Chapter 45: The Former Knight-Captain

Author: Kurohitsuji
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n2086fk/46/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

Today is house-hunting day.
The bath incident reconfirmed how important a house is, and besides, I’ve always done my own things myself, so having meals and a bed provided doesn’t sit right.
Well, the mistress’s food is delicious, so I’ll still go eat it.

Anyway, if you want information, the guild is the place.

“So, Liza, Glad. Know a good house?”
“Sorry, I haven’t found one yet.”
“Muu. I’d take pretty much anything at this point.”

The church was pretty run-down, after all.
Drafts and leaks were bad, and I didn’t even have a room of my own.
While I’m saying that.

“Not that there isn’t one, but.”

Glad, who’d been standing next to Liza with his arms folded and a scowl, speaks in a sour voice.

“Eh, there is?”
“Not a house, strictly, but there is one.”

An? What’s that mean.

“The top floor of the guild staff dorm is empty.”
“A dorm, that’s no good.”

That means only guild staff can live there, right?
I’m just a town girl; I don’t meet the condition.

“I see. That place might be all right.”

Liza claps her hands in front of her chest.

“Only that top floor is a bit special. There’s a test to rent the room.”
“A test?”
“Instead, if you pass, the purchase price is free.”

Eh. What’s that. Super cheap.
Ah, but there’s a test.
A test… an ugly word. It makes me think of school tests.

“What kind of test is it?”
“You fight a magic recreation of the former knight-captain. Win, or last five minutes, and you pass.”
“The former knight-captain, as in Owen?”
“Yeah. Until the Heroes were summoned, that guy was called the strongest, and there aren’t many who can even fight him.
I think you’ll be fine. What do you want to do?”
“I’ll do it!”

Instant decision. Trying is free.

○○○○○○○○

So I take the test in the guild backyard.
Lots of spectators; is everyone that free.

Person-to-person fights are rare for me, actually.
Person-to-person, though it isn’t the person himself.
Still… I’d wanted to meet him, but I didn’t expect this form.

“Ou, ready?”
“I’m fine!”
“Then we start.”

Glad activates a square magic tool in his hand, and a full-armored uncle appears without a sound.
Ooh, handsome. A well-featured uncle.
Good build too; he must have been popular.

But I don’t like those eyes. He’s fully ready to kill.
The pressure is intense. My knees want to shake. But.

“Ring.”
“—Sakura-Drive Ready.”

“Ignition!”

As pale-crimson mana-light rises, the fear goes.
Exhilaration welling in its place.
I’m glad I get to fight this person.
Former world’s strongest. How skilled is he.

“Now then, wonderful uncle. Please dance with me.”

As if cutting off my nonsense, a knight-sword comes down from a charge.
A huge blade that splits space itself. I knock the side and throw the line off.
Fast. And heavy.

Unbroken, he lifts and cuts down again.
I shoot while spinning aside, but the knight-sword pulled back blocks it.
Uwah. He takes that. His movement is fast after all.

I take distance and fire feelers; he takes them all on a turned blade and charges.
Then I shoot the legs, but he jumps and slips them.
A downward cut with his full weight. I jump aside on the instant and the ground bursts.
That one, even a graze is bad.

A lift as if cutting the sky. I spin and dodge.
A downward cut that smashes the earth. I throw it wide with a gun butt loaded with centrifugal force and send the arm outside.

In dancing sakura and streaming black hair, I put both handguns on him.

Melee shots. He jumps aside and slips them, but I punch through the flank, faintly.
I leap using his knee as a step; the rounds aimed at both shoulders from overhead, only the right is blocked by the knight-sword.
I land behind him and immediately a wind-cut sound.
I duck and a knight-sword screams over my head.
I turn and shoot the gut again. On impact a sharp front kick comes.
Can’t dodge. I smash a gun butt into it anyway and get blown away gun and all.

This much power with the momentum killed. Even attacks that aren’t the sword might kill on a clean hit.

This is the former knight-captain. The person called strongest in this world.
Strong. Attacks thrown straight, honestly, with no bargaining.
Every one of them honed.

This person, at a miss, is Hero-level, isn’t he?
No blessing, just a trained body… can a human get this strong.

A tall form running in, a knight-sword swept from his shadow.
Not an angle I can slip. I drop as if sinking into the ground and let it pass.
Immediately a low sideways sweep on the reverse line. I use the sword as a step and leap.
The round I fire at his head is taken on the hilt.
A thrust aimed at my landing. I throw the line off as if shaving a gun butt, and close.
At point-blank I punch through knee, thigh, hip, gut in a flow.
The huge body loses posture and drops to a knee; I press a muzzle to the neck and pull the trigger.

A sure feel. I won, I think, and a chill runs my spine.
I leap well back from the spot, and a knight-sword passes sideways.

This person can move after taking a shot to the neck.

Looking close, cords are woven as if protecting the neck. Some magic item, maybe.
I see. That’s what stopped it.

If I can’t punch through even from contact, rapid fire is meaningless.
Then I have to put maximum power in from melee.
I cycle mana into the handguns and compress to the maximum.
Sakura on the wind increase in number.

I run the earth. Black hair flowing like night. Pale crimson coloring the world.

Against the raised knight-sword, I spin.
I slip that heavy blow by a paper’s width, and aim at the center of the silver armor.

“Punch through!”

I loose compressed mana rounds from both hands.
Even aiming at the follow-through, the round from the left is thrown off by the knight-sword.
A monster, this person.
But the right shot punches straight through the breast of the full armor.

Falling slowly, he looks at me and smiles.
Before he hits the ground, the former knight-captain turns to black dust and vanishes.

I won? I don’t really feel it.
I wait a while, but he doesn’t revive or anything.

“Ring?”
“—Situation over confirmed: Ouka’s victory.”
“Copy.”

I return the handguns to the holster and drop Sakura-Drive.

At once whatever was taut snaps, and I drop on my rear, petan.
At the same time cheers go up around.

“Nice! Well done!”
“As expected! Ogre Killer!”
“The epithet Night-Sakura Fantasy isn’t just for show!”
“Yo! Strongest little girl!”

Oi, that last one. Who’s a little girl, who.

Still… uhee. I’m insanely tired.
That last hit, if Owen’s left shoulder had been intact I’d have been cut.
As expected of the former strongest. If it had been the real one, what would have happened.
…No, better not think about it. Scary.

“Ouka, you all right?”
“Nihihi. My hips gave out. Stand me up.”
“Ou. Still, you, beating Owen.”
“Hnn? But that was a fake. The real one I’d lose.”
“I wonder. I think you’d make a good fight of it.”

No way.
A mere town girl fighting the knight-captain evenly is a nightmare.

“Anyway we gotta do the paperwork.”
“Ah, please.”
“Ou. Later bring your bags and come to the guild.”

He hauls me up with those thick arms and I manage to stand.

Anyway. New house, get.