Chapter 4: Starting with a Lie
The flames fell.
He didn’t know what had happened, but in the spur of the moment, his pride and joy, his left hand, should have grabbed her. His Golden Left Hand that could steal anything.
He had certainly grabbed her.
“…Huh?”
Only the girl’s burned-off arm.
Beyond that—there was nothing. The flames of instant annihilation. Whether he had jumped out or been blown away before he knew it, he could see nothing but flames other than himself.
A picture of hell spread out before him.
“W-Why… what… happened?”
『We’re running, Contractor.』
Before he knew it, the sword was in his grip. It had probably moved his right hand on its own, manipulating him just like in the fight with Schutz earlier to escape.
The Demonic Sword Sein Troll; its compulsive force moved his body further.
But,
“W-Wait. Let’s look for that girl. Before we run. She was blown away somewhere. Maybe if we treat her, she might make it.”
Solo resisted the sword’s compulsion.
An distorted situation where his right hand pulled and his body resisted.
『She’s already dead.』
“Don’t say random crap.”
He knew. He knew that he was the one talking nonsense. There was no way that girl was alive. After all, she had been bathed in flames that burned her arm clean off.
Unlike him, who was saved by the Demonic Sword—
“Hero-dono!”
Brushing aside the flames, the ‘Iron Knight’ Schutz appeared in front of Solo. He must be in a magically enhanced state like before. He looked rugged and massive.
“Thank goodness you are safe!”
“…W-What the hell is going on, Pops! Explain—”
“There is… no time for that!”
Schutz drew his sword and pointed it at the sky. A violent crash; the sword clashed with the claws of a monster descending from the sky.
“Wha!?”
Solo looked up at the sky. Illuminated by the fires on the ground, there were lizard-like monsters with glistening scales, bat wings, and eagle legs.
Against them,
“Bloom, Water Heavens! 『Ga-Tao Spada』!”
“Rage, Gale! 『Ga-Typhon Lança』!”
“Neigh, Blue Flames! 『Azul-Proc Arcus』!”
The knights, whom he had only recognized as Luna’s guards and hangers-on, were manipulating magic and waging battle against the monsters that held the absolute advantage of the sky.
With fierce expressions, harboring anger in their eyes—
“Kishaaa!”
“Do not underestimate me!”
Schutz also grabbed the wings of the monster confronting him, a wyvern, and slammed it onto the ground with brute force. Following that superhuman strength—
“Begone! 『Ga-Stahl Recht』!”
The black iron armor covering his entire body gathered on his right arm, transforming into a fist the size of two humans. He slammed it with full force onto the fallen wyvern.
“Kya—”
A super-heavy blow that crushed even its death cry.
“A-Amazing.”
Completely different from the sparring match the other day, Schutz in actual combat looked terrifyingly large and strong in Solo’s eyes. The other knights also appeared to have the upper hand.
『Let’s turn tail and run, quick.』
(What are you saying, Toro-suke. These people can win.)
『You idiot. This is just a—』
Mid-sentence, Solo’s body began to move rapidly.
At the same time,
“Nu, oh!?”
Schutz’s right arm, which had turned into a giant lump of iron, shattered into pieces.
“Oh, did I miss the mark?”
A low voice that seemed to resonate in the bottom of one’s stomach, words like an earth tremor, echoed out.
The owner of that voice extended its tail from deep within the flames and destroyed Schutz’s mighty arm with a single blow. That gigantic body, that majestic appearance; Solo gulped down his saliva.
Even to an amateur’s eye,
“That’s some scrap iron I’ve seen somewhere before, oy.”
“…Fernig of the ‘Black Heavens’, direct subordinate to the Four Heavenly Kings.”
It was on a different level.
“A-Ah…”
A chill ran through him from the bottom of his heart. This was a first experience for Solo. To be overwhelmed by the difference in status as a living being just by it being there.
The gigantic body covered in jet-black dragon scales was distinct from the monsters flying around the area. Its majestic horns were twisted and pierced the heavens. Its hair burned like the hellfire itself.
However, only one of its crimson eyes was open for some reason.
“Steel, eliminate all difficulties! 『Mega-Stahl』!”
Schutz’s armor swelled up even more than before, turning into a larger lump of steel. But even so, it didn’t even reach half the height of the Black Dragon.
There was no way he could win.
“Pops!”
Still, Schutz ran toward the Black Dragon without hesitation. With the earth tremors caused by his super-heavy weight. Mocking him, looking down on him as insignificant, the Black Dragon, Fernig.
With a motion like yawning, it spewed hellfire from its mouth.
Against that, head-on,
“Nuuu!”
Schutz caught it. Drip, drop. The rock of iron melted and crumbled before their eyes. He was helpless. Even though he looked so big and strong—
“Now is the time!”
Schutz’s eyes glanced at Solo behind him. Was it expectation for the Hero holding the Demonic Sword—no, the Holy Sword?
But Solo couldn’t move a muscle.
Because there was no way he could match that.
His heart had snapped in two.
Naturally,
『…』
Toro had no intention of fighting either. It wasn’t an opponent the current Solo could match. No matter what ‘sacrifice’ he paid, the value Solo possessed wasn’t enough.
So it didn’t even propose a deal, or negotiate.
“I’m just a thief. Don’t look at me with those eyes.”
Trembling, terrified, unable to move a muscle.
Just like the knights, he felt anger that the villagers he had gotten to know, that girl, were killed. He thought it was unforgivable.
But still, his body wouldn’t move.
(Toro-suke, if I leave it to you, can we win?)
『If you leave it to me, we won’t win in a lifetime. You get it now, right? This is the Demon King’s Army. There are at least four guys stronger than this monster, and the Demon King reigns above them.』
(…Humans against guys like that—)
『Can’t win. That’s why they cling even to something from the boonies like me, right? A sliver of possibility, what they call hope. Ephemeral, and easily broken.』
Humans cannot win.
Finally, he understood the desperation of the knights and Luna. Against something like this, there was nothing to do but pray to the Goddess. There was no way human hands could do anything.
“…Huh?”
『Finally noticed? She’s been on standby for a while now.』
Behind Fernig, a silver radiance pierced the heavens.
“Ah?”
“…As expected.”
The star performer,
“Gigaaa Blitzuuu Blaaaade!”
Arrived.
“Gah, aaaaaah!”
A gigantic silver lightning bolt, taking the shape of a beautiful sword.
Princess Knight, Luna Andreia. Her killer blow caught Fernig. Pressuring that gigantic body, pushing it back, severing the Black Dragon’s scales that repelled all attacks.
“Shiiiine!”
Solo saw hope in that figure. A Hero must refer to a person like her. Humanity’s hope, the strongest guardian.
Pushing back a dragon that transcended human understanding.
“Ha, hahahahaha! Finally found you! Human womaaan!”
However, it didn’t reach the point of severing it.
“This is the domain of humans. Get lost, lizard boss.”
“…Still an impudent woman. But I shall forgive you. For the primate of all beings is generous.”
Silver hair fluttering, facing Fernig, contending with him. Could any other human do that? Who else but her could do it?
“Inner radiance… 『Grow Up』.”
Silver lightning surged through her entire body.
And then,
“Howeveeeer, I will not forgive you for taking my eye!”
Leaving only a crackling sound, Luna vanished from the spot. A series of sounds like thunder; all one could perceive was that gigantic body shaking along with the sound.
She might win.
Hope dwelled in Solo’s eyes.
“Is that dull blade the Demonic Sword Troll?”
“…Indeed. The sword that will slay you!”
“Hah-ha! The current Demon King is a coward. To be scared of something like this!”
“Silence!”
However,
“…No good. As expected, it won’t get through.”
Schutz, crawling out from his armor which was on the verge of melting and almost completely destroyed, grimaced.
In the previous battle on the front lines against the Demon King’s Army, although there were more sacrifices than this, their attacks had penetrated a little more. As expected, this was a weapon of lower rank than the sword lost in that battle.
With that, she couldn’t win. She couldn’t finish it.
It was a famous sword blessed by the Goddess, prepared by a great nation staking its prestige. Even so, it took one eye and broke.
It couldn’t withstand the dragon’s power, or Luna’s power.
The current sword was of a lower rank than that; with that, she couldn’t fight even as well as before.
“Hero-dono, no, Solo-dono. Please lend that sword to the Princess! As it stands, we will be worn down, but with the power of the Holy Sword, we might be able to change the tide of battle!”
“I-Is that so! Understood!”
I didn’t think of that, Solo thought, and tried to let go immediately.
But,
『Can’t do it. I can’t make the next contract unless the current contractor dies.』
“Eh? But before, you threatened to terminate the contract—”
『That was a lie.』
“Huh?”
Toro denied that proposal.
“What are you doing? Hurry, she is pushing herself even with that!”
Schutz, who couldn’t hear Toro’s voice, urged Solo impatiently. To Solo’s eyes, it looked like she had the upper hand, but this knight didn’t seem to think so.
“No, um, the sword says, only one contractor.”
“…What are you saying? A sword speaking… impossible!”
“It speaks! Besides, um, if I hand it over, it says I have to die. No, well, if I die, I can hand it over, but…”
Solo spoke straight and honestly. If he died, it might work out. This time, without lying, he spoke only the truth.
“…This is… not… a joke?”
Schutz was stunned, his face contorted. Surely, he was thinking desperately right now.
『You’ll be killed, Contractor.』
Whether to kill Solo or not.
(…I don’t want to die. But, no matter how you think about it, it shouldn’t be me.)
Solo looked at the surrounding scenery. And once again, he savored the sensation of the girl’s arm he had let go of before he knew it. Strongly, strongly—
That was the only way.
『…Is that so.』
It was the best method.
“…Forgive me.”
There was no time to hesitate. Schutz raised his sword, intending to do it with his own hands—
“I told you I appear out of nowhere and have hell ears.”
Luna, appearing like a flash of light, stopped that sword just in the nick of time.
“Schutz, is that something a knight does?”
“B-But…”
“Sheathe your sword. Do not disappoint me.”
“…As you wish.”
At his liege lord Luna’s anger, Schutz clenched his teeth and sheathed his sword.
“Hey, where did you disappear to!?”
Fernig hadn’t been able to track her with his eye; he was searching for Luna. It was a tactical victory for Luna, who struck at the blind spot of his single eye and temporarily vanished.
In the midst of battle, in the time created for just a moment,
“I concede. I underestimated the dragon’s cruising range, and the anger and tenacity over having a precious eye taken. The result is this mess.”
Luna smiled and spoke to Solo.
“Everything is my responsibility.”
Straight ahead, shining eyes met his gaze.
“I will defeat that. I am the country’s greatest warrior, after all; I will surely show you victory.”
“Y-Yeah. You can do it. If not you—”
Luna pressed her forehead against Solo’s forehead.
“Therefore—”
Only Luna’s eyes were in his field of vision. It must be the same for Luna. No one else could see. The expression of the Hero who had continued to fight as the country’s greatest warrior, which she couldn’t show anyone,
“Won’t you continue the lie?”
Weakness wavered in her pupils.
“…”
“As much as you can, is fine.”
A small, frail voice.
“…It’s impossible for me.”
“…Right, I know. I understand.”
She was a girl appropriate for her age; she was human too. No matter what kind of warrior or Hero, there is weakness deep inside. Solo saw it. He had seen it.
“Rest assured. It’s alright now.”
When their foreheads separated, she was already wearing the mask of a warrior, of a Hero.
Strong, noble, beautiful—
“Schutz, protect him and take him to a safe place.”
“…I beg of you. Please, let me accompany you to the end—”
“I said I would win, didn’t I?”
“…As you wish!”
Giving the order to protect the citizen, she turned away dashingly.
Surely that face was majestic, the very face of a Hero.
So—
“L-Leave it to me! Because I’m Hero-sama chosen by the Holy Sword!”
Solo lied.
A gigantic, once-in-a-lifetime lie.
Hearing that,
“…Thank you.”
Luna looked back and smiled happily. A smile like a girl her age. Solo would surely never forget this day, or her, for the rest of his life.
Shining brighter than anyone,
“Radiance, pierce the heavens! 『Giga Blitz Blade』!”
Her, who looked like a Hero to anyone’s eyes.
“There you are!”
“Shiiiine!”
Silver lightning pierced the heavens.
Taking that opportunity,
“Excuse me.”
Schutz grabbed Solo and ran in the opposite direction. The knight who should protect the Princess was leaving the battlefield before anyone else. Solo couldn’t look directly at him.
The loyal knight who clenched his teeth until they bled, yet followed the order of his beloved Princess. If he hadn’t contracted with Toro, if he hadn’t come here, maybe—
Thinking that made his heart creak.
“DO NOT RUN, HUMAN.”
“Tch!”
Dragons, dependents of the Black Dragon and a size larger than the earlier wyverns, attacked. It was impossible to engage them while carrying Solo.
“P-Pops!”
“…”
But Schutz didn’t slow his retreat. Without looking back even once, he just ran. His back—
“Hero-dono, good luck in battle!”
“Schutz-dono, stay well!”
Because he believed the other knights would protect it. Allies with whom he had run through many battlefields. Allies with whom he had tasted just as much despair.
“We will join you shortly.”
They had lost many in the previous battle too.
Scarred in both body and mind.
Even so—
“Come on! You reptiles!”
“I’ll exterminate you!”
That was exactly why the knights roused themselves. So as not to shame the friends who had left earlier. Above all, there were people in the country they had to protect.
For that sake, they swung their swords.
Until the very last moment—
“…Eventually, I will join you too. Wait for a while.”
The loyal knight who must have wanted to stay more than anyone, and,
“…I can’t do anything. I can only lie.”
The rare liar left the fierce battlefield behind.
This is a story that starts with a lie.
A story of a liar carrying a lie through to the end.
***
“Less resistance than before, woman.”
Fernig of the ‘Black Heavens’ called out to the human figure confronting him. But that figure didn’t move an inch. Because—
“Boring. I’m going home.”
That figure was a carbonized corpse.
Dropping the melted sword, the body that had turned to charcoal also crumbled and fell.
