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“The enemy is approaching!”
Marquis Crombell’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. “Enem— Did you say ‘enemy’?”
“Yes, Marquis! Joshua Sanders seems to be leading about a hundred knights toward us.”
“What the fuck…? What about our knights?”
“There have been no further communications since earlier.”
“What?” The Marquis frowned.
“Didn’t I tell you? All the knights you’re so proud of will die.”
“No way—! That’s too fast. In less than ten minutes— Th-There must be some kind of trickery! The Pontiers are falling apart, how could this happen—”
“Heh. Don’t think about it too hard. There are no tricks.” The Mercenary King eyed the front and shrugged. “Joshua Sanders’s power isn’t something we can take lightly. Don’t worry—if they move first, then we’ll just return it tenfold.”
“If…”
“Nothing’s changed. I’ll smash straight through them, and they’ll be dead right away. They’re going to be sorry they came out here on their own and gave up their best card.” He smirked. Lady Luck was on his side today: the battlefield was a flat plain with nothing around it. There was nowhere for the Pontiers to hide. Once again, history would be written by the victors.
He never realized that his chalice was poisoned.
“There aren’t many of them, but their skills and experience can’t be ignored. Pull the soldiers back and put the other 500 knights forward.”
“That’s more troops, but it hasn’t changed the main unit,” Marquis Crombell worriedly objected.
“No, it isn’t. I’ll be there, won’t I? Your knights will be supported by my mercenaries and a few wizards in the back.” He grinned knowingly. “Today, we erase Joshua Sanders’s name from history.”
“AHHHH!” Cain ran full-tilt down the plains.
“HYAAAA!” Leo de Grans was right behind him, screaming in an equally strange voice.
The two of them ran like they had money on the line and managed to get several hundred meters ahead of the rest of the group.
Leo paused and tossed an anxious look behind him. “I don’t think we should be so far away—”
“Never mind that, I’m going to do it too.”
“What?”
“The sword that slices through the battlefield.1”
Leo stared blankly at Cain.
“Are you scared?”
“Huh?”
“It’s okay to be scared.”
Leo pulled a face. “The proud Wilhelm Knights have no fear.”
“Great, then. How old are you, by the way?”
De Grans hesitated for a moment, confused by the non-sequitur. “…I’m 33 this year.”
“Ah… You’re a freak too.” Cain shook his head, stamping his feet against the ground.
“You’re no simple man either.”
“Me…?” Cain scowled. “Oh, his father saw my potential.”
“You mean the Sword God of Avalon?” Leo stared at him, wide-eyed.
Cain quickly tried to change the subject. “Are you married?”
“Not yet.”
“At that age?” Cain’s expression twisted. “You’re still single?”
Leo was quick to provide excuses: “I don’t know if you know, but I’m responsible for Reinhardt’s management and foreign affairs. With training added on top of that, I don’t have time to think about getting married.”
He was obviously over the age for marriage; most people got married when they turned 20.
Cain gave Leo an unreadable look.
“This year, I’ll be 30. And… I’m still single.”
Leo’s eyes widened again. “You mean—”
“Ever since I learned to wield the sword, I’ve never been able to hold a woman’s hand.”2
“Sir Cain…” For the first time, Leo’s eyes held sympathy. It was a complex, nuanced emotion that held compassion and understanding.
“I don’t care about the bet,” Cain resolved. “When this fight is over, I will treat you as my older brother—No, you are my older brother from now on.”3
The determination in Cain’s voice made Leo straighten his back. “Don’t worry: I will use everything at my disposal to protect my younger brother.”
“Brother!”
Men were simple. A single idea had changed them from rivals to brothers.
The rattle of horseshoes drew Cain’s attention ahead. At last, the enemies were coming into view—and en masse.
“I’ve got a plan.”
“A plan?”
“I want to protect the master like the Seven Knights of Avalon, the best on the continent, did so long ago. Seeing you only strengthened my resolve.”
Leo was confused again.
“The fewer women you date, the better knight you are,” Cain clarified.
Leo shook his head. “How is that…?”
“Sanders’s Seven Knights should not be married men—until we two, the first and second, get married first.”
“You’re right.”
They were both full of themselves, but they got along very well.
“I even thought about the name.”
“Tell me.”
“It doesn’t have to be a boring name like ‘The Seven Knights,’ so it’ll be good.” Cain gripped his sword tighter as the enemy closed in on them. “The knights who guard Joshua Sanders will be named…” He slammed his foot into the ground, swiping his mana-infused blade outward. “The Gold Spirit Knights!”
“The continent loves gold more than anything else. Commoners don’t know about orichalcum, but they do know about gold; hence, gold-spirited knights.”
“Good idea.” Leo took off after Cain with a smile.
The two men slammed into the enemy.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
Knights were knocked off their horses and went flying through the air as Leo and Cain’s swords swept the battlefield.
“Is it alright to leave them like that?” Marquis Crombell watched his knights’ dwindling ranks with concern. “Please decide quickly! Time is of the essence!”
More and more knights fell. Unbelievably, only two men were needed to take on Crombell’s hordes—and they were laughing while they did it. A single slash of their swords would send three or more knights flying. All of the Marquis’s knights were C-Class or B-Class; that meant that their opponents…
“A-Class Knights…” The Mercenary King stepped forward with a chuckle. He suddenly sported an ax twice the size of the average person. If it weren’t for the energy it emanated, the ax would almost be comical. “This will make for a nice appetizer.” His weapon hummed like a raving beast as he infused mana into it. “Taorin,” he said to the ax, “When’s the last time you ate?”
His legs squeezed until they looked ready to explode, and then he was gone.
“Heup!” Cain knocked down another knight, and then his eyes widened. He could feel something strange coming. By pure instinct, he whipped his sword behind him, just in time to deflect an enormous ax headed for his neck.
“Ugh!”
“Sir Cain!” Leo watched Cain fly backward and slam into the dirt with an audible thump.
“Ah, good moves there, kid.”
Leo’s eyes popped. “Barbarian…!”
“A-Class… and an A-Class beginner?” The Mercenary King seemed to grasp their skills with just a glance.
“Sir Cain!” Leo nervously raised his sword. “Are you alright?”
“Hak—!” Cain got up and dusted his clothes off. “This is nothing.”
What kind of power is this? Though he acted as if nothing was wrong, Cain was very worried. He only hit Cain once and still managed to fling him a good few yards; it was important to assess the enemy as soon as possible. I need to set the stage for my master’s arrival.
The young knight’s eyes gleamed as he poured mana into his sword with renewed vigor. It manifested as a bright blade of light he’d never shown before.
“Older brother, cover me!”
“That’s a given…” Leo’s sword turned into an Aura Blade.
The Mercenary King took in their tense expressions and snapped his fingers with a smile.
“Come on then…”
“Hah…” Cain, who had the shorter temper of the two, took a heavy step forward. His greatsword was aimed at the Mercenary King’s legs. Leo was right behind him, his sword directed at Barbarian’s right shoulder. Both attacks took advantage of his blind spots, a remarkable degree of coordination for people who had never fought together before.
However, the Mercenary King sent them both flying with a swift slash of his ax.
“Hey, look at this power—!”
“I expected him to be strong, but this…”
Cain and Leo both struggled to control the recoil of their attack. It felt like their Aura Blades had been cut off. That meant the Mercenary King’s Aura Blade was at least as good as theirs, and at their level, the only way to improve their Aura Blade was to improve their swordsmanship.
But…
“That’s what they call an Aura Overlay.”
“Aura Overlay…?”
“Aura is what composes the Aura Blade. In a sense, Aura is water, and Aura Blade is ice,” the Mercenary King informed them. He examined their stiff expressions and grinned. “However, newly formed ice isn’t going to put a scratch on ice that’s been formed for decades.”
They looked at the Mercenary King and his Aura Blade with astonishment.
“Now I’ll show you a once-in-a-lifetime performance—the reason why there’re Nine Stars and Twelve Superhumans!”
“Don’t act like you’re the only one who knows, Mercenary King. Don’t be so full of yourself.”
The Mercenary King’s eyes popped open, and he sucked in a deep breath.
A bright red spear streaked through the air. It was too fast for the Mercenary King to dodge; he resorted to warding it off with his beloved Taorin.
There was a roar.
The sheer force of the impact made his wrists tingle. But the real damage wasn’t from the raw kinetic impact alone.
The Mercenary King stared at the overlapping haze of lights on the raging spear in shock.
“Aura… Overlay?”
ED/N: Now hold on Cain, your chuuni is leaking. ↩️
PR/N: Sigma Male Grindset. ↩️
PR/N: Awwwwwwwww Bro Moment. ↩️