Chapter 114
Chapter 114
For an instant, my thoughts failed to keep up with the situation as beams of light dropped down on both sides of me.
The schedule in Leipzig had been something that happened so suddenly that I hadn’t even had time to prepare anything.
Events and developments that unfolded according to the original work—things like the dungeon exploration, the final exam of the first semester, or the terrorist incident at the academic festival—were matters I already knew about in advance, so it had been possible to make some preparations or set up insurance of sorts.
But the battle against Gremory in South Yorkshire, or the situation that had just unfolded here, were developments that deviated from the original story.
There had been nothing to prepare for.
I had been forced to push through relying solely on my own martial strength.
Even so, the two beams of light that dropped down on either side of me had been completely unexpected.
“…….”
Isabel, too, seemed unable to keep up with the sudden turn of events, raising her sword and taking on a guarded stance.
Immediately after, the ground struck by the beams of light rippled, and the shape of something began to appear.
‘…Teleport?’
For a brief moment, the magical knowledge I had learned at the Academy flashed through my mind.
Beams of light were magic used to fix coordinates.
Once the spatial-axis coordinates of that space were secured, the conditions for teleportation were complete.
But the surrounding area was in chaos due to the war against monsters.
That meant the teleport had been activated from a considerable distance away, and there was only one person I could think of who could pull it off this cleanly.
“Chris.”
But there were two beams of light.
She must have realized, by some means, that I was facing a certain crisis.
If she had asked someone to accompany her, it would have had to be someone on the same level.
The silhouettes of a man and a woman wavered within the beams of light.
Seeing those reassuring figures, a smile naturally formed on my face.
“Master, Chris.”
Two helpers, both considered among the strongest beings in the world, had appeared to help me.
Soon, the beams of light slowly faded away.
The woman who had been on my left, Chris, took a step forward.
She then lowered her head and spilled something onto the ground.
“…Ugh.”
“…Alice?”
Not the brilliant golden hair, but pale blond hair dyed with an artifact swayed against her shoulders, announcing her presence.
On the opposite side, the Sword Saint—no, Werner—grabbed my shoulder with a twisted expression on his face.
“I knew I’d get motion sickness, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad, urgh…….”
He, too, lowered his head and retched dryly.
Seeing that, I closed my eyes and turned my head away.
Sorry.
I closed my eyes because I didn’t want to see this.
Alice, Werner—are you serious? This is really Academy top-tier support.
Were those really the same nerdy friends?
“Ugh…….”
…Seems like they were.
After swaying unsteadily for a short while, the two of them returned to their senses and stood beside me.
There were still various things smeared around Alice’s mouth, and Werner’s complexion was pale beyond words, but even so, their presence gave me some peace of mind compared to having no one at all.
“…I was hanging out at Leysias’s place when someone who introduced herself as your acquaintance came looking for me. She said her name was Chris.”
Alice whispered to me while glaring at Isabel standing in front of us.
When I nodded, she pulled something out from her bosom and handed it to me.
“She suddenly said you might be in danger, so I was planning to come alone at first. I can handle most traps by myself. But then Werner…….”
“I still haven’t shown my true worth yet, have I?”
“…said that and insisted on coming along.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the exchange between the two of them.
No matter how the process had gone, the fact remained that they had come to help me.
Of course, if the two who had appeared beside me had been the Sword Saint and Chris, it would have been truly reassuring—but even now, my mood wasn’t bad at all.
“So what is this?”
What she handed me was a small bead, about the size of a thumbnail.
“She said you’d need it.”
Since it was something Chris had given, it wouldn’t be an ordinary item.
Just in case, I clicked the status window, and a string of explanations immediately appeared.
[Mana Bead Made by an Archmage]
Crunch.
The moment I read that line, I put the bead into my mouth and bit down without hesitation.
Instantly, mana spread throughout my entire body, which had been steeped in fatigue and weakness, and I began to regain my vitality.
‘This effect is insane.’
Mana Beads were a kind of simple elixir that started appearing around the latter half of the story, after the Sword Saint’s death.
They didn’t have the kind of refined effects you’d see in other novels, like instantly increasing internal energy or boosting strength the way some supreme elixir would.
But when it came to replenishing depleted mana and recovering physical fatigue, they boasted outstanding effectiveness.
‘As expected of something from an archmage.’
Other mages only managed to make something like this much later in the story, yet she’d brought it out already at the beginning.
I really did seem to be blessed with good connections.
“Are you done playing house, pretty ones?”
As I slowly exhaled, feeling my mana steadily fill up, Isabel—who had been watching us warily—finally began to move.
Long-distance teleportation fell under high-tier magic.
With Azazel and Descartes already down, the arrival of reinforcements on my side put her at a disadvantage.
She seemed to have observed us for a moment because of that, but soon, having assessed our combat power, she flashed a confident smile.
“One Sword Master on the verge of collapse, a half-baked Expert, and dead weight. What a nice little dessert.”
At the words “Sword Master,” Werner glanced sideways at me.
In response, I gestured toward Isabel with my eyes and spoke.
“She’s a Sword Master too. I managed to deal with the two lying behind her somehow, but I was short on strength since I was alone.”
“Hm…….”
At the realization that their opponent was also a Sword Master, both of them tensed up.
She was far stronger than Alice, who had only just begun to eye upper-tier Expert, and for Werner—who had only recently entered the Expert ranks—she was an existence he couldn’t even dare to oppose.
“But she’s not in perfect condition either.”
Excalibur’s skill had struck her directly—there was no way there hadn’t been an impact.
In fact, the Aura Blade that had been surging atop her sword wavered precariously, like a candle flame on the verge of being extinguished.
At this point, it was barely worthy of being called aura at all.
I was in much the same state, having poured out all my strength, but thanks to the Mana Bead Chris had sent over through Alice, I was gradually recovering my power.
In other words, unless further support arrived on the enemy’s side, time was on our side.
‘It’s strange that Chris herself didn’t come, though.’
If she had appeared in person, she could have wiped out not only Isabel but even the monster horde charging toward Leipzig Castle in the blink of an eye.
But whether she wanted to avoid standing out, or for some other reason, Chris had sent these two in her stead.
“She’s coming!”
Alice’s sharp shout split the battlefield.
As if unwilling to waste any more time, Isabel kicked off the ground and charged straight at us.
“Whew…….”
I had managed to stabilize myself somewhat after taking a brief rest and was about to engage her, but Alice leapt forward a step faster than me.
Clang-!
Her sword, imbued with golden energy, collided with Isabel’s aura, which was formed of demonic power.
Given the original gap between them, Alice should have been blown far away by this single exchange, but whether Isabel’s strength had truly diminished, she was only pushed back a few steps.
“…Ugh.”
Even so, the shock must have been considerable—Alice frowned deeply and gripped her sword again.
Isabel, too, seemed displeased with the current situation.
It was only natural that she wouldn’t like the fact that a mere underling who hadn’t yet reached Sword Master was blocking her blade.
“Ostia, I—”
“Werner, go to the city wall and help the soldiers.”
He gave a heavy nod at my words.
The one who could hold the line against a Master-level opponent was Alice.
Werner, who hadn’t yet reached that level, wouldn’t even be able to withstand a single strike from her.
I believed that everyone had a place where they fit best.
He couldn’t handle Isabel, but against ordinary monsters, he would fight splendidly.
Knowing that himself, he didn’t hesitate—he turned and sprinted toward the city wall.
Even so, the way he bit down hard on his lip likely meant he was blaming his own inadequacy.
I hoped he would turn that frustration into fuel for further growth.
Boom-!
A long slash carved itself into the ground along the path of Isabel’s swung sword.
Alice panted roughly, flipping through the air to evade it, and landed right in front of me.
“I was planning to hold out until you recovered a bit more, but Master-level really is too much.”
Alice spoke with a weary face as she tightly gathered and tied up her now-disheveled hair.
Only about thirty seconds had passed since the exchange began, but as I’d said before, the difference in level meant it was more exhausting than trading hundreds of blows with someone of equal strength.
Of course, if Isabel truly overexerted herself, she could easily kill someone like Alice—but that was with me watching from right beside her.
“Then let’s switch roles.”
If I took her head-on and Alice looked for an opening, we could tilt the fight in our favor.
I gathered the fragments of recovered mana, ignited a vivid blue Aura Blade atop my sword, and charged at Isabel without regard for anything else.
“All right, pretty one. Let’s put an end to this fight!”
She, too, seemed eager to finish things quickly, surging forward with the same reckless momentum.
Clang-!
In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen exchanges took place.
Isabel pressured me far more fiercely than when she had been fighting Alice, all while keeping an eye on her.
Slash-!
Our blades grazed each other’s bodies as they passed.
Unlike me, whose blood burst forth, she was a Majin—she didn’t bleed, so she didn’t have to worry about dying from excessive blood loss.
Of course, thanks to the effect of the holy sword, damage would still penetrate within, but for the moment, the advantage lay with the enemy.
“Got you.”
And then, my breathing faltered first, slowed by repeated blood loss.
Isabel thrust her sword toward my chest with a face full of triumph, but I met her with a broad grin.
“Did you forget something?”
“……!”
Her face twisted as a brilliant golden energy surged in from her side, riding the tip of a sharp blade.
I wanted to praise her for desperately twisting her body to avoid it in that situation, but from the start, my real aim hadn’t been Alice’s surprise attack.
Tap.
I knocked aside the sword she had thrust toward my chest with the back of my hand.
My skin split open, leaving my hand mangled, but it was better than having my chest pierced.
And immediately after, I swung Excalibur with all my might, slashing across her chest.
Slice.
However, perhaps because my stance was unstable, the trajectory twisted slightly.
In the end, my blade only managed to cut part of Isabel’s face and her shoulder.
“…Such a shame.”
Looking at my left hand, now little more than a rag, I let out a sigh at having missed such a perfect opportunity.
“…You bastard!!!”
Isabel began screaming as if she were being torn apart.
More shocking to her than having her shoulder cut was the fact that her face had been marred.
She clutched the bridge of her nose where blood flowed, glaring at me with pitch-black eyes bulging with veins, as though she wanted to kill me.
“What, does it piss you off when it happens to you?”
White holy flames began to burrow into the wound of the one who had taken Excalibur’s direct hit, burning into her flesh.
At a glance, it looked as though the tide had turned, but this was the most dangerous moment.
A wounded beast was more ferocious than ever—and I, too, wasn’t in perfect condition.
But before the battle could be decided, a massive explosion of sound erupted from the direction of the city wall, drawing everyone’s attention.
Kroooaaar—!
A Triple-Head Ogre, its body fused into an unnatural form, was brutally pounding on the city wall.
Several soldiers and knights were caught up in it and reduced to bloody pulp, while the remaining ones staggered as they barely managed to hold it back.
“…Ostia.”
At Alice’s call, I turned my head again.
Isabel, who had been right in front of us, along with the Majin bodies lying on the ground, had vanished without a trace.
Alice looked at me as if asking whether we should give chase, but I shook my head with a sigh.
“No. I just let them go.”
If we kept fighting here and a cornered Isabel resorted to mutual destruction, leaving either Alice or me critically wounded, the situation would only become more troublesome.
Compared to the impact when this incident first began, it was an anticlimactic conclusion—but as I dismissed Excalibur’s summoning, I spoke.
“From now until the end of vacation, I’m not lifting a single finger.”
After going through this much trouble, I figured I deserved at least a little rest.