“Well… so, to put it simply, an oath is something like a deal with the world?”
The Death Knight nodded at my summary.
“You could see it that way.”
Mm… right.
As I understood it, what that bastard had just done was—
1. He limits those who can pass through this place to “those who have won a duel against him.”
2. The target of the duel is limited to “those who are qualified.” Here, “those who are qualified” refers to those this Death Knight recognizes as knights.
Those were the two things he gained.
And—
1. If a duel has not begun, he cannot inflict any harm whatsoever upon the other party.
2. He will guard this place forever until he is extinguished.
3. If a duel has not begun, he cannot move more than three meters away from this place. However, once a duel begins, the distance restriction is lifted.
4. He must state, without fail, the conditions for what he considers a knight.
Those were the four things he lost, placed on the scales and requested of the world.
The world judged this to be fair and engraved the oath into the Death Knight’s fate,
and so he came to live exactly as he had declared.
In other words, if I wanted to force my way through this place, I would need enough power to twist the world, even if only for a moment.
‘Yeah. That’s impossible for me.’
Even Master probably couldn’t do something like that.
Then what I could do was become someone qualified according to that oath and win the duel against the Death Knight, but…
Fortunately, as written in the oath, he gave me a clear standard.
“I consider one who possesses an unwavering will to protect someone to be a knight.”
“Mm…”
After hearing his standard, I fell into thought.
Since he said he couldn’t harm me first unless the duel had begun, I figured it wouldn’t really matter if I openly agonized over it like this.
If what that guy said was a lie, and he was actually trying to make me lower my guard…
Well, then I’d just have to get hit.
I said it earlier, didn’t I?
I can’t break that barrier.
Even if I could break it, I’d waste an absurd amount of aura and stamina,
and then, of course, whatever came after would flow unfavorably for me.
If that guy made any move, it wouldn’t be too late to respond then.
***
A long time passed like that.
I still hadn’t come up with an answer that would satisfy that Death Knight.
To begin with, there was no way to express something like “an unwavering will to protect someone.”
“I want to protect people.”
Even if I said it outright like that,
“I see.”
That was the end of it.
Even when I explained what kind of mindset I’d had while working as a mercenary all this time,
“So that was how it was.”
That was the end of it.
“Argh…”
Thud.
I sat down on the floor for a moment.
I was starting to go insane from hunger.
At this rate, I’d end up using aura in place of stamina.
Crunch.
I took a chocolate bar out of my pocket and bit into it.
‘This is the last one…’
It was the result of deciding that I needed sugar in my head if I wanted to keep thinking.
But contrary to my hopes that my brain would now start whirring and find a method, nothing changed just because of this.
‘What should I do…?’
Just as I was wondering whether I was going to starve to death here, unable to move an inch—
Rumble…
The inside of the dungeon began to shake little by little, scattering my concentration.
Tuk. Tuk.
Debris began to fall from the ceiling bit by bit.
Whoosh!
I raised my sword to cut down the falling debris.
But—
Sssrk.
Before the debris could touch the ground, it turned into black particles and disappeared.
I hurriedly looked around.
And before long, I realized it.
This layer was collapsing.
That meant a Dungeon Break was imminent.
As I stood still for a moment, everything that made up this layer turned into black powder,
and the only thing that remained until the end was the door the Death Knight was guarding.
‘That’s…?’
After a little more time passed, the boundary of the layer, which had been densely blocked off, began to grow faint.
Clang!! Clang!!!
Boom, boom, boom!!!!
Beyond the door, I could see the hero party and several mages fighting something.
“Khahahaha!!!!! This place will be your grave!”
Contrary to my hope that nothing serious would be happening, judging by their appearances, they seemed to be struggling considerably against the enemies.
“Urgh!!”
In the middle of a sea made up of undead, the ship called the hero party was swaying dangerously.
Since I wasn’t there, the party lacked a front line, making it difficult for Veronica to go strike down the lich,
and when the mages tried to push through with firepower, it seemed the Elder Lich had far more mana.
Even to my eyes, that certainly seemed to be the case.
The aura I felt from that thing surpassed Signica and Baker, who were both 7th Circle.
Signica had mentioned it once before, but originally, an Elder Lich was a monster that could be dealt with around the 7th to 8th Circle level.
In other words, no matter how high-ranking an Elder Lich was, it should have been around the 6th to 7th Circle.
But that thing was probably an irregular that had reached the realm of the 8th Circle.
“Fuck…”
At this point, what information was I supposed to trust?
They had explained it like it was nothing special, but even if the dungeon’s structure had been exactly the same as the scouting report, there was no way they could defeat that thing.
The wall between the 7th Circle and the 8th Circle was huge.
The difference between the 3rd Circle and the 4th Circle could be twisted with things like combat sense,
but once you reached around the 8th Circle, the difference in sheer power was on another dimension.
No trick or technique could avoid being swept away before a massive wave.
Of course, Baker, who had explained it like it was no big deal, was also over there fighting for his life…
In any case, it was a miracle that they had survived until now in a situation like this.
The problem was—
“Hiyaaaaap!!!!!”
That miracle looked like it was about to go out.
Exhausted by the overwhelming numbers, the form Veronica swung swept away the enemies with far less output than usual,
““4th-Circle Fire Magic—Fire Storm!!””
and the mages were too busy dealing with the monsters surging toward them to have time to calculate high-powered magic.
“Goddess, please save us, poor souls left alone in the darkness…”
Ariel was sitting collapsed in the center, cold sweat running down her as she continued reciting a prayer,
and—
Pshooong!!
Eladrien’s arrows were indiscriminately shooting down the flying monsters that packed the sky.
“Kek!!”
“Woof, woof!!!”
“Krrrgh…”
They were doing their best to face the enemy,
but as the battle went on,
one cut after another began to appear on their bodies.
Until now, Ariel’s divine power had healed their wounds the moment they appeared,
but that meant even that was reaching its limit.
“Huk!!!”
“Norman!!!!!!!”
In the end, the barrier that had been maintained by divine power to block fatal wounds collapsed, and an arrow from a skeleton archer pierced through the lung of a 5th-Circle mage who had been calculating a spell.
He toppled backward without even being able to close his eyes in shock.
In his unclosed eyes, only a dark emptiness remained, as though the light had just gone out.
“Damn it…!!”
Sensing his death, Ariel shed tears and concentrated her divine power on the barrier.
If they could somehow get out of this place, wounds could be healed later, but a life that had ended could not return.
“Kekeke… The insects are flailing, unable to accept the fate approaching them!”
Far away, between the sea of skeletons.
Standing atop an altar, the Elder Lich stretched a hand toward the sky.
As if he were trying to crush ants with his hand.
Then—
Kuguguguk!!
Countless skeletons gathered on the floor and the souls of the dead that swarmed in from somewhere merged together,
Kudeuk. Kudeuk!
and the shape of a gigantic dragon was formed.
“8th-Circle Necromancy—Manifestation of Fallen Souls Devoured by a Dragon.”
Flap! Flap!
The Bone Dragon flapped its wings by habit, wings that could no longer fly through the sky,
“Kraaaaaaaaaaagh!!!!”
and roared toward the heavens as if screaming in agony.
The dragon’s body was formed of black energy with skeletons clinging densely all over it,
“I don’t want to die in a place like this!!!!”
“Don’t come!!! I said don’t come!!!”
“I was considered quite promising even in the Magic Tower!! A lowly thing like you has no right to touch someone like me!!!”
and between the skeletons, the black energy intermittently bulged out in human shapes, crying out the final death screams of dead mages.
“I-It’s over.”
Seeing that, the 5th- and 6th-Circle mages trembled so badly that they could not continue their chants.
The fear that came from feeling as if their own future had already been decided.
Their training was far too lacking to overcome it.
And…
The same was true for the hero party, who had no real combat experience.
“May the Goddess please look down upon us…”
Ariel somehow held on to her fading divine power and recited the prayer even faster despite her entire body trembling.
Eladrien’s arrows gradually lost strength and fell.
“No…”
A word slipped out of my mouth without me realizing as I watched.
Tatata tak!!!!
I ran desperately toward the barrier.
“No!!!! No, damn it!!!!!!!”
I had unconsciously accepted the future that was coming for them.
Bang!! Bang!!!!
I struck the barrier with all my strength using my hands.
I struck it,
Bang!!
and struck it again.
Bang!!!!
But—
“Haa… haa…”
The barrier still remained there as if nothing had happened.
Whip!
I fiercely snapped my head up and glared at the Death Knight.
“Move!!”
He, too, had his back turned, silently watching that horrific scene.
“…”
After remaining silent for a moment,
“I cannot.”
He merely repeated the same answer as before.
“I said move!!!!!!!”
“I cannot. This is a knight’s oath, a token of loyalty that shall never fade.”
“What the hell does that matter?! Hurry up and mo—!!”
Just as I was about to tell him to move once again—
“Ah…?”
Pshuk!!
An arrow from a skeleton archer lodged itself in the saintess’s side.
Thud.
Without uttering a single word, she laid her body down powerlessly on the cold floor.
“Ariel!!!!!”
Boom!!! Baboom!!!!!
“You fucking bastards!!!”
Seeing her collapse, Signica poured out unrefined mana as if she had gone berserk,
“Urk…!”
but when I blinked, her torso had been pierced through in several directions by the spears of skeleton soldiers, and she vomited blood from her mouth with a fireball still in her hand.
From that moment on,
I couldn’t close my eyes carelessly.
Because I was afraid that if I closed them and opened them again, someone else would be dead.
Tremble, tremble, tremble…
With trembling eyes, I struggled to shift my gaze.
Baker, who had gone forward and skillfully handled the situation, and the mages who had followed him were already lying beneath the feet of the undead, crushed so badly their forms could no longer be recognized.
I struggled to move my gaze again.
There, Eladrien was gripping arrows in her hand and driving them into the throats of ghouls.
But in the end—
“Kuaak!!”
she was bitten by a ghoul,
and with blood streaming from the nape of her neck, she barely managed to push it away with Veronica’s help.
Because Veronica’s white aura was barely being maintained with the aid of her ego sword, Fiat Lux,
“Illuminating World Heavenly Light Sword, First Form—Demon-Destroying Heavenly Light!!”
she was still able to maintain her domain for now, but—
Kuuuuuuuu!!!!
In the meantime, the energy gathered in the Bone Dragon’s mouth—
“Kraaaaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!!!”
rushed forward with its roar to engulf her.
Veronica did not give up and gripped her sword even tighter, intending to endure it until the very end,
and—
Squeeze!
Eladrien finally turned her head away and shut her eyes.
‘Ah,’
At that moment, a single thought entered my mind.
‘Why can’t I protect anyone?’
Why am I—
unable to do anything in a situation like this?
I’m certain I had felt this helpless before.
I’m certain I had once felt, down to my very bones, that I had to become stronger if I wanted to protect someone.
Someone...
Yes, someone...
“Evan! You’ve already gotten this much better?”
“As of today, you are the vice-captain of this unit.”
Was it my former comrades from the mercenary corps?
“I can feel how pleased the Lord God is now that you’re here, Evan.”
“I told you, you have more talent with a bow than you think.”
“My magic is amazing, isn’t it?”
Was it the hero’s party I had grown strangely attached to, even though I had surely only known them for a short time?
No.
If I could move my head right now, I would have shaken it from side to side.
Then who was it?
Not simply helping someone without thinking,
but a time when I had possessed an unwavering will to protect someone...
“You saved me in a situation like that, just like a hero from a fairy tale.”
Ah.
I see.
From the very beginning,
yes,
from the moment we first met, I think I was drawn to you.
I truly don’t know the reason.
I don’t know,
but I think I simply liked you, as though it were fate.
As though I had loved you all along, since a previous life.
Perhaps when I first saw you from afar,
when I read news about you in the newspaper,
when I said that, rather than joining a hero’s party I could hardly even hope to see, I wanted to help ordinary people in their everyday lives—
perhaps it was because I knew I could never be by your side and help you, so I wanted to help someone else instead.
I said that because the person who saved me was a mercenary, I wanted to become a mercenary too,
but perhaps it was because you looked so incredibly admirable,
and I wanted to resemble you, traveling from place to place to help others.
And so,
the moment my judgment,
the moment I realized that she had been there throughout my entire life—
Since fate has already been decided.
A memory that did not exist surfaced in my mind.
The voice of some... old man.
But whether that memory was true or false did not matter to me at all now.
Because the instant I heard those words, I understood.
That Veronica and I were connected by some kind of fate.
Fwoosh!
My aura suddenly flared, surging wildly.
Like an active volcano on the verge of eruption, it shot up toward the sky.
In the place where I had been, swallowed by flames, I no longer existed.
My lips slowly parted.
And over my voice, the voice of an old man overlapped.
“I swear.”
Regardless of my will, a forgotten ancient vow began to form from my mouth.
“I, Evan, shall protect the hero Veronica Cygnus.”
That vow was the promise of knights from a distant past, made to protect their liege.
“No matter the moment, no matter the circumstance.”
It was a knight’s oath.