Virgin Knight Who Is the Frontier Lord in the Gender Switched World - Chapter 199

“At the end of the day, what do you really think of Duke Temeraire?”

“Hmm?”

I am walking through the back alleys of the Imperial City alongside a member of the Knight Order of the Mad Boar, a group of superhuman knights directly under Duke Temeraire.

She seems to have gotten herself a new shield, which is crudely inscribed with the word “desdichado” (disowned).

Come to think of it, I don’t have a shield.

A knight would typically want at least a kite shield.

I simply don’t use one, but I would like to own one embossed with the Polydoro family crest, “the hoe and the iris.”

Items bearing the family crest are scarce in the poor lands of Polydoro.

Helga, the captain of the retainers, only has a short sword with the family crest engraved on the scabbard when she visits other houses for identity verification.

Now that I have some money, it might be nice to provide the same to all my retainers.

If so, it would share the pride of being the only family line with a crested scabbard given by the captain of the retainers.

I can see Helga sulking about it, so I’ll have to give her something else.

Despite appearances, I am quite considerate towards my people.

I have money because Miss Valiere lavishly rewarded us after yesterday’s battle.

I wonder what those who accompanied me from the Knight Order of the Mad Boar received?

“Are you listening?”

“How much did Miss Valiere pay the disowned? Not only did Miss Anastasia pay, but Miss Valiere must have given a personal reward too.”

“Yeah, you’re not listening at all. Well, I did get enough money to spare even after getting a new shield. The members of the Knight Order of the Mad Boar got various things.”

“Only the ‘Samurai’ said he wanted something other than money.”

Well, I generally understand the context, and that’s fine.

There’s no need to ask what he requested as a “special token of gratitude.” Miss Valiere looked a bit dismayed, and the Samurai seemed quite pleased, so I guess the negotiations went alright.

It’s trivial.

“Your matters are trivial,” said the disowned with a weary expression.

“No, I really don’t care about that anymore. I want Duke Temeraire to be happy. I’m not at an age where personal hatred or anger satisfies everything. Wishing for the happiness of a beloved lord is what a true knight should do. I hope you think about that too.”

Hmm, I tilt my head, listening to the disowned’s words.

I understand that she wants Duke Temeraire to be happy, but she speaks in such a roundabout way that it’s unclear what exactly she wants me to do.

As a knight, I dislike ambiguous situations.

At the very least, as a noble, I must understand what the person I’m conversing with wants.

So, I thought I should directly ask what she wants me to do.

“Well, it’s a curious conversation, but let’s put a stop to it. We can deal with it after killing them, right?”

I cut off the conversation midway and state what we should do now.

The disowned nods and grips the morning star hanging at her waist.

“It’s quite a hassle to have gone through the back alleys. You could have just gone through the main street and headed home,” she says with an extremely bothered look and a sharp, hostile gaze.

Well, I could have just done as she said.

“It was a tough decision, but it’s better to reduce clear enemies when we can. It would be troublesome if others were targeted.”

I retort in the same dismissive tone and relax my muscles.

Since a fight has been picked, I have to kill.

Whether it’s an opponent who faces me head-on or one who attempts to stab me from behind or the side with a poison-coated dagger.

“Come out already, you assassin scum.”

Ever since we left the residence of Lady Anastasia, I’ve felt someone following us.

This Faust has never encountered an assassin before.

However, I have been overly exposed to death on the battlefield.

Whether it’s a rich, involved death or a dry, simple one, as a superhuman, my instincts detect any killing intent.

“Are you one of the Pope’s men? Or the Emperor’s? Ah, it doesn’t matter. I’m not interested in listening. I’ll strangle you to death right here and toss your bodies around. Are you prepared?”

I count the numbers.

There were five following us before we entered the alley.

Three are hiding in the side paths.

Four seem to be hiding behind the dilapidated back alley shops.

Twelve in total, trivial.

Normally, it would take just a few minutes to kill them all.

I don’t have my favorite sword, but I have several thick knives strapped to my waist.

“Such a tense atmosphere might surprise us, huh? Hm? We’re not even looking to fight.”

Instead of attacking all at once silently, a young girl steps out from the front.

With an old woman’s tone, she mutters, clicking her tongue, chewing on something.

She spits something out along with her saliva, which appears to be a clump of resin-like brown substance.

“Marijuana. You’re a drug addict, scum.”

The disowned mutters in her homeland’s language, recalling the derogatory names of substances like cannabis, hashish, and chocolate from a previous life.

She’s drugged up.

“Excuse me. It’s a habit, and I can’t settle down without something in my mouth. I’ve spit it out now. I want to talk to you all.”

She spreads her tongue wide, showing that her mouth is now empty.

With an exaggerated gesture and a foolish smile, it’s tempting to kill her for approaching, but there’s no need to do exactly as she wishes.

Or rather, this is bad.

This situation is clearly bad—honestly underestimated.

Even if there were superhumans, I didn’t think they’d have the training level of the Knight Order of the Mad Boar.

The girl in front of me is clearly no ordinary person.

“Are you one of the Pope’s men?”

“Not at all.”

The girl’s eyes are fixed on mine, as if appraising something with great scrutiny.

It’s as if she’s weighing human values on a scale, calculating whether a soul weighs more than a feather, reminiscent of the countenance of an ancient Egyptian god acting as a prosecutor.

I chastise myself for choosing to fight due to a misjudgment.

“Indeed, indeed. I had heard the stories, but to see it firsthand, your superhuman prowess is quite something. I considered asking for a bout, but then, who knows how many would have died. It was right for me to approach you for a talk. It seems the claim that I defeated Reckenber, who virtually annihilated my branch family, is true.”

I have made a clear mistake.

The disowned will likely die here.

Seeing the girl’s piercing gaze, that image suddenly springs to mind.

I might manage on my own.

If I can escape alone, I might manage.

Escaping from assassins is not a death of honor for a knight.

I should just start running right now, through the side alleys or back, killing assassins along the way to escape.

Then, I would survive.

But…

“Would you care to talk? Well, I’m not really giving you a choice.”

The disowned beside me will surely die.

Definitely.

And the disowned is not foolish enough to not understand this.

“What are you doing? Don’t just stand there, start running, you idiot. Then report to Lord Temeraire. We underestimated the Pope!”

Preparing for death, the disowned coldly states the plan.

…I understand.

If I say I won’t flee here, it would be an insult to her as a knight, as the disowned.

But, still…

“If I flee now, abandoning you after you joined the reinforcements for Miss Valiere, I can no longer face Duke Temeraire. If we fight together, it’s not as if there’s no chance of winning.”

Perhaps being under Miss Valiere has softened me.

I cannot run away and leave the disowned behind.

Even if…

“Idiot! Even if all twelve assassins here are superhumans, it doesn’t mean you have a high chance of winning!”

Even if the girl in front of us is as strong as Duke Temeraire.

If it were the legendary hero I once defeated in a duel, he might have just barely opened his eyes and escaped the predicament.

“Lord Reckenber could have done it!”

Lord Reckenber would have overwhelmingly won.

So I shouldn’t say I can’t win.

Asserting this, I prepare to try to escape from this deadly situation with the disowned.

But…

“Hmm. Both of you seem to be misunderstanding something. I am neither a person of the Pope nor the Emperor.”

The girl blurts out something strange.

No, it has been strange for a while now, but she cannot be trusted.

I’m driven by suspicion.

Is she playing word games, trying to capture our interest before slashing our throats?

I remain on guard, but the girl denies it.

“You seem suspicious, but that’s not the reason. You’re too suspicious of people. Perhaps if you knew the situation as far as I’ve investigated, you wouldn’t be so confused. Maybe the situation was too dire.”

The girl claps her hands together with a ‘pan.’

Behind, in the side paths, in the shadows.

The presence of the eleven others, excluding the girl in front, disappears abruptly.

Not that they’ve masked their killing intent; they’ve simply left.

Their presence fades, leaving the girl in front without the aura of impending death.

“Hm? Is this not satisfying? Should I grovel on the ground like a dog?”

The girl tilts her head.

By now, it’s clear to understand.

The girl in front of us has no intention of killing us.

She truly wants to talk.

There might still be superhumans hiding, but if there are any undetectable by me, resisting would be pointless.

“Well, do you truly want to talk? Not fight?”

“I’ve been saying that from the start. Through you, I have something I wish to discuss with the heir of the Anhalt Kingdom. I apologize for the threatening encirclement. I merely wanted to measure your strength.”

I take a closer look at the girl.

She is a girl with slightly brown skin.

She appears to be no older than 14, but her tone is that of an old woman.

“Let me ease your guard by telling you my name. I have none, but I was once called ‘the Old Man of the Mountain.’ I’ll take the name Nahid for now, representing my clan. The name means ‘Star of the Evening.’ Like the evening bell that announces funerals and heralds the arrival of death. I served many dynasties in Persia. I’m the head of an assassin family that served the Persian dynasty, which was destroyed and conquered by the Mongol Empire, and I fled to this country.”

Exotic Persia.

Mentioning the name of a country that Duke Temeraire informed me was already destroyed and controlled by the Mongol Empire.

Watching the girl make her grand introduction…

“In this empire, following the language of the Anhalt Kingdom, my name would be Vesper (‘Star of the Evening’). My family, the Wesperman, provided a man as a heraldic officer under a secret contract with the Anhalt royal family during their invasion of Persia. I am from the direct lineage of the true founder of the now fallen Wesperman family. Does that make sense, or should I explain from the beginning? It seems you’re not very bright? You probably don’t know much personally, and well, you’re not involved in the kingdom’s secrets, are you? Hm??”

Stunned, I stand with my mouth agape, wondering if she’s talking about the Zabine family, and I let out a small sound for confirmation.