286

Chapter 286 — Something I Can Accept (2)

[Gluttony has moved. Shall we go?]

[No. We move in three hours, so the humans can spread themselves a little thinner.]

[…Naturally.]

It already seemed sufficient as it was, yet the other party insisted on considering safety and effectiveness to the very end.

Belphegor clicked their tongue at that fact.

They knew that, having staked their soul on this plan, nothing could be allowed to go wrong.

Even so, after investing this much into it, Belphegor couldn’t imagine how it could possibly fail.

[Goodness, Belphegor… Pride is my name, and yet it seems you are the one who looks down on humans more than I do.]

But the instant that cool smile touched them, Belphegor reconsidered.

It was irritating enough having to contend with the god of this world and the divinity pouring forth from this land.

They had no desire to endure yet another divinity on top of that.

The back of the hand whose name had been called grew hot.

[…I didn’t do that. I was trusting you.]

[Trust…….]

At Belphegor’s hurried attempt to recover, the other being smiled faintly as always.

The silk draped across horns resembling a crown and the jewels of the Morning Star swayed gently in the wind.

[Yes, my equal. I too trust you. I trust that your sloth and indolence will know how to distinguish the appropriate time and place.]

Belphegor couldn’t bear to look directly at the sight.

Following the tension crawling down their spine, they lowered their head.

Then one edge of Pride’s cloak approached beneath their chin.

The cloak looked as though it had been created by layering four white feathered wings.

The feathers of the first wing lifted Belphegor’s chin back up.

Eyes holding darkness and the morning star reflected Belphegor completely.

[What frightens you? Did I not tell you clearly? Your existence is far more useful alive and tormenting humans than reduced to a mere sacrifice.]

[Y-You did…….]

That was true.

But what idiot in this world would take those words at face value?

How could anyone fail to understand that what she really meant was: if sacrificing Belphegor ever became more useful than having them torment humans, they could be culled at any moment?

Belphegor curled their fingers while looking at the white veil that half covered Pride’s black dress.

A contradiction that made no attempt to hide corruption, yet insisted upon purity.

And the power to turn that contradiction into righteousness.

Before that, there was little Belphegor could do.

[I-I think I’ll have some strength left. Should I help over there too?]

Sloth flattened themself meekly.

Complaining that they didn’t want to work wasn’t even something they considered.

The essence of Sloth lay in being able to loaf around and enjoy food without working.

It did not lie in doing absolutely nothing while waiting for death.

[No.]

[Uh… really? B-But there’s one of those dolls with your blood in it over there too.]

[So?]

[…You don’t care if it dies?]

[What does its death have to do with me?]

It seemed volunteering to take on work as a display of surrender might have been a mistake.

The smiling figure, face like a mask, gazed quietly down at Belphegor.

[W-Well… I mean, it has your blood in it either way, right? I thought you might feel offended if something like that lost to humans… I mean, wouldn’t that be unpleasant?]

Fuck, this bastard is unbelievably hard to please.

Without even realizing exactly how their mouth was running, Belphegor studied the other party’s expression and the wavering aura around them.

It wasn’t particularly effective.

The being before them believed authority was upheld by never displaying emotion.

[…No?]

[Oh, Belphegor. I had no idea you were a being who cared for me this deeply.]

If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Why pick a fight over it?

Belphegor forced their lowering head to remain upright and gave an awkward smile.

[But remember this.]

The other being’s eyes curved a little farther.

Lashes as thick as a bird’s feathers and as long as a peacock’s tail covered the sky so that those eyes seemed able to look only down upon the earth.

[Nothing in this world can represent me or stand as my symbol. If something that has received my touch is defeated, then does that not simply mean its limits extended no farther?]

Like a god gazing down over the world.

[So do not say such things again.]

But it was not a god.

[You might make me think you are insulting me.]

And because it was not a god, it could only be Pride.

[Unless you would prefer to have your tongue torn out… You understand, don’t you?]

Belphegor nodded frantically at the quietly delivered threat.

For the first time all day, they found themself missing Wrath, the one who had been capable of acting insolent even before that authority.

Of course, even saying that, if Wrath actually appeared in front of them, they would immediately scream and run away.

* * *

Dingdingdingdingding!

The soldier ringing the bell screamed through the bell in place of their own throat.

But even that could not fully express the threat now approaching.

A monster larger than the city wall advanced slowly, massive tusks and horns hanging from its body.

Its mouth looked capable of swallowing a river without concern.

Its enormous legs seemed unlikely to collapse even beneath a flood.

Its tail, stretched long like an evergreen, swung behind it.

And it led demons rising from pits of mud.

“The demons……!”

“Th-They’re coming.”

“Hold your positions! Anyone who fails to hold will be executed!”

At the sight that looked like the herald of destruction, the soldiers were the first to begin wavering.

If strict discipline and long training had not taught them not to flee, deserters would already have appeared.

“This is the same battle we have always fought! Do not lose your nerve now! There is no reason for us to lose now after winning this battle for hundreds of years!”

“Raise your spears to protect your families, your friends, and your lovers! There is nowhere to retreat!”

But discipline and training alone could not be relied upon.

Veteran mid-ranking soldiers hurriedly encouraged the rank and file.

They knew that the moment a single person ran, deserters would pour out like water through a breached dike.

“B-But Decurion… the knights…….”

“The Lord is dead… We’re all going to die…….”

But how long could this situation, as fragile as thin ice, last?

Even with encouragement and speeches, the soldiers’ morale only continued to fall.

Unending thirst and starvation.

Commanders dying suddenly one after another.

A senior knight betraying them.

The Lord abruptly being killed.

Any one of those incidents would have made military discipline difficult to maintain.

All of them had struck in succession.

Without brutal training, rigid discipline, and military law, even this thin sheet of ice would never have formed.

The surviving officers and knights clenched their teeth.

“Sir Sapphire, go to the Young Lord!”

“Sir……!”

“I’ll deal with that crazy bastard! We can’t both stay tied down by that thing!”

Among them, Klaus hesitantly began to withdraw at Topaz’s shout.

“I don’t know who that guy is, but at least we’ve got another ally now! Stop worrying and go!”

Those words finally freed his feet.

The young man who resembled a painfully familiar face glanced at him after hearing the Topaz Knight’s words.

The eyes that briefly curved could never belong to an enemy.

“…I’m counting on you!”

Klaus finally left.

His breathing had grown slightly rough, perhaps because his broken ribs were pressing against his lungs.

“Give us orders, Young Lord!”

Still, he could not stop.

Now that they had acquired a piece capable of keeping the traitor occupied, he had to confront the destruction approaching from behind her.

“Give the order!”

At his shout, the Young Lord’s slightly unfocused eyes regained their usual light.

Eyes stained with agony screamed without sound.

“S-Sapphire Knight.”

“Young Lord!”

He didn’t seem completely out of his mind.

Even so, could the Young Lord properly command in this state?

Klaus erased the question the instant it occurred to him.

This was no longer a question of whether he could or could not.

He had to.

Even if the Young Lord couldn’t do it, he had to pretend that he could.

“I… I.”

“At this moment, you are the only person capable of commanding them!”

The face of the young man who had spent his entire life crushed beneath an inferiority complex twisted violently.

“…Everyone, listen! That monster will never approach the wall! Soldiers from the north who have fought that creature time and again told us so themselves! We do not need to fight that giant monster directly!!”

Then his dry throat produced a hoarse voice.

The words lacked volume because so much air mixed into them, but the soldiers all clamped their mouths shut, allowing them to spread far.

“So do not let that beast steal your attention! The enemies you must fight are the demons it brought with it! Just like always, all you need to do is kill those small, foul-smelling pieces of filth!”

For a moment, the Young Lord raised his sword wearing an expression identical to his father’s.

“We can win! If you trust me and follow me, we can overcome every one of these hardships and trials!”

The blade caught the sunlight and flared bright like a torch.

“Soldiers, prepare yourselves to seize victory!!”

The atmosphere that had been sinking began to rise again.

Read only on MUGEX

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“Keeping that one alive will not change much.”

I knocked aside the whip aimed at the Young Lord and readjusted my grip on the sword.

The place where I’d been struck while deflecting it had torn clothing and split skin.

“You know that as well, do you not? No matter how capable a commander may be, it is impossible to observe every part of the battlefield and issue orders everywhere.”

Naturally, I hadn’t been able to cut through the whip either.

Unlike a rigid sword, a whip attacked in a completely different manner.

It flowed around my blade, struck only my forearm, then retreated.

I wanted to drag over whoever had said whips were completely useless in real combat.

“Ultimately, it is futile. There is nothing you can do, one who does not rage.”

But that wasn’t possible.

So even if it was difficult, I had to overcome it now.

I opened and closed my numb hand a few times and pushed my slipping glasses back up.

“The weaker one is, the longer their tongue tends to be.”

Maybe I’d been acting as the Demon Knight for too long.

The answer slipped out reflexively.

“Wouldn’t you agree?”

I hurriedly added polite speech and smiled.

The other person’s eyes widened slightly.

She didn’t look offended by the provocation.

It was more like a parent surprised by the unexpected antics of a child.

“You are correct.”

Then she agreed.

“My tongue has indeed grown too long. None of you were even worth so many words.”

The blond knight beside me trembled.

Somehow, the person I’d intended to provoke hadn’t been provoked at all, and some unrelated bystander had taken the hit instead.

“You……!”

“Don’t lose your temper. The one who gets angry loses.”

By any objective measure of pure skill, that side had an overwhelming advantage.

And on top of that, if we got angry?

That would just be asking to die.

With that in mind, I advised the blond knight.

The knight trembled once again.

Fortunately, judging by the deep breath that followed, the advice wasn’t entirely ignored.

“…You’re not Atia, are you?”

“…I think I’ve heard that at least ten times since coming here. No, I’m not.”

“Right.”

So this person knew Atia too.

Well, if the knight had already been serving before Atia disappeared, or had been around the same year, that would make sense.

“That traitor’s specialty is physical enhancement using an overflowing amount of Mana, along with sword aura. Do not assume you can beat her in a contest of strength merely because her limbs are slender. You will lose without fail.”

“I see.”

“The whip and rapier are new even to me, so I can’t tell you how she fights with them. But that bastard has never once lost a duel against another knight. Keep that in mind.”

“That’s fine.”

Physical enhancement through Mana, huh.

I had thought she was absurdly strong for her appearance, but I hadn’t realized Mana enhancement was responsible.

I stored that information in my head and put strength into the tips of my feet.

“I’ll figure it out while fighting.”

Crack.

I felt the stone beneath my foot break slightly.

Not that I could do anything about it, since my body had already launched forward.

Whoosh!

I leapt diagonally against the incoming whip.

Thanks to the soldiers surrounding us, the enemy couldn’t swing the whip horizontally—or even if she did, it would catch on the soldiers.

And once a whip had been swung, redirecting it was difficult.

My jump exploited those weaknesses.

Of course, she understood and handled the whip far better than I did.

While retrieving it, she cleverly redirected the weapon to obstruct my path.

The crack of displaced air passed beside me.

“Hup.”

But hesitating because I was afraid of the whip would be an even worse choice.

Ignoring the end of the whip scratching across my cheek, I swung the longsword.

The blond knight entered from the opposite side, sword raised sharply as well.

Standing upon the battlement, she lifted the corners of her lips gently.

Pupils already half the size of an ordinary human’s contracted even farther until they became points.

Whoosh!

“Ghk!”

I had no idea how the whip moved.

I definitely felt Mana vibrate.

By the time I noticed it, the whip had wrapped precisely around the neck of a nearby soldier.

“You fucking—”

The soldier was lifted into the air like a fish caught on a hook and collided with the blond knight.

Clang!

At the same time, my longsword met the enemy’s rapier.

Apparently it hadn’t been a lie that she enhanced her body through Mana.

Her rapier, wielded in one hand, fought evenly against my longsword held in both hands.

The same remained true through the minute-long exchange that followed.

Even though she stood upon the battlement just as before—

even though she continued using the whip to keep the blond knight in check—

the fight remained fierce and refused to tilt toward either side.

“What a light and shallow sword.”

In raw strength, I naturally held a slight advantage.

Both my base physique and total amount of Demonic Energy were greater, so that was only obvious.

“The vulgarity of one who has never properly learned is truly amusing.”

But in a contest of technique and finesse, I was being overwhelmingly defeated.

If not for the knowledge I’d learned in Manhappelt, I wouldn’t even have managed a fight that looked vaguely even.

『Without those insane reflexes and that strength of yours, even Hubé would’ve pushed you around.』

I felt the truth of Sir Walter’s words painfully as I drew a deep breath.

I can’t win through skill.

Even fighting together won’t let us compete in technique.

A very practical problem loomed in front of me.

“Now then, what will you do?”

But did I really have to fight through skill?

I had other advantages.

“When you cannot even defeat me, what do you think you can accomplish by remaining here?”

I watched the teal eyes mock me.

They held the composure of someone who didn’t even need to kill me.

If the demons advanced and captured this place, she would win regardless.

“Who knows.”

But in a way, the same applied to me.

“For now, I think I can at least screw you over.”

Even if I didn’t kill her right now, as long as we held back the demons and won the battle, we could kill her whenever we wanted afterward.

“My specialty is actually somewhere else.”

Then why not go with that?

I immediately abandoned the pointless contest of swordsmanship.

A fake knight trying to compete with a real knight through swordsmanship was stupid in the first place, so I felt no shame in giving up.

“Let’s fight with magic.”

Instead, I decided to make use of my other advantages.

Physical ability far above an ordinary person’s.

And an overwhelming amount of Demonic Energy.

Yes.

Demonic Energy.

A ridiculous amount of it.

The vast quantity of Demonic Energy pouring from my body transformed into dozens of spears, all aiming at a single target.

“If you think this will work—”

“It won’t.”

My sword was the same.

I drove forward to stab her, accepting the damage I would take.

The eerily shining rapier shattered every spear of Demonic Energy, neutralized my attack, and instead pierced my shoulder.

It was fairly serious damage.

“But I can change the battlefield.”

Yet after accepting that cost, I accomplished what I wanted.

Both she and I fell from the city wall together.

“Did you think the soldiers were only getting in your way?”

“……!”

All right.

Let’s start spamming Demonic-Energy spears and sword aura.