284

Chapter 284 — Tell Me (14)

For a moment, Gunter doubted his own eyes.

The sight of teal hair fluttering as blood sprayed in every direction was simply too unreal.

No, actually, the scene itself wasn’t unreal. Seeing the Emerald Knight splatter blood everywhere while slaughtering demons was practically routine.

But.

But……

“Father……?”

The one who had just died wasn’t a demon.

Thud.

The head of the person who had flashed through his mind fell to the ground.

It didn’t burst apart like a smashed watermelon, but part of it caved in and blood sprayed once more.

The hair scattering loosely in every direction was dark indigo.

“Treason!!”

“The Lord!”

“E-Emerald Knight!”

In an instant, the air filled with screams and shouts seemed strangely distant.

Gunter’s knees buckled reflexively.

“S-Sir Knight, why—”

He vaguely saw the Emerald Knight’s attendant, who had voiced the question, cough up blood, but as his gaze dropped farther, the sight slipped from view.

Instead, what he saw was someone’s severed head that had rolled all the way in front of him.

“F-Fath…”

He reached toward the face framed by dark indigo hair.

But his trembling hand stopped before it could touch.

The face, which had never even realized it was dead until the very end, glared fiercely at him.

“F-Father.”

Was that expression unfamiliar?

No.

The Lord always wore that expression whenever he looked at demons.

It was the same when he expressed his disappointment in Gunter.

So rather than unfamiliar, it was an expression he knew all too well—and one Gunter disliked just as much.

“Father…….”

But.

But he had never imagined the man dying with that expression still on his face.

If someone had to die, if death came for one of them, Gunter had always thought it would be himself.

Not this man.

Why?

“Young Lord, fall back! You lot! Protect the Young Lord! And you, report the situation to the White Jade Knight immediately……!”

Why……?

“Ghk!”

“Everyone fall back, fall ba— Guh!”

“Was she hiding her strength……?!”

Gunter raised his head blankly.

One body without a head.

Two people collapsed with their chests pierced.

Three with severed limbs.

Four soldiers with their heads pierced through or their chests and limbs slashed open.

And standing in the center of all of it—

one knight.

“Emerald! Why, why would you betray us—!”

“Ah… betrayal, is it?”

Those who had barely managed to form a circle around her shouted until the veins in their necks bulged.

At that, the teal-haired knight’s smile deepened.

A face that had always seemed like a doll, or perhaps a mask, finally looked human.

Not in a good way.

Her languid sneer stirred the deepest parts of people’s hearts and planted rage there.

It was a smile that dismissed every bit of anger, grief, bewilderment, and betrayal her actions had forced upon them as utterly insignificant.

“I do not regard this as such, but call it what you wish. Treason, betrayal… Those trifling words will not change your fate. Since you are on your way to your final destination, I shall at least grant you freedom of speech.”

“Emerald!!”

“But I will no longer permit you to call me that.”

Even worse, damn it, she seemed to regard the Sapphire Knight, the Topaz Knight who had rushed over after realizing what was happening, and even the numerous elite soldiers as equally worthless.

As though none of them could possibly be considered a threat.

As though this entire situation were nothing more than a trivial incident to her.

“You traitor!”

“Sir Topaz, don’t charge in recklessly—!”

“Do not address me by a title granted by lowly humans. It is an insult and a contemptuous slight against me.”

Ah.

How arrogant.

How unbearably proud.

“I am the Morning Star of this land.”

Through that haughtiness, Gunter defined the being’s true nature.

That thing was neither their ally nor human.

It was an evil that carried one branch of original sin—

one of the deadly sins themselves.

* * *

The soldier’s face had stiffened, but there was no attempt to leave the room.

Apparently, the soldier judged that keeping watch over a mage whose allegiance was uncertain would provide more security than adding one more soldier to the wall.

Well, if given enough time to chant, even the Archmage could probably bring down an entire building, so it wasn’t an incomprehensible judgment.

If someone’s status as friend or foe was uncertain, keeping them under watch was indeed safer.

“Is that the signal that the demons are attacking?”

“…It is not the signal for an advance. It means there is a high probability of one, so the residents are to prepare for evacuation.”

“I see… In any case, I hope there won’t be too much damage.”

And because of that, I too abandoned any thought of moving.

It certainly wasn’t because I expected the battle about to begin to pass without causing heavy casualties.

“I’m sorry.”

“…What exactly are you apologizing for?”

“Don’t worry. It isn’t an apology born from some last shred of conscience or anything like that. I’m just… sorry that I can’t participate.”

I—

for my own sake—

chose not to intervene.

Even though I knew many people would die because of this battle.

Even though I knew a mass of Demonic Energy comparable to a Great Demon was approaching.

I still made that choice.

I would not move.

Even if I tried to act, I would only invite suspicion, so I would turn my back on them.

Because helping them would require me to reveal my power.

Because revealing my power would expose my identity.

Because unlike in Behen Village, this was a place where I had absolutely no room to hide it afterward.

So I absolutely would not get involved.

I.

I……

“I want to help… but it makes me sad that I can’t.”

I would not help this city.

“I didn’t want to become this kind of person.”

Not unless the real Demon Knight promised me something worth accepting all of this for.

“…This is truly miserable.”

I clasped my hands together.

The fact that I had to go this far just to return home was genuinely devastating.

『I love you, son.』

『Thank you for being born.』

But you have to understand me for doing this.

You have to.

I wanted to live my entire life as someone I could be proud of too……

“Please.”

Please don’t make me become any more miserable than this.

I prayed before the ringing bells.

The city wall, neither too close nor too far, near enough that I could even see the soldiers running back and forth upon it, served in place of a divine image.

I felt as if I could hear screaming.

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* * *

“…Were you a Demon Worshipper all along?”

Klaus.

Or, by the name bestowed upon him by Münmund, the Sapphire Knight.

At that very moment, he instinctively realized that Münmund had reached its greatest crisis.

“What an unpleasant assumption. There exists no being on this land more exalted than I. Why would I worship anything other than myself?”

It wasn’t simply because of the demons outside the wall.

Countless demons trying to invade this city was nothing unusual.

Even the assassination of the Lord, while a terrible tragedy, was not a disaster the city had no measures against.

Münmund had long established an order of succession for command authority in preparation for the sudden death of its supreme commander.

“…That is quite an arrogant thing to say.”

The betrayal of someone holding a critical position like a senior knight was the same.

Münmund had prepared countermeasures for such an eventuality as well.

That was only natural.

If this city fell, all the surrounding cities would be exposed to tremendous danger.

“Then again, I suppose someone who neither knows their place nor understands their own limitations would be capable of doing something like this.”

In other words, taken one by one, each of these incidents might have been an ordeal, but none would have constituted a crisis for Münmund.

That would have been true if they had happened individually.

Now that all of them had overlapped at once, however, the city was no different from a lamp flickering before the wind.

“Yes… Sapphire, among the fools filling this city, you were one of the few with something resembling a functioning mind.”

“……!”

“But even then, you were merely somewhat clever.”

Klaus narrowed his eyes at the person who showed no reaction whatsoever to his provocation.

From the other party’s authoritative, arrogant manner of speaking, he had tried to irritate her, only to realize that it had failed completely.

“And……”

Clang!

“……!”

“Topaz, you too are crude and pitifully weak.”

While her attention appeared to be elsewhere, the Topaz Knight’s surprise attack failed as well.

Despite not being especially tall for a knight, she looked down upon everything around her.

Her gaze settled upon the blocked blade with a lukewarm sneer.

“Did you imagine your vulgar noisiness would disappear merely because you kept your mouth shut?”

Her voice, resonant as song and elegant as the stride of a crane, calmly poured out words designed to instill defeat.

“Emerald……!”

“…I told you not to call me that.”

Still smiling, the being turned only her gaze cold and put strength into her arm.

Two hands against one.

Half-swording against a normal grip.

Despite those differences, the contest of strength that had remained evenly matched tilted in an instant.

And that was precisely when Klaus remembered why Jade—

Emerald—

had been given that name.

Topaz specialized in hunting monsters.

White Jade possessed outstanding knowledge of tactics.

Klaus himself had no one exceptional strength, but no real weakness either, and so had become Sapphire.

And Emerald—

Emerald, specialized in fighting humanoid opponents, who boasted an undefeated record against them.

At this rate, Topaz was in danger.

Klaus planted force into his feet and lunged forward.

“Hup.”

Topaz likewise held her breath and fluidly shifted into her next movement.

The contest of strength that had already begun to tilt became meaningless, and the sword that had slipped aside naturally transitioned into a thrust.

If the traitor didn’t dodge, she would be stabbed.

If she tried to dodge, Klaus’s sword would cut her.

“You are astonishingly foolish creatures.”

But neither attack reached her.

Blue haze blossomed around the hand that had discarded the amber blade, and that hand caught Topaz’s sword directly.

Apparently even reinforced skin could still be cut, because the other party’s white glove slowly stained red.

Clang!

Meanwhile, Klaus’s sword was knocked away with tremendous force by a main-gauche that sprang out from beneath clothes that billowed like a skirt.

“My Lord, the White Jade Knight and several of the other knights were poisoned— Gasp!”

“Hmm. So they finally died. Had I possessed a little more poison, I could have disposed of all of you cleanly as well… How unfortunate.”

Still, turning a deflected blade smoothly back into another attack trajectory was basic technique.

Grinding his teeth at the news of the death of their oldest knight and the senior most skilled at overall command, Klaus attacked again.

Topaz likewise abandoned the sword that wouldn’t move, took—half snatched—another sword from a nearby soldier, and immediately resumed attacking.

“You bastard, you even used poison?!”

“…Betrayal followed by such cowardly, despicable methods. I cannot even imagine how low you intend to sink!”

But during all of that, Klaus felt something slightly off.

Poisoning the White Jade Knight made sense.

But targeting ordinary knights while leaving him and Topaz, both senior knights, untouched was strange.

“Why should the use of poison be considered cowardly or despicable? Had you been wise, you simply would not have fallen victim to it.”

He could understand why the Lord had not been poisoned.

The Lord had every meal tested before touching it.

The Young Lord had already been starving since yesterday, so poisoning him would have been impossible as well.

“Am I wrong?”

He could also understand why she had failed to poison every knight.

Münmund’s security was strict enough to inspect even a senior knight’s baggage.

How much poison could anyone possibly smuggle past that?

On top of that, the traitor had only returned yesterday.

She wouldn’t even have had the opportunity to accumulate poison little by little.

Choosing targets by priority was entirely reasonable.

Yes.

Up to that point, it made sense.

But killing weaker ordinary knights before eliminating two senior knights made absolutely no sense.

“Traitor…….”

Unless every knight she had spared was secretly on her side?

No.

That couldn’t be it.

Even then, eliminating senior knights first would remain the obvious choice.

And judging by how violently Topaz was attacking her, Topaz clearly wasn’t secretly on the traitor’s side.

“Wait. Don’t tell me……!”

“Oh? You noticed?”

Then there had to be a reason the ordinary knights needed to die before the senior knights.

And when Klaus considered the greatest difference between the dead White Jade Knight and the two surviving senior knights……

“Damn it! Evacuate the Young Lord immediately!”

“As expected, you are reasonably clever.”

It was the ability to survey a broad battlefield and command it.

The dead knights, too, had probably been killed in order of those most capable of command.

“At the same time, you are foolish beyond salvation.”

“Sir Topaz, leave this place to me and protect the Young Lord……!”

Without someone capable of understanding the situation across the entire wall and coordinating accordingly, even killing that traitor would only leave them with a future in which the demons outside destroyed them.

The moment Klaus realized that, he shouted.

But his opponent was one step faster.

“You cling to such hope despite the impossibility of stopping me.”

Thud!

Her leg smashed into his chest.

Crack.

He didn’t die, but he felt ribs breaking.

“I’ll borrow this.”

At the same time, the weight at his waist disappeared.

She had taken the spare dagger he carried in case of emergencies.

“……! Young Lord! Run!”

Topaz had also been thrown away and was in no position to stop her.

Klaus hurriedly turned toward where the Young Lord had been.

Apparently the soldiers had been escorting him toward safety, because he was already a fair distance away.

“Do you know something?”

But would that distance truly protect the Young Lord?

“Young Lord, I have always disliked you.”

She slipped inside the reach of an elite soldier carrying a spear and drove the main-gauche through the eye slit of the helmet.

She had targeted with perfect precision the opening the helmet couldn’t cover.

Slash!

Immediately afterward, the dagger’s blade scattered blood.

It had swept across another soldier’s throat.

The blade slipped into the gap between helmet and chainmail, severing blood vessels and cutting through bone.

“Run! Young Lord!”

Naturally, Klaus and Topaz gave chase immediately.

But the traitor was not killing soldiers merely to destroy the encirclement.

The dead collapsed among the living, forcing those around them to hesitate, moment after moment.

Even when the surviving soldiers moved aside, the delay couldn’t be avoided.

The traitor killed and advanced faster than the soldiers could understand the situation and clear a path.

“Therefore, die.”

The sword of the person who had torn through the encirclement in moments finally reached the Young Lord.

“The world will be better for it.”

“Keep your word.”

The morning sun spilling in from the east cast shadows across the wall.

* * *

「❖ Münmund su_」

「❖ Mün_」

「❖ #@**@#…」

「❖ $%&#……」

「❖ %#$………」

「❖ ………I’m sorry

∎ Eliminate the threat to Münmund

Reward: The Truth」

Clang!

The main-gauche and longsword collided.