Lord of Disease (JP-GL) 242

242: Rendezvous

“I’m sorry. Was it a one-on-one duel?”

I had seen Bridget and the Imperial Guard facing off and had ordered my Barghests to intervene. Since her opponent had been completely focused on Bridget, the surprise attack had been a complete success… but…

Had I, perhaps, wounded her knightly pride?

“No. I had no intention of making it more than a one-on-one fight.”

Bridget pulled her sword, which she had probably thrust with a merciful heart, from the body and, with a flick of her wrist, shook the blood from the blade. A crescent of blood was drawn on the sandy street.

She had a respect for her opponent, but she was not intoxicated by the romance of the battlefield. She was, in every sense, an ideal knight.

“—Are you alright?”

“Yes.”

“Liz is… here?”

As expected of Bridget. Liz, who had been concealing her presence, emerged from an alley. Was it her skill as the commander of the Dark Knights, or her sisterly intuition?

“I have eliminated a few small groups, along with Master. So far, no organized resistance has been confirmed.”

“Me too.” Bridget nodded.

“What about the others?”

“We’ve split up. Liz is with you. I’m alone. Harken and Rebecca, and Samarkand and Aithys are in pairs.”

“Samarkand and Aithys?” A rather unusual pairing. And besides, Aithys was our most important ‘ride,’ and I had thought she would be on standby in the air during this operation.

“They’re attacking with magic from the air, on Leaf’s back.”

As if on cue, a streak of light, like a shooting star, shot across the sky, and an explosion was heard in the industrial district.

“I see.”

The light and the sound were probably Samarkand’s [Fireball]. The doppelgangers should have already escaped from Wessphia, and our Barghests were not so foolish as to be hit by that.

“It’s good that we could rendezvous here. Liz, prioritize her protection.”

“Of course. I will conceal my presence… but I will be by your side.”

Liz’s presence vanished again. She had been talking just a moment ago, and even though I knew she was there, she was now completely undetectable. Her skill in hiding was perfect.

She said it was just a matter of suppressing her presence with simple techniques and using a weak illusion and perception-distorting spell to avoid being noticed. But how many assassins in this world could do that?

If necessary, she could even infiltrate and ambush without magic. In a world that was becoming increasingly reliant on magic, she was truly worthy of her title as one of the top five assassins in the world.

Bridget looked away from where Liz had been and turned to me.

“We will search for the enemy and, upon encounter, we will destroy them. The ideal is to annihilate them, but we will retreat if necessary.”

“Understood. But—”

“Don’t abandon anyone, right? I know.”

“Thank you.”

It was a complete surprise attack. And a night raid. Humans couldn’t see well in the dark, and they couldn’t perform at their best when they were woken up from their sleep. Some of the soldiers had probably been killed in their sleep, and some had probably been eaten as they rushed out.

As Liz and Bridget had said, there was no organized resistance. Even the Imperial Guard, who should have been in command, had been acting alone.

An army was an organization. And an army that couldn’t mount an organized resistance was just waiting to be slaughtered. Even the strength of an individual had succumbed to a surprise attack and the violence of numbers.

Barghests hunted in packs. One-on-one combat was not their way.

And of course, it was not my way either.

With Bridget by my side, and the Barghests on guard, we walked through the smoke-filled streets, heading for the military district. The sound of clashing swords.

We turned a corner, and the source of the sound was Harken. He was fighting three Imperial soldiers, with Rebecca behind him.

One of them was cut down, and the balance was broken. Two Imperial soldiers were no match for Harken. Another had his carotid artery severed by a blade that had been drawn across his neck, and he fell, a fountain of blood erupting from his throat. And before he hit the ground, the last one, forced into a one-on-one duel with an opponent that had been too much for three, had his guard broken and his skull split, and he followed his two comrades.

The three of them were not in armor, but in simple clothes, probably their nightclothes, and they were only armed with swords.

“Harken, are you alright?”

“As you can see. No need to trouble Rebecca-dono.” Harken nonchalantly flicked the blood from his sword and, without sheathing it, lowered it.

“At least one of the barracks was attacked by the Barghests, and it seems they were wiped out. There are no sentries left, and these guys were lucky to have been armed at all.” And he bowed his head slightly to me.

“I’m glad you’re safe, my master.”

“Thank you. —Rebecca, too? You’re alright?”

Rebecca was in her usual sword-and-magic, dual-wielding style, with a wand in her right hand and a dagger in her left. She nodded lightly.

“Of course. If it were the Imperial Guard, it would be a different story, but these are just grunts. I was prepared for the worst, given that we’re attacking Wessphia.”

“Yes. We haven’t seen any Imperial Guard yet.”

“I just killed one.”

“What? Bringit-dono has already taken one down?”

“…No. He was about to attack me, and he was mobbed by the Black Hound Barghests.”

“…Hmm. As a swordsman, I can’t help but feel a little pity. But that, too, is the way of the battlefield.”

A one-on-one duel in this world was, to put it bluntly, a game for those with the luxury of time. At best, it was a political decision to avoid further bloodshed. But unless it was a duel between allies in peacetime… there was no battlefield where the outcome was decided by such a thing.

While the knight in plate armor was still the star of the battlefield, the firepower of a mage was more important. And if you had a good balance of both… in the end, it was a matter of numbers.

Wessphia, for better or for worse, had few mages of the type who were active on the battlefield, for a city of its size and importance. While it was an important base, it was far from the front lines, and if a large army were to approach, they would have time to receive reports and reinforcements from other regions.

Thanks to that, it was a little easier for us, but our gains were also smaller.

“Liz is here, isn’t she?”

“Of course.” I nodded at Rebecca. I couldn’t see where she was… but since Liz had said she would be by my side, she was.

“I’m relieved. Liz, I’m counting on you to protect Master. And rejoice, Harken. It seems we’ve found an Imperial Guard.”

At the end of the road, there was a single armored knight. A bucket-like helmet, and armor that prioritized strength over design. And the color of that armor was red.

In the Perte Empire, only the Emperor and the Imperial Guard were permitted to wear red. And that was no emperor.

The enemy was the Imperial Guard. And he was not careless, like the one before.

He was the elite of the Empire.