Chapter 35
“Welcome, everyone. I’ve been waiting eagerly for your arrival.”
The owner of that gruff voice was Baron Gerek von Meyer, the lord of Olderin.
Gerek warmly welcomed me, the cadets, and the manor’s knights.
We were currently at the lord’s castle in Olderin, having arrived in response to the baron’s request for assistance.
Normally, apprentice knights train in the manor’s practice grounds.
But sparring alone has its limits, so they sometimes head out on expeditions to gain real combat experience.
For that reason, they go on expeditions to help the baron’s knight order subjugate demonic beasts and gain experience.
That was what Helena had explained before we came here.
Of course, I’d assumed I wouldn’t be allowed to go because I was a slave, but thanks to the contract I made with Renoa last time I went out, I was able to join the expedition.
“We’ve been plagued by a shortage of manpower, so having you all join us couldn’t be more reassuring.”
The baron greeted each cadet face-to-face with words of encouragement. Before long, it was my turn.
“Hm? And you are?”
“My lord baron. That apprentice knight is….”
Lance was about to explain who I was, looking uncomfortable.
“Gladiator Leon! Right?”
“Ah, yes. That’s right.”
“I knew it! That hair! Those eyes! I could never forget them! I heard rumors that you’d received the young lady’s patronage, but I never imagined you’d become an apprentice knight! You really do live long enough to see everything!”
The baron greeted me with a smile on a completely different level from the one he wore for everyone else.
It seemed he had been a fan of mine since my gladiator days. I greeted him awkwardly.
Lance looked bewildered.
“My lord baron, you know him?”
“Of course I do! He’s Leon the gladiator! If you live in Olderin and don’t know him, you must be a spy! Surely you’ve seen one of his matches?”
“Yes.”
“Even the match against the minotaur?”
“Yes….”
“You missed those matches? Then you’re missing out on life. No, maybe you have to shun entertainment that thoroughly to become a knight of the ducal house. Wahahaha!”
The baron laughed heartily, apparently thinking he was joking, but Lance and the other knights didn’t look amused at all.
Whether they liked it or not, the baron’s attention was entirely fixed on me.
“I never thought I’d meet you here. I may not look it, but I’m a huge fan of yours. I fell in love after seeing your match with the minotaur.”
“Ah, yes…. Thank you.”
“I’m sure you’ll do well in this expedition too.”
“I’ll do my best to live up to your expectations.”
Escorted by the baron and his retainers, we left the castle.
Under the weight of countless stares, Helena poked my side with a mischievous grin.
“Leon, I guess you’re a lot more famous than I thought. I’ve never seen the baron welcome someone like that before.”
“Seems like it.”
The other cadets, who had been listening to our conversation nearby, snorted.
“A celebrity? Hmph, he’s still just a lowly slave-born bastard.”
“The baron really can’t judge people. To praise some rootless bastard like that.”
Whether they couldn’t control their voices or were deliberately saying it loud enough for me to hear, it was a familiar reaction either way, so I didn’t care at all.
“All right, enough chatter! Move out!”
At the shout of Brune, the commander of Olderin’s knight order and the leader of this expedition, the march began.
Our destination was the Black Forest on the outskirts of the territory, where demonic beasts were said to appear often.
The city walls receded into the distance. We crossed the sparsely populated wasteland and entered the forest.
A forest shrouded in fog.
A gloomy gray filled my field of view.
It was a damp, unpleasant sensation, as if something were crawling over my skin. The fog was so dense I could barely see five meters ahead.
“Visibility is poor, so close the distance between you!”
We closed ranks as ordered.
“The fog is intense. I don’t remember it being this bad on previous expeditions.”
“That’s right. At some point the fog got worse, and then demonic beasts began appearing in large numbers.”
“I’ve heard rumors that strange incidents have been occurring frequently across the continent lately. They say it’s related to the activity of the Three Calamities.”
The knights up front were talking in grim tones. What caught my attention among them was the phrase “Three Calamities.”
It was a story related to the DLC-side protagonist, with no connection at all to Renoa, a character from the main story.
Now that the game had become reality, stories from that side had started seeping in like this.
Though it wasn’t something I needed to worry about right now.
I was busy enough just trying to get by; why would I worry about anyone else? They’d manage on their own.
“Is this really okay? If a demonic beast ambushes us like this, won’t we be helpless?”
A white maze where you couldn’t see even a single step ahead.
The primal fear of not knowing where or what might leap out wrapped around the formation.
The apprentice knights were chattering nervously. Helena, right beside me, had her shoulders hunched tight too.
“Leon, aren’t you nervous at all?”
“I am tense.”
My battle experience might be no less than a knight’s, but even for me, an environment this harsh was a first.
My nerves were on edge.
Maybe I should try that.
A technique for sensing things directly, without relying on sight.
I had kept practicing it ever since Renoa helped me. This was the perfect environment to try it in actual combat.
Without slowing my pace, I slowly closed my eyes.
I expanded the range of my senses.
Sensations began pouring in.
The trembling of the nervous cadets.
The clinking of armor.
The smell of damp earth.
Like separating layers when drawing a picture, I divided the flooding sensations into tiers.
I pushed the useless things back and prioritized the information I needed.
I shoved natural sensations such as the sound of the wind and the smell of earth to the very back of my awareness.
On top of that, I layered the presence of our allies. I left the predictable noises blurred in the background.
As I hid the unnecessary sensations away, my mind filled with a quiet stillness.
And then, over that clean canvas.
-Ssssssh.
Clear, unerasable sensations surfaced. Malice hidden in the fog, aiming for our necks.
There were twelve of those presences.
They were encircling us in a ring.
“We’re surrounded.”
“Huh?”
-Shing.
I drew my sword.
Helena, still not understanding the situation, looked at me in confusion.
“Leon? Why are you suddenly doing this?”
Before Helena could even finish asking, I grabbed her shoulder roughly and swung my sword instead of answering.
“Duck!”
“Kyaa?!”
-Clang!
A chilling crash rang out, and red sparks flew from the tip of my sword.
A heavy shock traveled up my wrist.
“……Huh?”
Helena, sprawled on the ground, stared with shaking pupils as if an earthquake had struck.
Because there had been a huge scythe where her neck had been just moments before.
-Sssssht.
A creature camouflaged in the same gray as the fog slowly revealed itself.
It had a body as large as an adult man’s, a hazy shell as if the fog itself had been gathered together, and razor-sharp scythes attached to both arms.
The shape was just like a giant mantis.
“Phantom Mantis?!”
“It’s an ambush!”
Someone cried out.
“All units, circular defense formation! Back to back! Cadets, hurry to the center!”
Commander Brune quickly gave orders, but the cadets couldn’t keep up.
They were rookies with excellent swordsmanship but lacking real combat experience.
It was impossible for them to move in perfect unison in such a brutal environment where they couldn’t see a thing ahead.
They panicked and flailed about, not knowing what to do.
In the meantime, the enemies moved. The exposed Phantom Mantises rushed in all at once.
-Crunch! Slish!
“Aaaagh!”
Screams erupted.
Fresh blood splattered through the fog.
One of Olderin’s soldiers, slow to react to the ambush, clutched his shoulder and rolled on the ground.
“Damn it! I can’t see! Where are those things?!”
“Raise your shields! Don’t give them an opening!”
Chaos.
Despite the knight commander’s shout, the formation, already gripped by fear, was wavering.
“Hii, hiiik!”
The apprentice knight standing beside me, Euclys, stumbled backward with a shrill scream.
The gap between the thought that he had to run and the reality of his legs refusing to move.
In that split second, a giant scythe flew toward his neck.
-Swish!
Anyone could see it was too late.
Euclys still hadn’t even realized it.
But I wasn’t.
I could feel it.
My vision was blocked, but the path of its attack was drawn vividly before me like a red line.
Without hesitation, I stepped in front of Euclys.
-Claaang!
Another metallic ring echoed out.
I swung my arm to knock the scythe aside and thrust my sword into the fog.
-Thud!
A squishy sensation.
Rather than cutting through empty air, something solid had definitely caught on the tip of my sword.
I twisted my wrist and tore the blade free.
-Crack! Splat!
Green slime sprayed out as the massive body crashed heavily to the ground.
“W-what is this….”
Euclys just stared blankly, unable to grasp what was happening.
“Helena. Take him and get back into formation.”
“What about you, Leon?”
“I hate being trapped anywhere.”
“…Got it. Euclys, snap out of it and get up.”
Helena dragged Euclys along like a piece of luggage and moved back into formation.
I surveyed the battlefield without panicking. The knight order, ambushed in the fog, had fallen into chaos.
Even though they should have been veterans, they lost their composure once their sight was cut off.
I inhaled and shouted loudly.
“We’re surrounded on all sides! The enemies are Phantom Mantises! There are eleven of them!”
“What? Who just said that….”
“Tighten the formation! They’ll exploit any opening in our blind spots!”
With that, I leaped into the fog.
The sword I’d recently learned was a sword of protection, but that only applied when there were few things to protect.
If there were many things to protect, like now, the situation was different.
If we just crouched in this cramped space where even swinging a sword was difficult, we’d only become prey. Someone had to draw their attention away.
I was the perfect person for that role, since I could see even when no one else could.
Phew, being alone is so much easier.
It’s not like I’m doing this because protecting people is a hassle. This counts as protecting, too.
Damn right it is.