Chapter 7
I’m Leon Ruud.
I’m the second son of the Ruud knightly family, and I inherited my brown hair and swordsmanship from my father.
In a knightly family, you aren’t considered human until you become a knight.
So in our family, the humans are my father, brother, and sister—all knights. My little sister, Fia, is less than human.
On top of that, her sword skills are awful. She’ll never become a knight in her life.
In other words, she’ll never become human.
So I don’t care if she dies somewhere out there. If anything, her dying would be a blessing. That’d be one less useless mouth to feed.
And yet, my sister’s making a huge fuss because that idiot, who went to take the Coming-of-Age Ceremony first thing this morning, hasn’t come back even though the scheduled time has passed.
If she can’t even pass the Coming-of-Age Ceremony—the step before becoming a knight—then she’ll never become one. So we should just leave her be. Whether she’s dead or somehow still alive, the beasts or monsters in the forest will take care of her.
But my sister announced she was going to form a search party and head into the forest.
Before I knew it, I’d been included too.
Since my sister joined the Knights before me, she’s my senior in the order. I can’t exactly just say no.
Damn it, we should’ve ignored the custom of gathering the whole family for the Coming-of-Age Ceremony, just this once.
I put on my armor, belted on my sword, and joined the search party gathered in front of the entrance.
Among those who’d already gathered, I spotted a familiar face and was surprised.
Even my beloved older brother had come!
Impressed that my sister had managed to drag even my brother out here, and thrilled to see him, I was about to speak to him.
That was when the commotion began.
“What is that?!”
“It’s a monster! A huge monster is heading this way at incredible speed!”
I turned around and saw a monster so huge I could tell even from a distance, flying straight toward us.
A chill ran down my back.
Whoa, this is bad.
It looks like a black dragon.
...Seriously, could it be the legendary monster, the Black Dragon King?
If so, we’re all dead.
It’d take three hundred elite knights led by a commander-level knight just to have a chance of beating it. The twenty or so knights and squires here don’t stand a chance.
I drew my sword and shouted to my brother.
“We’ll hold it off here! Brother, report the monster’s appearance to the Knights!”
But my brother stood there, staring at the Black Dragon without moving an inch.
What? Could someone like my brother be frozen with fear?
As I wondered that, my brother said something unbelievable.
“Is that Fia, our little sister, on the back of that Black Dragon?”
“...Huh??”
Was my brother—of all people—seeing things out of fear?
Puzzled, I looked toward the Black Dragon, and my eyes widened in shock.
Though my eyes are naturally narrow, so it probably wasn’t that noticeable to anyone watching.
...Sure enough, I could see her—...Fia—on the Black Dragon’s back.
...Looks like fear has finally made me see things too.