by Funa
One after another, the viscount’s forces were blown away, as the count charged forth, magnificently wielding a sword in each hand. His two sons and his knights—along with Santos of the royal guard—were not to be shown up by the count’s ferocity, and swatted here and there, sending their enemies flying. The count’s fighters blasted through the enemy’s front lines, then turned about to face the soldiers once again.
The viscount’s soldiers were startled at this sudden turnabout. They had been the ones attempting to come at their enemy from behind, and now, they hurriedly tried to launch a counterattack, only to be pounced upon, almost casually, by Mile and Mavis.
They were suddenly pinned in place, trapped between the count’s group and the duo of Mile and Mavis.
As Mavis matched blades with an enemy, she was stunned by her opponent’s skill and strength. Unthinkingly uttered, she spoke aloud: “…Th-they’re weak!”
Yes, the viscount’s forces were incredibly weak.
Any lord worth his salt should have the military forces to defend his fiefdom—in the same way the king had the royal guard. This particular viscount should have had top-class soldiers within his ranks. They should have easily been able to wipe out the count’s forces, as well as Mile and Mavis.
The viscount’s forces should have been at least that good, shouldn’t they?
So Mavis thought, but for the viscount’s forces themselves, this was a cruel way of framing the narrative.
Indeed, it was not that the viscount’s forces were all that weak—it was that the count’s forces were too strong. That was all there was to it. And naturally, there was no way that Santos, of the royal guard, would be weaker than the soldiers belonging to some noble.
And then, there were Mile and Mavis…
On the one side, there were the soldiers belonging to the forces of a lesser noble. On the other, there were a martially renowned count and his sons, their personal knights, and a strong and virile knight of the royal guard, along with Mile and Mavis—who, of course, were an incomparable oddity. Honestly, they might as well have been a bunch of bullies.
And then, the battle was over.
The difference in the two forces’ strength was overwhelming enough that the victors had been able to hold back, ending the skirmish with no deaths and few serious injuries on the part of the losers—though their hearts were certainly shattered by such a decisive loss.
Holding back like this required that there be a tremendous difference in ability. If their abilities had been matched, then they couldn’t have avoided fighting at full strength, and if that happened, then fatal injuries became almost inevitable. Yet with this refreshing difference in their strengths, that had not become necessary.
“Now then, might I persuade you to take a trip with me, Viscount?”
“Wh-what…? I have no reason to go along with this practical joke!” Startled by Santos’s sudden words, the viscount sputtered a refusal.
“Up until a short while ago, the idea was that the members of the Order of the Crazy Broa… ahem, the Order of the Crimson Blood are operating independently, and not on anyone’s orders. The testimony of the men who are imprisoned in the capital pertains only to this merchant. Neither testimony nor accusation has been officially levied at you, Lord Boardman. One could say that you only came to investigate a disturbance within your own territory and attempted to apprehend the perpetrators…”
Hearing this, the viscount looked as though he had suddenly understood the gist of the situation.
“Hm, that’s a royal guard for you. How incredibly astute!”
Santos, however, was not finished speaking.
“That was the idea. But now, Viscount, you are a rebel who has ordered your subordinates to kill not only the Count and his party, but also an agent of the master of the capital guild branch—as well as myself: a direct, authorized representative of His Majesty, the king. In other words, you are a traitor to your country. Even if you are a noble, I cannot overlook such a serious crime.”
“Wh…?”
“You seem to have suffered a lapse in judgment. Well, I don’t deny that had you been able to kill everyone here, there was a possibility that you might have been able to take back control of this situation. However, I believe it would take an exceptional amount of time and money for you to amass a strong enough army to make that happen. Now then, Count, if you would…”
Count Austien nodded at Santos’ request and directed his subordinates to apprehend Viscount Boardman, who was pale and quivering. He no longer had the will to resist, and silently allowed them to bind him.
“I guess it’s over, then,” said Mile.
“So it is.”
“Yeah…”
Reina and Mavis nodded in reply.
Pauline stared at the ground, silent.
Vengeance was now complete. It had been two and half years since her father had been murdered and everything stolen away, and the entirety of her life since then had been dedicated to the pursuit of vengeance. Now, they had won a complete—truly unimaginable—victory, and felled a black-hearted lord in the process. She would never have thought all this would be possible.
Thanks to her companions—her friends—her dream had come true.
“Pauline…”
Noticing how Pauline’s shoulders trembled, Mile called out to her, but Reina gently held her back.
And as Pauline looked down at the ground beneath her feet, dark drops began to appear.
“Now then, while the viscount is restrained, let us gather some evidence. We must confirm whether the viscount’s wife, son, relatives, or associates were accomplices to his crimes, mustn’t we?” Count Austien proposed.
“Yes, that is correct,” Santos agreed.
The results of this investigation would have an enormous effect on determining the fate of the Boardman family assets. On the one hand, they might be dismantled, but on the other, it was possible that one of the viscount’s children or relatives would be instated as the head of the family in order to continue the noble line. Even if he had a legitimate heir, if any of that heir’s associates turned out to be rotten, then the entire upper ranks would need to be replaced. And that was in addition to rooting out any associated merchants.
Along with his two sons and his guards, the count started to turn toward the viscount’s estate, but stopped, and turned to Mavis. “The guard wagon from the capital will be arriving in two days’ time. We will hand over the criminals then, and three days after, we shall return to our estate. Enjoy these final days with your friends.”
“Huh…?”
Mavis looked on, bewildered, hardly comprehending what she had just been told.
“This shop will most likely be returned to the girl’s family. And then, in the time to come, her family will need to conserve their strength to protect the place—the beloved shop that her father left behind. In other words, your days of playing ‘Mavis, the adventuring hero’ are through. And furthermore, Mavis, you must complete the bridal training lessons that you abandoned when you ran off!”
“That is completely UNNECESSARY!!!” Mavis, Ewan, and their older brother all shouted in unison.
“Mavis has no need to prepare herself for marriage!”
“That’s right! Mavis will always be by our—”
“No, that’s not it…”
It was not because she wished to remain single for the rest of her life that Mavis had objected to the Count’s plan, which meant that she also had to protest at her brothers’ interjections.
“In any case, who knows when danger such as the one that befell you here might come upon you again? This is the last time that I will tolerate your little games. If you want to play at being a knight, then I might be willing to let you train—now and then—around our estate. Basic self-defense is required, after all, of the wife of a noble, for the sake of both you and your children.
“Well, we shall discuss the details of this tomorrow. For now, enjoy the day with your friends.”
With these words, the count collected his sons and his underlings, then departed.
Once the count’s party was gone, the Crimson Vow turned their backs on the crowd, which was still abuzz with chatter, and returned to their inn.
Santos and Theresa had joined the Count, heading for the viscount’s estate. Naturally, this was part of their duties.
“…………”
This was someone’s future they were talking about—someone who was their precious companion, and furthermore, the daughter of a powerful noble. It was not a topic of conversation they could just shoot their mouths off about.
Yet keeping silent about it would not see anything settled, and Mile was the first to set the gears in motion.
“So, Mavis, what are you going to do?”
“Refuse, of course!! I still haven’t accomplished anything at all! Am I just supposed to give up everything and go live my life in some cage?!”
Mavis was half in tears.
Pauline, who should have been happy now that her family’s problems were solved, felt responsible. She hung her head in silence at the notion that her joy had come at the cost of Mavis’s strife.
Reina’s mind was on the reality of the situation: if both Pauline and Mavis left, the Crimson Vow would be no more. She hung her head too, her expression dark.
Even if she and Mile were to recruit new members, they would never be equal to their classmates, the allies who fought and learned alongside them, the “allies bound at the soul, sworn to each other in eternal friendship.” They could no longer call themselves the Crimson Vow. They would have to change their name, and start out again as a new party.
Plus, if that happened, there was a chance that Mile might not even come along.
They were a party of classmates—of roommates—so of course, she had joined them without any objections. If it was Reina alone, and Mile suddenly saw her as nothing more than “someone who just happened to be my roommate, out of a class of forty,” then that was far too weak a reason for Mile to stay with her.
Plus, mightn’t any new members covet Mile’s abilities? Or, wouldn’t Mile start getting invitations from higher-ranking parties? Wouldn’t the Roaring Mithrils have her join them without a second thought? For Mile, that would be a far better…
Yet Mavis, the daughter of a noble family, had a life of her own, and certain duties to fulfill as someone born into a noble household. Hers was not the sort of problem that Reina could simply overpower with her own concerns.
When she thought about it that way, there was not a thing that Reina could say.
And so, silence fell upon them once more…
“Well then, let’s just turn Mavis’s family away!”
“Huh?”
Mavis, Reina, and Pauline all gaped at Mile’s sudden, unexpected proposal.
“What? I mean, none of us wants Mavis to return to her home, right? Um, am I wrong? Umm… Anyone who thinks it would be better if Mavis stayed with the Crimson Vow, raise your hand!”
Ping! Ping! Ping!
All of their hands, including Mile’s, shot straight up.
They all turned to look at each other’s faces.
“Then it’s settled.”
As she said so, Mile’s face lit up with a wicked grin.
Pauline smiled too. Before, she had been wallowing in her own sense of guilt for bringing this situation about by drawing her friend’s into her own family’s problems. But really, she realized, all they had to do was drive Mavis’s father away. It was a simple matter, wasn’t it?
Even as she thought to herself, Shouldn’t I object to this? Reina’s eyes sparkled.
“B-but how?! My father won’t listen to anything anyone has to say…”
Mile grinned wide and replied, “There’s a saying in my home country: Know thy enemy, and know thyself, and in a hundred battles thou shalt never know fear…”
It was the first time they had ever heard this saying, but all of them were experienced in battle. They could easily fill in the blanks.
“We know a lot about you, Mavis. And about your family as well…”
“Ah!”
Reina and Pauline both understood.
Only Mavis still stared blankly, obviously in the dark.
It seemed she did not realize how many times she had told them tales of her family in the over half a year that they had been together.
Indeed, Mile, Reina, and Pauline all knew quite a bit about Mavis’s family. Perhaps more than anyone but the members of the family themselves.
***
“What? You’d like for me to train with you, Father? No, I’ll have to pass. That won’t help me improve myself any—”
“Wh-what?”
The next morning, the count returned, proposing once more to take Mavis back home with him. Mavis, however, refused his offer with a grimace, leaving the count wide-eyed.
“Wh-what are you saying?”
“Well, it’s just as I said… You’re nowhere near my master’s level, Father.”
“Wh…?”
Before her father’s expression could morph into anger, the look on his face was one of utter shock.
Her two brothers and the other knights all looked on in bewilderment.
Count Austien was an accomplished individual, renowned throughout the land for his martial prowess. There was no teacher of swordsmanship anywhere in the vicinity who could hope to best him. Therefore, if Mavis wished to grow stronger, it only made sense that he would be the one to train her. He had offered to as a bribe, and yet this was her reply.
Once he had recovered from his surprise, the count, who assumed that Mavis was only spewing nonsense out of desperation, chuckled internally. Now, he knew he had a way to bring his stubborn daughter back home peacefully. If he could show Mavis just how weak her so-called master was, and prove that she hadn’t really grown all that strong, then the grounds on which she objected to his plan would be completely dashed. He didn’t want Mavis to be angry or to hate him. If possible, he wanted his daughter to consent to returning home of her own accord, so he felt he had been tossed a lifeline.
“Oho! Well then, you must have quite an illustrious master. If they’re really so strong, I should like to face them in one-on-one combat. If this person is truly stronger than I am, and you can prove to me that you have been earnestly following their teachings, then I will have no objection to you continuing with your training. However, if this is all just bluster, then I hope that you will quietly…”
“Understood! If you lose, Father—and, hmm, if I can win against First Brother—then we’ll quit this talk of my returning home, and you’ll let me live however I choose! And everyone gathered here can serve as witnesses to that fact!”
“Wh…?”
The count, his two sons, and the attendant knights once again appeared to be utterly taken aback at Mavis’s declaration. A satisfied grin had spread across her face.
The count, who should have been pleased with the way the discussion of Mavis’s return home was proceeding, had a bad feeling about all this. Perhaps it was his intuition as a tactical genius…
“No! If that happens, then I shall invite this master to reside with us…”
Even if it seemed cowardly, or made their loved ones hate them, it was the job of family to take precautionary measures in order to keep their relatives out of danger, no matter how faint that possibility of danger might be.
“No. My master is not one to be tied down to a single household’s whims. You’re only saying this because then I would naturally come along as well. Or, Father, could it be that you are not confident that you’ll win?”
“All right… Have it your way! When shall we hold the match?”
“Tomorrow evening, after we have handed over the viscount and the merchant. In this town’s arena.”
“What? Will your master be able to make it here in time? Well, that’s fine. I accept. Tomorrow evening. You had better enjoy this final evening with your companions as
best you can.”
He had given in to Mavis’s provocation. Though he was no longer entirely confident in his own victory, the count was not truly shaken. He did not know who this person was that he would face, but there was almost no way he could possibly lose to some no-name teacher who would spend their time on a rookie hunter pupil. That much he was sure of.
And, on top of that, there was no way that Mavis could win against his eldest son. Even if miracles did exist in this world, they never happened one right after the other. That much he believed.
“Mile, are you sure this is gonna be alright?”
The moment the count departed, Mavis’s face, which had been shining with confidence, morphed instantly into an expression of unease.
“That all depends on you, Mavis. Now then, let’s go!”
And so, the girls headed to the town arena.
Any reasonably sized town had one. Obviously, it was nothing compared to the one in the capital—just a bit of dirt surrounded by spectators’ booths—but it was a requisite facility for a population which had very few entertainments.
And so there, Mile’s crash course began.
“That’s all wrong! There, you have to smirk and then say, ‘Do you really think that one such as I required special training to acquire such a simple move?’! Once more, from the top!”
“……”
The other two were stunned into silence.
***
The guard contingent that arrived just after noon the following day had only been informed that they would be transporting the merchant, and so they were few in number, with only one two-horse wagon, a driver, and three guards in total. No thief would be foolish enough to attack a wagon transporting criminals, and their chief likely could not spare more men than that.
Normally, this group would have been plenty, but now that there was a noble to be transported as well, it was nowhere near enough. Furthermore, now that a noble had been apprehended, this would require a lot more attention from the higher-ups. Still, once the count explained the situation to the head of the transporting soldiers, and offered to accompany them to the capital as well, the group appeared relieved.
