Drake knights.

 

   Although they appeared to be water-downed dragon knights when looking just at their name, they were high-value units that not only controlled the air of the battlefields and acted as mobile artilleries that fired magic, but also greatly contributed to breaking down enemy formations with aura-strengthened bodies, drakes’ speeds, and tools like unbelievably long glaives.

 

   On top of that, because they were army units, even their worst drawback, that they had to learn both mana and aura, was fairly compensated for.

 

   In the first place, the thing called an army was an organization that formed itself by cursorily learning just the necessary bits and then specializing in them. Unlike adventurers, who had to consider all variables and endlessly hone their skills once they decided to learn both, drake knights didn’t particularly have any need to learn more magic once they reached a certain level.

 

   After all, the parts they lacked would be remedied by the army’s numbers and support. Putting it in a simple comparison, they were merely slightly delayed in their mastery of skills compared to other aura users.

 

   And since they could gain multiple times greater advantages in return for being slightly delayed like that, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that they were low-risk high-return at the very least in the armies.

 

   Of course, when looking at the knights’ individual growth, one wouldn’t even think of attempting it since the waste of the limited resource called time spent in the process was maddeningly and near insultingly inefficient. But truthfully, since there wasn’t even a guarantee that one could definitely achieve that level of growth, it could be said that it wasn’t a bad option. It was a world where there also were an abundant number of knights who never even sensed aura in their entire lives, after all.

 

   I might be fighting that sort of guy, so of course the standard frontal attack wasn’t an answer as a fresh 14-year-old brat.

 

   It was an extreme either-or choice. Either bend my creed, or place my life on the line.

 

   “Mister Eldmia! We can start to see them!”

 

   I couldn’t tell at all how many hours it had taken and how far we had flown. I did sleep from time to time to recover my stamina while several dark villages and forests occasionally passed by, but the biggest reason was that the drake was faster than what I’d imagined.

 

   The one certain thing was that, had I missed Giesse or hadn’t had a drake, by now I would’ve been madly running and agonizing over the way to enter the capital in time, the way to prove my identity, the way to find Lagnis, and all sorts of other things that were beyond my abilities while cursing the world. At least on that point, I couldn’t help but give infinite thanks to that bastard called Delt.

 

   When I focused and stared at the direction Giesse was pointing at, there was something dust-sized flying at the edge of the slowly brightening twilight sky.

 

   “Wow. Even I can just barely see it. Can all drake pilots see that much as if it’s nothing?”

 

   “Of course not, sir. The only thing that flies alone at this much height are drakes, so we simply assume it’s that when we see it.”

 

   I thought he did it using superhuman sight, but it was based on an obvious and logical inference, huh.

 

   “Even just piloting without any sleep is amazing, so I thought you had good eyes, too. Now then, raise the altitude for me. How high would we need to go up for him to not notice?”

 

   “If we approach by gliding from above, then truthfully it’ll be difficult to notice even if we approach nearly a single building story high, sir. It’s surprisingly difficult to imagine something flying above your head when in the air, you see.”

 

   Well, yeah. We were flying at nearly the same height as the clouds, so that did sound understandable. If something was flying at a similar height or higher, then that would merely be the same drakes or a dragon.

 

   “But since Mister Eldmia will have to kill the drake before Delt even notices, we’ll have to raise the altitude a bit higher.”

 

   Fuck. Having gotten conscious of it, too, the recklessness of what I’d now be doing freshly began to be felt for real.

 

   “Giesse. It’s been only a few hours since we met, but I’m putting the second biggest trust of my entire life in you. Lagnis’s and my lives are in your hands, okay?”

 

   The plan itself was simple. Once I stabbed the drake’s skull and stole back the tied-up Lagnis, Giesse would receive us. If I pathetically failed to stab the drake’s skull and fell, then Giesse would quickly come down and catch me and then try again. Giesse had confidently said that he’d done something similar a lot of times before while passing things between other drake pilots and that he wouldn’t fail.

 

   “I’ll absolutely catch you, at the very least for my debtless life, Mister Eldmia.”

 

   “Yeah. Either way, there’s some room for falling from the altitude being high, so it’ll work out somehow.”

 

   “Mister Eldia is… really amazing. Even trained drake pilots need a really long time to accept that like you, sir.”

 

   “You get like this if you grow up with your village burned to ashes within 8 years of you being born.”

 

   Truthfully I was merely doing mental gymnastics to fool myself again and again using my past life’s knowledge, but either way there wasn’t even a way to prove it when there wasn’t anyone else to compare with, so I casually glossed over it.

 

   “Well then, I’ll climb up, Mister Eldmia. I won’t give you a separate signal since our opponent might be a drake knight. I’ll have to flap the wings once when we reach an adequate distance, so… you can start at that moment.”

 

   I couldn’t see his face, but his nervousness passed to me through his voice. Well yeah, just how many times in a life could he come across an event where he had to help a nutcase who did this sort of lunacy? It wasn’t something worth doing twice, so I too wanted to succeed on the first try.

 

   “Isn’t it dawn soon?”

 

   “Yes. We’re flying towards the capital, so the sun will rise from the front.”

 

   “Could we match the timing with the sunrise?”

 

   “I’ll do it.”

 

   On points concerned with flying, this guy didn’t show even a hint of nervousness nor hesitation. Could this guy actually be an unimaginably skilled drake pilot? That could be why they wanted to pull him into their hands even by using scams.

 

   Once they came into our view, the distance really closed instantly. While I was in awe at Giesse’s practiced flying, we had climbed up the altitude and were flying above the bastard called Delt, but he completely didn’t notice.

 

   In front of a guy wearing shining black armor and flying while fluttering a cape and brown hair, Lagnis was there tied up as if rolled up in a blanket. Truthfully speaking, there was no way to tell if it was really Lagnis since she even wore a hood that was tightly pulled down, but it was her going by the circumstances.

 

   And it was something I was going to do either way, but… the drake head looked way too small.

 

   “Fuck.”

 

   I didn’t feel scared. It might be because it was far too unreal a situation, but when I thought of falling, this high altitude instead felt almost like a safety airbag.

 

   The moment countless shadow Eldmias showcased the best movements to poke the drake’s skull and screamed as they fell, the drake’s wings flapped.

 

   “Alright.”

 

   I even felt proud at the fact that I pulled out my sword and jumped without a moment of hesitation.

 

   With the sound of wind striking my ears, the fall began.

 

   Giesse should certainly be a talented pilot. I could instinctively tell that I could exactly reach the drake’s head if I fell like this. It was a frighteningly exact distance calculation.

 

   Even while I was falling exactly towards the drake’s head that maintained a level flight in the sky, Delt didn’t notice the disturbance. Only by the time I had thought ‘I feel like I should be in his sight by now, though?’ did a calm yet puzzled gaze turn to me a moment too late. In truth, the phrase ‘a moment too late’ was an expression that could be unfair for him. Timewise, it should’ve been less than 1 or 2 seconds of time, after all.

 

   “…?”

 

   In that split second, the thing legible on the bastard’s face was a question.

 

   It was a face that couldn’t understand why a person was falling from above him. In the overwhelmingly fantastical situation, I could tell through his eyes that he couldn’t even think of grasping who I was and was only trying to understand why I was falling down.

 

   “Obviously that’s ‘cause…!”

 

   Because there wasn’t even an instant to calm my maddeningly racing heart, I maintained only the single thought of not letting go of the sword grasped with both my hands and directly stabbed down into the drake’s head.

 

   “Of gravity you son of a bitch!!”

 

   Past the skull’s resistance felt for an instance, the drake’s skull shattered.

 

   🔷

 

   He thought that the dawn was breaking.

 

   Because it was the first time flying towards the capital from this direction even for Delt, he unconsciously creased his brows at the brighter than expected light, but that was all of his impression. The moon setting and the sun rising were simply natural phenomena, after all.

 

   Because of that, in the split second of a moment his gaze converged with Eldmia’s, the thing that fully filled his head was a simple question.

 

   ‘Why is there a person falling from above my head?’

 

   Him thinking that their gazes crossed in that less than 1 second of a moment should’ve been due to him extremely tensing up and panicking at the situation he hadn’t imagined even a little bit, and couldn’t even have thought of imagining.

 

   With an incomprehensible shout, someone fell down. Even though Delt saw with his eyes the blade of the sword the unknown man held plant itself all the way to its base and into his drake’s head, he couldn’t react.

 

   He couldn’t even comprehend.

 

   ‘How is he not falling?’

 

   To Delt’s eyes that still hadn’t accepted the situation, it simply looked like someone who had abruptly fallen from the sky was crouching down on top of the handleless drake’s head with an odd pose and maintaining his balance.

 

   It exceeded logic, it exceeded perception, and it even exceeded comprehension.

 

   “I’m!”

 

   And so.

 

   Even until that moment Eldmia twisted and gripped his sword and raced on the drake’s neck that for only a short moment maintained its strength right up before his eyes and then swung the sword with both his hands, Delt failed to react. He had fought countless fights, trained, and didn’t shy away from even the dirty work for his house, but he failed to react even a little.

 

   Even at the movements that were like those of a practiced aura user, even while looking at the eyes glaring as if on fire, even while seeing the beautiful blade twinkling in the sunlight that lit up the twilight, he failed to properly recognize even the threat to his life.

 

   “Eldmia Egga!”

 

   After hearing the single shout that answered all the questions, Delt only then understood.

 

   ‘Ah, so that’s what happened.’

 

   That was the final thought that Delt, whose head was cut off at the single strike, could think.

 

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Translator: CSV

TL note: 1 of 3 chapters to be released this Monday~Wednesday. Next chapter has been scheduled for automatic release in 4 hours from now.

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Ch.21

Chapter List

Ch.23