Chapter 110 – Female Knight
“Ugh… This, it can’t be My body is not what it used to be.”
Berléans, who was lying face down on the bed, groaned. Netoru sighed because he was dumbfounded by the shabby middle-aged man’s appearance, which was so different from his first impression.
“No, what is this nobleman called a knight?”
“You should also get shot by the bugs. Then you will be like me.”
“I understand the circumstances, but then why did you ask me to fight with a body like this in the first place?”
“I was just trying to lighten up. How could I have known that you would run like a madman?”
It’s all your fault that I fought for nothing. Netoru let out a laugh at Berléans’ blatant gaze.
She definitely took the plunge with her whole heart. Anyway, since he’s a knight, shouldn’t he do his best? Besides, opportunities like this are rare.
However, I didn’t know that I would shout surrender so frighteningly after splitting the sword a few times. That is also the existence of a knight.
“… Ok In the past, I was able to swing my sword all day long, but I don’t know how I ended up living like an old man in a closet.”
The figure sighing and lamenting on the bed was a typical old man’s longing for the heyday of the past.
At this point, I wonder if this nobleman is really an article. Seeing him say this, he looked like an ordinary old gendarme pilot.
The current location of the two was the infirmary. It was because Berléans sprained his back during sparring. From what I’ve heard, he seems to have injured his back with a bullet at the beginning of the war with the bugs. That’s why he said he couldn’t handle his body properly.
In fact, in a way, surviving being shot by bugs was possible because he was a knight at least.
How can a person be fine even if he gets hit by a bullet the size of his thumb? It wouldn’t be strange if a normal person got hit with something like that, even if he died on the spot with his body torn apart as the word says.
Did he just have a similar thought?
“I am lucky, though. Because I am still alive even after being shot. You may not know it, but when the bugs first appeared, it was a surprise. A chunk of metal suddenly falls from the sky and explodes, and fire shoots out of their muzzle, killing dozens or hundreds of people on the spot…”
Berléans, who was looking into empty space as if looking into the distance, murmured in a low voice. It was a somewhat resentful, yet bittersweet voice.
“When I first saw the bug, I thought it was the devil’s army that only appeared in history. When I first engaged them, the corpses piled up like a mountain, and the blood flowed like a river. I’ve never had such a terrible battle.”
A knight dreams of a realm of superhumans. But even so, the knight was also a human being after all. He challenges the realm of a superman, but he is not really a superman.
Unless they really reached the level of a heroic spirit that would come out of mythology, even a knight had no choice in front of bullets and shells. It was the same for them to turn into chunks of meat the moment they were hit by a chunk of metal flying at the speed of sound.
So, in the early days of the war against bugs, it was forced to be pushed back miserably. They were unknown enemies, and all of them were armed with powerful firearms that had never existed before.
Moreover, even the armor worn by holy cavalrymen at that time was meaningless in front of the bugs’ firearms.
It was an era in which quick maneuvers were pursued in human-to-human battles.
Therefore, the armor at that time was gradually becoming thinner and lighter to save the mobility of the holy cavalry,
As a result, at the time of the first engagement with the bugs, the bullets pierced the armor as they were hit, and the pilots in the cockpit died instantly.
At least it was recently that the holy cavalrymen were able to continue fighting even after being hit by bullets from the bugs.
The armor of the holy cavalry was improved so that it could resist their firearms in its own way.
Of course, as the weight increased, the holy cavalry’s fuel efficiency and mobility deteriorated, but it was still better than being torn to pieces like paper without much resistance.
If I had been as prepared as I am now, I wouldn’t have suffered from back pain like this. Berléans looked at Netoru, feeling his throbbing waist as if his bones had rotted away.
“Now that this has happened, why don’t we share our story? There are some things I want to ask you.”
“I don’t have much to say, but…”
When Netoru blatantly showed dislike, Berléans narrowed his brows.
“Uh huh. Now that I’m like this because of you, are you going to be so shameless? Ugh… Look at this! I don’t know if I’ll be able to move properly with this by the end of this week! In a few days, we will be moving to Elflandia!”
“…”
What to do with this you are responsible Seeing Berléans acting so forcefully, Netoru let out a low sigh. When the opponent comes out like this, there is nothing he can do about it.
Besides, the middle-aged man in front of him was once a knight.
But fortunately, the personality itself is a good-looking man, so it wouldn’t be bad to match it properly.
“…Then what do you want to talk about with me?”
What do you want to talk about? As I watched with his puzzled eyes, Berléans’ relaxed expression suddenly changed to serious.
“I will ask you directly. Is it true that the 1st Independent Task Force was really wiped out in the last mission?”
“·······”
Netoru’s eyebrows twitched at the unexpected question. But that’s the only change in facial expression.
Netoru stared at Berléans with a calm expression that could not read any thoughts.
What is the purpose of this question?
I don’t know, but what Netoru said was fixed.
“It is true that it was destroyed. The traces of the battle at the time must have been confirmed by the headquarters.”
“Is it? I’m not sure about that either. HQ’s investigation isn’t very reliable.”
“Then what about me, the sole survivor?”
“Are you the only survivor…?”
Berléans’ eyes narrowed. At that moment, the person in front of Netoru wasn’t the middle-aged man he had been looking forward to.
A cold, penetrating gaze. Netoru felt the weight of the years in his gaze. The middle-aged man in front of him was not just a knight who was dying of old age.
“The 1st Independent Task Force was a unit with a large number of former Revolutionary Army members. As you may know, that’s why we often called it the Death Row Battalion.”
“·······”
It’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.
The 1st Independent Task Force was a unit that was pushed in when there was a risky mission. Because of the characteristics of the members of the unit, from the point of view of the nobles, it was enough to be wiped out or to survive.
So, it was a unit of death row inmates.
“To be honest, I didn’t really like TF 1. It’s not simply because they’re a revolutionary army, it’s because they’re talented enough to waste pointlessly like that.”
Of course, the aristocrats were not pushed back during the revolution. It was because the revolutionary army had that kind of power beyond the simple support of citizens.
So, there were many outstanding pilots within the Revolutionary Army, and there were also several nobles and knights who jumped into the Revolutionary Army. These are often referred to as new nobility.
And many such pilots were deployed to the 1st Independent Task Force. In order to intensively manage those who were judged to be dangerous by the headquarters.
“I think we should have treated them properly, not just be wary of them as dangerous. In the first place, what would humans do if they doubted each other?”
“So what do you want to talk about now? I don’t think I want to say that I regret it now.”
“What I want to say? You know why. Now ask again. Are they really annihilated? All the people I know are very talented. Among them, there was a guy who directly exchanged swords with me during the Revolution. So I don’t think they are all dead.”
“… Once again, they were all annihilated. It was a very dangerous mission indeed. That’s Berléans, you know that.”
“Okay. I won’t deny that it was a dangerous mission. What was the proper order to crawl into the occupied area where the bugs settled, and slit the head of the queen in the nest? It was a mission that wouldn’t be strange even if they were annihilated. I understand that.”
The last mission required of them at the time was simple and clear.
While the other units drew the attention of the bugs, the 1st Independent Task Force went back to the rear and ambush the queen in the bugs’ nest.
And that was practically no different than asking her to kill her queen at the cost of her own life. No matter how much other troops draw attention, the bugs will not leave her queen’s safety unguarded.
Therefore, it was a mission that had to run only forward.
“By the way. I still can’t believe it. I’d rather not know if there wasn’t a survivor like you.”
“·······”
This is not an atmosphere that can be persuaded. The man in front of me was already convinced. Seeing the hardening face of Toru, Berléans raised his voice.
“Let me ask you one thing. Why did you come back ‘alive’ that day? Are you patriotic?”
Patriotism? It’s nonsense. There was no way that Netoru had any affection for Frangia. To be honest, even if this country disappeared right away, I wouldn’t feel anything.
However, I just couldn’t escape with them.
In that moment, you will throw away not only the promise you made that day, but also the girl whose name you don’t know.
Funny enough, I don’t even know if he’s still alive or dead a long time ago.
2.
Who is that middle-aged man talking to Netoru?
She is Karen who was curious about that,
······· She seemed to be talking about something serious.
Thanks to this, she naturally overheard the conversation near her door and had no choice but to vacate the place, unable to overcome the serious atmosphere of the two.
After all, how long did you wait like that?
The door to the infirmary opened and Netoru came out.
“Netoru. Who is that man?”
“Well. I don’t know either. You are a knight first.”
“Is that person a knight?”
Karen widened her eyes at Toru’s reply. It wasn’t like a knight at all. Aside from his slightly outsized physique, the way he spoke and the atmosphere felt like a man from the neighborhood.
Curiously, Karen peeked her head out through the crack in the door that hadn’t closed yet, and looked at the middle-aged man who was still on the bed, groaning.
“·······”
Is that guy really a knight?
······No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t look like an article.
Karen hadn’t seen her article in person yet. But there is something called rumors about her. Besides, she heard the story from Ceres right away.
Did she say that there are many stiff and arrogant people?
Among the bad rumors, she heard, were pilots from the Institute who were so belittled that they used them as bait during operations like meat shields.
But the middle-aged man over there now…
“…Just like a neighborhood uncle?”
Karen remembered the bakery uncle she had seen in her childhood.
