Vol 3 Chapter 67 – A Certain Man’s Mistake (2)【Empire War Arc】

I quit being a knight. Ever since I was defeated by the beautiful holy knight Sophia at the Imperial Combat Festival, I just could not muster any motivation for my duties anymore.

I wanted to see her again, to cross swords with her again. That feeling grew stronger with each passing day.

—And then, the time finally came.

“Stop right there! Dart, there has been a report that while you were serving as a knight, you extorted money and valuables from the people. We have all the evidence we need. If you surrender quietly, I promise you at least your life will be spared.”

I knew this was coming. When you are assigned to the knight order, you do not get to choose your superior. If I had ended up under a knight with high ideals, I might have become the kind of knight who truly protects the people. But that was not how it went for me…

They are clearly planning to pin all the wrongdoing on me now that I have quit the order.

And now, I have been skillfully driven into the southeastern forest. It is close to the kingdom’s border—once you enter the forest, you are in Ignia territory. I almost have to admire how far I managed to run.

“Unfortunately for you, I am not interested in ending up as a slave. I am going to resist with everything I have.”

“Tch! If that is how it is, then there is no helping it. All units, attack!!”

My pursuers launch their assault with arrows and magic. I knock the arrows aside with my sword and divert the spells with my mithril shield. Fireballs explode behind me, and while the dust cloud rises, the vanguard charges in.

Clang! Clang!

Maybe the enemy commander wants to finish me off himself to claim the credit; the only saving grace is that there is just one man in the vanguard. But my left arm, which has been blocking the magic, is numb, and I can barely parry his sword.

“Stubborn, but you are already about to keel over. …Hmm, this far from the imperial capital, even if a criminal dies, we can just write it off as an accident.”

“You say that like you did not plan to kill me out here in the forest from the very beginning…”

“Ha! You served in the knight order too, so you know how it is, do you not? ‘This kind of thing happens all the time.’ Now then, let us put an end to this. Serpent Edge!!”

His serpent-like, irregular attacks are all I can do to defend against with my stamina almost gone, and on the third strike he knocks my sword away.

“First, let us make sure you cannot run.”

He slices both my legs, driving me to my knees. I use my numb left arm to hold up my shield and guard my upper body, but at this rate it probably will not hold for even another minute.

“Come on, come on, if you do not try harder, you are going to die! Rear guard! Now, fire!”

Fireballs come roaring in one after another. I have no strength left to block the next attack. Strangely enough, I no longer feel any regret. After all, I am going to meet my end near Ignia territory, where that lovely maiden Sophia is likely to be…

Steeling myself, I close my eyes—yet the impact never comes.

“You there. You are still alive, are you not?”

When I open my eyes, a silver-haired girl is swinging a silver-white spear, sending the enemy commander flying. She has grown more gallant than when I saw her before.

In my eyes, there are angel wings on her back, and in that moment—

—I thought it was destiny.

“Now then, you can relax. There is a warm blanket and hot soup waiting in my tent. Once you have settled down, I would like to hear your story.”

With that, Sophia-sama ran off to capture the remaining enemies. I was safely taken into custody, leaning on the shoulders of the members of Stark.

Having been conveniently taken into the group, I worked with everything I had as a member of Stark, all to be of use to “Sophia-sama.”

Eventually I was chosen as captain, and in the year Sophia-sama was about to turn eighteen, I heard about it.

Sophia-sama had drawn up a plan to cross the border and protect an entire clan for the sake of a single man. She had apparently been laying the groundwork for it for years.

Even as a newcomer, I had risen to the point of being made captain, yet no one had told me about this. That hurt. She only told me the plan directly ten days before it was carried out… She said that because it was such a large-scale, deeply personal plan, she had been worried that a newcomer like me might object.

We overcame many hardships and somehow succeeded in protecting the Shadow Clan, Ombra, but from that day on, my heart began to sink into darkness.

A black-haired, red-eyed man, surrounded by women, wearing a slightly displeased expression. What offended me most was that Sophia-sama was among them.

The urge to claw at my own chest was almost unbearable, but I somehow held it down and focused on the mission. General Kingston… commonly called Ganalkin.

We had received reports from nearby villages that that lord had trespassed into Ignia territory without permission. We set out under the pretext of reconnaissance that was in truth an extermination mission, but I was ordered to investigate the mines instead.

The man named Roy was on the front line while I was stuck with a mere investigation…

Why him!? I wanted to shout, but I swallowed it down and carried out my survey.

Inside the mine, there was a single clump of black crystal about the size of a fist. It seemed that while Eiden-sama had his attention focused on the south, they had been mining this.

I grabbed it and was about to hurry back to report when… a voice echoed inside my head.

“Do you not desire power? If you do, you can stand at the side of that lovely maiden. You will no longer be pushed into the background like you are now… No, you might even be able to make her yours. So, what will you do?”

That white angel… in my hands…?

“That is right. You could slip your hand into the gaps of that white dress and make her moan with pleasure. You could have what was always out of reach.”

No… But it is precisely because she is out of reach that she is precious!

“While you are busy telling yourself that, someone else might defile her. If she is going to be taken from you, then take her for yourself!”

I… see… If she is going to be sullied anyway, it is better that I be the one to take her…

The moment I accepted that, an indescribable sense of release washed over me, and it felt unbearably good.

After that, I slipped the crystal into my pocket and returned.

“‘Nothing out of the ordinary.’” That is what I reported to Eiden.

☆☆☆

Ever since then, strange things have been happening one after another. Every time I feel guilt, I am forced to watch visions of myself entwined with Sophia-sama, blacking out over and over.

Sometimes I would come to my senses in the middle of a forest, other times in a graveyard. Only after it started happening frequently did I finally realize that that stone—Dark Matter—was the cause.

I tried throwing it away several times, but before I knew it, it would be sitting next to my bed again. From the snow stuck to the soles of my boots, I understood that I had gone to retrieve it myself.

Piecing together fragments of my own actions, I reached a certain understanding and laid the groundwork to deal with it.

This moment might be the last in which I am still myself. That is why I think of her.

“Grant me this… Sophia…-sa…ma… just once more…”

On the day before Eiden departed for the imperial capital, Dart’s consciousness quietly vanished.