Chapter 20: The Knight Order and Training

Author: Kurohitsuji
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2086fk/21/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

I show my face at the Adventurer’s Guild first thing, and receptionist Liza is there today too.
Getting to see a beautiful woman first thing in the morning is a good thing.
The fierce-faced guildmaster Glad doesn’t seem to be in today, either.

“Liza, morniiing.”
“Oh, good morning. I thought it was about time.”
“Eh, what?”
“A named request came in. Here.”

She hands me a request form with a bright smile.
Uh, what? Request details: combat training?
Client: the Royal Knight Order.
…Combat training? Eh, named, for me?

“…Why is a request like this coming to me?”
“Your name spread after the ogre subjugation, I would think.”
“Ah… this looks like a huge pain. Can I turn it down?”
“The guild would like you to take it, but… no?”

U. Liza, that sad face is cheating.

“Muu. All right, I’ll take it.”
“Will you? Thank you.”

Ooh. So this is what a smile like a flower blooming looks like.
Beautiful people are unfair. In all sorts of ways.

*

And that’s how it went.
Right now I’m standing next to vice-captain Gios on the knight order’s training ground at the royal castle.
I’m getting stared at like crazy. The “what’s that” kind of look. I mean, I get it.

…Wait, isn’t that Kisaragi Kyousuke over there?
Ah, our eyes met. He’s waving. So it is him.
Hmm. I’m not great with that one, somehow. Even if he is handsome.

“Uh. I’m Ouka. Please take care of me.”
“Today is person-to-person training with an active adventurer. Lord Kisaragi has joined us as well, so give it everything.”

“The Healer Who Kills Time.”
A Hero with a goddess’s blessing that rewinds time and makes injuries as if they never happened.
Kisaragi Kyousuke.
Are they planning to make this a training that needs someone that outrageous present.
A bad feeling keeps getting bigger.

“Your opponent is the Ogre Killer who’s been famous lately. It’s a group fight, but don’t let your guard down.”

Oi, wait. A group fight, what.
Don’t tell me everyone here is going to surround me?
There’s easily about fifty people.

“Wait, wait! I’ll die!”
“It’s all right. We can take a fall, at least.”

That’s not the part! I’ll die!
And you lot don’t need to get motivated either! Seriously!

“It’s all right. If something happens, I’ll heal it.”

The Hero-sama who’s somehow next to me murmurs it secretly.
Ah, this guy’s personality is rotten after all. He looks like he knows what he’s saying.
In that case I’ll drag him in too… ah, damn, he got away.

“Then—begin!”

Eh, wait, they’re actually coming?
No, no, are you people sane? That many against one ordinary town girl isn’t possible, right?
…Ah, geez! Fine, I’ll do it!

“Ring!”
“—Sakura-Drive Ready.”

“Come at me all at once! Ignition!”

With the trigger word I spit out, my awareness switches.
From ordinary everyday to the un-everyday I know by heart.
Red-and-white handguns in both hands, I run the field trailing pale-crimson mana-light.
Many enemies. If I get surrounded, it’s over. Then I have no choice but to keep moving and break their coordination.
It’s my first group fight like this, but what I do doesn’t change in the end.
There’s already no fear inside me. Only the calculation of how to move, and a little lift.
Just the usual.

“All right. Shall we dance.”

Enemy placement, weapons, predicting action from their eyes. My body starts dancing on its own, exactly as that image.
I shoot through both legs of the knight coming from the front and spin.
I slip a sword coming from the side with a gun butt, break his stance, and kick him away.
Then a wall of spears thrusting from ahead all at once.
I drop as if lying on the ground and, still in that posture, kick the earth and run.
I slide my body through the gaps, fire as we pass, and smash legs one after another.
Once I’ve taken their mobility, the rest I can handle however.
A little injury shouldn’t be a problem. Then there’s nothing to hesitate over.

A sideways sweep of a sword.
I leap, use a shoulder as a step, leap again.

Upside down, I fire from above.
Aim is the arms; I confirm every round hits.

I twist, land, bounce at once.
I run using a planted spear as a foothold and kick a face flying.
But it’s shallow. Damn, having the gunshots’ aim limited is rough.

“Ring. Can you make rounds that don’t kill?”
“—Received: creation successful. Magazine changed, you may fire.”
“Nice work, partner.”

I pull the trigger at once.
It hits the arm raising a knight’s sword; he’s flung with terrific force, but there’s no blood.
All right. This works.

I run. I fire while running right. It hits the head; he goes flying and falls on his back.
I bounce. I vault over, putting a round into what’s directly below.
I turn. I swing a gun butt loaded with centrifugal force. I bat a spear away.
I fire as I am, down. Next.

I turn, I turn, I spin.
On the ground, in the air, round and round.
Hit, kick, punch through.
I slip the iron coming in, parry, dodge.
I pull everything around me in and rain gunfire on it.

The recoil numbs my arms.
My heart jumps with the gunshots.
The roar colors the world.

All right. Let it rip.

I spin away from a sword coming down.
I grab an arm, use it as a pivot, go into a handstand, and kick the back of the head with a heel.
That force into a leap; I kick the next one in the chest and shoot the stagger.
Spin in the air, fire, land.
I drop, sweep the legs, shoot as I hop back.

Land, sprint, leap, strike, shoot.

Like a play. Like a joke.
I don’t get hit. I don’t miss.
The world dyes pale crimson.
This is my stage.

“…That’s enough.”

But suddenly an arm takes me from behind. I put a muzzle on him by reflex.

And I’m thrown into the air with terrific force.

“…Ha?”

The sound of cutting wind. The ground recedes at a terrible speed.
And the sakura-pink I’d been wearing cuts out.

…………Oh. I can see the castle roof. The ground’s far.
Haha… this is bad, isn’t it…?

“Gyaaaaaaah! Riiiiing!?”
“—Deploying flight mechanism.”

I blast boosters from the handgun-type magic tools, kill speed just before I hit, and land rolling.
Thaaaaaat was close! I thought I was going to die!

“…Ooh. You can fly.”
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing all of a sudden!”
“…What. I threw a suspicious person brawling with the knight order.”
“Haa!?”
“…A suspicious person.”

A tall young man with sleepy eyes points at me.
The hat makes his expression hard to read.

I mean, what is this guy. Something’s off. Scary.
I don’t get what he’s saying either, but more than that, I have no feeling I could win at all.
I really want to run, but this is the royal castle.
If I run, the castle people will be in trouble. For now, maybe I just have to buy time.

“Who are you?”
“…Eh, even if you ask who.”
“Who, from where.”
“…Toono Tsukasa. No fixed address, unemployed.”
“No fixed address, unemployed, and you’re in the castle? That’s explosively suspicious!”
“…True. There’s nothing I can deny.”

No, don’t agree. Don’t fold your arms and nod.
What is this person.

“Ouka. Ouka. He’s the Hero.”

Kisaragi Kyousuke is somehow next to me again.
Ha? The Hero? What is?

“Toono Tsukasa. The strongest Hero in the world. You don’t know him?”
“…Eh. ‘God-Demon Annihilation’?
The one in the fairy tales who punched the Demon King flying with his bare hands?”
“Yes. That’s him.”
“…Um. Could I ask you to take off the hat?”
“…Eh, sure.”

Told by me, he takes it off obediently.
Spiky black hair. And black eyes.

Ah, yeah. I see?
This color is a Hero, all right.

Anyway, I return the handguns to the holster.
Yikes. Not a suspicious person—a super celebrity.
I should apologize.

“She is Ouka. An adventurer requested for combat training with the knight order.”
“…Huh. Did I get it wrong?”

The Hero tips his head to the side and points at his own face.

“Yes. Spectacularly.”
“…I’m sorry.”

Before I can apologize,
the black-haired Hero puts a knee to the ground, straightens his back, and bows his head.