Vol 1 Chapter 38 – The Rearguard’s Battle【Vol 1 – Spoiled Princess Arc】

“Ooooooohh!! Diiiiieeeeeee!!”

The private soldiers attacked with glee.

While they had been taken aback by the anomaly of a man who chose to throw his own life away, their expressions held no desperation.

And why would they? The absolute advantage lay with their side, which numbered over a hundred, while Erik was all alone.

No matter how they looked at it, there was no way they could lose.

Furthermore, Biriel’s talk of a reward was another factor spurring them on.

He had promised gold coins for every royal and escort knight they killed.

What’s more, Erik was a Knight of Fealty. The bounty on his head was even larger than that of a regular escort knight.

And so, they rushed forward, each trying to be the first to claim the prize.

“Heh.”

But they had underestimated the Knight of Fealty… the Altruistic Charity Hero.

Erik dodged a downward sword swing and, as he passed, gutted the man’s stomach.

He then parried a sword slash from the side and, in return, sent the man’s head flying.

To a private soldier who lunged with a thrust, he delivered a fist to the face.

“What…?!”

“H-He can move this well…?!”

Having seen three of their own taken down in an instant, the private soldiers hesitated.

Money was one thing, but it was all for nothing if they got themselves killed.

“You fools! What are you cowering for!? Just kill him already!!”

It was Biriel who roared at them.

To him, it was only three men.

What was there to hesitate about just because three of them were killed?

Even if dozens died, if he didn’t dispose of Erik quickly and chase after Orace and the others, he would be executed as a rebel.

He couldn’t afford to take his time.

He was running out of it.

“Tch! Can’t be helped.”

“The boss sure is loud!”

Muttering curses, the private soldiers resumed their attack on Erik.

Parrying a downward swing, then countering with a slash of his own.

That was the foundation of Erik’s attacks.

However, the private soldiers were struggling to break through that simple foundation.

Perhaps a man like Brecht, who, though a former knight, possessed superior strength, could have defeated Erik.

But the private soldiers gathered under Biriel were lazy, ill-behaved rejects.

As such, it was impossible for them to beat Erik one-on-one.

However…

“Gah!?”

“W-What are you—!!”

On Biriel’s order, a volley of arrows was unleashed.

This was done with the full awareness that their own men were engaged in close combat with Erik and would be in the line of fire.

The soldiers fighting Erik up close couldn’t dodge the arrows suddenly fired from behind them, and they fell to the ground one after another as the shafts pierced their bodies.

Ideally, they would have sniped only Erik.

But none of Biriel’s men had the skill to target just Erik in the middle of a chaotic melee.

In that case, it was better to shoot through their own soldiers.

That was Biriel’s cold-hearted calculation as he gave the order.

“Kuh…!”

Erik’s eyes widened in shock, but he somehow managed to swat away the most dangerous of the arrows…

“Gugh!!”

An arrow pierced his abdomen.

Seeing this, Biriel laughed sadistically.

“Yes! Now’s our chance! Attack all at once!!”

“Ooh!!”

The volley of arrows stopped, and the private soldiers with swords and spears rushed in to attack again.

Erik once again tried to fall into his pattern of parrying and then countering, but…

“Guuuh…”

He could stop the downward sword swings, but he no longer had the strength to knock them away.

Blood seeped from the arrow wound he was pressing on, overflowing between his fingers.

“Kuhahahahahahahaha!! Does it hurt? Of course it hurts, doesn’t it!? With that wound, you can’t move like you did before!!”

Biriel roared with laughter from his perfectly safe position.

He watched from on high, mocking Erik’s desperate struggle.

After taking that single arrow, the brilliance of Erik’s movements had clearly faded.

Where before he had been felling soldiers with counters, he was now completely on the defensive.

The number of fresh wounds on his body began to grow.

It was commendable that he was still avoiding any fatal blows aside from the arrow wound, but his face and torso were already covered in cuts, and the blood loss was no longer negligible.

However…

“Guaaah!?”

“Gyaaaaaaaah!!”

The screams came only from the private soldiers.

Though not as efficient as at the start, Erik’s counterattacks continued to fell them one by one.

Some died instantly as their heads were lopped off, but the number of those who were intentionally only wounded and taken down began to increase.

Erik had changed his way of fighting.

His thinking was that rather than killing them, he would render them unable to fight. Seeing their allies writhing on the ground and screaming would surely deal a heavy blow to the soldiers’ morale.

In fact, scenes where the soldiers hesitated to attack, not wanting to suffer the same fate, were becoming more frequent.

“N-Nonsense…! He’s only one man…!? Why is he able to hold us up for this long…!!”

Biriel was aghast.

At this rate, Orace and the others would truly escape.

That was the one thing he had to avoid at all costs.

“Magic! Use magic attacks!!”

Biriel commanded.

If they couldn’t beat him with swords and couldn’t kill him with arrows, then magic was all that was left.

He gave the order to the girl standing nearby.

“B-But…”

The girl hesitated.

She had not the slightest desire to kill Erik for a reward.

On the contrary, seeing Erik continue to defend the path while covered in wounds, she was even beginning to feel a sense of admiration.

She didn’t want to attack.

Even for the Hero, a direct hit from a magic attack would not leave him unscathed.

However…

“Fire, now!! If you don’t use magic, I’ll kill your family!!”

“……!!”

The girl squeezed her eyes shut at Biriel’s threat.

She had a precious family.

If they were used as a shield, she would do things she really didn’t want to do…

The girl raised her mana and created a fireball.

As a commoner who had never received any formal magic education, her magic was nothing special.

But precisely because it was so basic, it held more than enough power to kill a person.

“Fire!!”

“Ugh… aaaaaahhhhh!!”

Giving in to Biriel’s threat, the girl unleashed her magic.

The fireball flew straight toward Erik, and unable to move properly due to his arrow and sword wounds, he could only watch as it approached, with no way to dodge…

KA-BOOM!

With a massive roar, the fireball exploded against Erik.