CH 65

「Leone……!?」

Leone, wielding her black great sword Artifact, was breathing heavily, wounded in various places. In front of her was perhaps Leone herself when she was little? Inglis could see the resemblance between the two. With a desperate look on her face, she was standing confronting Leone with her arms outstretched, as if she was protecting something from her. The one behind the girl was probably Leon when he was young.

「Stop it! Big Brother has become a Holy Knight! He is everyone’s hope! Why must you do something cruel to him!?」

The little Leone was in tears, begging Leone to stop.

「That’s all just fake! None of that matters! You’ll soon understand too!」

Leone brandished her sword at her younger counterpart. Even though she knew that it was a shadow of the past this subspace created, it was still hard for her to kill her own past self.

「Curse you! Today is the anniversary of my son becoming a Holy Knight!」 「Everyone! Please…….! Please protect Leon……!」

Were they Leon and Leone’s parents?

「Father, Mother……!」

Leone bit her lips, ‌trying to stifle her emotions. As she did, more and more knights surrounded her.

「Protect Sir Leon!!」 「Curse you, you rotten foe! You dare to take away our pride and joy!?」 「I won’t let you, even at the cost of my life!」

Surely, in this subspace, all the memories Leone had about her brother Leon that she should’ve taken pride in would be turned against her. As proof that she had gone through quite a fierce battle, Leone was suffering innumerable injuries and her mana seemed to have depleted quite a bit.

「Say what you want, it doesn’t matter! I will defeat all of you and continue on my path! I will defeat my big brother by myself!」

Leone said so mostly to herself. Her heart screamed at her that she must deny everything; all the happy memories she had, all the prideful glory she held. She had to. The unfolding scene was nothing short of heartbreaking. The more broken someone’s heart, the more this subspace gnawed at them. It was nasty‌. Inglis couldn’t bring herself to like it.

「She even antagonizes such a happy memory——So she is seriously trying to bring back her traitor of a brother……」

Perhaps Liselotte hinged onto something, but she was muttering ‌with a hard look on her face.

「I’ll go save Leone. You can go on without me.」

Inglis let go of Liselotte’s hand and leaped forward.

「On her!」 「Oou!」 「UWWoooh!!」

The enemies were all swarming on Leone.

「I’ll cut all of you in a single strike!」

Leone poured more power into her black great sword Artifact. Perhaps she was trying to elongate the sword and cleave off a wide area all at once. That was supposed to be Leone’s way of fighting when she faced a huge number of enemies.

However, the Artifact only glowed for a moment with no apparent change to the blade itself.

「Kh……!? It’s out of power!? It can’t be! The fight is still on!」

It must have been over exhausted from the battles so far. Leone could no longer supply enough mana to change the Artifact’s shape. And seeing her so, the Knights went to attack Leone in a group.

Leone stopped the two Knights that came from her left and right respectively with her greatsword stabbing the ground. The body enhancement she received from the High-Grade Artifact made it possible, but——

「More! Push her with number!」 「「「OOooohh!!!」」」

Four, five more Knights swarmed her, their swords pushing on hers.

「KKHhhh……..!!!!」

Leone who was already low on Mana couldn’t push back as the two sides were competing for the higher ground.

「Now, I got your back!」

One Knight came around behind her.

「And so what!」

Leone’s powerful kick thrust into the Knight’s abdomen. The enemy behind her was driven back, but not so much for the ones from her front. At the current instance, Leone was pushed behind, losing two to three steps backward.

「Khh……!」

My posture is broken. I’m being pushed back——! And there, a silhouette rushed right from her side at high speed.

「UOoohhhh!!! I shall protect Leon with my life!」

Leone’s father thrust out the short spear he brandished at her with a war cry. He was faster and more powerful than any other Knights.

「Father……!!」

The moment that she felt that her end was inevitable, the tears she had been holding back seeped out.

In her distorted, blurry vision, something intruded in——bright silver hair that seemed to have been woven from the brightest moonlight.

「Pardon my intrusion.」

Appearing right beside the father, Inglis delivered a solid palm strike to his flank.

「GOAAAaaahhh!?」

His face contorted as his body bent at an impossible angle after it made a squishy sound. He was blown and crashed to the boundaries of the space, just like so. He left only a groan and vanished into the darkness.

Following that, Inglis plunged into the side of the Knights who were pushing on Leone and gave them one, two kicks in a nifty flash.

「「「GWAAaah!?」」」

They were all obliterated.

「There’s more……!」

Inglis rushed into the other knights and went on delivering palm strikes and elbow blows to ‌every last of them.

「Wh-, who are you……!? GWAHAK!?」 「I-, can’t see the——!?」 「Have the heavens abandoned us!?」

Without even being able to react, the enemies were mowed down one after another.

「That’s what happens if you force yourself on a single girl.」

Inglis gave those words to the disappearing shadows of the Knights.

「I-, Inglis……!?」 「Yeah, Leone. I just happen to pass by, but I’m glad I made it in time.」 「How, how did you get here……?」 「When I tried to destroy the space’s walls and go through, I arrived here.」 「Hahaha…… You’re absurd that you can do that. That’s definitely ignoring the core of the trial.」 「It’s fine, nobody says we can’t do that. Are you okay?」

Inglis wiped Leone’s well-up tears with her finger and patted her head.

「Ah…. Y-, yeah. I’m fine. Thank you——」 「Is that so, I’m glad.」

In front of the two, a shadow arose.

「I won’t give Big Brother to you! Never……!」

The last thing left was the shadows of the little Leone and the boy behind her, Leon.

「It’s still……!」 「It’s alright, let me deal with it.」

Before Inglis could make a move after she calmed Leone down——

Pshoo! Pshooo!!

Something flew through the young Leone and Leon. The two distorted ‌and vanished.

「?」 「Wh-, what was——」

The one replacing them was a halberd glowing in silver.

「Y-, you are……」 「Liselotte? So you helped us.」

Liselotte briskly walked over to collect her now protruding halberd.

「It must be hard for the person herself and her close friend to take the kill, isn’t it? I judged that it was the best option for me to do it.」 「Yeah, you saved us.」 「Th, thank you……」

Liselotte gave a glance to Leone, who voiced her gratitude meekly.

「…… I still can’t completely trust you yet, but——let me apologize for hurting you back then. I’m sorry.」 「S-, sure……」

Leone looked puzzled.

「You’re surprisingly a nice girl, Liselotte.」 「Don’t add the “surprising” part.」

Commented Liselotte as she threw her face away. Perhaps it’s just a fortunate accident, but I think it’s a good thing that things turned this way—— Thought Inglis to herself.