Ch.135Three Against One (2)

====[Demian’s Past]====

“Demian, my child… I’m sorry, there are still so many things I should teach you….”

Lying on her sickbed, Demian’s mother shed bitter tears worrying about the son she would leave behind.

Imagining the thorny path her different son would have to walk in the future.

At that time, Demian couldn’t understand the deep lamentation and maternal affection full of sympathy in her words.

He only understood that his mother’s life, like his father’s, would soon be extinguished, and he was only concerned about how he would survive afterward.

The probability of a child left alone surviving without adult care was infinitesimally low.

Even at his young age, he could sense that much.

“Demian. Remember well what I’m telling you now…. It’s important, very important.”

“Yes.”

Her voice was so small it seemed it might break at any moment.

Demian tried to absorb her words without making even a breath of sound.

“It’s okay if you can’t understand other people’s feelings…. Instead, watch them carefully… and imitate them exactly. Without being discovered. You… you can do it.”

Demian nodded. As if to say he would do so.

He didn’t understand why he needed to imitate others… but there was no reason to refuse his mother’s dying wish.

“And… live by helping others. Like knights. Then… others will protect you too.”

Caressing his cheek, his mother made her final request.

“My son will surely… become an excellent knight.”

With those words, Demian’s mother breathed her last.

Demian stood quietly by the bedside, staring for a long time at his mother’s hand that had fallen from his cheek.

—-

A long time had passed since then, but Demian still followed those dying words.

Like a kind of obsession.

He carefully observed how people expressed emotions… and mimicked those expressions and actions to hide his own abnormality.

He protected people’s lives with all his might, and lived by receiving help from those who expressed gratitude.

Indeed, it was quite effective.

Even the village children who had rejected Demian gradually changed their attitude when he began to act with expressions similar to theirs, and later even clung to him to gain his favor.

Even Millia’s parents, who initially considered Demian a burden… after he risked his life to save Millia, they took care of him with devotion.

He still couldn’t understand people’s hearts, but he seemed to know how to gain their favor.

As his mother had wished, to become an excellent knight.

Like Carlos the Great and his Twelve Knights whom everyone praised endlessly.

====[Cursed Mother Subjugation]====

The Cursed Mother puffed her cheeks wide.

As if ready to spray the acidic liquid filling her mouth at any moment.

Frider and Millia’s pupils dilated with shock.

A critical moment. For Demian, who had jumped up again out of habit, there seemed no way to dodge.

Demian hurriedly laid his greatsword flat to shield his body with the blade.

However, it was impossible to cover his entire body with just the flat of a greatsword, not a shield.

Frider, using all his strength to pin down the monster’s arm, was in no position to respond.

Millia frantically aimed her bow.

She intended to attack the Cursed Mother’s chest once more.

Then the monster turned its head.

Not toward the air, but straight ahead.

Targeting Millia.

“Huh?”

Millia let out a confused groan.

The Cursed Mother staring directly at her. Its maw was opening wider and wider.

The Cursed Mother’s target had been Millia from the start.

Though she herself would likely have her neck cut by the human male’s greatsword… she intended to take that hateful female who had repeatedly targeted her chest as a companion.

“Oh no…!”

“Millia!!”

A stream of liquid spurted out.

Like a thrown javelin, drawing a straight line, with the force of a waterfall.

Millia’s arrow, reflexively shot in response, melted like a snowflake.

‘Demian…!’

Faced with an unavoidable death that suddenly descended, Millia unconsciously closed her eyes.

– Whoosh!

A sudden fierce wind lifted Millia’s bangs.

The ground beneath her feet shook abruptly.

The death she had prepared for—no, had not had time to prepare for—did not come.

When Millia opened her eyes again.

A familiar black iron plate was twisting in front of her.

It was Demian’s greatsword.

The dwarf’s black iron, hit by the acidic liquid, was melting like sugar candy while emitting thick smoke.

Millia, whose life had been saved, hurriedly moved away.

“Aaaaaahhhhh!”

The Cursed Mother, whose decisive strike had been blocked, let out a scream of rage.

Not yet. She had failed to kill the female, but thanks to that, the male was now empty-handed.

At least him…!

The Cursed Mother opened her maw wide enough to tear.

Her jaw joint dislocated, tearing the skin at the corners of her mouth all the way to her neck.

The monster’s mouth stretched as if it could swallow a person whole.

The Cursed Mother raised her head.

Frider gritted his teeth.

Thanks to Demian, Millia had survived, but instead Demian was in danger of being devoured.

Releasing the chain wrapped around the monster’s arm, Frider also leaped.

The saw blade he swung in mid-air dug into the corner of the monster’s mouth.

The deeply embedded saw cut through the skin and lodged in the jawbone.

Simultaneously, Millia’s last arrow aimed for the monster’s chest.

However, this alone was not enough to stop the Cursed Mother’s movement.

Sensing her end, the monster had abandoned even the defense of her chest.

“Not yet!”

Frider, shouting fiercely, threw himself forward.

Using the saw handle as support, he leaped once more in mid-air using only arm strength.

Frider’s body soared.

To the point where the saw reached about his ankle.

Frider used all his strength to stomp down on the saw as if driving it in.

The saw blade dug in deeper, slightly bending the Cursed Mother’s head downward.

This was as expected.

What came next was the problem.

The monster’s freed arm targeted Frider’s back.

The sword entangled with the chain axe gleamed sharply.

An attack that Frider, having lost his balance, could not avoid.

Neither Demian, who had thrown away his greatsword, nor Millia, who had run out of arrows, seemed able to help Frider.

“Kugh…!”

Frider twisted his body, trying somehow to avoid vital spots.

The Cursed Mother, mocking his attempt, thrust her sword.

As Frider gritted his teeth, preparing for the coming pain—

A lightning-like flash pierced through the monster’s arm.

The remaining arm was pathetically torn off.

The severed wrist still clutched the sword tightly.

Millia exhaled in relief.

What had saved Frider’s life was the arrow she had desperately shot.

Strictly speaking, not an arrow but a short sword.

Though its trajectory was somewhat twisted due to the unintended use…

Thanks to that, the blade of the short sword did more than just penetrate the monster’s wrist—it tore it apart.

“Ah… aaaaaaah!!”

The Cursed Mother wailed miserably.

Frider coldly sneered.

In that moment, Demian’s outstretched fingertips touched the monster’s horn.

The sensation of a child’s fingers writhing wildly in his hand.

Without even feeling disgust, Demian climbed over the creature’s head.

His target was on the fur-covered back of the monster.

Old weapons embedded in various parts of the Cursed Mother’s lower body.

Among them, just one greatsword.

Standing on the monster’s back, Demian grabbed the sword hilt and pulled it out with all his might.

A stream of black blood spurted from beneath his feet.

Despite being embedded in the monster’s body for a long time, the exposed blade was still sharp.

‘This will do…!’

Demian raised the greatsword high.

Jumping from the monster’s back, he rotated once and brought down a slashing attack.

The arc drew a vertical line through the Cursed Mother’s head.

Deep enough for the sword tip to touch the ground.

Spraying black blood like a fountain, the monster’s upper body split in two.

Severed intestines spilled out with a plop.

=================

“That jumping attack of his. It finally worked once, huh?”

He’s not a flea, does he have some instinct that makes him jump?

At least against monsters rather than humans there’s some opportunity to use it, but it’s still a technique that needs to be used with careful consideration of the situation.

“He almost died just moments before, yet he jumped again. I’m tempted to break his legs.”

Frider added with an exasperated tone.

Demian’s shoulders twitched as he listened from the driver’s seat.

“Well, it was still quite an entertaining story. I didn’t even notice the time passing while listening.”

From what I heard, it seems they would have lost if even one of them had been missing.

Demian who blocked the curse with his body. Frider who held down the enemy and endured. Millia who cut off the enemy’s movements at threatening moments.

It’s fortunate that they worked so well together despite it being their first real battle.

At this rate… after bringing in a priest or mage, I could move separately for a while.

As long as they avoid dungeon-related requests where variables are unpredictable, there shouldn’t be any major problems.

“Taking down a Cursed Mother with just the three of you, saying you had a hard time wasn’t an exaggeration after all.”

“Actually, the hardest moment wasn’t then but at the end. When we were running away from the landslide.”

At the mention of the landslide, Millia shuddered even in her sleep.

Indeed, it was a nightmarish sight.