Chapter 124 : Farewell, my friend. (2)
Farewell, my friend. (2)
Summon, deploy, combustion.
When I spoke the second of the three trigger words I remembered,
"Deploy."
I realized that a voice charged with mana has a different resonance.
And then—
Fwoosh.
Flames flared up from Nash's crossguard.
It was something I had seen almost every day before leaving the shop—
'That's Plerine's magic.'
A surge of emotion welled up inside me.
I was so glad to see that dazzling blue light.
There was no Plerine here, but it felt almost like she was with me.
But this was only the most basic of the magics placed on Nash.
Since the enchantment was Plerine's unique magic, the kind that would leave her utterly exhausted after staying up all night,
'I have to chant the next trigger or activation word!'
Just as I was about to open my mouth—
Boom!
Schutmann's body exploded forward, charging at me.
As expected, he wasn't the type to leave my trump card alone.
His face, eyes wide in vigilance, flashed in my mind.
But it didn't matter.
'He won't kill me!'
I was the one he'd essentially ignored while turning the other company commanders into bloody pulp.
I couldn't block or dodge, I had to chant.
"Combustion."
No, not that one. Next.
"Co—"
Tskaang!!
"...phantom!"
Right before my eyes, swords clashed and flames burst.
Literally, right in front of me!
'That bastard...'
Schutmann aimed his blade at my face,
But it was deflected by the battalion commander's One Point.
While I was focusing on the chant, the battalion commander had also come flying at me.
'If the battalion commander hadn't reacted, I'd be dead!'
Even having lost one arm, his mental fortitude was astounding, and at the same time, Schutmann's animalistic senses gave me chills.
Until now, he hadn't been trying to kill me, but—
'He noticed the magic on Nash isn't ordinary.'
What a monster.
Still, fortunately, his surprise attack had failed,
and my mouth spoke the final trigger, resonating through the air.
"Deploy."
Crackle!
A surge of intense sparks shot up Nash's blade, making my hair stand on end.
The electricity mingled with the fire spewing from the crossguard.
At that moment—
Tzzzzzt!
Nash, which had been a shortsword, transformed into a long blue plasma sword.
I had seen this magic before.
'It's the same magic Plerine used on close-range monsters.'
This meant that the unique magic Plerine embedded hadn't fully manifested yet.
But—
'Schutmann's body is exposed.'
Schutmann, who had attacked with terrifying speed in a sudden thrust.
His sword strike was parried by the battalion commander, causing a large delay.
He and I were now in very close proximity.
In that case—
'I should be able to cut him down with this, right?'
Even as this thought crossed my mind, a flicker of worry appeared for a split second.
My swordsmanship was terrible—unless it was with a kitchen knife.
But this idiotic hesitation didn't last long.
No, it was practically nonexistent.
Before my brain could decide, my body was already moving.
I thrust the tip of the plasma sword toward Schutmann's exposed torso.
'This is my only chance!!'
With that thought, I kicked off the ground.
At that moment—
'What the...?'
Schutmann's body recoiled backward in a strange flow.
But surprisingly, I wasn't flustered.
My eyes remembered his unique movement technique.
'It's the same move he showed on the day Jeros disappeared!'
Following the movement that branched off from White Fang's stance, 'White Fang', I chased after his evasion route and shouted again as I kicked forward.
"Deploy!!"
At that moment, tzzzzt,
Sparks erupted again, and the plasma sword left a deeper afterimage.
Just as the blue blade was about to touch Schutmann's body—
Chrrrrrk!
Red iron chains appeared at Schutmann's feet.
'Damn it!'
I instinctively slowed down.
If I touched those chains, my position and Schutmann's would be switched and everything would be ruined.
But—
"Ralph!!"
At the sound of the battalion commander's voice, I realized I wasn't the target of the chains.
Schutmann's Kitenic Shift was flying toward Ralph.
'No!'
If this continued, Ralph would die just like Zaiya.
That couldn't happen. Absolutely not!
'I have to turn the magic off, but...?'
Just a fraction of a second ago, I was doing anything to activate my spell,
but now I had the exact opposite problem.
However, my body, governed by inertia, continued moving forward—
Fwoosh.
The blue blade in my hand pierced a person's abdomen, making an odd sound.
Sizzle.
The sound of meat burning,
"Kuhek...!"
A groan from a middle-aged man.
As a result, I could say, with confidence, to the owner of that voice—
"This is..."
I was probably grinning nastily.
"...the taste of flame, you bastard!"
Exhausted after a long battle, Schutmann failed to activate his OOPArts skill,
allowing me to stab the plasma sword into the lower right of Schutmann's abdomen.
'But I can't stop here.'
I intended to slice through his spine and torso, searing him through—
"!!"
Schutmann's beige aura surged toward my left.
Thankfully, his sword strike was much slower than before,
slow enough for even my 3rd-rank eyes to follow, so I'd likely be able to dodge.
'Dodge and cut him down!'
With that thought, I roused my mana—
Pak!
A force grabbed me and yanked me backward, collapsing my balance.
At the same time, my plasma sword missed Schutmann's torso and slipped out at his side.
Tch!
Blood spurted out—it was little more than a scratch, though.
'Why?'
Thrown back, I turned to see who had pulled me.
It was the battalion commander.
His beard had gone whitish again,
and the aura gathered on his One Point had thinned out as well.
'Damn it.'
Schutmann's sword vanished like a mirage and reappeared somewhere else.
Not to my left, but right in front of me!
'It was Phantom Sword.'
For a moment, I thought I was done for,
but then the battalion commander's aura vanished.
'OOPArts' duration ended.'
Now the battalion commander couldn't use aura.
The old man would be unable to block Schutmann's aura.
However—
'That's the chance.'
As Schutmann slashed at the battalion commander with aura, I'd strike at the same time!
I'm sorry, battalion commander.
And thank you.
With these feelings, I put strength in my legs to rise—
Zgk.
—with that sound, the aura condensed on Schutmann's arming sword dissipated.
"!!"
Schutmann's right hand, gripping his sword, flew off,
blood spurting from the cut stump.
'Ralph!'
I've never seen brother big-jaw look so reliable.
Ralph's Strong Sword, having approached unnoticed, had done it.
Now, all that was left was the battalion commander's finishing blow—
'Damn it, why now!'
Quivering.
The tip of the battalion commander's sword trembled violently.
It seemed he was suffering backlash from forcibly using 5th-rank strength,
while Schutmann, face twisted like a demon, screamed.
"You filthy little bug!!"
For a swordsman, losing your right hand is to lose everything.
His rage was almost satisfying,
but brother big-jaw didn't let his guard down for a moment.
Ralph raised his sword high for a follow-up strike.
"Huahhhh!!"
With a shout, he swung the blade down with both hands.
Swaaang!
A massive slash of mana accompanied it.
With his right hand and arming sword lost, Schutmann had no way to block.
Goodbye, you bastard.
Flash.
Swish—
A great spurt of blood erupted.
And then,
his upper and lower body separated.
"Kuheaaaaa!!"
It felt like my brain had stopped.
W-wait.
No, just wait a second.
"...?"
With a thud, the upper body hit the ground and rolled over.
Because it had been cut by aura before he could even notice.
I called out his name.
"Ral...ph?"
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
My heart pounded violently.
The one losing blood wasn't Schutmann, but—
'It was Ralph.'
What happened?
I looked at Schutmann again, trying to process reality.
In that bastard's left hand...
"Shit."
There was the kitchen knife I dropped before I blacked out.
He had picked it up at some point...
No, more than that,
two of my allies had fallen to my own kitchen knife?
Beeeeeeeeep—
A ringing noise filled my ears and my vision wavered.
It felt like an earthquake.
Spot.
Battalion commander and Schutmann vanished with the magic array.
A ten had appeared in the cursed artifact's eyeball.
Grit. Crack!
My jaw clenched so hard my teeth nearly shattered.
So did my legs.
Tatataat.
I dashed toward Ralph's upper body, barely escaping the artifact's activation range.
"Ralphhhh!!"
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
The sound of my pounding heart blurred my senses,
but I barely came to with Ralph's voice.
"Khak! Damn, quit shouting."
Ralph kept coughing up blood.
Of course, there was much more coming from below than from above.
"I mean, you..."
"I lost my legs, not my ears. Khak, khak!"
I couldn't speak.
My throat was tight.
I couldn't see a thing.
Like a car window in a downpour,
the world blurred by tears, turning Ralph's gruesome form into a mosaic.
Maybe that was a mercy.
"You remember that? The reason I wanted to get stronger, khak! That talk."
A sudden recollection of our sparring flashed through my mind.
When we'd arrived at the frontline, we'd chatted idly about that.
― But Ian. Why do you want to get stronger?
At that time I said it was just fun to get stronger.
And Ralph—
― If you won't laugh, I'll tell you.
― Ah, no! I can't tell you after all!
He'd dodged the question this way.
I wiped away tears and nodded.
"You never told me."
Hearing that, Ralph grinned at me.
His once-yellow teeth were now stained scarlet with blood.
"My dream was... khak."
"......"
"To be a... knight."
To be honest, I'd suspected.
Ralph was different from the other company commanders.
He was very conscious of Schutmann.
That all started when he became a company commander and learned who Schutmann was.
"When I was little... a quack instructor at the local sword school said I was a genius. That was the start. Heh heh."
Crrrack. Veins bulged on the back of his clenched fist.
"Damn... he really was a quack."
"Khuh. He... sure was."
Ralph's pupils were crystal clear.
Dreaming, and then chasing that dream—his life was burning bright at the end.
I felt unbearably sad,
but Ralph smiled, as if satisfied, as if he had no regrets.
"Thank you, Ian."
"No... it's not like that."
Please, don't say that. Please.
The truth is, Ralph, I planned to use you.
But then I came to like you.
So,
please,
don't say things like that.
"Because of you, I was happy—and I got closer to my dream."
In that moment—
Ding.
〈 Quest [2] Raising the Inn (Stage 4) goal achieved. 〉
〈 Congratulations! Reward granted. 〉
〈 A new feature has been unlocked. 〉
〈 A new quest has been added. 〉
It seemed my intimacy with Ralph had finally reached 100%.
... For the first time, I hated the sound of a quest-clear notification.
"What's your dream, Ian?" he asked.
I couldn't answer Ralph's question.
My greatest goal and dream in this world was—
'To go back to Earth, to go home.'
It wasn't something to tell someone from this world.
So I swallowed my words.
"Please, fulfil your dream, Ian. Heh heh."
"...... Yeah."
"Kuhh. Keep... going..."
〈 Regular Customer 'Nagel Ralph' has died. 〉
〈 Regular Customer 'Nagel Ralph' has died. 〉
With the death notification, a halo of light began to gather around Ralph's blood and flesh.
It was the effect I'd often seen on my monitor.
'When someone with an OOPArts dies, it's always like this.'
It had always thrilled me in the game,
but now, it didn't at all.
Wiping away tears, I reached out to where the halo gathered.
The blue gem I found in my hand was unexpectedly warm.
It felt as if it held Ralph's body heat.
After a moment,
the halo of light faded, leaving only the OOPArts in my hand.
That which I had given to Ralph—
'Fragment of the Firmament.'
Unlike in the game, there was no double-click to equip it,
but instinctively, I sent mana into it.
The blue gem in my hand floated into the air.
Next, I felt an overwhelming power flow from the gem into my body.
No, more than that, it was closer to something pouring into my very soul.
Wooooong.
Wooooooong.
Fragment of the Firmament radiated a mystical light.
At last, the blue gem embedded itself into my palm.
There was no pain at all.
And—
"!!"
The mana that had been empty within me was rapidly replenished.
And that wasn't all.
'I can see it.'
I could see the particles of mana.
My mystical power had increased greatly, and I'd stepped into a new world.
〈 Quest [3] Survive (Stage 2) goal achieved. 〉
〈 Congratulations! Reward granted. 〉
〈 A new quest has been added. 〉
With this, I had become a complete 4th-rank.