Chapter 13
"This is insane……!!"
For Ascal Delphion,
Allen Debert was truly a nuisance.
Ever since that day, he had relentlessly driven Ascal every day, whipped him whenever he wanted to stop, and sometimes…… no, often smacked him on the back of the head—a truly troublesome presence.
Yet one thing was certain.
Thanks to him, Ascal was moving forward.
Born into House Delphion, Ascal had been physically weak since childhood.
He was a mutant ill-suited to House Delphion, where the primary focus was wielding a sword with a strong, powerful body.
And a discarded existence.
That was Ascal. As for his swordsmanship,
Allen was the one who pushed Delphion swordsmanship, which Ascal had thought had reached a dead end, forward.
That was why, despite grumbling every time, Ascal not only followed Allen's training without complaint,
but even now, he turned around to run to him.
"Move."
He was a teacher.
Allen had not taught him proper swordsmanship or revealed the secrets of the house.
But to Ascal Delphion, Allen was a troublesome teacher.
He was also the only teacher who believed that Ascal, whom even his own blood relatives had abandoned, could grow, and taught him accordingly.
No disciple would simply stand by while such a teacher walked into mortal danger.
So Ascal tried to turn back the way he had come, but someone who had anticipated this blocked his path.
Rowen shook their head, eyes lowered, and blocked Ascal's path.
"You can't, Sir Ascal."
"……Move."
The magical beasts continued surging forward without pause.
In a little while, Allen's figure would surely vanish without a trace, and the magical beasts would fill the place he had occupied.
"Come to your senses, Sir Ascal. Sir Allen would not want you to come back."
"……"
Ascal could not say anything in response to Rowen's words.
Because, given Allen's personality, if he needed Ascal on the path he was taking, he would have retreated to the rear together with him.
The reason he had sent Ascal to Asilie's side was……
'He had already decided to do this and acted accordingly.'
Because Ascal could not help him.
Ascal bit down hard on his lower lip, then closed and opened his eyes.
Fierce aura flared among the magical beasts.
It cut down dozens of magical beasts at once, but the number of beasts surging forward was far greater than the number he cut down.
So it had little significance.
"You have to go, Sir Ascal."
"……I know. I know!"
Ascal spat out his acknowledgment at Rowen's urging, then abruptly turned around and joined the mass of knights.
He clenched his hand tightly and trembled.
'Fuck.'
He had to grow stronger.
He had to become stronger so that he would never again leave someone behind alone in a situation like this and run away.
So don't die.
If you die, I really won't let you off.
Muttering that inwardly, Ascal squeezed his eyes shut at the screams of the magical beasts behind him.
Rowen also let out a long breath as they watched Ascal.
'……That's'
a real knight.
One person had made up for losses that would otherwise have cost them nearly half their number.
Although his skills were superior to those of the other knights, it would be an overstatement to say that he was more important than the lives of the knights.
Thus, in a sense, leaving Allen behind was a rational choice.
Cutting through the now-fewer magical beasts, the northern knights ran without rest and barely managed to return to the Great Wall.
When they reached the area near the Great Wall, they received support from the soldiers beyond the wall and barely made it back inside. Yet they could not rejoice that, aside from one straggler, not a single knight had died.
……Commander. Please rest for now."
"……Understood."
After returning to the Great Wall, Asilie nodded vacantly at her adjutant's words and dragged herself onward.
She was physically exhausted, but it was the sort of fatigue she normally would not even have shown.
What continued to wear her down, however, was not physical fatigue but mental fatigue.
One knight.
She had caused a Master-level knight to die through her mistaken judgment.
He had stayed behind not because of her order, but because of his own decision.
He had willingly sacrificed himself for the group, for everyone.
That fact.
And his final words.
[Commander, do not forget what happened today. That will be the path that lets you move forward.]
They weighed heavily on her, holding her back.
Like shackles.
Grind.
Everything was the result of her incompetence.
Thinking that, Asilie entered her room, gritted her teeth, and squeezed her eyes shut.
If only she had judged a little sooner.
If only she had made her decision earlier.
If only she had not been afraid.
If only she had not wavered when making her decision.
They might not have ended up in this situation.
Asilie had lost a precious knight.
A knight who knew how to sacrifice himself for his comrades, served as an example to the other knights, and possessed outstanding skill and talent.
Today of all days.
'Father.'
It was a day when the Grand Duke's absence felt more keenly than ever.
@
I imbue the tip of my thrusting sword with my intent.
As I said,
swordsmanship is an art drawn with a sword as its brush,
so I imbue that work of art with my intent.
Protect.
Cut down everything that stands in my way.
Even if every step I take leads straight to death.
That is swordsmanship.
"……I almost died for real."
After letting out a long breath and surveying my surroundings, I briefly closed and opened my eyes, then relaxed my body.
No matter how far I had advanced in swordsmanship,
I was not at the level where I could face thousands or tens of thousands of magical beasts on an open plain. If I had been, I would have gone outside the Great Wall long ago and spent my days slaughtering magical beasts.
But I had judged that I could buy time and somehow get myself out of there,
and that had been the right call.
Well, I had come close to dying in the process, but I had survived in the end.
Of course, I could return to the Great Wall just as I was.
But……
'There is something I need to find.'
I couldn't search in my current condition.
I had to rest a little before moving.
There was something in the 'place' I was looking for that would be difficult to face in my current, feeble condition.
Leaning my back against the wall and sitting down on the ground, I frowned at the chill rising from the floor and continued thinking.
First of all, I had achieved most of the objectives I had set when I left the Great Wall.
First.
Bring the northern knights who had come outside the Great Wall back inside with their full fighting strength intact.
I was not entirely sure, but they had probably made it back alive. Otherwise, I might have been a little disappointed.
Second.
This one was surprisingly simple:
namely, getting outside the Great Wall.
It was not easy to leave the Great Wall without a valid reason, but I had accomplished that by coming out on this mission.
Finally, the third.
Find the location of 'it'.
If I had to name the most annoying thing about transmigrating into this damn romance fantasy,
it was not the original protagonist, who was practically obsessed with men,
nor the old man who had worked me to the brink of death.
It was the author of this original novel.
Why on earth had they tacked a damn apocalypse ending onto a romance fantasy?
At the very least, they should not have labeled it a romance fantasy.
If not that, they could have left out the apocalypse ending.
And if neither of those was possible,
they could at least have described the apocalypse in detail.
Because of an author so terribly inconsiderate of anyone who might transmigrate into this world,
I knew only fragments about the crisis approaching the North.
In other words, I knew that the 'thing' I was looking for lay beyond the Great Wall in the North,
but I did not know its exact location or whether it actually contained anything.
Therefore.
"From here on……"
I sighed the words and stared blankly outside.
I guess I'll just have to pick a spot.
There was no way to proceed except by picking a spot and searching on foot.
That was how everything went, anyway.
Since I had no idea where the useful people were or what they were doing, nor where or how events would unfold,
all I could do was move around on foot.
That was my lot in life.
The protagonist I had worked myself to death trying to reform still had not broken their old habits,
the world was so unhelpful that I had to run around and figure things out myself,
and on top of that, my talent was so meager that even after working myself to the brink of death, I had not grown beyond this point.
Anyway.
What a damn life.
Still grumbling, I took an emergency ration from the subspace pouch I had prepared and shoved it into my mouth.
It was just as tasteless as ever, but it was still far better than the supplies issued by the army.
'Thank you, nameless young lady.'
I had obtained this subspace pouch through a perfectly reasonable and entirely justified transaction.
I had taught a young lady from a merchant guild that made its living off fleecing others the bitter taste of life, then accepted it as the tuition fee, so to speak.
At the end, she had been moved to tears and nodded, making it a perfectly reasonable trade.
Come to think of it, I wonder if she was living well.
Though she had made her living fleecing others, she had quite a talent for commerce, so I thought she might prove useful someday.
Having built such a lasting connection, I would probably meet her again someday.
Anyway.
"I'm putting it to good use, so she'd be satisfied too."
She probably would be.
I was making good use of the subspace pouch she had once been unable to use and had kept carefully tucked away in a corner.
Even if she was not, it did not matter.
And if she wasn't?
What could she do about it?
With a small smirk, I continued eating the emergency ration and began recovering my stamina.