267

Chapter 267 — If It Exists (5)

“Uh… so you’re asking whether three knights ever died overnight?”

“More precisely, three knights and their families.”

“Hmm. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a story like that?”

“…Is that so?”

“Unless you mean the Battle of Batero? Or maybe the Battle of Brüsada?”

“The Battle of Brüsada… probably isn’t it. But the Battle of Batero……?”

“A huge number of demons invaded twelve years ago. It was such a fierce battle that seven knights died, when even one or two dead knights would normally be considered a lot…….”

I see… more importantly, twelve years ago.

Did the timeline match?

I gave him a look asking for more details while considering whether the timing lined up. The shopkeeper shrugged and obliged.

“One knightly family with quite a reputation in this city was wiped out because of that battle. Sir Riefenstein, who was both an active knight and the head of the family, and the heir together… Hmm. Well, that’s what happened.”

Apparently it was not a story one ought to discuss loudly, because he offered me a seat and lowered his voice almost to a whisper.

The story, barely loud enough for me alone to hear, made me think, Could it be?

“…A knightly family?”

“If a family produces about one knight every generation, people call the whole house a knightly family. Didn’t you know?”

“Ah… so that’s what it means.”

If a family consistently produced knights, it was called a knightly family.

Then had the Demon Knight really come from one?

Considering his father, older brother, and older sister had all been knights, the chances seemed fairly high…….

“Could you tell me what they looked like?”

I took out the tea I had boiled beforehand for the shopkeeper who had given me the chair.

It was stored in a leather pouch, but since I had kept it in my Inventory, it should not have absorbed the smell of leather.

“You carry a cup around with you?”

Well… the tea had been stored while it was still hot. I could hardly gulp boiling tea directly through that tiny opening, could I?

“Anyway, I don’t mind telling you, but… I only ever saw them from a distance.”

“Hair color or… even small features like that would be enough.”

“Then that’s fine. But why is this still warm?”

“I boiled it just before leaving the inn.”

“Even so, can it really stay this warm for this long……?”

The stall owner tilted his head, then returned to the story.

I was grateful for that.

“Anyway, those people didn’t really have a hair color.”

“……?”

“They were scaled Shaggi.”

“Ah…….”

Well, if they were scaled Shaggi, that made sense.

Their kind had scales instead of fur.

“They were huge too. Probably two heads taller than you.”

“Their… children too?”

“Of course. The children looked exactly like them, all with elegant black scales… It was a real shame.”

But what had made me think could it be? ended with of course not.

They were not the people I was looking for.

“So? Was that the story you wanted?”

“No… I don’t think they were the people I’m searching for.”

My lips moved slightly before I lowered my eyes.

“The people I’m looking for were all Middles.”

The opening cinematic had faded considerably in my memory, but there were still a few things I remembered.

The Demon Knight’s father, older brother, and older sister had all been Middle knights.

“There isn’t any knightly family in this city where every member is a Middle…….”

“I see.”

The three of them had all had brown hair, while the mother and youngest child had gray hair.

I could not remember their eye colors—the visible area had been small, and lighting constantly changed how eyes looked—but I remembered that much.

“Sorry I couldn’t be any help.”

“It’s fine. It just… seems this wasn’t the place.”

Still, if nobody here matched the person I believed to be the Demon Knight, that was enough.

Feeling somewhat lighter, I rose from the tiny chair.

Having no backrest was one thing, but needing to fold my legs up just to sit on it had been rather uncomfortable.

“Leaving?”

“Yes. Thank you for telling me all that.”

Of course, I was not going to leave the city immediately after hearing a single person’s story.

One person could easily miss something.

So I would investigate a little more.

Even if that meant finding people connected to the knight academy… or asking other people around town.

And if I still found nothing after that, I could simply move on to another city.

After all, Manhapelt was hardly the only city in the East with a knight academy.

At worst, there was also the city of Bergart, which I had postponed visiting because of the distance.

The place where that lord who had given me several hints in the past lived.

Because of both the distance and my current status, I intended to leave that place as an absolute last resort… but at least there were still places left to search besides this one.

I pushed down the anxiety rising inside me.

Clamor, clamor.

As though someone had decided to help me with that, the inside of the academy began growing noisy around then.

Footsteps and voices mingled together as they drew closer to the gate in the wall.

It sounded like everyone was coming outside.

“Oh, damn. Look at me. I was too busy chatting and didn’t prepare anything.”

“Ah… because of me?”

“Not only because of you…….”

The shopkeeper grew busy as well.

He hurriedly began stuffing filling into the bread he had prepared.

“Why are they finishing earlier than usual? Normally those brats wouldn’t come out for another thirty minutes at least.”

Apparently he was telling the truth, because he was not the only one scrambling.

The people running the other stalls also began moving their hands in a hurry.

Everyone seemed caught off guard by the crowd coming out earlier than expected.

“Want some help?”

“I’d appreciate it. Think you can manage?”

“As long as I don’t have to actually cook anything.”

I rolled up my sleeves.

He had shown me kindness, so I had no intention of being outdone.

While he lit the fire to grill the meat, I replaced the nearly empty pickling jar with a fresh one and lined up the bread.

Soon, the ravenous creatures whose stomachs had been emptied by training descended upon us.

“Ugh, I’m starving!”

“Give me two!”

“Load mine with meat!”

The soldiers tilted their heads at the unfamiliar face, but their hunger mattered more, so orders immediately poured in.

Thanks to that, I helped the owner without receiving more than a passing glance.

All I was doing was stuffing pickled vegetables into bread, taking money, and giving change, so I was not exactly getting in the way either.

“This gets incredibly busy.”

“After this rush, it’s easy.”

Another fortunate thing was that the limited number of customers were distributed among several stalls, so we only had to handle a portion of them.

Once we survived the wave of orders crashing down like a tidal surge, things became relaxed again.

My hands, which had been moving briskly, stretched in the air as though shaking themselves dry.

“Do you do this every day?”

“That’s right.”

“That sounds exhausting…….”

“That’s just how life is.”

The owner chuckled and thanked me.

Apparently I had made today less hectic.

Read only on MUGEX

“Want me to give you back what you paid for that bread earlier, as payment for helping?”

“No, it’s all right.”

“Huh? Really?”

“If it weren’t for you, I’d have had to walk all over the place asking around just to hear that story.”

“Well, if you say so…….”

He scratched his head awkwardly, then invited me to have dinner with him.

One of his children had recently moved out, leaving his wife feeling lonely, and he explained that she would surely enjoy having a guest.

“I’d be grateful if you’re inviting me…….”

“Hey, owner, if you’re still open, give me one too… Hm? Aren’t you the young man from earlier?”

But that invitation was ruined by something unexpected.

“What are you doing here?”

The knight I had met earlier at the city checkpoint had come by as a customer.

“You… know each other?”

Apparently not even a naturally sociable merchant could banter casually in front of a knight dressed head to toe in full plate.

Honorific speech came automatically from the shopkeeper’s mouth, and his eyes kept moving between the knight and me.

He seemed to be wondering if perhaps I was someone important after all.

“We met at the checkpoint earlier.”

“Ahh…….”

There was no reason to make someone who had helped me anxious like that.

I gently cleared up the misunderstanding, then faced the knight again.

“I can’t actually enter this place… so I was asking this gentleman about it instead. I ended up helping with his work while I was here.”

“Ah.”

Well, what I had asked about was not actually the academy, but the knight had no way of knowing that.

The shopkeeper was already nervous merely because a knight had appeared, so he was hardly going to correct me.

And what I said was not entirely false either.

“If it were up to me, I would like to let you look around at least once… but civilians are forbidden from entering.”

“I understand.”

If anything, it was stranger that a knight I had met only once would go so far as to say that.

Thinking perhaps my excuse had worked a little too well, I bid farewell to the shopkeeper.

Dinner clearly was not going to happen now, so I could at least leave on good terms.

“Ah, yes. Take care.”

As expected, the shopkeeper did not try to stop me, though his expression remained complicated.

“Make a good impression.”

He even whispered that rather incomprehensible bit of encouragement.

“Since this meeting itself seems like fate, ask me if there is anything you are curious about. As long as it does not compromise security, I will answer.”

In the meantime, the knight accepted bread from the shopkeeper and made me an offer.

That was an extremely welcome one.

A knight, of all people, would surely know a great deal about other knights.

“Do you know a Middle knight who raised both his eldest son and eldest daughter to become knights as well? I heard his second son was also a knight candidate.”

“Hmm… Do you know the name?”

“I don’t.”

“Appearance?”

“Ah. I know they had brown hair.”

“Brown hair… that is far too common.”

“…For reference, they should all be dead by now. The entire family, all at once.”

“Hm?”

The knight, who had been stroking his mustache, stopped walking for a moment.

“I was wondering who you meant. The Ember of Münmunt.”

A jolt.

My right arm began to burn with pain.

“…You know him?”

“I do not know whether he is truly the person you are searching for, but I know the man himself. He was the most famous knight in Münmunt, after all.”

But the pain could not trouble me.

I had found him.

The hand clutching my right shoulder dug callused fingertips into the fabric.

“Why are you searching for him?”

“…Someone who taught me the sword for a short while once told me that it would have been good if I could have properly learned from that man. I never heard anything beyond that, but once I began traveling, I grew curious.”

The conversation continued even while my thoughts raced, so I hurriedly fabricated an excuse.

I had not expected to find the answer this quickly, so it was undeniably improvised.

Still, it was the best I could do.

“More importantly, so he belonged to Münmunt. I simply assumed he must have been a knight from Chechebator.”

“Why?”

“Well… if someone was good enough to recommend to another person, then he must have been an extraordinary knight. And when I think of where an extraordinary knight would be, Chechebator naturally comes to mind first.”

Of course, I could not simply end the conversation there and risk making him suspicious, so I hurriedly changed the subject.

Chechebator is the best. Number one. The greatest academy, the first one anyone thinks of before Münmunt!

Once I conveyed that meaning as indirectly as possible, the knight’s expression shifted slightly.

He did not look offended.

He looked extremely pleased.

My attempt to redirect the conversation had worked perfectly.

“Ahem. Yes, naturally. That is perfectly understandable.”

The knight’s lips twitched as he gave my shoulder several hearty pats.

-300.

-300.

-300.

My HP plummeted, and red liquid filled my throat.

“Blegh.”

“G-good heavens, are you all right?!”

“I-I’m fine.”

What was this, some kind of sitcom?

Pale-faced, I waved one hand while wiping away the blood.

It took a little longer to calm the knight down.

.

.

.

“So what will you do now?”

A long while later, once blood had finally stopped coming out.

The knight asked me that.

It was a very difficult question to answer.

“I’m not sure…….”

If I were being honest, I wanted to leave for Münmunt immediately…

But realistically, that would be difficult.

I needed to replenish the supplies I had consumed getting here, and I wanted to sleep in a soft bed for a while too.

“I suppose I came here recklessly even though I knew it was impossible.”

More importantly, if I declared that I was leaving for Münmunt immediately, I felt like all the Favorability I had painstakingly raised with this knight would instantly drop to zero.

Even if he was merely someone whose path would cross mine once, I wanted to avoid that.

“Hmm…….”

“And I don’t have much money left for the road…….”

Well, considering the disguise skill, I would have to leave within two or three days anyway.

I gave an awkward smile, disguising my devastated HP as a shortage of travel money.

“Still, I was able to see the place I wanted to see with my own two eyes, so that alone is enough—”

“Young man!”

“Yes?”

The knight’s hand shot toward mine.

The only reason I did not reflexively pull away was because of a desperate effort of will.

Dodging a knight’s hand would definitely be strange.

Just let him grab me.

Let him grab me.

His hand is covered in bread crumbs, but let him grab me anyway……!

“Then how would you like to stay at my house for a few days?”

But after hearing the next words, I found myself questioning that decision.

“I may not be able to let you tour the academy itself, but I can at least give you a taste of what they do there.”

Uh…

Had letting him grab me really been the right choice……?