I didn’t believe it then, but now that the revelation has proven true… I have no choice but to accept the existence of the Saintess…”

Edelina accepted my words with her somewhat logical way of thinking. Having finally grasped the situation, the Marquis threw himself noisily onto the ground before me to beg for forgiveness.

“Oh, Saintess! Please forget what I said! I greet the Saintess! The incarnation of Ralphican! The grace of Ralphican be upon us!”

Well.

In situations like this, a clear hierarchy is for the best. I gave orders to the people before me in a slightly overbearing tone.

“Summon the soldiers who have been trained in trap maintenance immediately. While the knights buy us time, we will defend the rampart with the traps.”

A look that said ‘What does that mean? Explain it so I can understand’ flashed across their faces, but they simply bowed their heads before me.

“U-understood!”

The Marquis gathered the soldiers and shouted.

“Move, now! Ralphican’s grace is with us! We shall survive this place!”

“Woooooah!”

“Even if there is grace, whether or not we all survive is a separate matter…”

Fortunately, Edelina’s mood-killing comment was drowned out by the cheering.

We held out quite well.

The protagonist’s party took the Marquis’s private knights—at least the ones who were actually useful—and annihilated the boar monsters, while Edelina’s traps worked perfectly. We fed potions to anyone who was injured or showed signs of demonic contamination, so not a single soldier had fallen so far.

‘The Holy Relic is working too, luckily.’

Of course, it wasn’t perfect.

Normally, according to the Holy Relic’s function, once a monster entered its field of influence, it would lose its will to attack and move away from the user. This effect usually persisted even after they left the range, provided they weren’t provoked.

However, perhaps because the monster legion attacking the Marquisate was in a state of frenzy, they became violent again the moment they left the range, even if I had made them docile.

Still, being able to make them docile for even that brief moment was better than nothing…

The real problem began in the third phase. High-grade monsters appeared. As the protagonist’s party rushed off to subjugate them, the Marquis’s knights were left to balance trap defense and fighting off the monsters on their own.

‘This is where it started going south.’

No matter how many times we replaced the traps or fired the special arrows Edelina had made at the base of the wall, the monsters’ momentum wouldn’t decrease. Eventually, the traps reached their limit, and now the monsters were starting to crawl up the rampart.
The only saving grace was that the monsters weren’t trying to destroy the wall; they seemed focused on the people on top. Because of that, the monsters didn’t spread out but crowded toward us, which was more than the traps could handle.

For now, I was running back and forth along the wall, knocking down any monsters that managed to climb up to buy time, but…

‘I want to cry.’

It was a desperate struggle.

Sprinting across this vast front line would only last until my physical stamina hit its limit. The protagonist needs to finish the subjugation and come support us before then…

‘How much longer do I have to hold out?’

I even considered the desperate idea of just handing the Holy Relic to someone else and making them run around instead. Right then.

“Dammit! Another new monster has appeared! It looks like a Lictupurum!”

Another piece of bad news arrived.

This is driving me crazy.

In the distance, I saw a giant monster covered in a red carapace. It looked like a lobster… no, more like a scorpion. That thing looked so tough that a sword probably wouldn’t even dent it; who was going to stop that?

“W-wait a minute! Who are they…?”

The soldier who had been reporting the battlefield situation through a telescope faltered. Now what?

“I-it’s the flag of the Rubel Duchy! The Rubel Knights have arrived!”

“Woooooah!”

The soldiers, who had been leaning against the wall firing arrows with everything they had, cheered. They came to save us!

“B-but…”

But?

“Why aren’t they coming this way…? No, they can’t! The Rubel Knights are being isolated among the monsters!”

Are you kidding me? I thought you came to rescue us, but did you get yourselves trapped too?