The Strongest Protector

“He actually defeated a Fiend…”

Shocked exclamations broke out among the members of the knight order.

“Lord Vim! Are you alright?!”

As his consciousness began to fade, Vim thought he heard Hana’s voice.

He had no idea how many hours he remained unconscious after that, but eventually, Vim came to.

“Lord Vim, are you alright?” Misa asked, peering down into his face.

At the same time, Vim felt an unfamiliar, soft sensation against the back of his head. He realized the source of that sensation almost instantly. It was Misa’s thigh. It seemed that for the past few hours, Vim had been treated to a lap pillow from Misa on the carriage’s plush bench seat.

“Yeah, I’m alright. I just used up quite a bit of blood as a toll, that’s all,” Vim said, attempting to sit up.

“I think it would be better if you stayed lying down a bit longer.”

“But aren’t your legs getting tired?”

“Don’t worry about me, please don’t push yourself. You deployed such a massive spell, after all.”

“Well, if you insist, I’ll take you up on that.” Vim rested his head back down.

“Now that Lord Vim is awake, shall we pick up the pace?”

At Camil’s command, the carriage slowly jolted back into motion. Having unleashed that much destruction in a foreign land, they would undoubtedly have to explain the situation to the ruler of Gryphinto.

“Even so, you truly are incredible. Not only did you defeat a Fiend, but you can even cast that legendary, top-tier magic.”

“To put it the other way around, I couldn’t have defeated it without using that spell, and look at the pathetic state it’s left me in,” Vim laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Even so. In a predicament like that, no one would have blamed you if you had chosen to flee.”

This was a foreign country. True enough, no one would have complained even if he had run away. Even so, Vim had never even considered running as an option.

“If I had run away back there, who was going to stop that Fiend?”

“Well, the adventurers or knights of this country would…” Camil trailed off mid-sentence. Ordinary adventurers and knights stood absolutely no chance against a Fiend. Death would have been the only option waiting for them.

“I only have two hands,” Vim said, raising both of his hands up into the air. “Because of that, there’s a limit to what I can protect and who I can save. But don’t you think it would be a lonely way to live, carrying no weight at all?”

“I understand exactly what His Majesty meant now,” Camil said.

Vim wondered what on earth the King had filled his head with.

“It’s because you possess that kind of strength that everyone chooses to follow you,” one of the knights chimed in this time.

“No, that’s not it. Strength alone can’t bind the hearts of people. It’s vital to always put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Well, I suppose coming from someone in my current position, it doesn’t sound very convincing.”

Vim felt a little embarrassed for speaking so earnestly while being cradled in a lap pillow by Misa.

“That’s not true. It’s precisely because you are who you are, Lord Vim, that both Hana and I decided to follow you.”

“Exactly!” Hana chimed in, agreeing with Misa’s words.

“You might only have two hands, Lord Vim, but if you combine them with mine and Hana’s, that makes six. Won’t that increase the number of people we can save and protect?”

“That’s right. We’re comrades, aren’t we?!”

“You don’t have to carry everything all by yourself.” With those words, Misa gently stroked Vim’s hair.

“Comrades, huh? It really is a great thing, having comrades.”

And with that, Vim quietly closed his eyes once more.