Ch.202202. Dusky Night (2)

“Lord Diolia.”

“…Lord Sione, please step aside.”

I see Sione’s back as she stands in an awkward stance with her sword against Diolia’s, confronting her.

A knight is fundamentally a sword that protects their lord.

Diolia too has always drawn her sword to protect Sione, so I’ve never once seen them pointing blades at each other like this.

I couldn’t help but be bewildered.

“My lord, lower your sword.”

“…I apologize, but I cannot obey that order.”

The situation looked precarious at a glance.

Blue flashes of light flickered on Diolia’s sword, appearing and disappearing. Sione’s sword lacked such powerful technique, and I could clearly see her being pushed back by Diolia’s subtle pressure.

If Diolia wished, she could immediately cut through Sione and swing that inexplicably murderous blade toward my neck.

Though her mind seemed deranged, she retained a shred of reason. Taking advantage of her inability to overpower Sione, I hurriedly got to my feet.

“…Lady Diolia?”

I had set down my quiver and bow beside me.

With only the sword at my waist as a readily available weapon,

I prepared myself to draw it at any moment.

“…!”

The moment she heard my voice, Diolia’s somewhat dazed pupils rolled to glare at me behind Sione.

Her unfocused gaze, devoid of its usual sharpness, resembled that of a madman or a being without reason. I immediately knew she wasn’t in a normal state.

As my field of vision rose, I could finally see Sione’s profile and the expression on her face.

‘This is… just as I thought.’

The Diolia I know wouldn’t draw her sword and attack for no reason.

I had only seen Sione’s face this intensely cold twice before: when she saw a demon appear beyond the castle walls, and when she witnessed her mother, Ainel, beheading a demon right before her eyes.

Her coldly burning eyes were likely seeing the demonic influence affecting Diolia.

“…Excuse me for a moment!”

“Where do you think—!”

As Diolia pushed Sione aside and lunged toward me, Sione pushed back against her body to stop her.

Just as I prepared to draw my sword by flicking the hilt for a quick strike—

Whoosh—!

A strong wind began to blow. A gust powerful enough to shake an unprepared body concentrated in one place.

“…!”

“Ah…!”

The turbulent air began to focus on Diolia and Sione.

I quickly grabbed the back of Sione’s collar and pulled her toward me.

The moment Sione’s body moved away, three spirits appeared around us.

Three high-ranking spirits governing wind, water, and earth appeared, expending tremendous amounts of mana to subdue a single Expert Knight. In an instant, Diolia was bound by the spirits and forced to her knees.

“These spirits—”

Following Sione’s words that slipped out at the sudden appearance of the spirits,

I quickly identified them and answered her.

“They’re Lady Airine Ianet’s spirits.”

The three spirits that had been keeping countless monsters at bay and slaughtering them throughout the day.

They were steadfast spirits that faithfully followed Airine’s commands.

Beyond the faint glow emitted by the spirits, a woman’s dark silhouette slowly approached us.

“…I came because I heard a small commotion.”

Even in the dark night, her distinctly crimson hair was visible, and unlike during the day, Airine’s face clearly showed her bewilderment and annoyance.

She coldly looked down at Diolia, who was still struggling against her earth spirit bindings, not yet fully recovered.

“It seems something similar is happening here as well.”

Airine Ianet.

She seemed to know something about this situation.

* * *

While completely subduing Diolia, Airine began to explain the current situation.

“The situation isn’t good. Other elves who were standing guard or slightly separated from the group have shown hostility toward allies.”

“……”

“They seemed to be experiencing temporary mental confusion, so I quickly bound all of them, left the rest to Arielt, and came here. If I had been late, it could have been dangerous. The exact reason—”

“I sensed Magia. Quite a malicious one at that. Thanks to that, I was able to wake up and respond immediately.”

After staring at Sione for a moment in response to her firm answer, Airine nodded.

She soon agreed with Sione’s words.

“Under the assumption that this is an evil demon’s trick, we should investigate more thoroughly.”

Having finished completely binding Diolia, Airine looked down at her with her usual impassive expression.

“I observed that some of those who received strong impacts during restraint returned to their senses. If what Sione says is true… it seems those under lighter influence easily regain consciousness from the shock.”

She was looking at Diolia’s confused eyes.

“The knight doesn’t appear to be deeply affected by the spell. So I suggest… perhaps the young lady could try to awaken the knight?”

“By awaken, do you mean give her a shock?”

“Yes, in the knight’s case, it seems even a strong slap to the cheek might be enough to bring her back to her senses.”

“Ah.”

Sione quietly began looking back and forth between her right hand and Diolia’s cheek.

I could see numerous thoughts surfacing and dispersing across her blue eyes.

Me slapping Diolia’s cheek? She says if I hit her hard enough, she might wake up… But what if she doesn’t wake up after I hit her? Should I not do it then? No, not even trying seems wrong…

Hesitation. Our lord’s thoughts are so easy to read.

Being in a rather foul mood after being woken up for this incident, I subtly encouraged Sione’s thoughts.

“Go ahead and slap her.”

“…Really?”

“Rather than having Lady Diolia continue to be under this spell, unable to regain her senses and showing such unbecoming behavior for a knight. If there’s a possibility she could regain her consciousness, she would prefer to take one slap and quickly recover her composure.”

I’ve long been accustomed to casually saying enticing words to capture Sione’s interest.

“Hmm……”

“Lady Diolia is a true knight, and a knight’s greatest shame is to display unseemly behavior before their lord.”

I was simply making eloquent arguments to convince her to deliver that slap.

“Right now, none other than you, Lady Sione, must stop the knight’s dishonorable behavior.”

What does it matter if my words are a bit awkward or contain sophistry?

I just need to catch the drift and make my meaning clear enough.

Sione swallowed hard and nodded at my casually delivered words.

“…I’ll do it.”

Sione lowered herself. She knelt down to meet the eyes of the knight whose limbs were bound.

“…?”

Sione placed her right hand on Diolia’s cheek.

“Haaah……”

Sione showed the look of someone who had made a decision.

A sharp glint flashed in her blue eyes for an instant.

Whoosh!

Her right hand rose up into the air. Her hand cut through the air in a straight line.

Then it collided with the defenseless cheek of the knight.

SLAP—!

“Oh……”

…That must have hurt.

As the rather vicious sound erupted, clarity began to return to Diolia’s dazed eyes.

After blankly taking the slap and quietly staring at Sione, Diolia slowly looked at the young lady before her and opened her mouth.

“…Lady Sione? What is this?”

“Don’t you remember anything, Lord Diolia?”

“I… feel as though I was struggling in a light sleep… My memory is vague from some point while I was standing guard.”

“You don’t remember drawing your sword to kill Ray while he was sleeping?”

“…I did that?”

“Your blade nearly reached my neck as well as Ray’s. It was quite frightening.”

“……I have shown disgraceful behavior. I will make sure to properly apologize for this.”

“……”

“…I am deeply ashamed. Perhaps… taking my own life right now would be an appropriate atonement.”

“N-no…! What are you talking about… Put your sword away.”

“Ugh… Ray, are you alright?”

Seriously, no matter how sorry she is, suggesting suicide is going too far.

Even if it was meant to express her regret, suicide is excessive.

I simply shook my head quietly as I watched Diolia, uncharacteristically sweating profusely and showing obvious confusion, unable to hide her bewilderment.

“Please put away your sword. Your reaction is actually more burdensome.”

“If that’s the case……”

With those words, Diolia bowed her head to Sione, and then to me, expressing her apology.

I never imagined Diolia would target me while I was sleeping. I’ll make sure to receive proper material compensation for her apology later. For now, let’s quickly sort out the current situation.

Airine spoke with an impatient voice.

“Unfortunately, it seems we won’t be able to sleep easily tonight.”

She was right.

Not only were there other elves causing such disturbances besides Diolia.

“It seems something capable of disturbing our minds is hiding around here, and we don’t know when they might launch a surprise attack.”

Considering the possibility that enemies who disturbed the minds of our sentries might be hiding in the darkness not far from here,

“Since we’ve already had adequate rest, it would be better for everyone to gather in the center and stay awake tonight.”

After I appropriately responded to her words, Airine finally released Diolia from her bindings.

As Diolia moved her body to check her condition, she rubbed her left cheek.

“By the way… my cheek is a bit sore. Did I hit my head on the ground while the spirit was subduing me… It feels like the inside of my mouth is cut.”

…Sione’s hand is quite strong indeed. As I nodded slightly behind Sione at Diolia’s words,

Sione was momentarily surprised by those words. Then she looked at Diolia with a pouty expression and said,

“That’s just karma.”