Chapter 107 - Fighting Fire with Fire (1)

At the edge of a cliff, the orc shaman Sherdik stroked his chin as he gazed up at the sky. The mysterious stones in his hand clattered together.

“Warriors.”

“Why! Have you called us!”

“Steel is calling us. Huh-heh-heh.”

Sherdik tossed the stones in his hand over the cliff.

“It seems our friend is in trouble. Quite fearsome trouble, at that. I ask you, warriors: who will venture out into the world to help our friend?”

At those words, every last orc gathered across the ground raised a thick hand. It was as though they had arranged it beforehand. With their hands raised, the orcs shouted.

“Orcs! Do not! Fear struggle!”

“Whether our foe! Is a dragon that rules the Sky Mountains!”

“Whether our foe! Is the Dragon King who rules the vast seas!”

“Or the emperor! Of an empire renowned across the continent!”

“Orcs will never back down!”

Their cries thundered. Listening to them, the orc shaman Sherdik laughed, “Huh-heh-heh.”

Amid his booming laughter, an orc of exceptional size stepped out from the gathering. Standing over three meters tall, this orc was more powerful than any elite orc warrior, with the imposing bearing of a formidable general. The surrounding orcs stirred at the movement.

“Sherijik is stepping forward for something like this?”

“Even her majestic stride is beautiful.”

“Look at those trapezius muscles. How can they be so sculpted?”

“Even the goddess of beauty would be jealous!”

Hers was a beauty no male orc could behold without falling in love! To orcs, who saw strength as beauty and charm, Sherijik was undoubtedly a beauty born once in a thousand years. As she stepped forward, the orc elder Sherdik cleared his throat.

“Sherijik! My daughter, do you intend to go as well?”

“Yes, I would like to go.”

Even her lovely silk garments could not conceal Sherijik’s muscles.

“You told me about him, Father. A warrior-like human you have your eye on as a husband for me. But aren’t you a spell-slinger? I cannot trust your judgment. So I shall see him with my own eyes and decide whether he is a man worthy of becoming my husband.”

The daughter of the orc shaman Sherdik. Unlike other orcs, Sherijik spoke with refinement, without so much as a snort. She truly was a woman beloved by every orc.

“Wise indeed! My daughter!”

“I know.”

The orcs called her a beauty born once in a thousand years. Put another way, that meant this.

“I hope he meets my standards.”

A true warrior born with the talent of a martial god, the likes of whom appeared once in a thousand years.

“I have never found anyone on this mountain who could satisfy me.”

The 「Green God of War」. Sherijik, the orc champion, descended the mountain.

* * *

The elderly guards stationed at the entrance to a backwater village in Verdi had to stand duty trembling with fear. There was only one reason: the tents that had recently appeared in a row at the village entrance. Those tents housed numerous knights, a mage, and even the second son of one of the Great Families.

“Ugh...”

News spread quickly in a backwater village. The elderly guards knew that two of their colleagues had recently been brutally murdered. They also knew that one had died after being slapped across the face until his final moments. These elderly guards were no heroes of myth. Until last year, they had been country folk who ran at the mere sight of a wild boar.

They had only applied because the call had gone out for brave people, regardless of experience. They were old enough to feel unafraid of death, the work was not difficult, and it let them serve their families. In truth, they wanted to flee. But these aged guards had nowhere to go.

They had lived on this land all their lives. They could barely write. They could not even read difficult words. The elderly guards knew nothing of swords.

What they knew was how to farm, or how to raise calves and piglets well. All they had learned was how to spread fertilizer and tell their young grandchildren absurd, entertaining stories of old. And so one of the elderly guards abandoned his watch, sank to the ground, and began to sob.

“Wh-why are you crying, you old fool?”

“I’m scared. So very scared. Aren’t you?”

“...”

“I thought I wasn’t afraid of death. I’ve lived to a ripe old age, after all. But now that it’s right before me, I’m so frightened. One kick from those knightly lords over there would kill me. They could grab me by the hair and slap me all day long, and I wouldn’t be able to fight back even once. I can feel it. That’s why I’m so scared.”

The elderly guard could not rebuke his weeping friend.

“It’s so wretched, not even being able to flee. I’ve lived here all my life. I can’t even think where I should run to. Wild beasts attacked our village at every opportunity, so I moved here, to the neighboring village they said was a decent place. That’s why I began working as a guard. But now these knightly lords, far more frightening than wild beasts, are threatening me.”

“... My friend.”

“I’m not the only one who doesn’t know how to flee. My wife, who has relied on me all her life, my sons and daughters, the dear grandsons and granddaughters they’ve given me—none of them know how to leave this land. Still, I told them to go. But my sons, my daughters, my grandchildren who’ve only just learned to walk, all said, ‘We cannot leave you behind, Father. We cannot leave you behind, Grandfather. Let’s live together. We’d rather die together.’”

“...”

“I’m grateful for those words, but they’re so pitiful. I wonder what my life has been for. The gods told us that if we were faithful to our families and lived without sin, a happy life would await us. That is how I lived. I lived with a clear conscience. So how can the world do this to us?”

Tears dripped from the eyes of the guard sitting on the ground.

“I never asked for much. Waking in the morning to eat a piece of bread, gathering the whole family in the evening to laugh and chatter over ridiculous jokes, singing at the top of our lungs and dancing whenever the village held a feast... That, that was all I wanted.”

The guard murmured as he wiped away his tears. Then the other guard standing beside him tapped his shoulder.

“N-now stop. Stop it.”

“What sin have I committed? Why do the heavens send us such trials? Are we not allowed even a little peace...?”

“G-get up, quickly. My friend, the lord is here.”

At his friend’s urgent words, the guard slowly raised his head. Through a haze of tears, he saw that the young lord was indeed standing before him. His physique was that of a man, but his face still retained a boyish look. The guard scrambled to his feet at the sight of him. The young lord did not reprimand him. Instead, he said,

“My father once said something to me.”

“M-my lord. I’m sor—”

“["I shall take it upon myself to set right this sinful world gone astray. I am a great knight who has inherited the blood of Caravan. I shall judge you. I am a great knight who has hunted an evil dragon, an ironblood guardian who protects the kingdom. I am a righteous watcher who has inherited the blood of Caravan."] Grand words of the sort you might find in a chivalric novel.”

“... Pardon?”

“My father suffered from madness. He identified himself with the protagonist of a novel, becoming a madman who could no longer distinguish fiction from reality. It was as though his head had become empty. He lost his sanity and began saying the most bizarre things.”

The young lord’s words made no sense to the guard. Looking at the bewildered man, the lord grinned.

“But I believe some of what my father said was true. He was neither a great knight who had hunted an evil dragon, nor an ironblood guardian who protected the kingdom, nor a righteous watcher.”

“...”

“Yet I do believe this world has gone astray.”

The young lord slowly drew his sword.

“And I believe someone must take it upon themselves to set right this sinful world gone astray.”

The lord said nothing more. With those weighty words, the young lord Arhan headed toward the tents housing the many knights. His steps were so confident and light that the elderly guards did not dare stop him. They could only watch him as he walked away.

One of the two elderly guards had a gleam in his eyes. In his long life, his only hobby had been reading books to his grandson, and he had read a great many for someone who had spent his entire life in the countryside. That was why he recognized the words the young lord had just recited. They were lines from a chivalric novel: The Knight of La Mancha. It was the elderly guard’s favorite novel.

To the guard, the young lord’s retreating figure as he approached the tents resembled a certain old knight from The Knight of La Mancha. Like La Mancha charging at a windmill.

* * *

I entered the tent. Inside, numerous knights were talking in groups. Some were playing cards, some were arm wrestling, and some were drinking wine. The moment I entered, every knight stopped what he was doing and drew his sword. Every knight here was a 「sword runner」.

“Coming here—have you gone mad?”

“No.”

“Then have you come to surrender?”

“Not that, either.”

“Then what?”

No one immediately launched a surprise attack. They stood still, watching me with their swords pointed at me. I did not look at them. Instead, I looked at a man reclining on a bed farther inside—a man swallowing a grape with a bored expression. Fixing my gaze on the man in shimmering, multicolored silk, I spoke.

“Edan Rhapsody.”

“Why do you call my name?”

“I challenge you to a duel.”

At my words, Edan Rhapsody snickered, then burst into hearty laughter. It was the first time he had shown any strong emotion after all his languid yawning and indifferent looks. After laughing for a good while, Edan Rhapsody looked at me, his lips still curved upward.

“What an amusing fellow. Very well, I’ll gladly oblige. Shall I impose a handicap on myself? Shall I use only one hand, without taking a single step from where I stand? Or I could even wear a blindfold.”

After hearing him out, I answered. “I don’t care what kind of duel it is. You needn’t accept any handicap.”

A swordsman considered a successor to a swordmaster. A formidable talent on whom one of the Five Great Families pinned its hopes. An unrestricted duel against such a man was practically suicide. But I had no desire to die.

“I do have one condition, though.”

After thinking as hard as I could, this was the only way forward I had found.

“Bring me your young master, who lied when he claimed I dishonored him. I’ll say it again. I have never dishonored your young master.”

Shutting myself away to train for ten days would not let me spread my wings. Even if I did spread them, I would have no chance of victory if their army arrived ten days from now. So I decided the answer was not to sit there racking my brains and agonizing, but to go out and fight.

“I’ll say this again, too. I have never brutally murdered your loyal retainer. I have committed no crime for which I must answer.”

Crossing swords was not the only way to fight a battle. Every clash in the world was a battle.

“So bring Rhapsody’s young master before me.”

This, too, was a battle.

“And tell him to look me squarely in the face and say it again. Do you understand?”

After hearing everything I had to say, Rhapsody’s second son slowly rose. He was no longer reclining like an idler. Nor was he yawning anymore.

“Paltry fighter, have you finished delivering your message?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. In ten days, when our army arrives, Toma will come with them.”

At the words of Rhapsody’s second son, Edan Rhapsody, a knight cried out.

“Young master! What do you—”

“In return.”

The knight never finished his sentence. A quiet yet overwhelming voice commanded the tent.

“You will not die an easy death, paltry fighter.”

A terrifying voice. Those words were like a death sentence.

After hearing them, I turned without answering and walked straight out of the tent. As their stinging gazes followed me, Liam spoke.

「It really did turn out just as you said.」

I nodded at my master’s words, then answered. “Now all we need to do is wait.”

In ten days, everything would be turned around.