Monster
William pushed himself hard, determined to raise their spirits no matter the cost.
Whether it worked or not, the formation held, and the spear shafts aimed ever more firmly at the monsters’ bodies.
Security Chief, how is the situation?
The telepathic voice reached him. William shouted back.
“Engaging three monsters! The security force alone isn’t enough! We need support!”
Understood. Two of Iorga’s Spawn are heading your way. Hold on a little longer.
Moments later, something with outstretched wings soared down from the sky toward them.
They descended with graceful movements and turned to face the monsters.
“Filthy monsters. Your master has already taken the road to the underworld, yet you cling uselessly to your lives.”
“Return to your master’s side.”
Iorga’s Spawn revealed their hostility as they uncorked their water pouches.
The clear water within moved at the flow of their fingers, transforming into a whip split into ten thrashing strands.
Whoosh!
When they cracked the whip, the ten torn strands scattered and shot toward their targets.
Like extensions of their own limbs, they seized the monsters’ bodies with perfect precision.
In an instant, all three monsters were subdued.
“Security Chief. Finish them.”
“Yes!”
The knight’s blade, wreathed in crimson sword aura, sought the vital points of the bound monsters one by one.
“Uwaaah! Die!”
The spearmen, unwilling to stand idle any longer, surged forward with renewed courage.
From ancient times it had been said that no one, however strong, could withstand a gang beating.
Even monsters, once completely restrained, could be pierced by a rain of spears.
Thus William finished two of them, and the spearmen cut the life from the last.
Only minutes earlier they had been fighting a desperate struggle; they never imagined the monsters would fall so easily.
“Th-thank you, Magicians.”
“…….”
Iorga’s Spawn glanced briefly at William, then turned their heads away.
As if their work here was done, they took wing once more and flew off somewhere else.
Proud Dragon Spawn did not casually mingle with low-ranking humans.
Meaning I am not even worth associating with, in their eyes.
The thought stung, yet he harbored no grudge and accepted it at once.
If I had been stronger, more charismatic, perhaps I could have resolved this myself.
He accepted his place without settling into it, using it instead as a stepping stone.
Security Chief William thought to himself:
I will grow stronger.
This village stood under the rule of a Red Dragon. He resolved to possess power worthy of that fact.
“Knights of the Grand Duchy of Baldrova are currently deploying.”
Understood. We leave the north to you.
Two mounts came down from Baldrova Castle.
No—one of them was not a horse but a donkey.
The man astride that donkey wore a thoroughly flustered expression.
“S-Sir Jed! I don’t think I’ll be any help—w-what should I do?!”
The one who answered was Penelope, riding behind him.
“What do you think? Go make some popcorn.”
“I-is that what I should do?”
“Obviously. Make enough for my share too, uwaagh!”
“Ugh, the second you open that mouth of yours, nothing but sighs comes out.”
“Kekek! I yield, I yield!”
Jed tightened his arm around Penelope’s neck while she pounded his solid forearm.
“If you want to help, at least act as a meat shield! If the wolf-type demonkin show up, draw their attention!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
“I’m heading that way! You keep going straight along this road!”
“Understood!”
The moment they parted from Malcolm on his donkey, Penelope opened her mouth again.
“Meat shield? Isn’t that a little cold?”
“If it doesn’t work out, he’ll run away at least.”
“He didn’t look like he had the brains for that.”
“He’s smarter than you, you idiot.”
“What? You little—!”
Just as Penelope reached from behind to tear at his hair, a massive shape entered their field of vision.
A wolf monster.
They set aside their bickering and focused on the target.
“Enemy spotted. Looks a lot like the one from back then.”
“Yeah.”
“Size and shape are pretty much the same. We barely managed to dodge last time—you going to be okay now?”
“More than okay.”
Jed smiled.
Had he not endured that agony precisely for this moment?
“Nothing thrills quite like the chance for revenge.”
Now it was time to reap the harvest.
Jed drew the short sword sheathed at his waist.
Blue sword aura rose from the blade.
His blindfolded horse charged bravely, then suddenly halted.
Using the rebound, Jed launched himself from the horse’s body.
“Pepe! Now!”
“Haste!”
The pink-haired demon cast an acceleration spell on the soaring Jed.
Their coordination had grown practiced by now.
With even sharper movements he landed—and vanished.
Grrrrngh!?
The wolf monster flinched in confusion.
It tried to track the motion, yet the snake heads attached to its body could only chase afterimages.
This was nothing like the time they had merely fled.
Blue sword aura trailing from the short sword carved long afterimages in its wake.
Shushushuk—!
The trajectories touched the wolf monster’s body and pierced through.
Every snake head was severed; tendons were cut; the creature was rendered helpless.
The greatest opening he sought came when a disabled monster poured its strength into regeneration.
Jed drove his short sword deep into its chest.
Unlike when he had been protecting Ferda, the fight ended with almost insulting ease.
“Whoa, sick!”
Penelope bounced with vulgar delight.
“Jeje! What the hell did you go off and do there?”
“You think I was playing around, you brat?”
“You’re looking kind of sexy, though? You’re the first man who’s ever seemed this sensual to me.”
“Haha, get off me. Trying to suck my energy with those cheap tricks?”
“Don’t be like that—I haven’t had a woman in a whole week……!”
Penelope stroked her empty stomach and cast him a sultry look.
Sultry, she called it; to Jed it was a sight that inspired nothing but disgust and the urge to hit something.
Just then, Isabella’s telepathic voice arrived.
Sir Jed.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Sir Malcolm is currently herding monsters. Requesting support at his location.
Jed answered at once.
“Where is he?”
He’s heading your way. Look toward the alley.
There was no need to search for which alley.
A racket of noise was rapidly approaching.
First came the face of a donkey.
Then Malcolm, screaming screams that barely qualified as screams.
“Uwaaaah! Ughak! I’m gonna dieee!”
Heeeeigh!
Malcolm and his donkey came flying toward them, tears and snot streaming.
Right behind them, two wolf monsters appeared.
Watching the spectacle, Jed was struck speechless.
How is that guy even still alive?
A man with neither exceptional physique nor martial skill was fleeing for his life with nothing but a single donkey.
Being on a donkey might explain some of it—except the donkey itself was moving with no special traits whatsoever.
In both speed and agility the wolf monsters were superior.
By every measure, Malcolm should already have been dinner.
Yet the wolf monsters still could not catch him.
More precisely, every time the two wolves tried to attack the pair, they tangled over each other, their movements clashing.
Whether they had simply run into clumsy ones or Malcolm’s luck was absurdly good—
Either way, killing the wolf monsters came first.
“Hey, Donkey Uncle! Over here!”
“Ughak! Ughak! Uwaaaah!”
Instead of answering, the man only screamed louder.
Useless bastard.
Just as Jed wondered whether he would have to match his own movements to theirs—
The donkey, as if it understood Jed’s words, twisted its body and charged straight toward him.
The thoroughly enraged wolf monsters came pounding after the pair, determined to catch them somehow.
One way or another, things were going according to plan.
The donkey shot past Jed.
Jed counted down silently.
Three, two, one.
At zero the body of a wolf monster filled his vision.
Jed hurled his accelerated body forward and plunged into the creature’s heart as its eyes rolled back.
Kyaaang!
One wolf monster died. The other realized this was no time to chase a donkey and moved to act.
But a lone remaining wolf was nothing more than a meal for Jed.
His reverse-gripped short sword claimed that one’s heart as well.
He had thought two at once might be difficult; the result left him almost disbelieving.
What a perfect decoy.
He half wondered if this was why Ferda kept the man around.
In any case, Jed tried to build a little camaraderie by offering praise.
“Whoa, you were flawless as bait, Uncle. Nice work—”
“Ugek! Uhek! I’m dying. I’m dead…….”
“…….”
It took another three hours for Malcolm, the excellent bait, to recover his soul.
Before the monsters attacked, Baldrova stood in the alley she had been ordered to guard.
Monsters are coming.
At that repeated phrase, every one of her senses reacted.
Everything happening in every direction was drawn out like a blueprint—vivid before her eyes, clear in her ears.
The range stretched beyond this village, past the forest beyond…….
Nothing could escape her perception.
Which was precisely why Baldrova deliberately dulled those senses.
What I must do is……
Kill the wolf monsters that enter this alley.
That alone would suffice.
Everything else could wait.
A short while later, the presence of the enemy forced her eyes open.
Grrrrr
The wolf monster bared its jaws and growled.
What she saw were not the yellow fangs of a beast, but green ones.
Kung!
It charged straight at Baldrova.
A threatening rush like a flying cannonball.
A human would have been terrified and would have needed every preparation to meet it.
To Baldrova, however, it was nothing more than a mere insect.
With speed and strength far greater than its own, she seized the monster’s snout and lifted it into the air.
Unable to resist, the wolf monster’s body was dragged along as she thrust her left hand into it.
Puhk!
She punched through its hide as though it were wet paper, yanked out the heart within, and crushed it.
Kwajik!
The entire process took one-tenth of a second.
Having killed more monsters than anyone, Baldrova finished it with the ease and speed of a simple factory process.
Krrk…….
The wolf monster died instantly, without even managing a yelp.
Baldrova confirmed its death and withdrew her hand.
Then, as if discarding trash, she flung the carcass onto the ground.
She did not look at the monster.
No—she could not allow herself to.
I must not look.
The moment her gaze settled there, something stirred and rose from within her heart.
Baldrova knew this emotion well.
Hatred.
Whenever she faced monsters she felt pure, vivid hatred, and she had burned that hatred as fuel.
That way she had slain the countless monsters that tried to leave the Land of Evil and advance.
Yet the emotion she felt now was slightly different from the familiar one she had always known.
It was fear.
Why……?
The answer was simple.
The situation was different now.
Back then she had been a dragon seeking to protect the continent; now she was a single knight who had to protect a village.
As a dragon she had flown to the Land of Evil, torn everything apart, and set it ablaze.
What she needed to protect had been behind her, and she had never needed to spare it a thought.
Even when she unleashed her deepest rage and ran wild, no one else was hurt.
The only one who could be hurt was herself.
But now, the things she had to protect stood right in the middle of everything.
If I go berserk……
Everyone would be hurt.
Hestia Village would burn, and people would die.
That was why this emotion terrified her.
Calm down.
She tried to stop the feeling from boiling over.
Yet her senses were sharper than anyone’s.
The stench of monster blood and the echoing howls could not be blocked by will alone.
In the end, a vicious wave of sorrow overturned her heart and swept everything away.
What remained was an unquenchable fire.
Deep rage directed at the demonkin.
That flame, that fury, once again prodded an unhealed wound.
The pain of the wound stirred her memories.
They’re trying to take them away again……
Everything she had built.
Everything she loved.
Godwin’s malice still moved, seeking to snatch it all and trample it underfoot.
It forced her to recall that will against her own.
“Ugh…….”
The fire was kindled.
Her unstoppable rage threatened to become pure impulse.
I have to go back.
She needed to leave this village at once and return to her lair.
If she could just rampage a little there, everything would be fine.
She prayed.
That until then, everything would go smoothly.
That nothing would happen—please.
“Kyaaaaah!”
She lifted her head.
Two girls who had failed to evacuate came into view.
A small girl, and a slightly larger one shielding her.
Baldrova knew them well.
They were the children she had rescued for three shillings.
She saw the vicious form of a monster about to swallow them whole.
No.
It opened its maw wide, ready to savagely violate the two girls who could not even resist.
The instant those jaws closed, both their forms and their lives would be gone.
No!
In that moment, a voice rang clearly in Baldrova’s ears once more.
Look, Baldrova.
It was Godwin’s voice.
The words he had spoken while looking at her, before the Dragon-Demon War began.
This is what it looks like when the things you wished to protect disappear.
In that instant, every hesitation in Baldrova’s mind vanished.
Her body moved on reflex—right foot bending, left foot stretching back into a stance.
Thwoom!
She left a massive shockwave behind her heel and became a human cannonball, launching forward.
Baldrova’s fist shot with all her strength toward the monster’s snout.
Kwajik!
The wolf’s jaws twisted and then tore clean off, flying into the wall.
Its body rolled like a tipped barrel, bouncing all the way out onto the main road.
Krrrk…… krrraaagh……!
The wolf monster, unable to gather its senses, spat out the blood that had pooled in its lungs.
The bloodlust forged solely for destruction charged at Baldrova.
Grrrrr kung!
Its snout was gone, yet its voice was unimpaired.
It had never been a real wolf to begin with—only something that mimicked the shape.
Nothing more than a filthy, crude composite imitating a wolf.
Don’t you dare hurt them.
The rage inside Baldrova blazed higher.
Even as it did, teeth harder than steel sank into her pauldron.
But her armor was made of rare minerals many times harder than steel.
A masterpiece of the Bronze Dragon, a being practically the god of blacksmiths.
Having wasted a move on a meaningless attack, the wolf was seized in return.
She slammed its ugly face into the ground.
Don’t you dare touch them.
Baldrova’s fist drove into the wolf’s flesh and shattered bone.
Kwadeudeuk!
Kyaaeng!
Too late, the wolf monster realized the truth.
It should never have charged this one—it should have fled.
Yet the hand that had burrowed into its body had no intention of letting go.
You’re the one who needs to disappear.
She was the very phase of Strength, and that phase poured out scarlet light from her eyes.
Baldrova tore out whatever she had seized.
The spine and ribs that had been hidden beneath the flesh came free with a grotesque sound.
Even the organs inside were shaken loose; the interior turned to complete pulp.
Not yet.
Monsters did not die easily. Baldrova simply reached in, gripped the heart, and crushed it.
The source of the monsters’ life was pulverized, and the wolf’s form began to melt away.
That was a monster’s complete death.
Still not enough.
Her rage would not stop.
Even the remaining form was hateful to her.
That corpse still seemed to mock and sneer at her.
Baldrova clenched her fist and aimed it at the face.
From this continent—
Her fist slammed down together with the ground.
Disappear forever!
Kuuung!
A tremendous boom.
At the same time, green blood splattered inside her helm and touched her skin.
Only then did she realize she had lost her reason, and she came back to herself.
“Ah.”
What left her mouth was ragged breathing.
What met her eyes was a floor stained purple and green.
And both her hands, painted in colors even more grotesque than that.
She raised her head.
Baldrova stood at the bottom of a crater-like depression in the ground.
Everyone had come outside and was staring at her.
She turned her gaze toward the alley.
The girls there were the same.
They were still terrified of the monster.
Even though the monster that had tried to harm them was already dead.
Ahh……
She knew.
That fear was directed at her.
That the monster—was herself.