Chapter 76
The Sarnos Knight Order was formidable.
As knights, they were skilled at killing people.
Their bodies were human in form, but once mana-enhanced, they could perform on par with ferocious beasts.
Their equipment was mana-enhanced as well, pushing their already formidable offense and defense to the extreme.
─And all of that strength meant nothing before Dalia.
Whoooosh!
Dalia's stance as she faced the knights was bizarre.
She was holding a spear that should normally be used with both hands in just one hand, and even then she gripped it near the very end of the shaft as she swung it.
Anyone with even a bit of expertise in spearsmanship would have called Dalia's stance sloppy, or even crude.
If you swung a spear like that, the attack range itself would widen, but it would become nearly impossible to put your full strength into it.
The shaft might only tap against the opponent's body, and that would be all.
It was folly that could not possibly produce a proper hit; if anything, she'd be lucky if her own wrist didn't shatter.
“Kraaagh!”
However, the Sarnos knights who had to face that folly firsthand never dared laugh at Dalia.
It wasn't a matter of battlefield courtesy or anything like that; they were simply dying like insects to those sloppy attacks.
Just a tap against the spear shaft?
Even that little tap crushed flesh, shattered bones, and shook their insides to pieces—what were they supposed to do about that?
It was like colliding with a carriage at full speed.
Compared to slamming into it with your whole body, hitting it with just one arm would be a little less damaging, but even then the point of impact would still be wrecked, and the connected parts of the body wouldn't come out unscathed.
Defense was meaningless.
If they blocked with a sword, the sword broke; if they tried to catch it with armor, the armor caved in; and it was the same even when the sword and armor were reinforced with mana.
However, there was something else that truly drove the knights to despair even more than Dalia's terrifying monstrous strength.
“Why! Why the hell! Why can't I cut you with my sword!!”
The vice commander screamed.
Even a kitchen knife swung by some village woman who had never fought anyone in her life could inflict fatal wounds on an ordinary person.
Much less a sword swung by a 4th-tier knight, whose power was enough to split even rocks.
And yet, even while taking the knight order's slashes barehanded, Dalia suffered no injury whatsoever.
Even if they brought their full weight down on her shoulder, even if they thrust into the center of her back with the momentum of a charge, every attack was blocked by her skin, unable to leave so much as a scratch, much less a fatal wound.
“This... this is ridiculous…”
If they protected their bodies with thick armor, then you attacked the gaps in the armor.
If they defended themselves thoroughly, then you broke that defense with coordinated attacks from multiple directions.
But if they made no defense at all, ignored whatever you did, and still couldn't be wounded even while taking your attacks head-on...
‘─Whether it's a 4th-tier knight unleashing sword aura or a 1st-tier peasant who has taken a blade into his hand for the first time in his life, are you saying they're the same before this woman!?’
The knights of Sarnos were formidable.
Against ordinary soldiers, they could win even while fighting ten at once, and if they kept striking and retreating, they could handle a hundred.
But if the number of enemies exceeded a thousand, they couldn't guarantee victory—not even against ordinary farmers, let alone soldiers.
Because a person's stamina, mana, and mental fortitude all have limits, and if you're hit by a stray arrow or blade, you still get hurt.
Even their commander, a 5th-tier powerhouse, was no exception.
Because aura, for all its absolute power, also consumed a tremendous amount of energy.
But Dalia was different.
She didn't need to count the number of enemies.
For her, mana reinforcement was as natural as breathing—a passive skill she could maintain without issue for a whole year unless she deliberately stopped it.
Even if the enemy count climbed into the thousands or tens of thousands, as long as none of them had reached the 5th tier, she could slaughter them all without taking a single scratch.
An individual cannot defeat the many. A power that seemed to deny that proposition by its very existence.
More than that, this power had little to do with the spear techniques she had honed later in life; it was something she had simply been born with, something that had come naturally just from living an ordinary life.
That was why Dalia had restrained and suppressed herself more than anyone else.
Even when there were things she didn't like, even when she sometimes wanted to smash everything to pieces, she adhered to discipline and rules with near-ruthless thoroughness.
Even when people around her mocked her as dull and clicked their tongues at how frustrating she was, she endured and endured.
Because if she, born with strength greater than anyone else's, used her power however she pleased, it would be a terrible disaster.
Because she was afraid that actions she believed were 'right' might, in the end, come full circle and end up tormenting even more people.
Because, as her father had said, she wanted to believe this strength existed not to torment anyone, but to help them.
“…No matter how you put it, you've crossed the line. Even I know that it was wrong to keep holding back here!!”
Every time Dalia swung her spear, the knights House Sarnos had carefully nurtured were swept away like fallen leaves.
Even if her opponent was a criminal, Dalia usually held back her strength, but against those who were trying to carry out a massacre against civilians, she showed them none of that restraint.
Faced with an opponent whose very existence seemed to crush the power they had spent their whole lives honing head-on, the knights of Sarnos grew frightened and shrank back.
It was a change so drastic it was hard to believe these were the same people who had been so brazen toward the citizens.
“Move aside! I'll take him on!”
The knight commander, sensing that from his subordinates, rushed forward.
He had a hunch that if Dalia were left alone any longer, their morale would plummet beyond recovery.
If sword aura couldn't cut her down, then he'd cut her down with sword force.
The knight commander intended to head toward Dalia with that thought in mind, but it was not to be.
“Could it be that you forgot about me? If so, that hurts my feelings!”
Dauphin.
Because the mastermind behind all of this was blocking the knight commander's path.
To put it mildly, Dauphin was far from fine.
Everything below his right shoulder was gone, and from the severed stump of his arm, blood was still pouring nonstop at this very moment.
His complexion was pale, his legs were shaking, and he looked exactly like a critically ill patient who might stop breathing at any moment.
And yet, even so, a shameless, bold smile rested on Dauphin's face, and his eyes burned brightly.
The knight commander glared, grinding his teeth.
“A dying thief like you sure has plenty to say!!”
The knight commander was certain of his victory.
It was Dauphin who had been unable to endure his strike even with all four limbs intact.
Much less could he possibly fight him now, in that unstable state where even standing still looked precarious.
“Yes, I won't deny it. Whatever your character may be, your strength is indeed worth acknowledging.”
Dauphin could not beat the knight commander.
But that did not mean Dauphin had no means at his disposal.
“Have you perhaps forgotten? I am not a knight who fights honorably—I am a cowardly, vicious phantom thief!”
As he said that, Dauphin raised a small gem-like object with his lone left hand.
The knight commander jolted and checked his own body all over.
“When did you manage to…!”
The magical device containing the amplification and broadcast spells that he had used to shout over the entire city.
Dauphin, having stolen it with deft hands, activated the magical device without hesitation and shouted.
《Citizens of Lebruk, I, Dauphin, wish to ask you this, so please answer me! ─Are you not indignant!?》
Silence fell.
Not because they were ignoring Dauphin's words, but because they were focusing on them.
《They say that you are criminals! That because you cooperated with me and sided with me, the proper punishment is death! Is that truly so? Did you truly cooperate with me? Of course not! No way! I never even had an accomplice to begin with, so how could I possibly have a partner in crime!》
Realizing what Dauphin was trying to do, the knight commander lunged at him.
While barely dodging the murderous attacks, Dauphin kept speaking.
《Even though you did nothing wrong, they call you criminals!》
《Even though you only pleaded your innocence, they call you criminals!》
《Even though you're only struggling desperately to survive each day, they call you criminals!》
《Even though you've lost family, lost friends, and endured endless pain just to cry out in suffering, they call you criminals!》
《You're irritating me, so die! You're in the way of my plans, so die! Compared to our lofty ideals, your circumstances are none of our concern, so shut up and die!》
Someone clenched their fist.
Someone shed tears at the flood of emotions surging up inside them.
Someone trembled as memories of the past came back to them.
《Haven't you already endured enough? Haven't you already waited long enough? Are you not seeing this scene right now, where they've shown their shameful behavior again and again, yet still refuse to admit fault and try to crush everything with force? And even so, are you still going to say it's 'not yet'!?》
《Do you think if you just sit still and wait, I can solve all your problems for you? Do you think relying on that guard over there will make everything work out? Will you keep waiting forever for someone else to solve your problems?》
《If any of you think that way, then let me say this! Don't talk nonsense! Even spoon-feeding has its limits!》
If you have a complaint, speak it yourself.
If you harbor anger, stand on your own two feet.
If there is something you want, seize it with your own hands.
“Cut the bullshit!!”
Slash!
The knight commander's sword sliced through Dauphin's body, and blood gushed from the deep diagonal wound running from shoulder to calf.
As the amplification magical device fell from Dauphin's fatally wounded hand, the knight commander vented his rage by brutally stomping it into pieces.
“No matter what you spout, do you really think that trash is going to budge!? Those idiots who can do nothing but rely on others and beg—do you think they'd work up the courage to move because of just a few words from you? Your delusions are excessive!!”
At the knight commander's words, Dauphin replied.
“Yeah... that's right. Just a few words from me wouldn't have that much power. At most, it'd be like adding a single drop to a cup.”
“Then─”
“But what if that cup were already full to the brim?”
The knight commander stiffened.
He felt an instinctive sense of dread at the sight of Dauphin's dying form, yet Dauphin still showed no doubt about his victory.
“You were the ones who filled the cup. I merely added the final drop.”
Only then did the knight commander look around.
The guards.
The city's other armed force had already surrounded the knight order, fully armed and equipped.
And behind those guards stood tens of thousands of citizens, their eyes blazing with fierce fire.
“Uh, ugh.”
The apprentice knights, their attendants, and the surviving rank-and-file knights backed away, slowly crowding together in one place.
Even the knight commander, who would normally have scolded them for making such a scene in front of commoners, couldn't say a word this time.
Cold sweat soaked his back.
No matter how strong a knight he was in the Kingdom of Virka, winning against that many people was impossible.
The only guard who might possibly make that happen was not an ally at all, but his strongest enemy.
If he exploited an opening, he might be able to flee, but that act itself would already drag the knight order's honor into the mud.
In the end, there was only one thing he could do.
“Y-you bastards! Have you lost your minds!? Our knight order is the symbol of House Sarnos! If you lay a hand on us, the count will never stand idly by!!”
Threats and intimidation backed by the power of their patron.
It was a tactic far too petty for people who normally strutted around so arrogantly, but it was effective all the same.
However.
“Shut your mouth, bastard.”
To try such a clumsy threat against the crowd while forgetting that Dalia was right nearby could only be called a stupid move.
Then again, maybe making them look elsewhere was exactly Dauphin's aim.
Thwack!
Struck by Dalia's downward blow, the knight commander's body slammed into the ground.
Almost reflexively, he wrapped aura around his body to avoid a fatal wound, but once his stance was broken, he had no chance to counterattack.
By then, Dalia had already seized the knight commander's ankle and hurled him straight down to the ground.
Kwaang!
Kwaaaang!
Kwaaaaaang!
Exactly three earth-shaking impacts.
Having blasted out a crater just large enough to bury a grown man whole, Dalia tossed the twisted and dented human bludgeon onto the ground.
And then she said flatly to the remaining knight order members,
“Keep fighting, or surrender.”
Without anyone being first, they all lowered their heads to the ground at once and begged for their lives.
Seeing that, the people gathered there burst into cheers.
Loud and long.
A cheer that would carry beyond Lebruk and across the entire count's domain.