SBTMK Chapter 38

"You handle a bow well. Was true at the exam, true again today."

"……I suppose I'm fond of using one."

Flora huffed a small laugh—pfft—and looked down at the bow in her hands.

"That dog-thing's hide looked tough. And you put an arrow clean through its skull—I'll admit, I was a little shocked."

On watch, you had to say something, anything, just to stay awake.

That it was turning into a compliment made Flora a little self-conscious; she cleared her throat, once.

"As payment for hearing that... I'll cover you. In the Demon Hollow."

Sarthe let out a short, dry laugh—pfft—as if to say, what kind of payment is that.

After that, they traded ordinary talk—the soldier's family, a recommendation for a good tavern in the county—and along with conversation with Sarthe about the knight corps, the watch passed quickly.

Sarthe was the quiet type, didn't say much on his own, but he answered readily enough when asked something, so they managed to cover a fair amount of ground.

He told her he'd become a Master and one of the Empire's elite knights, and that he'd only been in the corps two years.

When she mentioned she'd never once seen an imperial Master fight with mana channeled through a blade, he said, with a faint smile, that she might get to see it sooner than she thought.

"So why can't you use mana, anyway?"

Sarthe had mana himself, so he could apparently see other people's mana too.

Explaining the meeting with the Archmage felt like something she shouldn't do, so she deflected—"Well. Hard to say. Even I don't really know."—and he didn't press further.

"Excuse me, Sirs."

At the soldier's careful address, Sarthe and Flora both turned toward him.

The soldier gave an awkward laugh and asked:

"Do either of you happen to like scary stories?"

"No."

"Not a fan."

Both answered at once, flatly.

Watch ended almost that quickly after.

The moment they were relieved, Flora—who had been wide-eyed and alert seconds before—passed out again, as if the whole watch had never happened. She was that tired.

"……Heh. Now this is interesting."

At times like that, there was no spare capacity left to notice someone pacing nearby, or catch a murmured word.

Squad One was up and moving the instant dawn broke.

Sleeping straight on the ground left her body sore and her skin cold.

Flora shouldered her bow with stiff hands and fell into formation.

Somewhere off in the distance, a beast's cry drifted past, eerie, brushing at her ear.

More of the same exhaustion as yesterday. By now it seemed like everyone was running on will alone. They swept the surroundings carefully and checked anything suspicious in person.

But by midday, nothing had turned up. The only excitement had been narrowly avoiding a snake ambush, dispatched with a knife just in time.

Hunger set in, and they sat and chewed the same grilled flatbread again. The whole time she chewed, she missed the knight corps mess hall.

Before eating it, she'd felt like she could've chewed a rock. Once it was actually in her mouth, it was dry and flavorless and hard enough to make her jaw ache.

Leave home and it's a shitshow. Fifth time today she'd thought it.

And then it happened.

"……There!"

A young soldier pointed at the sky and shouted. Everyone looked up.

Two red flares were rising side by side into the sky.

"Found it. Let's move."

At Hakra's words, everyone rose at once, as if by agreement.

Hakra and his squad set off without delay in the flares' direction. They'd rested and eaten enough that they could hold the pace.

There was no telling what might come crawling out of the Demon Hollow to make trouble for them—but for now, the mere fact that the flares had gone up was enough to get their bodies moving, and it hardened something firm in every knight present.

The distance turned out to be farther than expected. By the time they reached it, it was already growing dark, and knights were gathered there. It didn't look like everyone had arrived yet.

Hakra and the squad checked the surroundings first. The same dog-shaped beast Flora had run into on the first day lay dead, two of them.

"Only these two made it out of the den, then……"

Anyone could tell the Demon Hollow entrance was radiating a something's wrong here energy just by looking at it.

It was too dark inside to see anything, and a purple, indistinct light flickered strangely at the edge of the darkness.

Her memory of it was fuzzy, but the Demon Hollow she'd been in once before looked something like this too.

Even the higher-ups, most of them seasoned enough, had nothing to say about it, which more or less confirmed this was the real thing.

"We camp here tonight. Once enough knights have caught up tomorrow, we go in."

Another squad arrived after that. Two more were still unaccounted for.

Everyone nodded and followed Commander Hakra's order.

The knights, settled into the routine by now, built fires and clustered together, chewing on hard flatbread.

Paul wasn't among the ones who'd arrived. He must still be with one of the missing squads.

Flora sat with a flat, unreadable gaze, watching the fire crackle—crackle, crackle—and eventually let her eyes drift to the woman sitting across from her.

Her hair was as fiery-red as the embers themselves.

Every time Flora had noticed those thick, glossy waves, she'd thought them beautiful, which was probably why she still remembered the name.

Dame Evnie Ikena, elite knight of the White Knights.

Currently the only woman among the elite ranks. Not a Master, but her swordsmanship was said to move like a dance.

Flora had never once seen her actually wield a blade, but just imagining it, she pictured something like a butterfly wrapped in flame.

Evnie carried a cold, aloof air, but with looks like hers, she was popular enough within the corps regardless.

The very first time Paul laid eyes on her, he'd gone red to the ears, smitten on the spot.

But word passing through the ranks had it that Evnie was in love with the commander.

If enough knights in the corps knew it for a fact, there was probably a reason for that.

'The commander's face is on the colder side, though……'

Well. Looking at them side by side, the two did seem to suit each other.

Maybe because Flora had been staring too openly.

Evnie, mid-bite of flatbread, suddenly turned and looked straight at her.

Flora fumbled and managed a hasty nod of greeting. Evnie only turned her head sharply away.

The first watch had ended, and Flora had fallen asleep, when someone's urgent shout woke her.

"……It's a flare!"

She blinked awake, bleary, and followed the direction a Black Knights knight was pointing—a single flare was rising, close by.

Even having just woken up, Hakra gave the order to the knights calmly, without a trace of grogginess.

"Squad One, Two, Three—move out. Soldiers and the rest hold the Demon Hollow entrance."

The moment the order dropped, Flora grabbed her bow and headed toward where the flare had gone up.

Glancing around, the other knights were already moving too, quick and light on their feet.

Everyone seemed to have adjusted to the rough mountain terrain without quite noticing it.

We need to get there fast——!

Everyone knew what a single flare meant, and it made all of them anxious in the same instant.

Flora kept moving without letting her steps slow, hoping fiercely that nothing would happen before reinforcements arrived.

Where the flare had gone up was inside a ravine.

The clash of blades made Flora's brow draw together.

The beast looked to be some kind of plant-form—its mouth gaping and gaping wide, its vines stretching out at will to strike the knights.

Flora nocked an arrow from a distance. Loosed it.

The arrow struck a thick vine dead-on.

The beast let out a warped, high shriek—SHREEEK—and its attention swung toward her.

Flora nocked again.

While the knights closed in, she needed to keep the beast from getting a clean attack in.

Given the ravine's tight terrain, fighting something with vines that stretched and lashed like that was a bad match—there wasn't much room to dodge.

Flora fired two arrows at once; they struck a cluster of leaves and a thick red petal.

The damn thing flailed its arm-like leaves, then turned to strike at the knights.

She swept her gaze over the field.

If she wasn't careful now, she risked hitting one of her own knights, so she needed higher ground.

She spotted a slope leading up the side of the ravine and ran for it.

The sword-wielding knights had already closed in tight around the beast, so Flora decided to cover them from above instead.

She climbed the slope and fired whenever she saw a knight about to take a hit.

The beast, apparently finding her a nuisance, kept turning its head back toward her.

Every time an arrow struck home, an ugly, high-pitched shriek rang out—but somehow, watching the thing get riled up like that felt damn satisfying.

She was steadying her breath, about to loose another arrow, when something caught her eye.

From up here, the whole fight lay spread out below her.

In the middle of it, Flora saw a strange, small light. Looking closer, it was coming from the sword in Sarthe's hand.

The instant she understood it was mana, a soft yellow glow split the air. The blade swept through a wide arc—hwoooosh.

Sarthe's strike landed a critical wound on the beast. Thick purple blood dripped down, sticky.

Even so, the beast kept lashing its vines out, striking freely at the surrounding knights.

One dangerous vine stretched long and fast, aiming for a sneak-attack at Sarthe's back. Flora snapped back to focus and fired at once.

Thanks to that, the strike meant for Sarthe missed.

At the same moment, Hakra—catching the beast's underhanded trick—cut the vine clean through.

Sarthe's eyes flicked briefly toward Flora, then away.

A moment later he swung the blade once more—the petal sheared clean off with a snap.