I Was Reincarnated as a Mob Noble, and I Swear I'll Protect the Villainess Who Got Married Off to Me No Matter What ~To Dodge Our Total Downfall, I Went All Out Training My Trash Skill [Super Recovery] Through Crazy Hard Work, and Before I Knew It, I Could Totally Wreck the Game Protagonist Who Condemned My Wife Easily - Chapter 30

Chapter 30: Dalham Castle Captured. One-on-One Victory Over the Famous General Baldo

General Baldo kept firing off shockwaves from long range, one after another.

Every single one carried killing intent, and all I could do was dodge—I was barely keeping up.

“Impressive! But you can’t win just by dodging forever!”

He was right. Deep down, I had this gut feeling that even one clean hit would shatter my body into pieces, no time to regenerate before I’d be dead.

He shouldn’t be able to spam a move this big without paying a huge price, but…

Damn it. He knows about my recovery power, so he’s betting everything on a quick finish.

And worse—he’s already figured out I can’t attack from long range myself.

In just this short time, he accurately sized up my strengths and weaknesses. The guy really is a terrifying warrior.

But at the same time… something felt off.

This passive style of trying to finish me from afar didn’t seem to match the reputation of the hero everyone praises for his courage.

Was there some kind of plan behind it…?

“Come on, Zenon… you can do it…!”

Valeria was desperately cheering me on.

I had to win—for her sake too.

Just hold out for about five minutes until General Baldo runs out of steam.

That’s when my chance would come.

“Zenon Greivan—I’ll remember that name!”

General Baldo suddenly used wind magic to super-accelerate, closing the distance in an instant and raising his sword high.

He’d switched to close combat out of nowhere.

Startled, I tried jumping back to dodge—but my back slammed into the castle wall.

Shit…!

While I’d been dodging his shockwaves, he’d maneuvered me right up against the wall without me realizing. Had he been aiming for this from the start?

No time left to evade now.

If I blocked his sword, the shockwave would probably smash me along with the blade.

All or nothing—I had to go for it!

Right then, I cast 【Excessive Recovery】—onto my sword as an 【Enchant】. I’d been keeping it ready so I could fire it off anytime.

But the 【Excessive Recovery】 I shoot from my hand has short range, and his long sword would reach me first. So on pure instinct, in the heat of the moment, I tried something I’d never practiced: doing the same 【Enchant】 on my own blade like he did.

“What—!?”

My glowing 【Excessive Recovery Sword】 clashed against General Baldo’s raging wind blade.

There was no metallic clang like “gakin!”

Where they touched, his sword instantly turned to sand and crumbled away.

His eyes widened in shock—and in that split second, my sword sliced deep into him in a diagonal downward cut.

Fresh blood sprayed. General Baldo dropped to one knee.

“You… were a magic swordsman too…!”

He looked up at my face and gave the faintest smile.

“…Magnificent. But… the wall has been breached. Your Highness Princess Leticia… victory is…”

Those were the hero’s final words.

I kept my sword raised toward the fallen General Baldo, staying fully alert in zanshin, but he never moved again.

“No way… the Empire’s hero, General Baldo…!”

From the imperial soldiers came cries even more heartbroken than when their prince fell. The ones who’d collapsed to the ground had clearly lost all will to fight.

“Amazing, Young Master Zenon! This Felix has never been happier in his life! The lord will be overjoyed too!”

Felix was choking back tears of emotion even as he shouted at the imperial troops.

“Drop your weapons! Anyone who refuses dies!”

“O-okay… we’ll do as you say…!”

One after another, the imperial soldiers threw down their arms and surrendered.

And with that, the capture of Dalham Castle was complete.

Only then did I finally let the tension drain out of me and turn to look behind.

“…He breached the wall?”

Unbelievably, a section of the castle wall had been destroyed.

Now I understood the true meaning of that duel.

General Baldo’s shockwaves hadn’t just driven me back to the wall—they’d also been concentrated in one spot on purpose, to break through the wall itself.

Even if he lost the one-on-one, he was making sure it would lead to victory for his lord, Princess Leticia…

Or maybe he’d already decided the fall of Dalham Castle was inevitable, and challenged me to a duel specifically so I couldn’t interfere with him collapsing the wall.

“You were strong.”

I looked down at General Baldo’s body.

This man had fought with his life on the line for the woman he loved, just like me.

As a general and as a warrior, he deserved nothing but respect.

“Zenon, you did it!”

Right then Valeria came rushing over with pure joy and threw herself into my chest. I caught her, just as thrilled.

“Taking down a hero on Baldo’s level is huge! This is our great victory!”

“It’s thanks to all the training with you, Valeria. There’s no way I could’ve won alone.”

To me, Valeria really is the goddess of victory.

The whole duel, she’d kept shouting encouragement for me until her voice went hoarse.

“No, you already had the talent for being a magic swordsman. Pulling off an 【Enchant】 you’d never even practiced, right at the very last second…!”

That move probably would’ve failed nine times out of ten. It was an insanely risky gamble.

I won partly because I got lucky… and partly because it felt like my late older sister lent me her strength.

She’d once clashed with our sword-supremacist father because she wanted to master the blade so badly that she even started enchanting magic onto swords.

That memory is what gave me the idea.

“…I’ve avenged Sister Alfin now.”

I looked up at the starry sky and murmured quietly.

More than anything, this should finally make Father and the military commanders accept me as the supreme commander.

Once that happens, we can stop Saintess Alicia’s schemes to destroy us.

We can overturn our doomed fate and protect Valeria to the end.

But there was no time to bask in the victory.

“Still, it’s not over yet. Princess Leticia’s main imperial army is gonna come crashing in here any minute!”

“I know. Everything’s going exactly according to the plan you came up with!”

Valeria looked straight into my eyes and nodded firmly.

Having the wall breached by General Baldo was unexpected, but I’d already prepared a secret strategy to defend this castle.

Actually, the breach made the enemy’s attack target easier to predict. They’re definitely going to throw a huge wave of golem soldiers straight at that broken section.

We’ll wipe them all out in one go.

“Yeah—on the contrary, we should be able to deal a massive blow to the imperial main force!”