Chapter 28
-Waaaah—!
“It worked…!”
Arti felt a rush of satisfaction at his strategy’s success.
「Throw your opponent off balance. Toss dirt from the ground, or do something they don’t expect.」
‘Lydia, it really worked!’
Arti lowered the Sacred Sword. He hadn’t put any strength into the blow, so the sword bounced off the helmet without breaking it.
If this had been a real battlefield.
The holy knights would have regrouped and toyed with Arti. There were no rules like this on a real battlefield.
If this had been a real fight.
Arti had no way to stop these holy knights as he was now. That was what true unfairness looked like.
‘…If this had been a real fight.’
But.
This wasn’t a battlefield.
The emblems on the holy knights’ left hands glowed.
Flash!
And the oath that made up the test’s second rule—‘Anyone struck on the helmet must stop’—took effect. Their bodies went rigid on the spot.
The Sun God’s solemn oath had bound them in place.
“Huh?!”
“Guh—!”
Leaving them behind, Arti charged forward.
Then he shouted.
“Come on—!”
“!”
“!”
“!”
The remaining holy knights shuddered.
They regrouped and surrounded the Hero candidate.
The spectators watching this cheered.
-Waaaaah—!
It had all happened in just a few dozen seconds.
Even if he’d managed it only thanks to rules that applied specifically to this test, the spectators were impressed that the Hero candidate had already subdued two of those fearsome holy knights.
-That commoner’s pretty good, huh?
-As expected of the Kingdom of Gallia—even its commoners are brave!
-That was some quick thinking worthy of a Hero candidate!
The boy’s trial
was unfolding differently than expected.
*
‘…But that tactic stops working once the surprise wears off. Those knights have brains, too. They won’t fall for the same trick twice.’
Lydia was quietly worried.
Arti might get carried away by the thrill of his surprise tactic, forget the basic strategies he’d learned, and go berserk. But that was only a concern.
Arti steadily parried the paired holy knights’ coordinated attacks. The knights abandoned their tactic of charging all at once to herd him like a rabbit, and instead pressed him with a more orthodox coordinated assault.
Two, then three, then four….
They fluidly changed their team formations as they attacked.
‘Their swords could get tangled and strike one another’s helmets, so they chose a more orthodox approach, even if it takes a little longer. And they’re also trying to keep Arti from knocking them out with a single blow….’
They hadn’t let themselves get swept up in the momentum of the fight;
they’d reorganized around the most effective tactics.
They were seasoned warriors. Thanks to that, no one else was eliminated after the first two.
Arti was now fighting desperately just to hold on. If they’d been trying to kill him in earnest, or if the Sacred Sword hadn’t accelerated his healing, he would have been down long ago.
-Hah…! Hah…!
Arti’s clothes and armor were horribly torn.
He’d let himself get hit before he knew it,
then endured the blows with accelerated healing and managed to escape.
Five minutes had passed.
Arti was nearing his limit.
And then….
Thump!
Arti dropped to one knee.
His clothes were stained with blood. He planted the Sacred Sword in the ground and hung his head miserably. Beneath the intense midday sun, his face was hidden in shadow.
Toward him,
eight holy knights approached.
The spectators stirred.
-H-huh?!
-Is that commoner done for now…?
-He held out pretty well, all things considered.
Mave shouted.
“Damn it! You country bumpkin—! What are you doing?! Where’s that grit you showed when you refused to admit defeat and clung to me even after our sparring was over—?!”
Morgan shook her head.
She turned away as if there was nothing more to see.
“…He lost.”
She wasn’t particularly disappointed by his defeat.
He was just some nobody she’d happened to meet.
‘It’s a little irritating that people will probably spread more nonsense about how commoners can’t measure up because of this….’
But there were other things getting on Morgan’s nerves. The spectators behind her were murmuring.
-Was Princess Lydia always so beautiful?
-There’s a reason she’s been called Gallia’s Golden Child since she was little. So many people thought she’d grow up to be a beauty….
-Wasn’t she even mentioned as a possible match for Sir Lucian, the ‘Golden Knight,’ who’d been a prodigy since childhood? Of course, the engagement fell through.
-It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that the two of them met again in the Academy’s Department of Swordsmanship.
“…!”
Lucian de Montreux…?
Morgan’s eyes trembled slightly.
‘That golden hulk from the Department of Swordsmanship could have been Lydia’s fiancé…? Really? I never sensed anything like that from Lydia.’
Morgan looked at Lydia beside her.
She’d been watching Arti struggle with a chilly expression for a while now. There was no hint in her face of any sweet rumors about marriage or an engagement.
The golden hulk seated in the distance wasn’t paying Lydia any particular attention, either. He, too, was watching the training ground with a chilly expression. It was the look of a warrior analyzing a battlefield.
Seeing their expressions, Morgan felt relieved. It seemed like nothing more than baseless rumors from the spectators.
“….”
…Hmph. How stupid.
It was over anyway.
“….”
Then she was confused.
‘What exactly had I felt threatened by?’
Even as she thought that,
Morgan edged a little closer to Lydia.
She didn’t know why.
“….”
Lydia hadn’t noticed Morgan at all.
‘Didn’t I tell you not to kneel…?’
She slowly studied Arti’s shadowed face as he knelt. With a Sword Master’s eyes, she could see his expression clearly even through the shadow.
“….”
And then.
Lydia smiled.
“Honestly.”
Arti didn’t look like he’d given up.
Like a mischievous boy,
he wore a triumphant, secretive smile.
It seemed to say to Lydia:
-I didn’t kneel to surrender to the enemy, so it’s okay, right?
“…You’ve sure picked up all the bad habits.”
But there was nothing wrong with a sly Hero, either.
*
“Hero!”
Aria sprang to her feet without thinking.
Tears welled in her eyes. Her silver eyes trembled nonstop. Her fists, drenched with sweat, quivered.
Aria cried out.
“Hero…!”
The Hero hadn’t been able to win the test.
He’d collapsed miserably.
And the holy knights had surrounded him to restrain him.
‘No…! That can’t happen…!’
Aria wanted to run to him.
Why?
A saintess’s duty was to remain in her seat here.
And yet she wanted to run to him.
“Saintess.”
“!”
But the Inquisitor waiting beside her gently stopped her with an arm. The gesture was gentle, but firm.
Aria cried out.
“Lord Raul! Why?!”
“….”
Tears fell from Aria’s resentful eyes.
She’d completely forgotten her duty as a saintess.
She looked like nothing more than a girl who wanted to run to an injured boy.
Raul saw her face and smiled.
“…Heh.”
Raul smiled kindly and spoke.
Then he calmly told her the truth.
“The test is still in progress. The Hero candidate must win on his own, without anyone’s help, to be recognized.”
“But….”
“Well, he seems to have given up already. Even so, isn’t watching his fight to the very end a way of showing him respect?”
“…!”
No.
He hasn’t given up.
In the fight he chose for himself…!
-This is the fight I chose. So I won’t run away.
‘I won’t back down!’
Just as Aria was about to reply to Raul,
beneath the high sun,
the boy’s voice rang out quietly.
【Fate is…!】
Every holy knight approaching him flinched at the sound of his voice.
“!”
“!”
“!”
Aria and Raul both turned their heads back toward the training ground.
“!”
“!”
The Hero candidate’s blue Sacred Sword was shining.
Not its usual clear blue,
but a brilliant color like a lake in the sunlight.
‘Ah, that’s the light.’
The light that had blazed when he defeated the Bone Rider
and saved the people.
That light was sparkling.
Aria murmured without thinking.
-Fate is….
“…will!”
Arti muttered something, his eyes gleaming from within the holy knights’ encirclement. The Sacred Sword planted in the ground was also emitting a light brighter than the noonday sun.
His eyes blazing, he shouted.
[Sacred Sword Manifestation—!]
And….
In the middle of the training ground,
a massive explosion erupted.
It was powerful enough to make the ground tremble slightly.
KABOOM—!
A thick cloud of dust swallowed everything.
The holy knights were swallowed by the dust storm. In its midst, the boy drew his sword and rose to his feet.
Even his figure was hidden by the surging cloud of dust.
“!”
The holy knights panicked when their vision through the narrow slits in their helmets went dark. Dust kicked up by the explosion had clung to the slits.
“Gah?!”
“Damn, I can’t see…!”
“What was that explosion?!”
As they panicked,
light flashed again.
Aria could see it.
Through the cloud of dust, the Sacred Sword’s blinding light—and the boy’s shadow as he struck the helmet of a holy knight who was panicking because he couldn’t see.
She could see flashes of light appearing one after another.
Thung—!
The sound of a helmet being struck rang out again.
It was like thunder rumbling through storm clouds.
Thung—!
Arti moved like lightning through the storm clouds he’d summoned himself. Every time the light flashed, his shadow loomed grandly.
There was no resignation in the sight.
“…Hero!”
He was still fighting.
*
“Cough…!”
Arti emerged from the cloud of dust, battered from head to toe. His body swayed repeatedly, and he was covered in dust and sweat, looking a complete mess.
But no one could laugh at him.
When the dust cloud cleared,
five holy knights stood frozen in place.
Only three holy knights remained.
They regrouped, uttering low groans.
“…This can’t be.”
“So this is the Hero of the Sacred Sword.”
The spectators fell silent.
The academy cadets shuddered.
They were simply overwhelmed.
In a fight where merely holding out had seemed miraculous, he had taken down no fewer than seven. No one could watch Arti in that state and laugh at him.
“….”
“….”
“….”
The boy looked miserable.
But at that moment, he seemed more like a Hero than anyone else.
He had faced the brutal trial prepared by the Theocracy.
And overcome it more proudly than anyone could have.
Blood streamed from Arti’s head, and he gasped for breath as he shouted in a hoarse voice.
“I will prove it…!”
“!”
“!”
“!”
He had already proved that he was a Hero.
*
Actually….
There was something else Arti wanted to say.
“….”
‘I want to prove that I’m someone who deserves to be by the Saintess’s side….’
That one thought had kept him going.
That one feeling had made him fight.
That was why he was still standing.
“…I still have a long way to go, though.”
The three remaining holy knights cautiously approached Arti. They were wary that he might unleash another Sacred Sword attack like the one that had raised the cloud of dust.
Watching them, Arti let out a quiet laugh.
‘I can’t use it on people. It’d definitely kill them instantly.’
Besides,
he was completely out of strength now.
He’d only barely managed to hold on as it was.
The tip of the Sacred Sword Danan in Arti’s hand was trembling.
It felt like his grip might give out at any moment, but the mental strength he’d built through training with Lydia was keeping him on his feet.
“…Phew.”
What now?
He felt like he’d collapse if anyone so much as tapped him.
‘I couldn’t see much myself in the dust cloud, so I ran around blindly and used up too much strength….’
If Lydia had seen that,
she would have sternly scolded him for his disgraceful performance.
The three holy knights had come within arm’s reach. They raised their swords and gauged the right moment to subdue Arti.
“….”
“….”
“….”
At that moment.
A brisk round of applause rang out.
Clap, clap, clap!
Arti glanced toward the sound.
“!”
The Inquisitor.
Raul was walking toward him at ease.
“Remarkable…. So this is the determination of a Hero candidate. I can’t help but admire you. I thought it would be a miracle if you lasted even ten minutes. Forgive me for underestimating you, even for a moment.”
“…?”
“Unfortunately, it seems there are no more holy knights here capable of withstanding an attack from such a powerful Hero.”
“What?”
“As a representative of the Holy Theocracy and one of the chief examiners for this test, I recognize you as having passed. There’s only one minute left, as it happens.”
“….”
As soon as he declared Arti had passed,
the spectators truly erupted in cheers.
It was a roar too great to put into words.
“—!!”
He had passed the first test.
Only two tests remained.
But Arti felt uneasy.
‘That makes no sense… He must have known I didn’t have the strength to face the remaining three.’
It felt as if he’d been given the victory as charity.
Something,
something about it….
Made him wonder if this was all he’d fought for.
“….”
Arti looked at his gauntlet.
He no longer felt the strangeness of the gauntlet, soaked with blood and sweat. But he felt empty.
Someone tapped him on the shoulder.
A very sturdy, broad hand.
Tap!
“!”
Arti looked up.
He saw Instructor Zach in battered black armor. He wasn’t wearing his usual worn-out training clothes; instead, he looked dressed as he had been during the Northern Invasion War.
Arti couldn’t help thinking,
‘He’s usually a weird old man who yells at the top of his lungs, but today he really looks like a knight…. Though he’s an incredible master who’s reached the Ignition stage, after all.’
Instructor Zach spoke in a deep voice.
“Arti, don’t think the enemy gave you your victory as charity. There’s no such thing as a victory handed to you. There are only victories you seize for yourself.”
“!”
He’d seen right through Arti’s unease.
“That wretched holy knight just handed you the victory because he was afraid the Theocracy would lose the initiative. You could call it a last plea from the weak, not an act of strength.”
“…I see.”
“You seized victory as a warrior. So return to your seat with your head held high.”
“….”
Arti nodded.
“Yes!”
Instructor Zach nodded. Then he strode off after Raul, who had disappeared at some point.
Just before heading back, Arti looked toward the ornate chair where Aria had been sitting.
But Aria was no longer there.
“….”
Even so, he returned to the waiting room feeling more at ease than before. Lydia, Mave, and Morgan were waiting there.
Lydia spoke to Arti when he returned.
“Well done.”
“Thank you.”
At last, Arti felt the lingering unease completely fade away.