Chapter 142. Giving Up on Being Human
Contrary to the bold way I’d spoken, a shadow of worry fell across Sir Zeke’s face.
“Umm…! Wouldn’t it be better to think it over again?”
“Is there a reason?”
At my question, Sir Zeke bit down hard on his lower lip.
“You surely won’t see anything good.”
Meaning, you will see something not good.
There was no further explanation.
Well, even if he spelled it out in detail, it would amount to logically explaining, “Our Head of House is this much of a goddamn bastard,” so he couldn’t exactly do that.
The party’s reactions were similar.
[You cunning thing. Think again. It’s Lortel’s Head of House. He’s on a different level from the ones you’ve met so far.]
Shine, unusually, showed clear reluctance.
Even Parun—who had handed the choice to me—voiced concern.
[It’s not a good choice. Lortel may be a family of knights, but the Head of House is different. You know that, don’t you?]
Yeah. I do.
Once you reach a position like Head of House, you’re different from the other knights.
You’ll treat honor—the foremost virtue—as a convenient banner to bind the family together, and treat faith and such as an inconvenient ornament.
What does that mean?
‘He could see us as some kind of treasure goblin and strip us clean.’
Especially since this was a meeting arranged in secret, he’d have even fewer qualms.
But even so, I didn’t reverse my decision.
And it wasn’t only because of Sir Zeke.
‘Either way, I never had a choice.’
The young lord’s promise? The Third Sword’s pride?
What use is that.
Before the master of Lortel, the young lord is, literally, only the young lord—and the Third Sword is merely the third out of ten swords.
No matter how impressive they are, if the master of Lortel sets his mind to it, there’s nothing they can do.
And yet, trusting them and ignoring the invitation?
Then would the Head of House just let it go?
‘He’d trample us if anything—he’d never just let it slide.’
So I had no choice.
Only—
Looking at Sir Zeke, I asked something.
“Sir Zeke, did the Head of House want the three of us?”
“…?”
“I mean, I’m asking whether it’s fine if I go alone.”
“That is…”
Sir Zeke trailed off.
Maybe Sir Zeke was trying to read the Head of House’s intent, but my mouth opened a beat sooner.
“I’ll go alone. Those two are just dead weight. I figure that should be enough, shouldn’t it?”
Sir Zeke’s silence continued a little longer.
It was probably weighing on Sir Zeke.
Separate from being prepared to let all three go, now Sir Zeke was in a position where Sir Zeke had no choice but to carry out the Head of House’s order. Sir Zeke was wondering if bringing only me was really right.
But before I even heard Sir Zeke’s answer, I’d already fired off message magic to Shine.
Even now, Shine’s voice was roaring in my ears.
[Are you insane? You cunning thing. Where do you think you’re crawling in alone? The other party is the Head of House! The Head of House…!]
[Hey, sheesh. Man, you’re loud, yapping and yapping. Then what do you want me to do?]
[If you’re going, then we should all go together—]
[How am I supposed to know what kind of mess you’ll cause? Shut up, and just take it as it is.]
[Take what as what—]
Cut.
I cut off Shine’s noisy message magic.
That was when Parun’s voice sounded at my ear. Thankfully? Unlike Shine, Parun was fairly calm.
Just—
[Will you be alright?]
Only asking, a little worried.
I nodded calmly.
[What choice do I have?]
[…That’s true, but.]
[Don’t loiter near the castle. Go to Flick Mountain first. You know the secret passage, right? Take Shine along however you have to.]
[…Mm.]
Parun didn’t answer right away.
But I ended the message.
Even if Shine wouldn’t, level-headed Parun would follow what I said.
While I forced my will through to the party like that, Sir Zeke seemed to finish thinking and opened Sir Zeke’s mouth.
“For now… alright. It likely won’t matter.”
“Thank you.”
“……”
At my brisk reply, Sir Zeke pressed Sir Zeke’s lips tight.
I pressed mine tight too.
It was ridiculous.
Like an innocent cow being led to the slaughterhouse thanking the errand boy the slaughterhouse owner sent.
Of course, Sir Zeke wasn’t holding back laughter—but anyway.
“I’ll just say goodbye for a moment.”
“…Alright.”
After asking the Third Sword for a moment, I spoke with the party through message magic once they’d calmed down somewhat.
It wasn’t some formal talk like, Let’s meet safely again.
More like we talked through this and that in case something happened.
And around the time the talk was roughly finished—
“…We really must go now.”
“So it seems. I’ll be back.”
I said my farewell to Shine and Professor Parun.
“Oh, right.”
“…?”
“…?”
Before I even took a few steps, I stopped and looked back at Shine and Parun.
“If I go back to my hometown… hm. No, there’s nothing to say about my hometown. Then, let’s see—when this is over, I was originally going to… mm, I hadn’t really thought of anything for that either.”
“What nonsense are you trying to say?”
At Shine’s question, I shook my head.
“No. I’ll be back.”
A jinx is perfect.
There was no fiancée left behind in my hometown, and no postponed thing I’d been planning to do once this was over.
So I started to walk after Sir Zeke—
And then, one thing I’d put off came to mind.
‘Right. I was going to raise a wyvern.’
But then… this—
The jinx didn’t count as having been established, right?
Following Sir Zeke, I entered through a side gate on the outer edge of Lortel’s inner castle.
Had they cleared people out in advance? I didn’t see any guards.
“Hide your presence and follow.”
Sir Zeke said that and then gathered Sir Zeke’s presence away.
It didn’t seem necessary, but… maybe the esteemed Head of House wanted it to be secret?
‘Probably.’
Here, a question arose.
‘Even if it’s a secret meeting, does it need to be this secret?’
Even if we went in quietly enough, no one would find it strange that a guest was entering with the Third Sword.
But that question, too, only for a moment.
I thought:
‘…Well, what can you do.’
If Lortel’s dignified, noble Head of House wants it that way.
Then doing it for him is only natural.
But what does “only natural” mean? It means the kind of heart people ordinarily have.
And the key word there is “people.”
So?
“I give up on being human.”
“…?”
At my sudden declaration of being non-human, Sir Zeke flinched.
But only for a moment. Then Sir Zeke’s face colored with shock.
“Y-you… what are you doing?”
What am I doing?
Giving up on being human.
Tzzzz—
Like a habitual motion, I released the aura I usually kept gathered in. No—releasing wasn’t enough; I let it gush out.
At first, it was faint.
Pajit, pajijeuk!
Like a thin stream leaking from a crack in a dam, the aura was fierce, but the total amount was pathetically small.
But.
It was right then that an explosive presence swept through the surroundings.
Boom!
Like a torrent bursting from a collapsed dam, an enormous wave of mana surged outward, raging as it swept the area!
With all my strength, I displayed my existence as I stepped forward.
“W-what…!”
Sir Zeke, flustered, stood frozen as if hardened—but I didn’t care.
In a sense, it was like walking into the slaughterhouse on my own two feet while leaving the slaughterhouse errand boy behind…
‘Not bad.’
Yeah. Not bad.
But at the same time, I was curious.
My aura was amplifying with each step, and at some point, Lortel’s martial men began to burst out as if responding to it.
First, the ones who sprang out were—
“An intruder!”
“To your positions!”
Chureok, cheok.
Regular knights in armor engraved with Lortel’s crest.
Despite it being late at night, they came rushing out fully armed.
Their eyes were vicious beyond measure, and because of that, the one who became busy was Sir Zeke.
“Withdraw your killing intent!”
Sir Zeke stopped them before they could draw their swords.
I could guess the intent.
‘He’s trying to avoid bloodshed.’
Whether or not, I was the guest the Head of House had invited—no, rather, he was trying to avoid an irreversible situation.
Meanwhile, the regular knights couldn’t hide their bafflement at the Third Sword’s intervention, as if the sky itself had spoken.
“Sir Zeke…?”
“How can you…?”
Their eyes were full of doubt.
Because the Third Sword was holding them back, they didn’t immediately rush me, but they were clearly thinking: What in the world is going on?
As the confused, awkward standoff continued, I stopped in place and curled my lips upward.
Was I that shocking?
“You should stop as well.”
Sir Zeke sent me a cold aura.
But I had no intention of stopping.
‘My curiosity still isn’t satisfied.’
It was right then that the aura dominating the surroundings grew even more violent.
Kugugugung—!
A savage flow. The air itself shook.
“Kgh!”
“Hup!”
While Lortel’s knights wavered for an instant at the sudden surge—
I encompassed the area with senses spread as wide as my aura. And it was right then that something massive was caught within that sensed domain.
‘At this level… a captain-class?’
As I reached that thought—
Swaeaeaeik!
A presence that had been far away drew closer by the second.
‘…!’
I hurriedly raised a barrier.
The impact came immediately after.
Boom!
A shock that rattled my whole body—and I spat up blood with a heave. Even with a barrier, it hit this hard.
But shock only for a moment. I straightened my hunched body and lifted my gaze.
Beyond my barrier, I saw a man.
Not fully armed like the regular knights, yet regardless of appearance, a knight radiating a force that couldn’t be ignored.
“…Captain!”
Hearing the regular knights shout, my guess proved right.
‘As expected. A captain.’
“You. What the hell are you?”
The captain of some unnamed knight order glared at me with eyes brimming with killing intent. But only for a moment.
“Captain Ekst, hold. Sheathe your sword.”
“…Sir Zeke? What in the world is—”
“I’ll explain later. For now, withdraw your aura and step back.”
Sir Zeke restrained Captain Ekst.
Ekst looked like Ekst couldn’t understand the situation at all, but soon, at Sir Zeke’s firm gaze, Ekst retreated awkwardly.
It was then that Sir Zeke approached me with a stiff face.
“Stop. I don’t know what your intent is, but end it here.”
No. It wasn’t over.
While settling the churned-up inside from the captain’s blow, I ignored Sir Zeke’s restraint and raised my aura even higher.
‘We’ve drawn out even a captain, but still.’
Is it impossible to call out the Head of House with just this much?
‘We’re reaching the limit now.’
It can’t be helped.
I resonated the circles of my core.
Uuuwoong—
The circles vibrated as if warming up.
A qualitatively different power than before was about to overflow—
In that moment.
“That’s enough.”
A deep, heavy voice.
Pushing through the crowd came an old knight.
“It’s the middle of the night. Isn’t this too much commotion?”
Is that man the Head of House?
No, it wasn’t.
“Hamelan-nim!”
Hamelan—right. A name I’d heard before.
In this era, Lortel’s First Sword.
No wonder I couldn’t sense a single trace even as he approached this close. Even with him standing right in front of me now, his presence was utterly absent.
‘The Head of House, who I was told to come to, doesn’t come…’
And instead, the First Sword himself has graced us with his presence.
Damn it—then—
‘How much more do I have to do before the Head of House comes?’
No—right now, Head of House or not, it looks like my neck is going to fly first.
I thought Sir Zeke could cover things to some extent… but the First Sword appearing, of all things.
Just as I thought that—
“With me right in front of you, and you’re thinking of something else?”
Flash!
A burst of light in front of my eyes came right after.
“…!”
For an instant, my vision went hazy.
I blinked.
And when my vision returned, I faced a truly chilling sight.
The tip of a sword stopped a hair’s breadth from my retina.
Gigeuk, gik!
It trembled ceaselessly, as if struggling to pierce through, but blocked by something.
When I widened my perception and looked beyond it, I realized whose sword it was—and what was stopping it.
First, the owner of the sword was Hamelan.
Lortel’s First Sword.
“Hmm.”
With an unreadable smile, he looked at the one who had stopped his blade—none other than Sir Zeke.
Sir Zeke, gripping Hamelan’s sword with a hand that dripped blood, opened his mouth with difficulty.
“First Sword… sheath your blade.”
“Why don’t you draw your own sword? I almost cut your hand.”
“Without permission, for members of the Ten Swords to cross blades is forbidden by the house law.”
“Oh? You’re awfully inflexible about obeying this kind of order.”
“…?”
At the barbed remark, Sir Zeke’s face showed confusion—
Pajijeuk—
And then aether flared along the blade.
“Kgh…!”
“You know, don’t you? I do not intend to cut you. I intend to cut Lortel’s intruder. So tell me—will you still not let go?”
What did that mean?
It was the will to cut me even if it meant cutting through Sir Zeke’s hand.
