Chapter 104
－Emperas Kingdom—Fourth Knight Order Commander's POV－
I spotted a friend.
What a strange place to meet.
Judging by the direction he'd just come from, was he coming from the slave quarter?
"We don't often meet in a place like this."
"Hmm? Ah, true."
He seemed lost in thought, and I must have startled him.
He appeared to be heading for the knights' training grounds, so I went with him.
The Fourth Knight Order has been idle since our previous mission failed.
No, we still train, but we lack the vigor we once had.
I've resigned myself to the fact that it can't be helped.
To the king, the incompetent aren't worth keeping alive.
The only reason we're still alive is probably that his attention has turned to other matters.
Every member of the Fourth Knight Order knows that we have no idea what will happen next.
Will we be assigned another mission?
Or will our heads be cut off? If only it were just me.
The mages who had lost their memories were executed immediately.
Remembering that, it wouldn't be strange for the order to come down at any moment.
...
What is it?
The knights' rest area is awfully hectic.
...Is that the Fifth Knight Order?
It's terribly noisy, and I can make out snatches of conversation.
"Using the Fifth Knight Order to subjugate the forest...?"
The Fifth Knight Order.
They're also known as a band of battle maniacs.
They're also said to be the knight order most loyal to the king, and they have the people's support.
For the king's sake, they use any means necessary, fear no death, and continue to achieve results.
...If the Fifth is being sent against the forest...
"If the Fifth moves..."
"It's impossible."
...It was cut down with a single stroke.
This friend of mine is intelligent.
He had been researching the forest extensively for some time.
At the time, everyone around him, myself included, thought it was pointless.
But now I realize he was right.
"Why?"
To be honest, I consider fighting my calling.
I'm confident I can defeat magical beasts and monsters.
It was because of that strength that I was entrusted with command of the Fourth Knight Order.
Though I did make a blunder.
Even I have to acknowledge how strong this friend of mine is.
But recently, I've realized that he sees more of the world than I do.
At times, I think he may even understand what's happening in this country right now.
"The enemy knows us. Do we know the enemy?"
"...Isn't it the forest?"
"The forest has been there all along. But you said it yourself, didn't you?"
That's right. The forest felt different from the one I knew.
The forest had changed.
Why?
...I don't know.
"Has it changed, or has it regained its original power?"
Its original power.
The forest's power when the Forest King protected it.
We don't know what it was like then.
But if so, there must be some being that restored the forest.
Could that be this country's enemy?
An entity with the power to revive that forest.
I felt my body tremble faintly.
Fear was something I'd discarded long ago, when I decided to become a knight.
But what was this inexplicable discomfort?
"The enemy of this country is in the forest, but who do you think is the enemy of this world?"
My face twisted at my friend's words.
Certainly, whatever is in the forest is this country's enemy.
The enemy of the world?
...The world... The forest was the world itself, if I remember correctly...
If that was true, then the being the forest sought must be the one this world sought.
The enemy of that being would be the enemy of the world...and of this country...
Stunned by the answer, I stared at my friend.
My friend was watching the Fifth Knight Order, which was making merry in the knights' rest area.
I could read no emotion whatsoever in his profile.
Yet for a moment, when he turned his gaze toward me, a wry smile escaped him.
"It may not be the right answer."
No. I felt it was probably the answer closest to the truth.
Deep down, I found myself convinced.
If the Fifth Knight Order were to challenge the forest to battle, then...
Even magic stones enhanced by ancient and modern powers had failed to fully suppress the forest's power.
But its power must have been steadily eroded over hundreds of years.
And yet some being had restored it in a mere few months.
Would mere humans really challenge such a being?
"I think there's a being you must never make an enemy of."
My friend's voice sounded distant.
For the first time in my life, I sensed a being whose depths I could not fathom.
What kind of power are we waging war against?
...How much wrath will we provoke?