Episode 27

The sudden appearance of monsters had plunged the royal capital into chaos. Many had sensed the eerie atmosphere, but no one could have predicted a monster incursion.

“Why are monsters welling up in the capital!?”

“I wouldn’t know that!”

Ignoring the knights’ guidance, citizens fled every which way as they pleased. The panicked flight only expanded the damage.

“No big moves, Keat, that’s forbidden!”

“I know, damn it! This is a pain to fight in, seriously!”

The monsters were by no means strong breeds. There were many types—goblins, slimes, kobolds—but all were within a manageable scope.

However, this wasn’t open ground; it was the royal capital. There were many people and many residential buildings. Fighting while there were things to protect caused more stress than one might think, and from small mistakes injuries occurred.

“They told us to evacuate people, but where are we supposed to send them? Looks like we can’t get out of the capital.”

“Then we’ll have to create a safe area ourselves.”

Because of the barrier, leaving the capital was next to impossible. With monsters existing inside the walls, nowhere could really be called safe.

“Anyway… we’ll just have to keep evacuations moving while buying time!”

“And simultaneously investigate the monsters’ route of entry, huh!”

“Haria! We’ve suppressed everything in this area!”

Adventurers had been at their posts for security. They’d been rattled at the monsters’ sudden incursion at first, but had recovered by now. That was the hallmark of adventurers used to fighting monsters.

“Got it. We’ll move on, checking for anyone left behind!”

With Haria and the Wings of Light at the center, the adventurers advanced the subjugation. Like the knights, they prioritized protecting citizens.

“I know it’s inevitable in a fight, but the buildings really took a beating…”

“If you obsess over that, you won’t save the lives you can. I’m sorry for the capital’s folk, but they’ll just have to work hard on the rebuilding.”

If there was a difference, it was that they didn’t account for preserving buildings. Adventurers differed from knights in position and outlook.

“For now they’re just small fry, so it’s easy… but with the barrier up, the option to retreat doesn’t exist. That’s rough.”

“Why are there monsters in the capital… what’s going on!?”

Van had been resting at the inn. He hadn’t felt like walking around and had been lost in thought, but when he sensed the commotion and a strange foreboding and went out into the city, he saw people fleeing in panic and monsters.

(I’d heard Spirito was the safest city in the country…)

Its stout city walls and a barrier that activated in emergencies—together they formed an ironclad defense, but right now neither meant anything. Weakness from an attack launched from inside was becoming glaringly obvious.

“I smell blood. What’s happening…?”

On his way here, Van had fought several times. Because the monsters were low-difficulty prey like goblins and slimes, he hadn’t struggled—but that was for someone versed in the martial arts.

To ordinary folk, there was no difference in the threat of “monsters”; all were objects of terror. There were those who, upon merely seeing one, would have their legs give out and be unable to move.

(Anyway, I have to take the monsters down.)

He slipped through a narrow back alley and emerged into an open space.

What spread out before him was a park made for capital citizens to relax in, with a large fountain.

(W-What is this…?)

At the park’s center lay many wounded knights. They seemed alive, but they were bleeding and looked unable to move. Their armor, the symbol of the knight order, was warped into grotesque shapes. Even a layman could tell—they needed treatment immediately.

(A goblin couldn’t lay out knights. Then…)

Van rolled forward in a snap judgment to evade. One could call it instinct. He sensed danger to his life.

An instant later, something fell from the sky onto the spot where he’d just been standing. Cracks spread across the ground with the impact.

“Uoooooooaaaaahhh—!!”

A humanoid monster roared. It was nearly three meters tall, its body rugged with muscle and its skin red—its appearance was savage.

“—!? This thing’s… no way… an ogre!?”

Ogres were known as belligerent monsters who fought with their developed bodies and brute strength. They preferred deep mountains and lived far from human settlements.

(So that crushed knight armor was this thing’s doing.)

Unlike goblins and slimes, the extermination difficulty was quite high—B to C. Even experienced knights weren’t used to fighting in the streets. Even if you’d envisioned a monster attack, you couldn’t accumulate real combat experience against it.

(I don’t see any civilians. The knights probably got them out skillfully.)

That they’d staked their bodies to protect the citizens was admirable. Precisely for that reason, Van steeled himself to help them.

“I don’t have my usual sword, but I’ve got to do it!”

The ogre charged with a roar. For its bulk, it was fairly fast.

“Like that’ll hit me! He was so fast I couldn’t even see him.”

He dodged with room to spare, but cold sweat ran when he saw the ogre pivot, shattering the ground.

(The power gap is too big. Taking even one hit would be bad.)

The ogre leapt with its brute strength and brought its fist down. He sprang sideways to duck it, but he couldn’t bat away the fragments of broken ground.

“Gh… that hurts. …But it just hurts.”

He drew his sword and immediately infused it with mana. The mana became flame and the blade grew hot. His image was of a flying slash.

“Flame Slash!”

An airborne slash wreathed in flame slammed into the ogre. With skillful mana control and sword speed combined, it took shape—one of Van’s specialties.

Unable to respond to the swift counter, the ogre took the attack full-on, was blown away, and was wrapped in flame.

“That settles— ‘O-oooooaaah!’ —doesn’t settle it, of course…”

With its roar, the flames vanished.

A horizontal gash was carved across its skin, and blood spurted, so it had taken decent damage. But it didn’t look close to falling.

(If I drag this out, the knights are in danger. They might get caught up in it, and if other monsters show up, it’s over.)

Eyes bloodshot, the ogre let out a greater roar than before and rushed Van at ferocious speed. Ironically, wounded knights were right behind it. If he dodged, they would certainly be caught up in it.

(I just have to do it. I won’t let anyone die.)

He raised his sword overhead and closed his eyes. He honed his mana sharper and hotter. His heart stilled. His body stilled. His image was a momentary explosion.

The ogre bore down to point-blank. But he felt no fear. Someone losing their life was far more terrifying.

“Rising Heat Flame Blade!”

His sword came down. From the razor-honed strike, flame was born and a pillar of fire leapt up. The flaming slash that dyed the capital’s sky red seemed to hold, not scorching heat, but a certain gentle warmth.

After the pillar vanished, a charred-black ogre fell from above. Moments ago it had brimmed with vitality, but it would move no more.

(‘A truly skilled swordsman doesn’t rely on his weapon,’ huh. A half-baked kid like me is powerless without a sword…)

Among the multiple chapels of the Maria Church in the capital, the citizens had evacuated into one of them.

“Damn it, the monster types are changing from small fry.”

Adventurers had designated this chapel as a base and were protecting civilians.

“Priests! More cover! We’ll be overrun!”

“Please don’t ask the impossible! We must conserve our mana for healing!”

At first, weak monsters like goblins made up the majority, but that gradually changed, and mid-tier monsters—orks, wolves, high goblins—began to appear. Their numbers started to increase in tandem, and the adventurers ran out of leeway.

“Complaining won’t help! If you want buffs, I’ll give them! Charge Ness!”

A pale-pink-haired girl fighting alongside the adventurers—Eris—was also on the front line.

She supported with buffs, attacked with magic, and harried with short blades—showing deft maneuvering.

“Haria… we’ve got no planted measures left. We didn’t plan for anything like this in the first place.”

The Wings of Light were at the center of the fight, and their specialty was barrier-arts specialized for anti-monster combat. They’d kept it in reserve as insurance, but they’d had to use it when an ogre suddenly appeared among the mid-tier monsters. They’d annihilated many monsters, including the ogre, but the invasion hadn’t stopped. The limit was near.

“Don’t whine. We’re an A-rank party…”

The adventurers had subjugated many monsters so far. In sheer kill-count, they were likely above the knights and mages. Their daily experience was paying off.

“We’re starting to take casualties. The priests can’t keep up with the healing. At this rate, we’ll be bled dry.”

Wreathed in wind mana, Eris darted about and toyed with the monsters. She cast Wind Aura on herself for a speed buff.

“To re-form our lines, we should for now—”

“Uoooooaaaaah—!!”

A gigantic roar echoed around them. In front of the chapel, a red giant-bodied ogre was bearing down.

“—Wh-what is this!? Nobody told us about this!”

“Impossible… multiple ogres? They don’t form packs!”

Ogres, a species whose default was solitary action—at least six were visible. With a stately tread, they advanced toward them.

In sheer numbers, there were twenty adventurers. But the moment each laid eyes on the vicious ogres, they shrank back, quaking.

“No way… we can’t beat those.”

“I’m out. This wasn’t in the job.”

“I can’t do it.”

When one was swallowed by fear, it spread like contagion. The adventurers’ hearts had already broken.

“If it’s ogre-level, our barrier-arts can handle it… but we should withdraw now.”

“…You know what that means. We’re not running—we move the instant we’re ready.”

With slow steps, the ogres walked up to the front of the chapel. Such taunting behavior was unthinkable from a normal ogre. It was as if they were executing a plan.

“R… run for it—!!”

It happened fast. When one showed his back and bolted, the other adventurers fled the same way. They funneled into a narrow side alley and, as if to scatter, moved away from the chapel.

“—!? Hey, you lot? What do you think you’re doing!?”

“No one’s risking their life to fight! ‘Monster extermination’ wasn’t in the job to begin with!”

One by one, the adventurers’ numbers dwindled. By the time she noticed, even the Wings of Light had vanished.

“No way… then I’m supposed to face those ogres alone?”

Left behind were only Eris, the Maria Church’s priests and staff, and the evacuated citizens of the capital. In numbers they exceeded the ogres, but this wasn’t an enemy numbers alone could beat.

The priests, faces pale, offered prayers. There was little hope for cover from them.

Multiple monsters with bodies nearly twice Eris’s height and rippling with strength closed in. Fear was only natural.

(Why did it come to this… Should I have obeyed what Papa told me?)

Behind her were civilians with no combat experience. Every age, men and women—and there might be some seeing a monster for the first time.

She could run and it would be fine. She wasn’t a knight, nor an adventurer. She was just an ordinary person who knew how to fight a little. Even if she ran, no one would hold her responsible.

(…As if I could say that. If I run, the people behind me almost certainly won’t survive.)

She had a big goal. Precisely because of that, she couldn’t die here. But she wouldn’t abandon the civilians either. She would let go of neither.

“Charge Ness, Wind Aura, Break Aura.”

Eris cloaked herself in a series of buffs. It was by the seat of her pants, but for the first time she succeeded in casting multiple buffs at once. With this… she surely wouldn’t lose.

“C-come on. I… I won’t run… I’ll fight.”

Her resolve was set. The buffs were a success. And yet her tongue wouldn’t work. Her body wouldn’t move. The trembling from fear wouldn’t stop.

“I’ll fight. I can’t run… there are children behind me…”

Tears spilled over. Her life thus far flashed through her mind like a revolving lantern. A close-mouthed father, and a mother who was noisy in the opposite way—and yet their marriage was good. She vaguely wondered if someday she, too, would have a family.

“…I don’t want to die yet.”

An ogre’s roar reverberated like an echo. But it wasn’t a battle cry—it sounded like a s-c-r-e-a-m.

“—Eh?”

Moments ago the ogres had stood there in stately poise, but now pained expressions twisted their faces—and they lay dead.

Cause of death: spears of ice that had pierced them. Like spikes thrusting up from the ground, they had skewered all six ogres.

“Pathetic. To quail before monsters… though compared to this trash, you’re vastly better.”

The black-haired boy she’d seen a few days ago—the very embodiment of arrogance. Through his selfish actions he’d not only dragged her into a mortal crisis, he’d saved her life. A benefactor whose name she didn’t know—the strongest person Eris knew stood before her.

“You… why are you here?”

“Hmph. It galls me, but this is what the job entails… annoying as it is.”

As always, despite having unleashed powerful magic, he looked unruffled. It bothered her, but an even more abnormal scene entered her vision.

“—!? Those lying around near you… are those the adventurers from before!? What happened!?”

Yes—there had been dizzying changes before her eyes—ogres, magic, and Zeke—and she’d missed it, but every one of the adventurers who’d fled earlier was around Zeke. And for some reason, they were all on the ground.

“…Do you understand what you’re doing?”

The one who spoke was Haria, leader of the Wings of Light. She was conscious, but moving her mouth was all she could manage.

“That’s my line. I thought you were useless, but I didn’t think you’d be incapable of accurately understanding the job.”

“What are you talking about? We were guarding the council…”

Haria couldn’t comprehend what Zeke meant. Nor could the other adventurers.

“Are you stupid? The job was ‘guard the council and eliminate the hostile organization.’ Obviously the monsters are their doing. Did you think they just pop up on their own?”

It might have been sophistry, but it wasn’t necessarily wrong.

“…Then why did you attack us?”

“You really are useless. You turned your backs on the hostile organization and tried to run. And you invited chaos into the capital. What you did isn’t much different from the nearby monsters.”

This wasn’t even sophistry. Along with the adventurers, Eris, too, was taken aback.

“Do you seriously think conduct like that can be allowed?”

“Shut up, you beasts. The ones who’ll judge that are the people behind you.”

She moved her face, and behind him were many citizens of the capital. From adults to children, all their eyes of reproach were turned on Haria and the adventurers. By contrast, their eyes toward Eris were filled with gratitude and admiration. It seemed the answer had already come out.

“You beasts will be detained… Be grateful you get to keep your lives.”

Zeke shut the adventurers in icy prisons. Not a single one of them was capable of resisting.