Lance Charging on the Arkship, but No Mount

"I don't know."

"Where did you come from?"

"I don't know either."

Both of them fell silent. Claude didn't know what to say, helplessly looking at the girl he had captured on the ground.

This child clearly lacked common sense. He had no idea how she had even managed to grow up. Claude thought for a moment, then continued speaking to her.

"I'll let you go, but you can't attack me. All right?"

The girl nodded vigorously.

Claude held out one hand.

"Come on, pinky promise."

"What does that mean?" The girl looked curious.

"It's a promise. Once a promise is made, neither side can break it."

Claude held out his hand and made the pinky-promise gesture. The girl, whose hands were tied behind her back, copied his movement.

They hooked their little fingers together and tugged twice.

"All right, our promise has been made. I'll let you go now." As he spoke, Claude swiftly undid the belts binding her hands and feet.

The girl regained her freedom. She sat up and warily backed away two steps, crouching by the cave entrance. Though she was clearly wary of Claude, she didn't attack him. Beside her feet was a large bundle of weapons tied up in a black bag. It contained all kinds of weapons—battle axes, daggers, and spears. It looked extremely heavy.

Yet she lifted it with ease and slung it over her back. Still watching Claude vigilantly, she backed toward the exit.

"Grrr~~"

A loud sound came from the girl's stomach. She grimaced in discomfort and clutched her belly. Claude looked at her, and suddenly an idea came to him.

A paper-wrapped loaf of bread was suddenly held out before her. The girl looked up at Claude.

"If you're hungry, eat this."

The girl opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but her hand reached out and grabbed the bread on its own. Then she rapidly tore open the wrapper and bit into it. She ate very quickly, finishing both pieces of bread in just a few bites. Yet her hunger seemed not to have eased at all, and her gaze drifted back to Claude's pack.

Claude hesitated, but seeing the pitiful look in the child's eyes, he took out another piece of bread and handed it to her. She didn't make it last long this time either. After finishing it, she looked at Claude with those same eyes again.

Claude found it amusing and took out another piece of bread, handing it to her. Watching her wolf it down, her cheeks stuffed full and puffed out with food, looking especially adorable, gave him an inexplicable sense of pleasure. Her flat stomach seemed like a bottomless pit. She ate several loaves of bread and strips of jerky in a row. Any one of those things would have filled Claude up, but she still showed no sign of being full.

"Hungry."

"Here."

"Still hungry."

"Here."

Looking at the pack, now half empty, Claude felt at a loss. This food had originally been meant to last them for the next week, but this child had eaten half of it in only half an hour. And judging by the way she looked at him, she still wasn't full.

Claude immediately zipped the pack shut.

"Not much left. Not much left."

As he said that, he had already slung the backpack over his shoulders. Only then did the child finally pull her gaze away from it.

Having successfully defended the remaining food, Claude finally had the mood to examine his surroundings. Looking at the cave before him, he realized it was clearly not naturally formed. It sloped downward into the mountain, and its inner walls were covered in tool marks.

"Why are you staying here? Is this cave your home?" Claude asked the girl beside him curiously.

"No, but there are things inside that can be used to cook."

Claude looked at the cave. His curiosity had been successfully stirred.

A makeshift torch illuminated the cave. Inside was a broad, enormous cavern. Looking at the supplies around him, Claude saw not only simple beds built from wooden planks, but also plenty of pots, bowls, and other utensils. He immediately understood. It seemed the people from the village below had all come here.

None of the items around them had much dust on them, proving they had been used recently. But where had the people gone? He hadn't seen a single person all the way here.

He continued searching carefully. As he passed one of the beds, he sensed something wrong. The other beds had all been crudely put together from a few planks, but this one looked complete. There was no empty space beneath it; it was sealed shut, like an ordinary bed used at home. Feeling around on it, he soon found a raised spot beneath the bedboard. He grabbed it and gave it a hard pull.

The bedboard sprang open, revealing a basement below. A smell wafted out. Claude knew that scent well. It was the smell of blood, and it had been there for some time. Without changing expression, he drew the longsword at his waist and stepped onto the stairs leading down.

A New Beginning: Chapter 31 Mercy

The cavern was not suitable for human habitation, not only because it was cold and damp, but because it received no sunlight at all. Given the human body's condition, living here would soon make a person weak and sickly. The reasons those villagers had for abandoning their warm, dry village to live here were worth considering.

Black leather boots stepped down the stairs one level at a time. In the empty tunnel, there was no sound at all. It was as silent as a graveyard.

The gleaming blade was hidden beneath Claude's cloak, preventing its reflection from exposing his arrival to the enemy too early. The increasingly heavy stench of blood made his expression grow more solemn. With a smell this strong, at least five or six people had bled to death here.

Before entering this tunnel, he had removed his greaves and come down wearing only leather boots, so the sound of iron boots against the ground would not alert anyone. The person responsible for this massacre might not have left yet. He had also left the torch above, relying on the firelight coming from around the bend ahead as he quietly approached.

At the corner, he cautiously poked his head out.

Before him was a broad open area, clearly excavated by hand. The ground was very flat, carved with numerous lines and grooves. At every point where one line intersected another stood a wooden pole with a candle stuck on top. Of course, that was not the important part. What mattered were the corpses lying on the ground. Their blood had completely filled the wide grooves.

Claude stepped out from around the corner and walked into the area. No one was still standing; nearly all of them had become corpses. They wore old clothes covered in patches, making them look like poor people. They had been dead for quite some time. Their blood had begun to coagulate and turn thick. Boots made a sticky sound when stepping on it.

The grooves on the ground converged toward the center, forming a huge pattern like a magic circle. At the center of that formation stood a sword.

Seeing this familiar-looking scene, Claude immediately frowned. He had fought for more than sixty years and seen many things ordinary people would never see in a lifetime. He had seen a scene like this before. In that world, there was no shortage of followers of evil gods who constantly preached absurd ideas like the destruction of the world. In that age of war, people suffering from extreme inner repression were often willing to believe such things.

One reason the mighty Empire could not completely eradicate them was that the evil gods they worshipped truly existed. Those evil beings could always ruin one or two minds in some obscure corner and cause the Empire a little trouble. Often, only a few years after they had been wiped out, another group would emerge.

Claude had destroyed many such places. Many cultists there performed blood sacrifices. Their minds had basically been burned away, and they no longer possessed the reason of normal people. They hoped to exchange their own blood for the descent of an evil god.

Arriving before the longsword embedded in the center of the area, Claude examined it closely. It was a standard knight's two-handed sword, with a sharp blade, a pointed tip, and a crossguard. What stood out was the demon skull carved into the center of its guard. The skull was silver-white, and a pair of twisted horns extended toward the blade.

The skull's sharp teeth clenched two thorny vines, their ends wrapped around the crossguard. The entire sword was covered in intricate patterns. It looked exceptionally ferocious, evil, and gorgeous.

The blood on the ground flowed along the grooves toward the base of the sword, then crept upward along the patterns on its blade, finally flowing into the demon skull's mouth.

As a knight who had wielded weapons all his life, Claude's love for weapons was carved into his bones. Seeing this clearly extraordinary sword, he couldn't help feeling stirred. Of course, he did not rashly touch it. It did not look like anything good.

After a brief moment of thought, Claude drew his own sword. Whatever this sword was for, he at least could not allow it to continue.

His longsword struck the crossguard with lightning-fast precision. The instant it connected, he flicked his wrist. The ominous sword was knocked free from the ground and clattered onto the floor with a crisp sound.

Almost the instant it left the blood, the blade began to tremble. It clinked against the ground, like a living creature trying to return to the blood. Claude delivered a heavy kick, sending the sword flying out of the area and embedding it in the wall. After doing all that, he paid it no further attention and instead carefully inspected the place.

Looking at the corpses sprawled on the ground, he sighed inwardly. He began searching their bodies for clues. Before long, he found a notebook in front of a middle-aged man at the very front. It had been placed in an extremely conspicuous spot, as though the man had deliberately wanted someone to find it.

He shook the blood off it, praying the words inside could still be read. Opening it, he found that it was a diary, which surprised Claude. He had not expected anyone in this village to be able to write. For well-known reasons, outside the mobile cities, literacy among the people of this world was extremely low. The handwriting in this diary was crooked, with frequent corrections. It seemed its writer had not mastered writing very well.

He moved closer to a nearby torch and began reading by its dim yellow light. The diary had no dates, as though its writer did not know the exact time.

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Those people came again today. They took half of our food again. No one dared say anything. After all, they had weapons in their hands, and there was blood on them. Maybe they had killed many people! As long as we ration what is left and eat only once a day, we should be able to last until the next harvest.

I don't know what to do. I'm terrified those people will come again, but as the village chief, I have to lead everyone to survive.

Those people never stop. They came again! Sesima died today. They really dared to kill someone! Today, they not only demanded food, but also took every valuable thing they could find in the village. Sesima couldn't bear to part with the necklace she had received as part of her dowry, so they cut her down with one strike... (A large section of messy writing. The writer's fingers seemed to have been trembling.)

We can't stay here any longer, or sooner or later we'll die here! And we don't have enough food left. We need to find somewhere to hide. We absolutely cannot let those bastards find us again.

Tonight, we decided to move into the cave on the mountaintop. It was excavated by our ancestors. They say our ancestors used to live there. There is too little food left. I don't know how many more days we can last. If we can't hold on, what will happen to the children?

Some people still can't bear to leave their little possessions behind. Have they lost their minds? Don't they know we're fleeing for our lives? They nearly made me furious! I severely scolded those idiots who couldn't tell what mattered, then drove them away.

The cave is damp too, but there is good news. We found a patch of mushrooms growing on the inner side of the cave, where there happened to be a little soil. We weren't sure whether the mushrooms could be eaten, so we caught a small animal and had it eat them first. Luckily, the mushrooms weren't poisonous, and they grew quickly. That means we can hold on for a while longer. Once those people lose interest in our village, we can go back.

A child fell ill today. He keeps coughing, and his face has turned very pale. But there is nothing we can do. Those people have stayed in the village and won't leave, so we don't dare risk going outside. We can only hope the child manages to pull through on his own. But I know it will be difficult. It is too cold and damp here.

He died.

It's over! We're finished!! Those people found us!! I don't know how they did it, but they sealed the cave entrance. We can't get out. We'll starve to death inside! No matter how we begged, they never responded. They just kept laughing. Those demons!!!

Only eight of us remain. Everyone else has died. We placed the bodies deep inside the cave. It is cold there, so they should rot more slowly. We no longer have the strength to dig graves for them. The mushrooms in the cave have stopped growing because we ate them too quickly. We are starving to death now. I have decided to continue exploring deeper inside. I hope I can find more mushrooms.

I didn't find mushrooms... but I found a place... This thing cannot possibly let us survive, but if it is real, then at least there is a chance it can avenge us... I told everyone my idea. Not a single person opposed me. We're going to starve to death here anyway... At least this way, we can die more quickly.

Claude turned to the final page, where several lines were written:

"Whoever finds this sword, please take it away. Please take it away. As long as you avenge us, you may take it. It is a good sword. A good sword. I have never seen a sharper sword. If you avenge us, you can have it. Please don't deceive us, don't deceive us... Please show mercy, sir."

"We are watching you from within the sword."

Looking at that final sentence, smeared beyond recognition with blood-stained fingers, Claude fell silent. He wiped the blood from the diary with a strip of cloth, wrapped it up, and placed it in the leather pouch at his waist.

Without saying a word, he walked over to the longsword embedded in the wall. The blade was still trembling faintly. Claude reached out and gripped the ornate hilt inlaid with gold thread, turning the blade over as he examined it. He looked at its cold gleaming edge, its blood-red patterns, and its ferocious demon skull.

Staring directly at his own reflection in the blade, Claude spoke.

"By the honor of the Lord of the Legion, I swear here and now. I will settle the injustice inflicted upon you and stain this sword with the blood of the guilty."

"I will grant you... mercy."

The trembling of the blade finally stopped.

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

The girl with long blonde hair, or rather, the child, crouched on a rock near the entrance, lost in thought. By all rights, she should have left already. After all, she had just been captured by someone, even if he had eventually released her. In such dangerous wilderness, she should have left immediately. But a voice within her told her that the man from before was not a bad person and would not hurt her.

Besides, she was still hungry.

Her eyes kept drifting toward the pack beside her. But having only just been captured, she still did not dare do anything. As time passed, though, that might not remain the case. Her glances at the pack grew more frequent, and just as she was about to lose control, a set of footsteps came from below the stairs—heavy and powerful.

A man dressed in black emerged from below. He was tall and carried a corpse on his back.

The girl stared blankly at him. She showed no particular reaction to the corpse on his shoulder. To her, it was something she often saw.

Claude looked at the girl in surprise. He had not expected her to still be here. She stared at him without blinking, and he instantly understood what she meant.

"Come help me. When you're done, I'll give you food."

"Okay!" The child immediately sprang up from the ground.

Claude looked at the girl and held out his little finger.

The child learned quickly. She immediately extended her little finger and hooked it around his.

Claude took out his portable terminal and began contacting his companions.

"Are you done? Did you get our food back?"

"That's not important. Be careful. Someone nearby might attack you. I'll be back in a little while."

Claude hurriedly changed the subject, dodging the dirt being dug up beside him at the same time.

"Okay, got it." Centaurea immediately became serious and said nothing more.

After hanging up, someone suddenly tugged at his cloak. Claude turned his head and saw that more than a dozen pits had already been dug beside him. The girl who had tugged him was carefully wiping the dirt from the blade of the spear in her hand, looking somewhat distressed.

Claude carefully inspected the pits and found that their size was fine. He called to the girl on the ground.

"Come on, let's get to work."

The girl followed without hesitation.