Ch.666The Escape of Two People

Knut’s reason constantly poured out reasons why he shouldn’t antagonize Aishan-Gioro Haschal. Rational reasons, moral reasons, strategic reasons, even emotional ones.

Since none of them were wrong, Knut forcibly suppressed his old grudge and tried to erase the killing intent toward Haschal from his heart.

It was an emotion he had to abandon now that they were in the same boat.

—-

The closer they got to the border region, the more frequently they encountered enemies. Though they managed to shake off the pursuit teams, border guard patrols were still roaming the area near the border.

Knut and Frigg moved carefully with caution, but it was impossible to avoid the gaze of so many soldiers, and they were eventually spotted by a patrol and had to flee.

“There he is! The ringleader of the traitors, One-eyed Knut has appeared! After him!”

“Not just Knut. ‘Light’ Frigg is with him too!”

Light Frigg. Frigg slightly furrowed her brow at the new nickname. Though it seemed to praise her quick movements on the surface, the nickname was actually an insult implying she was a loose woman.

A former intelligence agent who betrayed her country after being seduced by a traitor, they said. For Frigg, who had learned swordsmanship because she disliked using her beauty as a weapon, it was a nickname that could only make her laugh bitterly.

“However light I may be, I’m not as light as your lives.”

Frigg gripped her longsword in reverse and swung it like a hammer, striking between the legs of the soldiers who had muttered about her being “light.”

The chain mail or quilted armor the soldiers wore couldn’t block the heavy blow enhanced by centrifugal force, so those hit by her sword fell forward with their heads down, screaming like children whose anesthesia had worn off during circumcision. Their posture, kneeling with heads bowed, resembled criminals on the execution platform.

“GYAAAAGH!”

“Nnngghh… y-you vile…!”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

Each time Frigg’s sword tip swept across the exposed backs of the soldiers’ necks, those with severed spinal cords bowed their heads so deeply their noses nearly touched their chests, paying respect to her ruthlessness.

Frigg avoided fighting knights in full plate armor as much as possible, targeting only inexperienced young knights or regular soldiers as she ran through, neutralizing them.

For her, who had not reached the level of Master, knights in full plate armor were difficult opponents. Therefore, Frigg had no intention of crossing swords with them. She could win in a one-on-one fight, but it would take time, and that would only slow her down and lead to capture…

There was someone else to deal with the heavily armored knights.

[ ᚱ ] [ ᚢ ] [ ᛁ ]

“Raidō, Ūruz, īsaz.”

The rune of acceleration, the rune of strength, the rune of ice. Knut, muttering the names of these three runes, charged toward the knights with mana light enveloping his entire body.

With movements as fast as a galloping carriage and strength like that of a bison. Combined with his battle experience as a Crusader of Volberg and his holy power, the knights couldn’t withstand him even for a moment and were swept away like autumn leaves.

The fact that he had lost his right leg and replaced it with a prosthetic wasn’t even a weakness. Ice formed from mana covered his prosthetic leg and grew to firmly support his body.

“GRAAAAH!”

Knut roared like an enraged bear as he slaughtered the knights.

“GUHK!”

“This is impossible… such strength…!”

When he swung his axe, knights’ bodies were torn apart along with their armor, and when he threw his spear, three or four were impaled at once and went limp.

“Volberg, why do you protect such a man…!”

The knights’ battle cries turned into screams and wails. One-eyed Knut. The former vice-commander of the Crusader of Seals, Einherjar, was an opponent they could never hope to defeat.

Although Knut had lost the three powers bestowed by Volberg after his defeat by Haschal, he was now several times stronger than before with just basic blessing miracles combined with runic magic.

[ ᚦ ]

“Þurisaz!”

Lightning summoned by the thunder rune entwined around his axe and swept in all directions. Knights touched by the radiating lightning bolts rolled their eyes back, trembled all over, and leaked bodily fluids from every orifice.

[ ᛋ ]

“Sōwilō.”

A small sun bloomed from Knut’s outstretched fingertips, then exploded with a blinding radiance the next moment, obscuring the knights’ vision.

“W-what is this?! His magic?”

“I can’t see anything! This is—GYAAAAH!”

Knights who lost their sight from the flash explosion that burst before their eyes swung their swords blindly, cutting and stabbing each other as they tumbled about.

Knut and Frigg seized the opportunity to break through a section of the encirclement, then stole horses from their enemies and mounted them.

Now that their whereabouts had been discovered by the patrol, if they lingered any longer, the entire border guard would come after them. To survive, they needed not to move cautiously as before, but to forcefully break through the encirclement and cross the border as quickly as possible.

“I trust you haven’t forgotten how to ride.”

“Of course not.”

Knut skillfully mounted his horse and whipped the reins, thinking how fortunate it was that he had only lost his leg below the knee. With his thigh still intact, maintaining balance while galloping on horseback wasn’t particularly difficult.

“They’re escaping! After them!”

“Arrows! Shoot arrows!”

The archers all drew their bowstrings at once and unleashed a rain of arrows toward the two traitors fleeing toward the border—or more precisely, toward the war horses carrying them. It was far more efficient to target the bare-bodied mount with only a saddle than the armored rider.

Just a couple of arrows piercing the horse’s hindquarters would be enough to make it panic and throw off its rider.

“Knut. Can you block them?”

“Of course.”

Looking back while mounted on his horse, Knut saw hundreds of arrows pouring toward him like rain. He stretched out his left arm toward the arrow shower and shouted.

[ ᛉ ]

“Algiz!”

A translucent mana barrier spread like a veil, blocking the rain of arrows. Each time an arrow collided with the barrier, ripples of light decorated the empty air, followed by the arrows falling harmlessly to the ground.

Thus, the two broke through the patrol’s encirclement and galloped toward the border.

—-

Of course, the battle with the border guards didn’t end there, and they had to fight two more times before reaching the border.

Once with the patrol that pursued them with gritted teeth, and once more to break through the guards stationed near the border area.

The last fight was particularly brutal.

Frigg had planned to disguise herself by stealing a guard’s armor and quietly slip through their camp, but failed due to unexpected misfortune.

As luck would have it, the owner of the armor she stole was a female knight who had an inappropriate relationship with the commander of the guards.

The commander, seeing Frigg with her face hidden by a helmet, embraced her from behind and, quite naturally, slipped his hand into her pants.

Frigg realized she had chosen the wrong person to steal armor from.

‘A female knight who slept her way to promotion! No wonder her skills were so poor…’

Without hesitation, she drew her sword and aimed it at the commander’s neck.

There was no point in enduring the hand probing her groin. If the owner of this armor and the commander had that kind of relationship, it wouldn’t end with just fondling between her legs, and he would certainly try to take things further.

Even if she gritted her teeth and endured the unpleasant fingers, she would be discovered the moment his other hand lifted the visor of her helmet.

“W-what?!”

While the commander was startled by the sudden blade, Frigg swung her sword to sever his arm, and using the squealing commander as a hostage, she broke through the guards who had begun to gather.

Knut, who had already gripped his axe handle when he saw the commander embrace Frigg, also realized things had gone wrong and immediately joined her.

Though they were discovered due to unexpected misfortune, it wasn’t yet the worst situation.

Thanks to having the commander as a hostage, the enemies couldn’t easily attack them.

The problem was that among the guards were several who wanted to get rid of the commander they disliked and earn credit for capturing the traitors at the same time.

– Thwip!

A small arrow from somewhere pierced between the eyes of the commander who had been screaming for his life.

“Nngh…”

With a death rattle, the commander went limp. A quiet silence fell over the center of the camp that had been noisy with curses and shouts.

Everyone’s gaze turned to the arrow protruding from the commander’s forehead. The bloodied fletching announced the end of the hostage situation.

“The general has died at the hands of the traitors! Don’t let his killers live!”

Someone’s instigation seemed to act as a catalyst, and the guards, coming to their senses, all charged at the two.

“Tch…!”

Frigg threw away the body that had become a burden and swung her longsword to face the approaching enemies. Knut also roared fiercely and swung his axe.

A desperate and brutal battle began.

Since no one was interested in the abandoned corpse, the commander’s body, thrown onto the dirt, was trampled under the soldiers’ feet within seconds, reduced to a well-tenderized piece of meat.