Twin Lance Knight (4)

Magical Beast.

A creature inhabiting the Western Continent beyond the Death Swamp, resembling mammals of the Eastern Continent.

Some possessed intelligence comparable to humans while others did not, but the Eastern Continent knew so little about them that no accurate classification had been established yet.

Their numbers were significantly fewer compared to the undead soldiers who made up the majority of the Demon King’s Army during the Human-Demon War, but due to their physical abilities that surpassed not only undead soldiers but even humans, along with their unique belligerence, they gained considerable notoriety in the Human-Demon War.

And, the most important thing in war is knowing your enemy.

To learn more details about these creatures called Magical Beasts, the Kingdom and Holy Nation, who directly participated in the war, captured many of them as prisoners during the conflict.

That’s why Bell Lore remembered clearly. The Magical Beasts with their vertically slit, sharp pupils that gleamed brightly while they were confined in thick iron cages, restrained by chains all over their bodies.

And Cornelio’s appearance before him now bore a frightening resemblance to those Magical Beasts in the cages.

“Khaaaa!!”

Cornelio swung his lance with a greatly heightened voice, roaring.

The short lance held in his massive hand covered with bushy fur looked as insignificant as a toothpick, but the large, massive Aura emanating from its tip suggested otherwise.

“You’ll tire quickly wasting Aura like that!”

Delphina shouted while regulating her breathing.

“Such a show-off! Wasn’t it you who was in a hurry to escape just now?!”

Whether his pride was pricked or he was simply shouting in excitement, Cornelio continued to yell in a heightened voice and swing his short lance wildly.

“Besides, I’m overflowing with power! When I’m in ‘this form’!! If I don’t deliberately hold back, I feel like my heart might just burst!!!!”

“Kuk…!”

-Boom!!

Delphina’s body flew backward after blocking the short lance head-on.

Toward Delphina, who was flustered and had lost her stance, Cornelio charged like the wind.

“How annoying, like a little rat!!”

Cornelio shouted, raising the short lance in his right hand.

“Stop running awaaaaaay!!!!”

-Crash!!!

Though he merely struck the ground, dust erupted violently as if a volcano had exploded.

Delphina instinctively raised her hammer vertically to shield her eyes, and at that moment, Cornelio’s left hand moved.

-Thud…!

“Guk.”

Delphina exhaled a short breath.

With excruciating pain as if her lungs were being distorted, her body bent and flew through the air.

-Crash!!

Only after rolling on the ground several times did Delphina manage to get up, gasping.

‘…Damn it.’

It was such a shock that she momentarily lost her senses. Delphina clutched her spinning head and murmured blankly to herself.

‘What kind of strength…’

“Miss Delphina, maintain your breathing!”

Lore shouted urgently.

“You must not disrupt your breathing! Even for a well-trained knight, if you allow that blow without strengthening your body through circulation breathing…”

“Die!!!”

-Clang!!

Cornelio’s short lance, wielding heavy Aura like a blunt weapon, struck down vertically toward Delphina.

“Kuhup…!”

As Delphina desperately blocked with her hammer held horizontally, bloody fluid burst from between her lips.

“Delphina!”

Toward Lore, who clicked his tongue and rushed in, Cornelio roared while swinging his other short lance.

“Stay out of this!!”

-Clang!!

Two crossed daggers and a short lance crudely wrapped in Aura collided.

“Ugh…!”

Lore blocked Cornelio’s blow while exhaling painfully.

An uneasy standoff continued.

While simultaneously overwhelming two knights with his strength, Cornelio stood firmly on two feet without moving a single step from where he stood.

Superhuman strength far beyond human capacity.

Completely dominating the opponent to prevent any resistance.

This fighting style was infinitely removed from the technique, speed, and fluidity that Cornelio Difind had once considered his specialties as a member of the Kingdom’s Seven Swords.

“Urgh…!”

Delphina gritted her teeth and struggled to regulate her breathing.

-Crack…!

Though it felt like her leg joints would shatter under the weight pressing down on her hammer handle, Delphina barely maintained her breathing and slowly rose.

“…Hoh, look at this.”

Cornelio tilted his head.

“Uh, kuuuugh…!”

“Well now, pushing back against me in this state.”

Cornelio, who was holding both Delphina and Lore simultaneously with both hands, grinned.

“Fine, I’ll acknowledge it. You definitely have the skills to say such insolent things in front of me.”

With eyes sharply slit like those of a beast, Cornelio said quietly.

“But you know what? Let me tell you an interesting fact.”

-Shuuuuuuu.

Simultaneously, a breathing sound that sent chills down one’s spine just by hearing it was heard.

The characteristic sound of inhaling and exhaling that would be all too familiar to any knight.

The breathing technique that draws in mana from the air along with oxygen, circulating it throughout the body through blood vessels to enhance overall physical abilities.

“…Circulation breathing technique.”

Without realizing it, Delphina muttered with a pale expression.

“You weren’t… using it yet?”

“Correct.”

-Kuuuuuung!!!!!

Simultaneously, Delphina’s knees buckled.

“……..!!!!”

Every joint in her body screamed. Delphina bit her lower lip until it tore.

An overwhelming weight pressed down on Delphina from above, so crushingly heavy she couldn’t even make a sound.

“Oh my, impressive. You’re still enduring even with this.”

Cornelio tilted his head in amazement and spoke mockingly to Delphina.

-Crash!!

“Kughk!”

At the same time, Cornelio swung his left arm and sent Lore flying with a strike.

“Well then, let’s see if you can endure this too?”

The heavy Aura that had settled on the short lance in his left hand changed form.

A clear Aura Blade in the shape of a cylinder with a sharp edge at the tip, sharply compressed at the end of the lance.

“Well, I was instructed not to kill you, but… you’re a knight after all. You wouldn’t die from just having a hole in your side, right?”

“…Instructed… you say…?”

Delphina spoke with difficulty.

“You had… someone backing you…!”

“Do I have any obligation to tell you?”

Cornelio, who had been snickering, suddenly smiled playfully and jeered.

“Well, if you can maintain your sanity after having your side torn open, I might tell you.”

Cornelio raised the short lance in his left hand high.

-Whoosh!!

Simultaneously, a sharp spear cut through the air.

However, it wasn’t Cornelio’s spear.

-Thud!!

“Ku──”

A familiar sword spear firmly embedded in Cornelio’s left shoulder.

“Miss Alice…!”

“Delphina!!”

Alice, who had thrown the spear at Cornelio, shouted.

Her forehead must have been severely cut, as blood had flowed down and covered half her face.

“Ku, aaaaargh!!”

Cornelio turned to look at Alice with a gurgling, growling voice.

“You, insignificant little piece of trash…”

-Clang!!

At the same time, Cornelio’s right-hand short lance was violently thrust upward.

“…!!”

“I understand now, Cornelio.”

Gripping her hammer handle tightly, Delphina said quietly.

“You’re not familiar with the circulation breathing technique in that form, are you?”

“You damned──”

-Crash!!!

Delphina’s hammer struck Cornelio with great force.

-Crack, crack, crack!!

After breaking several large trees and flying far away, Cornelio crashed into densely grown bushes with a thunderous sound.

“…Argh.”

“Delphina!”

Alice rushed toward Delphina, who had fallen to her knees immediately after.

“A-are you okay?”

“…Alice.”

Delphina said quietly.

“We’re the same age, so I’ll drop the formalities. Time is urgent.”

“D-don’t worry about that. More importantly, your knee earlier…”

-Grab.

While gripping the anxious Alice’s shoulder, Delphina said,

“Run away.”

“What?!”

Alice’s eyes widened.

Looking back and forth between Lore, who was belatedly rising, and Delphina, Alice said,

“I-I can’t do that! How could I leave the two of you…”

“I don’t mean just run away.”

Delphina shook her head.

“Bring people. The security guards or the knight department instructors, either is fine. Anyway, bring someone associated with the academy.”

“…But.”

“He said earlier that he received ‘instructions’ not to kill us.”

Delphina continued urgently.

“He has two penalties: he can’t kill us, and he can’t let academy officials discover his identity and backers.”

“B-but still.”

“Neither I nor Instructor Lore will die. So, quickly…”

“That won’t… work…!”

Cornelio’s growling voice echoed.

Toward Alice, who turned around in surprise, Cornelio roared.

“I was told not to kill you, but I don’t recall being told not to break all your limbs…!”

“Hee, heee…!”

“Nonsense! Don’t listen, go! Quickly!”

Delphina pushed Alice away and got up by supporting herself on the ground.

“You there, brown hair!”

“Eek.”

“You had the nerve to throw that toothpick of a spear at me earlier.”

-Crack…!

In Cornelio’s grasp, the sword spear that Alice had thrown broke in half.

Cornelio lightly shook his right hand, throwing away the fragments of the broken sword spear.

Despite being the forearm where the Aura-wrapped sword spear had deeply penetrated, not a drop of blood splattered.

“The wound on his right arm…”

“This form is special, you see.”

Cornelio answered with a grin.

“Unlike the weak human body, wounds like this heal quickly.”

“M-Miss Delphina.”

“I said go quickly!!”

“Ugh…!”

After looking back and forth between Cornelio and Delphina, Alice finally closed her eyes tightly and ran away.

“You think I’ll let her go!!”

Cornelio shouted towards the fleeing Alice, pulling back his spear.

“I won’t be satisfied until I stick at least one spear into you too!”

-Swoosh!!

This time for real, Cornelio’s short lance cut through the air.

-Clang!!!

“That Cornwall brat, interfering until the end…!”

Simultaneously, Delphina’s hammer struck the trajectory of the lance from the side, deflecting it.

The lance, having lost its path, soared into the air and cut into Alice’s shoulder.

“Argh…!”

“Don’t look back and run!!”

Delphina shouted towards Alice while charging at Cornelio.

-Crash!!!

The sound of the hammer crushing flesh echoed behind Alice.

While fleeing and clutching her bleeding shoulder, Alice thought,

‘Who, who should I go to?’

Academy officials. Security guards. Knight department instructors.

Security guards were out of the question. Against an opponent that gave trouble to both Instructor Lore and Delphina, who had been fighting evenly, security guards who couldn’t properly use Aura or circulation breathing techniques would be of no help.

Then, the knight department instructors?

But Alice, a freshman who had just enrolled less than a month ago, had no way of knowing where other instructors spend their holidays besides Lore.

Even Lore’s residence was only known because of his request for directions. To find other instructors with whom she had no personal contact, she would clearly need to search for quite a while.

‘No, that won’t work. It would be too late!’

If she wasted too much time, who knew what would happen to Instructor Lore or Delphina.

‘Think, Alice. Think!’

An important figure directly or indirectly related to the academy. Someone whose whereabouts could be reasonably inferred and whom she could find right now. Or someone from whom Cornelio must hide his identity. And above all, someone strong enough to subdue him…

“…Ah.”

One name that met all conditions flashed like lightning in Alice’s mind.

“Princess Evangeline…!”