Vol 2 Chapter 61 – For the Sake of Justice?【Vol 2 – The Condemned Knight Edition】

“Ah…!”

That was the only sound Miriam could manage to let out.

Because the sight was far too shocking.

Erik, sent flying with blood spraying from his nose, stopped only when he slammed into the wall.

The already weakened wall crumbled from the impact, and rubble rained down on him.

“…It’s over.”

Eleonora let out a breath.

This particular evil had been a difficult opponent… but she had managed to end it safely this time, too.

She had safely vanquished evil.

Ah, what a refreshing feeling.

“…”

Feeling a strong gaze, she looked over to see Miriam glaring at her, tears welling in her eyes.

Why is she looking at me like that? All I did was destroy evil.

To be resented instead of thanked was out of the question. Unthinkable.

To look at the justice that destroyed evil with such eyes…

“Is that not also a form of evil?”

Eleonora shot her a cold glance.

Should I beat Miriam to death with these gauntlets, too? Just like Erik…

But something caught in a corner of Eleonora’s heart.

It was the memory of the short time she’d spent running around with Erik and Miriam, keeping the peace in the Royal Capital.

When she remembered that, Eleonora found herself shamefully unable to become the cold-blooded destroyer of evil.

And that should never be allowed to happen.

No matter how close their relationship had been, no matter what feelings were involved, if someone became evil, they had to be condemned.

Because Eleonora was justice.

It was then, just as her feet began to move toward Miriam.

“Hh!!”

The pile of collapsed rubble was blown away.

“Gah, hack…! That was… a solid punch…”

The one who crawled out from within was Erik, clearly in worse shape than at the start of the fight.

He was drained, but he was alive.

He casually wiped the blood streaming from his nose with his arm and used his sword as a cane to get to his feet.

Realizing Erik was alive, Miriam and Eleonora had completely opposite reactions.

Miriam’s face broke into a joyful smile, while Eleonora’s was a mask of astonishment.

“To take a direct hit from my fist and still be able to stand… As expected of the Hero.”

“Not at all. It’s thanks to my skill, and to Miriam.”

Erik was being modest, but Eleonora was genuinely impressed.

I know how powerful my fists are.

The strength to move nimbly despite wearing heavy armor and gauntlets, combined with those sturdy gauntlets themselves.

If a normal person took a direct hit to the face from that, most would die.

In fact, no evildoer had ever gotten back up before.

The reason Erik was able to get to his feet, swaying though he was, was twofold, just as he’d said.

Thanks to his skill, “Immortality,” he hadn’t lost his life.

Normally, even if one didn’t die, receiving an equivalent amount of pain would destroy their will to fight… but he was fine, thanks to his special ‘M’ talent.

And the other was the accessory with healing magic he’d received from Miriam.

Thanks to it, his face had been restored enough that Miriam wouldn’t faint at the sight of it.

Without it, he would have reappeared with a mangled face, looking like some kind of undead monster.

“Well, even if you’re alive, your future hasn’t changed. Evil will invariably perish. By my own righteous iron hammer.”

Eleonora slammed her gauntlets together.

It was a display of her firm resolve to strike Erik down once more.

“Erik… what are you going to do…?”

Miriam murmured.

She had seen their previous exchange; Eleonora’s combat prowess was clearly superior.

Even now, she was full of fighting spirit, advancing slowly, while Erik was so unsteady he could barely stand.

At this rate, he wouldn’t be able to dodge Eleonora’s next attack and might really die.

His skill might prevent that, but Miriam’s heart was still filled with nothing but worry.

“I have something of a question…”

“…And what would that be?”

Erik murmured, neither trying to evade nor raising his sword.

Eleonora, who would never have listened if she were facing a common evildoer, found herself asking because the words came from a man she had, however briefly, worked alongside.

“Eleonora-san, you frequently use the words ‘evil’ and ‘justice,’ so I believe they must be very important concepts to you.”

“Of course. There are many values in this world, but the most important are evil and justice. And evil is a value that must not be allowed to exist. As justice itself, I must continue to strive to reduce evil to as close to zero as possible.”

Eleonora spoke, a hint of pride in her voice.

As a knight, I am an executor of justice. Destroying evil is not a bad thing. It is the right thing.

Erik agreed with this.

“I see. It’s certainly true that the knights are what keeps the peace. You yourself, Eleonora-san, have done wonderful work for the capital’s security these past few days.”

“You were wonderful as well, Erik. If only you had remained on the path of justice, you wouldn’t be about to be killed by me like this…”

Erik gave a wry smile at Eleonora’s somewhat regretful murmur.

He hadn’t started talking to appeal to her sentiment and beg for his life.

“Eleonora-san, are you truly justice?”

“…Huh?”

For a moment, Eleonora was caught completely off guard.

But in the next instant, she was burning with a cold fire of rage and charged toward him.

“To think you’d say something like that… that I am not justice? I see now it truly is a waste of time to speak with an evildoer.”

“Guh…!”

Having recovered slightly in the time they’d been talking, Erik succeeded in dodging Eleonora’s attack.

However, faced with her fierce onslaught of repeated gauntlet thrusts and swings, he was completely on the defensive.

He was in no position to counter.

Even so, Erik began to speak.

“No, what you are doing, Eleonora-san, is without a doubt justice and good. That is undeniable.”

“Then…”

“However.”

Erik blocked a gauntlet with his sword, using the momentum to fall back.

With some distance between them, Eleonora also paused her attack.

What is he going to say? I don’t know.

I don’t know, but for some reason, I felt I shouldn’t listen.

Beads of sweat appeared on Eleonora’s face.

Seeing her, Erik spoke anyway.

“Are you really fighting for the sake of justice?”

“……!”

Eleonora’s heart hammered in her chest.

She opened her mouth to retort, but no words came out; it just opened and closed uselessly.

Calm down, calm down. Composing herself, Eleonora shot Erik a sharp glare.

“O-Of course I am! What grounds could I possibly be fighting on, other than justice?! Are you trying to deny everything I’ve done to destroy evil up to now!?”

It was the first time Eleonora had raised her voice.

It was as if she was begging him not to press on such a sore spot…

But Erik spoke on.

“I’ve always wondered. Eleonora-san, why are you so zealous about helping people, and yet so relentlessly brutal when you attack evil?”

“Th-That’s… because I am justice. So, destroying evil is only natural…”

“Yes, that’s what you say, Eleonora-san. I thought that must be it, too. But I could never quite shake this strange feeling of wrongness.”

Eleonora’s face showed more panic than ever before.

She, who never let her expression change no matter what attack she endured, was now twisting her face in response to Erik’s words.

Erik had noticed this wrongness precisely because of his own twisted proclivities.

Miriam, who was normal and had spent the same amount of time with them, hadn’t felt anything out of place when looking at Eleonora.

“Eleonora-san, when you’re killing or hitting someone… you have a distorted smile on your face, don’t you?”

“———Hh!!”

Eleonora’s body jolted.

Her face had gone deathly pale.

In terms of the battle, she held the overwhelming advantage.

She hadn’t taken a single blow, let alone an effective one, from Erik, while he was reeling from her powerful strike.

And yet, she was the one who was now being cornered.

“S-Smiling? M-Me…?”

“Yes. When you killed Klet Laboy, and when you were about to kill the boy who committed that crime.”

As Eleonora stood there, stunned, Erik listed the examples one by one.

He recounted the times they had acted together.

And now.

“———When you punched me in the face just now, you wore a ghastly smile. Were you not aware of it yourself?”

“———”

Eleonora’s expression froze.

Smiling? Who? Me?

I was smiling when I was hitting someone… when I was killing someone?

If I was smiling while committing violence, could that still be called justice?

Isn’t that the very evil that I despise most of all…?

“…You must have seen wrong. And even if I were smiling, it would surely be from the joy of destroying evil. …This conversation is over. All that’s left is to kill you.”

“Oh? But my part of the conversation isn’t over yet…”

“I’m telling you there’s no need to listen!!”

Eleonora charged ferociously, lunging at Erik.

She swung her gauntlets like a tempest, trying to kill him.

But Erik masterfully dodged and deflected, avoiding a direct hit.

In fact, he even wore a faint, confident smile.

This was because Eleonora’s movements lacked their earlier precision, incomparable to how she’d fought before.

Was she tired? No, that wasn’t it. She was suffering from mental damage.

This created the strange situation where Erik, who should have been at a disadvantage after taking that heavy blow, was the one with more composure.

“It can’t be helped. In that case, allow me to just talk to myself.”

“Shut up!!”

Erik continued to speak while dodging.

Eleonora attacked desperately, trying to stop him, but she couldn’t even silence his words.

Weaving through the onslaught of her sturdy gauntlets, Erik spoke.

“I see. As you say, Eleonora-san, it’s possible you were smiling from the pleasure of destroying evil. However, my own thoughts are a little different.”

“Silence!!”

Her polite tone—the formal speech she maintained even when facing evildoers—was gone, replaced by a rough, wild manner of speaking.

Her face was covered in a sheet of sweat, the very picture of agitation.

“A smile of justice that destroys evil… If that were the case, it should have been a more wholesome one. But for some reason, your smile, Eleonora-san, seemed more like one worn by someone intoxicated with pleasure… Yes, it didn’t look noble, but vulgar.”

This was a difference in the quality of the smile that only Erik could have noticed.

Yes, it was precisely because he was a vulgar man with twisted proclivities that he could recognize Eleonora wore the same kind of smile as himself.

“I told you… to be silent!!”

Eleonora raised a gauntleted fist and thrust it at Erik with all her might.

It closed in on him with such speed that he couldn’t possibly dodge…

“…Huh?”

CLANG!

With a metallic sound and a jolt of impact, Eleonora’s mouth fell open.

Before her was a shocking sight… Erik had blocked her gauntlet with his sword.

The size of the gauntlet and the sword were incomparable.

Furthermore, Eleonora’s physical strength was far greater.

So how could he block it…?

Eleonora couldn’t understand it, but the simple truth was that he’d hit the mark, and she’d lost her strength.

Erik, having blocked the gauntlet, looked at the spikes looming before his eyes with an enraptured expression and let out a soft breath.

“In my opinion, Eleonora-san… you are———”

Eleonora’s instincts were screaming at her not to listen.

I should cover my ears, crouch down, and scream to drown out his words.

But Eleonora couldn’t move.

And into her, Erik’s words pierced.

“———someone who enjoys tormenting people, aren’t you?”