Ch.125EP.31 – The Knight Call Themselves Losers (2)

“I’ll pursue him.”

Yord asked for permission without taking his eyes off the retreating shadow, and Ihan asked.

“Can you catch him?”

“At this distance, it’s entirely possible.”

“I like your confidence, hmm… forget it. Just let him go.”

“B-but…!”

Yord didn’t know the details, but he easily guessed that the massive man was responsible for Ihan’s severe injuries and for making their mission difficult.

He expressed his dissatisfaction at letting such a person go, but.

“Drop it. He’s not someone you can handle.”

“Senior?”

Jake grabbed his junior’s shoulder to stop him.

He wasn’t dismissing Yord, but still.

“…Even if he’s exhausted, capturing the ‘Black Lion of the North’ would be impossible.”

“!!?”

Yord’s eyes widened.

The Black Lion of the North.

The Giant Slayer, also famous as the North’s strongest champion…!

“The Vice-Captain of the Black Iron Lions…”

“It’s almost certainly him. He’s grown even bigger since the past, so I didn’t recognize him immediately, but it’s definitely him. Is it true that his growth plates still haven’t closed, as rumored?”

“…Is he really a pure human?”

“He claims to be pure-blooded human.”

“I-I don’t think so…”

Yord felt dazed, forgetting even his complaints, as he never expected to see the rumored Vice-Captain of the Black Iron Lions in such a remote place.

While the young junior followed that retreating figure with undisguised shock, Jake turned his attention to his friend who had collapsed in exhaustion.

“…Are you okay?”

“Do I look okay?”

“No.”

“Then why ask?”

“To tease you.”

“…Damn you.”

This must be a first, Jake thought.

Seeing this person, Ihan, collapsed in such exhaustion. And Jake suspected the reason was probably…

“You wouldn’t have been beaten by a bunch of fanatics, and there’s absolutely no way you’d end up like this from fighting monsters. You’d be more likely to annihilate both of those groups.”

“…You know me too well.”

“Yeah, I know you well despite myself. And I also know this: there are fewer than fifty people in the entire kingdom, no, the entire continent who could do this to you. And if it’s the Black Lion of Lionel, one of those fifty, he could certainly reduce you to this sorry state. So in that sense, I’m asking, perhaps…”

“We fought, just happened somehow.”

“…I thought so.”

You brought this on yourself.

Ihan revealed the truth before Jake could finish, as if he had no intention of hiding it anyway.

However.

“What do you think a mission is, you delinquent knight?”

“…Um, sorry.”

At his friend’s sincere rebuke, he apologized honestly, looking somewhat embarrassed.

Even he seemed to think his behavior had been inappropriate.

Surprisingly, Ihan’s “conscience” was still alive.

…While scolding him, Jake didn’t ask why they had fought.

After all.

‘They probably fought over something trivial.’

Both of them had peculiar personalities—this guy and the great warrior of the North—so they likely found some minor reason to justify their duel.

So he maintained an expression of little interest, but.

‘Who won?’

It wasn’t that he wasn’t curious.

As far as he knew, these were two of the strongest men in the kingdom, excluding Oror users.

They had clashed and dueled.

Hearing such news, what knight wouldn’t be curious about the outcome?

…But Jake patiently refrained from asking his friend.

Because.

‘If I ask now, I’ll probably get hit?’

Just looking at his expression, which suggested something was greatly displeasing him, Jake judged that asking questions wouldn’t be a wise choice, so he decided to suppress his curiosity for now.

‘I’ll hear about it someday.’

…Hoping for a chance to satisfy his curiosity eventually.

*

*

*

Whoosh! Whiiish!

The woman ran as if sprinting at full power.

Though sweat streamed down her face, she maintained her speed, covering dozens of meters per second in a single breath, like a snow leopard bounding effortlessly across the snowfield.

She carried Maximus, who was as heavy as a bull, yet if she couldn’t easily bear this much weight, how could she claim to be a member of the Black Iron Lions, the North’s guardian deities and strongest warrior group?

For Northern warriors, gender was no excuse; only skill mattered.

“Fortunately, it seems there are no pursuers.”

The tall woman with skin as white as the snow of the plains, Lirina Hartmun, glanced back cautiously and felt relieved that no one was following.

If knights of the Order of the Silver Lion had pursued her, it would have been troublesome.

‘Even excluding the fallen knight, the other two weren’t ordinary either.’

Even by Northern standards, they weren’t to be underestimated.

Lirina was secretly impressed.

‘I heard the white cats were all fools, but it seems there are some capable ones among them.’

She wondered if this was the true strength of the kingdom.

But soon her interest shifted away from the cats.

Glancing…

Perhaps because she had some mental leeway now?

Lirina looked at the Vice-Captain who was drooping like wilted spinach.

Maximus Lionel.

The youngest brother of Duke Lionel, though he was more often called the “Great Warrior of the North” than the Duke’s youngest brother.

He was the knight who had brought all the warriors of the North to their knees through innate talent, indomitable effort, and endless ambition for improvement.

Lirina herself had once challenged him out of competitive spirit, and on that day, she had painfully realized that giants in human form could exist.

That’s how strong Maximus was, and Lirina couldn’t imagine him losing to any human except His Grace the Duke.

Having personally experienced his limitless stamina and mountain-toppling strength.

But now.

‘This is the first time I’ve seen him so exhausted.’

Even when he fought a Frost Giant alone in the past, he didn’t have a single wound.

So it was inevitable that Lirina’s gaze held curiosity…

“Lirina, what are you curious about?”

“……”

“If you have questions, I’ll answer them.”

“…How did you end up in such a state? You, the Champion of the North.”

She asked directly and straightforwardly when given the opportunity.

The frankness and directness befitting a Northern female warrior.

And to this question, Maximus, who had been carried like baggage on her shoulder, gave a satisfied smile and said.

“There was a magnificent duel. A truly exhilarating and passionate duel.”

“……”

Lirina’s eyes widened.

It was the first time she had seen their Vice-Captain—no, her Vice-Captain—wear such a satisfied expression.

Then he continued.

“Lirina, the continent is vast indeed, haha!”

“…That’s an uncharacteristically humble answer from you.”

“Is it? Perhaps you’re right.”

Maximus didn’t deny her words.

As Lirina said, he was more arrogant than humble.

But now he was different.

He said:

“If one doesn’t change after experiencing ‘defeat,’ how can they be called human?”

“!!!”

“Why are you so surprised? Is it that hard to believe I was defeated?”

“…Did you really lose?”

It was a word that couldn’t be less fitting for her Vice-Captain, for Maximus.

Defeat. The idea that he had fought someone and lost was simply inconceivable.

He always seemed destined to remain the victor in duels.

But Maximus:

“Lirina, have you forgotten? I’ve never uttered a lie in my life.”

“……”

“The same applies now. And I’m not at all ashamed or unfamiliar with my defeat. In the North, I’ve always been a loser.”

He had always lost to the mystery of his brother, or rather, the Duke, and he had always lost to the blizzards blowing from the North.

The North’s other mystery, the eternal snow, though not cold to the touch, always gave him an overwhelming sense of defeat with its grandeur and powerful presence.

Therefore, defeat was familiar to him.

“How is losing to the Dark King and nature a defeat? Can humans even win against such things?”

Lirina Hartmun was incredulous.

The things he mentioned.

The Dark King of Lionel, a fragment of the Lion King and the lord and master of the Northern lands.

The eternal snow, frozen for over ten thousand years, also called the remains of snow fairies, containing mysteries.

None of these were things an ordinary human could oppose.

Who would think of fighting nature, or rather a natural disaster, and who would call themselves a loser for losing to it?

“One should always aim high.”

“…You’re just not in your right mind.”

“Hmm, perhaps so.”

Maximus readily nodded, agreeing with her opinion.

After all, everyone has their own standards.

And in that sense.

“At least by my standards, I was indeed defeated this time.”

“…Even though you broke that knight’s sword?”

“Hehe, so you saw everything.”

“I just saw that knight angrily throwing away the handle.”

It was a scene she had often witnessed in the North.

Maximus’s specialty was weapon destruction, and countless warriors had lost their beloved weapons to him.

However.

“Lirina, look at my neck.”

“What?”

“Quickly.”

“……”

Lirina tilted her head, wondering why he would suddenly say such a thing, but she obediently looked at his neck, and then…

“Eeep…!”

She let out a scream.

She was not easily surprised by most things, but now she was more than shocked—her body trembled, and she stopped running, her pupils shaking as if in an earthquake.

……A red line.

He was suppressing a wound on his neck with his “power.”

“This technique, I’m really glad I learned it.”

Otherwise, he would have died from a fountain of blood long ago.

Well.

“I suppose getting your neck cut is part of a knight’s life, not a bad experience, ahaha!”

“D-don’t laugh! Stop laughing, you idiot! You’re bleeding!! Why didn’t you say you were injured!?”

“Ahaha!!”

Maximus just laughed as if it were nothing, but Lirina’s face turned pale, and she needed to quickly treat this insane human.

“Damn human!!”

Lirina Hartmun scolded her Vice-Captain… who was also her [husband].

Complaining that she was about to become a widow.