Vol 3 Chapter 32 – Let Us Burn This Image Into Our Eyes (Yuna POV)【Vol 3 – The First Knight Commander is a Dark Elf Half-Succubus Who Hates Men】

—When I first spoke with him, I was convinced I had met a man stronger than myself, the Commander of the First Knight Order. After meeting several times and discussing various things, that conviction grew steadily stronger. That is why I forcibly became his disciple.

—I didn’t like that my way of addressing him overlapped with Shion’s, so I decided to call him Master. It is a secret that if Shion hadn’t been there, I actually wanted to call him Master. But the title Master also has a parent-child ring to it, so I secretly like it.

—When I first sparred with Master, I was beaten thoroughly without being able to do a thing. Never mind winning or losing; it was the first time in my life that my attacks didn’t work at all. I trembled at the fact that the man I had formed a master-disciple relationship with was far stronger than I had imagined.

—And now. Yuna, witnessing her own Master’s “true seriousness” for the first time… Could do nothing but watch, trembling like a lamb, dumbfounded by that violence which was simply too overwhelming—

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“…H-Hey… Shion…?”

“Please call me Senior Disciple. What is it?”

“Is this the time to be saying that!? No, that doesn’t matter. What is that… calling Master ‘too strong’ doesn’t even begin to cover it, does it!?”

“Fufun. I am Master’s First Disciple, so him being this strong is within expectations.”

Yuna intuitively knew that was a lie. The proof was that Shion’s knees were trembling minutely, but she thought it was only natural. The overwhelming trampling being unfolded before their eyes by their Master. In a sense, it was equivalent to having the realization ‘We can absolutely, absolutely never rival Master—!’ carved into their instincts as female knights.

Unlike the real world, in subspace, magical beasts attacked from all directions. Because, much like a bird free-falling through the sky, even the concept of up and down was ambiguous. However, those magical beast attacks never reached Shion or Yuna’s bodies. Before the attacks could hit, they were blown away, existence and all, by Master’s overwhelming violence.

Chimeras, Werelions, and Manticores closing in right before their eyes vanished with a poof. They disappeared cleanly, as if by magic. Straining her eyes to the limit, Yuna could see her Master’s fingertips piercing the flesh of the magical beasts, and in the next instant, a blast centered on that point would cleanly erase the beast as if blowing everything away. If this weren’t subspace, the flesh of the magical beasts would likely have caused massive explosions everywhere, engulfing the surroundings.

Or rather, she shuddered at the sheer overkill of causing a body to explode with a single finger. Yuna had heard during her talks with Master that magical beasts in subspace would revive immediately if simply killed. That was why they had to be crushed with enough strength to blow away their very existence.

—But even so, this is… Yuna’s impression upon actually witnessing the scene of overwhelming slaughter was simply, ‘There is a limit to how much annihilation one can do!’ Due to the sheer absurdity of it, Yuna was barely able to remain standing without her legs giving out.

And Yuna, who had reigned as the nation’s strongest military asset for decades, inevitably arrived at one fact. It was a terribly simple, yet likely unshakable fact. That the power balance between nations, maintained by military force… Would be vividly repainted by the appearance of just one single man.

“…This… the times are going to change…”

“Yuna-san?”

“Shion—no, Senior Disciple, what do you think? With strength of this magnitude… war will change.”

“Well, if it is my Master, I wouldn’t be surprised if he trampled a million soldiers alone. He is my Master, after all.”

“In other words, the faction that aligns my Master to their side will absolutely win the war.”

“Why did you go out of your way to rephrase the ‘My Master’ part!?”

Shion protested, but that wasn’t the issue.

“What do you intend to do, Senior Disciple? As a Princess, will you shrink the army?”

“I won’t, you know?”

“Why? If we have Master alone, we cannot possibly lose any war. In that case, we should be able to drastically reduce military spending. If we divert that amount to industrial promotion—”

“That’s impossible. Not just in our country, but the military anywhere is covered in vested interests. There would likely be significant backlash to military reduction.”

“Well, that is true, but…”

“Besides, in the first place, no matter how strong Master is, what will we do if Master disappears?”

“…Well, that is also true…”

“Rather, the more it becomes known that Master is absurdly strong, the more the steady embezzlement will likely thrive. After all, even if the military warehouses prepared for war are empty, if Master just defeats everything, they can cover it up however they like.”

“…Uumu…”

“To begin with, I want to advertise Master’s magnificence all over the place and look smug to the whole country about being that Master’s First Disciple. —The fact that I’m not doing so means there are circumstances that prevent me from doing so.”

“T-To that extent…!”

Yuna could not hide her shock. Was it because she had taken an unexpected political logic punch from the Princess of her own country, whom she had thought was more on the ‘idiot child’ side? Was it because the Princess was concerned about the military’s chronic embezzlement problem? Or was it that, despite realizing all that, she had shamelessly dragged Master into her own Knight Order? Probably all of it, Yuna concluded inwardly.

“But what do you intend to do? It may be fine for now, but I do not think we can keep Master’s excellence hidden forever…?”

“I have thought of various moves. Since you have become Master’s disciple as well, Yuna-san, I will work you hard, so please be ready.”

“Well, I will not spare any effort for Master’s sake.”

“Since that is the case, we will handle that in due time. For now, anyway—”

Shion exhaled a hot breath of admiration while gazing at her Master.

“Let us burn Master’s fighting figure into our eyes without missing a thing, shall we not?”

“That is true as well…!”

Thus, she returned her eyes to the battle and suddenly realized something. —That she had never in her life experienced observing such high-level combat from such close range, so carefully. She immediately arrived at the reason why.

(Is this the first time in my life I am being protected by a man stronger than myself—!)

In her long life until now, Yuna had never once been protected by a man. Conversely, she had plenty of experience protecting men. Therefore, she had absolutely no longing for the so-called “girl gets protected by a prince” situations found in fairy tales. If anything, she was the type to say, “Forge yourself so you don’t need to be protected by a prince.” However.

(Why is it… I feel incredibly relieved… Furthermore, watching Master fight to protect me, I feel… how should I put it… warm and fuzzy around my chest…)

Gazing at Master’s back, Yuna suddenly thought: I see. Being treated like a girl might not be surprisingly bad, after all.