Tsuyokute New Saga (LN)

“Slow down!”

Observing the surroundings, the vice captain of the 2nd Imperial Knight Corps gave orders to the knights. Within the narrow main road, they could barely fit the 80 knights, but after making some progress, they reached a long grass plain. With it now being night, they had magic items that used the magic [Light] inside them, but it couldn’t be compared to the sun during the day, so they had to keep up a certain level of wariness.

Since the adventurers who saved Princess Milena were strong enough to defeat a formidable Hydra, they could not lower their guard. One of the knights, who had previously walked ahead, now reported back.

“Vice-captain! We spotted the horse carriage, they are heading our way!”

“So this was their plan all along!”

A wave of tension ran through the rows of the knights. The Sleipnirs were known to possess immeasurable speed, so they expected for them to attempt a break-through, and prepared for this.

“Spread!”

With the order of the vice-captain, the knights calmly but swiftly moved into a half circle. In this formation, they were inviting the horse carriage inside, and could even attack from all sides. At the same time, they wouldn’t have to worry about them slipping around the side. Even if they were to clash with the Sleipnirs, their numbers would take care of the rest.

“Aim for their legs! Seal any movement!”

A lot of the Imperial Knights could use magic, and had bows and arrows at their disposal, so whatever may happen, they were ready. Hearing the orders of the vice-captain, everyone was prepared to act. Right as the horse carriage entered their magic range, a single knight who stood at the front line was suddenly hit by something that soared down from the sky. The other knights looked up, and saw something resembling a large bird fly through the dark night. However, they were too late to act, as the soldier was blown away together with his horse.

What had fallen from the sky was a magic stone with the spell [Explosion] imbued into it. More explosions happened everywhere, as magic stones flew towards them from the horse carriage. Rather than them being thrown, it was more like they were scattered at the knights, not to mention with great accuracy despite the time and distance. Besides explosions, fire rose up from the ground, only for another knight to get frozen to the ground, a tornado blowing through their rows, ending up with a poison fog.

Because of the explosive roars and heat wave, even the trained horses fell into a panic, and their formation broke apart.

“I-Impossible?!” One of the knights raised his voice, and the other knights agreed.

The Imperial Knights hadn’t let down their guard, or underestimated the enemy by any means. However, the enemy’s tactics were completely out of their range of expectations. The magic stones Kyle’s group used were amassing millions of Gadol in price, and having all of them even during such a time seemed impossible. The knights fired off magic and arrows as well, but with flashes of light, and ground tearing apart, they couldn’t see anything. They were just firing around wildly.

“Don’t panic! Get off your horses!” Even as the vice-captain desperately gave orders, the magic stones came soaring down.

There, a giant hoof appeared in front of his face, kicking him off the horse, making him lose consciousness.

“How do I say this…what a sight, indeed.”

Having made it through this disastrous scene, Princess Milena gazed over her back, commenting on the scenery. Since Kyle’s group suffered light wounds from splinters and fragments hitting them, they now moved inside the carriage to heal with the medicine, as the maid Arca took care of the driving. The horse carriage itself had a few burnt areas it suffered during that previous battle, but nothing severe enough to make it halt, and the Sleipnirs’ wounds were healing as well.

“Well, it is an outlandish plan, using such a great amount of magic stones to push them aside by pure force.”

The enemy was surprised by the air attack with the falling magic stones, and Urza followed up by having her Wind Spirit Sylphid fling even more magic stones at the confused knights to disarray their formation.

“If we didn’t have enough money, this plan would have hurt our finances a whole lot.” Seran commented, whose job it was to supply Urza with the magic stones.

In the end, Zentos really wasn’t with them.

From the bottom of his heart, Kyle thanked the gods for their luck. If Zentos had been there, Kyle couldn’t have relied on such a reckless tactic. The Zentos Kyle knew would have been able to strike down the Sleipnirs even in the midst of that confusion. If possible, Kyle wanted to avoid any confrontation with Zentos, for a lot of reasons.

“Well, that’s one problem taken care of.”

This shouldn’t have resulted in many casualties, and their horses were in disarray, so it would take for them to catch up again. This should have lowered their numbers drastically as well. Since they had the Sleipnirs drink some medicine, they were back to full health, moving at a fast speed as before. They might have set up an ambush at the path ahead, but thanks to Shildonia, Kyle could counteract if necessary.

But alas, as expected, things didn’t go as smoothly.

Around the time the sky to the East started to grow white, when Kyle and his group slowly moved closer to Archen, the horse carriage started to lean sideways, blocking the road.

“I guess this is our limit.” Kyle sighed, as he looked at the broken carriage wheel. It must have happened when they drove past the rows of knights. Then again, Kyle considered themselves lucky for even having made it this far. Luckily, nobody was hurt as the carriage tipped over, but the wheel was lost.

“This one’s no good. I could fix it, but it would take time,” Seran argued, but as he said, they had no time for that.

“We can only cast aside the carriage. Princess Milena and maids, you ride on the Sleipnirs, we will be running after you with Urza’s [Wind Walker].”

Their original goal was to make it back to Archen, but their speed has dropped drastically. The biggest problem was the 2nd Corps. Their formation and knights must have suffered casualties from the magic stone attack, but their numbers were still overwhelming. They must be treating the wounded, or even chasing after them in rage. The worst case would be them catching up while Kyle’s group is busy fighting a possible ambush ahead. Since they had lost the horse carriage they used to protect Princess Milena, she could get killed in any long-distance magic attacks.

“We need to avoid a pincer attack at all costs…”

Then again, there was not much time for them to ponder about it. That’s why Kyle gave an immediate judgement.

“We need to stop the ones following us. Someone has to stay behind, and since protecting the princess has the highest priority…there can only remain one.” Kyle spoke calmly, but confidently.

“Kyle, are you…” Urza grew pale, listening to his words.

Since their previous plan worked, the knights must be brimming with desire to kill Kyle’s group. And now, Kyle planned to leave behind a single person.

“Don’t worry.” Kyle showed a gentle smile towards Urza, and continued. “You can do this, right?” He tapped Seran on the shoulder.

“……Huh?” Seran let out a dumbfounded voice.

“Right, Seran’s the perfect guy to sacrifice himself.” Lieze agreed.

“Huuuuuuuuuh!?”

“Alright, no time to waste. We need to leave now.” Kyle took off the gear from the Sleipnirs, to which Lieze and the maids started acting.

“Listen to me! Are you telling me to deal with 80 knights all on my own?!”

“Calm down, a lot of them must be injured heavily, and their horses should have been rendered useless as well. If I had to guess, only half of that number should actually be coming after us.”

‘Indeed, they are heading your way. I can count up to 30 so far.’ Shildonia explained.

“I see, that’s not as bad…..Did you really believe I’d say that!? They’re 30 Imperial Knights brimming with desire to see us dead, right!?”

“Sorry, but we don’t have time to talk any more. They’re close.” Kyle put both his hands on Seran’s shoulders. “No worries. I’ll tell Master of your courage. If you have any final words, I will hear you out.”

“Why would I relay anything to that old hag!”

In the meantime, the maids and Lieze finished their preparations, the princess on the Sleipnir’s back.

“Alright, time to leave. Urza, use [Wind Walker] on us.”

“Y-Yeah, but…” Urza seemed like she wanted to say something, glancing at Seran.

“Hurry up! We don’t know when they’ll be catching up!”

“I-I got it already!” Urza ordered the Wind Spirit Sylphid, to which the legs of Kyle’s group were wrapped up in a swirl of wind, making their legs feel lighter.

“We’re leaving! Seran, I’ll leave this to you!”

“Do your best~”

Kyle and Lieze both raised their thumbs, and smiled at Seran. Urza and Princess Milena turned around to look at Seran a few times, but eventually vanished into the distance.

“…They seriously left me behind, those bastards.” Seran glared at his so-called allies, and realized that he couldn’t just stand around.

He moved into the nearby forest, grabbing a tree branch. He took out a sleeping bag, cutting it up accurately, and tied the whie fabric around a tree branch. What was done was an old and classic white flag, indicating surrender.

“This should do it…Tsk, they’re here already?” Seran complained, as he heard the horses approaching from the main road.

Just as Kyle said, they barely made it in time. Seran hopped on the tipped over horse carriage, and waved the white flag. Following that…

“I surrender! There’s no reason to fight! I will tell you everything you need to know, so please spare my life!” He screamed at the top of his lungs.

“Halt!” The vice-captain gave an order.

He did tend to his wounds with some magical medicine, but his body was still hurting all over. He had gathered the remaining horses and soldiers that could still move, took care of treating the wounded, and chased after Kyle’s group.

“Everyone off your horses, move with the utmost caution!”

All knights stepped off their horses, as they kept a bit of distance between each other, moving on carefully. They had to be careful of more magic stones flying around, and couldn’t afford to lose the other horses in case they needed to chase after them again. With everything that happened, their tension couldn’t be higher. They would have prefered to move even more carefully, but there was no time.

If the 5th Corps returned to assist the princess, their mission, passed down from their Highness, failed. If they got close enough to the enemy, they wouldn’t be able to use magic stones. That’s why the knights pulled out their swords, carefully approaching the horse carriage.

“I’m sorry! That bastard Kyle planned all of this, and wrapped me in his ridiculous plan! Please, forgive me!” Seran hopped down from the horse carriage, prostrating himself on the ground in front of the knights.

The vice-captain, as well as the knights, were all met with confusion. They had prepared for battle the second they saw the horse carriage, but finding a single man surrendering like this was outside their expectations. Their order was to kill anyone who was involved in this incident. Now, they should cut down Seran without hesitation, but he might hold crucial information to the location of the princess, so that was not an option. And, since there was still a chance of the princess being inside that carriage, they had to confirm that as well.

“Let me explain the situation! As you can see, the wheel on this carriage broke! The princess is headed towards Archen right now on a Sleipnir.” Seran said, without even being asked. “They left me alone here to die! Telling me to hold you guys down…As if I could do that! No need to worry though, we used up all of our magic stones, and without the horse carriage, as soon as you catch up to them, they’re dead meat! So please, chase after them!”

Seran begged at the top of his lungs, but the bloodlust and sharp gazes sadly didn’t vanish. Tearing up, Seran continued.

“Hahaha…Um, well, uh…Ah, right! I got some great news for you! Look at all this cash!” Seran took out a leather bag, turning it upside down, which led to many Zaales gold coins, large gems and accessories falling to the ground.

Even an amateur could tell that they held a value of several hundred of thousands of Gadol, so naturally the knights were looking at each other.

“We found this at some old ruins. Did you know? There’s the legendary labyrinth inside the Sangurd Mountain Range! Thanks to that, we could afford all those magic stones!” Seran grinned, seeing that they bit on. “I know the exact location! If you let me live, I will gladly show you the way!” He rubbed his face on the ground, begging for his life.

The vice-captain watched this, and clicked his tongue.

“Enough! Someone go check inside the horse carriage. Look for other tracks, and…dispose of that man.” The vice-captain gave out orders. “We don’t have time to waste.”

The knights moved accordingly. Some approached the horse carriage, others went back on their horses again. The ones approaching Seran pulled their swords, pointing it at him.

“Eeeek!?” Seran raised a shriek distorted in fear, falling backwards.

He observed his surroundings, looked at a single knight, and clung to his legs as he begged.

“I don’t want to die! Please, I beg you! I’ll do anything, so let me live!” His face was filled with tears and snot, desperately clinging to life itself.

The knight looked down at Seran in annoyance, and pulled the sword he had previously put away.

***

“Are you really sure about this!?” Urza was unable to hold back any longer, and called out to Kyle.

“What are you talking about?”

“Seran, of course! Should we really have left him behind like that!?”

“Yeah…it couldn’t be helped. I didn’t want him to die, but our lives are more important.”

“Wha!?” Clear anger built up in Urza’s voice.

“I understand that he was a sacrificial pawn…However, it didn’t seem like he would be able to buy us much time.” Princess Milena spoke down from the Sleipnir.

If anything, she seemed worried that he might leak their location and information.

“No need to worry about that.” Lieze smiled at Princess Milena.

“However…”

“How can you stay this calm, Lieze! He’s your childhood friend, right?!” Urza shook Lieze’s shoulders.

“Eh? Ah…right, you don’t even know.” Lieze nodded.

“I don’t know? What exactly?”

“The thing is…Let alone compared to me, Seran is even stronger than Kyle.”

***

Right as the knight wanted to swing down the sword to take Seran’s life, he heard a metallic sound. Looking down, a metal ring had fallen to the ground. It was a so-called ‘Ring of Restriction’, with [Gravity] magic engraved into it. Not to mention that it was the severe kind, which heightened one’s own gravity up to 50%, generally used for criminals so that they could barely even walk. Why was this here? The second such thought filled the knight’s head, his world shook.

“Sorry about this, but you’re the strongest guy of the bunch, right? Then I need to erase you first.”

Right after the man heard this voice, his field of view suddenly accelerated, and opened up. In his final moments, he saw his own body standing straight, missing its head. The other knights around were watching this in shock, frozen stiff. Their brains failed to comprehend what just had happened.

The human being who had begged for his life a few seconds ago, and now cut off the head of one of their allies with a speed defying any human logic. Even the Imperial Knights, who had been through a hundred battles, couldn’t react in time.

Of course, this was enough of an opening for Seran. He started running, like a gale passing through the forest during a storm. He aimed for the knights approaching their horses, and swung his sword as he passed them. All of his swings aimed at vital parts of their bodies, reaching from head, neck, heart…he rammed his sword into every location of a human’s body that would lead to an instant death, with terrifying speed, and no hesitation.

After he cut down six people, the other knights finally pulled out their swords, but Seran jumped into the air, like he possessed wings. He made it over the group of approaching knights, aiming directly at the vice-captain. However, instead of striking him down with his sword, Seran instead delivered a kick straight at the man’s chest. After landing on the ground, Seran chased after the vice-captain that was blown off, walked around him, and pointed the sword at his neck.

“Nobody move!” He screamed, sounding like a tiger’s roar, as an explosive voice came out of his throat.

A mentally fragile average person would have probably collapsed from the pressure alone. As for the knights, they were still standing, their swords pointed at Seran, but nobody dared to take another step. Of course, Seran knew that even if he kept the vice-captain as a hostage, he wouldn’t be able to remove the killing intent from the knights. If possible, he just wanted the knights’ movement to stop for a single second.

Out of his chest pocket, he took out a magic stone. The part about them having used all of their magic stones was a lie of course. Seran lied as naturally as he breathed. This magic stone he threw at his back, right into the middle of the horses. Wrapped up in the explosion, several horses were blown off. Some died in the act, others were severely injured, and the ones who could still run dispersed in all directions.

Unable to move because Seran still had his blade at the vice-captain’s neck, the knights could only watch as they lost their horses. Following this, the corpse of the man whose head had been cut off first thing, now collapsed with blood gushing out from the wound.

“Now you even lost your horses, huh.” Seran flashed an arrogant smile as he said so.

As a result, fear and terror was instilled into the knights’ bodies, like they had encountered a known life form.

“How lucky I am, getting to defeat eight people with my first attack. Or, are you guys all bark, no bite?” It was a clear provocation.

Before the knights could calm down and react, Seran moved again. He kicked up the body of the vice-captain at his feet, as he soared through the air like a small pebble. The knight closest to them faltered if he should catch the body of the severely-wounded vice-captain, or evade it, but this choice was taken from him as Seran’s sword slashed right into his face a second later.

***

“Strong…? Stronger than Kyle-sama?” Being told that someone like Seran was stronger than Kyle, who defeated a Hydra all alone, Princess Milena had her eyes open in shock.

“Not quite…The current me…if I used self-strengthening magic on myself, should be equal.” Kyle argued.

“No way!? Equal!? When did you get so strong?” Lieze raised her voice in disbelief.

“Then again, I’d have to seal his use of magic for that…so it’d be some gruesome battle.” Kyle’s face tightened up, imagining this battle.

“W-Wait a moment! What are you two talking about?” Urza was unable to follow the conversation.

“I don’t blame you for being confused. In fact, Seran is stronger with the sword than I am.” Kyle let out a sigh. “Although I’d rather not admit to it.” He continued. “Seran doesn’t have any talent for magic, and he’s literal scum when it comes to his personality. But, regarding the sword, his innate talent, or genius even, is far greater than mine. And, he does put in effort in order to hone that genius. If it’s only with the sword, he’s far stronger than me.”

Kyle’s teacher of the sword, Leyla, said that he possessed a talent only seen in a hundred years. As for her own son, that would be a thousand years, or even during this world’s history so far, and this kind of talent would surely not appear again.

‘Why do I have to teach someone who’s eventually gonna surpass me? Idiotic’, she said, and still taught him in the end.

“He’s often acting alone, or splitting from our group, right? During these times, he’s almost always practicing his sword. He’s absolutely useless most of the time, but when it comes to the sword, he’s more diligent than anybody.”

“That does make sense. It’s like he traded in his morals for this skill with the sword.”

The two childhood friends of Seran were giving him backhanded praise without restraint. As a matter of fact, Kyle never once won against Seran in a sword battle. Leaving aside the Seran back when Kyle fought the Demon Lord, if it was the current Seran, Kyle could only win by the use of strengthening magic. However, if they merely relied on their swords, Kyle had no hope of winning. That was just the difference in skill they possessed, and Kyle was aware of this.

On top of that, not only was he strong with the sword, but Seran also didn’t bother agonizing over which method to use in order to reach his goal, and with his non-existent pride, he was ready to make a fool out of himself if it got him what he wanted. Because this was more efficient.

“That being said…he didn’t show any of that…Why was he so scared if he’s that strong?” Urza still seemed dubious.

“I mean…looking at the usual Seran, who would be wary of him, right?”

Listening to Kyle’s words, a cold shiver ran down Urza’s back.

“Don’t tell me…Everything is just an act?”

Meeting him for the first time, everybody would surely let down their guard, and not be careful with Seran around. As a matter of fact, Urza was the perfect example of that, as she couldn’t see Seran’s true skill because of his attitude. If they had fought then, she probably would have been killed in a moment. Calculating this, Seran must have decided to take this attitude…

“No, I guess it’s half-half.” Kyle said nonchalantly, and Lieze continued.

“I agree, but as of late, it’s more like it’s 90% his true self.”

“…Right. He’s probably been born rotten like that.”

“Ah, I see. Thank god.” Urza seemed relieved.

Kyle looked behind them, imagining how the battle must have progressed right about now.

“Since the Imperial Knights were just following orders, I would have preferred to keep them alive, but…”

With roughly thirty of them against Seran, he probably couldn’t afford to hold back. And, against an enemy with a weapon and bloodlust pointed at him, Seran definitely won’t show any remorse.

***

Seran and the knights were facing each other. Only 8 more Imperial Knights were standing, with more than 22 collapsed on the ground, lifeless. Seran’s skill with the sword, and overall physical abilities couldn’t be compared to an average human being. Whether you tried to block his attacks with another sword, or a steel armor, Seran cut through it all. And, these cuts all landed deeply in a vital point. Either dodge, or grow stronger in the midst of battle, that was the only way to defend.

As for their actual skill difference between Seran and the Imperial Knights, it was just a cat hunting a mouse. Naturally, Seran wasn’t unhurt by any means. Small wounds built up all over his body. He was slowly getting out of breath as well. At first, Seran could run rampant because the knights were caught by surprise, but with them having formed a formation, they used their advantage in numbers more thoroughly.

That’s Imperial Knights for you, they’re barking up at me. Their eyes aren’t dead either. But…

Seran thought to himself, and sighed.

“So bothersome.” Seran said, as he relaxed. “Let’s end this here.”

“What did you say…?” One of the knights, still alive, narrowed his eyes.

“I told you at first, right. My duty was to slow you down, not to slaughter all of you. Quite some time passed since the others left, and you don’t have any hope of catching up with the Princess…so I don’t have any more reason to fight.” Seran put his sword back into the scabbard, and turned his back towards the knights.

The ones shocked the most were the knights. Even though this would have been the perfect chance to attack Seran, all they could see happening was them being cut down instead.

“Of course, if you folks are still raring to go, then I don’t mind. Though you’d have to be pretty stupid to try anything after what I’ve shown you.”

The knights were not afraid to die for their mission. However, dying meaninglessly was not an option in this situation. Just as Seran said, their mission came to an end.

“You’d better hurry and make up your mind. That vice-captain is still alive, and there’s others you could save. I do have magical medicine with me, but I don’t see any reason to share that with you, heh.”

Having taken some distance from the knights, Seran leaned against a tree, and showed off a bottle of healing magical medicine, drinking it. That must have been the moment for the knights to decide, as they looked at each other. Two supported the vice-captain from both sides, and the others tended to those who were still breathing. Naturally, the knights kept their eyes on Seran during that time, but since he didn’t show any signs of coming after them, they slowly moved away. Right as they reached a fair distance from him, moving towards Archen—Seran started running towards them without making a sound, and threw his final magic stone at their backs.

They were blown away by the following explosion. Those who survived, or ran towards Seran, he struck them all down with no remorse.

“Sorry about this, I never planned for any of you to escape, see. Since some of you were about to run in fear, I had to get you all at once.”

Since changing after any deserteurs was too much of a pain for Seran, he chose this method of dealing with them. As he stabbed the vice-captain to fully finish him off, Seran continued.

“Now that you guys knew of the treasure in Sangurd, leaving you alone was not an option. That treasure is like Kyle’s lifeline, so leaking anything is something I want to avoid at all costs.”

If Lieze was here, she’d retort with a sharp ‘Weren’t you the one who told them in the first place?’, but Seran was fairly serious about this. Leaking the information about the treasure to have them drop their guard, and trying to bribe them was all a necessary act for Seran.

“Phew…I’m busted.” Confirming that nobody except Seran was alive anymore, he sat down on the ground.

Even for Seran, fighting more than 30 Imperial Knights at once was like betting his life on the line. He did have medicine that could heal any wounds or exhaustion, but the burden on his mind was no joke.

“I did my part, so you do yours.” Seran muttered, as he looked in the direction of Archen.