Chapter 15

Chapter 15

I'll Start from the Bottom

“Haaa...”

Leonid rose with a look of utter despair, trudged over to the weapon rack, and picked up a wooden sword.

He stared at it for a moment, lost in thought, then suddenly turned toward the other knights.

The look in Leonid's eyes was as solemn as that of a freedom fighter standing before the blade of a tyrant.

“You cowards! One threatening word from the Saintess and you abandon your convictions, casting your comrade into certain death! Is this all your faith and loyalty amount to?!”

“...!”

Several of the men who had been pretending not to notice widened their eyes. They looked as though they'd suddenly remembered something they'd forgotten.

‘What a load of bullshit.’

I crossed my arms and watched the ridiculous spectacle unfold.

“Even if everyone else submits, I alone shall never yield! Even if I fall victim today to that witch's tyranny... my struggle will remain in your hearts and one day become a spark that burns bright!”

“Th-The Vice-Captain is right!”

“We'll stand with you, Vice-Captain!”

The ones swayed by Leonid's speech were mostly newcomers.

Those who had been around for a while, especially the veteran Holy Knights, simply stepped back and watched with expressions that clearly said, ‘There he goes again.’

They knew full well this was nothing more than Leonid's plan to drag others down with him.

Seeing them quietly place bets on how many people would fall for the vice-captain's incitement this time made the future of our Order look bleak indeed.

Anyway, rebellions were best crushed early. I uncrossed my arms, tapped the ground with my staff, and smiled coldly.

“Fine. Anyone who wants to rebel against me, line up behind Leonid. Once I'm done educating him, I'll educate all of you in order.”

The ‘flames of revolution’ died instantly.

The people who had been agreeing with Leonid's heroic speech scattered like the tide going out.

Pathetic bastards. No guts at all. If a man draws his sword, he should at least cut a radish before putting it away. Tsk.

“Vice-Captain! Calling the Saintess a witch? I'm disappointed in you!”

“Saintess, I thought the Vice-Captain was acting strange from the very beginning!”

Leonid, suddenly abandoned, stared at them in disbelief, but it was already over.

I snickered and pointed the wooden staff at the despairing Leonid.

“Enough melodrama. Raise your sword.”

At my words, Leonid lifted his weapon with a miserable expression.

“Ready? I'm coming.”

All right, time to properly loosen up.

With that thought, I lightly thrust the wooden staff forward.

Thwack-!

The wooden sword and staff collided, sending a dull impact echoing through the training ground.

“Holy shit...! Haven't you gotten even faster than before?!”

“You've improved quite a bit too.”

Leonid caught my thrust against the blade and deflected it aside.

Before, he'd been too busy blocking. Now he could actually redirect my attacks.

He'd grown quite a bit.

“I haven't exactly been sitting around doing nothing all this time!”

With that, Leonid immediately charged.

A good choice.

When a swordsman fights a spearman, the first thing he needs to do is close the distance.

But I had no intention of letting Leonid into my range.

Spear against sword.

The spearman has to keep the swordsman out, while the swordsman has to force his opponent into striking distance.

In other words, it was a vicious battle over range.

Whoosh-!

I smoothly recovered the staff Leonid had knocked aside and immediately thrust toward his thigh.

Leonid, who had been rushing forward to close the gap, hurriedly knocked the staff away with his wooden sword.

I used that opening to step back slightly and widen the distance again.

The gap between us remained unchanged.

A thrust is far simpler and faster than a slash or swing.

Combine that simplicity with the spear's naturally superior reach, and closing the distance becomes incredibly difficult.

I instantly pulled the staff back and thrust again, this time toward Leonid's chest.

“Hup!”

Thwack-!

With a shout, Leonid swung his wooden sword upward and struck the shaft hard.

The impact knocked the staff upward, exposing my torso, and Leonid immediately rushed in to seize the chance.

But I used the recoil to spin the staff through the air, adding centrifugal force before slashing horizontally.

Thwack-!

“Ghk!”

A spear's sweeping strike had a large motion, especially when using centrifugal force, but it was powerful to match.

Even though Leonid blocked by holding his sword sideways, he staggered back several steps.

I immediately thrust the end of the staff toward his head.

In his current position, there was no way he could block it normally.

“Uwaaah!”

Leonid screamed and raised one palm to stop the thrust.

It was only possible because I was using a blunt wooden staff instead of a sharp spearhead.

“Sis! Were you trying to punch a hole through my skull?!”

Leonid staggered backward while shaking out his hand and shouting.

“It wouldn't go through, idiot.”

“Are you sure?”

“...Probably?”

“Probably?! What kind of unreliable answer is that?!”

After venting his complaints, Leonid charged again with renewed vigor.

His momentum was good, but he still couldn't break through my range, and damage kept piling up little by little.

“Haa... haa...”

Compared to my relatively clean appearance, Leonid was a mess after rolling across the ground several times and being struck countless times by the staff.

His earlier whining about not wanting to spar had vanished completely, replaced by a fierce competitive fire in his eyes.

Yeah.

That was more like someone worthy of being vice-captain.

“Your spearwork is as troublesome as ever.”

“Yeah, thanks. But flattering me won't make me go easy on you.”

“Of course not. I know better than anyone what kind of demon you are, Sis.”

This bastard always ruins a perfectly good conversation at the end.

I let out an incredulous laugh and immediately took my stance again.

Judging by Leonid's momentum and condition, he was clearly preparing to stake everything on one decisive exchange.

Even I had to take that somewhat seriously.

“Here I come, Sis!”

Leonid kicked off the ground and shot toward me.

If he let himself get dragged into another battle over distance, he'd only be slowly worn down like before.

So he was going all in.

I thrust the wooden staff threateningly toward him, but Leonid didn't hesitate.

He intended to take the hit and close the distance anyway.

If I'd been holding a real spear, that would've been suicidal.

But against a blunt staff, it wasn't a terrible choice.

There was just one thing he'd overlooked.

A spear's reach can become much longer than it looks.

I stepped forward once, released my left hand from the front of the staff, twisted my body, and fully extended the right arm holding the rear.

To Leonid charging toward me, the staff probably looked as though it had suddenly doubled in length.

“Ghk!”

The attack arrived far sooner than he'd expected, and Leonid reflexively stopped his charge and knocked it aside.

But because he'd been forced to block so hurriedly, his entire stance collapsed.

It was only a split-second opening, but seizing openings like that wasn't difficult for me.

I spun my body once and smashed the staff into Leonid's waist.

A blow carrying both the full weight of the staff and the force of rotation.

“Gugh!”

With a sickening crunch transmitted through my hands, Leonid flew away, rolled across the ground, and crashed into the wall of the training ground.

He twitched briefly, then stopped moving altogether.

...Huh?

Sorry.

I messed up the strength adjustment.

Normally I'd hit him hard enough that he could grumble and walk himself to the healing room.

But after returning from the divine realm, I still wasn't used to my overflowing strength and ended up misjudging it.

Hmm.

At that level, I probably broke all his ribs.

I felt a little guilty.

“Um... anyone want to take Leonid to the infirmary?”

He's going to complain all day once he wakes up.

Still, I was the one who screwed up, so I should probably listen to some of it.

Or maybe bring him a drink.

Ah, but I still want to move around some more.

Should I train alone?

Or maybe bully the guys who sided with Leonid earlier?

“Go do whatever you were doing. I'll train over there. If anyone wants to spar, just say so.”

After thinking for a moment, I decided to practice alone.

Leonid was sturdy enough to survive, but if I messed up my strength against anyone else, they might genuinely end up halfway to the afterlife.

Watching everyone scatter like a receding tide at my words irritated me for some reason, but I spun the staff and moved to one side of the training ground.

Inside the Order's healing room, Cassian, the Hero candidate of the Eris Order, lay on a bed.

“...Ugh.”

Cassian groaned.

His senses slowly returned alongside a vicious ringing in his ears.

Then pain crashed over his entire body as though he'd been pulverized by a gigantic hammer.

Enduring it, he blinked several times until his vision gradually returned.

The strong scent of medicinal herbs and the abundance of divine power told him where he was.

The Order's healing room.

“Oh, you're finally awake?”

Cassian was still blinking and trying to grasp the situation when a blunt voice came from beside him.

He turned his head.

A red-haired knight lay on the bed next to his.

Judging from the bandages wrapped all over him, he'd apparently returned from some brutal mission.

That knight looked familiar.

Cassian had definitely seen him before, but he couldn't remember his name or position.

Who was he again?

“You are...”

“Leonid. Vice-Captain of the Eris Holy Knights. Waking up this quickly after what the Saintess did to you... I'll give you this, your durability is impressive.”

After hearing Leonid's answer, Cassian stared blankly at the ceiling.

Even moving a finger made his body scream.

His condition was utterly disastrous, but his mind felt strangely clear, as though a thick fog had finally lifted.

For the past several years, he'd constantly felt as though someone's hand gripped the back of his neck while he struggled underwater.

That bizarre sensation had vanished completely.

“What did I... No, what did I do?”

“You don't remember? Well, after what happened to you, losing some memories wouldn't exactly be surprising.”

Leonid answered while remembering the sight of Beatrice punching a man's head straight into marble.

“...What exactly happened to me?”

“You got beaten so badly the back of your head broke through the marble floor. By the end, your head wasn't even visible. I thought you were a decapitated corpse.”

“...”

“Your face was literally reduced to half of what it should've been. You should kneel and thank His Holiness later. Without him, you'd already be sightseeing in the afterlife.”

...His face had literally been reduced by half?

Hearing Leonid's words, Cassian instinctively reached up and touched his head to make sure it was still attached.

He hadn't seen a mirror yet, but it seemed more or less intact.

He'd somehow survived.

Probably thanks to the sturdy body of a Hero candidate.

“I will definitely thank His Holiness.”

After answering, Cassian stared blankly at the ceiling and thought back over the past several years.

The days when he wandered between mercenary companies around the outskirts of the Demon Realm.

Driven by youthful arrogance, he'd ventured far beyond what his abilities could handle and entered its middle region.

There, he'd met someone.

He couldn't remember what that person looked like at all.

But from the moment he'd met that being, he'd begun to feel as though his consciousness were floating outside his body.

His memories of the past several years were hazy like a dream.

Twisted impulses had churned inside his chest, while constant anxiety gripped him as though his soul had been mortgaged away.

He'd lived with a terrible sense of wrongness, as if his body no longer belonged to him.

And amid all of that, the only memory that remained vivid was a silver-haired, white-eyed girl who appeared whenever he dreamed.

Now, he knew who she was.

“...This is insane.”

Cassian groaned as he remembered the countless inhuman things he'd done to her in those dreams.

“I think... I must have been out of my mind.”

“You were, man. Completely out of your damn mind. When you started saying that crap to Sis, even I thought my blood had frozen solid.”

“Where is the Saintess? I need to apologize... to her as well.”

“No idea. She's so free-spirited that even I don't know where she is half the time. But if you're planning to apologize, I'd reconsider. Knowing Sis, she might punch you the second she sees you. This time your face might not just become half a face. It might disappear completely.”

Leonid stood up and looked down at Cassian.

“Did you know His Holiness gave you another chance? Ah, you only just woke up, so I guess you wouldn't.”

“I didn't know. To give someone like me another chance is truly... something I'm grateful for. But why are you...”

“Why do I look like this?”

Cassian nodded.

“...I sparred.”

“...A spar?”

Cassian glanced over Leonid's condition and frowned.

What kind of lunatic reduced someone to this state during a spar?

“Don't look at me like that. If you become the Hero, this'll probably become an everyday occurrence whenever she's bored.”

“...”

Should I just run away?

For a moment, Cassian seriously considered it.

Leonid noticed the look in Cassian's eyes and frowned.

Wasn't this guy's eye color red before?

Why were they black now?

...Maybe his eyes had only been bloodshot from lack of sleep that day?

Even stranger than the change in color was the look in Cassian's eyes.

Getting hit that hard in the head could cause memory confusion or even change someone's demeanor somewhat.

But this was too different.

His black eyes were serious, gloomy, and filled with determination.

You could've told Leonid he was a completely different person from the frivolous man with those murky red eyes, and he would've believed it.

“Becoming a Hero is already going to be hard enough. But with Sis having you marked like this? It definitely won't be easy.”

“I know I'm nowhere near worthy of being called a Hero.”

“Then why not give up?”

“I can't. I'll work my way up slowly, from the very bottom.”

Leonid had only been testing him, but from that answer he realized what kind of person Cassian was.

He was the same type as Archbishop Bartolomew or Captain Vargas.

The kind of people with stubbornness like steel cable.

People with eyes like that might break, but they never bend.

Judging by the look of him, trying to stop him would be pointless.

‘...Sis is going to be seriously annoyed.’

Vargas and Bartolomew were exactly the kind of people Beatrice found hardest to deal with.

“Heh, man.”

“Yes?”

“I think I might actually come to like you a little.”

Sis could stand to get pissed off for once.

Leonid smiled faintly at the thought.

“...Thank you.”

“Of course, that depends on what you do from here. You're way too weak right now. Work on your skills first. With strength like that, you'd be in danger even on the outskirts of the Demon Realm.”

“...”

And with that, the conversation between the two men came to an end.