The Simple Job of Only Perishing to the Hero

Judging that Vermudol’s silence meant that he was at a loss, Creed continued talking.

「Right now it’s still all right. This civil war is ultimately one fought between the knights supporting either candidate. The average citizen might support a candidate but they won’t actually go into battle themselves. However, this would change if enough knights gathered under a single ruler. You get what I’m saying?」

An uprising from the people. Revolution. Those were the words that went through Vermudol’s head.

While it hasn’t happened to the Four Great Kingdoms yet, there have been occurrences of this in the smaller countries of the Shutaia Continent in the past.

This behavior of the people claiming that the king did not deserve to be on the throne and revolting to change the leader was something unique to humanity’s culture. In the Zadark Kingdom where the Mazoku has fully accepted Vermudol as the one and only definitive king, such a thing would never happen.

「Are you saying that wouldn’t happen with Princess Narika?」

「The chances of it happening are at least lower than with Lady Celis. Lady Narika is a sly one. None of the civil officials would want to get on Lady Narika’s bad side… If she got serious enough about it, she could easily develop this country into something completely different.」

「But she’s a discriminator, isn’t she? Enough that she’d even push away her actual sister. Considering all the races that make up the Canal Kingdom, I’d imagine that’d be a pretty lethal blow to her chances as queen.」

Creed silently nodded to Vermudol’s rebuttal.

「…Yeah, it is pretty lethal. But like I said, Lady Narika’s a sly one. That’s how the world of politics works. She’ll definitely find a way to cover it up and take care of it.」

「That’s exactly the kind of twisted nature that’s brought about this mess. The knights should be taking this chance to matters just.」

「The idea of what’s just differs between politics and humans. Even if the king is strong, that king may not necessarily be a just king. And in times like these where the flames of conflict are drawing near all across the world, a strong king is needed.」

「…Are you saying that to that end, it matters not what is just?」

「From the perspective of the country as a whole, it is just. Hey, you’re strong. You’re probably still young, but you need to hold a wider perspective. Your strength will definitely be of use to this country in the future. The whole reason you stood up for this country was because you wanted to do something to help them, right?」

Vermudol didn’t respond to Creed’s words.

Being that he was unable to see what kind of expression that was hiding behind that helmet on his face, Creed simply waited for Vermudol’s answer.

After seeing that Vermudol had finally lowered his sword, Creed let out a breath of admiration.

「I understand what you’re saying.」

「I see. So you get me, right?」

「Yes, I understand now. That is, I understand that when idiots are stuck in their own narrow little perspective, they’ll spout all kinds of nonsense.」

The man known as Janas who appeared a little while ago reacted to those words, and Brutus couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.

「Narrow… you say?」

「Yes, narrow. And arrogant, might I add. Is the king you wish for a con artist?」

「Wha…?!」

Vermudol paid no attention to Creed’s startled behavior.

「A king is one who makes a promise. If that promise is broken, it is only natural that opposition arises. The twisted state of this country is one that was born from deception of the king, and yet you’re still making foolish remarks such as choosing a path that simply covers it up as if it never happened?」

「But, that’s…! You should know! A country can’t make do solely on pretty ideals like that!」

「So what?」

Vermudol rejected Creed’s rebuttal without missing a beat.

「If everything could go smoothly from pretty ideals alone, then this world would become a utopia. Since that’s not the case… Since we don’t live in a utopia, the promise of a king exists. The promise that his country will become as ideally close to that as possible. In the Canal Kingdom, was equality not the quality the country embraced?」

「Of course! Once the country stabilized, the Canal Kingdom would by no doubt return to its original state!」

「You think someone as prejudice as Narika would embrace equality?」

「The government does not run only on a single king! That’s why the civil officials and military officers are there for!」

「I can already see it. The Canal Kingdom would only turn into what the current St. Atlis Kingdom is like. Starting with Princess Celis’s execution, all kinds of suppression would quickly roll out. Since Princess Narika is a sly one, she’d be able to avoid any opposition, right? By the time you realize it, everyone would end up eliminated.」

Creed wiped off the sweat trailing down his face as Vermudol laughed with a 「Kuku…」

But in order to prevent Vermudol from catching onto the crack in his composure, Creed continued to speak with a calm tone.

「…I won’t let that happen. As long as I’m by her side.」

「Then you’d just end up getting eliminated, too. Either that or your thoughts on the matter would end up being changed.」

As Vermudol responded with that, the sharp sound of something cracking into the ground could be heard.

Turning around, Vermudol saw Janas with his spear stabbed into the ground.

「…You’ve been going on like this for a while, who do you think you are?! How dare you disrespect Lady Narika like that! What would someone like you know about her?! Considering everything you’ve said, should I assume that you’ve actually met with her face-to-face before?!」

Before Creed was about to say something to stop Janas, the gaze from behind Vermudol’s helmet turned to Janas.

「Of course I haven’t.」

「Hmph, I knew it! You’re pretty prejudiced yourself, judging someone you’ve never even met!」

「But actions speak for everything. Judging from how Princess Celis was treated, it is clear that Princess Narika has an order of precedence in mind for the races of humanity. It is obvious what kind of path she will take once she gains the power of king.」

「…That’s only natural! That beast is a foreign creature who has somehow smuggled its way into the royal family!」

「Hey, Janas!」

Creed shouted at Janas, but that would not stop him.

「No, let me say this! I know full well that there have been beastmen in the royal family in the past! However, just how is it possible that a beastman was born between a human king and queen?! And most of all, because the Canal Kingdom is host to multiple races, it is only natural that the king be a human!」

「Is that right?」

「If you look back to the legends, humans were the first race of humanity to be born, and all other races were the work of other gods trying their hand at altering them to their liking. Essentially, humans are the base for all other members of humanity, meaning that we can consider them to be of a higher standing to them like an older brother or a father!」

「I see, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.」

「I’m not done talking just yet! I don’t even accept beastmen to be a member of humanity in the first place! They were probably born as the offspring of those who were raped by Bestia-」

「Attack Earth」

Janas was launched away with flying rocks and collapsed onto the ground with a 「Gueh!」. Brutus then kicked up into the far corners of the back garden, and Vermudol shifted his attention away from him.

「So what were we talking about again? Of course, I’ll have to decline your invitation. I can already see what lies ahead of the path you’ve chosen, after all.」

「…That idiot is a special exception. If you were to join us, don’t you think you’d be able to change things for the better? We should be cooperating.」

「No, I don’t think that at all. If you are to be thinking for the country, then you should be considering backing up Celis.」

Creed slightly shifted his center of gravity. His hand had yet to reach for his sword.

「Lady Celis has yet to take a single step forward. The only one who can carry us out of this situation is Princess Narika. This country can only be led forward after stabilizing… Why can’t you understand that?!」

「The so-called stabilization you fools believe in is exactly what brought about this twistedness. Words from someone who can’t even look upon the truth head-on has no weight. If you don’t even understand that, then you are just as much of an idiot as that Janas fellow from earlier.」

Silence filled the room.

The only sounds that could be heard were far-away explosions.

Within that silence, Creed let out a deep, deep sigh.

「…I suppose any further discussion would be futile.」

「Yes. This was all a waste of time.」

「I see. In that case, the rest of our time here would best be used in combat.」

Vermudol silently shook his head in response to Creed’s words.

「No, that would be meaningless as well.」

「…I admit that magic from earlier was quite amazing. But from what I can tell, I am the better one when it comes to the sword.」

Vermudol was a magic user. He was neither a swordsman or a Magic Swordsman.

He definitely had enough training from the Central General Gordy to call himself a 「Magic Swordsman」, but his sword skills were nowhere near the level of either the West General Sancreed or the North General Altejio.

That’s why Vermudol limited his use of the sword to when he was forced to defend himself in close-quarters combat.

「Not to mention, it seems that your sword is meant primarily for defense. Judging from its style, its closer to those used by the Imperial Guard. I hope you don’t think you’d be able to beat me with something like that… Here we go!」

Creed charged towards Vermudol with his shield up.

But of course, he was bounced back by the Attack Guard that was put up.

「Chrono, do you need any backup?」

「Not at all.」

Brutus could tell that Vermudol could take care of this from the tone of his words.

Looking back to Creed banging on his Attack Guard again and again with his shield, Vermudol let out a sigh.

「What’s with this pathetic excuse of an attack? Where’s that Magic Sword from earlier? Don’t tell me you’re already out of magical energy.」

As he said that, Vermudol constructed magic that was weak enough to not kill him.

Since he was wearing pretty good equipment, he was sure it wouldn’t hurt to be a little rough with him.

Vermudol activated the magic he constructed.

「Attack Fire.」

The giant flames that appeared hit Creed’s shield and then proceeded to engulf his body.

「Looks like the adjustments I made to its power were about right,」 Vermudol thought to himself as the flames dissipated to reveal an unharmed Creed.

Creed readied his shield and charged against Vermudol’s Attack Guard once again.

「…Impossible.」

A surprised voice leaked out of Brutus’s mouth.

It was true that Vermudol had considerably held back the power of his magic, but it should have been strong enough to render him immobile.

The only way he could possibly be uninjured is if he had put up a Magic Guard.

But there were no signs of any barrier having been put up.

In that case… that shining shield must have had something to do with it.

The very same shield that broke Vermudol’s Attack Guard in front of his very eyes.

「Oh?」

Vermudol stopped the shield that broke through his Attack Guard with his sword.

It was clearly a shield filled with light element magical power. If one were to classify it, it’d probably be a 「Magic Shield」.

It was a given that magical energy could be contained within weapons other than swords… but the issue here was that there were no signs of the activation itself of the magic in the 「Magic Shield」.

「…That’s a pretty special shield you got right there.」

「It’s the Light Shield Ranaash… A sacred treasure of the Canal Kingdom. It’s said to have been given to the first king of the Canal Kingdom by Lord Raidolg himself… In either case, I don’t know the whole story.」

「I see.」

Vermudol kicked the shield with a bit of strength, leading Creed to slightly wobble back.

「I don’t see anything like Attack Guard activating… Should I assume it’s something like Magic Guard Light?」

As Vermudol muttered those words, magic began amplifying within the sword in his hand, the Bale Blade.

「Fire Wall.」

A sound similar to an explosion could be heard as a wall of fire in front of Vermudol swallowed Creed up.

However, the same uninjured Creed as always revealed himself as the flames passed.

「I see, the reason you came alone even though you knew a powerful magic user was here was because of that shield. You were confident you’d be able to defend against something on the level of this, right?」

「…Pretty much. That sword of yours is pretty strange too, though. What is that exactly?」

「Try to guess for yourself… Wind Slash.」

The blade of wind formed struck at the shield in front of Creed’s face only to be bounced back with a loud clang.

「You’re still using magic even though you know what the outcome is…?!」

「Of course. Seeing that this is a kind of sacred instrument, this would be the perfect time to go for some test runs.」

「What are you…?!」

「Let’s go with a stronger one… Freeze Arrow Rain.」

Countless arrows of ice flew towards Creed and bounced off before they could come into contact with him.

「…Oh?」

「Your attempts are futile… Playtime’s over! O Light!」

Creed pulled out his sword and begin building magic within it.

Looking at the shining sword and shield side by side, Vermudol nodded with understanding.

「I see, the shield is purely for defensive purposes. Were the attacks you were using with the Magic Shield were simply techniques you developed on your own…? No, that’s not right. Did you use some secret technique that utilized the shield’s functions?」

Creed once again instantly closed the distance between him and Vermudol, this time charging with his sword out along with his shield, to which Vermudol defended against by putting up multiple Attack Guards in succession.

「That shield seems to be absorbing magic from its surroundings and converting it into your own power. And it seems to automatically restore its provisions when the amount of energy gets reduced to a certain amount… While it understandably wasn’t able to absorb the magic I produced from converting my magical energy, it did interfere with it in some manner, correct? And you’ve adapted that interference into its own attack… Is that about right?」

「Is that so?! I didn’t even know that much about it myself!」

The repeated thrusts of sword and shield seemed powerful enough to even stand up against Ichika’s swordplay.

But Vermudol made a wry smile.

There was no way this man would end up using anything similar to that ridiculous successive attack technique Ichika used.

「If Ichika heard me say this… she’d probably get upset,」 Vermudol thought to himself.

「In any case, I know your tricks now. I’ve also figured out your limits.」

「And why does that matter?!」

Vermudol calmly dealt with the raging stream of repeated attacks.

The training he had with Gordy was finally bearing fruit. While it may not have felt to be the case because he was always surrounded by masters of the sword, he had definitely become quite the fine swordsman himself.

「This is how you do it… Wyr Metradelica!」

「Uwoooh?!」

Creed twisted about and flew up as he got caught up in the small-scale whirlwind that manifested.

「While that shield may be able to deflect magic, it is not as if it is unaffected by it. Once the shield’s tolerance drops below a certain level, it becomes unable to defend against any further attacks… Once that happens, you won’t have enough time to prepare yourself for the next attack.」

Seeing Creed falling down from the sky, Vermudol constructed some magic.

「To put it simply… once it’s unable to defend against anything, you’ll die. Blame yourself for bringing something like that with you.」

「M-Magic Guar-」

「Voltenics!」

A pillar of lightning formed in the sky along with the sound of roaring thunder.

The lightning struck with enough force that it appeared to pierce through the very sky as it completely eliminated Creed without leaving behind a single trace, and then silently dissipated.

「…Oh, oops. Should I have at least held onto that shield?」

He’d be able to curry favor with Celis by giving it to her as a gift, Margaret could probably have made something out of it, and Rokuna probably would have been pretty happy about using it as material for her magic research.

「…All right.」

Vermudol nodded and turned to Brutus.

「Don’t tell any of the people here about that shield. They’d definitely hold a grudge if they found out I destroyed it.」

「…Understood.」

Perhaps it was because he was easily able to imagine the situation, but Brutus simply nodded.