Chapter 2

"Listen up! My subordinates! Our Bram Squad has been tasked with exterminating the monsters around the nearby village today!"

Early in the morning.

We, who were lined up in the training ground used by the Bram Squad, heard Bram's voice.

The crowd around us began to murmur, and some even smiled with delight.

Monsters—simply put, are creatures that evolved from animals and attack humans.

They are said to have flooded the world with the birth of a great evil known as the Demon King in ancient times, and even now, with the Demon King sealed away, they continue to threaten people around the world.

However, since the Demon King's disappearance, they haven't proliferated excessively, and with the knights becoming more proactive in recent years, the damage has been decreasing.

"It seems that the region has been peaceful enough not to require the knights' protection, but recently, large monster footprints have been found. We've been patrolling the capital for the past few years, but your skills haven't gotten rusty, have they?"

When Bram asked this, the subordinates let out a rough roar.

It was noisy, almost deafening.

"According to the investigation, it seems that adventurers have started moving to slay the monsters. We can't let those amateurs take the credit."

The speech continued.

I don't know what they can empathize with, but the crowd around us nodded in agreement the whole time.

"Departure is at noon! Until then, prepare for the expedition, and gather here when the time comes! It's been a while since we've seen real combat, so get pumped up!"

"Oooh!"

The colleagues excitedly chatted as they returned to the barracks.

Until now, the knights have only been dispatched to regions where strong monsters appeared, so most of the squads were responsible for maintaining the city's security.

In the peaceful Kingdom of Ristria, conflicts are extremely rare, and even with extensive training, there are hardly any opportunities to put it to use.

That's why they are so excited.

The possibility of engaging in real combat—fighting monsters—might finally allow them to show the results of their training.

For me, who would prefer not to fight, it's completely incomprehensible.

"Hey, idiot."

I was walking with the flow of people returning when I was stopped by Bram.

I couldn't ignore him.

I turned my body towards Bram and waited for his words.

"Go get as many swords as you can from our armory. Everyone has their own swords, but it's better to have spares."

"...Understood."

"Get going. If you're late, you might want to assault that woman again, you know?"

"..."

Just because no one else was around, he casually told me.

I ran back to my room in the knight's quarters.

He often threatens me like this to torment me.

First, I put on my armor, packed my belongings from my room, and put them in a bag to carry on my back.

Since there's a possibility of spending the night, I needed to bring a change of clothes.

Then, I rushed out of the room and headed to the armory.

After running for a while, I stopped in front of a door.

This was the armory assigned to the Bram Squad.

It mainly stored items used for training and spare weapons. When I entered, the deep, embedded smell of the men's sweat hit my nose.

I sighed at the same time.

Inside the armory, about a hundred swords were haphazardly stacked.

He knew there were this many and wanted me to carry them.

(I can't carry my own belongings.)

I left my belongings from my room in the armory and started tying the swords together with a rope.

After securing them and moving them to the hallway, I tied the rope to my body and carried them on my back.

It was heavy enough to make me stagger, but my trained body could still walk.

Although there was still time, I might arrive at the assembly point just in time.

"Ah..."

As I was walking, I heard a voice in front of me as I left the knight's quarters.

When I looked up, I saw a face I didn't want to see.

Feris Inglass, the captain of the First Knight Squad of the Kingdom of Ristria.

She is the same age as me and ascended to the position of captain at the young age of twenty.

And she is the woman I tried to protect from Bram four years ago.

"...Disgusting. You're still in the knights?"

Feris glared at me with hatred, shook her long blonde hair, and walked away.

She doesn't remember what happened that night and believes Bram's words.

In other words, she thinks I tried to assault her.

"...What am I doing?"

I almost collapsed to my knees but managed to hold myself up.

I am despised by the person I thought I saved and treated worse than an animal by the actual culprit.

Bram and Feris are now in the same position. I don't need to protect her from Bram's threats anymore.

I had hoped that my reputation would change somewhere.

The moment I realized my foolishness, my chest tightened, and I felt like I couldn't breathe.

Maybe I would be better off dead.

But I didn't have the courage to accept death.

♦

"Ah! Knights! Please save our village!"

"Don't worry! Village Chief! We will protect this village!"

After assembling, we rode in a carriage for about two hours.

We arrived at a village built at the foot of a mountain.

We were invited into a simple wall made of logs, and an old man, the village chief, began to speak.

"Captain Bram...! You are so reliable. As reported, large footprints have been found around this village. The Adventurer's Guild sent experts to investigate, and they concluded that it's a B-rank monster, which shouldn't be in this area."

"Experts from the Adventurer's Guild... Still, a B-rank, huh? The enemy is more troublesome than I imagined."

"The reward money has been prepared to the maximum amount the village can afford. So please...! Please, before the damage becomes visible!"

"I understand. A B-rank is nothing to our squad! It will take longer to find it than to fight it."

"Ooh!"

The village chief and the other villagers who had come to see the situation looked at Bram as if he were a savior.

A B-rank is a measure of a monster's strength. If we set a standard, it means a captain-level—like Bram—can defeat it in a one-on-one fight.

With about 60 junior knights under him.

Bram's confidence comes from the certainty that they can win.

"Alright, let's head to the location where the footprints were found first. Men! Let's go!"

We followed Bram's orders, unloaded the supplies for a long campaign in the village, and loaded only the combat supplies onto the carriage before setting off.

We reached the location where the footprints were found after about a ten-minute walk.

"This is it... Indeed, they are huge."

In front of us were the large footprints as described.

If stepped on by these feet, a human would be crushed in one step.

However, there was no sign of the creature that made the footprints.

"Tch, troublesome. Hey, idiot, go a bit further into the forest by yourself."

"Whoa!"

I was kicked in the back and stumbled.

My life didn't matter anymore.

My colleagues seemed to think of me as a nuisance, and no one was paying attention to me anymore.

(I might die today.)

I sighed in resignation and decided to head deeper into the forest alone.