“You bastards!”
“You’re in the way.”
Kirkland-san wasn’t the only one searching for the Margrave of Melrose. Several knights, organized into three-man squads, were watching the road. The moment one of them spotted the Melrose party’s carriage on the road, the pink-haired girl riding at their head lopped off his head.
“—!?”
The two knights with him also noticed, but they were overwhelmed by the girl, who raged like a veritable storm, and the high-speed blade of her pendulum, and in an instant, their hearts were pierced by daggers.
Even so, the Undead do not die. Given time, they would likely regenerate.
But if their heads were cut off, they couldn’t even raise their voices to call for allies, and if their hearts were destroyed, they would be immobilized for several tens of seconds.
“Gugh—”
The next moment, the warhorse ridden by a following knight trampled the fallen knight to pieces. There was no glory or honor in that death, only annihilation as a monster. Thinking of their former colleagues who served the same nation, the Melrose knights closed their eyes for a moment as if in silent prayer.
『…………』
The Melrose knights watched the “girl” riding ahead with complex emotions.
A girl who was slaughtering, head-on, the monsters called “Undead” that had overwhelmed them, even though there were only three of them…
Those who worked at the castle knew her as “the Rank 5 adventurer who is the Princess’s right-hand.”
Those without skill tended to underestimate her, but anyone with a certain degree of ability could gauge her strength without needing to appraise her.
How had a girl, not yet an adult, obtained enough power to be praised as a “Dragon Slayer”?
But the knights of the Melrose Family… especially those who had been around for a long time and knew the Margrave’s youngest daughter, couldn’t help but feel a sense of déjà vu from her hair color and features, more so than awe at her strength.
The most senior knight among them, as if driven by something… as if chasing the back of his master’s beloved daughter who had disappeared, unexpectedly urged his horse towards her and called out to the pink-haired girl.
“…Lady Layton, the Melrose family mansion will soon come into view. According to the attendants, the rebel army is already approaching. Please be careful!”
Aria responded to the knight’s words with a nod, her jade-green eyes, the same color as their master’s, fixed ahead.
“I will eliminate any obstacles. You head straight for the mansion.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Though she was the Princess’s aide, she was merely a baron’s daughter. Merely an adventurer. Merely a girl… Yet, that veteran knight didn’t find it strange at all that he had naturally saluted a girl younger than his own daughter.
＊＊＊
“I see it!”
My “Eye,” which sees through the night, spotted the mansion in the distance, and at the same time, I heard the faint sounds of clashing swords.
“I’m going ahead!”
“May fortune be with you!”
With the knight’s earlier words at my back, I increased my speed further and rushed to where the battle had already begun.
It was called a “mansion,” but it was more like a small castle, and multiple knights were surging forward, trying to break through its gate.
Their numbers, about fifty horsemen, perhaps… Fewer than I’d heard, probably because they didn’t know where the Margrave would return from, so they had dispersed their forces.
Fifty is a lot… but maybe I can thin them out a bit now.
Suppressing my presence and closing the distance with full Physical Enhancement, I leaped onto the back of the rearmost horseman and stabbed his brain and heart with my dagger and knife.
“Gah—”
“…[Fireball]!”
I lit a Utility Magic [Fireball] at the tip of my blade, as if to burn out the insects inside, and pulled the blade out, gouging the insides.
“You-!?”
As expected, the surrounding knights noticed me.
I immediately threw my pendulum skyward, and as a knight shouted, swinging down, I struck his head, helmet and all, with the Rope Weight Type.
Even if they’re Undead, if they’re thinking with their heads, shaking their brains will stop their movements.
But before I could finish off that knight, other knights intervened, and multiple spears attacked me.
“—!”
Exhaling, I leaped from the horse I’d killed, soaring through the air to dodge the spearheads.
“So you’ve appeared, “Ash Covered Princess”!”
Did he know me? A knight had rushed over from the front lines. Estimated Rank 3, upper tier… probably a company commander class.
The man fluently loosed multiple arrows.
While soaring through the air, I couldn’t dodge those arrows—normally.
“What!?”
I kicked off the air, using the recoil to change my posture, twisting my body to dodge the arrows, and caught one arrow I couldn’t avoid.
“Returning this.”
I threw the caught arrow back like a throwing knife.
But an arrow thrown in that state lacked the power to pierce flesh.
Still, I called out to him to remind him of his lingering humanity (・・・・・・).
As the company commander reflexively dodged it, the Slashing Type pendulum, flying from the side, slashed both his eyes.
“Guooooooooh!?”
Even so, the Undead don’t stop. All of my attacks inflict near-fatal wounds, but they hardly seem to be a blow to them.
“Don’t let her escape!”
When the company commander shouted the order, the knights who had lost their will moved forward, replacing those who still had theirs.
Knowing that dying too much causes them to lose their will, the company commander used those who had died too much to try and cut off my escape routes.
Were his wounds already healing? The company commander glared at me with one eye that had finished regenerating.
“It may be difficult for us to kill you, but we’ll keep you here until Amor-sama returns!”
“…So he’s here too.”
Dandole or Melrose. I wondered which one he was with, but it seems Amor was here.
That’s perfect then. I’ll finish him off with my own hands for sure.
But… not now (・・・・).
My hearing, to which I had dedicated a part of my consciousness, caught that sound (・・), and I pointed my fingertips towards the approaching knights.
“—[Pain]—”
Dark Magic that inflicts only insubstantial pain… But had Amor and his followers also investigated me, who was an obstacle? The company commander grinned with his bloodstained face.
“Such magic won’t work on those without will—”
At that moment, as if interrupting his words, the trained warhorses all began to rampage.
I knew from the start that “pain” wouldn’t work on them.
That’s why I fired a weakened [Pain] at the multiple horses they were riding.
“—Open the gate!!”
Just then, the Melrose cavalry and carriage approached from the darkness of the road, and when Mikhail, standing on the coachman’s box, shouted at the castle gate, the soldiers above the gate who saw him hurriedly began to open it.
Seizing the opportunity, the Melrose knights who had been waiting rushed out from there, knocking the Second Order of Knights members around the gate from their horses.
“Quickly!!”
This was the only chance to pass through the besieged castle gate.
“—[Pain]—!”
I also fired [Pain] at the Second Order’s warhorses there, leaping out from the chaos.
“You’re not getting away!!”
The company commander nocked an arrow and fired.
The arrow aimed straight for Mikhail, but I, having entangled my pendulum’s thread and leaped onto the carriage roof, cut it down with my knife.
“Aria!”
“Mikhail, charge through!!”
At my shout, the soldier on the coachman’s box whipped the horses, and the carriage, protected by the Melrose cavalry, plunged through the gate, past the still-panicked, rampaging warhorses.
“Close the gate! Hurry!!”
At Mikhail’s voice, a knight who had rushed in leaped from his horse to the gate, and the soldiers and attendants present cooperated to close it.
Simultaneously, the sound of heavy objects repeatedly striking from the other side echoed, and the knights and soldiers present grabbed their weapons and ran up onto the castle walls.
“Don’t let them in!”
When a middle-aged knight shouted that, not only knights and soldiers but even those who couldn’t fight headed for the top of the walls, carrying garden stones and bricks.
It seemed we had made it just in the nick of time. Just as I was about to follow them up the wall—
“Belt-sama, Mikhail!”
A woman’s voice came from the direction of the mansion, and I saw an elegant noblewoman, accompanied by several maids, rushing over.
“Grandmother!”
Mikhail also cried out and ran to her. The woman, after embracing Mikhail, let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the Margrave, then her eyes widened as if frozen when her gaze swept around and landed on me.
“Cheryl…”
“…………”
Her straightforward eyes, staring at me…
That “name”… belonged to my deceased “mother.”
The grandmother sees the image of her daughter in Aria.
The third volume of the book version will be released on February 19, 2022.
And on February 15th, the first volume of the manga adaptation will also be released!
For more details, we have released information on our “Activity Report” and “Twitter.”
We’ve also posted the cover art, so please come take a peek!