Book 9: Chapter 24

After looking down at the defeated Shields of Light knight for a while, Eltrinde turned her gaze to the back gate.

Although it wasn’t as strong as the main gate, the castle back gate that protects the royal family was tightly shut with a door made of hard metal.

The resounding alarms and the voices of the knights that were gathering announced that there was very little time remaining.

Since the basic structure was the same as the town gates, they could handle it just like earlier――immediately after Eltrinde thought like that.

「Olred. Bring Eltrinde-dono aside.」

Together with Vermudol’s order, Olred held Eltrinde in his arms and jumped behind Vermudol.

「O, oi……!?」

「Stay silent, princess. You’ll bite your tongue, you know?」

Even while being talked to with such a frivolous tone, Eltrinde’s eyes grasped Vermudol’s figure as he readied his sword.

Just what was he trying to do with a single sword?

That question was completely blown away with Vermudol’s next action.

「Break……Di Borka Non-shot」

The magic that was amplified by the magic stone of Vermudol’s sword collided into the back gate, and an explosion occurred with a thunderous roar.

After the *zudon* sound, the sound of the explosion and the sound of destruction resounded.

Seeing the fragments of the back gate scatter into the surroundings, Eltrinde, who escaped from being within Olred’s hands, opened her mouth being flabbergasted.

Becoming half absentminded from the unbelievable situation, Eltrinde didn’t resist even when Olred held her under his arm once again just in case of the worst case.

「Wha, impossible……such a, no. However……Could it be an all-purpose type sword!? Something like that is……」

Vermudol’s sword, it could be used as a staff that amplifies magic, and as a Magic Sword that could hold magical power, an all-purpose type sword. It was researched among mankind as an ideal weapon for Magic Swordsmen, but it had not reached implementation. The one who completed that, was Margaret.

「Yosh, here we go! Shironos will be with the princess, and Olred will be with me. Brutus will be with Chrono!」

「Acknowledged!」

「Leave it to me!」

「Understood.」

Within the cloud of dust that arose, Shironos quickly received Eltrinde from Olred and jumped up to the rooftops.

At the same time, Olred held Ykslaas in his arms and ran towards the building.

And then, seeing the remaining Chrono――rather, Vermudol and Brutus calmly advance through the front, Eltrinde shouted in a panic.

「O, oi! Like that, they’ll……!」

「It isn’t a problem. Dem……Chrono is the strongest even when his power is suppressed to the limits of mankind’s common sense. Even Brutus, he has a fighting style that is most appropriate to coordinating with Chrono. Well, I would have been fine as well but……it would be troubling if something were to happen to you.」

「What do you mean by that!?」

「I mean just what I said!」

While Shironos’s group was having that sort of dialogue, the gathered Shields of Light knights surrounded Vermudol and Brutus who leisurely walked through the back garden.

Was the reason why they were holding swords and not spears because they were patrolling? The ten Shields of Light knights readied their long swords and shields, and their heavy armor clanked.

「Hmph, were you abandoned by your companions!?」

「Don’t drop your guard……! There’s the possibility that the Magician that blew up the back gate is mixed in with them! Don’t shirk off in preparing Magic Guard!」

The Shields of Light knights, who surrounded Vermudol’s group as if drawing a circle, saw Vermudol and Brutus ready their swords, and turned a strong vigilance to Vermudol.

From their point of view, both of them were knights that wore full body armor, but rather than the blue knight Brutus who had a pair of swords, they probably judged that the black knight with a one handed sword, Vermudol, who had the chance of having a wand, had the higher possibility of being the 「Magician」.

In the meaning of being the person who blew away the back gate, they were correct.

However, the sword Vermudol possessed was a sword that went against a Magic Swordsman’s common sense, and then, based on the fact that Brutus was also an existence that they should be vigilant against in the same manner as the 「Magician」, their judgement was incorrect.

「Leave one alive! We’ll make them spit out their background!」

Following the orders of the knight who seemed to be their superior officer, the other Shields of Light knights responded by putting up their shields and reducing the size of the circle.

Seeing that, Brutus readied his pair of swords looking bored.

「Leave one alive……huh. What shall we do, Chrono-dono.」

「Let’s see……well, it would be unbearable to be given the nickname of a slaughterer. Why don’t we face them at a level where we don’t kill them.」

「Understood.」

Accepting Vermudol’s proposal, Brutus sheathed the pair of swords that he readied.

「In that case, blades are unnecessary huh. It feels like we would kill them if we were to carelessly cut them.」

「Don’t screw……!」

Don’t screw with us――One of the Shields of Light knights who tried to say that was unable to finish his words, and his body tilted.

With a thud, the one who stood in front of that Shields of Light knight fell making a loud sound――was the one who possessed a pair of swords that were in a state of being sheathed, Brutus.

Certainly, if it’s like that, there is surely no worry of killing them. What was in Brutus’s hands were no longer swords, but a blunt weapon. As long as he didn’t hit them in a spot that was too bad, they wouldn’t die.

However, their pride as Shields of Light knights wouldn’t stay safe. A heavily equipped Shields of Light knight, who had confidence in their defensive power, was struck from the front and defeated.

「……Don’t take your eyes off from the 『blue one』.」

Therefore, the superior officer Shields of Light knight gave that sort of order.

Although the Shields of Light knights were in a rage from Brutus’s attitude that was clearly looking down on them, they calmly understood that 「this blue knight is the true powerful person that they should be vigilant of」, and they altered their target to him being the one to eliminate with maximum priority.

In other words, they judged that the black knight was a decoy to disperse their vigilance, and the true strong person was Brutus.

「Advance, suppress them!」

「Ou!」

Readying their shields, they advanced as if to narrow the circle while protecting their vitals.

With just that, the Shields of Light knights’ absolute defense was arranged, and they were also able to block the enemy’s escape route.

In order to strike the opponents that lost their escape route and suppress them, the Shields of Light knights continued their advance.

In the worst case, they might end up killing them, but they wouldn’t be able to capture them unless they went that far.

However, their actions were meaningless.

「Zel Storm」

No one there knew when he made his chant. Since they were unable to understand the fact that he casted the large magic chantlessly, they could only think that they 「failed to hear the chant」.

That is why they felt that the fact that the blue knight returned to the black knight’s side, which was outside of the magic’s range, in the momentary opening of the invoked magic, and the whirling storm that generated from the black knight were results that were brought about by their own negligence.

Even so, there was no one among the knights that panicked, and without even using Magic Guard from thinking that they wouldn’t be blown away so easily due to the weight of their own armor, there were even some that that sturdily readied their shields.

Even the superior officer knight was one of them――and naturally, he was blown away by the assailing tornado.