Chapter 13

Vivid encounters that change one’s life do exist in this world.

They can come in the form of a profession, a landscape, a culture, or a person.

In particular, everyone experiences admiration for another. Sometimes a child is struck by the physique, actions, or spiritual presence of an adult; other times, one is drawn to a completely new charm possessed by a peer. Whatever the catalyst, it is undoubtedly a fateful, once-in-a-lifetime moment.

And whether that fateful moment holds meaning depends entirely on the actions of the person who felt the shock.

That gallant figure; that fluid swordsmanship.

The sharpness of the ambition they radiated, and the brilliance of their superhuman skill.

What was most impressive of all was that majestic attitude—utterly indifferent to the pressure in a situation like the Imperial Matches, where anyone would be nervous. It was as if they spat upon this half-hearted battle where lives weren’t on the line, thinking only of departing for a real battlefield.

They were, truly, a “Seeker.”

One who lives by the sword and dies by the sword.

Ah, how many among the spectators noticed it?

In this place, neither the King’s favor nor honor was reflected in those eyes.

There was only a pure—a very, very pure intent.

If selfishness were permitted, she would wish for it without hesitation.

—I want to live in this world in the same state as them, looking through the same eyes.

“——What did you just say?”

Rosso, who served as a military academy instructor, doubted his own ears at his student’s statement.

“I asked if you could use your influence with the Council to ensure my assignment is the ‘Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights’… Do you understand?”

“I don’t understand at all! Why would you suddenly say you want to go to the Pig-Hunt Knights?!”

“My, that isn’t the accurate name. Correctly, it is the ‘Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights,’ is it not?”

“I know that!! I’m asking why, of all places, you want to go to that knighthood—the dumping ground for commoners and exiled knights!!”

At the sudden and nonsensical request, Rosso unconsciously slammed his fist onto his desk.

The half-finished teacup clattered, the contents rippling so violently they nearly spilled.

The type of person who ended up in the Pig-Hunt Knights was decided from the start: those without privilege, or those of the privileged class who were a disgrace. And she was a noble existence positioned at the polar opposite of both.

“You are a member of a Ducal House!! Your grades are impeccable—first in both swordsmanship and academics, the undisputed top of the class! You are a student of a brilliance rarely seen even at this military academy!! I could squeeze you into any of the other Holy Knight Orders among the Big Five, but of all things, the Pig-Hunt Knights?! Who would be convinced by a decision that essentially throws precious talent into the gutter?! Let alone the Council, even I cannot accept this!!”

“My, you say such harsh things. The ‘Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights’ now hold an indispensable and vital position in maintaining the stability of our kingdom, you know?”

As if truly offended, the student covered her mouth with her hand. However, there wasn’t the slightest hint that her underlying resolve was wavering.

“The reproductive power of Orcs, which have no notable competitors in the ecosystem, is literally explosive. The damage to the citizenry is not cheap, and it is not rare for deaths to occur. The activities of that knighthood—bravely facing the Orcs that ravage the various industries of the commoners, such as agriculture, forestry, and livestock—are remarkable—”

“I know that!! To begin with, we accepted those commoners and cooked up a knighthood specifically to hunt Orcs!! So that those of us in the privileged class can remain as we should be!!”

“As a result, the knighthood with the most opportunities to gain actual combat experience in our country is the Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights. They are also the knighthood most supported by the commoners, and in recent years, they have become an extremely elite group that climbed to the top by defeating the ‘Holy Boot Knights’ at the Imperial Matches. Both as someone who continues to devote myself to my training and from an external perspective, I humbly suggest it is a sufficiently attractive assignment.”

“Guh…!!”

Rosso groaned in agony. The information being presented in rapid-fire succession was fact.

It was frustrating, but the popularity of the Pig-Hunt Knights had skyrocketed, especially since the appearance of the “Beheader.”

The quality and quantity of combat experience varied among the Knight Orders.

The “Holy Vessel Knights,” who protected the surrounding waters and occasionally fought pirates, saw a fair amount of action. The “Holy Heaven Knights,” who faced sky pirates and flying hazardous species with airships or imported tamed wyverns, had fewer sorties, as they functioned as a small elite force.

The “Holy Boot Knights” were nominally the “Face of the Nation” that stood at the forefront in times of emergency, but since they didn’t deploy except for crises, the current reality was a bunch of pampered young masters sitting around with nothing to do. As for the “Holy Shield Knights,” their job was maintaining public order around the Royal Capital, so the nature of their combat was quite different from the other Orders.

In that regard, the workload and practical benefits of the “Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights”—who always had an enemy to face—were the most prominent.

In the kingdom, being prominent meant offering a glimpse into the quality of the nation’s governance. No matter how much the privileged class insulted the Pig-Hunt Knights, the fact remained that the knighthood was popular.

“E-Even so, could someone like you endure it over there?! It’s a knighthood where you run through the forests like a monkey with hardly any rest, covered in mud without even taking a bath, fighting ugly pig monsters endlessly!! There’s no promotion. Once you’re in, you’ll just be used by that detestable Luger however he likes!!”

“That phrasing makes it sound as if the other Knight Orders spend their days in comfort without any real hardship, doesn’t it? If that is the case, then there is no battlefield I seek other than the Royal Foreign Hazardous Species Countermeasures Knights.”

The student chuckled elegantly—but in the next instant, she directed a terrifying gaze at Rosso, like a snake that had found its prey.

“I believe a knight is only perfected by constantly clashing steel and hungering for strength as a warrior. I have no use for a lukewarm environment. If you insist, I wouldn’t mind ‘going wild’ a bit at the knighthood you wish to assign me to, you know?”

“Wh-at…!! Th-that’s enough with the jokes—”

“Do these eyes look like the eyes of someone making a joke?”

The pressure was so immense it even painted over the fear Rosso had felt when he was once accidentally attacked by a stray Orc. That sharp, glinting gaze paralyzed the body of Rosso, who was supposed to have been a swordsman for a long time.

There was no mistake. She intended to do it for real.

If she went on a rampage, no matter her status in a Ducal House, she would undoubtedly be sent to the Pig-Hunt Knights depending on the severity. If that happened, pressure from the Ducal House would fall upon the Knighthood and the Council; that weight would search for an escape, pass through the pipe of “appointment responsibility,” and ultimately claim his own head.

In short, Rosso was currently having a verbal guillotine held to his neck by his own student.

“Instructor? Will you… listen to my ‘request’?”

Faced with that terrifying and hauntingly beautiful question, Rosso—who was supposed to have spent fifty years barking at selfish officers—cast aside his pride and nodded.

“…Ugh?”

I don’t know why, but I had a nagging feeling that I’d been set in the sights of something… unpleasant.

I loved knight stories, but I wasn’t particularly fond of horror.

Because I’d read ghost stories as a child, there was a period where I became intensely afraid of being alone and couldn’t even go to the restroom without my mother accompanying me. Looking back now, it wasn’t as if ghosts appeared that easily, so I wondered what had made me so terrified back then. I felt more puzzled than embarrassed.

“Is something wrong, Varna-san?”

“No, I just felt a chill down my spine… A cold? That’s strange, I thought I’d washed away my fatigue with all this rest.”

“Losing your daily rhythm can happen quite easily when you suddenly take time off. Just to be safe, shouldn’t you turn in early tonight?”

“I think I’ll do that… It wouldn’t even be funny if I fell ill right before going back to work tomorrow.”

A knight’s body was their greatest asset. Just as Rai said, I decided to hit the sack early today.

It was the final day of my precious leave in the Royal Capital. I’d more or less finished everything one could do on a rare vacation—rekindling friendships with classmates, being surrounded by children, and treating my parents to delicious food. Now, I was heading to a bookstore in the capital with Rai.

“It would be quite the laughingstock if the strongest swordsman in the kingdom lost to a common cold! Especially for that piece of trash Yagara, whose personality is as rotten as leftover scraps!”

“You’re really going all out with the insults since he’s not here… I’m catching a glimpse of the darkness from your days in a biker gang.”

Unlike us in the Knight Order, Rai belonged to the Royal Magic Research Institute, but the institute was also a subordinate organization of the kingdom in a broad sense. If you said the wrong thing to a Royal Chronicler, it would eventually come back to haunt you.

However, Chronicler Yagara was likely still deep in the mountains negging the other Order members, so for now, we were free to badmouth that pointy-bearded old man as much as we wanted. Even if it was only for a short time, not having to worry about that annoying man might have been worth more than the vacation itself.

In any case, Yagara’s term was only a few months away from ending, so it should be a short acquaintance.

“Well, anyway, books, books. I hope they’ve got some good ones in stock.”

“They definitely will. After all, the ‘Rasiera’ bookstore here in the capital is the go-to spot for scholars. Domestic and foreign books are piled high! The selection is almost better than the bookstores on the mainland.”

While I was happy about the selection, between the stalls and the libraries, I wondered if this country bought a bit too much from other nations. I felt like Sedona had mentioned something about the domestic economy and the influx of foreign goods.

However, despite all the importing, the kingdom’s economy was apparently surprisingly robust.

On the mainland, nations were groaning under various turmoils like wars, monster outbreaks, and revolutions sparked by the rise of democracy. Yet, this island kingdom continued to carve out a history that was almost too peaceful, suffering from none of those disasters.

Forestry, agriculture, and livestock industries all maintained stable export volumes, earning deep trust abroad, and the processing industry was thriving—perhaps as a result of active diplomacy. Tourism and fishing, in particular, stood out even compared to foreign countries.

Furthermore, since there were several uninhabited islands, they were currently being developed as part of refugee resettlement and summer resort projects.

To put it bluntly, this country was actually incredibly wealthy.

And so… it was time for the bookstore. The moment we entered ‘Rasiera,’ which boasted a collection comparable to a small library, we headed straight for the monster-related section and began scavenging for new releases.

“Oh, it’s the sequel to ‘Chronicles of the Goblin Subjugation.’ I didn’t think it would make it across the sea to our kingdom, but sometimes these have references useful for Orc hunting… Let’s see, one copy for preservation, one for reference, and two for the breakroom.”

“Look over here, Varna-san. ‘The True Record: How Kobolds Destroyed a Nation.’ It looks like a book where a kingdom official from back then exposed the government’s poor response. Apparently, Kobolds have incredibly high intelligence compared to things like Orcs.”

“Yeah, that’s right. According to Nonoka-san, their technical skill is near-human level; it wouldn’t be strange for them to build ships and cross over to the kingdom. What a pain… Let’s buy that one too, just in case.”

Our kingdom was certainly prospering, but that was because we continued to hunt the Orcs that infested it. And while Orcs were stupid, they had the ability to learn, so their actions were increasingly moving a step ahead of our expectations year by year.

To bridge that gap, we had no choice but to borrow the wisdom of predecessors from abroad who had fought monsters longer than we had.

“Heh, poison on arrows, huh… The handling seems scary, but it would definitely be effective if mastered.”

“Here’s a new one on wire traps. It’s a strategy for Trolls, but don’t you think it would work on Orcs too?”

“Wait, there’s something even more interesting than that. Powerful tear gas bombs utilizing spices native to the East. This looks like it would be brutal for Orcs with their keen sense of smell.”

“…We could use those with booby traps to send them into a panic.”

“Good idea, Rai. You’re starting to get dyed in the colors of our Knight Order, aren’t you?”

“Hehehe… Well, if you stay with this Order, it just happens naturally, doesn’t it?”

Rai wore a wicked smile, and I couldn’t help but grin back.

The hottest topic among us was how to kill Orcs as efficiently as possible. Likely, the people from the Magic Research Institute seconded to our unit knew more about Orc hunting than any other Knight Order.

Trolls, Kobolds, Minotaurs—we had researched plenty of ways to kill them all… Just you wait, you pests that plague the kingdom! This is your hell!! Kukuku… Kuhahahaha!! While laughing triumphantly in my head, we scavenged a massive amount of reference material for monster countermeasures.

‘Wh-what’s with those people? They’re scary…’

‘Hey, isn’t that Varna from the Pig-Hunt Knights?’

‘True to his name ‘Beheader,’ even in his private life, he thinks of nothing but killing Orcs…’

‘I wonder if he can only confirm his own reason for living by killing his opponents…’

I could hear whispers coming from somewhere in the bookstore, but because I was secretly elated to finally be returning to my duties, I didn’t pay them much mind.

Back to duty tomorrow. The days of Orc sweeping—our life’s work—were waiting for us.