Book 4: Chapter Sixth Tactic of Slaying a Dragon: “Defeat Enemies Along the Way”
Book 4: Chapter Sixth Tactic of Slaying a Dragon: “Defeat Enemies Along the Way”
After applying the Wings of God spell onto myself, I pushed myself to sprint for half an hour before I found the rest of the party.
I thought they would be further away, but they were actually surprisingly close by… This nearly made me burst into a cold sweat all over. If I had exchanged words with Ecilan for a second longer, they might have already caught up with me.
However, as I neared their location, I realized that they were taking a break. The campfire looked like it had been burning for quite a while already.
If they’ve already gotten so close to me, why didn’t they continue to chase me?
Although my heart was filled with suspicion, I cast Light Shield over myself, and then I tried to stay vigilant so that I could prepare to run at any moment.
Contrary to my expectations, no one was anything like the “graceful, handsome, and formidable holy knights” from Sybil’s continuous chants. Instead, all of them were lying around on the ground in a disorderly fashion; leaning on branches, directly sleeping on the dirt, or simply using one of their companion’s calves as a pillow. Still, I guess anyone can tell from their postures that… they’re extremely tired.
All of the holy knights looked identical: dirty, tired, and sleeping like dead pigs. I couldn’t even tell apart Blaze Knight from the rest of them!
Also, they haven’t even assigned a single holy knight to keep watch during the night!
Only Yuna and Sybil were still awake. The two of them sat in the center, amongst the holy knights who lay scattered like leaves on the ground. They did look slightly fatigued themselves, but when compared to the knights next to them, they appeared the most energetic.
Still, regardless of how energetic they may appear, it can’t be that the holy knights assigned two outsiders to be the lookouts while they sleep?
The scene before me had me in utter disbelief. If not for my concern for Sybil’s and Yuna’s lives, I would have just gathered a large amount of lightning element, sending down a few strikes of lightning. Even “a god walking on this earth” might ascend to heaven from such an act.
Upon walking a few steps closer, I noticed a thick stench of sweat drifting toward me. It was terribly sour and smelly, very similar to the smell of decaying food. It’s a wonder how Sybil and Yuna can still sit right in the middle of them like that.
At this moment, Sybil seemed to have noticed me. She looked bewildered and uncertain as she turned her head toward me, appearing hesitant about whether or not to make a sound. Despite her reaction, not a single person from the floor of holy knights noticed at all. On top of that, not one of them moved an inch.
As I walked out from under the tree, Sybil’s eyes widened. I quickly gestured with my hand to tell her to stay quiet, and I even dispelled the holy element shrouding my face. However, she continued frowning while looking at me, as if she didn’t recognize who I was. But why not? Clearly I’ve already dispelled the element covering my face…
All of a sudden, it came to me that Ecilan had persisted in making me put on a mask covering my whole face. Don’t tell me…
I removed the mask.
Sybil’s eyes suddenly widened again, and she let out a sigh of relief. She tugged at Yuna, who was sitting next to her, hinting at her to look in my direction. Yuna turned her gaze away from the fire. Once she faced me, she almost let out a shriek, even putting her hands over her mouth to cover the sound.
I can’t help but notice that when people look at me, they always turn their face toward me… No, that’s wrong! They use their “eyes” to look at me before they are able to notice me.
Why is it different from what I do? I don’t need to face anything at all, or even use my eyes, before I can see everything around me.
Is that why Ecilan said that I’m blind… I could not help but touch the area around my eyes. Is it true that I can’t “see” the things around me? Nevertheless, I am indeed able to see objects. It’s just that the method that I use is different from everyone else’s.
It’s different from everyone else’s… So, who exactly am I?
I hesitated, but I still retied the mask around my face. At the very least, it makes me feel at ease when nobody can see my face.
“Grisia.”
Sybil ran to my side and spoke softly, “What did you come here for?”
“Their pace in traveling is far too fast. They have almost caught up with me. Why haven’t you two delayed them?” I questioned her in return in the same low volume.
Sybil rolled her eyes and continued speaking softly, “You don’t know how fierce the Blaze Knight has been. When we said a bit more than we should have, he shouted that he would abandon Yuna and me by the road, but we persistently begged him not to leave us behind. Even the excuse that a necromancer was after our lives was of no use…”
“So did he abandon you two?”
Sybil stared with wide eyes after hearing what I said. She responded matter-of-factly, “Of course not.”
I let out a snort and said, ”If he had wanted to abandon you, he would have long done so. Why even shout that? Basically, his tongue is sharp but his heart is soft…”
“What would you know?” Sybil unhappily retorted, “He really might have abandoned us! You didn’t see what he was like when he was shouting at us. He was really very vicious! It goes without saying that the Blaze Knight is the fiercest of all the Twelve Holy Knights.”
“I…”
I wanted to say that of course I knew, but I abruptly stopped speaking. Perhaps I am not that sure of it? I don’t know the Blaze Knight in the first place, so I wouldn’t know whether or not he would abandon the two of them. After all, he didn’t want to bring the two of them along in the first place, did he?
“So, you’ve finally taken the bait?”
I was taken aback. The moment I heard these words, the earth around me suddenly exploded, and a person emerged from the ground. The person’s fire and holy elements were much greater than that of all of the holy knights on the floor combined. I can’t believe I didn’t notice him… Ecilan’s store of holy element is alarmingly high; it’s a given that Blaze, who is also one of the Twelve Holy Knights just like him, would definitely possess a high amount of holy element unlike an ordinary holy knight!
And then I realized something else. The pile of knights scattered about the floor… there are only seven people!
The Blaze Knight held his giant sword against my neck, yet I ignored it completely as I faced Sybil and Yuna. Trying hard to suppress my trembling voice, I pretended to be calm and asked, “Why did you trick me?”
The two of them stared at me and began stuttering so much, they couldn’t even complete half a sentence properly.
They couldn’t possibly have been unaware of the Blaze Knight’s absence from the pile of knights on the ground… And yet they didn’t bother to warn me! They even played along with him!
Suddenly, the Blaze Knight let out a loud laugh and said, “Excellent, excellent! This is the first time someone has dared to completely ignore me! To express my respect for you, I’ll make sure that your trip to hell is painless.”
Upon hearing this, I turned my attention to the Blaze Knight and replied indifferently, “Sure, as long as you don’t mind the seven holy knights on the ground following me down as well.”
The Blaze Knight looked stunned for a moment from what I said. Then, he hurriedly screamed in response, “What did you say?!”
“Although they are pretending to sleep, the fatigue they’re feeling is indeed real and not faked.” I laughed coldly and said, “They’re so tired that they would only become aware of my presence after I’ve finished binding them with my chains of darkness, after I’ve directed the bones underground to pierce through their hearts!”
The Blaze Knight quickly turned around to look. Every single one of his holy knights was struggling incessantly on the ground, yet seemed unable to move or get up at all.
However, not even a hint of anxiousness appeared on his face. Instead, with rage spreading over every inch of his face, he bellowed at his own knights, “Hurry up and break free of those things! What do you think you’re doing? To actually be taken hostage… do you even know the meaning of the word ‘shame’?!”
One of the knights shouted back, “W-We’ve tried, but we can’t break free, Captain!”
Upon hearing this answer, the Blaze Knight stood in shock. At this moment, I slowly asked, “So, Chikus, how about letting me go now?”
He immediately turned his head to face me, asking in disbelief, “What did you call me?”
“Chains of Darkness!”
I roared these words. Densely packed black chains rapidly emerged around the Blaze Knight. They abruptly shrunk, forming the second human cocoon after the one I had made of Ecilan.
However, the Blaze Knight remained calm and composed, as if he wasn’t wrapped around by chains into a giant cocoon. He merely sneered and then taunted me, “Using dark magic to deal with one of the Twelve Holy Knights? You might as well use a torch to try and evaporate all of the water in the river!”
“Electrify!” I shouted as I executed the unique lightning magic of a unicorn. The lightning followed the densely packed chains of darkness in encircling the Blaze Knight.
“… Ugh!”
A strong and deadly electric current ran through the chains, but the Blaze Knight only let out a muffled groan, and subsequently emitted holy light in an attempt to melt away the dark element of the chains. However, as he tried to melt it, I would swiftly bind him with a new chain and give him a complimentary flow of strong electricity… After a few tries, he actually opened his mouth to speak. I suddenly felt like approving the phrase “a god walking on this earth” to describe him. This guy was not even close to being a normal human.
In a doubtful tone, he asked, “Such a strong dark element… Just who are you?!”
I couldn’t help but be affected by the question. I want to know the answer to that question more than anyone else!
However, I pretended to be at ease and asked, “Ecilan said that I’m the Sun Knight. Do you believe that?”
The Blaze Knight suddenly let out a violent burst of holy element. At once, the dark element I had been gathering was completely expelled. Fortunately, the chains tied around the other holy knights had not been dispelled. I still had hostages in my hands to threaten him with.
“Hmph!” He coldly replied, “Do you intend to spew another load of nonsense to divert my attention? Trying to subdue me, eh?”
Having said what he wanted, he suddenly bolted toward me. I stared blankly before I was able to react. When I wanted to use the hostages to threaten him, he had already stopped in his tracks, but was also already less than a meter away from me.
Startled, I quickly said, “Wait a second and don’t be rash! Don’t tell me you don’t care about your holy knights…”
“If you have the guts to do it, then kill them off!”
While roaring these words, he reached out his hand, forcefully grabbing my collar, and pulled my face to less than ten centimeters away from his. He spoke ferociously, “I don’t know how you subdued Ice, but it must have been with some kind of underhanded trick! If you think that I’m going to fight honorably like Ice does, giving you the chance to use underhanded tricks, you’ve got another thing coming! As long as I clobber you into pulp, damn it, I don’t care about anything else! You’re such a hindrance!”
Hindrance? I was confused for a bit before I blurted, “Oh right, aren’t you looking for the Sun Knight? But you see, Ecilan really did say that I’m the Sun Knight…”
“Shut up!” Blaze Knight looked like he was using all his might to shout. “You cannot possibly be Sun! It’s definitely not possible!”
Definitely not possible? So that’s how it is… I asked expressionlessly, “Okay, so if it’s definitely impossible for me to be the Sun Knight, is Ecilan lying to me?”
The Blaze Knight roared in rage, “You’re not allowed to defile Sun’s name any longer! Sun is definitely not a pile of trash like you! Never in his life would he hurt another holy knight! Never!”
After shouting, he raised his broadsword and slashed at me. A chain of darkness immediately wrapped around his hand, preventing him from laying down a slash. But with just a flash of holy light, the chain dissipated once more. Even so, this short delay gave me enough time to escape from his grasp.
I retreated several steps back again and again before shouting out, “Bone Prison!”
Ghastly white bones emerged from the ground, stacking up layer by layer into white walls constructed by bones. However, Blaze Knight looked as if he didn’t even care about these walls. With a wave of the sword in his hands, the bones were cut down just as easily as paper.
Bone Prison! I immediately replenished the wall of bones with more layers.
“Don’t move! Don’t come any closer,” I said to him in a low tone, “unless you want to see your holy knights die before your eyes!”
I tightened the chains around the seven holy knights, but they only let out a single cry before they no longer made any more sounds. However, just one cry was enough. As expected, the Blaze Knight stopped in his attempts to attack me. His expression looked as if he was about to blow up, but he did not continue his pursuit.
Even though this guy keeps daring me to kill them, it really is only his mouth that is sharp – his heart is soft. After hearing the wailing of his holy knights… No! That doesn’t even count as a wail. It was only a stifled cry, but that was enough to stop him. He no longer dares to lay a finger on me.
Since I’m not the Sun Knight, if I hurt the holy knights, and even kill the Blaze Knight, it wouldn’t matter, right?
Feeling cheeky, I told the Blaze Knight, “You, stab yourself with your sword!”
When the Blaze Knight heard this, his eyes widened so much that it was as if they were about to split open.
Yuna shrieked, “Grisia, don’t act like this! They just want the Ice Knight back!”
“So you really believe his words?” I answered in a ridiculing manner. At the same time, just to be safe, I made several swords out of bones, suspending all of them above those holy knights.
“Stop–!”
The Blaze Knight raised his Great Flames Sword once more, but his actions and his roars both disappeared simultaneously when I went through with holding a bone sword over one of the holy knight’s neck.
Although he lowered his blade, his voice was shaking with anger as he growled, “No one is allowed to prop a blade above the neck of my vice-captain!”
As expected, I picked the right person! I smirked. From the beginning, this holy knight had been in charge of relaying Blaze Knight’s questions. I could feel that he was a little different from the rest of the holy knights.
“Grisia, don’t be like this!” Yuna sounded so anxious that she seemed to be on the verge of tears. She sobbed, “Let them go! Blaze Knight is one of the Twelve Holy Knights! They never tell a lie, and he really only wanted to save Ice Knight…”
Yuna’s voice suddenly vanished.
Ugh!
I suddenly felt a sharp surge of pain in my back. Only then did I notice that an arrow was sticking out of my body; Sybil stood not far from me with her bow raised…
The Blaze Knight took this opportunity to slash at me. I barely managed to retreat a few steps back, but the broadsword still managed to slice into my left shoulder down to my chest, producing a large, gaping wound.
It ended with a blow to my stomach; I was kicked down onto the ground by the Blaze Knight. My body was sprawled across the floor as the Blaze Knight pressed his knee against my abdomen to restrain me. He then pressed his Great Flames Sword against my neck once again.
But this is completely unnecessary. If I could, I would assure him that I’m in so much pain that I can’t even get up. Gathering the dark element is even more impossible. But alas, I’m in so much pain that I can’t even open my mouth to assure him of this.
“Grisia!”
Sybil and Yuna ran over. Even though Sybil was the one who had shot me with an arrow earlier, she was now anxiously speaking to the Blaze Knight, “Blaze Knight! You said you wouldn’t kill him!”
“That’s why he’s still alive.” He didn’t even turn as he coldly answered them.
I laughed bitterly. And I thought it was thanks to myself, for retreating that one step, that I’m still alive… But what? This was all the result of the Blaze Knight feeling like he should show some compassion?
“But, but…” Sybil stammered anxiously, unable to complete even half a sentence. All she could manage was to quickly turn to me to say, “I’m sorry, Grisia. Don’t move recklessly. The Blaze Knight won’t hurt you.”
Oh? Short of killing me, I don’t believe he can hurt me any more than he already has.
The Blaze Knight yelled, “Time for me to take a look at your damn appearance,” as he stretched out his hand to grab my mask.
At this point, I suddenly lost all my desire to struggle. I might as well let him look at my face. I might even be able to find out whether or not I really am the Sun Knight. Whatever the outcome, even if I’m not the Sun Knight, or even if my face will end up on wanted posters because of this, nothing matters anymore.
Tell me! Am I, or am I not? Is Ecilan really lying to me? The Blaze Knight widened his eyes, and exclaimed out loud.
“You… ”
“You”?
Are “you” really the Sun Knight?
Or is it, so “you” are actually just some random, wanted necromancer?
What exactly comes after the word “you”?
I didn’t know; the Blaze Knight was long gone from my field of vision. I covered both of my eyes, even though this motion wouldn’t stop me from seeing…
I screamed out loud, ”Why?! Why have you taken me away at such a time?
“Scarlet!”
I crawled up and turned to face the little girl as I shouted at her. After doing so, for some reason I spit out an arrow of blood. My consciousness suddenly started fading away. As a shroud of darkness fell upon me, I heard the gentle sound of a girl’s voice. It carried a bit of compassion and a bit of pity…
“Because they are trying to trick you, Grisia. They are lying to you.”
Oh? So other than Ecilan, Sybil and Yuna, even the Blaze Knight is lying to me?
Then, isn’t that as good as everybody out there lying to me?