When the Villain Joined the Knights to Avoid Doom Flags, but Somehow the Heroines Started Approaching Him - Chapter 39: The Servant vs. The Mid-Boss

Chapter 39: The Servant vs. The Mid-Boss

The two who had been thrown from the balcony landed at the edge of the lake, where the view of the water was clear and unobstructed.

The breeze felt unusually cold—perhaps because of the ice barrier surrounding the area?

But such peculiarities didn’t matter to the two combatants, who, despite being young, possessed strength far beyond the norm.

“Heehee… hehehehe…”

Ronye’s abdomen throbbed with pain, likely from the kick she had taken as she was thrown out.

Yet her face bore a creepy grin, entirely at odds with any expression of agony.

(The outside is eerily quiet… does that mean the others were taken out already? So, maybe big sis and Haku are fighting the other knights?)

It was just a guess—Ronye had no way of knowing what the actual situation was.

Even so, she didn’t seem worried or hurried in the slightest.

Instead, she let out an exhilarated scream that echoed across the lakeside.

“Alright, alright, the sweet, sweet thrill of pain is here! Big sis, let’s fight, yeah?! What’s starting now is an electrifying, pain-filled sport packed with thrills and chills, babyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!”

Across from her, the brown-haired girl facing her flicked open her segmented sword.

“You’re noisy… I’m just here to get my revenge match, that’s all.”

Yet even Iris, in that moment, wore a grin just as unsettling as Ronye’s.

“I’ll make sure to settle the score from last time! A proper maid doesn’t hold back just because her opponent’s a brat—remember that!”

“Haha! Look who’s talking—the same person who couldn’t do anything against me last time!”

Ronye swung her arm.

Compressed air. The air, compressed to its limits, gained the hardness of a solid wall.

She slammed it full force in the direction of her swing.

Because it was invisible, dodging was nearly impossible. Without knowing where the attack would strike, countering it on a first encounter was out of the question.

However—

“Been there, done that already!”

Iris swung her segmented sword horizontally.

Strangely, instead of sending her flying, the ground beside Iris was torn apart, while she remained perfectly unharmed.

“Huh?”

“Once you figure out the trick, magic is just a boring parlor trick! Now, what’s the proper thing to say here? Oh, I know! ‘As expected of my master!’”

With hearts practically floating in her eyes, Iris recalled her earlier conversation with Yulis.

“Listen, that overly hyper kid’s magic is all about manipulating air. Those invisible attacks? She’s just slamming a compressed wall of air in the direction she swings.”

“Really? But if it’s air, how do you dodge it?”

“A wall’s still a wall. Just cut into it, and it’ll disperse. So don’t get too scared. There’s always a tell before magic is cast—it’s just a matter of timing your counter.”

Ronye’s magic was air manipulation.

But unless she directed the manipulated air to attack, it wouldn’t harm her opponent.

Which meant, by closely watching her movements, it was possible to predict where and how the attacks would come.

“No, no, that’s impossible… it was just luck! Pure luck!”

“Want to test that theory?”

Ronye swung her arm again. Not just once, but twice, three times.

Even so, Iris firmly kept her footing, swinging her unpredictable segmented sword in wide arcs.

“Why isn’t it working!?”

“Well then, now it’s this beautiful maid’s turn to bring the audience to their feet! Ladies and gentlemen, with this rare and unique weapon… can you predict where the next strike will land!?”

The flexible, segmented blade—one of a kind—lashed toward Ronye like a whip, carving into the ground as it sped toward her.

But Ronye caught the swinging blade mid-air with one hand and pulled it firmly toward her.

“I might not be able to predict it, but catching it? That I can do.”

And then—

“As if that would impress me enough to—whoa!?”

Ronye’s body was suddenly lifted into the air and slammed down hard against the ground.

“Gahh!?”

“This weapon’s heavy, you know! My arms and legs are stronger than they look for a pretty maid☆!”

Iris wasn’t one to let an opportunity slip.

Without hesitation, she dashed forward, swinging her segmented sword again, closing in on the fallen Ronye.

“Tch!”

Ronye quickly got back on her feet and deflected the incoming strike with her fist.

But in the next instant, Iris closed the distance and delivered a sharp kick to Ronye’s stomach.

“Gah!?”

“You’re wrapping compressed air around your arms to stop my sword from touching you, right?! But that defense only works on specific areas!”

Air manipulation, being intangible, was inherently difficult to control.

When attacking, it was challenging to direct air in more than one direction. Similarly, when used for defense, it could only protect small, localized areas.

Technically, Ronye could envelop her entire body in compressed air, but that only worked against weak, simple attacks.

Against powerful strikes, like Iris’s segmented sword, she had no choice but to focus her defenses on a single area.

But doing so left the rest of her body completely exposed—

“So, if I just keep attacking relentlessly, you’re no real threat! Learned your lesson yet, kid?”

“~~~~~!!!???”

“Although, to be fair, I’m just following my master’s advice~♪”

Iris’s next kick landed squarely on Ronye’s neck.

Ronye wanted to block it—but if she focused on defending against the kick, Iris’s deadly segmented sword would tear through her.

As a result, the attacks Ronye couldn’t block continued to land directly on her body.

(Ha… hehehe…)

In close combat, a girl relying solely on her magical talent stood no chance against Iris.

After all, while Iris lacked in magical ability, her exceptional talent in close-quarters combat surpassed even that of most adults.

And yet—

“This is just the besttt…!”

Thud. Iris’s palm strike slammed into Ronye’s stomach, sending her small body rolling toward the edge of the lake.

“Yes! This is it! This is what I live for! The pain, the fear, the tension so sharp it makes you want to scream! The raw intensity! This is the proof of being alive, the feeling that I’m truly alive! This is the only moment when I, someone like me, can feel that I exist!”

An abandoned child was discarded because their life was seen as worthless.

No matter what they did, they were mistreated, unwanted, and deemed a nuisance just for being alive.

—From the moment she was born, Ronye had never felt what it meant to be alive.

That’s why, as a young girl, she desperately sought that feeling.

Even if it came at the cost of her life—

“Thank you, maid-lady! This day… this day is the absolute best proof that I’m aliveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”

Ronye drew in a deep breath and shouted with all her might.

“WAAAA!!!”

The sound reverberated through the air, aiming directly at her opponent’s eardrums.

While the amplified voice wasn’t strong enough to cause fatal damage, it did disrupt balance.

Enough to make someone unable to stand properly.

(Now it’s my turn! I’ll give you back all the pain I felt—with an extra hundred times the impact for free!)

But that plan…

Ronye quickly realized it was nothing more than an illusion.

“You really do make such exaggerated movements.”

“…ah?”

Iris, who was supposed to be thrown off balance, was instead charging straight toward her with her segmented sword in hand.

For some reason, earplugs were snugly in place in her ears—

“I already heard about tricks like yours from my master. Don’t underestimate my favorite villain.”

And in the very next moment—

BAM!!!

Iris’s foot connected with Ronye’s head, delivering a dull, heavy blow.

“Agh… gah…”

“Good grief… if you keep acting out like this, you’re going to have serious trouble when you grow up.”

Ronye’s body crumpled to the ground, her consciousness slipping away.

Seeing this, Iris turned her back and began walking away.

“Well, lecturing you isn’t really my job, so I’ll leave it at this. Make sure to fix that twisted personality of yours while you’re rotting in a cell, you little brat.”

—And so, for the second time.

A fight with a mid-boss character, completely unscripted, came to an end under the moonlit sky.

The result?

Judgment was delivered by the villain’s maid.