When the sky was being illuminated by dawn, just when we were so close to reaching Acken, the carriage was blocking the road while leaning towards one side.
“As expected, it was impossible.”
Kail says with a bitter voice, while looking at the broken wheel of the carriage.
It must have been damaged when we were breaking through, rather, it can be said that it did a good job holding up until now.
It was fortunate that there were no grave injuries, but the carriage had completely broken down.
“This is a lost cause, it’s not as if it can’t be repaired, but it would take some time.”
Seran said while looking at the carriage, looking as if he had given up, because they didn’t have that kind of time.
“If it’s like this, then there’s no other choice than to abandon the carriage…… We will have to let Mirena-sama and the maids each ride a Sleipnir, while we go on foot with Urza’s magic
【Windwalker】and get there as soon as possible.
Since we’ve come this far, we should keep going onwards towards Acken, but of course our speed has dropped considerably compared to before.
And the second knight squad in the back is a problem.
With the assault of magic stones, most of them must have been neutralized, but it wasn’t as if we were aiming to kill them, so most of them shouldn’t have any grave injuries.
Right now the ones that can do battle will probably follow us, with the anger and desperation of a dying person.
And the worst scenario would be that they attacked us from behind, while we’re being ambushed by a group ahead of us.
Since the enemies’ objective is princess Mirena’s life, who has currently lost the protection of the carriage, she’ll be targeted immediately if we were to engage in close quarters combat.
“Everything but that, as long as it doesn’t become a pincer attack…..”
There wasn’t any time to think about it leisurely, Kail immediately made his decision.
“There is a need to stop the enemy that is coming after us. In other words, someone has to stay behind and stall for time. And since the first priority is to protect the princess…… only one of us can stay behind.”
It was said with enough will and determination that nobody objected to it.
“Could it be, Kail you will……”
Urza’s face became pale when she looked at Kail’s.
The same scheme as before won’t work on the knights coming after us, so they will come to kill us with all their power.
To stop all of them on his own would mean…
Urza tells him it’s too difficult for him, but Kail just smiled gently while saying ‘don’t worry about it’.
“In other words good luck.”
Kail hit Seran’s shoulder with a ‘pom’ sound.
“……..Eh?”
Seran, whose shoulder was hit, let out a sound while being stupefied.
“It’s like that right, it truly is a job that fits Seran greatly.”
Lize agrees with him.
“Eh?’
“Alright, we can’t stand here forever. We should hurry and start moving out.”
When Kail gives out orders while taking care of the braces around the Sleipnirs, the maids and Lize snappily begin to move.
“Listen when someone is talking! What, so you’re telling me to duke it out with eighty Imperial knights on my own!?”
“No. most of the enemy have been neutralized and most of their horses were crushed.”
[Yeah, I just confirmed it, but the followers still consist of thirty of them.]
Sildonia explained.
“Ha, that’s a relief….. rather, aren’t those thirty bloodthirsty, angered, Imperial knights!”
“Sorry, but we don’t have any more time to waste talking like this. Since they’re probably close to us already.”
Kail grabs both of Seran’s shoulders from the front and looks him in the eye.
“Rest assured, if you were to die I will tell master that you died fighting bravely. Is there anything you want me to pass on to her?”
“I don’t have any words left for that old hag!”
While we were saying that, the maids had already finished their preparations, together with the princess, they were all on the Sleipnirs.
“Alright let’s move out. Urza please cast【Wind Walker】on everyone.”
“Eh, ah……. no, but…….”
Urza looked at Seran with a face that seemed at a loss for words.
“Quickly! We don’t know when they’ll catch up to us!”
“U-Understood!”
When Urza ordered the spirit of wind Sylphid, Kail and the others had a wind vortex cast around their legs.
“Alright let’s go! Seran I’m leaving this place to you.”
“Good luck!”
In the end Kail and Lize gave a thumbs up toward Seran and left.
Urza and princess Mirena together with the maids looked back at Seran a few times until they could no longer see him.
“…… They really left me behind. What kind of bastards are they.”
Seran looked at where Kail and the others disappeared and sighed, he couldn’t stay like that, so he moved into action.
Looking around the highway he found a long dexterous branch and cut it down, from his backpack he took out his sleeping bag and cut a square cloth from it and tied it to his branch.
What he had made was the sign of peace in all ages, a white flag.
“And that’s that……. wait, they’ve already come?”
From the highway, that goes to the village of Sanes, neighing horses could be heard.
Just as Kail said, they were just in time to escape.
Seran went up the carriage that lay on its side, and waved the flag in a way he would stand out.
“I surrender! I don’t have any will to fight! I shall answer any questions you have, so at least spare my life!”
He screamed it out as if he were singing.
“Stop!”
Even though he drank some magic medicine that healed him, the vice-captain still had a slight pain over his whole body, but he still gave his order.
After that bombardment of magic stones, they scraped together what horses they could find and resumed the pursuit after treating minor injuries.
“Everyone, dismount and proceed with caution!”
Since they didn’t want to get bombarded by more magic stones, they got off their horses and spread out, or else they wouldn’t be able to continue their pursuit.
Originally, against such an opponent they should proceed with more caution, but they didn’t have time to waste in the first place.
If the fifth platoon were to arrive, then the royal mission by his majesty would have become a failure.
Since he wouldn’t be able to use magic stones in close range, they all proceeded slowly while staying in formation.
“I’m sorry! All the things until now were all because of that idiot Kail, I was only dragged into all of this! Please forgive me!”
Seran who was waving his white flag from above the flipped over carriage, had jumped off and was now welcoming the approaching knights with a prostration.
Including the vice-captain the surrounding knights became slightly confused.
When they found the carriage they expected a fight, but it was outside of their expectations that the enemy would be alone and prostrate himself before them without any will to fight.
According to their orders they were supposed to kill everyone involved in this incident, originally they would just cut him down if he were to attack first, but they couldn’t do that when he possessed Intel about the Princess.
Foremost, the carriage was capsized in front of them, even though the chance is small, they still had to check whether the Princess was there or not.
“Please allow me to explain the current situation! As you can see here, the carriage’s wheel broke down and it flipped over. In order to get the princess and the others away they are now riding the Sleipnirs.”
Seran told everything, before he was even asked.
“Those guys treated me like a disposable pawn! That evil bastard Kail, he told me to hold back you sirs of the Imperial knights…… there is no way I would be able to do that! Right! Ah, please rest assured, we have already used up our magic stones, they also don’t have the carriage anymore, so it’s only natural you’ll be able to win with these numbers! Good luck to you all!”
They didn’t believe his claim, there was no change to the knights sharp gaze filled with killing intent.
Seran was becoming teary eyed.
“Wa-wa-wa….. Uhm well….. Ah, I got it! I have some nice information! They have a mountain of gold, here look at this!”
What Seran took out was a leather bag, it made a jingling sound when he emptied it, what came out were Zars gold coins, jeweled rings, they were all spilled out.
The price of it all could easily surpass a hundred thousand Gador, as expected, even the Imperial knights had foregone their wits and their expressions had become excited.
“We found these in an ancient ruin. Do you know of it? It’s the legendary labyrinth of the Sangurd mountain range! Because of that we were able to ready that large amount of magic stones!”
Hook, line, and sinker! Was everything Seran could think about.
“I know where it is! I will spill everything about it so please spare my life!”
Seran was prostrating on the ground while in tears.
When the vice-captain saw that he sighed and clicked his tongue.
“That’s enough! Someone confirm the interior of the carriage, after that, resume the hunt. This man….. eliminate him.”
The vice-captain thought that he couldn’t waste any more time and ordered his men, his men moved out exactly as he ordered them to.
The knights that were close to the carriage checked the interior with their swords drawn.
And a knight that was close to Seran had his sword unsheathed and closed in that way.
“Ee~e~ek!?”
Eliminate, together with those words and the knight with the unsheathed sword that closed in, Seran screamed out like a frog that was dying.
While looking around him in a panic, when his eyes crossed with one of the knights he crawled to him still on his knees and clinged onto his leg.
“I don’t wanna die! Please I beg of you! I would do anything, so please help me!”
Having a face covered in tears and snot.
The knight that was clung to by Seran looked at him with eyes of annoyance and a bit of pity.
And he grasped his sheathed sword.
“Hey, is it really alright!”
Urza who was worriedly looking back and said to Kail as if she couldn’t hold back any longer.
“What do you mean with ‘is it alright’?”
“I’m talking about Seran! Is it really alright like that!?”
Ah…… There was no other choice, even I don’t want to die you know. Since our lives our valuable.”
“Wha!?”
To Kail’s words Urza becomes angered.
“I have understood that he was a disposable pawn…… however I don’t think he can buy us that much time.”
Princess Mirena asks worriedly from the back of the Sleipnir.
Rather than that, she was probably more worried that he would spill everything about us.
“Ah, it’s alright. There is absolutely no need for worry.”
Lize says with a smile toward princess Mirena.
“However…”
“Lize why are you also being so calm! Aren’t you guys childhood friends!”
Urza asks the same to Lize.
“Eh?….. Ah, I see. Urza didn’t know did she.”
‘So that is why she didn’t get it’, Lize says as if she understood what went wrong.
“I don’t know? What are you talking about?”
“Well you know….. not even needing to be compared to me, Seran is many times stronger than even Kail.
The knight was going to cut down the pathetic man who he was looking down on, but he heard a faint sound of falling metal.
When he looked at what it was, he saw something metal had fallen down near his feet.
It was a something known as 『The bracelet of restraint』,【Gravity】magic was used on it, making the body’s gravity increase five-fold, it’s usually used to make sure criminals don’t escape, and if a normal person were to wear it, even walking would have become the most he could do.
So why is something like that here? The moment he thought that, his world was shaking greatly.
“Sorry, but you’re the most skilled one among these guys right? Then I’ll have to erase you first.
The second he heard that voice, the ground and air had swapped places in an instant, that was the last sight the knight saw and in the end he never noticed that his head was removed from his body.
The surrounding knights who saw that instantly froze up. To this illogical scene, their brains couldn’t keep up with what happened.
That small pathetic man who was begging for his life, with a speed that can be called godspeed, he cut off their companion’s head, they couldn’t keep up with that.
Many of them had lowered their guard and sheathed their swords, to the simple scene they were seeing just now, the gap was too great, making the veterans of the Imperial guard react an instant too slow.
And that instant was enough for Seran.
Seran ran off, that speed was truly like a gale.
He aimed at the knights walking towards the carriage, who didn’t notice what happened since their backs were turned, slipping close to them, he swung his sword.
All of Seran’s slashes were aimed at the vital points, the head, the neck, the heart……. places that would instantly kill humans, he pierced and slashed them all with terrifying speed and precision.
After killing six of them, all of the other knights finally noticed what was happening, but at the same time Seran leapt as if he had grown wings.
So high that it could be said he was flying, going for the knights who would be the most bothersome, his aim was the vice-captain who was giving out orders from the rear near the horses.
However, rather than a slash, he gave a flying kick towards the chest area.
Seran, who landed quickly, stomped the vice-captain who was blown away flashily and held his sword at the vice-captain’s throat.
“Nobody move!!”
Like the fierce roar of a tiger, it was a large voice filled with fighting spirit.
It was a voice that would make common civilians faint from just hearing it.
Naturally the knights didn’t lose consciousness, but the attacking movements stopped after seeing the vice-captain being pinned down with a sword against his throat.
Seran didn’t think he would be able to have them disarmed by just holding their vice-captain hostage.
Once more, he just wanted the movements of the knights to freeze just once more.
What Seran took out of his pocket were magic stones, of course it was a lie when he said they used them up.
And it was thrown in the center of the horses.
Most of the horses were blown away and injured because of the explosions, the other uninjured horses ran into the forest.
The knights wanted to capture the horses immediately, but Seran still had his sword at the vice-captain’s throat, so they couldn’t move, like this, the knights lost the horses.
At that time, the first Imperial knight’s body, whose head was cut off and bleeding like a fountain, as if finally noticing his own death slowly fell to the ground.
“With this, you’ve lost your horses.”
Seran said with a fearless smile.
Looking at Seran, the knights were looking at him in fear, as if they had met an unknown organism on the road.
“Even so, I was really lucky, I didn’t think I’d be able to cut down eight of them in the first attack. Or was it that my acting was too good?”
A clear provocation, but that just added to the eerie feeling around Seran.
And Seran resumed his attack before the knights could regain their spirits.
When he kicks the vice-captain from under his foot, he flew to the first knight as if he were a mere pebble and not a fully armored man.
Should he treat the heavily injured vice-captain or should he let him go, the instant he was thinking about it, truly in an instant, Seran put his sword through the face of that knight.
“He is…… strong? And even more so than Kail-sama?”
Seran is stronger than Kail, the one who had beat a Hydra who is stronger than a lower dragon, on his own made princess Mirena confused.
“It’s not like that, the me right now…… if I use body strengthening magic then I’ll be close to fighting evenly with him.”
To Lize’s statement, that Seran was stronger than him, Kail said in retort with a grumpy voice.
“Seriously!? Evenly with Seran!? Kail when did you become that strong?”
Lize said it as if she were truly surprised.
“Ah, but if it were to become a fight then he’ll know that and won’t let you use any magic…… it’ll probably become a one-sided harsh battle.”
At the words of Lize’s imagination Kail’s face immediately made an unpleasant face.
“P-Please wait a second! Just what are the two of you saying?”
Urza said as if she couldn’t understand what they said.
“….. When did we ever say he was weak? Certainly with the sword he is stronger than me.”
Not that I want to admit it, or so Kail says.
“Certainly Seran doesn’t have any talent when it comes to magic, his personality is rotten from the core itself. But when it comes to the sword he’s a genius, no, such a word can’t even describe it, that’s just how much talent he has. And he trains at it with all his effort. If it’s just the sword, then he has talent that far surpasses my own.”
Kail was told by his sword master Leila that he was a genius with the sword that appears once every hundred years.
And her own son was a genius once every thousand years, no, his genius surpassed even those, and he would be an unprecedented genius that shall never be surpassed in the future years to come.
[Just why do I have to teach a brat with enough talent who will surpass me in a few years. How stupid.]
While grieving that it was the worst, she forced Seran to learn the sword against his will.
“He has times when he suddenly disappears or says he’s going somewhere alone right, most of those times he’ll be practicing with the sword on his own. When it comes to other things he’s pretty much a lost cause, but he’s relatively serious when it comes to the sword.”
“Well it certainly is so. But in return he lost a lot of things that are important to a human.”
The two childhood friends made expressions that would make you think whether they were praising him or badmouthing him.
In a sword fight, including his previous life, he never won against Seran even once.
Leaving aside Seran from the time with the demon lord for now, if it’s the Seran of right now, then with magic strengthening he would be even, and if Kail used his trump card, then it would be his win.
But if it were a fight with only the sword, then at the moment he wouldn’t even come close, Kail was aware of the gap in strength.
Also Seran’s strength, actually his annoying point isn’t only the sword.
It was the personality that would use any means necessary, since he didn’t have any pride in the first place, he won’t hesitate to use any cowardly or despicable methods.
That is because he knows it’s efficient.
“But……. he didn’t show anything close to what you say. If he has that much power, then why does he act like that normally?”
It seems Urza still isn’t convinced, as expected.
“…… If anybody sees the usual Seran, then who do you think would put his guard up?”
To Kail’s words Urza felt a cold chill along her back as if someone had dropped ice cubes on it.
“Impossible…… could it be the way Seran normally behaves….. are you trying to say it was all just an act?”
No matter who it is, if they met someone with that attitude for the first time, then they would underestimate him.
Actually I underestimated him too, even though I travelled with him for some time, I couldn’t see his true ability.
And if it were to become a fight, then they would be instantly killed, if he takes that attitude for such a reason then…..
As if there was something near her, fear came over Urza.
“No half of it is his original personality, at most, the other half would be acting.
“I also thought it was half in the past, but recently I’m thinking nine tenths of him is actually like that.”
“…..Certainly. As expected, he was just born with that kind of personality.”
“Ah, so it’s like that. I’m relieved.”
Urza who became a little relieved, let out a sigh.
Kail looks back, and thinks about the fight that should be happening right about now.
“Most of the Imperial knights are just following their orders. If it was possible I didn’t want to let them die…..”
If there are thirty Imperial knights, then Seran can’t hold back.
And he won’t show any mercy to an enemy that came at him with killing intent.