Chapter 25

Chapter 25. A Chance Encounter on the Journey (1)

We had been attacked by monsters on the outskirts of the forest that marked the border with the neighboring territory.

"Damn it, it’s a mid-grade monster!"

"Urgh! It’s heading that way!"

"Fall back! The knights will handle it!"

"Do not show off when you cannot even use mana!"

As the soldiers received the monsters’ attacks on their shields, the knights rushed forward and shouted.

Bang! Bang!

A series of crashing, exploding sounds followed.

Simon and I hurriedly climbed down from the carriage as well. We both widened our eyes at the scene spread out before us.

"This is your first time seeing something like that, is it not, young masters?"

The Head Steward, who had stepped down after us, asked.

"That is a monster?"

Simon frowned as he looked at the things fighting the knights.

I could not help frowning either.

'A wild dog... no, is it a wolf?'

It was as large as a small car, so it was difficult to call it either a wild dog or a wolf, but its appearance strongly resembled a wolf.

If it had been intact, I might simply have thought it was an unusually large wolf.

But the two monsters fighting the knights now truly deserved to be called monsters.

Their skin had been peeled away by half. Beneath it, dark red blood clung to the exposed muscles like muddy tar.

In places such as the head and chest, even the muscles had been torn open, exposing the bone underneath.

They looked remarkably similar to the zombie dogs I had seen in games.

Only several times larger.

'How is it alive... no, how is it moving?'

In some places, it seemed to be moving with nothing but bone holding it together.

It looked as though even crawling would be difficult, yet the monsters were rampaging wildly against the knights.

"Undead Wolves! Form up for beast-type undead engagement!"

Senior Knight Ugo shouted to the other knights, and as they continued fighting the monsters, they quickly shifted their positions.

A moment later, the monsters called Undead Wolves were trapped inside a circular formation created by the knights.

So those were undead monsters? The book that had explained monsters had not been a picture book, so I had never imagined they would look like this.

I had expected something with a bit of pus, perhaps a frightening-looking mutant.

But gigantic zombie dogs? These were full-fledged fantasy monsters.

At this rate, skeletons might really be nothing but bare bones left behind!

While I was imagining a legion of skeletons holding swords and breathing black smoke from their mouths, Brother Simon stepped forward.

He already had his sword in hand.

"Are you going to take part?"

At the Knight Commander’s question from where he stood watching behind us, Brother Simon nodded.

"It is a chance to face a monster. I cannot let it pass."

The Knight Commander hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"Understood. Even so, please be careful."

Then he shouted toward the front.

"Young Master Simon will take the one on the left! Adjust the formation!"

"Understood."

Senior Knight Ugo answered on behalf of the others.

At Ugo’s command, the formation began to change.

The monsters continued to thrash about, but the distance between them gradually widened until each one was trapped in a separate encirclement.

Five knights surrounded each monster, and Simon stepped inside the encirclement on the left.

"Will he be all right?"

Standing beside the Knight Commander, I had no choice but to ask.

The knights were fighting well while maintaining the encirclement, but they were not inflicting serious wounds on the monsters.

The swords the knights swung cut the monsters’ skin and wounded their muscles, but no more blood came from the already hardened flesh, and the monsters’ movements did not slow in the slightest.

These were knights who could cut through even thick trees in a single blow, yet they were unable to sever rotting-looking muscle and bone.

'Ah, come to think of it, when the soldiers swung their spears earlier, they did not even leave wounds, did they?'

Brother Simon was going to face such a creature. The other knights would assist him, but it still seemed terribly dangerous...

The Knight Commander answered my question.

"Shall I call it good fortune? They are mid-grade monsters that are rarely encountered, but it will be all right. Did you perhaps not hear it from Miguel?"

"Hear what?"

"Tch."

The Knight Commander clicked his tongue softly. It seemed Miguel had left something out.

My condolences to Miguel, who was certain to be scolded later...

"Then watch now. Watch why the nobility rules this world."

Was it my imagination that I could hear anger and sorrow in that blunt tone?

I checked the Knight Commander’s expression, but his face revealed nothing.

Simon stood before the half-rotted giant wolf and raised his sword.

The monster, which had been clashing against the other knights, turned to look at Simon.

Kraaaang!

The wolf opened its skeletal jaws and growled as though it were alive.

Then it lunged at Simon.

Fwaaash.

At that moment, Simon’s sword shone. A soft sky-blue light. He had coated the blade in mana.

But the knights had likewise been fighting with mana wrapped around their swords.

Perhaps that was why they had been able to wound the monsters more deeply than the soldiers, yet even then, they had not managed to deal a fatal blow...

Simon, however, did not look frightened at all.

His face was full of confidence, utterly unlike the expression I had seen before I died.

Neither the Knight Commander nor the other knights looked worried either.

The wolf charged at Simon with its maw stretched wide, and Simon swung his sword at the Undead Wolf.

'Watch out!'

Simon vanished beneath the wolf the size of a small car. His head was buried in the wolf’s head so completely that I could not even see it.

Slash!

But the next moment, the wolf’s head tilted strangely and fell to the side.

Its body remained standing, and only its head dropped away. Rotten blood wriggled up from the severed neck, but immediately hardened.

Thud!

A heartbeat later, the headless body of the Undead Wolf collapsed in the opposite direction.

Good heavens. That was a result I had never expected.

He was that strong? The sword had not looked special at all. At that level, it felt as though he could easily defeat several knights.

And yet neither the Simon I had seen in my previous life, nor the Simon who had just slain the monster, had ever looked that strong.

I simply could not understand it. I had no choice but to ask the Knight Commander.

Unlike before, he explained in detail.

"The inherited abilities possessed by the nobility are the abilities passed down from the Heroes who slew the Demon King during the Great War. Now the blood has thinned, so the power has weakened and only fragments are inherited, but it remains fatal to the demon race and monsters that served under the Demon King."

I had thought of Heroes as something like people with various superpowers, like heroes from comic books...

But in truth, were Heroes weapons specially made to kill Demon Kings and the demon race?

"Even now that the Demon King and the demon race are gone, they are still more than effective against the monsters that remain. Even I, who inherited only the tiniest trace of that blood, was able to become the Knight Commander because of it."

A faint sense of self-loathing slipped through his blunt words.

"His Grace and Young Master Simon both possess the mana circulation art of our kingdom’s founder, Sir Carlos the Hero. It is an excellent circulation art even when facing people, but against monsters, it displays several times its normal power."

So that was why he had been able to take its head in a single strike?

Simon was still standing before the monster. It seemed the excitement of his first hunt had not yet faded.

Standing before the fallen creature with his shining sword in hand, Simon looked rather impressive.

Unfortunately, there were no young girls here to cheer for him.

While Simon was busy striking a pose, the other monster was slowly being finished off as well.

As I watched the other fight, the Knight Commander asked:

"Would you like to try fighting too, Master Alex?"

Looking at the monster, which had already lost one of its legs, I shook my head.

"I cannot even handle mana properly. Besides, it looks as though it will be finished soon anyway."

At my answer, the Knight Commander nodded with a satisfied expression.

As expected, there had been a trap hidden in that question.

He had been testing whether I knew my place, and whether I remembered his instruction to keep things hidden from Simon.

To be honest, I was curious whether my mana would work against it, but there was no need to interfere here for no reason.

Bang!

It was then.

Something flew out of the forest.

A half-decayed wolf. Another Undead Wolf.

The wolf was flying straight toward Simon, who stood there blankly.

An undead creature being hurled like a cannonball.

It was absurd, but I hastily threw my sword.

Whirrr!

Thanks to the spin I gave it, the sword did not stab into the undead. Instead, the flat of the blade struck its body.

Thunk!

Was it because I had managed to load it with mana in time? The undead that had been struck by the flat of the blade was knocked slightly off course.

In my previous life, such a thing would have been impossible, but with mana, it was entirely possible.

Thank heavens for mana.

"Gah!"

As the undead swept past him, Simon recoiled in shock.

The impressive image he had been cultivating collapsed in an instant. It was truly fortunate that there were no young girls here.

Thud.

The Knight Commander had already rushed forward. He swung his sword at the wolf rolling across the ground.

Crack!

With the sound of something being thoroughly smashed, the wolf’s head exploded.

"Whoa!"

I stared with my mouth hanging open in astonishment.

No, wait. He had just said it was only the tiniest trace of the bloodline!

Simon’s eyes were wide as well. He seemed just as shocked.

If that was only a tiny trace, then was Simon actually the weak one here?

While I was entertaining such suspicions, the Knight Commander himself was tilting his head in puzzlement.

He examined the monster with its shattered skull, then frowned.

"It had already been dead..."

What was that supposed to mean? If it was undead, then of course it had already been dead.

Perhaps he had seen my expression. He explained again.

"My sword could not have smashed it like this. It was already broken before it flew over here."

At his words, I looked in the direction the undead had come from.

A sturdy young man was standing among the trees. He had a neatly arranged face that seemed oddly refined for his build.

He wore leather armor, and in one hand he held a massive greatsword.

A mercenary?

He scratched his head with an apologetic expression.

"My apologies. I did not expect it to fly that far."

The Knight Commander strode forward and stopped in front of me.

"Are you a noble?"

That was the first thing he asked.

The man was strong enough to kill and send flying a mid-grade monster that even a knight had difficulty facing alone. Or perhaps it had gone flying while he was in the process of killing it?

In any case, a man of that level could not possibly be an ordinary mercenary.

"I am a noble, but... I was driven out of my family. Since I have no land and no family now, you may as well think of me as a commoner."

What was that supposed to mean? If he was a noble, then he was a noble. How could being driven out of his family make him a commoner?

I did not understand what he meant, but the Knight Commander clearly did.

The Knight Commander glanced at me, then looked back at the man.

"Could it be... that you are an illegitimate son?"

"Yes! Which is why I am hardly any different from a commoner."

Ah, so that was it?

An illegitimate son. I had not expected to meet someone in the same situation as me.

"Hmph!"

While we were talking, Simon, apparently angered that he had been startled, climbed back into the carriage.

Since the man had already apologized, even Simon found it difficult to vent his temper.

"Ah, the young master seems very upset. Should I apologize again?"

"It is fine."

The Knight Commander shook his head at the man’s question.

"That is a relief. I thought the young master had been crushed under it, so I panicked. He looks young, but he is truly impressive."

He looked at me as he praised me.

"Thanks to you, I am alive too. I was so frightened that I was already preparing to run for it."

If I had not been there, would Simon have been flattened by that dead monster while this man fled as fast as he could?

As I had felt before, the way things were changing because of me was incredibly fascinating.

By then, the other monster had been dealt with as well.

After all four of its legs had been severed, its head had been split and chopped apart several times like firewood.

"By the way, where are you heading?"

I looked at the Knight Commander. Was that something we could tell him?

"We are heading to the Marquess of Hierro’s House."

Apparently it was. At the Knight Commander’s answer, the man’s face lit up.

It was such a bright expression that a creeping unease rose inside me. What was this?

"Ah, then could I travel with you?"

He continued in a truly delighted voice.

"I may have been cast out, but the Marquess of Hierro’s House is my home as well."