Episode 35

Even from far away, he felt the vast mana and the cold-laden magic. He did not need to see it directly to know: that was Zeke’s doing.

“You came as well, Zeke…?”

His body was exhausted, and small wounds had increased. His mana was limited, and the spells he could still cast were few. And yet strength welled up—perhaps because of the influence of that troublesome friend.

“S-some scary-looking folks just popped out of nowhere…”

“Your posture is pretty bad too…”

Despite being on a battlefield, Skinny lay flat on his back, arms and legs spread. His stamina had bottomed out.

“I keep hearing people shout ‘Lagias’…”

“Hmm. Unfamiliar armor… At the very least, they aren’t the Knight Order.”

Each squad held its position near the center, where information did not travel accurately. The monsters were still pressing in, but their numbers had greatly decreased.

“They’re not enemies. Those are Lagias private soldiers.”

“That would make sense. There’d be no point to fake troops pretending to be Lagias. —Gravity!”

Yorn crushed monsters with gravity magic. The reason First Squad and the other squads still held was largely thanks to outstanding individuals. Conversely, if those pillars broke, the worst outcome would follow.

“So, Luke. Your friend seems to be doing well, but you… is this your limit?”

“Why do you know about our relationship…?”

“That’s what background checks are for.”

They spoke as if idly chatting, but he never stopped casting. He was, as expected, fully grasping the flow of battle.

“As things stand, it’s difficult for us to leave the center. But the monsters are coming from deeper behind the reinforcement units.”

The speed of the monsters rushing in dropped dramatically, as if weights had been attached to them.

“Sticking to defense won’t turn this around. Defense is harsher than offense; stamina and mana… both will run out soon.”

When their movement slowed, he bombarded them with conjured stone shards and wiped them out.

“In other words… the only way to break the deadlock is to strike first from our side.”

Skinny and the other three, the other examinees, the wounded knights who could not move, and the mages whose mana had run dry—he looked over them all, then finally turned his gaze to Luke.

“We abandon the defense here…”

“In other words—”

“The time has come to cast off the small.”

Luke drew a sharp breath. He had thought that day might come, should he become a knight. The world did not move on ideals alone. He had known that.

“The Lagias private soldiers are winning for now, but they can’t fight forever. They have no reason to stake their lives here in the first place.”

If one wasn’t enough, then two. If two weren’t enough, then many. The private soldiers leveraged individuals and, when needed, acted as one. They also handled covering fire and healing. It was blatant overwork that ignored pacing.

“Someone at my level needs to join the front line. Not that I should be saying that about myself…”

A choice had to be made—placing lives on the scale, discarding something.

“I won’t force you. You’re not enlisted in the national army. With your ability, you could flee. You could also run to the capital and call for help.”

He must have already known: this world held unreasonable things one could not resist.
In the distance, the earth burned under lightning magic. Perhaps new enemies had appeared.

“…Get going already, Luke.”

He felt mana that should have been depleted. There were only a few ways to recover mana in a short time: through rest—or else…

“This is… Mana Supply…?”

Potions could restore mana, and magic offered other methods—either restoring another’s mana or giving one’s own. Skinny had chosen the latter.

“It’s the only spell I can use. I’ve got no talent for magic and no stamina either. So this was about all I could learn.”

Skinny had run out of stamina—and mana. He looked like a puff of wind might blow him away.

“I knew it. There was no way I’d pass the first test… That’s why I took it out on you.”

He had some confidence with a blade, but lacked the physique and stamina to make it count. Changing what one was born with was hard. So he had envied Luke, the regimental commander’s son.

“You’re amazing. Sword, magic, and character. So don’t die protecting trash like me.”

Luke’s mana recovered further. Nahal and Calm were casting the same spell.

“It’s close to impossible for us to survive.”

“I refuse to go out as nothing but dead weight…”

They each did what they could. Each correctly recognized the situation.

“Why…? We only met a few hours ago.”

“…Isn’t that enough? We’ve shared a brush with death.”

Opa’s sword had broken under the fierce fighting. Even with a nicked blade, he still fought hard—he had no intention of giving up to the end.

“This is bad. Quite a few stragglers got through. …Everyone down. I’m using a big one!”

With a bellow, a massive, bull-headed Minotaur charged, whirling a great-axe. Would Yorn’s magic land first—or the descending axe?

—Yet the outcome that should have arrived was neither. With a peal of thunder, a figure appeared, eyes hidden by a suspicious mask.

“Be at ease, lost lambs.”

The person wore gaudy clothes shining gold and a masquerade-style mask one might don at a ball. Even if he claimed to have come straight from a party hall, his attire invited no questions.

“I shall be your guardian.”

“W-what the hell is this guy!?”

“What is that outfit!? Aren’t you embarrassed?”

A mysterious figure wore flashy clothes despite being on a battlefield. He drew more presence than anyone.

“No need to stand on ceremony. We are comrades, sharing life itself…”

“You’re blinding, stop flouncing around!”

“…Are you shy? Good grief.”

The appearance of the suspicious figure heightened the squads’ alertness. Many assumed he was a new enemy.

“You felled multiple Minotaurs in an instant… Has the lightning magic since earlier been yours?”

“Of course! Things had gone beyond the bounds of a test. I took the liberty of handling it.”

Spreading his arms, he spun in place and struck a pose. Every movement the masked man made set the crowd abuzz.

“Over yonder, a cool boy is fighting his heart out. He and I are soulmates.”

“You know Zeke!?”

Luke wondered how anyone built a friendship with him. Zeke’s default was invective; someone who could call him a friend was rare. All the more reason to trust him.

“So, boy. You seemed in the middle of something—has the problem been solved?”

With spears of lightning hurled by the masked man, monsters were skewered en masse. The secondary shock effect froze the legs of those nearby.

“I want to become a knight who saves everyone. So… may I leave this place to you?”

“No problem! Go, and seize tomorrow!”

The masked man’s theatrics stood out. Skinny cried in surprise—You’re trusting a guy like this!?

“What scheme is it this time, Lord Aaron? …Whose orders are you following?”

“I don’t know what you mean. Call me the Masked Gentleman. We’ll fight back-to-back. For now, isn’t that enough… hm?”

Suddenly, Luke was wrapped in radiance. The abrupt change made him almost shut his eyes.

“This is… what a surprise.”

Wreathed in waves of holy light, he looked mystical and divine. Even if they did not understand the logic, Skinny and the others saw it as a light of hope.

“At last. …Now I can fight to protect everyone.”

In Wish Soul, the party member Fonsell learned this finisher late in the story. It had a time limit, but its outrageous effect raised all stats by fifty percent. Deadly in the game, in this real world it raged even more fiercely.

“Force of Grande.”

Luke reaped benefits beyond mere numerical boosts.

Something had been entrusted to him. As he was now, he felt he would not lose even to Zeke.

“How odd… for someone to outshine even me.”

“Relax. There aren’t many above you. It does throw off the calculations, though.”

A happy miscalculation. Yorn grumbled inwardly—that it could always be like this. It seemed far too early to cast off the small.

“Please, hold this line.”

With those words, Luke dashed off. The path he traced drew streaks of light; monsters caught in it burned away.

“—Holy Lance, —Divine Arrow, —Grand Chain.”

From incantation to construction to release—everything was orders of magnitude faster. This too was the effect of a powerful buff.

“€>f /)8@aqh……”

“A Mithril Golem. Even something like that shows up now.”

A golem composed of mithril—specialized in defense, with especially extreme resistance to magic.

“Even so, I’m going through!”

Wreathing his sword in mana, he swung for the Mithril Golem. Usually, its sturdy body stopped attacks—but Luke’s blade bisected it with ease.

As a secondary effect of the light element, its enhanced defense-ignoring power turned the Mithril Golem into paper.

Luke fought like one with six arms—on every side at once. Combined with the Lagias private soldiers acting as mobile support, the battle swung heavily in their favor.

“Simon-san! I’ll reinforce you!”

“Sir Luke…! Understood. —All units, forward! Support Sir Luke!”

The private soldiers cast support magic on Luke—buffs to strengthen him and healing to mend him. They peppered the monsters with pinpricks to draw attention, and Luke annihilated them in the gap.

It was a brilliant tactic—hard to believe it was their first coordination.

Of course it was: during his adventuring, Luke and the Lagias soldiers had taken on requests together. They knew one another’s fighting styles.

“However, Sir Luke—what is that light?”

“I don’t know the details myself… I just know how to move. I can feel how to use the power, like it’s in my hands.”

A flurry of thrusts clad in light-aspected mana. The monsters could not keep up with the fierce exchanges and fell.

“But it seems my remaining time is limited. I’ll unleash everything here.”

The mystical light cloaking Luke flared brighter. A light of hope descending on the battlefield. Every knight, mage, and examinee was transfixed. That light even reached a villain fighting alone far away.

A gigantic magic circle rose into the sky over the Igza Plains. More than anything, the constructed circle was mysterious—

—and the holy light that purged the darkness bathed the battlefield.

“Spienza of Luke.”

The loosed light of hope repainted an unreasonable world. Evil vanished within the radiance.