Chapter 23: The Old Man Finally Makes His Move

“The poor girls were quite hysterical, spouting some nonsense about being beaten by the Saint… In any case, we were notified of the location of the Saint, who had been missing since this morning, and rushed over to find… a filthy vagrant like you near her holy person!”

After saying his piece, the man drew his sword, pointed it at me, and said,

“Now… give up and release the Saint! You vagrant!”

His attitude was incredibly overbearing.

He looked completely unwilling to listen to reason.

The men around him were more or less the same.

They looked ready to cut me down at any second.

Well… I guess this is what the Knight Order is like.

I haven’t had much to do with them, but the few times I’ve seen them around town, they’ve usually acted just like this.

I hear many of them are the children of nobles, so maybe it can’t be helped.

But as I was racking my brain over what to do,

“…You people… how dare you say such rude things to Sensei—”

Alicia-san started to approach the knights.

At that moment, I instinctively turned to look at her.

That was a mistake.

The knights apparently judged my movement as an attempt to harm Alicia-san.

The next thing I knew, some of the knights were screaming, “You bastard!!”

Then, the knight in the lead, having drawn his sword, charged and swung at me.

To be honest, I was surprised by the Knight Order’s actions.

I didn’t think they’d have such a low boiling point…

At this rate, they’re no different from us adventurers brawling.

It’s fine for them to act all high and mighty, but they’re still the Knight Order. I’d appreciate it if they could be a little more level-headed.

Well then… what to do?

Do I use ‘Escape’ on these knights?

But if I run from the Knight Order without saying anything in my defense, it’s going to cause problems for me later.

I’d rather not end up a wanted man by the Kingdom.

In that case, should I just let them quietly arrest me?

No, but… they have their swords drawn, and they don’t look like they’re in any mood for persuasion.

While the knight was charging at me, that’s what I was thinking about.

Now… why am I able to think about such things so leisurely?

It’s thanks to the effect… or rather, the side effect of my ‘Escape’ skill.

For the last ten years, I’ve done nothing but run from battles with all sorts of demonic beasts and people.

As a result, I didn’t awaken any particularly useful skills or abilities.

But there is one small thing I gained.

And that’s agility.

Yes, to escape, you need speed… or rather, agility is indispensable.

Which is why, right now, my agility stat alone is probably quite high.

And as my agility increased, something started to happen to me.

When I was escaping from a battle, I started to see the world around me in slow motion.

At first, I thought it was a hallucination.

And in the beginning, it only lasted for a fleeting moment.

But as I used Escape more and more, the duration of the slow motion grew longer.

And now, I can even think things over this calmly while being attacked.

However, all of my other stats… strength, stamina, magical power… have remained completely undeveloped.

In other words, no matter how much time I have, it’s not like I can make any effective attacks.

Even if I launched a surprise attack, my stats are so low I wouldn’t be able to do any real damage.

Basically, in the end, all I can do is “Escape.”

Just like I’m doing right now…

That said, this side effect… which I’ve taken to calling “Standby Time”… has had a lot of benefits.

Normally, a fight against a demonic beast or a person is incredibly tense, even if the opponent is weaker than you.

That’s because, when you get down to it, it’s a matter of life and death.

When I fought my first demonic beast, my mind honestly went completely blank.

Of course, the more experience you get, the less you panic, but there’s a limit.

After all, people… no, all living things… are inevitably dragged around by their instincts… especially their survival instinct.

In some situations, that can have the effect of improving one’s combat ability…

But… it has its downsides, too.

You lose sight of your surroundings, you get hot-headed, and your emotions take over.

Like the knights who are attacking me right now.

Judging by their state, they probably don’t have much actual combat experience.

For the last ten years, I’ve done nothing but run from battle.

But I’ve experienced real combat more times than I can count.

And my opponents have included top-tier demonic beasts—was that thing a dragon?—and battle-hardened warriors—did he call himself a Sword Saint?

Well… I’ve never won a single one of those fights.

So it’s nothing to brag about…

But even I have learned one thing from all of that.

In a real battle, if you get hot-headed, you lose.

The battlefield is full of uncertainties.

Frankly, you never know what’s going to happen.

That’s why you need to calmly assess the situation.

Luckily for me, I have “Standby Time,” so I can think without being influenced by my instincts—fear, anger, excitement.

…Well, I tried to explain that to the Celesties yesterday…

But… of course, they barely listened to me.

If I were a Hero, they might have found it persuasive… but I’m an F-rank adventurer.

Although… I did somehow end up in a fight with that Hero and had to run away…

Ah… bad, bad.

Even with Standby Time, I’m dawdling and overthinking things.

For now, I’ll just dodge this knight’s attack and put some distance between us.

Then I’ll try to talk some sense into them—

Just as I was about to move away from the knight, something caught my eye.

Alicia-san was punching the knight’s plate armor with her bare fists.