episode_0168

After a breakfast of minty beef jerky stew, we hit the road again and headed to the nearest city.

The hem of the clothes, which had been dried by the bonfire, did not even have a slight smell of sweat, let alone the rotten smell like before.

Since no soap or detergent was used, I thought there would be some odor or stains, but perhaps thanks to the purifying power of the dead spirit, my clothes and body were surprisingly clean.

No matter which city you go to, you won’t be blocked from the entrance.

That was actually the case.

“There you are, the traveler on horseback! Stop immediately!”

The reason a group of men blocked our path was not in front of the city gates, but in the middle of an empty street.

“Didn’t you hear me? Stop! If you don’t, I will attack you!”

Men in their twenties or thirties, armed with bows, swords, spears, and armor.

If it had been a group of bandits, they would have rushed in and cut them down without any questions or answers, but the state of equipment and hygiene seemed far from bandits.

“…What happened?”

So, as they requested, I stopped Schwarz and, with my right hand on the hilt of the sword, asked them why they were blocking their path.

“This road has been closed to traffic by order of Baron Braum. Please go back.”

“No traffic…? You mean the highway, not the territory?”

“This is a special measure taken for the safety of travelers. So please quietly step back.”

They were the knights and soldiers of Baron Braum, the lord who ruled this area.

As a vassal of a baron, even though he was a knight, his skills did not seem to be at the level of a rookie in the kingdom’s knights.

Anyway, unless it’s a group of thieves, there’s no reason to pull out a sword.

I relaxed my moderately tense muscles and asked for more details with a smile on my face.

“It’s for safety… Are there any wandering monsters nearby?”

Subjugating wandering monsters was usually one of the main requests for adventurers, but it was not uncommon for the lord’s private army, rather than an adventurer, to step forward in person.

If it was difficult to entrust a request because there was no adventurer’s guild nearby, or if a monster appeared that was difficult for adventurers to deal with, the lord had no choice but to deploy his knights.

I thought this might be the case in this case as well.

Seeing three knights there must have been a troll, but if such a thing was wandering around, it would be understandable to block traffic.

When I asked if a wandering monster had appeared, the knight standing at the forefront frowned as he struck the floor with the hilt of his halberd.

“Why are you talking so much? It’s none of your business, so get the hell out of there. Is the Baron’s command funny?”

… This bastard is a bastard. Then you won’t live long.

“Shall I kill you…?”

No, Friede, what kind of crazy talk is that?

Friede turns to me and asks me like a doll possessed by a ghost. The moment my permission was given, it was ready to jump out and cut the knight like a vinegared bean curd.

“Okay, now. Let’s calm down, Friede.”

I hugged Friede tightly with my left arm and calmed her down, naturally covering her mouth.

“I understand how you feel, but it’s only our loss. Let’s just go back.”

‘Shall I kill you?’ It was a shame that the baron’s knights couldn’t hear the voice because it was so quiet. If they had heard it, a stabbing would have occurred.

How dare you make such a foolish thing to a knight?

Of course, I am also a knight… Revealing that fact will only make it possible to label the stabbing as a duel, and the outcome will not change.

“Huh? What did you say just now?”

“It’s nothing. I’ll give you whatever you want. Then, bye.”

After giving a vague answer to the driver’s question by saying it wasn’t a big deal, I turned around and headed back the way I came.

If we continue to talk more, will the only outcome be a fight? I was a little irritated by the crude swear words, but it wasn’t enough to make me pull out my sword and swing it.

I’m not some kind of crazy, murderous butcher, so why should I smash the head of a normal person just because I’m a little annoyed?

Although I’ve said evil things about living a long life, ending one’s life with one’s own hands is a completely different matter.

“This is outrageous. Stop.”

… But this bastard is begging me to kill him.

As if he didn’t like my answer, the rude knight pointed the tip of his halberd at us and wheezed in displeasure.

“What again?”

I clicked my tongue and turned my head again. He told me to go away, so I went out, but he gave me a face that asked why I was holding on to him again.

“You asked me what I said. But you can’t give me a proper answer, so you just gloss over it and turn your back? There’s a degree of arrogance, right? How dare you, an adventurer, make fun of a knight?”

Is he really crazy?

“ha….”

Chimi sighed in frustration and looked at the other knights behind him.

Don’t just watch, please step forward. Your fellow driver is acting like an idiot. What are you doing but stopping him?

“Hey, Lord Roode, please calm down a little. The Baron’s orders to us are to send away passers-by, not to capture and punish them.”

Okay, stop like that.

Another knight who made eye contact with me lightly grabbed the pauldron of a knight named Rud and tried to stop him.

If you look at the way they use the honorifics, it looks like they are subordinates and not colleagues… .

“No, these people are acting suspiciously. They ask questions even though it’s the Baron’s name. They mutter amongst themselves and suddenly try to run away.”

Maybe that’s why Rude didn’t want to listen to the knight who tried to stop him.

Another knight standing behind him and the soldiers lined up like a folding screen only shook their heads with a look on their faces that made them think, ‘It’s going to happen again!’ and didn’t want to step forward.

“I guess that’s why he’s acting this way because there’s something behind his back. As the Baron’s knight, shouldn’t I just leave such suspicious people alone?”

Rude claims that he is only doing his duty as a knight of the Barony.

However, his eyes were full of playfulness and sadism that he could not hide – no, he had no intention of hiding.

“I need to check what you guys are doing, so get off your horse and kneel first. If you refuse, I will break your legs and throw you in the dungeon.”

From the way he spoke, it seemed like he had a hobby of making threats and threatening people like he does now to commoners and travelers. You also have to do that while looking at people.

“When I heard it, I got really angry.”

Instead of getting off the horse, I put my hand on the hilt of my sword, frowned, and swore sharply.

“What? Damn…? Ha, this crazy adventurer…!”

“Shut up your mouth that smells like sewage. Does a scoundrel who starts a fight with a passerby have the right to call himself a knight? As a fellow knight, I am embarrassed.”

“…You’re a knight?”

“Yes. I am Fernhilde Esther, the daughter of Lord Veloren, the former knight of the kingdom, and a knight of the Esther family.”

Are you the only knight? I am also a knight. So, shut up and leave quietly while I look after you. It was a self-introduction in that sense.

I had no intention of bringing up the name Fernhilde in a place like this… Still, it’s better than a knife fight.

It wouldn’t be that difficult to cut this guy into pieces, but if Baron’s entire army attacked, it would be embarrassing in many ways.

“What kind of bullshit… even lies have to make sense to be heard.”

However, Rude twitched his wide-open eyes a couple of times as if he was a little surprised, and then spat on the floor and laughed.

“It looks like he picked up a sword somewhere and is running around pretending to be a knight, but what kind of knight is this bitch who wears rags and rides a pack horse?”

Packed in rags. It wasn’t wrong.

Although Friede and I had washed our quilts, they were tattered like rags from yesterday’s battle, and Schwarz was not a war horse but a horse for transporting a cart.

The former maiden’s armor would also be nothing more than an old, clumsy piece of iron plate that only adventurers would wear to those who do not have the insight to know what it is made of.

Isn’t it true that you only see what you know?

I thought that my appearance might seem shabby for a knight to this knight who wears eyes as decoration and his whole body is covered in plate armor.

Is that why you were so rude in the first place? At first glance, he looks like a wandering adventurer with nothing special to do.

“A knight on a pack horse, a knight on a pack horse. I guess that bitch of Veloren or something didn’t even have the money to buy my daughter a proper set of clothes or a horse?”

Still, this crossed the line. How dare you mention someone’s name without permission.

“There is no knight of the kingdom who is worse than a courtesan.”

I need to kill this bastard.

The moment I made that decision, my sword had already smashed the guy’s head and scattered it.

A skull exploding like a watermelon hit by a hammer. The body of the headless knight trembled and twitched before collapsing.

It was a faster and more powerful blow than ever before. Even though he was weak, he was so weak that a person who had been appointed as a knight could not even react and died instantly.

“Lord, Lord Lud?!”

“This is crazy, what happened all of a sudden…!”

Only then did the Baron’s private soldiers, who realized the situation, panic and raise their weapons in a panic.

Astonishment and fear. Shock. Distrust. And hostility.

Just looking at their expressions, it seemed like they had no idea how to solve the problem with words.

I wiped the blood splattered on my cheek with my thumb and sighed deeply.

I had an accident. Fuck.

My appetite was bitter. Still, I felt a little relieved.

◆◆

Baron Braum received three skulls that day.

Rude, Bronn, and Jace.

The skeletons of the three men he had knighted.

The corpses of twelve soldiers were a bonus.

A wandering monster known to have killed thirty people, a monster from Pinwood Forest.

It was the moment when information was added to the rumors about the monster that it was a monster that surpassed even knights.