Chapter 74

When the white monster charged into the village, the inhabitants felt the cold grip of mortality. In a region where monsters didn’t normally dwell, encountering a colossal, ferocious beast that was tearing their village apart made such a reaction inevitable. Even for those outside this village, anyone whose livelihood didn’t involve combat would have had the single word “Death” flash across their mind.

However, if one were to ask if the knights—those whose trade was combat—felt any differently, the answer was not necessarily. Knights are human, too. They feel fear. In essence, the watershed between a warrior and a civilian is whether one possesses the mental fortitude to endure that terror and level their sword.

The knights rallied. Naturally, they employed realistic strategies like requesting reinforcements, but they did not abandon the residents and flee; they faced the unknown monster head-on. In the face of a titanic power that would have undoubtedly sent common mercenaries or adventurers scurrying away with their tails between their legs, they stood their ground with reason and a sense of duty.

It wasn’t that they wanted to look cool while dying. It was simply that the knights understood all too well what would happen to the remaining residents if they fled.

I might die That awareness was certainly there.

Akina alone never doubted their victory, but even with the axes swung by her powerful arms, she had her hands full just parrying the log’s attacks.

However, while luck might have deserted them, the heavens had not.

Now, standing against “Death” in its easily understood form of a giant monster, an overwhelming force blocked the Orc’s path.

This force evaded the swings of the log and the powerful limbs—strikes that required a readiness for death should even one connect—without a change in expression. He confounded the enemy with footwork too fast for the eye to follow, and whenever an opening appeared, he delivered a flash of his blade, scattering the enemy’s blood.

Perhaps because of his extraordinary skill, he didn’t allow those watching to harbor a shred of anxiety.

That was the Kingdom’s strongest. That was the knight named Varna.

Varna was here, and he was fighting. That fact alone allowed every member of the Knight Order to completely reject the possibility of defeat. The morale of the squad, which had been on the verge of rock bottom, was resuscitated by the arrival of a single knight who had appeared like a gale.

“Varna… it’s Varna! Varna is here!!”

“Hell yeah!! Let the counterattack begin!!”

“Good grief, you always burst in at the perfect timing like you planned it, don’t you?!”

Having an ally of whom you can say “we absolutely won’t lose” is an incredible source of strength for those who fight. For the knights, who were forced to remain constantly aware of death lurking next to life, Varna’s presence alone was the turning point for a reversal.

Varna, who was pinning the Orc’s gaze to him by mixing in tosses of nearby rubble and stones, threw his voice to the revitalized knights while closing in on the Orc.

“Seniors! The familiars will be arriving soon. Please listen to the Vice Commander’s report and then back me up! I absolutely want to avoid letting this monster escape from here today, so I’ll keep buying time until your strategy is set!!”

“Roger that!! We’ll come up with a perfect plan. Though, feel free to take it down before the plan is even ready!”

“If anything, don’t finish it off too easily, or there’ll be less glory for us!”

It seemed that even Varna couldn’t achieve his usual instantaneous kill against a body this massive, but he could at least survive this encounter. Having regained their sense of security, the members of the squad immediately reformed their ranks around Akina and listened to the explanation from the familiar that had finally flown in.

“I wonder what’s happening outside. What are Akina-san and the others talking about…?”

They didn’t notice Busse, who was secretly listening to the report from inside the house.

While Varna acrobatically evaded the Orc’s attacks with a back-flip, the knight members in the village finally began to understand the situation through the familiar’s report. That said, the discussion was centered around Akina, the highest-ranking officer on the scene, and the two most battle-hardened members assigned to the village, Kebes and Neige.

“So this white thing is a mutant Orc, huh? Making the great Akina come all the way to a place like Isberg…”

“But honestly, Captain, that size is no joke. It gives me the creeps just thinking about what would happen if there were two or three of those things.”

“Given the circumstances, there shouldn’t be any ‘seconds,’ but it’s certainly a level of combat power that’s more than we can handle.”

In an Orc colony, the Boss Orc is fundamentally the strongest. If there were another male Orc with comparable power, they would instinctively fight over dominance of the females. Therefore, there was no doubt that this Orc was the first and last target for subjugation.

“So, why did that thing come to this village, you birdbrain?”

『Watch your mouth, Akina. Well, fine. That white one had its pack wiped out by a white bear. So it came here tracking the scent to kill the white bear.』

“A polar bear? The kind that lives in—wait, the bear Varna killed?”

『That’s the one. So we thought for sure it was heading for the motive carriage, but why is it here?』

“So that’s what happened… Dammit, my luck is absolute trash!”

In the end, the person who had brought about this situation was Akina herself, who had unknowingly handed the white bear pelt to Busse. If she hadn’t—out of character—accepted that white pelt for Busse’s sake, the village wouldn’t have become the final battlefield, and they wouldn’t be in this stupid situation where his life was in danger.

But of course, such a future was something neither Akina nor any of the other knights could have foreseen. In other words, if you had to blame someone, it was the fault of the Goddess of Luck residing somewhere in the heavens.

“Curse you, Goddess of Luck… setting up the great Akina like this! I’ll never forgive her!!”

“You’d better remember this, Goddess of Luck!! Unless you pay back this misfortune with luck plus a gift box of sweets, I’m certifying you as a Foreign Hazardous Species member too!!”

“No, it’s nobody’s fault, so stop shifting the blame to a goddess and stop trying to frame her… I mean, look at reality. It’s not about whose fault it is. If you don’t—”

“If we don’t?”

“I’ll carve it right off you.”

“…Sorry, I’ll be serious.”

“…I, I get it. I’ll stop talking about the Goddess.”

At Neige’s words—muttered with a terrifyingly serious face as naturally as breathing—Akina and Kebes immediately ceased their mysterious bullying of the Goddess of Luck. She never specified what exactly she would “carve off,” but since her hand was on her sword, they assumed it would be something rather important.

The bullying had stopped for now, but one could only hope they wouldn’t suffer a counterattack from the Goddess that sent their luck plummeting to rock bottom.

“So? What’s the plan? I’m a technical specialist, so I don’t know much about tactics.”

“Hmm. First, the fact that Varna told us to plan because he’s buying time means he thinks there’s a high chance it’ll run away before he can finish it. In that case, we definitely need to lure it.”

“I see. We use the pelt Busse has to lure it away instead… but lure it where? In this snow, human legs would be caught and finished in no time.”

“I’d like to rely on Pero who’s coming with reinforcements, but realistically, it’ll have to be Varna.”

The surrounding knights nodded in agreement. Despite Varna being out there alone buying time, these cold-hearted senior knights were casually demanding even more of a burden from him. However, since this was business as usual, no one batted an eye. If Varna himself heard this, he’d likely say, “This is the worst workplace ever. I’ll do it, though,” and end up doing it anyway.

It wasn’t that they didn’t trust Pero, but since the original bear was a four-meter-class beast, they were a bit worried about the sheer surface area of the pelt being draped over a wolf. In that regard, the conversation naturally flowed toward “Varna is amazing, he can do anything.” He probably could.

The method of luring was settled, but another major problem surfaced.

“But where are we luring it to?”

“Returning to the motive carriage is out of the question, and heading to the main camp to regroup early is… well, this is the Orc’s home ground, right? If we enter the forest, they’ll have the geographical advantage. This is trouble. If I’d known, I would’ve had old man Roberto dig a giant pitfall trap!”

Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Varna, who was evading the Orc’s fierce onslaught by a hair’s breadth on the treacherous snow.

“BUGYAH!! BUGYU!! BUGUOOOOOO!!”

“Yo, hop, and there!!”

The log attacks were erratic and their trajectories unreadable, but Varna displayed acrobatic evasions—sometimes flipping mid-air, sometimes kicking off the log to dodge, and occasionally sliding under the beast’s legs to get behind it. Considering the possibility of it fleeing, he was avoiding lethal wounds as much as possible, focusing purely on drawing its attention.

From the sidelines, it almost looked like he was having fun, but the risk of failure was far too great; he was likely the only one capable of participating. Moreover, if the Orc caught on to Varna’s intentions and decided to flee, the Knight Order lacked the speed to chase it down.

“Is there really a finishing move against that behemoth? Damn it, just when Busse finally said he’d leave the village, this mess happens…”

Akina muttered to herself—just then.

“You… you white monster!! Look at me! Look at this pelt I’m holding!!”

Akina saw it and did a double-take.

It was Busse—the simple and stubborn young man—who had somehow slipped out from the back of the Chief’s house. Wearing the goggles he claimed were a memento of his father, he stretched his trembling arms as far as they would go, holding the “white bear pelt” high in his hands.

“You… you idiot, what are you thinking?!”

“Over here, monster!! This is what you’re after, isn’t it?!”

It was clear from his face that he was terrified of the consequences of his actions. Nevertheless, Akina realized he had chosen to stand there and brandish it before the Orc. In other words, he had overheard their conversation.

The meaning was singular, and the change was dramatic.

“BUGYUUUUUUUUUUU!?!”

“Whoa, hey! What are you doing, Busse-kun?!”

The Orc’s gaze and focus shifted with hilarious ease toward Busse and the pelt he held. Varna frantically bombarded the Orc with excessive provocations, but the Orc, its fighting spirit ignited, ignored him and changed its direction.

Busse was skilled at making traps, but he was ultimately just a boy who was only slightly more energetic than average. He didn’t have the legs to outrun a monster while being targeted, nor did he have the physical strength to defeat it. If such a boy provoked a giant Orc, the only fate waiting for him was death.

Despite that, the boy stood boldly before the Orc as if possessed by a firm resolve. It wasn’t mere bravado or desperation; it was a reason unique to Busse that drove him.

“I’m the one who brought the pelt in… the village is in danger because of me… so, for the sake of the village, I have to do something about you myself!!”

“That idiot, still tied down by the village even at a time like this…!”

Added to his sense of self-reproach was a mistaken resolve that could only be described as reckless.

A swirling vortex of raging emotions was running wild within his heart.